Between Cupcakes and Tea - The story of Us

(Elna, Ilsé, Val, Claudene & Benice)

The story of Elna & Benice really started in early 2008.

 Claudene, a mutual friend, saw a lovely project on Stampington's "The Studio" website and wanted like-minded paper crafters to join her in making their own versions of "The Little Book of Beauty and Inspiration".

For the best part of 2008, the three of us met every Wednesday morning, working on our books of inspiration, getting to know each other, sharing our highs and lows and planning our futures.

(Little did we know that Elna & I would travel to rural France in 2011 to pursue our mutual love of all things French and attend a workshop by Dayle Doroshow in Durfort!!)

Wednesday mornings also included a ritual of tea and cupcakes - hence the name for our blog "Between Cupcakes and Tea".

We dug into our secret stash and opened our trousseau cases, looking for our most beautiful papers, ephemera, quotes, beads and stuff that we've saved for "that special project".  Sometimes we had enough to share with the other two, but in most cases we only had one-of-a-kind.

Elna called her book "Love's Log Book" and she has already shared some of the pages with you on February 15, 2012 and February 11, 2012.

This is the cover of my Book - La Vie (Life is).

I decided to use a quote/poem attributed to Mother Teresa as my inspiration.

La Vie

 Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is costly, care for it.

Life is wealth, keep it.

Life is love, enjoy it.

Life is mystery, know it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

Here is the back cover of my book.

Please pop in again soon - Elna and I promise to share more of the pages from our "books of inspiration".

Wedding wishes

 The title of this page is Wedding Wishes.

 Those wishes don't always come true. So sometimes you need to get new ones,

or alter yours, or adjust them to the new circumstances.



Some quilting material,

a heart doily and a few buttons, make up this page.



Love guides us...

I think that is a good guide to have.Why do some people let power or greed guide them.

They sometimes lose sight of the important things, the things you cannot physically touch.

No one has all the answers. Think before you answer

and do everything with love.

As I look at these pages now, I can see a couple of mistakes I made, some

pages are better looking "layout wise" than other.

But creating them was huge fun and we all learned a lot.

  



Hope.... something that we all need, and courage...

I used to say when things where difficult...

just give me a small bottle of courage so

that I can start again tomorrow.

Today I have failed, but if I have hope and courage

I'll be ok tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

x

Love's Little Log Book

Benice, Claudine and I each made a book. Mine was named Love's Little Log Book, because of the lovely embellishment that I found and which perfectly fitted on the front page.

We used similar layouts for our pages, but our colour schemes and

styles varied quite a bit. I am only showing you a few pages at a time,

but this one I just had to share now!

This is my all time favourite quote for Valentine's day!

Can you see the shoes which I chose for chasing?

On the opposite page is an old boot that may be better suited for the chasing job!

Anyway, this is the inside of the cover page.
The butterfly was painted and then embossed with UTE to get the glossy raised effect.
I think I also sprinkled the UTE with Perfect Pearls
before heat setting.

On this page I used the gorgeous 7Gypsies ribbon and a crown from I don't know where!?
The rest of the book is coming soon...
may you have a wonderful Valentine's day.

Chasing or no chasing....

A romantic wedding in Africa

Recently we spent time with friends at Zebula.

Zebula is famous for a lot of things, and especially their elephants.

One afternoon just before sunset, there was a commotion outside our house.

An elephant parade was passing by! So we followed in a distance.

They stopped, the handlers watered the elephants down,

gave them something to eat and they waited a bit. Some saddles were rearranged

and in a distance a few golf carts appeared.

It was a bride and some bridesmaids. The barefoot bride mounted one

of the elephants and when all was set, they started moving. 

The five young elephants escorting the bride to the ceremony was a wonderful site.

I could just imagine the faces of the groom and the guests as she arrived.

 

The next afternoon it started raining. Because we had a wonderful view,

we could see the the clouds coming closer and thunder storms exploding in the distance. The lightning did start a veld fire.

It burned for a few hours and then the rain doused the fire.

There is nothing like the smell of the earth after such a rain storm.

I hoped the bride and the groom stayed for a few days. This is such a beautiful place.

We spent a few relaxing days, enjoyed stunning sunsets,

wonderful animal and bird life and as a bonus

we saw a bride arriving on an elephant.