Blanket. A recipe.

Take one fleece blanket.
Sew some rows of stitches with cream cotton yarn.
Sew on some car boot sale buttons.
Done.

Experiment.

Take six drops of water.
Tell them that you love them.
Then photograph.

Okay, just joking.
I followed the advice of clever Kendalee of Dance of a Painted Lady - and photographed my kaleidoscope at work ...

To Sea Point

Delivering pages to the publisher, I took a detour to visit Sea Point.

The Wheel at the Waterfront.

Green Point Stadium - a different perspective

Sculpture by Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe on Sea Point promenade

Little boy cycling on the promenade

Joggers on the promenade

Snous enjoying the sunshine.

Have a great weekend, everyone - enjoy the sunshine, if you have some, and if not, cozy up!

Bafana Bafanaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

You have been great, guys, GREAT!! We are so proud of you!!!

Hope

I am no sports fan. But I have succumbed to the World Cup fever in a big way. My, what excitement! It feels like the entire country has come together, united for a change. I have planted a flag in a potplant in front of our house, I have a flag flying proudly on my car, and I have watched three games on TV so far. Unprecedented! And Snous has joined me.

Hey, what's this?

Wow, great move!

Okay, guys, now get that ball!

Yay, Bafana, Yaaaaayy!!!
















We are playing France today. I have great hopes for us.
Go, Bafana Bafana!! Go!!!!

Larger than (one) life

I have always liked the idea of having several lives, to be larger than my one life, so to speak.
Anairam, my online blog persona, is part of this. I experimented with Second Life. Tango also allowed me to live another life. (Sadly, I decided to retire from tango at the end of last year.) And the reason I am so addicted to books and movies is because they give me the opportunity to at least experience other lives.

Journal page (paint, pen&ink, dress pattern, clothing label, magazine illustration)
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then I contradict myself.
I am large,
I contain multitudes."
(Walt Whitman)

Home.

A journal page I made a while ago. After the horrible xenophobic attacks of 2008, many refugees were housed in camps in and around Cape Town. Some months ago, the last operating CT camp (at Blue Waters) was closed down permanently. Some refugees agreed to be repatriated to their own countries, rather than face the violence directed at them in local townships. Others agreed to be reintegrated in surrounding townships, although many expressed fears of being targeted again. The 187 remaining refugees, who wanted to stay on in the camp, were given a small amount of money and then evicted. I am possibly simplifying the situation. But imagine yourself in a strange country, where you hoped to find a better life, evicted with your small bundle of possessions. Whereto now? Where is home? Nowhere ...

Journal page (newspaper photograph, paint, fabric tape).

Clever dog!

The Emma Animal Rescue Society is where I adopted Snous. As you can see below, they specialise in rather clever dogs.

Snous doing a little light reading ...

Double knitting

Remember the I-cord knitting I did a while ago? Well, I bought myself some nice black cotton yarn, and knitted a very long I-cord with it. This was purely to relieve work stress and minimise neighbourly murderous thoughts; I didn't actually plan to do anything with it. (Knitting and crocheting are great stress-relievers. I found that out many years ago when I was writing exams. You just knit and knit, and at the end you pull it all out and start over again. I know it sounds completely wacky, but hey, it worked for me ...) Anyway, I was looking at this long string of black I-cord the other day and wondering what to do with it. So I used it as yarn, and knitted a small, chunky rectangle with it.
Double knitting, get it??
And once I had my small rectangle, I decided to make it into a winter choker. It is over 2 inches wide, so it is lovely and warm around my neck.  I used an old Xmas decoration and one of the buttons in my stash to close it.

PS I am having a BLOG party tomorrow night. Not on my own blog though, but on yours! Yes, for the first time in months I am setting aside two hours to visit you all. I am not quite finished with the editing, but I am checking the last of the second pages - so there is a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. Keep the bubbly on ice, please! And a slice of chocolate cake will go down really well ...
xxx Anairam