Phuthu Stay Phut, Don't go!

So just cast your eyes to the first pic below…

You kind of like this view don’t ya? In fact you love it. You’d like to have it. It’s okay you can admit it, even silently to yourself. It’s fine and it’s very normal you know. The cool thing is that this loved and nurtured home of ours is up for sale…. *makes little sobbing noises as she writes*

But *pulls herself towards herself*, we are closing the chapter on this housie and starting a new Chapter in an estate later this year. It’s all very exciting. It’s bittersweet actually because we LOVE our home and it will be sad to leave it but we are starting a new journey building a new home.

This little treasure is safe and secure, we’ve had an incident free 9 years in our little road. Despite that, we have the Kloof Police Station just up the road, we have electric fencing and a fully integrated alarm system.

It’s a 3 bedroomed (easily convert a small study to a 4th) house with very spacious bedrooms, the entire living area is open-plan and there is a study/tv room which is small and cosy. There are 2 bathrooms with shower and bath and one guest toilet. Oh and did I mention the sauna? I run my office from home in a 42 sqm space downstairs…this can be used as a teenage pad or games room or an office! We’re 2km away from shopping centres, the post office, the Virgin Active and 4km away from St. Mary’s School. The Kloof Police Station is also just up the road (500m)

If these pictures don’t sell this house to you, then you need to come and see it in the flesh!

Please contact me on [email protected] or 0829282700 to schedule an appointment. Thanks!

X Louise

We love our house so much…we even got married here! Full of very treasured memories.

During winter, we toast our hands and fingers by the fire (there are 2 gas fireplaces, one in the lounge and one in the main bedroom)

Although we’re not big entertainers, this IS an entertainers paradise with open-plan living, dining and kitchen area with a front deck and plunge pool and back deck and kiddies / Chill-out area below.

This outside area area has come in SO useful, it’s the kiddies dining room, play area as well as our afternoon chill-out area. And every year, twice a year it gets turned into the boys’ birthday party area.

The garden – fully indigenous…lots of Aloes, Coral Trees and Acacias. The rolling lawn is also the perfect play area for Sprogs!

This may look like a room that no one uses but trust me we use it (and so would you!)…I just tidied it up for this shot so it looks super duper slick!  But at night, it turns into a puzzle and block-building domain with a colourful array of bridges, towers, cranes, roads and tunnels. It’s the cosiest after dinner sanctuary for our little family.

My busy little office…where all the shizness goes down. You might think it’s messy but I like to call it a creative crafty space

And now for the bedrooms…this one is my favourite, it gets sun all day long. And it’s been the nursery to my 2 babies so needless to say it is full of a good loving feeling!

The tree and the growth chart were handmade by my hubby. I know. Those don’t come with the house but I thought I’d just show them cos a.) they cute and b.) cos I can.

Tell me you can’t feel the warmth of this space? My boys have a lot of little wise owl friends to watch over them.

This kiddies room is full of just as much love and on many occasions both my boys sleep here together. It really is the sweetest thing. If you buy our housie you must just know that that wallpaper was a work of art to put up….and it’s very very very cool. Just putting it out there….you know, just-in-case-you-had -thoughts-of-sending-it-to-live-with-Jesus (if you bought the house of course). On the other hand, if you’re just reading this for fun…then just take a minute to appreciate those spaceships and robots on that wallpaper. Man is that cute or what!?!

This would be the lurv shack. Beautifully styled as you can see with a Thomas the Tank Engine on the headboard.

One of the things I love (and you would probably love too) is the wide passage. For us, we made it into an informal gallery with framed pics on one side and a cork board on the other side which displays anything from happy feel good prints to family pics and recipes. You could literally do ballroom dancing in this passage, I’m telling ya!

Photos from our travels, our sun-drenched lounge and a reclaimed, re-loved, re-covered armchair.

I’m certain this is the cutest little guest loo ever. My hubby made that light and oh boy do I love it!

The kiddies bathroom with bath and shower and our lovingly handmade first aid cabinets (we converted them from bread bins – added shelves and painted a cross)

Promise you’ll have sweet dreams in this house!

Bonus Points – my hubby’s hand built sauna! Yes your very own sauna just outside the main en-suite. Can you frikkin believe it?! A sauna just for you!

So how much is this house you ask? Our asking price is R3.795 million. Please contact me on [email protected] or sms 082 9282700 to schedule to view – serious buyers only please! Thanks!

Thomas has this new fixation. Chimneys. Yes I know its a bit odd. When we go out its all about counting chimneys, especially the ones with a “tangle” on top. He would be  in his absolute element when we arrived at our overnight stopover on our next trip….

I had often seen pictures of the Tugela Gorge and always wanted to go there. We have been looking for a sport that we could involve the boys properly and Hiking seems to be just that new sport we were looking for.  So, on Friday afternoon, we packed up some toddlers and our exceptionally useful toddler back packs and headed up to the Drakensberg. Looking at a map, the hike to the Tugela Gorge is a long 15 odd km round trip with a fair amount of uphill. We knew it would be hot so we purchased some “sunny day covers” for the back packs which made the boys look like a pair of little bee keepers. We weren’t quite sure how we would manage carrying the boys and we weren’t quite sure how they would behave on a long walk like that.  We would never know unless we tried…..

So before we even started, Mamaloo had us lost so I had to take over immediate captaincy.

We were packed for any emergency with our primary objective – “not to be on the next episode of I shouldn’t be alive…”

The smarties didn’t even make it into the back packs……The dummies were for grade 5 severe emergencies.

It was a spectacular hike up toward the Amphitheatre. Its a really popular hike and we were amazed that every person we encountered on the trail was a foreign tourist. We, by means of accent analysis, detected Americans, Canadians, Australians, Germans, Dutch and Spaniards. Fantastic to see tourists enjoying this incredible area and quite amazing was that there were no Safas there, such a beautiful place right on our doorstep!

The walk was particularly  exhausting as you can see….

We eventually arrived at a gorge carved through the sandstone layer, littered with boulders of all sizes. This time of the year it was really dry and there was very little water in the river, although there were still ice cool pools and great boulders for climbing.

We ate our lunch beside a shallow kid-friendly pool and re-filled our bottles from the crystal mountain pools.

It was a hot and by the time we got back to the car, us Sherpas were suitably tired but we all had a wonderful day out. We were particularly proud of the bee keepers who behaved so well on such a long hike.

We headed back to our Lodge for a little B+B camping and a well deserved sleep. And tea.

The Drakensberg, such a magical place, we will see you again soon………

Happy Birthday to the most beautiful and inspirational woman I know, my mum! The universe was definitely smiling upon me the day it organised you as my mamma! Heres to many more family birthday celebrations! love you special lady Xxx

Lou has always been a natural and simple girl (not as in doff). Its probably one of the qualities I like most about her. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her reply was “a flower crown” . Not a diamond, plutonite, expenseonite, costalothyst, no, a flower crown.

I had to google it…..

Ok, so found an article on how to make one. It was quite easy actually.

Step 1: get some daisies, R30 for about a thousand from local street flower seller

Step 2: cut the stems to about 75cm

Step 3: get some wool or soft string

Step 4 : assemble them one by one, wind the thread two turns every time you add a flower. Add flowers about 20mm apart and keep going.

Step: 5 when you have a long enough strip, join the ends into a crown and walla!

So, on the morning of her birthday and our anniversary, I made one for her. We were spending the weekend up in Underberg on the Umzinkulu river and it seemed kind of appropriate being out in nature and all……… The flower crown seemed to be quite a hit, and even the boys, who usually refuse point blank to wear any headgear, were enjoying having a turn to wear it!

Everyone had a turn to wear it…

Whilst taking the flower crown pics I managed to get a few special moments of mama Lou and her special boys.

It was a wonderful afternoon on the Umzinkulu river, a very special place.

As the sun started to set, Flower Princess  had an idea. “lets commit the flower crown to the river and send flowers back into the arms of mother nature”

It was actually quite a poignant moment as we watched the flower crown floating in the currents and down the little rapids.

Bon voyage flower crown, hope you make it to the sea………

Here’s to new beginnings and new adventures and a perfect day to wear daisies in your hair! X

Just come back from another amazing chef dinner club! My muffin top is uhmm expanding sadly but man those Portuguese custard tarts were worth it!!!

Cath hard at work with the fairy dough!

More hard work. No wine at all.

No carb servings whatsoever!

After battling to think of a meaningful way to describe “slapping the dough” when preparing dough for making foccacias, we thought just to make a video. Stay tuned for the recipe on www.justeasyrecipes.co.za. This is how you roll and fold dough my friendies…