That Blog

So girls, are you secretly hoping that your man finds his way into a shopping mall over the next few days and purchases you something a little racy and gorgeous this Christmas? Perhaps, you are hoping he will spice up your underwear drawer a bit and give you a bit more to choose from other than those unexciting, but ever so practical Woolies bras??

Well, perhaps you want to point him in the direction of this little video clip…I have a sneaky suspicion that once he has seen these gorgeous girls, he will be high-tailing it off to La Senza faster than you can say “Ding, Dong, Merrily on High” and your underwear drawer will be looking fab by Boxing Day!

The ‘Cup Size Choir’ is made up of seven models dressed in just their bra and knickers singing a note from A to G based on their cup size in cheeky ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’.

Jozi girls, do I have a treat for you…

One of my favourite boutiques in Cape Town, Habits,  is making their bi-annual trip up country and you need to get there…I know that when I lived in JHB,  I always used to get VERY carried away at the Habits Trunk Shows, but if you think that you are saving yourself the cost of an airticket to Cape Town, then you are actually saving by spending!! Makes sense doesn’t it??

They will be bringing some great crushed linen numbers for summer, 7’s jeans (oooh, we love those!!!), the core travel wardrobe (because being the international jet setters we are, we all need a core travel wardrobe), a new safari story, all the brights, stripes and and and… 
Check out the website www.habits.co.za to see what other little treats they are packing into their trunks for their trip to Jozi or email joburg@habits.co.za for an invitation to this one and a half day affair

Where:  The Wanderer Club, Illovo
When:  Wednesday 15th September (07h30 – 17h30)
                Thursday 16th September (07h30 – 12h00)

Happy shopping Girls!! Tell them that That Blogger sent you!!

That Blogger has the interests of her peeps in Cape Town at heart and knows that one of those interests is definitely vino! So…when I saw this little advert pop into my mailbox, I knew it had to be shared with you.

This is a great opportunity to stock up your wine supplies with some amazing wines at AWESOME prices.

Wine from really good wine estates for less than R20 a bottle is not something to sneeze at!!!

So, I have come to realise that there are actually those that are not quite as fortunate as I am…i.e. they will not be doing their shopping on Regent’s Street this weekend and instead will be trawling the malls of Sunny South Africa for their retail therapy. If you are one of those less fortunate peeps and happen to be living in Jozi…there is a little treat install for you that should make your feel a little better about your lot in life. The International Fashion Sale is on again at the Coca Cola Dome from the 29th of July to the 1st of August. Admittedly, the Northgate is not as well known as the fashion and shopping meccas of London, New York, Rome and Paris…but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a whole heap of new brands and exciting purchases to be made. So…if you are looking for somewhere to spend your hard earned loot this weekend, why not make your way to the Dome.

I did spot this picture advertising the sale and have only one thing to say…even if you are young, gorgeous, have a good bod and are wearing precious little…you still cannot get away with wearing black shoes and white socks EVER!!!

Fashion Help Needed too...

Anyway, hopefully, if you spot this young man, please will take him under your wing at the Fashion Sale and help him out a bit…

To read up for on the sale check out their website www.internationalfashionsale.co.za

Dedicated That Blogger fans, I owe you a massive apology!! I assure you that whilst I have not been writing to you daily, it does not mean I haven’t been thinking of you loads!!

I am still here on the Not So Muddy Island and still loving it. Unfortuantely I have been spending my weeks working, but have definitely made the most of the weekends!! I have been shopping up a storm, dining at fine restaurants and enjoying the best of English summer. Although, am nervous to say that my phone has been ringing about as often as Big Ben chimes…not from friends and family phoning for a chat, nope…Standard Bank card division are fairly convinced that my credit card has been stolen and being frantically abused by a deranged shopper in London. Despite my persistent assurances otherwise, they still seem to think it necessary to call for a chat whenever a new flurry of shopping starts up…bless, only my best interests at heart!! But really…the sales are on and what is a girl to do but make the most of it!!

As yet, my return date to Wintery SA has not been confirmed, but I can say that it is pretty likely that my luggage scenario may look a little like the Rooney family returning from their holiday in Barbados!!!

A flurry of porters off load the Rooney loot

One x Massive white van and a series of porters required to transport all the luggage. I fear that even with the expanda zip and the fact that my numerous pairs of new shoes are all very small…it is going to be a tight squeeze!

Will keep you posted on how that goes. Perhaps I should alert the kind soul collecting me from the airport that they should start recruiting for porters!

Please send news from Sunny SA! I miss you all terribly!

Hiya (I have picked that up since I got here…not quite the same ring as “Howzit”). How you all doing back in SA? I hope you have all been Keeping the Flags flying and none of you have been plunged into post-World Cup Depression. What is life like after the World Cup? I miss it terribly!!!

Well, the first few days in Londontown have been fab. I arrived on Saturday and navigated myself to the little South African enclave known as Putney. The sun was shining and I could have sworn that Putney High Street was the direct route to the beach. The girls were wearing very little and bikini’s tops seem to have taken over as the underwear of choice for summer!! I felt decidedly overdressed in my t-shirt and shorts!!

It would appear that my initial referrals to the Mud Island are somewhat misplaced…this place looks like it hasn’t had a drop of rain in months. The normally lush green parks look something like what I recall school hockey fields looking like in mid-winter!! Unbelievable!!!

So far, all has been good…I have learnt to very important lessons early on and hopefully not too many more to come

1) Don’t wear high heel shoes to walk anywhere other than in the office. Nobody else does and if you do, you WILL be in a WORLD of pain. We are not trained to cover such distances in high heels back home and boy do you feel it!!!

2) Do not leave home without an umbrella. Even though the place looks like it hasn’t seen a drop of rain since the Reign of Henry the 8th, that is a misnomer and it WILL rain on your walk to/from the office/tube station. Hair + rain = disaster.

Hoping to hit some sales this weekend…so will report on High Street fashion and attempts at Celeb spotting!!

Miss ya!!

Happy Friday to all of you!!! Hope the week has not been too brutal and the slow weaning process from the mania of Soccer World Cup 2010 has been alright for you. I have to say that I was left at a bit of a loss as what to do with my evenings when I had free TV viewing time between 4:30 and 10:30pm! What did we do in the evenings before SWC? I guess it is a bit like the question “What did we do before cellphones?” The answer…we didn’t know any better and so just managed!!!

Why have I stuck a random picture of Picadilly Circus in this post you may well ask?? Well, as the heading of this article suggests…That Blogger is going on an adventure. After a brief work hiatus, I am venturing back into the world of gainful employment (am very sad to say that blogging is not quite paying the rent) and in a brilliant turn of events, my gainful employment (more…)

Way back in the early days of That Blog, I gave you the heads-up about an awesome new on-line shopping site that was about to launch in sunny SA…do you remember? Or maybe it was before your time. Anyway, click here for a little refresher…

So…that amazing new on-line shopping site has now launched and there are some pretty exciting things going on there. It is called Twangoo and it is a really interesting approach to buying services and stuff on-line

Let me give you a quick run down of how things work there…the clever blokes at Twangoo have been frantically sourcing deals from loads of different shops and service providers. They will then run a deals for 24 or 48 hours…you will read about it on their site or if you follow them on twitter or facebook. If you like the deal, you will sign up for it…you then need to persuade your mates to sign up for the deal too. The reason for this, is that every deal has a critical tipping point and so only kicks in when a certain amount of people have signed up to it…so if it is something you really like, you need to make sure it hits the tipping point. Pretty cool idea isn’t it??

The launch special is a pretty awesome one…basically, if the deal hits tipping point and you have signed up for it, you can get 3 of the following spa treatments at Suntra Spa 15 on Orange Hotel for just R670.00

• massage,
• scalp therapy,
• reflexology,
• facial,
• body polish,
• Guinot technispa slimming / firming treatment,
• pedicure or manicure

Have you been for a spa treatment recently? If you have, you will know that this is a VERY good price for 3 treatments!! Imagine…total pampering for 2.5 hours. WHAT BLISS!!! This is such good value, why don’t you treat your Mum or even your best friend to this amazing experience

So…all you need to do is head to Twangoo and sign up for the deal and then get your girl posse to do the same…the deal tips and hey presto, everyone’s a winner!!!

Happy shopping Gals!!

The clever gals at Habits have come up with a Soccer shirt with a difference and That Blogger will definitely be sporting one of these little numbers for the next game. Don’t you just love the jumbled letters…a bit like some of the game results of this World Cup!!

Get yours from Habits in Claremont or available on-line at www.habits.co.za

Incidentally, if you are concerned that your shopping might interfere with game viewing…fear not, Habits is screening the games on a flatscreen TV and will be serving De Grendel wine to calm your nerves.

So, first there was designer glasses frames and now we have gone one step past that, to designer eyes. Now, you can get contact lenses with the ‘CD’ logo etched in alongside gold flakes…because everyone knows nothing brings out your inner vampire like unnatural eye colors!!

The contacts have a ‘CD’ logo etched on the left side and a gold strip covering the entire right side. There’s also what appears to be a black rim surrounding the circumference of the contact. Am hoping that the wearing of designer contact lenses doesn’t limit you to mascara that makes your eyelashes go all clumpy like that though…not a GREAT look!!

That Blogger is not completely sold on this new fashion item to be honest…We are all for non-permanent ways of playing around with your look, but branding your eye ball? Is that not taking things just a smidgen too far. Can’t wait to see what the designers at Louis Vuitton and Gucci can do to improve on this…LV is not known for making things subtle and understated, so the Battle of the Eyeball is bound to be an interesting one!!

That Blogger has returned from an awesome weekend up country. The Opening Game is something that I will remember forever…in fact, probably, for many years after I have lost the full function of my sense of hearing as a result of the amazing sound of all those vuvuzelas gathered in one place! Well worth it though, the day was incredible!

Anyway, I was told about these beautiful art prints and thought you might be interested in buying something really special to remind you of this awesome time in our country. Obviously, that furry soccer ball hat that you bought outside the Stadium will always remind of you this special time, but perhaps you are looking for something a little more classy…or that you can have out on display ALL the time! A selection of local and international artists were invited to create works that celebrated art and soccer. Each print is numbered and come with a signed certificate of authenticity. (Click on the pics to see them enlarged)

There are loads more beautiful pictures that can be viewed on the FIFA™ Website, but these were just some of my favourite ones.

You can chat to Suzie Copperthwaite on +27 83 468 0363 or e-mail suzie@artlogic.co.za if you want more info about the artworks.

Nothing says “I love Soccer” quite like a R20-million life-size soccer ball encrusted with 900 carats of white and black diamonds set in 18 carat white gold.

If you don’t love Soccer to the tune of R20m, the good news is that there are eight crystal replicas that will be on sale throughout the country for R8000 a piece at Shimansky stores. Proceeds from the sale of these little trinkets will go to charity.

Not really sure what I would say if I was presented with one of those R8000 beauties…other than to quote one of my favourite movies “This is going STAIGHT to the Pool room”. Please note, I am not even bothering to say what I would say if someone presented me 2,2kgs of diamond encrusted soccer ball…but I think you could safely say that if I was presented with 900 carats, you could safely assume that the State of the Man-scape had changed considerably!!!

Picture Source: The Times

The World has definitely changed a LOT in the last year. It certainly has become a far more practical place…have a look at the latest offering from the fashionistas Prada. Which, according to the Gospel aka Wikipedia is “an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women…The label is a status symbol”.

Yip, Gals, I kid you not…what you see before you is the latest range from Prada for 2010. Destructured shopping bags. Practical, yes, by all means…status symbol, not so sure!!?? Maybe if someone catches a glimpse of that little Prada symbol…

The thing I really like about this trend/range is that my Mum bought be something very similar when she went to Japan on holiday last year. I love the little shopping bag and find it VERY handy when browsing the Neighbourgood’s Market on a Saturday morning…but never did I imagine that my Mum was just one step ahead of Prada! Now the big dilemma is do I a) peel the Prada label off that bag I bought at that shop in Dubai a while back and stick it on to the bag and tell every one that this one is a gift from a “special friend” in Milan or b) use an old name tag from school and suggest that my family set the trend and Prada followed. Not sure which will be more believable??

A friend of mine introduced me to this beautiful sterling silver jewellery range the other day. My first thoughts were that it really is so pretty and different.

There are so many beautiful designs to choose from that I really struggled to choose a few that really showed you what I meant, but these were some of my favourite designs.

A Few Examples of Blackbird Jewellery

Aren’t they just lovely? Just makes me want to go out and treat myself to something new and pretty…

They are created by designer Chloe Essery, right here in a studio in Cape Town.

If you would like to see some more of the designs, you can have a look at their website www.blackbirdsa.com or if you want to have a closer look, they are sold at various spots around Cape Town and for you Jozi readers, good news…you can find them in Jozi too.

Or contact:

Kath who looks after Blackbird sales on 082 7023257 or mail her at info

There are so many deserving causes in South Africa that it really is difficult to decide which one you should support if you do actually want to support a charitable cause. I happened upon a great initiative, that donates money to a really wonderful cause and the more you shop, the more that goes to this great cause…can you ask for a better reason to shop?

Habits boutique in Claremont has been working with Noah for two years now. Noah‘s vision is to ensure that orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa have an opportunity to grow up into emotionally, psychologically and physically healthy adults. Their mission is to empower communities with knowledge, skills, strategies and self-confidence to care for their orphans and vulnerable children.

The team at Habits were inspired by this vision and mission and so started a campaign to raise money for Noah. The Noah campaign run through Habits has been so successful, that the Habits team have decided to extend the campaign to this year. This time, they will be donating 10% of the price of all the lace trim stretch cami’s sold up until the end of the year. The cami’s are extra long (which is something I love…I can’t stand it when they creep up over your tummy or above your jeans) and come in a whole heap of stunning colours (including black and white). Lovely cami’s really are a wardrobe essential, so why not buy them from Habits and do something great for the community at the same time? If you don’t live in Cape Town, you can order one of these lovely little essentials on-line from the Habits website.

If you would like to read more about Noah and the wonderful work they do, click on http://www.noahorphans.org.za/

Lace Trim Cami

I was introduced to this wonderful website the other day and thought that I should share it with you.

Love Letters Stationery & Paper Goods make some of the most beautiful personalised stationery I have ever seen. Everything from monogrammed cards and envelopes to colourful placemats, printed gift tags and even personalised pencils.

I am a really big fan of the stick on chalkboards that are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes…what a great way to organise your life AND look good whilst you are doing it!! The animal shapes are great for kids rooms or playrooms.

The personalised placemats are great and what a brilliant idea for a birthday present with a difference! There are different designs for Boys and Girls and they certainly will brighten up meal times and lure the family to the dinner table rather than TV dinners. The mats are made of melamine, board and cork and are heat-resistant and scratch resistant.

Personalised Placemats

Have a look at the great little invitations available. Just gorgeous images and they come with a Microsoft Word template that will help you easily print your own invitations.

I just loved the really cute gift tags for Christmas…which are something quite special and different to the usual tacky little stickers and cards available at Christmas. It goes SERIOUSLY against the grain for me to even start thinking of Christmas this early in the year…but maybe this might inspire me to be a little more organised than normal!

Please do yourself a favour and have a look at the other beautiful things available on their website www.lovelettersstationery.co.za or contact Bridget at lovelettersstationery@gmail.com or +27 83 327 5363 for more info and tell her that That Blog sent you.

Personalised Gift Tags

That Blogger hit the Sunglass Hut sale today and can safely report that there are some SERIOUSLY good deals to be found and some beautiful sunnies to be purchased.

I was unable to limit myself to just one pair and in fact got completely carried away with the whole event…so needless to say, I have gone from being the owner of one rather scratched pair of sunglasses (that were brought out of retirement after fav pair were nicked) to probably being able to wear a different pair on each sunny day we will see until November and not have to use any pair more than once! (OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration…but not far off, if we have a bad Winter!). At one point in the purchasing process, I had so many pairs in my hand that if you had put a flag or a vuvuzela in my other hand I would have done a very good impersonation of someone standing at a major traffic intersection!

Anyway, so what I am saying is that you REALLY need to get yourself to the North Building, Black River Park, Fir Street, Observatory as soon as possible because the sale ends on Saturday 29th May (open all day Saturday). Ray-bans are selling from R370.00 and Pradas, Chanels, D&G, Miu Mius and DKNY (amongst many other names) are selling at a serious discount!

My favourite purchase...the DKNY pair

Happy shopping Gals!!

There is a great new buying club idea about to launch in SA and will give you access to some incredible specials and discounts. If you haven’t heard about it already, you can just thank That Blogger for keeping to up to date with what’s happening on the great world wide web!!! The site is called Twangoo and the guys behind the idea are working hard to secure some awesome exclusive deals at restaurants,  spas, hotels and some great exclusive retailers just for their members.

Keep a look out for more details on Twangoo launch date on That Blog and some of the awesome deals that will be on offer. But, in the mean time…why not sign up for their newsletter and check out their page on facebook. They are running a competition to win a R3000.00 Diesel voucher…now that is not something to sneeze at!!

Exciting times aren’t they??