Our Weekend - March 21-24, 2013

Hello! It's Monday! For the first time in ages I had a really restful weekend AND with the upcoming long weekend it's going to be a short work week. So, Monday isn't looking as bad as usual today!

For the past few years I've been working  with PARK, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to providing opportunities to artists and designers in Calgary. Their PARKSHOW (2) fashion show was one of the best events they've done so far and I had a great time there with Kait on Saturday night. Unfortunately, as I've been so busy with contract work lately, I haven't had much time to spend with E. We took Sunday off together and had the best day making breakfast, drinking beer at 510 (4 -- it's almost patio weather!), exploring the Glenbow Museum (5) and catching up on Friday Night Lights. Don't let the highschool drama and football dissuade you, this show is the best thing I've watched in years. Well except this trainwreck of a second season, but I've heard it redeems itself going forward (no spoilers please!).

Charlotte's weekend sounds pretty laid back. After marathon drinking with the girls all day Friday she spent Saturday cuddled up with Chuva (6), puttering in the garden (1) and nursing her hangover. I'm also loving this new piece by Nelspruit artist Kirsten Stapel hanging on her wall. Wish I could be there to see it in person, Charlotte really has the most lovely home!

Charlotte's off to Mozambique for Easter so I'll have to step up my game next weekend. It's tough to compete with a beach holiday but any recommendations around Calgary? Would love to hear them!

Thunderstorms - Unique Weather in South Africa

My design this week is to show respect for our wonderful end of summer thunderstorms | Afrikaans: donderstorm Zulu: duma.

Until living in South Africa I had never experienced thunderstorms quite like these. Deafening CRACK sounds when the lightening strikes, followed by thunder that makes your bones rattle, followed by rain that will completely soak you if you step out into the storm for a mere second. They are amazingly powerful, and I admit, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE them. Nothing says Africa like a thunderstorm ( cue Toto's "I bless the rains down in Africa" song).

speaking of Toto... check out this video (you're welcome):

Road Trip to the Cape

So we have been pretty bad at keeping our weekend photos going... but I promise we have excuses.

On Feb 22nd at 2 am, R and I got in our car and started our 17 hour journey to Cape Town. We stayed in Cape Town for 4 days with his fabulous sister and pretended that we lived in her fabulous suite in Fresnaye overlooking the ocean. Some of the highlights were a 12 course seafood lunch at die Strandloper (1), wine tasting at the ever so posh Steenberg Vineyards (2), bubbly tasting on the same estate at Gorgeous by Graham Beck (4) and climbing up Lion's head one morning (3).

We then boogied off to Herolds bay to visit our friends who live in Sweden. We spent 4 days there on the beach. R surfed, and I tanned/burnt my body on the beach while reading a great book ( The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry - read it... do it...). I don't have one picture to show from this time but I do have a random photo of our friends (5), and a photo from The Owlhouse which we stopped by in Nieu Bethesda on our long trip back to White River.

Fabulous trip, which caused R and I to start speaking like Capetonians - "totes cray-cray". Can't wait to go back again. If you want more recommendations for the Cape Town area, feel free to contact us.

Pumpkin Patch - Children's TV Show, South Africa

Lets be perfectly honest here, this design did NOT work out as well as Chelsea's design. That is what is fun about our design collaborations though, sometimes they are easy to base the design off of what the other designer sent us that week, and sometimes it is not.

Since I did not grow up in South Africa and have only been here for the past 3 years, I have no idea if this show was popular or not. Good ol' Google told me that this was a South Africa show in the 80's and that because of a cultural embargo, there weren't many other children's shows on from other countries at the time. Correct me if I am wrong! I always ask R for advice when doing my blog and he said he thought Pumpkin Patch was cheesy when he was young; he was more of a power rangers kind of kid.

You can read the article that I found about Pumpkin patch here.

Also: Here is our design side by side - the way we used to format our collaborations, so that you can see the designs comparatively. It is now my turn to come up with a design and theme for Chelsea, look out Chelsea, I am gonna make this next one a doosy!

The Elephant Show - Children's TV Show, Canada

My design this week is to honour Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show, my absolute favourite tv show growing up. It ran in Canada on CBC from 1984-88 and featured three adults and a giant stuffed elephant who sang songs and taught kids what I'm sure were very important life lessons.

You'll notice we're organizing our collaborative design posts a little differently than before as we still get questions about how the designs actually work. As it was my turn to start this week, I did the original design and have posted it here. Then Charlotte will post her South African version, based on my original Canadian design, later on in the week. We hope this will clear up any confusion but please let us know your thoughts!

We're also looking to turn some of our collaborative designs into series. So, if you have any other favourite children's shows please comment and let us know and we'll do more designs for this series based on your suggestions.

For now, I'll leave you with Skinnamarink, the closer for every Elephant Show. I'm not ashamed to admit I can still sing along to every word...