Dudes! ok. brace yourselves. a giant wave of awesome stuff from down under is about to hit your screen. it’s gonna inundate your rss feed and any other places where i post my stuff. don’t fight it. just take it in, all in.

k, so i’m still working on my back-from-australia posts (holy shit, it takes a lot of time to select the perfect photos). so in the meantime, i’m gonna share with you artful things from the land where the ‘roos roam free. first off – the coolest of them all – the design files 2013 open house.

as you may know, the design files is one of australia’s most loved design blogs, i mean, how can you not love it, it’s bursting at the seams with colour, creativity, and beautiful photos. well, apparently, that’s not enough. so what’s the next logic step? bring all this radness into the real world with an open house where EVERYTHING you see in it is for sale. kind of a dream home that you can buy in pieces.

they started this project in melbourne (the coolest city on planet earth – sorry NYC, but it’s true) back in 2011 and obviously it was a total success. now, for the first time, they’re hosting two open houses! one in sydney and one in melbourne. like whoa.

all the products displayed in the house are carefully curated by the design files team, and they’re nothing short of amazing. they have people of the caliber of esther stewart (paintings above) who we all love – oh! and whose work I got to see in person!! gah! – there’s also established aussie talent like beci orpin and harvest textiles, and many other up and coming gems.

what i love about this is that they are promoting local talent, peeps down there are totally into supporting their own. just the way it should be!

i selected a few favourites for this feature, but feel free to peruse the full list of participants on the design files’ open house page. talk about inspiration! Are you lovin’ it?

art by kirra jamison

leather goods my mademeasure

neoprene tote by witu (i so wanted to get one but the store were i found them was closed, womp womp)

art by miranda skoczek

art by laura jones

lovely design by stampel