Contact us Come to the Fair Our Story DIY ideas

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Holding court in Versaille

Due to living on the other side of the world, we often have to sadly decline when lavish invitations stream through our letter box from the likes of .... ohhh... Karl Lagerfield... Dior... and Lanvin (to name a few)... dear friends who would love to have us at their fashion shows... but we simply can't be everywhere at the one time... no matter how hard we try. One such fashion show we wish we could attend annually is the 'Chanel Cruise' fashion show... always held in delicious locations and done with such flair and style.


Unfortunately we're left to watch this greatness from afar, through a magical window known as YouTube.

Here is one of our most recent addictions... the 2012/13 fashion show... which features ruffles and bows and fantastic collars and tailored jackets... and other such pretty yumminess. Plus we LOVE the wigs.

Be warned... it's long.... but we think well worth it. Maybe go make a cup of tea first... but keep the lid firmly shut on the biscuit tin. Remember you're about to watch models... and it's not wise to be eating biscuits and sitting in front of the computer in comfy "home clothes" while doing so. (Just a suggestion)

The music is quite "loud", and may not be to everyone's liking.. but you can always turn the volume down...

Anyway, enough from us! Enjoy!
Love the Duchesses... Rose & Violet
xxxxx

Thursday, July 26, 2012

See you at the Fair...


We're so excited to be setting up our little shop in Melbourne this week at the Craft and Quilt Fair! We absolutely love seeing all our dear customers, and sharing brilliant creative fun together. We laugh, share stories, share ideas, drink cups of tea, make gorgeous new things and decorate life with sparkles and all things beautiful. It is such joy and we have a ball!

We hold free workshops daily... where we talk about design ideas, show how to recreate vintage projects and embellish existing objects or interiors. We also talk about life and friendship and all things impossible to NOT talk about when in a group of wonderful people!

We absolutely love the crafting world... and hope to see you all there...
Love always, Rose and Violet
xxxxxxx










Saturday, July 21, 2012

Things I'm afraid to tell you....


You may or may not be familiar with the world of blogging, and all that goes on there... and even if you are, you may have missed a wave of blog entries called "Things I'm Afraid to Tell You", like we so nearly did. It was by total chance, and from looking at a blog we don't normally follow, that we saw mention of this blogging "movement".

We immediately followed each entry down a rabbit hole into blog land.. finding entry after entry... all linked by the same beautiful motivation.. to reveal honesty and human frailty. It brought tears to our eyes... simply from the overwhelming feeling of comfort one gets when you realise you are not alone in fearful thoughts, insecurities or daily mishaps. It all started with the honest words of Jess Constable in her blog entry "things I'm afraid to tell you"... which led to her collaboration with a fellow blogging friend to start the movement.

The following sites are just a start to all we found... and wonderful to read. Trust us, you'll be glad that you did!
Creature Comforts
Design for Mankind
Makeunder My Life
Little Brown Pen

And so in keeping with the idea of the movement... we would like to share some truths about ourselves that we would normally think are of no interest to you... and not worth sharing. But here goes...

1. We can't sew!! All we can manage, is to thread a needle, and MESSILY hold things together with big wild stitches. All of our original samples and creations are held together by random stitches, pins, safety pins and GLUE! We are masters at using a glue gun. We are like wild west cowgirls with our glue gun and can create anything, or stick together anything that crosses our path. But we can't sew. And new creations require us to ask friends, or aunties, or work colleagues to draft up real samples of our creations when needed. For a business that creates home wares and children's clothes and fabric gift ware we've always been embarrassed by this fact.

2. We're disorganised. In a BIG way. And even though we're trying hard to re-organise the office... we constantly fail. Mail collects in piles in all areas of our life... not only in the office, but also on the coffee table, the kitchen bench, in a pile by the couch, by the computer, by the front door... everywhere. Paperwork in general... just exists in piles. Thankfully our invoices are all on the computer otherwise they'd go on holiday in groups too!

3. We're addicted to facebook. We love reading what all our friends and customers say.. whether they be comments on photos, or messages on our wall. It overwhelms us to see such support and often we shake our heads at how touching it is to have so many beautiful people in our lives. We check DAILY... sometimes hourly... and liken our growing friends to the stock exchange... routinely calling out "numbers are up by 5!".... or "It's a good day today, friends have gone up!". We don't follow the stock exchange or Wall Street, and we think it's much better to measure our wealth in friendship numbers!! We love all our facebook friends!

4. About a year ago, we lost site of our purpose in the business world. We worried that all we were doing was creating useless objects that had no benefit, or gave nothing to this world. We were consumed by doubt, and fear that all we were doing was "useless". And then we saw "Valentino", the movie. And it reignited our passion and belief that beauty is NOT useless. Creativity and design, and the building of anything which stems from one's ideas is necessary for life. If it wasn't for decorating life, for surrounding ourselves with what we love and what makes us happy... the world would simply be a concrete box... no colour, no substance, no texture, no emotion... just a blank canvas. It's amazing what things become pivotal turning points in our lives... but for us, that was one of them... Valentino. And now when we are creating, or designing, we have what we call the "Valentino moment"... the moment where we all sigh and say "YES"... we have done it!!

5. We have 'dust bunnies' living in every room. Not from not caring... and not because we enjoy being untidy... but because there simply isn't enough time to dust! Oh well.... one day. But for now, the little dust bunnies are a part of our family.

And that's it.... or at least, that's a small part of our truths. We don't want to bore everyone. We thought it would be nice to share some little behind the scenes facts... in keeping with such an inspiring blogging movement.

We hope they made you smile, and feel more "normal"... like all our readings of entries made us feel. And love always,
Rose & Violet
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx