Rondebosch Craft Market 22 September

Some photos of our morning at Rondebosch Craft in the Park yesterday, including Laura from Fabulaura with her stunning beads and bows, Barry from Portsmouth with his wonderful wooden goodies, beautiful African dolls, baskets from Bali, Megan and most huggable father-in-law Donny, the hat lady, the bike man and his handmade trailer, and of course the always effervescent Anne and Jill. Just a happy accident that we were in team colours!

By lunchtime, the skies were greying over and the wind started to pick up. Some of Laura’s display stands got blown over and, as we scrabbled on the ground picking everything up, she said, “Ah, the joys of being an informal trader…but at least it’s better than selling at the robots.”
Indeed.

Happy Sunday, everyone, and happy long weekend to the South Africans! (Tomorrow is Heritage Day).

To be continued…

Every person’s worst enemy

I know I am not the only person who ever experiences self-doubt. Apart from the obvious, Why would he be interested in me with my stretch marks and crooked teeth?, or I’m sure they’ll never hire me over that sexy 25-year old MBA graduate, there is also the one where you give up before you’ve even started: There’s really no point in trying to write a novel/ learn to quilt/ design your own clay bowl because you’re useless and everyone else has already done it better. Don’t even waste your time, budget brains.

So, as I plan my day of last-minute preparations for our Open Day tomorrow, I find I am having to contend with that sarcastic, self-deprecating voice in my head that says, No-one will want to buy anything you’ve made, fool, it’s too average. In an effort to squash it, to kick it in the guts with all my strength, I took a little wander around my flat and took pictures of just a few of the things I own which other people have made, and which I love .

In random order: a ceramic jug, a lino cut, a knitted teddy bear (made by Anne), a porcelain doll with crocheted clothes that used to belong to my dad when he was small, a painted plate, a woodcarving from Bali, a decoupaged hook holder, a felt rabbit, a mosaic heart (by Francois Kolver), and a clay pot.

Perhaps the people who made these also sometimes wondered what the hell they thought they were doing. Yet here these things are, validated by my choice and ownership of them, and representing so much more than just their material selves.

Right, shoulders back, chin up. Let me go and give a final rub to those mosaic mirrors.

To be continued…

Hello, Olly

For various reasons (the details of which I will not bore you with), my mind today has been in a state of chaos and anxiety.  I feel like I am not in control of anything right now.  I know that I won’t always feel like this and, in fact things might improve within the next hour or two (one never knows!),  but writing this blog helps.  And all through this difficult morning, of all absurd things, I couldn’t get the idea of pipe cleaner dolls out of my mind.  I found out about them from Maryanne’s Woolhogs blog, right here: Rainbow kids

And so I sat myself down a few minutes ago with the required materials in front of me.  And now we have…Olly.

Olly is unicolour rather than rainbow, and he has a bit of a hair problem, but he was indeed quick and easy to make.  And if making Olly is the only thing I manage to accomplish today, then so be it.  I’ll just have to go with the flow.

To be continued…