Hint, hint...

Keith has been asking me what I want for my birthday... so thought I'd drop a few hints here and see if any of them come to fruition.


I would love to have some new books to read.... okay so I do have a lot already but these ones are on my wish list over at Kalahari.net (in no particular order of preference)

A Page Out of Life: A Scrapbooking Novel byKathleen Reid ISBN: 9780425221303



Prints Charming by Rebeca Seitz ISBN: 9781595542717



Sisters, Ink by Rebeca Seitz ISBN: 9780805446906 - book 1



Coming Unglued by Rebeca Seitz ISBN: 9780805446913 - book 2



Scrapping Plans by Rebeca Seitz ISBN: 9780805446920 - book 3 (only due in March 2009)



Scraps: Adventures in Scrapbooking by Wendy Bagley ISBN: 9781401302160

Moment of Truth by Sally D. John ISBN: 9780736913157 - book 3 of a series I already have

A Time to Mend: Safe Harbors Book OneAuthor: Sally John ISBN: 9780849918896

This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury ISBN: 9781599956787 (only due in Jan 2009)

The Guardians by Jack Cavanaugh ISBN: 9781589191006 - I've read the first four in this series years and years ago and now most of the rest are out of publication.... if ANYONE knows where I can get my hands on them please let me know.

Next items on my wish list would be some scrapbooking stuff.... this really really goes without saying... hehehehe. But my problem with some of these things is that they are only available overseas and to get them here to SA would be sooooooooooooooooooo expensive... especially with the exchange rate doing it's up and down dance at the moment! But, just for drool sake here are some of the bits and bobs.

Technique Tuesday - Clear Acrylic Stamps:

Today You Journaling Frames by Ali Edwards

Bits and Pieces by Ali Edwards

Remember the moments by Ali Edwards

Capture the Moment by Ali Edwards

Oh and a gift voucher from my local scrap shop.... Scraptifity... will always be a welcome one.

And then to feed my other "addiction" you can always get me some chocolate. But not just any old chocolate, I love these ones:

Cadbury's slabs - especially mint, top deck and the new one Chocolate Brownie or Capacino mousse (by Beacon).....mmmmm

Cadbury's milk tray

Tolberone

And also Beacon's Damascus French Nougat.

So I hope that these ideas will help you when it comes time to getting my something small for my birthday... hint hint nudge nudge say no more!

Win a custom blog

Been blog hopping and every now and then I find someone who designs blog templates or backgrounds. Well now its your lucky day as you don't have to look toooooooo far. Just click this link, follow the "rules" and you could also be in line to get your own custom designed blog...
http://alliebrownslayouts.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-2nd-giveaway.html

I really really like the designs I see here... will see about getting one for my blog.

Just an observation

Keith, Aaron and I went out for lunch today at the new Seemans around the corner from where we stay. It was an ok lunch... not the greatest or most successful (food- and service-wise) but we enjoyed the time together. It was part of the Oktoberfest (anyone know why it's called that, or what the origins are?), so there was an ompah band playing... lots of fun to watch Aaron "dance" and imitate the tuba player... hehehe.

Okay now that you have the background... here's my gripe. Why is it that more and more often now when these new restaurants open, they don't have toilets????? and you have to use the ones in the centre. At Seemans today they had provided two porta-potties... I ask you!!!! (And funny thing was... Aaron needed to go and he couldn't even REACH to do his widdle... hehehe.. he's not tall enough yet!)

So can someone out there please explain the reasoning behind this new development (or lack thereof!). I realise that certain restuarants do actually have their own loos... part of the decor (like Spur).... but most now don't! All the restaurants at Clearwater Mall DON'T.... including SPUR. There you must use the loos of the mall, which means leaving your table in the restuarant and walking to the middle of the mall and back... not very nice for the people you're with.... and a real bind when you have kids you "need to go"!

Right that's my gripe for now... happier posts to follow.

Got tagged

I got tagged by Jacqui... hehehehe... now you need to find out stuff about me ... well here goes:

fact 1 - I have naturally brown hair... I don't do colour, yet will do highlights
fact 2 - I had my appendix out around Valentine's day in Std 8 and missed all the fun at school
fact 3 - I'm a chocoholic and scrapaholic... and usually together.
fact 4 - I'm never without a book to read
fact 5 - I love scrapbooking sketches.... I collect them daily!
fact 6 - My most favourite colour is blue
fact 7 - I'm the youngest of three... two older brothers.


Here are the rules:
Link to your Tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post and link their blogs.
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Okay friends now it's your time to play. hehehe.

I tag these friends:
1 Jackie
2 Stephanie
3 Sophia
4 Desire
5 Liezel
6 Helen
7 Tracy

Have lots and lots of fun... I want to find out more about you!

Time for fundraising again

Aaron is asking you..... please help us raise some (more) money for our school. Seeing as it's nearing Christmas time and you will all be buying / making presents for your friends and family, you will also be in need of something to wrap them in. Well we are selling packs of packets for the low low price of R30 each*** (plus postage if you live far away!)

There are five different designs (unfortunately only four shown as we had already sold the fifth one before I could photograph them... hehehe). So your choices are:
1. Christmas
2. Floral
3. Africa
4. Black/silver
5. Bright stars/stripes

Each pack contains 20 bags in various sizes and patterns along with 20 stickers that you can use to seal the bags.

So here's what I need from you.... leave me a comment telling me how many packets you want to order.... Last orders are accepted on 12 November as I need to place them on the 14th at school. I will then receive them and get them to you.

The whole crux of this for Aaron is.... The child that SELLS the most bags will win an awesome prize (and I heard this morning that one child's mom already managed to sell 50!!!!). So come on please and support this iniative.

*** I know of two other places in Jhb who are selling these packs as well at R35 and R33 respectively... so R30 is a good price.

Banners and more

I made some banners for our church over the last two years... here's a layout of 4 that I did.

Anyway, I've been asked to be in charge of rotating the banners at church... so that we always have a fresh look. So decided that it was now time to get making some new ones. So on Monday afternoon after swimming and homework I sat and started cutting out the next banner. We had the most gorgeous rain during the afternoon too so this was the perfect indoor activity. Yesterday afternoon I carried on and did a bit of patchwork with some of the colours... will hopefully finish cutting out the material bits today and can start sewing tomorrow..... so hence NO SCRAPPING this week :(

Oh and an extra bummer today.... I forgot my book at home so missed out on my reading time while sitting outside school before heading off for work (yip I spend at least an hour each morning reading outside Aaron's school in order to miss the traffic). BUT the good news is that it gave me time to update my blog... hehehe.

So till the next time... hopefully before I forget my book again.. :)

Challenge report back

Tuesday came and went. It's been a week since I signed up to do some worthwhile actions... remember this post???

Well here is some report back on it.

1 Turn away from your screen and... blink - I try and do this but not always!
2 Shut down your computer properly... a definate on my list... especially as I have a laptop that travels backwards and forwards between work and home
3. Practise good manners... a standard thing in my life but at times needs more work
4 Praise people... I'm trying extremely hard to do this... build people up rather that tear them down... give lots and lots of encouragement to Aaron
5 Pull the plug on mobile phone chargers... mine is not plugges in unless it's being charged
6 Recycle waste paper... we put out the Ronnie Bag every week so this is a definate yes.
7 Use both sides of every piece of paper... I have a box for "scrap" paper besides my desk at work which then goes home for use in my printer there.... so this is a yes
8 Hug someone... do this EVERY day if not more.
9 Shop locally... I hate travelling around to shops all over the place (unless it's for scrapping stuff :) ) so this is a yes too
10 Don't overfill your kettle... I do this most days... boil enough for about two cups.
11 Let at least one car in on every journey.... how can you be courteous when in traffic and people just PUSH in front of you... but then I just "smile and wave" and let them in... much less stress.1
2 Turn off the tap whilst you brushing your teeth... goes without saying... SAVE WATER!
13 Bake something for a friend... does making a fancy supper for Keith's birthday count???? hehehe... must still bake for someone else though
14 Use a mug not a plastic cup... I use plastic cups for Aaron for his juice... saves on breakages... but for me I'm definately a mug person. Maybe they were meaning disposable???
15 Turn off unnecessary lights... Ongoing battle at home... but we are slowly making progress on this one.
16 Try watching less TV... hehehhe... NOT happening at the moment... in a way I'm watching MORE... why you ask... well I just HAD to watch Masterchef which was on from 5:30 to 6:30 the last few evenings to see who would win... was right down to the final episode.... so now that that is done I might actually do this one and therefore do more scrapping.
17 Smile and smile back... It's coming... my mood is not the greatest at the moment so this is feeling tough... but I will get there this week.
18 Read a story with a child... bedtime ritual with Aaron so this is easy peasy.
19 Decline plastic bags wherever possible.... I usually do this because I HATE paying for bags... I carry my own. BUT now I need to collect some and I'm appealing to my readers to please help too if you can... read more below.

My Uncle and Aunt from Zim have put out an appeal for plastic bags. They are involved in a feeding scheme through their church in Bulawayo in Zim feeding around 400 people each week and need plastic packets of any sort to put in around 3 cups of mealie meal and some beans to give to the needy people. They will be here in SA for a few weeks in November and we would like to be able to give them as many bags as possible... so please collect your bags (shopping bags, bread bags, frozen veg bags, etc) and let me know and we will make a plan to get them.

Going green

Saw this post on Tracy's blog and checked it out.... I'm so for the "WORK FROM HOME MORE" option... that would suit me just fine.

Go check out the website and see where you can Go Green too.

One month to go...

It's one month till my 40th birthday and an extra two days till our train trip to celebrate... it's going to be such a hectic month that I'm sure the time will just fly past... but I plan on enjoying every last minute of the last month of my 39th year... come and joing in... hehehe.

Weekend Scrapping

I got to scrap this weekend... didn't do any actually scrapping the whole of last week but I was busy editing photos to get them ready to print... so got 105 printed on Friday and then promptly scrapped some of them... no NOT all 105... hehehe.. just few. Here's what I did...


My final 2006 layout... okay I'll be honest and tell you it's actually my last PLANNED layout for 2006... I've still got two empty spaces in my album for which I must still decide layouts... but they can wait a while. So this is it... I had lost my little pics so had to print some more (was one of the 105 I had done) and then scrapped this page on Friday night while packing all my goodies ready for Saturday's scap.

These next two pages are what I did on Saturday morning.... my friend Judi had won a scrapping lesson and when she phoned to book she was told she could bring six friends and we could scrap for free.... so yip we went!! It was a wonderful morning filled with lots of laughs and scrapping... okay so I was the only one who managed to do two pages and finish them both... but who's counting... hehehehe

After lunch on saturday Judi wanted to finish her page from the morning session (I had brought her home with me as her car was in for a service I was possibly going to take her to fetch it... Keith ended up taking her home just after 3). So while Judi scrapped I thought I may as well too.. so threw this page together in about 15 minutes. Thanks too to Judi for the snowflake brads.

And so that was my productive weekend... I spent Sunday doing loads of washing and reading.