Wednesday, November 29, 2006

got a few minutes

before I head for home so thought i would use the time to blog!

My weekend was good, spent most of it indoors cause it was quite chilly and miserable! Thunder, lightning and hail for some of it :o

I am taking part in the advent swap on the pad and really not had a good time doing it :( not that I don't love buying for people and of course having a little something to open everyday but as it's my first ever advent swap I really didn't know what to buy and if the person would like it. Anyway, my parcels (had to make up two boxes cause of sizes etc) have gone, one yesterday and one today both special delivery. I do hope my swapee likes it! And my parcel arrived today which is very exciting.

I've had some catching up to do on CJs and have more to do this weekend to send off on Monday and then i'm up to date till the next wave comes in, i'm only in two but tend to have too many at once to complete, and then I panic, lol.

And I have wedding invites to make this weekend. Stu is at bike training both Saturday and Sunday so i'll be scrapping up a storm :D

Right I must go or i'll miss my train. I have some photos to post but my laptop is playing the fool with the internet so I have to see how to get them onto my work pc to post from here......

ciao!

Friday, November 24, 2006

A week to recover

from a totally awesome weekend at Barnett Hill! I had the best time, although a fellow gutter girl wasn't there which was sad :( but I know she was there in spirit. We missed you Marja!! So here are a couple of pics of the beautiful building, we went out a little late on Sunday so by the time we had walked around the garden the light was fading fast but I still mananged to get some cool photos to scrap.
My room was next to the shop, and I had some thoughts of burrowing my way through the wall to have a midnight rummage through the ribbons, but by the time I stumbled up to my room it was far too late for anything but sleep!!
Zenia needed a now photo of herself so I got to play photographer! She is so photogenic and I think she was happy with the results :)
I also took some of Debbie who is also a great model and very photogenic, makes it easy to take good photos!

A huge thanks must go out to Debbie and Tim of ScrapMagic for yet another successful ScrapManic and to Al and Justine for their patience and kindness opening up the shop at midnight for those essential scrapping needs! My classes were fab, thanks to Debbie J, Jools and Al (links on RHS - Daisy and Jools!)

As always it was so lovely to see old friends and make new ones. Janice was my hero of the weekend, helping me design and plan my wedding invites and organising the ribbon which arrived today - you are a special lady, thanks hun :wub:

And finally tonight I am speshal! I have had the honour, again, of being a Speshal girl. I am using the speshal dares as prompts for BOM pages, my thoughts and feelings as I am now at this moment in time. I really am loving the journey! This weeks theme is 'things for which we are thankful', and I am thankful for two very special people in my life, my gram and grumps. Through it all, they were the one thing that was always constant in my life, always there for me and always the same. I love and miss them so much.

Friday, November 17, 2006

IT'S TODAY

Woo hoo, it's the start of ScrapManic 6 and I am all packed and ready to go!! Only problem is if I leave now i'll be way to early so I am pacing like a caged tiger till 12, lol. Okay I can't sit still to type so i'm going back to my pacing.

Have a good weekend y'all!!

Monday, November 13, 2006

I fear I have been slacking again!!! My work pcs have gremlins so my internet time is severly limited if I even manage to get logged onto a machine. Today I am logged into a colleagues desktop with another colleagues log in details :O Not great security, but needs must!

I have the most awesome weekend coming up, yes it is almost here...............SCRAPMANIC 6!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Friday I will be heading off around lunch time to arrive early afternoon for a weekend of hugs, shopping, great company and fab food, oh yes and loads of scrapping!! The classes all look amazing this year, just a pity I can't do them all.

Stu bought himself a motor bike last Thursday, poor thing can't ride it yet cause he's not done the licence but the bike is bought and we are now collecting the biking gear. We have helmets (very nice- matt black space age jobs!), and he has boots and a jacket. But still needs gloves and water proof trousers to go over his jeans. I am a bit nervous about him being out on a bike, nothing to do with his ability, more to do with the idiots on the road who have no regard at all for bikers. I can't stop him doing it so I will just pray for his safety.

Yesterday we had the best visitors - Stus aunt and uncle Koekie and Roland, well they aren't really his aunt and uncle, Koekie and his mom were cousins but I guess it's close enough, lol. Koekie is the most wonderful person you can ever meet, she is just kindness and love rolled into one beautiful lady. I am so lucky to have her in my life and wish she was closer to me so I could see her every day. They are on their way to live in Canada, with their daughter Debbie (who is nuts!) her husband Stuart and their children. So I guess they are a little closer which is a bonus. Their son Adrian lives here with his wife Vanessa so it made sense for them to stop over and have a little visit before continuing their trip. I am hoping that between us all we can arrange their flights for them to come over for the wedding, it will be all the more special if they're here. (reading back there are far too may theirs, thems and theys in that paragraph but I just can't re-type it all to get rid of them, lol, and another one)

I still have a few bits to finish off for the advent market on Saturday, I also need to find a cloth to go on the table and plan how it is going to be set out. Everything needs to be priced so I guess I need to think about what to charge!!

Okay I think that's me up to date with what's going on in my life, no picture today cause as I said I am on anothers pc!

Have a good day and week y'all. Thanks for looking

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

It's been a

shocking day! Very horrible and I even had tears, luckily to myself far away from the crowds :(

But i'm better now and counting the minutes till I can go home and give my Stu a great big hug and kiss cause I love him so much and he always makes me feel like a princess!!

I had the most amazing day on Friday, it was just FAB and I loved having the time with Jo and Danni. Brought back some lovely childhood memories of us shopping together at Sandton City in Joburg! I met them at Harrods and we spent time looking in the Christmas shop, where I bought some bright funky baubles! and the bag section where we spied some lovely Kipling bags! Before spending too much money we decided that maybe some early lunch was in order, not a bad idea considering none of us had had breakfast yet! Settling on pizza we went down to the pizzeria on the ground floor. They do make YUMMY pizzas down there! We resisted the ice cream and Krispy Kremes for dessert!

After our lunch we went back up to the Christmas shop to look at the price of a fairy that I lurve but she was just too expensive and I couldn't justify the money, although if I had been on my own I probably would have bought it anyway!

So instead of a fairy I decided I had to have a new Kipling bag :D It's deliciously bright pink and very similar to one of my others but a bit bigger. And um actually I had two! the other is a tottie little cutie bag in the same bright pink with spotty buttons. I did forget to photograph my purchases but I will try remember to take a pic of the bags tonight!

After Harrods we jumped on a bus to High Street Kensington were we did an underwear shop in M&S. Man I just couldn't leave England and M&S, lol!! And had a browse around Boots were I bought some perfume and a mascara, it's the only make up I wear, when I remember, and mine was all dry and causing lumps!

After a coffee break we stopped into Argos for some towels for Danni and then got the bus to Hammersmith, which took an age and was so frustrating we eventually jumped off and walked the rest of the way. We met up with Tania, haven't seen her for yonks so it was good to have a quick catch up and of course she's not seen Jo for about 6 or 7 years.

I bought some plain black shoes in Evans for work, all my work shoes are falling apart so they've all gone to shoe heaven!

And at this point we were quite shopped out! Ready to drop! It took forever to get a cab back to the Ship in Mortlake where we met up with Stu, had a bite to eat and said bye to Jo. It truely was great to see her, she is like a new person and I love that she has taken control of her life and her weight, (she's lost 30 kgs in 3 months and looks terrific)!! She's got a bit to go but I think the battle is won as her head is right and that is the hardest bit.

Our weekend was good, we shopped (more!) on Saturday, I needed a coat and some work trousers, came away with work trousers and two new tops, but no coat! Stu needed more fireworks and I needed more wool to knit some scarves for Christmas. I got a pattern book online last week so I also tried to get wool to knit a jumper but my shop didn't have what I wanted so I had to order yesterday online.

Saturday night we went to Steve and Kirsty for jacket potatoes with sausages and beans and fireworks. They had a few and Stu added to the pile with his 54 sky rockets :O I know, it's obscene!! We had a great night and only got to bed at 2am, which is the latest we have been out in years!

Sunday we had to go to ASDA for a few bits, and landed up buying loads of DVDs so on Sunday afternoon I knitted and we watched madagascar and Home On The Range, neither of which we had seen before.

And all too soon it was time for bed and the end of another weekend!

One of my fav LOs done last year for the block competition on UKS. The photo is also one of my favourites and I felt quite intrusive taking it of a special moment between Stu and his niece.

Right and after that epic tale the minutes have certainly marched on and it's nearly time to go home. So I wish you all a pleasant evening and a good week!!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Shop till you drop!!

I am off to Harrods and High Street Kensington with my cousins today! I can't wait as it is almost a year since i have done the London shopping thing, and I do love it!! Got my shopping list which is growing by the second and a definate stop is the Christmas Shop in Harrods, gotta get a little something for the tree. If I get myself organised I will take a piccy of my bags before I unpack and an after shot with all my goodies!!

I finished this LO last night. It's a photo of my gram and me on the beach in Cape Town, drinking orange juice with maybe a drop of champagne! I haven't dated the LO cause I can't quite work out how old I was, hopefully mom will be able to help with that one.

Papers are crate carnival (YUMMY), scenic route chipboard alphas both from Box room booty, flowers are primas, aunty sarahs bloomers(sarah cards) and angel kisses from bumblebee crafts, and the large white flower is from Jillybeans. And of course lots of ink!

I am so tempted to buy another pack of this carnival paper cause it is just so joyfull but i've done 3 LOs with it already and I still have a couple of sheets of paper left so don't want to go all overkill, mmmmmmm will keep thinking about that one.

So ends another week, and what a boring week it has been! I have been walking about the office trying to find things to do that will take more than 5 minutes and actually stimulate the brain cells a bit. I must get my CV updated next week!!

Right i'm off in a bit so i'll sign off now, have a great day and thanks for looking y'all!!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Crikey Wednesday already, how time flies!! 16 sleeps till ScrapManic, I cannot wait any longer, lol. Stu has very kindly offered to do an advent market for me the same weekend as SM, cause I managed to double book myself, and I have been frantically making him stuff to sell. Using up all the tins, clipboards and blank cards I had stored up in my scrap cupboard. He has 15 packs of cards, 2 large and about 9 small clipboards, a picture frame (altered/painted and decorated), and a seletion of decorated tins. And there are a few other bits half made that will be ready by then too!

Two LOs of holidays I had with my grandparents at a seaside hotel north of Durban.



They lived in Joburg and used to drive down to Durban, pick me up and drive up the coast to the hotel, even though it was a short trip (for me!) I felt like I was a million miles away from home. Gram would lay on a sun lounger tanning and drinking tea, I would join her in the afternoons for a milkshake, lol. And Grumps and I would walk along the beach picking up shells and looking for treasure in the rock pools, we did find an old rusty watch once! We would also occasionally use Grams silk scarves to fish for tiny fish in the rock pools :D



The weather has suddenly turned very cold! It was 4 degrees last night and this morning I had ice on the windscreen of the car. The temp during the day is predicted at between 10 and 12 for the rest of the week going into the weekend. I may even get to wear my new furry boots that I have had for two months and not had the cold weather to wear yet!

Right well I guess I had better find some work to do today considering I have done very little so far this week, lol.

Oh and I also got a yummy parcel from Jo at Box Room Booty (link on the right!) yesterday. Lots of Scenic Route chipboard alphas, crate paper and a wee charm. If you've not yet shopped with Jo, GO NOW!!