Robins On The Loose: Japan 2009

Well, we thought it was about time to formally introduce ourselves ("ourselves" being the Robins from Robin Street Market) to those of you who haven't met us in person yet.  And what better way to do so than via a video! This little video is part of a series that we will be releasing which documents our worldwide trip last year.  The main aim of the trip was to hunt down as many unique and handmade gifts as we could possibly find and gather them all together to create Robin Street Market.  We started in Japan, and as you will see by the video, it wasn't exactly all hard work!

The song is written and performed by David Cosma (the Robin with the beard and hat!), backing vocals by our wonderful friend Nick Carrafa.

If you enjoy this video please let us know by commenting below, we'd love to hear from you.  Also, we'd love it if you would share it with your friends, Robins are very social creatures you know - we adore meeting new people!

Enjoy!
Sharon Parker & David Cosma

Unique Millinery By Linda Vydra

Japanese Saffron

We have just added some wonderful, unique millinery to our Nest - all handmade in Melbourne, Australia by Linda Vydra.  These amazing pieces are made using recycled music records (how cool is that?!) and with gorgeous, vintage fabrics, hand-sewn and folded using traditional Japanese techniques.  Completely amazing if you ask me, Linda is one creative, talented lady.  These are the first of Linda's items that we have added to our Nest so we would like to officially welcome her. 

Lily Pond

Sapphire Spiral Of Fusion

Rosie Sprial Of Fusion

And.... not only has Linda provided us with this amazing range of millinery, but she has also been nice enough to share her recipe for strawberry dumplings with us - they sound DELICIOUS!

Winner Of Feedback Friday

We are very happy to announce that the winner of Feedback Friday for last Friday is Megan Hassett!  Megan is such a wonderful supporter of Robin Street Market and due to the fact that she is sooo well travelled she had some very helpful advice in relation to the countries that we need to put on our to-do list to help us continue our goal of adding unique and handmade items from all around the world to our store.  We will definitely be calling on Megan's travel expertise when we book our next trip.  Thanks Megan, and thankyou to everyone else that submitted feedback on Friday, we really appreciate the time you spent and found all the feedback very helpful.

Glass Pendant "Little Boy

As the winner of Feedback Friday, Megan has chosen this groovy glass pendant in a tin as her free gift.  To see more of these lovely pendants and other items made by Ciara Cross, visit her artist page here. And for your chance to win, all you need to do is send us an email next Friday - check out this blog entry for more details.

Liz Disler

Victoria Silk Pleat Top

We were so excited to add Liz Disler's gorgeous clothing range to Robin Street Market a few months ago.  Liz began her self titled label to make a positive change for the environment.  The range is locally produced, fashionable, eco-friendly and uses the best certified organic yarns.  And let's not forget to mention how stunning these items are!

Lucinda Slip

Sophie Knit Pants

 All garments in the range are made from certified organic cotton yarn, dyed with Oeko Tex Standard 100 processes and sourced from a carbon neutral supplier and produced locally in Melbourne, Australia. The certified organic cotton and lace is grown free from chemical fertilisers, allowing the soil, growers, garment makers and end wearer to avoid contact with the harsh chemicals.  So, not only are they lovely to look at and ridiculously comfortable to wear but they are also kind to the environment. Brilliant!  If you like the look of these gorgeous items, you can check out the full range here.

Winner Of Feedback Friday

A big congratulations to Sandra Jack who is the winner of Feedback Friday for last week!  We really appreciate the fact that so many of you emailed us on Friday - the feedback we received was constructive, extremely helpful, and at times hilarious!  All those weird and wonderful places you would like us to travel to, and as if we need an excuse...

Sandra has chosen these lovely earrings as her free gift:

Mod Bird Charm Earrings In Gol

If you want to be in the running for a free gift to the value of $30, all you need to do is send us an email on Friday with your feedback.  More details here.

We hope you love those earrings Sandra!! 

Framed Prints Available

"Gerturde" by Dilka from Italy

As you may know we have some fantastic prints available in our store - all based on the original artwork created by talented artists from around the world.  We have previously only sold these prints unframed, but now you can also buy them already in frames if you would prefer.  That way, you can put them straight up on the wall as soon as you receive them! Here are some examples of our framed prints (and there are more coming soon).

"Sydney" by Karen from USA

"Poppies" by Dilka from Italy

"Melbourne" by Karen from USA

"Helga" by Dilka from Italy

Thai Style Whole Snapper

It only takes about 10 mins to prepare this recipe and 30 mins at the most to cook and the fish is so yummy and delicious that it has become a bit of a regular meal in our kitchen. And it's always a hit when we have people over for dinner because for some reason there is a something a bit fancy about cooking a whole fish (not sure why as it is easy peasy).

Ingredients

• 600 gram whole snapper (cleaned and scaled)
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
• A small handful of chopped fresh coriander
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 2 spring onions, cut into really thin strips 

Method
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 F). Pop the garlic, fish sauce, lemon juice, ginger, chilli sauce, coriander, rice wine vinegar and wine in a jug and mix well.

Then place the snapper onto a large piece of foil on a baking tray and pour the marinade over the fish and then put the the spring onion on top.

Wrap the foil around the fish (so it looks like a nice little parcel) and pop it in the oven to bake for 20-30 mins (you'll know it's ready when the flesh flakes away easily when you test it with a fork).

 You can serve it with rice, or on this occasion we stir fried some bok choy in a bit of oil, lemon juice and a splash of soy and sesame oil to finish.  Told you it was easy!!

And the second best thing to the delicious snapper on this particular evening was that David drew the short straw and ended up washing up the dishes.

Free Gift Giveaways On Feedback Fridays!!

Robin Street Market has now been up and running for nearly 9 months and we (the little Robins) are keen to find out from you whether we are delivering on our goal which is to provide you with a truly unique shopping experience - to travel the world using our world map, admire and buy unique and handmade products from the countries that you select, and to find out about the artists & crafters who made these amazing products.

So, commencing Friday 17th September until Friday 15th October, every Friday at our Nest is going to be Feedback Friday. All you have to do to be in the running to win a free gift is send us an email with your feedback about Robin Street Market.  For example:

• tell us which product is your favourite and why;
• tell us which is your favourite artist and why;
• tell us about an artist or crafter who would be a good fit for Robin Street Market;
• let us know where we should travel to next to find some more great markets and to source new artists & crafters;
• tell us whether we are providing enough/too much information in our monthly eNews.

We are so keen to receive your feedback that we are going to give our favourite friday feedback giver each week a free gift (wow, lots of fs in that sentence!!).  We will announce the winner of Feedback Friday on this blog each week and the winner will eligible to choose anything they like from Robin Street Market up to the value of $30. 

So, put your thinking caps on and we look forward to receiving your emails on Feedback Friday - just remember the examples above are just to get you thinking - any feedback is more than welcome!

Sugar & Spice Children's Market

The Sugar & Spice Children's Market is coming up this Sunday 12th September, and we are VERY excited.  It is being held at St. Ambrose Hall in Woodend, which is a lovely venue, and it has central heating which will keep us all warm and toasty if the Spring weather decides to stay away a bit longer. We had such a lovely time at the last market in June, there were so many great people to meet, a fantastic vibe, the most scrumpdilyumpscious cupcakes to munch on, I had my mum keeping me company behind our stall and my gorgeous husband, David Cosma, serenading me from the stage - what more could a girl ask for??

Mum doing a great job!

David belting out a toon

So, if you want to join in the fun, come on down to Woodend this Sunday (more details here), you can groove along to some home grown music (David and his sidekick Nick will be playing again), fill up on some good food and of course browse the stalls of all the wonderful retailers.  Here are some of the unique and handmade goodies we will be selling on the day.

Matching Skirt & Singlet

Leather Baby Shoes

Baby Blanket

Baby Bloomers

Handmade Bag

Mod Hair Clips

Matching Shorts & Singlet

See you on Sunday!!

Bamberg

Whilst on our travels, we ended up in Bamberg, Germany.  It is one of the few cities that was not destroyed by World War II bombings, and as a result, there are some ridiculously gorgeous old buildings to admire when wandering around the city.  It really is a beautiful city, with winding lanes, stunning buildings, a great vibe and even lots of great shopping!

A German beer to finish off the day!