i just love these bangles from kate spade in new york.

new things

skermunkil jewellery - r330 Genuine leather clutch bags - from r500
skinny la minx cushions - hand printed down filled - r260

various cute things - from r10
wrought iron candelier - r300

new things at beatnik bazaar....

beatnik journals

for those of you who don't know, i'm actually a writer by profession and i currently work for http://www.sa-venues.com/. i worked as a copywriter for the last year (pictured above, tasting a menu for research) and finally landed my dream job of travel journalist for sa venues, because they spotted this very blog! anyway, here's a link to one of my published articles. click here

koskas

my son found this cute koskas for my shop in kalk bay on saturday by approaching a guy outside my shop who had it on the back of his bakkie. he told the guy that his mom really likes furniture and voila, we had a sale! pity its been sold already today, it had such charm :-)

olive green cat

olive green cat is the business that talented jeweller, phillipa green, trades under and who is renowned for her stunningly beautiful perspex cuffs, cut detail and etched jewellery. being of the greatest contributors and assets to the cape town creative community, i am stoked and delighted to be stocking her delicious creations. i sued to live in the same road as phillipa and i've watched her business bloom. the dream i've had of my shop is now pretty much complete, with the addition of these two jewellers, who i had planned to supply me on my "dream board!" strangely enough, they seem to be as excited as i am about it!!!

skermunkil

the incredibly talented and divine jeweller, marietjie beeslaar, is supplying my store from next week, with her insanely gorgeous hand crafted jewellery. a fellow south peninsula resident, or lentil curtain local, she visited my store twice this week and helped to clear me out!!! hope you're loving your retro coffee table, coffee set, espresso set, bevelled mirrors and all the rest marietjie!! here's a little more about her...

Marietjie calls her range Skermunkil, which is Afrikaans for rascal, “because it‘s playful and lighthearted”.
Celtic crosses, broken plates, tarnished cutlery, biscuit tins, hearts, a Bambi and more all act as references.
Marietjie works in many media including silver and gold, resin, wood, enamel and perspex.
Marietjie etches into old spoons, cutting away the metal to create a pendant. At the moment she focuses on re-using found objects, especially old nickel silver spoons, broken crockery and old cookie tins. Marietjie cuts shapes out of the crockery and reworks this into a ring set in silver.
She also takes spoons and etches a delicate pattern of birds into the bowl of the spoon, leaving the rim as a frame for the filigree. Once a chain is attached, the spoon becomes a pendant necklace. She transforms the handles of spoons and forks into rings, while selected images from cookie tins are made into badges. “I‘m big into recycling,” she says.

come see Marietjie's exquisite and utterly unique pieces at beatnik bazaar.

looking for a sign

look at my posh signage on my car and outside my shop, on main road, kalk bay!!! only thing is...i forgot to add the small detail of saying where my shop is, on my car signage....ahhhhh the responsibility!!!

playing around

i play around in the shop for about the first 4 hours of the day, because items that are sold create gaps before my next stock arrives and because i want to display items as best possible. my clothing line will be in by tomorrow, so i'll have to change everything again, but i juggled things around into colour groups this morning.

my retro suite

steven kindly brought through my retro suite today and it looks gorgeous.

saturday continued

shoppers

my stoep area

j&g meakin set

wicker basket
1950's coffee pot

friends

vintage tapestry
everything matches!

more friends came by and we cracked open the bottle of bubbly that the kind owner of sartori's in kalk bay had brought me as a pressie. here are some of my new things in today. i love the way my stuff all matches somehow. so many shoppers have come here today. yay!

saturday is the best day of the week

i'm grabbing a moment to blog during a lull in shoppers visiting my shop. i've had such a fun day and have included pics of the market i went to this morning, which yielded some sweet fruits. luca got onto a chair and pretended he was on a roller coaster. i love the way my son is able to use his imagination to entertain himself when his mom is bargain hunting.

fresh sale

i'm fresh from a day of non stop visitors to my shop and some kiff sales!!! i am absolutely amazed that a shop that has been open for two days could make sales the way that i have! rock on! *beaming here* i was busy all day, pricing things with my new price tags that my fab designer sketched for me, and entertaining friends who kindly visited, attending to customers, moving things around the shop and compiling music playlists for the shop. i had great fun and only left the store at around 6pm. this morning i got up at 6 and rode elijah in the mountains at 6.30, went on some errands and filled my morning until opening time at the shop, at 10.00am. what a full day! and i have no doubt there will be plenty more.

find of the month

i bought this suite this evening. mmm mmmm mmmmmmmmmm.

first photo's

i can't believe its real. my life long dream of having a shop is now reality. i had 3 weeks to source and buy my stock, my shop fittings and to renovate the shop. here are the first photo's of my attempts to style!!!!!! oddly enough I had a really big sale, the day i was moving my shop fittings and furniture in - i wasn't even trading!!!

using space

my challenge for the last few days and for the week ahead, will be to fit out my shop beautifully, effectively and to use the space as best i can. i'm waking up in the morning with my stomach in knots....i never gave much thought to shop fittings before this and although it may seem odd, i just thought it would all come together when i moved my goods in. wrong!!!!! so, i have my eye on some shop fittings from a store i used to adore, that has packed up and is selling their shelving and fittings, piece by piece.- see above.

mental muscle

my shop is taking it out of me! i can't begin to explain what goes into opening a retail space! it
is so hectic, i've been through the full kaleidoscope of emotions, which changes in one day from hopeful, to worried, frantic, manic, despondent, frazzled and then exhausted. this is how every day for the last 4 weeks have been, with no apparent end in sight. my day starts at around 5.30am, when i check my emails, check online sales and auctions, and bid for items. i then help my child get ready for school, shower and take him to school. i then usually go to cape town to pick up some items of furniture or buy items from hardware stores, or meet with private sellers. if there's a market on, i then go to that. i check my emails again and pick my son up from school and make him lunch. then we go off again to my shop, try to envision what i need and we go off again to find things like packaging, fabric, ribbon, tissue paper, shop fittings and all those delightful details. i then usually remember an appointment that i've made with anyone from the credit card facility guy, through to the signage shop and rush to get to that in time. you can try and keep it simple but its impossible. i never knew it would test my character to open a shop. all i want to do is be in my shop now and listen to kate bush and elvis.
today i even felt like packing it all in.
but my friends always get me through it and tomorrow, i face another day, through the kaleidoscope.

history

i aint never been into anything that didn't have no history - beatnik bazaar (you can quote me on that one) and i just love the liebe marlene vintage blog.
she pulls off vintage better than i've ever pulled off anything. you gotta love this girls' style.

the worst weekend ever

well, hate to be negative, but people had loads of fights with me this weekend, my son cut his fringe to the hairline when I wasn't there - and he's been signed to at least a two weeks photoshoot for two different production companies - and he was chucked off set. then, i get my friends and my dad to help me move everything into my shop and freak out of freak outs.......my retro stuff so totally doesn't work in the space. my shop has wooden walls that have been painted white and retro just doesn't work...you have to believe me. this is what does work - i found the same looking shop and love the way they've styled everything.