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