Did you miss me????

I know....I am terrible!!! ha ha. The good news is that my PC is fine! It did crash, but nothing was lost....whew! DH bought me a new motherboard (old one dying) and some new RAM and a faster processor....OMW! I don't know myself with my lightning McQueen computer! It is sooooo cool!!!
I am used to opening up my file where all my scrap stuff sits...and then waiting...wandering off...watering the garden, making a cup of coffee, visiting a friend and then coming back and then it opens!! Now it is like literally 2 seconds and it is open!

Anyway...I have been busy with all kinds of things. One of them is redoing my daughter's room.
I had a printer's tray in her room which was plain and brown...quite ugly and I thought I could do something with it! So together her and I painted it...my hubby calls this color "primer pink" but actually it is a very nice color! I have one wall in my bedroom this color too (much to his dismay-ha ha)
I then cut out little blocks from various scrap papers, following a theme of roses and also pinks, cream, green, blue and purple. I must say I LOVE the result.

Here it is with everything back in! A lot of these little goodies I have had since my own childhood! So everything is precious!
I also got her these cute rose handles for her desk which is also brown...needs a paint! But that is for another time.
And then this pink bookshelf which has cute heart cut out's on the side.Now she has more space for her books and toys which I also got some cute baskets for her to store her stuff.
And I saw this whilst shopping for her and got it for my kitchen, love it!

And I have also been spending a lot of time in my garden, which is something I love. I adore gardening! (next to scrapping! lol!) Here is a photo of my cat Chloe... she is a cross breed of a Persian.Some flowers
I adore these purple saboidas.
The kids "tree house" where the cat normally parks for the day!


Last week we went to the nature reserve after school...if you read this blog often, you will know how much I love to go there...it is my favorite "retreat" -quite, peaceful and beautiful.
We went for a long walk up the mountain, here are some pics of the views from up there-amazing.
Love this bird!

See the pink flowers? Wotsonia's


I will be back with more news tomorrow....have a good day!! Drop a line if you stopped by! :)

I know.....I hang my head in shame.

So much for posting everyday! This month has been very busy with all our anniversary arrangements and so on. I have been meaning to post everyday but just didn't get to it.
Here are some more pics by the way!
This is the restaurant we ate at.Quite funky,
Red poppies growing on the mountain side







Do not fear though!! Instead of trying to catch up and post the promised freebie everyday for the month of October, I thought I would stash the rest of this months freebies in my newsletter.
Saves me trying to post everyday too , when I battle to find the time.
So the missing freebies from the 15-31st October (excluding weekends) are in the October Newsletter. You will be getting 13 Freebies plus a bonus one-14 freebies!!

The newsletter is long-20 pages!! Packed with inspiration and freebies. I really recommend you download it seeing as though it has taken me weeks to put together!! ha ha.

If you are not a member of my newsletter group yet, please sign up HERE.
I will be sending out the newsletter later today, so even if you sign up AFTER I have sent it out, you will still be able to get it by checking the messages on the group page.

Today my kit-Rain forest is on Sale for only $1- It is one of my early kits, but I still like it.

Here are some LO using it:




And with that in mind I leave you with a photo of my first chicken pie I baked!! yum!

I am back in the land of the living!

Thank you for all your happy anniversary messages! What a nice surprise to come home and see them all on my blog! (hugs!)We had a wonderful weekend away, worth every minute! IT was wonderful to be just a wife, a friend and me for two days, instead of a mother, a cleaner, and a cook!We drank a lot of wine, rested, sight-seed and just had a proper rest with lazy mornings and evenings by the fireplace!

Here are a few of my favorite shots-was hard narrowing it down considering I took over 600 photos!!!
Here is the bedroom. To the left it had a little dresser and chair, in front a cupboard and a chest of drawers with a TV and leading off a en-suite. A set of doors opening out onto the patio with a little table and chair set which we sat at both mornings eating breakfast. Their was a black pool too which we took a dip in.
In the distance are mountains and vineyards.
From the front door you walk into the lounge and you can see the dinning room which the kitchen leads off. To the left of the photo off the lounge is the other bedroom. and in front of the main couch in the lounge is a fireplace, TV etc.
10 years of marriage, 12 years together.
kitchen. Love it! love the color and the style.

Hubby took this one of me looking at the treesThe cottage from the side.The first door is the bedroom, then the front door.

View from the garden.
View from the patio of the mountain and vineyards. The front vineyard by the wall is right off the garden!!

Another shot of the same mountain from the pond.The same mountain , taking from the top looking down. Straight inline with that dirt road is where we stayed.
The little gate leading off to the vineyard
The patio, this is where we ate breakfast.
The little gate (this is mirrored on each side of the house is a square garden with oak trees, lavender bushes, a small stone wall and a little gate with a gravel path with lavender bushes lining the pathway.

The pond in front of the house, it was alive with geese and ducks and general bird life. We took a little row boat and paddled out onto it. This is at sunset. I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos! I will post some more sometime!
I am struggling with my commitment to have a freebie a day...but trying to fulfill my promise!


Download Forever Friends add on HERE
(Monday the 13th)

And a QP for you...
Download HERE
(Tuesday 14th)

Will be back with the rest of the weeks freebies tomorrow. Have a good day!!!

Friday...True love almost finished

It's Friday.
Today my kids broke up for School holidays. (just till the 6th October)But still, looking forward to sleeping in! (my version of sleeping in is at least till 8am!! I am up at 6am school days. Fortunately I don't have kids who wake up at the crack of dawn on their own!
So for today's second last piece is a single paper...
And underneath is a word art I made..if you look carefully you will see little birds I have drawn in the text.
You can download the paper HERE and the word art, all you have to do is click on it and open it up full size and save as to your computer. Please remember the although the word art is not in a zipped file along with a TOU, the TOU still applies...as in..don't share, claim as your own, re-sell, etc etc.

Snap and Scrap is hosting a cyber crop this weekend.

You can join in the fun anytime! The prizes will be great....I am giving away a prize too! To read more about it, you can see this forum and register here.

Snap and Scrap is also on Facebook now...See here to join

So did you manage to find my sisters blog yesterday? Then you would of found the secret freebie on it! Remember today is the LAST day to send me your link to the template -10 reasons one: the freebie I gave this week-scroll down. If you do, I am picking a winner to win a GC to my shop from all the participants.
So far I have a grand total of ...wait for it...... TADA.......1 participant!!!!
whoo-hoo!! Come on people, give her some competition otherwise she is guaranteed to win the GC! I am thinking: hmmm...either my template sucks or no one wants the GC badly enough cos my designs suck!!!! Come on....please make me feel better and play along!!! lol!

Have a great weekend and the final piece for True love will be given out on Monday-It's worth the wait! Don't forget to grab all the pieces to True love if you are popping between today and Monday as on the 30th I am taking them all down. There are 7 links in total (last one given out on Monday). A freebie a day continues for the whole month of October!!


The winner for week one for a $2 off anything in my store goes to....


.....


.....

ADRONSCATHERINE!!!!!

Please email me so I can send you your prize!! Congratulations!
Want to win? For the next 5 weeks I will choose one random winner a week-from all those that comment on my blog. As well as other various fun things for the next 5 weeks, freebies, challengs and games! Come join in the fun-what is this in aid of? We are celebrating three things:
1)Friendship month
2) KimB's 19th wedding anniversary
3)my 10th Wedding anniversary

Monday!!! True love continues...

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

It was lovely weather here for a change, after all the rain we have been having! Nice to get outdoors! Saturday we went 4 x 4-we take the car and the rhino (which is 4 x 4 golf cart with a back like a buckie (South African for a"pickup")-amazing suspension! It can go over any terrain!)
Here is me and DH, yes I drove it and have before, but this time I went DOWN steep hills with ditches and roots gutting out and you name it! I panicked but soon got over it and had heaps of fun! My father in law came with, so while at times he drove, the rest of us drove in the 4 x 4. It is an amazing trail that takes you right to the top of the mountains. The views from up there are breath taking. Not to mention the wild flowers, vegetation and birds! (these are more the reasons why I go with!)

Just look at these views! In the background is the back of Table Mountain -Cape Town.



See the little dirt track in the photo below? We came UP that.The first Wotsonia's of the season.




Sunday I worked the whole day in the garden, which was lovely. I had bought the kids each a pair of gloves and they enjoyed themselves working along with me-planting and watering.
This is a view of my backdoor, I have nasturtium and assorted herbs as well as cherry tomatoes and green peppers and another great natural insect repellent -marigolds (nasturtium being another one)My kids were shocked when I picked some nasturtium flowers and ate them! Then my dd tried-needless to say, she did not like the peppery taste! I remember as a child picking the leaves and eating them on buttered bread!


Today I thought it would be great if you could tell me just ONE reason why you love your husband/boyfriend or if you are not seeing someone or are not married...what you would look for in a mate....just for fun!!