Johannesburg CBD photowalk - part 1

Well, I feel quite chuffed that already I've had photowalk 1 of 6 (my goal for the year) and in the gorgeous CBD to boot!

Louisa and Jeanette were very fast walkers/ picture takers (or maybe it's that I'm too slow) - sorry guys, but I just love all the little details. Which made me wonder exactly how much I slowed the guys down in Charlotte :)

I had 204 pics when I started deleting, I now have 143 and of those, 78 are starred..... so to get 35 pics for blogging was amazing :) Hence the part 1 and 2.

I worked in the CBD for nearly 6 years and loved it. Although I was so scared my first two months because in PE where I'm from, we hardly had any buildings taller than 2 - 3 stories (this was 20 years ago when I moved here) so all these huge buildings plus all the people and cars just overwhelmed me completely... til I got hooked on the buzz :)

Here we go, the CBD through my lens :)

this one reminds me of Charlotte

door 1

really horrible in colour but in b&w, nice

Jeanette - I love this pic!

the old Standard Bank building - isn't it gorgeous?!

Louisa mentioned this in her post. Kids colouring in right on the pavement.

"exciting" - some good marketing there...

I love this little random Christmas ornament on one of the palisade fencing in the middle of the CBD

this is my money shot of the day. Also the best straight on shot facing down a street. This, to me, is the CBD. I spent 5 years walking these streets seeing exactly this view. The grey buildings on either side of Simmonds Street is Bank City.

Do you do photowalks? 
Where do you think I should do my next one? 
Which is your favourite?

PS Louisa, my secret place's campus?

And this is why I don't buy clothes!

taken this evening on our walk

taken this morning - this nail polish reminds me of the blue Tippex we used to use yonks ago. And this grey sleeveless T was one of my absolute favourite T-shirts ever... bought in Thailand 6 years ago and the only thing I still have from there.

I've been thinking about that new fashion blog a lot, just because first impressions do count no matter what anyone says, and I want to get back to who I was at work despite the weight I need to lose.

So last week Thursday off I went to Woolies because that's where I traditionally get my work clothes.

I walked around just grabbing things that took my fancy and went into the fitting room with 8 items of clothes - a dress (just for you guys!), two skirts and pants.

Any guesses as to how many of those items fit?

2! Size 12s.

I was very despondent and promptly went to buy 3 pairs of shoes. Lovely yellow flip flops and two pairs of work shoes.

Again, this is why I buy bags!

Then I went to Pick and Pay (have you ever looked at PnP's clothes? I love it!) and saw SUCh a lot of great things I just bought and bought and bought... to the tune of about R1200.

The size 12 jeans from Woolworths wouldn't close (I now have the belly as well as the bum I've always had!) so at P&P I took size 14.

I fitted all the stuff on at home and this time only took back 4 items. The one thing I'm very sad about is a yellow striped T-shirt (I've totally given into my yellow obsession..... and it all started with a
frivolous yellow bag) that was too big in a large. They had no mediums.

The one pair of capri jeans is PERFECT and even makes me look thin (a dark rinse) and the other pair is okay but is getting looser by the day....

So, bottom line - I have a ton of new clothes and the only things I can wear to work? One pair of black pants (elasticated but it looks much more classic than it sounds!) and two pairs of shoes.

Have you bought any clothes lately you just love?
Are you also freaked by the number?

I really am trying not to be... for now. But the one thing I am looking forward to is getting back to Weigh-Less. The exercise? Not so much. But I've booked with a new personal trainer.

PS I've been very good - cooked both meals today! Tomorrow we're breaking loose though :) and eating out.

Just a quick one

Well, we left 1 hour 20 minutes later than we planned... par for the course... made three (very long) stops and arrived in Ballito just before 4 pm.

Thankfully, the kids were very sweet, full of giggles and cuteness and not a meltdown between them.

At supper tonight (I cooked a creamy pasta with chicken, garlic rolls and salad) Connor asked us when we were going home.

Horrified, we looked at him and asked why.

"because I like it better at home"

Why, baby?

And then he proceeds to name everything that's at home - really random things. Poor thing! On the bright side, he loves our house. I must say, I love it too :) I need to make a list of things I want to do at home (most of them involve decluttering). I love that I can say more things left this December than came in.

He does like it here though.

Kendra LOVES it here because Granny's here. She said when I unlocked and we walked inside, "OOOH, it's beautiful" - too funny!

Another funny from K - we usually snuggle in the mornings before getting up. Because we were travelling this morning there were no snuggles so she says to me all serious, "tomorrow I'll come snuggle with you again, okay?" Totally okay with me!

I love the place (it is gorgeous!) and the view. I have not loved the non-listening kids this evening. Maybe they used all their good listening ears in the car? 

I didn't write about it on the blog but MIL and SIL rented their own place in the building. Turns out it's about 4 doors from us.

!

They gave us lots of space this evening though. So far so good.

They'll be here for 5 nights.

Anyway, off to bed now. Those two will still be up at the crack of dawn even after finally falling asleep at 9:30 so I've got to be on my game :)

How was your Monday?
Do you like the predictability of home or are you always up for travel?

(I like both - I love travelling but I really like coming home. I don't love the laundry though; then again, that's nothing to do with travel!)

PS pics all taken with iphone (first 4 from a moving vehicle at a rapid speed) and non-edited
PPS I'm going to do a mini book again this year. I brought all the supplies and will assemble it tomorrow night and then carry on with photo editing.
PPPS I tried recipe 4 for the month - another dud - so I brought one with me to try out on the kids this week :)

3.5 year old twins + no nap = knackered parents

Don't forget to go link up your faces :)

$This is going to be really quick because I'm sooo tired and yet I still have to pack all my stuff for our holiday.

• Babies - done
• Kitchen - done (guess what the most important things are on my list), including three meals for while we're down there. Yessss.
• D - done 
• Marcia - on computer :) 

I had high hopes of finishing all my photos from Friday but I'm way too tired now. However I got some GREAT ones that I'm really happy with.

Also, Joburg CBD, you are BEAUTIFUL! I stopped working in the CBD 13 years ago and in those days, it wasn't quite as clean and gorgeous as it is now.

start of photowalk in the city on Friday (this is not a great shot, obviously, but I love pointing fingers)

Moving on.

We went to visit this lovely blogger and her family at their home yesterday.

It was so lovely to see her in her natural surroundings (does that make sense?) and meet the husband and kids. I really liked chatting to her and her husband. Her kids were perfectly lovely, and even though there was an age gap, they played beautifully with my two who told me they wanted to sleep over!

My kids couldn't get used to the Afrikaans names so they kept saying, "the girl" and "the boy" :)

Thanks again, M, for your lovely hospitality and tell your kids again thank you for playing so nicely with K and C.

The husband of one set of our Afrikaans friends is very "correct" and I once overheard him saying to another set of Afrikaans friends at the end of the evening, "dankie vir jou gasvryheid" which I LOVE and so D and I say so now and again :) M and her hubs must have been laughing inside at the accent!


The kids weren't naughty today but were in top, three-year-old form. I have to remind myself that it's a GOOD problem to have lively, energetic, talkative kids....even if they refused to go sleep.

So I'm off to pack now.

I'm so looking forward to reading in the car, at the beach, at the apartment, etc. And taking lots of pics.

By the way, that photographer is ignoring my emails. I'm going to phone her up tomorrow and find out once and for all if she can do us or not.

I'm not really keen on anyone else's work that I've seen and I would rather have nothing than those super soft-focus shoots.... (am I fussy?!)

I've packed "blue-ish/ neutral" clothes like this, just in case.

pic taken on New Year's Day at MIL's house

So how's your weekend been?

What are you looking forward to this week?

Sat photo challenge - my 5 favourite FACE photos

Woohoo, it's here - the 2nd Saturday of the month.

Which means it's time for the photo challenge.

Our theme for this month is faces and just a reminder to please only select 5 photos to link up.

Fonts: Bebas and Pea Elise Joy (the one who designed Seafoam)

I know it's difficult but it makes it easy for people to click and go visit all the links if there aren't 500 pics in each one.

Of course, you do realise this is mainly a rule for me :) I seriously at first glance had 10 and I whittled it down to these 5.

she didn't want her pic taken but now loves this one so much it's her Facebook one

Another work friend - this is her favourite pic of herself and is her official company one

of course you've seen this one - A, my friend's daughter

my latest favourite of my other friend R's daughter, H

and a lot of you commented on this one the last time - proud to say this is now her whatsup pic ?:)

I love taking pics of people's faces, especially natural, non-smiley ones, caught on the fly, which is what all of these are.

If I have my camera and I'm with you, tell me to take your pic. We'll take a lot very quickly so we get one we both like :)

Guess what? SIL asked me to take some pics of her! (high praise)

Right, so which one is your favourite?

Link up your photos here and leave me a comment if you do so I can come and see yours :)

PS Connor's just been rearranging furniture in the study. I said "what are you doing?"
"I'm bringing a chair because I'm tired of standing"
OKEY-DOKEY. He looks super-gorgeous today as he's just had his first haircut at the hairdressers :)

{Friendship Friday} & I think I may be a cold person

When I checked my starred items in Google Reader, I see I have quite a bit this week. I'm going to post them all anyway because some will appeal to different people.

Go get a nice cup of tea :)

This post made me very sad. Please go send some love.
This made me laugh.
This video is apparently making people cry. Not me. That's why I think I'm cold.
However, this one did. LOVE it all.
This post reminds me of my word for the year.
I also need to write some rules for my life.
How to pick a husband if you want to have kids - talks to my MBTI nerdiness :)

Right, despite my very best intentions, I have still not stopped FF.

I had a wonderful time on Sat with my two twin-mom friends at the half birthday celebration.

And later today I'll be in the Joburg CBD carousing with two others where we'll be taking pics.

There is a 100% chance of rain today according to the Weather SA app - I'm hoping for overcast weather while we're out and about and rain once I arrive home :)

Although I have my purple umbrella with me and I may just beg them to take some pics of me with my umbrella like this one :)

Source: crushculdesac.tumblr.com via Janet on Pinterest

Which was your favourite link?
Did any of those videos make you cry? 1 or 2?



Books, Babies and Becky Higgins

Deanna inspired me with this post.

My original 2012 reading goal was 60 books. I reached that goal sometime in November and D challenged me to go for 70.

Of course I'm never one to back down from a challenge so I changed my little widget on Goodreads (if you're not on Goodreads and you read books, please do so - it's such fun!) and started reading the next 10.

Well, I made it!

At about 10 am on New Year's Eve, I finished number 70 :) Such fun!

Reading goals really work for me because I have trouble relaxing. So if I "have" to read, it's the one way to make me stop working, organising, doing and just being.

Some screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

this right here is how I know I'm a nerd :) I love all the stats

My absolute favourite books from 2012 were What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty, and another Moriarty, Sinead Moriarty's books. ALL of them. Sinead is Irish (no kidding!) and I love the humour interspersed with seriousness. Get the ones I've read - they are all good. By the way, I don't give 5s so if a book gets 4, it's VERRRRRRRRY good.

I also loved this entire series of 4 books called the Sister Circle. Deanna, you will love it too.

On the other hand, please don't waste your money and get any Hea.ther War.dells on the Kindle. I got about 6 (I think they were on special) and I've now deleted 3 because they are cr*p.

What was your favourite 2012 read?

My reading goal for this year is 65, with 15 of those books being non-fiction. I've also set a little goal to read at least a third of those books from my (physical) bookshelves.

At this rate, I might finish the physical books in the year 2016 :)

This year I'm going to read

1. The Total Money Makeover
2. Nice Girls don't get rich
3. Grace for the good girl
4. Happier at Home

amongst others

What's on your 2013 to-read list?

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Nobody cried yesterday. Are you surprised?

The babies seemed to have a nice time at school. I say "seemed" because they didn't give me much detail!!!

D said two teachers said Connor was very helpful.

However this morning Kendra told me (in exactly the same tone that I use), "there are two options: either I go to Connor's class or I have to get another teacher"

There is nothing wrong with the teacher but she loves the one lady who was helping out in Connor's class yesterday because his real teacher is off sick.

We told her it was her choice to be in separate classes and now they have to live with it (unless things go pear-shaped but I don't think they will). Yes, I'm that kind of mother.

I wait to get the low-down on how today went.

******************************************

And finally, Becky Higgins.

Thank God I can stop stalking her blog and facebook page waiting for product updates.

Seafoam arrived (it's the kit pictured below), Roz pinged me on Whatsup to tell me (who's on whatsup? I want to chat with you there) and I ordered all my stuff.

Done.

My things should arrive in SA at the end of the month, just in time for my month in review. BTW, I'm so pleased I've inspired some of you.

But I've started talking to myself because you all know I'm a huge paper lover and I could so easily spend all my money ordering project life stuff, not for scrapbooking like normal people, but for making lists :) I'm sure the teachers appreciated a nice Project Life card with the kids' school supplies nicely listed and ticked off :)

Some of the questions from that post...

1. Where do I get the books from?

The books in my post - one is a normal, 24-page photo album (this is what I suggest for anyone starting for the first time).

I make mini-books so I made the 2012 one.

I would offer to make you one but people who are creative won't think very much of MY creativity. That said, I am happy to make it.

I like the made one because I personalised it with washi tape, paper I liked, etc. and the binder rings make it easy to put extra pages in.

2. The comment about printing photos

This is not meant to be a photo book. It's just a snapshot of 1 - 3 key pics representing that month. That's all.

I take about 600 pics a month, if not more. That's what is left after I delete all the duds. And I print 3 :)

I do print 100 everytime we go on a big holiday. I printed about 12 - 16 when we went to Sabie for 4 days though.

I love the tangibility of having an album to take out and show my friends everytime I see them.

Do you still print pics?

3. Brene's autograph

I mailed Lynette but in case others were interested, she invited people to get an autographed bookplate on one of her blog posts. I had both books so I responded and lo and behold, two weeks later I had a little lovely on my desk at work. She sent a bookmark too which was super cool :)

4. Time

You've all seen how I put "month in review" on my goals every month?

That's how I get it done. I schedule it and I do it. It takes me all of 30 mins, if that. I should blog my process.

I can't stress enough how easy it is once you get started. Just go buy a 24-page photo book from CNA and start keeping notes.

Please ask away if you have more questions!

{Wordless Wednesday} Fun in the sun at Nicola's birthday

Thank you for your lovely comments on the school post.

There were NO tears this morning from any of us. I wondered for awhile if I'm just cold.... but then I decided, no :)

Kendra looked a bit overwhelmed at one point and so I bent down and whispered to her, "Baby, do you need a hug?"

She nodded yes and gave me the tightest hug ever. And then went to give D a hug too.

(when I told my work colleague this story, she teared up!)

When Connor told me, "Mummy, please close that door" I realised our time there was done and we could go.

I checked on them mid-morning via email and the principal said they were both perfect! No issues.

Waiting to see what happens on day 2.

********************************

We went to Nicola's princess and dragon party (I forget the official name) in December. As it usually is blazing hot that time of year, Louisa instructed all to bring swimsuits.

As usual, there was enough food for 4 times the number of people :) Louisa said "come hungry"!

the glorious cake

one side of the kiddies sweet table

while I personally don't care for watermelon, my kids and D love it

look at the hair swish :) Now we know where Nicola gets all that hair

Sadly, this is the only clear pic of mother and daughter

Mr L

Mr C

Kendra

Connor

watermelon juice

Cat's Princess

Connor and Louisa's dad

Kendra and Louisa's Dad

Have I mentioned before that I don't like taking "traditional" party pics? Too many people, too many details and it feels like nothing is special.

However, if I get a child alone, oh yes! bring it on.

See the pics of Cat's and my kids above? Decent because they're alone!

Which is your favourite pic?
Do you eat watermelon?

We have a big day tomorrow

The kids are finally going to pre-school.

At 3.5.

I mentioned this before but I feel like such a granola mother - I don't know of any other kids who are not at school yet.

The other day the babies were wearing those all in one Woolworths pjs for babies and these ones were white with some print so they really looked like babies.

I said to Connor, "baby, don't you want to rather stay home with nanny S for another 6 months? You're so little and I'm not sure if you should go to school"

Can you guess what he said?

"No, I'm going to school"

I wasn't surprised but still.

I'm one of those parents who likes to do things quickly and get it out of my mental space. So I don't have to think about it for a whole year.

So I bought all the school stuff for the whole year.

When it was all piling up in the study, I told Nanny S to pack it in the cottage for a few days and I emailed the school to ask if I could bring it all a day early.

With twins it takes three times as long to get anything done - each child and then the dynamic of them faffing around with one another, not listening, etc. Actually it may be four times as long :) So to cart all that stuff plus kids plus bags? No way.

We went there this morning and dropped off a boot (trunk) full of things - toilet rolls, tissues, soap, and 4 reams of paper.

The kids loved exploring and wouldn't come home. I very nearly had to 1, 2, 3 them.

By the way, my friend, Roz counts very fast. We drag out the 1, 2, 3 a bit so since we've spent a lot of time with them lately, I now say to the babies, "must I count fast like Aunty Roz?"

"NO, MUMMY, NO" :)

I met the 2 - 3 age group teacher. Really nice, young and energetic :)

Whenever I'm around teachers, I want to give them all medals. There is no way I would cope with even 8 littles for a whole day.

So it appears we're ready!

The kids are in bed, the camera is charged, D's taken leave (not just for this) and their outfits have been set aside.

Please tell me your words of advice for making the mornings run smoothly.

While you're at it, tell me again how I have 3 and a half year old children!

PS I'm going back to my no more than 2 hours blogging and reading blogs a day. I have some projects which I need to get to, besides all the reading and lazing around in this extreme heat :)

How long do you blog and read blogs daily for?