Day 18 of download-two to go.

Today we went to the nature reserve again. Beautiful place. Had a picnic and enjoyed nature.
SHERRY this is for you...that bird we were talking about IS the Cape Weaver -I found this on their board there.
Isn't is so peaceful?
Saw this funny guy sitting in a tree, he is kinda furry and has this furry top knot! ha ha. (and a very long tail which you can't see in this pic)
Love all the purple reflected in the water.
Gorgeous bright flower.

One of South Africa's most precious and protected flowers-the Protea. It is huge. This flower is about the size of a normal dinner plate!HERE is Link 18.
Enjoy!

catching up {21}day 3-9

Here in South Africa, today is a public Holiday. The family is all home and more are coming over soon for a "braai"-the typical South African term for a "barbecue" or "cook out". Today in South Africa is also national braai day! ha ha, any excuse for us South African's to bring out the braai thongs, start a fire, and smack some chops on the grid!
It's been a good weekend so far. I have caught up on my 21 day journal challenge Rhonna Farrer is hosting. Check her out, it is amazing! Everyone is doing so well in it.
Never heard of it? It is basically about breaking or making a habit in 21 days. Everyday Rhonna gives us a quote to get us going. Each person will have a different goal, different outlook, different habit to make and break. But we can all gain inspiration and encouragement from each other.
Here are my pages...You can click on them if you wish to view them full size.

Day 3


Day4


Day5


Day6


Day7


Day8



Day9

HERE is link number 16 for Leap into Spring. Each part is still available until the end of September. Please do not share the links or files in yahoo groups or any other method. Rather send them to my blog where they can come download for themselves. For those faithful commentor's-thank you, your comments and kind words and thanks mean a lot to me! You know who you are!

{21 days.....}

I cannot believe it! About a week or so ago I planted some seeds. I always think "They aren't gonna grow" but anyway I persisted, watered them everyday loyally. I went to go and check today (as I have been doing everyday!) and guess what I saw??? Some shoots!!! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited! It looks like they are either the snapdragons or fox gloves I planted!


Aren't they the sweetest ?? They are about 2 cm at the moment-my babies!! The packets say flowering should occur in around 2 months, so I reckon by December-the heat of our summer, they will be quite tall and hopefully I will be cutting them to put in a vase!


I am playing catch up with Rhonna Farrer's 21 Day challenge. I have another 4 days to catch up. I started today with my cover and the first two days.
So this is my cover...kinda the feeling of reaching or flying high and achieving your dreams.... My day 1. It has a door to reveal the quote and journaling.
Inside the door.
Day 2 .
HERE is link 15 for Leap into Spring. Enjoy! Remember ALL links for this kit are still available until the end of September!

quick note about cheesecake recipe

I just wanted to state, since someone asked a question “What is custard powder?” I did not realize that US citizens don’t get such a thing! LOL! I did a Google search but could find no real equivalent to custard powder, although some sites did mention pudding mix. Custard powder is basically corn flour, salt and flavoring with a bit of tartrazine thrown in for good measure (LOL!) I checked the ingredients. It has a sweet pudding flavor. I reckon you could use a pre-boxed pudding mix, just use the same amount. Check the box ingredients, it should contain corn flour. I hope this helps! It’s hard to say what products differ from country to country!

Thanks!

Tea Time!

Hi there! Tomorrow I am hosting a tea party here at my home for 5 of my friends.
I Like to get everything ready the day before, including the baking, so that on the day which is always rushed can be spent cleaning and just making sure everything is nice and pretty.
All our kids go to the same school so it will be a tea party just for the ladies! Bliss! no grubby little hands anywhere! (I meant my kids! in case they read this! lol!)

I normally host the tea party at about 10am the following morning. That gives me about an hour and a half after dropping the kids off at school, to come home, clean up the breakfast dishes, put the dishwasher on, have a quick run around with the vacuum cleaner and just take a breather before they all arrive. Definitely not time to still bake!

So here are my tips for a hassle free tea party for 6.

The day before:
*Decide on what you want to bake. For a tea party of 6 I normally bake one large cake and either some muffins, cup-cakes or small tartlets. I try to include some savory thing’s too for those that don’t have a sweet tooth. Bake your goodies.

In the picture above you will see i have made a chocolate cake and some mini cheesecake tartlets. I have the most divine recipe for these, it makes one large baked cheesecake or you can make double of the crust and the same amount of the cheesecake filling and make about 20 mini cheesecake tartlets. This is the best cheesecake recipe I have ever used. I bake a lot and have tried numerous recipe’s, this one NEVER flops. I really recommend it! Scroll down for the recipe.

*Lay your table, put a pretty table cloth down, a vase of flowers, your teacups and saucers, side plates, cake forks, spoons, serviettes, milk jug, sugar bowl and teapot/s.

Don't forget the small details: like these cute little rose tablecloth tie-downs. Perfect for hosting a tea party outdoors.

* I also clean the house as much as I can-leaving the vacuuming and washing of the floors for the next morning.

*The bathroom I clean the day before. I also do any little guest gifts the day before. Fill a little organza bag with mini chocolates and tie a pretty tag around each one with your friends/guest name on for them to take home. I didn’t have time to do that today, so tomorrow morning I will do that.

*In the morning all you then need to do is tidy up, do a quick vacuum and wash your floors, put some filter coffee on, boil the kettle, put some lipstick on, and put on some nice music and then enjoy your company!

I hope you found this useful!

CHEESECAKE RECIPE (BAKED)

Ingredients:

500ml plain low fat yogurt

2 tubs of smooth cottage (or creamed) cheese (about 250g each)

1 cup (250g) icing sugar

half a cup of fresh cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon flour (rounded)

2-3 tablespoons custard powder

3 eggs

For the crust:

1 packet of biscuits to crush-here in South Africa we have Tennis biscuits for those South African’s reading this.

100g butter.

If you want to make the tartlet version you will need double-so 2 packets biscuits and 200g butter.

Method:

1) whip together the yogurt, creamed cheese, icing sugar and fresh cream.

2) add dry ingredients

3) whip up the eggs and add to the mixture.

4) Add the vanilla essence.

For the crust-crush the biscuits in a bowl, melt the butter in the microwave for about 1 min on high and mix together.

Press into a wax-papered, greased spring-form pan OR for the tarlets, simply grease a 12-tray muffin tin with butter.

Fill each muffin space with 3 quarters of biscuit mix, press firmly into place.

Pour the cheesecake mixture over the biscuits crust.

Bake at 180 degrees c for about 35 min. The tops will crack slightly.

Leave to cool and then take out.

HERE is link 13 for Leap into Spring-the free kit I am giving away for this month (see the big picture in the sidebar.
Someone commented yesterday that they were sorry they had missed the previous links. Don't worry, ALL the links for this kit ARE STILL available for download until the end of the month. If you missed any just scroll through my blog and you will find them all!
I don't give links over the weekend.
See you tomorrow!

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