Good wishes.

A card by Naughty Betty to wish you all a great festive time. I'll be taking a break from posting until the new year. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy to all of you. Here's hoping for only good things in 2009.  

Le Verger - the Orchard restaurant

Images from the LeFranschoek site.

We drove for an hour and a half to have lunch here. The venue did not disappoint although I wasn't too impressed by the food. Nevertheless - good company, lots of laughs and a beautiful day. I love this time of year for it's warm temperatures and buoyant celebratory mood. But it can be a little hard on the liver. For that reason I've decided that this should be my summer drink of choice. And apparently "Folklore claims the bitters have raised people from near-death or even flat-line states."!

Mini garage winery

Great packaging for this garage winery seen on The Dieline. I love that they haven't used traditional wine bottles either.

3 days to go.

Of course I love my job... but I've 3 more work days till summer holi-da-ay! 

(Sung to the tune of Madonna's 1983 hit.)

By Jessica Hagy.

Berry Bliss

Photography by Chris Court. Donna Hay magazine, issue 42, dec/jan 2009.

I don't think I'll ever be the type of hostess who cuts individual shapes into butter for guests to 'ooh' and 'aah' at before spreading their dinner rolls. (But thank you Donna Hay for the tip. I am sure their are some who will). I do love her doily table runner idea though. I've admired something similar created with paper doilies in the latest Elle Decor. But I'm not sure I'll be re creating that either. 

However, the culinary foray that I have most recently attempted is making ice cream. Or frozen yogurt to be exact. I was lucky enough to receive an attachment for my Kitchen Aid as a birthday gift. (Thanks again to my DH.) He ordered from the people of yuppiechef (which I am not). I'd not heard of them before but if you are local and into kitchen gadgets then that's the site to visit. 

After a bit of research my experiment was strawberry frozen yogurt. It is strawberry season here and a stop at a farm market in the winelands was necessary. David Lebovitz (author of The Perfect Scoop) provided the recipe and I was happy with the results. He has a great blog - living the sweet life in Paris.

So here's to a summer of sorbets and other icy creations. Hopefully as impressive as star cut shapes of butter! 

I think I can, I think I can...

Even. If. It's. Just. A. Simple. Thing. Because. At. The. Moment. Everything. Is. Just. Too. Much. 
 By Pretty Bitter : Stationary that pushes the envelope. Seen here.

Mellow yellow.

Apparently next year's colour is 'Mimosa'. I think it's already all over the place (retail wise).

“In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other colour expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow,” Pantone says. 

Seen here. 

Trailblazers, Pathfinders, Groundbreakers.

Women of Design looks like a great collection of work by talented women. I hadn't realised that the Japanese art director Nagi Noda had passed away a few months ago. How sad to loose such a talent. I've blogged about her animal hair hats before. I'll have to put this publication by the clever people of UnderConsideration on my wish list. 

Judging a book by it's title.

Any recommendations for books to read this summer holiday? I already plan to track down the above - simply for it's delightful title and I hear The Time Traveller's Wife is a good read. Suggestions? 

Miles Aldridge

I'm way overdue for another photographer post. See more by Miles Aldridge. 

Cuppa bling

From MollaSpace. One way to 'put a ring on it'. 

9 - 5

I was surprised to see some of my work published in the above book, BLADE, while randomly paging through books in the design section of Exclusive Books. Checked out their site only to see it hadn't been properly credited. Will see if I get a response to my email.

Behind the scenes photo by Lesley Rochat

Other work news is that a campaign I was involved in a few years ago has just won a 'Panda' at the Wildscreen Film festival. Apparently the equivalent of an Oscar in wildlife circles... See the ads here.

Oops

Pee Boy by Ricochet studio. Find them on etsy. 

The Depressed Alphabet

I laughed out loud at this series by Minky Stapleton. I think she gets away with the outrageous subject matter through her wonderful whimsical character illustration. You can purchase prints on her site.

Verdant

"I saw this place with exceptional pleasure, since everything there was laid out wonderfully finely", Reverend Francois Vanlentijn, Nov 1700

I visited Vergelegen on Friday. The gardens are beautiful. It boasts maze-like hedges, the oldest oak tree in South Africa, 300 year old (National monument) Camphor trees and the neatest vegetable and herb garden I've ever seen. Not to mention lawns that go on forever and the heady scent of flowers in the octagonal garden. And ponds. And masses of roses. And a suspension bridge. We ended with a gorgeous picnic under the trees. 

I left my camera behind so can't share any snaps but here's a birds eye view from Google Earth.