Creative Influence

Today’s blog prompt: Tell your blog readers about someone who has been a creative influence in your life -- a crafty mum, aunt or grandparent, an influential school teacher or a friend who brought out your creative side, perhaps.

There have been a number of people over the years who have had some creative influence in my life.

My Mum - though she may not believe this. I remember her having to make my school uniforms when I started school - she sewed my dresses and knitted my cardigans.

My Dad - whose love of photography I'm sure I inherited. I started taking photos quite early on and have always loved keeping albums. Dad was also very talented at building scale model boats.

Perhaps one of the most influential people was my Mum's friend, Lois Edwards. My younger brother, Robin, and I used to go round to the Edwards house after school sometimes and Lois was the one who started me crocheting. By the time I was about 10 I was crocheting baby matinee jackets and selling them to the teachers at school. I think she was also the one who taught me to knit.

When I went to High School I took Housekeeping to matric and that was where I really learnt to sew. I had to make a three piece suit and blouse for my matric exam. I continued sewing, making clothes, when Hugh and Claire were little.

When we came to England making clothes didn't make as much sense because you could buy everything quite inexpensively and material was more expensive, so I stopped sewing. I took it up again a few years ago when I joined a patchwork class. Jennie Lewis was my teacher and had a huge influence on me. I still enjoy patchwork and quilting but haven't done any for a while. It's certainly something I will go back to.

Mum and I did a few card making classes at Sussex Crafts in Cuckfield and the teacher, Fiona, was inspiring. I made cards from time to time and was asked to teach a few classes at Creative Pastimes after giving one to Theresa for her birthday.

When on holiday in Chicago, my sister-in-law, Liz, told me about scrapbooking and I read the book by the founders of Creative Memories. I bought some supplies and brought them back with me and that's how I started scrapbooking. I love the Simple Scrapbook magazines as my style is very simple. I'm not a big one for adding embelishments and I've learnt that that's ok.

I love that we are surrounded by creative people and hope I can continue to learn from them.

xx

Another day, another braai!

With the weather as beautiful as it has been, it only made sense that we had another braai today instead of a roast. It was just us and Claire's boyfriend, Graham. Nothing fancy, but certainly very yummy!! I haven't got lots to say, so instead, I'll just put a few photos from today.

Jon, waiting for the braai to be ready to cook on

Braai and food

A splash of colourGraham, Claire & Emily getting their food (please excuse all the washing waiting to be ironed, it's been too hot!!)My lunch (all pointed for Weight Watchers)

Pudding (also counted!)

I did my time on the Wii Fit again this morning and have to admit, much as I hate to, that I do feel better for having done the workout. I feel like I'm putting the effort in and it feels good! Long may it last.

xx

Just Saturday

Missed a day but I'm back again. Not a lot to report, Emily and I went into Crawley yesterday morning to go to Marks & Spencers. Ended up having a quick look in a couple of other shops before coming home again to blob for the rest of the day ;o)


The only reason I have photos taken in Crawley is because I was supposed to be taking photos for Scrap Your Day on the 25th (another Shimelle project) but I never seem to do very well. I'll see how I get on with what I did get.

Today, the weather man on the local radio said to expect heavy showers and possible thunder storms - I'm so glad he got it wrong! We had beautiful weather once again and even got to invite Mum and Dad round for a braai (South African for BBQ). I had to pop into the shops quickly to pick up a few bits (there always seems to be something to get - don't you agree!), then came home and prepared the salads and kebabs before Mum and Dad got here. I then sat outside and read my book for a little while. The food was delicious - thanks to my wonderfully talented, happy, cheerful husband (see picture below - hahaha!!!)

Seriously though, it was a lovely afternoon and we sat outside to eat and chat until Mum and Dad left again.

This evening Emily and I watched "The Princess Diaries" and last night we watched "Music and Lyrics". If we continue watching a movie a night we'll run out soon!

I have done half an hour of Wii Fit for the past three days now. I think it's beginning to feel a little bit easier and on some tasks I'm even getting fairly decent scores. It must be doing some good - by the end of a workout I'm sweating and I've noticed my legs ache a bit sometimes when I go upstairs. I reckon if I can carry on with this for the whole of the school holidays I should be a little bit fitter by the time Emily goes back to school and I walk up the dreaded hill!

I now need to go and read through the prompts from this week and see if I can do some damage limitation because I am waaaaaaayyyyyyyy behind!!!

xx

Wow!! Gold Card

I have been sent a GOLD CARD by both dddeeebbbzzz and Eleni. I feel quite honoured as I haven't met either of these ladies other than through our blogs and Shimelle's My Freedom class. Dddeeebbbzzz and I seem to have a lot in common and some of our blog posts end up quite similar - spooky!! Eleni's blog is another one that I enjoy reading and was also found through Shimelle's class.

What a pity this gold card hasn't got a sum of money for me to spend as well - I could think of plenty of things I would like to get or do - especially with the girls on holiday ;o)

Now for the rules :
1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

This is the difficult part as, quite honestly, I don't know that I have dedicated followers of my blog! I'm going put down MJ - I don't remember how I came across her blog but I've been reading it for over a year and I know she checks in on mine from time to time. Likewise Gretchen pops in from time to time and we started chatting after I took a couple of her classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I'm now going to put down the a couple of ladies who may continue to look at my blog after the My Freedom class is over (and here I would have put dddeeebbbzzz and Eleni but seeing as they sent it to me I guess I better not send it back again), so I choose Carrie and Cloclo.
For the person who is new to my blog and lives overseas, I add Tracy. I think I found Tracy through dddeeebbbzzz's blog and when I looked at her blog I realised she lived in Durban, South Africa - close to where I used to live.

Thanks again dddeeebbbzzz and Eleni.
xx