My darling friend Lol mentioned to me today that she is looking to make some changes to her apartment, one of them is a wallpaper feature wall in the entrance of her place. I think this is a fantastic idea, I think wallpaper when chosen carefully and used sparsely is a wonderful way to give a space more drama and individuality. 

Here's a few little inspiring wallpaper snaps!

Good afternoon all of you lovely people,

Hope you have had a relaxing, exciting, adventurous and fun-filled weekend.

I apologise that I haven't written in a while, its been a very busy and tough couple of weeks but we are on the other side of it now and back into business. We have the North Melbourne markets next Sunday so there are lots of candles that need to be poured in the next week!

Kate is returning from a big goat muster  tomorrow, she has been gone for two weeks! In BIG news my partner bought his first house yesterday. We weren't sure whether to feel confident when we showed up to the auction, we knew that there had been plenty of interest and there were so many people there! Tom kept his cool right until the end of negotiations where he was just a sweaty mess! He did point out that it is 'the second biggest commitment you will ever make in your life', and it really is - it's huge! So excited to be able to decorate it, he has given me permission to be the boss! I can't wait to actually be able to wallpaper walls, hang real nails (rather then those bloody crisco hooks!) and build a vegetable garden. Not to mention the fact that we can get our French Bulldog - I have never had a dog in my life so I am just about dying of excitement. 

Here's a few cheeky snaps of the new place!

I'll keep you posted on all of the items I'm lusting over in the coming months!

Han x 

Hello darlings,

Boy do we have a big day ahead of us today?! Today is Kate's next audition for the X Factor and I am SO EXCITED. I have seen her do her songs and she is completely fabulous and if the judges don't put her through they have literally lost it - we will keep you updated!

On Sunday, as mentioned we attempted to get a stall camberwell and succeeded! You must be thinking ' yay! How great for them!'. Well you are wrong. What started off as a day, we arrived at 6am and it was 21 degrees we were wearing t-shirts and happily wandering around in the dark while we waited to hear whether there was a stall available to us. When we arrived to put our name down at 6am there were already about 20 names on the page so in the end we probably wouldn't have ended up with one if it weren't for a lovely girl who came up and offered us her stall space as she had hired two and only needed one. I wish we had said no and gone home to bed.

Multiple car loads of furniture, candles, cards, lamps and calendars later we were set up.

YAY! IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY!

The temperature dropped more then 10 degrees and it threatened to rain the entire morning. People were more interested in the jar of USED makeup in our neighbouring stall then our furntiure and candles. Luckily we made the cost of the stall back and made enough profit to cover one of our breakfasts from the morning.... We love camberwell but we won't be back there to have our own stall. Lesson learned. I could have written a post about how fabulous it was and what a great experience it was... but I just thought I would be honest. 

I'll leave you with this photo of us with about one hour of selling time to go. 

Han x 

Must figure out how to make this and have it in my house! 

Don't you think? 

One more thing tonight...

Are you all out of your mind?

Cherylynn is still available.

This is all. 

Success!

We have survived our first ever market! Our aim at the beginning of the day was to break even with the cost of the stall and we did that as well as making some profit! It was quite a slow day at the market, even though it was a sunny day outside there weren't nearly as many people wandering through the market as anyone would have hoped. We had some lovely visitors: Vicki (who made the first purchase of the day), Nat, Kat, Johnno & Gill - thank you guys! AND we even made some new friends and had many people take business cards and ask us about the site which is exactly what we wanted to achieve, spreading the word outside of our immediate circle. The candles were a HUGE hit, there were many that I made especially that haven't appeared online and now won't have the chance now that they are sold! People would spend forever smelling all of them and trying to decide which scent they liked best - they liked them all so much they couldn't choose! 

Markets bring out lots of crazies (us included). As soon as we got there we got in a bitter war over stall space, we forgave each other in the end and she was loving us sick by the end of the day. We ate waffles which were bloody delicious and I bought a knitted vest from another stall holder - all in all a great day!

We are going to try our luck with a Camberwell Stall next weekend - cross your fingers for us! We think it might be a great platform for selling our furniture as it is THE market that people turn up to with trailers and utes wanting to but furniture. In the meantime, have a glorious Sunday evening and best of luck for the week ahead!

Han x 

Our FIRST EVER market stall is TOMORROW! 

North Melbourne Markets: 44 Erroll St North Melbourne from 10am - 3pm.

Here is the facebook event page below if you are looking for more information: 

http://www.facebook.com/events/541763272525200/?fref=ts

It will honestly make my day if ONE blog reader who isn't my friend, mum, grandmother, godmother, teacher or anyone else who personally knows me comes up, says hello and tells me that they read the blog. If you are coming down to visit tomorrow PLEASE do say hello and have a chat, it would honestly mean the world to me. 

We have some really gorgeous products ready for tomorrow and I can't wait to see what you all think!

See you there :)

To celebrate the end of another week I am going to share a few rooms that inspire me and hopefully get you inspired and excited to give a room a makeover at your place this weekend :)

Perhaps you could pop on down to the North Melbourne Markets, visit the Keen as Mustard stall and start from there?

All images have been gathered from trusty old pinterest :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/birdyandme

Click on the link above and have a look at Kelly Smith's delicate and beautiful sketches. 

Han x 

All of these quirky little candles will be available to purchase at the North Melbourne Markets on Sunday. If you are decorating your house or looking for a special gift for someone, pop down and see us! 

Check this out! 

Becca shares her incredible idea here:

http://diy-vintage-chic.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/vintage-wine-crate-coffee-table.html

(Copy and paste the link)

Hello loyal friends,

I apologise the blog hasn't been updated as regularly recently, it's been a crazy time. But I promise I will do lots more posts in the coming week :) 

This week saw Katie secure a place at the X-Factor auditions (as posted below), which means she is now in crazy song/dance prep for the incredible few months she has ahead of her. I've got every faith she is going to do so so well! You will all have to vote for her when it airs. 

This week I had one day filming for 'Offspring' which was so thrilling. It is one of my favourite Australian TV shows (if not my absolute favourite) and has some of the actors I most respect in the industry working on it. I was lucky enough to be cast in a small guest part that allowed me to do a scene with Asher Keddie and Kat Stewart. I think I got the most out of the day from just watching them work. The show is like a well oiled machine, everyone knows the part and they work well together - I got so much out of watching over the directors shoulder. I would have paid to have been there - and instead it was the other way around! 

Also, we've been busily preparing for the North Melbourne Markets next weekend, really looking forward to that. Please pop down and see us, say hello and let us know you have been reading the blog. It'll mean our fear that our mums are logging on and reading the blog 100 times a day won't be real! Some of the furniture that is currently online will be coming with us, unfortunately at this stage we can not afford to fund an entirely new collection of furniture pieces until these are sold. So, if you have been um'ing and ah'ing over something, now would be the time to purchase it before it is taken down and taken with us OR if you want to see something in the flesh this will also be your opportunity. The markets run from 10am - 3pm at 44 Errol St North Melbourne.

Oh and this will give you a laugh. I've recently been attempting to find a job that isn't in hospitality. After years of working through university as a waitress and then spending the past year and a bit working in a restaurant - I have well and truly had enough. So I have been exploring other options and last week came across what I thought would be fantastic - a kids party host. As a struggling actor, I have hit rock bottom BUT the pay is great so I decide to go to watch two parties to see what it entails. Long story short I ended up driving for HOURS, I got completely lost AND to just put the cherry on top of the crap cake a child fly kicked me in the head while playing limbo. You are probably thinking... how is that possible in limbo? Let me explain... the stick had gotten so low that you could either decide to go under it on your stomach or jump over it. This one particular child who quite frankly had been annoying me the entire party due to her lack of enthusiasm suddenly gets a burst of energy and decides to do some sort of karate move while jumping over the stick which ends in her kicking me square in the forehead. I leave the party (which I don't get paid for) with a purple line down my forehead and I get lost on the way home... I'm not taking the job. 

I'll keep looking and in the meantime I'll see you next weekend at the markets!

Han xxx 

June 9th & 23rd AND July 6th & 21st.

See you there! 

Some HUGELY exciting news came through today as Kate, Lauren and I sat at 'Windsor Deli' for our regular morning catch up. In January, Kate auditioned for the X-Factor. Lauren and I ran her through mock auditions (we loved pretending to be super harsh judges) and we showed up super early to get in line. She made it through two producer rounds on that day but has been a long wait to hear whether she had made it to the live auditions in Sydney. Today she got the call!

Needless to say we are a bit excited....

Looking forward to sharing her journey with you guys!

Han x 

Hope you have all had a relaxing weekend!

Katie, Emma (our photographer) and I decided to take a spontaneous camping trip this weekend, we booked a camp spot in Sorrento on Friday evening and were on the road bright and early on Saturday. I think spontaneous trips are always the best fun, you don't have time to create any expectations so everything surpasses what you imagined your weekend would be.

 

I had never been that far up the coast before and I thought it was BEAUTIFUL! My boyfriend Tom, who has to go to work in Seaford every day is looking to buy a place at the end of the year for us to move in to next year. We have been talking about moving closer to the beach and this just cemented that for me. There is something so refreshing about the sound of the waves and the smell of salt and I swear there are 90% more people smiling then there are in the city! What don't they have to smile about - it's a beautiful place. 

We were all super impressed by our ability to put the tent up in what must have been one of the speediest set ups ever seen at Sorrento Foreshore Camping - it was that good. We had a great day wining and dining, lying on the beach and finally drinking tea from our tiny stove and eating easter eggs - they were on special it would have been rude not to! 

The only downside was that the men in the campsite near ours decided they were going to have a big night and we woke up to one of them vomiting right beside our tent. I woke up to myself yelling out 'EW!'. But we survived. I completely recommend getting away for a night, it makes you feel like you've gotten the most out of the weekend, we definitely needed it after the launch this week and the upcoming markets!

Sweet sunday dreams,

Han xx 

I really enjoy the idea of having a hanging plates feature wall in my place. I am always a 'less is more' kind of gal when it comes to feature pieces so I personally wouldn't go overboard with too many plates but I think a few carefully picked shapes, patterns and colours really comes out a treat. It's a great way to brighten up a space without having to find lots of photographs and prints that you like and much cheaper too! My suggestion would be to visit op shops to find mis-matched pieces of fantastic crockery. It'll be cheap and cheerful! I did come across this website and I think it has super adorable pieces and is completely worth a look: www.shop.lucykingdesign.com

Here's how the experts say it is done:

http://interiordec.about.com/cs/walltreatments/l/blhangplatepr01.htm

Happy plate-hanging!

xx

P.S I bloody love this table.

Well what a week it has been! 

Thank you to all of the people who have been sharing our page, we are honestly so appreciative. We have been overwhelmed by the response, I woke up at 7am on Monday after the site going live at approximately 1am and thought 'oh I'll just check whether anyone has been looking'... at 7am we had already had over 1000 views!

Please continue to spread the word about 'Keen as Mustard', there are so many perks of having an online store however it does present its challenges in that people don't have the opportunity to just stumble past. And don't forget that we can custom make something for you OR even if you have an old piece that you just want to be revamped we are happy to go crazy on it for you! The possibilities are endless. 

We also received some more good news this week, we have been approved to be a part of the North Melbourne Market. Once a month, bringing their recent creations and greatest finds, stall holders set up shop, in The Lithuanian Club, which becomes room-to-room, chandelier-to-chandelier, full to the brim! It’s all under one roof, indoors in the dry and slap bang in the middle of Errol Street at number 44. Proudly presented by Thread Den, the double doors flip open to an adventure of discovery amongst 60 market stalls.

Trailing along the lobby towards the ballroom and winding up a flight of stairs, it defies how much talent you can squeeze under one roof. Stalls sell vintage fabrics and clothing, sweet treats, local designer clothing, kids head-to-toe cute stuff, handmade jewellery, homewares, artists’ creations and other practical and not-so-practical peculiar things you’ve never seen before.

The next three markets:

• Sunday 21 April - 10am to 3pm

• Sunday 19 May - 10am to 3pm

• Sunday 16 June 10am to 3pm

We would love to meet you and have a bit of a chit chat so please pop on down and see us!

About to get cracking on some candles to be sold at our stall at the market - look at the cute little cups they are going to be made in!

Dear Darlings,

Today is the day we reveal our first products to you. We are overwhelmed with excitement, anticipation and pride. We are so proud of the products we are offering; how individual they are, the quality of each and every piece and how affordable they are. We have fought hard to bring you beautiful products that you can afford even on a budget and are thrilled that we have succeeded in doing that. 

We have poured our heart and soul into the blog and the products: every one of them is so thoroughly thought out and made with such passion. If you are Keen as Mustard about this business and what we are creating please share our website with your friends and family - we need your help! We have a vision of creating an avenue for up and coming artists of all kinds to be able to use our website as a forum to share their work and we hope with every part of us that this can come to fruition. 

If you are from out of state and love the furniture we are selling - please let us know so that we are aware there is enough interest to seriously look in to shipment costs! On that note, please send us emails of all kinds. Tell us the products you are falling in love with and what you want us to source more of - we want to cater to you. 

Keep up to date with all of our adventures:

Instragram: we_are_keen_as_mustard

Twitter: Keen_asMustard 

Endless love & happy shopping,

Han and Kate x 

With April 1 almost upon us we have been madly finishing off all the products so they look beautiful for you lovely people. I have been pouring soy candles left, right and centre and creating labels for them. My brother Ben gave me this adorable Alphabet Stamp Set for christmas this year and so I used it to stamp the names of the flavours of the candles. 

I took photos of each of the names and uploaded them onto my computer. I loaded them into word and shrunk them in size and then added a thick blue border. A hole punch and some twine and HEY PRESTO we have an adorable label. I think a stamp set is a great thing to invest in, you could make labels for birthdays and christmas as well as really nice personalised cards.

Hope you're eating lots of easter eggs!

Han x 

Happy Easter to you all :)

Hope you are getting together with friends and family this weekend. Katie has gone home to visit her family in Wagga Wagga and I am spending time in Melbourne with my sister, her partner Alex and my darling friend Lauren. We are having a lunch tomorrow and I thought in case you were doing the same and were looking for a cute way to easterify (yep, that's now a word) your table that I would post a lovely suggestion I came across. 

This simple and adorable idea is from the 'Better Homes and Gardens' sight.

All you will need  is:

• Egg cups (any shape or size)
• Cupcake patties (small & large)
• Small lollies or mini m&m's 

Enjoy easterifying the crap out of your table! 

xx

The Shoot.

I am absolutely pooped but very happy.

We just finished shooting for Monday's launch and it was so exciting to see all of the pieces finished and ready to be sent to new homes. I have never been very good at lifting things... no matter how many times I am told to 'bend my knees' I still seem to always take all of the weight in my back, as does my sister Emma who is our photographer and so we are now nursing aching bodies after lifting the pieces in and out of the workspace. 

Every time I was styling a piece today I found myself thinking 'Oh wouldn't this look good at home... I could put this next to this...' but then I had to remind myself that they are not for me, they are for all of you beautiful people who support our blog and business. You can tell that Keen as Mustard reflects our style and represents us 100% when we love everything so much we don't want to sell it!

We just can't wait until next week to see whether there are people out there who love it just as much as us!

I have just been completely motivated and inspired by this article by Amanda Brown on Design Sponge. If you ever find yourself with a lamp base that you love but no shade or even if you want to spruce up a lamp you've had for years, then take a look!

UPHOLSTERY BASICS: HOW TO MAKE A LAMPSHADE

Copy and paste this link!

http://www.designsponge.com/2012/08/upholstery-basics-how-to-make-a-lampshade-3.html

Also, while I am here. I have always been a big fan of mismatched chairs (have a peek at my very own dining setting at my place below), or un-identical shaped chairs painted to match in white but I just came across this idea of the un-identical chairs being painted in a bright colour and I bloody well love it.

My place:

(Excuse the box of candle making goodies in the corner)

SERIOUS BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!

IKEA. We have all been there. When I first moved to Melbourne I needed affordable furniture fast and IKEA was my first stop. Over the past 5 years I have put piece after piece on gumtree or gifted it to the kerbside collect and can now happily say that I only own one piece of IKEA furniture. I am here to show you why Keen as Mustard should be the new IKEA for Melbournites. 

If I was to ask you the main attraction to IKEA you would be likely to say affordability right?

Well take a look at this, this what the SAME money that you would spend on a piece at IKEA would get you at Keen as Mustard. 

It's a no-brainer.

Not to mention the fact that you don't have to put it together yourself! You will NEVER have friends showing up saying... ohhhh i've got the ANEBODA bed as well! (We've all been there). When you buy from Keen as Mustard you will be helping to fund a business that has two girls hearts invested in it completely. Each piece is so thoroughly and passionately thought out and genuinely has our sweat and tears in it. So next time you are on the look out for that new set of bedsides, that swanky chest of drawers or that adorable coffee table come straight to us rather then trying to find a park, writing down the codes of the furniture you want, getting sucked in to that damn market section, finding out they are sold out of the pieces you wanted and then getting home to spend the next 40 hours with an allen key.

I think the choice is pretty simple.

Choose us. 

Han and Kate xxx