❤ Lucky Packet Design: Shweshwe brooch

The latest addition to The Lucky Packet.

Shweshwe, a proudly South African fabric, is amazing to work with. I acquired some fabric samples from Shweshwe and decided to create a simple brooch for an old denim jacket just to liven it up a bit.

I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

I ❤ JHB : Bella Restaurant

I've decided to start a 'series' on this blog.  It's called the 'I ❤ JHB' series.

It's about all the little places that I've found in Johannesburg which I absolutely love and adore :)  So let's begin the first post :)

A friend called me for a quick lunch date and mentioned a lovely little restaurant and deli that's tucked away on Rivonia Road.  She texted me her easy-to-follow directions and I found myself at this quaint little place in a complex which plays host to other stores and offices.  It's a bit of a hidden treasure and if she didn't know about it from a previous visit, I wouldn't have found it by myself.

We chose to be seated outdoors and I simply adored the decor of neutral shades and loved the atmosphere. It has a laid back vibe about it even though many people had their laptops open and were obviously on business meetings. Patrons included Mommies and their little broods who were also there enjoying a quick bite. It was the perfect setting for a warm Summer's day.

Being a halaal-only type of person (i.e. Muslim), eating meat at non-halaal establishments leave very limited resources for one to eat. However, Bella had over 10 different non-meat items on their menu which one can choose from. I was ecstatic!

I am a big fan of salmon, so I decided to have a delicious salmon salad topped with cottage cheese, avocado and gherkins. It was delicious (and quite large in size!).

My friend had a roast butternut salad topped with other yummy salad items.

I've never been a person who only has a salad for lunch, but this was something I could get used to as it was quite filling.

The price was not as crazy in comparison to other Sandton restaurants (thank goodness), and their service was quick, efficient and full of smiles.

I especially loved the fact that they gave real Chappies as a parting breath freshener.  Who can resist reading the 'Did you know?' tidbits that's printed on the reverse side of the wrapper?
A part of me enjoyed the fact that it was called 'Bella' as it reminded me of my teenage/early adulthood years of using the word Bella or Belladonna in online handles.  I loved using Belladonna especially as it was a deadly, yet nurturing plant of nature to be reckoned with :)

All in all, I enjoyed my meal there and I can't wait to try them again soon.

You can visit Bella at:

66 Rivonia Road

Sandton

Open Monday to Saturday

Website

Facebook page

(images courtesy of 66 Rivonia)

❤ Lucky Packet Design: This is so...HeartFelt :)

Felt. It reminds me of primary school days of messing about during art class, collectively incurring the wrath of the art teacher and just having fun.

Today I found a few scraps of felt hidden away in my little collection cupboard and decided to experiment with it.

I decided to make a brooch and a few hair clips as I'm always in need of these items.

What do you think of them?

❤ Lucky Packet Design: Flower Garden

I love going scavenger hunting at my mum's home. My mum was/is a seamstress and would even do amazing works of embroidery before her trio of nuttiness came along. However, she still has this love for material so she's got a LOT of it.

I used to wrap myself in them as a kid and prance around the house pretending I was wearing some big fancy ballgown :)

I found quite a bit of plain cotton/linen blend material so I decided to claim it as my own (thanks mum!) and decided to make this:

Check it out! Wee little fabric roses

I added a few odd beads and sewed a bit and voila! My first bag! It's perfect for travelling, storing linen, socks, your precious items and other odds and ends.

Hit refresh :)

I've been neglecting all things related to this blog/project of mine.

I know that excuses are a bad thing, but I didn't realise how the time flew by in the past few months. I made promises that I couldn't keep and I still owe some people an apology. In the midst of all that occurred, I remembered, 'oh yes, don't I have a website to run?' and that's when I looked at the date and got a bit of a fright. It's been 2 months since I last said I would do something about this blog. So here I am restarting this blog, once again!

So after much thought and much bothering of some dear people (you know who you are), I've changed the name (AGAIN) and registered a domain!

I've yet to figure out how to work out the other things like how to create a website from scratch (I've forgotten how to do that!), so right now the domain is just pointing to my blog.

I figure that a domain that I've got to pay for will make me start this project up again.

December-January shall be a renewal of this website and I hope, if the Almighty wills it, that all goes well from there on.

Let the brainstorming begin...

❤ Lucky Packet Design: Linocutting and Rubber Adventures

In the midst of the paper cutting project, I got a bit distracted and decided to fiddle about with some rubber and a lino-cutter.  I started off with the pattern that I was playing around with in my paper cutting project, but then decided I'd like a regular old flower instead.  

By the way, I've cut myself at least 3 times.  In Ramadaan it was hard for me to control my frustration and not yell out, 'S#!^' every time I stabbed myself.  Linocutting is not for sissies.  Keep band-aids nearby - and perhaps some protective gloves.

After creating my rubber stamp, I decided to test it on a piece of fabric (which is somewhere around) and as it turns out, I'm pretty pleased with my first shot at lino cutting and printing.  I'm going to fiddle a bit with the design and once I find a trusty roller, I'll (hopefully) create some designs to share on here! :)

I ❤ Food: Ramadaan - Done. Eid ul Fitr - Done.

The burfee didn't make me do a barf-ee.

A lone lamington and a single tiramisu cupcake found themselves coupled.

The strawberries jumped for joy when they realised they weren't being turned into pavlova, but split themselves up when they found out they were being creamed.

Ramadaan came and Ramadaan went.

Eid came and Eid went.

So the month of fasting was good - but then Eid came at the end of it and  even though I said I wouldn't, I ATE and ATE and rolled over and ATE again on Eid day.  Terrible.

(why do you think there's only one of each item left?  There's a lot of other things that you can't see because...they're in my belly! ahhah! psssh...I made it all AND ate it all!  SIES!)

All in all, it was a good Ramadaan - istighfaar (prayers for forgiveness from sins) dhikr (prayer), sabr (patience) and shukr (gratefulness) was a constant thought/action :) I had a lot of time to do some thinking, doing and less procrastinating.  I'm doing a mental 'WHOOP!' just for the latter :)  Let's hope I can keep it up now  :)

Sorry for the cheesiness in the captions.  I couldn't help myself :)