Life according to Ruby

"Hey!  What's this stuff in here??"

"Hey! What's that under the table??"

"hmmmm...I'll just lie here until mom thinks I'm cute and picks me up"

Randomness

I have been battling a painful kidney infection since Saturday, and am now at the pounding headache stage.  Who knew that such a minor ailment could be so damn painful.  The antibiotics are also playing dirty with my tummy, even though I'm taking inteflora.  I would love to be at home resting on my bed with miss Ruby comforting me, but instead I'm in the office trying not to throw up and get some work done.  This too shall pass...

 

I'm seeing signs of spring everywhere.  The birds outside my bedroom window now wake me up at 4.30am.  September to November are my all time favourite months of the year.  I want to get into the garden this weekend and do some planting and pottering around.  I'm thinking that I may look for a garden swing for Elizabeth and Kataryn

 

Love this poster that appears in the latest Creating Keepsakes magazine.  It's an advert, but it may just be laminated as a poster for my craft room...

Turning 3

My darling Elizabeth turned 3 on Saturday.  We spent the weekend at Raaswater River Lodge, and had a weekend filled with everything to do with pirates...

the weekend started off with fairy wings and casting good spells 

on Saturday morning, the birthday girl decorated pirate cupcakes with some help from mom (Tonia) 

Elizabeth said "I need a cupcake"

the pirate cupcakes were decorated with flags and cannonballs (astros) 

the pirate princess cuddles with dad (Robbie) 

 the treasure hunt was a big event for the birthday girl; Robbie and Tonia dyed paper with tea, and Robbie drew the map.  Elizabeth and dad study the map to find the hidden treasure

"I think we must go that way dad" 

miss Elizabeth finds her first treasure chest 

"where to next dad?" 

more hidden treasure! 

20 paces to the West; this was a tough job for the birthday girl!

and she finds the last treasure chest - yay! 

the pirate princess 

these scary pirates are dad and miss Kataryn 

It was a really fun and busy day.  Elizabeth had tons of fun, and she was such a good girl.  Happy birthday my angel!

 

Layout to share

I had an awesome day scrapping with the Scrap Addicts on Saturday.  Here are 2 layouts that I completed - both are packs by Basic Grey

Around here

Food | I tried this arabica coffee chocolate from CNA, it's awful and very expensive.

Drinking a bit more water.  I love plain water, but battle to drink much when it is so cold in winter.  Spring is coming...

Travel | I'm packing for 2 trips this week - a short business trip to Cape Town, and then a trip to visit my family next weekend to celebrate Elizabeth's 3rd birthday

Ruby | I bought a new scratch pad for beloved miss Ruby.  She does not yet love it

Creative | I'm enjoying Vicki Boutin's new book called Creative Foundations.  Some nice techniques to try on my next project.  Maybe I'll teach the scrapping girls something fun when we gather at the Good Shepherd Retreat in September

Bible Study | I've joined a new group of ladies at Honeyridge Baptist Church to do a 50-week study by Beth Moore on the fruit of the spirit

Garden | spring is coming.  I'm watering and feeding my garden, and looking forward to seeing how the new garden blooms as the warmer weather arrives.  I think that it's been neglected for a really long time.  Methinks it will become a place of peaceful beauty for my family, friends, Ruby and I.  I'm saving a patch for missy Elizabeth to do some planting and messing in the mud

 Ruby loves catnip, otherwise known as kitty-dagga!

 Clivias

 Hibiscus

Rock roses 

Rose-Marie | I gave permission for my late sister's image to be used in a marketing campaign by Cancervive to raise funds.  If you live in South Africa, please fill up with petrol at a Caltex garage and vote for 'people living with cancer' to win (Cancervice is competing against 2 other charities)

 

we miss you so much Rosie...

Mini book

This is the mini book that I worked on over the weekend.  It's a book called "I want to remember...".  I find that I get lost in the chaos and seriousness of my worklife, and I forget that I am an artist with a creative dream, I sometimes forget the real me...  I want a place to store all the truths and wisdom that I want to remember when the going gets tough.  I need words that are filled with hope and light and comfort and encouragement.

I covered board with some of my favourite papers, typed up the things that I want to remember (I've been keeping a list for a while now), and added embellishments.  Lisa from the Memory Shed helped me with the cover and then put it all together using the Zutter bind-it-all.  It's still a work in progress, I'll be adding a few more things to it, but I love the overall result...

Weekend in review

I enjoyed a delicious 4 day weekend.  Thursday 9 August was Women's Day, a good time to spend scrapping with Leonie and Ruby.  My friend Pat popped round for coffee and muffins in the morning, but couldn't stay.

Scrapping with miss Ruby on my lap is harder than it looks, but worth the discomfort; I worked on a mini book

Leonie completed this gorgeous tavel page - definitely worth scraplifting at some stage!

On Friday, I attended a class at the Memory Shed, and we had to do the class in darkness due to a power failure!  Lisa helped me bind my mini book project on her Zutter.  I spent the afternoon doing errands and some shopping at Cresta, and then had dinner at Thundergun with my friends Pat and Cathy.  My steak was perfectly cooked, but the overall food and service experience was not great.  Patrons are allowed to smoke in the bar so the smell of cigarette smoke drifts through the restaurant and it was awful - I won't go back.

Saturday was garden clean-up day, and we worked our butts off.  The handyman (Zoot) and his 2 guys cut down 6 trees, and we cleaned out a ton of junk from the garden.  I worked alongside the guys, and was exhausted, showered and in my pyjamas by 6pm on Saturday evening!

This pine tree is going down!

5 bags of potting soil, 5 bags of compost and 2 bags of bonemeal went into the garden beds

The guys also trimmed the remaining trees, ready for new growth in spring

The neat, well fed beds start to emerge.  We didn't do much planting, it was mostly just about cleaning up and preparing the beds.  We did not find even 1 earthworm, proof that the soil was dead and had not been fed for a very long time

With 4 trees gone from this area, the sunlight is streaming back through the windows into my home

On Sunday, I gently nursed my sore back (too much gardening, bending and heavy lifting on Saturday), and an icy wind blew all day, so miss Ruby and I stayed indoors and worked on creative projects