Kruger National Park Holiday Part #2

Hello again!

It is time for part #2 ! Except for really enjoying our holiday I really enjoyed taking these pictures. 

In these few pictures we have moved from Letaba to Satara and the last pictures is part of our last camp stop, Berg en Dal.

We saw lions, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, went on a morning drive, made breakfast at Timbavati picnic spot where you are allowed to wonder around (within the bounds off course), saw rhinos and a leopard!  

Let's jump right in.

Ps. All these shots were taken with my 700DSLR Canon camera, most of it on the Aperture function. I used Photoshop Elements 6 for the panorama. These photos were not edited.

We could not believe that on our way going into the S100 we missed this Leopard's kill in the tree right next to the road. We decided to turn around to see if maybe we will get lucky and see the leopard everyone is talking about. Here you have it. The leopard and his/her kill. 

This photo was taken through the car window. There was NO way I was going to lower the window for a better shot. I'm to much of a scaredy cat!

Next week is part #3! Stay tuned!

Speak to you soon...or sooner!

xoxo

Kruger National Park Holiday Part #1

Well, hello there!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have been mighty well. I am doing great. This is the first part of our holiday we were on in February. I have tried my utmost best to get the photo's down to 2 parts, but I just could not manage it. There is to much I want to share with you! So, there will be 3 parts! Yeah! 

We had a lovely holiday in The Kruger National Park. We saw a lot of animals and experienced a wild golf course (with no fencing), a few elephants wanted to step on us and an angry lion "approached" (actually he kind of charged at us) the truck we were in on a morning drive.

I would like to share some of the memories with you. So, let's jump right into it!

Ps. All these shots were taken with my 700DSLR Canon camera, most of them on the Aperture function. I used Photoshop Elements 6 for the panorama. These photos were not edited.  

    First day: Arriving at the Phalaborwa Gate.

These next 2 photo's tells a story. We were watching the buffaloes from a distance. They were quiet and relaxed drinking some water and the next moment they started running and we were left with... 

 this! 3 Lionesses chased them around a bit. We could not believe it. First time I saw something like this in the park and it was epic!

 The Elephant Centre in Letaba. Some of these tuskers were massive!

 I feel so mini..

 This is the view from the Mugg&Bean in Letaba. Quite nice and so quiet

This was taken at The Olifants River bridge on our way to Satara. One of the few places you are allowed to step out.

The Olifant's River

This is our little spot in Satara. 

We went on a morning drive and this is the sun rising. The colors is just so beautiful. I am in awe at the color pallet. God is GREAT!

Check out next week's blog for part #2! Lot's of photo's still to come. 

Speak to you soon...or sooner!

xoxo

February in Instagram

(from left to right)

I received my first ever racing number. So proud! ♥ A little inspiration ♥ Lilly and Thom checking each other out ♥ This is what we do on a Wednesday night, we gym ♥ Lilly decided this is the best place to lie down ♥ Thom and Lilly again ♥ My Lush Review Blog click H E R E  ♥ We had a great day at my friend's birthday party (review to follow on the De Vette Mossel in Harties) ♥ Some more party photo's. Tannie Elré's favourite! ♥ Newly discovered Zoofari Vanilla cookies in animal shapes! ♥ The temperature late at night (it is HOT!) ♥ Some Valentine's chocolate from a running buddy ♥ Some laughs ♥ My first ever complete 10km race time and medal ♥ A group shot after our 10km ♥ Unboxing Zoella blog - click H E R E ♥ Some more laughs ♥ My new camping chair (it is very comfy!) ♥ I regram this. It was just so funny ♥ Pampering my feet. They do carry me after all ♥ Thom decided that's his new spot (he loves boxes and suitcases) ♥ My lunch view in Loverslane at the NWU ♥ #ootd ♥ Some inspiration from my sister ♥ A Zando package!! ♥ My first ever sweetie pie I ate - it was delicious! ♥ #ootd ♥ Found sugar free "legal" Turkish Delight ♥ Watson diving into my oats ♥ Our camping vacation reservation ♥ Sunrise on the N4 on our way to the Kruger National Park ♥ Dullstroom ♥ The shoe cave ♥ My 5 Product Face blog - click H E R E ♥ Our first kettle of coffee water at Letaba in the Kruger National Park ♥ We went running in the Kruger National Park ♥ #yolo ♥ Our camp site in Letaba in The Kruger National Park ♥ Wilddog sighting in the Kruger National Park (this was epic!) ♥ We had to sit in the tent and watch the fire cause it started raining.. ♥ Birdie in Berg en Dal in The Kruger National Park ♥ Our last camp fire in the Kruger National Park  

Next month will have some more camping/vacation photo's. Check out this coming Saturday for Part 1 of our vacation. 

Speak to you soon...or sooner!
xoxo

The 5 Product Face

Now, before I jump in here let me give you some background on my make up experience.

When I was in high school (which is forever and many moons ago), on the first day of Gr8 a girl stopped me and very snotty told me "you have a base (foundation) stripe across our face" and then snickered at me while walking away. I was so terribly embarrassed, it was the first and last day I ever wore make up in high school. The only time after that incident that I wore makeup again was at our matric dance.

That said, I only really started wearing makeup on a daily basis beginning of this year. Last year I was still trying to find my feet and watched a gazillion videos on YouTube to try and figure out how and what.

I always like a natural look with neutral colours and a splash of colour on the cheeks and/or lips. So on my quest I stumbled upon the 5 Product Face Challenge. What does this entail? You are only allowed to use 5 products to makeup your face. So, choose the 5 products that you can not do without! The first video I saw was Allison Anderson's The 5 Product Face Video and then her The 5 Product Face Blog Post What a jewel (Allison and her video)!

I tried it and loved it!

The products I use are:
♥ Ideal Flawless BB Creme in Nude- Avon
♥ Ideal Flawless Pressed Powder in Light Medium - Avon
♥ Blusher (I am very sorry, but I don't know the name of the color) - Victoria Jackson Survival Kit
♥ The Colossal GO Extreme Volume in Black - Maybeline New York
♥ Perfect Kiss Lip Gloss in Butter me up - Avon

Why do I choose these specific products?
♥ BB Cream - It's light weight and it doubles as a cream. Bonus is it's got a SPF 15 as well!
♥ Pressed Powder - my face tends to get a bit oily sometimes and the powder just sets everything in place and give it a matt finish and get rid of the shininess
♥ Blusher - Who doesn't love blusher? This is for that splash of colour of course.
♥ Mascara - I will give up more of the products as  long as I am able to use mascara. That's how important it is to me. But, it makes my eyes pop and make my lashes look pretty!
♥ Lip - you need to look after your lips and mine are almost always dry and this lip gloss gives it a bit of moisturiser. Most of the time my Body Shop Lip Balm (mango) is in my handbag if I did not use a lip colour the day.

I am absolutely in love with this 5 product face makeup. This is my 5 reasons why:
♥ It looks natural
♥ It adds enough colour to my face for a pretty "glow"
♥ It is super quick in the morning
♥ Removing it in the evening is a breeze
♥ It doesn't take up space in my suitcase (seeing that we are travelling this week)

I won't always use only 5 products, I will add some from time to time, but for now this is prefect.

I asked some of my friends to join in and show me their 5 product face, so here are the results.

Products used:

* Pressed Powder - Rimmel
* Creme Foundation - Rimmel
* Black Eyeliner - Rimmel
* Mascara in Black - Rimmel
* Revlon Colorburst Lip Gloss in Light Brown

Products used:

* Foundation:Kryolan (specific to skin tone)

* Blush in Sunkiss-Hannon

* Mascara (Waterproof) –Hannon

* Eye Pencil (Brown)_China Mall

* Lipice-Labella in Strawberry (yOu can use it as a blusher too!)

Products used:

* Environ A Ultra Day Cream

* Heliocare Advanced Gel spf50-I even wear this at night. It smells delicious of all the fruit flavors    and gives your skin a glow

* Revlon Photoready Concealer

* Ralo Cosmetics Face Powder

* Essie Blusher – Pink

* Sumptuous Infinate Mascara –Black

I would like to know what 5 products you will use if you are only allowed 5. Leave them in the comments below or find me on Twitter or Instagram. I would love to hear from you!

Speak to you soon...or sooner!
xoxo

Unboxing Zoella

 

Finally! I received my copy of Girl Online by Zoella (aka Zoë Sugg). Don’t know who she is? (Where have you been?) Go check out her channel, Zoella .

This book was released 25 November 2014. I had to wait a long time for my package to arrive! I missed the whole hype of it. Well not entirely though, I did follow the madness (and it was quite a madness on all the social media platforms) and of course the whole “scandal” of a ghost writer. I waited (actually against my will-I will get to this point now) before I wanted to give my point of view on the whole Girl Online-madness.

Getting back to the “against my will” part. I wanted this book for Christmas, but a bookstore (whose name will not be mentioned) left out some minor detail that the book will actually only be available in January in SA. So, I had to wait. But, on the other hand this is good. Now that everyone has said what they wanted to or had to, I can give my opinion and feelings without it seeming like “Quick, I have to get my opinion out there”. I had the time to really think about this.

Just a side note, I have not read the book yet. So, this will not be on the book itself, but more the hype around it.

I am really excited to read it. Now, you may or may not know that I am in my late (very late) twenties. Some people might wonder “Elré, why do you want to read a novel aimed at young adults (like 13 year olds)?”.  It is simple. I love reading. I will read any book if I want to, even if it is aimed at children or young adults. Who ever said you are not allowed to read books aimed at them (when you are an adult according to “age classifications”)?

I like Zoella. When I heard she is going to write a book, I wanted it. I wanted it because I like her as a person and she is quite the writer (Go check out her Blog which I thoroughly enjoy reading) and I am curious to see how the book is going to be. Then it came out that the book was ghost written. This was a fact that Penguin (the publisher) and Zoella “failed” to mention. Yes, she did say in her blog that she is getting some help with the process, but help and ghost writer is quite a difference from each other and kind of a big fact to just leave out of the conversation. I was a bit disappointed in her and Penguin.

At the same time I felt sorry for Zoë. I felt sorry about what was going on in the media. She was really picked on, even bullied quite a bit. People were saying that she bought this on herself, she should have said that the book was ghost written, she should have been honest and so forth and so on. I can understand the last part because she does “sell” herself as an honest, open individual and this was seen as a huge lie by many fans. I am sure there was some kind of contract or understanding between the ghost author, the publisher and Zoella. I feel somewhere between the 3 parties somebody overstepped a boundary. You and I will never know what exactly happen.

The only thing I saw was that Zoë was attacked by the media and people were mad because they said “real new authors” who is struggling to get a publisher to notice them doesn’t get a chance like this. Parents and some individuals felt this is unfair for her to call it her book although it was ghost written because she did not write it herself and because she already had a fan base of 7mill subscribers (who will support her no matter what) and without them the book never would have sell. How do you/they know that? We don’t. We will never know what would have happened if the book was published and she did not have this fan base.

I still see it as Zoë’s book. Who cares if it is was ghost written? My point is that it was her plot, characters and ideas. She was the creative one with regard to that; she needed help with the writing. So what? Yes, maybe she should have phrased it differently, there I will agree. I am sure there are other authors who have ghost writers as well. Who knows?

In conclusion, I decided that I am still going to buy the book. I am still going to read it. I am really looking forward to it. And yes, I will probably put my thoughts onto paper afterwards.

I enjoyed unboxing Zoella. It was the greatest thing when my package arrived and I could have my own little “hype and madness” party!

Speak to you soon...or sooner!
xoxo

LUSH! {My attempt at a review}

I heard of LUSH the first time on Zoella's channel/blog. I immediately fell in love with this lovely colored bath bombs with funny names like, Granny Takes a Dip, Blue Sky and Fluffy White Clouds and Sex Bomb.

Lush only recently came to South Africa with only 4 S T O R E S and how lucky is Cape Town to have 3 of the 4! As Murphy would have it, way far away from where I live (like 1300km to 3 of them and 700km to the other).

Luckily hubby went to Leeds, UK in September last year (yes, I am only writing my review now 'cause I had to try it out first, right?) and bought back a few for me to try out. That's after I had to search for the address and directions to get to the shop in Leeds, but we did it!

So, to get the most out of this I decided to divide every piece in half and tried them all out (before the heat wave struck us) and keep a few pieces for Winter.

This is my thoughts.

♥Granny Takes a Dip

This one is gorgeous in the bath water. It turns the water a psychedelic color and makes it all fun. When you throw it into the water it starts fizzing and goes on for quite some time. It's got ginger, pepper and lemon as ingredients. The lemon helps boost your mood, the ginger and pepper is just warming. Of all of them this is actually not my favorite. But, I will buy it again. I enjoyed it and the scent is really inviting.

♥Sex Bomb (Bath Bomb)

I love the scent of this one and it makes you feel really relaxed, but you would not expect anything else from it with ingredients like Jasmine- Clary Sage and Ylang Ylang. This is perfect for a night in and I think in winter when you can make the water really warm this will work wonders for a pamper before bed. Definite re-purchase.

 ♥Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds & Brightside (Bubble Bar)

I have combined these two because the fall in the same category. They melt into the bath water. Oh my! All the oils! And the feeling on your skin!

The Blue Skies turns the water blue with white "cloudy" spots. The Blue Skies have Patchouli (the relaxant) and Frankincense (the exotic relaxing fragrance). It also contains cinnamon leaf (I ♥ cinnamon) that adds a spiciness to the fragrance.

Brightside is full of oils that makes your skin feel soft and the scents just makes you feel happy with bright colored orange water. It's got Sicilian mandarin, Bergamot andTangerine essential oils. I really enjoy citrus scents and bright colors.

Both these are definitely worth a re-purchase.

I can not wait to visit on of the shops here in SA!

Then last, but not least-my favourite one of the bunch (that is until I have tried the other products!).

♥Butterball (Bath Bomb)

This little beauty is filled with Ylang ylang and cocoa butter pieces! I remember the feeling like yesterday and the smell is divine! As soon as the butter pieces melt your skin is covered in something feeling like a combination of satin and butter. I don't know if that is even possible. It smells so good! This one is for use after a long, hard day to calm the nerves and just relax you. Ylang ylang is known to help treat stress, depression, relaxing the nervous system and to help relieve anger, panic and fear. I loved this one the most! I am really looking to the first very cold winters evening to pop this one back into my bath water!

I am really looking forward to trying out their skin range. They don't only specialise in bath products. The best part is, these are all hand made and they are totally against animal testing. YEAH for Lush!

Let me know in the comment section below if you have tried it before and what you would recommend? I would love to hear from you!

Speak to you soon...or sooner!

xoxo