Japan Trend Store...

This is the weirdest stuff...

On the Want List...

I don't know where it's from, or how I could get it... but I want one!

Black Orchid Burlesque Beauties...

...I know a few of these amazingly beautiful ladies personally, the founders in particular. This is what Diva DisaStar (featured above) told me:

Burlesque is defined in many ways, depending on who you speak to. Burlesque became popular between 1900-1940, during the era of speak-easy parties, the Moulin Rouge and origins of Vaudeville entertainment. Black Orchid Burlesque believes that Burlesque is the art of theatrical teese, where the emphasis is not on the revealing of skin, but rather the concealing of a woman's curves in order to captivate an audience. I started Black Orchid Burlesque about 3 years ago, with my partner in crime, Scar-Lit Hearts, where we discovered we both had a passion for this glamorous art-form.At that point there was no-one in the country doing this, and we thought that maybe it was time to invoke curiosity in our local audiences and offer an alternative source of entertainment for the sophisticated viewer. We incorporate traditional Burlesque with Neo-Burlesque to produce a performance that is both sensual and tongue-in-cheek. Burlesque is both entertaining for the audience, and empowering for the performer. We encourage women of all shapes and sizes to embrace their sensuality and love their curves!

Meet the Ladies



Diva DisaStar



Scar Lit Hearts



The Ladies

Check out the site:
http://www.blackorchidburlesque.com/

Hello Miss Austen...

...I love Jane Austen, I think she was a woman well beyond her time. You should know at least one of her novels:

-Pride and Prejudice
-Sense and Sensibility
-Emma
-Northanger Abbey
-Persuasion
-Mansfield Park

I must say, I love Pride and Prejudice. It's certainly my favourite. And the film! Splendid! I never appreciated darling (skinny) Kiera Knightly until watching the film. Now I quite love her.

A while ago I (re)watched Becoming Jane, a film based on her life and time, staring Anne Hathaway (not Shakespeare's late wife) as Miss Austen. I think she does a good job, although I'm not sure Jane (if I can be so bold as to call her by her first name) was quite as pretty. Anyway, my point is: It's a great movie. Especially if you enjoy Jane Austen's novels. I would say that it gives you a great idea of on whom she drew inspiration for her various characters and their various actions.

That's my opinion. As an adoring fan. I'll leave you with this quote:


I'll let you guess which of her characters said it...

``In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.''

Mr Darcy of course.


Found on PostSecret Blog posted 21st March 2010

Le Creuset...

Le Creuset’s new berry shaded Cassis Cast Iron and Stoneware collection... oh how I WANT one!

What's up in our world?

I cannot abide people who have no knowledge of current affairs. I'm not saying we should all digest newspapers for breakfast, but a general idea of what's going on is a necessity.

I struggle to hide my disgust when, after asking "have you heard what so and so politician (extremely influential amongst our countries youth, for example) said in response to..?", the reaction is "No, I don't listen to the news. Ever."

Hello?! How can you be completely ignorant of the world around you? Think about it now. You don't HAVE to know what's going on everywhere in the world, all the time - but you must know SOMETHING of your immediate surrounds. This is YOUR country. And MY country.

Let's play a game:

I'll ask questions off the top of my head, you see if you can answer - it will help to be a saffer (that's a South African)

- Where is our President at the moment?

- Who has just been fined R50 000 in the Equality Court?

- For what was (I'll give you a clue) HE fined?

- What's the power used for our Soccer World Cup 2010 Stadium being generated from?

Did you know the answers?

What about in the world?

Do you know that Beckham most probably won't be participating in the World Cup since he's torn his Achilles tendon (ouch)?

Did you hear about the new break through skin cancer treatment?

Or the man, who was blinded in the service of his country, who will be able to see using is tongue? (I know its weird, and I don't entirely understand it myself)

I'm not trying to show off what I know, I'm just saying - its important to know what's happening in your world!

There is a news feed to the left of this page, click on something.

Rapid Motion...

"Steve Moved" -by Amy Huddleston

When I was doing A level art we did a short study in Cubism, my art teacher - who will never know how much I appreciated her - showed us a video (yes, a VHS) that really helped explained the idea of trying to show facets and movement - simple the idea that the subject of a painting is not static or 2D. Anyway, I think this rocks some socks.

Pretties...

Take a look at her site:
http://www.lieseltrautman.co.za/

You can check out her pretties at the Old Biscuit Mill in Obz



Thanks, Luci, for pointing this out to me...

Crockery Collections...

This is the beginning of my collection of place settings... I love eclectic collections and I've always wanted to have a mixed up collection of crockery.

Satomi Shirai...

...I love this woman's work. There is honesty and humour in it. And so many details to enjoy...


"Cleaning"


"Cindy"


"Bathscale"


"Afternoon"



"Itch"

Little bit of Fashion...

This is just a mixture of designers mainly from 2010 Fall fashion.


And this Burberry jacket... yum!

Bite...

Bite by Mark Reigelman

Do you know this guy?

No? Neither did I until I read about him.

























But you'll know his work:

Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu holds more than 2,300 patents, more than double the 1,093 held by Thomas Edison. The next closest competitor holds just 400. For the past seven straight years, Dr. Nakamatsu has won the grand prize at the International Exposition of Inventors in New York City.

Dr. Nakamatsu invented the floppy disk and licensed the technology to IBM. "Does he get a royalty on the millions of disks sold every year?" I wondered; I discovered later that he does.

Among his many inventions are the compact disc, the compact disc player, the digital watch, a unique golf putter, and a water-powered engine.

http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/Nakamats1.html

It was Hurricane Vanessa's (Editor of SA Cosmo) blog about Nakamatsu that hooked me. Google - bless - produced several (323 000) hits and brought me to a particular interview. It is fascinating how creatives process. This man, is a genius with out a doubt. Now I'm not suggesting that we all go out and make ourselves 'static' and 'dynamic' rooms and the jump in the swimming pool (read the article if you feel confused) to get through the 3 stages of developing ideas that he has set out; I'm saying its fascinating. But he does make many good, sensible points.

This is my City...

The Mother City had one of its rare storms a few nights back, the next day, true to form, there were photos documenting it. Take a look - you can see the Cape Town Soccer Stadium built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup:




















It's not that I don't appreciate the storms here in Cape Town, truly I do, when they happened (which isn't often) they are quite spectacular - it is simply that I grew up in Durban, thunder and lightening was a dime a dozen in the banana republic.

I love things like this...

It's easy to judge things in a black and white manner. Those people are evil. These deeds are wrong. Wrong deeds are committed by evil people. But we all seem to forget the evil things we all do. Only, we don't perceive ourselves as evil people, cuz we know ourselves. We know our hearts and souls, we know that we're actually good people. If you consider that your perception of good is often heavily reliant on your environment and culture, your up bringing and the opinions and beliefs of those involved in your upbringing... then you must also consider that, other people, brought up in a different environment, with different morals and values to ours, are not necessarily evil merely because our mentalities don't coincide.

So anyway, its just an opinion of mine, which was provoked by the horrifically cute picture above of Nazi SS troops adoring a kitten.

Would evil people do that? Hm... that answer is just your opinion.

Take a Look at this Arty...

MixMedia Girls by Nikki Farquharson