I admit my recent blogging history has been a little strange. After 4 years of never taking more than a week off – even when on holiday, and even when sick – the last three and a half years have been riddled with random weeks or longer of absence. I’ve tried tighter schedules and more […]
My little obsession with Dragon Age and the world of Thedas has never been a secret, nor has my adoration for the roguish dwarf, Varric. Maybe I love him the most because Varric and I are both storytellers, super loyal, and empaths. It’s likely just the chest hair though. 😛 If you’ve ever played Dragon […]
Quick fact – the average horse and the average person travel about the same distance per day. As in, giving your hero a horse may not actually bring them to the epic battle faster than they’d have gotten there on foot. No, I didn’t make that up. Hollywood, gaming houses, and presses tell us otherwise, […]
If you’re here for the first time, I’ve been writing a series of posts on the body language of various emotions, so authors have a quick reference when they get stuck writing diverse characters. It’s so easy to fall into the same old repetitive action tags. I can’t tell you how many times I used […]
I turned over in bed somewhere around 2 am, and realised July is almost over. Where has this year even gone? I’d planned to do an update for you, 6 months after my Hello 2018 post, but missed it. Meh. Life. Better late than never, right? Right? Let’s get to it. The first point on […]
One night, my husband reaches for the remote. He browses the selection on Netflix without any real conviction. You know what I mean – the stereotypical man-with-remote-thing. He stops on Longmire. A cowboy who’s also a sheriff. Fantastic. I send up a silent prayer of please, not this, but he selects it and the show […]
To be exact, we hit the nine-month mark last Thursday. It’s the strangest feeling, looking at the calendar and realising how long we’ve lived in Canada. I can still recall the exact mix of excitement and grief when we had to say goodbye to our loved ones at Düsseldorf airport, then board the plane to […]
From a fright when the spider lands on your arm, to being scared of the weird guy on the blind date, to full-blown terror when a dragon sticks its head out of the cave and you left your sword at home, fear is one of the most complex emotions that we’ve all had to deal […]
This tutorial is brought to you by request. 🙂 I love interacting with you, so please keep them coming! This is a super easy tutorial. This project took me about an hour to complete from start to finish, with interruptions from the kid of the house. You can also check out my bird tutorial here! […]
I’ve never done a post discussing what this book is actually about, and I honestly don’t know how that’s happened. So, considering I’ve completed the final round of edits and the novel is out of my hands again (WHOOOOOHOOOOO) I thought I’d break down the story for you. I’m not particularly skilled when it comes […]
Welcome to part three of the Writing Emotions series! You can check out the others here, and come back in two weeks for the next part. Today we’re chatting about nervousness and excitement. Since these amount to the same thing in terms of body language, I figured I’d group them. Of course, there are some […]
Let’s keep chatting about the differences between the cities where we’ve lived today. If you want to go back to the post that started it all, click here. Okay. Shopping in Johannesburg is simple. The shoppers are mostly laid back and the cashiers are friendly. There’s no rush either. People wait in line patiently and […]
Folks, it’s that time again for me – editing. As you can imagine, I’m pretty much consumed by fixing my novel at this stage. Where everything else is concerned, this meme has me covered. Still, I must take a break from accepting changes now and then, so here we are. I haven’t done one of […]
I’ve never done a drawing tutorial, so this is scary. 🙂 Still, it’s been requested a time or two and I figured there’s nothing lost in trying. I chose small birds for this tutorial since they’re SO EASY to master, both in terms of drawing and painting. So yes, I’m totally saying this is a […]
Picking up from where we left off, we’re talking about sadness or grief today. The topic was suggested to me by someone in the writing group I belong to on Facebook. Love was also suggested and I’ll definitely delve into that one, but I think it might need to be spread over more than one […]
If you know me at all, you know what an enormous geek I am. And just the slightest bit addicted to the Dragon Age games and the world of Thedas. So you can imagine the euphoric and awed state I entered when my husband gave me this book for my birthday. “A book about a […]
The greatest of all the FAQ’s we are asked remains ‘what’s different?’, especially now that we’ve lived on three continents. The short answer is a lot, but that doesn’t seem to cut it with the asker. 🙂 So, I’ll do a series of posts that look at these differences in depth. Please do keep in […]
Friends. Writing is difficult. Especially emotions, which are the slightest bit important to make your characters come alive. At first, you really try to have your cast do interesting things, show interesting body language and have interesting expressions. But then, you slip into that easy repetition. He gave a look. She nodded. They shrugged. Or […]
This was such a fun little project, especially after about two weeks with a stiff wrist that demanded I let my art supplies gather dust. It’s nothing serious, please don’t worry. Just an old injury acting up. I wanted to try something with mixed media this time, so I used watercolours (I picked up a […]
As someone who’s spoken to her fair share of therapists, you’d think I remember how important exercise can be for mental health. You’d think, but you’d be wrong. I mean, in theory, I know. Of course I do. But I’ve never really done the recommended exercise. I’m a butt-in-chair kind of person. 🙂 Lately though, […]
I’m currently in this phase where I’m rewatching old series, reading books from before I was born and playing or replaying some older games. One of these games was Mark of the Ninja, by Klei. The game came out in 2012, but is still better than some of the new games out there. Yes, I […]
It’s been a hot minute, I know. I fully intended to blog at you last week, but then the plague struck again. I tell you, we’ve been sick at least once a month since we arrived in Canada, lucky us. More on this in another post, though. I used the time away from the blog […]
Hi folks. I missed a couple of posts last week, but that’s because I’ve been working hard on ideas for the blog behind the scenes. From next week, things might be a little different here. I’ll see if I can put everything together before then, but will do an update post at the start of […]
It’s official, we’ve experienced another first on our journey. Last night, we had no electricity due to the insane storm that has been raging here in the north since Thursday. Ice rain, friends, is a bitch. If those of you back in sunny South Africa thought the worst thing that can possibly happen in Canada […]
Friends, I finished this series in a week. I can’t begin to explain to you how obsessed I am, but if it’s any indication, I’m listening to the soundtrack on Spotify as we speak and my Amazon search history will show you I’ve been trying to find the novel in English. You can read it […]
It’s so surreal, but this is my seventh year of blogging. Writing my thoughts and publishing them on the internet has always been strange, but stranger still is the fact that people read them. I’ve mentioned a bunch of times that I don’t always know what to write about. That’s been happening more frequently lately. […]
I’m always the slightest bit late with my favourites post, so that title should have been March Favourites, but I missed the deadline. It’s time to schedule these things, I know. 😛 I’ve been revising again, folks. Scatterbrained isn’t a strong enough word. Anyway, let’s get right to it. I’m currently reading two books, both […]
Living in Canada means loads of snow and maple syrup. As a self-proclaimed right of passage in our journey to become Canadian citizens, we figured it was a must to visit a maple farm and witness the process of making maple syrup. We’ve seen it a time or two on TV shows, but the actual […]
It’s been just over two months since I announced on the blog I’d be taking some time away from social media. In reality, I’d been avoiding those platforms for a while longer than the official post date, probably since around December. A friend of mine did something similar a few years back, only she wanted […]
In moments when my anxiety runs away with me, I often reach for my art supplies. There’s something super soothing about the way watercolours flow and blend together. No? Maybe it’s just me. I also find that in these anxious moments, I paint forests. Don’t ask me why. I really have no specific answer for […]
I’ve tried to chronicle everything throughout this double immigration journey, more so this time around than the first. Being vulnerable on the internet is difficult, but in the name of helping other immigrants through their journey, I felt I had to make myself just that – vulnerable. As a result, you might have noticed many of […]
I mentioned in another post that I was rewatching The Office. I’ve been finished with that for a few weeks and now I can’t stop thinking about it. I find myself looking at behind the scenes videos of the show on YouTube, and laughing so hard at all of the memes. I remember watching the […]
It’s no secret that Kayla is a serious lover of creepies and crawlies. Her perfect day involves crocodiles and spiders, so we figured we’d deliver. The Reptilia Zoo in Vaughn caught our attention last year, but we haven’t had a free moment to go – until last weekend. As you can imagine, we had one […]
We’re back to reality today, after a week-long break (if it can be called that, considering we were so sick we could barely move). Kayla’s been dropped off at school, which means it’s back to work for me too after a mini-break from writing. Well, writing The Physician’s Apprentice anyway – I’ve been sporadically working […]
I just wanted to pop in and say I won’t be around this week. Since it’s March break here in Toronto, I thought I’d spend the week with Kayla. So, I’ll see you again with regular updates next week. Have a good one, Yolandie
Not to give away my thoughts on the novel in the opening sentence of the blog post or anything, but wow, what a read this was. Having said that, I didn’t understand the hype around this novel until I’d read over a hundred pages. Before we get to that, though, a quick summary of the […]
This Wednesday edition of Maple Mondays is brought to you by a broken router. Being without internet in this day and age is a form of torture, I’m certain. First world problems and all that, but seriously, the internet has become such an important part of my work and daily life. Being cut off from it […]
Hang around writer’s forums long enough and you’ll soon see that there are many fake service providers out there. People who claim they’ll help you polish your manuscript before the world sees it, but then disappear with your cash. And since so many people are self-publishing these days, the demand for indie service providers is […]
As you can probably guess from the title, we saw some cars the other day. And rightly so, considering I share a house with two major auto enthusiasts. Kayla’s one big dream for the day was to see a real racecar, while Jan wanted to check out all the American cars we don’t usually get […]
It’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged about what’s currently on my reading, watching and listening to lists. Since I’ve been a little absent from the internet in general and took some time off last week, I figured this would be a good post to help me ease back into blogging. So let’s […]
When looking through my watercolour journal, I realised two things: trees remain my favourite thing to paint, and the theme so far is somehow season-related. Totally unplanned, but the pages transition from autumn to winter. More on this later. Since I so love forests and trees, I figured I could show you how I like […]
This never gets old. If you, like my little family, have immigrated, or are planning to, brace yourself. Winter is coming, as are the questions about it. Moving to a country with a radically different climate from your home country is always interesting. I say interesting, because there’s something magical but challenging about the whole […]
I mentioned on Monday that we went sledding for the first time. Loads. Of. Fun. I never imagined I’d like it, I’m not a very sporty person, but I’m excited for when we go again. 🙂 And if I’m excited, you can imagine what’s going on in the Kayla’s mind. She had an absolute blast, […]
You know what I mean. That so-out-of-my-depth feeling that hits us all from time to time. Like you’ve brought a football to a ping pong match and you’re going to smash your paddle to smithereens with your first serve. (Where are these sports metaphors even coming from?) Lately, this has been my reality. You’ve seen the trend in […]
Some days, I have zero direction. As you probably guessed by the title, today is one of those days. I could tell you all about our newest experiences here in Canada: our first Groundhog Day (apparently, we have six weeks of winter left) our first time sledding (photos incoming sometime this week) or our first Superbowl (not […]
Lots and lots of fog. And thick. Trust us to lose one of the most impressive natural landmarks in the world in a blanket of fog. Oh, you don’t believe me, do you? Nobody can lose a waterfall, not one that big. Luckily, I have photos as proof. 🙂 We headed out to the falls two […]
Lately, I’ve been absent and apparently folks have been noticing. Except for sharing my posts from the safety of my blog, and maybe the occasional mini-scroll on Facebook once a day (if I actually make the effort to go there) I’ve been avoiding social media like the *cliche incoming* plague. Instagram is the exception to the […]
Can you believe that we’re days away from our four-month anniversary of moving? I certainly can’t. In some ways, it seems we’ve been here forever. In others, it’s like we arrived yesterday. This strange limbo also hit while we lived in Germany, so I’m expecting it to last a while. Today, I want to talk about […]
One of those things people forget to tell you about immigration is how often you’re going to be sick in the first while. We’re thoroughly submerged in the murky waters that involves getting all the known bugs through our systems. Along with some unknown bugs. I’d forgotten all about this phase, to be honest. We […]
The last few weeks of my life have been intense. Not in the way you’d probably picture intense, because most of my time was spent in front of the screen, typing and reading aloud what I’ve typed, over and over and over. To my neighbour on the left, despite the number of times you’ve seen me […]
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these. 🙂 If you know me at all, you know that I’m a huge fan of John Green. He inspires me in many ways, because he manages to be a thoughtful and giving human being, despite living with a crippling mental illness. I’ve been a nerdfighter for a […]
The time directly after immigration comes in five stages. Okay, fine, I made that up. This is based on personal experiences and conversations with many other immigrants from all over the world. Turns out, we tend to have the same emotional responses to this immigration-thing. Each person will experience the span of these differently, even […]
As many of you know, my parents came for a visit over the month of December. I’ve already shared photo posts of us doing the things tourists do (over here and here if you missed it) but we still had some other expeditions that you haven’t seen. Since there are SO MANY photos, I thought I’d […]
Now here’s an uncomfortable topic. One of those most people feel is best left (read lost) in the closet forever. It’s one we need to talk about though, in the name of awareness and breaking the stigma. According to Google, we can define panic attacks this way. pan·ic at·tack ˈpanik əˌtak/ noun noun: panic attack; plural […]
Welcome back! I lost touch with the blog for a moment there – totally unplanned – and it’s great to be typing something especially for you again. I’m a creature of routine, so being back in routine is a relief. Here’s a little catch-up post. My parents visited us for 5 weeks. It was good […]
Folks, I have nothing for you today. The thing about being a brand new immigrant while simultaneously having your kid in school for the first time – you are basically guaranteed to get every bug doing its rounds. In the past two and a half weeks, we’ve had everything from stomach flu to the common cold […]
I learned one of the most important lessons of my life as an immigrant this week – don’t leave the snow shovelling for the next morning. Also, snow shovelling? Not fun, but really satisfying when it’s over. Having a walkable sidewalk made me feel fantastic, weird as that may sound. And thankfully, I had my […]
Today is one of those days where blank pages intimidate me, but somehow, no matter how fervently my fingers slam against the keyboard, the words just aren’t up to standard. These are also the days where everything is more interesting than the screen, from the single leaf that managed to escape being covered with snow to […]
I’m typing this as the snow is falling and slowly piling up outside. Just thought I’d put that out there, since our friends and family in Europe and the UK have been spamming us with wonderful imagery of snow, and we’ve been feeling left out here in Toronto. Ironically, everybody was expecting us to spam […]
It’s been one of those weeks. My parents arrived from South Africa on Monday, so you can imagine emotions were all over the place at our reunion. We’ve been catching up, exploring and just being together. Then on Tuesday, Kayla’s school called me to come and fetch her. A stomach bug is running through (punny) […]
I’ve started painting again, amid the madness that is immigration, and it’s such a relief to be creative again. I’ve always found art to be an anchor in times when my life has been hurled into chaos. Usually, I depend on detailed doodles or photorealistic portrait drawing to soothe my nerves, so I never imagined […]
When we saw gingerbread house kits in Michael’s the other day, my husband immediately knew we had to build one together. He’d always wanted to try baking a gingerbread house, but I’ve never been that interested in art of the food variety. Sure, I bake when I have to, but I much prefer a paintbrush to […]
I guess we wanted to see how the Canadians do Christmas. You know, considering we’ve been to a lot of European Christmas markets. 🙂 Living in Germany will do that to you. Honestly, the Toronto Christmas Market was a lot like its German counterparts – merry, happy, jolly. Sure, this time around we understood the […]
I love Tolkien. I’ve loved his work since I first discovered his stories when I was about fourteen. After that first time I broke the spine of The Fellowship of the Ring, I’ve read LOTR every year (sometimes more than once a year) until around 2013 when Kayla was born. Which reminds me, you know. […]
Nobody saw this post coming, right? 😛 Truth is, Europe was our home for two years. I don’t believe you can spend extended periods of time in any place and leave it exactly the same as you were when you entered it. People and places change you, whether you want it to or not. For […]
I’m really sorry folks, I’ve been working on a special post for today all week, but I haven’t managed to finish it. I realised ten minutes ago that I wasn’t going to make it, which is why there’s no backup post. I’ll make up for it next week. Also, how Canadian am I for starting […]
Aside from the immigration, we’ve been facing a lot of other changes recently. Life, it seems, goes on. Even amid the chaos. Kayla is *finally* going to school. Of all the changes, this is the biggest one. I’ve spoken about our troubles getting her enrolled in a kindergarten in Germany, and also mentioned how easy […]
It’s been a while since I’ve shared some photos with you, I’ve barely been in front of my computer in the last few weeks. In the name of some semblance of normalcy though, it’s time to fix that. These pics span from around the middle of October to this past weekend. There’s no real theme […]
So, Kayla started school this week. Kindergarten in the rest of the world (well, the parts I’ve lived) and kindergarten (nursery school) in South Africa are vastly different concepts. ◄ This is something we’ve been learning really quickly. I also know how much some of you loved the differences posts I did while we were […]
No, this isn’t another of those please-bear-with-me-posts, I really am here to blog to my little heart’s content. Starting today, the schedule is back in action. #FTW A general update on the Canada side of things – we’re getting there. Most of our stuff has been sorted. Heck, Kayla even started school today. You remember how […]
And I’m sorry. It’s been just a tad on the chaotic side of the spectrum here in our new home. You’d think I knew this by now, considering our recent history, but I’ve just realised that people have a distorted view of immigration. Many of the people we’ve spoken to recently picture the whole thing […]
It’s difficult to believe, but there it is. We’ve been in our new home for a week already. One of the first observations or questions we get asked now has to do with the weather. Who’d have thought, right? 😛 But no, it’s really not freezing here in the north. In fact, at this stage, […]
Honestly, this is only half a post. Just wanted to drop in and let you know we’re still breathing here in our new corner of the world. Immigration isn’t a simple thing, but I have to say moving to Canada is superior. If you want people who will welcome you with open arms and pretty […]
And I’m supposed to blog. Folks, I’m going to ask for some patience here. My week is looking a little cluttered. Considering I’m leaving the country in the very near future, that’s probably not such a shocking admission. My computer will be packed away soon, so that’s going to make it difficult to maintain an […]
So you’re a writer. Welcome to the club, please pick your t-shirt from the pile and have a seat. You’ve probably been around the interwebs and have no doubt found an article or two on the topic of said. You know, dialogue tags. There are two firm groups of thought here. Okay, okay – two […]
Boxes and suitcases everywhere. This is my current reality. Those boxes we’re not shipping to Canada are full of stuff for charity. It’s a minefield. The clutter makes me anxious. It’s a combination of excitement and being totally overwhelmed, so every now and then I find myself disengaging to regain some semblance of focus. I […]
I’m so sorry I missed Friday’s post! It slipped away from me without my notice. We had my brother and sister in law over for the weekend, a last visit before the big move, and spending time with them got priority over being in front of the computer. This was also probably the last weekend of […]
Huge excitement hit my house yesterday when my brand new Moleskine watercolour journal arrived. And, of course, like an energised kid, I had to try it out immediately. I drew inspiration from the colouring and falling leaves here in the north – something I’ve always wanted to try painting. At the same time, I wanted […]
We’ve had precious few sunshine days this past season, so whenever we had even half a chance of catching a ray or two, we were outside. Feeling bolstered by the cloudless day, we hiked to Duisburg Zoo. We’ve been at the zoo twice before and this is my second blog about it (hence the 2.0). […]
It’s already September, I know. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. 🙂 I certainly didn’t think I’d be doing this with all the insanity going on in my life right now, but I’m happy to report that I’ve been writing something amid the chaos! My good friend Tallulah and I just finished a […]
As promised, here’s the bonus Thursday post. 🙂 For the 9th anniversary, we headed to Düsseldorf. This actually happened by accident. The real reason for the trip was to pick up our passports with the brand-spanking-new visas to enter Canada. Both of us had completely forgotten it happened to be our anniversary too. 😛 Since […]
Today, folks, is my wedding anniversary. Nine years ago, I married the awesomest dude on the face of the planet – he’s my best friend and soulmate, the greatest father and sweetest husband ever. In honour of that, I’m taking the day off blogging. 🙂 OK, not only that, we’ve got some errands to run […]
We’ve wanted to go to this place since we arrived in Europe, but every time we had the trip planned, something got in the way. We finally drove to the Netherlands on one sunny Sunday to feast our eyes upon the glory that is Castle De Haar. The original castle suffered major damages in a […]
This isn’t a tutorial as much as a photo-diary of the steps I followed to create this painting. It’s really very simple, so I’m tagging it as beginner. Honestly, the most difficult part is getting the violin symmetrical! If that’s something you struggle with, you can always try to find a stencil or print out […]
Fair warning – this is a long post. After Friday’s big news, we’ve had a lot of good wishes, emails and questions. I thought I’d address some of those today. Most people were surprised that we’re so unhappy in Germany, especially considering how happy all of our photo diary posts look. I talked about this briefly […]
Would you believe we’d been living in Germany for almost two years before we went for a stroll in Duisburg (our neighbouring town)? I couldn’t either. Duisburg is a quiet city with an abundance of fountains in the city centre. Colourful and weird, these fountains create a strange contrast to the ancient buildings in the […]
As a teenager, I dreamed of moving to Hollywood. At first, I wanted to act. Who doesn’t? But then, one fateful day, I saw the work of my first idol, Steven Spielberg. More than anything, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and make films. I wrote many brilliant screenplays (they were Oscar winners one […]
Since my feather banner is so popular, I figured I’d show you how I made it. This tutorial is super simple, anybody can paint feathers! What makes it even better is how fast this process is. I painted these in less than half an hour, they dried for about an hour, and the outlines took […]
We’re not the biggest sports supporters in the world, but there’s something incredible about going to a live soccer game. To those of you who take this seriously, I know it’s called football in Europe. I’m South African, so to me it’s soccer. No offence meant. Anyway, the last game we went to (which was […]
After the Writing Update post, I was asked how it’s going otherwise. So, here we are. Somehow, these kinds of posts are the most difficult to write. I don’t know why. It’s such a no-brainer to put in hours of research for *writing topic* or spend an evening painting something for an art tutorial, while […]
I’m by no means an expert on the topic, just a noob who’s learned a thing or two from writers much more experienced than I, willing to share their knowledge. These are three little things any writer could use to hone their craft – some so obvious, it’s blinding. Who felt like an idiot after […]
Sunshine has been rare this summer – I don’t know what’s going on. Apart from three or so heat waves, we’ve had an excess of rain and gloom this season. Pretty depressing, if you ask me. Especially considering the fact that I had a tan last year this time. So, when the sun is out, […]
As you can tell, I’ve been working on the website. This will probably go on for the rest of the weekend, so please bear with me in this weird time. 🙂 Because of the revamp, I don’t have a real post for you today. Have a look around and don’t be shy to send me […]
You were supposed to see this post at the end of July, I know. Apologies. I’m more scatterbrained than usual lately and I forgot. But better late than never, right? The writing has been going exceptionally well. After The Great Word Draught of 2017, I never imagined I’d be writing so much, especially now that The […]
Well, I’m sure some of the other runners still had their fun, but by the time we reached Düsseldorf, it was coming down in buckets. So much so that my water resistant jacket (and shirt underneath) were drenched and we had to stop to buy something dry and warm to wear. Jan and Mario would have […]
I’ve been looking at some photos from our trip to the German Alps last year and art inspiration struck. The initial inspiration doubled when a tutorial opportunity threw itself at my feet. Blog post sorted. #ftw I pulled out my watercolour pencils and went on to sketch some misty mountains. I apologise for the lighting of these photos. […]
This post, born in the darkest corners of my mind, is probably a direct result of my own novel being in the hands of a group of beta readers. Right now, I’m in that I-can’t-write-at-all-and-I-totally-suck-phase. Let’s talk about giving good crit. As if I’m the expert here. Bah. But, having been on the receiving end […]
Life is full of little firsts. A while ago, one of these came up for Kayla, when we took her bowling for the first time. Jan and I used to love bowling back in SA, but haven’t played in about 5 years. Thinking about it now, that puts the last time we played at before […]
Yay, a tutorial, inspired by my friend Tallulah. 🙂 Before we get started though, a disclaimer. This is how I use these things. Some other, more experienced artist will probably tell you not to do what I do, and that’s OK. Like everything in life, we all need to find our own personal hacks to make […]
It’s a normal Tuesday and you’re scrolling Facebook. Everything has been going great today and you feel chipper. You’re happy for your cousin who’s pregnant again, you like the pic of that high school friend’s new puppy and you laugh at the ridiculous Star Wars meme. The following post though, it ruins your day.