little minor freakout !!!

I don't know if many of you out there actually know the reason why I started Blogging in the first place? Well I got hooked on a blog called Young House Love .Their enthusiasm and quirky writing style made me think hey I could do that and so I did :)

Yesterday John and Sherry ( the couple writing the blog) talked about how they got a permit for building a deck and asked if anyone else had a story to share.. well as I mentioned here we're knee deep in the application process for our new house so I commented and Sherry actually replied!!!!

I'm in a little shock and awe that such Famous ( and awesome) Blogging legends took the time to comment and maybe (here's hoping ;) ) even had a look at my little blog :)

whoop whoop :)

and to make the week better i was featured at laugh love and craft for my Pink Party printable's... all in all its been a good blogging week

OK freak out over :)

Big news:)

We're going to build a house :) 

I know we just moved into our own place (can you believe its been over a year there!!) but due to circumstance surrounding living in a complex we've decided to build our own place :) its been super exciting but also completely daunting trying to figure out the process but I received the final plans today so we need to get a couple of stamps and signatures from the neighbours and they'll be ready to submit ( eeek!!!)

We will be building by dividing up my in-laws HUGE property and building what we affectionately refer to as "the flat" in the back yard.  our very talented draughtsman did some 3d renderings of what the house will look like so I thought I'd share so you can see :)

It'll be a two bed house with and open plan lounge dining area :) we love it!

this is the front of the house (no the car isn't included ;) )

Side view 

The back . Unfortunately the roof over the Patio pushed us over the size limit were were allowed to build on the space so that's been nixed from the plan but the Braai will be staying :)

We also took the fireplace out. we felt that it would take up too much space in the small area and double sided Fireplaces are Uber expensive and we felt that for the two or three days its gets cold here it was an unneccesary expense

I love the vaulted ceiling :) :)

Isn't technology amazing! these pictures almost look like photographs!! 

So here's hoping everything goes smoothly along the way :) we'll keep you updated on the drama as we go ...

Free Printable Pink Cupcake wrap and topper

As I mentioned on Monday the Fantastic Sarah over at Becoming Martha is doing a series on a free photo editing  software called GIMP. This week she covered making cupcake wrappers and toppers.

It was so easy!!! So I decided to offer the two I did as a download:)

these would be perfect for an elegant tea party birthday :) hope you like them

click on the links below to download

Topper

Wrapper

Linking up to:

things you might not know

I love the internet! Seriously I do! You can find ideas for pretty much anything your heart desires.maybe i should clarify what has gotten me so excited. For a while now I have been wanting to learn how to use Photoshop. But its quite complicated and the program itself is quite pricey, Enter "Becoming Martha".

 She shared about a free-share(open source?) version of Photoshop called GIMP which you can download for free using this link, but not only did she share that news she is also doing Tutorials on how to use the program to create digital scrapbook layouts and invites ! you can learn along with me by clicking here and following her. I've been having fun!! check out a few of my initial offerings

Most of the free digital scrap elements come from Shabbyprincess.com

Also this weekend i went a got a couple of the new Consol glass "my Jars"

These awesome jars come with a ready painted chalk board area that you can use to label them.

I used ours for cereal (although I'm definitely going back to get some more for all the pasta and rice overcrowding my pantry!)

so thats my list of things you may not know :) hope they are helpful!!

updates:)

Hi all! We've been away on holiday for the last two weeks,hence my Blogging silence:) It was a wonderful time to get a good rest and spend time with people we don't get to see all that often! I did try to get a quick post in but technology failed me but I knew you would all understand... I shall try and include all the highlights :)

We started off by flying to Johannesburg and then down to my folks in East London.it was quite a moment as we realised that in our four years together Willie and I have Never actually flown together (we always flew to visit each other so it was a nice trip) . The airport was insanely busy both in Nam and in Jo-berg and we were really stressed bout getting through passport control in time to make our connecting domestic flight (I have seriously never seen so many people in the customs hall!!) but we made it so big thumbs up to SA customs for processing people so quickly !!

after landing in EL the folks picked us up and we took a drive down memory lane to see where we used to live when I was very young. We were camping for the long weekend in Morgan Bay and it was beautiful! Our site overlooked the lagoon and the ocean and we had mostly good weather.

When we got back to King on Tuesday. It was a very restful time (mainly cos there isn't very much to do in King Williams town) but we got to go to Da Gama and picked up some fabric to recover our couch for R20 p/m which was a HUGE score. I also drooled over the other amazing fabric that wouldn't fit in my bag for the flight back like this one:

We went to Hogs-back for the day and it was such a quaint little town. They have the cutest church and with the changing season the leaves on the trees were all beautiful.

we went up to Johannesburg for the last weekend for two special events: My special friend Sarah's Kitchen tea and my other equally special friends Taz and Quintin's cute little baby's dedication. We are so glad we were able to make both of these events as we live so far but it was great to catch up and see every one!

I got some pics of the Décor for the Kitchen tea but figured the Bride to be might not want pictures of her 'Makeover' put out into the Blog world :)

 the colour scheme was basically yellow/orange/pink/purple with the overall theme being the Fruit of the spirit. My extremely talented sister-in-law made these and they not only looked fantastic but were yummy too (let me know if you need her number ;) )

The photo's I have from the dedication are all grainy and from far away :( but Chloe's is definitely a sweetheart and charmed her way through the dedication . My favourite part was her trying to catch the microphone while the pastor was praying for her :)

so in a nutshell that was our last two weeks:) it was wonderful to get away and recharge . 

love