This blog really should be all about the fact that our closing date is fast approaching, and it is, but the problem is I'm loathe to actually set a date, it's all too final for me. So in the meantime let's just say that we'll be closing sometime in january. We're currently open everyday til christmas and will continue trading for the 26 - 30 Dec. We'll be closed on new year's eve and new year's day and reopen on the 2nd until, well until I tire of the whole thing I guess??

With only 6 weeks to go til we close, we've decided to have our SALE early and so as of tomorrow there will be plenty of stock on sale from %10- %70 off!

Peta Pledger at the Convent

For those of you who don't know, my partner is an Air Traffic Controller (ask him about the cloud height next time you see him) and we're originally from Qld so we both tend to obsess about the weather but I think we'd both agree that next week's forecast of 26 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is just perfect! Obviously for him, it's perfect flying conditions, and for me, it's the perfect weather for a Peta Pledger frock...

Thankyou thankyou

Well I've been absolutely inundated with emails re our shop dilemma. And I thought I was the only one who kept their eye out for good little spaces! Thankyou everyone - I'm going to be very busy this week! I was especially excited by the prospect of moving into the old Darrell Lea space in Elizabeth St. Unfortunately the lease is a little expensive but I think I'll have to have a look, at least for curiosity sake!

I've also had lots of feedback regarding our new website which is also wonderful. Of course, it's still a work in progress which is why there isn't yet an explanation as to why the Steiner Doll (pictured) is faceless. I'll leave that up to Sooz to explain!

The good news or the bad news first?

So do you prefer the good news or the bad news first? I prefer to brace myself for the bad news first so if you’re like me, don’t check out www.aprilmay.com.au just yet, read on...

Aprilmay will be closing permanently on the 24th of December. We’ve been unable to renew our lease and so whilst we are looking for new premises, we’ll be trading every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (10-5) until Christmas. Which brings me to the fact that I completely forgot our Giveaway Day on the 1st so tomorrow we’ll be sending out Mistress of the Upper Fifth button brooches to anyone with the address of any great little shops for lease in the Melbourne inner city area.

The good news is that www.aprilmay.com.au is finally up and running (and is where you can find this wonderfully versatile Yolk dress) with plenty of new stock to be added over the next couple of weeks!

Peta Pledger Hawaiian Skirt

After Peta Pledger delivered her beautiful summer range of fifties dresses and skirts last week I couldn't help but try on this Hawaiian bark cloth skirt. Admittadly I pulled it on over my jeans and boots but even then it looked great so I figured it would be the perfect excuse to race out and buy a new pair of raffia thongs!

4 owls

Choices choices.... we've finally made up the last of our owl bags and we have 5 of each of the Grey Screech Owl, Red Screech Owl, Barred Owl and Saw Whet Owl remaining. The bags are reversible and with detachable handles are also machine washable!

Father's Day

Thankyou to everyone who left a lovely gift suggestion for Father's Day. I'll be popping a Lauren Williams brooche in the mail to each of you so don't forget to email your address to sam@aprilmay.com.au. I thought the seeds (Annie), personalised beer (Iris), vintage car mags (Katie) and of course, "going out" shirt (Jenaveve) were all fantastic ideas. My step father's an engineer so I was also particularly taken with the notion of a book entitled "To Engineer Is Human" (Amy) although I'm not sure that my mother would agree!

On a completely, unrelated-to-Father's Day note, I've had alot of Owl Bag requests recently and so after a quick head count have discovered that I only have 20 owls left! The bags are being made up this week and will be ready on Friday so let me know if you'd like one put aside. Today's image is of the Grey Screech Owl - I'll be posting the other owl images later this week.

Giveaway Day

Help...Father's Day's only a week away! Life's been a little hectic at Aprilmay lately - to the point where I missed a certain someone's birthday recently - so I'll be sending out 6 Lauren Williams brooches to the most interesting (and mail friendly) Father's Day gift suggestions.

New A Name is a Label Stock

Just in case you haven't already heard the ultra-talented A Name is a Label girls will be setting up shop at Bird Girl in Brunswick from early September. They've been so busy designing clothes for their new store so I feel particularly blessed that they still managed to whip up a few new stock for Aprilmay! The tops pictured are wraps and so fit a range of sizes.

Aprilmay now open Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Finally...we've decided to reopen Aprilmay every Friday, Saturday & Sunday from 10 -5pm. We'll still be operating on a month to month basis (re: our shop lease) hence the not quite, full-time hours but figure this is the best compromise for now!

Giveaway Day

Some of my thoughts today -

A "parliament of owls".
gracia and louise.
So many talented people!
What would be a good collective noun for all the talented makers/designers in north fitzroy?
Oh yes, that's today's giveaway question!
What am I sending out?
A nicola cerini limited edition tea towel to the most creative answer!
This could be a good starting point?

Fridge Magnets

Thanks Melita and Philippa for your great ideas! I'm now tempted to keep them for myself but will be sending off a Blink tea towel to Karine from Made by Maude for her fridge magnet suggestion (and as a belated house-warming present). The blocks themselves are just a bit too heavy to send to KL so I'll be donating those to Lauren whose son is going to feed them into their VCR!

Thanks also to everyone who dropped by during our recent Open Weekend. Aprilmay will be open next on the 4th, 5th & 6th of July.

Giveaway Day

My apologies, I am a day or two behind yet again and so today is a belated Giveaway Day. I'm looking for a creative home for these coloured wooden disks. They were part of a children's toy that I bought en masse from Ikea when I was desparately looking for a jewellery spike for my Hosier Bangles to send to Design A Space. I'd scoured the shop fitting outlets only to find that most of them were ugly, acrylic, hand-shaped devices and so was very happy when I found these and didn't have to resort to using toilet roll holders. So, does anyone have any useful or even simply decorative ideas for these remnants? I'll be sending out a Blink teatowel to the most creative suggestion but I can't promise to send the pieces - you'll have to drop by the shop sometime to collect!

Fitted For Work

No, we haven't started selling Diana Ferrari! This is one of my own "interview tops" from an earlier decade that I'll be donating to Fitted for Work. The organisation helps long term unemployed and disadvantaged women return to work by offering them interview and resume advice along with an outfit to wear all with the aim of improving their self confidence and independence.

I have to admit that I hadn't heard of this organisation until a lovely regular customer mentioned them yesterday - thanks Gabby. I probably should also add that Gabby came in to let me know that she was having trouble leaving a comment on this blog. And since Sunday is giveaway day I need to let everyone know that you don't need to register with google, you can leave an Anonymous comment or click on Name/URL and just fill in your name (doesn't have to be your real name) and you don't need to put a URL here. This way you can protect your privacy and if you'd like me to contact you, you can always email me at sam@aprilmay.com.au. I hope that this makes sense. I'll be posting the giveaway question on Sunday (1st June) so do try to leave a comment!

Esme and the Laneway

Today I was going to try to write something whimsical about the wind and the autumn leaves in Scotchmer St. That is I was until I read Esme and the Laneway and then remembered that it's always better to do what you're good at and leave (in this case, whimsical) to others. This blog is beautiful!

Today's image is actually a repeat from 2 blogs ago. It's destined for our website. Yes, the website really is happening, any day now, I promise!

OPEN May

The sign on the shop window this month reads..."We thought we'd confuse everyone further by opening for the month of May". That means we'll be open our original (way back in the beginning) hours of Wed, Thurs, Friday 10-6 and Sat+Sunday 10-4. We'll be closed for the day on the 28th of May but that's a whole other story!

Thankyou to Betty Jo, Klar and Brydie for your eighties suggestions. I have to confess that all of my teenage years were consumed by the eighties so I have a mix of bitter sweet memories and your replies sent me to some pretty scary places. Will let you know when I christen the bangles but until then I'll be sending out a pair of Posie Hose Anklets to each of you. So... just let me know (sam@aprilmay.com.au) if you'd like a pink, blue or white pair (a la eighties Madonna) and I shall pop them in the post.

Giveaway Day

This is a sample of the new palette of colours in our Hosier Bangle range. Our earlier colours were food inspired (Rich Dessert and Sorbet) but we're not sure what to call these so we'll be sending out a pair of Posie Hose anklets to the first 3 people to send in their suggestions (preferably something to do with the 'eighties').

Remember these?

My first year of school at Warrnambool East Primary School was spent at in one of these 'demountables'. It smelt of woollen jumpers, clag and hot apple pies. So maybe I was just being sentimental when I decided that I wanted one of these as a studio. You can imagine my delight when I discovered that they're for sale! There's a sea of them sitting just off the Calder freeway near Kyneton and they're approximately $4000 plus removal costs. I'm seriously considering heading up there next week to snaffle one for myself.

Wardrobe Diary can be Addictive

Last weekend I started to cull the piles of clothes threatening to take over my bedroom. I'd even put some into bags to send to the charity shop but they hadn't quite made it into the car yet. And then, along came Night Owl with her refashioned jodhpurs and now I'm convinced that I really shouldn't be throwing anything out! She's refashioned what was, I'm assuming, was a fairly dated pair of thrifted pants into a very desirable outfit. Check out the rest of her very french inspired (my interpretation) wardrobe on flickr's wardrobe diary.

Markets at Abbotsford

It's supposed to be a perfect 24 degree sunny Autumn day again tomorrow in Melbourne - perfect for a bike ride down to the Skirt and Shirt Market at the Abbotsford Convent. Peta Pledger will be there with her fifties inspired pieces. As will Gaye Abandon (purses pictured).

 

The shoes here are by Boogiboy who'll be at our next open studio weekend (2,3,4 May).

The third season

After a very restful weekend in Daylesford I was inspired to dig out my autumn fabrics. These will be reinvented as purses hopefully in time for our mothers' day sale.
A big thankyou to Cecile and David at Mount Stuart House for their hospitality and for the sensational breakfast!

Contour line earrings

These textural pieces are earrings by artist Brydie Dyson. Brydie will be delivering some to us for our next Open Studio (2,3,4 May). In the meantime, checkout her beautiful blog - and those she's linked to - they're ALL so enchanting!

I'm a day or two behind

As you can see by the date on this post I'm a day behind, well actually my computer is a day behind. For the past couple of years we've been turning the computer off at the switch most nights and generally it's not a problem but recently it's decided it doesn't like being switched off and so some days I have to reset the date and time. Occasionally I get it wrong or am in too much of a rush to start work to bother checking that I've got the correct date. Anyway I've decided that I'm happy to be a day behind this week - I may be slightly deluded but I feel more relaxed knowing that I have a day up my sleeve!

And so whilst I still have a mountain of people and places that I want to write about this week, today I just want to thank everyone who came along to our Open Studio on the weekend and especially those who mentioned this blog. The feedback was fantastic. THANKYOU.

Suede Doesn't Receive a Purse

Thankyou to the 4 lovely girls who responded with suggestions for my gift dilemma. I'm not sure if it's obvious but Suede is actually said partner masquerading as our dog. Quite clearly he just wants a bike (I won't embarrass him here by telling everyone how many bikes he already has) and I would like to buy him something special that he can wear. 

I know that Suede already has more than her fair share of purses and so I'll be sending out 3 Blink purses to curlypops, gretchenmist and night.owl. More about night.owl tomorrow when I work out how to link to her flickr group.

Chest heir?

This beautiful pendant arrived in the mail this week from Ambiguous Horse. It wasn't supposed to be for me. I'd bought it for my partner as a replacement for one of his last Christmas presents but now I seem to have 2 pendants and he doesn't have any. The Christmas present I'd bought from Pussy Cat Black, was a silver plane necklace and I thought it was the perfect gift but when he put it on, it sat proud of his chest hair and just wasn't quite right! Of course, it was perfect on me. The second one, pictured, was by Little People and again I thought it was perfect, only to discover that it was larger than I'd expected and was quite clearly, a female accessory. 

Obviously I need some help with this one. Any suggestions?? The first 3 people to email me with a substitute gift suggestion (that I won't end up wearing myself) will receive a Blink purse.

Oh, and Aprilmay's open this weekend 10-4 so if you do leave a comment and happen to drop into the shop this weekend, don't forget to introduce yourself. It's great to be able to put a face to a name!

Open this Weekend

All in a Month's Work

107 Scotchmer St

North Fitzroy 

9489 3004

 

Friday 4th April from 3-8pm

Saturday+Sunday 10-4pm

A Name is a Label
Boogiboy
Bel Kemp

Made by Maude
Louisa Willisia
Barbarella
Mistress of the Upper Fifth
Red Suede Kitten
Mucke
Cherry Stew
Gaye Abandon + Melanie Hill
Betty Jo
Sneak Designs
Meringue

PS I had said that I was going to be giving away goodies on the first of each month but since this month it was April Fool's Day, I thought I'd leave it til the 4th. No really, I just forgot. So tomorrow it is - stay tuned for our question. The first 3 people to answer will receive an aprilmay treat in the mail!

The Aprilmay studio will be opening this coming friday, saturday and sunday and will feature works by talented designers/craftspeople such as Made by Maude whose goodies arrived in the mail this morning. Such an inspiration - her blog reads that she "likes to make something every day"! I'd like to think that at least I make my bed every day but I know that someone will contradict me?? 

Too Many Addresses

Curlypops tagged me yesterday and whilst I'm not exactly sure I know what I'm doing, I thought I'd give it a whirl. 

Six things about myself/those I live with

• I'm 38 and have lived in 38 houses (ie anywhere we've lived for more than 3months)
  
• My son is 17 and he's lived in 17 houses arriving at #19
  
• Our dog is 10 and she's lived in 10 houses arriving as a puppy at house #28
  
• Our cat, Frankie, also arrived at #28 but as a mature stray
  
• It's a good thing we live opposite a vets
  
• Oh and I always manage to leave the house inappropriately dressed for the weather - a hangover from being a queeenslander!

And I love anything by A Name is a Label who delivered their goodies for next weekend's open studio event and who are building their installation at Monkhouse as I type.

Too many dressing gowns?

I have to admit that I have a box in my studio labeled "dressing gowns" and yes, it's stuffed full of those 70's static-inducing fabrics in florals that I just love. Whenever I have a clean out I find it hard to justify to why I keep them, ie until now.

Today I started work on this one so it should be ready for our open studio next weekend (4,5,6 April), ie unless I decide to keep it for myself in which case it will probably end up back inside a box!

PS Has anyone been to Pene Durston's new shop on Gertrude St yet?

Thanks to everyone for emailing. Of course, I forgot about the short week this week and so shall be popping those giveaways into the post on Tuesday. Wishing everyone a happy, happy Easter. 

sam x

Giveaways are on their way

Thankyou to everyone who commented yesterday. I was so inspired to read about lovely people buying handmade/locally made gifts. Initially I was going to reply as a comment but then thought that your responses were so sincere that they were definately worth publishing here:

Sarah, I'd love to see a picture of the pinny that you bought from Douglas & Hope and I was little worried when I read that you'd bought a flinch pin. My mind immediately conjured up some sort of archaic torture device. ok, I was a bit tired when I read this and so I was then relieved to discover that you'd actually written, Betty Jo finch pin. The perfect gift! >Cathy, well done on your beautiful, local purchases. Your comments sent me on a wonderful meandering journey through blogland. I rediscovered the Rose St Market blog and of course read about your art swap which I'm keen to read more about soon. I still haven't added my favourite books to my profile but Shantaram and Moduc are definately on my list!> Venta what could be more perfect than a handmade gift for the Mirabel Foundation from the masters of craft, Meet me at Mikes.> And kvb, is Arthur's Circus that fun-looking shop on Nicholson St next to the ANZ? I'll be sure to use your quote from now on ("buying gifts for others salves my need for retail therapy").> So what could be more soothing than buying your sister a Nancy Bird Clutch (klar). Now I wish I had a sister!>Thanks for your comments Anna. Do let me know the name of the jewellery store when you find out.>Sophie I really enjoyed reading your comments and your beautiful blog. My list of places/people to check out is now a mile long.>And finally to my anonymous respondant, I'm continually amazed by people at home with children who continue to create (beyond muffins for afternoon tea). Well done.

To everyone mentioned above, thankyou and I'll be sending out your bangle samples this week. You can either email me at sam@aprilmay.com.au with your address or if you're happy to wait, you can collect them from the studio when we open next week on Friday the 4th of April. Either way, please be sure to wear them when you're at Aprilmay next so that I can put some faces to your blogs.

Today I'll be sending out a Hosiery Bangle sample to the first 10 people to comment on their most recent gift purchase, ie, what was it, where did you buy it and was it made in Melbourne?I'm sure there's lots of beautiful shops around that I don't know about so I think it will be a good excuse for me to check them out.

AND our open studio event "All in a Month's Work" showcasing local designers will be on again in a fortnight. We'll be opening the doors at 107 Scotchmer St North Fitzroy (next to Dench Bakery) from 3-8pm on Friday the 4th of April and again on Saturday and Sunday from 10-4. I'll be adding a list of the designers participating over the next couple of days.

I've just sent a parcel of these bangles off  to Betty Mim. Jodie from Meringue introduced me to this beautiful shop in Newcastle. The shop's website is being updated at the moment but I'll definitely add a link to it when it's up and running.

The bangles pictured are constructed from remnant tights using clean waste material from local manufacturers. Sold in sets of 4, they are soft, stretchy, easy to wear and light on the environment. But enough of the sales speak, I've included a picture of them today because tomorrow I'll be giving away samples! 

Palm Sunday Peace Rally

To Do List

1. email birdy image to Betty Jo
   
2. email Design a Space re: stocking Hosier Bangles
   
3. new wallet for mum from Gaye Abandon
   
4. check Mucke stockists
   
5. new bag from Nicola Cerini's new winter range
   
6. order gift from Ambiguous Horse
   
7. dates for A Name is a Label exhibit at Monkhouse??
   
8. or maybe a new bag (the Easter Parade Purse?) from Meringue
   

What was once a shop

After closing Aprilmay at the end of January I thought I would quickly change the sign on the door to our new web address (aprilmay.com.au) and then the wholesale business would just fall into place. That's not what happened. Once I started to sort all of my fabric, haberdashery, patterns, special op shop finds and my many, not-quite-finished projects I was immediately side-tracked. That's when I realised that maybe I should share some of these treasures and start a blog.

I really think I'm going to enjoy this - I hope you do too.