Tag Archives: I ♥ My Laundry

Arno Carstens shows us another creative side @ I ♥ My Laundry

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I’m becoming quite a regular at I ♥ My Laundry.  Last wed eve I attended another “Laundry party”, this time to check out some art by legendary SA musician, Arno Carstens while sipping on some Graham Beck wines.  Wed eve perfection right there…

Now I’ve been a fan of Arno since my student days when he used to rock those tight leather pants on stage as the front man of the Springbok Nude Girls.  You see, I have a huge thing for muso types.  Put a guy on stage, let him rock his heart out and instantly his appeal quadrupels in my sad “groupie” eyes.  Then again, I’m sure I’m not the only girl in that boat, right? ;)

Arno’s always been a great musician.  I’ve followed his music career post the Nude Girls and have continued to enjoy his musical stylings.  But Arno as an artist?  I wont lie, I was a bit sceptical…

Little did I know that Arno has always had a love for painting.  In fact, as a kid he dreamt of one day becoming a full time artist and even went on to study graphic art back in 1992.  But all that changed in 1994 when he met Theo Crous, Anro Blumer, Francious Kruger and Adriaan Brand and the band, Springbok Nude Girls, was born.  Music took centre stage so to speak and continued to do so for the next 18 years.

In 2010, after a successful 3 year stint overseas, he decided it was time to pick up that brush again.  And a 2 year creative journey has now culmitated in his Arno Plus exhibition.

I’m not going to act like I know anything about art, cause I don’t.  But what I can tell you is that I know what I like.  I’m not really drawn to things which I think will look nice in my apartment.  I’m also not one for anything related to the big 5 or nature scenes.  I usually like paintings which are slightly weird, dreamlike or even a little dark.

Luckily for me, Anno’s style turned out to be exactly that.  A technical fact you’d probably want to know:  he paints with oils on canvas. :)

My absolute favourite was this one called “Swan Love”:

It immediately made me smile.

And then I liked the dark mood of this one titled “Beast”:

And also ”Self Portrait”:

And the total craziness and bright colours of “Face of deception”:

And “Lothario”:

Prices for these pieces range from about R25,000 to R50,000 and you can check out the full exhibition catalogue here.

I momentarily got side-tracked by a cookie.  Yes, that’s right – a cookie:

I thought to myself… Now this is the easiest way to get that perfect bikini bum!  Well that is until is disappears into your tummy…

As much as I appreciate good art, I also really appreciate good wine.  We kicked off the evening with some Graham Beck Brut NV MCC, which is always a winner, and then we moved on to some of their reds:

On the left - a 2009 Syrah; And on the right – a 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon

This was the first time I tried their red wines and I really enjoyed both.  Heading out to their estate in Franschhoek for the full Graham Beck experience is still on my list of “to do items” and then they also have a new “bubbly bar” called Gorgeous out on the Steenberg Estate in Constantia which I hear is a must see.  I certainly don’t need any excuse to go and indulge in some sparkly daahling. ;)

Me with the man himself. Oh and congrats to Arno on becoming a first time dad recently!

This exhibition is part of the I ♥ My Art club.  For more info or if you’re someone who’s interested in exhibiting as well, contact Susan Botha on myartilove@gmail.com or 084 358 4119.

Thanks to Arno, the fabulous guys & girls of I ♥ My Laundry & I ♥ My Art and of course Graham Beck wines for letting me crash the party.  Loved every minute.

xxx

Champers, lingerie & some dirrrrty laundry

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Last Thu eve I attended a girly blogger evening at one of my favourite new Cape Town spots, I ♥ My Laundry.  Remember I told you guys all about this awesome little “multitasking queen” of a venue about two weeks ago here.  The event was organised by the incredibly lovely Allison Scotsman from Skinny Bitches in the Making and the idea was for us girls to mingle while being treated to fine French champagne and oogling over beautiful lingerie.  Now what could be better than that? ;)

First up let me tell you about the fabulous Taittinger tasting.  We got to try 3 varieties:  the Reserve Non Vintage, the Rose and the very exclusive Vintage 2005.  The beauties come all the way from the regte egte champagne region in Reims, France and trust me, once you’ve gone French daaahlings, nothing else compares…

SA distributor, Mike Cox, told us that they’d be running a special through the I ♥ My Wine club where you can get a bottle of the Reserve Non Vintage for only R420.  And get this, if you order a case, they’ll deliver anywhere in SA free of charge.  Sweet.  All that exciting news brought out my “champagne face” (which also closely resembles my “fish face” – guess I’m a bit of a one trick pony like Zoolander. haha):

I actually have to brag a little before we continue… back in 2008 (feels like centuries ago now) I spent about 3 weeks in France and I actually visited the Taittinger cellars!  Check it out:

Ta da! That strained smile is due to the fact that it’s like fekking freazin’ down there…

And a cool thing about Taittinger that you might not have known is that they do this amazing range of limited edition artist designed bottles.  Here are a few pics I snapped of them while I was there:

These babies are very hard to come by. But incredible right?

**Check out more about the range and the artists here:  http://www.taittinger.fr/#/en/ArtAndCallings/TaittingerCollection

Then we were also introduced to After Eden lingerie.  You’ll find their gorgeous things in Edgars, Temptations, Stuttafords & Foschini stores nationwide as well as in a few smaller boutiques.

They’ve also launched a comfy loungewear range which is perfect for when you’re chillin’ at home with with a cup of hot chocolate, watching a chick flick.  I actually had to try keep my distance though… you see, I am a total lingerie addict and my little shopping problem has spiralled out of control of late.  Let me show you what I mean…  Over and above my normal wardrobe where I already have a rather large shelf dedicated to undies (and filled to capacity), I had to buy an extra freestanding set of drawers to fit the rest of my crazy collection:

Yup… feathers and all!

So instead of feeding my shopping need, I decided to stuff my face with food in an attempt to fill the hole in my soul… :)

Mmmm… from tomato & pesto sosaties, to beef with mango & chilli and mini brownies with a strange but yummy foam…

I have to say a huge thanks to Allison for putting this little party together.  It was just what I needed to unwind after a long day at the office.

Me with Allison…

And then also to Clayton from I ♥ My Laundry for letting us “squat” in his beautiful venue for the evening.

Me!, Leigh, Clayton & Clouds

And as if we weren’t already spoilt enough, I left with a goodie bag which contained this stress relief Bath Sea from Body Thrills as one of our take home treats:

I’m very excited to give this baby a test drive…

Thursday evenings now have a new standard for sure…

xxx

What’s been going on at I ♥ My Laundry…

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Last week I was invited by Clayton from I ♥ My Laundry (59 Buitengraght St, Heritage Square) to come and check out their very unique concept.

I told him it was actually a really cool coincidence that he contacted me cause I had driven past there just about two weeks before and saw people sitting outside sipping on some wine… I thought to myself “Hmmm… wine at a laundry?  Something’s fishy here… is this some kind of underground bar trying to masquerade as an innocent laundromat? Or some kind of top secret money laundering front?  OR…”  And just like that I totally let my imagination run wild with over the top ideas, mostly based on some great movie plots.  But I needed the low down, the skinny, the inside scoop… you know what I mean…. And this was my way in. ;)

So as the name suggests, they do in fact do laundry (including dry cleaning, dyeing,  alterations & ironing) and for this purpose they are open from 7am to 7pm every day of the week.  BUT, that’s only a small part of what’s going down at this quirky venue.  I would describe it as a little “creative hub”.  A place for sharing ideas and trying new things.

During the day I ♥ My Laundry also functions as a cafe & dim sum bar.  Something special if you’re into sweet things (like me) is their chocolate & Coca cola cupcake, seen on the right  below:

I love Cola flavoured things… so this got my attention right off the bat.

It is also a beautiful space which you can rent for private functions for only R1000.  It seats 14 people and if you need food they will even assist with setting it up by chatting to your preferred restaurant of chef and organising a pop up kitchen for the evening.

THEN every Wed eve they do “laundry parties” where they do unusual food & drink pairings.  Like for example when I was there it was caramel vodka & fudge. Yum!  The vodka was Black Moon Caramel Vodka and I thought it was deliciously smooth and not too sweet.

The fudge was from Cape Fudge (trading as The Fudge Factory).  They sell mostly at markets, but will now be selling at I ♥ My Laundry as well.  I got to sample 3 flavours:  Amarula, Cappuccino & Champagne.

The Amarula (on the left above) was my favourite.  I love fudge!

Now while you are filling your belly, you can also “feed your eyes” with some beautiful art on display.  I ♥ My Laundry also runs an art exhibition initiative where they provide a showcase area for artists & creatives.  In store at the moment they have these incredible wood carvings by a guy who calls himself Von Dee:

He’s a “green artist” which means he doesn’t cut down trees for his pieces. He uses recycled wood or pieces of wood found on beaches, etc.

There’s also some photography by Naill Molloy.  A series of images from the school he attended as a boy which is now abandoned.  I really loved how each frame tells a story.  You can totally imagine what the school was like when it was still bustling with kids…

Priced at R2000 each

I also got to chat to very talented lady, Mandi Garbman.  Mandi is a professional artist, designer & illustrator and she had various things on display.  From her paintings, this one was my favourite:

And I really loved the little owl illustration in the middle below (cause I’m like owl crazy):

I was telling her how my mom used to believe that if an owl was found on your property it meant that someone in your family would pass away. Shame hey, that’s a bad rep for such a captivating little animal…

Most recently she also started designing her own fabrics and using them to make decor items like throw pillows and such:

Love the bright colours…  And a really cool thing to note is that she can custom design fabric for you.

** For more of her stuff you can check out her website, Unwrapped.

Then… as if the laundry, cafe, dim sum, food pairing parties & art wasn’t already enough… they also have a wine club called “I ♥ My Wine”.   They basically negotiate with about 15 wineries each week, sourcing a white & red option from each, and then the wine club members get to purchase these wines at cellar door prices without having to schlep out to the winelands.  Easy peasy.

So, want to join in on the action?  Check out their website or Facebook page for more info.  And to get your name on the guest list for one of their Wed eve parties, follow them on Twitter or Linked In – they announce the parties early every Thu morning, but there are only limited seats available to each event, so only the first few people from Twitter/Linked In to respond will secure a spot.  So get in there early and keep trying. :)

A huge thanks to Clayton for letting me crash last week’s party.  I really love this concept.  It’s fresh & fun and a must see.

xxx