Ready to share some photos!

It sure has taken long enough! lol! Things have been crazy. I finally have some photos re-sized to show you of my trip. I am waiting for a disc from the first friend I stayed at, as over 600 of my photos for some reason, didn't copy onto my discs, so she is posting them to me. But here are a few of my favorite so long....
This is me hanging onto a pole -the day I got to England. My friends took me to my first English pub for a "pint" and then to a little place called Stoke Bruene-and we strolled along the river and watched the barge's go up and through the locks-amazing. Someone kindly invited us to get on their barge and took us through two locks so we could experience the real thing.

the little forest walk we went on along the river.This pretty little place was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. We went there for the day and bought a 5 -house pass to see his birthplace, his wife's (Anna Hathaway) childhood home which was their marriage home too, his mother's farm (Mary Arden), his son-in-law's and daughter's house and something else,...can't remember now. I must say, this was one of my favorite outings of my whole trip. I loved the quaint town, the history, the houses, it was all so beautiful. When I get my photos of it, I will be sure to post some.
These two photos were taken along the River Avon, in Stratford-Upon-Avon. A mother swam and her two signets.

Last of the daffodils....
sweetpeas
Shakespeare's wife-Anne Hathaway, this was her childhood home and later when they got married, it became their married home.
Some of the gorgeous flowers in her garden.


Mary Arden...her house, She was Shakespeare's mother.
I fell in love with these Tudor-Style houses whilst there, I just love the history and look to them, look at this one, how wonky it is! And yes, that is me standing in front.

gorgeous tulip


We went to Warwick Castle (pronounced War-rick)which was nice. That was a whole day outing, exploring inside and outside.
Here is me on the top of one of the towers...took a lot of courage standing near that railing, I hate heights!
A view of the side of the castle with the old mill.

I just love this old bridge and the reflection!
roses and in the background, the big castle clock.
Some of the views from the highest towers of the castle.


I still have my PARIS photos to show you and lots more...so be sure to come back..and a FREEBIE later on in the week too! Would love to hear your comments!!

Grab some coffee and a biscuit!

So much to write about..so little time...hee hee.
Going to have to type extra fast as I have to leave in 10 minutes to fetch my kids from school!

First of all, today and tomorrow I have a $1 sale on 3 products!

So grab 'em quick!! advert linked for your convenience.

Here in South Africa it is Autumn..The days are colder, the trees are beautiful turning gold, yellow, orange, red and brown. We don't have a full-on autumn like some places with just about every avenue of trees in those colors, but I have been driving around, and when I do spot a beautiful tree or something that strikes, I have been taking photos to show you what our autumn is like. So here are a few photos! Enjoy!
The first one is of a sunset taken the other day from my back garden. No touching up done, it really was this color!! so gorgeous!
I pass this fence on the way to take my daughter to school everyday. I love it, I have watched it over the weeks turn from green to brown, to gold and then to red! The sun was shining on it when I took this picture and it just looked so amazing.
I just love this corner. This corner is on the road that goes to my inlaws house. It is also the corner that goes to my sisters-Jen's holiday house. I love this road and these trees.

This is the view I have from my dining room. I love to look out at this mountain.
yesterday, It was a rare beautiful day. Cold, but at least it was dry and the sun was shining, so I took the opportunity and took my kids to our local nature reserve. We had a picnic there and went on a lovely walk. Here are some photos i took! (just as well as I took them because today is back to being cold, wet and raining!)
I love how this came out-a spider web.Some buck in the park
Two dragon flies.
Some nice, bright berries-I think these will be in a kit soon!
my kids running in the reserve
A beautiful plant
i love this one-with the oak trees in the mist.

In this photo below, if you look carefully you will see a spotted hawk and a squirrel.
We sat and watched in amazement as this Hawk tried to catch the squirrel and attack it! The Squirrel wouldn't hear of it and when the Hawk came closer, he attacked it with a nut still in his mouth! Actually I am sure he had a nut in each cheek and had just found another one and was probably protecting his dear stash!! ha ha. It was hilarious. Unfortunately in my excitement, I didn't catch any photos of the whole fight,but I got these!
Here is the hawk-it is so beautiful!

The poor little squirrel with his poor little heart probably beating a mile a minute!This one is of me with my kids! love how this came out! love having a self-timer on my camera!

And the last one I snuck in-some fancy home with this gorgeous oak-tree lined driveway!!
BACK TO THE DIGI-STUFF!!

Then I have some freebies!!! I meant to post about this one a few days ago,..but forgot! Anyway better late than never! I made a desktop for you for May. It contains products from some of my kits like A breath of Fresh Air, and also from a NEW Kit which is a secret...coming out in June..It is a collab I am doing with a fellow designer of ESS....you will have to wait and see! Please note the desktop size is only made to fit one screen..so check if it is the right one for your screen first before downloading.
size: approx 2MB

I am also happy to introduce a CT member of mine who is making it into the designing world...FanFan Rue Des Anges. She really scraps so beautifully and is making beautiful kits now!
Take a look at her first kit which will be in her store soon!
DOWNLOAD HERE

I also have done some pages for CT kimB Designs

And Here is a QP made with this one for you.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I hope you enjoyed todays post! making up for my lack of being around in the digi world for so long!

Thank you

Me, my brother Rob and my sister Jen December 2008.

Thank you for all your thoughts for our family.

Finding strength for "normal" things is just very, very hard and I am taking one day at a time. Getting through each day is my main focus at this point. My sister arrives tomorrow of which I am so grateful for. My other brother who lives in London cannot come right now, which is terrible, I last saw him 8 years ago...I wish he could be with us right now, but we speak on the phone everyday. I feel the most for my dad...I can't imagine loosing a child...he already lost my mom when I was two. And of course I feel so much for my sister in law...they had been married 18 years this month (had just celebrated their anniversary)...
It helps me personally to cry, to talk about it when I need too. It is my own way of dealing with it.Sometimes I just can't and I just need to shut myself up or sleep. Sleeping helps and is great, because then I don't have to feel anything. The mornings are the worst as I wake up and for a few brief seconds life is normal until it hits me all over again...

The hardest thing is that life around you carries on. You still need to feed the kids, be a mom, do the washing, etc etc. you wish the world could stop so that you could just grieve. I suppose in time it will be the normality of these little things that will help me. My husband has been the most amazing man in the world. So utterly supportive and kind. He cries with me, he cleans for me, he does everything he can. And shame, he is still suffering with his own physical pain from his broken leg and limping around.

Devastated

Just a quick note, so you all don't think I dropped off the planet.
My dear and beloved brother passed away today. He had gone in for a procedure to cut a small piece of skull out to relieve the pressure and swelling in the brain. It was just too much,the pressure too great. He was pronounced brain dead and as per his wishes, my sister in law had his life support switched off. It is a great shock and sadness, the last 4 days have been like a bad dream, in fact it still feels like a bad dream. I am surprised I have the strength to write this, but I know a lot of you will be wondering and thank you for your support. Even though we have never met, it still means a lot to me. I won't be going over to NZ anymore. My sister in law will be coming over in a few months time. We will be having a memorial service her for him too.

Keep those you love safe and tell them every second you love them. I am so grateful I have no regrets and my memories of him are all good. He was here for 4 wonderful weeks in December and we had the best holiday ever. I will always cherish that as long as I live.

Sad news...

On Monday the 9th of March,my oldest brother (lives in NZ)suffered a brain aneurysm and was rushed to their nearest hospital but then transferred after a CAT scan to Wellington. They medically sedated him and had him life support and all kinds of other machines to monitor his blood pressure etc. Yesterday he had a 8 hour long brain surgery in which they clipped the aneurysm. The operation seems to have gone well. He is currently still in ICU, sedated but in a serious condition. At this stage, we do not know if he has sustained any damage. It seems like he can hear even though he can't respond as my sister in law said his blood pressure went up after she read him a card from his 6 year old daughter. My brother is only 45 and very healthy, doesn't smoke or drink ..so this was a big shock to us even more so because there doesn't seem to be a physical reason for this to happen.
Jenni and I are going to be flying over to NZ , probably next week Tuesday for 10 days to be with him and his wife and offer as much help and support as we can.
My shop will still open as scheduled on Monday. I can tell you that I am a designer now at ENCHANTED STUDIO SCRAPS.
My store will go live on the 16TH MARCH .

Amidst everything happening in my life right now, I am excited for this new opportunity and looking forward to things to come digitally speaking.

As for my brother, we are waiting to hear the prognosis when they take him off the medication.
I wanted you to know in case I am quiet. When I go, I will say goodbye before so that you know.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and well wishes...

Being Crafty...

Well it seems as if the fires were arson....they found coke bottles with candles inside them. Why anyone would deliberately set fires that destroy hundreds of kilometers of forest, vegetation, animals-is beyond me. They are still raging on, but the smoke and ash has lifted from our area. The fires are still burning some very nice wine estates.....and they are battling to put them out. Vergelegen, Knoerhoek and Lourensford Wine farms. They have 70 fire fighters working in shifts and water bombs are being dropped too. This is the 4th week now of fighting these fires.

I am being crafty lately. I altered this catalog into some type of journal. Well it could be used as a notebook, journal, photo album, scrap book-whatever really. I am doing a series of these for friends and one for myself. I also might do a GIVE-AWAY of one of these on my blog, so watch this space!







Today I got a new pair of shoes

and my hubby bought me this ring I was hinting at last year for our anniversary which was in October...I am so surprised he remembered the ring. I love it!