Strut like a Peacock

Be prepared to strut like a peacock with this bracelet. The colours of the bugle beads are a blue metallic iris and silver beads. The herringbone stitch creates a beautiful pattern. The bracelet has a magnetic clasp for a snug fit around the wrist.

Russian Spirals

The production line has been producing Russian spirals at a rather speedy rate. The multitude of options available for combinations of shapes, colours and sizes has provided a chance for a lot of experimentation :)

From left to right:

• Purple size 11 with turquoise triangles
• Teal size 8 with size 11 bronze
• Silver size 8 with size 11 pink
• Combination of size 11 lilac and silver and size 8 purple
• Blue size 11 with iridescent squares
• Red size 11 with grey squares
• Turquoise squares with size 11 silver
• Black size 8 and size 11 silver 

As you can see, the options are endless. So many more options to try...Any suggestions?

Pythons, pandas and ferrets: The zoo of tools for atmospheric scientists

Sitting in a postgraduate group meeting a few weeks ago, the modelling students were discussing the various tools available used. One social scientist commented that to an outsider the conversation sounded highly amusing, and to those not familiar with the tools, I suppose discussing ferrets, pythons, Fortran, C and R sounds like a cross between a zoo and alphabet soup.

Why all these different tools? Legacy....

Fortran is the backbone of all climate models, used mainly for its numerical core that some argue is still faster then C etc. (they just don't want to port the system to a newer language). One programmer described reading Fortran is like scratching your own eyes out...pretty graphic!

Then comes C, the quintessential language of the engineer.

Ferret is a scripting language for environmental applications.

Python is an interpreted language that is has evolved over time, it used to be incredibly slow to manipulate data, but the modifications have sped up calculations and new modules have made python a welcome addition to the scientific zoo. SciPy, NumPy, pandas make it possible to do R comparable (actually fixed issues in R) calculations. Matrix manipulations have never been better.

Yellow Dog Project

The Yellow Dog Project is a growing movement around the world puts yellow ribbons on dogs as a way to tell approaching people that the animal wants to be left alone.

The concept is simple: If your dog doesn’t want to be approached, put a yellow ribbon on his collar. The ribbon works as a signal to others to ask before coming near.

In Pinelands the dog owners are trying this out to (and some dog parks too) as a warning that some dog just need their space.

Bismark and Daisy are rescue dogs and they need their space while they learn to socialise with other dogs. Lets hope other people with reactive dogs start to adopt this too.

Santa Shoebox Project

The Santa Shoebox Project has been around for a few years now...I have taken part for the last 2 years, with 2 boxes last year and 8 boxes this year. My mom's company also pledged boxes and this was the final result, over 40 boxes!

The car was quite full on its journey to the drop off centre. If you haven't taken part before and wish to, do, its a great cause where you know that every cent you spend is going to a child in the form of items of clothing and necessities.

Sea-green Waves

My aunt teaches beading and when I went to visit she taught me this "twist and curl" pattern. She used bicones and cut but I wanted a softer wave and this is the result.

The necklace is a just longer than a choker style that sits on the collarbone and closed but a magnetic clasp.

New use for crocheting

Crocheting is one of latest crazes sweeping the nation, along with knitting. I remember sitting with my grandmother as a child learning to knit and then crochet. There were a lot of doily patterns back then. Times seem to have moved on and we now have flowers, dresses and as seen in this bracelet experiment, jewellery.

2 Dogs, 1 Basket

The dogs are snuggling this winter. I didn't think it was possible to fit 2 medium sized dogs in one basket but they have proved me wrong.

Hermanus

I've been in Hermanus this long weekend relaxing and enjoying trying to spot the whales that are somewhere in the bay. Somewhere just past the kelp is a whale, there was water being blown in the air, but did the whale want to come say hi....no!

Hermanus is a rather tranquil place to stay, many paths to walk and a well paved promenade. There are tea shops in abundance and a Fish and Chips restaurant in the Harbour that looks small and cramped by serves some awesome food.

As with most of my trips to new towns, I did a walking tour (with my mother strolling along reminding to slow down!!!!) around the houses. Coming around a corner I stumbled across this Mosaic studio (closed) and snapped a few pics through the doors.

The sign pointing to the studio (SAICS) has beautiful mosaicked letters, with glass pebbles and patterned tiles in them.

Draped Silk

Draping silk is not as easy as it looks on those sewing tutorials. I have pieces of left over silk from a previous ballgown that I decided to finagle into a ruched bodice to add to a ballgown skirt.

I started this project fairly optimistically. I mean how hard can it be, the chiffon worked out well. The silk however has a mind of its own. Note the number of pins just to make it behave.

Adding the top and bottom pieces together took a bit of re-draping to accommodate the full circle skirt and align the zipper seams.

Mosaic Magic

Mosaic work is a craft I have wanted to try for a few years now. I've been meaning to read a book, watch a tutorial or go to a class and finally I have :)

Yesterday I went to a Mosaic class in Observatory run by Bit by Bit Mosaics. I got to make a potholder.

The things I have learnt from this; I will be leaving it to someone else unless I really cannot find what I want. Breaking up the glass into slivers in hard on the hands and I am terrible and laying out a design that I have not had a great of time to ponder over the final effect.

The final product was a bit too coarse than I wished, but I was rushed for time. The next step is grouting the tiles.

The picture below is my moms potholder, a sort of Asian style tree with copper and black background.

Purple Pillow

I did some basic embroidery on a pillow a while back, based on a design I saw in a book 'beautiful beaded bags' by Dorothy Wood.

I now have new cushions for my couch :)

Girly Tea

Girls Tea is always a fun afternoon of tea, snacks and gossip. The last tea I had included a few new recipes and a lot of old favourites. These include Big batch cherry biscuits
Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes to match my tea set of pink and gold :)

Cheese and Baby Marrow muffins

Eggplant Sequins

Don't you just love a bargain. I've been looking for sequin material to make a Latin dress and its about R150/m. Now I need about 2 metres in total and guess what I find on a random pop into the Hip Hop Factory Store... The material I want on a dress about 4 times my size for R150. Its 2 metres of fabric and half the price of what the raw fabric would have cost :)

New Colour, Old Style

In May I wrote about the red skirt which seems to pop up in all official ballroom events (Intervarsity, medal tests, socials etc). I've been meaning to make another one in a different colour and my mom beat me to it recently. Turns out the pattern is fairly straight-forward. A simple tube skirt made from Lycra and six full circles inserted at regular intervals. The only terrifying thing is making sure you sew on a straight line (not my forte).

Hail the Victorious Parasol

I tend to read a fair number of vampire novels in my spare time and am currently awaiting the next instalment of The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. It is a wonderful mix of werewolves, vampires, Victorian England and Steampunk.

I'd highly recommend the series to anyone who likes British humour and some fantasy thrown into the mix.

Latin Flavour

As well as my ballgown I've been sewing a Latin outfit. The joke goes about a 1/10 of the fabric and the same amount of sparkle. After much debate I went for blue (options were lumo pink, green, red or blue). You need to be bright and sparkle for Latin, not my strong suit!



I wish I had proper photos of the inbetween steps but I changed design halfway through the process so what I started with is not at all what I ended up with.

Once again I used Swarovski Crystals from Crystal Catalyst and had to Hotfix each crystal on by hand with an applicator wand. Talk about taking forever. The sense of accomplishment when you're done is awesome, the hours prior are just painful. You can vaguely see the starburst pattern on the top and then there are crystals dotted over the whole skirt.



The skirt is two full circles, so it flares nicely when it spins and because it was sewn on the diagonal it flares more on one side than the other.

Ballgown Construction

I previously wrote that I've been working on a ballroom gown for Intervarsity. Well Intervarsity has come and gone and I can breath slightly and put up my aching feet (you try dancing in 2.5 inch heels everyday!).

I stated that I had learnt a lot while doing the project but my first major learning curve was a lack on any pattern that fitted me. I went browsing online and found this wonderful blog post: Step-by-Step Gown Construction Project but you needed a pattern. Never fear, when you can cut until it looks vaguely the same shape :)

I cut the dress out of Bon Bon Spandex, something I hadn't heard about before but has a beautiful 4 way stretch. My fuchsia/purple/pink fabric was attached to the mannequin (roughly my size) and cut to fit according to the step by step process outlined above.

The basic finished "shell" ended up looking like this. Please Note the black triangles that are added. Each is a quarter circle and makes the dress flare when you turn, looks cool, not so cool to sew.


At this point you can decorate the dress however you like. I ended up cutting out the back of the dress and adding criss-cross straps for my effect (turns out its pretty cold without material on your back) and adding lots and rhinestones and crystals from Crystal Catalyst (and a few sequinned flowers). The result...


A ballgown is not finished without wings (or whatever they are called). There are many different styles, sleeves, bits etc. Given my lack of sleeves I made three bands to slide onto my arms and attached chiffon in purple and black.

Gearing up for Intervarsity 2011

Its that time of year again. I missed Intervarsity last year due to my jaunt in Europe for the YSSP but as it is my last full year as a student I'm dancing again!

Things have been a little chaotic over the last few months preparing to dance a level I've never tried before: Novice. For those non-dancers, its the first level where you can wear sparkly outfits.

Cue sewing time :)

I've been sewing frantically for the last month to create both Latin and Ballroom outfits for this Saturday. The final pieces are going to a surprise (so no final photos til then) but I've learnt a huge amount in the process. I'll post the full process when I have decent final pictures, I've been capturing the inbetween stages on my phone with its poor excuse for a camera. Sneak peek:

Klein Joostenberg

Joostenberg is a wonderful venue for an outing on a sunny day. There is a bistro, pork butchery, nursery, honey shop and Ludwig's Roses.

About 35 minutes along the N1, a little before Stellenbosch, the little slice of vibrant colour has some of the most amazing pork you'll find in Cape Town. The prices are very reasonable and the portions large. There are even fires to keep warm in Winter in the bistro.

Ludwig's Roses is also well worth a wonder through. The have all sorts on sale and the names are hilarious. On the last visit there I spotted a "Steve Hofmeyr" rose, you never know what you'll find. My favourite though is still the "Durban July" climbing rose.