Let's Do The Time Warp Again...

So, assuming I haven't lost you all with my highly edited but still opinionated mini rants, Ready! Set! Go! now rewards you with the lost entries of South Africa.

Has sort of an Allan Quartermain feel to it doesn't it?

OK, lets all hop in our blog powered time machines and go back to a simpler time. A time when lunch often consisted of dry cereal and soda. A time when we had to watch out for monkeys/donkeys/cattle/chickens/roosters/goats walking in the middle of the road.

A time roughly a month and a half ago.

Most of this was written while on the road, late a night in hotel rooms with no internet. (see how much I love you? say you'll forgive me for the last week's posts.)

So now we travel back.... back... back.... to Johannesburg, South Africa.


_______________________________
OK, I can go back to Botswana... I'VE BEEN TO A SOUTH AFRICAN QUILT SHOW!!!!!

Happy dance! Happy dance!

Oh and we went to a military history museum where we learned tons and Lance got his "History Guy" thing on. See, here's a picture:

BUT THEN WE WENT TO A QUILT SHOW!!!!

South African quilters got it going on. The theme was "Shosholoza" which is a Zulu word meaning to "go forward" or "make way for the next man." Many of the quilts had a we are on the right track or South African pride feeling to them. As you can see below. I'll be posting all the pictures I took here:


Here is a link to the whole album if you would like to take your time... I had just over 2 hours to do the whole show which is why some of the photos are a wee bit blurry and off center.

South Africa Quilt Show 2008

Much to my dismay you were not allowed to take pictures of the Tri-Nations quilts (South Africa, New Zealand and Australia) or Japanese quilts. I was actually given stern talking to by one of the ladies doing white glove duty for "accidentally" taking a photo in the Tri-Nations area. A word to the non quilting community: don't tick us off... we deal with rotary cutters on a daily basis.

Notable things at the show:

1) A Dear Jane display by one of the local guilds. Wow! Gorgeous! And what a great way to take advantage of all the different German Prints or ShweShwe as it was originally called by the locals.2) I learned a little more back story about the ShweShwe: The name comes from the sound the new fabric would make as you walked.

Shwe.

Shwe.

Shwe.

Like corduroy.

When European settlers and missionaries came to what would become South Africa they were taken aback by the ... ahem... limited clothing worn by the women. Specifically they seemed to only be modest about the bottom half of their bodies. Telegrams were sent back to England asking for affordable cloth thus you have the introduction of ShweShwe to Africa.

3) Japanese quilts are breathtaking. I am in awe. I am humbled. I am motivated to get sewing!

4) I was on the lookout for a uniquely South African take on quilting. I'm looking for a perspective that is as unique as say Japanese quilts compared to Amish or Gees Bend or traditional stars and squares. Definitely they draw from a much warmer pallet which makes sense given the landscape. I hope my photos give you a sense of this.

5) One thing is certain, South African quilters take a great deal of pride in simply in the their existence. It was hard to take up quilting in the 1980s when there wasn't much fabric coming into the country. As pretty much everyone I spoke with pointed out, they have done a lot with a few hundred quilters whereas the US has thousands and easier access to resources. My feathers ruffled a little bit at that (not that it's false) but I really enjoyed their work and thrill at South Africa's desire to grow as a quilting community.

5) My favorite quilt. Photos don't do this one justice. Real pattern paper is layered with fabric, lace and buttons to for the girls. It's called "Some Are Born Old." Sad inspiration. Amazing quilt.
Now you can't end on that somber of a note so I present to you two very happy vendors. Why are they happy? Because I have just spent a lotta rand on their hand dyed fabric. It was the only thing in the whole vendors area that wasn't imported and therefore really expensive. Actually it was pretty darn cheep. With currency conversion and all it ended up being a little over $1.25 a fat quarter. Oh yeah. I did some shopping here. He is actually a former chemist (very handy knowledge when you are creating dyes) and she is a former social worker. She had some really interesting stories and perspectives on what has worked and what hasn't when it comes to aid programs. Lance took mental notes. I took home two bags of fabric.

Oh Whata Night!

From Lance... : (

From Kristin... : )

Actually I do need to say something else. FLORIDA, WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING ON PROPOSITIONS 1 and 2?!?!?!?! Bad Sunshine State. No Mickey Mouse shaped cookies for you.

At least we can all be glad that the election is over.

Now we can go back to arguing about Dancing With The Stars.

HEY YOU!

Hey! What are you doing? Quit reading this silly thing and get out there and VOTE!

Unless you already have in which case please send me abundant amounts of soy free/vegetable oil free/emulsifier free chocolate.

; )
K

Our house has become a swing state

(sigh)

As I mentioned before, Lance and I are again cancelling each other out electorally. I can somewhat respect his choices for Pres and Congressional Rep. because these are people that I could imagine voting for as well. Sort of. Perhaps on some very strange and backwards world where the Golden Gate Bridge is green or something.

What totally surprised me is how much we disagree the school board nomination and propositions.

How could? I just? What do you mean? But what about? Huh?

We had to adjourn to separate rooms.

He, by the way, is wrong. I was wrong about something yesterday. Today it is his turn.

And he is very very very very wrong. On many things. Not that I'm stewing about this.

Thank goodness the election will be over soon.

Now get out there and vote. Whichever way you go 50% of the Botswana Sells contingent is behind you 100%.

Happy Halloween!

Hey Everyone,

Lance and I had a really busy Halloween this year. It wasn't suppose to be that involved but ... things happen. In this case, Lance's boss called him earlier in the week to "make sure he knew about the costume party at the Marine House." Um, yes and we were planning on skipping it but now that you mention it specifically ... sure we'll be there!

So. Or should I say "sew" because that is what I was doing on Friday. Pulling together and sewing bits for our costumes. Lance went as

and looked totally awesome. I went as

and nobody knew who the heck I was. She isn't normally as scowly as this so I went for more of a relaxed smirky version. Especially when people asked...

"Are you Laura Croft?"

Sigh.

Actually I was going for Starbuck from the latest version of Battle Star Galactica. (WHICH WAS A TOTALLY AWESOME SHOW!) I made gold hexagon dog tags and everything. Mad props go out to Lance who drank the can of horrible beer that had the only gold paint job I could find. Waste not want not. The other 5 are in our fridge if anyone is feeling brave.

So it was fun.

We left after an hour or so and met up with a few more friends back at our house for a bit of Rockband. Roughly 6 hours later (I'm not kidding here) everyone was stumbling out of the living room, there were high fives all around and exclamations of "Damn that guitar solo..."

All this really is a set up so I can give you the forthcoming quote the day.

We are all in the kitchen finding keys, rinsing bottles etc when I see a HUGE spider crawling on the wall. I haven't posted a pic of one of these lovelies yet. They are skinny but roughly the size of a baseball. They set off motion detectors if that gives you any indication of how bug these things are. Well this one was in softball territory. OMG. I pointed it out and Lance gets the bug spray and starts doing his thing. The spider falls and starts running around the kitchen floor. At this point... one of my guests screams and throws his empty beer bottle at it.

These things happen at 2 am when there are empty beer bottle present.

It totally breaks, missing the spider mind you, and people from the other room come running. Kim asks me what happened and I say in my controlled but admittedly a few sheets to the wind voice:

"An interesting decision was made ... in my kitchen ... by a guest."

She cracks up. I honestly didn't mean it to be a joke rather a measured, rational evaluation of what seemed like an absurd event. In hindsight it was pretty funny. The spider was eventually killed, the glass cleaned up and everyone made it home in one piece. Just another Friday evening at the Sells.

Catching up with Lance and Kristin

Nope we are not dead in some Botswana ditch. Breathe Mom. We just have had difficulty with our internet access and I had frankly had it with slumming down to a local restaurant to use their connection. All the waitresses seem to know me at this point and give me the table right next to the wifi box.

But, as of this moment and hopefully many to follow, we have internet at the house!!!!! So what does this mean? OK, we are on AIM and I have talked successfully with people in the states. If you want to say "Hi" via chat or video that is possible. Our screen name is readysetgo97 and if you don't have AIM on your computer you can download it for free at http://aimpro.premiumservices.aol.com/

I tend to keep all non essential internet windows closed (Lance too I'm guessing) so the best way to for sure get us on the line is to set up something ahead of time. But sometimes I do check in periodically.

Having internet at the house also means I don't have a good excuse not to update the blog anymore. : ) So that is one of my projects for today. I've decided to keep things somewhat chronological so give me a day or two to get everything in then go to the last South Africa post you remember. I'll probably post a link here.

So that's the internet. Other news: no budget for Lance yet so we are still waiting on travel. I had a BIG dinner party last week and the stuffed mushrooms were a big success. The lasagna... not so much. The pool is full and green but Lance is working on that. I went to two local dentists and confirmed I have a calcified tooth right in the front from an old coffee cup injury. The tooth is still hanging on and I have a referral to a specialist down in Johannesburg, SA who will hopefully be able to save it. This is pain in the neck news but I knew it could be a cavity. I'm big on flossing these days.

The weather is changing for sure. Next month begins rainy season and we have had some cooler cloudy days. Otherwise temps hover in the high 90s/low 100s. It's a dry heat similar to Redlands, CA so Lance and I are comfortable until I have a hot flash which btw, still a drag.

And tomorrow Lance and I continue our quad-annual vote cancellation. I won't go into details but I'm pretty hopeful about my choice while Lance is feeling heroic. I don't think either of us are thrilled with the options but there you go.

So that is enough of "now." Let's get to work on "then."
: ) K

Our household goods arrived!!!!

... and you might say we are pretty cheerful about it.
Still wondering why I sent roughly 50 boxes of pudding and only one set of sheets. Interesting decisions made by yours truly. Many lessons learned. : ) Anyone want any pudding?

Now if we could just get internet access at home...