Busy week ahead ...

I have a very busy week ahead.  Have to get a friend of mine to Howick Hospital tomorrow morning by 6.30 which by my standards is an obscene time!!!  I then have a wedding expo to on Saturday which needs a load of preparation, etc. etc. etc.  I have a new maid  to train and guests leaving in the morning so not too sure if there are enough hours in the day so will be back sometime soon .......

Another wedding

A firend of mine is getting married next month and asked me to do her invitations and, between us, this is what we came up with -

Her colours are cream, pink and green and she wanted everything very plain as it's a morning wedding.  The base is pink shimmer cardstock with a green layer on top.  On top of that I used cream paper which I stamped.  I overlaid everything with vellum which had pink printing.  The whole thing was finished with green flat-backed pearls.

I also did her unity candles -

and her wedding guest book which I made from scratch -

This was a challenge but I really enjoyed it and thank goodness for YouTube and their tutorials!!!

Back again!

Our Telkom cables were stolen over a month ago so we've had no internet and no landlines.  We've now gone with wireless internet but still don't have a landline and this is how it's likely to be for a good long time.

During the time we've been 'down', there's been much excitement with snow over large portions of the KZN interior.  We woke up one morning to white mountains around the house which were beautiful.

Nottingham Road and Mooi River had much more snow than we did here but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

First Frost 01 June 2011

This is what we woke up to on Wednesday - it was really cold at -3 degrees and everywhere was ice!!!  Wont take long before the garden is destroyed.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

OMW - I'm not very good at getting down to my blog on a regular basis as promised.  I just seem to be so busy all the time what with the self-catering which has been nicely busy, invitations which had to be done, more invitations that I'm busy with for another wedding, etc. etc. .............

Well, I'm here now so had better prove that I finished the invitations.

I made one that wasn't 'entirely' straight so decided to keep it and use it as an example so this is what the finished product looked like.  The wedding theme is antique/vintage and the colours are burgundy, cream and old gold.  The first layer is old gold, the second burgundy and the third layer is cream with burgundy printing.  Flat backed pearls were used on the flowers.

At last it's cooler even though the wind is howling.  Roger is playing the piano and Xena is 'singing' to her heart's content. 

I think it's time I started focussing on some of the crafts I've done.  I'll try to post something at least a few times a week even though I'm not very good at this blogging thing yet.  (Not very good at taking photos either!!!)

I have just hosted a 'Come to Tea' swap with RSA and this is my ATC.  I used chocolate brown cardstock as the base, pink shimmery paper for the first layer which I embossed with cupcakes and inked the edges.  I stamped the teapot and teacup on pink cardstock, cut them out and then overlapped them.  The teapot was mounted directly onto the shimmery paper and the teacup was mounted with foam tape.  I then put brown flat-backed pearls in each corner.  The sentiment was computer generated, inked and mounted with foam tape.  Now there you go - my first detailed post.

Some of the other special people in my life

The special man in my life - Roger



My daughter Tarryn




My son Greg



Another one who's growing like a weed

Xena, our puppy is also growing apace.  She's not 4 months old yet and weighs just under 20kgs!!!!

Check the size of those paws.  Estimated adult weight around 60kgs plus!!!!

Here are her friends ...

Munchkin - my yorkie old lady

Benji - smiling for the camera

Benji sleeping in his favourite place!



She's growing up so fast ....

I cannot believe how quickly our little poppet is growing.  She's now nearly 6 months old.

How much hotter ?!?!?!?

I'm not very good at doing this blog thing every day or even every week.  Today was soooo hot so I closed all the curtains, blinds and doors, and hid away in the cool of the house.  Before Thursday, we had not had any rain for over two weeks - just the incessant heat day in and day out - revolting!!  We had a good dumping on Thursday, a few drops last night and a good dumping again today so I'm a happy camper again :D! 

I've spent the last few weeks catching up with cards for the RSA birthday list and have finished all requirements to the end of April.  Here are some of the cards I made.

I now need to get going with the background swap which is a biggie.

A very special little lady

Rileigh Morgan Nevin on Christmas Day

A very proud grandad with a very tired Rileigh

A happy little girl

Rileigh with dad Nick and Mom Caz

Our Latest Addition - Xena

She was so little when we brought her home at just over 5 weeks old

Trying to play with Munchkin who wants nothing to do with her

Who can resist that face!?!?

Getting big now - 2 months old

The garages before renovations

The 'garages' now

The back of the garages before

The back of the 'garages' now

Lounge windows before

Lounge windows now

My poor kitchen!!



View from my craft room before



View from my craft room now

Building's finished so I'm back ....

Alterations to our garages started on 20 September 2010.  We decided to convert the 4 big workshops into self-catering accommodation in order to generate an income.  The building went well and progressed apace until the rains started around the beginning of November and then things started to go a bit pear-shaped timewise.  The heavens really opened in December and soon the place was a mudplug.  The poor builders made slow progress and eventually finished just before Christmas - a good 3 weeks late so we lost some December business but were ready - only just - on Christmas eve.  I had, in my wisdom, also decided to replace all the front horrible louvre windows on the house with aluminium windows and remove a wall in the kitchen and jack up the roof by 2 bricks in the laundry to make a huge farmhouse kitchen.  This turned into a nightmare.  I couldn't cook, wash any dishes as I had no sink or dishwasher and we are some distance from restaurants, etc. so for a week it was bedlam.  There was dust like I'd never seen, builder's rubble, exposed wires and dripping water all conspired towards m e l t d o w n ..........

My daughter arrived unexpectedly on the 17th (she was only due to arrive on the 18th but heard 'meltdown' in mother's voice and flew down a day early).  When she arrived, the first guests were here to check if their room would be available for that night.  I don't know who was more worried - them or me!!!!!  She took over and we had one room sorted and the guests checked in without a hitch much to my relief.  Her boyfriend arrived the following day and they got stuck in and sorted out so much.  My son arrived on the 22nd and he jumped in and helped so that when Roger's 2 sons arrived on the 24th, all was ready.

We had a lovely Christmas - 13 adults + our first grandchild which made it very special.  My daughter left on Boxing day - yes I bawled :-( - Roger's sons and families left on the 27th and then started the washing and ironing and getting the rooms ready for guests.  My son left on the 9th.

I can't believe we're almost back to normal.  We've had several guests in which has been very rewarding after all the hard work and we're full for the Midmar Mile weekend.  We just need to get the grass to grow in front of the units as the builder's rubble, etc. caused havoc with the grass.  Believe it or not, we're now begging for rain again as it's been terribly hot and dry over the last 2 weeks. Hopefully the grass will soon 'knit' and become the lush green carpet it once was.

My biggest joy at the moment is that our website is up and running so please check it out on http://www.enniskerry.co.za/ and let me know what you think.  Bookings are open!!!!

Another big joy is that my daughter and her boyfriend have decided that they will soon be quitting the rat race and moving to the Midlands - how blessed can a person be??  For this I can't wait.

That's it for today.  Have a good one everybody.