WOYWW - Its my birthday!

Good morning to all of you. Today is my Birthday and it is shaping up to be a great day! First I found the most beautiful card in my playroom last night, left for me by DD3 before she left to go to SA Water polo yesterday morning. Such beautiful, heartfelt words. I was all weepy. At 5 this morning I got a message from DD1 with my beautiful grandie(2) singing Happy Birthday to ouma. DH has given me a Silouette and DD2 delivered 60 of her beautiful cupcakes for me to take to school last night.  Am I blessed or what?

My desk looks like a war zone, I finished two cards last night, but I have no idea how it is possible to use so much on only two cards. If you still don't know why I am posting photo's of my desk, you must be living somewhere under a rock, but please visit Julia and all will be revealed.

Seeing that it is my birthday, I thought I would share my latest school photo (I hate photo's, but this is a special one) My grandie and I go to the same school and she came to fetch me on photo day and insisted that we have a family photo. How special is this photo? We were laughing because the photographer asked her if  I was her sister.

This is one of the cards that caused the devastation on my desk.  Paper is Bazzil and Upikit. The ribbon and flowers from my stash and the image is a Magnolia stamp coloured with my beloved Copic markers.

 This is a really long post, but I could not leave you without photo's from the camp I went to last week. I did not have to do the flying Fox in the end, because there was an electric storm and it was too dangerous (can you hear the relief in my voice? LOL) I just had to share this photo with you all. This just about sums up what we were all thinking when we were confronted with that tower we had to climb.

 And here is just one of over 2000 photo's of the girls actually climbing that dreaded tower. As always they made me so very proud and not a single one of them did not manage to climb the tower with the help of a friend. I just wish I could show you the beaming faces when they came down and realised they did something they never thought they could. It is times like this that I remember why I became a teacher in the first place and why I still love my job 35 years later.

Have a fantastic week and remember to do something you never thought you could at least once this year.

WOYWW - I have gone stark raving mad!

Good morning all you wonderful people from WOYWW and everybody else. As you alll know, I am in the middle of the bush on camp with my girls from school.
I have been trying to upload some photo's of the venue for you, but my Android is having none of it. It could be because  the signal is very weak over here too. I will try again later.
Thought I would tell you about my moment of insanity though. The girls had to try rock climbing and one of them was very scared and started sobbing. I had a word with her and told her I would do the Flying Fox today if she could pluck up the courage to try the rock climbing. The Flying Fox is where they have to climb a 10m high tower and jump down and grab a trapeze. All of this while in a harnass (thank goodness!) So, dear friends, say a little prayer for me today after you picked yourself up from the floor laughing. The girls are all very excited about seeing me jump off that tower.
Hopefully I will be able to upload photo's later.

WOYWW - I am still here, hanging on for dear life!

Did you miss me? I missed you guys a lot, but life seems to be running away with me at the moment and blogging comes a good second to catching up on some sleep, so please forgive the long absence. As you can see, the desk has been very neglected too. Everything just gets dumped there and nothing much is happening in there either. You all and my beloved happy place have been temporarily pushed aside for this desk you see below. It feels like I have been doing nothing other than school work for the last couple of weeks.

 Essay after essay, test after test, worksheet after worksheet, book report after book report. I am even starting to dream that I am marking!!

 I did make some cards. It was a dear friend's birthday on Sunday and we spent the day with them on the Vaal. I could not arrive empty handed, now could I? A quick set of boxed cards was all I had time for. She loved them, so I am very happy
On a personal front a lot has happened too.
Tiani went for a MRI and there is NO SIGN of the tumour on her little brain. We are praising God every day for the miracle he performed in her life. Chevaunne, the girl that was bitten by  the snake, is back at school and the skin graft seems to have taken. Sadly one of my homeroom girls' mother was diagnosed with brain cancer and we found out yesterday that she will be parylised as a result of the op. Please pray for her and her family.
My own little grandie (6) is having the cataract removed from her eye on the 16th of April. She is one of three patients the dr. has seen in his career with such a big cataract at such a young age. We are praying for yet another miracle - that she will be able to see out of her right eye for the first time in her life.
Next week Tuesday I am leaving to go on Leadership camp with 79 girls, looking forward to a little rest and some fun. Hope you all have a fabulous week and I really hope to visit at least some of you this week.
Ps. If you don't know what WOYWW is, go here. It  is the most fun you will ever have in blogland.

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.