I might just have to do this....

Will you join me????

EDITED: Just read the terms and conditions... unfortunately they won't post any prizes to South Africa so reckon I won't be entering the contests but might just do some of the other stuff for fun!

My name in lights

Sooooooooo I took the plunge last week and applied to be part of a sketch design team... at NUTS ABOUT SKETCHES... and I made it!!! oooh I am sooooooooooo excited. Now I really will have an excuse to scrap! There are four (sometimes 5) sketches each month... so starting in September I will be "world famous".... okay maybe not but it is a start!

googled by mistake

I wanted to browse my gmail account and clicked on Google by mistake... only to be surprised again by a new logo... how cute is this one...

Maybe we should all do some star gazing tonight to remember this invention.

Just an update for you all while I'm here... Aaron went back to school today... I think the kids were all happy to be back. The two boys in his class who had the swine flu are all recovered and back at school too, so things seem to be back to normal.

I don't even have any scrapbooking layouts to show you this week as I haven't scrapped since the last lot I posted. I signed up (with my free ticket) for the Scrapbook Convention in September and again they are having a paper craft competition... and I suddenly decided this weekend that I am going to enter.... so I'm busy making stuff... eish talk about a deadline! I only have four weeks to get it sorted before I have to have my entry form in. And yes I will take lots of pics to show you what it looks like, but you'll have to wait till the end of September to see.

Off to check my mail now, and then it's back to work.

A friend of mine?

Go check out The Girls Loft - it's run by Margie Romney Aslett and her daughters.... it's a kit club who do ship to South Africa... I definitely would love to give them a try. AND bonus.... they're doing a give away!

btw... Margie is friends with me on Facebook and follows me on Twitter.... she is a really fav of mine!

Please pray...

for Aaron and his school mates. We got a letter yesterday to say that his school will be closing from Thursday and open again next Tuesday because of the flu. Two of Aaron's classmates have been confirmed with swine flu. There are another 17 pupils and 2 teachers with it as well... This in a school of just 350 pupils. Very scary.

To realise...

To Realise the value of a sister/brother

Ask someone Who doesn't have one.

To realise the value of ten years:

Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realise the value of four years:

Ask a graduate.

To realise the value of one year:

Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realise the value of nine months:

Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realise the value of one month:

Ask a mother Who has given birth to a premature baby....

To realise the value of one week:

Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realise the value of one minute:

Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realise the value of one-second:

Ask a person Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when

You can share it with someone special.

To realise the value of a friend or family member:

LOSE ONE.

Remember...

Hold on tight to the ones you love !

My weekend scrapping

Oh I love it when I can scrap and get lots done. This first one I did on Thursday afternoon

and then on to Saturday... and here is what I spent the day doing....

And so 5 more down, only 68 left to do in my 2007 stash!

I didn't scrap yesterday as we went out for lunch with the whole family to celebrate my aunt's 60th birthday... which was in June! So it was great to see my cousins again and just have a lovely lunch.... and no apologies from me for the three helpings of pudding I had... each one was delicious!

A new busy week lies ahead.... piano lesson and grocery shopping today starts it all off... hopefully I will be able to squeeze in another page or two of scrapping too. And don't forget to dress warmly if you haven't heard.... there is another cold front on it's way.

Take a poll

Yes a POLL not a pill... hehehe. My dear scrapping friend Retha is doing a new venture and is wanting to find out about crafters in South Africa... so please go and take this two second poll and help her out.... http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/index.php?pid=1249914585

Thanks a mil.

Another google day

Just testing my internet connection so I opened Google and got surprised again!

So to find out more.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Ørsted - he evidently invented the electro-magnetic circuit.. or some such.

Googled again

You know that feeling when you need to find something on the internet and you open google only to get TOTALLY sidetracked... hehehehe... well that's just happened to me!

And so now I've been on a search for info about this meteor shower only to find IT"S NOT HERE IN SOUTH AFRICA... so my dear northern hemisphere friends... rush out and watch this and then let me know all about it... sounds awesome.

For more info check out:

http://scienceray.com/astronomy/the-perseids-meteor-shower-august-2009/

http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy_calendar_current.html

http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_12aug09.htm?PHPSESSID=981d0vk4cmp5dtekjik2dl3p35

Latest scrapping

These are layouts that I've done over the past two weeks... some were done on the 25th of July and the others on Monday... only two times I've scrapped... slowly making inroads into the pile of layouts...

All of these are for 2007....yesterday afternoon I spent over an hour filing all my 2007 layouts into their respecitve albums, including making the spaces for the layouts still to come. So now to get down to some serious scrapping again.... with the warmer weather coming I might just venture back into my scrap room in the evenings again.

The long weekend...

is over, but the memories remain... and so here goes the post all about it...

Friday we ended up with an impromptu playdate... I arrived at school and got bombarded by two very excited friends... Nischol's dad hadn't arrived to fetch him yet, so could he come play... phone the dad, check it all out and end up with two boys coming home... two very happy boys... and so they played all afternoon.

On Saturday we went to Buddy Bear in Cresta for a birthday party of another school mate... had loads of fun, choosing a toy, stuffing it, "washing" it, and then dressing it.


The whole process even included a birth certificate.. complete with height and weight... and so MAX was born... a border collie police dog. And just for fun I bought the puppy too which Aaron named Jack. Now our days are filled with dog antics... as well as dressing and undressing them, changing into pajamas at bedtime (Aaron won the pjs in a musical statues game)... the two new friends are now even sleeping in his bed with him!

Sunday was a pretty uneventful day spent around the house... chuch in the morning, then ironing, piano practice, reading and nothing much else.

Monday was a public holiday (in case you didn't know... it was Woman's Day on Sunday and so we got Monday off too!)... I had my friends come over to scrap and so Keith entertained Aaron... took him to the gym for two hours or so in the morning... they even went swimming... thankfully in heated water.

In the afternoon, Keith took Aaron to the driving range and they hit a few golfballs... oh and evidently Aaron was using his toy clubs on a proper golf ball and broke his club... so then he had to use Dad's lefthand clubs... not quite as easy!
And this photo is especially for Keith... he took these of the Ball and Bucket ruins... this was the pub at the driving range that burnt down years ago but the ruins have not been cleared yet!

And so that was the long weekend... I will post my scrapping in the next post.

Today is historic

Today is one of those days that has a miracle in it...

At 34 minutes and 56 seconds past 12.... the time and date will read....

12:34:56 07/08/09

That is.....

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Evidently this won't happen for another thousand years! Enjoy the moment while it lasts.

The last few days...

Boy it's been busy again.... inbetween back pain and going for torture (mmm physio!) there have been a few other bits and pieces going on too. August arrived and drenched us (see Saturday's post)... but then Sunday gave us a glorious day which ended with God painting the sky in awesome colours again... just see this sunset.

Yesterday afternoon I fetched Aidan from school and brought him home for the afternoon as a birthday treat (he turns 12 on Thursday)... the boys did homework together (took a photo to prove it did happen!) and then played.... "fishing" in the ditch in the back garden.

Once Judi arrived we did the birthday cake thing... I made chocolate microwave cake especially for the occasion and just to spoil Aidan.
Once that was done the boys decided to go play outside again... but not after dressing for it and then posing for more pics... hehehe
And so ended a lovely afternoon... with lots of laughs over supper. Eventually had to force Judi and Aidan out so that they could finish homework at home and we could get to bed.

Aaron also announced when I fetched him yesterday that he earned another trophy... for NEAT WORK.... hehehe I laughed to myself as we never reckoned he would get this one! Plus he earned another two merits yesterday so Friday will be civies for my little guy.

Today is inter-house athletics at school... I even took the day off work for it so that I could take some photos for the school blog. Aaron was NOT running any races and so by 10am had had enough of sitting around shouting for his team... so we came home.

Have done a bit of school work... Aaron brought his fun maths book home... plus we've done spelling and counting that was for homework.... so now he is playing on the pc and I'm blogging... just a good day spent at home.

Tagged by Helen...

I got tagged... I always want to see my name on these things... or on awards... but when it does happen I cringe! Why???? who knows... so anyway I've done it and here's the list...

It's a list of random getting to know you questions, you then have to tag 8 other people...

Your current obsession: Getting through the day... a sore back makes you NOT focus on lots of other stuff

Weirdest Obsession: don't think I have one... but maybe that's what makes it weird?

What are you Wearing: jeans, purple poloneck, jersey and polarfleece top, shoes, socks... it's cold! therefore the layers

What is for Dinner: Not sure yet... something with pork as that's what's in the fridge

Favourite Book: Don't have an ALL OUT fav... it's usually whichever one I'm reading at the moment.... but I have posted about a few in the past that really were good

Last Thing you Bought: birthday presents on Friday

What can you hear right now: some weird song on the radio... hey me hey you... and the aircon going

Favourite flavour of Ice Cream: rum and raisin

What do you think of the person who tagged you: I absolutely love Helen... and miss her totally... wish you were closer so we could do coffee again and not halfway round the world!

Where in the world would you go if I gave you a plane ticket: Guess it would be a 10 destination stopover ticket so that I could visit friends in Aus, family in Qatar, friends in england, family in Canada and then to recover a trip to Switzerland would be nice too

Which language would you learn: I would have loved to learn French when younger but never did

Who do you want to meet right now: I'm not sure... too many options to just "pick one"!

Favourite Colour: Blue... just about any shade of blue

Favourite item of clothing: Slippers... my comfy shoes

What size shoes are you: 6

You have £100 to spare, what will you buy: If I had 100 pounds that would equate to around 1500 rand with the exchange rate.... could sure do a lot with that! Just imagine the amount of scrapstuff I could buy with that! Oh and I reckon a good massage would be great for the sore back too.

Favourite time of day: ME time... hehehe... okay I guess it's around sunset... I love seeing the sun going down and God's painting in the sky

Who's style do you most admire: Style as in??? Fashion... don't have ANY favs as I don't do fasion... style as in scrapping... well my favs are Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielski and Stacy Julian... plain and simple

What is your own style: Plan and simple... comfortable.

What are you going to do next: post this on my blog then have lunch

Favourite Films: Sound of Music, Sister Act 1 & 2, Three Musketeers

Favourite Fruit: Guavas... having some for lunch... yummy!

What inspires you: depends on what I'm doing... sometimes it's stuff I see on the internet, or read in a book or something someone tells me... don't get too inspired to do things... they just happen

What Music is your favourite this week: Matt Redman... just love his praise music... bought three CDs lately that play over and over

Do you have a dream job: yip... NO JOB... hehehe... would love to be a stay at home mom

What is stopping you: money.. what is stopping most of us! Just simply can't afford to stay at home and still pay all the bills.

What would you change in the world: Make life simpler... get rid of the guns

Favourite animal: Elephant (didn't you see my photos from Kwa Maritane?)

Favourite Tool: in scrapping it would have to be my 12x12 cutter... I can't cut straight without it (and sometimes even with it!)

What would your job have been in Victorian times: Sure hope it would have involved books... so maybe a librarian.

Now to tag 8 friends... mmmmm let's see You, Her, Him, Them, Someone, Noone, Everyone, Someonelse.... ie ... tag yourself if you see so fit!

Organising help

Just in case you need some help with your filing, here's a system that really works well...

Mine DEFINATELY looks like this... the "to heck with it" is really where I want to file most stuff... also known in my family as "file 13"!

... ps... thanks to my Dad for sending me this in an email.

news from this week

This week has been fun but also painful! The pain was in my back.... ended up having physio (torture!) twice which has definately eased the pain and allowed me to move again... but not yet 100% better. As to the "how" I hurt my back... who knows! Sat too long scrapping last week and when I moved it was sore.

The fun part of the week was getting my piano lesson book so that I can start practicing, plus also doing some baking with Aaron. His teacher had this kids cook book which we borrowed and then promptly used....

Here is Aaron making "BEES"... mix the ingredients, roll the shapes, dab on the stipes, add wings and eyes... yummy! We made enough for him to take to school and share amongst his classmates. There was one left over which he took to his principal.

And because silly me forgot to take a pic of the final product, here is the recipe.

Another highlight of the week, was Aaron getting a trophy again at school... this was because he didn't shout out the answers in class but rather put up his hand... ie good behaviour

Today we were supposed to be at school too.... interhouse athletics.... but having woken up to "Cape Town" weather... cold and wet.... it got cancelled. BUT we had already got up at 6:30, bathed, dressed and breakfast, plus driven all the way there BEFORE we got the sms to say it was cancelled :( urgh!... So now we have a cold mizzy day at home... blogged, paid bills and will do filing. Possibly scrap this afternoon if my back is not too sore.