Patterns

A while ago a very dear person (and friend, I would like to call her) gave me this beautiful piece of mud cloth. I look at it every single day and as I look at it my love for it grows and grows. It is beautiful. It is perfect. And if she knows how much joy it brings me, she will be very happy, I'm sure ...

It inspired me to make some mud cloth doodles in my moleskine. (Tippex is one of my unnecessary necessities, remember? In addition to obliterating proofreading marks, it is also really good for making patterns on black paint ...)

Zines on my Mind

Zines are still very much on my mind. (I am contemplating mine ... and planning to execute it before February 2010). In the meantime I ordered Anthony Zinonos's Le Dot zine - it arrived on Monday. It is perfect.





How cool is that? See more of Anthony's work here.

Zines!

A while ago I discovered Gracia & Louise, and ordered three of their marvellous zines. And today I received my wonderfully clever zines all the way from Australia! Tweak, Tweaked, Tweet - with ten bird illustrations; A Vagary of Impediments - a collection of collective nouns; and A Single Thought, with thoughts that I can quite relate to, such as "Will there be any post for me when I get home?"

I already have one of tiny red's amazing zines - and recently acquired one by a young South African artist, Michael Tymbios, called "there is a flaw in eternity", so I think I now officially have A Collection! If you have produced a zine, and are selling, please let me know! Or if you have any recommendations, please point me in the right direction.
(PS I have not forgotten about my own zine project - but I think that I have to fine-tune my concept, maybe coming up with something new in the process; and I do have to look at many more zines before I create my own.)

A paper package full of yumminess ...

I just LOVE getting mail! And a package is even better!! And a package from overseas just thrills me to bits!!! Last week I received this from the lovely Linda Sue of All I Ever Wanted. Illustrated dictionary pages (enlarge the photo to see what a South African duiker is); a collection of the most beautiful papers; anatomical drawings (love them!); printed papers and the lovely St Lucia - she of the eyes; flower cutouts from textured paper; an art magazine and a book of the architectural drawings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I can't wait to get my scissors and gluestick and hands (and mind) into these - I foresee a lovely collage-project coming up! Linda Sue, thank you for knowing exactly what makes a paper-girl's heart beat faster!

...fabulous ...

I got this lovely award from Khaled over at Khaled KEM - he writes moving and clever poetry that always makes me think ... Thank you so much, Khaled! (Plus now I have a little puppy, even if it is only in the picture!) I am going to change the rules a little and allow myself some time to think about my list of 10 nominees ... but I will be posting them by the weekend, I hope!

T-A-D #9 My Bleeding Heart

Another serendipitous decluttering T-A-D happening. My decluttering task for today was the fridge and food cupboards. As I decluttered away , I noticed this and took photographs ...

Performance Painting Series #1

Expired rose-infused syrup and warm water on kitchen sink bottom.

Performance Painting Series #2

Expired rose-infused syrup and cold water on kitchen sink bottom.

T-A-D #6 Decluttered Love

I am doing a Decluttering Course (from here) at the moment. It is free (so sign up if you're in need of it). So far it has been a great motivational force to get me off my backside and start getting rid of some stuff - every day I am sent an email and given an area of my life to declutter, and I am truly in need of this. (Of course, if you see my study/work-space - which Le'Usband has wittily dubbed The Officer's Mess - it will be hard to believe that I'm busy decluttering. Let's just agree to close the door on that particular area for the moment...)
On Monday I decluttered my bedside table, on Tuesday the bathrooms, yesterday my handbag and purse, and today I am meant to start on my wardrobe. Over the past couple of months I have been greatly inspired by stylish editor from here and here to edit my wardrobe. A very difficult task - I am a hoarder par excellence! So I've been putting the clothes project off a little bit, and decided to rather start decluttering my photo collection. This morning I backed it up (off-laptop) on two separate hard disks. The next step was to find amongst the thousands of pics the alphabet project I started with last year. Yes, you may not believe it, but I am slowly forging ahead with all the little projects I set myself! (I want to make a new alphabet book with my own photographed letters). And in organising & decluttering, I got the idea for my sixth T-A-D object ...

I give you ...

... my Decluttered Love.

An Exercise in Looking ... and Seeing ...

I love Keri Smith's 100 ideas. I downloaded the PDF file last year, cut out all the little squares (without reading them - I want each one to be a surprise!) and put them in a glass jar. Every now and then, when I feel the need for creative guidance, I pick one at random, paste it in a small journal, and execute the 'idea'. Last week it was number 1. (" Go for a walk. Draw or list things you find on the sidewalk.")

I was amazed at how this changed my regular walk to Fish Hoek - I noticed all kinds of little bits and pieces that usually get edited out by one's brain: a marrow bone, a red blob of paint, some twisty bits of white plastic, a crumpled tissue, a big shiny leaf, a rusted, flattened battery, a plank with faint green stripes, an old Marlboro packet, the torn-off side strip of a printed invoice, a Cup O' Soup box, a broken green bottle, and many, many more.

(I also loved Esti's post about teaching her little daughters to look and notice things. See here.)

Love is in the Air ... and on the Fridge

I was so inspired by My Castle in Spain's beautiful Valentine's cards that I have decided to create only love-inspired objects between now and Valentine's Day, and just fill the house with love and hearts!

Fridge magnets I made from glass pebbles. Super simple. These are just prototypes, I'll make some more & finish them off a bit more carefully.

A new (and unfinished) journal page called Love Birds. Or to be more exact: LOVE BIRDS. (I am recycling some of my Xmas tree ornaments.)

A new era

I have just finished watching this:

Great man. Great speech.

Geometry

Felice Varini does these amazing paintings in architectural spaces:

Viewed from most angles, they seem like arbitrary fragments.

But from exactly the right angle, you see a a perfect geometric shape.

These blue patches become ...

this.

And a few red stripes in an office building become a

perfect ellipse.

It is all a matter of perspective ...

(found via yatzer)

Stripes

Today is the end of the colour week project - the final topic is stripes. Unfortunately I had quite a lot of work so had to find all my photographic inspiration inside the house:

My stripey socks ...

Tango stripes!

Three of my stripey T-shirts. I have a few more ...

Some Paul Smith inspiration ...

The outside of my Couch Potato bag - velvet ribbon stripes on denim.

And finally, a potholder in my kitchen. (The Afrikaans word is 'vatlappie' - I love that word! Translated literally it means "a little cloth that you use to touch/take".)

Have a great stripey weekend, my dears!

Pink is Pretty

I had fun looking for pink things to photograph today. As usual, I have way too many. I must learn to edit.

Pink geranium in my garden.

Section of a Marlene Dumas painting. I love her work.

Handle of African sweep/brush thingie. I got it here.

The inside lining of my Couch Potato bag. Handmade. In South Africa.

My pink highlighter. I use it to "tick off" things in my moleskine diary. Oh, what a feeling of accomplishment - viewing all those pink stripes at the end of the day ...

The front cover of my online craft course journal. Observations on my daily life.

A pink scarf I own but have stopped wearing. The flowery bits fall off and I trail little fabric roses wherever I go ...

A pink net for fishing things out of rock pools. In shop window in Simons Town.

Wrapped pillar in Simons Town main street. This is where I had a cappuccino this morning. It was good.

Fake flower in front of The Meeting Place in Simons Town. Where I had the cappuccino. The leaves are real though ... The coffee too.

Fabric of cushion inside The Meeting Place.

Today is a Yellow Day

Linda Sue of All I Ever Wanted is doing a week-long colour photo project (via Lisa of CuriousGirl). I thought I would join them for Yellow Day. (See here if you want to play too.) I took all of these at home and on my trip to Simons Town today.
My new packet of sewing needles for all those outstanding fabric projects ...

Shop sign. Can you guess what it says?

Road markings on Simons Town main street.
Small flower in front of Dido Valley cemetery.

Book bag from a well-known SA bookshop. Do you know who is depicted?

Small yellow sponge for doing the dishes.

Ripe bananas in basket in my kitchen.

Log for proofreading project - on yellow post-its and yellow scrap paper.

Wind-blown flowers at base of lamp post on the way back from Simons Town.

My trusty yellow stapler.