Cape Town

Nadia van der Mescht's creative workshops

Super lovely Nadia van der Mescht recently partnered with Hello Pretty to sell tickets for her latest creative workshops in Cape Town - and we were delighted!

I popped into one of the workshops at Dear Me last week, and true to form, Nadia had thought of every last detail. I hovered around takin photos and listening to some of her pearls of wisdom - I managed to catch the segment on relevant and constructive use of hashtags and from that alone I can highly recommend these workshops for any creative business owner!

The workshop covered creative goal setting, marketing and branding, blogging and social media tips, and how to approach the press, among many others - Nadia has a great way of personalising her content to be relevant to anyone.

Typically, her choice in venue was super - in fact, as someone that's new to Cape Town, I had never been there before, so immediately went back the next day for lunch. It was delicious - I can only imagine the treats they provided for the ladies at the workshop.

Check out Nadia's ongoing Business Tip Series on her blog for great advice all year round, and give her some social media love on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Nice one Nadia - I look forward to the next one!

#WDC2014 Desktop Wallpapers! - part 3

Yayayay! It's that time again - and this time, we have the artistry of Terry Angelos for you all to pretty up your various tech with.

Download your free wallpaper over HERE, and visit Terry's Hello Pretty store over here - you won't regret it!

At the Miss+Meisie Showcase and I Heart Market in Durban - gorgeous right?

#WDC2014 Desktop Wallpapers! - part 3 with Terru Angelos

In the Homeology and D&M Made With Love DIY and Styling ebook, available here.

Stunning! And the best part is being able to own a piece of Terry Angelos art free and gratis. Get downloading, and tag us in pics of you and your new fancy computer wallpapers!

#WDC2014 Cape Town love

With World Design Capital fever being far from over, I decided to show Cape Town some love today. Inspired by the launch of Open Design Cape Town next week, here are a few of the awesome items from the site that pay tribute to the Mother City:

Sho, but it's a good looking place. Which city should we do next?

Our fancy pants photoshoot...

Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House

Recently we've found ourselves being asked more and more for team photos, and since we are all often scattered countrywide (and sometimes even world wide!), we decided to go the whole hog and get some professional kiekies taken.

So, after deciding to take the plunge came the next daunting step. *Cues backing track* Who you gonna call? (I'm so lame. I know.) Anyway, we called on The Dollie House. Knowing the standard of their work and having seen the results first hand in the shoots they had done for sellers (including A Ring To It and Bow Peep), we were confident we were in good hands.

They were just the best. Since we're all kind of awkward people and are fairly camera shy, they prescribed a glass of wine before hand - a prescription we were thrilled to fill! I mean, what's better than tarting up with your gal pals with a glass of bubbly in hand? (and Scott. Shame. To quote Harry Goldenblatt from Sex in the City, it's his lot in life to be surrounded by women. And to pour the wine.)

We got all fancied up and trekked through to Bottlegger Coffee Company in Sea Point, who were most kind and accommodating, and the Dollies made us laugh so much and feel so comfortable that we didn't feel like awkward posers for even a second. (Look, this doesn't come easily to any of us. None of us are ever going to make it as schmodels.)

After a quick costume change we shot off to Green Point Park, where we upset a security guard because we were clearly too old and too heavy to be clambering all over the jungle gyms - we managed to convince her that we would be lightening fast, although the "too old" part became glaringly apparent when we had to untangle ourselves from those same jungle gyms. The knees guys - they're the first to go.

And then finally, we zooted off to catch the sunset from Signal Hill. It was gorgeous, our faces ached from laughing, and we ended the day feeling pretty darn excited about life. Thank you so much to the Dollies for making us look good in this amazing shoot - we were thrilled with the photos.

Cute nê?

Follow this awesome couple on Instagram here and here - they're so lovely, and take photos that make you want to visit cool places and learn to cook amazing things.

#WDC2014 Desktop Wallpapers! - part 2

We loved last months WDC2014 inspired downloadable wallpaper so much, that we're doing it again!

This month we have the lovely Lilian Fairall treating us to not one, but TWO gorgeous hand illustrated wallpapers:

1. Download HERE

2. Download HERE

Gorgeous or what? It's so hard to choose a favourite!

Send us a photo of how you're rocking your wallpaper this month - remember to tag it #hpwdc14, and visit the Lilian Fairall Hello Pretty store to check out more work by this talented lady: http://hellopretty.co.za/lilian-fairall

#WDC2014 Desktop Wallpapers!

So guys, it's no secret that we are privy to some pretty fantastic talent here at Hello Pretty. South Africans have some mad skillz - and we're super proud of being able to support them, see and help them grow, and revel in their general awesomeness.

One such human is Jeanine from Love Mary J - this lady specialises in geometric, linear inspired illustrations that will just knock your socks off.

We were lucky enough to have her treat us to a really gorgeous, illustrated World Design Capital inspired downloadable desktop - cool huh!? AND it involves pugs and polka dots. I mean, if that's not a recipe for success, I don't know what is.

So you should all check out her Hello Pretty store here, (especially her pet portraits) and download this super fun wallpaper right over here.

Nice right?

Michael Elion's urban rainbows

This is so incredibly cool. SA artist Michael Elion was inspired by a perfectly circular rainbow he saw while surfing, and decided to find out how to create a man-made rainbow to be used as an installation artwork (as you do). After a year of trial and error, he’s worked out how to create a stunning rainbow that’s on display every afternoon. We need more artists like this.

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-10-12-00-thing-of-beauty-elusive-art-for-man-in-the-street

New Moon Africa's iKapa Coat Rack

The current object of my affection: New Moon Africa's iKapa coat rack. Trying to work out how to fit this into our studio apartment - I must have it! Don’t remember the name of the store right at the moment but I know that there is a place at the Old Biscuit Mill who carries them and if memory serves they are in the region of R350.