My One Word

Well, I hope everyone had a lovely and safe and blessed Christmas and New Years :)

Anyone doing New Years Resolutions? I'm not..I can never stick to them, but I have found something else that is much more manageable, My One Word.

Basically, all you do is choose one word that you are going to strive towards for the whole year...I'm not very good at explaining things, but have a look at the My One Word website for all the details. There you will find all the help and support you need from choosing your one word, to sticking to it for the whole year.

So what is my One Word for 2012?

DEVOTED

My aim is to become more devoted to my God, through the reading of His word, talking to Him and listening for His still, small voice in my everyday activities...becoming devoted enough to hear Him and say "yes" to whatever He asks me to do.

To be more devoted to Daniel, my husband. To love him as God would have me love him - unconditionally. To respect him and to show loving kindness and patience towards him...to listen to him and make him number one, after God, in my life. I want to be a devoted wife, so I plan to work hard at that this year.

To be more devoted to my children, Natalie and Angella. To make sure I spend more time playing with them, and making sure that they know that they are very much loved. I want to devote more time to teaching them about the Lord and His word and His ways...teaching them to say "yes" to anything that the Lord asks them to do...teaching them how to hear their heavenly Father's still small voice.

So there you have it. My One Word for 2012 is:

DEVOTED.

I would love to know if you join in with My One Word, and I would love to know what word you choose for 2012. Go on, give it a go, your one word could be the word that changes your life forever!

Much Love

Suse

♥♥♥

Hold onto your seats people...

I scrapped!!!!

Yes, I know, it's been a while, but I enjoyed the process of the first Layout so thoroughly that I just had to squeeze a second layout into my day :) I hope you enjoy and please excuse the bad pic of the second LO, I took it just before at night because I was too excited to wait for the morning to share :)

"An Ouma's Love"

"You can be"

Also, I just wanted to share a couple of Christmas collages of photos I took of the girls today...the first one is of all the funny pics before I got any good ones...

How funny are these two monkeys? Love Angi trying to copy Natti's face pulling abilities...Natti's are second to none and apparently keeps everyone at school entertained with her little "talent".

And here are the good ones I got...



To be totally honest...I love all the photos, even the silly ones because it just shows the true nature of my fun-loving girls.

Anyway, I hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas and a blessed new year...remembering that JESUS is the reason for the season!

God Bless

Suse

♥♥♥

"Mary"

I just wanted to do a quick share about Natti.

This last week at her school they have had "Creative By Design" week, and it has been full on! I won't go into all the details, but I just wanted to show you a pic of Natti all dressed up as Mary, mother of Jesus for her culminating bible character parade...

I remember being Mary for our preschool nativity play when I was the exact same age, and funnily enough, Natti and I almost look exactly alike in our costumes!

I made her costume, along with a pink version for her BFF, and another one for another child in her class (I am a bit of a sucker LOL). She loved it, and she keeps wanting to dress up in it all the time.

Although, I am very glad this week is over, there was so much going on and so many things to attend, I know she had a blast and will remember it for a while yet :) And the costume will come in handy for when Angi reaches prep...they do this creative by design week every year...one less costume I will have to make :)

WAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I am so sad and upset!!!!

Our puppy Lula has a habit of escaping the fence, so on the weekend hubby and I checked the perimeter and blocked off all escape routes, so today I just had to make sure she was not still escaping...so, about an hour ago, I went to the door to call her, and I thought she had escaped again as she was not coming...then all of a sudden she bolted round the side of the house, looked at me, then looked behind her, then bolted back again...somthing was up.

So I ran to the window on that side, opened it up and just screamed..."BAD DOG!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!"

What did I see?

She had her mouth over the back of Tilly (Angi's white chook) and was about to go for Lolly as well! As soon as I yelled at her, she let go and bolted...Tilly ust lay there! At first I thought she was dead...poor Lolly was inspecting her. I ran outside...lucky for the dog she disappeared...who knows what I would have done :( On closer inspection Tilly is still alive, but I think both her wings may be broken. she is very still and just sitting in the box I found for her. *SOB*

Here she is...all you chook lovers, please tell me what you think? My brothers girlfriend who has grown up around chooks is on her way here as I type to have a look as well...

To make matters worse, Tweetie, the black one (my other daughters chook) was missing...I rang hubby and sobbed to him on the phone...then went to look for Tweetie...but not long into the search Angi found her safe and sound...thank goodness!!!! So all chooks accounted for, even if one is damaged :'(

I'll keep updating on what we do with poor Tilly...I really don't want to have to put her down...she may be a scoundrel, but we all love her ♥

*edited to add: Tilly is doing fine...nothing broken, just a couple f bite marks and sore feathers and a lot of shock...poor girl. She is back to her usual naughty self now, and she is even still laying the ocassional egg...something I certainly did not expect after her ordeal...chooks are tough little critters!

Finally...a garden update!

Okay, be prepared, this post is photo heavy!

Seeing as it is such a lovely day today we thought it would be perfect for mowing the grass (thanks babe ♥). We have so much clover and onion weed growing at the moment, we just got sick of looking at it!

The front always looks so much better when the clover has been mowed down :)

The Calendulas and the seaside daisy's are in full bloom...don't they just look so cheerful? I wake up to this sight every morning as they are right outside our bedroom window...always makes for a lovely start to the day. Just glorious!

Love this shot of a lone calendula...Calendula's are known for their amazing healing properties...and I have tested this using calendula ointment on my youngest daughters nappy rash when she was a baby...cleared it up within the day (and it was really bad too!)...but I think calendula's are also a good healer of the heart and soul...just looking at their intricate beauty makes me feel better :)

And it looks like the chooks have found the flower bed...they are loving the chrysanthemum petals...

The september lillies (the variagated versions) have started flowering too...aren't they just sublime?



The daffodil bulbs I planted a couple of weeks ago have sprouted...

My girls are sprouting up too...growing way too fast for my liking!

Veggies are doing pretty good as well...

Lula is still an "in your face" kinda doggie LOL



Although she does show a little bit if restraint with the chookies around now (still have to watch her though...she gets jealous if you pick a chook up....then she tries to snatch it out of your hands!)

Here you can tell how bad our clover problem is...really need to get into that garden bed and rip the stuff out, but it is getting a bit too hot at the moment...or I am just feeling lazy LOL

and last, but not least...I have finally managed to nurture a rose to bloom!!!!!!

I have three rose plants left (after the dog destroyed the fourth - thorns are no deterant!)..and this is the only one that has budded and started to bloom...the others are all still alive and growing green leaves, but no new shoots or buds...this gardening thing requires so much patience...and I don't ave too much of that...I guess I will just have to learn some!

The Delighted Blythe

I know I know...another dolly post...I promise I will do a garden progress one this afternoon...thinking I need to start another blog just for the dolly posts...what do you think?

I just wanted to let you know that I have opened up a new Etsy store from which I will be selling my handmade Blythe clothes and accessories...which is a bit fun...

The Delighted Blythe

I will be adding some listings sometime today, so keep an eye out :)

I have also started a new Facebook page, so people can can come and say hi, and generally join in with some blythe fun...

The Delighted Blythe on Facebook

I am trying to get my vanity URL for this and I need at least 25 likers, so please come along and join in the fun...I will be doing competitions and all sorts of fun things...



Sewing for dollies...

yup, another dolly post, sorry for those not interested in them, I promise I will post a veggie garden progress post tomorrow...

but I just had to share, I sewed my VERY FIRST dolly outfit for Chai last night...it was super easy and super fun...and I think I did an alright job for my first time...what do you think?

I think she pulls Aqua off rather nicely...I just wish I could pull a headband off as well as she does ;)

Here she is inspecting the calendula's...it's a jungle out there in the garden...most of the flowers are taller than she is.

It brings back fun childhood memories for me, growing up in South Africa, and sometimes my dad got a bit busy during school exam time to mow the lawn (he is a teacher). The grass would be so tall and I would play with my barbies in the long, tickly grass, pretending they were on a jungle expedition...ah, sweet summer playtimes.

Do you have any favourite summertime memories from your childhood? I would love to hear about them :)