Paula Mills Art

We are having a little break from now until 12th January 2010. Thank you for all your lovely support, this has been a wonderful year for us at Sweet William, we have had piles of fun and we have more in store for next year. We hope the festive season is a good one for you, full of love, peace and hope. Until next year then - Shelley , Paula and Jeanine xxxxx

I found this lovely new blog Thatch and Burrow and discovered a clip of Nathalie Lete painting a mural - and you know how we love this Parisian's work....

I went to see an installation entitled 'Tchusse' at the Gorker Gallery in Fitzroy by the very young and talented Miso . If you live in Melbourne it is defiantly worth a visit. Miso gave a talk on her inspiration and influence from the Ukraine (her home land) and all though by her own admittance she hangs around mostly with boys and doesn't even know many woman, I found her work to be very feminine and beautiful. It was full of textures, layers and emotion. All this at the tender age of 20. wow. I was so moved I actually bought my first piece of real art from an exhibition. And reminded myself that art matters.

As promised some shots of our cute little stall that won us 'best visual dispaly' at Magnolia Square Brighton. (sorry images have come out pretty small - you can click on the image to get a better view if you like) We had loads of fun. We heart markets!

Sorry about the lack of blogging over the last few days but we have had our hands full! The market went down a storm and out little Sweet William stand won Best Stall for visual display, we were pleased as punch, hurrah for us!! We will load some images as soon as we have them all organised. In the mean here's a shot of a funny collection of little dolls I have in my house at the moment - it symbolises the fact that we have a house full of girls - my three, Shelley and her two. Phew, girly girls all round.

We have been preparing ourselves for Magnolia Square Market - hence the lack of blogging for a few days - we are very excited! All three of us are together, Shelly, Paula and Jeanine, we have been busy, busy, busy and are thrilled with our collection of handmade goodness - here is a sneak peak. If you are in Melbourne, please pop in and say Hi - Magnolia Square Market , Brighton Town Hall Thursday the 3rd to Saturday 5th Dec.

I had a million one one things to do today but I thought I would start with a peruse of the stalls at the lovely Camberwell Market. I was supposed to be buying Christmas gifts for others but I ended up with this beautiful vintage petticoat and a bunch of pink peonies for me! I had to take some photos as they are just too beautiful and I had to share the photos on the blog...oh dear as I was saying I have a million and one things to do today...

Some of my current flicker favorites, for links to each shot click here .

I have been at it again -op shopping! I hadn't been in for a while and was most pleased with my finds today. A pile of vintage Christmas tags, 2 teaspoons, a beautiful tea cup and saucer, some doilies, two hand rose embroidered pillow cases and the best find - a miniature mosaic brooch from Italy! I am one happy lady : )

I am am constantly on the look out for new inspiration. I just love it when I stumble upon an artist and completely fall in love with their work. I am so grateful to the web that we can explore the work of so many artists any where in the world any time we please. Today, via the paumes edition website (amazing japanese books) I discovered Nathalie Lete , the images speak for themselves! Another link to more of her illustration work here

As you may or may not know, this is a blog I share with my sister Paula, and although we live very many miles apart, the blog (and skype), help to keep us close. But nothing beats actually seeing each other and giving each other a great big hug, so I'm super excited to be flying over to Melbourne soon to do just that. My girls are coming with me to see their cousins and to have a little pre-Christmas Christmas and of course they are besides themselves too. I caught Paula's little three year old on Skype yesterday morning and I asked her how many more sleeps till we visit - she replied with great certainty " 24 000". Thank goodness its not 24000 but only 7 - yipeeee! The images are a little sneak peek at Christmas presents for nieces (shshhhh don't let on), I could not resist showing this cuteness off - the etsy seller is knittingdreams.etsy.com , a fantastic seller, she is super quick and everything arrives adorably packaged.

New cards available in our etsy store. Happy Friday to you all xxxx

Over at the beautiful blog ' daydreamlily ' we are giving away one of our calendars. Simply visit the blog post and leave a comment for a chance to win! OPEN to all readers, international too. A Winner will be chosen at random on Friday morning. Good Luck! : )

As I have three little girls my work is very girly and I often have requests to do more boyish things. So at last I have had an inspirational break through boy moment and created this little fellow who's name is Milo, he will no doubt be accompanying Camille on her adventures. This print and others available in our etsy store. (and on madeit if you live in Aus) Hope every one is having a happy day.

The next market Jeanine and I are doing in Melbourne is Mathilda's Market on Sunday 22 Nov. at Hawthorn Town Hall, 9am until 1pm. They asked me to do some artwork for them, I had to interpret their name in my style of illustration. I had fun doing this and I may turn it into a print to sell, (with different words) I just need more hours in the day... This weekend we are taking our girls camping, which will be fun but I need to get on with all the packing! Happy Friday to you all. P xx

Oh I am having a bit of a bad day - the house is a mess and it is very hot here in Melbourne, the sort of heat that you just can't escape from. I was going to post some photo's of my messy house and entitle the post ' reality ' but then I realised that no one really wants to see some one else's messy house. We look at magazines and creative blogs for inspiration to take us out of the sometimes dreary reality. So today the inspiration comes from this lovely etsy shop - spacejam . A wonderful collection of vintage goodies from Europe. Love those spotty tins. And now I am off to have an icy pole and tackle the washing!

2/365, 14/21 , originally uploaded by AlmostPhony . I recently saw the most amazing art movie called Beautiful Losers . I came away feeling completely inspired and wonderfully pleased that humans are so creative, it is a must for anyone interested in art and life. One of the artist featured in the film is Margaret Kilgallen , who tragically passed away in 2001 due to cancer. Her work is wonderful and I was pleased to find a collection of it over at flicker . We saw the film at Speakeasy cinema in Melbourne which was fantastic too!

I'v been wanting to play along with Meet Me at Mikes voyeuristic "My place and Yours" for a while now, and finely got a post in on time. The theme this week is from my bricole I’m asking everyone to share her/his “secret weapon”. No deep dark secrets here, just something you keep close to your creative heart. It could be your fav crochet hook, or maybe your go to fabric shop, or even the perfect shade of red lipstick that makes your day. Whatever it is, it should something that you know you can go to in a pinch and it will never let you down. Laughter has to be our weapon of choice and it meets all the above criteria for sure. Doing this crazy, creative gig with my sister and Jeanine - gosh, sometimes all we can do is laugh (the other alternative being to cry - and who wants to cry?) As Paula illustrated once, l aughter is contagious , it disarms the tense moments and it brings joy into the mundane. I can always count on my sister to have some good (usually slightl...

I have just finished making this pretty paper bunting which we will be taking to Sisters Market tomorrow, the 7th of November at Brunswick Town Hall from 10 am until 4pm, pop in and say Hi if you are in the area. Otherwise Happy friday to you all. : )

a tidy collection on my dresser freshly laundered granny towels in the bathroom a clean soap dish in the bathroom Some things are too nice to be tidied away. All of you out there who have young children at home will understand how keeping the house tidy can feel like swimming upstream - never getting anywhere. And anyway who wants to dust when there are so many more other wonderful and exciting things to do (like blogging) which are so tempting while the toddler sleeps?? Well my house had got to that stage where I could ignore it no more and so I spent HOURS cleaning and sorting out over the weekend. Amazingly it felt quite therapeutic and now I feel more ready to face the busy time that is about to hit with ballet concerts, school functions, house guests, markets and Christmas all coming up. I was so pleased with the results I decide to take a few shots (flicker) and I have to say I have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment and am pretty chuffed with my effort, well done me!! :) ...

Just love the creativeness of domestic construction and their quirky, fun original things - I would love a set of the tea cup lights!

Well there are approximately 55 days until Christmas! Wow Weee how time flies. Sending Christmas Cards is such a lovely thing to do and it is always great receiving cards full of news from friends and family. We have designed and printed a small range of Christmas cards (now available to buy in our etsy store ) and to encourage a little Christmas spirit we thought we would do a give away - of a pair of cards, one pink one blue. For a chance to win simply leave us a comment and we will do a random draw at the end of play on Monday the 2nd of November. Happy Friday to you all! xx ***** Update: Mara Mail won the little duo of cards - well done and we hope you will have fun sending them out and bring a little joy to someone ******

Miranda Meilleur

We are so proud and excited about our beautiful 2010 calendar including 12 of our illustrations! Yipeee! You can check it out in our etsy shop . We have been busy, busy, busy - gearing up for all the lovely craft markets that we will be participating in in November and December. Shells had a wonderful day on Saturday at Craft 2.0 in Wellington - thanks to everyone who supported that. Jeanine and I will be at the Sisters Teeny Tiny Market in Melbourne on the 7th of November next, can't wait should be fun!

I have fallen completely in love with the art direction and styling at sleeproom.com . I saw their advert in the latest Elle Decoration UK , went to visit the web site and have been pouring over the styling of each image. I also found their little annimated video above - so lovely! I love the white floors and pops of color all over the place, the vintage fabrics, and the cozy lived in feeling each room has. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

I love blogging but nothing beats sitting down with a cup of tea and a fantastic magazine. I am a bit of a magpie and collect anything , so I have piles of magazines, some dating back to 1996!! I have done three continental moves with my cherished magazines and still get cross when I think of the ones I had to throw out. Some of my favorites are Elle Decoration UK Edition, Living ETC and since living in Australia I have found Dumbo feather pass it on , which is really a stunning 'mook' - half mag half book! Here is a blurb from their website that describes what the mag is about: What unites the people we interview is their creativity, passion and integrity , and somewhere they’ve found the courage to fly. In their own words they tell you how they discovered their passion, what inspires them, the lows as well as the highs on the journey and ultimately why they do what they do. The art direction, writing and even the printing is truly inspiring. I love the fact that it celebrates...