Finally citizens!

On July 27th, 2006, a very great day happened for our family: we finally became Canadian citizens!

We came from South Africa to Ontario, Canada, on June 1997 and have settled in to live here, to make friends, to create a support network and to learn to love our adoptive country. Before we stepped off the plane that day in June, we could sing the Canadian anthem, knew the provinces and capital cities, knew the names of the prime ministers, premiers and other officials. We were determined to work as hard as needed to fit in, to embrace everything, from the snow we had never seen at that point, to the lakes which we were unfamiliar with.

Now, after nine years, we can finally call ourselves Canadian. We are grateful to everyone who helped in whatever manner to make us feel at home, to accept us, to love our recipes and food we brought with us, to share in picking up some words from our language, Afrikaans, to embrace us and to create a family for us.

We could not love Canada more if we were born here. That doesn't mean we have sworn off South Africa, because we are what we are, and we are a part of all we have met and everywhere we have been.

If any digital scrapbookers are reading here, would you like to receive a link to a few elements I've created (from the Country Styles Gingham kit) to help make a thank you card by tomorrow, July 31st? I can't seem to think how to put the items together to just drop in a picture on a 6x4 inch size card!
Email me, if you have questions.

If you want to download the items to create a template for a thank you card, please go to the link below. It will be live for two days only, until July 30th (EST). All I ask, is that you post a comment, preferably with your blog link if you have one, when you snag the freebie! When you have created a template, please email it to me.

Preview of what you download is here if you want to take a look first.
Download link (16 Mb) after you have posted a comment is here.
Thanks!

Preview of the Trillium Quickpage

Sorry all - guess something got eaten somewhere! To the right is the sample of the freebie regarding the Trillium post (see below).
There are two pages in the zipped file - one with title "Trillium" and poem, and one without.
Hope it would be useful to someone! (There are links to download from either Rapidshare or Yousendit)

Link to the "Save Ontario's Trillium" post on the blog:
Meerkat's Heap: Save Ontario's Trillium!


If you use a page, would you let me know where to see it, please?

Thanks!

Save Ontario's Trillium!

There are plans to change Ontario's Trillium logo, at a cost of over $200 thousand!

(Scrapbookers - see the last paragraph and thanks for sharing the news! )

Please don't just trust what I write, but follow the links to the websites below. This is NOT about political parties or politics, it is about leaving well enough alone and to rather change what is needed in the province instead of bothering with a logo.

If you know of friends or have family and friends in Ontario, Canada, please send them to this Blog address, or send the information on to them so that people can be aware of this!! (** See below for more)

Link below from where this was copied (dots left where I left out parts and my bold and italics. Read original on the link below:

>>
The Trillium is a symbol for ALL ONTARIANS .... Ontario's trillium has long been the symbol of hope and opportunity for all. The classic T-shaped logo was first used by the Ontario government more than 40 years ago. It's been used no matter which political party was in power. That is, until now. .... And he's using taxpayer's dollars and a Liberal friendly ad agency to do it. The cost - $219,000 taxpayer dollars to design a new logo.

>>To read more, please go here: http://www.savethetrillium.ca/
Click on "take action" at the top, or on Share to send it on.

**If you are a scrapbooker (digital or paper) I'll gladly send you a Quickpage in return for reading here, to use for your own pictures, which you can print and keep in an album or frame or give as a gift. Just slip your own pictures in - of a family friend, or of your own trilliums, perhaps.
To get the quickpage: Download from
Yousendit until July 28th here ;
or from
Rapidshare here - and I'll appreciate it if you leave a comment on the blog when you grab the freebie! Always nice to read who liked it enough to snag! **
The quickpage is described here in the Blog, with a link to a bigger view in a gallery. **

Stained Glass kit

Someone searched and found me, to get hold of the Stained Glass kit - glad to help, and glad you like the kit and the quickpages, Susan! Hope you enjoy the elements.

To the right is one of the pages made from the kit, but it includes 7 glass alphabets, and some coloured backgrounds, multi-coloured frames, etc. Should really get scrapping again ...

Oh yes, below is a pic of what the Stained Glass kit looks like with the other items included:

Clicking on the pic to the left should take you to a bigger view.

Clicking on the blue thumbnail above, should take you to the gallery where a bigger view is uploaded.

Have fun whatever you are doing!

Three annoyed cats

Picture of the three cats, taken Sunday afternoon after we got home from gallivanting the whole weekend. They look thoroughly fed-up with us leaving them alone, don't they?

Oscar on the left, Essie with closed eyes and Chatter just giving us his masked wonder look.

We attended the Carabram (Brampton's annual multi-cultural festival), we visited the Lucas Holtom annual fair, we sold cookbooks at the weekly Farmer's Market - it was a full weekend! Pics should be uploaded to the Picasa Web gallery soon, if anyone wants to see more.

The Ukranian pavillion was utterly wonderful when the international group visited on Sunday. The Polish pavillion was something I would have gone back to and spent many more hours at, looking at the rich costumes, enjoying the dances and the music. It reminded us a lot of the South African dances called Volkspele (folk dances), in a way, but more formal.

Link to the web albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/meerkatster/

Raining cats and dogs here --- very happy for the rasberries in the back yard! 

Had a caricature done!

Well, haven't updated this blog in ages --- life is too busy! Trying to do an update via email now.

Caught a bus to Wonderland this afternoon and met Arno there. Theo was working, and we would have had to go pick him up later anyway. We spent about 4 hours in the park and had several rides without long line-ups. Also a very leisurely meal next to the waterfall, consisting of Teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies.

I've been watching the caricature artists for a while now, and finally we did it tonight. Told the girl to have fun and do whatever she wants. Mentioned our fat cats ... and here is the result of what she did with us. The people who were watching her sketch, had a lot of fun commenting on the picture developing. We had no idea what she did until she was done, of course. Took her only about 10 minutes to do the whole thing, colouring and all.

Re the girl doing it - she must be about 19. They are all very young; last night there were about 6 of them on duty and we watched them all for a while. They are excellent, and not a one of them older than 23! Payment is per person sitting for the sketch. And you can tell them what you want your body to be.

We couldn't make up our minds. I wanted something with computers and cameras and stuff, but also mentioned our fat cats. Then told the girl to just go ahead and have fun - and she did! She's a pretty blonde, and Arno was beaming while she was sketching him, because I told him to enjoy it. Not many men can be facing a pretty blonde with a spouse next to them. LOL It drew a whole crowd, watching her. She kept telling the people behind, "Don't tell them, they don't know!"

This weekend we'll be selling the cookbooks at the Brampton Farmer's Market, and want to attend the Carabram as well.

Have a good weekend, all!