Christmas Cheer

Bless the funny, witty people out there. YOU have made my Christmas.
This of course includes my madcap family (as well all you extended members we've collected over the years.)

These two gems from the net had me chuckling so enthusiastically that my belly shook like a bowl full of jelly.

I hope everyone has a very merry day and gets as much enjoyment out of these two creations as I did!

Doesn't this just make a ton of sense to your child brain? Of course Santa is most fantastic!

 "and mama in her kerchief and I in my cap, had just settled ... our brains..."

(Zombie Christmas?)

Those unexplainables...

OK, to be fair none of the mysterious injuries I've found the next morning after a night out could really count as completely unexplainable... there's this lovely concoction called alcohol that combines with my natural grace and coordination to render the results of an evening unpredictable. That I guess makes the whole whole question "What the... HOW'd I get this?" a silly one to ask.

I recently was mercilessly teased by some friends when I bemoaned the fact that surely a 30yr old grown-up woman should no longer have to worry about wearing longer skirts in case someone sees her latest grazed knee. (Not you too. I trip! Ok people? Happy?)

That following weekend we all went off to watch two VERY happy friends walk down the aisle. And what a celebration! It truly was one of the most fun wedding's I've been to with not just a band or a DJ, but instead a singing group called The Imaginations who we're great sports and only cried the tiniest bit with laughter as the groom sang Lionel Ritchie to his beautiful bride. Oh and how we DANCED! The best weddings are the ones with dancing and boy was there was plenty. So much so that I danced my teeny toenail off...
Gross and painful but...Hah!
I showed those teasing friends! These things just happen. Simple.
The good news is it really does warrant me getting these plasters I think, as surely I could now use the "DANCE OFF" one?

Now all I would change about these is I'd add one about Pirates to explain the brand new graze on my left knee I got from posing during the Twilight run. Nice.

Gimme More

So one of my favourite things about Pinterest (other than EVERYTHING about it) is the collecting of beautiful food imagery that's so much easier. If anyone I follow ever reads this and notices I've been inspired at work by one of your images, I hope you take it as the compliment it was meant as.

The plan is to actually TRY some of these recipes for a change rather than just reading a magazine, telling Miss G that I want to try half of them, putting the magazine down and then putting them all promptly out of mind.

So far I've tried this yum one, which already means on average my Pinterest collection is beating my magazine rack.

Here's the math involved in Keyna's surviving the summer:
Awful heat of Cape Town + this here recipe I pinned = almost possible 

This next bit is straight from the original blogger's mouth. Many thanks to Use Real Butter for blogging something so pinable and delicious!

Single Ingredient Ice Cream
from The Kitchn
4 bananas, just slightly overripe (brown spots good, completely black not so good)
2 tbsps creamy peanut butter (optional – thus 2 ingredient ice cream)
2 tsps cocoa powder (Dutch process), (optional – thus 2 or 3 ingredient ice cream depending on peanut butter)
DO NOT FREEZE THE WHOLE BANANA, you’ll have a heck of a time blending that beast.
Peel the bananas and slice them up into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick disks. Place the banana slices in the freezer for about an hour or until they are frozen solid. Put the frozen slices in a food processor and pulse. First they will start to resemble gravel, but keep going. The bananas will soon turn into a frozen mush – at this point, start scraping the sides down (you will do this a lot). Or you could add a dash of milk since the liquid will help the blending. I’m lactose-intolerant, so after a few minutes of stopping to scrape the sides down, the banana begins to blend into a creamy texture. When the bananas look like whipped ice cream, you can add your mix-ins like peanut butter and/or cocoa powder, chocolate chips, toffee, raspberries, anything goes! Straight out of the food processor, the ice cream is like soft serve. You can also freeze it for a firmer texture. I find it’s pretty hard (and therefore, brittle) when I scoop it immediately after removing it from the freezer. Just give it a minute or two to soften up. Makes a pint.

Home Sweet Home

We're planning on taking a big big step. It's pretty much all in place - just waiting on nauseatingly large amounts of moola and a couple of signatures.

Hardly fathomable that we're so close to literally opening this door together and stepping into a new adventure. It'll lead to so many NEW questions we'll need to ask...

Important things like...

WILL he let me buy these to put on the walls and the kitchen? :P

Via Pinterest

from the series "Civil Star Wars" by Greg Peltz via Je Voudrais Que

Via Geek Alerts

Luckily there's still a couple of months to get him to warm up to the idea. I'm gonna need them!

I spy

I hope I see a hedghog! How difficult is it to bring one of those home with me to South Africa?

And this time I'm going to spot a fox! Hopefully it'll look like this, but I hear many many rumours they're a lot more mangy and disturbing. But this little guy... aww.

Off we go!

SO we're just a couple of hours away till I take my first lonesome long distance flight.
I'm off to see some incredibly good friends and family & I'm so excited I'm practically hyperventilating everytime I realise how close the trip is.

Partly it's nerves because, as I just mentioned, I've never flown long distance on my own before and of course there would be a stopover (that I have to google), but also because THIS cartoon kinda applies round about now. Yes I would be the dog... not the wise, wise rabbit.

Ch ch chaaanges

"Where have you been?"
I can hear all of you* asking me and I have a couple excuses lined up. Oh yes. Prepare yourself.

The last two weeks of October were an interesting time to say the least. I think I should stop giving people the advice that change is a good thing. It just seems to invite MORE changes into my own life. I have enough thanks!
Next time I should qualify it a bit more. "Don't worry! Change is always a good thing! For you mind you... not for me. I hate change, it's very stressful. But yeah for you, change is awesome! Do it!"
Here follows a list of some of the kinds of things I'm talking about:

Changed Jobs:
Thats right! I'm no longer in the mad world of publishing! instead I'm in the interesting world of people selling pots and things! Now that it's day 4 and I'm feeling a bit more settled with Lefty, my pot plant, in place and all... I'm starting to enjoy it! Minus the mishap of sitting through a meeting with my left eye's make-up actually sitting on my cheek – it's going well.

Finished Studies (for now):
Egad! what a disaster! I got it all wrong and thought my deadline for my studies was the 22 November. That would have already been quite tight as deadlines go since I'd been procrastinating quite nicely and would have needed to get it done before my trip (see the next point). Turned out my deadline for my project was actually the 28th of October. Nearly a whole month earlier than I'd thought. What a genius.
So I sucked it up, let go of my urge to sleep till it all passed, then let go of sleep all together really, cheated a LITTLE by using Dreamweaver to get the design moving and actually handed it in!

Applied, got my ancestral visa and am going to UK:
THIS is my favourite news so far! I am so very very very excited to finally be doing this. So far things on the agenda are a supper with Al and Michelle before they get married, a roller-disco night for my birthday present because Tam and Luce ROCK! Seeing Eugene and Hyo Jeung which I'm so excited for as well, AND then a fun bus trip down to cornwall to see my mom's family which I've ALWAYS wanted to do! I'm going to try and see if I find time to look up some addresses on our family tree as well and see if some things are still standing... you never know!

oh yes...
and I may have bought a house.
But this post is stupid long already so I'll save THAT saga for when it's more official.

OH OK! One more time... "Change IS good." Damn you wise ol' Mark Twain.

* I love to pretend it's not just me out there. ;)

Tip Tap Tops

This Saturday past, Miss J and I took to the stage once more and wowed our adoring fans.

Translation: We took part in a dance show, with a bunch of 7-11yr olds and my mum clapped for us.

(I take the "make a fool of yourself" part of the quote below very seriously)

About a year and a half ago now, "Ginny" (new blog/nickname) bought my sister a tap lesson for a birthday present and convinced a few of us to join.  I've been happily tapping and living out my daydreams with an invisible Gene Kelly ever since.

So this is a post of thanks to her for her mad ideas which always end up being fun, and a shout out to all the rest of you out there who don't give a hoot what people think of you. Nerds and geeks might not all necessarily rule the world like the 90's told us we might, but you sure end up a bit happier at the end of the day.

These gems just look like they should have taps on them don't they?! I spotted them via Pinterest - my latest vice. Go look and get hooked!

Feeling Sluggish

I was browsing the site of one of my long-time favourite illustrators and found this great image.
(I'd avoided it for a while as I was incapable of emotionally distancing myself from some memories...*cough cough* Don't we all have and hate an evil ex?)

Now if only I hadn't been avoiding the site for that while. This would have been a perfect image for a weird little story.
Have you ever had a slug on you? There are a LOT of ads out there at the moment for snail gel and that sort of...ick. I had up until a year ago managed to avoid the scenario quite effectively. Even through all those weird tasks they set you in primary school (don't tell me I'm the only one?). I mean I've been told I'm a bit of an oddball when I get caught calling a little snail cute, but that does NOT mean any amount of wrinkles are going to make me like the idea of one sliming up my skin.

As I was leaving my friends house I reached down to get my bag and saw an ENORMOUS slug on my arm. Not even I expected the way I freaked out let alone my poor friend's dogs.
There was squealing and jumping around and a lot of post-moment gagging, (from me obviously not the pups) as well as the expected cacophony of laughter from those who'd seen.
Thats fine. If you're me this kind of thing happens all the time. Sure.
Now time for the hug goodbye near the gate. Reach up with both arms and... ANOTHER giant slug!
Cue now BOTH of us squealing and hopping around like lunatics.

Would you believe me if I told you that in the five steps it took me to actually get to that gate and leave her garden we found another 2 slugs on my body? It happened.
I should just get used to this kind of thing like the unphased lass in the pic above.
Love her expression, love the colours, love Stuntkid... and now I want her hair.

Must motivate myself to appear motivated

I'd like to think I've become a teensy bit better at motivating myself and not procrastinating these days. Certainly I'm about a million times better than I was as a teenager (*wabbing was a term I quickly managed to grasp and use and almost every day). I've even created a few tests for myself to do in the next year to check my progress. Sure every time I think about them I get cold sweats and my heart flutters a bit ridiculously, but hey, I'm THINKING about it in the first place which is a start and next you know I'm actually doing it.

After seeing this infogram, new on my list of things to achieve are:
• become a more effective worker in sweatpants and sitting comfy in a la-z-boy.
• never to work with "sensitive" material
• become a person someone else would trust to look after their children

Because THEN I believe I'm well on my way to being allowed to work at home. What a dream that would be huh? Remind me to send this to my boss sometime next year.

by Mindflash via

*Wabbing:   
derive from acronym of "work avoidance behaviour" - the action of finding something else, ANYTHING else to do other than the task at hand (whether studying as a student or working); like sorting your CDs & DVDs again, making yet another cup of coffee, rearranging your desk, reorganising your inbox, vacuuming the carpet or just browsing the internet, surfing cables channels
someone chatting online to friend: "Hey what you up to?"
in reply: "Well not a lot really, just wabbing!"

Had I been immortal...

Had I been immortal I think I would have definitely tried to save all my outfits and made this video!
(also forEVER would have given me time to actually learn these moves... ) In my head all this stuff really happens.

As Diamonds and Dust says on her blog "I can’t stop watching it."
Agreed!

Dots and fulllstops

I started another journal a while back (me and my journal issues huh?) and it reminded me again that I've become ridiculous with writing.
Everything ends on a question? or an outburst! When did I stop expressing myself like a nice normal-toned human being?
Why am I ending everything on an up sound... have I become Australian?
Point is (see what I did there?) that the good old full stop is underrated and I'm going to focus on remembering him in my writing and my speech.

I always used to have the urge to do dot-to-dot with them on book pages. How amazing were dot to dot drawings when you were a kid? Those and those other books where all you needed was some water and a paint brush and an awesome colourful painting would pop out of the page.
I miss them!
Then I found this and now I miss them even more.

Mona Lisa - 6,239 dot to dot drawing from Thomas Pavitte on Vimeo.

Via The Worlds Best Ever 

Now to find out where I can find one for my flat! 

Sorry, I meant flat.

Back in your box!

This image was just too good to resist.

Did I tell you all I'm finally studying web design and some basic programming stuff? huh? huh? I'm enjoying the "being creative in a structured environment" thing I must say!

I mean, I'm sure clients will come around eventually with a few interesting solutions to something I thought was pretty simple... but for now... LOVing it.

Go on, don't listen to everyone else... thinking in the box has it's own set of benefits! Go!

What's better than superhero's?

Superhero Dinosaurs... OBVIOUSLY.

Honestly. WHAT more can you say about that? Done.

Thanks to a colleague I have a new site to follow! Find some more great stuff here at Shortlist.

New Journal... you WILL be mine

...One day!
Yes I say that a lot.
Much the same way I say "One day I will go through and finish all those other journals I started and wrote half way as a teenager".
Maaaan they're scary things.

I found myself starting the journals in a happy head space, getting distracted by life as only a teen can, then only picking them up to write when things on my chest got a little too heavy.
Eventually I'd ignore them completely as I noticed everything I was writing was actually too depressing to even read back to myself! (Heaven forbid someone else actually stumbles across them after my death :P I'm attaching warning labels)
Press stop. Rewind. Press play... and so it loops.
Ridiculous.

It seems I've successfully convinced myself that "if life starts to get you down... toss your old journal into the back of a cupboard and start a new one!" It's a physical put-things-down-on-paper way of starting fresh!

To date my life is documented by about 7, half filled, journals and this blog. And may I once again say, "bless you Internet". You're a magical space where I feel obligated not to moan too much and where wonderful new discoveries wait for me every day to lift any kind of heavy heart.

Or you know... I could just BUY THIS and stop writing altogether. Life is easier to absorb in pretty pictures anyway.



found via The World's Best Ever

Also I was attracted to this because the person is drawing a robot. It makes it THAT much cooler.

I'm not Knit picky

I love google reader, but mostly I'm glad I'm such an obsessive blog follower!

How else would I have found two beautiful projects, so very different and yet both using knitting?

#1. Ginormous knit used to upholster stools

Claire-Anne O'Brien has used a combination of hand and machine knitting to create dramatically oversized patters as upholstery

#2. Teeny Tiny two-year project

Anna Hrachovec embarked on a two-year project after knitting a tiny brain. She's now made over 100 tiny designs and written patterns for some of them! Amazing madness! If you'd like to read an interview with her there's a great one on Craftzine where I found her.

What I would love to be doing right now is reading a book, with my feet happily resting on THIS stool, and THIS cutie-pie of a donut lovingly attached to a silver chain. (or any of the characters from this big little collection - I'm not picky ;))

Move it or Lose it!

We're moving offices this Friday! FINALLY.

This is something that the powers that be have been dangling as a carrot for, oh, about 2 whole years.
Only thing now is we've been told we can pack a box. One. Each. One box will hold all our notes, files, our "help me remembers", our multi-coloured highlighters and pens so very necessary to survive this office jungle. Most disastrous of all, this box will have to hold all our reference magazines.
IMPOSSIBLE.

I wonder if they'd consider me bringing some chairs with me to my new little "pod person" space.
Hmmmmmmm.

This is brilliant and I think I could do with some at home as well. That might just JUST help me out.


by Sut Kutusu
Via Swiss Miss

Oh Hello Monday. Oh? Uhoh... Boom!

Not a Monday person.
I think that will be one of the things said about me one day when I'm gone.
I'm one of those people whose mood actually starts to plummet on a Sunday evening in anticipation of the horrors I suspect are lurking in the next day.

So this is just a quick post for these beautiful pieces (via The Given Collective) by Zach Johnson.

THIS is what I feel like at the beginning of every week!
(or at least it's pretty damn close to what I keep imagining I must look like when the day's tasks POUNCE! and cause my poor unsuspecting brain to explode.)


Boom.

Better than Barbie or Barney fo' sho

Contradiction...
One of the things I try very hard not to be is a hypocrite and yet some days I find little inconsistencies which tug at my brain going "hey... but yesterday you were moaning about that VERY thing!".

Here's an example. I haven't always been treated kindly by my chosen profession. Design is a harsh and fickle deity to worship and loves reminding you that you'll never quite be able to completely absorb or understand everything. So I hate telling people I'm a designer. Absolutely, utterly, hate it. I always feel like they immediately put you in a box. A very pretty creative box, sure, but I've never really felt comfortable there. Don't get me wrong... I still LOVE design (my posts should show a little of that at the very least), but I find the pressure and other people's expectancy to be cool a bit much. (flashbacks to high school *shudder*)
SO I do what I always do... try to ignore it. Deny it. Only buying things I really like and not things just because they're currently fashionable. Sometimes just plain hiding out in the suburbs helps quite a bit. You know that old trick of signing up to be a library monitor on your first day during lunch because you KNOW it's the wrong thing to do but you love books? - That's what I'm still doing.
Ridiculous? Yes! Childish? Yes. I have no excuse.

So here I am coveting these...
Dammit.



If you like them as much as I do you can get the whole LOT of them as part of their launch special over at Tattly

Unbeleafable!

In my defence, I'm surrounded by people who make it impossible not to leap at the opportunity of cheesey wordplay.

These peices are so intricate and beautiful that part of me really itches to try create one... Then my reality returns and the overwhelming thought is WHO HAS TIME? Crepes!

Amazing Cut Leaves Art via Craft:

"Natural leaf carving is actual manual cutting and removal of a leaf's surface to produce an art work on a leaf. The process of carving is performed by artists using tools to carefully remove the surface without cutting or removing the veins. The veins add detail into the subject matter of the carving. The material or most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree. The Chinar tree is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves have a close resemblance to maple leaves."

These next three don't use the Japanese style of keeping the veins of the leaves in tact but are still beautiful! (by Lorenzo Duran via Design Boom)

(Of course I coooould considerrrr spending less time scouring the internet for cool things... Erm... Nah.)