where cute meets tomboy

Hey guys!
So today, day 10 of our South Africa trip, was shopping day numero dos. Although today was not nearly as spectacular, to say the least, as the first I still enjoyed myself.

Another picture in heaven a.k.a Woolworth's shoe section(check Wednesday's post here)

My outfit today was a little more tomboy-ish than usual(which was what I was going for). I wore the floral shoes(see here) with this outfit.. I pretty much went Au Natural with my make up today(don't you just love the random touches of foreign languages in this post?) and threw my hair up into a cute, messy bun. Getting ready today took me like 5 minutes...it was great. While shopping, I just couldn't resist trying on the "Lady Gaga shoes" (or so my mom calls them) that I have been eying for our last 3 visits to Woolworths.

After returning home my sister and I began making dinner(my mom instructing me what to do every 5 seconds because I can't cook if my life depended on it).

Perfect bonding time for us

The Exception

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts this last couple of days but I'm not exactly sure how many of you will continue reading my blog if I write about the fact that I sat around and just "hung out". This last two days have been just that with the exception of my interesting night last night. After shooing my sister and her fiance(Miguel) out the door for their date my mom, twin(Miguel's sister), and twins mom frantically got ready for my sister's bachelorette party. (Read her post here for more detail) We met the other girls at the location and awaited her arrival. While opening gifts she was told before opening the last gift she had to make R500($80). Let's just say that was the best part of the night. We walked around the entire place watching her ask people for money. After two hours she made R3,000($500).

Twin(Nicole), Me, Ashley

asking for money

My sister and I

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Hey Guys!

Today was full of running wedding errands. We visited the venue and got the last minute details ready(well most of them) and visited yet another florist to compare the first. While at the venue mumsy took a picture of Ash and I that I just LOVE.

So far I am thoroughly enjoying this trip and I really missed my family-to-be, which I have realized a lot in this last couple of days. I'm so excited to see the rest of the family soon and I cannot believe how quickly the wedding seems to be approaching.


So today my twin (Ashley's fiance's sister Nicole) taught me how to do this:

This....is called stippling.

These pictures probably look completely normal from far away but what you don't know is that they are composed of only dots. I kinda cheated and traced the outlining of the pictures but its only because I lack majorly in the artistic department.

Awesome huh?

I can't decide which I like better...

What do you think? This is actually way easier than it looks (especially when you cheat...) :)

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you have lost it you can never get it back.."

I Hope Heaven's Like This:

Hey everyone!
So today was the day I had been looking forward to all week. My mom, sister, sister’s fiancé, and I went to one of Joburg’s many malls. Let me just tell you now that you haven’t been shopping until you have come to South Africa.

First of all, I have never seen so many malls in my life. If I were to take a guess I’d say there were some 10 or 15 malls within a 60 mile radius. They are everywhere...I’m not even joking. Last time we visited this lovely country we went to like 5 of them.

Also, they are huge and each one is unique. Some of the malls have up to three or four stories, now that may not be that much… But coming from my town, that has one mall that is one story and probably only has 50 stores, it is amazing. Every mall has at least 3 stores in common (Edgars, Woolworths, and Mr. Price) but all of the little boutiques are different.

These malls are seriously like heaven for me. I could spend days just browsing through all of the stores. I found a couple of really cute things today. But since I am running on a pretty small budget I tried to shop only on sale racks. Sadly, I still spent $70 on only three items (it was worth it).

I have been hunting down a pair of boots like this since we got here. 25% off? I think yes.
Edgars

I feel like these shoes have a sort of vintage feel to them.
Mr. Price

The cute dress that looks much less.... shapless on.
Edgars

Coffee at Mugg and Bean

In heaven

I hope this makes all of my fellow fashionista's want to visit Johannesburg! (:

Just Another Day

Today nothing really interesting went on here. We woke up (later than we had expected the night before) and ate breakfast. Then after that we rushed to get ready so we could meet the lady that is doing the flowers for my sister’s wedding. After running a few errands we returned home to eat lunch and relax a little. Our evening was spent going on a walk and eating a delish meal my sister made.

So today in the midst of my “relaxing” and wave of boredom came over me…I mean how many hours can you spend reading? Okay a lot but still…I needed to take a break. So I took my camera out back and took a couple pictures.

Today my outfit was pretty simple. I tried to find a good middle between comfortable, warm, and cute.

Jet lag? Heck no!

Hey guys!

So after a long 20 hours of traveling moving into a different time zone was surprisingly easy. Last night we arrived to our home away from home at about 7:30. By the time I had emailed family and friends letting them know I survived, eaten dinner, showered, and gotten ready for bed it was almost 10:00, but for some strange reason it felt like it was 1 o’clock in the morning when at home it was not even 4 PM.

I slept in this morning until about 9 or so and after getting ready for the day we headed off to the store. Going to the grocery store in a foreign country is quite the experience I must say. After doing the math in my head and figuring out how much everything cost in dollars and I was flabbergasted. One dollar for a bag of 6 apples? Yes please.

After getting home we had lunch and just hung out for a while. Sitting in the sun in this cool weather has to be one of my favorite things to do here. My relaxing time was interrupted by my sister, mom, and sister’s fiancé’s mom wanting to go on a walk. After returning from that I opened up my computer to find that my family had left me a video message on ooVoo. How sweet :) I recorded and sent a reply and went to the kitchen to scavenge for food.

Soon I will be ooVooing my family and hopefully chatting with my best friend. I am so excited because I miss everyone like crazy! I am so excited to see what this next couple days bring :)

We Have Arrived

After months of preparation, weeks of anticipation, and days of packing we are finally almost to South Africa. I am currently typing out this post while on the plane ride to Johannesburg and will be posting it when I arrive. Traveling this time around was a piece of cake; what took us 48 hours last year is only taking us 20 this year (thanks to on time flights).

We arrived at the airport yesterday morning at 11:30 and made it right on time to our 2 o’clock flight. For some strange reason I had motion sickness the entire two hour flight to D.C. It ran a little behind schedule and making the 5:15 flight to Dakar, Senegal was a close one. Right now we have 5 or 6 hours left of flight time until we reach out final destination! Hooray.

I have pretty much been keeping myself busy with shenanigans like movies, snacks, reading, more movies, etc. I must say I am ready to get out of this plane though I’m starting to feel a hint of claustrophobia coming over me (on top of the nervousness caused by the pilot’s turbulence warning).

So last year when we took this trip I had decided to be as comfortable as possible (t-shirt, over sized ripped up jeans, and converse). But this time around I wanted to find a middle ground between cute and comfy; in my opinion a flowy shirt, comfortable skinny jeans, and cushiony flip flops are the way to go. My advice? Pack a change of shirt (if you are traveling far like Moi) and a jacket because planes…ARE FREEZING, and plane blankets…ARE FLIMSY. Just saying.

P.S I am going to try to post another video soon of a summary of our travels so keep an eye out for it!