Miss Earth: Updates & Thank You's

What I've Been Busy With, Plus a Few Thank You's

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a crazy 10 weeks it's been! I've loved every minute though! Felt so good doing what I'm passionate about! 

I wanted to share with you some of the projects that I did during the semi-finals of Miss Earth South Africa - most of you have been keeping up with all my events via my personal twitter and Instagram accounts but here are a few links to what I've been up to lately:

One of my first projects as a semi-finalist was to attend a hospital drive in Soweto for the Easter weekend but I was away with family and friends in Zambia so I decided to hand out Easter eggs to some of the kids along the Zambezi River, you can read more about that here.

Next up, I planted a small vegetable garden at a nursery school in Pretoria. I had such a great day with the kids, they were all so cute and so eager to learn! You can read more about that here.

From the beginning of my Miss Earth journey, I mentioned that I would be collecting gently used clothing and non-perishable food for the Jacaranda Children's Home. I also got a few of my beauty blogging friends to donate some of their beauty products that they weren't using. I was so overwhelmed with all that I received! One whole room in my house was filled with donations! Here is the link for that project. 

I live in a beautiful estate in Pretoria that even has a game reserve in the one section so I knew when I had to my tree planting, I wanted to do it close to home. Have a look at this post to see what this area is all about. 

As my last project as a semi-finalist, I donated food; blankets and jackets to the SPCA in Watloo, Pretoria. I'm a huge animal lover and it was important to me to make sure the animals had blankets and food to keep them happy during the winter. Here is where you can read more. 

And now for the acknowledgments of donations:

Main Sponsor: 

Jesper Kjøller from Ess-Foods

Jacaranda Children's Home Donations:

Sylvia Taylor-Memmory

Irina Domanchuk

Verushka Ramasami

Leanne

Ali Graaff

Hildegarde Koen

Chicara Joubert

Mairi Yates

Heidi Taylor

Alyssa Koorts

Vegetable Garden Donations:

Dolores Grundlingh

Tree Planting Donation:

Jesper Kjøller from Ess-Foods

SPCA Donations:

Alyssa Koorts

Chicara Joubert & Family

Dolores Grundlingh

Stationery Packs:

Dolores Grundlingh

Hessian Bag Sales:

Sylvia Taylor-Memmory

Dicky Bosma

Amy Giliam 

Caron Giliam

Anne Giliam

Dolores Grundlingh

A very BIG Thank You to you all! You son't know how much I appreciate all the wonderful donations!

Another big Thank You goes to each and everyone of you that has been supporting me every step of the way! You are the BEST!

Here are some photos from the events:

You all rock my world and thank you for allowing me the opportunity of spreading the green love ♡

Love always, The Glam Green Girl xXx

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NOTE: Day 151 of 365

Chapter 5

Day 151 of 365

Hi there beautiful!

Today marks the last day of May and tomorrow we head to the halfway mark for the year already! As I've mentioned in every "Day xx of 365" post, this is all about reflecting on what happened during the month.

May was a challenging month for me if I could put it that way. As a few of you know, I injured my leg while on a trip to Zambia at the beginning of March and after 2 months it just wasn't getting better. May consisted of more doctor visits, a sonar and even an MRI and it turned out that I damaged the one ligament by my knee. I luckily don't have to have surgery and instead had 2 cortisone injections but I didn't react very well to them and ended up having to use crutches for a few days. I don't want to jinx anything, but my leg has seemed to be getting better the past 5 days *touch wood* (yes I am very superstitious haha). 

With all this drama with my leg I so afraid I wouldn't be able to perform my projects for Miss Earth and I had to delay a few things which I'm trying to catch up now on so it's been a super busy two weeks. I also unfortunately can no longer go to Livingstone, Zambia at the end of June to plant trees with Greenpop as the winner of the Tree-illonaire blogger competiton because of concerns over my leg. But I'll hopefully be able to join next year and at least I know 28 trees will be planted because of the awesome people that supported me in the competition!

But on a happier note, on Wednesday I went to start a vegetable garden at a nursery school in Pretoria. It was so great to work with the little ones! You can read all about it here. You can also read about my Easter donation I had in Zambia in April. I have a room in my house that is chockablock FULL of donations for the Jacaranda Children's Home - thank you to everyone that has donated something, I'm overwhelmed by your kindness! I can't wait for my other projects next week, follow my personal twitter account to stay up to date with what I'm busy with. For more information on the projects I'm busy with, check out this link. 

Did you manage to check out my blog's revamp? The lovely Chicara from Lipgloss Kisses not only has a beautiful blog, but is also a talented web designer! PS: I wrote a guest review on a hair oil for her blog- go check it out :)

While May has been busy to say the least and I've been trying to say yes to all that comes my way as I said I would in my YOLO/Taking Chances post I sometimes have to stop and remind myself that while I can do anything, I can't do everything.

How was May for you? Good? Bad? Average? Tell me all about it - gush, vent, whatever ;) 

Here is to a rocking June that is already promising to be a goodie!

Can I get a "amen"?

Love always, The Glam Green Girl xXx

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Miss Earth: Project Update [May 2014]

What I'm Currently Busy With For Miss Earth South Africa

Hi friends!

So many of you have so generously asked how you can help support me on my journey as a Miss Earth South Africa semi-finalist and I'm so grateful to you all! As you know, being able to educate & inform others on how to go green is a passion of mine so I'm ecstatic to be involved in the Miss Earth SA program!

Before I carry on, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to say to ESS Foods for their amazing donation towards my green journey as an environmental advocate! You guys are the best!

Here are the projects and fund raisers I'm currently busy with and I would so appreciate your help in any way possible:

© For the month of May & June: I'm collecting gently used clothing for the Jacaranda Children's home (a NPO that looks after the welfare of abused children) in Pretoria and have collected quite a lot of clothing and some of my beauty blogging friends have donated some of their gently used beauty products. Unfortunately, the government has cut their funding and they are in desperate need of food! Please can you donate, even if it's just one tin of soup - it will make a difference!

© For the month of May & June: I will be collecting pet food that will be donated to the SPCA in Pretoria. The SPCA is an amazing NPO organisation that is dedicated to animal welfare. Since winter is coming up, any spare old blankets would also be greatly appreciated! Knowing that an animal will fall asleep in a warm blanket with a full tummy is so wonderful to know! Please let's help out as much as we can!

© I will be donating 10 Staedtler Stationery Packs for the 2015 Stationery Drive. If you would like to donate to this project, each pack costs only R37.99

© On the 24th of May, myself and my fellow Miss Earth SA contestants will be at the Bloubos Spruit in Johannesburg cleaning up litter and alien vegetation - if you would like to join, let me know!

© On the 28th of May I will be hosting my first Miss Earth event at the Pixie Land nursery School in Pretoria. I will be teaching the kids how to grow a vegetable garden and will even be planting some trees with them. I'm so excited to educate the youth on how important it is to look after our environment and to spread the Miss Earth LOVE! If you would like to donate to this event or to come support, please contact me.

© As part of the Miss Earth SA campaign, I will be selling the following (see pictures below):

Consol Grip & Go Water Bottles - R30 each

Miss Earth Hessian Bags - R100

Thank you so much to everyone for all the amazing messages of support I receive, I so appreciate it! Being involved in the Miss Earth program has been a dream of mine so I greatly appreciate all of your support and donations ~ Thank You!

Love always, The Glam Green Girl xXx

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NOTE: Day 120 of 365

Day 120

Chapter 4

Hi everyone,

Wow April has been an incredible journey and if it's any indication of what's to come, I say "bring it on!".At the beginning of the month I attended the launch of the darling brand 27Pinkx at the utterly fabulous Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg. This cruelty free brand is all about make up storage, make up and all things pink! 

And in terms of super exciting news, about two weeks ago I found out I had made it to the next round of Miss Earth South Africa and have qualified as a semi-finalist in the programme. I'm so excited to start my journey as an environmental advocate and help spread the Miss Earth LOVE!

I spent the Easter weekend in Zambia and you can read more about that here - it really was a great trip (as usual!).

And some more exciting news: I won  Greenpop's blogger competition of 'Who Wants To Be a Tree-illoniare' as the blogger who managed to raise the most trees! A huge THANK YOU to everyone that supported me and donated to the awesome "Trees for Zambia" cause! You rock! I'm so excited to be heading up to Livingstone at the end of June as I've never been there before and I'll get to plant trees; paint murals; educate kids and make lots of new friends - plus I'll get to go see The Victoria Falls which I'm totally freaking out with excitement about! Please join if you can! You can read more about "Trees for Zambia" here 

I started these "Day xx of 365" posts as a way of looking back on what's been accomplished in the month and as a way of my readers reflecting on whether they are sticking to their 2014 resolutions or not- so I'd love to know how April was for you? Anything exciting happen? Did you manage to challenge yourself and go for one of your goals? 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

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ZAMBIA: April 2014

Easter Weekend in Zambia

April 2014

Hi everyone!

Sorry that my blog has been so quiet - I was up in Zambia for the Easter weekend and since I got back it's been go; go; gooooo and I can't seem to find the snooze button? Not that I'm complaining, I love being busy! Don't you agree?

So for the Easter weekend I went up to Zambia again (here's the link to my trip in March) with my family and friends. We stayed at a different lodge to where we usually stay and I loved it! It's a lodge called Gwabi River Lodge and is situated on the Kafue River which runs into the Zambezi River (it's about 6km from the Zambezi River). We also got to see a lot of our friends that live in Zambia so it was definitely a winner of a weekend!

Here are some of my photos from the trip:

The sunset on our first night

A local fisherman reuses plastic bottles as a fishing technique.

I managed to catch a 4kg Tiger Fish, the biggest fish I've ever caught! YAY! Like I've mentioned before, on the Zambian side of the Zambezi River it's catch and release so this big boy was set free back in the water as soon as I had taken the photo and weighed him.

On the Saturday, we stopped off on an island in the middle of the river (first checked to see that there weren't any animals having a picnic there) and had a braai under the beautiful trees. It was so cool having the island to ourselves.

Definitely one of my favourite shots from the weekend!

Found this wild cucumber while I was walking around the island

I think this will be one of our new hot spots for lunch!

A beautiful elephant family we passed by, how cute are the babies?

As part of my Miss Earth South Africa initiative (more info on that coming soon) I spent Easter Sunday sharing the Miss Earth love by dropping off some Easter eggs at a village in Jordan, Zambia. To see those smiles on those kids faces was just too precious!

At Gwabi River Lodge they are busy cultivating saplings of indigenous trees as their way of offsetting their carbon footprint and to help stop the deforestation that's occurring in Zambia *Go Gwabi!*

Another reason why I love Gwabi is because of their cool natural water filtration system! As a lodge they are certainly playing their part to help the environment!

Those that follow me on instagram would have seen this photo that I posted last night. It's one of my favourite trees along the Zambezi River and I always manage to capture a great shot of it (this hasn't even been edited!). 

All in all, it was another successful trip to Zambia and I cannot wait to return soon!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my latest trip - comment below :)

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