TIPS OF THE WEEK

PLACE YOUR BETS
We cannot claim to be racing experts, or even racing fans but we do like to peruse the form guide once a year and take a punt. This year we have three hot tips for you Purple Moon, The Fuzz and Mahler for the trifecta....
The race is as at 3pm. We'll let you know how we go! The BBQ is fired up, there is beer in the fridge and the betting has been attended to (my lord that was quite a queue at the Northcote TAB!). For those sensible folk not even remotely interested in the race, do enjoy your day off, get some much deserved sun and think about your Christmas card list (in reality that's actually what half of hml are doing, while the other is braving the Japanese public transit system).

SHOW OF THE WEEK

giddy up
The ladies of HML have mixed feelings about the race that stops a nation. Beck has left the country and so won't be enjoying the sight of ladettes stumbling down Flinders Lane with askew fascinators and scuffed stilettos. Ramona will be placing her bets based on names alone and will be donning this very fetching Horsey costume for fashions on the field.

Mind you, she's had the flu (hence the lack-o-posts this past week) so she'll probably end up in quarantine...

SHOW OF THE WEEK

Sweet Dominance
We've been long time fans of Nina Oikawa and so we are really excited to see her new show opening this week at Pieces of Eight Gallery. This Japanese native/Melbourne based jeweller has mastered resin casting and taken it beyond the chunky junk we usually associate with the material.
The pieces are both playful and dynamic, sometimes kitsch but always technically brilliant. And as you can see from the pics there is a kind of springtime quality to them which is kind of joyous don't you think?
It seems only fitting that we feature a Japanese maker this week as Beck takes flight (with the Architect as her travelling companion) again this week to the land of the rising sun - taking advantage of those cheap tix to Nagoya (via Cairns) for a much needed break. She better come home laden with wacky craft books, stationery ephemera and a digital camera full of HML gems. Meanwhile Ramona and the Intern will hold down the fort, waiting at the mailbox for the postcards with excellent stamps...

Sweet Dominance opens October 30 and runs thru til November 24

Pieces of Eight 635 Brunswick St Nth Fitzroy.

I MADE IT MYSELF

SPANGLISH Sometimes the ladies of HML get a little fanatical about things. For some reason it was determined that for a long overdue family dinner Paella would be the Plate Du Jour. Hours of research were done into procuring the perfect recipe, Simon Johnson provided the excellent and authentic Paella dish, Preston Market was the hot ticket for all the seafood, litres of homemade chickenstock simmered on the stove for the prerequisite number of hours. Saffron was bought as was chorizo sausage - all was going according to plan...
What a shame there were only 5 for dinner and enough Paella for 10! Excellent leftovers but...

STUDIOS OF THE WEEK

Open House
The ladies of HML imagine many of you have trooped thru or had studios in the much loved Nicholas building. These hallowed halls of creativity, enterprise and shenanigans are open to all this Thursday and Friday eve and we do urge you to avail yourself of the lovely lift ladies and take a peek at the goings on. Beck and Ramona will be donning the neccesary art safari gear (sensible shoes peeps) cameras in hand for some hml exclusives. Maybe we'll see you there?

CRAFT FIND OF THE WEEK

PEG LEG PENPEN

You never leave Miss PenPen's studio empty handed, or empty stomached for that matter! During our last week's visit we washed down buckets of chocolate coated buicuit balls with enormous cups of tea, drooled over the array of new pieces littering the studio and managed to swagger home with not just a bag of silk scarf scraps for Beck's latest card making expolits BUT ALSO with this drop dead gorgeous vintage curtain and ticking peg bag.

WE LOVE IT!

As you all know we are quite the practical pair and embrace solid utilitarian objects whose form fits their function, but this here peg bag, while more than capable of fulfilling it's clothesline duties is way too pretty to be left outside, so for now its hung up at HML headquarters housing "precious things".

SHOW/S OF THE WEEK

FADE TO GRAY
Well the ladies hml always get excited when we here that the super stylins of Mr Nathan Gray are on display. We are doubly excited when we get to pretend that we are cool by heading out to Utopian Slumps. Apparently he's done an amazing installation -collage, woodwork, found objects, drawings, basketry, makeshift constructions - sounds excellent doesn't it?
Also on our radar is NZ chap Peter Robinson at Sutton Gallery. The show title 'Concatenation and Dispersion in Project Space' is a little pompous, a litte heavy handed, but we think his work looks pretty playful and interesting...we'll let you know
And to extend the notion of the Handmade the ladies will be paying a visit to the latest at 45 Downstairs 'Propositions and Game Plans' - an exhibition of composers notebooks and manuscripts. Process is always interesting and insight into another craft is intriguing.