Our Weekend - April 5-7, 2013

So both Chelsea and I have the lucky privilege of being bridesmaids this September! We both did our brides maids duties this weekend - my duties involved driving to Johannesburg to go the Bridal Expo with the rest of the bridesmaids. Before heading to Johannesburg I headed to the farm to see Rog ( see photo 6 - look how cool I am on the back of the truck will all my macadamia friends).  After driving to Joburg we started the night off at Mantra (3), an amazing Indian restaurant ( what made it even more amazing was the fact that we could bring our own booze...). After lots of champers and wine we headed to Mamma's Shebeen and drank far too much more and danced our bridal party asses off. I have only two pictures from that night, and you do NOT need to see those. I also believe there may be a video floating around of me trying to rap the entire "I like big butts" song...

Saturday we woke up with KILLER hangovers and decided that the bridal fair was something we were not capable of doing - so we made appointments to go Wedding dress shopping instead. I think Tanya ( the bride) found "the one". On Sunday, after a big breakfast with the gang, I rushed home to spend some quality time cuddling with my  darling cat on the couch (1) and of course R.

Didn't chat with Chelsea that much since I was away in Joburg but from the sounds of it the weather was quite crappy so she spent some time indoors drinking tea and reading 419 by Will Ferguson (2), then also headed bridesmaid dress shopping (4) on Saturday for her friend Amanda's wedding, and then escaped the cold again on Sunday to go on a date to see Jurassic Park in 3D ( I must be living in a cave, I had no idea this was out? I LOVE jurrasic park!) and then ate at Clive Burger (5).

yumm.. I could really go for a clive burger and beer right now...

Our Weekend - February 15-18, 2013

Chelsea had a lot of work to do this long weekend including a branding project, blog updates and a birthday campaign for PARK (6). She also found time for a lazy brunch (2) and a Sunday night out for the Sled Island fundraiser at Republik (4).

Charlotte had a very productive weekend around the house with R. They spent time in the garden ripping out old plants and replanting new ones, as well as creating an outdoor space in front of their new french doors (5). They painted Murrays old room (3), squeezed in an engagement party and had two special girlfriends over for a salad lunch on Sunday (1).

Our Weekend - November 23-25, 2012

Our Weekend - November 16-18, 2012

Our Weekend - November 2-4, 2012

Our Weekend - October 26-28, 2012

Our Weekend - October 19-21, 2012

Our Weekend - October 12-14, 2012

Our Weekend - October 5-7, 2012

Our Weekend - September 28-30, 2012

Our Weekend - September 22-24, 2012

Our Weekend - September 14 - 16, 2012

Our Weekend - September 7 - September 9, 2012

other places we went and things we did in Calgary: 
wine at Vin Room | Wurst | pints at Local 510 | pizza and wine at UNA | wine at Caffe Rosso |  PARKSALE | photos with Natalie

Our Weekend - August 31 - September 2, 2012

other places we went/things we did: drinks at fiddlers | Dan's birthday at Diner Deluxe | Calgary Pride Parade

Cape Town

Shoo! What a week. Thanks to the lovely Jean Mortlock we had such a fabulous time in Cape Town. Rather than give you a play by play of what we did, here are a list of the highlights of our trip in categories. Easy, eh?

Food & Coffee (our favourites first!)
Sidewalk Cafe - Fabulous place down the road from Jean where we spent a few hours setting up our guest posts.
Haas - Design overload. lovely coffee and men in top hats. 
Dear Me - Delicious lunch, fabulous atmosphere. 
Skinny Legs & All - Great coffee! We also met a beautiful little italian greyhound friend there with very skinny little legs. 
El Burro - Great mexican food, fun vibe, awesome decor & brilliant brand identity.
Elephant & Barrel - Cozy and vibrant pub in Franschoek to watch the Springboks.
Olympia Cafe - DELICIOUS croissants for breakfast on the road in Kalk Bay.
Wharfside Grill - In Hout Bay. After driving along the ocean all day, we were craving seafood so badly. This place definitely hit the spot.
West Street Cafe - In the Woodstock Foundry. Some of the best breakfasts we have had in a very long time.

Areas
Woodstock - The Old Biscuit Mill ( fabulous market on a saturday morning), The Woodstock Foundry (fabulous creative space), a visit to the Ogilvy Bar and beautiful graffiti art on every wall.
Cape Town City bowl - Where we wandered the streets in the rain, explored and drank way too much coffee.
Stellenbosch - Wine Tour heaven.
Franschoek - More wine tour bliss & pub beers.
Elgin - Stopped at Peregrin farmstall on the way in for some coffee & snacks then watched R race at Mofam in the South African canoe marathon championships.
Kalk Bay - First stop on our cape peninsula road trip, delicious breakfast and a great area to wander with lots of galleries and trendy shops.
Simonstown - Drove through this marine town on our cape peninsula trip.
Boulders Beach - Penguins!
Cape Point - The fog was so thick, we just drove up to the gate and the nice guard informed us that we probably wouldn't be able to see much
Kommetjie - Drove down to the beach on our cape peninsula trip.
Noordhoek - Checked out the Food Barn & had beers at the Toad both in the Noordhoek farm village.
Chapmans Peak - Iconic drive along the mountainside.
Hout Bay - Seaside lunch of WAY too much seafood.
Llandudno - Drove down to this residential beach and watched the after work surf crowd.
Camps Bay - Walked along the beach and wished it was summer. Drove along the oceanside road and wished we could afford to live there!
Signal Hill - Had a red wine toast here when we arrived and then watched the sunset from the same spot on our last night. Out of body experiences.

Wine Farms
Fairview - Wine and cheese tasting, goat tower and beautifully designed packaging.
Kanonkop - Second stop on a long day of wine tasting.
Morgenhof - And the third...
Bilton - Wine and chocolate pairing. The sauvignon blanc with lime white chocolate was to die for.
La Bri - More wine and more chocolate.
Haute Cabriere - One of our favourites, nestled right in the cellar.

Culture
Baxter Theatre - Last minute tickets to see comedian Pieter Dirk-Uys and hear a whirlwind history of South African politics.
Labia Cinema - Art house cinema where we saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. We also could not read the name with a straight face.
Robben Island - Charlotte had already done it, Chelsea had to do it.
Everard Read Gallery - How Charlotte killed time during Chelsea's trip to the island.
Old Biscuit Mill - Saturday market filled with eclectic food, arts, crafts and fresh produce.
Woodstock Foundry - Collective art and gallery space.

Swaziland

We spent last weekend in the Ezulwini Valley of Swaziland for the epic Bushfire festival. The entire trip was such an amazing experience but the festival itself was something else. The annual Bushfire music and arts festival is held at House on Fire, an eclectic performance and art space in the heart of rural Swaziland. Here we spent two days listening and dancing to African music, checking out local art and drinking far too many "john deeres". Highlights included the extremely talented Swazi Nancy G & the Human Family, classic Afropop Mango Groove and, our definite favourite, Napalma made up of members from Brazil and Mozambique.

On our way to the festival we came across the town of Bulembu just over the Swaziland border. Bulembu was abandoned in 2001 when the mining company that had operated there for decades ceased operations. With no jobs, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the orphan crisis the town essentially shut down. Today volunteer organizations have taken over, creating a thriving and vibrant self-sustaining community. It was incredible to see the transformation and to explore this would-be ghost town. We also sold maize at R's farm, visited another shisa nyama and picked up ten hitchhikers outside of Bulembu, so all in all a pretty stellar African weekend!

This coming weekend Chelsea's road tripping to Durban to watch our friend Murray run Comrades and Charlotte is moving into her and R's new house in White River. Then straight after we fly to Cape Town and then only a week after that Chelsea's heading back to Canada. Time flies...but we won't think about that quite yet.

Our Weekend - April 25-27, 2012

Our Weekend - April 20-22, 2012

Our Weekend - April 13-15, 2012

Our Weekend - April 7-9, 2012