Happy Anniversary!

Happy Thursday, to you all. Another hot day here in Dundee. My 2 oldest boys are looking like real brown berries. They spend their days in their speedo's and nothing else!

Today I am posting a card which I made 2 of. One was for my SIL's anniversary and the other for one of my best friends. They both celebrated their anniversaries on the 16th. The card is based loosely on a card of Jennifer McGuires. She is my real hero and I LOVE all her work, and she seems like such a sweet person too, would love to meet her one day, hopefully she comes to South Africa, because I would definitely make a plan to go and see her.

I am expecting all of my family this weekend, so am going to have 7 extra adults and 2 more kids in the house. Full on! I am really looking forward to it though, and hopefully we can spend some relaxing quality time together.

Finshed wrapping all my adults gifts today, and want to do the kid's things tonight. Look at this absolutely adorable photo of Jamie. I just want to eat him up!

Keep well!

My Knitting Notebook

Happy Friday everyone. Can't believe the first week of holiday is over already, it has flown!!! Hope things slow down a bit, otherwise the holiday will be over before we even know it. Heck it has been hot this week, I have felt so drained and unmotivated. For me to feel uncrafty is something that doesn't happen often at all, but this week I have had almost zero mojo!

I did create a notebook though. I have been wanting to make one of these for a while, and when my stamps arrived from Janel Stamps, I knew this was one of my first projects to tackle.

One of my other hobbies is knitting, I really enjoy it! Can't say I am overly talented in this department (that award would go to my little sis, who is a knitting star!), but it is relaxing, and I can do it while sitting in front of the t.v. I have actually nearly finished a jersey for Jamie, so when I am done with that I will post a pic. Anyway, I often loose track of where I am in a pattern, this this notebook is going to be used to help me keep my place! Isn't this stamp just too cute, she even looks a little like me?!?!

Have a great weekend everybody. To my overseas visitors, enjoy the cooler weather!

First Day of Holiday & First Xmas Card Posted

Hello All. Hope this Monday is treating you well. Here in South Africa it is the first day of the boy's holiday, and it is a perfect Summers Day, 33 Deg. Celsius today, so in fact it's a real scorcher! I will definitely be hitting the pool later.

Today I am posting my first Xmas Card. This is the one I made for our RSA Christmas Card Swap. I had to made 20 odd cards!! I received absolutely gorgeous cards back from the other ladies who took part, and had so much fun opening all the envelopes!

Hope you have a great week. I will be back soon.

Hello, I'm back!!

It seems to be a monthly occurrence that I have some sort of problem with my Internet, and it is really starting to test my patience!! This time I have been without access for nearly a week, so for the few people that follow my blog, sorry!

Life has been fairly busy, Bryce also got the chicken pox and has been home for the last week. I have enjoyed having him at home, and it was much easier nursing him than Jamie. His scabs are starting to fall off and he is back to school tomorrow, for the final week. I can't believe the December holidays are a week away, can't wait!!

The card I am posting it one I created just for fun, and really enjoyed doing. It is simple, but I was quite happy with the way it turned out. The stamps I used are by Hero Arts, and the pp is from a pad of K & Company paper that I have had for ages, and use all the time, I am going to be really sad when it's finished!

Enjoy the week ahead, it is going to be a full one for us, gala on Monday, I have a birthday brunch on Tuesday, Prize-giving on Wednesday, class parties on Thursday and then Break-up day on Friday. Hope you all have a good one.

Speak to you soon (hopefully!) LOL

My Boys!

Just wanted to post a quick photo today. I took this a few days ago, and was so pleased with the way it came out. I love my boys SO much, they complete me in every way.

I will try & post something stamping related in the next few days.

Hugs,

Rene'

Yippee!

Good morning, lovely Monday morning here in Dundee!

The Yippee! title has a double meaning today, it's the sentiment on the card I am posting, as well as the fact that Jamie seems to be on the mend. I am so relieved! It has been a long week, and it is so good to see him smiling and happy again. He still isn't eating or drinking as well as I would like, but hopefully that will improve soon.

The card I am posting today is the one I made for the November RSA birthday ladies. It is a bit different to the type of card I usually make, no cutesy image on it, but I really enjoyed creating it(them, I made 4!). The stamps I used are by Hero Arts, and it's also a colour I don't use very often, purple!! The dotted circle around the stamped "flower" is by Heidi Swapp.

Hope you all have a great week. In the car on the way to school this morning, the boys and I were counting the days until their holiday starts, and it's 20. They were very excited, as am I!!

Oh No!! Chicken Pox

Hi All

Just a quick post. Wanted to let you know why I haven't posted in a while. My sweet baby boy has the chicken pox, he also has tonsillitis and both his ears are red & inflamed. He hasn't been sick in an age, and I guess we are making up for it now! He has been so miserable, but also so good with it. He really is my little angel. Here is a photo I took of him today. Isn't he too precious!

I am also posting the card I made using the scraps from the "My Heart" layout. I think it's a great idea to make a quick card from the leftovers from a page. I am going to try and do it more often from now on.

Hope you are all keeping well!

My Heart!

Hello my crafty friends!

Another gorgeous day here in Dundee. Jamie & I spent quite a lot of time out in the back garden this morning after I got back from my gym session. He just loves being outside and would happily be out and about all day if he could! The sun is really blazing hot though.

Today I am going to post a layout that I created a month or 2 ago, just a simple one in which I document how Jamie holds my heart in his little hands. The photos aren't the best but they are 2 of the few that I have of the two of us together. I need to sit down with my hubby soon so he can try and take some photos of me with my 3 boys. We are off to the coast to visit my family this weekend, so really looking forward to that. We are going to take the boys to the beach, so can't wait for that, Jamie hasn't been to the beach yet, and I am going to take lots of photos. I need to sit down and scan some more lo's to post, I have albums full!

Hope you are all keeping well!

Hero Arts Owl Card

Hi All.

It's a gorgeously miserable day here in Dundee today. We have had quite a lot of rain, so that is a real blessing. Hope we get more though, the farmers in the area really need it!

Just a quick post today, it's a card I created using Hero Arts stamps. Can you tell I am a real fan!

This is the cute little owl that is part of one of their animal sets, isn't he/she too cute. Love the fact that you can shape the words.



Enjoy the rest of your week. Can't believe it's Friday already.

Oh, and by the way. A big shout out to my friend Angella. It's her birthday tomorrow, the 24th. I hope she has a fantastic day. Thanks for your friendship Angella!

Hugs,
Rene'

My Scraproom / Area!

I have been wanting to post these photos of my scraproom for quite some time now, and have finally gotten round to it. Hope you enjoy the tour of my favourite place in the house, well it's one of the places I spend the most time anyway!! Why don't you grab a cup of tea or coffee before we get started, this is going to be quite a long post!

This is the view taken from the doorway between our formal and family lounge. My scrap area is in the family lounge, and it is the room we are all always in. We have a t.v. in there, as well as the boys Playstation, and my husbands computer stand is on the opposite wall to my scrap desk, so we all have our little space. The boys also have a desk in the one corner where they sit and do their homework and colour in etc. There is Jamie lying on the couch having his bottle of tea watching Barney!

This is a photo of my scrap desk. I had it specifically made when we moved into the house. I made the desk quite high, because I stand and scrapbook, would probably explain the sore back I have at the moment!! The top two drawers on either side are a bit thinner than the others. Everything that I need is right at hand, I love this set up and it works perfectly for me!

This the right hand side of my desk. I like to have some things out in the open so I can see them, so I remember to use them. I have my p.p. scraps right on my desk, cause I try and use them often, especially when cardmaking. I also sew of my pages all the time, and there is my favourite gadget, my Cuttlebug. Don't forget the very important cup of tea!!

These 2 bookshelves stand on the right hand side of my desk, and also house lots of stuff!! All my magazines are on the one bookshelf, my CK mags are read constantly. I also keep lots of small goodies in the 3 caddies on one shelf, and my pp and other A4 sized paper in on the other shelf. Jamie also has one shelf for all his books!

The things I use less often are stored in these drawers. I keep my material scraps, chipboard pieces that I use as templates, and my MM tag maker and label maker in them. I bought them from road side vendor, and they have come in very handy!

I like to display my scrapbook pages for a few days before I put them in albums!

My wood mounted stamps are kept in my top left drawer. I am going to run out of space in this drawer soon!

My Hero Arts stamps, foam stamps and Nestabilities are kept in the next drawer. Also running out of space here!


All my chipboard, and Jamie's cute little fingers!! You will see in the next couple of photos that I use the blue mushroom containers a lot. They have solved a lot of my storage problems, and are free with my mushrooms, which is a bonus!

My flower drawer, top right hand drawer. I use flowers all the time, so definitely need to buy more flowers!


My "bling" drawer. I always look in here when making cards!


Lots of different stuff in this drawer. And as you can see it is the perfect height for Jamie. Bit of a nightmare keeping him out of my drawers. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon. LOL!!


And my final photo, my ribbon & cotton drawer. Don't know if you can tell, but my blue ribbon is overflowing it's container, and not too much in the others. Quite the indication that I have 3 sons & 1 husband. Nearly no pink ribbon!!!

Hope you have enjoyed the tour of my scrap area. Would appreciate any comments or suggestions on my space?!?

Hugs, Rene'

Bryce's Birthday Card!!

Hi, just a quick post this morning. I am due to take Jamie to swimming at 9:15am so just wanted to do this before I left. It's rather chilly again this morning, so not really looking forward to it. Wish the weather would just make up it's mind!!

This is the card I made for Bryce's birthday, he really liked it. I think these Hero Arts Animal Stamps are perfect for kids cards. I also used my scallop edged scissors, which I haven't used in years, and I was really pleased with the effect they added to the card, I will definitely be using them on a more regular basis now.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy what's left of the week.

I am back on-line and FINALLY 1000 hits!!!

One doesn't realise how much you are addicted to the Internet until you don't have it!! We have been having problems connecting to the Internet for more than a week now and it has driven me absolutely mad!! I need to be able to visit all the amazing blogs out there to gain inspiration, and have missed it so, now I need to catch up on all my favourites, at least that is going to be fun, lots of new stuff to look at!

It was a really busy but fun weekend. On Friday afternoon we had Bryce's birthday party. I went to school and fetched him and a whole lot of his friends, wow it was a noisy trip home, I couldn't hear myself think!! The party was a huge success and everyone had a ball. I will try and load some pics of the party during the week. Saturday was his actual birthday, so of course we had an early start to open his pressies. He was over the moon with what we got him and spent a wonderful day playing with all his new things. His best friend came over in the afternoon for a sleepover, we got KFC for supper and then had a marathon game of Monopoly. Yesterday we left all the kiddies with Ray's folks for the first time and went to church on our own. We had an outside minister preaching and it was awesome, there are some amazing things happening in our church, and it is so wonderful to see God's works happening right before your eyes!

Today I am going to post a scrapbook page I did a while ago. This is the first page I created where I incorporated my new stamping hobby, it was so much fun to put together. I used the Hero Arts little animal stamps, and I think they add such a cute element to the page. I find I am using stamping on all the pages that I create now, and it just finishes the pages off so nicely.
Please note, the little beanie Jamie is wearing was knitted by yours truly. Another of my hobbies I try to find time for!

Thanks for looking and hope you have a great week. It is going to be a stinker here today. Jamie has his first swimming lesson today, I have to get in the pool with him, so that is going to be fun!

A Happy Hello

A Happy Hello to you all this fine Monday morning! It's a gorgeous day here in Dundee, slightly windy but otherwise the weather is lovely. The boys are home for the holidays, so it's always nice not to have to get up early and rush around. I went for a run at about 8am and it was such a nice way to start the day.

So how was your weekend? Mine was so nice, really relaxing and lots of nice time spent together as a family at home. I did spend a good portion of time busy with my RSA Christmas Gift Exchange, I didn't realise the deadline was quite so soon, so I was busy making 29 gift packets, won't tell you what my gift, cause some of the RSA ladies read my blog, but it is taking me ages!!! I need to do some more when I am finished here.

The card I am posting today was so much fun to make. I seem to be making card in batches of about 5 at a time, at the moment, and this was just a single card I made for fun. It was quick and easy to do!! Hope you like it.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

I finally own a Cupcake Stamp!!

From the day I started stamping, I wanted a cupcake stamp, and finally recently I got me some. I had ordered these stamps from Niki Zipp from Paperchain in Joburg ages ago, and they finally arrived. To say I was over the moon is an understatement! I had ordered 4 sets of Hero Arts stamps and am so happy with them. The quality of Hero Arts stamps are excellent, and I have been extra happy with each stamp I have bought.

So here is just a quick post of my first cupcake card. I had so much fun colouring it and putting this card together, I can't wait to use all the other stamps in the set.

Hope you are having a nice weekend. It has been freezing here, we had so much rain yesterday. I am so happy, we have needed it desperately, so hopefully now my garden will come to life and I will be able to see all the plants that are hiding away, and my grass can turn green. I am so enjoying my new garden and now that the rains have come I can start planting some flowers for colour. What has the weather been like where you are?

Another week gone!

So much for me posting more this week! It's been another hectic and full week. I am looking forward to next week, the boys have only got 3 days of school, and those 3 days they are finishing early. I love it when the boys are on school holidays, it means a lot less running around and just quiet quality time at home!!

Today I am going to post some photos for a change. You will not have seen any pics of my other boys, and I just wanted to show you what handsome boys I have! Hope that didn't sound too boastful. LOL.

These photos were taken at the boys athletics day which was held on Monday this week. The first one is Caide, he is my oldest and is 9. He is my more sensitive and serious child, but has the biggest heart. He has been my special soul since the day he was born. He is so helpful with Jamie, and adores his baby brother. He is very sporty.

This is Bryce. My middle child. He is totally different to Caide. Not very serious, he is totally innocent and happy. He is very carefree and affectionate and also loves Jamie to bits. He is always trying to kiss Jamie, which drives Jamie mad. He is also sporty, but not as competitive as Caide. He is the blond boy on the left, with the huge grin. He doesn't mind his mom taking photos of him!

These photos were taken over the weekend. I just adore Jamie's naked little body, I want to eat him up!

I am also going to post another of Jamie's scrapbook pages. I will try and scan some of the other boys pages over the weekend. They will love to see their pages on my site. This page is of his 9 month milestones. I LOVE the expressions I captured for this page. Don't you think his blinky blinky face is gorgeous!

Hope you all have a nice weekend. I believe it is going to be cold this weekend. The weather we are having at the moment is crazy!! Freezing cold one day, and then hot as heck the next. Hope the weather treats you well where ever you are!

It's been a week!!

My goal for the week ahead is to post more!!! If I try hard enough, maybe I will finally hit the 1000 hits mark. It has been a rather long time coming, hasn't it?!?

Last week flew, as they seem to be doing at the moment. Ray has battled all week with his finger, and has been to the doctor 4 or 5 times, it got infected and he has been in absolute agony!! Who would have thought a cat bite would lead to so much pain and discomfort for him. It is still not right (a week later!!) and I am not quite sure what the next course of action is going to be.

This morning I went to Caide & Bryce's athletics day, it was SO much fun. I am really blessed to be a SAHM, so I can always attend these events. I got some gorgeous action shots, so can't wait to scrapbook them. I also need to do some scrapping for my client this week, she brought me some more photos to scrap, so I am really chuffed!

I am finally going to show you another "thank-you" card I made using one of "Stamp 'n Stuff's" flower stamps. This was a different colour combo for me, but I like how it turned out. The stamp can be found under the "Flowers" section, obviously, and is No. 767H and is only R16.50. I am so impressed with the prices of the stamps at "Stamp 'n Stuff", they are so reasonable!

I have more scrapbook pages and another card to post later on in the week, so be sure to check back. O.K?

Life is Full

I have once again been a very slack blogger. Funny how sometimes it is really important to you that you do blog on a regular basis, and then at other times it doesn't seem that important at all!! I suppose if I had more people viewing my blog, it may be more of a priority for me, but things are a bit slow in that department!! Not too sure what I could do to pick up more regular viewers, any suggestions would be great, PLEASE!

It has been a rather hectic start to the week for us. Last night we had ANOTHER intruder cat come into our house looking for our cat Socks. It is a huge problem we are having, cats fighting is the worst noise to wake up to, it sounds like a baby crying terribly. Anyway, last night hubby and I jumped up to try and catch the cat that keeps coming in, and this stupid cat actually attacked Ray, it bit down onto his finger and wouldn't let go!! Needless to say, he was in absolute agony. He says he has never experienced anything more sore. So both of us didn't get too much sleep last night.

Then this morning one of Ray's staff members phoned him in a panic saying that she is going into labour. She asked him to come and pick her up, he raced out to the taxi rank where she lives only to find out that she was actually at the taxi rank here in town. I have been phoning the hospital to try and track her down, and no-one can find her. SO......

Anyway, still haven't gotten around to taking a photo of my latest card, so it's another scrapbook layout I am afraid. Hopefully there are also some scrapbookers who visit my blog, so I am sure it will be o.k.

This page is one I created to document the changes that were going on in little Jamie's life, and how much I am enjoying him and each and every stage.

Hope you all have a good week. It is stinking hot and dry here today, I hope and pray the rains come soon.

A new little Venture for Me!

Hi All.

Sorry I have been a bit scarce! I used my full amount of ADSL before the end of the month, and to use dial-up takes ages, so new month and more time on-line, yay!! I was going into serious withdrawal!!

So to explain the title of my blog today. I have been asked to scrapbook for a friend of mine. She is an extremely talented sportswoman, and leads a very busy life, so I am going to scrap her pages for her, and earn a bit of pocket money while doing it! So I am really chuffed, hopefully others will see her pages and I may pick up a bit more business. It has always been a dream of mine to make a bit of money doing what I love, so please hold thumbs for me that this turns out the way I want it to. I don't want to make bags of money, just enough to be able to buy more scrapping and stamping stuff!!!

So in that vein, I will post a scrapbook lo today. I have not been doing much cardmaking lately, it's been all about the scrapping at the moment, but I did make a few more "thank-you" cards with another of Stamp 'n Stuff's lovely stamps. I just need to take a photo first!

The lo I am posting today is just a simple one I did of when Jamie started trying to crawl, it was so cute to watch!

Have a great week everyone!

Find Joy

A friend of mine gave me a fridge magnet for my birthday and the message on this magnet is "True joy is found in the simple pleasures God gives us every day". To me this message is so significant, I try and live each day to the max, and be grateful for all that I have! I know that God has blessed me so richly, and I am truly thankful for that!

I love the sentiment on the card that I am showing today. It is by Hero Arts, I love their stamps! The image is by Great Impressions, another South African based stamp company. I created this card for a Cuttlebug swap we had at RSA. I received some lovely cards back. This is an amazing group of ladies, and I have made lots of friends on-line. Hopefully I will get to meet some of them in person one day!

Enjoy what is left of your weekend. My mom left this morning, and I am missing her SO much. Love you Mom x.

My first Inchies!

Hello everyone.


Hope you all had a great week. Mine was one of my nicest in ages. Having my Mom here has been amazing. We have had a week filled with "quality time", and it has been so much fun. I am going to miss her so much when she goes home tomorrow.


This morning we are heading out to the boy's Bicycle Rally. I am running an 8km run, and then going on a 8km bike ride with Bryce, so I think I might be a bit tired later!!


Today I am sharing the first Inchies I have ever made, they were for a swap I did at RSA. It was a lot of fun. The image I used is one from Hero Arts.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Hopefully SA wins their rugby game this afternoon!

P.S Sorry if the spacing in this post is off, blogger is giving me a bit of a hard time this morning!!

M.I.A

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days! I have had my family visiting, so my days have been pretty full. Really good times though. My aunt & uncle left on Monday morning, but my Mom is still here and we are having such a lovely time. We scrapped until 10:30pm last night, unheard of for me!!

This morning I am going to post one of my favourite lo's I have ever created for Jamie's album. It was just one of those pages that fell together so easily!!

I will try and post a card later on in the week. Hope you are all having a good one! A Hi to my sis Lauren, who sometimes checks out my blog. Love you.

A card for Kayla

Happy Friday!! I am so excited it's Friday, that means my mom and aunt & uncle are coming to stay tomorrow. I live about 4 hours away from all of my family so I don't get to see them that often, so I really love it when they come to visit. Al & Pam are only staying for the weekend, but my Mom is staying for a week!! I am so looking forward to spending some quality time with her!

The card I created yesterday is one for my cute little niece Kayla. I am going to give it to Pam to take home to her. I am sure she will love it, especially the fact that her name is on the front. For this card I used another of Stamp 'n Stuff's cute teen stamps. This one is No. 805L and as with the others, can be found under the "Teen" section. Just click on their link to go straight to the shop!

This is just a quick, simple card. I had to crop the image again slightly (they are nice big stamps!!), mounted it with my rectangular nestabilities die, used Hero Arts stamps for Kayla's name and a bit of sewing.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I will be back with another scrapbook layout soon!