Sunday, September 30, 2012

Oh, Sweet Pea.....

....won't you dance with me.....
Fun song from the 60's. Yes, giving my age away again!!

This Flourish stamp set has to be my all time favorite and I don't even own it! Thanks to a very dear friend who parted with it for a short while so that I can stamp off to my absolute delight, I am able to have fun using it.
This card is one of the 'thank-yous' I need to send out after our wonderful holiday in Cape Town.

I stamped onto watercolour paper using Memento London Fog and coloured with Distress Ink's. I love that using this method you can achieve a softer look by flooding the paper with water. It softens it perfectly, a look that is very hard to achieve working on ordinary card stock with the Distress Inks. Using the London Fog as the outline also helps soften the look and makes it more realistic, in my humble opinion!


I used lovely paper from my friend Paola, a paper doily and some gingham ribbon.
Of course the sentiment is another old friend from PTI.

I know this card will be appreciated and enjoyed by the recipients, whom I can't thank enough for their hospitality!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Birthday Flowers

Such a lovely surprise this week!

This stunning arrangement arrived from my BFF in London!
Ron called me on my birthday and sent these when I returned home. 

The orchids in the center are in a pot, so when the flowers are passed their best, I get to keep and enjoy these lovely orchids.This particular orchid holds special memories for me. My wedding bouquet was these orchids, almost 40 years ago!

Thank you my dear friend!
You really are so special.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Back home......

View from our cottage at Paternoster
...... after the most amazing birthday holiday I've ever experienced! I have a few photo's to share, but more to still be uploaded, so may well post a few more later.

We started off with a few days in Cape Town and stayed at my son's flat at Green Point, which was central enough for us to walk around and visit the Waterfront, Green Point Gardens and do some shopping.

We took a day drive to Stellenbosh, Gordon's Bay and Franschoek where we had lunch. Love that place, and the food - spoilt for choice of amazing places to eat. Photo's of those places to follow.

Local fishermen going out to sea, at Patenoster
We drove up the Cape west coast on Thursday to Patenoster and arrived on a 'grey' day, but it cleared up and we experienced the most amazing weather, with it only turning and a cold front rolling in on the Sunday night.
We 'shared' a wedding on the beach. The bride wore
turquoise gumboots. She is at the back of picture,
hitching her dress high...
On the Saturday, there was much activity on the beach with a gazebo going up and chairs being placed in rows in front of it and lots of white drapes and some flowers being added to the gazebo and we realised there was a wedding ceremony about to take place. All the locals suddenly appeared and took up positions on the rocks where they enjoyed a good view of the proceedings. To our absolute delight and amusement, the bride wore turquoise gumboots and her husband to be, a turquoise hat! Must have been some kind of joke, or perhaps a bet! Perfect weather and a lovely ceremony. They went on to a restaurant on the beach for the rest of their celebrations.

 I doubt that I will ever witness anything like this again in my life!


 
On Sunday, my birthday, we went to this amazing restaurant for lunch. The menu was so good it was hard to choose, but we did it justice and I once again enjoyed the amazing fresh seafood on offer.








Flowers at the West Coast National Park


On the Monday, we motored back to Cape Town with a stop at the West Coast National Park. We were so lucky to see the beautiful flowers this area is so famous for, as it only lasts a week or two every year!
It looks like a carpet of colour and something I will always remember.  
A Springbok in the field of flowers
Yellow flowers on the coast side


How awesome is this!

A Riverboat that you can hire in the park and in the
background are houses also for hire.

Stunning!
Now perhaps, you can understand why I said it was the most awesome holiday ever. We spent it with those we love, in a little piece of God's magnificence, blessed with awesome weather, and I was spoilt rotten.
How does one thank your family for all they did to make this so special for me?
Could there be more happiness in store for me after this amazing experience? Only God knows.....

Monday, September 17, 2012

Chocolate boxes

I had some fabulous hand made chocolates made to take down to Cape Town on my visit, to give to family and friends. These are the boxes I prettied up to hold the chocolates.
The flowers on all the boxes were made using my Olba punch set. I just love this set, because of the small sizes. Nothing is ever too small for me, except the size of the chocolate....lol....
I ran the white box through the Cuttlebug to get that lovely embossing onto the lid and added my favorite tags from my PTI set. The brown boxes also had little roses on them, made by using little hearts punched from the Olba set. The 'doily' behind them is actually from a Spellbinder set, Layered Flowers. I attached a band of ribbon across the box and added punched hearts and pearls just to finish it off.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Happy Birthday to Me.....

60 Today!!

Where has the time gone? Me? 60? Never..... lol!

Yes it has caught up with me. Looking back, would I change anything? Nothing at all.
Everything that has happened in my life, has brought me to this happy place I find myself in.

Happy, within myself. Happy in my faith. Happy because my wonderful husband of 40 years still only has eye's for me, warts and all. Happy, because my two darling son's are happy. Happy, because I still have my wonderful Father and 2 of my precious siblings still around. Happy, because I have some wonderful friends. Happy because I am able to use my creative talents and share with other. Happy, even with all my aches and pains, that I can get up every morning and be able to enjoy each day.

I am truly Blessed, that God has spared me all these years and would be grateful if he will continue to do so!

So today I celebrate my special birthday with my family, on holiday at Paternoster, where I am being spoilt rotten and loving every minute of it!

May your day be as happy as my day is!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Bird Card

I have rediscovered this lovely stamp set I got from the Netherlands some time ago. 

This image was stamped using Versafine Sepia ink and coloured with Aquarelle pencils then painted with a brush and a little water. The die is Spellbinders Floral Ovals and the sentiment is on a PTI tag and stamped with a stamp from the matching set. One of my favorite 'go to' sentiment attachments. All mounted on delightful gingham paper from Paola.

I loved this card and so did the recipient.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Peachy card.....

I made this card for a dear friend's birthday yesterday. I took the photograph before I 'blinged' it up and below is another one, taken afterwards. In real life it is so much prettier, with Stickles on the flowers and bling here and there.
Maureen received a card last year from me with another Elizabeth Bell image and now has this one to join it on her noticeboard.
It was great fun colouring with my Copic's, that have been sadly neglected these last few months. It took me ages though, only because I was getting pickity about the shading. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the way it turned out and Maureen was chuffed as well.



 Perhaps another one for next birthday Maureen???