Tea towels now available at todryfor.com

Mengsel tea towels are now available to purchase at the wonderful website dedicated to tea towels, ToDryFor. The designs available are "Roosters" in Delft Blue and "Moka Express" in Black. ToDryFor boasts a great selection of tea towels and Sally and Dave sure have an eye for bold and colourful graphic design

Mengsel now available at Tenderproduct, Covent Garden

I'm pleased to announce that Mengsel products are now available at the wonderful Tenderproduct store at 6 Cecil Court, WC2N 4HE, London. Tenderproduct also has a great online shop with some really fun designs. The shop showcases the creations and wares of the most distinct emerging talent in Art and Design and is a great place in central London to find art and design books and limited-print publications.

My husband Nico and I were in the area on Sunday, so I decided to show him the shop. As it was a Sunday, it was closed, but I was so happy to see my "i heart robot" pillow case set and "retro roosters" designs hanging in the shop window. He just took this little snap with his phone of me standing in front of the store looking like the typical dork that I am.

Have a great weekend!

Bon Apetit

Over the weekend, I watched Julie and Julia with my husband. Meryl Streep is amazing and hillarious and I recognise a lot of myself in the Julie character. (Loved the part where she blamed ADD for being really bad at housework.) Sounds really cheesy, but it is a very inspiring movie and made me realise that I CAN do something that makes me happy. Anywho... I found this really cute print featuring Julia in "Bon Apetit" cooking mode on Etsy by elloh.

We Make London 26 June 2010

We Make London just announced the exhibitor list for the We Make London Summer Fair on 26 June 2010 at Chelsea Town Hall. I'm pleased to announce that Mengsel will be one of the sellers at this wonderful fair and I'm very excited about that. Expect to see loads of new stuff plus my limited edition silkscreen prints, tea towels and cushion covers. Hope to see all of you Londoners there in June. Happy Summer! 

They're back! Yellow waves "Bigger Boat" print - edition of 30

Yesterday, I was printing up a storm in my Richmond studio, as you can see from the fresh prints drying below. The yellow waves "Bigger Boat" original silkscreen print is back and available to purchase in my Etsy and Folksy shops. The edition of 30 are all signed, dated and numbered and ready to brighten up your home. Better grab them while you can. Happy shopping folks!

Mengsel print giveaway at Knitty Bitties

The lovely Andrea at Knitty Bitties is having a giveaway of one of my "i heart robot" digital prints (illustration shown below). Be sure to check out the Knitty Bitties blog. Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Pick 5 - I just want to ride bikes with you

Bicycle T-Shirt by Urban Outfitters

Cherry Blossoms Bicycle wall stickers by Wallspices at DaWanda

 Coasting 8x10 print by den10studio at Etsy

 Large cross stitch bicycle badge by MAGASIN at Folksy

Bicycle colourful card holder by Shara Porter at Supermarket

Market Estate Project

Yesterday, I paid a little visit to The Market Estate Project and had a glimpse of  life on a delapetated 60's North London housing estate. The old estate will being bulldozed next week to make way for a more modern project, so 20 vacant flats were transformed into exhibition spaces for installation art by different artist. Each flat had a certain theme. On flat that stood out was the Yellow Room where every single item in the installation was painted in bright yellow. Complete with half a knitting project on the chair. Quite creepy and voyeuristic, feeling like you are intruding in somebody's space.

 

View through the lace curtain

Shattered glass Estate view

Hallway between flats

 

Liani from Make:Good at their Memory Swap Shop on the estate. Every visitor were invited to particitpate and share a memory of the estate on their beautifully illustrated wall.

Vintage alarm clocks on Etsy

I just love old gadgets. Some of them make me laugh. Some of them are just so damn cool. Some of them brings back good old memories. These days, we just can't keep up with all the new tech out there, but I've found some gems on Etsy.

 

Slim wooden alarm clock by Funtretro  

 

Vintage Panasonic lavender and light blue alarm clock radio by Vintageworks  

 

Spartus alarm clock lamp by claireferrante

Before the Big Day special offer.

 

The lovely Georgia at UK wedding blog Before the Big Day has organised a special offer on all items in my Etsy shop. Just mention Before the Big Day in your checkout notes and you will be refunded 20% of the price into your paypal account. Hope all of you take advantage of this wonderful offer and thanks again Georgia for mentioning my work on you beautiful blog. 

Orimato dolls by Cochae

Just stumbled upon these amazing Orimato dolls by the Japanese artist Cochae on Upon a Fold's website. Each set comes with 10 sheets that creates 2 sets of 5 family dolls. How fun to fold your own dolls. Also check out Cochae's online portfolio for some very inspiring graphic origami projects.

Rainy days

With all the rain in London yesterday, everybody was looking for a brolly in town. Flooded streets and wet, frizzy hair = chaos. With these lovely finds, hopefully things will look up.

1. Umbrella skirt by Cecilia Felli
2. Hand printed teal/blue Bird brolly fabric by Sarah Waterhouse
3. Out of the rain print by Amy Blackwell
4. Cameo tiny frame umbrella by Lulu Guinness
5. Tuxedo ankle boot in turquoise by Vivienne Westwood and Melissa shoes
6. Canvas rain coat by Marc by Marc Jacobs at Net-a-Porter

nice 'tache

1.Mustachio necklace by Neawear at Supermarket.

2. Beards are sexy tote bag by The Bold Banana. 

3. Moustache glasses by Kimay. 

4. The Gentleman's Tee by Forward Collective. 

5. Bearded Boys pins by Hollandsworth. 

6. Mr. Mustachio hunts for Lollipops print by Pennywishes 

Supermarket find: Tetrad flat shelving

The ultimate 80s video game (remember those old game cartridges?). The Tetrad Shelving units by Brave Space at Supermarket, uses the Tetris-inspired shapes to create modular shelving for your home or office. Love the colours and shapes of this unit. It will almost be a shame to fill it with books!

Trend: lace

Lately, I've noticed that all the high street shops have embraced the new lace trend for Spring. So I had a little investigation and found a lot of inspirational architecture and fashion.

1. Lace fence: Demakersvan (Dutch Design House)

2. Kimchi + Blue lace top: Urban Outfitters

3 + 4. Elena Manferdini laser cut architecture installation and Fashion

5. Lace wallpaper: Lene Toni Kjeld

6. Shady lace parasol: Chris Kabel

Kartell Componibili round storage

Growing up in Cape Town in the eighties, my parents had these Kartell Componibili round storage units in our living room. My younger sister and I used to play with our Barbie dolls in them and we created houses for our dolls inside with mini furniture. Everytime I see these in a hip furniture store, I only have fond memories of my childhood.

Available at Bombero 

Folksy Sampler, Christmas 2009

I got a really nice surprise when I returned from my holiday. My Eero Aarnio Ponies tea towel design was featured on the middle page of the Folksy Sampler for Christmas 2009 and a copy of the newspaper was on my doorstep when I arrived. The layout of the newspaper is below. My design on the inside page can be used as wrapping paper for Christmas pressies. Really cute! Head over to Folksy for some designer goodies.

snip-snip-snip

These decorative wallstickers made me smile today. Ferm Living's clever use of this product caught my eye and I absolutely love old, tiny cars.

Colour of the day - canary yellow

When I came across this beautiful vintage enamelware pitcher on Etsy, I decided that the colour of the day has to be canary yellow! Hope this brightens your day.

Yellow enamel pitcher from The Best Things

 

"Madame and Monsieur" print by AshleyG 

 

Serving set from The Best Things

 a- 003DL (spike) by Adriaan Hugo for Dokter and Misses

Desert Rose Locker by Egg Designs

Kreep Planter by Joe Paine for Dokter and Misses

I'm back!

Back in the freezing cold snow of England after a very sunny and beautiful holiday in South Africa visiting my family. Here is some pics from around my home in the snow. Stay warm...