This might sound funny, but one of my New Year's resolution is to blog more frequently. It's a fulfilling outlet to write creatively when analyzations and articles bore me, and in the line of work I'll be dabbling in, it could only help. So to kick off the new year, and because today will be felt as a day of recovery all around the world - I've got somethin up my sleeve.

My Dutch princess, Lieke, finally came back to Cape Town from traveling for a few months so I ditched the fam for a day and shopped with her in a quaint little Laguna Beachesque town called Kalk Bay. It's main road was lined with the most amazing antique shops and boutiques. From designer dresses to old Victorian dressers, we saw it all. As David pointed out to me, I don't really go shopping to buy, but mostly to get inspired for new projects and styles - so this place was a gold mine.

Here's just some of what caught my fancy:

Memory Lane is the funkiest little shop with all sorts of vintage goodies from a wall full of old glass bottles to cookie tins, outlet covers and street signs.

And then we stumbled into a real gem: Cape to Cairo, an insane treasure trove of the coolest candles you've ever seen. There was tons of goodies for the whole house, but these caught my attention:

The store was bursting with so much color and so many candles, I was in Heaven. They're a pretty big investment though, if ya know what I mean, so I might take a while to narrow the decision down to my absolute favorite before I make a purchase.

These were just two of the dozen stores we popped into, and they will all be revisited soon! But no visit to Kalk Bay is complete without a visit to...

Olympia Bakery!!! It was pretty much wiped out since I went at the end of the day, but I still had to pop in and sniff around.

Cheers for the new year!

KG

The Greatest Gift of All

I'm not sure how I could have forgotten this in my Christmas post, but David is (like I've said before) SUCH a boss. He spoils me to no end and this Christmas was more of the same because he got me a real live BUNNY RABBIT! He's a sweet little fluff ball named Nelson AKA: Madiba. If you don't get that reference, read up on Nelson Mandela! I hate the irony of putting him in a cage, but we like to pay homage to the culture of this great country. So here he is, ears and all:

So, cheers from me, Nelson and the best boyfriend alive.

Live gratefully,

KG

Meanwhile, back in Cape Town...

Before I finish telling the tales of my travels, I want to fill you in on what's been happening in my life post-backpacking. This is my first Christmas spent out of the nest, and while there were some homesick moments that caught me with tears in my eyes, I've been extremely lucky to share this holiday with the lovely and slightly crazy (in the good way of course) family and friends of my boyfriend. Since my return, we spent several days zipping back and forth to the airport to pick everyone up from their various global postings and it's been a whirlwind of fun for the past few weeks now. Our days are filled with hikes, beaches and competition (the boys cook up tournaments of every kind from soccer, water polo and football to Mario Kart and ping pong) and our nights with wine, decadent dinners and more games, of course. With tons of kids around, it's a different energy from the holidays I'm used to, but I love it all the same. Maybe it's because their family is spread all over the world, or maybe it's a German thing, but the stress and pressure that so many American families feel around the holidays was not present this year. We were all happy to be together under one roof, and the gifts were just kind gestures instead of the reason for the season.

Although I've had two weeks of adventures around Cape Town, I'll keep it short and sweet and hit ya with the highlights:

Days upon days of sun, sand and smiles.

Live Freely,

KG