Thankyou to everyone who has wished me well in my new venture. I'm still scrapping, and now that the pressure of magazine work is no longer upon me, I'm enjoying the process again.

I'm in the process of setting up my photography blog http://www.meldienerphotography.blogspot.com there's not a lot to see at present, but I'll be uploading photos from a recent wedding I shot, and also a kindergarten shoot I did last Friday, just as soon as I can. But I HAVE uploaded photos from my very first shoot, back in March this year. Although I love these pics, I can see so many areas of improvement already lol.

Thanks for visiting.

Edited to add: Link should work now

A catch up and a farewell from blogging





Wow, have we been busy. First of all, some pretty exciting news for Shaylah.

Isn't she adorable? WAY too little to be going to school, but one day per week, thats where you will find her. And she LOVES it. I asked Zali to look after her, but little miss independent has fitted in wonderfully and today is only her second day lol. Now, I have to beg Shaylah to "let" Zali look after her, just a little bit, so that Zali doesn't feel as if she has been cast aside. lol..kids hey!!!

Our weekend has been flat out. As I've mentioned, I have my very first wedding to photograph on Saturday, and boy was I nervous. Actually...nervous is an understatement. I was totally packing it. Luckily I had my trusty assistant Sheree with me. She is so encouraging and always seems to boost my confidence. We started off by doing the ring shots and dress shots, so by the time I had done those (which I am super happy with btw), the butterflies in my stomach had taken a hike.

It was such a busy day, and so fast. There is literally NO time for procrastination and before I knew it, I had taken over 400 photos. Now comes the fun part...editing. But I can't wait to get them printed.

Yesterday, we headed to Adelaide to make our final decisions on tapware etc for our new bathroom. As we were headed to a bathroom place on Research Road, Pooraka, a huge gust of wind blew two power lines together. We saw two huge sparks, and then all of a sudden the paddock underneath was ablaze. Wow...I've never seen a fire take off so quickly. We didn't have time to hang around, so we made sure that someone had rung 000 and that everything was under control before moving on.

Anyhow..now to the farewell. As I'm sure some of you would know, there is yet another of those critique blogs around. Myself, as well as a lot of other undeserving scrappers have been mentioned, and quite frankly, I've had enough.

Yes, Erica, Debbie and myself had a run in. That was some time ago, and I can assure you that Debbie and me are so over it, it's not funny, as I'm sure Erica is too.

After the last critique blog, I decided that being so frequently published, left me open to this sort of crap, and I wrote to the then editor of SC and resigned from writing articles. In fact, I haven't submitted a single layout since. As far as I can work out, my VERY last layout will be in the Christmas issue of SC, and then that is IT!!! As much as I enjoy the creating side of scrapping, this other dark side is just uneccessary and pathetic, and I want no part of it.

There are so many people being hurt by this sort of rubbish, and it's un-called for. I mean really people...what does it achieve?

So...I'm ending this blog!!! I will go back to posting in my private blog, just for my own records, and I will be starting a photography blog as I do more shoots etc. Oh and to the anonymous poster on THAT BLOG who said something along the lines of "just because she owns a canon, doesn't make her a photographer"... well, that is correct. It doesn't make me a photograper!! And I certainly don't claim to be any sort of hot shot photographer. I am simply someone, with a passion for photography, who is working my guts out to learn and better my skills with the goal to BECOMING a hot shot photographer. Now, isn't that better than sitting on my butt and letting my husband be the sole income earner????? If I can make a career for myself taking photos, no anonymous poster is going to put a damper on that, so go to buggery!!!!!

Once I've started the new blog, I will post the link here for anyone who is interesting in taking a look. And if anyone still wants to see my scrapping creations, you can see them in the gallery at Blue Bazaar.

I still love scrapping, and have thoroughly enjoyed "most" of this creative journey. I have made some life long friends along the way, and for that I am thankful. Take care, and goodbye.

What sort of a father would kick his own son out Rather...what sort of GRANDFATHER would kick his own Grandchildren out??

As it appears....my FIL. Yep, he issued us with a Notice of Termination by Landlord yesterday. Well..actually, he was kind enough to hand it to Shaylah to pass it on to us. A four year old child!!!! HIS own granddaughter.

Why?? We have no clue.

He accused us on Wednesday of being almost five weeks behind in our rent. No...in fact, we are up to date, and I sat down straight away and produced a spreadsheet which showed every payment ever owed, and every payment ever made and Darren gave it to them that afternoon. Their response...a termination letter. Pfffftttt.

So, we now have to MAKE SURE that our house is ready to move into, within 60 days. We are required to vacate this house less than two weeks before Christmas.

Merry bloody Christmas hey!!!!!!! (and he wonders why I have very little respect for him) hmmmm..what do you think???

Anyway...busy weekend ahead. Darren is riding the Australian titles Saturday and Sunday, so I will be out there following him around with the camera. I have about $500 worth of chocolates still to sell for Breast Cancer. (I've sold double that already). I am co-hosting a girls night in at the local hotel tomorrow night, so I'll be headed straight there after tea tomorrow, and Sunday night we have the Australian Titles presentation dinner to attend.

THEN...I have to try and get contractors etc organised to get our shed up and bathroom/laundry renovations finished. Pack. Do that wedding shoot next weekend. Edit photos. Do playgroup photos in a couple of weeks. Edit photos. And somehow, still make our holiday in QLD without collapsing of exhaustion before hand lol. Ah well...live is full of curve balls isn't it..we just have to work our way around them..and I WILL!!!

Still a LOT of practice needed..but check out the DOF in these pics. WOW..I love my new lens lol.

The photo's are nothing spectacular, and I hurridly did them, just trying to catch the last rays of sunlight this afternoon, but I'm VERY impressed with the DOF here, which is of course, one of the main reasons I bought this lens.

Hopefully, in a week, you will see a huge improvement in the quality of my pics. Well...at least I hope so because I am shooting my first wedding next weekend..eeek. Did I mention that I'm as nervous as heck?????

Anyway, as there are only a few days left of the holidays, I will be giving the camera a good workout whilst the girls are home here. Most of the time they make willing subjects.

I WAS going to post the layouts I have in the current SC, but seeing as I haven't got my copy yet, I have NO IDEA whats in there lol. So, that will have to wait until next time.

Ta Ta xxxxxxx

OMG...I am in LOVE. Not only do I have to most wonderful, sexy and amazing husband, LOOK at what he bought me for my birthday!!!!

Isn't it just the most awesome present anyone could get? Heres a review I read recently (thanks Kathie), which is what helped me to make up my mind about this lens.

At this moment in time, I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet.

Births, birthdays, layouts and updates

Well, they are only there for one more day, but check out the portal at Blue Bazaar This week, it was the DT's kiddies turn to scrap a layout, and haven't they all done a sensational job. My two were super excited, especially as I gave them free pick of my stash. And I'm suprised, they got more excited about using my old gel pens than anything else rofl. So, starting with Shaylah's lovely creation. She decided to kill two birds with one stone here, and make this for Daddy for Fathers day lol.

and here is Zali's super layout. Didn't she do a fab job with her embellishments.
I'm so proud of them both.



Speaking of proud...guess who gets to start school early??? Yep, my baby girl, Shaylah.

She's not due to start until week six, term four, but as she is already reading the same level as the top three grade one students, she will be starting her pre-entry in just a few weeks. She is SOOOOO excited. She's already planning on being the teachers pet, and photocopies Zali's homework sheets each night, does them, herself and leaves them on the teachers desk lol...little suckup.

A huge congrats to two of my cousins, who both gave birth on the same day, twelve hours apart. Both had bouncing little boys. And what's more bizzare is that their birthdate is nestled right in between Darrens (which was the 8th) and mine (which was the 10th).

For the first time ever, all of our tax is up to date and we are actually expecting a nice refund this year...yay. So....as soon as we move into the caravan on our block, we are taking a well earned break and heading off on holidays for a few days. Can't wait.

Still addicted to ebay lol. But, I have been trying to limit my purchases to house stuff. (and a few jewellery items for myself lol)

Happy Birthday to Nic Wood for the 8th of September, and also to Megan, whom I think celebrates hers on the 16th? Am I right lovely????? It IS the 16th isn't it?

Must keep this short, I have a toyroom to attack whilst the kids aren't home...(insert evil laugh). The red cross are going to LOVE me lol.

Have a great weekend xxxxxxx

The latest SC and a personal record

Theres nothing quite like the feeling of grabbing a new issue of a mag, and seeing page after page of your own work. Probably not much fun for everyone else, but I must say, that even today....it's still a buzz. Anyway, for so long now, I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that I would NEVER beat my record of nine layouts in a single issue. Well..quite unexpectedly, this issue has 10. Yay..what a way to end a career in publishing. I still have a few layouts upcoming, but only in dribs and drabs as I gradually phase myself out of the industry altogether. So, it was quite a thrill this month to have made such an accomplishment in a career I have thoroughly enjoyed.

So, here are some of them. These three are my absolute favourite. I was asked to do these for Allisons feature, and I had a ball creating for someone else, rather than writing my own features.

This one was created for the lovely Dawn Stan's top 10 feature.

And these for my dry embossing feature. LOVED doing this one..thanks to the generosity of Aussie Scrap Source. They provided me with ALL of these gorgeous products...WOW.

There was also a card (which I hate) and a layout in Quick Grabs, which I don't like much either, so I'm not posting those here lol.

I've had to make a decision recently, and although I'm going to miss it terribly, it has to be done. I'm no longer reading and commenting on blogs. I'm so sorry to everyone I will now be *neglecting*, but I seriously don't have the time. Living where we are, I'm stuck on dialup, and it literally takes me half my life to read and comment. I have really been enjoying my time away from the computer, and I have so many other things planned, the computer is fast becoming a very tiny part of my life. I would still love to hear from you all though, and I hope you still come and visit and let me know how you are going, and I will ALWAYS make time for emails, so don't be strangers...I do eventually get around to replying...promise lol.

Mel xxx