Project Life | Week 52b | 2013.

Yes, we're well into May here. It's a glorious autumn day as I sit blogging in a corner of the garden. A chance discovery as I wanted to be out of the house while our ceiling's finally being repaired and about half of it is currently on my diningroom floor...sigh.

It is also Election Day here which means hubby is sitting with me here in the garden, and we'll go and vote a little later. But for this post we're jumping right back to the last week of last year...

 

That would be the day after Christmas and on. I have one and a half more pages to go to finish this album. With my last bulk printing trip they somehow didn't print those, so they'll have to follow later.

 

Boxing day we were packing to leave for Mpumalanga. We stayed at a lodge near my hubby's site for two weeks. Journaling idea: Record the music you like to travel on. We were listening to Philip Philips, and an old traveling favourite of ours, the soundtrack of Juno on our four hour drive. I'm a collector of heart shaped stones, and I was thrilled with this huge heart shaped rock my man found on one of our walks in the reserve. The photo of me was taken in front of our cabin and the white in the background is the river- wonderfully close.

 

This was a place I probably never would have put on my destination list, but I ended up loving the African Bush and the time of deep rest. You'll see me sitting with my laptop, but I hardly had any reception, so mostly read and swam and took some afternoon naps. Bliss. And the kids had a great time too. Ali word art, on the bottom photo combined with my own journaling.

 

Kit used here was the Cobalt.

PL 2013 | Week 52a

Hello and welcome to the LAST week of 2013! My viewer numbers tells me there's a few survivors out there, and to you I say thanks a million.

 

This page covers 23 - 25 December. Yes, oops, when photographing the pages I realized I never added anything in the date card. I'll probably stamp something like "Merry Christmas".

 

It was great to have my hubby home for Christmas. But we kept the festivities very low key this year. Christmas eve was a cosy family dinner. We also made time to sit with the kids and read some of their magical nativity books. "This is the star" is still my favourite.

Here I used a Christmas journaling card from Ali (digitally added the photo of us) . Not sure where the chalkboard freebie is from now. The mirror "Peace" and "25" is from a craft store. It's not clear here but I love that the kids faces are mirrored right in the corner of that photo where I added the little button.

 

Christmas day and I didn't take a lot of photo's. (The photo of the two of us was actually taken the day before). Not a traditional Christmas here as I said, but some traditions were kept: Glorified French toast for breakfast (we like the Jamie Oliver recipy, where you use  Pannetonne, mascarpone and a blueberry syrup.) Gifts were unwrapped first thing in the morning, in our PJ's. And I like having a bunch of Proteas around on Christmas Day. We celebrated the day with our Church family.

 

 The card in the top corner originally was stamped "Merry Christmas" with silver ink and a little banner, but then I liked it more when I added a printed transparency over. It is actually two different pocket filler patterns that I cut out together to make this card.

I repeated the same photo of the kids with their cars twice, just for fun.

 

The "Celebrate" was a downloaded freebie, but it came with a white background. So I digitally cut out the words (and copied it). The I made the card somewhat transparent and pasted the cut-out words onto it. I then added some Tim Holtz ribbon around the area, stapling it down in the corners. 

 

I am so looking forward to start sharing my 2014 pages. There are still about 3 pages from our last few days of 2013 left (from another trip and not yet completed). I'll share them when done.

But next up will be 2014 pages!

PL 2013 | Week 51

Welcome to the Week of 16-22 December. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here!

 

I actually fitted the entire week on a double page + insert.

 

This week :: Monday was a Public Holiday, but T still had to leave for another week on site::

I recorded some of the good & bad of this week on journal cards. Good was that it was great to be home for a bit. We had been away from home for 3 (good) weeks preceding this week and it was great to be in our own space again :: I missed a lot of what was happening in the garden but loved these flowers that come up by themselves every year :: Picnic and fort building with friends.

 

This was also the week that gifts were bought and wrapped and the house was decorated (though we kept it very simple this year) :: The kids loved the twinkle lights on their beds.

 

 The kids and I went to see Frozen, and then we had a nice surprize when T had to come through to Jo'burg one of the days of the week. He stayed overnight and headed back the next day and was also away over the week-end. The Moustaches was from a take-away cup he had on the road.

 

And that was week 51...

PL 2013 | Week 50c

Hello and welcome to Days 13 - 15 of  our December. I'm doing big catching up on my PL lay-outs, and I hope you don't find it too strange seeing Christmas trees in the middle of March. Relieved to find that I'm not the only one that is not doing current PL posts.

 

Day 13 and we're heading back to Jo'burg. I wrote down a few things I loved about this trip: A huge surfing Santa at the airport (only in Durban) :: Rushing and then realizing we had the time wrong, and gained an hour :: My Mom, brother and niece waiting out the hour with us at the airport :: Booking in our bags, declaring the kids' Wazooka waterguns, and being told that we have to open our suitcases and remove them, as they'll show up on the security scan. The kids weren't impressed, but it was quite funny :: Flying alone with the kids at night, and enjoying their excitement at the city lights below :: Driving home from the airport with my husband whom I haven't seen in two weeks, and hearing, for the first time, on the radio his new favourite song, Bonfire Heart.

 

I included an enlargement, since Photo First where I printed were giving them to me for free (because of the volume of photo's I printed at the end of December).

 

And then we were home again..

I was happy to still find some cherry tomatoes on my plants. They were delicious.

So good to spend the week-end together (before he had to head back to site). Attended the neighbourhood's Christmas party. The best part must have been the barefoot Santa.

Authentically South African.

 

More following tomorrow...

Project Life 2013 | Week 50b

Hello and welcome to more of Day 11, and also Day 12, of my December documenting.

 

We paid a visit to one of my favourite places.. the Aquarium at Ushaka Marine World in Durban.

 

We went in in the late afternoon and got discounted tickets because of this. We initially thought we only had half an hour, but then found out we still had about 2 hours. And we just about had the place to ourselves. Magical...

 

I added "Ocean" to the Wonderland card from  Nisa Fiin. The twinkle word art was added to a photo I took of real sea stars that were stuck to the aquarium glass. The sparkly silver letters are from Typography. "Hello today" word art from Ali.

 

This is an enlargement covering half a page.

 

And this is the other side of it.

 

Day 12: Going to the movies (we saw Free birds) and then I had a coffee date with my two best school friends. I haven't seen them in years and it was so special and familiar. We could hardly say goodbye. The evening we had a family dinner at John Dory's. And even later the kids opened up some gifts under the Christmas tree.

 And that was day 12.

I'm giving myself another week of catching up on December's PL pages, and then I can't wait to start sharing this year's pages!

 

 

 

 

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.