Recycle, refashion, renew… and earn some cash with Rewardrobe

My friend Clouds did a post about this place called Rewardrobe a few weeks back.  It’s a gorgeous little store at 89 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock which promotes both looking out for the environment by recycling clothing, as well as thinking about those less fortunate by donating to charity.  Her post totally inspired me to clean out my wardrobe at once!  You see I am unfortunately one of those people who sometimes (more than I’d like to admit) buys things and then never wears them… some things even still hang in my cupboard with… dun dun dun, the tags on!  Something I’m not very proud of.  So I figured it was time to do a “master cleanse”.

But how exactly does this Rewardrobe concept work?  Well, they collect second hand clothing from people like you and me which they then sell in store.  Those items that do not sell gets donated to charity or you can even just drop off things you’d like to donate (if you don’t already have your own place you go).  But the best part is that you can actually make some money out of this process.  You see, you can sell your unwanted wardrobe goodies in just 4 easy steps:

  1. Work through your wardrobe and pull out anything you haven’t worn in ages.  My general rule is usually:  If I haven’t worn it in the last year – it’s gotta go.
  2. Then split these things into 2 piles:
    - Things that have hardly been worn and are therefore perfect to sell
    - Things that you’ve gotten lots and lots of use out of and therefore can be donated to charity.
  3. Freshen up that pile that you’d like to sell:  wash, iron, hang up or gently fold.  Nobody’s gonna want to buy that blouse with a big spaghetti stain on it people!
  4. Download & complete the inventory form, giving everything a price.  Email the form to them and then drop off your goodies plus a print out of the inventory form.

The lovely ladies at the store will then do one of two things:

  • Offer you cash up front
  • Tag your items and place them in store for about 6 weeks.   For the first 4 weeks it’s sold at your requested price.  Then if not sold, it goes on the 25% off rail for another week and then lastly the 50% discount bin after.  If still not sold, you have the option to either collect your items again or you can ask them to donate it to charity.

Rewardrobe will take a 50% commission (they are running a business here after all).  And they can also price your items for you at a fee of R150 if you can’t come up with your own prices.

So after following the easy steps – I headed over to Rewardrobe this past saturday with a bag of goodies to be donated and then a pile of other things to sell.  The process was so easy cause they just offered me a cash up front deal and I walked out of there with a cool R600!  How awesome is that?

I didn’t linger around too long thanks to my fear of immediately spending that R600 again, but I’ll leave you with some piccies I took of the store.  They have pretty much anything and everything you can think of in there:  From super cute accessories like brooches & belts, to sexy heels and fun, quirky fashion finds:

So do yourself a favour and pop in ASAP.  I absolutely love this concept.   It’s good to know that you have a place where you can find a pretty unique item as well as get rid of some of those impulse purchases, cause like they say:  One fabulous girl’s fashion mistake is another equally fabulous girl’s fashion treasure. ;)

xxx

I ♥ WeWood

I first heard about WeWood watches about 2 months back when my friend Darryn whipped out his awesome new wooden watch which he had won in a competition.  That dude wins like every single competition out there… I secretly hate him for it. ;)

Anyhoo… So this week I was trying to figure out what to buy a certain someone for his birthday.  Men are sooooo bloody hard to buy for!  Chicks are simple:  Anything that looks pretty or smells good and we’re as happy as a pig in poo poo.  hehe.  I was going through a checklist of criteria which I knew would be key:

  1. Must be different / unique in some way
  2. Must be funky & fashionable
  3. Must make people stop and comment on it

And then it dawned on me, a WeWood watch would be the perfect thing!!!   So I popped over to their super cute store at Albert Hall (208 Albert Rd), Woodstock:

Too adorable for words...

Now you can actually buy online from their website, but I’m one of those people who like to see things in person before committing.  I like to hold it, feel it, smell it, connect with it… you know what I mean. ;)

From their men’s range, I really love their Crono watches (R999).  They come in 4 colours: Black, Green, Brown & Beige.   Here’s the Green & Beige options:

They all have this really cool blue display light for checking the time in the dark.  It’s very impressive, trust me on this one.

The ladies range is a bit more colourful & feminine.  Here’s their Army Brown Date and Beige Brown Date options (both R950):

Then I was also excited to discover that they’ve started doing wooden sunglasses as well.

OK OK, this picture is more about the cute doggie pic in the background...

A pair of sunglasses will set you back R1400 – but they have fancy pants Carl Zeiss lenses, so they’re not sommer any old sunglasses people.

According to Michael, the lovely guy who was assisting me, they have a new women’s range coming in soon.   As I’m a total sunglass whore, I might be popping in again for that.  Hmmmm…  This time round though, I had to keep focused.  I wasn’t there for myself.  My mission was clear:  Get the perfect gift!

So what did I settle on in the end?  The Crono in Brown:

Ta da!!!

Stunning right?  I just love the grain of the wood.  It’s so beautiful.  A little piece of art from Mother Nature herself.

So seriously guys.  Check this out for yourselves.  It wins my best cool new product of the year prize for sure.  I’m also happy to report that the gift went down as a major hit.  Who’s the best gift giver in town?  Me!

xxx

Cosmo puts on one hell of a show!

On Thu eve I attended the Cosmopolitan SA Lingerie fashion Show 2011.   How did I get in exactly?  Well the lovely Bjorn Steinbach sorted out an invite for me.  You see he got invited because he is Cosmopolitan’s very own Mr December on their 2011 Sexy Man calendar, check it out:

Hotness. AND December happens to be my birthday month! Bjorn's not just a pretty face, he's a talented actor. Go check out his IMDb link above to see what he's worked on.

The event took place at the amazing Upper Eastside Hotel in Woodstock.  I had no idea this place even existed, and I was blown away at how impressive this venue was.

There were lots of little stands where you could peruse through sexy lingerie.  Revlon offered mini makeovers and you could even have your photo taken with some Wonderbra hotties.  Triump went for a “live display” option:

Wait, those mannequins move! ;)

I picked up my complimentary Absolut Vodka coctail and we went off to do a bit of exploring and mingling before we were asked to take our seats for the show.  We were very lucky to have 2nd row seats, just look at how excited we were:

Ready to see some hot chicks in some hot lingerie... oh yeah.

The show featured all of the lingerie ranges from the September 2011 Cosmopolitan Lingerie feature.  This included some sexy items from Wonderbra, La Senza, Jockey, After Eden,  Temptations, Shelley, Edgars Free 2BU, Triump, Maidenform & Sloggi.

It opened with quite a bang – very Victoria Secret fashion show inspired, but with a SA twist:

Then Adeline Mucke (accompanied by Albert Frost) did a sexy number for us.  You’ll probably remember Adeline from the SA Idols top ten last year.   I don’t really follow SA Idols, but I was very impressed by her singing ability…  she has a great voice, and clearly she’s also a total bombshell:

I have to just show you a piccie of the stage, was so cool with these huge doors which were opened by some scantily clad muscle boys at the beginning of the show:

I must also note that the models in this show were some of the hottest women I have seen in a long time.  The line-up included big names such at Tracy McGregor & Lieschen Botes and they all made me promise myself that I will be spending way more time in the gym from now on!

From angelic whites we went to some Naughty & Nice lingerie:

Then we got to drool at the absolute hotness that is Aidan Bennetts:

Aidan is not just that hottie from Top Billing and a talented designer.  He also happens to be a Muay Thai champoin, hence the fighter themed ramp appearance.

Then there was some more hot & sexy lingerie:

A mini burlesque show:

And Arno Carstens came out to do a song:

Lastly, the grand finale, all in red:

My favourite biets, Leigh (aka Lipglossgirl) was also amongst the lucky invitees:

Bjorn surrounded by women... lucky man.

And I also got to catch up with fashion blogger, Jasna Zellerhoff (aka Fashionjazz):

Geeze that chick is tall! Poor Leila and I look like dwarves... haha

We got to enjoy some snacks and even got to bust out some moves on the dance floor before we needed to head over to the Global Party at the Fez.   Was having such a great time though, I didn’t really want to leave!

According to the invite, the event was put together by the PR people at Associated Magazines.  For those who don’t know, Associated Magazines publishes Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, House and Leisure & The Oprah magazine.  Fantastic job guys!  Was a seriously impressive event. :)

Check out the Cosmopolitan SA website for all the official event pics.

xxx

PS:  I just found a cool piccie on Thunda.com from the party:

The cutie on my left is Siv Ngesi – check him out on the new Castle Lager ad where a group of SA guys head over to London to check out how they do a “braai”.   Love it. ;)

It’s time to pimp out your place of residence

If like me, you are totally over the “OMG I got all this stuff from Mr Price Home for like under 500 bucks!” phase in your life and you now appreciate quality furniture & decor, then you’ll love this little shop at the Old Biscuit Mill that is home to both Abode Interiors & Quirky Me.

An abundance of awesome unique pieces...

They stock everything from creative art works, beautiful mirrors, interesting light/lamp shades, quirky ornaments to reupholstered antique chairs and more.

You name it they've got it... even some kitchen wares

They also had a small display cabinet with some intersting hand made jewellery pieces – a little too dainty & pretty for my taste, but very cool one-of-a-kind designs.

I really loved those two black canvases with the names of all the big cities from around the world... perfect for a trendy loft apartment.

The shop definitely gets ones creative juices flowing.  It gives you some really great ideas for making a boring space more intersting.  And for adding a nice quirky touch to your home. I mean who still wants stock standard, run of the mill stuff in any case?

Also loved the wicker lamp shades. Who would've thought that wicker would actually make a come back!?

Yes – the items you’ll find here are not going to be cheap.  But you’re not exactly getting mass produced poo from China here people!  Live a little, buy something different, I guarantee you… whatever you buy here will make you smile everytime you look at it.

I didn’t make a purchase here on this visit.  But trust me, I’ll be going back. :)

Happy shopping guys &  gals. xxx