Leanne's 21st collage - framed

When Dereck and I went over to see Leanne in Wales, in May this year, I had remade her 21st collage for her. I had stuck everything down except the middle photos and once I was in Wales, then I joined everything together. Leanne then took the collage in to a framer and she collected it yesterday. This is how it now looks - framed ....

I must say, they really did a great job and I am sure it looks even better in real life.

For those of you that don't know, for Leanne's 21st I had done scrapbook albums since birth to 21 for Leanne which was a total surprise. About a week before while having lunch she came up with the suggestion that I must make a collage for her. I gave her some lame excuse that I didn't want to cut up all her baby photos and that we would scan them and just print them out on paper and I would make a collage. Little did she know that there were no baby pictures to scan as they had all been scrapped into her surprise album. Once Leanne wasn't around, I gave the albums to Dereck so that he could scan them and then once they were printed, I quickly cut them out so that she couldn't see that they had been scrapped and made the "paper" 21st collage. I must say she was very pleased with the end result and I just felt that I had cheated her a bit and decided to reprint the photos properly and do an original collage and take it to her in Wales. Because of cutting it out properly, I had space and put other pictures in that had not been in the original collage, so that was also a nice surprise for her when she saw it again.

Impressed mom signing off ....

Rak up for grabs

Hope over to Scrap{a} Tale and see the lovely RAK the Queens of the Castle are giving away. All you have to do to be in line to win all these goodies from "Art from the Heart" is to become a follower of their blog. So hop on over and become a Royal follower ..... Royal follower signing off ....

Some more Scrapping

After getting back from the Drakensberg Sun on Friday afternoon, I had some inspiration to get another page done from Leanne's 21 album. There are a few pages that still need to be done and I have all the photos and paper waiting. This layout was about the band "Westlife" who I saw in 2001 while Dereck and I were staying at Sun City. While we were waiting for our lift, they came out of the "Palace" hotel. They were one of Leanne's favourite bands (Dereck's name for them was "Waste of Life" as he always said they were "one hit wonders", much to Leanne's annoyance. It was easy to do that page as I had just finished off the one below of Wisconsin in the USA and the photos were the right shape for the same layout. Well, I just have to do a page of journalling and then that is the first week of our USA holiday scrapped. I feel so good about having done this and a huge THANKS has to go to Desire for her layout ideas and paper selection.

Scrapping getting done signing off .....

Drakensberg Sun Getaway 9 - 11 September 2009

Dereck decided that he would like to go away somewhere and that I would accompany him, so on Wednesday afternoon we headed off to .....We left home at about 1:30pm and arrived here at about 4:00pm. The drive was good, but there were some serious pot holes in places and after our last trip to the Berg and having to replace 2 tyres, he drove with extreme caution!!!
The weather was not very nice, but we had both brought our books along in case of bad weather.
After checking in, we sat in the local pub and had a drink (or two) and then went back to our room to unpack and check what was on offer. We had a nice supper - a buffet - and then after supper just read our books and watched tv in the room.

Thursday morning was really miserable and after a nice breakfase we took a drive to the local shops and just had a look around. When we came back, the weather was a bit drier, so we took a walk around the resort area. This is the view from the pool area looking up towards the hotel.
This is from the hotel looking out over the resort and in the direction of where one would go and do a walk - I was certainly prepared for a walk, but it was too risky in case of rain.
Down by the dam we found this little spot that had this bench overlooking the dam and was surrounded by trees - quite cosy I must say.
A bit further on there was an enclosed pond with probably 4 ducks!!! Last time I was here, there were plenty of them. This one let me get quite close to it, but it kept its eye on me the whole time.
It kept tilting its head when I tried taking its photo - maybe it was posing - he he
Nearer the timeshare cottages we came across a monkey family where this one had found an old loaf of bread and was not letting the others have any of it. He wasn't too impressed when Dereck got a bit closer to take his photo and grabbed the bread and moved onto the road which was nearer me. Everytime I moved to take a picture, he would carry on eating, but watched me the whole time. Really funny.
A lovely little bridge just past the timeshare cottages and behind the bolwing green.
After our walk about, we had lunch and then spent the afternoon in the room - me reading a really great book and Dereck watching tv. Supper again was a buffet.

Friday morning we had breakfast late and then checked out. We left there at about 10:15am and took a leisurely drive along the Midlands Meander and popped into the Linen Loft at Mooi River. I bought two nice bath mats and then we carried on along the Meander to Currys Post, got back onto the freeway and arrived home at about 1:00pm. Dereck had some work to do, so I unpacked and then scrapped a single page for Leanne's album.

All in all a lovely relaxing two days.

Chilled out signing off ....

Scrapping and Mosaicing

This is a picture frame I mosaiced for my sister Liesel's birthday. I really had a lot of fun making it and the photo I used was one we took at Christmas time. In a previous blog post I mentioned that my brother Malcolm and his family were going to be emmigrating to New Zealand in February 2009, so I had taken along my tripod on Christmas eve and made each of the families pose to get photos and then got the whole family together. This was a good one of all the family, but with Leanne not being here, we had to use a picture that Dereck had taken of her when he went overseas in the September (or thereabouts) and used photoshop to add her in. I love the way the photo came out and for me is certainly a really special one. It was also very special to Liesel, and from her reaction on opening her present, made me realise that this is exactly what I was meant to make for her. Enjoy Liesel and remember that you are very special.Below is another layout from our USA trip that I finished. This was from the boat cruise that we went on.
There is always one picture that won't go the correct way around, no matter what I do!!! So, sorry if you get a stiff neck for having to look sideways! This is a layout of general things in New York. The limosines, at the tube station, the view from the air train, our hotel and Carnegie Hall.
The above layout ideas I got from Desire while I was up visiting her over the long week-end in August. I have one more to finish and then that will be week one completed.

The layout below is one I finished recently of Leanne as a bridesmaid at her aunt's wedding in 1998 when she was 12 years old. I can't believe how time has flown. The stencil I used is a new one (fancy squares) available from Doinglife and for the larger pictures, I extended it to fit.

Yesterday it was my friend Shelley's birthday and she, Rayna and I went to another crafting lesson. Rayna continued with her painting and Shelley and I started with painting a plate each. I must say I had a lot of fun and quite enjoyed it. After that, we came to my place where Kathy met us and we had a yummy lunch of bobotie with rice and vegetables and finished off with the Ramsay ginger pudding, custard and cream. Then we just sat chatting and catching up on news.

Today, Dereck and I took a drive down to the Durban beachfront to see all the alterations and extensions currently taking place. It is quite a mess at the moment and I hope that the City can have it all finished by 2010 soccer. From there we went to Oscars in Essenwood Road and had lunch and then came home and got a few chores done.

I have just finished watching the movie on M-Net - August Rush - what a divine movie. Now ready to do some reading of my book and then get some sleep.

Satisfied crafter signing off .....

Spring Day Picnic at Alexander Cox

Yesterday marked the first day of Spring here in sunny South Africa and our office as well as the staff in the other 4 or 5 offices decided to have a bring and share picnic in the garden. The weather was very kind to us, although rather hot, and we certainly had a feast laid before us.Julian showed us all how to get the most benefit from someone holding the plate and then tuck in with both hands! This particular dish was a tuna mousse which was really very yummy!!! Needless to say there was nothing left at the end of the picnic.

Some of the ladies and gents from the other offices.
The ladies and Julian from our office and Brian from Hewitt Colenbrander Recruitment.
Starting to feel the effects of the heat and getting relaxed on the blanket.

Stuart ready for his afternoon nap in the garden surrounded by the ladies!

It was a most enjoyable picnic and we all had plenty to eat with a few things left over for tea tomorrow.

After getting home and sorting out the dogs, Dereck and I went off to the Heritage Theater to see the Legends of Rock with Barry Thompson and Mali Sewell and others performing. It was a great show and we met up with Mark and Claire (who are out from England to celebrate their twins' 21st), Errol and Alison, Darryl and Bev, Ian and Jayne, Alex, Lesley, Nicholas and 4 friends of Alex's. It was good chatting to everyone after the show and we only got home at about 12:45am.

Spring picnicer signing off ....

Michelle

Secretaries Day

Happy Secretaries Day

(or "Slaves Day")

Hope you all get suitably spoilt!!!

Secretary Slave signing off ....