>> If you want your dreams to come true

I am starting to see a pattern here. About once a month I will write a more personal post about my journey in my career, life
and my dreams. I write about people that I admire for following their dreams, and how everybody should just go out an do it!
Easy right? I will write about that studio I want to own, that beautiful illustration print I want, or that place that I
want to visit. Dreams are great. But without a plan they are useless. Dreams can be depressing and feel far away.
Dreams are scary stuff.

...Jeez. Yes.

But I am sure that I am not the only one...everybody has a dream, don't they. That one thing that you're just burning to do with
your life. I think as scary as they are, we need a dream to feel like all is not lost, and one day, things will be different.
Maybe you hate your job and want to do something you love instead. Maybe you want to travel somewhere that looks amazing.
Maybe you want to find a perfect friend. Everybody wants something.

There is just one very unfortunate thing though. Most dreams cost money, time and work. Two things that very few people have
enough of, and the last...we'll, people are lazy. And that is why dreams are scary. Because you need to save or pay too much
for it to happen. Or, you might have to use up all your spare time to plan, or do a course, or do stuff which will leave you
feeling like there is just absolutely no time for anything else. Perhaps you simply can't afford to save and then everything
is just crap and you get depressed and you try to forget about your dream, because in your mind it's impossible or simply
too late...

Mmmm, getting clever aren't I....:-)

Anyways, as scary as dreams are, I think a dream is worth it. And if you think so too, then you will start anyways. Any goal
needs to have a plan. So do it today. Look at what you need to do to make your dream come true. Draw up a timing plan, draw up
a savings plan, register, do some extra work, do whatever necessary. Because every day you wait is a day wasted. Do something
that you feel is important. A dream IS important.

So I wrote this quote from some anonymous clever person, on a really beautiful picture by Italian photographer Manuel Cosentino. 
By the way, this project really inspired me, and I think it's beautiful. Plus it has a bit of a tik-tok tik-tok message... 

Lastly, I am very proud to say that I have stopped dreaming, and I am now doing. I have set my plan in motion to
realise my dream, and my next post about "my journey", will be about how far I've come in making it all happen:-)

>> Rabbit baby book

I have an incredible friend, and her name is Clarise. She is really just an overall amazing chick with a
big heart and lots of love to give, and it's a huge bonus that we happen to have a lot of the same interests
and hobbies. I love my friend Clarise, and I am so happy to have her in my life as a good friend and ready
source of inspiration. If there is one thing about her that I am always amazed by, then it is her absolute
indulgence in making other people happy. She always has the most amazing ideas and goes the extra 1000 miles
to make a person feel special. One example would be this book we made together.

This rabbit themed baby book was a project we did for one of her friend's baby shower. Clarise collected and
compiled all kinds of advice and pretty sayings from the ladies that will be attending the shower, and then I
designed and did some hand-binding to make a book. I love how soft our illustrations and watercolour washes
(all from etsy) came out, and (to me at least) the hand-binding adds a real handmade charm to it. 

Clarise, just another one of your amazing brain babies come to life, and I think Helena is going to love it!

>> All that money spent on plants...

...is finally paying off! Just look how lovely my first blooms of poppies and sweat peas are.:-)

>>Watercolour Saturday

When I was a student, I used to work at the old art shop in Pretoria called Schweickerdt. I was always hanging around the watercolour stand, inspecting the tubes and pans and reading up about the medium. When the shop unfortunately closed down early in 2011, I managed to get a studio set of Winston & Newton watercolour pans for a fraction of the real price, with big plans to go to Hermanus and try them out on a seascape or something...well, that never happened. Working and getting married and making all kinds of plans left no time for me to paint and do art, and when I did have time, I was just too tired and uninspired to remove myself from the couch.

So, this weekend my good friend Clarise and I decided to finally get around to the hobby, and we cracked a bottle of red and whipped out our watercolour brushes. I always paint in oil, and I heard that watercolour is a super difficult medium to use, but I'm pretty much up for any challenge so I gave it a go. Both of us tried watercolour for the first time on Saturday and this is what we came up with. I plan to try these feathers one more time (especially the red ones), and if they come out sexier, then I'll frame them in little wooden frames for our bedroom.

So what do you think?

>>I am officially not an awards-virgin anymore!

A couple of months ago I was starting to get seriously worried that I was not producing the kind of work that I could enter into advertising awards. In my industry, it really doesn't matter if you think you're talented, you are only measured by the amount of awards that you've won and how your porfolio is looking (but one without the other is not really good either). I was freaked out thinking all kinds of crazy things, one of them being that I completely sucked at my job and that I should just start with something different. To tell the truth, and after talking to some people at work, I realised that even the most successful art directors and copywriters think they suck at advertising at some point. The important thing is just to keep trying, and keep entering, and at some point (doesn't matter if it takes you 5 friggen years), you will win something.

Since being pared up with my amazing new copywriter, things have really changed. I am so proud of us, and being part of a team is just the best thing that could happen to me, right in the nick of time. We've been busy with a couple of real exciting pro-active jobs, and last night one of them won third place at the Ad of the Month ceremony Out of Home category. We actually decided to try doing some street pole ideas, since the Loerie awards and AdReach has a trip to Cannes in store for the winner this year (basically because the average street pole ad in South Africa is generally absolutely...well shit). Our streetpole won 3rd place, but was the only streetpole in the category to get a place.

I know, I know, it's only a street pole and it isn't like we won gold at Cannes, but it feels kinda rad winning your first award, doesn't matter how small it is. And who knows, Loeries are soon, and with two entries we might stand another chance. Holding thumbs:-)

Check out the project here.

>>How I feel today

>>My pride and joy

Hello again:-)
So this week, I thought I could give you a tour of my pride and joy...our stoep garden.

Most big city dwellers my age live in tiny houses, and if you have a garden you are really lucky. When we first moved into our place, the only thing we used our stoep for was braaing, and we never went out there unless we had to. So, I decided to start something like a hobby out there. Growing plants in pots is easy, and very rewarding. I started with herbs, then we bought a little cypress tree (which was also our Christmas tree), and now I am planting flowers. I love cooking with my herbs, and it is so sweet to watch the little seeds stick out their cute baby leaves for the first time. The best thing to have is a couple of edible flowers like nasturtiums and violas. They put some lovely colours in the garden, plus they can fab up a salad. I planted sweetpea and poppy seeds about 3 weeks ago, and just look how big they are already! The best thing is that I will have the most amazing flowers growing on my stoep right in the middle of the dreary Jo'burg winter.

I got a wooden pot thingy (see the picture below) at first and filled it with potting soil. In that one pot I managed to plant 6 different herbs, and they all grow together. I love going outside now, and it looks a lot more like home. So no matter how small you stoep, or even if you only have a nice spot of sun indoors, a little garden is never too big a task.