Flying wall ducks brooch set

Let me introduce you to Shelbyville, she is a graphic designer by day, and moonlights as a designer-maker/artist/photographer for the rest of the time. On any given month she can be found behind a market stall at various zine fairs, writer’s festivals, and design/art markets.

Shelbyville products are pretty much a manifestation of their creator’s fascination with creating new uses for found vintage objects and materials, including game pieces, toys, vintage and found papers, pianola rolls, old-fashioned packaging labels, and such things. 

The Shelbyville range which includes stickers, zines, brooches and pendants is available online through Etsy and Made it

Have a peek at the Shelbyville Blog which Michelle keeps up to date with current crafting projects, independent designers markets and places she likes to shop.

The rustic chic display in store.

A pretty little blue asian jewelry box.

Japanese ceramic bird and gorgeous vintage french menu in the background.

Mary on the front table with all the sweet ceramic pieces.

Pretty embroidered doily

Round wooden handles

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I know it’s thursday and another weekend is nearly upon us but this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write a post.

I had lots of fun in the shop on saturday hanging out with a lovely friend of mine who is a stylist.

Newspaper Taxi really is the type of store where you can lose track of time. I think my partner Matthew knows my time measurements by now. “Just a quick look” usually means over half an hour. I’m also a chit chatter which seems to exacerbate the problem. So a browse can turn into several hours. I’m also very indecisive, you should see me in the video store. Once I went to get some movies on my own and couldn’t make up my mind. Matt had come home and called me asking where I was, as the last I spoke to him was to say I was going to the video shop.  I was in the video store for 2 hours. 

Last week I popped down to Broadway hoping to be home within a few hours. I was gone the whole day. About an hour was spent talking to a lovely Russian woman at the chemist who insisted on giving me samples of Apivita facial products because I “was so lovely and took the time to listen to her recommendations”. She even took me to another register just so she could serve me herself. I did go back the other day to thank her and let her know which samples I liked best, which she had asked me to do but she wasn’t there. 

My friend Amy even commented that I looked great the day after my birthday dinner. I woke up feeling a wee bit hungover so I applied the Aqua plus face mask with cucumber wile I got ready for work. It worked a treat, I just love them!

I bought a whole bunch of the Apivita express facial range products to give as gifts. I always like to have an emergency gift on hand and these are just perfect. The range includes masks for face, body and hair. They come in a single use “Express”size, which fits quite nicely into a card and envelope that you could post to someone special. The next time you go past your local chemist , pop in and see if the Apivita range is available. My favorite was the honey hair mask, delicious!

Oh, we have had some great stock come and go over the last week. I had an amazing collection of vintage ephemera that came all the way from Tasmania which has already found a loving home here in Sydney, a sweet little Kauri pine chest of drawers and a complete carry rack of vintage milk bottles that disappeared out of the shop just as quickly as they came in.

I have also been busy styling a gorgeous little house for an equally gorgeous friend of mine and am in the early stages of a painting commission.

So what’s new in the shop? We have a mismatched pair of white sea grass verandah chairs in store. They are just lovely, worn to perfection and oh-so cozy with a throw rug and vintage cushion. We also have a great range of framed floral prints just like the rose picture on the wall above. I was very happy with my cream roses from the fruit shop. I came down stairs this morning and stepped into the sweet floral fragrance half way down the hallway stairs. Overnight the fragrance had filled the whole shop. $12.00 well spent!

For all the treasure hunters out there, we have some lovely pastel colored enamel bowls, vintage sewing scissors, pretty glass bottle stops, rustic round wooden door knobs, antique soap boxes, and french porcelain tea canisters. But be quick! I just sold the pretty rose vase in the picture above, before I have even had time to finish writing this post.

We also have a great range of vintage books with titles including Dr Dolittle and Treasure Island. I just love them for styling as they look fantastic in stacks to feature items on top of like a little pedestal. Some of the books have beautiful illustrations and some have dapper bookplates but they all have very lovely covers and the pages are worn to the perfect shade of brown.

Here is a picture of one of my handmade cards. My friend Vicki knows how much time I poured into each one. But It was a labour of love, I’m going to make more and make them a little more efficiently… they are SO pretty, like miniature artworks.

Oh, the new sewing box. Does anyone else remember the gorgeous french fabric boxes from the Peppergreen Trading Co. in the last christmas edition of Vogue? This is the same as those, but it’s a sewing box with sweet little compartments that fold out when the box is opened. It’s very beautiful. The fabric cover is a little tattered but it only adds to the charm. It would be perfect for a jewelry box or a little caddy for your desk.

We often get young men coming in search of teapots for an addition to their beloved’s collection. The last one we had was in the shape of a cactus, yes, it was totally adorable, but it has sold!

We do however have this little sweetie in store. It’s a deep brown with a piped european style folk pattern. Very cute and a great pot for one.

Coming from someone who is Latvian, wears “pocahontas mochasins” and drinks chai, remind me again why I am selling this! Be quick boys, or I will keep it for myself.

The Foo Dog, this is one of my favorite pieces in store at the moment. The turquoise color is incredible, it’s got a bit of age to it and would make a lovely addition to a collection of oriental pieces. This is a female figure as she has her paw on a cub.

Foo Dogs are really lions and are often placed at temple gates and porticos of houses to scare demons. The Chinese Foo Dog is also known as the Happiness Dog as “Fu” is the Chinese word for happiness!