Education is the key to success!

Education is the key to success… my primary school principal used to say that almost every day like a broken record. I thought it was the most annoying thing anyone could say and I honestly believed he said that constantly to annoy me lol but as I stand in front of the two most important women in my life (my mom and big sister) wearing their gowns and my sister, the family's latest graduate holding her certificate I finally get what my principal was talking about.

Seeing my sister trying to jungle working full-time, while studying at the same time for these years. this moment tramples over all the blood, work and tears. I have never been prouder of anyone ever lol my mom might disagree with me but being the one who has personally had to hand in her assignments at time when she couldn't get off work I'd like to say mom please take a sit, my "proud moment" is bigger ok. Soo yeah my sister is official a qualified Retail Manager and she wants to be a buyer which of course would be awesome for me as a fashion designer, hopefully she can buy some of my designs lol yay…. That was my master plan all along.

She was styled by yours truly *props to me, give me my props people*, I just thought wearing a dress to a graduation has been highly overdone and its as tired as heck soo when I saw this jump suite at a boutique called A-List in Long Street, I honestly heard it talk to me and it simply said "I've been waiting for you". I mean just look at it, it has a pleated top, cut out back and pockets plus it screams classic elegance, I think Aubrey Hepburn would be proud of me, don't you think? and the burgundy shoes suede heels are soo gorgeous, honestly I feel like a higher power was leading me towards the right items but of course clothes are nothing without the perfect model and no one is more perfect that my beautiful sister.

And for myself there's nothing I hate more than being over formal soo I rocket my wonderful high-low dress from YDE with a wedge and my crazy hair… I love this hairstyle; I think I'm going to keep it for a while. What do you think?

For now it's back to studying and I have this like mega history essay to write about the surrealism era which is one of my all-time favourite movements but that's doesn't mean I enjoy writing about it lol wish me luck!

Tina xoxo

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

It's that time of the year again, Colour Conference 2014 Cape Town time… I guess some explanation is needed, well here it goes. The Colour Conference is an annual woman's conference that is hosted by the incredible Bobbie Houston and she is always accompanied by wonderful speakers and this year it was holy Wagner and Lisa Bevere who spoke powerful life changing messages that just give you that push you need to pursue your God given purpose.

I am still on the Colour Conference high and I was soo super excited for the conference that I decided I would make myself two dresses that I could wear to both nights of the event but unfortunately I was only able to make one dress because I broke my sewing needle and shockingly I didn't have a spare soo I had to hand stitch the zip and the lace detail but I think it came out pretty awesome, what do you think? I wore the dress with my black jacket and black stocking and my black leather boots…. I was going for that tough but tender look lol hopefully I pulled it off.

Day 2 of the conference to me was all about comfort because we were literally there all day from 9am till 9pm soo I had to whip out my trusted 'ol vans sneakers and paired them with a my super skinny pants and my neon green top which I love and a denim jacket with a spikey necklace just to add some detail.

One of the sub themes within the conference was "Be the Change" which just so happens to be one of my favourite quotes ever from the great Mahatma Gandhi and even though I agree with it completely I always feel like how much change can one person really do to change the WORLD but I learnt at the conference that when one person decides to join a movement of people, they can impact lives and change generations and the world needs more people to step up to the plate.


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is thing that ever has" – Margaret Mead.

*mon amie = my friend Olivier

At the conference they showed us a video of young girls who are being trafficked all over the world, and I know this is really heavy stuff for a blog but sometimes you need to raise awareness about the stuff that really matters because what these people are doing is NOT RIGHT. We are not objects to be sold, used and then thrown away when they think we have lost our worth. We can never lose our worth, we were all created in the image of the all-mighty, and we have the right to live, to love and to be free. As the free ones we therefore have the responsibility to release the captive and be the loud voices for those who have had their voices taken away. If you are interested in helping these causes go to http://thecoloursisterhood.com for more information.

"Be the change, you want to see in the world"

 Tina xoxo

Photographic High!!!

I spent the last 24 hours taking pictures of pretty much anything and everything. I’m enjoying the whole photographer vibe that I have with my little cam dangling around my neck lol I could really get used to this. I have always been into photography. The thought of capturing a moment of life and being able to have it around for a long time after that moment has passed, remaining untouched and unchanged has always fascinated me. This all means I’m pretty much going to run this whole photography thing into the ground.

Here are some of the pictures that I took. I call them real life art, unplanned moments of beauty. Tell me what you think?

I based today’s look around my camera. If I was a professional photographer this would be my look, cool, functional and fashionable! It’s a basic black and white top with a lace detail which I paired up with my absolute favorite mom jeans from cotton on. I love these jeans, when I saw them my brain was like JACKPOT!!! There are soo versatile, I can dress them up with a heel or dress them down with a sneaker and the fabric patches detail are just amazing.

Tina xoxo

The Adventures of a 21 Year Old

I turned 21 this year, on the 17^th of February and I finally got this cute digital cam for my birthday which I love. As an up and coming blogger I needed a decent camera in my disposal and this one is awesome. I mean I am in no way a camera guru but anything is better than using my iPhone right!!! That is how I came to own “baby boo” a.k.a. the Nikon Coolpix L320, it has 16.1 Megapixels, 26x Zoom, it’s easy to carry as it fits into all of my bags and most importantly it’s just so damn cute… GOSH, I LOVE IT!!!


Cue some pictures of myself taking a picture of myself and my new camera WITH my new camera, mind blown yet? Lol.

 

Dresses and Jumpers (we call it a jersey here in South Africa but I just love the British term more) are my all-time favourite outfit combinations and I’ve been trying for so long to make that my official look but it’s kind of difficult because whenever I go shopping I just automatically gravitate towards pants, probably because I never get the dresses I want so I’ve decided that I’m going to start making my own dresses. Hopefully I will be posting them in the near future but for now this lovely retail bought dress will do.

I love this turquoise dress to bits and pieces, I bought it mostly because of the colour but it’s a bit to formal for my style so I try to modify it by dressing it down with other items of clothing and in this case I used my favourite mustard JUMPER which I bought from Cotton On and I love it dearly. It so nice and soft, I would marry it if I could. Weird I know but you’ve never worn my jumper so please don’t judge me. I paired this pair with navy blue stockings and my beige ankle strap-up boots, perfect cold Saturday night outfit.

I don’t know about you but my Saturday nights are always mostly spent watching re-runs of the vampire diaries, web surfing, lots of coffee and reading a kick-ass novels. I love books, I’m a self-proclaimed “Chic Geek”, and I even have PJ’s that say so lol really I do. Currently I’m reading The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Euginides which is quite a departure from my usual supernatural love triangle reading list (yes I am a twilight fan, please don’t hold it against me) but I thought I should try it out because I saw the movie trailer which looked really cool but I refuse to watch any movie based on a book before reading the actual book so I got the book but unfortunately I got the one with the lame looking cover but you know what they say right? Don’t judge a book by its cover. Hahaha…

  

Any good books you’ve read lately? Any suggestions are highly welcomed. I want to broaden by books barrier, lately I feel like I’m reading the same story with different characters over and over and over again… HELP ME!!!

Tina xoxo