two sons

Project Life | Week two

2012-01-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

It's already Wednesday, and such a buzy few days, but you'll hear all about it next week! Here is my lay-outs for week two, quite a full week as well:

The picture was created by my eldest, after he asked what Project Life is all about, and I explained him a bit. He then wanted to know if he could help, and I said "Yes you can!". The little "instax" photo with frame around was made digitally from a normal photo. I used a photo frame called "Instax Frame" by Gina Cabrera, but saved it in such a way that I'm not sure where I found it, the case with a lot of my digital stuff.

I found a link to this questionare on Ali's PL blog. Download the New Years interview here. The arrow strip is cut from the Turquoise kit's paper.

Oh, by the way, our first language is actually not English. (Therefore please be patient with my blogging!) We speak Afrikaans at home, one of the many official languages in South Africa (I think there's 16). So, if any sentence pops up that doesn't make any sense, it's probably in Afrikaans! I've decided way back when I started scrapbooking, to use English on my pages, for a few reasons, such as that it would be more accessible, say for potentially English speaking friends and generations to come. A lot of digital stuff is also available only in English off course. But I love my own language, it's warm and passionate, earthy and intimate. It says things in a way that doesn't come out the same in any other tounge. I think I will still scrap some pages in Afrikaans.

This page contains a handout from the Planetarium we visited on Saturday. I'm planning to add a strip with Ali Edwards' "Title and journal overlay" from Designer Digitals at the bottom, telling the story of the trip, and hiding the outdated date on there.

I then added in an extra pageprotector- the 3 down 4x6 page protectors from Becky Higgins. I included a postcard with the Southern (as in Hemisphere) skies.

I know that that photo at the top left is just going to get funnier every time we see it. My boys on a frog walk. I did another "instax" photo for the journaling card (I cut it from the Turquoise paper kit). I was sorry to see that the numbers included in the kit only goes up to ten instead of 31. I suppose that you can put two circles together, but I'd prefer the number on one sticker. I think I'll just start adding them digitally.

And that's week two! Thank You for stopping by...

The Monkey sanctuary.

2012-01-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

South African schools are currently coming towards the end of an approximately 6 week break. One of our treat outings for the holiday was a daytrip to a nearby Monkey Sanctuary. It's about 20 mins drive from Jo'burg, near Hartebeespoort Dam. When we lived in Durban, we were quite used to wild monkeys coming into the homes, stealing fruit. Here in Joburg it's been a while since we saw any.

The monkeys at the sanctuary all live in an enclosed area of lush rainforest-like vegetation. Tours of about an hour each are then taken through the area. You get to see the monkeys really up close. They have all been "human imprinted", i.e. they have lived with humans. Apparently people import them as babies, mostly from South America. Once they grow older, and sometimes more aggressive, they are then brought to the sanctuary.

Some of them adapt well to the wilder environment, and others not so well. There was a twosome that stole some-one's waterbottle right out of his pocket, to everyone's amusement.

One of the water "thieves" then decided to ride along on one of the ladies' head & shoulders. There was no way he was getting off. Another monkey, who was acting very aggressively towards the others was apparently found abandoned by his owners who emigrated to Cuba.

But there are some happy stories too, like the mothers we saw with little ones. Isn't that one too cute! They said that the tell tale sign that the monkeys have adapted well is when they start breeding. I would have uploaded a lot more photo's, but it is taking extremely long. I'm hoping to do a digital lay-out and then I'll upload that at some stage. It was a great outing, I just wished we could have had more time to just enjoy the forest at leisure. It reminded me a lot of Durban's coastal forests.

Project Life | Week One

2012-01-10T03:21:00.000-08:00

Did I mention that I love working with the paper kit? LOVE! I'm keeping January's pages very light & summery, since it IS summer here. Blues and greens are the colours I go for right now, and this is the Turqoise kit after all!

I'm still waiting for a date stamp to fill in the dates. The "start here" was cut from "Circa 1934 Borders" patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket. The half circle (far right, middle row), was cut from the paper that comes with the kit. I wasn't planning on getting the paper, but it was going to come with the PL kit. When the full kit wasn't available, my husband accidently still ordered the paperpack. But I'm starting to see that the paper might be handy...I also used it to extend the balloon photo that was printed too small by the printers.

"Summer" word-art is a freebie from Karla Dudley. The black "PhotographyFrames" was a digital freebie from Joanne Brisebois.

Just a collage of some close-ups. Since my digital album last year didn't really have any embellishments, mostly just words & photo's, I'm still quite focussed on photo's. That might or might not change during this project. At the moment I defnitely have more photo's than pockets!

"Flourish" is my one little word (Ali Edwards inspired) for the year. With that I quoted Isaih 54:10.

"Father, You never change, Your love for me always remains the same. The mountains may move and the hills dissapear, but even then Your faithful love for me will remain. Your covenant of blessing will never be broken. In you I relax, in You I am safe, in You I am free to blossom into all You have planned for me! I become complete."

Project Life 2012 | Title page.

2012-01-06T01:51:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to be at the place where I'm sharing my PL title page! To be up and running with the project. This is my 1st year of doing the Becky Higgins PL kit. I have done two years of Digital Project life-ing and LOVED it. And then just had to have a paper kit to work with and add in bits and pieces of life. Sooo, since I live in South Africa, that meant ordering the kit via Canada and paying about just as much for the shipping as for the product. A lot of waiting for the exchange rate to be optimal. Then hearing the full kit is no longer available. Ordering the core kit from one place, the album cover from another. Still waiting for the album to arrive, but SO happy to have stuff to work with in my hands.

I decided on the Turqoise kit, and hope to work my way through most of them in years to come. Just love all the numbers and text in this kit, and since we will be starting school this year, it felt very appropriate.

I'm talking too much. Here is the cover page:

(the layout idea was inspired by the great page Mary-Ann Perry did here).

I took some photos at a previous outing but they didn't turn out wonderful. On the last day of 2011 we took a quick trip to the Botanical Gardens. The weather looked ominous, but held out. It was quiet enough to put my camera on self timer, and leave it on the ground, to have the group photo's taken. I really just took a few, and I was happy with all of them. Fervent prayer works!

Just a close-up: I did our surname and added some tiny text stickers from Cosmo Cricket. I also added a text sticker to each one of the group photo's. I'm still finding my feet with the paper scrapping again as I have scrapped mostly Digital for about three years now. It's a different approach. But this project is making me very happy!

Project Life| Wrapping up December 2011

2012-01-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm already so into my BH paper Project Life for 2012. But I just want to share the last of last year's digital Project Life. Here is December's pages:
5-11December (on white paper):

I love it that we live in a neighbourhood that cares enough to actually have parents club in and organize a Santa Claus (our neighbour) to deliver gifts.

12 - 18 December 2011:

19-25 December 2011:

And finally 26 December 2011 - 1 January 2012:

The paper in the middle is from a pack called "Evidence" by Ali, available from Designer Digitals.

The photo on the left was taken by my 6 year old. I cropped it a bit and played with the colour, lightening & yellowing it and adding contrast. I quite like this effect.

That's it. Thanks for looking! Like everyone else who's fallen in love with Project Life, I can only try to express how much this album means to me. The weekly process and the end result. Looking back at my 2010 album, I would also say that it becomes even more precious over time. If you are not up to get the kit yet, and just want to see if you'll keep up with the photo taking, I can really recommend the digital route. My experience was that I often had to choose between photo's for the day instead of not having enough photo's, but that's just me! I just love how one start seeing/noticing things because of PL. How much more you are open to "cultivating a good life" (in the words of Becky Higgins) because you are recording it. And how good it feels to know that your memories are getting recorded. As long as you also make sure that you live those moments!

Project Life| Nov 2011.

2012-01-03T03:50:00.000-08:00

A very Happy New Year to all my readers, if there are any out there! Very exciting to see that someone I don't know from Europe is now reading my blog! May the year bring you good things!

Christmas & New Year was restful and quiet. We had a fish braai on the 1st, which is becoming a New Year's tradition for us. My Christmas present was a Becky Higgins' Turqoise Project Life kit and it has me so excited! Today, however, I just want to share the last of my PL 2011 pages:

Here is 21-27 November 2011:

This is actually two photo's that was merged to get the best expression on each of their faces.

Some highlights of this week is a photo I received e-mailed from Reuben's Leggo class. Ordering Project Life (the photo is from Becky's blog). And a Cookie exchange we had at Women's group. Oh, and the BIGGEST highlight was that my husband signed a new work contract. We were planning for next year in faith, but the contract was a big exhale for us. The bonus is that he now works SO close from home (5 min drive) and has Friday afternoons off! With the shorter drive and finishing earlier he also has about one and a half hours extra time with us on a daily basis. LOVE that!

Here is 28 Nov - 4 December 2011:

This photo sits on white paper, not visible on the white screen. The little bird is something I made at a Year- end craft session we had at Women's group. Thouroughly loved to craft with friends. I'm concidering adding some text to this page, will see before I have the album printed...

Once again on white paper. Some of the December Daily photo's re-appear here. That's ok, I don't think we'll ever sit and compare the two albums. Looks like I left out the day of the week on each photo here, will fix that.

Shall we take a look at PL: December at another time? I think so.

The Holiday lens| A visit to the Military Museum

2011-12-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

I'm way behind with my December Daily posts, I know, but I want to interject here with a trip we had today. Want to just get the words down so that I can scrapbook it when I have the time (one day...) We are currently having a little holiday in and around our own City. Yesterday, after visiting the Monkey Sanctuary (hope to write about that soon), I asked my 4 year old if he enjoyed it. The answer was something along the lines of no, boring (he actually did enjoy it, but that's beside the point). I asked him what kind of outing he would enjoy, and the reply was: an army one. So off to the Military museum we went today...

To be honest, I did not have high expectations of the visit. I envisaged a biggish hall filled with a few tanks and other Border memorabalia. Well, was I pleasantly surprised... We walked into a well organised, well kept HUGE museum. There were several halls covering a number of wars South Africa was involved in, including the Aglo Boer war, WWi, WWii, and the War in Angola. It is actually a bit too much to absorb in one visit. They had very interesting themes too, eg. how the uniforms changed over the course of a century. How prisoners of war tried to escape etc.

So many absorbing PHOTO's and STORIES. So many people that cared to document stories and keep stuff! Stories and memorabalia that was really touching. Like the lantern retrieved from the Battle at Delville wood (South Africans fought there too) in the entrance hall. It had the original candle in it that was extinguished during the battle. The quote below the list of fallen Parabats: "When you go home today, tell them about us and say, That for your tomorrow, we gave our today". Graphic poems of injuries and horror. Stories of heroes and bravery. Beautiful wooden guns and planes. Detailed old uniforms. A postcard wishing for and describing Christmas in a time of peace. So many layers to this thing called War.

So grateful that we never experienced war first hand. Grateful to all those who fought for our today. Including my own great grandfather who carved a beautiful little book out of stone while he was a POW in St Helena. And again inspired to record our stories. Especially when I see how much things changed in a mere 100 years, and how easy it can be to forget. Project Life, I'm looking forward!

December Daily | Day 5

2011-12-15T03:10:00.000-08:00

The kids are daily unwrapping a book as a countdown to Christmas. I'll still create a page about that. But on Day Five they unwrapped a Thomas Tank Engine Letter writing kit. I asked Reuben (6) if he wanted to write a letter to Santa. He decided that he rather wanted to write us some letters. So with little help from me, he wrote me and his Dad the most wonderful letters. Then, as an added surprise, Liam (4) also volunteered to write us letters. I dotted out the words for him, and he patiently sat and traced over the dots. He did get a little tired halfway through, but that was a good enough keepsake for me!

I added text (Claire hand) onto the photo (using Microsofts digital editing program). The envelope I created using a transparent page. All their letters are placed in the envelope. I just measured it a little tight.
I photocopied Liams "letter" , cut out each word, and hand sewed it to the photo on the left before I adhered it to the cardstock. The idea was actually Ali inspired.

I was happy to find a nice train sticker in the kit with a number "Five" on it. The train border were also made with a stampset in the kit. I cut a star out of the photo on the right and added some glitter dotted paper underneath, allowing it to create a border on the other side. Love day 5.

December Daily | Day 4

2011-12-15T02:32:00.000-08:00

On Day Four we attended a Thanksgiving feast at church. We don't traditionally celebrate "Thanksgiving" in South Africa, it is just something our church does on a yearly basis. I just wanted to express some gratitude to God on this page. For the good He's done to us this year. And for the amazing people He's added to our lives. I couldn't nearly include all of them on this page, nor the lovely feast tables with candle lit chandliers, but I love it anyway.

I wrote out most of the words with a black gel ink pen, and painted in some with poster paint. The star was cut from an old canvas, and then hand sewn around the edges.

Here they are, happy shiny people! I might still add some text (in the shape of a star) to the spot where my thumb rests. The stitching was added digitally (Designer Digitals). The word art on this page is from Ali at Designer Digitals. Oh, and I also added a little silver star to this page afterwards. Day four done...

December Daily | Day 3

2011-12-15T01:39:00.000-08:00

Life feels really hectic here right now. I've had a few of moments where I wanted to press the escape button on this December Daily project. Choose more sleep instead of a family heirloom! I'm just not used to paperscrapping anymore I guess. I've relaxed a lot about the whole thing now, and the fact that I'm not able to stay up to date. And I am enjoying my pages as imperfect as they may be. So,without much further ado, here's Day 3:

I've since upgraded to a smaller on the outside, thicker on the inside file. It still needs to be spray painted etc.

Day Three tells the story of what December in South Africa feels like. Summer & swimming. I especially wanted to capture all the sparkle on the water. And I love that I got a photo of my youngest doing a "whale" with his pool noodle. I included some art that I downloaded for free one December from Wilna Furstenburg's blog ( she is origanally from South Africa). The Protea is our national flower, so I included it on my photo page on top of some sparkling paper. I again played a little with glitter glue and coloured pens on the printed images and journaling.

It is not very clear on the photo's, but the transparency had a strip of Worldmap printed on it. I placed a little blue blinker on the spot where we live.

And that was day three...

December Daily | Day two

2011-12-07T01:35:00.000-08:00

Day two records two little friends sleeping over at our house. A first for my kids. They had an awesome time making their own pizzas, swimming, making icecream snowmen, swimming... Unfortunately the text I added got trimmed off a little at the photoplace I'm printing at. The transparancy is "Travel Ledger, Travel clocks" by Teresa Collins. The stick on tape, not sure, I discarded the packaging. I print all my photo's in the template frames, and then cut them out and adhere them to a cardboard copy of the template. Here I also cut out the photopaper "2" and adhered it over the cardstock "2" with little foam squares.

For the word strip next to the "2" I used some "Tiny Text" stickers from Cosmo Cricket. I just cut out a block full , removed the backing and stuck them in place. The snowflakes and wordstrips are from Designer Digitals., as is the December Daily Template by Ali Edwards. I also again added some glitter glue to the snowflakes. The days of the week were typed in (before printing) using a free font called "Claire Hand".

I am so admiring the albums of Ali Edwards and Wilna Furstenburg. Will still go have a look on Flickr at the rest.

December Daily | Day One.

2011-12-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

Hello December, and hello December Daily!

I decided rather last minute to do a paper December Daily this year (iso the Digital albums I've done for the last two years). Being a digital scrapper, I wasn't in touch with the scrapbooking industry in South Africa. So then followed a saga of first trying to get stuff on-line from Capetown, and there-after physically in Jo'burg.
I was amazed that there's apparently no big scrapbooking supplier in my half of the city. Things like printed transparancies and divided page protectors doesn't seem to be of much use for scrapbookers around here either. Rather essential if you're following an Ali DD!

Anyway.. long story short, this (picture above) is what my album looked liked as of 1 December. Pause and take a deep breath...Some stuff were found at a fabric shop, others at a large plastic shop...On top of that it was also basically impossible for me to do the on-line transaction to purchase the latest DD templates from Designer Digitals (I've never had that porblem before). In the end I had to adjust the square templates from last year to use for this year. I further realized that printing my photo's A4 size was just going to work out too expensive, so decided on a somewhat small album, each page being half an A4. A lot of perseverance and counting the cost alas!

That all said, my album is finally (still coverless) underway, and I'm really enjoying working with paper again. I love the freedom to apply things like glitterglue (loving glitter glue right now) and raised areas etc. right onto the page.

SO..Here is DAY ONE:

I'll probably have the file it's in cut down and sprayed silver or something (loving Wilna Furstenburg's album). I applied some glitter glue inside the "one". The photo printed much lighter than the one I originally printed on A4, so the "Hello December" title, in white, wasn't really visible. I went over the words with glitter glue. It doesn't really show up in the photo's, but looks quite nice in real life.

I apologise for the photo quality not being great. My DSLR's lense is too long to take close-ups, and I just used my smaller camera for these. Day one celebrates the fact that my husband started at a new company (on December 1st), and because of a much shorter traveling distance, and finishing earlier, has more family time. This is him relaxing at home at a time when he previously still would have been at work.

My album is far from perfect, but I'm already glad I joined in the fun and documenting!

Surprised...

2011-11-29T11:08:00.000-08:00

On Sunday a friend and I had a conversation that went something like this: Friend: "Hi, I saw your photo in the Paper!". Me: (totally confused) "My photo in the paper??". Friend: "Yes, of your boys!" Me (suddenly remembering & jaw dropping) "I've won!"

So there we are in the paper... I entered the photo a week or so ago, and actually forgot about it. So happy that some-one liked my photo enough to let me win! And so happy that the prize is an A2 print on canvas!!

Project Life, 3rd week of November

2011-11-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

Is it really Wednesday already? Time is flying towards the year-end. This morning we had a Cookie-exchange at Womensgroup. So fun. The baking and the exchanging. Today really feels like a relief after a rather pressurized time. We also had some really great news today as my husband was offered a new contract. He will be working 5 min. away from home now iso 45min one way. God is just so amazing! And I'm so thankful that I also had the opportunity to share some of this at Womensgroup this morning.

Anyway, here is last week's PL:

I saw the idea of blocking out certain images and info you might not want published, on Ali's Project Life this week. I think a good idea to implement this in future on my PL posts. I simply opened the digital lay-out in Microsoft Editing, went to "insert shape" on the toolbar, selected a shape and placed it over the area in question. In some cases I added transparency. Another option is to highlight an area and just blur it.

Concert night

2011-11-17T01:50:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday night I attended my first school concert as a Mama! I got to see all the pre-performance excitement as a caleidoscope of little people were bundling in and out of classrooms...

And in the midst of them was my little soldier. Loving every minute in his cool calm and collected way. Posing with his best friend, who was a bear.

I wasn't quite prepared for the scale of this performance. About 75 kids in a variety of costumes, all trained to the tee. They performed "The Glass Palace". A story about two spoilt children who find themselves in Storyland with horns on their foreheads. They go through various groups of characters on their way to finding the Princess who teach them about friendship. I spotted Reuben sitting on the stairs, waiting for his turn on stage, sitting perfectly still in his huge hat, singing all the words of every song. He was singing these songs over and over at home. The other day in the car, after the how many-th rendition, Liam, still a bit weary from his bug, dryly commented : "It's a NO from me, but thank you.." (yes, a la America's got talent!)

Then it was his turn on stage. Love that salute. He was right next to the Princess when she arrived...

After the concert they quickly changed into their "graduation" robes. They entered carrying (safe) candles, and to the intro music of none other than Lion King. Quite a moment. Reuben was very stern throughout it all. But it was funny when his pre-school teacher adjusted his hat from sitting on the back of his head, before handing over his certificate.

So so very proud of him, so thankful to the special teachers at his school, and so amazed that this pre-school phase is almost over...

Thinking about Christmas...

2011-11-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

I recently read Ali's "Thinking about Christmas" post. This got me very inspired to start pulling together my own plans for Christmas. I love how she has with her December Daily inspiration helped transform our December into a big build-up to Christmas Day.

So far we have already added to the Christmas book selection. We have a number of Christmas books that we take out every December. We also get a few new and library ones every year. This is one from Tiger Press, called "A long way from home" (by Elizabeth Baguley and Jane Chapman). We picked up ours at Readers' Warehouse.

We are also looking at ordering some online, like Richard Scarry's Best Christmas book , a Christmas doodle book , and Father Christmas goes on holiday looks like fun too. Here in South Africa I like to use Jump to direct me to an online book store. They also compare prices. (Just move your mouse over to find the links if they're not highlighted).

Still on books, I'll probably get myself another Elize Grey diary for next year.

Hoping to get to a maket with unique handcrafted gifts ,and the Parkview (day & night) Christmas market (with an icerink). And Carols by Candle light at the Zoo. Then there is also our church's Thanksgiving feast... But we will try to get to fewer things than last year's hectic schedule.

These Christmas labels are quite cute - you get to select faces, hair colour, and other features for each family member. They also have a great selection of school labels.

There's also a whole lot of ideas in my Pinterest Christmas board I'd like to try out. Like making some joy, peace & love pillows, etc etc etc!

And then I'm happy to say that our Christmas cake is baked and in the tin. Just need to remember to give it brandy every two weeks. (This is a during the process photo off-course!)

Mmm...Christmas is coming!

Project Life: 2nd week of November

2011-11-14T05:57:00.000-08:00

I'm currently doing a Digital Project life. I you'd like to read more about Project Life, please have a look at my other related posts.

Doing the Mommy thing...

2011-11-11T02:06:00.000-08:00

This week, like most, I'm doing the Mommy thing. Looking after a sick child, feeling a hot forehead, running him a daytime bath, putting out fresh pajamas, making jelly, making soup, soothing him...

Playing chess with a six year old. Teaching him to lose graciously. Being excited about Pre-school graduation photo's (they came out so well!). Trying to make a little soldier's concert costume fit him better. Hearing my own Mom's voice as I ask him to please stand still while I pin it smaller on him. Realizing that he is now at the age where my childhood memories starts.

Enjoying the peacefulness of our home... I love home. I love creating it. And enjoying everyday days here. I love savouring the moments that make up the quilt pieces of our life.

I know I can't catch them all. And I'm still learning to find the balance between capturing and fully living the moments...

But I am reminded of this quote, found years ago on Ali's blog:
(It's by Anna Quinden)

"...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is paticularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photograph. There is one picture of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting done a little less."

Happy doing today.

Project Life | 1st week of November

2011-11-09T00:49:00.001-08:00

The Project Life community on the internet is abuzz with the great post by Gluestickgirl. Have a look at Lisa's approach to Project Life . It has me so excited I can hardly wait to start with next year's paper PL album.

Ahhh Avianto...

2011-11-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

This week-end we were blessed with a little get-away to a Wedding & Conference venue in Muldersdrift, called Avainto. The name means "a village made in heaven". We were defnitely happy to try a place suggesting anything like that!

So this week-end we relaxed about our kids sleeping over (with good & trusted friends) for the first time in three years. We allowed our imaginations to transport us to a little Tuscan village (with a healthy measure of authenticity and African flavour thrown in)...

We walked cobbled streets, looked up at the earth coated towers and arches. We saw outstretched blue skies. We stood on our balcony and smelled potted jasmin. We watched many swallows in flight. We walked some more- lavender lined paths...past a pond, over a river... we danced all alone, in broad daylight, to the sound of a nearby saxaphone (playing at a wedding)...

We sat and had good conversations, we agreed that we wanted a lot more just me&him dates, we dreamed of thrawling through real Italian villages...

We bathed in bubbles, we dined under the stars, we listened to Eros Ramazotti and Micheal Bubble on the sound system, we made slow love, we slept naked, we had breakfast in a cellar...

We lunched on white linnen tables under a maple tree, we saw a good guitarist perform live, we enjoyed the friendly staff, we drank red wine...

We smelled lots of pine trees, we laughed and joked, we breathed, we smiled...

We felt so thankful for 13 years, and for right now, and for this week-end.
And we took many photographs...

Avianto.... You can look them up here . They also do Sunday lunches (3 course with live entertainment) and are only about 30 min drive from Jo'burg.

(Click on any of the images if you'd like to see them larger).

Seven-Eleven...

2011-11-07T04:47:00.000-08:00

Today marks our 13th wedding anniversary. 7/11. I only recently realized that that happens to be our shoe sizes too. Perhaps that was why the date felt just right when we booked it. But there were too many things that were just right for anything to be co-incidence...

The venue for example: We found it in the beautiful street, winding through an indigenous forest, that I always wanted to drive to our wedding. A large residential property that did wedding functions. We were finding it hard to find a venue available on the date that just felt right. We drove past this place, and I saw a rooftop amongst the trees. Something (there were no advertisement) made us stop and have a look. As we walked in, the sweet lady that did the catering was walking out (or else we would not have been able to get in). She booked us as her very last function. We walked down the forest path, past the gorgeous function hall (the rooftop I saw) to a little clearing, with a wrought iron wedding canopy. I just stood in awe at how perfect it was.

And looking back on that day, the sun breaking through the clouds and shining on our heads as we were saying our vows, I just think about how it was made for us as we were made for each other. The kind of perfection you cannot order from a wedding planner...

Don't get me wrong, everything around our wedding didn't go perfectly smooth. Like my dressmaker that moved (with no new address) and disappeared for weeks (because she misplaced my dress with the move). She only re-emerged on the scene the Thursday before the wedding (when she accidently found the dress in a box).

This weekend we stayed over at a lovely venue (more about that tomorrow). There was a wedding and I wondered about what they might still face as a couple. Like anybody else we also had our share of losses: 2 Dads, one long awaited pregnancy, a home, a car, income, joy.. to name a few. But we never lost God and He never lost us. He is a God of turn-around situations and there is nothing He cannot redeem and make good. Today I count an abundance of blessings and many many good memories. Today we are still perfect for each other and our days are still ordained by God.

I was wondering how I would advise a newly married couple. This week-end we talked about choices.
I think I would tell them:

Choose God first
Choose love
Choose commitment
Choose integrity
Choose respect
Choose maturity
Choose wisdom
Choose honesty
Choose generosity towards each other
Choose building your marraige
Choose time together (quality and quantity)
Choose sensuality
Choose fun and laughter
Choose to be best friends
Choose sharing & openness
Choose vulnerability
Choose to listen
Choose grace
Choose forgiveness
Choose endurance
Choose gratitude and appreciation
And Choose to make good memories...

Downloading...

2011-11-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

Downloading freebies can be so uplifting, you know, he he. I spent quite a bit of time over the past two days doing just that.

I found tons of free downloadable labels, journaling cards, and tags, which I think would be ideal for Project Life albums, or schoolbooks or whatever else.

Then there's a blog hop with downloadable freebies now on at Design House Digital. I wasn't able to download from all the Designer's sites, but the ones I got is really cool.

I also found this stunning free downloadable kit (via pinterest) here .

Oh, and I'm so proud of myself to know how to "link" now. I'm still very new in Blogging and learning as I go. Just don't know how I never saw that link button before!

Have a great weekend!

Right now...

2011-11-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

Enjoying:: Art projects w/ the kids.
Discovering:: Great croissants at a nearby store (chocolate and hazelnut praline fillings)
Feeling:: The Joburg sun burn.
Harvesting:: Red onions that I planted (from a shop bought onion)
Wanting:: To get to the sea again.
Excited:: That we're ordering Project Life.
Holding:: On to the last term before my youngest start pre-school.
Thinking:: That I'll never get to do half the ideas I pinned on Pinterest.
Grateful:: For my husband, the blessing of kids and friends.
Anticipating:: December and all that goes with it.
Believing:: That Theunis will get that dream job.
Wondering:: What next year holds.
Loving:: Pinterest
Remembering:: The different homes we lived in.
Appreciating:: A clean house on Tracy days.
Hearing:: Liam saying :" My tummy is crying for icecream".
Smiling:: At Reuben learning to be a graceful loser at chess.
Being:: Fully in the wonderful moments when we swim and they're loving it so much that they can
doggypaddle. Liam kissing me when when he swam right across. Reuben turning round and round
before he swims away.
Eating:: Lindt blueberry intense, homemade icelollies.
Drinking:: All the exciting new flavours from Halls: Berry, Strawberries & cream, Paw-paw & mango..
Trying:: Charcoal sessions w/ friends.
Going:: A shade or so lighter with my hair.
Downloading:: Blog hop freebies from Design House Digitals.

December Daily soon

2011-11-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Ali Edwards, the creative mind behind the December Daily concept, has me all excited about this year's project. I've done DD for about 4 years in a row now, 2 paper projects and 2 digital albums that haven't been print yet. Here's the 1st page from my album last year. (I used Ali's templates available at Designer Digitals.)

I'm still undecided about what I'll be doing this year. But if you would like to read more about this project, you can check out this post by Ali (with further links to more DD posts) : http://aliedwards.com/2011/10/december-daily-2011-the-foundation-pages-part-one.html

And it is also absolutely worth it to check out Molly Irwin's December Daily posts:
http://mollyirwin.typepad.com/.services/blog/6a00d8349eed6669e200d83469845b53ef/search?filter.q=December+Daily

I'm so grateful for them for inspiring me to make my albums. They are precious homes for our Christmas memories now. A highly recommendable way to spend your free time over December!

Art today

2011-11-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm still not sure how it happened, but today I started "teaching" Charcoal classes to two of my friends. I do remember that it took my very organised friend to be the one to set a date to go actually buy the artsupplies, or else we would still have been at the "yes, we must get together and start drawing" phase.

What I know about art: VERY LITTLE. The total of my art exposure at school was an easter colouring-in competition I won somewhere in the early grades. I think it is from there that "being able to draw" has been part of my identity. In my adult life I've attended two very basic art classes and created about a handful of pictures. I haven't drawn anything serious in say 5 years (and the last one was an incomplete charcoal on a fridge with a baby needing my attention), and I'm still subconciously going, OK, I'm scatterbrained and a lot of other shortcomings, but I CAN draw. So, it was time to start drawing again...

I ended up doing a charcoal of one of my sons' softies. Currently I'm not feeling the intense need to draw as I did when I was at artclass, but I felt some of the focus return towards the end of the class when I saw my friends off, forgetting to really look at their final products, being too zoomed in on getting my own drawing right. hehe!

Afterwards I was relating what I was experiencing to how we worship God. Sometimes we want to work at it (and do it all right) instead of flowing with it and enjoying it. A bit of revelation there.

Project Life | Last week of October

2011-10-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

This week was photo rich and I had difficulty choosing / leaving out images. I tried to go with what best tells the story, but some days have many everyday stories to choose from.

I don't usually do much editing (beyond brightening and sharpening) to my photo's. But I was recently inspired by the dreamy images in this photobook: http://www.blurb.com/books/2253438 (found via Ali Edward's twitter updates. She takes her pictures on film. I love the grainy look. Just something about it. Then I stumbled upon this tutorial (while downloading a christmas printable actually): http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-give-your-photos-a-cool-retro-analog-effect . I wasn't motivated to go and figure it out on Photoshop, but - for the left page/ main photo- tried some of the suggestions in my Microsoft Editing program. Not perfect, but I enjoy the effect.

Happy Monday!

Double the bubble

2011-10-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

We are really into paint at the moment. Me and my youngest, my "last term to stay at home in the mornings" son. But I know that he can tire of drawing and brushwork, so we looked at a really fun art project today. Something that had the wow factor for him.

We discovered this project, via Pinterest (where else!), at Familfun (a great site for things to do with the kids), and here's the link for the homemade recipy: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/soap-bubble-prints-667851/ I wasn't sure that I knew corn syrup (I live in South Africa), so just used Golden syrup and it worked just as well.

And here is what the artworks look like:

I'm not sure what he enjoyed more, the bubble blowing or the artworks he proudly created, or the excitement of printing them before the bubbles goes. But it was a great project.

PS: You need a lot of liquid to get good bubbles. We ended up saving the remaining in glass bottles.

Wishing you a good weekend!

Bestest easiest chocolate cake

2011-10-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

I just love this recipy because it is so easy to make and requires such basic on-hand ingredients. It is really a huge brownie, and can defnitely be made as such. People always think it contains chocolate, (and you can certainly add some chunks, but it is not neccessary. I either make it with the heart stencil icing sugared on the in or outside (just remember not to knife-test the middle of the cake if your icingsugar is going on the outside! I have, when we just moved into a new home with a "new" built in oven, doubled this recipy and made it twice, creating a 4 layer cake for my son's 4th Birthday. So. easy.

Here's the link: http://sweetpaul.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/r-2.html

Project life | 3rd week of October

2011-10-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

I'm really so fond of this project. I don't see myself ever not doing a Project life in one form or another.

About the underwater photo, bottom right: No underwater camera? No problem. I used my small Canon, switched on the self timer, placed it in a glass jar and sealed the lid on top. Then I placed the jar underwater, with-out fully immersing it (lid part still above water). It was probably very fortunate timing, but we snapped this photo with the first attempt, capturing his new diving adventures.

This weekend: Strawberry picking

2011-10-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite things to do is explore new places. Another favourite is to give our kids a taste of country life, even though we live in a big city. If we can do both of these with an easy 45 min drive out of town, then even beter.

This week-end we headed for Tangaroa farm near Hartbeespoort Dam. It had a picnic area next to a duck pond, and wide open fields with rows of strawberry plants and some mullberry trees full of fruit. One is allowed to go in and pick and eat as much as you like, but, because crops are not that abundand yet, not allowed to take anything home. It was quite hot- you're only allowed in after ten, so we preferred the shade of the trees. The strawberries are organically farmed which meant that you could pick them and eat them. Juicy and sunwarmed. I loved the feeling of space and quietness as you walked, looking for ripe strawberries. And that the kids had space to safely explore.

We had lunch on a blanket next to the pond. Only later noticing that we were within arms reach of a nest of white duck eggs. The parents were quite mellow, more interested in some bread bits. Later we noticed another duck sitting quietly on a nest inside a barn area. We walked past her a few times before noticing her.

On the way home we briefly stopped at a Dutch cheese farm (Van Gaalens). I loved all the names of the Dutch imported sweets. There were packets of those old fashioned heart shaped candies saying "modern" things like "Fax mij" -fax me, and "bel mij" - phone me.

Here's a lay-out I did of the day, using a Katie Pertiet (Designer digitals) template. Other products are also from Designer Digitals.

And a link to the Strawberry farm's website: http://www.tangaroa.co.za/ .

A morning at Brenthurst gardens...

2011-10-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine invited me to a fundraising walk at a garden, with some tea at the pool to finish it off. Still being fairly new to Jhb, I had no idea what to expect, except for an approximately 3 hour walk (so it must be a big garden, I thought). It was 16 hectares big actually.

When we arrived at the parking area this morning, we drove past Strilli Oppenheimer. I recognised her from a magazine article I once read about her groundbreaking indigenious gardening. I was amazed that she took the time to personally welcome us (a little group of 20 Moms geared with broadbrimmed hats and sandals) to the estate that's been the home of Oppenheimer family since 1920. I enjoyed how natural and unassuming she came across. There were (understandably) no camera's allowed, and I surprisingly enjoyed just walking and enjoying without needing to photograph the beauty around every corner.

The walk was an absolute feast of sights, fragrances and interesting stories, our guide having been in charge of the gardens for a few years (hope I have that right!). Like the story of how the 2000 year old Cycad (carbon tested), was swopped for one of the Oppenheimer horses (since no money in the world could buy either one).

I especially loved the sculptures and their stories. The Renoir sculpture, {yes, I saw a Renoir!!!, yes, he sculpted too!} was done towards the end of his life, sitting in a wheelchair, and using a bamboo stick to point a student to what needs to be carved away. Her cheekbone is done is such a way that she looks like a young woman from the side, but as you come around the corner, she looks much older.(That's a photo of her in the brochure at the top).

The sculpture of Scott's (think South Pole expiditions) son, done by his mother. Loved this because my husband has such an interest in the story. And the 6 metre high man and woman scullptures, expressing both the story of Eve made from Adam, and the deeper (and for years not known ) story of the artist's pain of losing their firstborn to adoption was quite moving too.

I loved the old trees: the purples, blues and deep reds. The grasses with little bell shaped flowers, tasting a sour "spekplantjie". The organic vegetable garden, how they work with nature. The arches and little paths. The changing moods of the different gardens. The fact that it is allowed to put on a seasonal coat. Birdsong and butterflies...I loved hearing that by not fertilizing your plants, it's allowed to become stronger.

The pool at the end of the walk was of course nothing like the picture I originally had in my mind. It wasn't blue or square :) It had lillies floating on the water, and irisses flowering in purple. We quenched our thirst with homemade mullberry juice.

I love natural gardens, and I love stories. This garden for me is the story of the power of a woman. From that first Eve who misused her power, or didn't realize the extent of her power, to the power of the Lady (don't have her name now) who rode her horse to the top of that hill, loved the view and persuaded her husband to build a house there, resulting in the sought after Parkhurst neighbourhood. To the creative power of renowned garden designer Joanne Pim, and Mrs Scott, who made the statue of her sun loving son, to the power of a mother's love portrayed in the Man and Woman statue. To Strilli Oppenheimer who used her power to create something so beautiful, something that reminds us that our view of what beauty is have been corrupted, and taking it back to what is natural, as God intended it. It reminds me of every woman's power, that God calls us (His Bride) a garden (Song of songs 4 & 5). That He made us for delight. "Let the beauty and delightfulness and favour of the Lord our God be upon us.."! Ps 90 v 17.

If you would like to go feast your eyes, visit their website here: http://www.brenthurstgardens.co.za/ and take the time to look at the gallery and also the descriptions of the statues, and various wild, informal and formal gardens.

Paint on...

2011-10-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

I recently (via pinterest) discovered a great site for art inspiration for kids. Link here: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/06/the-years-best-art-lessons/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20DeepSpaceSparkle%20(Deep%20Space%20Sparkle)

So yesterday we tried one of the projects. The idea is to divide your page into blocks and paint varius sized circles and rings in the three primary colours, and then experience colour mixing as you go. I painted along, hehe. But as you can see below it was Liam's artwork that is oozing with creativity and expressive confidence. He also had the trait of a real artist to know when to stop and call it good!

I just felt so thankful for how colourful my life became since becoming a SAH Mom. My wardrobe became so much more colourful (I used to wear a lot of black back in my boardroom days), the washingline is an explosion of colourful kids clothes, painted projects everywhere, new colourful (in the best way) friends...

Ps: You can check out Ali's Thankful thought series here:

http://aliedwards.com/2011/10/thankful-thought-no-7.html

A great way to document the things you're thankful for.

And talking about paint, this is truly just awesome:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=164519210297670

Wishing you a colourful, gratitude filled day!

T-shirt project # 2 : Image transfer.

2011-10-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

I recently rather innocently bought a little bottle of image transfer stuff. I ended up being very excited about the possibilities. Here's our project:

You'll need:

1 bottle of "Picture perfect" by Dala (got mine at Westpack at Lifestyle centre)
"Blank" t-shirt
A photocopied picture.

For the picture I used some word-art that I downloaded from somewhere. Unfortunately I didn't manage to save where I got it from when filing it away. But one can even create your own using interesting fonts. Remember to horisontally flip your image in your photo editing program before printing it, as you 'll get a mirror image transferred onto the fabric.

Apply the glue onto the front of the image, then aligning it well, place your picture face down onto the t-shirt.
Using a rolling pin, press down the image. Leave overnight. The next day: First iron the paper. Take a damp facecloth and place it on the paper for about half an hour. Remove and start rubbing the paper. (Paper works much better than cardboard). Keep rubbing till you've removed all the paper, dampening the paper as it dries again, untill you only have the image left over. Be carefull not to rub off any of the image. Apply another layer of glue (you'll end up using very little from your bottle). Iron again, using a cloth. And that's how easy it is to make a unique t-shirt.

Project Life | catching up.

2011-10-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

I'm still quite good at finishing up my week's documenting at the end of every week. I just love this project that much, that it is one of those things that I actually keep "working" on. But I didn't get around to adding finishing touches and posting them. So here's my Project Life for the last 3 weeks:

You can click on an image to enlarge it. The cute text bubbles were a freebie from Audrey Neal (Every Day Celebrations) at Design House Digitals. If you sign up you get weekly and monthly freebies.

The photo frame is from Carla Dudley, also Design House Digitals, http://www.designhousedigital.com/kit-types/freebies, the tags are from Katie Pertiet, Designer Digitals. Read more about Project Life here: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/.

Seen and heard around here

2011-10-14T02:42:00.000-07:00

I've had an Elise Gray diary for most almost every year of my adult life. It's purpose has evolved somewhat from a place where I wrote long pour-my-heart-out "dear diary" paragraphs, to a place now where I keep track of our months, and schedule in commitments and dates.

But I also now use it to note down things the kids say. Those things that make me smile or grin or laugh out loud. Those gems I want to remember for years to come, and especially in years to come.

Some of the things noted in the past month:

Liam (4) when he did something right : "Say thank you to Super Liam!"

Reuben (6) making up his own worship song. ("He has the biggest dinosuar in his hands"... etc)

Liam, repeating (incorrectly) something heard on tv "Ow, a crowmoach (iso cockroach) in my house. I don't think so!"

Reuben, when asked what is his hearts desire " He wants his tooth to fall out, so he can get some money from the toothmouse".

Liam, while waiting for 2 minute noodles: "Why is it taking so loooong?!"

Reuben: " Mom, you must have done something right somewhere. I'm takingthe washing down for you."

Liam, after we read the story of Jesus walking on the water and me explaining that there is nothing impossible for Him, with big eyes asks: "Can He shoot out of his fingers?"

I've also seen Reuben's excellent report card. His grade R Teacher's comment at the end describes him as independant and responsible, with good manners. He is cooperative and is a pleasure to have in class.

Going through the report I explained to him what I was reading. When I told him that it says that he can take leadership, he was so excited as if he just got permission to be a leader. That was the best part to him.

They are such a joy!

This weekend | The Circus

2011-10-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Blog, I haven't been here for a while due to internet problems. Blogging for a month now, I don't love the amount of time it takes to upload photo's, but I do love how it tells our story and also inspires me to live more creatively.

As evident from the heading we had a very exciting weekend. A visit to the circus as a holiday treat.
I already did a lay-out of it, so I'll just post that. It contains all my favourite photo's of the day.

Ok, I know I'm supposed to say something about the products used (all Designer Digital freebies I think) but I'm just really tired of my computer right now - it's just no fun to work on at the moment, and it took the best part of the afternoon to do this lay-out on Mr Superslow. I'm off to catch what's left of a beautiful day outside...

This weekend | Through my lens

2011-10-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am a life documenter. Inspired by incredible "Life Artists" like Ali Edwards, and Project Life'rs like Becky Higgins, I document our story with a lot of photo's. I've taken a serious amount of photo's since becoming a Mom. That doesn't mean I always carry a good camera, or know anything about the technical side of photography, or are very interested in it for that matter. But I do try and keep things interesting.

This weekend I wasn't in the mood for a SLR and big lens, so I just carried my small Canon. When I looked at the photo's I realized that I subconciously used a few simple go to "techniques".

I look for colour and interesting angles.

Strong shapes

Framing my subject(s) (and drawing the eye)

Taking a photo from behind

Looking for a solid colour background (nice for journaling on later)

And doesn't those strong lines on his shirt also work well?

And when you've taken a really bad photo (that you love), you can always turn it into a "Poladroid" , a downloadable "gadget" that turns ordinary photo's into Polaroid looking ones.

We happened into a kids costume shop and Reuben tried on this prince outfit. We didn't buy it, but the image is precious. Just Google "Poladroid" and you should be able to find and download it for free.

I do love taking photo's.

Friends | crayons | t-shirts.

2011-09-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time, Reuben had a playdate at home with his best friend from school. They were both so counting the days for this. It was wondeful to observe Reuben as a friend. He makes a great and confident friend. There's something so warm and solid about him.

They did some swimming, ate mac&cheese, and pudding. And we decorated t-shirts. I found this idea via Pinterest http://pinterest.com/pin/169148464/ and decided to try it. The boys drew their pictures on fine sandpaper (using normal crayons).

We (actually our domestic help) then ironed it face down onto the front of each one's T-shirt. Ironed the transfered picture again with a cloth over. We were all very impressed (another pun not intended) with the end result.

I also tried to save a t-shirt gone pink by drawing a robot picture (inspired by the wonderful drawing book by Taro Gomi called "Scribbles") and transferring the image the same way.

And speaking of drawing, I recently purchased a sketchbook (because it was cheap, not because I had any ideas for it.) I was inspired by this illustration on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/157137729/ to sketch some of my summer clothes.

Cool life documenting.

Husband appreciation day :)

2011-09-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

I've had a really lovely morning. My husband had a 9am appointment nearby. It didn't make sense to drive out all the way to work and back, so he had a late-ish breakfast with me before leaving for his appointment. This just about never happens during the week. He got us some croissants. Some plain, others with chocolate or hazelnut filling. So good. It reminded me of the croissants we once had at a little deli in Cape Town. He has never been able to fly to Cape Town with-out returning with some of those in his bag. But now, this find, way too close to home!

This has just left me thinking about him. God's Word says honour your hubands, and I think it goes beyond just honouring their decisions, to also verbalizing our appreciation for them. So I promptly did just that, in a lay-out. There's still a lot more to say about my man, good things. So many good things. If you're reading this, husband of mine, I'm the lucky one!

Oh, here's the (digital) lay-out:

I used a free template from Chrissy W digitals called "February freebie templates". Paper was a Colour inspirations Freebie from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. Heart: Citrus blitz heartsprinkles (I just cut out one and used it). "You" letters Sara Schmutz country cottage freebie.

I also did another (digital)lay-out yesterday, capturing an everyday story around here. (So many of those I still want to do).

It was inspired by a gorgeous layout by Erin :

http://erintaylor718.blogspot.com/2011/09/everyday-details-scrapbook-layout.html,

whom I found on Karla's blog : http://karlastudio5.typepad.com/

Supplies are all Designer Digitals, except for the template, TNT scrappable story by Tiffany Tillman. I flipped the template horizontally to get my photo's where I wanted them.

Recipy | Granola bars

2011-09-28T01:50:00.000-07:00

I made these bars a while ago. Found the recipy somewhere in an old magazine. We all love them so much, and they're quite healthy as a snack, so I thought I'd share them.

Granola bars:

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups Rice Crispies
2 cups oats
1 cup dried friuit bits
1/2 cup sliced almonds.

1. Set oven to 180C
    Line a baking tray with baking paper. Two sheets at right angles.
2. Melt the butter and wisk in sugar, honey, flour, vanilla & cinnamon. Add the remaining ingredients & mix
     well.
3. Transfer the mixture to the pan. Press it all firmly to a flat even thickness.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, till golden brown. Lift the granola out and let it cool on a wire rack. Once              completely cooled, cut into bars. (Mine ended up being more bits and pieces than bars).

I think they would be nice replacing the dried fruit with cranberries and dipping the bottoms in some melted white chocolate or even dark chocolate. Enjoy!

Project Life | Last week of September.

2011-09-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

I'm planning on doing this project using the "Project Life kit" (by Becky Higgins) next year. You can check it out here: http://beckyhiggins.com/products/

Defnitely so worth it!

But for this year I'm loving my digital project.

The Wordart (on the left page) is from "Thanksgiving Celebrations Element kit" by Ali Edwards, the tag is Simple Spots by Katie Petiet. All available from Designer Digitals. The template was a freebie by Anna Aspnes, no longer available, I think.

It was fun to send the camera to work with my husband this week. And good to have a photo of his "everyday" included in our album.

This Week-end | Taking it slow

2011-09-26T02:31:00.000-07:00

This week-end we decided to take some time out of our normal schedule to try and completely recover.
Time for slow mornings. Stay at home time. There were some other neccities we also had to make time for. It was time to get some groceries.

Time to get new spring flowers.

Time to bath the dog.
Time to put some colour on my toenails.

Time to see the blossoms at Emmerentia Dam.

Time to kick some ball. (He's amzing at kicking).

Good times...

Eye candy

2011-09-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

Just some Friday eyecandy today. I found this via one of my favourite blogs, Maine Momma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8K9s7_k3TM

Thankful Thought

2011-09-22T01:57:00.000-07:00

My thankful thought actually has nothing to do with all the lovely spring blossoms around. Actually I've been battling with a stomach bug for the past few days, and no, that's not my thankful thought either. What I am thankful for- apart from my skin feeling as if I had a detox- is for the forced downtime it gave me. Being a stay at home Mom I'm supposed to have a lot of quality time with my kids. I probably have more time than many working Moms. But there's a lot of time that I'm busy with other stuff, not being present with them. Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon lying on the big old leather couch with my boys. Trying to rest :).

I enjoyed Reuben being all soft and tender with me, telling me he loves me a billion times around the moon. I enjoyed all his hugs and "I love you"'s. I enjoyed Liam being silly and full of laughs and in my face. I enjoyed the knowing that they are so pleased to have me just hanging around. An audience to them. Being undistracted and available.

I'm thankful for them, who makes even a not so great day a gem in my memory. It reminded me of a quote I once saw on Ali Edward's blog, here: http://aliedwards.com/2005/01/normal-day.html#more-2485

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth or bury my face in the pillow or stretch myself taut or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return. ( Mary Jean Iron).

Project Life | Third week of September

2011-09-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hello, here is this past week's Project Life lay-out. I have much to learn about Blogging. I don't even know where to go to learn. If I knew how, there would have been a link on the sidebar to my previous post on this Project. But for now, any-one interested can just have a look in my archives. Love this Project, even in a week when every-one was sick!

This weekend | Neighbourhood Spring Party

2011-09-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

Since moving to Johannesburg just over a year ago we have been most impressed by two things: #1 is the weather - Jhb has the best weather. Months of blue sunny skies. And #2: the people. Joburg has a seemingly endles supply of interesting, warm friendly people. We are in a church filled with absolutely awesome people. People who made adjusting to a new city just so much easier.

And we must have the greatest neighbourhood in Joburg. Nice people who care about the community and the environment. (One neighbour for example washed and desanitized the entire street's rubbish bins after a municipal strike a while ago.) Parents who want to create a place where kids can (occasionally) play carefree and safely outside in the street - like we used to as kids. We all realize we have something special here.

Anyway, long intro...This weekend we had our Neighbourhood Spring Party.

We braaied in the circle,

The kids had a jumping castle,

did some colouring in,

and played till after dark.

I made some Rainbow Lollies for the occasion. The recipy, (via Pinterest) can be found here: http://sandytoesandpopsicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/rainbow-fun-part-2-rainbow-pudding-pops.html

I think any vanilla pudding will do. I used small plastic cups iso the paper cups and the lollies came out quite easily. They were just a bit too much for the kids. I'll use the small yogurt cups as moulds instead next time we make something like this. They are just so easy and fun!

Crafting | Handprint animals.

2011-09-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

This week the Kids tried their hands - no pun intended- at making animals out of hand (and foot)prints.

We did some in December last year, making the dearest reindeer with pipecleaner horns (not sure now where we got the idea from).

This time, inspired by Pinterest http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Hand-Print-Elephant.html we made a crayfish, giraffe and elephant.

Easy peasy and very pretty. Also inspired by Pinterest http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/2008/08/artwork-in-boys-room.html, I'm planning to have a selection of their artwork scanned, shrunk and framed together.

And then I must also post this very sweet picture of our family by my 6 year old. We're all there, even Zoe the Cocker Spaniel!

Right now | September

2011-09-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

Eating: Muesli and yogurt for breakfast every day (except weekends)
           Lindt Chilli for a after dinner treat.

Reading: Bruce Marciano's "In the footsteps of Jesus".

Wearing: Shirts with little pleats on the front.

Capturing: Kids crafting, a photo a day.

Watching: "The good wife" on tv every Tuesday.
                The blossoms on our trees.

Doing: Digital lay-outs of our week-end in the Berg.
            30 minutes on the Healthwalker every day.
...........................................................................................................................................................

PS: I got this idea from Ali Edward's blog. It's a great way to record life, say once a month.

Project Life | 2nd week of September

2011-09-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

My Project life for the week 5 - 11 September. The bottom, or right hand side page was done in Photoshop Elements, using an free template by Anna Aspnes (I'm not sure where I found it). It was then saved as a JPEG document and opened in Microsoft's Digital Imaging Program. That's where I usually go to add text. If you're smart, you can do it in Photoshop, but I find this system working for me.

The left hand/ top page was also done in the Microsoft program by opening the previous layout and the photo. The photo was the dragged over the bit that already contained the grid of pictures. I deleted the text above and underneath and then added the new text over the photo area. The label is from Designer Digitals, called "SimpleSpotsMonths" by Katie Pertiet. Once again I opened it in the Microsoft program, dragged it onto the page I'm working with and added the text.

Here's a link to Designer Digitals:

http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/products_new.php

This weekend | Parties & water.

2011-09-12T03:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the end of quite a busy week. The weekend started on Friday afternoon with a little friend's birthday party in their huge indigenous garden.

I made some lemon and poppyseed cupcakes for the party.

Reuben was very chuffed that he won the pellet shooting prize for shooting down three of the ten cups. They also had a great time with the waterpistols.

Saturday morning I attended a Baby shower at Silver Birch coffee shop. A mellow morning.
And from there we attended another little friends Cowboy party. The cowboy gear didn't last long because of the waterslide. Great fun for the kids.

On Sunday we presented Sunday school. It was about the Helmet of Salvation. The kids made tinfoil helmets, and played musical hats! The afternoon included some much needed rest at home. The trees in blossom are just getting more beautiful.

The kids also had their first swim for the summer in our tiny pool.

The water was still very cold.
Evening we attended our church's first evening freeworship service. It was "awesome", because it was! Better is one day in your house Lord, even than a thousand elsewhere!

Weekend away | In the Berg.

2011-09-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last we went away to the Drakensberg for a few days. We wanted to camp and I got some great camping ideas on Ali's blog, here: http://aliedwards.com/2011/06/can-we-talk-about-camping.html.

The best advice we took from there was to get a Jaffel maker. Remember those? We were thrilled to find one at the Crazy store for a good price. Great fun!

We ended up not camping but staying in a nice chalet overlooking the mountains. The first day was misty and rainy,

but the next day we could go for hikes.

and other adventures

The last day we decided to spend the morning at Royal Natal National Park,

before taking the drive back home. The mountains in springtime was just beautiful. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time, especially hiking up to the cascades and playing in the river and waterfalls.

God took me to Song of songs 2: 9-16 (after hearing the song by Micheal Card). It was so amazing to see all around me what the scripture was describing: Eland tracks behind our house,

Eland on the hillside, the winter being past,

flowers appearing, singing of birds, clefts in the rock. It was really and invitation for me to arise and run with Him, to take the little foxes (those things that bothers me), to Him and to seek more intimacy with Him.

More photo's on my Facebook Album: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/media/set/?set=a.2369414235343.138502.1250081732&type=1.

Project Life | First week of September

2011-09-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

This year, as last year, I am doing a digital Project Life album. It basically entails taking a photo per day for the full year and creating a weekly page.

I absolutely love this project. Doing it has really captured the story of our lives so well- the small changes, the big changes, the details, the forgotten days and so much more. It is (like this blog) a great place for all the stories I want to tell, but don't have the time to do individual layouts for. It celebrates our everyday lives, instead of just focusing on "big" events. It gives a wonderfull perspective. Like I said, just love it.

You can check out Becky Higgin's site for more info and inspiration: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/

Ali Edwards also has a very inspiring album in the making: http://aliedwards.com/about-ali/portfolio/project-life .

A little crafting | Painted stones

2011-09-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

So here is the first result of my intention to actually DO more crafts iso just collecting tons of ideas. (I can see how blogging can be a great way of keeping one to this sort of "commitment").

I saw this idea on Pinterest. Beautifully painted by Geninne http://www.flickr.com/photos/23022617@N00/5079241778/

and tried it on some garden pebbles. Iso paint I used a white "Decorative paint pen" by Rustoleum (from Lifestyle centre's craft section). I repeated all the the lines drawn. Quite happy with the result and the fact that they are weather proof!

This weekend | School Fete

2011-09-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend we tried something new for Breakfast. Egg and bacon in breadcups. Will defnitely make them again. Just put the bead linings in the oven beforehand to get them more toasted. You can find the recipy here: http://www.marthastewart.com/330179/bacon-egg-and-toast-cups. (I found it via Pinterest).

We also attended our school fete. Reuben was happy to bump into his best friend there. There were lots of activities. Some familiar to me from my own school days. (Grateful for a school that culturally resembles my our own school experiences). But it's an all new experience for us as parents. So many fun firsts this year!
The highlight for me was the "kaskar" races. Liam volunteered to join the Grade RR in their race.

They used small wire cars. Initially things didn't go so well. There was a car that didn't want to co-operate. There were tears. Giving up. And then trying again. And completing a full lap!

Next up were the Grade R's. Reuben, looking quite colourful by now, completed three laps, alternating between pushing and driving. But the highlight of the day for the boys were defnitely the giant inflated balls. They patiently tolerated a long wait in the que, standing in the heat.
They even tolerated the noise as it was being inflated.

For a few minutes of fun. Running around bumping each other over.

So proud of Liam braving it against a bigger kid.

A fun day indeed.

And Sunday we managed to also fit in one of our favourite weekend activities: getting outside as a family.

We went to Delta Park. Love the huge free playground..

..we love the beautiful trees, the families and their dogs...We decided to bring Zoe along. She was super excited by all the smells and people. We plan on bringing her more often. The vision is that she'll also be one of the laid back dogs that hangs around there without a lead.

But in the meantime, I love that Reuben is confident enough to walk her.

Add some joy.

2011-09-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

And since it's my first day blogging, I'm excusably a little over-eager in sharing a second blog post before I join the family at the "braaivleis" fire. Just want to remember the simple joy of flowers collected from the garden. Because earthern vessels can contain a lot of beauty and joy! And for any-one wondering about Pinterest, here a link to my account. You can also open your own free account: http://pinterest.com/alidap/

Hello spring. Hello new blog

2011-09-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm discovering new flowers everywhere in the garden. We moved in here as it was becoming autumn, so flowers are appearing that we didn't know about. Two trees that had lovely dry branches in winter is now full of pink buds. It's all still a bit new to me, having moved to a colder province in the middle of last winter (yes, two moves in 9 months). The cherry blossoms were such a thrill last spring.

Time for new things...There's plans to actually MAKE more of the many ideas on Pinterest iso just collecting them!

And...I'm finally taking the leap into Blog land. I mostly intend to just blog for memory keeping purposes. I am a compulsive picture snapper and often cannot keep up with documenting the stories that goes with the photo's. That's the other thing I do: documenting life. Hopefully a Blog would be a nice home for all of this! Let's see how this blossoms!