My Clivia

When my brother Malcolm and his family moved to New Zealand I asked them what they were going to do with all their lovely pot plants. He said that I could have them if I wanted and one of them was this Clivia. He explained that it flowered once a year (I think that is what I was told). I found a spot on our front verandah and a few weeks ago noticed another stalk emerging. As it grew, I realised that it was going to be a flower. Just as it was due to flower, my dog Zippa knocked it right out of the leaves as she tried to jump against the wall to bark at the dog that gets into the pan handle property next to us. I move the container around and watched the plants flower. They really are lovely plants and I think I need to get some more planted in my garden in groups as they really do make a lovely show.

While these ones that have flowered are slowly dying off, there is still one that needs to flower, so I will still have a bit more pleasure in watching it grace my garden.

Flower power signing off ...

My Poor Car - 17 October 2009

On Saturday I had taken Dereck down to the rugby. Grant and Lauren were also going, but not as early as Dereck, so they left at about 1pm and took my car as Dereck would have met them after the game to get a lift home, saving me having to go back to fetch him. A few minutes after they left, I got a phone call from Grant saying "mom, I have just crashed your car into a wall down Lesley Drive - I am so sorry". I can't tell you how I felt, as I still don't know how I feel. I had been busy making my lunch and just quickly grabbed my cell, got the keys, locked the dogs inside the house and walked (very fast) down the road to see where they were. I was so relieved to see both Lauren and Grant were okay (just a bit shook up). As he was braking he hit some water on the road and lost control and as he tried to right himself, I think oversteered and went across the road onto some soft, muddy grass and straight into the wall. We helped the owners of the property to put up some blocks to keep their dogs in and then Grant tied up all the parts with string so that we could drive the car home. I made Grant drive home and I walked. All the outside parts except the bonnet are plastic so hopefully it won't be too long before I have my car back again. This is a close up of the inside where you can see how the bumper bent.

The airbags were not released, so it wasn't too bad an impact. I think if this had happened many years ago, I would have been angry, irritated, annoyed, but I am not. My thinking is that accidents happen, the car is a material item which can be fixed with a bit of an inconvenience and the most important thing is that Grant and Lauren were not injured at all. They say most accidents happen close to home - well this was probably 500m away from our home.

It was towed away today directly to the panel beater and we will hear tomorrow what the cost of the repairs is and how long it will take.

No car signing off ....

Izzy and the Hadedas

Most mornings I crumble old bread and then throw it out for the Hadedas. I have to be careful that our dogs don't see me as they then go out and try and eat the crumbs. Last week Thursday, Izzy saw me and went running out to eat up the bread crumbs. The Hadedas decided that they weren't going to wait for this little dod to go back inside and promptly joined her in eating "their" crumbs. She just ignored them and once she felt she had enough, she just trotted on back into the house. Notice the bird bath, filled with two big Hadedas.

Desire, you will note to the left of the birdbath is where I have planted my Fever tree and another further to the left of it. With all the rain we have had recently, they are both growing nicely and have lots of new green leaves.

Crumbled signing off.

Been busy Scrapping

This layout was comemorating my completion of a 42.2km walk and achieving my permanent number. I am one of a handful of walkers who have achieved this, so I am really proud of this fact. I got the layout idea from Desire from one of her layouts she did titled "Fun in the Berg". It was a great race and is my absolute favourite even though it is a double lapper. I finished this race with 3 minutes to spare being the last official finisher and received a plaque with the bronze, silver and gold medals on it. There were 7 runners behind me who did not make the cut off time. In February 2007 while I was reading the Runner's World I was dosing off and when I awoke and turned the page, there was my picture advertising the 2007 race to be held in March 2007. What a surprise I got and it was the picture that had been taken of me under the finish banner in 2004!!!! This layout below is one from the my first year as a Run/Walk for Life Manager. The journalling is as follows:

Late November 1999. It was my first year as a Run Walk for Life Manager and Wayne and I decided to have our prizegiving somewhere other than at the club, so we had it at Sherilyn Stevens’ house in Westville. Wayne was due to move into his duplex and Shelley & I made up a survival pack for him, consisting of things like toilet paper, disprins, piece of string, ear buds – to name a few, with comments on what they were to be used for!!! We were hysterical as he read them out. We had a great evening and once all the formalities were over the party goers danced up a storm. Some of the members:
Top L – Steve Beckerling, Auriol Diedricks, Nick Schutte
Middle – Me, Wayne, Shelley
Bottom L – Sean Coleman, Nick Schutte
Top R – Julie Oxenham, Me
Bottom R – Sean Coleman, Nick & Heather Schutte, Me, Shelley and Eddie Goldblatt

This layout is from the Medihelp Relay in which took place at the Yellow-wood Park club. It was a 7km walk through the nature reserve and back to the field. The various Run/Walk for Life branches joined up for this one and we dominated the field as well as the prizes. The day started off well, but by the time the 3 and 4th walkers got onto the road it had started to rain and became very unpleasant. But while the sun was shining a great time was had by all.

This layout is the Wings 15km which is a route on the Bluff. Rather hilly, but an enjoyable race.

This layout shows all the people from my branch who took part in a fundraiser walk to raise money for Choc. The journaling is as follows:

4 November 2006. We each paid R20 and got a set of shoelaces and then at our Run/Walk for Life session we walked 10km in aid of raising money for CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation). Taking part were:
Back: Donna du Toit, Jenny, Me, Jeanine Johnson, Sally Nahman, Ronnie Amm, Reg Groves, George Smith
Middle: Dave Coetzee, Jeanette Smith, Lyn Gonzaga, Nikki Bosman, Charmaine, Sharon Fuchs, Googs Mulder
Front: Eileen White, Saras Naiker, Terry Warren, Ros Schafer, Janine le Febour

Friday night Dereck and I and some of our friends had booked to go and attend night racing at Greyville, but due to all the rain, it was cancelled. So, we ended up going to Waxy O' Connor's for a drink and then something to eat. Most enjoyable as I haven't done that for a while. Got home and did a bit of scrapping.

Saturday morning Rayna fetched me and we went off to the Ceramic Craft Studio for some therapy. Rayna carried on painting her plate and I started painting a "welcome" frog using the dry brush technique. I must say I really enjoyed doing it and will certainly do some more. If you make a mistake, you just paint over it - a very forgiving craft. I haven't finished, but will hopefully finish it in 2 weeks time when we have another lesson. Saturday afternoon I carried on with my scrapping while Dereck watched sport on TV.

Sunday did a bit of shopping and then when Dereck went out to take part in a Blues festival to get into the Guinnes Book of Records for the most number of guitarists together, I went to visit my friend Audrey who had a birthday on Saturday. It was good to see her and catch up with her news. I had lunch with her and got home at about 4:30pm and carried on scrapping. I even managed to pull myself away from my scrapping to watch the Sunday movie on TV!!!

All in all a busy, but relaxing week-end.

Scrapped up a storm signing off ....

General Update

Last Thursday was a public holiday here in South Africa and I had also been given the Friday off. On Thursday, Dereck and I fetched Lesley and we went up to Summerveld to watch "Biddy" training. She is a lovely looking horse and we have been told that she is training very well. Here she is in action ...

After that we went to Dieters nursery and had a yummy brunch. After dropping off Lesley at home, we came home and I got on with some scrapping. This is a layout from Grant's graduation that I finished.

On Friday I took Grant and Lauren to the Pavilion while Dereck worked and then we fetched him and went to the Spur in Kloof for lunch.

On Saturday Shelley, Rayna and I went crafting where I finished off a plate that I painted. Just needs to get glazed and then I can take a picture to post here. We then went to Knowles to the Nibble and Natter restaurant and had lunch. Bit of a laugh as when the waiter brought Shelley and Rayna's food, he dropped them both on the floor, shattering the plates and food flying everywhere - he he!!! They eventually got another plate of food and we just sat chatting there long after we had finished eating - great company and plenty of time to just catch up.

On Sunday, Dereck and I went to Gateway and saw the movie "The Taking of Pelham 123". Was a great movie with two of my favourite actors - Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Was also nice to see the USA - getting familiar now.

Came home and carried on scrapping - finishing off another layout of when I completed a 42.2km race and received my permanent number. Still need to take a picture of it, so that will be another blog post. Then started on a single page layout which I have almost finished - just need to type out the journalling and stick down the title. Certainly been quite busy and it has been a nice feeling getting these pages done.

Happy scrapper signing off ....

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 ....