Slip and Slide

I made this paper layout two weekends ago but I'm only getting around to posting it now. There is another one I made then as well but the photos I took of it came out all blurry so I'll have to redo it and post it later.


I bought a couple of the core'dinations cardstock a while ago and couldn't wait to start playing with it. It's simply amazing what beautiful effects you get when you distress this cardstock! I couldn't stop mysself and just had to distress the entire page.

I love this time of year!

I'm in love with this time of the year when you can virtually see the blossoms and brand new and crispy green leaves growing on the trees! Makes me feel so alive and happy! Our God is such a wonderful God to bless us so by surrounding us with these things - far prettier than ANYTHING that money can buy!!

I took these pictures in our garden last weekend:

Chop Chop!

I had my hair chopped off on Tuesday! I've been considering cutting my long hair short for some time now. The lovely Spring weather that came so early this year finally convinced me to take the step. I took off 20 cm + (about 8 inches) in lenght. Quite a drastic step but I don't have any regrets! I love my short hair!

One of my friends sent me an e-mail with these pics of very clever and creative packaging and products:

What will people think of next?! :)

I'm Alive!

I'm glad to report back that I am indeed alive and well! :)

I didn't have internet access this weekend which is the only reason for my silence. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated after my day at the spa. We had a ball and were treated like queens. I took a couple of snaps with my cellphone camera - will try to post them later this week.

Spring is in the air which makes me feel even better! We sat outside until late on Saturday evening - without jackets of jerseys! They kids played and played and we just couldn't get them to come inside when it was bedtime. I'm so glad that Spring is early for a change! I know we'll probably get another cold spell or two but the trees are starting to bloom and it feels like Spring in my heart so I am HAPPY!!!! I took photos of the blossoms on our fruit trees but haven't downloaded them from my camera - will post them later too.

This was the first weekend in weeks that I didn't do any scrapbooking - not paper or digi. I just didn't feel like doing anything but laze around and enjoy the hotter weather. I have to admit that today is the also the first Monday in months that I don't feel exhausted! Maybe I should consider relaxing more over weekends! ;o)

I've been blessed with this lovely award by Trudi! Thanks Trudi! You must go visit her blog - she's got the most amazing decorating ideas on there!

The rules are simple:

1 Make a blog post where you pass the award on to seven blogs you like and

2 Post a comment at their blog to tell them about the award!

It's so difficult to choose only 7 because there are so many blogs that I love, but this time, I'm giving the award to some of my new scrappy, bloggy SA friends:

Annette Scholtz

Cathy

Desire Fourie

Jacki Van Rensburg

Stefanie Semple

Simply Mel

Sophia Allison

I pray that every reader of my blog will be blessed with a happy happy week full of pleasant surprises, lots of hugs and kisses and smiles!!!!

Will be back again soon!

I'm off to be spoilt!!!

I've been looking forward to this for about a month! Tomorrow is the day that I will be spoilt all day long! Leon is treating his sister and me to a day at the spa! Not just any spa - we're going to Mangwanani River Valey! They've won the best spa award for something like 5 years in a row. I've been there once before and I know it's pure bliss! I will tell you all about it when I get back on Friday! think I will take my compact camera along to take a couple of snaps too.

How cool is this!!!!!

Right now I'm totally be-zazzled!!!!!!

I've discovered this cool website (thanks Photojojo for the link!) called zazzle where you can create your own stuff - including shoes!!! You pick the colour and design for each part of the shoe. You can even put a photo on there! I played around a bit and came up with this(have to add that I had very limited graphics available at the time):

I know I will probably never wear shoes like these but it was still a load of fun designing it! :)

You HAVE to go over there and try it out for yourself. I'm seriously considering ordering a pair - not of this design though! I'll have to come up with something good first - something pretty but still functional!

What's even more amazing is that they ship within 24 hours after receiveing your order! Wowee! I'm working in the Supply Chain field and that is totally unbelievable!

There are loads of other things like t-shirts coffee mugs and many more that you can also customize but so far the shoes is by far the coolest thing there!

Go on, check it out RIGHT NOW!!! ------------> Zazzle

Please come back and tell me what you think.

And all the chicks for whom this is old news and you've ordered a dozen of these already - please tell me if it's really as great as they make it out to be.

:) M

My butterflies ... are not really my butterflies :)

I received some compliments and questions about the butterflies that I used in my Hello Dolly layout. Unfortunately I cannot take any credit for them. They are all Heidi Swapp butterflies. The black and white ones are from her runway collection (page 18) - from her CHA Winter 2008 Catalog. The clear one is also from that same catalog - it's from the ghost shapes collection on page 29 of that catalog. I layers one of the smaller black and white butterfly with one of the ghost shape butterflies - I think it came out pretty neat!
I love her products and they just seem to get better with each season! In her latest CHA Summer 2008 catalog she has the most beautiful stuff! On page 16 you will see the mirror album that I used to make my mirror album. She also have a great new collection for boys called Street Smarts. Can't wait for it to hit our shops. Unfortunately her stuff is not so readily available around here. :(

You seriously have to go check out her new website! It's so ... Heidi! Be sure to check out the HKS Theater where she shares her mission statement with us- I think it's such a nice personal touch!

Can't wait to see what see comes up with in her digi boutique - opening in September '08!

Have I mentioned that I'm a Heidi fan? Not just of her products - she's one great, inspirational lady!!

I love you Heidi!!!!!!! :)

I've done some paper scrapping!

At long last after so many weeks of not having time to even look at my stash I scrapped all day yesterday! I finished a layout for Kim Watson's challenge # 8:We had to do a 80-somehting lo and I decided to do one about a little song and dance show me and my friends did way back in 1982 when I was only 12 yo!

I also finished another lo and I'm busy working on another but can't get to upload it now - will try to do it later today.

I love to see what other girls do with my designs! Just look at this pretty layout and cards that Jacinda made with some of my designs:
Thanks for sharing your work with us Jacinda! Visit her blog (Digi Kiwi Chick) to check out more of her fabulous work!

I'll be back later to show off some more!

Hugs
Michelle

Want books?

I decided to start a book exchange.

Here's how it will work:
You look through the books that I have available
You pick one you like
You let me know which one you like
You also let me know which books you have available to exchange
I pick a book I like
I send you a book
You send me a book

Go to my Michelle's Book Exchange page for all the details.

OK - looks like I have to resort to blackmail!!!!

Seems like my only resort (and I truly hope it works!) to get you to send me your layouts is blackmail!

Hundreds of you have downloaded my freebies (which I appreciate!) but I don't get any links to your layouts where you've used it.

Here's the deal - you link me up to your layout/s where you've used (even if it's just one element) my designs and I'll send you the download link to my Spring Doodles kit.Sounds fair? Well I think so!

Can't wait to see your work!

Hugs
Michelle

Smilebox

Check out this album I made using Smilebox! Click on the play button to see the entire album.

Try making your own - it's so easy and there are so many designs to choose from - and best of all - it's free!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Hey Hey its Friday!!!!

Whooohoooo!!!! It's Friday again!!!! As you all know by now - I live for weekends!

This weekend I'm going to be all by myself - the kids are going to their dad and Leon is away on a hunting trip until Sunday. My mom will come and stay with me so we can catch up a little and we're just going to chill! Sounds like we're literally going to chill if I look at the weather forecast!!

I want to do paper scrapping this weekend. I want to scrap and cut and paste and paint and ink and tear and play and play and play until I have paint / glue / ink / paper scraps EVERYWHERE! I haven't done paper scrapping for ages and I'm really feeling the withdrawal symptoms.

So - bad news is that I probably won't have a freebie for you this weekend :( Hope that doesn't make you love me less! ;)


Before the fun and games can start - I have to get back to real life for a while - We have our monthly business meeting this morning and still have a couple of reports and stats to finish before then - B O R I N G!!!!!

Skully Alpha

I've completed the Skully Alpha - hope you like it! Use little skullies / hearts / flowers from the kit to dot the i's and j's. The set consists of all the capitals and all the small letters plus lots of symbols - ot only those you see on the preview.This time I've zipped it with winzip so more of you will be able to unzip it easily. You can click here or on the preview to take you to the download link. (link expired)

Enjoy and remember to link me with your pretty lo's!

Hugs

Michelle

The weekend is over!

Phew – so much fun in so little time! Not good to be back at work but at least I have good memories to hold onto! Here’s a brief recap:

Friday – Took the kids to their athletics meeting in Orkney. There were 7 schools competing – so much more competition than last week. Once again - Marco made me such a proud mommy! He won his high jump event and came second (only just! I must add) with turbo jav (like mini javelin) and shotput. We’re not sure about the results of his sprints (80m and 100m) because there were 2 heats and no finals – they work on the times and we don’t know what they were yet but he won the first heat.

Here is my little champ in action:

Highjump:

100 metre sprint:

Shotput:Turbo Jav:

His very first spikes: We were exhausted when we came home but we managed to see the highlights of the Olympics opening ceremony – wow, even though I hate what’s going on behind the scenes in that country (w.r.t. human right violations) I have to give credit where credit is due – that was one magnificent show!!! Wish I had more time to watch some of the events on TV.

On Saturday I had a “shopping date” with a friend. We didn’t really do a whole lot of actual shopping – more like drooling over all the pretty things we saw. We browsed around in all the antique shops and art galleries in Parys. I only bought this pretty little Willow Tree figurine Her name is Happiness and I can see why! This is my first one but I will have to add a couple more of them to my collection soon!

I had a bit of an accident – in one of the shops my handbag bumped against a lamp which caused a domino effect on all the things stacked on the table! Luckily only one thing broke but it was a very expensive hand made glass plate and I had to cough up R295 (roughly USD40) for it!

I saw the most beautiful paintings by a local artist – can’t remember her name now – but I’m definitely going to save up to buy one of her paintings. I can’t believe we spent 6 hours in town and we didn’t even cover half of the shops! And I thought Parys was a tiny little country town. Don’t underestimate this little town – it’s filled with treasures!

Saturday evening we took the kids out for dinner and I spent the rest of the evening playing around with my digi toys.

We all went to bed way past midnight on Saturday night so when Leon woke us all early on Sunday to announce that we’re going to the Vaal Dam for a picnic and some fishing nobody was extremely exited about it. It turned out to be such a perfect day though! The weather was just great and we all had a ball! The kids did some fishing and Celine held a fish in her hands for the first time! We arrived home after 8 o’clock last night – all tired and dirty but we couldn’t stop talking about how much fun we had!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE weekends?!

Our Shangri-la

Skulls are very much the “in thing” at the moment. From kids to adult clothing, homeware and yes – even scrapbooking - there are skulls everywhere you look! For us (Leon and I) skulls have a bit of a deeper meaning than just a fashion fad. We found our little piece of heaven on earth – our Shangri-la – at the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.

Leon has been going there on fishing trips for over 20 years now and he is so much in love with that place! His entire being changes when he talks about it. I couldn’t really understand what he was going on about until he took me there for the first time. It’s something you have to experience for yourself – no word (in my limited English vocabulary at least) can describe the beauty of the desert and the ocean there!! We would love to retire there one day.

This is my layout that I made with this set:

I made this friendly skully set with our Shangri-la in mind. Hope you will be able to use it too. The set consists of:
2 x plain cardstock with inked edges (black and white)
2 x patterned paper with a skully design
2 x skully charms (with and without ring)

1 x skully lace paper
1 x torn and distressed cardboard skully
1 x plain skully
1 x brown paper skully
1 x distressed skully strip

1 x journaling block
3 x plastic embellies to cheer up your skully page (crown, heart, flower)

This is what it looks like from up close: If you like it, you can download the set here: (link expired)
Be sure to visit my blog because in a day or two I will a matching alphabet ready for you – similar to the one in my layout but each letter will be separate.

Enjoy!
Michelle

Little Bird Challenge layouts

This was my first challenge that I hosted on my bog and it was so much fun! Got to know a couple of great girls in the process too! Here are the layouts:

This one was done by Melanie - I love the layering that she did here!

This one was done by Stefanie - don't you just love that quote!
This pretty layout was done by Shy - look at the cutie pie under the tree and that beautiful sun!
Sandy made this beautiful calendar page with the set.
This one was made by Kim Watson - aaawwwhhh - look at the love birds - and I'm not even talking about those two little birdies in the tree! ;o) Great job Kim! This is my take on the challenge:
Thanks to all the girls who submitted layouts - check your mailboxes for a link to the bonus freebie any time now! Here's a little peek at what the bonus freebie looks like:The kit consists of:

4 x patterned papers

4 x shaped textured cardstock with chalked edges

4 x epoxy stickers

4 x glass pebbles

4 x lace strips

4 x lace bows

2 x acrylic strips

1 x journaling block

1 x metal frame

Hope you like it and enjoy working with it - if you do - please link me!

Hugs

Michelle