Day 30 - Sarasota squares

I bought these from a little shop in Sarasota, Florida, during a trip I took with my roommate in 2008/2009. We stayed with her uncle, who took us to Sarasota one day.

The rest of the days we spent at Disney World. A friend of ours got us free tickets because he had worked there during a previous summer. Useful person to know! It was my first ever trip to Disney World, as evidenced by my "first visit" badge:

I think I was the oldest person wearing that badge by about 20 years.

But what's the point of going to Disney World if you can't act like a kid? So I did. I even met Bolt and Rhino who were, at the time, my absolute favourite Disney characters. It was FULLY AWESOME, even though the guy in the Rhino suit laughed at me when I high-fived him.

Day 29 - aquamarine drops

This pair was a birthday present from my maternal grandparents many aeons ago. It's simple but pretty and in order to make more out of them, since they are a little on the small side, I wear big hoops with them. That's a trick I use with a lot of my earrings that, like these, are too small to be "real" earrings but that I want to still wear for various sentimental reasons. So I have quite a few plain hoops that I don't wear by themselves but rather use for accenting and accentuating. And it's fun to play mix 'n' match with the various sizes and colours.

Day 28 - candy lightning

Nelis calls these my candy earrings cause he reckons the coloured bits look like sweeties. They’re certainly quite fun and make the obligatory clinking noise when I move my head so they’re proper Kim earrings. 

They made lovely clanking noises today as we headed off in a boat from Hout Bay harbour to look at (and smell) the seals on Duiker Island because a) we hadn't done that in absolute years and b) we had a Brit to look after and needed to show him a proper last day in Cape Town. That was great, until we got a smidge soaked. Or, in David's case, rather a lot more than a smidge. But that's part of the fun of a boat trip, and the beer afterwards at Lookout Deck made up for the knotty hair and chilly wet top. Plus, David's advanced state of moistness gave us the perfect excuse to make him almost a proper tourist at last (we had spent the day unsuccessfully trying to persuade him that it is customary and indeed vital to the economy that all tourists leave SA with a wooden giraffe):

Day 27 - Arabian nights

Another nice tinkly pair, also, I think, from Woolworths. I told you, it used to be a problem.

Day 26 - silver octo-rings

These I definitely got from Woolworths. It used to be a serious problem for me that the Woolies  near where I work had the earrings display set up so that you had to walk past it to get to the food section. Since I generally go in there to buy lunch, this meant that nine times out of ten I’d end up buying a sandwich or salad and a pair of earrings. I swear they just leap off the shelves (wait, earrings aren't on shelves … rails?) into my hands without the intervention of my brain. The earring display has now moved so I instead walk past the shoes on my way to the food, which poses much less of a burden on my bank account, although I admit I own my fair share of Woolies shoes, particularly stacked flip flops and boots.

Day 25 - red thread circles

These are red and round.

Seriously, that's all I got. I cannot recall a single detail about where I got these or when. I have a feeling that this will not turn out to be a unique pair in that regard.

I have a couple of pairs made with thread. It works well as an earring material because it's very light and you can get very pretty patterns quite easily. It does make the earrings slightly delicate, though, so in my "care" they tend to fall apart quite quickly.

Day 24 - Chinatown discs

A pair of Chinatown specials. I love Chinatown - it's like Kim earring central. They have cheap stuff that is generally different and unusual. Without fail when I shop there (usually for "yuck" presents - those secondary presents you give to specifically elicit the reaction "dafuq?" - or bits and pieces for a costume or fancy dress outfit), I invariably find two or three pairs have spontaneously jumped into my hands while I'm in the queue to pay. Luckily, though they usually take up large amounts of my storage space, they tend to only add 15 or 20 bucks to my bill.

Day 23 - sharp shells

Another pair of extreme earrings: these interesting specimens have smacked me in the face numerous times.

I have no idea what these are made of but I can tell you that it's bloody sharp. I know this from experience because I have also cut myself on these. It was my own fault: I did an overly exaggerated *headdesk* in response to something stupid someone else had done and karma, bitch that she is, immediately kicked back by making one of my earrings slice into the top of my ear. Lots of blood and pain. That'll teach me to be dramatic. 

Wait. ... No it won't.

Day 22 - black butterflies

More butterflies! Though slightly less ostentatious than the last pair, perhaps. Wore these to the CATA (that's Cape Amateur Theatre Awards to the uninitiated) tonight where I discovered that there are quite a lot more people interested in which earrings I was wearing than I ever expected. Guess the pressure's on to keep up the blog then.

Day 21 - banana leaves

I bought this pair from a street vendor, I think it was in Camps Bay. They're made from rolled banana leaves, surprisingly enough. Though my vet friend this evening was quick to point out that he's clipped toenails from cats with a similar shape. (You get used to remarks like that when you hang out with vets.) 

I've bought a fair number of things from street vendors over the years, because they often have stuff that is different from what you find in the shops. Especially when it comes to earrings.

Another great purchase, also from a street vendor in Camps Bay, is my Masai women painting, which I bought from a Malawian artist:

I love this painting for many reasons, not least of which is the colouring. And the fact that they kind of look like corkscrews.

Day 20 - tinklies

I love this pair because they make a wonderful tinkling sound when I move my head or get assaulted by Cape Town's incessant wind. They worked particularly well today as we teased my sister who, while trying to change "nod and smile" (a standard reaction in our family to something you either don't understand or don't agree with) to "smile and shake your head", came up with "nod and shake your head". There was a lot of tinkling.

Day 19 - red discs

For my cousin's wedding three years ago (three years, 10 days, to be exact), my aunt drew caricatures of all the guests to use as place tags on the tables. This was me:

I liked the look of those cartoon earrings so much I had to hunt them down. Today's pair was the closest I could find at the time. I think I did pretty well.

Day 18 - illuminati

Another gift pair. (Gosh, do I ever buy my own earrings?) This time from my mum and sister. They're fun and different so of course I like them. And the picture made me giggle. I thought it was sort of crying out for a pair of lips so I spent a good half hour trawling through images of lips, looking for the perfect image. Instead, I started thinking how awesome it would be to have Rocky Horror lips earrings. I'm not the only one who thought that apparently:

I need these.

Day 17 - purple contraptions

These were a gift from my earring enabler, one Cornelis Vaandrager, lately of Nairobi. They’ve been bent out of shape a few times, usually due to being flung into a box for transportation somewhere, but they’re flexible enough to handle it. I tend to wear these very often so it'll be interesting to see what happens later in the challenge when I want to wear them again but, due to the very nature of the challenge, will be unable to. (As a friend mentioned yesterday, the problems I face are not exactly shared by a large proportion of humanity.)

Day 16 - red clanky

As you may have gathered from the title, I like these predominantly because of the fun clanking noise they make. Although the color is good too and the overall shape is quite pleasing. I've even worn these on stage, when I was playing second WI member to the left in CDS's production of Calendar Girls, which we did in November 2012. (Good grief, was it that long ago already?)

Day 15 - African rectangles

I think I got these from my mother. (I get given a lot of earrings by my mother. And my friend Nelis.) These always get a lot of compliments. I like them too because the colours are fun and they go with everything. They're made of wood so they're very light, which means I tend to forget I'm wearing them until they smack me in the face because I flicked my head too dramatically or got disciplined by the Cape Doctor.

Day 14 - waterfalls

I definitely acquired these during the Christmas period last year but I can't now remember if they were a present from Santa or something I "accidentally" bought myself while buying presents for other people (something that happens regularly).

Today they saw the city. Lots of it. From the top of Table Mountain when we went up in the Cableway:

And from the air when I jumped (or, more accurately, walked and then pretended to run even though I was already in the air) off Lion's Head in a tandem paraglide with Fly Cape Town:

Dang, but I do live in a beautiful city.

Day 13 - blue doilies

These are the definitive Kim earrings. 50 shades of blue (OK, that may be a slight exaggeration) and they make a lovely jangly sound when I move my head and when the wind tries to knock me out with them. They almost suffered a casualty today when the bottom doily on one made a break for it while we were wandering through the gardens at Babylonstoren in Stellies (a lovely spot by the way, highly recommended for lunch and a stroll). Luckily my cousin spotted the stray and it was successfully returned to the fold.

Day 12 - Macy's purple

I accidentally stole these from Macy's when I was in the States. I went into Macy's to buy a skirt or something and realised I didn't have any earrings on. Sacrilege. So I picked up this pair, put them on and put the tag into my basket for scanning at the till. I only realised when I got home that when the cashier was ringing up my other purchases, she didn't notice the earring tag and so didn't scan it. Oops.

Day 11 - a side note

I was home sick today with one of my all-too-frequent stomach complaints so I didn't wear any earrings. Instead, I will share a picture of one of my most treasured possessions, in honour of the awesome Terry Pratchett who sadly died this afternoon.

He was one of the greatest writers of all time and will be hugely missed. But at least we still have his books. Which I must now reread for the thirteen thousandth time so I can picture him proceeding along towards Pseudopolis Yard with Sam Vimes, playing Thud with Vetinari or chuckling naughtily with Nanny Ogg as Granny Weatherwax looks on disapprovingly.

SQUEAK.

Day 10 - orbits

As I showed in my first post, I keep most of my earrings on frames that my dad made me. But some don't hang so easily on the mesh, like today's pair: it has butterflies instead of fish hooks and so is kept in a ceramic pot next to my bed. They're an odd pair this one. They certainly confused my colleague, who eventually decided they reminded him of the opening credit sequence from Big Bang Theory.

Well, OK, then.

Day 9 - blue rings

This is one of my all-time favourites. My cousin Tabitha bought these for me a couple of years ago, proving that she certainly understands not only my taste in earrings (big and dangly, in case you were in any doubt), but also my choice of colours. Blue is one my staples (along with purple obviously) and this shade in particular just goes with so much of my wardrobe. This pair is also a firm favourite with my sister, who often borrows it when she visits.

Day 8 - mix 'n' match

Decided to do something a little different today. The partner of the earring on the right has gone the way of all Chardonnay and has completely vanished from my house. Does that mean I stop wearing it?  Perish the thought. I just paired it with another pair which had the added bonus of making the other pair much more interesting as they clacked together with a pleasing chime all day.

Day 7 - spikes!

These are a fun pair. I got these from Santa for Christmas last year. Clearly, he knows my taste well. They're a little dangerous: I have to hold them away from my body when I sneeze so as not to pierce myself in the scapula, which my sister obviously finds highly amusing. But they're different and pretty distinctive so I like them a lot.

Day 6 - blue circles

I love this pair because it’s both simple and yet beautiful. (And, indeed, lethal in a Cape Town windstorm.) I bought these at a stand at Cape to Cuba in Kalk Bay, a wonderful restaurant in fact, if you’ve never been – they do very good cocktails and tapas. I am particularly enamoured of their 

Cuban bread.

Day 5 - Cameroon copper

I went to a drag show with my sister and our friend Wavey Davey in Johannesburg a few years ago and we got to chatting with the performer afterwards. That was when I discovered that I have the same taste in earrings as a drag queen when she complimented me on mine (my Ginger Mary triple discs, which have not yet been showcased in this blog - early days) and I admired her suitably showy monstrosities, which she had got from Cameroon, she said. So I dutifully trundled off to Cameroon (the shop, not the Central African country) and these were the result of that trip.

Day 4 - spotty circles

These were part of a present (can't remember now if it was for a birthday or Christmas) from my friends Penguin and Daddy Bear. But now they will always be remembered as my Eragon earrings, in memory of our German Shepherd, who died today of a burst splenic tumour. It's going to be at least a week before I can say (er even type, apparently) the words "my dog died" without immediately tearing up.

Bye bye, noo noo buggles (Eragon's the one on the right).

Day 3 - butterfly circles

A firm favourite of mine. They often mess with my OCD side since the butterflies insist on being backwards or partly inside and partly outside the circle, but since I can’t generally see them when they’re hanging from my ears, this doesn’t bug me nearly as much as it might. These get regular play, especially when butterflies are predominant in the outfit.

Day 2 - purple/green/red beads

These were a gift from the director of Agatha Christie's The Hollow, which Claremont Dramatic Society produced last year at the Masque Theatre in Muizenberg and for which I was prod sec and stage manager (also called cat herder). They go fabulously well with my rather extensive array of purple SpongeBob SquarePants t-shirts, which is fitting since Liz and I have a running rivalry as to whose cartoon clothing contingent is more impressive.