Hallooooooweeeeen!!

Halloween is such fun, we go all out,  we decorate the kitchen, we decorate ourselves and generally have a total scare fest! We have made it fun for Little Madame, because when you are little that's what life is all about FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

 

So no long rambling today just some pictures of  our Halloooooooweeeeeen....... Hope you enjoy them!

 

Skeletons,Giant Spiders And Witches Make The Kitchen A SPOOOOOOKY place!

Cob Webs Hang From Every Corner!

 

 

Butter Biscuits  - Bats, Ghosts and Pumpkins

Cookie Jars Filled With Treats

 

Creepy Cupcakes

We decided because of the rather odd weather we having been having here in our little fishing village!(Rain RaIn RAIIIIIN!!) We would go to Ushaka Water world for their Halloween Party,(just in case in rained on the 31st, and with the way the weather has been - it WILL rain!) and boy was it fun, the kids(and many over zealous Adults) tricked and treated their way down the shopping mall and into the House of Horrors Aquarium, then onto a Creepy Dolphin Show - it was incredible fun! Little Madame had and BLAST, even though all the witches, ghosts, vampires and other fiendish ghouls made her a little scared!

  

The Aquarium Was Gorgeous
 

Decorations At The Aquarium

I Am Sure I Saw That Mahoosive Sharks Licking His Lips....... Yummy Fairies!

A Witch That Was Way to Scary For Us!

Rest Time!(Don't you love the little pink sandals-no respectable witch would be caught dead in those!)

I thought I should just tell the overseas peeps that read my blog, exactly what Ushaka is..... It is an amazing  water park with a massive aquarium(that is in the wreck of and old sunken ship!), dolphin and seal arena's. They do wonderful conservation with the marine life along our coast. It is also the home of GAMBIT! The oldest and largest bottle noses dolphin in captivity! He is a beautiful elegant creature, and here in the fishing village, he is  considered a national treasure! 

  

Our Gambit!



Scary Dolphins? Never!

The Show Was Fun

The Witches Ridiculous!

The Night Became Dark

And we headed home after a wonderful fish and chips dinner at the Fabulous Moyo Restaurant...... My little witch was fast asleep before you could say Harry Potter..... clutching her enormous bag of treats and a smile on her face, I do have to admit that I had loads of fun too....... and in ending this HALLOWEEN post, all I can say HAPPY TRICK OR TREATING everyone! xxx

Pin It!

 

Over the last few weeks, I have been building myself up to change Little Madame's room! She is growing up very quickly , and like all mom's, I am very unhappy about this wanting to keep her as little as possible for as long as possible, but alas time has other plans! So when she announced to us, a few months ago that her room was too "BABY" for her I relented and began to think about redecorating...... When ask what she would like, I was told "a princess room, with a bed with curtains and flowers and butterfly's" So on went the thinking cap, but as many of you SA mom's know, getting Disney things here in our gorgeous country is next to impossible! We were lucky enough to go to Dubai a few weeks after the announcement was made and while browsing in Hamley's, I found the most beautiful Disney princess wall decals, there was also a Magical castle...... PERFECT FOR MY PRINCESS!!!! A mosquito net with flowers on it, a new snow white duvet cover and white curtains completed the look!

 

The Old Pin Board and New look Room - Did Not Match!

I firmly believe in keeping things quiet neutral, and then adding to a room with accessories( A  rule I learn during my interior design diploma) so to add all of these new things, only took a few hours (and a few tears, while tacking down the said "baby" stuff!) And her room looked lovely....... BUT...... A new pin board was needed, so on went the thinking cap, and out came a magazine, which  had a pin board I had seen a few weeks back, and in no time at all it was done and looked soooo cute that I thought I would share how I made it for you to try..... ( I made many changes to the one in the mag)  

 

What you need::

 

A Stretched Canvas(size depends on your needs)

Ribbon

Scraps of Fabric

Flowers (I crocheted a few)

Buttons

Scraps of Lace

Thumb Tacks

Small Bull Clips

Tiny Pegs

 Polystyrene

 Crafts Glue

Pins

Staple Gun

 

 

The Stretched Canvas And Polystyrene

Ribbon and Fabric

I measured across the width and length then divided that by 3, as I wanted 3 blocks either way. The width of my board  didn't give me 3 equal blocks so I made the middle one slightly bigger, and did the same with the length. and marked it off with a pencil

Then measured the ribbon, 2 for width and 2 for length and pinned them on using the pencil marks as your guide

Then cut out your fabric scraps, I cut 3, but you can cover the entire board if you want to, or just few blocks.

Glue these on,(lift your ribbon - DUH!)only glue around the edges as the glue will harden and then it will not be easy to push your tacks through the canvas

Allow to dry completely

The Ribbon Pinned in Place

Cutting the Blocks of Fabric

Adding Bits and Pieces

Stapled my Thumb Really Badly, Not So Clever

While you wait for the glue to dry, make the Little things that will hold your notes and pictures to the board.

Glue buttons to the little pegs
Cut Ribbon into strips and tie onto the Bull Clips
Glue lace flowers onto thumb tacks

Glue Embellishment to the pegs

 

 

 

 

Bull Clips and A Piece of Flowered Lace

 

 

Staple gun you ribbon to the back of your canvas board, check that you are doing this perfectly straight(or you will fight with it and come off second best!)

 

Choose some beautiful buttons and sew them onto the canvas, where the ribbons cross one another, remember to sew through the canvas and ribbon, as this will strengthen the ribbon when you hang things on it



 I Love Beautiful Buttons
 

You nearly done!!

Add some crocheted flowers,(I sewed and glued mine on) or some store bought butterflies, if you have a boy you could make some felt trucks or boats..... the possibilities are endless!

Now cut the polystyrene to fit in the back cavity of the canvas. I found this the most difficult thing of the whole project as it kept breaking into pieces, but I just pushed them back in(I mean no one is going to see the back of it)

The polystyrene will help hold everything that you pin into the board in place!

SO SIMPLE and  DONE!

It's gorgeous

Tiny Little Pegs

Crochet Flowers

A Shelf Holding Priceless Possessions

Glass Slipper and Crowns

The Total Effect

Princesses

Fit For A Princess

 

I was very happy with the new princess room, but more important, so was Little Madame, as a matter of a fact she pronounced it FIT FOR A PRINCESS!! And to see her happy makes me happy after all she is the boss of this house! xxx

 

I Have A Farm In Africa.......

 

I have a farm in Africa(please say in a German accent).......... Well to be honest my Father-in-law has a farm in Swaziland, but it is every bit as lovely as Karen Blixen's farm in Out of Africa! We so enjoy going there but due to school terms and LSO's work schedule we don't get to go very often anymore.  It is in a remote part of Swaziland, and not far from Mozambique, in fact on a clear day you can see Maputo!  It is the farm that LSO grew up on. It is remote, It is a tranquil place, a place you can go to when you want to get away from it all, the nights are starry and still and the days are hot and dusty, and to Little Madame it is ABSOLUTE  HEAVEN! Before school days we went up often, I  remember watching a tiny little semi naked child(nappy and gumboots were all she would wear) disappear into the distance after a goose, horse or chicken. She had endless conversations with the turkeys,  got so filthy dirty that at night the bath looked like the duck pond and fell asleep at 5 in the afternoon! So she always is besides herself with joy when we go up to the farm!

 

Now I grew up in the city, so calling me a 'city slicker' would not be wrong! BUT I would give anything to be able to live on a farm, and let my child grow up in that care free environment. So it follows that I love going to the farm too!  I generally end up cooking large meals, with veggies fresh from the garden, and eggs still warm, straight from under a fluffy chickens bottom.  'She is rambling again', I hear you say....... So I will get on with it.

 

During the recent school break, we packed the car, and headed for the border! For a few days of  farm therapy!

 

  

The Early Morning View From Our Window



The Stables and Sheds

If I can drag myself out of bed(and I am usually the last one up) I love watching the farm wake up!  The chickens are always first up, with crows of 'WAKE UP PEOPLE ITS MORNING!!' The gates get opened and the geese and ducks waddle off to the dam, making a terrible racket! The horse are let out into the paddock and farm worker yell across the farm to each other! It is a riot of sound and activity! Sheer Bliss! The Family all goes off to work at the plant, and I am left to my own devices, a cup of hot  coffee and a wonder around!  

 

 

Animal Magic!

Old Tractors

I never tire of exploring the farm, there are so many interesting thing to look at. The one thing I have come to realise is that we "slickers" all think recycling is our new invention, rubbish! Nothing on a farm ever get thrown out there is always a use for old things! My father-in-law has a deep love and affinity for old tractors and buys them like I buy shoes! He painstakingly restores them to their former glory, sourcing parts from all over the world! There are bits and pieces of old tractors in every nook and cranny!

5 Day Old Baby Geese's

 

Baby Gooslings are impossibly cute,  the cutest thing in the world, but you cannot get any where near them, Mama Geese are fierce creatures! I can promise you you don't want a goose to bite you, IT IS SORE!!!   At Christmas a few years back( And after a few glasses of champers - well OK!  A few bottles!), a goose and I had a small altercation - No prize for guessing who won!

 

 



Even Horse Poo Get Recycled!

A Bath is Used As a Water Trough!



Old Stuff Waiting For A New Lease On Life!

An Old Landy - Also Waiting To be Restored!

Whats Under There??

 

 The wonderful thing about Swaziland is the abundance of wild life and Game reserves, that are just down the road! We drove about 20 minutes from the farm and were in Hlane Game Reserve, where we had some lunch and spent a few hours driving around watching game, we saw a vast number of buck,  and I took pictures of every single one,  but don't worry, I am so not gonna bore you with those pictures but, I will show you these, as we were leaving the park at about 5, A grand old Elephant walked right in front of our car, and stood around eating, just meters away from us! We were jubilant when a few minutes later his wife and 2 sweet babies appeared around the corner! What a wonderful wat to round off to our drive! 

 

 

Nelly the Elephant!

Granddad, Dad and Daughter!

 Another surprise was waiting for us just out side the gates, a VERY SLOW totor(What Little Madame calls a tortoise) was ambling across the very busy road, "Operation Totor", was on! The grand old man was picked up and  carried to the fence of the reserve and put down- Good Deed done, we head back to the farm! Dinner at the farm is a very big and noisy affair, lots of laughter and teasing is always the order of the day! 

 

 

Operation Totor!

 

The next day, with the rest of the family all at work we headed to the Eselweni(forgive me if I have spelt that wrong!) for some lunch and a general look around at the local craft markets! LSO was looking for a small table for his study, Little Madame was looking for a beautiful candle for her teacher, and for a change I was not shopping for anything althoughI did manage to find a gorgeous handbag!

  

 

The Gorgeous Wooden Sculptures At The Candle Factory!

 

 

The Craft Market

We always go to bed REALLY early on the farm( I think it is because 5AM is the general wake up time there!- MADNESS!!!!!) I love lying in bed and listening to the night sounds, and because it is so quiet you can hear every little nuance, a bat, a distant dog bark, owls hooting, my favourite is the wind in the gum tree's outside. At the risk of trying to sound poetic, the wind seems to play with the leaves and the gentle dance of this always seems to be the last thing I hear before drifting off........ 

 

The next day was spent around the farm, I sat and crocheted( Yes, of course my crochet went with) LSO was pottering with his dad, and Little Madame was just in HEAVEN! Our day ended with flips around the farm in LSO's fathers helicopter. This is always a treat for me, I LOVE flying and I  LOVE seeing the surrounding country side from the air!

Sunset Flips!

The Farm Dogs - Skat, Loopy, Chip and Hume(The Boss)
 

Make A Break!

Right, time for me to wax lyrically........ African days are hot and dry, you can almost smell the dryness! The days seem endless and the night very dark! wiht out the city lights, the stars seem to go on for ever in the pitch black sky! But for me, the best part of African farm life, are the mind blowing sunsets... We sit and watch the sun dip below the horizon in awe!! Each colour is a miracle and as the landscape darkens, the air chills,  one surely has to realise there is a Creator of all of this beauty - and Oh My Goodness, did He know what He was doing when He created this African Sunsets!

  

 

 

African Sunset!

African Beauty!

It was with  heavy hearts that we packed our bags the next day, and headed home..... back to reality! But at least we know can can go back next holiday, after all, the home you grew up in, always remains your HOME!! xxx