hey gorgeous Mistle Toes

I adore the hey gorgeous brand, love the look and feel of their products and the results are phenomenal.   

hey gorgeous skincare is a proudly South African company and choc-a-bloc with organic goodness.


Not only does each and every one of their products sounds good enough to eat with names like Chocnut Body Butter and Coconut Body Soufflé, but they are infused with pure love.

They look out-of-this-world-scrummy and every woman who loves indulging in pampering her body, and every man who wants a woman who smells like chocolate, should try these products.

Go check out their quaint website and shop for Christmas.  You won't be able to choose just one product, so buy a bunch for all your family members.

Images courtesy of Hey Gorgeous Skincare

   

 

A Pair o' Jaggie Pockies

A True Christmas story.

I shite you not.

My Aunt Jan and Uncle Robert got married really young and she wasn’t the most domesticated goddess under the sun, in fact, she was pretty useless in the kitchen and even more hopeless at homemade crafts – but hell, did she try really hard!

When we still lived in Scotland, every Christmas my sister and I used to get showered by gifts by all our family. I mean TOTALLY spoiled. We used to spend half the day opening gifts! It was completely insane.

Let me set the picture for you. I have quite an extensive extended family in Scotland. My dad is a family of four siblings and my mum is from a family of 6 siblings. Hence, we had 10 aunties and uncles who spoiled us broken at Christmas time (that’s not including grandparents, cousins and plenty family friends).

Anyway back to Aunt Jan…because she married my Uncle Robert so young, they really didn’t have much money and so when Christmas time came she spent countless hours making everyone home-made gifts and, bless her, they weren’t really, well lets put it this way…you used it or wore it once and then it accidentally fell into the back of your cupboard, never to be seen again.

I will never forget this one year, Aunt Jan knitted my sister and I pockies (you would probably know them as mittens). She must’ve bought the scratchy wool at the local 10p bargain bin store because the wool was a mucky blue colour and had the texture of fucking Grade A steel wool. 

Awww her heart was in the right place. She’d even embroidered teeny weeny yellow and white flowers and a leaf on the top side on the pokkies. Not only that, she even used to make her own homemade Christmas wrapping paper and tie it with recycled string or ribbon. So you now you understand - a lot of effort and preparation went into her Christmas gifts.

So, I opened her pockies on Christmas morning and tried them on. One hand fitted beautifully but the other hand’s thumb was sticking straight up in the air. Och, bless her, Aunt Jan had gotten the pattern wrong and knitted two mittens but they were the SAME HAND! Two right hands. This meant that the pretty embroidery was on the top of the right hand and on the palm side of the left hand (the only way you could wear them to make the thumbs fit). My mum still made us wear them but only once, to visit Aunt Jan's house.

This wasn’t the only gifts Aunt Jan made us that were crooked or mismatched…one year we got little knitted waist coats which were actually dead cute - however, the buttons didn’t match up with the button holes and one side was longer than the other. Another year we got knitted jumpers with cut out felt Santas on the front and one sleeve was longer than the other and slipped stitches magically appeared when you put it on.

The point I'm trying to make is…who cares what the gift is or what it looks like or even if its a little lopsided – she spent loads of her time and effort making these wonderful gifts that contained truck loads of love. The point being, she thought of us when she made these gifts and that's why I'll NEVER forget them.

I miss getting gifts like this. I don’t mean gifts that you throw in the cupboard and hopefully never see again. I’m talking about gifts that someone has put their heart and soul into. It is so easy these days to go to the shops and buy something last minute and not put any thought whatsoever into it. That's so impersonal.

I’d rather receive Aunt Jan’s jaggy pockies any day.

I only wish I’d kept those pokey pockies as a treasured possession. They were so unique and so very special.

Thanks Aunt Jan, wherever you are!

Christmas and Farmville

I must apologise!

My mind has not been in the "blogzone" this week. 

Stoopid me has gotten myself hooked on Facebook Farmville.  Its so pathetically sad - I constantly think about how my crops are growing and how many ribbons and awards I have achieved.  I work out my life around the times when my crops are due to be harvested.  It must stop!  I really must curb this nonsense.  Its distracting me from blog-thoughts and I haven't even starting thinking about Christmas shopping?

I haven't even planned what I'm going to buy everyone and I don’t even know where we are going to be on Christmas Day. Perhaps we should just stay home – just the four of us – and I’ll cook us a nice Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and enjoy the sunny weather and our pool. My mum and dad will not be coming up from the coast for Christmas. My Boerewors’ family are going to extended family in Pretoria for the day.

As for gifts, I know I'm getting Megan a new bike (one that she doesn't have to ride with her knees up at her ears). The bike she currently has she got when she was two years old and it’s tiny, even though we've moved the handle-bars and seat up to full height and capacity. I know I want to buy Kaylin a new doll and pram with some cute accessories. I have no idea what I'm going to get my Boerewors as usual.

Our 10th wedding anniversary is coming up this Friday, 4 December and I've organised for us to go somewhere nice for the afternoon and evening (kiddy free of course) and then his birthday is the week after that on the 14th of December and then its Christmas soon after that.

I never know what to get my Boerewors this time of year as he's the proverbial "Gadget Man" and all the stuff he really wants is way out of my price range. I hate getting him things he really doesn't want because it makes me feel like the substandard wife who never saves and plans for these three events that come really close together. For once I wish I could gt him what he wants. A BT 4 Paintball gun with all the accessories.

Also, in January its Megan’s birthday and February is Kaylin’s birthday so my anorexic piggy bank takes a knock during these three months.

This has been tough this year with no salary increase for the last two years and no pending bonus like we usually get in December.

Perhaps I could play my luck with the lottery?

12 Days of Christmas

Christmas is only 12 days away and I have done NO shopping whatsoever.

I guess I only really have to get for Riaan and the girls as most of Riaan's family are away this Christmas so we're spending the day with closed friends.

We've come up with something fun to do this year : we've made a list of everyone we need to buy for and we're exchanging gifts to the value of R30 - no more! 15 people are already.

I know R30 doesn't sound like much and let me tell you, you can't get much for R30 these days but its more for the chanllenge of it and seeing what we all can actually get for R30 for each other. Last year some funny things came out and I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with this year.

Remember!! The environment this year when wrapping your Christmas prezzies. Think of other ways of wrapping your gifts : use scarves, hankies, unused fabric, knitted or crocheted bags or make your own homemade paper by getting the kids to decorate the newspaper by hauling out their paints and finger painting on it...it'll keep the kids busy and you'll be doing your bit for our planet.

Why don't you use those old Calendars from 2008 to wrap up the loot this year? Use the forces of natural as your finishing touches which normally include baubles and bows. Use leaves or flowers to decorate your gifts. Use some of the pine from your tree! or go the old fashioned route paint some pine cones.

Get creatve and think of those kewl alternatives...

Closed for Business

So we finally tied up all the loose ends at work today and the Homemakers office officially closed and shut down (servers and all) at 10:30am this morning.

It was great to pack up and leave there and know that I have three whole weeks at home with my family with absa lootly bugger all to do.

This is the first year too, that Riaan has taken some leave too and so we'll have two weeks with him at home. The girls will enjoy our full attention and I'm sure they will keep us busy. I don't have too many plans but I intend to spend quality time with everyone doing fun stuff.