Hello Pretty is Winding Down

After more than ten fulfilling, magical years beginning in the good old days of 2012, Hello Pretty is retiring and heading off to the beach with a drink with a tiny umbrella.

Read our goodbye letter

South African Design

Some SA Fashion Week popup photos

One of Team HP’s favourite things about doing what we do is that it puts us in touch with so many amazing creative people from around the country. And after the SAFW Pop Up Shop, we can confirm that Pretoria is no exception. We were lucky enough to be able to invite some guests to the launch party, and our friends from the I Love Pretoria blog came out to enjoy the evening with us. The lovely Nadine from ILP took some stunning shots of the crowd and the fashion on display. There was bubbly, stylish people, and an all-around great vibe. Not bad, Pretoria. Not bad at all. 

If you want the skinny on what’s happening in PTA, I Love Pretoria has got it. The two lovely lasses who run it are both designers and photographers, so they have a keen eye for pretty things - no wonder we like them! You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook.

Win with Touchee Feelee and Hello Pretty!

From Cinderella to Imelda Marcos, every shoe lover knows that a good story starts with great footwear.

We’ve teamed up with Touchee Feelee to give you a way to keep your favourite pair of shoes forever - with a custom illustration of your favourite pair of kicks! Whether they’re well-worn sneakers or sky-high stilettoes, comfy slippers or sports shoes, every pair has a history. Yours could be immortalised by following these simple steps:

To Enter:

  1. Like Touchee Feelee on Facebook
  2. Email info@hellopretty.co.za a pic of your favourite shoes - guys, you can enter too! (You have until midnight on Thursday 18th July)
  3. Get people to vote for you by liking your photo in our album on Facebook!
  4. The winner will be announced on Monday 22nd July.

Touchee Feelee makes gorgeous home and pamper products, printed with original, hand-drawn art. Being a girl after our own heart, she also loves shoes - almost as much as we love her designs!

Winner announced on Monday 22nd July. Please note that the illustration will be a watercolour done in the artist’s style.

Win with i Spy and Hello Pretty!

I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with AWESOME!

Never mind winter, your home could soon be channeling glorious summer, with two gorgeous cushion covers from i Spy, worth R580.

Here’s how you can win:

Lovely Lauren from i Spy started designing her own textiles and prints just for fun, and boy are we glad she decided to share them with the rest of the world. Her stunning pieces are bold and quirky, with a retro twist.

Head over to i Spy to find your favourites, and tell us which ones they are!

Winner announced Friday 5th July.

A Hello Pretty road trip, first stop Swellendam and Rain Africa

We’ve just taken an epic road trip from Cape Town, up the Garden Route and over to Durban (where we’re based for two weeks). Then we’ll be driving back down again, which allows us to spend some time with the special people who make the magic happen on our site.

Our first stop was in Swellendam, about 3 hours from Cape Town. It was late at night when we arrived and we did so in rather an unprepared state. I used the Kayak app on my phone and booked the place that had the best reviews - a small hotel called Arumvale. The decor was gorgeous and tasteful, and the hospitality shown to us by the owners was honestly some of the best we’ve experienced anywhere we’ve been, in spite of our last-minute booking.

The following morning, the owner was seeing us off and asked what we had planned for the day. I mentioned that on our drive in I’d seen that Rain was in town, and that I planned to go see if I could meet the owner because they were going to be selling on Hello Pretty. Bizarrely and coincidentally it turned out that our host at Arumvale was in fact married to the owner of Rain.

We took a short drive over to the shop, and I will be telling every person I know that they have to visit Swellendam and go to this shop and spa. I had expected the shop to be cool, based on their branch in the V&A Waterfront, but I had had no idea of what a gorgeous space we were about to walk into.

The shop is bright and airy. And, of course, it smells a treat. I’d planned to buy a little soap or two, but we walked out of there a few hours later (sorry Scott!) feeling blissed out and with three bags of beautiful things and many photographs.

Besides all their own products, the shop also carries ranges by other local design talent (one of my favourites being Mud Studio’s ceramics).

Something you should know about Rain Africa is their kindness. All ingredients are natural, animal-and-earth-friendly and hand-harvested (as opposed to being farmed), and the company seeks to provide a living to the small communities around where they’re produced.
In both the shop and the spa, all of the staff had no shortage of smiles for us and were passionate about the business and what it stood for.

The Rain Forest Spa
I’d already planned to visit a spa before we even got into Swellendam and discovered Rain Forest, so it was a very lucky find (thank you to my awesome in-laws for giving me this as a birthday present!). I had a 1-hour foot massage and left feeling like a new person.

To get to the spa, enter the Rain shop and the assistant will show you to a small passage way.
It has dim mood lighting (where the mood is relaxed!) and a foresty decor vibe, with lots of running water. The treatment rooms follow the same theme, with soft lighting, wood, and forest features.
The recurrent decor element is a succulent plant, and they have done such a tasteful job to create this unique and serene space. Trust me when I say that you want to visit this place.

Every one of the staff in Rain Forest were friendly and warm, and gave the impression that they were there by choice and not only because they had to be. After my treatment, the lady manning the front desk gave me a solid run down of how Rain creates it products, and about the communities it supports and ways that the company is innovating, as well as a few samples to try. They’re still in my bag as I’d like to share them with Adeline when she gets to Durban later this week but I have some high hopes based on my in-store tests.

I’m sure it sounds like I’m being paid to say all these things but I promise I’m not. This turned out to be a real highlight on our trip and I suggest that those who are considering a refreshing weekend away consider Swellendam as an option. We will most definitely be stopping back in here on our way back to Cape Town.
Of the wealth of talented people selling their creations on Hello Pretty, we’ve only had the privilege of meeting a drop in the bucket in person. Being an online business, there isn’t an urgent need for this but we really enjoy getting to hang out with our designers and make an effort to whenever we’re able.

You don’t have to look far to appreciate the quality of South Africa’s design talent, and we’re working with the cream of the crop. We’ve met some wonderful people so far, and we’re looking forward to meeting more of you.

August 2017 update: we've just learned of a really fantastic site with lots of good things to know about Swellendam. You should go have a look for sure :) https://xplorio.com/swellendam/
 
 
 
 

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice…

The good news is that Hello Pretty doesn’t care whether you’ve been naughty or nice - we’re still coming to town! As you know, we’ve teamed up with the Woodstock Foundry to hold an awesome market on the 17th December. Go ahead and RSVP. We’ll wait. 

And that’s not all, petals - just by RSVPing, you got yourself a spot on our list to win a Secret Santa Box chock-full of goodies from some of our top designers, worth R1100! What’s in it, you ask? Well, we can’t tell you everything or it wouldn’t be a secret, silly. But here are a few hints:

Sounds pretty sweet, right? It gets even better - when you’re at the market (because you’re definitely coming, right? Right???), get your pic snapped in our photo corner, and you’ll get an extra entry to win this awesome little bag o’ swag.

See you next Monday at The Foundry!

P.S. Never forget that there will be FREE CANDYFLOSS at this market! Free. At no cost to you whatsoever. So come and get your sugar on!

Winners of The Dapper Pack & bonus prize: Lize & Darrin

Amid much anticipation and fanfare yesterday, the winners of The Dapper Pack and the bonus prize from Savior Brand Co, were announced!

These incredible prizes were sponsored by the following fantastic Hello Pretty designers:

The Dapper Pack was won by: Lize Hartley / @lizetheunicorn

The bonus prize was won by: Darrin Thomas / @Dazza_J

Congratulations you two! We hope that you enjoy your phenomenally fancy new handmade things.

And the bonus:

Winner of The Launchbox: Ilze!

Well, as promised, yesterday was Hello Pretty’s launch day, and today we drew the winner of The Launchbox. And so sure enough, that’s what we’re doing! A hearty congratulations Ilze! We hope you have a tonne of fun with your wonderful new goodies.

In case you don’t remember: there are R2 400 worth of things from 8 of our top designers that Ilze has won, in our biggest and most important celebration to date:

We’ll be getting in touch with you in a bit Ilze. And in a few hours, we will be announcing the winner of the fantastic promotion for the guys in collaboration with the What My Boyfriend Wore blog.

It's Alive!

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk about Hello Pretty’s official launch! After months of hard work and sleepless nights, our baby is ready to step out of beta and into the big wide world.

We’ve added gift vouchers to the site, implemented better search, a Sale page, an online seller application form, and tons of other fancy things under the hood. Worth celebrating, right?

So, in true Hello Pretty style, we decided to go big or go home. And what could be bigger than our very own Hello Pretty market? That’s right - we’re having a market, and you’re invited!

We just took care of your Christmas shopping. You’re welcome.

There’ll be 40+ of our designers for you to buy from, plus great food and drink, and some other really fun surprises. Here are the deets:

You should come. Obviously. RSVP on Facebook, and invite your friends: this will give you an entry to win the awesome little Secret Santa bag o’ swag that includes treasures from Duke & Dutch, Savior Brand Co, Maiden Name, Handmade By Me, tjou-tjou and a couple of others, worth R1 100. Details of the prize to be announced next week, so start RSVPing to enter!

Guys, we’re super duper excited about this. We can’t wait to see you there! We’ll be the ones running around hopped up on sugar from the free candyfloss.

See you on the 17th!

P.S.  Keep your eye on us tomorrow. This weekend we’re getting all crazy up in here! We’ll be announcing the winner of The Launchbox, as well as the winner of The Dapper Pack from the What My Boyfriend Wore giveaway.

The Launchbox

Sounds pretty damn cool right? Want to know what’s in it that makes it worth 2 400 sweet South African rands? Sure you do:

What’s the occasion, you ask? We’re glad you did, because it’s kind of a big deal to us. On the 1st December, after a lot of late nights and enough coffee to jumpstart a rocketship, Hello Pretty is officially launching! And since we couldn’t have done it without your help, we have put together a Launchbox o’ swag which could be yours!
 

To Enter:

Buy anything from Hello Pretty (gift vouchers also count!), before the 2nd of December. You’ll get one entry per item purchased. Anyone who’s ever bought anything on the site in its entire history will also be entered. We’ll be choosing a winner on the 2nd December.

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell that random guy you always have that awkward moment with in the hallway. And when you’re done, don’t forget to make a stop here.

Coal Mine Canary / Hello Pretty Promotion

Exciting little promo we’ve got going on with our friends over at Coal Mine Canary: if you were thinking of selling on Hello Pretty, now would be a good time!

It’s an exciting time for online in South Africa. Coal Mine Canary are a pretty, new, South African startup who showcase quality artist, designer and photographer portfolios.

The promotion is this: like both Hello Pretty and Coal Mine Canary on Facebook, then email hello@mycoalminecanary.com and tell them who you are. If your application is approved, you’ll be given a beautiful portfolio site (see Boss Models photographer Teri Robberts’ gorgeous portfolio as an example) for 6 months, and an Unlimited Store Plan on Hello Pretty for 3 months. For those who already have a Hello Pretty store and decide to take advantage of the offer, we’ll give you a voucher for 50% off your next seller plan purchase.

We’re looking forward to meeting you.

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