Hoopoe Studio

Time comsuming listing!

2011-10-10T15:21:00.002+02:00

Sometimes I wondered why is it so difficult for me to list an item online? This one took me 2 weeks to finish, I am really not good in words @_@!!! But, I made it in the end. Here is the new listing of my creation.

Fun Making!

2011-08-07T23:52:00.000+02:00

Making terrarium is fun. I have my first succulents terrarium today, and I hope that it will survive since that I don't really have a green thumb. I enjoyed it very much and I would like to make more SOON. ;)

Hidden Jewels

2011-08-06T23:36:00.000+02:00

Today I would like to talk about Gericke's Point. It's a hidden jewels of Garden Route coastline. We went there few days back for the first time, when we had a wonderful warm winter day . What an amazing place!!! We are head over heels in love with the place and swear that we will go back real soon!

The best time to go there is during low tide, interesting 'things' that left behind in the tidal pools, ;) impressive rock formations and some seabirds.

Custom paintings!

2011-08-04T20:33:00.000+02:00

Here comes my custom piece of ostrich egg lamps painting. Thanks to R&A for the opportunity. It gives me ideas of doing something with ostrich egg too. Watch the space ya!

Whaley necklace

2011-07-13T00:07:00.001+02:00

I made this necklace for M. She is my first Etsy buyer. I hope that she will like it ;) Do you like it too?

Meet my new friend

2011-04-24T16:07:00.007+02:00

We have a new friend in the garden lately. An absolutely brave little fellow, not shy at all. After a few days of 'bonding', he/she ate out from my hand ^_^V. I was over the moon, and finally have the chance to snap some photos of the incident.

Arbutus

2011-04-16T16:26:00.000+02:00

A painting for my teacher in Canada. Do you like it in B&W or coloured?

Fishies, fishies

2011-04-02T18:13:00.006+02:00

I doodled these 2 fishes painting a while ago, they were inspired by a good friend of mine. She likes diving and due to some reasons she cant dive for a period of time. I sent one of it to her and kept one for myself ;)

The painting arrived safely and she loves it! Woohoo!! She told me that the painting inspired her to paint again. That's funny, don't you think? She inspired me and now the painting motivate her. :)

I think people needs to have some kind of 'hobby' so that we can escape to our own world by doing the things we like. Okay, I must admit that it's just temporary, but it's better than nothing. Don't you think so?

Sunny, 15 - 25C

I heart ellie

2011-04-01T14:42:00.006+02:00

I always like elephant even before I moved to South Africa. What an amazing animal!

I started to paint this blue ellie in 2010 which I finished this year. I took me a year to finish? Yes indeed, sometimes I have this urges to start a piece of artwork but after a while I have another light bulb blinking for another brilliant piece before I finished the previous one. Hahaha!! I must have a lot of unfinished business in the cupboard or on my table o.O

Cloudy, 15 -22 C

Birdie in my room

2011-03-23T15:49:00.006+02:00

My days with bird... I have painted one to put in a frame that I bought long time ago. Some colours added in the room. ;)

Enjoy the little things, be happy everyone!!!

Sunny, 19-26C

Mr. Lapin

2011-03-05T15:58:00.008+02:00

Here comes Mr. Lapin, the first male (that's not true, the first one is Henk)in my softies family. He has a funny moustache, he loves carrot and cant live without them. The weather is getting colder, I made him a teal check scarf and he is loving it. ^_^V

Sunny, 24 - 32 C

Art House Co-op

2011-02-22T11:22:00.009+02:00

I would like to announce that my sketchbook journal is in Brooklyn, NY now. It will have a book tour across US. I am very glad that my journal can be part of it . ^_^V If you are happen to be in NY, please drop by The Brooklyn Art Library. There are 28839 participants this year, must be amazing to browse all those journals!!

Here are some of the pages that I scanned, I hope you will like it.

Cloudy, 19 - 24C

Hennie

2011-02-19T23:51:00.005+02:00

Few months ago, we had a mountain tortoise wander in our garden. She is smaller than the previous one -- Henk. The dogs found her very interesting especially during the feeding time. ;)

We think that it is a 'she' and we called her Hennie. :D

After a few days of stay here, we brought her down to the valley, so that she could roam freely without our annoying dogs. ;)

I made a mountain tortoise in the remembrance of her.

Cloudy, 20 - 25C

New Member

2011-02-11T15:14:00.005+02:00

A newly added member in my softies family. Ta-da-ta-dang --- Miss Nini.

She likes pink flowers and her precious yellow scarf.

2011 is the rabbit year. I wish her a wonderful year ahead.

You could bring her home from my Etsy shop.

Cloudy, 24-27C

New Year, New WISHes in Klang VALLEY

2011-02-01T14:36:00.010+02:00

Here are some of my handmade stuffs that soon can be found at Wish Valley in Malaysia.

Sunny, 25-30 C

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-19T01:57:00.005+02:00

Ah Hem, It's a bit late to wish everyone Happy New Year but I insist to do so anyway ;)

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2011.

Sunny, 17C - 28 C

PRETTY occupied

2010-11-10T21:26:00.006+02:00

Things that I made lately. Phew!!! I would like more!!!!

Sunny, 14°C - 20°C

Proudly JenLeigh :p

2010-09-12T14:30:00.005+02:00

I made this small purse that is suitable for coins, notes and cards. I am very proud of myself. ^^V

Do you like it too?

Quiche, oh lekker quiche!!

2010-09-11T15:57:00.007+02:00

Courgette and smoked chicken quiche. Yum yum!!

1 ready rolled puff pastry
2 ts breadcrumbs
250g smoked chicken, cut into cubes
500g courgette, sliced
100g bacon, cut into cubes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 ts dried Italian herbs
50 g butter
100g grated cheese ( I used cheddar)
salt & pepper to taste
1 egg
100ml fresh cream / double cream

1. Roll out the pastry and fit into a 28 cm pie plate or quiche pan. Cut off the excess pastry with a knife. Prick pastry with a fork. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and refrigerate for later use.

2. Fried courgette with half of the butter and Italian herbs for 5 - 10 mins or until soft. Pour them out on kitchen paper to dry.

3. Fried bacon with butter until they are light brown. Add chopped onion, fried until soft about 3 min. Add in chopped garlic and smoked chicken, fried for another 2 mins. Add the cooked courgette and fried for 3 - 5 mins. Add salt and pepper to taste. Finally add in 80g of grated cheese. Let the mixture to cool.

4. Whisk together the egg and cream. Put the courgette and chicken mixture into the pie plate. Pour the egg and cream into it as well. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on it.

5. Bake at 200 °C for about 35 - 40 mins, or until quiche filling is set and lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Snowy Snowy Days!

2010-07-14T22:09:00.006+02:00

There is snow on the mountain top for the last few days. You will not normally link South Africa with snow especially in the Soutern Cape area.

Finally I have the proof.

Sunny, 8°C - 19°C

Veggie Day

2010-02-03T04:08:00.007+02:00

I love the fruits and veggies in Malaysia, not only they taste good, they are cheap as well. I happened to have the chance to browse through the hypermarket in Shah Alam. I would like to share them with you.

Sunny, 30 °C - 32 °C

3 things before Christmas

2009-12-23T15:03:00.007+02:00

First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone that I am missing in action again. Been really busy and hectic here, in and out hospital all the time.

Secondly, we would like to say sorry to T, T gave birth to a baby girl last October. Due to the hectic situation here, we still have not send her the card and little something yet. To T, here is the little hint of our little something. ;) Hope that she will like it. And I promise that we will send them out as soon as possible.

The third thing is we would like to wish everybody a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Sunny, cloudy and drizzling 16°C - 30°C

Oops!

2009-11-22T22:46:00.005+02:00

It's my bad again. Here is some updates of what I did for the past few days. My sewing project occupied most of my time, but I enjoyed them a lot!

Cerda also helped while I took the pictures. She was good and I snapped some photos while she was not aware (she do not really likes camera :p).

Cloudy, 12 °C - 19 °C

Update!

2009-11-13T23:54:00.005+02:00

I spent 4 days finish this embroidery portrait of Cerda. The sewing surface is about ø 5.5cm. What do you think? It is pretty cool right?

After that, I started with carving. Making stamp is one of my new interest recently.

Cloudy, 11 °C - 19 °C

3 Handmade Thingies!

2009-11-07T21:56:00.007+02:00

These are the 3 thingies that I made in the last 3 days. I am very content with them. I like to make small thingies. No large canvas or anything big at the moment. Small and petite, that is what I would like to make. P always say, "small Chinese girl likes to make small thing(ie)s." I enjoyed them a lot. Do you?

Sunny, 13 °C - 20 °C

Positive caffeine influence!

2009-11-01T22:21:00.010+02:00

Today is a photography frenzy day for me. Walked around the garden and started to snap photos. I do not know whether my "non-stop" action today was caused by my caffeine intake, but I enjoyed it very much.

Besides that, I also finished my lavender pouch for our car and a few sewing pins. It was such a fun to make them.

Cloudy, windy 13 °C - 20 °C

Tribute to Henk

2009-10-18T09:52:00.008+02:00

I made this tortoise softie few weeks ago. Due to the hectic situation at home, I have been away from the blog a little too long. The tortoise is a tribute to Henk. We did not see Henk anymore in the garden, most probably Henk went to the valley.

Sunny, 15 °C - 22 °C

Proud ^_^V

2009-10-01T00:22:00.005+02:00

I finally finished the swan. I started the project in the end of June, soon after that it was hectic around the house. Yesterday I was looking for some fabric and yet I found the swan -- the blank one. Now it is a flying colour end product. I am very please with her. Hope that you will enjoy her as much as I am. Cheers!!!

Sunny, windy, rainy 12 °C - 20 °C

Hello!

2009-09-22T19:31:00.005+02:00

Hi everyone, I am back. Although I did not go anywhere else but staying in Hoekwil all these time, I am still guilty as charge that I did not blog for quite awhile(a long while).

I did something interesting yesterday. Due to the blog that I followed, there is a party of 3x3 going on in the blog world. Okay let me explain, I followed Geninne's Art blog, she is contributing a small painting to 3x3 which belonged to a talented artist called Gustavo Aimar for his blog's 3rd anniversary. So I decided to participate too, and I painted 3 pieces which in the end I will only submit 1.

Could you guess which 1 that I am going to submit? ;)

Sunny, windy and cloudy, 11ºC - 18ºC

Henk

2009-09-03T22:39:00.008+02:00

A special friend visited us today. We heard a cracking sound and the dogs were barking. At first we thought that they were playing and I looked at them, all in a sudden, I asked P, what was the thing behind Cherda? Looks like a tortoise. P went to have a look and said, get the camera, it's a tortoise. A real big one. I rushed into the house and got the camera. Passed the cam to P and told him that I am going to get some veggies for it to munch.

The dogs were put inside the house and we started to snap photos, but the batteries did not last very long, chaotic by then, cannot find new rechargeable batt. Sooooo frustrated! We fed the tortoise some water, it seems like it's very thirsty. It drank 4 bowls of water. We measured the tortoise and it's 61cm (only the shell). Later we found out that it is a Mountain Tortoise or Leopard Tortoise and it's the largest among the southern African tortoises. We were so lucky to see one today.

I finished my 8th edition prints today. It's a fruitful day for me. ;)

Sunny, 14 ºC - 26 ºC

BdayS

2009-08-19T16:15:00.007+02:00

Today is my bday and also Sarie and not to forget Lea. So three of us have the same birthday but in different years. The weather is bad, rainy and windy :( stayed in the house the whole day. We didn't have a big party, just a small "lekker" lunch at home. I chatted with my mum and sis via skype the whole morning and finally "meet" my sister's boyfriend SK. I like him so far... :p

Sarie is behaving strange today, she clapped her teeth very often like something major is happening. She has this behaviour when the family members are sneezing or when she feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was caused by the strong wind against the house that sounded like thunder. We tried to pet her and comfort her as much as possible. She is still a sweetheart to us. ;)

We had a nice dinner, lamb with garlic and black olive, pan-fried baby potatoes and green beans with onion and chorizo. Yum yum!!!

Drizzling, windy, 8 °C - 10 °C

Weather Talk

2009-08-14T21:32:00.007+02:00

The sun is shinning today, how remarkably the ray of sun can make people feel GOOD! Never noticed that before when I lived in Malaysia. I DON'T sit under the sun, NEVER! People will say that you are crazy if you are sitting under the sun. The temperature there is about 30 °C all year round, and it hurts if you stand in the sun for too long. At least it happened to me ;) I am a puss if it comes to warmth/heat! After moving here, weather became one of our conversation topic with others. At the beginning, it's very weird to me when people start to talk about weather. From where I came from, it's the same all year round just occasionally rains. But now everything matters because it can change just like that. Now weather have a big contribution to my mood of my day!

Sunny, 9 °C - 20 °C

Good? or Bad?

2009-08-13T22:43:00.007+02:00

These 2 days are incredibly cold here, especially the wind. So I stayed inside the house most of the time, which is good for me. My paintings are in better progress since few weeks back of moving and cleaning and rearranging and etc! Oh, you can get nice pictures from bad weather too! Don't you think so?

Cloudy, 9 °C - 16 °C

Fiscal

2009-08-09T22:20:00.003+02:00

I had a close encounter with the Fiscals today. They allowed me to come very close and of course I took the chance to snap, snap snap!!! Here are some of the results. Enjoy!

Sunny 10 °C - 19 °C

My Dearest

2009-08-07T15:53:00.008+02:00

I had a long chat with my mum today, about 2 hours, thanks to Skype. It's really nice to hear her voice again. I am always a major weeper, can weep from everything. As you may guess, this time is not an exception as well. I weep when we talked about certain issue of life or people. I wish that I can fly home and give my family a hug or even better a lot of hugs. I miss them a lot and they are always so dear to my heart.

Sunny, 10 °C - 19 °C

Good Decision

2009-08-05T23:32:00.006+02:00

Just another normal clearing and cleaning day for us but not until around 3pm, we decided to go to the beach. Since that the coast is close-by, it's no time for us to reach there. We got the keys and camera, off we go and snap, snap, snap!!! Here are the results! Oh, before we reach the beach, we had a little stop at a lake view point. Of course, snap, snap, snap too. ;) Just a 30 mins of "outing", really helps with our mood throughout the night. Good Decision!

Ooh!, nearly forget to mention, we saw the first whale for this season. How excited to see one today, unfortunately it's too far away. Could not catch it in the photo. :( But I am VERY glad that we saw one today, with the fin up above the water.

Sunny, 13 °C - 23 °C

ooowl

2009-08-02T22:14:00.005+02:00

This blog is suppose to be a journal of my handcraft projects. But I don't have enough time to complete any of them. I had some sewing projects which i did during the last few months. Will catch-up soon when I have my desk back to work on. It's a mess at this moment, full of papers and boxes to sort out. :(

Sunny, °C - 24°C

:O

2009-08-01T21:40:00.007+02:00

OOOOH, it's been a while since I blogged. It has been hectic over here. Busy moving and unpacking boxes. Nothing new about these few days! BUT....

We were shock that our beloved Sarie was missing. We thought that we looked all the rooms and meadow, but there is no Sarie to be found. So we decided to drive around the area to look for her with 2 cars, but no luck! After the search we tried to look at the meadow again, then we found her in a storage room which we forgot to overlook. Thank goodness that she is safe and sound. How glad that we found her. She is a quiet dog "sometimes" ;) but she could have bark when we call her name. Anyway, she is safe. Love her a million!!!

Sunny, 8°C - 15°C

Proof

2009-07-24T20:54:00.003+02:00

I finally got the proof of birds landing on my palm... It's amazing, they waited in the rain for me to get the cheese and just confidently eating it out from my hand. Really wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!!!

Cloudy, 6.5 °C - 12 °C

Rain Rain Rain

2009-07-22T21:04:00.006+02:00

Today's weather is not lekker!!! Cold, rainy and windy... Okay, okay, I know that it's winter now. But everyone needs the sunshine and warmth too, just for a very short moment will be fine as well. Not like today's weather, wet and cold the whole day and even now, the wind still going strong. Weather like this makes me fat too... hahaha!! One more reason to eat chocolate/sweets because they made me WARMER!! ^^V Hmm.. that's not totally right, I drank more hot tea in this kind of weather as well. So, can't blame the weather.

Rainy 9 °C - 15 °C

BIRDday

2009-07-21T23:52:00.004+02:00

We got a visit by an Black-headed Oriole today. It sang so hard to attract our attention.

Before that we fed a bunch of "cheese birds" (Drongo, Bulbul, Weaver and Fiscal) in Wilderness with cheese of course. The Drongo stood on my palm and calmly pick the tiny cheese cube one at the time. AMAZING!!!

Sunny, Cloudy 14 °C - 20 °C

"Bambi"

2009-07-19T23:45:00.005+02:00

We were so lucky for the past 2 days, we saw a small deer. We think that it's a "duiker" in Afrikaans next to the road at the same spot. She looks so calm and lovely, like in "Bambi". Sorry for the photos, not very clear, it's pretty dark there!

Sunny, 13 °C -18 °C

Busy

2009-07-18T20:27:00.003+02:00

I left the blog for too long, it's the time to do some catch up! Being sick for a few days and after that we have to move from upstairs to downstairs. The whole renovation is kind of headache. Especially in this beautiful country. I am not saying that it doesn't happen in other countries, don't get me wrong. It's just the way people dealing with things here are different. Anyway, there are a lot of things to unpack and sort-out. Maybe it's a good way to practice "sell unwanted goods", "donation", "recycle", "upcycle" and etc!!! Can't wait @~@!! That will be my weekend task, hmm... maybe the coming weeks too. How will your weekend be? No matter what it will be, ENJOY!!! I "certainly" will!

Sunny 11 °C - 15 °C

Sad

2009-07-12T22:38:00.007+02:00

I am under the weather. Felt like shit yesterday and coughing is getting worse today.. Wanted to share with you some photos that I took before I were sick. That's about 48 hours ago. Enjoy! Signing off and snore(ry) night... Sorry my dear!! ~.~"

Sunny, Cloudy and Rainy 14 °C - 21 °C

Unique Place

2009-07-07T22:05:00.013+02:00

Hoekwil is a very unique place. She surrounded by a series of mountains and facing sea at the same time, that's really magical. You will never get bored looking at the views, they changed frequently. Although the people who live here are not very sociable. Hmm... it's not that they are not friendly just a bit distance. It happens in every country, don't they?? I guess sometimes we are all just being a little bit over critical.

Snapped a few photos of the winter sky today. That's one of the magnificent things about this country. BEAUTIFUL sky that you will die for. Life is short, sometimes small little things can make us feel happy/ content. We need to enjoy as much as we can. Cheers everyone!!!

Sunny, 9 °C - 15 °C

Content Day

2009-07-03T22:31:00.010+02:00

Busy, Busy, Busy... I were a busy bee today. Went to the framer, the paper shop, the printer and I got a present for my love one. I hope that it was a good pick! I didn't see my friends today, went out the whole morning and afternoon. Luckily I have their photos, enjoy!!!

Met a very nice lady at the paper shop, she likes my hand-painted prints and I got some very nice scrap paper for free! ^.^V It's always good to meet new people. Talking about good people, today we found out that our friends have sold their shop. It's a mix emotion for us, we were happy for them that they finally found a buyer and sad that we will see them less. We are quite certain that the atmosphere of the shop will be different. We will have to wait and see.

I am very tempted to open an etsy account today, but I didn't do it in the end because I think that I should have some "stocks" first. Hope to grow few more hands so that I could have all the things done in the same time....

Okay, now about the weather. Bad! Bad! Bad! @~@lll Grey and rainy and COLD! Hopefully we will have a better one tomorrow. Have a nice weekend everyone!!!

Rain, wind 9 °C - 14 °C

Lekker Dag

2009-07-02T22:46:00.010+02:00

I reached my goal!! yahoo!!! I finished the total 6 prints that I said that I would like to finish this week.

For the bonus, the weather is extremely nice today. Few days of cold weather and this morning the wind was blowing (again) and we thought that, oh no! another bad weather. Surprisingly, the wind was warm. All the birdies had a bad flying day because the wind was so strong that made them cant fly properly and our little friends "Petronia" had to duck their heads so that the wind wont blow them away. Really in love with those birds!!!!

Sunny, Warm North Wind 14 °C - 25 °C

Soooo COLD!!

2009-06-27T22:07:00.011+02:00

It's been 2 days I didnt post here. Just a little bit update on the weather, it was bad... really bad on 25.06.09. The day temperature was only 6 °C and during the night it's about 9 °C (Hmm... it sounded abit exaggerate, but the day temperature was really unbearable). I never felt that cold in the 4 years I lived here. Wearing glove dont even help me in warming up my hand, eventually I stop painting on that day.

I started my soft toy project, intended to make a goose but the end product looks more like a swan. Still have alot more to do on it. Looked into the woven label maker in SA and other countries. Hopefully will get some replies soon.

Sunny today and chatting with the birdies in the garden. They had some bad times during the past few days, too windy for them too. Hopefully they ate enough today.

Sunny, 8.5 °C - 14 °C

Yeah! Yeah!

2009-06-24T23:41:00.006+02:00

Hooray! hooray!!! I finished 3 of my prints--- my Gold edition. And had a brief start on the 4th one...

But the not very nice thing is the weather. It's extremely windy today and rain. Extremely cold, the house is under construction, so there are windows and doors open all the time. By the way, houses in SA do not have central-heating, mainly fire place or portable heater. Some fancy houses have floor heating. But I think it's not very good for the environment.

I wore glove to paint today, never imagine that I will need to wear glove in Africa ;) and had a cup of hot tea, made with love by someone special... ^__^ V

It's getting late and the wind is still blowing hard, sometimes I felt that the roof will be blow down by the wind. Can you imagine the wind blow through the roof tiles and make alot of noise like what you see on cartoon. Tiles fly up and goes down every time the wind blows. Hmm... not that dramatic, I supposed!! Just enough to make my imagination runs wild.

Rain, windy 10 °C - 14.5 °C

Good Day

2009-06-22T21:29:00.008+02:00

Today is quite a productive day for me because I managed to finish quite abit of my print. My goal is to finish 2 sets of 3 prints by next week... It's abit ambitious, i know. But it has to be done. All the best to me ;)

Cloudy and drizzly 12.5 °C - 19 °C

Official Introduction

2009-06-21T01:02:00.011+02:00

My name is Jen Leigh, originally from Malaysia and lived in South Africa for 4 years. Live in Hoekwil, a rural setting village with friendly people. There are a few interesting things in SA that I love, the sky, the nature and animals. I never thought that I would have the chance to see animals in such a close distance. Like today, I found 2 little sparrows/petronia (we guess) picking seeds that we prepared for them. Just calmly picking while I walked close and let me took their pictures...

Later at night we saw a small deer at the side of the road, the bokkie just stood still and let us look at it. What a wonderful feelings! By the way, deer is called bokkie here in SA.

Cloudy, 17 °C / Thunder, 14 °C

Hello there!!

2009-06-19T14:06:00.013+02:00

Finally, the time is here to do something right for myself. Dreamed of having my own blog for quite some time, but always have excuses. Today, I am officially greeting everybody here and welcome to my blog.

This is my new friend -- Xim, I finished the last stich 2 days back. Yesterday we went for a photoshoot, and he was supposed to meet u guys by then. But I accidently deleted all the photos :( . Anyway we had fun today by taking another photo session with other friends as well. He is the funky one among the rest of the group because of his orange retro print.

Sunny, 22 °C, North warm wind