My New Favourite Band - The Trees!

Just popping in from a mad busy week to share my new favourite band with you guys - The Trees! They are so freakin awesome, saw them live the other day and was completely sold in the first ten seconds. Fantastic violin and banjo work going on in there. Unfortunately they don't seem to have any recorded stuff yet, but take a listen to this...

What's more awesome is they're Durban locals. Will post some pics when I get a gap!

Awesome Intricate Sculptural Collages

Alexander Korzer-Robinson makes amazing sculptural collages from Antiquarian Books. I'd never be able to take a knife or scissors to these vintage treasures, but what he's created from them is truly beautiful. He basically removes all text and space, leaving only the existing images in the book to create these deep, intricate sculptures.

Check out more of his work here. 

Granny Fashion!

Really love this shoot and clothing from Wildfox Couture's new Resort Granny's House range!

Smile at a Stranger!

Happy Friday, peeps! Love this poster from illustrator, Jenny Cox. Try it this weekend - smile at strangers and see how good it makes you - and them - feel! 

Spread happiness!

Pop-up Happiness - The Joy of Eating Together

I'm not a fan of Coca-Cola, but I love their latest initiative: famous chef Simone Rugiati is on a mission asking people to eat together, so a Happiness Truck sets up a pop-up restaurant in a street in Naples, Italy, to get people to eat together. An altogether feel-good little video, and of course the quirks and details of the beautiful Italian background make it all the better to look at.



Vaguely related: have you noticed the "let's do coffee" page in the menu at the top of this blog? Clicky click ;)

My stationery featured on the House and Leisure blog!

I was lucky enough to get an awesome little feature on the House and Leisure blog yesterday! So stoked :)

Here are some new products in the Etsy shop: notecards that come in packs and to-do lists, which will soon be available in notepads.

Delicious Ci Gusta comes to Durban!

Italian restaurant franchise, Ci Gusta (not to be confused with me gusta which is what immediately came to mind when I heard the name) has landed in Durban! It's the first store in Africa and the first self service version outside of the US, and you can find it on Florida Road in the old Deluxe/Thunder Road building on the corner. Their products include sweet and savoury, but their main products seem to be their Italian gelato and frozen yoghurt. The flavours are fantastic and suuper delicious! You can also add toppings. The website says they have free wifi and a kids play area, although I didn't see the play area when I visited. 

The staff behind the counter are super friendly and helpful and will give you a taste of all the flavours you want to try if it's your first time. The tough part is trying to make a flavour choice after that! I went with the Black Chocolate, which is a decadent intense cocoa flavour that's nice and creamy but not too rich, and the Pink Grapefruit that tasted like sherbet! It was soooo delish! Next time I think I'll stick to one flavour though - they're each so good that I think it's better to enjoy them individually. 

According to their site they also do ice cream sandwiches, smoothies, soups and coffee, but I didn't see any of that at the store yet. 

Handwritten Emails

Handiemail is a pretty cool service that will turn your email into a real handwritten letter (written by real human hands attached to real human people, not a handwriting font) and they'll send it for you, internationally. Alternatively, you can also handwrite them a letter which they will email for you. 

Pretty cool, if you for some reason can't do either of those things yourself.

Roby Dwi Antono's Surreal Fairytale Illustration

Welcome to the mysterious, magical, surreally macabre fairytale world of Roby Dwi Antono, a talented artist and illustrator from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I really love his dreamy delicate illustration style and the cute characters. Watch him at wirk in the video below. 

The Sexy Sweater Tumblr

I love these sweaters, and all the rest on The Sexy Sweaters. I think they speak for themselves, so I shan't ramble on. Just look at them!

An Ode to Creative Work

"A film about the opportunity, hardship and responsibility of creative work."
A little bit of inspiration for creative types. If you've had a tough week, this might help you get your drive back :)


Via the lovely and talented Nadine Aucamp.

I think I've found heaven on earth...

...in the form of Japanese Cat Cafés. I missed my calling in life, guys , this is so what I'm meant to be doing!

I just came across the concept on The Cherry Blossom Girl blog (pics are all hers - she visited one!). Cat Cafés have recently become all the rage in Japan. Most Japanese apartments don't allow pets, unless it's a large family apartment, so this is why a Cat Café is a popular concept there. As the name suggests, it's a coffee shop filled with cats where you pay by the hour to get to spend time with the feline furries! Many people use it for stress relief and companionship.

If you don't hear from me for a while, I may have moved up there to open my own.
If you're interested, read this article on the phenomenon, it's really quite interesting. They visit one, explain all about it and how it applies to the Japanese lifestyle and social culture, and they even interview a few cat café visitors.

Here's a random video that shows a bit about it...

Images by The Cherry Blossom Girl.

Graffiti just got delicious!

This is a piece of street art created by Montreal artist, Shelley Miller. What makes this unique, fantastic and lickable is that it's completely made of cake icing! The juxtaposition of something so yummy that's usually confined to its specific use against something as harsh and rough as brick and concrete exterior urban surfaces is really so clever and unexpected. I love the style of the designs used, the intricate tile and mural patterns that at a glance are so well created that you wouldn't realise they weren't what they seem.

Pics via here.