2012 A/W collection

A super dooper quick post before I rush off to work this morning.

I really want to share my inspiration mood board thingy for my collection this Autumn/Winter for tara louise designs. .  I'm loving how unwintery it is - i'm clearly not ready for the colder months am i!? and well, when that's the case, why not brighten up cold wintery days with neons, pom poms, polka dots and geo prints.

bring on winter i say! 

bring it on.

tara louise. 

Read more...

This little piggy went to market...

it's market day tomorrow. 

if you live on the gold coast we'd love to meet you at our little market on the beachfront.

all uniquely handmade treats by our stallholders. 

here are a couple of shots from our april market:

we hope the weather stays fine and we hope you can join us!

if you would like to apply for a stall at the june market, please email us at

thehandmademarket@hotmail.com

tara louise. 

Read more...

my little gift guide

i would like to share with you a gift guide i created the past couple of weeks for the handmade market i have.

this was an absolute labour of love and i hated it yesterday morning.

it's not perfect and more pixelated than i intended it on being, but i was determined to get it finished yesterday before i went to work. i was late, but the gift guide was published.

if you are in the area on saturday afternoon, please come down and check our little market out.

tara louise.  

check it out thegift guide below....

Open publication - Free publishing - More christmas

Read more...

saturday + sunday. market days

this weekend was a combination of markets and relaxing.

sat:  had my market in the morning....we had a more people than usual which was great! the afternoon was spent at home chilling out and getting the plumber out to fix a leak in one of our pipes.

sun: husband and i hopped in the car bright and early and headed up to the finders keepers market. we started the morning with massive bratworst/kransky rolls and sugar cane juice and then browsed all the stalls. it was so lovely to be early and actually be able to move around freely and look at everything {usually it's cram packed and you have to shuffel along with everyone else}. this afternoon was spent relaxing, taking a bike ride down to the beachfront and having a drink and some food at the surf club. (dairy free) chocolate ice-cream is almost in my new ice-cream maker....so can't wait to munch on that!

how was your weekend??

tara louise.

Read more...

surfers paradise festival

i usually avoid surfers like the plague....i stay far away most of the time, however after seeing that the suitcase rummage was on i was willing to venture up that way of the coast. this has been like an urban myth for me....something i've read lots about but never actually been to one. i was pretty excited!

so husband and i took the whole 20 minute drive and decided it was worth the drive. the atmosphere was kind of melbourney (which is VERY un-surfersy) with lots of stalls, suitcases, music and food in a little alley. i went snap happy as you can see...

         

                   

tara louise.

Read more...

Saturday + Sunday

A quick run down of my weekend so far.

SATURDAY

Ditched the 10km marathon for my market today.
First stop every saturday morning: Sugar cane juice (with ginger) and a visit to the cake shop to get a gluten and dairy free pineapple and coconut muffin at the farmers market. Also got kettle corn (it's sweet and salty and we are addicted to it but hate picking it out of our teeth for hours after) and my yummy eggs from the organic stall.

Then headed to The Handmade Market: Currumbin. I have had one small table at the market for ages and am getting sick of it and feel like my stall needs to grow up a bit. So after some incredibly tedious  research on pinterest, design sponge and other similar, you know, boring sites I have come up with a stall i'm liking more and more. This was my stall this time. I still need to find time to make more thing to go on my tables though i think.

The rest of my day was spent doing house work and watching TV, then trying to find some hard to find PS3 game with husband.

SUNDAY

slept in and woke up late at 8:14am. meant to meet ma and pa at the rsl for a buffet brekky at 8:30. surprsingly we weren't that late and the brekky was yum. then headed up to the finders keepers market in Brissy.

i wasn't too impressed this year to be honest, and the highlight for me was the smoothie cycle place.

you order your drink (my smoothie of choice was one with dates, sunflower seeds, brazil nute, cinnamon, cardomin, honey and rice milk.....you could actually have different milks! that was the most exciting thing to start off with...i didnt have to have soy!), then hop on the bike and blend your smoothie up. so husband and i hopped on and did our bit to help the environment....and my golly, it was delicious!

and now i am home and have just baked some lemon crinkle cookies (of which i can't find the recipe...thought it was on pinterest. hmmm) while eating olive sourdough, olive oil and balsamic. mmmm.

hope you've had an enjoyable weekend too.

tara louise.

Read more...

going through the business cards...

seeing as i had no money at finders keepers on the weekend, i chose to collect business cards as i went around. i'm only now just getting some time to go through them all.

these are some of the things that took my fancy...


this delightful necklace by cory child...





these wooden speakers by speakr box



these delightful shelves from bride & wolfe...





love love love!!! this necklace from lola&bailey...

...after checking out this website i realised they are everywhere at the moment!!




these kid-like yet grown up illustrations by penelope and pip...

i would like to sail away too.....take me with you!




this old-school slash modern swimmies......they had heaps of padding too! great for small titted girls like me : ) they are by sanoii + six. they had a lovely stall too...







and this bow from south for the summer...




i also found the most aMAZing jewellery from one place but somehow managed to not get a business card from that stall. so annoying! it's my birthday coming up and was going to hint to my husband that he could buy me anything from there and i'd be super impressed with it. they had the coolest rabbit rings and random quirky jewellery. loved it all!! all i remember is that it was next to limedrop.....and there were a thousand people around it. can anyone help me? does it ring any bells????

off to aztecs for dinner with husband and the young boy. chicken and frijole tostada here i come. mmm mmmmm. oh and sangria. i need it after today.

tara louise.

Read more...

finders keepers + op shop finds

i was going to do this post last night however ended up making a mouse trap car (we ended up copying this dude's video tutorial) that needed to be due in today. so here it is this morning instead.

on the weekend i had many markets i wanted to get to. i had my handmade market on the saturday morning which clashed with nothing, but on sunday i wanted to go to finders keepers, the young designer market, the village markets and then read about little jane st's yard sale.  i was already going to finders keepers, so decided to stick to the one side of brisbane and go to finders keepers and little jane st.

I was pretty excited when i walked into winn st and saw the flamingo cafe too!

i was then really excited to get some mt tape and bakers twine from little jane st.

i finally have mt tape!! yeehhaaaaa.

thats a whole post all for itself : )

after driving around in circles for abit (damn you brisbane and your one way streets), we found our way the very close distance to the old museum where finders keepers was. i didn't buy much but loved just seeing how everyone else displays their products on their tables.

i'm always trying to better the look of my table at the markets.

there were 4 rooms full of lovely designers and pretty goodies linked by stalls on the verandah.

i was pretty excited to see the frankie stall too.

and so excited about their new book spaces to be released in a couple of weeks.

i took ma and pa with me and met a friend up there, but unfortunately couldnt stay all day as i had to come back and clean out my house.

wasn't going to wait until my husband didn't feel like it anymore!!

i had a short timeframe and had to act quickly.

i had a great day.

came back full of inspiration.

wish i was as clever as some of the other peeps out there!

tara louise.

Read more...