I'm having a sale

Having swopped to digital scrapping in 2019, i haven't touched my paper scrapping supplies since then. I've finally decided it is not time to have a clear out.... so it's on  sale

Head to my CathQuillScrap facebook page to find all the details.

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.

A wrap up of 2023

The year has come to an end as as usual here is a look back at some of my highlights:

Reading:

I looked back on my January post and see I set a reading goal of 45. Well halfway through this year I upped it to 60... I read those and then some. A lot of the books I read towards the end of the year were short books so I could virtually read one a day. So my tally for the year is 111 books. I don't think I have ever read as much!

Scrapping:

At the start of the year I talked about the CT teams I would be on for the year... well some of those of still continuing into 2024 but some are not.

So this year I have made layouts for ninigoesdigi, Rachel Etrog and Gina Miller at The Lilypad, at Gingerscraps for MissFish and Adrienne Skelton, and then for Marisa Lerin at Digital Scrapbook as well as BuzzBee Scraps. I did layouts for both Cornelia Designs and Micheline Lincoln till mid year when they both took a break from designing kits for personal reasons. I also did a guest spot for Tracie Stroud at Sweet Shoppe.

I finally managed to print three photo books this year... for 2020, 2021 and 2022. I still have a few pages to finish to be able to print 2018 and 2019. Hopefully I will get to finish 2023 next year too.

In summary I did 476 single page layouts this year. Not nearly as many as I did in 2022 but it's still more than a page a day which has always been my goal.

Family:

Keith finally retired at the end of March. He has enjoyed being home since then tackling lots of gardening as well as a few projects around the house that have been piling up,

Aaron changed jobs in April... from Kumon Bryanston East to Kumon Boskruin. He is working more hours and 4 days a week and loving it. Another bonus is that it is much closer to home so he doesn't have to contend with too much traffic. 

He also continued with his flying this year too. Aaron changed flight schools in January... signed up at Aeronav Academy and proceeded to do his Night Rating... ie learning to fly at night in good weather. What we had hoped would take him 3 months ended up taking 10. He managed to do his final exam at the end of October. There were weather delays (perfectly normal), plane delays (some normal, some frustrating) and instructor delays (out of our hands), but at the end it all came together. Aeronav also held an awards day at the beginning of December and we were able to join Aaron there and see him get his certificate. 

The other exciting development of the year for Aaron was that he got a girlfriend. Aaron met Karla through the Young Adults at New Harvest Church earlier this year. They started going out in July. She is a lovely girl and they are very sweet together. 

Mom has had an up and down year with her eyes. At the beginning of the year she had a bleed in her right eye and needing a series of injections to halt that. Now at the end of the year her eye is improving and she is in a treat-and-extend program.... ie inject then prolong the time between injections so each cycle gets further apart. It seems to be working so far.

For me it's been a year of the normal work routine, lots of scrapping and reading and not too much else. I did manage to get quite a bit of private drawing work to do to which has brought in some extra money and kept me pretty busy.

We managed to do a few holidays this year too. Mom and I went to Wyndford in March, the four of us went to Hazyview for a week in May (our last timeshare holiday ever!) and Keith went to Ramsgate to see his friend Bruce in October.

Loadshedding:

This was the other buzzword for the year... we had more hours of no electricity this year than any previous year since loadshedding started back in 2007. We've had continuous loadshedding for months on end with a two week break in October (for the rugby world cup of all things!) and now a three week break over Christmas. 

In February Mom bought a huge invertor to run her fridge. This has been very helpful for her as where she stays gets lots of breakdowns as well as the loadshedding outages. The machine however had to go get fixed in September and now again in December... hopefully it will still work okay when loadshedding returns (which I am sure it will in January!).

One of Keith's projects for his retirement was to put together an inverter for our house... he had bought the bits through work a few years back. He did eventually get it all assembled and plugged in... just has a bit of an issue with charging the batteries (trips our house!) but in general it is working and is definitely better than the noisy generator. We really only use it to run the tv at night. I bought a ups for our wifi so that is on permanently unless the loadshedding is for 4 or more hours as it's battery only lasts about 3.5 hours.

And with that we bid farewell to the year that was 2023.

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 2022

It's a brand New Year

... here's to a whole 365 days of adventure, coffee, chocolate and scrapping. May this be a good year.

The year that was 2021

As we bid 2021 farewell, here's a little summary of all that I have accomplished during this year.

SCRAPPING:

It's been a busy scrapping year. I've done only digital scrapping this entire year. I did make a few paper mini-albums in June and July to use up some of my scraps (they still need photos though!). Here is what I did make digitally though:

600 Single layouts + 3 Double layouts = 603 Total layouts or 606 pages.

This is definitely the most I have ever scrapped in one year. That's 170 more layouts than last year even. I reckon I've been creatively busy!

I served on 4 fulltime creative teams and was guest on 6 other teams throughout the year. These account for most of my layouts created. The majority of the rest were done for challenges. 

I have already got quite a few layouts done for January CT reveals coming up (added into the total for this year), but will hit the ground running tomorrow with the new challenges launching on all the sites I visit.

Let's see what 2022 will bring on the creative side of things.

READING:

Not only did I do scrapping this year but I also read a lot. I managed to reach my Reading Challenge goal of 45 books at Good Reads (actually read 51). 

As well as this I also did some sewing so kept up with all my hobbies. The only thing I didn't touch was quilling.

FAMILY:

Looking back on 2021's other news it's been a good year despite all the Covid dramas happening around us. I've had periods of working at home or part-time in the office and then from September have been back fulltime in the office. This has lead to a more "normal" feeling about things too. Keith worked the whole year at the office with no interruptions even with tougher lockdown restrictions in March and July. Both our work year end functions got cancelled/postponed due to the current 4th wave, but the good news is that we haven't been affected by the bug. Lots of family members though have... my brother in Durban, his daughter who lives in Jhb, as well as my Aunt and Uncle in Bulawayo.

Aaron had a good year. He finally got his driver's license in May and two days later flew his first solo flight. He has done quite a bit of flying this year... mainly by himself as he builds solo hours. The last month there has been no flying though due to the weather. Hopefully he will get more hours in next year. In mid-December Aaron got a part-time job working at Spar Tops but after much deliberation he quit as the hours were too long, the pay too little and it was not really the right place for him. 

We've also managed to have a holiday away as a family to Mabula in June and enjoyed two weekends at Wyndford. Keith even visited his friend Bruce, who lives in Ramsgate, in March for a week.

ONE LITTLE WORD:

I choose in January the word HOPE as my word for this year. I had lots of hopes for things to happen and some of them did. Looking back now it has been a good year filled with hope, joy and celebrations.  Not sure yet if I will choose a word for next year... will see what happens in the morning through.

My wish for you as we enter into the new year is health, happiness and plenty of time with family and friends.  I leave you with this verse:

You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands. Psalm 16:5

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.

Happy New Year 2020

From me and my family to each of you... Happy New Year. May this be the year of new adventures and learning experiences.

I definitely need to follow this verse more and more this year.

I am sure there will still be lots of coffee, chocolate and scrapping happening this year.. the same goals as I had in 2019 and 2018. The year holds some new changes as Aaron is now finished with school and we are still awaiting his matric results (on the 7th) and then hopefully he is off to varsity.

We have holidays to look forward to... Wyndford in April and then Mabula and Pilansberg in July. Besides that there might be a few back and forths to Bloemfontein to fetch and carry Aaron to varsity...so I guess it will be a busy time.

I also hope to get to grips with digi scrapping. I need to learn a few new techniques, or at least figure out how to do them in the app that I use!

And all of this of course has to fit in between working, running the household, being available for Mom, reading and everything else. Should make for an interesting year.

Two of my Bible readings yesterday morning were from the Lamentations 3:22-23 passage but then I read verse 24 too and that really rang true for me.

The LORD is all I have, and so I put my HOPE in him. - That is my goal for this year. To Trust and Hope in God my Father and let Him guide me on the paths He wants me to go.

Wrapping up 2019

As I think back on "the year that was" I can remember that there were some "bad times" but on the whole I have a sense of peace and contentment that the year was "good". So here are just a few of my thoughts on the year:

Healthwise, there weren't any funnies that I remember....ie no trips to hospital and such. Thank you Lord for good health.

I managed to read lots this year... I had set myself a reading challenge of 45 books and have actually managed to finish 54!

It might not have been the ideal matric year that I wanted for my son, but we have survived and are now just awaiting his results. He had an enjoyable matric farewell, his exams went off without a glitch (that I know of) and neither of us killed each other in the process, though there were days when it was a bit strained. We are looking forward to next year's adventure for Varsity.

Scrapping has been different this year. Though I've served on 6 different teams during this year (plus two for quilling) I don't think I've scrapped nearly as much as last year. I definitely didn't go to class as much and got through my DT work quicker that other years so I had more time to focus on other things. I have also made more of a switch to digi scrapping since Oct2019 and am thoroughly enjoying that at the moment.... which has led to some DT work there too now for Dec and some for next year.

Here's some of my scrapping stats:
Single Layouts: 166
Double Layouts: 38
Total Layouts scrapped:204
No of pages scrapped: 242
No of digi layouts: 122 (which is more than half of my total scrapping for the year!)

I still have around 15 or so planned paper scrapping layouts to finish to finalise my 2014, 2015 and 2016 albums. Hopefully I will get them done within the first few months of next year. Then I will do a major stash sale and concentrate more on the digi side of scrapping.

I've had Aaron scan some of my film negatives over the last few weeks, so will be hauling out some old memories too in my scrapping just for fun.

For the rest of the year that was, well it's now a distant memory that will get rehashed in scrapbook layouts and then I guess I will remember what we did when.

Let's Scrap Sketches - 15 Aug

It's been a rough week here... busy beyond note with work, long school days for Aaron (extra physics till 4pm every day and loads of homework!) and then I heard yesterday morning that a dear scrapping friend (CathyV) died... still battling to comprehend this.

A good part of this week was taking Aaron shopping yesterday for his suit for the matric farewell happening next month. We managed to get all the bits except for a tie but my feet were rather sore after two hours of walking the mall from one end to the other. Our biggest score of the day was his jacket. He particularly wanted a cream/beige colour and not too many shops stock them. We popped into the Polo store just for a look see and on their discounted rack found the only jacket that was in the that colour and it was his size.... plus marked down from the original R5000 to R1250. It was obviously just waiting for us! hehe. It might have been more that we actually wanted to spend but considering that the other shops were more than that (and one shop had shirts for that price!) it seemed like a great deal. At least I can cross that item off the to-do list.

I haven't managed to do much scrapping this week with all the running around and stuff, so thankfully I did finish this page last weekend in time for the reveal.

I really enjoy making these sunburst type pages as you get to use a combination of colours and patterns... though sometimes the maths of cutting is a bit much! Thankfully this one came together pretty easily and the layout was really quick to make. I used some bits from a sheet of Simple Stories which I fussy cut to embellish my page and then added the silver word diecut for my title.

Visit the blog for lots more inspiration.

This is sadly my last layout for Let's Scrap Sketches...I am stepping down as of the end of this month as I have been feeling less and less motivated to "paper" scrap and more and more inclined to digi scrap... so no I'm not giving up my hobby, just changing focus... plus my pile of printed pics is coming to an end (have a few more pages to do so this is not totally the end yet!).

Here's to a calmer week ahead.

My 50th birthday celebration

As I am turning the big 50 in a few weeks time, I decided to throw myself a birthday party and spoil myself a little with having my friends all together in one spot.

I know I've mentioned in a few blog posts the past few weeks about making all sorts of stuff for this day and stressing.... well I can now report that it all got done and my party was a great success. This is how I decorated for my party on a very slim budget... recycling scrapbooking leftovers into wonderful decor items.

I made these flowers and put them in painted tins as the table centres. Each friend was given a flower (or three) as a thank you for coming.

I scrounged through all the photo albums and found pictures of me as close to my birthday each year (there were some that were harder to find than others).... These then I labeled with my age and printed onto copy paper. Once cut out I stuck each one onto a piece of card and then sewed them all onto ribbon. (This was inspired by an idea on pinterest)

Below the photo banner I had some tins with the words Happy Birthday and a few extra flowers.

Here is the full refreshment table to show how it looked. I also printed the poster on the right and displayed that in an old frame.

My very yummy cake... I've been wanting a chocolate overloaded cake for a few years and this year I made it happen! My Mom baked me a Coffee & Walnut cake and iced it with coffee icing. I then applied a chocolate ganache to the top and added loads more choccies on top... was very very yummy.

This backdrop is made up of lots and lots of punched and diecut circles sewn together on my machine and then pinned to a photography backdrop. They gave us a bit of grief getting them all untangled when we started putting them up.

And now on to the photos of my very special family and friends who came to join the celebration.

I was rather exhausted after all the tidying up and the light wasn't very good for taking pics whilst opening pressies last night, so Aaron took this one of me with all my stash in one shot... I got thoroughly spoilt:

Now I'm going to make a cuppa coffee and relax for the rest of the day.

Let's Scrap - 15 Sept

It's Friday... yippee yay! But also it's a sad day as we sad goodbye today to a childhood friend of mine, Angela Human (nee Morrison). The service this morning was truly a celebration of Angela's life, not a sad funeral service at all. It was also a good time to catchup with old friends who we haven't seen in 4+ years since Mom left Boksburg.

And then it's back to reality and life goes on for those of us left behind. Part of that life, is of course memory keeping in the form of scrapping... so here is my layout for today's reveal.

I chose to document our VERY yummy pudding that we had at Christmas two years ago...time to make some of this again me thinks!

Come play along on the blog and you could win some dollars to spend online.

Scrapbook Challenges: Sketch 481

Wow I've just had a six-day long weekend.... it's truly been bliss. I haven't done nearly enough scrapping as such, but have had a relaxing creative time anyway.

The weekend started on Wednesday, Freedom Day,with a braai and get together of my girlfriends to celebrate two birthdays... a lovely relaxed day filled with laughter. Thursday I created a new word for my scraproom wall (that will be coming up in a step-by-step post later this week). I also had coffee and pancakes with my Mom... lovely to spend time with her too.

Friday..... I slept in... yippee yay! Not often I get to do that. Spent the rest of the day finishing my word, then sorting stuff on my pc.... not a highly productive day, but good nevertheless. Saturday was wash day... did about 7 loads...plus I made a valance of sorts for my laundry room... still need to tweak it, so will post a photo later.

Sunday was church and then I actually scrapped a page...took a while for it to come together as I decided to cut a few things on my new curio and that took me near an hour to figure out before I got it to work properly. I love how my page turned out... will also show that a bit later this week.

Now on to today... Aaron and I went to Sci Bono for the day.... saw the Body Worlds exhibit... wow God's creation of man is amazing. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos so I can't show any of the things we saw... but boy oh boy our our ear bones minute! The link here takes you to a preview video which gives you a feeling of what we saw.

Okay so that's one major recap of family news.... hope your week has also been good. Now back to the news at hand... a scrapbook layout reveal:

I actually scrapped my page last Friday... 22 April, which was Earth Day... felt it appropriate to scrap about animals and in earthy colours... the papers and sticker I used are from Lady Pattern Paper.... great mix of patterns in the same hue of brown... makes easy scrapping. Added some prima flowers and a few leaves plus stitching and bling.

Check out the blog for a few more ideas with this great sketch.

Goodbye to 2015

The year is heading for it's end... and in one way I can't say that I am sorry to see it go. It's been a tough year for our family health wise but also a good year... we have lots to be thankful for

This year started off on the right foot... lets see if we can recap:

January
Visit with the family from Canada
Aaron starts high school

February
Scout camp for Aaron
Mom, Aaron & I participated in the Cansa shavathon

March
Mom & I went to Wyndford for a weekend

April
School camp for Aaron
Hot air balloon trip for Mom & I - absolutely awesome experience

May
Theresa & I went to the Midlands scrap... wonderful creative weekend away

June
Family weekend away at Magalies Park, including a ride in the Harties cable car

July
The start of the ouch.... broke my sewing machine needle in my finger
Aaron got pneumonia
Mom fell and broke her hip
Scrapping at Helderfontein with Theresa

August
Keith went to Canada
Mom recuperating from her hip op
Lots of theatre shows
Another weekend at Magalies Park and a hot air balloon trip for me and Aaron - breathtaking
Began training a new lady to take over my job while I will be on sick leave in Oct... hectic!

Sept
Family from Qatar and Cape Town visiting and celebrating Mom's 75th birthday
My hysterectomy

Oct
recovering from surgery at home (but worked in between)
Keith's birthday

Nov
A week trip to Wynford for Mom & I... perfect place to recuperate
My birthday - and work year end function at Madam Zingara
Aaron's birthday
Aaron's bunny died suddenly

Dec
Finished school year... end of Grade 8
Family holiday in Scottburgh
Bumper bashing and back spasm
Christmas - a quiet affair
Lots of physio
Keith finally finishing the new bedroom extension


Phew glad that's all behind us. A few other highlights include:
Lots of scrapping classes done with Jowilna.... not too many pages 100% completed this year but I did learn lots.
Did many hours of overtime and private work which helps to pay for my scrapbooking
Read over 60 books this year


So now it's on to the new year... here's hoping that 2016 will be good year, full of lots of blessing and adventure.

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 460

Where to start? so much happening in my little brain right this moment that I think I am going to explode! Emotions running from happy (birthday weekend) to sad (one of our bunnies just died) to absolute frustration and nearly anger (waiting for my new cell phone to be delivered after a month of delays!)..... grrrrr. But I can also add very thankful to the list to for the five nights of rain that we had last week.

I am also so very busy at work and with my private job that as times I don't know whether I am coming or going. At least the school year is now over, besides going to fetch the report sometime in December... Aaron wrote his last exams today.

I sure am hoping that sometime in the not toooooo distant future I will actually get some quality me-time and be able to scrap up a storm. At least I did do that just before the end of my sick leave so I can show you this week's layout for the sketch reveal.

This is another page from our boat cruise for last year. I made the rays by simply laying a scrap piece of paper on my background and then drawing in the sections I wanted. Cut this up and then cut out each section in the pattern paper. I cut red strips which I then just laid over the joints and hey presto a fun page put together. I added in the extra stickers and such off  the sticker sheet that came with the range of paper that I used.

Check out some more ideas on the blog.

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 455

Well today marks three weeks since my surgery and so far I feel ok. Yesterday was a tough day... feeling sore and achy again, but after a good night's sleep I seem to be back to normal today. Will definitely not be overdoing anything today but rather taking it fairly easy.

I started driving again on Friday... just short trips to school and back, plus am tackling a few things for work to keep my brain in the loop. All adds to a quick recovery but also ends up tiring me out a bit, hence me lying on the couch and reading or dozing each afternoon. Hopefully I will be able to tackle a bit more scrapping or even some sewing in the next week.

The new sketch is up at Scrapbook Challenges, and her is my take on it.

mmm nothing nicer than breakfast in bed on mother's day prepared by my boy... not that I've had any of that while I've been recovering... ah!

Be sure to check out the blog for some more ideas on this sketch.