a stitch in a looooong time

Hi everyone...

I know I know... its been a while since I have scrapped but we have all been sick AGAIN!!!

so over it so last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the night and scrapped this one for Kraft It Up which required us to use fabric and stitching on our layouts..

I must say I went a bit overboard with the criteria, but I love how this turned out.

 And some close ups.

Lots and lots of layers in this layout (oh.... so you have layers "onion boy".... (sorry but if you know Shrek you will understand...))

first, this gorgeous fabric doilie ( yep - fabric)

and my fabric covered button which I have cross stitched this floral design into (uh huh... fabric AND stitching in one...)

and of course my fave bakers twine from here stitched onto the page...

oh and can you see the cross stitched fabric square here that is all around my bottom layer?? Told you I was up all night....

 and a closey of another handmade fabric flower and another fabric doily..
and I hand crochet-ded this all by myself!! I crochet-ded it on lace.. and yep it has lots of holes but I am pretty proud of myself... and yep it took me hours.... and double yep... crochet-ded is the action of crocheting

 more fabric loveliness

 and even  more

and so now I am going to take my poor little fingers up to bed...

thanks for leaving comments too on the previous LO big fella did.. he was so rapt to see people responding to his post... amazed actually. You made one little boy happy .Thanks for the support, it means alot!!

Happy Fathers Day

Hi to my Dad...
 I have no idea where you are right now but just wanted to wish you a very happy fathers day and I hope you caught that fish!!

Enjoy Dad!!


We had a fantastic day here, lots of fun and visitors, food  and pressies and too much to drink.... :)

think I may just crawl to the sofa and watch "The Hangover" on telly,.... a bit of a taste for whats to come eh!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL THE DADDIES!!

until next time ..............

NEW PACKS ARE IN!!

So excited to share this with you!!!

The new pack are in store at Old Favourites!!

They are all bursting with vintage charm and lots of little bits for scrapbook layouts, card and ATC's and even off the page.

 and - they are a fantastic price too!!!

The first one is

                           Love and other things  $5.95

Around the world  $6.95

Sugar and spice  $6.95

run... dont walk to get your kits at these low indtroductory prices...

 and dont forget your twine is still 30c a metre!!!

go here to start shopping and a full list of contents.....

until next time MAD MEL XXXX

Help!!! My blog has been hijacked!!!

Hi everyone!!

I am home sick again... poor mum has had me home with gastro again!!! Maybe now she will home school me!! (hee hee)
 On the 23/8/2011 it was my mum's birthday.With my own money I got her a lovely notebook 'well I thought it was",she looooooved it. I also made a card for her.

As I was saying before,I was home sick,yes home sick. Then I felt the need to scrap so I came up with this. I did this all by my self, the only help mum did was find the stuff. I'm prowd of my work.

OUT FOR PUBLICATION!!!!!

see ya

Big fella

until next time XXXX

last day to enter

to win all this loot from Purple Pumpkin!!
You know you want it ... but it would be nice if you left it for me!!!
until next time MAD MEL XXXX

Krafting it UP...

This month over at Kraft it up we had this awesome sketch to use.

love this sketch - so much you could do with it and I had the perfect photos of the boys.

Here is my layout....

I love the beach during winter - I am soooo not a hot weather girl!! The ocean is angry and rough during winter and the beach is always alot quieter which I love too. We often go to Torquay for the day - and now that we have a family house a couple of blocks from the beach (yay), we can stay overnight and go for freezing cold adventures during the night too - the boys especially love it..

the best part is spending hours finding treasures the ocean has thrown from the waves to be admired on shore, and searching rock pools for little fish and crabs.

 But its funny - even though the boys are still young, they know not to take anything with them - not even the gorgeous coloured sea weeds we find - not even a cuttle fish or a cool round stone....

 above is a close up of my paint effect (mimicking the foam from the crashing waves...???) and my gorgeous little swallow... and an eyelet...how long has it been since you used an eyelet???

and another close up ... because I can...

Oh - and the dreaded "gastro" miraculously cleared up yesterday when the man smelt choc chip slice wafting from the oven... he asked if he could have a piece ... and I just said,  "well... no... I wouldn't because you have been sooo sick, we wouldn't want to upset you tummy again..."

 Oh I am never going to heaven!!!  Hee hee hee

So as promised.. here is the pictures of THE cake from my sons 8th birthday. Yes ... it does look like a weird kind of flying shark thingo ... but if you squint your eyes really tight and tilt your head to the left ... you should give an image of "Toothless" the Night Fury from the movie "how to Train Your Dragon. {see images below..}                                                                                    I'm telling you ... my kitchen and myself was covered in blue black icing by the end of it - I thought it would be a simple task - get the sponge cake cut to size ... assemble the cake together with the icing and ice then decorate with the YELLOW jelly beans {that got eaten as soon as the kiddlywinks arrived home... so we had to change to orange..} easy right...WRONG!!!

The sponge cake left crumbs every time I dragged the spatula over the cake to ice it... then I had to completely seal all the cake so it would stay fresh ...by midnight... I didn't want to see icing ever again and got hubby to clean up the mess...

OH... and the mouth wouldn't stay open as to the blue prints I was given for the cake - so I had to stuff ... no cram the mouth open with lollies just so you could see the teeth...

But as you can see by the look on his little face, the effort was well worth it, he loved it and had a wonderful time with all his friends at the play centre...

and this is toothless the night fury from the movie....

anyway......

So Saturday night, my daughter decided to share her bout of gastro with me ... nothing like it for rapid weight loss ...yeah yeah boo hoo for me BUT... don't feel sorry for me yet ... that's not the end ...

Monday ... I got up - got the kids organised for school and mopped all the floors and did 2 loads of washing and even ironed shirts (ask Jas... that's a big deal for me..)

but wait there is more...

Hubby is sick this morning.

whats worse than a grown man who is sick??

Nothing.

especially my man..

so now he hasn't shown ANY signs of gastro....

but apparently you cant talk properly,

you walk into walls...

you have to sleep on my side of the bed...

and then to top it all off, I thought I had better check on him and so ask if he needs anything .... he asks me for a barley sugar for his mouth!!!..... ummm.... I'm sorry but its not the 1900's I don't actually walk around with boiled lollies in my pocket.... so where am I supposed to get this barley sugar from????

had to give him a dirty look and say "NO! I DO NOT HAVE A BARLEY SUGAR!!" and then swear as I walked off...

please don't feel sorry for him ... his mum will be here tonight to console him because I have NO sympathy for a sooky la la ...

how do your men handle being sick??? Are they all the same???

thanks for letting me whinge!!

hee hee hee

until next time MAD MEL XXXX

Happy Birthday!! and a STB

It so hard to imagine that 8 years ago yesterday... this little man was born... freaky looking alien who was purple, yellow, black and red...and squeaky....and very sick....

Now I have a gorgeous 8 year old... who got cuter and cuter.

Love the expression on both these little faces when he opened his present that he has been waiting for since January... when we ordered it together from ebay {gotta love ebay..}

yeah ... think he is happy!!

this little man plans his birthdays for an entire year ...list writing, maps and plans are all drawn up to make sure it goes off without a hitch... this year we had a map of where to hide all his presents around the house so it could be like a treasure hunt for him.

Cake designs are drawn and labelled right down to the last lolly decoration ... scrapped and re done, even the invitations are chosen .. friends come and go so these are also changed regularly ... all the little details are covered right down to the lolly bags... and the "present list" of course is stuck up on the hall stand next to the phone - in case anyone wants to know what he may like.(hee hee)

Tomorrow is the big play centre party ... 10 am... the smell of frankfurts and sauce wafting from the kitchen ... sticky tables and benches ... teenage girls "hosting" the party and wishing they were elsewhere... 8 year old kids very excited ... noise .... the noise... did I mention 10am ... Mummy cant wait...ergh...

now onto more fun stuff...

Scrap the boys this month gave us this cool room to draw inspiration from....

I am going to show you the close ups first

just for a change

and because I can...

the big fella was home sick during the week and so wanted to help with the scrapping I had out .. he gave me this stamp to add as an embellishment .. because the corner was ripped so its not worth anything ...Gee..thanks...

 some gorgeous twine from Old Favourites as well as the bingo card and vintage library card and playing card and carnival ticket... heap left over from this pack of vintage yumminess...

 dunno why this photo is here...but anyway...

 hidden journalling ... about how my little man went to this awesome playground on this day and wouldn't play and be silly because he felt he was to old to play along with the other kids, so he hung around with mum.
This really broke my heart to see him like this, he has since learnt that childhood does not last forever and running through a playground is really fun ... even for fat ol' daggy mum... {who really doesn't care what other people think of her getting stuck in a tunnel... and daddy taking photos... while tears of laughter roll down his face... and mummy frantically trying to call Jenny Craig.... )

I did escape... a little bruised... and embarrassed...and so now I have these beautiful photos of this beautiful boy.. and so here it is...the finished product

Off to build a dragon cake (to the design specification blue prints I was handed this morning from "the Birthday Folder") and fill lolly bags with my DD who is home sick today...devastated as she is missing out on an excursion to a farm where she could milk a cow and ride a pony ... in her NEW GUMBOOTS i bought her yesterday.... poor little thing... she has been counting sleeps for 2 weeks....

cross fingers for no more sickies tomorrow ...

have a lovely quiet morning tomorrow.... think of me.....

Awwww... one for scrap the girls

When I read the quote at Scrap the Girls for this month : 

Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it. ~Harold Hulbert

I immediately saw in my head, an image of my little princess in tears. This is becoming a more familiar face these days as she is trying to cope with school - which wears her out as she gets up at 5am to get ready, read books, play in her dolls house, make her bed and get ready for school before anyone else even wakes up!!

 No amount of threats, rewards or extra cuddles has stopped her so by 3pm pickup time, she is exhausted, and well... she couldn't possibly go to bed BEFORE her brothers ... OH NO... she will do anything to stay up until she knows they are in bed...

so I could have used any of these photos...

or even this one is so precious...

they make me feel sad and I just want to give her a cuddle but I'm sure at the time I was taking these photos... cuddles was the furthest from my mind!!
 So I am going to make a plaque with this quote to remind myself that she is only very little and soon wont want cuddles from a daggy overweight mum and I will be the one crying...

so I have decided to go with this photo and created this LO...

 I have titled it "pout" for obvious reasons

 lots of pink sass lass and blues and yellows... and a hidden journal tag in a glassine envelope from Old Favourites  with that stunning satin ribbon, the magnifying glass, green satin ribbon, twine and lace all from new kits coming soon from here

 close up of that beautiful magnifying glass, the twine and satin vintage ribbon... all from here

 cuz I can.... another close up...

and the glassine envelope carrying the journal tag and the story behind her moods lately...
She is still beautiful even when she is grumpy....

a common theme it seems...

hee hee hee!!!

TFL and please leave a comment

Chain of events....

Warning: some images may be considered disturbing - graphic photos

So here I am... sitting quietly scrapping away surrounded in my usual clutter...when I heard a disturbing noise from upstairs ... it was coming from the landing.... just near the front porch.... Can I tell you I was quite startled and a little scared as I was home alone...kids at school and hubby away .. so I quietly and cautiously went upstairs to investigate...

it was horrific!!!

Firstly I found Ken - naked again (ok..that's nothing unusual ) but he was being eaten alive by a BLUE LIOPLEURODON!!

I thought he were dead!! but nup... so I had to rescue him from the jaws off death, off to the dolls house with him to get the Barbies to bandage him up and tuck him into bed and nurse him back to health..

 Then I stumbled across a blue whale - captured by a cave man and caged behind a rickety fence, no water in sight- off to the bath tub with him!!

what??? Blue whales can live behind fences cant they??

But alas... the get away car... and don't these 2 cave men look shocked to see me as they attempt to race off with an orange raptor strapped to the back of there over sized jeep....

 and not far away ... could it be?? could it be the goose that lays the golden eggs??? A hideously humongous Goose being trapped and escorted away by yet another cave man (hmm nice boots mate - are they authentic mammoth fur??)

 And yep - of course a fight had broken out - Max from "where the wild things are" (hes always the trouble maker isn't he..) was making mischief of one kind... and another by making his mammoth (hmm...cool tatts mate - are they real or henna???) ram an innocent diplodocus us.... ANOTHER FIGHT TO BREAK UP!!

RIGHT!!!

TIME OUTS FOR EVERYONE!!!

after some counselling for the diplodocus - they all became friends ...and Max was sent on a boat and travelled over the seas and in and out of weeks to think about what he had done.

The cave men released the captured Blue Whale: and he is now fully hydrated and the overgrown goose?? Well I pocketed that for the golden eggs.... Then we went shopping for boots and tattoos ( they were fake after all ....) 

and Ken made a speedy recovery - but is still unable to wear clothes for longer than 5 minutes... He is such a FLIRTY SHOW OFF!!

soo... this is what happens when a little man gets up early and is organised for school and has time to play...

hope your day isn't filled with horror stories like mine....

Go on get picky

Hope you all had a great weekend!! We certainly did. Melbourne played up like a hormonal teenager and Saturday was cold and miserable - but perfect for our Christmas In July party ... little bit too much food and red wine but it was great fun... only every time someone else showed up at our door, the kids were hoping there would be presents involved!! so they didn't quite get the whole concept!!

Then yesterday was an absolutely perfect day - warm and sunny ... go figure!!

I even had time to head on over to Get Picky and join in for the first time. This was the inspiration picture - and I love butterflies so this was perfect for me.

And so I had these gorgeous photos of my little princess and this beautiful paper so this layout came together very easily

I also added sooo many butterflies ( think I got carried away..)

and now put the kettle on while I show you the close ups (I got carried away with them too!!)

this one features a bunting and boys and girls... who can see 2 butterflies hiding in this picture??

 well done boys and girls...can you see 7 more in the photo below??

 How many can you spy in this one?? and some gorgeous twine and a vintage ticket from here

 and how about my cute little butterfly button??

well Melbourne also put on a show late Saturday afternoon with this stunning rainbow that was a bit hard to capture on camera but it was a FULL rainbow ( you know... right over ..) and it was a double rainbow...so pretty...see I really do live at the bottom of the rainbow!!

 Yep.... even a close up of the rainbow...no one escapes the closey

what did you get up to on the weekend???

Off to check out the other challenges!! Love the start of the month for challenges... where too first??... what should I start on???  

OH THE CHOICES!!!



P.S. the answer is 17 ... 17 butterflies ..

(sorry ..too much Sesame Street - the Count..)