Winter Wonderland

I've been admiring Tania Kindersley's photos of her bit of Scotland in winter (her blog Backwards in High Heels is a daily treat) and because I have been trying to convince my husband to visit England in winter, I came across some photos of Kew Gardens in the snow. 
This one is my absolute favourite though. It's by BearTomCat (BTC) / John. He's an amateur photographer who seems to mostly do macro photography but this icy statue is just perfect. It's called Hercules in Ice.

Here is today's view from my window. The horizon in almost invisible so I'm guessing that out there it's still bad weather. It always makes me stop and think when I realise that at the same time that we are having such warm and humid weather, another part of the globe has snow and ice. Somehow for me, it puts my life into perspective, that I am just a small link in a giant chain that is human life on earth.

On a clear day you can see forever

My title today is the title of a 1965 play by Alan Jay Lerner and later a 1970 film starring Barbara Streisand. It's a phrase that has always lodged in my mind because I love places where you can stand and look from left to right and see the horizon in all directions. I'm lucky enough to live in Durban and in a house with a sea view (so covetable) which shows the far off horizon to the East. I'm thinking of starting a series of the same view because our weather has been so very changeable recently and the series may prove interesting. I've been inspired by Tania Kindersley of Backwards in High Heels. Thank you Tania.

The Package Project rides again

I was thoroughly disappointed when I found that I had joined the blogosphere too late to participate in last year's Package Project, a spectacular, amazing, awesome, super cool (sub zero) initiative by Cupcake Couture.

Explanation directly from The Package Project website: The Package Project is an exchange aimed to connect bloggers around the world and to grow the blogging community even further. It is all about swopping pretty packages and handmade delights. The packaging only makes the exchange more fun so get creative...strings, manila tags and ribbons galore. Each package must be a joy to receive and each time you do receive one...pop out your camera and snap away. This way we all get to share in a bit of your excitement.

Organisation 101

Take a look at Hayley's post on everything inbetween. She's started the year with a big tidy-up (something I usually only get to in October after squirreling everything away during winter) and her ideas are really super cool.

Image from http://www.highhopesstamps.com

Hello 2011

Happy New Year to everyone out there in the blogosphere! My sincerest best wishes for a prosperous and joyfilled 2011

There are 4 sleeps until Christmas

I totally ADORE the fact that all over the world even we so-called "grown-ups" know exactly what 4 sleeps to Christmas means. There are also: 86 hours, 5180 minutes, 310600 seconds to Christmas, which translates to 3 days, 14 hours, 15 minutes and 20 seconds!

So get your shopping finished!

Christmas mince pie day

Every year my mom and I make Christmas mince pies together. To be honest, my mom makes the pastry and buys the fruit mince (Safari Fruit mince or Woolworths Christmas fruit mince) and I only do the assembly-line, but we do it together and it's a nice tradition for both of us.

The assembly-line during production

We usually make about six dozen which sounds like a large number but they disappear very quickly. I took home about two dozen from last week's production and we've nearly finished them. I think the production line may go into action again this year.