A New Cushion Cover!

This is a simple pillow cover I've just made from a thrifted cotton knit jersey! 

I hand appliqued a vintage crocheted cotton doily on the front and backed the cover with matching stone coloured hopsack linen.

It has a lovely squishy feather inner and fastens at the base with a zip! A quick and satisfying project!

Floral Introduction!

I love the white and coloured handcrafted flower on the right of this table scape.  It is another 1 of the products in the Freshly Found Online Boutique.  

The bloom is a unique combination of Sandile Sithole's design and my own love of white highlighted with colour!

 An ethnic craft with a fresh look!

Thanks to Siblingmine and South of Sahara for plugs for Freshly Found Boutique! See more pics on Flickr

Weekend Wrap up

I started my weekend on Friday morning at 4am. A group of us went to Summerveld to take some early morning pics and have some breakfast.

When we arrived the mist was SO thick that we had to abandon our plans to capture the sunrise and captured the horses-in-the-mist instead!

The thick fog on Friday gave way to bright sunshine on Saturday. We visited the I Heart Market in Durban.  At least 2 3 4 5 7 9  10 other Creative KZN bloggers did too! Dinkum Design,  Cupcake Couture, Coelho Culture, Pippa Lynch, Miss Molly, Ask Ashe, M is fir Moxie,  Luckyou,  Siblingmine and Glossary were all there!

Sunday took me out of my comfort zone into the bright sun and large crowd at the Goldfish Concert in the Botanical Gardens in Durban!

Lots of inspiration - now back to a good week of work!

Holes!

Yesterday I popped into my local thrift store and could not resist buying these well rusted vintage graters.  How fortunate for me they are filled with holes!  They came at just the right time!

Because -Linda Sue of All I Ever Wanted invited me to take part in a Week Word Contest today and the word is today is "Hole"!

Holes + light = Pattern. Very nice!
NB Do not pick the grater up by the handle after the flame is lit!!! It gets very hot very quickly! I know!

Festive Garden!

The Christmas decorations from the Freshly Found Online Boutique looked stunning in my gently overcast garden today.

This set of 6 ornaments are available in the shop here and a slightly larger set of 6 stars here. Find out more about their creator Sandile Sithole here. 

If you order these ethnic decorations now they should arrive in plenty of time for Christmas!

Early WIP

I have an attraction to old how-to books [especially crochet ones]
I love recycling!
So...

 I am using a pattern from this vintage crochet book as a guide to make a hat.  The skeins of yarn that I am crocheting with are video tape! I unwound the reel, then rewound the tape into skeins, which I twisted to make them crinkly.  This makes the tape much easier to work with.

Now I am looking for some Milliner's wire.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Book Lamps

Other very clever people out there are folding books too!

The Creative Consultancy of MN*LS have a range of handfolded antique book lamps! 

via Designsponge  

Random Act of Creativity!

Our new Yellow Pages arrived yesterday.  I decided to commit a random act of Creativity  and turn the old one into a work of  Book Art - before it was recycled!

I'll send it off with my next batch of goodies to go to the charity shop.  Hopefully it will create some interest! I can't keep it myself as I already have quite a lot of book art here!

Creative Durbanite - Cara Lee

On Tuesday I met Cara Lee Hamilton George!  What a lovely name and what a talented lady!  She is an artist who has left the corporate world and is pouring her talents into her art and into refurbishing furniture.  She works from her home in Glenwood.

She exhibits her work at the Shongweni Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and also once a month at the Heritage Market.  To find out more about Cara Lee's work, visit her blog.

I love some of her creative ideas - like finishing surfaces with painted newsprint and making the back of her pieces as good as the front.

She takes on private commisions. More pics on Freshly Found's Facebook Page!

Heart Art

Yesterday was a very special day.  I traveled in to Durban and:

1. Met an interesting person - [more about her later in the week]
2. Had a heartwarming experience, [more about that too] and 
3. Saw the King of Arts Exhibition at BeanBag Bohemia!  I love the way the art combines so well with this vibey Durban restaurant!
I have posted more pics of this exhibition on Freshly Found's Face Book Page!

Baby Stuff!

I am not at all in baby mode in my life at the moment.  My own children are too old and I am not yet a granny. 

But there is a baby on the way in the extended family, so I have had a little baby practice.  I made some pullover feeders from hand towels.

I remember how much I enjoyed these cover-all bibs, especially when my children were learning to feed themselves!

King of Arts

An exhibition of creative playing cards was launched at Bean Bag Bohemia on Saturday night.

27 local Durban artists designed 2 playing cards each. Limited edition packs in steel cases and prints of the cards are available.

Read more about the exhibition here and see Hylton's contribution on his flickr here.
My son and daughter were at the opening and I am hoping to get there later this week!