Life is TOO short to:

NOT forgive
Watch Bad movies
Read Bad books

I have just wasted 2 hours of my life watching This is 40 and it made me realise that I would rather sit and watch my dogs sleep than fill my mind with such rubbish, awful script, acting and foul language. If you cut out every F-word you will only have  a one hour terrible movie instead of 2 hours!!!!

ON the OTHER hand....

Life is way too short to have enough time to gather all the wonderful memories with your loved ones, to read all the excellent books and to watch all the truly amazing movies. SO MAKE THE MOST OF IT!!!!

Elna, my dear friend gave me this beautiful gift for my birthday -  a jug from their very own crockery collection with an Afrikaans verse and hand drawn sketches by her very talented daughter  Estie. This "picture" in my office gave me so much joy and made me feel so loved each time I saw it. I will treasure this jug and always remember it with the sunflowers that made me so happy. A thoughtful gift is treasured for always.

It Is FRIDAY!!!

I am always amazed at HOW excited people are when Friday comes along :0) I must admit that being my own boss I don't share their excitement but at the same time I also do not get Monday blues... it's a win-win situation :0)

We received this very pretty picture from the Pretty Blog where they used wooden signage that Leigh did for them. ALWAYS soooo nice to see the final product when our clients share the pics with us.

PLEASE send us your pics so that we can show off our wonderful creative fellow artists.

Hope this Friday is filled with joy, not only at the prospect of the weekend ahead but also because we CHOOSE to make this a HAPPY day.

Visiting Doodles Stores around Cape Town

Visiting Doodles stockists

Marie & I have finally been able to unchain ourselves from the studio thanks to Amy & Leigh who has joined us full time :0) YEAH - FREEDOM!!!!! It feels like we have grown wings after NINE years of not being able to come and go as we please!!!!

This means that we have started doing the rounds of visiting the stores that stocks our Doodles (in the past we would get feedback from our reps who gets to sample the most amazing goodies at the in-store coffeeshops) now WE get to feast our eyes on the most beautiful stores and yummy eats :0) It's a win-win situation (for me and Marie :0)

I popped in to Special Events (Stellenbosch) a while ago and was blown away as always at how creative Cindy & Sylvia are. This beautiful miniature shop has the ability to make EACH item on their shelves special. I could just buy EVERYTHING and LOVE it! They have the most beautiful accents for stork teas, gifts for new babies, weddings etc, The BEST of all is that everything is already colour coded for you. Just shop, swipe, sign and dress your table. Be sure to contact these lovely ladies for ALL your EVENT requirements.

Our next stop was the most scrumptious :0) BOERESJIEK, this was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise!!! Leigh has told me in the past how beautiful this shop/coffee shop is but I had NO idea it could be this awesome! A MUST VISIT shop!!! This is a destination store and WELL WORTH the trip. Boeresjiek is situated in an industrial area  - 12 Kiewiet Str, Okovango Park - Tel 021 982 2023. From beautiful decor to the BEST Red Velvet Cheesecake we have EVER tasted - this store will NOT disappoint your wildest expectations.

Last but by NO means least we popped in to Blue Byou / Pink Coffeeshop - 46 Goldbourne Road Kenilworth) and spent some time with owner Sandra Fairfax. This delightful gift / party / coffee shop has an incredible variety of beautiful gifts as well as gift bags, ribbons, boxes - anything that you need to organise your parties. This beautiful coffee shop can seat up to 60 people and the owner is a wonderful hostess. Do yourself a favour and pop in for a coffee - you won't leave empty handed :0)

Watch this space for more peeks into stores that stocks our Doodles :0)

Decorex has come and gone and we are so happy to say that our new Doodles were WELL received :0) We were overwhelmed by requests for our wooden flowers that Amy designed as decor for our stand and due to (very) popular demand they are now part of our Doodles range!

We had an amazing show and realised once again how loyal our Doodles fans are :0) `so many people popped in to say hi and to say that they come every year to add to their ever growing wall quotes. Thank you SO much for your support and encouraging words, we appreciate you!

We LOVE that you loved our stand :0) Thank you for telling us over and over, it reinforced the fact that our vision worked in practice - YEAH!!!!!

Next stop is Decorex Jhb in Aug, looking forward to seeing familiar faces there too.

Stay warm and stay blessed!!

FIRST day @ Decorex CT

Marie and I did the first shift today and I am grateful to say that it's still exciting for us to open our stand on the first day of the show!

We had a great day seeing "old" clients and dear friends (not mutually exclusive :0) and it is ALWAYS such a joy to see the reaction of the public when they see our Doodles!!! THIS makes us realise that there is so much more to these products than the joy of designing and making them... THANK you for the wonderful words of praise and encouragement it means SO much to us.

I will be posting pics of our stand over the years (from our most embarasing first stand) to the current stand of which we are so proud! Thank you to a great team for the effort and to Amy who caught my vision and put it into practice. You are awesome and I am so blessed to have you in my life !

Thank you for visiting our stand today, we appreciate the support

Decorex CTICC stand H18 Cape Town

DECOREX Cape Town is HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are all packed and ready to GO! We will be setting up our stand ALL day tomorrow and I can't wait to see the final picture!! It's always such an amazing experience to see all the pieces coming together because we plan it over a period of time and only get to see the WHOLE picture once we have set up and we are able to stand (or crawl) back after 8 - 10 hours of setting up :0)

This year is all about the warmth of wood and simple lines, birds, birds and more birds :0) how can you  get tired of birds when there are just SO many different shapes to choose from? They will be hanging, pinned, magnetised and printed - lots to choose from!

Please come and visit us at Decorex at the CTICC, hall 2, stand H18. We would LOVE to see you!!

9 DAYS to DECOREX Cape Town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter has arrived and it is soooo cosy at work so we are not complaining about the fact that we are "stuck" indoors getting everything ready for DECOREX. We LoVe getting all the NEW stock ready to show to  you all for the FIRST time :0) It's like getting a newborn baby ready to meet the world :0)

It is always such hard work and sooooo many hours of preparation to get EVERYTHING ready to set up our stand, just getting everything from our studio to the CTICC is a mission and then it takes 4 of us between 8-10 hours to set up. BUT it's worth every minute of the hard work!! It's the only time of the year that we get to meet the people who buys our Doodles face to face, where we get to hear how they feel about our products and where we get the feedback from the end users.

We value your input, your support and most of all the fact that you keep buying our Doodles!!

Hope to see you ALL at Decorex 25 - 28 April!!!!!

Stay warm and be KIND to someone who least deserves it.