definatalie.com » markets

The Village Markets.

Natalie — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:30:42 +0000

A photo of people walking past lots of crafty market stalls.

With the runaway success of markets like Finders Keepers I’m so pleased to see smaller weekly and fortnightly markets popping up. When we moved down here I wasn’t sure what kind of arts and crafts scene was going on, but after visiting the weekly Village Markets at Burleigh Heads State School today I’m pretty stoked to find that there’s a bit of a crafty culture happening on the Gold Coast after all!

We took a look at the markets today mostly because our new GC pals Heiko and Lilly were holding a stall for Heiko’s work, but also because I feel like I’ve been getting a bit too insular! It was so nice to go and see what local artisans are making and selling, and now Nick thinks it’d be cool if I sold my work at the market too! I don’t know how receptive most people would be to my more activisty products, but it seems the punters love knick knacks and whatnots so I’ll have to have a think about the kind of things I can make and sell for a market audience.

A photo of cut out illustrations, a mysterious black figure with a H and a kind of scary/ zombie koala beneath it.

Six prints of Heiko's illustrations.

Bunting with Heiko's illustrations on each flag strung across his stall.

A bowl of Heiko's tiny badges sitting on calendars.

Heiko said he’ll be at the markets next fortnight too, so if you are local and want to buy some awesome art stuff for people you must go!

A stuffed owl toy by Sisterhood Sewing in pink fabrics sitting inside a pink ring with vines wrapped around it.

A screenprinted wall hanging by Beneath The Sun with a fat merman surrounded by seaweed.

This merman looked SO SO much like Nick that I had to buy it for him!! MerNick!

Nick and Miffy standing in front of a huge Burleigh Heads State School emblem painted on a brick wall.

The markets are held in the primary school Nick attended, so we went for a walk around and he pointed out all the places he knew as kid Nick.

An outfit photo of Miffy and I standing amongst trees; I wear my crochet top over a green singlet with a diagonally stripy maxi skirt and a big black hat.

Yellow flowers and peach flower buds on a tree.

My school had wattle, jacaranda and poinciana trees around it and they all remind me of the rather nice time I had when I was in primary school. I don’t know what this tree is but I thought it was pretty.

A photo of Miffy and I standing in front of a colourful beach mural with a rainbow and hearts with nice values in them.

Crochet top: Yours Clothing
Singlet: Autograph
Skirt: Yours Clothing
Shoes: Evans
Hat: Seafolly (I think)

My Saturday featuring The Finders Keepers market.

Natalie — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:18:30 +0000

Coffee is the best way to get a Natalie to start the day! We had our Saturday morning all planned out, we were going to check out the new Coorparoo Markets and then move on to Finders Keepers but parking at the rejuvenated old Myer Coorparoo building AND breakfast in our tummies were seriously lacking, so we decided to have our most important meal at Cafeine.

This mushroom and feta omelette with pesto stuffed tomatoes is the best.

After breakfast we went to the Coorparoo Markets, finally, but we didn’t take photos because we were busy checking it all out. There’s a level of random market thingies and doodads (including tiny helicopters that are amazing) and a level of fresh produce. Horah for close fresh food markets!

After our local jaunt we headed to The Old Museum for the Finders Keepers markets!

I love this building and the surrounding gardens, it’s such a nice venue for a market.

I wore clothes!

THE POM POMS! The colours are right out of the poster I illustrated for the markets!

I’m not kidding, I want these for my birthday party :D

This is the okt-ober dee stall, and see that cute handbag? This one? I LOVE IT. Oh my goodness it’s the cutest.

Seriously, POM POMS.

Nick is staying strong in the face of craft and whimsy overload.

And then we went over the Story Bridge and tended some errands. Saturday success!

The Finders Keepers Brisbane and Curvy 2010

Natalie — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:01:02 +0000

The Finders Keepers are coming back for the Brisbane Spring/ Summer markets and I was asked to design the poster!

The Brisbane markets will take place on November 6 and 7 at The Old Museum. Applications for stalls are still open at the moment, so if you want to go sell your wares make sure you check out the application page.

The other bit of awesome news I have to share is that my piece La Donna Mascherata was accepted into the 2010 Curvy book. It’s a big deal to me because I was amongst 75 artists from 38 countries picked out of 2300 submissions by Fafi and Sarah Lerfel (from Colette; and the wonderful Deanne Cheuk is doing the layout too!

Find out more about Curvy on their Facebook page.

Dahlia salad, anyone?

Natalie — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:10:47 +0000

Today I bought two bunches of lovely dahlias at the markets. I have long loved them but have never seen them to buy them and bring them home and gaze at their loveliness!

When I was unwrapping them and snipping the ends off to put them in a vase I discovered that they drop their petals way too easily. I ended up with a lot of bald flowers. A little googling tells me that the flowers that lose their petals are old flowers that are beyond usefulness.

Though as I was cleaning up, I noticed the petals had a very peppery scent. You must be able to eat them! I checked the wikipedia page and it says

The Aztecs gathered and cultivated the dahlia for food, ceremonies, as well as decorative purposes, and the long woody stem of one variety was used for small pipes.

What a handy little flower :)

Another Saturday in Brisneyland

Natalie — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:48:03 +0000

The last few times we’ve been to the markets I forgot to pick up flowers, but today Nick helped me pick out the blooms! I actually saw the green chrysanthemums and grabbed them but didn’t know what to pair them with. Nick thought they’d go well with some white oriental lilies, and what do you know? They look very pretty! We are indeed a budding floral design couple.

I’m still in love with the Hipstamatic app. This is taken with the Kaimal Mark II lens and Ina’s 1969 film.

Taken with the John S lens and Blanko film. Life is simpler through the Hipstamatic’s viewfinder!

It’s so bright and sunny and hot today! We’ll probably be going for another swim at the local pool later.

Still in holiday mode!

Natalie — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:10:57 +0000

Things are changing this year, and I’ve got to tell you… I always struggle with change. Nick is on long service leave but is still working hard at home with his freelance business. I’m trying to come up with concepts for a few projects but floundering, or errr, still developing them :P

This weekend we decided we would focus only on pleasurable things because we have been so busy lately. The ingredients for a happy weekend include: no work, minimal housework, friends, outside, nourishing food and time together. It’s nice to pause and spend time together – because we’ve discovered that working from home together doesn’t necessarily mean we are spending time together!

Yesterday we went to the markets with some friends and the boys held the first ever SAUSAGE CUP, which is exactly what it sounds like. Sausages in a cup. I counted nine of them in one cup! Shaun’s photo above should give you some indication of how vast the sausage selection is at the “Wurst House” at the markets.

Then Nick and I decided to go for a drive to the mountains in the afternoon. There is something about being in the mountains that puts me at peace, and we’re very lucky to have a smorgasbord of lovely mountain places around Brisbane to flee to whenever we get the desire. We went to Mt Glorious and Mt Nebo, and spent a couple of hours dreaming about living up there.

One day I will have a studio in the mountains, and I will never come down! Today we are having a lazy day that will be capped off by a picnic in the park with our friends.

I definitely recommend you get some pleasurable weekend in your life soon!

You’ve got red on you

Natalie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:05:43 +0000

I bought these lovely velvety, brainy-looking Celosia from the markets because they are such fascinating looking flowers! The stems are green but have threads of the red through them and they reminded me so much of rhubarb that I wasn’t surprised to read on the wikipedia page you can eat some variants of these flowers.

Brains! Also velvet.

And then I dyed my hair Red Corvette, for a lark!

Nana Chic and Finders Keepers

Natalie — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:21:16 +0000

Today I went to the Brisbane Finders Keepers markets on a whim, despite being apprehensive about being amongst such talent and gorgeous knick knackery. I got this vintage dress in the mail last week, so I decided to seize the day (and the overcast weather) and wear it out before it gets really really hot. “Nana chic” really appeals to me so I am very glad to have another dress that I can wear with my pewter patent “Nana shoes” (even though they give me blisters!) I’m squinting in the photo because I thought my sunglasses completely wrong for the outfit, thus you get this furrowed brow!

Dress – beesipea on etsy
Shoes – Roberto Figini
Belt – Yours Clothing
Bag – Satchi

You might notice I look slightly shorn on one side… After agonising over this hairstyle for a month or so I decided to go ahead with it. Most of my friends know I care approximately naught for what other people think about what I do with my body and I’m pretty sure it’s a hairstyle that divides opinion, but I’m really enjoying it so far!

My favourite stalls from the Finders Keepers Brisbane markets included:

Kim Wallace of Udessi – lovely ceramics pressed with doilies and pieces of lace.
Cherrymorris – an accessory label featuring these fantastic cast pewter pieces.
Miss Amy Lane – very whimsical millinery that I was completely drooling over. Had I the money, I would commission a top hat for my husband because it would look so awesome on him!
Lola & Bailey – jewellery designers who have created pieces I have lusted after for years! I actually bought a Dial D necklace today, and I’m already planning outfits around it!

My new Lola & Bailey necklace! ♥

I also went past the Leeloo stall but I was too shy to go up and say hello. I’m such a fool! I could have let Angela know that my Once Upon piece might be a day late, as I posted it on Friday. Nick thinks I’m totally silly for not introducing myself!

I’m glad I went to the markets, but I do feel like I ought to be stepping my game up a bit – to use an oft abused phrase! I have so many ideas but I just don’t know how to even begin to start manufacturing things… so I end up making a huge amount of prototypes and then store them away somewhere, or give them away to my loved ones. I keep thinking “if only I had enough money to do x” or “if I had enough capital I could set up a store” and I always trip myself up over details and get so overwhelmed that I keep my plans on a shelf. Next year I am going to start creating as much as possible, and putting those things up for sale straight away without worrying about creating a whole stable of products first. The most important thing is to at least start selling things in order to build up a bunch of money I can do even more fabulous things with. It’s exciting and scary, and I’ll probably need your moral support!

Let’s play a game

Natalie — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:39:05 +0000

We went to the markets this morning and I bought some more mystery flowers! Remember the mystery flowers from last Saturday? Amongst the suggested species: sweet pea, snapdragon and ranunculus; but the closest suggestion was from ozjoe who said they could be Stock flowers. The photo on the wikipedia page wasn’t convincing but after browsing Google image search I’m beginning to think they could indeed be a variety of them!

Now I implore you to continue the greenening of my opposable digit! What are these flowers? They have a very sturdy flower head with stiff, card-like petals. I remember these from my childhood as being the scratchy things that would rudely brush past us whenever we would trample people’s gardens.

I could ask the flower sellers at the markets… but that’d take the fun out of the game and deny you the opportunity of being a smart arse ;)

This little piggy went to market

Natalie — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:17:52 +0000

I was in a shocking mood this morning but we went to the markets and bought loads of beautiful fruit and veges (and flowers!) so now I’m feeling a lot better. Included in our market booty: pomegranates to make pommie cupcakes, and besan flour to make delicious vegetable kofta balls. I took some photos of my haul to further enhance my cheering and then I whimsyfscked them (ie: put a bunch of colour layers over the image to make it look hip and vintage).

Nick enjoyed his wurst and sauerkraut immensely!

Now while I go bake a zebra cake for my friend’s birthday party tomorrow, you must tell me what these flowers are!