Exciting News! A selection of my Kat Cameron limited edition signed prints and magnets are now available at Ke-Ai in Johannesburg. The little Asian pop shop is situated in Greenside and well worth a visit, if only to satiate your need for cute. After living in Japan, I know I sometimes need to surround myself in cute stuff, and Ke-Ai is the perfect place to stock up. So on your next foray for a cuppa coffee or nice vegetarian snack, go have a peek at my goodies too.

For all my international readers, Greenside is a lovely leafy neighbourhood in Johannesburg South Africa. Full of cafes, gift shops, parks and other suburban delights, it’s one of the nicer areas to have lunch and explore. If you happen to be planning a trip to South Africa (which you should be doing – on your bucket list NOW!) and are passing through Joburg, go put your feet up and experience the African sun on a terrace while you meet all the friendly inhabitants.

You can find Ke-Ai at 135 Greenway – Greenside – Shop 2, 2193 Johannesburg, South Africa. Hurry while prints and magnets last! :)

On the last weekend I was in South Africa, I was honoured to be a priestess of love (otherwise known as bridesmaid) at my lovely friend Alba’s wedding. We had spent the week before crafting and preparing everything for her wedding bonanza, and had also driven up to the venue. Located in Hartebeespoort, an area north of Johannesburg, bordered on one side by the breathtaking Magaliesberg mountains and the other by the sweeping Hartebeespoort dam, the Red Ivory Lodge was the perfect place for Alba & Mike to get married. I was pretty excited when on driving through the gates we were greeted by the loveliest little bird: the paradise flycatcher. His brilliant plumage of russet and slate blue caught my eye as we drove up into the lodge’s nature reserve.

My photograph at the top, doesn’t really capture the magnificence of this little feathered fellow, but the three illustrations by (1) Dr George Shaw and Frederick Polydore Nodder; (2) Jill Adams and (3) good family friend, artist Duncan Butchart show him at his best.

After the festivities of the wedding day, we retired to the guest lodges for a well deserved nap, and I woke up the next morning to my little blue headed friend chattering away in the tree tops outside my room. I took my coffee outside and tried to get some photographs, but he proved to be rather illusive, and without my sisters telephoto lens, I was out of zoomed in luck.

Just as we were leaving however, we discovered his nest with two baby flycatchers nestled inside. Mr Paradise was clearly keeping an eye on them, and he rightly needed to, as his choice of nest location was rather silly, being very low down near the ground. We were easily able to take these photographs of the two restless babies as they screamed for breakfast!

In South Africa, I made friends with Charlotte my sisters Basset again. It’s so cute how she remembers who I am every time I come home. Running around and howlingbarking, ears flapping and her whole long body bouncing and wiggling. She’s a great, although sometimes a bit stinky, dog. Of course I had to do a doggy portrait of her for my sister, and then was requested by my aunt to draw her dog Phoebe, otherwise known as The Floof who is a sweet little fluffy sausage creature.

I am about to get into another commission of an English Bulldog called Sputnik in a few minutes, and needed to get myself into a doggy frame of mind. If you are interested in a custom pet portrait, here is the breakdown. I also have a few other doggy prints listed on my etsy. Check out the teeny siberian husky and this handsome fella in his blue scarf.

While I was in South Africa, my mom taught me this uber easy bread recipe. I like fast easy stuff to cook/ bake, and the great thing about this bread is that you can be creative with it. Turn it into a cooking science experiment, that way you won’t get bored, and you can amaze your family and friends with your genius kitchen skills! Say hello to Beer bread! Yes it is probably as healthy as it sounds!

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INGREDIENTS:

1 can of your preferred beer
500 grams Self Raising flour *
1 packet of your preferred flavourant (the most obvious choices would be dry brown onion soup; dry pasta cheese sauce; dry mushroom sauce… you get the picture right – we are making a savoury bread, but remember this can be a science experiment. I tried this recipe and used peanut butter and syrup, which was, let’s say: interesting, tasted sort of like premade peanut butter toast…)

METHOD:

Mix your 3 ingredients together in a bowl, put the dough into a greased bread pan or pot and pop in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes between 180 to 200 degrees Centigrade (375F)

Sifting the flour before adding the beer, allows for a less dense final product. Also you can use non alcoholic beer, but you may want to add some yeast. The alcohol should burn off while being baked.

*If you live in a country that doesn’t sell Self Raising flour at the supermarket (like me. What the heck Spain??) You need to add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to every cup of normal flour you use. 125 g equals a normal cup, so for 500grams you will need 8 teaspoons of baking powder. You can also make your own self raising flour with other fancier more complicated methods, like using bicarb and creme of tartar, but then, you know, this recipe is starting to be not so easy and fun any more, I mean who wants to remember more than 3 ingredients? Right!

Oh! Oh! You can be even more of a fancy pants and add a small tin of sweetcorn to your bread mix. The resulting bread makes an awesome snack for a barbecue.

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Adding seeds, onions or olives to the bread mix is also another way of making the bread extra yummy. I added sunflower seeds.

Ta-da happy beer bread! There are about a million beer bread recipes on Google, so if you are looking for other versions, do a little bit of searching online. Happy Baking!

Just loving these crazy African ceramics created by Ardmore Art. They have been around for 25 years, and I have seen their work before, but it was in the airport in South Africa that I chanced upon an interesting collaboration between them and In the Beginning Design Studio. They translated the beautiful illustrations on the ceramics into prints, cushions and scarves, as well as the amazing couch (voted the most beautiful object in South Africa) which caught my eye. Man Alive I want that couch in my house!

I love the illustration style, the exuberance of colour and patterns and how it tells such a colourful story of South Africa. I could lie on that couch and happily dream myself into a Kipling “Just so Story”. Wouldn’t it be the perfect place to read about how the elephant got his trunk or the camel his hump?

In fact, I think I may have to start my apartment design from scratch after seeing this explosion of africaland in a room.

Barcelona dawned sunny but chilly today. I know this because I woke up at about 5am. Last night I slept for about 12 hours in an extended afternoon nap after an EPIC trip back to the city via the airport in Tel Aviv.

The entire transit from South Africa to Barcelona took more than 24 hours, and if you have ever flown to Israel with their airline El Al, you will know that some of that time goes into being questioned thoroughly by their security. El Al pretty much knows my entire life history now. I kid you not, they will ask you the name of your cat! Luckily I didn’t have to go to work today and was able to fall back asleep and eventually got up around 9 to make breakfast for Milos.

It’s nice to be back, I spent the day doing a little bit of unpacking and cleaning, as one does after long periods away, and generally eased back into winter climes and being back in my apartment.

These are photos of a little project I started before I left, which I plan on continuing now that I am back. I saw animals like this made professionally here on random journals in the blogosphere and wanted to re-create some of my own with a minimal price tag. Clearly it’s not as easy as I thought, and I need to figure out the delicate skills involved in making them. But once I do, I plan on using them to decorate my long corridor.

If you guys have the moola, go check out the originals, I think they would make awesome statement pieces.

All I need now is some glitter, more plastic animals and different coloured paint!

It has been quite relaxing here in South Africa. I have been spending time with family, painting and generally pottering around. Since arriving in Johannesburg, things have picked up the pace a bit. I’m struggling to come to terms again with the fact that you have to drive everywhere here. So far I have been able to bribe my sisters into being my chauffeurs which has been great! It has been fun to hang out with them too, and take part in their daily schedules here, which I don’t often get a chance to do.

The weather has been equally weird, actually a little chilly for summer, but it has been great to experience the afternoon thunder showers. I have also had time to admire and get dirty in my moms expanding vegetable patch.

Pulling out carrots is a very satisfying thing to do, as they pop out of the soil so nicely. You will probably only know what I am talking about if you have ever pulled a carrot out. It has been interesting comparing Johannesburg to Barcelona, they are so so different. I have no space for veggie patches, but I can walk everywhere. Perhaps I can make a hanging vegetable garden in my apartment.

It has been super to reconnect with my best friendly face Alba, and I’m looking forward to the epicness that this weekend promises as her wedding approaches. Every time we come back home, we return to her attic studio and craft and make art together, and we slot right back like little jigsaw puzzle pieces. This time we have been putting together details for her ceremony.

We always feel a bit like we have gone back in time, with the same photos in her studio holding testament to a specific time period when we both still lived in Johannesburg. They have not changed since then, and the room has an almost time capsule effect on us. I had the same feeling going through all my old junk in the attic at my parents house, finding hilarious school photos, old boyfriends passports (??) and trying to figure what to throw out.

Seeing all those albums and the school diaries that I used to compile makes me really grateful that I didn’t really grow up on facebook. This blog is probably bad enough. Clearly I haven’t lost my love of documenting everything. I’m pretty sure that rereading these posts in 5 years will make me cringe too, but hopefully it will also bring back fun memories as well! Do you still have attics and basements filled with your old stuff at your parents houses?

I remember when my good friend Thomas Blatcher dropped in to Barcelona to say hi on his way to South America. We chatted in the evening over a glass of beer on the terrace as shouts and music drifted up from the plaza in the neighbourhood. Conversation steered towards his ideas for creating travel documentaries.

True to his word, Walkie Talkie TV was born when he returned to South Africa and filmed his 2 month adventure in Malawi. The documentaries remind me of my shoestring trip there years ago with Milos, highlighting the friendly Malawians, their beautiful country and smiling faces.

The two person Walkie Talkie crew has created, written, filmed and produced a number of shorts and are currently working on making a full length episode. They write, “Our first project is about Malawi, lovingly called “the warm heart of Africa”. Our aim is to produce a bi-lingual (English and Spanish) in-depth look into everyday life of the culture, colour and customs of the Malawian people, as experienced by backpacking travellers.”

Cape Maclear, Malawi from Walkie Talkie on Vimeo.

They are interested in collaborations and sponsorship and I am keen to see what Walkie Talkie produces in the future, perhaps I will see an episode of their adventures on National Geographic one day! Fingers crossed. All the photographs featured here were taken by Thomas or Sofia, and you can see more on their facebook and blog.

I think it’s fantastic that this idea germinated, and I am eagerly awaiting the final episode. It just shows what you can accomplish with hard work and determination. Well done guys, and much luck!

I have recently started a regular custom pet portrait service on my etsy (which is closed now, until I get back to Barcelona) but I did want to share a recent doggie artwork. This is Gertie and Gus, two cute Frenchies, that I wish I could have squeezed in real life!

My portraits are mixed media one of a kind artworks. Each one combines digital, ink, guache, pencil and acrylic paint elements, on textured paper. They are fun to do, as trying to capture the mood and character of the animals is a challenge.

Gertie and Gus look quite handsome, as they wait for their application of paint!

The last few days have been spent blissfully disconnected to the world in Kenton-on-Sea in South Africa. Christmas passed with family and friends, and we have been spending the hours lazing away reading, sunbathing, drawing, painting, taking in the gorgeous views, reconnecting with each other and unwinding.

Kenton is fast becoming a popular hotspot in South Africa, touted in various travel magazines, and so we feel quite priviledged that we discovered this lovely hideaway on the coast before the hordes. New Year brings in multitudes and having a family home to retreat to comes in quite handy. My parents have carved out a beautiful niche for us, with wooden decks to lounge on with views of the river. When we work up the energy we can paddle canoes up with the tides and watch jellyfish float past beneath our paddles.

I have really been enjoying the birds, which are heaps of inspiration for drawing, and fun to stalk with a camera. We are also really lucky in that you can spot so many different kinds of animals and birds on trips up the river where there is a game reserve. This means that you may even see an elephant on the banks while you cruise past.

I have been having too much fun really, which is good because it means I haven’t had too much time to miss Milos who opted to stay in Barcelona to work. His family is celebrating New Year together and his sister is visiting. It will be the first time I have broken our recent tradition of spending NY together :( Oops. Oh well it is quite impossible to be in two places at once.

I hope you are all celebrating, and having fun with your loved ones this December! Stay safe! I will be back to regular posting in early January.