Grandma Chuckles has truly outdone herself. She has decided to make all those wonderful things normally reserved for the special little Charlie girl available to the general public. When we moved into our new house with our lovely sparkly polished boards, the poor little Chuckles was banging her giant head all the time as she rolled and crawled around the lounge room. Grandma Chuckles made a beautiful quilt/playmat that cushioned the blow and provided a warmer place for her to play. Even now that Charlie is 20 months old she still protests when the mat needs to go in the ...
Archives for “Northcote”
From Practicing hybrid/interdisciplinary artist seeks studio space with other inspired creatives. 24hr access, lock up & parking required. Fitzroy, Collingwood, City, North & North East suburbs. Flexible warehouse space preferred. Communal rehearsal/jam/gallery space a distinct advantage. Price negotiable, including professional skills trade. Please contact if you have something up for grabs!
Well, I thought I would make it official. I am expecting another little bundle of joy, hopefully not too little though! I have big plans to keep this one safely inside till at least 36 weeks. We are due on July 29 and can’t wait to make Charlie Chuckles the best little big sister in town. Stay tuned, I will shortly be posting pics of our new stock. Markets coming soon; Midsumma Rainbow Market at Northcote Town Hall, Jan 30 and Sisters Market, Brunswick Town Hall, Feb 6. See you there!
Lisa Dempster has written an excellent article on I eat I drink I work exploring the intricacies of the coffee surcharge, from decaf to mocha to - the main interest of this writer - soy milk. I have always hated but accepted with grumpy surliness the soy surcharge imposed by almost every coffee shop, but Lisa's interviews with various coffee vendors has shown that soy really does cost extra, and despite the call that the extra cost should be averaged out over all beverages, the imperative of the business owner to, you know, make a proft from their business makes ...
After a crazy Christmas market season and a self-enforced hiatus from monkey making I am getting ready for the new year. Back to making a monkey a day from now and after filling a few orders we’ll be getting ready for a new season of markets. Our first one is the Midsumma Festival at Northcote Town Hall, January 30 and the following Saturday, Feb 6, at the Sisters Market, Brunswick Town Hall. Micro monkeys were a big hit and will definitely be staying on stock list. Thanks everyone for your support in our first year of business and we ...
My husband and I are both artists (graphic designer/illustrator) and are seeking a secure creative space that would suit living as well as working from as we’re trying to keep overheads low. We’re neat, mature and friendly, and hoping to find a place to move into in December that would accommodate us as freelance artists. Parking is ideal, but we’re happy to have street parking if available. Prefer space that includes internet connection. Please contact us if you have anything available.
We are looking to lease a commercial property with attached residence in any of the following areas: Fitzroy Fitzroy North Carlton North Brunswick Coburg Northcote Collingwood Abbotsford Richmond Kensington East Melbourne Parkville North Melbourne Ideally we would like a shop frontage (retail) with 2 bedroom residence attached. The space is for a fashion business. On-street parking is ok. Our budget is $30,000 pa + outgoings and GST. Gem & Maryanne 0409 423 959 0431 536 806
In recent months I’ve written critiques of a series of different websites, including traders’ associations, local guides and more local guides. This post will examine and compare the 8 local government sites (listed below) that cover approximately the same geography as the 10 local news sites I publish for inner city Melbourne. Councils deliver many essential services to ratepayers and local residents, such as building roads and operating libraries, but they don’t identify the delivery of news and information as an essential community service or devote adequate attention to it. Their sites are usually poorly designed and irregularly updated and are ...
Thanks to all of you who came by to doo some early chrissy shopping at the Teeny Tiny Sisters Market yesterday. It was a great day, and I think my decision to only go through the rest of the market twice means I may have even retained some of my profits! Scored some great clothes for chuckles from our neighbour, Knuffle Kid. So lovely, she’ll be the funkiest kid on the block with her new rags. Grnadma Chuckles received an overwhelmingly good response to her new clothing range and we promise to have more sizes and patterns ready for the ...
I have been playing around with numbers and it seems I need to make sure at least one monkey (or other sock toy) goes in the monkey barrel each day. With so many markets in November and December I don’t want to run out of stock. So whilst there are no new monkeys shown on the blog, please be assured that there a many a monkey being made!!! If you are after something in particular email us on chucklesdesigns@gmail.com, otherwise we’ll see you at our next markets. Teeny Tiny Sisters Market, Brunswick Town Hall, Sat, Nov 7. Kris Kringle Night ...
Just a reminder to mark the next Sisters’ Market in your diaries for November 7. It’s an extra special, teeny-tiny sisters market to allow you yet another opportunity to spoil your little people silly! I am happy to say that I have finally made some more Socktopi for those of you asking about them – including a sparkly orange one which happens to be my new all-time favourite! Grandma Chuckles is playing around with some beautiful wrap-around reversible tops for beautiful little girls. I’m pulling first grandchild rights for Charlie and demanding the first one, but we hope to have ...
I have been publishing 10 local news sites for inner city Melbourne for several months now. The local news sites aggregate posts from over 300 contributing sites, collectively syndicate over 5000 posts and new posts are being added nearly every day. To help explain how the syndication strategy works I have prepared this diagram. It illustrates the flow of content out of a contributing site to the local news sites and the links that flow back to the contributing site. Blogs that would benefit from adding suburb data Below are examples of Melbourne blogs that contain content with strong location relevance, yet ...
Extraordinary moments. For the Melbourne hall of fame 2009, i would nominate the Flying Scribble percussion artist gray taylor for her one-armed drumming set at the Wesley Anne, sunday 28th June. Not only did she valiantly play with her left arm out of action, she played one song blindfolded. Go gray! You are a star and a legend. We love you. Oh and Louise was good too. You both rock. PS Ooh look here’s Lou and gray again playing at Anytime Place in July, filmed by the Qua on his mobile phone. Video is lame.. get closer man, but it sounds good. This was a ...
Prior to the publication of the Business on Smith St (BOSS) traders’ association website in May 2009 I wrote a critique of the inexplicable delays in its release and the waste of ratepayers’ money in funding it. Since then I’ve decided to write a series of posts about locally oriented and community focused websites in Melbourne. I’m analysing their marketing and their effectiveness in building connections between people in local communities. This post will focus on the websites of Melbourne traders associations. This post is the fifth in a series about the development of community based and locally oriented social media ...
Ah, such is the lot of a soy drinker. Used to being slugged a surcharge for our soy drinking at every turn, this earns grizzles and grumbles but we usually succumb to our caffeine cravings and ask for an extra-large cup anyway. It is my understanding that a coffee loyalty card entitles the bearer to one free coffee after a certain number are purchased. Some restrictions may apply, if published on said card, but in general the coffee purveyor accepts that in exchange for the repeat business of their customers, a small loss may be incurred ...
Those of us that live in the culturally rich and diverse inner northern suburbs of Melbourne are spoiled for choice with retro and vintage clothing, independent music shops, vegetarian and vegan cafes, quirky art galleries and live music venues. A number of businesses publish guides to draw attention to the latest, the best and the most interesting places to eat, drink, dress, party and play. In this post I will be reviewing the reviewers. It’s not my aim to criticise these sites but to investigate their missions and business models, and to hypothesise about their viability. The four sites reviewed below ...
Inskip Art Studios have opened a new warehouse complex with 14 spaces adjoining the original warehouse. Both warehouses have saw tooth ceilings and old factory beams. Excellent natural light and condition. Studios range from $35 per week (9m2) to $85 per week (19m2) Individually petitioned 24 hour access/ secure environment Communal area with facilities Close to public transport Council approved site Roller door Sinks Suit artists, fine art painters, print makers, everything but heavy sculpture
In my ongoing project of building local news sites for inner city suburbs, I’ve contacted over 150 Melbourne bloggers and amateur content creators who publish blogs or dynamic sites with content management systems that provide RSS or Atom content feeds. As individuals, these citizen journalists focus on their chosen topics or niches. Together, their output provides the most diverse and prolific discussion of life, art and business in the areas represented by the local news sites. The location based content published by commercial print media is trivial in comparison. The most popular topic by far is food: eating out at restaurants ...
i have to say, it’s quite an adventure moving across to the other side of the Merri Creek. Time seems to move more slowly now because there’s so much newness to absorb. “Sparkly Square” is a much more fun than Northcote Plaza; Walking distance to miles and miles of parkland – but i’m walking, not jogging yet; Hundreds of new restaurants within minutes of home .. many more cheap variety stores, with all manner of precious junk (which i am not thinking about buying, at all! Too much junk in my life already, which i still haven’t cleared out.) Sydney road has a different character ...
In the past two weeks I’ve been the victim of two attempts of corporate extortion and been infuriated by reading about a third example. I had a motorcycle accident two weeks ago where a driver turned right across traffic when signs prohibited it and hit me. My damaged bike was towed from the scene of the accident and stored by Garden State towing at their premises in Abbotsford. I arranged with a bike mover to collect my bike from there and move it to the bike repair shop, and Garden State acknowledged and agreed to the date set for it to ...
