Sunday Summary Week 24 and 25 / 2015

Hi there Bloglanders

I can't decide if I'm behind schedule or before. OK, I know I'm behind but would love to be "before". Right now my house is taking up ALL my free time and the teeny bit of crafting that gets done, don't get photographed. That said, let's see what's happening at Hamman HG.

I did bake a batch of cookies and gifted my neighbor's children with a mini cookie box each.  I made rabbits, trees, cats, a little houses, hearts, Dutch hounds, teddy bears, gingerbread men - all the shapes I could lay my hands on. The children loved recognizing the shapes!!

The mini cake boxes were cut with my Silhouette. I'll show them later in a separate post. Watch this space and all will be revealed.

And look what came from my garden!!!

I see a lemon meringue coming up!

And even my orchids lived up to expectations this year.

I tried out a few new recipes as well. This week it was Tomato soup with croutons. The low carb version!! For the croutons, I used this recipe for Parmesan scones and made mini, mini ones which I dried out in the oven. Perfect for salads and soups!! I'm going to make a BIG batch and keep them on hand. It would be perfect for a snack as well ..................... some avo guacamole ................. YUM.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of low carb. Not easy but still, I have less headaches and a LOT more energy.

Wynand and his camping buddies went on a "Father's Day" weekend.  It's and annual treat they do to get some time to catch up with each other without being interrupted by wives, children, house, garden, pets and daily chores. In the meantime, Wernich and I sorted through his "stuff" and purged a LOT.

And the lockers I ordered finally arrived!!!

72 cubbies to fill with fabric!! To tell you the truth, I would like them to be bright red and the cubbies to be a bit bigger BUT I think it's still the best solution for the space I have. Craft Storage Ideas asked me to blog about the process as I did a Locker Love post for them last month and this would be an extension of that. Once everything is done, I'll tell you all about it!!

And I packed a "travel case" for my planner / mini book goodies. I never go on holiday without a notebook, pens, glue, etc. - and of course - my planner!! I'll share the inside info in a separate post as I'm running out of time - AGAIN ..............................

Here is a sneak peak.  If you want to see the rest of the pictures, it's on my Instagram. To the right of my blog or here.

That's it. Another week @ Hamman HQ. Today, I'm going to get my Project Life pages sorted!  Thanks for looking at my blog and please come back to play.  I have loads more to share right here on Play as U GO.

Sunday Summery Week 20

Happy Sunday Bolglanders

Can you believe we are nearly halfway through 2015?? I still have so much to do!!

We had a busy week @ Hamman HQ. The office is busy, Wynand is busy and I'm trying my hand at a LOT of new things. Let's start with the food.  For Mother's day our Princess gifted me with Cafe de Paris butter:

It is truly GREAT and I have thought of eating it all on it's own ........................... yes!! I did. In the meantime I've used it in pasta, on fish and even with barbecue steak. Here is my Princess Pasta:

Homemade pasta with cream, Princess butter,chili compote and Parmesan. Wonderful ....................I loved it and had the whole bowl in one go.

And a new addition to our family - Wednesday. She is Pieter and his Princess's new kitten. She came from an animal shelter but in no time she will become a big, fluffy and much loved kitty. We love cats!

And I did a lot of crafting over the weekend. Finally, I've caught up with my Project Life pages. I finished this one late last night:

I love LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of pictures. For this layout I used 6x4 picture collages of our pets, food and Pieter's new flat. The only thing on the whole spread that didn't come from my "leftover" stash is the heart filler card. The rest was all hand / home made.

My inspiration came for PaperCrafter'sCorner Magazine Monday. And here it is:

I took the "fruity" colours and the circles to use on my layout. And as I said - everything came from scraps.

On that fruity, pink note - here is my homemade marshmallows. YUM!! You will see them again as I'm planning to make them for a upcoming barbecue party. Of course, I'll dress them up for the occasion but you will have to check back to see how it turned out. Or follow me on Instagram.

And Wernich had a weekend away with friends and caught a big fish!

Looks like I'll be needing some more Princess Butter.

That's it from me. Have a wonderful Sunday and thanks for looking at my blog today.

Sunday Summery Week 7

Hello Bloglanders

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! Wynand went "winemaking" @ the West Coast and I stayed at home to get some admin and chores done.  So, we spent the weekend outside, visiting friends, doing a barbecue, swimming and catching up.

As I was working on a post for Craft Storage Ideas, I had to clean up my desk before my next project and I stumbled upon this piece of packaging  - recycled and now it's part of my Personal Planner. Perfect for summer days down under in Sunny SA.

The spare stickers got filed away in my Planner File:

On the left you can see the stickers and on the right my washi filing for my planner.  I'll tell you exactly how I did it later this week. Check back and all will be revealed right here on Play as U GO!!

I received a gift certificate for TYPO and went shopping.  They are really expensive and I don't normally buy there but I totally LOVED what they have and even more, it was wonderful filling up on some stash.  For the past year I had a philosophy of  "waste not, want not"  and therefore didn't buy anything. Here are 2 of the things that I bought:



A mini, mini stamp set and some stencils in a tin. One of the things I want to try out this year is doodling.  As I'm no artist, I thought the stencils would come in handy. I also like that they are small enough to fit into a 6x4 plastic pocket to take along in my Planner File. Even though the stamps are the perfect size for using on my Planner pages, I can't get them out of the wooden box.  You will see them again as I'm planning to make them more accessible.

And some sewing - a little black dress for my friend Marelize's daughter. These pictures are the inspiration. In the end we went with something much simpler -  I'll show once I get pictures of her wearing the actual dress.

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And I had the pictures of our European holiday printed. 125 of them!!! As I have so many pics, I'll do some hidden journaling and just fill the pockets with lots and lots and LOTS of pictures. See what I mean?

Oh, I wish I could spend the whole week at my craft table!! But, like most of you I have to earn a living so, off to my admin it is. However, I'll be back to share some more crafting fun with you right here.

Thanks for looking at my blog today. Have a wonderful week and remember to try something new - TODAY!

Sunday Summary Week 48

Good morning Bloglanders

Another week done and dusted!!  Hamman HQ is still struggling to get our home reno sorted and hopefully we will get everything done before the December holidays.  I'm making two bridesmaid dresses for our princess and her friend Rene.

Here is the one I'm doing for Rene:

And the inspiration for the one I'm doing for our Princess:

My mum sent me her dressmaking dummy, my metric farewell and wedding dresses. While everything was out, I dressed up my dummies.

I still love both these dresses and my mum did an excellent job making them.

Once again I wrapped my Xmas pressie for a cat at the local animal shelter:

I'm still thinking about adding stamped / die cut cats. What do you think?  We are having beautiful summery weather down under in Sunny SA. I loved this picture with the sun spots. And while at it, I took one of the vines on my porch:

On that sunny note - thanks for looking at my Blog. Have fun and remember to try something new - TODAY!!!

Sunday Summary Week 40

Hello Bloglanders

And I'm back with another week in review. First of all - we went camping in Montagu and this was lunch on Saturday!!!

And I kept myself busy. Since I started Wilna's course over at Big Picture classes I haven't had the time to do the painting projects. So, I packed everything and used the time out of doors to be creative and finish some painting.

I love Wilna's course. Great video's, lots of free files AND her stuff is gorgeous. 

And the last of the metric dance dresses:

I'll show pictures of Cara wearing THE red dress once I get them.  And after cleaning up my sewing desk I had about a metre of the cream fabric left (used as lining here and here) so, I made a little informal dress. Next year she is going to university and will wear little dresses like this on most occasions. Students tend to under dress in comparison to metric farewells.

Can you believe it's all the same fabric??? Waste not, want not. 

And in transit to Montagu I was fortunate enough to have an few hours to visit my Robertson BBF, Anel.  I always try to give something homemade to her but this time I just didn't get to it and this was plan B:

At some stage we couldn't get Sweetie Pies down under in Sunny SA and as they are her fave choccies, I bought a stash..

On that sweet note, I have to say goodbye. Have a great week and thanks for looking at my blog. I'll be back to share some more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go. Just check back.

Sunday Summary Week 38

Hi there Bloglanders

Happy belated Sunday to you all!!  And I'm back to report on last week. It's hectic at Hamman HQ. My parents came to visit. Mum hates cooking so I had to do my bit.  I think I unloaded my dishwasher X3 a day!!

AND Wernich came home for the weekend as a friend got married. And the couple and the bride's beautiful dress:

And  my wonderful son and his beautiful "date":

Pieter's Princess asked me to make her a dress exactly like her bridesmaid dresses. Remember, I've done them X8 for THE WEDDING??? Well, now I've done them X9!! And as she is allergic to wheat, I made and packed food for the weekend - all wheat free. Mini quiches, pies, meatballs, sticky chicken wings, muffins and some cookies.  It actually turned out very well. I'll do the quiches again and post the recipe here.

And then Pieter and his Princess surprised me with this:

A HUGE bunch of all my fave flowers and colours.

And as a wedding pressie, we gave money.  I did make a tag to personalize the gift:

I used shop bought tags, painted it with chalkboard paint and embellished it. To the back I added a glassine envelope for the money. Love it!! And my crafting companion - my neighbor's cat:

To free up space for my parents, Wynand and I finally moved to our new bedroom. We've been renovating for the past few months and everything is not finished BUT the room is beautiful.  I had to rush to get blinds made and up.  HUGE job but it's done.  These are the colours and fabric I chose:

I will do a separate post on my new blinds once everything is finished.  In the end IMPERFECT ME will probably add a bit of mauve or purple to the grey. But for now, I love the minimalistic look of my new grey and white bedroom.

In front of the new "suite" we have a beautiful courtyard and this is what I wake up to now:

Our previous room didn't have much of a view - now we can even see the beautiful Stellenbosch mountains when we wake up. Once the interior is sorted, I'm going to tackle the courtyard.

Did you see my "pegboard love" over at Craft Storage Ideas?? If you missed out, here is the link. And a sneak peek:

LINK

There you have it. Another busy week at Hamman HQ. I'm not sure that I'll get a lot of crafting done in the next week as I still have to do a lot of sewing for the new bedroom, the office is busy, busy, busy and we have a public holiday on the 24th. It's Heritage Day but unofficially we call it "braai day".  So, we will be outside enjoying the sun, good wine and a barbecue. I'll be back to tell you all about it - just check back.

Thanks for looking at my blog today - have a Wonderful Week and remember to try somethin new.

Sunday Summary Week 37

Happy Sunday Bloglanders

And I'm back to report on all the activities at HQ Hamman.

My mum is coming to visit and Wernich is flying home for the weekend. Oh, I love having both the boys nearby. Can't wait for 15 November when he will be finished with is Masters degree in Architecture and return home permanently.

I'm still working on the metric farewell dresses and this past week I did try something new - an invisible zip!!! I used this tutorial and it works very well. If you want a hard copy, use this one.

And it should look like this once done - INVISIBLE!!



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I can't take out too many craft items while I have all these sewing on my desk as I have limited space in my Craft Closet and it scares me to think that a drop of paint or glue might land on my sewing project. BUT, I did get a bit of time to make some tags. YES, all done on the kitchen sink!!!

I used food colouring and watercolour paper. Remember the mini tags I  mass produce to keep on hand??? The initial idea was the same.

I use all my scraps and practice my stamping and die cutting on them!!!  Here is the original post.

And my food colour died ones:

I just mixed red food colouring with water and started dipping the tags. No right or wrong here.

I've got new neighbours and wanted to give something to the kiddies. I bought beautiful cupcakes and they came packed in these gorgeous boxes -  just had to add the tag.

My inspiration came from SimonSaysStamp - "Make your own Background". I do this a lot for layouts and Multi Media pages but I did want to give it a go on tags. Another "try something new" for me!

And I made some plans for Halloween treats.  This year, I'm going to make the bats that I found on Pinterest.

LINK

I'll add my own twist to it - they are going to be TINY (not more than 2 inches) for mini Chocolate bars and to save on time (and work space in the CC) - I'm going to cut them with my Silhouette. I will show once it has been done.

In the meantime, I made a collage of some of my past Halloween treats.  Even though we don't celebrate this holiday down under in Sunny SA, I just can't help joining in the fun. Love the black and orange.

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It's Sunday and a beautiful spring day. I'm off to spend some time outside in my garden. Think I'll take my notebook with and start planning my new bedroom's blinds.  It's FINALLY finished and we will be moving once the blinds are up. Busy, busy week ahead @ HQ Hamman.

Thanks for looking at my blog today and have a WONDERFUL week. Remember - try something new - TODAY!