Happy Birthday to Yoooo-ooouuuu!!!

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but today is a Very Special Day - Happy 21st Birthday to my darling niece, Vonnie, wa-a-ayyy over there in Sugarland, Texas. She has high hopes of being an elephant trainer some day... never let it be said that our family is not creative, imaginative, brave, independent and original! I should have had the ellie bursting OUT of the birthday cake, not stomping in the middle of it, but I hope you get the message, Von-Von, which comes with all our love, thoughts, prayers and best wishes for an amazing and fulfilling adulthood XXXXXOOOOO from Burt, Caff, Dom, Andra and Ali XXXXXOOOOO

(It's also, of course the 90th birthday of our beloved Madiba, Nelson Mandela - a mere 69 years difference - we wish him health, love, peace and happiness too!)

Pet Peeve

Rhonda's pet peeve is clothes that are labelled extra-large
when they were obviously made for a six year old.

Garden

"I beg your pardon, Mrs Arden,
there's a chicken in your garden!"
"Good heavings, only sevings,
I thought there was elevings!"

I've been away for a while, but when I saw the theme for this week, this little ditty that my granny used to say came into my head, so I rushed this off very quickly...

Theory

Rhonda thought that, in theory, she should be able to cross the river using the stepping-stones.

P.S.... As observed in the comment by my sister, Vivienne, I got the idea for this from a visit to Royal Zambezi Lodge, in Zambia, where we were lucky enough to spend a holiday. This photo of the hippos there is currently my wallpaper on my desktop, and was the inspiration for this illustration!

Choose

For Rhonda with a sweet tooth, this is a toughie...

This comes from childhood memories of going to the little corner shop in Cape Town, with two cents or five cents and staring for ages at what seemed like a vast array of difficult choices - though you could get quite a lot for your money (two or four sweets for a cent). In those days there weren't restrictions on colourants or hygienic plastic wrappers on everything, but ah, it was exciting.

Blanket

I'm thinking of trying to make all my Illustration Friday posts feature this little lady - though you can't tell whether it's her in this illustration - and I hope she doesn't have to sleep out on the street.... I prefer to think that she's out camping under the stars here. My sister has named her Rhonda.

Tales and Legends (2)

This is the South African - urban - legend of 'Pinky-Pinky', an evil spirit or 'tokoloshe' believed to lurk in public bathrooms in order to accost and molest young girls. If you're wearing pink underwear you are in particular danger... apparently this entity causes real consternation and hysteria in school restrooms across the country, and is even more of a good reason for girls to go to the loo in pairs...

Tales and Legends

Sometimes things just come together... I had done the watercolour sploshes as a test swatch for some colours I was trying together... then I found a butterfly wing in the garden and put it absentmindedly in my studio - saw it fit the curve on the watercolour, thought about what to do about that - flying/breaking up - Icarus! Tales and Legends! Voila!

Plain last

and then I thought this would be even plainer - OK, I must go and get a life...

Plain

This is my second attempt at this topic - the first wasn't nearly as plain as this - see previous post on how I got here.
P.S. - THEN I had to just do one more - see next post

1st attempt at Plain

I did this one first for the 'Plain' topic... don't know if Claudia Schiffer ever has days like this, but I sure do!...it's not meant to be a self-portrait, but I did have to get reference from the mirror, unfortunately :-(

I had done a little sketch to plan it, and then decided

that it had a really plain and simple quality that

would suit the theme better, and I liked the way

the mirror looks like a 'plain' body - no arms

and legs to clutter it up, so that led to my final

version, which I will post after this...

Stitch

For fun, decided to do an Illustration Friday project for the first time today (though it's a Tuesday - is that OK?). This weeks topic is 'Stitch', and I thought I'd turn the traditionally feminine, delicate art of embroidery into something that looks like hard work by a strong, muscular, butch little lady. She ended up looking quite cute and girly though - and she did put her make-up on! I did the lace by stencilling through a bit of scrap lace with a brush dabbed in some black shoe polish - was quite pleased with the way it came out.