I drive past the Palm Trading House in Linden (corner of 5th
Street and 4th Avenue) almost every day and for some time now wanted to stop
and go in. It was the French painted furniture, especially the chairs on
display outside their shop that first drew my attention. Walk inside, and
you find a treasure trove of vintage collectables and art deco items. I had a
wonderful time browsing their wares and fell in love with a beautiful French
headboard and a little Delft lookalike cow-shaped milk jug. The joy of walking
in the shop reminded me of trips to the antique markets in l'Isle sur la Sorgue and St-Quen….
You can visit their website here (currently under construction).
The other day I popped into the Ceramic Factory. It is located in Linden just opposite everyone’s favourite neighbourhood coffee shop, the Whippet (see here). In a large white space ceramic light fittings hang above beautiful wooden tables laden with a wide selection of very quirky ceramics. The shop opened in March this year and their plan is to launch a new line of products every three months. At the moment the range on display is called “Citizenship” and consists of the Fro Family (even the family dog has an afro!) and the Village of the Rhino, celebrating the rhino with items such as utensil holders, piggy banks and funky wall pot plant holders.
You can like their Facebook page here.
I’ve blogged about Pinterest before (see here), but if you haven’t heard of it by know, you’re probably also not familiar with that great thing called the internet! Just joking, I am sure you’ve heard about the internet! :-)
Since I spend a lot of time at night feeding my little girl, I have a lot of time available to surf the internet, and believe me, I spend A LOT of that time on Pinterest. I pin all the things that inspire me and that I’m passionate about, so my boards include a fantasy wardrobe, ideas for my dream house, travel destinations and even concepts for my shop.
Today I’ve reached 540 followers on Pinterest (wow, thanks to everyone!), and it seems the two most popular boards are “When can I go”, a board with beautiful pics of travel destinations from all around the world and “Elegant Living”. Today I would like to share with you a few of the photos I’ve pinned to my “Elegant Living” board. If you want to follow me, click here.
Image credits: Pinterest
I’ll never forget the feeling I felt when, working in London just after university, I saw a queue outside a theatre and realised it was for a Hugh Masekela jazz concert. You just can’t help it – feeling patriotic and proud when you see excellence from South Africa being exported. Sometimes, it’s also mixed
with a kind of sadness that what is good enough to proudly display overseas is
not well known at home… A few years ago I walked into a Conran shop in Tokyo, only to be stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the beautiful ceramics made by Mud Studio, a South African company. Back home, I sourced the products to sell it in my own shop. Inevitably, some of them found their way into my home as well.
Werner and Philippa du Toit, owners of the now well-known Mud Studio, are not only responsible for the handmade ceramics (mostly organic shapes and neutral colours), but their rural-empowerment clay-bead project makes the most striking chandeliers. They have set up shop at 3 Desmond Road in Kramerville, a beautiful, expansive showroom designed to make you drool over every item. My visit to the shop instantly conjured up that wonderful sense of pride I felt, the one which made me try to explain to a Japanese shop assistant what the words “local is lekker” mean…
You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.
Last week, Daniel asked me when my post pregnancy tummy would be flat again. Ouch! I would also love to know, since getting dressed in the mornings is a huge challenge at the moment. I do not fit into my normal winter wardrobe yet and all my maternity clothes are too big and too summery. It is a first world pain, I know, to complain with a cupboard full of clothes, but sometimes the self-image does not want to listen to reason.
Maybe that is why I find the new Dove ad so inspiring. It went viral after being posted the first time in April 2013 and is now one of the most viewed online video ads ever. I do not want to give away the plot. Watch it. It makes a powerful point.
One of the shops that we saw at Collective (see here) over the weekend was Postcard Revival. This spectacular project approached some of Johannesburg’s most talented artists, illustrators and photographers, asking them to depict Johannesburg in just one image. These artworks were then transformed into limited edition postcards.
With email and social networking, we do not write letters anymore and postcards have become a tourist souvenir. But looking at these cards, I was reminded that the joy of receiving a postcard or sending a postcard, especially such a beautiful piece of art, makes finding postage stamps worth all the trouble!
The project started with Johannesburg but they plan to show off other great cities. You can watch a video they made showing the journey of a postcard through Johannesburg here. Visit their website or like their Facebook page.
Yesterday I managed to slip away for a couple of hours to visit Collective in Kramerville with my friend Celeste. It is a monthly pop-up shop/smallish market on the rooftop of 3 Desmond Road, boasting a wide veranda with great views over the lush suburbs around Sandton. So, each with a glass of bubbly in hand, we perused the products on offer. The market’s focus is on clothes and jewellery, but you will also find fabrics, ceramics and furniture from young designers.
