I really need a life!

i am sitting at a seminar for teachers listening to a lecture about using a blog in teaching. the lady is clueless!!! wish i could throw something at her.

WOYWW 122 - I thought it would be worse.

A very good morning to all. I am feeling so much better, I broke into song this morning when I woke up singing 'oh, what a beautiful morning'. DH thought I was crazy, but it is a really beautiful Spring morning here.
As you can see, my desk is still relatively tidy. It has been 4 weeks now and they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so maybe I am now a neat person. LOL That is so never goimg to happen. I thought my desk and craftroom would look much worse when I walked in this morning. I have been so busy and so tired, I can't even remember cleaning up, how sad is that?
Yesterday was International Teacher appreciation day. We are having an assembly today where the girls are giving each teacher a little gift.
Traditionally these gifts are really very stupid. (One year we got toilet rolls - because our patience is that long?!) Because I am in charge of the leaders, I had to help them and OK what they wanted to do. Surprise, surprise, the decided on bookmarks. I had the stamps and the equipment, so guess who did the colouring? In their defense, the leader of the Public Relations Committee, did the printing. cutting and pasting. She also found the most beautiful prayer for teachers to go on the back of the bookmark. All I had to do was laminate them and add some ribbon.

Here they are... all 44 of them.

Some close ups. A beautiful shoes, for those who are real ladies. (Guess I won't be getting that one LOL)

Some apples, and lastly, some bookworms.

The stamps are all digi's. The shoe and apple are old ones from before I knew to keep the artists name. The bookworm is one from last month's progessive freebie challenge on PCP. I could not show them before today, so I guess I am way too late for the next lot of freebies (bummer)

I have also finally finished those wedding invitations - It only took them 2 months to finally decide on the wording and then, of course, they wanted them within 24 hours!

Have a great day everybody, hopefully I will visit more than 5 of you this week. Thank you to all for your kind comments.

Please remember to visit Julia at: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ and to join in the fun.

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.

WOYWW = bet you thought it wouldn't last 3 weeks!

Here we are, its Wednesday and everybody all over the world is snooping around other people's desks! (not sure what I am talking about? You must be the only person in blogland that doesn't, so go check out Julia, our leader's blog to find out http://stamping=ground.blogspot.com )
I bet you did not believe that my desk would be clean for three weeks and actually get better with time, well, I did not believe it was possible, but here it is in all its wonderful glory! Looking even better than ever.
You will see the usual got to have close tools, a zillion scissors, some pens, some glue and other important things in my orange buckets and my caddy. There are the stamped MFT image that I want to colour later, the LO that I still haven't gotten to (Mr. Mojo is gone, OK?!) and the beginning of a batch of wedding invitations for a friend's son. Other than that, only clean 'white' space. How did I do it? Its all DH's fault. He found a paper stand at a shop thats closing down and bought it for me, bless his little heart. Thinking and saying that I would never be able to fill it LOL! Well, I had to prove him wrong didn't I, took me a whole day to rearrange the playroom, but look! Now I have my old single paperstand and the glorious new double one!

Of course I have to remind you of DH's other contributions to my playroom. First there is the ribbon storage, that he said I would never be able to fill, poor man, he never learns, does he? Look at the overflow on top and on the shelves!

Here is my sewing cabinet (a gift from my dear mom and dad, many years ago) with some of my creations on top and next to it the chocolate stand that DH saved from the dump.

Tired of looking at my room yet? Thought I would show you the gifts I made for the top four leaders of our school. Their term of office starts when we go back next week. Made each of them an altered notebook and a postit holder. Hope they like it.

Here are some close ups of the note books. All coloured with my beloved Copics and glitterified with Stickles. All cardstock is Bazzil and dp from my scrapbox. Ribbon is from my stash. The first one is for the SRC president, She has the loveliest black hair and this new WOJ stamp reminds me of her.

Next one is for the head girl, the'queen' of the school. She has the poise and grace of a real princess, so I thought this image would be perfect! Also a new one from the WOJ club.

Next one is for the head of Committees, she is an avid swimmer and water polo player, so hence the mermaid from the WOJ club.

Last, but not least, the head of Houses. She is responsible for the Spirit in the school, so out came the Cheerleader Tilda from my new Magnolia club. Coloured her in school colours and the poms are for the three houses.

Congratulations if you made it this far, this was a marathon post!

Have a great week everybody, see you soon!