Leap

In lieu of being at a market this Sunday 2 December (which is also my daughter’s 19th birthday but she’s planned a picnic in Bainskloof with friends and sans parents so I’m not required), I’ve decided to have an Open Day at my home. I did this once before, two years ago, and it was a great success – I invited everyone I knew, including all my neighbours from the complex in which I live, and made one of those huge beer-box chocolate cakes and provided coffee and tea. ‘Cake and Mosaic’ had a great vibe because most of my neighbours are really really nice, plus I sold loads of mosaic mirrors and frames that, frankly, don’t always sell well at markets. Win win.

Now that pretty much all I do is craft, there’ll be other things for sale as well – lamps and lampshades, owls, rag-tag fairy lights, bags, crocheted jewellery, button bangles, bunting, etc. Shew – I’m like a little shop all by myself. (The little shop of horrors…!?)

What this really means, however, is that I AM NOW FORCED TO TIDY THE LOUNGE. I am ambivalent about this – it would indeed be bloody marvellous to have a space clear of crafting stuff and empty bottles and half-baked experiments, but it’s where to begin that’s the daunting prospect.

I’ll leave you with this rabbit which pitched up on my screen earlier. I like.

(image by artist and illustrator lisa congdon)

To be continued…

I <3 Tulbagh

I took an impulsive, unscheduled break in beautiful Tulbagh this week. I am home now, but I think I left part of my soul behind.

This is what I found there:

1. A wonderful friend with a wonderful cottage in the middle of nowhere, a sleeper couch, peace and quiet.

2. A lot of cows. Early in the morning, this one didn’t seem to want to have her photo taken. But I was intrepid.

I felt like a genuine wildlife photographer getting this shot. I’d silently tracked her a good 10 metres along the garden fence, and was rewarded by this split-second itch-scratch.

3. Apparently I was being tracked myself. Mia kept a beady eye on me from the roof.

4. A thousand mountains.

(Don’t worry, I won’t show you them all).

5. A little girl called Lila-Raine, for whom I made a quick headband:

 

6. A peacock who, with a display like this, must have mistaken me for a peahen. I was flattered.

7.  Garden creatures that had my heart stopping with horror when I first laid eyes on them. Tina assured me they were grasshoppers, but they looked like prehistoric human eyeball-suckers to me.  I kept my car windows tightly wound up at all times for fear that one of these things would fly or jump inside my car.

8. An amazingly gorgeous shop that belongs to Susan, Tina’s sister, in new premises in Buitenkant Street. More about the Marmalade Angel tomorrow.

Now you see why I didn’t want to come home.

To be continued…

I just want to…

…make beautiful things even if nobody cares.

I love this fridge magnet – hope you can see it amongst the junk on my fridge! It was a gift from Fabulaura at the Rondebosch Craft Market last week – not sure what I did to deserve it, but I’m not complaining. She makes a wonderful range of fabulous, funny and clever fridge magnets (and other stuff). Another one she had that sticks in my memory is “You are my favourite husband”.

To be continued…

Gail’s turquoise gift and some township art

Gail is a friend of mine who retired earlier this year.  I think she has always been a closet crafter, and one of her retirement presents was a swanky new sewing machine. You’ll see she has been putting it to good use:

At Michelle’s birthday lunch yesterday, Gail gave her this stunning hand-made tea shower, in rainbow colours with turquoise lace.  I was most envious.  (Gail, fyi, my own birthday isn’t too far off….). Not shy, me.

The day before yesterday, I had stopped at the atm to draw some cash for grocery shopping, petrol and other bills (you don’t have to say it, I know I am weird for not banking online, I have an inexplicable antipathy to it); after that, I was on my way to Doreen’s place for a crafting morning.  It wasn’t 10 minutes later that I had been waylaid at the robots by Adam, a most charming young man with a sales pitch and the sort of confidence that even Dale Carnegie could have learned something from.  He was selling his multi-media township paintings, and I was but putty in his hands.  There went most of the contents of my purse.

I now have this on my lounge wall:

and I do love it. Let’s hope I also love living mainly on lentils and government bread for the rest of the month :-)

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bowled over

Today I intend to:
1. Hang up my washing in the sun and not leave it in the machine for another 24 hours
2. Include lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, apples, sunflower seeds and other colon-friendly and bone-building foods in my diet
3. Make Alex’s bedroom good and tidy
4. Not pull rude signs at taxi drivers on the road even though they all deserve every rude sign they get
5. Visit Doreen and tell her how grateful I am to have found her
6. Drink coffee out of my new button mug that doesn’t really have buttons but just looked like it did when I bought it

7. Not allow myself to get stressed over silly small things
8. Get to the post office and send things overseas to lovely people
9. Update my blogroll (DONE) – yay (see right)
10. Shave my legs (winter is over so I can no longer justify needing the extra warmth)
11. Post photos of my most recent crochet efforts:

Yes, they are bowls. I proudly showed the first one to Rob the other night: he tore his gaze from his laptop screen for a second, glanced at my offering, said blankly, “Oh. Nice. What does it do?”, and went back to news24. Pearls, I tell you, pearls.

To be continued…