Friday, August 31, 2012

Changed blog look again.

Goodmorning everybody!

This time from a rainy Holland. It isn;t looking nice at all outside, but it might clear up a little later today(and I hope so). Jan is working, and wasn;t happy when he saw the weather. Specially the wind, but nothing to do about it.
Wednesday however it still was lovely weather and in the afternoon we went (on the bike, Jan cycling, me just put at the back) to another part of the Hague, with lots of wood etc. to look for some fruit and oh my, we did found a lot!
I came home with two boxes full of blackberries and a sack full of rosehips. And we spotted in that neighbourhood, when we returned already home a place where there were lots more of huge blackberrie bushes, so perhaps if there is a nice day next week, we go again. I just love being in the woods, or the dunes, it's so quiet there and you see so many lovely things around you.
Now first I have to make something of the stuff we have . Probably will be jam, again, but I now I know how that works(more or less).

How do you like this bloglayout, by the way? Made with the Discovery of Wonder kit, and also used several of Arlene's clusters in it! Let's see how long this one will hold LOL!

Yesterday morning I went to our friend, who just lost her husband, and Heidi was there too. We had a looong chat, of course about all that happened with Bert these last months but also a bit about other things. May be it seems strange to say, but it was a nice visit.
Now of course the time comes for the widow to think about herself, she had very rough times and the blow of it all only now starts to act on her, which is normal. The first time after the funeral, there is sooo much to handle and so much paperwork to do, that you even don;t have real time to grieve. The part of "missing him"will start now. But I think she can handle it, although there will be rough moments yet to come.
But I am glad we made that visit.

Now today I really have to do a few household chores, perhaps a bit of shopping too, hopefully the weather gets a bit better when I am ready for it LOL!
Still we cannot complain too muc, as we see how the weather is in parts of the US! Isaac is causing some real trouble. I feel so soryy for all those people that are efeected by it. Having to leave your home, not knowing how you will find it back later.

Oh, before getting to the freebies you should visit some of my friends blogs, as of Mat, who made some great layouts, some with my kits, some with other, but it could give you some inspiration. 
And Linda has made another lovely quickpage with one of my kits, and you can download it from her blog! And as long as you're collecting here and there, you might hop over to Snowy's blog, with some freebies for you too! And more to find on Edna's blog, she posted parts of her monthly kit, all ready for you to grab, just scroll down to her post from Monday!

Arlene has made you some awesome new clusters, and today it will be from the "Fairies Delight"kit.
Download     HERE

And I think you also want a kit? Well, not to worry, I have one for you LOL. I think you can make some sweet layouts with it, it's name is "Close to Heaven".
Have a fantastic weekend!
Download     HERE

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Thank you, neighbour!

Goodmorning everybody!

Told you, Monday, that Jan's schedule for this week was still poor, but yesterday we had good news, he has morning shofts all week, so that's a good thing. For topping it of he might do with on or even two evening shifts, best would be on Sunday evening.
But let us be thankful for what he has now.

Oh, whee, I am walker much lighter on my feet now, because yesterday I finally went to my hairdresser LOL. I ALWAYS wait much too long, but now I got really irratated by my mair, there was nothing to do with it, and now I have it real short again, what a blessing!
I was so happy with it, that yesterday afternoon I cut Jan;s hair too, so now we are both looking beautiful again !

Jan's gone now and I will not take too much time on rambling, want to do some necessary shopping and perhaps when he gets home again we have two options of things we could do:
take a walk and look for a crop of raspberries or whatever, or go to the market. Hmmm, market is closer, but I like the other option. I'll let Jan decide, depends on how his shift is going this morning I guess.
We have some fruit already, anyway, and that thanks to our neighbour. He has a prune-tree in his garden, standing close to our garden fence, and some branches are hanging over it, so we can collect those prunes.
Jan had a nice handful of them yesterday and they are simply delicious!!! So thank you, nice neighbour!

Tomorrow I will visit the wife of our friend who passed away a few weeks ago. Heidi will come too.
It will not be an easy visit, at least I think so, but it depends on how Ann is feeling herself. Of course she will have still difficult moments, but on the other hand she also will be happy to talk just about casual things and not only about the things that happened with her husband.

Time for the freebie from Arlene, don;t you think?
Here you have her clusters, made with Summertime of Lady Bug.
Download     HERE

And I have an oh so soft colored kit for you, named it "Petit Coin"( little Corner).
Have a fabulous day!
Download    HERE


Monday, August 27, 2012

Rain. The plants were dancing of joy!

Goodmorning everybody!

It really was a rainy weekend, although we also had some dry moments with sunshine.
Felt really sorry for Jan, cause he had to work Saturday and Sunday, rather long shofts from 7.30 to 15.00. But all together he didn;t get soaked all the time, when there was a heavy shower he just was with a client and when he was outside, it just cleared up. Just had a few moments of a wet experience.
I spent the time he was working on some things in the house, and yesterday I made a kind of stew, with everything in it, like the meat of course, onion and spring onion, pred paprika, runner beans and potatoes. In between Jan came home for a moment to take his break( when he does so, he always manages to surprise me and let's me jump up, cause I didn;t notice the door, he is doing that real sneaky LOL).
I see weather is nice again and we even will get higher temperatures again this week, whoopee.
May be we find a time for a walk and collect some rasperries or may be blackberries again.
Don;t think it will be today, better to have Jan have a nice rest and I will have to check, if the agency filled in already his schedule for this week. Till now it's all blank and that is no good business!

I managed to get a kit ready again this weekend, just have to upload it. I'll have to keep the "stock"in order.
Just another reminder for you, one of these days I really will remove part of the My Freebies, so if you still want something from 2011 grab it now or they will be gone, no more links.
Can't think of anything worthwhile to tell at the moment, so why not show you some beautiful work from Arlene she's made for you? These are made with the Light as a Feather kit:
Download     HERE
You already can feel a bit Autumn peeking around the corner, you see already some change in colours, so I've made you an early Autumn kit, of nice warm colors.
Have fu with it, I hope, and enjoy your day!



Download    HERE


Friday, August 24, 2012

Some old and some new pictures

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather will definately change by this evening and certainly in the weekend. Oh, I hope it will not be as bad as they predicted, cause then I will be sorry for Jan, as he has to work.
But..... we had some great days and may be it will restore itself again next week, so they say.
Unbelievable, but true, the plans for Wednesday really worked out!
We did take a long walk and found the blackberrie bushes Jan told me about. And there were loads of them! It was real nice weather, not too warm, but sunny and great for a walk.
You should have seen us, all busy collecting blackberries LOL! And it was worth it. You will see so further on.
But when I uploaded a few pictures, I saw there were still a couple on my camera! Gosh, they were from some time ago but I still want to share them with you. It was at the end of May, when also there were some lovely days and we too a walk to Scheveningen.
First a view on one of the harburs, mainly for yachts.
Then a view of the beach and you can see a lot of sailing ships on the sea, that was because there was a regatta going on. It's a bit far away, but still nice.
And the last one is a picture of a statue of a fisherman's wife, where each year they have a memorial for all the sailors who perished at sea.

So those pictures were a nice surprise to me.

Now about our fruit crop on Wednesday. I had been so wise to take with us two boxes for the berries, and we needed them! We were like little children, all happy and laughing and calling eachother when we found a new branch with lots of ripe berries LOL.
By the time we took the way home we also stumbled upon a lot of wild rose bushes and they were carrying already lots of rosehips. So Jan said to me, that you could make great jam with them, so without delay we collected also a bunch of them. I believe they are even better a bit later in the year, but as they were at hand now, why not have some?
I have taken a picture of our blackberry crop, but first I'll show you a photo I took on our way home, of a little corner in a street, with a house with such a lovely little garden!
And now the blackberries!!

Aren't they great???? On the way home I popped in a supermarket and bought us some yoghurt, and we already had two days our desert from the yoghurt with lots of berries! And still enough for today.
And yesterday I took my chances on the rosehips. Cleaned them, cooked them, etc. and now I have a full jar with rosehipjam!!! My first self-made jam! And so sweet, as I was busy with the rosehips, Jan cleaned all the windows on the garden side!
Of what I tasted out of the pan(and gave a little spoon of it to Jan too) it wasn;t bad at all!
Now hopefully on a nice day next week, when Jan is free, we can take another walk to another area, where we know there are lots of raspberry-bushes. And hopefully we can collect also a lot of those!

So far of our adventures, LOL.
On to some scrapbooking stuff, lovely clusters from Arlene, made with the Wishful Dreaming kit.
Download    HERE

Oh, Jan and I have a memorable day today, LOL! We are married 5 years now. Gosh, I say it often, but it true, how time flies! We are not doing anything special for it, I could have done, but Jan has to work this evening. As we were awake for a moment last night and watched some tv for may be half an hour, we congratulated eachother with the event.That's was all but enough ROFL.
Okay, the kit for today is "Your Soft Touch" in one of my favourite colours.
Now you all have a wonderful weekend and till Monday!
Download    HERE




Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Some people are just not from this world!

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather cooled down but still isn;t bad at all.
I had two quiet days I can say, meaning I didn;t move around too much here ( in other words I was being a bit lazy ROFL), but it resulted in finishing another kit and even almost a second!

Jan went to the hospital Monday, and it went all well. He had a mild anesthesia and so the doctor could do her thing without problems. She still has to look in deeper in the reults but already could tell Jan that it looked okay, at least about the thing she worried a little about. I'll try to explain what it was. She had a small worry that may be around his liver there were forming a kind of varicous veins and that should;t be a good thing. If so, it could harm the liver and also stomach, and result in spontainious bleedings. Well, we cannot have that, is't it? But it seems that this isn;t the case, so I don;t thingk much has changed. But lately Jan has a bit trouble with his belly, he retains a bit too much moisture, although he has medicins for it. So the doctor raised the quantity of that medication a bit and we hope that will help. I already cut down on the salt in the food and that should help a bit too.
Doctor still has to check a few things and Jan has to come back the 17th of September to talk it all through. I think, there will be no real shocking news, but I like the way she is following him during the past years and what;s important: Jan has great confidence in her.

I had to laugh when he came home after his hospital visit. Of course after the anesthesia and all, he had to "sleep it out", they don;t let him go right away. But awake again, Jan isn;t a person who stays longer than necessary( you know, a stubborn character LOL), so when he felt "back to the world"again he went home. But I still could see the effect of the anesthesai in his eyes, they still looked a bit "dizzy"( better said, he had a cast in the ey, well, very mildly). So after he told about his adventure, we had dinner and then he streched out on the couch. And oh whee, he took a couple of hours of sleep! And he went to bed also early and slept very well.
Next morning he was okay again and went to a morning shift.

You know what made me kind of stupified? When I heard on the news that statement of that Republican candidate. Sorry, American friends, but really, this guy isn;t from this world!
He had the nerve to state that women, who got violated, almost couldn;t get pregnant!Because they had a "thing"that could block the whole process. Apart from the fact if you are for or against legal abortion, these words of the guy are out of order!
Well, I believe he now made excuses for it, but he really believed it, so ladies, what kind of people are running for president ? Without wanting to insult anybody, I truly think that this kind of politicians are not the right ones.
Okay, just my opninion.

On to much "lighter stuff"again, please. Received again a mail from Arlene with stunning cl;usters again! Today some made with the Far away Dreams kit and not only she  made two clusters but also gives you a stunning quickpage!
As you can understand things are a little bit hectic in her life at the moment, but in all I think she is doing okay. Thanks for all your kind words towards her!
Download     HERE

I have no idea what we are going to do today(Jan has a day off), but he told me that not too far away he saw bushes with blackberries and perhaps they are good for picking after that week with lots of warmth and sunshine. So may be we can go there and take a look and have ourselves a good time in collecting a nice portion of blackberries. But it's just an idea and you know how it goes overhere with making plans, grin grin!
I have a little bit different kit for you today, all in blue, named "Lonely Looking Sky".
Make something "dreamy"with it LOL!
Have a wonderful day!
Download    HERE






Monday, August 20, 2012

Heatwave in the weekend

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes. we could speak of a heatwave the last two days here! As much as I like to have sunny weather, it was a bit too much.
My poor hubby had to work this weekend, although on Saturday just in the morning, so he was home before the real heat was there. But yesterday he had two shifts, one morning and one evening, so I felt real sorry for him.
But it is still better than having to ride around on the bike in storm and rain LOL.
Although Jan has a work-free day today, we are still up on early time, cause he has a hospital appointment at 14.00 p.m., they have to do an endoscopie(yak, it's not nice) and he cannot eat or drink after 8.00 o'clock in the morning. So I made sure he got up and had something to eat and drink. As he is having a mild narcose for this thing he can sleep a bit later i the hospital LOL.
It's nothing to be really worried about, but his doctor wanted to check out, if may be he'll need a little change in his medication, and I like her attitude in following her patients.
So the afternoon I'll be home alone for a while hahaha.

I think it will be a good time to prepare already for dinner then, in the weekend, although it was warm, I did some of the necessary things here in the house, mostly in the mornings, so I can take it easy today.

Funny how I got used to see sports ll day and evening during the Olympics. that I needed to kind of kick off again and get used to the usual programs on tv again ROFL. But I am glad we can watch some of our detectives again and some quizes and documentairies etc. That keeps the brain working!

There isn't much to tell actually, so I think I better finish this post, with some freebies of course and perhaps have another coffe, in the garden, now that it is still a bit cool there. It is a real luxury for us to be able to open the garden doors at 7 in the morning you know! So let us count our blessings and not be whining about the warm weather. Who knows, what sucking weather we will have later this year???

I have some "various"clusters of Arlene for you.
Download     HERE

The kit of today is in one colourscheme, named "Always Close to Me".
Have a real nice day !
Download    HERE

P.S.  Take a moment to go to Linda's blog for a sweet quickpage and check out Miriam's blog, she made also some sweet freebies as well as Mat did there!!


Friday, August 17, 2012

Early start of the day

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, another early start today, but I don;t mind that too much. Jan is working this morning, so we have some free time again LOL.
Wednesday evening we watched a soccer game, an "excersise"game of the national team against the Belgian national team. It's all in preparation for the competition towards the world championship soccer in Brasil in 2014.
And Jan and I were really bad this time. You should think we supported the Dutch team, but no, in fact we were for the Belgians. Well, it has a reason: the Dutch team is taking it too easy peasy at the moment, they have to learn that they need to work together and that it isn;t a game for only solo actions. They played a bit better already, the new coach changed a lot of players, so we'll have to wait and see how they will do in future.
But the belgians played rather well and won the game 4-2! Even if it's a "friendly"game a match between Holland and Belgium has something special.

Yesterday another great day, really summer. So I did some things in the morning, like running to the supermarket for a few things and home again I had a washing machine to turn. It wa quickly filled, because I had to wash a big curtain ( and oh my God, it was of a strange colour ).
Jan has a little problem with the curtain in the bedroom, it leaves through a bit too much light to his liking, so I found us a spare one, but had to clean it first. Now we will try that one and it may be a bit better. Then I became all enthousiastic about the washing LOL and washed also two winter jacks. They are now all clean and fresh and ready to be used, but I hope they will not be necessary for a long time though.
Then I had a real startle later in the morning. I was busy in the kitchen and had to go to the living room for something and suddenly heard a men's voice saying "hello"to me, coming from the garden door! It happened to be Jan, who came home earlier, because something had changed in his schedule! My heart was pounding a bit, you know! I didn;t notice him coming in, as I was real busy at the time.

Early afternoon I had a phonecall from Heidi, and she came along to tell a bit about her holiday.
We had a nice time all together in the garden, and it seems we will get a parasol and barbecue from her, which they have as spare. But they are still in good shape, so she thought it was a pity to just throw it away and asked if we could use them. Well, why not, her parasol seems to be even a larger size than the one we have now, which can be useful. And the barbecue? We don;t do much barbecue, but perhaps only because we don;t have one standing around LOL.
Oh, she also told us they now have another doggie, a puppy of the same breed as the one they already have! For a laugh I asked her why she didn;t consulted us first, cause we are the ones who have to take care of the doggies when they have an appointment somewhere and gone for a whole day. ROFL. Just kidding, it doesn;t matter if we have to walk with one or two little doggies, of course. So it seems I have to make a visit to her soon to take a look at the new member of the family.

So all together I didn;t spent too much time at the computer yesterday, but did upload two new kits, and I would like to start another one this weekend. Let's hope some inspiration will come along.

Yes, wanted to say this to you: I am planning to shorten a bit the list of My Freebies Together, by removing the links of a few months of last year. May be you want to download some of them if you didn;t already, and I thought I might warn you. I am thinking of the Christmaskits of 2010 and perhaps the months January till August of last year.

I have some clusters from Arlene, made with the "Home is where the Heart is"kit.
Download    HERE

And yes, I tried my inspiration again on a fantasy kit, named Fairies Delight.
I do love working in pastels, but sometimes I just feel the need to use some bolder colours, although in this kit it isn;t too bad yet LOL. Anyway, I hope you have some use for it.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Download     HERE


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Oh my, I was a bit pissed off!

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, we suddenly have real summer overhere. Yesterday it was around 77 F, even at a time it was a bit stuffy, and that isn;t too nice. Okay, let's count the blessings anyway LOL. Rest of the week it might even become warmer, till around 82 F!
Good thing, Jan has morning shifts all week!
Oh, yes, I will try to explain this, cause I was really a bit pissed off by it LOL!
On Monday's the agency works out the working hours of the employess, like for Jan. They do that very nicely and quick, and put them on internet on their site.
So you can check if everything is in order. Most of the times it is.
But last week Jan got a phonecall if he could take an extra shift on Friday morning(he already had one for the evening), the institution desparately needed someone. Okay, he agreed no problem.
The flex workers are hired in for a certain number of hours by the institutions through the agency.
This was for 4 hours. And Jan worked that time.
On the schedule it also was mentioned as 4 hours. But on the weekly overview of the agency there only was mentiond 3,5 hours for that certain institution. As I am acting as Jan's secretary LOL, I asked him if possibly that was right, perhaps he finished his shift a bit earlier. No, he didn;t.
But when flexworkers have to turn in their list and sometimes keys from the clients after their shift, there is nobody of te institution around, so it has to be dumped into a mailbox or something.
So I phoned the agency first about the missing half hour, they told me to phone the institution and so I did. Person in charge, oh miracle, wasn'around, but I explained what it was about to somebody and she told me I would have a call back that same afternoon.
We did get a call back, but from Jan's agency, and they explained why there was only 3,5 hours on the list. The institution counts only the time you are actually at the clients houses, and nothing more and they (the insitution I mean) even claimed Jan was back earlier! How do they now, they weren;t there at the office.!!
But normally you are hired for say 4 hours, perhaps you need 3,5 hours for the clients, but also spent first a bit of time at the office and then you have the travel time on the bike between the different addresses. And they count that to as working time, well, most of the institutions. But not this one. And it's not the first time Jan had trouble with this certain institution, another time they counted 2 hours short, hey that's money! After a few phonecalls, ge got those hours anyway, but it leaves a kind of strange taste. So now again they act difficult, and Jan heard from other flexworkers they also had trouble.
Well, I wasn;t happy with the answer. I think it isn't fair play.
But do you know I wass the most pissed off with?? That I should have a phonecall back, but that they called the agenecy! I don;t think that is the proper way to do things. But I think they didn;t want to have the discussion with a flexworker and left it to the agency. Still I think, it isn't very polite.
So now Jan decided that if the agency askes him to work for that institution he will refuse it. He can, no problem. Yeah, if every time he works for them there will be a problem with time, it's no fun.
Luckily he almost all the time works for another insitution and they are much nicer with the time writing, sometimes they even add 15 minutes or half an hour, because it was a harder shift or so, or they know a worker was later in than scheduled( and the flexer didn;t putt his extra time on the list). Now that is a way to deal with a staff.

ROFL, can you tell I was kind of angry??? I made quite a story of it, didn;t I? Well, I didn;t like the way it was handled by that instituion, kind of sneeky and a bit cowerdly.

Okay, enough of that now. With Jan at work in the mornings, last two days, I was more active too.
Did again a laundry, some dusting and a vacuum cleaning, washed by hand a little curtain of the kitchen, did some necesary shopping, prepared partly dinner, did some serious pruning in the garden, some ironing was done, so all together I am a bit pleased with myself. Oh there's more waiting to be done, but I take every day something, and that works for me at the moment. And it leaves me some computer time too, yeah.
Got a new kit ready for upload, and started on another too!
I think today will be a day "off", ROFL, Jan doesn;t work today, so it probably will be a bit garden time with this awesome weather we have at the moment, may be we even will take a little walk, I don;t know yet.

From Arlene today lovely clusters from the Discovery of Wonder kit.
Download    HERE

And from me a kit named "Light as a Feather".
Well, hope to finish today the other kit I started and perhaps even make a start with a new one wow!
Have a terrific day.
Download    HERE


Monday, August 13, 2012

Confusion all over LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

Early morning, oh yeah, and it wasn't all too easy to get up so early. Well, had to see a bit of the closing veremony show of the Olympics but it took longer than I thought. The more while we have a time difference of one hour with England(should be GB, but we mostly caal it England).
But Jan had to work this morning and all week I believe morning shifts, only not on Wednesday.
As Saturday was a whole free day, we did take a whole day off LOL.
Only did get the weekend paper and that was it. I already had done things in the house on Friday, so I could take time at the computer and for the Olympics and in the garden with a peaceful heart!
Ysterday also was an easy day, with no big commotion or events, so actually there isn;t much too tell, ROFL.

But this morning I want to get more active, it's so nice to do things here when Jan is out working, all the house free, can do all in my own way and tempo, and mostly I get more done then. That doesn;t mean anything bad to Jan, but when he is around you easily get distracted and sooner take a break to have e.g. a cup of coffee together.
First a few links for you for some layout ideas and also freebies to grab.
Linda has a lovely little quickpage for you, Mat has some great layouts on her own blog, also a quickpage on Miriam's blog, where Miriam herself has also a sweet freebie for you.
Snowy also great layouts of her USA trip and a great freebie. Well, I guess that's already something good to start your day!

From Arlene I have two so sweet clusters, meant for a wedding page, but you could use them easily for something else too. Made of various kits of mine.
Download    HERE

Then there still seems to be confusion all over LOL, about the "Somewhere in Time"kit.
Some of you already have that one, others, asked me if they could have the downloadlink.
Well, I decided to be a very nice girl and give you this kit(perhaps again) for download AND for the ones, who already have it, post a new kit!!
So here first the "Somewhere in Time"kit
Download    HERE

And here a completely new kit, named "Summertime for Lady Bug".

Download    HERE

That's about all for today, no funny stories, not too much rambling, and a lot of downloads, is that a good start of a new week or not???
To get really awake I think I first need another coffee and then I hop into my clothes and will start being really active. And who knows, may be in the afternoon I wil have a little wink, hmmmmm, sounds good to me. We'll see about that, first I can open soon the garden doors, nice fresh air all around, later it should be really warm and sunny and then Jan will be home and we can take our sandwich in the garden, under the parasol ROFL.
Have a wonderful day!



Friday, August 10, 2012

Gorgeous day.

Goodmorning everybody!

Unexpected I have a "free"morning LOL. No, just kidding but yesterday afternoon Jan got a phonecall from the agency with the question if he could do an extra morning shift today (he has to work te evening too). He accepted so he is on his way now.
Yesterday morning, as he was working too, I went with the tram to another supermarket, where they have great sandwich fillings, like ham and that kind of stuff, for real nice price and very tasteful. So I bought a bunch of them, devided them in smaller protions and they are all in the freezer now. It saves some money and is handy too.
Bought some other stuff too, found Jan a new bread tin, a bit smaller one, for just € 1,00, LOL.
It was gorgeous weather yesterday, sunny, almost no wind, real nice temperature.
For dinner I had not much to do, we had left over from some minced meat kebabs I made the other day, very simple made, just minced meat, with a bit of breadcrums, pepper, salt, lots of paprika, fine cut onions and some garlic, on a pin and rolled in a slice of bacon. Simple, but yummie.
Today I should do, again, something about the ironing, ad also want to prepare dinner in advance a bit, cause Jan has to leave around 17.30 p.m. this afternoon again.
I think I will make the filled chicken breast, this time with some hand and salami and inbetween some slices of brie(French cheese), it melts so good and has a great taste.
For tomorrow I have already decided what to make for dinner(Jan has to work evening again). When I was in that supermarket, I couldn;t resist buying a little package of smoked salmon slices, I will make a potatoe salad, with some fine cut ice-salad in it, some green peas, capers, and some oil and mayonnaise and cover it with the salmon slices. Yummie!

I was a bit creative too, almost finished with two new kits. Only have to make the previews and upload them. Oh, I have a question for you. I have a kit here, of which I am not sure if I already posted it or not. I once posted it, but got a mail from a follower, that I did post that already. But as it was the only one, and saw that others downloaded it(before I removed it again), I am confused. So here's the preview and let me know if I did post it already at some time or not, okay?





Linda did sent me a preview of a new quickpage she made with the Love me Tender kit, and she made that as lovely as ever. Visit her blog for download.

And I received a mail with a lovely layout, done with the Discovery of Wonder kit from NathL.
Take time to visit her blog, she also offers sometimes a freebie, and it's worthwhile to look at her layouts, she could inspire you!

Arlene has made you great clusters with the Love me Tender kit. I had to make two previews, to do them a bit justice! But they are in just one download.



Download Arlene's clusters HERE

I am just looking out of the window and it looks to become another lovely day, so soon it will be time to open the gardendoors, let in some fresh air, and may be I will spend a 15 minutes in the garden sipping my coffee(it is sooo quiet and wonderful in the early morning) Then it should be time to get busy.
But first the kit, again in a purple colour palette( I just love to work with that color!), named Far away Dreams.
Have a marvellous weekend!
Download     HERE

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

A super and heartbreaking story to read.

Goodmorning everybody!

I stumbled upon a blog, with a story I read twice, and it really brought tears into my eyes. Everyone, who has a grasp of feeling, will experience the same, and pet lovers even more.
It was a too long story to copy, but I will give you the link to it and please take a few minutes of your time and spend that reading and also.pass it on to others. !!!

http://countrylivs.blogspot.nl/2012/08/how-could-you.html

And yes, almost forgot this, do take a peep too at Mat's blog, she has a new bloglook and it is made by Linda( http://linda-ohwhatfun.blogspot.com), with a kit of mine, Believe in Fairy Magic, and it makes me so proud! But take a look and you'll have to agree Linda did a terrific job!!!!

I had such a long post on Monday, that I forgot to tell you about a succesfull collaboration of Jan and me. That is quite amazing LOL, because we are both a bit impatient and that doesn't do good to doing things together at times. But this time, we managed to bring it to a good end.
Nothing special, but Saturday Jan came home around 23.30 evening and said he feared that one of his tires on his bike had a small leak in it. Well, we cannot have that, isn;t it?
Next morning he had to work again, so finally we took the bike into the kitchen, turned it around and Jan removed the tire, and I was his assistent, holding things, grabbing things he needed etc.
And yes, there was a tiny little hole in a tire. A sticker was glewed onto it, and till now it seems the fixig was a good one. So that took some of our time, imagine us, in the kitchen at night, fixing a tire.
First we wanted to watch a part of a tv serie he recorded on the dvd, but due to the reperation it was too late to do that. Still I am glad his bike seems to be in order again.
Monday afternoon we had a phonecall from Heidi, that they arrived home, she will be over for a little visit somewhere this week.
Yesterday I finally got to the ironing, not done all of it, but there was a lot to do, so I am happy, most of it is gone now. Next load already will be hanging to dry today, I guess. A never ending story LOL!

Today Jan has a day off, and then the rest of the week he will be working again, tomorrow a morning shift, and the rest of the week till Sunday evening all evening shifts. Great, because that pays extra.

Weather here is a bit so-so. Not too warm, although still not really bad, sprinkling some rainshowers every now and then, but also periods with sunshine and then suddenly it's a lot more fun. Next days it is said to get a whee bit better, well, I can dig that.!
Today will be a good day to do some shopping, I definately need some bread, coffe and catfood and have to think about things for dinner when Jan has his evening shifts. Shouldn;t be too complicated, but still good enough to hold him on his feet ROFL. It's a bit akward, that we have to eat rather early, most of the time around 4.o00 or 4.30 in the afternoon. But we are getting used to that already.

On to freebies now, don;t you think?
I have some fantastic clusters from Arlene, made with the Innamorato kit. She made a lot of them so I made two previews, otherwise they wouldn;t be done justice.




Download all clusters    HERE




And a kit, oh so soft and vintage like, named "Wishful Dreaming". Hope you can make some beautiful layouts with it, now have to jump into some clothes and get busy!
Have a wonderful day!
Download    HERE


Monday, August 06, 2012

Another award and other stuff too!

Goodmorning everybody!

I really wasn;t in the mood yesterday, guess I just had not a good sleep Saturday night and was up early morning again, to make Jan;s breakfast and sandwiches for the road. I did catch a bit of sleep later, when he was gone for work, but it's just not the same a a good night's rest.
But today it's a lot better, slept well last night.
Yesterday evening I got a phonecall from Heidi that they were on their way back home, they should arrive somewhere this morning.  Hoorray, no more fish feeding time.

I want to draw your attention to a new blog, an "old" blog-friend-follower started finally. She needs a little bit of encouragement to hold on LOL, but I think she will succeed. Nice things is she shows somw of her layouts, but also offer some freebies every now and then. So why not take a peep there and leave a little comment for her and perhaps even become a follower?
Just go to Chris's blog,  Chris's design place

Oh gosh, there's another award I recieved, from Mat, of Mat's memories. I first didn't want to do it, but I do really appreciate these and so there we go again.

RULES:

First, you should thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. (ck)
Next, answer the following 10 questions about yourself. (ck)

Then, choose 10 of your favorite bloggers and link their blogs to your post.  Be sure to let them know that you are nominating them for the award. (ck)

Last, be sure to copy and paste the award to your blog! (ck)

THE QUESTIONS:

1.  Favorite Color    Hard, but I think lavender/purple
2.  Favorite animal  I can't choose between cats or dogs
3.  Favorite number  16
4.  Favorite drink   hot is COFFEE and sometimes a Crodino or San Pellegrino(non alcoholic both)
5.  Facebook or Twitter niether one of them, glad I already can keep up the blog
6.  Good Book or Good Movie  also both, but I think good movie now a days
7.  My passion - - lots of them: looking after my hubby, my cats, cooking,scrapbook kit designing, all things nature, gardening etc.
8.  Giving or getting gifts actually it's giving, but as every "normal"person (am I??????????) I also like to recieve them
9.  Favorite Day  I don;t think I have one
10.Favorite Flower; hard one too, but I think it should be the rose.



Okay, I am supposed to pass it on to 10 other bloggers, I will not reach that amount, some of the blog I liked to give it to, already received it(like Mat, Snowy and Edna LOL).

For encouragement I pass it on to Chris, of Chris's design place
A real sunshine blog is Minky's Things
Next one shoudl be of an "old"internet friend Valinda of VJ's Scraproom
Then to Linda, of Random Thoughts of Linda
Another follower , who makes such great pictures and layouts of them, Karen of Time to Digiscrap
And I leave it there, just 5, but that's all I can come up with at the moment.

Seems to be a rather long post, with all the stuff to show, awards to do and such.
I had email from Arlene, with some news about her sister and She's okay with it that I post some lines of that email, to keep you all informed:

My sister is doing really well. They say they got all the cancer. She had her breathing tube taken out yesterday. She is still on strong pain medication & sort of out of it but so far so good. We're all taking turns sitting with her.
I am thankful for all the prayers & that they were answered! She is my oldest sister I was actually the flower girl at her wedding.Thank-you & all your followers for your prayers & caring, it means alot.


She also sent me a buch of new clusters, even today there were new ones in my mail, here the first of the row, two clusters made with The Romantic kit.
Download   HERE

Despite of my a bit miserable day yesterday, LOL, I did finish another kit, which will be for later,
today I have one in greenish / yellow colorpallette, named Discovery of Wonder.

 Download    HERE

(I completely forgot to put on the downloadlink at my first posting!!! So sorry)

And slowly it's getting time to finish this post and get dressed and a few things to do. Ironing should be done, pffffffffffffff, and I also have to go to the bank, a bill to pay(yes, still the "old-fashioned way", don;t yet use internet for banking).
And may be we will have a short visit of Heidi, if they arrive early enough today, and I'll have to play Jan's secretary again, checking his working schedule and filling in his available days for the next weeks, but that last thing probably could wait for a few days, because I did that already till the 20th if August. Still I like to be ahead a bit, it can help to get some more hours. This week he has work from Thursday till Sunday( Sunday even a double shift) but he could do with a few hours more. Next week is already filled in nicely, every day a shift, he only has one day off then.
Yeah, he's a hard worker, isn;t he?
Okay, off I go now, wishing you a great day!





Friday, August 03, 2012

Arlene keeps me busy this weekend!

Goodmorning everybody!

Wednesday was a rather good working day for me LOL! No, serious, Jan was working so I could do several things. Great.
Yesterday and also today Jan has now work, so yesterday I also took a day off, and spent time at the computer. Finished a kit and even started another one.
But this morning I received LOTS of new clusters from Arlene. So I;ll be busy to make previews and upload the folders for it. Every time again I am stunned of her work.

Our garden is becoming a wild life reservation slowly ROFL.
Not only we spotted new toads and frogs, but yesterday Jan found under a little tile two salamanders! Isn;t that nice? I definately should think of a bigger pond next spring. I would like to have an old fashioned tub of zinc, or small kind of bath and digg it in partially. With some waterplants in it we could do without a waterpump and filter. Hmmmm, definately something to think about and look around in charity shops or even on the street if there is something like it. With the "wildlife"extending in the garden it could be a good idea.
So you see, there are always projects coming up, now only they will have to be realized, hardest thing to do LOL.

Today I'll have to fill up the fridge a bit, so shopping will ebe necessary. Not a too bad thing, weather looks rather nice, and it will be good to be outside for a moment. And there's also some laundry waiting for ironing. May be today, or on Sunday, because this weekend Jan has to work again.
Saturday an evening shift and on Sunday even a double shift, one in the morning till midday and an evening one from 18.00 till 23.00.

Yesterday was a nice day for us Dutchies on the Olympics. Till now we are not gathering a lot of medalls, but there is anohter gold one after the one of Marianne Vos, women cycling on the road, which was a beautiful one,  the one of Ranomi Kromowidjojo, on 100 mtrs freestyle swimming.
It was a spectacular race to see.

Now soon athletics will begin, I only hope the weather will stay dry in London, that makes it much nicer for the athleets.

Time to do some things here, so let's start with the freebie of Arlene. She did some amazing things with the Distant Whisoer kit.!
Download      HERE

And my kit is "Home is where the Heart is".
You all have a wonderful weekend, and I'll be here again on Monday!
Download    HERE

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

New blog look and treats

Goodmorning everybody!

It was an early waking this morning, as Jan had to go to work, and from 7.45 till12.00 and this evening another shoft from 18.00 till 23,00 hours.
Monday, when he was at work too, it was rather nice weather, so I did some window washing, wow!
Yesterday was shopping time and fish feed time at Heidi's. So much more relaxed.
I think today it's time for the vaccum cleaner and Probably washing machine time too.
Then I have to figure out something for our early dinner.
I am still on snail hunt in the garden every few days, specially when it has rained a bit, they like the moist and come in isght LOL. But the regular hunting and murder actions performed by me, have some result. Now I just find a few of them, but when I find them, they are huge!
And sometimes I am startled up by a noice in the leaves and see hopping our bread and breakfast friend, the frog or toad. I am having a few of them now, so cute. Also they seem to like the tiny little pond I have, I see them hiding there under a stone. And Jan found a family spot, two (I think they are toads) more aged ones, doing some sexy thing LOL and yesterday I saw a tiny little new born!

I finally made another bloglayout, although I like the last one very uch. But you know me, I like to change once in a while.
And oh yes, I have some wonderful treats for you again.
First is from Linda, a beautiful quickpage she made with the Remember the Good Times kit.
You ca download it from her blog( and leave a littl thanks, that would be nice)

And Arlene has made some time to make some fantastic clusters for you. She just mailed me and is feeling a lot better, infection seems to be gone, but she is feeling very tired. No wonder, with that infection and flu to cope with and then the tension of her sister's operation. That was yesterday, and she will be kept "asleep"for two days.
Arlene send her thanks to all of you, who think of her and her family and send their prayers for them.
Here the clusters, made also with the Remember the Good Times kit.
Download     HERE

Can you believe we are already in the month of August??? So much happened lately, good and not so good things, but all that together seems to eat the time. Do believe I am already thinking of Christmas, in the way, that when I am shopping, I am looking around to see if there are some nice presents, if possible in the sale, that's the kick of it all LOL. Well, have to be a bit careful with the money, because bills have to be payed, and they only seem to be higher.
Well, time to get busy here, then in the afternoon perhaps a bit Olympics, ten dinner, and when Jan is at work this evening, may be a bit more computer time, but surely too watching some Olympic matches.
Here my kit "Love me Tender"
Have a wonderful day!

Download      HERE