pretty maids

Remember that game of Old Maid? I used to cry every time I played it when I was younger and ended up with the Old Maid. Anyway... for some reason, it made me think of Wedding bridesmaids- who are usually young (eligible) women of marriageable age either close friends of the bride or the bride's sister. I used my trusty old friend Mr Google to find out the origins of Bridesmaids and Maidens of Honour -

 The Western bridesmaid tradition is thought to have originated from Roman Law, which required ten witnesses at a wedding in order to outsmart evil spirits (believed to attend marriage ceremonies) by dressing in identical clothing to the bride and groom, so that the evil spirits would not know who was getting married. Even as late as 19th century England, there was a belief that ill-wishers could administer curses and taint the wedding. In Victorian wedding photographs, for example, the bride and groom are frequently dressed in the same fashion as other members of the bridal party.

For this reason - the saying "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride"(applied to a bridesmaid who has never got around to being married) has it's roots in the idea that the evil spirits that were out to harm the bride - had successfuly cursed the bridesmaid instead.

 Bridesmaids seem to date from Anglo Saxon times, among whom, as Strutt informs us, "the bride was led by a matron, who was called the bride's-woman, followed by a company of young maidens who were called the bride's maids.

And as for the groomsmen -

In these days the bridesmaid's duties are confined solely to the bride, but the whole function, past and present masculine as well as feminine, has its origin in the sympathetic instinct; although, in the case of groomsmen, there are writers who can trace an origin in the notion of defending the bridegroom against a rival who might carry off the bride. 

Anyway, enough of that history lesson... Here are some of the cards that I made to give to my bridesmaids -  I painted some brown envelopes with copper and bronze paint and gave each bridesmaid a little bracelet -

Sock it to 'em

I'm pretty sure you have all made a sock-puppet at some point in your life. Anyway, I just thought I'd share a little sock-puppet DIY for those of you who may have missed out on this epic life experience. I made these with Warren's niece who I am babysitting for a while.

Things you will need to make a sock Puppet -

• One of Warren's socks (just kidding, use your own sock).
• Glue - make sure it is a fabric glue
• Felt in various colours - I used blue, black and pink
• Scissors
• Wool

 
Step One:
Cut out eyes on the blue felt. Older kids can cut them out on their own. In this case I drew a paper eye and let Little Miss trace around it and then I cut it.
 
Step Two:
Cut out smaller black circles for the eyes - (pupils yo!) and glue them into the centre of the eye.
 

(please note the bling)

 
 
Step Three:
Use your fabric glue to stick the eyes onto the sock at the toe end  
Step Four:
If you are more awesome than me, you will have found wool to use for hair. If you are not awesome and could not find wool - you will have to use paper. We decided on a hair colour (pink) and then we coloured a piece of A4 paper with pink strips, which I cut up to use as hair.
 
 
Step Five:
Glue the hair strips onto the sock head- right behind the eyes.
 
Step Six:
If you want to can curl the paper up - using one side of a pair of scissors -  like you would if you were curling ribbon. You can also cut out a tongue shape to glue to the underside of the puppet.


Step Seven:
Host a puppet show.

PS - 
Always repay your debts:

jessica hitched

Jessica Hische is a letterer, illustrator and designer. She is well-known for her Daily Drop Cap Project as well as her "Should I work for Free?" Flowchart. Below are some of her recent drop cap Pics -  

 

Jessica is marrying her long-time love Russ and their wedding invitation takes the form of a website telling their life story with a passworded RSVP for guests. And since I'm all into wedding things these days, thought I would share it with you. The website shows the development of their relationship right from the napkin Jessica sent to him -  

and the paper he sent back - 

right through to their matching colour wheel tattoos - 

Go check out their love story/invite here

Pharside and Prime Circle

I first met Marky Warren - Phather of The Pharside  back in 2010 when we were both awesome enough crazy enough to fly back to South Africa to attend the 2010 South African Blog awards which were held at The One and Only in Cape Town. Luckily the trip back home was worth it for us and we nabbed some blog-awards. (high-five). Marky blogs from London and The Pharside provides a good dose of home (sports results, general going-ons, and up-coming events in London Town) for all the Saffers living the dream in The Big Smoke. I was actually reading The Pharside back when I was still living in Korea and saw Marky blogging about some delicious Boerewors Rolls in Wimbledon. I passed on the information to The Warr - and he and his housemates have been uber grateful ever since...

Anyway - when Mr Pharside heard that I had made it safe and sound to London - he offered The Warr and I some comp tickets to see Prime Circle last Sunday at The Walkabout in Shepherd's Bush.

They were awesome and seeing them live again brought back many memories of my University-days when they toured down to Grahamstown. (think: mosh-pitting-groupies.) At the end of the show - they came down to mix with the crowd. I definitely high-fived the guitarist.

Huge thanks to Marky Warren and The Pharside. You can follow The Pharside on Facebook or Marky on Twitter to keep up with Saffer news, random-awesome funnies and loads of up-coming events - (ie: Barry Hilton in London in July - and you can win tickets HERE.)

Review: The Bluebird Chelsea

We headed out for drinks to The Bluebird Chelsea last Friday for "date night". The Bluebird Chelsea has hosted plenty of Stars like Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling for the European Premiere of The Lucky One and is a popular spot for London's socialites to be seen hanging out. The interior is absolutely gorgeous with high ceilings and skylights- which is awesome in London when the sun goes down so late in Summer. The chairs and tables are different/co-ordinating to give the inside a very modern eclectic feel. There is a gorgeous summer garden outside to enjoy drinks when the weather is peachy. I couldn't stop commenting on how awesome the wallpaper and the menu covers were. The pic above is from the bill-docket (which I definitely kept) and is also what the menu cover looks like and some of the interior wallpapers. Fancy no? 

(pics taken off the bluebird chelsea website)

 We ordered some cocktails which were quite pricey but super delicious. It's not really the kind of establishment where you whip out your iPhone to snap pics of your fancy drinks - even although I was really itching to. Anyway decided to share my artistic impression of the drinks we ordered with my little review. Warren started out with a vodka martini. With Olive. James Bond Style. We all know what that looks like, so I'm not drawing it.

The first cocktail I had was the Chelsea Flower - one of their speciality drinks, which was recommended by one of the bar-tenders. It was really fresh, slightly fruity/apple taste and quite "florally" if I could describe a drink like that. It was served with a little flower and crushed ice so it makes a delicious summer drink.

The next cocktail I had was the Stardust Martini (since I was slightly jealous of Warr and the James-Bondness of his last drink). It had a fruity-pear taste but because of all the gin and absinthe it wasn't an overpowering fruit-smack in the face. It was very yum and gone a bit too quickly...

Warr then switched it up and had the Heart of Darkness (which was my choice for him - not because I think he has a Heart of Darkness, but because it had chili in it - so i told him he should try it because he loves spicy things and also - he's just so hot. {lol im hysterical}.) He did love it. It was garnished with apple and chili for an extra zing - You see that red thing in my picture? It's a chili. Chilis don't float. Do you see that white thing underneath it? That's a slither of apple. Apples do float. Chili, floating on apple. Genius.

There is also a shop attached to the ground floor of The Bluebird Chelsea - we didn't go in because I think they were closing - which was fortunate/unfortunate depending on how you view your bank balance.  There are also different events on offer at The Bluebird Chelsea such as Moet and Chandon tasting, Pizza making and outdoor film screenings which you can read more about on the website.  

This place is definitely worth a little visit if you feel like being glamourous for a night.
We then hit up the Big Easy Crabshack for some delicious food-nomming.

Date Night: ten points.

Southbound Bride

(pic credit: Monica Dart)

On Tuesday I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Gaby (above) from Southbound Bride. Southbound Bride (SBB) is:

a wedding blog designed to support and inspire brides and grooms getting married in South Africa and to promote the SA wedding industry, with a particular focus on the Cape.

I started reading Southbound Bride - (formerly Cap Classique) almost a year and a half ago when Gaby contacted me to do a guest-post on her blog. (Yes, I was reading wedding blogs before I got engaged. Yes, girls do that.) In the guest-post I shared some pictures of the wedding invitations I had designed and the wedding guestbook I was asked to make while I was living and working in South Korea. Southbound Bride also features a weekly "Love List" and Gaby chose one of my personalised wrapping-paper designs in one of her lists which you can see here. Southbound Bride is really a great source of inspiration, ideas and real-wedding stories for brides (engaged or not).

Gaby lives in London and asked to meet up at the most gorgeous little cafe called Belle Amie which is just down the road from where I'm staying.

I had an AMAZING carrot cake and cappuccino. Moist and tasty and delicious. It is so lovely to meet a blogger who you have been following online because once you have met them - you can totally hear their voice - (figurative + literal) in the things they say in blogposts.  We got straight onto chatting and Gaby shared some awesome wedding related stories. Gaby has an amazing way with words and I was literally hanging off every sentence. lol. I left our little coffee date feeling so inspired and enthusiastic - not just about wedding stuff, but about life in general and the direction I would like to take indieBerries and my design work. (Thank you Gaby!) It was also great to be able to "talk wedding" to someone other than Warren (who will probably reach his wedding-talk quota pretty soon) and without the rest of the housemates wanting to smack me in the face, with all the save-the-dates-wedding-planning-colour-scheme-moodboarding that is going on. ha.

We got so wrapped up in chatting that I forgot to take some snaps of the inside of Belle Amie - it was a gorgeous little coffee shop on Garratt Lane- with a gorgeous shabby-chic vibe. Def worth a visit - even without the cake. (Except you really should have the cake).

These pics were stolen taken off the Belle Amie Facebook Page.

Go there.

And also hit up Southbound Bride to feed your eyes on wedding loveliness.