A week of crafting !!!

Can you believe it ... yes I'm on holiday and I've just had a whole week of crafting !!! (working actually... can't wait to get back to my other job for a rest !!!)

My craft week started on Wednesday teaching in Pietermatitzburg at MACS (Midlands Arts & Craft Society) I taught an 'Altered Book' class !!! Yes weird I know cos I could never understand the point of changing a perfectly good book !!! But these ladies had asked if I could teach this particular class and hey money is money ... and the ladies loved it !!!! And I now have the foundation of an altered book .. not sure what I'm going to do with it .!!! But I'm sure I'll find a use for it ...

And then on Thursday I found myself teaching a card class at LaDomaine ... these are all mature ladies who formed a card making group way before I got here but they are all self taught ladies and have never really had any formal lessons ... last year before I got my job I gave them a few lessons .... one a month ... and the other 3 weeks of the month they practised their new techniques ... lovely bunch of ladies and some of them have plenty of cash to spend and time to craft ... so the ladies asked me if I could give them another lesson ... taught them some floral punch art ... and I spent most of my lesson reminiscing about the fantastic ladies I had as my students back in the UK ... the awesome times we had in class and the fun we used to have.

Then believe it or not but Friday saw me at a Consumer Show ... yes surprisingly enough we do have the odd one here ... very small one only about 40 exhibitors but it's over 3 days and they have it every year ... in fact the first year I was here I helped my sister-in-law out ... with her polymer clay business ... don't know if I mentioned that 3 years ago ??? LOL ...

Well I kinda forgot about that show till Adele (she's the lady who originally introduced me to the Thursday group and she reminds me a lot of Glynis !!! she's into everything crafty !!! she spins, she weaves, she sews, and all the paper crafts too ... she has a son a year older than Kelsey and they play rugby together ... and she's also quite a go-getter ... once I showed her all the stock in my garage she started finding me customers etc... in fact she's also the lady who introduced me to MACS) well she reminded about the show ... and off we went ... reminded me a bit about the times a group of us in the UK used to go to the consumer shows together ... do you remember gals ??? Well the show has new organisers and I've been in touch with them to hopefully exhibit there next year ... I'll keep you posted !!!

And I've even had Paul & Kelsey involved in my crafting endeavours ... well sort of ... I've had them unpacking the garage for me today so I can try and find some of the stock that my 'customers' are desperately looking for ... Chalk Inks !!!! The things I really miss !!! Well actually after this week I'm really missing my crafting, my business and most of all my customers who became really good friends ... those I miss the most ;(

So last week I left the boys to their own devices ... but I'm going to spoil their fun this next week and force them to keep me entertained LOL !!!

Paul was really enjoying the HOT steamy weather this past week but yesterday he got a taste of the unpredictability of our weather and saw just how quickly it can change and become very cold !!! Like long trousers and jacket cold !!! ... well it's preparing him for his return to the UK at then end of the week ;(

Holey Cashmoley !!!

(oops sorry started writing this on Thursday ... didn't get it finished or posted !!! AND I'm finished this post on SUNDAY 25th !!!)

Look at the date ... where the heck has the last 2 weeks gone again ... AND where has the last 3 months gone ... ???

I mean it's the end of March ...well almost ... so that means my 3 months probation at work is almost up and there's no sign of me getting fired !!! well not yet ... and seeing as how we are officially on leave now until the 10th April ... I guess I'm not gonna get fired and my 3 months probation will officially be over by the time we go back to work !!!!

That and the fact that Paul arrives tonight marks the end of the 1st term of 2012, the 1st holidays for the year ... and the 1st school report for 2012 for SON-shine !!!! WOW ... where the hell has this first 1/4 gone ???

So how did SON-shine do ??? All his marks he has equaled or bettered EXCEPT for MATHS .... he has dropped from 80% right down to 48% and I am one very, very p'd off mum because of that .... BUT in fairness I am not laying 100% of the blame on him ... I blame a huge portion of that on the school ... the fact that for the first 3 weeks of the term they did not have a Maths teacher (shame the woman was diagnosed with Cancer and I know I should be a sympathetic person and feel sorry for this .... which I truly do feel sorry for the woman ... BUT the school should still have made an alternative plan and not left our kids for 3 weeks without a teacher) Kelsey says " but mum my Afrikaans has improved" because in the lessons they should have had maths they had an Afrikaans subs teacher !!! Well now I'm sure that will stand him in good stead for a future career in ????????????????

But as for the rest ... this term I left K to do all his own studying, his own projects and his own study programme... so (don't tell him but I am very, very proud of him) ... however he is disappointed because he did not come 1st in class this term .... 1st time since he started High School ... and this is because his maths marks dropped his aggregate !!!

As for me ... work has been exceptionally manic .. wait a minute I say that every time I write on my blog ... we were not supposed to break-up till Friday but the school had asked for special permission to have Thursday/Friday off .... you see we had a public holiday on Wednesday 21st ... Human Rights Day !!! and we just knew that most of the kids would not come back into school ... we only found out at 11am on Tuesday that the Dept. of Education had given us permission ... that means we have left A LOT of unfinished work at the office ... Oh well Sally will probably go in and do it ... but hell NOT me !!!!!

So now here I am on Sunday, this post is still not finished and published !!! ... and have yet more to add to it .... yes Paul arrived safely ... great to have him home ... just love the 'big suitcase' he always brings ... we now stocked up on the essentials .. oxo, Bisto gravy granules, Thornton's toffee ...although I'm not going to mention the fact that yet again he didn't bring me my Brazil Nut toffee ... oops did I mention it ??? and of course all the lovely crafty goodies that I've ordered over the last 3 months ... every time he gets here it's just like Christmas !!!!

Well my Thursday ladies will be happy ... they have some new thangs to buy LOL !!!

Of course K is always excited to have dad home... he's no longer the only man in the house ... and all the goodies dad brings for him LOL ...

Oh I have to tell you this ... about 2 weeks ago ... after SON-shine gets back from his little rugby tour ... he lost his cell-phone ...no actually what I should say is some bastard at school nicked it !!! His 'white'berry ... all the kids here have blackberry's ... they chat to each other on BBM ... no I don't profess to understand it all, so child of mine has been phone-less for the past 2 weeks ... no it was not insured and no I can't afford a new one for him ... so I chat to Paul ... he goes onto e-bay and manages to get K another 'White'berry at a decent price ... but I don't tell SON-shine, then Anne (a mate of mine who runs the quiz night at our local Keg) informs me that CellC (a phone service provider company) is sponsoring last week Tuesday's Quiz Night and they have 4 Blackberry's up for grabs !!! I tell SON-shine and he asks if we can go see if we can win him a phone (me laughingly says yes sure of course I can win him a phone !!!! ME the unluckiest person on planet earth, me who can't even win a bloody argument) WELL GUESS WHAT .... I won him a BLACKBERRY !!! I was sooo excited ... nearly burst Cyndi's eardrums screaming so loud when I won ... 1st thing I've ever won ... and something we actually wanted !!!

SO ... Paul arrives and K now has 3 Blackberry's !!! the one I won, the one dad bought him and a one Nigel gave to Paul that was lying around in the office !!!! From 0-3 in just a few short days !!!

Friday saw Paul & Kelsey out on the golf course at 8am ... bloody fools and it was a scorcher of a day ... of course Paul is over the moon that the weather is playing nicely for his trip ... I got to spend Friday till lunch time 'crafting', well doing prep for my classes this next week (then I joined them for lunch) ... and yesterday we were all at the High School catering at the Easter Sports Festival ... why oh why do I always say yes to these damned things ??? Making damned pancakes all day ... I must be mad !!! Oh and then we gonna do it all over again on Monday !!! Most definately MAD !!!!

oooH what a week ... AGAIN !!!

This week has been sooooo crazy I don't even know where to start ... oh actually now that I've had time to check out the last week ... I realise it's actually been 2 weeks since I last blogged ... so that goes to show just how crazy it has been ...

Mostly it's all work related craziness ... but between that and the SON=shines crazy rugby schedule ... I feel like I should be sitting in a white padded room ... in fact when I put it to paper it sounds even worse !!!!

Last week at work we had 'mid-term' assessments so it was tons & tons & tons or should I say trees & trees & trees of printing to be done, and all the deadlines to meet ... meetings to attend, catering to do, posters to hang, FFD stuff to sort etc.etc. etc.

Then guess what ... we did it all over again this week ...ok so not so much copying to do but still ...all the collections for our annual fun day are coming in so they have to be sorted and priced ... Easter Eggs have to be packed and wrapped for the Outreach Programme and finally our tickets for our Win-A-Car competition arrived so now we have that to administrate too ... oh swimming galas to cater for, Open Days to do teas for etc.etc.etc !!!!And someone want us to try and draw up a job description .... bwahahahaha !!!!

SON=shine ... I've had him to an eye specialist ... seems he has an infection in his eyelashes !!! well that's the lay-mans term for it ... Dr Whatshisface... went on and on with the real medical terms etc ... Long story short ... can be fixed if he does this whole swab, clean & cream thing !!! 4 times a DAY !!! yeah ...boy + teenager + sweat + dirt = constant moaning mum !!!

Still trying with the diet thing ... not sure how it's working .... feel good ... but the lumps & bumps are still there !!! LOL

Weather ... last week = awesome ... hot, hot, hot & hot ... the weekend ...well SUNDAY actually Cyclone Irina hit and it started raining like it's never rained before ...and it rained & rained & rained ... first time we really saw sun this week was today !!! and then it was HOT again :-)

AND now today SON=shine was off on his first ever rugby tour ... only a long weekend ... but it's classed as a tour ... and only in Greytown (1hr48mins away LOL) but it's still a tour ... and guess what ... I'm driving up there tomorrow to watch them play ... he contacted me tonight to tell me they won their first match/trials ... 8-3 and he got 'whacked' !!! IN THE EYE !!! Boy oh BOY !!! and BOYS !!!!

So tonight I am husband-less. child-less, dog-less and even mother-less (LOL) so this is what SWF feels like ...

And now that I have finished this ... I can go to bed ... can't remember the last time I could say I'm going to be bed before 9pm !!!

Oh and talking of time ... for the record ... Autumn is literally around the corner ... sun-rise these days for me is now about 5.58am and sun-set is 6.23pm ... and it seems to be setting at least 5mins earlier daily ... Oh well February was a good summer month :-)

Oh Boy, Oh Boy ...

I sooo wanted to write a post earlier in the week ...

WOW!!! FAB & FANTASTIC .... Off the HOOK !!! Brilliant ...

That's all and more that I have to say about the 80's Rewind Concert ... It was fandabby dozey !!! We had such a fantastic time ... even Kelsey had to admit that it was a fantastic day out ... and the music wasn't "that old" (cheeky shit!!! LOL)

We waited till Saturday morning to decide what we were going to wear ... and when the sun shone brightly and the day looked liked it was going to be a hot one ... I phoned Irena and said there was no way I was wearing boring jeans ... and in the space of an hour we had 2 fantastic very 80's outfits thrown together ... not sure what is the most frightening ... the fact we could throw together 2 outfits so quickly or the fact that I have soooo much lace and frills in my cupboard to make 2 x 80's costumes ... ROFLMAO

Kelsey had to add his bit by pointing out "mum you actually do still wear some of that stuff now" ... Of course we had to take the photos etc ... and I'm busy photo shopping all the FAT out of my picture before I put it up on here (LOL that's gonna take a while)... after all I was not this fat during the 80's !!!

OH MY GOD !!!Have you ever seen anything so freekishly hilarious ??? I mean even Indi is roling around on the floor pissing hersel laughing ... check bottom right hand side of this pic ...

YES PEOPLE ... I actually went out in public dressed like this !!!

As I said the sun shone ... and shone... and shone ... I think it was the hottest day of the year ... but that didn't stop us from bopping and partying ... IT WAS FANTASTIC ...

And Midge Ure !!! WOW ... although he's no longer the gorgeous spring chicken he used to be, he was still brilliant ... he still has that gorgeous voice and he can still string that guitar !!! He was most definitely my favourite of the day ... but then again in my youth I followed Ultravox around Europe so I knew all their songs !!!

Other artists on the day included: Lee John (Imagination) Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Go West, The Village People, Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet), Martin Fry (ABC), Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones and finally Rick Asterley, who really sent the crowds wild when he came out dressed in a SHARKS rugby jersey ... which if anyone reading this doesn't know ... the concert was at Kings Park, home to the bestest rugby team eva The Sharks !!!

All in all and absolutely outstanding day ....

And thanks to how long it takes to upload pics onto blogger !!!... It has only taken me a week to get this posted ... I started it on Wednesday at work ... came home to load some photos for you all to see the hilariously dressed ME ... and since then I've not had the time to add the pics ... so hopefully tonight I will get this posted !!!

T.G.I.F ...

OH BOY WHAT A WEEK !!!!

I feel absolutely shattered this week !!!! We have had one heck of a strange week ... what with the usual office work, the crazy collections we have had coming in for our Family Fun Day, that we've had to sort out and find storage space for it and the running around in Hillcrest hanging from poles to put up promotional posters !!! The things I do for this new job ...

And the crazy strange weather ... from pissing down rain, to gale force winds and soaring temperatures in the upper 30's and even hitting close to 40'c .... I am absolutely cream crackered!!!

We've had 2 days this week with no electricity ... seems SA is running out of power again ... and SON-shine has also been hectically crazy busy ... with his school work, rugby training and he's also been involved in swimming gala's etc. etc. ... the 2 hours of homework !!! and he's collapsing in bed by 8pm ... TOTAL LIGHTS OUT...

Adele ... one of my croonies from the Thursday Ladies Club has been an absolute star these past 2 weeks ... she's keeping the ladies motivated which means I have to get my A. into G. and keep digging out new stock for her ... but that's not such a bad thing is it ... in fact because of her I'm feeling the desire to do some crafting ... mmmm me wonders what I should be doing ???

Maybe I'm feeling like this cos tomorrow should have been my craft day?? ... but I'm off to the 80's concert instead ... I'm really looking forward to it ... will keep you posted :-)

The shortest month of the year ...

yet why does it seem to be dragging by???

I was so sure that next week was the beginning of a new month already ... but then again I would have missed the 80's concert so ... no it is still only the 19th today !!!

Maybe it's cos I've had such a boring droll ...week that has made it go so slow ???

No desires to quit the job ...NO it doesn't mean I'm ecstatically happy !!! hell that is so not in my nature LOL

The only weird thing we had to do this week was drive into DBN central with 110 'corroboard' posters to have them 'stamped' by the municipality ... Dept. for external advertising LOL and then drive back up to Hillcrest ... my arms were aching by the time we'd hauled all the stupid things up to the office !!! I just had to laugh ... typical municipality/council workers !!! about 50 people in the office sitting on their computers ...doing ??? They all looked incredibly busy once there was work to be done ... now we know where all our taxes are going !!!

Oh and apparently Friday was 'half term' which means what ??? Oh we get to leave at 1pm ... hellooooo that's the time I'm supposed to leave anyway PMSL ... not like we get an extra day off or anything ... but the way everyone was going on you'd think we were going on holiday !!!! Or maybe it's the mile-stone to half way thru the 1st term... Sally says it means we half way closer to the holidays LOL

In fact peeps I have very little to tell you about .... my week has been incredibly boring and non -eventful ...

I'm at work, K is at school as well as doing lots of rugby training .... the weather has been ??? So not worth talking about ... rain, cold, wet, then hot, heat, mist ???

Exciting what ???

I guess there's always a 1st time for everything !!!

First time since I opened my own business 13 years ago that I have had to cancel a class/workshop due to poor response !!!! ... BUT 2 weeks away from my next workshop and only 2 people have booked and paid ... although about 15 people sent me their reasons for NOT being able to attend !!!

Maybe I chose the wrong date ... or maybe people are still struggling to get over the over-spend of Christmas ??? or MAYBE everybody is just sooo busy so early in the year ... but anyway I have CANCELLED my February Workshop ;( ... (sad face)

And there I was all ready for this class ... projects done & dusted ...
"BUT I WILL NOT GIVE UP" ... I've never quit on anything (except for a diet !!!) and I don't intend to quit on this ... well not after just 1 poor response ...

All I'll do is pick another date later in the year ... gonna have to be MUCH later, due to my hectic 'rugby' life from the 10th March ... and use these same projects and go from there !!!

BUT here I am today ... supposed to be sorting out my 'CRAP' in my room .... oops I mean stuff ... and instead I'm trolling the net ... doing anything but what I'm supposed to do (P.of P. woke this am again) ... and voila ... between 1 site and another ... I get me another epiphany ...and I find myself jotting down ideas,doing some drawings and sketches and I'm planning my next THANG !!!! SO I've still got IT ... whatever IT is !!! bwahahahaha

Sorry am I rambling here ??? I get like this when the 'creative' brain is at work !!!

Oooh ...ohhh ... oh ... but there is a good thing come from all of this ... because I've cancelled I'm now free on the weekend of 25th February .. so yesterday I booked tickets for myself, SON-shine and the twisted sisters to go to the 80's Revival Concert at Kings Park Stadium !!! How awesome is that ??? One of my 'school girl' crushes is going to be there ... Midge Ure from Ultravox !!!! I followed that band around the UK like a true Groupie !!!! (I was going to marry that man !!!) ... awesomeness or what ???

OK last week ... I nearly did QUIT on something ... the damned job !!! It nearly got to me ... yes ... I almost lost the plot !!! Between the 15 odd bosses I seem to have and the crappy attitude of some of the other folk in the building !!! Doesn't matter about the 600 odd muffins I baked for them this week, even without electricity ... and went and 'used' BFF June's oven to finish baking them, was up at 3am making fresh muffins for their damned function ... NO ... none of that matters ... when they want to drop a ton of crap on you, for doing something that no-body bothered to tell you, you shouldn't do !!! Apparently I was supposed to ASSUME it ... well all I know about ASSUME is it makes an ASS out of U and ME !!! (seems it is most definitely every MAN/WOMAN & CHILD for themselves!!!)

BUT STOP ! NO ... this is the year of POSITIVITY and I WILL NOT LET THEM GET TO ME ... however I have now realised WHY a lot of the people at work are soooo cynical:

cyn·i·cal  /ˈsɪnɪkəl/ Show Spelled[sin-i-kuhl] Adjective
1. like or characteristic of a cynic; distrusting or disparaging the motives of others.
2. showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, especially by actions that exploit the scruples of others.
3. bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic.
Synonyms. Cynical, pessimistic, sarcastic, satirical - imply holding a low opinion of humanity. Cynical suggests a disbelief in the sincerity of human motives: cynical about honesty.
Antonyms . optimistic.

And that is all I'm going to say on the matter ... well for this week anyway ....bwahahahaha ...

I actually ... for the first time in a long time (oooh there's another 1st !!!) said TGIF ... on Friday ... and I'm happy to have the weekend to pull myself towards myself !!!

It was MUM's birthday on Friday so the twisted sisters came and joined us for Pizza's and we had a really great evening ... then we've had Penny & Lawrence join us for a Birthday breakfast for mum ... so all in all the weekend has been a good one !!!!

All be it the weather has turned crappy ... it was jeans, t-shirt, jacket AND closed in shoes yesterday ... last night the winter slippers were on and today it's warm clothes SUNDAY !!!!

And on a SAD note ... R.I.P Whitney Houston ... another huge loss to the music industry ... all because of damned drugs and substance abuse !!!