The 7 Year Itch

I've never quite understood the 7 year itch until recently. Not a 7 year itch in it's normally intended context of a relationship or marriage, but in a career sense. I've been with my current employer for 7 year and while the time in some ways has flown, in other ways, I'm starting to feel like this is all I've ever known. My frame of reference has shrunk to these four walls and my confidence outside of this structure has diminished.

I definitely have a love-hate relationship with my job at the moment. Last week was horrific and this week was great! At what point do you release that the grass isn't always greener on the other side...but then again, isn't life all about moving on up and trying new things?!

So many things to ponder...But for now - HAPPY FRIDAY!

PS - just so you know:

The seven-year itch is a psychological term that suggests that happiness in a relationship declines after around year seven of a marriage.^[1] The phrase originated as a name for irritating and contagious skin complaints of a long duration. Examples of reference may have included STD herpes outbreaks that are known to significantly decrease in frequency after seven years or mites that live under the skin (scabies) and cause severe itching that is hard to get rid of. Later on in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was viewed as an expression of imagined appropriate punishment for antisocial behavior, or as a simile for a situation with little hope in relief.^[2]
The phrase was first used to describe an inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage in the play The Seven Year Itch by George Axelrod, and gained popularity following the 1955 film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell.
The phrase has since expanded to indicate cycles of dissatisfaction not only in interpersonal relationships but in any situation such as working a full-time job or buying a house, where a decrease in happiness and satisfaction is often seen over long periods of time.

Happiness is...

Today, happiness is:


- Having listened to an AWESOME Dave Grohl interview this morning on 5. I couldn't get out of the car until it had finished! The coolest part was that after the line cut he called back to finish his story :-)
- Knowing that in 29 sleeps (excited much?!) we'll be moving into our new home!
- After 10 VERY slow days at work, finding random tasks to fill my day. Boredom is a happiness killer of note
- Listening to an awesome mix of tunes on YouTube (and having the internet work for once!) while doing said random tasks. Who can't be happy when listening to Foo Fighters, The Offspring, RHCP, System of a Down, Nirvana, 3 Doors Down, Kings of Leon, Linkin Park and Audioslave!
- Having hot coffee in your belly on a cold and rainy day
- losing weight :-) down 1.5kg in 10 days!
- knowing that tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is sure to be filled with plenty of fun.

Happy Thursday!

Home Sweet HomeS!

 

 

I'm always happy when Friday rolls around, but I'm especially happy this week. After 10 days out of the office (half for a work trip and the other half on leave) this week readjusting to the desk and chair has been horrible! The days have dragged, the coffee is bad (I forgot) and the mood is gloomy...but it's Friday so let's not dwell on all that!

 

Lots has been happening that is happy in the past few weeks:

- I'm now a Godmother to THE most adorable little man in the world

- We are getting married in the most perfect chapel in (almost) the most sentimental spot I could find

- The wedding venue that we booked before even seeing it, is as beautiful in person as it looked on the website...phew!

- We got to spend a week with our families catching up and planning for the big day(s!)

- I got the mock up version of our wedding invites and they are adorb

- There are some exciting possibilities on the horizon at work (which should they pan out would make life a lot more fun)

- Our house is bought and the move in date is set for 1 August...is it too soon for me to start packing?!?!

 

I've always been very homely - perhaps growing up in a farm house that your family has lived in for close to 100 years does that to you!! Home equals security to me and the insecurity of renting has always bothered me (add to that an erratic letting agent and I'm a nervous wreck!) So being able to call our new house home is one of the most exciting things ever for me! We'll both have a set of keys (something previously banned by said erratic letting agent), I can wack nails in the walls without fear of punishment, I can paint the walls in accent colours / stripes ('cause I can!) and I can feel secure in the fact that no one can kick me out until I'm ready to leave...it's going to be heaven!! 

Happy Friday everyone :-)

10 000 hits!!

Wow! I just missed a massive milestone in my stats - I reached 10 000 hits and didn't even know it! I started this blog almost exactly a year and a half years and it's grown with me (very slowly at times due to my less than regular posts!) through rough and happy times. I don't know who bothers to read my random ramblings and I don't really care if anyone does...I just needed a place to share my thoughts and feelings, an outlet of sorts and this forum has been just that for me.

 

So thank you if you follow my posts and if you just see this one, that's cool too ;-) 

The whole "Keep Calm and Carry On" thing is SO 2012 I know, but at times in life it really is less of a cliché and more of a reality for some (myself included!) I'll think about if it should stay or go, but for now HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Good things come to those who wait

 

 

I truly despise the saying "good things come to those who wait" but recently it's been all to apt for my life. For years I waited for a man, a ring, a promise, a wedding, a house, a home and then they all came - pretty much all at once! Since getting engaged, it's been a whirlwind of planning, dreaming and watching it all come together.

While the wedding plans tick along, we decided it was time to re-start our search for a home. We'd spent about 4 months last year sussing out the market with very little success. It was a depressing experience seeing what you got for so much money! On Sunday we reluctantly got in the car and visited the 3 properties that met our requirements from the weekend paper.

By chance, one of the emails I'd sent of enquiring about a house got answered in minutes and we then headed to the house that wasn't on show. We really liked it, it ticked the boxes and it met the lower end of our budget. It seemed to good to be trued! After a second visit the following day, we took another day to think about it and then put in an offer.

We'd had a disappointment last year when trying to put in an offer (there had been 4 offers in the first 24 hours of the property being on the market and we lost out) so I didn't get my hopes up. Even when we found out that the offer had been accepted, I was calm. Only the following day, a week after we had first viewed the house, did it sink in that soon I'll be able to knock nails in the walls without worrying about filling them up when I leave! I won't have to worry about the Dracula of a letting agent that I have to deal with currently. I won't have to feel insecure about getting "kicked out" if the owner decides to move in or sell. I will have a house to decorate and make a home :-) Once this all sunk in the Pinterest focus shifted from wedding décor to home décor!

If all goes well, we'll be moving in around August, giving us a nice amount of time to settle in before the craziness of the wedding. Touch wood, fingers crossed, prayers said.

Let the Planning BEGIN!

It didn't take long for people to start asking when we were getting married...in fact, the first such question came approximate 2 hours after we got engaged! Luckily, we'd discussed where we'd like to get married about 6 months in to our relationship so that was easy. Once one has narrowed down the geographic area of the venue, and if the area is small and remote like ours is, then finding a venue is easy as their aren't many too chose from! A couple of calls, emails and a venue visit by my folks and the deposit was all but paid.

Finding a date on the other hand was slightly more tricky. We obviously want as many our family and friends to be at both of our weddings - the "white" wedding as well as the "traditional" wedding - but finding dates suitably close yet the right way around (the "white" wedding must happen first I've now learned) was a challenge.

But...all that is now done and dusted, the dates are set and the venue booked :-) Now for the planning to begin!

We're Engaged!

We're Engaged! About 10 days ago, my most amazing man whisked me away on one of our "drives to nowhere" on what was to be the most beautiful day of all! We ended up in Paternoster, one of my favourite places, for lunch at Skatkis Restaurant at the Paternoster Lodge where they were setting up for an Aussie wedding (how fitting!)



Guess who put a (beautiful, sparkly) ring on it?!

After an awesome seafood lunch we took a drive and found a pretty much deserted beach a little outside of Paternoster. Picnic blank and bottle of bubbles in tow, we settled on a stretch of beach with the most amazing view of the blue water. And that's where it all happened!

10 days in and the wedding planning is underway - the dates are saved and the venue booked. Super excited for both our "white" and traditional weddings taking place in December 2014 and all the planning involved.

Read more about our story here!



Wine, Glorious Wine

A few weekends agp my friend Margs came to visit. Besides being a great friend, she is also a great lover of wine and is super clued up on all things fermented! We made it our mission to squeeze in as many farms as possible in the 30 odd hours we had together. What made the tastings great was that neither of us had been to any of the 4 farms that we visited, so it was an awesome weekend of discovering new spots.

We started our journey off at Waterkloof - in the Somerset West / Helderburg region - an area that I was not at all familiar with and probably the nicest surprise of the weekend. What an amazing, modern farm with a stunning restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous meal. Featured in Modern Wineries of South Africa, this farm didn't disappoint - perched on top of a hill, with an awesome view from it's modern façade, Waterkloof is definitely a farm I'll be visiting again soon as I didn't buy any wine from there so will have to be back!

Next up was Ernie Els. I was initially hesitant thinking that it would be another commercial farm because of it's famous owner. But boy was I wrong! An awesome farm, with amazing views and great (albeit expensive) wines...the cute "golfer" servers didn't hurt either ;-) Day 2 saw us visiting Warwick and Rustenburg. Warwick, know for it's family picnics and First Lady wines was our first stop and I left with a lovely bottle of their Pinotage. Rustenberg, one of the oldest farms in the Cape Winelands, hiddenon the base of Helshoogte was a lovely place to end our weekends' tasting. We picked up a couple of lovely bottles here including their Straw Wine - a lovely desert wine - which was a thank you for our trusty designated driver ;-)

 

 

Some friendships never fade!

Very few times in my life have I met someone for the first time and within 2 minutes known that I would be friends with this person for a long time to come. One such occasion was a good 5 odd years ago when I met Margs after a church service back in the bay (also known as Port Elizabeth, my place of residence before finding a home in Cape Town!) There was just something about her - bubby, friendly, confident, but most of all, herself. This was a time of self discovery for most of us, as your mid-twenties are, but Margs knew exactly who she was, where she was going, what she stood for and was not apologetic for it.

Margs and I went on to be "partners in crime" from painting the town red, to joining old ladies book clubs to cell group meetings. We did pretty much everything together and when she moved away, I realized that my time in PE was drawing to an end...everyone kept leaving!!

This weekend Margs came to visit and after over 2 years of seeing each other (and both being very bad at keeping in touch!) we reconnected without skipping a beat. The weekend was spent sampling some delicious wine and food while catching up on what we've missed and reminiscing on all the fun and funny times we shared.

Some friendships truly never fade and I'm so pleased to have such a special person in my life.

Fashion Fundie or Fashion Faux Par?!

To say I'm obsessed with fashion might be an overstatement but definitely not a lie. I've always had an appreciations for style, clothes, self-expression and artistry - I've just never had the confidence (or, to be honest, the budget) to express myself fully through what I wear.

I see people I went to school with become successful fashion bloggers and stylists and I'll sign up to see their posts, watch every episode of any fashion intern reality show I can find, never never miss a Fashion Police (and generally correctly predict the best and worst dressed) and will never miss an E! Live from the Red Carpet slot and yet I don't think I'm someone who dresses well!

Practicality and durability have long been the name of the game in my family when it comes to clothes. Never extravegant, too loud or out of the ordinary. Growing up in a private boarding school, this was probably the largest bone of contention between my mother and I. I appreciated the home sewn clothes...really I did, but there came a time where fabric similar to that of a table cloth was not appropriate attire for an impressionable teen!

Given the budget, I'd like to believe that my dream wardrobe would have a point of view. A diverse and perhaps eclectic point of view - but a voice of sorts none the less.
 

In a recent blog post, Lauren Conrad defined her style in three words: classic, feminine, Californian Girl.   She asked her readers to do the same for their particular style and here is where my brain started searching for 3 definitive words to describe something I struggle to envision myself. Realistically it would be: practical, simple, corporate that would sum up my current wardrobe vibe, but give me unlimited budget and a trip or two overseas, I'd like to believe this would transform to: edgy, feminine, classic. 

It's a work in progress I suppose and something I've tasked my self with improving this year. A New Years resolution of sorts. To spend money...wisely, on timeless, classic, and yet out of the ordinary pieces with character and personality and voice, not forgetting that quality and taste are the key to it all.

That being said...I'm off to shop!

All you need is love...

'                       

My most amazing man and I recently celebrated two whole years of togetherness! This milestone was significant for both of us: my longest relationship to date (plus making it past the twice devastating 2 year speed bump was awesome!) and his longest relationship by 21 months ;-) it was indeed time to celebrate, and celebrate we did with an amazing meal at one of our favorites, La Mouette in Seapoint. 

                         

Our relationship, his love and support for me, was what got me through 2013. When all else failed, these three are constant. As I sit here writing in my quiet, almost dark lounge (Eksom, our national power supplier has us on loadshedding as their "coal got wet") I'm reminded that love really is all we need. Fill out hearts with love for ourselves, each other and those around us particularly hard to even like and things can only look better than they did before!