Wine.

A tour of the Stellenbosch wine route is in order. Stopping here for a luncheon. Happy Week end to all. 

Image by Married to the Sea.

Shadow & light.

Really interesting 'Light installations' by Mary Temple. What looks like a play of shadow and natural light is actually the use of latex paint on existing architecture. And in the case of the above floor - woodstain and varnish. These works are created in rooms with little or no natural light. 

I love you.

Phonetics By Rachel E Foster is one of the new edition posters from the Keep Calm Gallery. I'm enjoying anything playing with words at the moment. Nice gift for Feb the 14th.

What design nerds are wearing.

Or  CMYK  RGB. 

T-shirt design from Threadless. 

For the love of nonsense.

A series of typographic conundrums by Harry Pearce. See if you can get all 108. 

Happy (Chinese) New Year.

Peach blossoms are a seen as a symbol of luck. Image - Derrick Sobodash.

The 31st of December 2008 found me sitting at the bedside of my DH in the ICU. Not much of a celebration. Bloody frightening in fact. He is fine now so perhaps a party on March the 15th (Roman calendar) is in order. I haven't observed most of the normal beginning of the year rituals. Not one page of my new Moleskin diary has been touched by a pen. As for resolutions - "Pah!" those are for people who actually had a holiday.

So perhaps I should observe a different New Year celebration this year. If I was to take today as a new start I should be wearing red, have spring cleaned my home top to bottom and would serve a fish dish and dumplings for supper. (Not that organised I'm afraid.)

Anyone else still stuck in 2008?  To the rest of you - Congratulations and be prosperous.

Truth in beauty.

See the article on ZooZoom. All photographs Herman Leonard.

Herman Leonard got into fashion photography for the money. "It was a great way to be creative and meet girls, so I thought I'd give it a shot." He's now 85 and still shooting.

Stop crying.

I reasoned this link would be a nice follow on from my 'be optimistic' post. Gary Vaynerchuk reminds us to stop crying and crush it. Watch it. Nice. In fact I'm so optimistic right now I'm sipping a take-away strawberry daiquiri at my desk. 

Image: What to focus on in 2009 by Marc Johns.

Picnic blanket

Another humorous product by Atypyk. A play on the famous painting by Édouard Manet "Luncheon on the grass".  I've stood in front of the original in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. I developed what we termed an 'Art hangover' from too much stimulation. 

A good reminder.

Forget the economy, the state of the Rand, the crime, your workload, the falling property prices... My glass is half full. 

Seen here. 

Print and pattern

I came across work by Johanna Basford here. I'm impressed by her beautiful and intricate style and I had to dedicate a post to it.  Especially nice black and white combinations. 

All images Johanna Basford site.

Wode: Paint by Boudicca

Image from Boudicca site.

When this fragrance is sprayed it leaves a blue mist on your skin or clothes. This disappears in seconds leaving only the scent behind. Packaged neatly in a bottle inspired by a graffiti spray can. 

The myth around Queen Boudicca and the roots of this perfume in ancient tribal war paint make this quite a magical concept. Or a clever gimmick?

Major flavour.

"Cooking is a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation and culture."

Image from Design Indaba

I just discovered that a chef whom I have long admired, Ferran Adrià of the "World’s Best Restaurant" El Bulli, will be speaking at Design Indaba next month. I've already been looking forward to this design conference but now even more so. {Effusive gushing}.

Important notice.

Say no more. 

Conrad Botes Exhibition

Crime and Punishment. 2008. Reverse-glass painting, oil based paint on glass.

Opening Thursday evening at the Michael Stevenson runs until 21 February.  More here. 

Apply now.

Image from The Ultimate To Do List.

Get the Best Job in the World. It seems all that's required is to blog about your experiences while you explore the Great Barrier Reef and live in luxury resorts experiencing all that this gorgeous area has to offer. Tough. 

I lived in Cairns for a year and can vouch for the beauty of the area. This really does sound the best job in the world - and of course it's appeal is greatly accentuated by the fact that it's January and hard to knuckle down to work again... 

Ta

Thank you for reading this blog in 2008. I'm not quite ready to face the new year, it has had a bumpy start. I hope yours has been fabulous so far!