Oh, to Build a Home

As most girls do, I've been lately dreaming of taking a house and making it into a home. I've been doing temporary work at a furniture and decor shop in Ballito called Home Flair, and I think being surrounded by gorgeous wallpaper and crystal chandeliers from 9-5 has inspired me to start visualizing what the home of my dreams would look like. So, here's to hoping my ship comes in and I get to take this mood board of homely dreams and turn it into a sweet reality. 

Night Market

There are many reasons why I love my home town, Ballito, and this is one of them:

This friday night there will be a night market/picnic under the stars at the Litchi Orchard in Salt Rock. My friends Chloe, Josh and Majozi will be entertaining us with their lovely voices and musical talents. 

Oh, and I'd better warn you that there are foods of the most decadent kind that lurk around this market, so come armed with an empty stomach and eat your fill!

Friday is going to be divine, I can't wait. 

For more info, visit the Litchi Orchard's website

Bikes, Betties and the Beautiful Beachfront

Last week, in celebration of the lovely Casey's birthday, a big group of friends and I went skating/biking along the Durban beachfront promenade, from the Moses Mabhida Stadium to Ushaka and back. It was one of those 'pinch myself is this really winter?' kind of June days, and Durban was breathtakingly beautiful. This day was one of my top 5 days of 2012 so far and I am ever grateful for the city I live in and the people that I get to live with, and fun is definitely a top priority of ours. 

Side note: I am rather stoked about the recent rise in popularity of skateboarding in Durban (especially amongst girls), thanks to the likes of companies like 'Peg.' I got to use a Peg longboard for the first time, and it was a sweet ride!  

Here are some of my iPhone pics of the day.

Spotted on 'Guy With Camera' Blog

Last week some friends of mine and I went cycling/skating along the Durban beachfront promenade (blogpost and pics soon to follow), and I distinctly remember a guy standing with an SLR taking some shots of us as we rode past. You know those times when a rando takes a photo of you and 1) you wonder what the heck that picture will look like, and 2) wonder where the heck it will show up. Well, a friend sent me a link on Facebook to the 'Guy With Camera' blog telling me to check it out because I showed up in one of the featured photos. 'Twas a nice little surprise. 
I so loved the entire blog post that the Guy With Camera did about my hometown Durban, that I thought I'd share it along with some of the beautiful photos that accompanied it.


As seen on www.guywithcamera.co.za:
Durban
While growing up in Natal, Durban always had the feeling of a dated city. Like retro theme park or a sticky swimming pool flooded with flashbacks in beach mosaic and the smell of suncream SPFs. A summer nostalgia for South Africans who used to swarm in from middle country. The vaal flocks of GP numberplates. “Are those all doctors?” But slowly the city seems to be shedding it’s past prime plastic and reinventing itself. It still keeps that warm retro charm but after walking the new promenade, exploring brave new coffee shops in industrial umbilo and seeing rooftop gardens on downtown city blocks, you get the feeling the city is becoming alive again. Durban doesn’t have a large network of creative types supported by advertising and media houses like in Cape Town or Joburg who are normally the fuel behind interesting city concepts. A lot of Durbanites migrate to Cape Town craving creative stimulation. But many of these new Durban projects are started by people who’ve studied art in Barcelona or have had a software company in San Fransisco making apps for Apple. And they’ve realised that there’s nothing wrong with applying new ideas in your home town while surfing in boardshorts over your lunch break.

Durban, isn't it pretty?

Say It With Watercolour

Today I had some fun exploiting my new 'watercolour' Photoshop brushes. Added some of my favorite quotes and lyrics, and here you have it:

You can take me out of South Africa, but you can't take South Africa out of me

After 9 months on USA soil, I am finally back under the African skies.
As the plane hit the Durban runway, my heart leapt at the joy of being home and my eyes welled with tears as the airport sliding doors revealed my family and best friend standing on the other side.
Two whole days of travel (from Redding to San Fran to Dubai to Durban) is a brutal companion for a lone traveller, but the destination awaiting me was worth the uncomfortable airplane chairs.


Being back in my homeland is a longing fulfilled. Towards the end of my American adventure, I began to yearn for my country, culture, and people. Living outside of these familiarities is no small challenge. After living away from South Africa for the amount of time I did, I realized that there are things that we all take for granted daily that we are unaware we are taking for granted. Example: Friends with whom you have a long history of relationship; Places soaked with memories that stretch as far back as childhood; Family members that live one bedroom away at least or one car ride away at most.
Before I moved away, these things had become luxuries that valued far less than I should have. I'd never had to live without them nor did I ever imagine having to.
When I boarded that plane that carried me to a land far, far away, I was bored with all things familiar and needed a taste of life outside the nest. Don't get my wrong, I had such a good time, that this coming August I'll be doing it over again, but I guess since having my feet planted in South African soil once again, things are being viewed from new perspectives.


It's odd to be standing as a person who has changed and transformed so much, in a place and amongst people that don't seemed to have changed at all. Things are mostly the way I left them, yet why does it feel that 9 months away has allowed me to feel as though I'm tasting for the first time, things that were once my everyday norm? Everything about my country, home, family and friends seems new and different, yet there are still faint traces of years of familiarity that cling to them.
Every day I've been looking outside my window and wondering if it's gotten more beautiful since I've been gone, or if the lenses of familiarity just clouded me from seeing and appreciating this evident beauty all along. I think it's the latter.


I am simply adoring my 'new' Durban lifestyle as if I've never lived it before. I've gotten to watch the sun rise over the ocean and set over the rippling sugar cane fields once again. I've been able to surf the Indian oceans and see dolphins swim by yet again.
It hurts my heart a little to know that there are South Africans with hearts bent negatively towards this country and desires of running away to seemingly greener pastures. Take it from someone who once thought the same, it doesn't get a whole lot greener than this.


So, if anybody needs me I'll just be soaking up all this South African goodness over the next few months, and strike me down if I ever forget what a good life it is!