Shimanksy is a Girl’s Best Friend

When one gets invited to lots of events, or one has to attend them for work, it can get tedious. Events become a blur of soggy canapes and too-sweet drinks, people one doesn’t care for and goodie bags that just don’t thrill.

But some events stand out from others. And on Monday I attended one that will stay in my memory forever.

Natalie invited me to be one of a handful girls to spend a night fully enjoying the Shimansky experience.

Upon arriving at the Cape Town Diamond Museum I was handed a glass of bubbles and joined four other girls, including the lovely Emma and Jules on a tour of ‘diamond through the ages’- from when the first diamonds started forming, to the first engagement ring, to the present day’s most impressive jewels.

Once we’d gasped at the replicas of the Cullinan, the Burton Taylor, and more, we found ourselves in the Shimansky store. After an introduction fro Mr Shimansky himself, who is a wonderfully approachable man who radiates a love for beautiful jewels and the pleasure they bring, we were left to enjoy the best night ever.

Stations were set up for all of us, now joined by Misha, Emma, and Fran, to have our nails, hair, and makeup done, all while being fed bottomless bubbly and sushi. Best night ever, right?

But wait, there’s more!

We were also given free rein to try on everything and anything in the shop! Yup, for a few hours all of us were walking around with jewels to the value of R2 million and more on our fingers, around our necks, and in our ears. We were given fur coats and frames with which to pose in the photo booth although, of course, the jewels took centre stage!

Lucky Emma walked away with a diamond she won in a lucky draw! Hers came in a bottle of My Girl, Shimansky’s signature eau de parfum. We were each fortunate enough to walk out with a bottle of the fragrance, which is wonderfully rosey and feminine. It lasts all day and is perfect for summer and those days when one is feeling really girly.

All in all this event was flawless. Every aspect was enjoyable, it was a great mix of people who loved spending time together, and had to be asked to leave because, of course, none of us wanted to extinguish the fantasy by removing those dazzling pieces of jewelry. This will go down in my mind as one of the best events I have ever attended. Moreover, SC got his wedding ring at Shimansky and we had a completely professional and enjoyable experience there so I can definitely recommend them. Their more extravagant pieces are absolutely exquisite and staff were helpful and friendly and even complimented my Tiffany ring!

My Christmas list for this year will not to be modest.

My outfit. I decided to pull out a few stops with Louboutins, a Tiffany bracelet, a Pringle bag. The dress is H&M, for balance.

The new LBD: Little [actually, not so little] black diamond.

Natalie with her props.

Getting my make-up done by a lovely girl from Namibia hoping to break into the film industry with her makeup skills.

When things are so shiny you camera struggles to focus on them? That.

This rock is so big it looks almost comical on my fingers. Love. My nails were done at the event in a gorgeous OPI shade that is a deep plum, almost black.

Emma trying on Tanzanites. Did you know they were only discovered in 1967? I learnt that from a Shimansky employee.

Getting my hair done by a wonderful Scar stylist.

Ooh la la! The final pose.

My gorgeous new fragrance. Similar to Gucci Envy, which I love.

 

 

Home Making

Our flat came fully furnished since the owners live in Ireland. But the furniture, since the flat is inside a residential hotel and was rented out as a hotel suite, is very… Hotel-eqsue. By that I mean no clear identity of someone’s taste, nothing too arty or unique. It’s all standard home ware that is neither offensive nor particularly inspiring.

The coffee table, however, was offensive. Hideous, and with a design so impractical it infuriated us everyone time we walked past it [possibly a result of severe toe-stubbing due to said ridiculous design.

After searching high and low, we found the design we wanted. I wanted something locally made, something that was simple and functional, and something that served to make the space look bigger and lighter, rather than the clunky, heavy piece we had. It couldn't be white due to our Nguni rug, and black or dark wood combined with the dark wood floors would just make the room too dark. So we went for a colour: Jade Cluster [Dulux]. The design is by Stokperd, a local designer. The price was less than a third of anything else we saw, and it has made a big difference to our living room.

 

The table is super glossy and the colour is a brilliant emerald green [which cannot be seen in the pictures]. And, of course, nothing in a house is complete without a little personalisation:

 

From to right: According to The Rolling Stones; our wedding album; Grace: A Memoir; Biografie van ‘n Bende; The Clash.

 

The Childhood Project

For Christmas I got a BICYCLE! Yup, it’s just like when you up when you were a little kid and there was a shiny new bike, complete with training wheels and, if you were a girl, pink pom-pom things off the handlebars, and a basket.

For my tenth birthday [if I recall the age correctly], the usual ‘wake up and find presents at the foot of my bed’ was replaced with being told to walk down the hallway to the kitchen to go see my present. It was a bicycle. I had never, ever mentioned wanting one. I had never expressed the desire to have one, or do anything with a bicycle. I felt so guilty, feigning excitement, while on the inside I was going “Why on earth did you guys get me a bicycle?” I suppose the reason was that it was just the done thing: Kids learnt to ride a bicycle at a certain age, and kids wanted a bicycle at some point in their lives.

The problem was that I wasn’t overly excited about- or interested in learning to ride the thing. The bigger problem was that I turned my nose up at what I wasn’t naturally very good at. I got through music exams and school exams  without opening a book, and with very impressive results. I did horse riding every day, a combination of enjoying it and being good at it. But things I didn’t take to with ease did not interest me, especially having a fair amount of “things” at which I was naturally, effortlessly good.

I’m sounding very braggy right now- I promise this all has a point.

Even less appealing than having to actually practice something just to get the gist of it, was the idea that, in the process, I would be repeatedly humiliated. Falling off was one thing. Having my mother run next to me holding the handlebars of my bicycle steady was quite another. Of course the best place to try learn was in the street [completely flat and mostly very quiet in the small Mpumalanga town where I grew up], meaning having to endure all of this in plain view of others, well aware of their puzzled head-scratching, wondering how it was that a child of ten had not yet learned to ride a bike, and seemed to be unable to do it.

I lost interest fairly quickly, and traded that humiliation for having my siblings tease me for the next fourteen years about my disability.

And then, SC bought me the most beautiful Johnny Loco for Christmas! Her name is Vivienne, and she has a bell and she is the fairest bicycle in the land.

I had been dreaming of cycling around Cape Town with its oh-so-trendy cycling culture. A woven basket in front, I would cycle to work, to the market to get vegetables and flowers, up and down the Company’s Garden- it was all very chic in my head. But now I had to learn to ride the thing. The hours leading up the lesson were spent rationalising that perhaps some people are just genetically incapable of riding a bike! This was met firmly with “You can stand upright, you can ride a bike”. SC was gobsmacked that I could ride horses without falling off, yet not ride a bicycle. But, as I pointed out, my horses didn’t just randomly fall over!

It took about 40 minutes or so. At first I was snappy and on edge. At some point, I think I just got over myself and pedaled off. It’s embarrassing, really, that it happened like that and that it was as simple as telling a very stubborn mind to just shut up and sit down.

Now, this joyous occasion has not only robbed my siblings of their favourite joke, but also got me thinking to the other gaps in my childhood. There are many things I didn’t do! I grew up in a depressing mining town full of racists and kids who I found infinitely unrelatable and in general I preferred the company of myself to anyone else. So things like tennis, which involved other people, didn’t seem appealing. Plus, I didn’t need other sports: I had horse riding. Things like ice skating were far too exotic for Standerton, and the nearest rink was a good three hours away.

But I feel this lesson [in balance, and my own character] has brought about the time to tackle these vast expanses of my formative years, and fill them up. I feel I need to:

• Play tennis: I have never ever so much as picked up a racquet and hit a tennis ball with it, but I actually think tennis would suit me because Lacoste
• Learn how to do a cartwheel
• Learn how to whistle
• Learn how to ice skate: I was actually recently taken skating by a friend and made huge steps [as in, actually let go of the railing]
• Watch Cinderella and Snow White [other than that my Disney education is quite complete, and I regularly indulge in my favourites]
• Dive into a swimming pool: I don’t mean from a diving board, even. I have never dived head-first into a swimming pool. This, however, results from two very bad drowning experiences when I was 2, and then 3. Nonetheless, it must be tackled!
• Go fishing. Sure I will hate it, but at least I will be able to have an informed opinion of it.
• Climb a tree [you're reading this thinking I'm a freak, aren't you? I have pulled myself up and sat in the low branches of trees, but I've never actually climbed one, I feel.]

Another thing most children experience is getting stitches or breaking something. Besides for being born, I’ve never needed to go to a hospital. Besides for my wisdom teeth, which I had removed under local anesthetic , I have all my body parts including tonsils and appendix. Look, I did once suffer a kick from a horse which just about split my ear in half, but it wasn’t stitch-able. But still, it seems another childhood rite I skipped over. Although I could do with keeping it that way.

So there you have it. My chilhood project for 2013! If you’re an expert in any of these things and feel like giving advice, or maybe even teaching me something, let me know. And feel free to add other things that are must-do childhood activities- who knows what I’ve left out!

LH

Couture Christmas

As I mentioned in the Christmas tree post, I never used to be a huge Christmas lover, and now I just SUPER love it!

Have a real Christmas tree has made my year. I love wrapping gifts, I love giving gifts- it just thrills me!

I’m not afraid of cheesy Christmas-ness. And so you can imagine my delight when I saw Charlotte Olympia’s Christmas range. Couture + Christmas? I could just perish with joy!

Jingle bells shoes. Oh, I would be a-trottin’ all over the house with these!

The best part is the Christmas-y bits of these shoes are removable! So from January-November you just have a pair of really fabulous, non-themed shoes. No one can argue with that.

Just delicious!

I have my eyes on those black shoes and this clear perspex clutch [which comes with a little velvet red/green clutch to put inside]. Hard!

 

Some More Home Makeover-ing

Our place came fully furnished when we bought it, which has been veyr convenient! We haven’t been stuck without, for example, chairs, while we save up to buy some. However, the furniture in the flat is… let’s just say, “not exactly to our taste”. Most of it is very standard, hotel-like furniture. Some of it is just “I wouldn’t personally buy that”, some of it is hideous.

The carpet, for example. To quote a friend of ours: “Wasn’t that in Austin Powers?” Outdated, but also completely discoloured and nasty-looking after years of being in there.

This, in my opinion, is a huge improvement:

Before.

After.

I just love our Nguni hide. I love that it’s African, but also that it isn’t your typical Nguni colour and pattern. I also think it does a fair bit to lighten up the room.

We got ours at Woodheads in Cape Town [there's also one on the Midlands Meander].

 

We have a tree!

I was never very Christmasy. Being Afrikaans and living in a small town we didn’t do the traditional gammon with cranberry whatsit and eggnog and all that. Plus, most Christmases for me involved huge family fights while I sat near the tree, grumpy that a silly spat was delaying present opening.

Two years ago I decided that I would bring on the Christmas cheer hard. Think choc mint cupcakes with candy canes and chocolate stars, illustrating personalised cards for everyone, beautiful wrapping, the works. I saved Christmas! [Well, in my own head]. 

This year I am exceptionally excited to make our flat Christmasy! We are now married, we live together, and we get to do Christmasy things as each other’s family! Hoorah!

And so we got our first tree! I wanted a real one, and not chopped down because then it would die and I would be sad and so would the earth. This one might not be the perfect cone shape, but it’s a pine tree and I think it looks lovely and we open our door everything smells like pine trees. We got this cool crumpled ceramic planter from o.live in Woodstock, and I happened upon the star-shaped lights while shopping at the V&A Waterfront this weekend.

When we switched on the lights, I literally clapped my hands and jumped up and down. Now to wrap presents and get them under that tree!

Making a House [well, flat] a Home

At 86 square metres, our flat isn’t exactly enormous! It’s been fun coming up with small space solutions and finding function in everything we can.

We had two “nooks” in the place. One in the living room, and one in the main bedroom. They’re just these narrow spaces which were really not usable, hence not great for a small space! The living room nook was perfect for book shelves, but the bedroom one was just so narrow, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

A while ago we got Home Fixers in to help us with some small home things, like storage hooks and better towel rails and such. We also got them to put up shelves for us, and I am so happy with the end product! Their prices are good, the service is great. During their work I got numerous texts double-checking finer points, and the workmanship was wonderful. No complaints.

See how this space, without shelves, is not exactly useful?

 

Not so Feng Shui.

Much better!

Now, the bedroom nook… Too narrow even for a standing lamp. What on earth does one do with that?!

Shoes. The answer is always “shoes”.

 

Ich Liebe Deutsch!

I am currently on a mission to improve my languages. English and Afrikaans are fluent in reading, writing, and speaking, but my German, French, and Mandarin could use some attention. I decided to start with German as it is easier for me [as English and Afrikaans are both Germanic] even though my French is better than my German, then onto French, and then, when I’m feeling strong, Mandarin.

Last week I was shown a great app called Learn Like Kids. We;ve all noted that kids can get to grips with a language in a matter of months, whereas adults take years to do the same thing. Most people think this is due to the different developmental stages. But these app developers have stepped forward and said that the key difference is the teaching method. Children are taught in a different way to adults [obviously], but the method used for kids is more effective.

The app has 30 lessons, each with ten components consisting of six words or sentences. Each lesson is pretty quick and I do them when I have a few minutes to kill, generally when I’m walking to work or waiting for SC to finish getting ready [yup, I get ready faster than he does!]. Each word or sentence is accompanied by a voice note [they're read in a female voice and then also a male voice], and an image.

Anyway, it’s been a great tool to help me improve my Deutsch, but I have to laugh at some of the stock images they choose. I had to share just a few:

 

Sexy.

Why is the musician wearing no shirt, but a scarf?

What did your mum say? If you have nothing nice to say…

Well, this is a kinky kind of office romance.

This poodle looks like he’s protecting himself from a punch to the hoohah!

Oh, ve do love ze Germans!

First Artwork In Our New Home

A gift from SC. Captain America and Wolverine as kids. I love, so much. By Andy Fairhurst.

 

A Summer PSA

This isn’t exactly a fun piece. It isn’t humorous, and it doesn’t have pretty pictures. It’s not depressing or gross, though, and it is very, very necessary that you read this.

My mother was always obsessive about sunscreen. Every two minutes I was pulled out of the pool or off the horse and more thick white goo was applied to my face.  It irritated me so much as a kid! But today I am so grateful to my mother, and I apply SPF to my face every single day, even if it is raining and I am indoors all day.

SC got sunburnt badly a few times as a kid. As a result thereof he has to have a skin cancer check every six months. I decided I would go to his doctor, too, for what they call ‘mole mapping’. Here’s what it entails, and why everyone should go:

It’s not exactly a great experience, you know? First you stand in front of a stranger in your underwear. Doctor or not, that’s not as nice am activity as, say, a glass of wine with your best friend. Secondly, said stranger takes pictures of your body in sections. These show up on a big computer screen and trust me, that doctor’s room lighting would do any super model injustices. I cringed more than once. The doctor then ‘maps’ the moles you have. He labels them, and thereafter pays special attention to the ones that are potentially problematic. He cleans them and then takes a really, really close-up picture of them. A mole, multiplied by a bajillion and shown on a big screen, is not pretty. It’s not cute like, say, a baby panda. But then again, neither is cancer.

The surprising thing for me was that the moles I had been worried about were nothing: non-threatening moles and in some cases not even moles but pigmented polyps. One of the two moles that he marked was a tiny little freckle on my stomach that I had never even noticed! And I can’t help but wonder: how many people don’t have check-ups because they think they aren’t at risk since they don’t have huge moles all over their bodies?

The two moles he marked were in the “yellow zone”, one of them inching towards orange.  The zones go from white to yellow to orange to red, and obviously red is a very dangerous place to be. The doctor told me these could be problematic and I would have to come for a three-month check-up, which I did yesterday.  If they had gotten worse, I would need to come in every three months for monitoring. Since my last visit I had become even more SPF-crazy, and yesterday I found out it had paid off! Both moles had moved backwards towards the white zone, and now I only need to go back next year!

Last week, my English teacher from high school, who was just a wonderful human being, died of skin cancer. It can spread to your other organs and kill you. It can kill you, full stop. And yet every summer we see people lying in the sun, covered in oil, desperate for a tan. We fry ourselves, despite the risk of CANCER, just so our skin will be a little darker. Isn’t that completely insane?

I think everyone should go for mole-mapping at least once, if only to know where they stand. You may think a tan is sexy, but skin cancer is most certainly not. And since even cancer can’t deter us from striving for ‘beauty’, I urge people to think of how much worse they will age because of all of their time in the sun! Ladies, you want to carry a vintage leather bag, not look like one.

If you have just thirty minutes and R300 to spare, call Dr Pieper’s office at 021 42 44 257 and make an appointment. He practices from a gorgeous old Victorian house on Kloof Neck Road and his receptionist is such a laugh. And maybe someday you will thank yourself for it. In fact, I’m pretty sure you will.

Right. Thanks for reading. Here’s a picture of a bunny: