Saturday, December 21, 2013

my out of office office - de oude bakkery stellenbosch






so this is where I meet with people and conduct business when out of my office. it is an enormously creative environment filled with smells of freshly baked bread and roasted coffee.



Max our perfume maker first introduced me to this place hidden down a little alley with no visible signage. I was enchanted and have made this place mine

their sourdough takes three days to ferment - I buy loaves as gifts


the atmosphere is endearing and charming





they have recently extended , added a deli, a butchery and a roastery. They now have a visible entrance off a prominent corner and a new name. dont ask me what it is - I still know this place as De Oude Bakkerj



farewell Father of the Nation



A sad time for our nation as we say goodbye to the man we all love so dearly - our beloved Madiba - who transformed our country and brought us peace and reconciliation. the ANC has never again had such a great leader .


The photo below is a beach collage - a tribute by the people of Durban

My personal favourite - Madiba comforts Helen Suzman



Monday, April 1, 2013

how time has flown




 It is truly disgraceful - not blogging for six months. I am sorry . Life has been busy -  with good things and bad. The bad ones were really sore, but I suppose that is what makes us grow and keeps us filled with empathy and humility.

I wont bore you with the challenging stuff - suffice it to say that my heart was deeply hurt, and I have found healing in the opening of our first Day Spa .
It is situated in Swellendam in the Cape. 

 How it happened to be, is that last year, I started developing a beautiful all natural range of botanically based products packed with actives and all round goodness. this range called Biologie is destined for FAME.
It is mind blowingly amazing. Anyway, we decided to sell it in our stores , but also to sell it to carefully selected and chosen Spas. Ones whose mission and ethos is the same as ours. Fair Trade, Beauty without cruelty, Natural, organics, African floral extracts.

I met an amazing lady called Ronel in Cape Town. She is a spa expert and is a bag of dynamite. I decided to see if she would consult to us , and miracle of miracles - she was about to move to our remote country town of Swellendam for a one year period as her man was commissioned to build our new sewerage farm.Isn't that a miracle.

                     



 So, without any delay, we started renovating our existing shop where we had extra space. Moved our factory shop upstairs, and made a small day spa with two treatment rooms. It is a prototype and we will do all our learning curves here close to hand before we open others. Each one may well have a different theme depending on where it is. this one we themed Forest - and as you can see from the pictures, it is an imaginery forest with bird calls and sounds of frogs, wind, rain, leaves etc.

We have called is Spa with Soul, as we are really about care - care for people, care for skin, care for the environment, care for animals.
This caring is what really heals deep down. It is reward for giving

And so my soul sings once more. I am revived, re energised, READY for action. The year ahead looks super exciting ............
And I am soon getting a new blog site as we renovate our website.
I just cant wait. I haven't found this format very user friendly and I am looking for ward to blogging with new energy and vigour once more - telling you about all my exciting projects and journeys to source the very special ingredients you find in Rain products .

Chat again soon.......





Winter essential: Wild harvested Baobab oil

There is a beautiful African folklore story about how the Baobab tree came to be African and also known as ‘the upside-down tree’. ...