Mel's Me Time

Check out my newest completed project. This Kaiser Desktop Calendar is for my Dad for Christmas. I used the beautiful Kaiser Cafe Culture Papers, which I just can't get enough of. I have left the calendar rather plain and simple......so that it wasn't too over the top feminine for my Dad. The three gorgeous kids are his three grandchildren whom he loves very much. He doesn't get to see the two boys often so I thought this might be a daily reminder for him of how lucky he is to have three gorgeous grandchildren (not that he doesn't know that already!!!!) I am going to give it to him tomorrow when he arrives for his visit for a couple of weeks. We are really looking forward to spending sometime with him. I am currently in the process of cleaning, reorganising and sorting my scrap space.........oh my, oh my I really didn't realise how much stuff I had! Fingers crossed it will inspire me! Take care!

I hope that this post finds you all very well and full of lots of Christmas cheer. We had a wonderful Christmas with that jolly old fellow Santa bringing a trampoline to our household. Brayden was greatly excited and we have a great video of him finding the tramp. We spent the day at my sister's house, as it was Harry's first Christmas. We had a beautiful day and got a lot of joy watching the kids open their gifts. It was disappointing that the whole family wasn't there..........this couldn't be helped though. Here is a photo of the two gorgeous boys together.....one of my favourites......can't wait to create a great layout with it...... Boxing Day saw us head to Jason's parents for another lovely family day of fun and joy giving gifts and receiving the odd one or two! I just love the Christmas season once all of the silly shopping and mad rush is over. There is not a lot of scrapping happening at the moment.....I seem to have lost my mojo. Would love to get som

I can't believe that Christmas Eve is tomorrow!!! There is a lot of excitement in our house with the arrival of Santa very soon! Brayden is beside himself with pure excitement.........so much so that he is bursting with good manners, happiness and he is going out of his way to be extremely obedient ~ please Santa can you visit again next week, I say!!!!! I have been very slack with my blog.......I couldn't believe that my gorgeous friend Nikki awarded it one of her Blog Awards. I thank her very sincerely for the faith she has in me!! She is an absolute inspiration in more ways than one......check out her Blog at http://scrapbookit.typepad.com/nikkiantonello/ You will find some amazing ideas, techniques and some very gorgeous layouts! So, I probably should be a little more 'routined' with my posts. I think that maybe my New Year's resolution is to blog more and put my work out there. My scrapbooking world has turned upside down a little in the last month. Besides wor

It has been over a month since my last blog!!!! Hasn't that time gone so quickly. Have been extremely busy at work.....no excuses really. I have also completed some layouts recently. 'BOYOBOY' I started this layout at one of Jaine's classes. The class was a swirl layout class. We used foam tape to lift up the swirl that we hand drew. This photo of my boy was taken two years ago at Day Care. I am a little biased but he is so spunky! I used stamp and ink for the dots on the circles and lettering and then used Dimensional Magic to raise them. First Day At Kinder I created this layout for the Kids Class - Book of Me - First Day At...... I wanted to show the kids that you don't always have to cut paper. I loved how these beautiful Kaiser papers fitted with the colours of Brayden's uniform. Friends This page was created by four beautiful ladies as a progressive page. The owners of the page chose the photo and papers. When we passed the pages around each person had a c

Today we hired our own car and driver for the day. It only cost us about $50 for the whole day and he waited for us everywhere we went!!!!! We went to Phuket Zoo - had our photo with the same Tiger as the one from The Amazing Race. Saw a great elephant show and a scary crocodile show. Brayden even got one of the paintings that the elephant painted! We had lunch at a beautiful seafood restaurant...the waiter entertained Brayden...as all of the Thai people do. Jason and I had Tom Yum Lobster-very yummy! We also had Tamarind Prawns. We went to a Cashew Orchard - saw how they shell cashews, one by one!! Tried some yummy cashews with all different flavours. Went to a jeweller.....some beautiful pieces of jewellery....I didn't end up with anything!! A great day!

We spent the day at Khai Island. A wonderful day!!! We got on a speed boat and headed out to the island about 25mins offshore. Picture perfect island with the most beautiful sand and water. We swam with the fish.....went snorkelling and saw beautiful fish and coral and Brayden loved feeding the fish. Brayden took very easily to snorkelling and just wanted to do it all day. The speedboat ride back to Phuket Marina was a little rough on the way back.......to say the least! A very relaxing day.

We had a wonderful night at Phuket Fantasea. We had dinner at the world's largest buffet - food was yummy and every type of food, from every country.......there were about 100 staff just to welcome you!! The lights were beautiful and Brayden got to play some games at the carnival. We saw some 'he-she' dancers.....very interesting!!! We saw a white tiger and finally when it was 2100 we got to go and see the show. The show was a music, dance, drama, lighting spectaular telling the story of the beginnings of Thailand (I think-not much English). Brayden loved the elephants and all of the animals in the show - there were even trained chooks.....don't think we could train our chooks like that!!! Can you believe that before you enter the foyer of the theatre you had to surrender any recording devices - cameras/phones.....we got them back at the end and they were very well looked after!!!! A fantastic night! Jason and Brayden The Theatre!

We are all well. We have had some quiet and relaxing days here. A Phuket Sunset from our room! It is currently 2:15pm and I have left Jason and Brayden in the room to have a sleep as we are going to Fantasea tonight - it doesn't start until 9pm so it will be a late night!!! Brayden had his face painted as Batman today whilst he was at the kids club. He also made the most beautiful aquarium candle. We are finding it very hard to drag him away from the kids club. He loves it so much........at least he isn't complaining as we walk around shop after shop, market after market finding the best deals. It is not me that has the shopping addiction it is Ja......he just wants to shop all of the time! Batman!!! Aquarium Candle!! Have been to a tailor and are having a suit made for Jason and I am getting a dress. Will show you when we get home unless you will be going to Kayla and Scott's wedding - you will hve to wait till then!!!! Love to you all

We have the most exciting day today. We left at about 8:30am this morning on a "Safari Truck" as Brayden called it. We felt as though we should be in our army attire! We went on a safari tour for half the day in the jungle. We saw how coconut milk and oil was made, rode in a cart pulled by a water buffalo and Jason sat bare back on the buffalo. We were entertained by a gorgeous and cheeky monkey that demonstrated how they collect coconut from the trees. We had a Thai cooking demonstration and saw a rubber tapping demo. They tapped the trees for rubber (it stunk!!) Then we went to the Baby Elephant Training Centre. We watched the very clever baby elephants.....they were soooo cute!!!! One of them brought over a soccer ball for Brayden to take. He was very unsure. Some people received elephant kisses. We got photos with the elephants and Brayden got to feed them fruit. He loved it!!! After that we went on an elephant safari.......a ride on an elephant. Brayden loved it so much

Well yesterday we left the beautiful city of Singapore and made our way to Thailand - Phuket Airport. The first thing we noticed was the difference in living standards to Singapore/Australia. We are beginning to appreciate just how lucky we are in our beautiful country. It took us 50 mins to arrive at our resort....we were greeted and treated like kings and queens (and a prince - handsome boy!) Of course once settled into our room we explored the resort. Brayden -of course- went straight to the pool. We went straight for a Movenpick coffee and cake combo!!! Can you believe they don't have low fat milk........ To satisfy the handsome boys needs we went to the pool for a swim. Brayden has been down the waterslide 1 million times already!!!!!! We are yet to drink at the in pool bar (how does that work)!!!! Dinner was complimentary....entree, main, dessert, cocktails but NO wine - not because they don't have it but because a bottle of Rutherglen Estates costs 2850THB (AUD $105.50).

Hello Everyone, We are having an absolute ball here in Singapore. Obviously we got here OK and are safe and well. All flights and details have gone very smoothly - Libby has done a wonderful job!!! Motel here is exquisite - Swissotel The Stamford. Have had a Trishaw tour of town - have seen Little India and had dinner last night in Chinatown. Some of the menus were rather different i.e.bullfrog, intestines etc but we chose very carefully and subsequently ended with a beautiful meal. Been to Raffles Hotel - will return for a Singapore Sling. Lots of very expensive items to purchase........not for us!!! Weather is very hot here...nearly died when we arrived in our jeans!!!! Spent the afternoon either lazing around by the pool in banana lounges yesterday OR sleeping (we were all exhausted after the flight!) Had lunch by the pool and a cocktail. The shopping is unbelievable.......we might keep our spending for Phuket but walking around the centres is amazing.......Jason spotted a new watch

We are finally through customs and the security check in and are waiting to board-----in another 2 hours. Brayden is tired and just can't wait to get onto the plane. He doesn't understand that we have to wait. It is boring for us let alone a 4 year old. So....our next post will be from overseas. Love to you all

We have started the SERIOUS countdown now!!! There are only just under 3 weeks to go before my boys and I head overseas to Malaysia and Thailand. We are sooo excited. We have begun packing (well at least thinking about it) and are starting to organise some other bits and pieces. This time in 3 weeks I will be shopping in Singapore......WOW! It is so hard to believe that we are actually going. I don't have any pics to share with you as yet but I had the best weekend. On Saturday morning I headed up to Whadda-Load-Of-Scrap for our annual Crop, Paper, Scissors Mini Retreat. Jason could not believe all of the stuff I was taking........it may have been easier to hire a trailer!!!!!! Our day began at 10:30am and we went on until 10:30pm. When we arrived we found a goodie bag filled with all the products from the Bella 'Ruby Rock-It' range. It was soooo exciting - I just love the papers!!!!!!! We also had special coffee mugs that were painted with 'Crop Paper Scissors 2009

We have had such a big week here. It all started with the hype and excitement of the impending arrival of our new niece or nephew. Monday came and went with no news, Tuesday was the day that my sister was induced.......and we waited. Wednesday we were still waiting...........until FINALLY my sister had a beautiful baby boy Harrison James . He is the most gorgeous little man and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. My poor sister......well he definitely rocked her world for more than 28hours. To make matters just a little more painful he was 10lb 6oz.....I know, any lady who has given birth has just crossed her legs and said 'Ouch!' Shel did a brilliant job and we are all so very proud of her. Here are some pics of our new little nephew. So, our week was huge. We went through a variety of emotions but in the end we are just so happy for Shel and Jono. Now that little (or should I say big) Harrison has arrived I can show you the paint tin, album and card I made for a newborn

Welcome everyone to my blog. At this stage I am hoping to eventually get all of my scrapbooking layouts and OTP projects up on this blog (well at least those you may be interested in)! We have had a very busy week in our household this week. I did spend last weekend completing the little projects I have made for my sisters new bub. She was due on the 4th August, but nothing has happened yet! Hopefully, "Ickle Pickle" (as he/she is fondly named) will grace us with his/her presence real soon. I won't post these projects until I have given them to them. The project that I am posting today is the Family Tree I made for my Nan's 80th Birthday. She absolutely adored it. This tree is a Kaiser OTP product and I thoroughly enjoyed making it. Happy Birthday Nan! Have a great week, Mel