# 24: GO

The 24th May-Photo-A-Day: "GO"

Tisk, tisk, tisk... TheFutureMrsOrpen has fallen behind 

- it is called "May-Photo-A-DAY". 

But I did have a busy week with fun freelance design jobs that popped up: Yippee!!! 

Now that the work is nearly done, this is how I plan to balance the work with some play over the next week. 

I shall "GO" here tomorrow:

Neighbourgood's Market

 73 JUTA STREET BRAAMFONTEIN

JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA

and here:

Daleah's: 6 De Beer Street, Braamfontein

Described as a casual Chic eatery... looking forward to trying out the "new kid on the block".

If all goes well this week I would love to "GO" here and support a fellow AFDA-inian:

Air Cinema Club.

Air Cinema Club is launching on the 30th of May 2013, at the Neighbourgoods Market rooftop. ACC will be featuring 'The Angels' Share' by Ken Loach. It sounds like it will be a memorable night: great gourmet food, hot drinks: gluhwein (Yummy), bottomless popcorn, comfy bean bags and great music under the Jozi City Stars! 

In June l need to visit the homelands and "GO" have my monthly fix of this:

Foo Wah: Ranked #65 of 398 restaurants in Johannesburg

In the South of JHB - my home land , which may seem far, but you will thank me later! The great trek is worth every delicious morsel! 

Foo Wah has a cosy and warm ambiance and when you become a regular the waitresses and matradee begin to recognise you and treat you like great friends. 

Be sure to try the chicken sweet corn soup, spring rolls, sizzling-anything and the sweet and sour-anything: they have an awesome set menu which allows you to sample all of their specialities.  

Foo Wah has been around since my mom was young and has many fans so phone in advance for a take-away, or book a week before to secure your reservation. For dessert, their chocolate milkshakes are incredible!

As well as try out this:

Delicious pizza from '86 Public' - new pizzeria in Braamfontein

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #113 days 

# 22: CHANGE

The 22nd May-Photo-A-Day: "CHANGE"

change (chnj) v.  

1. To become different or undergo alteration.

2. To give or receive the equivalent of (money) in lower denominations or in foreign currency.

I was in the process of capturing the pictures for my post when:

EEEEEEKKKKKKKK:

Spiders!
 Every! 
Where! 

Well only 3 but I have almost put my hand on 2 of them in the space of 2 minutes! Not cool spider spawn... not cool! The one crawled into a kitchen cupboard and made me unpack the entire content inside to find him/her. Success... but not for very long as I then drop an entire container of tooth picks all over the kitchen counter and floor. 

I thought I would entertain myself and play my own version of "pick-up-sticks" called "count-the-tooth-picks". I picked up 103 tooth picks. Only to drop it for a second time. I swept up 103 toothpicks and threw them in the bin as I figured the "30 second rule" doesn't apply here. Just when I thought I could get blogging- the tray attached to the fridge door decided that I should have a chunk of skin removed from my finger just for fun... and now I can finally write :)

Te has a tiny wallet/card carrier thing that only has space for folded notes and a few important cards and no space for change. He would empty out his wallets and pockets of any loose change and just leave it where ever it fell. This wasn't going to work for OCD me because everything has a place and the floor is not a place... for anything. 

The solution: we now have two cute money boxes strategically placed for easy depositing of loose change - one is placed in the kitchen cupboard where the spider was hiding and the other in the bedroom. Now when ever I find a few coins laying around I stash the cash into the nearest coin box which I have official claimed as wedding loot. 

  

Can you guess how much CHANGE I will stash by the 14th of August? 

Exactly 1 Month to #TeMarriesDe I will count the change.

I will send the person who has the closest guess a little something-something.

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #115 days 

# 20: LIGHT-ing

The 20th May-Photo-A-Day: "LIGHT-ing"

One of the first projects Te worked on when we moved into our apartment in February was to rig our globe lighting and bed lamps we bought in Paris at a shop called Merci (111 boulevard Beaumarchais, 75003, Paris.)

Our lounge: Day

Our lounge: Night

Our Bedroom: Head board lamp.

"Merci's aim is to bring together, under one roof, products and customers who traditionally have not had the chance to meet : vintage furniture or contemporary creations; emerging new fashion brands or already-recognised collections; impulse buys, affordable for all or much rarer pieces, sometimes in limited editions.

Fashionistas visit Merci from all over the world, local residents, young or not-so-young, students with their appetites already whetted. Small budgets, or large projects: there's something for everyone at MERCI" 

It was because of this awesome shop that Te and I were forced to buy two extra suit cases to fit in all our glasses, lighting, magazine holder and frames. We visited Merci twice while we were in Paris and ate at two of the three cafe's: The Used Book Cafe as well as The Canteen. 

AND.... 
This is what you look like when you leave Merci... 
Te was forced to carry our purchases all the way back to St. Germain... Glass and I are not the greatest of friends. 

Merci was most definitely one of our highlights of our trip as we decided it would be a once in a life time holiday and that we would purchase great finds that we could use and make apart of our home.

4 months later: RIP three of our Merci glasses.

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #117 days 

# 19: MY FAVOURITE VIEW

The 19th May-Photo-A-Day: "MY FAVOURITE VIEW"

Everyday is an Adventure Day but Sundays happen to be my most Favourite Day because it is the one day I get to spend an entire 24 hours with Te doing everything and anything we want to do.  

Our first stop every Sunday morning is at 4th Avenue Roasters for our morning caffeine kick and a spiced, sugary biscuit treat. We then made our way to Jozi CBD to find a caffeine spot for our second caffeine stop and breakfast. This morning we ended up at "Art's on Main: Market on Main" in the Maboneng Precinct. 

We had a walk around the food court... and after our 10th lap we decided to share "The Ultimate" piping hot Rooster Brood: BBQ pork, guacamole, feta, rosa tomatoes and rocket - which was rather delicious, fresh and filled the spot. We then indulged in a Bar-One Pancake - more like over indulged but my favourite meal time is dessert time! We still have not had a pancake that has lived up to the million we (more like I) had in Paris: Nutella Crepes and Buckwheat Galette's.

Paris: Creperie's can be found on every corner

Our Favourite Creperie in Saint Germain

Galette: Ham, Egg and Emmenthal & Coke in a glass bottle ...
Our breakfast after a night of french red wine.

Next stop on our morning adventure was to find that coffee. After a roam around we decided to sit in the sun at "Uncle Merv's Original Shake & Coffee" and bask in the warm rays while we absorb some much needed Vitamin D. 

Uncle Merv's

Our View: 

My View: Organic Produce Street Vendor and purple wall art through purple lenses.

BUT...

Happens to be this handsome fella who I get to spend the rest of today exploring the land of Jozi.

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #118 days 

# 18: WANT

The 18th May-Photo-A-Day: "WANT"

I find this a pretty tough photo to capture and post to write about... You see, as cheesy as it may sound, I really have everything I want: my gorgeous Te, the most incredible family and future family-in-law, the best of friends, health, careers, dreams, a cute little apartment and over-the-moon-HAPPINESS... mmmm...  

Ok fine, of course there are THINGS I want...

How about... I will write about things I would like to put in our cute little apartment then?

Grey Towels: You can never have enough clean towels... 

Grey is best (us girls and our make-up).

 We have a lovely Grey-blue Country Road dinner service but we thought if we got the matching side plates it would be too matchy-matchy... so we opted for the dinner plates, bowls and mugs... Now to find white side plates we actually like...

We bought Louis Roederer Champagne while we were in Paris and it would be wonderful to drink our Champagne from the flutes below... the wide one being my favourite.

Mouth blown champagne glasses: 

Perhaps my baking and cooking will taste a little better if we had this little AGA hand mixer in the kitchen?

The white or grey Pedersen and Lennard recycle bins (medium or large) 

would be great in our kitchen.. our free trash bags we get are far too large for our little bin.

Pedersen and Lennard: Recycled Bins

Te's bicycle needs to find a safe space as the leaning-on-the-glass-sliding-door is not favourable. This nifty bike-shelf is just what we would like... (want).

Pedersen and Lennard: bike-shelf

Pedersen and Lennard: bike-shelf

Our balcony is a perfect size to entertain a couple of friends and in the 4 months we have been living here we have entertained once or twice and it was one or two guests at a time because... We have a lovely outside wheely-palette table that Te made for us, great little decor: flower/herb boxes (that have soil in but no flowers or herbs) and NO where to sit... One or two of these Dokter and Misses benches could.... sit well.

Dokter and Misses: Bench 

The white bench we do own (that we could be sitting on outside) is being used as our tv cabinet... So if we had this TV cabinet from Brak Furniture... two problems solved.

 White Lacquer Sprayed TV Cabinet

 Consider this my Birthday hint-hint-nudge-nudge List as my birthday is coming up anyway..... or perhaps more like in-my-Dream's wish list :)

Post # 17 to come... I haven't managed to capture a great Season shot just yet...

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #119 days 

# 16: MAILBOX

The 16th May-Photo-A-Day: "MAILBOX"

This is an image of my mailbox taken from this morning: 54 emails. There is nothing really that great to be read in any of the 54 emails and most of them will be deleted without me even opening them. Sometimes you find awesome gems in your mailbox like the latest free design vector or fonts, or a great bargain buy, or a trendy new eatery/drinkery to visit from one of the many cool blogs and sites I have subscribed to. But I should read more of these because it was one of these emails last year that advertised super affordable air tickets to Paris and it allowed Te and I to live our "Parisian lifestyle dream" as well as made for THE MOST romantic and perfect  proposal... "swoon" 

- I really like the definition of this word: 

"To be overwhelmed by ecstatic joy"... 

and JOYOUS I am to becoming TheFutureMrsOrpen!

Technology: I love that I have been apart of the generation that has grown up with the evolving technology we have become so reliant on in todays world. One day we will be able to tell our kids about the Nokia brick, the evolution from sending and recieving post to sending and receiving email's, the birth of social and professional online networking, how you no longer needed to leave you house to do your shopping - a few clicks, pay and your groceries and goodies will be delivered to your door, how our diaries and journals we kept under our beds transformed into blog posts that anyone could read, anywhere in the world... just to name a few.

Gone are the days where everything needed to be printed on paper and that is exactly what we won't be doing, printing our "Save The Date" and "Wedding Invitations", instead we have chosen to have a digital, more eco-friendly kind of wedding. 

Our "Save The Date" is a cute sneak peak of our wedding invitation which we will be emailing to all our lovely guests this weekend... "SWOON": once the invitations are sent,  becoming TheFutureMrsOrpen will be even more real!! 

"Eeekk": of happiness!!! 

We have setup a wedding website using the the app call AppyCouple. It cost us only $28 and was pretty easy to setup and customise. We decided to go with this site because it is code protected which means only our guests who have been given they pin are able to view the site as well as be an important information tool that will be used to manage the RSVP replies from our guests and help our guest find out more about: 

• The Wedding Party
• Our Stories and Adventures
• Travel arrangements: Nearby Accommodation 
• The Events: Ceremony and Reception Details
• Registry

 As well as our guests will be able to use the app on the wedding day to timeline the events. Our friends and loved ones who are unable to be there will be able to view the timeline updates and share our wedding with us from wherever they are.

  

So dearest loved ones, look out for our quirky invitations that will be arriving in your Mailbox "This Fall" aka before June - for some reason I could hear this sentence in my head being said with one of those great movie trailer voices... 

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #120 days 

# 15: 7 ' O CLOCK

The 15th May-Photo-A-Day: "7 ' O CLOCK"

My weekdays begin at 5:15am, on a good day. I wake up, wash my hair everyday (there is nothing that makes me happier then soft, fluffy clean hair), stumble around as I get dressed in the dark so I don't wake the sleeping handsome who has most probably only arrived home 3 hours ago (working shifts). A blow dry and a quick tidy up (clean apartment = happiness... you know how Cinderella has the birds and mice that help her get dressed and clean so nicely while they all happily sing a song?? I don't have those... I wish I could find find me some clean mice and birds and train them up...) and I am off to work at 6:15am.

My work day begins at 7 ' O Clock and ends at 3:15pm, Monday to Friday. I am rather fortunate to be able to start and end an hour earlier so that I do not get stuck in traffic for two hours each way and I rarely take a lunch break just to make sure I complete all my tasks for the day and If not, then I usually stay until I am complete or finish up at home. I am, most of the time, the first one at our offices so they have entrusted me with keys to open up for everybody.

I am definitely one of those "early bird catches the worm" morning kind of gals and once I have risen from my slumber I am a pretty happy person. My Mom would, and still does when I stay over, wake me in the morning with a "Time to Rise and Shine" phrase.. and to this day I find I say the same phrase to myself. It's my best kind of way to wake up... 

I get a lot of work done in the first hour at work without any interruptions. I work as the... mmmmm... what is my job description currently? Anyway.. it changes so often and new tasks are always given to me that I like to call myself the jack-of-all-trades-ask-me-if-i-can-and-if-I-can"t-I-will-figure-it-out-yes-girl. So what do I do: I am the marketing person who designs and maintains all the brochures, logo's, presentations, newsletters, letterheads and all the artwork needed. I also monitor our newsletter audience reach, CRM network, and work closely with the Chairman on projects and other tasks. I really enjoy my day job as I have awesome and friendly colleagues and there is always a new challenge and a new task to figure out. That's my day job...

The rest of my day and weekends I spend dedicated to Orpen Film making Co., Fabuloso Clip-in Extensions, freelance design and stationary projects. I have never been the type of person to only do one thing at a time: I love a challenge. One thing I have learnt though is this: "Under commit and Over deliver". Great lesson I have learnt the hard way in life: in both my personal and professional capacity. One of the reasons I moved to Cape Town was to escape and break the habit of my yes-girl habit... its okay to say yes but it is not ok to neglect the people you care about or projects you have made commitments too... so I am only a yes-girl during my day job and only if I can deliver 100%... 

My dream is to be able to work full time with Te (no more 7 ' O Clock but around our clock) in an "Orpen Film Making Co. space" that will allow me to continue doing freelance design projects as well as allow me the focus and time to market Fabuloso the way I would like to in order to recruit more salons and resellers. 

I have always had big dreams but I love how my dreams and Te's dreams intertwined their similarities and adapted into the dreams we now share. 

Our ultimate dream is to mesh our passion for Film Making, our space, our love for people and our taste in coffee... this is a GRAND dream but... 

"We Believe". 

xxx

TheFutureMrsOrpen: De

#TeMarriesDe #121 days