You may have guessed by now that blogging is not my forte. I've never even kept a diary, so the irony of making notebooks is not lost on me. Nonetheless, I'll keep trying.

Things have been all over the shop lately, literally and figuratively. I've been spending Thursday afternoons holed up in my room trying to make books and what not, but normally end up paying bills and doing all the crap administrative things that I started Record Attempts in order to avoid in my day job. On these Thursday afternoons, my sanity is maintained by All Over The Shop. It does an excellent job of keeping me entertained and my neighbour must be extremely thankful as she also works from home part-time and Stu and Larry have meant that the new Underworld album has been taken off high volume, high rotation. Of course, for the rest of the time this month, it has been getting a flogging.

Record Attempts was at Finders Keepers recently, although it does seem a long time ago now, in a galaxy far, far away, called Shed 4 of the Docklands. It was a great weekend and a few people were kind enough to include me in their very organised and promptly written blogs.

The Design Files had some lovely things to say along with a couple of great photos halfway down the page.

Meredith Nadine stopped by for a chat with me and also had some nice things to say, again, about halfway down the page.

Finally, Record Attempts made it into the pages of INSIDEout magazine as one of the top 100 gifts for Christmas this year. The Retro Roller Skates were included, although they could only fit one in, they come as a pair.



Now the year seems to be almost over, or my batteries seem almost flat. Last weekend involved markets on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. This weekend is a little less hectic ;-)

MARKit, BP and Kamahl

Last Sunday was MARKit at the Fed Square atrium and it was quite a busy day. Thanks to all of the people who purchased notebooks and wall hangings and answered my questions about some new products I'm developing.

Special thanks also to iSpyStyle who included Record Attempts as one of the highlights of the MARKit.

Finally, it was with some irony that I came across this Kamahl record the same week that BP finally capped their oil leak.

As I write it is absolutely pouring and hard to imagine a time when rain was scarce in Melbourne!

I'm a creature who much prefers the warmer months, so I have tried to use this cold snap to work on a few things for Record Attempts. My most satisfying accomplishment recently was designing and constructing my new stand for my market stall. As you can see, it means I can display many more books and my wall hangings as well.

This new display will be in effect at the MARKit market in the atrium of Federation Square on Sunday 11th July, as well as at Rose Street.

Last weekend I had the chance to get away and Pip and I went down to Queenscliff, which I just discovered is part of the Borough of Queenscliffe - yes, with an E. I picked up some records from a few of the op shops down there and Pip got some books from the church that is now a secondhand bookstore.

After looking through the records I discovered this slip from Myer in one of them. Ah, the good old days, when the the tele from telephone was abbreviated with an apostrophe and phone numbers only had seven digits!



Finally, I came across this recently and think it's great!

This week I came across a few cracking albums at the Mount Beauty car boot sale. Don't worry though, I don't normally travel this far for records, I was on a camping holiday getting some fresh air, playing frisbee and going for walks and bike rides.

I spent today at Rose Street trying to ward off winter with a few egg and bacon rolls, strong coffees and mineral water. Despite the predictably unpredictable weather it was a good day with plenty of people coming to have a look, albiet with scarves and beanies.

This coming Saturday Record Attempts is at the Sister's Market in Brunswick. Brunswick Town Hall on the corner of Sydney and Glenlyon Roads from 10:00am - 4:00pm to be precise. I'd recommend coming down as Pip will be there with her prints and original work from her folio. Anna from Able and Game will also be there with their range of laughter-inducing cards, calendars, badges and stickers.

This week will also mark the launch of our photo albums so stayed tuned!