Posted on October 15, 2012
I am not a blog expert at all and don’t know the ins and outs about blogging, but one thing that I have learned from being in this silly blogosphere, is that there are a couple of things that one should try to avoid. (I am talking about the so called break part of the ‘make it or break it’ phenomenon) One of the rules that I broke is: one should never ever commit blogging suicide. And well, I have done just that. What is blogging suicide one might ask (mom)? Well, it is when you go MIA for more than a week. In my case, for more than 3 months. Leaving my readers with nada…
And I apologies deeply for doing just that. But you know what, I never started this blog for you guys. Don’t get me wrong, I love each and every one of you and appreciate that you take time out of your day to read about Viv, Lola and me and all of our weirdness. But this blog has always been for me and to document my love for interiors and my growing family.
The thing is, when my granny past away in June, I took some time out. I had to give myself time to reflect and really morn her loss. And to be quite honest, DIY was not on my priority list. Even though DIY is one of my biggest passions in life, my family is an even bigger passion. I also got really really busy at work. I know a lot of people think “what is there to blogging?” It is easy, you wip out a post every night and voila. But with a DIY blog like mine… well, it is a full-time job. It is the D and the Y in DIY that got me to take a break. So, I had to give way for my real job, the one that actually pays the bills. (it’s a bonus that I love it too)
And to put the cherry on the cake, Viv got offered a major cool job in Stellenbosch about 2 months ago. And he took it! Which means that we are moving to Stellenbosch.
Raybelle has been sold.
After a lot of thinking and crying (on my behalf) we have decided to pack up and move back to Stellenbosch.
Both Viv and I studied at Stellenbosch University about 5 years ago. We love Stellies and always dreamt of moving back one day. We just didn’t think it would be so soon. But it is definitely a place where we would like to raise our kids one day.
We love Raybelle! Probably more than one should love a house. Words cannot describe the passion and love we have for our house (sounds creepy right 
) But we also place our relationship and our quality of life first. And for Viv to drive through to Stellenbosch every single day, which means we spend less time together, just didn’t appeal to us. Call us crazy, because there are people driving more than 40km a day to and from their work, but we just couldn’t see ourselves living and working so far apart.
It has been a tough three months. Giving up a house that has become more than just a home, was not easy. I still choke up just thinking about it. But the new couple that will call Raybelle home, adore her just as much as we do. That was one of the most important things that I wanted when we put her on the market. I wanted the new owners to be in love with her too. Not just like, but love!
Luckily, most people that viewed the house were smitten, so we had a really good experience throughout the whole process. (more on that later in the week)
So, we will be moving the first week of January. But here is the exciting part of this post. We are now torn between should we build our next house, or should we renovate again…
Thus, this blog will not be closing down. This is just the beginning of the next chapter of D’vine Living.
Also, I will be launching a brand new, extremely exciting, project on the 1st November here on the blog. This project is something that I have been dreaming about doing for more than a year. And it is finally ready.
And for baby girl, she is not so baby anymore. We love her to the moon and back.
I invite you to the new chapter of D’vine Living. As we embark on finding our next house and making it our home.
It is so good to be back.
Posted on June 12, 2012
Hi guys, just a quick update. My gran passed away, thus I am taking some time out from blogging.
Will be back next week.
Hope you are all well. Take care.
Posted on May 28, 2012
Baby girl had her first trip to the beach yesterday.
At first she had no idea what was going on, and was hesitant to walk on the sand, but as soon as she figured it out she ran around like a kid that’s high on sugar.
It is so amazing how the most simple things are so new to her. Like leaves, she can amuse herself for hours with 1 single leaf. Or digging…. she discovered digging. We are still in the process of teaching her that she can dig all the way to China if she is at the beach, but no digging at Raybelle… we are failing this one.
After about 30 minutes of running around, she collapsed…
and she refused to move.
She loved the beach. These trips will now become a daily ritual.
And the house training… we are making progress. She is such a clever little pup and wakes us up during the night when she needs to go outside to do her business. That happens about 3 times a night, thus… Viv and I go to bed at about 8pm to make up for all the lost sleep.
But she is so worth it. Our ‘lil princess.
Have a great week.
Posted on May 23, 2012
Ever had one of those moments? I like to call it a unicorn moment. Where you see stars and hearts floating around and you can hear angels sing and trumpets are blown and a unicorn jumps over your head and the birds are singing lovely … it’s like a scene out of Snow White… except I never wear that hideous dress in my unicorn moments…
Well, I had that exact moment yesterday afternoon when I got home from work.
Our garden, which looked like this yesterday morning when I left for work…
Looked like this when I got home (insert fireworks and unicorn moment)
Instant Lawn = the next best thing since sliced bread.
Viv and I started out with the garden, but then we realised that we are clueless when it comes to plants and trees and all things green. We visited our local nursery and after walking around for about 2 hours, we knew we were in big trouble. So we gave up and got the pro’s to sort it out. We love to DIY, but we believe that some things should be left to the experts. Also, we have a baby girl now that is in desperate need for some grass to play around on and the winter is here, thus, we need a mud free garden. Cape Town’s rainy days + a puppy = disaster.
So here is a breakdown of what greenery we got:
- 1 Acacia xanthophloea fever tree- aka tree in picture above. Viv has a love affair going on with that tree. He has been wanting one since the day we started thinking ‘garden’
- Underneath the 2 windows (left and right side of the front door) we got Dietes grandiflora, aka, it has cute white flowers (that’s all I know)
- At the garage side of the house we planted a row of Agapanthus preacox… aka, balls of white and purple flowers
- Grass: about 100 sqm of Kikuyu lawn
- bark for the flower beds
- cobble edging around flower beds
Baby girl approves:
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that we will be so appreciative of lawn. Thank you Lord for our new lawn.
And just to end this glorious post and to throw in the cuteness factor:
Have a great day.
Posted on May 21, 2012
Meet Lola, our new addition to the du Toit family. She is a 7 week old Staffordshire Terrier.
We have been waiting for her arrival for what seems like forever and finally she arrived yesterday afternoon. She is the cutest, sweetest little ball of fur. She even matches our TV room’s decor
The first person that we introduced her to was Mr. Monkey Man. She is smitten about him. She sleeps on him and licks him and bites his nose.
Here is our first family photo.
Not quite perfect, that girl is squirmy.
Somehow, Raybelle feels complete now. It is such an awesome experience to have another little life in the house. We love her to bits. She is not even with us for one full day and she is already ruling Raybelle.
Last night was spend next to the fire. Viv was working, I read and princess Lola was fast asleep on Mr. Monkey Man. Perfect!!
The first thing everybody wanted to know this morning is: How did she sleep last night?
She was so good and slept so well. She woke up at 2am. We just tucked her in under her blanky and got Mr. Monkey Man all snuggled up against her and then at 6am this morning, it was all fun and games.
We will keep you posted on our new member in Raybelle.
Have a great week.
Posted on May 17, 2012
It is really hard for me to write this post. So bare with me please.
My grandma is 93 years old and she is the only grandparent that I’ve ever known. The others all past away before I was born or when I was really little. She is the only grandparent that I can remember having in my life.
Here is a picture of her with our whole family back in December.
She has been living on her own since my grandpa died back in 1994.
But she has been really ill the last couple of months and so she has decided to move into an old age home where someone can take care of her 24/7.
My parents had to pack up her whole house and then she distributed her furniture amongst the grand kids. aka. me, my brother and sister.
The stuff had to be transported from George to us here in Cape Town. When that truck arrived in front of our house and they started unpacking, my heart just broke. Life is so strange… she has been collecting stuff for 93 years and now… she has nothing. A suitcase filled with clothes.
It was a really sad moment for me, but I felt proud as I started putting her stuff in my house. Things that have so much memories attached to it. It now feels like she lives here with us in Raybelle.. through her furniture.
That’s why I always say, I’d rather have furniture in my house that tell a story, than to have things around that have been bought at the local furniture store. I cherish these things like gold.
You will remember this pic from this post. My grandma gave Viv and me this really old persian carpet, it still has it’s original certificate. It is perfect for the hallway. I can remember playing with my dolls on it, like it was yesterday. Then that old cupboard at the end of the hall used to sit in my grandma’s entrance and it hosted all of our artwork from when we were little. Well, most of it was my brother’s art, he is the only one amongst the 3 of us that can draw anything worth displaying. I love having it in my house now. It still smells like my grandma’s house and it has such font memories attached to it. When I opened the drawers I even found pens and other trinkets that I can remember playing with when I was little.
She also gave me her couch and 2 chairs that used to live in her tv room. I broke up the set and the 2 seater now lives in our living room.
While the 1 chair is now in the master bedroom and the other one in the guest bedroom.
I am going to upholster them all and maybe even change the shapes a little. I am thinking of doing some chesterfield shape for the 2 seater. See that throw on the chair in our master bedroom? I am thinking of covering it in that colour, to match the colour of the scatter pillows on our bed.
I also got this coffee table. Her brother made it years ago. I am planning on painting it…
I will keep you updated on the transformation that will take place with all the pieces.
Take care and remember to cherish every second you have with your loved ones. You can never say I love you too much! It will never get old.
Love you grandma!
Posted on May 15, 2012
The Raybelle House Tour tab in the menu bar is now up to date. Check it out and let me know what you think. You will also notice a couple of new pieces of furniture lying around the house. Will post all about it tomorrow.
Click here to view.
Have a great day.
Posted on May 14, 2012
I created a new tab in the menu bar, called ‘Raybelle House Tour’.
See that pink arrow?
We forget how Raybelle looked like when we first bought her and how much has changed around here in the last year. It is good to look back and see where Raybelle has come from.
Prepare yourselves for some shocking pictures. If you haven’t followed the blog since day one and this is the first time you see what state she was in when we found her… Good luck. I still get shocked when I look at the pictures and Viv and I regularly talk about how crazy we were to take on this project. It has been so worth it.
Pop in tomorrow; I will be updating that tab to the present. Taking each room to where it is now. Looking at the transformation that has been taking place…slowly.
Have a great week.
Posted on May 7, 2012
Remember these bad boys that I bought sometime last year? I blogged about them in this post.
And this is how they have lived in Raybelle’s living room for the past 5 months.
Yes, I refer to them as my babies. I absolutely LOVE them. They are my most valuable things in our house. If our house had to burn down, I would grab them first.
But they were really ugly babies. They were in desperate need to be recovered, because they still had their original covering (+- 40 years old), which is really disgusting.
Well, babies are now looking gorgeous!
The fabric that shines silver, white/ pearl and shades of champaign, depending on what time of the day it is.
I was planning on covering them myself, but I was scared that I will make a mess as I haven’t done upholstering yet. I seriously didn’t want to try it out on my Queen Annes. I know my fellow DIYers will shake their heads in shame, but I will try and do it next time, with a piece of furniture that is not so valuable to me.
I found this gentleman by the name of Mr. Meyers to cover them for me. If you ever need to get something covered, I highly recommend this guy. He came to pick up the chairs at the house and brought them back after 5 days. And to top it all of, he is cheap. Someone quoted me R1500 to cover 1 chair, he covered both chairs for far less than the initial quote for 1. Here is his nr: 021 392 1739
I love the colour and how it blends in with the white kitchen and dining room and of coarse my hanging chair.
Did you see that little side table in the 4th pic? It is just a glimpse of some exciting stuff happening over at Raybelle. We have welcomed some new old furniture, which are all in a desperate need for an update. Loads of DIY projects to come. Exciting stuff!
Have a great week.
PS. We made our first fire for the winter in our fireplace. (which Viv tweeked with wooden planks as it was making loads of smoke. It looks horrible now, but he did an awesome job and the living room is now smoke free) I dreamt of sitting in my hanging chair with a glass of wine next to the fireplace since the day I bought that hanging chair. Pure bliss. (bad BlackBerry picture)
Posted on May 3, 2012
The one side of Raybelle was in dire need of a face lift. The passage next to the house also hosts our washing line. The ground was covered with weed and other gug that is probably 60 years old. Also, whenever something falls off the washing line, it needs to be washed all over again. Who wants 60 year old gug on their underpants?
Here is the before picture. Rooky error: I washed our white bedding the day that we decided to do this project. Note: it wasn’t a great idea.
Slowly (note the slowly part) but surely we pulled out every piece of weed and grass and removed all the gug.
Now, remember I have mentioned before that Viv is a perfectionist, which means that each and EVERY little weed that existed was removed. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. I had no chance to jippo on this job. He has eyes like a hawk.
After about 5 trips with the wheelbarrow…
we were left with a clean slate. (and dry/dirty white bedding)
and not so clean clothes and shoes
Then we started levelling the ground. Sloping it downward for water to run into the drain and not sink into the ground immediately leaving a breeding place for mozzies. . And then we rolled out the weed guard.
It took two rolls of weed guard ( the two pieces have to overlap 5 cm) to cover the area and my mama was the “keep everything together” person. She does DIY all in style .
We bought 12 cement stepping stones (we had 2 left from our front gate project) and arranged them on the weed guard.
Then we just layered the gravel around the stepping stones.
Ta da! Nice and tidy washing line area. (I love how my washing line folds back onto the wall and you don’t even notice it)
Costs:
Gravel: free (leftovers from building the boundary wall)
Weed cloth: R 260 (R130 a roll)
Stepping stones: R360 (R30 each)
Total: R620 (not bad for a whole 10m area)
← Older posts Newer posts →
Anemone Coco Sticks
Bosch Fine-Spray System
Bosch Multifunction Tool
Nespresso CitiZ
Sagaform Trio Herb Pot
Young House Love
