moving sale

aprilmay
107 scotchmer st north fitzroy
9489 3004
25&26 july, 1&2 aug
10 - 6

ex shop stock, fabric, haby, racks, chandelier, shop curtains, desk, sewing machines, cash drawer, trestle table & plenty of retro finds

cash/eftpos

Just a few things that I'm working on

Again, thankyou everyone for your kind words. Aprilmay has indeed finally closed and is taking a break. But coming soon... a new range at aprilmay.com.au...we'll keep you posted!

Shop closing 11th Jan

Sadly, the time has come for us to close. And so with lots of stock, fabric and furniture on sale we'll be open until sunday the 11th of jan (10-5 each day, 2-5 wed). A big thankyou to all of our very loyal customers and locals for supporting us over the years (and perservering with our various opening hours and incarnations!) and of course, our wonderful stockists. Oh and yes, we will continue to trade online:)
many thanks
sam

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!