It's December already.....

I've really been very busy, this being the reason for not having posted in such a looong time. Things that have been keeping me busy: The Denim bag was inspiration ganed from Sharon Boggin's blog - In A Minute Ago, The bag of stitches was a way for mwt to get to know some stitches, the beady things was filling a gap and so was the blanket.

I am looking forward to a new year filled with more and more ideas.

June Bead Journal Page

My June page is complete, here it is. This page as I have mentioned before is dedicated to my Father. The waves in the bottom left hand corner represent the sea, my Father would spend hours walking along the seashore; the heart in the top right hand block is placed probably out of place that’s because while my Father had a good heart but it wasn’t always in the right place. The Fleur-di-lis(sp?) represents my Father’s time with the Boy Scouts. I think he was always sorry he did not have a son, he loved the Scout movement. The wheels represent cogs in machinery; my father was an engineer by trade. Lastly the sequins represent the stars, as I believe that is where he would want to be, floating among the stars in the sky, he loved the night sky and star gazing.

Well now it is on to the next month; more about this in my next blog.

BJP June page

Missed my dead line but I am nearly finished. Will post a picture of the finished project 30th June.

There are some amazingly talented people, an hour in the morning is not enough to look at all the beautiful work.

Bead Journal Project: June

I am starting this a little late in the month, I have deceided to set myself a target, as this page is being dedicated to my Father I would like to get it finished by 25th June, his birthday.

Fabrics being considered for the page. I am looking at winter browns and greens as here in the southern hemisphere we are in winter.

Winter solstice is the 25th June, my mother always says on this day..."we have now turned the corner and heading for the summer solstice!" She hates the winter and longs all winter long for long hot summer days.

Lady of Leisure

So now here I am a lady of leisure….. able to do all the things I have not had the time to do in the past.

Living in a small town and not having to work the women network soon envelops new comers. In January I was invited to join the art group, and the potters group, at these groups I learned about activities other ladies of leisure were doing to keep minds and hands busy. It was at the potters group that I learned about the embroidery group. Having delved a little in cross stitch and a few poor attempts at chain stitch, I joined the embroidery group. What a wonder; being the proverbial square peg I feel I have found my square fit.

I have posted some of my first attempts below.

In wanting to get more inspiration for projects I turned to the internet as in this lovely little town there are no library facilities, but then who needs a library when there is an electronic one sitting on my desk…albeit a slow one…it does work. After much searching I happened upon Sharon B’s embroidery stitch library, looked into the “a minute ago blog” and a new world was opened up to me. Sharon if you read this thank you so much for your information and totally unselfish sharing of your knowledge, blogs of interesting topics, I begin my day reading your blog and continue my day inspired.

Now I am going to try my hand at the beaded journal. I was too late to enter as I was on holiday and did not have access to the internet, but I am going to partake anyway.

I have decided that my journal pages will be dedicated to special people and events I have met and experienced. My first page I am going to dedicate to my Father as this is his birthday month, something to remember him by.



Bitten by the cross stitch bug but finding that there was just not enough liberty for what I had in my mind to achieve.



















This was one of my first attempts at crazy quilting and embroydery. I am ashamed to say that these slippers are still a WIP.







This is where I create, this room is wonderful and has a beautiful outlook on our vast garden. I am so lucky!!

How it all began

I arrived in Malawi permanently on the 2nd January 2007. I had been here before in 2005, not knowing the true purpose of this visit; as the weeks turned to months spending many hours soul searching, trying to understand why I had put myself on a very remote part of this continent with people I felt really uncomfortable with. It was after I had made a decision that I had punished myself enough, life on the remote Nyika Plateau had awakened in me the need to become anonymous once more and to return to the concrete jungle I had run away from 5 months earlier. I needed to be in a place where things worked, where there was a city crowded with people, to get away from the handful of broken people each hiding from their respective demons. I remember thinking at the time that I was faced by such wide open spaces everyday, yet by the end of five months I was beginning to get cabin fever.

While being incredibly beautiful, the Nyika was cold and unwelcoming….

On 27th August 2005 I welcomed a group of guests from Lilongwe. They had come to the Nyika Plateau for the weekend. In the group consisted of a married couple, a single woman and a single man. They were very friendly upon my greeting, but being tired and all guest out, to me this was just another series of late nights and early mornings of mindless small talk. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We had a wonderful time and an invitation was extended to me by the single man to use his house as a base when I left the Nyika Plateau at the end of September.

My intention when leaving the Nyika was to travel more in the country of Malawi, but by the end of September I had had enough of Nyika, my spirit was in pieces and all I wanted to do was to go back to South Africa, back to my Son, back to my friends, back to things that worked, back to the rat race!

David (the man I met in August) was upset that I wanted to leave. He wanted me to stay and travel as I had planned. I didn’t instead I spent a week sleeping away my pain that would not go away. I knew that David wanted more from me but I was not able to give anything. He was beginning to suffocate me and I could not get away fast enough.

Arriving home was even more depressing….my mother had allowed my sister to stay in my flat, so when I got home I had to camp in unfamiliar surroundings. Getting a job was proving to be extremely difficult. I was going downhill fast…..All the time David was there to give me words of encouragement and all the time I kept pushing him away. I had another decision to make, I would move back to the coast where I had spent most of my life, my son was born there and my friend family were there. I did this; the healing began, I was surrounded by people who accepted me for me, my friends welcomed me with open arms, my son and I spent quality time together. I was home!

For David this was not the end, he was not going to let me slip through his fingers, after many visits from Malawi to Durban, David convinced me that we were meant to be together. After much deliberation with my Son and my best friend, I decided that I would give it a go. Have not looked back, I don’t take one minute of this man for granted in the last 10 months he is the man I can look in the same direction with.

At last I am happy!