The reason being that sometimes it takes us half an hour to one hour to write a post!  This website is built in WordPress which is a great blogging platform and we highly highly recommend it..  It’s flexibility, great for the not-so-web-savvy and has endless options and plugins (Em could go on and on about wordpress, so message us if you want to know more!) , but sometimes all we want to do is to write a quick sentence… or repost a great find!! And you know what, tumblr is great for that!

So here is our tumblr blog, we hope that you find the images on it beautiful and inspiring… when we work on something new, we also post it here! (oh and giveaways…)

http://anotherempire.tumblr.com

http://www.twitter.com/another_empire

xx

Em

This blog, called  “Brooch Beautiful” will feature some of the top talent in Brooch, Pin and Badge design. The items featured can be a 1″ button, a hand made silk brooch, a vintage gem… there is only one requirement for the blog – items must have a pin in the back!

So far we’ve featured quite a few Aussie designers, and a few international gems, and we’ve got the next week’s worth of posts lined up ready to go too! Below is a quick snap of the amazing talent that is currently featured on Brooch Beautiful after only 1 week of opening.

Brooch Beautiful takes submissions, meaning you can submit your work straight to the site. All you have to do is click on http://broochbeautiful.tumblr.com/submit and fill in the details in the fields given. Have a bit of a sneak around and let us know what you think!

To follow Brooch Beautiful, add us to your bookmark, or sign in to Tumblr and follow us! You can comment on any page by clicking on the post date, which will take you to the post permalink with the disqus comment box.

It’s curated by Em of Another Empire, who also runs this blog and http://anotherempire.tumblr.com (gee whiz, all these blogs!) Below is a snap of what Another Empire features on their tumblr log.. updated daily!

Well that’s it for now! ^_^ keep in touch!

xEm

So cute. I found Happy Monsters through tumblr, and I think it’s adorable (you guys have probably seen me twitter about her for a while) so I commissioned a little illustration as a surprise for Felipe. SURPRISE!!!

Here it is! Go get your own bit of sweetness commissioned!

^_^

We were offering our sample brooch pieces at a great price and doing a special 2 for $30 dollar deal which went down quite well! We were aiming to make enough to cover the stall price, lunch, and shouting our friends coffee, – all which were achieved yay!

Thanks to all our lovely friends who came round to help us out at the stall, and to all our lovely customers who came to check out our stall and buy our products. Thanks for all your support!

Remember, you can become our friend on Facebook or on twitter

Screenprinted Thanks Very Much Card by Larara

Brooches everywhere!

Felipe trying to look cool agains the wall hehe

Sorry for the lack of posts lately guys, it’s just been completely hectic at the Another Empire HQ.. We’ve been busy taking on some other side projects (graphic design, illustration, wedding invites, photography shoots + much much more) which has been both really really exciting and challenging.. So right now, while we’ve got a second to breathe, we thought we’d give you an update on Another Empire Accessories…

Work wise:

We’re branching out! – And starting to do design, illustration and photography under the Another Empire brand (it’s really going to be an empire!!)

Em did a photo shoot as part of the Lee+Lee Photography collective… The edited photos will be used as part of a mini-magazine that Em will produce next month..

Pendants are coming soon to Another Empire! We’ve ordered some backing pieces which arrived yesterday (hurrah!) so we’ll be creating some Another Empire necklaces and pendants out of our signature shapes! We’ll let you know when they’re ready, and they’ll be available in either our etsy store or this store here!

We’re applying to some market stalls around Melbourne in the next coming months, so when they get approved, we’ll let you know when and where you can find us in Melbourne, and maybe get some special deals!

Personal news:

Some of our lifelong friends are back from Japan! (after working there for a few years..). One of them brought back a wife and kid!!

Another close friend is getting married in May, so we’re all scurrying around for that. Em’s doing most of the visual work, as well as trying to learn the salsa for the bridal party dance. Phil on the other hand, is a natural dancer! (jealous!)

We’ve had relatives from overseas visiting us for the first time! We took them to see the kangaroos, the nature, the city, etc……… They commented that we live in a very lucky country, with ample space and opportunities, and kept reminding me that yes, Australia is a great place.

Thanks for reading, feel free to contact us anytime!

-Em

These are part of an on-and-off range that we’ve been doing for over a year.

Another Empire & Friends love vintage shops and second hand stores, so if we happen to be in one, and find some lovely books, we’ll add them to the ‘Recycled’ range!
Some of the books we get from opportunity stores, some from garage sales, and some from library sales.

We cut out the illustrations from the various books, and use a mix of old/new/re-purposed materials to make these news brooches.

We like to think that we’re giving them ‘A Second Life’!

We hope you like them!

http://anotherempire.etsy.com

(You need an Etsy account to buy, but if you’d prefer to buy through this store, or just straight through paypal, send me an email and we’ll work something out, no problems!)

We dressed up and all that jazz. Photos below.

// Group Shot of us at the Roller Rink

// The beautiful Nathalie always has matching jewels and nail polish

// Reowr!!

// Em and her BFF.. Em's wearing the Another Empire Rollerskate Brooch!!!

Join us in the rink next time!!

We have a high quality standard and we never ship anything out that we wouldn’t be happy with ourselves…I’d say, for every batch of brooches we make, we’d have about a handful of pieces as ‘imperfect’. We’re not talking about small irregularities that you’d get with handmade, we’re talking about a bit too much glue, a wrongly glued brooch piece, a visible scratch.. or even just samples that we’ve been playing with or ideas that didn’t go through.

Instead of wasting these pieces, we’ve decided to open up a ‘Second & Samples’ section for you to purchase from, because let’s face it: most likely, you’re going to scratch it yourself once you start wearing it

Each piece will clearly state what’s wrong with the piece and how ‘imperfect’ it is. Some of the pieces will just be samples that we wear around in daily life and have decided to retire for a new piece. Something that’s also exciting is our ‘adhesive’ 3mm acrylic range… we were thinking of making chunky two tone jewelry out of these, but we’re not going to do it just right now.. maybe with another range.. so we’ll be clearing those pieces for CHEAP too.

Prices start from just $3, and there’s a limited range.. so get to it guys!

We’ve decided to put the seconds and samples section only on Etsy for the moment so click here to visit the Seconds and Samples section.

ps. And yes. The image is a homage to Em’s favourite band – The Xx.

We’ve just come back from Perth after visiting Felipe’s parents, armed with a dozen new recipes and renewed energy to take on the year. It’s my first time to Perth, F’s been there a few times now and it’s a lovely (if quiet) city. We spent heaps of time walking along the riverbank, sampling local food and visiting some markets.. And.. we spent quite a bit of money…

We hope you too had a great Christmas and New Years too – a large serving of fun, accompanied with loved ones. We look forward to seeing in person, or online!

Ginger Tea from London Court, Perth

Em at a Pirate Party

Poster seen in Perth, Australia

Can't remember the name of this flower.. if you know it, could you leave it in the comments?

Spicy Lemon Coconut Cookies, Pecan Butter cookies, Spice cookies, Lemon Butter cookies, and Hazelnut Cherry cookies...

Another Empire will be going on their Christmas break from the 18th December to the 2nd January. During this time we will be able to take orders but won’t be able to complete or ship them till we come back.

We’re looking forward to our little break and hope your festive season will be filled with as much fun and joy as we hope ours will be. Take care everyone! Drive safe and be well. We expect to see you all back with a bit of a pot belly!

Love!