Yikes, it's been a crazy week/month. Without boring you with too much detail, we've been:
- developing a couple of brand new products and designing a new collection (way too late in the year - what were we thinking?)
- finalising the design of our new website - out next month
- spending a lot of time focusing on business matters - agreements, projections and other mind-bogglers
- oh, and did I mention getting out all our Christmas orders in between?
I saw this chair, happily chilling under a multilingual "No dumping" sign. It make me think that every now and then you need to just STOP and take a a deep breath, in a field, on a chair - wherever. Altogether now, deep breath in... and out. Better?
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Today was completely overshadowed by the pain caused by stupidly slamming my finger in the door. So to distract myself I thought I'd show you some inspiring pics...
I found these beautiful photos on showstudio. They were taken by fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø. The parrots really do look like models strutting their stuff and showing off their fine feathers, don't you think?
Meet Chris, a Dutch legal student who is doing an internship at my husband, Deon's office. Chris and a couple of his friends came to visit us at Mielie. His t-shirt has a real tie stitched onto it... cool or what?
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This is a sneak preview of our new simple - but methinks beautiful - laptop bag. It needs some tweaking, but we're pretty chuffed with it (chuffed: safafrican for pleased). My thanks to Elna for helping me to channel this vague idea into something tangible. Elna is working on her Masters degree focussing on environmentally sustainable product development and approached me a while back to collaborate on some new Mielie products. The laptop bag is the first, but there will be more follow.
... and this is me with the rest-of-the-week team, minus Mzo, who was sick today. Our weavers meet on Thursdays, and this team comes in every other day of the week to sew up and finish the bags. Ideas magazine interviewed me for an article about entrepreneurs and came to take photos - with make-up artist et al. In front (l-r): Phumla, Marina & Nolundi. Middle: Nonqubela, Sheila & Nosithembele. Back: Mawethu, Malibongwe, Thaka and moi. Don't we look pretty?
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I sketched these flipflops from a holiday photo and today Morgan interpreted them in his embroidery medium. I like. But the prize for the wackiest flipflops go to Nomthunzi, who arrived at Mielie sporting these beauties yesterday!
Living on the side of the mountain brings a lot of floral inspiration, and the odd bit of fauna that inspires new products. Like this baby puffadder we found in our garden yesterday morning! Made me think of the Majola snake we made a while ago. I was recently asked to make another one, and I think this photo of puffy might just come in handy.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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The sketches on the left are what I gave the Mielie weavers last week... and on the photos on the is what they did with them! The inspiration for this collection is A Midsummer eve garden party. Think patio parties with glam evening gowns in strong designs. Up hairstyles, big earrings, eyelashes. Very Liz Taylor in the 70's.
Some of them worked better than others and we've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but all in all I'm very happy. Thanks ladies.
Oh and do yourself a favour and read Heather's hilarious account of the how the new mini Skinny shop came to be.
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Here's Nolundi in front of the new mini Skinny Laminx shop, which is inside the the Mielie shop! I think it's so cute! It still needs a sign and I'm hoping to convince Heather to make us some of her beautiful egg cups and aprons too. Puhleez, Heather..?
Tomorrow we'll see the first samples of our new '09 Mielie bag collection. I handed them out to the weavers last week and can't wait to see what comes out. I'll snap them for you tomorrow, ok?
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OK, I just can't wait any longer to tell you about the new mini Skinny Laminx shop, which we're opening inside the Mielie Shop in Newlands, Cape Town. I spent Sunday morning with the lovely Heather Moore of Skinny Laminx and her husband, Paul, zhoozhing up this little kitchen dresser - isn't it cute? We even inserted rope lights to light up the products better. I'll upload a pic when it's fully stocked in the shop, ok?
Oh, and those pretty little toes belong to Heather too - in the spirit of the generous shoe fairy, I passed these summer clogs on to her. I love the idea of them, but they just clomp around too much.
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I don't know what it is about circus graphics that delight me so. I've had these circus and carousel tins for ages. And what better thing to fill them with than some home made...
Peanut Butter Cookies!
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon bicarb
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cream sugars, butter or margarine, and peanut butter. Beat in egg, then stir in remaining ingredients. Shape dough into a small balls; place on lightly greased baking sheets then press the dough balls down with a fork to make ridges down the center.
Dip fork tines in flour the fork each time before pressing a cookie. Bake at 350° for about 12 minutes. (Bake for a little less time for chewier cookies.) Makes about 2 dozen peanut butter cookies.
This is the bag worn by Vanessa Hodgens (Gabrielle) in High School Musical 3. It was woven by Zanele this weekend just so that you could see a decent picture of it. Thanks so much, Zanele!
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So much has happened this week that I thought I'd end it off with a bumper technicolour splash - hope your bandwidth is coping!
Today started out in Khayelitsha to plan Mielie's food garden in earnest. The idea is to create an organic veggie patch for our crafters and by our crafters to combat the soaring food prices. Zanele has been negotiating with the local powers that be, and we have been given our piece of land. This tract of land is going to be an abundant organic veggie patch - can you see it? Our first important task is to fence the area, next comes soil preparation and arranging for water. Next Tuesday we are going to visit some successful veggie gardens in the area. We are all so fired up!
I was stunned that there were so many people who volunteered their time and experience to help us get established. Thank you Sakhile, Thembakazi, Richard and Vuyani - hopefully our crafters will soon be eating the fruits of your kindness!
And would you believe that Zanele recently became a granny and didn't tell us? Here is Zanele's son, Lubabalo, looking as pleased as punch with his daughter. They make a handsome pair, don't you think?
I just couldn't resist snapping this new double-story spaza shop, adorned with logos and branding of the most popular goods on sale. And don't you just love Fruit & Veg City, a la Khayelitsha?
This week the generous shoe-fairy must have flown over my head a couple of times, because I was given two exquisite pairs of shoes in one week! The tan leather pair are actually made of a single continuous piece of leather which is stitched together with a leather strip - truly inspiring... I have to try my hand at a pair! They were given to my by my wonderful friend Inge, who is moving to England next month... very sad.
The outrageously beautiful slippers were a gift from my friend Birgit who lives in Berlin, but she bought them in exotic Morocco. Thanks so much, both of you!
And finally, while the world is being so kind to me, may I ask for more? We are desperate to get our hands on some of these hooks to make our Mielie bags - can anyone point me in a direction?
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone - I'm going to soak up some sunrays!
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I snapped these happy mielie peeps on their way in to sebenza today. This week's prize for the glammest weaver goes to... Nomalizo with her brand new wet-look curls! Sorry about snapping you with your eyes shut, sisi!
Every weaver brings a little book with her in which her work in and new work out gets documented.
Remember the strelitzia flowers I mentioned on Monday? Well this strelitzia bag came in today.
... and the big news of the day is that this Mielie Daisy bag features in the soon-to-be-released High School Musical 3 in a big way... pretty cool, huh?! (Apologies for the poor pics.)
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