art and design

HOT: Thread Den Market, Lithuanian Club, 44 Errol St, North Melbourne

November 23, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

I LOVE markets. I will even travel across town for an hour on public transport on a Sunday morning to get to a market if it’s being organised by the lovely ladies of Thread Den. I’ve written about sewing lounge Thread Den before, and they’ve now have expanded their little empire to encompass an occasional [...]

HOT Alert: Week of 23 November 2009

November 22, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

This coming week is filled with travel, rock, films, shopping, food and parties! Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet, is speaking at The Hive at The Order of Melbourne on Tuesday 24 November. Read my review of a previous The Hive event here; The Rockwiz Christmas special is coming to The Palais, St Kilda, on [...]

HOT Alert: Week of 16 November 2009

November 15, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

HOT being the operative word. Lordy me, I’m definitely not a hot-weather person, hopefully this week gives us all some respite. Anyway, a bit of sweatiness isn’t going to stop this week’s social calendar: Free reader event to launch MoVida Rustica at Books for Cooks, 233 Gertrude St Fitzroy. We’ll be meeting author Richard Cornish [...]

HOT: MTC Garage Sale, 129 Ferrars St, Southbank

November 14, 2009 ⋅ 9 comments

I’m an early-bird but there’s not many events that would have me bounding out of bed, grabbing a stupendous strawberry, white chocolate and coconut muffin from Proud Mary and lining up with hundreds of other people at 8:45am at Southbank. But this was one very special garage sale. The Melbourne Theatre Company were moving, and [...]

HOT: Point & Shoot Camera Basics, Centre for Adult Education, 21 Degraves St, Melbourne

November 2, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

My trash TV confession – sitting through 12 cycles of America’s Next Top Model. But now it appears that all those hours have been time well spent! I’ve absorbed quite a bit of knowledge on photography and light while watching ‘fierce’ Tyra Banks and a bevy of model wannabes. That’s not to say I didn’t [...]

HOT: T2 Tea Too, 340 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

October 28, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

As my regular readers will know, I’m getting married soon – and as a Chinese bride it is traditional to have a Chinese tea ceremony. So, another thing to tick off the wedding to-do list was to find a tea set. I wanted something that was vaguely Oriental, without any gaudy gold leaf or dragon/phoenix [...]

HOT Alert: Week of 26 October 2009

October 25, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

Can you believe it’s the end of October and they’re erecting the Christmas tree at City Square already? Events this week: preview of The Brothers Bloom with Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz; preview of Jane Campion’s latest film Bright Star, starring the gorgeous Abbie Cornish; glamming it up for homeless shelter charity Many Rooms [...]

HOT: Robotica by Kyle Weyburne, Rose Street Artists Market, 60 Rose St, Fitzroy

October 25, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

Most of the time I’m a sweet, unassuming, ladylike girl who is never critical, sarcastic or competitive. But get me near a Scrabble board and I transform into a ruthless Gordon Gecko type who crows triumphantly at every 7-letter word placed on a triple-word score. These Scrabble cufflinks are from Rose Street Artists Market regular [...]

HOT: Valhalla, Arts Centre Forecourt, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

October 20, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous martial hall housing the chosen dead. I didn’t know this fact when I entered Valhalla, Callum Morton’s new work for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. I knew that the desolate, pock-marked, concrete crumble was a three-quarter scale replica of Morton’s childhood home and I knew that some [...]

HOT Chat: Alex Hume of Eco Fashionista

October 19, 2009 ⋅ One comment

This week’s HOT Chat comes from Eco Fashionista. Alex Hume chatted to me about fashion, living eco-conscious and being a business-owner with a young toddler. Alex, how did Eco Fashionista come about? Eco Fashionista was launched almost a year to the day my son Max was born. Max’s arrival (and the huge sense of responsibility that arrived [...]