At the time my dad owned a small bakery and would dazzle my sister and I with his creative baking skills. He would treat us to super-sized ladybird buns, gingerbread men (and ladies), piglets made of white chocolate eggs, making up their quirky faces and squiggly tails with icing. His cakes were quite a spectacle and one of my favourite cakes he made was called the Princess Cake. The Princess Cake was made out of a doll encircled by a massive, dome skirt made out of flowers with layers upon layers of icing. My dad would use a cheaper “Made in China Barbie Doll” version instead of the trendy looking R150 Barbie Dolls that were in stores.

I got my hands on one of these dolls and realised how much more fun they were than the real Barbie, it was fun cutting their hair and doing kiddie-like graffiti on them. I could never do that on the R150 ones, my mum would threaten that if I dared ruin their perfectly painted faces or chopped off their beautiful long hair, the doll would never be replaced and will remain ugly, forever… The idea and horror of an ugly Barbie… Ugly Barbie would never capture Beach Barbie Ken’s eye on Summer holiday, which meant never getting married (Wedding Barbie), never have babies (Pregnant Barbie) and will never embark on a fruitful career as a show jumper / lead singer in a band / fashion designer come top model. he will never get to live in the dream house with the lift and walk-in dressing room, sports car, horse and swimming pool! Pretty Barbie just deserved better…

I think I enjoyed these second-class dolls for the lack of perfection pressure and at playtime noticed the other girls in my school liked playing with them as well. So I took a couple of these el cheapo dolls from my dad’s storage section in our house and I sold them for R2, which meant I made a 100% profit! I loved my job and the extra pocket money, I was also providing a service and making people happy, I liked the exchange. I was a go-to person. I am pretty sure I even sold one to my younger sister who could get one for free, this was due to my unique selling point, the fun of a Barbie Doll that you could mutilate and neglect. We were all in fact CHEATING on Barbie and all the crazy that came with maintaining, competing and having to provide for her perfect life of fashion, the lifestyle of luxury and leisure and accessories for her and for me.

Until my dad confronted me about my moral decay, I had a thriving, exciting business, this was my first taste of the entrepreneurial adventure and I loved it!

My small business Soulshine Cards is in its first year, still in its infancy, and I am proud to say that they are selling in 11 stores, 1 beauty salon, and have been featured in South African magazines and blogs as well as circulating the Cape Town markets. Below is what I have learned from my first year having a small business:

1. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as good debt (as long as you plan to pay it back). Fear of not having money or owing money motivates you to work harder.

2. Ask for help. It is in our nature to want to help people especially those who take a leap of faith for a dream and make themselves vulnerable to the big world out there. I even have store managers giving me ideas for new products.

3. Every contact is an opportunity, even a mishap could turn into a massive opportunity – so before you throw your toys, tap into the opportunist in you.

4. Your true friends will go out of their way to help and support you. Being a referral or a kind word, fortunately I have many true friends (*-love-*).

5. Everything is your responsibility, everything. If you blame others and look for excuses for your setbacks you will never grow or learn from your mistakes.

6. You have to start somewhere. As a graphic designer when helping my friends out with their own businesses there is this idea (or fear) that everything has to be “perfect” before you start. Chances are it won’t be and you will change the name, web domain, blog address, contact details as your business grows, it is a journey and sometimes it is an organic one.

7. Intention. Be honest with yourself around why you want to embark on this business journey. If your intention is money (lovely), however you may not see it for a while. You need to be passionate about your product or service, or at least believe in it, people want to help people and buy products that people are passionate about. Attraction.

8. Record everything, from the get go, I kind of did but still had to take a whole work week to figure out and put a system in place and to catch up on the lack of structure in the beginning, that is why recording everything is important, slips, suppliers, contacts, EVERYTHING because you never know what you are missing.

9. Some people will not believe in your product and will belittle your hard work in front of you, they will tell you everything they don’t like about it and why it will never do well. Can you imagine being negative about a positive South African product! I now smile at the irony, but at the time I was devastated and questioned my venture. Thanks to all those negative vortexes out there that have made me a fighter, you rock!

10. There is always a niche for something, think out the box and just to prove it see below.

Wandering around I was invited to get a free 2 minute Afrikaans deck Tarot reading, got some interesting answers. I ended up standing so long in the children’s play area I was asked which child was mine – blush. Couldn’t help myself, I was hypnotised by all the joy exuding from the happy face-painted children, shrills of laughter coming from the crocodile jumping castle and care-bear love beaming from the petting zoo.

Anything to do with Art of Living leaves a blissful smile on the face, all good vibes and beautiful living. “Life is sacred. Celebrate life. Care for others and share whatever you with those less fortunate than you. Broaden your vision, for the whole world belongs to you. The more you give, the more strength will be given to you.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Art of Living spiritual leader).

A great discovery was finding out about the Art of Living DIY Home Yoga course, you could learn to do all the essential postures in six sessions for R500. Talk about money well spent for your well being.

I really enjoyed this message above that was attached to the upcoming course details. The sentiment speaks so true to me, I find when stuck in an area in your life, when it feels as though you are going through the same pattern with different people, as though there is something stopping the positive flow, sometimes you just need to re-evaluate the approach or way of thinking.

Woke up at 5 this morning, I jolted out of bed with a burst of energy. Wide awake, I had a recap of my 28 years on this earth, I am not usually this reflective about my life but I suppose this is what you do on your Birthday. It’s my Mum’s Birthday as well, I was her gift 28 years ago and enjoy spending this day with her. This year I have been more excited about my Birthday than usual, as today marks the first day of  Kamersvol Geskenke (Rooms filled with Gifts) 2010. This would be my first time, for years I have not managed to get it right and just my luck it landed on our Birthday this year.

Kamersvol Geskenke is an exhibition space that showcases South African talent from crafts, ceramics, stationery, jewelry, food… Think of a massive craft market and then “pimp it”.

My experience surpassed any ideas of what I thought it would be. It is the creative Utopia, tapping into your creative spirit and leaving you aroused with ideas of making everything and anything. This is the kind of place were reality and fantasy world’s collide; tables of creatures made up of assorted materials with large, brightly coloured buttons, rag doll angels, mobiles made of exquisite materials, vintage goods and food that does the Tango on your tastebuds.

The toys and furniture for children found every drop of broodiness in my body and I started daydreaming of decor ideas for children’s rooms. My inner voice started talking, “It would be a great idea to start buying toys now for your unborn children, imagine how loved they would feel if they knew you were collecting gifts for them BEFORE THEY WERE EVEN BORN” Crazy, YES, crazy but my inner voice is not suppose to be sane or logical or even kind to me! She is the part of me that talks me into eating another cupcake and I give thanks to her for my collection of children’s books for children I don’t have!

From one area to the next my inner voice just got louder and stronger, “Go on, buy it… you deserve another 2nd-hand bird cage… Why not start another collection; you can never have enough vintage frames, ribbons, wrapping paper, 50′s hats, empty bottles, plants, beautifully painted plates and adorably designed kitchen towels and aprons. Luckily I caught a glimpse of my drunk-looking self in a mirror which sobered my high of overstimulated senses and thankfully saved next month’s savings.

I know we all have our own ideas of what happens to our souls when we leave this earth, be it heaven or hell, reincarnation or a place to wander for eternity, if I have any choice in this lifetime for what happens next it would be wandering around Kamersvol Geskenke for eternity.

This year Kamersvol Geskenke is running from the 27th to the 31st of October on Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset-West, R40 entrance fee.

Woke up this morning wrapped up in blankets, body immobile with pain and the smell of grass lingering in my hair. My body took much longer to adjust to waking up than my thoughts, so for a few minutes my mind was recapturing the hours of walking, conversing and dancing the previous day. I have experienced this many times before and once my body and mind came together concluded that this physical exhaustion could only be due to another awesome weekend at the Rocking the Daisies festival!

A celebration of Spring, Rocking the Daisies is a great excuse to put on your wellies, swim in a dam and connect to your earth child spirit. Experiencing the energy of live bands performing in the open air is a luxury. This year it was well organised and the introduction of the dome (Rain Productions) and extra tents showcasing comedy, dance music and other bands for added entertainment to the main area made it even more worth going.

I am very happy to see that the winning formula has been improved, South Africa is really starting to hold world class events to showcase our deserving talent, so proud!

For those who have not spoken to me in a while I must prepare you as my conversation skills have taken a turn for the worse and I have become kind of a social retard. The same thing happened to me when I was writing the copy for Soulshine Cards, I became a bit of an affirmation card junkie and would blurt out words of wisdom… forgive me, its the creative process…

The reason for this lack in social skills is that I am totally addicted to Salsa. Crazy in love. I always try to squeeze my Salsa dancing and lifestyle into conversation, firstly because it transformed my life positively and secondly because I want more people to do it with me, spread the joy! I blushed a bit when a friend who followed me on Twitter announced, “You sure do a lot of that Salsa dancing, Tatum”. I then double blushed because whilst defending my addiction the conversation turned into an ad for her to join my Salsa class by appealing to her rhythmic longings – don’t we all have them???

I feel like I owe it to you to explain how I ended up in this love affair, it started two years ago with a simple basic step in a group class. After the class there was social dancing, as couples united and the Cuban beats belted I could only describe the moment when I fell in love with Salsa as MAGICAL. My experience is not unusual, a favourite pastime of mine now is watching the expressions of a new student’s face – mouth open, eyes sparkling, holding back the twitching sensations running up and down their legs and arms. In that moment watching the dancer’s spin, flow and entwine you could feel the ecstacy fill your lungs and the craving pangs in your soul. For two years since that moment of magic I have religiously attended group classes on Thursday nights hosted by The Salsa Studio, with the hope that one day I would have the technical ability to be just as wow as the more advanced dancers.

Two years of group classes and one amateur show later I am proud to be part of Charisma Dance Company, headed by Amanda Charis Rasch. Amanda is a Swiss teacher and choreographer who fell in love with Cape Town a year ago and has brought her expertise and passion for dance to Cape Town. Her commitment and passion for dance radiates and you can see it when she teaches and masters the dance floor. Ladies, take advantage of this opportunity to be taught by her. Dancing brings a confidence and sense of self, its that powerful. Love yourself more.

For ladies who want to have some fun try out Salsa fitness classes and for those who are already Salsa dancers and want to add more styling sparkle to your moves, Charisma is the answer. You can get hold of Amanda through the website: www.charismadance.co.za My next journey has begun with Charisma and I am loving every moment of it, should you have any enquiries you know where to find me… on the dance floor of course.

Love this pic above, reminds me of that beautiful creative freedom you have as a child.

This is Daphne, a sweet potato that was given to me by my mum as a look-what-I-found gift. At the time Daphne was a bit of a sign, inspiration-wise as I was working on a fun, packaging project at work. The office thought my duck shaped sweet potato was just wonderful! My work colleague, Des, decided to name her after my dearest mum – Daphne, a.k.a Daphne Ducky. My other work colleague, Kia, filled in her eyes and wings and Daphne Jnr was our office mascot for the packaging design brief we were trying to crack. We would affectionately mention her in conversation and we were very proud of her when we saw some of her spuds grow and grow, and grow and grow…

Daphne is a bit of a miracle child, you see not only is Daphne a sweet potato but Daphne is now also a plant. I realised that she was really special when Des pointed out that Daphne was not planted in soil or ever watered, she just grew. What made Daphne grow? Love made Daphne grow. My mum, Daphne Snr, told me to talk to plants and stroke their leaves if you want them to bloom, I realised that I did give Daphne lots of strokes and attention over the past months as she lived next to my computer. What I would like to share with you is to remember that when love is given it grows and grows and grows…

All worked out that Soulshine Cards was distributed and featured in a reputable magazine in the year and time South Africa would be hosting the World Cup, when the nation is feeling the most proud, celebratory and positive. Over the five-year journey of creating the deck I would have these moments were I felt like the project would never be finished and I had wasted all that time loving it. Then one day it was done, when it was supposed to, it just had a plan of its own… This was a lesson for me in having faith and allowing myself to go with the flow, that my positive efforts will end up where it is supposed to be. So if you are working on a project or have a dream, stay calm and carry on.

My mum is so proud!

It was really special to do this with my mom as we had time to reflect on our relationship and discuss what we value and respect about one another.  This experience reminds me of the “talent” and “creative expression” cards in the Soulshine Cards deck.

Thank you for the opportunity Leigh!

Have just been mentioned on the Babazeka’s blog, feeling warm and fuzzzzzyyyy… I have been a fan of Babazeka’s for a while.

Babazeka is an online store selling beautiful handmade goods that are made by artisans that are part of social upliftment projects, by doing so it helps to create jobs and many of the products being sold on the website have been recycled. This is the spirit of South African design – creative, handmade and green.