At the moment I feel like my laptop is about to explode with been overloaded with to many amazing ideas and pictures. I try and keep everything I really like together and then print the pictures later. So I put together my ideas and thought to share them with you.

In this picture you will see I’m loving, gramophones, long hair, alarm clocks, wall hangings, would love love love a imac (biggest dream ever to own one besides going to New York), crocheting (something that I havent learnt yet to do!) and coco chanel. These things put me in my happy place!

Roxzanne and I have been on holiday for the past two weeks and it has been great. We both have had a very busy first term at School. I (Simone) am a Grade 4 Teacher and Roxzanne is an assistant to the Grade R Teacher. We both have been putting our all in to the School and still at the same time running ‘Roxies and Monies’. We have been really blessed with having two great stores that stock our products: Frillies (Jeffreys Bay) and Journey 2 Joy (Pretoria).
The one thing we both hoped for this holiday was getting inspiration for our business and for our classroom. What is inspiring me at the moment?

TV Madness

As silly as this may seem TV Shows inspire me most of the time when I am being creative. The latest TV show which I absolutely love is ‘Jane by design’. Roxzanne can take credit for getting me hooked to this new TV Show. It reminds me of the good old ‘Ugly Betty’ episodes. The show really leaves you with a feel good moment where you want to go out and do something great. It centres on a high school student named Jane Quimby and her love for fashion. She is attending high school plus being an assistant to a designer at a major fashion design house in New York City. The secret is that no one at school knows she is a fashion assistant, she is only meant to be an intern and no one at the fashion house knows she is in high school. Jane is trying to juggle both secrets at the same time with the help of her very awesome friend Billy Nutter. I would really love to know where they come up with name for the characters very unique. Jane also lives with her guardian big brother Ben Quimby who gave up college and a baseball career to look after Jane. He teaches at Jane’s school and is actually really quirky. Anyways it’s a cute show that really stole our hearts.

Silly Songs

Music in general inspires most people, but different types of genres inspire different types of people. Lately I have been watching American Idol Season 11 and I must say there are so many great talented singers this year. My favourites have been Phillip and Elise. Their singing has been incredible but also the choice of songs has been outstanding. Last week they sang a melody of three ‘Fleetwood Mac’ song with Colton. After hearing the three of them sing I really wanted the ‘Fleetwood Mac’ and ‘Stevie Nicks’ albums. Another thing that I have enjoyed while watching AI is watching Phillip Phillips even though there are stylists and make-up and hair stylists Phillip stays true to who he is and he is not ashamed about that.
Hailey Reinhart: She was a contestant on AI last year. While Roxzanne and I were watching 90210, she performed one of her songs called ‘Free’. It is such a beautiful song. Dia Frampton: She was a contestant on ‘The Voice’. I heard her song called ‘Don’t kick the chair’ over the radio and loved it. It has interesting lyrics and a very cool rap in the song.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan collars have been the latest fashion trend on the runways and now it is all over the magazines, blogs and Pinterest. I love the colours and that some collars are detachable and you can put it on different clothing items like dress and shirts. I have translated this trend with using vintage ribbons, doilies and lace pieces on my journals. I bought one the other online so will post pictures soon.

We thought we would make your giving a little sweeter by turning your buying a blanket into a competition. For every person that donates R35.00 for a blankie you stand the chance to win an awesome prize (shown in the picture below) a owl tote bag and a owl journal to the value of 105 bucks.

Its almost winter here in South Africa. With this happening, I have been thinking about the children in my class who walk to school everyday and when it rains they all get a lil wet. Some have rain jackets some don’t. And I have been thinking of a practical solution. I really wanted to knit 45 blankets for the little kiddies in my class; so that when they come to school wet I can give them there own blanket to keep warm. I spoke with my mom and sister about my idea and I started trying to collect wool, with not much response I went to the shops to see how much wool would cost, the cheapest price I could find was R13,50 a ball. Today I went to the mall and we found blankets for R34.99 each. My mom said the amount of money that it would cost to get enough wool for even just one blanket and how much time it would take to knit 45 blankets, I should rather try and get money together and buy the blankets.

So with this all on discussion, I thought that buying the plain grey blankets would be pretty cool. As then I can use felt and blanket stitch their names on to it. I want to be creative and make the blankets personalized, I want them to each have a blankie. If you can we would really love you, to help contribute to this cause. All we need is 35 people to donate R35 each! If you would like to help please email me at info@roxiesandmonies.co.za and I can send our banking details to you. Thank YOU so much!!!

There is lots of new things happening with Roxies and Monies. We are trying to get everything up to date and trying to figure out what needs to be done for our business to be successful. We have had an amazing term that has taken up lots of our time. I, Roxzanne, have changed careers and have found that my discuss to do so has been the best discussion I have made in my life so far. I finally feel like I’m doing something with my life. With all this new change, its taken me a while settle in and find my feet. Looking forward I know that I have to put more effect into Roxies and Monies.

With saying all that Simone and I have been strategizing about what we need to get done. Firstly we really want to finish our online store so that you can buy products straight off the net. So please if you see the store options DON’T try them just yet, we will let you know when you can press that add to cart button!

Secondly we are going to be at the Happy Hippo market at the end of the month (31st March) selling our goodies, we have decided not to go back to the Tecoma Market as we are over their knit picking on how we display our things, that our table cloth isn’t touching the ground and having to be there at the crack of dawn to set up just to be told we cant stand in our normal place because we blocking the view of someone else’s paintings that are on display and the list of complaints continue. So we won’t be going back.

Thirdly, we need to find more places around the country to sell our things. Frillies, here in Jbay, have been a great help to us, to have our stuff there constantly on display, so do pop by. New stock will be available there shortly. We are also stocking our things at Journey to Joy in Pretoria which has also been a great blessing to us and we look forward to what this friendship will bring.

Fourthly we feel we need to find exactly where we would like to place our profits. We really feel strongly about this as this was and still is the reason for our business. We have been giving but we want to focus on a specific cause, so will keep you posted about our decision.

We will keep you posted, so keep your eyes peeled on updates and new products and what is happening with Roxies and Monies.

Some really sweet quirky ideas we loved…

Wishing all our ‘Roxies and Monies’ family, friends, supporters and anyone else who has contributed to this dream of ours we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a blessed time with loved ones and has an inspiring, creative, brilliant and amazing 2012! We look forward to sharing all our inspirations, dreams and creative craftiness with you again in 2012.
We still have one more market for 2011 so come and get your journals, totebags, notepads and more at the Tecoma Market on Wednesday the 28th of Decmeber.

We are happy to announce that Frillies have now opened a store in Jbay, on the main road (da gama street, opposite the Sunflower coffee shop) and we Roxies and Monies are stocking our things there which is the added bonus! We are super excited and bankrupt because this store has really beautiful clothes at a very amazing price. Something that Jeffreys Bay lacks is originality when it comes to clothes. When I first moved here if you never had a surfing brand on then you were a serious outcast. That’s why I’m over the moon for the Frillie’s store. Madelene you have amazing style and we wish you the best of luck with your new store and maybe you can teach Jbay a thing or two about fashion!

Since I can remember I have always wanted a basset hound and this year was the year that it all happened. And wanting one basset turned into getting two bassets. I thought to share with you a few resent pictures that I took this week, they are now just over 7 months and weigh a ton, literally the last time they stood on the scale they weighed around 18kg EACH! They are really the cutest lil pups ever though and just know how to steal your hearts and your shoes…hehehehehe!!!

Cinema Moment

Have you ever seen that movie ‘Open Season’? Elliot the buck with one antler finds himself scrounging around in a dumpster and comes across a cup of coffee, his first re-action is Yuck. Yuck. Yuck! , then he re-tastes the coffee and says ‘it’s terrible and wonderful at the same time!’ and his last reaction is ‘Freedom in a Cup!’. This is probably my favourite part of the movie and we so happily have Ashton Kutcher who lends his voice for the character Elliot so it adds that extra charm to the phrase.

My Collection

I (Simone) not only the co-owner of Roxies and Monies I am also a full time teacher with a class of busy Grade Rs. I am convinced after this term that Coffee is what gives us teachers that extra go in the classroom. Just as we go through chalk, crayons, red pens and stars, we go through just as much coffee. Here starts my collection of coffee mugs. The first coffee mug with all Effiel Tower is from my trip to Paris (oh! how I wished that was true) it’s actually from my other favourite place Canal Walk in Cape Town. I saw it and then naturally had to buy it, because I would never find that in Jeffreys Bay and secondly it’s got to do with Paris, bought myself and Roxzanne one. The second mug with the New York map is something I bought in Jeffreys Bay, this lovely cup has the beautiful New York on it and I had to get it. Roxzanne got one of Rome with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Roxzanne’s dream been that one day we will see the Colosseum in Italy! The third mug is a gift from my father and again Roxzanne, they bought it for me from Welkom in the Free State. How lovely is that saying? I was at first offended that it said “Suck it up Princess but then Roxzanne mentioned how much I love crowns so she was forgiven. Five outta ten for you! The fourth mug is one of my favourites. I really enjoy soccer and my favourite team from the La Liga is Real Madrid and my favourite player is Mesut özil. My one friend Michelle is also a huge fan of Real Madrid and her favourite player is Sami Khedira, so for her birthday I got this special mug printed for her and of course I needed one too. With all those late Real Madrid games that come on after 11pm you need something to keep you awake.

Best Cup Yet

The last cup is quite special; my friend Litzia asked me to be her bridesmaid and with the invitation to ask me if I would be her bridesmaid, she included a cup (her obviously know my cup obsession). On the one side it says ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ and on the other side it says ‘Now Panic and Freak Out’ sort of how you would feel on when you are a bridesmaid. I never go into any shop without looking at the coffee cups. It’s a must!