Wednesday 30 November 2011

Water water everywhere!



Most of our brains and our blood and our bodies are water. Most of our babies and our beagles and our baths are water. Water rinses apples and washes cars. Water steams carrots and makes sunflowers glow.

Yes, water cures thirst, shaves legs, and grows plants. Water flushes toilets, washes hair, and ships pants. We cannonball into pools, we float off the docks, we ice down our drinks, and we rinse all our socks.



We love water but somehow there’s one major moment where we dread Nature’s Best Liquid. Yes, I’m talking about rain, people — because you know as well as I do that when the skies split and the clouds crack everyone scowls and scampers for cover.

And that’s exactly what makes it great when once in a while you just, you know, don’t. That’s what makes it so great when it starts pouring on you and you just stop caring altogether.



Jumping in puddles, laughing with friends, chilled to the bone, soaked till the end — yes, when you’re getting wet and loving it suddenly soaked shoes, squishy worms, and rain hair mean nothing. You’re a gorilla in the rainforest, you’re a lion in the monsoon, you’re just another animal on Earth soaking and swirling and spinning and twirling in your beautifully wet blissful moment of AWESOME!

xxx

Old Love

It’s what life’s all about.



Seeing old people holding hands is a symbol of a lifelong companionship full of knowing glances, inside smiles, and warm feelings in waiting hearts. As you watch them mosey down the boardwalk during the sunset you can’t help see the connection of two hands that helped shape the world. Those hands made meals, held babies, mowed lawns, and fixed cars. They held faces, went places, called friends, and touched stars.



They tried and built and grew together.They lived and learned and loved together.
Seeing old people holding hands is a simple expression of long lasting affection that fills our hearts with hope. They show us a future world exists of tied-together hearts and long lives lived with someone someone we love.


AWESOME!

Monday 28 November 2011

Life List

I have wanted to write an actual bucket list for a long time now. Ideas have rattled around in my head for ages, but I admittedly have never written anything down. And actually, I prefer the term Life List. Seems less morbid.
Until now. I’ve finally written the first draft of my list.


These are things that I’d love a chance to do. They’re not going to make my life complete—the more I travel, the more the bug bites, I’ve found—but by golly, our time on earth is short, and I like the idea of making the most of those days.


The objective of creating a life list isn’t to instil some kind of a race against time or to create aversion towards death. I don’t see our existence to be limited to just our physical years on earth – I don’t see our existence to be limited to just our physical years on earth – our physical lifespan is but a short speck of our existence in the universe. The whole point of a life list is to maximize every moment of our existence and live our life to the fullest. It’s a reminder of all the things we want to achieve in our time here, so that instead of pandering our time in pointless activities, we are directing it fully toward what matters to us.




Here is what I have so far, in no particular order:


1.  Live in another country for one year
2.  Foster a child in need
3.  Buy land
4.  Run through a piazza full of birds in Italy
5.  Fall in love



6.  Be in love!
7.  Buy a house
8.  Inspire 5 people to revisit a forgotten goal
9.  Live debt free
10. Explore a jungle
11. Put my hand in ten of the world’s natural oceans & bodies of water (1. Pacific Ocean, 2. Atlantic Ocean, 3. Gulf of Mexico, 4. Aegean Sea, 5. Lake Tahoe)
12. Get naked on a nude beach
13. Watch the sunrise at the beach
14. Buy something for each of my parents that they couldn’t afford on their own
15. Go to a major music festival- TOMORROWLAND- BELGIUM!!


16. Host a costume party
17. Enter or host a pie eating contest
18. Stay at a spa for an entire weekend
19. Visit Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe
20.  Have sex on a yacht in the middle of the ocean (Gaby inspired me)
21. Hike a volcano
22. Show up at the airport with my bag and passport- take the first international flight out
23. Go on a silent retreat
24. Take a photo at the equator, with one foot in each hemisphere
25. Relax in The Blue Lagoon in Iceland
26. Go on a cruise
27. Conquer my fear of spiders and needles
28. Buy one designer clothing item and have it tailored to fit, with no buyer’s remorse
29. Call out the numbers at a BINGO game
30. See a play in the West End
31. Fill a room with balloons for no reason
32. Play a game of Monopoly from start to finish in one sitting
33. Give myself permission to change my mind about something or someone
34. Lead an entire pub in a round of Irish pub songs
35. Take a solo kayaking trip
36. See the Northern Lights in Alaska


37. Learn how to tango
38. Bake one type of cookie without looking at a recipe
39. Do 5 minutes of stand-up comedy on stage
40. Read every book by Charles Dickens
41. Sail a boat by myself
42. Organize a night game of hide-and-seek with friends
43. Learn how to properly decorate a cake
44. Make my own summer wardrobe
45. Wake up in a hut in Bali
46. Spend a summer in Denmark
47. Watch the snowfall in Bruges
48. Take a photography class
49.  Sky diving
50. Spread my toes in the sand in Africa


51. Learn Italian
52. Do a two-finger whistle for a cab
53. Sit on a porch in front of a house I've lived in for decades, whiskey in hand, grandchildren swinging on a tire swing

The list will continue…


xxxx

Thursday 24 November 2011

Seafolly

Summer and Seafolly swimwear go hand-in-hand through each new season with prints, colours, trims and cuts that reflect current fashion trends and carry the signature styling.

I am obsessed with this swimwear brand and cannot get enough of it. Seafolly is Australian based and specialise in swimwear. It’s is available at Stuttafords and doing increibly well.


Let's all look fabulous in our Seafolly pieces






The one above is available at Stuttafords now!

I NEED this in my life!



Dear Santa

I would like a Seafolly bikini, maybe three.

Thanks,

Grateful Child


xxxx

Anxiety


I forget to breathe sometimes.

My heart turns to stone,

my shoulder to rock.

Thing I take little breaths

but nothing melts.

My brain becomes magma with

the speed of the thoughts rushing.

My eyes won’t look up,

but they turn to water.

I make my chest big,

filling it with air.

But I’m still stone.

I’m still rock.

I’m still magma.

I’m still water.

I want to be soft again.


xxx

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Velvet Underground

Majorly crushing on velvet right now, from head to heels.














xxx


Tuesday 22 November 2011

Right....now!



Life is a gift, a beautiful and constant stream of moments that carry the possibility of anything and everything that we can imagine. The best part about it is that it’s not the kind of gift that we only get to open once or that we can quickly get bored of and forget about. No, this is a gift that we can continue to enjoy and savor over and over again.

The way to do that is by cherishing the uniqueness of every moment, right here, right now. What does that mean? It means understanding and appreciating the fact that no two moments are alike. It means allowing each experience to unfold without trying to make it more like some other experience or forcing it to meet some pre-conceived expectation of how we want it to be. You see, there’s certain graciousness involved in accepting a gift and that lies in being grateful regardless of what’s underneath the wrapping paper.

Honoring the present moment also means letting go of yesterday’s mistakes or upsets, not worrying about tomorrow or even later today. It means bringing all of our attention and energy to whatever we’re doing at this exact moment in our lives and realizing that that is the greatest gift of all. This applies whether we’re doing something life altering, like climbing Mt. Everest, or something more trivial, like folding our laundry. The fact is, we’re here and we’re alive and that’s something to celebrate in and of itself. This is it; this is our life and it’s up to us to enjoy and appreciate every little bit of it.

But often in life, we treat the present moment as a means to an end. We forego this moment in favor of some future one. We overwork ourselves now for the promise of tomorrow’s reward. We deprive ourselves of food and sleep to meet a deadline. We put off having an important conversation because it’s not the perfect moment. We don’t make our art and share it with others because we don’t think we’re good enough yet. We don’t take action towards our dreams because we haven’t saved up enough money. And the list goes on.

When we approach life with this mentality, we miss the whole point. We miss out on the gift that was meant for us to enjoy RIGHT NOW. That’s why the here and now is called “the present”. It’s the greatest gift of life and it’s ours to discover again and again.



xxx

Thursday 17 November 2011

Wild Side

Seems to me that my obsession with leopard print is spreading at a rapid rate. Today in the office, the 3 blondes are rocking some leopard print.


Gabbalicious rocking lovely leopard pants from FOREVER NEW :)



Gee looking model perfect with this wild tee
















Jash in the OMG shirt from Cotton On.... #dig


LOVE!!!!!

Yesterday I was shopping in Cotton On, one of the stores in the new Sandton section.  They have SO MUCH leopard print it’s madness. I walked in, picked up every leopard item in the store and quiet frankly, had people looking at me like I was a character from Jersey Shore. Then, proceeded to the counter to pay for my fabulous new gear and whipped out my even more fabulous leopard print wallet. The cashier was horrified.

Later that evening I decided to wear one of the new leopard dresses I had brought with some cute wedges and a long necklace. I was incredibly proud of my get up, only to walk into the cocktail bar to find my best friend wearing the EXACT same dress…

Awkward Much???


Blonde vs. Brunette...




xxx


Monday 14 November 2011

Tear.drop



I already know I’m going to be a fantastic mother because I have successfully cried during every Pixar movie ever made.

If I can empathize with ants, birds, and dragons, then there’s really nothing left for me to learn about feelings. When my future child gets so worked up one day because she picked out this great chic backpack to kick off the new high school year only to discover that her individuality has been shattered by other girls with the refined taste to make the same purchase, I’m not going to be like, You’re an idiot. This doesn’t matter. No way! I mean, maybe I’ll be that way after she goes to bed, but until then? I’m going to be there for her. Her devastation will be my devastation, and beyond that, I am going to be so thrilled that she can spot a hot trend without any influence whatsoever.

I’ve always kind of had a thing for being weepy. I don’t even mean to do it; it just kind of happens to me. Some days, it’s like I was destined to cry, and fate is a close relative of human behavior at music festivals — you just have to go with it.

One thing I don’t like to do, though, is cry in public. One thing I really don’t like to do is cry in public with a guy. Then it looks like the couple at Table 4 is totally breaking up, I can feel the amused speculation of the table next to us, and I’m just trying to tell him about this horrible story I read on the internet that morning.  

Alcohol tends to present a somewhat “enhanced” version of us to the world, and my version teeters on the unstable side. I mean, I’m more confident (duh!), a better dancer (unsure how this is humanly possible), and supremely emotional. It’s like those moments when you laugh so hard, you cry.

I even cried today when a colleague showed me a picture of her first nephew. He is so beautiful and I saw that proud grin on her face and his cute little hands and I completely wept like a retard. 

Anyway, if you ever see me sniffling in a dimly lit bar corner, I’m fine. My “boyfriend” isn’t cheating on me. I’m just recapping the last movie I watched while my tear ducts rebel against me. You can stop staring now.

xxx


Friday 11 November 2011

Summer Lovin'

Summer is definitely my favourite season. Today is blisteringly hot; it has been for a while now, so everyone in the office looks summer perfect.

Working in a trendy fashion PR office means lots of fashion runway moments. Everyday is exciting, coming into work to see who is wearing what. I thought I would share how fabulous everyone looks today.

Meet the amazing team…


GABBBBBBBY



Top- Trenery
Jeans- Country Road
Belt- Country Road
Chanel watch

"Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication"



CHIPO



Top- Jay Jay's
Skirt- American apparel


“I don't do fashion, I am fashion.”
Coco Chanel



CANDACE



Dress- Rage
Sunglasses- Givenchy


“Only great minds can afford a simple style.”

ASSSSSSSH



Dress- Sowearto
Necklace- Mr Price
Chanel Watch


"Sometimes I wake up and I think I should start wearing a beret, but I don't do it. One day I'm gonna, though. You bet your ass, I will have a beret on. That's ridiculous, but it's true. I always fight with wearing a beret.”


GINA




Dress- Religion (love it)
Sandals- Aldo

    “If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.”



MATT (intern that has to stay with us forever)


Top- H&M
Shorts- Cos
Sandals- River Island
Glasses- Vintage Forever
Casio Watch

“Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.”



LUCY (came for the week to see how things are run here, Loved having her)



Dress- Noa Noa (India)
Slops- Havaianas


“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” ~Coco Chanel




P.S... I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

XXX