almost forgot: nest

Again some beautiful artwork by Charmaine Olivia.

boat and doily

Beautiful drawings by Charmaine Olivia.

the cavern

Talking about Nobby's Beach, I have to mention The Cavern. It's a vintage style coffee lounge during the day and a tapas and wine bar during the night. The Cavern often features live music from talented Gold Coast artists.

i hate my skirt

Since I was a little girl, my family beach holiday has always been at Nobby's beach, the Gold Coast. Nobby's is a quieter, family sort of beach away from the riff-raff of Surfers. In the past few years Nobby's has become a bit of an artsy fashionable place to be seen and some lovely shops have popped up, including I Hate My Skirt. This clothing store has long been my favourite place to pick up some really original items from local, emerging and also known designers. I'm also happy to find out that I Hate My Skirt now has another store in Brisbane's West End. Yay! Not just holiday splurges anymore!

These pieces pictured below were all hand-made in Byron Bay.

a child's world

our lomography shots.

the impossible meeting

The papercut works of Peter Callesen are intricate and graceful. Callesen describes his work as both tragic and romantic in the sense that the figures can never escape their paper homes. The artist works mostly with white A4 paper, exploring the process of transforming the ordinary into something stunning. Below we've featured his works entitled Impenetrable Castle and The Impossible Meeting. Absolutely inspiring!

the white clover

Eli and Toggle are enjoying the drawing creations of Catherine Campbell. Her work is so beautifuly delicate and fresh.

colourful soft cases

We're loving these very practical (but gorgeous) laptop cases by Pijama, a local design company in Milano. The company also makes smaller cases for ipods and cameras.

birds on a wire

Dick and Dora is a lovely Australian brand creating beautiful broachs. This white piece is called 'Birds on a Wire'.

tea time

Eli and Toggle are loving this handmade crocheted teapot and cups by Anne Claire Petit.

suburban domesticity

At the moment we're really enjoying the art of lomography - analogue film photography. It just feels so nice wind the film forward and get the photos developed. Lomography cameras are usually plastic and really cheap, but can produce some amazing light stained, dreamy shots. Since the camera is operated manually (aperture, shutter speed and focus) everthing is up to you! We've been experimenting with long exposure, overlapping frames and flash colour gels. These shots were taken with our Diana F+ Mini camera.

eli and toggle

Hullo and welcome to the Eli and Toggle blog!

Toggle is a friend of mine, and together we're designing lots of original handmade products for people just like you!

The things we love, and the things you just might spot in this blog, include:

- our own creations!

- fabrics
- cute buttons
- lomography shots (another passion of ours)
- photos of 'stuff we like' designed by other like minded people