just a few things i miss

- being in school, it was so easy.
- having time to read a book from cover to cover
- Not having to pay for my own groceries.
- my sister
- cooking 6 days a week
- actually reading all the articles in magazines
- afternoon naps
- studying
- watching infomercials and gumi bears at 7am
- girly sleepovers
- time with my beautiful family
- the days when boys would sweat bullets at the thought of holding your hand
- reading blogs
- my crazy and abnormal friends
- lazing around in my pj's all day, watching movies and doing nothing, during the week
- playing hop scotch
- thrifting, haven't been to a second hand store in ages
- my moms lasagna
- aimlessly doodling on a note pad
- the days when everything was easy
- slow walks on the beach holding hands
- playing card games, number one being poker and a close second uno
- belting out to old school music with my dad & sister
- chilled braai's on a Sunday afternoon
- the effort
- knowing implicitly what i want to do ' when i am older'
- songs i can sing along to
- playing with Barbies
- watching Mean Girls in excess
- simply connecting to the Internet, with no fuss
- being healthy, i think I'm getting sick again
- the excitement of driving
- having time to blog
- camping, its dirty but somehow i enjoy it

x

Just a little brighter

Refreshing rain. and YELLOW.

Sorry for the silence.

x

Top 10 restaurants: Cape Town

Found this fantastic list on Emma Jane's blog this weekend, its filled with great vibey places that she has damed 'her top 10 restaurants/cafe's in Cape Town'.  I must give it to her, this list is wonderful - Ive heard great things about each restaurant, but have sadly only been to four of them.  This is sad, because i live in Cape Town.

So my mission is to go to each of these places and give you reviews or rather my thoughts on the place.  Somewhat like this post on Sostanza.

Emma Jane Nation

Look out for it and if you go to any of the restaurants mentioned, let me know about your experience.

How great is this list?

Rachel getting married

This is my oh so beautiful sister Rachel. Shes lovely. She just got engaged. 

Why is this so exciting for me? She is the first of the people I'm really close to that's getting married.  Oh and I'm going to be a bridesmaid! 

On Friday night we gathered for a lovely sisterly bonding and wedding planning evening.  Complete with Peppermint Crisp Tart from Woolies and three teaspoons.  It was a glorious evening!

Next to get married is Christi and then me, 5years down the line.

x

Sostanza

Last weekend, the man-friend and i were feeling a bit lazy, so we took a quick trip up the road to Sostanza in Lakeside.  Its a sweet little bakery, turned cafe, turned Internet hot spot - i mean what more could you need?

Its a fantastic place, great atmosphere, tasty coffee's & awesome baked goods.  I little bit of a recipe for disaster in terms of the size of my bum.  But I'll risk it.  Another great thing about Sostanza is the service, the people are friendly, helpful and prompt.  We didn't wait an hour or even half an hour for our food, which we seem to encounter at every restaurant we go to.  This was nothing like that!

I was pleasantly surprised by their Eggs Benedict, just the right amount of hollendaise, not too overpowering, poached eggs were smooth and with out any white runny stuff, always good right, and it was served on a Rosti - like the Eggs Benedict you can get at the biscuit mill.

Sean scoffed down a very manly breakfast with fried eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms and toast.  He was as happy as a clam when he finished up.  Commented that it was filling, which in his mind is great.

A great experience, its on my top 10 list. 

Its the perfect morning to pop by and have a nice relaxing breakfast.

x

From Scandinavia with love: work area

Scandinavia with love

This is a fantastic example of what id love my work area to look like, bright colours, clutter - in a good way. 

Perfect

x

Somebody that i used to know

From the first time i heard this song on the radio, i loved it. And i thought this version by Gotye was amazing, until i heard the cover by Walk off the Earth.  So listen to the original and then the cover, and you can decide for yourself which you think is better.

Crazy, amazing harmonies in the cover version make it a clear win for me.  And those guitar skills, hello! 

x

Smores in my face

Please excuse the 12o'clock no make up face.  The excitement had to be documented.  I scoffed them down in about a second! It was like an episode of Fatties Gone Wild the way we polished these off.

To make these, go to the shop buy these three simple ingredients and then follow the pictures, to melt them, just shove them in the micro for 15seconds in the bowl and watch the magic happen.

It might be because i work with kids but these are seriously appealing! Am i wrong?

Mac&cheese house party

Simplest, easiest meal to make and look at our happy faces. Legit made this in 30minutes or less. 
Mac&cheese is still my favourite despite the fact that i look like an adult.  Deep down I'm still that little porker.

Date night: Picnic in the car

Last weekend i decided to plan a little secret date for the man-friend, so i packed a picnic basket and we headed off to Camps Bay.  If any of you live in Cape Town you will remember that it was a beautiful day for a picnic on Saturday.  Considering I have lived in Cape Town my entire life you would think i would know by now not to bank on the weather here.  Alas i thought Saturday would be different, but sadly it wasn't.

Once we got into Town the wind was howling, so just cast your mind to the bitch we encountered in Camps Bay.  We and by we i mean he, stayed positive and we missioned to Sea Point hoping it would be mildly better. The luck wasn't on our side.

The night though was a winner, a beautiful sunset experienced from inside the car, great food & quality time.  That's still a win for me.

Our picnic basket house self service chicken wraps, an assortment of fruit, salty cracks, brie, sweet chili sauce and fruit juice.

My advice, if you're wanting to have a legit picnic, check the weather forecast.

Mr Price you must be doing soemthing right

Lately i have been nothing but surprised at the constant flow of great items at Mr Price. Over the years I've seen their trend forecast as a bit erratic.  Don't get me wrong they are reliable for affordable basics but other than that i always described their clothing as just missing the mark.

They have started the year off well with the steadying ability to keep me coming back.  But the focus of this post is more on the guys side. Their men's casual clothing has really taken that step forward, if not only for the fact that they don't plaster 'RED' over the chest of every t-shirt.

Take a look at the stuff above and on their site, i would pick at least 5 items for Sean to wear.  Though I'm not saying  that he would do it, its just what I would choose for him.  Great straight leg chino's and other on trend basics.

What I'm getting at is that I'm happy with their progress - my wallet is thanking me and so is my wardrobe.

Jenny Mortsell - cool things that normal people can't do

In absolute awe of Jenny Mortsell and the beautiful things that happen when she puts pen or rather pencil to paper. A win for fashion illustrations I'd say.

x

Catch-up

My weekend was a pretty awesome one, consisting of Jersey Shore watching, a picnic - in the car, Steamy breakfast, sunset watching, cheesecake domination, Sunday braai and good old ELLE read.

So all in all it was a pretty chilled one with plenty of time with the man-friend and junk food eating.

More on some of these later this week :)

x

For the love of weekends

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. 
What a great way to start the weekend.

x

Thoughtful Thursday

SMILE you're beautiful.

Lovely things: February

 

To be honest i completely blanked about doing this last month so i decided to do a little catch up!

Hope you enjoyed it.

x

I demand to see life's manager!

Just a little something to brighten up your day! And remind you not to make lemonade

I love this, it reminds me so much of my mom, who excuse this, but doesnt take shit from anybody!
She is such a laugh.

The man-friend makes a joke about her everytime i say something like: " ah, this quality is so poor, i bought this last week, im taking it back!". And then he pipes up soemthing like " you do that aunty Lara!!".  Which gets me packing out in fits of laughter1

It would be funnier if you understood how often my mom takes things back to stores.  Its bad.

Well i hope this has brightened up your day a little!
Happy Tuesday

x

Fun with photoshop

I recently got Photoshop CS5 and have been struggling with it for the fast few days.  I had Photoshop Elements 9 but things are quite a bit different.  I found a fantastic blog with easy tutorials on Photoshop as well as cool downloads for blog posts and freebies.  I mean who doesn't love freebies.
Over at Pugly Pixel i learnt a little something called Clipping Casts, watch the tutorial here.
And with that i made this cool banner for my facebook page.

This is such a handy trick to use! i love it and you should try it.
Let me know how you find it

x

Say Hello: i love bokkie

Ive been thinking about doing a DIY project for a while, and i think this would be perfect! The minute i saw this over at i love bokkie i knew it would be perfect for a wall clock. When i buy it, you can expect to see a DIY on clock making!  ps. Its going to be awesome. just in case that wasn't obvious!

Say Hello: Jane Sews - A/W 2012

So yes, we are all in agreement of greatness that Jane Sews creates.
Now mail Amy at amz@iafrica.com to get some of this awesomeness up in your wardrobe.

x