A Beautiful Blog...

For some great eye-candy and inspiration visit Olavas Blog

Another fab site is Gipsybazar

What am I doing this weekend?

We are in the middle of a bad heatwave and its rather difficult to do anything in this weather, however, today I plan to get started on my Life Organiser Journal.  I received Jennifer Louden's book - The Life Organiser - for Christmas and its AWESOME!  So I purchased a new journal yesterday and plan to do the prompts and exercises in the book once  a week (as they are given in weekly segments).  I will keep you updated on this project.  Today we also need to tidy out the garage to make a space for my son's car.  My Gardener is here today and will help us with this- thank goodness.  (The lawn mowing will just have to wait till next weekend!)  I also have to go into town for my mom sometime this morning.  I will rest in the afternoon (the norm for me) and then cook supper (spagetti bolognaise tonight) , wash dishes and hopefully catch up on some reading!

"Small steps eventually add up to many small Victories."

The Day after Christmas

After the Christmas craziness I declared yesterday :"BE KIND TO MYSELF DAY".
I did no cooking , washing or grocery shopping or any other thing that stresses me out. A soft drenching rain fell the whole day. I spent a lot of time on my bed with my 3 dogs. I slept, ate, read and crocheted. I wore my slippers the whole day - Bliss!

The slippers my precious friend, Sparkle, gave me for Christmas - love love love them !!!!

A new blanket  that I started on a few days ago - in rainbow colours -  a very relaxing easy project.

I found this crochet square idea on Facebook and had to try it.  It's not perfect but I am still working on getting it right.

"If  PLAN "A" doesn't work out - remember that the alphabet has 25 more letters!"

Visit me on Facebook....

Check out my FaceBook page.  See link on top right sidebar.

Home-Made Gifts

My good friend Helen brought me the most delicious home-made Christmas gifts yesterday. 

A Minced-Fruit Tart and a jar of her special Lemon Curd.  There's nothing like HOME-MADE!!!! 
Visit Helen's BLOG at  creativegran.blogspot.com

2 days to Christmas...

Wow, time flies.  Christmas is my FAVOURITE time of the year.  I have always loved it. And this year we have so much to celebrate- the last few years have been very very tuff - and it seems as if things are finally turning around for us.  So I am doing as much as I can to make this Christmas merry and brite....

(picture found on facebook)

Today I am venturing out to the mall to buy all the groceries for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Quite a mission!!  Tomorrow (24th) I have to pick up last minute arrivals (of gifts that were ordered) from the Post Office and a local Gents Outfitters. Tomorrow I must also finish wrapping gifts and I must prepare the snacks for our Christmas Eve dinner (finger-food this year) + a bowl of punch and hire a fun Christmas DVD .

 

I scratched out my late grandmother's punch bowl that hasnt been used in years and have to wash the set today.  I have to make some more gift tags too because I have run out...

It  seems like its going to be a very hot day today so I want to be off to mall very early- before the heat really sets in and hopefully before it gets too crowded!

I hope that your preparations are progressing well.  Remember to take it all in your stride.  I have made up my mind not to get stressed this year.  Its going to be SIMPLE, PEACEFUL and FUN.

very good advice!  If you are calm, happy and relaxed that energy rubs off on the rest of the family. Try it- it works!!!

The End of the World...

I (heart) crochet....

More crochet goodies......

 I had such fun figuring out how to make these without a pattern and I am quite happy with my end result. I want to make them into a garland (will post pics of  the finished item soon- watch this space!) :o)

 This is a crochet hook baggie . I glued on the felt cat needle-holder.

fun , fun,  fun .......

"We don't see things the way they are.  We see things the way WE are."
-Talmund-

Creative Juice

Hi all

Some eye-candy and inspiration for all you wonderful art journalers today. I recently purchased Violette's Book: Journal Bliss , and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  (available from Kalahari.com or Amazon)

Violette has such a great "juicy" style.  You can visit her inspirational blog at: www.violette.ca

"Excellence =  take what you have and do the BEST with it." 
-Joyce Meyer-

My Christmas Bear

                                       Isn't he adorable?!  

                 I've been bitten hard by the Crochet Bug :o)

 Of course I had to add pics of these two in the Santa hat too - or they'd feel left out :o)

"The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."
-William Morris-

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

My Nativity Scene may be tiny but it takes Pride of Place every Christmas!

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel - which means, "God with us".  " - Matt. 1:23

Scenes of Christmas

today- a few Christmassy pics to put you in a Festive mood....

 I took this photo of our tree last year without a flash.  I just love the way it came out....

Christmas Bliss.....

For some reason my tree always leans over a bit - every year without fail- no matter how hard I try to get it to behave itself!

Last year I made these paper tags (25 of them) and the whole tree was decorated with just those instead of our usual ornaments.  It was quite lovely.

A Christmas bouquet I made last year with flowers from my garden.  (My favourite arrangement ever!)

What Santa left us last year- no place under the tree so he decided to put it here :o)

This years tree-  which is decorated with mostly handmade(by me) ornaments.  The brown teddy was hand knitted by my late grandmother for my oldest son when he was a baby- he was her first great-grandchild.

The Reindeer on his soft chair sings a Christmas song when you press the button on his hand- its my favourite thing- my dear brother bought him for me a few years ago. The ceramic Santa was hand-painted by me many years ago.

This year I only put out some of my favourite Ornaments because I didnt have the energy to "go the whole hog" like I normally do with the Christmas decorating.

Wishing you all the best ever Christmas Season- full of peace, fun, joy, hope and light !

More Christmas Goodies

Here are some more Crochet and Knitted goodies that I made for Christmas.
This is a crochet flower necklace that I made for a friend for Christmas:

This a gorgeous little Christmas bauble tree decoration.  Visit Attic 24 for the tutorial to learn how to make these:

These are three knitted Christmas tree decorations which I just knitted out of my head ie: made up as I went along:

"Let us decide on the route that we wish to take to pass our life, and attempt to sow that route with flowers"
-Mde du Chatelet-

Colourful Journal Cover

Hello again :o)
Here's the pics of  my fun and funky recycled journal with its bright hand painted cover:

The beads are, of course, totally a Jennibellie thing! :o)

 My cover was inspired by the work of the talented Dianna over at 365 Days of Art. This is her art journal page that inspired me:

Go and visit her blog.  Its great fun!

"A Creative Life is grounded on many many small steps and very very few large leaps."
-Cameron-

Hand-made Christmas Gifts

Hi Everyone

I'm back online!!!  What a relief!
As promised here are pics of some of  the handmade goodies I made this year as Christmas gifts for family and friends.....

 

Little pouches to put gift vouchers in made from Nikkim 100% cotton yarn from Woolhogs.

These little baggies can be used for tissues, tampons, lipsticks etc by the receiver afterwards.

 The purple bag below is made from a textured yarn from Woolhogs called Bambi (a blend of 30% bamboo and 70% cotton)

These are packs of 4 cards and 4 envelopes.  They are decorated with prints of my original artworks:

These are facecloths - yes facecloths (not doilies) and they work like a charm!  I made myself one to try it out.   They are made with Nikkim 100% cotton yarn from - you geussed it- WOOLHOGS.

 I bought Nivea soap which comes in a box and wrapped it with patterned scrapbooking paper and stamped the word "SOAP" on it with my alphabet stamps.

These are a great recycling project:  pencil tins from empty food cans .  Crochet was done with Serina 100% bamboo yarn from Woolhogs.

And these are my Christmas cards and gift tags made using prints of my original artwork:

And in my next post I want to show you pics of the cover of my recycled journal that I told you about in a previous post not so long ago.  I am sooooo thrilled with how this Journal cover turned out.... WATCH THIS SPACE......