PRETTY/HOT INTERVIEWEE.
Yesterday, I met the one half of the cool duo that is Lola & Bailey.
Cheri Flewell-Smith – is a brown girl (I’m allowed to say that cause I am one).
She is intimidatingly pretty, lithe and has a big, bright smile.
She’s a Windsor girl through and through – with a background as an art director, orange nails (I wish I took a photo for you), a chunky blue ring, cool shoes and one of her sun dials dangling from her frame, she fits right in.

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THE DUO.
Theresa is working from Sydney and Cheri from Melbourne. Now they’ve both dived in for the full time love of Lola & Bailey. Cheri will be traveling back and forth – they’ll be emailing, sending files and all over the show really.
The more easygoing of the two is Theresa. Cheri follows up the bills. They’re both the creative brains and the practical brains together.
Their collaboration rule is to email a concept to and fro, but never to head backwards, always forwards.
I like.

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GEEK-Ville.
For the geeks – they work from sketch through to Adobe Illustrator – and the final piece is always a bit of a surprise, never knowing how it will really look once it goes into test production. For the super geeks – their current collection is “CMYK“. The four colours of print named after the file names we designers know too well, jpeg, tiff, ai, psd and eps.
And her designer of the moment is Andrew Ashton – founder of the legendary Studio Pip & Co and a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Her RSS feed is tapped to It’s Nice That (what a coincidence, so is mine…), Sea of Ghosts (get ready to loose a working hour if you click, I did) and Alex Bogusky’s Posterous (the guy is huge).

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LOLA&BAILEY TOMORROW

Off to press this week and available soon are the Long Live McQueen and Fromage totes. The Fromage tote for the sexy French uni student that you want to channel, great for your A4s – why didn’t you do this when I was at uni Lola&Bailey? Their homage to Alexandra McQueen tote in tribute to the genius that brought us those shoes, was one of the first designers to use Indian models in London and more.

Lola and Bailey have had big Kish love for a while now. Their “Metropolis” Collection had me at M. They want to open 3-4 boutiques of their own and of course make it massive, transitioning between all dimensions of fashion.

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GET ME TO THEM
You can grab their sundials and shadow puppets at their current stockists; Tessori Bellini in Victoria, Rowan Sable in Queensland and at Popshop on 330 Crown Street, Surry Hills in New South Wales.
Or buy online direct here.

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At Globe Café, I met Cherri from Lola & Bailey. Kind of recently redone – Globe looks amazing. Now also open for dinner, their new interiors are so lovely and striking at the same time. There is a heap load of warm sunlight washing in to make things feel nice and fuzzy. The waiters are friendly and their treats along the cashier counter are to die for. (Maybe its intentional, just maybe). When I went with my peeps, I had their chilli corncakes with avocado, fetta and mint salsa and it was delicious. A Chapel St favourite me thinks.
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Tess McCabe, a graphic designer and the lady behind the Creative Women’s Circle events, introduced me to the Green Grocer. A true, true celebration of our dynamic organic industry – they sell fresh produce, provide what look to be excellent cooking classes (the Thai one is sold out!), and super duper banana bread.

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Real old school crates and fruit and veg – it feels very Fitzroy North and with people popping in and out, it’s much loved. Tess and I are on the hunt for more organic / vegetarian / gluten free etc places to munch at – so if you know of any, please let us know.

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In other news (watch carefully while I slip in a bit of self promo here) – Miss Kish is growing. Get Kish Love before March 23rd at $55 per hour (excl. GST) and stay on the loved list for all of 2010.

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The Mt. Bromo area – Cemoro Lawang is surprisingly limitedly tourist friendly. We managed to find one sleek café which is also a hotel – Java Banana Bromo. Definitely the best place to stay in Cemoro Lawang and eat – with a gallery of Mt. Bromo and the crater, books on Mt. Bromo and Indonesia, it’s also a lovely place to hang.
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Mt. Bromo – Still active, still bubbling away, still terrifying.
We awoke at 4am took a jerky and halting jeep ride to the sunrise point where its possible to see the crater and its volcanoes in their magnificence. Needless to say – its only a perfect sunrise which makes for epic photography (apparently we should have gone in July, not in January).
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Our driver also took us to the middle of the crater – where you can see the volcanoes around you. Stunning. Seriously.

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Then we got to Mr. Bromo. You can take a horse (more a pony really) – another terrifying experience for the non-horserider aka Kish. A 20 – 40 minute walk up the volcano to its brim and you’re at the top. It’s amazing and beautiful and scary and so worth it. You’re so close to the edge and the height is whoa. Its one of those things you have to see once in your lifetime (more if you’re lucky) – and feel the intenseness of it.

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You Were In My Dream
Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine
Peering through a magic box, your face is captured and becomes a part of a story. Here is Jess – smiling and waiting for rabbits to come out of the tree. I’m a vegetarian who is terrified of animals, so to be able to see myself smiling and holding rabbits was pretty super cool. Surreal actually.
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Life Writer
Laurent Mignonneau & Christa Sommerer
My image does this no justice at all. As you can see there is a man and a typewriter. BUT!! There are bug thingees too (artificial life forms to be precise). And as the man types, the forms move, die or are born. It really makes you double take; old typewriter, sheet of paper, man typing – much more to it.
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Xanadu
Kit Wise
I think this piece topped my charts for aesthetic appeal. It was serene, water falling, city lights, symmetry. It felt like Niagra Falls with the gushing water, Fiji with its super lush greens and Hong Kong with its sky high lights had all been seamlessly stitched together. You could just stand there and stare it, trying to find a fault in its perfection.
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So St. Ali hosted a laneway party on Saturday. It was intimidating. With so much coolness all around, I felt like I should have been wearing a tattoo, thick framed glasses and a summer frock from the 60s. Thankfully, I arrived with team G and left with Nic, both of whom wore none of the above. It’s cool to be a minority in the majority of coolness.
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G ate – Queen of Scots (pictured) including Kippers, potato, poached egg and more with a White Rabbit beer (G says they are great, his word is law). I had corn fritters and had them made eggless for me – matched up with sautéed, spicy mushrooms = delish. St. Ali was packed beyond the brim.
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With vego burgers, live artists (music and graffiti art – Reka + Phibs are my favs) free parks (you need to know the tricks of the trade), wine and beer and a sunny afternoon, my day was done.
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The Social Studio opened over summer – V & I popped by. A sweet little space with a sewing studio, café + outdoor seating on Smith St. The Social Studio has a purpose; to sell garments made by young refugees (from recycled and excess manufacturing materials) and give them a share of the profits and to empower with social enterprise. For more photographs of the interior – click here to get to The Design Files and here to get to their launch.

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JetsettingJoyce and I made it over to Shakahari last week. I’ve been several times before and it has never disappointed. My favourite has always been the Avocado Magic – a signature dish with the best puree in the whole wide world – yes, you can quote me on that. I love it. We also ordered the Satay Legend. I’ve decided if Wilson the Indonesian is a king of spice, I own the queen of satay title. The Satay Legend also had seitain, which I now know is a wheat protein – which is often called the “vegetarian wheat meat”. Nevertheless – Shakahari is a must visit and more so if you are a pure vegetarian. You can choose anything on the menu.
That in itself is worth the visit!
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The art is heavy duty street art – but more so – street sculpture. I love Melbourne – and while we are so young, fresh and “cool” with our street art – I found Yogya significantly more so in their street sculpture. I saw a bright yellow lamppost with a knot in the middle. I can believe that I failed to take a picture, but I can’t believe that I failed to uproot it and bring it home.
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Here is a little piece of coolness for you. Seats made from bike tyres. They’re miles ahead of us I tell you. If you squint, you will see a little coffee table in the back – also made of tyres.
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The Kraton is a “walled-city” in the heart of Yogyakarta which is still the home of the sultans. To be 100% frank, if you have seen several palaces and temples abroad, don’t expect to be blown away. Its more in the details that you will find the beauty – I loved the old photographs, the real, authentic batik work and the consistent monograms.

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We visited Borobudur – the most epic and amazing temple in Indonesia (in my grand perception). Imagine Indiana Jones – those temples in the middle of a forest – Borobudur was discovered like so. They’ve made an aggressive effort to maintain and protect it – and it is a MUST see if you ever travel to Indonesia.

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The sweetest thing about the temples – was that local school kids would come and visit and take pictures of themselves. They also seems fascinated by us (I’m guessing it’s the accent) – and they wanted photos with us – all giggling & excited. So somewhere in Indonesia, about 100 school kids have a photograph of me. What a celebrity.

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We also visited Prambanan – although by this time I had bunged my foot (did I forget to mention I had a bung foot for the remainder of our trip) – which meant everyone had to let me sit at the front, drop me off at the entrance and treat me better in general. Although – how one can be better treated by a bunch of 20-something boys is beyond me. #joke. Prambanan is still in preservation – it does have one of the few temples of Brahma, which V tells me is quite rare. Very cool to see Hindu deities in Indonesia.

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And that was Yogyakarta.

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I managed to find a sweet little part of local designer clothing in Bandung – by the name of VARC.inc. The boys were super sweet and their T-shirts were ingenious (made by an Indonesian brand called Invicts). V purchased one – a double entendre aimed at Apple. Invincitosh – with a bomb in their original logo colours – did you know they used to have rainbow colours? I bought myself a sweet little top – and this was, believe it or not, the only piece of clothing I purchased during the entire trip……
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The sweet thing about Indonesia, is that much like India, design as we know it – isn’t ever present. I don’t think I could find a single packet of cigarettes that looks quite like this one. 2 colours (neither in harmony nor in contrast), centred layout, Bahasa type and those old school letters – which look very Celtic, placed one ontop of the other. Fascinating.
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We visited Tangkuban Perahu – a mini version of the live volcano we were due to visit – so kind of like a teaser. We got ourselves a guide and proceeded to trek (downwards, yay!) towards the bubbling hot waters. In the vicinity, there were trees growing – with textures that go all the way through the wood. (Sorry I can’t explain that quite right). Imagine someone carving the wood, and as they carve, they shed strips of wood. The strips – all of them, look like the one on the left. Super cool. I might invest in getting V hand manicures with all the hand modeling he’s been doing for me.
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We also had corn. Which is very common road side food. It comes with a chilli sauce – have I mentioned – I thought Indians were the kings of super spice. I am now convinced, we are nothing in comparison to Indonesians (huge generalisation – but still). Wilson can eat the spiciest food ever. Me & V just stare at him, waiting for a tear or two – but nothing. Zilch…..

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Kampung Daun is the reason why you need to see Indonesia with a local. Wilson took us to an outdoor restaurant – with a river flowing through it and little huts at which we dined. Their menus are slips of paper with tick boxes and you order via the paper. The food is Sundanese – the real thing (I am told). Very few vegetarian items, but V & I managed to get our tummies filled with tofu, rice wrapped in palm leaves, chutneys and more. Also – fresh juice.

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Bandung is prone to flash floods and it is absolutely beautiful. It may last for half and hour – and within that time, drains are over flowing, people are drenched (visualise many a scooter with a plastic ponchoed driver), parks submerged in pools and ponds of water and the lychees dripping wet. It was really beautiful – and I also realised how precious I am with my camera. Next trip, I’m taking a waterproof one as well.

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I’ve been to Jakarta before (circa 1991) and my mum’s purse got robbed by a brute of a man (I sound like this because I’m currently reading Sherlock Holmes) who offered to assist her with her tray at Mc Donalds whilst she was managing her 3 girls. I was very hesitant to return – and then Wilson mentioned Lombok. Of course he also mentioned most meals being about $3 and the both of us being small business owners in their first year – leapt to the opportunity.
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Café Batavia was our first stop – hungry, I found myself eating fried rice and a stir fry at 7am for breakfast. Adorned with photographs and paintings with Dutch influence in a colonial time period, a real treat. It’s also conveniently located in the Kota Tua area adjacent to the Fatahillah Museum.
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Jalan Surabaya Antique Markets are quite spesh. A line up of stalls and stallholders hungry for your attention. No clothes. But many, many, cameras, lampshades, radios, a fair few pretend-antiques and glassware. V & I also managed to find a calculator. Old school. Real old school. You set the numbers and rotate the handle to multiply (don’t ask me how to multiple by 102, superman hands?). Also, never visit a store thinking “we’ll come back and get it” – because plans change and you may not be back…..
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I had read about Dharmawangsa in a book on hotels in Asia and I wanted to just see it. The staff were lovely and willingly took V & I on a tour of the hotel. Their rooms had a range of themes all a tribute to Indonesia & Balinese culture and art. The architect Cheong Yew Kuan has also worked on this amazing retreat – all nights spent on a boat in the Maldives. Sigh. All this aside – I just want to say, I love the look of mosquito nets.

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We also ultimately changed our accommodation – Sanno Hotel looks nothing like its website and was an absolute disaster. Tragic. Luckily, we found Alila. A member of Design Hotels – with excellent service, minimal interiors and bang in the middle of everything. Their breakfast was the best I’ve ever, ever, ever had in my life (of course excluding my mum’s and V’s). They had fresh lychees, pineapple smoothies in shot glasses and the most epic of all – a huge honeycomb slab with drops of honey drizzling down into a jar.

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