At home with Alice, Greg & Peggy

COMMUNITY

May 21

Q&A
WITH Alice, Greg, 3 month old Peggy & albert the cat
Richmond . VIC

We’ve said it time and time again, our customers are dead-set legends! They are the reason we get to wake up everyday and do what we love. Being a very small business (just the two of us) we have the great privilege of being invited into the homes of our customers, we meet the most interesting people and see some seriously beautiful homes.

We want to grow our conscious community, by sharing our story but also yours.

Alice Foulcher & Greg Erdstein, filmmakers (Moccasin) commissioned us to make them a new bed frame last year. Through meeting and then linking up on Instragram we’ve been able to watch their little family grow as they welcomed little Peggy in February. We had a chat with the duo about why they choose to shop local, how they slow down and the conscious choices they make to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Thank you Greg & Alice for inviting us into your home, thanks for supporting local makers and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Greg, Peggy & Alice - Feature Headboard Square Bed — *Greg, Peggy & Alice -* *Feature Headboard Square Bed*

Can you paint a picture of what a day looks like in your household?

Our days are total mayhem at the moment as we navigate parenthood for the first time. We try to work feeds, plays and sleeps around Peggy's ever-changing needs. Greg works from home, and us girls try our hardest not to distract him (not always possible with how impossibly cute she is). The day usually begins with a pre-dawn Peggy feed around 4.30am, then back to bed until 7am when we really begin. Greggles makes us our morning cups of coffee. After lunch me and Peggy try to get out for a walk - maybe we see a friend for a coffee, or maybe we just stock up on nappies and cat food from the supermarket. We love our local Richmond community. We know a lot of our locals by name - our fave coffee shop owners (Pete & Kat at Drekka), the nearby organic grocer (Vince at Localized), and organic butcher (Jason and Rohan at Bertie's). Now that I'm part of the secret international Mum's club, I'm often stopping to talk to strangers about their babies - which is a lot of fun.

How do you slow down?

Let's be honest: every day feels long right now, I doubt we could slow down any further! But we've heard that these days will be long, but the years fast - so we're trying to soak in this strange time as much as we can. Nappy by nappy... But pre-Peggy we loved to travel, and go to the movies a lot. I'm sure those things will happen again in time.

What daily steps do you take to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle?

It's gotten really hard with a baby. I have some saint friends who are using reusable nappies, but I haven't gotten the confidence to get on board that train yet. Soon! We do use reusable wipes though (Cheeky Wipes) - which are incredible. Soft on baby's bum, and such a great sustainable and economical choice.

We do other stuff like compost, and grey water from the shower to flush the loo. We walk places when we can and keep it local - only using the car when we really have to. I always bring my Keep Cup with me for my takeaway coffees, turn down plastic straws and take our own shopping bags - every little bit helps!

Feature Headboard Square Bed - Mr Draper bed linen. — *Feature Headboard Square Bed* - *Mr Draper* *bed linen.*

Tell us about your furniture shopping experience, were you consciously looking for a local maker or did you stumble across us by accident?

We were looking for a new bed and having looked at the usual brand name furniture outlets we decided to google 'local made bed Melbourne' or something similar to compare prices and stumbled across Al and Imo. The pricing was similar and we could order exactly what wanted, communicating directly with the maker. And we were supporting a local business. It was a no-brainer. We couldn't be happier with it - it's total perfection. Plus Al and Imo are absolute legends - they came over and put it together for us super speedily. It's a King Size so we'll be ready for Peggy to clamber in when she can walk!

Albert sleeping on their King-size Feature Headboard Square Bed - Mr Draper bed linen. — *Albert sleeping on their King-size* *Feature Headboard Square Bed* - *Mr Draper* *bed linen.*

We'd love a tour of your home, are any other local artists / makers you'd like to shoutout?

We have a lot of our amazing friend's art on our walls - including painters Hop Doc and Margaret Ackland, printmaker Domenica Vavala, photographers Benjamin Rigby, Mark Forbes and Ryan Alexander Lloyd, artist Kalinda Vary and cartoonist Ben Montero. We also dig our Like Butter record crates and love our Mr Draper linen sheets. Special shoutout to Lucy Vanstone (who does not know me) for creating my most favourite chicken mug from which I have drunk my morning coffee since 2012! We have lots of locally made knick-knacks in the kitchen and around the house.

Most of our furniture and decor is second-hand because it's not only super attractive, but great to recycle whenever you can! Our ethos is if we are buying new - it must be a "forever" purchase. Like our bed!

*Alice, Greg & Peggy - Feature Headboard Square Bed made from recycled messmate.*

Why do you think it's important to shop local?

Supporting local business not only helps our community, but it reduces our carbon footprint. We must do everything we can to minimise our individual impact on the Earth. We also try to avoid mass-produced, unsustainable and unethical purchases - but it's impossible to do this entirely in all honesty (as I type this on my Mac, ahem), especially economically. But we do try where possible. I need to remind myself more that it's better to have fewer, better purchases, than a greater quantity of disposable crap.

Albert the cat, stretching out on their King Feature Headboard Square Bed — *Albert the cat, stretching out on their* *King Feature Headboard Square Bed*

What are your hopes for our next generation?

I hope our next generation cares more for the Earth than the past ones have. I hope that our generation and the ones gone by haven't done, well, won't continue to do totally irreversible damage to our delicate environment. It's a scary time to be alive, and an even scarier time to bring a child into this world. I hope she can be a part of a change for the better. We must have hope.