I’ve written previously about the great author events that specialist cookbook store Books for Cooks run. They are becoming so popular that they’ve started moving certain events out of their store – too many books and people to fit into a small space!

While the non-store events are generally not free, the great thing is that they tend to pick local restaurants with a particular affinity for the cuisine in question. So for the launch of Janet de Neefe’s cookbook Bali: My Island Home, we met up at Rice Queen for a talk by the author and four tastes from the book prepared by the Rice Queen kitchen for $20.

Janet began her talk describing how she came to live in Bali. She travelled to Bali with her family as a teenager and was immediately captivated by its exoticness compared to Melbourne. Ten years later she returned after university and met her future husband. She also fell in love with Bali and started collecting Balinese and Indonesian recipes from her sister-in-law and other locals – and with no formal culinary training opened her first restaurant. Janet and her husband have since opened restaurants Casa Luna, Bar Luna and Indus, a bakery, the Casa Luna cooking school and the Honeymoon Guesthouses.

I’m visiting Bali next year so I purchased Bali: My Island Home to gain an insight into the island and its cuisine. The big glossy tome not only gives mouth-watering recipes of Balinese dishes but the photos and text explore the daily life and culture of Bali. It was interesting flicking through the book and encountering new ingredients – fortunately there’s a glossary for things such as candlenuts and salam leaf.

As for the tastes from the book – I highly recommend the black tapioca pearls in coconut milk!

What’s better than a pop up shop? A pop up house!

Melbourne design blogger extraordinaire Lucy Feagins has brought her blog The Design Files out of the interwebs and into real life. With the help of The Project Agency’s Esther Navarro-Orejon, Lucy has turned a swoon-worthy Fitzroy warehouse conversion into an even more swoonworthy display home – where everything is for sale!

That means inside The Design Files Open House all of the furniture, artworks, homewares, textiles, plants and food (and in theory even the Mini) can be popped into your shopping basket. Here’s your chance to bestow the gift of good design to your friends, family or let’s be honest, yourself.

Here are some of my favourite picks:

Baggu backpacks and totes in an array of colours.

A coat rack from Tractor Home that reads in rainbow colours ‘It’s beautiful here’. Very Miranda July I thought.

Maiike softies and Made by Mosey fabric mobiles. Awww.

I am obsessed with lamps. And my current obsessions is with these Workroom lamps. See them here…

..and here….

….and here!

A festive table full of kitchenware and sweet treats from Phillippa’s.

And when you’re done shopping and browsing, hang out on the rooftop under the  Basil Bangs umbrellas and enjoy some coffee and sweet treats from Coffee Supreme/The Abbotsford Club.

The Design Files Open House, 40 Little Napier St, Fitzroy

Thu Dec 1 – Sun Dec 4, 10am-5pm
Online from Mon Dec 5 – Sun Dec 18

I am a big fan of Melbourne-based bike rental company The Humble Vintage and the limited edition hand-drawn maps coming out of it called Melbourne for Visitors and Casual Cyclists.

Now author and entrepreneur Matt Hurst has written The Casual Cyclist’s Guide Melbourne, a book bringing a fresh perspective to cycle routes in Melbourne interspersed with articles on cycling tips, tricks and thoughts as varied as Taking the Scenic Route and Five Surprising Situations When it’s Better to Take the Bike.

The guide brings together contributions from a range of Melbourne architects, historians, chefs, designers and local identities, including chef Guy Grossi and milliner Richard Nylon.

With hand drawn maps by Matt, design by Studio Pip & Co and illustrations from graphic design duo Tin & Ed, it’s a uniquely Melbourne collaboration. The book is a delightful read and it’s an essential item for the ambling Melbourne cyclist.

Giveaway! Thanks to Hardie Grant, I have one copy of The Casual Cyclist’s Guide Melbourne to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment below by Friday 9 December and the winner will be drawn randomly. The competition is restricted to Australian residents. Good luck!

We’re so lucky to have Books for Cooks in our city.

This independent book store in Fitzroy is Australia’s only retailer specialising in books on food and wine. The five rooms of an old Victorian terrace typical of the area are filled floor to ceiling with densely packed books, from the popular to the obscure. There are couches and chairs for browsing and the staff are always on hand with information and advice.

Books for Cooks also occasionally hold events in their small store. Talks and signings from visiting authors are normally accompanied by a free glass of bubbles and some tastes from the featured cookbook made by Amanda, one of the owners of the store.

From their mailing list I found out that Australia’s own Willy Wonka Adriano Zumbo was going to be visiting to promote his cookbook Zumbo: Adriano Zumbo’s fantastical kitchen of other-worldly delights. I am a huge desserts fan and I love Zumbo’s cakes and macarons, so I was not going to miss this event.

Adriano was a very personable speaker, even though he described himself as ‘not much of a people person’. We learnt about his beginnings baking in his parents’ supermarket in store bakery, his stint at a French sourdough bakery, his favourite cookbooks (Larousse des Desserts, Ramon Morato’s Chocolate), his favourite bakeries and patisseries in Paris (a long list, including Laurent Duchene, Fauchon, Pain de Sucre, Pierre Herme, Arnaud Delmontel, Laduree - but only the macarons, not the cakes), the challenges of managing 97 staff and looking forward to mechanising his processes, his most outrageous failed dessert (chocolate eggplant macaron, anyone?), his new dessert train at The Star and finally, the key to making winning macarons (finely processed almond meal, knock the air of the meringue, don’t eat macarons fresh but leave for 24 hours).

Books for Cooks have lots of other great events coming up in November, including a dinner with Luke Nguyen at Eat Drink Man Woman on 7 November, dinner with Andrew McConnell at Cumulus Inc and evening tastes with Janet de Neefe, author of Bali: the food of my island home. To keep up to date with their news, sign up to their mailing list.

As for my next Books for Cooks purchase? I reckon it’s going to be the Vintage Edition of the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book. Retro-fabulous!

Books for Cooks, 233-235 Gertrude St, Fitzroy +61 3 8415 1415
Sun 11am-5pm; Mon-Sat 10am-6pm

Melbourne Writers Festival is over for another year and we’re in the middle of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week – so this post straddles the two events nicely.

One of the events I attended this year at the Melbourne Writers Festival (along with the Jonathan Franzen Q&A which was really enjoyable – he’s the guy you want at all your dinner parties) was Dressed for Murder: Fashions from the World of Hitchcock.

What does vintage fashion have to do with books? Well, the presenter was Charlotte Smith, the author of two autobiographical books, Dreaming of Chanel and Dreaming of Dior, and the event was about her custodianship of the Darnell Collection. This is a private collection bequeathed to her by her godmother Doris Darnell which contains over 5,500 vintage pieces, from dresses to hats to handbags to shoes. Charlotte now manages the collection fulltime and shows off certain pieces around Australia and overseas at select events when she’s not storing, cataloguing and restoring items and recreating the stories behind them.

Charlotte was a very engaging speaker, articulate and passionate about her work and she really took you on a journey by building the story behind the collection. The most drool-worthy part was the fashion parade of some of the collection’s pieces, inspired by the fashions featured in Hitchcock’s films by beauties such as Grace Kelly and Kim Novak. They’ve inspired me to dress up more!

Vintage fashion is a passion for my friend and fellow blogger Marianne from Esme and the Laneway, so who better to accompany me to this event. Marianne has a gift with the camera so today’s photos are thanks t0 her work. For more images, check out her full blog post here.

The most coveted hotel room in Melbourne is back for its second season.

The Lost & Found Hotel Room is a pop-up hotel room which is open for 3 months from 1 May to 31 July. It’s in the heart of Melbourne, upstairs from gentlemen’s outfitters and cafe Captains of Industry (who also provided the winter-cosy catering for the opening and will be on hand to get you breakfast during your stay) and specially designed by Six Degrees Architects. The interior has once again been curated by Right Angle Studio, the people responsible for the Lost & Found e-newsletter for Tourism Victoria.

The room is free, fabulous and VERY Melbourne – what’s not to love? To apply for a stay, all you have to do fill out a form and cross your fingers. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak of what to expect as you await your reservation confirmation…

This year, the room is much bigger and they’ve really embraced the idea that one of the best parts of being in the Lost & Found Hotel Room is being able to share the experience with your friends. So there’s a lot more communal space – the living area is set out with gorgeous Danish mid-century leather couches Grandfathers Axe, while the dining area has a round marble dining table by Daniel Barbera matched with dining chairs from Grandfathers Axe and a floral arrangement by Cecilia Fox.

The rug has been specially designed for the room by Sydney artist and graphic designer Jonathan Zawada, who in a nice continuation of the Lost & Found story was a guest of last year’s hotel room.

The bed is a mattress atop a low platform, draped with a translucent boudoir-like curtain and with special L&F linen.

There’s an adjoining grass-green area next to bed, perfect for lolling about with a glass of red wine from Dal Zotto while nibbling chocolates from Monsieur Truffe and feeding your mind with literature from Mag Nation, World Food Books and the NGV Shop.

Along one length of the whitewashed room is a low shelf showcasing all sort of lovely objects, such as handcrafted ceramics from Mud and Shelley Panton, Japanese wares from Collingwood’s Cibi and Brunswick’s Mr Kitly and elegant stemware from Plumm.

Fantastical lighting from Dedece – and look at the view from the window!

Artwork from Utopian Slumps.

Once again, the Lost & Found Hotel Room has a cultural concierge who will help you make bookings and provide insider tips for exploring Melbourne. This year there’s even a budget for restaurants vouchers if dining out is on your cultural checklist for Melbourne (so pick your 50 word application carefully)!

You can check out my blog post about last year’s Lost & Found Hotel Room here and read my review of my stay in the hotel room here.

As if Fitzroy didn’t have enough markets already, on the first Saturday of every month the carpark of Fitzroy Primary School sprouts the Fitzroy Market.

What makes this market special? Well, it is small enough to enable dedicated browsing at every store and it has a lovely chirpy community feel to it. The market also raises money (through its gold coin donation entry fee) for various charities in the neighbourhood - Cultivating Community, the Fitzroy Learning Network and Live Wires programs.

It’s pretty much a car boot sale and I found the vintage/secondhand clothing and accessories on offer to be interesting and of good quality. I’m not much of an expert op shopper but in the space of my half hour visit I found a couple of gems, which pretty much never happens.

Pretty vintage girls dresses in excellent condition from the 80s (which makes me vintage too!).

A lightweight coat with a broderie anglaise like hem. There are stains on the front of it but for $15 I thought it was worth the gamble to take it to the dry cleaners.

Some homemade jam from the St Marks Church stall. I went for a large jar of plum jam $6.

Spotted – sequinned hotpants, leather handbags and a barrow full of terracotta tiles, all in one stall!

For market-going sustenance, a vegan, gluten-free black forest cupcake made by Carla, blogger at Easy As Vegan Pie, as part of the Vegan Bake Sale to raise funds for RSPCA Queensland. Vegan never tasted so good! (PS Carla just got accepted by CAE to teach vegan cooking classes so maybe she can teach you how to make these amazing cupcakes.)

Happiness by the Melbourne Ukelele Collective!

Emma, tell me a bit more about your background and how you came to work as an illustrator? What’s the story behind your store name Belafonte?

I have always drawn for as long as I can remember but it always just sat on the back burner until about 18 months ago. I was working in retail and I was really bored and frustrated, so out of the blue I quit my job, locked myself away for a couple of months, created a folio then began studying illustration full time. It was a big adjustment to return to study after a five year hiatus, but it was absolutely the right decision for me. I’m learning so much and I love that I have no idea what’s going to come next.

‘Belafonte’ came about because when I was starting I was very afraid of embarrassing myself, or that no one would like my work so I thought it best to keep my name under wraps until I was sure this whole ‘illustration’ thing could work. It comes from one of my favorite Wes Anderson films, The Life Aquatic, where there is a massive cross section of this ship named ‘the Belafonte’ and you can see all the activity under the surface.

On your blog you describe yourself as ‘I draw girls. And sometimes triangles’. What is it that attracts you to draw girls and…erm….triangles?

I’m not really sure why I draw girls. People always ask and I can never really explain it, I just can’t help it. I can draw other things but I always come back to them.

But I can explain the triangles! It’s because I find it really relaxing to draw something without thinking about it too much, it’s just three lines but when you put them all together it turns out different every time. And the four year old in me secretly loves to colour them in…

Are your figures real people that you have model for you?

I use a combination of different references from anywhere I can find them! Sometimes I use sketches from life drawing classes as a basis for an illustration, particularly the figure, but  I can’t wait for the day when I can hire people to model for me!

Have you always drawn with pen, ink and watercolours? Why do you choose to use these materials?

I guess I started out with watercolour and ink because I really enjoyed they spontaneity and fluidity of the mediums. I could mix my colours then just see what happens on the page! Now I seem to be moving a little bit more towards pencil and gouache, still transparent media, but a more planned and considered with lots of pattern and repeating geometric shapes combined with the portraiture of my previous work.

What websites, magazines, books, people or places do you turn to for art inspiration?

Magazines- Lula, King Brown, Uppercase, Russh, Frankie (beautiful photography and illustration on nice paper)

Books-  ‘The Age of Feminine Drawing’, ‘Lifestyle Illustration of the 60’s’, ‘Street Sketchbook Journeys’ and heaps of illustrated children’s books

People- Miss Van, Tina Berning, Audrey Kawasaki and Abbey McCulloch (my favourite artists and no surprise that they all paint women!)

Places- the Melbourne Museum, Until Never Gallery, Outre Gallery

What advice would you give to people wanting to start work as an illustrator?

Get drawing and painting. When I decided illustration was what I wanted I took two months to just draw and paint everyday. Then I put it out there on the net, mainly through Etsy and my blog, and I have been so amazed by all the opportunities that have come my way from those two avenues alone! Also, I think it helps if you can identify a niche or market for your work then get amongst it. With the huge craft and handmade movement happening at the moment, I have found selling my work at markets to be quite successful in finding both clients and a following for my work.

What are your next plans for your illustrations?

First and foremost, I have to finish my course!  But I have so many ideas floating around in my head. I would really like to move into doing some larger scale pieces and temporary installation work and, when I get some time, I plan on developing my oil ands acrylic painting skills.

Finally, what are your tips for HOT places you like in Melbourne?

Metropolis Bookshop (3/252 Swanston Street, Melbourne + 61 3 9663 2015) the most amazing book store in Melbourne, I pretty much want everything in their art and design section

Mamasita (1/11 Collins Street, Melbourne +61 3 9650 3821) my favourite place to eat in Melbourne, especially the corn and the fish tacos, if only the wait for a table wasn’t so long!

Outre Gallery (249 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne +61 3 9642 5455)  They sell prints of my absolute favourite artist of all time, Miss Van, but there are so many talented artists hanging on their walls that I can easily lose an hour in there.

Owen, tell me a bit more about your background and how you came to start Hipside Guides?

I’m a relative newcomer to Melbourne, originally coming from London. I married an Australian and we moved here four years ago. One of the first things I looked for when we arrived (after an umbrella and sunglasses) was a guidemap, but none of the ones available met my requirements. So I decided to create my own.

It’s been a really fun way to get to know my new home city and I’m hoping it will also help other visitors and settlers, as well as any locals who want to explore beyond their usual neighbourhoods. It’s easy to take a place for granted when you’ve lived in it all your life, so a fresh perspective can never hurt.

In my previous life, I was a programmer and artist working on computer games, but strangely, map-making does seem to run in the family. One of my father’s first jobs was analysing aerial photographs for the air force and my brother is also a cartographer, mapping everything from wildlife to landmines.

What makes Hipside Guides different from other tourist maps or guides available about Melbourne?

There are mainly excellent books on Melbourne, but these days, who really has the time to read them? A good guidemap can give you an overview of a city in a fraction of the time and you also get a better impression of how everything fits together.

The Hipside Guides Melbourne Guidemap has a slightly hand-drawn look, making it visually very different from other maps that are available, but I’d say the main distinction is in its scope and level of detail. Most tourist maps cover just the CBD or a specific suburb, and don’t actually tell you much more than the location of the major museums and landmarks. At best, a few provide superficial ‘top ten’ type lists of the most popular bars, shops and restaurants. And of course, the free maps are either sponsored by the featured businesses or by local government, which has to affect impartiality to some degree.

The Hipside Guides Melbourne Guidemap covers the CBD, as well as a large part of the surrounding area. It features over 350 businesses and institutions, selected purely on merit. Alongside the usual, well-known destinations, I’ve made a point of including as many of the smaller, quirkier places as possible.

This isn’t a guidemap just about shopping and dining. Melbourne has a really fascinating history, which is clearly visible in its architecture and public artworks, so I’ve picked out the better examples and peppered the map with interesting facts, anecdotes and background stories.

With all its laneway hidey-holes, Melbourne is a city which really rewards those with the curiosity to explore, and that’s something I’ve tried to reflect in the guidemap. The intention was to create a deliberately sprawling and information-overloaded map, designed to be pored over and explored just like the city itself.

There are a lot of places on the map! How did you go about selecting which places to include in your guide?

I began with lots and lots and lots of walking. Then I walked some more. In Melbourne, you have to explore even the grottiest of laneways, because they often contain the best surprises. I try to never pass an open doorway or a shop without exploring inside and I’m sure I’ve sampled far more drinks and meals than is probably healthy. Yes, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!

I’ve looked for places that are exceptional or at least unusual. It’s easy to forgive a few rough edges if a place has a unique charm or is offering something out of the ordinary.

Of course, all guides are ultimately subjective, but I’ve done my best to keep its appeal as broad as possible. It isn’t a guide just for tourists or hipsters or any other single group, but for anyone who wants to get an understanding of the city as a whole. I personally may have no interest in poetry bookshops (Collected Works) or spice merchants (Gewürzhaus), but they’re all part of what makes up Melbourne and I find it wonderful that such places exist.

What has been the most challenging thing you’ve faced in starting up your own business? What advice would you give to a small business owner?

I think any independent publisher will tell you that one of the biggest challenges is getting exposure, so opportunities like this interview are really important.

Getting distribution into shops is also difficult, but at least people are getting more used to buying over the internet these days (you can get your copy from www.hipsideguides.com for $12.95 including free delivery).

As for advice to other business owners, I don’t think I’m qualified to give any just yet. Ask me again when I’ve sold my first million!

What are your next plans for Hipside Guides?

As soon as time allows, I want to expand the Hipside Guides website with more interactive features, more updates and maybe even a blog. And, in the long run, I’d like to apply Hipside Guides to other cities.

Finally, where are your HOT places to visit or things to do in Melbourne – maybe an entry that couldn’t fit into Hipside Guides?

The Butterfly Club is one of my favourite spots (204 Bank Street, South Melbourne +61 3 9690 2000). It’s a great little cabaret venue, but it’s also worth visiting just for a drink. From the outside it’s just another respectable-looking old house, but when you venture inside you find every available surface jam-packed with super-kitsch memorabilia. It’s one of the few places in Melbourne that can make even Madame Brussels look a bit on the timid side.

As far as shops go, Lost and Found is hard to beat (12 Smith St, Collingwood +61 3 9419 4477). It’s a real treasure trove of retro clothes, furniture, art and bric-a-brac. It’s a huge place – more of an indoor market than an individual store really – and it’s easy to lose a few hours searching through the all the racks and piles. You do tend to feel your age, though, when you discover your old toys in a vintage store.

One place that I couldn’t quite squeeze on to the map was New York Tomato (24/2-6 New St, Richmond +61 3 9429 0505). It’s a fantastic café, but it tends to be forgotten because it’s a little out of the way and simply because it’s no longer the new kid on the block.

If you really want to impress an overseas visitor, though, just take them to see the flying fox colony at the Bellbird Picnic Area in Yarra Bend Park. Australians barely notice their own wildlife, but to many foreigners a bat is a rare, mouse-sized creature that flits past in the dark and is gone, so the sight of 10,000 monster bats hanging out in broad daylight is quite mind-blowing.

I sat down with a cup of tea and flicked through the booklet, which you can pick up at many inner city shops, cafes and bars, as well as the Melbourne Visitors Centre, NGV and ACMI. It covers new places and old classics split up into five geographical sections, some of which have been reviewed on the blog before and some of which I’ve earmarked for a visit. Here are my highlights:

Central

The Wheeler Centre. The new heart for Melbourne’s literary culture, the Wheeler Centre holds frequent author’s talks, some of them free. I’m going to hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali speak on Thursday 29 July.

Melbourne International Film Festival. I look forward to MIFF every year – for three weeks I get to hibernate in the city’s cinemas and feast on great films. Last year I managed to get to fifteen of them!

Previously blogged Izakaya Den, Tessuti Fabrics and Movida Aqui get a mention and I’m aiming to hit pizza specialists Barbagallo, new bar 24 Moons and hot new Mexican eatery Mamasita (again, with better lighting).

Northside

The North Melbourne Market has become a regular event held every two months. So many new options for me here – cheese galore at La Latteria, take home cassoulet at La Parisienne Pates, authentic Indian food at the Classic Curry Co, browsing vintage furniture and bric-a-brac at The Junk Company and having a pub lunch at Hotel Lincoln.

Cultural

I’m not going to see Mary Poppins the Musical because I saw it recently in London, and it was one of the most magical, fun and joyous theatrical events I’ve ever been to. When Mary Poppins flew into the air the whole crowd spontaneously broke out into cheers! Highly recommended.

And I’m definitely going to try Tsindos, a 30-year old stalwart of Little Greece in Lonsdale Street and I’m told home to great mezethes.

Westside

I was excited to hear about Urban Reforestation, a community garden, eco shop and educational centre in the middle of concrete-and-glass Docklands. Their aim is to inspire urban farming for sustainability and food security (they’re currently investigating the possibility of rooftop farms!) through consultation with corporates and for helping individuals with gardening lessons and cooking classes.

I think I’ll combine a visit to Urban Reforestation with a stroll around the Docklands Sunday Market and maybe a late lunch as part of Slow Sundays, where you get a $15 tasting plate with beer or wine between 2-6pm every Sunday from 20 June – 29 August.

Southside

I’ve just renewed by NGV membership so I will be heading to NGV’s Winter Masterpieces 2010 European Masters: Stadel Museum 19-20th Century between 19 June – 10 October.

ACMI is hosting a huge Tim Burton exhibition direct from New York’s MOMA from 24 June – 10 October which I’m quite excited about.

State of Design, Victoria’s design festival, is happening between 14-25 July and once again I’ll be immersing myself in all things design for two weeks. As part of the festival Melbourne Open House is on 24-25 July where lots of heritage buildings will be open to the public – a great way to learn some of the stories and history behind the city.

Last but not least, Melbourne Design Market is happening at Federation Square carpark again on Sunday 11 July. This year will be extra special for me because the lovely Kath and Ben from Jellybean Bikes and my new cycling clothing and accessories business CycleStyle will be setting up a cycle-licious stall at the market! Come and say hi.

For details and more winter ideas, check out That’s Melbourne.

What I was expecting was an outsized version of Aldi, full of cheap generic goods imported from random Eastern European countries, rather than name-brand products. I was expecting it to be large, but not the size of a football field. I was expecting an eclectic assortment of items, but not jerry cans of Chupa Chups or a giant 9kg Toblerone.

What can I say? It was fun having my expectations put aside by the Costco experience.

My friend Kimberley is possibly the only person I know who lives alone in an apartment in the inner city yet has a membership to Costco. Most of the clientele I can safely say live in suburbia with a couple of kids and a station wagon/people-mover/ute in tow. So I think it’s slightly bizarre that Kimberley’s become a Costco evangelist. I was convinced to go with her the day after I moved into my new house and was faced with no muesli, toilet paper, laundry powder or butter. I didn’t take much convincing to be honest, because I’ve been a bargain-hunter and bulk-buyer from way back.

You know that everything is going to be big, big, BIG as soon as you grab one of the double-width supermarket trolleys. Being my first trip to Costco, Kimberley patiently wheeled me through almost every aisle in the aircraft hanger as I squealed at the baby grand piano, an outdoor patio and giant apple pies. It was quite mad to be honest – I kept on having to say to myself ‘put that DOWN, Joyce, you do not need a tissue cashmere scarf or that copy of David Thompson’s Thai Food’. It was like an amusement park for bargain shoppers.

After 2 hours, my very successful haul included an Epsom printer, a set of Pyrex dishes and more mundane things like a mop and a large supply of toothpaste, toothbrushes and AAA batteries.  Everything = bargain and a month later I’m still working my way through most of the items. Book me in for another Costco trip in 6 months, Kimberley!

• Costco Wholesale, 381 Footscray Rd, Docklands +61 3 8602 0300

However, I think possibly an even better way to share the best of the city is to create an experience which is all about Melbourne.

The Lost & Found Hotel Room is a novel concept from Right Angle Studio, the people behind the Lost & Found e-newsletter for Tourism Victoria. The premise is fabulous – a hotel room at the rather shabby 70s style Little Collins Hotel which has been especially appointed by curator Georgina Hobart with all things Melbourne – from the bathroom products from Aesop (each lucky guest receives a Jet Set pack, one of my favourite Aesop products) and ceramics by Shelley Panton…

….the Miranda July pillowcases from quirky Fitzroy store Third Drawer Down, bed linen from Linen & Moore and bedside lamp by furniture makers Pierre and Charlotte…

…a cosy reading chair and tripod lamp by Temperature Design…

…and assorted artworks from gallery Utopian Slumps.

If you’re feeling peckish as you listen to the curated collection of vinyls of Melbourne bands (including Crayon Fields, My Disco and The Emergency) or flick through the culturally enriching reading material, you can delve into the nibbles from Mount Zero, pour yourself a glass of red by King Valley’s Pizzini Wines or sip tea from Brunswick specialist tea purveyors Larsen and Thompson.

Two of the four walls comprise floor-length windows streaming sunshine into the room and provide expansive views of Little Collins Street and the succulent balcony planters built by Flatland and planted by Melanie Stapleton from Cecilia Fox (who also changes the interior flower arrangements once a week).

If you fancy leaving the room (and I’m not sure I would, it’s just such a relaxing city sanctuary) then the cultural concierge is there to help you make the best of Melbourne. Before you check-in you are asked to complete a questionnaire to provide some information about your interests, and the cultural concierge will give you a list of suggestions and ideas for your stay.

Guests are also invited to contribute to the guest book by taking the provided camera and to uploads snaps and descriptions of the places they visit.

What total bliss.  And the price for such a wonderful stay? It’s free!

All you have to do apply for a reservation between 1 June and 31 August. The only catch – as it’s ultimately a tourism promotion you probably have a better chance if you’re from interstate, have a strong social media/online presence and work in the creative industries. They’ve received 2500 applications for every week, so competition’s tough!

Thanks to Lost & Found Hotel Room for allowing me to access the room before it was open to the public. Note that I didn’t get to stay there (my application has been rejected twice, boo) so I can only vouch for the beauty of the interior decoration and can’t attest to the comfort of the bed or whether it gets really cold at night. I got to stay! Here’s a review of my mini-break in the city.

I’ve dipped into the Kitchenaid of Fortune and here are our two winners:

• TruffleMe
• Louise

Please send your postal address to joyce@melhotornot.com to collect your prize and have a great weekend!

Thanks again to Lonely Planet for sponsoring this giveaway.

Traditionally the first anniversary gift is paper. So today I have a fabulous giveaway for you thanks to Lonely Planet – one of two copies of Lonely Planet’s beautiful hardback coffee-table book, One Planet (RRP $24.95).

Awesome landscapes, intimate rituals, extreme adventures and moments of connection – One Planet is a celebration of life, curiosity and the experience of travel.

To be in the running, all you have to do is leave a comment by 5pm next Friday 16 April (sorry Australian residents only). I’ll be holding a random draw and will announce the winner on the blog next week. Good luck!

Karishma, tell me a bit more about your background in design and how you started Miss Kish?

I was actually always intimidated by art – especially when I moved to New Zealand in 2000. It was only because a friend saw my doodles and told me that I should try graphic design that I decided to take my distraction in physics and chemistry classes to another level!

Since then, it’s been a Bachelor in Art & Design at Auckland University of Technology, a semester on exchange at University of Creative Arts in the UK and a Masters in Art & Design at Monash University in Melbourne.

I started my design company Miss Kish in 2008. It was just after the recession had hit – and I had found myself miserable in a brand new job. I was terrified of quitting – and I knew how hard it would be to find a new job within Melbourne’s tightly knit design community.

I don’t know why – but my husband V kept saying “Just quit and everything will work out – you can do it on your own.”

And so one day I had a full time job, secure income – absolute minimal satisfaction. The next day I had no job, was terrified because I couldn’t see ahead – but for some reason, I was deliriously happy.

I also had an epic mentor – Ross – from Floate Design Partners – who would get my annoying progress updates and always managed to respond supportively.

What’s a typical work day for you?

I’m going to use yesterday!

7am – check emails, toast with marmite & avocado with chai

9am – get to the office, flip through books on identity design which leads me to work on the branding for a company which retails snowboarding products.

10:30am – check accounts and reply through emails.

11am – around this time I start to get a bit overactive on Twitter, so today I’ve caught up with Rach from the Nutritious Catering Company to discuss her website and current promotional collateral.

12pm – I get hungry at 11:45. Often I’ll have a homemade lunch, but when things are crazy at work, I keep some Pitango soup – the Leek & Spinach is my favourite.

During my lunch break – I catch up on blogs; Sea of Shoes, Brand New, Eye Blog, Garance Doré and of course MEL: HOT OR NOT.

1pm – back to the grind. I worked on wedding invitations for a sweet couple who wanted something simple and gorgeous.

2pm – collating files and organising chunks of text for an extensive website for a multinational company which sells fertilizers to the Australian market.

4:30pm – popped out to Readings for a break. I love to browse through their books, feel tempted, then walk through to the back and have an iced coffee with V.

7pm– catch up with Jess for dinner at a cool place we found online. Which of course, I then proceed to blog about!

10:30pm – pack in a bit of Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 before collapse.

What are some of the most interesting or challenging projects that you’ve worked on?

I’m a vegetarian and I was asked by Top Cut Meats to work on them with their promotional collateral. Looking at what they initially started with (lots and lots of meat imagery – straight from the butcher) and where their collateral is now at, you can see an extensive difference. It was a fun series of briefs where I would have to ask stupid questions like “why is it called sausage kransky?” and try and convince my client to try mock meat. Epic.

Kristina Holdorf from Urban Fresh is working on Forest Stewardship Council certified wrapping paper. Last year she requested me to start working on a series of wraps which customers can also purchase as art pieces. Being more a fine art brief involving graphic design technicalities – I was super excited. It was a very, very open brief and after much research and discussion – I showed Kristina the first series and she loved it.

What are your next plans for Miss Kish?

Urgent Plans:
Hire a junior! [NOW DONE! YAY]

Long Term Plans:

Make Miss Kish carbon neutral and offer this option for client’s print work

Have a small studio with high ceilings and designed interiors and 5-6 lovely people who hang out for drinks after work on Friday because they want to.

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

Follow your gut – not everyone else’s.

Always have a theme song. Mine is ‘Shine’ – I know it’s very cheesy, but it works.

Hold on tightly to those who don’t doubt you.

Where do you turn for design advice and inspiration?

Design advice – friends (V, Piper, Greer, Sash), + mentors. My hugest mentors are V and my Dad. Both are business men – something I never wanted to be, and they both give me the realistic perspective that a designer needs every now. Other great mentors have been Floate Design Partners, Ros Lawson Design and Intense Design.

I’m a huge fan of art galleries, RSS feeds, whatever I see on the streets. I also love finding new music (the one place MySpace still holds merit) and so often when I find that new song and hook it on repeat, I find the design comes smooth and fast.

Finally, what are your tips for what’s HOT in Melbourne?

Creative Women’s Circle – fantastic talks with real people.

Readings – usually I’m a huge fan of interiors – but Readings on Glenferrie Rd (701 Glenferrie Road) now feels like home to me – and they have these lovely fig muffin thingees that V & I fight over.

DOC (295 Drummond St, Carlton). They do these amazing rolls called Rotolo (Joyce….. I hope I’ve got it right) – with bocconcini and tomato and basil. Once we were really cheeky and ask them to do a takeaway and they happily obliged.

I also subscribe to the White Hat Newsletter – which I think is the hottest thing as far as markets and events go. They are super thorough and have a way of describing the events, so I can tell if it’s a Kish event or not!

Kid Sam – a Melbourne band I like muchly.

You can contact Karishma at Miss Kish, 22A Liddiard St. Hawthorn + 61 4 2274 2304

For more HOT Chats with interesting Melburnians, click here.

I like free stuff. I’m just not sure whether Melbourne is ready to see my bum in order for me to get it.

Cool magazine shop Mag Nation (the land of magazines yay!) is currently holding a promotion called Undies Monday. Yes, you heard right – if you strip down to your underwear between 12-5pm on Mondays you can grab any item worth $50 and under for free.

My intrepid friend Kimberley enlisted me as her (clothed) sidekick while she scoped out her $50 and under item (Purple Fashion, $44.95), then stripped off in front of passers-by on Elizabeth Street. Not many people blinked an eye – in fact, some people stopped kindly while I took the ‘Victory!’ shot of Kimberley as she left with her tome.

In front of the store I also met Sahil Merchant, the founder of Mag Nation. Young and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, he looked like any other Mag Nation customer and we had a brief chat about what he’d discovered about Undies Mondays.

The promotion has proved to be very popular, especially with guys. Sahil said that last week they had about 200 people in the  Elizabeth Street store (he has to sit outside to keep an eye on what’s going on for legal, not pervy, reasons)  and on the first Monday they had so many people come in across Australia that they had to instigate new rules to make sure the stores weren’t cleaned out.

Interestingly, a remarkable proportion of the nudie customers were of Asian descent. Even though you’d think Asians would be inherently conservative about getting down to their underwear in public, Undies Mondays just goes to show that we’ll do anything for free stuff (I’m allowed to say that because I’m Chinese).

You have two more Mondays to take advantage of this offer – make sure you read the rules here before you take your clothes off.

And if you’re inclined to keep your clothes on and would rather shop from online from the comfort of your house, Mag Nation also offers online shopping and magazine subscriptions.

• Mag Nation, 88 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 9663 6559

Marvellous March is also the name of a handy little booklet produced by That’s Melbourne with details of the big events around Melbourne that will make you love autumn. This is a post to bookmark! Thanks to City of Melbourne, here are some highlights and photos:

Moomba Festival 2010
Melbourne’s largest outdoor community festival makes a vibrant return to the heart of the city. From the spectacle of the Moomba Parade to the hilarious Westpac Birdman Rally, from the wonder of the Children’s Garden to awesome live music, Moomba will surprise and delight Melburnians of all ages.  March 5 – 8. Alexandra Gardens & Birrarung Marr.

The 2010 Indian Film Festival – Bollywood And Beyond
All the colour, drama, music and romance of Bollywood comes to Melbourne for eight days.  ‘The Queen of Bollywood’ – multi award-winning actress Rani Mukherjee – will open festivities at Cinema Nova with the launch of her new film, the comedy musical “Dil Bole Hadippa.”   The festival will feature eight premiere screenings and an array of Meet the Maker events where Hindi filmmakers including Rajkumar Hirani (director of the highest grossing Hindi film of all time- 3 Idiots) and Imtiaz Ali (director of box office hits Jab We Met & Love Aaj Kal) will discuss their careers within the world’s biggest film industry. 10-17 March 2010.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
One of my favourite Melbourne festivals. The delicious 2010 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival will see the city hosting a long lunch, a food-lover’s fiesta and drool-worthy master classes. Take yourself on a visual treasure hunt with the Feasting Vignettes, presented by the City of Melbourne, grab a sustainable nibble at the Metlink Edible Garden showcasing regional produce and relax with free Barilla Foodie Films. 12 – 23 March 2010.

L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival
The LMFF is a stylish showcase for established and up and coming fashion designers. Check out Sidewalk, a series of free runway presentations bringing Australia’s leading fashion brands on a spectacular inflatable fashion catwalk at Federation Square. 14 – 21 March 2010.

20^th Melbourne Queer Film Festival
See the latest, greatest and most creative in queer feature films, documentaries and shorts at the 20^th Melbourne Queer Film Festival. A $2,000 cash prize is also up for grabs for the winner of the City of Melbourne Award for Best Australian short film. 17 – 28 March 2010.

Thai Culture & Food Festival
Discover the wonderful secrets of Thai cooking, enjoy a gentle Thai massage and some traditional music and entertainment, and when you get hungry sample Thai food on the River Terrace at Federation Square – think green curry, fish cakes, pad thai, chicken basil and more. 21 March 2010.

Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is the biggest annual flower and garden show in the southern hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. An impressive 500+ exhibitors will showcase the latest products and services at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens. 24 – 28 March 2010.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival
It’s the biggest festival Melbourne has to offer and last year just over half a million people laughed at the antics of some of the finest comedy performers in the world. Check out my reviews from last year’s festival. This year I’m  seeing Cardinal Burns and Tim Key. 24 March – 18 April 2010.

2010 FORMULA 1^TM Australian Grand Prix
It’s the country’s premier motor sport event that brings together the world’s finest and flashiest cars, glamour, celebrities (including Miss Polonia, for some bizarre reason) and the rush of adrenalin as the world’s most skilful drivers tackle the Albert Park racetrack. 25 – 28 March 2010. 

Lonsdale Street Glendi Festival Festival
Melbourne’s large Greek community takes over the Lonsdale Street precinct to celebrate their history and culture. Sample souvlaki, sweet and sticky loukoumades (Greek donuts) and then burn off those calories in the Zorba ‘til You Drop dancing competition. 27 – 28 March 2010.

Also on in March – run, watch, sail, eat and listen:

Super Sunset Series – Docklands Dash!
Whether you run or walk register for the Super Sunset Series inaugural Docklands Dash. The fun run will wind its way through the  Docklands precinct at twilight on Wednesday 10 March.

Thread Den: The Designers Sessions
Learn how to style and sew in the relaxed sewing lounge and then create your own catwalk collection! You can read my review of the sewing classes at Thread Den here. 12 – 16 March 2010.

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival
The best of contemporary French film comes to Melbourne, from action, romance, comedy and animation to thrillers, children’s films and documentaries. It’s the largest foreign film festival in Australia and this year is expected to showcase a record number of films. 4 – 21 March 2010.

Herald Sun/CityLink Run for the Kids
Last year 30,000 men, women and children pounded the streets of Melbourne to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Do your bit for the RCH in 2010 by walking or running across and through Melbourne landmarks such as the Bolte Bridge and Domain Tunnel. 14 March 2010.

Victoria Harbour School Sailing Series
Some of Melbourne’s most promising young sailors will hone their nautical skills as part of this popular sailing series. The eager school teams will crew two-person Pacer dingies during the high-energy, fast-paced racing event – all intent on winning the series and winning the chance to represent Victoria at the Australian Championships later in the year. To enjoy the nautical action head to Victoria Harbour 18 – 21 March 2010.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra presents Profusion
Directed by William Hennessy and with guest soloist and soprano Sara Macliver, the MCO presents Profusion at the Melbourne Recital Centre at Southbank. The evening will feature classics by Dmitri Shostakovich, Jean Sibelius, Calvin Bowman and Gustav Mahler. 21 March 2010.

World Street Food Festival
To celebrate Melbourne’s love and appreciation of food from across the globe, Queen Victoria Market will host the colourful World Street Food Festival. Expect an array of cuisines from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia. Watch as the food is cooked in front of you, savour the smells, and treat your tastebuds to something new. 21 March 2010.

Melbourne International Dragon Boat Festival
The annual Melbourne International Dragon Boat Festival is a thrilling, colourful family-friendly event that celebrates everything that is great about this ancient sport. Watch the determined teams of more than 22 people battle it out for line honours on the Yarra River. 21 March 2010.

Opera in the Market
Fresh fruit and forklifts make way for elegant chandeliers and opera at Queen Victoria Market. Opera in the Market event gets underway again this year with appearances by talented artists such as young Soprano Tiffany Speight, and internationally acclaimed Tenor, Rosario La Spina. More than 150 voices and the 65-piece Melbourne Youth Orchestra also feature. 22 and 24 March 2010.

Turkish Pazar Festival
Celebrate everything Turkish at this all day festival that showcases the best in Turkish dance, music, food and drink. Enjoy a traditional Turkish pancake or bread rings covered with crunchy sesame seeds, treat yourself to pretty handmade Turkish jewellery and ceramics and enjoy the distinctive sights and sounds of the many Turkish musicians and artists who support this annual event. 28 March 2010.

For a full list of Marvellous March events, click here.

Did you know that Melbourne is the world’s second UNESCO City of Literature, part of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network?

So it’s fitting that the city has created a space such as The Wheeler Centre (named after Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet), a centre for books, writing and ideas which launched just a few weeks ago.

What’s particularly fabulous about The Wheeler Centre is the series of reading and book related events in its public program – and it’s almost all free! As a result, lots of events book out quickly so you need to keep an eye on the diary to make sure you don’t miss out.

One of the first events to sell out was Jennifer Byrne, host of the popular ABC program The Book Show, in conversation with one of my favourite Australian authors Helen Garner. I love Jennifer – she’s so warm and personable in her interviews that it feels like a fireside chat, but she’s a consummate professional so that the discussion is steered with a steady, focused hand (unlike the audience Q&A sessions – sorry, but 5 minutes later, what’s your actual question??).

I first encountered Helen Garner’s work via Joe Cinque’s Consolation, her non-fiction work about the murder case against young law student Anu Singh. I was drawn to her writing by her ability to delve into the dark areas of people’s psyche and her spare yet vivid and powerful writing style. She also strikes me as someone who calls a spade a spade and is tough and straightforward in her everyday life – apparently she’s often described as ‘unflinching’.

Over the course of the hour, Jennifer and Helen discussed the writing process, the ‘personal emergency’ and urgency that drives Helen to put pen to paper and how often her characters come barging into her head, fully present. Helen said that every one of her books is a continuation of the last book, so that all her works are just one great big long book which describe what she makes of the world and her life as she’s lived it. Helen also writes every day in her diary, partly as a record of her daily events and feelings but also to practice the discipline of articulating fleeting things.

They also discussed Helen’s particular fascination with the courts and how the judicial system provides a disciplined and organised framework to present the worst that people can do to each other. Helen’s next book will be a non-fiction work about Robert Farquharson, a 40 year old man who drove his three children into a dam on Father’s Day 2005, so they spent some time talking about why Helen chooses to delve into the blackest, maddest corners of humanity, and why she finds it particularly interesting to write stories exploring how people’s capacity to reason can threaten to give way to the first steps towards horror. You can watch the interview here.

If you like reading, I’d highly recommend checking out the program at The Wheeler Centre – it’s like having a writers festival in the city all year round.

• In conversation with Jennifer Byrne: Helen Garner, The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne +61 3 9094 7800

Marche Rouge is back on next week from on Thursday 11 February and Friday 12 February from 11-7pm, and Saturday 13 February from 10-4pm, just in time for Valentines Day. In the meantime, here’s a little bit more about Kim and her work.

Kim, tell me a bit more about your background and the story behind Marche Rouge?

I have a background in visual arts, hospitality and retail, for the last six years I have been a freelance visual merchandiser. My primary clients are Kleins Perfumery, Kozminsky Jewellers and Worksense haircutters. I also have a craft business called l’uccello.

I have had a studio in the Nicholas Building for 10 years, during this time I met fellow residents, designer Maximilian and stylist Robyn Bunting, the original creators of Marche Rouge. The Marche Rouge was created to celebrate the idiosyncratic nature of the Nicholas Building and as a retail outlet for our group of talented people. The beautiful old Art Deco Salon and its somewhat hidden nature provide a wonderful environment for browsing the various stalls and meeting the designers, artisans and writers who produce the items for sale.

What’s a typical work day for you?

Because of the nature of my work every day is different!

One day I am designing or manufacturing product for l’uccello, the next will be meetings with clients to discuss window display concepts, designing and production of props for windows, or it may installation of a window display, sourcing materials and stock or meeting with Max and Robyn to plan the next Marche Rouge.

What are some of the most interesting or challenging projects that you’ve worked on?

Every new project feels like the most challenging! I make a lot of the props that I use, so there is always the challenge of sourcing new materials and working out how to make it.

I have made christmas trees from books, crocheted covers for trees, made 18th century dresses out of paper ephemera, birdcages from wire wrapped with fabric and hand painted easter rabbits and dressed them in little 3 piece outfits, made hot air balloons from cardboard covered with fabrics and trims and made enormous christmas wreaths full of bottles of perfume and related product.

Easter rabbit for Kominsky Jewellers

The most interesting project at the moment is sourcing vintage supplies for lúccello, as the beauty and history of the ribbons, laces, buttons and ephemera is fascinating.

What are your next plans for your work and Marche Rouge?

Plans for this year include lots of new products for l’uccello, craft classes in the Salon, and possibly opening as a retail outlet a few days a week. We plan to continue with Marche Rouge, featuring a different theme each event, throughout the year. I am also in the process of establishing a web sites and blogs for lúccello and Marche Rouge.

What people, places or things do you turn to for creative inspiration?

I am constantly inspired by colour and texture, so fabrics, haberdashery, art , nature all provide inspiration.

Travelling is also a source of inspiration, Venice is my favourite, the colours in winter are so beautiful, Spain is amazing for its architecture and art, and Paris is always great for ideas.

The people that most inspire me are the people I work with. When I’m out of ideas I look for ideas in unexpected places, I browse hardware stores, local markets, stationery stores, or army disposal stores.

Painted lady for Kominsky Jewellers

What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

My advice would be to do make sure it is something that you love and make sure you know who your market is.

Finally, what are your tips for what’s HOT in Melbourne?

• The baguettes from Waffle On in Degraves Street (Shop 9 Degraves St), totally fresh and delicious, form a queue!
• The book Madam Brussels by LM Robinson from Arcade Publications a biography of Melbourne’s most famous harlot/entrepreneur.
• Alphaville windows fabulous and a little creepy!
• Masses of carnations in every colour from South Melbourne Market.
• Tessuti (141 Flinders Lane, Melbourne) so many gorgeous fabrics I want them all!!

Thanks to Sarah for giving me the opportunity to say hello to her readers!

And on a completely unrelated topic, my review of second-best restaurant in the world, Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, is also now online at Trespass Magazine.

(All photograph thanks to www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/)

Just before Christmas I stumbled upon a very cool pop up shop housed in a newstand pillar – the Eco Innovators Showcase. ‘What a creative idea’, I thought ‘I’d like to know more about who’s behind it’. So today, we have a HOT Chat with Leyla Acaroglu, the brains behind the Eco Innovators Showcase.

Leyla, tell me a bit more about your background and why you decided to open the Eco Innovators Showcase?

I studied product design and got a little disillusioned with the idea of participating in mass consumerism, so I moved onto a degree in Social Science and Environmental studies with the intention of marrying the two knowledge sets and becoming an Eco Designer.

I worked for several years as a research consultant in sustainable products and packaging at the Centre for Design at RMIT University and recently decided to go out on my own and start my company Eco Innovators. Eco Innovators’ objective is to engage designers with the possibilities of sustainability in design and production and importantly, to help consumers reduce their ecological footprint.

The Eco Innovators Showcase is just one of several advocacy and communication projects that my company runs. The Eco Innovators Showcase promotes local designers that are engaging with sustainability in the design and development of their products and provides a unique retail environment for people to purchase environmentally responsible products.

Eco Innovators are also currently developing introductory videos on life cycle assessment and good environmental decision-making, a quick guide to eco consumption, a resource pack for TAFE and university design students on eco-design along with running short courses for professional designers on life cycle based decision-making in product development. Some of the resources are available on our website.

What kind of products are offered for sale at the Eco Innovators Showcase and how did you find them for the store?

The Eco Innovators Showcase has a range of products including jewellery made from recycled vintage dominoes, wallets and bags from recycled car tyre inner tubes, cookbooks made locally and printed on 100% recycle paper, scarves and hot water bottle covers from upcycled woollen jumpers, wattle seed packs, gift cards, belt from recycled bike tyres, Keepcups, organic hemp cushions, notebooks made from vinyl records and handbags made from old 1980′s leather jackets… just to name a few.

I started by sourcing products from designers I had worked with in the past, but once the shop opened, designers started popping up everywhere with great products  so we now have over 25 designers in the showcase.

All products are assessed against an eco product criteria to make sure that they have a reduced environmental impact so that our customers know they are getting good quality eco designed products.

What are your next plans once Eco Innovators Showcase closes in April?

We have a very exciting project in the pipeline that will be the next incarnation of the Eco Innovators Showcase. Hopefully from early 2010 we will have a space in the CBD that is both a retail space and workshop. The new space will be about sharing and exploring innovative ways of designing and creating with the least social and environmental impacts.

We will be sure to keep you posted on the studio shop’s development!

Have you faced any challenges getting the project off the ground? What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

The little pillar has presented challenges a plenty! Firstly it’s only 1 metre wide, is a curved surface and I was asked to not drill anything into the walls. So I had to design the entire fit out to be curved and somehow hang off little rails that were previously used to hang all the newspapers and magazines. Then there was the rain issue… turns out that the pillar was not waterproof so we had a bit of an issue when Melbourne’s weather turned on us. Finally, once we were up and running we discovered that of the thousands of people who walked right past us every day on Swanston Street, only a very small number of them noticed us and an even smaller number would stop.

Lucky for us we have had great support and over the weeks we have managed to resolve all our little hiccups.

Where do you turn for eco-living advice and inspiration?

I spent 5 years studied social and environmental issues and in that time came across some amazing authors that have inspired and educated me in a number of ways. For instance, Vance Packard’s “The Waste Makers” (published in 1960) predicted that there would come a time when landfills would be mined to extract the valuable resources discarded by the developing throw away society of the time. I’ve also been inspired by Victor Papanek’s “The Green Imperative” (1983) and “Design for the Real World” (1985) and “Small is Beautiful” by E.F Schumacher, which was first published in 1973.

Finally, what are your tips for what’s HOT in Melbourne?

The Rose Street Artists Markets (60 Rose St, Fitzroy) are very HOT indeed! Every weekend an old junk yard gets transformed into a thriving art and design hub, packed with amazing locally made creations. Lots of the designers at the Rose Street Artists Markets are really embracing sustainability in their craft and have really innovative design solutions. Some of the designers can also be found in the Eco Innovators Showcase.

I also love CERES environment park in East Brunswick, the Good Brew Company’s carbon neutral beer, the Coburg tip for scavenging, Greenline Organic Direct organic food and household products delivery service and my vintage ladies bike!

Read Part 1 of the tour here.

Another quick train ride to Spotswood then St John’s Op Shop (612-614 Melbourne Rd, Spotswood). ‘Great variety of household goods’ is an accurate description, with ‘variety’ being the operative word. This is an OCD sufferer’s nightmare.

The rabbit warren of a shop was full of surprises – an extensive collection of white shoes (apparently a local shoe store closed down and donated all of their stock), a veritable forest of clothing (another vintage scarf to add to my collection $5), a jumble of furniture out the back and boxes of haberdashery hidden away under shelves groaning with discarded VHS tapes – including this gem ‘A New Tax System – “How To Series””. Any buyers? Anyone?

1pm and a well-earned lunch stop at Cafe Miers (85 Hudsons Rd, Spotswood). This light and airy cafe serves Fairtrade coffee and simple cafe fare – toasted sandwiches/foccacias, pastries and muffins. I’m not sure it’s worth a special trip but it served our purposes well as we replenished our dimishing energy reserves and compared purchases.

Heave ho to Yarraville for Bargain Browser (9 Anderson St, Yarraville +61 3 9687 6307). This was a queer beast, stocking a mix between dollar shop junk and genuine op shop items. I wasn’t much inspired by the racks of Bridget Jones style grandma underpants and boxes of scented candles, but I did spot an unworn pair of Aldo canary yellow stilettos in my size. How could I resist, they were only $15!

Last stop, Footscray Salvos (199 Barkly St, Footscray +61 3 9689 7811) and then the Savers (The Recycle Superstore!) for those with more energy (33 Albert St, Footscray +61 3 9689 6811). Footsore and laden with purchases, I decided to forego the Savers and only go went to the Salvos, where I picked up a copy of Alan Hollinghurst’s 2004 Booker prize winner ‘The Line of Beauty’ for $4.

I can definitely see the appeal of  Melbourne Op Shop Tours for those of us who are not dedicated op shoppers. The tour combined a large variety of op shops, from well known superstores to undiscovered nooks, and with Jenny as our organised tour guide the whole trip ran very smoothly.   I think everyone went home with a bargain and ended the day on a happy note. Best of all, we helped a lot of charities on the way!

PS Here’s a pic of my $15 yellow shoes, matched with a Cylk dress from Eco Fashionista. Unexpected colour combination, but I think it works!

• Melbourne Op Shop Tours +61 421 431 278
• St John’s Op Shop, 612-614 Melbourne Rd, Spotswood. Mon-Fri 10am-530pm; Sat 9am-4pm
  
• Bargain Browser, 9 Anderson St, Yarraville +61 3 9687 6307. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; Sat 9am-4pm
  
• Footscray Salvos, 199 Barkly St, Footscray +61 3 9689 7811. Mon-Sat 9am-5pm
  
• Footscray Savers, 33 Albert St, Footscray +61 3 9689 6811. Mon – Wed 9:30am – 6pm; Thur – Fri 9:30am – 9pm; Sat 9:30am – 6pm; Sun 10am – 5pm

Fashionistas know that the surest way to score a one-of-a-kind outfit is to scour old shops and vintage stores. Melbourne Op Shop Tours helps you take up the op shop challenge by running small group (max 10 people) tours through various areas of Melbourne. What makes it different from other op shop tours is that instead of being herded around on a big coach, the service is more personal and the tour is conducted with the careful coordination of public transport timetables – which means that your recycled shopping experience is super eco-friendly.

Melbourne Op Shop Tours invited me to one of their tours to experience it for myself, and I decided to follow tour guide Jenny along to the Inner West – a completely unknown part of Melbourne as far as I was concerned.

Starting at 10am at North Williamstown station, we headed to the Williamstown Uniting Church Op Shop (75 Stevedore St, Williamstown +61 3 9397 8066). The first thing I spotted inside this tiny op shop were some Number 14 bentwood chairs. The hooped back chair was designed by Michael Thonet in the 19th century and is now a design classic, to be found in many cafes. The two chairs remaining from the original set of eight cost $5 each! I was so excited that I could have gone home right there and then, mission accomplished.

A quick train ride to Newport then a stroll through suburban streets to the Newport Neighbourhood House and Opportunity Shop (40 Challis Avenue, Newport +61 417 032 617). Jenny’s favourite op shop is easy to miss because it just looks like your standard low-set weatherboard house. But now I’m sharing the secret with you – enter through the garden gate and you’ll find yourself in the biggest jumble sale of your life. It would take hours to sift through the rooms of men’s clothes, kid’s clothes, shoes, glassware, kitchenware, toys and women’s clothes – we’re talking mountains, tables, shelves and boxes of stuff everywhere you look.

A little overwhelmed, I decided to focus on women’s scarves and came away with three to my liking ($1 each) while also picking up a silver cake stand ($5) and small cut glass ice bucket ($5).

In a feat of op-shopping strength, one of our tour members Nathan (an intrepid and experienced op shopper) decided to tip out the whole box of ties in order to do a thorough sorting on the floor. In the end, he came away with 47 ties ($1 each) which included designer ties from YSL and Versace. What does a man do with that many ties? Nathan’s strategy is to wear them all once, clean them up and sell them on eBay for around $10-$15 each. So even if you’re not necessarily into the charity aspect of op shopping, it seems that with a bit of effort it can be a lucrative hobby.

Also, check out these fabulous, unworn shoes found on top of the mountain of shoes spilling out from under the verandah. These beautiful heels cost $2. I’m so jealous!

This was easily the winning shop for me – it’s so good that if you’re a keen op shopper, it’s worth making a trip especially to carefully work your way through the house.

Read more about the rest of the tour tomorrow in Part 2.

• Melbourne Op Shop Tours +61 421 431 278
• Williamstown Uniting Church Op Shop (75 Stevedore St, Williamstown +61 3 9397 8066 Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat 10am-12pm
• Newport Neighbourhood House and Opportunity Shop (40 Challis Avenue, Newport +61 417 032 617) Mon-Wed, Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 9am-12pm

Here are some of the stalls that caught my eye at this year’s pre-Christmas market.

The beautiful limited edition (only 250), cookbook designed by Shona Stark and Lily Tidhar, the duo behind the new Melbourne graphic design studio Wolfgang & Shlomo. The letterpress publication was hand printed at the Melbourne Museum of Printing and it includes twenty-four recipes from famed eateries in Melbourne (including Cumulus Inc, MoVida and Flower Drum) and three original etchings from Jon Campbell, Ned Culic and Tin & Ed. Even better, all the proceeds go to the Australian Aids Fund. A perfect marriage of art, food and good works.

Pippijoe’s cheerful original screenprinted textiles.

A dainty tea-and-saucer light installation by Gregory Bonasera. It reminded me of the Alice in Wonderland inspired cocktail night at Cafe Vue.

Make like the dapper Gentlemen of Bacongo with Truffaux’s selection of Panama hats (made in Sherbrooke), with style names like Hemingway, Kerouac, Boogie Nights and The Charmer. They also do bespoke fittings by appointment. In the photo you can also spot the Melbourne-made eco-friendly Buro Christmas tree from interdisciplinary design studio Buro North, also available for sale at the market.

Delicate ceramic wares from Ingrid Tufts.

Bone china Christmas decorations from homewares company Have You Met Miss Jones, stocked at uber-cool clothing stores, Fat. We bought an origami peace crane and a paper aeroplane, with other designs being a Pompon polar bear and reindeer ($16 each).

Design House Stockholm‘s block lamp, available from RG Madden. The pyramid of lamps is pretty spectacular, don’t you think?

Notemaker is an online stationery store and their stall was the site of the biggest shopping scrum at the market. That’s because the stock included Rhodia notebooks, Moleskine diaries and fabulous vinyl wall decals from Figurato, all at rock-bottom prices. I managed to grab a map of the world decal (with stickers for planes, palm trees and speech bubbles) for $15 – you can see me holding it aloft in the photo like a heavyweight prize fighter.

Pretty clutches and purses designed and made by Miranda Bourke from Only Midge.

To read all about the last Melbourne Design Market, click here.

• Melbourne Design Market, Federation Square carpark, Melbourne

With Christmas only 22 days away, Melbourne is ramping up to a frenetic hive of shopping activity. With sales and markets sprouting up almost daily, it’s getting difficult for me to keep up!

One of the most aesthetically pleasing shopping experiences that I’ve attended recently has been Marche Rouge, a small pop-up market in the Nicholas Building which is being held for three days only.

Kim Hurley, a visual merchandiser who works on Kleins Perfumery’s store windows (amongst others) has organised the event in her light-filled art deco studio. On entry, what caught my eye were the colourful crocheted branches (by Kim) and the tiny nests cupping each stallholder’s business cards. How adorable is that!

Kim has set up her visually inviting stall with a deliciously scented array of pretty items, from fabrics sourced from the South of France, vintage haberdashery (I loved the colourful rolls of antique French ribbons), pot pourri possets, fragrant seed pillows and other hand-crafted items.

For my goddaughter and her new brother, I bought two Christmas stockings for their Santa pressies.

The market also includes these artists:

Three Blind Mice, a sisterly team crafting one-off accessories using found items and some vintage kimono fabrics from Kimono House (Level 2, Room 207, Nicholas Building). They’re just starting out and I fell in love with this particular neckpiece.

Buttonmania, the one-stop shop for all your button needs (Room 201, Level 2 Nicholas Building).

Melbourne own small-run publishers of small-sized books, Arcade Publications. Their most recent launches are Our Girls, Aussie Pin-ups of the 40s and 50s (Madeleine Hamilton) and Hoax Nation, Australian Fakes and Frauds, from Plato to  Norma Khouri (Simon Caterson).

Milliner Serena Lindeman (Room 602, Nicholas Building), who has been featured in the most recent edition of the book Handmade in Melbourne.

Mandy Murphy Millinery (Room 4, Level 7, Nicholas Building). This elegant sculptural hat was a finalist for the Myer Fashions on the Field Millinery Award at Flemington in 2009.

An eye-catching stand brimming with a cornucopia of Christmas decorations and floral and fruit arrangements. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of the florist but will find out.

Marche Rouge is a lovely little jewel of a market in one of the most beautiful buildings in the Melbourne CBD. Take some time to drop in – the market is open Thursday 3 December 12-8pm, Friday 4 December 12-8pm and Saturday 5 December 10-4pm.

• Marche Rouge Christmas Shopping Event, Salon 205, Level 2, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne

• Free reader event to launch MoVida Rustica at Books for Cooks, 233 Gertrude St Fitzroy. We’ll be meeting author Richard Cornish (maybe even Frank Camorra?), taste dishes from the book and sample some Spanish wines. Tuesday 17 November 7pm. Book by calling 8415 1415.
• Breakfast at Cumulus Inc with my out-of-town friends. Madeleines or steamed pork buns?
• Sneak preview of The French Kissers at Palace Brighton Bay Cinema. Thursday 19 November. RSVP here.
• Marrugeku‘s production of dance theatre work Burning Daylight at Arts House, Meat Market North Melbourne. Friday 20 November.
• Food bloggers lunch at Charcoal Lane on Saturday 21 November, with maybe a stop off at the  Johnston Street Spanish Fiesta that night.
• If we’re feeling energetic on Sunday, the Order of Melbourne is holding their design market 2-5pm and at NGV Australia there’s a talk discussing the free photography exhibition Long Distance Vision at 3:30pm.

This week’s little slice of Melbourne comes courtesy of a Smith Street warehouse. Your profound thought of the day:

Julie & Julia is a warm-hearted story of two women living in different times and different places, connected together by their love of food and the sense of purpose that their cooking brings to their lives. Julia Child’s story is based on the memoirs of the legendary American chef My Life in France while Julie Powell’s story is based on her book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (later Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously).

Meryl Streep does a star turn as the overblown, trumpet-voiced Julia Childs, the doyenne of American TV chefs who taught housewives without servants how to ‘Master the Art of French Cooking’. Her story in itself is quite inspirational – she married an American diplomat at old-maid age and fell into cooking (and studying at Le Cordon Bleu) after finding herself at a loose end in Paris, where her husband was stationed in the 50s. By chance she met her future collaborators and for the next eight years they worked over the cookbook that would change the way in which Americans ate, shopped and viewed food. Her obviously sensual delight in food, cooking, people and her husband made me want to be her friend.

In contrast Julie Powell (Amy Adams) was a relatively bland character who found fame through the personal revelations in her 2002 blog The Julie/Julia Project, which described her mission to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s classic tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. Julie could be me, or really any of us – she works in a cubicle job, is sometimes moody and unreasonable, has meltdowns over cooking disasters and is proud of her cooking achievements. If you read her blog, she’s actually much wittier and cutting than she’s portrayed in the film.

The best thing about the movie is that it’s a visual feast of French deliciousness – there’s so much melting butter, pastry and poultry that you can practically smell the kitchen aromas emanating from Julia’s famous made-to-measure kitchen and Julie’s pokey Queens walk-up. In these parallel worlds, everything has a soft silkiness to it, like a perfect crème caramel, and nothing ever goes so really badly wrong (even an overcooked boeuf bourguignon) that can’t be saved by a creamy lobster mornay or a chocolate cake. Le Creuset cookware really should have received a supporting role in the credits.

Of course there’s a happy ending – Julie doesn’t just disappear into the blogosphere, never to be heard of again. She gets an agent. And a book deal. And a movie! Maybe it’s time to start dreaming about Julie, Julia and Joyce?

• Julie & Julia, Hoyts Melbourne Central, Cnr Swanston and Latrobe Sts, Melbourne +61 3 8662 3555‎

The rich, lush film brings to the screen the rags-to-riches autobiography of Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin (who now lives in Melbourne). It switches back and forth in time and location, between his childhood poverty in Shandong Province, his rigorous training at the Beijing Academy of Arts and his first steps onto Western soil and exposure to American ways as a guest student of the Houston Ballet.

Basically, the premise of the film is a classic adventure story. It’s about the journey of a person who starts off in one place, emotionally and physically, and ends up somewhere else.  It’s a story of great contrast, between poverty and wealth, East and West, discipline and adulation.

There are various storylines about his initial awkwardness towards Western culture, his love affair with an American ballerina and his decision to defect to the US despite possible repercussions for his family. Within those storylines director Bruce Beresford has weaved dance excerpts choreographed by Graeme Murphy. I loved the dancing. The dances emphasised and expressed the emotions of the protagonists at a particular point in time and the excerpts never felt like a contrived intermission in the story. It was more like a shorthand way to telling the story, especially as the scenes always showed the reactions of the audience. The only thing I didn’t like were the slow-mo effects, as that did feel like an obvious device to heighten emotional effect.

The particular screening I attended the  film was followed by a discussion about ‘which is better, the book or the movie?’. The panel consisted of the screenwriter Jan Sardi (who also wrote the screenplay for Shine) and Brian McFarlane, Honorary Associate Professor of film history at Monash University and author of Novel to Film, An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation.  Together they led the audience into a very revealing discussion about the work of a screenwriter. Jan had to take the 400+ page book and make certain choices about what scenes to leave in, what scenes to leave out and how to amalgamate events and characters. He said that a screenwriter’s first priority should be to the audience; it’s not about fidelity to the text. The script should create an emotional landscape so scenes should always to move the story along and make the audience care about the characters.

That’s why the film was not made with a linear timeline, as Jan realised that if he stuck to the structure of the book the first 30 minutes would have been set in China, with people speaking Chinese. I think the time-switching worked well, as it heightened the drama in the story and a provided a sense of compelling immediacy for the audience. Throughout the film you were asking Who is he?  How did he get here? Why are they treating him like this? How did his life change?

So to answer the question ‘which is better, the book or the movie’ I think Brian McFarlane made the key point – it’s not a question about whether the film is better than the book or vice versa. They are different art forms telling stories in different ways. The better question should be ‘what is exciting in this book that made the filmmaker want to adapt it into a film?’

• Mao’s Last Dancer Page to Picture, Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton 3053 +61 3 9347 5331

I haven’t been to a school fete in years, so I don’t know how the Spring Fair at Collingwood College stacks up compared to other school fetes these days. Let’s just say back in my day (old age, coming right up) we weren’t selling sushi and chickpea curry.

But then Collingwood College is an amazingly diverse school, so you’d expect the Spring Fair to be equally diverse. And it was fabulous! There were your usual sausage sizzle, trash and treasure and clothes jumble sales, as well an incredible cake stall (organic ginger spice cake $8), more-ish pumpkin and caramelised onion wood fired pizzas from the pizza oven built by the grade 3s ($3.50), buttery yoyos ($4) and jars of to-die-for lemon curd ($5) made by the kids doing the Kitchen Garden program as well as Harley sidecar rides, smashing plates game, a Greek dancing demonstration and a blacksmith.

The whole school felt so fun-filled, colourful and vibrant. Even though I don’t have kids, it was wonderful to experience a part of my local community and to see lots of happy children of all different races and ages running around having fun together.

• Spring Fair, Collingwood College, Cnr Cromwell St and McCutcheon Way, Collingwood +61 3 9417 6681

My last event at the Melbourne Writers Festival was the sold out session with Chris Tsiolkas, the author of The Slap.

The book was discussed in my book club earlier in the year with lots of debate, so I was very interested to hear about the work from the author’s perspective.

Tsiolkas was extremely personable and generous with his personal anecdotes during the session. For instance, he works part time as a vet nurse in Northcote because even a successful author like himself can’t pay the bills by just writing!

I really enjoyed the discussion and felt that I should pick up the book again, as my first read was all about chasing the story instead of dwelling on the deeper messages that Tsiolkas was trying to convey. During the hour I took really extensive notes  as the tone moved from relaxed to sombre to earnest to humorous, so I’ve tried to group the discussion around a couple of key themes:

The Howard Years

It’s significant that the book was set in the Howard Years – in Tsiolkas’ view, this moral tale for the middle class could not have been told at any other time. In his earlier drafts he had toyed with the idea of writing a prologue set in the Tampa election and an epilogue set in the Rudd election. Later he removed these parts because he felt that these bookends weren’t needed – the story already contained  a sense of time and space.

Tsiolkas felt that the  newly middle-class, migrant experience was  not being represented in literature, and in the book he wanted to explore what it meant to be part of this aspirational group in terms of family, history, politics and class. In his view, the success of The Slap demonstrated a real hunger for contemporary stories.

The characters

Apparently one of the questions he is often asked is why all the characters are so unlikeable, and I thought his book had a distinctly negative and pessimistic tone. In response Tsiolkas believed that in the Howard years we all became quite unlikeable – selfish, insular and inward-looking.

Sally Warhaft then asked him about how he chose the eight characters that had their own chapter. Originally there were to be thirteen characters, but he found that it made the story unwieldy, so he whittled it down to eight. He initially thought that Ari would have his own chapter, but he found that the character took the reader away from the essential part of the book. He also originally didn’t have a chapter from the perspective of either of Hugo’s parents, which is interesting because I think Rosie was one of the most fascinating characters. When his editor told him that somewhere he needed to deal with the parents, he realised that he was running away from confronting those characters and their issues. In the end he decided to focus only on Rosie as he’d already previously written extensively about men and masculinity and because he was fascinated by the form and strength of female friendships. He also considered having a chapter from Hugo’s perspective, but considered it to be too artificial.

In hindsight he would have liked to give Bilal a chapter because he was a man who had discovered how to be a moral and ethical man through religion. Also Bilal represented an opportunity to discuss Australian’s colonial past.

Finally he said his favourite characters were the oldest and youngest characters. It was important to include their views because they were casting judgements on his generation of Gen Xers. The old man was particularly important because he also gave a migrant perspective. With Ricky, he wanted to write about a child who had been raised well by a single parent and had positive relationships with female characters that were not misogynistic. (As an aside, Tsiolkas threw a bomb out into the audience when he pronounced that ‘men have a misogynistic inner monologue that would be monstrous if they revealed’). He also pointed out that in fact there were two slaps in the book – the second one when Ricky’s mum slapped him. However, the second slap has attracted almost no attention, maybe because all readers understood that it had come from a place of love and she was not being abusive.

The inspiration

Most readers probably know that The Slap was inspired by a real-life incident involving Tsiolkas’ Greek mother. His parents were hosting a barbecue much like the one in The Slap, with different generations all gathered together.  A young child was creating a nuisance in the kitchen so Tsiolkas’ mother gave him a gentle slap on the bottom and told him to stop. The child wheeled around and declared ‘no one has the right to touch my body without my permission’.  His mother responded ‘you naughty, I hit you’ and all the adults laughed.

On the way home Tsiolkas realised that the small moment represented an enormous passage of change in culture, family, parenting and history from his mother’s peasant Greek upbringing to the child’s upbringing in contemporary Australia. Also, it was an example of the fractured relationship between children and adults in the West. Where once a whole community was responsible for nurturing and disciplining a child, now it was the sole responsibility of parents to protect the child and keep them almost separate from the adult world.

The migrant experience

‘If migrants could build a nation, they could conquer the world’. Tsiolkas believed that migrants were inherently people of hurt and suffering because they had been exiled from their origins, and he decried the fact that we treated migrants and refugees as a class of people who were stateless.

Tsiolkas grew up in Richmond, a very Greek part of Melbourne at that time. His parents worked the day shift and the night shift, so in his formative years he spoke only Greek and Italian because the milk bar owner was Italian. He told an amusing anecdote that as a child he had thought that all Australians spoke Greek and on his first day of school he was seated with the refugee kids because he couldn’t speak any English.

Tsiolkas believed that his distinct memory of a pre-English history was to his advantage in his writing because he had access to the different cadences and music of another language.

Sex

One thing I didn’t notice when I read the book was the liberal use of the word c**t. In fact, Tsiolkas said that he deliberately wanted every character to either say or think the word in order to challenge readers. He believed that that sort of language was part of our contemporary vernacular, and he wanted to present the idea that our distaste for certain words depended on the context and our feelings towards the characters. He also wanted to explore the minefield of sexual conflicts, pleasures and dangers because he was fascinated by our nakedness as sexual beings.

Hope

One of the themes that my book club agreed on was that there was a sense of hope at the end. In the last chapter, the best day of Ricky’s life was when he injected speed and went to the Big Day Out with his friends. Tsiolkas wanted to challenge readers with Ricky’s drug use, showing it as a source of happiness and joy, rather than of death and destruction, and in fact the scene was a direct reference to his own experience of taking speed as a teenager and going to gig. So did Tsiolkas express a sense of hope for the younger generation? He responded ‘Yes’.

• Chris Tsiolkas in conversation, Melbourne Writers Festival, BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne 3000