WOYWW 121 - Slowly going South

My desk has remained clean for 4 weeks, that must be some kind of record, don't you think? Does that mean that I can be forgiven for the little mess today? Its not too bad. Just going South very slowly, getting worse daily, little by little. The leftovers from previous projects. My heatgun from embossing, the embossing powder, the embossing pad, some papers, some tools and some UFO's.
I have not done a whole lot in terms of crafting, but really love this card. The image is from Michelle Perket. Coloured her with my Copics and glitterified her dress and wings. Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the local Chinese shop.

I recieved my Tag! It is beautiful in real life! Hanging on my craftroom wall and everybody comments on it. Thank you so much!

For some reason Blogger is not allowing me to Publish these next photo's the right way up! I finally got my cardreader to transfer the pics of the tag I made for Frankie's swap to my computer, so if you turn your head, you will see it the right way up.
Used lots of embossing and stamping and the ATC I made for a previous swap. Hope Jane recieves it soon and likes it.

Did not like the boring white envelope, so stamped some birdcages on there too - I had the birdcage stamps on my table, so I had to use them.

I am typing this in class, while my girls are preparing a debate on the death penalty. Young people never cease to amaze me with their wisdom. I am listening to their talk and thinking that I would never have been able to come up with such arguments at 17 and that in a second language!

Please spare a prayer for a fellow teacher who has lost her husband this week. She is in dire financial straights. She had to sell her house to cover her hubby's medical costs and is now forced to live in a low cost shell of a house. No inner walls and no ceiling.

One of my pupils also just told me that they discovered a huge growth in mom's uterus and that she is having tests done today to find out what is wrong.

Makes one grateful for the troubles in your own life.

Have a great day everybody and don't forget to visit Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 120 - you guys made me!

I am writing this post in my bed. The breathing problems from last week has just progressively gotten worse, and I finally gave in to my DH's plea to go to the dr. It turns out I have a bad case of Bronchitus, bordering on Pneumonia. Dr sent me home with strict instructions not to leave my bed for two days (threatened to put me in hospital if I didn't listen LOL), so here I am, in bed, feeling very sorry for myself and terribly guilty for not being at school.
The card reader decided it would upload my pictures today, so here you have it, my desk is still quite tidy with just a little bit of leftover stash from recent projects. You can see two cards I made with my new La La Land stamps and the black plastic sheet that I use when I am using my glue gun.
The glue gun was used extensively this last week. My granddaughter ordered cup cakes for her Birthday party invitations. They had to look real, be big and pink - those were the requirements. This is what I came up with - Had to make a lot of them and my DD's only comment after she saw them? What are 'we' doing next year mom? Told her I think we just tear some old newspaper and stick it onto toiletrolls. Tie a pink ribbon around it, stick a blom (flower) on and thats that. LOL She was NOT amused.

Here is a close up for you. I was a little bit worried, because Tertia-Lee just stared at them and nodded her head when I asked if she liked them. Thought she did not like them and did not want to hurt my feelings, but she was just overwhelmed I think. She told her dad they are 'Extremely beautiful!" Makes all the hard work worthwhile.

And then, I though I would show you what you MADE me do!

Yes, I did, and it is all your fault, ladies who come and peek at my desk every week! (If you have no clue what I am talking about, go here: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ) I gave in and made the first Christmas cards for this year!

I fell in love with these elves from Mo Manning and just could not resist them. There are 4 of them and I bought all of them. I could not quite bring myself to do the whole red and green thing yet, so thats why they are not in traditional Christmas colours. I used only cardstock (Bazzil), my Cuttlebug and some bling. Both images were coloured with my beloved Copics.

Here is another one, done in blues.

Don't you think they are just too precious?

Hope you are all well. I am off to visit some desks.

WOYWW - One of those days.

Have you ever had one of those days when absolutely NOTHING seems to go right? I am having one of those today. My card reader is refusing to upload photo's to my computer. So sorry girls, no desk today.
I am supposed to be showing you pictures of my desk for WOYWW (go to Julia's blog at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com if you want to know more) no picture of that, but happy to report my desk is still pretty neat, in spite of being super busy creating. I was making my birdcage swap and invitations for a 9 year old who is coming for a scrapbooking party in my studio on the 7th October, still working on those wedding invitations (bride and groom are still having issues about the wording, SIGH!) and I am making invitations for both my granddaughter's parties.

This was the starting point for my bird cage swap. (go to Frankie's blog at http://dragon-dragonsweb.blogspot.com to see more about it.) I took part in an ATC swap a while ago and we were originally supposed to make 20 ATC's. It turned out to be only 10 in the end, so I had this ATC lying around and decided to use it as a starting point. I will post more photo's of the final product as soon as I am able to upload to my computer.

My breathing has also been dreadful. I can hardly walk 10 paces before I am wheezing like somebody at death's door. VERY frustrating. A year ago this time, I was hospitalised with acute pneumonia, so it seems that it could be the amount of dust and pollen in the air at this time of the year that is affecting my lungs. It is windy season here after all and I live in a mining town where the dust from the mine dumps are blown about all the time.

I am also drowning in school work, its nearing the end of the year and there is so much to do. The newly elected leaders at our school are also very busy with 8 functions that they have to attend and organise in the last two weeks of September.

I am, as most of you know, very proudly African (SOUTH AFRICAN) and it really gets my back up when fellow South Africans run the country down. I would so much rather be part of the solution, than part of the nay sayers, but just sometimes, when I read the papers and see the newspaper headlines, I want to hang my head in shame and weep for our beautiful country.

How? HOW? How does somebody ( a taxi driver) run over a woman and drag her 700 meters under his speeding taxi, refusing to stop even though the people in the taxi are begging him to and bystanders are screaming at him? How does the youth leader of the ruling party get told by the court that it is hate speech to sing a song with words like "Kill the Boer" and then want to appeal the ruling?

If you have made it this far, I am sorry, can you tell I am having a bad day? Rant is over, I feeel better now, tomorrow I will be my chirpy positive self again and the card reader will propably work again. If not, I will just get a new one and show you all my finished bird cage.

Untill then have a great time.

WOYWW - 118?

Wednesday again?!! How did that happen? I am glad to be able to tell you that even though I have been incredibly busy in my craftroom, it still looks relatively presentable. OK Maybe not as beautiful as the last three weeks, but still quite clean don't you think?
In the background you will see the pile of wedding invitations I have been working on. To the left is the box of coloured images I found when I was cleaning up. Some I had actually forgotten about! LOL. There is also a tin of fudge (Almost empty!) and then the left overs from the pink Elephant Challenge card I was making and of course my beloved Copics and the new La La Land Crafts stamps I got yesterday in the process of being coloured. I was so excited to finally find summery Christmas images, I forgot that its too early for the C word.
Thought I would show you some more of the awesome La La Land cards I made with my new stamps. The first one is the cheerleader. How cute is she? Papers are from my scrapbox, The cardstock is Bazzil and the doily from my local grocery store. Her dress and poms were glitterified with Stickles.

Seeing that the Rugby World Cup starts on Friday in New Zeeland, I just had to make this little rugby Luka. Coloured him in green and Gold for the Springboks of course! The dp is from a Basic Grey paperstack I have had for ages and the ribbon and button from my stash.

Last but not least, this cute little Luka. Love him! Its so hard to find male images that are not totally depressing and look more like sympathy cards than anything else. The dp is also from my scrapbox. Used a Martha Stewart punch for the border and the ribbon and brad are from my stash.

If you still don't know why I am posting pictures of my desk, go to Julia's blog and join in the fun. ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ )

Have a great week everybody, I am back at school, but will do my best to visit all of you.