I’m Bron, but everyone online knows me as Maxabella. I started blogging here on Maxabella Loves in 2010 at the urging of this sister and this sister. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with story telling and picture taking and now I’m lucky enough to do both for a living.

My kids have pretty-much grown up with my blog. I know lots of people don’t like showing pictures of their kids on the internet, but I am not one of them.

Max, Cappers and the Badoo are pretty much what this blog is about: raising good kids to be good people. Yep, I’m all about heartfelt family living and all the tricky bits that wrench us around daily. We keep it real around here – what you see is what you get.

If you’re keen, I’ve got a more detailed summary of my blog below, otherwise, look me up on Mumtastic, drop me an email or stop in and say hi on Facey.

You are very welcome here.

Please note: If you would like to share any posts from this blog, please use one picture only and link back to the original post. Drop me a line on my Facebook page to let me know where you have used the image.

RAISING DARLING AND DARING KIDS

I think most kids are living their life through a screen so some time ago I moved our family towards #screenfreedom. This is the best thing we’ve ever done. Being relatively screen-free (or at least in control of screen time) has allowed our family to connect in new ways and, more importantly, it’s given my kids the opportunity to discover that everything they need for an interesting life is right inside them already. Here are some of my favourite posts about raising darling, daring kids:

How to go screen free and why you might want to.
The one about wanting our kids to be someone they’re not because I think stopping that is just about the hardest thing we’ll ever do.
How to play Fly because I love the little video and video is something I’m into lately.
How a village really raises a child because it’s one I’m still thinking about.

RAISING GOOD MUMS

This blog is a place for mums to come and just be yourself, without fear of judgement and without feeling like you need to censor yourself. I believe that parenting can suck us dry if we let it and that caring for ourselves is more important than having a clean house. I want to raise you up to be the happiest mother you can be. Here are my favourite posts about being a parent:

The one about being in the picture because it changed everything.
The one about when parenting gets too hard because it sure ain’t all roses
The one about the kind of parent I really am because we all need reminding from time to time.
The one about being a parent of the whole world because we are.
The birth of me, every which way because we all need to tell our birth stories some time and also because I think it gives you an idea of where my empathy for all mums comes from.

CRAFTY ACTIVITIES

Getting our craft on

Yes, we craft. I never used to be a ‘crafty mum’ but my girls are crafty girls, so I’ve had to get my groove on. I’ll only ever show craft that is dead-easy to make for both kids and their parents. Click here for all our craft tutorials and ideas, but here are my three favourite toys to make:

CELEBRATING THE YEARS

We celebrate birthdays in a big way here. Parties are a creative outlet for me and I totally understand that the kids are just as happy with a cake and a balloon. The rest is all for me.

Click here to see all our parties, my top three favourites so far have been (oooh it’s so hard to pick just three…):

FOOD THAT KIDS LIKE

Sharing food together brings families closer and we eat together every night. I try to bake most of my kids’ lunchbox and afternoon snacks, but that’s not always realistic. I’m least creative at making breakfast foods, so I’ll be working on that! Click here for all the recipes I’ve shared. Here are three good lunch box / afternoon tea recipes to get you started:

Easiest Slice Recipe Ever (with Choc Chips and Yummy Things) (I’m working on the name)
Lime Syrup Cupcakes
Healthy Choc Fudge Full of Good for You Things (really need to work on my names)

CAPTURING THE LOT

I have been seriously into photography for about two years now. I am still not very good, but I shoot fully in manual and I’m working on my technique all the time. Getting better at photography and styling is important to me. I’ve shared everything I know so far about photography here. After realising I was sadly missing from my children’s childhoods, I’m also leading the charge for mums to get #inthepicture with their kids!

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