SCOUT&CATALOGUE

Scout&Catalogue are the current receivers of most of my attention, they are a brand who are, "heavily influenced by the bohemian beach culture of Mexico. We strive to make pieces that  remind you of afternoons at secret beaches, sun kissed skin, and all day siestas." I don't know about you, but that whole secret beach, all day siesta thing bodes seriously well with me and If I can get my siesta on whilst bundled up in one of these gorge wrap thingies, well then I would be just about as happy as a clam. 

 

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE...

So lately I have been pounding a fair amount of pavement, the Knysna Half is finally upon us and I am as chuffed as all hell to get on down there and frolick my way through the forest with all the other smug endorphin chasers. When it comes to running I am pretty much completely and utterly beyond obsessed all the way addicted.  Some people dig yoga, others are into collecting weird stamps or funny shaped pebbles but I am all the way into running.  The cool thing about it is that all you really need is a pair of trainers and Bobs your uncle. But then again here at DC we are not into bare necessities (unless of course its the song, I am very much into Balu, I dig his swagger)  I mean come on, running is pretty fab and all but add some Foo fighters to the mix and suddenly you feel like someone is making a movie of your life and you are cruising down the road all hair blowing in the wind and you feel like the bees knees. The problem with this whole sound track fantasy thing is that the way in which you transport the Foo's from your iPod into your ear holes can either make or break it. Over the last year, I have run my way through a whole pay cheques worth of earphones, and I have finally rustled together my top three.

Opening the batting are your general In ear head phones, you know the ones, they literally are jammed into your ears making it sound like Taylor Hawkins Is rat a tat tatting on your ear drums. These guys are rad however my only worry is the fact that they are funneling all that sound straight into your head which can't be very good for those funny little hairs or that stirrup thingy. They are however really good for super cold days when the wind is whipping around your head and your ears are aching from the cold.

Next up are the Adidas PMX 680i Sports. These nifty earphones are designed specifically for sports nuts and I specifically enjoy the fact that they are both rain and sweat proof, something that has caused the death of many an ear phone in my house.  One set back however is the fact that they are not at all adjustable, so, for gals like me with small noggins the whole earphones staying on your head while you run thing can be quite irritating. 

I have decided to leave my absolute all time favorites till last. Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you, The Whip, made by Nixon and loved dearly by me every day. The Nixons are sleek and sexy, they come in a range of sweet colours from all black and sleek for ninja's to robot red or ultra violet for loud mouths like me. They are made from super light silicone and polyurethane making you feel like Mr Grohl is just trotting along side you singing sweet nothings into your ear. These bad boys are the bomb.

10 THINGS WITH ELEPHANTSHOE PAPERIE

It is no secret, I have a total and utter obsession with stationery, in fact, when I met the Bird he told me that his mom owned a stationery and Scrapbooking shop, I'm not going to lie - that little nugget was pretty much what sealed the deal for me! Another thing I am a little obsessed with is wedding design, I spend a lot of company time stalking happy brides on every and any wedding site the web has to offer. My lovely friend Sam has kindly taken my two obsessions and married them, creating an utterly gorgeous bespoke wedding stationery design company that will make you want to renew your vows annually. Elephantshoe PAPERIE also offers a range of other wedding services from insane treat tables to styling the works. I hope you enjoy Sams little interview and enjoy her stunning piccies. Go and perve her website here.

1. Describe yourself in 10 words
Perfectionist with a sweet tooth and love for pretty things.

2. If you were an elephant, exactly what kind of shoe would you wear?
Oh gosh, I would definitely have a closet full of them but I guess as an elephant a pair of Country Road  thigh high boots would be my pick to cover up my wrinkly knees.

Take a look at this cute pic that Blackframe photography sent me of some Elephant fashion.

via Jodilee Sandler

3. What is your favorite project elephant shoe has been involved in so far?
To date, our project in collaboration with Blackframe photography titled, a Royal Affair has been my favorite. It involved the key aspects that I love, designing and styling and I really enjoyed working with the talented Andre and Maritsa. It all just came together plus it was featured on the pretty blog. We had so much feedback on our blogs and loads of people downloaded the free DIY stationery goodies to host their own tea parties to celebrate the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William.

4.  What are the current trends in the wedding stationery business?
The use of bold and alluring typography alongside playful and fun designs that reflect the story of the couple to be wed. There is also a shift towards anything that is vintage with a touch of country providing it is combined together to still feel modern and relevant.

5. When you were a kid, what did your dream wedding look like?
Strangely, I never really thought about my wedding as a child, I always dreamt about who the man would be that I would marry. My best friend Amy and I used to talk for hours about who our future husbands may be.

6. What are your top 5 places to visit when you need a good drenching of inspiration?
1.I love to look through old magazines, a splash of colour, a bold word or anything I find in there can give me inspiration.
2. The world of blogs.
3. Folders upon folders on my macbook where I have kept images I love over the years.
4. Bookshops, (that way I get to grab a café latte to aid in the inspiration process).
5. www.pinterest.com

7. Whats the mushiest thing you have ever done in the name of love.
Last year before James and I were married, I went on a ski trip to Austria for two weeks. I left James with 2 boxes of 14 envelopes, each containing a love note for every day that I was away. Some of the envelopes had little treats in them, like chocolate, sweeties and even some money for James to grab a coffee on a lonely day.

8. The top 5 items on my wish list are:
1. an old but working letterpress machine (they are few and far between & difficult to find in South Africa).
2. an antique, wooden map drawer to keep all of my paper safe and happy.
3. a grey coat from Trenery.
4. a set of Pantone mugs
5. a grey, long v-neck jersey from Country Road

9. 10 words of advice you can give to someone on their wedding day....
Kick off your shoes, celebrate with your husband and guests.

10. What is your current favorite colour combination
I am in love with grey, all shades of it - gunmetal & charcoal grey, dove grey, putty grey, slate grey. You name it, I like it. I find it is classy, understated and down to earth. I recently said to my husband that he is lucky I haven't painted him grey yet. Even my cats is grey, her name is Mushroom.

Feast your eyeballs, Crush 9

And it's a juicy one, word of advice though, don't read this baby if you have a boring lunch, the recipes in here are ridiculous. Go get subscribed here.

A TRIP TO DEEP DARK AFRICA

So this morning I took a little trip to the heart of Deepdarkafrica, I casually sauntered around the gorgeous smorgasbord of local artisans, designers & crafters gathering more and more pride and awe at the intense creative talent that the people of my continent posses, while my credit card gathered flames in my pocket. Do you know what the coolest part was? the fact that I got to explore the creative spark of africa without even leaving my seat. South African fashion & decor stylist and author of the super rad blog JUSTcos, Alexia Kondylis has launched this quirky little online store that aims to 'showcase this creative talent to a wider contemporary market & make it accessible to all whilst at the same time bridging the gap between established African artists and those without access to a greater market.' This chic has a serious eye for everything beautiful, these are some of my favorites...

 

Please go and support Deepdarkafrica here, check out the blog here and get your twitter on here .

SASKO SURPRISE

So the other day I popped on down to my post box, I opened the bad boy up and rummaged through my usual bills bills bills, read up on pamphlets filling me in on the latest Penis enlargement potions from my local Sangoma, you know the usual. I was not expecting anything rad. Then a sweet little slip fell out the pile, you know the one, its that little darling with a not that says - hello lucky person! you have a ginormous and wildly exciting surprise waiting for you at the Post office! Is just so ginormous and wonderful that we can't fit in in your post box or in our delivery truck so please come on down and pick it up!

I wasted no time, grabbed the keys and headed straight for the Post Office. This is what greeted me- so much of cool.

The clever sausages over at Saatchi and Saatchi designed this gorge recipe book for Sasko, filled it with amazing illustration and design and really lovely recipes including everything from Koeksisters to Melktert. I cannot wait to whip me up some South African morsels:) 

How stunning is this cover? It totally makes me want to get my desperate housewife on. Its so lovely to see a brand doing sexy stuff- but then again I would expect nothing less form Saatchi.

Each recipe is accompanied by a stunning, simple piccie. Koeksisters, I always thought they were mad complicated to make, it turns out I have been pretty much wrong forever, cant wait to make some of these babies.

Hello Sailor

Absolutely inLOVE with these gorge skirts by Anne Cramer, anyone coming from America any time soon, feel free to bring me stripey skirt shaped prezzies:)

Happy Mothersday from Justin Timberlake

There are no words. Except maybe for BAAAAA ha ha ha HA HA hA. I bet you never though you would see Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson like this before, ever, not even in a million years. Happy Tuesday lovely readers.

Hey y'all time to get your Market on

Hey peeps it's that crazy time again so get out your thrifty outfits and little tasseled book bags, the markets are a comin. Thursday night sees the return of the Whole Foods Night Market held down at the less gangster side of point road, if you have not yet explored this market I highly suggest you get organised and come down it is a whole lot of fun and just a really rad place to hang out with friends, eat some falaffel and get a little sloshed. for more info hit up their facebook page here or you can read my previous post on it here
Next up is the I Heart Market on Saturday which you all know about so I'm not going to waffle on about it. What I am going to waffle on about is the seriously cool Twitter Blanket drive that Askashe has orchestrated. Basically all you need to do is get yourself a blanket and come down to the I Heart Market on Saturday where you can donate it to the people who need it the most. Ashe has scribbled down all the info here, go check it out immediately.

Bloggers, bubbly and shiny shoes

So The Bird and I have recently moved into a new place - when I say recently I mean we moved in in Feb but because all my stuff is still all over the place, it still looks like we moved in yesterday! 

Last week some of us lucky blogger chicks were invited to have a little look see at the latest and fabbest at Con Amore in La Lucia Mall . I could literally hear the ca- ching ca-ching sound from the moment I walked in. We were greeted by a table packed with absolutely gorgeous little cupcakes, plates of delicious sushi and piles of our Macaroonies were rising up off silver platters looking very snooty indeed.  The lovely Candice gave us a little introduction and sent us off to discover the wonders of their store, clutching glasses of bubbly and slowly watching our bank balances plummet. . .

me: Omg bird, you don't understand,I saw the most beautiful shiny shoes tonight

bird: Why do you need shiny shoes?

me: I'm sorry, I don't understand the question

I loved the fact that the store is packed full of beautiful little details that us girls can use to make our simple first homes look like really glam little gems. Union Jack pillows, definitely on the official birthday list 2011.

Tie a little ribbon round your finger

Today I was standing in line at the post office waiting for my awesome package to be handed over to me. I was merrily thinking about how rad bananas it is to get little postage slips to say that you have some giant surprise you need to go fetch because it is too big and awesome to fit in your mail box- just the best feeling right? Anyway while I was standing in the line I slowly started to look around at the people standing in line around me and I realised just how lucky I am in my life.  So often we get so caught up with our constant striving to have better hair than the girl next to you , a tighter butt, more money, iPhone or Blackberry that we forget to be greatful for the important things like our health, our warm beds and supportive families and our generally awesome lives. I know this post is a bit of a heart bleed but if you are reading this, please just take a moment to step back and be greatful for how awesome you have it, you really are one of the lucky few. Poster available here

The Wholefoods Night Market

Just close your eyeballs for a second, sit back in your office chair, spin around if you must, and let me tell you a little story. I recently went to the Whole Foods Night market (what used to be the Colombo Market) Unfortunately because I was so busy selling Macaroonies to the hungry hoards I didn't get even a moment to snap any piccies so I am going to just have to tell you about it instead and hope that your wild imagination can fill in the blanks and colour in the lines.

This little story takes place in beautiful, abandoned building project down on Point Waterfront. The weather outside is cold and rainy and the sky is the colour of a grumpy elephant. My lip is dragging on the ground because my car is packed to the roof with gold dusted brownies, sour cream fudge and enough macaroons to make you sick for a week and the weather is so damn miserable, I am sure no one will turn up. They will be too busy watching re runs of gossip girl while sniggering at all the poor sods sitting at a rainy market.

I arrived to the sound of bustling and laughing. Strings of bunting were being cris-crossed in every direction while Darryl, the creator of this whole shebang, skipped and weaved his way through the myriad of glorious stalls, firing up the candles that covered every available space to the sound of some cheeky jazz. Vendors were excitedly filling up their tables with everything from home-made lemonade and boutique beer to possibly the most delicious falaffel wraps you will ever have in your whole life- ever!

Slowly but surely, the space filled up, people wafted around following the clouds of delicious smells that floated around our cozy cave, clutching big glasses of red wine while they picked out there dinner menu. Once they were decided, bites were bought and enjoyed around the many candle lit tables that had been fashioned out hay bales and boxes. 

The Wholefoods night market was a roaring success, it was run professionally, parking was really easy and close to the front door, and the products supplied by the vendors were of a really high standard. I can definitely recommend this market to anyone. So, when you find yourself without plans on the first Thursday evening of every month, round up some troops come down to the market and have a really rad candle lit evening with your mates. 

Venue: The Quays, at the Durban Underwater Club and nearby uShaka, there is additional security personnel on duty. To find The Quays – take the second left after uShaka at Wodka, and go over the canal bridge as though going to Durban Underwater Club. Night Market will be on your right.

For more info – phone Yossis on 031 201 0090 / Tracey on 072 552 8152