Back to blogging and the great African bush

There really is nothing quite like spending a few blissful days in the beautiful African bush. It also helps to be completely disconnected from modern technology - I'm talking no calls, no blackberry, no email, no internet and not even electricity (in our chalet at least). As scary as it sounds, spending a few days far away from the stressful buildup of modern living is an absolute pleasure, and one that needs to be scheduled into my calendar more often.

Often, we're so caught up in making things happen that we forget to enjoy the little pleasures in life - apart from shoe splurging that is. While shoes do offer that little spark of enthusiasm, nothing helps you to clear you mind and refocus your energy quite like sitting on an open air Landrover, driving through the bush and spotting nature's most amazing creatures.

And with that I've decided it's time to get back into my blog. Although my big blog StyleScoop is doing phenomenally well, I still need a little place to call my own - somewhere to share some random ramblings.

So, hopefully I'll be making a point to blog here more often. Whether it's sharing my favourite beauty products, fabulous fashions or my attempts at photography and decorating stay tuned...

Loubie Lust - Maggie

I first spotted these gorgeous, Ga-Ga-GEOUS Christian Louboutin heels on the cover of People magazine, and who would you think was wearing them?

Victoria Beckham (of course), who, by the way, I'm sure has more Loubies in her closet than most celebs and probably owns every single pair ever made. I wouldn't be surprised if she did!


In fact it was in her book, That Extra Half and Inch where I first spotted and fell in love with Louboutins, one specific pair (http://littleredsoles.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-affair-begins.html).



Now that's how you go to a Lakers game - VB style in Louboutins!

PS, Personally I love the tabacco and black pair, but they also come in a lilac/ navy combo which is also hot. I priced these babies on Barneys' website and they are going for $930 - R6 825, which is not bad for Louboutins, in fact it's pretty good! Now just to get my ticket to NYC and then wake up from my dream!

Love this look

Sweetie ♥ by ♥♪♥♫♥ ℐℯɲɲɑℓℯℯɲ ♥♪♥♫♥ featuring Alexander McQueen

I HEART these heels

When I say I love these shoes, I mean I L-O-V-E them!


How beautiful are these heart-shaped Alexander Mqueen patent peep toe heels?

As if the peep toe isn't cute enough they have a gorgeous, striking yellow sole that gives them uber sex appeal! YUMMY!

I also found a hot pink pair while browsing online, as if you needed to scream louder as to just how much you love thee heels...
Just ask Taylor Momsen (AKA Little J from Gossip Girl).


All black with a pair of gorgeous pink heels, Taylor looks sexy and striking!

Had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas...

I love Christmas time, the only thing I don't like is the feeling of over-indulgence that surely follows on Boxing day!

This Christmas we had (almost) the whole family come down to Durbs, and despite the rain on Christmas eve (and day), we still managed to host a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner at our home...

My very festive table
Gorgeous Gammon

My home-made Christmas cake - First attempt and DEE-LICIOUS to boot!

Louboutin arm candy - yes please

I'm a huge fan and loyal follower of the fabulous Rachel Zoe. She has such an amazing talent to make, well, anything look super stylish and she always pulls it off in a classy and sophisticated way.

A few weeks ago I subscribed to her daily mailer - TZR (The Zoe Report) and I look forward to every days' mail. It pops into my inbox usually after 5pm which signals "me" time, and what a great way to start "me" time!

Yesterday's TZR was my favourite so far... Rachel has brought a true piece of heaven to my inbox, and while Santa didn't leave a gorgeous Christian Louboutin Cadeau clutch under my tree, this gorgeous clutch is certainly on my lust list. So, if you ever want to get me a prezzie, don't say I didn't give you any suggestions ;-p.

The Christian Louboutin Cadeau metallic gold Clutch is adorned with a beautiful bow and is said to retail at close to 900 US Dollars - so expect to fork out close to R7k to get one of these babies on your arm.

Obsession - Black and white delight

Black and white block-colour dresses have become my new obsession. I absolutely love the contrasting colours and how they can be worked for daytime or an evening affair, it just takes the right pair of shoes.

I particularly LOVE ones with high waisted styles like these ...

This one from Forever21 via www.splendicity.com is super cute, simple and classic and I love the high waisted look of it! Plus it has an understated elegance. Classic, simple... PERFECT!

Of course Mrs Beckham always makes it my style books, and here are some black and white delights from her dvb collection...

Very high-powered fashionista!

So POSH!

A longer length dvb Dress looks sensational

I was absolutely stoked when I managed to get a gorgeous black and white dress from YDE and better yet, on SALE!!!

It's not the greatest of pics, but I love this dress! It's straight cut at the bottom, with a GREAT fitting top section and I love the high waist!

Dresses that impress

Supposedly we're in summer right now? Well looking out my window for the past few weeks, all I see is doom doom and gloom. In December - WTF? Where is the sun hiding?

All through winter in July, I was inspired by sunny, summery dresses and stocked up on a few, but judging by this miserable weather, I wont be able to wear them until next summer :( - So now I'm inspired by winter dresses - how gorgeous are these from Raxevsky?


This one is so gorgeous and classic. I could SO see myself wearing this one. The only thing that's missing is the big ball to wear it to :). I love dresses with pretty details and this one has a gorgeous detail, high up on the waist, and a beautiful lace detail at the back.


So gorgeous! This one reminds me of a 1930's flapper dress today. The colour is simply stunning and the black belt really modernizes this timeless dress.


This one is super cute. Like I said, I love details on dresses. I'm very much a plain Jane when it comes to dresses, I dont like over the top stuff with too much going on, but love the subtle details that make it unique.

In Paris Hilton's shoes

Today I spotted Paris Hilton's shoe collection at Stuttafords in Gateway

Some of them were quite nice and I liked the little pink soles, but I can't say I'm totally crazy about the whole collection. However, there was one pair that made me go gaga...

Not the greatest of pics, but here they are - I fell in love with the heel! Gorgeous ain't it?

I found better pics of them on heel heaven - www.heels.com

I didn't get a chance to try them on, so I'm definitely going back this weekend to try them on and walk in Paris Hilton's shoes for a change :)

Obsession - Smoke and Mirrors

My favourite thing about being the editor of StyleScoop and GLOSSY magazine is when the couriers arrive, bearing new cosmetics products for me to try out and shoot for beauty features on the publications.

One of my favourite, new products at the moment is the Smoke and Mirrors eye shadow compact from M.A.C


M.A.C have always made some of the hottest eye shadow shades and their products are long wearing and affordable. Plus they last a really long time and even longer when you apply them using the M.A.C brushes. Yes, any makeup brush would probably do, but if you've used a M.A.C brush before, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. There just is no comparison.

Now, back the compact. How stunning are these colours? Check out my pic below, which I created using this compact.


For this look I used all three shades in the bottom row. I started with the first shade on left and used my M.A.C 224 brush to apply the shade from lash line to brow bone. Then, I applied the darkest shade in the bottom right hand corner on my lids using the M.A.C 239 Eye Shader Brush. And finally I blended it all in using the gorgeous shimmer shade in the middle with my M.A.C 217 Blending Brush

Obession - Leather wrap belt

My new obsession is my haute new leather wrap belt. I bought it from Aldo a few weeks ago, but havent' worn it yet... None the less, I plan to very soon and here here are some leather looks I love!

Jeannie Mai is fast becoming one of my new style icons. Although she will have to take her place behind Victoria Beckham on my style icon list. This look is so gorgeous! I love how she's mixed totally different pieces and it works - on me, it might be a little different, but on her it looks Ah-mazing!

There's that leather belt (similar to mine actually) and I love how she's used it to roughen up an otherwise "girly outfit"


Even though this belt it totally different to mine, I love how leather added to such a delicate, feminine can look so chic. And the colour combo - tra la la - Emmy Rossum

I like this outfit of Emma Stone's for an evening affair. Again, I like how she's used a leather belt to give her simple dress an edge!

Frankly Miss Scarlett... I love it!

So, I know this ad with Scarlett Johansson for Mango is kinda old news, but I was paging through one of my magazines and saw it again. She looks absolutely sensational...

I love this look and I so want that leather skirt, and that top and those shoes and well, everything! High waisted skirts are my new poison, now to find one I love.

November GLOSSY

Check out the latest issue of GLOSSY

Be sure to let me know what you think :)
www.glossymag.stylescoop.co.za

Obsession, Leigh Schubert and The Space

I'm always the first person to complain about the lack of "variety" in our clothing stores. And yet, every time I'm out shopping for an outfit, or just "because" I always find myself back in the same old, bland and boring stores... (you know exactly which ones I'm talking about).

I'm also one of "those" people who walks past a store, and just scans the racks, and of course, there is nothing that I like. I don't really look, I don't really shop! So, the other day I challenged myself, to really check out the racks, and no, not in "those" stores either, but rather in more edgier, more exclusive stores that have that something different.

I found myself at The Space at Gateway - which is now, by the way, my absolute favourite store. It's such an great little store, that stocks a variety of local designers; Amanda Lard Cherry, Leigh Schubert, Colette Palin and Colleen Eitzen are some of the names.

I found the most amazing pair of satin pants from Leigh Schubert, I had to have them and I did! For 7 days at least. As much as I loved these babies - they are still super hot - they just didn't look so great on my body shape. I have naturally big hips and am so used to flared pants, that straight cut slacks just look odd on me. I took them home in any case, to try them out with my Aldo babies, but the image in my mind looked a lot hotter than the mirror.

Even though I don't have them anymore (sniff sniff), I still think they are super hot...



Check out the back!

Behind the scenes at ELLE

Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend ELLE magazine's first local cover shoot, featuring local starlet Vanessa Haywood. I was sent to cover the "Behind the scenes" action on my blog and style website, StyleScoop and I must say it was quite an experience.

The other day I picked up my copy of ELLE and it's really amazing to see what materialised from the shoot. Vanessa is truly a professional, I mean seriously you would never have thought that this chick had been at it, posing non stop from 6am to 6pm. OK, I lie - she did stop once or twice to change her wardrobe.

As it was a "Behind the scenes" I also managed to catch some live camera action...

I could kick myself for not taking more pics, especially with Vanessa and the fabulous ELLE team, but it was a truly great experiance.

Closet dreams - Rachel ZOe

A girl can always dream cant she? Well, right now, I'm dreaming about Rachel Zoe's closet ...

Blog ♥ Love - The Shoe Girl

I have been following the fabulous Shoe Girl for some time now and every time I open her blog my little heart flutters and my face goes green with envy. Why? Because she has the most fabulous, gorgeous, delicious and delightful shoe collection any girl could dream of!

The Shoe Girl is a shoe designer herself, and apparently a H-U-G-E fan of Louboutins too. That's why Im giving her loads of Blog Lovin today :)

Go check out her blog, apart from her gorgeous shoes, she also has great style and you'll become instantly addicted to her blog.

October GLOSSY is up

Check it out, the October GLOSSY - StyleScoop's fab, free, digital fashion, style and beauty glossy magazine is up!


To read the magazine and flip through the fabulous pages go to glossy.stylescoop.co.za.

Enjoy!

Have a little faith

I am totally in love with these super cool gladiator platforms from Faith. Now I know Stuttafords used to stock Faith shoes, but I wonder if these will come in South Africa? They are so, so, soooo hot! Anyone going to London?




And speaking of having a little Faith, how different are these?

My "Field" of dreams

Why, why, why can't these be a little closer? I am in love with these three items from Patricia Field... I will keep staring at them until they are in my closet :)

First, the belt
When I saw it on Sex and the City, I had to have it and have searched high and low to find something similar - nadda! It's so, so, so gorgeous and so darn different - I haven't seen anything like it and I love how it can be worn in so many different ways.

Next, the jacket


and last, but certainly not least, this dress...