And we're back

Back to the snow and gloomy days that is, but it doesn't matter, 4 weeks in the South Africa sun was bliss.

Christmas with the family, sunshine galore, food, food and more food - all the ingredients for a great holiday.

This being but a small sampling of the vast amount of calories we consumed. Hmmm, I love holidays!

Actually we have been back for nearly 3 weeks, but it sort of takes me that long just to get back into the swing of things. Call me lazy, but I am always very reluctant to let go of holiday mode.

But ... the real world beckons once again.

My craft room is great, although there are still a few little things to get sorted out, it is pretty much up and running. Having reduced the space I have with adding a bed, everything is now functioning on a reach and grab basis. Standing in the middle of the floor I can almost reach everyhing, yeah, that works for me. I will share some pictures soon.

At the moment I am working on a project using the SU butterfly punch and stamp set for Craft Stamper, am loving that set, but no pictures to share .... however

I am big on finding inspiration all around. Magazines, shop fronts, clothes etc., all potential inspiration of course. South Africa is also so different from the UK, so whenever I go I snap loads of pictures of anything I find vaguely interesting ... you never know when a colour combo will come in handy or when african masks might become trendy ... so into the void of my computer photo album they all go.

Here are some shots from Johannesburg airport - they have such cool little ethnic shops there, check these out.

A bit disturbing, I'll give you that. But his entire face is made of beads - loving those faint red stripes with the yellow and blues.

Some very colourful crockery, and a few cool handbags below.

Love the black and white detail with the ochre on this table runner.

Ahh, always my favourite, beaded creatures. I am not sur what these are, trendy llamas or something, but they were just great.

And lastly these placemats - they have little beaded details sewn into them. Those squares and circles are made of seed beads - so easy to do but so striking and different. I think my IKEA placemats need a make-over.