Friday, January 08, 2010

Happy New Year









Getting back into the swing of things after a wee break is always so hard! I spent a few days down in Tassie with Hollie and Mikey and Jess at the Falls Festival. It was actually my 10 year reunion with the Festival, having gone to the big Millennium Celebration back in 1999 with the Violent Femmes. My highlights were Emiliana Torrini and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing the countdown slot with my neck straining to see what Karen O, who travelled to the show on a lightning bolt, was wearing. Some of the other highlights were Liam Finn with Eliza Jane and Chairlift, shown above piffing an already smashed guitar into the air. I've put some more photos over on Flickr, although these two above are my favourites.

I hope everyone had a lovely festive season and I am looking forward to 2010!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A little redesign





I've done a bit of a redesign of the Anna Laura website. As you can probably tell I've scaled back to focus on our Able and Game cards, but I will still be doing the little lady badges. They are also featured in the current Frankie Mag which is pretty exciting (thanks Frankie!). They are also available on the lovely website Leeloo which is also the only place you can buy them.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Once Upon Artworks



The Tears






The Spin




The Queen





The First Born





I've finally found the time to put my four artworks from Once Upon up on the blog. My fairy tail was Rumpelstiltskin and I have to say I had a few dilemmas with the whole thing but ended up pushing through to create something I was happy with. This was a bit of a novelty, because all to often I just procrastinate then rush something and end up a bit disappointed in what I create.

The artworks are hand stitched collages created with thread and a variety of papers. I originally planned to not have too much on them, but when I started on the the last one I got a bit carried away with all the detail causing me to go and add more detail to all of them and miss the deadline for posting them off.

Gareth and I flew up for the exhibition opening and it was (embarrassingly) my first trip to Sydney, so things like double decker trains were a total novelty. We hung with Jess from Truth Be Told and met lots of lovely people and drunk the great wine supplied by Catalina Sounds.

If you're wanting to buy some of the artworks, just go to the Once Upon website and click the Art For Sale link at the top. And lastly, a big thanks to Renee and Angela for organising the whole shebang!

Monday, November 02, 2009

Once Upon





Angela from Leeloo and Renee from Art4Friends have organised an exhibition opening later this month called Once Upon. The theme is fairytails and I've been working on my artworks over the last few weeks. I had some real issues working out what I was going to do with both the style I wanted to work in and the media I wanted to use. After a rather tense day last week I'm feeling much better about the artworks and am currently in the production stage, as you can see from the mess on my desk in the image above.

I often have this love hate relationship with the work I do, and I know when I push through it I come up with something I am happy with but that uncertainly can really bring out some ugly thoughts. All part of the process I guess, but during these moments I get why artists are often drug and booze addled depressives who slice of their ears and drive too fast in the Hamptons.


Gareth and I will both be coming up to Sydney for the opening on the 19th of December at aMBUSH gallery in Waterloo. If you're in Sydney it would be great to see you at the opening, which I am looking forward to as it is a little mini break.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Yay/Nay






Wow, it was a whole month ago that I posted my last Yay/Nay. For some reason it felt like two weeks. In keeping with the Loobylu tradition of Hot/Not I have a few Yay/Nay for today.

YAY

The Once Upon exhibition next month. Gareth and I are both going up to Sydney for it so I am very excited. I was going to go up alone and had my flight booked but I figured where is the fun in that? So Gareth is coming along for the ride.

Falls Festival in Marion Bay. Hollie and I sit on a Saturday and talk about how much fun it is going be. I'm spending a week down in Tassie and I am looking forward to a whole 7 days away from a computer.

Roller Derby
this Saturday in Rezza.

10km run. If you told me 2 years ago I would run for 10km I would have laughed at you. Jhoanna from One Red Robin also took part and it was nice to have someone to talk with about it. The race finished with a lap of the MCG which was pretty good. It was interesting to see what it looked like from the middle after going to quite a few footy matches this year. Plus the weather that Sunday morning was perfect.


NAY

800m. Turns out our 10km was a little shorter than it should have been.

Eggs + kids + muckup day. Keep your eggs in your pockets kids. Don't throw them at people and don't throw them on the trams.

Myspace. It is a wasteland.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Yay/Nay






After reading Loobylu's recent blog post I realised I am also a bit of a Hot/Not fan. I remember I had a Mode magazine from about 1992 that had a huge one in it, all full of things I did not understand, but I tried to pretend I did. I'm going to call my list Yay and Nay rather than Hot or Not, just because I'm using the word Yaysies so much I even have Gareth saying it.



YAY!

Finding my kitten necklace Hollie gave me from my birthday. It's from Corky St. Clair and I put it in a safe place, so safe I couldn't find it for 6 months. But it is back!

New brooches. The porcelain owl is from Dani M Designs and the resin horse is from Hokey. I also have a new Featherstitch Fantail brooches from Bridget, a custom design of a Magpie that I can wear to the football and look like a Collingwood supporter without having to deck myself out in black and white and gold.

The Black Apple's Brownie recipe. I made it the other night and it is one of the best recipes I've found. You don't need chocolate, just cocoa (chocolate isn't something that just sits around in the house is it?) and you can mix it all up in a saucepan. I'm pretty sure the recipe can be adapted as well, to make it vegan (use noegg and vegan spread instead of butter/eggs), glutan free or low fat (adding apple sauce instead of butter).



NAY

Friends leaving to go overseas, although it is more of a reason to get over to Europe next year and escape the winter here.

Finding someone to go to Animal Collective with in December at The Forum. I'm putting it out there, who wants to be my date?

Bride Wars. You know when you know a film is going to be bad, but you think it might turn full circle and still entertain you? This isn't one of those films, it is honestly the worst film I've seen. I don't understand who would enjoy it, it makes shallow romantic girl films seem deep and arty. If you were ever thinking of renting it I am here to save you 90 minutes of your life, plus the hours you will spend afterwards thinking of ways the money to make the film could be better spent.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bridbird Sale



My friend Bridget from Bridbird is having a sale over in her Etsy shop, everything is only $10US to help reduce stock levels before she shifts over to Ireland next month. You can get some really lovely Gocco prints like the one above. They make great gifts, my Mum has a Magpie print and Gareth's Mum has one of the Melbourne Terrace prints. I am sure they will all be snapped up pretty quick, so I'm posting this to give you all a heads up!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Magic Gloves





These very sweet little gloves were a gift from Hollie, who made them up after I said the colour combo was one I would like. She gave them to Gareth a few Saturdays ago when he had been at Rose Street and I had been at DMT and they came all wrapped up like it was my birthday or something crazy like that. If you want a pair you can come along to Rose Street as Hollie is selling them at her stall in different colour combinations. According to Suzie, who has a black and white pair, they are magic. I think I can agree with that, anything that keeps my hands warm is magic. I'm off into the city, with the lovely gloveson, to get ready for First In Style with the Able and Game cards, in the mean time have a look at Hollie's newest blog, Lost Little Loves, so much pretty!

Oh and speaking of Rose Street, did you know they will be now open on Sunday as well as Saturday starting this Sunday? They will be running from 11am-5pm and are located on 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy, pretty much smack bang between Brunswick Street, Nicholson Street, Johnston Street and Alexandra Parade. So if you have not been before and one of the reasons was you had stuff on on Saturday, you can now have a lovely lazy Sunday in Fitzroy that includes Rose Street!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Second Studio Sale





The last month has gone by so quickly I didn't realise it had been over a month since I had updated this blog! I also didn't realise our Studio Sale was less than two weeks away. The first one, organised by Peta Pledger, was a real success with lots of people coming by. This one will be even better with more people having stalls. I will be selling Able and Game cards as well as reduced Anna Laura stock, plus some fabric and notions. If you're the type of person who gets organised with Christmas shopping early then this sale will be perfect as you will get some bargains that are handmade in Melbourne!

Details

What: Studio Sale with Samantha Sultana, Peta Pledger, Shara Lambeth, Sew Your Own, Anna Laura, Lil' Misfit, Justina Maria and Jacqueline Benedetti Jewellery.
When: Saturday 8th August from 10am-4pm
Where: Level 2, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street Melbourne (Next to Buttonmania)

If you want to post the flyer on your blog to help promote the sale please feel free to use the one above.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Melbourne Cards





I've had this card idea in my head for quite a while now, the only thing putting me off was the trip I needed to take to Frankston to take the photo. I've got plans on doing an Able and Game Melbourne range, I just need to think of some ideas for more cards, I've got a few floating around, I just need to perfect them. This one is popular at Rose Street with one girl demanding her boyfriend buy it for her right that very second. If you want one for yourself you can purchase online via Etsy or you can come and visit us at Rose Street on Saturday (60 Rose Street in Fitzroy from 11am-5pm) and say hello and tell me your favourite zone two location.