Franco Buys tells us more about his food journey.   Meet Chef Franco Buys, an award-winning local chef with a passion for good food. If you joined us at the Homemakers Fair earlier this year, you would have seen him in action in our Air Fryer theatre, and you’ll know just how great he is. We sat down with him and got into the details of what inspires him, what he loves eating, and what his views are on Marmite (it’s a nope!). When asked about the journey that brought him into the Kitchen and cemented his place in the South African Culinary landscape, he credits his childhood and spendin ..read more

(Don’t worry, you can still drink wine!)   Storytime I have a confession to make: (ok – more than one!) I once baked 63 full sized spinach muffins. I have also made 31 jars of marmalade, and I currently have seven large Ziplock bags of flash frozen cherry tomatoes in my freezer. I need help. I absolutely love spending time in my veggie garden. Some of my happiest memories growing up were of me foraging in my mom’s massive backyard veggie patch and eating peas and green beans from the vine. Since becoming a mother I’ve now figured out that a veggie garden is the perfect toddler playpen a ..read more

Brighten up your winter with these rainbow vegetables.   There is more to the rainbow food than fruit salad and smoothies. We have all seen those TikTok’s celebrating brightly coloured rainbow smoothie bowels or fruit platters. Lovely, probably delicious, but full of expensive berries and watery Dagon fruit for the most part. What if we told you there are other, amazing, all natural, healthy and exciting ways to get your rainbow foodie fix this winter? Celebrate the abundance of vegetables. For all its colourful tastes, the fruit kingdom lacks certain colours. If you’re looking for true ..read more

 Practical self-care hacks that’s not about having a shower.   When you are a toddler, mom is everything. When you are a teenager, mom is annoying. Now that you are older, you’ve probably realized…mom was right.   In modern vocabulary, “Mom” is not a noun, but a verb. The face of “momming” has changed dramatically over the past decades. It’s not only accepted but expected of women to financially contribute to the household, and while dad’s around the world are stepping up, (millennial dad’s in particular are spending about 3 times more time with their kids than previous genera ..read more

Food for the changing season. The moment the temperature (and the rain) starts falling, you can’t turn around without bumping into a blog or magazine spinning tales about stews and soups or prattling on about pancakes. While we do like these (worn out) “winter – warmers”, we have a couple of fresh favourites for you to try this season. As much as we love a “hearty stew” or a “nourishing soup” packed full of nutrients and vitamins to fight off the winter sniffles, we also believe there is magic in these downright delicious, slightly less nutritious but perfectly comforting South African class ..read more

Safety, Shatterproof? What do these words mean? For the love of glass Since we created that very first piece of glass more than 4000 years ago, humanity has been in love with the lustre and versatility of this magical material. Suddenly we could create a transparent material to use in all manner of household applications. Glass has grown up. While our love for all things glass remains the same, its apparent that modern glass will be unrecognisable to our ancient ancestors. The size of glass panels and windows, the intricacies of glass art and its applications in some of our most innovative t ..read more

Are you missing out on your garden during the day? Plant a moon garden. How often do you spend your weekends knee deep in potting soil and lawn mix, just to head off the work at the crack of dawn on a Monday morning? What is the point of slaving away in your free time to create a perfect garden, but only your dogs and neighbours get to enjoy it during the day…With sunlight hours getting less and evenings starting sooner, why not rethink your landscaping to give yourself something pleasant to look forward to when you drive through your gate. What is the point of a moon garden? A Moon Garden ..read more

Superclean: how to find the balance between “good” clean and “bad” clean.   Let’s investigate the UV disinfecting   Loving the sunlight Humanity has had a love affair with the sun ever since that first dawn. We have cloaked it in myths, we have created a bunch of different sun deities and gods, and Icarus even found his downfall by not respecting it for the awesome power it has. (or so the myth goes…) For South African’s the sun is playing an important role at the moment. Where our government and service providers are failing us, we are looking (well, squinting) up at the sun for o ..read more

Superclean: how to find the balance between “good” clean and “bad” clean.   What’s the point of anti-microbial materials.   Have you missed a step in the clean home routine? Post pandemic the world went a bit Clean-Crazy. Everything was suddenly anti-viral anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. While this was probably just an over reaction to our fear of the unknown and the shocking realities of covid, there might have been some method in our madness. While things like disinfectant cleaners, sprays, hand sanitizers and even shoe sanitizers or covers became common place, one thing we all s ..read more

Don’t neglect your side piece.     Bedside tables deserve more attention from us.   A nightstand is a piece of furniture we rarely think about. Like salt on your steak, you only really notice it when it’s not there…It does such a thankless job, and we think its time for this neglected side piece to be given some main character love. Let’s talk about what makes a bedside table such a universal piece of furniture, and how we can give it the love it deserves. It keeps your electronics, your books, your jewellery, your favourite lip balm, your expensive face cream and your life-sa ..read more