A Few Of My Favourite Things

History Club Signet Ring

Edith Ring

Left Bank Portrait Artist Studs

These pieces are a few of my favourite things. Not only because I have made myself one of each of these too! But because I have sold many of them and I get to see people wearing them. I love that. I love seeing them on people. It's such a wonderful thing to know that something you made is out in the world, being used and loved and having layers of meaning added to it over the years. 

Next time you are weraing a piece of Christina Lowry Designs jewellery, don't forget to tag me or hashtag your pic #christinalowrydesigns on Facebook or Instagram! 

Let me see you wearing your pieces and how you have styled them!  

New In The Shop

Travelling Companion Studs with Amethyst or Plain

I added a new earring design to the shop recently - the Travelling Companion studs. I've been wanting to add a vintage inspired little stud to my range for awhile now. I have finally gotten around to combining silver, grain set amethysts and a classic mill grain edge to create some sweet handmade studs to pop in and wear on your travels. 

The design is currently available in plain silver, or silver set with Amethyst. Custom orders in other metals and gemstones are welcome. A gold and Diamond pair for the shop is already on my list of things to do! 

You will love these darling studs to add a minimal vintage style touch to any outfit.

Pop over to the shop for a better look!

Small World After All

At the Red Hill Fair market on Saturday I had one of those moments that reminds you how small the world is. It was a family market, so we chatted with many Mums with bubs coming past to browse my stall. My twin sister and market helper, Fiona, noticed one young Mum with a pair of gorgeous Each To Own drop earrings. She commented on them. as she has quite a collection of Kirsten's work herself. We three chatted about Kirsten's dangly earrings, the conversation turned to Finders Keepers, from there to Paper Boat Press - Kylie being another amazing Brisbane creative and Finders Keepers frequent flyer. As it turned out, the girl with the amazing earrings helps Kylie with admin work! 

I gushed about how kind Kylie had been when last I visited her gallery, wearing Oscar who was only a month of two old. Kylie had generously invited me in to her own home at the back of the gallery to breastfeed my grisly baby. When I returned to the gallery space she was chatting to two women, one of whom was heavily pregnant. Then Oscar vomited up his milk. It wasn't your average baby posit. A small spit up on the shoulder like my first and second child had done. But rather the kind that ended up as dinner plate size splash on the ground. Accompanied by a comical 'splat' noise. Oscar felt better. I felt embarrassed. Kylie smiled and started helping me clean up. While the heavily pregnant woman looked on in shock. The Mama with the earrings laughed and said 'That pregnant woman was me!' I recognised her the instant she said it! We both laughed about how I had felt so embarrassed, while she had been shocked that a baby could do that. 

What a small, strange world it is indeed, when you can bump in to a stranger a year apart and tell them a story that includes them!

-

PS. Thanks for all the support and love at the market! It was so very good to meet so many of you. It was a thrill each time someone came past and showed me that they were wearing something I made, or told me that they followed me on Instagram. I love making those connections in real life that bridge the social media gap.

A Day Trip

I've been soaking up time spent with my twin sister this week. Squeezing in as much as possible during her stay before she heads back to chilly Canberra. There has been gallery visits, temple wanderings, late nights spent chatting over wine, as well as her PhD graduation. Today the children and I joined her on a day trip to Toowoomba to visit family. Our jaunt took on a magical quality as we drove up the mountain and in to the fog blanketing the Range. 

I've never driven through such fog before. It seemed almost exotic, given that I live in a neighbourhood that never sees frost and seldom sees a decent fog. (It's amazing how very different the weather can be a two hour drive from home.) We found our way to the Danish Flower Art market, a rambling set of buildings bursting with beads, gourds and flowers, surrounded by grassy paddocks where guinea fowl, ducks, chickens and peacocks are free to wander. The soft light, misty haze and lush greens made for postcard perfect scenery. The children and I were tempted to set up house in the cabin style cubby and stay forever. I brought a bunch of long, dried poppy flowers wrapped in paper as a souvenir, which now grace an enamel teapot in my lounge room. A beautiful reminder of a happy day. 

It was such a lovely day, despite the very long drive home with three very tired children...

Some Kind of Sunday

(Unrelated pics of pretty jewellery, lovely dishes and tangy citrus.)

Today is one of those pottering at home Sundays, where you have a shower at lunch time and then dress in pyjamas once more. It's a cleaning house, changing sheets, washing laundry kind of Sunday. A baking for the school week kind of Sunday. Tonight it will be a Butter Chicken, followed by knitting on the couch watching Grand Designs kind of Sunday. 

Just the kind of day I need after two weeks at home alone with three children, and before school resumes tomorrow.

What kind of Sunday are you having?

For the Love of Photography

I failed a photography elective at University. Not many people know that! I loved the idea of it. I wanted to take 'photos', not just photos. So I took a Photography subject as an elective while I studied Fine Art. I learnt so much and loved it. But as an 18 year old I had rather romantic ideas about experimenting with film and playing in the dark room. Alas, my tutor had more technical and traditional ideas. With disappointment I realised I would never be a 'photographer'. However, this failure didn't diminish my love of taking photos. 

Soon after, I met my husband to be, who was working in a photo shop during the week and as a wedding photographer on the weekend. He had a mind for the technical aspect of photography in a way I never did. He understood cameras inside and out. He understood lighting, apertures, speeds, depth of focus. I left the photography up to him while we dated, while we honeymooned, while we traveled the world. Then at some point in our relationship he gradually put down the camera and I picked it up. Perhaps when he changed careers? Perhaps when I started blogging? Perhaps when I was at home with a baby all day? In any case, I became the photo taker in our house hold. 

The early photos on my blog as oh so cringe worthy! I tried hard, but with little success. I cherish those photos though. That time, that place, those out-of-focus photos. Over time, and many photos later, my style began to improve. I experimented. I took my clunky camera with me everywhere. Then I got an iPhone, and a whole new world opened up. I had a camera with me always. I was able to quickly and easily capture shots I would have missed by the time I had grabbed my big camera. 

It feels as if another world has opened up once again, since I began Kate and Peta's wonderful The Photo School Online. A sweet and simple photo course, by two uber talented ladies, that you can take at your own pace. Thanks to their works of wisdom I find I am already looking at my iPhone in a whole new way. It's making me stop and take more photos too. Pause to look at things. At light and shadows and angles and texture. While undertaking my homework I have been noticing and chasing the 'pretty light' that seeps in my windows early morning and late afternoon, which has resulted in the photos above. 

While I may never be a 'photographer' and take 'photos', I have been so enjoying incorporating Kate and Peta's lessons in to my day to day. And I am loving photography even more as a result.

*all photos taken on my iPhone in natural light and edited with VSCO Cam

Brisbane Finders Keepers Wrap Up

The Old Museum

Susan Simonini

Keep Resin

Smith and Others

Kijaro

Kim Wallace

Clara & Yema

vessel and vine

Zillpa

Patterson and Steele

Curiously Obsessed

 

Rabbit & The Duck

Zylo Design

Studio Cockatoo

   

Blouse Alice Nightingale, glitter earrings Each to Own, spoon Keep Resin, wooden rings Clarayyema and ceramic bowl Susan Simonini.

The Finders Keepers market is my very favourite way to discover new creative talent and meet many of the wonderful Brisbane makers and designers I follow on Instagram. I love the high quality handmade items, the unique designs, the interesting packaging and displays, I love meeting the makers and talking to them about their work, giving them positive feed back and expressing my admiration! I also love to support them as a fellow creative small business owner. Which means I can't help but purchase a few things... 

I didn't apply for Finders Keepers this time, so I thought I would have a much more leisurely look than I am used to. I am usually running around on my lunch break, or sneaking in a peek in the afternoon when the crowd thins out. However yesterday, with three children and a husband in tow, I didn't get quite as much time as I would have liked. Then again, I would have happily stayed there all day poking around and chatting. It is such a positive and charming community to be a part of after all.

I snapped these iPhone photos quickly, after seeking permission from all the lovely makers. If you didn't get a chance to go, I wanted to give you a little taste. Even if you were there, I hear that Saturday was so popular, you may have missed seeing a few of these stalls anyway.

Applications for the next Brisbane Finders Keepers have opened today, so if you have a handmade business and you want to share your pieces with like minded folk, get your application ready! Competition is tough, but stay positive. I will be applying again and hope to see you there once more in November! In the meantime, you will be able to find me and all my goodies at the Red Hill Fair in Brisbane in three weeks time.

-


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Taking Stock

Ah, school holidays. The first week has passed quickly. How I have been loving the slow, cold mornings, absent the usual school routine. Laying in, pottering around in pjs, eating porridge around the table and pretending we are the the three bears and Goldilocks, drinking cups of tea - while they are still hot. Hooray! Not loving the series of petty arguments between siblings however.

The kids have been making up games, like 'Bird watching' which involves plastic binoculars, clip boards and a bird book. The new chairs and table in their cubby house make for the perfect bird watching spot. And while Cohen looks up birds in the book, Emerson draws squiqqles as she 'keeps tally' of the number of birds they have seen. I love it.

Cohen and I also started a little gratitude project at the beginning of the month. We have been talking about being thankful and how 'gratitude turns what we have in to enough'. (Quite an important lesson for a six year old who has really started to take notice of toy advertising.) I found a free printable on Pinterest with space to write each day. I am loving his reasons to be grateful so far - playing with my sister, new battery in my watch, brown sugar on porridge.

Also lately...

Making : stock for the Red Hill Fair in Brisbane later this month
Writing : My morning pages every day and loving the process
Drinking : Triple mint tea
Reading: 'The Road To Middlemarch: My Life with George Elliot' by Rebecca Mead
Dreaming: of travelling around Tasmania and tasting all the food and wine 
Looking: forward to going to Finders Keepers market this weekend!
Playing: 'Spies' with my big two little ones
Collecting: leaves, seed pods, mushrooms and flowers, while walking with the children 
Wishing: for more sleep, always more sleep
Enjoying: A rare night out ALONE with my husband
Waiting: Until my twin sister comes up later this month
Liking: Pippa's new woven rope jewellery collection
Listening: to an audio book of Liane Moriarty's novel Big Little Lies while I work, then staying up way too late because I don't want to stop listening! (Go and get a copy!)
Loving: that my thirteen month old 'baby' is standing on his own (sob)
Pondering: how long until he starts walking
Considering: how much crazier life will be once he DOES start walking
Buying: an online photography course by Kate Berry and Peta Mazey (with the code WOAH50 to bring the price down to $14.50!)
Watching: the new Jurassic Park movie and thinking I would have nightmares, but then not
Cringing: at STILL toilet training a stubborn three year old... tell me it will end
Needing: reassurance - see point above
Questioning: why siblings fight so much...
Wearing: pants, jeans, flats and a cardi with a scarf - my go to Winter clothes
Following: two new boards on Pinterest, nest and Modern Jewellery Design
Noticing: that all my favourite clothes have pockets
Waiting: for a chance to read these two sample chapters from Todd Henry's latest book, Louder than words: harness the power of your authentic voice.
Eating: at the 8 Street Market. So so good!
Admiring: All the countries that support marriage equality
Hoping: Australia follows suit soon
Sorting: through two bags of beautiful old buttons that I was recently given by a family friend
Disliking: our treatment of refugees. Our children will look back in shock at this period and the way our country treated those in need. :(
Bookmarking: the wonderful illustrations by Liekeland
Coveting: this Clementine cardigan
Giggling: at the Penguins of Madagascar cartoon series on ABC3 
Savoring: the good feelings
Snacking: constantly! Breastfeeding equals snacking.
Helping: the children make jelly and play dough
Hearing: 'Spy talk' from Cohen and Emerson as they run around the back yard

Joining in with Pip.