Warm up winter nights with toasty joolz and mulled wine!

We celebrated a friend's 33⅓ birthday yesterday afternoon (happy birthday Adam) which included lots of great live music, great friends and a spectacular vegan cake-feast.

It was a breezy, wintry, drizzly day, and so of course we were standing around talking about ways to warm up. Thank goodness in the course of that conversation my lovely friends Uwe & Ursula mentioned mulled wine - which reminded me that I'd been meaning to make mulled wine for AGES! I popped home to rifle through the pantry (luckily we live next door) and came up with something that seemed to please my party compadres.
Mulled Wine a la Airdrie
5 oranges
1 x 750ml bottle shiraz (mine was a Brock's Reef 2006 Shiraz from the Limestone Coast in South Australia)
1 x 375ml bottle boysenberry liqueur (picked up from the Big Strawberry when I was last headed north on the Goulburn Valley Hwy)
cinnamon bark
garam masala spice mix (I used MasterFoods brand, which includes pepper, caraway, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon & cloves)
handful of dried apricots, chopped
sugar to taste

Juice four of the oranges, pouring both the juice and pulp into a heavy-based saucepan. Cut the fifth orange into quarters, then thick 1cm slices, add to juice & pulp. Empty both bottles of alcohol into the saucepan, along with a generous spoonful each of the cinnamon & garam masala spice mix, and throw in the chopped apricots. Heat until warmed through, take a sip, and then add sugar to taste, stirring until its dissolved. Apparently this beverage is best kept warm (just on the edge of simmering, rather than boiling) for several hours to allow the flavours to develop, but I'm afraid we drank ours almost immediately. Serve in mis-matched teacups to warm friends!

In honour of the successful warming, this necklace has been named 'Mulled Wine'! The colours and the chunkiness remind me very much of that toasty drink I made last night.
Photographer: Berle Mu, MUA: Celeste @ Makeup Creations, Model: Beata @ Scene
The necklace was created using hand-made resin beads that I've poured in black, purple and gold. The gold ones have upcycled tealeaves embedded in them. Tea's great for keeping warm too! There's only the one so click on the add to cart button straight away if you're keen to own your very own 'Mulled Wine' necklace!

Warm up winter nights with toasty joolz and mulled wine!

New rose collar necklace

Some of you were keen to get a better look at the brand new rose collar necklace I've been working on. Here's a clearer version of the last shot I posted, just for you!
Photographer: Matthew Wren
MUA & Hair: Nataly Tormey
Model: Jessica Cogan

Its a combination of fabric and resin, with a ribbon tie at the back.

New rose collar necklace

Dawn Butterfly Necklace competition

This month's giveaway is for a Dawn Butterfly necklace - lovely big glossy pearls with a recycled Las Vegas casino playing card butterfly, and extension chain with porcelain playing card dangle, valued at $175. Eye-catching, versatile, and fun!

All you have to do to go into the draw is visit our Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joolz/26993963026 and write on the fanpage wall how you would wear this necklace if YOU were the winner.
The competition runs til the end of the month, so get to it, and good luck!

Dawn Butterfly Necklace competition

Getting everything done

No idea how I should take this. Got a friend request from someone praising my new designs and then telling me she was going to try and make a copy. And that she'd send me a pic if she managed it. Should I be flattered? I'm not. But I guess I just have to suck that kind of thing up and get on with it.
Chasing some new stockists this week, and updating the website, and finalising pieces for the gifting suite, and prepping for the bushfire fundraiser fashion show on Sat, and doing some tax return thingys, and finishing a few pieces that have been hanging around for a while, and about a million other things.
I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the tasks I have set for myself this week, so I've broken it down into bite-sized chunks. The only fly in my ointment is this damn computer which I use so much for work but then get distracted by completely inane things as well. But not this week! I am a too-busy girl!
We have decided to rent out the spare room, just on a short-term basis, now that the MIL has departed for the fair soils of Eng-er-land. Will help with things like, oh, paying the mortgage and such, you know? So need to get lots done before showing through the hordes of currently-homeless who have been bombarding me since the very second I uploaded the ad. Can't believe how many people seem desperate to move into our little home. I guess this is the rental crisis in full swing.
Anyway, must away to the workbench. There are necklaces and bracelets to make! Hup hup!
PS been given 2 packs of teeny tiny baby playing cards. So divine. Can't wait to incorporate them into the collection.
PPS I love blanket forts. So I had to include this:

Getting everything done

The fastest shoot in the history of mankind!

Absolutely brilliant shoot yesterday afternoon.

Photographer Juan Carlos Calixto (Jaycee to us) is a wizard. We set it up, we shot it, it was done. Bang. Just like that!
So thrilled.

We worked on a 'gambling your heart' kind of theme. We were thinking about the idea that at this time of year, you send off a Valentine and its a bit of a gamble, you can't be sure you're going to get the result you hope for. But with a gift of a Queen of Hearts necklace, your luckiness is love is set to win big time!

Now its time to send it off into the world of media and see if anyone picks it up.

Fingys crossed!

The fastest shoot in the history of mankind!

3TTC Lookbook ready!

Yip yip yippee!!!
THE LOOKBOOK IS READY TO LAUNCH!!!
So pleased to have finally got it finished. It was sent out to someone to final-draft-triple-double-check, we made some changes to it, and now its ready to float out there into the world.
Ahhh I feel so good about it. It feels like I have been working on this one for months and months. Which, in actual fact, I have been. This one has really taken a long time to put together.

And my blurb as follows:

Third Time’s The Charm is the third collection from Melbourne design brand Joolz, and it’s simple as black and white to see why this collection is already causing an international buzz. Classically beautiful with contempory styling, compliments are all yours when you step out in these designs.
Gleaming pearls, the only organically sustainable gem on the planet, are teamed with glossy obsidian and onyx. They match prettily with hand-crafted vintage playing card butterflies that flutter perfectly on necklaces and bracelets in a display of delicate symmetry. Beautiful black recycled umbrella silk teamed with pearls becomes a stylish bowtie choker, and the Lady Luck necklace of vintage dice is perfect with hand-cut crystal.
Eye-catching elegance is the key, allowing you to be effortless in making your style statement.
Pre-ordering your preferred card symbol is available for this collection (customisation fee applies). Recycled Las Vegas casino cards & dice are available for customised pieces (from Bellagio, Casino Royale, and Caesars Palace). I also have Crown Casino (Melbourne) playing cards and dice. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a specially personalised piece.
My vision for this collection was for something that was both grown-up but playful, strong on classic black and white colouring, with eco-friendly components. It has taken me quite a journey to bring this to you, from antique stores in Brisbane to the casinos of Las Vegas.
I absolutely love the results and I certainly hope you do too!

Well, geez I hope people love it enough to buy some pieces. Its been a long haul!
And our shoot:

3TTC Lookbook ready!