Grass and Gravel

 We gave our balcony a bit of a make over a while back. The beauty and variety of grasses had recently come to my attention and I wanted to include them in our little plant family. We set out to buy some and came home with several bags of gravel as well! The tiled floor of our balcony got dirty so quickly and always looked messy, so this was our little cover up solution. It was really quick to do - we just put it all down, no plastic or cement or anythig - and as far as an afternoon make over goes, rather inexpensive too. We've loved it so much since we set it up, it makes our balcony feel more like a courtyard, and we eat lunch out there most weekends now :)

 

 

 

Our life in chalk.

A little while ago I came across this gem of an idea from JenlovesKev. I have seen many a wall and cupboard painted with blackboard paint and I have always liked the idea, so when I saw this interpretation of the trend my first thoughts were, 'That, we must do!' and so we did.

Unfortunately we don't have smooth walls, so we couldn't paint straight onto the wall, and it was quite tricky trying to find the right piece of wood, but apart from all that we're really happy with how it turned out.

 Here's the photo story of how it happened...

 

If you look carefully you will see that we used two different widthed (is that a word?it is now...) rolls of masking tape. Getting all the boxes the right sizes was quite technical, but fortunately Joe is good at thinks quite technical :)

 

I feel it's been a great aesthetic, not to mention useful, addition to our kitchen :)

 

Ocean Sole...

We have just come back from an amazing holiday in Kenya and, amongst other things, came across this brilliant initiative. Ocean Sole (www.theffrc.com) is a company that collects and recycles discarded flip flops into sculptures and jewelry. Their tag line is "Cleaning Beaches, Creating Masterpieces", and that is exactly what they do. I was so inspired by the work being done there and just had to share it, so following is a brief description of the process.



When the flip flops first come in they are cleaned and sorted into colours.



 

They then use super glue to stick them together and start cutting them into rough shapes.



 

Then the carving begins!

 

An elephant in the process; the white part is insulation from old fridges.



 

Once it's all glued and carved it goes for sanding, just look at the size of this guy!

They then use the small off cuts to make these beautiful beads - each hand carved and sanded!



This here is a beaded curtain. Each bead was individually stamped out!

 

Some animals almost ready. Aren't they just beautiful?



 

Spot the zebra!

 Whatever is left goes to playgrounds as 'soft fall'.

 

And this is the little guy who came home with us :)

 Sundowners on the balcony...

 

A delicate succulent spiller.

 Desert Rose and friend in a hanging planter.

 We potted some long grass a little while ago, just loving it!

Leaves from our raspberry plant that even gave us fruit in Autumn :)

The best winter salad ever!

I happened upon this salad recipe a while ago and have never turned back, it is amazing, so delicious and you should try it J You can find the recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver here, also his photo is way more enticing :)

Small space livin'

mini dressing table :) 

 

 

>Sarah Spring<

Collaborate!

When I first started this blog, it was a way for me to keep a record of the little projects that I was doing, but also to share them as I went along. Not much has changed since then, except that from now on bubble and the dusky is going to be a place of more ideas than just my own. And on that note, I would like to welcome Sarah Chiles and Sarah Hutchinson! Yes, three Sarahs on one blog! This idea of collaborating is something we spoke about many years ago and are finally getting started with. Although we all lived together a few years ago, we now live in very different cities (Sarah Spring (me) – Joburg, Sarah Chiles – Durban, and Sarah Hutchinson – Cape Town). And while we each have different interests and fields of expertise (Me – fine art/books and book-making/teaching, Hutchie – botany/conservation/art/music, Chiles – anthropology/conservation/urban studies/music), we all have shared views of the beauty and opportunity that surrounds us. Below is a brief explanation of the name of this blog and the beginning of this exciting new blog adventure!

  Bubble and the dusky is a phrase that came about during a word-based art work I created. I was paging through books and cutting out words and phrases that weren’t necessarily intended by the author eg:

 

 This phrase didn’t quite suit the tone of the anthology I was creating, but something about it caught my attention and I didn’t want to let it go. Instead, I stuck it onto my laptop where it has slowly corroded since.

 

 

 

 Apart from the unusual ring it seems to have, for me this phrase symbolises a way of seeing, of looking in and around the obvious, to see the subtle beauties and wonders around us. When Sarah Chiles first heard it (out of context of this explanation), her response was, "When I think of the word dusky, I think of this bird called the Dusky Flycatcher which is a little grey bird with 'whiskers' and a sweet call. It perches in trees in forest edges looking for insects. And well, bubbles have lots of nice connotations - imagination, child-likeness, speech etc." This interpretation seems to fit in perfectly with the tone I was trying to set here. So here’s to sweet imaginings and playful flight!