Come P.L.A.Y.

Such an amazing response to this exciting new event -
Live, Scrap, P.L.A.Y, featuring workshops in support of Footprints Children Centre.

P.L.A.Y. is an acronym for Participate in the Lives of African Youth and I am so excited to be able to bring this event to you.

The Polka Dot Chicks aka Amy Totty and Kelli Collins, talented designers for Bazzill Basics Paper, are coming to town in July. Yes, they're coming early this year to inspire SA scrapbookers (hope we can keep them warm in our chilly winter!). In these smaller workshops, at various scrapbook stores, participants will be inspired by Kelli and Amy's passion for fun, love and life. And enjoy an opportunity to get to know the PD Chicks in a more personal setting.

There's so much to do, but I'm loving this new venture. Life is of course in the details...!

And... on my previous post about paying it forward. Here are a few ideas from mommysavers.com :

- Pay for the person behind you in the drive-through
- Offer to return someone’s shopping trolley
- Give your kids’ outgrown clothing to a needy cause
- Compliment a total stranger
- Donate a bag of groceries to a needy family
- Volunteer your time to a charity, nursing home, school, church or other organization
- Create a layout for someone who doesn't scrapbook (my bonus idea!)

Then... I found this quote - pretty good food for thought this.
“The language we use to communicate with one another is like a knife. In the hands of a careful and skilled surgeon, a knife can work to do great good. But in the hands of a careless or ignorant person, a knife can cause great harm. Exactly as it is with our words.” - Unknown

Have a great Tuesday night if you're watching Prison Break :)

blessings
{L}

my cup overflows...

... greetings from the Mother City!

I am in beautiful Cape Town for a couple of days. This is a picture of my hotel right on the waterfront.

Did some work this morning though and got to see some stunning new Autumn Leaves product.





Wow! Thank you for all the comments and emails I've received from my last post. Thank you for sharing how good life really is. My granny had a saying if we felt we were going through a tough time, "no matter what you're going through, there's always somebody worse off than you". This didn't necessarily make us feel any better, but I have come to realise the truth in it. Remember, even when you're low, you can still be an encouragement to someone around you.



There seems to be quite a lot of the Pay it Forward thing going on around scrapbooking and other circles at the moment. It's the idea of doing something for someone and they're not able to pay you back and instead they pay it forward and do something for another person. It shouldn't come as a surprise that there's blessing in this since I was taught from a very young age to do to others as I would have them do to me.

One of the local high schools is even doing this to instill in the kids the value of doing unto others... They're receiving extra credits for it too.



My friend Fi sent me this website which speaks a similar message about being nice . There's a newsletter you can sign up for too. I like this quote from the founder: “Live life daily as if all people – even strangers – really matter. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, and all we have to do is treat others nicely"



I'd love to share thoughts on ways we could pay it forward in our every day lives.

Also... I haven't forgotten that I promised to share good news! Well it's still coming....

Enjoy the rest of your week, and remember to be nice!

blessings
(L)

Half empty, or half full?

What kind of person are you? Do you see that glass half full or is it half empty?

While sitting in the car in a parking lot over the weekend, I noticed a lady being helped to the passenger side of a car. I think she might have had cerebral palsy and walked very badly, struggling with a walking aid and being assisted by a woman she was with.

I noticed how she battled down the pavement trying to get into the car. But do you know what was even more noticeable? The look on her face. They had just come out of a coffee shop and were obviously still engrossed in conversation. Both the woman were talking and laughing and each pause perhaps wasn't the struggle to walk, it could have been that it was the pause to catch their breath as they laughed together.

This really got me thinking about things I sometimes complain about. Things that could be better, but are in actual fact really not all bad.

When those things get me down, I have to be honest and say, my glass really is half full. For most days of my life, my glass is full and I'm grateful for it.

So this week, start on a positive note. Even if it's not as good as it should be, it can at least be half good and that's not half bad.

I did have a full weekend. Full of fun. For me.

Here are my jars filled with ribbon. These are mostly bits and pieces of offcuts and the bits I might pull out, but mostly they're for me just to look at. They're on top of the shelf above my computer. I also have 2 and now need a 3rd rod with spools of ribbon and a wall with ribbon on manufacturers cards too. Then.... there are my plastic containers with big bolts of ribbon that I've collected on my travels just because they're nice! Yes, I love ribbon. Yes, I have a lot of it. Yes, of course I use it. Just not all at one time!

Have a positive "full" week...

blessings

{L}

North vs South

Oops, a week went by and in between I tried to do an email blog post and it got lost in blog-nowhere-land. So here I am!

I'm feeling like my Northern Hemisphere friends experiencing signs of spring - blessed with this beautiful bunch of tulips from Adele.

Here, down South it's beginning to get a little chillier. It's so much darker at 6am these days and getting up while it's still dark is one thing I really can do without during winter.

A very BIG thanks for voting for my friend Joey

Joey is now through to the next round of 30 finalists in the Making Memories Idols competition. You can log onto the website for reminders to vote, or check back here and I'll remind you too.

I think the next round of voting will be on Monday / Tuesday depending on where you're North or South!

And speaking of North... I did mention there was exciting news

that would be good for all of us...

I was near Northgate.. Hobby-X... and got this hot off the press!

It's our new South African scrapbooking magazine Time & About, published by Elkanan Media Publications.

I have an article in it and there's also a feature on the Polka Dot Chicks! You'll enjoy the layouts and ideas which are totally scrapliftable!

The magazine will be available through local SA scrapbook stores as well as some stationery stores and newsagents or contact Time & About directly.

And that's not all... there's more to follow, soon. I'll keep you posted {promise}

I've just bought myself some big 3L glass jars for more storage stuff. I did say I was a sucker for container type things. I will be posting pics of those. You haven't seen my plastic drawer storage thingys cos I ran out of time (due to T&A deadlines!) and I need another one.

I'll be southbound, playing with jars and ribbons this weekend. Anything exciting happening your end of the world?

blessings

{L}