THE GREATEST LOVE for PURPLE RAIN

.... and the joys of Mother Nature

This week's challenge over at ABC Challenge is G for Green. So here is my 2nd design team creation for ABC. Hope its green enough though ... well it started giving me the 'green with envy' feeling.

Once again my yummy BG cardstock came in very handy to achieve the Green Factor here. And of course, yet again, another iris folding design. This time its a heart. This design, the same as the previous circle design, is quite quick with less layers. The hearts and sentiment have been stamped with a Pesto Adirondack acid free raised felt dye ink pad. Please take some time and visit the ABC Challenge to feast your eyes on my fellow design team members' creations.

I have also entered this creation for the following challenges:

• Daring Cardmakers: Favourite things {my favourite five products I've used on this creation are: clear jewel stones, iris folding, Basic Grey cardstock, acrylic stamps for hearts and circle punches}
• PaperPlay Challenge Week 39: Favourite embellishment {clear jewel stones are definitely my favourite way of adding bling to my designs}

Sunday me and hubby left for Pretoria at 5am to see whether we could capture the Jakaranda trees in soft early morning light. This is truly nature at its best. Just love how the interesting dark branches are offset with these beautiful purple blossoms. It really makes one feel as if you are in purple heaven. These photos we took in the Brooklyn and Nieu Muckleneuk suburbs. This is proof that Jakaranda deserve the status of the Jakaranda city here in South Africa.

We also took a drive up Fort Klapperkop to enjoy some vistas of the city. The Telkom 2010 Soccer Tower below, is a true beacon reminding us of South Africa hosting the 2010 Soccer World cup. During our 10 year stay in Pretoria we often did training runs around this tower and its surrounding suburbs and the endless hills will never be forgotten.

Then of course there is the EXCITING news that Mrs Wagtail has hatched her two eggs Friday afternoon, excactly 12 days from when she started sitting on the eggs. The chicks are doing well and has gained some weight and more feathers/fluff. It seems that Dad is on 24 hour watch and is always in close proximity, should an emergency arise i.e. Bull Bulls perching too close on neighbouring aloe trees. The pics aren't very clear as I did not want to be a too great disturbance. Will however take same more pics as they are growing.

Thanks again for all your heartfelt comments and taking some time to pop in here. Your ever loyal following is truly appreciated.

MRS WAGTAIL ... YOU'RE AMAZING

1. Dutch Dare DT Project: Use Felt on your Project
2. The Pixie Cottage: The First Challenge - A Sketch
3. Paperplay: Week 39 - Favourite Embellishment
4. Basic Grey: Colour Challenge - Green/Red/Blue
5. Stamp Something: Bling It Somethings
6. Daring Cardmakers: I Can See Clearly Now
7. If The Shoe Fits: #7 Bling It On
8. Everybody Art: #61 Shapes/Punches

I suppose you are getting bored by this time, seeing one iris fold creation after the other. But, hey I am having loads of fun with this technique and am discovering new shapes all the time. This is the first circle design I created and has surprisingly been the easiest shape thus far to work work with.

The Pixie Cottage's first ever challenge which is a great sketch got me out of the blocks for this creation and then Basic Grey's colour challenge for this week took the stress out of selecting the colour combo. The red flowers are from felt and the circles behind them are punched circles that I created with one of my EK Success circle punches. The bling is of course represented by the clear jewel stones which has come one of my favourite embellishments.

And its been quite a while since I managed to combine more than 3 challenges with one creation, it seems like lady luck has been on my side this week.

I mentioned in a previous post that Mrs Wagtail has made her nest in an aloe tree in our garden. She has been sitting on two eggs for just over 7 days now and I can't wait to see whether she will manage to hatch the eggs. Do any of you perhaps know how long a wagtail take to hatch their eggs?Just imagine the cute little chickies that could be waiting on us.

I waited till she was away from the nest and had to use a small step ladder to be able to have a good view of the nest from above to be able to take these photos. I was afraid that she might abandon the nest if I came too close, but she is still sitting on the eggs. Sjoe, I'm quite relieved.

Wishing you all a relaxing Sunday.

FOR YOU ...

{1ST ABC DESIGN TEAM PROJECT}

I am quite nervous about my first DT project for ABC Challenge, but nevertheless had fun creating it. The theme for the current challenge is FLIGHT and I thought it fit to stamp up my butterfly. Once again the main feature is an iris folding window. All the cardstock are from my favourite BG ranges. 'For You' are some foam letters.

Please take some time and visit ABC to view all the other DT members' gorgeous interpretations of Flight.

A cute wagtail couple are sitting on two eggs in our garden. They have done this perfect little nest between some leaves in one of the aloe trees. Can't wait to see the little chicks. I have always been fascinated by these small birds whose little mannerisms truly exuberate happiness. Love watching them dancing around catching insects whilst constantly wagging their long tails. Will try and take some pics when Mom and Dad is not on the nest.

Wishing you all a happy Wednesday.

NEL FAMILY PICS

Just a quick post with some family pics I took of Marko and his family on 20 September. Marko's Mom, Heidi was curious to see some of the photos, so here are a few shots.

We did our first 90 minute yoga class last night in which we did quite a few different poses. I am a bit stiff and sore today, but hopefully some work in the garden will ease the muscles. Thanks again for taking some time out to pop in here. Wishing you all a fab Tuesday.

MATRIC FAREWELL SHOOT & A SNEAK PEEK

As promised some time ago, here are some pics of the photo shoot I did for Marié-Louise's Matric Farewell in Rustenburg on 23 September. During April this year Marié-Louise {ML} and her family visited us and she mentioned that she has this unusual matric farewell dress in mind. The dress had to have different panels and onto each panel different embellishments had to be sewn. She mentioned that she was looking for anything thats interesting and could be sewn onto the dress. Being a scrapbooker, I immediately thought of all the different types of embellishments we scrap with and wasted no time showing ML these. After spending more than an hour scratching through all my embellishment containers, we ended up with a huge bag filled with every embellishment you can imagine ... never in my wildest dreams did I think that all these would end up on a one of a kind matric farewell dress.

I am sure you will agree that the end result is totally unique, and comes to show that even a classy dress can be jazzed up with scrapping supplies ... moral of the story ... what will the fashion industry do without us dedicated scrappers. But, I must give ML all the credit for thinking out of the box. Everyone stepped out onto the red carpet at the event wearing stunning traditional ballroom gowns, but ML and her partner definitely made the fashion statement of the night. And then of course Marié-Louise had the perfect personality to pull it of.

I have been swamped with school photo shoots this last week and am still busy with the order forms, but managed to complete my first design team project for the ABC Card Challenge blog and here's a sneak peak just to wet your appetite. Will reveal all this coming Wednesday.

Thanks for all your inspiring comments and I promise to be spreading some love in blog land soon.

ZEONé'S 4th BIRTHDAY PHOTO SHOOT

Apologies for this seriously loooong photo post, but I promised Zeoné's Mom that I will publish some of the photos from the photo shoot I did of Zeoné's 4th birthday party which took place yesterday at Plantland in Krugersdorp. Below is Zeoné with Dad Deon, Mom Lize and little brother Jacques-Pierre.

I really enjoy birthday party commissions as most of the little ones are very keen on having their photos taken and love posing, but only if I promise to show them the photo on the camera's screen .... I would say this is a little bit of blackmailing, don't you agree. So with no further ado here is a summary of the 269 photos of the party.

So wish me luck for my pre-primary photo shoot tomorrow and Tuesday. Wishing you all a fantastic week and thanks again for taking time out and stopping by.