December 23, 2011

ye olde england



Yesterday on a gentle jaunt around the beautiful Lavenham, I came across so many fabulous wreaths, not a fake morsel in sight! Lula x

December 20, 2011

the twinkly lights of blighty






After 6 years of hot Christmases I'm happy to say I've finally returned to the motherland in search of a mulled wine, mistletoe and mittens! And nothing excites me more at this time of year than donning my winter warmers and venturing out into the bright lights of London. Regent Street, Trafalgar Square, Bond Street and Leicester Square to name but a few all hold twinkly treasures and wonderous windows. In the shadows of the London Eye I came across Southbank's Christmas Market. Another festive delight crammed with wooden chalets selling handmade crafts and yummy food. Oh to be British. London + Christmas = a happy place for me, Merry Christmas everyone! Lula x



December 15, 2011

wendy's wonders




An ordinary shed on the outside, a world of wonder on the inside. Mid-afternoon tea with my Mum's good friend Wendy soon turned into hours of treasure hunting. Handmade Nineteenth Century lace, old books, hand drawn maps, vintage sewing kits, wooden printing blocks... ah the list goes on. What a treat! Today's lesson, Tea at Wendy's always proves fruitful. 

November 05, 2011

is it too early for a mince pie?

We are very excited to introduce our new typographic, hand printed Christmas tags! You can check these out in our shop.



November 02, 2011

anyone for hand printed tag?

After a cozy day in with tea and cake sketching our Christmas animals we decided to set ourselves a challenge...lets try printing our tags the old fashioned way! Caught up in our constant quest for the idyllic life, we wanted to see whether the satisfaction of handcrafting our goods would outweigh the financial outlay. Just how long would it take us to produce one tag and how much would we have to sell it for to make it worth our while? So the Saturday after we began making our plates and let the printing process begin. 9 rewarding hours later with 18 very beautiful tags printed, the verdict was in...one hand-printed Lula & Bella Christmas animal tag would cost...are you ready...$30! Ahh I hear you sigh. Err yes! 

So it's safe to say that although we had a blast creating them, from now on for the sake of your cash flow, these particular Christmas tags will be lovingly produced...with modern machinery! What can we say? We tried!

 

October 29, 2011

the rose street markets

I just love my girlie weekends in Melbourne, great food, great company, great bars and of course that overwhelming art scene, what can I say, Sydney eat your heart out. I lose days just wandering shop to shop in awe of the creativity that surrounds the Fitzroy laneways. One of my favourite hidden treasures is The Rose Street Artist’s Market. A former junkyard, this quirky space now houses now up to 70 artists and designers with products ranging from jewellery to jugs. One of my favourite finds this time was a Greg Mann number, a ‘spoon’ pendant which I bought as a present for a close friend’s birthday. Next time you are in the area check it out, Saturday and Sunday between 11am and 5pm. Lula x     www.rosestmarket.com.au


October 24, 2011

October 09, 2011

limited edition intaglio prints

We love getting our hands dirty so creating these limited edition intaglio prints gave us the perfect excuse to spend a few days sketching, plate making and printing. Using our favourite geared press we printed these designs on 100% cotton 290gsm Fabriano Tiepolo paper. Visit our shop to get your hands on one http://lulaandbella.bigcartel.com/



October 03, 2011

the boathouse

In need of a good old fashioned brainstorm, we packed our pens and paper and headed to one of our favourite spots, The Boathouse, at Palm Beach. What better place to gather our thoughts than here, surrounded by flowers, the lapping ocean and of course yummy treats.


September 24, 2011

davidmetnicole

Surry Hills was once home to Sydney's rag trade, a walk around here will see you pass a few brothels but more importantly some truly inspired furniture and object makers studio's and shops. One such treasure trove of retro and vintage finds is Davidmetnicole.

  
You'll find them at 382 Cleveland St, on the edge of Surry Hills. Walking into Davidmetnicole we felt like little kids in a candy store, our arms overflowing with treats, greedy for more. Fortunately after the heady high of vintage industrial lighting and rejuvenated furniture we could stumble into Twig Cafe, the cute little coffee shop and nursery across the road, for our much needed cup of tea.

September 11, 2011

starting out

Starting our business has been both everything I had hoped for and nothing I expected. I think as creative, visual people we had a very strong picture in our minds of a cute little studio by the beach, designing invitations and cards, drinking tea and eating cake. This is still the dream, and we are ever closer to making it a reality, it has just taken longer than expected. Many hurdles and many lessons learnt. So, when we started chatting about what the hell we could blog about, we thought let's blog about our experience of starting a small business and the things that inspire us (and tea and cake every now and then.)


September 07, 2011

stamping

Very exciting, we have had some Lula & Bella rubber stamps made. We used an Australian stamp making company, Stead Bros, to get our rubber stamps made up. Fairly inexpensive and a very fast turn around. The handles are plastic so I think I'll replace them with some old door knobs to give them a bit of character. In hind sight we should have put www.lulaandbella.com on our stamps, we were so excited we didn't really think it through. Every opportunity you have you should be directing people to your site!




kelly & gareth - save the date

We are very happy with Kelly and Gareth's save the date email invitation! Watch this space for the invitation and wedding pics!

September 04, 2011

hhmmm cupcakes

I stumbled over these sweet delights on a visit to Perth, never has gluten free tasted so delicious!

  

visit gluten free scallywag for delicious recipes and info on their new bakery.

July 06, 2011

We have arrived!

We have just created our landing page while we work on our website - coming soon.  www.lulaandbella.com