Words for Women to Live by :-)

Some one sent this to me the other day. Some of it is so true... Enjoy!

1. Aspire to be Barbie - the bitch has everything.
2. If the shoe fits - buy them in every colour.
3. Take life with a pinch of salt... A wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila.
4. In need of a support group? Cocktail hour with the girls!
5. Go on teh 30 day diet. (I'm on it and so far I've lost 15 days).
6. When life gets you down - just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.
7. Let your greatest fear be that there is not PMS and this is just your personality.
8. I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here.
9. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.
10. Don't get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and make you walk funny.
11. When life gives you lemons in 2009 - turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka.
12. Remember where ever there is a good looking; sweet, single or married man there is some woman tired of his bullshit!
13. Keep your chin up, only the first 40 years of parenthood are the hardest.
14. If it has Tires or Testicles, it's gonna give you trouble.
15. By the time a woman realises her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she's wrong.

Good friends are like stars... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Remember yesterday, dream about tomorrow, but live for today.

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As you know by now, I am a huge cat fan. And funny and cute, or for that matter any pictures of cats I love.

I received a number of pictures the other day, and decided to share them.

Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed this, since some of them are really cute!

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Been there, Done that

I received this email the other day from a friend. I thought it would be nice to put on my blog.

Put the items you've done in bold.

1. Started you own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii (maybe some day soon)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more that you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World (twice, and I'll definitely go again!)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (lots, while I was still at school)
11. Bungee jumped (maybe one day I'll have the guts)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lighting storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (just rode past it on a ferry boat)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (definitely on my to-do list)
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch Hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill (my conscience would bother me)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dimpping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (not yet, but have been to Venice twice)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrie or sunsest
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (want to go again)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (on my to-do list)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish Community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I do not think you can ever have enough money)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (still want to go to Pisa)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung Karaoke
42. Seen old faithfull geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (other that the fact that techincally I live in Africa, I have been to Zimbabwe in the good old days)
45. Walked on a beach in moonlight (on our honeymoon in Mauritius, for the first time)
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (at the hobby-ex last year)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. See the Sistine Chapel in person (definitely something I WANT to do)
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (have not been to the top, but have seen it up close)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (again on our honeymoon)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold girl scout's cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason (lots of times, my husband believes that buying flowers should be a spur of the moment thing)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person (to-do still)
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican (definitely want to visit the Vatican)
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (as a little girl)
85. Read the entire bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (do not think I'll have the guts to ever do this)
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Dana Winner, Kurt Darren)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (my Gran at the age of 12)
94. Had a baby (if you count my kitten Zorro)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (no offense but who hasn't got one?)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day (Harry Potter)

Enjoy!

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Instead of just going straight hom eyesterday afternoon I met my husband at our local shopping mall. There we did some shopping since I had to get stuff to finish the calanders I am making for the office.

Finally after 2 hours, a few drinks and lots of money spent, we went home.

We bought some nice Wii games - Monopoly, Wii Music (where you play musical instruments) and a fishing came (with a real rod and casting, etc.)

We had this amazing sight last night. We could see the moon and 2 of the brightest planets - Jupiter and Venus, on either sides of the moon. Who else was able to see it?

I finally made a dent in the calanders this morning. The first 12 has already been sent off. So I only have another 22 to go... Not so excited to them as I were in the beginning, but oh well. They are almost finished.

I also have only 6 days left at the office before we are on holiday (3 days this week and 3 days next week). I can not wait. Then I can do whatever I want, i.e scrapbook the whole day. We are leaving for the coast on the 19th, so actually I only have a week or so to scrap in Joburg, before we leave.

I am off to a scrapbook class on Saturday morning held by Louise Eichner. She will be showing us how to make christmas door wreaths, garlands and swags, and lots more decoration ideas. I cna not wait!

I should probably be off to try and make some more calanders.

Till later then :-)

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Poor Zorro

Zorro fell out the window about a week ago.



It is a terrible feeling. I woke up on the Saturday morning, quite early, not to find him in the room. I immediately started looking for him. But I could not find him. Needless to say, 3 hours later I found him hiding in one of the bushes in the garden. With exception of his mouth that was full of blood, he looked fine. He went to the bathroom and had some water. He was very concerned about the leg, and he walked a bit funny - almost with a stiff leg. But other than that he was fine.

Later the afternoon I took him to the vet. There they explained that the reason his mouth was all bloody, was because it must have broken his fall. His jaw was not broken and the spine was fine. He also did not dislocate or break anything. Which was a great relief to me. I took him home that night.

I took some pictures of him, when he got back from the vet on Saturday.

He was not really that impressed with me.

I also took some pictures of what his mouth looked like. I felt so sorry for him. But lucky for him, he could not eat his proper food, so he got very nice soft food, which he really enjoys alot!

I kept a good eye on him and he was fine really. He just could not climb the stairs nicely, and he could not really play. But he was improving and drinking his antibiotics, with trouble, but we got them down...

Then on Thursday morning, he started moaning and he could not go to the loo, and he could neither stand nor walk on the right back leg. He would sit and cry and moan, and I could not do anything. I felt so helpless! So when the vet opened I took him in. The submitted him and I could pick him up again at 17h00.

When I arrived at 17h00, he was fine. They took some x-rays, and it showed that a piece of his pelvis had broken off. That is why he could not walk and go to the loo, since it was too sore. Shame the poor baby, I felt so sorry for him. They gave me more medicine for him and I could take him home. They told me to keep him still and no jumping and playing. Now, try telling a nine month old kitten he is not aloud to jump or do anything.

They had to put him under anesthetic in order to take the xrays. So they had to shave his front leg for the drip, shame my poor baby!

But he is doing better now. He is taking his medicine, and looking a whole lot better.

He sat with me yesterday afternoon while I was scrapbooking. I bought some nice new boxes for my scrap paper. He decided to climb in, and that is where he lay while I was scrapbooking.

He was not very impressed with me when I took this picture, since he was trying to sleep!

But by the time I took this picture he was up and ready for more mischief!

I am still really worried about him, but by the sounds of things he will be ok.

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What a weekend

The weekend started off with me dreading it. We were suppose to go away for the weekend to a spa. But my husband hurt his knee and our kitten got hurt (will tell you later what happened).

So when I got home, I waited for my husband to arrive. We then went grocery shopping. Just as we were walking out the store, my dad phoned and invited us to go with them to see Lionell Richie.

Me waiting outside the Coca-Cola Dome, where the show was held, to go in.

Pierre inside the Dome.

We had VIP tickets. So our dinner and drinks were all included. We also had terrific seats - row M - that is like 13 rows from the front.

Oh my word, what an awesome show it was. I actually do not have enough words to describe it to anyone.

Lionell Richie at his best - behind the piano.

He was on stage for nearly 3 hours. He was really excellent! I will go to his show anytime!






Needless to say, we only arrived home at 1h30 on Saturday morning...

Saturday we didn't do alot. Pierre work in the garden and I did some scrapbooking. One of close friends is gonig to London, so I am making him something to remember us by. I also started on our honeymoon album. Have not really done much yet.

I finished one layout of our honeymoon and I started the next one.





On Sunday, Pierre's Action Cricket Team (TWP) decided to play an outdoor game. They had 2 games. The first game started at 10h00, they played 25 overs and won. The second game started at 14h00, then they only played 20 overs (due to time constraint) and won again. The first game they made 144, and the second game they made 168.

Here is Pierre on his way in to go bat.

He was a very relieved but proud man after he batted.

The team coming back after the first game's fielding.

The final score of the first game. TWP made 144 runs, while their opponent only made 133.

I took some very nice shots, especially of my husband. I now want to scrap them for him. But I decided that instead of making a double layout, I'll make a chipboard album. That way, I can put in more pictures, since there are so many!

So in the end the weekend was not as bad as I anticipated it to be on Friday!

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Quick word or 2

It has been days since I last got the chance to do some blogging. And the worst of all is that I won't even have time today, since I have a workshop at work that will take the whole day.

So between work and doing stuff around the house and going to the gym and scrapbooking (luckily I have time for that) I have not been able to blog, but I do have tons to tell and share. Hopefully I will get to it tomorrow.

I am making the chistmas gifts for our office. I am making calanders for 2009 for each client. There are 34 that needs to be done. I picked up all the calanders last night and have collected all the paper and adhesives. All that is left to do is to start assembling them. I doubt it will take me that long. The sample I made was like 20 minutes, not even, so I doubt it will take hours!

But before I can do that I first need to finish the invite I am making for my husband for our romantic getaway. You do not even know anout that yet, but unfortunately I do not have enough time for all the details. But basically, we are going away on a romantic weekend, next weekend. He does not yet know where we are going. I am making an invite out of a chipboard album, with an itinerary and what we are going to do and information about the places we are staying at. The chipboard album has been bought and openeined. The paper to cover the album has been cut and some has been stuck down. The wording and pictures have all been printed. So all that is left to do is the assembling of the album.

I have also not been able to do my Stories in Hand Project. Which is a bti depressing! But I have been following and have been keeping track and keeping everyday's instructions and downloads together. So that once I have enough time, I will just be able to print everything and do all the instructions.

There is so much more to tell and show that I did over the weekend, but unfortunately it will have to wait, sorry :-(

The last thing I have to say before I REALLY need to go is that I have exactly 3 weeks left at the office before it is holiday!

Have a nice day!

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Every morning I open my blog and the very first thing I see is the Cool Cats and the Cutest Kitten. Are they not just the cutest???

I love cats - especially kittens. There is nothing cuter than a kitten playing or sleeping or doing what kittens do best. I just adore them! I can not get it around my head how people can hurt such gorgeous creatures. For that matter I can not get over how anyone can harm ANY animal!

I had a terrible ride home yesterday afternoon due to the fact that I had tons to do before I could go home. But finally after about 2 hours after I left the office I arrived home. My darling husband had by then started dinner. While we waited for it to get ready we went for a nice walk in the neighbourhood. And boy was that fun. We actually had time to talk without any interruptions. It is strange how you live together and spent every day together but never really get to talk and discuss things.

When we arrived back home we had supper while watching one of our famous local soapies called 7de Laan. After that I whatched So You Think You Can Dance and we ended the night with CSI Miami. I of course did not make it through the whole episode and therefore do not know what happened, but luckily for me I can watch the rerun on Sunday.

The weather is still very depressing, with rain and mist. Which is REALLy not nice, but oh well.

When I arrived at the office this morning I received my Stories In Hand Project: Day 3 notes.

I want to try and make some time tonight to start printing and assembling my book. The only problem is that I do not have a mini album. But I guess it is not the end of the world. I might just go and see if I can find you during lunch.

Have a nice day!

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Stories in Hand Day 2

Kenneth Tang said, "We write because we're human. And we have stories to tell. Stories of love, of romance, of heroic struggles. We write because deep within us we must tell our stories, lest they (and the memory of "us") be lost to the winds of time. We write because we want to leave a legacy, a memory , in order that others may know that we had passed this way, and that we had lived. Thus we write as a witness to our lives - for ourselves and for prosperity."

According to Jessica Sprague, today we will start diving into the stomach of this project.

Jessica Sprague compiled lists of "sparks" for our memory in the form of a questionaire. The prompts are divided into categories that fit the tabs of the binder.

All we are allowed to do today is however print these "sparks" and bind them. Later in the week we will be given assignments and exercise with these "sparks", which are designed in such a way that we get the most form the prompt questions.

The second part of today's class is about Stories to Tell Checklist. This will give us the opportunity to store the stories we have in our head on paper until we are able to convert it into an actual story to tell.

I am very excited, I actually need to force myself not to jump ahead and start answering all the questions. They say that those who wait will be rewarded, so I guess I will just have to wait.

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Stories in Hand Day 1

I registered on JessicaSprague.com for Stories in Hand.

I have not really been able to get my mind around what it is about. But as far as I can see it is like keeping a journal regarding the past, present and future. It is about gathering information.

I downloaded SIH Project Day 1: Cover and Tabs. Jessica Sprague gave us the cover of the album (6x6) as well as the different Tabbed Dividers - there are 3 main dividers (Roots, Family and Self) and some Sub-Tabs for the Family section (Spouse and Child). Since we do not have human children just as yet I decided that I will still print the Child Tabs, but the stories will just be about our baby - Zorro the cat!

The Stories in Hand system have been divided into three sections, hence the three main dividers we had to print.
1. Roots - this is the sections that is about my grandparents, parents and my childhood.
2. Family - this section deals with dating, marriage, children and grandchildren. There are 2 sub-sections. The first sub-section will contain stories about you and your spouse, the secons section will contain a section for stories about each of the children (and in my case, my cat).
3. Self - this section has prompts about myself as I am today - hobbies, habits, influences, etc.

I am so excited about this SIH Project. It will be the very first time I am doing something like this. Unfortunately, I will not be able to it as we receive the information and downloads, since things are just WAY to hectic at the moment. I will however try and keep the blog up to date about what I am suppose to do. But in my own time I will make the Stories in Hand Booklet.

Some quotes used in the SIH Project:

• In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know who we are and where we have come from - Alex Haley (Roots Tab)
• We are one big family of people, trying to make our way through the unfolding puzzle of life - Sara Paddison (Family Tab)
• My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way - Ernest Hemmingway (Self Tab)

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I am not impressed with the fact that it is Monday since it means that another week has started. A week filled with lots of meetings and work, and not much time for scrapbooking. But looking at the upside - it is one week closer to holiday and christmas!

The bad side of this Monday is that it has been raining non-stop for the past three days. Which is good for the garden, but not so good for travelling to work.

We had a full weekend.

On Friday afternoon I went to scrapbooking class. The class was taught by Anna-Karra and she showed us how to do embossing. It was great fun, and we all REALLY enjoyed it. Now all I need is a heat gun and LOTS of embossing powers. But I guess, all in good time!

On Saturday I went for a sort of mini makeover. I decided to cut my hair sort and do some highlights. It looks nice and it is a lot lighter than the long hair.

On Saturday night we had my husbands year end function. It was held at the Sun Dome - there were 2400 guests. We had artists like Kabelo, Loyisa, Kurt Darren, Karen Zoid, Dawid Kau and Dr. Victor and the Rustarebels perform. It was really nice. It was very casual - there were no seating plan, you could sit where you want to; it was an open buffet with fun food like hamburgers, hot dogs, wraps, vetkoeke and chip&dip; for desert there were donuts and ice-cream carts with a variety of ice-cream lollies in. The only unfortunate thing was the raining. But otherwise it was great fun, with lots of dancing and partying.

Yesterday it was all rainy and misty so we got stuck in bed the WHOLE day watching Charmed Season 5 & 6. What fun!!!

And that was my weekend! Hopefully the week is not too busy for me to do some scrapbooking.

Have a nice day!

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Look at what I did

I scrapbooked a picture that I enlarged on canvas. And oh boy, was that fun. And in the end it turned out really great. I am really impressed with myself and so happy about it.

It took us the whole of Saturday to do. But now it is finished and just waiting to be framed. For the moment I am going to leave it as is, but in due time I will have it framed.

I took pictures of the various stages mainly for this blog.

Stages of the Canvas

The very first thing I did was to get a backing board that is big enough to take the canvas. After a long search I found one. It had to be 84 x 114 cm, in order for the canvas and the paper to fit, but we also had to leave enough space for the frame.

I used We R Memory Keepers - Precious Metal - Coppered Out range for the layout (that is now if you can call this a layout...).

I covered the edge of the backing board with 3 different patterns from the range.

We gave the canvas a 2 cm white edge (from the canvas) which I then inked with creamy brown. Once that was done we taped it to the backing board (I used a whole role of purple turtle that I had bought the morning before class).

Along with the canvas I printed the other pictures that the wedding photographer took of me and my husband with the umbrella. They were all printed in sepia (3 jumbo size prints and 2 A5 sized prints). Each one of these pictures were done seperately. The 3 jumbo pictures I matted 3 times (thin cream boarder, thick pattern boarder and another thin dark brown boarder). Each of the boarders along with the picture was distressed before the next layer was matted.

Picture number 1.

Picture number 2.

Picture number 3.

For the 2 A5 pictures, a different techniques were used.

The first one I matted three times (distressing the picture and each of the papers). The middle layer of paper was cut thicker than the others. The reason for this is I added some chipboard frames to 2 of the corners. The chipboard was originally cream colour. I then gave the chipboard one coat of brown paint (that way the cream is still showing through and it gets a distressed look). The last step was to glaze the chipboard with diamond glaze.

The second A5 picure was a bit more complicated - trust us to once again try and do the impossible...

The picture was matted on a large piece of brown paper.

We then decided on three different pattern papers. Each of these were the length (or whith) of the picture and about 10 cm wide. They were then rolled up like cigarettes such that each of the rolls were 1 cm wide. We battle a bit with them, since the paper is very thick - the thinner the paper the easier the rolling is. Our rolls were also a bit long, the paper piercers got stuck more than once...

Once all the rolls were rolled they were placed all around the picture and stuck down with LOTS of tape.

The last thing I added to this picture you will see is a little chipboard word. This word is made my Dooh-Dah and it says Moment. I thought is was very appropriate since it was a special moment. The only thing I did to the word was ink the edges with brown ink and glaze the actually word.

The next thing that was done was of course the title.

Originally I wanted to do the Title with chipboard, but I could not find a nice font that was big enough. I found stickers for the walls by Making Memories in the end. But they did not work very nicely, since they are peel-offs and therefore did not stick to paper. So we stuck them to foamsheets to give them more dimension with tobo-glue. They were then painted with brown paint, inked/distressed with cream. But they still looked very bland, and boring. So we stamped a pattern on each letter with an acrylic stamp in a different colour brown - which then looked better. Afterwards I glazed them, but then another speed bump was hit since the ink from the stamps decided to run. So now you can not see the pattern of the stamp, but you do have 2 different colour browns. I am a bit disappointed, but it still looks nice.

To give the piece some character I added more chipboard shapes.

The one chipboard shape is in the top left hand corner. I took different sizes of the same pattern and made a "flower". The chipboard was also painted and then glazed. In the centre I added another Dooh-Dah chipboard word, Love, since that is what it is - our love for one another.

The second chipboard shape a once again took the same shape and just reversed the one. Instead of painting these shapes I covered them with paper and distressed the edges. These were placed in the middle of the right hand side of the canvas.

After all the above was done - this is what the final product turned out to look like.

It really turned out wonderfully. And the best part is that it looks stunning in the entrance hall!

This is definitely something I will do again. I am already thinking of the next canvas I want to do. I might not do it as big, maybe smaller. But we will see and I'll keep you up to date.

Happy Scrapping!!!!!!!!!!

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