Happy Birthday Tanya!

Happy b-day to my best friend Tanya ! We've been friends since 1983 - a full 25 years! I hope you had a lovely day my friend and that all your wildest dreams may be fullfilled in the year that come!

M

xo

I love this girls art!

I stumbled upon this girls Etsy shop a couple of days ago and guess what? Yesterday I ordered these two prints. My very first Etsy purchase!.

I can't wait to get the prints and get it framed. I can already imagine what it will look like up on my wall! Not sure where I want to put it but I'll surely find a special place for it somewhere in my new home.

I took the day off!

This being the last week of the kids' school holidays, I decided to take 2 days leave to spend with them. We slept late (7 o'clock is regarded as late in our house alright) ate breakfast and went to watch movies at a new shopping mall in another town just for the kicks! They say change is as good as a holiday and as we don't have enough time for a proper holiday we opt for the change part and went to watch movies at a new shopping mall in Potchefstroom - a town that's about 80km's from our house.

What a great day we had! The kids couldn't agree on which movie they wanted to watch, so we went to see different movies in the end! Van you believe that I allowed my baby to sit in the movie theatre all by himself. Michael and I went to see Hancock (what a great movie!)
while Marco went to see Kung Fu Panda.
Afterwards we went for lunch at the Wimpy and highlight of the day - Mozart ice cream for desert - yum

Afterwards I took the kids to one of the museums in Potchefstroom. Marco actually nagged me to take them and we all enjoyed it so much!

Wish I could spend more days like this with my kids!

Tonight we'll sleep over in Parys at Leon's house (did I mention that I miss him terribly!) Tomorrow we'll go home and hopefully feel like we've had a little teeny weeny holiday! :)

Another Freebie!

When I first saw Lace Paper I was soooo thrilled! What a great idea to have diecut paper in all sorts of beautiful shapes and colours! I've used real paper Lace Paper on a couple of LO's already and always wondered if I'll be able to recreate it digitally. I just had to give it a go. For my first attempt was I used numbers and I love how it turned out. Can't wait to do the same with flowers and hearts and stars and ... well ... whatever tickles my mojo! :) Here's a LO that I made with the very first digi lace paper that I made.

Numbers are always usefull, so I hope you'll enjoy using it as much as I did creating it.

Click on the picture or here to go to the download link where you can download all 4 papers at once.

The file is rather big so if you prefer, you can download each paper individually:

(sorry - all link have expired)

Orange Number Lace Paper

Pink-Red Number Lace Paper

Plum Number Lace Paper

Turkois Number Lace Paper

All I ask in return is that you share your lo's with me once you've used it - pretty please!



Love

Michelle

My Mom

I love my mom! She's 78 years old and despite all the hardship, disappointments and losses she had to endure in her lifetime - she is still one of the most positive people I know. She has taught me that if you hand over your problems too the Lord, you never have to worry - no matter what.

She lives in a retirement home and yesterday the home had a craft market where they could sell handmade stuff. Ever since they started organising this market day in March this year she was so excited about it and started knitting toys - dolls, teddys, etc. - to sell on the market. She also sewed real vintage aprons. I hoped and prayed that her stuff would actually sell on the day and she won't be disappointed. Me, my kids and my sister went to support her there yesterday and we had loads of fun. I tried to buy something from each one of the old ladies, so now I have a bunch of beaded jewelry, an embroidered tea net, second hand books, home made hand cream, gift bags and lots of other stuff I can't even think of right now. Great news is that my mom sold almost all her goodies! I praise the Good Lord for that cause there wasn't a whole lot of customers and most of them were from a very poor community.

Here's a photo of my mom with some of her goodies.

Marco adores his granny.

I'm so grateful to still have my mom and for the wonderful upbringing that I got from her. I know that a lot of blessings that I enjoy are because of her never ending prayers for her children.

I love you mom!

xo

It's real life # 3

Yay! My Internet Explorer is in a good mood today! It allows me to log onto blogger and I can even post - from home!

This time I took the photos for Jessica's It's Real Life challenge at my own house and of my own bedroom. It's really feminine to say the least - all pink and frilly and full of teddys and handbags and girly stuff. I guess all that will change soon but as long as it lasts - I love my bedroom just as it is!

Here is one that I took this morning before I made the bed - I guess that's what this challenge is all about - show it like it is.
This is the view from my bedroom window - my front yard. Nothing closely resembling the beautiful view that Jessica has but I lot of good memories have been made under that tree! That's the place where we have braais (barbecue) and spend a lot of time in summer just chatting to friends while the kids play in the garden.
OK - now my bed is all made up - looks a bit better hey? I love stuffed animals - told you I'm just a little girl at heart. This is my dresser - full of "stuff" - too much I know but I just can't get rid of any of it. Even my mothers day gift and card are still on there!
This is an arrangement of some pretty pictures on my wall. The long stem roses is a cross stitch that I made myself. This is the guardian angel above my bed. These are my pj's - I love them - so comfy and cozy! This one is my favourite - I adore that little owl. Think I'm gonna try to recreate this cute little owl in Photoshop.
That's it for now. On my way to go take a peek into the other bedrooms ...

Phew! What a week!

What a crazy, absolutely hectic week I had! I'm REALLY glad it's Friday!. I don't talk about it often but I do have a job - a full time job. I'm not crazy about my job - not anymore - which is sad cause I spend so much time there. I don't talk about my job a lot because I try to focus on the positives in my life and trust that the Lord will lead me on the right path at the right time.

Now, it's the start of the weekend for me and I'm happy and sad at the same time (if that's possible at all!) My sister is coming to visit me! Yay! I don't see her that often and I love her so much. Can't wait to see her this afternoon. :)

I'm sad cause I have to say goodbye to Leon for 12 full days! :( We'll have to test the whole "absence makes the heart grows fonder" concept - not that I think my heart can possibly grow any fonder!

I've been struggling with my eyes this week too. Probably too much computer work, too little sleep add winter dehydration and you get 2 eyes struggling to cope! I will therefore try not to work/play too much on the computer this weekend - just to give them a bit of rest.

Lastly I want to say my thank you's to the Dear Lord:
1. Even if I don't like going to work every day I am eternally grateful for my job! It's a good job with a good salary and there are positives that I don't always see but I know that this job has provided for me and my kids for the past years. Sorry for being such a spoilt brat most of the times Lord.
2. What a wonderful privilege it is to be able to see! The beauty of God's creation is just breathtaking and I am honoured to be able to experience it through the wonderful gift of vision. In preparation for Leon's course we've been spending a lot of time learning more about birds and wild animals and I realised once again that nature is a never ending treasure chest just waiting to be explored! Thank you Lord for my eyes - even if they're not perfect and I sometimes get frustrated - I can still see and for that I praise You!

I'll try to fit in Jessica's It's Real Life challenge this weekend - I see we're peeking into each others bedrooms this week - mmm! I just love my bedroom and would love to share it with you all! ... Uhm - I don't think that came out the right way! Well - I'd like to virtually share it with you! Does that sound better! :)