Project Life 2013 | Week 50a

Hello, and welcome to Day 9 - 11 of my December in PL. And a special welcome if you're visiting from The Pocket Source. (I'm new there).

 

Day 9: The weather then (in Durban) was looking pretty much as it does right now (in Jo'burg): Rain, rain and more.. rain. But happiness as we hit a craft store and I discover not only some great mosaic projects for the kids, but also some great scrapbooking stuff for me. Loved their wood veneer letters.

 

I went through some of my Mom's albums while there, and took a photo of this Me & her baby photo. Fun putting it next to a photo of her now, in her gym gear and neon gym shoes. So thankful for her.

 

Day 10 found us at the Doctor. Liam had an ear infection, and we had some night time drama with him being in a lot of pain. (He's actually fine on this photo - just joking around).

 

Day 11 was quite a surprise: First stop - Pavillion Mall. I captured some of the Madiba tributes that could be seen everywhere. And I included some art by Liam.

On our way to the next mall (for a movie), we realised that the weather is clearing, so we spur of the moment headed for the beach..(very unprepared). The half-mast flags felt so surreal..

 

At the Beachfront the kids posed with a Riksha (very iconic Durban moment). And we went to another Durban icon, Mini Town. We never went there in the years we lived in Durban, but it got a revamp in 2010, and was quite a thrill for the kids.

I'm still loving Nisa Fiin's cards, and Valorie Gibbens' transparent pocket fillers here. Both available digitally from The Lilypad. The brown card was something I stamped by hand.

 

More of Day 11 tomorrow...

PL 2013 | Week 49e

Yes, know, week 49 E, it's getting a bit ridiculous, but this is indeed the last spread for this week.

 

Day 7 & 8 of December, and we're still on holiday in a very wet Durban.

 

Documented: Making our first pink Christmas cookies (Girl-cousin chose the colours) :: Taking the tag off a jacket I bought my Mom, and discovering the "Joy" label :: living out of a suitcase :: searching for accommodation for our time in Mpumalanga & booking flights :: and a braai with my family..

I left one pocket clear and made some stars from sparkly strips (by sticking it onto a transparency). Still love Cathy Zielske's photocard freebie.

 

Ps: I discovered a new PL community today. Posted on the gallery at The Pocket Source.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

 

PL 2013 | Week 49d

Hello and welcome to Day 5 & 6 of my December in PL. Still catching up here...
                          

Quite a busy page, but one I'm willing to call good and move on.

This page documents more of our time in Durban..celebrating life...

And receiving the news of the loss of a great life. And then at the same time again celebrating the life of Madiba. We saw the news on tv in the morning, and then for the next couple of days tuned in regularly to the many tributes and footage of so many great moments in our country's recent history. His story, but also indirectly part of our story.

We also had some rare sunshine and had to seize it. We paid a visit to the Durban Botanical gardens. A strange moment to find a "talking tree" there (a recording for kids and not the strange part). It spoke about having Madiba stand in his shadow once, and it was a strange hearing it on this day, and the thought that he's no longer with us.

Oh, we're getting there with the catching up. We're getting there. I'm trying to post every day and hope to be done soon enough.

Project Life 2013 | Week 49c

Hello and welcome to Day 4 of my PL December pages. This happens to be one of my favourite pages over December...

It was a sunny day after a lot of rain, and we decided to hit the beach. Headed to the beach at Suncoast (where they give you chairs & shade on the lawn overlooking the ocean). A great morning of watching and playing in the waves. I took Reuben's waterproof camera into the water with us, but then found that it hadn't been charged. Oh well, had my hands full enough with those three in the water.

Can you tell I really love this photo? I've cropped the individual parts to jumbo photo size before having it printed as normal. Works for me. Word art is from Ali.

We ate so much fast food while in Durban. Love that my kids are making their own memories around places like Spur and Wimpy...I again used some products from the Lilypad: Splendid Fiins December cards, and see through pocket fillers from Valorie Wibbens. Product links in my PL Week 49a post.

More updates following, and I promise not all pages will cover only one day at a time.

Project Life 2013 | Week 49b

Welcome to some more of my December pages. Documenting Day 3 of our time in Durban here.

This page tells of a trip to the NSA gallery's Christmas market. So much handmade goodness.  I love the top photo where the cousins connect over a camera...sigh.  On the right I included something that came home from school - a (pretty long) Christmas wish list.

I added the date through-out December using various labels and number stickers.

Sorry, the light was not great when I photographed these, but I just wanted to get them posted. Here I tell the story of all the rain we had. So much that the gallery floor actually got flooded.
On the left I included more school stuff and a handmade envelope that came with a sweet very early Christmas gift from Reuben.

 A close-up of the kids decorating the tree with my brother... special times. (Product details can be viewed in my previous post.) Thanks for browsing, look out for more pages following next week.

Project Life 2013 | Week 49a

Hello and welcome to the first of my PL pages for December. As with the previous week, pages are no longer covering a week at a time, because of the volume of photo's. I did no other album for December, so it all had to fit into PL. I loved doing these pages and changed things up a bit from the rest of my album..

First, in stead of my kit date cards, I digitally purchased and used journaling cards from The Lilypad. I used The December kit from Splendid Fiins, and also  Get Happy festive journal cards from Alison Pennington. And I continued with the transparent Pocket Fillers no 3 from Valorie Wibbens. The sparkly silver strips (to cover up "let it snow"- not appropriate for South Africa hehe) was locally found at CNA.

December 1st, actually the previous week's Sunday, is included here. I did Sunday school and let the kids make some felt wreaths. The evening the kids and I flew to my family in Durban. My husband was working on site through-out this time. We caught an ad behind us on the airport photo that reads "all work and all play", right behind the appropriate heads. Not entirely true..

 The Monday was spent at Ushaka, browsing shops and dipping our toes in the ocean. All these photo's were taken with my sons little Canon, as mine was still dead. I added the star washi tape as these photo's differ a bit in dimension to my camera's. Or else I cropped them to fit. Gratefully I got it sorted out on the Monday, by confirming that it was indeed my battery that was finished. Word-art is from Ali.

These cousins.. they're like peas and carrots. I liked the effect of the transparencies through-out December. Got some left and will be using them in this year's album too.'

Another December post will be up tomorrow.

Project Life 2013 | Week 48b & 48c.

Hello and welcome to another PL catch-up post. Two more pages of our week in Dullstroom, before I move onto our next adventure...

 Up here you see The Troll house, where we stayed so comfortably during our week there. To tell the truth, when I saw the name and the spooky picture on the internet, I skipped right past.
I contacted the owner about another place, which was full, and she said she had this place available. So I had a look at more photo's and liked what I saw, and was desperate enough to want to stay near my husband's project. So we took it and we went and it was a wonderful stay. (Ok the four star rating also helped - and it was indeed very cosy).

Week 48b:  On both pages you can see some transparent pocket fillers (digitally purchased from Valorie Wibbens at The Lilypad.) .. Word-art from Ali at Designer Digitals. PL cards from Splendid Finns.

This page records Wednesday. I loved the skies after the daily thunderstorms. I took a few pictures of the view from the stoep with different backgrounds- all beautiful. And I loved reading a book for the first time in ...no idea actually. It was Lineage of Grace, and I ended up buying the book to read the other stories I didn't read during our stay.

Also enjoyed finding different fruit trees in the garden.. figs, grapes and apples.

Week 48c...

Documenting Thursday-Saturday. I added Sunday to the next page as it was the 1st of December.

In spite of it being end of November, it was quite cold and rainy for a day or so. We still went into town to browse some shops- isn't the wood fireplace in the Tsonga shoe shop just wonderful? The whole village smelled amazing from all the fireplaces going.

And so did this coffee place - even for a non coffee drinker. I'm glad we "fitted in" going to the craft shop. It was so good to see them all enthusiastic about making mosaics. We took the six hour detour drive back home on Friday. Saturday we were sorting out some home stuff - like taking our Wirehaired Terrier to the doggy parlour for a summer shave. Looking all forlorn here..This was also the last photo I took with my DSLR before it mysteriously died. The battery seemed fine, as it worked in the video camera. I had to borrow my son's little camera for a few days until I got some help, but more of that in the next post.

Hope you check back for my pages on our trip to Durban, coming soon.