Hey December! I'm back in action!

Hey friends, I know it's been forever since I last posted here. To tell you the truth, I've had the worst year ever! My mom and I went to Pretoria in October to celebrate my gran, Paulina's, 70th birthday and my 31st… That was the highlight of my year! Surrounded by family and friends, I was spoilt rotten! Although I missed Dave and the fresh sea breeze, it was soooo good to be able to spend time with so many of the people I love! Any case, I just wanted to say "I'm still here" while I still feel up to writing this post.

My aunts all did a wonderful job with organising my gran's 70th Birthday party! It was held at Lynnwood Primary School where they have the loveliest little venue which they rent out for special events. I'm not sure who the caterer was, but the food was both pretty and delicious! Well done to all parties involved. My gran's 70th was quite a memorable one.

So much detail and Lavender everywhere, because it's my gran's favourite herb, smell, colour…. you get the point. My mom and I were so fortunate to be there and to share this joyous day with her.

At 70, my gran is on Facebook, works a digital camera, sends us whatsapps regularly… this granny is quite up to speed with technology. She also posts recipes on a few Facebook groups, I think she might even be more socially active than I am.

Everyone pitched in and with a lot of organising and work my aunts gathered photographs of each of the 4 daughters, 6 grand daughters and 2 great grand daughters. They then had a calendar made with the four generations of woman in our family. Aren't they just beautiful? All of them!

My grandparents are so cute together, I can only hope that Dave and I end up like them at that age. Well, I was born on my grandmother's birthday and since I can remember, I've had two birthdays! One with friends and one with family. It's always a special birthday when we're able to celebrate it on the day, together.

To my gran, who is a regular here on OddOneOut, thank you for your endless love and support. I appreciate every link you share and every like or comment you leave, love you!

xxx

Suzanne Vega Came to South Africa!

I couldn't believe it when I first found out! The very first time I saw a poster advertise the event, I didn't even think that it was for real, that Suzanne Vega was coming to South Africa! I first heard Luka played on the radio when I was just a little girl. A few years later, I was mesmerised by Tom's Diner (found on one of my dad's mix-tapes) just to find out it was the same artist, Suzanne Vega. I remember rewinding and playing and rewinding and playing Tom's Diner over and over again on my walkman. Many years went past and I met my high school BFF, Katinka, and we were both into the oldies, classic rock, rock, alternative and more. So one day I visited her on their farm and she took me into their parents room where her dad kept his record player and his record collection. We listened to Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and then she put this record on, Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing. Wow, we just lay on the bed listening to this record, it was amazing! Her song writing skills are so… I'm speechless right now. Her songs take me to a far off place in my imagination, it seems like each and every one is an episode I've lived and relived in my mind.

So now, can you imagine how completely surprised I was to here that she would be performing at the Paul Cluver Amphitheatre not far from where we stay?! I bought tickets right away and dragged Dave with me, a week before the show I heard it was sold out, I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have gotten tickets!

 -we have been living in Hermanus for three and a half years now and have never been to this amazing venue! how crazy is that? It is about a 20min drive from our place. The Amphitheatre is situated on the Paul Cluver Wine Estate's land and has recently been rebranded as Hope@Paul Cluver. What an amazing experience! Suzanne Vega was the kick-off of their Summer Festival which run through to Feb. next year. You can pack a picnic basket and they advise you to take warm clothes and blankets. They don't allow alcohol as they supply wine and beer, they also had food available for those who don't like packing their own food. I thought it even more amazing to do the picnic thing-

 -so exited for the show to start, Dave bought us a bottle of Paul Cluver Pinot Noir. Boy, was it delicious! When we got there(two hours before the show was to start) all the seats down the middle had already been taken. Luckily for us we got this "side" seating right at the stage-

 -the supporting artist, Nakhane Touré, a young and up-coming South African musician from Port Elizabeth, was quite something to watch. Unfortunately his sound was a bit on the loud side and as we sat right in front of the speakers we got terrible distortion and couldn't hear the lyrics. Other than that I was rather surprised at his style of music and quite enjoyed his performance. I would like to see him perform again but with better sound-

-the man above right,  Charl van Heyningen, is the man responsible for Suzanne Vega coming to South Africa-

 -and there she was! what an extraordinary woman! she is so talented. She brought guitarist Gerry Leonard with her(standing next to her on stage, above)-

-I don't know what more to say, it was one of the best days of my life! I don't think any words could describe what an amazing experience this was for me! …and Dave said he enjoyed it too:)

  

Love is all around

Yesterday morning Dave woke me with a big bush of flowers and a lovely little gift bag filled with goodies. After work, we took our picnic basket and drove to "Brekfis Baai" (it translates to: Breakfast Bay), a small isolated beach in Vermont, Hermanus. We walked the nature path down to the rocks and found a nice spot to sit. In our picnic basket I packed Marsh Mallow Sunday soda's, a Sushi platter for two and Vanilla yogurt with Turkish Delight pieces for dessert. It was a bit tricky to sit and eat sushi with chopsticks and balance the platter on the rocks, but it was delicious!

  -we had the most beautiful scenery, clouds and sunset-

- everything was so yummy, the sushi was so fresh! Thanks to Dave,
this turned out to be such a wonderful day-

-when the sun went down and we started walking back to the car, we realized that we were trapped! Swarms of Sand Fleas were coming from the plants, the sand and everywhere you look. All of them heading towards the sea. It was like we were in some kind of sci-fi movie, we had to make a run for it. These things were all over that beach, I've never ever seen something quite like this before. It was freaky and disgusting-

xxx

  

take me back...

Sorry friends, no outfit post today. We're still waiting for our internet to be sorted and I can only get to a connection once, maybe twice a week. It's so frustrating and I feel so distanced from the world(you know, not being connected and all). Any-hoo... I do have some awesomeness to share with you!

The other day we went to Cape Town to look for a fridge, and found not a fridge but this amazingly retro 1950's style diner. We were walking around in Canal Walk (a shopping center in Cape Town), when my eye fell upon this little gem, named Joe's easy Diner.

 -We sat at the counter to get that "movie" atmosphere and then we ordered 'American style 

stacked pancakes' is was so yummy! ...they really did an awesome job with the layout and decor,

it makes you feel like you're playing the roll of an extra in one of the Back to the Future movies-

-The staff were all dressed-up in the appropriate gear and oh-so friendly. In the background you could

here the swinging music of the 50's, playing their happy tunes. 

As you can see we couldn't help but snap away. 

I joined them on facebook right away and we will definitely be going back!-

LOVED IT!

xxx 

Hermanus Whale Festival

Every year busloads of tourists flock to our little town for the Whale Festival. This Festival marks the peak of the Whale season and if you're lucky you can see the whales playing in the water from the shore. This year we have had quite a lot more whales than last year. They are also not shy, we've seen the most awesome displays of whales breaching, so close it feels unreal! We have a Whale Crier who blows his bamboo horn when he sees the whales, this notifies the tourists who the swarm the view points, taking pictures and even applauding when they see the whales breaching. For amazing aerial photo's of our whales, click here.

 -fun for the kids at the Festival was moved to Gearings Point this year-

 -Old Harbour: this is where you go for kayaking and other water activities

-Are those people hanging about in the freezing Cape waters?

-It can't be?!: Our Family friends, all the way from Gauteng! We didn't see them, they didn't see us and when I went through our photo's after meeting up with them, I was astonished! We walked right past them, Dave took a random photo and then we went to the Checkers tent-  

 

-What a beautiful display of local Fashion designers' latest ranges and local food prepared by two of our well loved celebrities, David Flock and Sharleen Surtie-Richards.

It's my Party!

Hiya Friends! I know this seems a bit late (as my birthday was last Thursday) but I have my reasons:)

So if you would like to join me for the most delicious croissants ever... meet me (and Dave) at the Belgian Bakery in Hermanus on Saturday at 11:00. If you would be so kind as to RSVP by Thursday so I know how many party favours to make<3 p="p">

Hope to see you then, have an awesome week!

xxx

Our week in George: Day #4

What a busy day this was! We started this day with a visit to the Hartenbos Museum. How interesting! They have all types of antique and traditional implements used by the Voortrekkers/Boere(this is what you might call the "old folk people" of South Africa, in the times before electricity). When they were still nomads they traveled in wagons we called the ossewa. When they started settling, they used peach pips to decorate they're floors(as shown in the second row, third photo). But what interested me most were the textiles of course...  

-such pretty textiles, dainty knits, fine crochet and lovely granny floral prints. Every wagon displayed in this museum was equipped with the most beautiful hand-sewn quilt. Every item in this museum is an original, all these things have been made, used, worn, by these people many years ago-

-After the museum, we went to the Sea Gypsy for lunch. It's a seafood restaurant at the Mossel Bay harbour, right on the sea! The view while you eat is amazing and so is the food-

-such beauty! We walked this Nature trail at the Mossel Bay lighthouse, we couldn't really get a picture of the lighthouse for the trail. The view of the sea while walking is unbelievable and the air is so fresh. As you walk this path, you realize every now and then that you are quite high up and the way down is scary and rocky. Then you look up and the beauty of this place overcomes you. As you stare at the swells and the waves crashing up against the rock way down below, it feels like you're about to be engulfed by this mass of deep dark blue-

-The day came to a relaxing end at home while Dave's mom performed "dances with chickens" and made her delicious cheese bread. Dave's dad braai'd (it's like barbeque only better) the chicken and the rest of us became couch potatoes till the food was ready. We chilled, we ate and the rest is history-

xxx

Our week in George: Day #3

This was a chill day at home. We woke up late, had coffee and rusks and then Yuseon told Paul to get their suit-case out of the garage. It was prezzy time! They'd packed a huge luggage bag full of gifts for their South African family (that includes me and Dave, yay). We also had quite a few gifts for them to take home but sadly the photo's I took of the handmade gifts were lost. I would very much have liked to share them with you:(  Any way, this is how the day started.  

-Dave designed Paul and Yuseon a very special book with photo's he took of them when we first met Yuseon about three and a half years ago (top two photo's). Then, what was a Borrat mustache, became a Freddy Mercury mustache when Paul put it on.... and then when we looked through the photo's later we saw "where's Waldo?". Waldo would be very jealous of  Paul's stripy shirt! The last pics of me (at the bottom here) are of the most amazing dress that Yuseon had bought me. She didn't even ask me what my size was and when I tried it on, it was a perfect fit! It's just beautiful, thanks you guys, for all our beautiful gifts-  

 

-I dubbed this battle "Rosemary River" because of the big Rosemary bush on the left there and when it rains the water is lead through this blue pipe into the bedding, making a river. Any way, Dave saw these little army men and was overcome with nostalgia. Missing his brother, he bought a pack and put it away until he would see his brother once again... and the outcome was war!-

 -time for Sunday Lunch, the South African way. Especially for Yuseon, Dave's Dad made roast lamb which cooked all day. It was delicious! Dave's Mom made all the veggies (also traditionally South African) of course, yummmmm! After lunch we went to the Botanical gardens to play a bit of cricket. I suck at sports. Dave's Mom, on the other hand, kicked ass!-

xxx 

 

Our week in George: Day #2

Hi-ya friends! What a strange month this has been. The first week I had fun in George, the second week I got sick, the third I got busy and then sick again. Now I'm starting to recover and I even know what day it is again. So to catch-up with you guys, I've decided to do a double header this week. This means that I will be doing two posts per day this whole week. I hope you're ready for some fun...

-this day we drove out to Mossel Bay, enjoyed the beautiful scenery while the boys played a bit of Rugby on the beach and a strange old man spent the day with his Dachshund-

-we drove a bit further where we stopped at another beach to enjoy the calm of the waves, the gathering Kelp Gulls and the way the earth became darker and all the electric lights started flickering across the waters. We then ended the night with the most delicious dinner at a restaurant which name I have now forgotten but will post as soon as I remember, cause it was great!-

xxx

Our week in George: Day #1

Well hello... I'm back from a quick holiday in George, Western Cape. We spent the week at Dave's parents place. Dave's brother, Paul, and his wife, Yuseon, came to visit there all the way from South Korea. We haven't seen these two lovely people in three and a half years! Isn't that crazy! Any-hoo, we were on quite a tight schedule that Dave's dad worked out for us. The first day we spent walking the amazing nature trail at Herolds Bay, wow! What a view and to be surrounded by utmost beauty!

-someone had cemented this heart(above) onto a rock, right on the edge of the cliff-

 -there are the most beautiful houses around the Herolds Bay Beach area,
but these ones(above) really stood out-

-Yuseon made us Vietnamese spring rolls(as starter) and Korean Chicken(as main)

It was delish! I asked her to right down the recipe for me, so I will be making this dish soon-

xxx

Happy Birthday, Friend!

Hey Natasha (Bamboo Blossom)! Happy Birthday to you! I'm so glad you like your prezzy....yay! I made you this "goody jar" which contains the following goodies:

1. Vintage Buttons - because you love sewing
2. A winter brooch - I made using vintage corduroy that I found at the charity shop
3. Grape lipbalm - because it's yummy
4. Rubber Ducky - just for fun
5. Ice-cream scented bubbles - because it's awesome
6. Mini crochet bunting - I made this one for your work area
7. A lovely beaded handbag charm - but you can really put it anywhere you like<3 

 

 Thank you for inviting Dave and I to your party. It was awesome! The movie at Romantiques was great! I love "Some like it hot", Marilyn Monroe is so funny, and don't get me started on the cross-dressing Jack Lemmon and  Tony Curtis... Natasha also made all her guests party packs to enjoy during the movie. Those Brownies were yummy! Only, it was a bit difficult to see what you were eating in the dark theater and when the movie was out, Dave told me that he had almost dunked his brownie in the tomato sauce (which was meant for the pastry), hahaha! I don't even want to think what that would have tasted like, yuck! 

So after the movie we went to Tapa's for drinks and ended up having Nacho platters. OH MY WORD! I've had Nachos at various places, but this was by far the best Nachos I have ever had! Wow! Anyway, thanx for a really awesome time, friendy! Let's do it again!

-It was so nice meeting all Natasha's lovely friends, hope to see you guys again-

xxx

MATCHBOX...hello!

This is my most favourite secondhand shop in Hermanus! I first stumbled upon this little shop when I was on holiday in Hermanus, a year before we moved here. I've been going back to Matchbox regularly for the past two years now. The owner, Irma, has become quite a good friend of mine and I like to just drop in for tea but I always come home with something awesome! I just can't seem to help myself... Matchbox sells anything from records to vintage treasures and the goods are reasonably priced. I wish I had a truck-load of money to spend there, I would clean her out!

 I love how she displays everything! She even painted the walls and put up the wall paper herself, she is such a creative lady<3

 ...me &my camera shy friendy:)

 Oh, Irma found Mr. Bunny at an auction, he look to be quite old...even vintage. So she let Mr. Bunny visit me for a while so I can investigate how he was made (I've been working on some plushy OddOne's...shhhh!) 

xxx

Hello Friend:)

A few months ago there was a new follower on my blog, then on Pinterest, then on facebook and then in my  facebook inbox, and the next thing you know we're having lunch at Burgundy's. This lovely lady's name is Natasha and she runs a blog called Bamboo Blossom. It was so nice meeting you, Natasha. She was also the the first to respond to my 100th post give away and she was the lucky draw winner for the doggy badges. We have so much in common and we both love thrifting and discovering awesome finds at our local charity and secondhand shops. She is also a creative like me, check out her Etsy shop here.

I love making new friends:) 

xxx

October Flash back - Our 4th Anniversary

Wow, it seems like just yesterday that we got married. 6 October, four years ago and we're still going strong! We wanted to go for a quiet, romantic picnic and ended up having a bit of a crap day...  We then decided to stop somewhere next to the road and make the best of things. 

In my Picnic basket I had yummy sarmies, Bigcorn bites (Dave's favourite), dessert and bubbly with pomegranate juice and fresh Strawberries. For dessert, I tried the cake in a jar thing, but didn't have time to bake. So I made trifle in a jar. Using Mulberry jelly, Raspberry instant pudding, Romany cream cookies, white Flake and fresh Strawberries. Sound good, doesn't it? Well, it was to die for! We stuffed our faces till the sun went down.

...in the end it turned out pretty good! We even got to see a frog and help it out of the road.

Thanx for everything, my Lovey! Can't wait for our next anniversary!

xxxoOoOOXXXxx

October flash back - It's my Party!

4 October, again! The years are just piling on! But it was FUN! It was my 2nd birthday living at the coast. Last year it was freezing on my birthday, so we tackled the Mountain. This year we took to the beach! Grotto Beach is the most beautiful beach in Hermanus, it is also the biggest. You could walk for hours on the white sands. On a clear day you can even see Danger Point whilst sunbathing on this beach. So off we went with yummy snacks (thanx mom & dad) and delicious Strawberry Daiquiri's! Oh, okay.... it was cold this year also. Hence the jersey's, blankets and sherry:) 

Thanx to all who helped make my day Awesome.

...and a special thanx to my Dave!  

xxx

New hair!!!

Time for a change! I felt the need to get rid of my "winter" crop. As I  have been growing my hair for two years now and have grown quite tired of it. So today, with a snip-snip, it was gone....

 Hooray for my new, short, light and soft and shine hairstyle!

...I'm speachless...

The month of October is simply gone! I just cannot believe it! So much has happened in this past month and I really still want to blog about it... so if you'll bare with me just a little while longer, there is a very long post on it's way!

in the meanwhile, you can laugh at our photobooth session

xxx 

awesome weekend, past...!

Friday night we visited friends in Cape Town. They have been inviting us for, like, ever! We had such a great time and lots of fun:)

Thanx Ewan and Adrienn for a great time!We had the best Sushi ever!

YUM! 

 Driving back on Saturday afternoon, we stopped at Gordons Bay to admire the view...

Fase #1: Done

David and my dad, hard at work. My dad made the pickets with recycled wood. It took quite some time as he made them one by one and then put them all together. Then began the hard work of putting them up. And not even to mention the paint work! David and I made turns painting the different coats, we still need to do one more coat on the pickets around the tree and then that's done!

Oh, it looks so yummy...and edible!

Dogboxstudio has proven to be more popular as a mobile studio (which is understandable in the photography of pets). That is why we have come to the decision to convert the studio into a little shop:)

Just a little taste of what lies ahead...

Everyone keeps asking me "so, have you open that shop yet?" well just about... David and I are opening a small shop in Hermanus. It will be an Art, Design, Gift shop. Our aim is to get local suppliers, artists from South Africa and mainly from our surrounding area. I put this collage together of images I collected from all over the Net. This is my inspiration for the atmosphere and decor of our shop.

more will be revealed soon...

Please forgive me if I cannot remember where I got the images, as I went through a lot of them. The only image I do know, is the top middle one which is from Cupcake Couture.