Support your local SPCA

Every time I look at Bear I think : "where would he be now if it wasnt for our local SPCA?"  Please support your local animal rescue association.  They do such an important job!
Today our Bear got his first bath since he has been with us (I didnt want to stress him out by bathing him straight away because he had just been neutered and was in a new home and had so much to deal with as it was.)  He was very good and stood still while he was bathed although he did not like it.
Here is a photo of  him all cleaned up with his brand new blue collar on (which says: "now I belong").

(the bandage on his leg is because he decided to pick a fight with our Pitbull and he came off second) However, he's tuff and he'll be fine {I cant say the same for my poor nerves though...:-)  }

"human beings who leave behind them no great achievements, but only a sequence of small kindnessess have not had wasted lives." -C.Grey 1932-

Gratitude

"Thou hast given so much to me,

give one thing more,

- a grateful heart,

not thankful when it pleaseth me,

as if Thy blessings had spare days,

but such a heart whose pulse 

may be Thy praise."

 The creative e-course that I have been doing has as its theme: GRATITUDE.  It's been such a wonderful re-awakening to the practice of gratitude .  What a huge difference it makes in our lives when we fill our hearts and lives with gratitude and with the art of giving.  Here is a photo of  our third project for the course which I finished this weekend.  It is an altered board book (pages are made of thick board). It has lots of textures and layers added to it to make it very interesting and unique. I chose to do a vintage theme in cream, pink and green. This is the cover of my book:

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you", that would suffice."

-M.Eckhart-

Its weekend again. . .

A little bit of scrap booking inspiration for you.  This is the page I did with my class yesterday.
Its a fun use of smallish scraps of patterned paper and ribbons, lace, ric-rac etc plus some buttons and flowers for fun.....

And here is (part of)  my absolutely gorgeous blessings banner that was a project for my Creative Kismet e-course. I am soooo thrilled with this project.  It was GREAT fun to do and I will definitely be making more of  these!

The grand essentials to HAPPINESS are:

Something to DO

Something to LOVE 

               and

Something to HOPE for.

-Joseph Addison-

A great big THANK YOU...

Today I want to say a great big thank you to my brother, Eldon, who has unselfishly supported and taken care of me and my family over the past few very difficult years.  Words can never express how grateful I am dear brother. THANK YOU for absolutely everything - I think you're amazing!!! Love you LOTS.

A hint of summer in the air....

The past few days have been so warm and sunny.  The early fruit trees in my back yard are blossoming already and I even found a few tiny Jasmine blossoms!

This past weekend was a full one for me.  I could not do my usual Sunday blogpost because our internet was down (aaargghhh!)  But I worked on my Art Journalling for my e-course.  (You can see photos of  these projects on my facebook page.) I also brought work home from the factory.

My "homework": The flowers are cut from Nguni cow hide and each one is hand stitched onto the fabric. (no easy task)

 These beautiful cushions are the end result!

These cushions are available from www.afritan.com plus many more gorgeous products made from the hides of African animals: buck, zebra, wildebeest etc.  They also produce placemats, bags, mats, ottomans ,a large range of different cushions and much more.

In case you were wondering Bear is doing well.  And of course here are more photos of him:

Already making himself  WAY too much at home!!!!

He has some weird quirks-  he lies down to eat his food, he drags his matress and blanket around all over and he growls like a bear (especially when he cant get his own way).

Daniel says the only way that this family can get any weirder is if we buy a bear and name it "Dog" !!!

A question to ponder this week:

WHAT WOULD YOUR PERFECT DAY LOOK LIKE?


"We need both FAITH and REASON to make meaning in an uncertain world"   -B.Brown-

Each Second. . .

"Each second you can be reborn.  Each second there can be a new beginning.  It is choice.  It is YOUR choice." - Clearwater-

I am learning and gaining so much from the creative e-course that I signed up for that I feel like a new season of my life has just begun. And its a great feeling.  Make a choice today that pulls your life in a new direction - a new beginning.  It can be a small choice (like mine) or a big choice.  Just go ahead and do it.  You are sure to be blessed.  (challenged probably too - but blessed !!!)

 This is me working on one of the projects for my e-course.  I may not look like I am having much fun because I am so focused on what I am doing - but really its tons of fun - I havent had this much fun since I was 8 !!!! :o)


Today I am sharing a scrapbook page that I did of my doggies.  I love the "saying" on this page.  My dogs do add another dimension to my life - one  I would be much poorer for not having in my life.

It says:  "Dogs are not my whole world . . . but they make my world whole !"

More Photos of Bear. . .

I took some better photos of Bear this afternoon, out in the garden and decided that I REALLY had to share them with you. . .  :-)

Its Sunday again. . .

I have been up since 6am working on my projects for my e-course. What bliss!!!!
A whole day to myself to paint and create and play with my dogs!
At the moment I am busy baking another batch of crunchies (because I am craving something sweet).

Bear is doing well.  He is quietly exploring his new environment from pillar to post.  Yesterday I noticed him digging holes in the garden so I went to see what he was doing.  He was taking mouthfuls of his pellets (dogfood) and burying them around the yard (for just in case he might go hungry again - poor baby!!)

(This is the cover of my GRATITUDE JOURNAL - which is one of the projects we are doing in our Creative Kismet e-course).

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom"     -Marcel Proust-

Our New "Baby" . . .

Lots of photos today of  our new dog: BEAR.  We adopted him from the SPCA.  He was found locked in a room in a yard and starving.  He has been at the SPCA for a month.  You can tell he is still rather skinny from the photos but we will "feed him up".  He looks very mean but is really very gentle and affectionate with us.  However, I dont think anyone will just walk into the yard with him on guard!  We only got him yesterday so there is still a lot of adjusting for him to do.  He has to get used to the other dogs , I think he was an "only dog" where he lived before. We do not know anything about his previous owners or his previous life.  We think he's a boerboel-ridgeback cross.  and we estimate him to be about 4 years old.

I had quite a challenge trying to get him to pose for me...

Now for something arty....

Yesterday's scrapbooking class was great fun.  I used some of the techniques that I have been learning in my Creative E-Course...  painting, stencilling and "decoupage"  (Thanks for the inspiration Regina!!)
This is the page we created:

And this week my scrapbooking class money went to the purchasing of a range of new paints that I need to complete my assignments for my creative e-course.  And what fun it was to choose all these lovely colours:

It's going to be a happy creative weekend. . . . . .

enjoying my e-course. . .

Hi all

We had a tiny bit of snow in Dundee this morning.  There is snow on all the surrounding mountains and it is vvvvvvery ccccccold.  The Creative Kismet e-course that I signed up for with Regina Lord started on Monday.  How exciting!!  It's awesome and I am so glad I signed up.  It runs for a month , with tutorial videos and writing prompts and various art projects to complete.  The theme is GRATITUDE.  So far I am enjoying it immensely.  I think it will be sad when its over - like when you come to the end of a great book.

Unrelated to the e-course : Here are some creative goodies I have been doing lately.....

A little hand-embroidered heart I made as a birthday gift for a special friend of  mine.

Two mixed media tiny paintings on wooden plaques.  (click on pictures for a better view.)
I found the wooden plaques at a discount store ready finished with the wrought iron hanger at the top.  They had white "sayings" on them.  I painted over the original text and then used them as gorgeous little "canvasses" for my artwork.  And they were a bargain price!!  Yay! (Needless to say I bought all 26 in the store).

ASK YOURSELF:  If at the end of  the year, you had accomplished one thing, what is the one accomplishment that would make the biggest difference to your happiness? (the happiness project)

Let's Play . . .

"The Joy of the Lord is your Strength"    Neh. 8:10

"Respecting our biological need for play can bring back excitement and newness to our lives".

-Brene Brown-

Have you had enough "playtime" lately?

When last did you:

Go on a picnic?

Take a Nature walk?

Play a Game?

Read a Comic book?

Ride a Bicycle?

Dance?

Fly a kite?

Go Camping?

Swing on a swing?

Chase Butterflies?

But seriously . . .  . .

My CHALLENGE to myself and all of you, this week, is to make "PLAYTIME" a bigger PRIORITY in our lives.

10 Things . . .

Here's my list of 10 THINGS I'M LOVING RIGHT NOW...

1. My Calendula plants starting to bloom
2. Codeword puzzles (quite addictive)
3. My electric blanket (its mid-winter here)
4. A new book "Beyond Talent" by JC Maxwell
5. Eating more fresh vegetables (steamed)
6. Starting my CREATIVEKISMET e-course (yay!)
7. Earning extra money at my new part-time job
8. A coffee & hot chocolate mixture i make (which I have become slightly addicted to)
9. Country Living magazine - the British Edition
10. BLOGGING !!!!

What is on your 10 THINGS list this month?

"I dont think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."

(Anne Frank 1929)

Today is Friday - the day I teach my scrapbooking class.
This is the page we are going to be creating today:

(detail of the hand-sewn flowers that embellish the page in a very unique way.)

Beauty. . .

Today I have decided to share one of my favourite inspirational quotations with you:

"In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud sometimes only BEAUTY can be trusted.

Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty,

then, can be a serious business - not always necessarily a means of escaping reality, but sometimes

a means of holding on to the REAL when everything else is flaking away into rhetoric and plot."

-E. Gilbert- (from her book :  "EAT PRAY LOVE")

A   favourite painting of mine.  Mixed media on canvass, I used oil pastels, acrylic paint, gauze, wax crayons, "engraving techniques" and texture paste. 

Detail