One of the World Design Capital projects we've been keeping a close eye on is the Between 10and5 and InAWE Stays' collaboration, creating the InAWE Residency.

The intention was that from May to September, eight Cape Town-based creatives were invited to spend a week to ten days at the very beautiful InAWE Stays, and to reflect on their surroundings, creating an artwork inspired by the Mother City.

It's enough to make you feel downright warm and fuzzy inside - all proud and mama bear-like, to think we have such incredible talent representing us on an international stage. And what brought this project even closer to our proud little hearts was that two of our very own sellers were involved - Laura Windvogel (aka Lady $kollie) and Ed Suter got stuck in and made some very awesome art.

First up, Lady $kollie: according to her write up on Between 10 and 5, Laura was inspired by van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night,’ and as a result deviated from her colourful and fruity paintings - the end result was an abstract landscape of Cape Town’s city lights.

Guys. No but guys. Look at these yellow cats. Are they not the best?

Fathima, fellow cat lady from Happiness Is... has done this most amazing illustration for this months #WDC2014 inspired downloadable wallpaper, and we LOVE it. Can you tell?

Download this bit of tech sunshine for free over HERE.

I was super excited to receive an invitation from 10and5.com to join the Nando's Accidental Art instawalk last week Friday. Like, suuuper excited. I had seen hints and hastags all over the interwebz leading up to it, and was keen to throw on some walking shoes, meet some cool people, and get to know my new city a bit better (for those of you that aren't aware, I'm a Durban girl who threw caution to the wind and moved to Cape Town with one suitcase and a box of books).

Alas, it was not meant to be. I had my best walking shoes on, I had thrown on sunscreen and all my devices were fully charged - and then I collided rather impressively with a door frame. After a very audible crack, I was gifted with two broken toes and a fractured baby foot bone, an hour before the walk was due to start. Devastated much?

However, lovely Melissa from Between 10 and 5 kept me well in the loop, and sent me all the photos afterwards, so I was totally there in spirit. And then Ads and I had Nando's for dinner, because, well, Friday, and I had just broken my foot.

We were recently invited to paint the town yellow with Smeg and WDC2014, and since we've been all about the #dailyyellow this year, we obviously couldn't say no. With the dress code requiring a touch of yellow, and the invite hinting at a special unveiling done by Smeg CEO Vittorio Bertazzoni, we were all kinds of excited when we made our way to the brand new Smeg showroom on Strand Street.
 

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!

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:

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.
 

If you follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, you would have seen us jumping into the spirit of World Design Captial feet first. We all agreed that this is an important year for everybody, whether you were a recognised project or not. It's so easy to get involved, even in a tiny way.

And so we set out to inject a teensy bit of yellow into our daily lives. And as we've been going along, we've been thrilled to see people jumping in - tagging us in something yellow that brightened up their day, or sending us yellow inspiration. It's the most satisfying feeling to have people interacting with us in that way - all of a sudden this small thing becomes much bigger and more exciting. We're not changing the world, but hopefully it brings a smile to the faces of the people who see it, and in turn directs them to the collective awesomeness that is WDC2014.