Private verandah viewing

I wanted to have another verandah sale, but my library duty called on the last Saturday of the month.

Maar 'n boer maak 'n plan ... and I invited my regulars to contact me for a private viewing. Bongi was first to respond and here she is pouring tea for us and showing off her 1980's knitted 3-piece suit in emerald with a hint of gold on Friday.

Saturday afternoon: Gideon van der Merwe is opening Campbell & Co in his new home, just around the corner from me and he had a good time browsing the bric-c-brac I had put out.

 Jacki Jooste came to visit while Gideon was making his purchases and she donned my feather hat from the 80's and kept my green crocodile company.

 Gideon brought Nina Botha with him. She is opening plavka, a sophisticated boutique in his building.
As Nina did not want to be photographed, Gideon volunteered to pose with the lime green ostrich feather headgear.

My colourful flair skirt was on display in my passage and has found a place in Nina's shop, together with a funky neclace she found in my jewellery box. Goodbye lovely skirt ...

More "spruce up" action

Still taking advantage of the good weather to get a few things done...

The project in the "negative space" behind the garage is developing fine.

Our new tank is conversing with number plates belonging to a time when the children rode their first motorbikes.

Rust is part of our lives and the spade carries that message.

The ironwork on the front wall is also getting attention. After back-breakiing preparation,  I had the pleasure of painting the first coat of hammerite on a small section yesterday. This happening called for a hat - a modern one that can be changed to suit the occasion with the application of a brooch or pin.

Birthday hat

My schoolfriend Louis de Swardt invited me to a braai at his Uitenhage home this afternoon.
       He had a surprise in store for the four women guests. We each got a hat to wear at the lunch table.The bagful of hats that he produced belongs to a young NMMU student Sue Ellen who works in his accountancy practice during varsity holidays.

   I selected a wide brimmed white hat with flower trim to
 match my red and white silk scarf.

          

  The pudding lady's hat.

 Marietjie van der Walt looked stunning in her black
pillbox with net. Her husband Louis was our teacher at
Middelburg High school in the early 60's.

                       



"Spruce up" progress

 A few days ago this mauve wall was a flaking white surface. It is the view from the kitchen window and was not a positive space. In no time my son Eon prepared the wall and on went the mauve paint.
     I have collected a couple of cracked or chipped plates because the idea of having a decorated alley was taking shape in my mind a long time ago.
     The Queen Elizabeth plate was bought at Bargain Box in Walmer three years ago and served as a teapot stand and conversation piece in my lounge. Some creative soul must have decorated and fired this glass plate some years ago and then donated it to charity!
    The doilies and floral oval plate came from Hospice in Rink Street. These "lappies" rescued from the 50 cent bin, are now draped over the remains of the iron and brass bed I slept on for twenty years. When a fancy mattress and base entered our home on our 25th wedding anniversary, it was relegated to the garden.  Eon rescued it from behind the compost container and set it up against the mauve wall.

 Paint flakes still dominate the scene, but Gideon van der Merwe's gift to me - a fake marble loo - forms the centrepiece of this outdoor area. Gideon is currently restoring his Campbell Street home and instead of dumping this very heavy "throne" he had it delivered to me.

A close-up detail of the remains of my iron bed sporting tea and coffee ads and utensil trinkets.
     Weather permitting, pots and planters containing herbs etc, will be added to this "canvas" over the weekend.

Crafting memories

Crocheting is all the rage these days. It is great to see how this age-old craft has been revived and how many women share their memories about watching their grannies and mothers doing it.
    Long before the advent of TV in South Africa I joined in and started crocheting granny squares with double knitting wool.  That was in the 60's. My knowledge of the craft was useful in the early 70's when I was a mature student at UPE. In order to earn extra money, I crocheted handbags using parcel string. Unfortuneately I don't have an example any more but my friend Miriam Terblanche who lives in Stellenbosch stil uses hers after nearly 40 years.
     On Sunday I went to a art lecture with Louise Eksteen, a PE photographer. She was wearing a jersey she made in the 90's. Louise told me that she took a long time to finish the garment as she only worked on it when travelling from PE to Pretoria by train to visit her late mother.  It took three trips to finish! Here you can see detail of the pattern.

My colleague Sharon Moolman is "famous" for making doilies. She gave me one for my birthday and I still have many left to me by my late mother. I use mine on a daily basis as a cover for my old glass sugar basin that lives in the kitchen.

Bongiwe Magongo is well-known in Port Elizabeth for her stylishy crafted accessories. She attends the SA Fashion Week meeting and has had dealings with Stone Cherry.  Her crocheting story starts in 2006. She has a PR diploma under her belt but was beading at that time.

Friends told her to switch to crocheting if she wants to make it in fashion. By that time she had already given all her late granny and mother's patterns away.  It was off to the Linton Grange library to get a book so that she could learn how to crochet.

Bongiwe stayed positive and persevered. In the photograph she shows the very first bag she made. She is wearing a matching necklace and bracelet.  Since then she has displayed her work at various bridal fairs.



Time to "spruce up"

The rain has stopped and the days are sunny, so it is time to do some work in and around the house.
    Our house is turning 104 this year and like any old lady, needs neat hair and some lipstick for the birthday celebration.  The date is not set yet, but early summer sounds like a good time.
     There are plans in place to work on the extention of the garage and the beatification of the alleyway that can be observed through the kitchen window.
      After nearly 30 years, I know every nook and cranny, the inspirational areas as well as the negative spaces! But every time I enter the front door, I am welcomed by well-known objects. Here Andrea poses in the entrance hall next to one of my favourite Victorian prints framed in oak.

Andrea is wearing one of my favourite retro dresses. The black Lady Di hat was a 2010 birthday present from my friend Christine. She bought it at a second-hand shop in Jeffreys Bay.

Red coat

With the early morning temperatures causing shivers in our century-old home, it was time to take out a cosy coat to wear to church this morning.
    All-wool in its fabric content, this 80's coat kept me warm throughout the service. I bought it in the North-Yorkshire town of Pickering in January 2001 where the day temperature never exceded 4 degrees while I was visiting. It was on a sale at the Red Cross charity shop and I paid 8 pounds for it. There were other bargains to be had in this town sporting 5 charity shops and it cost quite a bit of money to ship all the acquisitions back to PE.
    Here Irma Weyers is wearing this "old faithful" (refer: Down Memory Lane fashion show).

Monaco wedding

Yesterday I could relive our 1979 two-day visit to this small Principality where the Grimaldi dynasty's palace-on-the-rock dominates. 
    But it was just too cold to dress-up for the TV-affair. Still I decided to add a little bit of French chic with a silk dress bought at Yesterday in Robson Street, Central in the early 80's. It was created by Y.P. Dubois of Nice in the 60's. This "very summery" dress "posed" on the chair next to me, while the matching scarf was wrapped around my neck (over my warm black velvet house pyjamas!). To top it off, I wore my wide-brimmed plain ivory hat, decorated with 3 pale roses, by Frederick Fox of London (sourced at Bargain Box in Walmer).
     And it was in this nostalgic mood that I watched the wedding guests arrive in the most stylish outfits...
   

   Zelda Kotze is wearing the dress here (refer Down Memory Lane fashion show). You can see that it is showing signs of age because I could never refuse my friends borrowing it.
    This dress has "experienced" other memorable events.  My friend Roline Norval wore it to the re-opening of the PE Opera House somewhere in the 90's (she was Arts editor of Die Burger at the time).  In 1994, I wore it to Nelson Mandela's inauguration!  (That was some more time spent in front of the television) and
had it on in 1983 attending my (20 year) matric reunion in Middelburg.