Langazela Cushions

I have to say, I get so attached to almost all of our (Africa!Ignite's) Langazela cushion covers that it sometimes makes me so sad to say goodbye to them! They have been flying out over the last couple of weeks, which is fantastic - but I sometimes wish I could just keep all of them myself, ha ha...
They all so clearly have their own character and we try to make ranges of similar patterns, but still they will always differ from each other and sometimes you just fall in love with a tiny little (personal) detail on a cushion. I start to read them as faces, with just that one gorgeous little beauty spot or pretty dimple on the left cheek :) Here are some pictures of favourites that I had to seperate from recently:

 

"Another Way to Impress People with Your Money!"

I loved to discover lots of little pigs made out of the South African money bills all over our friends Andrew and Ellisa's house... In the first place I LOVE origami - used to be an obsessive folder when I was a teenager! And I think it helped my Greg falling in love with me by folding him a Christmas tree filled with origami birds made out of old newspapers and magazines (we were in New York, without money - that's where creativity gets born, ha ha) But I never saw little pigs made out of money before!
I just googled it and was surprised to see that there seems to be a whole cult to fold money bills into all sorts of things: from little miniature toilets, to butterflies, bunnies, shirts with tie... you name it, you can fold it out of money! There are even several books you can get to help you Origami-Dollar-Bills - with as subtitle "another way to impress people with your money" :) Love it! I'm gonna work on my own "money pig family" now... Such a clever way to save money as well - just breed lots of money pigs. Nice alternative for a piggy bank!

Antique salt spoon-ring

I'm in love with the ring that I found at the Wondermarket today :) It's made of a very delicate, little antique sterling silver salt spoon. It fits around my finger so perfectly that I really didn't want to take it off again... It's made by Rollin Vintage - they make all sorts of jewelery out of antique cutlery! So clever. My beloved Granny left us lots of beautiful little spoons and forks - I might not necessarily use them to eat with in the future, but look forward to find a way to wear them!

Langazela cushion covers

I was so thrilled that the cushion covers that I developed with one of Africa!Ignite's craftgroups out in the KwaZulu Natal Battlefields made it to the front page of the Elle Decoration website! The original design comes from one of our crafters Mma Betina Khumalo and together we came to these cushion covers… The front panel of the cushions is embroidered on old millie(corn)bags. They all differ slightly from each other and will always have their own character. They are part of Africa!Ignite's “Ignite” range and I prommis you they will ignite every space you will put them in :)

 This is us working on our first orders from the Design Indaba!

La Grenadine - Cape Town

We just stayed in the most wonderful B&B in Cape Town; La Grenadine!

I had a tough week because of the Design Indaba... But after a day of hard work I could go home to... a piece of heaven!!!!

It's situated in the busy city centre of Cape Town. Up Kloofstreet you have got Park Road, filled with bubbly reastaurants... There is a quiet little alley that you easily miss out on your left. End of the alley are two big wooden doors and when you go through those... You will find this beautiful courtyard with two big pomegrante trees full of fruit!!!!!! The whole place is extremely tasteful/careful done. All the linen for the bed, but also for the curtains is hand embroidered and made in the factory of the father of one of the owners. Both owners are from France and they serve the most divine breakfast: delicious (chocolate) croissants, every day a different fruit salad with always a surprise: fresh figs, basil... pomegranates :) If you ever would need a place to stay in Cape Town, I hope you will find your way here...

Marble butter bunny...

A while ago I found a sweet little old mold at the SPCA to make... a butter bunny?! I was already planning on trying to make a bunny out of jelly - not that I like jelly, but just to see how it would come out. And then this weekend I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted to do! I wanted to cast the bunny in to something... hard!!!! I'm extremly lucky that I have got a partner who knows a solution to all these sort of impulsive ideas. When I was a kid I remember having these sort of ideas all the time - but they would never work out as nice as I had them in my head. With Greg's help this bunny came out even nicer than I had in mind :) And it was straight away installed on the coloumn that leads to our gorgeous new kitchen!!!

Africa!Ignite at Ambiente

My dear collegue Margaret will go next week to Ambiente, a big fair for art and craft in Frankfurt - Germany. I really wish I could go with... to see some snow and ice! But no I will stay in hot and summery Durban ( nothing to complain about :) But I will be there on the poster above with a bit of candlelight, ha ha.
Will show you some of the products we will take to Frankfurt...
Lots of turquoise, white, pink and... CHICKENS :)