New mugs

Some new mug designs, fresh from the kiln. The red is so punchy that it makes everything else look out of focus. It's a joy to photograph!

Swatches

This sweet swatch is from leililaloo.



It's been a great week for post! Soozibee sent this wonderful parcel, with an embroidered swatch and loads of goodies in the form of cards. (The pinkish glow around the bottom of the photos is from my incredibly bright pink new favourite jersey, which I'll get around to showing soon.)

Memes and Awards

Yesterday the interweb was broken, at least from where I was looking at it. I couldn't post, read blogs, update my shop.... frustration built until I wanted to fling my keyboard at the monitor. To fix the problem, I presume.

Instead I went for a walk, and later carved some new printing blocks, partly saving a day mostly wasted on fuming and fretting and coffee.

So I'm even later passing these on than I meant to be.

Celestina Carmen awarded my blog the 'Brillante Weblog' award, and Dizzy Dezign gave me the 'I Love Your Blog' award! Thank you! (I'd award them right back to both your inspiring blogs, but I think that's against the rules.) Now I need to pass them on...

Little Wilds also tagged me to reveal 6 unspectacular quirks of mine. Here goes:

1. I'm incapable of doing the same thing at the same time every day. As much as I try to establish routines, I undermine them without even realising.
2. I can't draw without a pen or a pencil in my mouth.
3. I like to make tea in a pot so that I can have 3 or 4 cups in a row.
4. Touching raw unsanded wood makes my skin crawl. It's even worse if it's wet. (Can't wash disposable chopsticks - honestly, they're meant to be disposable.)
5. I don't care if the bed isn't made.
6. If I see someone with a dog like mine, I have to go and say hello (so does my dog). I can't understand why other people aren't like this.

Phew, that was tough! Now I'm going to break all the rules and pass on the awards and the meme to 6 other blogs

lost is a place too

a little birdy told me

anything goes

flowerpress

sooziebee

painted fish studio

Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Mugs

I'm sooo excited to announce that I've started listing mugs in my shop! It's been a long road to here. I can't thank Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx enough for all her help with these. And for her brilliant packaging idea:



We're doing everything in our power to ensure that these mugs travel safely.

I'm fetching another batch from the kiln this afternoon, so check back during the week to see new designs. Heather's are almost sold out, so rush over to her shop pronto if you haven't had a look yet.

Do I look scared?

I was terrified. Hair, make up, lights ... phew! But I was very flattered to be interviewed for Marie Claire South Africa's September Local Hero slot. See below for the interview (click on the text to see bigger versions).

Perfect

Photo by sakurasnow

This is the most gorgeous bag I've seen in a long time! Made by sakura snow - and I mean made.
She drew the images, designed a repeat pattern, had it printed up, and then sewed this marvel.

I'm green with envy.

Mystery Swatch

This lovely swatch arrived in my postbox yesterday, but I have no idea who it's from. If it's yours, please let me know. (And thank you - I love it!)

Spring Sprigs

Spring-fresh tape, now in my shop!

In case you're not on Ravelry, or the craft group mailing list, we're having another meeting at The Book Lounge, cnr Roeland and Buitenkant Sts, Central Cape Town, this coming Saturday afternoon from 2:30 pm.

And if you'd like to be on the craft group mailing list, let me know.

Rikus Ferreira

Rikus Ferreira's show Varkore in die Skemer* opened at Curious, Whetstone and Frankley last week. The first thing you notice is a tabletop covered with folded paper pigs. Other folded paper pigs are framed on the walls.


Some details of drawings:


And of course a window full of verlepte varkblomme, curling, browning, and starting to resemble the pages the pigs are folded from.


The show is on until the 28th of August.

* Roughly translates to pig's ears in the dusk. I think.

eyes eyes eyes....

Right off topic and not very interesting post today, because I'm feeling beaten. Eighteen months and eight adjustments later my 'new' glasses are still pretty unwearable - unless, of course, I'm prepared to hold them up with one hand, or to walk with my head tilted back, squinting under the frames. The people doing the adjustments seem to be beaten too. Their parting shot today was 'Have you considered contact lenses?'

They're very sweet people. They patiently try new twists to the frames, and speak to me in the tone you'd use to a panicked dog. The problem is that they sold me the glasses. I picked some frames and they checked to see if these were good frames before I bought them. So no-one can quite tell me this was a bad choice.

At least I've learned a bit more about what kind of frames I need to look for next time .... great big plastic old-lady glasses. I'm hoping I can find some in lilac or beige!

Buttons

Blockprinted pure silk covered buttons. Hard to photograph, but fun to make.

Visual aids

Working on another round of ceramic transfers, I realised I needed an easy reference to the ones I'd done before. I printed out all my photos and made some books that could stand on my desk, using these instructions.

Quite like the backs of them, too! The biggest pieces of paper I had on hand were old life-drawings ...

Messy

No actual prints to show yet, but I'm working on some new designs.

Sunshine!

We moved a couch into the lounge on Saturday. Still working on the cover, but Emile seemed to find it perfectly serviceable. He's barely moved since.

Swatches - it's not over yet!

From yes, I MADE that:


From Freshly Found:

Notebooks

I love notebooks! So much so that I can't use anything but cheap ones. The beautiful ones are just too lovely to be spoiled with scribbled shopping lists and phone numbers - they demand important thoughts. So they remain pristine, in anticipation of such thoughts (and the development of elegant handwriting).

But still, I want pretty books for my lists. The solution: ordinary notebooks covered with pretty stuff. Washable, reusable, and unintimidating. They'll be in my shop later today.

Almost Spring!

New print in my shop today.

Twist!

I want everything in the new Twist Collective magazine. Everything. But most particularly this pattern, detail pictured above (Lily by Marnie Maclean).

And the winner is....

The Shopping Sherpa , who gets a copy of my book!

I counted the comments, and entered the numbers into a random number generator. (More picturesque methods involving babies and small dogs were planned, but it's hard to get them to co-operate.)

Thanks to everyone who commented and left suggestions about good comics - I've got a lot of reading to do!