renee anne // art. love. food. life

fridays I am usually feeling pretty good. I do yoga on Thursday nights, and so I always wake up with a fresh and new outlook on things. things tend to look, feel and smell better. which I think must be a good thing.

this morning during my morning routine, I was reading my most recent purchase :: the latest issue of Inside Out magazine, the CHRISTMAS issue. I have already been secretly planning my christmas decorations, and doing a bit of present shopping, and so I love it when the retail and media world can confirm with me that this is ok, by decorating and publishing gift guides and christmas themed issues.

so today, my fave fab friday find, is going to be pages 15 and 16 from this latest CHRISTMAS 09 issue from Inside Out. as you know, I am a hard core handmade, indie, local, nice things shopper, and I am just loving that these "bigger" mags are jumping on board this "trend" for want of a better word. from what I can tell, they are recommending us gorgeous things, which are mostly handmade, locally made, unique, eco-friendly or just generally pretty special.

I thought I would try and itemise and link to everything on these pages, for my own reference (because I was going to be adding them to my favourites anyway) and of course for your own!

you can click on the image and be taken to my flickr page, from there I have made notes which include links to all the things featured on the page! cool huh! does that make sense? otherwise, I have included the "stockist list" here too.

page 15 :: bride and wolfe :: materialistic :: notemaker :: naomi murrell :: the cooking company :: made it :: funkis :: design for use :: hard to find :: annas cuisina ::

page 16 :: distracted :: papier d'amour :: lightly :: polli :: MCA shop :: papaya :: paper boat press :: nana huchy :: third drawn down :: no chintz :: honey bee homewares ::

thank you Inside Out, for not only being gorgeous to look at, but for giving links to even more amazing (Australian) stores and pretty sweet things. just when you thought you had seen it all hey! well done!! make sure you check out their blog, if like me, the monthly fix is not enough!

don't forget, to click here and here to see my itemised page :: links and notes galore!! happy shopping.

welcome home!
gosh did I even post that I was going to Brisbane? well I did! I am home now. Many of the Australian internet peeps will no doubt have heard of the Finders Keepers markets?! They are a super amazing market, that have prevously been held in Sydney (every 6 months or so). Last weekend however, they made the big trip up to Brissie, and brought the super market magic to the lovely sweet lovely people of Brisbane!!

I had my Leeloo hat on for the entire weekend which was just fantastic, and for those of you who went, I was one of the tired, sweaty, exhausted, happy, excited and hopefully friendly ladies standing behind the gorgeous Leeloo stall! It was a big task to get all the pretty Leeloo things up to Brisbane, then get ourselves up there, then set everything up and still keep our spirits up for the nine hours to follow as the people just constantly poured in (and all again the following day!)But I think we did ok.

The adrenelin was pumping at the time, and while I felt tired, I never once felt sad. The smiling faces, the sweet comments, the happy people, the kind words, the inspiration, the community element all made the whole experience more than worthwhile. Plus, I got to meet so many online "buddies", and in the 4.3 minutes I had spare, got to do a little bit of shopping!

I am just going to do a bit of a shout out to some of the peeps I met, bought from, spoke to, smiled at, or whatevers. If I have left you off, I am so sorry. Slap me and I will fix that right up!

blossom creations :: bespoke letterpress :: chi designs :: courtney brims :: electric boy :: elodi magazine :: frankie magazine :: girl made this :: kim wallace :: kindling :: little jane st :: lola & bailey :: neu creative :: and the rest of the wonderful stallholders at the markets ::

for those of you who were not there, or ran out of cash be sure to check out the stallholder directory, because lots of the talented peeps sell online!


and of course, keep your diarys marked for the next Sydney markets, which are going to be held on the 4th and 5th of December, at the CarriageWorks in Sydney’s Inner West. I am also so very excited to share that my talented boyfriend was acceped as a stallholder for these markets, and so Foreshore Dynamic will be there to enjoy all of the excitement! Yipee!

[the stunning poster by the lovely Tabitha Emma]

well, I have a feeling the Once Upon exhibition is no secret within the online artist community! If you haven't heard about it (and you are Australian) then what are you doing?!?! Rush over to the Once Upon website and check out what all the fuss is about. If you are not Australian, go check it out anyway, because there is lots of pretty loveliness to see, and much much more to come.

as much as I love talking about the show, instead of trying to explain it to you, it is probably best you go and read the wonderful words by Angela, because she does a much better job at explaining than I do. you may, or may not be aware however, that the renee she speaks of is actually me! wow what do you know!

so yes, my partner in crime (Angela) and I have actually teamed up again for the show. organising an exhibition of such size, and one that is shaping up to be quite the event is actually really changeling, in a good way. It is funny though, because my "real world" peeps don't really get just how much work we are doing and how much this actually means to the "online peeps". if I try and talk about some exciting new development (like for example that Frankie are the exhibitions main partner!!!#T^#@#$@!!!$%!) (or actually, the fact that the exhibition is ACTUALLY IN the latest issue of Frankie) I get a look that says "ok, Renee that's great" or "Frankie? who is that?" *pats me on the head and rolls eyes*.

so thank you so so so much for all your enthusiasm, because without it,
well let's just say it is what motivates us to keep on going!!!

a lot of artists have been showing sneak peeks, so I guess I better show mine. I have been on a pretty sweet "journey" with these four little works, starting, then starting again, then hating it, then loving it. I think a lot of the artists have found the size and theme specs to be a huge challenge, again in a good way! I think the best/hardest thing for me is that it all makes me a bit confused. I start going down one path with my art, love it, but then change, and I never seem to keep consistent. maybe it is my self diagnosed ADHD or something. who knows. anyway, after I have completed my works for the show I am thinking of setting myself some sort of artistic challenge. maybe something like this. but not has hard core. maybe I need to limit myself to do something over and over until I decide what feels right.

these are feeling good for now. we will see. and you will too when you come along to the OPENING NIGHT OF ONCE UPON!! WOOOPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[my sneak peek : oh can you guess my Fairy Tale?]



Frick. That is way too much typing for my liking.

morning lovelies!

well this has been something long in the works, but I guess I haven't really been able to say anything. but seeing as I can now, lets hear a 'YAY!'

contemporary Australian art, craft and design shop Udessi will now be selling some original pieces by me. exciting hey? currently, some of my collage illustrations are for sale, and in the not too distant future there will be some more sweet things available, so stay tuned!! one of my favourite artists, GRETCHENMIST sells some of her goregous art through Udessi too, so that is pretty excting!

the lovely people at
Udessi have also put up a little profile about me, so if you are interested in finding out more about me (weird I know) then off you go!

and some lovely pictures, courtesy of Udessi

thanks Frankie for the link to this fantastic site called supermarket. I think my head is close to exploding from all the stuff I want to purchase.

While I believe the site is American,

they do stock some amazing

things from amazing Australians,

such as the above mobile by Pukapuka mobiles

(doesn't the picture look like it could

be an amazing painting or something

- gosh can I say amazing anymore times!)

so peeps I have tweeted about this but I thought I would do a little post on it now too.

my bro (who so kindly did all the behind the scenes work on my website.) is obsessed with the snow and snowboarding about as much as I am obsessed with art.

with me talking about blogs and what not all the time, he decided that he would be up for that too, which I think is great, and started his own one.

I love it when people that you know or family members blog. Because as a reader I think you get a different experience out of it, than you would reading a strangers blog. You see, with a stranger, you don't know anything more about them apart from what they share in their blog. But with someone you already know, reading their blog is like hearing about a whole new side of them that you didn't even realise existed. You learn things and I think it is just great (like when my boyfriend starting blogging).

The bro's blog is all about the Australian snow season, just starting to take shape once again for winter, covering weather, fashion, boards along with other things. It is great because he gives it a bit of a young edge. I particular like this post because I think it is a great example of how weird the economy is, and how frustrating it is for us Aussies who go online shopping!

This baby will now be mine.

Please proceed to view the

super amazing shop,

and the even cuter one day

series by the wonderful

talented and insightful amy

p.s. she is superduperly australian.