This time of the year is always awesome! There is just a certain something in the air that makes you feel instantly at ease with the world. I love December, I love all the Christmas hype and anticipation leading up to the day. I’m also one of those people that kind of goes overboard on the present front. I feel that there are only a few occasions during the year that you can 100% do that and for me, it’s Christmas and birthdays.
I am 100% one of those people that say, ‘Camping? Nope, not for me!’ In fact, it took Shane about 9 years to convince me to go camping, which we did for the first time as a family a few months ago at Mountain Sanctuary Park. I can’t believe how adamant I was about hating it and how painfully wrong I turned out to be.
We spent two nights at Mountain Sanctuary and it was absolutely, yes I’m going to use this word, awesome! I loved every second of it, even the part where there we had to sit in the car for half an hour until a massive thunderstorm moved away, we then slept in our tent surrounded by howling winds and the sound of pouring rain. It was so cool being all snug inside right next to two of my favourite people.
I can’t tell you how often during the day I feel like a fat piece of chocolate cake! I think anyone who hangs out with me a lot probably hears me say this at least once a week. There is just something about a fresh, homemade slice of cake that is pillowy soft and chocolatey that just makes me so happy.
I’ve got to be honest though, I don’t often go to a coffee shop or restaurant and find a good piece of chocolate cake, so more often than not I just land up taking these cravings into my own hands. So when I discover a new recipe that requires minimal effort, ingredients and time and yields a fat piece of yummy homemade chocolate cake, I’m over the moon and this weekend I added another one of them to my list of go-to-recipes and it’s for this One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Velvety Chocolate Icing.
A while back I asked you if you would like me to share my really simple recipe for my Lemon Cream, Prawn and Leek Pasta and a lot of you said ‘yes please’ and I’m so glad you did! Once you’ve made this dish you will be making it again and again, not only because of the minimal amount of time you will spend in the kitchen, but also because unlike every over-priced prawn pasta you will get in a restaurant, this dish will guarantee you a mouth-full of lemony prawn deliciousness every time your fork goes in for more!
The project that I am about to share with you guys is one that I’m extremely proud of because a number of people have put a lot of love, effort and emotion into it. I’m also so thankful that I got to be a part of something that celebrates amazingly strong women who have taught me to appreciate life a little more, what with all it’s pitfalls, highs and lows.
My friends Adi Koen, Nicola Cooper and I got together a few months ago to create and shoot a series made up of sixteen phenomenal women (including Nicola) who have survived really traumatic and in some cases life-threatening events and now proudly wear the scars that represent those times in their lives as badges of honour.
We met with everyone to hear and document their stories and to photograph them and their scars, creating portraits and tributes that celebrate their journeys and triumphs. After we took their photos we then sent them to fourteen of South Africa’s most talented illustrators and artists and asked them to create a unique armour out of lines, paint and forms, cladding them in one-of-kind items of clothing designed specifically for them.
As you may have seen we have just go back from an amazing trip to Greece. It was our first ever overseas family holiday and hopefully one of many to come. I posted a lot of photos to my feed about it and in turn, I received a lot of messages from people asking for tips on how to travel with kids. In this post I’m going to chat about a few things that I really love and took along with us. Then at the end of it I’m going to give a set of all the items (bar one) that I have written about to one of you guys because December is coming up and I think that this awesome pack, WORTH OVER R6 500 would be amazing for any travelling family.
Now giving tips on how to travel with kids is a pretty tricky thing because all kids, as well as all parents, are different. They can be creatures of habit, BUT they can also change in a heartbeat and suddenly you’re looking at your other half going ‘What the red-hot blazers is going on?! Why is our child hanging upside down from a chandelier and how the hell did they get up there?! If you are a parent then I’m guessing you know exactly what I mean.