It's all a matter of style...

It's Friday. I am frustrated beyond belief! I feel like going into the middle of the street and screaming at the top of my lungs. Why? Well I had made one of my kitchen blinds the other day and hung it up, but it didn't look quite right. So this morning I un-picked the Velcro, and sewed it onto the other side and hung it back up, only for it to look 10 x worse! A big useless flap (kinda like the one you get that folds over your pants when you sit down! ha ha) was just hanging! Turns out it was on the right side!! Arggg. So now I have to unpick it yet again and sew it back on the right side. At least once that is done it should be right and I can put both blinds up.

Well I should be getting me new car today...*dance of excitement* I am a teeny tiny bit ...for lack of a better word...upset though. Cos I love my spunky and zippy Golf and It makes me feel young. Well I am young-duh, but it suits me. I sort of feel like now I am getting a "Mommy van" and the car really lacks power (in comparison with my golf). I know I am a mother so this thought shouldn't technically bother me, but somehow it does! I guess it is just another step to getting that much older.

The funny thing is that I so often get asked wherever I go (when I have my kids with me) if they are mine. Like-:"No, I kidnapped them can't you see how they already are calling me mommy?" -or "no, I bribed these brats to come with me so they fight in the trolley, ask for everything they pass, whine about how long the shopping is taking and say embarrassing things as we pass people like, "Look mommy, that lady has a bald patch at the back of her head!""

Even if I say yes, I get this doubtful glance, a sneaky glance to the left ring finger, a furtive glance at my chest (as if a size 38 DD chest will make me more of a mother!) I am flat okay?! I look young and I have no boobs! I am slim and small built which makes me look even younger. But I am a mother, I have been pregnant, I have had two children. I have stretch marks and veins just like anyone else. I may be slim, but my butt jiggles just as match as the next woman. Sometimes it is hard to be taken seriously and yet I am heading into my thirties looking like I just left school. I know that in a way it is a blessing, but it is kinda annoying when you are standing at the till, buying a shrek and barbie electric toothbrushes and the cashier says, "Cute, are these for your younger brother and sister?"

Sometimes when people say to me after nearly choking on their food when they hear I have been married 9 years and have two kids, "But you look so young!" I smile coyly and simply say, "Oh but I am young!" (as if I am going to spoil they fun and give away my age-let them guess..let them think I got knocked up at 16 and had to get married in a hurry. ) ha ha.

Whew, I don't know where all that came from..
But now I must go, brandish an un picker and attack that blind, before I have to go racing off to fetch my kids from school.

HERE is link 10! enjoy and remember no links over the weekend, see you on Monday with link number 11~ Have a great weekend!

Link 8.

Hi there. What a day! A good day!
Hubby said a while ago already that we were going to get me a new car..well a second hand car but something different to what I have. I have a Golf GTI which is an awesome zippy little car, but I have curvature of the spine which results in back ache and all the bending down everyday like 10 x a day putting the kids in and taking them out their car seats etc really gets to me. Plus the car is small inside and the kids are only going to grow. I mean it is fine, but I wanted something a little higher and a little bigger. I went to test drive some cars a month or two ago. I really liked the Hyundai Touscan but the prize is a bit steep. I test drove the Renault scenic and it is really nice. The height is perfect. The middle seat at the back (3 seats at the back) is great and my son is so excited about that cos now my daughter can't reach over to wallop him! LOL! So this morning my DH phones to tell me to meet him in town as he saw one for sale. We go, I drive it, he drives it (now he is really clued up on cars-knows a hang a of a lot, fixes them himself etc) there were a few things not right he picked up..but we liked it. The price was good, the car was in excellent condition, hardly any mileage on the clock...We signed the offer to purchase, got the finance approved and I am getting the car on Friday!!!
Can you believe it? All in the space of one day! The bank was really quick.
They are fixing all the things we picked up about it and It will be ready on Friday. When we sell my car then I will get the seats and door panels covered in leather as it has upholstery - a really horrible color with ciggie burns , plus with small kids, it is not practical. (I have leather in my Golf). Anyway so that is my exciting news..I am so happy!

The other exciting news is that I got a new dishwasher! I have had an AEG for years (this is the second one actually) and both have given endless trouble. This one has packed up at least 4 times in one year. Each time to repair costs a fortune. I have been washing dishes for the past 8 months and while this is not a hardship or something I can complain over (some are not fortunate enough to even have running water) When you can have something as luxurious as a dishwasher and then have to go without it..it is a pain. Washing dishes is not something I enjoy and takes up a lot of time. A family of four can use a lot of dishes in one day! So I am very happy when DH decided to buy me a new one...a Bosch stainless steel one. The cool thing is that we got it at their Scratch and Dent shop-it was used in a magazine shoot and so they didn't have packaging for it and so could not sell it on the floor for the full price. I got about R2000 off the real price! (about $280 USD total cost $500 in the shops would of been $783!)

Worked in the garden today too and got it looking quite good. Amy you wanted to see more pics of my garden..well here it is..please keep in mind we have just gone through our winter and so the garden has not been worked in for at least 6 months! It needs a lot of work! The bird is one I made when I was about 12 or 13-I used to do pottery classes after school.
Some new pansies I planted, my color scheme in my garden is mostly blue, purple and pinks.

This summer we are finishing the kid's tree house and play area there under our peppercorn tree.I also got the one blind done and up in the kitchen. I am working on the other one tonight! I am so happy with the colors.


You can see my color sheme is now pastels. Mostly pink, green and blue.

Now..with all of that...I am sure you are sick of reading..if you even did! lol!
Here is the next link of Leap into Spring.
I will be back later again to post something else! so check back or again tomorrow when I post the next link.

oops a bit late!

Hello there! Sorry I am a bit late with today's link...okay A LOT late! lol! I hardly switched on the computer today...the garden was calling me...we had a beautiful day today. I really have to take full advantage of days like these as we have had such a long winter. To get out into the sunshine and to be able to wear a t-shirt and feel the sun baking on my skin is such a treat after the long winter months. Plus Mondays are always Hectic for me, it is my cleaning day and I always do the whole works-wash floors, change bedding, do like 5 loads of washing...etc blah blah...

But today after fetching my children from school, I made lunch, put a blanket outside and we had a picnic under the shade of our lovely trees. They then helped me plant seedlings: hollyhocks, snap dragons, morning glory (in the most beautiful blue you can imagine)...sunflowers and a lot more. I adore gardening, it is such a peaceful, rewarding experience. I am proud to say that I have planted each and every plant in my garden myself and when I look around and see how well it is doing I smile. Granted, I still have so much to do, but I enjoy it so much and I love the fact the kids can help me and also learn and enjoy it.

Friday after I posted the last link we went off to the nature reserve..share some pics of that now and then I am going to leave you with Link 6 to Leap into Spring. click on them to view larger if you wish.

One of my favorite things in life, is seeing a grassy field with little wild flowers scattered here and there. There is a mass of them at the nature reserve at the moment, so tiny and yet so full of beauty. Pinks, orange, peach , white, yellow, purple...so beautiful. I can sit and stare at them all day!



Okay so here is link 6! Enjoy and please be king and don't share the link and if you would leave a comment that would also be appreciated.See you again tomorrow.

SPRING PARTY!!!! PHOTO HEAVY

Hello and Welcome to my Spring Blog party!
Here today it is a beautiful day! The sun is shining and in a few minutes I am off to fetch my children from school and then we are going to the nature reserve for a picnic!

This is not from my house1 (I wish-taken out a mag)
Thank you for coming today, I hope you will make yourself at home and enjoy your visit. Please remember to post something spring related on your blog today (or over the weekend) and then link back here in the comment section with your name and your blog address. (If you have a blog otherwise just enjoy the visit!) Then we can all hippty-hop on over to each others blogs to see and spread some love! I know for a lot of you it is Fall (we call it Autumn here), but please join in nevertheless!
I will over the course of today and the weekend edit this post to show all who participate.

The photos below are from a favorite mag of mine-Country Living.
Don't you just love this decoration! It is like sleeping in air-all light and airy and so pretty!
SPRING: def:

1. 1. Of, relating to, occurring in, or appropriate to the season of spring: spring showers; spring planting.
   2. Grown during the season of spring: spring crops.

SPRING PROJECT: A spring book
I started this book last weekend in preparation for today and I only have a few pages left to do. I did most of it in a day. The spring fever came on over, nipped me on the butt and wouldn't let go until I had done quite a few pages! I love it when inspiration suddenly hits me like that! This is the cover of my Spring book, I used an old Anthrolpologie catalog that a friend sent me.
The first page. I wanted it to be about birds, flowers and just all pretty and nice!
Page 2 and 3. Some decopague in the book, tags, painting.
page 4 and 5: nests, birds, spring flowers,lace.
page 6 and 7: More decoupage, ATC's I made lace.
page 8 and 9: paint, ribbon, postcard of a bird with lace that I sewed on around the edges.
page 10 and 11: dedicated to birds/nests.
page 12 and 13: tags, another card I received that I sewed lace around the edges. Celebrating life.

page 14 and 15: Cards I have received...hate throwing cards away and what better way then to display them! More cards with ribbon sewn on around the edges and AMY do your recognize the vintage hankie???? (thanks!) Spine of the book, covered in this lovely sequined ribbon I found.
Well that is it! I hope you gleamed some fun, inspiration, or just enjoyed looking! I can't wait to see what everyone had done for today! I promise to visit your blogs in the course of today.
Everyday should feel like Spring in our hearts. Happy, light and sunny. I know that life cannot always feel like this and sometimes we are all plagued by problems and circumstances that weigh down our hearts and spirits. I hope that you can look at something today, see the beauty and let it lift the corners of your mouth into a beautiful smile. If that doesn't work, I recommend putting on some Timberlake or Rianna and shaking that booty! LOL!

For those of you coming for the daily download. Here is link 5. Remember no links giving out on the weekend, come back on Monday for link 6. Please do not share it with anyone and remember to say thank you! Thanks.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!

Spring Blog participants: (will be edited as more join)
Amy- Amy has posted a lovely spring slide show of her beautiful garden! Really gorgeous!
CorinaJ- A yummy basket of treats and the most beautiful rainbow.
Laura-A beautiful digital LO in honor of spring
Lizzy- gorgeous Tulip festival photos!
Betty-lovely photo's of spring and a cute little post office hut!
Sandy- Beautiful photos of when it was spring by her. Check out the cute bunny joke.
Natasha- a gorgeous spring flickr collage
Katrina- also a lovely photo collage-mostly yellows-very bright and fun!
Laurence-Spring showers and spring greens
Stephen- lovely little pic of a bird in amongst some cherry blossoms

Party is tomorrow and Becoming Jane.

Today after I dropped the kids off at school I went to go and watch a movie-"Becoming Jane". Wow, what a movie! I loved it. I enjoyed it far more than Pride and Prejudice. It was a bit more "real" for me. The emotion was far more there than it was in Pride and Prejudice. And I guess I am not a huge Kiera Knightly fan, she comes off as a bit false to me, like she knows she is being filmed as too aware of herself and looking pretty or cool for the camera. I just don't get her. I do like Ann Hathaway though, she is a sweet and has a lovely face.

Plus James McAvoy is quite a hottie! Well at least I think so, I enjoyed his character too far more than I did Mr Wickham in P&P.


I really recommend this movie if you like period films. Being a huge Jane Austen fan, this was really nice to learn more about her life story. Without giving the story away..I would suggest you take tissues with! I just love the English country side too, so serene and beautiful. A big part of me feels I should of been born in that era, I would of suited it . At heart I am a country girl. I have grown up on farms, surrounded by rolling hills, animals, horses, sugar cane fields and never felt at home in a city. That is why I get so freaked out driving on highways! I love nature and the country side and forests and I could spend a whole day just walking through forests or in the nature reserve. Sigh....

Some more photos of flowers I have taken today.

Don't forget to join me tomorrow for my SPRING BLOG PARTY here tomorrow.

HERE is link 4 of Leap into Spring. Enjoy!

Day3

Hello I am glad to see so many enjoying this free kit. If this is your first visit..I have a free kit, a daily download for the month of September. Today is day 3. all links will be left until the end of the month whereby the entire kit will be removed. So grab each piece as it comes!
Here is download number 3. Enjoy. PLEASE leave a comment when you download I really appreciate them. PLEASE also do not share this kit or links in anyway or form. Rather send them here to download for themselves. If you haven't already signed up for my monthly newsletter, you can do so HERE. Have a great day.

Spring is Here!!

Spring is officially here on the 1st September in South Africa! So come and celebrate it with me!!
I am having a Spring party on my blog on the 7th September! I hope you will come!
You can take this little box if you want to post on your blog:

I know that for a lot of you, you are going into your winter...but regardless... I would still love it if you could participate! How it works is on the 7th -Friday I will host the Spring blog party from my blog. Then everyone who wants to participate can sign up here until Friday. Then on Friday all you do is post something spring related on your blog-a picture, a quote, something you made, whatever you fancy! Then leave a link here on the Spring post on Friday with your name, where you are from and your blog address so we can all go hip-hoppity around to each other's blog's to take a looksie! It's fun! If you have done one of these with Kari (aka Artsymama) then you'll know!






I had a little shopping spree the other day...went and got some new goodies for my room and bathroom and kitchen. Aren't these the cutest canisters??

A cute little tea towel
A new rose duvet to match my rose-crazed room! lol! Can't say hubby is too pleased!
Some pretty candles for my bathroom...

That's it! Whew what a long post!
So to recap: Spring Blog party HERE 7th September-don't forget!
Sign up here.
New free kit starting at the snap and scrap blog tomorrow
New Free challenge kit for completing our challenges at snap and scrap
New challenges starting tomorrow.

Bye!

Photos of weekend.

Just some photo's of flowers and fruit taken at my mom-in-law's garden yesterday.
Enjoy! Remember the name-this-kit contest...I might have already have decided on a name... still thinking about it..If I like It then I will post the winner tonight with a little add on for you..so be sure to check back here between tonight and the 21st!Thanks.