Spotted in South Africa - part 4

One of my favourite aspects of my South African jaunt has the stylish architecture, restaurants, food (and you know me...) shops I came across on my travels:

Amazing eclectic architecture and streetside spots:

One of my top cafes Beleza also turned out to be one of my top vintage shops too (so obviously might have spent a little bit of time in there...): 

  

(Please excuse how over exposed this last pic is...I may have been distracted by vintage Nina Ricci sunglasses at this time)

A chance visit to Royale Eatery on Cape Town's Long Street (which I was reliably informed the party street in CT) turned out to be probably my top eating experience in South Africa. 

With this gourmet burger joint having the most amazing milkshakes, a lovely cat loving waitress, pictures of Steve Zissou on the wall and 5 (yes that's *five*) different veggy burgers available - we were sold pretty quickly...

Other eating highlights (oh we did lots of eating): 

 The very cool Clarkes on Bree Street: 

And to top it all - home cooked food at my Mum's!

Spotted in South Africa - part 3

We did a lot of travelling in SA including a 550 mile drive to Cape Town along the famously beautiful Garden Route to East London (which is a city and not me muddling it up with my hometown I promise). Oh and back again too. 

It was pretty much one road the whole way which meant as the navigator (i.e. person holding the Sat Nav) even I couldn't get us very lost and got see a glimpse at varied South Africa along the way: 

House of Hackney SS preview

Summer has arrived...well at House of Hackney it has.

Here's a peek into East London's hip emporium of excellent imperial inspired prints and their SS collection of...

A new lighting and accessories collection, love the turtles:

 And the parrot...

And the pineapples...

The new Peoneden print: 

 The lovely Flights of Fancy print in new pastelly loveliness:

New outdoor furniture (wicker by lovely Lloyd Loom natch):

And a most excellent rocker, I might need to get a bigger garden for this one...

The best swimsuit ever:

More pineapples:

Even more perfect print mash ups: 

And did I mention pineapples?! 

Spotted in South Africa - part 2

I hope you'll forgive this post for being a bit penguin heavy, but while I was in South Africa I got to hang out with some of these guys...and I was properly (I'm not gonna lie) B.L.O.W.N. A.W.A.Y.

As I visited amazing Boulders Beach, the home to an African penguin colony and also a really rather nice public beach too!

Look at me, just hanging out with penguins, totally unconcerned about little pecking penguin beaks (this might be a small lie...).

There is something particularly cute about the penguin walk/waddle...

I also got to see so many more non penguin animals including an *actual* pride of lions!

However the boy took much better pics of these amazing animals (not because I was a wee bit scared on no) so when I manage to get them off his camera I'm sure more lions and giraffes and zebras to follow (oh my!).

Mondays are for Mugs: Mini Moderns

This Monday we're going to embrace a bit of nostalgia with this new mug from Mini Moderns, who if you haven't come across them before (firstly - where have you been?!) are South London's reigning princes of pattern. 

With this excellent mug they delved into London Transport Museum's archive of transport paraphernalia and dug out distinctive vintage bus tickets, that take many of us back to old Routemasters, proper paper tickets and 15p bus journeys. Ahh memories. 

The Hold Tight mug is launching now as it is Year of the Bus and should *definitely* be used for a celebratory toast to the good old London bus! 

Hold Tight Bone China Mug, in British Lichen, from Mini Moderns, price £8