Around here

Loved scrapbooking with the Scrap Addicts last Saturday, this is one of the pages which I completed

Aw cute, beloved tabby sprawled on my table while I scrapbook

Realising how much I absolutely loathe this web page, it frustrates me and stresses me out and wastes my time.  Can't wait to get my iPad at the end of February, I've been assured that I won't have this problem

So happy to be rid of my crapberry (blackberry to you fans out there), and loving my new iphone

Also nursing a really sore eye with steroid drops and ointment - it's probably stress related

I've put my home up for sale but the thought of picking up every single thing and moving it somewhere else is enough to put me off the move to a slightly bigger home (which I still need to find)

Did a 90 minute kick-boxing workout yesterday (go me!!) - I crashed into bed exhausted just after 9pm

Honouring endings

"To go slowly is one of the great needs of life"

                                                        ** Sir Laurens van der Post **

Beginnings and endings always follow each other.  Just as day follows night.  But to get to new beginnings, we need to honour endings, and embrace closure before moving on.  In African culture, there is a huge celebration at the funeral of a loved one, a party which sometimes lasts for days. 

When there are significant changes unfolding in our lives, be it marriage, death, the gift of new birth, moving home, changing jobs, or the souring of a treasured relationship, a suffocating dam of emotions will hold us captive for a while.  Maybe a long while.  Go slowly in the moments of great change.

The act of honouring endings is a natural and necessary rhythm which allows us to reflect and celebrate whatever came before that moment, acknowleding the moment when things changed, and then look forward with anticipation, hope and joy into the future at the possibility of what could be.  We need to take time to let go, and only when the moment is right, step forward and move on.

                                               ** Taken from my (unpublished) book Whispered Comfort **

Layout to share

I have been scrapbooking with the Scrap Addicts since 1998.  At the start of each year, we schedule our monthly scrap dates a year in advance - once a month on a Saturday and a sleepover scrapathon every 3rd month.  Our first scrap date for 2012 is this Saturday.  I am sooo looking forward to doing more of this...

Grief and joy

What's with the tongue??  Right now, my gorgeous niece Elizabeth takes great delight in licking me and her dad and her mom.  It's wonderfully silly and joyful.  Just what I need right now.  Love you baby girl!

 

It is only when we silence the blaring sounds

of our daily existence

that we can finally hear the whispers of truth

that life reveals to us,

as it stands knocking

on the doorsteps of our hearts.

                             ** KT Jong **

I'm wanting whispers and silence and stillness in the aftermath of losing my sister.  Grief and joy can live side by side. 

A final goodbye

We held the memorial for my sister Rose-Marie Ann Drysdale on Saturday at Fourways Memorial Park.  It was so sad but it was also beautiful and just right. 

This photo was taken about 30 years ago - Robbie, Rosie, me and Michael

The last family photo taken

Rosie on her Harley

We served Jamesons whiskey and biltong (which she loved) after the service - I'm sure Rosie looked on with approval and delight.  Rest in peace my Rosie.

Layout to share

My life is just a little bit crazy right now so I miss scrapbooking, I miss being creative, I miss playing with paper, inks and photo's. 

The memorial for my sister who passed away in December will be held tomorrow; I am both dreading it and looking forward to it as a step in the grieving and healing process.

The upside is that I get to see my beloved niece Elizabeth on Sunday.  Here are some girly Elizabeth layouts which I completed recently.

I store all the layouts about Elizabeth in a seperate album, which I will eventually give to her.  This layout will go in my own chronological album for 2011.

Cupcakes and cardmaking

Lynn and I are both Capricorns.  As a birthday celebration, I arranged a cupcakes and cardmaking morning at Scrap-a-doodles on Saturday.  9 of us inked and stamped and embossed and had a great time; many of us went home covered in glitter and ink - LOL!

The gorgeous crafty girls

The Scrap Addicts

The birthday girls - Lynn's birthday was on 13 January and mine on the 17th

the stamping and inking station

my sister Caron with our teacher for the morning - Annemarie

this was Caron's first crafting class, she did so well!

Lynette shows off 2 of her cards

Leonie's masterpiece of lace and gold glitter

Linda's gorgeous cards

Caron is hopefully now also addicted to crafting!  Everyone needs a hobby

of course there were cupcakes, these vanilla beauties and my new favourites - red velvet cupcakes

It was such a fun morning and I loved spending time with Caron

47 things

I turn 47 today.  Here are 47 things I want to do before I turn 48:

1. have regular facials
2. go on a solitary reading retreat
3. exercise twice a week, every week
4. learn how to use my new iphone
5. learn how to use and love my apple ipod
6. buy an ipad
7. try out some new recipes
8. see a skin specialist
9. go to Alaska?
10. visit the Jozi Food Market
11. scrap more.  lots more
12. teach a scrap class on mini books
13. go for more walks
14. complete a 30-day photo challenge
15. dive into my "move more eat well" class on Big Picture Scrapbooking
16. read 5 books that are already on my bookshelf
17. wear a lot more dresses
18. go on a creative retreat to the Botanical Gardens
19. learn how to make cocktails
20. drink more cocktails
21. unclutter at least every 60 days
22. spend the occasional day doing absolutely nothing
23. visit the Bryanston Organic Market
24. simplify and be organised
25. be brave.  try new things
26. make a new friend
27. have lots of braais.  just for me and 2 kitties
28. go deeper in my faith
29. do lots of art journalling
30. make several minibooks
31. make cupcakes
32. eat more cupcakes
33. do a yoga and pilates class.  maybe more than 1
34. do more online classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking
35. focus on my 1 little word - MOVE
36. visit 'Nonnas' shop
37. try some new restaurants
38. focus on what matters most to me
39. find a coffee shop that I love
40. spend time with friends and family
41. go slowly enough to hear my own heartbeat, footfalls and the wind in the trees
42. drink lots of water
43. look up
44. take 5 big steps forward towards living and working more creatively
45. try new healthy foods
46. visit my friend June in Durban
47. always remember - I am an artist

Making changes and being brave

This year, I'm changing things up a bit, doing some new things, swallowing hard and being brave.  This was a V E R Y brave day for me.  I wore a dress to work yesterday.  I have not worn a dress in years.  For many private and crazy reasons.  All of them real to me.  And don't you sit there and judge me for my craziness.  Or my chubby legs.  I know that there are a lot of you out there just like me!  Everyone at work noticed.  I pretended that it was no big deal.  I was very brave.

Oi.  Chubby white legs that haven't seen daylight for a while.

I'm working on doing difficult things.  I'm willing to get off the sidelines and get into the game.  I'm willing to make mistakes and fail and be scared.  I don't want to make excuses any more.  I want to grow and renew and be all that I can be.  I will be brave, even if it's just with the little things.  I'm getting ready to take bigger and braver steps forward.  How about YOU?

Very rare plant

This is the very rare striped brattus cattus plant...

"hey...wassup mom?"

and the sister plant, the lazy siamesus plant

No wonder my poor arum lillies are flat and half dead!  LOL!

Layout to share

I know.  It's only week 2 of January.  But I have already been for 2 walks in the last 2 days.  I'm just saying.  Gotta keep moving.  Here is a layout to share called WALK.  I schedule hiking / rambling dates with friends about every 6 weeks; we walked at Groenkloof Nature Reserve on this day.  Love that place.

And I love this layout about Numbers.  I was journalling one day when all these numbers came into my head.  Numbers relating to my real life.  My one life.  Big scary numbers!

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. 

But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. 

At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. 

Happiness is the way.  Be happy now.  Right where you are.

So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one"

                                                                                    **anon**

Goalsetting for 2012

I am a firm believer in goalsetting.  Certainly at the start of each year, and then frequently during the year.  My view is that even if I only achieve half of what I planned to do in any given year, it's still more than I would have achieved if I'd just muddled through the year hoping for the best.  Goals focus me, they narrow my attention to what I want to achieve, they help to drown out the noise of all the things that I have to do every day.

Over on Becky's blog, she recently posted a piece on resolutions, where she included this...

N. Eldon Tanner (1898 – 1982) said:

As we reflect on the value of resolving to do better, let us determine to discipline ourselves to carefully select the resolutions we make, to consider the purpose for making them, and finally to make commitments for keeping them and not letting any obstacle stop us. Let us remind ourselves at the beginning of each day that we can keep a resolution just for that day.

So my 2 big goals for 2012 are:

• work on being fit, strong and healthy
• kick up my creativity to new levels

To support my health goal, I have joined Cathy Zielske's Move More Eat Well class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.  It consists of monthly projects, making a commitment to fitness, and just generally huge encouragement to get my butt moving and eat better!

In terms of my eat well goal...I love iced coffee.  I found this mix at Woolworths.  I mix it with crushed ice instead of milk, and it is sooo refreshing on a scorching hot day in Africa.  And almost fat free

Food fight

While visiting Vernazza on the Cinque Terre coast in Italy last October, I managed to catch this food fight on camera

tum de tum, a lovely fish for lunch

right, where shall I start?

um ... maybe head first ...

hey!  what?!  stop it!

 

bugger off!  get your own you brute!

I am bigger than you.  It is now MY lunch.  let go now!

 

you're a bully!  you're a thief!  you're...

loser!  tum de tum, a lovely fish for lunch