Our Wedding {flowers}

Here are the flowers that I/we chose for our wedding in September last year. I didn't want anything over the top, but opted for simple and pretty, with a little bit of a farm feel thrown in.

I had two wonderful local Creighton ladies help me with the flowers (as well as all the 

 and arranging), Gail & Rene, you ladies are just the bees knees!

The flowers all came from Midlands Flower Hub (at Southgate Mall in Pietermaritzburg). Cathy was wonderful to work with and really helped make the rose choices easy peasy!

I had begged, borrowed and scavenged loads and loads of glass bottles for the flowers (anything and everything from All gold bottles, to salt and pepper grinders, to vases and wine bottles!) and I was so very happy with how it all worked out.

{photographer: Jacki Bruniquel}

{New Friends}

I have known Rachel for about a week now. It's funny how sometimes people just wander into your life unexpectedly, and I mean in the good way. A few days ago Rachel she told me she would be in the Pietermaritzburg area and I told her i'd love to meet for coffee.  We did just that. And talked non-stop for hours. Then she introduced me to her good friend CC, who is the incredible photographer behind CC Rossler Photography right here in Durban. Here are some photo's CC took of Rachel & her soon to hubby Elijah on their engagement shoot in Westville. Aren't they just lovely?! {the actual photographs and the subjects themselves!)

You can visit Rachels blog "And Aussie in Africa" by clicking here :)

{Roadtrip} to Zimbabwe

Early January, Farmboy & I headed off on a road trip to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe for two very special friends wedding. Farmboy had very limited leave, so it was a very quick trip (well as fast as 1200 k's there and another 1200 k's back can be).

After getting all our documents sorted (gosh there are so many details to have sorted when crossing the Zim border!) we were on our way! 

After hearing horrific things about the Beit Bridge border post, we went through Botswana, and into Zim through Plumtree. We had no issues at either of the borders, and apart from my car battery dying on the way back and having to push start every time we stopped, the trip went off without a hitch. 

Nothing like exploring a bit of Africa...

Chocolate Almond Biscotti {recipe}

Ingredients

3/4 cup (110 grams) blanched whole almonds (you can blanch them yourself *click here* or do what I did and buy them already blanched)
2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (230 grams) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (110 grams) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-sized chunks (can use chocolate chips)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Toast almonds for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool & set aside.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until thick, pale, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). At this point beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat until combined.

Fold in the chopped almonds and chocolate.

Transfer the dough to a well floured counter and roll into a log shape, about 30 cm long and 9 cm wide. You may have to flour your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky. Place on your baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutesor until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Transfer the log to a cutting board and cut into about 1.25 cm slices, on the diagonal.
Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

Adapted from Joy of Baking

Nail polish 101

It has taken me a while to learn the best tips and tricks for making my nail polish stay put, without peeling and chipping after the first day.
But as our bodies are just about unique as our fingerprints, your nail bed and therefore the strength of your nails will vary from person to person.
BUT saying this, I am just about certain that using a base coat and top coat when painting your nails will improve the durability of your manicure! A base coat prepares your nail bed for the polish, and will prevent your nails from yellowing (while increasing the durability of your polish). The top coat seals in your colour, helping to prevent the polish from chipping. I just love express dry drops from Essence, it contains {magical} powers which never fail to dry my polish in a flash!
These are my favourite polish basics at the moment:

You can get your hands on all of the above at selected Dischem and Clicks stores.  The TipTop base coat at time of sale was R39.99 and the Essence nail products ranged from R19.99 to about R39.99...very reasonable.
If you try these out, let me know if they have made you happy or not :)
xxx 

Facebook Page gets a lift...

I gave my Facebook page cover a little lift yesterday, somehow it's much easier to work on other people's designs than my own. Does anyone else feel the same?
Anyway, thought i'd show you the new look.
Come and join in the conversation here
xxx

Consol Glass Giveaway {WINNER}

And the winner of a bunch of really awesome Consol Glass goodies is...

{Jenna Finch}
Well done Jenna! Please contact me with a delivery address and contact number and your prize will be on it's way to you soon!
Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. There will be lots more lovely giveaways in the future!
xxx

A cup of tea & a good book...

I came across these incredible photographs on a website I head to for creative inspiration...Craftgawker.

This series of photo's were inspired by the love of a good book.  Canadian photographer Joel Robinson invites the viewer to curl up with a good book and a cup of tea and get lost in the world of the whimsical. As I have done nothing but get lost in all sorts of weird and wonderful books this last holiday, these images really appealed to me.

Aren't they fantastic!?

  

Lavender Sea Salt Scrub

This lovely, skin smoothing sea salt scrub was made for me by my lovely sister in law. And not only does it work like a charm, its so pretty to look at too.

Have any of you tried to make your own scrub before? There's nothing better than home made prezzies!

Chickpea Stripes with Yogurt Sauce {recipe}

I am feeling very much the domestic goddess after three days of cooking up new recipes for my hubby. After reading through my favourite SA magazine Ideas, I decided to try everyone of their 

{Easy Suppers}...this recipe was one of them.

Super easy to make, it only took 20 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients

1 tine chicpeas, drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 egg, slightly beaten

30ml chopped parsley & coriander

3ml ground cumin

30-50ml flour

sunflower oil for frying

tortilla wraps

grated carrots (I used spinach)

fresh coriander

Sauce:

100ml plain yogurt (I used chunky cottage cheese as I didn't have yogurt in my fridge)

15ml chopped parsley (I used coriander)

15ml lemon juice

15ml tahini (I used sesame seeds)

Step 1: Blend the chickpeas, onion, egg, the herbs & cumin in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Stir in enough flour to bind the mixture slightly and season to taste. Flour your hands well and shape the mixture into flat strips

take care to remove rings and other jewelry...the mixture gets very sticky!

Step 2: Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the strips over medium heat on both sides until golden brown. Drain the kitchen paper.

Step 3: Mix the ingredients for the sauce together.  Serve the strips with the sauce in a wrap with carrots, and fresh coriander/parsley.

Enjoy! xxx

{Wonderlust}

For the past few months, Farmboy and I have been thinking about traveling for the next couple of years, something which has been in my heart for a very long time. 
Friends and family have left us pretty much divided in their opinions {Farmboy does indeed have a really great job, hence his apprehension, and I am currently unemployed...hence my enthusiasm}.
This has left us pondering. Do we stay here in South Africa because the fear of finding jobs when we return is too great? Are we being silly and actually need to face the music and grow up?  While we are young, with no bonds or kids, should we just make the most of our youth and just go?
Next week I will be going back on the hunt, CV in hand to see if God's plan for our lives is indeed to be here in SA for the next while, or whether He intends for us to spread our wings and fly. What we can say for certain, is that what He has instore for us, will be a million times better than anything we could have planned.
So here is to the next few weeks of uncertainty. Each no I have received, I know deep down, means an even greater YES is just around the corner!  

{Consol Giveaway}

There is still time to enter to win some really awesome goodies from Consol!

All you have to do is comment on {this post} with some idea's of what you would use your glass jars and bottles for. Get creative and you could be the lucky owner of a whole bunch of new glass goods! For extra entries you can tweet about the competition (don't forget to tag both me @RoxyPearce & @Consol_Glass so I can track your tweet) or tag CityGirlSearching &Consol in a post on Facebook {This competition is only open to South African readers and closes on the 15th Jan 2013.} Good luck everyone! xxx

Viresh & Khema {Engagement}

Here are some of the photo's I took for a lovely couple to celebrate their recent engagement. As Viresh attended the University of Kwazulu-Natal, we thought it would make the perfect backdrop for their shoot.

Viresh and Khema, it was such a pleasure working with you both...you made my job so easy with your warm smiles and abounding love for each other. Farmboy and I wish you all the very best as you embark on the wonderful journey of marriage together!

Thank you for picking me.

xxx

Our Wedding (bouquets)

For my wedding bouquets I spent hours on sites like Pinterest, 100 Layer Cake & The Pretty Blog trying to find the perfect photograph that contained all my idea's. But as so often happens when you have too many idea's, I was left overwhelmed and no closer to finding the perfect combination of flowers. Eventually Gail (half of my wonderful flower team) suggested meeting at the florist and playing around with different flower combinations and seeing what made my heart flutter...what a fantastic idea that was!

However, 2 weeks before our wedding (click here for more of our wedding photo's!), the flowers I had ordered weren't available and, to cut a long story short, I just told Gail to do her best with what we had.

And...I couldn't have been more delighted with what I ended up with.

It was pretty, soft, elegant and pastel!

I had always wanted my bridesmaids to have paper flowers, and had planned to make them myself. That was until I saw Denise's paper roses at the I Heart Market in Durban 2 months before the wedding. Denise, owner of Freshly Found in Durban was so wonderful and I ended up ordering 20 of her finest roses! And I was thrilled at how they came out...thank you Denise, they were everything I had hoped for and more!

{Photographer: Jacki Bruniquel}

{Flowers: Midlands Flower Hub Pietermaritzburg}

{Paper Roses: Freshly Found}

Happy New Year!

{Christmas at the Coast}

I am under strict instruction not to take out my laptop this holiday (it was hard enough to convince my hubby that I NEED it to download photo's and therefore just HAVE to bring it on holiday with me!). We will be heading up to Zimbabwe on the 3rd January, in time for our very specials friends {Clyde & Candice} wedding! I took their engagement photo's earlier this year (click here), and I cant wait to be there to celebrate with these two wonderful people!

So here is a short post with a few photo's of our time here in Balito.

I hope you all are having a wonderful festive holiday, filed with love, family and good food!

I will be back soon in the New Year with lots of DIY posts, more makeup reviews, and many more pretty pictures (and of course the winner of the Consol goodies! You have until January 15th to enter!)

Thank you for all the comments, tweets, and support, it means the world to me that people actually enjoy what I put up here :)

I will still be posting things on my Facebook Page so head on here to stay in touch!

Lots and lots of love

Xxx

{Candice & Clyde} engagement shoot revisited!

Farmboy and I will be heading up to Zimbabwe early January, to see my very special friend Candice say I do to a wonderful man. Here are some of their photo's from their engagement shoot earlier this year. What a fun couple to work with!
Candy & Clyde, I cant wait to be there on your special day!
xxx

{Win} with Consol!

Everyone knows that all things taste better, look better, and are better for the environment when they are in glass. And there are so many wonderful ideas out there for using glass to store everything from flour in the kitchen, to ribbon and lace and all sorts of other pretty treasure.  Consol has been so very kind to give me a lovely hamper filled with glass goodies pretty paper straws to give away to one of my readers. All you have to do is comment on this post with some idea's of what you would use your glass jars and bottles for. Get creative and you could be the lucky owner of a whole bunch of new glass goods! For extra entries you can tweet about the competition (don't forget to tag both me @RoxyPearce & @Consol_Glass so I can track your tweet) or tag CityGirlSearching & Consol in a post on Facebook {This competition is only open to South African readers and closes on the 15th Jan 2013.} Good luck everyone! xxx Here are some idea's to get you thinking...

If you're feeling really lucky, why not also enter Consol's Mixology Competition, where you can stand a chance of winning one of 12 Mixology parties for you and 20 of your friends! 

All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself drinking something (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) in a glass bottle {not drinking glass} to Consol's Facebook page (click here). You have until the 7th January at midnight to get your entires in before the winner is announced! Who wouldn't want to celebrate the opening of the New Year in style with a party hosted by Liquid Chefs?! Click here for more info :)

Thinking of {Greece}

It's been nearly 3 months since our honeymoon in Greece, and also nearly 3 months of being married (click here to see posts about our wedding)...gosh time really does fly when you're having fun!
Here are a few highlights from our Honeymoon trip to Athens, Santorini & Naxos in October this year.

A little bit of beach...

Here in South Africa we had a lovely long weekend (a great way for some of the country to get started on their Christmas holidays!). Unfortunately, my hubby has to work until Friday. But thats only 3 sleeps away...yippee!
We spent the long weekend at Zinkwazi Beach (just up the North Coast, a little but further up North from Ballito).
Here are a few snaps from our time away xxx