WOYWW - Some great news

Good morning to all the people all over the world that are still snooping desks, (go here to join us) while the rest of us are in freak out mode because we are so not going to finish everything before Christmas. My desk is looking a little better than last week. Some crafting is happening, but now its just for pleasure and playing with my grandies.

 My granddaughter, Hannah, her brother and sister are spending the days with us while their mom still has to work. Nothing gives her more pleasure than playing in ouma's scrap room. At 8 she is becoming quite good and let me tell you, I never tell her what to do, she learns everything through obervation.

Here she is, proudly displaying her latest work of art. I did help with the embossing, but she did everythinbg else all by herself. Quite a talented cardmaker don't you think?

Just had to share this photo with all of you too. They say you are never richer than when your grandchildren fight over your lap. I think that makes my DH the richest man in the world.

I Told you I had some good news. Well, apart from little Tiani responding very well to treatment, I have some personal good news too. My eldest DD has finally agreed to marry her partner of 7 years and they will be tying the knot on the 3rd of January. His brother is in South Africa and they decidedc yesterday to do it before Gary leaves. Can you hear the panic in my voice? I was told by DD yesterday that I will have to arrange everything because they are only coming back from holiday on the 2nd!!!! Yikes!

My second DD told me yesterday that she is expecting her 4th child next year. Looks like 2013 is going to be a busy b lessed year!

Have a very merry Christmas and may all of you and your families be incredibly blessed too.

WOYWW! What a wonderful day!

Good morning everybody! And what a wonderful morning it is. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I am on holiday! I am slowly starting to unwind after a very hectic year. DH is on holiday too, so not much time to craft, but I am stealing a few minutes here and there. We don't often get time to spend together and I am enjoying having him around.

 If you are one of the few people on the planet that still does not know why I post pictures of my very embarrasing workdesk, go here where all will be revealed by the lovely Julia, keeper of all desks. My space this morning is embarrasing in the extreme, but in my defense, I have to steal time to play whenever I can, so I am not wasting that time cleaning. AND... My DD asked to use one of my tables for her little one's birthday party, so I actually have half the space I normally have.

 For those very observant ones around, I did get new tablecloths, the orange ones were getting a bit faded and did not fit the new and improved calm space. So, the orange curtains had to go too and just look at that beautiful floor. The old, grubby 25yo carpets made way for wooden floors. The are old wine crates, with the printing on. LOVE it!

 I recieved some ATC's from a swap and decided to display them on my birdcage, loving the look and some awesome ATC's there.

Had to show you at least one thing I made on that messy desk. Just got these images and coloured them with my beloved Copics. Is he not just too adorable? Papers are from a freebie in a magazine and the ribbon is from my GinaK kit.

Tiani is safely in America and should be starting treatment this week. They picked up a spot on her brain with the MRI, but gratefully it is only scar tissue and not the tumour starting to grow again. The drs seem very positive that she will be well after the treatment. Thank you for all your positive thoughts and prayers.

Have a great week everybody, I promise to steal some time to visit this week.

WOYWW - I survived

Good morning to all of you. I am happy to report that I survived the school year and have three more admin days before I am officially on holiday. I survived the Christmas market and made quite a bit of money too (thanks for bullying me into it Audrey)

 My workdesk is still a disaster zone, not much different from last week, so I thought I would show you my table at the market. I LOVE my lttle twig tree, made by an African tradesman and bought on the side of the road for a ridiculous amount of money.

This is what my dining room looked like the morning of the market, with everything packed and ready to go. How I fitted all of that in the car remains a mystery The flowers on the table was a gift from DH for our 34th wedding anniversary. Aren't they just wonderful?

On a more personal front, I am happy to report that little Tiani has made it to Bloomington safely and recieved her first treatments yesterday. Now we hope and pray that the treatment works and she comes back to South Africa in 2 months time cancer free!

I am still struggling to get my head around our friend's suicide, somehow it is haunting me terribly. I read a page from Jonathan Jansen's book, 'Letters to my children' where he said: 'Never judge somebody who commits suicide, for they might just be the most honest of us all' . If you can get hold of that book, do - it is a collection of 365 tweets that he addressed to his children after reading Maya Angelo's book. He is one of my personal South African heroes, a man with vision and not afraid to speak his mind.

Happy WOYWW, have a great day everybody! I am taking the leaders of the school to a local amusement park for the day, but hope to visit way more of you when I get back.

 Gppd morning all the wonderful people out there from WOYWW and others who still visit, even though I have had NO time for any return visit, I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind comments after last week. It has been and still is, a very difficult time for my family.
On to more pleasant things (not so sure about the 'pleasant'). my desk. I have been bullied by a friend (yip, thats you Audrey!) to take part in our svhool's forst ever Christmas market and I am frantically making things. No time for cleaning in between. So you will see I have been using the tried and tested push to the side method to get some work space.

 The fruits of all the mess can be seen here, some small boxes of wrapped chocolates, some tags and some mini cards. Do you think they will sell?

 Then there is also the tried and tested snowman, gingerbread and reindeer poop.

I just had to share this photo with you all. Our dear friend that committed suicide's son, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (remember that name folks - you will be hearing it a lot in the near future) Last weekend was one of the biggest cycle races in South Africa. He is a pro rider, and told us that he was dedicating this race to his late father. I can not tell you what was going through my mind when he went over the finish line in first place, pointing straight up and mouthing 'pa' (dad), My DH and I were crying like babies, felt like it was my own son. What an amazing young man he is. So humble in victory.
Have a great week everybody, hopefully I will be finished with all the dreaded exam papers by next week and normal visits will resume.

WOYWW - Happy dance

 Good morning to all the people out there in blogland. I think everybody from WOYWW must think I have left for good. Not so, just had possibly the worst three weeks of my life. More about that later, for now I want to show you what is on my desk. The reason for my happy dance. We had a devastating hail storm last week that caused our local Post Office's roof to collapse and all computers are still out of order. I kept going to ask if all was back working, becaiuse I was waiting for some goodies I ordered. When I walked in yesterday, the lady behind the counter said, no computers yet, but there are 2 parcels for you. This is what was in one of them. My blog candy from Jo all the way from England. Some really great things there. Those rub ons and stamps I have never seen in South Africa, the papers are to die for, those teeny canvasses are so great (what to do?, where to start?)Thanks Jo! You made my bad day very, very good. You will be proud to know that I waited till I got home before I did the happy dance, no public humiliation for me.

Look at these beauries, made by Jo. Isn't it just too fantstic? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! She is such a talented lady/ Apart from this, there is not much going on on my desk.
The last three weeks have been just terrible. It is exam time at school (we started yesterday, so I had to set exams) Two weeks ago we had a function to raise funds for ittle Tiani. I offered (I know, I am crazy) to organise the whole thing. I had just over a week to organise a function that normally takes 6 months to do. Proud to say that with the help of some FANTASTIC people, we pulled it off and raised almost R180000 on 1 night.
Then, a week ago, my DH's best friend (since junior school!) commited suicide. Needles to say, we are still reeling with shock and sadness. It is all so hard to understand. My DH is completely floored. He doesn't say much, but I can tell. He just told me that he is so very angry at A for killing his best friend.
The day of the funeral we were hit by a very bad hail storm. The local shopping centre's roof collapsed. We were lucky and had no structural damage to our house, but my garden is completely destroyed. I was thinking about my friends that had to live through a hurricane, and think I have a better understanding of just how terrifying it can be.
Have a great week everybody. Here's to an uneventful week in my life.

WOYWW - The world is spinning!

Good morning to all the wonderful people out there. Thank you for still reading my blog and leaving such wonderful comments, even when my world is spinning completely out of control. A warm welcome to all the WOYWW friends. Hope you all had a great, fantabulistic time at the crop. (Insert really green and sad face here)

 I have been MIA for quite some time, but all will be revealed later. I did, however, do something crafty. I had to make invitations for grandie nr 2's birthday party. She is so different from grandie nr. 3. No flashy party with LOTS of people, for her its just 5 friends (her brother and cousins are included in the 6)

 She wants to take them to Wild Waters, a local waterpark. So she wanted invitations that looked like a waterslide. What do you think? I made double slider cards and used a LaLa Land stamp that was coloured with my beloved Copics. Papers are Bazzil and Uppikit.
Now on to my spinning world. I have been incredibly busy at school with the usual 'silly season' stuff. Prizegiving for our year 12's, Their Valedictory, helping the prefects with all their functions, helping the new teachers organise next years Matric Dance, and trying to teach (which is my actual job!!) Then the news came.. little Tiani, the 19 month old girl with the brain tumour, got devastating news. Even though they removed 95% of the tumour (it was 6x7cm big!!), she still had to have chemo, but... the chemo is actually only preventing the tumour from growing and killing her little body in the process, not killing the tumour. Her only hope is very specialised proton treatment which is not available in South Africa. She has to go to the USA to be treated.

Her parents are both teachers and the medical aid does not pay for any international treatment. Now, you must realise she is the same age as my grandies nr 4 and 5, so every time I look at them, my heart breaks. We teach at a Catholic school and the school and community have rallied around and are trying every way we can to help this family save Tiani. In just over a week we have raised more than R300 000 of the R1.8 needed. This came from some of our parents to a little grade 1 that handed in an envelope with R25 declaring 'Its my pocket money and I would like to give it to Tiani'. The staff decided to do something really big. We are organising a social for the kids on the 2nd of November where we hope to raise more than R250 00. What did I do? I volunteered to co-ordinate the social with one of my dear friends (I know, I know, I don't have time, but how can I NOT do it?) We have 9DJ's playing for free and the most amazing raffle prizes are streaming in, but dear friends, I have NO time to even breathe. Please read Tiani's story on Fb at the 'Hope for Tiani' page. Like the page and spread the word. I would really love it if you all can become part of Tiani's Army and be prayer warriors while we try our best to save this little girl.
Have a great week, hoping to surface soon and to came visiting.

WOYWW 17something - Not much and everything I own.

Good morning to all the wonderful people from all over the world that come to visit me from WOYWW every week. Before I start I have to give one and all a huge apology. Thank you so very much for all your kind comments last week, I did not manage to visit many of you (hanging head in shame here), but in my defence, its silly season at school again and not even my DH gets to see me very often.

 The result of all that is this desk you see over here. A girl has to do some crafting now, even if she is crazy busy, doesn't she? I have become a master at the 'shove to the side, front, floor, anywhere there is space' method of cleaning my desks. You will see a little of everything there. Including the paper I am using to make cupcake wrappers for my DD. She has a huge order for a wedding and the bride wants a design on the wrapper that is not available in South Africa - thank goodness for scrapbook paper and my Cricut.

There is also a basket with all the pieces for a little boy's birthday invitations. He is turning 6 and they are going to a flight simulator for the birthday - talk about  over the top! You can see the prototype in progress. It will be a double slider card. I had strict instructions to use Brittish Airways colours. What do you think? is it looking OK?
Thats all folks, gotta run, I have to teach, mark some tests, go to grandie nr 3's birthday ring at the Pre-School, watch a waterpolo game this afternoon and attend the Birthday Girl's supper tonight. So, if I do not get to you again this week, I promise it won't be for lack of trying.
Happy WOYWW to one and all.