{scraps of jacki's life}

just one of those days...

i'm tired today. it has been one of those weeks, where it feels like i have been working very hard, and accomplishing nothing. you know?

so, today i thought i would chill a little. catch up on those blogposts that i got so behind on. and not much else. the theory is that if i'm kind to myself today, i will feel energetic and revived again tomorrow. or not.

my sister-in-law told me that the other day she heard someone saying 'that's the girl from the blog'. they were referring to her daughter marni, who stars here and here and here and especially here. how cool is that? maybe not so much for her, but uber-cool for me!

if you are a south african blogger, why don't you participate in this survey here? you could even win a prize.

i'm off to do some photo editing. and to spend some quality time on facebook.

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

circle of love

i was tagged by sophia, cathy and lara, to tell you 7 random facts about me. i think those of you who read my blog regularly already know more about me than so many people i see every day. why would you want to know more? can i not keep any secrets?

ok, you asked for it. here goes:

i can read, write and speak dutch. in fact, my parents and siblings and i still jabber away in dutch whenever we see each other. we even sms each other in dutch. but we were all born in africa... i also speak afrikaans and english.

the man and i are not married. we have lived in sin for more than 5 years now. we never meant to not get married, there just has never been enough time, money, energy. i know.

ronnie died 6.5 years ago, and his estate still has not been wound up. it's a process... ok, so this fact is not really about me, so it does not count.

i was married at 19, a mother a 20, and a widow at 35. i'm in a hurry. it was meant to be graduated at 19, millionaire at 20 and nobel prize at 35. somewhere someone got the order wrong.

i am a computer and internet junkie. and i can fix a lot on my computer myself. i even formatted my computer myself last week. it is a pleasure to work on now.

today is my birthday. i'm 42.

i love ice-cream and pasta. i don't like litchies and mangos. i drink almost no alcohol - it is not good for me.

i still have a grandmother. she is 92. she came to visit me today.

Here are the rules:
Link to your Tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post and link their blogs.
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

as usual, i'm last to do this, so everyone i know has been tagged already. so, i have to go wider:

eilandkind

lori

hayley

rachael

annette

nicky

rose

these are some of my wedding photos.

 

i used some of the buttons and flowers we got from making memories at the convention, as used on this layout here. and the stamped circles i also learned at the convention, it was done by rachael scholz, as you can see here.

love, jacki

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

internationally known...

after my puppy snowy was featured on this internationally known blogger's blog in this post and here and here, she has been thanking me by bringing me breakfast in bed.

because she is still small, she gets small-doggie chunks twice a day, that i soften with warm water. but during the day she loves to steal the bigger chunks from the big dogs. then she runs into the house, jumps on my bed, and starts digging. she 'buries' the big dog chunks in my bed. between the blankets, under the pillows, anywhere.

after that post, i have had a few people scoffing at my claim to be an 'internationally known' blogger and photographer. so, here is my defence:

my sister carla lives in melbourne, australia. my friend elsa lives in dharhan, saudia arabia. i mentioned them last time.

i have a client of the shop, janine, who lives in seattle, USA. and another client, cheryl, is in ghana. also, annette scholz has met me, and she lives in perth, australia now.

i met wilna furstenburg from canada, rachael scholz from melbourne, donna downey from the usa, celine navarro from france, and others, at the south african scrapbook convention. they may want to deny it, but i have photographic evidence.

i have far-off family and friends of the family in holland, who would admit to knowing me. if i forced them.

all these international people know me, and would gladly tell you that i am not nearly as attractive and interesting in real life as my photoshopped photo on facebook and on my blog would lead you to believe.

so: internationally known! undisputable!

if a few of you would please leave some evidence in the comments, i would appreciate it... thanks!

i opened my google reader this morning, and i had 262 unread posts! and i have to read them all, heaven forbid i miss a thing. stacy julian and stefanie semple had 9 posts each, and cathy had 12! slow down girls. give me a chance to catch up! i got tagged a couple of times, i'll get to that soon.

i'm off to do some speed reading...

love, jacki

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

i'm back...

just popping in to say i have successfully formatted my computer, and i'm busy reloading and updating software, and downloading upgrades and drivers. it takes a while. i have restarted this computer dozens of times in the past few days.

i have got my internet working, and downloaded and upgrade for my modem. now my internet is faster than ever, i even have HSDPA at times, that i never had before! i also got photoshop installed. those are the important things. the minor details like the point of sale software and the bookkeeping program i'll deal with later. do you agree with my priorities?

if you have a vodacom modem, email me, and i'll send you the link where you can upgrade your modem software.

i should be back up to speed early next week, then i can get back to all that deeply philosophical and intellectual blogging you have become accustomed to...

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

photographing a puppy...

i'm posting early today, because i'm going to try and fix my computer, to save it from the worm/virus. so who knows, you might never hear from me again....

first: i need one or 2 volunteers. i want to write another photoshop tutorial, but i need someone who is prepared to let me use her 'before' pics on my blog. if i use them, i will email you the 'after' photos. you can see here and here the kind of things i do. send me an email or a comment to tell me you want in, and we will see from there.

just to prove that my tutorial skills are amazing, i thought i would do a tutorial on how to photograph a puppy.

you take a fiesty, sassy, active puppy, called snowy. you add a brilliant, internationally known photographer.

ok, so the photographer was on strike. or something. so that left me.

 

what does 'an internationally known photographer' mean anyway? i'm a photographer. my sister carla lives in melbourne, australia, and she knows me. so does my friend elsa in dharhan, saudi arabia. does that make me an internationally known photographer? i think so...

 

anyway, this is my domain, and i may call myself internationally known, if i want. internationally known. internationally known, internationally known...

what do you mean you hope the computer worm eats this blog? the international readers will miss this high-quality, intellectually stimulating stuff!

 

stand still puppy! smile! you are going on an internationally known blogger's blog.

 

did you just say you don't give a rat's ass bum? that's not nice! and we don't use langauge like that here on this blog! that word slipped out, but i managed to bleep it just in time, so nobody noticed. you almost made this blog PG10!

 

now we get to the point of this tutorial: persistance. if you keep snapping away, you may eventually get a good photo of the very cute little puppy. don't say i never teach you anything!

*edited to add: my therapist just called. she is adding 'delusions of grandeur' to her diagnosis...*

 

internationally known jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

i'm having computer problems at the shop. it's either a worm/virus, or my hard drive is packing up. i'm not sure which to hope for...

for the last few days i've had all sorts of problems, then it's one thing, then it's another. on saturday i could not get my internet connection to work. francois tweaked and fiddled, and now the internet works, but is is very slow.

late yesterday afternoon we did a sales transaction as usual on the point of sale software, and a few minutes later we could not get in to cash up, and i have not been able to get in since. uggg! i can scream in frustration!

so, now i'm using a pen, invoice book and calculator point of sale system. slow, but fail-proof. the only virus that can affect it is when i sneeze on it...

i did do backups about 10 days ago, and i can backup almost everything again now, but i'm afraid to plug in my external hard drive, in case i infect that. it seems to me, in my expert opinion, as though a worm is making it's way through my system, slowly corrupting files. my anti-virus software did a scan last week, and picked up malicious software, and quarantined the files. that was it's last heroic deed, because now it won't work anymore either...

*sigh!* i am a hair's breadth away from formatting the whole damn thing!

recently liza presented a workshop with paper piecing. here is what laetitia did:

 

and here is ineke's version of the same thing:

 

here is a close-up of ineke's owl. isn't he a gorgeous fella?...

 

he is handmade from scraps of paper.

in my shop, we pride ourselves on the fact that we adapt each layout according to the client's style, taste and photos. no 2 layouts are the same. it is more work for the teacher, but it is also more creative, and more rewarding to see lots of different versions, and lots of happy clients.

anyway, i'm off to fiddle more on my computer. pray i don't crash the entire system...

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

new cards

i have been making some more cards. i used sketch #85 from card positioning systems as inspiration:

i like to use scraps from my layouts so my cards 'match' my layouts, and these cards go with the butterfly layout i showed before. so, i scrapped the butterflies, then blogged about the butterflies, then scrapped the blogpost, then blogged about scrapping the blogpost. then i also made cards that 'match' the layout, and then blogged about the cards...

sorry. this just amuses me no end. just skip to the next bit while i sit and giggle here...

i would have used butterflies on the cards, but my cuttlebug butterfly template is worn out! it is so blunt, it won't cut through anymore. look, it did cut way over 1000 butterflies in 6 weeks, so i suppose it is ready to retire. i'll have to get a new one soon.

that is real sewing you see. i 'quilted' little blocks of scrap paper. i have even been so inspired by this sketch, that i'm using the 'quilting' effect on a layout too. it is not finished, but here is a sneak peek:

i also made some christmas cards using that sketch, but that is another post for another time.

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

goodbye linda...

today we say goodbye to linda.

we have been collegues and friends for about 3.5 years now. she and i worked together at the scrapyard, another scrapbook shop where i was the workshop teacher and she ran the shop. then they closed down, and she got a job at SCRAPPIN TIMES. she was the one who told me the shop was for sale. when i bought the shop, i got linda as part of the bargain, as though she was shop equipment. and in that spirit, i 'sold' her to one of my clients, last week.

so, from monday, linda is working elsewhere. diana, you will find linda to be positive, enthusiastic, cheerful, loyal and dependable. you have got yourself a gem. look after her.

linda, thank you for your contribution to this shop. you have reached a crossroads in your life, and you have chosen the difficult route. i pray that your new journey will take you to places that help you grow. we will miss you!

you can read more about the frame linda scrapped of herself here.

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

butterfly fever...

 

remember the fun little butterfly post i did recently? well, it was unexpectedly popular, so i printed the photos and the text, and scrapped the blogpost.

 

i put some of the butterflies i made that day on the layout. i just had fun with it.

so, i scrapped the butterflies, then i blogged about the butterflies, and then i scrapped the blogpost about the butterflies, and now i'm blogging about the scrapping of the blogging of the butterflies. (en die groen gras groei daar om) do you know what i mean? because i have confused myself! this circle could go on forever...

aren't you just so relieved that i managed to sort out my blogging issues? 'cause now i can write insightful blogposts like this for another year...

 

and more butterflies here.

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

peace is restored in blog-land

i explained in the previous post what my blogging problem was. i could not get my payment through. if my payment had gone through in august, when i started trying, it would have cost me about R100 less than it cost me when it did eventually went through, as our Rand had gone into a bit of a free-fall against the US$. in august it was about R7,50 for a dollar, and now it is about R9,20! uggg! this added to my annoyance, as R100 extra is quite a lot of money.

i never expected any credits or financial compensation, but i yesterday i got an email telling me that typepad would give me a $25 credit towards my next payment. do appreciate it! the $25 more than covers the increase in fees due to the exchange rate. thank you so much!

i am in the service industry myself, and this has just proved to me once again that there will always be complaints and unhappy customers. but, the way you deal with them makes the difference in how they perceive you. often a previously unhappy customer treated well, will be a more loyal customer in the future. at least a complaining customer gives you the opportunity to do something about the problem, a customer that just goes away unhappy is one lost forever...

thanks to typepad for your support! i am happy again!

i also have to mention that when i started blogging, i tried blogger. i actually had a blogger blog, and had it running for about 2 weeks. and i could not get it to work. i had all sorts of problems, on my shop's computer, and at home. and i asked them for help quite a few times, but never got any response. so, i moved to typepad, and have been happy ever since, bar this issue. whenever i have asked for any help on any issue, typepad has responded, mostly on the same day, and they have always tried to resolve my problems, even with the billing issue.

so, i'm all paid up for another year, and oil has been poured on stormy waters. besides, moving a blog is almost impossible. so, back to full-steam blogging! it will take more than this issue to get me to shut up...

 

i made this watch more than 2 years ago, from instructions in the creative reflections magazine. i still love it, but i don't wear it as all the ribbons get scratchy. so it hangs in the shop.

 

i'm off to conquer my inbox, and hopefully do some scrapping.

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

loren, and trouble in blog-land...

christina, this post is especially for you...

this layout was done by one of my clients, loren, in a workshop i presented recently. this layout was originally designed by liza. her version and mine can be seen here.

 

the couple in the photo are loren's grandparents. this layout is hauntingly beautiful, simple and soft and romantic. as usual, the photo does not do it justice.

i have to thank you for your sweet comments on my post yesterday. it's so nice to have you all popping in, and to know that if something were to happen to me, someone would notice. even if it took a whole week before anybody missed me... :-) thanks ineke, tracy, stefanie, cathy, loraine, jacqui, hayley and sophia. you are so sweet!

from end august i have been trying repeatedly, constantly, to pay my blog subscription fee. there was a problem with it, and my card details would not go through. it was the same account i used last year, just a new card with a new expiry date and security code. my bank told me that they saw the transaction, and approved it, they even gave me an authorization code so typepad could try to put it through manually. during a 6 week long constant conversation with them about it in my help ticket, typepad admitted that the problem was on their side, and they promised that they would not suspend my blog. but on tuesday they did. my blog was suspended as though i was a tardy payer!

eventually, in desperation and frustration, i borrowed someone's credit card, and paid using that. so, now my blog is re-instated. my happy relationship with typepad has not been re-instated though, i'm still soooo annoyed and grumpy!

if my payment had gone through the first time i tried, it would have cost me about R100 less, as the rand has weakened considerably in the last 2 months against the dollar. so, all in all, this experience has cost me a lot of money, even more time and aggravation, and has tainted my blogging experience. uggg!

enough ranting. i spent time investigating blogger and moving my blog to them, so i know more about that. and i used all this extra time to do lots of scrapping, and i made cool cards. i have photographed them, and have lots of material for new posts to come.

love, jacki

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

free online class with jessica sprague

this looks great! i'm in...

 

you can find more info here.

love, jacki

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

only one post in more than a week...

did anyone miss me?

did anyone notice i was gone?

did anyone file a missing persons report?

does anybody care?

hellooooo.... is anybody out there?......

christmas is coming...

 

i edited this photo of marni over the weekend. i'm not sure what i did, i just played. i really like it.

last week i played a little with making christmas cards, but i didn't get far, as i cannot feel the christmas spirit yet. then yesterday i went to a teacher's class (yes, we teachers go to classes too. we also need an inspirational kick in the butt), and we did a christmas layout. there is no more denying it, christmas is coming..

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

photoshop trick

i found a little tutorial on allie hoops' blog today. you can download a grungy clipping mask, and use it on a photo. i used it here:

 

because i'm one of those people who believes that if it worked well once, it will work double as well twice, i then put jessica sprague's grunge mask over it:

 

i wish there was a mask we could use to soften the edges of real life. then i would not be so sad today over my dear friend anne's devastating news.

rinse and repeat until you are rougher around the edges than amy winehouse:

 

ok, enough of that. i could keep doing it all morning, but i think you get it...

 

thanks allie!

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa

camping

going on holiday is not an option right now, so sean has been camping in his tent in the garden.

 

you see that door just to the right of his tent? that is our bedroom. he is closer to us in his tent, than when he is when he is sleeping in his own room.

 

a twelve-year-old's version of independance...

edited to add: he has slept there a few nights, cathy. and yes, kota, my 22 year-old lives in a flat on my property too, and he is only a little further away from us. during the week he lives on campus, though.

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbook shop, benoni, gauteng, south africa