Round Robin!

6 months later and my little round robin book is finally home! Wow, what a journey it went on...
These are the pages I did:



First it went off off to Dawn


who then sent it to Victoria
Victoria did the above right and the below left.


who in turn sent it to Lori

and finally toDedein California, who sent it back to me!


Thank you ladies! I love it!

I also got this lovely little package from Amy.

yours is on it's way to you!

Me a bad blogger? so it would seem!

I know, it's been ages since I last posted! I must admit I was sort of relishing in the laziness of it all! But you know you've been a bad blogger when you start getting email's "Is everything alright? I haven't seen a post in a while? are you sick?" ha ha. Thanks Em!! ha ha.
So I got off my butt today and here I am!
We've had such weird weather lately. Now, it is supposed to be Spring, by this time last year we were crawling around the floor, tongues lolling out, desperately searching for water and saying "Water-I need water". Get the picture? IT was HAWT. Sure, this year, we've had a few hot days, but nothing that makes you want to strip naked running into the sea! (okay people, I have NOT done this!)This weekend for instance has been one long tedious miserable week of rain, cold, socks and endless cups of coffee to try and stay warm! I don't get it!




Now onto some photos I took recently at our local nature reserve:
This is the little museum and tourist information center.

Some birds. I was fortunate to get these nice shots.

This bird had some bread in its mouth. We were throwing the bread into the reeds next to the river and watching them come swopping from afar to get to the bread.

This is quite a funny photo, I got the bird in a half-flying, half-landing motion. He looks so sweet! Just after I took this, these two had a real "Barney" over a piece of bread! ha ha.

We also saw these tortoises-amazing. I think this was the first time I had seen a tortoise in the wild.

Another nice shot of these Cape Weaver birds-again the one with it's back to us has bread in its mouth. Greedy little fellows! ha ha.

This beautiful bridge with all these lovely purple blossoms.

Me posing on the bridge! haha


I must say I am fascinated with birds and with nature as a whole. I guess I have always been like that, but I find as I get older, I appreciate it more and more and just being surrounded by beauty and nature in its purest form, really touches me on a deep level. I think it is because we are supposed to be at one with nature and it is in our instincts to feel like that. I always try and get the kids to really take a closer look to and like to point out small things like lady birds. They also really have a love for it. Going to the nature reserve is one of our favorite things to do.

Okay well I promise to be a good girl and try and blog more regularly again!

Just to reward you for your patience and lucky you if you managed to make it to the end of this post, cos here is a little freebie for you!
While we don't have snow here in South Africa, well we do, but it never reaches the ground! I wanted to do this for those of you who do and to scrap your winter photos. It has nothing to do with Christmas, since I personally don't celebrate it. It was made purely with winter/snow photos in mind. Thanks and enjoy.

DOWNLOAD HERE
PLEASE LEAVE SOME LOVE IF YOU DOWNLOAD AND PLEASE DON'T SHARE THE LINK OR THE FREEBIE IN ANY PART OR FORM.I would love to hear from you if you download. Thanks so much.

It is called Snowy Days and has 3 papers, a snowman and some snowflakes-brrr makes me cold! We don't get snow here, so it is nice to do something like this!!
The last time I was in snow was about 12 years ago! My kids have never been in snow-arw!
Also if you like this, sign up for the Snap and scrap newsletter HERE, cos Jenni and I have put together a freebie for it!

Thank you Em!

My lovely kind friend sent me a beautiful parcel of goodies all the way from England which I got today! Thank you my sweet friend, I love all of it! She knows my style-vintage, shabby-chic!
Just look:

This beautiful vintage tin

stunning teacup and saucer-Em I can't believe it made it here without even a hairline crack! you can bubble wrap girl! ha ha

This stunning card which the words really made me cry! (inside not on the cover-lol!)

My anniversary card for last month-so beautiful!

Just look at the detail-love the bits of paint!

Isn't this beautiful?

And even sweet little smart shirts for my kids!


I am so blessed to have a friend like you! Thank you Em!

Something exciting coming soon!

I have something so great planned for the next 8-10 weeks!
As most of you know, on a Wednesday at the snap and scrap blog, I host the post (hey that rhymes!) and my theme is arts and crafts. Well I have been doing a tutorial or an idea now each Wednesday for the past 2 months-that is a long time to come up with something new each time! So I thought that I would introduce something new...for the next 8-10 weeks, each Wednesday I am going to be hosting an Interview with a very talented person (a different one each week-lol) and they are also going to share their own tutorial -some will include photos. I cannot wait for this...do you want to see some of the names I have signed up already?

Kathryn Louise - 28 November
Kari Ramstrom (known as Artsymama) - 5 December
One of my best friends Emma - 12 December
Dede Warren- 19 December
Nerissa Alford - 26 December

Also Monica Andrade
Amy Pytlik
Anastacia Christou

Stay tuned!!

Made some stuff last night

I was in a crafty mood last night and made some goodies...some are for Amy who I am doing a swap with.
So Amy close your eyes if you don't want to spoil it!








(I haven't decided yet 100% which ones I am sending to you and which ones I might keep-hee hee, but the collage is definitely for you-see the "A" on her hat?)



I also wanted to share another favorite site of mine..It is Secrets of a Butterfly. Her name is Kathryn. She makes the most beautiful collages!.We email each other and have done a few swaps. Kat as I call her is a very sweet person.
Go take a look at her lovely site.

Here are some cute pics of some birdies I caught in my garden just now. I even got a shot of this one , what looks like , pruning his feather-either that or doing some type of "shake yer booty" dance. Or as Kim says, a dork dance!




see you soon!

blue

I got these gorgeous flowers for my house the other day....I just love the bright color-electric blue!

Beachy times!

You know it's really summer when you go to the beach for the first time in the new season!
It's terrible, we live literally about 5-10 minutes drive from the beach and NEVER go. There are a number of reasons for this:
1) It is ALWAYS windy here. Not just a small refreshing breeze-I am talking "Whip-your-umbrella-up-and-away" kind of wind , the kind that blows buckets full sand into your mouth! The kind that whips up your hair like you've been electrocuted and then back lashes you with it! Very unpleasant.
2) We have two seasons here-winter for 6 months of the year and summer for 6 months of the year-seriously, there is no such thing here as Autumn and Spring! ha ha. (well if we do get them, they are mild and seem to be over when you blink)
3) Hubby hates the water, beach.
4) I'm lazy (there I admitted it!)
5) I hate sand! (you won't catch me dead building sandcastles, I have this thing about sand getting under my nails. I know, so naff, but it gives me the creeps! I am seriously thinking about taking gloves with next time then at least I can build with the kids!

The kids have been begging me and I really have run out of excuses-today the weather is hot, and not a breath of wind so I thought I would surprise them. I fetched them from school, laden with picnic stuff and their cossies and towels (secretly all stashed in the boot) and then told them I had a surprise for them. ha ha, poor tots thought I was taking them to Mac donalds! (*mom is so predictable!*) but not this time!
We really had a nice time....were there for two and a half hours. We went in and the water was divine! Not at all cold like I thought it would be! Took tons of pictures. I was glad to see I wasn't the only mom in the waves, jumping up and down, holding my camera high above my head! ha ha.
so here are some pics from today...






Looking down at myself now..I can see I forgot one important ingredient: sunblock! I look like a lobster! It's already starting to sting....tomorrow is going to hurt!

Monday is here!

Happy Monday!
The weekend was quite but nice.
I am hoping someone can help me out....I am looking for those ticket stubs that say "Admit one"-any color is fine. I would like to trade a whole lot of them with someone for something else of mine for instance some ATC's, cards-(something flat) I can post in exchange. If you can help me..please email me at bouncingbonbon[at]gmail[dot]com, would really appreciate it, thanks!

Here are some new things I am working on lately. Transforming these books into pretty ones with nice covers. They can be used as journals, notebooks etc. Some I did digitally and then printed them out, others are made out of paper and embellishments.
They are for gifts for a few friends of mine-anniversary's coming up etc. Some of them-the ones with real paper and embellishments I might consider selling, but the digital ones I wouldn't as the TOU's of most designers prohibit this. (understandable really, I think mine does to! lol)
The one above I used My sisters FREE doodles on her blog.
I also used a kit from Little Dreamer Designs called Chirpy Days, Some of Mira Designs free little flowers, a writing rub from Amy cheeseman, Retrodiva's-newsprint alpha and a weeds and wildflowers free quote word art.
This one {above} was mostly Traci Sims-Fly away with Me kit. The journal rub is from Rhonna Farrer and the bg paper is from Chasing Rainbows by Michelle Coleman
{above} all paper stuff and lace, rub ons etc
{above} paper cover

I would love to open up a Etsy shop, but I can't due to them being connected to pay pal and South Africa can only send money through pay pal not receive! (so frustrating!) I would have so many items to sell! From bags, cards, beading, these notebooks and stax more! Oh well...maybe one day when pay pal gets their act together!!
Above: the bg paper is from Chirpy Days-Little Dreamer Designs, the rest images and stickers

Yesterday was the first time I made a fire on my own!! Ha ha. Well with the help of some charcoal and fire strikers! lol! But hubby came home from work (yip he had to work all weekend-pretty boring!) to do a braai (BBQ) and the fire was ready-okay...it did go out but that is not the point, the point is I am woman and I made a fire!! ha ha!! I almost did a little dance with some fire sticks and banged my chest and shouted "I is fire-maker" but I thought that might scare the neighbours, so refrained!

I thought I must say that at the moment we are reading a book to our kids..well mostly my son as I think my 4 year old daughter would be a bit scared..it is the BFG by Roald Dahl. I last read this when I was a child myself-oh my word, I am so enjoying it! It is hilarious!! The words in that book are too funny! And the way he speaks...everything is " I is a hunkydoodly sort of gush-womping giant"...ha ha.
It is such fun! We have this thing in our family that reading is very important.
In fact when my I was pregnant (more so with my son as I had more time) I would read to my babies in the womb all the time, I never gave up on it and have read to them every single day since they were in my womb! My son loves it more than my daughter, she seems to have a short attention span! I love reading myself so I am glad to pass on this wonderful way of learning and also fun hobby. Every time we buy a book and read it together every night, then when it is finished we buy another one. I love to read the stories to them I so enjoyed as a child such as The faraway tree (Enid Blyton), The wishing chair, and so many more!

What was your favorite book as a child? Do you enjoy reading?
Would love to hear your thoughts!