Turning 6

My darling niece Elizabeth turns 6 today.  I remember holding her for the first time when she was just 11 days old...

 

She's gone from this...

to this, in the blink of an eye!

Love you!

Crocheting

My friend Pat and I recently hosted a crocheting afternoon at my home for the ladies from our Bible Study Group. 

 

Pat had recently crocheted a blanket for our Bible Study leader (Loren) as a birthday gift, and after seeing it, many of the ladies said that they would like to learn to crochet.  It was a lovely afternoon with lots of interest from the ladies.  I forgot how daunting it can be to learn a new skill!

 

Pat shows Judy how to crochet a basic granny square

My beautiful sister Caron with Anne, who is knitting a jersey for her grandson who lives in Canada 

Jenny, Anne and Allison concentrating on getting it right 

Caron shows Laura how to crochet 

Cathy tries her hand at crocheting; she gave up a few minutes later (LOL)

Anne is a mighty woman of God, I'm so glad that I met this lady in our Bible Study Group 

Allison concentrated really hard and was the star pupil of the afternoon 

Thanks Pat - the afternoon was a great success!! 

I love my sister

 

Thanks to Pat and Anne and my sister Caron for teaching the ladies to crochet.  We hope to see a few finished projects in the not too distant future!

 

Retirement - go and be happy

I've know Lynette for about 20 years; what started as a work relationship has become a lifelong friendship.  Lynette and Andy are retiring at the end of the month and moving down to Cape Town to be close to their children and grandchildren.  While I am so happy that they get to live close to their loved ones, I'm so sad that we won't get to see Lynette every month.  We've been scrapbooking together since 1998 - longer than most marriages last!

 

I invited Lynette and Andy to lunch on Saturday at Urban Angel in Boskruin.  They thought that they were having lunch just with me, but of course all the Scrap Addicts were also there - surprise!!  They were both overwhelmed and I think we all shed a tear or two.

 

Of course this photo of the Scrap Addicts group must be hung with honour in Lynette's new coastal scrap room!  She's going to add a very old photo of our group in the middle space - when we were all young and less wrinkled much younger

even Andy was tearful

 Lynn, her husband Richard and Linda

Leonie, Alison and Lynette 

Go and be happy my sweet friend.  I'm seriously going to miss Lynette!  We're already planning a Scrap Addicts trip to Cape Town in March 2016.

 

Scrapbooking layouts

Here are some of the layouts which I recently completed.  I still need to add photos and journaling, but I got a lot done on our scrapbooking weekend.

 

The first 4 pages were designed by Lara Hanna

 

Lynn designed this gorgeous page.  Leonie declared it the 'page of the weekend' on our scrapbooking retreat.  I think that everyone copied it - well done Lynn!

National Women's Day

Sunday 9 August was National Women's Day in South Africa.  What better way to celebrate than to spend the day scrapbooking at a gorgeous venue.  I arranged for the Scrap Addicts and a few other scrappers to spend the day at Afrique Boutique Hotel in Ruimsig, Johannesburg and we enjoyed a glorious day together doing what we love.

 

 

 We did a gift swop after morning coffee

 

  

                                 Lynette                                               Linda

  

                               Leonie                                                          Rika

  

                             Arina                                                        Lynn

  

          I got the gift that Leonie brought                 Lynn & her sister Wendy

Lynn and I 

Arina

 

 

Leonie and Linda about to enjoy lunch on the patio

 

 Crème Brulee for dessert - yum!

 

 

The Scrap Addicts Group, established 1998.  Leonie, Lynn, Linda, Lynette and Alison.  This was the last time that we would all scrap together before Lynette retires to Cape Town at the end of the month.  We'll really miss this special lady 

 

It was such a beautiful day together in the winter sunshine.  It's always so interesting to see how people organize themselves for scrapping, what projects they're working on, and what 'stuff' they've got.  It was great to scrap with Rika, Arina and Wendy; we must do this again sometime soon!

Scrapbooking weekend

The Scrap Addicts group spent a weekend at Good Shepherd Retreat in the Magaliesburg during July.  We totally adore this place - it's very basic but the beds are good, the food is basic but fine (we're just happy that someone else cooks the food, serves it to us and then cleans up afterwards!), the thick walls of the convent keep the place warm during winter, the bathrooms are adequate, and best of all - we have the whole convent to ourselves.  The weather was wonderfully warm  and we had an awesome awesome time scrapbooking together.

 

 

Lynn and I confessed that we 'got lost' on the way to the convent, and had to stop somewhere for refreshments.  We don't know why but the other ladies held this against us for most of the weekend...

Lynn spoilt us with lots of goodies including Heat Holders socks 

the sunsets over the dam are stunning, especially if there are clouds about

Every quarter, we each design a kit for the group.  This is Lynn's gorgeous page 

Leonie is the queen of embellishments - such a beautiful layout! 

Linda's awesome layout 

Lynette designed this lovely layout 

...and my layout 

We had 90 minutes of loadshedding on Saturday night.   We are such tough capable South Africans; we simply put our headlamps and camping lamps on and carried on scrapbooking!

I was still on crutches recovering from foot surgery and a bad cold.  The ladies helped me so much with everything, carrying food trays and carrying all my scrapbooking supplies for me - thank you!