I love Wednesdays...

Seriously!  I love Wednesdays... it's usually the day we do a bit of exploring... whether it is on a #trailrunning route or just discovering beautiful places in and around Cape Town, whatever it is - it has fast become the highlight of my week.  And when we don't do it - I miss it!  Terribly.  The regular commitment to do something on this day, almost like an ArtistsDate - has not only got me out of the house but also got me to take my blinkers off and really see and value life around me... which is generally one of those magical things that happen when you purposefully step out of the door.  I love getting out and about in Cape Town and discovering new places.  And I love finding new places to have coffee.  A favourite pastime of mine... because I love coffee.  Whether it's just with Melody or some other mates or by myself - it's always a treat... And today was no different.  I headed into Kalk Bay to meet Melody to finalise some things about Project40.  I love this little village.  I love the quirky arty shops and the sidewalk cafes along the coastline!  I swear, sometimes I have to pinch myself.  We found this gorgeous little train that had been converted into a little cafe.  Just adorable... I can't wait to bring the girls back here.  From there we shot into Noordhoek for a mini-photo shoot for Project40 and Mel helped me capture exactly what I was looking for...

While we were in Noordhoek - we popped up to Melody's fav spot in Monkey Valley which overlooks the beach.  A great day for sharing stories about motherhood, womanhood and just life in general.  #stolenmoments 

#InMyStudio - OpenStudio - Pencil Portrait Drawings...

I have been using delay tactics for the past few weeks. The course has felt so big. Bigger than me and I have been so full of fear... Where do I even begin. So finally I faced myself last night and I headed to be beginning and started reading the tutorials and notes.  Most importantly, I started drawing.  I have been painting so much over the past few years but I haven't drawn for ages... I have always loved drawing with pencil so in many ways, it felt like I had come home. It felt great and I managed to draw a few pieces.  In a perfect world - I would like to spend 20 minutes everyday to draw faces.

#InMyStudio - I am here... OpenStudio

I AM HERE

A woman.  A wife.  A mother

Rounded hips.  Silver strands.  Tiny lines.

Youth slipping away and I have no say about it.

Running out of time.

To be me.

To be true.

To find me.

Running out of time with 2 amazing girls,

Who will leave soon to live their own beautiful lives full of hope

Full of promise,

With their compasses in their hands.

It makes my heart leap out of my chest as I count my days.

My days left with them.

Brave is my new name.

Brave is my new game.

Was once a lost little girl who wondered through half her life without a compass.

Hoping to find joy and grace in her heart, with flowrsinherhair.

As I discover who I am.

Love who that is and know this is me.

With my whole heart in my hands.

As I am.

Right now.

Right here.

A busy weekend at a Glance...

So stoked... Melody and I got to do our 11km trailrun on Saturday from Silvermine Nature Reserve to Tokai Forest.  It wasn't easy... but mentally we had real breakthrough.  It was a perfect Cape Town Spring day.  Digz and all the kids spent the morning at the Tokai Market while they waited for us to arrive.  It was great way to spend our Saturday morning... out and about and active.  We have booked to run the Cape Gun Run in October - so training is on the cards for the next few weeks...

When we finished our run, we ambled through the Flee Market and met a delightful young artist called Ferne.  She handmade and printed these lovely "CapeStyle" skirts.  It was love at first sight.  She also allowed us to leave with our skirts without paying for them.  We had no money on us because of our run.  I love meeting people that are this generous and trusting in spirit.  What a find.  I am hoping to shoot back to Ferne to find some more lovely designs. 

I am making progress with my Mother Daughter Love painting.  I am still loving this piece so much.  Both their dresses are on and I am slowly building up the layers of skin.  The clocks behind symobilized that time is running out... before my beautiful teenager is a woman in her own right who will be making all her own choices, driving her own car and living her own life.  I am acutely aware that we have such precious moments left to make the most of each moment we have together.

I am slowly working through my tutorials on OpenStudioWorkshop.  Today I worked with Charcoal.  A complete first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I am surprised and delighted with each new face finding it's way onto my pages.  After much drawing and playing today we popped out to meet my brother and his wife for dinner to celebrate on the eve of their baby being born...

A moment to breathe...

Perfection was the call of the day!  I loved this morning very much.

I haven't been to Silvermine with my running buddy, Melody for over a month and I have missed it.  The dam is stunning and each time I'm there it always looks different.  Today it was completely perfect.  It was so lovely to dip our feet into the cold water and chat after our run!

Love the reflections!!!!

Lazy "girlie" mornings...

This has been a part of our lives for the past 12 years...  My hubby goes out for his long weekend ride/race and we get to spend our morning together.  It's our "girlie" quality time.  This morning we sat chatting over coffee and hot chocolate and planning our regime for summer sports that starts in the next month or so.  The girls were studying and later we moved from our spot of sun to the art room and spent the whole morning creating art, chatting and listening to music.  I love our times together especially as they are getting older.  I love our quality conversations and teachable moments.  I love that they team up and tease me and laugh at my idiosyncrasies.  We have the best fun together!  I am hoping that these moments we share together will be something that they will carry with them always... like I know I will!

News Flashes...

This Tuesday, 16 years ago was the day that Digz and I got engaged in Edinburgh, Scotland. I found this old photo of us minutes after the delicate little ring was slipped onto my finger... Wow I still can't believe how young we look... just kids. We have never really observe this special day so it was delightful to remember it this year.  It's a beautiful story how after a year of writing to each other, Digz came out to the UK to propose.  It was special sharing it with the girls!

There is one thing we both enjoy - our coffee dates.  And it looks like we have finally found "our" place to sneak in after the school drop. It's something we started doing a few years ago because the girls get dropped off early, so we often have an hour to kill and nothing better than quality time over coffee while we wait for the traffic to subside. We accidently went down the "wrong" street this week and ended up finding this great place.

This week was Kitty's Grandparents day at school. She was so excited for Nana to come through.  Kitty absolutely loves these special occasions and it was by far the highlight of her week.  She gave Nana the tour of her classroom and was very proud to show off her happy school and introduce Nana to her lovely teacher.  The kids all sang to their granparents and all made them something special.  Sweet day all round.

After much delaying and doing everything else other than getting started on the drawing module of my online course, OpenStudioWorkshop - I finally faced myself last night and today and started doing my 1st bunch of assignments.  I handmade my 1st coptic bound journal, wrote my "I am here" poem and started drawing.  I managed to do a total of 4 drawings.  I am so delighted to finally have broken through my fears and really excited to keep moving forward.

After doing nothing but art all day - it was time to get out. The late afternoon sun was still peeking out and I knew I could still grab a short run. I haven't run for about a month now… so I have actually been chomping at the bit to get going again. I encouraged Kitty to come out with me too. We ended up running almost 5km's together. We had the best fun.  Considering I hadn't run for almost a month, I felt great. It's still chilly but it was worth it to not only get some quality time with my babes but also to get some fresh air.

It's the 1st September and it's officially SpringDay today but it's still so cold. I am happy to say that the sun did come out a little bit this morning and evening but not for long. It is still so bitterly cold and we are still warding off cold fronts after cold fronts. Kitty and I stumbled upon this blossomed daisy when we were running... a promise that Spring and Summer is on its way.  Living in hope.