Charlotte Trounce

Stumbled upon talented British illustrator Charlotte Trounce today, and fell in love with her speculative book covers. I would publish them in a heartbeat if I worked at Penguin, or maybe if the publisher I work for published these authors I guess. Hmmm, maybe I can do something about that ...?

I am working with our fall list’s covers right now, which is agonising and stressful and makes me doubt most things daily, but every season is like that, and it always falls into place in the end. I’m not designing them, mind you, I’m just the project and production manager of them. It’s still the best part of my job! No pain, no gain, huh?

fine Durban finds

So I’m back in Stockholm, with full access to internet again, and there sure is a lot of catching up to do after being away from most of it for almost 6 weeks! I’ve got a long list of things I wanna share here, and didn’t really know where to start, but then I thought I’ll just start anywhere. And anywhere turned out to be sharing some nice shopping finds I did in Durban. Although my husband claims I’ve got enough bead jewellery to last me a lifetime, I don’t agree! So I got some new pretty bracelets at the NSA Gallery shop.

This one has got my fave colours, so obviously it will go with half my wardrobe. The beautiful fabric it’s lying on is a gift from a friend. It’s a piece of Furoshiki, a Japanese gift wrapping fabric. I love it!

Got some shoes from Bata, very retro 50’s looking with a little wedge heel. Was looking at shoes everywhere, but in the end I figured it would be a bit silly to get more summer shoes, seeing that the Swedish summer is so short. I’m really glad I got these though, they are so comfortable and cute.

This red number wrinkles very easily, but I really like it just the same, because of it’s simplicity. I think it’s got that perfect everyday look, but could also work for a formal occassion with the right accessories.

This dress is my best purchase I think, and I’ve got my husband to thank for it! We went to a mall (Pavillion), and as we started to walk around there was a partial powercut and half the stores had to close for about 1 1/2 hours. We walked past a store I’d never been to, and he suggested we check it out since so many of the stores I wanted to go to were closed. And there it was, waiting for me, this lovely black and white thing! It looks a bit boring and plain just hanging like this, but it looks really nice on. Fortunately we had one party to go to, so I got to wear this pretty dress once already. I’m thinking it could work with tights and a black turtleneck underneath too, because the fabric isn’t too thin. So I don’t have to wait too long before I can wear it again.

Here’s a little cute top from Mr Price, surprisingly (to myself) one of very few things I got from Mr Price this time.

 Another cute little top, this one from The Hub.

 I’m in love with this pattern!

And finally a nice teal top with a “faux peter pan collar”, from The Hub. With the buttons in the back it reminds me a lot of some vintage blouses I’ve got from the 60’s.

Now I just need to wait and wait and wait for summer, or at least spring to come to Sweden, so I can use these nice new things!

presenting close-ups

Here are a few close-ups from my lovely package I wrote about yesterday. I really love this cute little zebra brooch!

Not to mention how much I love this bottle of olive oil from the family farm, I find that pretty amazing. I guess because I’ve never known anyone with a family farm, but just getting strawberries or fresh herbs from someone’s garden is one of my favorite things. And I hope one day I will be the lucky owner of a small piece of garden or land where I can grow a few things myself.

Oh, I should’ve saved a few of the biscuits for another cup of coffee, they were so delicious!

Package Project 2011

So I have received the package from my super partner Rochelle in the Package Project, and it was a treat to open I tell you! Right now my internet connection doesn’t want to cooperate with me and load more pictures, but I promise I will post more as soon I get it sorted (or am back in Sweden). I did however manage to post some more over at Flickr, which I’m new to by the way, so I hope I did everything right ... Check it out here. This lovely collection of personal and thoughtful gifts consisted of really yummy bisquits (yummy, because I already ate them ...), hot chocolate (which I’m saving for one of the many cold Swedish winter nights left), a cute Christmas ginger bread man (will definitely hang the little sock up for Christmas next year!), a beautiful tea towel (goes perfect in our kitchen), lovely luminaries (can’t wait to try them out for a braai next summer), a gorgeous “bling-y” necklace/bracelet from a local design market (soooo cool!), a tiny adorable zebra brooch (too cute this little fella, and a great add to my ever growing brooch collection), and finally something as fantastic as a bottle of organic olive oil from Rochelle’s parents olive farm!

Thank you Rochelle, it was way more than I could’ve hoped for, and I really hope you’ll enjoy what I picked out for you as much as I am enjoying this!

For the rest of you: sign up for the next Package Project, it’s totally worth it!

new beginnings

Happy New Year everyone! I am still too lazily wrapped up in my holiday to go back seriously to blogging yet, but thought it would be approriate to check in and let you all know I will be back some day. Turns out the ocean is actually better than internet on a sunny day in South Africa, how freakish is that?! Anyways, I know a lot of people are back to work on Monday, so I hope you all enjoy this last weekend of freedom before it’s back to the grind. I still have another two weeks of chilling, but I won’t rub it in ...

Hope you achieve everything you set out to do in 2012!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Sorry for the silence, it’s just been too lovely to be on vacation with no musts other than seeing family and friends and eating lots of delicious food most of the time! Sometimes I guess you don’t even realize how much you need this downtime until you experience it for real, and it’s been a while since the last time. Not that browsing blogs and updating here ever feels stressful, but it’s still pretty nice not doing it for a while. I also love being back in Durban! It’s been a bit too hot the last few days, but today was just perfect with cloudy skies and slightly cooler winds. So this is just a quick post to say “howzit”, and also to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS! I’ll be back next year, if not sooner, but can’t promise anything ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In just a few hours we are on our way south again! Even though I am not too good with the heat that awaits us, I will sure be very happy to get more daylight and see lush greens and flowers everywhere. And it will obviously be amazing with a five week holiday together, meeting up with family and friends and getting to cuddle with our three cats and one dog! Yes, it will be very nice indeed. I am not sure when we will be online again, but I guess that would be a normal part of a holiday, to stay offline? Eventually I will be back for sure, and in the meantime, if you don’t hear from me before then: have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!