Life of Late

I don't have an iPhone, mainly because I am a poor just-starting-out etsy seller, and really because I am locked into a plan with a very unfortunate Nokia that I don't even know how to use other than to send texts and make calls. I really want one though, because I want instagram! I started following some people on webstagram, and I religiously click on any instagram link posted to Twitter. I know it's just more digital clutter and I know I waste far too much time on the internet as it is, but I can't help it, I'm addicted! Whilst I don't see myself getting an iPhone in the near future (probably a good thing, as leaving the house currently provides me with actual internet down time) I like to pretend I have one by mooching off my boyfriend's instagram account. I make him take photos and email them to me so I can post them to Twitter too! Then I feel special, like I am actually participating in social media in a meaningful way (or something).

A much needed trip to the beach on Tuesday night

Amazing summer pizza Sam made last weekend using this recipe

Aside from lusting after iPhone apps I have been working like crazy and sewing up a storm in my brand new sewing room. I took photos for evidence!

 The last few weeks have been incredibly lovely despite the workload, as we have been settling into our new home. Our new housemate, my dear friend Sarah, arrived back from Adelaide, and it has been so much fun! I am loving having big house meals together and lots of silly house times. Sarah is an extremely talented graphic designer and general creative lady, and has set up her desk in the room adjoining my sewing room, so we can chat all day long and listen to music and podcasts and work on creative projects together :D

This week I have been lucky enough to have Sarah work on some projects for Frances Baker! She has designed me some beautiful new swing tags (see below). You will also notice that my shop button on this page now leads to a lovely new Big Cartel shop, designed by Sarah! I will still be selling on etsy which I love, but I wanted to offer other options to buyers. I also feel that Big Cartel offers a few more options when it comes to discount coupons and such, as well as a more customisable look, so I thought I would give it a go. You can check the new shop out here. Sarah and I are also collaborating on some pretty exciting things for my Winter collection, which I can't wait to share with you all!

There are a lot of great things on my plate at the moment. It's a lot of work and I certainly find it very tiring at times, but it's also a lot of fun and I am really trying to make the most of these exciting times...

Ann-Ya

Dress Ann-Ya
Shoes Bass for Opening Ceremony
Bag Vintage
Photos by Hannah Kelly

Heyyy, it's an outfit post! These are pretty few and far between round here, considering it's a fashion blog and all. This is mainly due to the fact that I tend to be pretty awkward in front of the camera. Luckily for me I now have have a super talented photographer and all round lovely lady friend just around the corner, who definitely helps put me at ease and cover up for my awkwardness a bit :)

The heatwave in Melbourne cooled off this past week, and I was finally able to wear my new dress from Ann-Ya. Anja and I recently did a little dress swap, exchanging this beautiful Crescent Moons dress for one of my 'Lucy' dip-dyed sundresses (which I still haven't finished embarrassingly, as I have been stitching my way out from under a ton of orders!). I also was lucky enough to get some of Anja's amazing marbled cat coasters in my package, which I fell crazy in love with the moment I saw them on her blog. Photos to come!

I was lucky enough to meet Anja during my big trip around the states in 2010 (I can't believe it's that long ago already!) which was pretty awesome for me because I've been following her amazing blog clevernettle pretty much since I first discovered blogging. It was one of the first blogs I followed religiously. Meeting someone you admire like that is a pretty incredible and inspiring thing, and I had so much fun! I'm so glad Anja has now taken her obvious talent for styling and love of clothing and started designing her own stuff. The dress is beautifully made, and in the nicest fabric! I think I really want to wear it with some burgundy tights this winter...

P.S If you share these photos please credit Hannah Kelly :)

Summer Scenes

Though I have been spending the majority of my time indoors lately, either at my sewing machine or unpacking boxes, summer has not entirely been passing me by. The weather this last week or so has been particularly perfect. I'm so excited we now have a deck to spend warm evenings on. Absolute luxury!

Here are a bunch of photos taken out and about over the last month or two. I have been slowly snapping away on my little half frame camera, which takes double the amount of photos per roll. Excellent value I say.

Summer Lookbook: Location and Ideas

I realised in my excitement over posting the lookbook photos the other day I totally forgot to talk about the location and the inspiration behind it! I really wanted to talk about it mainly just because it means something to me personally.

We shot the lookbook near Hannah's house in Coburg, a northern suburb of Melbourne. I've pretty much lived in the north ever since I moved out of home, and it really feels like a second home to me now. In particular, I really truly love how the backstreets of Brunswick and Coburg have a very particular feel to them that seems somehow iconically Australian 70's suburbia or something like that to me. I guess it's all the cute little streets with their weatherbeaten houses, and the old Milk Bars on almost every backstreet corner (most of them shut down now unfortunately). I have so many good summer memories of riding bikes around these streets, drinking cold beers on backyard couches and front porches, that looking at the lookbook photos makes me almost kind of nostalgic!

Summerrrr!

The collection itself was pretty heavily inspired by The Virgin Suicides, which is obviously set in Michigan. I thought it was really nice though in the shoot to give give the images a certain Australian feel, which helps make it seem a little more personal and appropriate to me and to the label I guess. It's still got that whole teenagers-in-suburbia thing going on from the film, we just transplanted it to Brunswick!

This shot was originally inspired by Lux coming home late from the Homecoming dance in her white dress. Lux in Brunswick!

I really can't talk about all this without giving a huge credit to Hannah for capturing the vibe I wanted so perfectly. She is such a talented photographer and it was so wonderful how she was able to take my rather pathetic descriptions of what I had in my head ("kind of run down... but beautiful at the same time" and "she's a bored teenager in suburbia") and turning them into something that completely conveyed the story I was going for.

It's incredibly hot in Melbourne today, and after writing that I feel like riding up to the shops for in icy pole! Either that, or sitting in front of the fan with an atomiser of water :P

More photos here.

Summer Lookbook!

Photographer - Hannah Kelly

hannah[at]hannahkelly.com.au

Model - Louisa Kitchin

weeza_kitchin[at]hotmail.com

Hair and Makeup - Sarah Townsend

sarahlucystylist[at]gmail.com

Styling - Josie Ryder

hello[at]francesbaker.com.au

Many thanks also to Sarah Adkins and Katherine Ryder for their creative help on the day.

Here they finally are! The beautiful images my dear friend Hannah shot of my collection last year. I couldn't be happier with them, she did such a beautiful job! It was a wonderful day with a great group of ladies, I'm really looking forward to working on another shoot with them.

In other news, Sam and I have successfully moved into our new house! I can't wait to share photos of it as we slowly start to dig ourselves out from under all the piles of boxes. I am so happy to be back in Brunswick, it's the best! I am also pretty darn excited about having a sewing room, which I've rushed to get in order first so I can get right back into the mountain of orders I am working on. To top it all off,  I am now living just around the corner from the afore-mentioned Hannah! Hooray for lady-friends and drinking gin and tonics in the sunshine. :D The only thing that is missing is my new housemate Sarah, who has been sadly delayed in coming back from a visit home to Adelaide. I really cannot wait to have her here, we are going to have so many fun times together in our big house!

I have been without internet all week as we wait for our phone line connection problems to be sorted out, I'm currently borrowing my neighbours internet. (Not 'borrowing', we are good friends...). I can't wait to be back online, as I have lots of exciting plans for this blog this year, as well as for the label. 2012 is looking pretty good from here!

I now only wear overalls...

These are a bunch of photos from late last year off a film we just got developed. Things have kicked off to a pretty crazy start this year round here! Birthday parties, sewing, my sister leaving overseas (sniff), and this weekend we are moving house! Below is our current apartment building, home for just one week more. We have given up on studio living and I won't lie, I'm pretty darn excited to be moving back into a real house, and one in which I will have my very own sewing room too! Even better, we are moving back to Brunswick, close to many dear friends (and my sister, when she returns!), and with an awesome new housemate too. I do feel quite at home in the North, and I've missed it! 

By the way, my sister is travelling around the states right now, doing three months there before heading off to Europe. If anyone has any tips for places to go in San Francisco, Portland, Austin, New Orleans and New York (I think that's all...) she would love to hear from you! She's keeping track of her journey on her blog. It's making me so jealous already!

New Year Post Thingy

A handmade dress from last January

I had absolutely no plans whatsoever to do a 'New Years' post. I've never really been into New Years Day, it is just another day after all and I feel a bit silly treating it as some big moment where everything starts fresh. But looking at 2011 as a whole, it really was an incredibly big and important year for me in many ways. 

There were a lot of really stressful and difficult times. Overall though I really feel like the good has outweighed the bad in the most important things. I've achieved a lot personally and changed a lot, in ways that make me feel really good and positive. I feel very lucky too as I've gotten close to some really wonderful people this year, who have made a big impact on my life. The second of January also happens to be my Birthday, so it really is the start of a new year on earth for me, for real! Plus once I started going back through photos I could not stop. So here is a ridiculously long year 2011 post of photos to bore you to death! Some things that I did this year:

Lady Brunch

A few weeks ago, back when we were still planning our photoshoot together, I got together with my favourite group of ladies for a little champagne brunch. On the menu were pancakes and tons of berries. Hannah and Sarah are both allergic to wheat, so we made these amazing gluten free banana and walnut pancakes! Seriously, they were so good they had us all going back for seconds. They taste amazing with maple syrup too (as, we discovered, does champagne). They also happen to vegan, so are even rather healthy. I won't tell if you want to fry them up in butter though ;) I included the recipe at the end of the post if you need some Christmas morning breakfast inspiration!

Other bits and pieces:

- Here is a summery mix I made. It is basically a combination of the Stealing Beauty and Virgin Suicides soundtracks, with a few other bits and pieces thrown in. It is quite the mishmash, but definitely feels like summer to me!

- I have created a little Sale section in the shop to clear out some old stock that I can't store much longer as I am moving house in January! There are also a few samples from the collection shoot at sample prices so if you are lucky enough to be a wee Australian size 8 you can get yourself a bargain :)

I am leaving tomorrow for my parents place in the hills! I am so excited to be silly and Christmassy with my sister, listen to silly awesome Christmas albums, cook up a feast and hang out on the deck in the warm weather with a beer (it's shaping up to be quite a hot Christmas!)

I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas. Thank you so much internet friends for reading my little blog this year, and supporting my various endeavours! Knowing there are people out there who do actually read my little ramblings, and getting feedback on what I've been doing, has really helped me keep my chin up in stressful times, and feel motivated to stick to my guns and follow what I love. Thank you! 

Banana Walnut Pancakes 

(Vegan + Gluten Free)

Recipe adapted from Blissful Bites by Christy Morgan

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (we used buckwheat flour which worked great but needed a little extra milk)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond, rice or soy milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon vanilla flavouring

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Whisk together wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mash banana well with a fork and stir into wet ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Stir in nuts.

Heat frypan and grease with oil. Pour about 1/4 cup pancake batter into pan over medium flame. When you start to see bubbles forming and the edges getting done, it's time to flip the pancake. Heat on the other side for two minutes and remove from pan. Repeat with the rest of the pancake batter.

Frances Baker Summer 2011

 
Cecilia Dress

Lux Cropped Tee

Mary Bamboo Sateen Skirt

Lucy Dress

Virgins Dress

Stealing Beauty Blouse
Bonnie Bloomers

Photographer - Hannah Kelly

hannah[at]hannahkelly.com.au

Model - Louisa Kitchin

weeza_kitchin[at]hotmail.com

Hair and Makeup - Sarah Townsend

sarahlucystylist[at]gmail.com

Many thanks also to Sarah and Katherine for their help on the day.

Well here it is finally, my first little collection! There's not much left to say about my inspirations at this point, which you can read about here and here.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that the entire collection is made from sustainable fabrics: either bamboo or hemp. I knew bamboo was a beautiful, soft fibre, but once I started researching it began to sound like some sort of miracle textile! It is 60% more absorbent than cotton, it is naturally anti-bacterial and will not hold odour, it is soft and luxurious but is easy care and machine washable, and it is hypoallergenic. On top of all this, it is kind to the environment, as it not only grows quickly but rarely needs pesticides. If there is sufficient rainfall, no additional irrigation is required, and it regenerates naturally. Basically, it's awesome! The only items in the collection that are made from conventional fabric are the bloomers, which are 100% cotton. I just couldn't find any gingham in bamboo or even organic cotton. At least they are only small!


I wanted to quickly say a huge thank you to Hannah who worked so hard despite being really sick with the flu to get these photos edited for me, and ready to go in the shop. The lookbook we shot outside is still a work in progress but that simply means there are more exciting things to come! 

All items are now available in the shop.

Collection- Photoshoot Behind the Scenes / Sneak Peek

On Sunday when we shot the lookbook for my collection it was oestrogen city. There were six ladies present in total including the photographer, model, myself, my two friends (both Sarahs) and my sister. (There were going to be seven but our poor makeup artist went to hospital the day before with a crazy spider bite infection thing! She's doing fine now though thankfully. ) We shot it at the photographer Hannah Kelly's house and on the streets around there, and it was so much fun! After a week of hot Melbourne days, Sunday was forecast as overcast with showers, which was pretty frustrating when attempting to shoot a summer lookbook. We went ahead with it though and ended up getting a few sunny moments (accompanied by plenty of cheers) that helped get the summery vibe we were going for. 

My dear friend Sarah who came along to help with artistic suggestions and general assistance (holding of light reflectors etc.) had the genius and presence of mind to take a bunch of photos of the day. It was so cool to see them too as we were all so busy and concentrate-y on the day, Sarah captured it all from a whole different angle. Anyway I thought I would share them with you here so you can see some of the craziness! (Actually we were pretty organised about the whole thing, we were most impressed with ourselves) Also there are a few sneak peeks of the collection...