The Blogger Series continues...

Meet Julia from Studio Home...


What do you do?
Given the chance I would spend ALLLL the time researching for my blog BUT everyones got to have a job and at the moment I work as the Sales and Marketing Co ordinator for Treble Cone Ski Area in Wanaka.

Where can we find you?
Studio Home (hang out mostly there)
Facebook (also spend a lot of time here, re posting links to the days posts, re posting great links from my favourite pages and sifting around discovering new wonderful talent)
Twitter (links to my days posts feed here as well and I am really enjoying getting into the swing of this massive networking platform)

Where do you live?
The amazing, beautiful, mindblowing and alllways awesome Wanaka, Otago.

What's your favourite thing about living in Wanaka?
Coming home from holiday only to realise that the place I call home is one of the most stunning spots in the country and allows me a lifestyle that I constantly have to remind myself isn't the norm for most people. That, and of course, the quality group of people I count as my own, spread around the region.

Photo by Camilla Stoddart

What inspires you?
One of the coolest things about embedding yourself in the world of design blogging is the discovery of people that are pushing forward with their own little passions. For sure some are more/going to be more successful than others, but I get a massive buzz from seeing people with raw talent being brave enough to give it a go.

Three things you can't live without?
Family, friends, my eyes

How did you get to where you are now?
After four years of ski instructing following a student exchange and high school I bit the bullet and applied to do a short Foundation Course in Fine Art at the Design and Arts College. This was all in preparation for the Diploma of Interior Design which followed.

I then headed to Auckland to work in furniture and design consulting for a few years then in a massive wave of ignorant confidence I moved to Queenstown to launch my interior design business with no money or sense. This was brilliant at times with some fantastic projects and steep learning curves, however, the recession just kicked me when I was only just getting some traction and I just couldn't seem to maintain any flow of work.

After three years I skipped the hill for a change of scenery in Wanaka and plans to re-base my business there...then the universe did a back flip and a series of events led me to landing a job on the marketing side of the ski industry. From the time I landed in Queenstown I also launched the first version of my blog with the same ethos it has now, of profiling creative talent from NZ and Australia. Essentially it was a way of visual bookmarking for myself and an effort of promoting my interior design.

Over the last three years it has slowly but surely become my passion and way to keep myself strongly attached to the wonderful creative scene downunder. I would also realllly like it if it started paying me a salary. Wow. That would be a perfect world.

Where do you want to be in ten years?
Really not sure where, but hope there are babies and a husband hanging around :)

Fave blogs?
Pretty much an impossible question!! I guess the ones I read everyday (aside from the other billion I visit regularly) are:
-A Cup of Jo
- Creature Comforts
- Oh Joy!
- The Design Files

....but there are SOOOOOO many more!!!

Favourite quote or words of wisdom you live by...
"Fortune Favours the Brave"

Note from glc! We e'met Julia when she blogged about our very first gran's loose change lookbook here and then again when she blogged about our third lookbook here

Quote of the day...

Thanks Georgia.

Khaki lovin'...

Images: Weheartit

Loving everything khaki at the moment.

Friends of gran's loose change...

Since launching gran's loose change, I have been lucky enough to meet an amazing collective of people through blogging and the world wide web. I have had people contact me with messages of luck and congratulations, I have had bloggers write about the site, I have become friends with other bloggers who I have never even met (but hope to meet one day).

So, to thank all of these people and to share their beauty and passion with you all, gran's loose change is running a series of Q & As. We're starting this off with the wonderful Amanda from Here Comes the Sun. Amanda and I were first e-troduced when she blogged about last winter's lookbook. We featured on her blog again in November last year. Read on to find out more about Amanda and her work.

Introducing...Amanda Thomas.


What do you do?
Currently my life is a mixture of working in a boutique and blogging and a few little projects I have coming up.

Where can we find you?
Here Comes the Sun
Twitter
Facebook
Bloglovin
Formspring

Where do you live?
Hamilton, New Zealand. It gets a bit of a hard knock but I actually love it.

What's your favourite thing about living there?
My best friends all live here so it's just great getting to do life together and spend so much time with each other. Also the op shops are pretty cheap here, and I have so many favourite cafes/ restaurants/ gardens that I love to visit pretty regularly.

What inspires you?
It's different everyday depending on what I'm doing. My husband and my friends definitely inspire me, I have some really great people in my life. Obviously I am quite influenced by the Beatles and they are always a constant source of inspiration, as well as Bob Dylan and other magical things that came from the 60's. Other than that I would say old books and records, vintage homewares, analogue culture, women in business and I always love it when it rains.

Three things you can't live without?
Cell phone, lap top, husband. Not in that order haha.

How did you get to where you are now?
By working really hard, chasing opportunities and being true to myself.

Where do you want to be in 10 years?
In 10 years I hope to have two little kiddies with my husband and be working from home. I'm not ready for it just yet but I really do look forward to be a mama bear one day!

Fave blogs?
Daydreamlily will always be my number one. Other than that I read a lot of blogs but some favourites are Andrew & Carissa, Rockstar Diaries, Fieldguided, See Hear Say and of course my friends blogs But Honestly, See Me Everywhere and Tornadoes and Tigers.

Top five songs on your ipod/playlist?
A Day in the Life- The Beatles
23- Jimmy Eat World
Soco Amaretto Lime- Brand New
Made for Each Other- Jack's Mannequin
Norwegian Wood- The Beatles

Favourite quote or words of wisdom you live by?
"Dream big, work it out from there"- I love that.

What makes our house, our home...

Just a few snippets of some of the treasures in our wee home...


My favourite photo of my grandmother and Mama Bear, ever. Taken at my mum's 21st birthday.


Our money jar. I bought this porcelain jug with my friend Jamee and it's found a better use than serving tea or looking pretty on the shelf. It is slowly collecting all of our loose change.


Our array of paintings. The Minnie Mouse ears in the top left and the pencil illustration of Kate Moss (age 15) were drawn by our amazingly talented friend Jake Macartney, the stencil of Kate Moss is by another friend, Sanga, and the others - a Goldie, a couple of Sara Moons and a couple of randoms have been collected from garage sales and thrift stores. Oh, and my little Tikis are from Good as Gold - they're by local artist Jared Bryant.


JM found me the two fat owls, centre back, on an op-shopping trip to Gisborne last summer and the collection is slowly growing. You'd never believe it but owls are bloody hard to come by!! We were lucky enough to be gifted the white pair, back left, (which are actually salt and pepper shakers!!) as a housewarming present from the lovely Nat of One of Spades.


One of our collections of books. We have them in our wooden sideboard, next to our bed, on this ladder and on a shelf in the lounge.

Things to come...

Images via weheartit and Lookbook

New winter product is being shot tonight. Bring on winter knits, fur, jackets, leather, maxi skirts and boots....

Bless...!

My beautiful nephew Mitchell watching his Aunty Kelly on the Good Morning Show today. Love you baby!

Watch the video here...

YES PLEASE!!!

Just casually picking the kids up from school... Elle Macpherson, you are my idol!

Happy Day Patricia...

Happy Day Patricia? Confused? It's St Patrick's Day right. Well, it's also the day my beautiful, wonderful, amazing grandmother was born. Happy Birthday Patricia Kelly. I love you.

Thank you for everything.

Fan mail...

My heart did a wee skip when this popped up in my inbox this afternoon!

" My purchases are so lovely that I just wanted to say a quick thankyou :)"

- Casey.

Thank YOU Casey, we hope enjoy your purchases xx

The nature of the business...

A friend of mine recently called me in a bit of a frenzy asking if I had sold gran's loose change. My mum then popped round to my house with a magazine in tow demanding to know why I hadn't told her that I sold gran's loose change! I had no idea what they were talking about until I read the article in the Enterprise magazine and was saddened at the lazy and confused journalism which reported that my Little Big Markets co-founder was the owner of gran's loose change.

We are all human and we all make mistakes, but considering I come from a journalistic background, I was annoyed that the journalist hadn't even done a general google search of 'gran's loose change' (which would have told her everything she needed to know) or checked her information before going to print.

Needless to say, a retraction will be in the April edition of Enterprise and you can all rest assured that I am still the rightful owner of gran's loose change.

It then got me thinking about my trip to Wellington for the recording of my slot on The Good Morning Show. It is generally filmed live and while my slot was pre-recorded, there was no room for mistakes. No second takes. It was an exciting yet scary experience where you don't have any script or run throughs and questions are fired at you to answer on the spot! I had a lot of fun but the line of questioning differed to what I had prepared and planned for - but that's the nature of the business. What I have learnt from being on both sides of journalism, is that unless you are writing it yourself, it never quite turns out how you'd expect.

Tune in to TV1 THIS Friday (March 18th) at approx 9.14am to see me in action, (and by that I mean trying my best to look like I knew what I was doing!!) Have a lovely Tuesday xx

Healthier for you...

Something you may not know, (well you should know, so if you don't I haven't done a very good job of telling you!) is that I personally wash all garments (unless they're dry clean only in which case I leave it to the experts) before uploading them to gran's loose change, ready to sell. This quite often means a lot of hand-washing, due to wool and delicates, and several loads a week.

Well, our friends at ecostore have come on board and helped us out with the best, most efficient and healthiest laundry powders on the market. As of this week, every gran's loose change product will be washed with love, (by me), using ecostore products.

Why use ecostore?

Making changes to the laundry products you use is one of the simplest things you can do to reduce your exposure to unnecessary chemicals and enjoy a healthier home.

Over the past 18 years many of our customers have shared stories with us of their rashes, allergies and eczema improving or disappearing altogether since they made the switch to ecostore.

Use a little, save a lot

By safely super-concentrating our laundry products we have significantly cut down on cost per use; so while our products might look a little more expensive on shelf at your local health food store or supermarket they actually compare well with conventional brands.

And it really works!

You don't need to sacrifice performance when you use our laundry powder. All ecostore products are evaluated against our performance benchmark; to be comparable, if not better than conventional brands.

Images from ecostore.co.nz

Safer for our environment

When selecting ingredients for our products we give priority to plant and mineral based ingredients and only those petrochemicals which are classified as low hazard and biodegradable making our products safer for septic tanks and grey water systems. Our laundry liquid is so mild that with a filtration system in place you can re-use the waste water on your garden, lawn and trees.

Monday funday...

Images from We Heart It and Litter

You can never have too many shoes...

Images from Lookbook

Inspired? Good, get shopping then. New men's shoes online now.

Welcome winter...oh how I've missed you...

So, we're down to our last two market days at The Little Big Markets and that means we're CLEARING OUT most of our summer stock as well as sneaking a few winter bits and pieces in there too.

And this in turn means, more space for NEW WINTER STOCK (we're starting to shoot winter next week)!! I know, I know, that means summer is over. Goodbye to singlets and cut off shorts, jandals, after work swims, sunbathing and ciders on the deck. As much as I love summer for all of these reasons and more, I LOVE winter dressing. Jeans, boots, fur, layered cardies, shirts, tights and socks...I can't wait! Here's some inspiration to get you in the winter mood...

Images from They All Hate Us and Style Scrapbook

Wednesday inspiration...

Love love love this shoot over at Oracle Fox. I've been dreaming of a one way ticket to somewhere (anywhere?! Please!) of late and this shoot makes me happy inside. 'Somewhere' could be closer than we think. Is 'freedom' what I want? Or 'adventure'? Either way, thanks Oracle Fox, I'm going to day dream the day away xx

Lady, I think I love you...

Loving the looks of style blogger Andy Torres.

For more, check out her blog here.

Mad love...

Blogged on one of our favourites... The Cowboy Geisha.

You're on my mind...

Last night, as I sat down to a homecooked meal, as I sipped on a cider, as I took pics of the beautiful Georgia and the babelicious JM, I felt guilty. I felt sad. I felt helpless.

Just over a week has passed since the horrific Christchurch earthquake and while we are forced to continue with our daily lives, we don't forget. We won't forget. I haven't forgotten. Christchurch, you're on my mind.

MIA...

So you may have noticed less blog posts than usual - that would be because the Mad Scientist is in charge of setting up the internet at our new abode (slash office) and he has been researching the best deals. This means it has taken a little longer than usual but will be up and running super fast and efficiently next week and we will be back into it good and proper.

In the meantime, check out the new trend in fashion world. Calf length skirts. Lucky for you ladies, I have a bevy to be photographed this week and will be at your disposal before the weekend. Excited much?

Images: Google Images