Shop Review: Curious Oyster

Mrs Peterson

Little Bubalishka

Owl & Fox

Hibou

Pirdy

Pirdy & Snow Fawn

Brooches by Priya

I'm a fan of jewellery, yes that is a given. What you might not know is that I'm also a fan of owls. Not in a full-on collector-y way like a friend who shall remain nameless, but I like 'em enough to be very pleased with the delightful collection of our hooting friends to be found at The Curious Oyster Shoppe at 776 High St, Thornbury.

Filled with vintage furniture, it is very much like taking a wander around your coolest aunt's living rooms. Clocks and handbags jostle for space on the walls, chests of drawers are left open to reveal hand-painted cards nestled beside laser-cut earrings, open a cupboard and you'll find handbags and frilly knickers hanging side by side with knitted gingerbread dolls.

Made by Jo

XOX by Borrowed Earth, inner tube bag by Nearly Roadkill

Soy tea cup candle by Serene Tresider

With the chesire cat grinning at Alice in the front window, I knew straight away this was going to be a fun place to visit. Annaliese van Oosterwijck, proprietor of this treasure trove (and also maker of divine Nilla Nilla Pout Balms), tells me that "people love that this doesn't look like a shop, it's like going into someones home." There is lots of handmade jewellery (hurrah!) strewn on tables, perched on pretty teacups and dangling chandelier-like from lamps & cocktail glasses. Yes, the Curious Oyster Shoppe is a Joolz stockist! I've found my next clock - an adorable laser-cut woodland image to adorn my wall and keep time. There's some gorgeous crockery too!

Image courtesy of Mother Maria

Clothes made using vintage fabrics are on racks in the back room, and I found some awesome hand-printed, made in Melbourne leggings hanging over a cupboard door (yes, the stylist in me screamed out loud - fingers crossed we'll see some appearing in a photoshoot soon!).

Image courtesy of Captain Robbo

All the designers have been hand-picked by Annaliese, each chosen carefully to represent the mad hatter's tea party that is the Curious Oyster Shoppe.

Why so curious? When they were growing up Annaliese and her cousin Veronica watched Alice in Wonderland over and over again, and as she says, to new visitors the shop looks a bit like a curiosity shop, hence the "Curious Oyster Shoppe" was named.

Butterfly dictionary print by Hello Handmade, vintage glass soy candle by Serene Tresider

Drink Me Alice

This is certainly not a shop that caters to just one age bracket - you can find something to delight at any age, I'd say. And coming soon: a Moorish Tea Room, plus a delivery of fabulous vintage coming in from Europe (when they can get planes flying out again, I'd assume). I'll be hustling back there for that, let me tell you!

Shop Review: Curious Oyster

Sailing World Cup Ladies Day Luncheon & Fashion Show

Image courtesy www.peselandcarr.com.au

I'm just back in the office after a lovely afternoon down at Sandringham Yacht Club. Today was their fundraiser for ovarian cancer research, a ladies luncheon and fashion show. I had donated a necklace and earrings as one of the raffle prizes, and also had some accessories in the fashion show.

It was a lovely day, the girls at the yacht club did a fine job. One of my favourite stylists, Tessa, was working busily behind the scenes, making sure all the fashion was organised and ensuring the models looked perfect before they strutted down the catwalk - today's catwalk was a long carpet of faux grass. It worked very well for the event! And another of my favourite stylists was MC - Amber Renee did a great job, even though (as she told us early on) she was dealing with a rotten cold.

The fashion looked great, the models were lovely, makeup perfect (done by one Megan Kirkup, who I've had the pleasure of working with several times), and although our view of the bay was mainly wet wild n windy, still a very lovely spot to spend an afternoon.

I have some truly dreadful photos from the phone, but am hoping that I may be able to share some with you once they are forwarded on to me from the organisers, or some of the more professional shots that were taken by others who were there. I promise you don't really want to see my shots from today.

See? Not really worthwhile, is it? We'll just have to wait and I'll update this post once some decent photos become available!

UPDATE
Some pics are up on Style Melbourne - if you'd like to check them out, click on the link. Here are a couple of them. Thanks to Sarah Lamb for snapping these :)

Sailing World Cup Ladies Day Luncheon & Fashion Show

Christmas cufflinks

Get into the Christmas spirit with these red, white and green cufflinks. Hand-cast resin set into sterling silver, they are sure to get you (or someone special) carolling merrily!

Christmas cufflinks

Christmas giveaway

This giveaway is a little bit different.

You're not entering this one to win it for yourself, you're entering to win it for a special someone else.

As this gift is a certain size, I'd recommend choosing a friend who doesn't have big fingers! Its a big sparkly cocktail ring but it is a small ring-size - fits small-medium fingers only (its about a  size 6 ring, size 7 is the most common size for women so it will fit most women as its only 1 size smaller). I'm not talking about teeny-tiny child's fingers, just dainty ladies!

All you need to do is leave a comment below to enter. Don't have a blogger account? Then you can enter on our Facebook Fanpage instead! I'll be using The Hat to randomly choose one name, and will contact you to find out who you're gifting the prize to. Then I'll wrap it in pretty Christmas paper, and post it off to your friend with a little note to say its from you.

You can check out what it looks like when worn by clicking over to this blog post.

Good luck everyone, and may the best friend win!

Christmas giveaway

GIRL

The latest collection, called Girl, has such a pretty photoshoot, and I am so thrilled to share it with you!

Horse Ring, White Garden Bangle, Grey Rose necklace

Rosie rings, Galaxy necklace, Joolz grey tassel skirt worn as a dress

Lion necklace, grey & yellow Cameo ring, Joolz black crochet cape

Rose brooch, Star ring, Rosie ring

Resin bangles, Joolz sheer kaftan top

Horse hairband, Shield ring

Brooches on bracelets, Rosie ring, Shield ring

Photographer: Thomas McInnis
MUA: Victoria Komis
Hair: Krystal Giardina
Model: Jaimee @ Scene

GIRL

Movember Reign

Its the start of November and around this time of year you'll notice a few blokes about the traps growing a proliferation of facial hair. Ahh, yes, Movember is here again.

Those fine menfolk over at Movember raise funds for important men's health issues, specifically depression and prostate cancer (the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that men have an average life expectancy of 78, compared to 83 for a woman). The Movember crew have this to say:
"We want everyone to know that all men aged over 50 and those over 40 with a family history of prostate cancer are at risk and should be tested annually;
We want every man who is dealing with depression to know it is a disease for which they can and should seek help;
We want men to know that they shouldn’t wait until they are sick to see a doctor. An annual general health check-up will be the best change for catching things early and preventing complications and side effects."

I have watched men all over Melbourne grow luxuriant moustaches each November for the past few years, and decided this year it was time to show my support by wearing a moustache of my own. Sure, us ladies (well not many of us anyway) aren't so good a growing a mo, but we (and our not-so-hirsute man-pals) can still sport a fine little moustache and do our bit for charity.

I've built these from resin, with a badge pin on the back. Profits from each 'tache will be donated directly to the Movember Foundation. Man up and get yourself a mo!

Colours

Black $10.00 Bright Yellow $10.00 Bright Red $10.00 Grey $10.00 Pale Yellow $10.00 Green $10.00

I'll be making these little fellas to order, so if you have a hankering for, let's say, a jade green moustache, just drop me a line when you order it and that's what I'll make for you.

And if, by some odd chance, you are not a fan of the moustache, you can still donate to these extremely worthy causes by clicking over here.

Movember Reign

Lookbook shoots

Last week was spent on lookbook shoots.
Hope you guys are going to like the new collection!

Lookbook shoots

Sneaky peek at something new

I did a little photoshoot a short while ago with a lovely team of people, and in it you'll be able to get a sneaky peek at something new from Joolz. Most of these items were trial pieces, concepts that I was messing around with at the time, but one of them I've kept as part of the new collection. Wonder if you can figure out which one?

The pictures have just been published today over on fabulous Style Melbourne, and so without further ado, here they are!

Photographer – Brianna Lehrke
Stylist – Airdrie Makim
Make Up & Hair Stylist – Erin O’Brien
Model – Catherine Sceney
Photographer’s assistant – William Ramsay

Sneaky peek at something new

New media attention

I was delighted to read the The Age newspaper on Sunday to see that they've favourably reviewed Blue Attic (readers will know from previous posts that BA is one of my lovely local stockists) and also included in the review was their fave find at Blue Attic - a snapshot of my cameo cufflinks! Hurrah!

Its delightful to have the cufflinks finally noticed. They are so much work! I haven't shared with you the fiddly process of making them yet. Perhaps I'll give you a pictorial guide soon... The cameos themselves are rather tricky to make, with the different layers of resin, the erratic drying times, and the easy-to-misjudge layering - layer too soon and the colours 'melt' together, layer too late and the top layer 'bleeds' into the edges of the layer below it! And no, it does not always take the same amount of time to set. Haha of course not. It has so much to do with the weather on the day that I'm making it. And on top of all this, the sterling silver cufflink findings themselves don't stand up by themselves in the resin - I kind of have to 'hold' them in place while the resin sets - which can be like watching paint dry. If I let go too soon, guaranteed the cufflink finding will upend itself into the resin and sink. If the weather's not terribly good, the resin doesn't like to set properly - it seems to really enjoy hot sunny weather. Yeah, fun times in the workroom. Luckily I'm a crazy lady who loves playing around with different jewellery materials and experimenting with new ideas all the time. In fact, I'm headed out to the workbench right now to try out a new idea I have for some lion's head cufflinks! Yay :-)

New media attention

Sizing some new rings

Luckily I have a next-door neighbour (and friend) who doesn't mind trying on a new ring or two for me. I wanted to check sizing and shape and basically to see the reaction of someone else to these new ones :)

Thanks Marta :)

Sizing some new rings

Something's in the air!

Very excited that yesterday we had nearly a whole day of complete sunshine! Yes it was a tragedy that I spent almost three hours in a salon in the middle of it, but I promise the real tragedy that was my rampant regrowth has been averted. I could then safely swan off to the park and lounge around with my lovely friends, two cute dogs and one adorable bebe. It was awesome to be out there! YAY HERE COMES SPRING FINALLY! Well it was here for a brief instant anyway. Back to cold and rain today, but I'm sure there's more awesome weather on the way. Ahhhh :)

Pics of inspiration for upcoming shoots and the like, thanks to yesterday's sunshine & various things:

Image credits, top to bottom:
Pic 1: Harper's Bazaar Indonesia
Photographer: Davy Linggar
Fashion editor: Michael Pondaag
Model: Julia Jamil (JIM)
Makeup & hair: Qiqi Franky & team menggunakan Makeup Store & L'Oreal Professionnel
Assistant stylist: Milla Mudijana, Veronica Arviana, Raden Prisya
Pic 2: Vogue Germany, October 2010
Model: Bianca Balti
Photographer: Paola Kudacki
Styling: Claudia Englmann
Pic 3: Mirage Issue #2
Shake dreams from your hair
Photographer: Nicole Nodland
Pic 4: Guess by Marciano
Models: Evandro Soldati & Heide Lindgren
Photographer: Alix Malka
Pic 5:  L'Officiel Ukraine Sep 2010
Model: Megan Hind
Photographer: Raphael Delorme & Thierno Sy
Pic 6:  Tess Van Ghert Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 campaign
Model: Kristina Pokrovskaya
Photographer: Yulia Lebedeva
Pic 7: Celestial Spring
Photographer: Carmen Rose
Hair and Make up: Mae Taylor
Stylist: Tessa O'Connor
Model: Lasca Dry @ Giant

Thanks to fashionising for all images :)

Something's in the air!

Why our great-grandparents were so cheerful

I got sent this by email yesterday and thought it was pretty amazing just how differently we view these drugs now. I did a little bit of googling in case it was unverified, but this information seems to have been lifted directly from a Patents Medicines article online. I promise to return to my normal fashiony blogging next time!

Why Our Great-Grandparents Have Such Fond Memories Of Their Youth...

I'm surprised that they remember anything!!

 A bottle of Bayer's 'Heroin'.

Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine.

It was also used to treat children suffering with a strong cough.

Coca Wine, anyone?

Metcalf's Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market.

Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani Wine

 Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time.

Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time.

He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vaticangold medal.

Maltine

 Produced by the Maltine Manufacturing Company of NewYork.

 It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal.

Children should only take half a glass.

A paper weight:

 A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim, Germany).

 They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world

of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.

Opium for Asthma:

 At 40% alcohol plus 3 grams of opium per tablet,

 it didn't cure you, but you didn't care...

Cocaine Tablets (1900)

 All stage actors, singers, teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to 'smooth' the voice.

Cocaine drops for toothache

 Very popular for children in 1885.

Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children very happy!

Opium for new-borns

 I'm sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but also 46% alcohol)!

It's no wonder they were called, 'The Good Old Days'!!

From cradle to grave...

Everyone was stoned!!!

Why our great-grandparents were so cheerful