feb, 25th - ceilings: part i......

day 384:

everyone has that something that makes them salivate when it comes to decorating.....for some it's floors: tiled, wooden boards, cement, painted...for others, it's walls: exposed brick, plastered, painted, distressed, adorned, unadorned.....for A., it's storage. show him a room and he will immediately be drawn to the book shelves, cupboards, hidden clutter (definitely due to living in a Shoe-box). anyway, for me it's ceilings.....

maybe it comes from lying in the grass as a child and starting into the blue African sky, or it might be because whenever i think deeply about something i subconsciously look up. it could be that it feels like the hidden part of the room, or my love of flying.......whatever it is, a beautiful ceiling will captivate me every time......

as a result....decorating the ceiling has always been a thread that has woven it's way through my homes and celebrations (see day 363). 

for our wedding, it was all about the ceiling. 

i didn't want cluttered tables....or extravagant bouquets of flowers that for me are so transient and wasteful..........i wanted to use found and created objects....a little bit of whimsical-imagination-let-loose....

i wanted the space above each table to be unique and with the help of the amazing group from Okasie, to transform our dinnertime ceiling into our own 'Sistine Chapel'.....

my sister and i collected things here and there and then gave Okasie free rein.......A. and i were blown away with the result.....literally wandering between tables trying to absord all the small details.

we loved everything about what they did.....(although if they had been able to incorporate a book shelf....A. would have been just that tiny bit more excited.)

anyway......what is your favourite part of a room?

[all pics by our wedding photographer: Jean-Pierre Uys]

feb, 24th - braces.....

day 383:

braces.......are they the equivalent of ledehosen and knickerbockers? 

hmmmmm.....wondering.

but i love them.....always have. always will.

on guys....definitely.

but especially on girls.

{these are from zara boys' section}

oh, and we kept the grass from Limi's birthday [see day 364]. it's amazingly real. we bought it from here. for the moment it's our living-room rug and Limi's play-patch.....it's delicious to feel grass between my toes in the evening and we're definitely planning some rainy day picnics.

feb, 23rd - iconic london....

day 382:

this city.......i love the idea that it's Limi's city....her birthplace. whereas, i was born in a tiny backwater town in South Africa......Limi will always have a connection with this vast, vibrant, diverse, historic city. 

here are some iconic glimpses of London from my wanderings today....love the crown references everywhere...

royal mail....delivering our letters the old fashioned way.......

classic red telephone boxes.....hard to find these days.....

the red London bus. every child needs to ride in a red London bus.

tube map. getting us places

black cabs...definitely the nicest way to travel in London

a red London post-box. making posting a letter an occasion.....

and finally one last royal reference.......

feb, 22nd - windows....

we've been blogged by my favourite blog-crush over at 16house today.
how lovely is that.


day 381:

we've been teaching Limi to wave and blow kisses and she's addicted......she blows kisses to check-out staff, people on red London buses, us when we walk into another room and even the mannequins in the shops. 

but my favourite time is in the morning when i walk out the door.....after waving and throwing kisses my way inside...she goes to the huge sash window that looks out onto the street and madly waves again...repeating it all when A. leaves.

she loves that window (and i do too. when we renovated - see day 376 - it was the single most costly thing we did. we now refer to it as the please-don't-throw-a-ball-through-this-window window) i love that it gives us a view of London. and changes through the seasons. and drenches us in sunshine like this.....

Limi could spend large chunks of time pressed up against this window waving at strangers passing by....whether they are on a bike, across the street or walking by just in front of her they get a shout of glee and some arm-flapping, enthusiastic waving.....

of course, it completely makes my day to sometimes come home to see a madly, grinning little face pressed up against the pane.....

feb, 21st - doilies....

day 380:

i love a bit of crochet/ lace trim........

{Limi in her lace trimmed headband made by her LoLa}

and all this talk of sewing has inspired me.....i saw these designs by J W Anderson SS/11 (see here)

and i love the doilies.....i'm picturing some Limi sized clothes with doily accents....in fact i think that if anything stays still for awhile, i might just stitch a doily to it.

so, off i go to find some vintage doilies.....if anywhere should have them then it's here in England.

wish me luck.

feb, 20th - weekend....

day 379:

limi and i.

we had a fun weekend. hope yours was just as good. x

feb, 19th - v&a....

day 378:

we spent the afternoon at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum). it's a wonderful place to spend a rainy day......we used to come here quite a bit. on the last Friday of every month they have a late night which is themed around their current exhibition....there is a bar, a collection of interested and interesting people and little events throughout the museum that tap into the theme......and the shop is definitely worth a browse.

i'll definitely be back for this.....

feb, 18th - life's too short....

[Sally and Otis, October 2010]

day 377:

i was reading an interview with Sarah Burton the other day. she is the person who picked up the helm as creative director at McQueen after the tragic death of the brilliant Lee Alexander McQueen. She gave the following quote:

Life's too short not to do what you believe in. 

"You just have to go with your gut, even if 

someone else is not going to like it. 

Because, you know, you're putting your 

soul on the line."

it resonated all over (especially the gut) for me as i've been doing a bit of family portrait photography. 

[Sally and Otis, October 2010]

it's a departure for me from my other work but i've tried to stay true to my own style even when i think that someone may want the skipping-through-a-park-being-chased-by-balloons shots instead (not that i have anything against skipping, parks or being chased by balloons....but you know what i mean)

[Sally and Otis, October 2010]

so gut, let me introduce you to soul....you're going to be spending a lot of time together.

[Sally and Otis, October 2010]

you can see more pics or shoots as they go up by joining me here.

feb, 17th - limi's first house: part I....

day 376:

i haven't really shared many pics of the Shoebox but since it is Limi's very first home.....here's a brief tour......(okay, i confess...these are pics pre-small-fingerprints-everywhere)

(the kitchen very rarely looks this neat as we cook and live in it...but well, if you're taking a pic then....)

we bought the Shoebox when it had magnolia walls, low ceilings (hiding another 1.3 metres in height) and a weird layout. we totally gutted the place.....there were a couple of weeks where i had my dream (very industrial) loft...open from one end to the next....

it's definitely still work in progress and things move around a bit but a couple of things that i absolutely LOVE from the renovations are.....

• our ensuite......we bought a John Reeves outdoor, zinc table from Heals (this is another design by Reeves which i love for inside), cut it in half, drilled a hole in it, embedded it in the wall and made it our sink console (when i say we....i mean that we bought the table and our fantastic Polish builders did the rest). the grey mosaic tiles are from Trend which was started by one of the brothers who used to run Bisazza, after he had a falling out with the family. the mirrored cabinets are 4 bathroom cabinets from Ikea and we installed our own mood lighting.

['My huis is my Paleis' is Afrikaans for 'My house is my Palace']

next....

• our white gloss floors. after 3 years, some stiletto abuse and now daily rubbings of food....they need a repaint. but i still love them.

• the little things that remind me of home, travels, friends and family. this chinese cabinet was given to me from my sister and her husband for my 30th birthday.

• and the original cornicing, plus ceiling rose (from 1869), that A and i painstaking liberated from five thick layers of magnolia paint. this room looks pretty different now in terms of furniture (i will try and add an update soon)...but i still love the cornicing, orignal panelling that we stripped back and the shutters that we debated and debated about.

anyway.....that's a brief tour....next, Limi's nursery.

feb, 16th - family days....

day 375:

day of whimsical, pretty, delicious lunch at The Ledbury.

sunshine.

sweet conversation.

strolls around London neighbourhoods.

glimpses of meaning.

and an afternoon with a sweet companion - practising her stand-up....crouch down...stand-up....crouch down, in front of the mirror.

happy anniversary. and a happy family day to us.