the bumble b

Hungry? Head on down to my other site to see this mouth watering sandwich 

Winter is starting to creep up on Cape Town and I couldn’t be happier. I have seriously pale skin and in summer just can’t compete with the beautiful bronzed bodies on the beaches of Cape Town ;) So when winter rolls around I am more than happy to wrap up in gorgeous garments. 

This year I’m especially excited to splash around in the water with my new Hunter boots. These super stylish wellies have been cropping up all over in the media this season and can really be paired with any outfit. I decided to invest in a pair this year and am ever so glad that I have done so. They are the most stylish and beautiful wellies that I’ve ever laid eyes on. The hardest part was deciding on which colour to get as I’m a bold type of girl but on the other hand wanted a colour that I really could wear with everything. So I opted for the Original Tall in gloss black and they are fabulous. Who ever thought that style and practicality would go together? 

Bring on the rain!

You can order Hunter boots from www.hunterbootsa.co.za or call 082 853 0477 for stockists. 

Next year I am totally going for the red. Wowza!

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I discovered this gorgeous little site a while ago but just haven’t gotten around to going back and having a look at the pieces. Pity I waited so long as many of the items that I would love to own are now sold out! So best to move quickly girls!

i candy is an online South African website (but they ship worldwide) that sells the most beautiful and quirky jewellery items. The online store market in SA has been increasing and I am so glad to see that people are more receptive to purchasing things online. I am a sucker for online shopping!

Go check them out - they have some amazing products that are very reasonably priced in my opinion. 

I have these two fab items on order and cannot wait to receive them! yayness!

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I am totally in love with the ombre hair trend. Ombre hair is basically hair that is highlighted from the ends to the middle section. But not in a tacky ‘your-colour-is-growing-out’ way. Instead certain strands of hair are selected to be highlighted and it leaves you with (what I think) is a stunning effect. It’s something different from the normal one colour mane or having standard highlight. I quite like this trend as well because if you think about it, you won’t have to touch up your roots as you would need to with regular highlights. I am TOTALLY keen for that. Highlights from the roots are such a mission to maintain. 

So I have made an appointment with my salon and will be rocking this trend pretty soon - yay!

Speaking of hair, I came across this amazeballs YouTube channel called LuxyHair. It is hosted by two gorgeous sisters and they have all sorts of great hair tutorials that you can try out. They are also the engineers behind Luxy Hair, a brand of clip in hair extensions. I would love to get my hands on some of these extensions, and I might just splurge in the near future to try these out :)

I have fallen in love with the stacked bracelet trend, or rather, the ‘arm party’ as people have been calling it. I have been looking for a gold watch for a while and in the meantime have been searching the net for ways to accessorize my new purchase (once I make it). There are such beautiful ideas out there and you really can mix and match whatever you please if you follow a few guidelines. The Beauty Department has a great couple of tips on how to stack bracelets, go check it out here.

I can’t wait to give this a go - now all I need is the perfect watch. 

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There is something delightful about cooked or roasted fruit as a dessert. The sweet and tangy warm fruit coupled with freezing ice cream has my taste buds doing flick flacks.

Head down to my food blog for the rest of the post and the recipe. xx

Let’s just get this out of the way. If you’re counting calories, look away now. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, healthy about these little squares of happiness. But honey, they taste incredible.

To view the rest of the post and the recipe head on down to my other piece of cyberspace here.

I had an opportunity over the weekend to play with my camera at my good friend’s burlesque bachelorette party (which was AMAZEBALLS - I had the headache the next day to prove it). Below are some of the snapshots of us girls getting ready - there was much glitter and liquid eyeliner involved!

I have been coveting this pallette and I nearly ‘accidentally’ slipped it into my bag :)

the gorgeous bride-to-be

where I like to be

The most valuable product in my facial beauty regime is probably my sunscreen. In my opinion sunscreen (and staying out of the sun) is most likely one of the primary ways I can prevent premature ageing. We all know that sun exposure can contribute to wrinkles and blemishes on our skins. I got the fright of my life when this summer I looked down at my arms and found that I already have some white sun spots! I’m only 25! Taking care of sunscreen on your body is pretty easy, but trying to find a non-greasy alternative for your face is a whole other ball game. I immediately rushed out to try and find a suitable high SPF factor sunscreen that I could wear underneath my make up and was rather disappointed at what I found or rather, didn’t find.

I use the Dr Hauschka Rose Day Cream Light moisturizer on my face which doesn’t contain an SPF. I didn’t want to part with this as it is the only moisturizer I’ve ever used that has answered my skin prayers - but more on that another time! So I scoured the stores to see if I could find something that is reasonably priced (as I already spend a pretty penny on facial care) and that didn’t leave me looking like an oil slick 5 minutes after application. I was really disappointed when I tested all the products available on the back of my hand and I could just see the shiny oiliness it left behind. I eventually picked up Everysun’s Anti Ageing UV Face Protection and tested a bit. It literally melted into my skin and left no trace of product whatsoever. Needless to say I hurried to the till to purchase this one and to my surprise it was only 55 bucks! A complete bargain if you ask me!

I have been using this on my face every day for the past two months and haven’t had one breakout from it, which is amazing as my sensitive combination skin reacts to EVERYTHING. I use it after my moisturizer and underneath my foundation. I also spread it all the way down my neck and onto my chest. There is no oiliness and shine and I’m so glad I’m protecting my face from the sun’s harmful rays.

But I still don’t think I’m completely satisfied. You see all the sunscreens I have tried have had a white texture that can give you a bit of a ghostly look, especially if you have a darker complexion. I don’t have a problem with this as I am very fair but I can see how this would irritate people with darker skins. I discovered a Korean product line online - Hera - which is a translucent sunscreen that I’ve read rave reviews about. Upon trying to purchase this on E-bay I discovered that they don’t ship to South Africa - bummer! BUT there might be a light at the end of the tunnel in my search for the perfect sunscreen. OBeauty is launching on 1 March in South Africa - an online shop that is stocking Japanese and Korean products for the SA market. I’ve tried to fish if they will be stocking Hera products but they’re being very secretive about the whole thing :) Until then I shall wait with bated breath until they launch. Fingers crossed!

This weekend I visited El Burro in Green Point for the first time. I know right - where on earth have I been?! Mexican food has probably got to be one of my absolute favourite cuisines - the spicier the better! To cut a lot of oohing and aahing short, the parentals, King R and I had a beyond fabulous time. The atmosphere is great, service friendly and efficient, margarita’s potent (and delicious) and food glorious.

Everyone knows I look at the dessert menu first and was over the moon that they had Churros on offer. These babies didn’t disappoint and are served with a mouth watering dark chocolate dipping sauce. I have been dreaming about them ever since Saturday and can’t wait to go back to get more.

For starters we ordered chilli poppers which don’t have any batter on them. These were delicious and I’m surprised how much I liked them without their batter casings. Mains were Tacos all round - I couldn’t decide which one I liked best. I love that you can build your own Taco - my favourite style of eating is where you can create your own plate.

I was forced had to try a tequila since we were pretending to be mexican…

The face that came after this wasn’t so great :P

Lovelovelove El Burro. Donkey… I’ll be back.

For those of you who hate this day - let me have my moment. I love this day. With today’s fast paced lifestyle I think it’s nice to have a day to remind ourselves to stop and give a kiss/hug to the people we love. And you don’t need to have a girl/boyfriend for this. Send a card to your parents, best friend, whoever. Just love a little, don’t hate.

And on that note I am so excited to spend this evening with King R on a picnic followed by a bit of Shakespeare at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre. Can’t wait. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

xxx

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I don’t know about you but I’m totally loving the pastel tip hair trend. I’m really indecisive when it comes to major commitments (hair colour is totally a major commitment for me :P ) so when I found this tutorial I was super happy! You basically use pastels to colour in the tips of your hair - easy!

I will definitely be trying this out as soon as I can get my hands on oil free pastels (very important not to use these). 

To view the tutorial click here.

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Alright… I’ve succumbed to the Valentines Day post, might as well jump on the band wagon. 

I’m not sure how I feel about Valentines Day. On the one hand I don’t like that society makes such an extravagant fuss about this one day that you’re supposed to show the one you love that you care, and on the other I want to be made a fuss of. Indecisive much? I blame my Libran traits. I remember the one year I told King R that I really didn’t want anything and then proceeded to be super angry with him when he didn’t get me anything. Poor guy. So yes, I think I like Valentines Day. But I think I like it in its simplest form, no frills and thrills or huge amounts of money spent.

This year I convinced King R is taking me to Maynardville Open Air Theatre to watch Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors - I am so excited! For those of you who haven’t been to Maynardville you simply must go. We used to travel from Paarl during my school years to watch the Shakespeare plays they had every year - it was so much fun. You pack a picnic basket and lounge on the lawn under the stars before you take your seats for the show. It really is something magical. If you’re keen on going any time soon click here for more information. 

Happy Valentines Day!

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So I’m all about the maxi skirt this summer, I lovelovelove it! It is dramatic yet chic and so easy to pair with other items. 

I found this really helpful link on tips to wearing this trend, what to pair it with, and nifty new ideas to maximize (no pun intended) your current wardrobe. 

The tip I loved the most was putting a short dress/tunic top underneath a high waisted skirt - completely genius! The skirt is so flowy and voluminous that you can totally get away with hiding a little dress under it and parading it as a top :) I have just increased my options by tenfold! 

Go see for yourself - Happy Friday!

xxx

For tips on wearing a maxi skirt click here

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my
most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

I’m loving the mustard and canary yellow I’ve been seeing everywhere. I’ve particularly fallen in love with the mustard colour. Weird how colours that used to make you wrinkle up your nose as a child all of a sudden appeal to you. I managed to find an adorable little cropped mustard sweater at Mr Price over the weekend (I am a die hard bargain shopper) that I cannot wait to pair with my maxi skirt when it gets chilly. 

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This is quite possibly the best(est everest) cake… EVER!

We have declared ‘Cake Fridays’ in our office and I think we have created a monster. we even considered having this for breakfast.

Whilst making this the night before I cut off the top bits so as to make the cake level for icing and popped one of these pieces into my mouth. Wow. You probably didn’t even need the icing this cake is so dense and moist. And remember I told you how fussy I am with icing? Well this is the perfect cocoa icing. You’ve got to try this one – it’s sheer bliss.

Excuse my horrible icing techniques – it’s on the bucket list of things to master :P
I was in a rush last night and this morning so didn’t have time to take a proper picture of this, so the Instagram one will have to do. I’ll definitely make this again so will do it justice then. I just had to share this immediately!

Happy Cake Friday!

To view the recipe head on down to my other site www.mykitchenconfessions.com

Do you remember these babies?! We used to have a Gatti’s factory in Paarl where I grew up and boxes of these lollies were stacked in our fridge. Paarl used to reach cool temperatures of about 35 degrees celcius on a normal day :-/

This Cape Town heat wave has me drooling for these ice creams from my childhood. I hear there is a Gatti’s in Tokai - am making a beeline for it this weekend!

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