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Real Women – Real Life

Today on Real Women – Real Life we get to meet Iva Grbesic, a rather stylish-mom of four who lives in Toronto, Canada. I recently happened upon her blog called One Chic Mom, a treasure trove of all things style and fashion and today Iva shares a few of her style and life insights with us – on Real Women – Real Life.

Real Women Real Life

Tell me a bit about yourself?

I live in the city of Toronto with my four children, 1 girl and 3 boys (the oldest is seven and the youngest is two) and my husband. I would like to go back to work when my youngest is in school but I just don’t know what I want to do. I did promise myself that when my youngest went to school, I would take a year off to enjoy going grocery shopping alone! It would be amazing just to be able to lock the bathroom door and shower in peace or leave a pen on a counter without worrying about toddler graffiti art on my ottoman.

What Makes You Tick?

As a mother your dreams and passion are about your children (their happiness and success) and family is the most important thing. I do feel however that there is still a small part of you that let’s some things be just about you. For me, I would love for my blog to be successful and give women the confidence to wear red pants with a leopard print heels. That’s what motivates me.

My weaknesses are so easy to point out, I can’t bake, there are times when I buy too much food and it ends up in the garbage, I am not very productive under a time crunch and I wish I was more an A-type about my house and its tidiness. Oh I almost forgot, I need to stop swearing when I am driving…my kids are picking up on my bad language.

My husband pointed out one of my strengths after a funeral visitation; he told me I have this uncanny ability of making difficult situations easier for those involved – having a real conversation with the widow or putting a smile on other family members. He also pointed out how I can talk to friends about their divorces or even discuss cancer with others. I’m proud of that strength.

I’m also proud of the fact that I can make this high-pitched guttural sound, which I break out into every time I am dancing Croatian folklore.

When Did You Start Blogging?

I am new to blogging, just started in January 2012. I blog about fashion and how moms should dress their bodies with new trends and basic favourites. There are lots of great blogs for the twenty something group (I am a follower of a few) but nothing for us. I hope to fill that void.

Pregnancy does a number on our bodies and our style needs to evolve with our new bodies. Don’t fight the change, take a breath and figure out how to work with it. I promise the results will make you feel great.

What Style Advice Can You Give to Women?

There are so many pieces of advice I have when it comes to style, however, the most important piece is enjoy yourself, we have no choice but to wear clothing, so look pretty and have fun. There is this guilt when we have children that we can’t/shouldn’t have time to ourselves. I say screw that – take a shower, curl your hair, put on some make-up and dress your body because you love it.

When you are dressing your body here are some tips:

FIT FIT FIT FIT – it matters the most as we age. Girls in their teens and twenties can get away with ill-fitting clothes, women who are over thirty (plus add a kid or more) can’t. Go to any magazine or internet site and look at celebrities in this age bracket and tell me what you notice…that’s alright I can wait…told you so
Get fitted for a proper bra, the bra should lift the girls to their proper position and give then shape. For big chested women you will see you do have a waist. My small busted friends it enhances your shape.

Dress Age Appropriate – yes I know we all feel 20 or even 25 but you shouldn’t dress like them. A 20-year-old dressed in low-cut this and short that will always do it better. Just look at Pamela Anderson.
BURN THE MOM JEANS – Purchase a dark denim, boot cut pair of jeans. Trust me, do it now
Buy some good shoes – Plastic shoes are a disaster on your feet. I am a big believer in less quantity and more quality

What Are Your 5 Favourite Items of Clothing & Why?

Blazers – they just dress up an outfit and make it special, who doesn’t like to feel special?
Jeans – the right pair make your butt look amazing and make you feel even better
Dresses – I love to wear dresses, whether casual or formal, jeans can get boring and I love being a woman, and in my mind that is associated with dresses
Nude Heels – Nude heels go with any colour, it’s really simple dressing and I need simple
ANYTHING LULULEMON – I have never gone wrong with this company, they make the best yoga/sports gear that I have ever worn before, during and after pregnancy. I work out in it and travel in it, if you ever get on a plane headed for a tropical destination in Canada at least half the Canadian women will be dressed in Lululemon. Every butt in the world is loved by Lululemon.

How Important is it To Dress Your Body-shape?

You should NEVER fight your body shape, embrace it and wear clothes that highlight your best features. That’s when we look our best.

What Would You Say Your Personal Style Is?

My personal style is classic with a bit of trend. I love my lines to be clean and easy, I am the queen of easy dressing. Classic pieces last and can even evolve as your own style does.

If I love a trend and it fits my personal style I will try to wear it. Right now I am loving peplum…just looking for the right piece.

Thanks so much Iva, I really enjoyed interviewing you on Real Women – Real Life and I really love some of your style ideas and I am sure my readers will too! Maybe I need to investigate this whole Lululemon craze, it is possibly a brand we need in South Africa too!

Be Inspired, FAR Photography, Featured Posts, Interviews, Life

Real Women – Real Life: Introducing Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones is a 20 something local Capetonian who shares her love of “things” in her blog aptly named things – it’s me thing(s). Today she shares a bit more about herself and what motivates and inspires her.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a girl in her 20’s who (according to friends and family) sees the world a little differently to most people. I was born in Bloemfontein, in the Freestate and moved to Cape Town with my family when I was about 8 years old. My immediate family is really small, it consists of one younger brother, mom and dad, gran, Ouma and grandpa, two uncles and an aunt. I love them all very much and have a special relationship with each of them.

When I left school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life or what I wanted to be when I grew up but after a lot of thinking and enrolling everywhere, studying a part-time photography course and a year of basic graphic designing, I went on to complete my BA in Visual Communications at the AAA School of Advertising in Cape Town. I was a student for 5 years before I venturing into the “real world”. Up until now I have worked for a company that develops educational software and have been blessed with the experience of being thrown into the deep end and being able to learn so much. Apart from my fulltime job, I still enjoy doing photography part-time and working on my blog. In April I will be on my way to Thailand to teach English and see a little bit more of this big world!

What defines you?

One of my passions is trying to help out where I can. If I could be that one little person that makes a small change in the world I think my goal would be settled. In my head I don’t only have one dream… there are so many! I want to travel the world (even though I am petrified of flying), be successful and live an awesome life and growing old to tell my stories.

What are your strengths & weaknesses?

A weakness would definitely be answering this question (hehe). My weaknesses are probably trying understanding why people have to suffer the way they do (whether it is financially or emotionally), asking “why” way too much, over thinking and probably wanting to know too much about everything.

My strengths are being able to laugh (a lot), think creatively, be open-minded, accept challenges and be unique.

What motivates you, what or who is your major source of inspiration?

I don’t just have one specific person or thing that motivates me, I take a lot of my inspiration from my family and friends, they are probably my biggest source of inspiration. My other motivation is working towards making my dreams come true.

What do you treasure most in life?

Awesome memories, friends and family. I don’t think I can elaborate more on that 🙂

Describe your blog and what you blog about:

I blog about things. Most of the time it’s anything I feel I want to share with the rest of the world.

These things include: things I find (on-and offline), secret things and places I discover, people and their talents and the me things that makes me who I am today. I also write and try to illustrate happenings in my life (all true). Some of the stories I blog, I wrote from when I was 13 years old.

What makes you happy?

Just like the song from Spongebob Squarepants goes:

What is fun?

“F” is for friends who do things together
“U” is for you and me
“N” is for n-ytime and n-yplace at all!

Most of what I do for fun always involves the people I love. My fun involves anything from meeting up for a few drinks with friends, going to the beach, horse riding on the beach with my mom, braaing with my dad, chatting to my brother and being a tourist in my own country. I love Photography, being creative (trying to draw or sew clothes), surfing (although I must be honest I haven’t been in a while), cooking and my blog.

What Is Your Ideal Job?

Definitely where I don’t have to sit at a desk all day. If I could run my own company it would have everything from advertising to photography, travelling to far away destinations and blogging about it, helping people, fashion styling and organising events… that would be my ideal job.

How do you personally define success?

Success to me is when you have found your happy place in this big world. It does not have to have anything to do with money, driving a fancy car, knowing the fancy people or living in your fancy-gansta-looking mansion. To me it means, being happy with your job, life, love and most importantly with yourself. Once you’ve got those covered, I believe you are successful already!

What has been your greatest challenge thus far in your life?

This is a tricky one to answer because I feel that everyday so far there are challenges that can either make or break you in the person you are. I believe that as each day goes by, all the things that happen, happy for a reason and that the way you come out of it at the end of the day is what will mould you to the person you are.

I suppose my biggest challenge at the moment is leaving for Bangkok and then going over to Thailand. Doing this on your own is quite daunting but also very exciting.

If you had to live your life over again, what one thing would you change?

I think I would have taken more chances in life that I was scared of doing. Work wise and even personal events. I think if I could change something, it would have been to take a leap of faith, when you didn’t know what else there was to do.

All I can say is that I wish I had as much insight as you in my 20’s! Thanks Claudia that was truly inspiring and I wish you all the success, enjoy your travels and have fun – after all we only have one life, so LIVE IT to the fullest!

Images: Claudia Jones

Be Inspired, Featured Posts, Gift Ideas, Interviews, Lifestyle, Real Women.Real Life, Websites

Heart and Home Online Gift Shop

This week my Real Women – Real Life feature focuses on Kathryn and Vanessa Rheeder, from Heart and Home. Vanessa gives us a bit of insight into the lives, of two local Cape Town mom’s running an online business.

Tell Us A Bit About Heart and Home?

Heart and Home is an online gift shop that was launched on the 9^th of February this year. I (Vanessa) was working as a finance manager in the corporate field and wanted to do something a little more creative and flexible as I am a mother of 2 boys, Josh and James. Kathryn is going to be a mom in September and our online gift shop provides us with the flexibility, of having a business while still allowing us to spend time with our children.

We both share the love of products that are unique, charming and reasonably priced. Our goal was to source products that aren’t readily available in South Africa, to ensure that we offer something different to our customers. We also want to support local suppliers so we have included some local products, which fit our signature brand and style.

Tell Me About The People Behind Heart and Home?

Kathryn and I both live in Melkbosstrand, Cape Town and are sisters-in-law, business partners and long-time school friends. As mentioned above, I am a mom of 2 boys and Kathryn is expecting her little boy in September. Kathryn is consulting full-time at the moment and I used to work as a financial manager for a listed company.

We found a great deal of inspiration from overseas websites when we were designing and developing our brand and website. We love products from the UK, Scandinavia and South Africa of course. We also love visiting food and craft markets in South Africa.

What Are Your Favourite Products & Why?

We stock both local and imported products. We especially love the local, handmade babushka dolls, owls and tepee tents which you can find in our handmade section.

We have only been trading for a month so our bestsellers change all the time but at the moment, the jumbo shoppers are our bestsellers. They come in 4 designs and are made from recycled plastic bottles so they are eco-friendly too, which makes them a practical and unique gift.

What Would You Say Your Personal Décor Style Is?

My personal style is more contemporary with a touch of classic, while Kathryn’s is more classic with a touch of vintage chic.

What Advice Can You Give to Women Starting Their Own Business?

My advice to women, especially mom’s, starting up their own business is to ensure they have a proper support system in place and a separate office to work in. My eldest son gets dropped at crèche in the mornings and my nanny looks after James. I work upstairs in my office and I’m available to spend the afternoons with the boys.

[quote style=”1″]Ask God for a creative idea – He knows you the best and always gives you something original and helps you along the way![/quote]

Make sure you spend time on research, draw up a formal business plan with financial forecasts. It’s important to know where you are going. Ensure that you implement the proper systems for your business. Use reputable service providers for website design, development and hosting. Use good quality images and descriptions for your products as your customer relies heavily on this.

What Was The Biggest Challenge Setting Up Your Business?

The biggest challenges I faced was not earning a salary for the last 12 months and learning to have patience as it takes time to set up the website and to make it profitable. Kathryn is still working full-time so she has had to juggle the business and her full-time job!

Where Do You See Heart & Home in 5 Years?

We would like to increase our product base in the near future. We have to manage our cash flow so we will only introduce new products as and when we can. We have a 3 year financial forecast which we hope to meet. Our vision is to be one of the leading online gift shops in South Africa.

Thank you to Vanessa from Heart and Home for sharing a few of your business and life insights with us. I wish you every success with your business and hope you achieve your goal of becoming one of SA’s leading online gift shops!

Heart and Home are offering a 15% discount off your initial purchase when you sign up for their newsletter, check their website here for more details. If you like their Facebook page before the 31^st of March 2012 and you could win a R350 Heart and Home gift voucher.

Images: Photography by Leigh-Ann Cooke of Love Life Photography

Be Inspired, Cape Town, Children, Family, FAR Photography, Featured Posts, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Poems

My Top 4 Bits of Parenting Advice

I have never really been someone who readily dishes out unsolicited parenting advice – I think I have been burnt once too often by the reaction you get from some people, so now I mostly just smile and nod knowingly! So rather than call this advice, we will file this list under the title of “I wish I knew Then, What I Know Now!”

My Top 4 Bits of Parenting Advice

First up – cut yourself some slack; you most definitely are not expected to be the perfect parent, especially the first time around! Just remember all children will eventually “eat”, “sit”, “walk”, “Sleep” – so don’t sweat the small stuff and do not compare your children with their peers or yourself with others parents (it’s dangerous). We all get there in our own time.

Let your children discover the “world” for themselves, try not to be a helicopter parent, calculating your child’s every move, constantly doing everything for them – it’s exhausting and they do need to find out stuff for themselves. Sometimes they need to “burn” themselves to find out that something is indeed “hot”! Which certainly does not mean you should not protect your child but be careful to not “over-protect” them.

Remember to look after yourself and remember to put yourself first sometimes. Nurture those relationships that are important too, especially your marriage. You are of no use as a parent if you are constantly stressed out, take time out for yourself, find a hobby, read a book, get a pedicure (yes even Dad’s!) – you get the picture!

Last but certainly not least remember to enjoy your children, laugh with them, talk to them, especially as they get older. Very often we are so busy with our own lives; we forget that our children are “people” too. Make time to share family meals, get to know your children, find out what makes them tick, what they like or what they don’t! You may not always agree or get along but that’s life. Just remember that someday they won’t want you around or want to talk to you and then it may be too late!

Walk A Little Slower Daddy

“Walk a Little slower, Daddy.” said a little child so small.

I’m following in your footsteps and I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they’re hard to see;

So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grown up, You’re what I want to be.

Then I will have a little child who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

~author unknown

Be Inspired, Cape Town Lifestyle, FAR Photography, Featured Posts, Gift Ideas, Gift Stores, Interviews, Lifestyle, Real Women.Real Life

Coco li – Exquisite Boutique Gift Store

I never need an excuse to shop and I absolutely adore the Cape Quarter Centre in Green Point, Cape Town. It feels as if you have crossed the Rubicon when you step into the centre; it has a wonderful cosmopolitan air about it and I was certainly not disappointed when I popped in to the centre on Monday, it was a hive of activity. The main purpose of my visit was to interview the lovely Leigh Tzouvanni, co-owner of the beautiful boutique gift store Coco li.

Tell Us A Bit About Coco li?

Coco li is a joint venture started by myself and my sister Lana Goslett. We opened our first store, in 2004, in The Paddocks Centre in Milnerton. We both have a background in Interior Design and architecture and the business was born out of our shared love of all things beautiful. Having a united vision and passion made establishing Coco li an easy venture; what better way to spend your day than surround by all the creative flare and beauty that feeds your passion. Five years later, in 2009, we opened our second store in Greenpoint’s Cape Quarter extension.

“Coco li is the perfect little boutique where you will not only be inspired to spoil someone else but you will also have free rein to spoil yourself. Come and get lost in our treasure chest…” You can expect gifts to be adorned with exquisite wraps that are then tied with vintage lace ribbons and perhaps even finished off with a rose – something uniquely Coco li and a real treat for the recipient of your gift.”

What Type of Products Do You Stock?

We stock a vast array of gorgeous upmarket goodies which range from unique homeware pieces, jewellery and stunning designer clothing, including some vintage pieces. I have even managed to source a few vintage clutches!

When asked what her favourite products are, Leigh’s response was fitting – I love it all!!

Where Do You Source Most of Your Products?

We maintain that 90% of our products are local and we import a few items to fill the gaps. We are lucky to live in the country we do and have access to such talented designers and such well-made local products, which include unique clothing collections from a selection of SA designers.

What Would You Say Your Personal Décor Style Is?

My personal style is definitely quirky with vintage inspiration, a great deal of what you see in store will be mirrored in my own home.

Do You Travel for Business?

I do not do much in the way of business travel at present but as the business grows I would love to travel to source more unique items of interest to add to our growing range.

You Have Developed Your Own Body Products – Tell Us More About Them

We have developed a range of local bath and body products, with the help of a friend of mine Tanya, who has her own range of natural body products, called Naturals! We worked on fragrances and bottling together and our labels were designed by Bridget from loveletterstationery! The Coco li Body Range includes Himalayan Bath Salts, Salt & Sugar Body Scrub, Body Butter and Hand and Body Lotion. These products come in soothing fragrances such as “Chamomile & Rose” and “Vanilla” and for something more invigorating, a vibrant “Ruby Grapefruit”. I am very excited to announce that we are currently in the process of developing a range of diffusers and massage oils.

Thank you so much to Leigh for giving me the opportunity to interview you and learn a bit more about Coco li, it is a beautiful shop filled with exquisite products! I wish you every success with the further development of your Coco li Body Range and we will definitely keep readers up to date with any new products that are added.