WOYWW - A little of this, a little of that and some good news

Good morning to all the WOYWWers As you can see it is still very dark outside. Seeing that it is mid winter over here, I suppose I have to live with that. You will see not much has changed since last week, I am still in marking mode. Thankfully this is the last lot of exams that I will have to mark. I have moved from the dining room table to the couch in front of the heater. If you look closely you will see the boxes that contains the light fittings that is going to go on my stoep.

I have had to take some time to do some craftyness. Firstly because these darling first graders came to my classroom door to ask for cards (they were literally shaking in their little boots, they were so scared to come into the High School) Their teacher is having a baby and they wanted some invitations for a Stork Party that they are organising for her as a surprise on the last day of school. Now how could I say: 'Go away, I am busy' to that I ask you? I just had to do it for them/

 I used a Sugar Nellie Adorables image (just LOVE those) Papers, flowers, bling and ribbon all came from my stash. I had to make 5 and here they are all together.

 The good news you ask? Well, apart from being almost finished with the dreaded marking, I finally got published! To some of you this may not be a big thing, but for me it has been a dream come true! One of my cards that I made for a swap on the RSA Stampers group was published in one of our local craft magazine (actually our only craft magazine LOL) Such a thrill to see my name in print!

 Mine is the pink one with the Magnolia fairy.
Have a fantastic day everybody, I am not picking my head up today untill I am done with those exam papers! So I hope to visit some of you tomorrow.

WOYWW - Exams!

 Good morning all you wonderful people of WOYWW. Before I say anything else, I have to say a very big THANK YOU to all of you for all the love, prayers and support I received last week when the news came about my little granddaughter Tertia-Lee's cataract. I have been truly overwhelmed by all your kindness. What an honour to be part of such a very special group of people! She is doing fine, the drs have decided to let her wear an eyepatch over her good eye 4 hours a day for 3 months, to try to force the lazy eye to actually look and then they will decide on further action. She will have to have the cataract removed and lens replaced sooner or later, but because she is so small they want to postpone it for as long as possible. I am feeling a lot calmer and less freaked out about it.

On my desk this week? My boring dining room table, covered in exams! I am trying to be very good and finish marking as soon as I can, so that I can start playing again. I finished the grade 10 first paper. What you see here is grade 11 paper 1, grade 11 paper 2 is lurking on the other side of the desk and the grade 10's are writing their paper 2 next Tuesday, so I am going to be very busy for the next couple of days.

Last week I showed you my bags, packed to take to school to make a cup cake. This week I can show you the cup cake. I made it for one of our girls who was hosting a high tea for the teachers as part of an exam. She wanted the cupcake (which is actually a gift card holder) to use as a thank you for the teacher. She replaced the gift card with the cutest little thank you card. Sorry about the picture, but I actually forgot to take one and had to sneak into the high tea yesterday to take a very quick pic.

Cindy is doing very well and little Tiani is going back to hospital for 3 days for her next chemo, her little sister Mioni was born last week and is an absolute little angel. Healthy and as good as gold. 

WOYWW - packed and ready to go.

 I Have absolutely no idea why blogger is giving me this blurred picture of my desk! Please let me knoe if you get it too, then I will try to reload. As you can see (I hope) this is not my normal craft desk, it is my dining room table, with everything I need to take with me to school today. There is my school stuff in my Little Yellow Bicycle bag (a gift last year at CHA, just to remind me that I was actually there), my laptop, my camera and my animal print trolley bag filled to the brim with ribbon, flowers and the heat gun. I have to make a cup cake thank you for a friend and while it is exams and I have some spare time before my paper is written, I might as well use the time creatively. Remember to visit the rest of the crazy WOYWWers

 Then here is the long promised photo of our newly built 'stoep'. They were busy plastering when I took this photo and you will have to use A LOT of imagination to see it as it would be when it is finished, but just think SUMMER with those sliding doors pushed open and having a braai with the family! It sounds like bliss right now
If you don't like reading personal ramblings then please stop reading now.

As most of you know, I have been crazy busy at school and last week was no exception. Some of you also know that I have the honour of doing the school run with my grandchildren, which I find very tiring, but very satisfying, because it means I get to see them every day and I get to know what is going on in their little heads.
Last Thursday they had an eye screening at our school, which is just a routine thing normally. On that particular day my little grandie, Tertia-Lee, was complaining of toothache, so mom got an emergency appointment with a dentist which meant that she had to fetch Tersie early to take her. Little did we know that it was God's plan to get mom to school, because as she walked into the school, the head mistress called her and told her that the Optometrist wants to talk to her. Turns out that Ters has only 10 persent vision in her right eye. Mom got such a fright, she took her to 2 other people just to make sure. One of them discovered that she has a massive cataract in her right eye with one forming in the left. If they did not discover this now, she could have gone completely blind!

From there it was one appointment after the next until they found the most amazing Ophthalmologist who explained that she needs surgery, but because she is so very young, she will have to have the lens the put in her eye replaced every 2 to 3 years. She had to have eye drops to dilute her pupils from Saturday till yesterday, so that they could measure the lens. Yesterday her parents were told that they could postpone the surgery untill September and try to help her by patching the good eye for a couple of hours a day. She will have to have the surgery sooner or later, but the doc wants to let het grow as much as possible before they do it.
This is a result of mom having such very traumatic pregnancies (she gets violently ill for most of the 9 months) and the took little brother (18months) for a test too and he has the same thing, but thankfully at such an early stage that it can be medically controlled.
On the same day that all of this happened, my other DD's little one (also 18 months) was playing in her moms cake decorating room and pulled a slab of marble over on her little leg! Poor DD rushed her off to hospital, but apart from a really bad bruise, nothing seems to be broken, thank goodness.
So I do hope you will forgive me for not getting to many of you last week. I really hope to do better this time around. May you all have a fantastic week without any nasty surprises!
As far as my friend Cindy goes, she is almost half way with her weekly chemo and is doing exceptionally well. Little Tiani had her first chemo on Saturday and is starting to suck her bottle again. Thank you to all that have been praying for them.

WOYWW - Can I hear a collective YAY!!!?

Good morning all the happy people from WOYWW! And it is a good morning, in fact, it is a FANTASTIC morning! My camera is back and working like it should. (I heard that sigh of relief! I know, you are all grateful that this crazy woman is finally going to stop whining about her camera LOL)

So, without further ado, here it is, my desk in all its mess. This is what a desk looks like that has been very neglected because of work. I did, buy some new storage, thats why you see a whole pile of plastic bowls with orange lids lurking. They are due to go to DD to store her coloured fondant icing.

Last night I decided that this no crafting business is getting too much, so out came my beloved Copics. No space on the desk as yopu can see, so we had to go to the family room and use the couch. Behind the couch you can see evidence of the new wooden sliding doors that we put in. There are still gaping holes everywhere, because they are only coming to plaster this Saturday. It was supposed to be last Saturday, but after the camera saga I do not need to remind you that we are living in Africa and we operate on African time, do I?

My ATC's are in the post and should be winging its way accross the ocean soon (that is, if the 5 month postal strike ends soon LOL)
Have a fantastic day everybody, I hope to visit more of you this week, because exams are starting soon and then I will not be so desperately busy any more.