Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Uh Oh, Blogger is Broken

Since the second week of April, I've had various issues with Blogger. From not being able to log in, to not being able to comment on posts, to images disappearing from posts. My blog statistics have plummeted and I'm feeling exceedingly grumpy.
I'm not the only one; thousands of bloggers are picketing Google and the people at Blogger are dodging us without answering. Here's their latest non-communication:


If you see a minus sign instead of an image, you can read it HERE.
I love Blogger and I feel sentimental about it because it's the first place where I started seriously writing. However, if the problem persists, I'm going to ask you to move over to the Wordpress blog which I set up as a backup a while ago when I heard disturbing rumours about the future of Blogger.
Let's see what happens in the next few days, I really hope that it will blow over.

In the meantime, I hope that you're staying safe during the lockdown and adhering to the rules in your country. Here in South Africa, we're still under total lockdown and haven't left the house in more than a month. I'm happy to report that we're healthy, our state of mind is good, and apart from worry about how our future will be affected, we are well.

I'm maintaining a wholesome routine and working on various projects. All in all, it's a good time for self-care and reflection.


Monday, April 6, 2020

Soft Landing


I've met many people who start a project and work on it exclusively until it's finished. They build a puzzle, crochet a blanket, make jam, whatever. But they won't start with the next thing until they finished the one before. All I can say is that their homes must stay very tidy during this pandemic and I envy them.
Even at the end of the world as we know it, my habits remain unchanged. I'm sculpting, sewing, painting, writing, casting silicone all at once and all over the place. And when I'm not busy with that, I'm gardening, spring cleaning, working with tarantulas, doing ballet with a kitchen chair for a barre.
The upside of this is that I'm never bored. In fact, I have so many projects on the go that I often find things that I left half-finished and feel excited to rediscover them and carry on.
The downside is that it can sometimes be a long while before I finally see the fruits of my labour and I tend to lose track of time. There are people out there who are writing a lockdown count-down so that they can tell their grandchildren all about what they were doing when the big bad virus threatened the world. Someone reminded me that today is day eleven of the South African stay-at-home order and that we're halfway through it already. My reaction was, 'Whaaaaat, I haven't even started with half the things I had planned'! So, if time is dragging for you, my recommendation is that you take your mind off it by starting a few more projects.


For me, one thing often leads to another. I made a whole lot of cloth face masks (yes, western countries are finally starting to adopt the idea that we will be wearing them in public spaces for the foreseeable future) and I ended up with a pile of postage-stamp-sized fabric offcuts. Many had pretty pictures or interesting patterns on them and I was wondering what I could make with such small pieces? Dollhouse cushions, of course! So, the ironing board and the sewing machine are still standing around and I've made more than 100 cushions so far. It's a bit addictive. Heaven knows what I will do with them all.


If you want to make some dollhouse cushions of your own, I highly recommend the tutorial on Jessica Cloe's blog. Here are pictures of some of my favourites so far. I soldered the wrought-iron day bed a while ago and when I took it out to use as a photo prop, it made me think I should heat up the soldering iron and make a few more...
Wishing you soft landings in the coming week.