Kitchen Bench Design Challenge!

While Paul was making a stir-fry for dinner tonight, Jules and I set ourselves a little challenge: to make as many things as we could think of from scraps and found objects on the kitchen bench...

We found some spring onion scraps, carrot tops, a lolly stick, two rubber bands and a necklace made at the school holiday club, which all seemed pretty useful for making a basic punky character.

A few more spring-onion stalks made the face into a stick person.

Next up, Jules made a bird - I love it!


Then I made a scene of grass, sunshine and a butterfly.

Jules made a mini-caterpillar.

I tried my hand at a wheelie vehicle but wasn't too happy with it.


Then as I started to lay the table for dinner Jules started working on another creation.


hmm, let's bring in a found post-it note.


Et voila! A hatted guy! I l smiled for ages when I saw this. This little guy has so much character, doesn't he? xxx

In the shop...

It was quite a busy day today, with lots of visitors.

This lovely little sweetie popped in with her mum, who is a blogger. Hi Belinda, I can't find your blog, please send me the address and I'll post a link!

And the very lovely and excitable Kate came in all the way from Gippsland, with her whole family. We chatted for ages, and I have told Kate she must get a blog - anyone who is making a knight's outfit for her little boy from chain-mail coke can pulls needs a blog, don't you think?

In the garden...

Spring is once again teasing us today - no doubt it will be cold and rainy again tomorrow!

But for now the flowers are enjoying the sunshine.

Miss Rita and Miss Ingrid are enjoying the afternoon sun on the verandah.

I think we might have been neglecting the veggie beds recently! We have been eating broccoli and greens for weeks and have given lots away but we are still overwhelmed! I think this weekend we will have to start some new planting before it gets too late.

Little Tokyo Shops

Angela has produced a zine of her favourite Tokyo boutique shops and (hurrah!) clear directions to find them. I haven't bought it yet but I have been shopping with Angela on many occasions so I know it's going to be full of the most exquisite little stores. You can buy it for only $5 here, it's a must if you are off on a Tokyo shopping jaunt!

Betty Jo

Liz from Betty Jo visited the shop again today, she was looking stylish along with her li'l dog Chester!

Paul Rand

An inspiring animation on Paul Rand, found at Miller Goodman. I have watched this a few times and there are some really thought-provoking ideas on the creative process. I especially like this point: 'don't try to be original, just try to be good'.

In the Lark Shop Today...

Two lovely blog pals popped in today!

Xena from Sydney

Leah from Bendigo

If you have a blog please come to the shop and have your photo taken for our 'blog board'. We'll even give you one of our Lark goodie bags which are rather special and look something like this...

Hope to see you soon! x

'I Love...' Poster by Jacob

I love lollies
I love chocolate
I love school holidays
I love cake
I love home made bread
I love Star Wars
I love Anakin
I love cuddling my mum and dad
I love Tim and Luka and my brother
I love Harry A.
but I mostly love my Mum and Dad

In the Lark shop today...

Lots of friends and new customers popped by to say Hi today. Liz Jones of Lino Forest came in with her kids - we are stocking her ace Betty Jo vintage lino brooches in the store.

Kim, who edits Thaw magazine, also came in. It is great to have a locally-made zine just for our area.

A lovely friend brought in some pretty flowers to celebrate the opening.

And we finished off the exterior just in time for the photoshoot for Real Living magazine, although the rain meant that we can't get any decent exterior photos until tomorrow (fingers crossed). It's been raining like crazy all day and then we had a power cut. What's going on? I am very happy with the outside of the shop, except for the ugly black ramp that our landlord put in. I was hoping for a cute wooden one, any ideas on how we can disguise this beast? Oh, and do you like the sign? Steph painted this by hand, isn't she amazing? I found the bike in Ballarat, it's a Malvern Star dragster, it has a white seat with candy-coloured flowers!

Please pop by!

Our little shop is open this weekend from 10.30 to 4.00 each day:

Lark
4a Duke Street
Daylesford

(if you can't find it, we're tucked away in the lane behind the MS op shop, look for the big Lark sign on an old warehouse building!).

The shop has cute homewares, yummy stationery, cool kid's stuff and all the fresh goodness you would expect from Lark - and some of our lovely friends including Victoria Mason, Betty Jo, Beci Orpin, Arthur's Circus, Genki, Able & Game, Twiglet, Little Shop of... and Rice! It's also a great place to discover local makers, we have some great crafters here in spa country! Oh and zines and mags including Thaw, Peppermint, Mixtapezine, MadeIt. Japanese things too. Lots of ace stuff, really, and very friendly service.

Please come and say hello! Here is a sneak preview to tempt you ...

Thank Goodness for Craft

Feeling totally exhausted at the moment, with school holidays, the shop opening and all the crazy stuff that goes into running your own business. Thankfully it was craft group last night and it was just what I needed. The meet was at Jodie's place and she gave us a Gocco demonstration. It was fascinating and most of us had a go. We also compared different toy fillings and admired Jodie's craft room. Best bit as always though, was just to chat and eat delicious cake with lovely people. Darren is away on tour in Mexico but most of the girls were there. We are still trying to come up with a name for our group but to no avail, despite various hilarious suggestions! Sorry for the poor pics, I forgot to put the card in my camera, so these are from my iphone.

Martha-esque gocco demo

The 'cvogettes'

Krystal's pin cushion, Susie's lovely Cath Kidston bag

The shop is open!

We opened the shop for the first time today, yay! It has been such hard work to get it ready but I am very pleased with the result. A few friends and new customers popped in throughout the day. Kate was the very first through the door and she bought some books and a brooch after dropping off a batch of cute baby knickers made from vintage fabrics.

I'll post more pics of the shop and info on our location and opening times in a day or two. In the meantime here are a few little close-up pics! x

Home Feature

Here is the feature on our home in this month's Australian Country Style, if you can't get hold of a copy. It's a lovely magazine, similar to Country Living in the UK, and I was really thrilled when they asked to do a feature on us.

Having said that, I hesitated for ages because I didn't feel that our house is anything special, and I didn't want to appear a 'show pony', I'm pretty shy believe it or not!

But friends persuaded me that it would be a nice thing to have for our kids to look at in the future, and also that it would be good promotion for Lark and our new shop, so I decided to to it. I needn't have worried really, as it was a great experience. Lisa and Leesa (the photographer and stylist) were so lovely and amazing, they spent the whole day at our place and didn't go home until it was dark, loaded with cake and Lark goodies. It was a lot of fun. Two weeks later I did the interview with Victoria Imhoff, who lives near Daylesford and is really passionate about our region, it was really interesting chatting to her.

So I'm pleased with how the article came out, especially the photos (believe me, our house is not ever this tidy or clean!!). Let me know what you think!

Toasting Marshmallows

I love this time of year when we can still safely light bonfires. It's school holidays and the local kids get to hang out together and run a bit wild!