Italian eye candy….

 

We’re really lucky in Melbourne.  It’s a real melting pot of cultures here.  As a result, we are spoiled for choice, especially when it comes to cuisine.  And if you know the areas to shop in, there are some amazing grocery stores with incredible imported products that are so unique.

You might not know this from my name, but my family’s background is Italian and Slovenian {mostly, but that’s a whole other post!}. 

So the piece of me that’s Italian, got all giddy with excitement today, visiting Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick.  Unbelievably, it was only my second time there.  I’ve been meaning to go, like, forever!

The products are great. The cheeses are great.  The alcohol section is great.  The coffee is DIRT CHEAP but good. The breads are fresh.  The bottled porcini are awesome.

I found some great things today, new fun things to try.  Many of which, I bought purely based on their packaging design, and the way the product looked.  From my taste tests so far, the products are as good as they look!

Like this box of Amaretti biscuits.  O. M. G.  If the retro box design wasn’t enough, if the individual pastel beautiful old design wrapping wasn’t enough…. the taste sure was!

Got this lovely tin of biscotti to keep in the gift shelf for last minute emergency gifts…..

I love Limoncello.  I love it even more when it comes in a BOOT bottle!

I make good risotto – actual proper risotto.  But thought I’d test out this cheat option. I figure it has to be half decent, right?

My new favourite beauty product line.  And today I discovered a 3 litre bottle of laundry detergent. The smell is so clean and fresh. Also bought extras for the gift shelf.  If you receive this from me, you will know I love ya, because I want to keep it for me!!

Adorable little cafetiera that makes a short black for one! Got one for me, one for the gift shelf, lol!

The highlight of my finds was the HUGE pasta selection. I mean HUGE.  Spent a small fortune on so many different kinds, but just LOOK at them! They are adorable! And make me smile. Wait until the last photo….

Yep, that’s REAL pasta.  Coloured naturally with things like spinach, tomato, beetroot….  I bought it mostly to photograph it. Even if it tastes horrible, it looks nice

Leroy can’t wait to try this one out.  I think he just wants to play with the coloured farfalle {butterflies} !!

Bye for now,

Natasha xo

earrings…market…how make a jewellery display board…

 

This Sunday 22nd May, I’m going to be taking part in my first North Melbourne Market!

I’ll be taking my regular items like paintings, prints, bookmarks, cards etc.  But I’ve also been working on lots of earrings, because I was in an earring mood!

The hoop ones at the top are really fun.  And the vintage lace ones are hand painted, sealed and hold their shape.  I worked out some new techniques to make these, and they turned out nicely.

The sparkly daisies are sweeties – with genuine Swarovski crystal centres.

I made the display board for them to hang from yesterday ~ it was surprisingly much easier than I thought it would be to make, and I think it looks really neat and effective.

To make one yourself, here’s some instructions.  {Sorry I didn’t take photos at the time!}

• Choose a picture frame ~ empty frames are great, you won’t need the backing
• Cut foam core board to fit the frame
• Cut and stick anagyptic paper to the foam core board {or use fabric, printed wallpaper, scrap book paper}
• Place it into the frame.  If you have a staple gun, staple it in at the back.  If you don’t, as long as you aren’t hanging jewellery that is heavy, you’ll be able to stick the foam core board into the frame with strong wide tape. Cloth tape would work well, or duct tape
• Use cute pins to hold your jewellery in place
• You can hang it on a wall if you have a back hanging string, or if you’re using it on a table, as I will be at the market, place it inside an easel/book holder/plate stand

Hope to see you this Sunday!

North Melbourne Market @ The Lithuanian Club – 44 Errol Street, North Melbourne.  10am-3pm. $2 entry

 

Natasha xo

Autumn

This year, we didn’t get to the Lavender Farm outside of Daylesford for Mother’s Day as we usually do.  We visited Daylesford and Kyneton the day before, with my hubby and dad too.

The plan was, after visiting a meat wholesaler, we would search for chestnuts on the side of the road in Daylesford, fill our empty bottles with natural mineral water from the springs, find some more red poisonous fairytale mushrooms…. and I also had the romantic notion of finding wild mushrooms that we could cook and eat!

Well, we got the meat, found about 7 chestnuts between the 5 of us, a few poisonous red mushrooms, left the empty water bottles back at home, and didn’t remember what kind of mushrooms were the safe ones to eat!

But it was a beautiful cold pre-Mother’s Day checking out the Autumn leaves and enjoying the beautiful homes in the area.

Here are some pictures from our fun family day out :-)

I hope all the mothers out there are having a beautiful Mother’s Day. 

Enjoy a piece of cake for me :)

Natasha xo

painting painting….

Over the Easters school holidays I got busy creating again!

I painted and painted, then I tried something a little different too, which you’ll see when you scroll down a little…

I figured I’d try out using my old beautiful wallpapers in collage/scrap form as backgrounds for my paintings.  I layered them, and painted swirly designs over them, before painting on them.

It was a fun twist to my usual paintings ~ sticking with my gowns but changing them up a little by this extra step, while using some gorgeous papers too.

 

My favourite gown painting so far ~ the inspiration for this one was “Design the wedding dress I’d want to wear if my wedding was now”

I’m going to add these to my Etsy shop tomorrow.  I’m going to aim for a shop update time of 1pm Australian Eastern Standard time….which is 11pm US Eastern time, 7pm Pacific time…and so on.

Hope you like them!

Natasha xo