The Countdown Has Begun

Can you believe there's 3 days left of this year. And the saddest part, I only have 1 week left of my holidays.

I have managed to rest a lot and stayed away from the computer a bit. The rush before Christmas really tired me out this year.

Last Monday I took Rainer to the airport and he flew from Johannesburg to Dubai, Dubai to Birmingham and then they drove from Birmingham to Derbyshire by car. Shame the poor kid was in transit for 24 hours. Coming from a heatwave, he is stressing with the cold, but he is so glad to see his dad whom he saw last on the 28th November 2007. He phoned me on Christmas morning and my house feels so empty without him.

On Tuesday I took my mom to my aunt and my cousin fetched them for a visit close to Thabazimbi. She lives in a game reserve and my mom says it's too beautiful with all the game coming right to the fence around the property. A baboon managed to come into the house and not only did he admire himself in the bathroom mirror, but he also stole a whole tin of biscuits. After the fact they found it quite funny, but they can be quite distructive and viscious so it was a bit scary while he was in the house.

Christmas day we had a very quiet day at Corné's mom. She is a polio survivor and is in a wheelchair, so the day was quite special. And like everyone we ate absolutely too much.

Saturday I went to see the Bjorn Again show at one of our local theatres. It's an Abba show put on by 4 Australians and it was absolutely brilliant. They have been doing the show for 10 years and have even perfected the Swedish accent. At the end of the show the blonde girl was singing "Thank You For The Music" and as she got to the end of the first bit without music, a little kiddie in the audience just started singing. It was really funny and she was laughing so much that they had to keep playing the musical intro to the song. If they ever come out your way, and you're an Abba fan, make a point of seeing the show.

Seeing as I haven't been near the pc much, I fixed up my very first complete drawing I did with the tablet and pen and offer you a little Commercial Use Pierot plus a sample of what can be done.

Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/78074558/20f530d0/Pierot.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I'm hoping to stop by before the end of the year, but if I don't get a chance, here's to a great 2009, with many blessings and may all your wishes come true.

All my love

Renée

Finally

Gosh, I've finally had a day to myself. Between taking my mom and the kids shopping, I'm going to go demented. By the time I get home from shops with long queus and the heat, I'm so tired I cannot think straight. At the rate we're going I'm going to be more tired than when I went on leave. My mom is leaving for my cousin's on Tuesday and Rainer is leaving for the UK on Monday evening and I've warned the rest of the family that as of Tuesday afternoon I'll be vegetating.

Enough moaning, I've wanted to tell you a little story about glue. LOL. For those of you that don't follow Bunny's blog, she does cards and mini albums that are absolutely stunning. I passed a comment that I can't do any of that as I must stay away from glue. Kim then said if Bunny can do it, so can I. Heck NO!!! Here's my tale of woe with glue.

When my brother passed away, I had trouble sleeping and after many kinds of sleeping tablets that didn't work, my doctor decided to bring out the big guns. Well that first night I took a tablet and decided that while I waited for it not to work, I'll fix my nail. So here I am in bed, nail kit the works. I roughened my nail, put glue under the tip, stuck that puppy on my nail and applied pressure. Next thing I wake up the next morning, one finger of the one hand glued to the other finger of the other hand. It was hysterical. We eventually had to soak the nail off to get my finger released. Can you just imagine what I'd stick together if I tried to make cards? LOL.

Talking of Kim, have you been to her site to see her gorgeous new kit for New Year. Boy I love that kit. She has already put 2 of my LO's on her blog, so I'm not going to put them up here, but here's another one that I did. I used a template by Scrap Saya for this LO.

Now on to my freebie for today. I have been playing a lot with the tablet and pen and I'm so imppressed with the focal point of this little mini I have for you. It's a hand drawn rocking horse that I then had fun with adding texture and elements. The colours are from Kim's DSO December colour challenge. Here are a couple of close ups of the rocking horse and the preview of the mini.

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/76976419/ef654d6b/Rock-A-Pony.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Have a peacuful Sunday.

Hugs

Renée

Hoarders

It has always driven me crazy that my darling mother is a hoarder, but after this weekend I'm so happy that she is. I've got a bit of a summer cold and stayed home this weekend so that I can get better. Well boredom drove me to go and scratch in my mom's stash. Boy did I find some stunning ribbons and laces!!! Things that she has kept from when I was a kid. Well I've been scanning and photographing like crazy. Now I have to clean it all up LOL.

I think I hate hoarding because my ex had this thing about buying houses, renovating them while we were living in them and then selling them. We used to move at least every 2 years. I never got fond of my kitchens or any special rooms and I learnt that excess stuff just made moving extra difficult. I've now been in this house for 8 years and I definitely don't intend ever moving again. LOL.

Well today my freebie is some blingy ribbons from my mom's stash. I kept them in similar colours as the fireworks. Here's the preview.

And you can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/75350315/2c442282/Ribbons.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And I'd like to thank everyone that leaves a comment. You don't realise how much I appreciate the little comments and thanks. It makes sitting here at the pc worthwhile.

Have a great day and before I forget WHOOOOHOOO, 2 more working days.

Hugs

Renée

4 more days

I have 4 more days of work left before I go on my annual summer holidays. It's a bit hectic at work as I have to get everything up to date by Friday, but I'm starting to get that holiday feeling. From next week I'll definitely be devoting a lot more time to my little blog.

And as I'm in a holiday mood I decided to make some fireworks elements for all those new year's LO's. They're blingy and I'm quite proud of them as it's my first elements that I've created using the pen and tablet.

Here's a preview

And you can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/75044887/2b4bdb4f/Fireworks.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And while the muses are still with me, let me go and do some more designing. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

It's all about the kids

I've been rather quiet lately because I've been working on my pet charity for the past couple of weeks. Traditionally the last Sunday in November or first Sunday in December (closest to month end) is the Toy Run. It is the world's biggest biker charity event. Bikers in all the major centres get together to donate toys for the underprivelleged for Christmas.

This year has been the biggest ever with 50,000 bikers attending the Johannesburg get together alone. Cape Town had 20,000 bikers. We're probably looking at a total of half a million toys being donated. We also had a blood donation drive. It just gladdens my heart when you see thousand upon thousand bikes with toys all over them travelling down the highway. This year I didn't participate in the mass ride as I was needed at the venue, so I also don't have as many photos as I usually have, but here's a few that I managed to take.

These are my toys I donated and I really loaded this poor guy down.

Some of the bikes

My baby

Even cars

I also have my first CU Overlay on offer for you today. This download contains the overlay as well as the sample paper.

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/73961942/ff97cd5b/CU_Xmas_Overlay.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Love and hugs

Renée