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

happy flowers

A little bit of nature to brighten your Monday...

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/

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.

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.

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.)

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!