i am so grateful for my gran on my mom's side. a women who gave her whole life to God. she laid down everything and lived for Him. sometimes even going without food to provide for the hungry, young and old, black and white, good and bad - she cared for them all. she was the one spent her life helping others and giving 'our' stuff away to those others. with my recent love affair with the vintage, i realize what she gave away - the wonderful furniture were amongst the things i would now so appreciate. but what she didn't give away to others (OK let's just go with that for a moment) but gave to me was her 'frugality'. she taught me how to save and re-use and re-purpose. so that is where my love affair with postage stamps started - she taught me how to lovingly soak them in water and remove them from envelopes to be re-used again on whatever. even at a young age i started collecting stamps and even belonged to the philatelist society.
so just where am i going with all of this...
well my family doesn't really have an understanding of who i am and what i do. but they try. so when my mother arrived at my doorstep the other day with a plastic bag filled to the brim with old stamps i was in heaven - stamp heaven. and i even for a moment thought that she got me - really got me. so for the past 2 days i have been soaking and lovingly removing stamps from envelopes and i haven't even made a dent in the pile! i am in heaven! so i will keep them in a box and use them in my layouts and cards and splash out on other projects and still i will have enough stamps to use for the rest of my life. ah the simple things in life. it's the little things in life that end up being the BIG things.

my grandmother: Joey Brink
hope you have a fabulous and creative week. i am heading to the kitchen to soak more stamps!

i found this on the net today...sorry i didn't get a credit - but whoever did this please know that it is amazing! Please let me know if you come across this so i can credit the right person - so yes its not my words, not my design, not mine! so in lieu of this ...i also found a layout copied from my book on someone's blog....yeah you guessed it - no credit there either. no apology either for not crediting. let me know your thoughts on this moral dilemma - to credit or not to credit!

so the lovely Natalie from Punky Scraps designed one of the layouts for Scrapbook Challenges' Sizzling summer of sketches. we basically created sketches for an entire month and hosted the challenges for members to play along. Natalie is eccentric OK! she is a breath of fresh air and her layouts must come so naturally - like a fresh spring breeze. so for her SS11 challenge this is what i came up with! i love it - i really do feel more comfortable with throwing paint at a canvas - and i don't do it enough - it's not really socially acceptable you know. just as my life i am a rebel by nature and when everyone goes left i will go right - it's what i do you see. so forgive me for stepping on toes. but life really is too short not to have fun in this comedy we call life. head on over to scrapbook challenges and look for Natalie's challenge...and play along - you'll love it.

i used mostly stuff i had on my table. i always seem to do that - maybe because my table is always full of stuff. it's actually funny at times - but i guess it means i am keeping busy which is a good thing.

the green circle is a little something i am working on for an American publication - so watch this space. maybe i will share it once it has been published - or force you to buy the book.

today was a goodish day for me. things have been hard lately - really hard. the kind of hard you can share some days and then other days you know you can't. the kind of hard where you know a miracle needs to be close by or else. today was a goodish day. you see we got to play at my amazingly talented friends art studio! it's the most beautiful french art studio in all of South Africa. Kath converted her stables with flair like only she could. it is homely, warm and filled with a creative soul. we worked, we were busy and that was good today! we ate delicious cake that Sons made (ok i had a second piece - yes its that good) and we had lunch and we were just there together - being creative. and that was good! it was what i needed for today. we created beautiful canvas girls that Kath designed - so we painted and collaged and gelled and it was good. it was a art therapy day - and no-one knew. but they were there.

Kath and Sonia whom i so appreciate in my life! you girls rock.

and the queenie of all our hearts! (who's getting a new house)

and chandeliers to drool over and delight in, and the perfect concentration...

and Colleen and i were there - being creative! not much to day! love days like this!
and so that is where...we...women....created...today! love you all madly!

liquid colour - a class in using distress stains. come and join us for a fun filled class using this awesome new product and create beautiful cards. We will be using some of the absolutely amazing new papers by Basic Grey in collaboration with Hero Arts *gasp*

Sweet Scrappins
Pretoria
saturday 23 July
as of 12 noon today this class is fully booked - thanks a bunch!