Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

Its finally done!!! After lots of work I finally finished our DIY homemade Christmas tree this morning, inspired by the unique and inventive trees I found and wrote about in this post a few weeks ago... Here's a pic of it and a few details of how I made it ^_^

We collected sticks from around our neighbourhood, purposefully looking for interestingly shaped ones (looking rather strange to the neighbours we passed on the way), picked the best ones, and just spaced them out and adjusted their widths accordingly to create the triangular-ish shape of a Christmas tree. I simply adjusted them by eye and mostly just snapped off the ends (with the help of an old kitchen knife at points) as I needed to (as opposed to trying to make them super neat or accurate) to maintain a very rustic feel. One of the nicest parts about making your own tree like this is being able to custom make it to fit into whichever area its going into.

You do need to do some accurate measuring to centre each branch though, 'cause attaching each one to the other is definitely the most difficult part, so marking the centre point of each one with a bit of chalk (which you can just rub off later) is essential. And then I attached each one, starting from the top, with fishing line (so that its pretty see-through unless you look really close up and you get that feel of them being suspended on their own). I measured each bit of fishing line gradually making the gaps between each one bigger, the further down the tree I went - it all just depends on the space you have, the size of your decorations and the look you want...

The decorations were a collection of things my mom and I collected around both Durban and Grahamstown (like the recycled paper mache stars I found). We decided to keep everything in neutral tones of whites, creams, browns, silvers and subdues golds, both because it just looks lovely and classy and whimsical, and also 'cause it goes with the colour scheme of our flat. :P

We made it even more personal by printing out some family photos and attaching them to these flat wooden decorations my mom found in a store. Its one of my favourite parts of the tree - each member of our close family has a picture up ^_^

Little fun elements like this cute little angel with feathery wings, and the tiny teddy called Brown Bear which we've had for more than 10 years, add to the feeling of whimsy.

Here are all of the elements we added to our tree, including the adorable glittery reindeer, and the heart-shaped key-ring one of my best friends Katie gave to me years ago that's made up of the 'Zulu love beads' that are quintessentially Durban... (It is super important not to have too many things or to over-crowd the tree to keep the general feeling of lightness and of whimsy.) A lot of the store-bought pieces still needed some minor customising to make sure they went with the feel of the tree - like the star which was just a bright gold, R10 plastic one from Checkers (which I dulled down with lighter gold and silver paint, and added a bit more contouring to with some metallic white paint). 

I'm super proud of the final product. All the work definitely paid off. I love how unique it is, and how personal each touch it is whether it be little elements from our past, photos of our family, bits and pieces I found in Grahamstown (my university town I've just left) or things I changed and customised myself - it really does feel like its ours. :) 

No matter what your Christmas tree is like, it should be a reflection of you, your house, and most importantly your family. Happy decorating and celebrating to you all! 

Much love and mince pies and mistletoe to all the lovely peeps out there! May your Christmas time be magical <3 

Feeling a little lost...

So after four years of intense academic work, so far having gotten me an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree and hopefully now my Honours in Politics (granted I get this last frikken 10 000 word paper in :P And pass everything, of course) I feel even more lost than I did when I left high school. People are constanly asking me what I'm doing next and every time I explain the degree I have the first thing people say is "Sooooo, what can you do with that?" And I can honestly say, I really don't know what the heck I want to do with my life. The plan right now is to go home, work for a few months and get all my ducks in a row to go teach English to kids in Korea - an opportunity to simultaneously travel, earn well and start paying off my huge student loans and avoid the real world for a while longer. But what if that doesn't work out? And even if it does what am I going to do afterwards... There is the option of studying for another two years to complete my LLB (so I'll have 3 rather than just 2 degrees, just 2 just isn't enough, is it? :P). But even if so - then what?!? 99% of my friends have everything mapped out for them, they are studying career-specific degrees, they know where they're going, they're gonna be doctors, or engineers, or lawyers, or journalists. But I jsut really have no clue what I need to set my sights on and work towards.

The last few months and especially the last few weeks have found me questioning everything. I feel like I abandoned so much of myself when I came to uni. I am such a creative being and there are so many things which bring me such immense joy which I just let go by the wayside. Trouble is I never really felt confident in any of these other things enough to really commit to them. But I look around at other people engaged in things that they love and I just wish I had something which made me feel that way. And don't get me wrong, I have loved doing my Honours this year, and there have been areas in my studies which have made me feel really excited, most markedly my Ubuntu module. But I don't feel like I have a place for that interest. I don't feel like I'm intelligent enough to venture further into academia with it. And like I mentioned above, that's the same feeling I have with everything else I love. I have done a little sketch here and a little painting here and there in the last few months and that's made me miss making art SO much - but again its not like I some amazing talent in that area. And probably most prominently on my mind at the moment is that I absolutely am missing music, and most of all singing, more than I could possibly say. And even though it makes me so happy, I know once again I am not any kind of brilliant talent. Its just hard to understand how something can bring you so much joy and yet not be something of real significance in your life.

Maybe the next few months at home are exactly what I need. Maybe I need to just stop this freight train my life (and my brain) has seemed to be on for as long as I can remember and start doing the things that make me happy for a while - and just see what happens. So I am committing to writing, to sketching and painting, to finally learning to play my guitar, and to singing every moment I am not doing whatever menial job I am going to end up being stuck in, and I am going to make a concerted effort to put myself out there in terms of my creative side. At least that way I can either be told once and for all that none of these things are what I should be spending my time on, or maybe, juuuust maybe, find my niche and be told that in one tiny area maybe its more self-doubt than anything else that is holding me back.

Seriously need to get the creative juices flowing! And I will use this space as a platform for some of it, maybe :P (Seems like a good place to start seeing as I don't think that many people actually read this blog or even know it exists :P)

For now I will continue being lost and try and distract myself from this overwhelming state as much as possible.

Peace, love and bold brush strokes to all the other lost souls like me out there!

It's coming on Christmas...

So admittedly Christmas has never been my favourite time of the year. Generally it tends to make me a little sad and has often been accompanied by family drama of some kind... But this year my mom and I have started talking about decorations and things (we don't usually have the chance to really do much) and it got me excited... Maybe its just my thinking of things to keep myself busy with now that I'm gonna be back home for a really long time, or maybe its just my being inspired by a beautiful and unique homemade tree I came across - but either way I am getting amped so that's all that counts. Maybe this year it will be a merrier Christmas than usual :P

Because we do live in SA and don't really do the real Christmas tree thing (a practice I don't really think is the greatest anyway), and because most plastic, stoep-green trees can often look scraggly and to be honest, downright tacky, I absolutely love the idea of creating unusual and unique Christmas trees yourself. I would really like to think of something like one of these for my mom and I to do ourselves in our flat. :) I love simple, whimsical designs and also love the use of earthy elements. Here are some super pretty ones I found pics of... 

I love the use of rough bits of wood and the scattered but balanced use of a few delicate decorations, and the lighting makes it!

This is such a cute and nifty idea using something a lot of people would have at home already. Love it!

This idea is absolutely gorgeous and something that you could really personalise to the max, and is also useful  for places without too much room to fit a big tree it. This is a cheerful play on the traditional idea... 

This is one which takes minimal effort but still looks really rad - one specially for book lovers ^_^

This is an even simpler version of the first on the list and once again is a simple, earthy style which eliminates any of the usual garishness of Christmas decor. 

 My beautiful friend Katie has a super special tree of her own, one her parents made out of pieces of driftwood, and it is absolutely stunning!! Her and I and a couple of friends have begun the tradition of decorating it together every year and here are some snaps of our antics... ^_^

And I can't end off a post about Christmas without sharing my absolute favourite Christmas song of all time by the stunning Joni Mitchell. It is admittedly pretty sad but absolutely beautiful... 

So here's in anticipation of creating pretty, homemade decorations, giving (and getting!) super thoughtful gifts, spending time with the ones we love, and of course, eating your weight in mince pies!! 

Peace and love and jingle bells... <3