Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Christmas Morning & Christmas Eve
I then proceeded to make a bread and the famous Ramsay Ginger pudding which turned out absolutely divine!!! I had made a tester on the Sunday, to make sure that I got it right. It is so simple and I can't believe that I hae never tried to make it before. I haven't uploaded the photos from Christmas day yet, so will do another post about what we did.
Below are pictures from Christmas Eve. The Engler family get together so that we don't have to rush around on Christmas morning visiting each other before we have lunch. This was a special get together as Malcolm, Carol, Byron and Cassandra are leaving to go to New Zealand in late January 2009, so it was one of the last occasions to get a family shot. I took the opportunity of getting the various families as well as brothers and sisters and the whole family. We then proceeded to have dinner at the table Debbie had set out so nicely - more photos to follow! Dinner consisted of Curry and Rice (made by Malcolm - it is divine), roast chickens (by Debbie) a pasta dish (made by me) and salad. Pudding was trifle (made by my mom - very yummy) and ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Finishing off with Beacon favourite chocolates. All in all a great afternoon/evening and it was great to get such lovely family pictures. I can't wait to do a scrap page! I will also be sending these to Leanne as she wants to enlarge some to put up on her wall, now that she is renting her own place.
Another post to follow.
Happy snapper signing off .....
Monday, 01 December 2008
BOM Challenge #11 - My Man
Dereck was born on 12 January 1956 and is the eldest of four children. He has 3 sisters, Lesley, Jennifer and Joanne.
During 1979 I went out with a guy called James. He shared a flat with Biddy and Mark and Mark was going out with a friend of mine, Beverley. Dereck was good friends with Biddy and Mark and he and his friend Paul would often come round to the flat after they had finished playing softball, so I used to see him quite often. The first time I ever saw him, I said to myself “if James and I ever broke up, I wouldn’t mind going out with Dereck”. Little did I know that this would happen.
In February 1980 I was invited to my matric class teacher’s wedding and was now in a dilemma as I had no partner. Beverley said that Mark’s friend had just come back from overseas and they would ask him. It was Mark’s birthday at the beginning of February so arrangements were made for me to go to the party so that I could meet their friend, Dereck before the wedding. We met at the party and got on really well. I really liked him a lot. The next week was the wedding and we had a great time. He then phoned me to go out the following week-end. During the week I got a phone call and gradually these calls increased and we ended up going out every week-end. In November 1983 we got engaged and on 16 June 1984 we got married. In June 2009, we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.
Dereck has a lovely open face and that is what initially attracted me to him. He is a very gentle person who doesn’t like confrontations and is pretty easy going (unless something really gets his goat!!). We both enjoy movies and when we first started going out we often went to the movies and back then, the drive-in! Dereck hasn’t really changed much, but I know that I have become more vocal over the years and if I don’t like something or want to do something, I have my say or just do it. I do feel that I have got stronger and have learnt to do a lot on my own and if I want something done, I would rather just get on and do it than wait for someone else to do it. One of Dereck’s faults is that he waits before he does something and often has to be asked to do things, which is often why I get on and do things myself. But, if it is something that he has an interest in, then there is no stopping him!!
Dereck and I are opposites and I feel, compliment each other. He is rather shy, whereas I am very outgoing. I like a whole selection of foods, whereas Dereck is more a meat and potatoes kind of person. Over the years he has got to enjoy some meals that he didn’t like when I first met him. Dereck can get quite heated when there are problems especially when travelling and there is a traffic jam or I can’t read a map and we get lost. He can get into quite a mood, whereas I will just go with the flow as there is nothing you can do, except ask for directions – not too many men do this!!! or just wait for the jam to ease. Dereck can sometimes be quite negative, whereas I try and see the positive in situations.
While our children were growing up, I did find things rather stressful but after some soul searching realised that life is not always about when and how you want things, but how you fit in with others and that everyone has their way to do things which I needed to accept.
Leanne moved out of home in July 2007 to go and live in England and Grant has a girlfriend (Lauren), so is often out. Dereck and I now have lots of time together and I feel that we are both still young and energetic enough to have a good time on our own again - almost like we are dating, as our time is ours.
Dereck has always been very stable in the working environment, but in 2002 he was retrenched and started up his own computer software business which has gone from strength to strength. Dereck is very conservative and between the two of us, we have managed our finances well.
Dereck has always enjoyed a good game of golf. I, on the other hand did a lot of walking and Dereck eventually joined me and tried his hardest to beat me in races!! Recently we have both taken up gym. We are really enjoying it and we often train together. Our taste in music is quite different, but of his music selection, if I can dance to it, I enjoy it!
Dereck loves watching rugby, British football (he supports Everton), grand prix to name a few sports. Not all these interest me which gives me my time to scrap or do other things. Dereck also loves listening to and watching music, reading (and we have similar tastes in certain books), watching movies, playing the electric guitar, playing poker and the latest is racing cars on the playstation! Dereck gets on well with my friends and some of them have a good laugh at him as he can be quite a moaner sometimes, and they really rag him about that!!
We spoil each other with surprises and we both have a good sense of humour. Do we argue - yes, and I am sure there will be many more arguments, as we can’t always agree with everything, but we do get on well and have a great time together.
So, to Dereck – thanks for the past 28 years and here’s to at least another 28 more. Thanks for being there for me, for your support both voluntary and involuntary, and for giving me the freedom to be able to be me and do the things that have interested me.
I love you!
Some Creativity and a Prize
On another note, I recently entered a competition on the Shape website and won this prize, consisting of a gym ball, a lovely skipping rope and some Nivea Cellulite cream (and my family are all saying "oh no, she always wins things"!!
Creative prize winner signing off ....
Boys and their Toys and some Chicks!
My dad's Bantom chickens recently had chicks, one of them being white with black specks. The mom and dad are a golden colour, so not sure where it came from! Here are some of them:
Hot chick signing off ....
Monday, 24 November 2008
The New Me
And here I am after I had my hair done:
The colour is slightly darker than my natural colour and I must say I really do like it.
The new me, signing off ....
Dedicated Blog Follower Award
Pick 5 bloggers that you consider as your best blogging buddies and deserves this award for their contribution towards the blogging community, no matter what language.
State the name of the author of each blog as well as a link to each one's blogs.
Each blogger (upon acceptance) of this award should do a post and show the award on their blog and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award.
Link to DOING LIFE's blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
Show these rules.
The bloggers I am awarding this award to are:
Beryldene Stemp from Lovevanillacupcakes. Beryldene writes such inspirational posts and I always get something so positive from reading them.
Andrea Robertson from Life in Lindfield. I met Andrea at a scrapday she hosted and then she left to go and live in England. I found her blog through Beryldene's and I have so enjoyed reading her posts about her and her family settling into their new country and especially her innermost thoughts on where she is in life. Something I can relate to.
Claire McGeer from Inspiration for the Soul. I met Claire at a Bundu week-end she arranged. We had so much fun and she now lives in Wales. I have enjoyed reading her posts on their new life and how they are all settling in. Love the photos she takes.
Leanne Ramsay from New Beginnings. Leanne is my daughter and I so enjoy reading her blog (when she updates it). She has such a wonderful, carefree way of writing. I have also discovered that she takes really good photos.
Desire Fourie from Doing Life. I know this award was created by Desire, but I have to award her back. If it wasn't for Desire, I wouldn't be scrapping, I would never have tried my hand at mosaicing, I wouldn't know how to take decent photos, I certainly wouldn't have this blog and I wouldn't appreciate nature as much as I do now. Desire's blog is such a creative inspiration and I just love looking at all her creations.
So bloggers, please accept this award from me.
Dedicated blog follower signing off ....
Dancing Award
PS Liesel hates her photo being taken, so this is really quite an achievement for me!!!! he he
Sister to the dancing queen signing off ........
Sunday, 16 November 2008
A make-over, some cuteness and lots of work!
The next is the hair. I have an assessment on Tuesday and have booked my hair appointment for next week Saturday - looking forward to seeing what that transformation will look like!!
Grant's friends came over for a visit and his one friend Juan and his girlfriend Nicole have a little girl Genevieve - she is about 4 months old and is just too cute:
We had a boerewors braai at my brother Malcom's place on Saturday evening. A great family gathering, as always.
Sunday, got up at 8:00am. Got stuck in the garden and planted some Jasmin bushes in the front and then planted a few little cacti that I had. Grant and Lauren made us a yummy bacon and scrambled egg breakfast and the I had my shower as Paula (my friend from work) was coming round for some "scrapping" help. Her son's teacher was leaving and one of the mom's asked each of the children in the class to do a scrapbook page to make a memory album.
Paula did very well considering it was her first time and with a bit of my help completed this layout. She just needs to get her son Joshua to write his little bit and then for her to add in hers:
I am sure the teacher is going to really treasure this album.
Now to go and watch a bit of TV and relax.
Made over and worked out signing off .........
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Weird or Not ....?
Monday, 10 November 2008
BOM Challenge #10 My Dream Home
My dream hom is whichever home I live in. After getting married we rented a flat for 2 years before buying our first house in 1986.
In 1993 we bought our current house as we needed more space. I don’t have any intentions of moving from here in a hurry unless we downsize and when we would have to sell lots!
Over the years we have had our kitchen done, bathrooms redone, built a bar, put in a pool and entertainment area built a back patio and a cottage (Dereck’s office)
Dereck uses the cottage as his music studio, I have my craft room and we still have a study with a TV, sound system and the computer.
I have never dreamed of any type of house that I would like to live in, my only "requirement" was to have a house with a wall around it and a swimming pool as when I was young we never had that and it was just something that appealed to me. I have been fortunate that in both houses we have ever owned, we put up walls and put in swimming pools, thereby fulfilling my minor dream.
Thanks for looking.
Happy in my house signing off ...
Sunday, 09 November 2008
What year do you belong to?
You Belong in 1993 |
Easy going 1993 signing off ...
A little bit of Gardening
This picture below, shows the above corner from a different angle and also shows the wall going all the way around.
This is the opposite corner to where the trees are. The builders completed the wall the whole way round this grassy area. Now we have more place to park and hopefully will have more "feathered" visitors. Below is the other bird bath that I bought. We had a strong plastic one, but with a recent HEAVY wind, it got blown over and broke in half!!
After all that hard work (and Debbie had said that Warren wanted to come and visit so that he didn't have to do work at his place!!) we had a lovely cup of Nestle hot chocolate mint and sat inside and chatted a bit.
I'm a Winner
I recently entered a competition to win a Bokomo hamper on the Shape website, and 2 days later I received a telephone call to say that I was one of the winners. They said that someone would phone me to make arrangements for the prize to be delivered.
Anyway, on Tuesday when I arrived home, there was this huge parcel waiting for me. On opening it, this is what I had received - a lovely hamper of goodies from Bokomo:
Shape and Bokomo fan signing off .....
Monday, 03 November 2008
Got some scrapping done
Had an interesting week-end - went to a Swipe breakfast on Saturday morning where I was asked to give my testimony on how a product called Promega worked for me. Then in the afternoon I went to a lingerie party (mmm very interesting!! and loads of fun). Got home and made supper for the family. On Sunday, Dereck and I went to Knowles, did some shopping and then had a late breakfast at their coffee shop. Came home and made some salads for a braai we were having in the afternoon. Dereck's sister, Lesley and her husband Alex as well as friends Ian and Jennifer came round for a braai and then we watched the Grand Prix (yes, I did actually sit and watch a few laps and I must say it was rather exciting to see Lewis Hamilton winning the championship.
LIFE EXPERIENCES RECEIVES AN AWARD
Wow Desire , I am both humbled and honoured by this award from someone as talented as you and who makes the most beautiful, inspiring and creative scrapbooking layouts and cards.
The RULES for presenting this sought after Award are:
Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
Link to the Arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
Show these rules.
My chosen FIVE are:
Over to China - Heidi Swapp who creates such wonderful layouts.
Back to South Africa - Beryldene Stemp who has such an inspiring blog (I so enjoy reading her posts).
Over in England - Andrea Robertson who also has an inspiring blog and does wonderful scrapbooking layouts.
Over to the USA - Bakerella who makes the most awesome cupcakes.
Back to South Africa - Sophia Allison who always has such interesting stories on her blog as well as wonderful scrapping layouts.
Thanks again Desire for the award, I really do appreciate it.
Award winner signing off ....
Friday, 31 October 2008
Mosaicing Week-end
Last week-end, Shelley and I flew up to JHB to spend time with Desire to help her with preparation for the Scrapday in December. But ....... Desire was sneaky and did that work and we had to take part in another craft - yes that is correct - mosaicing!
Desire is making mosaiced frames for her in-laws 50th wedding anniversary and needed assistance with getting them done. There were about 18 of them. So while Shelley sat painting the back of the frames and the stands, Desire and I got stuck into the actual frames. I so enjoyed doing this, that I will definitely do a mosaic of sorts for someone soon!! You will have to check out Desire's blog when it is updated of what we did as I did not take my camera.
We also took some time out and went to the Montecasino Bird Park on the Sunday morning. We had breakfast first and then watched the bird show. It was fantastic and their birds were most delightful - similar to our Umgeni Bird Park, but much bigger. Once the show was over, we walked around the park looking at all the different varieties of birds they have. It was a lovely sunny day and when we got home we realised how hot it had been as we all had bright red faces, necks and arms!!
Then it was back to mosaicing and at about 6pm Desire and Conroy drove us back to the airport.
All in all a most enjoyable week-end.
Monday, 20 October 2008
BOM Challenge #8 My Family and #9 Fashion
On Friday evening I finished my Family layout and here it is:
The journalling reads as follows:
Ok, so you want to know all about my family. Let me tell you about my side…….
My parents are Lu and Laura.
I am the eldest of 4 children and am married to Dereck. We have two children, Leanne (currently living and working in England) and Grant.
I have a brother, Malcolm who is 17 months younger than me. He is married to Carol and they have two children Byron and Cassandra.
I have a sister, Liesel who is not married and she is 5 years younger than me.
I have another brother, Warren who is 7 years younger than me. He is married to Debbie and they have two children, Luke and Rebekah.
My mom’s parents were known to us as Granny and Grandpa Farquharson and they were always very fair in what all of us grandchildren got. I certainly enjoyed spending week-ends with them at their house in Westbrook (near Tongaat) and a favourite treat there was having Melrose cheese wedges on toast and jelly everyday for pudding at lunch time. My Gran was a wonderful person so full of life, considering that she was crippled in a wheelchair with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She never complained of how much pain she was in and sadly passed away at the age of 83. My one good deed was giving them the pleasure of a great grandchild – Leanne. I was pregnant with Grant when my Gran died. My Grandpa was a very patient and perfect gentleman who always had such wonderful stories to tell us. He died at the age of 88.
My dad’s parents were known as Granny and Grandpa Engler and lived in East London. My Grandpa died while I was quite young, so don’t remember too much about him except that he used to have a pet crow called “Joe”. I always remember my Gran as someone who baked delicious biscuits, who crotched all the time and made lovely blankets for each of my children when they were borne and whenever we were around her, all we heard was the clinking of her 3 wide gold bracelets that she always wore. She also always had her hair under a hair net. When she passed away, each of the 3 girls on the Engler side of the family received one of these bangles. She passed away a few months short of her birthday when she would have turned 99!
Now, for Dereck’s side of the family…...
Dereck’s mom’s name was Francis but was referred to by all of us as “Papi”. A name she got from when Janine was small and she always used to call her “Poppet”. Sadly she passed away in July 2008 having suffered with Cancer. His dad’s name was John and he passed away tragically in a car accident in 1972. Dereck is the eldest of 4 children.
He has a sister, Lesley who is about 2 years younger than him. She is married to Alex and they have two children, Janine (who lives and works in England) and Nicholas. Lesley, Alex and Nicholas used to live in Holland and have recently come back to South Africa.
The next sister is Jennifer who is about 7 years younger than Dereck and she has recently got divorced from her husband Greg. They have two children, Samantha and Kirsten.
The youngest sister is Joanne and she is about 18 years younger than Dereck. Dereck’s mom was pregnant with Joanne when his dad was killed, so sadly she has never known her dad. She is married to Brendon and they have two children Kerin and Ryan.
Dereck’s Gran on his mom’s side was known as “Ouma”. She lived in Parys so we never saw her too often. But when she did visit, she used to make the most divine ginger pudding and then “Papi” used to make it and it is a definite Ramsay family favourite. As the family grew, we needed to have two of these puddings at any function as everyone liked it!!
I get on with all my family and especially enjoy our family get togethers as we always have so much fun – taking the mickey out of each other and generally just having a good laugh. Warren and I seem to have a similar sense of humour! Each family member in their own way is very special to me. I numbered all the pictures in order to indicate who they were:
1. Janine
2. Lu
3. Laura
4. Debbie
5. Nicholas
6. Papi
7. Joanne
8. Kirsten
9. Samantha
10. Luke
11. Byron
12. Cassandra
13. Rebekah
14. Carol
15. Leanne
16. Grandpa F
17. Ouma
18. Granny F
19. Malcolm
20. Warren
21. Dereck
22. Ryan
23. Lesley
24. Brendon
25. Kerin
26. Jennifer
27. Greg
28 Grandpa E
29. Alex
30. Granny E
31. Grant
32. Liesel
The next layout for the BOM Challenge #9 was to do with our fashion sense through the years. I managed to finish this layout yesterday - it helps when you have a husband who watches the Grand Prix and who was in so much pain from his gym session that he couldn't walk around too much, so we didn't need to go anywhere!!!! Here is my layout:
And the journalling reads as follows:
I am not a fashion conscious person. I like practicle clothes that can be mixed and matched and that will last. I like bright vibrant colours. For work I like to wear skirts and loose fitting shirts. For casual wear I enjoy jeans, shorts or ¾ pants with t/.shirts or loose shirts. I don’t often wear dresses. If I am at a shopping mall and I see something I like, I buy it as chances are that when I am looking for something I won’t find it. I have a few necklaces that I wear but I am not big on accessories. I have a couple of pairs of black and white shoes as this is the most common colour I wear to work. I do buy others that will match clothes that I already have. This saves on wearing the same shoes all the time. When I was younger I enjoyed long hair. Since I started walking and now doing gym, I find that that short hair suits me better as I wash it every day. I have had perms over the years but prefer it natural now. I have my hair highlighted – originally for a bit of colour but nowt it is to start hiding the grey!! I am not a big make-up person. I always wear lipstick and if I am going out I will add mascara and blush. My favourite perfume is CHANEL No. 5 and RED DOOR. My taste hasn’t changed – I am still a conservative and practicle dresser. The style of my glasses …… well at the time they were fashionable so I hope in 20 years time I won’t be laughed at!!!
Thanks for looking.
BOM Challenger up to date signing off ....