She began to create

Somewhere deep inside I've found this person who really loves to create. This is my second ever painting (under the gentle guidance of Donna and with the fantastic book "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts). Its a mixture of paper, acrylics, oils, pastels and water colour crayons. Had lots of fun and learnt heaps - like where NOT to let the paper join (chin of face!!! - Grrr). But all in all really loved experimenting with different mediums.

This is the lovely Donna, a creative soul who has encouraged me to begin.. A fantastic mate who I will sorely miss when I leave Geraldton in less than a month!!!! Who will I find to create with and enjoy cups of tea ...... whilst the kids always play happily???

Sorry for the crap photo of this one. A precious record of some great mates the boys have here in Geraldton. What a great day we had at the Greenough wildlife park with these crew.

Anyway, kids have awoken from day sleep and are trying to trash my office. Must go. Do I dare start a countdown - 27 sleeps till we leave Geraldton for Perth, then the US for a month and home to NZ 30 Nov. Oooh so much to do. So little time.

Hope all is well in your slice of the world.

Love Mel xoxo

Recent goings on of the Dups

Tradition was started last year - I am not longer allowed to "BUY" a premade cake. So I have resorted to buying a sponge slab and decorating - I mean the kids only eat the icing anyway!! or in this case we just let them loose and they ate it with spoons. What a blue mess - thankfully it was at the park and the clean up was minimal. Mr J wanted a rocket so this is my take on one. Complete with sparklers at candle time coming from the bottom.


Another tradition in my house is to try and get a family shot on the day. But we forgot and had to get one in Perth later in the day. We are still in the same clothes noone will notice on the scrap layout will they? So here we are.


Last weekend we went to the Chapman Valley Show. Sadly the weather was not playing nice and it was cold. But the kids didn't seem to care. Mr J just loved the petting farm. Mr H was a little more cautious.


Mr J thought the calf was "cosy". and obviously a nice place for a lie down!


Did I mention he loved them. Yep full of kisses for them all.


A few weekends ago we celebrated a dear friends 1st birthday at the Greenough Wildlife Park. Well worth the trip at this time of year (aaagh flies in Summer). The kids just run a muck and had an absolute blast. Me I just played with my camera. Pretty stoked with the peacock shot behind the wire cage (the rest had beautifully focussed wire and crappy peacocks!).


Mr H enjoyed playing skipper on the boat.


Mr J well he just peered over the top!

So as you can see we've been busy of late. Unfortunately not too much arty time but I have done a layout and almost finished a new painting (my first face!). So hope to post them later in the week. If I make it to my Wed night. We have a little sick boy in this house - here's hoping he gets better real soon.

As for everything else we are still organising and getting ready for the mammoth move to NZ, sale of the house/business and holiday in the US. So no rest for the wicked. Always plenty on our TO DO list each day.

Blog Post - check, now onto the next thing on my list.

Hope all is well in your slice of the world.

Love Mel xo