HYUNJU KIM

I've fallen in love with this artist. She's just amazing. 

SPRING INSPIRATION

ITINERARY OF THINGS TO DO ON A WEEKEND IN WELLINGTON

“Wellington is an unpolished gem,” said Birgit Schmiederer who runs the Jacaranda Wine Farm in the small Cape Winelands town. Her words perfectly summarise what I discovered in Wellington! It’s as charming as Franschhoek but just not as ready for tourists as other small towns around Cape Town  – yet it’s getting there!

BEDROOM LOVIN'

HANDS & FYNBOS

We did a beautiful hike at Cape Nature's Kogelberg between Betty's Bay and Kleinmond. It started drizzling towards the end but luckily the rain didn't catch us.

I can definitely highly recommend Kogelberg Nature Reserve! Cape Nature's doing such a great job in conservation, signage and creating great hikes. Plus, the reception area with offices and public bathrooms has just been built and its wooden design is gorgeous and modern.

Photos were taken with my beautiful film camera, Minolta X-700.

WE DID IT!

Photo was taken by the amazing Tabitha from Illuminate Photography. She made us feel like ten million bucks and took the photos at one of our favourite places, Silvermine. 

AMY AYANDA

One of my all-time favourite Cape Town-based artists, Amy Ayanda, makes music that elicits what is best summarised by a Soundcloud user's comment, "marry my soul". It's sweet, soft, soulful, sexy and dreamy mix of electro, house and folk. 

SONS & DOUBTERS PODCASTS

Probably one of the best podcasts series is Sons & Doubters. This episode was awesome, and Iove this quote: “In order to get through grief, you have to go through grief..." It answers the question of 'How is everyone around me so happy?'" when you've gone through a hard time, or lost someone, or went through a divorce etc.  

ON LOSS: PART TWO

INTERIOR LOVE

Because a friend told me to update my blog today, and I remembered that I wanted to post something at least every month. So here are some of my current favourite interiors.

ON LOSS: PART ONE

For a long time, I wasn’t able to write about my dad’s death. Some people run to church, to their faith, to their inner selves, to help groups. I just retracted. I felt nothing. Nothing but pain and a deep well of sadness. Over time, as the days passed, as winter faded into spring, into summer, and now into autumn (it’s not been a full year yet) it got easier. It was easier to talk about him, remember his face, answer people’s questions about what kind of person he was.

JACARANDA WINE FARM IN WELLINGTON

If you're planning a trip to Wellington, South Africa, then Jacaranda's Wine Farm is a lovely little spot to unwind. Rene and Birgit who run the working farm and guest house, have lived in China and Europe and have finally settled down in the quaint town of Wellington in the winelands.

We immediately felt welcome by their warm hospitality (we were greeted with a glass of Jacaranda wine!). Not only does Jacaranda have two adorable dogs, but the farm is also home to eight cats, chickens, and neighbouring cows. It's definitely a heaven for animal lovers! Jacaranda Wine Farm is surrounded by vineyards as Birgit and Rene produce their own wine on the property. As a welcome, we got a bottle of the richly flavoured Jacaranda Shiraz.

Exploring Wellington was lots of fun, and I'll be posting our itinerary soon so stay posted!

Our home for the weekend! This cottage is divided into two, and we had full reign of front part including the scenic porch. Each cottage has an upstairs and downstairs.

We almost packed Tommy and Ani into our car at the end of our trip but decided that Jacaranda Wine Farm was probably the happiest place on earth for them!

The best breakfast and of course the dogs know this...

Exploring the art in Wellington at the Breytenbach Galery at the Breytenbach Sentrum on 14 Burger Street.

EXPLORING LANGEBAAN

I finally downloaded my photos from my Lumix camera of our December holidays. We had a few days off before Christmas and headed to Langebaan with friends, located an hours drive from Cape Town. It's such a magnificent little town but also visually so strange. It doesn't have a "small town" kind of feeling and looks more like a suburb built close to a lagoon or ocean.

Windsurfers, surfers and kite surfers definitely rule this town. Langebaan is an exciting place for water-sports lovers. Luckily, our holiday house was a 3-minute walk from a small cove and beach so we were really spoilt. James tried some kite surfing and I was taught how to kayak.

Overall if you love to get out and get wet, Langebaan is perfect for you!

x

SUMMER WAS GOOD TO US

INSPIRED EUCALYPTUS

I recently got engaged, yes me, engaged! I still can't quite wrap my head around it but it's certainly been an amazing journey with my fiancee so far. The last three weeks have been filled with me freaking out about wedding plans, expectations and the consumerism (and money worry!) that wedding planning has become nowadays.

We're sitting down tonight to discuss some finer points about setting the date and discussing how many people we want to invite. I guess these aren't "finer points" but big, fat dots on the calender. I'm starting to get quite excited because I know that my fiancee and I think quite similarly about what kind of wedding we'd like. We want something low-key, not to "spendy", relaxed and something that centers around our family and friends.

Here are some photographs I found for the eucalyptus decoration I want (I do still need to convince my fiancee about this, not a flower man himself) because they're fairly inexpensive, dry beautifully and smell lovely.