Valentine's Week

Work until you need no introduction, says Bonang Matheba. I believe that and I believe it applies to every profession. So I am taking that statement to heart this Valentine's week. And speaking of heart, I think it could be a good idea to indulge in some self love for women this week. Check out what Essays of Africa says about it.

And if your'e gonna indulge yourself, my advice is to start with jewellery--wear it while you are alive and at least you can say you have little valuables to bequeath to your daughter when you die. Of course, you could just buy pretty costume instead...try StellaDot.

Also, if you are thinking about getting something for a girlfriends then this is a sweet update on your grandmother's potpourri. It's available at Candle Delirium.

Also, I know everyon wears red on Valentine's day but this spread from Architectural Digest and Bonang's outfit  is making me thing sumptuous green.

Crochet is Back

 If you are wondering what to wear this spring/summer then look no further than your 70s closet or your mother's 70's closet. Crochet and the 70s will haunt us all spring and summer. Balmain is all over it. I never thought that crochet could look fierce but Balmain has achieved it.

Some of it, like this Jamaican flag inspired dress (above) and Tommy Hilfiger's 2016 Spring ready-to-wear rip-off of the rastafarian colours and casual dress (below) are just pure cultural appropriation, if you ask me, or maybe some other kind of infringement... someone call an IP lawyer...the bloody cheek!

 And I would not be paying hundreds of dollars for that crochet vest. My uncles wore those every single day when I was growing up and they never cost more than USD $5. And I know for a fact a peanut vendor at the stoplight at Oxford Road in Kingston will be wearing the above outfit. I am very concerned: sure I could find some now if I went to East Queen Street or Bedford Lane in Kingston. Honestly, the cheek of it: taking the Rasta man's everyday wear and  making it into unaffordable high fashion.

 Even Missoni, Monsoo and Oscar de la Renta hopped on the trend in the last season or two

Gonna get out my crochet needle and see if I can knot up a swimsuit for summer.

P.S: He wears it the best!

Graffiti Vilnius

This one you may know from a previous post I did on the restaurant called Keulė Rūkė, Vilnius. This work is actually on the front/entrance wall of the ribs joint. Trump and Putin blowing smoke up each other's ass.

 By a bridge which bisects the river Neris

Curiously the Lithuanians have no problem with graffiti on their city buildings. It's contemporary art, they think. I hate graffiti and I hate them on buildings.

Years ago, I had a colleague from work who wanted to take me to her favourite hang-out spot in Berlin. She took me to an area called Kreuzberg. I suppose in her mind it was a super-hip (translation vomit-inducing hipster) and artsy, cultural melting point (translation: disaffected and disintegrated/marginalised migrants making it work to the best of their ability). I had many problems in Kreuzberg (the beggars at the train station, the garbage everywhere) but I mostly hated how the locals had desecrated beautiful churches with graffiti. It's like a mark of disrespect in my view. Growing up I learnt that poor should not equate to dirty. Also it's a sure sign that I am in a town where the youths feel disaffected, dissatisfied, under-employed and side-lined when there is graffiti and the garbage is piling up. Simply put, I associate graffiti with ghettos. And I especially hate when the well-to-do glamorise ghetto-living so they can live with the guilt of their wealth. I spent half my childhood living in an innercity/ghetto. There is nothing glamarous about that life.  Don't come to a ghetto neighbourhood to sightsee and for a bit of fun while wanting nothing to do with/not trying to understand the locals.  So I do not think of it graffiti as art usually. And I am never impressed by any of it. Just like I was never impressed by so-called "hipster" Kreuzberg and I certainly do not find graffiti Vilnius to be cool. Just me, I guess.

All photos from Ultimate Travelist @utravelist on twitter.

Matthew Williams Interior Photography

I went there for the design. But I left his website with a lot of random questions, like, does he only shoot hipster homes? And, is it the case that women are raised to want a cluttered house with a picket fence and 2.5 kids whereas men are raised to want perpetual bachelorhood, a sleek car and expensive kitchenware? Look at the dude in the last picture in his modern, black kitchen and with his ego-stroking portrait. You just know he has no kids and drives some sleek silver/chrome-looking car. I am thinking that I am gonna make a big effort to raise my daughter so she knows that that dude's life is an option.

Come Over, Look at My Renoir

I'm home. I watched Terms of Endearment on the plane. It's put me in the mood to walk around in a silk peignoir set....maybe something with a Japanese motif. Shirley Maclaine played the pretty, feminine, tough, no nonsense, neurotic mamma with a nice dose of older woman sexy in that movie. Set against Jack Nichols' "old man falling apart and clinging to astronaut glory days" character, Shirley was everything you hope and fear growing into as an older lady. Totally heartbreaking and sad in the end but I love that movie and always discover something new I love about it. This time around, I love Shirley's peignoir in the bedroom scene. She is sitting in her bedroom with the phone cord wrapped around her fingers building up the courage to tell Jack's playboy character to come over for some sugar...she hadn't had any sugar in over 15 years so she was overdue...but she wanted it to be on her terms...lol..it's funny. Here goes:

              "The astronaut is impossible. An arrogant, self-centred, and, yes, somewhat entertaining man who has realised his ambition, and is at last a spoiled child.

              - A match made in heaven.

 - Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you? I don't think he wants to have anything more to do with me.

              - Oh, why? 
- I don't wanna go into it.

              - Cos you wouldn't go to bed? - On a first date, Emma?

              It's hardly a first date. You've lived next door for    years.

              - Why not say the real reason? - What do you mean?

              It's been that long since you've done it.

              Shut up! I mean it! Shut up!

              Oh, it's just me.

              - No. - Call him!

              - No! I'm hanging up. - OK, I'm sorry.

              - I'm hanging up. - Call him now! So long.

......

              - Hello? - Hello, Garrett.

              Yes?

              Well, I was just sitting here realising...

              realising that I had never shown you my Renoir.

              What are you talking about?

              I'm inviting you to come over and look at my Renoir.

              - You're inviting me to bed. - It happens to be in my bedroom.

              Is the Renoir under the covers?

              Don't cackle, Garrett.

              Do you want to see it?

              Do I want to come to your bedroom?

              - Let me think. - Do you?

              Just give me a minute. It's a tough one.

              I guess... I don't know.


              Yeah, OK. I guess so, sure, why not?

              I'll see you in a bit.

              If I don't answer the bell, the back door's open.

              The back door's open."

Find yours at Meng, Victoria Secret or Anthropologie

Ping

It's irritating, uplifting, distracting. Ping. The sound of email, text message, facebook or twitter. Up until 2016 I carried an old Nokia brick. I did not want to get into the SMART phone era. And you can count on me never to answer my cell phone or to not be able to find it for weeks at a time. I've seen mothers on the tram who pay more attention to their phones than their children. But traveling as much as I do I had to give in. I need to stay in contact with my daughter and to take advantage of the free international video and phone communication apps. So here we are: I carry a Samsung something or other SMART phone, bought my daughter a tablet and I also have a flip book laptop from ASUS. The pings drive me nuts but what pushes me past my limit is the clutter. I am thinking of getting one or more of these device holders. I love that DIY cutting board holder the best.

Just a Painting

Sometimes all it takes is a painting to bring life and vibrancy to a room. See more here.