warm welcome to sir rabbit and friends

Looking for some affordable art for your walls? Look no further, 'stick meon' has come up with some fabulous vinyl creatures to adorn your walls, whether you are renting (no nails) or doing up your childs bedroom (or in fact your own!) we now have the range available. These will surely catch your imagination and soon you'll have little birdies fluttering above doorways and rabbits dressed for dinner popping out from behind your couch.

Proudly made and designed in Melbourne, 'ho hum-hummingbirds', 'peeping cardinals', well dressed 'Sir rabbit' in floral or spotted jackets and the 'oh little bird.'

Keep your eyes peeled as they are sure to fly, and hop out the door!  

improvement in the studio

There have been a few things that we still haven't managed to find time for since opening the shop and today we almost finished one on the long list of jobs- we are giving you a sneak peek to see what you all think of a growing collection we have: 

Can you guess what they are? Oh, and we'll post the finished piece so you can feast your eyes!

something for your diaries

Make note people, next Wednesday will see us climbing to The Order of Melbourne not only for a well deserved beverage but to take part in bidding for handmade jewellery from this years N.M.I.T Advanced Diploma of Engineering Technology (or, the Jewellery diploma!) 

You can start looking at 6pm, then the bidding will kick off at 7pm. 

Not only will you be able to pick yourself up something hand crafted but you'll be taking part in the fundraising needed for their Graduate show held later this year. 

Order of Melbourne

Level 2 / 401 Swanston Street, Melbourne (Cnr Lt La Trobe Street)

it's a wrap

After receiving requests for wrapping paper in our store, we embarked on todays little project, hand screen printing our very own. We have used a fun collection of colours to print some of our most current designs and they seem good enough to collect. 

Printed on recycled brown paper, then trimmed to a standard of 600mm x 800mm

They look even better in real life and are available for $4.50 a piece. 

and the hours

I found it quite hard to capture the hours, as Sunday is such a beautiful day and the sun is shining bright! Mmm lovely.

You can see a bit of our hand screen printed wallpaper which sits behind the door. It kind of looks like millions of tiny umbrellas or little mushrooms- but then some people thinks it looks like little spaceships! What ever takes your fancy.

This week we received a box of goodies from our Tasmanian friends take a peek below. The necklaces are made of lovely little wooden beads strung onto ribbon with a great acrylic bird cage and bird cut out. They all come in their own little gloss white box- super!

Along with those goodies we got another delivery of their plain painted beads in red, white and natural. And another great selection of the brooches they do- thank you!

DIY Signage

For those who have managed to make the trip out to Five Boroughs you will know to look out for the duck egg blue repeat design on our window. For those who haven't made it out, now when you do, you can look out for the duck egg blue and cream repeat design that we finished off today.

We even have our shop hours on the door! Something we have been hanging out to have up for a little while now. We love graphics and typography, so we are happy to have a bit more on the front of our shop. 

We'll update a photo of the hours tomorrow.

Oh and for the chocolate lovers, we have just received another order of the wonderful Rewind Coco Smooth (hot chocolate) so pop on in and grab your loved one- or yourself a great canister filled with the good stuff. 

Have a great weekend.

almost good enough to eat

A little while ago I met a girl, the girl was asking for used (but clean) milk cartons, somewhat strange at the time. The girl turned out to be lovely and we soon became friends. The girl owned up to making soaps in a backyard and was recycling milk cartons as her moulds. We soon bought, and swapped items and I can confidently say will never go back to using your average soap. How could you once cleaning off the daily grind with mixes of; Cedarwood, Orange and Organic red lentils; orange is a sweet, warm, sensuous, radiant oil that is high in Vitamin C and carotene; Peppermint, Rosemary and Organic green clay; which has a cooling action, reducing sunburn and inflammation, the fragrance is uplifting and stimulating; Fennel, Blackpepper clove and Poppyseed, blended together they make this soap ideal for the face and body of a dry and mature type skin, this soap is also great as a shaving bar!

This has been a fortunate relationship for the general public as we now sell it at our store, thats right we're happy to sell it to you- there's enough for everyone to smell fabulous! 

Boasting 100% plant based product, with pure essential oils, and vegan. With nothing nasty like mineral oils, petrochemicals, artificial colours or fragrances. 

The soap was just the starter, there since had been added a Bath Scrub (above) which is made of Organic Brown Sugar and Rice with a fragrance of Rose geranium and Orange; brown rice polishes your body and the sugar acts as a stimulating exfoliant leaving your skin feeling amazingly smooth and revitalised. And below is the range of Body and Bath Oils; Organic Lavender, Rosemary and Orange or Rose Geranium and Orange. Too good! Come in and smell for yourself. 

better than maple syrup, comes maple xo

This week we welcome another designer 'Maple xo', this time from Portland, USA. Continuing the recycled theme from the newspaper this smart cookie takes second hand skateboards and turns them into items that you will want to adorn your body with, such as bracelets and earrings. You can wear big hoops or small hoops and stack the beautifully coloured laminated Ply bracelets up your arms. All pieces showing the signs of their pre loved beginning.

Assorted colours and finishes so no two are the same.

surprise surprise

If you missed the article in The Age last weekend, here's the link

http://www.theage.com.au/news/house--home/surprise-surprise/2008/03/06/1204779968781.html

It's often funny to see how an article appears, there was a lot of smiling and suggestions of 'try and look like your having fun!' 

However, it's a great little article and people have been flooding in. So thank you Ann. And to the people that haven't made it up to the unlikely shopping strip, come on and make the effort, its well worth it.

Also, we had one of the beautiful, 'Make Stuff' lamp featured in the A2 section of 'The Age' yesterday. These classic lamps come from Jan Juc, mixing vintage wallpaper screen printed lamp shades and plywood stands. Available under names such as 'Tree lamp,' 'Pitch lamp' and the sweet 'Penguin'.

Sheriff of the boroughs

IN STORE:

If you like to give orders, this little badge grants you the authority to be the sheriff of anything that you wish. Be sure not to abuse its power.

Acrylic Sheriff badge by Dick & Dora

Western themed, screenprinted 'Thank you' gift card by 'Holly Daze' and 'Lark' keyring with vintage sheriff motif and super cowboys either side in clear tag. 

Lots of orders for new work have been placed so we are keenly waiting their arrival, we sure to keep you posted! Enjoy the long weekend.

resin jewels

Five Boroughs welcomes a new comer this week- Brunswick based jeweller, 'Marguerite'. 

Using lovely vintage fabrics to create buttons, brooches, pendants, earrings and cufflinks. We took a few snaps to give you something to dream about over the weekend. 

Buttons are made so you can sew them on to any crafty project you may be doing and are able to even go through your washing machine! Happy people.

Earrings come with sterling silver studs. Cufflinks have plated silver backs. 

cherry blossom bells

Off to Sydney for a family wedding on the weekend, our big brother was getting hitched. His wife is Japanese and they had a cherry blossom theme. 

The gathering was at the yacht club at Rushcutters, over looking the harbour.

They had perfect weather and a good handful of little helpers. 

They are lucky enough to know a fabulous chef who pitched in and made a hundred cupcakes pictured above.


This is mum san, who travelled all the way from a little island off the bottom of Japan, travelling with an aunt, cousin and nephew- called Zen who at three years old and dressed in a  matching Hawaiian suit had all the ladies falling over themselves.

The evening was full of celebrations and happy tears, but back to work now and its great to be a sister in law.

polka dot joy

LATEST ARRIVAL:

All the way from Jackson, Wyoming (U.S.A) come these spiffy wheel-thrown polka dot mugs and bowls by Peeling Ceiling pottery. 

Hand crafted from gloss, glazed clay making for a lustrous green lining and the choice of robin egg blue or charcoal polka dot, the pair will make even an early monday morning breakfast a joy.

Walk on in and collect yours here, now.

in the sweet bye & bye

As you can see it is shaping up to be a birthday of books, we have so much hanging on our walls, it seems fitting to fill up our new shelves.

The next addition is the Margaret Kilgannen: in the sweet bye & bye. Our attention was grabbed from the front cover through to back where the soft colours meet embossed leaves. The essay, interviews and images all a joy to be read and viewed. The colours, typography and shapes are beautiful and we have already inspired to get busy. A wall mural was started a few weeks ago and now it might be time to crack out the paints and get working again.

pigeon 177

Next present for the artist is the second book in Tim Biskups' series of paintings. The series started in 1999 when Biskup couldn't sustain larger paintings and turned his attention to little doodles on postage stamp sized scraps of illustration board. The project has since developed into a series of 500 business card sized paintings, called "Jackson 500" named for his grandfather whose middle name they share.

Above is 'pigeon 177' a favorite so far.

rocket 88

For those who don't already know, today we are celebrating a birthday in house! So we thought we would show off the gift giving that went on this morning while we also enjoyed a lush spread of cakes from the local bakery.

Perfect gift for the library collection on chrome. As the very fine example of chrome that we own is still in pieces and has been for the past 3 years we needed something else beautiful to have a geezer at. Cuba, being a vintage car lover's paradise. Until the 1960's Cuba was the world's leading importer of American automobiles. It is estimated that there are as many as ten thousand mid-century American cars that still exist in Cuba, making the country perhaps the world's largest living automotive museum.   

Rocket 88 another super example of the lost era of motoring with excellent chrome accessories. From the 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88, which had a chrome rocket as its hood emblem. Oldsmobile ads described their car as "long and low-level, lithe and so lovely!...and the driver should be advised that the "Rocket" engine responds instantly to your every wish!"

Below shows off the Mechanic Shop where a 1951 Buick Special is being restored.

fuel prices

For all those that complain about the current price of fuel. 

This artwork may help you recall the times when fuel was 38 cents per Gallon.

Artwork by 'Holly Daze', acrylic paint and silkscreen print on cotton.

610 mm x 760 mm  $215

Print design was inspired by vintage fuel price signs that hang in our garage.

Take the time to Rewind

LATEST ARRIVAL:

Rewind coffee beans are roasted in Australia and come foil packed in a canister that is airtight, stackable, and reusable. 

A homage to the kitchen canister of yesteryear, Rewind have got the colour hues spot on, plus the silver foil script makes it a kichen deco that will stick around for years after the coffee is enjoyed.

Six sexy varieties are available: CREMA DELUXE, BOMBA BOLD, LUNA NOVA, ULTRA ESPRESSO, DYNA DECAF, and a drinking chocolate COCO SMOOTH

Available individually as well as a gift boxed sample pack of six.

Take the time to Rewind

fine knitting needles

'Kearnsie' has done it again, perhaps to match with your ring that we posted last week, or for the lovers of a bracelet out comes the trio. Wear one or wear all three and choose red, magenta, golden yellow or aqua.

They are anodised, aluminium and are here now!

coin operated design

'coin operated design' is a brand spanking pair of designers who have come up with a holga, camera candle.

In super, white wax these have incredible detail, you can feel the faux leather cover, see the hinges to load up your film and grooves to wind to the next frame.

Not to be missed and probably too good to light, so stayed tuned to see what they come up with next.