Purple Pepper Antiques

On Saturday morning my sister and I visited my very good friend Karen's new antiques business Purple Pepper Antiques inside the Woolloongabba Antique Centre on Wellington Road, the Gabba. What a wonderful place this is - a treasure trove of history, glam, vintage wares, you name it. Karen has just started her wonderful business with drive, determination and most of all passion for all things with a 'story'. To quote Karen:
"Time travel is a reality at Purple Pepper Antiques and Art, a Victorian gold bangle, a silver soup ladle, an etched glass bowl from 1910, an art deco print of a Parisian girl, a Crown Devon bowl and a Royal Doulton plate are willing to tell their story and transport you to another time. Who used to own them? Where have they been? What changes have they seen? How did they survive one or even two world wars?"
Armed with imagination and curiousity, I thoroughly recommend a visit to Purple Pepper Antiques, Shop 52 at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre, which is not your usual dusty, musty, smelly old bric-a-brac centre - far far far from it - it is owned and run by two really funky young sisters and their fresh youthful energy and exuberance permeates the aisles.. plus the retro cafe serves great coffee and friandes!!

Judy's Garden

....and speaking of gardens, one of the most magnificent gardens we saw on our recent travels overseas was Judy's garden (Banx's Mum) in picturesque Jersey in the Channel Islands, about half way between UK and France. They have lived there for many years and Judy has created from scratch the most gorgeous rambling creative wonderful garden. Some days I would just sit and stare at her creation. So many of the flowering plants and shrubs are ones we cannot grow in Australia due to climate or soil, so that made it extra special. Many different birds come to nest in her garden each year along with certain types of bees, you name it. Judy is extremely environmentally conscious and "green" long before her time and nothing is wasted.. water is carried in buckets from grey water used the night before in the household; and the household scraps are saved for Judy's compost - but most of all what goes in to her garden is her love and passion - it shows with the variety of colours and smells as I wound my way down the winding little inlets and paths each morning for my beach front walk. Judy's creativity was something we could all share that holiday.

Grandad's Garden

Local Yeronga best selling author Brian Andrew has written a wonderful children's picture book that artist "Banx", has beautifully illustrated. You can order the book on line. It is a beautiful book and is about inner values and learning these by taking a walk with Grandad through his very tropical Queensland garden. Eg the Think and Thank seat for values of gratitude, the Let Go Log for forgiveness and the Dream Table for generosity. Here is the website link to have a stickybeak. Price is good value at $19.95 (especially as a Christmas gift idea) and aimed at 3-8 year olds, even a bit older, maybe we can all benefit about learning values of selflessness in today’s world: www.grandadsgarden.com.au

A Match Made in Heaven!

Vintage Vintage Everywhere!! Vintage is taking over the world! All over Paris vintage was the 'new black'... we stumbled across vintage clothing and furniture markets constantly - check out the gorgeous divine and very cooool vintage soft "foot stools" (pictured at Canal St Martin vintage markets, Paris)! And now it's come to Brissie too! On Sunday afternoon 15th November, one of my sister's friends "Carmel" is staging a vintage fashion parade at Brisbane City Hall like Brisbane has never experienced before! Amaaaaazing vintage fashions from French fashion houses, Australian fashion houses, some never worn (due to a 70s wharfies strike at the time), all of gallery and museum quality! Carmel is donating proceeds to an extremely worthy cause, the Children's Cancer Council, for all details please see www.a match made in heaven.com.au and tickets can be booked through QTIX I can't wait!!!!!

French Chic, French Chicks

We absolutely LOVED observing the French women's innate style on the streets of Paris. Street fashion is as fascinating as that displayed in the exclusive shop windows of the boulevards. The way these chic young women just "throw" something together and it SO works! By the way, yes, this gorgeous young woman COULD actually walk in these shoes, we waited to see!

Rendezvous with Rodin

One of the highlights (one of many!) for us in Paris recently was visiting Rodin's sculpture gardens. Stunning gardens, magnificent sculptures by one of the world's most talented masters. One of the facts that remained with me when we tore ourselves away from this beautiful environment was that Rodin married his life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both of their lives... how interesting is that.

A Date with Paris!

I have never walked so much in my entire life as we have done so in Paris in the last week! 7 hours yesterday! Naturally there are frequent coffee stops to boost the meanderings. We left the apartment and took a route down the most incredible cobbled streets of amazing cheese shops, next to gorgeous patisseries.. You name it, I could have eaten it! One of my favourites was a stunning florist called 'Happy'! I had researched the ancient passageway arcades before leaving Oz so we headed through new fab neighbourhoods to explore those, they are a wow! Tiny exquisite shops specialising in all sorts of goodies from contemporary Art to ancient maps, the specialty shops we just loved in these arcades included a wooden cane walking stick shop, a shop selling gramophones, a cotton reel shop, and a shop selling everything you need for dolls houses, all beneath these amazing arcaded ceilings. We stopped in the passageway specialising in food, of course, for lunch (rabbit) and glass of rose wine, more sustenance before culture over load set in ha! Very funny moment at 1 point, we asked a suited gentleman to confirm a street and he replied 'I dunno luv I'm from the Gold Coast here on a conference!' We all roared laughing! When we emerged from these amazing arcades we were suddenly in the trendiest area ever! My fave shop in that neighbourhood was a stylised black shop selling only white orchids and also a baby clothes shop called 'Not so Big' . The hairdressers in these groovy parts all look like 21st century night clubs. No matter where you go in Paris every bar, cafe, brasserie, restaurant is constantly buzzing! Our body clocks have completely re-set themselves too - we ate at 1030pm after seeing the divine Paris Opera ballet 'Giselle' and had to wait for table. Needless to say that the Paris Opera House left me breathless, especially Chagall's painted ceilings! A completely full house at the ballet too - with even pull-down aisle seats. I would hate to imagine if someone called out fire! And wow are Parisians in to their ballet or what! Such an enthusiastic crowd with men in dinner suits calling out bravo after each pirouette, fantastic! Home to our gorgeous rented flat in the Anvers district (9th arrondissement) after dinner and guess what, from the lounge we can see the very top tip of the Eiffel tower! The night markets set up tomorrow night outside our apartment, more food temptations to come! Saturday night we are heading to the famous Buddha Bar and Sun is lunch in St Germain at Coco and Co with my dear Parisian girlfriend. Apparently Coco and Co is set up like a farm as they specialise in eggs! Mind you brunch is at 3pm! Rodin's sculpture gardens today as we ran out of time yesterday, oh boy when am I going to shop??! panic! This trip is all about discovering new neighbourhoods moment by moment... ah!