i see triangles

I am still very much drawn to triangular patterns, lately I’ve spotted these nice things. Skirt from Gorman, found via Miss Moss. I also love love love the triangle patterned bag and clutch in their winter collection, that I can’t find on their website though. Maybe just as well, as I am determined to go on a shopping diet for a while right now.

Placemats from Swedish warehouse Åhlens.

And some plates to put on top of them, from the same store.

This room is simply amazing and I could just move right in and be happy! Wallpapers from Minakani Walls, originally found via Miss Moss again (I adore her sense of style, and her blog is probably the one I am most addicted to).

Durban in my heart

Just wanted to share some lovely moments and sights from our long stay in Durban. First up are some pics from a visit to Park Rynie, down the South Coast. It was so beautiful, and extremly crowded, which you wouldn’t know from seeing these pics.

 

 My pretty Pixie girl in her favorite sleeping spot: on a tray on top of the fridge in our house.
 

Magical evening sky.

Cutie-pie Milou, hoping he’ll get a treat if he waits patiently enough.

My favorite Missy, with her signature stare always following me around wherever I go. I love her to bits.

Nice piece of contemporary art on the Beachfront.

More Beachfront art, this piece a bit more temporary.

Oh, the marvellous Indian Ocean, I will never grow tired of watching it.

This is our new little friend, Freddy, a true fighter with a constant scratched nose, but all he wants is love and to sleep really close to you, preferably on top on your stomach.

Supposedly the biggest Hanuman statue in South Africa, maybe the world? It sure took us by surprise when we arrived to Chatsworth and saw it the first time.

Driving downtown Durban.

 Even more Beachfront art.

I miss it already, but I will always come back, again and again and again.

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!