Monday, October 31, 2005
Weekend...
Was busy with nothingness... I had an appointment at the hairdresser at 8.00 with a friend (Mandy). I got home from that and made some bran and pecan nut muffins and hot dogs for lunch. We had some shopping to do and went to Fruit and Veg City and Diskem for a few things. Sunday was spent watching cricket (SAvs New Zealand) and we WON the game and the series!
Today was my first day of a week of training so I will be out of action on the Blog until next week Tuesday!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
A Doodler of Note!
I doodle all day long! I can't NOT have a piece of paper and pen in my hand at all times. While I am waiting for a page to download, or a programme to open of someone to pik up the phone, I have slips of paper covered in doodles (mainly flowers, but also lists, lines from songs that are playing in my head et). Today I am conducting an experiment. I am collecting all the slips I cover and I will report on how many I do a day! This of course excludes what I write in my Big Idea book the has sestions for my to do lists, quotes , layout ideas, writing, gift ideas, house stuff and things I want to do for me. Then of course there is my journal and now my blog. The reason for all of this is one opf 2 things:
- I am fantastically talented and I have a DRIVE to create (I like this option)
- I am bored and do it so that I dont fall asleep (the less attarctive, but most likely option)
If anyone has any "psychological" explainations for this, feel free to share them with me!
Another layout from the party
The Boys
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Bleak!
Weather....the sky is grey and gloomy, its windy and cold urrghh! More like August whether than October. It casts a bleakness over the whole day. I hope it rains though - we NEED the rain. Some parts of the country (like Cape Town) have already been on water restrictions.
We have a NEW PHOTO PRINTER!!!!! This is the best thing thats happened to me the week! The possibilities are endless....Scrap, scrap and more scrap! Photos printed on a whim, on demand, in a flash! WoW!!!! It was a surprise from my husband - thanks Jay! He says it is the fisrt high tech purchase he has made that I have not been cross about!
I will neither confess nor deny..... :-) the allegations.....
Have done some digital scrapping of the party phoots and will do some "paper" ones tonight.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Party LO's
My favourite day of the month.....
Monday, October 24, 2005
Pirate party and Holy Communion
My Weekend was BUSy to say the least:
Friday evening:
I got home from work at about 6.00 and started making the 2 dozen bran muffins for the parents attending my sons party. I made a batch of koeksister dough (I had to wait for an hour for that to rise) then I had to plait and fry them. I slept at about 11.00.
Saturday:
Woke up early to get dressed, blow dry my hair and syrup 2 dozen koeksisters (took about 2 hours). Then we loaded the car with the food for the parents and children, Jordan's friends, and my family and drove for 20 minutes to the party venue. EVERYONE coming to the party got lost so we started about 45 mins late! The party went off perfectly after that though! 
After the party (about 1.00) we went to my SIL's house and had party leftovers and watched rugby. At about 5.00 we all left to BIL's house and left there at about 10.00. My daughter was up sick almost the whole night - so I never slept much.
SUNDAY
Woke up early and had breakfast with Grandpa, got ready and went to church for my husbands nephew's first communion. The whole family was there and afterwards we had a braai at their house. Left at about 5.00. I was in bed by 7.30! 
After the party (about 1.00) we went to my SIL's house and had party leftovers and watched rugby. At about 5.00 we all left to BIL's house and left there at about 10.00. My daughter was up sick almost the whole night - so I never slept much.
SUNDAY
Woke up early and had breakfast with Grandpa, got ready and went to church for my husbands nephew's first communion. The whole family was there and afterwards we had a braai at their house. Left at about 5.00. I was in bed by 7.30! 
Friday, October 21, 2005
Digital Layout Attempt
My first layout attempt. I battled to get it into the correct format.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Inspiring and Funny
INSPIRING
this by Dan Price.
FUNNY (found on CNN this morning)
''There's reportedly been a massive rise in the number of parents naming their newborns Paris. Also on the rise: baby suicides.''DAVID SPADE, ON THE SHOWBIZ SHOW
''There is near-universal consensus the melting of the polar ice cap is due in part to global warming, though the Bush administration counters the ice caps are not melting. Rather, the water has been liberated.''JON STEWART, ON THE DAILY SHOW
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Points to ponder
"If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?" - Steven Wright.
"Whoever said 'nothings impossible' never tried to nail jell-o to a tree" - Lisa Bryant
Books and writing
My post today is a prompt from a site that "does" Wednesday prompts. The link is above (hopefully:-)
What is your favorite book of all time?
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
If you had to write a biography about one person you know, who would you write it about?
My father
Pick one- Narrative Essay or Persuasive Essay?
Narrative essay
Pick one- Poem or short story?
Poem
What is the worst book you ever read?
I always enjoy the books I read!
Are you currently reading a book? If so, what is it called?
Yes. The Right to Write by Julia Cameron
If you were told to write a fiction story, what characteristics would your main character have?
independent, self assured, confident, likable, strong, a thinker, a journalist or writer
If you wrote a book, what would the topic be?
I haven't thought about that - maybe thats why I have not written a book!
Would it be fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction
They say you should read at least a book a month, do you live up to this statement?
Yes! I read as many books as I can get hold of in a month!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Ten on Tuesday: 10 Favourite people from History
In no particular order:
- Mahatma Ghandi (leadership and humility)
- Martin Luther King (principles and striving for justice)
- Thomas Edison (persistence)
- Michelangelo (creativity and talent)
- Beethhoven (musical brilliance)
- Pablo Picasso (creativity and trailblazer)
- Hellen Keller (persistence in the face of hardship)
- Nelson Mandela (belief in his cause, leading the freeing of a nation)
- Julia Cameron (brilliant writing, inspiring, led the "creativity revolution")
- Oprah Winfrey (achieved success through hard work, faced adversity,and lived her dream)
Edited to add:
My review went VERY well - I got my best rating ever! So I can look forward to a good bonus in December!!!
Weekend update & Things I'm looking forward to this week
The weekend....
The weekend was wonderful! We did not much except finishing touches on the two rooms renovated last weekend. We also tidied some of the "junk" lying around the house not being used (like christmas tree, boxes, camping stuff)...
The children played outside most of Saturday - cricket and tennis are very big at the moment! I look forward to- Jordan's birthday party on Saturday (we are having it at www.gardenworld.co.za)
- Family braai after the party
- Family visiting from Durban this weekend
- Jordans dress rehearsal for his end of year play
- Family lunch on Sunday for Brent's First Communion
- Doing some scrapbooking tonight
- Lovely photos over the weekend of the people I love (fodder for scrapbooking:-)
- A red mini album I bought that I want to make into a Birthday book for Jordan
- Starting Walking in This World tonight (See)
- Getting some writing done this week
- A date night (hopefully) with Jay
Friday, October 14, 2005
waiting
for my boss to arrive so that I can do my performance review its nerve racking and i HATE it every year twice a year I get nervous - once I am there its fine its just the bild up to it that gets me. I have to do well because the scores on this one decide how much I will get for my christmas bonus - wish me luck!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
feelin down
something that i've known about for a long time is starting to feel like its now actually going to happen. its going to be very painful for a boy that i love with all my heart, and there is nothing i can do to make it better. as a parent this is where the hard part starts. the part where we cant protect them form things that hurt them and put protectors on all the power plugs in the house is just not cutting it anymore. i cant control how he will be treated out there. i cant make things better sometimes. like now. he just has to go through it. we will help as much as he can. but he is in the big bad world now. at 6. and there's nothing i can do to stop the march towards even more heartache, disappointment and pain. my heart aches for my little boy... love and life can be so devastating sometimes
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
My 43 Things...
This boy is 6 TODAY!! And Happy Birthday Mum!
My son is 6 YEARS old today! I wish him a happy birthday and hope het gets very SPOILED at school today! He has been looking forward to this birthday the whole year and asks "When is my birthday"everytime one of his friends has a birthday at school! So TODAY is YOUR DAY!! I love you SO much!
.
We gave him his present in bed with a cupcake with 1 candle on it and a cup of Milo. We sang for him and his sister did here rendition of "Happy Birthday" for him too
.
He has a HotWheels (the new craze in Grade 0) track. His party will be in 2 weeks time.
.
Also, Happy Birthday to my Mum! I love you and hope you have a wonderful day and supper tonight!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Ten on Tuesday: 10 Best Presents I have received
- MP3 Player from work
- A silver tin from Dawn and Vicci
- A cabbage Patch doll from Mum and Dad
- Purple flowers (irises?) from Jeromes mothers garden
- Plain gold band (ring) from Marcel
- Eeyore sleepshirt from Jerome
- Oval ring from Jerome (looks like a mood ring, but tiny stones in the middle)
- Pair of levis from me to me for my 19th or 20th birthday
- Gold watch for our first Valentines Day together from Jerome
- Colourful beads on an elastic string from the beachfront form Jerome
Monday, October 10, 2005
too tired
to think of anything to write about...
we spent the entire weekend renovating and moving the childrens room and turning their room into a study / scrapbook room...
I have tried to post my "plan" for the study here but I keep getting an error message - so I will try again soon...
Happy Monday!
Friday, October 07, 2005
SEVENS!
SEVEN THINGS I LIKE THE MOST
Family time
Chocolate
Reading
Scrapbooking
Writing
Shopping
My husbands smile
SEVEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME
I am a trained social worker
I got a B for English in my matric final exam
I eat a lettuce, cucumber and feta salad everyday for lunch
I have 2 children and a husband
I have had 4 jobs in 7 years
I drink a litre of water everyday
I LOVE stationery (paper, pens, cardboard, envelopes)
SEVEN THINGS I CAN DO
Swim
Write
Scrapbook
Surf (the internet!)
Speak in public
Dance
SLEEP anytime
SEVEN THINGS I CAN’T DO
DRIVE!
Sing
Draw nice pictures
Climb a rope
Sell (anything!)
Cut my own hair
Record music to a CD
SEVEN THINGS I SAY THE MOST
Ja
Okay
Maybe
Why don’t you try…
Beezounce to the Eezounce (not really, that’s my husbands)
I said no
So…
SEVEN CELEBS I LOVE
Brad Pitt
Colin Farrel
Taye Diggs
Denzel Washington
Julia Roberts
Sandra Bullock
Jennifer Aniston
SEVEN SELFISH THINGS I'D LIKE TO OWN
A wonderful camera
A scrapbook / writing / study room
A library in my home
An I-pod
A BMW X5
A Full collection of Julia Cameron and SARKs books
As much scrapbooking supplies as I can handle
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Perception and Affirmative Action
Its amazing how we perceive people that we think are successful.
Successful in whatever way...At work they may have climbed the corporate ladder. Creatively they may have achieved great success. But each of us STILL have our burdens - our difficulties and hills to climb.
Someone said to me today - its not the gradient of the hill that you have to climb, but the size of the stone in your shoe!
People in my organisation, who I think are successful have been talking about how affirmative action has affected them. How they are limited in terms of advancement in this organisation. How they still have targets and work to put out, and say they are being dictated to about who must be put into strategic positions and roles.
They would not have chosen these people and are now stuck with them, and expected to "make it work". A few things bothered me about this. One of which is that automatically, AA candidates are seen to be of "inferior" quality prior to their skills being assessed. Secondly, in one instance a non AA candidate is being groomed into a vacant Management position - why could the same opportunity not be offered to a suitable AA candidate in that team. It seems that we still have a long way to go in terms of gaining equality of opportunities in South Africa!
(this is me climbing off my little soapbox after giving my 2 cents!)
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
DECISIONS
"It's not what we do once in a while that counts, but our consistent actions. And What is the father of all action? What ultimately determines who we become and where we go in life? The answer is our decisions. Its in these moments that our destiny is shaped. More than anything else, I believe our decisions - not the conditions of our lives - determine our destiny."
Anthony Robbins
This really resonates with me. I have a major decision to make regarding my career. I used to really LOVE training people and being in touch with ordinary workers - the ones who actually make things happen in the corporate world. I seem to have lost the drive required to do that and be happy about doing it. I want to do something creative like write or paint or draw or scrapbook. But I am not sure how I can make a living doing that?
I have this thing about always having a "proper job" with which to support myself and that has been drummed into me all my life. Security and formal training is more important and stable than arty type jobs. But the security is just not doing it for me anymore. I don't love my job anymore!
My usual answer to this dilemma is to change jobs. But that has been a pattern for the last 7 years that I have been working. I just know that this time that solution is not going to make a difference. More money and a different environment is not going to "fix" the problem this time.....
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
What If I Could
What if I could
Write about what I love and want and wish to do
I would see in the night, I would write in the dark
I would find inspiration and direction from the stars
I would feel like I am worthy and able in the dark
And not wait for the light
I would use the stars and dark to guide me in the night
Until I found the light or the light found me
I would write in the dark and read in the light
I would draw in the dark and see in the light
I would allow my soul to find reasons....
Reasons why I could and should and will and shall,
Not cant and wont and maybe I'll try
This is a poem I wrote earlier this year...thought it was appropriate to share here today...
Monday, October 03, 2005
Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.
Julia Cameron
Free your mind and ideas will follow. You don’t have to be an artist to know there’s magic in letting go and throwing down lines, letting your subconscious drive for a while. Its an idea; way to discover ideas, be playful and quash that inner critic.
HAPPY MONDAY to me!
