Burnside Café

Burnside, loving this logo.

You know when you drive past a place over and over on a random way home and always forget to go in? Or don’t have he time? Well mine is Burnside Café. I drive past there a lot and always take my eyes off the road (just for a second) to look at its clean, white face. She is, very pretty.

Fresh green and summery its the perfect spring spot. There is a little garden and fountain which creates wonderful ambiance and a great area for the kiddies to play (if you have any). The white décor is just up my alley, clean and crisp. I have heard mixed reviews from people about the service but when I was there the waitress was always attentive and waiting to serve. And a table of nine women all wanting the same thing in different variations all at once can be... challenging to say the least. So the service is good.

The attention to detail is what I like. A cake stand with fresh cakes under glass bell cloches sits pretty and tempting outside... beats the average revolving cake stands you get in the mall... Ew. The food is served covered in a duvet of rocket and sweet dishes are adorned with pansy flowers and caster snow. Detail extends even down to the water which is spikes with oranges and strawberries, LOVE it when restaurants do this.

Everything is fresh and tastes homemade, see below what we ate.

Try it, I know you’ll love it.

Xoxo

PS. Your tummy is not a trash can, don’t fill it with junk. 
 

Poached Eggs
With relish, bacon, parmesan and toast fingers

Crumpets
With crispy bacon, mascarpone, syrup and berries

Leave a Comment Burnside cafe, Johannesburg, restaurant, review

Weekend Learning's

From left, Burnside Cafe, new lace shoes, Lucky Moo.

The last weekend in August. I cannot believe its almost September! It almost feel like yesterday it was January and I was so certain about the path I was going down. Life is what happens while you’re making other plans right? And now its 4th quarter. This is what I learned:

• Sometimes all you need is a good Friday in to sort your mind out, to calm the storm, and to do a hair treatment.
• Burnside café is a stunning little breakfast spot.
• I like food that’s both salty and sweet, pancakes with syrup strawberries and salty bacon is divine.
• Sometimes I wonder what the hell is wrong with you? Smile once in a while okay!
• I love my new little shoes... I miss tying shoelaces.
• I hate pink, but ill wear it for the Wetnose foundation, Pinkie Fest was the best yet.
• Going from daily chatting to nothing at all for 3 years and then seeing the person out and about after all this time is awkward. Stop looking at me.
• Sunday’s which are grey and overcast are awesome, I pick you bed, ill be the duvet.
• Lucky Moo is so delicious! Has to be my new favourite Chinese spot AND their website is so cuteness.
• With regards to the above point, if a restaurant has an awesome website I think the food tastes even better, must be a designer thing.
• To tell you the truth I actually DON’T want to talk to people on a Sunday. Id like to have a day to myself without you badgering me thanks.

xoxo
If he doesn’t chase you after you walk away... Keep walking.

Leave a Comment Burnside cafe, Lucky Moo, Pinkie Fest, weekend, Wetnose foundation

Fox #6

Foxi Love

I havent done a fox post in ages. A friend recently told me about this beautiful poem by Ted Hughes. It is beautiful. If you do not know Ted, he’s commonly known as the dark Sylvia Plath and was actually married to her from 1956 till her suicide in 1963. Macabre. Enjoy the poem.

The Thought-Fox

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock's loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow
A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.
 
-Ted Hughes


Xoxo

PS. Never sacrifice who you are just because someone has a problem with it.

Leave a Comment fox, poem, quote, Ted Hughes

Weekend Learning's

This is pretty no?

A weekend spent with loved ones puts anyone in a good mood. Not to say my miz has lifted completely. I just think the prospect on going back to Cape Town in a month is the reason I am so happy. Almost Cape Town again for the Loeries, cannot wait. This is what I discovered;

• Friday office farewells can get messy especially when you finish all your work before lunch. Over achiever FTW.
• Ami is still a wonderful place. Dinner with the boys, black and white films and Prawn Soup, good times.
• Having an early night on a Friday results in a wonderful lengthy weekend.
• Summer is on the way, I turned off my under floor heating and did not even miss it.
• Woolies organic low fat strawberry flavoured drinking yoghurt should be president, it is that delicious.
• You know you spend a lot of time with someone when you arrive at HAND (my hairdresser) and you’re both in black, denim and yellow...
• My little godchild turned 2 this weekend, pink fluffy chairs are the best gifts, when you’re 2, the bigger the gift the better.
• Rolling around on the grass talking about nothing and sun soaking is heaven.
• It scares me when people my age talk about how all they want to do is get married and be pregnant... Life is so short why spend the few years you have alone wishing for baggage?
• To live a creative life we must loose our fear of being wrong.
• Sundays in spring should be spent abusing the power of doing nothing and sniffing the blossoms in my bikini with puppy.
• I kind of love geek jewellery... It must be the designer dork in me.
• Soy Lites candles are for burning AND for massaging. Baby Love is the one I have which produces coconut oil to massage, its delicious. Get them here at HAND.
• Going to a special friends 30th Birthday makes me aware of three things; I am almost 30, black and white is still a classic theme and I too share wonderful priceless friends who I love. Happy Birthday Dean.

xoxo

P.S. Nothing hurts more than being disappointed by the single person you thought would never hurt you... Then I saw Masterchef was on and got over it.

Life moto...

 

Leave a Comment Ami, birthday, quote, spring, weekend

Holiday Learning's ♡ an ode to Cape Town

Delaire... you're crying too right? Knew it.

Deluxe, Haas and Sidewalk. How's that bunny!?

I spent my birthday weekend in Cape Town. The more I go there the more I become obsessed and desperate to stay. These are some of the little gems I discovered there.

• When someone fetches you at the airport with balloons it is actually a lovely kind of embarrassment.
• I have wonderful friends in Cape Town and I miss them everyday here in my dust bowl.
• Are you a little strange and looking for a porcelain cat scull and delicious coffee all in one? Check out Haas, weird and wonderful. Astronaut bunny totally rocks my socks!
• Early morning on the promenade is great for surfer spotting... Hello there!
• The Grand has a R500 seafood pizza... I have to be honest I would go back there just to sit with my feet in the sand again.
• Wardrobe and The Lot on Kloof are still my two favourite shops, I could spend my salary proudly and not eat for the rest of my life.
• Vintage clothes make coco happy.
• I had my hair done at Scar Hair also on Kloof. Its the first time I walking into a place and wasn’t looked at like I had been in a bike accident, awesome. I especially loved The Little Book of Poo.
• You like Tequila right? Me to! Go to El Burro, Genuine Mexican Cuisine and tequila, wowza, heaven...
• I like dinky wooden decor with plants coming out of the ceiling... Dear Me has this and nom food... Homemade flapjacks and a ginger ninja please.
• I sometimes sway when I cannot dance and I have a nice song in my head, its a way of dancing to a hum.
• Delaire Graff Wine Estate is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The view made me shed a tear.
• Grey squirrels sometimes makes duck noises... Disturbing.
• Deluxe Coffee Works, there are no words... You’re just a delicious buttery coffee part of my life which I would like to exploit... Sigh.
• You know how I love hearts right? Well Sidewalk Café is full of them! With delicious guest chef menu’s you can have something different and gourmet every time.
• I cannot wait for our next encounter... Let it be NOW!

Xoxo

PS. You do not have to do much to make me happy, just take me to the beach and let me draw in the sand. 

Judge me? Fine I move to Cape Town then, goodbye.

Leave a Comment Cape Town, quote, restaurant, weekend

Coco's Birthday

It's my birthday. Spending it in Cape Town. See you when I get back, and Happy Women's day.

Much love,

Coco.

xoxo

PS. This weekend's soup special... Tequila.

1 comment birthday, Happy Birthday

Black Barbara

Beauty in the black...

 Stumbling around the internet must be a design dorks favourite pastime. It really is a deep dark tunnel of creative pulling’s with inspiration and innovative stimulational stop offs along the way. Sometimes I get so deep into it hours fly by and I am spoilt for choice with all the tabs I have collected in my net window. Happily smug and proud of all the designer smut I’ve found I save the links and feel secretly satisfied with the days lurch into the interweb. However, the days I find gems I end up flying, researching the designer/ artist/ photographer I have discovered till I know their every artistic internet stepping stone. My problem is... black and white always sucks me in.

Today I discovered Danish designer Barbara i Gongini. Oh hell.

“In 2009, Danish designer Barbara i Gongini was one of the ten up-and-comers who presented a sustainable collection for Bright Green Fashion, a collaborative project of designers from Berlin and Copenhagen who are striving for greater environmental and social responsibility within fashion production. While Gongini’s environmental concerns have remained in place after the project — the fabrics are made with mostly organic fibers, the production is all fair-trade, and recycling, sustainability, and safer production methods are among her central concerns — there’s no washed-up hippie aesthetics here.” - Oakazine

Barbara’s designs are rough but sleek. To me her designs are Alice in Wonderland meet The Ring. They’re uncomfortable and unnatural yet beautiful. The darkness makes her designs seem slightly sinister yet the styling makes the look demure. Bold shapes and rich textures in a limited palette of greys. But the clothes do, somehow, look recycled — the collection’s pastiche of asymmetric structures and textures (waxy tulle and canvas, trash-bag irridescent blacks, knotted plastic knits, sculptural and tattered furs) recall a sort of post-apocalytpic re-piecing of found textiles that is both haphazard and deliberate.  And her peep-toe pumps and simple black brogues adorned with clusters of oversized rubber spikes are made to last, but covered with a paint that will deliberately crack and wear over time, adding to the eerie distressed and futuristic feel.

Her work, design, styling and photography is art, shadowy art. I love it.

Xoxo

PS. There is further to go in the darkness.

Leave a Comment Barbara i Gongini, black and white, design, fashion

Minimalist Muppets

This is too awesome not to share. I would like one for my Birthday, thanks. Always keep it simple! A true design doesn’t need bits of debris to make it special. A good designer uses simplicity in order to enhance their design. What are you trying to hide with all that gobble hmm?
This art is the perfect example of how we don’t actually need all that fur and felt to still have a beautiful design... Stunning. Oh you want one too? Check it out {here}. FYI a poster print of Eric Slager's Minimalist Muppets design comes on your choice of quality paper, canvas, and even framed!

Xoxo

PS. Simple gifts with big personality... Gimmeee.

Leave a Comment art, design, Eric Slager, Muppets

Weekend Learning's

Dance like no one is watching...

 This weekend I celebrated my birthday and went to a dear friends funeral. Talk about bitter sweet! This is what I learned.

• Female designers are a rare commodity. I’m proud to be one.
• I have amazing people in my life and I am blessed with an abundance of them.
• Tea in a flask might have saved my life when it was –1 on Saturday morning.
• I struggle at funerals. Nyiko, I miss you.
• People are shocked when they see a girl getting her head shaved, come on people its 2011.
• This birthday was the best birthday ever, I want to do it all again.
• Buddah Ta’s platters are delicious, but watch out for the garlic, woa.
• Some people just don’t know what respect and manners are, good bye.
• Sometimes talking till the sun comes up is the best part of the night.
• It is amazing what scent does, yum.
• I like making art with Smarties, colour and chocolate, a designers dream come true.
• I am happier in hot weather, I cant wait for this cold to go.
• The best times are always the unplanned moment which creep up on you and wash your memories in warm sunshine.

Xoxo

PS. “You’ve changed...” reply: “Good, I didn’t like the old me anyway.”

Not that I am unhappy, just an interesting way to look at it.

 

Leave a Comment Buddah Ta, design, Smarties, weekend