up the romance

Candice Bergen and Michael Caine , tango, Spain 1967

Sometimes romance is hard. Do you find that? Or is it just me. My husband and I say 'I love you' a lot which I suppose is romantic but I think it would be great to verbally express one's love in other ways. Here are some super romantic words, I am going to try remember them.

"You are every lovely word I can think of."

"1 universe, 9 planets, 204 countries, 809 islands, 7 seas and I had the privilege of meeting you."

"Talking to you makes my day."

"I hope you feel beautiful today."

"You make my heart smile."

On independence

 {Via here}

"Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth." ~ George Bernard Shaw

love = desire

 {1, 2, 3, 4}

The term “love” is from the Sanskrit lubhyati, meaning “desire.”

Spread a little love today.

xxx

The most beautiful

"He found her most beautiful not when she was all fancied up, but when she wasn’t. When she was lying on the carpet, her hair all a mess, laughing about something that had happened years ago. When she wasn’t trying to impress anyone and taken down that wall that she had built for most people. That’s when he couldn’t take his eyes off of her." (via here)

{via here}

I love this. It is exactly when I find people the most beautiful - when you see their souls before you see their face or clothes or shoes. (Don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate a pretty face, a beautiful piece of clothing, a a killer pair of heels. In fact, I used to joke that I judged a man on his hair before all else.)

As I watch my very-pregnant body change daily, I am hoping my non-fancied version is my side the husband finds most beautiful too! For the last 2 weeks, since I have been trying to stay at home as much as possible, the poor man has seen me in two outfits: pyjamas (which consist of basic underwear and any vest I can find that I can stretch over my giant dome of a bump), and comfy home clothes (which rival the pyjamas in the anti-glam factor). Fear not, I do not leave my apartment in either of these two get ups, and as such my ante natal appointments are my excuse to dress up!

But beside the clothing factor, this 37-week-pregnant-with-twins body of mine looks quite different from where we started 9 months ago. As a general rule, the measurement from the bottom off your bump, over your navel, to the top of your bump indicates how far you are in your pregnancy. My measurement is currently 45cm which basically means I am the same size as some one who was 45 weeks pregnant. While I love this big bump to bits (my sister says it makes my legs look skinnier - hee hee), it is almost like an extra body part has appeared in our relationship, making itself most noticeable when I side-hug the husband (front hugging ended a while ago), and when I have to do a sort of drop and roll when getting into our rather high bed and then over the multitude of cushions surrounding me like a fort to maximise comfort.

Last week I noticed faint stretch marks appearing around my belly button. Up until this point I thought escaped them but alas, even good genes (thanks mom!) and my endless application of jajoba oil were not enough for this twin belly. My linea nigra (a darker vertical line running vertically on the belly), on the other hand, appeared quite early on in my pregnancy but I love the look of this. And the fact that it is there to guide your baby to you once born is nothing short of miraculous. Less miraculous in the fine, light fluff that has appeared on one side of my face. I am not saying full beard here or anything, but its definitely there and particularly discernible when the sun (or bedside lamp) is providing some back lighting. 

Since the husband refers to this endearingly as my furry face, and stares in awe every time he sees this giant bump, I am taking it to mean he likes my non-fancy version too.

On love

{print available from here} 

"You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known—and even that is an understatement." F. Scott Fitzgerald

Wow. The man knew how to say it...

happy birthday to my love

"If you knew you were going to meet the love of your life in one year, how different would that year be?"

Would you want to know?

I think I knew that I was going to meet the love of my life the year that I met him. I didn't know who, I just had a feeling the stars were aligned. Although that could be the romantic memory of retrospect....

The husband (then the boyfriend) in 2008, date #3

Yes I do!

Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovers out there!

 {from here via here}

Any plans for today? The husband and I are going for a picnic while we watch Love Actually under the stars. Let's hope these massive thunderstorms we've been having remain at bay this evening.

PS. Whenever I was single on Valentine's Day I always used to imagine (hope!) that some handsome stranger would send me a huge  bunch of flowers to my office and leave me guessing as to who it was. Blush**

Happy love Friday

Happy first day of February. Official month of love. Official glorious summer weather in Jo'burg. Unofficial actual start of my year (January may be the beginning but not my actual start).

{NY, October 2012}

Here are some links from around the web of things I love:

Our beautiful country feature on global sites
Craftmanship
Finding your inner child
Chocolate
DIY Valentines cards 
Odd balls and eccentrics
Swings
Walls of curiosities and fascinating things
Dinners at home
Day dreaming of far away places

Have a great day and better weekend xoxox

On marriage

{Human and Cheska's first dance}

To my darling little sister, as a newly wed, I posted this one for you...

Paul Newman's letter to his wife on their wedding day:

“Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created.

In the Art of Marriage, the little things are the big things.

It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say ‘I love you’ at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon; it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have the wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding rooms for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner."

How beautiful!

Three years

Three years ago, the two of us, just two little souls that found each other in this great big universe, got married. And that was just beginning.

Happy anniversary to my love!

PS. First and second

PPS. Thinking of Papa today

PPPS. Happy birthday Miss T 
PPPPS. And another HBD to my little cousin Cloudy

Notes on Love and Courage

I came across this blog post (from a blog which no longer exists) and was struck by the selected words of Hugh Prather  from a book called Notes on Love and Courage. These three snippets of wisdom really resonated with me. Read them twice.

 {via here}

''Is your first responsibility to yourself? The question is misleading; that is, it misleads the person who takes it to heart.  It's like asking, must you shift your weight in order to walk.  Of course you must, but anyone who concentrates first on shifting his weight will not walk well."

{via here}

''Are there any wholly useless encounters? I know this: there are no insignificant people.  There is no one who isn't supposed to be there.''

{via here}

''We need other people, not in order to stay alive, but to be fully human:  to be affectionate, funny, playful, to be generous.  How genuine is my capacity for love if there is no one for me to love, to laugh with, to treat tenderly, to be trusted by? I can love an idea or a vision, but I can't throw my arms around it.  Unless there is someone to whom I can give my gifts, in whose hands I can entrust my dreams, who will forgive me my deformities, my aberrations, to whom I can speak the unspeakable, then I am not human, I am a thing, a gadget that works but has no ashes.''

Have a lovely week!
xoxo

Guest post: All loved up

Perhaps it is being engaged  but I find myself awfully loved up lately.

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Guest Post: I'm engaged!

This weekend the boyfriend became the fiancé... I'm very happy. 

Ps. Get ready for some wedding posts! 

Willem and Mia get married

February may have passed (already!) but it's always a good time to celebrate a bit of love. Or a lot. A few weekend's ago we went to Willem and Mia's wedding at Beloftebos just outside Stanford in the Western Cape. Here are a few pics...

The ceremony under beautiful old oak trees

Mia walking down the aisle with her dad

Hymns printed on packets of confetti

Ladybugs for good luck

They did!

Wooden spoons as favours for the ladies

Matches for the men

Good, old fashioned Afrikaans food on the menu. Yum.

Cut the cake

Toss the bouquet

The first dance

Results of the photobooth

Hello Friday

What are your plans for the weekend? This is my last weekend in Johannesburg until the end of March and I plan on catching up on a bit of R&R with the family (and a baby shower in between).

{Image from this glorious tumblr}

May your weekend revive your soul (don't we wish!)

Here are some links from around the web.

Oh yum, a good, old fashioned toasted sarmie. I am going to order this for lunch right now.

My friend Andrea's wedding was featured on Miss Moss (wasn't it just beautiful!)...

...And Tonic custom made their gift's wrapping paper! (brilliant idea)

I want to buy everything in this shop

This would make a perfect gift for the baby shower I am going to...

And these books would be cute too

These pictures make me want to spring clean (even though we are at the end of summer)

And on that note, I had better get back to work ;)

xoxo

Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

An old-fashioned love letter is pretty much one of the most romantic things to receive. There is something about the genius of simplicity in someone expressing their feelings for you in writing.When the husband and I (although he wasn't the husband at that stage) were living continents apart, we wrote many emails and letters to each other. To keep it interesting (for both writer and receiver) I used to attempt to write in old fashioned prose - it was quite amusing telling him about my day as if we lived in the 1600s.

Here are some love letters from the rich and famous to their loved ones (or perfect strangers).

From Johnny Cash to his wife June

From Marlon Brando to an airline stewardess who struck his fancy mid-flight (1966) (Beats a corny pick-up line!)

From Ludwig van Beethoven to an unidentified "Immortal Beloved" (1812)

From Charlie Parker to his long-term girlfriend Chan Woods

From Frida Kahlo to her husband Diego Rivera (I love the kiss on the envelope!)

From President Gerald Ford (and his children) to his wife Betty Ford shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer (1974) (Note the letterhead!)

From Jimi Hendrix to a girlfriend he called "little girl"

Sid Vicious lists off his girlfriend Nancy Spungen’s best attributes, just months before he allegedly stabs her to death (1978)

Read the letters here

(And thanks to the lovely Chrisna for sending these on to me - all in the name of the month of love!)

I melt with you

Love this song. And think it would make a very cool first dance at a wedding.

   

I hope this week brings you an unexpected moment of delight.
(P.S Don't forget to slow dance in your kitchen).

xoxo

Oh, I really do

I hope that something makes your heart smile today. The husband and I are going to Cube Tasting Kitchen for dinner. A ten course meal? Now that makes me feel loved :)

{by Hilary Bird}

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day or ignore it?

50 years of marriage - it must be love!

Love in black and white.

xoxo

A note on love

Teddy Roosevelt’s diary the day his wife Alice died from Bright’s disease. He was 25, she 22.

 {via here}