Going potty….

..is one way of using up scraps or “minestrone” as Kaite you can see more minestrone here…

Some weeks ago I finished crocheting a blanket using bamboo yarn….

I really enjoyed working with this yarn…sadly there was not much yarn left over….

….. but enough to inspire these little pots….

my pot collection is growing rapidly as I am on a “minestrone” clear out drive….we have recently heard that our next posting is Beijing ….so I have to reduce my stash before we leave in April next year…

Caught in a web….

…..at first glance I thought this was a single butterfly already consumed by the spider and what i was seeing was it remains….but further observation revealed….

that there were indeed two butterflies….I felt really sad….lovers caught in a web…..

Lazy Saturday

We were meant to take a trip to the beach today but work got in the way for my dear husband so we have spent the day lazing on our veranda…bird watching…sewing and Sudoku (my husband is a fanatic)

this is the thrush having a wonderful time…we have become good friends…he never bats a feather when we are on the veranda just a few steps away from the bird bath…

I have been busy adding to my magic feather on canvas…

…the “killer Sudoku”..with so many options….

hope that you are having a good weekend where ever you are….

Chaos!

We are now on count down….11months left in West Africa…..so it is time to start clearing out and down sizing…..

…..where did it all come from….?

….in the garden…things are being rearranged too….

…now that the rain is back….

Mail bag treasure….

this little treasure was mailed to me from my mother….it belonged to my great Grandfather Pop…my mother did not tell me where he bought the card or when…but….

…I’m guessing he bought it in France sometime in the early 1900’s perhaps on a holiday or maybe even during the 1st World War….

…my great Grandfather Pop was very fond of his sister who lived in Ireland…this card was bought for her…and she was a very special lady because she looked after Pop’s 6 children when their mother…his wife…was committed to a mental institution….

He never posted this card…

Holiday flowers

This picture of a new sunflower makes me think of hope…helps me to get through the day here…hope… that is….this is a hard country to live in…Sierra Leone..that is…

These are hydrangeas' taken at Stour Head church…near Warminster in the UK….this picture reminds me of a wedding gown….love…something I feel everyday…how lucky can this person be?

Sunflower Seeds

My mother has been writng a book for as long as I can remember, it is the life story of a friend who escaped the Nazi's in Poland. My Mum has told me that the book is alomst finished and will soon be needing a cover.

I have been sent many variations of what was in their minds and a passage to read from the book to inspire me for my input.....

This is my interpretation...

Snow in the night.....

It started to snow again on our neck of the woods.....

Distractions......

My blue coat has taken a back seat for the moment, progress is very slow.....

Right now my attention has been concentrated on the making of fabric post cards. I started a birthday swap over at http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/group/fabricpostcards . This is proving to be most enjoyable 'meeting ' like minded people in cyberspace. There was a time in my life when I was very solitary. This interaction would have been just great at that time but I have moved on now and my life is very full, I'm really lucky.

The other day I passed an Interior Decorating shop in our high street and noticed that they had put out a few sampler booklets for sale on the pavement. One of the booklets with plain fabrics in a rainbow of colours caught my eye and started the imagination cogs rolling. I snatched this up in a minute and could not wait to get home to do something with the fabric........Later.... a trip to the local treasure trove called Thread Bears I saw a piece of canvas work that I thought I would try out.......this is the result.






Then there have been other distractions such as candle lit dinners, spider watching, long walks in the Surrey countryside, housework, travels on the train and visiting with family.

Snow..heaps of snow...

For this African the recent snowfall in the South East England, Caterham, where we live, has been truly awesome....yes I know that in some parts of the world this is but a mere dusting, for me it has been amazing! For our dog it has been an experience in "feel the fear and do it anyway", poor baby (an African too).

Having to go out with a coat on nog al!! What decent African dog goes out in a coat...tsk ...tsk "Only in England!!"

Here the DB and I braving the snowflakes....awesome!!

It has been a magical experience for me, one I will never forget. I believe I have seen snow before when I was a very little girl back in South Africa (the land of my birth). My father even built a snow man for me...but that was a long time ago and the memory is not mine, just a story I have been told....Now I have my own memory and wow what a memory!

Cleaning up but not clearing out....

In preparation for the New Year I have been bringing in the new and getting rid of the old.

The New Year ahead will bring many changes for me, milestones to chalk up and challenges to face....

Looking forward to the road ahead...............

My London dayout WORDLE

My day out in London yesterday

Feeling a little frustrated......

I feel like my hands are tied at the moment. I have a room full of works in progress, no work surface and no proper light, I know that things have to happen slowly but this is just a bit too slowly.

On the otherhand I have to look to what I have a chieved:
I have managed to get most of our posessions unpacked,
I have accomplished the disposal of all the unwanted packaging,
I have managed to do some sightseeing,
I have made contact with my best friends daughter and even had the time to show her how to crochet,
I have registered with several employment agencies,
Today I opened a banking account,
I have ventured to neighbouring villages and ventured on trains and busses alone,
I have explored my village and surrounding areas looking for walks to take our dog on,

So looking at this list I have managed quite a lot, but not my real passion.....embroidery....well it will come in time hopefully this weekend.

It is raining again....... Oh Rain rain go away come again another day.....

In Limbo at the moment.....

I have been absent due to a move from one continent to another.....living out of suitcases is not fun at all....no sewing has been done.....things are just a tad upsidedown right now.....looking forward to new beginnings in a new home.......a new country.......more when I am settled and I can think straight.......

Visitors to my Blog

Dear Ladies

Many thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments here and on the TIFC blog. I have visited your blogs and feel privileged that you have taken the time to read and leave comments.

Please accept my apologies for not having returnd the favour when I have visited your blogs, but our connection at home is really awful and most frustrating. At the moment I am writing this from a smelly internet cafe....not my favourite place, but I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your time and attention.

Many thanks
Leslie

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!