Hobart love

I've fallen for Hobart. It happened almost instantly, as soon as I stepped from the plane last weekend - the clean, fresh air was almost intoxicating, and I was enamoured! As well as a little sightseeing, I of course had the grand debut of Mathilda's Market in the city to look forward to. I had the distinct feeling I was about to have a sterling weekend - 24 hours of balm for the soul! I wanted to do a happy dance, but I was in a public place, and it would have attracted baffled sideways glances.

I've been to Tasmania before, but never have I been accompanied by a guide with such thorough local knowledge! My on-the-ground assistant and Hobart resident, Robyn, helped to organise our first Tassie event - thanks Robyn! (But she could easily forge a second career as a tour guide). Robyn took me to Hobart's heavenly Battery Point, which was the highlight of the weekend for me (apart from the Market, of course). It's an old port and maritime village just south of the CBD. It retains much of the look of 100 years ago - if you love classic architecture and beautiful old, divinely cool and stylish shops, I highly recommend a visit to Battery Point.

Oh, and the food in Hobart is just wonderful! The city has a wealth of great eateries and restaurants to choose from - I even took an assortment of irresistible foodstuffs home to Melbourne with me. I really wish I'd taken my hubby and kids on this trip to Tassie  - I'll know better for next time!

Anyway, I'm not here to boost tourist numbers to Tasmania, so I'll get back to Mathilda's! Market
D-Day arrived, the weather was lovely and I headed to the venue, the Hobart Function and Conference Centre, which perches at the end of the Elizabeth Street Pier. I stood next to the building and gazed out over the Derwent (you should SEE the location of this venue! Incredible!), then filled my lungs with that clean air, smiled and headed inside for set up.

9am arrived and so did the crowds, and Hobartians kept arriving right until closing time. It was so heartening to see so many come to support local creators, including Ruby Victoria Letterpress, Notions, What Katy Did Next, Bye Bye Birdie and Sunday's Child. 

Here's a few photos I snapped of stalls on the day. (My camera will need to be surgically removed from my hands - I'm still addicted!)

Journals from Isis - these are all hand bound and vintage inspired - just beautiful!

Badges from Isis

The handiwork of Little Snoring

Oh and look! We even had royalty in our midst.

 (The Union Jack cushion is from Little Snoring).

A contented little customer's inner artist emerges

There were long queues for the very popular face painter!

Happy shoppers

It was such a sweetly satisfying and enjoyable event for me to witness taking place - and I dearly hope all our Tassie shoppers felt the same. A big thanks to our Hobart stallholders for creating such unique wares and presenting them with such flair and care. See you again Tasmania - on Saturday 17 July, same time and place! (Oh and there's more pics below!)

Anne x

Notions

 

More from Notions

Inaugural Mathilda's Market in Hobart tomorrow!

Prepare your shopping list here!

See you tomorrow, we can't wait ....

Cheers

Anne x

The most stylish place in cyberspace

With Hobart about to host it's first Mathilda's Market this weekend, it's clear there are many great businesses and talented artisans coming out of Tasmania. (Click here to see the line up of stallholders featuring at our event there this Saturday). But there's another talented Tasmanian we want to tip our Mathilda's hat to - her name is Angela Anderson, and she's the creative might and IT genius behind one of  the most FABULOUS websites around - www.kidstylefile.com.au. If you love all products boutique and unique for babies and children, but you're not yet acquainted with KidStyleFile, I suggest you head to this corner of the cyberworld quick smart. You'll just adore it! (Although you may well rue the day I told you about it ... It's so easy to while away hour after pleasant hour on KidStyleFile!)

The site is totally devoted to premium, designer, handmade and boutique baby and kids products of all kinds – including clothes, shoes, décor, nursery items and toys. If you want to hear first about the latest kids and baby gear from Australia and overseas, and huge sales and bargain offers, you'd be mad not to make KidStyleFile your first port of call. It's updated daily - the KSF team have their collective fingers on the pulse! The site has lots of reviews, interviews and feature stories. (Yours truly even writes a monthly kids' book review page there - take a look if you want to know what's new in books for kids aged 0 to 7!)

KidStyleFile is in the top 1% of most visited websites in the world - seriously, it's that good! It's NOT an online store, incase you were thinking otherwise - instead, the KSF team do all the legwork, browsing online and bricks-and-mortar stores and trade shows all around the world to bring you word of the hottest kids products on the planet. 

It's WELL worth keeping a close eye on KidStyleFile as it will save you money! How? Well, perhaps the best thing about KidStyleFile is that it brokers exclusive retail deals for its readers on their behalf - so for example, today on their home page, there's a profile of new Aussie label Alex & Ant. If you like what you see, you're in luck, as there's a whopping 25% off all purchases if you enter the discount code 'KSFpromo' at the checkout of the Alex & Ant website. Cool, huh? And that's just today! What will tomorrow bring? Competitions? A fantastic special offer? A great discount on designer label gear? Who knows, but it's sure to be good. You can regularly drop into http://www.kidstylefile.com.au/ to take in updates, join them on Twitter or Facebook, sign up to the weekly newsletter or subscribe to a feed through RSS.

Meet Angela, the creator of KidStyleFile (and her beloved girls).

Angela came up with the idea of KSF because she adored premium, handmade and unique kids' products, but "real" shopping trips were rare, given they involved twins (Sophie and Eve, now 5 years old). It look so long to scour website after website looking for the best products, and it's time she didn't have! She wanted a "one-stop" online haven she could retreat to, featuring the cream of the crop ... A website where she could do her research before embarking on online shopping voyages. There was no such place, so she created one! And it's a good thing too, considering how many mothers of young children prefer to shop online rather than lug the pram around and contend with screaming children once the novelty of the outing wears off. 

What I personally like about KidStyleFile are its warm, chatty and engaging posts, written each day by mums like you and me who love beautiful, original buys. And the site's brand archive is HUGE. When you scroll down the left side of the home page and see just how many brand names KidStyleFile has profiled, you realise how comprehensive this site is! (Click on each one to be taken to all posts mentioning that brand name).

So now you know about KidStyleFile. It is thoroughly fabulous. And completely addictive. Don't say you weren't warned!

Peta x
Mathilda's Market blogger

Thrice the bedding beauty

Wandering blissfully around Mathilda's Market in Melbourne recently, I was stopped in my tracks by a display of beautiful baby & children's bedding. Now, perhaps the only thing I struggle with in my work for Mathilda's Market is resisting constant temptation. Anne welcomed me to the team when my only (so far) child was around five months old. I now read about and see soooooo many divine products on a daily basis, and it's so hard not to splurge! (If only the money tree out the back would start sprouting).

As I gazed wistfully at the bedding display, for the umpteenth time I wish I'd known about Mathilda's before my daughter was born. While I am overstocked with fairly pedestrian cot bedding purchased before my Mathilda's days, and can't quite justify replacing it with something more beautiful, when Edie moves into a single bed I plan to be obtaining sheets and covers from Ani & Trio.

This Brisbane based business is the brainchild of friends Anita and Triona. With their babies due within two months of each other, the two women excitedly began trawling the shops for perfect, stylish nursery quilt and sheet sets. But they fast became disappointed with the mediocre mix of bland pastels and plethora of busy cartoon characters on offer. The solution? They would craft their own! Ani & Trio now bring us a stunning range of nursery linen that puts a unique twist on a timeless classic - the patchwork quilt.

It's clear there is a lot of attention to detail and care taken in the handmade crafting of their covers. 

Am loving the design below - it's called Buttercup Bliss!

And this one is called Sugar and Spice - it's all things nice!

It's reassuring to know, and no surprise that Anita and Triona are steadfast in their belief that delicate young skin deserves to be touched only by natural, breathable fabrics. The entire Ani & Trio range is made of 100% cotton, and their quilts are filled with organic cotton batting - a great choice for sensitive skin.

Loving what you see, but missed Ani & Trio at our recent Mathilda's Markets in Melbourne and Brisbane? Well, if you want to get your hands on Ani & Trio linen at a great price, you can find their sale page right here!

Peta x
Mathilda's Market blogger

Adelaide warmly welcomes Mathilda's Market

Our team has long suspected that a city as picturesque and appreciative of beautiful things as Adelaide, might well embrace Mathilda's Market. Not just for the golden shopping opportunity it presents, but also as a place where the city's crafters and designers can have their names up in lights and their inspiring creations on full show! We were so happy our predictions came true when the first Mathilda's Market was hosted in Adelaide on Saturday 6 March at Loreto College in Marryatville.

The most crucial task, once we decided to go forge ahead with our debut Adelaide event, was to put a call out to potential stallholders - not exactly an arduous undertaking! When Mathilda's comes to a new city, it's always such a pleasurable "job" to sift through the applications and be wowed by the beautiful products being created by the gifted locals. It feels a little bit like digging up buried treasure!

As part of our newly launched Fabulous Finds program, we unearthed these four South Australian designers to be showcased at our inaugural Adelaide event.

Delilah Devine ...

Little Luv ...

Merrin Stacey Design ...

and

Pipsqueek ...

Our first Mathilda's in South Australia was off to a fine start!

And after we stumbled upon just the right venue, Loreto College at Marryatville - we felt the location mirrored the sort of occasion we wanted to stage.  

                                       

When the big day finally arrived, we had a stellar line up of exquisite stallholders of which we were proud as peacocks! It included Woolly Wugs, The Children's Republic, Little Boombalada Designs, Sac du Jour, How Tweet It Is, and Little Spunky Monkey and Fairydust, to name just a few.

We'll leave you with a selection of photos from our first ever Mathilda's Market, Adelaide. We extend a hearty thanks to all our shoppers and stallholders for making the day a most memorable one. (We're sorry to all the coffee lovers who missed their morning fix, and we promise to have a coffee van at our next Market in the city of churches!) Speaking of our next event, it's on Saturday 3 July, at the same time and location (in a bigger hall however) - and we simply cannot wait to see you all there again.

Ralf, Amanda and the Mathilda's Market Adelaide team