Crafting gran

WOYWW - I am still here.

2012-01-25T16:27:00.003+02:00

I know I have been MIA for two weeks, but I did have a good reason, I promise. It is 'silly season' at school. We had the orientation of the new grade 8's, new parents welcome, parents evenings at all three schools (my leaders had to be at all 3 to look after kids) and I am still trying to do all my preparation for teaching and finish all marking in good time. (so far so good), but that meant that there has been very little time for crafting.
You DO NOT want to see my desk (upturned couch and every other flat surface I could find) I would be arrested for public indecency if I did show you, so I will just show you the results. My new Copics and stamps arrived from America and even though I did not really have time, I had to have a little play, didn't I? The flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts, the ribbon and lace from Really Reasonable Ribbon and the papers are Bazzil and dp from Upikit, a local company.

I glitterified Tilda's dress and wings with Stickles and took a close up pic, hope you can see it, it is really gorgeous IRL. The images were coloured with my Copics.

Also made an easel card with another new Tilda. Dp is from Pebbles Inc.

I have to run back to school (another parents evening where the leaders are working! Pre-Grade this time), but before I go I want to leave you with a very big RAK request.

A very dear friend and fellow teacher, Cindy Geier, was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year. She had her first chemo treatment today. She is the mother of two teenage girls and dealing with this like an absolute lady. As a committed Christian, she is hanging on to her faith for strength and suppot, but I know that the WOYWWers are a very special group of people, so I feel I can ask you this favour. Won't you please send her a card or note of encouragement? If you would like to, please e-mail me at: tertiaj@telkomsa.net and I will let you have her address.

In the mean time, please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Hope you all have a very fruitful and crafty week.

WOYWW - What a day it was!

2012-01-11T19:10:00.004+02:00

Nothing crafty to show today, in fact, there is not even a desk for WOYWW, but I did not want to let you down, so I loaded some more holiday pics for you. School started today and I have been so busy preparing for the new year that crafting had to take a back seat. If you came here to see my desk, then go to Julia's blog http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com and I am sure you will find lots of desks to peek at.
On this photo you will see my illusive third child, the only boy and the one that HATES cameras. I am very lucky to have caught him this time. In front of him you will see a very empty plate. That plate contained our dinner and let me tell you, what a dinner that was! I am so very proud of my beautiful boy (I know, all mothers are proud of their children) This boy works for one of the best landscape architects in South Africa. He absolutely loves his job and even though he has on occasion worked for 48 hours straight, he never complains. When there is a crisis, he is the one they call, any time - day or night. For the last 3 years he has been earning very little money and finally decided that he needed to spread his wings and apply for another job. Just before his company closed for the year he was called in by the CEO and given a 100percent increase in salary! He was told that they were aware of how much he meant to the company and would like to reward him accordingly. In this economic time I think this is really a question of being rewarded for doing the right thing with passion.

He was so excited he actually cried a bit. When we went on holiday he said that he wanted to take his dad and me out to a very special dinner to thank us for supporting him and believing in him. The view you see here is from our table at 'Die Walskipper" a restaurant in Jeffreys Bay. It is on the beach, you can't wear shoes when you go there, because the tables are literally ON the beach.

It was my first time eating Oysters, not something I would do every day, but very interesting.

Look at that seafood platter! Enough to drool over. It was fantastically well prepared and so much that I thought they would have to get an ambulance to get me to the car. LOL

The drinks were served in tin mugs! Glass could be lethal if it broke and pieces were left in the sand.
Today was a typical firsrt day of the year at school - it felt about a week long! Getting to know new girls and getting all the admin out of the way. On top of that DH's car broke down which meant that I had to get up at 4h30 this morning to take him to work before school and drive back to fetch him this afternoon in peak hour traffic (the things we do for love!)

Have a great week everybody, I hope to have something way more interesting and crafty to show you next time.

WOYWW - Something crafty at last!

2012-01-03T08:15:00.004+02:00

Good morning people! Things are slowly but surely getting back to normal in my house. I hope you all had a fantastic festive season and a wonderful New Years. May this coming year have a lot of happy news for all the WOYWWers. My craftroom is still a hot mess and acts as a store room for DD's furniture. I just could not wait to start working after my holiday, so as you can see. no actual desk for me, rather the top of and upturned couch, the top of a microwave and every other flat (or semi-flat ) surface I can find to work on

I have wanted to make a side step card for a long time and when I saw these fabulous new scenes from La La Land crafts I just had to use one. The Cupid Luca was so cute I could not resist him and I wanted to use both.

So sorry about the quality of the photo, I don't know what happened there. Papers are all Bazzil and the dp is from a freebie paperstack from a magazine. The images were all coloured with my beloved Copics (I was having withdrawel symptoms I used them so long ago LOL)

This cute little Tilda is one I could not resist when I went to visit Cariena at her shop in Jeffrey's Bay. She just jumped into my hand. Papers are from the new range from FabScraps. The trim is from my new monthly collection from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

I found this lace in my mom's old sewing box. It must be about 40 years old and it reminded me of this cute Tilda that I had in my stash, so she just had to come out and play.

Have a fantastic day and week everybody and don't forget to stop by Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com to see everybody else's work spaces. I am sure they will be a lot more tidy than mine!

Animal lover or just plain crazy?

2011-12-29T06:35:00.004+02:00

I know, I have been a very bad blogger, but I was having such a good time on holiday with all my family that I did not even open my laptop the whole time we were there! Hope everybody's Christmas was as magical as mine. I will be posting a lot of photo's and family stories in the next few days, but while I was editing the holiday photo's I found these and started wondering about this girl.
She is my baby, Anke. The one who starts to cry when she sees roadkill. The one who makes her boyfriend stop on the Highway to save a dog. The one who nursed an almost dead baby bird back to life, taught it to fly and set it free when she was 12 and the vet said that wild birds can not be saved when they had fallen out of the nest.

These photo's were taken the day before we came home from holiday. It was pouring. Hail as big as bird's eggs and lightning (Whats up with that? I thought you do not get lightning in the Cape?!) The people staying accross from us had dogs, lots and lots of dogs! They were running wild, tearing the dustbin bags and being a really big irritation. Their house looked really run down, grass growing up to my knees, fence patched with odd pieces of wood and Ankie discovered behind the wall (she had to look when she heard them cry:) ) a LOT of puppies. She said at least 4 litters of different ages!

When it started raining, we heard the puppies crying and that set Ankie off. Within minutes she was sobbing, worrying about the poor puppies, out in the rain, crying and obviously in distress. Eventually she convinced her boyfriend to run accross the street with her and look to see of they were OK. She looked over the wall and saw some puppies floating in a puddle of water. Then there was no stopping her, she was over that wall in a flash and got the pups out of the rain and to the safety of their kennel. The people inside the house did not even look to see why the dogs were crying like that!

When she finally got back, she (and poor Darryl) were soaked to the bone. She then phoned the SPCA and asked them to please go and rescue the puppies. They did go out the next day, but phoned her and said that the dogs were OK and that they gave the owners a warning about the living conditions of the dogs. This morning her status on Fb is - Hope the puppies are safe!

Now this got me wondering. Is she mad? or just an animal lover in the extreme? I don't know which one it is, I just know I love this girl for caring so much about those that can not fend for themselves.

Have a great week everybody, I might be back a little later with some more holiday stories if you would like to hear them.

WOYWW - Jeffreys Bay here I come!

2011-12-14T08:09:00.005+02:00

Good morning everybody! I am on my way to Jeffreys Bay. Leaving on Friday and will only be back on the 29th. I am taking my laptop, so will try to check in every now and then.
Wish me luck, we are going on holiday with the whole family. 15 People in total! First holiday for DH and myself in 15 years. I can't wait! This is what my work area looks like. Disgusting, I know, but its the only little area I could find to work on. There are photo's I printed from the little ones'birthday , stamps, my cutter, my Cuttlebug and I only just discovered from the pic, my glasses.

To my right on the back of DD's couch, some glitter paper and ods and ends. Even DD's microwave is a flat surface to store things. LOL.

These two beautiful children just turned one over the last while. Little Gemma on the 8th of December and Liam on the 29th of November. I might be very biased, but aren't they just too gorgeous for words?

If I don't manage to visit before Christmas, may you all have a blessed, Christ filled Christmas.

Don't forget to visit Julia over at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com.

WOYWW - I am on holiday!!!!

2011-12-07T06:10:00.003+02:00

Good morning all of you out there. When I say GOOD morning, I mean it in every sense of the word! It is 6h15 in my house, DH has left for work, DD is fast asleep and all is quiet. I have nowhere to go today, well, nowhere I don't want to go!! Marking? Done! Marks? Submitted. Reports? Done and dusted! School year is officially over for me. Can you all say: YAY!!!
This is the only space I could find to actually do some crafting last week. But, the good news is, I found a little flat surface not covered in DD's junk and if I climb over and sqeeze behind all her furniture, I can actually get to most of my stuff! I made this card for a dear friend and a fellow teacher who had a Matectomy on Monday. They discovered the cancer when she went for her yearly check up! She is one of the most amazing women I know, so strong and so dignified. I think I would be freaking out. I saw a card like this one a while ago on Becca Freeken's blog and knew I had to make one for Cindy. Hope Becca doesn't mind. ( http://amazingpapergrace.com )

Please say a prayer for Cindy for a full and speedy recovery.

I have been telling you that mr. Mojo has been back, but I had no time to share. So here goes, some of the Christmas cards that I made. First one is an image from Mo Manning called Sugarplum Fairy. I just love her! All papers and embellishments are from my scrapbox and from whatever I could get to. Cardstock is Bazzil and all images were coloured with my beloved Copic markers.

The next one is a Magnolia image that was sent to me as part of a RAK about 2 years ago. I just never got round to colouring her. Isn't this little Tilda adorable? She got a liberal Stickle treatment to her wings, halo and stars.

Lastly the wonderful La La Land stamp by Irena Blount. I fell in love with her Marci and Luca stamps at CHA and had to have most of them. LOL This one is so wonderful, because it is so hard to find summery images for Christmas! My son keeps having a hissy fit when I use snowmen or Reindeer on my cards. I get the whole 'for goodness sake mom, we live in Africa, it is 35 degrees out there!' thing from him every year, so finding the Summery Marci and Luca was such a bonus!

Have a great week everybody! I am going clothes shopping with the grandies today. We are leaving for Jeffrey's Bay on the 15th and the all need new costumes ans of course ouma has to take them (because I will buy what their mothers won't AND we always go for lunch afterwards!LOL)
Remember to pop over to Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com for your weekly WOYWW fix.

WOYWW - Are you sure you want to see this?

2011-11-30T07:01:00.006+02:00

I don't think I should. I might be arrested for Public Indecency, oh what the heck.... I am going to show you, but don't say I did not warn you OK!
This is what I am busy doing (errr.... this is what is staring at me from the dining room table), marking exam papers. I swear these papers breed during the night, they just seem to get more and more! I hate marking!

And this, is my craftroom at the moment! I want to cry just looking at the photo's. DD has moved back home temporarily (I hope VERY temporarily) and all her stuff had to go somewhere. The craftroom sounded like a good idea to everybody except me. In the corner you can see my die cut area, which I can get to if I try very hard.

This is the view when you look at my ribbon storage area and my sewing cabinet and this is the view when you look at my paper storage. Now tell me thats not a sad sight. Mr. Mojo is here and I can not get to anything. I just hope he sticks around untill DD finds a new place to stay.

Don't get me wrong, I love having her here, its just the stuff that gets to me. LOL

I better get up now and go and finish that marking, because I think I could just shoot myself if I still have marking to do next week this time.

Have a great week everybody, I will be visiting as soon as the marking is done.

WOYWW - Everything but the kitchen sink!

2011-11-16T05:56:00.005+02:00

I tell you, mr. Mojo is back with a vengeance! His timing could not be worse - I mean, I am supposed to be marking exam papers, they are lying there, looking at me with a lot of reproach, but what can I do? The fickle mr. Mojo might just decide to leave if I do not listen to him.
So you see, its all his fault that my beautiful desk is not so beautiful any more. I started on my Christmas cards, I am making mini cards for a swap (they are actually all finished) I am making good luck cards for my girls and there is my son's bowling trousers that need shortening ( why is Twiglet and Wipso on the other side of the world when you need them?)

It is so bad that it even spilled over to the lounge - there was no room left to colour on my desk. The images all went on the mini cards. Only fitting to use mini Tildas for mini cards don't you think?

Had to just show you there is still one area in my craftroom that shows some order. My die cut area. I will show you the fruits of my labour next week, but now I really have to go and mark those exam papers, I need my job to feed my obsession!

Don't forget to visit Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see what all the WOYWWers are up to. I live in hope to find a messier desk than mine.

Have a great week.

WOYWW - Good news

2011-11-09T05:48:00.002+02:00

Before I show you my desk, I want to say a very big thank you for all of your wonderful comments and special thank you for all the prayers that went up last week for Michael. I am so happy to report that we experienced a small miracle, Michael's skin cancer was removed, but when the dr opened up the area, there was no need to remove the nerve ( that according to the dr, would definately have had to go) and no need for a skin graft. The cancer= as big as the top af a tea cup - was sucessfully removed and he will need no further surgery or chemo! Drs are surprised, but his mom and I are just smiling, because we know, our Father in Heaven is so good to us and we are humbled by this miracle in Mike's life. He is still in a lot of pain, but a very happy young man.
My desk, as you can see, is just getting worse and worse, without actually doing anything. You will see my son's trousers that need shortening. ( It has been pinned and just needs doing!) Better get a move on, he needs it for a bowls game this weekend. There are some coloured images, cut and ready to go on cards - no finished cards yet.

Thought I would also share this pic with you. My DD, the waterpolo coach. Sad, I know, but I love watching her do what she loves doing. Never thought for a minute that it would be just as stressful to watch the team she is coaching as watching her play. Weird that. So nice to see such a young person so passionate about the game and so commited to giving back to the game that she loves so much.

While I was watching the game, my eye caught sight of this beautiful Jacaranda tree, with its distinctive purple flowers. Reminded me that it is time for the final exams soon. Some schools have already started, we start on Monday. The legend here in South Africa says that: if a Jacaranda blossom should fall on your head, it is a sign that you will definately pass your exams.

My best wishes to all scholars and students writing. May you be rewarded for a years hard work. and may the Jacaranda blossoms fall on every head. Happy Wednesday to you all. Remember to pop in at Julia's to snoop at everybody's desk. (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )

WOYWW - I have a desk??? and some positive thoughts needed.

2011-11-02T05:32:00.005+02:00

I am still in end of year mode at school, so I have kind of forgotten that there is a craftroom in my house that actually has a desk for me to work on. It has kinda changed from being a desk to being a dumping ground. I have just left everything after my last scrapping party and it has steadily grown into piles of unknown origin. Strange that!? I thought I was the only one that ever went in there, but I promise, I can't remember putting half the stuff there. The Copic colour chart was me - I took it out to start coulouring, but never got round to it.
Here are some of my lovely group of leaders. I had the priviledge to take 10 of them to a Leadership training day on Saturday (I know, a Saturday! Now school is even invading my weekends!!!) It was hosted by the Catholic Schools Organisation and was all about how to be servant leader in stead of a dictator. The girls enjoyed every minute of the day (the fact that all other Catholic schools in Gauteng were there and they got to mingle with them , and there were BOYS!!! could have something to do with that,. LOL)

My girls did me and the school very proud, as usual. They were divided into groups with the leaders from the other schools and had work sessions. I am so proud to report that most of the report backs were done by my girls. Quite something if you think that the head prefects from the other schools were in those groups too. Just realising I am sounding like a proud mommy bragging about her children. Plrase forgive me, but they are a very special group of young ladies.

Had to show you the chandelier. Made me and the girls laugh. It is beautiful, just amusing to find four of them high up in the roof at a boys school. Very rugged ceiling and typical school hall and then this.

Now on to a more serious matter. One of my very dear friends, Melanie's son Michael(25) has been diagnosed with a very rare form of skin cancer. He is being operated today. They will be removing a whole flap of skin on the right side of his face and as well as some facial nerves. They will also be taking a nerve from his wrist and try to repair the nerve and do some skin grafts. The cancer is situated on his temple which apparantly makes it even more dangerous. I am asking for some very earnest prayers for this young man and his mommy. I know how the people from WOYWW rally round in support, so I am confidant that a lot of prayer will go up for him and his mom all over the world today.

Have a great week everybody, I will tell you about Michael's progress next week.

I am SOOOOO Late and WNOYWW

2011-10-26T18:31:00.006+02:00

No, you are not seeing things, and it is not a typing error, it is 'What is NOT on your Workdesk Wednesday' for me. I am not dead or abducted, it is just silly season at school this time of the year, so there really is very little (other than schoolwork which is so utterly boring, it is scary) on my desk
This is not even my desk. I did a birthday party for a 9 year old girl last Friday and they made little maze books and covered journals. I thought I would show you some of their lovely work. I find these kiddies parties delightful, but VERY tiring and I am being asked to do more and more of them. Kids are so ready to try everything you tell them.

Here are some samples of their maze books. I think they did an absolutely amazing job!

These two were made by the birthday girl's older brother and his friend. Very reluctant in the beginning to do the 'girl stuff', but they loved every minute of it! LOL

Thought I would also show you the wonderful cake my daughter Karin made for her little girl, Hannah's seventh birthday. She has had no formal training in cake decorating and I think she has some real talent. I am seriously considering giving her a cake decorating course as a birthday present. What do you think? A good idea or not?

These last few weeks have been very very busy and very crazy, There has been so many last things to do before exams start next month. Last assembly, last MASS, the Valedictory for our grade 12's who started their exam on Monday and all the goodbyes that go with that. A very sad time for us here at St. Doms. Some of our girls have been at the school for 15 years!

Valedictory is so emotional, it takes me a few days to recover. The girls attend a MASS with all their parents and their teachers. It is a beautiful Mass and the school really tries very hard to make it special for the girls. This year, the hall was lined with the footprints of every girl in the school, from grade 000 till grade 11 - symbolising the grade 12's journey at our school and the footprints that they are leaving behind.

While Mass is going on, the rest of the school forms a guard of honour from the door (starting with grade 000's and ending with grade 11's)right up to the fish pond quad where the girls and their parents enjoy cake and refreshments. When the first girl leaves the hall our big school bells start ringing and the are rung untill the last girl reaches the quad! Goosebump stuff! The girls usually weep when they walk down the guard of honour, they hug every girl they know in the school. Fathers and mothers walk down there with tears in their eyes. It is times like these that I remember just how lucky I am to be part of such a special school!

The girl in the photo is the outgoing president of our SRC. I work very closely with the SRC and it has been my priviledge to work with this very special young lady. I have seen her grow this past year, from a very capable, but very scared little girl, in awe of the responsability the school gave her to a very confident young woman who will go out and qonquer the world. I will miss you Dintshi, you will always have a very special place in my heart and those very big shoes you were so scared to fill are even bigger now!

I know that somebody with such joy in her heart will go far in life! Go well my dear and never ever lose the ability to be joyfull in the face of adversity and thank you so much for the wonderful footprints you have left in my heart and at the school that you love so much!

Enjoy your week everybody and don't forget to visit Julia at: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

I really need a life!

2011-10-14T10:55:00.002+02:00

i am sitting at a seminar for teachers listening to a lecture about using a blog in teaching. the lady is clueless!!! wish i could throw something at her.

WOYWW 122 - I thought it would be worse.

2011-10-05T06:20:00.004+02:00

A very good morning to all. I am feeling so much better, I broke into song this morning when I woke up singing 'oh, what a beautiful morning'. DH thought I was crazy, but it is a really beautiful Spring morning here.
As you can see, my desk is still relatively tidy. It has been 4 weeks now and they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so maybe I am now a neat person. LOL That is so never goimg to happen. I thought my desk and craftroom would look much worse when I walked in this morning. I have been so busy and so tired, I can't even remember cleaning up, how sad is that?
Yesterday was International Teacher appreciation day. We are having an assembly today where the girls are giving each teacher a little gift.
Traditionally these gifts are really very stupid. (One year we got toilet rolls - because our patience is that long?!) Because I am in charge of the leaders, I had to help them and OK what they wanted to do. Surprise, surprise, the decided on bookmarks. I had the stamps and the equipment, so guess who did the colouring? In their defense, the leader of the Public Relations Committee, did the printing. cutting and pasting. She also found the most beautiful prayer for teachers to go on the back of the bookmark. All I had to do was laminate them and add some ribbon.

Here they are... all 44 of them.

Some close ups. A beautiful shoes, for those who are real ladies. (Guess I won't be getting that one LOL)

Some apples, and lastly, some bookworms.

The stamps are all digi's. The shoe and apple are old ones from before I knew to keep the artists name. The bookworm is one from last month's progessive freebie challenge on PCP. I could not show them before today, so I guess I am way too late for the next lot of freebies (bummer)

I have also finally finished those wedding invitations - It only took them 2 months to finally decide on the wording and then, of course, they wanted them within 24 hours!

Have a great day everybody, hopefully I will visit more than 5 of you this week. Thank you to all for your kind comments.

Please remember to visit Julia at: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ and to join in the fun.

WOYWW 121 - Slowly going South

2011-09-28T05:55:00.006+02:00

My desk has remained clean for 4 weeks, that must be some kind of record, don't you think? Does that mean that I can be forgiven for the little mess today? Its not too bad. Just going South very slowly, getting worse daily, little by little. The leftovers from previous projects. My heatgun from embossing, the embossing powder, the embossing pad, some papers, some tools and some UFO's.
I have not done a whole lot in terms of crafting, but really love this card. The image is from Michelle Perket. Coloured her with my Copics and glitterified her dress and wings. Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the local Chinese shop.

I recieved my Tag! It is beautiful in real life! Hanging on my craftroom wall and everybody comments on it. Thank you so much!

For some reason Blogger is not allowing me to Publish these next photo's the right way up! I finally got my cardreader to transfer the pics of the tag I made for Frankie's swap to my computer, so if you turn your head, you will see it the right way up.
Used lots of embossing and stamping and the ATC I made for a previous swap. Hope Jane recieves it soon and likes it.

Did not like the boring white envelope, so stamped some birdcages on there too - I had the birdcage stamps on my table, so I had to use them.

I am typing this in class, while my girls are preparing a debate on the death penalty. Young people never cease to amaze me with their wisdom. I am listening to their talk and thinking that I would never have been able to come up with such arguments at 17 and that in a second language!

Please spare a prayer for a fellow teacher who has lost her husband this week. She is in dire financial straights. She had to sell her house to cover her hubby's medical costs and is now forced to live in a low cost shell of a house. No inner walls and no ceiling.

One of my pupils also just told me that they discovered a huge growth in mom's uterus and that she is having tests done today to find out what is wrong.

Makes one grateful for the troubles in your own life.

Have a great day everybody and don't forget to visit Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 120 - you guys made me!

2011-09-21T12:39:00.004+02:00

I am writing this post in my bed. The breathing problems from last week has just progressively gotten worse, and I finally gave in to my DH's plea to go to the dr. It turns out I have a bad case of Bronchitus, bordering on Pneumonia. Dr sent me home with strict instructions not to leave my bed for two days (threatened to put me in hospital if I didn't listen LOL), so here I am, in bed, feeling very sorry for myself and terribly guilty for not being at school.
The card reader decided it would upload my pictures today, so here you have it, my desk is still quite tidy with just a little bit of leftover stash from recent projects. You can see two cards I made with my new La La Land stamps and the black plastic sheet that I use when I am using my glue gun.
The glue gun was used extensively this last week. My granddaughter ordered cup cakes for her Birthday party invitations. They had to look real, be big and pink - those were the requirements. This is what I came up with - Had to make a lot of them and my DD's only comment after she saw them? What are 'we' doing next year mom? Told her I think we just tear some old newspaper and stick it onto toiletrolls. Tie a pink ribbon around it, stick a blom (flower) on and thats that. LOL She was NOT amused.

Here is a close up for you. I was a little bit worried, because Tertia-Lee just stared at them and nodded her head when I asked if she liked them. Thought she did not like them and did not want to hurt my feelings, but she was just overwhelmed I think. She told her dad they are 'Extremely beautiful!" Makes all the hard work worthwhile.

And then, I though I would show you what you MADE me do!

Yes, I did, and it is all your fault, ladies who come and peek at my desk every week! (If you have no clue what I am talking about, go here: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) I gave in and made the first Christmas cards for this year!

I fell in love with these elves from Mo Manning and just could not resist them. There are 4 of them and I bought all of them. I could not quite bring myself to do the whole red and green thing yet, so thats why they are not in traditional Christmas colours. I used only cardstock (Bazzil), my Cuttlebug and some bling. Both images were coloured with my beloved Copics.

Here is another one, done in blues.

Don't you think they are just too precious?

Hope you are all well. I am off to visit some desks.

WOYWW - One of those days.

2011-09-14T16:57:00.002+02:00

Have you ever had one of those days when absolutely NOTHING seems to go right? I am having one of those today. My card reader is refusing to upload photo's to my computer. So sorry girls, no desk today.
I am supposed to be showing you pictures of my desk for WOYWW (go to Julia's blog at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com if you want to know more) no picture of that, but happy to report my desk is still pretty neat, in spite of being super busy creating. I was making my birdcage swap and invitations for a 9 year old who is coming for a scrapbooking party in my studio on the 7th October, still working on those wedding invitations (bride and groom are still having issues about the wording, SIGH!) and I am making invitations for both my granddaughter's parties.

This was the starting point for my bird cage swap. (go to Frankie's blog at http://dragon-dragonsweb.blogspot.com to see more about it.) I took part in an ATC swap a while ago and we were originally supposed to make 20 ATC's. It turned out to be only 10 in the end, so I had this ATC lying around and decided to use it as a starting point. I will post more photo's of the final product as soon as I am able to upload to my computer.

My breathing has also been dreadful. I can hardly walk 10 paces before I am wheezing like somebody at death's door. VERY frustrating. A year ago this time, I was hospitalised with acute pneumonia, so it seems that it could be the amount of dust and pollen in the air at this time of the year that is affecting my lungs. It is windy season here after all and I live in a mining town where the dust from the mine dumps are blown about all the time.

I am also drowning in school work, its nearing the end of the year and there is so much to do. The newly elected leaders at our school are also very busy with 8 functions that they have to attend and organise in the last two weeks of September.

I am, as most of you know, very proudly African (SOUTH AFRICAN) and it really gets my back up when fellow South Africans run the country down. I would so much rather be part of the solution, than part of the nay sayers, but just sometimes, when I read the papers and see the newspaper headlines, I want to hang my head in shame and weep for our beautiful country.

How? HOW? How does somebody ( a taxi driver) run over a woman and drag her 700 meters under his speeding taxi, refusing to stop even though the people in the taxi are begging him to and bystanders are screaming at him? How does the youth leader of the ruling party get told by the court that it is hate speech to sing a song with words like "Kill the Boer" and then want to appeal the ruling?

If you have made it this far, I am sorry, can you tell I am having a bad day? Rant is over, I feeel better now, tomorrow I will be my chirpy positive self again and the card reader will propably work again. If not, I will just get a new one and show you all my finished bird cage.

Untill then have a great time.

WOYWW - 118?

2011-09-07T06:04:00.004+02:00

Wednesday again?!! How did that happen? I am glad to be able to tell you that even though I have been incredibly busy in my craftroom, it still looks relatively presentable. OK Maybe not as beautiful as the last three weeks, but still quite clean don't you think?
In the background you will see the pile of wedding invitations I have been working on. To the left is the box of coloured images I found when I was cleaning up. Some I had actually forgotten about! LOL. There is also a tin of fudge (Almost empty!) and then the left overs from the pink Elephant Challenge card I was making and of course my beloved Copics and the new La La Land Crafts stamps I got yesterday in the process of being coloured. I was so excited to finally find summery Christmas images, I forgot that its too early for the C word.
Thought I would show you some more of the awesome La La Land cards I made with my new stamps. The first one is the cheerleader. How cute is she? Papers are from my scrapbox, The cardstock is Bazzil and the doily from my local grocery store. Her dress and poms were glitterified with Stickles.

Seeing that the Rugby World Cup starts on Friday in New Zeeland, I just had to make this little rugby Luka. Coloured him in green and Gold for the Springboks of course! The dp is from a Basic Grey paperstack I have had for ages and the ribbon and button from my stash.

Last but not least, this cute little Luka. Love him! Its so hard to find male images that are not totally depressing and look more like sympathy cards than anything else. The dp is also from my scrapbox. Used a Martha Stewart punch for the border and the ribbon and brad are from my stash.

If you still don't know why I am posting pictures of my desk, go to Julia's blog and join in the fun. ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ )

Have a great week everybody, I am back at school, but will do my best to visit all of you.

WOYWW = bet you thought it wouldn't last 3 weeks!

2011-08-31T07:38:00.005+02:00

Here we are, its Wednesday and everybody all over the world is snooping around other people's desks! (not sure what I am talking about? You must be the only person in blogland that doesn't, so go check out Julia, our leader's blog to find out http://stamping=ground.blogspot.com )
I bet you did not believe that my desk would be clean for three weeks and actually get better with time, well, I did not believe it was possible, but here it is in all its wonderful glory! Looking even better than ever.
You will see the usual got to have close tools, a zillion scissors, some pens, some glue and other important things in my orange buckets and my caddy. There are the stamped MFT image that I want to colour later, the LO that I still haven't gotten to (Mr. Mojo is gone, OK?!) and the beginning of a batch of wedding invitations for a friend's son. Other than that, only clean 'white' space. How did I do it? Its all DH's fault. He found a paper stand at a shop thats closing down and bought it for me, bless his little heart. Thinking and saying that I would never be able to fill it LOL! Well, I had to prove him wrong didn't I, took me a whole day to rearrange the playroom, but look! Now I have my old single paperstand and the glorious new double one!

Of course I have to remind you of DH's other contributions to my playroom. First there is the ribbon storage, that he said I would never be able to fill, poor man, he never learns, does he? Look at the overflow on top and on the shelves!

Here is my sewing cabinet (a gift from my dear mom and dad, many years ago) with some of my creations on top and next to it the chocolate stand that DH saved from the dump.

Tired of looking at my room yet? Thought I would show you the gifts I made for the top four leaders of our school. Their term of office starts when we go back next week. Made each of them an altered notebook and a postit holder. Hope they like it.

Here are some close ups of the note books. All coloured with my beloved Copics and glitterified with Stickles. All cardstock is Bazzil and dp from my scrapbox. Ribbon is from my stash. The first one is for the SRC president, She has the loveliest black hair and this new WOJ stamp reminds me of her.

Next one is for the head girl, the'queen' of the school. She has the poise and grace of a real princess, so I thought this image would be perfect! Also a new one from the WOJ club.

Next one is for the head of Committees, she is an avid swimmer and water polo player, so hence the mermaid from the WOJ club.

Last, but not least, the head of Houses. She is responsible for the Spirit in the school, so out came the Cheerleader Tilda from my new Magnolia club. Coloured her in school colours and the poms are for the three houses.

Congratulations if you made it this far, this was a marathon post!

Have a great week everybody, see you soon!

WOYWW 116 = More new stash!

2011-08-24T07:01:00.005+02:00

Very good morning to all. I am pleased to anounce that my desk is still relatively clean. Two weeks in a row now, must be some kind of a record! LOL! You will see some really yummy new stamps on my desk today. The mini Maggies that I ordered at CHA and my Whiff of Joy Stampclub! They arrived yesterday and I have already stamped all of them, they are so gorgeous! The biggest problem was which one to colour first. There are some finished cards and I am sorry to say, the same photo's from last week (month? since Christmas?) waiting to be scrapped - mr. Mojo is not feeling the scrapbooking thing right now.
Here are some of the mini Maggies I used. The first one is an oval card cut with my Nesties. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the bling from my stash.

Another mini Maggie. How cute is she? Papers are from my scrapbox and a paperpack that came free with a magazine. Ribbon is from my stash and the sentiment from the Magnolia Spring Club from last year. Her wings were glitterified with Stickles once again.

The last card for today is the first one from the WOJ Club. How beautiful are those princesses from Elizabeth Bell? Paper is from the scrapbox once again, ribbon from the local habby store and so is the butterfly. All images were coloured with my beloved Copics.

My 4 scrapgirls are coming for a playdate tthis morning. They were here last week and as always I loved having them. It is very exhausting to work with 5 girls between the ages of 4 and 14, but very rewarding! Kids are so creative and not afraid to try a new technique at all. This afternoon a friend is coming to look at the samples I made for her son's wedding invitations.

All in all a great day ahead for me.

My thoughts and prayers are with my friends in America that were affected by the earthquake, I hear there is a hurricane heading their way too, so I really pray you all are safe.

Happy WOYWW everybody and don't forget to visit Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to find out what I am talking about if you still don't know!

WOYWW - You got me!

2011-08-17T06:57:00.003+02:00

OK, I admit, I was ashamed last week, very ashamed. More so because I got the messy award. It took me three days (yes, I am hanging my head here!) but... Behold! Its a work of art! My desk is clean. I put everything in its rightful place, which theoretically means that I should be able to find it again without too much bother. I managed to visit and leave a comment for everybody lasy week, so I do have some reason to feel good about myself!
Today is going to be a crazy day. I am babysitting my 8mo granddaughter, Gemma, for the day and my other granddaughter phoned her oupa to pick her up too. Tertia-Lee is almost 5, so not too much work, as long as I let her into my craftroom (EEEKK!!!), she is happy.
I am having my regular scrapbooking class too - 4 sisters between 4 and 13! Should be fun, it always is, but I don't know if I will still be able to walk after all of that. LOL I just remembered - my beautiful room!

I have been playing with some more La La Land Crafts stamps from CHA (I think I am slightly obsessed) and loving each one more and more.

All of them were coloured with my Copics and all cardstock is Bazzil. This one has little teeny pearls in her hair and her dress was glitterified with Stickles. The Dp is from a DCW paperstack that I got at CHA. Ribbon and trim is from Realy Reasonable Ribbon.

This one uses some freebie papers from a magazine. She had to get some real pearls of course and the shoes just 'had' to get the Stickle treatment. The die is another new one from CHA and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and my stash. The ribbon is from the local habby man.

How cute are these swimming stamps? This one was so bright that I did not need any more than one sheet of Kaisercraft paper. Even the 'ribbon' is from the same sheet of paper!

Here is the boy version. Don't you just love the goggles and feet? Papers are from a paperstack(DCW I think) the ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon and the charm from my local bead shop.

I have made 18 (yes 18!) La La Land cards this week, so I will show the rest during the next week or so.

Remember to pop over to Julia's blog ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to join in the fun!

Well, I better get my hair dried before all those girls arrive at my house, have a great day everybody.

CDAC Progressive Freebie challenge and more La La Land.

2011-08-12T15:09:00.001+02:00

The lovely Priscilla Styles has this Progressive Freebie Challenge on at CDAC ( http://priscillastyles.ning.com/group/cdac-progressive-freebie-challenges ) If you join before the end of August, you get 6 gorgeous free digi's and then you just use them to get more, how very clever and generous is that? I could not decide which one to use first, but then realised that I needed a card for my DD who happens to be a trained chef, so the choice was obvious!
The background paper is from my scrapbox, I think it might be Fabscraps, but I am not sure. The lace was punched with my MS punch and the image was coloured with my beloved Copics.
While I was at CHA there were so many make and takes. I could not do a lot of them, because it would have been impossible to bring home on the plane, but I did take some to make at home and these three gorgeous La-La Land Crafts stamps were some of those.

All coloured with my Copics and the mermaid's tail was glitterified with Stickles.

How cute is this Rollerskating Marci? My granddaughter is going to love her.

And last but not least, there was this beauty. All of them were easel cards and they are quite small, only 4x4 inches.

Sigh, now there are more of these beauties I HAVE to get.

Had a huge to do with my cellphone provider today. My service was suspended 'due to non payment' when the payment gets done by debit order! Took MTN 5 hours to fix the problem. I am proud to report that I did not lose my temper once and stayed relatively calm the whole time. My DH's phone was suspended too and no patience there I am afraid! All my fault (isn't it always?) At least we are both up and running again, so hopefully he will be calmed down by the time he gets home from work.

Have a great evening.

WOYWW and some CHA finds.

2011-08-10T08:03:00.006+02:00

I can not believe its been only a week since I have been back from CHA! So much has happened. I came back and had to organise a huge prize giving function at school (the old leaders were handing over their reigns to the new ones!) and my grandchildren (3 of them) are being Christened next Sunday, so invitations needed to be made and of course, I was itching to get my hands on all the new toys I got at CHA.
That is the reason for the mess on my desk this morning. I was hoping that it would look better if I took an artistic photo with sunbeams reflecting, but it still looks terrible LOL.It was so bad that I had to flee my craftroom last night and work on the couch!

Now the couch and the TV room looks just as bad as my craftroom! I think its time for a clean up, don't you?

One of my favourite finds from CHA was La La Land stamps. They are just too gorgeous! I bought a whole lot of them, because I could not actually find any that I did not like! For my South African friends - she has some Summer Christmas stamps!!! They were not quite ready at CHA, but I have ordered some if anybody is interested!

The first one uses some Prima and other flowers from my stash and some lace from Wild Orchid Crafts. Of course they were all coloured with my beloved Copics.

Here is a close up, hoping you can see how I glitterified her shoes and jewelery.

They have some awesome boy images. Don't know about you, but I always seem to battle with the boy cards. These images are so cute, this card just came together. The bread tag with the sentiment on is another new CHA find. The die cut is from My favorite Things.

Last, but certainly not the last LA La Stamp you will see from me is this gorgeous Cupcake Supergirl! Just love her! The sentiment is from My favorite Things. All other dies are Nestabilities and all cardstock is Bazzil and the dp all came from my scrapbox.

I am going shopping for paper - not for me, I have to make wedding invitations for a friend's son!

While I am gone go and snoop at all the other talented ladies' desks over at Queen Julia (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/)

Have a great week everybody, its school holidays so I hope to post more than once a week.

WOYWW - I'm baxk!

2011-07-27T06:04:00.003+02:00

Good morning everybody. I am sorry I missed last week, but I was having so much fun at CHA in Chicago, I completely forgot it was Wednesday!
So this is what is on my desk (my floor) this morning. Some of the goodies I brought back from America. Yes, I said some, because I could not fit everything into one photo and the kids have all taken their presents already LOL.
Most wonderful things there? My pink ATG of course! Now I no longer have to be jealous every time I see one on somebody's desk. Then there is my Copic Certification handbook! YAY me! I am now officialy Copic certified, the Copic shadows and shading book by Marianne Walker (I met her and she signed it for me!!!) A whole lot of stamps, mostly LaLaLand and My Favourite Things, all the make and takes from CHA and of course, just to prove I was really there, my badge!
It took me more than 48 hours to get home! First the plane had technical difficulties and we had to spend the night in Chicago, then there was bad weather and we were further delayed, so I am so tired today, but its back to work for me, have a great day everybody. I took loads of photo's so I will be back with more from CHA later.
If you do noy know why I would post my 'desk', pop over to Julia (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) and all will become clear.

One more sleep, so no desk today.... Sorry!

2011-07-13T20:40:00.003+02:00

I know I have been driving everybody stark raving mad, but can i just say it one more time please!!!!? I am leaving for CHA tomorrow!!!!! So no desk today, I am frantically trying to get everything sorted out at home before I leave.
I just had to come and say good bye though and leave you with some pics of my adorable grandchildren. I am going to miss them terribly while I am gone.
First, our little Gemma, already a Diva at 7 months old. She is the only baby I know that won't take the glasses off, she thinks she is just too cool! LOL

Then there's my namesake, Tertia - Lee. We took the 3 eldes grandies to the zoo last weekend and even though she was really sick, she did not want to stay home. See how pale she is? And.. she did not complain once the whole day.

My beautiful Hannah, 7 and so not fond of school. She is the most knowledgable little 7yo I know and yet, she struggles terribly ay school. It breaks my heart and I wish I could help her.

My beautiful boy, 9 yo Luke (I know he doesn't look so very beautiful on this photo, but he is at the age where he starts pulling faces the second he sees the camera! LOL) My super clever grandson, who sometimes scare me with his intelligence. I really hope he does not discover its uncool to be so smart. He promised to keep an eye on oupa and Skype me (yes, he has his own Skype) the moment he sees another woman near his oupa, or he catches oupa smoking - Its been 7 weeks since he stopped and so far he is doing great!

Now I have to run, but make sure you pop over to Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to get your weekly fix of desks.

See you all in two weeks, maybe next week, but even though I am taking the laptop. I am not making any promises.

Mo's free image = how cute is she?

2011-07-10T16:08:00.005+02:00

I hope I am not too late posting this. Mo Manning posted this freebie paper doll on Facebook and of course, if its one of Mo's I have to have it (even if its not a freebie, but shhh... don't tell my DH)
She was printed and coloured as soon as I downloaded her, but you know how it goes. One of my grandchildren got the Adeno Virus (nasty stomach bug!) and I had to take him for a day to give DD some rest, I wanted to play with him too, so it was actually for me and not DD that I offered. Then there is CHA that I need to pack for, and do some last minute shopping! Did I happen to mention that I was going on my blog before? Maybe once or twice? More like I am wearing you guys out by now, LOL.
Friday night we spent with old friends and only got home in the early hours of the morning - nothing like old friend and good memories hey?
Yesterday we took the three eldest grandies to the Pretoria zoo. Great day, lots of fun, but no crafting or blogging time for me. This morning my DS came to visit and we had a braai (barbeque for those of you that don't braai) One ray of sunshine in mid winter and we braai, so South African!
OK, now I have run out of excuses as to why I didn't finish my card, so here she is - al done and looking really gorgeous I think.

Here's a close up, hoping you can see the bling on her dress, shoes and bow. Paper are Bazzil and 3 bugs in a rug. She was coloured with my beloved Copic markers. Flowers are from Wild Orchid crafts and the bling and ribbon from my local Chinese market.
In case you missed it, let me remind you - only 4 more sleeps till I leave for Chicago!!!!

WOYWW 108 - At least something!

2011-06-29T06:00:00.002+02:00

I know everybody says it, so its very lame, but what happened to the rest of the week? Surely its not Wednesday yet!
At least I can happily report that my exams are all marked, marks are entered and now I can play without feeling guilty!
Last Saturday we had a craft group going at church and because my 2nd daughter has three children, she never gets out or has the time to do something creative or fun, just for herself, so I decided to treat her to the craft day. She didn't want to go alone, so I 'reluctantly' agreed to go with. What fun we had. We each painted a flower on wood, using texture paste and paints. I am no artist, but I do love my flower and DD's flower is already hanging on the wall in her house.
Lat night, after I finished marking (are you proud of me that I actually finished first? LOL) I started going through my e mails and found an ATC swap. I have never made an ATC (can you believe it?), always wanted to try, so I thought -why not? and promptly entered the swap. Then I started playing - the challenge is called 'got bling!". Whats the verdict girls? Should I abandon ship, will I totally embarass myself, or can I carry on and make the rest?

I played with some gold leaf (another first), some stamps and some bling. The background was inked first. I quite like the effect, just not sure its a successful ATC.

My desk I hear you ask. Well, there was no time for a photograph (thats my story and I am sticking to it!), maybe next week, when I am sure there will be a lot of things other than exam papers.

Go visit Julia (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ), you know you want to (NEED TO) see everybody else's desks!

Happy crafting till next Wednesday and just in case I forgot to share - I am leaving on a Jet plane in two weeks to go to CHA!!!!!

WOYWW - Its HERE!!!!

2011-06-22T14:35:00.002+02:00

Yes, its here - my PiF gift arrived today! I was so excited when I got home from school to find the slip from the Post Office saying there is a parcel waiting for me. I did not even have the usual cup of coffee, I just jumped right back in my car and went to get it.
I will keep you in suspence a little longer, because I first have to show you my desk. (If you STILL don't know what I am talking about, visit Julia at http://stamping=ground.blogspot.com ) Very uninspiring today - covered in exam papers that are being marked. Soul destroying sometimes. You pour your heart out to kids in the classroom and then when they write exams, you wonder if you were actually there teaching them, or if you only dreamt it. Some are fantastic though, so not too depressed this time round. Jut not happy that the pile does not seem to get any smaller

And here it is.... The fantastic leatherbound journal that Darcy made just for me! It is incredibly well made and so inspiring. I can not wait to start writing in it. All the pages are different, some fold this way, others that way - just amazing, and... on the first page, she left her mark. This fantastic work of art. LOVE IT, love it, love it. Now its back to the grindstone for me. More exams to mark. School breaks up next Friday for a week, so I will have to wait till then to be creative.

Happy WOYWW everybody, see you all next week.

WOYWW 105

2011-06-08T17:40:00.006+02:00

Lots happening in my life at the moment as you all know. Its been 13 days since my DH smoked his last cigarette. By his own admission its the hardest thing he has EVER done. He is really battling, but I am so proud of him that he has stuck it out for almost two weeks (don't tell him, but I never gave it more that 2 or 3 days! - Oh me of little faith.) He is back at work and looking better than he has in years.
Then there is the selection of leaders at school for the next term of office ( I ask myself a 100 times a day why I agreed to run the programme) I find it so stressful to make sure that all the girls have a fair chance and that we, as the teachers, don't allow our own personal likes and dislikes take over from fairness and common sense. We are only human after all.
Then there are exams starting next week, so I am in the middle of setting exam papers. That is why you won't find anything creative on my desk this week. I am not even in my craftroom, I am in the office, behind the computer. Can't even show you the last creative thing I did for the PiF thing. I have to wait untill it has been recieved - lets all hope it is soon and does not take African time to get there!

It is FREEZING here, 13 degrees max. ( I know that does not sound cold to some of you, but I am freezing and on top of the cold we are having unseasonal rain! If I wanted to be cold AND wet, I would live in Cape Town! It is not supposed to rain in winter here in Gauteng.

Hopefully by next week my papers will be set and the leaders chosen and I can be creative again. Untill then keep warm and send some sunshine this way please.

WOYWW 104!!!!!

2011-06-01T07:00:00.004+02:00

I can not believe that its Wednesday again and the 104th one since this obsession has started at that! Two years of stalking peole's desks every Wednesday and still no sign that anybody is getting bored. If you are one of the few people out there that STILL does not know why I would post about my desk, you NEED to go to Julia's blog at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to find out.

I am afraid that the only things you will find on my desk today are leftovers from last week. I did manage to make some cards for the Tickled Pink challenge, but that is about as far as I got. My wonderful DH had a massive heart attack last Thursday as some of you know and since then I have been concentrating on him and trying to keep myself from falling apart. He is fine, the blocked arteries have been opened and stents put in. He stopped smoking immediately and is finding it very hard, but he is perservering and I am very proud of him.

This morning he was in the bath and I was sitting on the toilet (lid closed!) talking to him when he came up with this gem: "Dear, you do know that if I had died last Thursday, today would propably be my funeral." That is when it hit me, I think, and I have been crying since then. Thought I would show you my die cutting and embossing area. Thats a mess too, I know, some containers of flowers were just dumped there. Think I need to remember what it says on the wall, just keep calm and carry on. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon in my household. Untill then I am so looking forward to the paying it forward part of this week, I can do with something beautiful just about now.

Have a great week everybody, see you next week.

Tckled Pink Challenge - my first one!

2011-05-30T17:32:00.002+02:00

I bought these Tickled pink stamps a while ago, but with everything thats happening in my life at the moment, mr. Mojo seems to have been AWOL. When my DH got home from the hospital on Saturday, I had some time to sit down and do some colouring. Aren't these stamps just too cute and best of all - they are DIGI!!! Which means I don't have to wait before I get them.
The challenge over at Tickled Pink Challenge blog is to use 3 patterned papers. I just love these Basic Grey papers and the fairie just screamed Autumn to me ( could be because its so cold here at the moment and everybody is wondering what happened to Autumn. We went straight from Summer to Winter) She was coloured with my beloved Copics and her wings were glitterified with Diamond Stickles. The flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Here is a close up of the darling fairy, hoping you can see the bling on her wings.

Here is another one of the Tickled Pink digi stamps. Its a birthday card for a friend. Papers are Melissa Francis and Bazzil. Ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

Have a great week everybody.

PS - My hubby is doing great! He's home and stopped smoking.

The right place at exactly the right time.

2011-05-27T17:01:00.004+02:00

Today I am in awe. In awe of God's great power and His hand that is so clearly visable in my life. My wonderful DH had a massive heart attack last night. He is going to be fine, but only because he was in the hospital when it happened.
He woke up during the night on Thursday with heartburn. Went to the kitchen in search of something to take for it and the felt pain in his left arm! Never woke me up to tell me and only told me the next morning that he got a fright because he thought he was having a heart attack, but he felt fine then and wouldn't hear of going to the doctor. He went off to work.

That afternoon he went to fetch DD to fetch her car from the panelbeaters (finally!) After that he decided to not go back to the office but to come straight home (very unusual for my workaholic man!). On the way home he felt another sharp pain in his left arm and jaw. He said afterwards that it was only the e mail that his friend had sent him about a month ago about the symptoms of heart attacks that made him phone me and ask me to make an appointment to see our dr.

The dr did an ECG and everything was normal. Thank goodness he is such an amazing dr., he said that although he didn't think it was anything serious, he did want to do some more blood tests. An hour later he phoned my DH on his cell phone and told him that he needed to go to the hospital. DH had a thousand stories, but when the doc. told him that he is waiting for him in ICU he got a fright and said he would be there.

I packed his bag and off we went. The hospital is about a kilometer from our house and when we got there the lady at the front said he had to go to ICU while I fill in the forms.

Apparantly he walked in and told the nurses that he did not really belong there and that he must be the first person ever to walk into ICU by himself. He had them all in stitches and then, just as he sat down, he had a massive heart attack. I was told afterwards that if he had been 5 minutes later, we would have lost him.

So thats why I am in awe of God's timing. How perfect is His timing that DH was exactly where he needed to be in order for his life to be saved.

WOYWW - Has it been TWO weeks?!

2011-05-25T16:25:00.003+02:00

I can not believe that it has been two weeks since I have had time to sit behind the computer to blog. Lots happening at school (setting of exams, choosing leaders for 2011-2012 and, and...). Even more happening on the home front. (DD's car had to be fixed, DS's car broke down completely and he had to get a new one, other DD is struggling financially and we had to help and, and...) So sorry girls, but blogging had to take a back seat,
On my workdesk today you will find this wrapped box! It is being delivered tonight. It is my eldest daughter's 32nd birthday today.
Inside the box you ask? I know my sister is jumping up and down right about now. LOL Ever since we were children she has hated a wrapped present and if you took too long to open it, she would just 'help' you open it, so here it is just for you Berdine, the contents of the box.

A beautiful cup cake gift card holder in Daniela's favourite colour - purple. Ribbons and flowers are from my local Habby shop. Paper is by Melissa Francis. I also added a Pandora bracelet that I made at a fraction of the cost of a bought one. All beads are from Paradise Crafts

And a matching necklace.

I am really hoping to not be gone for weeks again.

Just in case there is somebody out there that hasn't heard it or, just maybe I have never mentioned it before -I am going to CHA in July! All tickets and Accommodation is booked, VISA is in my passport, so now I just wait very 'patiently' for July.

Happy crafting everybody.

WOYWW 101 - I tried, I don't know if I conquersd.

2011-05-11T06:09:00.004+02:00

Its all your fault WOYWWers, I saw all those incredibly beautiful Journals and I just had to try my hand at it. So today you will find my attempt on my desk. It doesn't really look like it did in my head, but I guess its a start,
In the background you will see a folder containing part of my scrapping from the Mega Crop I attended on Saturday. I am determined to finish it before I forget about it. Here is a close up of my journal. Love that texture paste! Will have to do some more work shading that tree, it looks a bit flat to me. What is the verdict girls? Carry on with this, or stick to what I know?

Thought I would share some of my cards. I recently got some more Mo Manning images and they were just too cute - I had to use them immediately. The papers for the first one are from a paperpack that came free with a magazine. The border is a MS punch and the ribbon and charm from my stash.

The next one is a lot more colourful. I used papers from my scrapbox. The cardstock is Bazzil, the ribbon and cherry charm are from my stash and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The last is another one of Mo's images (I just adore her images!) Its called 'Newly hatched" The papers are all from my scrapbox and I sewed them onto the background. Cardstock is Bazzil and the ribbon and the flower are from my stash.

All of these images were coloured with my beloved Copics of course.

Hope you all have a great week.

Before I forget, did I tell you I am going to Chicago in July? My VISA was approved, so now its just waiting for July thats killing me.

WOYWW 100 - I'm late, I'm late!

2011-05-04T16:02:00.007+02:00

I am very late today, sorry girls, but life is hectic! We started ( actually the builders did ) building a very large verandah (for my South African friends - 'n lekker groot stoep) in our backyard, I had to go for my VISA interview at the American consulate. My DD had an Epeleptic seizure while driving and drove into a ditch (thank goodness nobody was hurt!) and I was on Granny duty for the last few days.DH just phoned in a panic, the Building supplies are closing at 5 and I HAVE to go and buy something RIGHT NOW!!!! Don't you just love it when they think that you can just drop everything and run when they need you?
SO, before I tell you about all the photo's I have to run. Be back soon with more.
OK I'm back. Went there, bought what DH wanted, loaded it into my tiny little car and drove the 8kms home in about an hour in peak hour traffic.
Now for the desk - As you can see, I am proud to present a clean workspace. You will see the e-mail I printed out to get the address for somebody I promised some stamped images. There are some jewelery cord and yes, there is the obligatory chocolate!

And here I give you, my newly resorted bookshelves. On it my beads, sorted into colours. There is also my art journal - OK, my empty journal, I bought it and the Gesso and the texture paste and the paint and I will be trying my hand at it soon ( I hope! ) I have all these ideas in my head and all the inspiration I can hope to get from all the wonderfully talented WOYWWers ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )
I thought I would show you the card I made for a friends birthday. I found a great tutorial and true to form couldn't find the link when I wanted it. The image is a Maggie and was coloured with my Copics. The papers are freebies from Papercraft Planet. The border was done with a Martha Stewart punch and the lace is from Really Reasonable Ribbon. I used some flatback pearls on the cake.

The ribbon is from my stash. Here is a close up of the image, hoping you can see how I glitterified her dress and flowers with Stickles. The bacground was chalked (Haven't used chalks in such a long time! Forgot what a lovely effect it gives.

And the closed card. Ribbon and flower are from my stash.

By the way, My VISA was approved so Chicago here I come! i think I am going mad, here is the close up. I am blaming it on old age and the fact that I am so excited about going to CHA that I can't think straight.

WOYWW 99 = I cleaned, people!

2011-04-27T08:55:00.003+02:00

Now, don't faint people, I actually cleaned my desk - you are not seeing things (or yes, you are seeing things, I mean you are seeing empty space and recognizable stash, I mean, ...ah man, you know what I mean don't you?) After last week's humiliation, I thought I'd better put some things in their designated spaces in my craftroom and not just leave them on my desk. Very hard work I tell you.
I have been very busy crafting wise, I have made some more jewellery ( my DD was on holiday, she's coming back today, so I don't know how long I will be able to call it 'my' bracelets!) On my desk you will see some 3x3 cards I made with some mini Maggies I found while I was cleaning. There are also some coloured images lying on Dp I am planning to use and you will see a packet of stamped images ready to go to a fellow stamper in Carolins (that's Carolaina, South Africa!)

How do you like this baby? Its a cake made up of boxes. I saw it somewhere on my browsing trips, but could not find the link when I needed it (I was so sure I saved it) Then it hit me - my son is an architect! I paid thousands to put him through Varsity, surely he would be able to design something like this?! I phoned, explained on the phone - sounded like gibberish to me - and this is the result! He designed three different variations for me (apparently he enjoyed the change from work) and he even put a difficulty grading on each LOL He is now going to design a two layer cake - we will wait and see!

Cool photo don't you think? I love close up shots. Thats a EK puch and some liqued pearls. Here they are, behold, the famous elusive bracelets! Loved making them and really hope to keep them.

Today is another public holiday here in South Africa. Its Freedom Day, exactly 17 years ago today, we had our first truly free and fair democratic elections. Exciting times to live in Africa.

Have a great day everybody and remember to go see Julia the big boss over at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/2011/04/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday-99.html?showComment=1303887414760#c7760589054821966078 )

Did I mention that I am going to America in July? Tickets are booked, hotel is booked, VISA appointment is on the 3rd of May.

WOYWW .You thought it was bad before, did you?

2011-04-15T08:08:00.008+02:00

Good morning desk stalkers. My name is Tertia and I am a slob. I tried so hard to keep mydesk neat and tidy, but not in this lifetime I think. Today I actually have somebody else to blame, YAY! I had a friend over yesterday for a 'play date' and its her you see, she is the messy one. She came into my room, messed it all up and then left - rude, don't you think?
The first photo is her side of my craft table and you can clearly see just how messy she is. The next photo is my side of the table. Far more interesting, don't you think?

I tried taking it from another angle, to make it look better, but I think its actually worse LOl Yes, that is chocolate cake you see and not just any chocolate cake, TRIPLE chocolate cake! The colddrink is diet though, so its perfectly balanced, well, thats if you don't count the Lindt chocolate thats lurking somewhere on the desk.

Here is the fruits of all that mess. Do not faint people, I actually scrapped! I found this great sketch on Lets Scrap and my friend did come over to scrap, so what could I do. I am so far behind in scrapping, these photo's are from 2009.

Thought I would show you close ups of some of the detail. I just could not do anything without flowers now could I? You will notice that most of the LO uses Bazzil Cardstock. The blingy strip was simply painted with glitter glue and left to dry, I love the effect and will definately use it again. The dp is from my scrapbox and the flowers are from Wild Irchid Crafts. The ribbon is from Paradise Crafts.

Last week I promised I would show you some of my birthday pressies. I realised that most of them don't photograph so well. My wonderful husband bought me a ticket to go to CHA in July AND a new laptop! He's a keeper. I also got a Footspa from a dear friend and with my Birthday money from the Birthday club I hit the local beadshop. This is the result of that shopping spree. My DDers claimed the bracelets I made, so no pics, sorry.

And lastly, thats if you made it all the way here, I leave you with this thought:

The post I did about my girls on leadership camp, just brought this home to me. As a teacher, this is my motto, because I have seen so many 'hopeless' kids make great successes of their lives just because somebody, somewhere did not give up on them.

Have a great week everybody and don't forget to visit Julia at (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ )

WOYWW - Something is wrong.

2011-04-13T18:07:00.003+02:00

I have been struggling for a large part of the day to get my photo's uploaded. Something is wrong, either with my computer or with my camera, but the photo's just do not want to upload to my computer. I did the next best thing, I found a photo that looks more or less like my desk. I have put away the punches and the marking is done and dusted! Its school holidays, Yay! If you are wondering what I am talking about go to Julia's blog ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) and join the band of merry desk stalkers. I was hoping to show you my wonderful birthday presents, but because of the camera issues you will just have to be satisfied with my latest creations. I have been making some cupcake giftcard holders. Not as professional as some that I have seen around blogland, but I like them.

The first is a pink one with some matching cards. I am thinking of making these as invitations for my granddaughter's party. The papers are from Paper Explosion a local company and so are the stamps.

The next one is a set that I made for the lady that works in the school's office. She needed something for a wedding she is going to. The colour scheme is silver, green and orange. So I decided to concentrate on the silver and just use splashes of the other two, what do you think?

The card uses a stamp from LOTV and the trim is from Wild Orchid Crafts. The papers are from my scrapbox. Cardstock is Bazzil.

Here is a close up of the cupcake. I found the ribbon at Dubai Centre in Benoni and bought about 20 rolls - they are so cheap and I do need more ribbon don't I?

Hoprfully I can get the camera issues sorted and then I can show you my pressies. I got my Passport today (had to sit and wait 2 and a half hours just to collect it, but I am so grateful it only took two weeks, I am not complaining! So, Chicago here I come!

WOYWW and how did I get so lucky?

2011-04-06T18:50:00.003+02:00

I know I am terribly late this week, but it could not be helped. Its Wednesday and time for WOYWW (Confused? Go to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see what its about)I just got home from a four day camp. Every year we take all our Grade 11's on a Leadrship tour. It serves two purposes: They cover part of their Life Orientation Curriculum and it helps us to choose leaders for the next term of office. This year I have been put in charge of the camp and the leadership programme. Quite a daunting task. So this is my 'workdesk' this week. It is at times like these that I remember why I became a teacher in the first place and why I love my job! These photo's tell a story of two girls. One that is about to give up and the other who just will not let her. A girl who overcomes her worst fear to help a friend achieve a goal and the amazing breakthrough that comes after all of it. Theses two girls were team mates. Put into teams by us specifically to prevent friends from being together and to force the grade to get to know some of their school mates that they would normally not even talk to and then they are given tasks that can not be done alone and relies totally on the help of a 'stranger'. In this photo, the girl on the right is about to give up on climbing the tower. (she is petrified of hights!) The rest of the tean on the ground is shouting encouragements and telling her that if she gives up, het partner can not reach the top of the tower. The girl on the left is desperate to achieve her goal, but she is telling her partner; ' Its OK Carolyn, if you can really not go on, I will understand and if that means I can not touch the top of the tower, its OK, I will never hold it against you'. By this time, Carolyn is weeping ( and so am I)

Here she climbes to the last rung. From there they can touch the top! Natalie is sitting next to her, by now also weeping, knowing how hard it was for Carolyn to do the impossible! They stand up together and touch the top in unison. Not a dry eye left on the ground either!

Back, safe and sound on mother earth, embracing each other and crying from relief? Adrenaline? and sheer joy at the realisation that together there is nothing they can not do. I am so proud to have witnessed this today. Proud to say these are my girls! I am so very blessed to have a job where miracles happen on almost a daily basis.

Hope you all have blessed Wednesday filled with small miracles of your own. School breaks up on Friday, so next Wednesday its back to my craftroom.

Looks BAD!!! WOYWW

2011-03-30T07:18:00.008+02:00

Well, good morning to all you WOYWWers out there. It looks like a warzone in my craftroom at the moment. After last week's cardmaking frenzy to have enough stock for the art expo at school, I just did not have the energy to actually clean up too, because I got a few orders to do from the expo. and tried to get them out. My DD finally moved into her first little place and we helped with the move over the weekend, so you see, not lazy, just busy (thats my story and I am sticking to it) On my desk you will find a little bit of everything I own I think. Lost my glasses somewhere there, so if you happen to see them, let me know. Visit Julia at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) to find out why I would show you my mess. Here are a few of those cards. The first one uses a Mo Manning image, I love Mo's images, they are so easy to colour. It was coloured with my Copics, cut out with Nesties and given a little Stickle treatment. Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from Kaisercraft. The next image has been lying in my 'coloured images box' for about a year. I coloured her without looking for dp first and then discovered I had no dp to match so in the box she went. Found this Dp last week but in my haste to finish the card I cut off the info strip and threw it away before I made a note, sorry. The hearts are from some ribbon I got from Really Reasonable Ribbon. Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and my stash. I would like to enter this card in the Crafts and Me challenge that calls for YELLOW this time. You can find them here ( http://craftsandmechallenges.blogspot.com/ ) This card was a special order. It had to be a tennis player! Have you ever tried to find a stamp like that? Finally tracked down a free childrens colouring page that I resized! Papers are from my scrapbox, cardstock is Bazzil and the Flowers are from Prima (the big rose) and Wild Orchid Crafts. Ribbon is from my stash. The inside of the card has a pocket with cards in the shape of tennis balls for everybody to sign, Really hope she likes it.

I am off to the dr. and to try to get my passport sorted out! Just my luck, they announced last week that passports will be double the price from 1 April, so now every African alive (including me LOL) is trying to get one - wish me luck!

My baby girl left home today and some cards

2011-03-26T20:20:00.003+02:00

I have just stumbled back into my house after helping my baby girl (23) moving into her own place. She has been living on her 'own' for the last three years while studying, but that was not really leaving home yet, because she still came home most weekends. Now that she is teaching, she needs to stay closer to her school and found the loveliest place. Its on a smallholding where the owner built six apartments. Lots of security. I am sad to see her leave home for good, but also very proud that she is spreading her wings and flying like a pro!
Here are some of the cards that I made for the art exhibition at school. I apologise for the bad pictures, but I was so busy that I clean forgot to take pictures untill I was at the exhibition and the lighting was not ideal for photo's.
The first one is a Bugaboo image that I have had coloured for a very long time. She was coloured with my Copics and the heart and collar got some Flowersoft treatment. The flowers and seam binding are my new delivery from Wild Orchid Crafts, aren't they just gorgeous? The lace border was cut with a Nellie Snellen Die, Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from Paper Explosions.

The next three cards all use images fom Mo Manning. I just LOVE her images. All cardstock is from Bazzil and all images were coloured with my Copics. Dp is from Paper Explosions.
The green dp in this card is Melissa Francis. I used my MS punch for the heart border and the seam binding and flower is from Wild Orchid Crafts.

This one got some Stickles on the star and the ribbon is from my stash.

This image was cut with a Nellie Snellen die. The pillow got some flowersoft and the bunny some fluff. The trim is from Really Reasonable Ribbon and I added some blue pearls.

There are a whole lot more where these came from. If I have time tomorrow (have to go back to DD's new place with the last bits and pieces and hang her pics and her lounge curtains) I will post some more.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

WOYWW

2011-03-23T17:02:00.002+02:00

I left home at 6h15 this morning and only walked back into the house at 17h03 South African time, so thats why I am so late today. I can't believe its time for WOYWW again. At least I have something to show for this week, I did not walk into the house empty handed, I collected a parcel from the Post Office. My order from Wild Orchid Crafts YAY!!!
Cut the box open at lightning speed and then remembered it was Wednesday, so ran for the camera (If you are wondering what I am going on about, visit our leader Julia at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) and you can also become an addicted stalker of desks!)

And here it is, in all its glory and so worth the wait! Lots and lots of lovely flowers and some trim and some seam binding, yummy stuff I tell you.

I have been crazy busy making cards, because the art teacher at school asked me to do a display of my cards at our school's annual art exhibition. Murphy's law my stock is at an all time low, so sorry everybody, I can't stay and chat, I have to start making some cards. The exhibition is tomorrow, so maybe I will be able to show you all my hard work on Friday.

Have some other very good news to share - I am going to America!!! CHA here I come. Need some advice from those of you that are pro's at this. Where do I stay (gotta be cheap, remember I pay in Rand) , what do I have to do and see and buy? Well, any advice would be great.

Have a fantastic week.

WOYWW and card thats a little different

2011-03-16T06:06:00.005+02:00

I am happy to report that my desk is still presentable. Not squeaky clean, but still not messy. In the foreground you will see my new Martha Stewart punch and my new stamps, still unused. You will see the container with all my inks to your right and in the background to your right are my containers with brads and other small embellishments and in the middle at the back my dreaded marking. It seems like it never wants to end. Just as I finish one lot, the next lot appears. (Oh well, the lot of a language teacher, I suppose.
Here are all my stamps. Thought I would show you how I store them. Most are in CD boxes. I am slowly but surely taking all my other stamps off the wooden blocks and mounting them so that they take up less space. On top you will see all my Copics and the plastic containers hold my inks, flowersoft, Stickles etc. Now that I am looking at the photo, its obvious that it needs a good clean. If you are wondering what this is all about, visit our leader, Julia at (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) .

I made a card that is very different to my normal style, but I actually really like it. The background is from the WOJ Spring kit and the little Tilda is from Magnolia's Spring kit. The images were coloured with my Copics. I used my new MS punch 9see, thats why its still lying on my desk, and some Flowersoft for dimension. Apart from that, its Bazzil cardstock and BG dp and some ribbon from my stash. Do you think this qualifies as a CAS card?

Have a lovely week everybody, hope to see you soon with some more Maggie cards.

Sugar Nellies, why did it take so long?

2011-03-14T21:56:00.004+02:00

I got up on the 1st of March at 6 o'clock to buy them, coloured them that same day and made cards within that week, so why am I only showing them now? I don't know. I have had Bronchitis and my DD was really sick with a throat infection, but I still can't believe it took two whole weeks, must be getting old.
These two baby cards uses the new Adorables from Sugar Nellie and aren't they just too adorable for words? The papers are all Bazzil cardstock and bits and pieces from my scrapbox. The lace is from my mom's sewing box and the ribbon from my stash. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and my stash.

The next one uses some of the new things from Hobby ex. The die cut is a new one and so is the dp, its from Paper Explosion, a local company. The flowers are very old Primas that I have had for ages, and the dragonfly brad is from my stash

How adorable is this little boy? Just love him. He was coloured with my Copics just like all the others. Dp is from my scrapbox. (I am very proud of the fact that I am looking in the scrapbox first, before I cut into new paper.) They were all cut with Nesties and the ribbon is from my stash again.

I have started playing with my new Magnolia Spring kit that arrived in the post on Friday and really hope it won't take two whole weeks to show you.

Have a great week everybody.

WOYWW and no. thats not all the ribbon I have!

2011-03-09T05:48:00.003+02:00

I am proud to report that my desk is still clean, one whole week and a whole lot of cards later. I went to Hobby ex with one of my blogging buddies Ursula and did some shopping, so on my desk you will see the spoils. Some beautiful paper from a local company Paper Explosion. Some new stamps, some tiny little pom poms and some velcro closures (I can feel some boxes coming on) and an embossing plate which I can't seem to figure out how to use. I have put all of these away in their proper place since I took the photo. If you do not understand why I am showing you my beautiful, clean desk then head over to Julia at (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to see what is going on there and join in on the fun.
At Really Reasonable Ribbon (http://reasonableribbon.blogspot.com ) they are looking at different ways of storing ribbon this week. As most of you know, I am a bit of a ribbon junkie, so I begged my DH to help me with storage and this is what he came up with, the best ribbon storage I have ever had. Dear man did not think I could ever fill it, but I proved him wrong very quickly. This is not the only way I store my ribbon, just how I store the rolls of ribbon. If you look carefully, you will see some ribbon hanging in the right hand corner of the photo. Pieces that are too short to go on a roll, gets sorted by colour and hung on the side of my stamping shelf.

At the bottom you will see my book bags, full of tests that need to marked TODAY and the roll of net curtains? They are for my DD's new flat. She is moving in at the end of the month.
That's me for today folks, I better get back to marking those tests and stop blogging during my free periods!
Have a great Wednesday, see you soon.

The last of the new WOJ Spring kit/

2011-03-04T11:35:00.001+02:00

Good morning everybody. Yes, you read right, its still morning and I am posting. No, I am not bunking, school I finally gave in and went to see the dr. yesterday. Turns out I have Bronchitis, on top of my lungs being weak it has really hit me hard. Thank you for all your concerns and good wishes on my previous post. I have some serious antibiotics and a whole lot of other meds, dr. says I will be up and running by Monday. Boring being at home all alone, so thats why I came to chat.
The next card was made with some more of that wonerful dp from the local firm Paper Explosion. The quality is really nice, I think I found a new favourite brand.
She was coloured with my Copics the punch is a new one and the ribbon is from my stash. I did follow the sketch from Friday Sketchers, bur seeing that it is Friday today, I think I am late.

This one uses my favourite, OK ONE of my favourite colour combinations. The dp is from Melissa Francis. The lace is from my mom's sewing basket, so it must be quite old. The ribbon is from my stash.

Thats all of them except the bacground stamps which are just as delightful, I just ran out of EZ mount, but found some at the Hobby Ex yesterday, so watch this space. First I have to play with my new Sugar Nellie Adorables.

Have a fantastic day.

Sad today.

2011-03-02T21:43:00.006+02:00

Please note: This is my second post for today. The WOYWW post is below this one.
Before I tell you why I am so sad today, here are two more cards from the new WOJ Spring set.
How cute is this little one with her pot of honey? The paper is from my scrapbox, the ribbon from my stash and the flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. The lace from my moms sewing box.
The paper for this one is from a local company, but in my 'wisdom' I cut the paper into 6x6 squares when I was tidying my scraproom this weekend and cut the info off. I think its Papercrazee! (Edited to add: Its from a company called Paper Explosion http://paperexplosion.co.za/ ) - any of the local girls? Please help! The little flowers were punched and the pearls in the centre is from Paola.

Now onto why I am sad. If you don't like the personal stuff, stop reading here.

I haven't been feeling well for a few weeks, but tried to hide it from the family, Every time my breathing becomes difficult, it scares me a little and I get this urge to clean up and throw away everything that I don't need. Crazy and stupid, I know, but I don't want somebody else to clean up my mess if I can't.

Well, today I started cleaning my classroom at school. Purging big time. Threw away worksheets from 1997. Who keeps things that long? As I was going through every piece of paper, and there were lots of it, I found some unexpected treasures. Photo's from the time when I coached Cheerleading and my squad were the National Champions, photo's of My DD Anke and myself, from the time she was at the same school, she was about 9 or 10, and then I found something that made me cry.

Why do you think the funeral letter of my mother's funeral would be in a box at school? Not only the letter, but all the correspondence we had arranging the funeral. The note she left, telling us she wanted us to choose the cheapest casket there was, find out the price for the most expensive and donate the difference to a charity she had been supporting for a long time. The note from her Bible with all her favourite songs and her favourite scriptures.

I also found the eulogy I had written and could not do myself, I asked the minister to read it. All those memories came flooding back (It was 1992) and they were just as painful as they were then. I remember that my dad said, when I asked him whether the pain ever goes away, that he did not know, he thought it would be better after 28 years, but he would let me know. Turns out his mom had been gone 27 years then.

I remember her smell and her ability to hear God's voice. I have always said that if I could have any of my mother's traits, I would choose her ability to hear God and listen to what He says. How desperately I miss her today and every other day. If you still have your mom, treasure her and hug her from me.

I remember how she always knew just what to say, even if it was not what I wanted to hear. I remember her honesty and her courage, her selflessness and her love for all God's people. I remember her creativity, her wonderful stories - I still believe in Fairies because of those stories and the way she loved my father so much that she sent me home with him that last night.

I was determined to spend the night with her, at her bedside and to let my father go home to rest. When he left, she called him back and asked where I was going to sleep. I told her that dad was going to rest and I would stay with her, she actually got quite agressive and insisted that I go home with dad and come back the next morning.

I remember turning around and asking her if she knew that I loved her, she answered that she knew that and she knew something else too. When I asked what, she smiled and quoted the whole 'Jesus loves me'.

Dad and I went home and got a call about an hour later to tell us that she had passed away. For a long time I blamed myself for listening to her and not insisting on staying with her, untill I realised that she loved my dad so much that she would rather die alone than have him be alone when he heard the news.

I am sobbing as I type this, but it is very healing and I thank you for reading this if you made it this far.

Sleep well my friends.

WOYWW - WOJ Beauties

2011-03-02T16:20:00.002+02:00

Is it Wednesday, is it March? You have to be kidding me. Its WOYWW again and this time it gives me great pleasure to show you ladies and gentlemen..... behold .... my desk! Its a thing of beauty this week. It took me two of the four days of mid-term break to clean it up, but it was so worth it. Suddenly Mr. Mojo is back with a vengeance. Could it be because I can find things again? LOL
I finished a record number of cards in the last week. I have used every single image of my new WOJ kit on a card and as you can see I bought (don't tell DH, I used his credit card) the new Adorables from Sugar Nellie as soon as I woke up yesterday and started colouring as soon as I got home from school. To the left of my beautiful desk you will see my embellishment shelf (the recycled chocolate stand) and on the bookshelf my flower collection all neatly colour coded in containers. How did I manage to collect THREE containers of white flowers?

And here are some of the beauties from the WOJ Spring kit. They are all coloured with my Copics. I used Melissa Francis dp for this one. The flowers are paper flowers from my stash and the centre brads are fom WOJ and came with the stamps. The sentiment is also WOJ and the swirl is from Prima that I coloured with Copics. The pink lace was cut with a Martha Stewart punch.

Then, just as I finished, I remembered those awesome, tiny, flatback pearls I bought from Paola and I had to make another one. The dp is from my scrapbox and the swirl is the leftover from the previous card. The trimming is from my stash.

The next image is rather big and I did not think it needed any dp, so only Bazzil cardstock in this one. I cut the circle with my MM circle cutter (see what you find when you clean up?) and the scalloped circles were cut with my Cricut. The bling is from my local Habby store. Plain and simple, but very effective.

There are four more to show you, but this post is getting very long, so hop on over to Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )

Have a fantastic week everybody.

WOYWW and more wedding cards

2011-02-23T18:56:00.002+02:00

You did not seriously expect a clean desk two weeks in a row now, did you? When I got home from school yesterday the postie had delivered my whiff of Joy Spring kit. What is a girl to do? Of course I had to mount and stamp immediately! So on my desk you will see the first coloured image with all the papers and embellies I am considering to use.
And to the left of that, my Copics at the ready. Waiting to get to work on the other stamped images. They are absolutely gorgeous, I am so happy that school closes tomorrow for mid-term break, a whole four days of crafting awaits! Hop on over to Julia's blog at (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )to have a peek at everybody else's desks,

I did have some time to play over the weekend. I made two more wedding cards for friends. It seems to be wedding season at the moment. The first one uses a sketch from Mojo Monday ( a very old one) Cardstock is Bazzil, Dp is Making Memories, the ribbon is from Realy Reasonable Ribbon which I stamped. The image was a freebie with a magazine a while ago.Bling is from my stash.

The next one uses the LOTV image again and the same MM paper as the previous one (I am not sure why it looks so different in this pic. The ribbon and dragonfly are from my stash.

I hope you all have a fantastic week, I am a happy girl because I get to play with my new stash and there are some new orange paper in my LSS that is calling my name. (keep me a few pieces Audrey please!)

Sketch Saturday and LOTV

2011-02-20T19:24:00.006+02:00

I have been incredibly busy these last few weeks. It is silly season at school, meaning that everything is happening at once. Between marking tests, attending school functions and reading my girls' blogs there has been virtually no time for crafting. I was going mad and becoming grumpy, so this morning I decided to set the marking aside and make some cards. I am feeling a lot less grumpy, but a lot more stressed about those tests waiting for me, oh well, some you win, some you lose.
The first card is one I made for a friend who asked me to make a card for a 21st Birthday. It is for a young man who loves playing guitar and loves cats too! Not easy, I used two digi stamps. The rocker boy is from Squigglefly and the cat was a freebie some time ago, I can't remember where I got it.

I used the fab sketch from Sketch Saturday ( http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ ) All cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is from Kaisercraft. The wooden buttons I found at my local Habby shop. The image was coloured with Copics and the guitar and his shoes were given the Dimentional Glaze treatment.

The next card is for the LOTV challenge. They are asking for your favourite colours ( http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ ) If you had to ask me what my favourite colour is, I would answer - colour! I love any colour, even black, so this was a real challenge. I went through my photo's of cards over the years and discovered that this combination popped up very often. Cardstock is Bazzil, Dp is Melissa Francis. The flowers are Prima and some I found in my Habby shop and coloured with Glimmer Mist. The lace is from my mom's sewing box and the ribbon from my stash. The half pearls I bought from Paola and the image was coloured with my Copics and her wings glitterified with Stickles.

If I do not go and mark those tests right now, I will never finish before tomorrow and then there will be a whole lot of disappointed girls, so better I go mark now.

Have a great week everybody, see you soon.

WOYWW, LOTV Challenge etc,

2011-02-16T15:12:00.004+02:00

I am on the run. Have to be at the Pulmonologist in an hour so I HAVE to leave RIGHT NOW!!! As you can see, not much happening on my desk today. I am sure there are far more interesting desks over at the stamping ground, so go check it out. ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ )

Here are some cards I made this week. The first one is for the LOTV challenge, a fantastic sketch. I will come and add more details as soon as I get back tonight, I promise.

OK, I am back from the good dr. Good news people, it seems thst for the first time in years, my lungs actually improved!! How amazing is that? I am not imagining the fact that I am actually breathing better these last few months. Lets pray that it stays like that for the next 6 months.

On to the cards. The first one was made with my new LOTV satmp that arrived last week. I am so excited to finally have a LOTV stamp. I made this for a friend who's son is getting married in two weeks time. All Cardstock is Bazzil and the siver card I have had for a very long time. The Dp is actually a piece of wrapping paper. The ribbon is from my stash and the keyhole from Melissa Francis. The next card is one I made at a demo at one of the local craft shops on Saturday. They are thinking of starting a cardmaking class, so lets hope that actually happens. I thought that my favourite Sugar Nellie digi's would be perfect. (Have you seen the new Adorables that will be available at Funky Kits on the 1st of March?) She was coloured with my Copics. The papers are from Melissa Francis, the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and from my stash. The butterfly is from my local Chinese shop. The last card I made is my favourite Magnolia stamp. Isn't she just adorable? She was coloured with my Copics. Cardstock is Bazzil and Dp from my scrapbox (I am starting to make a serious dent in that scrapbox) She was cut out with a Nestie and the border punch is from Martha Stewart. The gorgeous ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon and the flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Thats about it. I am off to read my girls' blogs, we are halfway now, so be patient with me a little longer please, I will be back commenting on everybody's blogs soon.

Have a great week everybody.

WOYWW Dustin Pike meets Elizabeth Dulemba

2011-02-09T19:22:00.003+02:00

Its Wednesday (yes Annette, I do say wed - nes - day every time I type the word, but I am Afrikaans and thats how we were taught.) and that means we are all heading off to Julia's blog to join in the stalking of other people's desks in the hope that there is one, somewhere out there that looks worse than ours. (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )
This week I am not posting a photo of my craft desk, in fact, its not even in my craftroom, but... this is where I have been spending most of my time these last 9 days. In front of my computer, reading between 50 and 60 blogs a night. Some crazy teacher (I think it might have been me) got it in her head that she was having so much fun blogging that it would be a great idea to let the girls in her class do a creative writing project where they have to create a blog and post a photo every day for 30 days and blog about it. Stupid woman never thought that she would have to read all those posts and comment on ALL of them, because the girls get very hurt if she doesn't.
The only silver lining to this very dark cloud is that some of the girls are starting to talk about carrying on with blogging after the assignment finishes - catch them young I say. They are also looking at their 'old' teacher with new respect, they could not believe that I actually have a blog of my own and the biggest surprise? "She's actually got some followers guys!'

I have been able to squeeze in some cardmaking. ( I would suffer withdrawel symptoms if I didn't). Made some very quick Valentines cards. All cardstock is Bazzil and all papers are fom my scrapbox. All images were coloured with my Copics. The first image is one of Dustin Pike's images, I just love that elephant.The ribbon is from my stash and the buckle from blog candy that I won a while ago.

I am in love with dragons and this one is a new freebie from Dustin Pike. The ribbon is from the ribbon club at Really Reasonable Ribbon. The little hearts are from the blog candy again and so is the charm.

This dragon is super cute and is from Elizabeth Dulemba. I adore her images. Although they are actually colouring pages, they work very well on cards and they are a dream to colour. I glitterified his wings with Stickles.

This image is by Elizabeth as well. The image was cut with my Making Memories circle cutter (yeah me, I am using my tools that are covered in dust!) The heart trim is from Really Reasonable Ribbon again.

Wish me luck with reading all those blogs. I will try my best to visit some of your blogs too, but I can not make any Promises.

Have a great week everybody.

Hanging my head in shame (Lynette, moenie hier lees nie)

2011-02-02T17:41:00.005+02:00

I am really hanging my head in shame today. There is a huge difference between creative chaos and a 'hot mess' and what we have in my craftroom today, is a 'hot mess'. That is why I am only showing you a very small portion of my workdesk. To my shame, I have not yet put away the flower containers that have been on my desk since last week, in fact, they have been joined by even more flower containers and... and... and, so I am not showing that today. You will see some red embellishments that I bought to finish Lynette's birthday present. I adore the wire hearts that I found at Creative Talents. For fear of incriminating myself, I am not saying another thing about my desk. If you would like to know what I am talking about, check out Julia's blog here: ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ )

I thought I would show you what caused the 'hot mess'. I made a birthday present for my dear blogging friend Lynette. Hope she likes it. I think you are bored with the new Sugar Nellie stamps, but I can't help myself. Before I know it I am busy colouring another one! I made a set of cards for her and then needed a box to send them in. Found a cheap box that really needed to be altered, so here is the finished box. Papers are Making Memories, Cardstock is Bazzil. The image was coloured with my Copics. The flowers are by Wild Orchid Crafts (how beautiful are those tulips?) and from my stash. The butterfly is from Creative Talents and so is the wire heart.

Here is a close up of those flowers. They were all given a liberal Stickle coating.

Inside the box I put some cards and some flowers for her.

And here are the cards. All Sugar Nellie digi stamps. You can buy them from Funky Kits. I think the embossed paper is by Doodlebug, but I am not entirely sure. The ribbon is from my stash and the beads from the local Chinese shop. I do apologise for the bad photo's but it has been raining here all day, so the light is really bad.

This one uses ribbon found at Habby and Lace. I just love that I didn't have to gather it myself.

The next one I used paper from my scrapbox. yeah me! The ribbon is from my stash and the lace from my late mother's sewing box.

So what do you think? Will she like it? I really hope so.

I am off to read the blogs that the girls at school started as a creative writing exercise. I hope they like it as much as we all do and that some of them will carry on blogging long after the project finishes.

WOYWW - Actually not what, but who?

2011-01-26T18:43:00.006+02:00

I know everybody says so every week, but I can not believe its Wednesday already. Who stole Friday, Monday and Tuesday? Come on, own up, who was it?
I took the photo's for WOYWW early this morning before school, but did not have a chance to upload them. My daughter has a parents meeting at her school tonight, so Tertia-Lee is sleeping over and coming to school with me tomorrow. You know how it is, if the grandchildren are around, there are far more important things to do than blog - things like making necklaces and crowns fit for princesses. After her bath she disapeared into my craftroom to 'work', so I thought I would quickly upload the photo's from this morning. This is what I found when I walked into my craftroom to fetch my camera and I could not resist. She has her own little spot at my craft table, but ouma's spot is far better.
I did manage to visit everybody again last week, even if it did take me till Monday night. :) If you are wondering what I am talking about, hop over to Julia's blog and join in the fun. (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com )Not so sure I will make it this week though, because I got all the girls in my classes to start blogging and that means that I have to visit and comment on 84 blogs every day, so forgive me if I don't get to all of you this week.

On my desk you can see a finished card that is part of a set that I am making for a friend as a Birthday gift. You will also see some coloured images, ready to go on cards, other than that there is not much happening. My desk actually looks very tidy (for me that is exceptionally tidy!) Yes, those are nuts - I am trying to eat a little bit healthier. I don't know why one person would need that many white (thats one of two white containers) and red flowers, but I can assure you, I do NEED them!

To the left of my workdesk there is this rotating paperback book stand that I rescued at school when the librarian threw it out. I was planning to paint it orange to go with the tablecloth and curtains, but other things were more important, I might still do it one day, when the pink becomes too irritating.

Next to the stand is my die cutting station, with my Cricut ready to go. The poster on the wall is supposed to help me see things in perspective, but it doesn't always work. Next to that is the chocolate stand that my DH rescued from the dump, filled with all my little embellishments.

That's all folks.

Hope to see you before next Wednesday.

Have a great week.

WOYWW - I didn't want to, but I was forced to!.

2011-01-19T06:03:00.005+02:00

Horror of all horrors, I cleaned my scraproom! I really didn't want to, but my scrapping group is coming over tonight for the first play date of the year and there was NO space for them at the table, so I had to clean. ('the table' is actually two tables pushed together to form one)
Whats left on my workdesk? Some happy mail. I won some blog candy from Tilly McLeod in Nieu Zeeland and that arrived yesterday. She gave away her extra copy of a magazine she was published in (beautiful cards!) and added some gems - some fantastic ribbon, some flowers and gems and some wonderful charms, even a stamp with my initial, Thank you so much Tilly.
You will also see a coloured Mo manning digi. Can you believe that I have 11 shades of green cardstock (I kid you not!) and none of them is the right shade of green!! I had to go and buy some today. If you think I am joking, cast your eyes to the left of 'the table' and you will see my collection of cardstock and my ribbons too.

If you have no idea why I am showing you my workdesk, hop over to Julia's blog and all will become clear. ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) I made it through the whole list again last week. Could not leave comments for two of you because mr. Blogger was being rude. Will try again this week, but I am not making any promises.

Don't you just love this little fairy, I found her at Funky kits. She is coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Nestie. Cardstock is Bazzil and dp is from Basic Grey. Ribbon and flowers are from my stash.

The next fairy is a freebie I found somewhere in the early days of blogging before I knew to remember who designed them, so if you recognise her, please let me know so that I can give credit. I think she is absolutely gorgeous Cardstock is Bazzil again and the dp from a DCW glitterstack. Flowers and ribbon are from my stash.

I covered her wings in Stickles, hope you can see in the close up. If you spotted it, yes, I forgot to colour her pencil and only noticed now.

Have a great day everybody, I am off to stalk all the other WOYWWers.

WOJ Challenge.

2011-01-17T16:02:00.005+02:00

I don't know about you, but I just love Whiff of Joy stamps. It really frustrates me that they are not readily available here in South Africa, but I discovered if I order them directly from Whiff of Joy, they are in my postbox within a week. Now even for somebody as impatient as me that is wonderful. I just recieved my new Henry Mouse stamp last week, so I had to play this weekend.This is the fabulous sketch by Jane that is up on the challenge blog. ( http://wojmondaychallenge.blogspot.com/ ) Loved it, so I had to play!
Here he is.. The cutest mouse in blogland!
He was coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties. The papers are from my scrapbox, so I don't know the manufacturers, except for the spotted paper which is from Queen of Hearts, a local South African company, the cardstock is Bazzil. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and from my stash. The doily is from my local supermarket. The sentiment is also a new one that I got from WOJ.
Hope you like Henry as much as I do..
Henry also fits the Wild Orchid Challenge (http://wildorchidchallenge.blogspot.com/ ) which is 'Lets get sentimental.
Have a fantastic week everybody. Its raining cats and dogs here and I am starting to get worried about my house getting flooded. We have had so much rain in the last couple of weeks that the water is not draining away any more. Makes me think about all those people world wide that have had to evacuate their homes.

The Sugarbowl and Sketch Saturday.

2011-01-16T17:43:00.005+02:00

What a wonderful weekend I have had! Time to play. I even made some cards for some challenges.
The first one is for the sketch on the sugarbowl challenge blog (http://sugarbowlblog.blogspot.com/ ) The stamp is a digi from Funkykits called 'Dreamcatcher" I have had her for a while and she has even been coloured for a couple of weeks, but I only got round to making a card this weekend.
Cardstock is Bazzil, Dp is from Melissa Francis and DCW. She was coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties.

I added a lot of Stickles to her dress and wings. Hope you can see in the close up.
The next card is for the Sketch Saturday challenge (http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/ )

The image is a freebie from Digital Doodling. Cardstock is Bazzil and Dp is Making Memories and DCW. The flowers are from Wild Orchid. The image was coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties. The sentiment is handwritten.

Both cards fit in with the Stamp Something Challenge where anything goes. (http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

How crazy was the cricket yesterday? Losing with one run, so not cool! I am going to sit in front of the TV and vegetate for the last few hours of the weekend. Have a great week everybody.

A sympathy card and here she is... my big girl!

2011-01-15T13:35:00.002+02:00

I don't know about you, but sympathy cards are not up there with my favourites. I needed one quickly for a friend who's son was killed in a car crash. The image is a freebie from Marjie ( http://marjiesmalarkies.blogspot.com/ ) . Coloured it with my Copics, cut out with Nesties.
The dp is some of my favourite Basic Grey papers. The ribbon is from my stash.
Lynette, these are for you. You asked me to post pictures of Hannah's first day, so here she is. Brother reluctantly posing with his sister, pulling faces.
How big does she look? I get all teary eyed just looking at these pictures. My beautiful girl, all ready for school and so very proud of herself when she got home, because: 'You know what, ouma? I was the only one that didn't cry! Those children are silly, don't they know school is fun?'

Oh, how I hope that school will remain fun for the next twelve years. It took her mom ages to do the plait, but Hannah insisted that she didn't want 'wild' hair on her first day.

And then I couldn't resist. The obligatory photo of her school shoes. There is just something about shiny new, slightly too big school shoes that makes my heart melt. How far do these two little feet still have to go. My prayer is that God will send His angels to walk with her in those shoes and protect her from hurt.

Have a great Saturday everybody, I'm off to watch the cricket and make some challenge cards. Tonight we are going to friends for some Eland steaks, can't wait! Bernard, our friend, is a master when it comes to cooking game.

WOYWW and then some more Sugar Nellie.

2011-01-12T06:36:00.004+02:00

I have exactly 5 minutes to finish this post, then I have to be out of here to go and take photo's of my granddaughter, Hannah, its her first day of 'big school' today! My desk is very messy this morning, because I did not feel like tidying last night when I finished playing (Inever feel like doing it LOL) You will see the leftover Basic Grey paper I was using, my Nesties, a container full of awesome ruffled ribbon that I found, two more baby jesey's (my DD knitted them, but doesn't know how to do the neck bands so it reverts back to me. There are some CD's I was listening to, trying to make up my mind which lyrics to use in my classroom in stead of boring old poetry. There are the leftover paperdolls that I am busy making for my grandchildren, and... as you can see a million things at once as usual.
I made it all the way through the list last week and commented on every one = feeling very proud of myself. Don't knoe if I'll manage this week, because school has started.
Go to Julia's blog ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) and join in on the fun, you get to peek at other people's crafty desks, very interesting!

Finally - here are two more of the adorable Sugar Nellie stamps that I used to make cards. Gotta run now, will be back later with all the info.

OK, I'm back. Survived the first day of school without any lasting damage to my brain. (I think)

Both cards are some of the new Sugar Nellie digi's, coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties.Cardstock is Bazzil and the red spotty dp is from my scrapbox. Ribbon and flowers are from my stash.

The next card is the adorable Grace. She looks so sweet! Dp is from Bo Bunny and the spotty piece was a freebie with a magazine. Flowers are Prima and from the Chinese market. The cardstock is a very hot pink piece that was lying around in my craftroom, I think it may have originally belonged to one of my granddaughters.

Have a great Wednesday everybody, I am off to have a peek at everybody's desks.

Sugar Nellie's awesome new stamps! and some other challenges.

2011-01-10T16:57:00.006+02:00

When I first saw these new stamps from Sugar Nellie, I knew that I had to have them, not just some of them, ALL of them. Thank goodness they are available as digi's, I think I would have burst if I had to wait for weeks for them to make their way to South Africa.
The new challenge on the Sugar Bowl blog is a fab sketch and an optional extra of embossing. (http://sugarbowlblog.blogspot.com/ ) There are so many entries, but I had to play with my new stamps, so here she is, Verity is her name. Cardstock is Bazzil, dp is from a local company, Upikit, its double sided and I used both sides. The striped side has been glitterified and is absolutely beautiful! The image was coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties. The pearls were white before I attacked them with my Copics.
The next two cards both use the same sketch from the Totally Gorjuss challenge blog (http://totallygorjuss.blogspot.com/ ) The first one is Faith. I coloured her with my Copics and cut her out with my Nesties. The dp is from another local company, Fab Scraps, cardstock is Bazzil and the flowers are from my stash. The yellow cardstock border was cut with an EK border punch.

The next one is Joy, I think if I had to have a favourite, she would be it. The dp is Prima and ribbon and lace is from my stash. Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and from my stash.

Here is a close up of her. Isn't she just gorgeous? Almost forgot, I found the butterfly at my local Chinese market.

All of these cards also fit the challenge over at Stamp Somethimg. (http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com )

School starts tomorrow for us and on Wednesday for the children, so there will be a lot less playing happening here. I do have a few more cards that I made with the new Sugar Nellie's that I will show you tomorrow.

I am so upset. I went to school today for a couple of hours, just to sort out my classroom and for grade 8 orientation. When I unlocked my classroom, I found that somebody stole my computer, key board, mouse and DVD player from my classroom during the holidays! So frustrating. All my class notes were on there, so now I have to start all over again!

Have a great week everybody.

Finally a peek at all those things I made.

2011-01-07T19:32:00.006+02:00

First there is this card that I made with a Sugar Nellie stamp (and yes, I checked, its right this time! I hope) I made it for the leader of the Cheerleading squad that I coach to say thank you for all her hard work.
The paper is from my scrapbox. The flowers are Prima and some from the Chinese market. The beaded pins are from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil and the image was coloured with my Copics.
Here is a close up of her and the flowers. Aint she sweet?

Here follows the rest of what was on my desk, or some of what was on my desk. LOL

The jersey that I knitted for little Liam, its supposed to be summer in South Africa, but we have had some cold spells and very rainy weather lately, so ouma had to make a plan to get the two littlies something warm te wear. True to form, little Gemma's jersey disappeared before I could take a photo.

While my eldest daughter could not drive after having her baby, it fell to me to drive her around. One of the things I had to take her to was a jewellery making class. Now I couldn't just sit there like a blob, could I? I had to join in and then the inevitable happened - I got hooked!

This is what I made for myself. I am quite proud to say that I had no help in making this one apart from a picture and instructions in a local mag,

Here's a close up of the cluster at the end. Gorgeus don't you think?

And last but not least, here is the cupcake giftcard holder that I made for my DD who's birthday was on the 28th of December. My first try at one of those, but you can bet it won't be the last one I make.

Just ordered some more yummy Sugar Nellie new releases in digi format, so I am off to play! Have a great evening everybody, maybe I will have something exciting to show you tomorrow.

WOYWW

2011-01-05T22:38:00.002+02:00

Its What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, so pop over to Julia's blog ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday.html) to have a peek at what everybody else is busy with. You might be lucky and see a desk even messier than mine, even though I doubt that is possible.
At least I know one thing for sure today. I am not going to get this wrong, because its my desk and I know exactly who made the mess! I admit, it was all me and nobody else. You will see remnants of at least 4 different crafts lying around. There's the jewellery I made as Christmas presents, the giftcard holder for DD's birthday on the 28th of Dec, some knitting and of course the remnants of a last minute card for DH's best friend who's birthday is today.

In the background is a framed piece of art that somebody asked about. So here it is, the whole picture. It is a piece that my daughter did as part of her portfolio for her final year at school It actually has a long story attached to it and if you would like to hear the story one day, I will tell you. I decided to frame it with all her scrolls that she recieved in High school. We only included one of each for every sport and cultural activity, but she actually had 3 or 4 for each activity. Her blazer was covered in scrolls. Normally we don't actually make a big fuss of rewards in our family, because I try to teach my children that they should do things because they love it, and not because they will get rewarded for doing them, but because I want to be reminded of the story behind this drawing, I decided to frame it. It serves as a constant reminder of my child's resiliance, loyalty to team members and her ability to bounce back when many would just give up.
I will show you some of the results from the mess on my table tomorrow, because I have to run now, DH is shouting for some attention.
Have a great evening.

NOT AGAIN!!!!! New beginnings.

2011-01-03T19:29:00.006+02:00

Edited: I can NOT believe I did it again! I got the stamp wrong! Got excited for nothing - Somebody pointed out that the stamp was a Penny Black and not a House Mouse stamp. I feel SO STUPID! I blame it on old age. (That's my excuse and I am sticking to it!)
I was so excited when I recieved a card in the post today telling me to collect a parcel from the Post Office. I could not wait and went to fetch it immediately. What did I find, my blog candy from Jay-Jay. This adorable House Mouse stamp. Of course I had to ink it up immediately. Then, when I read my daily inspirational blogs I discovered that Curt posted on a Monday (he usually only posts on a Wednesday) - his post? He is part of the House Mouse Challenge Blog blog hop ( http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-beginnings-blog-hop-for-challenge.html). I think its a sign. Especially since the challenge is 'New beginnings' and I think this little stamp is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with House Mouse stamps.

The dp is Making Memories, cardstock is Bazzil. The image was coloured with my beloved Copics. Lace and ribbon is from my stash (I used my brand new Bow Easy that arrived in the mail last week) The little blingy heart was a gift. The sentiment is a digi freebie and I forgot to check by who.
Here's a close up of the bow and heart, beautiful, don't you think?
It is raining cats and dogs here. In fact, my garden is saturated, the water does not even drain any more. Not complaining though, we really need good rains.
Have a great day everybody. I'll be back soon to show you some of my other crafty endeavours.

OOOPS - Not LOTV Challenge - New beginnings and a few Christmas cards.

2010-12-30T16:33:00.007+02:00

The challenge over at LOTV ( http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ ) Is "New beginnings", You can interpret that any way you please - new baby, new year, or simply new stash as I have done. I used my new LOTV stamp (Edited to add: My good friend Paola pointed out that this is NOT a LOTV stamp, but from Kanban. Hanging my head in shame, that will teach me to look at the stamp again before I blog. Thanks Paola ) and my new Martha Stewart punch.
The dp is Melissa Francis, the cardstock is Bazzil and the flowers are from my stash, the image was coloured with my beloved Copics and given the Stickle treatment.

Here is a close up of the image, hoping you van see the glittery wings, wand and tiara.

Next is a couple of Christmas Cards that I never got around to showing you. All are very Clean and Simple. No time for elaborate cards this year. All images are digi images from Just Inklined and Bec's place, coloured with my Copics. Cardstock is Bazzil and everything else from my stash.

Don't you just love that pointsettia?

Thats it from me for today, I have to finish my potato bake for tonight's 'braai' (barbeque) at friends. Have a lovely day, see you soon.

Peace.. at last!

2010-12-29T06:39:00.003+02:00

My DH and son are off to play gholf (in the rain), Ankie has slept over at a friends after a house warming party, so I do not expect her home early. Daniela is still not allowed to drive and Karin celebrated her birthday yesterday, so no chance of them visiting early today. Peace and quiet at last! (Does that sound very selfish?) I have not done much in the line of crafting since my two grandchildren were born - I have been too busy playing and then there was Gemma's cot curtains that needed to be made and my own net curtains kinda disintegrated from old age and needed to be replaced in a hurry (Don't you just hate making curtains?) And then, Daniela is not allowed to drive after the baby and her DH works in Polokwane, so ouma had to do all the driving around for her, and then it was Christmas and then DH's birthday on the 26th and DD (Karin's) birthday yesterday.... so you understand why I have been MIA. Here they are, the two cousins on Christmas day. Aren't they just adorable? Wearing their shirts, designed and made by their uncle, just for them. These shirts have become a tradition in our family. Every baby that is born, gets one from him. For those of you that don't understand the Afrikaans, it reads: 'My uncle is the best"

And the back says,: 'no really, he is the best.' Cause for a lot of laughs and comments, but you don't understand... I wish I had an uncle like him. His very first salary ever, the first thing he did was buy toys for all the nieces and nephews. He gives the most amazing gifts. The kids all adore him. He is the only young man I know, that will take three kids under 8 to the circus or the zoo for the day, or on the Gautrain all on his own.(Can you tell I am proud of my son?) My biggest wish for him? That he will meet a wonderful girl and have his own children one day.

Here he is! The proud uncle, holding both babies! He would not give them back to their mothers untill they needed feeding and then he did so reluctantly! They were fascinated by him and kept looking at him. Eventually they both fell asleep in his arms.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and did a lot more crafting than me. I hope to get something done today and will be back to show you soon,

Have a wonderful day everybody.

And baby makes 5.

2010-12-09T08:35:00.005+02:00

Just a very quick post to tell you all that baby number two -little Gemma - was born yesterday at 9h30 in the morning. She weighed 3.3kg and is only 49cm long. Short and chubby, like her ouma. Just loading a quick pic of the family, my DD, SIL, Luke and Hannah with little Gemma. All so very proud.
Gemma was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her little neck. Thank God that there was no serious injury. Mom and baby are both doing very well and should be able to come home today.
The title of my post? Not obvious to you? There are now 5 members to the Webber family, but also... and this is the great part, we now have 5 grandchildren! I knew I would be rewarded some day for not killing my kids during puberty!
Gotta run, have to take DD no 1 to the dr. for a check up and then have to fetch Hannah and Luke from school, and I have to finish the curtains for Gemma's cot TODAY (hanging my head in shame because its not done yet), hopefully before she gets home from the hospital.
Have a great day everybody, if there is time later (and I can muster up the energy) I will post pics of cards made this week.

Blue Christmas -Sunday Stamptacular challenge.

2010-12-05T21:31:00.006+02:00

The new challenge at Stamptacular Sunday (http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/)is "Blue Christmas" I thought this card would fit perfectly! The image is a new one from Sugar Nellie. I can't believe how quickly they made it to my door after I ordered them! Fantastic service.
She was coloured with my Copics, the stars on her dress and her wings were glitterified with Stickles and the fur trim on the doggie's hat was given the Flowersoft treatment. She was cut out with a Nestie. The dp is from Fab Scraps, a local South African company (Love their papers!)

Cardstock is Bazzil. The ribbon is from my stash and the paper doily from my kitchen.

I have been very busy all weekend, making curtains for our new baby's cot (will show you as soon as I am finished) and playing with grandchildren. I had three of them for sleepovers since Friday. (Great fun, but very grateful they have gone home)

Its my last week at school this week, so hopefully I will get some crafting time in between the grandbabies and DH that will be on leave too.

This card also fits the following challenges:

1. Stamps R Us - Holiday card (http://www.stampsruschallenges.blogspot.com/ )

2. Dutch Dare =Winter/Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

3. Secret Crafter- Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

4. 2 Sisters challenge-Sparkly Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

Welcome baby boy!

2010-11-29T22:02:00.005+02:00

Warning: Lots of photo's today!
I was asked by a grade two class to make a card for their teacher who is having a baby boy. The image is from a local shop, so, like always, there is no manufacturer anywhere on the stamp. It was coloured with my Copics and the wings were glitterified with Stickles. The flowers, feathers and bling are from the local Chinese shop. The ribbon is from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil and dp is Pebbles inc. Apologies for the bad photo, the colour is much nicer in real life!
Here is a close up of the image. The colour on this one is better. The image was cut out with a Nestie and the background was embossed with a Swiss dot Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The inside has tags for all the girls to write personal messages to their teache.

And here he is... my brand new little grandson and his sister. She is so proud to be a big sister.

She could not stop looking at him and was thrilled when he gripped her finger and wouldn't let go.

Here is the proud new mom with both her little darlings. Note the England babygrow - not my idea, but his father insisted. We made very sure that he has a Springbok outfit to wear (I actually think every member of the family went out and bought one, LOL)

Here is oupa, introducing Liam to his big sister. Such a precious photo.

There is just something so very special about a baby's feet. Look how small they are when his sister holds them.

Mom and baby are both doing very well. We thank God for the safe delivery of our precious little boy.

Have a great week everybody, I'll be back soon, but for now I am going to be very busy playing with my new baby!

FALLing for you - Stamptacular Sunday

2010-11-28T17:42:00.003+02:00

The new challenge over at Stamptacular Sunday(http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-87-falling-for-you.html ) is: 'FALLing for you'. You are supposed to use only Fall colours. I thought this birthday'card' that I made for my granddaughter's teacher, fits in perfectly.

She is in the Butterfly class, so the instructions were simple - my teacher likes yellow (lello) and orange and it MUST have a butterfly. Each child in the class was given a tag (I forgot to take photo's) and one of the mothers went in to school on a day when the teacher had to attend a meeting and had every child put her fingerprint on a tag. The fingerprints were turned into little girls by my daughter and the moms wrote a message on the back of the tag.

I made a box for all the tags and put an easel card on top. The stamp is a freebie digi stamp that I have had for ages. It was coloured with my copics. All the cardstock is Bazzil and all the flowers are from the local Chinese market. The sentiment was hand written.

My granddaughter spent the night last night because her parents attended a wedding. This morning I got a phone call from my SIL to tell me that my daughter had been admitted to hospital with a severe bladder infection. The possability is there that my grandson will be born early tomorrow morning. So I get to spend some more quality time with Tertia-Lee. Please say a little prayer that all goes well for mom and baby.

Have a fantastic week everybody. Hope to see you soon with some baby pics.

Kenny K DT Call.

2010-11-21T18:57:00.005+02:00

Who does not love Kenny K? I don't know a single person that would answer yes to that question. Every time I make a card with a Kenny image, everybody just adores it. It is so hard to find stamps that are appropriate for teenagers and men and when you do, you have to wait ages for them to arrive in the mail (living in South Africa often means it takes for EVER to get here or it gets 'lost' in the mail) so the instant gratification that you get from digi stamps really appeal to me.
It took me a while to decide that I would actually apply for the DT. It would be such an honour to work with such awesome people, it almost seems impossible.
Here they are, my two favourite cards (actually I can't really choose), but the first one is definately a favourite.

See, you can't do this with rubber stamps - I flipped the image and stuck it over the back of the image on the fromt -no ugly back here!

This was for a friend's birthday. She loves jogging and listening to music, so this image was perfect.

The next two cards are ones I just finished today. I LOVE these sassy Christmas gals. My son always complains when I make traditional Christmas cards. This year there won't be an "Ag no, ma, we live in Africa, why do you always make winter cards?' from him. LOL Still deciding which one to give to him and which one to give to DH.

The image was coloured with my Copics. I added some Flowersoft to the fut and some Dimentional Glaze to her boots and belt. The cardstock is Bazzil and the DP is from my scrapbox. The ribbon and bell is from the local Habby store.

This card was made with all the same products, just a different piece of dp from my scrapbox. Both images were cut with nesties.

Well, here's hoping for the best - holding both thumbs and saying a little prayer.

Have a great week everybody. I had a very fruitful weekend, so there will be something to show you almost every day for the next week.

13th Birthday invitations.

2010-11-19T17:52:00.005+02:00

Where have I been? What have I been doing? you ask, Well, I am drowning in marking exam papers. 5 hours worth from every girl I teach! I have been sorting out insurance for my car - R41 000 worth of damage! (Thank goodness for insurance!)

AND.... I have been making Birthday Party invitations for a very special 13 year old girl. She is the daughter of a friend and comes to me regularly to scrap. Her mom is taking a couple of her friends to Gold Reef City (for those of you outside South Africa, its an old mining town that has been restored and is now an amusement park.) They are going to have photo's taken there that look like they are about a hundred years old. Complete with the right costumes. So we thought we would make her invitations to suit those photo's. Everybody expected it to have roller coasters on, but when have you known me to do the expected? LOL
Mom found a photo of her when she was 4 years old, playing dress up with her little sister. we scanned it and enlarged it and then changed it to sepia. How cute is she? All papers are Bazzil. The photo and mat was cut out with a Nellie Snellen die. The flowers and pins are from my stash. Ribbon and lace from my stash as well.

Made three different colours and I can't decide which one is the nicest.

Here is the whole lot together. Quite a job, but the smile on that little girl's face made it all worthwhile.

Have a great weekend everybody - next time I see you I might have a brand new granddaughter - my daughter's waters just broke.

A Thank You, A Christmas card and A reminder to be grateful.

2010-11-15T06:12:00.002+02:00

Still very busy, but I did manage to get some cards in (actually, I needed to make some cards to take my mind off things LOL) The first card is a thank you for the very wonderful lady that works in the school office - I owe her more than just a card! The wonderful image was a freebie at Just Inklined (its no longer a freebie, but you can purchase it here (http://www.justinklined.com/ )It was coloured with my Copics, I coloured three images and cut out sections to give it some dimention. Other than that there is just some Bazzil, a left over piece of Melissa Francis paper and a lot of love.
The next card is a new digi that I found (true to form, I forgot to write down or save the link, so if you recognise it, please let me know) Coloured with my Copics again, cut out with my new Nellie Snellen die that I bought at the craft fair and glitterified with some stickles. The paper is a left over piece from my scrap box and the ribbon is from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil.

Here's a close up so that you can see my bad colouring (I was in a really bad place when I coloured this one!:)) and the Glitter around the feet.

Now to the reminder to be grateful. (personal ramblings, so stop reading now if you find it boring). I have just had the most horrible weekend. It all started on Friday.

You know by now that it is exam time at school. My grade 11's wrote both their Afrikaans papers on Wednesday. They actually moved the papers to start the exam earlier than first intended. I saw the original time table and was asked if I would mind if it was changed- so I thought that that would be the only change. How wrong can you be to assume things. I intended to finish typing the grade 10 papers this weekend and hand it to my HOD for proofreading today, so that I could fix it and hand it in for copying in time for the 22nd. Something (I am sure God sent an Angel), tapped me on the shoulder at about 11h00 on Friday and told me to double check the time table. No time table on the notice board in the staffroom, so I walked all the way to a gr. 10 homeroom class to check and..... you guessed it, they are writing TODAY!!! I wanted to vomit. I got such a shock, I could not even think straight for a few moments. Anyway, to spare you the long story = I rushed home after school, typed the paper, e-mailed it to my HOD, she fixed it, e-mailed it back, I fixed it and printed it. On Saturday morning the lady from the office came in to copy my paper (see why I need a thank you?) and collated it. Crises averted. Thank you God for that nudge to check.

But wait.... There's more..... On Saturday was my other daughter's Baby Shower. I used my DH's bakkie, because I needed to take tables, chairs and everything else to the venue. He used my car to go to DD no 1's Nursey School to be Father Christmas at their annual Christmas party. At about 11h30, I got a call from DH: "I am so sorry" he said, "I just had an accident in your car" I thought he was joking, but no, its no joke. The car had to be towed away! He's OK, the car is not! My baby, she has less than 20 000km on the clock and this happens! I wanted to be angry, but then I realised - if he was in his old little bakkie, he would have been dead, because my car has so many safety features that his doesn't, if he was in the bakkie, he wouldn't have been wearing his seatbelt, the only 'injury' he has is a bruise from the seatbelt. Thank you God for making sure he was in the right car.
Have a great week everybody, see you soon.

Can you help? PLEASE!!!!!

2010-11-10T20:50:00.003+02:00

No, I am not dead. I am just drowning in work. It is end of the school year here in South Africa which means that I have exams to set (done 2 out of 4) and then I have to mark all those papers before we close at the end of the month! In the mean time two of my daughters are expecting in the next month and we are having the second stork party on Saturday.
So, no time for crafting at all! I decided that I might as well show you all some of the cards I have made that never made it to my blog. Propably because the photo's are so bad. The image is from Sugar Nellie. It was cut with a Nestie and coloured with my Copic markers. The dp is from a local company, Upikit, and the cardstock is Bazzil.

Here is a close up of the image. Hoping you can see the Flowersoft on the teddy (It looks really nice in real life!) and of course I had to glitterify something - look closely at her boots and her belt.

I have been asked to make a birthday card for a 5 year old little boy, trick is - granny wants me to use super heroes and make the card inter active. Any ideas? I am stumped.

Then I have to make hats for a friend to put on gifts that she wants to give to the members of her chapter of the Red Hat Society. Anybody know of a link where I can find a template.

Mojo Monday.

2010-11-01T20:26:00.004+02:00

A very good Monday to all. I have had a wonderful, but very tiring weekend. It was our annual family reunion and my brother, sister and I were responsible for the arrangements this year. Very stressful, but worth it in the end. We decided to get together for only a day this year, because most of us are a bit strapped for cash in this economic climate. In spite of the fact that there were two weddings on the same day, we still had about 75 people at the reunion and everybody that was there had a fantastic time. My son in law (born and bred in Manchester) attended his first one as part of our family and walked away with the trophy for the best "potjie"! Not every day an Englishman wins such a very traditional Afrikaans cooking competition. He has not let that trophy out of his sight.
On Sunday the whole staff went to a show in honour of our school's secretary that is retiring after 35 years at our school. She is an amazing woman who knows all 850 girls in the school by name! We all love her and I don't know if we will ever be able to find anybody to replace her. All of those things meant that there was no crafting this weekend, so I just had to do something this afternoon when I got home.
This card is based on the sketch over at Mojo Monday (http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/ ) Such a fun sketch to work with. The image is a freebie from TLC ( http://createwithtlc-createwithtlc.blogspot.com/ ) I printed it directly onyo the dp by Making Memories and then coloured it with my Copic markers. The other dp is from Bo Bunny and the cardstock is from Bazzil. The ribbon and lace is from my stash. I cut the mat out with a Nestie. The sentiment was stamped with Versa ink and embossed in gold.

Here is a close up of the image. Hoping you can see the glitter on her wings and on the dp.

Have a great week everybody. See you very soon.

Oh Baby, WOYWW!

2010-10-27T21:31:00.002+02:00

I can NOT believe it has been so long since I posted a WOYWWpost! Life just happened so fast around here, my head is still spinning and then of course mr. Mojo went AWOL (shh..... he's back, don't want him to leave again). so not much happened on the creative front.
This is my desk today. Still messy, even though I spent a long time cleaning up in mr Mojo's absence. My excuse is that my DD borrowed one of my craft tables (the other half of my workspace) for my granddaughters birthday party on Sunday and hasn't returned it yet, so everything was just moved onto one table and left there.

This is what it looks like on my right. All those yummy new flowers and ribbon I bought? It wasn't me, it just jumped in my trolley when I bought curtains for my new grandchild's crib, I promise. I only noticed it when I got home. (Thats what I told DH when he asked - don't think he believed me, wonder why not?)

And here are the baby cards I have been working on tonight. I apologise for the bad photo's, but they have to be delivered tomorrow morning so there is no other time to take a photo. The stamp is a local one, not sure which company. All cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from my scrapbox. The ribbon was found in my shopping trolley.

This image is an old favourite. Its my go to stamp when I need a baby card. Also by a local company. All papers are the same as before. Images were coloured with my Copics and the charm is from the local bead shop. The images were cut with Nesties.

Have a great day everybody and remember to check out Julie's blog to see what is happening on everybody's desks. http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Welcome back Mr. Mojo - I think....

2010-10-25T19:36:00.004+02:00

I think Mr. Mojo might have snuck into the house while I was sleeping last night. Not sure that he is working at full pace yet, but it is such a relief to have him back, I am not complaining at all.
This is a birthday card for a friend. The stamp is from Crafty Individuals. I stamped it on very old book pages that was inked with my Colorbox cats eye inks. The butterflies were glitterified with Stickles. I stamped it a second time on acetate and cut the butterflies out for dimention. Made the bodies with gems and added some Stckles to the back of the wings.
The dp is Basic Grey and some left over pieces from my scrapbox. All cardstock is Bazzil. Don't really know if I like this one, what do you think?

The next two cards are exactly the same, just different colours. I have to make a start with my Christmas cards. It is one of Mo's images coloured with Copics. The dp is from Fab Scraps ( a local company) and the cardstock is Bazzil.

The lace I found in the local habby store and fell in love with, you will see a lot of it on future cards I am sure.

Here is a close up of the image. I am hoping you can see the Dimentional Glaze on the Bauble. It looks very good IRL.

Hope mr. Mojo stays now and I will see you soon.

Who likes peacocks?

2010-10-24T18:45:00.002+02:00

No, mr. Mojo is still not here. Still have not created anything new. This must be some kind of a record for me. (Insert pouting, sad face here!) Breathing has been so bad that I thought I was going to die on Wednesday night.Got up in the middle of the night to fetch my Asthma pump and then could not breathe at all - I was in the lounge, hubby was asleep in our bedroom and I could not call out for him and didn't have the strength to go to him, so I just sat down flat on the floor and prayed for it to pass. It did and I finally got back to bed at about 5 o' clock.
The only thing that kept me going was the fact that it was the SRC outing the next day and I could not let the girls down a second time (Remember when I was in hospital and they postponed their trip, so that I could go with them? I could not let them down)
We went to Gold Reef City in Johannesburg for the day and even though I really felt terrible and even had to lie down in the little First Aid building for an hour, the girls had their outing. There is nothing quite like teenagers to lift your spirits and by the end of the day I was feeling a whole lot better. We had so much fun watching this male peacock trying to impress his female counterpart.

They are beautiful birds, don't you think so? Never thought I would hear a bunch of girls scream so loudly though - the peacocks wanted to share their lunch and one snuck up behind one of the girls and stole a chip from her. Well - PANDEMONIUM!!! they screamed and performed like you can not believe. I just sat there laughing till the tears rolled down my face.

And here they are .... a very special group of girls, that remind me why I love my job. You did a great job as SRC for our school this year girls and I am proud to know all of you.

I did colour some images today, so maybe mr. Mojo is sneaking back in. We will wait and see what happens tomorrow.

Have a lovely week everyone, hope to see you soon with some creations.

Look what I found on my desktop!

2010-10-19T06:30:00.002+02:00

Just a very quick check in. Mr. Mojo is still MIA, if you happen to find him, PLEEEASE send him home! While I was lying down on Sunday afternoon(at least that what I think happened) my son and granddaughter were playing around with my camera. She loves her uncle and would do anything to please him and he loves my camera and playing around on the computer. When I started my computer on Monday morning, I found this adorable fairy on my desktop.
She looks just like my beautiful little Hannah who is turning six today. Happy birthday angel child.
I am hoping to be back in creative mode soon, but my breathing is playing up again, (I am fine, I am fine, I am fine - power of positive thinking working here!) I am convinced its just the vast amount of pollen in the air and all will be well as soon as it starts raining.
I am off to see a parent now - wish me luck - its never nice to have to tell a parent their child is out of control.
Have a lovely day everybody, be back soon and lets all hope it starts raining soon.

Party season has started!

2010-10-14T19:09:00.004+02:00

I know, I know, I have been a VERY BAD blogger, but I promise I will try to do better. It seems that with the warmer weather starting, everybody in South Africa has a child that is having a birthday party. I have been very busy making invitations. Trust my friends to wake up the day before the invitations have to go out and then phone me in a panic for help.
It has been so hectic that I literally made the invitations with mom waiting and grabbing them as I finish, so unfortunately there are no photo's of the Dinosaur or Lady Bug invites.
These ones are for a friend's 11 year old daughter. She wanted an Ice Skater and it had to be blue. Problem was I had no stamps with an ice skater. After a long search I found an image on a children's coloring page. She was resized and coloured with my Copics. The snowflakes, her shoes and swirls were glitterified with stickles. All paper is Bazzil. No dp this time. I had to make 10 invitations and here they all are.

I have been very busy as I said. It was Tertia-Lee's 4th birthday last week and we had two parties. One on her actual birthday, just for family and one on the 9th for her little friends.

Here she is, my beautiful girl blowing out her candles. She insisted that since she is 4 now, she needs to cut her own cake. Just look at the concentration and joy on that little face!

Have a great Friday everybody, hope to see you soon!

How much can you fit into 4 days?

2010-10-04T17:23:00.009+02:00

As you all know, I spent the last few days of last week in Stellenbosch, supporting the Drum Majorettes from our school at Nationals.I had the most amazing time. The girls were amazing! They ended up coming third - not exactly as we would have liked it - but they did us proud. My proudest moment was when the final results came in and they celebrated with such joy. The team that came second stomped off crying (How pathetic is that?) Our girls came running over to the parents on the stands and showed off their trophies and sang war cries. They even did a special war cry congratulating the team that won. I was so proud walking back to the restaurant where they were having supper and overhearing the crowd comment on how special our girls were.
Here is a picture of a small section of our supporters, all kitted out in their red suppoters gear.

We watched 27 sections - I kid you not! 27!!! Very tiring, never got to bed before 12 any night and stayed up celebrating with the girls till after 2 on the last night - I am too old for this. LOL This is the view we woke up to every morning. Wonder if the people who live there and get to see this every day appreciate it?

We had the mornings free and did some very quick sight seeing. We went to the Butterfly farm in Franschoek. I took some amazing photo's. Then of course, there was the obligatory wine tasting. I don't drink, so I was the official photographer.

I even made time to meet a blogging buddy, Sharon Keanly, face to face! It is incredible how two people who have never met face to face can have such a long conversation without any awkward moments. Well.... I did most of the talking and Sharon did most of the listening. LOL Hope I didn't bore you to tears with my ramblings. (By the way, did you ever find that parking ticket we lost?)

Can you tell I spent the whole day watching the Drummies in the wind? Thats my excuse for looking so bad anyway. Sharon just looks so glam even though she was actually sick.

The rugby game? Those of you here in SA will know the Bulls won!!! We had a great time, but that is a whole other post.

Have a great week everybody.

A wedding box

2010-09-28T06:38:00.003+02:00

Another exploding box, I know, its getting boring now - but it is so addictive! I didn't want to make another square box. It had to have six sides, but how? Then I remembered that my son is an architect. I did not pay all those fees at university for nothing and it was finally time for him to prove that he did actually learn something. LOL He designed the box for me, made a template and all I had to do was print it out and use it as a pattern. See, its worth letting them study!
This box was an order from our pre-school. They wanted something different to a traditional card for a teacher that it getting married. I had to use ivory, brown, bronze and bright yellow not exactly my colours, but it turned out quite beautifully.

Put a lot of flowers on the lid. The brown ones were spritzed with glimmer mist. The dp is offcuts I bought in bulk from a printing company a long time ago. The cardstock is Bazzil.

And here is the inside of the box. Back and front looks exactly the same. The Magnolia image was coloured with my Copics. The staff will sign their names and write messages on the side panels.

A close up of the image, hope yoy can see the bling on Tilda's dress, flowers and shoes all done with Diamond Stickles.

Have a great week everybody, I am off to Stellenbosch for Drummie Nationals. I'll be back on Saturday, but I am going straight from the airport to Loftus Versveld (the stadium)to watch the Bulls play the Stormers (GO BULLS!!!) The kids bought DH and I tickets for DH's birthday. He doesn't know yet, but everybody, including his brother and nephew will be there with us. Should be a great party.

Finaly! Some pictures of LO's from SA Scrapbook Convention

2010-09-25T20:26:00.005+02:00

Before the Convention started we were given the themes for each of the classes with a list of the photo's we would need. The theme for this was: "This is how I roll". I thought these pictures of Tertia-Lee would be perfect, but when I got there I found out that it was a boy LO with monsters! How can I use monsters with these pictures? Plan B - replace the monsters with flowers. I think it turned out pretty well.
Love this one too. It has a wheel that turns at the back of the right hand side to reveal more pictures and journaling. Simple joys for me is to just spend some time with my gorgeous grandchildren. This was a day spent at the Johannesburg Zoo. Did you notice Tertia-Lee reading the map and telling us exactly where she wants to go next? How cute are those butterflies? Made from flowers, just by cutting off one petal. Learnt how to make the purple flowers too.

One of my favourites. The Prima layout. How wonderful are those flowers. Don't think there is anything more I need to say about this LO. Its just beautiful and perfect for photo's of the most beautiful place on earth.

Have a great day everybody, I will be back with some more LO's tomorrow.

WOYWW can elegance come from this mess?

2010-09-22T16:17:00.004+02:00

A very simple and elegant card made for one of the girls in our Birthday club. I have had this image coloured for the longest time and just knew that it was the right image for this card when the request came to make a card for her. Not too cutesie, use blue (her favourite colour) and flowers. The image is coloured with Copics. Ribbon is from my stash and the cardstock is all Bazzil, embossed with my Cuttlebug.
Did not want to jump straight to my desk, because if I hung my head in shame last week, then I am currently hiding under the table, whimpering every time somebody looks in! I am still blaming it all on the postman though - that man brought me three lots of goodies in the last week! I kid you not - THREE lots. My order from Sweetpea stamps, a gift of Bidmalara stamped images from a friend and the blog candy that I won on the Shoestring Scrapbooking blog.

Be honest now. Would you tidy up if you had very little time and all those fantastic new goodies to play with? I didn't think so. I think I might be forced to clean up soon though, because it is getting so bad I am having trouble finding my scissors (Don't say anything! I saw them on the photo! LOL)

This is the pile of papers that seems to have a life of their own and keeps growing. Some stamped and coloured images lurking there too.

Here is the other side of the work desk. This side was clean last week, but things are spilling out over there now too. That folder contains my stamped images that are waiting to be coloured. The beautiful box is filled with the layouts I made at Convention. The newspaper? I don't know, but I am sure there is a good reason for it being there. The Asthma pump? You would also need one if you had to work here.
I am going to try to visit more of you this week. We are having a long weekend here in South Africa this weekend- Friday is National Braai(barbeque) day or Heritage day, so I am planning to have a massive tidy up in my scraproom then. Lets hope I can show you my desk with pride next week.

Have a great Wednesday everybody, see you soon. Hop on over to Julie at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to visit everybody else's desks.

Mini Hanna & the real Hannah - Who's cuter?

2010-09-20T06:36:00.006+02:00

I recieved my Pixie Cottage stamps in the mail last week and just had to colour them immediately. They are so cute. She is called Hannah, just like my granddaughter and I think she is almost as cute as my Hannah!
The first card uses cardstock that was left over from the Convention, I think it is by American Crafts. The dp is Melissa Francis. The ribbon, flowers and butterfly are all from my stash. She was coloured with my Copics.
The next card is very unlike my style. Halloween is really not a very big thing in South Africa, but this little Hannah in her witch costume just cried out to be used. The dp is from my scrapbox. The ribbon is velvet with purple bling - really gorgeous IRL, the flowers are Prima and some very dark purple roses I found at the Chinese store. The butterfly is from my stash.

And now for the REAL Hannah! I could not believe it when I realised it was Monday morning. This weekend just went by in a blur. I had my two granddaughters for a sleepover and we had so much fun, I didn't even notice how the weekend flew past. We spent the whole day on Sunday making clothes for the fairies in my garden.
Step 1: You beed to find exactly the right leaf or flower for your creation. This takes a lot of concentration.

Here she is - My Hannah - told you she is cute!

Step 2: You now have to make sure that the flower or leaf that you chose will fit the fairies. This requires very precise cutting.

This is Tertia-Lee, cutting a flower that became a dress for some lucky fairy.

It takes a lot of concentration to cut a single leaf into a fairy coat.

Step 3: When you are done, you have to leave the clothes in the fairy house in ouma's garden. (If you don't believe there are fairies in my garden, ask any one of my four children. There is a magical place where the fairies live - they have all seen them when they were little!)

Have a great week everybody. Hopefully the week will be a little slower than the weekend.

80 Its just a number.

2010-09-16T17:18:00.004+02:00

A friend asked me to make a special card for her father's 80th birthday. he sounds like an incredible man. Still very hip and happening with a wicked sense of humour.When I first got this digi stamp, I knew that I would use it one day for somebody just like that.

The stamp is feom Just Inklined ( http://justinklined.com ) He is called Albert and I just love him. If I have to get old, I hope I end up just like him! He was coloured with Copics and cut out with a Nestie. The lights and window of his walker were covered in Dimentional Glaze. The Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp was from my scrapbox. The ribbon is from my stash.

Here is a close up photo - hoping you can see the glaze on the lights, horn and window.

I hope he likes my card.

Have a great Thursday everybody, I might be back later with my little Hannah's, but first I am going to have a look at a few more desks from WOYWW.

WOYWW Hanging my head in shame!

2010-09-15T15:33:00.004+02:00

This week my desk is a disaster zone! My excuse? Well..... I went to the Scrapbook Convention this weekend and I had to get all my photo's and tools ready for that last week and when we finished on Sunday, I was so inspired that I came home and finished all the LO's we did in class and then, well then... I was too tired on Monday and I had to finish a project for my guest dt before Tuesday and then... on Tuesday the postman brought me some stamps from Pixie Hollow and I just had to ink them up immediately and I had to make a card for a friend, so you see, its not my fault at all. Its the postman's fault.

There you see my new mini Hannah's that I am busy colouring, you can see the envelope they came in and the rest? I don't know how it got there.

Here is the view to the right of my work area. That beautiful piece of green paper is for the little Hannah's and the rest of the pyramid of papers are the leftovers from Convention.

If you look to your left, you will find more mysterious things that just leapt up on the table all by themselves. It wasn't me -thats my story and I am sticking to it! LOL

I have to show that I can be organised if I want to be. Here are the shelves with all my flowers on. All in plastic containers and colour coded. Pretty, don't ya think?

Yes, those are more rulers in the bucket, but please don't tell.

Why don't you pop over to Julies blog (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) and have a look at everybody's desks? You might even decide to play along, its very therapeutic.

I am a Guest Designer at Digistamps4Joy!

2010-09-15T05:59:00.004+02:00

Good morning everybody. Now I can tell you my exciting news. Melanie from digistamps4joy asked me to be a Guest Desibner for this challenge. I am so excited. It took for ever to decide which image to use. She keeps adding more to the store and they are just getting better and better! ( http://digistamps4joy.blogspot.com/ )
This time the challenge asked us to use something recycled on our creations. I have had this cute little box lying on my desk for a long time. One of my scrapping buddies brought the scrapping group some chocolates back the last time she went overseas and I knew that I wanted to do something with the box. I pulled it apart and covered it with pretty paper to be used as a gift box at Christmas. Then I discovered the leftovers of some wool that brings back so many memories in my mother's box of 'stuff' and I just had to use it. So, without further ado, here is my project.

I hope you like it. Isn't that giraffe just too adorable? It is so hard to find Summery Christmas images. My son keeps complaining when I make snowmen and winter scenes. Hope he is going to stop moaning now. There is another giraffe image in the shop - just as adorable - go and have a look. The images were coloured with my Copics. The fairylights were given a Stickle treatment anf the giraffe's nose and eyes were given a layer of Dimentional Glaze to make them shine. I cut the image with a Nestie. The Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is Basic Grey.

The Sentiment was computer generated and punched with my Making Memories punch. The glittery thread is actually wool. When I was about 12 i saw this wool at a woolshop and begged my mother to please make me a top from it. She kept saying that it would scratch badly and I kept begging her. In the end she gave in and made the top. She was right, it did scratch like crazy, but I was not going to admit it, so I just had to grin and bear it! It made me smile when I found the wool in mom's box of 'stuff'.

Here is a close up of the Giraffe, hoping you can see the Stckles and the Dimentional Magic.

And this is the box after I took it apart. I am very proud that I remembered to trace around it to use as a template for later use, because I really like the size of it. Ideal for a small gift - I thought chocolate, but my DD says she thinks it would be perfect for a watch. (Do you think she is trying to tell me something?)

And finally, the finished box. I printed another image, coloured it and punched out just the head to make a tag for the box.

I hope you liked my little project. Pop over to the digistamps4joy blog and visit the design team's blogs for more inspiration.

I will be back after school with my WOYWW post (hanging my head in shame today) Have a wonderful morning.

Scrapbook Convention. FUN FUN FUN!!

2010-09-14T06:22:00.003+02:00

Just a quick post. I am late (as usual) and have to go to work. Just had to share some quick thougts on the South African Scrapbooking Convention. It was amazing. I enjoyed every minute. Met new 'old' friends. Like Michelle and Michelle. We have been chatting on the TMW site for years, but have never met face to face. Here is a photo of the three of us. As you can see we got on like old friends, So lovely to finally meet you girls.
We were laughing about my first ever post on TMW. I was busy preparing for the Scrapbook Convention and was making a tea table 'Fit for a queen' (Remember that competition?) My first post was a question - How do you make milk from paper? The girls on TMW thought some weirdo had joined the site, but they did answer the question and I won a ticket to the next years Convention and made some really amazing friends.
This year I had the honour to take a class with my all time South African scrapping idol, Madame C, or Candice Greenway as she is known. What an amazing class. Learned so much and made an incredible page ( yes Mich, mine is finished, I finished it on Sunday night) Can't show you yet, because I don't want to spoil it for the Cape Town girls. By the way, I always liked and admired Candice, but now I know that she could be a friend - her comment that she is in shape, because round is a shape too, just convinced me LOL. I am blaming my shape on the meds (Thats my story and I am sticking to it)

And here we are - all the scrapping Divas that shared our table. met some wonderful people and couldn't have hoped to share the Convention with a more fun group.

Got some really exciting news, but you will have to wait till Wednesday to hear. Think I might burst before then.

Have a great week everybody, see you soon.

Cupcakes by the dozen.

2010-09-10T05:15:00.003+02:00

Here they are - all those cup cakes I had to bake for DD. Took me forever to make all the toppers. Thank goodness for my Cricut expression. If I had to punch all those circles I would have screamed! I tried to take a photo of all the boxes, but I think I missed one. Can you tell which box is the one DH helped pack? It really worries me, but he felt sorry for me and helped pack out of the goodness of his heart, so I can't very well repack them, it will hurt his feelings. AND ... It really does not change life as we know it if they are not packed in perfect little rows with all the toppers facing one way, now does it?
I was going to do the whole artistic photo of some of them, but DD was in a hurry (she still had to go home and prepare a lesson for today and write thank you notes and and and...) So this is the closest I got before she grabbed them all and ran out the door.

Hope the teachers like them. Actually, I know they will like them, teachers are like vultures when it comes to cake ( I am a teacher remember, I know about these things. LOL) I hope there are enough.

Going to register for the Convention today. I will be MIA this weekend. I will still be creating though. From 8 till 18h00 I will be Scrapping at the Convention. If I have any energy left when I get home I will show you what we were doing, otherwise I will see you all next week. Have a fantastic weekend everybody.

Some thank you"s

2010-09-09T06:35:00.004+02:00

Good morning everybody.
After my recent stay in hospital I needed a lot of thank you cards for all my friends who brought flowers and sent get well messages. I also needed one for my DH's company who sent me the most beautiful flowers and card.
The first one is an image from Meljen. That little bear just makes me smile every time I look at him. He was coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Nestie. All cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is from Melissa Francis, The ribbon is from my stash.
The next one is another freebie image that I could not find the link for. But I really love it. It was coloured with my Copics again. The dp is from a local company - Upikit. Love their glittery papers! The cardstock is Bazzil and the ribbon from my stash. The paper is so beautiful, it did not need a lot more.

Going to be a VERY busy day. Have to bake cake for my DD for tomorrow - its her last day of teaching prac and she wants to thank everybody on the staff for being so kind. Really big staff, so lots of baking for mom. I have to sort out my photo's for the Scrapbook Convention that starts on Saturday (horror of all horrors, I have not even started thinking about packing my bag, let alone look if I have everything I need!)

Looking forward to spending 2 days just sitting back and letting somebody else do the teaching for a change. Only two mor sleeps. YAY!!!

WOYWW

2010-09-08T05:55:00.004+02:00

Good morning everybody! Its 1 minute past 6 in the morning here in sunny South Africa. The sun is up, the birds are singing and I am already posting. LOL I walked into my craftroom this morning to pack up for school and thought you would like to see what I have been up to.
My craftroom is the only place in the house where I get left alone to do my thing - I think DH is scared that he might catch the crafting bug if he ventures in there, so he only comes in there in an emergency (you know, one like: Have you seen my blue pants?)
Anyway, apart from crafting, I also do most of my marking (grading for those of you in the US) in there. Last night was no exception. Had to mark comprehentions. This is what I found in my room this morning.
My Copics next to my marking? No, I do not mark in rainbow colours - although.... that might be an idea. I was sitting there, marking away like a good teacher should, when I started hearing voices. They were saying things like: 'when are you going to colour me?' and 'don't you think that stamp would look good if you colour it green?' Now, what is a girl to do? I just had to colour a 'liitle' bit inbetween, didn't I? If you look closely, you will see my Cricut Expression in the background, ready to spring into action whenever I need him.

Here is another angle of my desk. You can also see my Copics more clearly and yes, the two middle parts are full of Stickles and my refills. I don't have refills yet for all the colours I own, but I am working on that slowly. You can also see the little orange metal buckets that hold my scissors (does any of you also own that many?) I never knew just how many pairs of scissors I had untill they were all in one place. There is another one for all my adhesives and another for all my go to pens and pencils. Behind that is my tote that holds my rulers (why do I need 25?), my foam squares and my pliars. (well actually my DH's pliars, but if you don't tell, I won't either.)

Pop over to ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to see what everybody else's desks look like today and while you are there, why don't you join in?

Have a great day evryone, I hope to have time to post later, but I can't promise anything. I have to run a few errand for DH and its my son in law's birthday, so we were invited for supper.

Doing the happy dance, a card and an award.

2010-09-07T16:37:00.004+02:00

Had quite a day at school today. Not a bad one, just a very busy one and I was dead tired when I got home. Poured myself a colddrink and sat behind the computer to read my e-mails. Guess what? I won the blog candy over at Shoestring Scrapbooking's blog. YAY!!! Wish you could have seen me, doing the happy dance while trying to type a reply to Canica with my address. So glad nobody was here to witness that one. LOL
My card for today is another one I finished in the holiday. My one and only Sweetpea stamp. I just adore her and even though she looks very hard to colour, she is actually a pleasure to colour. I have ordered some more Sweetpea stamps and can't wait for them to arrive. I know that they have shipped, but we live in Africa after all - it could take anything from a couple of days to a couple of months to get here. I live in hope that it will be days rather than months.

She was coloured with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from my scrapbox again.The flowers and ribbon are from my stash. The ribbon looks very different IRL - it is bright pink and turquois (sp?) Her wings were given a liberal Stickle treatment (not sure you can see that in the photo)
Now on to the award. The lovely Debbie Harris passed this on to me. Thank you Debbie and sorry it took so long to post ( http://dkhdesigns.blogspot.com/ )

I have to: 1. thank the person that passed the award on to me - done that.

2.Put it on my blog - done that

3.mention three things that I love doing: Thats a hard one - I love doing so many things, but OK here goes. i) I love teaching (I know, I know, most teachers complain about their jobs, so I am weird), but I really love my job and wouldn't want to do anything else.

ii) I love working with paper - making cards, making Layouts for my scrapbooks, making weird and wonderful paper creations for my grandchildren.

iii) I love taking photo's - I am by no means an accomplished photographer, but I love the whole process.

4. Post my favourite picture. Thats a hard one too, but this picture is a current favourite. It was taken at the Soccer World Cup opening Ceremony. One of those once in a lifetime photo's where the camera is pointed in exactly the right spot and you press the shutter at exactly the right millisecond. I did absolutely no editing on this one I promise.

My all time favourite picture is the one I used as my profile picture. My little granddaughter holding my face and looking me in the eyes telling me:"Ouma, I love you SOOOO much" I was not aware that my DH took the photo at the time, but I am so glad he did.
5. I have to pass this one on to 5 other bloggers. I really don't know who to pass this on to, but I would like to pass it on to all my followers that haven't already recieved it.

WARNING: Proud Mommy moment following- sensitive readers should stop reading here.

Just had some more marvelous news - My daughter, Anke, has been on teaching prac for the last seven weeks. She is busy with her last week and has enjoyed every minute of every day that she has spent at Crawford College Lonehill. The staff has made her feel so welcome and part of them. They have taught her so much and shared all their knowledge so willingly. She has often commented these last few weeks that she would LOVE to be able to teach there when she is qualified next year. I suggested she hand her CV in because you never know when a post will become available. She was planning to hand her CV in on Friday when its her last day at the school. Today she was called in by the deputy Principal and offered a teaching position for next year! How wonderful is that? I am such a proud mom - she must have made an impression on them for them to do that, because I know just how difficult it is to get a job at such a wonderful school, especially for a first year teacher. You go girl! Just another confirmation from our Father that teaching is where your calling lies my girl.

Have a great Tuesday everybody, hope to see you soon.

First day back at school.

2010-09-06T21:50:00.004+02:00

Today was my first day back at school after 4 weeks. The first week I was in hospital and the next week I was still booked off by the dr. and not allowed to go back to work. Then it was a two week holiday. I was actually looking forward to going back today - can you believe it? It is such a good feeling to feel healthy and not cough and splutter through every lesson. The poor kids don't know what hit them. Their teacher has way too much energy for them. LOL.
The next two cards are still images I coloured while in hospital. Both images are freebies from the same place and yet again, I can't find the link. I will have to do something soon to sort out my digi files! . They were coloured with my Copics. All cardstock is Bazzil. The Dp is Basic Grey (I think, it came from my scrap box). The ribbon is from my stash.

Hope you enjoyed the cards. Please leave a comment, so that I know that you came to visit. I really love to read all your comments.

Have a great week everybody.

New beginnings.

2010-09-05T18:40:00.002+02:00

The challenge over at Allsorts Challenge ( http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com ) calls for New Beginnings. What better new beginning than a new baby? The imsge was a freebie that I found somewhere and lost the link to. If you recognise it, please let me know so that I can give credit! That little one is so CUTE, don't you just want to pick her up and give her a cuddle?

As always, the image was coloured with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the dp cames from my scrapbox. The ribbon and charm are from my stash. A very simple card, but I really like it!

Had a very lazy Sunday and did very little other than make lunch for the family. School starts tomorrow so I won't be able to craft as much as I have been in the last two weeks, but I do still have some cards made that I have not shown you yet, so I will try to pop in and do some quick posts.

Just for fun.

2010-09-04T16:31:00.005+02:00

I was thinking, while I am still on holiday and while mr. Mojo is being kind and sticking around, I might as well make the most of it.

So only the first of these cards are for a challenge, The mad for markes challenge calls for something pink ( http://madformarkers.blogspot.com/ ) and the CES challengewants a floral frenzy (http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com )The first one is coloured with my Copics again. The dp is a freebie downloaded and true to form, I lost the link! The ribbon. flowers and stick pins are from my stash.

This little dragon is from Elizabeth Dulemba, I think, and coloured with my Copics. I had these papers lying on my desk from a previous card, so I just had to use them. (It was either use them, or put them away and putting them away sounded like work.LOL)

The last card was an image my granddaughter, Hannah, wanted me to solour for her. She says its Barbie - but I don't think so. It was a free download from a childrens colouring site. The dp is from Melissa Francis. I am really loving her papers at the moment. The charm is from my local bead store. The ribbon and flowers are from my stash.

That's it for me for today.
Just finished watching the rugby test match between South Africa and Australia. I can not believe we lost that game in the last second. Very depressing to see some of my all time idols like Bryan Habana play like an idiot. Some people need to learn when its time to retire!