WOTWW - A weird week.

 Good morning all the wonderful friends from WOYWW (and I use the term friends, because you have all become good friends even though I have never met any of you face to face) and anybody else who happens to come for a visit. As you can see, my desk is slowly getting worse and worse - no time for cleaning between work and play you see. Did you spot the rasberry Fizzers? Love those!

 Went to a stamping get together on Saturday and had way too much fun. I also spent way too much money on things I really need (well, thats what I keep telling myself LOL) Came home and plated. I have been eyeing that poppy die for a long time and finally bought it. I am not sorry, I love it! Gave the poppies a little bit of life with my beloved Copics, added some scraps from my scrap box a little ribbon and that was all that was needed for a great card.

 My grandie was paging through some magazines and found this cool little album with instructions. How could I say no when she came to me and asked: 'Ouma. do you think we can make this?' I mean, you never, ever say no to a grandie unless it is potentially life threatening, do you? It is made from one sheet of cardstock and some patterned paper from a local company Fab Scraps. It was also an excuse to use another new die.

Thought I would show you the cake my DD made for Tiani's 2nd birthday. Such a prescious little  CANCER FREE girl!
The title of my post, you ask?
Well this has been a weird year, with many weird things happening. Chevaune's snake bite and more and then this week the tragic news of Oscar Pistorius shooting and killing his girlfriend. I pray for all the parties involved.
A friend from school is married to a teacher who teaches at one of our neighbouring schools. He went on a hike with some of the staff and some of the learners from his school and while on the hike one of the girls (15) slipped and plummeted to her death down a cliff. Please pray for him and all the people on that hike as well as for the parents of the girl. This is such a devastating thing to happen and must be the worst nightmare for any teacher.
May you all have a fantastic day and a 'weird free' week.

WOYWW - Love or hate the postie?

 Good morning to all and a special welcome to my friends from WOYWW! And what a lovely morning it is over here in South Africa. The sun is streaming into my craftroom, all tests are marked and today is gonna be a good day! ( I am depending on the power of positive thinking here ) On my desk this week there is a lot of stuff, and yes, its just random STUFF! I haven't had much time to craft and the desk was used last night to mark tests (the sacriledge! To use my happy place to mark! There should be a law against that!!!!) As you can see, I used the 'shove to the side' method to create space.

 When you live in Africa you have a love hate relationship with the postie. Sometimes things take a few days to get here from Europe, but mostly it can take anything from weeks to months. A friend recieved a card that was posted in South Africa in November only this week!
At the moment I love our postie, he brought me two pieces of happy mail yesterday. First a beautiful card and post card from the lovely Claire. I LOVE. LOVE, LOVE that card, it going in a frame for sure. Then there was a wonderful card and cross in matching box from Jo, as always, her talent just completely amazes me and it was just the right gift for the right day, I really needed a cross in my pocket yesterday.

I did manage some play time over the week end and scrapped some photo's of my littlest grandie.
Tiani is back in South Africa, looking so healthy and she celebrated her 2nd birthday on Monday. Chevaunne, the girl with the snake bite, has had her skin graft and all looks well, so it is with a full and very grateful heart that I bid you farewell this morning.
May you all have a wonderful week.

WOYWW -No commenting on my nerdy behaviour please.

Good morning to all. and what a wonderful morning it is over here. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. It is now just after 5 in the morning over here and I am attempting to post before I go to work. My grandie, Liam (2) spent the night and he is happily eating his yoghurt. He insisted that he wants to do it 'my own self', so it gives me a few minutes to type this

Now please, I do not want any comments about my nerdy behaviour LOL I scrapped, for the first time in over a year, I sat down and just played. such fun but.... my craftroom looked like a bomb went off in there when I was done. I swear I took everything I own out before I was happy with the end result. It looked so bad that I did the unthinkable... I cleaned people!!  When I went in there this morning to take the photo even I found it hard to believe that this is my desk, but I must say its a nice feeling to walk into my room and actually see how beautiful it is, it makes me remember why this is truly my happy place.

This is the end result from my scrapping frenzie. Not quite my normal style, but I had a lot of fun just doing it.

The first one is a picture of a group of teachers from the school where I work. Our one friend left the school to teach at another school and she wanted a photo of all her friends. She gave each of us a copy of the photo as a good bye present and it is such a special photo of some very special ladies that I wanted to do something with it. The background is plain white Bazzil cardstock.I spritzed some mists on a plastic sheet and then dropped the paper face down on the sheet, out came the brayer and this is the end result. I also randomly stamped some background stamps all over. The flower in the corner is handmade - some white Bazzil again, wrapped in tape I bought ages ago, I inked the edges and rolled the flower, put a brad in the middle and there you have it. The other flowers all came from my stash. mostly Wild Orchid crafts with a Prima flower or two thrown in for good measure. A MS punch, some paper scraps and I was done
The next one is a photo of grandie(1). A typical fun summers day playing with a watergun.

The paper is from Upikit and the gears come from a pack I won as part of a door prize at a scrap day a long time ago.

Thats it from me folks, I have to get to work. Just wanted to say that little Tiani is having her last four Proton treatments this week and according to the doctors there is no sign of any cancer. We praise God for yet another miracle. Chevaunne, the girl who was bitten by the Cobra is recovering well and should have her skin graft in the next week or two.

Have a great week and remember to visit WOYWW to join the biggest blog hop on the planet.

WOYWW - How did I miss a week?

I didn't know how that happened when I uploaded the photo's this morning at 5h30, but now it is 17h30 in the afternoon and I am only getting to my blog now. So, I suppose it is understandable that I lost a week.

School has started and I am running at full speed, no time for any warm up to the new year.

I have had some time to play in my room, not easy when its school time and it is unbearably hot outside, but I made time (I have to if I have any hope to stay sane LOL)



As you can see, my desk looks terrible, well... it did this morning when I left.I have since cleaned it because I have two ladies coming over tonight for a scrapping lesson.

Don't you just love this digi image and sentiment. I got it from the CDAC Progressive challenge. Cheryl is the kind lady that gave it to us. When I saw the image I knew just who I was going to make this card for. One of my grade 10 students was bitten by a Mozambican spitting Cobra two weeks ago.

we nearly lost her, but she is out of the woods now and it looks like she will not lose any tissue, just some skin, which can be fixed. I am once again in awe of the power of prayer.

I coloured my image with my beloved Copics. All papers are from my stash and so was the ribbon and the buckle.

I also altered some note books for the head girl and her deputies. All images were coloured with Copics and the rest came from my stash. I chose the images to suit their personalities and I am happy to report they loved it.

Thats me for this week, lets hope the next one goes a little slower. Join us at WOYWW and join in the fun.

WOYWW - Last week of holiday.

Good morning to all of you. It is half past six here and the sun is shining. We are in the middle of  a heat wave annd it is scorching! I live across the road from a Government High School and today is the first day of the school year for them, so I am expecting a lot of movement and noise in front of my house today. Thank goodness I teach at a Private school and have another week of holidays.

DH is home on his annual leave and we went for our early morning walk at 6. I am afraid my desk is a little boring this week, for those WOYWWers amongst you. After the wedding, not much has happened in my craftroom. I did manage to make one card, but I decided to stamp all my stamps on plain paper and catalogue them in a flip file. I am about one tenth through and it took me all of yesterday. When and how did I accumulate so many stamps?????

Here is the card that I made. I played with some new embossing folders that I found at a local shop and then I had to make a card, didn't I? The image was coloured with my beloved Copic markers and all the papers are Bazzil. The berries are bling from my stash.

WARNI NG: Wedding photo's to follow.
The wedding went off without a hitch. Amazing if you think we had little over a week to organise everything.
It was quite an adventure. I had to drive to Maponya Mall in Soweto to find the Flowergirl dresses.
For my fellow South Africans, its quite safe and an amazingly big and spacious Mall. I am definately going back there soon.
Here is the bride and her two kids.

Mother (me) and daughter.

My kids and grandkids, without youngest daughter, she was still on holiday, and DD2's hubbie, he had to work.

Had to show you the groom and his two best men (one his brother from England and the other his best friend from Egypt.

Have a great week everybody. I hope to visit some more people this week. The wedding took up all my time last week. so please forgive the lack of visits.

WOYWW- Is this crazy

Can you believe I an doing a WOYWW post on New YEAR's day.  Not posting a desk though, just what happened at my house in the early hours of the morning yesterday. Hope that counts. I am afraid my desk will be very neglected today, too much cleaning to do. LOL

This year we decided to let some Chinese lanterns free in honour of all those who are no longer with us.The grandies were fascinated and the adults too, let me tell you.

 Littlest grandie hated the fireworks. This was the face when I turned around as she said, 'big noise, ouma, I scared'. Luckily I had my camera in hand.

Happy New Year to all of you, may this year be a great one, filled with peace, good health and lots of blessings.

WOYWW - Happy Birthday DH

Good morning all. What a wonderful Christmas we had. Most of the kids were here and we spent a fantastic day in the sun with kids and grandkids. Ate too much (what else is new?) Talked for hours, went to church with the two youngest kids. Lots of sad memories this year, missing all our parents and our dear friend Anton, but also lots of fantastic things happening.

 My workdesk was transformed to a bedroom last night. DD 3 and her boyfriend and friends left for Jeffreys Bay at 1 this morning. Of course I had to wake them up at half past 12, which means I am really tired this morning.

 This is my workroom this morning. A very sad picture, but fear not, all has been picked up and put in its proper place already. Thought I would show you the last thing created just before my room was  taken over. I made some calenders for all the grandies to put in their rooms. The image is a La La Land one and the papers came free with a magazine.

 And here you see my newest grandie, Monty. He came for a visit with his dad, the cutest kitten ever. I am on permanent anti allergy meds, because I am very allergis to cats, but he is sooo cute, I don't even mins.

Today is my DH's birthday and traditionally it turns into one mega party, so spare a thought for me. So many parties on top of each other is not good for the diet. LOL

HappyWOYWW to all and may you have a fantastic New Year.