Yikes! Look at all those responses to my last post! You’ve got until next Tuesday to enter – all entries will go into a little fundraiser zine to raise money for The Mirabel Foundation – so be sure to comment/email! The winner will get 20 lovely vintage fat quarters too! So what have you got to lose!
Last night marked our first ever party/shopping night at Mikes in Fitzroy! A huge thanks to… Kirsty, Rin, Brooke and Molly for all their help! It was a rip snorter of a night! Soooo hot.. but lovely and cool in the back room and courtyard, so lots of drinks and lots of Nino’s pizza and lots of chats. I feel so lucky to know so many great people, you know? So thankyou to those that came – next year we’ll have a ‘Meet the Crafter’ shopping night early in the year (once credit cards have recovered!) – so be sure to be part of that!
Today, I’m officially announcing that Meet Me at Mikes on Bridge Road will close at the end of January 2008. It’s always been our plan to get Fitzroy established, and close Richmond – we just can’t afford the exorbitant rent on the Richmond store anymore – despite the fact that we’ve been leasing the building for 15 years, the rent was doubled about 3 years ago – and it’s just been about working-for-the-landlord, since then. So the big FOR LEASE sign goes up on the building tomorrow – and i’ll be able to sit at my computer and look at the back of it until we move house sometime in the next month. It’s bittersweet for me. Like leaving the nest.. but knowing that there’s a really ace NY style loft just around the corner.. know what I mean?!
Thankyou to those of you that supported us on Bridge Road, and helped us establish Mikes. I know you’ll all continue to visit us on Brunswick Street – and celebrate our ace new Mikes. And I’m super pleased we have been able to find a more suitable, and generally lovelier store!
Next year – we begin Brown Owls – our crafty grown-up version of the Brownies! It will be at our secret club house just over the river in Hawthorn. A regular fortnightly craftopia (with plenty of room to move!) – you can register your interest at our fledgling website! On Monday, I’ll announce our Brown Owls Illustration Competition! I’ll give you some hints – we need a logo, it needs to be an owl, there are 3 awesomely HUGE prizes for the winner – so get your thinking caps on and get a head start!
And then… there’s the BOOK I’m lucky enough to be compiling… but more on that next year.. let’s just say.. it’s gonna be CRAFTY!
You might want to come and visit us at the Perry Street Festival next weekend – Sunday 16th December – in Collingwood. We’ll be selling vintage paper packs, wallpaper packs, fabric packs.. lotsa packs! Plus cards and some clothing too! Sew Your Own will be there too! Come and get your handmade and environmentally responsible Christmas Gifts from us gals (and Cam!).
And lastly – but most importantly – today is the day! We take the Mirabel Softies out of the window at Fitzroy, and they head down to The Mirabel Foundation – to go to their new homes! You are all awesome for supporting this project – there’s plenty more happening for Mirabel – keep checking the blog – and the flickr group!
xx mikes
so much big news! congrats on all of the new ventures – i know your touch will make everything magically enchanting and wonderful. love the brown owls idea, too. you are amazing!!! xoxoxo
Wow! That all sounds super-exciting! And closer to (my Box Hill) home! Weeee!
Can’t wait for Brown Owls.
Exciting times ahead.
Spewin’ I missed thursday night – damn babysitter never turned up, trully. I wasnt pretending I left you in the spam folder….
Looking forward to all the fun times ahead piplinkin!
I seriously want to move to Australia, so I can do all the fun stuff you do! I’m a brownie leader here, but I’d love to be a brown owl!
LOL Kate – I am a Guide Leader as well – and my girls would much prefer to knit and craft than be the out door girls (maybe a little bit of my craftiness has rubbed off onto them – Dont get me wrong – we do lots of out door things as well (you will have to try knitting with tent poles – very entertaining!) And Pip a BROWL OWL is the term for the Brownie Leader – so there you go – that will have to become your title. Good luck with the move and everything that is happening in the new year – sounds as though you will be a busy little bee. Love Kylie
Hooray for the softies presents! They’re all so wonderful.
Tee hee. I am a Girl Guide leader, and contrary to popular opinion, we suck at craft. We’re more the outdoorsy types. We’ve tried to teach ’em some basic sewing skills – so they can do that independent miss stuff and say “I made it myself”, but no, two hours of threading needles and they’d beaten me down to a wee, squeaky promise to never do it again.
Oh gawd, Brown Owls sounds unreal! No fair – I’m stuck in London with no Owls and no Mikes! Best wishes for the new store and Owls! Rxx