And….I’m back!

Ok, I’ve finally gotten a handle on things and found a smidgen of free time to catch up on all my emails and blogging. I’ve got some new product reviews, a super fun make-up workshop and decor ideas to share with you next week, but since it’s a Friday and we’re finally through all those short weeks and long weekends, I thought I’d share something I figured out recently.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of my varsity friend’s weddings. It was a stunning event at the gorgeous Alpine Heath Hotel in the Drakensberg. We made a little road trip weekend of it, along with two of my other varsity friends who flew in for the occasion.

We had an absolute blast: the venue was serene, the bride looked like a Disney princess, the groom epitomised suave (arriving in a helicopter), the food was delicious and the DJ had me on the dance floor until I practically had to be carried back to our chalet afterwards. All in all, it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever attended. Really romantic and super personal. Even though I haven’t seen the bride and our friends in years, it really felt like not a single day had passed since our last escapade together.

When I got back and went through my emails, I came across something that had been bugging me all weekend. When I go away, it’s usually for a holiday, so I take along the bare minimal in terms of make-up and accessories. My plans are usually to relax and let my hair down (and give my skin a break from the multitude of products I use). I do always take along something smartish, just in case – but it’s often a little black dress that I can dress up with a pair of earrings and heels if needed. This time, I wasn’t only going to spend the majority of my time away dressed up, but because I was so swamped in the weeks before, the first time I even thought about what to wear was the night before we left.

So there I was at 4am trying to pack everything and the kitchen sink into the teeniest little suitcase because the others had brought along normal, more-than-one-night luggage with them from CT and Aus. My car isn’t that big and since I was only staying for one night, I really only needed one outfit, my pjs, and something to travel home in the next day. But when you don’t plan things, you get Panicked Nix. We were trying hard to get out the door (and I’m already not the friendliest person first thing in the morning, let alone at some ungodly hour on a Saturday) and I kept remembering things I needed to pack.

“Hair straightener?”

“Got it!”

“Hair dryer?”

“Packed!”

“What about a plug for them?”

“Oh. Good point. Please grab one from the kitchen.”

“Make-up?”

“Check.”

“Heels?”

“Double check!”

“Jewellery?”

“Jewellery? JEWELLERY! I can’t believe I almost forgot the jewellery!”

I don’t wear jewellery that often. I tend to play with it and fidget so I keep it down to a few select pieces that I love. But this wasn’t any ordinary day – this was a wedding! I needed a little more fancy than usual and because I’d ended up packing a few dresses, I needed a number of items to try out and see what worked best. And you know what I realised? Although I have make-up bags for any occasion, the one thing I don’t have is a jewellery traveller. I’ve always wanted one and remember when my mom used to unroll hers when we were kids so we could “ohhh” and “ahhh” and ask thousands of questions about the story behind each item. (I only ever wear jewellery that has a story so most of my favourites are gifts from special occasions.)

Excuse the quality – it’s a photo of a photo. We’re still waiting for the camera owner to upload these!

Being the ingenious person that I am, I made do with a large vitamin bottle and hoped that my favourite necklaces wouldn’t get too tangled. Luckily, everything was fine and we managed to get dressed and ready without any major wardrobe drama.

But when I got back, I started thinking. It’s something I really want and need to put on a wish list somewhere, but where on earth can you find a beautiful, good quality jewellery traveller these days? I don’t think it’s something everyone wants and considering my hassle to track down a travel wallet I actually like, I wasn’t too optimistic.

Luckily, my inbox held the solution. There’s a nifty little gifting company that creates the most gorgeous ranges called CaraMia. They’ve just launched the cutest range of jewellery cases and I now have my eye on at least three. The new Zoe collection has a duck egg exterior with polka dots on the inside giving it a lovely ladylike feel. The oval traveller is just R343 while the oval jewel case is R459. My personal favourite, however, is the cosmetic jewel case which has a nifty little zip up pouch at the bottom to store your jewellery and a full size cosmetic pouch to keep your favourite must-have beauty items with you. I’m super excited about this and can’t wait for the next destination wedding to come up so I can make tons of excuses and grab one of the purchases online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Products are available from selected retailers and online at www.caramia-sa.co.za

Pinterest inspiration – wooden crates

I love the idea of using old wooden crates to store things. They’re much prettier than anything else I’ve come across. Here are a few ideas I’m thinking might be quite useful around our house. I’ve seen a few ideas where you add casters to them so they’re easier to move around.

Purple product love from eetrite

How cute is this range from eetrite? As you know, purple is not only my favourite colour, but also Pantone’s Colour of the Year! Well, technically it’s called Radiant Orchid which is actually a lovely purple pink that I’m so excited about. We’ve already seen a number of beauty brands bring out products in the shade and I can’t wait to see a few more fashion items to add to my already-purple-enough wardrobe 😀

Eetrite has a range of home ware and cooking products from dinner sets to prep utensils. They are also very decently priced:

• 12cm frying pan – R59.99
• 14cm frying plan with spatula – R99.99
• Frying pan (available in 18, 24 and 26cm) – R99.99
• Coffee plunger – R69.99
• French toast pan (who doesn’t need one of those!) – R89.99
• Paring knife (which comes with a safety cover sheath for klutzes like me) – R39.99

* Available at selected retailers nationwide. Call 011 445 3300 for your nearest stockist – http://www.eetrite.co.za

My Typo haul

So I have a confession to make. I’m addicted to Typo. Now, if you don’t know what that is or what it means, then I don’t think we can be friends. And in the spirit of confessions, I also have a mild form of OCD. Basically, when I’m stressed or upset or anxious, I organise. Which is where Typo comes in. I first heard about this magical place from fellow blogger Chereen from For the beauty of it. She did a brilliant post on how she was organising her finances using  really cute folders from Typo. My response was: “Where is this heavenly place and how do I not know about it!?” Sadly, at that point, there was only a store in Cape Town. Grumble, grumble, stupid mountain. So you can imagine the happy dance (no, really, there was actual dancing) when I walked past a closed-up storefront in Sandton City that had the words: “Typo. Coming Soon.” plastered across the door.

Since then, I’m in the store more often than I can admit. It’s one of my happy places. Oh, and I now have one less than 5 minutes from my office. Squee!

A few weeks ago, I broke my stapler. In all fairness, it was one of those mini plastic-y things we used to have in school because they fitted inside our pencil cases. I only kept it because it was teal and that went with the colour scheme I’m using for my cubicle at work. I’m actually surprised it lasted this long. So, of course, I trekked off happily to my favourite stationery store satisfied with the knowledge that I had a legitimate reason to go. Not just to browse and drool over all the envy-inducing stock. (I swear, if I had a study, it would look like a Typo store – the Sandton store even has old-fashioned typewriters dangling in the window.) Once inside Typo, however, my addiction took over…

Instead of one stapler, I came home with a stapler, a new file, an eye mask and a 2014 calendar. It may seem like a bit of a splurge, but I really REALLY needed everything. Firstly, the stapler… this one is super cute, big and actually quite hefty. Great for all the stapling I do on a daily basis – don’t laugh, you’d be surprised at how often I actually use one. At R99, it’s not the cheapest one on the market and I’d personally have preferred a different colour, but this was the only one in stock at the Nicolway store. I’m sure Sandton has a bigger selection, but I wasn’t driving all the way there just for a stapler.

The eye mask also has a perfectly valid reason for the purchase. My sister actually bought me the exact one for Christmas last year. I absolutely love it. I sleep with a mask on so when my free airplane one stretched beyond repair, I was distraught. It’s not actually that easy to find a replacement! Typo has a HUGE selection at the moment and they’re pretty decently priced at R39.99. So why did I get one if I already have one? My cat killed it. She has a tendency to get confused between play time and bed time and when I picked it up after knocking it off the floor, she dive-bombed it and snapped the elastic (note: the elastics are not kitty-proof). I love this one so much (it matches my pjs – part of that OCD thing) and it says: “If you need me, I’ll be in Paris”, so there really wasn’t any other option when it came down to it.

Clearly I have a thing for Paris (“Hi, I’m Nikki and I’m a francophile.”) and this mini calendar has some stunning vintage images of Paris. I don’t really *need* a calendar, but I love the images so much that I just want this year to be over. I’m going to frame them and put them up somewhere in the house as wall art. I mean, it’s R20 for 12 pictures. All I have to do now is find 12 little, preferably not super expensive frames! How smart am I? 😀

Lastly, the file. It’s black, whit and  pink. It has polka dots. It has an inspirational message with the words: DREAM, SPARKLE and SHINE on it. What other reasons do you need? This was R59.99, but the awesome thing about Typo is that they give “student” discounts on certain school necessities. I may not be in school anymore, but the discount still applied. So I got it for R42. Oh, and I plan to use it for blogging organising so I can actually keep track of what’s coming in and going out and hopefully not find myself overwhelmed like I did last year.

Dear Typo  

Please make a South African website. The international one just doesn’t cut it. Also, if you created an online store, I’d be your best customer.

Love Nix

Guest room decor ideas

So my boyfriend’s parents came to stay the weekend before last. It’s the first time we’ve had anyone to stay in our guest room. I’ve always wanted a space for friends and family to come over and feel comfortable in so it was important to me that our spare room is a dedicated guest room. My stepmom in The Netherlands has a beautiful purple and white room for whenever I’m there and I stole a couple of ideas from her to help make my spare room “guest friendly”.

The colour scheme

Although it wasn’t my first choice, as The Boyfriend and I unpacked our collective horde of linen when we first moved in, we realised that we had more than enough linen to house an eight-bedroomed house. So going out and buying new stuff just seemed like a waste of money – especially since we’d rather put it into buying other things, like for the kitchen. When it comes to linen, we’re both really practical, so we have a lot of white! It made sense to keep that as the base colour and just zhoosh it up with a touch of something else. We had a lot of the reds and browns, which went really well with the wooden bed frame, which we sanded down and restained. I love the way it looks and feels cozy at night (with the curtains closed and bedside lamps on), but still has a modern, fresh feeling in the day.

Kitty not included…

The decor items

After choosing the colour theme, I went around the house picking up random objects that went with the colour scheme. The matryoshka doll (you probably know them better as babushka or nesting dolls) was a present from my dad when he went to Russia. It kind of adds to the “guest traveller” feel of the room, I think. The heart paperweight was part of a press pack I got many years ago. The theme was for a heat protectant shampoo and conditioner so we were hosted at a glass blowing factory. We got to choose what we wanted to add to our custom-made paperweights and what shape we wanted.

The magazines

I work in magazines. I’m currently the copy editor on SAA’s in-flight magazine Sawubona. I really love working on a travel mag and often find inspiration for future holidays while I’m working. Not only does this issue go with my colour scheme (bonus!), but it also gives guests something to browse while they’re staying with us.

The guest basket

I still receive an abundance of cosmetics and toiletries to try out and review, and often I end up with doubles, or even triples. Since I can’t use everything, it made sense to put together a little welcome basket. I’ve often forgotten a moisturiser or sunscreen, or found myself needing a lip balm. These are for guests to use or even take home with them – they’ll get replaced soon enough.

The Wifi welcome

This was actually an idea I stole off Pinterest. A woman suggested putting the password to the Wifi in the bedroom so guests can access it quickly and easily, without having to worry about hassling you for it. I got my graphic designer sister to quickly tweak some images I found on Pinterest. I printed them out and put them into a wooden photo frame on a bookshelf above the guest basket. The red flowers match my colour scheme, obvs.

 Other things I’ve added:

• A double adapter. EVERYONE forgets to bring these and you always need them. I’ve also put our spare cellphone chargers in the room, just in case. Another trick I stole from my stepmom (thanks, Debbie!)
• A basket with fresh towels in. There are tons of towels in our guest bathroom, but I thought it was nice having designated “guest towel bathrooms”. We already had one red and one orange one so I added those first and then popped out to @home one day and grabbed another two (R200 each).

Things I want to add:

• A luggage rack. It’s super useful in case your guests aren’t staying for more than one night and don’t want to unpack. (TIP: I’ve deliberately kept our cupboards free. It drives The Boyfriend insane – “But we’ve got place for storage!” – but I hate arriving somewhere and having to move things around to clear a shelf for myself.) My next purchase for the room will be one of these ones from Whitehouse – stainless steel for R300.
• Fabric coat hangers. I love these ones from Mr Price Home (R70 for a pack of 5!). You don’t need a lot, but it does really come in handy for coats, jackets and dresses.
• Eye masks. I sleep with one. I can’t sleep without it. I cringe if I arrive somewhere and realise I’ve forgotten mine. As you know, Typo has some fabulous ones. Think I need to stop by…
• Dressing gowns. I know, it sounds excessive. But don’t you just love arriving somewhere and after a bath or shower, wrapping yourself up in a fresh, fluffy bathrobe. I remember the first time I stayed in a hotel with robes – in London with my little cousin. We were more excited about the robes than the fact we were in London, baby! Whitehouse sells these ones at R400 for a large.
• Mohair throws. With winter just around the corner, I think these are perfect for our guest room. I love mohair and these ones from Hinterveld @ Linen Drawer are such a spoil. They’re a little pricey at R1 360 for a throw (up to R2 315 for a King), but they are such good quality. I love the bicycle red for our room, but may also want to grab daybreak (the purple one) for our bedroom.