Wednesday, February 16, 2011

it must be love....part deux...

this is the second installment of our weekend away - we went to Old Mac Daddy's Trailer Park in the Elgin Valley - one of my new favorite places!  love this quirky, beautiful place tucked away in the mountains along the valley road off the N2.  i have been wanting to go here, or one of their sister resorts, Daddy Long Legs and the Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town for a while now, mainly to see their creative designs.  Old Mac Daddy consists of villas and old fashion amercian trailers, each with the inside designed to a specfic theme by a SA designer. The park also has its own restaurant, The Barn; swimming pool; lake for fishing and cycling trails - although Nick and I weren't feeling very energetic for the cycling part!  We were staying in the King Midas trailer, situated right on the lake.  This place was the perfect way to end a brilliant weekend - and we are definitely wanting to go back there soon and take a few friends with!

one of the villas

the swimming pool

one of the trailers


inside the Barn restaurant


time for a read



inside our King Midas trailer

our trailer





view from trailer :)

just wanted to end off by sharing this video with you, Lovesick by The Arrows. The Arrows are a South African band and are fantastic! so if you haven't heard of them before check it out!



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

it must be love...love...love...

some people love it, some people hate...however you feel about it, i hope you enjoyed valentine's day yesterday!  my hubby nick and i have been working our little socks off recently so we decided to take this weekend off to go away together.  nick surprised me on the friday by taking me to a place called Hannah's View in Pringle Bay.  my, it was really stunning there!  Hannalie the owner has made this place feel like a home away from home. With her great attention to detail she has made the house so beautiful...the rooms were lovely, beds comfy and breakfast delicious!  

I often take my camera with me whenever we go away, and this time took more pictures of the house and the surroundings then nick and i as they seemed more interesting! :)  i also took the opportunity to make my first business proposal and see if Hannalie liked any of my photographs whether she would like to use them for her website.  she agreed!  so here are some of the photos i took while we were there. :) 
      
the breakfast room
       
the amazing house
                            
       
the reception - i loved the apron!
 
the lounge and a bottle of wine waiting for us in our room - this scored big brownie points from me! :)
    
the outside lounging area
Hannlie's attention to detail - flowers everyone and a stunning clean pool!
love the old antique bath style
 
our next stop was the Old Mac Daddy Trailer Park in the Elgin Valley...part two to be posted tomorrow.

Whether you are in the mood for love or not, thought i would post this song.  an oldy but a classic and brings me back to my london roots....

                     

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

lensbaby yeah......

haven't blogged in a while, been a little sick and also been trying to gear myself up for a couple of shoots i have for the next couple of weeks.  have felt really inspired and challenged the past couple of days to step up my game a little, so have been studying a bit more on photography and been learning a little of Lightroom.  i am quite excited about this year, and if things go according to plan i will have more time to do photography properly! yay!  
brought myself a lensbaby the other day for my canon and had been meaning to give it a whirl.  i only bought the cheapest one out there, which retails for about R400 from Exposure (really cool camera shop in the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock).  i have been messing around with the lens the past couple of days, and seeing as my hubby wasn't up for being a model, i took a stroll in our garden.  was surprised to find some flowers out there as both of us are neither the gardening type.  but low and behold, here they were and this is what came out.  not the happiest with them and think i need to experiment a little more, especially more with people as that's my passion! :) would like to see what the difference is between this lens and the more expensive lensbaby for the canon.  maybe if i try and find someone who has it i will test it out, but don't think i am going to be using this lens an awful lot.  not bad tho for a R400 purchase! :)




i leave you with a song by yann tiersen, from one of my favourite movies "Amelie".  such a feel good, lazy sunday afternoon chill out song! happy days! :)