Quick update!

We found a new camping trailer (yay) - now we need to get it down to Cape Town :)  Can you say road trip?? I can't wait!

The weekend that went by too fast (like all the other ones before I guess)

Hi - Hope you had a fab weekend! We sold our camping trailer on Saturday so the rest of the weekend was spent researching options for the off-road caravan we are planning on buying - very exciting, but also very stressful as it needs to be the *right* one!!  I will keep you updated and share some pics when we do buy one.

Just as some background info - I was NOT a camping person.  As a child our family used to go camping every December holiday for at least three weeks.  I loved it then, but the older I got the more I started doubting the wisdom of leaving your comfortable home, with own bathroom, comfy bed, lovely lounge etc. to stay in cramped quarters with shared bathrooms (still freaks me out, the magic words for me is "each site has its own bathroom").

A few years ago in a moment of weakness, or insanity, our family agreed to go camping with my parents and a group of friends.  A leaky air mattress, no electricity and cold showers came very close to ending my camping journey forever.

The one thing that however did make me think that maybe we should try it again was my kids - They spend the whole weekend playing outside, making new friends, swimming, fishing, and spending quality time with our family and friends - it made my heart happy (ok, that and the fact that my mom and I could lounge around reading and chatting and eating Quality Street choccies in secret).

My very clever husband asked my to make a list of things I think we would need to go camping - "just in case we want to go camping again".  We started planning what our ideal camp set-up would be, and worked on a camping trailer for months to get it just right (ok, my husband worked on it for months!!).

Now that the kids are a bit older we are wanting to do longer trips, possibly a tour of a neighbouring country so we are upgrading to an off-road caravan. Hold thumbs that we find something we love soon!

Friday Favourite

Let me start off this post by saying that this will never be a beauty blog... ever (stick around you will soon realise that).  I do however want to do a "favourites" series and at the moment I'm loving Lush .

They currently have four shops in SA, three of which are in Cape Town and the other one is in Durbs. The best thing about these shops, apart from their awesome products of course, is the fact that you can smell the shops before you see them (sorry for those of you with sensitive noses #sorrynotsorry).  They stock bath & shower products, hair care products, skin care products and make-up.

My first favourite is the Ultraviolet bubble bar.  It has a divine scent (violet leaf and jasmine), and turns the water Barney purple with loads of bubbles.

You simply break a chunk from the bar and crumble it under your running bath water.  Yes people - bubbles from a bar!

This particular bar is sold out online at the moment (but there's other to choose from!!).  Oh and just a note, break bits off - you can get I guess about 5/6 baths from one bar.  Somebody's children used one whole one in the bath once (we won't mention names though).

My second fave is the mask of magnaminty.  I first saw it on the Pink Peonies blog (now there's a beauty blog for you).  When I read her review I knew it should be on my shopping list, as my skin often behaves like that of a hormonal teenager! The mask has all sorts of lovely goodies in to deep clean and exfoliate your skin, and it has a lovely minty smell.

It's also sold out online - see its popular people! It retails at R215.00 for 315g and R115.00 for 125g.  I bought a small one as it does have an expiry date.

* None of these links are affiliate links, just want you to have sweet smelling bath water and spot-free skin (you're welcome).
** Images from Lush website (my bubble bar is missing a piece or two or three)

Out and about: Noordhoek Farm Village

If you live in Cape Town and haven't visited the Noordhoek Farm Village yet go now (I'll wait)! You can read all about the farm village here - they have a few restaurants, all of which are lovely, and a few cute shops.

This morning the kids and I met up with a friend and her kids, and decided to have breakfast at the Foodbarn Deli. We managed to get a table outside so the kids could play on the grass and in the lovely play park, while my friend and I could catch up on some "skinner".

The Deli has a lovely selection of breakfast goodies. My favourite is the "design-your-own" breakfast - just perfect for someone that picks food according to my mood! The coffee is divine (and bottomless for only R12!!),and the hot chocolate my daughter ordered looked so good I'm contemplating going back soon just for that.

The deli is open till 16:30, but you can have dinner at the Foodbarn restaurant or enjoy the tapas bar in the deli from 18:00 (do phone to check before you go as I don't think they do tapas every night!).I forgot to take photos, can you say blogging fail? - so imagine images of coffee, sunshine and yummy brekkies.  I will leave you with a copy of the Foodbarn logo (which is rather cute).

hello!

Welcome to henry & olivia! Please bear with me as I try to figure out all the blogging ins and outs - while keeping the family happy, the house tidy(ish), working and remaining sane :)