Happy TImes

It’s the BoyF’s birthday today.

And 28 just so happens to be my favourite number so I'm anticipating a good year ahead for him.

But because he’s almost 30 well, you know, almost kinda, soon soon 30 – we’re going to party like rockstars the entire weekend, starting today. Starting last night actually – eina, sore head.

But YAY for Birthdays and YAY for the BoyF. 

Hope you have a lekker cracker day my special super hero.

Kisses

Chill Out Zone

I've never done a post on houses or interiors but I thought perhaps today will be the day that I start.

How insanely awesome is this outdoor entertainment and chill area in this house in Bedford NY.

I want, I want, I want.

We're actually in the process of pricing outdoor furniture for our much-smaller-semi-under-cover patio area at home. But hot dang that stuff is freaking expensive. Even with a 10% discount from the Interior Decorator Sister. Jeepers.

And then I see a house like this and I want to buy a piece of land in the midlands somewhere, cut down a small rain forest and build til my hearts content. Please look at that kitchen!!!  If that were MY kitchen - oh if that were my kitchen the BoyF would be all round and tubby like because all I'd ever do is cook and bake and stew and roast and garnish and baste and sizzle. Ohhh what a delicious place.

Dear blank ... please blank

Bored out your wits at work? Then have a look at this site (see title). 
It's kind of like that site FML but instead of letting the world know how miserable you are, you get to direct your misery, or love, or randomness to someone else. The person your message is intended for never really gets the message but it's a cool way of releasing some pent up anger, being secretly romantic, or just reducing your psycho bill a wee bit. Check these pearlers:

Yummy Yum Yum

I don't have time for a nice big post today - funny that because I'm not really doing anything constructive at work. They're just loading me up with trivial little mind-numbing jobs that the tea lady could probably do. And she'd probably do them better. She'd also be a lot happier doing them than I am, that's for sure. But that's because her soul isn't already walking out the door like mine is. But enough moaning ...

I found this wicked cool online magazine, and I cannot believe it, but the name totally escapes me right now ... but it's beautifully designed, the layout is scrumptious and it's just boiling over with the most delectable looking food I've ever seen. Here's a sneak peek for your sweet teeth. 

Dear Richard Branson

 THANKS ... for being so great at what you do.

And for always sharing your wisdom.

And for being honest about hard work.

And for doing things differently.

And for disrupting it all.

And for taking over the world - one Virgin at a time.

And thanks for these 5 "easy" steps to being a business success:

1 - Enjoy What You Are Doing.



2 - Create Something That Stands Out.



3 - Create Something That Everybody Who Works for You is Really Proud of.



4 - Be a Good Leader.



5 - Be Visible.



Go over to Entrepreneur.com to read his five business tips in full.

It's All Pink Baby ... NAAAAAAT!

I never thought I'd ever admit to this, but ... pink is a pretty cool colour.

Really?!

Seriously?

Hmmm ... I must still be a bit hazy from the weekend. 

Pink stinks. 

It's far too girly, has been incredibly overdone, and is closely linked to gays, Pari Hilton and breast cancer. Not that I have anything wrong with gays, or Paris Hilton for that matter, but it's just a no-no colour for me. I've never owned any item of clothing that could be classified as pink, and I probably most certainly never will. And no, this is not the part where I say: until I saw this ...

What I'm about to show you is not pink!

It's not even rusty pink, or dirty pink, or off-pink-ish.

It's a totally different colour all on its very own, but I haven't quite figured out what the colour is called just yet. Working on it though. 

What do you think? 

Got any suggestions?

I do love this colour - it's a much more natural tone, goes nicely with an olive skin and dark hair. And you'll probably find it in shops like Cape Union Mart, Country Road or Esprit - which is where I stole these pics from.

Ok baaai

Are You 3D Ready?

Avatar really did set the bar pretty high for the rest of us trying to develop new, cool things that consumers will buy into. 3D has officially taken over the world – as brands now offer their consumers a virtual experience of their products.

Wonderbra have gone big (Hhmmm) and turned one of their billboards into an interactive 3D delight for the average male. Complete with ladder to climb up and scope out for yourself, the buxom model has her ample bosom transformed into 3D emphasizing the fullness that the bra creates.

And Italian Vogue – a first in the magazine industry, put the gorgeous Miranda Kerr and her little Yorkie on their cover in full 3D, as well as its accompanying editorial. 

But on a more serious note – this kind of thing really scares the bejeebers out of me! Think about 3D TV ... when you fork out a ridiculous amount of money to buy yourself the latest in technological advances, did you know that you only get 2 pairs of 3D glasses with your purchase? So assuming you’re not a family of 2, what about the rest of the household members? Imagine the brawls over who gets to wear the goggles while everyone else has to watch some fuzzy red and green rendition of Grey’s Anatomy.

Although I’m sure you could buy more 3D glasses for the rest of the family – at an added expense to you – one of these days some foolish genius is going to come up with a type of contact lens that you can pop into your God-given eyeball that allows you to see all the 3D, in all its glory. And watch, if that’s not bad enough, they’re going to start insisting that newborn babies have 3D eye implants to prevent the hassle of buying 3D goggles in the future. Ah the future - a mother fucking scary thing.

(Bet they said that way back when electricity hadn't been invented.)

When was the last time the techno geeks went outside and actually smelt the roses? While they've been racing through the ages trying to be as futuristic as humanely possible, they’ve lost track of what’s really important. Like chocolate covered peanuts, and picnics with the family, and running marathons … not blogs!

Er, she says as she tweets about her blog update from her iPod touch while sipping on a Chai Tea Latte using the wireless network connection in the mall.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of technology out there that is really cool. It’s just the 3D TV thing that I’m petrified of. And in all honesty, I hope that I’m long gone before they bring about that contact lens thing. I like my eyeballs, just the way they are.

And Now You Know

I’m in the process of coming up with a TV ad for my client. The job is to promote Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey and a national competition they are running where 2 lucky suckers can win a trip to Ireland to see the World Heritage Site known as The Giants Causeway, right outside the Bushmill’s distillery.

Basically this giant honeycomb pattern of 40 000 basalt columns looks like something out of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It’s so cool though.

Legend has it that a guy – whose name I can’t pronounce, let alone spell – didn’t like one of the giants living on the island so he wanted to cross over to Scotland to escape him, but because he wasn’t really any good at swimming, he built himself a causeway to cross over the seas with. The end.

But then the scientists came along and said this is all a load of hogs wallop and the funny honeycomb-like structures smothering the Northern Ireland coastline is a result of a ginormous volcanic event occurring some 60 million years ago and erupting at such a tremendous speed that it created the cracked spherical shapes.

  

Phft! Looks to me like giant bumble bees once roamed the Earth.

And now you know.

Hang On In There

I think everyone needs to work with a friend like The Artist: Just when you think things are super kak and you don’t know how you’re going to make it past 3:16pm … they’ll walk past your desk with a little dance move, or offer you happiness in the form of chocolate, or drive you to the mall when you’re too embarrassed to drive yourself. But sometimes … when it’s more kak than super kak … they’ll change your mind with the simplest of gestures and you realise that everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, then it’s not the end.

Early Mornings

I’m finding it extremely difficult to get myself up in the mornings and drag my limp body off to the sweaty gym. I can only think of 3 reasons why this is so:

1.         I’d rather lie snuggled up in the fantasy that I’m a work-at-home-genius and the leisure of lying in is really only me taking the time out to plan the productivity of the day ahead. Which, I might add, involves deciding which photo shoot to tackle first, which brand to save next, and what treats to bake for my man's lunch box.

2.         I’m lazy.

3.         I don’t want to face the world because I’m not Carla Bruni.
            And I don't sound like this

Remember TOMS shoes

Remember one of my first posts on guilt free shopping where you could buy yourself a pair of these wickedly cool TOMS shoes – and every time you buy a pair they give a pair to a needy child. SIGH – so awesome. Well my bestest in the whole wide world is so clever that she bought me not one, but two pairs of TOM skatties from overseas. Aren't they lovely? And how cool is the African print on the inside of the plain navy ones.

And then I found this picture of a crazy bride in pink who opted for gold TOMS as her choice of wedding shoe. Gorgeous hey. She must have been so super comfy on her wedding day because really people, these shoes are like padded heaven.