Entries Tagged 'Home' ↓
November 14th, 2009 — Bake, Home, South Africa
Phew. What is there to say after a long day of cleaning and tidying!? For the first time since being married I had someone to help me clean the house, and what pleasure.
For those who don’t live in South Africa, let me explain a bit more. In SA its the norm to have someone clean your house for you, do your washing, ironing and pretty much all other household chores. When we were in the UK a few years back I realized for the first time that this wasn’t so common in all other countries.
Now having lived here for my whole life, I must admit that I am one of the odd ones out to not have a domestic worker, and I’ve had to get used to people’s reactions when I tell then that I do all the housework myself, on top of working at the office for a full day. Now this is not some kind of noble act to gain favor with anyone, or some money saving plan. Instead I am just too distrusting to allow anyone strange into my home to come and clean & organize it for me.
I’ve been having these arguments with myself, and even with my husband about who we should pick, who we can trust, and who would be able to work with such care that our perfectionism will be satisfied.
Well, we have now finally found someone, and she did excellent for a first day. I’m hoping that she will continue to be so thorough in future as well, as the trend is to slack as soon as you’re settled in – in many jobs that is.
For now, I am ecstatic with a lovely clean home, and NO IRONING – Yay!! So I’m going to busy myself with baking a banana bread.
Happy “rest of the” weekend all 
February 18th, 2008 — About Me, Home, Sponsored
This weekend I moved into the new flat. I knew that I was going to have to move this weekend, but I never imagined that it would be such a huge task. At least all my things are in the flat now, but I haven’t even unpacked half of it! I will continue tonight, if I have the energy.
At least all the big furniture has been moved, and I now have a louge suite for guests to sit on instead of folding chairs. Also got a dining set to eat supper at, which I just LOVE. Its so cozy The beds are obviously also in, but I might want to swop the single bed in the spare bedroom for a sleeper sectional – those are really convenient in a small flat, yet at the same time you can still receive guests to sleep over.
My first night there was OK. I wasn’t scared or anything, but it was really hot, and I struggled to sleep. Once I fell asleep I awoke every so often, wondering if I had overslept (even though I use an alarm).
This morning was the first time I had drive from there to work, and it was a nightmare. Its 5km’s further than my previous place, but it took me 3 times as long to get to work – I drove an hour and half!!! 
Tomorrow I’ll try leaving home even earlier, and maybe use a different route. I hated spending half an hour in traffic before, but this is just insane!!
For now I gotta get some work done, there are some important things that require my urgent attention.
Hope you all had a good weekend, and that the week ahead won’t be too rough! 
February 13th, 2008 — Decor, Dizzy Dee, Home
Even though we have Window Blinds in the new place, we still went to hang some curtains yesterday. It just looks so much more cozy with the curtains up!
Its slowly but surely starting to look more like a home, instead of just an empty building.
I still need some curtains for the bathroom, but who knows, maybe I’ll take mini blinds?
February 12th, 2008 — Decor, Home
Who on earth would want a Sleigh Bed? I haven’t even ever HEARD of something like this, but it sounds too funny!!
Queen Beds and King Beds yes, but not SLEIGH BEDS… LOL
Anyway. I’m busy moving into my new home, and we need a a couple of things still. Some big furniture like a double bed, a fridge, and washing machine. Luckily its just a townhouse, and we won’t be needing a Media Entertainment Center.
February 11th, 2008 — Home, Home Loan, Sponsored
Apparently house prices in Manchester is great for first time buyers at the moment! I guess that’s specifically for buyers who are earning pounds though 
Still, with Commercial Mortgage you might just be able to buy a house in England if you’re up to it! I would love to. I lived there for about a year, and I loved the country so much. Most people in sunny South Africa don’t understand how I can put up with the constant raining and grey days, but there is something so special about that atmosphere.
I spent the summer shopping till 9pm, and walking in the park – feeding the swans. It was such an idyllic life, that sometimes when I think back it feels like a dream. If I could, I would immigrate to England, and bring up my children there. Its just so much safer than South Africa. I suppose there always are downsides, and one of these would be that my family live in South Africa – well, most of them.
Some of our family are in the States, and other live in Europe, so I guess it would enable me to visit them regularly.
January 16th, 2008 — About Me, Dizzy Dee, Home, Life, My Opinion
Strange as it may seem, I might be moving into a place of our very own sometime soon! We’ve found a lovely townhouse, and I can move in in about 2 weeks time!!! Fantastic! I just realized now though that I don’t have half of what I might need, but who cares? Its our own little home, and I’m absolutely ecstatic!!!
Further more we’ve been experiencing Eskom’s load shedding in its full glory!! I’ve had about 4hrs off work each day because of the power failures. This is not as much fun as it might have been had I still been in school… See at work I still have the same responsibilities, but just less time to complete the tasks – that’s not so much fun…
Today I spent a lot of that time driving around in the mad traffic (caused by no working traffic lights), and then after that I had a on the grass, in the shade, outside our office building. The nap was good, up until the point where the power went back on. I don’t mind working, but waking me up from an afternoon nap is not always such a good idea I’m pretty grumpy.
Now I’m exhausted again – definitely not from working, but from heat exhaustion rather I suspect. LOL. Its lovely summer weather again here, and I’m loving it – just a pity we don’t have our aircon on UPS!!
December 12th, 2007 — Decor, Home
Between looking for a wedding dress pattern, and fabric, and table overlay fabric, I’m also starting to think about setting up the new house. And now I’m panick stricken – I don’t have curtains!!!
This sucks big time – I dont have the time to go and look for curtains NOW!? Maybe I should consider blinds, but then, if we decide to move, we have to go through the whole rig-ma-roll again?
Blinds are a whole lot more convenient though…
At Select Blinds, they have blinds for very reasonable prices, but still I’m unsure. I’m totally in love with their venetian blinds, but still – I’m torn :/
December 1st, 2007 — Decor, Home, Sponsored
Decorating a house is probably one of the things that I love most, but you need to have enough money to decorate the way you please. So often I see things that are absolutely stunning, but the price is just so ridiculous, that I end up buying something not as nice, but for less than half the price.
Since I’m going to be setting up my own house soon, I’ve been having a look around in the shops, but also online. For me online shopping is still a relatively new way of doing things, and since the shipping is usually outrageously expensive for South Africa, I’ve pretty much just stuck to local shopping – after all, “local is lekker”, right? Well not if it clears out your wallet to shop for basic home items!
On the wrought iron haven website, they have to most beautiful range of sconces and candle holders. Absolutely stunning! They now have over 1,300 home & garden items in their online store for you to choose from! They have special prices if you take more than one item.
They accept Visa, Mastercard and PayPal – which is probably the best ways to pay for online shopping.
International shipments are shipped via USPS International Priority. Larger orders are shipped UPS only and are by quote. I guess I will have to get a quote
