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.

Party time!! And Giveway

Thanks for hosting the party Kari.
I can't wait to see everybody's blog's and leave some love and see what they all get up to and learn a thing a two! I so love art in so many forms!
Today I thought I would share a tut on how to make a banner...I see in some mag's they call them buntting? But in South Africa , these are called Banners.
I got the inspiration for mine from a Country living magazine.
I made one for my daughter's room. I love these as you can hang them inside, or outside on a beautiful spring day on your patio or better yet, if you have a Gazebo. Then set up a pretty table under it and have a summer tea party! I can't wait to do this! I can see myself making lot's of these now in preparation for summer around the corner and inviting my girlfriends over for tea!

I couldn't find anywhere how to make these, so I just did my own design and am quite pleased with the result. I did this one for my daughter's room in a few hours on the weekend. I didn't buy anything for it, I had kept small scraps of material left over from previous projects which was ideal for this! I also always keep pieces of lace and ribbons and had a whole bag full that I could use.
So for this project you will need:

1x piece of ribbon 3m long.
scraps of fabric
paper for template
ruler, pencil, scissors, sewing machine
lace, ribbon.
pins.

Step 1:
First of all decide how big you want your triangle pieces to be. You can do this by taking a rectangle piece of paper (I used a A5 for mine, but you can use a A4 size too)and folding it in half. the open side facing to the right. The bottom will be the width, so see how wide you want it, remember to double the measurement as you will still open the paper up flat. Once you have a width measurement, mark it with your pencil and then decide on a legth for the triangle. Draw from the mark to the next mark a straight line using your ruler and pencil. Open it up and see if you are happy with that, if so, cut along the line you have drawn.
POINT: make the template according to your smallest or most common scrap size piece, then you know you have enough material.

Step 2.
Take your scrap material pieces, turn them to that the wrong side is facing up. Place your template triangle as close to the edge as possible and draw around it with pencil onto the fabric. Flip the template over and do the same thing, moving across the fabric. Try fit as many as you can on.

Step3:
Cut out your triangles.
Leave a long piece (about 30cm) on each side before you begin pinning so that you have ribbon to tie the banner up with).Get your ribbon and spread it out, now with the top width side of the triangle start pinning it to the ribbon -ribbon goes on top of the triangle to hide the raw edge. Arrange the next triangle next to the first one, so that the points are just touching. pin them all this way.

Step 4:
Now measure the length of your triangle and cut assorted ribbons and lace to use for the sides of the triangles, pin them to the triangles.

Step 5:
Sew them all!

Step 6:
trim off any excess threads and ribbons sticking out.
Step 7:
At this stage you can even add some small tassels, buttons etc.

If you want to follow mine exactly, here are the details:
-template of a A5 size paper folded in half.
-open flap side facing right-measure from closed side to open side at the bottom 7cm (2.8in)across. -mark in pencil.
-Along the closed side length measure up 16cm (6.3in)and mark.
-Draw a line from the 16cm mark diagonally to the 7cm mark.
-Cut template.
-open up.Should measure 14cm(5.5) across and 16cm length.(6.3in) (these are small triangles.)
-draw on the wrong side of your fabric the triangles using the template, flipping it ever alternate one to fit more triangles in.
I got 13 triangles out of my scraps. Follow the rest of the steps as above.

Here is the one I made:



Of course you don't have to use ribbon or lace for the edges, you could use pinking shears to cut the edges or over lock them. You can also tie on tassels, make a memory banner and stick on photo's to each triangle..there are so many possibilities with this! Well I hope you enjoyed this and thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear your thoughts!

I also thought since (I hope!) lot's will be blog hopping today, that this was a good opportunity to also host my giveaway. ENDS 30TH AUGUST 2007
This book-South Africa-a land of contrast. measures 4.2in x 5.7in
and is worth R50 or $7USD
And a Bonnie van Esch original art journal page

RULES FOR ENTERING:
1) you must leave a comment on this blog starting today until the 30th August at least twice a week. (a total of 8 comments) I am trying to get more people to visit my blog and simply to leave comments-I like visitors! In return I hope to post more often and with more interesting and arty things, not just digital scrapping.
2) at least on one of the comments please state you are entering for the draw, leave your NAME, AND EMAIL ADDRESS OR BLOG ADDRESS so I can contact you should your name be drawn.
3)All those by the end of the month that have left a minimum of 7 comments will be entered into the random draw for the prize.

Thanks!!
Bonnie

SNOW AND RIVER PHOTOS!!

It is very cold here, a bit of snow on the mountain peeks on the range that folds around the valley we live in. I am grateful it does not snow on the ground though, I really don't think I could handle that! I wear knee-length socks, tracksuit pants and a jersey to bed when it is so cold! We have a down duvet and two comforters on our bed and I still squeeze in a hot water bottle! lol! I think I have the coldest feet on the planet! As long as my feet are warm I am warm! I think I am just weird!
It has been raining for a few day's, so we have had a bit of "cabin fever". The sun came out today, so after lunch time, I grabbed the opportunity to get my new camera out for some action! The kid's really wanted me to get as close to the snow as I could! lol! So after driving around trying to find the highest road in our town, I stopped and took some photo's, oh my! The zoom on that camera is amazing! (*yes, yes, I hear you say: shut up already about your camera! I know, sorry, I just can't get over it!!-please bear with me!) I was literally on the other side of Somerset West (my town's name) and I zoomed in on my street and could see my house!! So cool!
I also zoomed in on the snow but using the digital zoom the pixels start getting a bit grainy...but still so cool! Could probably see a hiker dangling helplessly from the cliff and then I could alert rescue patrol..okay, getting carried away here!

I then took them to a park nearby which is lovely, you follow the paths alongside the river. With all the rain we've had, the river is full and the current strong.






Well that's it! I hope you enjoyed it!