I just love this illustration of a rat – these are banners hanging all over Soho advertising Yellow Rat Bastard.

What or who are they? In their own words: “YRB (Yellow Rat Bastard) Magazine is street based with a bold against-the-grain approach and a cheeky sense of humor. It is geared towards an audience who are interested in all aspects of the urban scene including street fashion, hip-hop graffiti, extreme sports, body art, contemporary and traditional arts, music and literature. Growing in distribution and popularity, YRB is a publication for those who want to know the latest word on the streets.”

Some t-shirts from the Emily label…

Check out some more cool t-shirts...

THE coolest dog in the whole world!

Oscar giving a high-five.

He is a 2 year old Brussels Griffon who lives in NYC and is training to become a theraphy dog. Read all about his adventures on the snifNYCdogs blog.

Wouldn’t this face make you feel better?

Besides being able to do lots of cool tricks like giving a high-five & rolling over, Oscar can also fetch you a tissue when you sneeze… as he demonstrated to us three times in the SNIFLABS office today.

View a video of his delightful trick here.

Bless you.

Oscar is currently also recovering from a broken toe – hope you feel better soon! :(

In the wise words of Mr. Noah, the CEO of SNIFLABS ...

On the blackboard in SNIF’s kitchen.

Mmmh… and I’ve got two of those. ;)

Day two and time to get ready for work…

Sunrise over the Charles River…

A quick stop for coffee at Starbucks & we’re ready for the day!

On Tuesday evening, after an honest days work ;) we took a long walk through the streets of Boston – which I found to be very quaint and VERY COLD! First stop was The Miracle of Science restaurant – more burgers.

The menu board at The Miracle of Science…

We continued our walk finding some interesting things on the way to our next destination for a decadent treat.

Nice illustration for a bus stop poster.

Drawing on an electric box…

Finally we arrived at Finale where I had THE most delicious Tiramisu.

A work of tart.

It was the perfect ending to a very long day. :)

Besides coming to NYC to visit one of my siblings, the other reason was to take a trip up to Boston to finally meet the team from SNIFLABS, whom I’ve been fortunate to work with over the past two years through virtual collaboration.

Our first project together was to develop their logo & corporate identity which led to a multitude of other web & print based projects.

Down the stairs to SNIF headquarters…

SNIF office set in a basement with raw stone and bright yellow walls.

The kitchen where we all have lunch together…

What a great space – I hope Cuie can also have such a cool office in the near future. :)

Time to leave on the 6am train to Boston, yawn…

A three and a half hour train ride – I had to keep myself amused and my cable tie got hungry.

Aaaaah…

... look at the cute mini-me milk carton… :)

Saturday was a day of shopping! Taking the metro from Brooklyn into Manhattan – only a 15min trip and we were in the heart of the apple’s shopping mecca, 5th Ave.

Sacs was our first stop – floors and floors of Haute Couture – from Marc Jacobs to Vera Wang – designer creations you only get to see on the pages of Vogue… a suit here, a tank top there… and we swiftly moved down to the Cosmetic department – in search of the perfect lip gloss and ended up with SOOOOooooo much more! Gifts packs, eyeshadow’s and a whif of a new perfume so as to follow the wise words of Coco Chanel that “A woman isn’t fully dressed until she has perfume on.”

A yellow cab down to Soho and a delicious lunch at (The Mercer) Kitchen and we were ready for more shopping, braving the stampede caused by the end-of-season SALES.

Two hours later and were in desperate need of refreshments, the perfect pitstop: Dean & DeLuca for a gourmet hot chocolate and a visual feast of beautiful packaging and decadent delights.

I just had to buy this ‘Oh Henry!’ candy bar today as it reminded me of that Wimpy Fast Food Restaurant advert that was aired on South African television in 2006… Click here to view the ad. :)

The guy sitting on the stoep with his girlfriend and trying to impress her with his Italian vocabulary – In a VERY heavy Afrikaans accent he reads the words off a paper napkin: “Cap-pu-cino”, “Mac-chi-ato” whispering it into her ear and getting her all excited. It ends with her responding with a heavy accent and a seductive look: “Oh Henry, I love it when you talk foreign.”

On Friday we saw a great movie on Bob Dylan reinterpreted by 6 different actors and directed by Todd Haynes – the performance that stood out most for me was that of Cate Blanchett. Although these actors did not at all look like the Bob Dylan Icon we are all familiar with – they all portrayed a piece of what he was all in their own way…

... view the trailer here.

Yesterday I took time to visit some of the Galleries on the Museum Mile (5th Avenue).

I paid a visit to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and saw a beautiful exhibition on Ingo Maurer’s work. From floating sheets of metal to exploding crockery – all bursting with light. One of the works he’s quite well known for is a light bulb with feathers attached at the base – making it seem ‘bird-like’.

I then took a walk down along Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view their permanent collection of Modern Art – I did take time to view Degas Ballerina’s and Monet’s Water Lillies on the way… :)

I came across a beautiful portrait by Van Gogh which I’ve never seen before as well as one by Matisse.

A walk down Madison Avenue thereafter – and I found a window display imitating the very famous Piet Mondrian’s use of colour blocks and black lines to seperate…

All of this is inspiring me to pick up my paint brushes as soon as I get home.

About a month or two ago a friend of mine had this brilliant idea of getting together on a Sunday afternoon and taking the time to make stuff we normally don’t get time for…

I was inspired by various felt creatures I’ve come across in the past year and I decided it was time to try my hand at it… thus my first two creatures have come to life… Meet Amoo & Ba – a bright pink amooba & a pale grey kitty cat. I’m still hoping to make some bright yellow pants for Ba the cat – which will go nicely with its grey complexion – watch this space! ;)

Mmmh… I should make more time to do these things…

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.“

- ? -

Butterfly thougths.

” ...when blessed silence returns, I can listen to the butterflies that flutter inside my head. To hear them, one must be calm and pay close attention, for their wingbeats are barely audible. Loud breathing is enough to drown them out. This is astonishing: my hearing does not imporve, yet I hear them better and better. I must have the ear of a butterfly.”

An extract from one of my favourite books: The Diving Bell & The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

The name Cuie came to life in one of my many scrapbooks while living in London about 7 years ago. The scrapbook itself was one of my very first purchases from Muji – THE most amazing stationary store in the world! I have to confess – I have a bit of a post-it note fettish. (mostly for Muji ones) ;)

Panda saying Cuie.

Finally, having a blog means that I’ll have somewhere to document, store and share my scraps, inspiration, words of wisdom and other bits & pieces I’ve collected over the years…