Mini book to share

A quick mini book to share - made of chipboard and covered with paper.

Around here

Convenience  |  discovered these mini snack bags, so useful for bits and pieces

Scrapbooking  |  finishing up some scrapbook layouts that I started a while ago

Creativity  |  playing with some word art, new spectrum noir pens and several idea notebooks

Just the two of us  |  Ruby and I are adjusting to life without Bella

So this is love

I don't have children of my own so I'll never be a mother or grandmother.  But being Elizabeth's aunty is maybe enough to open my eyes and my heart, to show me what real love is.

There's nothing under the plasters.  Elizabeth just loves wearing plasters.  Hilarious!

Wearing my sunglasses and screaming "cheeeese!!!!!!".  I dread the day when she will refuse to be photographed

Elizabeth adores her mom and dad - Tonia and Robbie.  We're not too sure how she'll handle the arrival of her baby sister in a few weeks

Weekend in review

Weekends are far too short and I miss them so badly when Monday morning rolls around.  So...Friday started off with a delivery of books to my office.  I love books.  Just wish that I had more time to actually read them.

On Saturday morning I drove 2 hours to the Northwest Province to visit my brother Robbie and his family for the weekend.  It was awesome to spend time with miss Elizabeth.  I took a gazillion photos.  I'll share more later in the week.

I'm preparing for a bible study called Anointed, Transformed and Redeemed by Beth Moore; it's a study of the life of David.  Some of my friends are joining me for this 6 week study.  None of us have ever lead a bible study before but we're open to learning more about God's word.

I fetched Bella's ashes from the Fourways Animal Hospital on Sunday afternoon, and then cried all the way home.  We really miss her so much.

 

Cullinan scrap weekend

On Saturday morning, I was faced with 2 choices - be incredibly sad and mope around at home, or be incredibly sad and go scrapping with the ladies at the Diamond Lodge in Cullinan.  I wanted to be home with my beloved Ruby but didn't want to be at home surrounded by Bella's toys and bed and things.  I chose to go to Cullinan.

Cheryl organised a wonderful weekend for 20 ladies, and treated us to endless gifts and treats.  I loved the pampering and kindness and the creativity.  Scrapping eased my sadness.

Cheryl organised an awesome weekend; this is one of the layouts that I completed

3 of the Scrap Addicts - Leonie, Lynn and I

Gone too soon

My beautiful Siamese Thaiga Bella Diva passed away on Friday night at 9.15pm from a chest infection.  The vet suspects that she inhaled a grass seed which caused the chest infection over an extended period of time.

We miss you angel.  Thank you for a beautiful 4 and a half years.

Love mom and Ruby

Hope

Layout to share

My friend Leonie and I enjoyed an awesome trip to Italy last year.  We joined a wonderful group of Americans, Jim West and Ali Edwards on a scrapping, photographic, foodie trip through Tuscany.  I wanted to share this story with other South Africans by writing an article for a local scrapbooking magazine. 

Truthfully...I wasted my time in writing the article, carefully documenting locations and dates and interesting facts.  I created a layout to go with the article.  I shouldn't have bothered.  The response from the magazine editors was disinterest and a long list of conditions around photo and file sizes.  And then they lost my article and layout.  After many emails back and forth, I gave up and decided that I'm absolutely fine with being an unpublished scrap artist.

So I'm sharing my page with my blog readers - I know that many of you will enjoy it, and you may copy it as much as you like.

Body blog | February

I'm in an interesting place right now...feeling fat and chunky, convinced that I have gained a lot of weight, but the scale says it isn't so.  I have experienced phenomenal levels of stress during the past few months, it's all just catching up with me now, and when I'm stressed, I eat.  Wish it wasn't so.  So I've spent a fair bit of time during the last month knowing that I need a plan,  pondering what works for me, and what will be kind to my 47 year old body.  The Move More Eat Well class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking is a constant reminder that I'm committed to taking better care of myself.  The journey is just very tough for me right now.

Self portrait

my recent Move More Eat Well pages

sooo, I'm working on...

• being gentle with myself
• getting more sleep each night
• making sure I don't do anything extreme around food or exercise
• making time to be creative - it relaxes and de-stresses me
• being very firm about what I will not put up with - I'm drawing big thick boundary lines and not allowing people to treat me badly, and I won't spend time with people who make me miserable
• trying not to worry about things that I can't control

"Courage doesn't always roar.

Sometimes courage is the little voice

at the end of the day that says

I'll try again tomorrow"

Weekend in review

I love my weekends.  It's my time to move more slowly and thoughtfully, to connect with me, to connect with friends and family, to potter around at home a bit, and to forget about the craziness of my work

This weekend started early with a visit to the iStore in Sandton on Friday morning with Leonie to shop for iPads.  We are late bloomers in the technology space.  And loving it

And then my friend Pat persuaded me to visit the Hobby-X show at the Northgate Dome with her on Saturday morning.  There was nothing really "wow" at the show but we had such fun strolling around, chatting to people we know, and meeting some new people

I did NOT go Hobby-X to buy curry spices but Yudhika's stall made us open our purses.  She makes an 8-minute chicken breast curry, it was delicious!  With Winter on the way in South Africa, Pat and I both bought the set of spices and the cookbook. 

I bought a few scrapping odds and ends at Hobby-X, but nothing significant or exciting

The highlight of my weekend was lunch on Sunday at ROOTS restaurant with my friends Julius and Gisela.  Oh..My..Word!!  This award winning restaurant is outstanding!  The 6-course meal took 4 hours to enjoy.  We opted to do the wine-pairing where a different wine is served with each course.  A visit to Roots is pure indulgence but so worth it as a special treat.  Here are some of the dishes that we enjoyed...

The cauliflower soup was unbelievably good

I didn't love the salmon trout and beetroot, but found it interesting

Goose liver pate with pear and apple

Blueberries and gorgonzola foam with cashew nuts and biscotti

Lemon cheesecake with honeycomb icecream

The building are eco-friendly and have grass growing on the roof!  It looks very rustic but once inside, it's very luxurious