Scrapping up a Storm!!

I have been doing quite a bit of scrapping lately and finished off these two layouts recently. This is of Grant's birthday in January 2008 where we had a fish braai and of course a really yummy chocolate cake to finish off with. This is a design from Doing Life which was tweaked when I did it in Leanne's album and got tweaked again for Grant's album!This next layout is also from Doing Life, which was also tweaked to suit my size photos and is of Lauren's birthday in February 2008, when she turned 18:


I am almost finished one of the kids goofing around at Christmas time and will post it as soon as it is done.

I went to see Mamma Mia today. Girls this is the best movie I have seen in a loooong while. If you haven't seen it, please do yourself a favour and get there. It is one of those movies that brings back the girlie things you might have done together, funny, little bit sad, the feel good stuff and the best is that there were ABBA songs in it!!! I felt so good after I had watched it.

Needless to say I put on my Abba CD when I got home and happily scrapped!

Anyway, time now for bed to be fresh for a short week. Dereck and I are going to the Berg on Thursday - only 4 more sleeps!

Abbamaniac signing off ....

BOM Challenge #6 - Habits

This was difficult to try and find out what habits I have that maybe irritate or annoy people. Anyway Grant came up with the one about me falling asleep in front of the TV and Shelley reminded me of a couple of sayings that I have.

Here is my layout and below it is the wording:


GOOD:
I drink at least 8 glasses of water every day

I have a pedicure every month.

I have a great sense of humour and often see the funny side of things. My family think this is not so good as I do find others’ misfortunes hilarious!! But people will send me funny things saying that they knew I would appreciate it!

I don’t wait for things to get done, I get on and do them.

I always finish what I start.

I am reliable & helpful and give 100% effort.

I am loyal and won’t let someone down if I have undertaken to do something.

I have never smoked; not even taken a puff.

I have a good memory and can remember conversations. When doing walking races in particular, I would always take note and remember the roads and landmarks that I walked past and my friend Shelley would just look at me if I ever reminded her of where we had been!

I don’t drink much, but with the right friends, could go overboard. The last time that happened was a few years ago with my friend Shelley and I won’t elaborate!!
I have my hair cut every 6 weeks. If my hair looks good, I feel good.

I am game for a dare or challenge – did 1208km in walking races in a year and swam the midmar mile in 2000 (having not swam since 1979!)


BAD:
I fall asleep while watching TV and then I wake myself because I am snoring and uncomfortable or because my family are really irritated with me and wake me up to tell me not to sleep.

I don’t delegate. I am a strong believer that if I am responsible for something, then I must do it.

If I need help with doing something and ask someone to help me, I expect them to help me then. If they don’t, I just leave them and get on with it.

I bite my lips if they are dry, although I am starting to use Lip-Ice more often.

When I am cross or upset, I tend to mull over things for a while – it is best to just leave me alone to get over it, hehe.

When chatting I sometimes interrupt the person as I have an answer to what they are talking about and don’t want to forget what I want to say.

I can be very stubborn.

UGLY:
I cannot leave a pimple alone – it just has to go!!!!

I pick my nose – I cannot stand when there is something there and it just has to go, but in private!!!

ENDEARING:
If something is nice, I have a saying from the Polyfilla advert that I use – “very, very nice Pieter, now go and fix the crack in the kitchen” with the accent too!!!

If I am cross with someone or something I say “Yus …” when telling the story.

"Fixing the crack" signing off ....

8 THINGS THAT MAKE ME SING {HAPPY}

I have been tagged by Desire ...

I sing to music when no-one is listening - I don't think I sing very well!!

But the following is what makes me happy ..

* Being with my friends or family - I always have a great time

* Listening to music - anything lively that you can dance to

* Dancing - I love doing this and don't do it often enough

* Helping people - this makes me feel useful

* Giving to other people - makes me feel good seeing their expression when they receive something that they have been wanting or needed

* Watching monkeys - there is something about them that makes me laugh

* Completing a walking race or lately a good hard session at the gym

* Seeing other people happy, makes me happy.

I would like to tag the following people to find out what makes them happy:

Leanne
Beryldene

Feeling happy signing off ....

On a Winning Streak ....

Tracy came round to my office on Friday and delivered to me my "If" Challenge prize:

There was a sheets of chipboard swirls, thank you sticker sheet, pack of mini paper, 2 little tubs of glitter and 2 rolls of the most divine ribbon.

Then she also gave me the prize for coming out of the draw for leaving comments on her blog. This really was a positive thought that I left on her blog, and I came out a winner. Here is what I received:

A lovely covered chipboard "M"
6 co-ordinating patterned papers and 4 sheets of plain colour and a sheet of tags

A kit to do the layout titled "Defining Moments" which has the instructions, 2 patterned papers and to plain papers and all the embellishments to finish the layout off.

Thank you so much Tracy. I am going to have fun using all my goodies.

Also, it was great to meet you in person. I do remember seeing you at the SATC 2 day crop in May, but we didn't chat.

Prize winner signing off ...

Secretaries Day

This is a bit late, but it was Secretaries Day on Wednesday, 3 September 2008. Paula, Glynis and I at our office were presented with lovely big boquets of flowers. Here is what mine looks like:

Flower power signing off ....

BED HEAD

It was "Casual Day" today in the working environment and Grant's work decided that their theme was a pyjama party. They all had to go to work dressed in their pyjamas. Last night while cooking supper, he came and asked me for my slippers that I was wearing and literally took them off my feet! He found Dereck's dressing gown, got his long sleep shorts and his knitted beanie and that is how he drove himself to work!!!

Well, this is the wording I received in an e-mail later this morning:

"Hey Mom, I won a prize… BED HEAD… the best dressed sleepy look"

Grant received a certificate as well as those eye patches you get on the plane with "Bed Head" printed on it. Can you believe it!!!

Slipperless signing off ....

BOM Challenge # 4 & 5 - My School Days

Ok, I have finally completed the last of this BOM challenge. Check out Tracy's blog for more details if you would like to join us on this rememberance journey.

This was fun and it is amazing how I have changed over the years. I had to scan the pictures, so they are not the best quality but it at least gives one an idea of how I looked!!

The journalling reads as follows:

"From 1966 – 1967 I attended Woodlands Nursery School. From 1968 – 1969 I attended Woodlands Infants Primary School and used to catch a bus there and back every day. During 1969 a school was being built in Yellow-wood Park, where I lived and from 1970 - 1974 I attended this school, which I used to walk to and from every day. I had to walk past the shopping centre and often stopped in to buy chips or an ice-cream to eat on the remainder of my way home – chips 5cents a packet, ice-cream (pop-a-2) 3 cents!! Can you believe it! The high school I attended was Mowat Park High, in Montclair and I was there from 1975 – 1979. I loved school, not for the learning, but for the social as I enjoyed being with my friends. I also enjoyed my sport and drama, so was always participating in something after school. In order to save on bus fare and have more pocket money, I often walked to and from school which was about 4 or 5 km each way. That probably stood me in good stead for my walking career later on in my life!! From school reports I was friendly, polite, well mannered, helpful and always willing to please. Some of the games we played at primary school were, marbles (I was really good at this!) elastics, rounders and kissing catches. At high school we would just meet up at lunch time and find a spot on the field and sit and chat. I was fairly popular amongst my friends and most of the teachers at the primary and high school knew of me".

Off to bed to get some well needed sleep as I only got to bed after 12pm last night!!

Schooled out signing off ....

Blog Award

As a Proudly South African, I was able to accept a blog award over at Desire's (Doing Life) blog. Check it out and accept one for yourself too.

Proudly South African blogger signing off ....

Another Award Received

I received this award from Desire, Jacqui, Libby & Tracy - thanks so much, I feel quite honoured!



The rules are simple: 1. Make a blog post where you pass the award on to seven blogs you like and 2. Post a comment at their blog to tell them about the award!

In no particular order, here are the blogs I have chosen:

Desire, Tracy, Leanne, Berlydene, Libby, Andrea & Tracy S. They are so inspirational and I always look forward to seeing their updates!

Award winner signing off ....

BOM Challenge # 4 & 5 Teen and School years

This was a great challenge to do and brought back to many fond memories of my youth gone by. I had to split this challenge up a bit as I found that I had quite a few photos. I have done 4 layouts titled:

Friends
The Athlete
Matric Year
School Years (I am still busy with this one and will upload once I have finished)

Here they are with all the journalling:

The journalling reads as follows:

My friends were a very important part of my life. I just so enjoyed being with them and socialising. We often had sleep-overs with midnight feasts!! I remember the one time we all stayed at a friend, Althea’s house, and decided to throw potatoes onto the neighbours corrugated roof at about midnight!! We would wait for about 10 minutes and then do it again. He was wild and we were all hysterical with laughter at waking them up. Then we proceeded to go up to the road armed with potatoes and eggs and threw some eggs onto the wall of one of someone we knew and stuffed a potato up the exhaust of someone’s car that was parked outside. We were bad, but it was such fun!!! In those days there were no videos and we used to hire 8mm reel movies.

My best friend was Ingrid (known as Gigs as her baby sister couldn’t pronounce her name!). She arrived in Durban in 1970 and was in my Std I class. The teacher moaned at her about something and I was so upset about this and befriended her and we have been great friends ever since!! She now lives in England but we still keep in touch. We have one of those friendships that we can just pick up where we left off – it is great.

We never had TV in those days even though it was around. In my primary school years, our neighbours Hilton and Deslyn and their neighbours Victor and Harry would come to our place and we would often spend Friday nights sitting round the kitchen table listening to “Squad Cars” and then playing monopoly or a card game. Other radio programmes I enjoyed were “Jet Jungle, Men from the Ministery, Test the Team and Kids say the Darndest things”. In later years I would go to our new neighbours, Eugene (he was really cute!!) and Deidre and would watch TV with them.

I enjoyed reading and often borrowed books from a friend across the road, Gillian, as she had a great collection. To name some would be Nancy Drew, First to Fourth Form at Mallory Towers, Famous Five, Alfred Hitchkock, the Hardy Boys and lots of others by Enid Blyton. When I was younger I used to read the Beatrix Potter books that my uncle had sent me from America and this is where my love for the figurines came from – I am now an avid collector and have quite a number of the various characters from the story books.

My friends stayed in different areas of Yellow-wood Park and we either rode our bikes or walked to each other’s houses. Gigs and her sister Marian and I went for a picnic on our bikes once and we took a packet of hand picked mulberries and when we stopped to eat them, they had leaked all over Marian’s school books! She was not impressed.

We often played schools in our kaya and in later years that is where I would go to tape music from the radio onto a tape. It was nice and quiet except when my dad decided to mow the lawn!!

On week-ends, we often caught the bus into town and went to movies. On a Saturday they used to have the Sterkinekor Kiddies Club. For less than R1-00 I could catch the bus (return) see a movie, have popcorn, coke and sweets and still have change!! Ice-skating was also a popular event for us, but this was a bit costly as we had to catch two busses to get to the rink. But we always had a lot of fun and I always came home sopping wet from all the falls I had.

In my teen years there was a group of us that always hung around together and we were referred to as “the gang” – Bev, Andrew, Gavin, Deryck, Derrick, Beverley, Gigs and I (seems I have a thing for Dereck’s!!). We often hung out at Andrew’s house in their double garage with his brothers Gavin and Deryck. In later years (with the help of us girls) we repainted and converted their maid’s room into a “den” where we often sat listening to music and chatting. They also had a caravan at Kelso and many a week-end we would catch a train and spend the week-end there – we certainly had a load of fun.

We all belonged to Junior Church and every Friday we had Youth evening and we would do something social. One of my favourites was going on a progressive supper where we started at one house and walked to the next to have the next part of the meal. In those days we walked everywhere and sometimes it was as late as 10:30pm. It was during this time that my friends got me to drink coffee as I didn’t like it and always wanted water!! We often went away on camps and one of my favourite was Teen Ranch in Isingolweni down the South Coast. Neville and Ruth van der Walt were our team leaders and we used to call them “Shrink and Stretch” because Ruth was so short and Neville was so tall.

The music I enjoyed was Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath (the song Paranoid was always played at the ice-rink and I have fond memories of this), the Who, the Beatles, Showaddywaddy, Clout, Rabbitt, Slade, Kiss and the Osmonds, to name a few. I still enjoy these groups and actually like any kind of music that you can dance to. I was mad about Rabbit, especially Duncan Faure and use to have posters all over my bedroom wall of all these groups and more! They came and played at the Durban City Hall and my friends and I went to see them live – we were screaming like crazy when we saw them!!!

I had a lot of friends and socialized in different ways with all of them – some due to sport, some because of school but “the gang” were the friends I saw most. I was fairly popular and was always involved in something somewhere. I was never a bully and was quite sensitive and got upset if people fought with each other, which sometimes did happen.

When I left school I went to Natal Technikon and my friends there were Deanne (who I ended up sharing a flat with after I finished Tech) Ingrid, Ronelle, Wendy and Alison. Ingrid and I ended up working together at Standard Bank, Mobeni Branch when I got my first job.


The journalling reads as follows:

I love sport. My dad was a great tennis player and I think I must have got his sporting genes. Both my parents were always at my sporting events cheering me on and encouraging me and this was a big thing for me to have them there

In my matric year I was house captain for Mendel and was the vice captain for the inter-school athletics team.

While at school I played the following sports:

v Athletics - each year from 1973 I made the inter-schools team for various events, and in 1977 earned the “Best U15 Athlete” award. This was my passion! I was in the open relay team at the inter-schools and we won the trophy
v Cross Country – this I enjoyed and it improved my 800 and 1500 meter times in athletics meetings
v Swimming – in my matric year I was in the synchronized swimming team and we won. This was the first time that Mendel had ever won!
v Hockey – made the first team in matric and played against a touring Cape team
v Netball
v Soccer – for a short while
v Badminton – winning quite a few trophies (which my son “sold” to earn extra pocket money!!)
v Gymnastics – I enjoyed this and often practiced routines with my friends at home
v Ballet – reaching grade 5 at the Royal Academy of Dancing
v Speech & Drama – earning a bursary to study speech and drama for a year with Professor Elizabeth Sneddon in 1977
v Music – reached grade 5 in the Trinity School of Music (London) for piano and grade 2 in theory, grade 2 in the Royal School of Music (London) piano and grade 1 in theory. Sadly my teacher passed away and I didn’t want to start with a new teacher in my matric year
v Modern Dancing – only did this in standard 9 for a short while
v Squash – this was an extra sport offered to the matrics and I really enjoyed this. My dad, brother and I often went and played during the week at the squash courts in Jacobs
v Dance Drama – did this every year from standard 6 to matric
v Tennis – for a short while. I made the semi-finals in a doubles tournament and then broke my collar bone. It was not a sport I really enjoyed.
v Table tennis – we had a table set up in our double garage and the neighbours used to come over – we had loads of fun.
v Girl Guides – from being a Brownie and progressing to Girl Guides. I gave up in std 7, having learnt a lot of practical things.

And the journalling reads as follows:

Matric at last! This was a good year for me as it spelt the end of school. Not that I did not like school, but just that I was now going to either go to University or Tech. I did not like learning and loved sport and if I could be doing some sort of sport training, that came first over any homework or learning. Needless to say I did not get a matric exemption so could not go to University. I chose to go to Natal Technikon and did a National Secretarial Course – Computers.

I was the Mendel house captain and the vice captain for the inter-school athletics team. As matrics we got to choose an extra sport and I chose squash – a game I really enjoyed and played well, often winning my games.

For my matric dance, I asked my neighbour, Eugene, to come with me and can you believe it, it only cost my parents R3-00 for us to attend! My other neighbour, Hilton, asked me to his Marist Brothers matric dance and there also had a farewell dinner later in the year. My mom made all my dresses that I wore to these dances.

And I used to think I was really fat!!!!

Reminiscing signing off ....

Mug lucky draw

Don't you just love this mug? I certainly do and I hope to win it. Why don't you head over to Gisele's blog and enter to win.




Mugging signing off ...

Sky Diving

Not me, so don't get worried!! It was Grant. He said for his birthday this year that he would like to go skydiving, but every time he made arrangements the weather turned out bad. Anyway it was while Leanne was out in May that he ended up going. It was the 3 May 2008 and we drove up to Pietermaritzburg airport for him to dive at about 1pm. When we got there we sat around for a bit and then his instructor (he was going tandem with Grant) gave him a run down of what he had to do. He had to dress in a particular outfit - looked like overalls! and then we went to the airport area. He got onto a small aeroplane and up he went. It was quite an amazing feeling watching my son jump from an aeroplane. Nevertheless he landed safely and you could just see from his face that he was on a serious adrenaline high. He said he definitely wants to do this again.

In May I went on a 2 day scrapathon and the colours for two of the layouts were perfect for doing Grant's skydiving pictures. He has been bugging me for not having put his pictures on my blog, so here are the layouts I did:


Flying high signing off ...

I am a Winner!!!

My "IF" challenge layout (see post a couple below this for picture of layout) won the prize - this is what was said on Tracy's blog:

The winner of the "IF" Challenge is ... (drum roll, please) ....
MICHELLE RAMSAYI decided it wasn't fair for me to choose a winner as I am not an impartial judge, so I got a friend to have a look at the entries and she chose Michelle's LO, based on her journalling ...

Congratulations and thanks for your heartfelt, indepth and honest journalling, Michelle - I really enjoyed reading about you - especially the bull's testicles bit (how did that enter you mind???? - too much Fear Factor, baby). Please e-mail me your addy and I will send you your FREE STASH ...

Thanks Tracy - it was fun doing this challenge and certainly got me reflecting on my life. I will put up a picture of my free stash once I receive it - can't wait!!

"Iffy" winner signing off ...

A Quiet Week-end

Well, I had a quiet week-end. We collected some furniture from Dereck's late mom's flat and did some serious tidying up at home to make space for the new furniture. We managed to see off an old sleeper couch - while Grant was on his way to a second hand shop he stopped to put in some petrol and the petrol attendant bought the couch!! Then his girlfriend's step mom, bought a home gym and he went to another second hand shop and got rid of a few more items.

One of the things we got was a corner display cabinet which is now in our bar and is filled with Dereck's minature guitars and Grant's mini car collection. I must say it looks really good. I will take a picture and post later.

In our computer room, we now have a small wall unit with the tv, dvd and surround sound and the recliner couch that used to be in the lounge which got relegated to Dereck's office, now has a suitable place in the corner as well as a double seater couch. It really makes the room nice and cosy to watch tv.

Anyway, I had to post this so that I could test out my signature. I had created this a while ago, but just never took the time to see how it would fit into my blog - guess what, I now know how!!

Nice and tidy signing off ...

"IF" Challenge

I am off sick at present with a serious bout of flu, and got up just now as my back was getting sore from lying down all morning. I decided to finish of my "IF" challenge layout that Tracy gave us. The idea is more about journalling than pictures and this is the first time I have done a layout without any pictures in it!

Here is my finished product:

The journalling on the outside reads:

… I could start my married life over, is there someone else who I would have preferred to marry? No, because I am extremely happy to have such a wonderful husband as Dereck. I had been invited to my matric class Teacher’s wedding and didn’t have a partner and my friend arranged for Dereck to be my date. 28 years later, we are still together, having been married for 24 years. There was a stage in my live where I questioned my relationship, but that was me rather than any actual problems. Dereck is a wonderful support and I have had a lot of freedom
to do the things that I have wanted to. Dereck has always been there and provided for us and
we both have a lot of fun together even though our music tastes are “kilometers”apart!!

… I have to say how I am feeling about life right now, I can honestly say that I am content, happy and really satisfied with all that I have achieved.

… I could bring up my children in a different way, would I do it? No. I feel that I was strict enough but also gave them some space. I am happy with what both Leanne and Grant have achieved and I have a wonderful relationship with each of them. Leanne & I often used to go to
the movies and shopping together and now that she is overseas, this is something that I really miss a lot. Leanne, Grant and I have a wicked sense of humour and have had many good laughs
about someone else’s misfortune often to the horror of Dereck!

And the journalling in the middle reads:

… I could go back to school, would I study harder? No, because then I would have got into University and gone and studied at Rhodes as a Phys Ed Teacher. Instead I chose to go to Natal Technikon and did a Computer Secretarial Course. In July 1999 I bought a Run/Walk for Life Franchise and felt that I had then achieved my “Phys Ed” dream.

… I had the choice of sitting at home and watching TV or going out with my friends, I would definitely choose my friends.

…. I had the choice between chicken or beef, I would chose chicken.

… I had the choice between a sandwich or
a salad, I would choose a salad.

… I had to totally give up eating chocolate, I could not do it. I would have to have at least a piece in a month!

… the mind can dream it, the body can achieve it. This saying has kept me going
through many difficult walking races that I have participated in over the years. It has also made me more determined to prove someone wrong if they ever told me that I was not capable of achieving something.

.. I had to choose between tidying up or scrapping - the tidying up would lose 100%!!

… I had to eat pigs brains, or bulls testicles to win a million rand, could I do it – NO!!

… I told you my nickname at school was “Frog” because I put a dead frog on a friend’s hair and it got tangled in it, please don’t laugh out too loud!!!

… If I had to buy a cake for a function or bake one, I would definitely bake one.

"If " I had to sign off .....