A Good Breakfast

I had to go in to town for work yesterday, and as I was quite early, I stopped off at Lupo's in Wynberg's Chelsea Village - one of my favourite spots for breakfast or lunch. I also really like the interior style - a sort of vintage French look. Here are some of the reasons I like them -

The beautiful prints against the walls and this little table in the entranceway ...

They always have fresh flowers and newspapers ...

The sunlight streams in through big windows which open up right onto the pavement, allowing you to feel as though you are sitting outside, without the inconveniences of sitting outside...

Each table is beautifully set with flowers, sparkly glasses and huge napkins - cloth napkins!)

These letters on the wall ... exhorting you to eat ...
And although it has a really upmarket look and feel, the prices are very reasonable, and the food is really good. The food .... oh, rats, I knew I forgot something ...

Spring Wreaths

I would love to celebrate spring with a flowery, aromatic wreath - something like this ...

(Found on Lilla Blanka) ... or this leafy lavender heart ...

(Found on My Lovely Things!) ... or maybe just use the lavender heads ...

(Found on Lilla Blanka) ... or a rosemary one ...

(Found on Lilla Blanka) ... or a spriggly white heart

(Found on idemakeriet)
It sings spring to me. I think I will make one tomorrow!

One Evening - Old Partitions

I think this would be a beautiful title for a poem, don't you? Maybe for my next Dada effort! But it is much more prosaic than that, I'm afraid. It is the Babelfish translation of "Cloisons d’un soir" which in turn is the heading of one of the Marie Claire Maison photo-collections.

I need to cover a window, and none of these would be suitable really, but aren't they gorgeous?

Interiors

I recently discovered Esprit Champêtre which is a treasure trove of lovely images - with some of my favourite interior elements: weathered wood, glass, old silver, paper, some greenery - just a pity I don't understand French!

Have a look at Esprit Champêtre's different albums for inspiration...

Window sills and bread bins

In my house, every surface is covered with stuff. I really can't help it - what else to do with all the beautiful finds from carboot sales and charity shops? On the kitchen window sill ...


I would love to have everything in my kitchen this greeny colour (what is it called?) The Fortnum & Mason tin is from my visit to London a few years ago. The jug is a Susie Cooper which I picked up in an antique shop.

On tiny kitchen shelf meant for, well, I do not really know what ...
This is the old jelly mould I got at the carboot sale - I keep bottles of vanilla syrup and olives in it.

Further along kitchen window sill:

Got these two Villeroy and Boch bowls at a local junk shop. There is that colour again! and I love the pattern - they date from the 70's I think.

Kitchen worktop area:

The wire stand in the foreground is for cooling and displaying cookies and bread, but Le Husband uses it for drying crockery. Honestly, what can I say ....

On top of breadbin:

That colour again! I buy this green tea just for the bottles - I don't really like the taste so much.

Bathroom window sill - remember the succulent & rusted tin can project?
The sculpture is the clay maquette I sculpted for a buddha head I made in bronze. It has survived the process (lost wax) remarkably well; usually the clay gets twisted and bent when you remove your fibreglass mould. I actually prefer my clay maquette to the bronze. Sigh.

Bedroom window sill.

Collection of old bottles and glass. (Hey, this window needs a wash! It faces onto an alley at the back of the house and is at foot level, so it is always splashed with spatters of mud. I'm not making excuses. Okay, I am ....)

Living Room:
This is a storage box for magazines and games. Yay, another surface!!

Wooden sculpture (found at charity shop), a hand-carved notepaper holder (Le Husband's mom), and a box I mosaiced with eggshell pieces.

Sunroom windowsill:

I love the combination of glass and succulents.

In the hallway:

When all the surface areas are covered, I invent new ones. This is a piece of wood I picked up on a local beach - it makes a beautiful rack against the wall - I use it for old bottles, crystals, and on the side I hung some broken shells I collected one afternoon in Hermanus. (Never turn up your nose at broken shells - most of them are weathered to make a lovely hole you can use to string it into a garland ...)

Clouds and Stones

Stephanie Marin designs these amazing mobile clouds to filter the light.

and these pebble floor cushions (which reminds me a little of South African Ronel Jordaan's felt works ...)

found via Yatzer

Lappies

Found these lappies at the carboot sale a while ago - I am not really sure what they are meant to be - there were six of them, but they are way too big for placemats. Tea towels maybe? (But why would you want six of the same?) They are handsewn, and I just love the graphic style of the embroidery pattern - very 70's!

I have draped two of them over cushions. (Don't you just love the WWII camping stretcher?)

I like balloons!

In fact, I like them so much that I would quite like to sit on a chair made of balloons. Five hundred of them!

Designed by University of Alberta graduate Natalie Kruch, found via I.D. magazine.

Hugo França

I love these benches and chair by Hugo França - made from the raw hardwood of the Pequi tree.


Is that seaweed on the wall behind this bench? We have loads on our beach - maybe I'll sell them as art and make a packet ...

(Found via Wallpaper)
França used to work for a computer company - so I guess there is hope for us all!

The Chaos that is Me ...

I have a workroom. At some point it was called a study, but not much studying goes on anymore, so now it is just a workroom. It also doubles as my office, the laundry and a guest room. It gets messy very quickly. At the moment my desk houses my laptop, my scanner, stationery, various art materials, books, journals and correspondence, and filing that needs to be done. Oh, and some ironed laundry on the chair.

So when the desk becomes a bit crowded, some of the stuff gets shifted onto the floor next to my desk. Like magazines, boxes of pictures for collages, dictionaries for proofreading and editing jobs, baskets of clippings. Oh well, my second inspiration board takes care of six of the 7,834 pictures that I've collected. Yay. And look, on the bottom right are the (still wrapped) foldable cardboard storage boxes I bought to bring some order. Four months ago.

Of course, there is always my trusty old bookcase to take care of books.

Oops. I guess not ...

(The other six, scattered elsewhere in the house, are also overflowing.)

But wait! There is still some space on the sleeper couch, which I have cleverly converted into more workspace, by balancing a wooden board over the two edges. Yay, now I have space for my sewing machine and for extra books below. And the iron! Oh, yippee, I have found my old CD player! I was wondering where it was.

And all I really want is a workspace that looks like this:

And this ...

(From Marie Claire Idees, found via poppytalk)

Interiors

I like these interior shots by Tim Young. They make me want to scrub wooden floors and tidy drawers and bake bread and polish silver and do needlework and stuff like that ...












(Found via Desire to Inspire)