Scrap Retreat anyone?

I am so serious about wanting to organise a scrapbooking retreat, like I posted earlier, I have been getting provisional quotes to see what it would cost, and whether or not it would be viable. One of the best places I have found so far is here. Monkey Valley is a resort that is well known for hosting conferences and team building days. The weird thing though is that it is just minutes from my house. I always thought that it would be better to get in a car and drive somewhere for an hour or two - but when you have views like this who needs to? Plus it is within 40 minute drive for anyone living in Cape Town & surrounds. This would also make it cheaper for some folk as they don't have to drive as far. We wouldn't be sacrificing anything by staying near the city though because this place is renowned for it's peace, tranquility and fabulous views. They also have conference facilities which would suit about 20 people. (Actually they can accommodate more - but anyone who knows a scrapper - knows that they like to scrap with SPACE.) Plus we'd need space for a vendor or two to set up shop and flog us all their merchandise. If Michele and I are anything to go by, then they know that they will make extreme amounts of cash off us. I stand by my original plan though that a portion of the proceeds MUST go to an animal charity. Cropping for a Cause makes the crop that much more fun, and meaningful, and I can just see this becoming and annual Capetonian scrapping event. Now, just when should it be held? Since SDU 2005 is happening in March, and most scrappers are going to that are willing to fork out R1500.00 for that, I think that the retreat should be in April or May next year. So that a) people have time to save up to go & have some spending money, and b) it isn't the middle of summer and people would rather go to the beach than spend the day indoors scrapping. OK folks, I'm officially open to suggestions! Ideas! Encouragement! Bring it on!

Here's my result...apparently...

You Are a Look At Me Blogger!

Cute pics, blog drama, whatever it takes to get traffic. You're notorious ... either loved or hated by all!

What kind of blogger are you?

You know that you've spent far too much money on supplies when your embellishment trays look like this...

No, thankfully I am not that obsessive....just yet... 

Man! It just doesn't let up. This work thing is starting to really, really get in the way of important things, like searching the net for good scrapbooking retreat locations! I must have received 10 payments today from clients travelling internationally...woo-hoo!! Inbetween issuing all these tickets, or at least sending them to someone else to issue, I've been researching surrounding towns accomodation sites for good retreat locations. I'm formulating an idea in my head on maybe organising a scrapbook retreat that is close enough to Cape Town, to either come for the day or stay overnight - with part of the proceeds going to a local animal charity. So far the idea is just in it's infancy in my head, but piece by piece I'm planning something. It feels quite weird actually, like I'm not consciously planning something, more like my brain & heart are doing it for me and I'm just the vessel through which the plan is formulating itself...weird, kinda cool too, but weird. 

Guess who went shopping online today? For Scrapbooking supplies at Scrapbookingonline.co.za again. I also have been unable to access my blog or blogger today all day. What the hell is up? I couldn't see my own beautiful entries and am sending this through hello...I hope I can get into it tommorrow!! 

I am so knackered today...had the MOST HECTIC scrapbooking class last night from 7h30 until 11pm. Since it was in a suburb quite far from me, it was midnight before I got home. Today, I can barely type. We did a double page layout - which involved, tearing, sanding, distressing, stitching, glueing, adhereing, cutting, cropping, and a whole lot of elbow grease. Man, I am pooped. I will attempt to photograph my page and then post it some time, if I have the strength to lift the camera tonight when I get home..woe is me. 

Sorry for the lack of posting today, but for the first time since I started this venture of mine, I have had a day full of bookings and haven't been able to blog or even blogsurf today at all. So this is what real work feels like. As for the comic, this baby had me almost fall of my chair in laughter!! 

Sunshine, Wine, Good Food, Good friends

This is the view that my Aussie mate and I had on Saturday from Dunes Restaurant in Hout Bay. (I got this pic off the internet - that's not us). What an awesome lunch, we had a great time catching up, and well, gossiping. We used to work together, but I have since left, and she has changed positions, so it was great to catch up on everyone that was still there, new people, old people etc. We blabbed on and on for about 2 hours before we even ordered, getting through a bottle of chilled white, before you could say 'tipsy women', I eventually ordered a cajun chicken burger which was absolutely delicious. Only a solid 4 hours after we got there, did we part ways. Needless to say, I went home and had a really good after lunch nap. The hubby was glued to Saturday afternoon sport on the telly, and since my head was pounding (probably the combination of chilled vino blanco and hot sunshine), I didn't have the heart to watch all the good looking blokes in tight shorts on telly like Michele did - so I took the laptop to bed with me, and used my fleet of aircraft carriers to take out a fledgling civilisation barely out of the Roman times. Man I love strategy games. Especially when my cats try to help me win the game.

Boulders Beach Penguin Paradise

This is a beach on the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula again. (Facing Eastwards) Where there is a colony of protected penguins, it's a great outing - and only 10 minutes from my house.

Chapmans Peak

Here is another picture of that gorgeous drive that I used to take almost daily until I started working closer to home. It's become a toll road now, so I only take it rarely, or when I need to get to Hout Bay, if I need a 'great view' spiritual 'fix'.

Hout Bay from the Air Again

Here is another picture of Hout Bay taken from the other side, beyond that blue horizon, if you keep going (and depending how many degrees left or right you stray) the next country you get to is the US of A or Canada!

Hout Bay from the Air

Tommorrow, I am meeting an Australian friend for lunch at a restaurant in this valley. I get to drive along this really awesome road that you see coming in from the right - it has AMAZING views - and I always get such a good feeling driving over it, because it's always got tourist buses chock full of lovely people spending their foreign currency in our country creating jobs for our people. Yay!!

Um...yes it's Africa folks

This picture was taken about 10 minutes drive from where I live. So to all my US friends, don't ever take it lying down if a South African laughs in your face if you ask them 'so do you like see wildlife in the streets?' Because, guess what? YOU DO! This reminds me of when a good friend of mine from Virginia came to stay with me for a week after college. We took a drive around the wine region, and BAM, out of nowhere, there's a troop of baboons crossing the road, i.e. mom's with babies on their backs, the males stopping traffic - ok, so the males weren't really stopping the traffic, at least not on purpose. Anyway, 10 minutes later, we saw an Ostrich crossing the road - and my friend was like 'Oh my god, it's like a friggin safari!!'. After that, I never EVER laughed at another 'stupid tourist' question again.

Fab Weather Great Weekend Coming!

I found a really great site with pics of Cape Town, and given that the weather is SO absolutely effing gorgeous today - these pics are pretty much what it looks like today!! I am really in a weekend mood with all the fabulous weather, it seems like we'll be in for a weekend of braaiing (barbequeing), and enjoyment of the fermented grape. By the way, this picture - was taken, within walking distance of my office....HAH! How lucky am I?

Another cutie pic - I couldn't resist posting this one as well. 

Here is an old pic that I found of my gorgeous Malamute. He still has that ' Dost thou dare disturb my royal sleep?' look, even now as an adult, but I have trouble remembering that he used to be able to sit on my lap in the car - now he weighs a whopping 60kg, and if he and I sit side by side, he's taller than me! 

For those of you who missed my earlier posts which I deleted due to lack of praise for my graphic manipulatory (spelling? is that a word?) skills, or were shocked by my freakish need to waste time on doing stuff like this here are the pics from the posts which I previously deleted. Back of course due to popular demand (thanks Leslie!! I feel loved again ;) For those of you who are wondering what the hell I am going on about, that's Russell Crowe, with me on his arm! (HA HA!) Oh, I guess I should mention that it's more like, my head on his wife's body. A girl can only wish...until her husband walks into the room and asks her what the hell she is doing when she is supposed to be working!!! Gaaaah!! Busted!!

I have been neglecting my RAK's lately so here is another... This morning in my office I had a client needing a quotation for taking a group of gymnasts over to the USA to receive special training from some of the top olympians and their coaches. Since the kids are of varying ages and backgrounds, it would be a great way to make a contribution to the future of one of my favourite sports. So if I had the dosh, then I would carry the costs of getting them there, and send them with new kit, leotards, tracksuits, togbags and a bit of spending money to boot. Then further more, whomever does the best & works the hardest, and behaves themselves the best will get further sponsorship for the following year, to build on what they've learned on their trip. 

These guys are cool!

To increase the traffic to your blog - this site is worth checking out! Check Out Blog Explosion! Really worth it, and I have found loads of cool blogs to read which I am going to add to my blogroll.

FINE! BE LIKE THAT THEN!

Ok, so nobody liked my last two posts, no pat on the back for my graphic manipulatory skills, no 'wow that's cool do one for me' comments, in fact no comments at all. Fine. So I deleted them. Most great artists are only appreciated after they die, so I guess I'll have to wait. ;)

Crowe for Dinner?

We also watched Gladiator - yep, we did spend the whole weekend on our butts watching TV (with me scrapping). I have to admit, that Russell Crowe is my second favourite eye-candy after Tom Welling... No matter how many times I've seen this movie it always moves me, and I always cry happy tears at the end.

Is it so wrong, or so obsessive to WANT a scrap space such as this one?

Although I have a desk which I can use, I spent the whole weekend scrapping at our coffee table because the hubby had taken out the LOTR trilogy and we watched them all this weekend. Needless to say my neck is not appreciating the fact that I worked at a table at the wrong height. Hmm, perhaps this is a carpentry project which the hubby might enjoy... 

This started out as me planning a page for a 'real' page that I was going to do, and I ended up finishing it on the computer. Since I am so vain and really like it, I posted it to www.scrapbook.com 's gallery - so if you search for users 'Valkyrie', you can see it. I will probaby still do the real page, but of course with moi as the subject matter, so of course the title will change, since I don't have 2 Olympic gold medals, or the Olympic horse. So basically the real page will look nothing like this, with other photo's, different text, but the same layout...see!? 

APPROVED!!

Guess who is getting a new car on Monday??? Yeah baby!! Me ME ME!!! WOO-HOO!!! Yes, on Monday, I will be driving away from the dealership with a brand new white 1.6 Hyundai Matrix. I am going to hand over the keys to my Ford Fiesta without looking back!! Slip into the all leather interior, pop my favourite cd into the front loading cd player, adjust the 6 speaker sound to my liking and ease on out of the lot. Hee hee!! I feel like a kid in a candy store! My heart is pounding I am actually so excited!! Just think of all that storage space for taking all my scrapping stuff to crop sessions. (just joking, I am not that obsessive). Wish I could insert a soundclip to this post that if you clicked on it you could hear me going, "woo-hoo!!" and doing a little victory dance around the office.

Yee hah!

I have just received a small order for scrapbooking stuff that I placed on Tuesday! I placed the order online with www.scrapbookingonline.co.za, to try out the 'online' ordering biz here in SA, and I am really impressed. They emailed me to advise me of the confirmation, a tracking number for the post office, and hell, it arrived here in two days all the way from Johannesburg. That is saying something for their efficiency and for the efficiency of the SA postal service. Hurray!! Of course you want to know what I ordered? Several sheets of metallic cardstock, two patterned pages and a set of 20 eyelets. All for the princely sum (NOT) of R33.00 including postage. They only charged R2 for postage. The whole caboodle arrived here with the eyelets in a handy container, and the papers perfectly sandwiched between two strong pieces of box thickness cardboard, and the whole toot was in a padded envelope as well. Yay for scrapbooking online - I will be back!!

McLeods Daughters on Hallmark

Ok, I have a new favourite TV show. This is "McLeod's Daughters", and it's on the Hallmark Channel weekdays at 18h15(central african time). For those of you who haven't seen it before it's a story of two half-sisters who jointly own an Australian cattle ranch. One was raised by the mother 'in the city' and the other was raised by their father on the ranch. Basically the series starts where the father dies, and none of the ranch hands want to work for a woman. So to cut a long story short they fire all the blokes who work the ranch and decide to run it themselves. Whilst doing this they are also trying to come to terms with each other, because they've not seen each other for 20 years and suddenly they jointly own this ranch that has become their whole lives. I really enjoy it for several reasons, a) strong women who can do anything their minds are set to b) the countryside is absolutely gorgeous c) really gorgeous wholesome Aussie blokes and d)part of me longs to be out there running a cattle ranch myself. Lastly, it's a really good story, real people with real life problems and how they overcome them, and all set in this beautiful location, all whilst running this large station. Try and watch it if it's on in your area - it'll be worth it!

Tigger Happy

Cat in the flash light. This poor little tyke and her brother were abandoned by our horrible neighbors (who moved away without taking their cats with them - a month before we moved in). I first discovered them coming into our house and eating our cats food. After shooing them away one afternoon, I decided to follow them and nearly died when they returned to the porch of this empty house next door. Needless to say I rushed right over with water and the most delicious fishy cat food I could lay my hands on. This kitty pictured, firmly entrenched herself in my heart by FIRST rubbing my hand in gratitude with her head, before finishing three bowls of food. It took about a week for her to trust us enough to sleep inside, it took her brother about a month. Although he is quite skittish still around feeding times (who knows what those bastards did to him), she is totally at home, and insists on being on either mine or the hubby's laps at all times. She will quite happily shove her ass into the faces of any of our guests and friends in the hopes of finding a new friend! I am sure that everyday she wakes up thinking, "Let's see just exactly how much love and comfort I can get out of these humans today!"

Lazarus? I think NOT

So my desktop computer came back from 'those who claim they can fix it'. Just when I was friggin starting to enjoy the flexibility of a laptop!! Everything totally personalised, all my passwords and webstuff nicely archived, then my computer comes back. Here is a description of events when I turned on my formerly defunct desktop pc. Turned on. Machine Boots up. Windows XP front page appears. Logged in as user. Moved mouse to point to icon on desktop. Machine crashes like it did before. Valkyrie smiles, because now she can keep using the laptop...hee hee hee.