Esty Find

Loving these vibrant and fun prints over at Feel Good Stuff, hailing from a farm in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa.





See more on her etsy page, or on her fun blog.

Elsje Designs

I am hugely inspired in my professional life by the women at Elsje Designs.



Their team in Cape Town just crushes the competition when it comes to tabletop design, graphic design, great imagery, beautiful colour combos... pulling it all together.







See more on their website, or blog.

Fall Fever

Boy, what a night I'm having over here... first I realize I haven't been able to upload my old software to my new mac because my handwriting is so bad that I can't read the serial number correctly (I swear I heard the customer service guy chuckle quietly to himself), then the dog almost got sprayed again by the skunk... luckily the hubby caught a glance of it out the corner of his eye and shooed the dog back inside (inside I was completely freaking out, but on the outside I remained. cool. calm.) Man, I do not want to spend another night giving poor ol' Lou a tomato bath, then a bicarb/peroxide bath, then a regular bath... and then start again.

I think (and I can't seem to find reliable info on this) that the skunk is scavenging more because its getting cooler (he was digging for grubs in the back lawn). Last week we shockingly had some snow (it all melted on contact with the ground, thank goodness) but yesterday I didn't even need to wear a jacket. I suppose that fall in New England for you.

Today over at 66 Square Feet I saw some of the best fall photography I have seen in a while. Marie has a fantastic eye.





Marie had some links to photos she had taken in Namibia. Man, oh man. I've always wanted to go but now it's imperative.



Do yourself a favour and go see the rest.

LoveJozi

Recently found these fabulous tshirts... on my next trip home, I'm definitely getting me one of these!







I think their logo says it all...

The Saint

So, today I give away the secret of my last guilty pleasure...somehow I end up telling you all my secrets. My other daily read is Mrs. O. Yes, that Mrs O.



I stumbled across this lovely little blog somehow, and I've kind of been inspired by dear Mrs O to ditch black as my wardrobe staple, and slowly replace it with colour. You know, use navy, or khaki, or warm brown with colour, instead of black (just got my new winter brown boots the other day).

So, just other day I was there, getting inspired, when I saw her necklace. Gorgeous.


And imagine my pride when I saw that the creative force behind such a unique and glamorous piece of jewellry is a South African. Pieter Erasmus, a boytjie from Pretoria.



He grew up, kind of like me, being told that you can't spend your life or make money being creative (read the full story here), but somehow he has ended up living in London and having his little masterpieces created in Delhi. You can see the African and Indian exoticism in his designs.







I feel like the St. Erasmus necklace and Mrs O are a good pairing: such a glamorous and sharp woman who carries off colour so well deserves jewellry as bold, strong and beautiful as she is.

You can shop online here (where I found the waterfall and pewter necklaces) or you can find more places on the St. Erasmus website and, of course, you used to be able buy a copy of Mrs O's necklace at Anthropologie, but it seems to be sold out :(

Textile Heaven

Love these images from South African in London, Bernie de Le Cuona's website.

Somewhere Stylish to Sit

Over here in Boston, the leaves have turned glorious shades of red, yellow and brown... when you walk the dog, the evening air has a crispness that makes you hug your jacket to you, but also makes you breath deeply so you can enjoy that lovely fragrance of fires burning in hearths and warming toes... and we are just waiting for that first real bite of cold.

So its time to put away the garden furniture... I have those rather unsatisfying plastic chairs (yuck) and I'd much rather putting away a set of table and chairs from Hope Furniture in Cape Town, so I'd have the promise of braais next summer being set out under the trees in some style.











For more info, visit the Hope Furniture website.

Ranting and Reminiscing

I need to get this off my chest: the demise of all the gorgeous, beautiful and inspiring magazines we all love and NEED is driving me crazy! First the beloved domino, then my guilty secret, Country Home, and now I hear cookie (my stand-by gift for all the new moms in my life... well, the ones who are closest to me out of the 15 of them... yes, 15!) and now gourmet too! It just leaves me sad and at a loss.









Just recently a friend treated me and let me borrow her complete collection of dominos. It was lovely. I found this gorgeously shot article, on New York photographer Liz Gilbert, who lives part of the year in Kenya photographing the local tribes people, and the other part back in NY (sounds like a great way to have your cake and eat it too!). I scanned it in so I could share it with you (oops! Scanned it a little crooked!). Don't you love how, even though she is technically in the bush camping, her campsite is like home? And how parts of her African life are so at ease in her New York apartment? If I sound jealous, it's because I am!







Since hearing that Gourmet and Cookie were shuttering, I luckily came across Lonny magazine... and this is one of the things I love about what all these magazines stand for... a bunch of the people who were involved in making domino got together over the summer to create an online magazine, with just as beautiful articles, photographs, ideas and attitude. Love it!





I highly recommend the article on domino founder/editor, Deborah Needleman, for anyone who is involved any creative pastime or profession. She talks about the seasons of life and creativity, while talking about her garden (which is gorgeous).





I am kind of in two minds about the online thing... its kinda annoying because I can't cuddle on the couch with the pup and read it (I just bought a new desktop mac, not a laptop!) BUT on the other hand there are now just under 200 pages. Also, anything I like in the magazine enough to want to find out more, I just click on the pic/name/whatever and it takes me to a new website where I can see more, see how I can buy one for myself/ make one for myself. Its fab! Plus advertisers can now see directly who is coming to their site thanks to their advertising in Lonny. Perhaps that will convince advertisers to not throw in the towel on these great magazines when times get a little tough... and I can stop whining :)

The Hospitality of Cousins

Ah, it's good to be back! I'm so excited to finally be blogging again... new mac intact, with a beautiful (ginormous!) monitor and ready to get you the latest and best news and info on all things designery from southern Africa!

I was recently very excited to read on one of my daily blog reads, Habitually Chic, that Koto Bolofo's new book on Hermes is out soon... of course, I have blogged about Koto before, the very talented photographer from Lesotho and now being welcomed all over the world to take his beautiful photos.



Although I'm not sure I can afford the book, I will certainly be perusing it at the nearest opportunity... this little story from the product description at amazon.com has my interest piqued:
...Bolofo, well known for his portraits and fashion shoots, and published in such prestigious periodicals as Vogue, Esquire and i-D, came to Monde d'Hermes in 2004, when he met Hermes head, Jean-Louis Dumas, one of 17 cousins who constitute the fifth generation heading the company. Bolofo recalls that "Mr. Dumas asked where I came from. I said South Africa. He asked what part. I said Lesotho. He was shocked and very excited. He explained that his great, great, great grandfather was a missionary in Lesotho and that the Zulus used to attack his mission, but the Sothos--my tribe--protected him... He called me his cousin and said that his cousin was welcome any time and I had carte blanche to photograph what I liked in Hermes."

I'd love to see the inner workings of such a great, beautiful, creative and success brand.

See more of Koto Bolofo's work at Jed Root, Inc, with more info at the publisher's website.