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! :)

Art

I completed my painting today. This one is much bigger than the others that I've done so far. My inspiration for this one came from a local South African artist, Glendine. I'm so in love with her work and hope that one day I can be half as good as her. I also worked a little bit more on this one as I wasn't satisfied with the clouds and the hills. Now it looks more like the way I had it in my head.

Tomorrow is "back to school" for me. So I guess I won't be able to blog as often as I would like but I will try not to become a stranger.

Sleep tight! :)

I feel so rich!

Phew! I'm so exhauseted (in the best possible way!) after this weekend! I don't even know where to begin to describe the weekend I had. I met so many amzing people. On Saturday evening we went to Leon's aunt's 60th birthday party and I met a whole bunch of his family that I've never met before. They are all such interesting and wonderful people! Don't know why he has kept them from me for so long!


On Sunday Leon's sister, her husband and her husband's sister's family came to visit us. We had such a ball! We went shopping, ate wonderful food and chatted up a storm!

I really feel like a rich woman today for having met (and now have them in my life) such amazing people!

Here's a couple of pics from yesterday:

Opening a bottle of bubbly to celebrate life!

This is such a SPECIAL lady! Love you Cile!

Leon - always the clown! :)

Blowing kisses ...

On Friday I went to the doctor and got the "clean bill of health". I really feel great and plan to start spinning one of these days.

Tomorrow is my last day at home. I will return to work on Wednesday. Not really looking forward to it, but still very greatful to have a good job in these times.

As you can see - no new blog banner up yet. Just didn't have time to finish it. Today I want to finish a couple of unfinished projects and relax a little - while I still can!

Tomorrow will be my last day time art class. Looking forward to that and will hopefully finish my painting. In answer to Mel's question about selling my paintings - the first couple really do fell like my babies and I don't think I'll part with them. I already had a request from one of my colleagues though to buy one of my paintings, so I painted something similar for her.


As time allows, I will sell commision paintings. This way I gain experience and confidence and at least get some return for my class fees and art supplies. So - if you have a request - let me now and we'll make a plan!


Hope all of you have a great day and a super happy week! :)

Spring feeling! :)

Let me just start off by explaining. This time I had a legitimate excuse for not blogging! I reached my 2gig downloading limit and could browse no more! This has never happened before, so at first I thought there was something wrong with our internet connection. I didn’t worry about it too much and kept myself busy with other things. When Leon enquired eventually – we were told that we’ve reached our limit.

Well – I continued to keep myself busy with scrapping and painting and visiting friends and “stuff”. I missed all my blogging friends terribly and couldn’t wait for the 1st of September to come. Yesterday came and went so fast and once again – I didn’t blog!

My recovery time is almost over now. I have to be back at work next Wednesday (9 September). Not looking forward to that. I really became so spoilt at home – doing just what I want when I want to for as long as I want to!

At least I’m mobile again – at last! I didn’t miss not being able to drive so much but now that I can drive again, I just love to get out of the house every now and again. I started art class again last week and this week I’m going twice

I finished my second painting. Totally different from my first one - and different painting technique. Here it is: I also did another one at home – all by myself. It’s similar to the first one I painted. : Started a new painting yesterday and hope to get it done by tomorrow. This time it’s much bigger than the ones I’ve done so far. Must say – I feel a bit intimidated by that big white space that I have to fill but I keep asking myself – what’s the worse thing that can happen?

Hey – it’s officially Spring on my side of the world!!!! And for a change it actually feels like Spring! The weather is absolutely wonderful!!! Just look at the beautiful blossoms on our apricot tree!I love Spring!!!

It’s been a year since a last changed my blog banner!!!! Can’t believe it’s been so long but it’s totally time for a new one, so my new one will be up by the end of the week.

Now I’m off to say hi to all the girls!