LOvemademedoit LOves LO

Oh my oh my oh my!
I am so excited about today, friends!
I was like a little kid this morning, all giddy and buzzing. I woke up at 5h00, wondering if anyone would read my post at 5am but then I realized I kinda need my beauty sleep :)

But now today is here - hooray!
Drumroll please... and welcome to my very first 'I like you' feature!

Friends, meet my awesome and insanely talented maatjie Elzanne LOuw from LO Studio.
I am so happy to show her off today!



Zani, or Zani-pants, as I like to call her, makes the sweetest cLOthes.
And yes, she makes great pants.
And tops, and skirts and sweet-sweet summer dresses!

The LO Studio is based in the Woodstock Industrial Centre here in Cape Town, which is where Zani spends most of her time designing, creating, making, sewing and thinking up all these pretty little things.
I went to visit her in her studio yesterday to photograph her and her sweet studio.
Oh what a happy place - no wonder her fashion label is taking off like a motherfrikken Jet plane!
LO clothing is available from the Neighbour Goods Market in Jo'burg and from Zani's studio in Cape Town. She will also be at the You & Me & Everyone We Know Market on the 16th of December at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town. Her Summer range will also soon be available from a selection of independent shops countrywide. Ladies, keep your pretty fashion-eyes peeled for LOvely fresh coral bursts and light and fLOwey greys - summer happiness in one little outfit!



Since today's feature is the very-very first and hence a very-very special feature (the fact that I just used the word 'hence' proves just how special it is), we are sharing some LOve and handing out high-5's and a R350 LOaded voucher!

Eeeek! Yessss!
This is lovemademedoit's first give-away and man oh man I'm bouncing off the walls!
Okay, so all you guys need to do is comment with your e-mail address and a good reason why you think you deserve to be LOaded. Then you also have to drop in and say helLO over at the LO website and like their facebook page.

And then because we really want you guys to be LOaded and look awesome, we're also giving away one of those sweet brooches! I know right?! They're so cute!
One lucky lady will be walking away with a R350 LOaded voucher in her pocket and a sweet brooch on her chest and a smile as big as mine!





The LO give-away is running from today until the 14th December, which means one of you will be wearing a pretty damn cute outfit for Christmas.
Yikes, I hope this works! Otherwise Zani-pants and I will cry and get mascara all over her pretty coral-coloured tops and then she'll be broke because who wants to buy black-smudged coral tops.
Love you guys x

Oh and if you re-blog or tweet this you'll get a free entry (just make sure you let me know so I can chuck your name in the hat again)!

Good luck friends!

Okay bye!
x

all pictures by lovemademedoit

// Pretty bicycle oh how I want you!

The sweet Angie from Lucky Pony together with Starling & Hero has the raddest give-away of all time running on her blog. You can win this... actually, no I will win this:




I know right?!

The Hubster and I were away for the weekend, covering a wedding in the Drakensberg when I saw Angie's tweet! I was bouncing of the walls in our little cabin in the 'berg! Oh. My. Hat!

I just came home to my sweet-sweet Interweb connection to blog the motherflippness out of this competition. You see, it gives me another entry since the draw is completely random and left completely up to chance I have to get as many entries as possible. I didn't know that. I was hoping for best comment - so I put A LOT of love into that comment, which kinda turned out to be more like a letter. I even drew a picture. Yep, I want the bike that bad.

Man oh man, I seriously hope I win.

Here's my letter to Angie, and my picture. Yes, you may all laugh (at the picture - not my letter. My letter is awesome.)

Dear Angie and sweet friends from Starling & Hero.
For my b-day this year my father gave me his vintage bicycle that he’s had since he was 8.
He knows my heart so well.
You might think that it’s a small bike, but in fact in the olden days folks would buy their kids a big bike and make them ride it forever. Makes sense. There are scratches on the centre bar from where my dad would balance a metal milk bottle between his legs on his way home from the corner cafe to the farm he grew up on. ( just a sweet story to make you go ‘aw’).
My husband and I have been saving up and we almost have enough money to bring it to Starling & Hero and let them do their magic and turn it into a shiny piece of awesome. You see, if this bike had been a tandem bicycle I wouldn’t be writing you this letter. But it’s not a tandem bicycle. Which is why I hope that I can win this bike for my husband (and blue is his favourite colour – I’ll just have to snatch the basket off and put it on mine). We will then cycle hand-in-hand with our pretty new old bikes into the sunset all the way back to our sweet home in Cape Town because we don’t have a mom/uncle/cousin who owns a courier company (oh and on the way we will also be practicing all the no-hands moves the sweet friends from Starling and Hero demonstrated in their awesome video. I am especially excited to try out the Tea one).

Thank you and all my love,
Maike McNeill

And here's my father's bicycle, which is now my bicycle, that is still living in Pretoria.
Shame, it doesn't even have a saddle.
But that's okay because we're gonna get it to the awesome guys at Starling & Hero real soon and then it'll get a pretty Brooks leather saddle and be sprayed cream and mint green. Ooooh it'll be so damn pretty.



Oh and you guys have to check out the awesome 'No-hands moves' I said we'll practice when we ride into the sunset.
So sweet.
I really can't wait to do the 'Tea' one.

"Golden Tree" by Martin Brooks from Ninian Doff on Vimeo.

So friends, you better NOT go enter that competition, because that will decrease my chances.
If you do, that's okay. Because if you win I will come steal it out of your front yard.

Oh and Angie, you are awesome. And please make sure my name goes into that hat three times! I commented, tweeted and blogged it! Plus I think I should actually get an extra entry for my awesome picture ;) xx
Eeeeek! I can't wait for the 16th of December!

Okay,
bye!

x

// I like you... and you and you and YOU!

Friends!
An idea has been brewing in my mind and this morning in my in-between-state of sleep and waking (not a pretty sight), it became the gorgeous and beautiful and amazingly-epic killer idea that made me jump out of bed and grab my journal.

As most of you know, I'm working part-time from next year so I've been playing around with the idea of possibly blogging more regular stuff, like I used to do, when I was planning our wedding. Wedding Wednesday was a little tough because, as I'm sure you guys have noticed, I'm not exactly the most diligent blogger and in fact one of the biggest procrastinators on this planet. So doing the weekly thing is a definite NEIN!

The out-of-bed-jumping idea is to do monthly features of people that I like!
Yes!
It's brilliant!
And it will be called:
"I like you."
Clever hey? :)
And I already have the first special person for this feature roped in and I'm going to go photograph a pretty portrait of her and her studio space and the awesome stuff she makes that I like and yikes I hope this works!

Tuesday maatjies!
Tuesday is the day you drop in and see who the lucky lady is.
Plus, I have a liiiiiittle-biiiit of an awesome suprise for you, so see you Tuesday!

Okay bye!

// Antler love

I randomly spotted these today and pinned them, but they're just so cool - I had to blog them too :)
I want antlers to put in my house too.
Not Kudu horns -- deer antlers.
Anyone?



image source: baylymoore

// Madewell indeed

Cape Town has been a little lame with catching up on Summer.
But the last few days have finally been all sunshine, I just had to pretend to not notice the wind blowing up my skirt and showing my white bum off to the world.
I'm so delighted to finally be rocking shorts and sweet summer dresses!
Farewell skinny jeans and cardigans! Into the winter-suitcase you go until next year!
I thought Madewell's Summer 'Looks We Love' style-book would be a great share to get you all just as excited about the summer ahead.
I love the neutral colours especially the grey's and navy's... oh my hat I am such a sucker for grey and navy! This season's colour-craze is already irritating me and I think if I see one more green and yellow and red-striped top I might just vom :)



all images via Madewell

// Wood you be mine - pretty pretty please?

Friends, do you remember my obsession with all things yellow a few months back?
Wood is the new black, erm, yellow.










image sources via my wood you be mine pinboard

// Studio sweet studio

I'm in between editing a wedding and a shoot but I thought I'd do a quick post of the welovepictures Studio. Thanks so much for all the lovely comments and advice from yesterday's post - sooo much to think about! Ooooh - yeay!!! You are all so sweet friends :)

For now, I'm just sharing some Instagram pictures that I've taken over the last few months of our Studio space and the awesome city it is in - lovely Cape Town!

P.S Those of you that follow us on Twitter and Instagram - boo for you :) x



We've started a bit of a tradition of hanging out on the roof on Friday afternoons to kick off the weekend :)
This is what we see when we're up there.
Blessed.