My first card challenge!

So I decided to do it...why not?
I've been making cards ever since I can remember. I can recall selling cards at school for Entrepreneurship day! I would sit in the school holidays and make cards, I've never believed in buying cards when I know I can make them, with a personalized touch for any occasion.

Card making took a back seat when I had my children and then got kicked to the boot when my passion for scrap booking became quite big a few years ago. But the last year or two it's been renewed and being given a new lease on life! For the last two years I have sat down and in a week flat made ALL my anniversary cards for the year ahead. I then slip them into plastic covers with a sticker on for who it is for and put them in a special anniversary book that has a pocket for each month to slip your cards into with place to write the date and name of the anniversaries on the front of the pocket. I Love doing it this way because when the anniversary rolls around, I know I don't have to stress at the last minute getting out supplies to make a card. It's all done ready to pop into a carry bag with a gift.

Each person comes to mind while I am making the card and I try to incorporate something personalized into the card, maybe a color I know they like, or a little embellishment I know will appeal to them...just something small to know that they were important enough to take the time to make a card with just them in mind, and that is what I think is so special about homemade cards.

I have entered my first challenge. It is from the Caardvarks blog
And the one I entered was this one.
I used this sketch from Heidi Van Laar which was one of two to choose from for the challenge.


And this is my card created today.

I stuck a small piece of ribbon behind the scalloped border at the bottom just to add a bit of interest and color.

apparently I am supposed to list the supplies I used....
The trouble is these have been in my stash for so long, I don't know who it is by anymore.
what I do know is that:
background paper is from webster pages -postcards from paris
the rest of the papers are from K & Company (I think)

Aren't humans peculiar?! {and cards}

my little kitty-cat, chloe

Okay...so I bet this has happened to you before...

You walking along, quiet happily minding your own business, maybe singing a song in your head,
or deep in thought, when suddenly you find yourself hurtling forwards and seeing the pavement looming towards you at alarming speed!! What happened?? you regain your balance (and composure, whilst whipping your head around to see if anyone saw) and turn to stare accusingly at the ground behind you to see what caused this sudden impertinent and annoying trip, only to see ....nothing. Maybe a raised cobblestone, or a small hole, basically nothing at all too phenomenal.

This happens to me more often than I care to admit...it happened again today. After yesterdays post and today's you are going to think I am super clumsy...really I am not. The clumsy one in my family is not me, trust me! But what I find so funny is after this has happened to me and yes, to other people, is how almost every time, the person whips around with this "how dare you trip me!" accusing look of absolute denial and anger at the GROUND! IT is the funniest thing ever!

It doesn't only extend to humans by the way...a few months ago we finally got around to installing a cat flap on our back kitchen door for the cat. (well of course for the cat, it's not like we installed it for the kids!!) anyway...at first Chloe is her name...refused to use it. She would still come to the window of the room we were in or the front door and scratch and meow to be let in. This highly annoyed us all as she was like a stuck record until she got her way. And of course I was getting sick of the scratch marks and dirty paw prints smeared all over the windows.

So we put the cat flap in. She approached with wary caution, the hair on the back of neck bristling, as if she were stalking her prey! The first time I flicked the flap to show her it moved, she did a backwards jump that would of won her an award in any gymnastics show! For the next couple of days, I would take her and place her on the outside of the door and temptingly open her food inside and call her, while showing her food to her through the transparent flap.
She would salivate and meow but refused to come anywhere near the flap. After that clearly wasn't going to work, I then pushed her as gently as I could through the flap, which she definitely took great offense to and wriggled and cursed with each shove! (gentle shove by the way!)

I did that a few times much to her dismay...
Eventually after having done that along with holding the flap open for her to pass in and out without her feeling it and then once half way through, dropping the flat so she could feel it on her body, I think she finally grasped the concept. because lo and behold, she started to use it!

The funniest thing was when I saw her come through it for the first time on her own, with no coaxing or shoving from my side. She pushed it with her face, a bit hesitantly at first and then slowly, she snuck in, edging her body in bit by bit. It was almost in slow motion she took so long to do it! But the funny part was when she came through, and her tail just cleared the flap when the flap swung back and knocked her on the bottom, (pretty much like my experience yesterday at the gym-see previous post).

Well....she spun around at lightning speed,, hissed and stared at the flap swinging back and fro as if to say " what the heck??" all accusingly !! It was a laugh!!
She did this for at least the next 5-8 times she passed through the flap, giving us all a good giggle.

Anyway...I made these two cards last night.
Did a "thinking of you" card, wanted something bright and fun.
And something a bit more vintage and feminine with this blank card. It has a pocket where you see the ribbon, that whole section is a pocket you could put a gift card in or a photo or something fun to personalize it! The tag is attached though.


Thanks for all your kind comments, it makes my day!

feeling chatty

So this morning I go to gym, pull the door and go in and stop to get our my card to be swiped.
The next thing someone pushes me from behind with a heck of a force and I go flying forward...
so I turn around to see....no one! just the door swinging back and forward!! ha ha!! The door smacked me on the butt@! I go to swipe my card and the girl there is killing herself laughing as well as about 3 other gym instructors that saw the whole thing...and I was laughing too, I must admit it was damn funny!!

I was watching "how do I look?" on TV the other day and it was about this woman who wears nothing but purple, everything she wears is purple, even her make up and ear rings! A bit excessive until I saw her whole house was decorated in purple too...
They put some glasses on her and told her to pick from a line up of 7 outfits her favorite down to her least favorite. The glasses made everything black and white.
Needless to say, her least favorite where her own clothes in purple! After the make over, she looked fantastic!
I often wonder how I look to other people? I mean we all look in the mirror everyday, we all choose clothes to put on everyday and we think we look okay (most of the time) but what do other people really think? I often wonder If someone would be brave enough to tell me if i needed a make over! ha ha.
Please don't answer that, cos I may not be brave enough to hear! ha ha.

Anyway just was feeling a bit chatty today. hope you are having a great day.
xx

Winners!

Random winners chosen out of followers of my blog....

goes to.....

Porkchops_mom

Random winner chosen out of newsletter subscribers goes to...

Connie Bates

Congratulations ladies, I have contacted you, {hopefully you get your messages}
and this is just to notify you too, so if you don't get them but you see this, please email me!

Would you like to be winner in future? All you have to do is sign up as a follower and for my newsletter. You can do both on the sidebar of my blog!
Remember newsletter subscribers also qualify for secret freebies and other goodies from time to time, as well as first hand news of forth coming sales, discounts etc.

Photos, award {+10 random things about me}

A new blog friend, Cindy, awarded me this :
{thanks Cindy!}

She has such an awesome blog, simple, uncomplicated, dedicated to her hobby of making cards, and always something cute and friendly to say. I love getting my daily dose of inspiration from her. I have to list 10 random things about myself in accord with the award....so here goes...
{Cindy, we have a few things in common!!}

1} I must have coffee everyday
2} I can't stand people covering my ears or to see other people covering other people's ears-it totally freaks me out!
3} I am addicted to Lost and I have never missed a single episode or season!
4} I crave chocolate all the time.
5} I don't like malls.
6} I me my husband when I was 16 and we got marred when I was 19 and have been married for 11 years, but together for 13 years.
7} I look sort of serious and cross and people think I am, or snotty but I neither, in fact, I love to have fun, act silly and always see the lighter side of life.
8} I have been a digital designer now for 5 years!
9} I have cut and dyed my hair so many times since I was 14 that I have lost count. It's been blond, red, black, brown, short, spiky, long, very long, a bob, a perm, auburn, bright red, layered, you name it, I've done it!
10} I sometimes have dreams in which writing comes up at the end, like the credits! {honestly!}

well that was sort of....releasing...ha ha.

I wanted to share some photo's of when I went to Vergelegen the other day.






And that's me standing on a cable bridge! That thing tied around my waist is not a small animal, it's my jacket....just in case you were wondering!
And in the spirit of the award, I am awarding the following people....

My best friend Emma,
my sister Jenni,
Lizzy
paper and gluestix-Amy

I would award more, but my computer is sooooo slow today!!! Nothing will load.
See you soon!!

Autumn Splendor through photographs...

Yesterday the kids and I went to a place called Vergelegen Wine Estate.
It is really beautiful this time of year, with Autumn showing off her golden hues.
You can see more posts from previous years visits here.











Well Monday for us a school holiday and Tuesday is a public holiday, so If I am quiet for a few days, you know why! Out and about and hopefully doing some fun things!
Have a great weekend!

Spring in a Jug

Just a quick note to remind you of the 60% sale going on here at my blog on selected products and also to let you know there are still a couple of kits left at $2.50 for my NEW kit House of Dreams (see post below) so if you want a great discounted bargain, be quick and buy it now cos once the 10 sales are up, it goes to $3.80!

Autumn has definately planted her feet firmly in the ground, the mornings are cold and dark, the evening likewise. There is a crisp nip in the air and socks are part of my daily attire now!
Even though all of this is happening, I still love the season change, to see the gold and mustard leaves on the trees and to walk on the pavements and see huge oak leaves lying in little puddles of water, like little red and gold boats, floating around.
I planted some seeds for spring flowering and they are all coming up now, it's like having spring in Autumn!
And I love how my garden looks in Autumn and winter too. All my plecthanthus are blooming, their little white flowers look like snow flakes scattered all over the garden.




To brighten my mood and lift my spirits I bought these beautiful Daliah's -spring in a jug.Oh and I wanted to show you the motif I painted on my daughter's wall on the weekend, she loves it. I gave it all a outline of darker paint just to make it stand out.
That's it from me for today, have a great one!

SALE!!! 65% off

Selected kits at only $1.30 (Normal price $3.80) 65% off!!
Only until the 27 April!

I'm back! {photos}

Well I am back! We had a good week away. We went to a place called Keurboom Lagoon (Boom is Afrikaans for "tree". It is situated right on the lagoon where the sea enters into the lagoon and we stayed right on the banks. It's in a camping park that is surrounded by trees, the calls of birds and a beautiful view of the lagoon right in front of our caravan. The lagoon had plenty of "springers" fish that were jumping right out the water, but for the whole week although we fished, they all alluded us! We had the kayak there, a rubber dingy boat with a motor, our fishing gear and a good book! The kids had great fun. The weather wasn't fantastic, considering we are now in our Autumn, but we did have two lovely hot days, some mediocre overcast days and two days of light drizzle. So all in all, it was fine!
This was the view looking down the beach.


This was the view from our caravan, we could sit and watch the kids play. See that funny long branch? I sat on their with a cup of coffee and my book!


Here are some photos I took from the boat as we cruised down the river.





I think these birds are called Commodores.

We went to see the World's highest bungee jumping site too. You wouldn't catch me doing that for a million rand (or dollars!!) It is 216m high, you fall 110m!! I had heart failure just watching the people doing it!






If the rope snaps and you fall....this is where you'll end up....NICE
Some of the pretty mountain flowers


crazy fools....ha ha.

We also went to The Stormsriver Tsitsikamma (pronounced: Tit-si-ka-ma) National Park
and did a hike and walked over the swaying bridges.





The next couple of photos were taken at Nature's Valley, a beautiful part of the country I just love.


This one my hubby took, I quite like it, as I was walking along, looking for drift wood, just lost in my own thoughts.



So I hope you enjoyed the photos!
Don't forget there is a little giveaway in the posts below this one...check it out and leave a comment in that post to enter!