Happy New Year

Wishing you a very Happy New Year.... may this year be a good one for all... peaceful, blessed and God-centered.

The year that was 2025

This whole year I have kept up with my diary every day but instead of posting it daily I took to doing a weekly update called "the week that was..." so I thought is was only fitting to title this post in the same vain as it will be a summary of my year.

Scrapping

I've been very busy with scrapping again this year. Done loads of challenges for Gingerscraps, Sweet Shoppe, The Lilypad, Pickleberry Pop and Oscraps. Then there was all my CT team work too for Adrienne Skelton, Buzzbee Scraps, Digital Scrapbook, MissFish Templates, ninigoesdigi and Rachel Etrog. I haven't been as diligent keeping up with my tally as I haven't had that much free time as I did in the past... with all the scrapping I do, updating the tally takes a few hours. I did managed over the last few days to just add it all up and found that I've done 486 single and 5 double layouts which gives me 491 total pages done.

Reading

Based on last year's reading I set myself a high (but attainable) goal of reading 70 books this year... and I managed to do that and then some! I've read 87 books (though Goodreads only shows 82 as some were multi-book sets) which was 22668 pages. Not to bad considering work was busy and I did all that scrapping too that I mentioned above (hehehe).

Family

Some of the highlights for our family this year are:

Aaron quit his job at the end of January and spent the next three months studying matric physics and chemistry. He rewrote this subject to improve his mark so that he can enrol in an Aviation Aeronautics course. Unfortunately the results were released on in August so he missed the midyear star and has to wait till March 2026 before he can begin. This has been okay as he started a new parttime tutoring job in September which he thrived at.

Aaron has continued with  his flying this year too. He had to change flight school midyear as the one he was at had all their planes in maintenance at the same time and he couldn't wait for them to be able to operate again because his PPL requirement would have lapsed (has to fly once ever three months). So the new school saw him learning to fly a new type of plane and he managed to get the rating on that as well as his PPL renewal done in December. We've also been blessed out of our socks with a sponsorship through my work for his flying for next year... a true blessing from God.

Keith has enjoyed his retirement this year. He has done a few projects around the house as well as spending many hours pottering around the garden.

Mom saw the eye specialist in March and was told that there was no further treatment options for her eyes. Her macular degeneration is still progressing but is fairly stable from the bleeds point of view. Her actual sight is still iffy and challenging, but Mom is very positive in tackling her disability. She has adapted to do what she can... listens to audio books, still does crocheting (by feel), bakes and cooks.

My year was busy... work has increased as we've had new projects come on board. We employed a new lady in our billing department, whom I trained in January. Since then I've taken on a new region for billing and possibly even a second. We are also in the process of getting a more AI driven system (not my cup of tea!) which we will have to get to grips with in the new year. My private drawing work has continued this year too... not as much as in the past couple of years, but enough to help to pay for my scrapping supplies and a few extra flying expenses.

From January to March, Keith's brother and his wife were in South Africa from Canada (escaping their winter). We saw them a few time during the two months. My brother, his wife and daughter visited us from New Zealand in April. They stayed with us for two weeks. Mom and I did our annual trip to Wyndford in April. In May, and again in November, Mom, Aaron and I attended Lay Witness Mission weekends ministering to two different communities. The one in November was over Aaron's birthday too... we had a long roadtrip to Empangeni and back that weekend. So even though we haven't had any family holidays this year, all my little weekend trips and the family visits felt like they were holidays anyway. In December my niece and her family moved to Jhb from Bloem and we spent the day with them too just before the end of the year. Hopefully we will see a lot more of them now. Keith's Mom has not been well this year. She turned 90 in November.

The plan for 2026:

It's going to be a busy year for Aaron with his new course. For me it will be extra busy at work with all the new billing regions I will be doing, plus learning the new system. Not planning to do any trips (besides Wyndford again). So I guess the main plan will stay in place for next year... lots of scrapping, reading and family time.

Happy New Year 2025

 I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a blessed 2025.

May this year ahead be filled with more love, laughter, friendship and time spent with family. 

The plan for this year is for Aaron to redo some of his matric subjects so that he can then go and study Aviation Aeronautics. Keith will presumably still be spending most of his retirement gardening... that brings him joy, and tinkering with some of his other projects.  I plan to still do lots of scrapping, coffee drinking and chocolate eating... so not much will change there!

Happy New Year 2024

 Happy New Year... 

Let's start this year off how we plan to continue from last year.... scrapping!!!

I am happy to say that I will still be scrapping for ninigoesdigi, Rachel Etrog, Gina Miller, MissFish, Adrienne Skelton, BuzzBee Scraps and Digital Scrapbook.com. I am also going to be on the team for Stick It Down for the next six months. Guess I will be scrapping lots in 2024.

Other goals/resolutions for this year... much the same as in previous years... read lots and drink coffee plus eat chocolate whilst doing so.

Things we are looking forward too include a trip to Wyndford and our family holiday to Canada.

Happy New Year - It's 2023!

 

Happy New Year to you and yours. May the year ahead be one of blessing, fun, laughter, family and adventure. The year always stretches ahead as a blank canvas... let's pick up our box of crayons and colour each day with brightness.

My goals for this year are much the same as they have been for the past few years... more scrapping, more reading and more coffee... I am sure that I can achieve that. 

So on the scrapping front there are a few changes for some of my creative teams. Both ninigoesdigi and Rachel Etrog have jumped ship and joined The Lilypad. I am sticking with them and welcoming the change. I am also still on Gina Miller's team and have joined Micheline Lincoln's TLP team for the next three months. My other commitments are to MissFish and Adrienne Skelton at Gingerscraps, Cornelia Designs at The Digital Press and Marissa Lerin at DigitalScrapbook. So I think I will still be fairly busy scrapping with lots of lovely goodies this year.

Along with all the scrapping I foresee coming up, I still plan to spend lots of time reading too. I have set my goal for this year at a conservative 45 books... let's see how we do by the end of the year.

The goal of more coffee just goes without saying.... hehehe... hopefully the drinking of it will also involve a few more visits with friends this year as well as a couple of trips away.

May God go with us into this new year and may we all experience His many blessings, guidance and peace.

Looking back on 2022

Wow what a year it has been... looking back on it there has been quite a few things that have been accomplished and also some that were missed.

Family News:

We missed out on going on timeshare holidays in May (floods in Natal), June (car accident) and August (getting sick) but Mom and I did get to go to Mtunzini in February (LWM) and to Wyndford in April (LWM retreat) and again in September (Mom's birthday).

As a family we also changed church this year. We joined New Harvest Christian Fellowship and have really grown in our faith journey after a few years of spiritual drought. Aaron has joined the youth group and made some very good friends through that too, they even helped him celebrate his 21st birthday in November. He also started a parttime job in June working at Kumon... loves it! We managed to buy him a car with the insurance payout from our car accident.

Aaron hasn't done as much flying this year but he has written all his exams for his Private Pilot License. On the 16th of December, after numerous weather delays and rescheduling of the flight, Aaron flew his exam flight and passed!! He is now a fully fledged two stripe Private Pilot. I am soooooo proud of him.

Keith retired at the end of October having turned 63 that month... but in November he was offered a contract from his company so he has continued to work until they can find his replacement.

Mom has battled a bit more this year with her vision but she has been blessed with a great Opthamologist who has treated her so well over the past 9 years. He unfortunately has retired, but left her in good hands of the doctor who has taken over his practice. She has made lots of adjustments (sometimes daily) and has kept her very positive outlook on the situation. Each day is a new adventure.

We have had more loadshedding (planned power outages) this year that any other year in the past. Loadshedding actually is the word of 2022... how sad is that! We have learnt to work around the schedule... so long as the municipality stick to the schedule that is! Boiling the kettle and filling a flask is routine now. Thankfully we have a gas hob so I can still make supper. We bought a little generator which helps with being able to have wifi and tv (but it's needing to be fixed now as it hasn't been performing correctly in December). Torch light is great to a point! At least with summer here it is lighter longer. 

My news... I am still working mornings only, loving my scrapping and just going on day by day.  I got a new laptop on the Black Friday sale in November which has been such a great buy. My scrapping is quicker, downloading stuff is easier and I can use it when the power is out as the battery lasts!

Scrapping:

Having changed to digital scrapping in 2019 I have been doing more and more scrapping each year than at any time when I did paper scrapping. This year I was on 12 teams, some full time and some for just a few months at a time. I scrapped 618 single layouts and 1 double layout which is 620 pages, just over 1.5 pages a day! 

I even played with paper and made a few minialbums this month. On one I did the coptic binding technique that I have been wanting to do since 2020, so can cross that off my scrapping bucket list.

Reading:

I set myself a reading goal each year on the GoodReads site and keep track of all the books I've read. This year I made a goal of 52 books but surpassed that in October already. It's been a really good year in fiction for me... I've finished 66 books!! You can see a summary layout of my reading in this post.

And so that winds up this past year. Let's get ready for the adventure that is 2023!

Happy New Year 2021

 

It's the New Year and a full 365 days lies ahead. May we all be safe, happy and healthy this year. God bless.

Romans 15:13 - 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wrapping up 2020 in stats

This year has come to an end much like any others but with a few added twists... like being back in Lockdown Level 3 for New Year's. Well one of the benefits of the Covid-19 lockdown is being able to stay home without feeling guilty. I've managed to get tons done this holiday season too which makes me feel accomplished.

Over the last few weeks I've sewed new lounge, diningroom and bedroom curtains, as well as made 4 blouses, altered a dress into a t-shirt and made 2 pairs of pants.

This year held lots of other achievements too for me as well as the family:

Aaron got his matric results in January and though it wasn't the results we were hoping for, it's been a blessing having him home all year. He started on his journey to become a pilot and has been flying every month since June (at least once a month). He has built up 14.8 hours so far. Also, he has been learning to drive this year... hopefully will get his license within the next month.

Keith had a good year I think. He spent the full lockdown at home (6 weeks) but went back to work fulltime in May. He has thankfully stayed healthy (besides a 24hour sinus infection in June) and hasn't really been affected by the Covid pandemic. A few work colleagues  did get the virus but they were quick on isolating them and warning the staff. He finished the year with lots of pottering around in the garden over this holiday.

For me workwise I worked from home throughout the full lockdown and from May was only going in to work one day a week. In September we went back fulltime. We've had a few cases at work too. The office got closed for the day for thorough cleaning and once safe we returned. I also had that same infection Keith had back in June and spent the weekend feeling sick... stayed away from everyone! To keep myself sane throughout the year I've tackled quite a few of my usual crafts and also read lots. Here's just a few of my stats:

Books read: 48 - I made my Goodreads reading challenge goal for the year.

Paper layouts scrapped: 12 single & 4 double = 20 pages

Digital pages scrapped: 411 single & 6 double = 423 pages

For the first year EVER I reached my goal of a page a day.... and actually exceed it too! I scrapped a total of 433 layouts this year which equates to 443 pages! So very pleased. Guess doing digital scrapping has a great benefit! I definitely won't be printing all those pages, only a select few once my books are done.

I have been on 6 different digital design teams this year... these have accounted for lots of the layouts I made this year. A big thank you to each of the ladies who took a chance on this novice and had me on their team.

And so as 2020 comes to an end, I wish for you and yours a peaceful New Year's celebration and all the joys of being with family throughout the next year. God bless you and keep you. May He lead you on the new path that lies ahead.

Create Wall Art - step-by-step

I have been doing a sort of scraproom makeover (or reshuffle) over the past few months... I push stuff this and that way till it works. I have also added in a few extra drawers... reorganised some stash and made space so that I can have my cutting machines available all the time (maybe then I will use them more!).

As part of my planning, I was pinning loads of ideas on pinterest and not really doing much with them. Well I did collect the toilet rolls and tuna tins for two projects, but haven't made them yet. Another project I pinned, was to make a new word for my wall... I really like this one and used it for my starting point.

As I really wanted to make it my own and didn't have the letters as above, I knew I would have to make another plan. That's just what I did last week while on my long weekend break and now this is what my scraproom looks like with my new word up on the wall.

In more detail, here is how I went about creating my new word art:

1. Firstly I kept some old milk box cartons till I had enough for all the letters.
2. Using Coreldraw I typed out my word, chose the fonts I wanted and resized them. Once I was happy,I reveresed some of the letters and then printed a letter per A4 page.
3. I then stuck the letters to the back of the cardboard and cut them out.

When it came to decorating them, I treated each letter differently... as follows

I covered all the letters,except the A, in gesso first to give me a good starting point.

I started with the C and the last E... I applied some embossing paste which I tinted teal, through a stencil to part of each letter. For the C I added strips of some Couture Creations Vintage Christmas paper and then a few ribbons. I finished both letters off with some coffee stain stamps, plus a layered flower on the E.

Next up was the T... this letter I left fairly plain... covered it in full with a sheet of dotty paper, added a strip of stripes and then some buttons. Once I started the coffee stain stamp on the other letters I decided to add some here too... just subtly finished it off.

Next up was the R... this letter I wanted to pick up the reddish colour of the dots and strips, so started with a base of red stain then used orange distress ink to apply a chevron pattern over the while letter. I added in some white word stickers and then using some dimensional glaze stuck on a few blue beads to add interest.

The next fun letter was the second E... this one I turned blue with a demin stain and then while still slightly wet went over it with a pale blue distress paint... it ended up with a funky pattern. Well I didn't stop playing there... I then applied walnut ink to a Couture Creations pinstripe embossing folder and used it to stamp a plaid pattern all over the letter... first stamped the one way and then turned the folder and stamped the other direction... pretty funky. Once it was all dry, I stuck on a layered flower.

The last letter that I did was the A... this one I applied a mixed media/art journalling technique that I learnt a few weeks back from Jowilna... such fun to be able to apply techniques to different mediums. To begin I stuck various bits of ribbon to my plain letter with gel medium. Once that was dry, I gesso-ed over it all and allowed to dry. Next up, I applied paint and distress stain in three colours in various parts of the letter. Once it was all dry I stamped a bit on the edges with an alphabet stamp.

I then put all my letters together and took a pic while it was drying... and again after it was up on the wall... pretty chuffed how it all turned out.

So there you have it... making art from an idea off the internet.... why not give it a go too?

an unfrozen dream

You know that proverbial "bucket" list...

well mine has a few items on it that are on the "one day when..." list too.

Then this year at church our minister Paul started a sermon series on Living Passionately.  One of the things he talked about was unfreezing your dreams.  Both Mom and I looked at each other and said this is the year to go up in a hot air balloon.

Well it came down to finding the time... as usual!  Until.... I got an email at the end of March about a special for the month of April.... hot air balloon trip PLUS overnight dinner, bed and breakfast... for LESS than a normal two person trip in the balloon.  Well I phoned Mom, she said "go for it" and I booked.

Today was the day we unfroze our dream.

and I can only say... IT WAS AWESOME and I WANT TO GO AGAIN!!!

Loved it.  The adventure was well worth getting up at 5 this morning for.  We were blessed with a perfect day....not cold, clear sky and only enough wind for the balloon to float.  The trip might only have been an hour long, but both Mom and I didn't notice the time.  Neither of us wanted it to end.  We could have spent all day up there. It was soooooooooooo peaceful and serene (except when the gas is on, then you can't hear yourself talk!).  A lot of the time I didn't even notice the movement of the balloon.  There is no sensation of going up or down or even floating.  It's only noticeable when you see the ground going past below you.

So my advice to you... if this is on your "bucket list", don't put it off. Don't worry about the cost.... just do it!  Well worth the money for the most awesome experience ever.

ps... I don't like heights and this didn't worry me in the least.  Now Mom's next dream is tandem parachute jump.... not for me thank you very much.  But it just might be a birthday treat for her if we can organise it! hint hint.

Happy New Year

Here's wishing you and yours all the best for the new year.  May 2014 be filled with love and laughter and may you be surrounded by family and friends.  God bless you mightily in the year ahead.

I'm famous.... hehehe

Okay, maybe only a celebrity to my family and friends, but hey it's not every day you get your face on national television! Here's the story:

I took Aaron to Sci-Bono on Tuesday for a day of fun and exploring... they are holding a Gadget Factory for the school holidays with a number of workshops everyday.

Well he (semi)built and programmed a robot... got it to go round in a square and then also sense an obstacle and reverse and turn.  this was loads of fun... to the point he now wants one for Christmas (Santa's budget doesn't stretch that far unfortunately!)

We also got to try out a  segway... a scooter type thing that you propel forward or backwards using your centre of gravity

Aaron got to play with playdough and create an electric circuit, and also made a periscope.

While we were wondering around the centre, I noticed a TV crew but didn't think too much of it.  Then at lunchtime we went to the Science Show and they were there.

Aaron was one of the volunteers called upon to try and experiement... blowing a ping pong ball out of a funnel... it's physically impossible by the way!

After the show, the lady asked if she could interview me and Aaron... well of course we willingly said yes!!

Then the excitement built... "we're going to be on tv!" sang Aaron throughout the afternoon and most of the way home.  Well we sat glued to the tv that night to catch the broadcast... and had also posted it on facebook and sms'd or bbm'd all our friends.  The broadcast didn't happen! Aw shucks!

Come Wednesday morning and Aaron screams at the top of his voice and wakes me up to say that "we're going to be on tv!"  He had seen the promo of the story coming up.  Well we sat through another 15 minutes of news, sport and weather and then there was our faces and voices on the screen.  Excitement reigned!!

I got sms and calls as well as facebook posts all day long from friends who had also seen the broadcasts... it seemed that ENCA had repeated the story every hour on the hour for the morning news, from 6am till who knows when.... so lots of people saw it.

If you missed it, well you're in luck.  It's on youtube... and here's the link

So there you have the story and the story behind the story... we had our two seconds of fame!

Olympics....

It's happening today... the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.

Google's doodle is very apt just for today.

Let the fun begin!

Happy Canada Day

All the best today to all our family and friends in Canada.... may your day be full of fun festivities.

Time to go green....

With Earth Day coming up on Sunday there is lots going on about saving our planet... well I think I might just do a little bit for this too.... I'm going to take a blog hop on Sunday that is going to inspire me to scrap greener (or at least I hope so).... why not join in the fun....

This blog hop is being hosted by ecoscrapbook... a new blog that I read about on ScrapScene.

I love the manifesto idea... all about REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE

Definitely going to do some reducing of my stash this weekend!

Oh happy day

I commented and I WON!!! Happy dance going on.

So now I reckon I best learn how to use my stash of stamps!

In need of stash?

I never thought there was something as TOO MUCH stash... but then you run across someone who is giving away heaps of it and realise that this give-away is almost more than I own already!!!!  Hehehe... so if like me you want to get your hands on it, then head over to Tina's blog for a chance to win some lovely loot.

Here is a pic of a smidgen of it:

So head over to her blog now and enter.

It's Leap Year

Today's the 29th of Feb... not a day we get to have too often.  So here's to leaping all over the place today and just being plain silly.

Dreaded 404 error

I'm sure in your browsing history you've come across those horrid "404 Page Not Found" errors.... well this one added a smile to my face today....

Now that's a way to keep customers coming back I think... a good sense of humour.

Want some blog candy?

One of my fav South African scrappers who is now in Australia :( is Michelle van Wyk.  She has super ideas, loves teaching and is an awesome blogger too.  Head over to her blog and sign up as a follower... we all stand the change of winning some Kaisercraft goodies when she has 200 followers.