postcards with an edge

Nic gave me these Postick "postcards" as a part of my Christmas present (actually I think I was supposed to pay him for them (but I don't think I did) and he did not ask, so it must be a present).  He has a friend Tatjana who started this business in a very novel way.  You can read all about it on her website.  Anyway after Christmas I decided to print out some photographs from our time away to give to my friend Cheryl who was on her way back to New Zealand.

I had a really lovely picture of Lorna (and a more serious Bruce) printed for them and decided to send them the photograph as a postcard.  How often don't you keep the pictures in an envelope waiting to give them to whoever and you never get it to them or when you do they are all crumpled, worn and outdated?  The postcard backing is a peel off sticker that you just stick onto the backside of the photograph and, there you have it, your own postcard.  Nic tells me that he uses it to send magazine articles or rugby programmes to friends overseas.

Yesterday I received a lovely message from Lorna thanking me for the postcard

Besides the stickers Tatjana also has other cards that she has made herself

My next postcard is to send to my mother. I found this picture in my treasure box taken of her

for a Reckitt & Colman advert in the late 50's, I think.

Hectic - Go Nanna!!!

Taking down the few Christmas decorations that I had put around my Yellowwood tree the other day, I found a present which was beautifully wrapped in a handmade Christmas stocking bag.  No card but I remembered that it was for me from Janetta.

What a thoughtful gift and how nice to find a surprise present hidden by yourself for yourself!!  Thanks Janetta.

This morning the boys decided it was time for a family breakfast and invited me along.  We headed off to The Alphen in Constantia and enjoyed a lovely breakfast and chat on the terrace.  A lovely start to the weekend but I wonder what the correct etiquette is?  If you are invited, do you pay?

Love this one

What does it mean when you send postcards to yourself?

I once sent myself a Valentine's Day card - but I will save that story for next month.

january brings changes

The first week back at work is all but over.  It is always a bit difficult to ease yourself back after a holiday but what a way to start by inviting your mom, step dad and sister-in-law to attend at your warehouse and count cases of wine.  It was not the mammoth job that I expected (many hands do make light work).  Now there is some admin to attend to and then to get the show on the road again.  Hopefully your livers have recovered and your wine stocks are low and you are ready for your next order.

With a new year always comes change and there is quite a bit of that going around.  Kelly will be starting high school.  It was so sad to see the devastation and saddest on her face on her last day at Oakhurst.  It had been her nurturing little nest for 7 years and she is one who loves her "comfort zones" more than most.  Rustenburg looms next week, luckily she has a big sister to look after her and suddenly the questions are flying and the excitement is mounting. Oakhurst is almost forgotten. Amazing how "getting lost" is always the biggest fear with starting at a high school.  Good luck Kelly - with your tennis racquet, hockey stick and spunky and honest nature you will have lots of new friends and having all the teachers loving you in no time.

Another change has been for Gareth.  He had his first day at a his "new school" on Monday.  Sports Illustrated, a magazine that we supported from the very beginning 28 years ago, has pulled out of South Africa. Really sad that the life of the magazine seems to be ending - Femina, Shape, Sports Illustrated with many others struggling to keep afloat.  However, with changes come new challenges and he is now working for Arena Sport and has some time and incentives to do the freelance writing he is so good at.  Please take a look and "Like" their Facebook page.  It is sports news site with a difference and I like the fact that you can pick the stories you want to read. They have some amazing video clippets that you would not usually see.

So this is what social media is all about - how we link our friends and family and keep them involved in what we find interesting.  When you click on a button, your network becomes interested in what you like and suddenly you have opened yourself up to a whole new audience.  I have had a brief lesson in Twitter and Gareth is going to give me an advanced lesson this week so that I can start being "really well connected".  It was amazing how he "tweeted" my post about Nic being the Positive Troll and suddenly, on this blog that averages about 150 reads a day, I have had over 900 "hits".

Gareth's lovely girlfriend Hayley is also changing jobs.  She is moving to a private girls' school and they are going to love her.  She has a smile that splits her face in half, is loving and caring and has enthusiasm that is contagious.  Good luck Haylz!!!

So my love and full support to my family who are facing new challenges and changes.  I know that you are all there for them too.

let the new year begin

My friend Annie wrote a wonderful post on her blog yesterday (I think it was yesterday, what was yesterday?).  It summed up my feelings exactly.  

Today I know is Sunday because tomorrow is Monday and the proper start of the new year for most of us.  This has been a different Christmas and a special holiday time.   December has been a good mix of being really busy with work, lots of visitors from afar, a couple of special days away with the family and close friends and to close off 2012, a really quiet Christmas and New Year as we stay close to Michael's mom who at nearly 93 is not shaping very well.

There is never time to fit everything in and it gets harder and harder to keep the family together for Christmas but somehow we manage (even if this year our Christmas Eve was on the 23rd).  It  did not make any difference that it was not the usual 24th and it was a special time with special people (and a Mexican theme).  During this last week of "quiet time" as I watch Helen in her final couple of months and I appreciate the birth of new grandchildren for my friends, weddings in abundance, meet little great nieces and nephews from overseas, hear of tragedies which affect close friends, I am only now starting to realise how this circle of life works and how fragile it can be.  How today when Helen, in a very confused state starts talking about her school days as if they were still happening, asks where her sisters (who are long gone) are, and how she needs to be spoon fed and encouraged, like a toddler to eat, I realise that her circle is also almost complete.  How she capably cared for 5 children and is now completely dependant on others for her care. 

So like Annie, I also feel the need to say thanks and I also realise that this special Christmas was made that way because we did not go overboard with the decorations, presents, the material things and hours in the shopping malls.  It was about being together and sharing our time.  My suggestion for next Christmas is going to be that no presents are to be bought - thoughtful homemade stuff will be the order of the day. Time around the table, playing games, eating wonderful meals (with wonderful wines), talking and joking beats the fancy wrappings and bows.  This is what makes memories.

Rusty Gate Farm at it's best

Hours spent on the jetty and in the dam

watching the brave tackle the foefie slide

A lesson in Mojito making

Taking their jobs very seriously

Five special boys together at Christmas again

This does not seem like that long ago

(Kris took the picture and I do not ever need an invitation

to use this picture)

It took me awhile to realise who was missing

Kelly - on her bike somewhere or playing pool

Gareth - reading a book in a hamock or playing pool with Kelly

Kim taking the picture from the canoe

Matthew balancing the canoe

Dalene holding up the jetty

Kris - not sure

(also taking a picture?)

Tom - starting the fire?

I loved Kim's caption for this picture

"Spot the Rebel"

Thanks Kim and Kris for the pictures.

Let 2013 begin...

I have my own "Positive Troll"

Happy New Year everybody.  2013 is here and let's grab it with both hands.

Our family week at Rusty Gate was wonderful (although Mike and I only had 2 nights there) - it was really, really hot (I have had to be in hiding since returning because the skin on my nose has blistered and peeled and now weeping and crusty (very attractive) and I think I had a bit of sunstroke as well (silly girl).  It was hot (said that before), busy and tiring but in between bobbing on the jetty in the dam with champagne, watermelon and snacks for hours on end (with not enough sunscreen), it was very chilled and very special.  Extra special to have my friend Cheryl here from New Zealand and able to spend some time away with us.

 3 Stooges

 4th Stooge (on her side) giving Amy a lesson is skinning a tongue

not surprisingly she vows that she "will never eat it again"  "I did not know it was a "real" animal tongue"

(one of her blondest moments)

 The Mexican theme at the pit

Surprised Mexican dancer

2 out of focus Mexicans

Hiawatha and her other mother 

 Keith and his 73 year old (today), Dad who managed to foefie slide the length of the dam

(Good on you Rob)

Happy Birthday Robert Traill

(we are off to his birthday celebration later this afternoon)

Positive Trolling can be serious business

(Why are you making her cry Nic?)

Everybody had their job to do to contribute to the Christmas Eve dinner.  Matt and Nic, the Mojito cocktails  (which kicked the party off very well), Kathy, Kris and Justin - nacho starters, Nanna - cauliflower and cheese sauce (ALWAYS cauliflower and cheese sauce), Keith and Anna - hundreds of roast potatoes, Caroline - roasted veggies, Dalene - glazed gammon cooked first in ginger beer (very good), Gareth - turkey, Jenny - duck and tongue (with black cherry and sweet mustard sauce) and quite a bit of other stuff which I cannot quite remember now.  We finished off the evening with our crazy Christmas game, ice cream and a new divine grape and greek yogurt dessert and Nic playing his guitar around the fire, while some sang and others dozed off, exhausted.

Nic (the middle one) was in one of his inspiring moods.  He follows "The Positive Troll" on Twitter and these positive things have obviously rubbed off on him.  Instead of Christmas Crackers this year Nicholas hand wrote a message for all 23 people at the table with a whacky, positive message for each guest in Positive Troll style, for example:-

"Nanna, you are the best Nanna in the world.  Keep doing what you are doing, it makes you what all wannabe best Nanna's around the world should try to aspire to"

"Hey Matthew Rosslee, Do you remember the time you weren't the world's most generous person? No, me neither! Keep our lives filled with greatness!"

"Kelly van Vlaanderen, say it again louder, "Kelly van Vlaanderen" - she was dipped in awesome sauce at birth - Kelly van Vlaanderen - no need to say more just keep doing what you are doing Kelly van Vlaanderen"

Each person had to read the positive message for another and it was great fun.


The Urban Dictionary has this definition for Positive Troll -  "A person who gives compliments to the point where it could become annoying or creepy". Very rude and negative. Ours was not annoying or creepy.

I wish I had them all with me or that I had some kind of memory to remember more of them.  My mom, in true grandmother style has collected them from the table, scraped the gravy off the messy ones and has kept those left behind (in a special box). A couple of people folded their sheet of paper at the table and put their note into their pockets immediately.  

It is always good to hear positive stuff about yourself - Nice touch, Nic.

I thought this was a good post to share today, being the first day of 2013.   Being positive about all around us is a good place to start, don't you think?

I'm off to the fridge to look for some "Awesome Sauce" and hope that those chocolate squares are not still there looking at me and shouting "Eat me, Eat me!!" or that could be my resolutions only lasting until noon on 1 January 2013!!!

Happy New Year everyone