Craft Room Makeover

The big reveal is finally here! My cupboards were put in on Wednesday and while Leanne was out with her aunt Liesel, I spent the day packing my cupboards and clearing out Dereck's office, which I had been using as my scrapping space. The top two pictures were where the original cupboards used to be and the cupboards are now on the wall opposite and are the whole length of the wall with a corner cupboard for easy access to my scrapping supplies!! I have labelled all my containers so that anyone looking for anything will see where things are - eg christmas decorations, general stationery, disney stamps, word stamps etc etc.

I have ordered my table and once it is received, I will post so that you can see what it looks like.

Happy scrapper signing off ...

General Update

Well, the floor of my craft room has been sanded and they finished today with the varnishing. I will take some pictures this week-end and let you see the next step. Really looks great.

I got some happy mail today. On the Making Memories for You site that I chat on, they had a crop and I won some paper. It was sent to Sophia with something she got and I collected it today. Here are the papers - they are really lovely and not something I have seen here in SA:

I have also been doing a bit of scrapping of late and this particular layout is from a kit that I purchased from Desire's online shoppe. I changed some of the papers and used the same kit layout. I am very pleased with the end result. This is a page of when Sharon, Reg, Dereck an I went to Johannesburg last year to walk in a 12/24 hour circuit walk. We had to walk 2 km round a school and had to achieve at least 60km in the 12 hours to qualify. The event started at 5pm and by 11pm I was so tired, that I went to have a lie down and fell asleep. When I woke up I realised that I would not be able to achieve the required distance, so went back to sleep!!! Sharon and Reg did the required and more!! Here is the layout:

These are a few more that I have completed for Grant's album:

Scrappywalker signing off ...

Spare Room Makeover!

We have a spare room in our house, which is where I normally do my scrapping, sewing, card making and sometimes where a guest would sleep when they came to visit. Now that Leanne has left home, her room is available as a spare room and I decided that I was going to give the original spare room a make over. So, to begin with I wanted the carpets lifted as we have parke flooring underneath and we are having that sanded and varnished. Then I wanted the cupboards out and replaced in a different position in the room. The walls had to be repainted as they were a different colour behind the cupboards.

So this week-end has been spent emptying the cupboards, taking out my desk and sewing cabinet, taking down the cupboards, lifting the carpet and painting the walls. I still need to do some more painting as the new paint I got is slightly darker than what is currently on the wall, and although Dereck and Grant say you can't really notice it, being me, I can. Here are some of the before pictures:

I will carry on tomorrow and finish the painting, once I get home from work.

Keep a lookout for updates as the room progresses.

Paintergirl signing off ...

Grant Graduates

Wednesday, 2 April 2008 was a very proud moment for Dereck and I - Grant was graduating! The ceremony was held at the Jewish Club in Durban and we got there nice and early and got seats 3 rows from the front. Grant passed his IT Programming Diploma with Distinction. This is also a milestone in my life as my "baby" is now all grown up and working!! Bruce Fordyce was the guest speaker and gave a wonderfully humorous talk. Grant even commented on his humour.

Well done Grant we are all very proud of you.

Proud graduate's mom signing off ...

Ubizane Zululand Tree Lodge update 2

We saw quite a few birds, but obviously could not get pictures of them all. Here are a few I managed to get a picture of:

The first one is a type of swallow, the second a red backed shrike, the third a large owl and the fourth a European Roller.

We also saw quite a few animals and below are pictures of them. These were a combination of the animals seen at this lodge as well as the Hluhluwe Reserve which we went to on the Sunday morning:

There were quite a few monkeys around and they were really rather cheeky. They came on to the tables at breakfast and were stealing the sugar and the yoghurts behind the counter!! These are pictures I took on Saturday morning after we had breakfast and were just lazying in our room deciding what to do:We went for a drive into Hluhluwe, but there was really nothing there - just extremely busy with shoppers on a Saturday. We took a drive to see where the Hluhluwe Game Reserve was and then went back to our tree house. I wandered around taking pictures of the buck that were roaming under our tree house and just watched them, then spent quite a while just sitting back enjoying the surroundings and reading a book that I had brought along. At 4pm we went for another game drive, but not before a monkey sneaked into our room and helped itself to all our sugar (second time as they came in the day before and stole it as well):

On Sunday we got up at 05h30 to leave at 6am to go to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve. This was really great and we were hoping to see lion, but that was not to be. We saw quite a few animals (pictures above) which was great. The rhino we saw had a young one with him and he didn't like the fact that the game vehicle was so close and he kept coming towards us. Once the baby had walked into the bush, then the daddy rhino walked away!!

Once we got back, we had breakfast and then started packing up our things. While Dereck was taking a shower I was just chilling on the bed staring out the door and something caught my eye in the tree. I quickly put my zoom lens on the camera and took pictures so that I could see what it was - horrors of horrors it was a snake!! But having had first hand exprience with one in my house a while ago, I recognised it as a Varigated Bush Snake and thankfully it was in a tree not so close to us. Thankfully we were leaving that morning, otherwise I would have wondered where the snake was!!
We really had a great relaxing time. The food was great and we had perfect weather and it was just what we both needed.

Bushed out signing off ...

Ubizane Zululand Tree Lodge

I recently won a week-end away at this wonderful lodge and Dereck and I went there on 28 February 2008 (yes, I know that this is very late to blog, but better late than never - he he!)

We left at about 12h30 on the Friday and arrived at the Lodge at about 3h30 with the beating of drums welcoming us. We were shown our tree lodge which was really great and then we met our guide for the first of our game drives. This man was a bird lover and certainly knew his birds.

See next post for the rest of the update ...

What is the meaning of your Name? Mine is:

What Michelle Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Recipe for your Personality

Here is mine:

The Recipe For michelle

3 parts Wisdom 2 parts Desire 1 part Compassion Splash of Playfulness Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's" the Recipe for Your Personality?

Easter Friday

Well, I am home alone to do what I want, when I want and listening to Rock 'n Roll oldies on DSTV!!! Dereck left for Splashy Fenn on Thursday morning and Grant and his friends left at 04h00 this morning.

So, what have I been doing? Making chocolates for Easter, instead of buying them. I have had a lot of fun. It is really time consuming, but I really enjoy it. Once they were all made I put them into little packs with a ribbon and a sticker that I had bought previously.

Here is a sample of a few of them for the adults in the family ...

I also made a large hollow bunnie, wrapped it in cellphane and put it in a little basket and filled the basket with some of the above small chocolates and then wrapped the whole thing in cellophane. This is for Reg and Louisa (the Run/Walk for Life Managers) (Reg's nickname is "Bunnie"). I also made a card which looks like this ...

And what am I going to do next? I have bought some nice plastic boxes and am going to pack all my stamps and other scrapping things that are currently in my cupboard in them, so that I can clear the cupboard, get it dismantled and then have them rebuilt in a different place in the room.

So, watch the blog for some updates on my "Craft Room" makeover!!

Chocolate crafter signing off ...

Week-end of Scrapping

This is another layout for Grant's album. I started it yesterday and have just finished it off now. The idea came from one of Desire's layouts with Uncle Peter and Juanita at Christmas. Thanks Desire for the inspiration. I had fun creating this and like how it turned out.

This is a layout of Grant's 8th birthday which I started this morning and have just finished. I can't believe how time has flown as it seems just like yesterday that we were arranging this party!

Scrapping up a storm signing off...

My hairstyle

I recently went to have my hair cut. Although I had some hair cut off, I decided to keep the length as I have quite enjoyed my hair a bit longer at the back.

Here are some before and after pictures. Don't know how often I can get my hair to look like this as it seems to do it's own thing on the sides and keeps curling up!!

Curly wurly signing off...

Some more layouts

These are two layouts I managed to start and finish last week.

Creative mom signing off...

Some scrapping layouts

These are some layouts that I recently finished. These are for Grant's album which he will get when he turns 21 in January 2009.

Scrapping mom signing off...

My Sister, Liesel

These are some "rare" pictures of my sister, who hates having her photo taken. It was at my mom's birthday lunch, that she agreed to smile for the photos - thanks Liesel.

Making the most of the moment signing off ...

The Big 7-0H

It was my mom's birthday on 10 February 2008 (yes, I know that this is a very late posting but ...) and us children decided to club together and the girls would take her for a half day spa treatment.

Liesel fetched my mom on the Saturday (9 Feb) morning and came to my house where we went up to the Heritage Retreat where Bronwyn met us and told us what was going to happen. Mom's day started with a healthy breakfast, followed by a steam bath, then a full body massage, then a facial, then a pedicure and when she was ready to have her manicure, Debbie, Liesel and I came back and we also had either a manicure or a pedicure and all finished together. Mom has never done anything like this and I could see that she really had a great time. After that we went to a restaurant called Star Anise (spelling?) and had lunch. I don't think mom would be too happy if I displayed pictures of her at the spa!

On the Sunday 10 Feb, we went up to Debbie's house for a luncheon. The whole family (except Leanne who is currently in London) were there, including her brother Frank. We had all clubbed in and lunch consisted of:

Green salad

Curry and rice

Lasagne

Rolls

Ice cream pudding

Chocolate malva pudding (which was also the birthday cake)

Merangues, with berries and cream

A great time was had by all.

This is the layout I did, using the "Desirable Landscaping" kit from doing life shoppe. I had to add a mounting as I didn't read the instructions properly!

It was also Lauren's (Grant's girlfriend) 18th birthday on the 9 Feb, so it was a double celebration.

A few pictures taken on the day.

Pampered and lunched out signing off ...