Be a Tourist...in your own city

I love the fact that I live in a city which I get excited about sharing with friends or family visiting. Who else can boast of being a tourist in your own home town?!

My parents and brother were recently here for their annual visit and it wasn't hard to find things to keep them occupied (despite the rain.) Although, in writing down all that we did (and ate) I started to pick up two very distinct themes - I love food and I love Noordhoek! The two merged with our trips to the normal faves: The Noordhoek Community Market at Cape Point Vineywards, Cafe Roux who have recently opened for evening meals too and of course, last but very much not least, the much before mentioned Foodbarn Deli - Tapas by Night.

And then there was the family time - squeezing my flat with as many people as possible, visiting relatives, getting up at the crack of dawn to support the 2 Oceans Half Marathon runners and seemingly endless shopping (the Eastern Cape doesn't have REAL shops like we do!)

With a couple more days to go of entertaining the brother, the itinerary looks a little like this: rugby and more food at Barristers, more rugby and drinks at the famous Percy's, Steak, salad and chips at HQ and prehaps we should throw in something a little less food oriented and more cultured like a trip to Robben Island.

Busy and fun times - TGIF so that I can sleep in a little tomorrow :-)

Hunting for the perfect cushion

My mom always taught me that when you don't have the means to refurbish fully, touch up the small things to make your room look bran new. Well, that lesson learnt, I've been hunting for the perfect scatter cushions for a while now (as mentioned in my first post of 2013) and have been struggling to find just what I'm looking for. I think that is half the problem - knowing exactly what I'm looking for! That, and the limited budget that I have at the moment.

I sometimes wish I could be this blunt!
(Mr Price Home)



I started out the search at good old M R Price hoping to find "the ones" at an affordable price. While they have many ok options, I didn't fall in love and given the short life span of "poofiness" the previous bunch I got from there had, I'm hesitant to repeat the buy.



Awesome colours and print
(Woolies)



The ever reliable Woolies must be able to deliver I thought. And indeed they did...at a price! I fell in love a few time over in the hour or so that I was there, playing with different colour combinations on my imaginary couch (I promise that there was another lady there doing the EXACT same thing - I wasn't the only retard unsure of my colour combinations!) So back to falling in love...I fell hard, but not quite hard enough to slash out close to R2000 in the notoriously tight first month of the year. But if I could have, I would have.



5 Rooms, based in Cape Town, is a great online option with plenty of amazing choices including cushion covers all at a pretty price! Seeing as payday is coming soon, I might even brave a visit to the ever amazing Weylandts to see what they have in store.

I'll share the pics when I finally find "the one!"

Thrifty Thursday

I love a good bargain. I mean, who doesn't. But (like many others I'm sure) I'm guilty of buying for the sake of buying when I see a great deal. I'm not always that great at applying my mom's rule of "do you want it or do you need it?!" As a result, I end up with masses of often low quality "stuff" that doesn't last nearly as long as it would have had I bought the slightly better quality, more expensive alternative.

That being said, there is no greater joy than finding a high quality luxuary that you would have not normally been able to justify, at a reduced price. This year I'm going to try to find great deals and only splurge on things that I REALLY need...or REALLY want!

I read a blog the other day describing how a woman (stay at home mom!) would buy her full months groceries from discount stores and freeze it for great home made meals all month long. Now - let's be realistic, I'm not about to give up my Woolies treats or weekly sushi, but I'm sure that there are more cost effective ways of doing what I've been doing. Here are some that I can think of so far:

- Not getting sucked into those 2 or 3 or 4 packets of rocket for the price of 1. I mean really...how much rocket can I realistically eat before it goes soggy?
- Not eating the grosely oily canteen food at work. Yes I know it looks like a bargain, but how hard is it to get up 5 minutes earlier in the morning and pack a lunch?
- Watching movies at the mall which is a couple of kilometers further away from home than your normal mall of choice - really, it's almost half price!
- Creative home made gifting - I love giving gifts and am slowly starting to find fun and cost effective ways of still having the joy of giving without the pain of the budget crisis I face after splurging

Here's to finding more thrifty ways of life and sharing them on Thursdays!

Keep Calm and Go Shopping

Gift giving is one of my favourite things to do when you know that you've bought the perfect present and wrapped it with care. The Constantia Gift Fair took place over the weekend and while my intention was to get as much of my Christmas shopping done as possible (I promise it really was!), I'm embarrassed to admit that I left with four items for myself and no gifts to put under the tree.

We are blessed with many great markets in Cape Town and one tends to get a little bored when seeing the same stalls week in and week out at various different markets, but the Constantia Gift Fair had great new vendors with fresh ideas (al beit somewhat repeated amongst the stalls.) The main target market was largely girls and kids, but then again, when is it not.

  

The organisers should be commended for the great decor and festive atmosphere it created - large gift boxes lined the entrance, quirky quotes were pegged all around to entertain and artwork decked out the table tops. It was also great to be able to browse (and shop) across all the stalls with a basket and then pay at a single pay point at the exit.

You may have missed out on the gift fair experience in Constantia, but the tents will move to Durbanville at the end of the month for the Durbanville Gift Fair...so keep calm and go shopping!

The Gift Fair