'n jakaranda prinses se avonture in ikapa

:-)

2009-12-17T14:50:00.001+02:00

this pic makes me smile everytime i see it - grace kelly on her wedding day. so the wind doesn't just blow in cape town, after all.

(found the pic somewhere on the internet)

!

2009-11-27T16:29:00.001+02:00

my first tattoo! my sister and i got matching tattoos - mine on my arm and her's on her back. :-)

O 0 •

2009-11-18T15:31:00.001+02:00

dress of the week. hahaha. well played, katy perry!

!

2009-10-29T15:26:00.001+02:00

prison playing cards

originally spotted here

( ! )

2009-10-21T14:06:00.001+02:00

heleen klopper has devised a way of fixing holes in woolen fabric by applying wool felt fibres with a needle. read more about it here. i love how it's sustainable but also beautiful. the fabric gets even more character (and colour) as time goes by.

!

2009-10-21T10:57:00.002+02:00

heeheehee! crazy!

•

2009-10-20T12:33:00.001+02:00

. . .

2009-10-16T16:12:00.012+02:00

You’re

BY SYLVIA PLATH

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,

Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,

Gilled like a fish. A common-sense

Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode.

Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,

Trawling your dark as owls do.

Mute as a turnip from the Fourth

Of July to All Fools’ Day,

O high-riser, my little loaf.

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.

Farther off than Australia.

Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.

Snug as a bud and at home

Like a sprat in a pickle jug.

A creel of eels, all ripples.

Jumpy as a Mexican bean.

Right, like a well-done sum.

A clean slate, with your own face on.

Sylvia Plath, “You’re” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1960, 1965, 1971, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath. Editorial matter copyright © 1981 by Ted Hughes. Source: Collected Poems (1992)

!

2009-10-15T11:49:00.000+02:00

the staller

the stainer

andrew friend makes nuisance machines for work environments, with names like: the staller, the stainer and the whisperer. to read more about it, go here .

:-)

2009-10-14T18:27:00.000+02:00

hahahaha!!

(sorry, i have no idea where i found this on the net....)

( )

2009-10-14T17:51:00.004+02:00

loving these ties that only reveal their secrets to those who know where to look!

(from here )

(no idea where this pic is from! sorry)

...

2009-10-14T17:47:00.002+02:00

i'd like to live here... i've always loved the idea of living in a treehouse...

(pics found here and here )

{The diplomatic secrets of Madeleine Albright's coded jewellery}

2009-10-06T14:35:00.019+02:00

Picture above: For the Middle-East peace talks in 1999, Albright would occasionally wear a wasp for her meetings with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "I wore wasps on tough days when I wanted to do a little stinging and deliver a tough message."

The diplomatic secrets of Madeleine Albright's coded jewellery. The former secretary of state's brooches have hidden meanings.
By John Crace (The Guardian, Tuesday 6 October 2009)

Forget "read my lips". When doing business with Madeleine Albright, former US ambassador to the UN and Bill Clinton's secretary of state, you're better off with "read my brooch". In her new book, just published in the US, Albright reveals that the brooch she chose to wear on her left lapel was determined by the state of play in ongoing diplomatic negotiations. So while Yasser Arafat was treated to a wasp, the South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, got a more welcoming sun.

The fad kicked off after the Gulf war in 1994 when the Iraqi press referred to her as an "unparalleled serpent" and she decided to wear a coiled snake to her next meeting with Saddam Hussein. By the time she left office she had a collection of more than 300 brooches – most of them picked up for next to nothing at flea markets – including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and a gold UFO with three aliens – presumably for meetings with the Taliban and David Icke respectively.

Sadly we never got to find out what she would choose for a meeting with Gordon Brown – a dead man walking? - but her brooch idea has already broached the Labour stronghold. When Hazel Blears resigned from the cabinet in June, she wore a sinking ship – with the message, "Rocking the boat".

:-)

2009-10-06T13:46:00.002+02:00

the power of time off - a talk by stefan sagmeister

(one of my alltime design heroes)

mmm....

2009-09-22T09:28:00.001+02:00

indian carrot salad

another superb recipe by jamie oliver. we made this last night and it's super easy and very, very delicious. but then, i like salads with meat in them and as little lettuce as possible!! (lekker boeremeisie) :-)

find the recipe here.

photo by david loftus

. . .

2009-09-18T15:55:00.006+02:00

Maximus, to Gloucester: Letter 2

BY CHARLES OLSON

. . . . . tell you? ha! who

can tell another how

to manage the swimming?

he was right: people

don’t change. They only stand more

revealed. I,

likewise

(photo by tim chumley)

:-)

2009-09-17T15:36:00.001+02:00

this picture makes me smile every time i see it

pic from veer.com

...

2009-09-10T17:59:00.006+02:00

Thick glossy cookery books entice me

Mandy Mitchells

Thick glossy cookery books entice me the heavier the better Layered with tangible ingredients and places Like apricot and prickly pear, kudu and Karoo With recipes that read like poetry under my fingertips I gorge my senses in bookshops absorbing pictures of loaded tables and exquisite gardens heavy with the luxury of time I don’t quite know what they give to me except maybe wistfulness The sense of wanting to be somewhere else Far from traffic, concrete, the rush of ordinary lives The reality of scrambled eggs or two-minute noodles.

(photographs by the very talented vanessa grobler)

< >

2009-09-10T16:18:00.002+02:00

"son oor sishen"

photo taken by my dad

...

2009-09-08T15:26:00.006+02:00

very true:

"Isn't it time we acknowledge that no human being with any passion and deeply held beliefs ever emerged flawless into the world? And that if every mistake, misstep, boneheaded decision, or error in judgment becomes an automatic disqualifier for public service, then we're going to be left with a political landscape filled with nothing but wrinkle-free, foible-free, passionless automatons who have never made a mistake because they never took the risk of having an original thought."

arianna huffington

.. •• oo

2009-09-08T09:27:00.007+02:00

very funny twitter feed = "shit my dad says"

...

2009-09-03T10:56:00.003+02:00

.

2009-09-03T10:46:00.004+02:00

not my stationery, but it easily could have been! :-)

•o

2009-08-31T15:34:00.002+02:00

maiko takeda's shadow jewellery

- + - +

2009-08-31T13:29:00.008+02:00

thinking of tattoos...
loving these (found all over the web)

then there's the amazing work of angelique houtkamp

also loving the poetic intimacy of freja beha's tattoos, especially "float":

which reminds me of the "skin" book / tattoo concept - "a story published on the skin of 2095 volunteers".

•

2009-08-27T13:48:00.003+02:00

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else."

James M. Barrie

.

2009-08-26T16:07:00.002+02:00

collages by dash snow

. . .

2009-08-25T16:21:00.010+02:00

one of my favourite buildings in cape town - the old castle breweries building in woodstock

...

2008-10-15T12:39:00.007+02:00

this little guy greets me every morning as i drive into the parking lot at work. to whoever placed him there - thank you!!! it's a great way to start the day.

•

2008-08-25T10:08:00.008+02:00

the secret to making green tea... is not to forget about step two! (that's no teapot! hehehe!!)
(as spotted on a packet of dilmah green tea)

! * • #

2008-07-21T09:55:00.016+02:00

the dark side of intellectual property...

i guess i'm not too surprised by this, but it makes me angry. in my opinion, intellectual property should be about protecting the creator, not the exploiter. it's a sad day when a country's cultural heritage has to be patented to prevent it from being stolen.

and then there's the advertising industry ripping off the art world... sigh.

• pic borrowed from mungo's website

•

2008-07-17T12:07:00.010+02:00

"stories, like food, lose their flavour when cooked in a hurry"

- ngugi wa thiong'o

. . .

2008-07-17T11:56:00.010+02:00

Lalibela, Ethiopia
High up on my travel wish list is Lalibela, an ancient holy city in Ethiopia - built to be the New Jerusalem and boasting churches carved out of solid rock. Legend maintains that angels came down from heaven to help build the churches, as it's near impossible for humans to have made them... Be that as it may, I can't wait to see this ancient city with my own eyes.

..

2008-07-16T12:01:00.005+02:00

In her own words: "Frances Trombly uses trompe-l’oeil effects in her work to recreate mundane objects, making labor-intensive pieces through weaving, embroidery, cross stitch, and crochet. By recreating what is mass-produced she initiates an authority that is missing from the utilitarian original."

.. ..

2008-07-16T11:53:00.010+02:00

I thought this was really beautiful – 393 oak trees in dorp street (in stellenbosch) have been wrapped in red cloth . The street is 1.6 km long, so they used about 8 km of cloth! It was done by land artist, Strijdom van der Merwe, to bring attention to all the little shops, restaurants and galleries on this historic road (dorp street is the oldest street in stellenbosch, which in turn is one of the oldest towns in south africa). What I found really amusing though, was how the trees started developing their own personalities...

... this one looks like it's wearing a boob tube and has really big boobs!

... this one looks like a monster's face!

.... this one reminds me of a mummy!

•

2008-07-07T11:30:00.005+02:00

"there's a little crack in everything and that's where the light gets in"

- leonard cohen

. .. .

2008-07-07T11:23:00.011+02:00

hiding place
love this idea by show pony - fabric that pokes fun at out relationship with insects. "the pattern on the surface is pretty and appealing but look between the folds in the fabric to reveal a darker side, where spiders and beetles lurk."

o

2008-07-07T11:21:00.005+02:00

made me smile

•

2008-07-04T11:48:00.007+02:00

"there is more to life than increasing its speed"

- mohandas ghandi

...

2008-07-04T11:23:00.006+02:00

spotted the photographs of hans silvester on pia jane bijkerek's blog and was mesmerised by them. i love the daring and imaginative ensembles of the Surma and Mursi tribes, yet i also wonder how much of this is really natural and how much is styled (and is something that started off as a sincere and authentic expression fast becoming just another tourist curio?). but my cynicism about the influence of the west on africa aside, i really love seeing something so riveting and inspiring coming from my continent, surpassing a lot of fashion seen on the catwalks.

there are a lot more images here.

• Pictures by Hans Silvester (Rapho/Camera Press) from the book Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester, published by Thames and Hudson, £19.95.

.

2008-06-26T16:18:00.004+02:00

hahaha - "little handpainted people, left in london to fend for themselves."

•

2008-06-26T12:08:00.015+02:00

"Sometimes I think heaven must be one continuous unexhausted reading"

- Virginia Woolf

........

2008-06-19T17:24:00.004+02:00

melting words by kotama bouabane

^

2008-06-17T15:46:00.004+02:00

die ark
ek was nog altyd lus vir 'n huisie in die platteland - êrens stil en pragtig en weg van die gewoel van die stad. hierdie naweek het ek 'n plekke in sutherland gesien wat my hart gesteel het. dit was deels die wit sandsteen mure en die eienaardig gevormde deure en vensters. dis deels ook die feit dat die huis 'n naam het - die ark. groot genoeg vir twee honde en twee katte om ons geselskap te hou! :-)

. . .

2008-06-17T12:11:00.006+02:00

self-portrait in autumn

–

2007-06-06T18:13:00.002+02:00

my dad. the aftermath.

• •

2007-05-29T18:25:00.001+02:00

My dad went for a heart operation last week, so I flew up to pretoria to spend some time with him and the rest of my fam (my grandpa was also in another hospital at the same time). It was a really intense few days, but it was also amazing to see them all again. Happily my dad's operation was a success and he's slowly getting better.

• * .

2007-05-17T17:47:00.001+02:00

hehehe

. . .

2007-05-04T12:35:00.004+02:00

poetry all over...

i love it when poetry exists outside of the confines of the pages of a book - on Jeff Crandall's glass bottles, on a shirt (nice one, Kate!), on a pillow, on someone's legs...

x X x

2007-03-27T17:14:00.003+02:00

public embroidery -
cross stiching performed on seats in buses and trains. if not quite poetry, then at least a public haiku!

...

2007-02-05T11:29:00.001+02:00

It's called "the folding chair" and it does just that. And more.

.. ..

2007-01-22T15:01:00.002+02:00

i see famous people...
hehehe - surreptitiously taking photo's of ourselves and well-known rugby personalities at a wedding (sorry lisa - we couldn't resist!). unfortunately only the photo's with de wet barry in the background came out recognisable, so he appears on both photo's.

X

2007-01-22T14:55:00.001+02:00

what a way to end a year
in the last hour of work, on the last day of the 2006 work year, i was so excited to go on holiday, that i sliced my finger with an NT cutter. sigh.

xxx

2007-01-22T14:50:00.001+02:00

a few of my favourite things...
i love this little curl that appears when we're by the seaside!

...

2007-01-10T10:53:00.002+02:00

From the Sea, Freedom
Or, "E Mare Libertas", the motto of Sealand.

The history of Sealand reads like a movie script - a World War 2 fort, protruding out of the sea, just outside of Britain's nautical boundaries, claimed as the Principality of Sealand by the man who then made himself the Prince of Sealand and starting ruling his very own piece of concrete. Sealand has its own flag, own currency, own coat of arms, own constitution. There have been all the usual dramas befitting a micronation - the kidnapping of the royal heir (and consequent imprisonment of said kidnappers), a raging fire threatening to destroy the nation, fake passports (the cunning revenge of one of the foiled kidnappers), and a high-security internet company that uses this off-shore location as their home-base. See these links for the facts and more details:
wikipedia
official site
haven co article

.

2006-12-19T10:07:00.001+02:00

Hoe om te begin? 'n Foto van myself? Hoekom nie!?