escapee!

my first stop motion

one small step for design...

So on Saturday, Simon tweeted that he'd come across some pretty obvious design rip-offs in a well-known SA store. Not on the side of the street or in a dodgy flea market, but in YDE of all places. Young Designers Emporium. 

"Out shopping & came acros this BLATANT RIPOFF of the @TokiDoki brand @ YDE Canal Walk! pic#1 pic#2"

Those of us who follow and enjoy Simone Legno's work (Tokidoki) were pissed off and seriously disappointed that a large store who claim to be centred on original design would carry something like that. A tweeting crusade ensued. Well, I say crusade, but mostly Simon tweeted @YDEtweets and @Tokidoki a lot, and we re-tweeted everything he posted. The more eyeballs the better.

Today, he got his response... 

“@YDEtweets: @TokiDoki @HelloVinyl After further discussions, the designer has made a decision to recall the bags.”

 

How fabulous is that? It shows the power of twitter and the power of our opinions. If three of us had walked in to a YDE store and complained about the bag to a store manager, I doubt much would have happened. But using a tool like twitter that has the potential to spread far and wide puts the brand in your hands. You now have a say in a brand's PR.

[as an aside, let's protect our designers and their hard work! tweet fakes whenever you find them!]

grow, garden, grow!

After our failed attempt at a veggie patch, and the garden not surviving as beautifully as we'd hoped after our wedding, we decided to get someone in to help. We have a beautifully spaced garden, but a tricky one with complicated soil thanks to the biggest tree in the neighbourhood standing in the corner leaking alkaline onto everyone around him. But he's gorgeous, so you work around him.

Anamaria arrived, took one look around and told us our garden didn't suit us, and it was too old fashioned for a young couple. All in broken Spanish. She's great :)

It's been a lot of fun watching it all go out, then all go in, and seeing things through someone else's eyes - someone who can explain to you what's really going on. 

My favourite piece so far, and the section I was weeding this weekend, is the cactus garden (though if Anamaria heard me calling her succulents cacti...). There are loads of pics to come from this project, but here's the start...