Novelty Brooch Friday - August

August's Novelty Brooch Friday is kindly donated by Janine Middlemost. Janine’s company Middlemost Design creates a range of products, just one of them being brooches. Janine has kindly answered 5 questions for us which gives a great understanding of her ethos and approach to her creative process.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your shop Middlemost Design? 

I provide handmade clothing, jewellery and accessories made using vintage and recycled fabrics and found objects. Each piece is made by hand in my home studio, surrounded by vintage fabrics and other inspirational vintage pieces.

You work with a lot of different materials, in particular the brooch you are offering as a giveaway is cross-stitch, is this technique something find appealing? 

The brooch featured in this giveaway is made from a vintage embroidered table cloth. 

What materials do you like working with?  

I enjoy working with vintage fabrics, sheeting, table cloths and tea towels.  All fabric scraps from my clothing are kept and used for smaller items like jewellery, purses and labels.

Where do you get your inspiration from and do you have any creative ethics?

I am inspired by fabric prints and textures, colour and vintage children's books.

Are there other jewellers/artists you admire and inspire you?

Tractorgirl (Julie Gibbons) Betty Jo Designs (Liz Jones) Liana Kabel who all work with up cycled materials and found objects. Melanie from Textile Allsorts, Gay abandon body parts and Kurt Saggers from The Cats Pyjamas.

We are so pleased to be showcasing Middlemost Design's brooch for August's Novelty Brooch Friday so for your chance to win this cute brooch just post a picture of yourself on Instagram with your favourite brooch, entries can be submitted on any Friday from now up to and including 23rd August with the hash tag #noveltybroochfriday and we will announce the winner (randomly chosen) on Monday 26th August. Open to everyone, you can enter as many times as you like, either new or vintage brooches.

Each month Erin and I will take it in turns to showcase those sellers of vintage brooches and designers we admire and love to wear ourselves.

*If you are a designer or sell vintage brooches (worldwide) and wish to donate a brooch for an upcoming month and have your shop showcased, please contact me at tunabake@hotmail.com

Novelty Brooch Friday - July winner

Our second month of Novelty Brooch Friday has been a snowball, yes a snowball. You know the kind of idea you get, think it will be a bit of fun and find other like-minded people (189 entries this month!!) in different countries enjoying the same love of a simple brooch.  Sharing their brooches, to have a laugh, oooooo and aaaaaahhh, discover new vintage shops, new designers and even discover that you have the same brooch and taste as another.

Thank you to Liz from Betty Jo Design's for donating one of her cute sewing machine brooches made from vintage lino.

As you know we can't chose a winner so we randomly selected using the True Random Number Generator and with winner is.....

@sarifleuri Congratulations Sarah!! Could you email Erin so she can have your brooch forwarded to you eaenglish@gmail.com 

Tomorrow we will be posting our August giveaway, and it's another cute one.

See you all on Friday on Instagram.

xx

A shop with the lot - Gleaners Inc.

Someone got a super-duper treat today! From a wonderful shop that beholds some treats you might find familiar.

As most of you know Erin and I run Novelty Brooch Friday and this month the brooch that was so kindly donated to give away was from Liz of Betty Jo. Selling her adorable lino brooches from her treasure trove of a shop Gleaners Inc. she also sells other lovely handmade and vintage goodies fit for a good rummage.

Today I finally got around to visiting her fantastic shop tucked away down a street off of Sydney Road in Brunswick, and it was the first time I had met the lovely Liz in person.

What a wonderful shop, the kind of shop I love to visit. Full of the best kind of treats old and new. 

One of Liz's lino creations.

                                                                                                                                        
Oh lookey here, it's Each to Own's brooches!! Ready to pick up and take home.

  
So don't forget Novelty brooch Friday this week to win one of Liz's unique brooches and if you're in town do drop into Gleaners Inc, just don't forget to bring your purse 'cause you'll want to take everything home.

Winter is here in all its glory

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you are in the world.  In this part of the world it is winter and unfortunately with it usually comes colds and flu's and these past 2 weeks I have been struck down with an awful head cold and this is the reason for my absence.

However I am on the upward climb and almost back to normal YIPPEE!

The temperature is getting colder and it really feels like winter is here (it has been snowing albeit a little on the mountains) so fingers crossed the snow continues and our planned trip to the snow in August proves white for Little Miss A's first experience of snow.

On a completely different note today I received in the post 3 wonderful resin vases from Bronwen of bravo juliet designs.  I have been following her on Instagram for a while and have coveted her wonderful vases for the longest while.  So after my last pay day I splashed out and bought a set of 3.  They are the most wonderful colour and the right size for clippings of our over grown lavender and rosemary bushes and any other little flowers Little Miss A decides to bring home.  

So until next time stay healthy and either warm or cool, depending on where you are in the world xxx

Copycat - Oh Vanessa! in Blow Up

One of my favourite films is Blow Up, 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and I realised that the first post I put up on this blog (back in November 2010) was my little homage to one of the main characters in the film, Jane played by Vanessa Regrave.

I first saw this film when I was in my first year of University and thought she was the most attractive, stylish woman EVER!

If you haven't seen this film, the story is based around a fashion photographer played by David (gaaa! he is so handsome in this) Hemmings who stumbles onto a mysterious meeting and finds he has captured more than just the beauty of Jane.

It has style, fashion, Jane Birkin and Veruschka! Mystery and style, did I say style? yes I did well it has bucket loads and I need to see it again!

Copycat - thumb in mouth

This week I'm taking a risk copying Miss 'icon of the 60s' Twiggy but I thought it would be a simple pose for a Sunday afternoon with no messing around with too many props. ha ha ha yes well again I was wrong.


Shoulders BACK! Thumb IN! No OUT! No chin out! Aaarrrrr!!!! Now where is the light supposed to be coming from? Get the torch! Amelie hold the torch and shine it directly at mum's face......wHAT??!

I like this one a lot, I even managed to add text in 'paint' woohoo, I knew that free program would come in handy.

Out take of the week was my ode to avant garde performance art - I call this one 'get that torch out of my eyes please'

original image found on Pinterest here

Did I get this one right? Let me know what you think, Claire x

Bathing Boxes are beautiful

Last weekend we took a day trip to the Mornington Peninsula to see the Archibald art prize, have some lunch and enjoy the glorious day by going for a walk along one of the small strips of beach.

There are over 1300 Bathing Boxes or Beach Boxes, that line Port Phillip Bay and the ones that line this part of the Peninsula are so cute, I think they look like the colours of boiled sweets in a sweet shop.

Bathing Boxes have existed around the bay since the 1860's and are heritage listed buildings along with other landscapes lining Port Phillip Bay. Because laws prevent new boxes being built on the foreshore and families tend to pass them down through the generations, the price of one box can be extremely expensive (the highest price was more than $350,000 AU!!).

I'm not sure about this painted image of a mermaid and friends? Although Little Miss A thought it was tops!

The Australian flag.

They may look small from the front but they go back quite a way.

What a perfect winter day, no breeze, warm sun and a twinkling seaside view, including those fabulous pastel painted Bathing Boxes.