It's a wrap

Sorry for the terrible pun but I couldn't resist as this will probably be my last post for the year! I'm not sure whether I'll be able to post while I'm away so it might be a little quiet here over the next couple of weeks. Mr Sparrow will also be closed (including the online store) from Christmas Day until January 10th (any orders placed online during that time will be processed when the store re-opens on the 10th). My stomach is starting to do some serious calisthenics, which I think is a mixture of excitement and panic as I think of all the things I have to get done in the next 20 odd hours!

But before I say my farewells, I wanted to share this year's Christmas wrapping with you. I decided to make teatowels for my family and Eko and Rick this year, which I then used to wrap the presents. To make the teatowels, I bought some fun fabric, washed it (cause there's nothing worse than a new teatowel that doesn't dry!) and cut it to size. Then I screenprinted the first letter of each person's name onto their teatowel, and hemmed the edges.

I used some of the leftover fabric to make the cards, which were just circles of fabric stitched onto card, with a line of stitching so it looked like a bauble hanging on a thread (well, that was the idea). I used my new (well, old, but new for me!) typewriter to type the name on the front. Then I wrapped it all up with one of the snowflakes.

Eko got seriously crafty with her wrapping this year, too - check out the pom poms on these presents! She made each one by hand...plus she made me an awesome fluro pom pom necklace, which I will be busting out in New York, and she promises to make more for Mr Sparrow...so look out for those next year! I love her colour theme, too.

Well, the clock is ticking so I better say my goodbyes! I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing, happy Christmas with the people you love and that 2011 starts for you with a big, beautiful bang!

Countdown

Wowza, I've just realised there are only four sleeps till Christmas and only two until we leave for New York! Somehow, despite complete madness at the shop and general mayhem all round, I am feeling more or less on schedule. Yesterday I had a day of Getting Stuff Done and manage to tick a whole plethora of things off my list, which felt great (mostly exciting things like cleaning the oven and reorganising the kitchen cupboards because we're leaving our little house and our Toshi in the hands of a friend-of-a-friend while we're away). The next two nights will be filled with Christmas cheer as tonight is our annual Christmas barbeque with Eko and Rick, and tomorrow night we are having a pseudo-Christmas dinner (pizza and pavlova - yum!) with James's family, as a chance to catch up before we leave.

I was going to put together a wishlist of things I'm hoping for this Christmas, but when I started thinking about it I realised there are really only a couple of things I'd like this year. Because of the New York trip my family (and James and I) aren't really doing presents, anyway (although of course I've got everyone a couple of little things - I couldn't help myself!), but mostly the things I'd like are non-material things. I'd love some snow in New York on Christmas Day, but at the same time I'd love to not get stranded at Frankfurt airport for Christmas! But most of all what I'd like is for a really happy Christmas for the people I love. This year, and in particular the last few months, has been really tough for me and also for a lot of the people I care most about in the world, so what would be really nice is for 2011 to bring some great things our way. And one friend is going through something really, really tough at the moment, so for her most of all I'd like some happiness and some hope for better times in the year ahead - I just know they are going to be there!

I know this all sounds very corny but it's honestly how I feel. I'm the first to admit I'm a pretty materialistic person (being in this business, could I possibly not be? :)) but the events of this year have shaken me up a fair bit and I guess helped me to put into perspective the things that really matter...so those are my Christmas wishes.

Tomorrow will probably be my last chance to post before we leave, so I'll show you my Christmas wrapping then, plus share some of our plans for New York. I'm getting pretty excited now!


*Photo by Jenna Park

Looks like: Cookieboy

Love these crazy cookies by Japanese 'cookie artist' cookieboy! Yum!

Happy Friday!...and back in stock

This week our friendly little deer is watching over a snippet of the few remaining foxgloves in our back garden.

I just wanted to let you know as well that a few popular products are now back in stock: the Pull+Push incense burner and the bone china stars and mini bird feeder from Have You Met Miss Jones.

There are also a few new items from Miss Jones, like these fun sunburst and square buttons (with a little hole on the back to hang on a wall)...

...and this cute woodland deer, just in time for Christmas!

Isn't he sweet? Now there's a cuteness battle on between the kitsch deer and this little guy!

I hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy getting your Christmas on :)

Christmas traditions

I've been getting into the spirit of things this week and busting out some of my favourite Christmas traditions. Last weekend Eko and I made pfeffernüsse (or lebkuchen), traditional German Christmas gingerbread-style biscuits. I have to confess, I've eaten all of my share already, they're so delicious! They are traditionally round but we had to make use of my new cloud cookie cutter. I've also bought a little pointsettia for the table...and made this year's Christmas crackers for the family (yep, they'll be coming to New York with us!). So you can see one place my snowflakes went, and I'm also using them in my wrapping, which I'll show you next week...

And in related news...the Habitat story on what Christmas means to me and three other Perth shop owners is in today's paper. They managed to find a photo of me where I didn't too hideously awkward so it's a winner in my book!

Popping up here and there

Peonies are only available for about a month every year so I pounce on them as soon as they appear. They are the kind of beautiful that leaves me breathless. I have two bunches at the moment - these beautiful white ones at home and the pretty pink ones at the shop.

I have a couple of bits of news to share as well! If you've been quick to grab the latest copy of Frankie magazine (in stores yesterday) you might have noticed Mr Sparrow popping up in a new promotional section called Shop Front. I haven't had a chance to have a proper read of the mag yet but it looks like a great issue and there is a story about Australians living in Berlin - woo!

Another place you will find Mr Sparrow popping up at the moment is The Gift Corner. This fantastic online gift guide researches the latest trends, sources products from boutique online stores and presents them as gift suggestions on their site. You'll find some Mr Sparrow products listed under a number of categories including Christmas, Thank You, Baby Shower, Father's Day and Handmade. I'm excited to be a part of the guide as creator Annetta is passionate about supporting small business and promoting handmade, ethical and unique products. The products listed on the site change regularly and the Mr Sparrow products will change after Christmas, so keep checking back.


And one final bit of news: tomorrow is the last day to place your orders online in order to guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve! So if you've been thinking about ordering something through the online store for Christmas make sure you do it by 4:00pm (Perth time) tomorrow. If you miss the deadline, though, don't despair! If you choose Express Post you can still order online up to Tuesday 21st, or you can place your order online and choose "pick up from Subiaco store" and have until 6pm Christmas Eve to collect your purchase. And of course you can drop into Mr Sparrow any time between 9.30am and 6pm Monday - Saturday and until 9pm on Thursdays until Christmas...

Phew! I think that's all :)

New Mr Sparrow t-shirts!

Yay, the new Mr Sparrow t-shirts have arrived! They are American Apparel 100% cotton jersey tees, with a scoop neck and cap sleeves (the same as last time, if you grabbed one of the I heart sparrow limited edition ones), and are so nice and soft and comfortable!

Available now in women's small, medium and large from the store or online.

PS Sorry about the crappy photos but I just wanted to get these up quick! I'll take some better pics for the online store soon...

All my Christmas dreams come true...

...in a MUJI Christmas vending machine! Oh my God, it's like everything I love converging into one truly awesome walking Christmas-themed MUJI-tastic vending machine!

Found via Selectism, thanks to James :)


*Image from Lost at E Minor.

When is a candle not a candle?

When it's a cute potted plant!

Perch! have a lovely new range of scented candles, which arrived at Mr Sparrow a couple of weeks ago. There were four different designs (I say were because two designs have sold out already!), each with a scent to match eg the light orange bunny has a delicious organic lemongrass scent - yum! My favourite was a toss up between this and the green tea & willow scent. Luckily for me, one of these ones - in this cute turquoise tree design pot - arrived chipped, which gave me the perfect excuse to burn it in-store! It was lovely while it lasted and filled the whole store with the most delicious scent. But perhaps the best thing about these lovely candles is the fact that you can re-use the little ceramic pot afterwards for whatever takes your fancy! The remaining wax washed out really easily (if you do any wax cleaning up when it's still liquid it's a breeze, I've discovered) and on the weekend I gave this cute little cactus a new home.

The cactus has a nice story behind him, too - he was given to me by my friend (and Eko's brother) Jack back when I opened my video store, which must be nearly 8 years ago now, and at the time he (the cactus, not Jack...although probably him, too :)) was around the same size he is now. Over the years he grew and grew and we had him in a big pot next to our door for years. At his peak he was about 50cm tall. Then one day I discovered he was rotten at the base and going downhill fast  - I don't know what happened but we probably overwatered him. So I chopped off the tip and re-planted it, and eventually it developed roots...and here it is, ready to start all over again! I'm so glad this little cactus will live on and I think he's going to love his new home :)

Top image by Perch!

Looks like: Beautiful beach umbrellas

With the weather heating up, these beach umbrellas caught my eye on The Design Files. They're from Basil Bangs and would look great by the pool or at the beach. The advent of those little kiddy tents at the beach means the poor umbrella seems to have been forgotten. Let's bring them back this summer and with designs like this you can do it in style!

Happy Friday!...and a pretty package

Happy Friday! The flower this week is a beautiful hydrangea from my sister-in-law's garden. It is so perfect I had to show you a close up as well :) I have a couple of small hydrangeas at home but the colours aren't anywhere near as nice as this one. I picked this last weekend when we were at Lisa and Tucker's for a delicious Greek-Cypriot afternoon tea cooked by Tucker's mum. I wish I had photographed the food that day because it was amazing - delicious meatballs and freshly-made koupepia (Cypriot dolmades), home-made hummus and the most delicious tzatziki. Tucker's mum is the most amazing cook - she still lives in Cyprus but was visiting for a month to help out with little Dominic, and she cooked us some mind-blowing meals while she was here!

Anyway, onto the pretty package! This arrived earlier this week from Herriott Grace. You might remember a while ago I mentioned that this cloud cookie cutter was on my wishlist. Well, Herriott Grace items are really hard to come by because they only make a few at a time and sell out pretty much as soon as they update their online store with new stock. So when I saw that they were planning an update a few weeks ago, I set my alarm for 7am on a Saturday (despite a late night the night before!) and rushed straight to the computer to order a cookie cutter before they sold out!Yes, nerdy, I know, but I really wanted that cookie cutter :)

Isn't their packaging lovely? And here is the cookie cutter...

...plus some pretty little cake flags I couldn't resist!

So now I think I better get baking! James is away at Meredith this weekend so it might just be the perfect thing to keep me busy :)

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

A Christmas first

I've never made paper snowflakes before. Well, I do have a very faint memory of folding and cutting paper to make something somewhere in my childhood, but it's very foggy! After seeing these pretty paper creations popping up here and there I decided to give it a go. Ok, so making paper snowflakes is hard! I know this is supposed to be a kid's activity, but how any kid can get their head (and their fingers...and their scissors) around these is beyond me! First of all, I had to google how to fold the paper cause I had no idea where to begin (this video was very helpful). But even then, it took about ten snowflakes before I got the shape even vaguely right (mine kept turning out too round or - despite perfect folding - with the wrong number of tips!). In the end, I managed a few that I thought looked at least a little like snowflakes, although none of them look anything like these. Oh well, practice makes perfect so maybe in a few years, with a few hundred more snowflakes under my belt, I'll get there!

Perfect or not, I've got plans for how to use these snowflakes so look out for them popping up again soon...

Christmas Gift Guide...for him

Left to right, from top: Babuschka felt mobile phone/ipod cover (new!), Pension Fuer Produkte Bellevue cheeseboard, Burgon & Ball waterfall watering can, O-Check leather card holder (new!), Umbra Conceal book shelf, Geografia small sectional globe (new!), apple or pear business card holder, rubber band ball, Lumen shadow projector.

A few ideas...


Also, a few popular products are back in stock, like the extra small Sky Planters, Wine Lights, the Zakkaya triple vase and the wooden tear clocks (now in white!).

Other things are selling out fast so if there's something you've got your heart set on, let me know so I can put it aside for you and you don't miss out!

PS Today has been a little quieter (it has been soooo busy in here the last couple of weeks!), which I think I needed. Feeling a little more sane now :)