Easy Embroidery & Emptying Out

Hi,

Just a quick update and a few photo's for your enjoyment. ;)

Christmas is just around the corner and so, we did some work in the house. We still haven't put the Christmas tree up yet....I know, it's very late.....but my Mom likes the house to be really clean and all renovations must be finished and then we can start on the tree! I guess there's no harm in that so, we tried to achieve that standard. ;)
We went through the cupboards and sorted the stuff into things that can stay, things that MUST go in the trash and stuff that can be given away or re-used.
Today, my Mom took the task of washing all the windows in the house. If you know big farmhouses, then you'd know that there are many windows and BIG ones too! Blitzy followed her around trying to "help" my Mom.

The other day, I used my embroidery machine.....oooooh, it is spectacular, really! It's amazing to see the little creation forming before your eyes. Well, I received this machine as a gift from my dear parents, a year and a half ago. I've used it plenty times but I don't remember ever blogging about it! Sorry! If you love all things creative or just like to sew, this machine is for you! They are expensive but I assure you, it is definitely worth buying. As usual, inquisitive little Blitzy was at my side, staring at the machine. I had to discourage her from getting close to the machine as it could be dangerous for those little paws of hers. Anyway, sleep tugged at her eyes and she decided to take a nap on my material, it's actually the backing for the garment.

Alright, I'll end here and by the time the weekend rolls around, I should have another post for you guys.

God bless and take care,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

Blitzy on the backing or "embroidery stabilizer" as the professionals call it. ;)

 

A design I did on one of my shirts. 

Another naughty stunt from Curly! 

And here....

                    A big gekho entered our home at some point and it drove Blitzy crazy, she tried to hunt him but he managed to escape!

I just thought that Blitzy's eyes looked so beautifully green here!

My Mom made lentil soup (dhal) & I made the dumplings! ;)

Delicious Pies & a Daring Duo!

Howdy! 

Today I baked some mini-blueberry pies! I used bluberries that were grown right here on the farm. The pies were delicious if I do say so myself. ;)

I didn't want the juice to ooze out of the pies like that but my Dad claims that they are more appetizing this way!

  

On Friday, we visited our grandparents in Durban, it's about 45min away from us. We try to visit at least once a month or so. This time, my Grandmother was not well at all so, we took her to a hospital in Pietermaritzburg which is the town that's just 10 min from Claridge. It was better that my Gran was closer to us so that my parents could care for her. They went to the hospital 3 times a day and it did leave them quite tired at the end of the day. Thankfully, my Gran gained more strength as each day passed and on Tuesday, the doctor discharged her from hospital. My Gran was rather homesick so, my parents took her back to Durban yesterday. It was a surprise for my grandfather and he was quite excited to have her back at home! They are inseparable, really. We're glad that my Gran is on the road to recovery and is taking it one day at a time. We are praying for her.

Here at the Claridge mission, there are devotions twice a day, in the morning and evening. Well, one night, after we had returned from devotion, I looked around for Curly. She would usually race to the door to go outside when we arrive but this night she was quiet........too quiet. So, I slowly peeped around the corner of our dining-room to find her curled neatly on top of the couch! How naughty! She wasn't the only offender though, on the seat of the couch was an adorable little ginger bundle. It was Joshy! These 2 seemed to have planned to be naughty together. It was a case of "I-won't-tell-if-you-don't".

Sadly, we had to end that little party! Blitzy was the only well-behaved one, for once!

Last week, we had a visit from Kenzo and Lassie, they're so sweet! They came to see Curly, actually. Then, Blitzy sauntered up to the gate and Kenzo made a run for it! Lassie raced off too, then slowly came back to catch a glimpse of this little kitty. It's really funny to watch them run away from a small little creature like her. ;)

Geniet die foto's!

That's Afrikaans for "Enjoy the photo's!" 

Afrikaans is similar to Dutch, in case you were wondering.

God bless,

Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡ 

Blitzy, so innocent.

The daring duo!

Joshy did not seem to care at all!

Curly's "visitors" on the other side of the gate. ;)

Lassie peeping from a distance.

Catching Up, Chocolates & Cookies & a Clever Monkey!

Hey,

I don't have much news since my last post but I just decided to share a few photo's. ;)

We are already into the month of December! Time flies! With Christmas just a few weeks away, everyone is getting into the festive mood. We haven't put our Christmas tree up just yet but hopefully we will get around to doing that soon!
Well, my parents' clients and employees have already given us early Christmas gifts! We had received so many gifts from them last year and this year was no different! Many boxes of chocolates and cookies and other sweet things.

I think I can safely conclude that summer has reached Claridge for good though we do experience a few cooler days inbetween........I receive those days with two hands! I really do prefer cool, even cold, days with lots of rain and mist.....yep, that's me! However, I've learnt to enjoy all seasons!

This week I got to reconnect with an old friend from New Zealand! We used to live in Auckland, New Zealand when I was little. Now there's a fun fact that you didn't know about me! Or did I already mention it at some point? Perhaps so, anyway, this friend of mine is my age and it was really nice to hear where she was in life, academically and spititually. Her name is Esther Koshy and she was happy to hear that I knew another Ester, just without the letter "h". The other Ester was recently married, I posted about that last month. Anyway, this Esther and her family were family friends to my family whilst we lived in New Zealand. We tried to keep in contact as we grew up, Esther and I were almost 5 years old when we returned to South Africa. Yes, we were quite small!! We would send letters periodically and then we began emailing each other not long after we moved to Claridge. Then, life got busy and I'd say that we both just didn't get a chance to email one another! Like I mentioned above, we reconnected this week and have made the time to catch up a bit! We exchanged photo's too, that reminded me how the years have just flown by!

Oh! I almost forgot! Yesterday, a big monkey was at our door, my Mom saw him and tried to chase him away but he wasn't scared at all! The monkeys that live here are used to people to some extent. Most times, they'd run away when they spot you but there are some braver ones that don't seem to care at all! So, later on, just Caleb and I were at home. We heard a soft nudge against the gate. I decided to check it out, I walked right to the gate and there was another monkey! He had lifted up our rubber mat and carefully laid it against the gate, that's the noise we had heard! He didn't even notice me approaching him and was indulging himself on the beetles and other little bugs that were underneath the mat! I tried clapping loudly, he did get a shock but wasn't afraid of me. He just stared and lazily walked away and climbed up our Litchi tree! How smart and brave! Unfortunately, I didn't have my tablet or phone on hand to take a photo of the monkey! This morning, the birds rushed for the bugs. We dont usually have many bugs in that spot but since it's Summer now, they have started to come during the night. Lots of them come after it has rained too.

Hmmm......what started out as a short post ended off as being a decent sized one, I would say!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

The gifts!! Yum, yum, yum!

The beautiful bags they came in. ---->

I have no idea why Joshy chose this specific spot to sleep!

Blitzy relaxing at the window.

The monkey's smart thinking!

Beautiful birds enjoying the leftover bugs this morning. Sorry for bad quality!

Sketching and Sewing Some Skirts :)

Hello!

I greet you from sunny South Africa!!

Summer begins next month for us and one can feel it warming up, some days are quite hot actually.

I sewed my first real thing all on my own....... :) I mentioned my new sewing machine in an earlier post and this week, I decided to try out my sewing skills! I made a peasant style skirt.
Then, yesterday, my Mom taught me how to sew 2 little skirts for Sne and Grace, who live here on the mission too. Grace is 3 and Sne is 4.
I've just got one problem......I use a chair while I sew of course and every time I get up, little Blitzy races to claim that specific chair! I tried bringing another chair for her but it didn't work, she wants THAT one. I use it because it's just the right height for my desk but Blitzy thinks it's perfect for her too.
This week, I also did some sketching.....I was in a "Victorian mood" so to say, so I drew something along those lines. In August, I drew a cat hunting a bird, I included the deck that my Dad is building in my drawing.

Since it is the end of the year, we have been busy sorting through things and giving stuff away that we do not need. I didn't realise how many clothes I had accumulated over this year! Blitzy was of course poking her nose into everything!

I'd appreciate it if you don't use the photo's of my sketches without proper accreditation and permission from me. You can find my email address on my Google+ page. Thanks for the co-operation!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

My first skirt!!!

Sne's skirt

Grace's skirt 

Cat hunting a bird on the deck.

My Victorian inspired sketch.

It was cold one day last week and Blitzy was already plastered to the heater!

Blitzy "helping" me to sort though stuff.

Queen of the chair!

I wonder where she ran off to now.........

A Spectacular Play & a Surprised Jackal!

Hello,

I just wanted to give you a short update for this week.
Okay, on Saturday evening, we headed for the main mission in Kranskop for the school play, the mission's school, that is. It's Domino Servite School, you can take a look at their website : www.dss.org.za

Anyway the high school students did a stage performance of "A Christmas Carol" and it was spectacular!! The props, costumes and the set was so realistic and beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any photo's but if you keep an eye on their website, they should upload some photo's soon. I'm sure that the main mission website will upload some too. For those of you who don't know that website, it is : www.ksb.org.za
Last year, Cedar College of Education did a play, I'm not sure if I mentioned it on my blog before or not. You can see some photo's from that play on CCE's website which is : cedar.org.za
Renate was the lead in that play by the way!! It was also very well done!

Anyway, back to Saturday, the play was at 7 in the evening and due to travel time, we arrived home at about 23:00! Quite late! So, as we were coming up our driveway, we saw a jackal! Yes, a jackal! I didn't even know that there were any in our area. Well, when he saw that he had some onlookers, he ran into one of the greenhouses next to our house. We decided to leave him alone as he (or she) wasn't really doing any harm. He was just as surprised to see us. If you've never heard of a jackal before, it's a bit like a cayote. You should Google it. ;)
We tend to miss lots of wildlife that visit our farm during the night and early morning, thankfully we were right on time to see that little guy! ;)

Claridge has received lots of rain lately and we are very thankful for that. Though, we continue to pray for the rest of South Africa, I heard that the Free State is very, very dry....animals and plants are dying.

I don't have any photo's for you guys this time unfortunately!

May the Lord bless you,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

Sewing, Storms and Some Hail

Hi there!

We are so thankful for the rain we have received this week!! Though, don't stop praying for the rest of South Africa, which is very dry. It has been cold this week, we had to even use the heater!

My parents bought me a lovely sewing machine recently and I've been trying it out! My Mom will give me proper lessons soon, she is very talented with sewing. Actually, my grandmother on my Mom's side and my Mom's aunts from that side are all gifted with sewing! Also, my grandmother on my Dad's side was a dressmaker so, sewing runs in the family as does knitting, embroidery and all sorts of needlework. I'm glad that I've received this love for needlework too and all crafty things, Iike sketching and card-making.

Anyway, today we had a short but powerful storm!! My Dad had just finished some work that he was doing on the roof when the storm arrived, the deck had also just been oiled. There was heavy rain and thunder, a bit of lightning and also hail! Claridge has had hail often actually though this year, we didn't see a lot of it. Thankfully, the hail stones were small.

Curly and Joshy had instantly gone into fear mode when the thunder sounded but little Blitzy was so hyperactive then! One time, Joshy just sat all solemnly outside the room, with that worried look on his little ginger face. Then, Blitzy raced down the hallway, bounced against the wall and onto him! As she flew towards him, she shot her skinny paws up and it knocked into Joshy's chest! Poor Josh! He just hissed at her and ran away, he doesn't like to show Blitzy that he is worried or afraid.
The storm lasted only a few minutes and then it stopped and the kids calmed down, including the wild little one, Blitz.

Kenzo came to visit Curly, she was so excited, she hadn't seen him in quite a while!

Anyway, here are a few photo's for you to enjoy!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

P.S You see? I am updating more often now. ;)

Curly, caught during a yawn ;)

Blitzy tightly curled up due to the cold.

Blitzy on her shelves at night, I'm trying to sleep whilst she burns her energy off!

Kenzo and Curly

She's so scared during storms!

My Mom made a delicious stew for us!

The hail, bad quality picture, sorry.

More flowers have bloomed!

 Hydrangeas, one of my favorite flowers!

Little Lassie, fooling around!

An Early Morning Visitor

Hey everybody,

I just thought I'd share these photo's with you guys.....

On Monday morning, at about 05:40, my Dad and I saw this beautiful sight through the window in our lounge! How lovely? :) ♡

Oom Peet says that she is a Duiker, (we're presuming it's a female). My Dad and I initially thought it was a Grey Reedbuck. We saw Duiker at Kruger National Park too, we're so priveleged to have this beautiful creature visit our farm. We have seen other buck and deer come to Claridge previously but not for a while. Sorry that the photo's are not too clear, we didn't want to startle her by opening the window.
Oh! It rained on Monday and Tuesday this week! God is so faithful and good to us. We are very thankful!

Now, I am off to plant those rose cuttings from my Mom's beautiful bouquet!

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡ ♡ ♡

P.S. I hope you like the new header! ;)

Grazing near our flower patch.

She still looks young.

Here, she is standing in front of the deck that my Dad is building.