Awards!

One of my favourite blogs is that of Sweet Paul. I truly admire his creativity and style. He is a Food and Interior Stylist, which is what makes his blog SO inspiring! Imagine my delight then when he awarded me with 2 awards! The Brillante Weblog 2008 award and the "I Love your Blog" award! I am going to hand out the "I Love your Blog" award to some bloggers whose creativity has inspired me recently:
Hidden in France - for taking a pack of Permanent Markers and transforming her sofa with the help of her family into this work of art! Brave and Beautiful!!!

A Steno Pad for my Thoughts for showing us the delicate goodies she makes - like this Stacked Triangle Garland [with a tut]

Kate of Little Doodles for filling her blog with ... delightful little doodles.

Dizzy Design - for creating beautiful things like this 'Map Bag' And Miss Frugality for recycling Cashmere jersies into these Pretty Pouches.

A Fresh Bunch of Pencils

I decided to doodle with my pencils - not actually on paper, but with the pencils themselves. I love the fact that these ordinary everyday objects are so full of colour and promise. My daughter is studying art in her final year at school, so she has introduced me to Andy Warhol's pop art. I don't usually buy cans of soup, but we bought a can of Campbells the other day - in tribute to Andy. So it was decided that this would make a good platform for my pencil tower! [I see that Campbells is about to become Batchelors Soup here in South Africa. I wonder if this is a world wide name change or just local?]

More Folded Books and Pages!

A while ago, I showed you how I was inspired by Matthew Mead's book folding. Well there's a whole lot more inspiration out there now. In the last few days I have come across...

This amazing stuff from Anthropolgie via Aesthetic Outburst via Apartment Therapy

These folded pigs on Jezzeblog by Rikus Ferreira from his show Varkore in die Skemer

And this Picture holder by Sweet Paul

PS Look what Anairam of Fra(a)iing has just just done too!

Celebration Time

Yesterday was my youngest daughter's 18th birthday! A garden picnic had to become a fireside party because of the unseasonal clouds and rainy weather. A good time was had by all! [I am trying hard to ignore the fact that there are 2 batches of leftover chocolate fondue in the fridge!]

Anenome!

I thought, with all this 'whiteness' and 'botanical' stuff happening in my blog, it would be good to finish off the week with something similar and yet completely different! Beautiful white Anenomes by Heath Nash for Artenica.

'Anemone is a malleable white lamp composed of connected four-wall cells. A protective metal sphere inside the lamp both isolates the bulb from the exterior and serves as the lamp’s core, turning it into an interactive piece that can be used on a variety of surfaces. Anemone infuses simple geometric forms with an unexpected fluidity, turning a conventionally static object into a playful, tactile experience'

WOW!

More Botanical and White Inspiration.

Have a look at photographer Janne Peters websight and enjoy...

Plant Tag Art!

I decided the beautiful pottery plant tags that Heloise sent me just could not be put out into the garden yet! So I have set up a botanical display in my dining room - with some thrifted white salad dressing jars and some herbs from my garden - [except the parsley which I bought]. Each name tag points to the relevant herb! I love the connection between the herbs and the jars and the fact that Heloise's creativity and generosity sparked it off!

Parcel in the Post!

My PIF parcel from Heloise in of My Imperfect Garden arrived yesterday!It was so beautifully wrapped! Oooh the anticipation! Heloise had given us a sneak preview a while ago... Here's a close up.... But, I am off to the Westville Prison again now, so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what I have done with my delightful gift!

How to Silver Gild an Old Picture Frame

With our newly laid cement finish floor, we have had add some modern touches to our home. We are painting the walls a warm grey [Plascon - Evasive White] Our pastel art work was framed in a gold frame which looked a little too bright and dated. This is how I transformed it onto a trendier silver: I removed the frame from the picture and cleaned it with a damp cloth.

I bought Baroque Art Gilders Paste in Silver from my local paint shop. They have a very informative websight, which was a great help to me!

I dabbed a dry brush in the paste and worked it onto the frameYou can use your finger or a soft cloth, but I found the brush worked best for me, getting into all the corners.I finished 1 side of the frame at a time before moving onto the next.When the frame was complete, I waited about 12 hours before buffing it up with a soft cloth to make it a little shinier.

I am so pleased with the result! The Mirror in the entrance hall is about to have it's frame transformed too!

Crowds!

This past weekend was full of colourful people - thousands of them! We went to a Christian Crusade with Angus Buchan in Durban - one of many around our country. It was a very moving experience! The Stadium was packed with around 50 000 people. I was struck by the pattern they created, as they sat tightly packed!

I have found that there are quite a few people out there who are also intrigued by crowds:

Artist Diana Ong depicts a crowd so simply and colourfully:

I enjoy Peter O's sketch of a crowd at a Party I would LOVE to get my hands on this lamp called "Our Crowd" which was sold at Habitat a few years ago. Pictured here on Hector Milla's photostream