Surprises

Boy I love surprises and if it's long lost friends that surprise me, it's even better. Late last night I got a call from a late friend of mine's son. I haven't seen these young people since their mom's funeral. André phoned to tell me his dad is turning 50 this Saturday and to invite us to his surprise party. Gosh that's going to be so great, I haven't seen them in 3 years. They all moved to Botswana and have now returned to South Africa.

Then today I got a call from my friend Ermyn that lives in Cape Town. She usually comes to Johannesburg for Christmas and New Year, but she's coming early this year. Her daughter is getting married early in October and she's coming up to help with the wedding preparations. I just know we're going to have a few all night chat sessions. We usually have a whole year to catch up on and make a bed in my lounge and just chat away. I can't wait.

Then Corné my sweetie called this afternoon. His aunt that lives in Portugal is arriving tomorrow for a short holiday. WHEEEE, I love Elaine. She's loud and boisterous like me. The red wine will probably be flowing on Friday evening. She first has to go say hello to her family and then she's coming to stay the night with me before going to her kids in Angola.

So I feel like someone that has hit the jackpot. Oooh I can't wait.

OK so on to the next installment of the Flirty Flighty freebie. And Kristine, bring on those colour swatches. You know me, I'm stuck on blue.

Here's a preview of the elements.

You can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/63238152/fb1a9d05/Flirty_Elements_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939 and don't forget, the last bit will go up tomorrow.

Keep well and many hugs.

Just a Quick Post

No news today, except that I sat in traffic and a 10 minute trip took more than an hour, so I'm tired and irritable.

Kristine is such a tease!!!! Pop past her blog for some sneak previews of the HUGE Fall Splendor Colab kit that will be hitting the blogs on October 1st. That's going to be a mega and a half. Practice your blog hopping skills in the meantime, you're going to need it.

And as mentioned yesterday, Kristine threw out this colour swatch that was just too devine to ignore. I had to make a mini kit. I call it Flirty Flight. It has some delish papers, some glue globs, gel frames, crinkled foil doodles and some lovely flowers. I just loved creating this kit.

Here's a preview of the papers. Element preview will go up tomorrow.

Today I'm upping the papers, but come back tomorrow and Wednesday for the 2 installments of elements. And don't forget, my kit for the DSO color challenge is up until the end of the month.

You can get the papers here http://www.4shared.com/file/63098209/1481b73b/Flirty_Flighty.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Don't forget to leave some luv.

Hugs

Renée

DSO Colour Challenge

Well I have definitely gotten out of my usual zone with these last 2 kits. I'm very modern by nature, but Gothic Cathedral and the kit I designed for the DSO CC has made me depart from my usual style. Not that I really have a style as yet, as I've only been designing for a few months LOL.

But first I have to share a LO I did with Kim B's new Spring Passion kit. The pictures were a share from a friend. He was searching the net for pictures of unique gardens and came across these pics. We don't know much about the creator of this amazing garden, other that his name is Bruno and he sculpted all the fantasy statues out of dead trees. What a marvelous way to regenerate what we'd usually see as something useless. The Word Art is from Jazzy's (Words to Delite) Nature WA.

Kristine sort of threw a colour swatch at us the other day and I thought it was going to be for a colab, but she said just to have fun and BOY, did I have fun. Tomorrow I'll post the first installment of that kit. It's modern and very girly girl.

Back to this month's challenge. I just didn't have a clue of what to do with the swatch and was just going to make a LO until I found a beautiful photo of a sundial and that just clicked in my head. This kit is a slightly heritage style kit with the sundial, an old wooden box and an old purse as the central elements.

Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/62939057/febe9faf/Yesteryear.html. Don't forget to pop past tomorrow for something totally different.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

Hugs

Renée

Last Installment of Freebie

And some news.

Kim B has the most devine new kit in store. Spring Passion is available at 25% off for a limited time only. I love this kit. All the lilacs and lime colours make me smell fresh, wet earth. Here's a preview.

I haven't much else to share, so I'll get straight to the last bit of the Gothic Cathedral freebie.

You can get is here http://www.4shared.com/file/62350000/4e7e6705/Gothic_Cathedral_Elements_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Hugs and kisses

Gothic Cathedral Elements 1

Hello Everyone

Thank yu for all the birthday wishes for Rainer and the commiserations on the loss of my camera. I really appreciate it.

Have any of you been to Mojo's blog? Not only is she a talented scrapper, she has now got her own store and she posts the best food porn ever!!! Mojo has awarded me a Sweety Award, read all about it on her blog. I'd like to pay it forward to the following ladies

Kim B - Fellow South African, friend, great designer and a lady with a marvelous sense of humour.

Jazzy - Jazzy, you inspire me. You have had large crosses to bear this year, but you still put a smile on your face and create the most amazing word art for the scrapping community.

The Scrappin' Cop - Wonderful designer that shares stunning CU freebies daily.

Jenni - Another South African, guest CT for Kim, marvelous designer and "owner" of a stunning daughter that appears in the most amazing LO's.

And then also to all readers that prefer to do good to others. Kindness and good spirits are usually not rewarded in tangible ways. I'd like to give you all the Sweety Award.

And now on to part 2 of my Gothic Cathedral kit. This is the first part of the elements.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/62204416/35d1902f/_2__Gothic_Cathedral_Elements_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939.

Enjoy the rest of your day

Much love and hugs

Proud and a bit of a Rant

The merry-go-round has been shut down for some major maintenance work. LOL. Well I've been so busy, that's how my life feels at the moment.

Yesterday was the PROUDEST day of my life. My gorgeous son Rainer turned 21. And man, can a milestone like that make you reflect on your life. How did this hooligan actually bring up the most gorgeous child in creation???

On Wednesday Jazzy blogged about the little poem about the days on which a child is born. Well on the 6th September 1987, I gave birth to my beautiful son on a Sunday afternoon. And yes, he is good and wise. I'm so proud of this son of mine. Not only is he beautiful of face, but of nature as well. A child that has from his youngest days set himself goals and achieved them. He played cricket for a provincial team from the age of 11, was head boy in Grade 7, played first team rugby from the age of 15 and captained his school cricket side. Did speedway motorcycle racing from the age of 16 and was a prefect in his matric year.

He then took a year to do an art course, just to have the qualification before he embarked on his true profession. Rainer is studying to become a chartered accountant, but he has opted to do his articles while he is studying, which means he works full time as well as being a student. He is in his second year and consistently gets distinctions. He is doing so well that he has received a full scholarship from one of our prestige auditing companies to complete his studies and work in the UK. So at the end of this year, he will be emigrating to the UK.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY my darling boy.

Last night we had a party for him with family and friends and this is where my rant comes in. 3 cameras of which mine is one was stolen at the party. Someone in their greed has decided to take away some precious memories of mine. We have no photos of the night. None of how we made up the marquee, none of the speeches, NOTHING!!! And this hurts especially as my child is not a lover of a camera. I hope whoever took the cameras will have a serious case of guilt and just return them.

Then I got an e-mail from Kim this afternoon to say that I was chosen for LO of the week at DSO using items from her latest grab bag and the pride came back again. I can't get over the fact that a LO of mine has been chosen on 2 forums for an accolade. And that is reason in itself to get over to Kim's before the end of today because the kit is on special until tonight. After that it goes into the store at regular price.

I used the kit to create my new header and as promised I've created a kit that reflects the new look of my blog. I called it Gothic Cathedral, but decided to stay away from the very dark gothic type of stuff. I has 8 papers and 18 elements. Some frames, dried flowers, crosses and books to give it a moody and broody look. Today I will give out the papers and I'll give the elements in 2 downloads tomorrow and Tuesday.

Here are some previews

And you can get the papers here http://www.4shared.com/file/62088526/2850fca9/Gothic_Cathedral_Papers.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Thanks for swinging by my blog. HUGS AND LOVE - Renée

Get the Gogga Going

I'm sure everyone is thinking I've just lost my mind and have gone gagga. Well on a good day I'm not far from that.

I do motorbike racing and Saturday we had a meeting and there's the cutest little girl that always strikes up a conversation. Lyndie is 4 and has the most vivid imagination I've ever seen on a child. Once after a storm that washed the seedling out the planter, she politely told us "These little flowers don't like it here, they're growing to China." How cute is that?

Well on Saturday she was keeping me entertained about the gogga (chawcha/bug) that was travelling around the world. It was an interesting geography lesson as Johannesburg was a country right next to England and Durban (one of our coastal cities) was very far away. Well Lyndie's little story got me thinking, how far can we get a bug to travel in cyberspace.

Here's the challenge - I nominate 2 people in different parts of the world, they have to collect Lyndie's caterpillar from my blog and send her to another 2 countries. And then to track her progress, the new people have to link to my blog and leave a little note with their blog address for me to track her progress.

So to kick Lyndie Caterpillar's trip off I'd like to send her to Kim B in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and Kristine in Canada.

Want a little hint what's in Kim B's PU Grab Bag, I used a little something from it.

Keep well

Hugs

Renée