Lat Christmas cards - I hope!

These are the last two designs I used for my Christmas Cards this year. The first one was a simple card using only Bazzil cardstock and ribbon. The second one uses Doodlebug designs paper. cardstock, ink and ribbon. The stamped image was coloured with Copics.

Today, the last day of 2008 is going to be a very restful day. My children are all spending this time with friends and family. Juan is in Natal. camping with friends, Anke is in Mozambique with some university friends, having a very good time. Daniela and Karin is spending the day with their own families and DH is helping his friend, Braam, finish burglar bars for a friend that is going on holiday next week. So. that means peace and quiet for me to read the book I started 3 months ago and never had time to finish, and maybe even time to do some scrapping!

Flowers, just because he loves me!

Isn't this just beautiful? My DH came home yesterday with a bunch of them, singing the Afrikaans song 'Vir jou sal ek blomme koop'. Translated the song says: I will buy you flowers till I run out of money, a beautiful little love song. I am so lucky that he still hasn't run out of money even though he has been buying me flowers for more than 30 years.

I have been very lazy lately and havn't done any crafting for days. It could also be because South Africa is playing a cricket match against Australia and I have been glued to the TV, or maybe because DH is still on leave and I don't get anything done when he is at home. I am hoping to do at least a little bit today, because he is going to help a friend put shelves up. Daniela, my eldest DD and her little one Tertia-Lee is coming to stay for a few days because her partner has gone to Cape Town. She is a keen crafter too, so we might just get something done.

What a wonderful day!

My DH has two brothers, one older and one younger than him. Every now and then they all get together and have great fun. His older brother has two sons, one lives in Tasmania and the other in Bloemfontein. They were both home with their families for Christmas and it was decided that they would all go and play gholf. My DH arranged the whole day. They each had a goodie bag filled with gholfballs, tee's and snacks. My DS designed a special score card for the 'Jacobs gholf day'.

At 7 o'clock this morning they set off for Delmas - It was the only place that could accomodate them at short notice. There were 8 of them; Sam, the oldest brother, and his two sons, Chris and Deon. Willie, the younger brother, he drove all the way from the Vaal just to be with them and his son Shaun and then of course there was Jakes, my DH and our don Juan. The eighth member of the team was Juan's friend Pieter.

They came home shortly after 1, exhausted, but giggling like schoolboys. From what I hear, great fun was had by all. Shaun emerged as the winner, not that anybody cared! They had more fun telling tales of Deon who managed to hit the gholf ball backwards. We spent the afternoon at Sam's house having a braai and listening to them talk.

On the way home Jakes commented on what a wonderful gift it is for a family to still enjoy spending time with each other. In this day and age you don't often find young people that still enjoy to spend time with their parents and to be able to share that with your brothers is truely special.

So, was it everything you imagined?

How was your Christmas? Mine was everything I had hoped and more. All my children and grandchildren around me. Lots of food, lots of laughter and lots of love, what more can you ask for?

Die dag het baie vroeg begin. Ek was al 5 uur in die kombuis besig om slaai te maak. Teen 7 uur was die huis skoon, die vleis gesny en almal aangetrek vir kerk. Barry was al kwart voor 7 hier, tot groot vermaak van almal. Hy sê hy het nou geleer dat wanneer Jakes sê ons loop halfagt kerk toe, hy moet seker maak hy kom vroeg, want hy was die afgelope twee Kersfeeste laat en hy was nog altyd 10 minute vroeg volgens hom.

Dit was so lekker om weer saam met my kinders in die kerk te wees. Dit maak my net hartseer dat Daniela en Karin so kerk en God-loos geword het. Dalk is dit ook die rede waarom hulle nie hulle lewens in orde kan kry nie. Ek kan maar net vir hulle bid en weet dat die Vader nooit sy kinders sal laat los nie, al dwaal hulle soms weg van Sy pad af.

This year we decided that we would not spend a lot of money on Christmas gifts for the adults and that we would put all the money we would have spent together and donate it to a local charity. We decided that we would support the local childrens home and William and Daniela went to find out whether they would prefer for us to give them the money or if they would prefer something specific. They said that they are really battling to provide schoolbags for the children. Willian then went in search of 60 schoolbags and eventuslly found enough to give to them. They are on back order and will be delivered early in the new year, in time for school. It makes me feel very proud to know that in a small way we could help those less fortunate than us.

I am not a big Christmas card sender, in fact, I really suck at it! LOL But this tear I have been inspired by the mmany blogs I read to make some Christmas cards. I am sure those who recieved them, must still suffer from shock.

Both cards were stamped with Stazon ink and coloured with copic markers. I added some bling to the tree. The Christmas tree card only uses layers of Bazzil cardstock and the designer paper on the other caed is from old stash that I still had. Will post some more cards tomorrow and hopefully my new pages to my Christmas album

CK Ornament drop is fun!

I joined the CK ormament drop group and I am having so much fun! You are supposed to make any handcrafted ornament and leave it in a random public place for somebody to find. Souns easy, but let me tell you in a country like ours where there is so much ctime, it is not easy to leave something without being noticed! Especially if you want to take photo's of the 'crime scene' too.

I made some ornaments and Anke and I set off on a mission to the East Rand Mall to leave them. We had so much fun! we were giggling like two 13 year olds. We left one in Ackermans, one in the changeroom at Foscini and one on the way home at SPAR.

This is the year of handmade gifts!

This year my family decided to make it a Christmas about giving rather than recieving. We had a family meeting earlier this year and decided not to buy any gifts for anybody over 21. Instead I am going to cover a box and everybody is goibg to put the money that they would have spent on Christmas in the box. The box will then be delivered to our local childrens home.

This means that all the Christmas gifts are going to be handmade this year! I started off eith teachers gifts for my grandchildren. They recieved stationary boxes that I made from a wonderful tutorial by Jackie Topa that I downloaded a long time ago. Can't find the address now, but I will look for it and add it later.

Hectic day!!!

Today was a very hectic day for me. My helper has gone on holiday so today was washday and cleaning house for me.
Did some Christmas shopping and I am nearly finished, thank goodness. Just the boys to go and then of course DH's birthday present, its his b-day on the 26th
We have been talking about revamping our dining room suite for some time now, in fact the fabric to re-upholster the chairs was bought abought 5 years ago, and this morning DH and I decided, today is the day! Off I went to Edenvale to look for some high density foam, only to be told that the only place on the East Rand to stock it is my local fabric store LOL! So, back to Boksburg we went. We started to revamp the chairs and they are done and looking GOOD, I must say. You know how it goes, when that was done DH said that we would have to strip the chairs and re-varnish them, so what was a morning job has now turned into a couple of dats worth of work. It will be so worth it when we are done though.

I finally enrolled!

Way back in September I attended a scapping day with Lara Cousins, Stephanie Ackerman and the Scrapping Studio. Had loads of fun, mainly because I could share it with my sister, but also because I was lucky enough to win a photography course. I have never gotten around to enrolling for the course - which is crazy, because I really NEED to jack up my photography skills! Its just that life has been crazy and there never seems to be a right time for it. I was talking with DH today and saying that I wished I could just find the time to do the course. His very wise answer? Don't find the time first, just enrol and then work around those dates! Makes perfect sense don't you think! So that is just what I did -and I am starting on the 27th of January.
We finished most of our Christmas shopping today. All the kids will be here on Christmas day. So looking forward to sitting in church and filling a whole pew again, that is something I miss very much now that they are all grown up and have their own lives!

Nou maar goed, hier gaan ons!

Uiteindelik het ek dit gedoen. Ek wou nog altyd 'n blog gehad het, maar het nie geweet waar om te begin nie! Dit was toe nie so moeilik nie.

Dit is skoolvakansie en almal is by die huis. Dit is nogal vreemd om so baie mense gedurende die dag by die huis te hê, Ankie is uiteindelik terug van al haar toere af en sal nou by die huis wees vir 'n paar dae voordat sy Mosambiek toe gaan saam met 'n paar van haar vriende. Juan is amptelik met verlof, maar hywas vandag werk toe om 'n paar laaste goed te gaan klaar maak. Jakes is met verlof tot die 12de Januarie en het vandag Ankie se bakkie gediens.

For those of you that don't understand Afrikaans, this is just a short review of what is happening in my life. It is school holidays and everybody is home. I have spent most of the last few days creating Christmas cards and gifts. I will try to post some pictures later, that is if I get this blogging thing right!