Day 321 - ice creams

These are just cute. A friend of mine bought them for me from Claire's, which I've mentioned before is a dangerous shop. And not just for me, it turns out!

Day 320 - silver fronds

These are a bit like a showier version of my silver leaf diamond earrings. And they are acceptably tinkly, which is always a good property in a pair of earrings.

They had an interesting evening last night, as did I. We went to drink some wine at my friend's salon, a perfectly normal and acceptable way to spend a Friday night. Because it was somewhat last-minute, another friend was there in a suit, having come straight from work, and was too hot. So we popped into the second-hand shop next door to buy him some shorts. Back at the salon, said friend realised he was still too hot in his shirt so he stole my T-shirt; luckily I had purchased a top at the second-hand shop so I was not wandering around half-naked.

Later, we found ourselves waiting in the car outside a sushi shop for what was admittedly a heck of a lot of sushi, swigging wine from the bottle like the classy people we are, singing loudly to 80s music and dancing out of the sunroof. We got some looks.

Day 319 - moon and stars

This is a pretty pair (if, as a friend pointed out, a little smaller than my usual choices) which, like the pair from day 245, evokes thoughts of Daenerys and Khal Drogo.

Day 318 - guinea fowls

I quite like guinea fowl. To look at, I mean. I've never knowingly eaten one to the best of my knowledge. I have run over one but, in my defence, it ran under the wheel of my car.

Day 317 - nickel squares

Another pair that is almost probably from Chinatown but I could not say that with any level of confidence. They attended a most profitable and, as always, fun rehearsal for my next play tonight. This is going to be fantastic.

As a special treat for blog readers, herewith an exclusive sneak preview of one of the posters (since there are three of us in the play, there will be four posters - one for each actor and the final one with all three), featuring the wickedly talented Faeron Wheeler:

Day 316 - sparkly rings

These are fun. I'm not sure where they came from, though it's likely that it's Chinatown. Quelle surprise.

Day 315 - silver discs

This is a pair that has been around for absolute ages. Probably a Chinatown pair or something similar. I rather startled a friend of mine on Sunday because I wore these to rehearsal but had to take them off because they got caught in my ruff (not a phrase that gets said a lot, I bet). When rehearsal was over though I forgot to put them back on and then arrived at my friend's house, apparently sans earrings. Oh the humanity!

Day 314 - long silver chains

I got these for Christmas from my sister Santa. Well, she clearly has my taste pegged because these are almost identical to a pair I bought for myself, just a different colour.

Day 313 - Chinatown skulls

These must be from Chinatown, but I can't recall exactly. They're very interesting and I like how one of the holes in the diamond bits at the top is filled in. Just odd enough to give someone with pseudo-OCD an eye twitch. Like an out-of-place tile.

Hee hee. I take a sort of macabre sense of pleasure from pictures like this for some reason.

These are an odd pair for me to own though because the skulls on the bottom are like the Ed Hardy "LOVE KILLS SLOWLY" ones and I can't say I've ever really been an Ed Hardy sort of gal. Oh well. Fun in diversity and all that.

Day 312 - purple thread and beads

A happy pair this - purple is always happy - for a much happier day than yesterday. So to celebrate, I shall share some happy news: the nominees for the Cape Amateur Theatre Awards 2015 were released this week and Midsummer Night's Dream (which, you may recall, we put on in June last year) got 10 nominations! Two for artistic contribution (by the choreographer and the lighting designer), costumes (which were spectacular indeed), set design, acting nominations for Hermia and Bottom (most promising newcomer), Hippolyta (cameo appearance), Puck (lead actress) and Lysander (lead actor) and of course it is in the running for best director and best play. Holding thumbs! The awards will be presented on 15 February.

Day 311 - grey thread

Actually these look purple in this photo but they are actually grey. An appropriate colour for me today because I had an angry cloud over my head all day. It started badly with delayed and cancelled trains so the train into town was not only monstrously late but also monstrously full. Not a good way to start the day. And it didn't get any better. Just a horrid day. Not even rehearsal managed to pick me up the way it usually does because the other two hadn't fared much better. Time to drown Tuesday in a glass of wine and go to be I think. Wednesday: be better!

Day 310 - silver wheels

This is another pair that was given to me by a friend because she no longer wears them and she is utterly determined that I must beat this challenge. They're especially cool because the square bits at the bottom are on an axle and so they move, which is a lovely USP for this pair. Different is good!

Day 309 - pink and red circles

I quite like the randomness of the patterns on these. They sort of give the impression that you're looking at a part of a pattern and hint at something rather interesting in the larger picture.

Day 308 - pewter rings

Haven't a clue where I got these, to be honest. They have a homemade and sort of randomly thrown together sort of feel that makes me think it was a craft market somewhere. In fact, looking at them now, I see them as a sort of earring equivalent of a shamble. All they need is some sort of living element. (Or maybe I've just been reading a lot of Tiffany Aching recently.)

Day 307 - glass pendants

These were necklaces that I bought from the glass blowing place at Spice Route in Paarl. They're rather on the heavy side, but that's not usually a problem. On Wednesday, however, they were a bit of a problem as the wind in Cape Town was being a serious bully and tried to beat me up with them.

Day 306 - copper leaves

Oh look, another 1-2-3-4-3-2-1. Hey, if it works, why change it? That's certainly the attitude we're taking with our latest theatrical endeavour: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), which will be presented at the Masque Theatre by Constantiaberg Theatre Players in February this year, starring me (obviously) and two of my very good friends. It will be a hoot!

Day 305 - concentric sparkly rings

These are pretty, but as usual I don't really know where I got them. It's funny, but even though I asserted in my first earring post that I don't really wear gold, it appears that I own and (wear quite often) rather a lot of gold earrings. Or at least earrings that contain some gold.

Day 304 - black lace

A small, simple pair, especially chosen for these properties so that I could rehearse without hurting myself or my costars. When I wore them out later (we went to see a screening of Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet at the National Theatre), I augmented them with an ear cuff.

Day 303 - blue stones

These are quite heft, actually. The butterfly on the one kept trying to escape when I wore them on Saturday, which was hecka annoying. I found it twice, once at karaoke and once at my friend's house, but the third time it came off in the car (or possibly on the way to the car) so it has now gone permanently AWOL. Sigh.

Day 302 - gold knots

I know I bought these through Spree.com. And though I like them, my experience buying them was a little sour.

I had bought something (all right, you got me, it was earrings) through Spree before and the experience had been wonderful. The package arrived at my work mere days after the order had been placed and was exactly what I was expecting and was beautifully packaged. Seamless, stressless, wonderful.

So when I was given a voucher for Spree recently, I merrily skipped off to buy things again, expecting the same service. Instead, this time, I received the email saying "Your package has been delivered" only to find that reception knew nothing of it. So I emailed Spree to enquire "dafuq" (using slightly different phrasing, I'll admit) and was told "the package was delivered to your delivery entrance". My floor has no delivery entrance. In fact, my building has no delivery entrance except for cars. So I politely requested more investigation and in response was sent a scanned copy of the delivery form, signed by an illegible scrawl, and told that my enquiry was considered closed. Gee, thanks for that.

Fortunately, thanks to the combined efforts of an energetic and determined security guard and a super efficient receptionist from the business three floors above me, my package was eventually tracked down and safely delivered to me. Can't say I will be using Spree.com in a hurry again though.

Day 301 - pink and yellow spiders

A zero-to-hero (read: key ring to earring) story. I bought these from the same shop as I got my blue and purple feathers.

I have no problem with spiders. Indeed, sometimes I actually quite like them. Plus it's fun to tease people who are afraid of them. I shouldn't, I know, because a) it's mean and b) they all know what I have a phobia of so it's really only a matter of time before they start trolling me with pictures of frogs.

Day 300 - Chinatown crescents

After the weird salamanders, we return to something more conventional: a pair from Chinatown. I like this pair a lot, not only because they're interesting to look at but also because they make wonderful tinkly noises when I move my head.

Day 299 - salamanders

Yes, those are wobbly plastic lizards hanging from real (reel?) fish hooks. And your point would be? I did warn you (way back in the double digits) that I bought some rather unusual items to turn into earrings.

They did elicit the comment "Kim, those are the weirdest fucking earrings I've ever seen" at work today. To which I have but one response:

Day 298 - big dream catchers

Well, I say "big". What I suppose I mean is "bigger than my other ones". They're not much lighter than those though so I still forget I'm wearing them until the feathers get blown into my mouth.

Day 297 - hoopoes

I've always like hoopoes. They're such distinctive birds.

Today I wore them to watch Singin' in the Rain at the Artscape. I would certainly recommend that show - a thoroughly enjoyable production. Since it is one of my favourite films of all time, I was a little worried that I would be resentful at their changing the film too much - as I tend to get when people adapt or remake any works I like. But my fears were unfounded. In fact, Steven van Wyk as Cosmo Brown was every bit as good as Donald O'Connor, much to my delight.

Day 296 - silver mesh

I finally found a craft shop nearer my house than Canal Walk or Noordhoek recently and they had pre-made earrings on sale along with jump rings and hooks. This is all kinds of good news for me, as this pair of earrings proves.

Day 295 - gold bangles

Happy New Year!

In 2015, every time something happened that made me remember why I love being me, I wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it in a jar.

2015 was a good year! The anecdotes in the jar range from hilarious quotes and YouTube videos to amazing and touching experiences (many of which have been documented on this blog in fact). The common denominator in all of them is the people that made them memorable. I have some incredible people in my life.

Day 294 - daggers

I was looking at my old necklaces the other day and was thinking that it's a bit of a pity that they never see daylight any more since I've stopped wearing them. So I decided it was time I did something with them. The earring on the right is a pendant I used to wear and the one on the left is a decoration I found at a craft shop specifically for the purpose of pairing it with my dagger necklace. So I can wear it again!

Day 293 - pink copper

The final of the three-for-the-price-of-two copper pairs I bought in Kalk Bay last month along with the pair from Day 247 and Day 259. They're quite cute I think, though a little on the small side so I wore them with a pair of big hoops, which turned out to be a tad disastrous. We went for a picnic for lunch in the Company's Garden on what was a scorcher of a day in Cape Town and the hoops got superheated and kept burning my neck. Dangerous earwear.