See you again soon

Love, happiness, magic

Gosh, gasp!

Dearie me, my tree's not up yet! But it's ready to be awesome :-)

All spice, mixed spice, cinnamon, ginger

I baked biscuits all last night, packed them this morning.

Christmas wishes from my 'leaf'ie :-)

Christmas market – Bryanston Organic Market

Es war der dritte Advent gewesen

Moments in time

1 I’m feeling a little house-bound at the moment | 2 the perfect egg | 3 the weeds are winning | 4 weeding the paving | 5 early morning, when the day is still cooler than the water in the pool | 6 I miss our chats | 7 a bird dropped a feather, a present | 8 other uses for the red table | 9 stocking fillers | 10 hanging my heart for all to see | 11 could it be any greener? | 12 what are they teaching the children? placing babies in plastic bags like this | 13 such a good book | 14 nice breakfast | 15 changes in a moment | 16 sunshine again after two weeks of overcast | 17 pumpkin present | 18 lamb’s ears | 19 I hate to do a big shop | 20 you need lots of these to shop | 21 a prettyugly going to a new home | 22 present for trish | 23 presents for the girls | 24 gift card from the office | 25 present from jill | 26 present from trish, ever time I go near the packet something growls at me | 27 reading a book that explains the mysteries of science but most explanations end with: ... are still unknown LOL! | 28 even I can eat 2-minute noodles if I jazz it up a bit. peas, feta, pesto and herbs

Menu – Saturday night

Watermelon and ginger cocktail. Green grapes, camembert and biltong served with puff pastry whirls. I  rubbed chilli jam, garlic and parsley onto the pastry, rolled it up, cut into slices and baked until golden. Chickpeas salad with sticky sausages (not shown).

Dinner at the red table

From my secret Santa

I got this most beautiful shawl - from someone who obviously knows me and, perhaps, likes me. Thank you so much. And some chocolates - yum.
The guy that got my secret Santa thought it was pretty k.... LOL!

MH – staff party

Christmas with a twist.

Christmas hat

We're having our Christmas party this afternoon, at the office. My hat is made from ring-pulls off cans, tied together with cable ties and white tinsel threaded through. And I have to wear the wig again!

Purple flashes in the garden

Good advice

F for effort! © Richard Benson 2012

4 days later

LOL! What was I thinking – I have to admit it now, I am unable to keep a work surface neat and tidy. Clutter, clutter. Included the original pic for a comparison.

Christmas preparations 6

Saw something similar on the internet last night. Make up with envelops. On the wall outside – I'm sure the rain will take it down :)

...and the sun goes down

Welcome to Africa

SingStar – MH – lunchtime

Table setting

Planning how my Christmas table layout will look.

christmas preparations 5

Red table 2

Add bits and pieces to create an atmosphere. I've never used such strong colours before.

Hanging up the stars

I made up the paperchains for Christmas. Oh my word, what a lot of work.

Secret Santa

We have to get a gift for a colleague, drew a name out of the hat, for our Christmas party. I have made a book of quotes. leather-bound, nogal, and I have used hair clips as page markers, as a dash of humour. If you were to see his kuif (fringe) you'll understand. Wrapped up in last season's paper.

Weekend

The rhyme is inspired by the one book I read: Watch out for sprouts by Simon Bartram. Obviously not as good as Simon, but I had fun.

Books galore

Went mad in the book shops this weekend.

Red table

Why a red table out on the patio? To match my mosaics on the wall.

Studio work station

I decided to put in a work station in the studio that was larger than a postage stamp. My desk is always cluttered with stuff, so there's never any place to work. Just 2 trestle and a masonite door, painted. Setting up for all the great things I want to make next year.

Es war der zweite Advent

Advice from a friend

But, alas, I already have that t-shirt :D

As I gently sleep

Light at the end

Odds and sodds, random pics

Mail from around the world

Sometimes the stamps are more exciting than the postcards.

My dad's Grundig

My dad used to tune in to the stations in Germany. If you look at the top left pic you'll see black khoki marks along the bottom band, he marked his favourite stations. It made that crackling sound, and other sounds as you dialled across stations that could have been signals from alien spaceships :D

This item is now at my brother's house.

Join the squares to make the square

Made this up this morning before coming to work.

 Bought the squares at Kamersvol – Design Team stand.

No! I did not forget!

I'm just a little late. Hope you had a great day!

While I wait

While I was waiting for them to lay the carpets (got the cheapest ones, my dear) I kept busy by: finishing my book, doing the last few puzzles in the sudoku book (I got 9 out of 100 wrong, so my mark is 91%, wow, I thought :D). I got my paints and pastels out and experimented a bit. I took all the papers I've been collecting of work that inspires me and stuck them up on my studio wall.

Also available in colour

I only had pink paper but will be getting a more subtle range.

Join the petals to make a flower

I bought one at the market so I could copy them. Make a few last night. Pretty, aren't they?

And then it rained, and rained and rained...

Early morning

I went and had breakfast with Trish, at her home. Early, early morning. The day was grey but cool and it had a relaxed feel. Most enjoyable.