APRONS!!!

Yay! I got the pictures of the Mosaic Works aprons off Geoff's camera....sadly I didn't get either of the kiddies Lolita ones I made but hopefully they'll send a pic or 2 through....

Moving Again

I have been so busy and therefore so quiet on my blog.....I have been thinking so much about writing here but I never get the chance to log in and give my full attention!

12 Aprons got delivered yesterday to Mosaic Works after having a seriously "D'oh!" (said Homer style) moment with the lovely girl who owns the place..... well, lets just say I gave her a very un-censored crit on her terrible website......which was not actually her website as dumbass me had typed the wrong address in.......and of course she gave me a hug in the end thinking 'what a bitch' and I phoned her 2 weeks later to confirm apron delivery.....popped onto the (correct) website and to my amazement it was BEAUTIFUL! So of course I said "your website is GORGEOUS!" and she said..."its been like that for a year". I won't put down the first one but http://www.mosaicworks.co.za/ is really beautiful and everybody clearly knew what they were talking about when they said it is a lovely site. *sigh*

So as luck would have it, I went and forgot one of the aprons at home as well....(see picture)...Geoff keeps running away with his camera with the rest of the pictures on so I will post them at a later stage...I must say: I think they came out really well...now to keep up with demand......

Sandy always has interesting links on her Gtalk text line thingie....today she has a link to 'Damien's Blog' which is really cool.............here's a sample:
Oh! To give myself moments to be creative like this...................

Speaking of which: I had a long dream about the Mosaic design I want to put together for our new, completely unfurnished chipped-tile kitchen!! The walls are painted...the floor paint is drying...and TUESDAY is moving day! YAY! although not yay for the packing but we'll get this place sorted out (hopefully) before Tuesday so we can make a nice seamless move up the road to our new pozzie with lots of space to play in! (not to mention the view!)........Will have to post a 'before' (current flat) and 'after' (new flat) view pic...So the count-down begins.......hopefully we can get everything ready on time.....


I also had these thoughts about cool things that Miss Molly can make...and one of my ideas has been really pretty eye-masks....and then I found one online just now at Coco Ribbon...

So watch http://www.missmolly.co.za/ 's catalogue page!.....we may even pop them in one of our 'Cracker Jane' party crackers......

....and in other news....I'm glad we're not moving here:

'Tourist'
(isn't she adorable!!)

SOCKS!!!!

I have been sick for the past few days.
Not really really sick...just a head cold. but still. It has not stopped raining. Work is POURING in as well and I'm not complaining but I am finally feeling as if I want to be well again...perhaps enjoy the puddles.

Some people are just not good at emailing. I need to learn to accept this fact.

I also need to learn that matching socks are not the most important thing in the world. The truth is that I feel really really sad for socks that get seperated from their partner. I also feel terrible for the person who gave me the socks because the lone-sock will never get worn. Not on its own.
I started off with 8 socks. One wash later I only have 5.

What to do?

Do I buy them some new friends and mix-and-match matching socks?
Do I try and go against my fashion senses and wear un-matching socks?
Do I buy 50 socks that all look the same...pink for me and black for Geoff and not worry about matching socks ever again??

Who knows what the solution is.

The big Q

Having a change of surname is not a fun task.

Why is it that wherever we go we are subject to Queue's?

Why is it that there are not more bank people who know how to shift from station to station depending on the need. Do they only learn how to work at one post? People who work in banks seem to have a lot of breaks and I always see them walking off with their handbag, JUST before I am going to be next in line. It is a cruel joke of the universe. It would be nice if someone could please enlighten me on this matter so that I can reduce my frustrations and be more patient.

I usually have to go to customer services (internet banking doesn't cover this one). That is where one always gets to be in the shortest queue with the longest waiting time. Or the longest queue with an even longer waiting time. And they only usually have 2 consultants. The ratio is, on average, 5 customers waiting to every 1 consultant. The foreign exchange lady does nothing but file her nails and smile at the waiting queue every now and then. I can't quite figure out if she feels sorry for us or whether she's laughing because she's not going to do anything about it and gets to file her nails instead..

I would find it really hard being stared at expectantly by the entire queue whilst trying to do my job (if I was a bank customer services consultant)...each person in the queue wondering --
'will it be customer services consultant number one....or will it be customer services consultant number two?'
Or perhaps, part of their training is 'Module 28: Ignoring the Queue'.

I had to wait in 2 queues in the bank. Two. They went and gave me a world cup soccor bank card with my maiden name emblasoned on the front when I specifically requested a silver card with my married name. I made her cut it up. Now I have to do it again. ....

• I spent 45 mins on the phone for this 2 months ago and stood in a queue for about 3/4 hour to give them my marriage certificate.
  
• I just got my new ID book. I had to queue 3 times for that....(Application, Temp. collection, ID collection).
• (I still have to go and change my Passport.)
• Spent an hour in the traffic department queue for my new driver's licence card with my shiney new surname...(I have to go back and queue to collect it).
• This is the bullet point for all the ones I've forgotten about. There are bound to be some.
  
• Now I have the task of changing everything to my married name.
  

I must say in defense of my new name that it is a lot simpler than my maiden name was. In the end, I get to have a new signature and a name that, I am proud to think, sounds like a movie star's. It sounds famous. I really like it...

I am confident that when my name has earned its keep, I will feel that all the queue'ing will have been totally worth it.

I look forward to that day.

DHC

It is common knowledge to most people that the rules of general etiquette and DHC (Decent Human Consideration) include:

If you would like someone to come to your party:

• Invite them a few days in advance. Better planning could save you a lot of disappointment.
• PHONE them so that you can speak with them and get an immediate answer if you require knowledge of their attendance right away.
• Respect that people may already be engaged in plans for that evening (even if they planned not to do anything specific) so the longer in advance you can invite them, the better.

If someone does not turn up to your impromptu party:

• You have no right to be angry at those who didn't turn up if you only gave them 1 hour's notice.
• Waking people up by ringing their doorbell and screaming profanities into their speaker phone at 2.15am is not acceptable.
• Sms'ing profanities about other people's supposed lack of DHC at 2.30am is also not acceptable. You are the one who is lacking in DHC.

Apology

• It is better not to say anything. It is, however, important to apologise in the right way if you feel you need to say anything at all. Which you probably do so:
  Keep it short.
  Do not embelish with reasoning.
• It is not acceptable to apologise in such a way that you defend your actions.
  You were wrong. People were sleeping. You were drunk.
• Remember that you cannot place expectations on other people. Disappointment is your own problem which you must deal with in your own time.
• Friendship and respect are earned - not to be taken for granted.
  Turning up drunk on someone's doorstep at 2.15am does not earn you any respect or a desire from others to be your friend.
• Remember to apologise to other people at the party who's night you spoiled with all the talk of those who did not turn up.....
  ....especially if it is your daughter and your impromptu party was arranged as her farewell. It is only your fault if nobody turned up.
  Take a second to imagine how your daughter must have felt....
  'Fare thee well to London lucky lass and be thee rid of thine mother's serpentine tongue.'

There.
I've vented.
It is finished.
I am going to put it behind me and try not to pity this poor woman..

We do not have a TV.

Geoff and I went to a meeting today. The lady we were speaking with asked us if we have DSTV or MNET.

We told her we dont have a TV.

She literally started at us for a few seconds in sheer disbelief.....Does not compute..... Eyes wide. I could feel the cogs in her brain clicking over - trying to process the possibility of someone actually not watching TV. ....Does not compute.....It was like all her favorite shows were flicking brain numbing vibes through her cranium while she contemplated the fact that we were not watching them. We would miss the Friday night Movie tonight. Late night ETV perhaps?? ....Does not compute.....

She then muttered something inaudible about her disbelief before saying 'I have never met someone who doesn't have a TV.' and THEN she said (total confusion in her voice) ' What do you do? '

OK. We were in Durbanville. Not that there's anything 'wrong' with living on the wrong side of the 'boerewors curtain'. Lets face it. There is a different mentality thing going on on that side......

To quote my ex-boss: 'When you drive into Bellville / Durbanville after work you have to have your ear-muffs on because the sound of '7de Laan' is blaring so loudly from all the houses that you could go deaf if you do not take preventative measures'....'and on weekends you have to drive with your fog-lights on to be able to see the road through all the braai-smoke'! (and this, coming from someone who LIVES in Bellville).

So back to our lady. We just smiled at her. She said 'Do you talk...or read? What do you do?'

What does one answer? Nothing would seem better to a TV addict than curling up with a cup of hot chocolate and zoning out on 'whatever's on'.

The truth is, we're probably a bit addicted to the internet. There. I said it. Geoff and I often talk about the merits of Computers vs TV. Truth is, we don't feel we need a TV. We watch our movies on DVD, in bed, on the laptop. We Google all sorts of fantabulous things that we want to learn and know.....we cook together...clean the flat together.....eat and talk and walk and sit on the balcony with a guitar (Geoff) and my bad singing voice (me) if I feel inspired to deafen the neighbours.

It is a wonderful life. I love my life. No TV neccessary.

Miss Molly Cookies and Bookmarks

Miss Molly is doing all kinds of interesting things!

On the left is a bookmark designed for a law-firm...

Shells and I also baked cookies in the shape of a house and put tags on the top of them......how satisfying to have another job well done!

Rita's 60th High Tea Miss Molly Cookies

Today is a lady called 'Rita''s 60th Birthday High Tea organised by her daughter...

Phase 1:

Invitations were hand-delivered to her with an individual, custom-made Miss Molly lime green sparkle cookie with 'Rita's 60th' written on the top in white.

Phase 2:

Jars of cookies and a heart-shaped casing for each lady attending -- with a little 'thank you' tag...

Happy to say that all went really well and Shelley and I are very proud these cookies!

We trust that they are being enjoyed as I type :)

Nooks and Cranies

My sister and I went to a mosaic class on Wednesday night. I must admit I had no idea what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised at the lightness of the workshop...It was organised by IDEAS magazine and the lovely person, Jaqui from MosaicWorks led the class. See my first ever mosaic above (Not finished. Believe me, we tried! Started off all perfectionistically and got more and more random as time was running out!)

What is it about 'Nooks and Crannies' which is so totally hilarious. Or is it just an 'in-joke' between T'Neal and I ??

Geoff's comment:
'Well done, my LOVE! ....(a moment's pause)...It looks like scarey eyes.'
My comment:
No comment. I must say I agree but I hadn't noticed it till he pointed out the blaringly obvious truth. It will look more like a butterfly once the body is in.

I hope.

Fingers full of crumbs

Finally I have a picture of my totally amazingly delicious breakfast rusks! (recipe in a previous post).

All I can say is: YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!!

I added lots of sunflower seeds.....tons of raisins....poppy seeds and oat bran. They came out totally chewy and crunchy all at the same time. I am chuffed. Totally chuffed. And the best is that they take hardly any effort to put together!

I must admit that I forgot to put the raisins in and they had been in the oven 2 mins already when I realised. Can't not have raisins!

SO I put the raisins in and stirred it around a bit to get them all covered in the peanut butter flavoured batter before baking them for the hour they needed.

As a result, I got a section which stuck to the bottom! What fun to sit in front of my laptop with a cup of tea and fingers full of seedy peanutbutter crumbs to eat out of the baking dish.

YUM!

Word of the Day: Crestfallen

http://www.dictionary.com/
crest·fall·en
–adjective
1. dejected; dispirited; discouraged.
2. having a drooping crest or head.

Although the first one is more appropriate for the context of my last post, I think I would like to imagine, literally and in cartoon form, the second one.

—Related forms
crest·fall·en·ly, adverb
crest·fall·en·ness, noun

"They crestfallenly wondered what on EARTH had happened to create such gross physical disfigurement as crestfallenness"

"The crestfallenness of the kingdom gave way to new definitions of what should be considered beautiful: 'Your head droop compliments the shape of your face so exquisitely' ".

Its all sick. I know.

For more correct, non-cartoon imagining inducing information, one of the best sites on the internet is http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

You can even play hangman! I just won "megalomania".

meg·a·lo·ma·ni·a
n.
1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.
2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.

Is the universe is trying to tell me something?

Monday Madness anyone?

Sandy's Gmail one-liner text for today says "Monday Madness anyone?" which I took to mean that today is Monday and she's having a crazy day..anyone for tennis?
The truth is, I'm ignoring it completely and adding entries into my blog..pretending I can't see it and therefore, it can't find me...

Good on Sandy for advertising group get-togethers in such a passive way. No Facebook invitations announcing to all your friends and aquaintences that you actually arrange your social life...No smsing your whole address book and waiting for replies from all who may have a moment in their busy day to respond...phonecalls seem to be a bit of a thing of the past. Unless its an important thing where you want the person to feel honored that you've actually PHONED them to invite them and spent less than 23c in the effort because you really don't want them to say no. The down-side of course is that perhaps nobody will respond. Sandy's a goer though. Lots of fun. Not much chance of that.

As Monday would have it, I'm wrong: Monday Madness refers to Jamica Me Crazy's Monday night R29 meals which I'm so up for if my 'Sex and the City' movie night falls through....or I could just stay at home and watch "The Family Guy". IF I finally go and have the bath that's run and waiting for me so that I can get on with my design work for the day so that I will actually be free tonight.

Crown me procrastination queen.
I denounce my thrown.
The kingdom is crestfallen (whatever that means).
I bath in water instead of milk.
I go out into the world with clothes on intead of staying home in my pj's. *sigh* Another day, another blogger (entry).

In the spirit of the title of this post, I found this website:

http://mondaymadness.com/

Kamersvol Geskenke

Wow...it is amazing to be preparing for events in October....almost at the winter solstice and this year seems like a giant's blink (because the world, of course, is a giant's dream and we're all the characters of his imagination)

T'Neal and I went to Stellenbosch this morning. Of course I didn't pay attention to the location -- only the directions...so we ended up going through Stellenbosch...far far and almost all the way to Franschoek -- got there 10 mins later than we were supposed to, only to discover that the only conference taking place was a men's conference --- NOT a meeting of girlie creative creations! Can you imagine us walk in asking "Who do we show our cookies to?" hahaha!

So we drove the 30kms BACK to Stellenbosch to Bosman's Crossing to find all the ladies busy with their 'knip en plak' session...set up our table with our stock....and they LOVED it! :) PHEW!

Production time...

Lots to do in the next couple of months. I can't believe we have to prepare for Christmas already. That's worse than hearing 'Jingle Bells' blaring over the loudspeakers in Pick'nPay in September.

Serious Weather

Yup...still miserable on my side of the world...grey grey grey...and what's more is I have a list of stuff to do today that's not funny.

I went to the wrong gallery yesterday....discovered that fabric printing might be a little more affordable than I previously thought. I'm so excited I can barely restrain myself from designing and getting all the ideas out of my head and into Illustrator!

So I will be off and launch myself into the day with as much zeal as I can muster.

Blogaholics Anonymous

Looks like I've been a bit of a blogaholic over the last few weeks :)

Made 2 Emmeline aprons yesterday. How cool! Made them 1 sided though (supposed to be reversable)..I didn't think it was neccessary -- but I also don't think that it was any less work making it one-sided!

So miserable today - weatherwise. It looks like the sea is going to well up and flood us all. Grey with white water and all these huge, rolling, undulous sea with the wind teasing it and making it more angry by the second. Its been 2 days now. Poor rock fish won't know what's hit them.

Full steam ahead on preparation for Kamersvol Geskenke...I'm looking foward to production!
Getting sorted for new products to be launched and updating the catalogue. Will keep posting!
:)

Public Holiday Monday...

Procrastination Monday would be a more correct way to refer to what I've achieved today. My husband is working today of all days and so I have set myself the task of creating one Emmiline apron today. Not quite ready for the mental gymnastics that is apron-pattern-figuring-out.

So I've watched "BEE MOVIE" and had a couple of cups of tea with my super-dooooper amazing breakfast rusks I baked from a recipe I found online through FunkyMunky (I posted the link out of courtesy, but I warn you: Don't go there! you may be hypnotised back to the 80's by an overdose of comic sans, bad photoshop skills and cheesy animated gifs. You know what I'm talking about.)

Breakfast rusks

230 g margarine
400 g sugar
3 extra-large eggs
50 ml peanut butter
5 ml vanilla essence
10 ml bicarbonate of soda
250 ml milk
240 g cake flour
10 ml baking powder
pinch of salt
160 g coconut
160 g oats
120 g breakfast cereal flakes
50 g peanuts, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF). Grease one 37 x 13 x 10 cm loaf tin with margarine. Cream the margarine and sugar together. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the peanut butter and vanilla essence and mix well. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk and add Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the remaining ingredients, mix and add to the margarine mixture. Blend. (Add a little more milk if the dough is too dry.) Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about one hour or until a testing skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the rusk mixture. Cool, slice into fingers and dry at 100 ºC (200 ºF). Makes about 40 rusks.

I mucked with the recipe a bit. Added tons of sunflower seeds, linseeds and sesame seeds...half a cup of oat bran (its REALLY good for you) as well as other roasted seeds I found containing pumpkin seeds and such. Oh! and I put in raisins as well. I LOVE how raisins go when they are baked!....these rusks are the perfect balance between crunchy and chewy. And they're easy to make :)

Procrastination time is over. Got to get into doing something more constructive.

Dinner at friends and other people's rap careers

Dinner at friends is fun. Especially when Champers flows instead of wine and husbands are in their prime of hilarity. The big thing I'm contemplating is where do the stops get plugged back in? -- or at least - how does one equal or better your last cooking attempt?... These lovely hosts RAVE about the last meal we cooked for them (ala Taste Magazine) so I suppose I could just go back and rummage through until I find something I think will taste equally good -- not that I actually TASTED the main part of the meal because it was fish. I don't eat fish. *Sigh*

More looking through Mushy Peas' blog -- I have to giggle at her German Rap attempt....and then there's her failed attempt at a Spanish Rap career.
I trust you'll find it as amusing as I did :)

Bambi and Thumper

Your Boobies' Names Are...

Waiting for my lovely husband to come home and take me for a walk I decided to pop onto the blog of Mushy Peas on Toast where I happened upon something so bad that it really should not exist. The 'boobie name generator'. Ok. I admit I had to try it....so you put your name in (what for? - I don't know) and it spits out a random name(s) . I did it a few times to see what the result would be...and each time was different so I highlight: I really do not have any idea what the point of putting your name in is......My conclusion is that this rubbish must have been created by a seriously nerdy geek of the male of the species who has never seen a real pair since it mattered... I have never come across a woman who would refer to her breasts as 'boobies' - What?! Are you 3? Secondly - it may be fun to name them (I suppose) but PLEASE! a bit of originality?!

So first attempt: Milkshakes. Right. Originality failure. Second try I got: Siegfried and Roy followed by Bambi and Thumper and then Blouse bunnies. *sigh*

I stopped at this point. (no pun intended). Bambi and Thumper appealed to me actually.... don't tell anybody.

Sewing weekend...

I finally put together the bag I've been hoping to get together for a while now... plus I managed to sort of make myself some underwear but it will probably be a while till they're perfected...

So for now I'm popping a pic of my bag in.

Now to perfect the pattern and add a few details :)

Friday the 13th...

I have been sewing-obsessed for the last few days...Finding nicer, quicker ways to do things. Yesterday was like putting my brain through the most hectic mind trials ever imaginable...I knew that the bag would make sense once I'd unpicked and unpicked seams after every step....and finally....VICTORY!

I made up a cheeky dutch apron this morning... Love the fabric I used!

Wondering wondering where my little Shelley-bean friend is and if she's managed to get through her portfolio marking ok...

...so its Friday the 13th ...luckily for me I'm not into superstition. It has been a good day -- massage in the morning... Belgian chocolate ice cream for lunch.. not doing too badly...going to try and get a couple of bags out today still