Friday Brekky with my brother

Every Friday my brother and I come from opposite sides of town to meet for our favourite meal of the day - breakfast! We try to visit new spots every week which isn't hard to do in Melbourne, there are so many yummy places for the morning meal in this great city. I though I might start reporting our delicious mornings. These pictures are actually from last weeks spot Grigons & Orr in North Melbourne. We ate apple fritters, very nice even in the eyes of a savoury breakfast girl (thats me, I like my potatoes in the morning). The atmosphere of this place was so great. A cold winter morning, a basket of blankets at the front door, a heater under the table, a knitted tea cosy, people braving the cold to come down to their local corner store to buy some milk... this is why winter is my favourite month! The menu is big and I had great difficulty choosing. I think we better revisit Grigons & Orr so I can venture further down their menu.

Ask Alice on Blue Caravan

I am so happy to announce that Ask Alice is now a smiling member of Bluecaravan. If you don't already know Bluecaravan then you should swing by. Bluecarvan is like an online caravan park and each caravan houses an artist or creator of somekind. Inside their little caravans they sell their products direct to you. None of that middle man jive. And what each of these caravan folk have in common is their ethical approach to creating. Here you will find all kinds of organic, fair trade, sweat shop free, recycled, ethical, eco-blah-blah, save the world kind of stuff. It's quite a new website and is growing super fast. It's fun having a blue caravan.

New Ask Alice Catalogue

A belated Camberwell Post...

It's Tuesday night already! I have been a busy bee with my head down working away in preparation for the launch of 4 new products. I have been so busy that I haven't even reported my Sunday finds! Last Sunday was the best Sunday at Camberwell I have seen in the last couple of months! I found several things I wanted to buy, but promised myself I wouldn't spend more than $30. So I wandered the entire market before purchasing anything and then went back for my two favourite items....

I can't quite put my finger on this one, not sure why I love it so much, but I do. I wish they still made power boards the way they used to! I'm having it safety checked tomorrow.

I broke my beloved stapler on Saturday trying to staple a 25 page document. I was very happy to find this chunk nugget of a stapler. It works perfectly and is fun to refill. If this stapler was an animal, it would indeed be a koala.

I love my little Doggy, he is just so wonderful...

He shivers in winter and overheats in summer. He is such a sook.

Sunday's Finds...

3 little things came home from Camberwell Markets with me yesterday. $8 worth of Sunday Treasures.... $5 bought me a wonderful sifter - which I have been needing for a long time. This fella is in great condition, no holes and no rust and a nice red handle. $1 bought me a balding little bear. $2 bought me a nice little house of shelves which now houses 5 of my little friends... E.T, Ren, Stimpy, my Lil homie José and Mr. Salary Man. AND my lovely friend Gemma baked beetroot cupcakes - YUM!! Now, speaking of yummy markets, I heard a little rumour that Coburg's Sunday market (held in the same spot as the drive-in) is pretty good, especially in the summer. Has anyone been? I think I better check it out. If you've been, please tell me what you thought of it. x

What a friendly little lion

A month or so ago I was clicking through hundreds of images on the internet of Australian animals. I was working on a project that is currently top secret but will be posted on my blog very soon! While I was searching for Possums, some how, this guy popped up. I'm not sure what he has to do with possums? But damn, he looks good dressed as a lion! I actually really don't like the website this image came from but if you must, I found him here.

New New New!

I have had my head down and my scissors in hand for the last couple of months and am happy to announce that there are some new arrivals in the Ask Alice range hot to trot come August. Currently approaching the end of the production line we have . . . 4 greeting cards, a postcard book of 24 postcards, 4 mini notebooks and my favourite, 3 cloth bound blank journals ♥ I am super excited and can't wait to see the truck pull up outside our warehouse with the delivery!

The Ask Alice Website!

Why is it that some things just take longer than they should? After a long long wait and then another wait and then another week on top of that, finally the Ask Alice website is up. There is some fine tuning to be done - but for now it's as good as done. Come and have a play - www.askalicestationery.com - run your curser over the typewriter keys, double click on the polaroids in the gallery and write me a note in the enquiry book on the contact page. I have progressed from knowing nothing about building websites to actually having a slight clue... I even talk some of the talk now! Gemma Jones suggested I share my new found knowledge with a post for all y'all beginners out there. Stay tuned. x

MARKit

I feel as if I have cheated on Camberwell markets! After months of loyalty, I did a no-show at Camberwell and headed to MARKit at Federation square instead! A whole different kettle of fish was this wonderful design market. It made for a very inspiring morning. A few months back I considered booking a stall for Ask Alice at yesterday's event, but decided to check it out first. Yesterday was the checking out and MARKit got a big tick! I did like it very much indeed. Lots of nice familiar faces and lots of lovely things for sale. I found myself giggling away on the nice little stall of Able & Game. I walked away feeling warm and fuzzy and thought I would share the warm fuzzy feeling here with you! You were right Pip, Able & Game is fantastic!

A b l e & G a m e

www.ableandgame.com

Prawn Post

One of my bestest besties in the whole world is my friend Shawn the Prawn. Shawn and I send each other postcards everytime we find ourselves in new locations. I have a tin full of postcards from Shawn. Shawn and I met back in the days when St. Jeromes was relatively clean and coffees were $2. We were the 2 geeks who made you toasties and lattes on Thursday afternoons. Me and the Prawn pie were the best of friends from the word go. We were so sad to be apart when I moved to Japan that the little Prawn dog packed up his things and moved just around the corner from me in Shimokitazawa. 2 of the best years I will ever see! Prawn dog is now moving back to his home town of Kuala Lumpur after many many adventurous years away. Here are a handfull of the postcards Prawn Pie has sent me over the years....

Golly, I can't believe it was yesterday morning that I was at Camberwell with Charley and Dee. That feels like a week ago. Since then Charley has made his way across the world and is almost in Sunny Lyon. He is heading all the way back to get his passport stamped, so he can then come all the way back to cloudy Melbourne. Melbourne is totally worth it! Especially when you can head on down to Camberwell Markets every Sunday and find yourself a pair of rusty scissors, a pink cassette recorder, a yellow bendy lamp and a bag of scrabble letters. Come back quick Charley, there's bargains to be bought.

What a week!

This week was a whirlwind crazy week and right in the middle of the week was my birthday! I had an incredible birthday and was totally spoiled to no end! Although it was an unlucky birthday in some ways, it was still an incredible day! Unlucky because I did get a parking fine in the morning and my car did break down 80 km out of Melbourne on the freeway heading to Daylesford. Unlucky because we spent 2 hours waiting on the side of the freeway and because Charley, Dee and I all missed out on lunch. Unlucky because our tow truck driver insisted on driving us back to town via his house. Unlucky because we were stuck at a car dealership out in the middle of nowhere waiting for a cab with frozen toes after dark and unlucky because by the time we arrived home we were too tired to go out for dinner. That's quite a bit of bad luck for one birthday, but would you believe it was still one of the best birthdays ever?! The night before my birthday, my boy Charley and I received some very good news from the Visa office about our visa application for Charley to live here - that is the best birthday present I could ask for! Then the following morning I was woken up with a big box from Charley - inside it, a PRINT GOCCO!!! BEST PRESENT EVER! I couldn't believe my eyes!! For the rest of the day I received lovely phone calls and messages and some more AMAZING presents! It felt like 5 birthdays rolled into one! I can't wait to start printing with my Gocco. The first thing I am going to print is some cute cards to send with all my online orders. What fun!