Santa's shoebox

I'm participating in the Santa shoebox charity project this year, where you donate a shoebox full of stuff they specify (tooth brush, soap, clothing etc) to a kid in need. My kiddie is called Nonhlanhla and I hope she likes everything I got her, it's kind of daunting clothes shopping for a 17 year old...

Illustration Friday : Scattered/1000 drawings entry

I thought I would fall off the IF wagon again this week, but this week's word happily coincided with something I was working on for Night of 1000 Drawings (an arty charity initiative). So a bit of a cheat this week. You may recognize my owl from a previous journal doodle and I've been itching to make a more refined version. I was very inspired by Alberto Cerriteno's illustration style.

So expect strong likelihood of scattered strawberry showers this afternoon ^_^

Baked goodies to feed my fat...

Nomnomnom cheese and bacon muffins! Not bad for a first try, though they could be more cheesy, will try with maybe a strong cheddar next time. I followed this recipe.

Last night I made cinnamon bread - I left my dough to rise in my car...it was amazing! I have never felt anything so soft (except for maybe new born guinea pigs). But as can be see, it went a bit downhill on the baking...I forgot about it and it got burnt on top, but it is still delicious! (something with so much sugar and butter in it must be). I followed this recipe, her blog is great.

Bonsai

Alex and I went to the Safari garden centre this past weekend, it is a gigantic rain forest plant paradise! Complete with a parrot ^_^ I got really excited and started doing my skipping thing! Wee they have a wonderful bonsai section. Some on the trees there were as old as me...and look at how insane those root structures are! I especially liked the forest one, it was like a miniature glade (3rd pic). With the bonsai craze every flippin' supermarket has little trees in pots, it irritates me because after reading up on bonsai, I've seen many that have been badly cut, like their whole trunk lobbed off just so they appear small, and the scar covered up with foliage-bad bad bonsai -ing!)

And lookit! I got to pick my very own bonsai to take home! Alex bought one for me as an extended birthday present (my birthday was in April). AAAAAAAH I am so happy! I will take awesome care if it. It is a Natal wild fig (yay for indigenous plants!), which the internet tells me makes a great beginner's bonsai and is very hardy. You and I little friend, we'll spend many long years together ^_^

Let them have cake!

A bit delayed, but I did take very long to get around to eating Frank and Maria's wedding cake...it was too pretty and hard that it's more like sculpture than food. Look at how thick that royal icing stuff is! Its fruit cake inside, so I don't think this thing will ever go off! I was sad to throw the icing flowers away though, I keep on thinking of some one twirling these laboriously in a bakery somewhere...

Spring/Summer is here!

Where I stay has a garden that by some miraculous chance escaped habitation by a large dog and also receives the attentions of a wonderful old lady.

Illustration Friday : Contraption

I have been strangely not busy but very preoccupied for the past week. Here is my Illustration Friday offering, I tried to really focus on lighting and atmosphere, I usually struggle with backgrounds and environments, so its something I want to consider more.

For this week's word "contraption" - I imagined these woolly forest creatures investigating a lamp that some camper left behind, maybe it'll change their lives forever, because they'll no longer be creepy eyes in the dark anymore ^_^

Journal doodles

Some pages from my doodle sketch book, its nice and compact so I've been very good with whipping it out in random places and doing some drawing ^_^