Decor: Bookcase inspiration

I stumbled across a design site called Yanko designs. This US-based site offers a place where you can potentially sell your designs, browse through or purchase ready-made items from other designers. The chairs above were simultaneously developed as bookcases, with the intention to provide a place to read and serve as storage.

Source: Yanko design - designer: Gail Peter Borden

DIY: Valentines eve

Here with some inspiration for valentines eve to make that special person in your life feel truly loved. This can be done by making use of any flower petals in your garden, leaves could work just as well. The key is to choose one or two colors from the garden at most to decorate a romantic space.

Kitchen love: Valentines main course

This is such an easy meal to prepare, allowing adequate time to set the table for the special person in your life!

Fillet with balsamic tomato pan sauce

serves 2, 15 minutes

• 2 x 175g beef fillet steaks
• olive oil, to rub
• 1 small packet mini Rosa tomatoes (Woolworths)
• 2ml dried oreganum
• 125ml balsamic vinegar

1. Heat a frying pan over a high heat.
2. Rub the steaks with olive oil and sear for about 2 minutes, then turn over and cook for another minute. (Cook longer should you prefer meat well done)
3. Remove the meat from the pan and allow to rest.
4. Fry the tomatoes in the pan until the skins burst - be careful not to squash it!
5. Pour the vinegar and oreganum and cook for 1 minute.
6. Serve the steak topped with the blackened tomatoes and sauce.

Serve with potato / sweet potato mash and stir fried baby marrow.

Be sure to visit next week for the delicious valentines dessert recipe!

Online: Spread the love

Here with a follow up on the valentines cards posted last week. Volume 25. has released a 2011 printable valentine card edition. There are 6 cards, one for each day leading up to valentines day. The cards are available form the EyeCandy Shop. Once paid, a 2 page PDF will appear in your inbox and you are ready to print, fold and send!

Chooseday: Key to the heart

So you have been thinking of a surprise valentines gift. Want to be retro, show affection and be practical? Here with the ideal gift for him or her, a Skeleton key USB drive. Each key has a memory of 2GB and is priced at $58 per USB, available online at FredFlare.com.

Design: A light in the darkness

One of the small gems in Johannesburg is a shop called Simply French in the Bryanston Shopping centre. They have many a times been able to cheer me up after a long day at the office. The shop is stocked with everything from bath salts, kitchen, bedroom and living room decor items and furniture. A whole section of the shop is dedicated to the smaller people (or kids) around us, with unique clothing and toys to cater for everyones taste.


I have for a while been interested in purchasing a chandelier and was caught between my husbands preference of a metal-type one and my own being solid crystal. Simply French provided me with a solution, a metal-crystal option, and it is gorgeous!

Visit them at: Shop 18, Bryanston Shopping centre. Corner William Nicol & Ballyclare drives, Bryanston.
Hours: MON-FRIDAY 8.30-18.30 SAT 8.30-16.30 SUN 9.00-13.00
On the web: www.simplyfrench.co.za

DIY: Bookshelf ideas

Although there are hundreds of things you can do to prettify your house, there are few that cost absolutely nothing. Bookshelves are often an attraction point that draw people when they walk into the room. Instead of just using it as a functional piece of furniture, why not use it as a decor object. A new and in-fashion way to decorate bookshelves are to pay attention to the way the books are arranged.

There are various ways to arrange books on your bookshelf:

1.   Alphabetic: By author or series (also called indexing)

source: www.guardian.co.uk

2.   High to low: By book height

source: http://t1.gstatic.com/

3.  Stacked: On little heaps

Source: Better Homes and Gardens (Jan 2009)

4.   Chromatic: By cover color

Flickr: User Chotda

The latter is the in-fashion way to do this, and this is how I aim to keep mine for time being.

Kitchen love: Honey & mustard kassler chops

We have decided to include a special Thursday "Kitchen Love" feature for all those who enjoy spending time cooking. Hope you enjoy!

serves 4, 30 minutes

ingredients:

• 4 Kassler chops (I used the ones from Woolworths)
• 4 tsp Dijon mustard
• honey to drizzle

steps to prepare:

1. Prepare the Kassler chops by frying in a pan over medium heat until cooked, turn regularly.
2. Spread a teaspoon of Dijon mustard on each chop and place under a preheated grill until small 'cracks' are visible in the mustard. It can be grilled longer should a crust be preferred.
3. Place chops in a dish and drizzle with honey.

The spicy and sweet combination is great! I used chopped spring onion to garnish. Serve with a green salad and potato mash.

Online: A card for my valentine

It is my first Valentines day being married and I am rather indecisive on whether to give a printed or handmade card. There are some really neat cards available on etsy, here with some of my favourites:

Printed:

  

  

Top row: all by Colette paperie (US shipping only)

Bottom row: all by Zuq and Zoe (these files are emailed in PDF so that you can print them yourself)

Handmade:

  

  

Top row: all by Rosengarten

Bottom row: all by Little Bea studio

Chooseday: Calling all Chocoholics!

I was recently sent a link to the Chocolate Studio's website, where one can do various different courses in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, all related to chocolate. Some of the options include:

-  Chocolate appreciation

-  Chocolate dessert tasting

-  Art of Truffle

-  Chocolate showpiece creation 

-  Cake creation & decor

Some of the courses are offered every week, where others are offered once a month. All bookings can be made online and course outlines are also available on the site. The company also offers catering for functions.

 source: Chocolate studio

Technorati claim token: HARZZ84PUUXY

Decor: My first guest blogger - Melanie Wessels

I have the privilege to introduce my first guest blogger Melanie Wessels . Last year, whilst looking for a wedding photographer I stumbled across Melanie's website and immediately knew that she would be perfect for capturing our special day! Melanie and I have since become friends and I was super exited when she agreed to let me show off her newly acquired treasures.

Here with her story...

"Before we moved to a house, we never really made an effort to go out and buy furniture. We spent a couple of weekends walking through different furniture stores to figure out what we liked, but often came home disappointed and tired! It seemed and looked like most furniture are mass produced, almost plastic and we simply didn't like it.

Until we came across some really nice pieces at Boho Chic Collectables' (www.boho.co.za) shop in Newlands, Johannesburg. The area is known for it's antique-type furniture shops and we went through them all looking for the piece that says "magic". Since our house was built almost 50 years ago, it doesn't really have built-in cupboards/wardrobes. We came to a point where we really needed space to pack things away. We found a sideboard for the dining room and also a wardrobe for the guest room. What I like most about these pieces are that they fit in perfectly with the requirements to fuse the old and new."

Visit Melanie's website or blog for more of her stunning photos! 

DIY: Frosted glass the cheap and easy way!

There are some really cheap and easy ways to decorate windows by "frosting them". The idea is to create a sandblasted look by making use of a spray paint.

Rust-Oleum frosted glass spray (available at Builders Warehouse).

Step-by-step how to:
1.  Buy or make your own pattern stencil. (here with some awesome ideas)
2.  Cut out your patterns on self-adhesive plastic
3.  Make sure that the surface you will be decorating is clean and free from oily or dust particles
4.  Stick your stencil images onto the surface
5.  Start spraying!

Decor: Love it local

Our house is finally starting to take shape and I hope to show you more of the changes soon... I am very pleased to share my newest acquisition for our bedroom.

Biggie Best used to be known for their floral wallpaper, linen, and floral everything, but their image and style have really kept with the times. They now have a lovely collection of country and cottage linen, materials, accessories and even furniture. All fabrics are designed and exclusively sold by them. Visit their website for special offers and store locations.

Online: "I Do" the cherry on top

I have seen everything from aliens, Lego and even the Corps' Bride that you can use for a wedding cake topper! The latter might not be an ideal start to your journey :). Here with some of the ideas and suppliers that I managed to find on etsy as well as a photo of my own wedding cake toppers in July 2010.

Here with a photo of my own wedding toppers, I made the little flags with words myself, using a toothpick and a little pearl bead at the top of each one. I ordered the dolls from Goosegrease on Etsy and personalised them myself as well.




Formal

    

From left to right: Love by Buttons N more buttons, Naked Lovebirds by sweetie caketopper (also salt and pepper shakers), Transparent purple color butterfly by Butterfly bazaar, customised wedding couple by Subtle Details, dragonflies by Clear cut crafts 2007, Love by Blue butterfly design.

Not so formal





From left to right: I carry your heart with me by Cottonbird designs, Benedict and Louise by Lesley Wellington, True love by dear Jes , We Do by Bragging bags, Love by Crafty pagan, Custom lovebirds by Country Squirrels RUS,


Cartoon


    
All of the above by Kikuike

Chooseday: Here kitty, kitty...

Those who know me are well aware of the fact that I am not much of a cat lover. I had however had some requests for a "Choose your cat" questionnaire after the post last week on "Matching a puppy to your personality". I found two links that have online questionnaires to help you choose the perfect cat for your possy, Enjoy!

-    Purina: Cat breed selector 
-    Selectapet: Find the breed that is right for you (for choosing a cat or dog)

                                        

The blog guidebook provides the option to list your blog for free or alternatively at a small monthly subscription. The site provides wonderful and essential advice on how to better your listings and other general information on blogging.

Keep an eye out for my blog! Should you want to add my button to your blog you can use the following code:

  

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My parents had a dilemma in their bedroom, it is a very dark room as it has dark cupboards, a dark ceiling and a dark brick wall overhanging their bed.  Since my sister and I moved out of the house there were talks on revamping this room, with no success. This Christmas we all came together as a family and my sis and I decided that it was time!

So here with the before and after pictures of part 1 of the bedroom makeover:

Paint:      Dulux Acrylic PVA in Matt, Color: Chalky downs - Cost R100 per litre as it is a special mix
Heart:     R60 from a street vendor

Decor: You will not believe... Magnetic Paint!

As per my post last week Friday on no-drill renovations, I continue with something from the Nate Show. Here is something that I have never seen or heard of before watching the video... Magnetic paint! Yes, you have heard right, the paint is see through and can be painted onto almost any surface. The surface then becomes magnetic and you can decorate it with all kinds of magnets, including magnetic frames as per the video below:

Decor: Deglingo craze!

The Les Deglingos (de-GLING-goes) craze recently hit South Africa and I have the fever! These soft toys are imported from France and are the most unique soft toys I have ever seen. They might not appeal to everyone's taste, but they sure have character!

The website provides an interactive portal on which you can play games and enter competitions by either drawing or photographing your delingo. Possible free delingos are the reward for entry to the competitions.

My favourite: Lapinos the Bunny

Online: You + Me

What a lovely idea for a wedding! I first saw the idea on Roula & Schalk's wedding photographed by Melanie Wessels (also my wedding photographer) and had to go looking for a supplier. Sjengraving is a company on Etsy that does custom engraving on stones, check out their shop for more great ideas!

 

Chooseday: Matching a puppy to your personality

Choosing a dog to match both my husband and my needs and personalities has proven quite a challenge. There are however some very good and handy online questionnaires that can narrow down the search.

Here with two of the most useful links I came across:
-  Purina - Dog breed selector
-  Dog Time - Dream dog questionnaire

And here with the puppy I hope to get:

Decor: Art-Groupings

So, this is a really neat and new design concept called "art-grouping" and I just looove it! My house is full of bookshelves, ones that have little hooks for use in the bathroom for additional towels, and then another in the bedroom, just for decor. Here with some really inspiring ideas! The image below is from the bedroom of Jessica, owner of Vol.25.

Source

The following two images are from ikea's new online catalogue  also posted by vol.25.

 Source

Source