health and beauty

HOT: SO:ME Space, South Melbourne Market, 322-326 Coventry St, South Melbourne

December 12, 2011 ⋅ One comment

South Melbourne Market has moved out the dollar stores and moved in some hip wares. Under the big shed they’ve created a space for small shops and pop up sites called SO:ME Space. It’s filled with clothing, accessories, artwork and bikes – a fun place to browse before or after your market grocery shopping. Some [...]

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

December 2, 2011 ⋅ One comment

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 [...]

The Casual Cyclist’s Guide to Melbourne Giveaway!

December 2, 2011 ⋅ 48 comments

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, [...]

HOT: Melbourne Tweed Ride 2011

November 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Tally-ho ladies and gents! Thanks to some Sunday sun, a group of about 50 well-dressed cyclists gathered for the annual Melbourne Tweed Ride. Tweed wearers and vintage-stylers rode out from Federation Square along the tweedy brown Yarra River to Como House, which was hosting the Paris to Provence Festival. We got many amazed glances, friendly waves and [...]

HOT: Melbournalia Home, Level 1 Rear 126 Franklin St, Melbourne

November 17, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Stuck for a unique, Melbourne-themed Christmas gift or holiday souvenir? Then make sure you get to Melbournalia, a series of pop up stores open now in the lead-up to Christmas. Over the next few weeks four Melbourne CBD venues and one repurposed newspaper stand will host displays of Melbourne design goodness, with HQ being at [...]

HOT List: Bike-friendly cafes in Melbourne

August 23, 2011 ⋅ One comment

How are you enjoying the beautiful weather this week? I’m going to ride my bike and enjoy some lunch. The Wheeler, a quarterly magazine about cycling culture in Melbourne, recently compiled a comprehensive list of bike-friendly cafes in Melbourne. Being a cycling and cafe fan (though not of the road racing lycra-clad variety), I thought [...]

HOT: Tokyo Bike Shop Melbourne, 5 Peel Street, Collingwood

August 18, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

The newest addition to the Fitzroy/Collingwood bike shop enclave is Tokyo Bike, a small independent bike brand hailing all the way from Yanaka, Japan via Sydney. I’ve previously written about Tokyo Bike’s Sydney store on The Design Files and now husband-and-wife team Fuyuki and Yuki Sagahara have headed south to bring their colourful steeds to [...]

HOT Chat: Greg Ferrington of Westgate Community Initiatives Group Inc and LoveLuvo

August 5, 2011 ⋅ 4 comments

Regular readers will know that I love finding out about social enterprise businesses in Melbourne (such as STREAT, Charcoal Lane and The Social Studio) and recently I was told about LoveLuvo, a retail store with environmentally friendly products for the home and body (as well as a manufacturing business) which provides employment for those with [...]

HOT: Roll-Up

July 27, 2011 ⋅ One comment

No, we’re not talking about those nasty fruit rubbers! Roll-Up is a new bicycle valet parking service which is launching at State of Design. Instead of locking your bike up to the nearest lamp post, cyclists can get their bike valet parked for free by the fun-fair themed Roll-Up crew. It’s a great initiative as [...]

HOT: Made to Measure – Treadlie Handmade Bicycle Show, Design:Made:Trade, Royal Exhibition Building, 9 Nicholson St, Carlton

July 22, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

As you all know by now, the theme for this year’s State of Design Festival is ‘design that moves’. So it’s fitting that part of Design : Made : Trade this year is an exhibition all about bikes. Specifically, Treadlie magazine contacted bicycle builders, from professionals to amateurs, and put together an exhibition of eighteen [...]