Check out the Girls....

Another of my fav scrappers... Margie Romney-Aslett and her daughters have started their own business... The Girls Loft... it's a kit club....sure hope and pray we can get these here in South Africa soon too.

Today is....

World Play Day

Thursday, 28 May 2009

Who will participate: All people, from every generation. Celebration of World Play Day to create awareness of the importance of play, specifically in children’s lives, but also for families.

Where: Various homes, toy libraries, schools and communities across South Africa.

Why: The Right to Play and Recreation is a part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 31). The South African government has signed this convention. It is our aim to create awareness of and support for this Article by promoting the Right to Play through a day of playful activities and interaction.

So who is going to join me and PLAY today????

Read here for more info & song

ps... off to go play more spider solitaire on my pc till home time! I also saw the Grade 4s arrive at school today with a whole load of boardgames... so reckon they are playing too.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary today...

.... wow we sure have stuck it out through lots of ups and downs... I think we each deserve a medal.

As a treat and to celebrate, Keith & I are going to watch Navi Redd in concert on Friday night at Garden World... really looking forward to this.

Do you need a holiday?

Well you will need to buy a raffle ticket from me NOW and then stand in line to win one... here's the bumph....

Aaron's school is holding a Passion 4 Wheels Festival on Saturday and to help this along we are having a Winter Breakaways Competition. Each ticket costs R 10.00 and all funds raised go to school facility improvements.

First correct entry drawn receives 2 Nights Accommodation for 2 people at Makalali ***** Game Lodge which includes all meals and 2 game drives per day. (R 5000.00).

Second prize is 3 Nights Accommodation for 2 people at Three Cities Zululand Safari Lodge *** (Ubizane Wildlife Game reserve) and includes breakfast.(R 3 200.00)

Bring your ticket on the day to enter the Smart Car Balloon competition to win 2 Nights for 2 people at Relais Hotels Casa do Sol Hotel & Resort **** Hazyview which includes Breakfast (value R2000).

Additional tickets can also be purchased on the day.

All Winter Breakaways by Tourvest: Live the Journey prizes are valid until 31 October 2009 and cannot be exchanged or claimed in cash.

So now, please let me know how many tickets you want and I will keep them to one side for you. If you win I will then post it here too.

Google birthday wish

Google is wishing Mary Cassatt a happy birthday today... I presume she is an artist looking at the pic.... as I have said before I love getting surprised by Google when they change their logo for the day.

Congratulations Aaron

Well done Aaron on getting 20 merits... today he got to wear civies to school and received his certificate (a gold one!) in assembly. Wow this award sure came around quickly... at the beginning of the term he only had 3 merits and in the last week he suddenly got 7! Way to go.

And today is a much better day than when he got his last certificate... no tummy aches or rainy weather!

Early morning blessing

Now this is a definate worthwhile sight at 6am in the morning...
Aaron wakes up when I go to have bath, but instead of getting out of bed and making a noise, he now reaches for his bible and will read for up to 1/2 an hour.

It really warms my heart to see my little guy reading, but even more so to see him reading God's Word. Keep it up Aaron for many years to come.

Photoshoot

Two weeks ago we went to Jacki's shop for a photoshoot by her friend Amelia... what a fun fun day... here are just some of my photos of that day...

Outside Jacki's shop there was a vintage ride on car... Aaron loved playing in and around it

The photographers in action....

Just a few of my snaps of us having our pics taken... can't wait to see what actually came out

And so we wait.... will show you a smattering of the pics when I get them.

Ascension Day

Today commemorates the day that Jesus rose up to heaven (see Acts 1) ... and for the first time in many years I plan to go to church tonight.... our church hasn't had a service for as long as I've been a member, but our new minister, Brian, has instituted one for tonight.

Our minister raised a very interesting point on Sunday.... who gave us Ascension Day? God of course... before the government made it a public holiday and then subsequently took it away again.... so that doesn't mean that we CAN'T celebrate.

Will report back tomorrow (hopefully) on how it went.

God be with you today and in to the future.... I worship the risen Saviour.

been busy scrapping

I took a week or two off from scrapping... not intentionally mind you... just been busy being creative in other directions.... I'm looking at making Christmas goodies for a Christmas market type thing that my Mom's church is holding in November.... so now I'm looking at quilling, origami, prick and stitch and even searching cross stitch patterns for my mom...

But this weekend it was back to scrapping... oh it is nice to get my hands on my goodies again! Us girls met at Gayle's house for a good scrap afternoon and a major catch up chat session.... I did manage to do some good stuff:

This was one of the layouts from the "mega day" scrap that I went to on the 1st of May.. the only one that I've finished so far... I'm quiet happy how it turned out... slightly different from the original.... they used orange for the accents but I decided red was more suited to my pics. The weaving was interesting but not something I will do in a hurry again!

Then I tackled an easy layout... used Bo bunny easter stickers and hey presto... layout done!

My fav scrap shop, Scraptifity, is closing down... sniff sniff.... but also yippee as they are having a sale... 50% off EVERYTHING... so I've been stocking up a bit... I bought a great Cosmo Cricket paper pack... Get Happy... and have used it to do the following three layouts



The middle one is one I did on Saturday and then I did the other two yesterday. As the paper is all double sided and sooooooooooooooooo nice I didn't want to waste it, so I used the back of the middle ones as the backing for both the others... they all follow each other in the album.

And to add to my scrapping addiction I'm contemplating entering to get a place on the Scrap Shack's design team.... going to be doing lots of scrapping in the next two weeks to get my entries organised.... still trying to source the stuff I need to use though :(

Well to end on a happier note, here is a recipe for Mocha Brownies that I made for the scrap day on Saturday... everyone has raved about them.

Mocha Brownies
Lining the pan isn't busywork; it makes it easy to remove the brownies.
Prep: 15 minutes Total: 3 hours Makes 16
Ingredients
125gm unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
225gm semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.
In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Place butter and chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Add instant espresso powder. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

CATHY'S NOTES: I didn't line my pan... just used spray 'n cook and then butter and they came out okay. Secondly I baked them for the 60 minutes (didn't check them) and they came out hard... next time will cook them for shorter.

1000+ visits

Yahoo I EVENTUALLY got to the 1000 visits... opened my site meter report and this is what it showed...
Boy oh boy am I happy.... I've only had my blog like for OVER a year (or two)... so how come it's taken sooooooooooooo long just to reach 1000 visits??? Anyway, I sure hope that that number keeps climbing... which means you must please keep visiting.... oh and while here.... please leave me a comment or two (or more) so that I know you've been.

Mother's Day craft

I saw this project on Scrapscene and decided to check it out some more... so followed the link to the instructions and then got my thinking cap on.... baked some of my cappachino cookies... found an empty container, some pink flowers and some pink paper... and voila... mothers day present for my mom....

Mom loved it when I gave it to her on Saturday (we visited them a day early). Aaron was soooooooo taken with it that he just had to have one of the flowers too... once he got one he was fine and left it all alone... but he had been nagging about one since I put this together on Friday!

This was a nice and easy gift and something I would highly recommend making again... maybe even for a teacher's present or just because....

The first half of May

May is two weeks old and it's been pretty busy already... here's photos to show what we've been up to.

2nd of May I took Aaron to the Berario Recreation Centre to see the Fairlands Police Station open day... it was lots of fun... we saw a fire engine, fire dog, police horses, lots of police cars, Aaron got fingerprinted and even got to press the horns/sirens in both the fire engine and police car... little boy's delight!

After the lunchtime fun we went to the Train Staion in Roodepoort and got to ride on the model trains... I bought four tickets and Aaron used THREE of those... I only got one ride... but it was fine as he was really in his element here.

And to round off the afternoon, his last ride was just him and the train driver and Aaron got to "drive" himself.... lots of photo opportunities for Mommy

After I hung up washing on Sunday the 3rd, Aaron was up to his usual tricks... climbed in the laundry basket and pretended to be a rabbit... even had to be fed carrots... "ummm, what's up doc!"

A gorgeous sunset... it looked almost like the clouds were on fire

Three days later, the 6th, another beauty of a sunset.... the clouds were so wispy and all the different colours... God is a perfect artist

Thursday the 7th was Aaron's first piano lesson... he LOVED it and took off so well, even his teacher was amazed... now it's practice practice practice

Came home and tried it out on his keyboard too.

On Friday the 8th I took Aaron to the barber to get his hair sorted out.... Daddy had hacked it a few weeks before and it really looked weird... so off with it all and spikes here we come

And that's that for now... life carries on, the camera keeps clicking away and soon there will be more pics to show.

April's photos

I've been wanting to show off my photos from April but hadn't had a chance to make all the collages.... so today I did... now be prepared for LOTS of pics....

We went to the sunrise Easter service at our church... a very special time and even more so watcing the sky change


After church we discovered that the Easter Bunny had visited the house and left little parcels all over the garden... Aaron had a ball finding all the eggs... even Mommy & Daddy got in on the hunt and found a few. (They are still all being eaten nearly a month later!)

Another awesome sunset... April the 15th

On the 18th my scrap friends came over for a fun day of scrapping... we try do this monthly and have a chance for "kidfree" scrapping... well being at our home Aaron was around... and then Charmaine ended up bringing her little girl too.... playmate for Aaron. Judi also spoilt Aaron (like normal) with a clown sucker (note: some of it is still in the fridge waiting to be eaten).

The kids decided that the jungle was the place to be... they dragged the table and chairs up there to eat their lunch... too sweet to see.

Election day came on the 22nd... perfect day to get some odd jobs done around the house... Keith, assisted by Aaron, painted the front security gate... Keith had eventually replaced the lock after months of hassles with it.

Just an average afternoon... the 25th... Aaron played on his jungle gym and Mommy took some pics

And then there is yet another breathtaking sunset on the 30th... such a different view that then one that Papa & Granny see at the caravan park (see previous post)

Right that's April done... now to do May... so beware of another photo filled post coming up.

Caravan photos

Aaron went with Papa & Granny in the caravan for the last week of April... when his school was closed. They all had a great time as can be seen from all these photos (and the many others that I haven't put up!)

Pitching in to help set up camp
Exploring the play ground... can you spot the monkey?

Holiday attire... hat, scarf, long pants and jersey for the early mornings and then shorts and shirt for later in the day. And don't forget the binoculars for game spotting

Aaron too the pick of Papa & Granny ... got them and the whole caravan in.. very impressive. Also that huge whole he is sitting on the edge of is a Ground Squirrel's home!

Some of the many animals and birds that were seen...

More playground adventures... Aaron even got Papa up on to the slide!

The sunset in the caravan park...

Last day there... sunrise photo plus the animals... the lion that chased their caravan neighbour's car and also waved at them

And there are lots more little stories that go with this holiday... a scrap page in the making.

Please support if you can

Aaron's school is having a fun day at teh end of May... a Passion 4 Wheels Festival... I'm sure it's going to be lots of fun... every little boy's (and big one too!) dream... so if you are in Jhb and are free that day... please come along and support us... you can even have a ride in a limo.

Birthday wishes

Happy birthday to an awesome blog friend... Desire. Hope you have a STUNNING day today... thanks for all the comments you leave each and every time... thanks to for your lovely blog... the cards you make are awesome. Enjoy your day immensely!

Have you seen it?

Sometimes I think I must be sleeping.... I browse the internet all day and yet I have only now found this blog... Creating Keepsakes has it's own blog.... check it out today and leave a comment... you can win a free class with Jessica Sprague... another fav of mine.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm not totally clueless... I've been around on the Creating Keepsakes website for years... and seen lots of changes there... but have NEVER looked at their blog.... well now it's added to my google reader list so hopefully I won't miss out on it anymore. Not that I buy the mag mind you... I just love to know what's what in the scrapping world. Off to read some more...

Have some fun

I was reading my many google reader blogs and had a quiet chuckle with the one from the Daily Digi.... go do this, it will be fun!

Unplugging

I saw this post on Stacy's blog today (it's her birthday but she is not available!) and so followed the link and have decided to take up the challenge too... so head over to Jodie's blog and find out more, then join me and we can be UNPLUGGED for a day together too.

My only decision now is as to WHICH day to do this... guess it will have to be a weekend as I work on the pc every other day for work!

Keep your kids safe

I just got an email from a friend of mine.. it reads as follows:

A friend my office mate and a friend of hers were out to supper last night at MIMO's in Northriding (a new one I believe) and she and her friend were chatting while their two 5 year old's were playing the the enclosed, supervised play-area...

The mom looked up and saw her kid half was across the parking lot... she ran screaming to her - what was she doing? Where was she going... the girl skipped and smiled and said "that man said I can come play with his baby"... and there was an Indian guy with a baby about 2 meters away from the little girl with the passenger door standing open.

When the mom got to her daughter the man pulled off - with the door slamming shut !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this not so shocking? 1 minute later and her daughter would have been gone. She said she didn't sleep last night - just sat next to her daughter's bed staring at her daughter all night....

So now, please tell your children AGAIN about the "don't talk to strangers" rule... we need to keep our children safe from these sick people.

My prayer each and every day is that Aaron will be safe... scary isn't it.

I'm learning...

I found a link on Jackie's blog and so decided what the heck and went and signed up to learn how to customise my blog myself.... the course is FREE... so if you are also interested, head over to www.digitalscrapbookingclasses.com quick quick and let's do this together.

Some more...

These layouts I did last week Thursday:

And Friday I went to Scrapping Studio's Mega Scrap day... wow did Judi and I have fun! It was a great day... we did FIVE double pages, had yummy food and even both won in the lucky draws. We also got a lovely little baggy that got filled up all through the day with lots of useful things... glue, white gel pen, double sided tape, brown chalk (soooooooooooo needed and scarce!), rubon letters and also the odd sweet or two. I'm sure the nearly 100 ladies (and one man!) enjoyed the day as much as I did... congrats to Audrey, Sarah, Ritea, Mel and Lara for the great day... well organised.

Well the rest of the weekend I DID NOT scrap... yip, you read right... no scrapping... uh? How'd that happen... well I spent Saturday tidying up and sort out our upstairs (spare) bedroom cupboard... after three months of waiting Keith eventually put up the shelves on Friday. I found a bunch of stuff to give away and also others to throw away. Have a few things still to sort but it definately looks better already.

The afternoon was spent with Aaron... I took him to an open day held by the Fairlands Police Station... he had a ball and was a very happy little boy in that he got to blow the sirens on both the fire engine and the police car! He also had his fingerprints taken... all part of a safety campaign.

After all this excitement, we also went past the Train Station and got to ride the trains... and another absolute highlight for Aaron... he got to drive the train!!! Mommy of course got to take LOTS of photos.

Sunday we spent at church in the morning... had a wonderful service in which we all individually got a special blessing and prayer. SO church ended up running a bit later than normal... we only got home at 11:45! Aaron and I both vegged on the pc for the rest of the day... nothing exciting.

Last night I decided (at 6pm!) to see if Aaron's long pants would fit him... he has to wear winter uniform from today. Well they were a bit short... so I then spent time last night after supper lengthening his pants... a full 2cm... thankfully there was a big hem... can still let them down by another 2cm when he needs it... his waist has not changed so I reckon he might even be able to wear these longs next year too!

And so now we have FIVE day weeks for the next SIX weeks... boy that sounds awfully long... I think I've just got too used to the short weeks over the past month.

Another exciting development this week... Aaron starts piano lessons on Thursday... very excited!

ps... will post pics soon soon... just need to edit lots of them!