My weekend

I've been busy this weekend. Not scrapping, not painting, not even going away. I was at home (or at least in my hometown) all the time busy, busy busy!

I made place cards for my moms 80th birthday party coming up in 2 weeks time. I have it all printed now but still have to make it up together with the little gift bags that will go with it. Will post pictures later as soon as I have them finished. I still have to do the menus and table seating.

I went furniture shopping for something to put in my front passage. As you all probably know by now - I love antique furniture. I found a nice sideboard ... as well as something else I didn't bargain on buying but just couldn't resist!

This is the sideboard:

When I saw this quint little church bench I just had to have it for my front porch!

I bought this little handmade clock about a year ago but still had it packed because I wanted to keep it until I had the sideboard to put it on. At last this little work of art could see daylight again! Just look at the protruding arms! Love it! I also bought this painting that I've been eyeing for ages today: It's by a local Parys artist - Annette Dannhauzer. I love her work. It's filled with religious symbolism. The name of this specific one is "Mi Casa Su Casa".

Next weekend we're having a student exhibition at the gallery where I take art class. I still have a painting to finish. I wanted to do that today but just didn't get to it. I guess 3 paintings of mine will have to be enough. I had one of the paintings that I finished a while ago framed. This is what is looks like framed.

I also finished this one about a month ago. The one that I'm busy with is also a rose, but from another angle to go with this one. Will show you pictures of it once it's done.

This afternoon I went to pick lavenders to put in a vase. I found a whole bunch of honey bees and dragon flies having a party in the lavender bush! I quickly went to fetch my camera and switched the lenses. I took these pics using my macro lens.

In between everything else I packed a a little thank you gift with goodies for Julie - to say thanks for her trouble forwarding the packages from Amazon to us.

I also made up this package with books and a little added surprise for my namesake - Michelle McGee.

Will get both of these out on their journey to the USA tomorow.

Hope all of you also had a great weekend! Will read all about it tomorrow. Now I'm wasted and just want to crawl into bed - but not before I spoil myself with a warm bubble bath!

Happy b-day Céline!!!! (edited)

Looks like blogger is acting up or something. Most people could not see the picture the I added in this post. I could see it and some other people could also see it but not everybody?! Weird! Seems like Blogger also had some trouble with spacing. Anyway - all seems better now! :)

Today is Céline's 10th b-day! Can't believe another year has come and gone. She's growing up way too fast now! She had her party on Saturday, so tonight we'll treat her to dinner anywhere she pick.

She used to have a fairy themed bedroom - all pink and lilac and girly. Recently she decided that it was time to change her room and the theme that she picked was horses - since she is crazy about horses and horse riding. I started looking for something pretty and appropriate for her age but after months of searching locally as well as in Johannesburg and Pretoria, I just couldn't find anything that she liked. I turned to my old Google buddy and reliable as it always is, it turned up with the most beautiful horse themed bedding. I got Céline to sit with me and choose something that she liked. The set that she chose was on the Amazon site. I proceeded to place the order but before I could finish, I got the message that they couldn't ship bedding to South Africa because of some manufacturers warrantee issue. Both Céline and I was so disappointed. Then I had this bright idea! I asked my bloggy and scrappy friend, Julie, if I could use her address to order the stuff. She was sooooo generous to agree to let them ship it off to her and then forwarded it on to me!!!

We got the packages in the mail a while ago and couldn't wait to replace the old bedding. Everything is up and it looks so pretty. We even got a new light fitting for her. We still need to paint the walls, get new curtains as well as a dressing table for the little cowgirl, so I don't want to take a picture of the unfinished room. I'll do so once the room is done. In the meantime, here's some pictures of the bedding that we ordered:

It looks even better i.r.l.

Once again - Thank you soooooooooooooo much Julie!!! We really appreciate it.

I picked up a tag from Lynette's blog to answer this list in one word. Tricky, but here it goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? desk

2. Your hair? dyed
3. Your mother? eighty
4. Your father? dead
5. Your favourite food? desert
6. Your dream last night? diaper
7. Your dream/goal? photographer
8. Your favourite drink? milkshake
9. What room are you in? office

10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? disability
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? false
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. Wish list item? trip
17. Where did you grow up? Vereeniging
18. Last thing you did? work

19. What are you wearing? clothes

20.Your TV? off
21. Your Pets? Daisy
22. Friends? few
23. Your life? happy
24. Your mood? happy

25. Missing Someone? yes
26. Vehicle? Mazda
27. Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Your favourite store? Thrupps
29. Your favourite colour? pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? yesterday
32. Your best friend? Tanya
33. One place that I go to over and over? Namibia
34. Facebook? seldom
35. Favourite place to eat? Hoi Poloi

Let me know if you decided to pick up this tag! :)

My desktop

Lynette posted her desktop (such a cute picture) and I thought it was a great idea to see what all the girls have on their desktops - so join in and let me know if you've posted yours.

Here's mine:

It's a painting by one of my favourite artists - Anne Julie

My Son

I finished a lo that I started over the weekend of my eldest son - Michael. He's 14 now and rapidly (way too fast!) turning into a man! He's such a sweet sweet thing! I love him to pieces. Sometimes I wish I could hold his small boy body in my arms just one more time.

He had a couple of "girlfriends" in primary school but I think he's really in love for the first time now. Look what he did on Saturday when the girlfriend came to visit. After he poured cold drinks for them - he replaced the empty soda bottle in the fridge! :)

See - I'm a much better blogger this week! So far so good! ;o)

I managed to get a little scrapping done this weekend. Not a lot though - and had to sneek in a little time here and there but I finished a lo that's been on my table for a while, plus do another one. The other one I did a week or so ago when I joined the local scrap club ladies.

At least I feel like I can still call myself a scrapper! :)

I'm the worst blogger ever!!!!!!!

I know, I know! I'm the worst blogger ever!!!! I admire the girls who blog almost daily - Like Julie and Sharmaine! Hats off to you!

I don't even have a good excuse - just the normal - too busy thing! I've typed about 20 posts in my mind in the meantime - to tell you all about my day / week / month, but I never got a chance to actually sit down and post. I'm just soooo tired when I get home in the afternoon - after cooking supper, I don't even have the energy to switch on the PC - let alone - blog! Weekends have been filled with all kinds of other things too!

So many little things have happened since my last post. Nothing major though. Here's a couple things that kept me busy:

• We're planning my mom's 80th b-day party. I designed, printed and posted the invitations. This is what it looks like:

Front and back:

Inside:

• On 26 September we held a scrapbook day to raise funds for one of our scrapbooking friends who where diagnosed with cancer. We made a Jacob's ladder mini album. In honor of Jackie (our friend) - we called it Jackie's ladder.

• Been to Aardklop Arts Festival in Potchefstroom with my sister on 2 and 3 October. We had a blast! Went to see a show on each of the days and saw a LOT of beautiful arts and crafts.

• We participated in the CANSA Relay 4 Life on 9 October. For those who've never heard of Relay 4 Life - it's an event aimed at fundraising for the Cancer Association where teams have to walk around a track for 12 hours throughout the night. You can read more about it on the CANSA website. It turned out to be a lot of fun! It was also very emotional at stages as people who were lost to Cancer were honoured. Lots of tears and laughter! I was totally exhausted by 6 o'clock the next morning - both physically and emotionally! Definitely worth it though!
  

Went to my god daughter's baby shower in Pretoria on 17 November. She's a real "airy fairy girl", so we threw a pregnant fairy party for her. Can't wait for little Leeloo's appearance sometime early December. Would that make me her god-grandmother? Or maybe her fairy godmother? ;o)

Marco got his braces on 24 October - He looks really cute and says it doesn't hurt at all.

Obviously there's also been work - both at work and at home! We had to go shop for more light fittings last weekend. The little village where we live don't really have a lot of variety, so we had to go to Jo'burg for some shopping. Reminded me again why I will never be able to live there!

They will start building our swimming pool in a week or so. Apparently it will take about 4 weeks to finish which means a big mess on our doorstep for at least a month! Grrrrr - wish I had a magic wand! Then comes the irrigation and landscaping and ..... Makes me tired just thinking about all the work! BUT I'm looking forward to the end result!

I stumbled upon this wonderful local SA site the other day! I started using their weekly menu immediately and it really made my life so much easier! What's for Dinner! Now I don't have to wonder what to cook for dinner anymore - I print out the shopping list for the next week - make sure I have everything in the pantry / fridge and wha-lah ... no more boring suppers in our house! Most of the meals are quick and easy to prepare and it really helped me to get "out of the box" with my cooking! If you don't like what they have on the menu - you can pick something else from the 100's of other recipes on the site.

I've managed to do some blog reading over the past weeks but not a lot. Will try to catch up sometime.

Not making any promises about posting but will really try to be a better blogger! :)

My day in pictures ...

I'm too exhausted to tell the story - all I'm going to say is - it was fun! :)

I LOVE living in Africa! :)