XMAS IN FEBRUARY

{Can you believe it ...}

It just shows how fast 2009 is rolling along. Its nearly February and I only got to editing our Xmas 2008 photos today. Apologies if I do bore some of you, but posting all these pics are mostly for the family to see. Xmas here in Johannesburg were mainly overcast and just the perfect lighting for portrait shots. So as you can see, yours truly went totally snap crazy.

In a way it was a sad Xmas for our family, as it is the first Xmas we celebrated since my sister, Hiletje passed away during January 2008 in a motor accident, a few weeks from her 60th birthday. But it was also special as everyone near and dear to her were together on Xmas Day 2009.

Xmas was also a very special day for Rona, as her daughter, Jade, made a surprise appearance all the way from London, to visit her Mom for a few weeks here in South Africa. Needless to say that tears were the order of the day. Rona is married to my nieces, Heidi and Liesl's Dad, Julius who was my sister's second husband and were divorced (Hiletje's first husband, passed away many years ago due to blood cancer, when they were still in their 20's). Hiletje were married to her third husband, Jens for nearly 10 years before she passed away. I know, this is complicated, but I am sure you getting the drift.

Off to get some of these printed and design some Xmas layouts. Thanks for stopping by and being patient having to look through all these.

2S4Y: LAURA's SKETCH #18

My niece, Heidi's third bambino, Marko is on his way at the end of March and her baby shower is this coming Saturday. And of course, I had to make a card to go with the pressie.

Once again I used a new stamp, the cute butterfly stamp I also got through a recent Xmas swap I took part in. This time, Laura's Sketch No.18 over at 2S4Y got me going with this one. If you ever feel like your Mojo is leaving you to your own devices, just hop over to 2S4Y and get inspired by the very talented Laura and Kazan's sketches every week.

I also carried the card's theme through to the inside and even went overboard with the theme on the front of the envelope. The octagonal shape of the butterfly is from one of Doing Life's Online Shoppe's template.

Some of you are very sharp and have already noted the new widget in my sidebar indicating the top 10 commenters on Doing Life. This is quite a snazzy widget which allows you to see at one glance whose most addicted to your blog. There might just be some blog candy up for grabs in the not too distant future which will be for the person at the top of this list on a certain date and time. So keep your eyes peeled for this one. Mmm .... can already visualise the mad dash to leave comments.

Thanks again for all your interest here at Doing Life. You all make for one happy crafter.

A SKETCH, A DT CREATION & DL PROJECTS

This week's Dutch Dare challenge put to the Design Team was to create a THANK YOU card. I was itching to use this cute little birdie acrylic stamp I received during last year's Xmas swap I took part in. Of course using it four times ensured four times the enjoyment. I used a mixture of Basic Grey and Making Memories cardstock on this one. The buttons and wire are from my stash.

Once again this week's sketch over at Sketch Saturday gave me a good head start with this creation. Please visit SS and feast your eyes on the DT's gorgeous creations. Remember the sample baby shower invite for Tylo I did last week, well it got the thumbs up and I was commissioned to create 50 of the invites and here they are all done, leaving me feeling like a real bus. They were collected this afternoon. I did not take a photo, but each invite was slipped into a yellow envelope onto which I stamped the above birdie, in the bottom right corner. Well that's another job done and dusted. Thanks Belinda for your loyal support.

I also got commissioned to do a watch and bracelet set which I quite enjoyed. Its the first time I made a bracelet with these specific sarovski sliders and I think the end result is quite pleasing. It looks great on and I am definitely going to make myself a set as well. Thanks Michelle for your always loyal support.

Off to do sixty 21st invites, a hundred 21st thank you gifts and a 100 photo lolly pop sticks to be put into muffins at the same 21st.

Oh yes, I have had a few rides now in my new wheels and am enjoying every minute of it. The fact that one can override the automatic with manual is so much fun, as the manual is controlled by a plus and minus lever on the steering wheel. So no clutch required to change gears, just press the + or - lever to go up or down the gears ... fun hey!

Of to create another baby shower card for my nieces third little bambino, Marko who is due at the end of March and his baby shower is this Saturday.

Thanks again for all your lovely comments and for taking the time to put your feet up here in blog land.

Marie Antoinette Award

Yesterday I got this great artistic Marie Antoinette Award from the very talented Lena Katrine -all the way from Norway. Thank you so much, Lena! Please visit Lena and have a look at her talented creations.

I have to pass this along to 7 people, who also have to pass it along to 7 people who inspire them. You link to the person who gave you the award and to the people you give it to. I'm passing this award along to some of my very dear blog friends, who always inspire me with their work and their nice comments:

• Michelle
• Jacqui
• Cathy
• Lynette
• Libby
• Jackie
• Helen

Enjoy your award.

TYLO IS ON HIS WAY

{A baby shower invite for a boy}

This is a quick sample of a baby shower invite I made for a friend of mine whose sister-in-law's daughter is expecting their first born, Tylo. I know its not the usual format for this kind of occasion, but seeing that its a baby boy, I thought a bus on the move would be appropriate. The patterned cardstock is from Making Memories' 5th Avenue range. Text is computer generated and all the shapes have been done with EK Success punches. Hope it gets the thumbs up, so that I can get going with about 40+ of them.

Thanks again for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your Thursday. We can almost smell the weekend.

DOING LIFE GETS WHEELS

Apologies for keeping you all in suspense ... a few impatient commentators were stalking Doing Life. With Conroy starting up his own consulting business from the beginning of February, his company car will be something of the past and we had to source another set of wheels.

This past Saturday morning we visited our local Toyota dealer, Halfway Toyota Fourways, to have a look at the latest Toyota models on their showroom floor (@ the Arena). The Auris impressed us both and especially its funky/sporty looks appealed to me. The Toyota Representative, Robert McKay immediately arranged a test drive for us in an Auris 1.6RS. Its an automatic with a manual override, very snazzy I must say. Returning from the test drive, Conroy decided right there that his purchasing this little spirited car for me. Can a girl be so spoilt?

We were very impressed with the professional no-fuss treatment we got from Robert McKay ... no silly salesman talk. Of course I had to get a Fern Green Metallic, as most of you know, green is my favourite colour. Thank you Robert, we will definitely refer any potential Toyota client we know of, to you.

So here is the official hand over of yours truly's new set of wheels, which was late yesterday afternoon. (Robert McKay on left) Even my DH was eager to take some pics, very unusual for him.

Robert even spelt my name correctly on the Congratulations sign seen here on the window. There are very few people who makes the effort to put the dash on the 'í' of my name. So his definitely scoring big time here.

Its raining today, so I did not use my new set of wheels as I did not want it to get dirty so soon and used our Toyota Avensis instead to do my normal rounds this morning. Conroy will be using the Avensis from February.

The Auris is only our 4th ever car we have purchased during our 24+ years of marriage. Our very first car was a Mazda we got way back in the mid 1980's. The Mazda was our only car for a few years and we always had to plan our trips carefully. In 1997, Conroy bought me a Corolla and we passed the Mazda down to family. At the end of 2007 we sold the Corolla to Suzette, an ex scrapping student and dear friend of mine and Conroy bought me the Toyota Avensis. So it is now the third time I am getting spoilt with a brand new car. Please don't get it wrong, I am not a car addict, for me its only important to get from point A to B and it does not matter how I get there, as long as it is safely.

I know one should not play the comparison game, but the Auris is nearly three times the price of our very first home in the mid 1980's. One could never have imagined that a car's price could become so close to a house's price.

So there it is, the beans have been spilt. Looking forward to many funky kilometres in my new sleek

green machine.

ADVERSITY doesn't build CHARACTER, it reveals it

Another Dutch Dare DT project for this month which is to use a mosaic on your card. I just love mosaicing (as all of you probably know by now) and got my 7/8" EK Success square punchie out and punched away at some pieces of scrap patterned cardstock in my stash. I inked the edges of each square with brown chalk ink and created a square mosaic backdrop for my sentiment. Sketch Saturday's sketch for this week got me going with the layout. Papertake Weekly's challenge for this week is to use three different shapes on a card and therefore I think this creation also qualifies for this challenge i.e. there are circles, squares and corners on this creation.

I probably could have some exciting news later this afternoon, so perhaps make a note to pop in later this evening or tomorrow morning, when all should be revealed ... got you curious now hey!

Thanks again for popping in here and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, small Saturday as I call it.