Gold medallists: Cameron, Chad and Lisa

It’s hard to believe we’re in August already. Time sure whizzes along – just like our phenomenal South African gold medallists, Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos. (The only Chad who has a permanent place in my heart is, of course, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, but today we celebrate the swimmers, ok?)

I can post again because last night I put the finishing touches to the first draft of the Jam Tarts website. It will be up later today. It’s a work in progress but, for now, it at least means we have an internet presence. (Who knew that kind of thing was such flipping time-consuming work?)

And, in other news, yesterday I collected an unanticipated parcel from the post office. I managed to control myself and not rip it open in front of the post office teller like a rabid 4-year old.

Turns out to be a gift from my Virtual Friend Lisa G—– way over in Iowa in the US of A, who deserves a gold medal herself for wonderfulness. She made me very happy, and I will treasure those crochet hooks and bookmark forever. As you see, the bookmark was immediately put to use: I am reading Imraan Coovadia’s third novel, Green-Eyed Thieves (having read his other three in no particular order). For those of you interested in South African literature, the psychology of twins and white-collar crime, and the traction between individual consciousness and external reality, this is for you. He is also very very funny. Coovadia deserves his own gold medal. But not as much as Lisa :-)

As usual, I’ve gone off the track. I’m going to end off with something Lisa herself said, about blogging and crafting and, ultimately, about life itself: “It really IS all about the crafting and the fun and the joy of giving and the making new friends with similar interests.” You’re right, and thank you again.

To be continued…

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Blanket day

I have nothing crafty to show for my weekend and feel rather bleak about it.
On the other hand, I got some other things done.
1. Found a great big fat red paper heart at the charity shop.

2. Started and finished Tim Parks’ latest novel. Utterly compelling.
3. Picked up two sad little lampshades at a moving-on sale, soon to get a new lease on life.

4. Ate McDonald’s next to the sea in Fish Hoek.
5. Went to a 21st party on Saturday night. Shew, those kids!
6. Put in a truckload of hours working on my website. Still not done, though. Sigh.
7. Had a super intensive blanket day yesterday.

And now – NEW WEEK AHEAD. Time to get cracking on it.

To be continued…

My competitive spirit

The deadline was midnight. I had managed to send in five entries for the Celebrating Creativity competition, and was feeling pretty chuffed with myself. I enjoyed compiling the tutorials and playing around with ideas (not to mention wool, beads, glue, buttons, glass, wood, foam, etc…) so just the doing of it all is a winning thing for me.  I think I will go on to develop all those new ideas into new items for the Jam Tarts range. They are:

1. the heart decoration

2. the mosaic mirror and stand

3. the lampshade with flowers

4. the knangles (!) (sounds like something Roald Dahl might have dreamed up)

5. the footstool cum storage box: (much more about this one later)

and then, at the 11th hour, I had the idea of making a crochet chain rope necklace and adding beads, so we have Entry #6:

And if you roll it up even more, it works as a bracelet!

Who knew I was so competitive?! If anyone would like a copy of the tutorial for any of these items, send me your email address and I’ll send you the word doc with pleasure.

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

 

Have a heart

Our local Ideas magazine is running a Creative Craft competition again this year. You can enter in any arty crafty category, and the deadline was nicely pitched far off into the future. Til June. June 12. Just 11 days away. From now.

Being organised, I compiled a list of possibilities, sublisted into Potential and Definite.  I duplicated the list so that one copy is on my fridge and the other is on the wall next to my pc in the spare room.  The list is also on my phone in the To Do section.

However, being a procrastinator, I never do today what I can put off til tomorrow. Consequently, only one item has so far been completed (and it is still drying), but I’m posting it nevertheless:

 

It’s a little hangy heart thing, made from a blank covered with shweshwe fabric, hardened and glossed with Podge, and decorated on both sides with a ceramic heart (made with airdrying clay in a chocolate mould) that has been painted, varnished and golded (gilded? engoldened?). It’s not going to change the world, but I’m pleased with it nevertheless, especially as I have mosaiced more hearts than anyone ever should, so it made a nice change to do something with paint and glue.

Right, Item #2 here we come.

To be continued…

 

 

Happy Friday

Today after work I went to the art room at Springfield Convent in Wynberg to collect my glazed and fired platter, the one I couldn’t quite get right those few weeks ago in the clay workshop, you may remember? Well, my design is indeed skew but I’m still pleased with the final product, and I love the turquoise.  There is a tiny split in the clay at the edge in one place, but apparently some platters just don’t make it through the firing process at all, so I’m not bothered. I’m sure if I submerge the platter under enough cupcakes, no-one will even notice!

I took the liberty of taking some photos of other people’s work, including Dale’s own mosaic mirror and her beautiful little houses. 

Some of the other work is by the art learners at the school, so I guess some of them are as young as 12 or 13.  Pretty talented bunch!

This was the temperature in Cape Town this afternoon while I was on my travels:

So much for autumn. My scarves and hats will have to stay at the back of the wardrobe for a while yet.

To be continued…