divine crockery

As I'm in the whole "new home" vibe I couldn't resist posting some scrumptious bowls & plates that I would love for my new house. Aren't they pretty?!?

1. Blue Bamboo Bowls from Moko Direct
2. More Bamboo Bowls from  Inhabitat Shop
3. Ruffled Cake Plates from Olive & Cocoa
4. Ceramic and Wood Bowls by Vincent Van Duysen
5. Dotted Gold Plate from Bailey Doesn't Bark
6. Log Bowls from Loyal Loot
7. Parker Bowl Set from Crate and Barrel
8. Grateful Plate from Aedriel Bigcartel
9. Kiddie Animal Wall Plates from Chik Design
10. Scribble Nesting Bowls from Supermarket

just because

we got our home loan :)

wildlife photography & winefarm

On Saturday we went to The Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the iziko museums in cape town, had breakfast in Company's Garden.



And on Sunday we went to check out De Grendel wine farm

my moto for the next week

comic sans is the devil...

especially when it shows up in serious documents :P.

lust have: camera bag

Oh, to be able to sew, and then make myself a camera bag like this! But it will never happen as I can't even sew a button onto a shirt. I'll have to bribe my mom to make me one.

I love taking my camera everywhere, but I hate carrying around the bag. Not very stylish you know. this would be perfect.

Get the full instructions here. Or you could just buy on here

colour love

Just love this colour combo :)  Makes me happy

gossip girl & blake lively

Yes, I know, I'm very late getting on this band wagon, but quite honestly I didn't think I'd like Gossip Girl until one night I watched it at a friends house. And now I'm hooked. I finished the first season yesterday (watched it in about a weeks time) and now I can't wait for the rest.

And I must admit I have a bit of a girl crush. This is definitely a case of "Girls want to be her, guys want to be with her". How great is Blake Lively. And from what I read she seems just as sweet, fun and bubbly as her character Serena. And I'd kill for her hair :)

And look how fun she looks in this post by Bakerella.

designer showcase: atipus

Location: Barcelona, Spain
Website: www.atipus.com

crazy days

A calming picture to make me feel a little more mellow. It's been a crazy two weeks and I just want to go on holiday again. There's been lots of work, lots of family stuff and lots & lots & lots of admin.

The main reason for all the admin... well, Rudi and I put an offer on a house and, being self employed, we have to prove a hell of a lot to the bank so that we can get a home loan. Subsequently most of last week was spent trying to get our financial statements up to day, going to the bank to get statements and so on. If I have any advice for you it's this, buy a house before you ever think of going into business on your own. For the salary earners out there all it takes to get a loan (provided your finances look fine), is 3 months bank statements and 1 to 3 pay slips. For us it was 3 years financials, 6 - 12 months bank statements, letters from our accountant confirming that we are actually making money, forms about where our business is going and a list of all our worldly belongings (just in case the bank needs to sell them all one day :).

Anyway, it's all done and (hoping I'm not jinxing it) everything looks good. Hopefully we hear this week if we have the bond and then it'll be a mad rush to pack as we'll be moving in at the end of March. Here it is from the outside.



Funny thing about the house. It was only the 3rd one we saw. Rudi and I had planned to buy something acceptable so that we could stop paying rent and actually put our money to good use, but in the end we were lucky enough to find a house we love! It's brand new, bigger than we had hoped to find and super modern inside. We did feel like we couldn't jump straight into this so we saw another 8 houses after it, but our hearts were already spoken for. Hold thumbs that we get that loan xxx

something cute for all you big bang theory fans

Drawn by Petit-J

photo wall

I just love this block mount photo wall. I think the blues and pink in each photo just work so well together.

You can order these here. (I'm just not sure where exactly on the site you can  get them as i didn't feel like registering)

oh no!

I felt like this a lot this week. There just wasn't enough hours in the day for everything.

Here's hoping next week is better :)

house hunting

Rudi and I are finally at that stage in our lives were we want to (and have the opportunity to) buy a house. We actually made the decision to start looking very quickly and have jumped right in. We've only been going out to view houses since Wednesday, but we've already seen 11.

And we've already found a house that we are both completely in love with. It's actually quite terrible as it was the 3rd house we saw and now nothing else in measuring up. But, we'll take it slow, see what's out there, make all our calculations and decide what suits us best. No rushing into anything for us. This is a big thing and we want to make the right choice.

ps: the above photo is the kind of house we both dream of owning one day. Very modern, with big open plan living areas and lots of windows. Don't think we'll ever get to buying something like this as the prices here are astronomical, but one can still dream

i want a ferret

Ever since I saw a pet ferret on some or other American tv show I've wanted one. They look so cuddly and cute. You can dress them up in adorable little outfits and train them to walk on a leash. I don't see SA importing any of these cute critters soon so I'll just have to content myself with looking at photos of them.

Or I could get one of these.



So sweet! You can order them here

cupcake love (and one stunning cake)

Just because they're beautiful to look at.

photography books

I was lucky enough to get a Exclusive Books voucher from my mom and I've been searching the last two months for a decent book to spend it on. Seeing I have a kindle I wanted to get something that I couldn't read on that. After much debate I settled on the two above.  

The complete guide to Light & Lighting is wonderful as this I feel is one of the aspects of photography that I really need help with. It covers almost everything, from the different kinds of natural lighting, to studio lighting and even a whole section on lighting correction in photoshop.

The other book, 50 Photo Projects, is just a little something to give me inspiration. As it says on the blurb it gives you a "new creative avenues to explore {and} shows you how to break our of your comfort zone and try something new. I'm dying to start on some of these.

Here's to lots of hours of photography!

It's so hot!

It's so hot I don't know what to do with myself. I ended up doing most of my work last night as we got nothing done in this very hot study of ours during the day. I wish we had aircon

blouberg beach

These are such amazing shots of my local beach. I would love to take something similar. I could kick myself though as I saw the sky from our house the night these were taken, thought "maybe I should go down to the beach" and then got sidetracked.

These beautiful photos were taken by Yolande Marx and Jo-Ann Stokes.

Check out more of their stunning work here and here

designer showcase: audery kawasaki

Names: Audery Kawasaki
Claim to fame: Illustration
Location: Brooklyn, USA
Website: www.audrey-kawasaki.com

burgers & vensters

{I'm obsessed with taking photos of doors}

Last Thursday evening Rudi and I went off to Stellenbosch so that I could show him what it was like to be a first year there. We went to watch Vensters, which is basically an evening where all the girls and boys hostels put on plays outside in the street. I was a 1st year 10 years ago (scary) and it was so funny to see how everything have changed, but also still staid the same.

{Jack & lime & yummy green fig & blue cheese burgers. Best is they were 40% off}

We got to Stellenbosch early in the afternoon (as I had a work thing to do), so before the activities began we walked around, had some supper and took some photos.

{Ice-cream - this is the same make as that at our wedding. It's the best}

{beautiful blues}

designer showcase: Nicole Kraieski

Names: Nicole Kraieski
Claim to fame: Design
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Website: http://www.behance.net/nicolekraieski

Catch up

Wow, a weeks gone by and I haven't done a single blog post. Not good. I'll try being better in future. But for now here are some photos our funny dog Einstein on the beach