My Room...

We are moving in 3 sleeps. That's actually just 2 days of packing left & I've just run out of boxes. It is amazing how many one needs for a move...

It has been a long time since I lived in my parent's house... I went to boarding school from age 14.5 which was my first big "solo" move - back and forth from Espin House with my big blue trunk. I still have dreams about packing my trunk - it would disappear to who-knows-where once unpacked at the beginning of term...and reappear magically at the entrance to the dorm room at the end of term - (or was it year end?) to prepare for home-going. Thinking back, it seems a bit like the Harry Potter arriving and leaving Hogwarts... how easy it is to  romanticise experiences when looking back!!

I went through so much in that room in my parents house. I fell in love for the first time... read letters from and wrote letters to my crushes... agonised about life, love and everything else with my best friend. I escaped here when I was feeling sad... read scary novels on my bed... cut out photographs and stuck them in my scrap book... recorded late night music on my tape recorder & listened to my collections until the tapes stretched...

I liked to move my room around once in a while - this mostly involved moving my bed to a different location within the room. I remember making changes late at night a few times when not being able to sleep. (I don't think that mom approved - especially when coming to wake me in the morning & things being different to how they were when she said good-night!) It was important for me that I could change things - make them my own in this small way. I must remember to allow my daughter to move her room around as she pleases one day too. ..and also remember that even though I am her mother, I will not always know what's best for her.

My parents have decided to make a move from life in our family home, and so they have put their house of 20+years on the market. Because I have not lived there for so long, I am not overly concerned about being sentimental that it won't be our family home any more. Our family home will be wherever my parents are - which, for the next chapter, will be their newly renovated lock-up-and-go flat in Mosselbay where we spent Summer holidays swimming in the sea, tanning on the beaches & walking through the streets on hot Summer nights (dodging cockroaches) with after-sun on our skin, the smell of the sea in our hair & ice-creams in our hands.

Romeo & Juliette?

Someone I'm following in Pinterest posted this image:

Skeletons locked in eternal embrace. It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet. After being found at the site where a factory is planned, people worldwide have speculated on the circumstances surrounding the couple's deaths. They are thought to have died young because they both had all their teeth intact. But beyond that, the skeletons are a mystery. Archaeologists announced Monday that they will move the entire block of earth the skeletons are resting in for further study and eventual display in a museum. source

This image touches my heart & makes me want to have a really good sob...It is incredible that there is the skeletal evidence of these two people who tenderly faced each other, entwined in embrace at the moment of death & so far beyond.

I look at this image & try and imagine what is most moving about it...
It could be that it is so obvious that they loved or were infatuated with one another - whatever the circumstances around their death...
...or that it is so beautiful that two people who adored one another, have their remains on this earth - that they have not been separated after death...
...or that I see myself lying in a similar posture with my love - close to him each precious night & I feel so blessed to have him - knowing we have a limited time on this planet together in human form: it makes my heart ache to think of it ever ending.

Baking Friday...

Grace's first birthday party was set for the 4th of June & I offered to make some duckie cupcakes & a cake topper for her birthday cake... It took me a few days to make all of these & I had a lot of fun mixing colours and trying to figure out how to make a duck not look like a chicken!! These were the results:

cake topper for big cake < >  mini-ducks for cupcakes

...and while I was at it, I baked a cake (mom's fail-safe best chocolate cake recipe) for Danelle's birthday party which we attended on the night of the 3rd which I decorated with loads of 'plastic icing stars'! :

Danelle's Birthday Cake :)

View from the Top

I just LOVE the things I find on Pinterest & around the internet... I am so happy with the boards I've set up as far as categories go so I have decided to start introducing some of my favorites on my blog :)

My board of the day is:

Click HERE to view this board.

and my pin of the day comes from that board:

The source of this photograph's post before Pinterest is here... To re-quote from Airline: Identity, Design and Culture by Keith Lovegrove.“In stark contrast (often to the point of prudishness) shown by most airlines to that date, in 1973 Southwest Airlines threw caution to the winds with its stewardess uniform. ‘The girls must be able to wear kinky leather boots and hot pants or they don’t get the job,’ said the airline’s male bosses.”

Stan and I were living with T'Neal (and quite frankly driving her mad I think). One night she gave us some of her hard saved money & sent us off to movies so that she could have the flat to herself. We decided to see View From The Top & enjoyed it so much! ( I've seen it a few times since! Plus I just love Gwyneth Paltrow! )

A clear distinction is made in 'class' in the movie & the uniforms that the air hostesses wear play a big role in defining the kind of airline the girls are employed by - from the colour and design through to the type of fabric used - and the ultimate: "First Class International" - and in particular: New York > Paris the coveted job destination (and uniform) for our leading lady!

 

The irony of the situation is that people used to 'dress for flights', and yet the hostesses were dressed provocatively! 

In this day and age, one never sees air hostesses that aren't beautifully presented -- I just cannot imagine a professional airline such as Emirates with air hostesses dressed in any other way but in their smart red and tan outfits! :

Who Wants To Not Be Skinny?!

I just found the most awesome ad promoting Ironized Yeast to help women put on weight so that they don't have to be skinny any more!!

I just LOVE the intro: 'Now there's no need to be "skinny" and friendless...'

The original website that it came from is here

Staying Creative

I think that these are great principals to implement in order to stay creative:

 

 # 27 is particularly challenging (especially when dealing with an invisible dead mouse which stinks & is generating flies on top of having displaced my entire workspace!!!)... and I could do with a touch more perfectionism & less breaks that amount to procrastination... and must remember #19 and get more rest!!

My 32nd Birthday....

It was my birthday on Sunday & such a beautiful day with Geoff & my family...

I got spoiled with a Le Creuset cast iron oval casserole pot which we've already made Moroccan lamb shanks (from the Entertainment Ideas magazine from my mom & dad) in... I've been dreaming about owning one Le Creuset for many years now - it is a great asset to our kitchen repertoire ...especially now that its chilly and Wintery..!

Geoff and I drove through to Kalk Bay where we had breakfast at The Annex with my Mom, Dad, and T'Neal, Dave & Grace. 

Grace turned 1 on the 1st of June & is just about the cutest thing on hands and knees!

From breakfast, Geoff and I headed North on the N7 and ended up at Riebeek Kasteel for the night... On Monday we looped upwards & back down to Cape Town along the coast - stopping in at 2nd hand shops to look for shop stock (I realised that in addition to closing the fridge door & my stomach now getting in the way, I can't actually fit between narrow shop isles any more!!)

Pintrest

I just LOVE Pinterest!! 
Finally there is somewhere on the web where I can just save all the things I see that I love into categories in order to do something with them at a later stage. Its so much better then saving things into folders on my desktop because its so much more interactive! ...I love linking straight through to projects, tutorials, printables & recipes from one place! ..and of course, seeing who follows me and what they've been pinning.

Sometimes something funny will happen eg: these 2 photos ended up next to one another so it looks like the girl's hand extends to the next frame for the cat to lie on! :

Time to stop pinning & start making....as soon as we have more room (*watch a space close by!)

Lack Of Blogging?

I have actually been blogging -- but not on this blog... and otherwise it seems that I'm spending waaaaay too much time collecting & not making things off Pinterest. I just found this little cartoon which illustrates the mindset of the procrastinatory brain state:

because, yes: it does feel like I'm procrastinating quite a bit on things that need to be done. It doesn't really help that I've hit the 3rd trimester 4pm exhaustion which is comparable to the 1st trimester 4pm exhaustion *(luckily without the nausea!!)

I have been getting things done, but at a rather random pace involving much fitting & starting.

Black Swan

Geoff and I went to see Black Swan a couple of weeks back.... and I'm so pleased we did!
It was a very strange and twisted movie, but the scenes... the characters... the acting... the subject matter etc have stayed with me all this time: I keep on thinking about the movie & how amazingly it was styled to convey the mental state of the lead character... and how well Natalie Portman carried it off.

Its been a long while since I was so impressed with a film...no wonder it did so well in the awards! :)

Fun with Dwain & Danelle

Geoff and I LOVE a little eatery in Simon's Town run by a really awesome girl from Bloemfontein. Her restaurant / coffee shop has just been re-branded 'Cooked' and the food is really brilliant!

Dwain & Danelle came through from town & met us in Kalk Bay...we decided to go for a drive & ended up at Cooked for a really lovely meal (& great company of course!)

We spent some time back in Kalk Bay - in the park where Dwain & Geoff took advantage of the amusements:

Josh

My sister-in-law, Karen, sent me this wonderful pic of my little nephew, Joshua, just before a big rugby game recently... he really is such a beautiful boy & I am a very proud aunty!! :)

Most Major News

The most major news, and the reason I've been slack at blogging *(Besides that I've been away traveling a bit) is because I've been having to rest a lot more than usual because I am pregnant! (Thought it was finally time to announce it on my blog!) As of today, we're 22 and a half weeks in & all seems to be going really well! We'll be having a little girl at the end of August 2011.
I am looking forward to starting my own little family ♥

Progress can be followed here

Early Morning Kalk Bay

I got up at the crack of dawn with Geoff a number of weeks ago to go down to Kalk Bay for breakfast... we went really early so that he could get a surf in first, while I had fun with the camera! :

Beautiful Kommetjie

It is such a privilege to live in a city that has so many beach options! Geoff & I often go for walks along Kommetjie beach & I'm constantly amazed by how different it can look from one day to another... Sometimes the beach is so covered in kelp that one has to dodge it & try not to slip on it. Other days, such as the day in the photographs in this post, the sea is so calm - with perfectly symmetrically breaking waves...the sky changes colour every few seconds as dusk creeps in & one can just breathe deeply because the air is so crisp and fresh ♥

 

Mom's Birthday

T'Neal and Dave, Geoff and I joined mom and dad for mom's birthday on the 16th of April this year: "camping" in the flat in Mosselbay. As usual...too much food & WAY too much cake was had by all ....along with a bit of champagne (not preggie me! - but I had 'extra cake' to make up for it!) :)

More Pool Fun

We've had so much fun in the pool with my underwater housing for the G10.. Here are some more of the best pics:

My mom, dad & little niece, Grace!

Water Slide Fun!

Hartenbos is a favorite holiday destination for many people & families - especially over the December holidays. My family has gone there for years -- the best thing to do was always the supertube ride....piles of elastics round our arms marking how many turns we had left to slide down with the swirling water.

They have built a huge fun park which has replaced the old supertube which was right near the beach... Here we have the most fabulous selection of water slides:

1: a very shallow slope
2: a wavy slope (little steeper)
3: a steppy slope (little steeper again)
4: a pretty steep scary slope (so steep!)
5: a vertical drop (just downright terrifying!!)

Here's a closer look at the vertical one.

(don't you just love my poser in the foreground?!)

Where Do All The Toys Go?

In December we were at the monthly auction that we like to attend. Walking around the back room, I discovered a 'graveyard' of macabre-ness in the form of these dolls that had most likely been loved by someone, now discarded and up for auction.

My friend Elaine who has Woo-men plush toys told me once that people sometimes don't want their toy to go into a bag because it won't be able to breathe. I find this fascinating! ...just because things have faces, that they should be treated as if they are alive & need oxygen to survive....?? Even more so then, the theory should apply to dolls which are modeled on humans:


and yet, these dolls have been left, in public - unloved - with their hair removed..


or naked....


or with their pants down...

There were dolls that I've never seen before --
"Happy" "smiley" dolls dressed in 'animal costumes'




all thrown together in these very sad, orphaned circumstances.

Needle Felted Rose

I found this pattern & its a great one! I made some lovely thick-ish felt (wet felting) & cut out various circles, of which most of them had to be halved...and then they all get needle felted together.

I cut a heart out of regular, store bought felt, and glue gunned & hand stitched it on with a pin.
This particular one was for my Artist's Book Club's Christmas bring & swop 1 gift. My friend Heidi got this as her gift & promptly attached it to her handbag :)

Bunny Nuggets

I got into knitting these adorable 'Bunny Nuggets' whilst traveling to and from George over December...I made a few for Christmas presents (for my niece {she got a pink one}, nephew & my cousin's little boy). Of course I've kept one for myself :)


Find the pattern here

James' Last Few Days

My Canadian friend James lived in Cape Town for a while for work which was great as I got to see him again after many years! (We met in London as we were working for the same company doing 'street pitching' sales)...

We went out for a final day out just before he left - including a visit to Boulders to see the penguins.. a trip to Cape Point and a walk along the top of Diaz Beach.. ending up at friends of his for a 'last supper'

James & his sister at Boulders

Banana Crêpes

One of the best things about visiting Asia (particularly Thailand & Indonesia) is, without a doubt, banana pancakes for breakfast!

I've tried to make them on a couple of occasions but have not been very successful...until Monday! Here's what I got them right after a few tries:

Banana Crepes:

Mix together:

• 1 happy chicken egg (free range)
  
• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 2T olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1T castor sugar
• add milk until the mixture is a nice pouring consistency.

Method:

• Heat a little olive oil in a good non-stick pan
• pour and spread a thin layer of mixture onto the pan
• cook the one side until it lifts easily from the pan (light brown)
• Flip the crepe over
• put THIN slices of banana on one half of the crepe & fold the other half over the banana half
• cook on both folded half sides till golden brown

Serving:

• Serve with good honey! (I recommend Bluegum Honey from Woolies!!)
  

(pic from this site)

Back in the Day SA

My (much mentioned) (and well deservedly so) friend, Elaine, has an ongoing project in which she sources, sorts, scans, blogs etc etc slides from wherever she can get them. Elaine holds the occasional themed slide show with theme(s) such as 'boats and beaches','urban spaces' or 'people and families' for interested friends. Pete organises some music and voila: an evening of art and entertainment.

These slides provide a voyeuristic glimpse through the eye of random South African photographers & photography enthusiasts' slide collections from long ago..

One of the many extensions of this project is the Back in the Day SA blog which features a pick of amazing slides which have been scanned...

...with a few pondering remarks as to what was going on. Visit the blog for a view into 'yesteryear South Africa'

The Tudors

Geoff and I have been watchin an episode of The Tudors almost every evening... we're nearing the end of Season 2... Pete & Elaine have also been watching, and we've been relying on Elaine's inquisitive nature & internet browsing skills to fill us in on what really happened in History. (It turns out that the script follows history reasonably accurately, with the embelishment of rumours becoming realities in the series).

I just can't help feeling sorry for many of the women in the story. The king is not a very nice man at all. (Actually, most of the men in the story are rather wicked.)

3 episodes of season 2, season 3 and 4 to go!

No Parlo Americano

I hadn't realised that there was such a cool original for the radio remix 'No Parlo Americano' >

because I simply LOOOOOOVE the remix!

Family Fun

We visited our friends, Peter & Yuliya & their two boys, Sasha & Max just before Christmas... We had a fantastic photoshoot with them:

They have the strangest spider installation in the bushes at the entrance to their home.. These spiders have taken up residence & joined web-forces to create a massive mega-web:

Saving The Pigeon

When Geoff got home yesterday, we discovered that a (probably first) flying lesson had gone into a bit of a disaster with this baby landing in our pool:

We saved it with the pool net and put it into a crate with some newspaper, food and water. This morning, the bain of our balcony (a mating pair of rock pigeons) were cooing around the crate looking all puffed up and concerned. We're uncertain as to whether this bird will survive. Its not looking good....

Marbled Orb Weaver

Watering our garden the other day, I frightened a HUGE spider that ran across its web and into hiding when the hose water found it. I finished watering & found that the spider had re-claimed its position in the center of its web...I fetched my camera:

...& looked it up online:

One feature of the webs of some orb-weavers is the stabilimentum, a crisscross band of silk through the center of the web... The band has been hypothesized to be a lure for prey, a marker to warn birds away from the web and a camouflage for the spider when it sits in the center of the web. However, recent research suggests that the stabilimentum actually decreases the visibility of the silk to insects, thus making it harder for prey to avoid the web. The orb-web consists of a frame and supporting radii overlaid with a sticky capture spiral, and the silks used by orb-weaver spiders have exceptional mechanical properties to withstand the impact of flying prey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb-weaver_spider