Teaching In South Africa

It was a trip of a life time! Around The Block was invited to teach in South Africa at the Scrapbooking Convention. The first thing I must mention is how warm and classy the ladies (and men) of South Africa are! Teaching the classes was an absolute joy!

The ladies in our classes were so excited to use our clever ATB tools - and they just loved the Paper Taggers. Click on any of these photos to see them in full size.

Here are some more photos from our classes.

This was actually our smallest class at only 60 students (delegates)! The rest of the classes were over 100 - and one over 130!

This amazing lady was an assistant in one of the classes. She was so nice to give me her “real South African diamond” necklace after I complimented her on it! How generous and sweet!

Mallory, accompanied me on the trip and helped me in the classes. Here we are with more of the volunteer assistants - they were amazing help!

This photo includes me, Louise, Margie Aslett Romney (Making Memories) and Glenda. Louise and Glenda were our wonderful hosts. They are the brains behind the whole convention. They couldn’t have been more helpful, organized, generous and fun!!!

There were 7 other teachers at the event whom we had the pleasure of traveling with and getting to know. Margie Aslett Romney (Memory Makers), Stacey Julian, Kai Mei Smith (Font Werks, Canada), Celine Navarro (Designer, France), Rachael Schulz (Designer, Australia), Jenni Bowlin (Jenni Bowlin Designs) and Kelly White (My Minds Eye).

This is Rachael Schulz. We had to use microphones and projectors because the classes were so large. Rachael brought along her best friend Kim to help teach. Love those Aussie gals!

Here is Jenni Bowlin teaching her class.

Jenni’s project…gorgeous!

Here is Margie Aslett Romney teaching. During our break, Mallory and I sat in on one of Margie’s classes, what a blast! She is so much fun. And I swear she could be a stand-up comedian if she ever left scrapbooking and wanted a new job! Her class was all about using the many scraps every scrapbooker has on hand and can’t bear to throw away.

This is Celine’s class. Her scrapbooking style is amazing and she taught delegates how to use paint and textures in their designs. Celine is a mega-talent, and one to keep your eye on for trends.

I wish I had some photos of Kai Meh’s, Stacy’s and Kelly’s classes. We were so busy teaching that we couldn’t get over to their’s to take photos. We heard they were just awesome classes.

As guest teachers we were asked to judge a huge scrapbooking contest. Here are a few of the many gorgeous and beautifully designed projects. Judging was difficult! This is Kelly White trying to make up her mind…Love your red shoes Kelly!

Here are more entries behind Mallory. In front of Mallory is the winning entry for the 3D Paper Sculpture contest. Can you believe this whole thing is made of paper? It was gorgeous! We absolutely loved all of the entries, but this turtle really stole our hearts. It even had working lights inside.

We attended a Gala Crop Evening as well where Stacey Julian gave an amazing talk. Those photos to come…Also, we had a few days after all of the hard work of the classes to go on a safari! I’ll be posting those photos in the next few days.

A Must See Video

My friend Crystal sent me this video, I thought it was great and absolutely worthy of a blog post. Be sure to watch through to the end...

South Africa Preview

Mallory and I just returned from South Africa yesterday.



This is the group of amazing folks we travelled with - they were all so much fun!!! We really enjoyed everyone. Our hosts were terrific! They're in the back row, the guy in the white shirt - Gary and the lady in the red sweater - Glenda and Glenda's Aunt Val on the far right in the white top. People in our group were from all over the globe - the USA, Canada, Australia, France and South Africa.



Above is the group from Utah at the Awards Banquet. We had to speak in front of a crowd of 800 people. That's the largest I've ever spoken in front of, and yes, of course I tripped infront of everyone walking up to the stage! Just keeping it real...

We were invited to South Africa to teach scrapbooking classes at a scrapbooking convention. Here's a photo of the Scrapbooking page Mallory and I taught. The classes were so large (over 100) that I had to use a microphone and a projector.



Wow, what a trip.

Mallory said it was her favorite trip ever. Here she is in Kysna.



Some trips are just trips, this one was monumental, outstanding, extraordinary. We saw so much...Soweto, Johannesburg, a breath-taking Safari,



the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, countrysides, mountains, gorges, bungee jumping, wonderful people, breathtaking views, Garden Route drive,



Table Rock tram ride, fabulous food, Nelson Mandella and Desmund Tutu's homes, Regina Mundi Catholic Church, a Scrapbooking Store and much, much more.



These are just a few of our photos, we'll be posting more over the next week.

Yay! New Carpet

Last Friday our new carpet was installed. We put all the furniture back and re-arranged it all. We also bought a new fancy Dyson vacuum to keep it all fresh. Looks like a new home!

Go Vikings!

Tonight was Wyatt's first football game - the season opener!



Mallory and George sat with me on the sidelines to watch the game. Note phone in Mallory's hand. She sent over 12,000 text messages during the length of the game. Good thing we have an unlimited text plan.



There's Wyatt (No. 65) behind George. He's walking with his team to the sidelines for the start.



George brought along drawing materials as we had some time to wait before the game started.



Just before the game started I took this photo of Wyatt.



Some action shots.



Wyatt played defense the whole game, either nose tackle or defensive tackle. He had so much fun and stopped a lot of Cavemen from advancing.



These guys were hamming it up on the sidelines. They were Wyatt's cheering section.



Wyatt is down in the ready position.



Half time photo. He was walking by me quickly to join the coaches in a huddle.



There they go.



The Vikings didn't win. Cavemen: 14, Vikings: 0.
Maybe next time.

Next game: September 3 @ 5pm