home love

I bought this from Mr Price Home on a whim last weekend. The wonderful hubby hung it for me, just to the right of our front door.

I decided to fill the glass tubes with a protea and some fynbos because they dry out nicely and won't droop!

four of fur

Having four pets means this:

I thought I would share some of my favourite shots of my four. Yes. Four. I am not the crazy cat lady of your nightmares, just a soft-hearted person willing to let go of all my white clothes for the love of a soft-hearted animal. Or four.

Chloe. Or Cuddles. Or the brown monkey. She is beautiful but extremely naughty. Nothing much has changed from when she was a tiny puppy.

Howie/Howard/the Woolly boy is obsessed with retrieving. Toys, slippers, socks, sticks...pretty much anything inedible. He still has the Serious Face from when he was a young pup.

Buddy came with our house. We found her living in the roof a few weeks after we moved in. The previous owners had abandoned her. She is a tortoiseshell, the vet told me tortoiseshells are only ever girls, amazing!

And lastly we have Panda. She often falls out of trees, off the kitchen counters and suffers from general clumsiness. She takes out her embarrassment on poor Howard by clawing him in the face.

They help keen me sane. In the same vein, read this sweet story about how Dakota the Great Dane found his soul mate and calculate your dogs real human age! (Howie is 20 and Chlo 18 - there is still hope that they will grow out of their rebellious behaviour!!)

parquet...coming soon

Starting on Monday, the wonderful wood-restoring professionals took over our little house! Au revoir disgusting, NASTY carpets...bonjour perfectly sealed teak parquet floors.

I was so excited that I went on a bit of a decor googling spree to get some ideas. As one does. Will post the befores and afters of our floors next!

Love the combination of modern art and antique furniture from here:

These blue walls with glossy herringbone parquet:

The Chinese lanterns and grey mats in this trendy apartment:

And the splash of colour from this pretty apartment:

the ballerina project

I was directed to the ballerina project by my friend and South African National Press Club Photographer AND Journalist of the Year 2012 Cornel van Heerden. (OK so I'm bragging about him a little, he's that amazing, his blog includes his award-winning portfolio!)

What an inspiring project for photographers and ballerinas alike, created by photographer Dane Shitagi.

Check out more of their beautiful images on facebook and tumblr.

determined beats perfect

I wrote a post a while ago about being perfect. About how we try so hard ALL the time to be perfect, look perfect, act perfectly, not shout or get blemishes or cry at Masterchef or eat three pieces of Mich's amazing milk tart. And how it's so silly to be that way because it leads to decision paralysis. It stops us from loving ourselves and our lives.

Did I take any of my own advice? No. Don't be silly. But my hubby did. This is himself:

Photo by Estefania Romero

I am so unbelievably proud of him. After 4 tries, 5 YEARS he has passed his Board exam. The second last hurdle to becoming a CA. (The last exam, Board 2, can be written as many times as you like until you pass). This was the biggie. It was a relationship and life-defining exam. You'll think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Nic has been writing this exam for our ENTIRE relationship.

I had the fortune of passing this exam on the first go. Some may say - perfectly. But I didn't learn from it (other than that auditing is mind-numbingly boring). I didn't grow into a stronger person, someone who now knows it's okay to ask for help. I didn't show grit and determination and an unwillingness to give up, even when looking down the barrel of failure. I didn't cry like a baby when I passed. It didn't change my life.

Lesson learned. God gives us failure to teach us something, even though we kick and scream and yell WHY ME!

Nicky, you are my hero.

New year fireworks in Jozi - BBC News

dove real beauty sketches

If you haven't seen the Dove real beauty sketches, watch them on youtube now. Right now.

I watched the video with tears streaming down my face. I think, as a woman, the sketches can't help but strike a nerve. My husband is constantly telling me how beautiful I am, and sometimes the way he describes me seems absurd, crazy. Nowhere near the way I see myself. I think ahhh bless him, he's just my husband, he loves me for my personality, he doesn't see me for the way I really am.

But maybe he does...

This is Kela. She is beautiful, I immediately loved her pretty blue eyes and chic haircut. Watch the video and see how she really sees herself. Crazy!

So my promise to myself this week is this: every time I think a negative thought about my appearance (my bum is enormous), I will replace it with what my husband says about it (my bum is pert with a good shape). See, that makes me really uncomfortable. And it shouldn't. Well done Dove.

four dogs and a dam

Last weekend we went to visit my brother-in-law and his girlfriend at their house in the Kamberg Valley.

That's the view from their front garden. Beautiful place, freezing temperatures! The photo above will be the last of its kind as the government is building a new dam that will eventually be 15m from the edge of the grass above! It's a unique experience for them to watch the progress of the water. 

While we were there, we hung out in hammocks on the patio:

Saw beautiful skies:

Took our four pups (they also have two furry kids) to the growing dam. They had so much fun tearing around the swampy veld. Those are mine on the left tag-teaming a large stick:

Oh and we drank the most delicious gluhwein. It was bliss. Can't wait to go back!