Filofax planner inserts

Although I enjoy and am quite good at using technology, I still use a large Puccini Filofax planner on a daily basis.  I not only use it as a diary, but also to store my business and personal to-do lists.  

 

It is also home to other lists (yep... I'm a list-maker, otherwise I forget stuff in seconds!) such as gift ideas, my 2015 Christmas shopping list, meal plans, a page for notes and so on.  I don't use the alphabetic telephone lists that come with the planner, but prefer a 1 page of frequently used contact numbers, so I recently removed the telephone lists and made my own inserts.

 

I trimmed lined scrapbooking cardstock to size, and used a hand punch to make the holes to fit the diary

 

I also added washi tape to the top of the new inserts.

I regularly use a Brother P-touch 80 label maker for scrapbooking (it's fabulous!) and made some labels for my planner inserts

I'm loving the result of a few hours work.

Birthday weekend

My niece Elizabeth turned 6 last week, so we had a party for her on Saturday.

 

The festivities started on Friday with a prezzie from her aunty and some badminton. 

 

I bought a bicycle for Elizabeth; she doesn't love it as it's big and doesn't have training wheels.  I hope that over time she will become more comfortable and confident with her bike, and eventually grow to love it.

Dad (Robbie) played the part of training wheels for a while

and then we played badminton

 

miss Katy

 

On Saturday afternoon, we met friends and family at OrangoTangos

and let the girls go wild play for a few hours

My friend Dr. Bridget Sutton and her daughter Bothlale (Boo) 

 my niece Jamie

 

my brother Shaun with his daughters Jamie and Anna 

and then the young ladies insisted on swimming, even though the water in the pool is still freezing cold; neither the icy water nor the lack of costumes deterred them!

we finally relaxed at my home with a traditional South African braai (barbecue); Bridget is a chiropractor and treated my sister-in-law Tonia to a shoulder rub

I got a horse piñata for Elizabeth (she's currently horse-crazy); thankfully she decided not to bash it to pieces, but rather take it home and make a stable for it

We crashed into bed exhausted by 9pm.  Entertaining little people is hard work!

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!