First stop from San Francisco, our hire car and "cabin" at Big Sur Camp Site. It was such a beautiful spot right next to the creek, we missed out on the gorgeous shingled A-Frame cabins, they looked so cosy at night with fires going. 

On the road to Las Vegas....lots of desert and then this.....

On the way to El Mirage dry lake, found another great sign! Didn't dare try the 'good food.'

Casino watching, we walked down the strip and found the flamingos at the Flamingo Casino and the gondola at the Venetian....

Next stop lovely Palm Springs, even the tourist information centre is a fabulous modernist building! The picture below is the foyer of the Del Marcos which is where we ended up staying. It was lots of fun, small place with a heated salt pool for lounging about.

This is the view from our room, the mountain behind really looked like a movie prop. And palms everywhere for Palm Springs of course!

...some little things...

Hello again, slowed down on the old postings, trying to catch up on all the work that was neglected while we were away....better now!

The in house illustrator has come up with some swell gift tags to top off your pressies- all hand drawn therefore, one-off. Pop in and grab yours quick!

Issue #4 of Chopped Magazine should be hitting shelves soon and we'll be sure to keep you up to date, we have just received another delivery of Issue #1 for those who missed it. Perfect place to start your collection.... 

Kindling Cards have also just sent a beautiful selection of cards including 2 brand new designs. We some some fabulous handmade 'Puff' necklaces made from vintage fabrics, a lovely addition to the winter wardrobe. 

a brunswick hello

Ok, ok lots of photos from overseas but you may be asking what is actually going on at the local Boroughs...your boroughs in Brunswick well and our answer would be WINTER STOCK! Yep thats right the local favorite 'Otto and Spike' have delivered a fabulous range to keep heads, necks and fingers warm this winter. And just to indulge my holiday spirit I'll let you know that these guys are responsible for keeping us tucked in and warm all over America on our trip. Their scarves turned into wraps over heads and keeping ears warm up the Empire State Building in fact!

Some styles have returned from last winter as they were such winners and there are some great new additions we will predict a return from next winter perhaps....Pop in some great colours and these are going fast! 

next stop San Francisco

So another flight back to the West Coast, and some amazing views of snow capped mountains and we landed in San Francisco. We stayed downtown, the hotel provided muffins and coffee (which was decent!) every morning in the lobby which was great. We walked up some gigantic hills and back down, caught the cable car and of course walked the Golden Gate Bridge. There was some fabulous signage here as well, check out the images below.

The bird below was from a shop called Monument, a gorgeous store filled with 20th Century goodies, the bird was the pick.

On the first Sunday of the month there is a big market at a place called Alameda, at this stage of the trip we were still feeling like nothing was too much of a challenge, we had worked out all the public transport pretty well and decided, with muffin and coffee to set out early on the Sunday we were in SF to find this market. We left with no actual address and got a train, and two buses and directions from the two drivers and a Fireman out to a disused Army base to find the BIGGEST, and BEST market ever. Well worth the effort, it was a beautiful day and there was great veggie food for us too! Bliss. I took some photos for the memories as Coburg Trash and Treasure will sadly never live up to this.

Below is the first purchase of the day, more to come which included a suitcase to carry the loot!

Great big letters.

There were tables full of wooden block sets, type writer letters, clock faces, plastic and brass numbers and letters.

The good fat men above x 3.

The blue bike above made it home, in a large bike box, and now has fat white walls and speedo and is proving to be a great cruiser! Circa 1948, they don't build them like that any more.

Great television and small cooker for a very small person.