Tag: julia green

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The Block

New print series, Aqua Marine, from Ali McNabney-Stevens

Ali at work in her studio

In what is great news for art lovers on a budget, Melbourne’s Ali McNabney-Stevens has released her second run of affordable prints called Aqua Marine.

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Rather different from the last series, they’re based on a number of ink and watercolour studies Ali did last summer in Helens Bay, her rather faraway home town on the stunning coast of County Down, Northern Ireland.

Ali at work in her studio
Ali at work in her studio

They are printed on 300gsm natural cotton rag artpaper, with acid free archival pigment inks (in short, these are very high quality prints!). If you don’t have the cash, or the patience, for an Ali original, I highly recommend you snap one up. There are three sizes to choose from: small (33cm x 48cm), medium (61cm x 43cm) and large (61cm x 85cm).

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For all details of pricing, framing and availability, email [email protected].au

You may have spotted Ali’s work on the last two series of The Block.

Styling by Julia Green and photography by Armelle Habib.

Categories
Bathrooms Homewares

Ziporah towels: art for your bathroom

For a very long time there’s only been one clear choice for colourful and patterned bathroom towels and that’s Missoni! Now the 3 girls behind Ziporah are trying to change all that with a new Aussie brand.

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“We decided we would create towels together after recognising a gap in the market for colour, luxury and affordability. After frustrating shopping trips, visits to a trade fair here and there, industry research and loads of questions, things just naturally brought us together,” said their designer, Antoinette Murray.

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“We decided Ziporah would create unique, artisan designed towels to “make over” a bathroom space, like a beautiful rug can do for a living room or cushions can do for a neutral sofa. We also agreed we would not compromise on quality.”

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Categories
Interiors Addict

A seriously stylish Christmas workshop

If I were in Victoria, this is where I’d want to be a week today: the Greenhouse Interiors Christmas workshop!

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Inside Out cover styled by Greenhouse’s Julia Green and photographed by Armelle Habib

Want to break free of the red and green tinsel? Then join Julia, Jacqui and the Greenhouse team next Saturday 30 November for a glass of bubbles (very important!) and a workshop which puts the style back into Christmas.

They’ll show you how to create decorations and show-stopping wrapping with a difference, plus how to lay a beautiful table and different ways to approach decorating a Christmas tree – all in a tinsel-free zone using the colourful signature Greenhouse is known for.

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Categories
Interiors Addict

10 things I learned from planning our wedding

1. A wedding planner or on-the-day co-ordinator can be a lifesaver! We used the lovely Katie Moore from Piccadilly Events. I was all over every detail of our wedding. I had spreadsheets and lists; LOTS of lists. So I wasn’t sure I really needed someone to help on the day (as well as my many generous friends who got stuck in) because I thought I’d already organised everything. Wrong! When there’s a wedding there is ALWAYS something else that needs doing! Katie was our wedding angel. So many guests commented on how fabulous she was.

That's Katie behind the flowers!
That’s Katie behind the flowers!

As well as the million things she probably did that I knew nothing about, she took the flowers from the church to the reception, made sure everyone knew where they should be and when and made sure my dad had a torch to read his speech with (he was seriously nervous that his eyesight was going to let him down, although I was of course oblivious!). When I arrived at the church, she produced a small tin of M&Ms, offered them to me and said: “Sugar hit?” Brilliant! Katie came to our rehearsal too so she knew the plan for the day as well as I did (we merged our respective run sheets!) and who all the key players were. I thoroughly recommend having someone like Katie as a go-to girl on the day. I told everyone that if they had any issues at all they should go and speak to the girl in the yellow dress (yes, she even told me what she’d be wearing in advance).

And she did all of this IN HEELS.

2. While we’re on the subject of extra pairs of hands, the next thing I learned (after a while) is that it’s okay to ask for help.

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Categories
Art Interviews

Ali McNabney-Stevens, art without the snobbery

If you watched Offspring or The Block, you may have coveted Ali McNabney-Stevens’ colourful artwork, which has been in a few magazines recently. Behind the scenes, this very humble Melbourne artist and mum is just delighted to be doing what she loves day in, day out. 

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A fellow Pom, she moved here in 2001 after marrying an Australian. “After 5 years in London, he missed the sunshine and we decided to come for 2 years and that was 12 years ago!” There’s no doubt her surroundings have affected her work, with Melbourne’s bustling art scene and cultural diversity a constant inspiration. “Right from the get-go the artistic side of me was fueled. I am a very happy person here and I like to think that my art is happy. It gives me great pleasure in producing it and I guess I hope in turn that it gives others pleasure to hang it on their walls.”

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Categories
Art Homewares House Tours Interviews

At home with Lumiere Art + Co’s Emma Cleine

Inside her white rendered beach house, Emma keeps things understated and monochrome with plenty of warmth from ply.

Many artists never make a viable business from their talent and passion. It’s a tough gig. But former school teacher Emma Cleine is bucking that trend with Lumiere Art + Co and her story is inspiring. Today, she shows us inside her charmingly understated Mornington Peninsula home and tells us about making what she loves into her full-time job.

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Emma Cleine of Lumiere Art + Co, at home on the Mornington Peninsula

I’ve watched the Lumiere Art + Co brand go OFF in the last year and recently had the pleasure of meeting Emma. Her work is now very recognisable due to it being stocked by some amazing retailers and featured on the recent series of The Block Sky High. She’s now branched into homewares too with her textiles and ceramics. 

But Emma, who is based on the Mornington Peninsula, never thought this would be her full-time job. In her early days as a maker, she created paper bunting from vintage books and sold it at markets. “That’s how I started! Oh, and paper covered blocks. They were cute and took me a long time to make. From there I just moved on to other things.”

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Categories
Interiors Addict

Come and say hi at Life Instyle Melbourne?

I’m delighted to be taking part in Life Instyle’s Meet the Expert series on the Saturday morning. If you’re going to be at the trade fair next month, please drop by and say hi. I’d love to meet you and try and help you with any online and social media questions you might have. I’ll be in good company, with a whole host of interesting people taking part, like stylists Julia Green and Jason Grant. It’s a casual meet and greet, open to everyone and it’s free. More information.

Categories
Styling

Greenhouse Interiors announced for Life Instyle Melbourne Style Lab

Remember the fabulous Style Lab launched at Life Instyle Sydney with Jane Frosh and Lucy Weight from Cool Edie’s? Well it’s back for the Melbourne fair and Julia Green and Jacqui Moore from Greenhouse Interiors will be the stylists doing the honours. Exciting!

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You may have enjoyed my interview with Julia last week. If not, you should totally read it if you want to be inspired!

Style Lab explores the elements of style and creativity through a series of changing scenes, designed and created live each morning of the August event. Julia and Jacqui will create a different theme each day, allowing visitors to witness the creation of a real life photographic studio set, using exhibitor products and industry trends to build and grow a concept on the spot.

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Categories
Interviews Styling

Stylist Julia Green, totally addicted to her job

Looking at Julia Green’s styling work, it’s very hard to believe she’s only been doing this professionally for 3 years or, indeed, that she spent 15 years in the corporate world of pharmaceuticals!

Julia Green

“Yes it’s true I used to pedal drugs… all legal ones though,” she jokes. “After uni I needed to earn money. I saw an ad in the paper promising a car and money. I interviewed and blow me down, I got it. Then comes the timewarp of some 15 years where I sell, manage and recruit in that industry before having my last baby and realising I had been living a lie.”

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Fenton and Fenton shoot

Whilst everyone always told Julia she should be “in interiors” she had no idea how to turn her passion into a real job, or that stylists even existed (true story). Then fate intervened. One day, a man came to her door to collect a couch she’d sold him on eBay. “Ends up he is a photographer for Vogue and he asked me who I styled for. In perfect ignorance, I asked what he was on about, only to learn of a whole new world out there, that I apparently should belong to. He gave me a card and told me to call. To cut a long story short, I have not stopped running from job to job ever since!”

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