CLEVER SAUSAGE

When I went to go chat with Martha At design Indaba, She told me how important it was to embrace new technologies and social platforms and try to incorporate them into your business as they open you up to all kinds of possibilities and gives you or your brand an opportunity to talk straight to your consumer. 

Most old school type establishments seem to view Facebook and twitter as a silly waste of time reserved for airheads and socialites alike. They fail to notice this unique channel that is literally at their fingertips and 9 times out of 10 they arrange for these channels to be banned to all employees. BAD MOVE.  If used in the right way, Facebook and twitter can revolutionise your business and radically increase your client base. Take for example the exercise that Steenberg Wine Estate is running. It is so bloody clever I wish i had though of the idea myself. 

How frikkin awesome? I have already mailed them and asked if they can post me a Tasting pack so I can host my own wine tasting here in durbs. Ill keep you posted

BLOOMIN GORGEOUS

I love the idea of Giant letters Lounging up against my walls. Our Tv room wall has stood naked for an entire year because boyfriend and I cant decide what to do with it. He thinks his word cup picture deserves to live there But I have other plans...

Boyfriend has left me stranded in our flat for a whole month while he is off cavorting with all the Cape Epic lunatics in the windy mother city. While he is gone, I have decided that it is time to revamp our little House. This whole snowball vibe started when I left my window open and went off to work only to return and find my most treasured possession- a lamp given to me by my best friend on earth- smashed on my bedroom floor. So I started the search for a new beautiful lamp only to get completely wrapped up in gorgeous decor sites and an obsession with re-doing the entire flat! If I won the Super-ena lottery, I would import every piece of Blooming-ville and make their catalogue my home.

I love this rose cushion Im sure it would be DIY-able I am going to give it a try:)

ARGUS SHMARGUS

Find this poster at the LOVEshop 

My dad has been doing the Argus for as long as I can remember. My mom used to cart us kids down to a place under the Ladies Mile bridge where we used to clap and yell and be awfully proud of our dad for doing something so crazy and brave. This year I decided it was time to join the old guy and tackle the argus myself. I did a few spin classes, did some longer distance stuff and decided that if 12 year old kids can do it well then I sure as hell could. I actually laughed out loud at some points because of how hard it was! I couldn't believe I could have been so freaking naive! The wind was a little one of those bitchy girls you went to school with, incredibly mean at times, especially when you crawl up Chappies expecting to be rewarded with an adrenaline filled downhill from heaven and instead you are greeted with a nasty white squall in the face bullying you all the way to the bottom. There were many times along the route when I wished I was still under that bridge clutching a melted ice cream instead of trying to ignore the fire in my undercarriage. There were moments I wanted to cry because I wanted out so badly, but when I reached that finish line I was the proudest person in the universe. You would swear that I had actually won the tour de france at the way I was behaving, Boyfriend even bought me a bottle of Champers so It felt like the real deal. I swear I don't think Lance armstrong felt as good as I did (His start time conveniently coincided with the rising of the sun, the wind had not even gotten up yet by the time Malcolm and the boys had had a shower and their first celebratory beer!) I suppose what I am trying to say is that if you have the chance, get on your bike and start training now, because this race is something you want to get involved in. The argus is the most beautiful, rewarding, hard ass tour that will make you feel like you can conquer the world and If you have lived in Cape Town you kind of have to do it if you want to be legit. 

ON THE SUBJECT OF PENCILS

Jennifer Maestre is a jhb born artist who makes the wildest pencil sculptures ever! Incredible. Go check out her website for more. 

THE BEST PRESSIE EVER

The thing I hate most about birthdays is that once the day is over, you have to wait 364 more days till the next one. Wouldn't it be nice to have your pressies staggered over the year so you are not delved into an endless pit of depression once the sugar rush of birthday cake is over. Well all your problems are solved my lovelies. The smart folks over at 500pencils have come up with the smartest idea. All you have to do is sign up, pay your $33 and wait by your post box because you will be rewarded with an exciting package containing exactly 25 colours every month for 20 months. The range of pencils is incredible and their names are totally delicious. I cannot think of a better gift.

ALL BUTTONED UP

I think these gorgeous shortbread buttons from Forty-Sixth at Grace are such a lovely idea. I they would make the most beautiful favors for a baby shower:) Click right here  to print out the recipe illustration by Eva Juliet.  I am so excited to dust off the Kitchen-aid and give these bikkies a go. Yum

OH MY SAINTED AUNT

 

www.etsy.com

 

oh my lord some re-tard crashed into me last night and savaged my, as yet unscathed,
El Diabolo. The best part was when we both got out of our cars and he started sobbing uncontrollably.  Now in most situations where serious confrontation is about to erupt, the girl starts sobbing gives the puppy eyes, the guy then apologises for wishing crabs/ life long single-dome with cats and obesity upon said girl for her horrible driving and then everybody calms down. Not this time.This guy totally blue screened me. What do you do when you are faced with a 50 something man sobbing all up in your face. I was about to offer to get him some sweet tea while we sorted out the matter of him buying me a new drivers door, front bumper and spinal cord but then he started telling me that he does not have any kind of insurance (how silly of me to assume). Then the sobs elevated into messy snotty blubbing (its a siff word but totally sounds like what was coming out of his face) because he drives the equivalent of a baking tin and I drive a golf 5 and his car is much more susceptible to just smashing on impact and its not really fair because his car is more damaged than my car. Then he offloaded his little pearl of wisdom about the fact that neither of us were drunk so maybe we should just let it go and be off to follow our separate destiny's. Oh and I should also see if my insurance would pay for his car too because of his current insurance problem. Now I know that many women are running around with flaming bra's clutched in their hands, I am all for equality and role swapping and stay at home dads and all that crap but I am not at all interested in you crashing into me and then me offering to fix your car because you got the tears in the door first. What a dork.

Anyway the good news is that I went down to the berea police dept today to get a case number for mr insurance man and it was the easiest most pain free experience. I know its cynical but in my world the words police department and easy pleasant experience do not feature in the same chapter. Mrs police-lady was super efficient, helpful and very friendly. There were no lines and scary rooms just friendly service. Thanks Berea Police dept for hooking me up.

ARMANI PUNANI

The biggest bitch about moving to a new town is having to go through the arduous task of finding new people. Now when it comes to people like GP's and Dentists you can rarely go wrong because these people have had to spend all their wonder years shacked up with a textbook and a plastic organ taking notes and writing encyclopedias while all of us were our at caprice sewing our wild oats. You need some serious certification to get into those fields and open a practice so generally speaking, to find a new doctor/ dentist person is not too much of a mission. 

When it comes to other people like a beautician things can become a little harder because well people don't have to get a phd from brazil in order to buy a pot of wax and a neon sign. My first experience was at a chop shop Salon in Musgrave Centre, lets call it The Perfect 9. I naively thought I was safe because it is a well known franchise with loads of branches in and around Durban. The lady at the front desk seemed very sweet when I enquired about a treatment. She put down her sandwich and happily guided me to her lair back room where the the sequel to the saw trilogy beautifying was to take place. The details that follow are pretty blurry now as my brain blocked out my memory to protect me from the horror that followed. Flashbacks include a dirty little room with gross crumpled tissues stashed here and there and a dirty towel crumpled on the floor. The arm falling off the reclining chair and the therapist mumbling about finding time to get it fixed and then there was the one where the chick came at me with un-washed, un-gloved hands. GROSS. After this I vowed never to cheat on my Cape Town person ever again. 

I have now been in durban for 2 years and have decided its time to cut the apron strings and grow the hell up so I called my person and asked her to put me in touch with her person. I was pointed in the direction of The Durban Cosmetic Laser clinic . I had a very professional, stress free experience. The rooms were super pretty and clean and the therapist was nothing short of professional. When It came to paying I was surprised to find that it cost me R40  less than the perfect 9 (who don't even have laser-beams). 

The Durban Cosmetic Laser clinic is a few meters down from Vida on Innes Road. Click here for their contact details 

WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA

This weekend is going to be a complete and utter girl extravaganza! Activities include movies like the notebook and crafty things like markets, falaffel wraps and a highly anticipated I Heart Durban party! What has prompted this festival of extravagance you might ask? Boyfriend is away- working very hard so he can raise funds to buy me my dream kitchen (you would have seen it in the movie"its complicated")- and it is the first Saturday of the month! If, like me and you are plugged into the very pulse of Durban, you will know that it is time to plait your hair, dig out your strappy leather sandals include some kind of floral that was your mothers and is now your fav vintage it piece, because there is some serious craft marketing to be done. hooray.

DAY THINGS

 

 

 
The first of the awesomeness is happening at the `I Heart Market.' This is going to be a special one as they are celebrating their house warming! YAY! The Market has
moved out of the St Mary's hall and into the DLI Hall. You know that old colonial building slap bang in the middle of the Greyville Racecourse? That's the one!

The second bit of awesomeness is happening at The Litchi Orchard Market, you know that one I blogged about a while ago? Well Jem has put in a lot of hard work and in growing it into a great day out. This little market is soooooooo lovely and comes highly recommended by Durbs Central.

NIGHT THINGS

After what seems like an eternity the I Heart crew have gotten their sh*t together and organised another event for your and your glittery party shoes (It is almost like Christian himself knew this party was coming) to attend. I am willing to put my derriere on the line here and say that if you go to this party you will have the best night of your life, you will be like the dancing queen from Abba except you have to be 18 to go, not 17 like in the song.  The I Heart Durban Party is happening at The Origin, doors open at around 8:30 and entrance will cost you R40. The sterling line up includes the likes of The frock rockers, the legendary rift DJ Kevin L, Mr Doolittle (Do you think he will bring a lama with 2 heads?), Toine, Jelly and the regular I heart Dj'ers. So now you have all the information you need to have the best weekend ever. I have given you the tools my lovelies, now go make yourself a rad bananas experience. See you Monday x

 

BANDO BEAUTIFUL

These girls at Bando are a little loopy and bursting at the seams with creative greatness. Go and read their blog, you will love it. Then click on their shop link and spend every penny you have building a collection of drop dead gorgeous headbands then bask in the jealous sunshine radiating out of all your friends. 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN A MILLION SHADES OF BLUSH

Photographer and I have been waiting in anticipation for ages for the exciting underwater housing for his camera to arrive, and arrive it did:) We are both very excited about the experimentation process and the outcome of our underwater project. I have been milling over colour palettes and themes for a while and after much umming and aaahing I have finally decided on the sort of look and feel I want to use for our project.
I am very keen to see how different objects look when submerged, specifically feathers. They have the potential to be absolutely gorgeous and I am hoping they will add a soft, dreamy mood to our piccies, however they also could look limp and shit and like a drowned rat but I suppose that is why experimenting is so much fun:) I have also found some super shiny chrome balls about 70cm in diameter that we are going to hopefully sink and shoot. I am so excited to get going on this shoot here is my collection of inspiration, what do you think?

jimmy backius

Zoe Bradley

Bruno Dayan

 Flipandstyle

Benefit                                           Vogue Loves

Essie

I would love to hear any ideas you lovelies have on the subject please try out the little comment button, it has been very neglected of late and I would hate for it to get some kind of complex. I have recently made some changes to the whole commenting process so it is now very easy to post notes and remarks under each rant. Go on, click it.

WHAT THE HELL

As an ex Capetonian I often find myself fighting off stupid people's judgments about my mightier than thou attitude that, quote, "all Capetonians have." People always talk about how clicky they are and how you can only talk to a Capetonian if you send them a conversation via blackberry chat. I am the first to jump up and tell these stupid uncultureds to relax and actually visit the most heaven of towns first before you recycle a second hand chirp you heard from someone smarter than you. By now you can probably establish that I am a fiercely proud Capetonian and  won't take silly people bashing my roots. This weekend I found myself thanking god that I had the half Durbanite veil to hide under amidst all the Martha hate that was going on.

It confuses me that people are all angry with her for talking about herself. If I am not mistaken, Martha Stewart is a brand worth more than Julias Malema. It is centered around herself-what did you think she was going to talk about?  I found her talk to be completely inspiring. She has got incredible business savvy and is more than happy too share it with any body that has ears. Lots of people were pissed off because she went on about glitter and showed a video about a glittery ham but do you know how much she makes off glitter a year? I bet its more than you make a century. The point of the glitter talk was not to let you know just how much she loves the shiny stuff but rather that if you are smart enough to identify a small somewhat unimportant object, such as glitter, and you put as much energy into it as you do tweeting you can expand it over an astonishing number of platforms and essentially make a lot of money.

Maybe I am the only person in the crowd that found her to be an inspiration. She was engaging and interesting and made me feel utterly empowered. She even gave me a hug when i got her signature:) 

One of the things I took away from the talk was to learn to draw inspiration from the natural things around me. Martha Based her first paint range on the colour ways of these gorgeous Araucana eggs. Below are some of her room treatments in these colours.