Challenge no#12!

Hi there guys! I am hoping after seeing the wonderful pages you did for the last challenge, that you are amped & in the swing of the challenges again...ready for no#12?

Before I get to it , the RAK winners for no. #11 are L.O no. 5 & no. 3 (I thought I needed two 'winners' this week ;o).....which would be Lynette & Paula. Lynette can you mail me your address, so I can get you a little something into the mail (Paula I have yours :o) Thanks girls for playing along!!

Now for the L.O lift this week.....

We are privileged to have yet another scrappy celeb 'donate' us a lovely L.O for lifting. Her name is Christine, she is not only a MM'09 but also designs for Cocoa Daisy & Creative Cafe. She is an endless source of creative inspiration to me, especially her mini albums.

Again there are some 'ingredients' necessary to get it 'right'......You have to use at least 5 different patterned papers...or plain colours if you prefer, in the L.O...somewhere or somehow. And again to honour Ronda's single title vibe over at OLW, and our challenge from last week.....our word is this time is 'Amaze'. Now girls don't be boxed in by the single photo on this page either...if you'd prefer to use a bunch together to create the same look & feel...well, do it!! Anything goes....NB it is supposed to be a challenge :o)

I hope you are all equally as challenged by me to get onto this one??? Don't wait too long before tackling it though because the deadline is Monday November 10th (don't forget now) & maybe, just maybe, we will have a nice juicy prize as a RAK this time from a friendly sponsor (I'll keep you posted tho')

So happy day ya'll!!
Hugs
KJ
X

No#11's L.O's are up!

This weeks fabulous challenge was very kindly 'donated' by Ronda of OLW fame. Her page was great inspiration for all who played along...if you look at the L.O's, it is amazing how differently we all interpreted it.

Christina

Melody

Paula

KJ

Lynette

Shayne

Stefanie

Bee

Everyone...thanks so much for all your wonderful pages, you did an amazing job!! I will pick an RAK winner a bit later, and post it with the next challenge.

Have a great day!
KJ
x

Home alone.

I'm a bad blogger... I know!!! But when all I've have been doing all week is scrapping & playing Mama...there isn't much deep 'n meaningful to blog about. So here is a few bits 'n bobs!

I had a bit of a scrappy challenge this week, in that x2 different mags selected the same L.O for publication....yikes, huge dilemma! Thankfully one of the mags is happy to see some other options as a replacement....no pressure or anything!! :o) :o) I am almost finished & will be able to get them off to the editor by Monday! I hope they like them.

This pic is just because....my boys are so cute!

With Tersh being on being on mens church camp,it is just me & Maxi at home this weekend. All the guys at our church look forward to it each year....it is a 5 day testosterone laced affair, with much male bonding, eating & generally letting go of all inhibitions. They go Kloof diving, fishing, play rugby, hang out & spend quality time seeking God. T only made it up to Ceres on Friday...(a 3hr drive into the mountains), so it will only really be 3 days for him.

Maxi & I have made the most of our 'date' weekend though & chilled out together. We've been to the mall, bought x2 new DVD's...The Bee Movie & Peter Pan, ate hot chips, hit the toy super store to buy a present for a school friend & he helped me choose a new pair of coloured flip flop's. It's been great. This arvi we are heading to a 4yr olds, Power Ranger party....who knows what that will be about? Exciting stuff & tell you...hahahahaha!
A far cry from my life before kids hey; fashion shows, garment showings, textile fairs & tons of traveling. But as weird as it sounds, I wouldn't trade the life I have now for anything.

This is how Maxi passed the time last night while I cooked supper. Tummy art......the design: 'Beautiful flower garden'....according to His Nibs :o)

Doesn't come off though, I've tried everything....who would have know the lovely pen he is using, would have Tattoo quality ink inside hahaha! Well I am off now to rub shoulders & have polite conversation with the Mommies of Maxi's class mates...I am no good at small talk, so wish me luck.

Chat again in a couple of days.
Over & out.
KJ
x

A TOOT for me! (heehee)

I am so chuffed....one of my all time fave mags, Scrapbooking & Cards in doing a feature on lil' old me today. I did a tutorial for them on different stitch types, in light of my L.O 'Explore life' that went into their Fall mag. I am so happy with the way it turned out & I hope it will be really helpful for everyone wanting to add stitching to their L.O's.

Now a question........ how much do you love me???...& I know you do *wink wink*, then if you have a moment, please pop over there, take a squizz & leave some scrappy love :o)
Here is the link to their blog~

Thanks guys!
You are the best!
KJ

Fair time!

We had a cool weekend past....the weather was a scorching 30 degrees C & we found out the hard way that factor 30 suncream doesn't work!!! Thankfully it was only me with my open neck top that got burned...the guys got off lightly. I'll go for factor 50 for sure next time.

It was Carnival day @ Cass's school, where no expense was spared to put on the slick well organised fair. The only dampener was that everything was horribly overpriced...& we felt well & truly ripped off; firstly by the entrance fee & then by the price of tickets for the rides. I kept having to remind myself it was all for a good cause. Funny how even though I knew that, it still made me feel used.

We met Cass there...she was dressed to the nines, with a bunch of equally dolled up tween buddies. They were strutting their stuff in their micro shorts, leggings, gold pumps, large sunnies & mini handbags. I have to tell you, I was EDU+CATED about how 'not-with it' I am when it comes to what the girls consider to be cool fashion. I thinking I'm going to have to brush up a bit, otherwise Cass is going to seriously think I am a total fashion dweeb :o)

I am about to show you photo's from the day but you will notice that she doesn't feature much, reason being:  I was told that at school...'Mom's aren't cool, especially if they are weilding a camera, so I was to stay with Daddy & NOT take any pictures'.  I did lay low...well almost....*sly wink*, except she caught me :o)
This is the only pic I have of Cas...notice her defensive body
language...hahahaha! I thought I'd gotten away with her not seeing me.
(she's on the right & her buddy is on the left)

Max on the other hand, had the time of his young life....& being limited to three rides (on account of the expence) made his choice carefully....well we thought so at the time.

First it was the rocket ships....

He of course did it his way...which almost shattered  my nerves. I threw my name away by yelling at the top of my lungs for him to 'Stop standing...& sit the heck down!!' ...all he did was grin at me with absolute glee on his face...little blighter!!!

Then it was the octopus....which only made him more manic with excitement. My frayed nerves were only marginally calmed by Tersh being on it with him.

Then came my undoing.....this dratted ride....

It was so bad watching from the ground, that I almost needed a medic. What made it worse was the height of the darn thing, together with Max's lighter weight & the velocity of the spinning; Tersh had a really tough time keeping him in the bucket & I saw panic on his face (t's) more than once. Max on the other hand looked as though he was in boy heaven.... with (almost* I hope) no fear. I never thought in a million years that at 4 years he would be OK to go on rides like this.....he's got no problem with heights, this I know for sure. His need for adrenalin, we will have to deal with as it arises. Right now I prefer denial...from now on as far as Max is concerned, 'the carnival is never coming back to Cape Town'. I'll need at least a year to recover from this one.

The hightlight of the day was the ULTRA cool bikes & racing cars on display. Even I enjoyed looking at them. Tersh said I can't have a Harley Davidson....:o)

This was Max's favourite car...he has been telling us about it ever since....the make, colour, spec's, special features.....Yup! he's memorised them all....it's his 'thing' in life to know all about cars. Cute huh?

Well lovely ones....that's all for now. I thought I'd quickly drop you a line while I was waiting for my paint to dry.....yes literally.I have a ton of L.O's due this week; so I am scrapping myself into a coma and the one I am busy with has paint on it. I know...I am stepping right out there by adding paint hahaha! but I've gotta get over my fear of messing them up sometime hey?

So have a super dooper day!
Chat soon.
KJ

Ok, so I am stoked!!

(which roughly translated means~ Flippin' excited!)

I am bursting to tell you guys that I have an AMAZING! scrappy week. I have had two more L.O selected for publication.....x1 for Memory Makers & x1 for Scrapbook Trends (my first for this mag)...I am so blown away...it is so exciting.

Wow!...OK...I feel better now.

Thanks for listening guys!
{Over & out}

:o)

Here it is!

Challenge no#11 is up! This is L.O given to us by Ronda for lifting! It is going to be alot of fun!! I really hope you are all going to be able to play along? In keeping with her own challenge site OLW, your pages must include the title 'Today'.

The deadline is Sunday the 26th October...so that should be plenty of time for you busy girls out there to get something together. This should be FUN, not stress...so let your hair down & try something new.
Chat real soon!
Kim!
XXX

OK...so I'm late!

I know, I know...I am a bit late in posting the RAK winner....I was delaying it on purpose though. I was working on the next challenge...and I have a surprise for you for no. #11...but before I get to that...the winner drawn randomly for #10 by Cassidy is:

L.O no 2!
{that would be Bee}

Mail me your address & I will send you a little RAK for playing along.

Now for the juicy news....for our next challenge we all get to scraplift a L.O...but not just any L.O. It is a page designed by an amazing girl called Rhonda; we met not so long ago through the Cocoa Daisy forum. She is a fantastic scrapper & artist extroidenare. She is one of the co-founders of OLW another cool challenge site & she was recently selected to be a Memory Maker Master too, so we are truly honoured to have a celeb in our midst & I look forward to seeing what she comes up with for us to lift :o)

So watch this space guys...I'll be posting it in the next day or so.
Have a great day!!
KJ
xxx

Look at these fantastic L.O's! #10

I am so glad to be back in the swing of the challenges again. Being sick during Winter as much as I was...saw the momentum being lost I think....but do not fear I am back & I hope all of you out there who joined in with your amazing L.O's each week, will play along again soon.

Initially the stamping challenge....sounded so hard {especially for Moi!} but once I had resigned myself to getting a little mucky...it wasn't hard at all. I have some ultra cool entries this week to show you.
{If you would like to learn a bit more about each designer & take a look at their blogs, click on their names & it'll take you right there.}

This great take on the challenge was designed by Martha & is in the new 6x12 format. She used stamped twigs, a little bird on a branch, dots, date & journal blocks. The colours she used reflect the arrival of Fall where she lives in Ohio. Lovely work!!

The next page was designed by a South African scrappy buddy, Bee, who now lives with her family in the ever greener pastures of England. I love the yellow, charcoal & black colour combo she used & look at all the stamps too! Go Bee!! Blocks, diamond shapes, title, flower, sentiment badge & mock stitching. If you want to take a closer look at how she put together this great L.O did it all, take a look on her blog.

This gorgeous L.O was designed by my newest scrappy buddy & fellow Cocoa Daisy designer, Anna. She lives in Sweden & is a fantastic artist. For her L.O she used texture stamps to create her background papers behind the photo. Her style is simple but oh so cool!

This next creation was designed my sweet bloggy friend, Christina. She is a scrap-product manufacturer's dream customer...in her opinion one can never use too much stash on one page. She is one of the 'free'-est {if there is such a word} scrappers I know & her pages are eye candy for sure. I know she used a ton of stamps in her page but with all the layering I couldn't be sure where or how.To see more of her work, pop over to her blog :o)

This fun page was designed by my most faithful challenge participant, Marilyn. She is ridiculously productive at her scrap table & enters a ton of challenges each month, because of this she wins stuff all the time. Almost everyday she has a post on her blog of the newest haul of goodies she has won, so her hard work definitely pays off :o) Here she used her flourish stamps to create a multi-coloured back ground & matched the colours to the stamped flower embellishments. Great job!!

My good friend, Stef, created this great page! It has simple, masculine style & the colours are great. I love the hand stitched accents :o)

Another SUPER cute page by Anna. Aren't those piggy tales adorable???? She took a cross hatch stamp & stamped it 6 times across the page to create texture, & interest. The tulle is a wonderful touch...might have to try that myself some time :o)

This is my take on the challenge. Inspired by a fantastic designer,
Jennifer Johner, who's style I have admired for years. Her use of the doodle bug alphas, stitching, papers scraps & Autumn leaves stamps has solidified her style that is noticeable everywhere. I had a blast here...I used the entire page of frame stamps on this L.O, as well as a journal block. The flitting butterfly trail using zig-zag stitch, was inspired by a digi brush Joscie used on one of her latest L.O's. Most of the papers are from the Cocoa Daisy September kit, with an extra bit of Tinkering Ink thrown in.

Guys, you did SO great!!! Your takes on the challenge were creative & inspiring THANX a million!! A bit later I will post the random drawing RAK winner & the next challenge.

Have a super scrappy day!
KJ
XXX

Man down!

I put my back out yesterday....what a pain it is {literally haha!} I can't twist or bend forwards...eshhh! I feel like a geriatric.
So much for: "I'll just find the heat gun in the garage"....all I got from that little exercise a large pain in the back & no heat gun. I had to give up a rather great sounding coffee with mates this AM because of this, so here I sit feeling mighty sorry for myself, trying to squeeze out a blog post. {OK I'll get myself together & try not bore you to tears.}
I really wanted to try heating embossing...& to do that I needed T's heat gun. I mean why do we have all this art stuff lying around our scrap rooms, if we don't use it. At the time I bought the embossing powder, I thought I'd just use my hair dryer....NOOOOO~bad idea! {This I found out the hard way.}
Oh dear, another project shelved until further notice....well, at least until I find a heat gun somewhere...hey Jo, maybe Gumtree will have one :o)

On a more cheerful note...I baked choc chip cookies with Maxi after school yesterday & he is so patient in the kitchen. He carefully measures the ingredients, breaks eggs, pours milk...even chops chocolate; it is so sweet to watch & his effort was well worth it'...look at this delish plate of cookies!

If you want the recipe, let me know & I'll mail it to you.

Well that's all I can muster up folks...not very riveting was it?? Ok... I'm going to go now...I need a large glass of pepsi... to help me drown my sorrows :o)
Chat later!
XXX

P.S Don't forget about the scrap challenge...deadline is the 10th...tomorrow but I could stretch it until the end of the weekend if you need it?

Surfs up!

My bloke woke up with the sparrows this AM...& went for a surf, before work, with his long time buddy, Steve. This is a momentous day for the Watson-kind! My hunnie multitasking....play & work on the same day....it is definitely a call for celebration.

He got back seriously amped...raving about epic waves & shouting !I'm a surfer again! I think I am going to insist he does this again next week & every week there after. The look in his eyes tells me we'll all be better for it. My salty old dawg is back!!!

Kalk bay: firing, glassy & windless.....sweet!!!

~heehee{did I say it right babes?}
XXX

It's cultural!

I took Max to the theater again on Friday morning, to see "The Just so Stories" by Rudyard Kipling.

He has been asking me repeatedly to go again, since the last school holidays when we went to 'The Ugly Duckling'. And I am not sure if you will remember...but our last experience of the theater was UGLY indeed....so I was apprehensive to say the least, about this little outing. Thankfully it was different theater company putting this story on, so there was a glimmer of hope that it would be worth the effort.

Well I am pleased to report it was MAGNIFICENT!! Not that the performance was something out of Hollywood...but rather that it was real, very well acted & had just enough child & adult humor included into the dialog, to have the starchiest of Moms twittering. Max got thoroughly involved throughout the show...shouting answers to the actors & laughing at everything. We both loved every minute of it...& if & when the theater puts another production on...we will be first in line for tickets.

It you are interested in reading Ruyard Kipling's 'Just so Stories....you can download a free e-book of them here:
 
These are some of the stories:

How the Whale Got His Throat
How the Camel Got His Hump
How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin
How the Leopard Got His Spots

We have also been making the most of the warmer Spring weather although we are still dealing with the effects of all the blasted rain.

These are some pic's I took of Max at the park....or should I say swamp!!
I really hope the water drains away soon...otherwise we are going to be seeing swarms of resident mosquitoes moving in to the neighborhood. Now when it comes to mozzies...or any biting bug for that matter...they LOVE me. Tersh can be lying next to me when a swarm hits & who will get bitten....ME...no-one else...me! Now it wouldn't bother me so much if in their vain attempts to drain my blood, I get to lose a coupla kilo's for the pain & itchiness. But I don't...I just end up mighty grumpy...covered in red spots & itchy like my life depends on it...I HATE mozzies with a passion!!

Well that's my contribution to the world of blogging today. I hope you are having as good a Monday as I've had?

Cheers until later.
KJ

Sept Cocoa Daisy kit!

The September Cocoa daisy kit was so awesome to work with...and the colours so modern & fresh....so with out further adieu....here it is:

TAAA-DAAAA! beautiful hey???hey???

Now go sign up they're almost sold out, here's the link~ heehee!


JOKES!!

I didn't get the whole kit in time for the deadline but what I got, was such fun to play with. I was really inspired to try different things....& as you know I LOVE stitching, so there is stitching everywhere.

Well that's all for now folks...I have Maxi climbing all over me as I type this post...he is bored & I am playmate for the afternoon...so cheers until later, if I survive playing the cars...aaarrrhhhh! Time to invest in a WII...OMGoodness, I can't believe I have just said that...Mom & Dad don't panic I am not completely insane...yet! hahahaha!

Hugs
KJ
X

Spring break!

We have Max @ home for the next little while over Spring break! See... evidently the cherry tree at Maxi's play school thinks it is Spring....I beg to differ though, the weather's still freezing!!

Although it is great having Max at home, I struggle to find him things to do. On Friday we went to a movie together....Open Season 2. Max loved it but I loved it MORE! I was one of about 10 adults in the cinema...& I was the only one laughing at the top of my voice. It really tickled my funny bone....& was highly entertaining. OK I admit it I am a slap-stick kinda gal, so this movie was right up my alley.

The weekend was incredibly 'non'... we didn't do anything much, other than act as referee between Cas & Max...I ask you?...She is 10 & he is 4....what on earth could be that important, that requires squabbling over to sort out.

Admittedly he was trouble on two legs tho'....as you can clearly see here by the look on his cheeky face, he was impersonating the...

" Pharoh of Egypt....that means I am the King....and
I want juice now!!!"

The two of them got SO irritating, that at the first hint of sunshine we headed to Slangkop beach in Kommetjie, to get some fresh air & a good dose of vitamin D.

Our neighbor, Taylor, came along too...she & Cas are best buddies. It will be a very sad day when they climb onto the aeroplane in 2 months time & we have to wave them goodbye. They like 1000's of others, are ducking out of SA while they still can & heading for a new life in Australia.

We had a great time there...collecting shells & bits of broken beach glass that were washed up onto the sand. With the massive storms that have been buffeting our coast line, all sorts of treasures have been thrown up onto the beaches. Max true to form, created an awesome beach art sculpture, using everything he could lay his hands on. It was beautiful and people stopped & commented, which thrilled Max, being the social cat he is...he LOVED it!!

The girls who are at that weird tween stage..."couldn't be seen dead doll!!" without large sunnies & handbags. Although it didn't take long before all the accessories forgotten, discarded & dumped with me to 'guard' while they went climbing on the rocks....girls!!

I did catch this SUPER cute moment on camera, which made up for all their squabbling earlier...obviously their wrath was short lived.....good for them, even better for the frazzled parents :o)

Thanks to my trusty tripod, I was able to get this shot....family shots are all to few in my albums, so it will be great to have a new one.

Well guys that's all for now. I promise I will try & blog more often...I am just down right lazy!!
So have a good one.
Over & out...KJ XXX