...mo mugs...

...my handmade movember mugs, R110 now for sale at

the new i love my laundry

in bree street.

...some ceramic buttons, just for fun...

...watch this space for a collab with tjou-tjou in the near future...

...matchbox memories #1...

...memories i don't have...

where to start with my new idea, so the first matchbox that i

decided to do was inspired by my baby girl mila, her conception,

pregnancy and birth have been covered in way too much detail in

previous posts.

well, on the day she was born, my placenta tore during my labour

so i was put unconscious in order to cut her out to save both our lives,

wow, months of heart ache and some therapy who knew i could sum

that day up in a quick sentence, any way i digress...

being unconscious during your babies birth and first few minutes in 

the world truly is or should be every mothers worst nightmare.

after months of peeing, bach ache, sleepless nights and a few hours

of labour pain, the least the f@!#ing world can do is let you be awake

to see your precious' first moments, WELL didn't!

so a few weeks after the birth i was going through my camera when 

i discovered a whole lot of pics that jp took while i lay sliced and

stitched in a hospital room away from my baby, sniff, snot and tears 

later, well at least i can see the moments captured on film.

hence the first matchbox...memories i don't have...

my concept is to cover the outside of the box with a fleshy colored

satin, with visible stitches along the front. i added a 'made in bali' 

clothes tag, see earlier posts as too how exactly conception occurred.

the inside, i carefully lined with womb-y colored satin and

now i just need to figure out how to add the photos and

what else to put inside, perhaps her hospital 'bracelet'

or my placenta... hahaha no i didn't keep it.

will post more pics once it's done...

...matchbox memories...

...so, i hate scrapbooks/scrapbooking/scrapbookers! there i said it!
it takes too long, the available papers and 'embellishments' are hideous,
your photos are always the wrong size, and really who has the time?

so all my photos sit in boxes, envelopes or on various hard drives and

flash drives. never to be touched and displayed. the task to exhausting 

to even consider.

now, add my obsession with packaging and particularly tiny boxes 

see my pinterest board tiny boxes little boxes 

and then the new brief i wrote for my students 

(using a matchbox as your format design a personality trait 

or a memory - as an introduction to concept) 

and... ta daaaaaa!

my idea for my matchbox memories was born. so the concept is to 'capture' 

a memory or day or event of your life and somehow design it using a 

matchbox as your format. simple, a small project, tiny in scale so you can 

print 1 0r even 10 photos small enough to fit in the box, add a sentimental

object or trinket which can stay inside the box and there you have it...

scrapbooking designer style...

dammit sometimes i even impress myself! ;)

...my button mugs...

...my latest porcelain creations...

...inspired by a student...

...a student ACTUALLY asked ME if it was too early for chocolate,

he then brought me PEANUT BUTTER M&Ms...

...rub-a-dub-dub...

...my two girls in the tub...

...cupcakes to die for...

...mmm saw some of my students eating one of these amazing looking cupcakes,

and have now discovered but a mere 20 meters from my office building the

 lady cupcake shop, set in a shop not more than 8 sq metros are the most 

amazing cupcakes,

so naturally i have made it my personal mission to try them all, 

over a period of a few visits of course, but not too many. so far i have 

forced myself through the red velvet, black velvet, banana caramel, black forrest 

peppermint aero caramel, and will be putting in a solid effort to get through 

the apple pie, death by decadent chocolate (with a hidden lint ball inside)

to name but a few, it's hard work but i'm no quitter...

...i looooove porcelain...

...so, after NEARLY DYING (please note the very rare use of caps, for dramatic effect),

i decided that i really want to start doing things that make me happy again.

one tends to get so blaze about doing things for yourself as there is never 'enough time', god can someone hit the violins, i'm living the fucking stereotype,

anyway, i digress, so i decided to start a ceramics class with some friends, note how i call it 'ceramics' because  a 'pottery' class sounds so housewifey.

so here is my first experimentation with porcelain, a bit of a bitch to work with, but just love the droopy elephant foot look, and just wait till you see it with a tea light candle.

i wanna become a full time porcelain thingy maker...

...catch up...

...pregnant, big hot uncomfortable, huge, tired, gynae gynae gynae, christmas, due date, still fucking pregnant, new year, monday, tuesday, wednesday, fucking GET OUT, thursday, sex sex sex, friday, curry chillies tabasco, weekend, run jump bounce, cry,

monday 4am, contraction 10 min contraction, wait, yip labour, hospital, eek pain, wtf - placenta tore, rush scream panic, cry maybe die, unconscious, cut slice pop stitch,

awake, here's your baby, nope that's not my baby, jp who's baby?, yip ours, oh!?!, pain cry, therapy, breast feeding, bleeding, crying, formula

back to hospital, cry panic, unconscious, poke prod scrape, wake up, pain, wanna see kids, no babies/kids in surgery wards, fuck you world, home, happy, baby, milk shit burp sleep, repeat repeat repeat, so you're caught up!...

...the art of peeing...

...so my last gynae appointment was a real laugh, for anyone who has
had a baby you'll know that every gynae appointment, which happens
4 weekly, you start off by having to weeeee in a tiny plastic container
with a little lid.

well during your first few visits this is challenging enough as you can
check the ever-elusive 'flow' and catch the weeeee by shifting the tiny
container to catch your golden bounty. i applaud you if you can do this
without getting weeeee all over your hands!

then, after washing your hands and your precious little sample, and drying
it off ever so carefully, you get to carry this and hand over a luke warm
container of weeeee to the poor person who has to test it.

now...bring on the 3rd trimester, gynae appointment as scheduled, although
you're past the open your legs and say aaaaah, internal scans, and you've
progressed to the ice cold goop on your belly, external scan, you still like to
give yourself a number one with the your husbands face razor (haha) just in
case emergency strikes and your gynae has to go internal.

however, your vaJJ is no longer clearly visible, if you're lucky, you can shift
your belly everso slightly to the side and mmmmmaybe catch a glimpse of her,
so shaving is now left to your husband. no jp, it doesn't have to be a work of art,
just tidy it up and keep it looking respectable!!!

now bring on the actual appointment, smile, greet, collect your teeeeny tiny
plastic container, and here we go, shit, i can hear it but i can't see a damn thing,
so you shuffling that container around frantically attempting to catch eratic
ever-moving weeeee, you know you're on the mark when the pitch of the splash
changes, but just as you're about to celebrate the flow whips into another direction
and f@&*^%k you're back to square one.

so after 5 min in the loo, and a bout of hysterical laughter, i emerge, somewhat
triumphant, with a teaspoonful of weeeee in my little container! whoop whooop!...

...in no particular order...

...this is how you fall pregnant in bali...

...it's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

...girl! so after weeks of not being able to buy pink or blue, just grey and bleeegh beige,

and what feels like an eternity of feeling like shit, i finally know for 100% sure

(confirmed by the second appointment, definately 3 little stripes) that we are having

another little girl. aaaah for the boy i'll never have but yay for my new little girl.

after much deliberation, (well jp thinks so, actually i'd chosen the name when i fell pregnant

with siena already, in the event that i had another girl) we have decided on the name mila.

siena however has decided on the name peaches, and turns a deaf ear to anything else,

she refers to her baby sister as peaches, and that's that!!! any mention of mila and she's

like huh, who? so mila 'peaches' arpesella will come into the world sometime between

new years eve (terrible timing i know) and the 3rd of jan 2012.

i am determined not to have her in 2011, but we'll see how that turns out for me! i have

visions of the world celebrating either christmas or new years and me lying in a

hospital bed with miserable nurses, trying to appear chirpy and in the christmas spirit,

flitting around me while my family celebrates our usual chaotic christmas 'experience'

without me. it's a crazy day of 8 grandkids playing/fighting/screaming, trying to

coordinate food for them and that the moms, dads and grandparents eat together.

did i mention all the kids are under 4 and a half!, it's freaking crazy but it's christmas,

and i love it!

so here's to keeping my legs closed, and having a crazy busy christmas day, and especially

to my 'almost didn't have you' second child...

how wonderful life is, now that you're in the world ~mommy...

...my siena's beautiful eyes...

...maybe i have my 'in absolute love with my child' goggles on 

but i think that siena has theeeeeee most beautiful brown eyes that i've ever seen.

so much so that i couldn't help doing an acrylic on canvas for above my bed...

...aaaaaaaah, such a well trained hubby....

...birthday pancakes in bed at 6am, this is what is possible

after 15 years of intense training, and it happens on mothersday

and our anniversary tooooooo!

cooked and prepared by jp and served by my little siena,

with a handmade birthday card too, still smiling...

...an ode to morning sickness...

...i hate you i hate you i fucking hate you...

…amazing, the things I brought back from bali…

so here I am back in my little bubble of reality that is my life, thinking back just over a month, of cocktails and extra large king size beds, oh take me back! on the bright side, seems I brought back more than just shoes, and clothes and trinkets and my voluptuous bali belly, seems those cocktails and extra large king size bed sent me home with a plus one! yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, found out a little while ago that our little family of three is soon gonna be a slightly bigger little family of four. very excited, and feeling pretty crappy most days, but it’s all good and all worth it. haven’t vomited on any students yet, but who knows, it’s early days.

so here we go again, got to ask myself if i’m ready for everything that a new baby brings, weeeee, poooooo, vomit, oh god breast feeding, my worst, i’m definitely not one of those mothers who loved the whole breast feeding, nurturing your baby thing, breast feeding with siena was 6 months of me holding my breadth, saying a little pray as I unleashed my piranha child on my swollen, painful nipples. if she would just have latched and stayed latched I may have been able to have kind of enjoyed the experience, but she would latch on for 15 – 45 seconds and then rip off, only to attack my nipple 2 seconds later like a rabid pitbull. aaaah the memories, my nipples just inverted just thinking about it.

but then there are those moments, the ones where you can watch them sleeping for hours, or they look up and smile at you, the way i smile at a chocolate brownie, pure happiness, and that first giggle, hug and when they run up to you and call you mommy, oh hell, bring on the nausea, the sleepless nights and even the breast feeding, i’m ready…'

...over-slept, over-massaged, over-ate, and over-cocktailed...

...aaaaaaaaah bali, i so highly recommend a tropical island second honeymoon with your husband.

before you know it you're in the rut of daily routine, work, kids, family, friends, life, and the next time you look, and are even aware of the shift, you're totally disconnected from that man you married.

he's driving you nuts, you're driving him nuts, bickering about money, whose turn it is to whatever, what's for dinner, bleh bleh bleh.

you're going to bed early, he's up watching sport, movies or playing f@#$king computer games, morning is a blur of getting the kid ready for school, packing her ballet clothes, tennis shoes, extra warm jacket, feeding the dogs, eating a burned piece of toast on your way out the door, screaming bye i'm late, blowing a kiss, sitting in traffic, only to get to work, sitting in traffic, flying through pick 'n pay for bread, yoghurt, juice and onions, in the door, whose feeding the dogs, the kid, the bedtime routine, throwing some meat on the gasbraai, sitting down to eat in front of the tv just in time for the 2 sometimes 3 shows we watch before i fall asleep on the couch, wake up at the credits, tear myself off the couch, drag myself down the passage, maybe brush my teeth and wash my face, maybe not, back in bed only to wake up and it's tuesday morning, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat! aaaah saturday... all the same minus the traffic and work, but add in soccer matches, friends and family lunches.

so before you know it you're looking at each other and wondering if you may as well be borders in the same house...bring on bali

aaaaaah bliss, sleep late in an extra large king size bed, which feels even bigger minus the 2 dogs and lunatic cat, buffet breakfasts TOGETHER, massages TOGETHER, exploring, shopping, eating, TALKING...un-interupted conversations, about life, dreams, babies, bonds, our next holiday, LAUGHING...this guy i married is pretty funny, and interesting when we're not whining and moaning at each other about crappy house stuff, MISSING our child, actually being away from her long enough to miss her, terribly, but not in the morning when we are sleeping past 5'30 to the unheard of unfathomable 7,8 or even 9am, and of course all the other things you can get up to, minus the kid, plus the king size bed, plus the cocktails, plus the humid tropical sun and warm sensual ocean. yes i really like this person, he's fun to be with, relaxed, happy and whose that in the mirror, she's funny too, happy, relaxed oh god that's me!

so yes i highly recommend a tropical island second honeymoon...

...made me think...

...so i went to a movie last night with my friend kelly, it was called 'love and other drugs', and wow what a deep movie, the jist of it is that she (anne hathaway) has parkinson's disease at 26, and he (jake gyllenhaal) a drug sales rep meet and try their best not to fall in love, it's sounds very formulaic but was surprisingly deep and got you thinking about what is important in life...

and it just made me think about everything that i have in my life, a healthy happy daughter, a husband that drives me nuts but I never doubt that he loves me, parents who taught me to be independent, hard working and respectful of others and support me no matter what, an amazing but crazy extended family, a beautiful home in a safe area, a huge group of friends with an interesting ever changing dynamic but who all have each others best interest at heart, a job that makes me happy with people that respect me, food in my fridge, a positive bank balance well except for my bond...

and i wake up every morning and without consciously deciding to, i worry about having more stuff, a pool, a bigger entertainment area, an extra fridge, new boots, another overseas holiday and more money. more money to save, more money to buy, more money to invest, more more more...

what i don't wake up an think, is omf i DON'T have to worry about... my baby having a terminal disease, my parents being financially dependent, my marriage being in trouble, my home being repossessed, having no friends to share my life with, being unemployed, being emotionally damaged from abuse, being uneducated, feeling hopeless...

...i think from now on, as much as i can, i'm gonna wake up in the morning and just be grateful, grateful for what i do have and what i don't have to worry about. enjoy today, it's like i keep waiting for the next thing before i'll be happy or life will really begin, wake fucking up, life is today, here, now...smile...

...so, not pregnant, woooohooo...

...never thought those words would ever come out of me in any format,
but as far as my master plan goes i guess that's what i wanted. the scary thing
is, is that there was a very slight chance that i was, talk about russian rolette,
i knew i shouldn't and technically it was a day too late but you just can never
know how fast those little buggers (pg13) can swim. not that i was secretly kind of
hoping or anything!!! but alas that crimson bitch reared her ugly head.

 so my blog heading should've have read
...guess what chantelle found in her knickers this morning...

ha ha, not a kitty! that was my kitty sushi by the way, nestled in jp's
undies while he was sitting on the thrown. I rescued her from an spca
type place. since i grew up with cats and have been catless for the past
4 years, i desperately longed to be love/hated by a kitty once more.
so after a lot of negotiating with jp, and him saying no! i emailed EVERY
shelter and breeder of siamese kitties in the western cape, and then politely
phoned jp to tell him my kitty was ready and waiting for me, and then i still
had the cheek to get him to pick me up from work and drive me to bellville
to fetch her. needless to say, karma's a bitch, sushi loves him/hates me!!!
not even a f!@#$king siamese anyway!!!

so i have officially given her to siena who adores her and carries her around like
a broken rag doll - sushi seems to love it! so be it!...