Random Gifts of Love (never published!)

"Oh My Word! I just happened upon this post in my drafts folder! I thought I'd posted it ages ago. I must have been in a really bad place at the time, seeing as I clean forgot to publish this post. Well, 2 years down the line and I have transformed my situation and circumstances majorly! I just wanted to publish this post for the reason that these little gifts were just soooo cute and reading this made me realise just how thankful I really am for where I am now!" 

About a month ago I got to thinking, I have been making and sending pretty things to random strangers for the past few years. With all the blog swaps etc., so when this whole Random Acts of Kindness thing started, I thought "what about the people close to me? I've been neglecting them!" I've not been in a very good place (emotionally, financially…) for a while now. I've been forgetting important things, dates set with family, birthdays, I feel like I'm stuck in this alternate world. That's when I decided to start #randomgiftsoflove this will be aimed at my close family members, friends who are dear to me and anyone else whom I feel is in need of some love. I have already given three #randomgiftsoflove out to my little niece, Leia and her big sister Erin and my mom. #randomgiftsoflove no.4 is in the making, it was intended for someone else but it morphed into a gift for someone not known to me as yet. This is quite fun! Almost like the gifts themselves are choosing who they will go to.

-To Leia Barnard-

-To Erin Gibson- 

-To Annelie Barnard-

Watch this space...

Hi friends…it's been ages I know. I've been out living and exploring, on my journey to find myself again. Life has a way of swallowing us up in a world of expectations… we sometimes clean forget who WE are. I can't wait to share all I've learned and all I'v been through. For what is a success story without the dark situation which led you to make a choice to change your life for the better?

In the meantime, I ask for your patience while I work on updating my blog in the next few weeks and will also be doing a post on where I've disappeared to. Stay in touch.

Chané

xxx

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

Hello October!

Well hello, October! It seems like yesterday that I went to Pretoria with my family to celebrate my 30th, my Gran's 69th and the birth of our good friends' son! This has been such a crazy year (and not in a good way) thank goodness October is here and things can only get better! This year, my mom and I are taking the bus up to see our family for all the birthdays and to celebrate my Gran's 70th! That's quite a big one! I simply cannot wait to see all my cousins and the family…It's been a year.

These lovely flowers grow wild in our area, along the coast, this time of year. I think it's a variant of the Namaqua Daisy. They're so amazing, when the sun goes down or even just when there is thick cloud cover, they close their petals up. When we were small, we used to say that they were sleeping and when the sun wakes them, they open up again.

- I snapped this pic on our Sunday afternoon walk about a week ago and thought it was perfect for October! You can download the free printable here. 

I hope you'll enjoy this freebie.

Have an awesome October!

xxx

Great opportunity, learning from Nadia van der Mescht

A few weeks ago I was privileged enough to attend the Nadia van der Mescht Creative Business Workshop in Cape Town. I've been swooning over her Durban workshops and have followed her business tips on her blog. So you can understand my excitement when Natasha let me know that there was talk of Nadia coming to our neck of the woods, so to speak. Natasha and I both jumped at the opportunity to attend the Creative Business Workshop and took the long road to Cape Town in the very early hours of the morning. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep the previous night and that was to quite a disadvantage to me as I struggled so hard to stay awake during the workshop. I didn't want to miss anything.

We got there early enough to grab a coffee and then we headed off to Dear Me where the workshop was being hosted. What a lovely little hangout, we couldn't stop gawking at all the interesting details. I will have to take Dave there when we go to Cape Town again. As it was way too early to eat a heavy breakfast, Natasha and I both settled for the Cranberry Karma smoothy (I'm a sucker for anything "berry"). It was non-dairy and super delicious!    

We were able to take some pics of the lovely table settings before the rest of the ladies arrived. We also got to choose our seats (and by that I mean, scope out the prettiest zipper pouches). It was great to finally meet the lovely Nadia in person. The workshop was quite intense and I completely forgot to take more photos. I was way too busy making notes and trying to take everything in. Having learnt a great deal, one major thing stood to me, in order for me to get where I want to be in my business, I need to organise my thoughts on paper. Set goals, have someone to hold me accountable and then, take action. This is my biggest problem, so I need to focus on this part first. The rest will then fall into place!

As you can see above, we were treated with many sweet things! We had goody bags filled with the prettiest business cards and other lovely marketing tools. Some Creatives even sponsored pretty things for the day. The whole experience was just so memorable, the food, the ladies, the venue… Thanks to Nadia for going through the trouble to make this Workshop special for all of us who attended, it was so very inspirational.
 

Search the tag #nvdmlearn to see more photo's of the workshop and visit Bamboo Blossom, Lanalou Style and Hello Pretty to see what they thought of the Creative Business Workshop.

Have an amazing Monday!

xxx