Start Thinking About Christmas Traditions
Title says it all! It's October and, before we know it, it'll be Christmas. Now that T-Lo is a bit older I really want to make Christmas' a special, magical time for him.
FRIDAY, 27 June 2014
Baby Shower
A friend recently gave birth to a gorgeous little boy. The baby shower was in February...
FRIDAY, 13 June 2014
Get Pickled
I have just harvested some fantastic shallots from our modest veggie pod. Having dried them out a little, I am now going to try pickling them using a recipe from my sister.
Ingredients
pickling onions
pickling spice (in spice & herb section at supermarket)
brown vinegar
salt/course salt
Peel onions, place in
jar and cover with quite a bit of salt (absorbs the moisture from the onions).
Cover with clingfilm to lessen the smell in your kitchen in the morning.
Let this stand overnight. The next day, rinse the onions in a
colander.
With the bottle the
onions are going to be stored in:
Pour enough pickling
spice to cover the bottom of the bottle if you want it mild, more if you want
it stronger. Sometimes I add a couple of whole birdseye chillies to give
it a zing (2-3 chillies for a big bottle, 1 for a small bottle). Pour
some vinegar into the bottle and swirl around a bit. Add the onions, then
pour in more vinegar until the onions are covered. Let them stand for a
week before eating.
THURSDAY, 12 June 2014
Come Up With A Market Stall That Stands Out
Marketing guru, Fi, has described my dresses as having an outdoor, no limits feel about them. I have the product, I have the coat hangers and I'm going to use these as inspiration for my stall.
WEDNESDAY, 4 June 2014
Get Posting
With a 20-month gap (gulp!) in my posts, I need to make up for lost time. Fortunately, I haven't stopped making... I just need to get writing!
SOMETIME in May 2014
About That Business You've Been Trying To Start...
For what seems like an age, I've been trying to start my own business. I seem to have changed gear slightly and need to just steam ahead.
SUNDAY, 12 August 2012
Before You Were Born
With a baby on the way it would be nice to have something to capture precious moments...
SUNDAY, 12 August 2012
Pick Up Sticks
... and make something useful out of them. There are always discarded twigs and branches about the place. Although an element of pyromania exists in most people, I think it would be nice to do something with the sticks... other than burn them. Make something functional.
Woolya Do Something With The Yarn, Already!
I've had several projects on the go for several years - the kind one picks up and puts down because it all gets a little too boring. Knitting does this to me. I recently decided to turn over a forest and tackle these tedious projects, the only problem being that I couldn't remember how far along I was with the pattern, where I was, or whether I'd even been using a pattern.
I mentioned my dilemma to a friend of mine. She had a solution: undo it all and start again. Was she mad, I asked? "No, really," she said, "you'll find it quite liberating"! So after the better part of a day and a lot of irritation, the job was done. I didn't feel liberated. Thanks for nothing, Ferah!
FRIDAY, 10 August 2012
Make a Silk Purse Out of a Pig's Ear: a retrospective
Our Garden had always been marred by an unsightly, difficult and large cement drain cover. I'd tried building it up, growing things over it, growing things around it... but to no avail. If cultivating weeds was part of the plan, I could have sat back, put my feet up and let the little buggers flourish. As tempting as that was, it wouldn't have been much of a challenge. So last year the one I love and I thought we'd try a different approach...
I had the pleasure of going on a willow weaving workshop. Knowing that the artist, Judith Needham, bends, twists and weaves this fascinating material into habitable spaces, living ones at that, I thought I'd ask a few probing questions and give a living willow structure a go - the offending drain was going to be turned into an area of beauty... was the hope.
Blocks of cement, tree stumps and other detritus made making holes in the ground for the willow difficult at times, but in the end, we won.
WEDNESDAY, 7 March 2012
Think Packaging...
I'm working on a long term something which I hope will develop into more than 'just another project', so much so that I've even drafted a business plan. Now, for anyone who knows me, this is impressive! It's I don't know how many pages long and yes, I admit, looks a bit thin when it comes to the financial pages... but my ideas are down on paper and ready to grow.
Right now though, I'm thinking packaging. I know this is one of the last aspects I should be considering in the greater scheme of a startup, but I believe the key to turning a dream into an attainable reality lies in the details. So simple, elegant packaging is my new challenge.
MONDAY, 10 October 2011
Bridging Over the Great Divide
I’ve always maintained that I’ve been witness to some of the worst racism I’ve ever seen, right here in the UK… ironic considering I’m South African. Well, the-one-I-love and I were recently on the receiving end of some quite spectacular, racially motivated, insults.
This started me thinking about the words of postcolonial theorist, Homi K. Bhabha, in his article Double Vision (Artforum, January 1992, p88):
‘…for the displaced or the dispossessed, the migrant or the refugee, no distance is more awesome than the few feet across borders or frontier’.
For this project I feel bound to create something arty, crafty and colourful. I’m not sure what, or how, just colourful!
FRIDAY, 30 September 2011
Thinking of Christmas
Scraps of fabric can go a long way, so along with what I already have and bit of recycled material, I shouldn't need to spend too much...
FRIDAY, 30 September 2011
Measure Twice, Cut Once
... is not a saying that bodes well with me. No matter how many times I measure, the end result always has a bit more character than planned. Take the miniature frame above as an example. This was made several years ago under the supervision of a woodwork technician...
My challenge now is to make something functional out of it, or it ends up as fire wood.
FRIDAY, 30 September 2011
Something for the Garden
Autumn and Winter are the perfect times to sit down and plan what you're going to do in the garden, veggie patch or allotment in the coming year. The-one-I-love and I relish the challenge of growing from seed but we always end up with bits of paper floating in the trough under the seed tray, the ink all smudged and illegible, or the labels migrate so that we're never entirely sure what is growing where.
FRIDAY, 30 September 2011
African Seed Beads
These beads have always been around in South Africa. I remember as a child how some sangomas (witch doctors) would, along with an inflated sheep's bladder on the head, don two necklaces of beads. These would run diagonally from shoulder to armpit, criss-crossing over the chest. I also remember how some rural entrepreneurs would (and still do) migrate to the beach during peak seasons to try and sell beaded necklaces, along with items of clothing no locals would be caught dead in (unless for a fancy dress party), to holidaymakers.
It's probably only in the last 10 years that the seed bead has become of greater commercial concern, being conjured into decorative objects desirable for the local and overseas markets.
When I went home for a month last year, one of my closest friends gave me several extremely long seed bead necklaces. I've been looking at them, trying to decide what to do with them. About a month ago, this same friend sent me a surprise package. Included was a decorative bead and wire cross. There were also three small, ornate, hearts. These came with a challenge. Nothing specific, just that I had to send photos of what I'd made with them.
I'm going to attempt to make a wire and bead cross, along with something inspired, and incorporating, the three hearts.
Thanks for the challenge, Gerian! May you not be disappointed.
SUNDAY, 14 August 2011
Make Some Party Food
It's always a good feeling to be able to make a contribution in the food department when you've been invited to a party. The challenge is deciding what to make, particularly when one's repertoire may not be as extensive as the next person's. Doubtless there'll be people (family is a given) at the event who have been subjected to taste-testing before and, happily , have survived to tell the tale. With a party fast approaching the dilemma I now face is whether to go with something I've tried before, or be brave and try something new, knowing that there is every likelihood all may not go according to plan...
THURSDAY, 16 JUNE 2011
Companion for a Doorknob
What can I say about the humble door knob? They're pushed, pulled, turned and, if like me you were born with the incredible gift of walking into stationary objects, cursed. They're just there and so, I think, quite deserving of being dressed up a little.
WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2011
Reversing the Jam Jar Conundrum
The simple answer, naturally, would be to put the jars out for recycling. Don’t get me wrong, we do this anyway, but we’re never jar-free… for in case of an emergency. What I need is for them to earn their keep, find a way of being functional so that they’re not just empty vessels taking up precious space…
WEDNESDAY, 1 JUNE 2011
A Cordial Invitation
It's that time of year when Elderflowers are everywhere and all but begging to be fully appreciated. Their fan-like clusters of little white flowers are fully laden with bright yellow, aromatic pollen that flits away on a gentle breeze or, in my case, straight up my nostrils like a homesick mole.
I'd like to learn how to make Elderflower Cordial. I'm sure it's not rocket science but I've no doubt there's an art involved somewhere! The creative challenge for me lies not only in making a delicious thirst quencher, but also in how to make it look attractive.
WEDNESDAY, 25 MAY 2011
Down with Ironing
I'm not out to instigate a contemporary wave of bra burning, despite the fact that irons were right up there with girdles, high heels and curlers when it came to objects representing the oppression of women. Instead, I would like to transform this now rusty chunk of iron into something that's both functional and decorative: a doorstop.
Now there may be puritans who think that something like black grate polish is the only option when it comes to sprucing up old irons... but I live in full colour, not black and white! By this time next week, my iron will be transformed, bringing another splash of colour into my life, even in the winter months.
WEDNESDAY, 18 MAY 2011
Do Something With All That Newspaper!
Paper has a cunning way of taking over, multiplying as if by magic. Newspaper is a wonderful thing and in a league of its own – the sound, the smell, the sharing of ink it does with one’s fingers (and then by default anything you touch thereafter) but, most impressively, the way it seems to appear even though you’re quite sure you haven’t bought one for a while… Secondary to disseminating news, its functions are varied and sometimes borne out of necessity such as insulation, fuel... and toilet paper.
This week I’m going to attempt to transform pages of a newspaper into a decorative (and hopefully functional) paper bowl. Here goes...
