What are one of your hobbies?

My maternal Granny was an artist. Apart from also being an amazing piano player, knitting and crocheting beautiful blankets and jerseys for us grandchildren, baking the best cheese scones I have ever tasted, a Scrabble Queen, and a poet – she wrote some amazing poetry!
She was an extremely talented individual. 😉
Her paintings were often shown at local art exhibitions, and she even managed to sell quite a few. She was brilliant with both watercolours, and oils.

I often think that my small abilities/talents in all these areas (nowhere near as great as hers were!) have a lot to do with her. Because Granny was the one who taught me to knit. When I expressed such love for her scones, she taught me to make them – but mine have never tasted as good as hers did 😉 She included me in her and Grampie’s games of Scrabble – I eventually beat my much older brothers. When she was typing on her old typewriter, I would be sitting reading her poems – and sometimes she would take a break and explain to me the things I didn’t quite understand.
The smell of oil paints was a favourite for me as a child….because I would be sitting at a table not far from her, with a small easel of my own, having been allowed to play with her older watercolours.

I spent a lot of time as a child at my grandparents home. And I know I am speaking about Granny here… but I spent more time with Grampie 😛 😉 But the point of telling you about Granny today, is to share a hobby of mine with you.

I am nowhere near as good as Granny, but I love to paint and create 😉 I do a lot of homemade gifts for friends and family… and sometimes even take requests from them to make gifts that they want to pass along to someone else. So I thought that today I would show you some of my stuff, just for fun 😉

Please share with me one hobby that you have 😉

One of my favourite items that I painted is my Cracked Pot. I bought him as a plain old ceramic, and handpainted him. He reminds me of the saying, ”We are all broken – that’s how the light gets in.” I smile every time I look at him 😉

 

For Christmas, I painted these plain wooden boxes and filled them with treats, and a bottle of wine, as gifts for friends 😉 (handpainted writing – not so great, but it was cherished 😉 )

And there’s my frog in my garden… (it’s Autumn here now, and everything is a lot drier than it should be because we have water restrictions too… but he really shines in Spring and Summer when I plant a bunch of purple petunias around him 😉 )

So I’m no great painter.. but it’s something I enjoy 😉
Please remember to share one of your hobbies with me 🙂

Be safe, and be well ❤

4 things

I saw this little game on my Facebook timeline, and decided to share it with all of you… just for fun. Because we all need some fun in our lives 😉

4 names I go by :

Meg
Megs
Megster
Meggie Pegs

4 series that I like to watch :

(Hmmm… so it’s really tough to choose 4… and these are not my top 4… but I like them 😉 )

Criminal Minds
Law and Order – all of them
NCIS
Forensic Files

4 places I have visited :

Morgan Bay
St Fagan’s outdoor National Museum of History (My favourite international place so far! 😉 )
Hogsback (my favourite place in my country 😉 )
Cambridge

4 things I love to eat :

Salty biscuits/crackers with a variety of cheeses
Vegetable Spring Rolls
Beef curry Samoosas
Cheesecake 😉

4 things I love to drink :

Water
Coffee
Water
Tea
😛 😉

4 things I like to do :

Make a braai (similar to a BBQ).. but not for the purpose of cooking meat. More to just sit and watch the flames, and enjoy the warmth and peace I feel in doing so.
(Although the kids get super excited, and I wind up cooking meat on it in the end 😉 )
(One day I am hoping to have a house with a fireplace – I just know I’d sit there for hours though 😉 )

Read, read, and read some more 😉

Writing. I love to write. 🙂

Spread love and kindness in practical ways, offer encouragement, help others to feel hopeful when it seems like all is lost.

4 things I don’t like to do :

Iron. I just don’t like ironing.

Washing/Mopping floors – it’s endless with two dogs and tiles! 😛

Cooking liver, kidneys – basically all those types of delicacies!

Watching someone chew gum with their mouth open! 😛

 

If you want to make a list for me in the comments on just one or two of these, or even all of them, please feel free 😉
If you decide to do the same on your blog, please let me know so that I can go and read! 😉

Be safe, be well… and remember to laugh 😉

 

 

Versatile Blogger Award

 

I know it sounds really cheesy, but I absolutely love all these awards. When I get tagged in one though, my mouth goes dry and my first thought is, ”Oh gosh, am I going to be able to do this one any justice?”

I overthink them. Because at the end of the day, it’s an honour that someone thought of me, and all they’re really asking is for me to be honest and share small pieces of me. So I really shouldn’t feel threatened, because we all know that I happily overshare 😛

This particular award stands for the following :

“When you consider nominating a fellow blogger for the Versatile Blogger Award, consider the quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page. Or, of course, the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them.”

And we all know how completely random I can be 😛 😉

The Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you.
Link to the blog of the person who nominated you.
Share 7 facts about yourself.
Nominate 15 more bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.

A big thank you to jesusluvsall for the nomination – while the essence of his blog truly is about his faith and helping others, you can find a wide variety of everyday life there, from music to his struggles with chronic illness. Definitely worth taking a look 😉

7 facts about me is actually quite difficult, because I overshare, so you know a lot anyway 😛 I’m trying to come up with things you don’t know… and it’s tougher than I thought. So I popped off some messages to my friends (two of which are my neighbours) and asked them to tell me one thing about me that I could share. So here are their replies :

1. I often send random messages to friends asking their opinion on something to do with me – in an effort to understand and grow. Like I have, out of the blue, asked before : please send me three good qualities you think I have, please send me three bad qualities you think I have, what would you say is my best physical feature, etc etc etc.
2. I love to spend a cool afternoon, seated in the dirt, weeding my garden (but I don’t have a green thumb!!!).
3. I greet pets before I greet their owners (first time I have actually realised that I DO do this….apparently it isn’t a problem…but I still feel a little bit guilty – I should probably be more conscious of that!)
4. I have bitten my nails down to the quick since I was a child. I’ve only ever grown my own four times in my whole life…I don’t bite them as badly now, but when I do start to then I have to stick on falsies to get me out of the habit for a while.
5. I’ve never seen snow in real life, and talk incessantly about wanting to experience a White Christmas, and I don’t just mention that at Christmas time, apparently.
6. I am so obsessed with butterflies, and anything purple, that my friends think of me constantly when they see either thing. It makes me very easy to buy gifts for too 😉 (My friend has a 7 year old son who calls me, ”Aunty Butterfly” 🙂 )
7. I don’t have tattoo’s, and the fact that I don’t desire to have any is apparently strange. (it’s not a biblical thing, I just don’t want them?) I got 4 messages back stating this fact, so clearly it makes me a little weird 😛

 

I am supposed to nominate 15 bloggers. I’m going to break the rules here. I’m nominating every person who takes the time to read my blog…. and you really need to check out the people who like and comment on my writing – they have very reading worthy material on their blogs. And although a lot of them try to stick to a theme, if you read their posts, you will see little bits of versatility in there 😉

(Although not everyone overshares like I do 😛 *covering my face with my hands*)

And then just for fun, I’m going to post a pic that I saw this morning and had a good giggle at :

Sunshine Blogger Double Whammy

Right, so…

I got nominated for this award twice, pretty much on the same day 😉 I’m so grateful that others find material worth reading on my blog 😉 and that they’d like to share me with the world out there 🙂 I always get really nervous with these kinds of things, but I’m going to attempt to ‘do it right’ 😉

Sunshine Blogger Award Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link back to their blogging site.
2. List the Sunshine Blogger Award rules and display the logo on your site.
3. Answer the Sunshine Blogger Award questions.
4. Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.
5. Notify the nominees about their nominations.

As I mentioned, I got the award twice. So I’ll try and keep my answers short…but be warned, this will be a long read…. and you’ll know far too much about me by the end. So not really much different to my other blog posts 😛

FIRST NOMINATION :

Thank you to My Forty Something Life for the nomination. If you’re forty something, it’s definitely worth checking the blog out. I’m even tempted to try Yoga 😉

The questions (and my answers) to that nomination are as follows :

1. Why do you blog? To reach out to others and hopefully connect, because I love to write, to try and make a difference with my voice, to be an encouragement
2. If you were stuck up a tree for an hour or two…what would you do? Just sit and appreciate the view. I don’t get a whole lot of ‘down time’, so it would be a special moment for me 😉
3. What is the funniest thing you heard today? No one else is awake yet, but I read this and it made me laugh : ”Here, I bought you a calendar. Your days are numbered now.” 😛
4. What makes you smile on a regular basis? Pretty much everything 😉
5. What is the one (or two if you must) thing you can’t live without? Air 😛
6. Who’s blog do you read that you recommend to us all (it doesn’t even have to be someone you nominate)? Uh….that kinda puts me on the spot, doesn’t it? 😛 I always visit Dr. Eric Perry, PhD – he’s a very popular clinical psychologist, and I like to read his views on things. But that’s also because I am kinda nutty about all things psychology related 😛
7. What kind of soup would most reflect you as a person? Alphabet Soup 😛
8. What is your favourite TV show right now? A really old one which I am revisiting – and still loving 😉 Full House My daughter is loving it, but I think John Stamos has a lot to do with that 😛 For once her and I agree on a ‘nice looking man’ 😛
9. If you have a spare £100 in your wallet / purse…what does it get spent on? A random stranger/beggar and my children (human and fur)
10. What was your favourite children’s show growing up…can you remember the theme tune…are you now singing it? UGH! YES! (Thanks for that 😛 ) Good old Barney.

SECOND NOMINATION :

Thank you to Jesusluvsall for your nomination 🙂 A man of faith who lives his life serving others, and that’s more than blog worthy 😉

The questions (and my answers) to that nomination are as follows :

1. If Jesus were to knock on your door, what would you think? If He knocked, then I probably wouldn’t actually know it was Him till I opened it, so my thought upon hearing the knock would be, “Who needs me?”
2. This week is Thanksgiving Week in the USA. What are you thankful for? In all honesty, everything. Even the difficult times and difficult people I encounter. And yes, I AM being honest. Sure, it makes me tired, and I get hurt. But I learn along the way. And it makes me different, and better.
3. Where would you like to travel to in the world. I gave the long answer here. The short one is USA!!!!
4. What is your favorite snack food? salty crackers and a variety of cheeses 😉
5. Do snack while you blog? No. But I do drink copious amounts of coffee 😛
6. What is your favorite season and why? Winter, winter and winter 😛 Yes, I live at the coast in sunny South Africa, so our winters are never colder than about 40 degrees F – and I was told for years that that’s why I love Winter. Then I went to the UK and faced a different kind of cold – ‘proper’ cold. And I still thrived in it. And that’s why I love Winter – I thrive in cold and gloomy weather. Strange, but true. While others just want to stay in bed, all toasty and warm, I am at my most productive when it’s cold. In our Summer heat, with high percentages of humidity, and no air conditioning, I just don’t get anything done. My energy is sapped and those are the days where I am the one who would rather just be on my bed 😛 I also exercise a lot more in Winter – not because I am preparing for a ‘Summer body’, NOT AT ALL. But simply because those are days where I actually have the energy to do so!
7. What book has meant something to you lately? Kathryn Cushman’s ‘Waiting for Daybreak’. Not the type of book I usually read – if I’m not reading crime thriller murder mystery, then I am reading self help/growth books. But something made me pull this one out of my bookshelf. It was a gift from a friend who passed away last year – I never read it when she gave it to me. I’ve only read it recently, at a time when I needed it most. Amazing how things like that happen, isn’t it 😉
8. Who is your favorite singer? No. Just no. Because I have too many 😛
9. What is a favorite blog post of yours? Share a link Mine personally? One I have written? Hmmmm….. I have a few – and they’re all about where I live. I have linked them to each other, sort of. But please read them – a great guide to South Africa 😉 Mostly the differences between here and the US. And it will also explain my spelling 😛 One of a Kind; Can you speak American? (highly recommended 😛 ) and South Africa’s Tummy
10. I am a disaster cooking in the kitchen. Would you trust me in your kitchen? Yes. Because I think it would be fun 😉
11. What movie have you seen recently that you liked? Nothing new, I’m afraid. I watched ‘You’ve got Mail’ for the umpteenth time the other night – it’s a firm favourite with me because one of my dreams is to own a bookstore exactly like Meg Ryan’s in the movie 😉 (I don’t usually watch romance, so yes, it really is all about the books 😉 )

And that’s all folks 😉

Now for my nominees (you do not have to participate). Their questions will follow :

Winning 40
Rest and Chaos
millenniallifecrisis
Fractured Faith
Cynthia D. Griffin
Encouraging Grace
The Happiness Nerd
Fun with Philosophy
Herry Chic Counsels
juantetcts
Paul – A life worth giving

Your questions (total randomness):

1. What is your favourite quote?
2. If you could share a brief word of encouragement with someone, what would you say?
3. Do you like to ‘dress up’?
4. Are you an animal lover? If yes, favourite animal?
5. What do you think is your best physical feature?
6. If you could ask your president/ruler of your country one question, what would it be?
7. If you could visit only one place anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?
8. Coffee, tea, or neither one?
9. Pizza, cheeseburger, or salad?
10. Sweet or savoury?
11. If you could be good at one sport, which one would you choose and why?

If you made it through, thanks for reading 😉

Jail Bail?

Every now and then, I take a break from my usual blog posts and post something lighter and less inspiring, more unusual. This normally contains word definitions or idiom explanations – things of that nature. Today isn’t all that interesting, but I did find it kind of funny 😉
Today was inspired by none other than my 14 year old daughter.

We all know what teens are like. They have their very own language – in fact each generation seems to 😛

Each country too, as a matter of fact. It’s no surprise then that words and expressions used in different countries are, well, different. So I can’t claim what I am about to share next as a guide to ‘teen speak’.
(Interestingly enough, my son’s teen speak was similar to what I grew up with, carrying the same definitions. My, how times have changed in the last seven years!!! Enter my daughter. 😛 )

We got out the car at a local store, and she exclaimed, ”Oh my word, Mom! I need to bail!”

Entering the store, I asked, “Who you hiding from?”

I turned around and was greeted with a blank stare.

A little further into the store, I asked, “Why did you need to bail from the car so fast?”

The total look of confusion on her face told me we weren’t talking about the same thing!

In ‘my days’, bail was pretty much defined as I need to go; bounce; take off. 
My usual go to place when it comes to trying to find the more trendy meanings of words is the Urban Dictionary (although I find the language inappropriate a lot of the time). After checking it now, I see it wouldn’t have helped me this time though anyway since it seems to be in line with my definition. Therefore not cool. Not trendy. “Way back when you were a teen, Mom….”
(It really wasn’t that long ago 😛 )

Seeing her confusion, I naturally asked, “Okay. What does bail mean to you kids then?”

She shushed me, blushed (the cute guy nearby had turned to look our way) and pulled me to a quieter corner of the store. There she stammered out,
“Well…uh… it means to…um….you know? When your undies get…um…..and you need to…um….”

From that completely unhelpful explanation, I somehow got the drift of what she was saying. So I whispered back, “You mean when you get a wedgie and you need to pull your panties back where they belong?” She nodded, shrugged her shoulders, and replied with,

“Yeah, you know, bail.”

I think I am going to have a tough time understanding this new teen speak of our local kids! 😛 😉

Dare to go Bare!

A long time ago, I had closet gremlins. They shrank and stretched all the clothing in my closet – it had nothing to do with me gaining a bit of weight! 😛 Spring was quickly becoming Summer, and I discovered that I had nothing to wear in the all too near humid future. A quick trip to the shops made me gag – prices were sky high and it baffled my brain (and made my bank manager cry)!
Returning home back then, and seeing this on Facebook, made me laugh so hard I think my dog was considering having me committed.

A few years down the line and I still have closet gremlins – but they appear to have expanded their business and are now in my drawers too. This time, while I was sleeping, they didn’t just shrink my clothing. This time, they came with religion and I discovered a few items that are now HOLeY.

Some of you know how very much I dislike shopping. Yes, last time I checked I was definitely female. I’m just not big on malls and endless hours spent in them.
I go, out of necessity.
And although not quite at emergency status yet, I decided to pop across to the mall close by which has ample parking, is never really too busy, and also sports some of the better priced options.

I’m a little shy to be admitting this, but I needed new underwear (those gremlins really were in my drawers 😛 ) And since I am the only one who actually sees me in my underwear, it should have been a simple visit. I know my size, and I don’t need anything fancy.

I have a young teen as a daughter, and so I am not completely oblivious to the variety out there when it comes to clothing, shoes, underwear etc. I am pretty much ‘kept in the loop’ as to which shop stocks what and what’s trending. Sadly this does not affect my fashion views – I have decided I am too old to wear what is cool, and I prefer to stick with what makes me comfortable.

(Side note : I am not old. Not really, anyway. But I like that I am at an age where I can use this as an excuse when I want to 😉 )

Thanks to knowledge gained from my kid, I knew where it was that I wanted to go.
So I headed straight there, walked in and found exactly what I wanted. Easy peasy. Looking at the price tag, not so easy. Seriously?!?!?! You want me to pay how much for this small piece of material? Is it sewn with gold thread? Have you hidden a diamond in the lining?

Clothing people, everywhere!
Hear my plea!
Perform a public service!
Drop your prices, please!
I need clothing, and underwear.
Spare humanity my nakedness!