This Sunday, Piccadilly Market returns to Deakin Waterfront and honestly… it is shaping up to be the perfect “NEARLY” winter day out.

Introducing another newcomer to Piccadilly Market on Sunday 4th August

Tell us a little about yourself? Monday Monday specialize in handmade jewellery. We are a creative duo based in Geelong; I work as a full time Visual Merchandiser and Jake is a Graphic Designer, so working on a creative project together seemed only natural to us. We make all our pieces by hand in our home studio. We love that by handcrafting each bead, no two necklaces will ever be identical, each one is unique. Our range is sold online at Monday Monday and Piccadilly Market will be our first ever market stall. We are so excited that it is in our home town. We can't wait to see some familiar faces swing by on the day, and hopefully some new ones too!

 How did you come up with your business name? We were testing new ideas one night around the dining room table - mucking around with clay, sketching, brainstorming - and as always, Jake had his music blaring! We were trying to think of a name that was simple and easy to remember, but also had some relevance to travel. Then this song came on and we both just thought 'Monday; that's a cool name'. So Monday Monday was born! And if you're wondering about the relevance to travel... people start planning a holiday on a Monday more than any other day of the week. I think that might have something to do with Monday-itis :)






Tell us how your product/range/business came about? We both worked long hours when we lived in Melbourne and often didn't get to work on any fun projects together. When we moved back to Geelong and had a little more time on our hands I started playing around with Polymer Clay. Family and Friends were always commenting on my jewellery so we thought maybe we could start selling and put the money towards our wedding at the end of the year. I was really excited that Jake actually enjoyed helping out with everything from making the beads to designing the packaging. He's been amazing! Now, what started out as a hobby has become more successful than we could have imagined through our own websiteMonday Monday and the online gift store hardtofind.com.

 How long have you been in business for? We started making our jewellery in December 2012. Our website launched at the start of March and we have been growing strong ever since

 What inspires you? Our pieces are inspired by travel; Places we've visited and others that are on our wish list. Jake is a great photographer and has captured some amazing moments from our travels. We use these photos as inspiration where we can. Of course we all have our pinterest wish boards, and ours is all about travel destinations. This helps us inject some new colours and variety into our necklaces.



 Have you always been ‘creative’ or has it bloomed later in life? Jake has definitely always been creative. He knew very early on that he wanted to be a Designer. I, on the other hand, didn't realise I was creative until maybe 6 years ago. I was always good with numbers in school and actually wanted to study to be an Accountant. But working in retail led me to Visual Merchandising and I realised that I had a bit of a knack for making and creating.

 When you are not busy creating what do you love doing? We are super busy this year planning our wedding. It's only four months away and we feel like there is still so much to do, but we're definitely enjoying it. When we do get some down time we love just hanging out with good friends and family.

 What is something cool that most people wouldn’t know about you? When there's a lot going on in your life, sometimes things can get a little too serious. So we have a rule in our house that if one person is dancing, everyone has to dance! It's a great way to lighten the mood and remind yourself that life is meant to be fun! (what a fantastic rule)

 If money was no object what would be your dream destination? We've always wanted to take a few months to travel through France and Spain.

 What are you reading right now? I've just finished reading the Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But now its all 'wedding' business and I'm reading Hello May Magazine.( awesome magazine..makes me want to get married again)

 What is your favorite website(s) ? One of my favorite websites is Fancy.com. It is super cool and has so many unique items - from gadgets, to clothing to homewares. Lots of fun!

Kate and Jake will be giving away one of their fab necklaces in our giveaway on the 4th August.

What a fantastic wrap up to 2012 with a brilliant Piccadilly Christmas Market.  Thank you to all the thousands of you who came to support a locally run event that in turn supports independent artists.

Another big thank you to everyone who donated to The Hunger Project, we raised $2175.





Mother Nature took good care of us and put on a fabulous sunny 21 degrees making it enjoyable for everyone especially out in the courtyard.



It worked really well even though we could only exhibit on one level due to the current renovations.

At this stage we have not had dates confirmed by Deakin but hope to have them as soon as possible.

Grab a cuppa and take a look at the photos from Sunday.

Some of you know how much I love a makeover and if I had more hours in the day I would be making over everything and anything I could get my hands on. I did this craft cabinet last year and my filing cabinet a few years back. So my latest project was a new TV cabinet, I was watching a lot of Sarah's House and she loves to Two Pac everything. It is the same process that is used for kitchen cabinets making it super durable and glossy. I bought this cabinet for $40 on ebay and then hunted down a two pac guy in Geelong.
The next thing was deciding on a colour which was agonising. My heart was telling me it wanted bright yellow and my head was trying to fight it, in the end my heart won and I am so glad because I LOVE the result. It has changed the whole feel of the room. I have had to add a few yellow decorative items to tie it all in which has been fun. So bright and cheery in these cooler months. I wasn't going to post it until I had knobs for the drawers but I am being super slow on making a decision and it could be a while. So what do you think?

I am just a teensy bit, no really, really super duper excited about having had my first Piccadilly Market video made.

Loving the work of all my amazing stallholders that got to feature as well as everyone who didn't. You all make it what it is today.

 I am also digging the smooth sounds of Andy Pobjoy who was singing live at the last event and will also be entertaining us on the 29th of July.

 Let me know what you think.

Has anyone seen this gorgeous new promo DVD from Geelong Otway Tourism?

I always manage to pick up some great bargains at the Rhubarb Sale. Lucky for me it is walking distance from my house so I will be there first thing Wednesday morning.

Tomorrow sees the start of the UCI cycling here in the host city Geelong. The city will be closed off until next Sunday so we all need to get out there and cheer our Aussies on. I will be heading to the waterfront and of course to check out the Market at Johnstone Park.
I love bikes, especially cool groovy vintage ones, you can see previous posts here and here
So in celebration of all things cycling here are some cool finds to drool over.

Bicycle
1.Velorbis Wicker Basket 2. Bicycle Rubber Stamp 3. I love my bike bell 4. Gold Cycle Pendant 5. Vintage Arte Poster 6. Red Vintage Bike 7. Green Schwinn Bike 8. Wooden Crate 9.Green Bicycle Basket