DOING LIFE

DOING LIFE ’08 SUMMER SCRAPAGANZA {Saturday, 6 December 2008 @ Makaranga Garden Lodge}

Put the kettle on, make yourself a delicious cuppa, find your favourite couch, sit back, stretch those arms, relax and get ready for a lengthy cuddle with your computer.

Doing Life Management {Yours truly and Michelle Ramsay}

These quote tags were inside the above pouches together with a choccie. The quotes read:

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates

Just think of all those women on the Titanic who said, "No thank you" to dessert that night. And for what! - Erma Bombeck

Conroy and I flew down to Durban on Friday morning. We left home at 5:30am to avoid Gauteng’s morning rush hour. We got to Michelle’s home in Pinetown at about 10:30am, where Michelle was already packing her car to the brim with Doing Life’s supplies. The excess supplies we packed in our rented car.

After a bit of bonding with Michelle’s lovely (very well-behaved doggies), especially the little sausage dog, Izzie which even Conroy could not put down (this says a lot as Conroy is not the type who will ‘sommer’ pick up a dog), as well as getting a demonstration by Dereck of his newly acquired little Mazda sports model, we were off to Makaranga Garden Lodge in Kloof. It was quite a nice change to feast our eyes on the beautiful green forest surroundings of our old neighbourhood … in contrast to the concrete and dusty surroundings of our current neighbourhood, Fourways. Once again we were fortunate to have the Makaranga conference venue all to ourselves for the duration of Friday and we immediately off-loaded and carried all the supplies down a flight of stairs to the venue. Once again we stayed over at Makaranga and I must say that Conroy’s extra pair of hands was a big help. Michelle and I immediately started orientating ourselves, packing out the supplies, setting up the shop, etc. etc. etc. Conroy came around 1 pm inviting us to join him for lunch. We had some toasted samies and Makaranga’s speciality, delicious crispy and soft on the inside, potatoe wedges.

The Prizes.

Michelle getting close and personal.

After lunch me and Michelle continued setting up the venue and finished off round about 9pm on Friday to turn in for a good rest … as we have come to realize that a hoard of hyped up scrapaholics all together in one room could cause some serious enjoyable overloading on the body.

THE XMAS FAIRIES

Above: Lisa Gallagher walked off with the prize for the best dressed Xmas Fairy.

THE DELEGATES:

The big day arrived on Saturday and Michelle arrived at 6am and we set off finalizing a few last minute items and of course taking some photos. The first scrapaganzers arrived at 6:30am and started shopping immediately. Conroy came to fetch me for a quick breakfast at 6:30am. Once again it was like a huge reunion of friends who have not seen each other for quite some time. Everyone chatted and enjoyed a cuppa and a muffin during registration.

Proceedings commenced just after 8am and Michelle officially opened the Scrapaganza with the usual reading of her Ode:

Christmas is coming And Desire’s come back With two new layouts For us all to scrap Open up your kits Check all the goodies inside Then follow the instructions And show your finished page with pride! “What will Santa bring me?” I hear you asking inside Come along to the Shoppe That will help you decide The competition is set It’s a big surprise Who will guess correctly And win the grand prize? The food is always good And such a choice we have to make But make sure you leave space For afternoon tea and cake Will the Herma Queen Defend her crown Or will someone else win And cause her face to frown? Lucky draws There are many But please don’t be sad If you don’t win any! So, sit back & relax And merrily scrap away And we hope you’ll come back To the next Makaranga scrap day.

And was I surprised to see that quite a few scrapaganzers took the prize up for grabs for the best dressed XMAS FAIRY, very seriously and came dolled up in the most beautiful, and I must say unusual, fairy attire. Some fairies even went so far as making their outfits themselves. One fairy was so terrified of being alone at the Scrapaganza that she even made/scrapped her own Fairy Friend to accompany her. A big thank you to all you fairies who went to so much trouble, your playful spirits really added some sparkle to the day.

Here are the two layouts that were presented on the day and are also available in kit form over at the Doing Life Shoppe. So, if you would like to get your hands on these pop over to the Shoppe right now and place your order.

The reigning Speed Queen Champ, Audrey Raath was present to defend her title, but unfortunately hit a speed wobble and fell out during the initial rounds. The new Speed Queen, Cheryl Gwillam was crowned and her name will be engraved on the floating trophy. Cheryl please ensure that you are present at the next Makaranga Scrapaganza on Saturday, 13 June 2009 to defend your title.

THE NEWLY CROWNED HERMA SPEED QUEEN:

All in all I think it was a day enjoyed by all. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who attended the Scrapaganza for you loyal support and hope to see you at the next one on 13 June 2009.

Also a big thank you to Michelle Ramsay without whom, such a day won’t be possible. Thank you, Michelle for all your help, organizing, moral support and for running the shop so efficiently on the day.

Conroy and I flew back on Sunday and arrived home just before 4pm. As usual we pressed the remote to open the garage door, but nothing happened. So we both pressed and pressed and pressed our remotes, but no joy. We got out and I walked around to see whether the neighbours’ fountain at their front door is working and yip it was working, indicating that the power is on. Then we started looking for house keys. I had a spare side gate and kitchen door key. But an awful surprise sprung on us, as we discovered that we have left the kitchen door key in the keyhole on the inside of the house. Moral of the storey, we were locked out from our own home.

With no windows open, the only thing we could do was to try and get the key out of the kitchen door from the outside, but we had no joy. I remembered that there was a screw driver in the irrigation’s power box. Conroy unscrewed the kitchen door handle and kept on trying to get the key out, but to no avail. Conroy discovered that one of the kitchen windows were not closed to tightly and after some continuous probing he got the latch off and got open it. Now this is not a huge window, its about 45cm by 50cm. He got a chair from the patio and held it in place for me to get up on the narrow window sill. So after attempting climbing through the small opening with various body parts first, my bum seemed to be the best part to go through first (sorry, now you more or less know how big my bum is in cm’s). Fortunately the kitchen counter tops were quite high up and close to the window. So I slid through bum first through opening onto the kitchen counter (this must have been an unusual sight for any onlookers). What a relief when I was at last inside and we could get into our own home. There was a thunder storm earlier and the power tripped on our home’s switchboard and the garage door’s battery was flat so it wouldn’t open.

We always leave and enter our home through the remote controlled garage door and only use our front door mainly from the inside when visitors arrive. All-in-all we learnt a lesson, always make sure that you can get into your house, before leaving it.

Thank you for stopping by. Hope to see you all at the next Doing Life Makaranga Winter Scrapaganza on Saturday, 13 June 2009!