Here a just a few pictures from our weekend away. Some of them are a bit blurry - must of been having a senior moment:-)

I just love Picasa - just for the collage.

I am also very excited because my package for the journal swap FINALLY arrived at it's destination...Yippee

Take care and I will try to add another update soon.

Mel

xx

What a great long weekend we've had. We headed off on Saturday to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. We stayed at a lovely caravan park at Blackheath and despite the crappy weather we all had a fantastic time.

On Sunday we went to the Jenolan Caves which I have never been to. They were absolutley fantastic. We only visited one cave, the Imperial, but we all loved it. The kids felt like they were explorers and had an absolutle ball. I was a bit worried that I would be too physically unfit to walk the steps but I coped ok. There were about 300 steps in total and it didn't really seem like that many.

After that we went to Scenic World and did the train and skyway. The kids loved the train - who doesn't and the skyway was ok except that it was really foggy and we couldn't really see much. But the kids had a great time and that's the main thing.

Rukiah wanted to see the three sisters ut when we went over to Echo Point it was so foggy we couldn't see a thing:-( Oh well, we have 50% off another Jenolan tourt so next time we will go back and see them - I don;t think they are going anywhere!

On Saturday we are heading off for a little holiday to the Gold Coast. We are spending 3 nights in Coffs and then 7 nights in Southport. Really looking forward to it. We aren't doing all the parks, just Dreamworld and the new White Water World. NOt sure what else we are going to do but I am sure we will find things to entertain ourselves.

I have recently also discovered digital scrapping. While I am a dedicated paper scrapper and always will, I do enjoy the digital and hybrid element of scrapbooking - no mess. Because I don't have my own scrapping room, every time I want to scrap I have to pull everything out. I hate the cleaning up element and the fact that I have to say over and over again to my kids - no touching, be careful etc. It drives me (and them I'm sure) quite mad.

So below are a few digi layouts that I have done

I am also, obviously, a bit of a photoshop girl. I love that I can take a not so good photo and alter it in photoshop so that it becomes an okay one. I also love the hybrid scrapping factor which I used with my grief and loss journal. I only have elements 4 and really need to upgrade but at the moment its okay for me.

The photo above and belowI removed the background and added a flood filter to create the effect.

Can't remember what I did to the one above but I like the effect.

Love to know what you think

I will update when I have some photo's of the Blue Mountains trip.

Till next time,

take care

Mel

xx

I am blessed

Well, I thought that I would show you some pics from the very talented and kind hearted ladies on the SBM forum. I asked if anyone was willing to help me to scrap some photos of beautiful Shelby to help compile an album.

The response from the ladies was overwhelming. I cannot express how grateful I was to the huge repsonse. the kindess and genersoity from these women has helped in not only restoring my faith in the genuine compassion of some people, but has aslo helped me along my journey.

So I thought that I would share some of the beautiful layouts from these women.

I must apologise in advance. I should have written down who did what layout when they returned home, but of course I didn't. Some of them I remember, some of them I don't. So if I don't give you credit, leave a message and I will edit it to add your name.

Also some of my photography skills need polishing and therefore do not do the photo justice. All of the alyouts that were created are beautiful and a wonderful way of honouring a beautiful soul....Shelby

The photo in the bottom centre was created by the talented Lisa (aka Scrapwitch). There is also another one which I will add in another collage. The other photos were created by the divine Tracy. She created a stunning album cover as well as creating some beautiful pages. The page that is entitled Welcome Girl (bottom right) has a mini book of photos. I didn;t take a photo of each of the booklet pages but it is there and it is divine. The little poem that Tracy inlcuded on the inside cover bought tears to my eyes.

Thank you so much girls for helping to honour the memory of Shelby. Because of you guys and the other wonderful ladies at SBM, the memory of Shelby will live on, long after I have gone to join her.

I will post the photos of the others, probably tomorrow or early next week. They are all uploaded, just need the time to load them on the blog.

Till next time,

take care,

Mellinda

xx

My obsession

It's Day 5 of school holidays here and so far, so good. We went to see Beverly Hills Chiuauha (sp) yesterday. I was pretty dubious to say the least but Rukiah (DD age 9) was desperate to see it. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it. A bit corny and a bit predictable, but a bice feel good funny movie. Even my boys enjoyed it and they much prefer Ben 10!

I have a new obsession. I go through phases where I become fixated on something and spend hours endlessly researching and often buying (to the detriment of my bank account). My constant obsession is scrapbooking - of course but the focus of that will change. For a while it was clear stamps and now I have so many I am sure I will never use them.

Lately it's magazines and books related to scrapbooking and altered art. In the last month I have purchased Becky Flecks Pagemaps, a range of Somerset Studio and Memories magazines, Claudine Helmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop http://www.collageartist.com/

The book that I am now eagerly awaiting is Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts. http://www.kellyraeroberts.com/

I purchased that book from here http://www.bookoto.com/. Only $10US postage to Australia and they arrive really quickly, much quicker than Amazon.

Talking of Amazon, I am also awaiting a purchase from them but it takes forever!!

I really must stop! It's great to have inspiration but I seem to buy these books and then never use them. I guess I'm just a hoarder by nature. I keep everything. I even have my school books from when I was in primary school!! Now that's hoarding lol. Maybe someday my kids or my grandkids will be grateful that I have kept and treasured (yep hoarded) all of this stuff.

Do you have an obsession or are you a hoarder?

Till the next post,

take care

Mellinda
xx

I Know I Know I Know...I'm slack!

Well it has been a while but now that it's holidays and the kids are in bed, I'm able to blog! I am in a circle journal on SBM forum on grief and loss. On the 1st January this year I lost my beautiful baby girl, Shelby, to SIDS. It has been such a challenging and tragic time in my life and that of my family's so I thoguht that part of that healing process would be to journal about my loss.

So a few of the awesome ladies on the SBM forum, who also have experienced a tragic loss that has greatly impacted on their lives, are joining me on this painful journey.

I thought that I would share what I have done so far.

This is the front cover

This is inside the front cover

This is the welcome page

These are the sign in pages titled "Angels Among Us"

Sorry, not great photography - there is a 'g' there lol

I had 2 themed pages for my journal.

The first one is "The day you went away"

The journaling is very personal but I will share it here:

The day you went away....I remember it so clearly, like it was only yesterday.It was New Years Day, the kids were at Mum’s and it was just the three of us.Mum, Dad and Shelby. We were going to go out for the day, but in the end we decided to stay home. How I wish we had gone. Things may have been so very different. After putting you down for a sleep we decided to clean out the garage. So off we went. We kept coming into check on you and all seemed fine. I said to Irwan that I would just go and check on you and then I would take a load of stuff down to the Salvos.

That was the moment.

The moment that irrevocably changed our lives and the lives of our family forever. I cannot express the feeling, of walking in the room and the stillness......it was palpable.

Running to the bassinet

Picking you up

Screaming

Irwan screaming

You were gone.I tried, but it was too late.

Calling 000 waiting for the ambulance

5 minutes seemed like an eternity

Finally, they arrived and with them came hope

But then, hearing those words....it’s too late, she’s gone

The feeling of unimaginable pain, unbelievable sadness, of disbelief, anger, blame.

But it will never change the fact that you are gone.

The day you went away was and always will be my darkest hour

The second page is themed "Lessons Learnt"

Love to hear your thoughts

xx

Some of my work

Well, 2 posts in one day. I am committed....

I have finished my journal spots for a swap and I will put them here. Mine are nowhere near as creative as some of the others but I guess we all have to start somewhere.

The first two I 'cheated' and actually bought them off etsy:)

These, I made myself, but I made a copuple of extra bits to make up for my limited creativity this time round

One of them is with cardstock and the other is with a transparency. Both are stamped of course.

The pink one is made with cardstock, a stamp and kindy glitz. the other 2 are transaprencies. They aren't very clear, especially the butterfly. I'll work on those posting skills.

Just wanted to post these because I promised.

I will add some pics of my journal when (and if) I ever get it finished.

Have a good one,
Mel
xx

Woo hoo, it's Friday

Now it's officially only 2 weeks till school holidays. Yippee!!! Can't wait till they're here. Not that I have anything really special planned. We are going to Canberra to visit a friend for a few days and then to the Blue Mountains for the long weekend. After the holidays we are all going to Queensland for a week or so so the kiddies are very excited about that:)

Not many plans for the weekend. I have some creative stuff to finish....otherwise I will be hunted down!! I will post when done. Housework - boring but necessary I suppose and time to get into my garden before it starts to look like something out of the Day of the Triffids:-)

My daughter has discovered how much fun it is to sew so I will get her started making a bag. She has picked out some fabric so it's just a matter of cutting it out and away she goes. So that's on the agenda for this weekend also.

Might do a picnic with the kids, maybe just to the park - not sure yet.

My very dear friend comes back from her 6 week European holiday on the weekend and I am looking forward to that. I have missed her terribly. Can't wait!

Anyway, have a great day and enjoy your weekend with your family.
xx