my cousin's baby shower

a rabbit from beatnik bazaar for baby jude, naturally, paired with skull and crossbones baby shoes and a rabbit eared jumpsuit too.

i spent the day at my cousin's baby shower and seeing as her and her hubby are actors and dancers, their baby shower, like their wedding, was a theatrical and entertaining event. they make such a cute couple. i can't wait to meet little jude. if you live in s.a., check out their website, follow spot productions or their group on facebook and see when they're performing at a town near you! they'll be in kalk bay this weekend, performing 'big girl's don't cry,' so i'll see you there, i hope!

nikki lake

i found nikki lake's insanely gorgeous photography this morning while cruising around the flickr groups i belong to. it reminds me of the photo's of my mother in her albums as a teenager in the 60's. nikki has captured the model's essence so perfectly and i adore the soft tones and simplicity of her photographs. check out her website here.

more mu & me in store now

there are a few mu & me things in store now, like these sweet bags, perfect for holding your essentials, for r59 and some notebooks. yipee!!!!! the larger handbag versions of this bag are only r190, so get your cupcakes on and order yourselves some!

clearing the head

i decided that i need to clear my head more and get away from all forms of communication for at least 2 hours per day, into the mountains where there is no reception. when you're an entrepreneur, it is very difficult to enjoy yourself because you feel you should be doing something all the time, so even exercise feels self-indulgent. all of us should remember to get in touch with nature and get out, get our blood pumping and take a break, not just those of us who work for ourselves. let's re-write the book! i hope i keep it up. and it's about time someone started an entrepreneurs support group! p.s. i took these with my cellphone camera, so they're a little bit kak. p.p.s we were the only ones here at this massive dam, what a treat

griet

i had tea today with my friend dom who is one half of the artist management and event co-ordination company, griet. it was really interesting to hear all about her first year in business, which she started at the same time as i started my shop. griet manages all the best bands in s.a. including my favourite band in the world, lark, which will be embarking on a tour of s.a. shortly! griet also did 'desmond & the tutus' p.r. who also happen to be one of my favourite bands of all time! so keep checking the griet website for updates and news, such as the 'johnny foreigner' tour, an awesome international act who've been signed to the same record label as franz ferdinand and crystal castles. we'll see you there!!!

beatnik back in kalk bay

beatnik is opening a second small shop space at 100 main road kalk bay, in the mythology store, from the end of this month! all your favourite beatnik goods and the new folklore fashion range will be in store, so you can pop around on the weekend and pick up some gorgeous frocks, cushions, dreamy crochet blankets, gwen loves harold dolls, liesel trautman ceramics, skermunkil necklaces, retro tea sets, quilts or anything your beatnik heart desires. i'm so excited to be back in kalk bay!

new blankets in store soon!

i'll have 4 new exquisite crochet blankets in the store soon, and for order. you are welcome to request blankets to be made up in the colours you'd like and i can courier them to wherever you live in the world. local courier costs for this blanket will be around r150 at most, with a trusted courier company, which will deliver to your office or your home. the blankets are locally made within an empowerment project, using only natural materials, such as mohair and bamboo. (price on asking.) they are the most beautiful things you will ever touch or look at!

local bloggers

if you haven't yet scoped out the blogs i follow, i'd love to impart with some information on some of the amazing local design and creative blogs we are blessed with. if you are reading this, then you most probably know of skinny laminx, but how about other creative bloggers who write regularly, like miss moss, wolf eyebrows, jezze, junkshop and ofcourse lucky pony, which is my daily must read 'or i might be kidnapped by mind gnomes and pelted with mad hatter cake crumbs' blog. illustrator, crafter and musician lauren fowler writes a blog called lost is a place too and stylist kim gray updates her blog regularly with fashion finds and must haves. my branded life is the highly popular and eccentrically written blog by young copywriter, alex, who writes about her life in advertising and siblingmine is a creative blog written by a newly qualified young doctor, celebrating all things quirky, original and arty. i want that is a brand new blog/website written by experienced editorial writer, vicki sleet, which you must follow, 'cos it's awesome. the wren design blog follows the creative process of local handbag designer, wendren, who along with eendag op n reendag and other bloggers i've mentioned, also supply my shop. you can find many of us on twitter too, so get tweeting and we'll see you there!

amor coetzee

i discovered amor today after she started following me on twitter and i think her style of photography is the bees knees! she is a south african illustrator and photographer based in p.e. with a wonderful website where you can view her work and a photoblog too. i would love to have amor do a shoot for beatnik bazaar....the winter folklore range perhaps?! mmmmmm one can dream! i hope amor joins the 'frankie magazine readers' group on flickr cos i think they'd fly her over to oz and give her a job if they saw her photo's.

fashion folk

my friend laura and i will be putting our frocks into beatnik bazaar today, after running around picking up things and making the final touches to our dresses, like buttons, sashes and belts! i hope you'll all pop around sometime soon to see our first little collection!

silvermine dam

by a strange twist of fate, a whole lot of different people i know landed up at this dam on the weekend. i suspect it has a lot to do with human-eating-sharks abounding in the bay where we would usually be sunning our bods and taking a dip to cool off, nonetheless, i'm glad i've discovered it and i'm now an ardent fan of silvermine dam.

mention on the 'frankie' blog

sweet jelly bean sandwiches - my shop was mentioned on the 'frankie' blog - only the best magazine in the whole entire world! check out the awesome mention here. frankie is the most beautiful mag that celebrates all things made with love, handmade, folky, vintage and retro and compiles the love into their monthly publication which you can subscribe to. you'll never make a better investment ;) i also contribute to the beautiful 'frankie readers' group on flickr which is the only group i belong to where everyone gets the look and feel right, in just about every photograph. have a squizz.

the shop

welcome to those of you who have just found me for the first time through elle deco magazine. you can take a look at all the pretty things i stock in my shop by clicking the picture that says 'please click here' on the right hand side of my blog, or you can visit my store, opposite origin coffee, in de waterkant, inside the mythology & company building. yay!

and a bottle of rum!

we spent the weekend enjoying the water this weekend, both the dam and the sea. we swam in the dam in silvermine and enjoyed a trip aboard the 'jolly roger' at the waterfront.

courtship fantasy

this is me and 'isaac'

inspired by my new found love of bearded men, i've created a collage of my courtship fantasy (bahhaaahhaaaa) involving a red bearded man, banjo playing children, lilac cakes, cherry eating, bread baking, log cabins, pet fawns and pretty collared frocks.

we live in the forest, eat chocolate cake, our children play the banjo and are home schooled. i wear frocks like these. we listen to johnny cash and bob dylan and read tom robbins to our children.

we row our boat out on the river every evening and pick cherries for the kids for dessert. we have pet fawns, ride wild horses in the forest and make ceramics and frocks to sell at the local market on saturdays. we bake our own bread, have a vegetable garden and snuggle with our cats, wolves and squirrels under patchwork quilts beside a fire in the evenings.

heart shaped

luca made some heart shaped chocolate chip mini cakes for his school family picnic tomorrow. they're cooling off now...then i'll dig in!

winners of the competition!

from angie of lucky pony blog:
so guys we got about 60 odd entries all together, which is awesome. thank you to everyone who entered our little competition. we wish we could give you all packages and we would if Oprah was our mom, but Being Brazen and Kirsty you 2 are getting little parcels very soon - well done and happy friday x x yay congrats!!!

meisie

i've just seen on my friend marietjie's blog, that she has posted photo's of some of her beautiful dresses that her and her friend, steffany, have designed. their label is called 'meisie' - how cute?!

haze

the past few weeks have been a mind boggling 'down-the-rabbit-hole' haze of preparation for the folklore range, with the last fittings tomorrow and the finished product in our hands on saturday. it's the scariest thing i've done since opening my shop. it's taken many trips into town, which is pretty far from where i live, fabric hunting, exhausting mind numbing hours of trying to find the right fabric and trimmings we had in mind, fittings, alterations, hours into days of designing the dresses and logo, cupcakes, coffee, bad eating, stresses, strains, milkshakes, overnight pyjama design sleepovers and cake....but we did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

swing tags

Hey, check out our pretty swing tags. Most will merely flip it over to see the price of the dress, but what you don't know is that this logo took two trips, hours over the phone and internet, the paper and ribbon needed to be sourced, Laura printed them out at home on her printer and threaded all the ribbon through the holes. And that's just the swing tags!

models

our wonderful friends, chery, shannyn, rei and immo have agreed to model the new folklore range for free (just the girls, that is!) if we bring ginger beer and chocolate torte! i'm stoked to have such awesome friends. i'll be doing the shoot on sunday and it sure is gna be fun!

getting nautical

my recent jaunts on boats have rubbed off on me, inspiring me to do something nautical with my fashion range. stripy shorts? sailor collars? boat buttons? you'll have to wait and see!