Benefits of the long lunch and other undiscovered perks of being a freelancer

Today I made use of one of the benefits afforded to most freelancers, the long lunch. Everyone who is not a freelancer (mainly Debbie) assumes that an average ‘working’ day for me is comprised of 10am wake up calls, 3 hour lunches and a C.O.B of 4pm. All lies! Today however was different.

Let me explain…Debbie is on holiday this week and decided to organise a lunch at the Senyol/Southey (and McKay) studio along with Cape Town’s latest additions: the Delport brothers. Debbie made a basil pesto penne and the resident artists (minus paul) added croissant bread to the mix (I didn’t know it existed either till today, basically a really loooooooooooong croissant). I seriously felt as if I was on holiday, not in the middle of a work day. None the less I started to get a little bit agitated as the clock moved past 2pm (that’s the end of a normal lunchtime, right?) I could feel my boss tapping her foot (that’s me btw) and pointing at her imaginary wrist watch. I started to feel guilty at the stretching of the lunch past 2pm, past 3pm, 3:30pm (now that’s almost an early dinner…) I had to tell myself it’s ok, once in a blue moon, a long lunch for a freelancer is ok. In fact it’s one of the perks, along with working in ones pyjamas and a really early home time.

On my todo list is to try out the other undiscovered perks of being a freelancer.

For those of you stuck at the office, don’t feel cheated, apparently there are downsides to working for oneself. To find out why working from home is both awesome and horrible click here.

Advertisement

Privacy Settings

In Vogue

My ratio of magazine love this month is dedicated solely to British Vogue. Whoever ‘they’ may be say: “Don’t judge a book by its cover” I’m not going to listen to them, I would buy this month’s issue just for the cover. With the pound / rand conversion rate it costs just as much to buy it as it does to buy a book (and if I go to the 2nd hand book shop I could get at least 3).

Well, it just shows the power of a beautiful cover, my book shelf is full of books bought for their covers and most of them (besides for the classics) are booker / orange / Nobel prize winners. My thinking is that if it’s a really good book, you’ll care about the outward presentation…

This is how you do it

Via the Satorialist

Camel and colour

I’m in love with this whole outfit, the bright colours, the camel-coloured trench and best of all the ankle socks and heels! ♥ Thanks to @katedesmarais for the reminder to check the satorialist

A Series of Inspiring Films

The other night we watched ‘The Fall’ a movie by director Tarsim Singh who usually  directs music videos. The cinematography is INSANE. It got us talking about our favourite movies for artistic inspiration and got me thinking about why I love  them. I came to the conclusion that it boils down to the cinematography (they’re definitely not my favourites for plot). I can find a plot tedious but if I think the cinematogrpahy is great, I’ll watch it again for some inspiration, guaranteed.

So who is actually responsible for great cinematography? Apparently the director and cinematographer work together to translate the visual  concept (presumably the director’s concept that the cinematographer aids in bringing to life?) I realised whilst writing this post that I had attributed the great cinematography in my favourite movies to the director alone. I actually had to google the cinematographers…so this first post (of the inspirations series) goes out to all those unsung cinematographers who create such beautiful movies.

Lemony Snickets: A Series of Unfortunate Events:

I feel like I’m sucked into a painting when I watch this movie. It’s as if they put
rose-tinted lenses on the camera, if I could snap my dreams this is how they’d look.
Director: Brad Silberling /// Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki

Marie Antoinette:

I can never forget the scene when a pair of all stars made an appearance in a period piece. The movie is pure design decadence, over the top without being too much. When I was putting together the screenshots I saw how so many florals and frills were tied together by tone. I’m not sure it’s influenced my design style as much as it’s influenced my dress sense, florals are HUGE this season 😉
Director: Sofia Coppola /// Cinematographer: Lance Acord

A Single Man:

I could watch this movie in mute. The same perfectionism seen in Ford’s designs translates beautifully onto the silver screen.
Director: Tom Ford /// Cinematographer: Eduard Grau

Romeo and Juliet:

The cliche of ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ and what baz luhrman and the cinematographer Donald McAlpine have created in this movie can be summed
up by looking at one of Tretchikoff’s paintings.
Director: Baz Luhrman /// Cinematographer: Donald McAlpine

What I love about Australia

Australia has a lot to be proud of (disclaimer: this article has nothing to do with politics)

1. Frankie Magazine: one of my favourite lifestyle magazine, first discovered at my hairdresser, what a find!

2. Summer Heights High (also see We Can Be Heroes) one of the most hilarious comedy shows by Chris Lilley.

3. Angus and Julia Stone: I run up hills to listening to them. Read a review here.

4. Retinart In his own words: “Retinart is written by graphic designer and lover of all things clever, from the trivial to the profound, Alex Charchar” I read it for design inspiration and thought provoking articles about the joys of being a ‘creative’.

5. The lovely Shanna Ritchie for introducing me to Angus and Julia Stone and getting me addicted to ‘So you think you can dance?’ (Australian version with the lovely Jason Coleman…endless debates with debbie: is he or isn’t he?)

Creatively the country is doing something right…I look forward to visiting!

Paul’s post-its strike again

Today’s little gems from paul’s collection of office post-it art. Senyol draws his inspiration for this set from the interesting objects found on Shaun’s desk.

If you’d like to see more of Paul’s art, check his blog:
www.senyol.blogspot.com/

Senyol Post-it Art

Every morning the production team has a ‘scrum’ session, Paul takes this time to make post-it art for Shaun (our traffic manager). The post-its are usually relevant to Shaun eg: the ‘worth millions’ post-it is about the joke that these post-its will one day be worth a whole lot and should not be disposed of in Shaun’s waste paper bin. After I scanned these post-its I hid them on my desk (in the hope that one day they will be…finders keepers!)

The Friday Sessions

Live lunchtime Music, what could be Better? If you’re nearby to the old Vida (the Piazza, Church square) come have a listen.

One for the boys…

Deb stumbled upon this site, it’s called nerdboyfriend.com Basically it’s a photo gallery of famous (not necessarily) nerds from Einstein to Miles Davis. The thing that makes the site really unique is that it gives it’s visitors the tools to re-create these iconic looks. Underneath each photo are snapshots of the items that ‘make’ the outfit and a link to where you can buy them online. A few clicks later, one Jackson Pollock coming up!

Boys who care, or girls with boyfriends who don’t, click here to re-visit  an era.

This week I’m looking forward to…

1. Just got 2 new mini moleskines from Ulanda Chan and I can’t wait to fill them up with lots of pretty finds

2. We just celebrated Jasmine’s birthday last night, Rasheda sent us home with doggy bags which resulted in eating cheesecake for breakfast!!! Bring on Decadent Wednesday! Ulanda wrapped me a beautiful belated birthday present, moleskines and a new book which I’m going to bury myself in since Winter has decided she’s not quite done with us yet…

3. Breakfast / Brunch at Superette on Saturday. They have the cutest plates and cups with quotes on them, best breakfast sandwich as well.

Maybe it’s not a good idea to post this now…the anticipation is sure to throw a spanner into the midst of my extremely productive day @ work!