Monday, May 30

Mornin' Sunshine

How's this for a dose of Monday morning sunshine!?
A talented Durban photographer by the name of Kevin Goss-Ross snapped these pics of my old friend, Portia, who is a full-time singer and mama. I just love the styling, Portia's smile and her little one noshing grapes. Kevin and Portia kindly gave me permission to blog 'em - thanks you two!

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Find Kevin on Facebook and Tumblr.
Find Portia on Myspace.

PS: Blogger has been a bit glitchy over the past few days so apologies if you've had trouble commenting/receiving posts/been accidentally spammed with posts!

Thursday, May 26

A Thursday Evening

Cripes, look at us Durban girls - two events in one week! Tonight (or yesterday if you're reading this over a bowl of fruit loops), Nadia and I headed to Con Amore in La Lucia Mall for a bit of a bloggers' swaray, if you will. We arrived to find everyone swigging champers and noshing on a smorgasbord of macaroons, sushi and cupcakes - aka, crack for bloggers! It was great to put a few more faces to blogs (!) and meet the lovely Candice who works for Con Amore - which I kept pronouncing as Con Amore but which everyone kept correctly pronouncing, Con Amoray! For some reason, I feel ridic breaking out from a strong Durban accent into French annunciations! While walking around the store, I found lots of lovely things for my lovely dream home. In said home, I will read books about Paris while lounging about on Union Jack Pillows in fancy silver shoes. It's gonna be great. But enough rambling. Here are some pics if you'd like to take a gander. (Sorry about the crack quip mom.)

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Pictured above are Lexi, Pippa, Nicola, Kathy, Nadia, and Candice and Dimi from Style Scoop.

EDIT: Just twigged Lexi's pic is not here. Stay tuned!

The day we got our punt on

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Here's a trip down memory lane! Or a trip to Cambridge to be exact. When Craig and I arrived in London in May 2008, his best mate and missus took us on a road trip to Cambridge. Well, I was in my element! Markets twinkling with fairy lights, bunting fluttering in the breeze, toasty trays of gingerbread men, historical buildings, fields of long grass and....row boats! I had always wanted to punt down a river ala Bridget Jones and Daniel Clever! The four of us teetered into a boat and literally circled around the dock for ten minutes! We could not for the life of us paddle straight. Anyway, we finally got going and it was the best thing ever. Sorry about the grainy pics. I downloaded these off Facebook a while back. Can you believe I lost a ton of my Europe pics!? I accidentally wiped my SD card and lost the disc that the pics were saved on. I will NEVER do that again!

Tuesday, May 24

Beauty Giveaway!

Hello guys. Fancy a bash at winning these goodies? Sarah from the Body Bar has whipped up a box of homemade soap, body scrub and body lotion. How cute are the little black bows? I've been scrubbing up with the toffee soap and let me tell ya, it's delish! In addition to the sudsy goods, the folks at Rapid Lash are sponsoring a tube of lash lengthening serum. I'm usually a sceptic when it comes to these things but Rapid Lash won the Fairlady 2010 Beauty Award so it's gotta be good! Hopefully, it spells the end to my disastrous flirtation with false lashes. I'll let ya know how I get on with my tube. If you'd like more info on the Durban based Body Bar, you can find 'em on Facebook.

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This giveaway is open to South African readers only.
Entering is a doddle!
Leave a comment telling me why you need some soap. 
Kidding.
Tell me anything you want.

The winner will be drawn at random a week from now. Good luck!

PS: Buds abroad and those with little tots. Got a cute giveaway coming up for you next week!

Monday, May 23

031 Collection Video!



Music: Consellation Prizes by Phoenix

EEK! Here it is. My first stab at making a mini video. After watching Sandra's recent videos, I was super inspired to give one a bash. Let me tell ya, filming is alot harder than it looks. I think I only managed to use about 20% of my footage cuz I clearly have the shakiest hands ever. And excuse the sketchy focusing. But other than that, I'm so chuffed to have a memory of our Friday night in video format! Hope you enjoy a little glimpse into our night out at the 031 Collection.

Also, here is a pic of JP and his sis which I forgot to post. 
They're hilar when they're together, these two!
 
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Sunday, May 22

The 031 Collection

Aloha gang!

I'll be honest with ya. I have spent a good chunk of this day trying to decide how to write this post. Is it just me or is scribbling about events a tricky one for bloggers? On the one hand, you want to give an honest but polite account of the event to your readers, and on the other hand, you don't want to say anything too negative for fear of hurting feelings, burning bridges within the industry and never being invited back!

If I were asked to review something for a mag or newspaper, I could happily do it no problem. But Glossary is a personal space. And while I may not be a 'fashion crowd insider,' I do work in advertising and I have to be mindful of how I discuss brands (and anything for that matter!) on this blog.

I was given a complimentary ticket to cover the event for Gloss. Cheers for that 031 team! Nadia accompanied me to the Friday night show and this is my review in a nutshell for those who would prefer to skip my long-winded ramble below: I think the 031 Collection is a fantastic initiative and the production was amazing. Sadly, Aggy Deyn, the guest judge and British supermodel, did not attend the Friday night show. Rumours swirled that she was tired although an official announcement was never made as to why she wasn't there. Throughout the evening, I felt a mixture of pride, disappointment and confusion.

And that my friends, is the honest truth. I was tempted to blog that it was only amazing and leave it at that but that didn't sit right with me.

Yes, the focus was on the fashion but Aggy's name was used as a massive draw card for the event. I'm not sure if she was at the Thursday night show and perhaps she was only ever meant to be at the Saturday night show but nothing I had read in the press or online had led me to believe that she wouldn't be there on Friday night.

Friends of mine that attended the show on Saturday, told me that Aggy was lovely and gracious and a pleasure to meet. I'm sure she's a babe – I was just hoping to see her with my own eyes. I think human beings are generally an understanding bunch. Perhaps she was severely jet-lagged. Perhaps she was under the weather. Life happens. Sometimes you just can't make things. But no announcement was made at the start of the show which created a buzz of confusion among the crowd who were understandably eager to catch a glimpse of Miss Deyn. Speaking of Aggy being a judge, I didn't see any of the other judges either. Were they never set to be there on Friday? Those of you that are in the know, please fill us in!

The show itself was fantastic though. Having played in bands and studied sound engineering, I'm always extra critical of production values and I must say, the technical team did an excellent job with the sound, screens, lighting and staging. I don't remember any technical hitches at all for that matter. Unlike at SA Fashion Week last year, when a light crashed onto the runway – EEK!

The show was comprised of collections from eight emerging designers and eight established designers. I can only imagine how thrilled the emerging designers were to be given this opportunity to showcase their work.

I thought each piece of music complimented the collections beautifully. I was especially excited to hear an excerpt from the Amelie soundtrack!

The models' runway 'perfomances' also featured interesting choreography which made a nice change from the usual 'strut, pose and repeat' down the catwalk.

My favourite collection of the night was by the Holmes Brothers. Miss Molly said it best when she tweeted their show as being 'playful and original.' I loved their bold mix of stripey knee high socks, peter pan collars, African-inspired fabrics and colourful ensembles! They also had their male models 'chat up' the female models on the runway which the crowd loved!

Another highlight for me was the cleverly raised seating. Being a shorty, it always grates me when seating isn't raised! My blogger buds and I were seated behind the camera crew and we could see everything perfectly although I had to tell the 031 crew in front of us to stop hopping on and off their seats throughout the show. Tut tut! You know me – Glossary Granny!

The best part about the night for me though, was catching up with great company. A lot of us local bloggers have become genuine friends in the last year which is great. I also got to meet some blog readers who were just lovely. I know that probably sounds trite but it's true! And it was great to see the handiwork of our friends who were involved in the show.

As with any event, there were a few awkward moments like when a member of the bar staff tried to charge us for Valpre in our Voddies, Lime and Waters (tsk!). The norm is to use the jug water in Durbs! Then there was the sweet lady carrying cupcakes which everyone assumed were complimentary but were actually R15 each! Almost every girl in earshot declared, 'I could make an entire batch for 15 bucks!' Ha.

Aside from those silly small things, the 031 Collection created a great sense of pride and excitement among Durbanites who have been longing for more creative platforms to showcase local art, design and music. Despite my grumbles about Aggy's non-appearance, I am grateful to the event organisers for creating this awesome initiative and giving us a fun night out. The entire experience reminded me that it's up to us Durbanites to make things happen in this town. We tend to moan that nothing exciting ever happens but this show proves that with a bit of hard work (and the right sponsor!) we can create world-class events.

And what about those of you who attended? I know some of you had a glam moment rubbing shoulders with Aggy! Go on, tell us all about it. I may be a bit jealous but I wanna hear the goss! 

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Pre-show sustenance at Nadia's!

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Pippa and Bevan from The Thrift Collection. These two are a hoot I tells ya.

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Snaps from the Holmes Brothers' collection.

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A glimpse backstage.

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JP and his camera!

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Nadia looking lovely as always.

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For official pictures, check out the 031 Collecion blog here.