Erratic Journal of a Creative Blogger

University and my blog

2012-02-12T19:53:00.003+02:00

I am really confused and worried at the moment about my blog. University seems to be sucking all my time and while I am loving every minute of it, I am also worried that it has been taking a huge toll on my blogging. I am not going to stop blogging because I love having a blog, but I just feel guilty that I am not spending enough time on it, and recently I have no pictures for it!

I may in the long run land up changing my posts a little bit to make things easier for me to blog more often. Do more outfit posts, more random experiences, more going out with friends, more make up tut posts. This is all a maybe, on the other hand I will wait a while and maybe once I have properly started term them I will have more time and spend less time figuring things out.

Sorry for such a short update.

Student

2012-02-09T16:29:00.000+02:00

So I am officially a student now! I registered at the University on Thursday the 2nd and I started classes tomorrow. I know, Friday is a weird day to start! But we are just having introductions sort of things so that we can have time to actually find our lecture venues with out worrying about being late! :)

I wish that I had something more to blog about and that I could blog more often but at the moment I'm just really busy with preparing for the new semester. I am so excited!

Concrete and Limerick poems

2012-02-03T10:22:00.001+02:00

Soft and Gentle

        Soft and gentle,
      yet handle carefully
    or they'll be sharp and
      dangerously guarded.
      both symbols of love
        both baring
              fruit.
              Spoken
                 of
             through
                out
                the
               ages
              admired            and
              revered.   Cultivated
                and    trained
                for
               their
             beauty and
               their
              bounty.
                So
               much
               alike
           The Woman
            and
             The Rose

This is my concrete poem. Concrete poetry often forms the shape of the topic of the poem. In this case one of my main focuses is the rose and I hope that you can see the rough shape of a rose in the text.

Kitten, Pangaea

There once was a kitten, Pangaea,
Who had quite a terrible fear,
Of mice in the night,
Who gave her fight,
Which made her disposition quite queer.

This is my Limerick. It's just silly nonsense but I think that's usually how limericks are. This one was quite fun to write. I think that Pangaea would quite disapprove of me slandering her name like that. Heehee.

Poetry Challenge

2012-02-01T10:40:00.001+02:00

Thomas and I were chatting about my poetry the other night and he suggested that I try some more formal poetry structure and try to develop my poetry more. Recently I have realised that I only really write in free verse. *Challenge accepted* I shall list some poetry styles/forms (that's how bad I am I don't even know what they are called) and I shall try to write a poem in each one.

I will be posting the poems as separate posts, so far I have done two of them. :)

(The following definitions are all things that I Googled, none of them are my original descriptions!)
Concrete
Also known as "size poetry". Concrete poetry uses typographical arrangements to display an element of the poem. This can either be through re-arrangement of letters of a word or by arranging the words as a shape.

Rhymes
Rhymes are types of poems which have the the repetition of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words most often at the ends of lines. This technique makes the poem easy to remember and is therefore often used in Nursery Rhymes.

Sonnets
English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet.

Limericks
Limericks are short sometimes bawdy, humorous poems of consisting of five Anapaestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a Limerick have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other.

Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

Free Verse
These pieces have some kind of structure, usually relating to syllables or rhythm, and sometimes interwoven rhyme.This makes the poem free to find its own shape according to what the poet - or the poem - wants to say, but still allows him or her to use rhyme, alliteration, rhythms or cadences (etc) to achieve the effects that s/he feels are appropriate. There is an implicit constraint, however, to resist a regular metre in free verse - a run of a regular metre will stand out awkwardly in an otherwise free poem.

You are welcome to do this along with me, you can post links to your poetry in the comments and I will go and read them
Challenge

1 Concrete Poem
1 Rhyming Poem
1 English Sonnet
1 Italian Sonnet
1 Limerick
1 Blank Verse
1 Free Verse

Here are some useful links to explanations:

quatrain: [link]
couplet: [link]
sestet: [link]
iambic pentameter: [link] and [link]
cadences: [link]

Gothy Storage Walkthrough

2012-01-29T20:28:00.002+02:00

For Christmas I got a gift that came in a little orange box. I decided that the box would be really useful as storage for me but that the orange colour did not suit my room. I say that I "gothyfied" it but everyone's version of goth or decorating things varies so in reality I just made it black and decorated it with stuff that I liked. This is more of a walk through than a tutorial but I hope that it inspires you to decorate your storage to suit your room and style.

A while ago Thomas gave me a couple of lengths of ribbon. Until this box I had not used any of it, when I decided to decorate the box I realised it was perfect for what I wanted.

I sponged my paint on because I find, in my experience, that it doesn't leave that streaky look that paintbrushes can leave. After a few coats the over all effect is more smooth.

I painted in the inside because I am more steady and accurate with a paintbrush than I am with a sponge.

one coat

two coats

three coats

I measured how much ribbon I would need. Cut it, and then started gluing. I put the glue on the box first and then pressed the ribbon on to it. I also put extra glue on the ends of the ribbon in an attempt to stop it from fraying.

During my gluing process I realised that the acrylic paint was not adhering to the box properly and would easily be scratched off. My long nails were doing a good job on it. So after touching up the paint my mother suggested that I try painting podge over it. I used the podge that she uses for her decoupage.

I would advise if you are going to paint the podge on to try and seal it that you do so before putting on the ribbon. I was quite worried about the podge streaking but to my relief the podge dried clear!

glued on the flowers

Here the box is on my bookshelf in my bedroom. I'm keeping my spikers in it along with stuff that does not fit nicely in a jewelry box.

Posting forecast

2012-01-29T13:53:00.001+02:00

I so many things that I want to blog about and every time I am getting to a day I feel that I can blog something more happens and I have even more to blog about! Well I'll make the most of my time while I can, obviously once term starts I'll have to slow down a lot, and you guys probably are not at all interested in my boring study life!

Posts that I have lined up:

Another photo shoot with Siobhan Noffke Photography. Loads of photos in this one, and also a little guest appearance from Pangaea. :P
Box decoration walk through. Gothying up some of my room a little. It's not really a tutorial more of a walk through of something that I did. Hopefully I'll do some more this week as well as I do not have anything up at the University this week. Except registration but that won't take ages.
Poetry challenge that I have started on DA. If you want to see that before I make a formal post on my blog here is the link to my Deviantart account.
Make up look from the other day when I was messing around.

University Orientation

2012-01-28T13:19:00.001+02:00

Photograph (C) UCT

From Monday to Thursday this week I went to orientation at the university I am going to attend. Yes, that is me with the purple hair in the photograph above. The photograph was posted on the front page of the university with a short article about the humanities orientation. I am actually quite embarrassed as Thomas keeps saying that it looks like I am the focus of the photograph but I suppose that is what you get for being noticeable.

I will give you a short run down of what happened. Except for the big talks, where we were in a big lecture theater, we broke up into groups of 20.

Monday: We had a welcome speech from the heads of the departments, went on a tour of the university to see where most of our lectures would be and where the food is :D, had a curriculum advice talk, and we had a talk on not being prejudice.

Tuesday: We had another curriculum advice talk, a safety talk, and a tour of the library.

Wednesday: Yet another curriculum advice talk, a computer assessment to judge if we need training on computers (I got 92% yay), talks from the outreach programs, and advice from honors students.

Thursday: We could choose to attend some small introductory talks by the lecturers, on the courses we liked to see if we really found them interesting (I attended the Social Anthropology, English Literature, Classical Studies, and Philosophy ones). Then we could see a curriculum adviser, one on one, to discuss our possible choices (I found mine very unhelpful).

Overall I was quite happy with the week. I felt more reassured about what was expected of me during and before lectures start, I made a friend, and I learned more about the university as a whole. I found that I did not get on with a lot of the people there, not that I fought or anything, they were just a bit juvenile. What annoyed me most was that a lot of the people left half way through the first day and only came back on the last day, or they complained of being bored all the time. I heard a lot of people making statements such as, "Ugh, this is just like school!". I found this annoying as I agree that not everything was super fun or interesting but I wanted to show respect to the speakers by keeping quite and I also wanted to gain as much as I could from the experience.

Here are some tips for people who are attending a new University and going to Orientation:

Eat breakfast and bring food! It sounds stupid but it is so hard to pay attention when you are starving and a lot of people tend to get more hungry when they are exerting brain power by paying attention. Also if you are attending a large university you may have to walk around a lot which is not fun if you are feeling faint.
Wear sensible shoes, this is also particularly pertinent if you attend a large university. I had to walk a lot and I knew that this would be the case so I wore my converse shoes, which I do not do a lot. This is because I wanted to be 100% sure that I would not get blisters or sore feet. On the first day I saw some girls wearing heels and by the end of the day they looked super unhappy!
Bring something to take notes with. We were quite lucky as they gave us booklets and notes but a lot of places do not do that, and our orientation leaders (honors students) also gave us a lot of extra information. You may not think that things are important when you hear them but a few months later you may regret not remembering exactly what was said.
When you take notes they do not always have to be super detailed. For example I did not take notes on all the services that the health and welfare office offer, I just noted where they are and who I could ask in the event that I needed to know more.
Do not bunk talks or events. I know it can be so tedious and boring to hear people talking for ages about stuff that you feel that you already know, but you may be really sorry if you miss something important and land up doing the wrong thing. Also unless you already have a friend from school who is going to be there, not everyone is going to be willing or kind enough to fill you in and they may get irritated with you.
Be kind and respectful to everyone. This is important if you, like me, do not have friends already there but it is also good practice. You will probably not make any friends if you do not keep an open mind. You also will be less likely to make any enemies or have people bad mouth you if you are generally polite and nice. If you see people that annoy you or you don't like you do not have to be all buddy buddy with them, just don't be mean or rude.

I hope that you have found this useful, or at least interesting.
I can not wait to start university!

Mischevious Animals

2012-01-27T10:17:00.000+02:00

Okay so as you know I have been on orientation at my new university this week, so I had a lovely post planned for to day on that. But then when I awoke this morning I found out that my animals had been incredibly naughty and so they have butted into my blogging schedule.

My cat, Pangaea (aka Panpan), and my sisters dog, Zoe, often like to play at night. They chase each other up and down the garden, my cat paws at the dog with out her claws, the dog nibbles her gently, they only ever hurt each other by accident. It has never drawn blood or been bad, the one will just yelp and run off and then the fun and games stop. So this is all just speculation but outside this morning we found a huge trench dug right by my fathers avery. Pangaea does sometimes dig a little when she is watching the mice that get in because she wants to catch them but the holes are always only about 7cm deep and not nearly enough to get in or make trouble. It's also right in the flowerbed so it doesn't destroy the garden. So I have little reason to believe that the whole thing could have been done by Pangaea, it would have taken her a very long time and she came in to sleep with me at 12am so it's not possible. What we think happened:

Pangaea and Zoe were probably playing, and Zoe probably got all hyped up. Then the cat probably lost interest and went to go watch the mice as she often does and may have dug a little. Then the dog being all hyped up probably decided to join in the digging. I must note that Zoe has had a bad history of digging a lot but she hasn't dug in about a year. So anyway, here are some pictures and you can decide for yourself what you think happened!

Under all that sand is grass!

It used to be all neat and tidy but there are plants scattered around the lawn and the bushes have been pulled about.

Pangaea says, "Honestly, as if I could do this!"

The mischievous Zoe in question!

Posting Update

2012-01-22T11:02:00.000+02:00

Soon my blog posts are going to become less regular as I am nearing closer to starting University. I might just give short updates during the days or do a proper post but only every few days instead of everyday like I have been doing for the last month or so.

Tomorrow is my first day of orientation at the university. I am very nervous, because I am starting after a gap year I don't know any of the people that I will be taking classes with. All my friends are a year ahead of me. I am sure that I will make some friends after a few weeks but I am still anxious for starting. After orientation there will be a few weeks where I only have to go in for a few hours for registering my courses ect, and then I think that term officially starts on the 14th. So the posting may really drop off around the 14th of February.

New Shoes

2012-01-19T10:26:00.002+02:00

So a couple of posts back I mentioned that my black pumps broke. When it's very hot here like it is now, it's staying in the 30's (degrees C)all week, I like to wear shoes that just slip onto my feet. It's too hot to bother with socks and shoes that encase ones whole foot. So I was very sad when my only pair of black pumps broke, they had been looking rather scruffy for a while but I knew that their time had come when I was walking and a stick went all the way through the sole up into my foot. So since I wasn't just getting news shoes for fun, I had actually used up my old ones my mother said she'd buy me a new pair. Yay. Then on Tuesday we were at the shops and I saw a whole lot of pumps on sale. I just couldn't make up my mind there were the leopard print ones and the black ones. I really liked the leopard print ones but the black ones would go with more outfits. Then my mom was very kind and said that since they were so cheap (R60) I could get both!

Old broken ones

This is where the stick came through

Old broken ones

New pretty black ones

New pretty leopard print ones

My old pumps lasted me at least three years if not more, I can't really remember. I hope that these ones last me as long. :)

Easy Friendship Bracelet Tutorial

2012-01-17T21:51:00.000+02:00

I have not done a tutorial in a while so I hope that this is easy for you to understand! I have been making lots of friendship bracelets at the moment. I really enjoy them because they are nice and easy, well for me. I first learned by watching a few videos on YouTube and then I got a little book of patterns that came with some thread.

This tutorial is just for a very simple bracelet, the first one that I learned to do actually. It just uses the right knot (as opposed to the knot that goes to the left) and you will end up with a stripy bracelet like this.

The finished bracelet

So to start you are going to need:

Some embroidery thread, I suppose you could use something else but embroidery thread works best for me.
A pair of scissors
Something to secure your bracelet to while working on it, I usually use a pillow but you can use a clipboard or a piece of card. (I used card here because I thought I was going to do a numbering thing but I decided against it so you don't really need the pen either)
And (I forgot when I took the picture) a rule or measuring tape.

I usually take a while choosing my colours and trying to make sure that they go nicely together. Or if I am using a new pattern that I am still learning then I try to use thread that I either don't like or have tonnes of so if I think that the bracelet looks to messy I won't feel bad not wearing it.

Cut three strands each of a different colour I used read, orange and purple. I chose bright colours to make it easier for the tutorial but you can use any colours. If you use more of the same colour remember that it may be harder to remember what you are doing. I am not sure on the length, twice the distance of my fingers to my shoulder which is approx 148cm but the length will differ depending on how wide or narrow you need it to be. It took me a couple of bracelets to figure out what worked for me.

Fold the threads exactly in half and then knot it in the middle. Now you should have six stands of three different colours and equal length.

I usually attach my bracelet to a pillow or in this case the board with a safety pin. Now take your first two colours. In this case mine are red.

Now take the first red thread and place it over the second red thread to make the shape of a four

Next pull the 1st thread through the shape you've created and this should make a knot.

Pull the knot right up to the top. The knot should be fairly tight but definitely firm. If you would find that easier to watch here is a video. By the way, the end of the video is just me doing some of the bracelet once I'd finished the tutorial so you don't have to bother to watch it.

In the video I did the same knot with the 1st red thread all the way across all the colours until it was the last thread.

In this picture you will see that on the left most side we now have the 2nd red and the 1st orange on the end. Take the 2nd red and do the same knot across all the colours. This is basically all you do until the bracelet is long enough for you to wear.

These are both the red threads knotted to the left and the orange ones will now be knotted.

The orange ones are done.

And the purples ones are done. Yeah so just repeat this until you are happy.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and were able to follow it. I really enjoyed making this tutorial. If people like it then maybe I'll do some walkthroughs of some more complicated patterns.

Please leave me a comment if you found this tutorial useful or helpful. And any comments on how I could improve my tutorials or explanations would be appreciated too.

Recent Poll

2012-01-16T10:21:00.000+02:00

I have decided to start running polls on my blog as I want to know more about my readers and more about what you, as my reader, want to be reading about on my blog. I think that polls are a great way to encourage and support reader interactivity with my blog.
Thank you to those who voted in my recent poll.

The poll was:
What do you want to see more of?
The answers where:
50% Tutorials, and
50% General life stuff

So I shall be doing my best to be making some more tutorials and posting more general life stuff. I actually have a tutorial already in the making, but I shall be having to hack Thomas' computer so that I can change the video format to the correct one. My camera unfortunately videos in a format that NOTHING on my computer can use.

Birthday Breakfast

2012-01-15T16:50:00.001+02:00

This morning my family, Thomas, and I went to for breakfast at a really nice restaurant. It was a little windy, even inside as they had all the doors open, but all in all it was a very pleasant experience. The food was amazing! I have not had such a lovely breakfast in a while now. I had a chocolate muffin, a croissant with jam and butter, and some muesli with fresh fruit salad and creamy yoghurt. Unfortunately a lot of shops and restaurants in South Africa don't allow you to take photos or get really upset if you take any photos of their merchandise. So I didn't even try and take any photos of the food, but I have some photos of us.


Houtbay beach in the background

It has been really hot at the moment, today it was 32 degrees C on the way home in the car! So I have been wearing very cool stuff. The long top (I wore to stop burning/tanning) and the skirt were my present from my parents. I have been reduced to wearing my sandals all the time because my black pumps broke. :(

Thomas liked the moblies

My parents

My sister and I

Thomas and I

We also went to a craft market, where I bought my mother a present, her birthday was on the 6th of Jan, that she wanted. And I was allowed to choose something else but I didn't find anything that I wanted, I will go back some other time when it is not so hot. It's ever difficult to choose things or make decisions when you feel like your brain is melting!

Happy Birthday

2012-01-15T09:04:00.002+02:00

Yay it's my Happy Birthday to me.

Pic from Tumbler

I will ask Thomas to bring his camera and take lots of photos today and maybe I'll blog about the whole affair later. I'm wearing my birthday present from my mom right now. I love it so much. It's a beautiful long skirt :D Well I should like it because I chose it but still. :D

Belly Dancer ATC

2012-01-14T14:17:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I got really inspired to do more art. This sounds odd but it rained for the first time in roughly a month, like a nice long rain after all these long hot days. And that was what inspired me to do art. The picture wasn't really inspired by the rain but the rain what what made me feel like doing art. Here's the picture that I did. It's an ATC.

Scan

Photograph

So I took both a scan and a photograph. This is because the photograph captures the true colour way better, but I can't seem to take straight photos so I have crop some of the picture out if I want to have just the picture and not the background. I can't even take the photos straight if I prestik them to something flat first. So I have scanned it so you can see the proportions and details better.

I am not sure how I feel about the pencil work. I used to do a lot of pencil work, then as I moved to doing more mixed media, namely wet medias I started using more textured papers which didn't warp as much. As a result this picture has a lot of white in it as I should have thought better and used paper with a smoother surface. But I suppose I can see it as a learning experience, apart from the disappointing result I did enjoy working with pencil again.

Shufflin out of my habit..

2012-01-13T13:01:00.001+02:00

Okay so I have decided that I need to stop moping around. Well Thomas decided for me to be more precise, so we are going out with friends this afternoon / evening. Probably something really chilled but it's better than my new obsession of staying home and feeling terribly sorry for myself.

So I have decided to join the blogs I have been reading which have been doing the Shuffle thing. The blogs I saw/ was inspired by were Graveyard Picnic and If I Only Were a Goth .

Here is my list of my 100 shuffle songs. I have bolded the ones that I like / listen to regularly.

1. Cat Empire- Two shoes

2. FiveIron Frenzy – Screams in the Night

3. Chopin -Piano Sonata No.2 in Bb Minor, Op.35

4. Coldplay– Yellow

5. TheFeeling - Never Be Lonely

6. Reel BigFish – She’s famous now

7. Cake –Commisioning A Symphony In C

8. ElvisPresley – Blue Suede Shoes

9. PinkFloyd - Sheep

10. AC/DC –Problem Child

11. IronMaiden – Holy Smoke

12. Iron AndWine – Cinder and Smoke

13. WeirdAl – Trash Day

14. TheShins – Know your Onion

15. ThePhantom Of The Opera – Entr’acte

16.Megadeth – Train of Consequences

17. AC/DC –This House is on Fire

18. GeorgianSIMI Festival Orchestra – Piano ConcertoNo.2 in F Minor, Op.21

19. Grease –Grease lightning

20. Shwayze- Polaroid

21. Sum 41 –Pain for Pleasure

22.DireStraits – When it comes to you

23. PinkFloyd - Time

24. JackJohnson – No Other Way

25. FooFighters – The Deepest Blues are Black

26. PhilKeaggy - Highland

27.Pendulum - Slam

28. MyChemical Romance – To the End

29. TheFeeling - Same old Stuff

30. AC/DC –Inject the Venom

31. TheBeach Boys – Sloop John B

32. HogHoggidy Hog – African Son

33. DragonForce– Fields of Despair

34. WeirdAl – A Complicated Song

35.Rudimentals – Two Boots

36. IronMaiden – Only the Good Die Young

37. Mad Sin– Riot in Paradise

38. IronMaiden – Total Eclips

39.DefLeppard - MXOM

40.Mika –Love Today

41.GreenDay – Brain Stew

42. SuperTramp – The Logical Song

43. NOFX –Lori Meyers

44.Mika – Stuckin the Middle

45. AC/DC -Meltdown

46. The Beatles– Yellow Submarine

47. Lostprophets– We Are Godzilla You Are Japan

48. IronMaiden - Sanctury

49. AC/DC –Whole Lotta Rosie

50. MyChemical Romance – The Jetset Life IS Gonna Kill You

51. ReelBig Fish – Everything is Cool

52. IronMaiden – Fear Of The Dark

53. TheDoors – AlabamaSong (Whisky Bar)

54. DefLeppard – Love Bites

55. Gorillaz– Demon Days

56. Ironand Wine – Love and some verses

57. TheFray – Look After You

58. Seether- Pride

59. TheWhite Stripes - I Can Learn

60. TheWhite Stripes – You’re pretty good looking

61. ElvisPresley – Treat Me Nice

62. Pantera– Strength Beyond Strength

63. IronMaiden – Be Quick Or Be Dead

64. Megadeth– Dread and Fugitive Mind

65. The BeachBoys – Good Vibrations

66. UB40 –If It Happens Again

67. TheStrokes - Reptilia

68. IronMaiden – Caught Somewhere In Time

69. TheStrokes – You Talk WayToo Much

70. TheWhite Stripes – Hotel Yorba

71. BlackSabbath - Changes

72. RobHalford – Sad Wings

73. AC/DC –Live Wire

74. HogHoggidy Hog – No One Heard

75. Midnightoil – Beds Are Burning

76. Axel F –Crazy Frog

77. TheBeatles – Back in the U.S.S.R

78. AC/DC –Go Down

79. TheBeach Boys – Rock And Roll Music

80. AC/DC – Have a Drink on Me

81. ArcticMonkeys – Pehaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But …

82. Guns N’Roses – Mr. Brownstone

83. ReelBig Fish – Everyone wants to be just like me

84. Juluka –bullets for bafazne

85. AC/DC –D.T.

86. IronMaiden – Holy Smoke

87. Blink-182– Man Overboard

88. MyChemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

89. ThePolice – Every Breath You Take

90. Simon& Garfunkel – Homeward Bound

91. ArcticMonkeys – Riot Van

92. TheClash – Four Horsemen

93. Audioslave- #1 Zero

94. Kingsof Leon– Happy Alone

95. Fratellis– A Heady Tale

96. IronMaiden – Children of the Damned

97. AC/DC –Breaking The Rules

98. SnowPatrol – Open Your Eyes

99. Megadeth– The World Needs a Hero

100. IronMaiden – The Number Of The Beast

So what have I learned from this? I have A LOT of AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Actually I think that most of the Iron Maiden comes from Thomas. But I do so love AC/DC :D Sad that none of my Queen came up.

Small Arty

2012-01-12T16:40:00.001+02:00

So it is day 4 of my nose piercing and there is no sign of feeling any more comfortable... so I am just going to post some arty art. This is something that I have been working on for AGES! I'm still working on it, obviously.

Blegh again

2012-01-11T22:49:00.002+02:00

Well once again, apart from doing some book shopping with my mom, I have done practically nothing today so I don't really have anything to blog about. (I did make supper for my family from this Indian vegetarian cooking book we bought ... but I forgot to take photos.) It is honestly so odd, none of my other piercings have ever made me feel like I am ill. So here are some pictures of some cool jewelry for Septum piercings.
The following pictures are all from Tumbler

January Garden

2012-01-10T18:55:00.003+02:00

I'm still not feeling like doing anything! And I have to try and amp my self up for Sherlock Holmes this evening. But anyway so here are some photos of my garden that I took a few days ago. I love the garden early in the morning when it's still cool and not so hot but all the flowers are looking pretty.

I made this sculpture in my first year of high school.
It's now a patio ornament.

This is the weirdest flower! I like the little bug though.

Hope you enjoyed my garden. :P Hopefully I'll start posting less non sense soon!

Chilled

2012-01-10T13:52:00.000+02:00

Well my nose is still quite sensitive, it kept itching so I hardly got any sleep. I am pretty much just chilling to day. I played some Minecraft, I might read a book now. Just chilling.

Septum Pierced

2012-01-09T16:35:00.002+02:00

So everything did go according to plan and Thomas took me to get my Septum pierced.

It hurt so much oh my word! But I was a little confused, most of the internet sites I'd read said that they do not actually pierce your Septum, the cartilage, they pierce the skin between your nose and your Septum. Well when I got there the chick said something about it being a cartilage piercing. Do they do these piercings differently in South Africa? Because a lot of sites said that it doesn't hurt that much... and oh my word it was sore. Or maybe I'm just a baby. Lol.

What they say about your eyes watering is true, mine watered a lot, but it wasn't like crying. I don't know it just feels different.

Well in the end I think that it is sort of skew. I am hoping it's just because the jewelry isn't aligned properly. It's too sore to move it but when I do I hope it starts to sit straight too.

Spetum Piercing

2012-01-09T10:33:00.000+02:00

I'm kinda nervous and excited because if all things go according to plan then today I will get my septum piercing.

I've read up a bit about it and apparently if you have an experienced piercer then it doesn't hurt that much. But if you get someone who doesn't really know what they are doing then they can pierce the cartilage and apparently that hurts a lot.

I'm nervous that it's going to hurt a lot, but I am going to a very reputable place, I know because I've got my belly done there and they were great and super professional. And I am excited because I know it'll look great. :)

Essence - 43 Where is the party

2012-01-08T22:18:00.001+02:00

Yay my 2nd nail polish post. I want to start this one off by saying that I ALWAYS have trouble with doing more than 3 coats of a colour. I do 1 base coat, 2 colour, and 1 top coat. If I do even 3 colour coats the stuff never dries and I get nail marks in it, it starts pushing ect. I just can't do it.

So 43 Where is the Party, is a really nice polish as far as I can see. It applied very nicely, it had a lovely consistency, not too thin not too thick. It dried quite quickly as long as I kept the coats thin and not too many. The brush was a great size and there were no stray hairs sticking out. I only did two coats but as you can see in the Sun there was a slight visible nail line (VNL) so it could possibly do with three coats if you can manage that. But To be honest VNL usually looks worse in photos, it wasn't that noticeable in real life and I wore this manicure for three days with out a problem.

Slight VNL in the Sun.

Can't see the VNL in the shade.

In the direct sunlight and tilting upwards the polish shimmers more purple, and in the shade or tilting downwards it shimmered greenish for me. I really enjoyed this polish and I loved how my nails kept glinting different colours.I am glad that I bought this polish.

Away for the weekend

2012-01-08T20:36:00.000+02:00

So as you have probably noticed, I failed to mention last week that I would be going away for the weekend. It sort of snuck up on me. Friday was my mothers birthday, and then after breakfast with her Thomas and I left to go and stay with friends in Scarborough. They have a lovely house right by the beach and it's beautiful. There was lots of partying and I had tonnes of fun and even made some new friends.

Thomas took some photos so I will see if I can steal any from him to put on this blog.

Wardrobe Make Over

2012-01-05T21:43:00.000+02:00

For the past couple of years I have been wanting to redo my wardrobe doors but I have been too lazy or scared to do it. But finally these past few days my father, Thomas and I have successfully managed to give them a make over.
Ever since I was quite young my mother has give me basically free reign with my room. I have been allowed to draw on the doors and walls, paint them any colour ect. so when I was about 12 or 13 me and my friends went through this faze of writing and drawing on my wardrobe doors with permanent marker, we wrote names of bands, drew pictures, I drew Rebbeca from bleeding edge, and the list goes on. So as I have gotten older I have started to feel like I would rather have plain coloured doors in my room. And I am so happy with the change. It's been quite difficult to capture the colour correctly, I might try more photos tomorrow, the actual colour is Nemesis by Plascon.

Basically the only photo that I could find of the doors actually up. I didn't like them so I didn't photograph them.

After a light sanding. You can see a very faint Rebbeca.

Thomas did most of the work. :)

Thomas posing with my stuffed sheep.

So far this photo is closest to the colour.

My room is SO much more calm. Also I finally have a nice place to take photos of my outfits. Usually it's a nice place light wise, but I didn't like the backdrop. I keep wanting to sit on my floor and just stare at my new doors.

Super Busy

2012-01-05T10:17:00.000+02:00

I'm really busy all of a sudden.
Yesterday I bought paint for my cupboard, went to cricket, came home and painted my cupboard, and then went out for supper with Thomas' family.
Today I have been helping my mom with some graphic design stuff for advertisements, and then as soon as we've had our walk (Something that I want to do for BatFit) I need to carry on with painting my cupboards.

So unfortunately I have been and will be a little lax on the posting side, but I am taking photos of the painting process so I'll post about my "new" cupboard soon.

Mouse Hunt in the Garden

2012-01-03T11:10:00.000+02:00

Yay, it's time for more Pangaea pictures! It has been ages since I have posted pictures of Panpan.

And what was all the fuss about? A mouse!

My father keeps birds, which attracts the mice. The mice eat the birds, baby birds, and eggs. This is why we don't mind her catching the mice. I haven't actually let her eat any though, this is because my father puts out rat poison for the mice. I don't know this may make it easier for Pangaea to catch them, or maybe she is catching them on her own, but I don't want to risk her eating too many poisoned mice and then she'll be poisoned. I take the mice away from her and then feed her some special Tuna for Kitties.

Define - Blue Nail Polish

2012-01-02T14:48:00.000+02:00

Okay so this is my first real nail polish swatch on this blog. I have not done swatching of nail polish in ages so forgive me for being a little rusty.

I bought this polish on a bit of a whim. Around here it's been really popular at the moment to wear very light shades of colours. Mostly like baby blue, baby pink ect. I don't usually follow fads so I didn't feel like splashing out on one of these colours although I did like the look of them. Then when I went to a post Christmas Sale at Clicks I saw some of these polishes going really cheaply. Unfortunately the ones that I have got now are made specifically for Clicks (Says so on the bottle) So I doubt that they will be available overseas but I wanted to swatch it anyhow. I bought two of them and the one I've swatched recently is the baby blue one. (They don't even have names or numbers)

Sorry for the not so amazing photo quality, Thomas' camera ran out of battery.

This polish has a nice long brush which holds colour evenly. The only downside is that the polish drys really quickly so it pulls a bit as you apply is because it's already drying. It also took different amounts of coats to get all the nails looking uniform, some nails required two coats and others three ect. But in the end they are all looking slightly streaky. It looks better in the shade that in the Sun.

Sun

Closest to the True colour


Shade

The one upside is that this polish has lasted quite well on my nails. I have a Sally Hansen Invisible as a top coat on it and it's lasted me three days. I have actually worn the baby purple one a few days ago and it applied 100x better. The purple one also lasted really long with the Sally Hansen on top, eventually after four or so days I cleaned it off just because I was getting tired of the colour and wanted a change. I will swatch that polish later on this week.

I hope that this post will be useful to some one out there. And I promise to practice my nail photography and try to improve.

Bat Fit 2012 Challange 01

2012-01-01T22:12:00.000+02:00

So I have decided to join Bat Fit 2012. I keep saying that I am going to get fitter and eat better but I never do. It just sort of slips from my mind and when I want something I just eat it, and I never feel like exercising. So hopefully this will be my motivation.
I know that this post doesn't really fit in with the rest of my posts but I felt that my blog is about my life and since this will be a very positive change in my life I shall include it. Maybe it will even inspire some of you to make a positive change in your life, what ever that change may be.

"So, your first challenge, dear readers, is to go out and buy yourself a notebook, journal or sketch book -- anything that you'll write in constantly. If you can't buy something then find an old half used notebook or make a file on your computer. This is going to be your health journal and will be the place where you keep your innermost thoughts, accomplishments and miscellanea associated with Bat Fit 2012."

I have tonnes of journals So I am just going to use one of the un-used ones I have lying around my room. I am actually thinking of using the nice one that I got for Christmas.

"Once you buy, make or find your journal write your first entries:

1. Write your health goals for 2012. Be brutally honest, candid and realistic about what you want to achieve. Many of you shared this with us on the Facebook page, however it's time for you to write it out in your own handwriting.

2. Once you've done that, your second entry will be for you to explore the meaning of good health. What does it mean to you? How does it relate to your goals? Be absolutely realistic."

1. My goals are mainly just to exercise as frequently as is healthy, and to cut down on eating so much junk food. My parents both have very high cholesterol and don't lead very active lifestyles, so this isn't really about loosing weight or anything. This is more about preventing myself from following the same "health" path as my parents. Also everyone always says that "when you get older", (I don't know what that elusive age is) "you won't be able to just eat what ever you want." And obviously I want to avoid that sneaking up on me. I want to start good habits now before they are too hard to start. Exercise will actually be a very good addition to my lifestyle as it releases endorphins which make you happier, and I tend to get super stressed and down a lot.

2. To me good health is eating the correct vitamins and nutrients in the correct amounts, as well as exercising regularly.

Herb21

2012-01-01T10:50:00.001+02:00

The reason for this photo is that he was on a business trip with my boss, and the whole office used to call me kitty.

So the time has finally come! :) I have bullied Thomas into starting a blog. I joke! Heehee. Thomas started the blog all of his own free will. He is planning for it to mostly be a photography blog. He used to be a really good photographer (in my opinion) but then he got out of practice when he went to university. Now he's getting back into it.
So go and give Thomas' Blog some love!

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-01T00:13:00.002+02:00

Happy New Year everyone!
To everyone with someone to be with, cuddle tight and enjoy the new year.
To everyone without that other some one, see it as a chance to find some one new and discover what life has in store for you.

Welcome to 2012!

Beef Pie Failure

2011-12-31T13:11:00.002+02:00

So last night Thomas was trying to decide what to make for supper while I was reading this awesome apple pie tutorial by Violet LeBeaux. So being totally inspired I suggested a beef pie. Thomas made the whole thing from scratch! He used his grandmothers pastry recipe and made up the beef and gravy part. It was totally delicious but a bit of a failure in the preparation part!

First, when I had written down the recipe for the pastry I had written it down wrong! and Thomas got confused. It was supposed to be baking powder not bicarb (my fault) and it was supposed to be two teaspoons not two table spoons(Thomas' mistake)!
Then we did not make enough pastry, before Thomas made more I kept saying to him shouldn't we use puff pastry for the top as it's easier to work with. This is because I wanted to weave the top. But Thomas assured me that he could weave with the pastry he was making. Then when it came to crunch time it was so thin and it kept stretching and breaking, I thought that there was no way that we were going to be able to weave it. Finally after much Googleing, and in the mean while leaving the pastry in the fridge, we managed to weave the pastry. We did not have a lot of pastry so we left some gaps between the strands.
So in the end it was not the most successful pie but it tasted amazing and that's what counts!

Christmas Collages

2011-12-30T13:20:00.000+02:00

Thomas and my sister took a lot of photos at this Christmas. My father asked me to make some collages that we can show/give to family so I just decided that they can double up as photos for my blog. :)

Click to enlarge

My little baby cousin is so cute!
Here, finally, is a picture of the gigantic Trifle that Thomas made for us. We were still eating Trifle for most of the week after. My mother cooked a lovely Turkey, my Aunts brought salads and stuff like that, and my grandfathers wife cooked gammon and decorated our Christmas table. The food was amazing and every one generally seemed to have a good time. Oh and one of my uncles made an AMAZING punch. The punch was finished really quickly. Unfortunately my younger cousins didn't want to have photos taken of them.

How to Polish shoes, by Thomas

2011-12-29T22:08:00.001+02:00

*Foreword by Diella.
So I know that I have been promising to do this tutorial for AGES! And I have finally decided to post it. Actually this was done by Thomas so all the procrastination has been me not wanting to edit the photos!
________________________________________________________________

HelloEllie’s bloggy people.

I’m Thomas

And todaywas…

…shoe polishday (and have lunch with family day).

So Ellieasked me to blog about polishing shoes, because she can’t and because Ipolished about 6 pairs today. Anyway here is how I polish shoes:

Quickdisclaimer: I’m not a professional shoe shiner or shoe repair person oranything like that, this is how I polish shoes and if you want you may copy me,at your own risk. i.e. if your shoes sprout wings and fly after this its yourown fault, though I wouldn’t complain if I had flying shoes as that would beall sorts of awesome. Also this is only for leather shoes and is not intendedto produce a very shiny or spit-polish finish.

Step 1(it’s a pun get it)

Clean yourshoes! This might sound silly but really you can’t polish dirty shoes. I take abrush and clean off any stubborn dirt particularly where the sole joins theuppers. I also wipe the whole shoe with a damp cloth and then dry them. Alsotake the laces out of lace up shoes.

Step 2

Dubbin/Oilyour shoes. Dubbin is this cool oily wax stuff (if you heat it you can apply itin oil form) but I have no idea what it is called outside of South Africa(it could be available every where or it could be only here), but any shoe oilor wax that nourishes and protects the leather should work. What you want to dois rub the wax or oil on with a soft lint free cloth, particularly focusing onthe seams and joints but making sure you apply it all over so that the wholeshoe is sort of moist but there aren’t any clumps of wax. If you live in a coldarea or it’s a cold day heating the shoe will help improve the absorption ofthe oil/wax.

You thenshould leave the Dubbin to set in and dry, this can take quite a while, About30min, but longer if you have time.

Step 3 (optional)

While theDubbin is drying quickly prepare and have lunch with your rather dysfunctionalfamily, this should take about 3 hours.

Step 4(if this pun is still funny you’re as silly as me)

Get apolishing brush, some shoe polish of the correct colour and a soft cloth (akaold stockings) ready. Using one half of the brush draw it across the polish sothat it picks up polish onto the brush, then rub the brush over the shoe sothat a thin layer of polish is applied over the whole area of the shoe you wishto polish (on large shoes this can require a number of repetitions).

Step 5

Using thewhole brush in circular motions move over the area you have just applied polishto till there is just a dull dry look left where the polish was and noindividual pieces of polish.

Step 6

Take thesoft cloth and in a circular manner buff the whole shoe to achieve the polishedlook. When you are finished the shoe should feel just very slightly tacky butno polish should be left on your hand if you touch the shoe.

Step 7

Put yourlaces back in and walk over to your significant other (Ellie in my case) andkiss them (and walk all over them in your sexy shoes).

Blog Update

2011-12-29T21:06:00.000+02:00

So I have been considering some things.

I use a lot of make-up and nail polish. So I am thinking of including some reviews of the products that I use. Not like a daily thing, just every now and again. When I find an awesome or terrible product I'll tell you about it.
I might start a fish blog. I really enjoy keeping freshwater fish and I got a lot of questions from friends and family on how to look after freshwater fish and which kinds of fish to buy. Now I do not promise to know all and I might have some opinions that other fish keepers disagree with but I'll try my best to keep things conservative and to validate my comments. Also I have been keeping fish for over 6 years now with out just killing them all so I must be doing something right.
And if other news ... I want to know what you want to read about in my blog so please participate in the poll to the right of my blog. :) If you have something else you can always leave it as a comment on this post.

These are just considerations at this moment so I don't know if I'll actually be doing them.

My Christmas Presents

2011-12-29T20:55:00.002+02:00

So I know that this is super late! But hey better late than never. :) This is all the awesome stuff that I got for Christmas. Excluding the other 24 gifts that Thomas gave me. :D

From my sisters boyfriend.

This is from Thomas. I will use it to hang my necklaces on. :)

This is from my parents!

Leather bracelet (doubles over) From my gran, silver bracelet from my parents, note book from my aunt and uncle..

Pen from my aunt and uncle, music voucher from other Aunt and Uncle, Bracelet from my OTHER aunt and uncle.

Orange bubble bath, came with candles, from my grandfather.

Earrings from my parents and sister

Makeup from my god parents

I love everything that I got. :D

Violet Hair

2011-12-28T15:28:00.000+02:00

Nice and shiny in the Sun.

That's my face that says, if you touch my hair with that dead mouse ... so help me I will kill you!

Lots of photos here because it all looks like different shades of purple in different lights but I love it a lot! I am still not sure what I am doing with my fringe. At the moment nothing but maybe I'll change my mind once Thomas has seen it.

After having to leave the mixture of Gentian Violet and Conditioner in my hair for two hours my hair is so unbelievably soft! I am loving it. :D

Hair update

2011-12-27T22:29:00.004+02:00

No pictures for this one sorry.

So this morning I washed my hair for the 2nd time since I got my hair dyed ... which may sound kinda gross but considering how dried out it was from bleaching and dying, it was barely greasy at all. But after the 2nd wash I would clearly seeing the bright pink had gone mostly orange. I don't mind a light pink but I did NOT want orange hair.
So after extensive Googeling this morning, Thomas and I embarked on the seriously long process of dying my hair with Gentian Violet. Tomorrow I shall ask Thomas for the concentrations that we used because we did not find anything when we Googled. Remember I was using this to dye my hair violet., not to lighten it which apparently (according to the internet) you can! I can't remember the concentrations as Thomas worked them out. Also this may only have worked so well because my hair has recently been dyed and it is naturally a lighter colour.
We started by dying a patch of my hair at the back of my neck so that we could see what the colour would look like. Then I waited 2 hours with the mixture in my hair. We washed it out and then blow dried it. I really like the colour but Thomas wanted to see if we could get more tonal variation by make a less concentrated mixture. We applied this to one of my bangs and waited another 2 hours. After washing and drying it was the same colour so i decided to just do my hair. Thomas left so I got my father to help me with dying my whole head. I kept my fringe out, at the moment it's still pinkish, and I may try and make it very light tomorrow. I'll see. Anyway so we applied to the whole head and waited another 2 hours! Then at 8.30pm I got to wash my hair out under the garden tap D:, it's very very messy and stains everything, it wasn't too fun. But in the end I am loving the colour!

Tomorrow when the sun is up and I can convince someone to help me take some photos then I will post some pictures of my new hair. :D

Decoupage Diaries

2011-12-27T13:55:00.000+02:00

I didn't intend them to match but they make a nice set.

My mother and I journal a lot so last night we got out loads of crafting stuff and decided to decorate some journals for 2012. My mother has just recently started doing a lot of decoupage in her art so she taught he how to do it too. I have never tried it before but it was a lot of fun. I get impatient waiting for the layers to dry though!

The first one I did

Second

Third

They all have similar themes but different moods. To decoupage we used: wrapping paper, paint, tissue paper, scrap booking paper, stickers, and I used glitter too.

Trifle Work in Progress

2011-12-26T11:02:00.001+02:00

So Thomas' camera is still at his house so the picture of the final Trifle is on that but here are some photos of while he was making it.
I only ate the top few layers: cream, custard, chocolate pudding, jelly and berries; and I left the rest because I was avoiding the sponge cake at the bottom. :( It was very yummy though!

Keyboard cleaning

2011-12-25T22:33:00.000+02:00

So the other day, Pangaea decided to paddle in a cup of coffee that i have left next to my keyboard and then splash and walk on my keyboard! D: So Just before Christmas Thomas and I cleaned my keyboard. I have had this keyboard for a while now so it was not a pretty sight inside! I don't usually clean them as my father once did it when I was younger and that one never worked again. But I decided that if I didn't clean this one then I would land up buying a new one anyway.

You can see the remains of the coffee that didn't come off with a tissue.

It was all ikky and dust inside!

:) All shiny and like new.

I really can't believe how clean it came in the end! I didn't clean the key bed totally, I just scraped and dusted the inside but the actual case and keys themselves I cleaned in the bath. Then I left them over night to dry before putting them back on. Thankfully Thomas had gotten me to take lots of photos before so that I could put them all back in order.

It's amazing how different a clean keyboard is to type on. I am used to pushing the keys hard and now they go down so easily I keep miss typing things. I am happy with it now though!

Blue Belly Ring

2011-12-25T22:18:00.001+02:00

So for one of my Christmas presents Thomas gave me a new Belly ring. I have not changed mine for over a year now! This is also my first non bioplast belly ring. This one is surgical steel with a blue stone in it. I really really like it. They all look so plain in the shops so i never buy them but now that I am wearing it, the contrast with my skin it looks so pretty.

Merry 2nd Christmas

2011-12-25T17:07:00.001+02:00

Today Thomas is celebrating Christmas with his family so I am on my own. :( He's also run off with his camera which has a whole lot of photos for my blog!

Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating today.

Christmas

2011-12-24T16:31:00.001+02:00

Oh my goodness! I did not realize, until now, how many people celebrate Christmas on the 24th! As far as I know most people in South Africa celebrate on the 25th. My parents' weird logic is that if we celebrate on the 24th then we will avoid lots of stress ect. I don't really know if that is true but it has made me suddenly so much more aware of all the other people in other countries celebrating to day!

At the moment it's 26 C! It is so hot. I really don't feel like eating roast. :P At least there will be lots of salad.

Trifle

2011-12-23T15:37:00.000+02:00

Thomas is going to make a Trifle (I don't even know if I am spelling that right) this afternoon, I'll try and take some pictures.
I don't like trifle as it as what I call 'soggy cake' at the bottom and it makes me feel ill, but my family want a trifle for Christmas, which we are celebrating on the 24th, and Thomas is good at making trifle.

Pink/Purple Photo Shoot

2011-12-23T15:05:00.000+02:00

Here are some of the photo's from my most resent photo shoot with my sister, as promised. I have my pink/purple hair in these. These we did as a very casual soft of setting/mood to the photographs. I like them a lot.

My sister's dog was trying to lick me. D:

Do you like seeing pictures from our photo shoots or are they just a pain to down load all the pics.

Waxing

2011-12-21T17:10:00.000+02:00

Don't you hate it when you go and get a wax and then your legs land up looking all spotty? And worse than the spots, which will go away in a day or two, is the fact that the skin still hurts. :( When this happens to me I usually:

Apply moisturizer often, I use one of those non-scented really gentle ones. If it has Aloe in it it's even better.
Try not to wear long socks or stockings for a few days. I find that this also helps to prevent ingrown hairs.
I also wait a while before having a hot bath. Hopefully I'll have my wax in the morning and then I can bath late that night. :)

I also find that the amount of pain and spots varies on in how much of a hurry my waxer was. Like today they were fully booked and trying to squeeze people in so she was in a hurry and it hurts more than usual.
What do you do to soothe your skin?

Siobhan Noffke Photography

2011-12-20T00:22:00.001+02:00

My sister is a brilliant photographer! I will post links to her sites at the bottom.
For a couple of years now my sister will randomly come into my room and say "Diella find your nice clothes, I want to do a photo shoot.". Or she'll have specific things she wants me to wear ect. I really enjoy modeling for her photography because she always makes me look pretty! >w<;; heehee. But, more seriously now, I think that she is very good considering she has never had any formal training. She just does photography as a hobby. She doesn't only do portraiture, she also does a lot of still life stuff too. A lot of her work has symbolism in it too.
I could totally go on for ever about how much I love my sister's photography but instead I will show you some photos from our latest shoot together. (Hopefully we'll do one tomorrow as well with my new hair colour.)

Siobhan's Deviant art page.
Siobhan's Facebook page.

Purple Hair...

2011-12-19T17:17:00.000+02:00

... well sort of.
Anyway so before you get your hopes up. They had a bit of an issue dying my hair because it is/was blond, it was too light to just dye over but it was not dark enough that the bleach would work properly. The long and the short of it is that at the moment my hair is refusing to hold colour properly and apparently the colour it will hold worst is purple. Something about the bleach making my hair yellow instead of orange and the yellow and the purple cancelling each other out. So when she saw that my hair was not taking the colour properly she added some pink. So my hair is more pink at the moment than purple. But she did warn me of all this before we started and also I have a little plan which will hopefully make it more bluish purple. I will leave my hair this colour for a while now though because my family seem to like it.
To be honest if you consider that it was a flop it really is not the worst hair colour.

Onwards to the pictures!

This is actually more pink than it really is.

This is the most true to the colour in real life.

Thomas took all the photos for me.

Purple Yay

2011-12-19T09:37:00.001+02:00

I'm SO excited and nervous! I'm leaving for the hairdresser in 23 minutes! :D

Excitement

2011-12-18T00:39:00.001+02:00

Yay I am really excited because I am having my hair dyed purple on Monday! :) I decided to go to the hairdresser this time because the last time I messed around with bleach at home it was practically a disaster! There are a couple of shades of purple that I wouldn't mind my hair being so it might be any one. I either want a sort of violet purple or a lighter bubble-gum purple. :)

Here are some purple hair inspiration photo's from tumbler:

Also to add to the excitement, I am going for buffet sushi for lunch tomorrow with friendies! :D

Late Night Exchange Party

2011-12-17T19:20:00.000+02:00

So last night me and my mother stayed up until 1.30 am having what we have now named an exchange party. We got out all our jewelry and both tried it on and then swapped or gave each other stuff which we felt that we would not wear but might want to borrow back for an occasion once in a while. It was so much fun and the time just flew by. We started at about 11 but then when we looked at the time again it was so late!

Here are some photos of most of the stuff, there are only a few things which I have not photographed.

A tin my mother gave me a few years ago, I like to keep my studs in here.

Ignore the earrings in the background, those are all mine for ages.

My mother gave me all of these. They all look really nice on me although I don't often wear pink.

I really like this pendant. I think that it needs a longer chain though.

Do you ever swap clothes or jewelry with friends or family?

Chilled day

2011-12-16T22:05:00.000+02:00

I didn't really do much today. I am so glad that it is holidays.
Thomas and I took Moghael for a walk on the greenbelt and Moggie loved it. She ran her self silly and in the end I almost had to carry her to the car she was so tired.

Then Thomas and I went to his house and painted the outside wall. It was hard work and I stopped long before Thomas did. I get so tired painting. I did other silly things like pruning some of the trees ect.

I am rather tired now.

Presents Galore

2011-12-16T22:01:00.003+02:00

I have been getting lots of present from Thomas this Christmas period. He always says, "Yes but they are all very small presents." But I think that they are all awesome and I would have been happy with having just any one of them.

Thomas is such a clever and creative guy that he decided to buy me 25 "small" presents so that my Christmas present is actually a Advent Calendar of presents.I think that it is such a cool idea.

Here a some photos of some of the stuff that he has given me so far.

Thin studded choker

The cutest cupcake tin ever!

a nail set of cracking nail polish. I want to try this out soon.

^_^ Adorable little Scottish Terrier Vanity case! :D

These are metallic purple tea lights. They are amazing.

Thick studded choker.

I am really happy with all my gifts. :) I like that the chokers are leather because I'd had some nasty chokers in the past that I just didn't wear a lot. And the Scotti Dog is just ADORABLE. I bet Moghael wishes that she had an awesome sparkly collar. The cupcake tin is so pretty and I can use it to store tonnes of things.

Does anyone else do the Advent Calendar gifts thing?

Jeepers Creepers

2011-12-15T18:46:00.001+02:00

Sorry about the bad light! The colour is a little more green.

This is the style of manicure that I have been wearing for the last few days. Lest week I did this one which is Jeepers Creepers [Tiptop](A blackish green with a shimmer) layered with Rocky Road Glitter [Tiptop] and a clear top coat [Sally Hansen].

I also had a red mani like this at the beginning of the week and now I have a blue one. I am in a sparkly mood, what with it being close to Christmas and all. :)

Holidays At Last

2011-12-15T18:03:00.002+02:00

Well hello there!

:) I am finally on holiday! So pardon me if I am a little crazy. Heeheehee

This is me after a really loooong 6 hours and then a long Christmas lunch with my colleagues (hence the not unusually small amounts of make up, clips, jewelery and black.) Oh and then not to mention going shopping with my parents (independently of each other) since they have just got back from Langebaan and tomorrow is a public holiday so they need to stock up.

Yay, I am going to be playing Minecraft, Skyrim, petting my cat, doing art, and eating lots of food ... and maybe a little sleep. :D

Painting Fail

2011-12-13T20:07:00.000+02:00

Today Thomas dropped me off at the house that he is renovating after we had bought some supplies for me to paint the exterior walls.

First I sprayed the walls with the hose to get most of the mud and stuff off of them. Then I used a putty knife/scraper to scrape off the loose paint (These walls have not been painted or maintained in a long time). Then I sugar soaped the walls, after that I sprayed down the walls again. Now this is where I made my mistake. There were about 8 vibercrete panels and a few big patches where I needed to apply the primer. Thomas had bought me three brushes and said that I must only choose one for the primer because the primer is so sticky and not water soluble so you just throw the brush away. Then I did see that there were two paint rollers but I made the mistake of assuming that one was for me and the other was for Thomas and that they were both meant to be used for paint. It was a painful task balancing on a ladder with a bucket and a little brush meant for cutting the edges. It took me about 2 or 3 hours to do the 8 panels. Then Thomas came back and asked... why didn't you use the roller? *facepalm*

I never claimed to be a good painter! *shakes fist* Hopefully Thomas won't leave me to my own devices again very soon.

Hellooo Again

2011-12-13T19:49:00.000+02:00

Hi again,

I am still alive, and I'm back again even sooner than I promised. I was just going to wait until the 15th but lately I've started to feel excited that work is going to be over soon so I wanted to share my excitement. It's not that my work was horrible or that the people were horrible... but who would prefer work over holidays? :)

On a slight tangent I am really starting to get annoyed about not being able to post off my phone. It was okay for a while when I could switch back to the old blogger interface on my phone but now I can not anymore and so I can't post from my phone. I have an E52 so it's not super fancy but I should be able to use blogger, I can use Facebook and Twitter fine.

I have been trying to take lots of photo's of things that have been happening so hopefully after I go on holiday I will have lots and lots of things to post about. :D And pictures to prove it.

It's good to be back posting. I do enjoy it.

So long, for now

2011-11-26T08:09:00.001+02:00

As you have probably noticed I have not been posting that regularly anymore. I've been having a little trouble lately and I have decided to stop blogging for now, probably until the 15th of December or so.

Happy 25th Anniversary

2011-11-22T18:32:00.001+02:00

Happy 25th (Silver) Anniversary to my Parents. :)

We celebrated their anniversary last night with a whole lot of their friends, maybe my sister will let me use some of her photographs for a blog post later in the week. It was a lot of fun. We went to a restaurant near the sea and it was very beautiful, the food was soooo good too. We stayed up so late (I was so very tired at work) and Thomas had to lift lots of people home. He was the designated driver.

I am very happy for my parents!

Big Arty Post

2011-11-20T19:42:00.001+02:00

This is most of the art that i have done this November.
It's all mixed media. I mostly use: Acrylic paint, Watercolour, Pencil crayons, gel pens, ink, Fine liners, and Mechanical pencils.

Some art takes me longer to draw than others as sometimes I am more inspired than other times. When I am inspired then the art just comes out of the pencil, other times I have to coax it out. :D

Sick and Movies

2011-11-19T11:50:00.001+02:00

I'm sick again! This time I went to the doctor and took time off work. I haven't really taken sick leave before (except for the time I was sent home because I was sick) but I have been getting sick every two or so weeks so I decided that maybe I must just allow myself to get better.

I have been watching a lot of Dexter because I can't sleep, I have Sinusitis and it feels like some one is drilling into my face. Dexter is nice because the episodes are so long they take up so much time. And last night I watched Marie Antoinette

I totally love all the colours and costumes used in this movie! They are all really pretty. It's a sad movie but I enjoyed it anyway.

Anyway. Going to go sleep more now that my face is starting to feel better.

uct

2011-11-10T07:45:00.000+02:00

omg omg omg i just checked my application status for university and it says firm offer of place made, letter to follow!!

2011-11-09T17:18:00.001+02:00

on a lighter note i had a mini rusk for breakfast. It just happened to be there with all my normal sized rusks. It it not cute?! :)

cow heads

2011-11-09T08:35:00.000+02:00

weird title? Well I had a weird experience this morning! I was walking over the bridge to work this morning and then i saw a big blue packet lying on the ground, as I walked past i realised there was big pieces of meaty bone in it' then i saw there were teeth attached to it too! I thought too late about taking a photo so i don't have one. I know i should feel sick or grossed out, but i don't i just think it's pretty cool . :)

2011-11-08T18:17:00.002+02:00

Yay I only have 27 more days left of work. :) I am very excited to be on holiday, party and do my own thing!

Okay so I was totally trying to find some ~~cool~~ lame and over used glitter graphics saying 27 or something but I couldn't find and instead I found this awesome picture of a cat that looks similar to Pangaea and it's all sparkly and cute! :D

Septum Piercing

2011-11-07T19:10:00.001+02:00

A while ago I decided that I really want a nose piercing. I thought that Thomas would only be happy if I got a regular nose piercing but I wasn't even sure about that because he doesn't really like facial piercings. But when I asked he said that he doesn't mind me getting a septum piercing!
After wearing a fake one for a Halloween Party I have decided that I definitely do want one!

Here are some pics from Tumbler that I really like:

And here's one of me from the Halloween Party:

I'm very excited for the end of the year. It's not really that my line of work doesn't allow piercings but more that I don't think that my boss would allow a septum piercings. But after next year and once I'm finished studying I plan on freelancing out as a graphic designer / doing some journalism work so I don't think that it will be a problem at all.

Halloween Party

2011-11-06T19:46:00.000+02:00

Okay this is a really belated post as this occurred on Saturday the 29th of October, but I only got the photographs from Thomas today. That is the problem, his camera is so super shiny and much better than mine but I can never get the photos from him. :/

So I started making the skirt a while ago and I am really happy with how it came out. I got a lot of compliments on it which amazed me because this is the first piece of clothing that I have made and actually been able to wear out in public.

I have these super cool false eyelashes. I have photos of me putting them on but in the end I didn't wear them because they curled so "round" on my face that they looked like I was wearing glasses. I actually saw a girl wearing them later on that eventing but she wore them on her bottom lashes so they formed little semi circles on her cheeks and it looked so cute!! I might try that some time.

Here I am applying the lashes. I quite like this photo.

The full outfit. Unfortunately my kitchen has the best lighting.

By the way, the septum piercing is fake here but I am going to get one at the end of the year when I finish working.


This is my favourite photo.

So the actual party. The party was held at a club that I often go to called Gandalfs. We were meeting some friends there, and amazingly as we got there we found out that one of our friend's bands was playing there and they were warming up right then.

I had been a bit nervous that I would be the only one dressing up. (At school people often hosted dress up parties but hardly anyone would dress up and it's very awkward when you're the only one who bothered to follow the invitations instructions properly. Besides I really enjoy dressing up.) So I didn't really go overboard with the whole dressing up part. I made the skirt, I don't usually wear orange but it had the pumpkin theme going, and I drew a cobweb on the side of my face. Oh and I added more holes to an already holey pair of stockings.

But boy was I wrong about people maybe not dressing up. Almost everyone dressed up a lot! There were so many different costumes as well, I'll list some of them below. All the girls looked so pretty as well! It was an amazing night. The only bad part was I was taking antibiotics so after my 1st drink I felt sick all night, and that there were way too many people! When we were on the dance floor you can't head bang or dance other than shuffling because you would bump into the person in front of you, and behind you there was inevitably a couple making out that kept bumping up against you too. >:C

It was great to see my friends again though as with work I haven't really been going out at all. And it was worth it just to see what everyone wore.

Costumes:

Lots of girls with black corsets, black skirts, and black wings.
Awesome cyber goth with pink falls.
There was a guy with no shirt, he had a spine tattooed down his back, a choker with a lead attached and he was being lead around by a girl, presumably his girlfriend. Oh and he had a dog tail on as well.
Three girls in descending heights in dinosaur cosutmes/full body suits.
A guy with a wolf head.
A guy dressed up as a jock (truly scary in the club we hang out in)
Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Lots of people with bloodied clothing.
A few Zombies
Lots of various sorts of undead brides.

Blogging

2011-11-03T19:00:00.003+02:00

To be honest Thomas has gone away again to Durban and I just don' feel like blogging. :(

Om eerlik te wees, Thomas het weer weg ge gaan na Durban toe en ek wil nie blog nie.

Art Post

2011-10-31T17:46:00.000+02:00

I finally got around to photographing my art in some decent form of light this weekend so I can show you what I have been doing for the past few months.

Ek het uiteindelik my kuns gefoto hierdie naweek. Nou kan ek jy wys wat ek het gedoen hierdie verlede maand.

I am still struggling to get the glitter and shiny bits to shine nicely but I am happy enough. I really love how the top one came out! I absolutely adore it.

I am hoping that if I can get the right type of paper I might make some prints. These could make some really cool cards. Thomas has a nice printer at home that can print on quite thick paper. I found out that hard way that my printer can only print on normal printer paper. It chewed the paper right up and got all jammed and stuff. :/

Ek het nog steeds gesukkel met die glitter en blinke goed omdat dit nie blink in die foto is nie. My gunstelinge een is die een bo.

Ek het gehoop dat as ek kan die regte papier gekry kan ek afdrukke maak. Ek dink hierdie kan baie mooi kaarte maak. Thomas het 'n mooi drukker by sy huis wat kan op duk papier druk. Ek het uit gevinddat my drukker kan nie op duk papier druk nie omdat die het vas gebly.
Jammer omdat my Afrikaans baie selg is, ek het besluit in Afrikaans te skryf omdat ek moet my Afrikaans verbeter. Ek is baie skaam omdat ek kan nie regte Afrikaans praat nie.

Kings of Leon Concert

2011-10-30T20:21:00.000+02:00

So this is finally my post about going to the Kings of Leon concert. On Tuesday Thomas came and asked me if I wanted to go to their concert because his brother wasn't using his tickets anymore. Yay! I have only really listened to their older music but I was still really excited to go.

I had to change and get ready to go at work in the last 15 minuets which is why I didn't really put tonnes of effort into my outfit. We drove to a train station and got some take out there and then caught a train to the city, where we caught a bus to the stadium.

The Queues to the stadium where super long! And the people running the security thing didn't seem that alert. One guy looked at my ticket and said I need the green band (this is the general standing) then when I went to go get the band the guy was on the phone and didn't even check my ticket. He just asked me which ticket I needed, I could have said orange (golden circle - the area around the stage) but I said green and then he just gave me the band instead of putting it on me like all the other security guys where doing. :/

This is the standing area as we arrived. They had not put on the lights yet but it was still light enough to see where you were going. Unfortunately we arrived as the starting acts ended so we had to wait for a while before KOL started.

We were also waiting for our friends who had taken the train after ours. We had to wait about an hour and then our friends arrived and shortly after that KOL came on stage.


People standing on stoels.

There were some really short girls standing in front of us and I was sort of wondering how much they were really going to enjoy the concert because they really couldn't see anything. But then some of their friends arrived and brought two stoels (small thing to sit or stand on, I don't know the English word for it). I thought it was a pretty cool idea if you are short.

At the end of the show there were some really cool fireworks. :) They were so pretty.

Thomas took all the photos for me. He was really sweet. We only got home at like 1am. I had four and a half hours sleep. I don't know how I managed work the next day but I was surprisingly not tired.
Here is the set list that they played:

Crawl
Taper Jean Girl
Four Kicks
The Immortals
Fans
Back Down South
Revelry
Arizona
Radioactive
My Party
No Money
Molly's Chambers
Mary
Notion
Be Somebody
Pyro
Closer
On Call
Knocked Up
Sex on Fire
Encore:
The Bucket
Manhattan
Use Somebody
Black Thumbnail

2011-10-30T17:47:00.001+02:00

Sorry that i have been a bit bad with updating my blog! I'm on the way back to Cape Town right now. We went out to one of Thomas' family holiday houses to visit his dad. Hope fully if I get home in time I can do some updates. :)

sick

2011-10-26T11:31:00.003+02:00

I'm so bleak. This always seems to happen to me. I get sick just before there is something exciting happening. I'm still going to go to Kings of Leon, i just hope that i don't embarrasse my self by coughing too much! Thomas went to the shops quickly to get me some halls. The green one is actually really nice. I've never seen it in the shops before. It's fruity. The best ones are the cherry ones they are really strong but Thomas didn't know that i like them.

Kings of Leon

2011-10-25T07:37:00.000+02:00

oh Yes! Thomas and i are totally going to the Kings of Leon concert! I'm so excited!

Panpan bathing

2011-10-24T19:46:00.002+02:00

Finally it's taken me ages but I've managed to sort out that video format and load it to YouTube. I also have another video which is quite funny of her playing with my sister but I'll have to upload that on another night as it takes too long!

She climbed into the bath tub shortly after I had taken a bath. Her little muddle footprints are all over it. She's so cute. <3

Thomas is back

2011-10-24T06:40:00.000+02:00

Thomas is finally back. :) He brought back some really cool old diarys and photo albums which belonged to his grandparents and his great grandparents. They made me get hayfever because of all the dust though. Hopefully one day i will be able to go up to that farm with him. :) i really would like to see it in person. Thomas took hundreds of photos while he was there. Partly so i could see it but also to catalogue how it is now so that they can fix it up.

Minecraft Village (potential spoiler)

2011-10-23T20:07:00.001+02:00

Here are two screen shots from my game last night. I had sort of established a base and then decided to just run in one direction, creating a few landmarks along the way to find my way back, until I found a randomly spawned structure.

Apparently there are different ones that can spawn, villages, strong holds, and abandoned mine shafts. This is the first one that I have found. There don't seem to be any NPCs but there are little farms and street laps and paths. It's very cute. The houses seem a little small on the inside though, about 6 or 8 blocks.

This is obviously a potential spoiler for people who want to find their own villages first. I'm sorry I don't know how to do spoiler tags in Blogger like you can do in some forums.

My many different hair changes

2011-10-23T10:31:00.000+02:00

Beginning of 2003 I cut my hair very short. A lot of people mistook me for a boy at that time.

End of 2003 / beginning of 2004 I started growing my hair out and died it red (non permanent).

2004 I went to England to visit my uncle and died my hair purple, it was also wash out so it was going more red here.

Beginning of 2005 my hair was back to it's natural colour, also you can see how tanned I go when I go into the Sun. :(

End of 2005 when I left junior school I started cutting my hair in a bob and died it black.

I've skipped a period here but before I cut it here my hair got to shoulder length and was blonde again. It is actually blonde in this photo, and my mother cut it short with a long fringe. My mom cuts my hair for me most times.

Grew my hair longer again and died it dark brown.

Let my hair go blonde again and died my fringe purple.


I had false highlights put in my for grade 12 dance and it finally got long for one of the first times in my life.

Since then, in April I cut it into a bob because my hair got so bad from the bleach (I did it myself at home), and lately I have had a thick fringe cut.
I am planning to get it professionally died purple at the end of the year and I might keep it that way for a while. I am hoping that if I get it done professionally they can minimize the damage done to my hair. It's getting longer again. :) Just past my shoulders. I often prefer shorter hair on me but then when ever I cut it I always wish that it were long again, so I will try and keep it long now. Also Thomas likes my hair long.

Minecrafting Time

2011-10-22T17:00:00.001+02:00

So although today started out good I've been feeling progressively more down. Even when I did art I just got annoyed with my self for making a mess. Then I tried to have comfort food (microwave butter popcorn) but I burned it and made myself feel worse. I think that Pangaea knows how I am feeling because she's crawled into my lap and is keeping me company.

So! After watching some Minecraft videos I have decided to knuckle down and play some serious Minecraft. I usually play on normal or difficult with on a server with Thomas but this time because he's gone I am going to play on peaceful but see how much stuff I can collect and what cool things I can create. :) Plus I haven't spent time exploring the new updates. I want to find a town or a village or something. I might take screen shots if anything interesting happens.

crafty shopping

2011-10-22T09:53:00.000+02:00

So this weekend is the first weekend in a long time that i'm not seeing thomas. :( so this is what i'm wearing today. I've gone out with my mom and we're looking for mosaic tiles. I also bought some tiny roman numerals for the clock thomas bought me and some wood to do something crafty with. I'll post later about what thomas bought me. Right now i could really do with a nice cup of coffee. :)

West coast swing

2011-10-20T16:14:00.000+02:00

We've decided to stop west coast swing for a while as it's very difficult to learn and it's starting to feel very discouraging but we will continue to do Ballroom as it's lots of fun. Maybe next year we'll try wcs again.

Happy Birthday Gran

2011-10-20T06:36:00.000+02:00

It is my gran's eightyth birthday today! She stayed over at our house. We all had breakfast together and took photo's with her. I can't imagine what it must be like to be eighty. My dad wrote "Glad you made it" in her card! i think that's a bit rude.

2011-10-19T18:24:00.001+02:00

i have a video of Panpan in my bath. I will upload it when i figure out how to change the format. She is very cute. I had just run out the water like 3 minutes prior and then my sister called me to look at her. She climbed in and was cleaning her self. It's cute because she always sits on the edge of my bath when i bath and tries to touch the water. She especially likes to play with the bubbles when i have a bubble bath. It's so cute. :)

fringe

2011-10-18T16:46:00.000+02:00

I curled my fringe this morning with my sisters ghd. I want to but my fringe shorter but thomas prefers it longer. I might wait until the end of the year to make up my mind.

Thomas is going away

2011-10-18T16:20:00.000+02:00

Thomas is going away to Durban this weekend. In some ways it will be nice because i will be able to do all the things i enjoy doing that thomas doesn't like staying up late playing minecraft, watching girly movies with my sister, doing art, and reading. But I will still miss him very much. He's going from friday to sunday.

Weekend Shopping

2011-10-17T17:53:00.001+02:00

I went shopping this weekend and got some cool things. Thomas bought me this really cute ring, and I also got two things of purple hair dye for the end of the year when I stop working. I am a little bit worried about the die though because it only cost R5 each.I'll test it on my bangs first. :)

Hot

2011-10-17T16:26:00.000+02:00

Spring has been here for a while but i think that it's almost summer. It was 27 degrees C today! I am boiling in my office. At least Thomas will be happy with my subsequent change in wardrobe, short shorts ect. ;p

Saucy Pasta

2011-10-16T19:38:00.003+02:00

This is my favourite food to eat when I am feeling lazy and don't feel like cooking a proper meal. It's really quite easy to make and the only other things that you need are water and milk, although I like to grate cheese over the final thing. These are so yummy! This is what I had for supper tonight >:D It's what we almost always eat when Thomas isn't cooking. Heehee

Bokkoms part 2

2011-10-15T22:55:00.003+02:00

So I still haven't tried the big fish pieces of Bokkoms. But I have really been enjoying the smaller pieces. It looks just like Biltong except for it smells and tastes like fish (with a lot of salt). It tastes so nice although I don't eat a lot of it at a time. And Thomas complain that it smells funny, heehee. I just eat chewing gum after and then it's okay.

minecraft evening

2011-10-14T20:03:00.001+02:00

Tonight is a minecraft evening for Thomas and I. Our friends that we were going to go out with are sick and Notch has brought out some new updates this week, so we're going to play minecraft. :)

Bokkoms

2011-10-12T19:17:00.000+02:00

Okay well this post started like this:
I walked into my room and saw a container with a whole lot of fish in it, then I realized that my entire room smelt like a dying kelp forest. So, thinking that my mother had been in my room after getting fish out the freezer and forgot it it my room, I marched to the lounge and demanded to know, "WHY THE f*** IS THERE A CONTAINER OF STINKY FISH IN MY ROOM?!" So my mother calmly and quizzically explained, "because it's what you've been asking for for 6 months. It's Bokkoms." *Face Palm*

I know I probably have to explain. I don't know if other people have these things in other countries. We have something called Biltong, it's like dried beef or ostrich, basically any dried meat. It done in different ways but it's quite a common snack in South Africa. Then you get something which I don't believe is very common ... Bokkoms. It's dried salted fish. You can only get it up the west coast so ever since I heard of it I have wanted to try it. But I never thought that it could smell that bad! And also apparently it was only R5 for 10 of the fish so now I have so many and I don't even know if I like it. The little packet looks less scary to try. 0.o

I'll let you know what it's like.

Scoliosis Update

2011-10-11T19:30:00.002+02:00

My Scoliosis has been so much better since I have been doing my Pilates regularly. At first it was really hard to start again on my own and I still really wish that I could have classes to go to, but it's been getting better. Not being in so much pain is a great motivation. My mom has a Pilates book, see below, and it has been very useful for me. It is embarrassing because I am starting to get a six pack and that is the reason I stopped Pilates in the first place, I don't like being muscular.

Pumpkin Skirt

2011-10-10T20:05:00.003+02:00

I know, I sit funny when I am concentrating.

Panpan enjoys sewing a lot, there is lots of paper to play with and material to sleep on.

It is going to be Halloween soon, when I say soon I mean soon because I am a slow seamstress, and I am sewing myself a skirt. I am going to be a Pumpkin Fairy for Halloween. Hence all the orange tulle.
I also want to carve a pumpkin as I have never done this before. Thomas was shocked when he heard that I have not carved a pumpkin before.

How to use measuring Cups

2011-10-08T08:33:00.005+02:00

This is just a quick tutorial on how I measure out using measuring cups. In this example I was measuring out flour.

You will need :

A clean plate

A knife

Flour / ingredient to be measured

and a measuring cup

Fill your measuring cup with flour so that there is just a little heap on top.

Now use a knife upside down with the flat edge. Use a cutting motion to spread the flour evenly so that there are no gaps / pits in the flour that are deeper than the top of the measuring cup.

Now still using the back of your knife smooth the excess flour off so that the top is flat and you will have exactly a cup.

Now you can pour the excess flour off the plate back into the packet and you have not wasted anything. :)

I am not a professional, this is the way that I was taught to use measuring cups at school.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Tutorial Pic Heavy

2011-10-08T08:26:00.000+02:00

Foreword:

I am not a professional baker, I have just had a lot of good baking influences in my life. My grandmother was an excellent cook and baker, as well as I did consumer studies where my teacher taught me a lot about the "her way of doing things" I cannot guarantee that everything that I say here is the correct way of doing things. It just works for me.

Also ...I was trying something new when I actually baked these so they turned out a disaster ...but the actual recipe was perfect. If you want to know what I was trying, it turns out that you can't actually bake on the trays that came in my oven. They are very difficult to get out so you almost burn yourself and also the bottom one is VERY close to the heat source!

I have made a nice pdf in black and white so that you can easily print out the recipe with some instructions. You can download the pdf here.

Ingredients:

250ml sugar / white or brown

125g butter

1 egg

375ml flour

12ml baking powder

250g chocolate chips

Oven temp 180°C

Time to bake: 12-15 minutes

Fist set your oven to 180°C and then grease your baking tray, I use butter but I don't think it matters too much what you use.

What I like to do is get all my stuff out and ready and then as I use it I pack it away. I don't always have everything as I inevitably forget something but the principle still stands.

I bought 250g of butter so to divide it I drew two diagonal lines from corner to corner and then drew a line down the centre where the diagonal lines met. T

Just cut down the middle line to get your 125g of butter.

I chop up my butter a little in order to make it easier to cream. My butter was quite hard as I had just bought it, if you butter is softer it's better as it is easier to cream it. Creaming is just mixing the sugar and butter to a smooth consistency. You can also use a mixer to cream but I prefer doing it with a wooden/plastic spoon.

This is how my sugar and butter looked after creaming, it could have been a smoother consistency but it was a cold day and the butter was hard so this was good enough.

Add the egg and mix it.

Sift in your flour and baking powder. I'll do a post on how use measuring cups more accurately. I was going to do it in this post but it already has too many pictures.

Now you need to cut in your flour into the mixture. To cut in you should use a butter / not sharp knife and make cutting motions into the mixture until it forms a nice dough. Usually when you cut in dry ingredients to form a dough the dough will actually roll up to form a ball while you are cutting but because of all the butter and egg this recipe is quite a soft dough.

Add your chocolate chips

My sister started taking photos at this point.

To mix in the choc chips don't use a knife as it will cut up the chocolate to much finer bits, unless this is what you want.

My sisters very artistic fish eye of my mixed dough with chocolate chips.

I use about a table spoon of mixture, this makes quite large cookies. I do this because I am lazy and don't feel like baking lots and lots of trays of cookies. :) I use a spoon and a fork, the fork I use to flatten the mixture into a more cookie like shape, don't worry if they don't look perfect as they will melt a little in the oven and then rise with the baking powder. Also if your fork starts to stick you can either clean it or flour it a little and this should help.

This is about half the mixture. I bake mine for 10-12 minutes and if they are not cooked yet then I leave them in for another 2 min at a time until I like the way that they look.

Now if you don't mess up the baking process, like I did in this tutorial, then they should end up looking like this. At this point they are very crispy once they have cooled. Don't forget to store them in an air tight container once they have cooled as they will go soggy otherwise. Also if you don't let them cool properly then the warm air will condense on the inside of the container and also make them soggy.

Now if you were messing around with your baking trays and put them too low in the oven then they will land up looking like this. :(

I hope that you find this tutorial useful.

Sleepy Kitty

2011-10-07T22:32:00.001+02:00

This is my silly Pangaea sleeping with her tongue out. I think that this happens when she falls asleep while she's licking her self and then she forgets that her tongue is still out. It's so cute!

sick

2011-10-07T06:10:00.002+02:00

I'm sick again. :( I always seem to get sick when I make plans for the weekend. :( We were supposed to go out dancing to night with friends, but i'm not sure that I can make it anymore.

I have to go to work now.

Gordons Bay Braai Pic spam

2011-10-06T18:00:00.000+02:00

Hi sorry this is a whole lot of photos!

These are from the braai that we had at Thomas' holiday house on Monday night. It is a lovely little house down by the beach.

Thomas' house on left

Neighbours Cat statue

Perfect Pizza

2011-10-05T06:24:00.000+02:00

We made pizza last night! That's the reason that I didn't have time to blog, also I had a headache. Anyway so we know someone with a pizza oven and they gave me their recipe that they use for pizzas. The first time that I made it I didn't have semolina flour and they were still nice but this time I had it and they were amazing. They were so crispy even though they were just made in a normal oven!

It was so yummy and there was also pizza left over so I am having some for lunch at work today. :)

Braai :)

2011-10-03T17:00:00.000+02:00

i'm going out for supper. We're having a braai at thomas' holiday house. Not much time to blog. My phone hates blogging.