Hi everyone!

Oh it feels so good to be back here! I love posting, so it is really sad when I don’t get to for a couple of days. Thanks for all the “All the best” messages about selling the property! It still feels kinda unreal! We ended up having 3 lots of people through on Saturday, so that was a pretty amazing response so far, not to mention making us feel like all the hard work was worth it too!

Well I have had fun viewing all the Inpiration challenge entries! I have to say I am proud of you for all playing along! It wasn’t an easy one so good on you for giving it a go!

Picking a winner was not easy (never is really!) and this week there were some stunners, and very creative too!

But in the end this card by Jean McKenzie stole my heart:

I love the swirls that appear behind the pumpkin, and the how it is nice and rustic!

Then for the Honourable Mention this week, I picked this amazing card by Kim Badelt! I think it is pretty amazing, not to mention very clever with all those buttons!

See how cook this looks!

Thanks again to everyone who has played along! There won’t be another Challenge until Friday 8th May. I will be taking a couple of weeks break because it is school holidays, as well as I have lots of swaps to make for the upcoming Convention which is only 2.5 weeks away! I have a few other things to mention about my challenges, but I will get back to you on that one, in the next couple of days

Here is a slide show of the other entries from this week, so enjoy!

…………and now have cleaning ones!

The past 24 hours has beeen a whirlwind…..actaully that past week has really. 

The story goes a little like this:

We have decided to sell our property…..Yes I know a very big decision that was not taken lightly, but took quite some time of deliberation etc… We have worked so hard here to renovate the 100 year old house, build up the orchard, put in the dam, build a massive packing shed, and a garage, gardens, the Waterwheel……too many things to list really. It is just beautiful here, and we love it.

But…… (there is always a but isn’t there) we have also been working, working, working for so long to build it up to be what we love that we sometimes have forgotten what life is about. Taking time to have fun with the kids, and just be, hasn’t been something we had the freedom to do, because of the Orchard, and hubby working full time as well, not to mention having the 4 kids as well.

So after much prayer and deliberation we decided that it is best for all of us, to let this place go and begin taking that time we are so short of always.

Here is a little shot of our house with the Persimmons hanging on the tree.

Anyway we had the agent here for preliminary meeting last Thursday. By Monday she was back to go through the plan of action, then Tuesday we had the photos sorted, Wednesday it up up on line, and Thursday we had the signs, and phone calls straight away for people wanting to come along to have a look!

ARRGGG…….that means spring cleaning before they get here at 9am on Saturday!!!!

So for the past 24 hours, I have been cleaning, dusting, scrubbing, polishing, you name it, it was cleaned! Don’t get me wrong, I actually clean the house twice a week, but it was those nasty jobs that you wait till you get that Cleaning bug once every 3 months to do! Like cleaning all the windows, scrubbing the grout on your tiles, scrubbing the stairs, getting rid of every single cobweb that exists, cleaning the glass on every picture frame that hangs…….you get the drift! So it all began yesterday lunch time after we went to the Good Friday service at church till late evening. Then Rod and I were both back up at 5:30am and worked like mad till 9:30 this morning. SO I am a little beat right now!

It does however feel wonderful to have a spotless house devoid of dust, cobwebs and finger prints……wonder how long it will last

So whilst I would love to be stamping with my new stash……..I haven’t inked a single stamp yet, and I have had them for 4 days!!! Hopefully tommorrow I can get some done.

I will be doing the challenge round-up as soon as I can, and share some exciting news with you all, as soon as I can!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Easter weekend!

Take care!

 Hi again,

Okay so I have things to do and lots of new goodies to play with, but I just remembered I have this card I made for Amy Rysavy’s Friday sketch to show you.

Here is Amy’s sketch for this week:

This week I managed to use Amy’s stamps for my creation. It is quite different, but I like it somehow……..

Love that paper! Again it is from my pre-SU stash, but I think it is rather funky! Do you reckon I could pull off a dress like that for Convention? LOL! Stamps are Amy Rysavay, Paper ??? ( probably be told by Sarah, or Anna the paper guru’s) and then the ribbon is from Stampin’Up. The greeting is from My Favourite things.

Thanks Amy for another wonderful sketch!

Hey there!

I am one very happy bunny today!!!! My post man delivered my new STASH of rubbah, and ribbon, and paper, and OH LA LA, there is so many new goodies to play with.  What a shame I have to teach a class tonight…LOL! I am sure you are hanging out to see what I do with it too, so hopefully I can start whipping some projects up as early as tomorrow ! Just have to mount them all first!

Okay so last week I managed to have a play with Splitcoast stampers colour challenge. The colours were Pink pirouette,  Riding hood red, and Chocolate chip. I was a little stumped by this combo, but in the end it wasn’t too bad at all.

Here is what I managed to make with the colours:

I have used one of my favourite stamp sets, Embrace life. I used Riding hood red cardstock for the base which I stamped up with the Canvas background stamp. I have then cut two circles with my Creative memories cutters and distressed the edges with my cutter kit.  I have stamped up the flower onto watercolour paper with Stazon ink, and watercoloured them with my Aquapainter, and the Pink pirouette, and Riding hood red ink pads. Lastly I added the wide Chocolate grosgrain ribbon, the paper piercing around the circles, brads, and half pearls to the flowers. Then I stamped up the greeting with Chocolate ink, and punched it out with my Word window punch.

I hope you like it

Off to mount some rubbah! 

Hey again,

I have a favour to ask!

For my Ustamp project which I am currently prepping for the next round, starting April 25th , I will be focusing on Wedding themed items. One of them has something to do with scrapping!

My problem is that I need Wedding photos to do the project. Now Rod and I got married before the era of digital photogrphy…….man that makes me feel old! (good thing I was only 20 hey) and so I am unable to use any of our photos.

So would any of your out there have some digital wedding photos, you wouldn’t mind me scrapping and sharing with the world? If you do, I would love to see them! I will of course send the finished product back to you, so you have your own special rendition of your wedding photos.

You can email them to me at rmbyl@optusnet.com.au  I will pick out the ones that I think will work best, and let you know!

Thanks so much for your consideration…