And the winner is...

Alison is the winner of my baking giveaway. Thank you to all you cake-loving 81 friends who left a comment, I loved reading about all your favourites. I did a quick poll and it seems there are some clear winners in the 'favourite all-time cakes and slices' stakes - pav, lamingtons and anzacs, the classics you might say, and I was surprised at how many people chose 'mars bar slice' which is something I have never tried but will do now. Does anyone have a good recipe? Hope you're enjoying some Christmas treats right now!

Friends make it

A long, chatty visit to new friends in Ballarat and their cute baby boy over the best (and I mean best) made coffee today

A night out with the girls; such fun that we all plan to do it again and soon

Christmas lunch with friends of 17 years and their extended family; wine, crackers, roast veggies, and going home with a large parcel of Love Cake

An old friend of Paul's from uni days with her new husband visiting for lunch tomorrow

Blog friends pop into our shop, from WA, Queensland and farther; we really appreciate this

Pizza and wine with local pals who have recently returned from a trip to Japan and have funny stories to tell

A faux pas - on a very dear friend's Christmas Card we have put the name of her old boyfriend and not her new guy who we have met and love (luckily she is an old friend and it becomes cause for a laugh)

'Open house' for six to eight-year-olds - lots of boys playing happily and noisily with their friends

Checking in with my favourite blogs and finding out what everyone's been doing over the holiday

Old neighbours living in Berlin send a photo in their Christmas card; they are having a new baby in January, a little sister for James

Late night phone calls; giggles; 'in jokes'; someone's favourite chocolates; board games, discovering things in common; friends make Christmas special, especially when you are living far from your family. I hope it has been a happy time for you too. x

Have a Twinkly Christmas!

I'm logging off for a few days to spend time with friends and family and enjoy my favourite time of year. I'll leave you with this image from one of my collection of old Twinkle magazines that I collected as a little girl. I hope you have a lovely Christmas - don't get stressed, don't be good and don't forget that it's only once a year so make the most of it! xxx

Christmas Hours at the Shop

Here are the hours we'll be open at the shop over Christmas. Our office is behind the shop, so if you wish to see us on another day there's a good chance someone will be there, please just email us a day or so before.

Monday 28 December 10.30-4
Saturday 2 January 10.30-4
Sunday 3 January 10.30-4
Saturday 9 January 10.30-4
Sunday 10 January 10.30-4

Bugsy

Channel surfing through Foxtel, I just found a rerun of Bugsy Malone, which was released when I was about 7 years old. I'd completely forgotten how obsessed my friends and I were with this film. I used to practise all the routines in my bedroom for hours on end. I SO adored Jody Foster and Scott Baio, but really I wanted to be the Blousey Brown character in my heart. Do you remember it? It's stood the test of time, I have to say, what a great movie! I'm going to buy a copy for my kids.

It triggered off another memory of the time. There was a range of children's stationery and cards (maybe by Hallmark) with cartoon 1920s gangster guys and molls with huge eyes and fur coats. I remember having notebooks and scrapbooks with them on, I loved them, but I can't remember what these characters were called, does anyone know? Maybe something like 'Gatsby Gang'?

Christmas Giveaway!

It's that time of year again - I am doing a little giveaway this week, just for fun. The prize is a Lark Christmas Pressie containing...

A Frankie Afternoon Tea Book

A Dumpling Dynasty Baking Kit

A copy of Patisseries a Paris by Paumes Books

A Classic Ladybird Books tea towel

Yes, there is a bit of a baking theme going on here! And to enter the giveaway I would like you to leave a comment telling me your five favourite classic Aussie cakes and slices. Lamingtons? Vanilla slice? Peppermint slice? Rumballs? Carrot Cake? What do you always buy first at the CWA stall or school fete? I'd like to know.

Please leave your comments by Boxing Day and I'll pick a winner the following day.

Mr. Fish is on the move

We are finally moving Mr. Fish from our back verandah at home into our new office space.

He is a giant vintage-style children's fairground ride that was sent to us by Andy and Fiona at Wu & Wu for a trade fair last year. If you put in a dollar coin he moves around to the tune of Chinese pop music. Awesome!

Speaking of Wu & Wu, we are launching a new range they've created called Tokyo Belle in the new year, can't wait!!!!!

Daylesford Bazaar

I have written about this place before, my favourite vintage shop in Daylesford. I go past it every day on my walk to work and it is so hard not to pop in all the time to buy something. Here's what I spotted in there today...





And here's what I bought. A great biscuit tin ($10), some tea towels ($5) and cute storybooks (free).



Daylesford Bazaar is on Vincent Street, heading out of town towards Hepburn Springs. It's open most days and the owner Doug is happy to look out for things for you if you're looking for something in particular.

Vintage Christmas Stuff

I totally love vintage Christmas wrapping paper, cards, labels etc. I like to collect them all through the year and use them to make gifts and cards and for cute wrapping...

Small in Australia- looking for designers and models....

Small Magazine photographer Grant Cornett is visiting Melbourne to shoot stories for the spring and summer issues 2010. If your child (ages 4-7) is interested in modeling or you are a small independent designer and would like to have your clothes featured in these shoots and are able to ship immediately please send an email to editor@smallmagazine.net for more information.

Have you seen the latest issue of Small, by the way?

Thank You

A big thank you to everyone who made the effort to come to our sample sale this weekend. The sale has now finished but we had a fab time and it was lovely to see so many old and new faces.


Special thanks to Cathie for the box of delicious chocolate cupcakes she brought in!

Nice words about our shop

We have been very lucky this month to attract some great media coverage for the Lark shop. We were featured in Real Living first of all, and I was also asked by Natalie Walton, the mag's super-nice ed, to do an interview for her blog, Daily Imprint, about my thoughts and inspirations. What an honour! She called our store 'possibly the cutest shop in the world'. I was in quite a reflective mood when we did the interview, so it's a bit more personal than other interviews I have done, but I am pleased with it, Natalie has managed to perfectly capture just where I am right now. And this week, Vogue Living have featured our little shop, with huge hugs and thanks to Ebony. It's so great to get this kind of support, and of course I'm majorly indebted to Mr. Rohan, who is responsible for all the photos of our shop. Thanks, guys! xxx

All set up

Everything is ready for our first warehouse sale on Friday and Saturday. I've priced up all the items , starting from $1 up to $25, and I was surprised at quite how many lovely things we have. Most are current stock, things that we wont be selling in the new year so they have to go to make space in our little shop! If you are popping in, we open at 9, and you can now park two doors up from us in the new carpark at the back of the Rex shopping arcade. Hope to see you! xx

Tree Drama

The tree is up, and decorated! Yay! There was a slight drama when Paul went to put the star on the top of the tree and discovered a rather large green jumping spider living there. My son informed me that this species is 'not aggressive but can give a painful bite'. Much rushing about to find the Spider Catcher (best invention ever) ensued, and the spider was removed to the garden and all is now peaceful again. Wow, feels like Christmas! xxx

Gone to the beach (I wish)

We needed to partition off a part of the Lark warehouse for our very exciting sample sale on Friday and Saturday, so we asked a local friend who is also a set designer, if he had any panels that we could easily put up - and this is what he came up with, a row of Beach Huts! It is so much fun, I am tempted to serve cocktails and wear one of the My Sister Pat bathers (not likely). We all like the 'beach huts' so much that we're secretly hoping to keep them here! The sale is going to be awesome, I can't wait...

Come to Lark's first-ever Sample Sale!

It's going to be a beautiful 22 degrees in Daylesford this weekend. We're hoping you'll want to escape the city Christmas congestion and come out to the country to do your last-minute Christmas shopping. Our warehouse is going to be open on Friday and Saturday, for the first time ever, with lots of Lark goodies at half price or more. Down the street you'll find some lovely gift and toy shops, great cafés for a relaxing lunch, two amazing craft shops, and why not even book in for a pre-Christmas spa or treatment?

Get the lowdown on Daylesford here. And did you read Mandy's lovely post about her visit to the area last week? Hope you can make it over too, our sample sale is going to be LOTS of fun, I will be there both days. The doors open on Friday at 9am.

Stop working... the new Frankie is here!

Gorgeous as ever, so exciting to see lovely people like Natalie and Ben, sweet craft project by Pip , lovely collections, fashion, craft, mmm, I could go on for ever but I'm off to read it with my morning cuppa in the sunshine! x


PS Love the feature spread on badges and brooches! You will spot a few of my creations, alongside lots of other lovely girls including Lyndsay, Bec, Geniene, Pip, Beci, Anna Laura, Lou and Sonia (you'll have to buy the mag to get all the links!), yay Frankie for supporting crafty girls!