A very merry CHRISTmas to all!

Ever wonderecd what its like to have a summer Christmas? Just look at these pictures and you will know. There is nothing quite like being together as a family, hanging out next to the pool and having cold meats and salads. No hot stove for us - just a whole lot of fun. The first photo is of my two youngest. They are 22 months apart and have been best friends since the day Ankie was born. It warms my heart to know that they can still play together with such abandon. I hope they will still be like this when they are 50!

The next photo is of DD nr2 and her two children.Aren't they just beautiful? Because we got to spend Chrismas day with all of them last year, they are all heading to the in laws for Christmas day this year and we got to spend Christmas Eve with all the kids here (except for DD nr.1, she is on holiday with her little family) Santa came to our house to hand out the presents. He phoned a couple of times to speak to Luke and Hannah and keep them informed of his where abouts.

Lukie is 8 now and for the past three years we were convinced that he was going to recognise Santa as Braam, my husband's best friend, but he is still convinced (a little suspicious, but still pretty sure!) This year he said to his mom that it wasn't Santa, because he could see the elastic on the fake beard. Thank goodness for children with very active imaginations! Without missing a beat, Ankie told him that the elastic he saw, was not for Santa's beard. It was to keep his hat on his head while he was flying through the air. He thought that was a very logical answer and accepted it without question. We'll see if he figures it out next year.

We have just come home from church. What a blessing to fill an entire pew again. The minister said he hoped that we could see the grace of God in this very difficult year. It made me think how lucky, no blessed I have been this year. Amongst all the drama and trouble, the hand of God is so plainly visible. We nearly lost Ankie three times this year - twice in a car accident and once in a fire in her little house - and every time God has spared her life and she walked away unharmed! I don't know why I deserve such grace, but I am so grateful to Him. He must have great plans for that little girl.

A wonderful Christmas to all of you and may you be acutely aware of His presence and His grace in the year 2010!

At last! I finished Audrey's gift.

I posted a while ago about brave people making brave things, ( See this post: http://tertia-craftinggran.blogspot.com/2009/11/brave-people-make-brave-things.html) Audrey was the only one brave enough to take me up on the challenge. It took me a while, but I think I finally made her something that I am semi happy with. I started three different things, but abandoned them half way. Then I saw the instructions on how to make cupcakes from plaster of paris in one of our local magazines. The amazingly talented Candice Greenway wrote the article and everything she does is always good, so I thought I would give it a bash.
The card to go with it is my first attempt at an easel card. I think I will be making a few more of those!

The stamped image is one I recieved from one of my kind blogging friends. I coloured it with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the patterned paper is by Uppikit, a local South African company. Have you seen their latest papers? Just fantastic, really great quality. Ribbon, flowers and brads are from my stash.

Here is a picture of one of the cupcakes. I made 12 placecard holders and put them in a decorative box. As soon as I am finished typing, I am going to get ready and then deliver them to Audrey. Lets hope she likes them!

Have a great weekend everybody. I am taking the grandchildren for a swim and then DH and I are going to a concert at Carnival City, can't wait!

Its official, I am weird.

Yesterday I was told by a friend that I am very weird, I have to admit, she is propably right. LOL She finds it very strange that I will go and watch my daughter at water polo. You don't think that's strange? Maybe I should explain a little bit more - my daughter is the coach.


This friend of mine says that I am the only person she knows that takes photo's of her daughter coaching a team. What can I say, I like watching my child doing what she loves most in the whole world - being involved in sport. AND.... I am a scrapbooker, so I HAVE TO HAVE these photo's, don't I?
How wonderful is the expression on her face in this next photo? She is so angry, she can spit. She is looking at me, willing me to know what she is thinking. Funny thing is, I did know what she was thinking and I am so proud of her for not exploding there and then. One of the fathers from the team volunteered to be the manager of the team and then just took over, some kind of hostile take over of her team. Must tell you, she looks small and harmless, but don't think you can walk over this child of mine. She kept her cool during the match, not wanting to upset her girls, but after the game she called him aside and calmly thanked him for his help and politely asked him to refrain from coaching and stick to managing. You go girl!
Enough of polo and on to some cards. The new challenge at Sunday Stamptacular is to create a Christmas card, using no reds or greens. I seem to be hooked on the whole purple and silver thing this year. The stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and was embossed in silver. The background paper was embossed with my Cuttlebug. All Cardstock is Bazzil and the ribbon is from my stash.

Here is a close up of the stamp. I really like how this turned out.

Stamptacular Sunday - actually finished one on time!

Well, actually I finished more than one! Seeing how long it has been since I last made a card for a challenge, it is pretty impressive don't you think? The challenge this week is to let it shine. I used some freebie digi images and coloured them with my trusty Copic markers.

The second card also uses a freebie image. I seem to be stuck on purple this Christmas. The background was embossed with my Cuttlebug and the snowflake was cut with the Cuttlebug too. I glitterified the snowflake. I used some stickles on my snowman and in the snowflakes in both cards.

I spent the whole week except Monday, with my grandchildren. Had a wonderful time, we baked cookies and 'scrapped'. Hannah picked up a tummybug the day before yesterday, so we hardly got any sleep. I am 'moeg maar happy!' (tired but happy). Tomorrow is our family's Christmas, because all my children are going on holiday and won't be here on Christmas day. It will be the first time in more than 30 years that we will be all alone at home on Christmas. I know it sounds weird, but I am actually looking forward to spending some quality time with my DH for a change.

Have a great weekend.

Finally all my problems sorted!

Remember the parrot ate the USB cable for my camera? Don't laugh, it really happened and yes, the parrot is still alive! I finally managed to buy a new cable on Friday, so now I can show you what I have been doing.
As if that wasn't enough, my computer picked up a very nasty virus and there were no young person to be found at home who could fix it! Ankie had a fight with her boyfriend the computer guru (bad timing, don't you think?) When they finally sorted out their problems, she left on water polo tour and we didn't see him for a week. I could have kissed the boy when he brought Ankie home from the airport!
Tour went well, lots of drama, a whole other post, but I will say this: some people will go to very extreme lenghts not to lose! She made the SA Water Polo side again, but doesn't want to get her hopes up, she has been disappointed so often in the past.
My husband and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary an the second of December. Sometimes I feel as if it was yesterday when I was walking down the aisle. He still is the one person that makes me so angry I can spit within seconds and he still makes my heart skip a beat when he looks at me in a certain way. Most of all, when adversity strikes, I want nobody else by my side.
OK enough of that. I finally uploaded the picture of the ribbon cabinet DH made for me the other day. Don't you think it is fabulous? Every time I am in my scraproom, I love it more, it is just so practical. No more hunting around, knowing I had the right colour ribbon somewhere - its all there, just waiting to be used.

The next card was another one I had to make for the birthday club at school. One of our secretaries retired at the end of last week and they wanted something special, with a photo. I made a box, cum photo frame. They gave me the picture (she hates the picture, but this is how we will remember her, laughing with her whole being!). The ribbons sticking out at the top are all attached to tags. Everybody wrote a message on the tags and signed it. She loved the card and I think it turned out OK.

A view from the side.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. I am going scrapping with the TMW girls tomorrow. I can't wait, because I haven't scrapped in a very long time. Hope I still can.

Finally those Christmas cards I promised.

Sorry that I have been missing in action for a while, but it is crazy season at school. I have survived exams, marking, entering marks and everything else. All reports are done! All that remains to be done are the interviews with the parents of those girls that have failed the year, never a very pleasant thing to do. I wish I had the courage to tell some of those parents that their kids are failing, because they, as parents, don't give a #$%@ and therefore she doesn't either.
I woke up this morning with the mother of all headaches. I am not prone to get them, so when it happens, I don't know what to do. Eventually it was so bad that they sent me home from school to go to the dr. , turns out it was a migraine - I feel so sorry for those of you that suffer from them! He gave me a shot and 15 mins later, I was fine, I could not believe that I could feel that bad one minute and that good 15 minutes later. Thank goodness for modern medicine.
Here are the long promised purple Christmas cards. As I said, I wasn't too sure when the lady asked me to make them, but I actually love how they turned out. All stamps are by Inkadinkadoo, embossed in silver. All cardstock is Bazzil and the silver card was bought at my local stationer. Ribbons and flowers are from my stash.


A close up of the bow. The beads were just put on decorative pins.

I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the swirls and the stars were 'stolen' from my granddaughter's crafting stash.

I decided to use one of my 'stolen' stars at the top of the tree after the photo was taken.

The lady loved the cards, so I am happy.

I have not managed to find another USB cable for my camera, so I still can not show you my ribbon cabinet, but I will, I promise!

Looks like Audrey is the only brave person out there. I am thinking very hard about what to make for her, but I promise it will be done with love! Come on girls, don't be scared, I promise it will be nice! Maybe there are some brave men out there if the girls are not brave enough. If you don't know what the heck I am on about, read the previous post.

Have a fabulous week. I might post more often, now that school has closed.