red and read

I dug out my glue gun yesterday afternoon and made an impromptu ‘moomflower’ to take to a friends’ party.

The flowers are mostly red but I did six in different colours to represent my two friends and the four children they have between them.

Then I got carried away and painted my nails red. Rob calls them “harlot tips”.

Today, Sunday, was a day of extreme sloth.  Mostly I read: The Shining Girls by South African writer Lauren Beukes. If you like good horror fiction, you’ll love this.  I think I’ll stop reading when it gets dark.

Also, fantastically and wonderfully, the weather seems to have changed since Friday and temperatures have returned to levels at which human beings can function properly.

And for those of you who don’t know Cape Town, here’s a link to 52 Places to Go in 2014 from The New York Times – we’re numero uno! Thinking of visiting? I’ll happily volunteer to take you on a shop crawl of all the good craft and wool places :-)

Back soon x

Advertisement

tin can lid coaster and doily lamp

I was so inspired by Janette’s coasters and bowl (The Green Dragonfly) the other day that I had to try one myself:

I used Vinni’s DK Nikkim (cotton) and a 3.5mm hook. It’s turned out slightly bigger than I wanted so the next one will be with a 3.00 mm hook. I wanted to try an idea that I came up with all by myself, thinking about garbage and trash all the time like I do, and a smaller coaster would obviously work better. I did it anyway!

Glue a piece of felt or soft fabric to one side of a tin can lid. The can opener I use makes a pretty smooth edge on the tin but there might still be a bit of sharp here and there, so that’s the side I stuck the fabric on.

When it’s dry, trim the fabric so it makes a neat circle. Smear some glue over the other side of the lid and press the coaster onto it (wrong side down).  I put the bottle of glue on top of the coaster so it would dry nice and flat:

If I was going to make these to sell them, I would make sure my fabric side was perfect and that no tin showed round the edges (ie. when you look at it sideways). But for my own coffee mug, I’m happy with it just as it is.

Apart from coasters, I also have doilies on the brain. Jam Tarts is going to be at the Doilie Market in Durbanville this Saturday,  and I’ve been up to lots of repurposing with vintage doilies to give them a new lease of life.

This is my new bedside lamp: a doilie draped (permanently!) over a wire frame and the stand made from a liqueur bottle (cabled up by Rob wearing his electrician’s hat), painted white, then coated with modge and white tissue paper. I got the idea for that here.

Better go tidy the kitchen now. You can imagine what a mess it’s in.

To be continued…

another moomflower

I can post this pic now because the moomflower has just been collected and is about to be handed over as an early Christmas gift. It is for my friend’s niece, who is 14, and apparently she has always admired the one I first made for Alison (here).

Please note: this is my first attempt at using Ribbet (www.ribbet.com), and clearly the possibilities are going to be endless. It’s a free download and has loads of special effects and fonts and stickers… I thought I should start putting the Jam Tarts name on my pics in case any of the big international interior designers stumble across my stuff and think how incredibly original it all is hahahahahahahaha

Rondebosch Night Market = big success, by the way. Yay. Exhausted.
Normal Rondebosch market on Saturday morning again, and then I’ll do the Kalk Bay market on Sunday. After which, I really really will break for Christmas.

To be continued…

and this little piggie went to market – again…

This December festive season has really wiped me out – and we still have four more markets to go!

Despite mixed reaction to my memory shade, I still love it and think the idea has potential. I concocted this today and will be taking it to the Rondebosch Market tomorrow to judge the response from objective strangers. Must remember to put my hard hat on.

And it’s official – the Western Cape is in the middle of a heatwave, so I need no excuse to rub myself with ice cubes and then lie immobile in a cool room. It’s brain-fogging heat.

To be continued…

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…