Recent small + local purchases - March 2020

I’ve been a long-time supporter of shopping small and local. I try to encourage people to shop small and local in business and in my personal life.

I am not perfect, of course, and have bought kids clothes and homewares from big department shops and a lot of my groceries come from major supermarkets. With these purchases, I always have an internal voice that oscillates between guilt and practicality. I try to balance this out by shopping small and local, and promoting small/local brands where I can (how can I expect people to shop with my small brand if I don’t do the same right?)

So now that I have that off my chest, I am excited to share my recent online small shopping purchases.

Kura Studio

Perth, Western Australia

I simply love Anika and Serena’s brand Kura Studio. Their aesthetic, products, and attitude. 

|Kura| Derived from the Indonesian word kura-kura, meaning tortoise. A tortoise moves slowly because it doesn’t need to move fast.

I met Serena of Kura Studio at the Stackwood Made Local market, where I bought my first Kura piece – the awesome garlic grater.

Last week I checked out Kura’s latest product offering and selected this delightful incense burner, Find your centre Incense vessel. I also couldn’t resist adding 2x Pocchi Imabari Towels to my shopping cart.

My order was sent really quickly and packaged carefully – no breakages, just a box of handmade beautiful items to treasure.

 

 

The Chapel Store

Gordon, Victoria

I’ve been following The Chapel Store on Instagram for a while. The brain behind this beautiful shop in Gordon, Victoria is Alicia who juggles motherhood and bringing beautiful products to her shop. She recently went online – yay! I ordered a copy of Milkwood Permaculture’s book and Alicia, the sweetheart, also included a bar of divine-smelling handmade soap by a brand local to her – Paddock Creek.

  

Rabble Books & Games

Maylands, Western Australia

I am also a big fan of book and games shop Rabble. Nat and her family/team are really lovely people to converse with, and though the shop isn’t actually very close to my home I often make the trek over to deliver cards in person and/or buy a book or two. I adore their kids book selection but for this order I treated myself to two books.

Though my youngest (and last!) child is almost one, I decided to get a copy of Heidi Sze’s book ‘Nurturing Your New Life - Words and Recipes for the New Mother.’I really enjoy keeping up with her life through her Instagram account and website, and have made many of the recipes she writes for ABC Life. Heidi has a gentle no-nonsense approach to motherhood which I really appreciate.

  

And last but certainly not least, I got a copy of local earring-enthusiast / bookseller / illustrator-extraordinaire Anne Barnetson’s Customer Service Wolf.

  

Anne recently did some illustrations for studio Nikulinsky – a sweet, physical-distancing numbat writing a card to a pal – then posting it in a street PO box. Thank you Anne <3

 

I would love to hear about the local/small business online shops you have supported recently. Have you bought gift vouchers to use later? Let me know!