Christmas Cupcakes

For my church small group's last meeting for 2011 tonight:

Not nearly as professional as those made by The Cupcake Lady or Yummy Mummy, but they'll have to do.

I went with blue and red instead of green and red just for a change from the Christmas paraphernalia. They have caramel hidden centres. They took me forever - I forgot how sticky plastic icing gets. I've only worked with it once before (for my Rubix Cube cake). Now I remember why!

Looking forward to this evening - great company, food, wine, crazy Santa present swap, games... It's going to be fabulous :-)

Jewellery pics

Hello all. Still recovering. It's frustratingly slow.

That said, I have kept myself busy. Been making jewellery for my annual Christmas open house, which I'm hosting this year on 13 Nov. If you're a crafter and would like to sell your wares, or if you want to come along and browse the jewellery for Christmas gifts or just to spoil yourself, drop me a mail at doodlesofajourno at gmail dot com and I'll send you the info. For now, here are a couple of pics...

If I don't see you before then...

Although I probably will ;-)

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas...

This year, I'm making a little effort to have a greener Christmas. And it really is that - a little effort. But it still makes a difference. Here's a few small tips I'm trying out to make less of an impact on the environment this festive season:

• Switching my fairy lights for LED ones. They use less energy and, IMO, they are prettier.
• Not buying wrapping paper. I am re-using wrapping paper, gift bags and ribbons from previous occasions, and wrapping some presents in newspaper with pretty bows tied on and others (the small ones) are being packaged in cute re-useable drawstring fabric bags. I'm also re-using old jam jars, which I've discovered make beautiful jewellery gift boxes once decorated. Maybe I'll be brave and try my hand at the Japanese tradition of Furoshiki (wrapping presents in fabric).
• Not buying a tree. TSC and I cut some long branches from our laurel tree and made them into a cone-shape to act as a tree. I'm putting it up this afternoon, so I'll post pics soon.
• Rethinking my Christmas cards. Close family and friends get handmade cards crafted out of scraps of paper, fabric and last year's Christmas cards. Everyone else gets an email card (I still go to a little effort making something pretty and personal to send out).
• Maximising the romance of candlelight at meal times. Switching off the lights and lighting the candles not only soothes the soul, it saves loads of electricity!
• Enjoying South Africa's summer Christmas weather. Sipping a cocktail on my veranda or having a game of tennis while we're on holiday means I'm not wasting electricity watching TV or wasting money at the mall ;-)
• Not doing disposable. Instead of using paper napkins, I use fabric ones when we entertain. They're not only more classy (so long as they're not stained!), they're also greener. I'm also trying to resist the temptation to use paper plates and cups when we have large groups over, although sometimes we just don't have enough crockery to go around!
• Recycling. Making sure all those extra bags of paper, glass and plastic from the festive excesses get sorted and recycled. And the table scraps go in the compost heap.

Any tips you'd like to add?

Also, here are the long promised photos of my jewellery. Sorry they're not great quality - my little snapshot camera's flash is evil, so I was trying to shoot these at night without using it. Also, this is a very small and randomly picked selection (every piece is a once-off, so if I have to shoot and post every piece I've made it will take six years). Right, now that the excuses are out of the way...

red heart earrings

purple and silver choker

chunky red keychain

gold butterfly and blue sequin chain


chunky gold bracelet with fresh water pearls

Green and silver delicate choker

Christmas fun and games

Good grief this week is dragging on! Maybe it's because it's been so unproductive. The morning job is quiet at the moment, and although the freelance stuff carries on, I'm waiting on info from one or two clients, so my hands are tied on some projects.

At least I've been making lots of jewellery for my Christmas open day on 5 Dec (eeep - so close now). I'm starting to get nervous about that. I just hope that the other crafters coming to sell their wares make good money and that those coming along to buy find something they like.

At the moment, I have my jewellery stall (I'm also selling gift bags, homemade yummies and some kiddies stocking fillers), a lady selling pewter crafts (she's without a job at the moment, so I hope her stuff gets snapped up), someone selling lingerie, a friend with Miglio jewellery and Faithwear clothing and a children's home selling donated wine, photo albums and other bits and bobs (also hope they do especially well).

I was hoping for more crafters / sellers, but I think we'll have a nice range anyway, although there's not much to cater for men's presents. Once again, in a shameless plug... if anyone's keen to come, either to sell or to browse, please mail me at doodlesofajourno dot gmail dot com.

I haven't forgotten that I promised pics of the jewellery. I just need to recharge my camera battery after snapping away at the carols evening.

My head is definitely in Christmas space. I've done about half of the gift shopping. Unfortunately, that was the cheaper half. I have to wait to make some money with the jewellery sales before I can buy TSC and my parents' presents. But almost everyone else is done. I'm looking forward to next week's life group, although it's the final one for the year. We are having a bring and braai social and will do the annual present swap game, which is great fun and totally hilarious. If you're having a large gathering, it's definitely a good ice breaker.

The mad gift swap game

Each person has to bring a wrapped unisex gift costing no more than a certain amount. We've said R50 for our life group (the fact that it has to be suitable for a guy or a girl makes it challenging). Loads of people do boring presents like boxes of chocolates, but there are always some awesome and strange gifts. Last year someone brought a mini basketball hoop with a squishy little basketball. The girls all thought it was ridiculous, but the boys were ready to fight for it!

Everyone then sits in a circle, with the gifts in the middle. The person organising (and refereeing!) counts how many people there are and writes out the numbers on scraps of paper. So if there are 15 people, I'll write out 1, 2, 3... all the way up to 15. The paper scraps then get put in a hat / bowl / whatever and each person draws a number.

Whomever draws number 1 gets to pick and unwrap a present from the pile. The person with number 2 on his / her piece of paper can then either choose another present or steal number 1's gift. If he does the latter, number one gets to pick a new gift.

Then it's number 3's turn. He/she can either steal number 1 or number 2's gift or choose a new present from the pile. The game carries on like this until everyone has had a turn.

The interesting twist is that each gift can only be stolen three times. So the third person to steal it will get to keep it. It gets quite entertaining trying to remember how many times a particular gift has been stolen. And it's always a good idea to have some extra gifts on hand in case someone has forgotten to bring one.

Anyone else have suggestions for party games with a Christmas theme we could try with our group?

Deck the halls (and block your ears) - Christmas is coming!

The carols concert was, IMO, totally awesome. Between the cute kids in the church children's band doing a punk version of Silent Night (I was super impressed with the kids playing electric guitar, drums and keyboard) and Colin, the lead vocalist, impersonating everyone from Louis Armstrong to Michael Jackson, it was a blast.

Colin broke his foot doing the show last week (jumping off the stage as Angel Gabriel) so he was confined to a barstool to sing and had his injured foot in a festive Christmas stocking. Other church band members had to take up doing his actions. It's always funny for me, knowing these guys IRL, to see them onstage. Totally different!

After the show we headed to Primi Piatti for drinks with Brett, Kim and their mate Mike. After me berating Brett for his bad blogging habits (not posting enough) and all of us listening to Mike's horrible baby jokes for awhile, TSC and I returned home in high spirits, with me singing carols the whole way.

Now that we are only a month away from Christmas, I feel I have licence to continue in that vein. "Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shiiiiiiiiiiining..." Be very glad you don't have to live with me - I try to do the descant at the same time as the melody. Poor TSC ;-)

I am so looking forward to an evening at home doing nothing tonight!

Hello Monday

What a weekend!

Friday night we had some friends around for supper. Sadly, the vegetarian and partner couldn't make it as they were both feeling sick, but everyone else seemed to enjoy the roast veggie lasagne and warm chocolate pudding.

On Saturday morning, we went for our sushi-making adventure. My folks gave me a voucher for two for my birthday, and this is the first chance I've had to use it.

Can I just say that if you live in Joburg, like sushi and ever get the chance, you should do a course at Miya's. It is awesome! Chef Miyamoto is a fully qualified sushi chef (that means five years of training). After he'd explained how year one is spent just training in hygiene and cleaning, and year two is solely about how to cook the rice, I felt a bit bad that here was this group of South Africans all expecting to learn how to make sushi in just a few hours.

But he was really patient with us and his wicked sense of humour made it very entertaining. He was full of fascinating info about the differences between Japanese and South African sushi, how using a different type of rice affects the way you cook it, where the names of the sushi types come from and where to buy the best fish in Joburg. I was astounded to learn that there are only a handful of properly qualified sushi chefs in the country and that in Japan, you don't get wasabi to mix with your soy sauce - the chef just grates the horseradish into the sushi as he makes it.

It was a long morning (9.30am until just after 2pm), but we both had such a great time and really enjoyed eating the sushi we'd made (even though it didn't look as professional as Chef Miya's). Maybe I'll post some pics tomorrow.

After that, we rushed home, did a quick clean-up of the previous night's dishes and then our Zimbabwean mates Sarah and Phil arrived for a visit. I met Phil through my best friend, Nic, at varsity and then TSC became friends with him when he too moved to Cape Town. He was the MC at our wedding and is one of the most lively and entertaining people I know.

Phil introduced us to his sister Sarah and she became a friend too. When we moved to Johannesburg, we got in touch with their parents and now we are friendly with the whole family, bar one sibling (who lives in Australia. We may meet her for the first time in Dec).

We had a good catch-up with the two while we watched rugby as Phil told us some of his bush adventures (he's a professional hunter and photographer) and Sarah told us where she'd been placed for her physiotherapy community service year. It was great fun.

Yesterday we went to the Rosebank craft market again to pick up some stuff my mom wants and then I spent the afternoon making a Christmas wreath and bottles of mint jelly before church.

Tonight we have our church's annual Christmas carols concert at the Barnyard, which is more like a dinner theatre production, actually. I'm lookinf forward to it, although our neighbours who were supposed to be coming with us knocked on the door to tell us they're sick this morning and can't make it tonight, so we now have four empty seats at our table of 12. Anyone keen to come?

Have a good week.

Christmas wishlists

My mother has asked me for a list of possible gifts for TSC and me for Christmas, which she wants to distribute to the wider family. This is a very organised way of doing things, even if it does take the surprise out of what you might find under the tree on Christmas morning. It may, however, mean that for the first time in three years, I stand a chance of getting something other than hand towels from my grandparents. And I'm all for that!

The thing is, twee as it sounds, I pretty much have everything I need. Of course there are things I would like to have, such as a small garden bench so that I can indulge my bizarre veggie-watching tendancies, tickets to Cinderella on Ice, or a decent pair of sunglasses (instead of the R50 pairs I am prone to buying at flea-markets), but by and large, TSC and I are incredibly blessed. We have an amazing house and garden, two wonderful cats, a car each, food in the pantry, clothes in the cupboard, a computer in the study... We are more fortunate than most people, especially at our age.

This strikes me often as I'm enjoying a late afternoon walk with TSC up to the local Woolworths Food to pick up some or other supper ingredient. I love our neighbourhood, I love our relationship and I love enjoying a Woolies ice cold gingerbeer on my way home ;-)

It's so easy, especially in materialistic Jo'burg, to get caught up in the need to have nice things. Or just to have more money. Because everything costs money. It's not like we can walk 10 minutes to the beach with a picnic lunch and enjoy a free day of entertainment like we used to do in Cape Town (when we had no spare money whatsoever). Here, aside from a distinct lack of beach, everything is spread out across a large distance. So spending a day out usually means driving a fair distance and paying an entrance fee, or hanging out in a shopping centre, the ultimate temptation zone. I am not a fan of shopping centres.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the pace and the variety of Jo'burg, and love the opportunities here. But when I catch myself thinking, "I wish we could afford to go see that show / re-do our bathrooms / buy that blue-ray player", I want to be able to remind myself how very fortunate we are and to re-focus on the stuff that actually matters.

What I really want for Christmas is time out away from the bustle with the ones I love, espeically my aging grandparents. And that is already planned. So for now, all I can think of for my Christmas wish list is a new beach towel (mine is about 1o years old and worn through) and a subscription to SA Garden magazine. And that makes me happy!

Of course it makes things challenging for my mother. We both love to give presents and will happily spend forever hunting for the perfect gift for a specific person. Still, I've been struggling to find meaningful gifts for both my folks for years, so I'm sure the rest of the family can manage ;-)

Christmas humour

Have a jolly Friday. See you when I see you!

Warning

For any of you who may be regulars here (yes, this is a bit of a presumptuous post. Deal with it), please note that due to lack of internet access, this may be my second last post for awhile. I promise to try my best to post occasionally during my holiday, but as I finish work tomorrow and will only be back in early Jan, and I don't have internet at home, don't hold your breath. Unless you're a masochist, then please - knock yourself out.

BUT... do return tomorrow. I have some twisted Christmas Friday funnies for you.

Until then... I leave you with a Christmas email classic (just in case you haven't seen it before):

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 01, 2003
RE: Christmas Party

I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols...feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00pm. Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over $10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pockets. This gathering is only for employees! Our CEO will make a special announcement at that time!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Patty


FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 02, 2003
RE: Holiday Party

In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our "Holiday Party." The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians or those still celebrating Reconciliation Day. There will be no Christmas tree present. No Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment.
Happy now?
Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Patty


FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 03, 2003
RE: Holiday Party

Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table ... you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, "AA Only"; you wouldn't be anonymous anymore. How am I supposed to handle this?
Somebody?
Forget about the gifts exchange, no gifts exchange are allowed since the union members feel that $10.00 is too much money and executives believe $10.00 is a little chintzy.
NO GIFTS EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
To: All Employees
DATE: October 04, 2003
RE: Holiday Party

What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20 begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs. Perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party- or else package everything for you to take it home in little foil doggy baggy. Will that work? Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from
The dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the restrooms. Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with Gay men, each will have their own table. Yes, there will be flower arrangement for the Gay men's table. To the person asking permission to cross dress, no cross-dressing allowed though. We will have booster seats for short people. Low-fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food we suggest for those people with high blood pressure to taste first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for Diabetics, the restaurant cannot supply "No Sugar" desserts. Sorry!
Did I miss anything?!?!?
Patty


FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All F*!@g Employees
DATE: October 05, 2003
RE: The F*!@g Holiday Party

Vegetarian pricks I've had it with you people!!! We're going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death," as you so quaintly put it, and you'll get your f*!@g salad bar, including organic tomatoes. But you know, tomatoes have feelings, too. They scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing them scream right NOW! I hope you all have a rotten holiday! Drive drunk and die,

The Bitch from HELL!!!!!!!!


FROM: Joan Bishop, Acting Human Resources Director
DATE: October 06, 2003
RE: Patty Lewis and Holiday Party

I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Patty Lewis a speedy recovery and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay.

Happy Holidays!

Two Mondays

Thanks to yesterday's public holiday, today feels like a Monday. So two Mondays in one week! Eep. But tomorrow's Friday, so it's all good.

And I just realised that we're nearly into October, which means I need to start on Christmas presents now in order not to be broke in December. I tell myself that I'm going to do this every year, and I don't. But this year will be different.

Hmmm... de ja vu.

But seriously... I want to go on a kick-ass holiday at the end of the year, so I will need to have some cash then. Which means I will need to either:

a) Win the lotto (unlikely, seeing I don't play)
b) Get in some more freelance jobs ASAP
c) Convince people to order their corporate gifts through me or let my company do their PR (coz I'd get commission)
d) Cut down on my spending (also unlikely given the current inflation rate. Ok, and my tendancy to buy random gifts for those I love)
e) Open a shebeen on my veranda (anything's possible in uor dodgey complex)
f) Take up a new line of work that pays better (politics, maybe? Or law. I'm argumentative enough to be a lawyer.)

This cash injection is absolutely necessary to my well-being. See, I need to unwind as fully as possible during the first week of holiday because my in-laws are taking TSC and I to a lovely resort just after Christmas for a week, which will be... stressful to put it politely.

There are not many people I would choose to go on holiday with, I prefer to just get away from everything and everyone. And my in-laws, although they are very kind-hearted people who don't mean to make things difficult, are experts at stressing me out. Firstly, we don't speak the same language. Secondly, they live in a different world to me. Theirs is populated with their family, their sheep, farm life and red wine that's been stored overnight in the fridge. Mine is inhabited by lunatics, irrational clients, my mental cats and "room-temperature" red wine. So we battle to relate to each other.

Thirdly, their idea of a holiday is to go shopping. This makes sense, if you think that they live in a small town where there aren't many stores. But my idea of a holiday is to escape to a quiet cabin in the mountains or on a beach and retreat from the madding crowds. They like to spend every single minute surrounded by people. I like to hide from the world with just TSC by my side.

So I worry that the week will be claustrophobic for me. I can handle that for a few days, and I just want TSC to enjoy his time with his folks as much as possible seeing he doesn't see them often. But I do plan on relaxing as much as is humanly possible before then. And seeing it's TSC and my second wedding anniversary on 16 Dec, I'm thinking spa treatments, romantic dinners and adventures together are in order.

So... any advice on making money in a hurry (legally, please)?

The first of the photos

There are many more to come (as soon as I figure out how my new camera's software works), but here is a single photo from each segment of my holiday in the meanwhile. To see all the rest, visit my Flickr page here.


The day of our first year anniversary - a "sunset" (we were around an hour early for that) horseride along Noordehoek beach. It was amazing - the day had been raining and miserable and the weather cleared to give us the perfect 2-hour window for our ride, which we followed up with dinner at the Mount Nelson Hotel (where TSC proposed to me). No photos of that as we're STILL too embarrassed to ask the waiter to take a photo of us. It's just not done at the Mt. N, dahling!


This is our nephew, Jeandre, at around 8 months. Poor boy's already had chicken pox and bronchitis, but he was all smiles when we saw him in Upington - we'd just given him the R400 teddy. He couldn't wait to unpack the bear so he could ignore it and try to climb inside its box.


Me, on the farm in Namibia, trying to look comfortable holding this little goat that was squirming like a worm on speed.


TSC and I on Christmas day, which we spent with my family near Hazyview in Mpumalanga. It was a stunning day of perfect weather, good food, lots of presents and interesting German priests.


Tamara and TSC do Disney. Dancing gingerbread men! Well, I thought it was cool.

I know I promised random observations, the usual rants and more fine writing, so those will come. Well, the rants and observations at least. Two out of three is not bad. In the meantime, just pretend to be interested in my pics, k?

A new post for a new look (for the new year)

Ta-da! What do you think of the new look? They say that a change is as good as a holiday, and seeing my holiday only starts tomorrow, today was a day for change.

I'm quite chuffed with myself - made the new banner from a chopped up email advert for a restaurant, cut and paste and moved around on Paint (the only image editing software this useless PC has). No Photoshop, as you can tell. But still, I like it. And seeing its my blog, I guess that counts for something.

But I really would like your opinions (especially positive ones).

I know it's a little early for the new year, but your truly is leaving tomorrow and has no plans to touch a PC until she returns in early Jan, when she must also stop speaking and writing in the third person!

Well, my lovelies, if I don't blog soon, wishing you a lovely holiday, a blessed Christmas and lots of beautiful moments that will become cherished memories.

Tis the season to be sleepy

Today is a November day, which means that my brain is suffering from severe end-of-year-itis. I have been saying things like "there is a silver cloud to every lining" and losing my lunch inside my office organiser (although I haven't as yet, as my colleague has, put my shoes in the fridge).

Simply put, this is the time of year where brains switch off, although work continues. The result is that next year, when we all return to work, broke and miserable with the sound of shopping-centre-tinkly Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer grating away at our abused ears, we will have to re-do everything we did between mid-November and closing time anyway.

Which is why I am blogging instead of getting a headstart on my January work. After all, I did just find myself writing holiday instead of Holland, and sleep instead of slight. I think a break from the real world in necessary.

Wich gives me a verry good reasin for terrible spelling ennyway!

Until the next post, wishing the world a merry pre-holiday!