images courtesy of weheartit.com

JINKIES!!!!  Why do Mondays always come around so darn fast?

There I was, just getting the hang of my weekend when BOOM … I’m back at work staring out the window planning my next escape.

I did have a fabulous weekend though. Threw a (2nd) baby shower for my big sis up in the country and spent the whole of Sunday clearing out my ridiculously over-flowing cupboard. I must admit it was rather liberating. I even had the fee-arn-say come home from a boys paddling weekend, covered in mud, and offer to put up some shelves for me! So REALLY … things were good.

I’m shipping off all my clothes that I no longer like, fit into, or will ever wear again … to Pippa at The Thrift Collection – hopefully there’s some of my stuff that she want to buy and the rest I’ll  donate to a worthy charity.

I’ve been struggling to find a place where I can donate old bits and pieces to. I run past a shelter almost every week and have been meaning to pop in there and find out what they’re all about – thank heavens I haven’t yet because the same shelter has been on Carte Blanche two weeks in a row now! I wonder what will happen to those poor kids who are reliant on such money-hungry do-badders. Sigh. Maybe I should still go and pop in for a visit.

I do my bit for the NSPCA, the Hillcrest Aids Centre and will soon be contributing to Gozololo AIDS Orphanage … but I’m looking for a place that is small and receives very little help, so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

And happy Monday Happy People … we’re almost half way through.

I’m loving wood at the moment. Well, always actually. I’ve always wanted to have wooden floors in my imaginary built-from-scratch-home … but alas, that’s not happening any time soon. So I’m left only to trawl the net for beautiful images of wooden things And I found this. It’s not quite wooden flooring, or a gigantic African Blackwood stairwell – you must remember that us small folk need to think small … it’s how we start!

I’d love one of these sweet things on my desk at work AND at home.

They’re a bunch of very limited little whales made from white pine, and a couple made from redwood of both old railway depot sleepers and old pickling vats in Michigan. 

So here it is: my little wooden inspiration for the day.

found here: http://theutilitycollective.wordpress.com/

If I had an iPhone I think I’d really like to get one of these super-cool wooden lazer-cut

covers. 

But I don’t have an iPhone … so I won’t be getting one.

But you can buy them here

I don’t know about you, but I love (read: obsessive compulsive) DoOdLinG. 

If you saw my work diary, shopping lists, note books or any poor piece of paper left lying to its peril on my desk … you’ll see what I mean. I don’t know why I like it so much, I guess there's something therapeutic about emptying the contents of a BIC pen onto a page.  But if I’m honest … I’m so bad at drawing, I can’t even get stick men right. You don’t believe me … look here! The driver looks spastic, the wheels are out of proportion and the giant kiwi looks like a hairy man-ball. EIUW!

Which is why I wish I was Kate Wilson.

She’s brilliant. And she’s famous. And she can draw dammit. She’s worked with people like Marc Jacobs, The New York Times, and Vogue China to name a few and her illustrations are so warm and pretty it makes me want to skip. 

I know pretty is not the most descriptive word, especially for a copywriter, but really … tell me you don’t think these are pretty!

I think she’s be a fabulous illustrator for a Nigella Lawson cookbook! 

I must apologise for my lack of posts this week. I’ve been so busy doing really important things like losing my cell phone and getting 2 hours sleep after music concerts … but I’m back, and I’ve got tons of cool things to show you.

Where to start.

In true Distings fashion, I’m late on the up-take for Valentine’s Day. But who cares, right? Not me. The fee-arn-say and I don’t really celebrate it. Not because we don’t smaak each other stukkend, but just because it’s more fun celebrating it 7 days later when everyone else is back to hating each other again and we’re still all loved up!

That, and the fact that:

* Everything is double, if not triple, the price on the days leading up to V-Day.

* You can’t get a dinner reservation anywhere unless you book 578 days in advance,

* And well, we’ve been a bit pre-occupied this year … and moola is short thanks to the impending wedding

But enough about me. I did find some cool gift ideas for the day that you could maybe bank and use next year. Or do what I do, and don’t wait for permission from a little guy with a bow and arrow and short-man syndrome, to show him you dig him.

who doesn't like heart shaped candy in a heart shaped shape?

Use as a picture, some words in a card, a canvas painting ... really, the simplicity works wonders

so sweet

so simple

so clever

this is what the fee-arn-say bought me for Valentine's Day. Isn't it pretty.

this one's my favouite because it's just bloody clever and
I'd kiss him all day to Sunday if I got a coffee like this in the morning

Actually, these ideas are so simple (except for the chandelier-of-awesomeness) that your guy could do them for you and get away with not buying flowers, chocolates and a candle-lit-dinner on a secluded beach in Mauritius for Valentine's Day.

images courtesy of designspongeonline.com, postsecret.com, google, and lyrics by The Beatles

I think today is the day of quotes and things. Be sure to check in later as I’ll keep them coming all day long … EISH. Why does it feel so much like Monday today.
  

Please stay close. Don’t ever leave me.

Unless of course, you want to be free.

My heart seems too attached to you.

But if it’ll make you happy, it’s what I’ll do

The other day while strolling through Woolies I found these gorgeous little kiddies lunch boxes covered in polka dots and colourful stripes. So I thought to myself: "Gee, that’s nice” and then I bought one.

It was only when I got home that I realized that I don’t really need a bright and colourful lunch box. Oopsie – there goes that impulse swiping of mine again.

It’s ok though, because while I don’t need a bright and colourful lunch box, I do however need a bright and colourful place to store my make-up.

Now, as most of you may know, I'm not the hugest fan of make-up and the little goodies I do have are usually banished to the back of the toiletry cupboard in a very feeble little zip-up bag. Yet after a recent trip to Benefit in London, and a conscious effort to have more fun with the stuff,  I feel it only fitting that my once minimal stash now deserve to be brought forward to the front of the cupboard - in all their bright and colourful glory!

Once a lunch box

No longer a lunch box

TADA!!!!!

And, I might add, a normal person toiletry bag goes for anything between R150 and R450. Unless of course you shop in the food section at Woolworths, where you can pick one up for R27.95. 

Doing some work on yet another environmentally friendly product, I went in search of some information on the web. While getting in tune with the green lingo and browsing through all the sites, it reminded me of a site that I used to frequent in the beginning of last year.

Green is Sexy is a really nifty website created by 3 best friends: one of whom happens to be the oh-so-lovely Noah-kissing Rachel McAdams from The Notebook.

It’s filled with ideas on how to change your lifestyle and become more kind on your planet. They've got the coolest ideas on how to change the little things. From the feasible to the absurd: eating insects to reduce the amount of energy used in meat farming, to shaving in a mug of water rather than with the tap running. There's even talk about starting a suduko puzzle ... and finishing it ... while you take the bus to work instead of driving. They even have a page of THINGS WE LOVE, which lists everything from eco-restaurants, products and books on sustainability.

The copy is really enjoyable and makes you feel like you’re a part of their circle of friends. They focus a lot on demonstrating and telling you how they can make a difference rather than shouting at you for doing things the harmful way. They claim they get more positive responses and conversions that way.

It’s a really simple site, basic design, factual and informative copy, but a nice site to bookmark or subscribe to if you’re serious about being serious about something serious: the state of our earth and our contributions to its plight.

So ... I’ve decided to do 1 green thing a day. Starting right now.

We have one tiny dustbin in our office kitchen. Heaven knows why they call it a dustbin, because no one puts dust inside it. They do, however, put everything else: plastic, old food, boxes, cans, tins … and they put them in that one tiny little bin, all together.

This needs to change. We need 3 bins: 1 for plastic, 1 for paper and 1 for food waste. I’m going to take it up with the powers that be, and nag them until the give in. 

Then this weekend I’m going to separate all the glass savannah bottles from the chip packets and make sure they go into separate bins too. And on Sunday, I’m going to water my very parched garden only once the sun has gone down. Not only will I be less hungover, but when it’s cooler, less water evaporation happens, which means less wastage happens!

See it’s easy to have little green fingers, no matter who you are.

What green thing have you done today.

x

P.S Whatever you do, DO NOT google "Green Finger": 

the most awful picture of finger comes up. It's not pretty!

Visuals courtesy of http://www.greenissexy.org/ 

How glorious are these hanging cotton pots. They’re made from biological cotton* – which I hade to gooni-google. I’ve heard of organic cotton, but never biological cotton. Turns out they’re the same thing.

Anyway … these new concept plant pots not only look super cool and trendy, but they’re versatile too. Their creators claim that you can use the ‘pot’ as a carry bag once the flower dies. Which, if you’re anything like me will be within a week. Two at a push. And think about how easy it is to transport from the nursery to your home. Depending on the type of plant you have they can hang indoors or outside. I think they’re particularly great for bachelor pads or high rise apartments, places with balconies and lots of railings. They’re also fabulous as a gift idea. Wouldn’t you just love to receive a little herb garden in one of these? I know I would.

I found them on this really great French based company website who specialise in green design. Have a look here, and check out their Tutrix Guides, also a great idea.

* Cotton in controlled biological agricultural systems is cultivated according to previously defined standards. This system forbids the use of toxic and persistent non-bio-degradable chemical-synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. This way the soil and the groundwater are not further contaminated. The use of genetically modified organisms is also forbidden.

Images courtesy of http://www.designboom.com/

Information courtesy of www.fibre2fashion.com

My friend with the crinkly blonde  hair put me onto this link.

Stand With The Egyptian People

It’s a way – probably our only way – to get involved in the democratic crisis taking place in Egypt right now. So if you want to show your solidarity with Egyptian Protesters then just click on the link, sign in with your name and email, and that’s it. Promise you won’t be spammed.

And if you have no idea what is going on in Egypt right now, well then shame on you.

Only playing, I too have been a little in the dark on the subject and as a result, turned to my good friend Gareth Cliff to enlighten me.

Find out more here.

Or here

Or here

I really should be working! Dam I have so much to do, but I just wanted to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my followers – all 8 of you!

Yesterday was the official start of 2011 for me!

What with the erratic traveling in early January, and the slow start at work mid-January, and the stress of wedding venue hunting, KOL cancellations (note plural), failed New Years Resolutions (I have made only 1 new meal this whole month, and it was kak) and a seriously bad case of sinusitis, gastrocitis (overshare) and a sniffly nose that just won’t leave me alone … I think it’s safe to say that January was a loser month.

So HELLO February.

And HELLO 2011.

I’m oh-so-very happy to be here.

There’s so much to look forward to and such exciting times up ahead. I’m not going to list the good things I have coming up, I’m not going to promise to keep promises, I’m not going to be afraid of the monstrous spider watching me from the corner of my office, I’m not going to be anything but myself, and I most certainly and not going to let anything get in my way of defeating this year. Unless, of course, the world is taken over by popcorn-hating, number-crunching, Sex-On-Fire-singing androids … in which case, we’re all pretty screwed.

Have a fantastical day peeps.

And an even better 2011

x

the beast that will no longer taunt me