5 for Change, fun for charity

24 Jan 2012, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, Parties, cape town, fashion, girl stuff, south africa, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

We had loads of fun at the 5forchange ball on Saturday. I went with a 3/4 Catherine Moore black dress from Our Wardrobe with gold woven into the fabric with a red vintage clutch, gold earrings and black patent platform peep-toes. Over R30 000 was raised during the auction and while I didn’t win any of the lucky draw prizes I totally ate my ticket’s worth in Lindt Balls through the course of the evening.

Pictured are the guys who threw the party, Ross McKernan, Dave Deetlefs and Adriaan Dippenaar. Well done to them for delivering a seriously good time. It was SO great to have an event to dress up for that wasn’t some form of horseracing event outside in the sun where you melt into your heels which have sunken into the ground. Okay horseraces are fun darling but there’s so much to be said for not being in Kenilworth. And then there’s the part where the money spent is going towards 5 very good causes, namely Let there be light, MyLife, GreenPop, African Brothers Football Association and Write On Africa.

Really enjoyed the performance by I Scream & The Chocolate Stix, it was super charged and the usual good fun. They seem to have a new member in their band… WHO IS DJ MYSTERY GUY IN THE BACK THERE???

Cape Town’s socialites came out en force including the ever-glamourous power blondes Kate White & Lexi Leih (above).

5forChange founder Adriaan Dippenaar with Kate White & James White

5forChange founder Ross McKernan with James White, and a burger.

Posing outside with another of Cape Town’s power blondes, Emma Jackson.

Things got groovy on the dancefloor later, see above.

The lovely Andrea O’ Donnel, Kate White and James White.

Beauties and power brunettes Lauren Marshall and Nicola de Wet.

Good show everyone. Can’t wait for next year!

Click here to read an article about the evening on TimesLive.

Click here to follow 5 for Change on Facebook.

How to make a Summer Beach Bag courtesy of Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion

07 Nov 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in DIY, Design, fashion, field guides, girl stuff, south africa, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

Attention aspiring fashionistas. I spent Saturday afternoon at the Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design (like SA’s version of Central St Martins) where we were taught how to make a summer bag. I had lovely (and very very patient ) miss Mieke helping me because it’s a lot harder than it looks this whole ‘creating fashion from scratch’ thing.

I made most of the rookie errors – going so fast my thread came out the machine, skew stiching that had to be unpicked, messy pinning, reckless overlocking – you name it, I messed it up. But somehow the pile of fabric materialised into a gorgeous summer bag in the end, which I’ll definitely be using on the beach! Below: the ‘before’ picture – believe it or not this will become a handbag

A whole lot of this before anything becomes real. That navy ribbon is vintage, by the way ;)

Some more finishings and embellishments

And then voila! We have ourselves a gorgeous beach bag. Country WHO???? ;)

If this looks like the sort of thing you’d enjoy doing full time, you should look into doing one of their courses. They do Part Time Short Courses as well as a full Diploma in Fashion Design that takes 3 years. And if you don’t really want to become a designer but would rather work in and around the field of fashion, then this is the place to come – they teach you all about the adjacent industries too (buying, styling, fashion writing, business). A big thanks to Derek and the lovely ladies for all your help and for a lovely afternoon out in Stellenbosch. Click here to go to the Elizabeth Galloway website.

weekend in Tulbagh

02 Nov 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG recommends, cape town, holiday, lifestyle, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

first proper summer weekend

17 Oct 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in beach, cape town, lifestyle, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

Spent yesterday at Clifton after going for an 8km run/walk on the promenade with MEJ. Swam and everything! No sharks, happily. Ice cream headache but it felt sooooooo good.

Loving the early summer before the tourists all arrive. Getting a good start on the base tan. Us C-towners gotta make the most of it before season starts.

Bastille Weekend in Franschhoek

18 Jul 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, Slider, south africa, things to do, travel, weekend in pictures, wine, winter, 4 Comments

Went to Franschhoek for the Bastille Day festival. We drank lots of bubbly. Ate steak rolls. And generally had a good time. It was a little crowded. Definitely not the quaint champagne fest you may have in your mind. Think more… Maynardville.

Deborah and I perfected our Awkward Leans (below). Click to see whether we capture the vibe. Think we did a good job.

Kate insisted we get berets. It was a good call. Feel inspired to ‘give up my life and join the French Foreign Legion’. Just kidding. I like my life just fine.

Schuyler was the chicest of them all.

If you’re gonna go next year, you gotta do 3 things: 1. Book accommodation early for both Friday and Saturday so you can enjoy your day. We stayed in this gorgeous place – I highly recommend. 2. Pace yourself with the white wine. Dunno what it is about white people and their white wine but it makes them ‘lose their sh*t’. 3. Pretend you’re in France. Swanning about spewing Standard 8 French is perfectly acceptable at Bastille. Viva la France, etc.

birthday weekend 1: brunch at Tasha’s

12 Jul 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, Parties, cape town, weekend in pictures, 1 Comments

Had such a great birthday brunch. We went to Tasha’s in Constantia – Schuy managed to get us a reservation even though they don’t take reservations (cos he is amazing). Needless to say it was awesome. If you have not been there, well fear not – they have a huge, delicious menu that you can probably spend a couple of years working your way through. Had my Dr PawPaw fix and nommed our way through the beautiful CTG macaron cake Daniela’s made for me.

James, CTG & Renee – bearer of beautiful white ball vase

Bash & LA

Marc & Harry – Harry brought the bubbly, of course, being CTG’s official wine guy

Tatum and Emma – bearing delicious Cape Malay Recipe Book and Calvin Klein perfume (thanks MEJ!)

Miss Fran & Sir Marc – bearers of gorgeous scarf and snuggle socks

birthday roses from Bash & LA

Kate & Schuy – bearers of beautiful silver earrings – thank you guys!

Had such a good brunch. They’re the way to go for birthdays. You can be outside in the sunshine AND drink champagne. Thank you all for coming. More on the birthday weekend in a bit…

Weekend in pictures

29 Mar 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in Parties, cape town, lifestyle, sport, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

Saturday was a bit chaotic. We started off at the rugby at Newlands. LAJenks had her Rugby Girlfriend vibe on bigtime. Legitimately  – we were there to support her boy Bash and the Stormers. Happily they won! Big smiles.

We then swung past The Vibe party, which was a good five hours underway. At this point battery had died but LipglossGirl has written an hilarious and accurate account of much of it. Please enjoy it as if it were my own. Click here for more VIBE pictures.

LipglossGirl pictured left

We also managed to fit in dinner at Hudsons, and a full-blown post-rugby braai. Madness. Good times.

weekend at Backsberg Estate

14 Mar 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, bloggers, cape town, lifestyle, south africa, weekend in pictures, wine, 0 Comments

Went to the rugby on Friday night. It was my first live game ever, and it was incredible. Might be right up there one of the best nights of my life. Felt very proud of the Stormers, especially of Bash Grant who practically won the match single-handedly. What an amazing night! Gees overload!

Went away to stay with CTG’s official Wine Expert @HarryReginald at Backsberg Estate for the rest of the weekend. Lots of this (below). Having a Tom Tom GPS system has totally changed my life in one regard – I am no longer scared to travel into the countryside, so can visit my many friends who live there. AND I can just enjoy the drive.

Drank a lot of bubbly.

even learnt the art of sabrage from Harry. And have video to prove it!

Went for a 5km run on the farm on Sunday morning. Running on wine farms is my new thing. There’s just nothing quite like it.

Click here to see a map of my running route.

weekend in pictures

28 Feb 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in BFFs, CTG, LA, PD, Parties, cape town, weekend in pictures, 3 Comments

Went to Design Indaba on Friday. Saw some amazing speakers including Mark Shuttleworth, who chatted about how he’s had to make Ubuntu pretty, and Jens Skibstadt. Hugh Masekela performed (above). Robert Wong, Director of Google Creative Labs, spoke, below. Loved his talk as he was relatively down to earth and ‘non floaty’, and he had his two little daughters in the front row listening to him. I don’t get mud chandeliers. But I do get approaching creativity & business the way you maintain a happy marriage - “Surprise, exceed expectations, and for every negative interaction make sure there are 5 good interactions”. That makes both business and marriage sound like fun.

Below is trendmeister Dion Chang with one of the Grolsch dudes.

PD is heading to London soon. Watch out for the adventures of LDN Girl ;) We’ve been sending her off for the last week.

Cafe Chic girls dinner

PD & Dali at AndUnion. We played ping pong.

Bash, freshly back from JPN, & LA.

PD & Mark aka L’il Phil

Hit up new spot The Power & The Glory for some lunch. I love their lions.

weekend in pictures

22 Feb 2011, Posted by Cape Town Girl in cape town, cape town cats, lifestyle, restaurants, weekend in pictures, 0 Comments

Bunch of us bloggers got punked by Airwaves. Hey, we had it better than Mike Sharman (above) who got a barrel of ice cold water dumped on him – fully clothed. To quote the Airwaves payoff line: “now that’s extreme”. Hmm.

Spent some time in the gym since February is no good for outdoor running unless you’re up before 7 or you run after 7 in the evening. It’s just too. Damn. Hot. Noticed for the first time that Wembley Virgin’s manager’s name is Calvin Klein. Couldn’t just walk away with a pic.

PD is moving to London next week, so we’re doing lots of stuff like eating out. Saturday night we went to Woodlands Eatery.

Enjoyed Risotto balls at Sevruga with MEJ on Sunday. And a spot of shopping.

Spent some QT with Neurotic Harvey, who had the full-moon jitters.

So lovely weekend then.