Awkward moment of the week

Photo Shop Dude: Well, you see, you rolled the film on the wrong way and then I don't know what you did with it! Me: Erm, yes, well, erm, ok, so how much will that be then? This awesome little convo went down while a bunch of photography types stood around, looking at the plonker chick in polka dots - that would be me. The other day, I found two rolls of film that I'd shot with my friend's Holga over a year ago. I remember making a mess of loading and unloading both films so I'm not surprised the one roll turned out a total write off and only a few pics came out on the other one. I'm really rubbish at loading film no matter how many Youtube tutorials I watch! I managed to salvage the few below with a little bit of Photoshop - I couldn't help myself, they were so bad! Sorry the subject matter is a bit of a snooze fest but that said, they do seem to capture a slice of Durban life!

Diaries + Bananas

These are two of the lovely prezzies I received for Christmas - a banana handcream (for realz!) plus a bright red Moleskin day planner. The handcream came in a packet of mini Burt's Bees goodies (they smell heavenly) and the Moleskin marks the start of what I hope is a year of organisation!

PS: The top pic is an old Lula cover - not the planner x

Casey's Penguin Party!

Casey had a penguin party to celebrate her 25th birthday and it was just a darn delight! She put so much love into all the little touches and it was such a fun way to wrap up the holidays.

 

I had on my bowtie and a polka dot present for the birthday girl. Inside, we met up with Casey, Nadia, Melissa, Pippa and a bunch of nice people.

We ate traditional South African grub of Shisa Nyama which included pap, wors, steak, spinach, sweet potato and homemade chakalaka - mmmm, so good. That's my impaled wors below.

For desert, we had blueberry muffins, Chappies, toffees, peanut brittle and suckers. Overseas buds, if you ever come to South Africa, you must have Chappies (bubblegum.) It's what we noshed when we were kids! Don't you just love Casey's penguin bling?

Then we spent a hilarious five minutes watching Casey trying to light a lantern in the parking lot!

Happy Birthday my friend, this is going to be your year.

 

I'm surprised that you've never been told before, that you're lovely and you're perfect and that somebody wants you

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good NY Eve however you spent it. The highlight of mine was seeing my dad trash the lounge with pink silly string! Tame but true! I was gonna post some goals for 2011 but they're all the usual boring ones - lose weight, go to bed earlier, drink more water, blah blah blah. The more personal ones will go in my diary I suppose. I've been thinking a bit about what I wanna do blogwise and strangely, I'd like to spend less time online (Ha! We'll see) but also, I'd like to use this space to bung up more random things I like in lieu of having a Tumblr blog. Gloss has always been more of a scrapbook rather than a 'style' or 'craft' blog but I might just crank up the 'scrapbook' aspect for my own indulgence! I know this means that things will be (even more!) hit and miss but hey ho, at least ya'll always been in for a surprise.  I was thinking of doing daily features so ya know what to expect but I always kick against routine! I'll still do the odd outfit post (although, I still feel super akward doing 'em) and the 'out and about' posts but I'm probably gonna also indulge in more 'current inspirations' type posts. Feel like I just repeated myself there - apologies! I've also thought of a new name for the blog because I HATE Glossary! I may switch it all over to a new address but I know that will wreak havoc on blog feeds etc - we shall see. Anyway, I hope you guys have a super 2011 and if you're back at work on Monday like me, best of luck!

A year of whimsical encounters

2010 was the year that I officially became a pathological...picture taker! It was also the year that I drove my friends nuts with demands like, 'Please do that again, I wanna get a pic!' and 'Oooh, please can I blog that!' Thanks for putting up with me everyone! It was also the year that I decided to either be miserable or make the most of life back home. I chose 'be miserable.' I kid. In all honestly, leaving buzzy London to come back to an often sleepy Durban was very hard for me. It's not that I don't like Durban. I do. It's just that I'm not really an outdoorsy, beachy type which is pretty much the norm for Durbs. So upon returning, I set out to explore the city with fresh eyes and quickly discovered that Durbs has some gems for a cupcake-loving, Lula-reading, thrift store-frequenting human like me. And, blogging about these encounters led me to kindred spirits who are now dear friends. So yeah, that's a bit of a recap for ya I guess! I might do one of those 'Goals for 2011' posts tomorrow. And while we're taking a gander down memory lane, I shall take this opportunity to thank you guys for your support this year. Your visits, kind comments and even those Follow Friday things on Twitter mean alot to me! You've even inspired me to take the whole picture-taking thing a bit more seriously in the New Year but more on that another time. So thanks gang, you're awesome.

PS: That's Nadia in the first pic. I'm the gal with the leopard bow. No idea what that black stuff is on my arm! Probably mascara. Who knows!