SCOTCH & SODA

Scotch & Soda is an Amsterdam based label that been around since the 80's but relaunched in 2001. Attention to detail, careful crafting of each item and a clear love for what they do, namely making great clothes, they're sure to continue their current success for decades to come. They have since launched sub-brands and now boast 30 stores world-wide, and over 7000 other sales points. The whole site is super easy to browse and I really dig the horizontal navigation on their blog. Pop on by their website here and see what they have to offer. Images courtesy of scotch-soda.com

STOCKPILE

Last year was a huge one for me. I'd go as far as saying the most challenging one yet. It was full of more up than downs, both deep tragedy and unexpected comfort. It's taken a while to feel normal again. All this got me pondering the meaning of life and how we collect things, whether it's stamps or coins, buttons or brooches. Often the things we hold dear don't hold the same significance to those we leave behind. As a child I collected stamps. I spent hours, removing them from old envelopes, pasting them in my albums and meticulously arranging them ( alphabetically ) in labeled envelopes. I guess looking back now I was always drawn to visual beauty. It was part of my make-up from the very beginning, so it's no surprise I ended up in a career along those lines. To this day I'm amazed at the colour and vivid details that some of the stamps possess. I found these albums from my childhood the other day.

SATURDAYS NYC BLOG

Saturdays NYC is a surf store/lifestyle blog based in New York City. Being New York, the shop offers local and visitors a little respite from the buzz with a coffee shop and garden eatery at the back, along with a range of sourced products such as books and fine art. These are my picks og guys goods from the online store. Check our more here.

GERARD BYRNE

Found these beautiful shots by Gerard Byrne here on the dead cool butter and brass blog. Love the simplicity of the idea and how it must have taken a fair bit of planning to get these just right. The stark landscape reminds me of early morning trips in the family car, gazing out at the newly lit fields as we headed for adventure. I more than likely found this blog through missmoss, whose blog you should also visit. Both these blogs will undoubtedly render you totally unproductive for many hours.

JEFF BRIDGES DOCUMENTS TRUE GRIT

I've yet to see True Grit but have enjoyed almost every movie set in the Wild West. Additionally, every boy grows up wanting to be a cowboy or hero of some sort. Well, at least that was the case when I was growing up. Far removed from the reality of what being a real cowboy entails, we'd sneak around yards, fashion forts out of shrubs and generally shoot all the "baddies" whilst rescuing the girls.

I found these images shot by Jeff Bridges on Swipelife. They're a pretty interesting behind the scenes peak at the depth of work that goes into making a movie. Visit http://jeffbridges.com/ for more images from his recent films including Crazy Heart, Tron and Iron Man.

HICKOREE'S

Every now and then you come across a site that has you wishing you had an endless budget. Hickoree's is such a site. Here's a collection of items on my wishlist...a very whittled down wishlist. See more here on the site.

JENNIFER YOUNG

Jennifer Young has a super-cool Friday colour series here. See more of her blog here. Discovered here on Trendland.net

LEAVING A LEGACY

I celebrated my 32nd birthday on Monday. Been thinking lately about how I want to be remembered one day. Okay, it is only my 32nd birthday, but there's been quite a bit happening lately that has got me thinking about how short our time ends up being on this little blue speck in the middle of a vast cosmos. Then I found this post on a continuous lean. I don't think many people realise what it took to achieve that initial summit, and not only that but the resources they had at their disposal. Read more here.

BACKYARD BILL

Backyard Bill offers up great photos of "stylish folks in their own clothes" and brief stories from each of them. See more here. Discovered via The Selby.

99C DRAWING SHOW PRETORIA

Art show organiser extraordinaire and talented creative in her own right Maaike Bakker, brings us another great show after her success of City Slickers. The event details on Facebook read:

"99c is an exhibition offering a diversity of works ranging from leftover sketches torn from sketchbooks as well as a couple of more complete works that all explore the infinite possibilities offered by drawing. The aim is also to offer art of different price brackets, with an emphasis on lower priced works, yet also featuring a few bigger works as an alternative. Instead of subscribing to the regular exhibition approach, 99c is supposed to be more of an art supermarket with an alternative more lo-fi approach to art-making. The exhibition will also feature a live performance by the band "a skyline on fire"

See the Facebook page here for more details and see Maaike's blog here.

WOZELA

Got any crazy ideas of how we can put the hundreds of now unused vuvuzela's to use. Submit your idea here, or have a look at some of the other humourous submissions.

DANIEL NAUDE

I'm such a dog person. There's a part of me that's so keen to buy my own spot, decorate as I will with all my thrift shop finds ( and some new ones ), and get me a trusty hound.

So naturally I loved finding this link on Miss Moss to this post on wolf eyebrows. I've been thinking a ton about just how amazing dogs actually are. We have one at my parents spot and she is as much a part of the family as any of us. See more of Naude's work from the exhibition at the Brodie Stevenson Gallery here.

INTERVIEW WITH NADJA

It's been a while since I've been frequently posting. Work has been hectic, but somewhere between it all I managed to respond to an interview/questionnaire by the evercool fashionista and chef/make-up artist/stylist Nadja of the blog Lilybloom. Read the full interview here. It's my first blog interview so you'll forgive the shameless self-punting. However, the punt of Nadja's blog is a given. Click here to browse her blog and here to see some of her little ensembles on lookbook.nu.

MARK ALLEN MILLER

Bright, bold, graphic and colourful illustrations from Allen Miller. Found via trendland.net. Love the mix of pencil, vector and scanned imagery. I think it adds a sort of retro, instructional diagram feeling to the work

ALESSANDRO ZUEK SIMONETTI

Some really cool black and white portrait and documentary photography by Alessandro Zuek Simonetti. See more of it here on the site.