Colouring Book

I bought one of the very first colouring books available in South Africa.  There are now tons of colouring books to choose from.  I like the small size of this book, and the paper holds watercolour crayons beautifully (I prefer the soft fuzzy effect of watercolours over normal crayons).  I've been playing a bit and added scriptures and words that I love to some of the pages...

 

Christmas

My nieces aren't visiting me in December so I haven't put up the big Christmas tree, just a few decorations for Ruby and I to enjoy.  Every evening, I switch on the Christmas lights and light candles in my bedroom.

 

  

Princess Ruby's Christmas stocking

  

I'm still working until 23 December so I'm not really feeling the Christmas spirit.  I'm focusing on remembering the real reason for the holiday season - the birth of Christ.  Jesus came that we may have life in abundance, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  May you feel the love of Christ this Christmas.

** Merry Christmas **

 

Garden love

It's been scorching hot in Johannesburg during the past 2 months, with daytime temperatures between 30 and 36 degrees most days.  That's not hot for Africa, but it is unusual for Johannesburg - we have a reasonably mild climate with average mid-Summer temperatures around 28-30 degrees. 

 

My garden is battling in the heat and many plants have died, even with extra watering from the rainwater tanks.  I've had to replace several plants, so it's great that most of the nurseries are having sales.

 

Of course the new plants had to pass the kitty inspection and approval test

 

 

This is the view of my garden from my bedroom window

 

 

Scrapbooking retreat

This past weekend was the Scrap Addicts' annual Christmas scrapbooking retreat at Good Shepherd in Magaliesburg.  As always, it was an awesome, amazing and incredible weekend together, despite the scorching temperatures which hovered around 38 degrees all weekend.  When we left on Monday afternoon, the temperature gauge in my car said that it was 41 degrees outside in the shade!

 

We arrived on Friday afternoon, unpacked and started scrapping after catching up over coffee.

 

The calm before the storm...this room in the convent looks out over Hartbeespoort Dam - a million dollar view.  We bought Christmas tablecloths and lights for everyone, which was a take home gift after the weekend  

We sat outside in the early evening and opened prezzies - we got thoroughly spoilt with gifts from each other - thanks ladies!!  

We did some shopping at Jasmyn on Saturday morning, a lovely farmers market near the convent.  And we ate delicious icecream...

 

When we got back to the convent, we shared our quarterly scrap kits / challenge pages which we each design for the group

this is Linda's page 

this is Lynn's page  

this is Leonie's page  

and my page... 

we love the old convent, even if it is a bit run down and needs a lot of work 

In the late afternoon after dinner, we strolled down to the youth centre to walk the beautiful labyrinth

On Monday morning, we each wrote a Dear Santa list...

Exhausted after a beautiful weekend of scrapbooking and special friendship, we headed home on Monday after lunch; we'll be back next year

 

Around here

Life around here...

* Digging : scrapbooking

* Not digging : a monster workload at the office

* Drinking : lots of water - the Tupperware water bottles are fantastic

* Food : working on eating more whole foods and less processed foods.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, especially when I get home late and I'm shattered tired after a very long day at work

* Listening : to an awesome playlist on my ipod in my car at full blast in the traffic on the way home at night; I looove Pink by Aerosmith!

* Watching : Boer Soek 'n Vrou

* Weather : relieved that the awful heat of a few weeks ago has abated and that we've had some rain; the water tanks in my garden are overflowing

* Busy : packing for the scrapbook retreat and wrapping prezzies

* Wishing :  I was on holiday so that I could read until late at night.  And every morning.  And during the day

 

* Working on : stretching regularly, it really eases the pain in my back.  Seriously - why don't I just do it every day?!

 

* Hating : hot flushes that wake me up at night

 

* Thinking : these Santa bags for my nieces are so cute; I've bought them each a solar torch and a few other goodies to fill the bags

 

* Enjoying : a little bit of home decorating, just freshening up a bit with new towels, pillows and lamps

* Needing : to find a way to support ageing parents who live 2 hours away in another town.  So grateful for my sister-in-law Tonia and brother Robbie who are on hand to support then every day and make the hard decisions - thank you!

* Loving : miss Ruby.  Seriously

Cats

Because cats rock my world

 

 

Because I adore her

 

Because cats fight evil - Belgian authorities have gained one very important ally in their fight against the militants responsible for the attacks in Paris earlier this week - the country's cat population. After the country's federal police requested that citizens avoid posting about the whereabouts of police or military officials on social media accounts, locals responded by diverting the use of the #BrusselsLockdown hashtag to be about their cats.