The Sahara

I loved, LOVED the desert.

I don’t have the words to describe the beauty of the Sahara. It’s such a surreal, magical place, I couldn’t quite believe that I was there.

I contacted Top Desert, a Desert Adventure Tour company and arranged a 3 day trip from Marrakech to the Erg Chegaga dunes in the Sahara. The trip was long but the scenery was breathtaking: we crossed the Atlas Mountains, passing by Ouarzazate and numerous Berber villages, until we reached the desert. We stayed 1 night in a camp site in the middle of the dunes. Waking up at 6am to watch the sunrise from the top of the highest dune, surrounded by nothing but warm, red sand is something I will never forget.

I didn’t see any scorpions, but I saw miles and miles of rock, sand and poisonous plants. Not exactly cozy but GORGEOUS to look at.

That’s me. “Rocking the Casbah” in the middle of nowhere.

No words necessary.

The one in the middle was my ride. She ate one of my socks (!!) but she was adorable.

Camping in style, in the middle of the dunes. We had a fire in the evening and our guides played Berber music for us. It was great fun. Oh, and I must have seen about 20 shooting stars that evening. Lots of wishes were made.

The giant Tajine mountain.

That’s Ali, our “Camel Whisperer”.

I will never forget you Sahara. I’ll make sure we see each other again one day.

♥♥♥

Morocco

Ah, Morocco… Where do I start?

I was on holiday in Marrakech and the Sahara a couple of weeks ago. It was my first time in North Africa and I was beyond excited! I expected lovely people, warm weather, delicious food and lots of photogenic nature and architecture. I saw all of that, of course, and much more.

Marrakech is an experience. It’s not a particularly relaxing place. It’s noisy and chaotic but it’s also friendly and full of interesting things to see, from snake charmers and ancient leather tanneries, to the most incredible mosaics and jewellery I have ever laid my eyes on. It’s a creative city that feeds the imagination. Here is a small sample of what I saw:

♥ Marrakech is pink, orange and terracotta;

♥ Marrakech is full of quirky and amazing things to see;

Camel Parking! What else?

♥ In Marrakech there are gorgeous colors everywhere;

♥ And absolutely beautiful details.

♥ Best lunch: Le Jardin.

♥ Where we stayed: Riad El Mansour (Gorgeous rooms and lovely staff).

♥ Best Dinner: La Maison Arabe.

♥ Best things to buy: Leather goods (the handbags and ballet flats are beautiful!) and jewellery, LOTS of jewellery.

♥ Best things to see: The Souks, the Medina and Djemaa el Fna square, of course. Ben Youssef, the ancient Islamic University and the Maison de la Photographie.

♥ Best Garden: The Jardin Marjorelle, designed by Yves Saint Laurent.

♥ Best short trip outside of Marrakech: The Sahara Desert – I’m still dreaming about this place. It is amazing. AMAZING. I’ll be talking about it on my next post.

Lots of love.

♥♥♥

And even more illustrations for Fashion Africa

Here are the remaining two illustrations I did for brand new book Fashion Africa, written by blogger and fashion designer Jacqueline Shaw.

♥ This one was for ethical fashion label Black Noir

♥ And this one was for UK-based fashion label Choolips.

This was a lovely project to take part in. It was intense and a lot of hard work but I am very happy with my final pieces and delighted that the book launch was such a huge success. Jacqueline is a great lady and a woman of vision. She deserves it!

Image Copyright – Jacqueline Shaw

Fashion Africa is gorgeous and it’s available to buy here. Don’t miss out.

♥♥♥

More illustrations for Fashion Africa

♥ Hello, my lovelies. Sorry for my absence lately. After a very hectic illustration marathon for London Fashion Week, I decided to take a breather from the blogosphere. My life has been a little crazy these last few days so I took a few days off to reboot.

Do bear with me though, as I have a lot of new and exciting illustrations to post!

Let me start by showing you one of the pieces I did for Fashion Africa, the book by fashion designer Jacqueline Shaw.

This piece was to illustrate the chapter about Nigerian label and designer Ituen Basi.

I LOVE the colors. Aren’t they beautiful? I believe it is not humanly possible to be unhappy if one is wearing this dress.

Image source: Illustration Rally

Image Copyright – Jacqueline Shaw

Fashion Africa is available to buy here.

 

♥ And because it’s Monday…

Image source: Pinterest.

Stay tuned for more illustration goodies!

Wishing you a great week.

Lots of love from sunny Lisbon.

♥♥♥

Finally Friday

♥ Last week was the launch of Fashion Africa, a book about African Fashion Design by writer and designer Jacqueline Shaw.

I was one of the illustrators invited to take part in the project and I did A LOT of illustrations! It was such a great project, I just couldn’t help it! I posted a few pieces last week, but here are a few more. This time, for London-based African fashion label Zed-Eye.

Photo from the launch. Image source: The African Fashion Guide

The launch was a great success and the book is already available to order. You can buy it online here.

 

♥ Yes, I know it received some bad reviews, but I don’t really care. I’m in love with The Kennedys.

I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but I think it’s well produced, it has an amazing plot, a good cast and great wardrobe.

I’ve never been a fan of Katie Holmes but I like her as Jackie. She is not perfect and she’s certainly a little stiff, but it’s a fantastic role and I’ve never seen her in anything remotely good. The men are great though, especially Tom Wilkinson as Joe Kennedy Sr. (He’s always good, actually, in every role he plays). Either way, I’m hooked. – Plus, it’s a nice break from True Blood (yes, I’m addicted to that one too, I’m afraid), so I highly recommend it.

Image source: Reelz Channel

 

♥ Oh, and before I forget:

Couldn’t agree more! – Via Pinterest.

Have a nice and sunny weekend, everyone. And to my friends in London: enjoy Fashion Week! I’m slightly jealous. You know I am.

Lots of love from Lisbon.

♥♥♥