Hair Tutorial: Messy Sock Bun

Hey guys,

So after my previous two posts I got some requests to do a couple of videos from South African food to hair tutorials, book reviews, travel posts, makeup tutorials and more! 

This is my first hair tutorial.. so I started with an easy one... a sock bun!

Let me know what you think of my amateur video and youtube skills and I'd really appreciate it if you subscribe to my channel, like the vids etc etc etc! :D

Have a groovy evening x

Diary of a Crazed Bride-to-Be (Entry 2)

Good God.

On Wednesday the 13th May I had my first meeting with a florist.
Flowers... how expensive can they be, right? Well, it turns out... VERY.

Very as in over 3 x the cost of the actual venue we had in mind!!!! For a bunch of plants that are just going to wilt and die after a couple of hours anyway! What the HELL?!

Thank God I've planned to get hitched in a forest - hopefully nature can just sort itself out and be pretty.

*

Here's my top tip this entry:

Figure out if your desired flowers and plants are in season during the month you plan to get married.

I jumped at the chance to set a date, making it for late February next year... but now my dream of an enchanted forest theme covered in moss is pretty unrealistic because in South Africa, February is one of our driest months. 

Moss likes moisture... so my little dreamy vision may always be just that... a dreamy vision. 

Talk about crushing your dreams.

*

I've started looking at little wedding favors and gifts for my mother-in-law and bridesmaids - I actually had a little something made for my Fiance's mother already.
It was a combination of her wedding present and birthday present as her birthday is the day after mine:

I put the disk onto a silver chain and added on a silver fairy because she loves fairies. It made her cry which made me want to cry. Tears of happiness are truly so beautiful. 

On Sunday the 17th May (our anniversary), Sam and I found our wedding venue - deposit paid and everything. It is so beautiful it made me cry (again... bloody tears).... like literally tear up and get all emotional like I never have before. 

It was seeing the venue, seeing where I'd walk linked through my dads arm, that it all became really real to me. 

The wonderful thing about the venue is that everything is included! Chairs, tables, reception room, ceremony area, accommodation for the bride and groom. The owner is a photographer and gave us an exceptionally good quote to do the photographs. They also cater with drool worthy menu's. Granted their catering is very expensive (we have to cut our guest list quite a lot which is really sad but necessary... I mean at first our guest list was sitting on 160 people and that's almost R 40,000.00 (roughly ₤ 2,200.00) just for food. Which I'm not sure about for people earning pounds, but for us South African's that is astronomically expensive!

On Friday the 22nd May, I went to a trial for my bridal makeup. 

I've decided I want something different... something that makes people go,'wow!' 

I really don't want to be just like every other bride... 

I'm quirky and artsy and a bit weird... so I want to portray that in every possible way. 

So here's my bridal makeup:

What do you think!?

My dad thinks I look like an alien. He's not a fan of the sparkly stick-on bits but that was to be expected. He's a traditionalist...... but I'm not. 

When the world zigs I am going to zag!

The latest happening was this past Sunday the 24th May when we finally got to throw our engagement party. Things kept coming up and we had to keep postponing it. Either Sam having to fly out of the country for 10 days to Malawi or family members not being able to make it - we finally thought, 'screw it,' and threw it anyway.

We made these cute Save the Date cards with our thumbprints meshed together to create a heart. We bought a pair of funky scissors to create the squiggly cut effect, punched holes into the photo-paper and strung some raffia through the hole:

I think they came out pretty great!! It's personal and quirky, just like I wanted.  

Proper invites will be handed out later once we've designed them but for now I thought this was quite a cute idea just to give to people who attended the engagement party. 

The party was amazing - it was so special to be able to celebrate our love with our friends and family. 
It was also the nerve-wrecking day that our parents met for the first time! It seemed to all go down well - though I was rushing around trying to divide my time between so many people that I hardly had time to see how they were really getting on.

Guitars were strummed, stories were told, shooters were had and a professional photographer captured the entire day. 

My brother jamming on an acoustic

My dad - proud..... I hope!

Jenson - happy little nephew of mine

Having some Auntie / Nephew time

Sam and I soaking up the love

It's like everything is finally coming together. 

The venue's booked, the makeup artist is booked, the photographer is booked... ahhhh... so much stress has been lifted from my shoulders! We even have a caterer friend that would love to cater the wedding. We still need to go and chat with her and see what her ideas are but I must say that even that will be a huge help and bring down the costs immensely. I find it incredible how when you really need something, you find it. Sometimes the world just offers you what you really need.

Sam is getting involved now too finally which is great. It's not cool to be left to do it all by yourself. 

I have a wonderful selection of bridesmaids that are so happy and ready to help though: 

 - and trust me, you need that! I have a ginormous amount of bridesmaids actually... I couldn't choose, so I decided not to. 
I have eight women that have really been there for me throughout different times and areas in my life and I can't place one in front of the other. So now I have six fantastic, hilarious bridesmaids and two wonderful maid of honors and each and every one of those ladies is in the bridal party for a reason. 
It's going to be much more expensive with so many of them - like dresses! That's EIGHT dresses I need to purchase... ouch. But I'll figure it out. 
The more the merrier anyway - we've started planning and brain storming and sharing ideas with one another. It's great!

Trying to do it all yourself is so crazy. You forget to eat, you loose track of the time, get hopelessly drunk to calm your shot nerves, you end up in a ball on the floor in tears... your emotions just go hay-wire. 

I've cried twice now excluding the tears of happiness.... it really is so stressful but fun at the same time. 

I never ever thought marriage would happen for me. It didn't seem to be in the cards. Out of all of my extremely long relationships, it never happened and to be honest it made me lose hope. I started wondering if I even wanted marriage. I started getting scared of it... started getting scared of commitment and children and the whole shebang. 
Then Sam came along....

I can't begin to tell you how good it feels to not be this woman anymore:

(Although I still do have my cat.... but luckily she loves Sam just as much as I do...)

Now I'm off on a road-trip with my mother and one of my six bridesmaids to the big city to try on some designer wedding dresses! I couldn't be more excited. 
I did have a dress appointment somewhere a bit close to home last week and to be honest, I fell pretty in love with a dress - but I don't want to rush finding the perfect gown. 

I'll update you all again soon.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green | Book Review

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. 

Blurb taken from: Amazon

This is literally the process of reading The Fault In Our Stars

It was impossible not to want to read The Fault In Our Stars. This book (and movie) got so much hype that even someone that isn't much of a reader got intrigued. 

I'm a slow reader. It literally takes me about a month to finish a book because I'm always so busy with juggling a full-time job,studying journalism, writing my second novel and being a girlfriend. 
Even so, everything else took a backseat as I picked up this book. By the end of the first night, I'd already devoured half of it! That has never happened to me before. 

When I started to read it, I was really skeptical. Cancer and illnesses petrify me. I like to pretend that if I ignore them then they don't exist. After very nearly losing my dad last year, it is a very tender topic for me but I battled through in the hopes of there being beauty in the pain and inspiration in the pages of heartache.
Well, there was all of that and more.

Just because this book is about a sixteen year old girl called Hazel Grace who is falling in love for the first time while she battles through a cancer-ridden life - that in no way means that the target market is sixteen year old girls. I'm going into my mid-twenties and this book touched my heart in so many ways. It is such a special novel that anyone, man or woman could enjoy, no matter what age. 

Hazel is surviving thyroid cancer on a miracle drug which author, John Green, makes very clear does not exist in the back pages of the book once the story comes to the end (if only it did...). 
She is drowning not only literally in her own dysfunctional lungs but also in a painful depression that worries her family and the doctors treating her. 
She walks around attached to a oxygen tank and carting around a cannula every day of her life, with tubes up her nostrils and her head buried in books if not religiously following reality TV shows.  

In an effort to have her daughter make friends, Hazel's mum begs her to go to a Cancer Support Group instead of lounging in front of the television, watching America's Next Top Model marathons all day long. It is there that she meets the charismatic, blue-eyed boy, Augustus Waters, who (spoiler alert but pretty inevitably!) changes her life. 

Have you ever been in love with your best friend? 
It's an infinite and unconditional love. Deeper than all others. That is what Augustus and Hazel structured between themselves, among their meaningful conversations that were well beyond their years. 
They shared a never ending love that was raw and real; that showed appreciation, support and strength like no other I have seen before. A bond that is so rare that some only ever dream of experiencing it. 

Reading their story was the perfected balance between heart-wrenching and heart-warming - with characters you can't help but fall in love with. 

It is beautiful yet infuriating all at once. 

Green's writing shows you a deeper side to teen literature. So often these days the shelves are crammed with awful teenage ramblings that is pretty vile to be blatantly honest - Green has finally broken past that barrier and with palm forward literally said, 'In Your Face!' 


If a novel could be poetry - this would be it. 

Now I cannot WAIT to watch the film!!! 
Have you seen it or read the book? What were your thoughts on them? 

A Recipe: The Veggie Juice

What you will need to create this delicious healthy juice:

A Juicer... (no brainer)

3/4 Swiss Chard Leaves

2 Celery Sticks

2 Carrots

2 Thumb Sized Pieces of Ginger (skin and all)

1 Beetroot (peeled and halved)

1 Quarter of Cucumber

1 Garlic Clove (peeled but whole)

1 Digustingly Handsome Boyfriend To Chuck Your Ingredients Into That Scary Looking Juicer That Let's Face It.. Could Munch Your Fingers Off! -------->

Half a Lemon (no skin)

Slowly start shoving these fresh ingredients into your juicer and watch the magic happen within seconds! I love juicing all my greens first and then adding in the beetroot and watching it change to a plum color. I'm strange.. I know. 

DIVINE I tell you.

Juicing it up in the mornings is such a healthy way to start your day. You'll be exploding with energy and vitamins - not to mention they are super tasty!

By juicing, you are able to get all of the nutrients from the veggies that are often lost in our alternate ways of cooking / eating them. 

This recipe is one that my handsome bearded fellow created himself  - and I do have to pre-warn you that the garlic is POTENT (yes, even just one clove!!) so if you're not too much of a garlic fiend like us or if you have an important date scheduled then maybe cut the garlic content down or leave it out entirely. It's up to you!

BUT - Garlic has some great benefits too that you should be made aware of before worrying about your breath when having a snog instead. 

For example: 

Garlic contains Vitamin B6 which has been proven to strengthen the immune system. 

Vitamin B6 also helps if you suffer from mood swings. 

Vitamin B6 has many cancer fighting capabilities and so garlic is well known as a cancer preventative.  

This specific juice is super strong - but super scrumptious and bursting with all sorts of flavor. 

Make your drink look pretty by adding the final touches of a leafy celery stick (just as you would in a Bloody Mary...) which I love because then I can munch on the stick while working my way through the juice. 

Make it look even more cocktail-hour-ish with a little veggie wedge on the side. We used a tomato slice for this image but you could use absolutely anything.

There you have it - the best way to start your mornings! Now drink up and enjoy!

22 Jump Street | Movie Review

Why oh WHY are sequels to movies always so awful??? I cannot actually recall one film that busted out a follow up that was better than the first.

On Sunday last week, in my tragically hungover state (my dog died, so I got absolutely trollied at a 60th Hawaiian themed birthday party on Saturday night,) I finally dragged my ass out of bed and headed to the video store. 

I was so excited when I saw that this film was still available because I adored the first one. I liked it because it was just a little bit of everything all rolled into one. Action, comedy, drama and even a sugar-coated slice of romance. 

The film is based on the 1987 TV series called 21 Jump Street and follows two (really shitty) police officers oozing with ''Bro-mance'' who are assigned a case where they have to go undercover in high school. Their mission is to find the supplier of a new drug that's been released and arrest him.

It's the typical duo of an overweight nerd who hated high school the first time round and the muscular, no-brains jock that reveled in it. Together - they are legen-wait for it - dary.  

I laughed SO hard in the first film and gushed about how amazing the second one would be to my bearded fellow, getting him just as eager to give it a watch. 

It's about now that I should probably inform you of my impeccable track-record for choosing the absolute WORST movies. All the time. It's actually not even funny anymore. 

So, after downing two glasses of Southern Comfort and Lime to try and revive me to some form of life - we meandered back to his cozy little cabin where we plopped the movie into his playstation.

We ended up switching it off. We didn't even finish it. 

It was awful. 

Again, the duo are back in action as undercover cops - still chasing narcotics and suppliers. This time they get dunked into college after a student dies from taking another new drug on the scene. Their mission, once again, is to catch the supplier and stop the outbreak of the drug. 

It was beyond lame. 

I actually didn't find one part of this film remotely funny. 

I mean seriously, it was actually cringe-worthy what a flop it was. I think that the success of the first one led the team to try way to hard with the second film. They layered on the jokes, not one of them being any good. It was homophobic and odd - just a very, very strange film that I couldn't endure for more than an hour. 

Look, the cast, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, are great. 

They are both fantastic actors and both of them I really enjoy but the film-makers definitely rode this wave thinking that because of these two actors (flourishing with chemistry on-set together,) the movie would be an instant hit.

Well, it wasn't. 

It felt as though the actors were weighed down on the poor, identical story-line and nauseating attempted humor poured into every scene.

I am usually not one to do reviews on things I didn't really enjoy - whether it be a movie or a book, a place or a product. I prefer to focus solely on the good and recommend great things to you guys - it's one of the things I love most about blogging: being able to share fantastic things with you all and hearing your thoughts and feedback... but, every so often, I feel I need to pre-warn you about certain things that you really shouldn't bother wasting your time with. 

I know it will bite me in the ass one day. Hey, I'm a writer with a book out myself. I know there are going to be awful reviews out about my work one day too. Critics who hate it and make it known. It's never a nice feeling. You pour your heart and soul into something and dedicate your life to it only to have the finished product be ripped to shreds - I do feel awful about doing bad reviews - but you know what? It has to be done. 

Have you seen this film?

If so, what were your thoughts on it? 

Do you share my view - or did you see something else in it? 

Discussion time.... GO:

Thursday's Trio of Blessings

Blessing One: 

  

Today is my birthday.

I managed to make it through another year of life without breaking any bones, spraining any ankles, crashing my car (oh wait.. did that. Whoops), picking up a mass amount of body fat from the amount of Pringles I devour.. or dying.

Hurrah.

Success!

Here's to another year ahead of dodging bullets in life.

Blessing Two:

After getting kicked out of bed by my excitable mother this morning at 5am, I have received over 50 birthday messages, 4 massively slobbery dog kisses, a mass amount of cat hair all over my black work attire, a wonderful delivery of my favorite feta and butternut cous-cous salad for lunch, an incredibly special phone call from Canada, a handpicked single white rose, a bottle of deeeeelicious white wine from my French friend and some horrendous karaoke style Happy Birthday songs sang via a phone call or alternatively (and mortifyingly,) in person from my from my friends and family around the globe.
 

It's safe to say that I'm feeling pretty special - what more could you want for your birthday besides world peace and the day off work?

That's blessing enough for me :)

I'll be spending my evening at my absolute favorite Portuguese restaurant: O'pescador's (it's my tradition. I go to the same restaurant and have the same food (ladies rump steak followed by delicious orange pancakes) every single year. This is probably my 12th year going there. It is still under the same ownership - we don't even need to book a table anymore! They already have the best table in the house booked and ready for us when we arrive and are the most incredible hosts!)

Wine, steak and surrounded by family.... I couldn't ask for more.

Oh... and of course.. caaaaaaaaake.

Blessing Three:
(I just had to add this in - because I was in hysterics)

My dad still has both eyes and some form of eyebrows after I trimmed them with a pair of scissors. Phew.

They were horrendously hairy - and in need of a good clipping. 

It was, needless to say, hilarious.

How has your Thursday been??? Anything exciting and wonderful happen to you on this beautiful day to be alive?
I'd love to hear all about it. 

Love, light and happiness to all - and to all, a good night ;)

Vichy | NormaDerm Global Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care | Product Review

I don't know why, but I have been having such bad breakouts on my chin lately. I hate it!! They go all big and swollen - it's sore too! 

I've been told it's hormones. 

Bloody hell. 

Just my luck.

After applying minty toothpaste to my chin every night for over a fortnight (making me look like a complete moron and getting laughed at and teased by my folks), the pimples just kept coming - and I have never ever suffered from bad skin before! 

I can literally count how many pimples I've had in my life - so why the hell is it suddenly so bad!?

I went to Dis-Chem and spoke to a lady behind the counter who confirmed that it was definitely hormones. 

That's where you get breakouts if your hormones are going haywire.

Fantastic.

I asked her what product she would recommend and Vichy was what she suggested. 

I'd never heard of this French brand before and she told me I could really benefit from it with my combination skin, so she gave me a few samples to go home and try out before purchasing a bottle.  

After 24 hours, my skin was already feeling the effects. 

It had never felt so hydrated, smooth and wonderful!

Within a week, all of the lumps and bumps on my chin had vanished - all that remained was my annoying scarring from the pimples that had already unleashed their wrath onto my poor face. But that sort of scarring often fades within a few weeks so I was happy to cover it up with some concealer. 

Eventually, the tester sachet's that the shop assistant had provided me with had run out and I was mortified. Vichy had become my own personal facial drug. Yip. Sad.. but true.

Strapped for cash and with no salary coming in next month (details on that in a later post!) - I decided I needed to buy this cream regardless. 

So I marched off to the chemist desperate and needy for my Vichy Normaderm Global Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care  product and purchased a bottle with my savings. 

I decided that I just couldn't live without it. Nope. No way. Couldn't.

This product targets a number of different skin problems such as:

1. Blemishes
2. Irregular Complexion
3.  Pores
4. Oily Skin
5. Imperfection Marks
6. Shininess

It states this on the packaging and although I don't really suffer from any of those - it really visibly improved my sudden breakout and made the world of difference to how my skin felt in general too!

Pros:

• Paraben Free
• Fragrance is mild and not over-powering. It's subtle and refreshing.
• Non-greasy
• You don't need to use much - one little blob of this cream is enough to cover and hydrate your entire face, so the bottle lasts for ages. 
• Light - this green-tinged cream isn't 'heavy' or 'thick.' Although it feels and looks thick when you pump it into your hand, it feels light as a feather on your skin.
• It comes with a pump so it's hygienic and neat.. non of the excess cream dries around the edges like sometimes happens with a tube.
• Ideal for a make-up base.
• Suitable for sensitive skin.

Cons:

• Expensive - at just over R 200.00 ( around about 20 USD (I think.. online converter gave me that) ) this is one of the more pricey facial products I've tried - but LOVED. I suppose it completely depends on what you're willing to spend on your facial products. Personally, I don't use any facial wash etc. I wash my face with water and that's it. I don't even use a toner - so I can afford to splash out a leeeeetle more on a good face cream.

I think that I have finally found the facial product that is meant for me. 

I'm usually always swapping and changing brands and checking out what else is out there but when I finally find a product that I love to pieces - I can't imagine using anything else.

My skin feels incredible and revitalized and I would recommend it to anyone with a combination skin.

Reminiscing of a Summer Holiday...

I am dreaming of silky soft sand beneath my toes.. I am dreaming of the soothing rumble of the waves. I am dreaming of sun-kissed skin, bikini tan lines and the smell of coconut oil. I am dreaming of lobster lunches, Jack Johnson oozing from the music box.. I am dreaming of falling asleep on the shore with a book in hand. I am dreaming of a salt-encrusted happiness one will only find on the beach.

This is my outfit of the day for work... I am craving a holiday. It has been far too long since I have slung a rucksack across my back and traveled to a place unknown. I am getting itchy feet again - something only experiencing a new town and a new culture will cure.

It won't be long now... but in the meantime, I will work and save as much as I can, while enjoying a little surf after the clock strikes 5pm every evening. It is my little slice of life. Surfing and the ocean makes me feel most alive.

I am counting down the hours.... only three more to go.

For The Love Of Surfing!

For the Love of Surfing 

Written by Jade Wright 

The alarm clock jolts you awake during the early hours of the morning, before the golden contrast of colours illuminate the sky with another perfect sunrise. It’s 5AM; your boards’ are strapped to your roof-racks as you drive the silent roads down to the beach. All the while you can’t seem to shake that giddy and excitable feeling stirring inside at the thought that there is something special and new awaiting you down on the shores. Polystyrene cups filled with your frothy garage caffeine fix in hand, you head over the hills and smile at the perfect vision before you. Crisp, fresh waves ready for the taking; the salty spray back of water in the fresh off-shore wind – it’s all too inviting. Suiting up and strapping the leash around your ankle, you make your way down to a sand-dune accompanied with good friends and a bar of wax to share amongst yourselves. You watch the waves, you count the seconds between the breaks; choosing the perfect spot to paddle into. It is all part of the process to get to where you want to be… stealing down the face of a wave.

To be a surfer you need to have patience and loyalty toward the ocean. You’ll wear your heart in your throat at the drops you’ll take. You’ll be consumed with the undying faith you have as you fall, plummeting down, putting all the courage and trust you have into it. It is like falling in love – but better. Kelly Slater once said, “I have felt married to surfing and all it offers at times.” 

As a female surfer living in the Garden Route, I am all too familiar with the right-handers dwelling in the comforting swells of Buffelsbaai. I attend the Ross Taylor Surf Competitions in August every year and finally had the guts to compete in 2012. I got owned by a girl of about thirteen, doing all these nifty little tricks that I had never seen or heard of before, but that is one of the beauties of this sport. Age and sex doesn’t matter – if you’ve got it, you’ve got it. 

I took defeat with pride and respect, smiling admiringly at her as she grinned with pure delight. A salt-encrusted glowing happiness I remember so well when I first cupped my hands as I paddled for an intimidating wave, picked myself up and wobbly cut through the water on my first ever ride. 

You learn to move with the rhythm of the ocean, you dance with the flirtatious waves with everything that you have got. Naturally, I am a terrible dancer. On land I have absolutely no co-ordination, but there is something about the ocean that brings everything together. Suddenly I am whole and able – capable of so much more. It connects me, it fills me; it makes me fall even more in love with the sport every time I surrender myself to it. In a quick, fluid movement I become graceful with bended knees, eyes cast forward; aided with but a board and a wave.  

Surfing can be your best friend, your one true love. It can be your medicine after a bad day, your natural high. It revitalizes your body and soul; it cleanses your spirit of all negativity. However, surfing is not for the faint hearted. It takes power, commitment and muscle; but most of all, it takes passion. You have to have unconditional love for the waves. It is a love-hate relationship. Sometimes you will get knocked down and feel infuriated, yet at other times you will have the ride of your life. It is something you have to learn to accept for the love of the sport. 

“Surfing is very much like making love. It always feels good, no matter how many times you’ve done it,” said Paul Strauch, a Hawaiian born surfer who has been doing the sport since the age of four. 

Having recently come back from backpacking and camping my way through Europe – there was definitely one place that really stood out to me. In between gnawing on ginormous lamb knuckles and attempting to down litres of beer in the famous Hofbrauhaus am Platzl in Munich, I went on a bicycle tour with a company called Mike’s Bike Tours. Right at the end of the bike tour, after passing through the Englischer Garten we came to a river called Eisbach. An artificial wave has been created there and I was lucky enough to experience it first-hand. Surfer’s line up and one at a time they take turns in surfing this never ending wave. 

A permanent wave has often been described as the best training ground for a new surfer but I beg to differ. As incredible and as fascinating as it was – nothing quite beats the feel of a natural wave forming around you. There is something about a wave being completely unpredictable that one should learn early on if they want to surf. As a beginner, that is what you need to learn, the unpredictability, to truly appreciate the sport to its true beauty. 

No wave is ever the same, nor should it be – Enjoy the journey.

The Other Woman

Wow.

 

Tonight I realised that nearly a year ago, I had my heart broken.

 

In October of 2012 my world came crashing down around me. It has taken me up until this point to be able to really even think about it, but now I have started work on the beautiful love story that it triggered and inspired.

 

My second novel, title unknown yet but for now called: The Other Woman, is now finally back up on the drawing board and although it still really hurts to think back on it all, the novel is going to be amazing.

 

Sometimes it takes hard, painful things to happen so that good things can become of it. This painful experience in my life has been the most confusing situation that I have ever been in and my heart still aches today... but it is time to face my demons and turn this into something positive.

 

I have no regrets.

 

 

Christmas Wish List

  As Christmas is but a few weeks away, I have decided to write my Wish List post. 

 

Little kids sit, feet dangling from the wooden chairs around the dining room table at night as they write their letters to Santa Clause as its dawns closer to Christmas Eve. 

I remember one Christmas when I wrote a letter to Santa, asking for Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls, the characters from Toy Story; and that Christmas it was exactly what I got. 

As kids, it is so easy. When you get older, you seem to want less but the price triples. 

Every year, I like to make sandwiches and buy big packs of wrapped chocolate, I put a care-package together and go around my small town handing the shoe-boxes out to street children and car-guards. 

I’d really love to start up a community for it, a bunch of people who donate old blankets and buy small gifts such as candy and toys to fill the boxes with. It would be incredibly humbling to see people reach out and go beyond their usual Christmas Day of lavish dinners and abundant gifts that lets face it, these street kids will never experience.

As you age, Christmas stops becoming so much about the gifts and more about family. 

I remember being a girl of ten, prodding at gifts with my name on under the tree for days in advance; jumping up and down on my parents Queen sized bed in overwhelming excitement on Christmas morning. 

At the same time though, my favourite part all the way through my life was and still is watching my friends and family unwrap their gifts from me; watching their faces. To me, it was the best feeling in the world, far better than accepting a gift from someone else. 

The reason I am doing this post is because I’d like to start documenting year by year, the wants and the needs and desires I have. I would like to see how the things I desire change as I age. Already, I know a few things I will list below are things I would have never asked for if I was still in school or living with my parents! Things I would have thought my parents would have just gotten for me anyway, things I took completely for granted. Things that should really have been gifts that I should have appreciated but instead overlooked! I’ve had a wakeup call lately, a big one. 

Now, living away from my parents for the first time, buying my own food and paying for my own room and board… my whole lifestyle has had to change! 

Getting something as simple as a foodie magazine or a sweet doesn’t come often to me anymore. 

With that all being said, below is my short and sweet list of wants and needs, non of which I expect from another person. I think of it as an indefinite shopping list:

My Christmas Wish List

1)      The Paula Coehlo Book Set

2)      A Yoga DVD Set

3)      A Ticket to Italy in May (for my birthday)

4)      A New Suitcase (a feminine one – my current one is bland and boring not to mention falling apart)

5)      10 Art Lessons Voucher

6)      10 Yoga Sessions Voucher

7)      A Weekend Away At A Yoga Retreat Somewhere In Africa

8)      A New Duvet Set

9)      A Jane Austen Mug

10)   The Vow DVD

11)   Any Donations Towards My Travel Dreams

12)   And While We’re Out There… A Camper Van Would Be Pretty World Class Too!

13) A Ticket Around The World!

14) Happiness