At last. . . . a Layout

At last. . . a layout, nothing spectacular, just a quickie, but I had to get started, again. I struggled with the light with this photo, so it is not the best shot, sorry.
Used some We R Memory Keepers paper, had these huge wooden letters, forever, covered it with some Bazzill, added some rub-ons, tied some ribbon and added a little charm.
Felisha's mother took these photo's a while ago, these two girls, they are growing up so fast. Anyways, made a tag on the right hand side, added some blings in the middle of the flowers.
Ok, I am off to the shower, just from spinning, then, I will be making myself some cuppachino, it is rainy, so nice and cool, enough reason to have a cuppa.
Then. . . I am going to start another page.
We are planning a trip to Parys again this weekend, got accommodation at Vaal De Sioleh, lovely place.

Enjoy your evening.
Tania
x

New addition and NO name

Ok, here he/or she is. My new baby, sitting in his water bowl.
Is he not just too cute?? I was on my way to the nursery on Sunday, to buy a pot,they have a pet shop inside too, I came home with him and the pot.

He has no name yet, don't know if it is maybe a"she" So what about ET?

It seems as though he is having a nap in the bowl, shame it is very small, he had 3 crickets in his cage, one has bitten the dust.
They also like vegetables, like carrots, corn and greens, just not broccoli or spinach, apparently they can die, eating that.

For now it has a greenish carpet type of thingie on the bottom of the cage, they eat the gravel, that you are suppose to put in, then they also die. BUT, since all my fish died sadly, I have a nice large aquarium for him, I am busy getting it all together for him. Some plants and rocks,etc. He needs to feel at home.

Ok, I will appreciate some ideas on a name for this little creature.

Thanks for letting me share, have a lovely evening.

Off she went. . .

Megan went to the year end function of the hockey, this evening.

Just a sweet black number, which I bought 2 months ago, otherwise, when you wait till the last minute, you end up having the same dress than somebody else. We are not so fortunate to have a big variety of shops around here.

Anyways, just plain hair, little bling around her neck, little bitty make-up and off she went.

I hope she is having a good time, this one and only of mine.

We have a meeting tomorrow at the other school, they invited us to come and have a tour around the school, to check out everything and so on, then she can make up her mind for next year, in her own time.

I bought myself a baby this weekend, can you believe it! LOL! My friends think i am crazy, bought one of those little dragon thingies, still a very small baby, will post some pictures soon. He is very cute and he eats crickets, so I must add that to my shoppinglist.

Enough for now, sweet dreams you all!!

Quick Update

Hi you all,

Hope you had a lovely weekend, ours was HOT, very warm and dry here at the moment.

Ok, here is the update, went to the school, this morning, saw the deputy head, we had a nice talk, she was horrified about the events of Friday, never in the 20 years, employed at the school, has she seen such a fiasco, seems that there were PLENTY mistakes, there were even matrix that were not even mentioned and they were supposed to get awards.

Anyways, the end result, they are now asking very nicely not to take Megan out of the school, she will receive written apology, but we need to re-apply for the colours.

There is 2 weeks left of this academic year, then the exams starts, she can finish the exams, have a nice holiday and then decide what and where she wants to go, in the end, she should just be happy, they are only kids, and they should enjoy life as much as possible, not have nonsense like this in their lives.

Busy with a layout, hope to share it soon, photos of 2 years ago, seems like yesterday. . .

LOL!! Helen, I have done that test!! Man, this right foot of mine!! Who else have done it?? It is VERY funny:)

You must all have a LOVELY evening

xx

I have until Monday to decide. . .

As I am typing this, I am VERY sad, VERY unhappy, VERY disgraced, UTTERLY disgusted,ok, is there one
word for all of this??

This is the next version of SCHOOL X!! I really need comments on this one, advise, whatever is needed to make up my mind, I have until MONDAY morning at 7.

It was the prize giving on Friday evening.
On Wednesday Megan was handed a invitation to attend this "ceremonial event."
The teacher did not have the list anymore, so she could not tell Megan what she was nominated for. Ok, Thursday comes, she still does not know.

Friday comes, they need to rehearse the whole show, shown where they need to sit, etc.
They actually call out her name, to be seated with the kids that is ONLY receiving Honoree Colours, you know, where you buy the "special" blazer, etc?

After school, she gets in the car, confused, telling me what is going on, STUPID me, telling her that maybe she is after all, getting Colours for her making the NASFED hockey team to France, at the beginning they told her, that the school does not give recognition to this sporting body.
She said, that she needed to apply, and she did not. STUPID again said, maybe your hockey coach nominated you.

I told my husband about it, he said something smelled fishy!

Ok, at 4 'o' clock Friday afternoon, I went to the school, to see whether there are some teacher that can tell me what was going on, should Megan attend this thing, what for, etc.

First teacher, which is the art teacher, very nice lady, she took me to the office, where they were busy typing all the certificates(can you believe it, still doing that, 2 hours before the event?) ok, no this lady does not know, she only has the grade 10 list, please go to so and so. Right go to the next one, no she only has the grade 11 list, please go to so and so. . . RIIGGHHT, so and so hits the computer with Megan's name with the following news: Mam, your child, Megan, is actually not invited to tonight's event, she is getting her diploma at the "dry"event at school, in school time, next week! Pulling up her shoulders with a sigh of "sorry"

SORRY, sorry for what? What if I did not went to ask, what if Megan had sat there between all the kids getting their COLOURS and her name was not even read out?? What a shameless embarrassment for my child??

The Head of Department, busy with the things in the hall, looked at me, as though I were from another planet, when I asked him about the situation.

The result, me and Megan,(sorry, I am an emotional type of person, cry VERY easy)sitting in the car, crying, out of madness, embarrassment, again no ONE word, to describe this.

Megan does NOT want to go back to that school on Monday. Although the deputy head phoned me, telling me NOT to make an emotional decision, I feel this situation is inexcuseable. I want my child out of that school, she is always giving her everything for this school, you know she even gave up provincial athletics trails, to play hockey for her team on that particular day, because this school has the ability to let their different sports overlap in such a matter, that the kids cannot make a decision in which one they should participate. I mean, goodness, it is the end of the year, in January when school starts, athletics is suppose to kick off and guess what, they are already busy with "WINTER"sport training.

You know, this school gives COLOURS to children achieving international goals in karate, which is NOT a school sport, by the way, but they wouldn't give to Megan who achieved this great goal of actually competing internationally in France in Hockey, which is a school sport, her hockey has improved so much in that time, she was actually the team's Bonus, because she came back with so much new and improved skills. She shot about 14 goals for her team this season. A father from France actually bought Megan's shirt after the one game:) Don't you think that is something to be proud of, that the school can be proud of, after all, she was representing her school and country. And she gets NOTHING for it!!

They could not even save her from embarrassment, my goodness!

So, what should I do, take her out to another school, or demand COLOURS AND a FORMAL excuse by the incompetent person, making this stupid mistake?
I feel at something like a prize giving there should be a ZERO error of mistakes.

I am hoping to get some scrapping done, this weekend, I have such nice goodies that I bought at the Polka DOT event.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, thanks for reading.

Tania

Revealed!!!

Ok, this is the story:

My husband and I are married for about 7years now, the age gap is quite big, but it is NO problem.

He was married before, about 24 years ago, they had a baby boy, his wife left him, with the baby, he NEVER saw him again, although he tried and put in all effort, well since I got to know him, I saw what this did to him, over Christmas, Easter, Fathers day,etc. He has me and Megan, but you can see the "miss" in his eyes, always.

Well, I decided that I am going to start looking for the boy. I started about 4 months ago, googled, sent e-mails to missing person forums, etc.

On Monday evening, I was busy blog hopping, you know how it goes, I decided to check my inbox,clicked "send and receive" and there it was. . .HIM!!!!

Revealing himself, confirming his name, uncles, mother and father's names, where he was born, birth date, EVERYTHING matched PERFECTLY, I nearly fainted, my heart was beating 200 beats per minute!!

I left it there, until the next day, e-mailed him back, he send me pictures of himself, he looks exactly like my husband, told me all about himself, where he is working, what he likes in life, about his girlfriend and that is not all!!!

He wants to re-unite!!!!

I am sooo exited, my husband is over the moon, but still a bit nervous, I just hope and pray, all will go off well. . .I don't want to disappoint him now.

I always see things like this in the movies, read about it and NOW it is Really happening in my own home!!

Megan thinks it is GREAT!! She is very happy for Andre.

Anyways, thank you VERY MUCH, for letting me share this, I cannot wait to take a picture of the two of them and do a layout. Have a Great evening!xx

I have something to share,but. . .

Hey you all,

This has been a week with a HUGE surprise!!!
It really is a private family matter,BUT I think I should share,because it is just amazing, how life turns out and that some things still have a HAPPY ENDING. . . boy will this make a GREAT layout!!!
Do you want to know???

My Dog is NOT Superstitious

I had a big laugh last night, had to go to our garage to fetch something. . .
there he was lying.
Grumpy's old bed is in the garage, but he keeps going back to it and then i got this picture of him
lying in his old bed under the ladder!! LOL!! My immediate thought was Friday the 13th,
well, this is living proof, my dog is not SUPERSTITIOUS, good dog!! Sorry for all the rubble in the background, but this is our garage!!
Have a nice Day:)

My meaning about School X

Ok, seeing that there are a few ladies in blog land, having some dilemma or issue in life, right now, let me tell you about mine. . .
I will be talking about School X, don't want to get into trouble calling the school by the name.
Let's just start by saying that all the other local schools around here, decided 2 years ago, that the competition in School X are to high to come by and that they no longer want to compete against School X in any sports.
The end result for School X, to go out and compete against the top schools in South Africa, ending up competing in the Super 16 school athletics championships, which is hard on our kids, for they are not up for this type of competition yet, although we do show some good talent, here and there.
But, i came to the conclusion that School X cannot meet up to ALL the expectations of schools in Johannesburg,etc. Children are forced to change back into school wear, after playing sports, when they want to watch the Main game, but some of the teachers walk around in skimpy skirts??

Girls are not allowed to colour the hair, but some of the teachers look like they escaped some kind of chemical reaction???

We have kids in school X that have competed internationally in different types of sport, but they WILL NOT receiver honouree colours for it?? While the school actually give them the invitation to go compete in the trails??

Every grade has some kind of a leadership group, these kids get voted by the children, so if you are one of the "lekker" ones, you will get chosen, children ending up there are kids that actually fail some of their subjects, go to school without a tie, hair that is not neatly tied, and shoes not even fastened?

My daughters Art book got lost, not by herself, because
she actually loves this book, because a lot of hard work and effort went into this book, it got lost by the teacher,her classroom looks like a scrapyard, by the way, her excuse, oh sorry, no excuse, just: the book is gone, forget about it start a new one??? If my daughter was the guilty part, losing the book, she would have got at least 10 detention points against her name??

Some of their marks were not added to the final results for the end of term, they do not fix it, kids must wait until next term, so they miss the chance of getting a diploma for these subjects, for the prize giving is this term.

I did phone the school, promised high and low to solve the problem,BUT nothing has been done!!
The school fees are over R7000 per year, for what??

My daughter wants to go to another school, which means, that I will have to put her in a boarding school?? So, we as family must take the suffering,all this to be in SCHOOL X,ha, they have a LOOOOONG way to go, before they can even think of trying to compete against bigger schools, EVERYTHING should be in place first!! Not only the athletes??

Let Your Soul Sing

A little something for all you girls, enjoy LIFE!!!

Where to Stay Part 2

ok, here is some of the spectacular views in Parys, lovely sights on the river.

Hmm,ok, this one is for sale, right on the riverbank, only 2.2million, would love this, but the money honey!

Then, the shops in the main street all look like these, I am sure that I will enjoy myself here. . . .will have to leave hubby on the riverbank and only take the wallet!!LOL!!
Ok, at the info centre we got a booklet with all the really "nice" places to stay, will definetly go back for a decent visit, also found a small scrapping shop, they also do VERY nice framing.

Anyways, this is Parys, hope you have a nice weekend.

Tania

Where To Stay

So, we wanted to go away for the weekend, but we made the decision on the last minute, because Andre was suppose to work, but they got the weekend off. We wanted to go to the little"dorpie" Parys, never been there before, only heard that it is very nice going there, BUT because we do not know the place, we could not find a nice place to stay, we decided to drive through and do some exploring, go visit the different places, then you know what to expect when you do decide to stay for a weekend. or else you might end up at a place like this:

Ok, this one above, Eiffel Tower, the works, is the info centre, thanks heavens for their help, look at the next few.

This is a resort, right when entering Parys, now,do not think of me as a snob, but this is NOT my idea of a weekend away.

Another close-up above and then the next one, this is a heap of beds!!! So I suppose this is NOT a Bed and Breakfast, for all the beds are lying outside,LOL!! Ok, for some reason blogger would not load all the photo's i have loaded. So, to be continued.

Matric Farewell

This is my sister in law's daughter, Corlisha.

They had their matric farewell , and I think she looked amazing, hmm, I do not really know her partner, but he is Michael.

She was really in the mood for taking photo's and seemed as thought she had fun!

Her dress had the most gorgeous detail on, love the colour. I wanted to go take a few shots at the venue, but the traffic was hectic up there.

This was her dream. . . to arrive in a BMW M6, she did, and at NO COST, a man and his wife in town, generously drove their AUDI and BMW out for some of the kids, really nice of them.

And the last one, again, Michael and the M6.

Apparently, all the girls and guys looked stunning!!

Thanks for letting me share.

Spring Ball

Ok, I am way behind with my blogging, but things are a bit hectic on this side of our country.
On Friday evening the school had their Spring ball.
I do not know why, but we always end up nervous and hurried and then, Megan and me get a bit edgy with each other.
This time was nothing different.
At least, I got a few pictures, with a forced smile, but I will get better ones from the school.

What do you think of the hair?? I did it myself, struggled with the curls, but in the end I think not too bad, BUT I used A Lot of hairspray.

The dress i got at a little boutique, not badly priced, think it is cute;) We had to shorten it a bit. In these cases shoes are always a problem, Megan is not a HIGH HEELER, so it somewhat difficult to get shoes, but in this case the dress were too short, so cute flats did the thing.

Actually, I have a lot to share, but this is what I have time for, tomorrow is another day;)

So, enjoy your evening:)

Scrapping for a Cause

Hi ladies,
Iris is hosting a class to generate funds for the victims of Hurricane Ketsana, only 5dollars, click on my post header for the link and pleaaaase make your contribution.

have a nice evening!!

Layout AND fruitcake recipe

Made this layout last night, Megan and Fiela(as we call her)having some fun with crazy hats, they got at Disneyland.
Ok, then as promised the recipe for the Fruitcake, this is really a 100% proven recipe and comes out PERFECT!!

First you need to prepare your baking tin/pan,I use a casserole, I have a round one, same as the ones we use at the braai, just round.
Otherwise, any pan, at least 25cm x 8cm, this is a rather large cake. And you should bake it at least 2 months in advance. It is a very rich cake, therefore you don't add any raising agents.

The pan:
Cut out 6 layers of newspaper in layers, to fit the bottom of your pan.
Take a double layer of brown paper(book covering paper) and fold it to fit the inside of your pan, it should be 6cm higher than the pan.
Take another double layer of brown paper cut in circles and put on top of the newspaper on the bottom. Spray it with Spray a Cook.
Now you take 4 layers of newspaper and wrap it around your pan, like in a blanket and tie it with twine.
Take another few layers of newspaper to make a lid for your pan, because the cake bakes for a long time, i stick it on with sellotape at the beginning just for it to stay there.

Ingredients:

1,250g of Mixed Fruitcake mixture.
250g Dates, finely chopped
55g of Red glazed cherries
150g whole Almonds
500ml Brandy
250g Cake flour
2,5ml Salt
2,5ml Bicarbonate of Soda
12,5 ml Coco
2,5ml Mixed spice
2,5ml Ginger
2,5ml Cinnamon
1ml Nutmeg
250g Butter
250g Sugar
4 Eggs

Mix your fruit and almonds and pour 250ml of brandy over and cover it and leave overnight.
Sift all your dry ingredients together and cream butter and sugar together, until light in colour.
Add your eggs one by one.

You can mix everything with a electric beater.
Mix your flour in now, the mixture is quite thick, but that is fine, otherwise the fruit go sit on the bottom. When it looks as though the fruit is too much for the dough, it is PERFECT, it should be. Mix everything nicely together, use your hands.
Put mixture in the pan, bake for 4-5 hours, at 150degrees Celsius,use a testing pen, when it comes out dry, it is ready to take out, when out of the oven, pour over the rest of the brandy.
Decorate your cake with Red cherries and Voila!! You can pour over a bit of brandy every now and again, then it stays nice and moist.

I think we should go baking and SHOW THE PICTURES!!! What about that??

Enjoy
Tania

Still alive and kicking!!!

No, I did not disappear into thin air, it was HOLIDAY!! There I was thinking that schooldays are hectic, but this short holiday was even more!! Have to keep Megan and her friends busy all the time. . . The first week she visited her friend Margie on the farm for a few days, then off to Sun City I went with them, me and my mother, and did i get a suntan, it was well-overcast, but i still came home, looking like those VERY pink Vienna's:( Last weekend I went Emperors Palace, just to do some shopping at the Convention, bought a few things, but would rather wait for my kit, I ordered from Helen, cannot wait!!!



Did some cleaning and organizing too and then it hit me!!. . . .Only 3 months until Christmas!!

No cards yet, no ideas for gifts or anything, don't have much time AND I need to bake my Christmas Cake, yes, yes, 3 months in advance, do you want the recipe, it is divine:)



I thought of adding a Christmas Layout i did last year of Megan, here it is. . .