A colourful day!

The internet is fixed and for the first time in an age, I have some pics to post! I've actually really enjoyed taking a break from snapping and blogging (as much as I used to) because sometimes it's just nice to take a break from things... but on Saturday, I whipped out le Canon for a fun shoot with my sweet pal, Nadia. We shot and styled our little hearts out for a new project Nads is working on. Let me tell you - Nadia has the life! And I say this with love and perhaps, just a peppering of jealousy! Nads spends her days crafting in the most beautiful flat and Elle recently did a dreamy feature on her. I'm very proud of my friend. Love ya Nads! With regards to the shoot - I'm pretty chuffed with how the pics turned out and I think we did quite well with our first attempt at styling - stained table clothes and all for backgrounds! These are just some happy snaps from 'behind the scenes' - I hope you enjoy 'em. And yes, we did nosh almost all the props, haha! x

Peachy Keen and wonky internet

Huzzah friends! And hello new visitors who have swung by from Meg’s blog! Gloss in such a shambles at the mo – I feel a bit like I do when people ‘pop in’ and the flat is a state – haha! It has been pouring in Durbs which has wreaked havoc with our internet connection. As soon as everything is fixed, I’ll be back to ye old blog. In the mean time, feel free to rummage through the archives although not too far back to the era of cringe! The guys below are a Cape Town band called Peachy Keen - caught them at Unit 11 a while back - they have such a fun Rockabilly vibe. Last but not least is a picture of my friend Taneal who I am trying to persuade to become a stylist because this girl could make a bin bag look amaze. (She doesn't actually smoke, I just posed her ala Mad Men because I am Cheese Central.) My friends descend from all over the world for my bestie's wedding soon so hopefully I will have some mad Bridal Shower pics to post. Things may be sporadic but hey ho, such is life right now! Will have a blog reading catch up as soon as pos x

A shopping waffle

Sadly no waffles per se, just me waffling on. Well, hello all! Hope you're well? I'm afraid it's a fat fail for me on the blogging front this week. I literally have nothing prepped to post. One of my mates jokingly quipped that I need to 'Step up my game' - hah! Life has been manic and on the occasions where I have seen mates, it's been nice catching up sans camera. I do have a bit of a shopping snippet to share with you. I nipped into Mr Price tonight to discover a PLETHORA of wedges. In a multitude of colours! I can't tell you how pleased I am with this current wedge revival. They're pretty much the only 'heels' I can bare to wear. Also, Mr P seemed to have taken in a step in a more modern, streamlined direction. Was chuffed to see they've toned down the embellishments, silver threads, frills and studs etc! Spotted lots of cute, wearable stuff in the form of polka-dot collared tunics and flattering A-Line skirts. A nice break from the floozy 'belt' skirts that usually abound in SA's stores! The new stuff feels a bit H&Mish which is in no way a bad thing. I snapped up some yellow/greeny canvas wedges, a dotty skirt and a floral frock from the Aggy Deyn range. Love this frock! Would love more wedges too but the old tax return only stretches so far. Just crossing my fingers the clothes pass the wash test - the last bits I bought from Mr P suffered some serious shrinkage - maddening! How about you? Been on any SARS 'sponsored' sprees of late!?

Sorry for the al blurro pics - snapped 'em indoors at night.

PS: Lols at linking SARS. Thought it best to assure peeps abroad I'm not referring to the disease.

01

So it seems the latest blogging trend is posting music mixes. Well, I don't mind if I do climb aboard the band wagon! Ha. Band. Wagon. Sorry. Brandon half-joked (!?) that more blokes would read my blog if I wrote about guitars and music. I'm not really phased if guys read my blog or not, but it does bum me out that music is something I've become less pre-occupied with. I feel a long-winded post about the South African music scene bubbling out of me so let me bottle that one for another day! I started 'making a mix' (aka linking to Youtube vids!) but man, it was eclectic - blues, metal, rock, was a bit of a crazy sandwich so I reckon I better theme 'em. This one has got a bit of a '90 rock vibe going on - my fave era!  Oh yeah, the title is from a weird encounter I had the other day. (I do love the Pumpkins though.) How great is that pic!? Found it on Google but with no proper source I'm afraid.

01 Alice in Chains - Would? 02 Soundgarden - Fell on black days 03 Alice Donut - Everyone is on sale 04 Pearl Jam - Even Flow 05 Veruca Salt - Seether 06 Stone Temple Pilots  - Crackerman 07 Frank Black - Hang on to your ego 08 Babes in Toyland - He's my Thing 09 Spacehog - In the meantime 10 Everclear - Santa Monica 11 Elastica - Waking Up 12 Corrosion of Conformity - Clean my wounds 13 Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Show me your soul 14 Rage against the machine - Know your enemy 15 Lush - Ladykillers 16 Beastie Boys - Sabotage 17 L7 - Slide 18 Sonic Youth - Kool Thing 19 Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun 20 Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother

{I try hard not be one of those people that always goes on about how great music was in the '90s but dang, it rocked hard. I do enjoy the Best Coast's and She and Him's of this era but this old stuff will always be my fave. Mind you, the new Alice in Chains, Velvet Revolver, Them Crooked Vultures...there have been some rad hard rock outfits of late. But that's another 'mix' I suppose!}

Tumblr'in On

Nothing wrong with a bit of retro eye candy, eh? I have to refrain myself from reblogging four zillion pet pictures on Tumblr. One, Two, Three (Mine) , Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight (Mine) and Nine.

Cuppies

I got my bake on the other day. Pretty domesticated right? Alas, not so much. 

The next day I heated up the oven for dins, only to be hit with the aroma of singed sugar.

Forgot I'd left the cupcakes in there and proceeded to nuke those suckers!

PS: There's a strange part of me that wants to say, 'Hey sorry, I haven't done any outfit posts in a while' but then I think, 'Why am I saying sorry for not putting pictures of myself up on the internet?!" Haha! It's sounds like such a mental/vain thing to say when in reality, I don't at all think, 'Oooh, look at me, rocking this outfit today!' But ja. I know outfit posts are my faves to read on other blogs! It's been rainy on the weekends, I've been feeling meh with a mouth-full of tender teeth. So it's just random tidbits for now friends. This turned out to be longer than a quick 'PS!'

A note for my school buds

In the past year, I have missed my school friends more than ever. I had a pretty tough time making friends as a kid. For one, I was a bit of a sensitive, intense creature. While other kids would be happily cementing Marie Biscuits together, I would be grilling the teacher as to why the sky was blue. "It just is" never satisfied! For two, or erm, secondly, I detested catty cliques and refused to partake in 'em to my social ruin! But once I found my group, aged 11, we were bonded for life. Like Beavis and Butt-head. Our childhood heroes! But as it is with many young South Africans, people emmigrate to first world countries and those who remain here, tend to settle down quickly. And while we have developed different interests, we have done our best to stay in touch and keep the memories alive. Soon we will be together again for a friend's wedding and I cannnot wait to see everyone. It's great to have friends who understand your life context. And it's rare to find friends that are genuinely happy when fortune finds you and sincerely saddened when life throws you lemons. So in the good, the bad and the everyday, I really miss these girls. Just a couple of school memories off the top of my head: Cutting a milktart with school scissors and eating it behind a bush instead of selling it at the bake sale. Lols. Locking ourselves in a classroom to skip sports day. Princess Dianna had just died and I played depressing songs on my guitar which had the opposite effect - everyone in hysterics! Being gravely disappointed when they servd KFC at our matric dance. Drinking cider at a mates on the last day of matric, her mom walking through the door and me getting such a fright, I chucked the can across the room. Oooh, cider, what rebels! Jacuzzi Parties. Avo on Toast. Getting kicked out of French because we were juvenile delinquents that couldn't stop laughing at the pronunciations. Crying our eyes out after having our hearts broken. Playing Metallica on people's answering machines?! Skulking around the mall. House Parties. Epic monday morning scoop sessions! It's all those random things that glue friendships together, aren't they? It's harder now that we rarely get to see each other but hopefully we experienced enough ridiculousness in our teen years to last us a lifetime of lols! Case in point below.

I have vague recollections of this being an unsollicited 'play' we put on in Business Economics. 

Also, I had the waist of a small child in highschool. Life was good!

PS: Tammy, is that you crouching down behind me? Stage fright? Lols!

PPS: My blog is hopefully loading faster since I sent the gremlin packin'.

EDIT: The girl I shared the milktart with - Tracy - got engaged this weekend!!
Congrats again friend - woot!

For the love of animated gifs!

These cats! Ahhhhh! I want a keyboard cat.

Build-A-Brooch

When Nadia ran her Build-A-Brooch stand, I made these two pretties. It was such fun rifling through ribbons and buttons. And watching the littlies make their brooches was too precious!

Lula

The new Lula has arrived in South Africa and it is surpremely dreamy as always!

32 Kisses

Happy Birthday Handsome Face. 

Thank you for indulging my chronic picture-taking and mall walkathons.

Sorry for always sticking my feet up on the dash and leaving a wet-towel trail of destruction.

Wishing you a year filled with Always Sunny reruns, rockin' jams and Cheese Curls a plenty. x

Sewing Patterns

I love the look and texture of old sewing patterns. A few of my friends wrap their gifts in them which I think is just delightful, eh? Spotted this stack outside one of my fave second-hand stores. x

Oh Tumblr

Tumblr and I. We're still in the honeymoon phase.

I gaze at it with contented eyes. It sends me little notes it thinks I'll like.

And the best part about our relationship. It's so eaaaasy. 

Dang you 'reblog' button. I may never pen a proper Blogger post again! Kidding. I hope.

Sources from clockwise: One / Two / Three / Four is mine / Five / Six / Seven / Eight

Amsterdam

Thanks for letting me share these old travel pics guys. I really loved our time abroad and it's so nice to relive the moments. Isn't this pink bike just the cutest? We had the best time in Amsterdam! I think I'll probably scribble another post about that trip and the awesome dog-themed Bed and Breakfast we stayed in! Oh to live in a city of canals, flower shops and cobbled streets.

A cherry blossom I think?

This is a pretty tree near my office.

I think it's a Cherry Blossom but I can't be sure. I'm not terribly au fait with trees.

This is about the sum of everything I've snapped in two weeks.

It's kinda nice to take a camera break.

Hope you all have super duper weeks. x

Camden Town

From a pastel Paris to a colourful Camden. 

How I miss rifling through kitsch tourist tat and metal band tees.

I'm a little light on words at the moment. Got alot of projects on the go but happy to be busy.

And erm, also spending any spare time on Tumblrs like this one. I love that some person out there takes the time to lovingly photoshop pictures of polony sandwiches and Tom Selleck in waterfalls. 

It's a damn near perfect combination!