My very first freebie!

I promised you a freebie so here it is - my very first digi freebie! I know it's not much but hey, I'm getting there. I was so inspired by the little clouds on the ad in Kim Watson's challenge #4 that I decided to make my own in PS and while I did it I decided to share it with whoever likes it.


Here is the LO I made for her challenge inspired by that gorgeous Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream ad. Part of the challenge was to make a LO about desert. I decided to use this photo of Marco - taken a couple of years ago. The history behind the photo is as follows: My mom makes a devine chocolate sauce and everytime she makes it, my kids fight over who gets to "lick the pot". Needless to say - on this day Marco won the fight and I took this photo when he was finished "licking the pot". Notice the chocolate sauce all over his face - even on his forehead!!! Translated the title means "Granny Anna's chocolate sauce is heavenly!"



Now on to the freebie as promised. Click on the picture or here (link expired) to download all the clouds - transparent and white - as well as the brackety notebook paper that I used as the background. Hope you like it. If you use it - please let me know so I can see!

My Hunting Man

Leon is going on a Professional Hunting course next week. Don’t know how I will survive for 2 weeks with him 600 km’s away from me! He’s busy preparing all his stuff to take with him. Amongst other things he has 3 Buck Hunting Knifes. Coincidentally, he read the insert in one of the knife’s boxes. How beautiful is the philosophy of this company! The very first thing written on the insert is a “message from the Buck Family”. Here’s an extract from what it says: “The fantastic growth of Buck Knives was no accident. From the beginning, management determined to make God the Senior Partner. In a crisis, the problem was turned over to Him, and He hasn't failed to help us with the answer”. That is just so beautiful! No wonder they’ve been so successful! You can read it all and about the rest of the company on their website.

Here’s a photo of my Hunting Man – all kitted out in his camo! Ever since I met him, he wanted to go on this course. It’s like a dream come true for him. He loves anything to do with outdoor life, nature preservation and responsible hunting. I wish him all the best because from what I heard it’s quite a tough course. At least he has an excellent general knowledge about the topic.

Today I'm thankful for ...

A good nights rest! I haven't been sleeping good at all this entire week. Last night I slept like a baby. I slept in until - uhm - I don't have a clue what time cause just now was the very first time that I had a look at the clock! I'm thankful for that too - I don't have to look at the clock today!

A beautiful, beautiful winters day! Clear sky, warm sun shining oh so brightly and the birds are having a ball in the garden - just as if they all want so praise the Lord for the beautiful day too! :)
Leon and I drew up the draft building plans for the extensions that we want to add to the house. How privileged we are to be able to plan and build our dream home!

That's all for now - I'm off to enjoy the wonderful gift of today!

May every person reading this thread be just as blessed as I am! :)

XO

It's Real Life!

This was fun! Thanks for the challenge Jessica!

This is what my real life looks like - well sort of. See I took these pics at my second home (Leon's house in Parys) since that's where I am now. We'll probably move in her permanently one of these days after we've refurbished the house the way we want it to be. So technically - it is my home.

Curb appeal - The first thing you see - even as you approach the house - is the huge oak tree. I absolutely love this tree and I recon it's the best feature of the entire house. I took pictures of the tree from the same angle at various times of the year. This year autumn arrived late in Parys but when it did - it hit with full force! Just look at the difference between the picture taken on 7th June and the one taken today! (click on the photo to see a bigger picture)

Our Junk Drawer is also actually a Junk Cupboard in the kitchen. In there you'll find anything from vitamins to duct tape to glue! Bet there's not a lot of junk cupboards with lace edges around! :)

I'm not big on jewelry and although I have a whole lot of other beautiful jewelry I almost always wear only this mabe ring. Not even sure why I like it so much - thing maybe I'm just so used to it - it's just so part of me.

This is the place from where I blog - we're busy redecorating this part of the house so one of these days it will look a bit better but for now it's a great place cause it's sunny and warm! :)

My best feature - uhm - that's a difficult one! I've heard that I have a nice smile. I'll go with what the "other people" say on this one!

Gratuity Journal

I decided to deliberately start blogging about things that I’m grateful for – sort of a gratuity journal as part of my blog. I have so many blessings and I can’t thank the Lord enough for them all. Sometimes I don’t appreciate all those blessings and by journaling them I hope to start really seeing all my blessings – big and small.

I’m so grateful that we’ve all adapted and everything turned out so good for all of us after the divorce.

I guess my life now is not that of a typical mommy – spending quality family time every weekend with the kids and doing things together. I had to adapt to not being with my kids every second weekend when they go to their dad. After 8 years I think we’re all used to this lifestyle and I actually enjoy my “alone” weekends just as much as my “kids weekends”. It gives me a little chance to do what I want and spending time with Leon without worrying about the kids. They enjoy spending time with their dad and we’re all happy to see each other on Sunday evenings.

Watch this space

What do you think bout my new banner? I think I like it and I'm going to stick with it for a while now.

Saw this challenge on Kim's blog and it looks like fun so I think I'll give it a go. Will try to get all my pictures taken and posted by the end of the weekend.

















My other mission for this weekend is to create some digi papers and elements and lo's and you know what - I plan on posting my first digi freebie - so - watch this space! :)

Photojojo

I just love this website! You can subscribe to their newsletter - it's full of funky creative ideas relating to photography. I've been a subscriber for a couple of months now and I've enjoyed each and every one of their newsletters. These people are seriously creative and full of fun! Even if you never try out one of their ideas - it's just fun and inspiring to see their different take on photography.

The man of my dreams! :)

I made this LO yesterday for Challenge #3 on Kim's blog. We had to use 2 different sized photos and bling. The bling thing was harder than I thought it would be! I didn't add a lot of bling but there are a couple of shiny thingys here and there. You can see a couple of more close-up shots in my SIS galery as proof!

Mirror album and more!

I know, I know - I'm probably not supposed to change the entire look of my blog after only a week but I did - cause I can and cause I wanted to. I'll probably change it every week untill get bored with creating new banners. Until then - expect the unexpected :)

I got my new cellphone on Friday – a HTC S710. Still trying to figure it all out. It’s much more complex than my old Nokia but I'm impressed with what I saw so far. At least I could post on my blog from it last night - better than what I can say about the PC in my living room - the one that Noah forgot to take with him when he went into the ark!

I finished my Mirror Album that we started in Heidi Swapp’s class at the Scrapbooking Convention on 1/5/2008. At last! I didn’t have a lot of time to scrap in the meantime and I really wanted to spend quality time with this one. Heidi presented a wonderfully inspiring class. The theme of the album is “to my heart be true”. A lot of introspection went into making this – not just your standard mini album! Although I used her basic concept, I customised it to suit my style and personality. Almost everything I used to make this album are from Heidi’s new product range. I absolutely love all her new stuff – from the beautiful patterned paper to the chandelier crystals! You can see the entire album on my SIS gallery (34 pictures!)

I feel so absolutely blessed today - for no particular reason. Just because I'm healthy and happy. I have my kids with me and I feel rich, so very rich, because I have Jesus Christ in my life! :)

I'm on my new mobile

I quickly popped in to say that I haven't abandoned my blog. I'm still struggling to post from my home PC. I'm posting this from my new cell phone - the HTC S710. So far I'm very impressed with it.

I will do a proper post tomorrow when I'm in Parys.

Sleep tight.

Hugs
Michelle

Just another working day

Nothing exciting to report today. I thought I'd share this photo I took over the weekend - of my feet! I made a LO some time ago with a photo I took of my feet on the beach - titled "Holiday Feet". When I saw my feet in these toe-socks I got the idea to take a photo and do a "Winter Feet" LO :) I'll do the LO later - maybe this weekend - it's way too cold now to sit at my scrap table!















Here's one of the photos that I took on Monday of the Giraffe we saw. Not a great picture I know. These are such amazingly beautiful animals - hope one day I get the opportunity to take proper photos of them!

Oh Joy!

ook at this great blog that I found - full of inspirational, arty thingys!



Oh Joy Blog

Yay - I managed to post again!

I've been struggling to post since Monday night! There's something wrong with my internet browser on my home PC or something - grrr - sooooo frustrating.

Anyway - I'm on my work PC now - so here's a quick update:

Monday: 16/6/08 - I enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful public holiday with Leon. Went for a fun drive in the Vredefort Dome near Parys where he lives. Such a beautiful area! I took a couple of photos at the Vaal River and on our way back we saw some Giraffe at a game farm - he had to stop so I could snap them. (sorry - I didn't save the photos of the Giraffe on my memory stick - will post later)

Back at home I saw a butterfly in the garden and since I was in picture taking mode, I ran for my camera and my new macro lens and took some more snaps. When the butterfly decided to take of, I decided to get up close and personal with the lavenders! :)

I made this digi layout for Kim's Challenge #2 on her site . I so wanted to do a paper lo for this one but since I was nowhere near my stash I had to opt for digi. Still tried to stick with the elements that she called for though - multiple pics, ink/paint and stitching.

Tuesday: 17/6/08 - Spent the day (not so peacefully!) at work. Took the kids out to dinner to celebrate Michael's b-day. Spent the rest of the evening struggling to get my PC to cooperate - grrr!

So - now it's Wednesday already and I feel like the week is running away with me! Just got great news from Kim - I won the RAK for her challenge #2! Yay! I needed some good news! Thanks Kim! Your next challenge sounds great too. I love bling but never use it on my lo's - think I'm going to go all out with this one! Watch this space! :) :) :)

I took the leap!

I've done it! After many months - even years - of contemplating whether or not to do the blogging thing, I took the leap today and started to set up my blog.

I'm totally overwhelmed with all the options and all the other beautiful blogs out there.

The aim of my blog is to be a showcase for all my creative efforts as well as to keep my friends and family part of my life in our always-on-the-go lifestyle.

Please feel free to leave comments - I would love to hear from you!

I also plan to share some of my digital creations so look out for a digi freebie from time to time.

First of all I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big boy! It's Michael's 13th birthday today. I can't believe he's a teenager already! He's not with me today but that's allright cause he's with his dad (on fathers day) and doing what he loves most in life - fishing in the ocean!

I want to share this wonderfully inspirational and arty site I found - http://www.webdesignerwall.com/ So beautiful to look at - absolutely great web design!

Here's a LO I did today for a challenge on The Design eXperiment - you have to do a lo about your favourite word.

I'm on a roll here today! I did another quick digi lo inspired by an old photo of Marco when he was about 4 years old. I love this photo - he's got such a stunning smile don't you think?

Hugs
Michelle