Shopping for Ideas

                          Fleur Wood - Paddington

                         Fleur Wood - Paddington

    Fleur Wood - Strand Arcade, Sydney

    Douglas & Hope - Block Arcade, Melbourne

          Douglas & Hope - Block Arcade, Melbourne

            Collette Dinnigan - Paddington

                   Collette Dinnigan - Paddington

                       Prue Trollope - Balmain

                Bulb - Doublebay

Continuing on from my last post I thought I would share some of the images that are inspiring us in our shop style. I will never forget walking into the Fleur Wood's store in Paddington and being absolutely blown away by the beautiful ballerina wallpaper (which I have tried to hunt down ever since to no avail) or the eclectic sweetness of Douglas & Hope's Block Arcade store in Melbourne. 

Let me know which shop you love for it's design and interiors.

The Little Book Shop Around the Corner - New Leaves

                                       New Leaves Book Shop

The bright and beautiful children's section, where kids are welcome to sit and read.

                                   The cooking corner.

                   Inspired Styles - my new favourite book.

                    Pages from Inspired Styles

                          The gardening section.

              New Leaves stocks a fantastic range of kid's book.

A cosy place to sit and read, this spot gets all the afternoon Winter sun...

                        Gorgeous books from Japan.

My sister and I were in Melbourne last Sunday checking out new sites for the second Enchanted Closet store (which will open September/October 2009). We were in Albert Park and dropped into the Avenue Bookstore, which most people in Melbourne quote as their favourite bookshop in town. 

My sister and I got to talking as to what makes a truly great store that people come from far and wide to visit, and recommend to all and sundry. There are so many elements such as location, atmosphere, stock and the customer service. All of these things are done extremely well by Claire who opened New Leaves Book Shop around the corner from Enchanted Closet last year. I love dropping into her shop just to flick through her amazing range of reference books.

So if you're anywhere near Woodend in the Macedon Ranges, make sure you drop into New Leaves or visit Claire's Blog here.

New Leaves

35c Anslow Street

Woodend VIC 3442

03 5427 3772

Shopping Japanese Style

    Window Dressing! Jewellery store in Ginza, Tokyo

Greeting cards from Kyoto. Available soon at the Enchanted Closet.

                    Beautiful lollies.

       Street shopping in beautiful Kyoto.

          Cute money boxes from Harajuku

One of the great pleasures of shopping in Japan is the exceptional service and packaging, even the smallest purchases are wrapped beautifully.

Japanese Homewares store in Kyoto -  amazing Japanese garden separates the two sections of the shop.

Supermarket shopping- the beautiful packaging on everday supermarket items made a routine visit to the supermarket an absolute pleasure, even if I didn't know exactly what I was buying!

Stationary from Tokyo, I could have spent hours in stores like Itoya buying cards, paper etc..

I stumbled across a couple of beautiful cosmetic stores in Kyoto. Though Im not exactly sure what some of the creams are, after using one of them as a moisturiser I have renamed it a miracle cream. It's no wonder the Japanese have such beautiful complexions- my skin has never been better!

My sister and brother headed for Japan this week for a short holiday mixed with business - Mia was looking for new products for the shop. They visited Tokyo and Kyoto and it was the first trip for both of them to Japan. My sister has travelled quite extensively and she absolutely loved Japan - especially the shopping and their attention to beautiful packaging and their exceptional service. Over the next few days I will feature more photos of their trip including the Japanese architecture and fashion.

An Enchanted Party

Just wanted to let all of our local readers know about our Shopping Night we are holding at the Enchanted Closet this coming Thursday 26th March from 5:00pm till 9:00pm. Come and join us for champagne and canapes and 15% off everything storewide. R.S.V.P.to  info@enchantedcloset.com.au by 25.03.09. We would love to see you there!

Enchanted Closet

Shop 5 & 6

93 High Street

Woodend VIC 3442

(up the little laneway)

Have a wonderful weekend.

Image: Cath Kidston Tent

Les Filles a la Violette

I spotted this very pretty French boutique on Madebygirl. It reminded me a lot of the Enchanted Closet.