greenolive

type + felt = fabulous

Our Urban Type design is by far the most popular of our range of screenprinted fabrics. In fact we've sold out of several colourways.

Looking for other ways to use the design, we started playing with some grey industrial felt. We've both always been drawn to felt – especially the industrial kind. A material that is seen as utilitarian by most, we love its texture and multitude of colours. The industrial felt we have is a mid-grey with small blue flecks through it and lots of hairy fibres.

The Urban Type design with its industrial aesthetic seemed the perfect match for this felt. Black was the obvious ink choice. Coasters the perfect product.

Drew was amazed by the finished product. I knew they were a perfect match for each other – just don't know why we took so long to print them! He thinks its our best design/product ever.

Bundled into set of four or six coasters, they are now in the shop. I think they'd make a great host/hostess gift, a christmas gift for a co-worker, or that style-conscious guy you know.

a drive in the country

The river at Woodend

Yesterday we went for a drive in the country. We weren't doing the touristy thing, rather we had a mission, a purpose – to visit Hennie & Fox, a children's store in Kyneton. Sarah, the owner, had first spied our vintage prints a few months back at Daylesford Makers market. 

Ever the multi-tasker, I thought we could kill several birds with the one stone: deliver the prints to Sarah, check out the local op shops, and have a lovely day out. I even had "visit Bendigo" on my list, but that will have to wait for another day when I am travelling sans passengers.

Old painted signage at Kyneton

Hennie & Fox is located in historic Piper Street, at No 66a. If you've never visited Kyneton, you really should put it on your list. The town is full of old buildings, the sides of which are often painted with signage advertising now closed-down businesses. You could spend hours walking and snapping away. (That was my plan...maybe next time) And there are some great shops – right next door to Sarah's shop is Kabinett – filled to the brim with vintage stuff.

I did manage to snap this pic of the side wall of Kabinett – old weathered orange brick with just a hint of purple paint – the contrast of colours was just so intense.

If you are planning the drive, I suggest make it a weekend, and go early so you can get the two hour drive over and done with, have a yummy breakfast at one of the local cafes, then wander through the shops, and maybe finish off with a late picnic lunch in the Botanical Gardens. It would be a perfect day.

stamp love

Here at vintage prints we are lucky that Drew and I like the same sort of design – otherwise it could be a bit difficult creating new products. Or even our new business cards!

Stamps are a favourite design theme. We both collected them as children (didn't you?) but it is only now that we appreciate their design and style as an object, as a design motif. They have so much visual appeal for such a small object.

Inspired by them, we've been sorting through our recycled and vintage stamp stash and designed some new products.

Notecards with handcrafted envelopes – each card is unique.

They look great with this black and white envelope.

The perfect size for a little "thank you" note to someone special.

I just love making them – sorting through the stamps, putting different colours and designs together. Each note card is unique, and each has a certain style. Perfect for any note writing occasion.

But the stamp love doesn't stop there – we also have gift tags.

A stamp note card and gift tag are the perfect way to dress up any present!

We can even do custom orders – say a bunch of notecards with all red English Stamps. Or a set of black and white architectural stamps for the architect in your life. Maybe a set of flower stamp notecards for the gardner in your family...

tuesday still life

Its Tuesday and we've had two days to recover from Magnolia Square. I think we are almost recovered.

Most of the stock is sorted and back in boxes ready for the next market. And, you can see the floor again. Walking through the house is no longer the obstacle course it was last week. Only one obstacle to negotiate now – a pile of books that needs processing before the next market.

I'm feeling a lot calmer, my mood reflected by this still life I photographed this morning.

Orchid: from op shop
Milk bottle: from same op shop
Gift tag: by vintageprints
Vintage sheet music: from op shop 

what's the buzz?

One long-overdue item on the to-do list is:
contact blogs & magazines to tell them about vintage prints.

It's very lucky for us then that there is some vintage prints buzz out there in blog land. And the day before Magnolia Square at Malvern Town Hall, what fantastic timing.

The first feature was in the snippets email that is sent to the Magnolia Square mailing list. 

The second was a feature on Lucy's guest blog on the design files today.

Lucy had seen us at Finders Keepers market and called to say she wanted to include us in a blog post. I was jumping up and down with excitement and had to explain to Drew just how fantastic this was!

A busy four days is ahead of us – last day of rushing around before we have three full-on days at Magnolia Square. Hope to see you there!

the countdown is on...

We are in countdown mode over here at vintage prints. Only 2 days, or 48hrs until the start of Magnolia Square at the Malvern Town Hall. I think I like 48hrs better, makes me think I can get so much more done in the little time available!

We are making lists, and checking them twice. Packing, pricing and sticking. Dreaming up new products that will have to wait til next time. And adding the final touches to our display. This time we are in the main hall, with a bigger and better spot, so we need to decide how we are going to fit everything into a 2m x 2m stand AND have it looking as tempting and gorgeous as possible.

One new product that will be at Magnolia Square this week is our "Sound of music" bunting kit. Everything you need, including instructions, for you or your little one to make your own decorative bunting from vintage sheet music. Stylish and recycled bundled into the one product!

And, on the snow front, just in case you were wondering... I didn't wake up to a winter wonderland after all. I saw a few transparent, lumpy blobs on the back deck that could have been snow in a former life, but certainly not the blanket of snow we were expecting. The tv news of Saturday night reported "snow in the Dandenongs" with vision of happy families playing in the snow. You really can't believe everything you see on TV can you?

snow falling to 500m

The snowman Drew made last time it snowed up here.

Here we are right smack bang in the middle of Spring, and today's weather forecast is for "snow falling to 500 metres".

Now to a girl who was born and bred in Queensland - the Sunshine State - snow is a pretty exciting thing. Since we moved to Melbourne almost 10 years ago I have hoped for snow every winter. And once we moved up to Olinda, my wish has come true on several occasions.

As Mt Dandenong is 633 metres above sea level, there is a VERY good chance, a certain bet even, that we will get snow today or later tonight. I'll be waking up on Saturday Morning in a Winter Wonderland.

I just hope there is enough snow to build a snowman!

the breakfast ritual

As the weather warms - well, it did last weekend - my thoughts turn to healthy eating. When its cold and grey outside its much harder to eat raw food – all I want to eat is anything hot and slathered with butter or topped with melting cheese.

A few years back – two years ago this December – I managed a three week detox. It wasn't too hard and I felt much better, lighter and brighter afterwards. While all the detox habits didn't stick, the one that did was the breakfast. Very yum. Very healthy. Easy to make too.

In case you want the recipe, here it is:
> rice flakes (or rolled rice) – soaked in orange or apple juice or water for about 20 mins
> generous dollop or two of natural or biodynamic yoghurt
> handful of sunflower seeds 
> handful of pumpkin seeds
> about 10 dried apricots, diced
> sprinkle of almond slivers or flakes.

Mix together and enjoy. Eat sitting near a window (or outside) enjoying the morning sun. Wash down with a cup of tea.

Its my new breakfast ritual.

At the recent Red Hill market, our neighbour was a potter whose work I had admired for several months. One design in particular was perfect as my new breakfast bowl. I bought it and then discovered that the potter lived up on Mt Dandenong, only about five kilometres from us!

they found us at finders keepers

We are still recovering from the weekend that was the first ever Melbourne Finders Keepers market.

It was a perfect market: the weather was fine, sunny AND hot; we had a great position - just near a door that we could open for fresh air & sunlight AND a wall that was ideal for hanging our vintage prints; the venue was fantastic – shed 4, a big shed right on the edge of a dock - and the vibe was awesome; the food was so yummy - courtesy of beatbox; and best of all, there were LOTS of people.

The demographic was very different from that of Magnolia Square where we had launched vintage prints about two months ago, so we really weren't sure how the concept and products would be received.

The most popular products were the vintage maps and handcrafted envelopes by far, with the alphabet prints not far behind! We really need to find more "m"s!

 

So, one big market crossed of our list, five more to go before Christmas. We are going to be busy.

And if you are wondering what all the buzz was/is about, see the post-market wrap up on the design files blog.