Holidays!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I know it's been a reeeeaaalllyy long time since I've written, and I apologise most profusely! I couldn't load any pictures for nearly two weeks and then we had our Surfski Festival the last 2 weeks!

Soooo....news from Cape Town:
My eldest gannet - Caitlin- did us so proud at her Grade 7 Prizegiving at the end of the school term. She received 5 certificates ranging from Excellence in English, to commitment and dedication in Netball, Cross country, Athletics and Drama. She then also received 2 trophies: Swimming Victrix Ludorum and the Best Girl All-Rounder in Sport! An awesome way to end her Primary school career!

At a friendly athletics meeting held in the last week of school, the youngest gannet - Michaela-came first in the U10 Long Jump, 2nd in the 100m sprint, 2nd in the 1200m and her relay team came first. Caitlin came first in the U13 high jump with a height of 1.40m!

Long jump star with a distance of  3.50m

Finishing straight in the 1200m

My high jump star!

The last 2 weeks have been HECTIC too! We had the inaugural Fish Hoek Surfski Festival! It started on 9 December with the Peter Creese Lighthouse race(Peter was a Springbok lifesaver and member of the lifesaving club and died in an accident quite young). Then on 16 and 17 December, we had the World Series and SA Champs singles and doubles races organised and ending at Fish Hoek Lifesaving Club. Paddlers from around the world came down to our town and the weather man didn't disappoint! The crowning race was the Cape POint Challenge - a 50km paddle around Cape Point! It's the longest and richest surfski race in the world! I had the most amazing treat this year too...I was offered a trip on one of the boats following the paddlers! We were at the slipway at 4:30am and waited for an hour until all the commercial fishermen had launched before we could go! We met up with the paddlers on the Atlantic side of the point and then followed them home to Fish Hoek. THe slowest paddlers start first (group H) and the top paddlers start last (group B). The top 7 guys paddled together the whole way and they ended up having a sprint to the finish line...after 50km!! (the reason why this is so amazing this year is that there was a NW wind blowing, which means the paddlers were going with the wind for the first 20km and then into the wind for the last 30km! The SE usually howls which the paddlers all love!)

Sunrise in the morning

The middle group of paddlers approaching Cape Point

The lighthouse at the very front of Cape POint catching the early mornign light

If you look carefully, you can see the two sets of paddlers

Fish Hoek Lifesaving Club and the finish of the Cape POint Challenge

The final 3 in the sprint to the finish!

 
 Apologies to the Diva and all my zentangle friends for not having a tangle ready, but Congratulations to the DIva for her 100th Challenge and having a tangle named after her...it's very well deserved!

My best news I'm leaving for last........we"re going on a 2 week family holiday to Kissemee, Orlando, USA leaving on Friday 28th!! I'm sooooo excited! I'm saving space in my suitcase for a few art supplies that I'm desperate to buy there because they're made in the US! 
Shopping list includes: Dual tip markers with a brush on one side and fibre tip on the other and maybe soem more zentangle supplies from a CZT in the area! Can I buy Suzanne McNeills Zentangle 1-7 somewhere? 

4 days and counting!
Merry Christmas everyone!

PennyB

Exam week!

Ok, so I missed the Mickey Mouse challenge, sadly, but I 've been studying!! Both girls are writing exams this week, and I've been studying with the youngest gannet who is writing her first exams, so time has been at a minimum. 

I did, however, get inspired and start an A4 ZIA using hollibaugh as the base. I tried using lots of tangles I've never used before and found some really interesting ones. (My tangle collection consists of a flipfile with tangles pasted alphabetically onto the pages. I did read somewhere - and I can't rememeber where - about different storage ideas for all your patterns.) Anyway, this is my entry into The DIva's Challenge this week....I had two small spaces left and so added zinger into the space! I've got a similar pattern to Zinger which I've used in my pattern stacks. Can you believe that I've managed to submit a tile to the challenge on the Monday it comes out?!!!

Challenge 96: bales, camelia, cadent, cubine, cruffle, cockles adn mussels, girdy, huggins, flukes, jetties, keeko, knyt, lanie, nzeppel, pavonia, printemps, paradox, planateen, sanibelle, socc, sez, tripoli, tink, ix, zinger and my own flower daizees!

Happy creating, see you all later this week

Pennyb

Champions!

I am such a proud mom!

My girls both did so well at Sports Day held last week Friday. Michaela (youngest gannet) took part for the first time in the individual events and Caitlin (eldest gannet) took part for the last time as she's off to High School next year! Caitlin came first in the 1200m for the 4th year in a row and her team came first in the 4X100m relay. Michaea had the most amazing day: she came 2nd in the 1200m, 2nd in the 100m, first in the Long Jump and her team came 1st in the relay! We have a friendly inter schools next Friday and she's very excited!

The youngest (in green) in the 100m

The eldest in her long jump

The youngest in her long jump!

The eldest coming down the home straight of the 1200m.

We also had a 10th Birthday party last weekend (which is why I never got around to posting last week - it was such a crazy week and then a busy weekend too. I felt like I was in the spin cycle of the washing machine, and when it had finished, instead of opening the door, someone just turned the machine back on!!  Anyway.....I had 11 ten year olds for a rock and roll party...they laughed, they danced, they swam and they played...it was such fun. I also had a photo booth in the lounge with all the hats, masks, funny glasses, wigs etc from the dress-up box for party photos, it was such a hit!

Doing the "Boogie Woogie"

Swim time

Harry #2 aka my nephew

Group photo - birthday girl is second from the left!

We had a muffin tower instead of a cake!

So, on to tangles and arty things....I've got a couple of people hooked on Zentangle now and we're talking about getting together once a week to Create! Could be fun! My tile for  the Challenge this week, is half of last weeks challenge that I never managed to complete! 

Challenge #94: purk, cadent socc, bunzo, swirls.

Have a creative week

PennyB

Birthday!

Greetings fellow crafty and arty people! It's been two of those weeks! A comment I picked up about a year ago, sums it up perfectly: I feel like I'm in the spin cycle of the washing machine and instead of opening the machine when finished, it gets turned back on!

I did manage to play with the camera though...I got this beautiful spider web actoss the verander (I'm still playing with close-ups) and our home beach of Fish Hoek with the Lifesaving Club in the centre.

Early morning spider web

Fish Hoek Beach from the mountain

Monday was a momentus day in our house, the youngest gannet reaches double figures and turns 10! She's so excited and has been talking about it since March-I kid you not! As a pre-birthday treat (which couln't have happened at a better time) there was a school outing to the Two Oceans Aquarium on Friday night....a group of 40 grade 4,5,6 learners got dropped off at the Aquarium at 7pm (after it was closed). They went on a private tour, had supper, did some crafts, watched a movie - Shark Tale - and then went to sleep in their sleeping bags in the Shark Tank room! What an awesome experience! 

The party on Saturday was a blast! There were 11 ten year old all dressed up and ready to party! I had a photo booth in the lounge with all the wigs, hats, masks etc from the dress-up suitcase which everyone loved!  

Dancing the "Boogie woogie"

Pleading "Puppy dog faces".....please can we swim!

Michaela (2nd from left) and friends in the photo booth

The Muffin tower birthday cake!

My attempt at The DIva's took a while to complete, but I enjoyed it never-the-less. I tried a few new tangles (as I've promised myself I would). I love the ideas that a few people had of using Hollibaugh as the lines...very clever!

Challenge 92: Tangles from L-R...Huggins, Snaylz Trayl, Zander, 'Nzeppel, Catapilla Leg

And that's me for this week! Have a great week everyone

PennyB