Newtown and Enmore for the Eclectic Shopper

Neighbouring suburbs Newtown and Enmore are wonderfully colourful communities with equally lovely quaint shops, eclectic fashion, creative crafts, and metropolitan food. There’s always something for everyone, and after my recent weekend wander I decided to highlight some of my favourite spots.

Pentimento
249 King St Newtown

Pentimento Papeterie is a treasure trove of pretty paper goods, stationery, creative books for all ages, and some divine accessories. I stop in here regularly to see the new range of international greeting card designs, peruse the crafts and novelty books at the front counter display, and admire the beautiful selection of bags.

Flying Penguin
359 King St Newtown

http://www.flyingpenguin.com.au/

Besides having one of the cutest names and the more adorable logo, Flying Penguin produces educational and environmental toys – the perfect combination for the green conscious and savvy shopper. Kids are encouraged to be both creative and active with gorgeously crafted wooden, recycled plastic, organic cotton and sustainable toys.

Beehive Gallery
Shop1 441-443 King Street
http://www.beehivegallery.com.au/

Beehive Gallery specialise in selling handmade items from local artists and designers. The vendors hire out space, u

sually a small cubbyhole, to showcase their designs, which vary from jewellery, leather craft, paper craft, woodcraft, clothes, accessories, bags, and more.

It’s a great idea for creative people to test the market by bringing their goods out to retail on a small scale. I could spend a while in here poking around at the little lovely handmade pieces in every nook and cranny – loving the hand embroidery.

Mink Schmink
457 King St Newtown
http://www.minkschmink.com/

Tatty Devine creates some of the most exciting and fun pieces of laser cut jewellery on the London market. I love the collaborative efforts with Rob Ryan to take his artwork to an accessory level. Mink Schmink stocks Tatty Devine alongside a selection of great designer jewellery mixed with eclectic mixes.

My favourites are the rainbow popping Himalayan felted wool ball necklaces (I know how long it takes me to make them), Mink Schmink's selection of bird necklaces (which you may be seeing grace my neck in the near future), and Tatty Devine’s horse and carriage pieces.

Pastizzi Cafe
523 King St Newtown
http://www.eatability.com.au/au/sydney/pastizzi-cafe/

My sister just introduced me to the Pastizzi Café – a small bustling café serving pastas, salads, and a plethora of pastizzi. Arranged in hot trays on the back wall behind the counter are both sweet and savoury pastizzi. Lentil, vegetable curry, chilli con carne, apple, and cherry and cheese are some of the wide selection of pastries at $1.80 each, or $16 for a hot dozen, or $12 for a frozen dozen. Tasty and very popular, the Pastizzi Café is a great place to pop in.

Caring For Your Hands With L'Occitane

A person may have a flawless complexion but quite often, one look at their hands provides a dead giveaway of their true age (that and their necks but that's another post). From a young age, I've religiously slathered moisturiser and sunscreen onto my face but never gave a second thought to protecting my hands until I recently realised that all these years of neglect have resulted in my hands looking rather old. And although I've got a stockpile of those really daggy cotton driving gloves courtesy of the $2 stores in Asian countries, I fear my family and friends will pretend to not know me if I wore them outside of the car.
But luckily, L'Occitane has a large range of hand care products that cater for everyone's needs.


For the day, one of my favourites is Young Hands from the Immortelle range (I can't seem to find it on the L'Occitane website and am currently having a panic attack wondering whether or not they've discontinued this product! Will check instore ASAP and report back) which not only has an SPF15 factor but also claims to lighten existing spots and pigmentation marks as well as control the production of melanin in order to prevent new age spots from appearing. Most importantly though, it smells great and is not greasy at all.



For the night or whenever my hands are in need of a little TLC, I reach for Shea Butter Hand Cream which instantly moisturises even the driest of hands. This is also one of my travel favourites as the cream is available in a handy 30mL tube as well the full-sized 150mL one.

You can check out the full range of L'Occitane hand care products here (and if my fears are confirmed and the Immortelle Young Hands really is discontinued, I'll be stocking up at Strawberry Net here which is thankfully still stocking it!)

Best Basics - Witchery

Rain, hail or shine I always put my basic white, black and gray long sleeve tees and singlets to good use. And every season without fail I stock up on these basics at Witchery. I used to be a loyal Bonds fan but it always annoyed me that once machine washed, Bonds basics either shrunk and/or lost their shape. But no matter how many times I throw the Witchery ones in the wash, they still look great. Witchery tops also tend to be cut a little longer than other brands which makes them fantastic for layering.
And until 1st November, purchase two or more full-price items at any Witchery store and receive 25% off (simply print off this offer here and present instore) - just in time for Summer!

From Loubies to Uggs

I've always liked the look of Ugg boots - when worn around the home that is. I've never actually been a fan of people wearing them out unless you're say, living in 10 degree daily weather.
But that all changed for me when I spotted the new Classic Cardy boots featured in Ugg Australia's Fall 2009 Ad Campaign. They had to be mine! In grey!!
So off I went to the Official Ugg Australia Website to see where I could hunt them down. Odd that there are flagship stores in the US, UK and Asia but none in Australia (turns out that Ugg Australia is actually an American owned company, go figure). But a quick search through the Authorised Retailers link directed me to Apres Coast which apparently stocks the biggest range of Ugg Australia in the country.


But to my dismay, when I finally made the trip to the Sydney store I was informed that the grey colour was sold out Australia-wide. However all was not lost - more stock was arriving in August =). So after a very long and slow month-long wait, I am finally the proud owner of my very first pair of Uggs. Although I don't think my boyfriend was too impressed that I decided to buy the warmest pair of shoes I own just as the weather is warming up..
Just a warning though, there are HEAPS of counterfeits readily available in Sydney (especially in Chinatown I noticed) so do check the official website for a full list of Authorised Retailers near you.

Shoes, Glorious Shoes!

I've been really good lately. I've been avoiding shopping centres like the plague and have not made a single online purchase for more than three months. But this all turned to crap last week when I received my weekly new arrivals e-mail from The Outnet (aka the outlet site to Net-A-Porter.com) advertising "Red Hot Louboutins up to 70% off". Hmm, I really should stop subscribing to all these websites...
Now I've found that whenever the good stuff pops up on The Outnet, things sell out in a matter of minutes. So having checked my e-mail about 8 hours after it was sent, I was not surprised that only very small or very large sizes (if any) were left. But a quick click in the top left hand corner of the page enabled me to change my location from Australia to United States (items are shipped from the US instead of the UK) where to my delight I was able to bag a pair that had sold out on the UK site (the last one in my size too, yay!). So keep in mind ladies to check the US site for more stock. Shipping and prices in general are a little more than when buying from the UK site - I paid USD45 in shipping fees whereas the UK site charges GBP16.50 for one item - but hey, the savings are still phenomenol!

MV Organic Skincare

Yes, this will be another beauty product review since I'm currently stuck in a fashion rut and therefore have absolutely nothing worth writing about on the fashion front (I'm hoping this will soon change though).
One of the main things I absolutely loathe about my complexion are the red patches that often appear on my cheeks and forehead, a condition my dermatologist refers to as rosacea which is defined by the Australasian College of Dermatologists as an "inflammatory skin condition often resulting in redness of the face". And although I'm grateful that my case is considered mild, I still have to be careful with what I apply to my face in order to not exacerbate the redness. But after years of sticking to 'safe' products like Cetaphil (pretty much the mildest facial products you can get on the market) I decided that it was time for something stronger.
At the advice of my sister, I decided to go down the organic path since less chemicals = less irritation right? And after hours spent researching the different brands available, I decided to take the plunge with MV Organic Skincare (hey, if it's good enough for Maggie Gyllenhaal it's good enough for me) and ordered their Gentle Cream Cleanser,
Rose Hydrating Mist
and their Rose Soothing and Protective Moisturiser.
The verdict? Fan-freaking-tastic. I've been using all three products for close to a year now and have seen a huge difference in my skin.
The cleanser effectively gets rid of all traces of make-up (something that Cetaphil could never do), the hydrating mist primes my skin for maximum moisturiser apsorption (I also spritz it on my face after make-up application in order for my make-up to last longer) and the moisturiser has actually reduced my facial redness.
I strongly urge those with skincare concerns such as redness, acne, sensitivity or even those who simply wish to incorporate a 3-step system into their skincare regime to give the MV Organic range a go. And for those who prefer to try before buying, there is also a MV Radiance Room in Mosman that offers such treatements as a 1 hour organic facial (I have yet to try this out but can imagine it would be a great introduction to MV products). You can check out their full product range here.

Confessions of a periodic shopaholic

There's not alot I can lay claim to knowing something before the rest of the world catches on. But one thing i will stake my claim upon, is the NOTCOT team with www.notcot.org and (formerly NOTCOT) www.tastespotting.com. These are the sites which kickstarted an interest in all things visual design. I still remember spending a good 4-5 hours during my first visit going through each of the 27 NOTCOT.org pages and it seemed alot even back then. Now at 500 pages, muchos congrats to the NOTCOT team!

NOTCOT was nothing like I'd seen before and it immediately entranced and mesmerised. Aesthetically pleasing yet simple and functional, like those solutions that seem so obvious only once presented to you. Yet as amazing as NOTCOT is, it is still only an idea behind a screen on the other side of the world.

Now enter SPACE FURNITURE store and it was like finally visiting NOTCOT in 3D and I was blown away again. Anyways, enjoy!

Myers: Ralph Lauren Grant $AUD9695

Orson & Blake

Orson & Blake: So very Frenchy chic!

Orson & Blake

Orson & Blake

Orson & Blake

SPACE FURNITURE: feels like i've seen this on Ugly Betty before

SPACE Furniture

SPACE FURNITURE: What a bargain the Poltrona Frau red armchair is at $AUD1100 when decorating your center for ants who can't read good. Both human sized armchair and pricetag are at least 3 times as big

SPACE FURNITURE:love the vivid colours in the lights and bookcase. Not sure whether the egg is a fireplace or a tv

SPACE FURNITURE

SPACE FURNITURE: Obligatory cool Bar decor picture

SPACE FURNITURE: Not sure about all the black velvet but love the last couch.

TOTALS: 0 acts committed at Myers; 0 acts committed at Orson & Blake; 0 acts committed at SPACE FURNITURE; 6 tart acts committed at Bourke Street Bakery.