[frame it]

A couple of years back, my friend gave me a Large frame that she had no use for. It has been wrapped in bubble wrap in my garage for near on 3 years, and it really has been one of the things on my list of things to do.

As this is the season of public holidays in South Africa, I have had a few extra days at home to tick some things of this to do list, and the frame was one of them.

It was an old gold wooden frame with fabric on the inside of the block, pretty old fashioned, but I knew I could work with it.

Enter a can of white paint (regular PVA), a piece of sanding paper (with a fine grain), a soft cloth and one of hubby's new paint brushes (oops).

I painted the entire frame white (including the material piece on the inside) and then started sanding...

A close up of what it looked like when I was finished. I lightly sanded the entire outside rim of the frame. I rubbed the paint off the golden part just inside the thick border with a soft cloth to bring the gold back up. The innermost border I left very white to set off against the gold.

Now I just have to put a backing on and I am going to make a collage and hang it in our front portal.

The week (or two) that was...

Some random goodness from the last few weeks:

More Vintage goodness, My mother-in-law bought me this beautiful Trio on a recent visit to New Zealand and gave it to me for my birthday. I love the shades of Pink in it.

We enjoyed a friend's birthday party.

Relaxed in the baby pool, before the rain settled in. What we didn't realise at the time, was that this was our last bit of summer....

And we baked a cake, and licked out the bowl (yummy)!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A Vintage Sunday....

I have been struggling for 2 days to upload this post, and for some reason Blogger does not want to upload any images.

Frustrating? YES!

Will it stop me from trying again? NO! So here goes:

Yippeee, now I can tell my story:

We had a Sunday Market at our town's Windmill Organice Produce Store recently. There were a variety of beautiful treasures for sale.

I bought the two books above for Jessica. The first one was in honour of our trip to Zanzibar, where she was infatuated with the Hermit Crabs and thus the book "A Home for Hermit the Crab" was perfect.

The beautifully illustrated pop-up book "Uncle Peasly and the Pea Pod Kids" (circa 1986), was just too good to be true and had to come home with us!

Can you tell how much she loves this book?

I bought this "Midwinter" set of vintage China at a steal! A beautiful Trio to add to my collection of Antique Cups and Saucers.

A Wonderful day spent at the Market!

30. TWO.

It was my Birthday on Saturday...

A beautiful Easter Birthday shared with those I love best!

When I was a child my birthday used to always fall on Easter Weekend, which was not great for having birthday parties, as all the kids where always on holiday.

Roll on 20 years or so, and it is quite pleasant not having to be at work on your birthday, but celebrating it instead with lots of lazy days and lovely people .... oh and chocolate of course :-)!

The Wednesday Edition is back

Live Loud pot by Lorikoop on Etsy

 

So the Wednesday Edition is back, and since I have started picking myself up again, I found this pot carried just the right message! It was made by lorikoop on Etsy, and it comes with the following explanation:

"UPWoRDs are words or phrases that encourage and inspire. Their messages reminds of the possibilities. Let their energy refresh your thinking and lighten your step."

Isn't that FaNTaSTiC?

Ok, so here is THE LIST for this week:

• BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS on this blog
• Check out this designer Dad, with lots of practical ideas you can do with the kiddos at home.
• See some beautiful embroidery on Geninne's Art Blog - Also who could resist a dog called Turbo (especially when you used to have a Siamese cat called Jet)
• This is what I want to get my girl for her birthday, as she is always taking things apart and putting them back together again. 

So, no new clothes today, but I am looking... I am thinking stuff for winter..... will keep you updated!

 

P.S. If anybody knows of some easy knitting projects, I have just started to knit again, and knitting only scarves, is getting a bit boring!

Grateful for this day..

Yes, I am.

I have been under the weather since our holiday, perhaps it's been post-holiday blues, or maybe it's real, because, you see it can not really be defined.

The doctor's don't know, they are calling it Hypotension, or perhaps it is my Thyroid that is at the bottom of the bottom end of how it should function, but still no answer.

Perhaps it is anxiety, and to tell you the truth, I am inclined to agree with the latter. As always, I hope it will get better sooner rather than later and be forgotten for another year or so, until it rears it's ugly head again.

One thing is certain, if it wasn't for this wonderful man that is part of my life, this road would have been a lot bumpier. He gets me ..... and for that I am forever grateful!

P.S. I am going to try and be a bit more present here.

Back from Zanzibar

We had an awesome trip to Zanzibar...
I am still in that laid back holiday groove so I will let our pictures do the talking..

We'll miss you Zanzibar!

Asante Sana!

Take rest

My morning started all wrong! A mix up at work, everyone wanting everything from me and pulling into every direction! SIGH.......

Then I opened our intranet to look for today's currency exchange rate, and this is what greeted me:

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop"

(Ovid, ancient Roman poet 43 BC-17)

.... and then I remembered, that is exactly what we are off to do tomorrow...

See you in a bit more than a week.

The Wednesday Edition

Welcome, thank you for stopping by.

Please come in, have some tea and cake and let's chat.

What is it that I like this week you ask?

Well, here it is:

• These guys run in packs -  I love that they look like you’ve caught them in the act!
• A Gorgeous dress
• and another. Except, I actually would like to attempt to make this one
• I love this rosette headband. Especially in this silver gray!
• Natural DIY baby-wipes - go have a look. Not harmful to baby or the environment.
• My new blog of the week: Frugal Home Designs. I love what this mommy does with ordinary around-the-house sorta stuff!
• Yummy Chocolate cake that we baked to celebrate my sister's BIG news!

Sleep has become a myth in our household this week. Can you believe we are all too excited about our trip to even sleep? I tell ya!

 

If you do ever stop by this blog, please be so kind as to say hi or leave a comment, lest I feel like the crazy cat lady.

 

Colourful Little Market Bags

In honour of our upcoming trip I made all the girls a little market bag to tote around

Isn't this bug material super cute?

I added a pocket to the outside for collecting sea-shells, rocks or whatever else might need collecting.

... and beacause I enjoyed making them so much, I made an extra one (yes, that is 4 in total) for a friend at Jessica's school who has a birthday today.

Random Loveliness on Wednesday

So what is it that I love this Wednesday ?

• Bread that looks so delicious that I want to bake it!
• A blog I love. Such clean and fresh design ideas with just the right mix of edgy and cool
• I adore this dress …
• Nooooo, it’s not just the dress, I adore everything in her shop
• We are going on a trip in a fortnight, and will spend some time here. Yay! I can’t wait!
• This post made me think long and hard about the messages we send to our kids.
• Have a look at the awesome creativeness of this lady… I love what she does with secondhand linens.

and a BIG HUGE Congratulations to two of my FAVOURITE PEOPLE in the whole wide world!

I hope the journey that you started on yesterday will be blessed in every way!

We love you... XXX

 

Choo..... Chooooooooo

We had a Steam train adventure on the weekend

Waiting for the train to leave the station...

We saw some varied scenes of our very diverse country... this is a vegetable lean-to shop in one of the townships we passed (excuse the poor quality, it was taken through the window of the train)

We had so much fun on the train

When we arrived at our destination, we had a lovely walk through the veld to get to our picnic spot

After our picnic we strolled through the streets of the town and visited all the charming little shops and markets

Here are some more scenes of our day:

These awesome works of art was seen at a local arts & crafts shop where they also had the most beautiful renovated antique furniture!

and I'll leave you with the above quote found on our day out.

Hope your weekend was as interesting as ours!

Wonderful Wednesday...

Scenes from Zanzibar taken by my very best friend that lives Island Style in Jambiani, Zanzibar

A look around the web this morning has yielded the following:

• This site made me giggle... quite a different take on photography.. I think I like it
• I adore this coat
• Larissa did a Sterling Job sewing this awesome dress... I want one!
• and finally .... how cute is this dress... I love the embroidery on it!

I hope you are also having a Wonderful Wednesday thus far..