Things I Love

I had such fun today, in fact for the last couple of weeks its been good. Good enough to almost feel all is right with the world again and to come by here and say howdy?

"What have you been up to Wendy?" you might ask. 

Today specifically I went shopping and did myself proud finding good deals on winter stuff for everyone except me of course. Even my nanny got shoes and a sweatshirts. That's moms' for you right, nothing new there.

If only someone loved me enough  :-)

The last two weeks I've been in and out of antique and collectable shops  so I'm brimming with ideas, I even ordered two mirrors for the main bedroom which I can't wait to get. I found the most delightful antique dealer that also does great reproductions of 17th to 19th century furniture. We can't all afford the real thing you know, even the reproductions are easily out of reach for most. Check out these Victorian nightstands which i think are fabulosity itself but ridiculously priced at $423 for one by the same store.**sad sigh**

Good news though, I started buying art again as  result of my trips into these obcure little quaint places in Johannesburg. Happiness. 

There are still challenges with my online life though. One, I still don't have a laptop of my own and am stealing hubbies when possible and two, I only got a nanny last week so I'm so busy to catching up on everything else I barely have time to visit to my blog life. But things are looking up, at some point I was a tad bit concerned that I might not get to come back to mine and your blogs which of course would just be tragic.

We are all of 3 months and 4 days today.

Oops, nearly slipped my mind. Here's the latest pic of le bambino **in my head that sounded Italian**. Ain't she just absolutely divine? Even if I'm a little biased. This is the most beautifully calm baby ever, if i'd known this is what exclusive breastfeeding does I'd have made more effort with the others..

Next. I've been busy trying to get the house in order as best as a not working mother can so mostly its turning out to be DIY decor on a diaper budget. Its either that or live in an empty house until I can afford new things again and that would just be enough to have me slit my wrists. So I've been educating myself. In my last posts I mentioned my sewing endeavours. Well that hasn't really gotten anywhere. I've discovered I don't have the patience for all the detail that goes into making clothes. Maybe it will come but I much better prefer the feeling of walking into the house and seeing something I've made in a jiffy. Like my kitchen curtans which I wipped up in two hours this week because my white ones just had no character. I'm quite proud of them but am sure in six months time after i'll have more practice i'll look at them in shame and say to self: what were you doing? _ that's what I said when I took off my other self made ones to replace them with these. By the way this Kathryn White print I got the other day was inspiration for the curtain choice. I love it.

Before
(It had a green
 faded velvet seat).
I was mending broken bits
and sanding by the time I
took this pic *sorry*.

After

I have a chair in my bedroom which was my first upcyle/reupholstery project and I think its time for another and hopefully I'll do better second time around. I picked this chair up at an antique dealer for about $7 because I needed something temporary in the room. I got an off cut fabric from a reuphosterer and went on with my trail and error. I didn't think it was half bad thereafter to be honest I still don't. I'll just cover the upholstery with a boy's room worthy fabric and stick it in my son's room for a desk chair. Believe it or not, covering a straight forward chair with like takes about 30 min. if you have what you need. Does that make you think about your dining table chairs?

I've decided to create a page for my DIY stuff because I've made other things and am in the process of upcycling and repurposing an old bookshelf into 3 separate units (a bookshelf, a linen cupboard and amoire for kitchenware) . I'll stick my detailed instructions on there in case there's another nut out there like yours truly. I find DIY therapeutic and rewarding and can almost guarantee that its the only hobby out there that's an investment with immediate and long term returns.

I can't believe that before the year is over I have reconnected with most of the things I loved. As you know if you follow my blog, things have been tenuous this year and I've been at the precipice of despair a number of times. But glory be to God, here I am, smiling again. I hope life is making you smile too.

Love and kisses from another  DIY Diva!

Sabbaticals, Babies and Naija to SA

It’s a year and two months since I started this blog. 

It was the genesis of my blogging career and online life. 

However, I recently had to make some very tough decisions about it. I’ve been between the devil and the deep blue sea for the longest time and its just not working out. Many promises brocken, schedules unkept have to lead to wake up calls at some point. 

So the decision is to streamline my online life which is currently all over the place at the moment. I can’t keep up with my online social obligations.

So this is the plan:

1. Fabulosity Nouveau (this blog) will be going on sabbatical for a period of six months with the possibility of extending to a year. One of my New Year resolutions is to work harder this year towards my finances and the other is to be more physically present to engage more with the world around me. I’m finding it hard to do all that and maintain the same momentum with my online presence. As a result this blog suffers.
2. Deactivate my personal Facebook  account and only maintain the one for Fabulosity Reads. I have a lot to download here to ensure I do not lose precious information so it may take a couple of weeks but in that time i’d also like my friends to switch over. So if you are my friend at Wendy Ewurum on Facebook then please send me a friend invite on Fabulosity Reads or like my page FabulosityReads4U.
3. This also means cancelling my participation on the A-Z challenge this year. But this just cannot be helped.

Now on to other news:

I know there will be times when I’ll be tempted to come back here because there are just some things that don’t fit well in the book review blog and I promise to try to not cave in thereby confusing you all. Well except on maybe two occasions:

1. We are expecting a new arrival in the family soon so I’d love to introduce you to her when she finally makes the big entrance. This I definitely have to share with you.
2. A friend is going to the Beer Fest in Germany in June and I am sooooo jealous but despite this debilitating emotion I will share a post about her experience with pictures and events when she’s there. If only to drool over it all.

Long overdue feedback:

The last some of you heard from me was when you were wishing me well with my permanent move to Nigeria. Well it was as permanent as any sane person can make it. Three months later, on the day my visa expired I and the kids were on plane back home.

Don’t get me completely wrong. 

Nigeria would be great to visit for a very short holiday say two weeks but for anything longer I imagine you have to grow hair on your teeth to survive. Especially if you come from a progressive country. It was the hardest three months of my life and all can say is God Bless South Africa number one and number two I understand the Nigerians wonderlust now. 

None the less, the experience was a huge eye opener not to mention an exceedingly expensive experiment that has left my hubby so disappointed but I’m ever so glad I did it in my younger years if you call mid thirties young.Well compared to doing it at 45 years I suppose it is.

Thanks to Special People

I do want to thank my special blog friend Misha, Sochi Azuh and J.L Campbell whom I bitched and moaned on when I felt I was going to die of depression. I’ve never met any of them but that’s the wonderful thing about blogging, you don’t need a face to face experience with someone for them to care for you. 

I also published a number of very depressing posts at that time and my blog friends here always had a word of wisdom or encouraging advise. I'm thinking of the likes of Karen Gowen, Tirzah Goodwin, Kiru Taye, etc. All of you guys are very special to me. Thank you.

Au Revior

Anyway I think I’ve covered what I had to for now. Fabulosity Nouveau wishes you love, happiness and success for the rest of this year and may we see each other again soon. 

To follow me on my other blog please visit Fabulosityread.blogspot.com. I promise to follow back when you do.

Fabulosity Reads is a book review blog where I do author interviews, guest blogging and Giveaways as well. I’ve thinking of resurrecting my art and galleries page with a theatre feature since I’ll be visiting these frequently soon.

Thank you to all the blog friends and followers I've met through my blogging journey and who stuck by my craziness, supersized ego and bottomless insecurities. You made me feel extraordinary.  

All my love.

Wendy Ewurum

Art Thou Art is Here

I have finally put up some of the art work from South African painters and am hoping that you will enjoy looking at them as much as I do and perhaps even be seduced to unburdening that wallet you’re dragging around. I love books merely for containing words which create worlds within worlds, refer to my post on this topic HERE. And from my love of books came my interest in art too, it is no exaggeration that a picture speaks a thousand words.

Cape Dutch by Helena Mummen
@ Frame It. SOLD to me @ R850 / $122

There are pictures and paintings I can get lost in for hours for the abundance of possibilities. In fact I think pictures are not only a source of inspiration but the creation of a good book. It is they that, long after having finished reading a book,  keep nudging at my memory relentlessly, insisting that I revisit certain books over and over again. This art form also tends to be subject to multitudinous interpretations. Have you ever seen how you can look at a picture and get a specific interpretation or have certain emotions evoked and yet for another the effect will be equally profound but, completely different?  Paintings are kind of like the Chick Lit’s Fridge Game, they are great tools for developing characters and storylines as they themselves are a story being told.  

For these and more such stories please check out my ART THOU ARTpage for inspiration and aesthetic appreciation. Feel free to contact the art dealers at the contact details given at the end of this page. All I ask is that if you interact with any of the dealers or artists as a result of information shared on this blog, that you come back to this post or the art page and tell me/us of your experience. It’s the only way I can tell whether this page is effective or not as primarily, I want to use it as a means of exposing the work of local talent in support of their work. I’d also appreciate general feedback about this page or initiative.

Oil landscape by S. Gornitzka @ Frame It @ R1900 / $274
SOLD to me.

In addition, I want to say something about the art dealers that I'll be featuring bi-weekly:

Sorry Dragana I will come and get a better photo of you. Soonest.

One of my favourite places in Johannesburg is Dragana's framing shop and gallery. She has the most wonderful array of paitings on display at her Frame It studio. To me, her product range is a direct reflection of her eclectic elegance and artistic flair. Everytime I walk in there I feel like a child in a candy store and wish the world were fair and I had all the money necessary to indulge my whims. And you know when you are not conversant with art as I am, you need someone trustworthy to advise you prudently about it because not only might you want to buy for tasteful deco and the possibly investment but you need a practices eye to sus out the shysters as well, every industry has them. You know the one who will paint a copy of something and then claim it is an original, in truth there's nothing wrong with buying a copy, not all of us can afford the Rembrandts and Van Gohs and there are beautiful copies out there. There are two I have my eye on at Frame it but i think it is only ethical that I know upfront what I'm buying. It's important that you not have someone who will sell to you only for the sale but one who will evaluate your tastes and advise you with your best interest at heart. I have found such a person in Dragana and I am grateful. As a result I'll be featuring quite a bit of her merchandise on a weekly bases and the plan is to also do painter reviews so be on the watch.

The Thinker @ Colorit Studio for R4000 / $576.40

More is better and so the other gallery I've decided to feature is the Colour It Studio which is also an art school. I only recently came across this little place and you may remember its name from a previous post entitled: Art & Deco Advise. Stefan the owner is nothing short of genius when constructing works of art with the use of his his preferred brown palletes. I couldn't resist leaving the store with one of his painting that day, no not this one. My heart yearns for it, sadly my pocket doesn't yet agree. I love the creative buzz I found at Colorit, over and above the warm personalities of the owners and teachers. They say artists (mainly writers and painters) are tortured should, I've yet to find truth in this theory.

Please remember to bookmark either this page or the Art page for later visits to the Art Library.

Contact Details:
Frame it Picture Framers & Art Dealers
+27 11 787 2343 / dragana@telkomsa.net
Carriera Centre, Shop 12A
Cnr Pine Avenue /Republic Rd
Randburg,
South Africa

Colorit Studio (Tuition, Art Material, Gallery & Framing)
+27 71 307 1158  / +27 326 3663
coloritjhb@gmail.com
Cnr. Barkston Dr. / Susman Ave.
Blairgworie, Randburg
South Africa

Enjoy!!!

Art & Deco Advise Please

Today I am looking for decorative advice from my world renowned expert panel otherwise known as my blog friends. I am now the proud owner of 7 stunning Proudly South African paintings from the following artists in no particular order:
S. Gornitzka, M. Thomas, H. Mummen, S. de Lange, M. Chaprai & R. Straveh-Levies
I am very proud of the progress in my art buying activities which I started in December only (I'd just lie to mention that between books and art my wardrobe and more importantly shoes have seen no new additions since :( _oh the sacrifices).  The challenge I find is sometimes in the placement of these babies once bought I’m trying to buy keeping in mind what I like and what would look good where and for someone who’s doing this by trial and error but this is is easier said than done albeit it being great fun. I’m am now attempting to tackle a white elephant in my second (wall straight ahead), less used lounge as featured on the left (right to you if you standing behind your computer).

I really just don’t have the money to buy one or two big paintings for it so I'm collecting bits and pieces. With today’s latest acquisition (I didn't write Confessions of this Shopaholic  in error) my son and I were considering various arrangements before we drill. So here they are, please advise what arrangement you think would look most attractive on this wall I am biased towards a one in particular but want your opinion first..
Feel free to make other recommendations.

Without further ado:

Arrangement A

Arrangement B

Arrangement C

And just for the fun of it, let me introduce you to my soon to be art teacher. I suspect she will be both my most favourite person in the world (at least for a time) and the bane of my existence. Oh and apparently stick men, which I thought were the easiest thing to draw require an incredible amount of expertise. So if I come away still unable to draw a stationary stick man, then I'll know Lente is not all she's cracked up to be.

I caught Lente being creative with this Tango peice.....(phen-bloody-nomenal)

I also want to tell you that sooner than later I will finally feature my Art Page (look out for it). I've been dilly dallying on this because until something feels just right I procrastinate but 2 days ago I had my brainwave at last. I will feature the small galleries and framing places I visit and love. This way I can showcase South African talent as a means support for their work and hopefully garner a little exposure for the enterprise. By the way, Lente is one of those artists @ the Colourit Studio. 

Oh i'm so excited I feel bubbly. This is awesome!!!

Please don't forget to tell me which arrangement you think is most appealing. Your advise could save a life.

2nd R is for Romi's art

I was at Myne's blog and stole again. I can never resist a good thing.
I think this artist is has some exciting stuff and if you're in Naija this could make for an accomplished Saturday. 
The artists will be exhibiting “QUIET SPACES” 
SATURDAY, 14TH MAY, 2011 until 27th MAY, 2011
NIKE’S GALLERY, LEKKI, LAGOS
To see more of his work please visit his website HERE: 

By Romi Isichei

I love faces and torsos, that why I chose these pictures.

I wonder who his muse was here....LOL

Beauty for your eyes to see

B is for beauty because I think these are beautiful. If you read my post called Confessions of this Shopaholic  a couple of weeks ago then you will be familiar with the story of my $14 X2 original watercolours that I found amongst some 2nd hand shop rubble. Well I did promise that after I'd found them new homes (frames) I would post those up for your viewing pleasure. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and oh my am I beholding, I hope I'm not the only one. I think these have just been beautified even further and a measly $268 later spend at the framing shop, I am besotted....

So today its me, my kids, a white wall and and our drill. I could not be more pleased or excited.

                                                                        Before  

                    Interesting combination of framing bits and pieces.

Voilà 

Spectacular Stone Angels

I finally made it to the Zimbabwean Stone Angel Exhibition in Greenside, Johannesburg and it was spectacular. The theme is Woman: hence the exhibition being titled: Rock Angels. It's a celebration of women in Zimbabwean life, interpreting their influence and presence everyday life and spiritual belief as spirits are often said to manifest in the female form.
What this exhibition did for me was remind me just how much we, Africans undermine ourselves and our abilities. We have somehow bought into every other person's definition of who we are except our own. This is a painful reality to revisit. I am however encouraged by the interest that the Rwavhi Gallery has taken to bring to the fore this talent when even the neighbours to Zimbabwe's artists are oblivious of their existence.

I learnt that the sculptures are all handmade, you only have to look at just one them pieces to realise just how much work must go into making it, all that chipping away at the Serpentine rock until some semblance of shape starts to appear. What's so special about this process is that besides them using this rock that's only found in a few places including Southern Africa, once the stone carvers have sculpted the stones, they polish them by hand using wax polish to bring out the natural colour of the stone that we see.

As I walked through the garden, looking at these magnificent works of art, i found myself not really concerned with what each meant or represented but rather wondering if their creators see the worth of their work and get due credit for it in all the ways that count. I asked myself this because when I looked at the profiles, I did not see anyone with a distinguished or even average background. These are rural, very rural individuals whom God saw fit to bless with this unique gift, using one of natures hardest elements as a means of self expression.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to take down information about the sculptures and so I will try to name those I remember and  update them all at a later stage. I tried to put as much as possible in this gallery for your perusal but there are many more left out, in total there are 75 sculptures being exhibited.

In closing: My dream is that we all (particularly my fellow Africans) undertake to actively support African artists in anyway or form, particularly the sculptures, painters and writers. These I think are the most undermined forms of art in our continent. Where will our continent be without an awesome imagination. We will not be in a position to create a continent fit for the gods and goddesses that we are because we will not see it where it matters most, in our minds eye.

This one is called Gabrielle's Ladder and you note that the grey area has
not been polished and the shiny section had.

She's called Never Been Kissed........how cute

Loving the wolf

I can't imagine how long it would take to create this intricate hair pattern.
Look out for other such styles.

the dancer

Windswept

Surprise

Listening to my ancestors

Sharing secrets

Under my skin

Precious Gift

Humans in nature

Gabrielle's Ladder

Madonna and Child

Hugging a shark

Independent

I can't remember the sculptures name but this is the Gallery Owner: Carolyn