24 Dec

Patchy internet access the last couple of days has left this space very quiet, but done wonders for my Christmas preparations.

I downloaded a bunch of pics this morning, here's a smattering of what we've been up to.

 Christmas Trees inspired by Love & Lollipops

 Brining the turkey in the camping fridge. Innovative no?

 Who knew she'd love mince pies so much? Little bit of sherry never hurt anyone right?

 

I finished Sunday's stocking just in time! She'll get her name on it next year, Maybe.

This was a great success.

 It's all been so ... jolly.
Christmas really, really is more fun once you have kids.

Have a lovely few days everyone, I'm taking a blog break 'til the New Year - see you then.

21 Dec

Giant fruit. Fabric paint. Repurposed vintage Skinny laMinx. Itchy shoulder.

It was a good day.

zen christmas

I could bang on and on about how utterly sublime Cape Town has been these last few days. Windless, warm (but not too warm), clear, blue and gold.
But that could get you hating, and I wouldn't want that.

So I'll just bang on about how relaxed and ready I'm feeling about Christmas, and you can be hating on me for that instead.
But really, I'm as surprised as anyone. I'm genuinely calm, prepared and feeling totally zen about this silly season: Christmas, school holidays, endless empty days to fill  - bring it on.

Molly's SmugFace Guide to Christmas Preparedness:

1. Schedule 3+ weeks of family sickness for November. This enables you all to get really used to spending lots of time at home together. And gives you some time for holiday crafting to distract you from killing your children, or yourself.

2. Do one 2h trip to Osman's sometime far away from pay day (way too busy then) to sort out all stocking fillers, extra tinsel and tree bling, and the necessary couple of small friend gifts. Yeah, I know we should all be buying handmade but frankly, I can't always afford that.

3. Agree with your friends not to buy each others kids presents. We give and receive generously for our children's birthdays, and with all the family gifts they receive at Christmastime I don't think they need all that extra loot too. Sometimes we bake for our friends around Christmas time, sometimes we don't - there's no pressure and no one should be keeping score.

4. Order one kid's main gift from Kalahari (or similar online outlet), source other kid's gift on the web and go straight to the source to buy it in one easy excursion. Visit Reader's Warehouse or similar for a couple of books.
(Our girls get stockings from 'Father Christmas', and one or two presents from us. I'm loving the 3 gift concept too - something to wear, something to read, something to play - but if summer thus far is anything to go by they'll be stark naked until February, so I'm skipping the 'wear' one.)

5. Luck out on finding one source for all family gifts (us adults all buy one small gift per couple) - and earn bonus smug points for a) buying them all in under 30 mins and b) supporting a local industry.
Oh and, persuade your siblings not to breed - it really helps when you don't have nieces and nephews to buy for.

6. Wrap as you buy. I'm new to this (and I'm not joking when I say I'm as freaked out by this newfound efficiency as anyone) but what a winning concept. Buy a gift, wrap it when you get home/ that evening/ while they're in the bath / while talking on the phone. It only takes a minute and it's easier to stash a wrapped gift than an unwrapped one.

7. Start making a list in October of what your kids need or want so when you get the inevitable queries from relatives you've some answers at the ready. I've yet to meet an aunt or granny who's not appreciative and it means I have some control over the kind of kak, I mean, presents which come into the house.

8. Pledge, and stick to it, not to go into any malls after end November. So far I've managed this and my god it's making a difference to my sanity levels. The Garden Centre doesn't count okay!
[Ack, went into Cavendish yesterday - but took the lift straight down to Woolies, bought shoes for both girls and got the hell out. Relatively unscathed.]

9. WALK AWAY. What can't be done, won't be done. Don't promise nothing to nobody but yourself - I've had years of practise letting myself down, it stopped hurting long time ago.

10. Throw candy, not money, at any problems which come your way. Or alternatively, your own face. Frequently.

Ah the smugness. Annoying hey?

Yeah, I'm too zen to let that bug me. And too busy frantically finishing a handmade stocking for Sunday.

What is it about this time of year?!

19 Dec

'Tis the party season gang, and this girlie is getting tired.

A quiet day today methinks.

having a moan: artisan markets

On the weekend we popped in at this market, looking for some supper, a drink and a change from the usual supper/bath/bed (kids)/copious wine/arbing on the internet/bed (us) routine.

Looks pretty hey? It was so pretty - twinkly lights, bunting, a live band, beautiful people, pretty things - a very pretty Cape Town kinda experience.

But, sigh, I'm afraid I left feeling a little underwhelmed.

My intention is not to belittle the creativity of anyone trading their wares, there were very many uniquely lovely things, as well as a good number of pure genius lust-haves, and I'm genuinely respectful and empathetic of anyone who has the balls to put their work out there - craft, writing etc - but the overarching aesthetic was so ... same-y.
By the time we had ambled past all the stalls and back out into the gathering dark the whole market had fallen into one visual folder in my head, with only a few items standing out from the crowd.

This is what that folder looks like:

Stuff:
hessian cloth
stripey ribbon
white
bunnies
birds
brown paper

Words:
organic
vintage-style
signature
gifting
conscious
re-invented

Smells:
coffee
chocolate
pretension

Read together these words evoke a pretty picture, and I feel so very Grinchy finding fault with that. I love living in a city where people create, I love being able to nip out to a market to see what they've been up to.

But I can't help but feel we're missing something when an 'artisan market' becomes predictable.
Predictable is why I avoid malls.

16 Dec

A couple of weeks back I had a fun evening listening to Nine Inch Nails and making a string of paper matryoshkas.
As one does.

It was one of those sanity-saving exercises when I just needed a little all about me-ness. Friday was tres impressed when she saw them up but also indignant that I'd made them without her.
So today we remedied that, and she and some buddies made their own.

I'm loathe to admit it, but hers are way cooler. They have beards!

5 underappreciated milestones

The first tooth. First mush. First step. First word. They get all the attention.

But let's take a moment for those less glamorous but, in my view, as exciting milestones. Some of those precious developments which show our little darlene's are growing up and, more joyfully, make our lives just that little bit easier ...

1. The moment they start getting the concept of 'in a minute'.

2. The first time they walk from the car into the house themselves, freeing up our hands for The Bag, the shopping, the keys, the takeaway coffee.

3. The first time they understand, and obey, 'Fetch the wet wipes.'

4. Ditching the toddler car seat and its infernally complex and curse-inducing straps and clasps. All hail the booster seat!

5. The first time they can pick up dog poo unassisted.

Okay, I've yet to experience that last one but lemme tell you - it can't come round soon enough.

14 Dec

Yester-evening the little 'un and I sneaked off to the much anticipated opening of the new Skinny laMinx studio and shopfront in town.

I was too busy holding a small child, quaffing lurvely Graham Beck and nomming extraordinary ice cream from The Creamery (peppermint leaf! ohmahgee!) in teeny-weeny cones to wield a real camera - see lovely photos here, here and here - sigh ... the beauty.

Heather really just gets it so ... right.

Skinny laMinx, 201 Bree Street Cape Town - go see.

13 Dec

Dance like nobody's watching. May she never forget it.

12 Dec

You're going to start thinking I'm making this up.

But please believe me that I couldn't if I tried. Sometimes all you need is to look around with a dirty mind observant eye.

luck. guilt. joy.

Last week I left my front door and security gate standing open for 4 hours.
I think I need to say that again. In italics.  
Last week I left my front door and security gate standing open for 4 hours.

I left the house with the girls, Friday decided at the front door that she and her sister needed dolls in the car and went back to get them, I went to the car to strap Sunday in, Friday came out to the car, I got her in and drove away.
If you're not from here you might not get the enormity of how stupid that is. If you are you'll know that's plenty stupid, as well as reckless, and well, just plain blonde.
If you're not from here you might not get how incredibly lucky I am that not a thing was disturbed when I returned.
If you are you'll know that's a bloody miracle.

4 hours and not a thing was taken, not one single sign that anyone had even sniffed around.

That's luck.

On Saturday night I was awoken at 1am by Sunday very quietly and calmly calling me. She does this sometimes and I only half-roused, waiting to see if she really needed me. I must've dozed off again.
Then I heard her calling once more, still very quietly and politely.
Once again I lay still, listening for a bit until I decided she was probably not going back to sleep.
I got up slowly, resignedly, went to the loo first and then finally to her room, where I found my poor baby in a puddle of her own congealing and rapidly cooling vomit.

That's guilt.

Friday's been on holiday since the end of last month. By now we're well into the swing of all being home together - I've made peace with getting much less (read: none) writing done, Sunday is loving having her playmate around all the time, Friday's watched Despicable Me a trillion times (in amongst lots of other stimulating and/or outdoor activities obviously).

Yesterday she told me that she was having the most fun ever. That I was a lovely Mum and she 'loved living with me'.

That's joy.

Luck. Guilt. Joy. Three such Christmassy feelings don't you think?

9 Dec

It's not a great photo by a long shot, but this puppy was acquired to help alleviate, or at least distract from, the sorrow of a woman who lost her husband of many years.

And what this photo does do, is testify to the ray of sunshine this doggie has proved to be.

Hope you have a happy sunny weekend!

I just have to add ...

That it flummoxes me that 'the largest bird park in Africa and one of the few large bird parks in the World', which offers visitors the unique opportunity to view, amongst other wondrous creatures: Marabou Stork, Kookaburra, Cassowaries, Golden Baboon, Porcupine, Duiker, Atacoma, Marmoset, Honey Badger, rare African Civet for goodness sakes, Birds of Paradise, Boa Constrictor etc etc etc ad nausea (that's if you inhale too deeply around the Flamingo), also offers this, in all seriousness.

The Magic Forest.

From the signs you'd think it was the most exciting part of the whole place. Your curiosity well piqued you thank your lucky stars you're not in a school group, make sure the toddler's sturdily strapped into her stroller, take the eldest firmly by the hand and push through the gate.

More promising signs of danger adventure to come.

And then, amongst the well-tended jungly pathways and the spine-tingling mossy gloom, you start encountering these ...

... no birds, no animals, the occasional ill-placed turd and more of these ...

... and sorry wtf is that?

It's unfathomable.

It's inexplicable.

It's uncannily like our lounge-room when the house still belonged to its previous owner, a 70+ yo pensioner with a penchant for hideous knick-knacks and the artful arranging thereof.

I need this one explained to me. I really, really do. Magic Forest of ultimate weirdness.

8 Dec

I took the girls to visit World of Birds ahead of the school holiday rush. It was the perfect day to do it - cool and overcast, very few other people there.
We had a great time, despite the stench (watch out for those flamingos!), and were lucky enough to get some very rare sightings ...

What wondrous bird is this?

I flouted all the rules and took it home.

7 Dec

Um, did we know these could be machine-washed?

Pity we can't do the same for the feet.

6 Dec

I smelt it before I saw it. My stomach said: 'Yeeesssssssss!' Then once inside had a brief and heated debate with my wallet as to who was happier.

They called a truce.

Eastern Food Bazaar, 96 LongMarket St. [with another entrance on Darling St for dual entry points to the awesomeness].

5 Dec

You know when you visit a place for the first time and within a couple of hours of being there you're already excited about going back?

Like that.

2 Dec

Gone camping.

posted from Bloggeroid

1 Dec

The girls opened their first advent matchbox this evening. Two little white chocolate buttons happily consumed.
3 packets of match boxes, lots of scraps from the pretty paper stash, one tube of chocolate buttons from Clicks.
We're keeping Christmas simple this year.

And we're excited.

PS I was interviewed over on Becoming You this week - such fun.