Christmas Gift of the Week

moyra part oneFor some weird reason Ramona has three Moyras to make gifts for this year - two Aunts (one on either side) and a good friend. All of which need to be posted hither and yon. So light presents are in the order of the day to make postage inexpensive (nothing worse than when the post costs more than the present - here a tip - never send jars of jam or nuts to Perth).
You may all remember the stencilled stool from August - yes this Christmas insanity has been going on for months! Well here is the same design on a cushion with the addition of some french knots in the petals. The other two Moyras...you'll have to wait a couple of days for those ones!

PS now there are only 20 days to go we'll be publishing a gift a day for you to see as well as point you in the right direction of some great blogs and websites that are really crafting it up for the season.
fa la la la la la la la la...

she made them herself

Card Carrying Crafters


Most of you will be familiar with Ramona's brilliant Words and Pictures stationary range (check out her new website if you haven't seen it), but not many of you will be aware that on the odd occasion Beck also likes to get busy with pen, ink, printer and paper. Inspired by her partner in craft crime she's whipped up her very own range of Christmas cards. A wee collection especially created for Craft Victoria's 'Red Christmas' (regular readers might recognise a certain Viking motif from a pair of birthday presents a couple of weeks back). She's pretty happy with the outcome, especially given they were knocked off between little naps and long feed times. Now she just has to come up with some presents to go with them...

Potential craft find of the week

it's ok to get shirty... every now and then

Every year around this time the folks Kick Gallery have themselves a Merry Little Christmas show featuring limited edition tees by some of our favourite arteests (get it 'ar-tee-sts' oh my we do crack ourselves up)... We love a 'pop-up shop' especially one which has extended business hours allowing summer night strollers, restaurant and bar hoppers and busy nine-to fivers to make a purchase 'after hours' or while waiting for their table at Pizza Mein Leib.

Anyways this is a really great spot to pick up a silly season bargain for that difficult to buy for teenager, super groovy friend, even your hip nanna or maybe just a little something for yourself . We encourage people to work on the gift buying credo "one for you, one for me" wherever possible -at least it means there's something under the tree you'll like come Christmas morning.

Fresh Prints 4 - Annual T-shirt Exhibition and Sale

Kick Gallery

239 High Street Northcote

November 25 – December 24
Tuesday-Friday 12 - 8pm & Saturday 12 - 5pm

see you there.

Show of the week

oh grow up!

This month we'll be attempting to get the offspring to cooperate long enough to get to Utopian Slumps to see the new group show Grow Wild. Not just because it has some of our absolute faves in there - the woody Dell Stewart, the squiggly Nathan Gray, the illustrative Neils Oetjen and the Queen of Craft Penelope Durston - but because we are intrigued by the statement "It's easy to forget the pleasure of the wild and the primal, especially given the place in the distant future we sometimes seem to have arrived at. The truly metamorphosing moments in life where we're confronted with wonder and sadness and need and desire are the times when the wild reappears in all its elemental glory". Top job peoples, we're already planning our uber hip opening outfits, just forgive us if they aint 'posset' free on the night.

Opens December 5 @

Utopian Slumps

25 Easey St Collingwood Victoria 3066 Australia

Enter via side alley (how very secret squirrel)

Opening Hours Thursday to Saturday 12 - 6pm

DIY find of the week

climbing the wallpaper

And here we were thinking that black and white frame wallpaper was good... This colour it yourself wallpaper by John Burgerman (some of you may know his work from the doodilicious print currently available at the local IKEA) is produced by UK company NineteenSeventyThree who stock a whole load of awesome accoutrement from a swag of great international graphic arteests. Brilliant Mr Burgerman, just brilliant.

it may be a little pricey with the current exchange rate but what an excellent project for a wet weekend.

craft find of the week

New Arrival!

We interrupt our normal broadcast to bring you a special announcement! The safe arrival of Mr Thom - the newest intern at the HML office. He came Monday morning at 745am of his own accord in a blessedly short time (8 hours -phew!) As you can see the blankie did get finished (really he was just waiting for that red trim to be complete - crafty boy already - woo hoo!) All is well. Thanks for all messages emails etc. Now back to our regular programming)...

Christmas Gift of the Week

welcome to the dollhouse one thing about having a baby now 10 days late is that the really nerve wracking Christmas projects just cannot be ignored. This set of dolls is long overdue for a most excellent girl called Sunday...

It was quite the challenge painting a 3 dimensional object, keeping a steady hand and some level of consistency through the whole thing. Each doll (apart from the odd little green one at the end) took about two hours to paint - hours that will not be available when the baby does finally make an appearance. It was well worth it tho

I mean, who doesn't love Sundays?