Day 118 - Mr Price monstrosities

As the title no doubt gives away, I got these from Mr Price (or Monsieur Pricé, if you prefer). I remember the occasion well: I went in because I saw quite a nice jumper that said "Beach please" and I decided I needed to buy it for my sister. I then noticed how long the queue to pay was and was slightly disheartened. But I looked again at the jumper, so obviously destined to belong to my sister, and, though somewhat unsure as to which muscles to tense in order to do it properly, girded my loins to hang about a bit.

As is my custom, I had in my iPod earbuds and was listening to an entertaining audio book (though which one in particular I can't quite recall) so at least I wouldn't be completely bored. After a while, though, my determination to purchase the jumper in the face of the interminably slow-moving queue began to wane and I toyed with the idea of giving up. At this point, the queue wended its plodding way ... hold that thought. For some reason that phrase just reminded me of what the audio book was: "Xenocide" by Orson Scott Card, the third in the Ender Quintet. I think the image of the queue brought to mind the wood grain lines that Han Qing-jao has to trace.

Anyway, back to Mr Price. At this point, the bit of the queue I was standing in wound past the earring display, so naturally I had a glance at the jewellery on offer. Mr Price sometimes has some gems, and this was indeed the case in this, um, case, as evidenced by the image above. This unexpected discovery gave me the patience I needed to make it to the tills and exit the shop triumphant, bearing both the lovely jumper and today's earrings. A most successful expedition.

Day 117 - double hoops

Another pair of hoops that are interesting enough to be worn by themselves. And another Woollies pair I think. I'm pretty sure I've seen them there recently in gold as well but I don't wear a lot of gold so I'll stick to the silver.

These have a different clasp from the usual fish hook, which is also, I discovered today, known as a French hook. Despite my best Googling efforts, I wasn't able to find out why they are so called, which annoys me, Granted, I didn't search so hard that I ever ventured off the first page of search results because, really, who does that? I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that whatever you're looking for will be the top result if you just find the right combination of search terms. It generally works for me, often enough that amongst friends and family I have a reputation for being an uber Googler.

Day 116 - purple waves

I dithered a bit as to whether to call these leaves or waves and eventually plumped for waves for no particular reason. I quite like the shape they make, whatever they're called. And purple is always a winner in my book.

I don't remember the exact shop I got these from but I do know I went in looking for something else entirely and came out both with what I was planning to buy and with a pair of earrings. This happens a lot to me.

Day 115 - blue waterfalls

Ok so it turns out I was wrong in what I said a couple days ago: I do still have some blue earrings I haven't worn. I should probably just stop making sweeping statements about what earrings I still have left because I keep finding ones I realise I haven't blogged yet. I really am enjoying this challenge!

Day 114 - swords

This is a cute little pair. I think I bought a pirate themed pack of earrings once because I have these, some little keys and a pair of skulls with red eyes. Although there the word pair is entirely inaccurate because I only have the one. No idea where its friend has disappeared to.

To make a tenuous connection, which I am fond of doing, these were appropriate for Friday because I went to a cartoon character dress up party and I went as a superhero:

"Bubbles, she brings the joy and the laughter ... PowerPuffs save the day!"

Day 113 - blue chandeliers

I was beginning to be a little sad last week because I'd already worn all of my blue earrings in this challenge. I don't always match my earrings to what I'm wearing but now I wouldn't even have the option. And then my lovely friend bought me this pair. Of course, now I've worn them I'm back to having no blue ones again. Shopping trip required perhaps?

Day 112 - spiderwebs

Ooh, a fun and interesting pair today. These were a present either from my mum or from Santa, almost certainly destined for Hallowe'en. Of course today isn't Hallowe'en or even anywhere near it but I just felt the mood today. One of the spiders did get caught in my neckline though, causing a very ungraceful squeaky manouevre on my part. 

Day 111 - gold chains

I remember that I bought these from Accessorize on the fly one day when I was out shopping and realised I had forgotten my earrings.

Hehe. "On the fly" reminds me:

Day 110 - mini Africas

A lovely patriotic pair today, probably bought at a tourist trap craft market somewhere. I love the shape of the African continent and so I have quite a few ornaments and earrings with the shape. One of my favourites is this funky thing, which was a Christmas present from my grandmother some years ago:

Day 109 - galaxies

I love this pair. I wear them all the time but particularly when I wear my galaxy T-shirt. Now I guess I will have to retire that shirt until the end of the challenge..

Come to think of it, this may not be that much of hassle considering that my galaxy T-shirt really is on its last legs ... I mean arms.

Day 108 - sparkly wings

I bought these specially for the closing night of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I needed something special for that. I have done a number of shows at the Masque (in fact I've just done a tally and come to a total of six casts I've been in and two additional crews I've had a hand in since 2012, soon to be upped by one - stay tuned) and I have to say that this was the best mix of people I've ever worked with. I adore them all and the post-show depression for this one will last a long, long time.

Now am I dead. Now am I fled. My tongue is in the sky!

Day 107 - fairy dream catchers

Friday's earrings. Really I should have worn them on Saturday since that was the closing night of A Midsummer Night's Dream and these are not only dream catchers, but also fairies! 

I've had these for absolute ages and, once again, can't remember at all what their origin is. They may have been a present from my mother or I may have stolen them from her. 

Unsurprisingly, the delicate filigree has not weathered well. This is why I generally go for larger, more robust ear decoration.

Day 106 - Chinatown spiders

Gosh, I am very behind on my earring chronicles. That's what being in a show will do for you.

This is Thursday's pair.

Another Chinatown pair. In fact, this was the first pair of earrings I ever bought from Chinatown. I remember being absolutely thrilled by both their fun sparkliness and their cheapness. Hooray for Chinatown!

Day 105 - Ellie studs

This is a cute pair, and quite fun: the heads are studs and the body is actually the butterfly. I think I'm right in saying that the mother of one of my school friends gave me these. She gave some to my sisters too; I think there was a pair of lions and some zebras.

Day 104 - disco balls

These are actually from yesterday because today was a public holiday so that means I didn't leave the house. Hell, I didn't leave my bed except to move to the couch. That's how public holidays should be. As to the earrings, I'm not sure whether they are from Chinatown or Woolies but I'm pretty sure it's one of those.

Day 103 - black costume

Bit behind with the blog today. This is the weekend's pair. Only one pair for both days because I didn't go to sleep on Saturday at all so the weekend essentially counts as one day.

It's been a while since I pulled an all-nighter but it seemed fitting as we were celebrating the opening weekend of A Midsummer Night's Dream. A very successful opening weekend. The audiences loved us. As I knew they would. The critics loved us too - here's an extract from the False Bay Echo by Lieske Bester:

There’s magic at the Masque where one of the Bard’s best loved works is given a splendid new look which highlights the timelessness and universality of the writing....A Midsummer Night’s Dream is indeed a play about love and dreams and fun, in this case great fun. Directed with a clear vision that is shared by a committed and talented cast and crew, there isn't a false move anywhere. Shakespeare himself would have been proud of the originality of the presentation.

Day 102 - blue frilly

This pair was given to me by a fellow cast member of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Intrigued by my earring quest, she went through her jewellery box and gave me a couple of pairs she thought were Kimmish enough and that she doesn't wear any more. I certainly am not complaining. These actually remind me of a couple of pairs I've already worn in this challenge: they're like a mix between the pink brooches and the blue flowers.

Speaking of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I may have done in passing once or twice in the past few months, tonight is our opening night! I am floating on a cloud of excitement, buoyed up both by the incredible enthusiasm of the cast for this amazing show we know we have created and the overwhelmingly positive reaction from last night's preview audience. Muizenberg, prepare yourself. This is going to be something special.

Day 101 - beach swirls

These are a fun pair. I think of them as my swimming earrings because they're plastic and I don't feel strange wearing them in the pool or, as the title implies, at the beach. Not that I go there a lot. Or even ever actually.

Day 100 - atheist

I bought these at the same time as I got my DNA pair, from the Richard Dawkins Foundation website. I quite like the idea of the whole "proudly atheist" thing that RD is trying to promote, enough to buy the earrings and have the red A sticker on my car (which works so much better now that my car is silver rather than red) at any rate, but generally religion and spiritualism are lost on me. Just don't understand the need. Although I do joke that my religion is wine. Quite an easy religion to follow: just enjoy the grape and occasionally pray (or at least say "Oh gods" a couple of times) if you've overindulged the night before. We do have at least two high festivals: Uncorked and Magic of Bubbles. Both of which I missed last year now I come to think of it. I'm a bad wino ...

Day 99 - peacock feathers

I think I may have got these from a random stall at somewhere like Cape to Cuba again.

I definitely accidentally wore them on stage during our final dress rehearsal tonight. But no one seemed to notice so I guess that's ok then.

Speaking of our final dress rehearsal, it was amazing. I am on stage with the most talented and insane people I have ever met. I love them all.

Day 98 - purple discs

I got these in Thailand when I went there with my sister to celebrate her graduation from vet school. So they got to do all sorts of fun things. Touristy things like a zip line through the trees, parasailing, an elephant ride and the Singapore wheel:

I even got to catch up with an old friend who was working in Malaysia and flew up for the weekend. But the most fun of all was meeting and then hanging out with a huge range and crazy collection of international tourists:

My sister had originally arranged to go with a friend from school but something happened (this was years ago so I'm hazy on the details) which meant her friend couldn't go. So, selfless person that I am, I stepped up and agreed to go to Thailand with her. I'm such a nice sister.

Day 97 - blue diamonds

These were definitely another present from my grandmother. And a familiar diamond shape in a familiar arrangement, although this one goes up to 4, not just 3, and not quite 11.

I had actually been wondering where these were. I did a vague stock take a few weeks ago, trying to work out which earrings I'd worn and which I hadn't and suddenly realised these weren't on the mesh. Which was odd. And I love these so I started to worry. Then the other day we moved into the theatre for the play I'm in that opens next week (A Midsummer Night's Dream; I may have mentioned it a couple times) so I dusted off the old cosmetic bag to transport the reams of stuff you need to be on stage. I hadn't emptied it since the last play I did, which was the end-of-year pantomime the Masque did last year, Once Upon a Time.com. There were four pairs of earrings in there.

I find earrings everywhere it seems. This challenge is so going down!

Day 96 - Harry Potter

OK, obviously these aren't actually Harry Potter. But they are lightning bolts, so I consider them to be my Harry Potter earrings. My nice geeky Harry Potter earrings. Which came in handy this evening since I was going to a geek party:

Day 95 - gold rings

I'm a big fan of these earrings: big and ostentatious, just the way I like 'em, but also light enough to wear for long periods and they make a lovely tinkling sound when I shake my head.

Day 94 - pink feathers

Fairy earrings! Well, in as much as they are similar in feel to the costumes that the fairies wear in A Midsummer Night's Dream. We had a full dress rehearsal tonight and holy crap! This show is b-e-a-Utiful! I don't think I've been in a show before when I've been this excited for an audience. I've been in awesome shows at the Masque (this is my seventh), but there's something special about this one. Next week Friday can't come fast enough.

Day 93 - purple mother of pearl

These are a pretty pair. They go with quite a lot because they are mother of pearl and so have a range of quite different colours in them.

I seem to recall that I got them from a friend in Grahamstown. The same friend who, coincidentally, just sent me this true story:

Day 92 - S fronds

I didn't post these yesterday (a serious slip on my part for which I am so sorry). In my defence, we had our first rehearsal on the stage last night for the seriously stunning show that I am serendipitously a part of: A Midsummer Night's Dream (on at Masque Theatre from 12 to 20 June!).

Here's a sample of the splendid sartorial sights that are in store:

Day 91 - peacocks

I think I also bought these from Cape to Cuba when I bought my blue circles from waaaaay back on Day 6.

Today I was very much wearing them in a vain attempt to pretend that winter has not well and truly arrived in Cape Town. The weather finally forced me to wear long sleeves and closed shoes this morning, which means even I have finally had to admit that the Starks were right all along. I shouldn't really complain (though I will), because it is June. We had an amazingly long Indian summer throughout April and May so we have been very spoiled this year. I can only hope the winter will be a short one and I can be back in shorts and slip slops by September. Wishful thinking.