Merry Christmas from SERS!

Cathy (on right, with Anne) invited us into her home again for the SERS Christmas party for 2012.

Cathy's home is her work space and art studio too, so it's always a pleasure to be amongst the beautiful things.

We exchanged ornaments, an almost-every-year tradition since we first did it.

That little angel was made by Michelle. Her pretty translucent wings are made from the bag inside the cereal box. We love this!

This is what Michelle took home - awwww! Made by Louise (I think).

This is what I took home - thanks Cathy, it's on my tree! Look, a picture of ME on the SERS blog, that's rare.

And here's a look at the tiniest tree - a little flower pot I was decorating with flowers - with my cool ornament hanging on it.



We had yummy food too - Cathy's Melktart (South African style Milk Tart) was a highlight. Here's a recipe. I went back for more of Anne's Swedish cookies too.

Have a terrific holiday season, everyone, and see you all back at SERS on 26 January (yes, that's Australia Day).

November meeting coming up

Our next meeting is coming! Its saturday 24 November.

This photo shows a slice of amazing Malaysian cake that my workmate brought in. Also a cool colour scheme for a card - think you could pull it off?

Christmas Party 2012

Well, I've organised the Christmas party. It was a long, hard slog, but I finally

• sent a message to Cathy
• asked if it was OK to have it at her place
• she said YES!
•  and so I've finished organising.

So here's the details:

It's on 8 December 2012, at 1pm, and the location is Cathy's place. That's a private address, of course, but I can pass it on to you privately if you don't know it. Of course any SERS-goer is welcome.

We'll bring a plate of food, anything you like to bring, don't get carried away, we don't eat that much!

We'll have an ornament swap - we've done this in the past. Make an ornament, using any crafty skills you like, and everyone will go home with something new to decorate their home. I know my tree has a number of  SERS made decorations, and I do appreciate them!

As usual, if you have no time/no energy for an ornament swap, or don't know what to make, or don't even celebrate Christmas, just relax and come and socialise anyway. We always get up to some kind of mischief at Cathy's - one year we raided her old stamp catalogues for a trip down memory lane, and another year we watched a TV show about chocolate that she had saved specially!

Some people bring gifts or cards, and that's lovely, and some don't, and that's fine. I think a gift to the hostess to say thanks for offering her home is always good manners, if you can manage it.

So, does that sound fun? See you there!

September Meeting - Oh My!

Our last meeting was a most unusual one! We had some selling going on - not the usual one or two boxes, but four TABLES laden with top quality stamps. You can learn more about THAT project on the dedicated blog http://greatsouthernstampsale.blogspot.com.au/.

I bought heaps of stamps. That should keep me busy for, oh, weeks.

Joan came along, cos SHE'S needing more stamps. She invested in the big alphabet.
















Jenny's having a good browse here...


















And I brought carrot cake!

Ellen brought some of her gorgeous samples - I bought up this stamp!

One of Ellen's amazing construction cards, using the well-known Iris stamp.

Another fab Ellen sample ... I do believe I bought that stamp too...

And then we settled in for a pretty normal meeting.













Did you see I was collecting money for Hanover (who provide services to homeless people) through selling some markers and magazines? See the results here . We ended up with $110 in the box, and I donated it all. And the gold coins I badgered you for at the door - they went to paying the rent as usual.

The Great Southern Stamp Sale

Well, I've been hinting about a great event coming up, and here's the details! SERS has been approached by no lesser stamper than Ellen Eadie, to help her sell much of her magnificent stamp collection. As you may know, she has an extensive collection of PSX stamps. I mean extensive!

I'm so excited, I've set up a special blog just for the sale, so we can share this event with lots of stampers.

The link to go to is :

http://greatsouthernstampsale.blogspot.com.au/

So be a love and pass that on to stampers you know, and any other clubs or groups that would love to be involved.

The picture here shows something I coloured in with one of my own PSX stamps. I'm going to add photos of the sale stamps shortly.

So, our September 29 meeting will be extra exciting! Yes, there will still be snacks.

July meeting

Whoa, did it again, had a meeting in July, and forgot to take any photos! Well, I had a good time as usual, so let's see what we can do about blogging with no photos of the event.

Here's a sight to make stampers jealous - I went to a local op shop the other day, and found a box of stamps! These were my picks. Two original PSX stamps - sigh!

So, that's to illustrate one of the things we like at stamp club.

Here's a chocolate Lego minifig. That's one of the treats I brought along to stamp club. I made it in the mould I recently bought at Legoland California!

So, that's to illustrate that we like good snacks at stamp club.

Here's my travel journal I filled up on on a two week trip to the US. I was happily showing it off at stamp club.

So that's to illustrate two of the things we like doing at stamp club, putting stuff in journals, and talking about holidays.

And here's some stamps I saw in the US. Didn't bring them back though, they were a bit big and not for sale.


Oh, and apart from all that, Jenny coached me in using my new Spellbinders dies, and everyone made pretty things.

I'll probably get back to reporting the day more accurately next time, but this has been fun, hasn't it?

May Meeting - where were YOU?

We knew it would be a quiet meeting - the lovely Picture to Page event was running nearby, and plenty of SERS people were exhibiting, helping or visiting. So it was no surprise when then May SERS meeting looked a bit like this...

Tee hee - I was just demonstrating how to use photography to make a meeting room look desolate.

In real life it looked like this:

See, nice people helping each other to do creative things. That's what we're about.

Jenny made this...

And I made this - that's a classic Stampington stamp I just acquired second hand.

Next meeting, I won't be there! Gasp! So if you are there, do be a love and help get things set up and packed away.

See ya in July!