Dare Devil!!

Hello to you all!

I have been busy these last few days...with what you ask....!!! Well just nothing in particular but busy doing the usual mummy, housey stuff along with creating this LO based on this room. It was all part of the challenge provided to us at Bons. Such a great room to draw lots of inspiration from. Not only did I draw inspiration from the colours, but the circle patterns in the cushions, the door frame inspired me to use a portrait photo, the chandelier was the inspiration I needed to use the cute little butterfly at the top of my photo.

We had a lovely relaxing weekend, my two sisters Anita and Leonie came down for the day on Saturday was was just wonderful to see them again as always. So we all bundled up in the car for our first ride under the Brisbane River in the Clem 7 tunnel! So much fun was Riley's words!! Can't stop talking about it. It took us out at Bowen Hills and we came back around and wandered thru Fortitude Valley at some of the lovely shops. Also on the weekend we took the boys to the beach (gold coast) for a fun afternoon run around...they LOVED it. Here are a few unedited photos of our few hours down there.

Well not long till our holiday...two more sleeps is what I have been hearing all day from Riley!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Thanks heaps for stopping by too :-)

Love

Min xo

Loving this...

kit I got from Bons Scraps. Bon puts together the most amazing kits each month and they usually sell out within a few minutes!!!!! The March Boy kit had a set of these Five Kids and a Dog thin chipboard diecuts in them along with this gorgeous blue glimmermist.

This is another LO using her kits.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!!! We aren't doing much, although a couple of my sisters could be coming which will be fantastic! We also want to take the boys thru the Clem 7 tunnel this weekend which is a new tunnel under the Brisbane River joining the south and north sides of Brisbane. Brad went thru it the other day for work and said it was great and cuts down alot of time. Riley loves going thru tunnels at the moment so his eyes will be sparkling with excitement when we do!!! Its free until the beginning of April so might as well hey! There is also a Craft Expo at Southbank Convention Centre....hmmmm will I go???!!

Have a great weekend!!

Love

Min xo

Just a BOY!!

Hello everyone,

Riley is just a typical boy who loves the outdoors. We spend hours every day outside playing in the sandpit, jumping on the trampoline, having a swing and just exploring in dirt and rocks. I am one of 5 girls (no brothers) so having boys is really different for me, they think differently and play differently, but one thing that is the same between myself and my boys is the GREAT OUTDOORS! We all love being outside.

This LO was based on the sketch provided to us on Tuesday night at Bons CC.

We had to use a large photo, at least a 5x7, a border around the page (mine is a stamped border), Kraft or raw chipboard and at least 3 sentences of journalling.

Love
Min xo

Feeling Inspired!!

Do you find that there are so many challenges and gorgeous creations out there that are really inspiring, that you are not sure where to start?? Well I have been recently inspired to create this LO for the Kraft It Up challenge blog, using Kraft of course and mixed alpha title. The LO that inspired me was this one created by the extremely talented Felicity Wilson! :-) I loved her use of the chippie tree (designed by Leeann Pearce) which I have had in my stash for ages now. I love how it came up when I sprayed glimmermist over it! Thanks Flis for inspiring me!

March Write Now challenge at Bons was to create a LO based on a question and answer. Also included in the LO we had to use Kraft cardstock, chipboard, masking with glimmermist. Do you love my one eyed frog!!?? Finlay decided he loves frogs too and had a go at attempting to eat it...so one eye has disappeared, was all too mangled to try and re-attach!! I decided to leave it like that for a quirky look!

Using some of the yummy March Boy Kit from Bons.

Bons CC was on last night and there are some fantastic challenges for me to complete! I really feel in the mood to scrap so I better get off here and start. The photography challenges also started today.....today's prompt is something with orange....hmmm will have to see what I can come up with!

Hope you are all having a great week!

Love

Melinda xo

Lots of Yummies

to win HERE!!! How fantastic is her stuff not to mention her gorgeous creations!

Pop on over to check it out!

Love
Min xo

WHAT....

are you doing next Tuesday the 23rd March 2010?? I hope you will join me and all the other lovely ladies from Bon's for their monthly CYBERCROP!!!!!!!


Details are:

8.45pm - Sketch Challenge
9.05pm - Bingo
9.15pm - Scraplift Challenge
9.30pm - DT Challenge

3hours earlier for Perth
1hour earlier for Queensland
30mins earlier for South Australia

Register HERE for for an evening of fun. There will also be a daily photography challenge with new prompts everyday and a blog train ride.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

Love
Min xo

WANT TO WIN THIS???!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!! You have to check out my friend Lou's blog!! She has finally posted her 100th post and has this amazing RAK or RAKS to giveaway!!! All you have to do is leave a comment and post her giveaway on your blog. So easy!! Plus Lou is an amazing and extremely talented scrapper, you will love looking at all her gorgeous creations!! I am always so inspired by her work.

Hope you are all enjoying your week :-)

Love

Min xo

Mr Bouncy!

Is the name we used to call Finlay whenever he got in his jolly jumper!! He just loved it and would just spend ages and ages bouncing up and down, no wonder his legs were strong enough to be walking at 9 months! So with this sketch and the extra criteria, which was use Mr in the title, painted circles and paint smear, I knew this was the perfect photo to scrap!!

My take on the sketch provided by Felicity from Bons.

I think I have said it before but I am loving paint and bright colours at the moment!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great week :-)

Love

Melinda xo

Stuck...!!

I started off this week really wanting to scrap, but just had lots of things to deal with, lizards in the house, bats living in our outdoor umbrella just to name a few, I lost all creativity....so I thought why not start off doing a sketch or too to get me going again. Do you ever have moments like this?? So I made a visit to Stuck?! Sketches and created this LO using the March 1st sketch. Seeing as tho, it was Finlay's first taste of solids, I wanted to do some messy painting in the background to give it that messy feel...loving bright colours at the moment. Using some gorgeous Basic Grey PP that Felcity had sent me! Thanks Flis :-)


Since then I have completed two more LO's, if I get a chance, if the paint will dry quick enough I will pop them up later.

Happy Friday :-) enjoy your weekend!

Love
Melinda xo :-)

PS. Check me out in the latest Scrapbooking Memories Vol 12 No. 3 page 83...I had my first LO published!! Wahoo!!!

One Year Ago Today

....well what was I doing???


I had just made a huge decision to go back to work and put the boys in daycare every Friday. It wasn't an easy decision as Finlay was only 5 months old. Before Riley was born I was a PA to a big corporation here in Brisbane and I was on maternity leave for 12 months. When Riley was 10 months old I made the decision to not go back to that firm but I had been asked by Brad's uncle, who owns an electrical company, to help him out with his bookwork. I accepted as it was only one day a week and I was able to take Riley into work with me up until I had Finlay. I took a break from this, not really knowing whether I would return or not, but I was approached again by Brad's uncle when Finlay was 5 months, Riley had just turned 2, to see if I would be interested in coming back. I hummed and arhhed for a while, not really knowing what to do because my heart really wanted to be at home for my boys but having a day out of the house and doing something productive and not thinking about baby stuff was really appealing as well as I really wanted to keep up my administrative skills!! So I left the decision up to one little factor. One of Brad's relations runs a home daycare from her house, in which she is only allowed to look after 4 children at a time. I rang her to see her availability and she happened to have 2 spots available on a Friday. I stilled hummed and arrhed but knew if I was going to do this, that she would be the best person to look after my babies especially Finlay. And from that day, the boys have not missed me once and they still look forward to going there every Friday. So this time last year, I was doing a bit of nail biting, trying to get stuff organised for the next day (friday) and still wondering if I was doing the right thing....I think all mothers go thru this stage at some point hey!



Scrapping wise, I had two babies under two, so once Finlay was born scrapping was out of the picture for me for a while, but this time last year I finally dragged out my scrapping supplies and had started to scrap some of Finlay's first photos when he was born. I probably scrapped 1 LO every 2 weeks and never really heard of online challenges and forums, let alone BLOGS!! hahaha!!!

Today....

I don't work at the moment, but the boys still go to daycare and LOVE it!! I spend my Fridays catching up with housework and definitely some scrapping time in there.

I have joined an online forum called Bons, in which I love to hang out there everyday, being inspired all the time. If I am not scrapping everyday I am thinking about what next to scrap and always have my camera charged and ready to take photos.

Its funny how much can happen and how many changes are in ONE YEAR!! And there was probably oodles more to add but won't bore you!! haha!!

What did you do this time last year??

Here are some a couple of LO's I did this time last year. Do you think I have changed!!??

Thanks for the challenge Flis :-)

Love

Melinda xo :-)

Been Sewing!

Hi everyone,

I am so sorry for neglecting you all lately....I have had so much happening that I really haven't had a chance to get on the computer....can you believe that!!! Neither can I!!! haha!!

Well a few weeks ago Charm held a free class at Bons. We were warned it had lots of stitching in it so I couldn't wait to tackle this one. I decided that I am not a brilliant circle sewer but I guess the messier the better hey! Makes it look more interesting. I have had these cute photos of Finlay at 3 months for ages and just didn't know how to scrap them...I know, silly hey but seeing Charm's example, ideas and colours just came to me. I really liked how it came out. Something different for me.

I have done a couple of other LO's just recently but not enough time to upload them today.

Watch out for tomorrow's post. I will be telling you all about what I was doing 1 year ago!! Felicity from Bon's has challenged us to think and write about what we were doing one year ago and what we are doing today to see our progression!

I have a full pizza box from Bon's that arrived yesterday with some gorgeous new products to play with from some of my recent winnings....so I can't wait to do some scrapping!

Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes for Riley. He had a fantastic day despite it being rainy, will up load some pics soon.

Better go and get some things done. Hope you are all having a great week!

Love

Melinda xo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RILEY!!!

Happy Birthday to my darling little boy!! Riley is 3 today and I thought I would go down memory lane and see how much he has grown. So here are a few pics of my little boy. Hard to believe he was so small!

Taken the day we left hospital.

Riley at 6 months.

His 1st birthday. Proud big brother at 19months.

Being 2 was all about trucks, tractors and dirt!!

Just a photo I took the other day.

Well its wet again today, so we will have to put off doing any outside activities or going anywhere, but it won't worry Riley as he has his cupcakes to eat and my parents are coming for the day. He loves spending time with Grandpa and Grandma!

Will share some pics later of his day. He is having a little party but it is in a few weeks time to fit in with others in the family.

Have a great Tuesday!

Love
Min xo

A New Month!

Hello everyone,

Yep, pinch and a punch today....can't believe its March already!! I love the beginning of a new month it brings around another lot of challenges and fresh inspiration!! But most of all its RILEY'S birthday month!!! He will be 3 tomorrow!!! My little boy is growing up so fast!

Well to end off the month of Feb I actually managed to finish off the last two challenges at Bon's.

For the sketch challenge, extra criteria was to use clouds, hearts (cause it was heart month) and to stamp with paint. I have this awesome mouse mat that looks like a big water splat, so much to Brad's disgust, I snuck it away and covered it in paint to get my big fat water splat!! I really loved how it came up!! Watch out for more paint from me this month cause its extra criteria on the sketch challenge for March at Bon's.

This was my second attempt at the Write Now challenge at Bons. My first attempt was a-okay but not 100% happy with it so seeing as tho I had the time and inclination I gave it another shot....and no, you don't get to see my 1st attempt!!! hehehe!!

We had to take inspiration from this quote "A hundred hearts would be too few for all my love I have for you" (author unknown). Such a heartfelt quote I decided to use the whole quote in my LO. I then wrote about how motherhood isn't just black and white, there is lots of grey in there but thru it all I love my boys to bits and wouldn't change a thing.!! It felt so great to write these feelings down.

Well its raining here today and looks like it is predicted all week so I will have to think of extra things to entertain the boys...as they are real outside boys they get quite bored or should I say into mischief for long periods inside!!! I am off to make cupcakes once the boys wake up. Riley wants to help decorate...hmmmm that will be interesting ! :-)

Thank you everyone who pops by and leaves a comment. Really brightens up my day :-)

Have a great week!

Love

Melinda xo