With a Russian/Dutch heart

Clean curtains, yes!

2012-02-03T11:10:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I finally washed the curtains yesterday afternoon. Oh my, they looked terrible. Now they are all bright and white again. Oh, can tell you about a little stupidity of mine LOL!
As I washed the curtains, by hand(much quicker) I always hang them wet on a line to drip off a bit first and when they are still a bit moist I hang them on their rod again, result, almost no crinkles whoopie!
So yesterday too. And it was such nice weather I though: "Why not hang them outside for a moment, in a soft wind, will dry quick". So I did, but............here comes the stupidity.............................. I just forgot that it was freezing outside, just a few degrees! Can you picture what happened???????????? To my luck I looked out of the window after a minute or 5 or ten, to see if they were still dripping off or not. They definately weren;t. I just saw some small icicles at the bottom of the curtains. OHHHH< HELP! I rushed out to the garden and touched the curtains. They were almost stiff, like a piece of moist cardboard! I managed to get them off the line, I was fearing I might break them LOL! I think I was just in time. Then I quickly hanged them cautiously in the bathroom, to thaw them. Pffffffff, all ended well.
That's me, I suppose. Meaning well, but just not using my brains, ROFL!!!!!

At the moment it looks still well outside, some sunshine, still a whee bit freezing, but during the afternoon they announced it might snow perhaps even a couple of centimeters thick! Oh gosh, I hope it will not happen, but I am afraid it will be otherwise. Probably it will only snow today, lets hope so.
A lot of people in Holland are now crossing their fingers and hoping, that it will stay freezing the next week too. And why? Because every year they hope there will be another "Elfstedentocht"again, a tour on skates over 200 kms in the north of the Netherlands. It's like a fever that is spreading fast. I have a link for you, which explains rather well, what this "elfstedentocht"(Eleven Cities tour) is all about and a link to a YouTube video of a tour of 1985. One of the toughest in the history of it was the tour of 1963, won by Reinier Paping in a time of almost 11 hours!
I always admire the enormous will power and strength of everybody who completes the tour.
Here are your links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNM0rZoAP0U

Oh, some good news to tell! Remeber the article I posted a few days ago about Mr. Abdul, who lives and workes here for about 15 years, after having to leave Afghanistan? And that he probably would be sent back? It doesn't happen. He can stay and receives his permanent residence permit! YEAH! He was sooooo happy, he couldn;t stop smiling when he was interviewed. Now suddenly the minister and government could make an exception. Hmmmm, I wonder why???? Let's not speculate about that and just be happy for him and his children.

Time to finish the post, if I want to go out for a moment, I better do it soon, before the snowing might start!
I promised you to post my Valentine's kit today and well, here it is, named "Being with You".
Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Download HERE

Prolem?? I thought so, but it was easy to solve

2012-02-01T12:38:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

This morning I started up the computer, no problem. Then I saw my internet icon didn;t jump to the "blue arrow". Okay, that sometimes happens, even sometimes internet works well even when it seems not connected. Other times I just have to unplug and plug in my internet connection and okidoki again.
Not this morning. I went looking to the little box for the internet connection, with also the telephone line on it and the box had no lights at all. Mostly there are some of the lights orange instead of green, and unplug and plug in is the solution. Not today! No lights at all! That was strange. On the same powerpoint we also have a lamp connected, so I thought: let's try the lamp. Oops, no light!!! OMG!! What now. I immediately had the idea that the powerpoint didn't work for some reason. Already saw in front of my eyes the change of the extension box they were connected to. Or perhaps worse. But..... I got the brilliant idea to check the connection of the plug. Hmmmmmm, it was a bit loose. So I plugged it in well and tadaaaaaaaaa............................ there was power and all worked as it should!!!!!!!! I suppose the plug had been disconnected just a bit because Dikkie Dik is making his jump to the window seat from there, using a little side table that is there. (he seems to hate to move too much if not necessary, although he easily could jump on the windowseat from the floor!!!)
Anyway, I had heartbounces for nothing LOL!
It really is getting wintery overhere! Even during daytime it's a bit freezing, in the easter part of Holland a bit more severe, and it might get even colder during the week. Hmmmmm, no real harm till now, at daytime sun is shining, so okay, it's colder, but dressed well in coat and cap and gloves it even isn;t too bad going outside.
As long as there is no snowfall, or hail or whatever I can digg it.

I was out for a moment yesterday and it wasn;t bad. Got some things done in the house, like preparing the veggies from the market for the freezer, ironed some laundry, dusted the room, cleaned the little windows from one of the cupboards, Jan did the sweep with the vacuum cleaner, so all together a rather well spend day.
Today I really want to take care of the curtains, I saw them from the outside yesterday and oh Lord, they look aweful! And to be honest, infact it is done rather quickly, but it's just the stuff around it that holds me back a little. Have to take the ladder out, clime it and take the curtains off. That should also be a good time to wash the window at the inside, you know. While doing that, the curtains are in the water and when ready cleaning the window, I'll have to take the curtains out, hang them for a while in the bathroom to get rid of most of the water and after some time take them still a bit moist to the room and hang them again. It's best to do it this way, then they don;t wrinkle, you know. Then put the ladder away and such, this always takes more time than you think. But... have to be brave!ROFL.

Oh, about a week ago Jan already planted some tomatoe seeds and the sprouts are aleady coming up. It might be a little early, but they can grow strong and healthy indoors for a while and when the weather will be much more spring like we can harden them during daytime outside and after a bit of time let them stay outside. I hope they will do it well, Jan is like a mother hen to them ROFL!

Well, that's it for today. Today I have, after a long time, again a fantasy kit for you, "Happy Fairy". And I think this Friday I will have my Valentine kit for you. After all, it will be soon Valentine's Day.
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

This week we'll have winter cold!

2012-01-30T10:50:00.001+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

First thanks to all, who left a "happy birthdaywish" here for Jan. I told him he had wishes from several countries and it made him smile. Yesterday was a quiet day, but nice. I made a kind of "birthday-dinner", hmmmmmm with big shrimps in garlic and parsil and made a potatoe salad to go with it. I didn't had a present for him(we agreed not to buy presents for eachother's birthday), but I collected some music and burned a cd with that, mainly with "oldies". Some of the songs we have, but only on records, and it is nice to have a collection of your favourites together on one cd.
On Friday we actually made it to the market, didn;t buy too much, just potatoes and some fruit and a little bit of veggies.
It's really getting colder now, and during this week even day temps will not rise above the zero, brrrrrrr. But the good news with it is, that probably there will be little of rain or snow, it should look rather joyful with sunshine. Then I don;t mind if it's colder, I can handle that, if there is not much wind to it. Still hoping that next week temps will rise again, LOL!

Oh I got a sweet mail of a visitor, who used my Belezza kit for a lovely layout, if you like to see I have a link for you:
http://digiscrapstation.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=11746&ppuser=481

Oh yes, you know we did watch the speedskating of the World Championship Sprint during the weekend and hoorray, with the men we Dutchies have a champion, Stefan Groothuis. He was so close to it, several times, ending up on second or third place, but this time he finally did it. I am really happy for him, he worked very hard for it. It was very exciting, cause it wasn;t sure who would win the title till the last race!

And I am so sorry for my Canadian friends, that Christine Nesbitt didn;t win the title with the women! She raced a spectaculair 1000 mtrs, with a world record!, but yesterday she just lost on 0,02 seconds the title. How frustrating is that???? We all thought she would grab the title, but she lost from a Chinese at the end.

Now on to the freebie. I made another Beatrix Potter kit, the pics are so adorable! It's named "Meet Mrs. Tittlemouse", and I think it's a great kit for layouts with little kids!
Have great day!

Download HERE

A heartbreaking story at the news.

2012-01-27T11:22:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Sun is shining at the moment, so it looks a bit cheerful, but that could change over the weekend. They say it's getting colder, hope that doesn;t last too long.
I think it was Wednesday evening on the local neews channel (and later also on the other channels!) that I heard of a heartbreaking story. At the moment the government is busy with all immigrants that are here, to see if they are granted a definate permit to stay or not. Okay, it's a good thing they look in to all the cases, because there are always people who want to take advantage of the asylum policy. But thee are also people coming here, because they are in danger in their own country. Well, everybody is a bit familiar with this problem. But the following is absolutely not to comprehend, I took the newspaper article into a translation site, hope I adjusted it well here and there, just read it and I think everybody has to agree that in this case a permanent recidence permit is the right thing to do.

"Mr. Abdul is cool and must remain! ' With large letters, the inscription on one of the many posters and banners in the St. Michael school in Hazerswoude-dorp. In the course are groups of children busy with paint brushes painting the name Abdul on large white sheets . The 50-year-old caretaker of the basic school is standing close to it very emotional. Abdul Matin Momand was told last week that he must return to his native country Afghanistan.
Although Abdul lives in The Netherlands for more than fifteen years, now his last hope of a residence permit is gone. Per letter Monday all parents and children from the school were informed of the rejection by the IND.I the Immigration department) The news hit like a bomb.
"Abdul belongs to the school", says a mother. "He is so much more than just janitor, he lives for this school." Behind her a bunch of guys, in their hands they keep lists full of signatures. "Look", they say proud to the the janitor, "we have many signatures and we're going to get even more."
Abdul gets his glasses of his nose and rubbed into his eyes. "This school is my family", he says. "They do everything for me. When I moved to another house all parents have helped . And now they give me support. " Six years ago the wife of Abdul suddenly died . Also then the whole school was there for him. "My wife complained about headaches", he says, "four days later she was not there anymore. Everyone was so caring for me, they brought me food and helped me with everything. "
The children of Abdul, Achmed (16) and Diba (15)-obtained years ago a residence permit. If their father is turned off, they will have to remain in Netherlands alone or go with him to Afghanistan, a country that they barely know. "They have to decide", says Abdul. "But they have nothing in Afghanistan. They do not speak the language. The were still babies when we fled to Netherlands. But if they stay here, they will have lost in addition to their mother also lost their father. "
The Director of the school is happy that everyone is so involved. "Abdul deserves this. He is like a father to the children in the school. We hope that this positive attention perhaps Abdul can stay here. "


15 years ago Abdul fled from Afghanistan to The Netherlands with his wife and two young children.
    In 2004 Abduls wife and his children were given a permanent residence permit, but not Abdul His dossier had to be further investigated,
    The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) wanted to revoke the earlier temporary residence permits. According to Abdul because he has worked in Afghanistan for Defence.
    The Court decided three times that Abdul could stay in The Netherlands . Nevertheless, his new application for a permanent residence permit was rejected by the IND.
    Gert Leers, Minister of Immigration and asylum yesterday announced through his spokesman that he wanted to be informed of all facts about the case . The Mayor of Rijnwoude, where Hazerswoude-dorp is a part of, asked the minister yesterday to look again to this case.

Now isn;t it heartbreaking that the government takes 15 years to see if this man is "okay"???? He is fully integrated in Dutch society, works, speaks Dutch, his children even have Dutch nationality, and they just say"sorry, you'll have to go back to Afghanistan". I don;t think that's the right way to treat good willing people.!
Hmmm, we will se in the next couple of weeks what will happen.

This weekend will be nice for Jan and me. Of course there is Jan;s birthday on Sunday, but there will be no party. Oh gosh, we've grown over that! LOL! But this weekend will be speed skating again, Worldchampionchip Sprint, held in Calgary! So Satuday and Sunday evening will be filled with watching that! Great.!!
I'll try to get a new load of laundry done today or tomorrow, may be, if weather stays a bit pleasant, we make a short visit to the market, we'll see and I might even give Jan a quick haircut, so that he will look handsome at his birthday ROFL!
Today is the second download from the "Precious Moments" kit, and I'll be back on Monday, already the last day of January oh, and the birthday of our queen too!
Have a fantastic weekend and send some positive vibes to our government, they will need that so that they decide with compassion, that Mr. Abdul can stay here in Holland!

Download part 2 HERE

Hoorray for hubbies!!!

2012-01-25T11:59:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Sometimes you wish your hubbie could be somewhere else, for a few hours LOL, but there are also times you can be happy with them(and happy to say those times are more frequent ROFL).
Yesterday I went out for the shopping and when I came back I noticed, that there were some wet spots in front of the door and window. So I took a good look at the window and surprise ! I was able to look through it!
During ny shopping time Jan tackled the window at the front, which was about time to do so, there is of course the "normal"dirt, but the last couple of weeks we had some harsh winds, blowing almost full on the window, and accompanied by rain it left traces on the window, mildly said!
You can imagine I was happy with my hubby yesterday! Still there is the inside to do and some other windows, but he mumbled something, that he would do them too this week. WOW!

Some minor news about the weather, it's forecasted that in the weekend temps might drop, specially during the noghts, below zero several degrees, but still during daytime they will be several degrees above zero. So perhaps we have to deal with several days of colder temps, but I think(or let's say hope) it will not last for very long. I can remember years, where we had real winter time in March, so everything is still possible. We might have snow and ice as far away as March and even April, not that I would be happy with it! We'll just have to see what the weathergods have in mind for us, don;t we?

Can you imagine that next week January is gone already??? But, first I can congratulate my Jan on Sunday, reaching the same age as I have ROFL!!! Yes, this Sunday he will have his birthday, and he can say no more that he's the youngster. Well, he always is 3 weeks younger than I am, but that doesn;t really count. Only the weeks that I have in writing a difference in figures, I am 59 and he still is 58, grin grin
Time again to do some things here, get them done quickly and perhaps this afternoon I will have a bit of time to spend at the computer, designing I hope. I started another kit, but it's not progressing smoothly. I might delete the few papers I've made till now completely and start all over again.
Today I have a first download of the kit "Precious Moments"for you. Second part will be posted on Friday.
Hopefully it will inspire you for some great layouts!
Have a magical day!

Download part 1 HERE

I made up a little yesterday for lost time

2012-01-23T11:32:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last couple of days I was feeling okay again, so Friday I could do some grocerie shopping, but kept quiet the rest of the day, just to be sure. Saturday was a nice quiet day too, even took a little nap in the afternoon and di some designing at the computer. Oh Friday evening was the final of the Voice of Holland and to my astonishment my favourite won! A girl of 19 years old, with a real pleasant voice and she also plays the harp! It's Iris Kroes who won and I wish her a brilliant carreer! I even have a link for you where you can see and hear her, it's of the semi final of The Voice, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovw8lJflJp4

Yesterday I made up a little for the "lost"time during the week LOL! I changed the bed duvet covers and sheets, let the washing machine do it's work, then I made us some stewing pears for desert and already prepared the sauce for the pasta we were to eat for dinner. It's a kind of Stroganoff sauce, adapted it a little my way.
You take an onion, cut in small dices, with some garlic cut very small, bit of oil in a pan and start frying the onion with garlic. When they are almost ready, you put in some minced meat, add some pepper and salt and let that fry, keep stirring. You take a red paprika, cut that in not too small squares, and add that to the pan. Don;t set the fire too high, it has to fry a bit slow. Take some small tomatoes, cut out the "green top" and then cut the tomatoes in dices, add that to the pan. I also added some spring onion to it and and mushrooms, if you like you could add even some olives, or courgette to it. When all is about ready, you could add some crème fraiche to it, keep stirring.
You can do all this in advance or at the same time your pasta is cooking. I took the "penne"this time.
Well, put some pasta on a plate, add a nice quantity of the sauce and if you like add some parmezan cheese on top. Not a very complicated, but tasty meal. Next time I will make a little green salad to it, it will be perfect then.

It wasn't one of Jan's favourite meals, LOL (he isn;t much of a pasta eater), but he said the sauce wasn;t too bad. But I have to admit that my hubby isn't a "difficult"eater. Of course he has his preferences, but he seldom is complaining about the food. What a guy! In general I cook straight forward dinners, but at times I like to try something new, and not always a new recipe turns out the way it should LOL! I suppose I am lucky to have a hubby who eats almost everything and isn;t too afraid to try something different.

It's getting time to move around a bit here, the house needs a good vacuum cleaning and there's always to find another job, sigh! But at least the sun is showing every now and then, it makes the world look a lot friendlier.
If it stays this way we might even make a quick visit to the market later this afternoon.
And now it's freebie time again. Hope you can use this kit "Bellezza".
Have a great day!

Download HERE

Days of rest

2012-01-20T11:50:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last couple of days were very quiet for me, not because I wanted it, but it was necessary.
I had a bit of trouble caused by my epilepsy, got a few absences(not that I was completely knocked out, LOL) and then I just have to let them happen and sit them out till it's over again. So I slept a lot, which is the best to do, and spent the days on the couch.
Result: not much done those days.
I always get a bit pissed off when I have trouble, but there isn;t much to do against it. Perhaps a bit more of the medicine would help, but if I only have a bit trouble every now and then, well, so be it, and I rather stick to the dosis of medicine I am taking now.
But yesterday I was "free"of it again, still a bit tired, but I think today I am okay again.
Enough complaining, let's just hope this will stay away now for a long period.
Hahahaaha, when I have those "attacks"I always think I can control them more or less, at least to a point Jan will not notice. But he always does. Most of the time he says nothing, but I know he knows, cause he stays in my neighbourhood, comes checking when I stay too long out of the room, well, I know by little things.

Now that I am "fresh and merry" again, I think I will go out this afternoon, just for a short while, even with not too nice weather it will be nice to sniff a bit of fresh air. Need to get us some bread, cat food just a few things.
And then this evening there will be the final of The Voice of Holland. There are 3 very good candidates, difficult to choose between them. I just hope really the best will win it, but the winner is chosen by votes of the public watching the tv, and then they can vote for their favourite by sms or phonecall. I think it would be better if it was decided by a competent jury, than by the public, cause it can happen that one candidate is very popular, because of his attitude or character, , and wins the competition because of that, but not because he or she is really the best "voice". Well, we'll see what happens.
Already nest week there is the start of a new Voice of Holland, but this time for kids.
Okay, enough bla-bla now, time for the freebie.
It's a little kit named "Somewhere", in pastel colour.
Have a wonderful weekend and see you again on Monday!

Donwload HERE

Surprise, my plans worked out!!

2012-01-18T11:48:00.001+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

For once I achieved to do the things I had planned for Monday LOL! Well, not completely, cause I always got distrackted when I am doing things, hopeless!!
But I did the laundry, I ironed all that was waiting for it, and while I was putting away the christmas table cloths etc. I sorted out 3 boxes where I keep the Christmas pillow covers, the table cloths etc and other ones where I keep the usual pillow covers, table napkins, toppers, and such. They look nice and organized again, and hoorray got rid of some old stuff in it, that was never used again. So proud of myself LOL!
What remains is the store room for the groceries. Perhaps today will be a good day for it, weather is a bit grey and not looking to inviting.
I already did my shopping yesterday, returned home with a load of things, enough for the rest of the week or more! They had a few good deals at the supermarket of "buy one and get two"stuff and I was lucky it were things I really needed to have. I took soup, potatoes, butter for frying, two boxes of dry cat food, all in those 2 for 1 deals. Plus of course still other things for "normal"price.
I always try to look for those kind of deals, and when they occure, I first calculate if it's really worthwhile(cause you often can find it for even less money from e.g. another brand), but if it's okay, I take them. It saves some money, which is a treat for my wallet LOL!

Well, that's about it for today. I was already a bit late this morning(kind of overslept a bit) so I should get dressed and start doing something.
I think I have a fun kit for you today, about Circus life! It's named "The Old Circus".
Have a lovely day!

Download HERE

A weekend just flashes by!

2012-01-16T09:57:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everbody!

If you are very busy during the weekend, it is over before you notice. But if you practically do nothing, it is still over before you notice! Why does it look as if a weekend is gone so quickly, is time speeding up then or what????? LOL
Friday after posting, I stayed at the computer a little while longer, working on a kit. Then I shook myself up, got dressed, had a sandwich and went doing a bit of shopping, the usual things. Came back, put the stuff away, and tackled the house (well, most of it) with the vacuum cleaner. Dusted a bit here and there, that kind of things.
In the mean time Jan tackled our dvd's. Oh gosh, I didn;t know we had soo much of them! Not only in the rack standing near the cd's but also in two boxes on the ground. Jan found another one, bigger, so that is already easier to find one, and I have a bit less stuff on the floor.
Saturday I just went out to get us the newspaper, but it was such nice weather, I made a little walk. It was crisp, but real refreshing, wonderful.
We watched quite a lot tv, some days there is sooo much to see, on other days you really have trouble, finding something interesting LOL. Oh, as you know we love a lot of different sports, this week there was the world championship of darts at the Lakeside, England. I like to see a good game of darts and wheeeee, some of the matches were really like a thriller. And now the best of it: A Dutchman won the championship! I think it is the 3rd time of the history of the Lakeside it happened. The more astonishing, cause it was his debute at this particular dart competition! In the final yesterday evening out champ managed to beat Tony O'Shea, a very very good dart player! So here we go: Congratulations to Christian Kist, yeah!!!!!!!!
During the day, we just did take it very easy, Jan reading the newspaper, commenting on several things written there, to me, when I was playing a bit at the computer, I don;t mind that too much, but it isn;t easy when you are reading something on internet yourself, and your hubby is talking to you and expects some answers or reactions from me on the newspaper issues LOL! You know what I mean??????

Weather is supposed to get a bit colder, even a bit of nightfrost, mainly in the eastern part of the country, but the weatherman also said temps will go up again a bit after a couple of days. So till now, still no snow, how lovely!!!!!
But as in other parts of the world there is a real winter going on I have a kit that might be nice for some real winter layouts, named "It's Cold Outside".
Well, after this lazy weekend I should do a little bit of work again in the house. Laundry is waiting, together with some ironing. And maybe, if I have the energy for it, I could clear out the place where we have our groceries reserve standing. You know, tins with veggies, all kind of pasta, some coffee, sugar, the stuff you can keep for a long time. I should check if it all still is usuable, not running out of date for consumption. Sigh, why do we have sometimes the tendency to act like hamsters??????LOL.
Whatever I will do,or not, it sure is time to close this post, I have then a little bit of time left to perhaps start with a new kit, and then I first will grab a nice shower, get dressed and get busy!
Have a wonderful day!!

Download HERE

Yeah for a little cat

2012-01-13T10:07:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday evening I phoned my friend with the sick cat. And the little treasure is still there! After she went on Monday to the vet, she was told that it didn't seem to be in pain. She had another medicine to avoid her throwing up her food and it seems to work. The cat has to deal with kidneys that doen;t work well, that will never improve, but she eats rather well, it stays till now in her stomach. So perhaps she will recover a bit, although it may be slowly, but you can imagine that my friend was relieved, the cat still is with her. She also knows it may not be for a long time anymore(the little thing already is about 19 years old), but as long as she knows that it isn't in pain and feeling better again, and comfortable at home, she still can emjoy the company.

Today it looks not to be so bad outside. It might stay dry all day, and I even see a bit of sunshine. And with also a bit less wind it might be even nice to go out for a moment. I will have to, to get me a few things from the supermarket. Oh, Wednesday we went to the market, although then the weather was not that good. A bit moist, grey, it felt at times if it was raining, but it was just all the moist in the air that gave that impression. Still it was nice to be outside for a while. We didn;t buy too much this time, only some mandarines(good for the vitamines!), some Brussel sprouts( they are in the freezer already), and cheese.

Oh my, how some of our politicians cna be bothered about nothing at all!!! I'll try to explain LOL. Our queen is visiting a few countries in the MiddleEast, one of them Oman. It's an official visit, so she is accompanied by her son, prince Willem Alexander and his wife princess Maxima and a whole bunch of ministers and business people.
At the news, every day they show some of it, and in Oman they visited the big mosque. And now there was big excitement (from one party, the PVV, rather at the right side of the political world, if you know what I mean), who where disturbed by the fact, that our queen and princess where dressed in beautiful long gowns and a scarf around there head. They looked just beautiful in it, but if you visit a mosque it's kind of tradition, and expected, that the women cover there head with a scarf and removed their shoes from their feet.. So our queen and princess adapted to the custom, it's is just a polite and respectfull to do so. But the leader of this party said, it was shocking, because the head cover illustrates the oppression of women in the Islamitic world. I just think he is nuts, so do many other people, still there was a lot of commotion again about it. The more while our queen said in an interview, after being asked the question what she thought of that idea, plainly said"I think that is nonsense". WOW, now that was bold of her LOL! Now the are arguing about this answer, because it might look like a political statement, and it could have consequences in parliament and bla bla bla.
I think, our queen knows very well who to behave herself when on an official visit to any country, and I think she acted well. But I think members of the government have other things to be concerned about, like the big financial crisis that is going on, which involves unemplyment, low prices of houses, almost no economic growth, the possible lowering of the pensions, etc. etc.
And what if you visit a cathedral, e.g. in Italy, Spain, it's also very much appreciated if the women wear decent clothes, and even a lace cloth on their heads. And so there are more examples. But of course, that isn't the same according to that party! Still, they achieve one thing with it. They are again into the publicity, and I think the press and media should ignore those statements and remarks. Don;t react to it, leave it in silence, and don;t bother! I think that would be the best thing to do. And even more childish they state, they don;t have anything against moslims, but the more against the Islamic belief. Well, I am against any believe, just we have to be careful about the extremists, in any belief or any political party. Live and let live is my motto, and try to be kind to another human being, make an effort to understand another way of living and even if you cannot agree with it, you at least can respect another view.
Gosh, this has become a long post, but really, I can be so angry about these things, ROFL!

Let's move on to the freebie! I stumbled upon some pictures of Beatrix Potter on Gutenberg. They are so lovely and sweet and seeing them I thought there might be a nice kit in it. So here you have a kit with some pics of Peter Rabbit, I tried to make it look a bit "older" and hope you can use this kit for some nice projects. I named the kit"A Naughty Rabbit". Have fun with it.
And have a terrific weekend, spend it the way you like and don't bother too much about what other people might think of it! LOL.

Download HERE

Still rather blessed by the weather

2012-01-11T09:30:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, we still cannot really complain about the weather. Although sometimes grey, and windy, the temps are bearable. hey do predict a little fall of temperature towards the weekend, it might even freeze a little during the night then. But it seems, that;s only for a moment and then temps should rise again . I truly hope so. I see no point in getting real winter weather now, brrrrrr.
There isn;t much to tell today, so I think I will keep it a short post.
May be we will go to the market today, if the weather improves a little bit later today.
And I must not forget to phone a friend who's having her birthday today. And I hope the day will not be too sad for her, cause she has a very sick cat. She phoned me for my birthday on Sunday and told me about it. She had to go to the vet on Monday again, and if not better she had to decide to put the poor little creature "to sleep". And I know how hard that can be. So it might be, that I have a very sad conversation tonight with her, but it might help her to talk about it.

Time for the freebie. I have the kit "Louisa"for you. Hope you will have some use for it.
Have a great day!

Download HERE

Nice weekend, all together

2012-01-09T11:26:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

After posting Friday, I got dressed, Jan and I got ourselves a cup of coffee and then Jan started to get all the boxes down to put in the Christmas stuff. We cleared away a lot, just the manger and the tree had one more day. It sure looked already quite different in the room!
Saturday morning I did the tree and manger, all was nicely in their boxes, Jan helped to re-organize the room a bit and put away the boxes. When he did that, I was out to get me some groceries, it was a quick tour, just to get the necessary. When back home I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and the room looked nice again. Also the washing machine was in full process, with all the plaids and napkins etc. in it from Christmas, so that I can put them away fresh and well for next Christmas.
We did the clearing in a slow tempo, but it sure is done much quicker than the decorating!
And yesterday was my birthday. Oh we didn;t do anything special, I just finally could unwrapped a present from my friend Edna, that she already sent me together with the Christmaspresents. And if the real cold would come, I have noneed to be concerned to go out, she send me a lovely set of a cap, shawl, and gloves in a lovely teal colour with white embroidery one it. Got some sweet mails, and telephone calls and in the afternoon my friend Heidi and Séverine came by for a little birthday visit. Thanks also everyone who left me a little birthdaywish here! So no big party, but cosy at home and I loved it.
There even was speedskating, the European Championships, on tv, so what else could I wish for LOL?
And our best male skater, Sven Kramer, back after a long period of absence due to an injury, is really back again! He's European Champion allround speedskating again!Yeah!!!!

Well, all the holiday fuss is over again, we'll have to look forward again and hope for a good year. For a lot of people it will be a difficult year, I am sure, talking of finances. There still is a financial crisis going on, and the effects of it will be felt everywhere. No, I will not start a depressive talk, we will just have to see what this year will bring us and undergo it ROFL.
Okay, time to get a few things done here, e.g. I have some ironing to do, not one of the favourite things, grin grin, but needed. And perhaps I can work a bit today on a new started kit.
This little kit is a bit inspired by the soft weather we had till now. Perhaps you visit my friend Enda's blog sometimes and saw she made a couple of lovely pictures of a rose, that still was blooming so late in the year. Well, I have a bush with white roses and it still has some roses blooming too! Unbelievable! So hoorray for the strong roses and I've made a kit with roses named "The Rose Corner".
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

3 Kings around for a visit

2012-01-06T09:19:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, today I have to put the statues of the 3 Kings in the manger. And tomorrow will be the great "cleaning day"LOL. I thought, that may today I will already clear a part of the Christmas decorations into their boxes again, so that we don;t have to do it all tomorrow. I am not making any fuss for dinner today, we always take that easy on Friday. May be I will make some thin pancakes, could put in a bit of apple and then with sugar or melasse it will be good enough for today.

WOW, there are a few tricky situations in Holland now because of the storm and rain. At some places the water in rivers and lakes etc. reached a level that it floods over the edges, in some little towns they have to work with sand sacks, to keep the water away. It's a bit difficult to regulate the water level at the moment, because of the wind direction. As e.g. in the north of Holland the water is pomped into the Waddenzee(part of the North Sea, but at the moment it can;t be done, because the wind comes from sea, very hard, driving the waves high up to the coast, so no possibility to let the overcapacity flood into the sea. It hasn;t been this way for a long time, not that it is very critical yet, and it's expected that today and tomorrow there will be less rain and less wind, so may be in the next couple of days they can regulate the water level to a more "normal"one.
I saw some fragments of the coast on tv and I sure liked to go to the sea to watch the force of nature and the wild sea, but it's better I stay home ROFL. With force 8 or 9 of wind and in the open air, I wouldn;t be able to walk, no progress when going against the wind and when walking with the wind in the back, Kyra would probably be flying around, grin grin.
So here we have suddenly too much rain in short time and in Australia there are bush fires again. Then you see that man can control a lot, but fighting against nature's forces always is very difficult.

May be some of you know the tv series "LIFE"? It's an awesome documentary about all life on earth, flora and fauna, how it survives, and how one almost cannot be alive without the other. Yesterday there was another part that I watched, mostly about plants and trees, how they grow, in what circumstances and what tricks nature has to assure there will be a next generation. The pictures are awsome, I just love to see that kind of documentaries.

During the night, it must look very cosy in our bedroom, LOL! Not only Jan and I are sleeping in the bed, also our two cats are lying on the bed on a warm fleece blanket, hahahaha. They do go out for a little walk in the garden to respond to "nature's call", but with the kind of weather we are having at the moment, they do like to be comfy and warm and safe near us. Well, I don;t mind it too much as long as they stay at the footend.
Okay, I should get busy in a short while, if I want to do all I have in mind, so I leave you in peace, with a little kit in wintery style " Crispy Dawn".
Oh, I hope my shoutbox is working okay now? As far as I can see, it does, and I used Firefox as well as Internet Explorer, to take a look at the shoutbox. Reloaded the html-code again, so hopefully it's working now for everybody.
Have a great weekend, see you again on Monday, although I will be one year older, snif snif!!

Download HERE

It was wet, yesterday!

2012-01-04T09:40:00.001+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

First have to start with a birthday. Today is the birthday of my friend Snowy, so although I allready wrote my wish for her on her blog, here you go again, girl:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SNOWY!!!!!
Another year in your life, I hope it brings you all positive things!!!!!

Oh my, it was a really wet and windy day yesterday. And exactly that day Heidi chose to go to her mother, with the family, and called me to ask if we could take care of their doggie, to let him out in the afternoon. Well, of course I said yes, and then first Jan said he would do it, then I decided to go with him, to at least have a bit of fresh air. Well, we did have that and lots more LOL! There was blowing a strong wind, in other parts of the country, mainly in the north, it was even a fearce storm, and it was raining. You could say it was raining cats and dogs, LOL, and even the doggie wasn;t happy to be outside. So we didn;t make a very large tour, and coming home at Heidi's, I rubbed the little thing a bit dry, gave him a few treats and then left again. By the time we were home, I decided I better could change my trousers into a warm and dry pair of jogging trousers. And you know what? After about half an hour the rain stopped and even some blue sky peeped out! Yeah, we were soooo lucky again, grin grin!
Still not to complain too much, as the temperature is still on the "warm"side.

May be you've noticed that I changed my shoutbox. Shoutmix was temporarly unavailable, they changed policies, aren;t really free as it looks, although if you had already an account for the free version, it stays that way???? Anyhow, I wanted to have a working shoutbox, so I changed to MyShoutbox.com
Hope it works. I didn;t try it out yet.

Just a couple of days more to enjoy the Christmastree, then get rid of all that stuff quickly and have a "normal"room again at my birthday. Yeah, that's an even that comes back every year for sure. Hmmm, the 8th of January I will have the respectable age of 59 then. Horrible, just this year and then no number 5 again as first, brrrrrrr. And again Jan will be living together with an older wife, but.........only for 3 weeks and then it will be his turn!!!ROFL.

It's getting time to get busy for me here, it looks as if it will stay about dry today, still a bit windy, but if that's all, I can go out to pick up some groceries. And probably a bit of ironing will be a good thing to do.
Today I offer you the second part of the "Passage in Time"kit.
Have a wonderful day!

Download part 2 HERE

The year 2012, what will it bring us?

2012-01-02T10:05:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Everybody a very happy New Year! I wonder what it has in store for us. I can just hope it will bring us some real luck, a good health as one of the most important things.
I have made no resolutions for this new year, well, perhaps just a couple, stuck away deep in the corner of my brain, LOL, but in whole we will just see what will pass our way and grab chances if they appear.
Our New Year's Eve was a very quiet one, but cosy. I only felt so sorry for our two cats. They were rather nervouw already during the day and in the evening they stayed in the whole time, very close to us. Fireworks are no good to them!
Traditionally we watched the New Years concert from Vienna yesterday, again surrounded by our cats, catching some sleep,they seemed to be completely exhausted from the day before, poor things.
The whole day was quiet, and in the evening we watched to very exciting semi finals of the World Master Championship of darts!
And now we will have to pick up with our "normal" life of every day again, after the holiday season. Just a few days more to enjoy the Christmastree, till the 6th of January, the day of the 3 kings arriving at the manger.
Then the day after it will be time to put all the Christmas decorations back to their boxes.

Last Friday I just made a quick phonecall to hear how Heidi and family were doing. That wasn;t too great. Séverine was given some antibiotics for her bad flue, but it seems she is allergic to it. Heidi told me that she was covered with little red spots, which were very itching. So after speaking to her doctor, she had to quit the antibiotics, and pick up a sirop for her bad coughing. Danny also wasn;t doing to great, also still coping with the flue and because he had to cough too rather severe, he now has an acking back. Hopefully they are feeling a bit better today, I will make a call later today again.

Okay back to business now! Another year ahead of us of blogging and designing and I hope we can have a lot of fun together.
To start of this new year I have a kit for you in two downloads, named "Passage in Time". The second download will be on Wednesday.
Now I slowly will get "to life"ROFL, after I have another cup of coffee, then will get dressed and think about the things I could do today(sounds very promising, just "think", grin grin).
I hope you all had a wonderful start of 2012, enjoy the day!

Download part 1 HERE

The year is almost done with!

2011-12-30T11:26:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I am happy to say, that the things I planned to do yesterday, have been done. Did some of the necessary shopping(boring stuff), changed the duvet on the bedinto two seperate ones(because the big one just was too warm), so the beds is nice and fresh again, did the laundry, even did a bit of ironing. Yeah, good girl.
Jan will do the vacuum-cleaning today, I will do a bit of dusting and then we will be ready to enter the new year.
I've had a telephonecall from Heidi on Wednesday, telling me that they were on their way back home already!
Her hubby Danny had a terrible cold and daughter Séverine had probably the flue, so they decided it was better to be at home, in their own environment, and their own beds! I felt so sorry for them, they looked forward to their little vacation and it was spoiled by the flue!
I will phone them today to hear are they are doing, hopefully they will feel a bit better.

The weather has been a bit "on and off"the last couple of days. Not really cold, but cloudy even raining and I heard a tough wind blowing during the night. But now there is again a bit of sunshine, however I can spot some dark clouds too. If it stays a bit like that, I could make a little walk to the bank, to deposite a bill that has to be paid. And if I do, I also can make a visit to the cheese shop that is in that neighbourhood, to get us some cheese, I hope I will stay strong enough not to buy any French cheese there, they have loads of them and I do like them so much! Not the cheapest to buy but oh so yummie LOL! I might consider to buy us a little piece, and we can eat that perhaps at New Year's eve with a little toast. Hmmmmmm, very attractive idea!
I heard on the news that again this year millions of euros are spent on the fireworks. Incredible, what amount of money people do spent on this! Specially now, with the difficult economics.
We didn;t buy any, but we will be looking from the window to it, I don;t want to go out because of our cats.
And then there will be the traditional New Year's concert from Vienna on New Years Day. We ALWAYS listen and look to it, drinking our coffee, perhaps even in our pyama's, cuddled up on the couch LOL.

This will be the last freebie....... of this year! It's named "Keepsakes" and I think it's a rather versatile kit.
Have a wonderful ending of the year and a good start of the new. If you might shoot some fireworks, please be careful!
See you again on Monday, in 2012!

Download HERE

Catching up a bit of sleep

2011-12-28T10:07:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

It really was a bit of funny day yesterday. When Jan and I woke up yesterday, we didn;t had actually the feeling we had a good night's sleep. That can happen sometimes. I know I slept quite some hours in a row, but I had the feeling I was awake almost the whole night, and Jan about the same. So we were rather lazy yesterday and in the afternoon we both took an extra nap. That did us some good and I slept a lot better this night.
I took my turn to feed the animals at Heidi's house, and it was even nice to take the little walk, got a bit of fresh air in the head. I had to do a cleaning job with the rabbit, cause when I tookhim out of his cage, to give him a cuddle I noticed he had a bunch of poop around his back-paw and around the area of his bump. Yak! Normally the rabbit has little "grains"of poop, but this was of a much softer nature. I guess he's not feeling completely 100%, because when I entered the room he wasn't standing up looking around curious who is there and that way he always asks for being caressed for a moment, it all .might have to do with his being all alone perhaps. Just hope it will be better with him today and he will hold out till Heidi and family return on Friday!

I think I will go out later today to get me some grocerie stuff, like fresh bread, cat food, and such.
So probably Jan will go to feed the animals again today. And I also must not forget to wake Jan up earlier tomorrow, cause he has his regular control-visit at the doctor. He is doing allright now, after all the trouble he had a few years ago with his stomach. Still drinking no alcohol, and with the medication he takes, all is working well again, he's back on his usual weight and feeling energetic again. Thank God for that. He only doesn;t like winter time, that always bothered him a bit LOL, and is always happy to say: "hey, we passed the 21st of December, so now the days will be getting longer and longer again."

That's about all I can ramble about, so I better post the freebie now and will play for a while in my PSE, have to try to finish another kit I am working on.
I have "Auntie's Lace" for you today.
Enjoy your day!

Download HERE

And suddenly Christmas is over!

2011-12-27T11:36:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

It's not my usual day of posting, but as I left you all alone LOL on Christmas, a little posting might do me no harm.
I hope everybody had a great Christmas holiday, we had a wonderful time, didn;t do much, just enjoyed some great shows on tv, and just had the motto "easy-going".
Had a lovely surprise in my mailbox from a visitor, Kay, who sent me a few layouts she made with the quickpages of the "Christmas-Collection, with such sweet pictures of her great grandchildren and I am happy that she approved I show them here.

Aren't they sweeties?????????

And yes, suddenly Christmas is in the past! So funny, who quickly those days pass by. After we are looking forward to them for several weeks, and preparing all things for it, and then it is gone again. So now we have to do "normal"business again, well almost, till there is New years Eve and Day and then we start a whole new year again. Already some dumbo's are firing fireworks, mostly the crackers who give a big "Boom". Why can;t they wait till it is the time for it, at midnight New Year's Eve??? I don't mind so much but it isn;t nice for our pets. Their ears are much more sensitive than ours, and each time they hear a "bang"you see them getting nervous. So I know our cats will look for a nice safe place somewhere, to sit it out when everybody will shoot their fireworks and we will stay home, so they will feel a bit safer.

The weather here is still not too bad, you cannot say it is feeling like it is winter, but hey, I am not complaining!! Still we will have to see what kind of weather might come the next three months! We still could have snow and ice, it happened before. Not that I am looking forward for that!

Today we still will be staying home, except for a moment when we have to go to Heidi's house to feed the rabbit, bird and fish. The last couple of days Jan was so sweet to do it, but I might go with him today, we'll see about that. I feel a bit sorry for the rabbit and bird, who are all alone during a week, but to move them over here for just a few days isn't really worth the trouble either. Heidi should be home on Friday again.
Okay, are you ready for a new freebie?? As we are still in winter time(well, at least a part of the world is) I have a wintery kit for you, named"Winter Days". Hope it will be of some use.
Have a great day, relax a bit, if possible, of the Christmas days ROFL .

Download HERE

CHRISTMAS, ALMOST!

2011-12-24T10:10:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

As I promised, I pop in for a quick post with my last Christmas freebie for you.
I finished yesterday the last bits of shopping, and I suppose I was lucky, cause the supermarket wasn;t really crowded yet. In the afternoon Jan went to the market, to get us a bit of fruit. As he came back, he told me it was lucky he entered the market at another side than at the usual entrance, because he was right at the fruit & vegetables part. Even then it took him quit some time to get his stuff and leave the place. There was a massive crowd shopping there!
We already had a little "hors-d'oeuvre" of the Christmas feeling yesterday evening. Aside from watching the usual program, we watched an amusing Christmas show on German tv. And today I will be looking forward to watch some programs on German tv and also the BBC, all filled with Christmas songs.
Before we can indulge ourselves with that LOL, one of us (or perhaps we will both go) will have to go over to Heidi's house, to feed the animals. They left yesterday for their holiday week, and I wish them a terrific time.
It certainly will not be a white Christmas over here, we even have a bit of blue sky and sunshine, and if all goes well, the next two days it will stay that way, and I cannot say I am unhappy with it.
How much I love to see a snowed world, it has something special, I don't really miss it.
Would be nice if it could only snow in the woods and parcs, where it stays beautiful, and leave the streets dry and clean.
May be I will prepare this afternoon already a bit for tomorrow's dinner, there isn;t much to do as we will have a fondue, but I can already make the little minced meat balls for it, and cut up the other meat in small pieces. Perhaps not a bad idea.
Okay ladies, that's all for today. Again I wish you all Merry Christmas, and thank you for all the sweet Christmaswishes!
Here's the last freebie "Christmas Morning".

Download HERE

It's almost Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:03:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I am almost feeling like a little kid, LOL, waiting for Christmasday. And when it's there, is goes by in a flash!
Although we aren;t doing something really special, I always try to make it into an extra cosy day. And it feels also like it.
Let me think, when was it? Oh yes, Wednesday afternoon I already made myself a little Christmas. Jan had to go to hospital, nothing startling, just had to donate a little blood for a bloodtest, just control, and he will have his doctor appointment just a few days after Christmas. So it was quiet in the house and I decided it was a good time to listen to some Christmas carrols. You don;t want to hear them too often, but I do enjoy listening to them, when I am at the computer, all the lights on, and even sometimes singing along with them. Otherwise it wouldn;t be a complete Christmas for me LOL!

I do have to go out today to get me some last things, wanted to do that yesterday, but didn;t feel 100%, so I stayed home, took a little nap, kept low profile. I only hope that it will not be too crowded in the shops!
Oh, well, we will survive that too!
I've made a little Christmaswish for everyone, who visited my blog so loyal this year. Although I will be back tomorrow again, just with a really quick posting, I think it will be best to post the wish today. Thanks you all for your support, your kind comments, your visits.

Now quickly on to your freebie, a kit named "Sparkling Christmas" And as I said, I;ll have one more to go, that will be posted tomorrow. !
Have a great day, hold the real Christmas spirit in your heart !

Download HERE

Here I am again already

2011-12-22T08:48:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Just a quick post, with nothing special to announce. It's still rather early morning, but it's getting a bit lighter outside. However, now is the real cosy time for me, I;ve just lighted the Christmastree and the little lights of the train, and I love the atmosphere it gives! So quiet all round, cats are sleeping, hubby is still sleeping, the perfect moment of the day LOL.
The reason I am back posting already is that I still have a few Christmas goodies to share.
So no talking about anything today, just putting up a new kit with the download link.
Are you almost ready for Christmas or do you have to do a lot of things at the last moment??
Well, I am glad to say I almost have it all, I think I just have to pick up a few last things from the supermarket tomorrow, and that will have to do.
Here I have a little kit for you, "Dreaming of a White Christmas". And yes, we will just have to imagine a white, silent world at Christmas here, cause the forcast is telling us there will be no snow, probably even no rain, but sunshine and temps around 46 F! I can live with that.
Have a wonderful day! Till tomorrow.

Download HERE

It's quiet and peacefull in the house again LOL

2011-12-21T11:06:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yeah, till now it's good news, the VCR still works hahahaha.
A bit less good news is that I have again a little bit trouble with the back, but not as severe as it was before. As I still have some pills left I got from the doctor, I am taking them and already can notice an improvement. Porbably the vacuum cleaning two days ago wasn;t the best for it. Oh, well, this will pass away too. Always have to stay optimistic, and of good hope, that already makes a difference.

I'll still have to do some shopping for Christmas, but I am not sure yet about the dinner. May be I will keep it real easy and we will have a fondue, with a variety of meat, it is rather easy, and it is tasteful. And most of the time there will be a left over for the second day, but if not, that will be easy too, I will make a potatoe salad with slices of smoked salmon on top.
We watched, amond other things, also some debats etc. from the parliament, specially the House of Commons.
It's sometimes interesting. Only we have hard times at the moment, because of the Euro crisis and also still financial crisis which is all over the world. Hmmmmm, I wonder who is to blame mostly for that??????And who is paying the bill for that?????? Answer on last question is rather easy: that's us!
I think every a bit rational thinking person knows and even understands, that measurements are necessary and that they cannot always be without consiquences for us all. But sometimes ninisters come with proposals for new measurements, that are a bit ridiculous and I also wonder if they are helpful on the long term.
Now they are argueing about the social aid. If somebody has no work, so no income you can ask for a social aid, an income you receive from the government, based on a social minimum income. And then you have obligitation to search for work. Well, I understand that. You are now even forced to take any work, also when it is not according to your scholing . Even that I can understand. But now there is talk, that if e.g. a mother with say three children, isn;t working receiving social aid and has a child of 18 or 19 years old that is working(and most of the time they have the minimume salary for that age, which isn;t overwhelming) that the government wants, that the working kid has to donate it's full income to the mother, which will be redued from the social aid income and then the mother only will receive from government the money she is short from the social aid amount. In figures: Kid earns about € 700 a month, social aid from mother with 3 kids should be around € 1100, government pays just € 400 to the mother. If you say that quick, it seems not too bad, but think further. The earning kid cannot make savings to perhaps one day buy a house, or for other things. With about € 700 a month, it's also very difficult to rent your own appartment, almost not possible. Then mother is obligated to search work, or to take some, where ever it is in Holland. She still has two much younger kids who go still to school. But if she works, she probably will have to put the two kids in a after school care program, which is very very expensive. Perhaps she will be able to get a few aids for rent, or taxes, that again from government, but if you calculate it all through, it doesn;t make real sense.
Okay, if the eldest kid still lives at home, it could make a monthly donation from it's earnings, I think that is reasonable. But not the way the government wants it to be.
I know, our social security systems is still rather good here, it also costs a lot of money from the government(but it is coming out of the pocket of all the hardworking people in taxes!), and if possiblle I do think everybody should try to have work, if you can. But now the other problem: if there isn;t enough work? Not for everybody, because I don;t think everybody is able to do everybody's work( and that's what the government wants). The amount of jobless people is slowly getting higher, and I believe it will rise much more next year, cause a lot of companies cut down on the costs of employess, and also a lot of sotres and companies and fabrics just have to close their doors because of very bad results, they cannot go on anymore.
They want everybody to work till 67( you can stop at a younger agem but then your elderlystate pension will be cut down), but do you see somebody of around 63 working in a glass house, from 6 in the morning till about 1 in the afternoon, picking tomatoes or strawberries? Or doing a harsh cleaning job? I don;t think so. At least not a big part of them, it's too straining on the physics.
I believe it is a circle, difficult to break through, but for the ministers there is no problem, they have a great income, if they might quite their job, for whatever reason, they receive still a nice income, and most of the time they manage to get a rather nice job after it.
Oh my, politics!!!!! We little people will never understand it properly, but I am sure of one thing:
A lot of the governamental money could be spend much more wisely and useful, which would result in the end for much better social climat for all of us!

ROFL< ROFL
It's also a bit difficult at times for me to find the proper words in English, so sometimes perhaps it doesn;t make sense what I write down, or may sound a bit mumbo-jumbo, but I also think you can grasp the essence of it, hey?

Let's go to a bit brighter side of life, grin! I have a freebie for you today, again Christmas related, this time a bindle of quickpages in brag book page and also a few in other format. I hope they will be of use for some of you. I may be even back already tomorrow, just with a quick post, in fact just to post another Christmaskit. Yeah, I still have some for you and I think I will try to post them all before Christmasday. So keep an eye on this blog for the next couple of days, if you are still short of Christmas scrapping kits.
Hope you are not too depressed by my rambling!
Have a great day, and a great day can be accomplished just beacuse of a smile and good hope for another one!

Download HERE

A small disaster happened ROFL!

2011-12-19T11:59:00.001+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Hope I didn;t scared you with the title of the post, because it's nothing really bad, but specially for my hubby it was a kind of disaster LOL!
After I posted Friday, I dressed and decided to go out for a few shoppings, may be to find some things for Christmas, that I could put into the freezer and such.

I came back and had a sandwich and decided to try out an easy cookie recipe. Till there, all was fine. By that time Jan said he would go out for a moment. No problem. By the time my little cookies were in the oven, hubby came back, with a big plastic sack! I asked him what it was and it was a new VCR he had bought in the charity shop. Huh????????? He told me our video recorder had given up and he found this one for very little and was going to install it. OH BOY!As it was second hand, there was no manual for it, but okay, installation shouldn't be too difficult. But I already felt goose skin coming up at my spine!!!
Good girl as I am, I turnedt on the computer and searched for a manual on line. And I found it. But as I cannot print anything, cause my printer isn't working right, that was a bit difficult. To be short a bit, Jan managed to install the video, even get the programming right, but the remote control wasn;t the original. Ha, problem!
(In the mean time I forgot about my cookies, just got them still out almost in time, but they stayd into the oven just a bit too long, so not a complete succes, d.......d!!!)
Well, after some time, I really get bad tempered slightly, if things don;t work the way they should, so Jan and I weren;t the happiest or good tempered people of the world anymore, know what I mean??? After a couple of hours, I told him he better bring the video back and we should look for another one. He is at times as stubborn as I am, so he went still on trying a bit. But I just wanted to have a nice quiet evening, watching my Voice of Holland, all nice and cosy surrounded by the Christmas lights. ROFL.
Well, after a while he gave up, our temper was settled again a bit to normal, hahahahaha. He went out to the cafe, oh bless the Lord!

In the mean time the postmas rang and there was a little Christmas package from England, from my friend Snowy! The made some things herslef, like the little box, and the nothebook with the calendar, aren;t they beauties? Also the card she made, but I forgot to put it. I love all of it, but don;t you just adore the tiny little fairy in the tiny little pocket????? And it just came in time, I just needed something like that!!! LOL.

SATURDAY: We woke up, and I saw he had removed the video recorder from it's place, unto the couch. WHOOOO, good sign.
We went to the shop, brought the thing back, looked around and found another one, other brand, with original remote control, took it home, installed it(I even found a manual for it on line again, yippee, I wrote down the most important handlings for it) and thanks heaven, the things works!!!!! And it even was a bit cheaper than the other one. Let's hope it will hold on for a LONG time! Jan in a good mood again, he is so used to record things from tv on both the dvd and video, and I must say it is handy. So ALL of you, cross your fingers and send out some magic to our video recorder, that it will work fine for a long time, grin grin!
It shouldn;t have been a real disater if we hadn't a video anymore, though I have lots of videos, my father made about holidays and visits of friends etc, so I can still watch them, which I do rarely, but still!
It also means we are rather spoiled, if we are touched by the loss of a little machine, yeah, that is silly, but also shows how quickly you can get used to things.
Okay, that was a great part of our weekend, I don;t want to have another one like that anymore ROFL>!

Speaking of the weather I still think we shouldn;t complain too much at our part of the country, although Saturday evening and night, and also for a short while yesterday evening, we had some little hail storms, and it was rather grey yesterday.
But today the sun is shining again, surrounded by some grey clouds here and there, but they forecasted temps will even go up during this week, perhaps then there will be some more rain and wind, but for the moment no snow! Hoorray!!!!

Are you still "in"for another Christmas kit???? I have for you a "Beautiful Christmas", a kit I really can share under my favourite ones of this year. It's a big kit, so I splitted it into two downloads, but I am feeling generous today, so here are both the downloads in one go!
Have a bright and shiny day!!!

Download PART 1
Download PART 2

Dark days before Christmas

2011-12-16T10:33:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last two days I tried not to be too busy, but some things I accomplished. One great thing to mention: yesterday was the first day I was around without taking the "back-pills"or a paracetamol! Yippee!! But I notice, I still have to be careful, nevertheless I was able to change the sheets from the bed, but after I wringled the duvet cover around the duvet for two and made the bed look nice again, it was time to give the back a little rest LOL.
But still I am happy that I could do without the medication. Let;s hope it stays this way.
It was a good day to stay in the house yesterday, almost all day long it rained on and off, was rather windy and really grey. Well, we are arriving at the darkest days of December, and although I like the light and long days in summertime, these days have their own charm. When at daytime it is rather dark, the lights in the Christmastree and in the house are sparkling even with more enthousiam, and it looks marvellous!
It looks to be a tiny little bit better today, so I will go out, for not too long, a bit of fresh air will do me good. And I want to try to bake some simple cookies this weekend. Although I like to cook, I never really made cookies or cake, not that I can remember. Funny, but true!
Oh, yes, I found another recipe that I really want to try out. It's for Sweet Gnocchi. This one is made from mashed potatoes and some flower and a few more ingredients, there is also another that is a bit the same, for German Knudel, but that is made from flower and yeast, with fruit in the middle. They remind me of wonderful holidays I had with my parents in former Yugoslavia, where we were at the house of great friends of my parents. And the lady friend made them often. It brings back a lot of memories, of very happy times, friendship, cosyness and love!
I am not sure if Jan will like them but I think he will give them a try. He ALWAYS tastes what I am cooking, and he seldom is very critical, so nice. But I can tell by the way he is eating if he really likes it. He is never too generous with compliments in words to me , but I know he is proudly talking about it to other people, and then he says I am a rather good cook, specially when I make dinner parties for friends. Isn;t that sweet??? When I ask if he likes something I made, he answers most of the times: "Oh, it's allright". And to know if it's more than "allright"I will have to take a quick look at his face, and when there is the beginning of a teasing smile around his mouth, I know it's more than "Allright"! Yeah, I know, we are a funny couple ROFL.

The Christmas goodies aren't done with yet, so here is another Christmas kit I've made, "Extravagant Christmas". It's mostly done in black and gold with a touch of red, looking rather chic!
Take care and have a marvellous weekend!

Download HERE

I have trouble understanding people at times

2011-12-14T10:31:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday at the news we had a special item, because of an incident that happened in Luik, Belgium. A man threw a couple of handgrenades around him and also fired a gun shots in a square where people were doing there Christmas shopping. I have a link for you for the article in a newspaper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/8954477/Liege-attacks-Lone-gunman-brings-terror-to-streets-of-Belgian-city-with-hand-grenade-attack.html
But nobody knows why he did it, probably he snapped, but what the hell they think to achieve by killing innocent citizens, just like that??? It seems to be a trend that when somebody doesn;t agree with something, or life gets a bit difficult in what way so ever, you just get a gun and shoot around you and if you perhaps realize a bit what you've done, shoot yourself? I don;t understand these people, and I think I never will. Perhaps that's too easy a thought, but if you have real trouble in your life, and you don;t see a solution for it, then take your own life if you want, but why taking the life of people you don;t even know, who are completely NOT responsible for your situation. what do you gain with that?

But enough of this sad news, still life goes on, how hard and crude that may sound, and we do have to think and talk also about brighter things, because they happen, and thank God for that, too.
Although there was the forecast of more rain and wind, yesterday it wasn't too bad at all. Perhaps the rain was in other parts of the country, but at daytime I was lucky. So I did already some shopping and I will try to get the most of the Christmas shopping done this week, apart from a few things I will have to get fresh at the last moment.
Then I was an even better girl, because I did all the ironing of the laundry that was waiting for it. Good hey?Then I felt that it was enough for my back and took some time at the computer. My back is getting better every day now, but still isn;t a 100% yet. It's probably a part of the "age-problem"LOL.
Today I will post the Christmascards, and perhaps even make an appointment at the hairdresser. That is really necessary by now! Because of my back trouble and so I persponed it several times, but it should be done now. There's no good to do with it anymore, it really needs a proper cutting and modelling again!!
Oh, imagine how light feeted I will be after the visit to the hair dresser ROFL!
I must think of something for dinner at Christmas, I want it to be quick but tasteful too, hmmmmm, difficult, but something will come up. And I am looking forward to Christmas eve and Christmas day, because then we will watch for certain some great Christmas shows on tv, probably on the German tv and also BBC. Because to be honest, on the Dutch tv they aren't very good at it, at least, that's my opinion.
And now I better get moving, while the weather still looks okay, we even have a bit of sunshine at the moment.
I have another Christmas goodie for you, better said, I have two of them, one is just a paper pack and I also made some Christmas tags, you can print out if you want, to label your presents. I've made 3 sheets you can print out but in the file are also the single png's of the tags. Hope somebody can use it.
Have a wonderful day,

Download the papers HERE

Download the tags HERE

Freezer is filled again LOL

2011-12-12T12:15:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

At least it was a nice view from the window this morning, opening the curtain. There is sunshine, with even some parts of blue sky. And although the temps are rather low, it still isn;t freezing in our part. But they predicted some more rain, might be with some hail or perhaps wet snow, not sure yet, for the days to come. And with some more wind it could feel colder. Still I am not really complaining, I can live with the weather at the moment LOL.

Friday I went to do some shopping for the weekend and that was about all I did that day. I decided to give my back a little bit more rest over the weekend, and it's going better and better. I might even do without a pill from the doctor today. I;ll see how that goes, it should be possible( don;t like to take a lot of medication if not absolutely necessary).

Saturday I just did a few errands and Jan went to the market on his own. And he came back with a filled bag again. Mandarines, bananas, cabbage, collieflower. So Sunday was again "preparing the veggies-day"again and my freezer is filled with fresh veggies again. I also made us dinner with a new recipe I've found and it was delicious. And quick and easy! I tried my best to translate it, recipee is for 4 persons.

Ingredients:
800 grams of potatoes
4 slices of whole weat bread (old), best is the darkest one
2-4 cloves of garlic
some parsley
50 grams of hazelnuts(but I made it without them, just as good)
4 crops of lettuce Romaine( thats the long salad,)
smoked chicken breast
300 grams of goat cheese( the dry one, so you can easily crumble it)
(you can play a bit with the ingredients, e.g. for us two I just used two big potatoes, which was more than enough)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Peel potatoes, cut them in cubes, boil the potatoes and in another pan for a couple of minutes only, the lettuce (cut in halves) and let it drip off.
Then in the mean time cut the crusts from the bread, cut the bread in small dice, peel and cut the garlic, chop the parsley, chop the nuts, mix all that in a bowl with a little bit of oil.

Grease an oven dish with a bit of oil.
Take the salad leaves, squeeze lightly the rest of the water away, fold them into "packages"and put them at the bottom of the oven dish.
(Tip: you easily can take some white cabbage leaves instead(as I did), or even some courgette, or broccoli, whatever you can think of)
Crumble the potatoes on the vegetable, a little bit of salt and pepper on them,
Cut the smoked chicken in little slices, and put them on the potatoes. (you could also take some bacon, or dices of ham)
Sprinkle over that the bread mixture.
Crumble the goat cheese over it.
Perhaps again a bit of pepper(I did, and I liked it)
Put it in the oven for about 15-25 minutes.
Enjoy your meal!

You can notice I feel already better, because I tried a new recipe, LOL!
But, all together I was rather happy with the weekend.
Now today I must write my Christmascards and post them tomorrow! I know, perhaps already a bit late, but they will arrive in time(I hope)

Time for a freebie, I suppose? What about another Christmaskit, hey? This time a completely different one, named "Welcome Dear Santa!".
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

Christmas can begin here!

2011-12-09T09:11:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh my, we did a LOT of work the last two days! Although I had to be careful with my back, and couldn;t do as many things as I wanted, we are all ready for Christmas now. Have to say the pills from the doctor do their job, slowly. It still feels soar at times, and even hurts a bit sometimes, but at least I can move round more easily, without hurting my face muscles because a strange grin is appearing when I say "OUCH"!
Perhaps it wasn;t too wise to do so much the last two days, but you know, I am hardheaded and I wanted to get it done this week. Jan was wonderful, he did a lot of the work, did all the climbing up and down from the ladder, lots of decoration, yeah, he can be a nice guy when he wants to LOL!
I've made a few pics of the room to give ou an idea. The tree, where did we put it? YES, opposite of the hallway-window, so we still can watch tv from the toilet ROFL! But I think it is a good place for it. Here are the results:

You just can see the desk and chair at the right, there is my computer and the place I am sitting when posting the blog etc.

This one didn't succeed too well, but I wanted to show my manger again, this is just opposite of the place of the tree. You just can see the feet of Jan, taking a little nap after all the work.

It's a pity you cannot see the little lights in the houses of the village, but they are too soft against the flash. Cats are disappointed this is standing there, cause normally they use the table to go to the window bench, although they easy can jump to it from the ground, but they are just lazy hahahaha! Till now, however, I didn;t see them trying to take the"normal"route, I even didn;t see them sitting at the window !

This is the look to the back of the room(the doors to the garden are there)

So the next few days I really will take it easy again, hoping that by Monday I will be able to stop taking the pills, Who knows, miracles sometimes do happen.
Today I do have to get a few things, like some meat, cat food, those kind of things, for the weekend. I'll see if I do that later today, depends a bit of the weather. If I don;t I will have to do that tomorrow.
But that's about all I will do, rest of the time I just will stay"Put"!

As promised, here's the second part of the "An Abundant Classic Christmas".
You all have a great weekend!!

Download PART 2 HERE

Mr. Postman brought a present!

2011-12-07T09:33:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

First quick update about me LOL! I think the pilss I got from the doctor are doing their job! It isn't over with yet, but my back feels a lot better, I can move around easier, the pain isn't constant anymore, still have to be careful, but I have good hopes it will be over in a few days. Oh, how happy I will be if I can do all movements again without thinking:"oops, careful, that hurts".

Yesterday I had a surpise, when I came back from a quick shopping, just some paracetamol I had to buym and something for dinner to make a stew LOL.
A box arrived with the post, here it is:

It was from Edna, and look all the goodies she sent us for Christmas. I will put them under the Christmas tree, and we will not use them before Christmasday! And then there is another present in it, that will have to wait till I have my birthday in January! Isn't it exciting?
She is such a sweet lady, and she went all crazy, but I LOVE it!
It is really starting to feel like Christmas now and today our room will be transformed into Christmas style, yeah!

Jan took out the manger from the shed already yesterday, and cleaned it up. Today he will have to get all the boxes from the top of the closet cause I will not carry them , well, not the heavier ones. But I will take some little breaks when busy, to give my back some rest every now and then and I am sure it will go allright. It's a good day to do it, cause the weather isn't nice at all, I have a svere prohibition from Jan to go out today ROFL! It's much too windy outside, they expect a real stormy wind and as I look out of the window, I can see it is starting already, combined with some rian, or even hail from time to time, it isn;t the weather to be outside. And certainly not me, we don;t have enough bricks to keep me on the ground GRIN GRIN!!
I am sure our cats will be in a little stress again, when they see all the boxes with Christmasstuff standing all around and us busy with decorating, their living space will change today for a bit.
That's about all now, must take a sandwich and then a pill, put on some clothes, take a cup of coffee with Jan andthen we can start!

I have a Christmaskit for you(what else??), I really enjoyed putting together. It turned out a bit "heavy"so I will offer it in two. Next part will be for Friday. I've made a preview of the whole kit and one of just the papers. Hope you like my "An Abundant Classic Christmas"".
Have a fantastic day!!!

Download PART 1 HERE

Doctor's visit this morning

2011-12-05T11:31:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I am a bit later than usual, cause I went to my doctor this morning. I am still having back-trouble and I want it to end, so finally made a doctors visit. It's probably a kind of slight inflammation, could be a muscle, so he gave me tablets for it. Did you ever read the whole texte of the paper that is always in the box of medicines? If you do, you almost feel worse. Medicins are wonderful, because they can help a great deal, but they are also rather tricky at times LOL. Well, I will take those tablets for a couple of days and also the doctor advised me to take a few times a day paracetamol too, and all should be much better within a week, Well, let's hope so, cause I want to do a lot ofthings, have to move around, but is a bit painful at the moment.
You can imagine I didn't do too much over the weekend, I took a lot of rest and naps too, which helped a bit.

Friday aftenoon I got a quick visit from Heidi. Always nice to see eachother and have a chat. It was a good thing Jan just wanted to go out to the market, when she came. So much nicer if Heidi and I can have a chat with just the two of us, LOL! She couldn;t stay too long, because she had to pick up her daughter from school.
When she had left, after a while Jan came home, with a bag full of mandarines, bananas, red onions and Brussels sprouts LOL

Did you already went through the list of the WWCSF? A lot of nice Christmas kits and other goodies are there to pick up, isn;t it? If you didn;t had time yet, just click the logo in the sidebar to go to the blog. And in the sidebar there is also the link to my contribution.
I promised you a lot more Christmaskits for this month, and why not? I think may be tomorrow or the day after we will start with our Christmasdecoration of the house and then the real Christmas feeling will pop up.
So for today I have a kit for you, in a little bit diffrent colours than the usual, named "So Let It Be Christmas".
Now I think I will give my back a bit of rest, take a sandwich and then a pill from the doctor and crossing fingers that it will help ROFL.
Till Wednesday, have a great day!

Download HERE

I wasn't singing in the rain!

2011-12-02T10:35:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Didn't we have an awesome start of the WWCSF(link in sidebar with link to my kit)??? It really gets you in Christmas mood! Be sure I have LOTS more Christmaskits coming this month.

Yesterday I had to get out, to collect a little prize we won in a lottery we play in already for years. Not that it brings us much, but if you don;t hope, you will never win a thing. Cross fingers that some day suddenly the post will bring us a letter, telling we won a real good amount of money! LOL!
But each year this lottery also gives a lot of lottery players a tiny small price, this time a package of soup and a sausage. Not much, but hey, it's free! So I went to the store to collect it, and weather still wasn;t too bad, till went out of the store again. Raining, raining, and more raining and not just a few little drops!
So you can imagine I was more or less soaked when I came home. Well, my body was dry, but my pants!!!!!!
I almost could squeeze the water out of it ROFL> So I quickly changed them and I was okay.
Today I have to go for a little bit of shopping, it still looks nice and sunny, so hoping it stays this way.

I think this weekend I will write the Christmascards, so they can be send away in time too! The one for Holland can wait for another week, but a few are for other parts of the world, and I like them to be in time.
And it's going to itch a bit now, the Christmas fever. Next week Tuesday or Wednesday Jan and I will tansform our room again in Christmas style!(Still not sure where to put the tree this year, grin-grin)
Time for the freebie, I think. As we are approaching the colder days I have a winter kit for you, and on Monday we will start with another Christmas kit.
Have a fantastic weekend!

Download HERE

WWCSF blogtrain has left station!

2011-12-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Unusual day for me to post, but as I have promised, I will post my contribution to the World Wide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebie blogtrain today. In the side bar you will find the logo of the blogtrain and it's linked to the blog with all the links to the contribting designers. As we are in different time zones, perhaps it isn;t posted yet, but don;t give up. try again later, it will be worth the effort!!
As you can see, I am getting all in Christmas mood, I have changed my bloglayout(again) for this event.
Now you all have a great ride on the train, don't you forget to leave a little thank you to the designers if you download their free gifts!!
Here at last is my contribution:

Download HERE

My hubby is awesome at times!

2011-11-30T09:58:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yippee, I did send the packages away! On Monday I took courage for it and went to the postoffice. Well, the last year many of the postoffices were closed, the big ones and little ones, case of money you know!
And now we have small ones in mainly the reading shops,, where you can buy magazines, some books, cards of all kinds etc. In a way it's better cause it's not far away for me. But there are days, it is sooooooo crowdy there, with only one person to help, and only sometimes two.
And you can guess what was the case on Monday? Yeah, loads of people waiting to be helped, for all kind of things. But I took my number and waited patiently till it was my turn, which was after about 30 minutes or so. Pfffffff, that is a long time when you have to wait and wait! But still I left the shop/postoffice with a good feeling. I am sure the packages will be well on time at their destination, if the post will not loose them on the way.

And there was a pleasant surprise for me when I came home again. Jan already started with the curtains, what a sweetie! I offered to help him, but he didn't want it. So I went ironing, did it all, put it away in the closet, and the rack is waiting now for a next load LOL!
I am happy the curtains are done, they have a different look now, ROFL. And now Jan and I are talking about the place for the Christmas tree, as every year. I suppose it will end on the same place but we are thinking about another place. I tell you a little "secret"about that! At the usual place for the tree we also have a little window, at the side of the hallway. And just opposite of that we have our toilet. And when you are in need to go to the toilet during a film, you still can watch the tv and don't miss a thing ROFL. But when the Christmastree is up, it covers the window, so no more tv from the toilet, hahaha!

Tomorrow there will be the start of the Worl Wide Christmas Scrapbooking blogtrain!!!! So I will be posting again tomorrow. And to all designers I ask: "Please, join us in this awesome blogtrain! I am sure lots of you have already prepaired several kits or whatever for Christmas. Perhaps you can send in one little thing for that blogtrain? You still have time till about 23.00 pm this evening on the 30st of November! It would be great.
You can send your preview to dutchsparky58@hotmail.com
Take a look at this link for all the information, and there's even a sneek peak of the contributions received till now!
http://dschristmasaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/

So I see you again TOMORROW, for a wonderful Christmas freebie!
Today I have a nice one too, named "Mysterious Nightfall". And now it's time to get myself dressed and do some shopping, it looks as if I am rather lucky, till now, sun is shining a bit, although there might be coming a bit of rain later today.
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

My pizza was delicious.

2011-11-28T11:10:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!
Another weekend has passed, in an appropiate quietness LOL.
Oh, I had a great time, don;t misunderstand me! It started Friday after I posted on this blog, I first went out for a few grocerie shoppings, just quick. When back, I took courage and did some dusting and vacuum cleaning around here. Even started to do some ironing, after I grabbed a sandwich first. But oh, misfortune stroke LOL.

I had to put in the closet a duvet cover and some other stuff and almost ended up with the closet door all over me. The hinges inside, that should hold the door, got loose in a strange way, which isn;t the best that can happen. So instead of ironing I tried to repair that. Well, I succeeded in such way, that the door couldn;t fall out, but it's very difficult to do it, holding with one hand the door in a good position and scewing the bolds with the other hand. The door is quite heavy. Which wasn;t the best thing for my back! I know, you all shout now, that I should have called Jan for it, but as I got into the room, I saw him catching some sleep at the couch(Later he told me, he almost didn;t sleep during the night, poor thing). So hardheaded as I am, I tried to do the closet myself.
It took me some time to at least have it safe for the moment, and all my energy for ironing some more wa gone.
But after a while I took courage again, ROFL, and continued a bit and hey, miracle, Jan came into the room, to tell me he wanted to get a little ride on his bike, to catch some fresh air. But as I told him the difficulties with the door of the closet, He right away took a look and also took action. It wasn't that easy, but with me as a helping hand it finally was done( even we did the other door of the closet, cause that one also was getting out of the hinges). It all took some time, however, so you can imagine I left the laundry as it was, no more ironing and it also was too late for Jan to take his ride, cause in the afternoon we wanted to watch some speedskating at tv.
So it was a good idea of me, not to cook that evening, and I had my 4 cheeses pizza and it tasted great! And Jan made his own dinner, porc meat with a lot of lard on it(I hate them LOL).

Saturday we planned to go to our neighbour, to bring the post again. So I got all dressed up, even got time to get me our weekend newspaper and then Jan said, he also could go alone. He though it might be better for me to stay home, cause of my back trouble. After given some thought I agreed with him, it wouldn;t have been wise to sit at the back of his bike, although I felt sorry for our neighbour. And I knew she would worry about be, much more than necessary. So I just hoped Jan would explain to her, I was much better already, but I didn;t get on his bike just as precaution. When he was away, I watched some ice dance at tv, something I love to see.
Jan came back and we watched some more speed skating and then I made us a pistolet( little French bread, I just had to bake off in the oven) with shoarma. And I think it was a good thing we had no visitors, cause I am sure we carried around us a terrific garlic smell( you eat the shaorma with a garlic sauce, yummie!) ROFL!

Sunday we just didn;t do much, Jan had his newspaper, I did some designing at the computer, in between we watch a bit sport at tv, it wasn;t such nice weather yesterday, rather grey and very much wind, and even a bit of rain, but today it looks better again. We are still around 50-53 F at daytime here, and I wouldn;t mind if it stayed that way for a looooong time, I can live with that till April!
I think today will be the curtain washing day, yes! I know, it was planned some days ago, but you kow how it goes with my plans, hahahaha. But today we can hang them outside for a while to dripp off a bit, and especially for the ones at the back of the room, the long ones, it's much better to do. Well, I hope it will be done, then that will be okay till after Christmas.
Okay, time to get busy around here, but I have a lovely kit for you. This time it's a fantasy, fairy kit again, which I didn;t make for a long time. I named it"I Found You a Fairy".
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

No cooking today.

2011-11-25T10:08:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, it's already Friday again! It seems that towards the end of the year, the days are over with much quicker than in say, the month of May! It doesn;t look all to bright outside, rather grey, much more wind and even expexting some rain. Not the best weather to go out, but I;ll have to go to the bank for the payment of the energy-gas bill. ell, it will not be bad to catch a bit of fresh air, but I hope the walk will be without rain.
I heard yesterday some amazing news on tv: in parts of Holland the farmers have to water their fields, because of the shortage of water. And that in November! Real funny to hear that.

Ha, today is my not-cooking day LOL I think I will have myself a pizza, and Jan always makes his own dinner, yeah! As he isn;t a fan of pizza, I have a left over for him from yesterday's diner, a hotch potch with potatoe mash and sauerkraut and he will just have to make a little piece of meat with that. Oh, he doesn;t mind it.
So this evening it's easy peasy for me, just putting the pizza in the oven and after about 20 minutes get it out.

Not too much happened the last couple of days, so I guess it will be a rather short post.
Oh if you want to see an aodrable squirrel, then hop over to Miss Edna's blog, she had a very naughty squirrel visiting her and she made a great close up of it. And then you also can read a bit of the history of the Pilgrims.
Did you know they first took "shelter"in Holland for some years, before making the passage to The New World?
Oh whee, how nice us Dutchies could be at times, ROFL.
Okay, I should get busy around here, lots of things I want to do today.
But not leaving without a freebie. It's a kit you can use for a lot of layouts, named "Modesty".
Hope you will like it.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download HERE

Postoffice, be ready!

2011-11-23T11:17:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

We had quite a lovely day here yesterday. Our part of the country was nice, with even some sunshine, so it was a fine day to do some shopping. And my Christmas boxes are ready for the postoffice! I think I will bring them at the start of next week.
I finished them yesterday, taping them well etc. There is just one thing I am always facing AFTER I have them ready for shipment. From that point on I always see some nice things I might have put in too! It's aweful, you know! I walk somewhere and see a cute thing what might have been a nice present for one of the receivers.
And then I know it is time to bring them quickly to the postoffice, otherwise I am capable of cutting the boxes open and put in some more things. It's very frustrating!!!! ROFL.

I am hoping to do the washing of the curtains today, at least of one side of the room. And if I am brave enough I could do some ironing too, we;ll see how far I get, grin-grin.
And perhaps it's not a bad idea to start writing some Christmascards and have them ready to post somewhere next week. It's not so far away anymore, you know, that holiday!
Oh, got a phonecall from Heidi, the other day and she told me that they will not be home with Christmas. So I think we will be having guests at Christmastime, their rabbit and bird LOL! Heidi and family will be away for a week, so I rather have those pets here, much easier to take care of.

Must also not forget to make a phonecall to the hairdresser for an appointment. I always push that forward, but now it's really time to do something about my hair again, hahaha. And I better go there before everybody wants an appointment, just before the holidays.
Slowly time for me to get busy here, first will hop quickly under the shower and then do some serious business.
Before I forget, to everybody celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow:

HAPPY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING!

Take care, have a great day!

Download part 2 HERE

My baking was successful!

2011-11-21T10:59:00.001+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

After a rather quiet weekend here we go again for another week LOL!
But I did some work in the kitchen and made on Friday my Pirog and did it well!!
I even have a picture for you of the result

I think something went wrong with the flash, but you can still see it well enough.
Someone asked me to post the recipe for it, okay, I will try to translate it, here we go:

(I just devided the ingredients in two, otherwise it would be much too big for us, but the recipe is for 6 persons)
300 grams of white flour
10 grams of yeast
1 1/2 deci ltr. of milk
2 eggs
100 grams of butter
about 300 grams of minced beef meat.(but also you can take mushrooms, or white cabbage, or minced meat with veggies like leak, cabbage, etc.) My favoutie is however minced meat.
1 bigge onion chipped
2 hard boiled eggs
salt pepper

Knead the flower, yeast en milk together till a doughand let it rise for an hour.
After that put in the 2 eggs(loose beaten), pinch of salt and the melted butter and knead until the dough comes loose from your hands. Let it rise again for half an hour and roll it out thinly.

In between you make the filling from the minced meat, with salt, pepper, onion, little bit of garlic, crash the 2 hard boiled eggs with a fork and put those away. Frie the minced meat in a pan without any butter, loosen it up, let it drip off a bit, then put in the hard boiled eggs.
Take the rolled out dough, cut it in two rectangles(if you will use a baking plate) or roll it out in two circles(like I did ). One part a bit bigger than the other.
Take the biggest part en put it on your tray, (don;t forget to buter the tray first), put on the filling and cover with the other part of the dough.
Bend the sides up from bottom to top, roll them a bit till they glue together.
Take another loose beaten eggs and "paint"the top of the Pirog.
Let it rise again for about 1/2 an hour and then bake it in the oven on about 200 degrees, ca. 45-60 minutes.
(mine took a bit less, cause it was smaller). Check now and then if it will not become too dark. If so, put over it a piece of aluminium foil. When ready take out and let it cool off a little bit before cuttiing.
Wonderful to eat with a bowl of soup!
Enjoy your meal!

When uploading the picture of the Pirog, I saw that I still had a picture of ages ago on it, from my salamander. But it was such a cutie, that I will show you .

Isn't he sweet?

Saturday Jan went on his own to our neighbour, I didn't had the guts to jump on the back of his bike with my soar back(though it is almost gone now). I think I will call her today or tomorrow, now that we didn;t see eachother.

Oh yes, I wanted to tell you too that Minky posted the Christmas stuff I've made on her Christmas blog, so you could go there and download it(and much more) if you want. You can find my contribution under the page Kyra's New Treats on
http://faeriechristmas.blogspot.com/
It's very foggy outside the last days, even to such thickness there were problems on the roads. Fog can be very nasty and people take care, but still not everybody and often there are accidents because of it. I hope it will dissolve later today, it's so grey and a bit gloomy looking.
Well, time to have another coffee soon, and then finish the packages for Christmas yippee, I can send them away very soon!
And I think I'll have to get out the vacuum cleaner today too, LOL!
What about a lovely kit in pastel colours, very suitable for lovely layouts of new born or little babies?
I have one for you, named "Dear Child", it will be in two downloads, one today and the other Wednesday, cause it is a rather "heavy"one.
Have a fantastic day!

Download part 1 HERE

Nature keeps amazing me.

2011-11-18T10:25:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I did yesterday almost nothing! Well, I mean no housekeeping LOL! It was easy to do so, cause a little spot in my back played on again it's tune a bit, not funny at all, ouch! It's already a bit better today, but bringing on a strange look at my face at certain moves. Not to worry much, it will pass again. But I took advantage of the fact it was better to stay a bit quiet, and wrapped up all the Christmas presents I already had. Good thing I did, cause now I know I still need one little thing and then I can send it all away. Have to pass the toy store and ask them if they have one or two little carton boxes. They always have loads of boxes, so I think they will be so nice again to give me some.
Did also some designing, some quickpages for Christmas and even started a new kit.
In the evening we watched a terrific documentary of the nature of Madagascar! Nature there is very special, there are animal and plant species there, you will not find anywhere else on earth! And it keeps amazing me, how animals and plants can survive in sometimes harsh conditions. I love to watch those kind of films at times, and no matter how often you see perhaps the same things, every time again the "oooohhh's and ahhhh's" are uttered again ROFL.!

Perhaps this weekend I will try my hand again on a Russian recipe for Pirog. I found one that looks almost like my mother used to make and it's a very tasty kind of pie. My mom used to make it with minced meat, and it's a great thing to eat with a bowl of soup and very nourishing. But you can use all kind of fillings for it, like sauerkraut, or mushrooms, whatever you can think of.
Just have to buy me some packages of yeast. To make the "pie"is taking some time, but I really want to give it a try. It should look a bit like this:

Looks great, hey?

So I''ll be busy cooking a bit, and perhaps finishing the Christmas presents, and a bit of designing, and whatever I can think of hahahaha.
Anyway, enough plans, not to forget that we will have to visit our neighbour again on Sunday. If I think it's wise to sit on the bike, with my damned hurting little joint in the back. We'll see.

And do I have a nice kit for you? I think so! I named it "Preserve your Heritage", in nice browns and I really like the frames I've made. So I hope you will make some nice layouts with this kit, and you know, I love to see some examples, grin-grin.!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download HERE

Getting colder.

2011-11-16T09:28:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

We sure can notice that temperature is getting down the last few days. Specially at night.
The most annoying about it is, that our front window is covered in the morning with moist, due to cold temps outside and warmer of course inside. It's now every day, but the last few days I have to dry the window when I get up and open the curtains. Very annoying, but it will only stop I guess, when we should have double glazed window, and that is too expensive for me now. So we will have to dry them in the morning LOL.
One thing is good about it, if you want it or not, you clean your windows ROFL!!! The thing for the worse is, that the curtains have quickly some nasty light brown marks on them,(because of the water dripping down slowly, and the curtains that glue a bit to the window, yak!) so I will have to give them a wash soon.
It keeps you busy, isn;t it?
You really can feel winter is coming nearer, at some places in Holland there is already a bit night frost, which can be very tricky for traffic in the mornings. But still, at daytime, weather is not really bad, till now we have rather bright days, sun is pouring out it's rays over us, and dressed in a warm coat, it still is nice to be outside.

Another sign of the days and nights getting colder is that our cats spend much more time inside. Specially Dikkie Dik, who is the most adventurous one, and normally spending lots of time outside. But not anymore!
Both of them love to get hours of sleep on the couch, and in the evenings, trying to wringle themselves between Jan and me, or even ON me.

I think I will have to do some ironing today, another load is already waiting in the washing machine, so I better get rid of the stuff that is dry already. It's always the starting that is the toughest, LOL, because when I get it going and do so for about half an hour, most of it is done.
I just counted the days will the day we will have to start our Christmas decorating again and there are only left about 20 days!!! I don;t want to think too much about it, yet, cause it's a lot of work, but when done, sooooooooooooo cosy. This last part of the year will be done with before you know it.

Today I will offer you the quickpages I was working on. There are 7 in total and I've made one layout with it, to show you a bit how they look with a picture. Here is one with our cat Brodski.

Have a great day, don;t get stressed yet about the idea Christmas is peeking around the corner ROFL!

Download HERE

Weather Gods are still good for us.

2011-11-14T10:42:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, we still have nice weather over here. Although it's getting a bit colder, in daytime it's still good to get outside. We even have periods with sunshine, and although you need a warm coat, may be even sometimes a pair of gloves, we shouldn't be complaining.
So on Saturday I had to buy the newspaper and it was such nice weather, I made a tour in the shopping street, slowly and enjoying the weather.!
I also did turn on the washing machine, and while it was busy, I changed the bedsheets. Why not doing that before turning on the machine??? Very simple, because there was no place in it anymore for the big duvet cover an undersheet etc. LOL!

Yesterday afternoon Jan and I went to our neighbour again for a visit and to bring the post. It's nice to see that somebody is happy for your visit. We chatted quite a while, and then returned home again. We'll be visiting some more, certainly this month, cause her son is on holiday at the moment, and she has two more, but they live abroad. We will see who will take care of her house when the son is back from holidays. It's no trouble for us, because we only have to go upstairs. Her son is living a bit further away. I truly hope for our neighbour that she will be able to return to her home again in some weeks. She has to undergo still surgery for a new hip, so she'll be needing to do rehabilitation(is that the word?) to get used to the hip again. And as she is having some more heallth problems, I so hope she will be able to overcome it and return to her house. She has house care every day at home and till now she was able to live on her own. I can see she isn't happy living in the home where she is staying at the moment, and I can understand that completely!

I am glad we can bring a smile on her face sometimes, when we visit her an tell her e.g. about a walk Jan and I did many years ago in a park, and we were in such a good mood, that we started to sing some children songs, well, mainly Jan, that we then were passed by two older ladies, looking a bit strange to us and I said to them:"Ladies, do not have fear, the guy has permission from the mental institution, to take a walk, under my guidance, but he isn;t dangerous at all!". The two ladies quickened their pace, without saying a word to us and when they were at distance Jan and I laughed out loud, till the tears run over our faces!

I know, Jan and I have sometimes a strange sense of humour!

Well, time to end the post, but here you have the freebie, I gave you a sneak peek on Friday. It's named : Close to Winter.
Have a real nice day!

Download HERE

I AM GETTING OLD!!!! FORGETTING THINGS!

2011-11-11T15:22:00.000+01:00

Goodafternoon everybody!

Just a quick post, because I did forget to post part 4 of Steampunk Journey! How stupid is that?????
Glad some of my visitors pay real good attention LOL!
Sorry, is all I can say.

Download part 4 HERE

Sinterklaas is coming to Holland again.

2011-11-11T11:06:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I am sure tonight a lot of little children will have trouble to get to sleep! And why? Because tomorrow arrives again Sinterklaas from Spain! The holiday of Sinterklaas is on the 5th of December, but the good man arrives some weeks before, because he and his loyal Black Peters have a lot of work to do!
You can compare Sinterklaas a little bit with Santa Claus, but there are differences:

1. The day of his holiday, Sinterklaas 5th of December, Santa Claus on Christmas.
2. Sinterklaas is a bishop, lives in Spain, and Santa Claus comes from the North Pole.
3. Sinterklaas has Zwarte Pieten(Black Peters) as assistents, Santa Claus has his elves.
4. Sinterklaas rides a white horse, Santa Claus a sleigh with reindeer.

This are some of the things I could think of this moment LOL! Oh, if I could go back to my young days again, when I really believed in him! It's such a nice time, full of expectation, hope and lots of butterflies in the stomach.
And I still remember that in the weeks before the Great Day, I walked with my mother at the street and she sometimes pointed out to me a little window at the top of a house or a chimney and whispered to me: "Look quick, Kyrotchka, I see a Trappedoelie there peeking!" And a Trappedoelie was a little helper from Black Peter, younger and smaller than he was, and also they could be very naughty! And I REALLY SAW THEM!
What can believe and imagination do to you?? It's wonderful!
I have found two little pictures of Sinterklaas, one from the steam boat( we call it the "presents boat") on which He arrives from Spain and one of Sinterklaas riding his horse through town, waving gently to all the children.

Yesterday it was my "housekeeping"day LOL. Did a thorrow dusting, cleared out some bowls that I have standing here and there(they always get filled slowly with all kind of things, some lighters, some thread to sew, little papers, a ballpoint or two, some coins, etc.etc.), and got out the vacuum cleaner. Well, all that kind of stuff. Also prepared already dinner for the evening, made a hotch potch of potatoe mash with onions and carrots (sliced parts of them), you put potatoes and the onions and carrots all together in a pan and let it cook for about 20-30 minutes and then make a mesh of it. Added a little bit of small chnks of fried bacon to it, of course some salt and pepper. It's a real Dutch kind of food I think, and it is called "Hutspot".
I only had to put it later into the oven to warm it up and added a veal-meat sausage to it. It's not really my favourite dish, the Hutspot, but sometimes I like to eat it. Jan loves to have it, so it was his day yesterday LOL. There's still left enough for him for today, so he'll be happy. I think I will make myself something diffeent, only have no clou yet. Must be something real quick and easy.

I've also made again another Christmaskit and also a little thing for Minky's Christmas blog. Just a few tags you can print out and label your Christmas presents. Here's the preview:

I didn;t see yet that she has posted on that blog, so take a look later today or tomorrow.

Now today I'll have to get some groceries, not much, but necessary. It looks not bad outside, even sunshine!
Hmmm, time is going fast, I'll have to get moving .
So today is the last part of the Steampunk Journey kit. And for Monday I have another "whole"kit for you. Ha, I will tease you with a little sneak peek:

Have a wonderful weekend, and till Monday!

Download part 5 HERE

Started the day with a chuckle!

2011-11-09T10:38:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

In all I can say the last two days went by very easy peasy! Didn't do too much, apart from designing and a little bit of housekeeping(very little!).
Yesterday I completely was out of my rythm, cause I slept till 11.00 in the morning WOW!!! And I did get to bed at my usual time on Monday evening.

I started with, what's new, a coffee and reading teletexte. Then checked email and blogs and started up PSE. By that time Jan got up(he goes to sleep very late so in the morning I am the one up rather early, oh, I cherish those moments in peace LOL) and drinking his coffee turned on the tv. Then after a few minutes he kind of groaned to me that the remote control wasn;t working. Strange, just a bit before I used it and it worked fine. But.... it could be just the case of empty batteries. Can you guess already? I looked into the draw where we keep them and had all kinds of batteries, but just not the smaller ones, the AAA. Bummers!
Jan only could use the button for switching out and on the digital tv receiver. As a too good girl, Kyra closed the computer, hopped into some clothes and went out to buy some batteries.
It's not far to walk, so in about 15 minutes I was back again, with two sets of four(only needed two, but now we had some in reserve).
Jan put in the new ones, that seemed to work, till after a short moment, again nothing. He changed to the old batteries again, no luck. New batteries again, better???????? Now he even couldn;t switch on and off the digital tv box. No, I didn;t give up yet!!!!!
I pulled out the plug for the digital box, and put it in after a few seconds. And TADAAAAAAAAA!!!!
All worked well again. ( even with the old batteries!).
But we changed them back to the new again, to be more at ease. So much for technical vision of guys. LOL

However, this didn;t give me the chuckle this morning. No, a great blog is back into posting again. Due to a holiday of the writer of it, I had to miss it for a while. But if you like a good laugh go here
http://forkhandlesforkhandles.blogspot.com scroll down a few posts to get the start again after her holidays and try to put youself in her place! I love the way that women writes about the daily events at her shop!

I have something to show you, some Christmas stuff I've already made for Minky's Christmas blog. It may not be posted for download yet, she is very busy at the moment, but if you like it, try it again at a later time, okay?
I'll give you the link to Minky's blog and there you will find the link to the Christmas blog.

I also finished already my kit for the World Wide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies blogtrain( you can see the logo in my sidebar). We are supposed to put on the contribution at the 1st of December. So you will have to wait a little bit, but then I am sure you will find lots and lots of treats!

It should become a fairly nice day today, speaking of the weather, so a good time to do my shopping, (I hope for a bit of sunshine later today). Gosh, even forgot to tell you that Monday afternoon I went into town centre, to look around if I could find the last needed Christmas presents. Well, I found something, but not all. It's however tempting to walk around the shops there, while they already have lots of Christmas stuff. But I restrained myself, og, what a brave girl I was indeed, and didn;t buy anything!! Would have been a bit ridiculous too, cause I already have so much stuff at home! However, you know how it is! You ALWAYS see something new or funny or beautiful, that cries out to you ROFL>! But I stayed putt!!!
Time for the next part of the Steampunk Journey, this time only one and then Friday the two last ones.
Have a tremendous day!

Download part 3 HERE

Made a visit

2011-11-07T10:16:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Our weekend was a nice one. Saturday it still was real nice weather so I just went out for the weekend newspaper, and made a little tour in the shopping street, just because it was such nice weather, and I even found two little Christmas presents, yeah! I am almost ready now, still have to go out for another search, may be today, and then I can wrap them up, and bring them in time to the postoffice.
Told you a bit about our elderly neighbour who is temporarly in a home now?
She is disabled, cannot walk very much, goes out in a special scoot mobile, suffers of several things, but her mind is okay! Every now and then we met on the street and made a little talk, but we also have her keys, so if necessary she can call us and we can come to help. That has happened a few months ago, she fell down, so Jan and I went up and could call help for her. Now her son is on holiday, so nobody takes care of her house so we offered to do that. Well, Satuday Jan went upstairs to see if there was some post for her and also watered her plants.
Sunday afternoon we went to the home our neighbour is staying to bring the post. We stayed there for a while talking, I told her some more about my family, a bit how Jan and I met almost 20 years ago, and I think she really enjoyed it. At times her eyes opened real wide as she heard our stories! The poor thing wants to go home, but for the moment she cannot do that, cause in her fall she badly hurt her wrist and damaged one hip some more. So first her wrist has to get better, otherwise she cannot hold her rollator in her house she needs for walking and also her hip is giving her trouble. She needs an operation for that, a new one has to be put in, may be somewhere in december it could be done.
We promised her to come back next weekend again, to bring the post again and she was sooo happy.
And why not? We can make somebody feel a bit less lonely and we get out the house too in this way.

Oh, Friday evening Jan went to the house of the guy with the billiard. He had invited a few people but only Jan and one other man had come! Not too nice, I think. But Jan had a good time there, and perhaps in future he will go there once in a while to play a bit the billiard.Jan had a "fresh looking head"again, cause in the afternoon I gave him a haircut. I am getting better and better in it LOL! I think a real hairdresser will run away screaming seeing my "work of art"ROFL, but it's not too bad either.
During his visit I watched some tv, and even did a bit of designing at the computer.
As you can imagine I didn;t do too much on Sunday, so this week I have to finish up a kit for the World Wide Christmas Scrapbooking blogtrain and also want to make a few things for Minky's Christmasblog.
http://faeriechristmas.blogspot.com/For newbies may be a nice thing to take a look, Minky and I made a lot of things last year and all is still available for download! And as soon as there will be new stuff I will give you notice, okay?

Today I have the start of a several parts download for you, in a Steampunk theme. Not everybody likes that theme, but I do enjoy sometimes to design a bit in this style. Well, it's a change from the "usual"stuff LOL.
I will be nice to you and give you already TWO downloads of the 5 parts.
Have a splendid day!

Download Part 1 HERE

Download Part 2 HERE

Happy day today!

2011-11-04T10:50:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

First I start with wishing a Happy Birthday to Edna!!! I already sent her a card by post but on the net I found these and just have to post them!

Would be nice if you visited her blog to leave a little birthday wish!
http://missednasplace.blogspot.com/

Then I have two links for you to take a look at some layouts, made with kits of mine.
One with the Autumn kit from Bonnie at
http://blb.xanga.com/

and one from Nanette, who got her layout with my Splash in the Pond kit published here:
http://scrapstreet.com/11gss/11no/green.htm Take a look, cause they are really great!

The last couple of days I was, amongst doing some shopping and ironing and washing and vacuuming, in the kitchen. I made another bunch of stewing pears, made a soup we will have for easy dinner this evening, and then also making dinner of course. It doesn;t sound much, but it all took quite some time.
Oh yesterday I made spaghetti (not at all Jan's favourite, but a few times a year I just make it LOL) in this way:

I had a chicken filet, vut it in little chunks, pepper and salted it and fried them in a pan with just a little butter(you can also take olive oil), then had some bacon, cut that in real small chunkies and fried them too.
In the mean time had the spaghetti cooking(al dente, that's the best). Chicken ready, I aded a creamy white sauce, easy peasy out of a package, added some water to it and on the chicken. Then also the bacon, some fresh parsil and lots of pressed garlic. Spaghetti ready, added a bit of butter to it and then on the plate, on that the chicken and sauce and I must say, it was real yummie!
Oh I was a happy girl yesterday, because I found a few little Christmas presents. Still want to find a few more, but there is a start.

Today we decided to take a day off, LOL, I only have to cut Jan's hair again. I will have to make an appointment at the hairdresser for myself, cause there's nothing to do with it anymore. Perhaps next week.
And I must not forget that today is the opening of the speed skating season, it's the Dutch championshoip and our best speed skater, Sven Kramer, is presenting himself again. He was out of business for a long time due to a nasty injury, but it seems he is on the way back again. Very curious to see how he will do today.

This evening Jan is going to an acquaintance, who made a little billiard room in his house. They normally meet in the cafe to play a game, but soon the cafe will be closed, it's a pity. It seems it has been bought by someone who wants to continue a cafe, but then first it remains to see if it's in the same spirit. So the acquiantance invited a few guys to "celebrate the opening of his billiard room"LOL. I don;t know how long he will stay there, but I have enough to watch on tv, there's The Voice of Holland again and I also can do some designing in peace an quiet.
Today's kit is a real nice one, if I may say so myself ROFL!!! It's named "Remember with Tenderness"and I think some lovely layouts can be made with it.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download HERE

Face and mind going towards Christmas.

2011-11-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I hope everybody had a safe ride on her broom yesterday evening??????
Now that Halloween is over we are heading to Christmas. Yes, I know, still about 2 months to go, but it's sooner here than you think! It's definately time for me to find a few presentsand get them in time so I will be able to send some things by post and that should be no later than the first week of December.
Weather like it's still good here. We still have temps that are around 5 degrees higher than normal in this time of year. Well, I don;t mind it at all, it can stay this way till end of April, but I am afraid one day suddenly real winter will be here again, brrrrrrr.
We took advantaged of the soft weather on Monday and made a walk to the market. It was such a nice temperature, that we stayed longer than normal. What did we find this time? We bought two leggings for Jan, to wear under his trousers during really cold days, when he has to go on his bike. LOL.
Then almost al veggies and fruit were at a very low price, so we took with us a kilo of tangarines(mandarines) and they are real sweet of taste. Then another chunk of cheese, some batteries for our doorbel, some parsil, I will cut it and put it in the freezer, oh and I also bought some paprika powder and black pepper, in a rather large amount, because I use it a lot and it was cheap. When you have to buy it in the supermarket, those dried herbs and so are in tiny little boxes, and expensive.

Yesterday I went out again, this time for the normal shopping. Bread again, some catfood, coffee, that kind of things. Amazing how soon they dissapear from the shelf or freezer every week, grin grin.
I also could do a bit of designing, still working on the quickpages serie, but also on a huge Christmaskit.
I already have two smaller once in stock, ready!
Proud to say that I got again an invitation to join the yearly World Wide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies blog train. Yeah, that's on it's way too! May be I will use one of the smaller kits, I've made already, or perhaps I will make one specially for this blog train, not sure yet. I think it will depend on the inspiration and time I can spend on it.

Today I have a kit for all "new" and "old" mothers, simply named "Motherhood".
Now I have a little bit of time left, to go on with the kit I am working on and then I;ll have to go out, to get some medicines again, I am running out. Perhaps I even sweep around with the vacuum cleaner, and perhaps tomorrow I will go to town centre to have a first search on the Christmas presents, we'll see about that.
Anyway, I wish you all a great day!

Download HERE

Did my good deed this weekend!

2011-10-31T09:50:00.000+01:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, just come from my friend Edna's blog and they have real winter already! Brrrrr, a bit too early to my liking. I must say we still have rather nice weather here, temps are still around 57 or 59 F at daytime, not too much wind which is always nice, so no right to complain about it!

So to sniff a bit of this fresh but pleasant air, Saturday I went out to buy the newspaper. I mostly do that in a little bookshop(which also has a postoffice) and had to wait for a moment at the counter, cause a lady was first. The women behind the counter just was trying to explain to the customer, a nice looking lady around in her 30's I guessed, how to use the card for public transport, like busses or trams. But the "selling"lady had some trouble with her Engilish, so I jumped in as I saw the customer didn;t grasp much of it. The card she bought, couldn;t be charged with an amount in this shop, but next door at the supermarket. Well, after a moment, I understood that English wasn't the native language of the customer , so I offered her to go with her to show how the charger worked. Oh, she accepeted it happily. After I had done my little business we went together to the supermarket.
After a moment, I saw she had trouble understanding to the full I was telling her, so I asked her if she spoke perhaps another language( I was hoping for French or German), but here came the answer:
"Letvian, Polish ????". Oh dear God, trouble for me. But I tried the last possibility and asked her:
Do you speak perhaps Russian?" (that in Russian). A smile came onto her face and she answered that she did. Then in my best of Russian(that I speak very poor these days) I could explain the working of the charger to her, and all went well. She even was so nice to say to me, that I spoke Russian very well. And as we parted, I even received a hug from her.
I too felt very happy, that I was able to help somebody. I would be feeling happy and relieved too, if I had help with something being in a country of which I don;t speak the language. And isn;t this in small, what the world should look like?

Sunday we made it into a very quiet day, LOL! Jan had his newspaper to read, and then I have time to do a bit of stuff at the computer( but first I watched a Miss Marple detective at tv) Later in the afternoon I prepared some stewing-pears, I bought the other day. Yummie, they are great as desert, just like that or combined with e.g. some yoghurt, custard or whatever. I am busy making a serie of quickpages again, a bit different though from the way I make them usually(well, at least I think they are different, ROFL) but also made a tiny kit for Minky's blog, that I will offer here too. Take a look at her blog by the way, she has a lot of great news and even posted a few freebies too. Today is Halloween, so time for us to look at the sky when the moon rises and to see if we can spot some of us during their broomride, hahaahhaaaa!!!!!
Hope that who ever is doing something with Halloween will have a spooktaculair time!

I am off now, leaving you with "Halloween Eve", and hoping for some great pics and layouts of your Halloween celebration. Though we don;t do anything for Halloween I love to watch all the creations and creativity people show(both in scrapping or around the house, some make complete displays of it, whooooo).
Have a fantastic day!

Download HERE

Tried a wet cat in the morning?

2011-10-28T09:55:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last two days were a bit quiet, you can say. Wednesday I went for some shopping, lovely weather, so I made a "grand tour"to sniff up some of that freshness in the air. I got all I needed for the weekend already.
Also did some hoovering and ironing and yesterday I just went out to post a few bills at the bank( I am still doing some of them the old fashioned way, by a giro transfer), and had a nice walk.
Oh yes, also changed the bedsheets, have to let the washing machine do its work today.

Entering the kitchen this morning my cat Brodski came in to welcome me, and I gave him a little caress, of course. But yak, my hand was all wet after that. So was rianing a bit, and somehow the cats seem to like it to be outside and happily come in after they got wet enough, to dry up again.

I want to do some more "house work", and then I can do some designing and this evening my favourite program is on again "The Voice of Holland", a show for new talent in singing. I already heard a few very good ones!
Is everybody preparing for Halloween this weekend?LOL.
I am not, we certainly will get to see something of it on tv, and that's nice, but I stick to Christmas, for turning my house into a different place ROFL.

So that's it for today, nothing more to ramble about.
I will post now the second part of the Senza Parlare kit and I also have a little extra for you. I made 4 quickpages with this kit. May be they will be usefull.
Have a great weekend!

Download PART 2 HERE

Download QUICKPAGES HERE

How cloudy is the future?

2011-10-26T11:01:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Might be a strange question, but it's a very real one! As we all know almost worldwide there is a big crisis going on. As we surely have here in the European Union. Today is another day of meeting of the leaders of the countries of the Union, to find a solution for the financial crisis which is going on. It's very complicated, and I wonder if they can agree on some necessary discissions! But whatever they will decide, at the end it's surely the guy in the street who pays the bill for a large part.
And future isn;t looking bright at the moment. We all will have to do our living with less money, more and more people are having and will have difficulties in paying their mortgages, with result that a part certainly will loose their house. It's not obvious at all, that for the years to come the pensioners will have their same height of income, there will be more loss of jobs, and that are only a few things to mention.
The reason for that? Well, lots of things, for one that in the "good"years there wasn;t enough attention for a possibility that once all could go not so well, then there was already a crisis not too long ago and at that moment governments and lots of banks didn;t take care enough of their money, didn;t cut down enough on their expenses, didn;t build up enough reserves in case they had to face another crisis. That's only a very basic explanation for it all, and even this one isn;t very good hahahaa(I am not the person for a well-thought over explanation).
But one thing is sure. To save the European Union and the Euro, there is needed hundreds of milliards Euros, of an amount you cannot imagine and then there has to be done a lot of praying too, to turn the tide again.
When you listen to all the possible scenarios of the years to come, you don;t feel happy at all. Even the most optimistic view and opinion is still a rather scary one.
As always, mankind will survive in one way or another, we little people, just civilions who are trying to make a living, will somehow survive this but it isn;t a really an encouraging perspective at the moment.

And how great it is in a way to blame the "high"people, the governments that have to take care of their country and inhabitants, which they only can do because WE chose them via elections. But it seems sometimes, those governments have different goals as soon as they are ministers and such. No, not all of them, I am still convinced about that. There are people there who really have a vision and a good -willing too.But is it perhaps, that in fact that governments don;t really decide what's good for the country and the people, but that they are manipulated by the banking world and big businesses??? Who knows?? I do not know the answer, and I do not have an answer to all the enormous problems around the world, I only know everybody wants to have a little home, a job to earn enough money to feed the family, just a bit more to put aside or have a vacation once in a while, the possibility to let their children have a schooling to be able to make one day their own life. And this all in a peaceful world, where everybody respects a bit eachother, has some compassion and understanding. UTOPIA, I know, at least for the time being, but wouldn;t it be wonderful?

Oh gosh, what a gloomy blogpost!!!! Once in a while I just have these thoughts and I just write them down the way they come into my mind. Let's tuck this all away, in the very back of our brain, we cannot change it, certainly not individually, so let's see what will happen next and endure it LOL!

May be I can brighten your day a bit with the kit"Senza Parlare" (" without speaking" it says). I've made two downloads for it, to cut down a bit the size per download. So one today, the second will be on Friday. The preview is of the whole kit, I think one can make some great layouts with it.
Let's try too, to smile for a moment today, or perhaps even at several moments, it surely can help to feel a bit better and just as good as that, smiling at someone for a moment it might help another person to feel also a bit better!
Have a wonderful day!

Download PART ONE HERE

Today I am really late!

2011-10-24T12:20:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh gosh, I am completely out of my usual schedule LOL! Don;t know why, but last night I just couldn't get to sleep, or it seemed that way. My brain kept busy with all kind of things, slept just a bit, had the impression I was laying awake for hours. Out of pure frustration I got up, sat for some minutes in the room with a glass of water, went back to bed, and got out of it again around 5.00! Then took something warm to drink, even a sandwich, watched some silly serie on tv and returned to bed again after about an hour. And then I finally had a real sleep and woke up at 11.00!!! Normally I am up at about 8.00, so you can imagine that my day is different from others. Okay, not a too big problem, but I am out of my rythm ROFL!
By now it's already mid day, so I think I shall just ramble a little bit more and then try to get some things done I had planned for today. We'll see what I will achieve, hmmmm!
Had a nice mail again in the weekend, from Margaret, who downloaded the Welcome to the world kit and used it in a project. I have a link for you, so you can take a look( hit the preview and next button to see some more).
http://www.daisytrail.com/scrapbook.html?uid=82215

This weekend I really did some serious designing again, at the moment I am jumping from kit to kit, do some bits on a Christmaskit, made another "regular"kit, jumped again to another Christmas kit, etc, I had a great time.
Saturday I just went out to buy a newspaper, and it was fresh but nice outside, so I made a little tour in the shopping street, without buying anything substantial, whooooooo!

I still have to do the visit to some blogs I always visit, well, I already did a quick read, but didn;t even take time to leave a comment, how bad! Hope to do that perhaps later today.
I better get moving around slowly, I think.
Leaving you with a kit, you could call perhaps a bit rustic, I don;t know. I loved working with those colours. I named it Thalassa, found that name somewhere on internet, and it seems to be the name of some Greek sea godess. It coordinates a bit with the colours, so not a too bad name.
Have a great Monday!

Download HERE

Who catched the rain, hmmmmm????

2011-10-21T10:00:00.001+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Ha, Wednesday we did make it to the market. The weather looked quite nice when I was at the computer to post, so I had great hopes for the day. Pity Jan had a longer sleep and got up rather late. Then of course there's first coffee to drink, watch a bit the news on tv, take a shower, then grab a sandwich( and then he often says I am the one that needs a lot of time to get ready for a walk or so!!!!!grrrrrrrrrrrrr).
Okay, still no problem when we finally stept out the door to go to the market. It was a bit fresh, but with sunshine, you could say agreable weather. So at the market we kept our eyes open to see if we could find some speaker-wire, but no, there wasn't. But surfing the first part of the market, the sky was getting darker and darker and yeah, the forecasted rain fell down on us.
Not just a little rainshower, but a real serious amount of water splashed down, and that wasn;t the worst, it even hailed! The good thing about a market is that almost all stands have a roof( from cloth, but made to keep the water away from their products) so we found a good shelter. ROFL, did you ever notice, that when suddenly there is a severe rainshower(or something like it) people are just acting like cockroaches?????? In time of 1 or 2 minutes the crowd is flying to all directions, all gathering under a very small shelter, and if you had the nerve to then walk over the market, it would be a lot easier, cause you could walk where ever you liked, without having to watch your every move, without being blocked by good-willing mothers with prams ( great things, those prams, but a curse on small paths on a market!!!).

It took a while to get almost dry again, and we could continue our market-visit. No speaker wire found yet(I think Jan has to go to a shop for that), but found some real cheap vegetables and some fruit, so the trip had been usefull anyway. And the best part of it(grin grin): arrived home again, the sky had cleared up and the sun peeped through the clouds. %%!!@***""++&&!!!!!!!!!!!! (Fill in the words yourself, LOL).

Yesterday I did go out to do just a few grocerie shoppings, not much, some cat food, a package of sugar, a bottle of mayonnaise, things like that. Oh and there was a nice offer in the supermarket for some great jam, so I bought that, one is made from figs and the other from oranges. MMMMMMMM, I tried the figs, oh, it tasted so good! And I like the one from oranges too, with the little skin parts in it, sweet but also a little bit bitter.
Towards dinner time I made a hotchpotch, mashed potatoes with sauerkraut, and small squares of fried out bacon. A little piece of meat with it and we had a tasty meal. There is enough left of the hotchpotch for this evening too, and you know, the second day it even tastes better. I also like to fry the hotchpotch a bit in a pan and put it on a fresh white sandwich! Easy meal but very nourrishing.

As Halloween is coming near, I thought I might give you my Halloween kit today. I hope it isn;t too scary for your pictures!
Have a wonderful weekend.

Download HERE

Feeling much better.

2011-10-19T10:09:00.004+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, I can say my back is feeling much better, although it still isn't over completely, so must be careful a bit with my movements. But let's face the bright side, it's already a lot better.

I'll start with an award I received from Zaza, from http://scrapandtubes.blogspot.com/

BEAUTI♥LICIOUS AWARD !
This award is for the Beautiful Women (and Men)
who grace us with their talents
in the Tagger Community.
The intent of this award is to pass it on
to the Designer, Tagger, or Artist
who has inspired you with their endless talent
and who has touched your heart.
There are many out there

Once you have received this award
Please pass it on to five blogs
to show some love
for those who truly are BEAUTIFUL.
Let's see how far we can pass this on !!!

I always find it hard to make a choice, but I managed to find 5 blogs. The first one is from Valinda, because long time ago when I just started digiscrapping and designing, she made so many wonderful quickpages, she offered for free on her blog,.When you go to her blog, just jump into the older archives and you will find many wonderful quickpages, you still can download. Lately she is more in the card-making, and does an excellent job in that too!
Thanks Val, for your inspiration! And she became a true internet friend over the years too!
Do take time to visit the blogs, they all are talented ladies, all with their own style and if you do, leave a little message, because that will bring a smile to some faces. And what is better than to be able with a small effort, to bring a smile to another one's face???

http://vjscraproom.blogspot.com/

http://digitaldesignsbyelisa.blogspot.com/

http://scrappiness-sylviaesther.blogspot.com/

http://creativeelegancedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://dianascreations2010.blogspot.com/

Monday was really a house cleaning day. Jan was a great help, cause he knew I still had my backproblems, so in the morning(it was already late morning LOL), I first had a warm shower and then turned on the washing machine. Then I started preparing for dinner, I wanted to make a potatoe salad, so when busy in the kitchen I thought it might be a good idea to take the curtains of the front window and put them into the sink, so they could soak a bit. But then saw Jan was already busy cleaning the windows at the outside and it was already a big difference when he finished, hahaha. We took a little break for a cup of coffee and then he took off the curtains and washed also the windows inside. I put the curtains in the water( wheee, it quickly got a strange colour!), went on with the salad preparing, refreshed the water, finished the salad, gave a quick hoovering just in the living room( that's all my back would allow me) in the mean time the curtains were dripping of in the garden. There was some sunshine so they could dry rather quick, Jan took them still a bit wet and hang them back ( that way they don't wrinkle). Oh, I even did a little bit of ironing too.
Then it was time to have a little rest again, and Jan went out for a little ride on his bike.
Now I fear that one of these days the curtains at the back of the room( the large ones) are in need of a washing too! If we still have the weather like we have now, it might be a good time. And perhaps Jan will be so good again to take care of the windows LOL!

Yesterday it was shopping time again, the usual stuff, potatoes, coffee, something for the sandwich, etc. I was happy I could do that again, took a little bit slower pace and watched wel how I bended over in the supermarket, to not overdo it cause of my back. All went well and as we still had potatoe salad left I just had to prepare something with it, which was a filled chicken filet( almost cut in half the filet, give it some banging to make it thinner and bigger, then put on some slices of salami and some slices of mozarella, fold it all together, stick some toothpicks in it to hold it together, some pepper and salt on it). Frie it on a medium fire, turning it over several times and it's yummie!
In the afternoon Jan went for a little walk and came back with two speakers for our stereao. We have two, but as we have a large room, it's better two have two pairs of them, each at one end of the room. We had four of them but one pair died some time ago. You will not belive what he payed for the new pair!
Just € 5,00!!! He found them in that second hand shop where we find ofter such things. They look really like new, he tried them out as soon as he came home and they are great! So now he only has to hang them up, but first needs some speaker wire. He will buy that one of these days, may be even today, because it might happen we take a walk to the market.

I was reading teletexte this morning(as I always do when I have my 1st coffee) to know the latest news and read that the Christmastreed will be more expensive this year, about 20%! It seems that the last couple of years there were more than enough trees coming from Denmark and the retailers didn't bother to plant new trees. And now there are still trees, but a excuses to ask a higher price! They are having nerves, don;t they?
So I am glad I have an artificial one, LOL! It's not quite the same as a real one, but nicer for nature and nicer for our wallet.
Hmm, enough rambling again, so time for the last two parts of the Ambiance kit. In the last part I've made you a stacked paper quicpage. Probably I will put on a whole kit on Friday, might even be a Halloween kit! To know for sure you will have to come on Friday again to take a look ROFL.
Have a wonderful day!

Download part 5 HERE

Download part 6 HERE

Holland wrote a bit of history!

2011-10-17T10:05:00.001+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

You know that Jan and I like to watch sports of all kinds, okay, some more than others, but still!
Well, this weekend our little country wrote a bit of sport history, unbelievable!
Saturday night there was the final of the World Championship baseball and guess who were in that final? Cuba and The Netherlands! But now the most beautiful part of it. WE WON THE FINAL AND ARE NOW WORLD CHAMPION BASEBALL 2011! And that's for the first time! I am not a real baseball fan but sometimes it's nice to watch a good game. But you can imagine that this time we didn;t want to miss it.( it also was after 73 years in baseball history that an European country was in the final!).

As we lacked some serious sleep Saturday night( the final was persponed because of the rain in Panama, so it only started around 4.00 o'clock at night ) we had a very quiet Sunday as you can imagine. Well, because of my soar back, it was all together a quiet weekend for me. But.. it's slowly going better and better with it. Must be carefull still, it isn;t gone yet, but it will pass some day.
It was also very low computer activity, just checked a bit email, and that was it. No designing or layout making at all. I am happy I have some stuff "on stock", so it's no problem for the freebies ROFL.
Also today I will not stay too long at the computer, not the best thing for my back, bummers. Well, there are other things to be done, e.g. a laundry, some ironing, als have to wash some curtains, all that kind of stuff. Glad Jan will help a bit with it.

I have today the next 2 parts of the Ambiance kit for you. Have wonderful day.

Download part 3 HERE

Download part 4 HERE

P.S. If you want to have a great laugh, you'll have to go to this blog
http://forkhandlesforkhandles.blogspot.com
I just stubled upon it, because I was looking into some of my followers, and oh my God, this lady has a way of writing I like very much. Just take a bit of time to read some of her blogposts and you will know why I like it so much. I couldn;t resist making this P.S in my blogpost, thanks to this lady, I started my day with some great giggles!

Why does the body grows older???

2011-10-14T10:30:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

It's just a retorical question, I suppose, this post title LOL! But there are weeks you don;t have trouble, or not much and suddenly from one moment to another, the body wants to have a voice and does something to you.
Like my lower back at the moment. I didn't do anything special(well, at least I cannot remember doing so) but yesterday evening I had trouble sitting at the couch, had some pain in the back, more specific in the right, near the hip. Not nice at all, and it makes you very tiered, after a few hours.
That's why I posed my question, hahahaha. I know it will pass sonner or later( and I hope very much it will be sooner). I don;t have too much trouble when I walk, so it's really puzzling.
Okay, I will not stay too long at the computer, because I am not sitting very comfy!

Nanette of Scrap 4 Kids made another layout with one of my kits. She scrapped her wonderful looking dog Hombre. Take a look and I am sure you fall in love with that dog!
http://scrap-4-kids.blogspot.com/

We had wonderful weather yesterday, so I made a little walk, just because it was so nice.
It looks as if today will be about the same, lots of sun, not much wind, we'll see what we can do with that.
Time for me to sit in a different position, hahahaha, so I better make an end to this post.
We will start another daily download, but I will give you 2 parts already today. I named the kit"Ambiance" and it has a bit of an autumn feeling in it, don;t you think?
Well, have a fantastic weekend and we'll meet again on Monday!

Download Part 1 HERE

Download Part 2 HERE

Had Firefox problems.

2011-10-12T10:04:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, to tell the truth, this morning at the computer didn;t start too well. When I started the computer it made a very strange noise, and that kept going on, so I had to restart, windows said I had to do a system repair(oh boy, I was lucky that it did so by itself) and computer started up well again. Till I wanted to start my Firefox. Click, little round appeared for a moment(the thing you always get when you start a program) and...............nothing!
Tried again. Nothing! After several times I tried Internet Explorer. No problem.
Very weird. After some reading about this, I decided to de- install Firefox and install it again.
I tried to start Firefox and whoopee, oh was I happy, it worked again. I have no idea was was wrong this morning with my computer, but I surely am happy that all seems to work again as it should be.
That are NOT nice surprises to start the day with!

Yesterday early afternoon I went out for a little shopping, temperature was not too bad, but there was a lot of wind, but I could hold myself on the street, so I didn;t need a brick or something heavy in the pocket of my coat to keep me down, hahahahaha.
Jan needed a little present for the birthday of the cafe owner, so on the way I took a look, but couldn;t find something. So he had to go out for another search. He went to town centre and I had a quiet afternoon, totally happy to watch on tv a serie on the BBC, North and South, played in the time period of the industrial revolution in England I thought. Real nice, I love that kind of series too.

Late in the afternoon Jan returned, a little bit exhausted but with a small present. He bought an artificial grass-tile with little flowers on it and such a sweet little gnome, (I think it looked more like a pixie)which we attached to
the grasstile. Of no use at all, that present, but it was looking a bit special. So he brought it to the cafe, other side of the street) and in the mean time I started dinner. Pity I didn;t take a picture of it!
He came back, we had dinner and watched soccer, first the Belgian team against Germany for a while(real sorry the Belgians didn't win), and then to a match of the Dutch team against Sweden. Pity, the Dutch team lost this match. But it didn;t had consequences for our team, they already had a place in the next Wrold Championship competition.

Today we want to go to the supermarket in a subburb of The Hague, we go there sometimes, because it's cheap, they sometimes have different things and on Wednesdays there's also a little market there on the square. It seems there is less wind and hopefully it will stay dry.
I also made another kit yesterday, after I gave a good sweep with the vacuum cleaner through all the house.

Oh, have to say to you, that Nanette of Scrap4 Kids made a sweet layout with my "Was it Yesterday"kit.
Go to her blog to take a look, you just melt by seeing that great baby!!!!!
http://scrap-4-kids.blogspot.com/2011/10/digital-layout-okke.html

Today not a kit, but some bragbookpages, and yes, it's something for Halloween. Also made a kit for Halloween, that I will post a bit later(very ceepy, that whole kit!!!!).
And I have also a quickpage, that I made with a kit from Minky. Because she cannot post anymore(or almost not) on Blogger unless she pays a fee for more space(and all the money that she may receive goes into the Sanctuary Project) I will post for the time being the things I make for her on my blog. Real sorry for her that she cannot blog and post work anymore. But she has also a deviant art account and you can find her on Facebook too. Just go to her blog for the right links, okay?
Time for the coffee and then slowly get ready for our supermarket trip.
Have a lovely day!!

Download HERE

A quiet weekend, lovely.

2011-10-10T08:55:00.001+02:00

Goodmorning eerybody!

We did enjoy our weekend, where we stayed home, due to the weather. I was lucky on Saturday, when I went out to buy the newspaper, that it was dry for a moment. But during the whole weekend we had quite some rainfall. And when I look outside I see there is a lot of wind and some grey sky, so not the best for going out.
Nothing much happened during the weekend, but we passed the time with the tv, and also some designing at the computer, Jan read his newspaper and made some crosswords. Sounds all very boring and dull but we enjoyed it, LOL.

I will give you a link to a blog from Mat, who was so kind to mail me and tell me, she made several layouts with my From Earth to Sky kit, and I tell you she made lovely ones. Go there and take a look, it may give you some inspiration, and when you do, please leave a little hello.

http://matsscrapbooking.blogspot.com/
I have nothing more to ramble about today, so this will be a short post for a change, LOL.
But I have a little freebie for you, in one colour scheme, named it "Beloved Memory".
Hope you will have some fun with it.
Have a great day, see you on Wednesday and hopefully I will have something more to tell you.

Download HERE

Will it stay dry today?

2011-10-07T10:05:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

As we were watching a stupid but oh so amusing film last night, I suddenly heard a lot of strange noise at the window. So I went looking and it was hailing and raining at the same time, accompanied by strong wind!
That was really a change in the weather, must admit not to my liking LOL!
I was still lucky during the day, when I did a few grocerie shoppings even having a little bit of sun.
During the night at about 5 am I woke up from a noise at the windows. So I went looking with my sleepy eyes and there again it hailed terribly and raining also like cats and dogs! Well, it didn;t look really nice, and I quickly stept back into my warm bed and slept for a few hours more. I think it probably will stay this weather all day, windy, with showers of rain and hail at times and in between may be some rays of sun. There is no need for me to be on the street so I decided I stay in, keep it a quiet day, may be later I'll do some ironing and such.

Wednesday I was quite busy here, changed the bedsheets, prepared earyly for dinner and then cleaned the top of the kitchen cupboards. Eeeeeekkhh, it was about time! It was dirty up there! Still not too bad, cause I put newspapersheets on them, to avoid that they turned all dirty and it helps a lot. Now it's clean again with new newspapersheets on them.

Yesterday afternoon I felt suddenly sooooo sleepy, that I took a nap on the couch, and slept for about 2 1/2 hours! When I woke up again Jan told me he had been busy clearing out the little shed we have in the garden, re- arranged the stuff in it a bit, and now we will have room for the table and chairs. Great guy he can be sometimes ROFL.

The past few days I am trying to scrap some of my photos. I didn;t do that for a long time, so I first downloaded several layered templates and then started to scrap. It's funny that you loose a bit the "touch"of it when you don;t do it for a longer time! But I will do some of the nicest pics, still a lot to do, and then will burn them on a cd.
I can show you a few, you probably already saw the pictures but they always look different when you actually scrapped them I used several of mine own kits for it. They look not too bad, although I think it may have been done better (LOL, I always have critics on the things I do myself, never I am quickly satisfied).

It's about time for another coffee and then get dressed and do somthing around here. Not leaving without a freebie, of course. It's a kit you can use for several things, I suppose, named "From Earth to Sky".
Have some fun with it and have also a great weekend!

Download HERE

Change of weather, yak.

2011-10-05T09:26:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, finally the weather is chaning to fall weather. Temperature is dropping and will do more during the week. Lots more of wind and it looks as if a bit of rain could fall. Oh well, it couldn´t last for ever, but I hope it will stay for longer time at least at this level, always still better than real cold, with snow and ice.

Monday I did do the vacuum cleaning and how! It was a real thourough one, Jan helped too, by turning around the couches, so I could get under them(eeeeeeekh, what a mess there) and he dusted the whole room while I finished the hoovering. It took us some time, but it looked real nice afterwards. Also did a laundry, so that is waiting for me now, to be ironed.
Yesterday the weather still wasn+t too bad, so I did some grocerie shopping and didn+t do too much further.
Oh, I also stitched Jan´s new trousers. The wunda web does it´s job, but only partial, ROFL. After a washing in the machine, it wasn´t holding enough the seem. SIGH, still had to do it by hand, with needle and thread.(don+t have a sewing machine). It was done rather quick, because in the mean time I also watched some tv. A combination of a little task you don+t enjoy too much with something that distracts you in a nice way does the thing.
I even started on a bew kit yesterday. It hasn+t a theme or so, in fact, I don´t know where it will lead too, just started to make some papers and we´ll see what the final result will be LOL.

Let´s hop to your freebie. I will give you the 2 last parts also at a time, and probably Friday there will be a kit at once again. I really like the paper in the sixth part of the download, the one with the kitty.
Soon there should be also something for Halloween, but that will be for the next week. Here in Holland there isn´t much done for Halloween, not to compare with Christmas time. And actually I am glad, not to have to decorate the house for Halloween, then restoring the house in `normal`shape and soon after to be busy with Christmas again. That last one is more than enough work, ROFL.
But I always like to see all the decorations people have around the world for Halloween. Some are really beyond belief!
Okay, I´ve rambled enough, will do a bit more on the new started kit and we´ll see what today will bring us more.
Have a shining day, you all!

Download part 5 HERE

Download part 6 HERE

Sunny weekend, lovely!

2011-10-03T09:59:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh boy, it's unbelievable, that at the start of October we still have around 75 F! Just hope we will not be punished for it during winter time LOL!
Friday we went for a little walk to the market. Without the shopping car, which is nice too. Jan wanted to see if he could get a few small things for his bike. He needed another pump for it, the one he has is stillf good but just a bit too large to carry along on his bike. And we did find on, a nice real small one that you can make larger like a telescope and he bought another bell.
I bought just a melon, for just € 1,00.
Saturday we stayed around the house, Jan just took a little ride on his own with his bike( yes, he has to work on his condition for it, hahahaha).
Yesterday on the bike again and we went to a shopping centre much further away, where there was a kind of fair. Great weather for it and we had a nice time, first the ride and then the walk there, ended with a little beer for him ( hey, a MALT beer, without the alcohol) and a cappuccino for me. Then home again and a bit later dinner, that I already had prepared in the morning.
Oh, Jan also found at the shopping centre a cover for his bike's saddle, needed, because the saddle was really hard and not very comfortable. Now he sits much better, with his gel-cover.
That's in short our weekend.

I tried to get a shot from the salamander, I have those, but didn;t upload them on the computer yet. And may be on of the next days he will return, to give me a chance at a better shot.

Today we still will have a nice day, talking about the weather. I think, we will not do much, but you never know what ideas may come up ROFL. But first I think I could do with a thourough hoovering in the house! Yes, the "normal"things will have to be done too, although you are bound to forget them due to this wonderful late summer days!

Do you remember I was speaking about the show "Holland got's talent"? And I was so impressed by a singing family, the Opera Familia? Well, they have a website and there you can see and listen to the video's of their performance during the show. There are 3 little films there, take first the bottom one on the right, and then take the top one. Turn your speakers high, and though the quality isn't 100% perhaps you can understand why I am so enthousiastic about them. Here's the link
http://www.operafamilia.nl/index.php/nl/opera-familia
Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Okay, time for the freebie again I am in a good mood, LOL, so I will give you 2 downloads together. But there still is a a 5th and 6th part to it. (I very much love the 6 th one)
Have a wonderful day, keep your spirits high!

Download part 3 HERE

Download part 4 HERE

Oh, what wonderful weather.

2011-09-30T11:59:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I will try to make it a bit short post, cause I want to enjoy the fantastic weather today again.
On wednesday Jan went out for a little trip on his "new"bike, to try it out and to slowly get the feeling back(well, better said, condition LOL) and I had the marvelous idea to phone my friend Heidi to check if she was home. And she was, for a while at least, so I went over there and we had finally a little chat again. It was about time, oh, time is going by so quickly, aweful!
Then yesterday we went out again, on the bike, yeah! First I had to improvise for a little pillow at the back of it, to sit more comfortable(old bones, you know hahahaha). Then we made a tour through a park not too far away, and I even have a few pics made.
After we biked through the parc and a bit further, Jan thought it was time for a little break.
We found a nice spot, a bit in the shade and that gave me opportunity to make a picture of the bike and Jan. He may not look at his best(grin grin) but although he isn;t looking to happy, he was in a good mood,really!

And here a picture of the view we had. That tree on the right is fantastic. You just see a part of it, but is was much more extended, Mother Nature has some wonders in her sleeves.

Then we just road a bit to the left and the right and went home again, again through the park and I managed to make two pics, sitting at the back and Jan riding, Never thought they would turn out this nice.

Oh, our very small pond in the garden has attrackted more animals. Jan wanted to clean it and add some fresh water and sound a tiny little nice looking salamander. I was really excited when he showed me the little creature. Now up to me to try to get a picture of it, if he's still there.
Well, girls, I want to get dressed now and enjoy our lovely late summer, so I am sure I forgot something to tell, but hopefully I will remember it on Monday(will that be possibile???????ROFL!!). Here the second part of the "Altered Times"kit.
Have all a fantastic weekend!

Download part 2 HERE

Walking, pffffff!

2011-09-28T10:46:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, Monday we took a day of making a long walk! Sun was shining nicely, good temperature, so why not? We started our walk to a parc and little wood, where we thought there might be some blackberrie bushes.
No luck, yes, the bushes where there(but not the bunch I wanted, but Jan said they were on the way we took and I was sure it was in a bit other direction LOL!), but no blackberries. Some of them where still in bloom, so perhaps they will bare fruit a bt later and for the rest, almost no blackberries to find. Might be they already dried out or fell to the ground or they were picked by the birds. No big deal, we might try it another time. In stead there were LOADS of acorns ( and we saw some groups of schoolchildren having fun collecting them) and also pine cones, so I gathered a few, perhaps I can make a nice table decoration with them at Christmastime.
We had a great walk through the woods and part of the dunes, all the way to Scheveningen, to the coast. By then the sky was covered with clouds again, which was a pity. So we didn;t go all the way to the beach, but walked a bit through the harbours and then I did feel a bit my legs, so we decided to take the tram and bus home again. By the time we arrived home, we had walked for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours!
I didn;t take much pictures but I made one of a real nice car we saw, it could be a great car for us, except we don;t have a driver license and second, we don;t have the money for such a car LOL. But you always must dream a bit, and have fun speculating what you would do if you had such a car, hahaha. So I made a pic of it, with Jan standing beside it, like he is just inspecting HIS car, and looking satisfied with it.

Great car, isn;t it?
Then in the dunes I spotted amagpie, rather far away, but I tried anyway to make the pic. I don't have a very strong zoom on my little camera, but after cropping the pic, I thought the result wasn;t too bad.

It was a nit exhausting walk, but I enjoyed it, especially when we were walking in the woods and dunes, it was so quiet there, and really refreshing.
Yesterday I took it a little bit easy, as well as Jan, but I hope we will go this week again for a nice walk, weather is looking great, we really have a second summer at the moment.
But in the afternoon Jan went to the "recycle shop"as we call them, to look again for a bike. And you can believe it or not, but I somehow had a feeling he would come back with one. And tadaaaaa, after a short time he came back home with a big grin on his face, inviting me to come to the hallway and there was standing a bike! Looked still really good, all necessary things were on the bike, he even was permitted to try it out in front of the shop(well, he had to leave his ID card, but I think that is normal), and was satisfied with his bike.
And he did get it for a real small price, and even has a 3 month garantee on it. So in the late afternoon he right away took his old bike out of our little shed, took a few parts from it that were still okay and put them on the new bike and he is happy with it. So I quickly made a pic from him, working on his bike. The one in front is the old one, quite rusty and really ripe for retirement LOL.

So you can say this were two good days.

On to the freebie. I warn you in advance it will be in several downloads again. So it will take some days, with me only posting a few times a week, to have the kit complete. I hope you don;t mind too much. I always admired the altered art artists, being in digital or handcraft. I think, there are a lot of them who make really awesome things. And though I am not pretending I know a lot of the art, perhaps I just reach about 5% of it, I tried my hand on it, LOL. It isn;t as easy as you should think, not at all!! But it is great fun. So here we go with "Altered Times"a 6 part download.
Still I think there are some great layouts possible with the kit, once you have assembled all the parts of it.
So let your creativity flow.
See you again on Friday, and who knows, may be I will have a few more pics for, I promised some of the new clothes and of my maps for gardening, have to kick myslef in the ......... hmmmmm, you know, ........ to make them, but may be I will have some more pics of perhaps another walk.
Till then, enjoy your day, try to stay optimistic, even if for the moment it isn;t going all as you should wish. Keep believing it will turn again to the good side, and one day it even happens. I know, easy to say, but we have to hold on to something to survive a bit nice, so without trying, you'll never know what might happen!

Download PART 1 HERE

We are having a bit summer again.

2011-09-26T10:32:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

This weekend the weather changed for better and it will stay like that the whlole week long, they say. It's really nice outside, temps around 70-75 F, and almost no wind, sunny, with a few little clouds.
We should go out some times this week to take advantage of it.
We had a nice, yet quiet weekend, not that I mind that. Oh yes, on Saturday I went out to get the newspaper and took a walk at the fair, as I was there anyway. They had the ususal stands, of course, but it was nice weather, great to be outside and take a look here and there. Hey, I didn;t buy ANYTHING at the fair. How great is that? LOL!

I just was at Valinda's blog http://vjscraproom.blogspot.com/, and was in awe of her organizing talent for her scrapbooking stuff! Take a look what she has done with her clear stamps!
But it is really the way to do it, certainly when you have lots of stuff, otherwise it will be impossible almost to work with it.
It's a bit the same I did with all the gardening stuff, gathered from the load of magazines I had lying around.
I once spent days cutting all the things out that were interesting, then divided then in several themes and then made maps of it. I should do it again with the new magazines I have gathered again. Something for wintertime, I think.

I am missing a bit the blogging and all from Minky. She seems to have trouble posting and adding pics and more. I couldn;t be of help to her, a friend of mine was so kind to take a look, but if anybody knows something about the inns and outs of Blogger, jump over to her blog, read what is the matter and perhaps she can be helped.

Now I think I soon will get dressed, take a little breakfast sandwich and then go out for a little while.
But first the freebie for you. It's a sweet kit that would be great for some baby pictures.
It's named "Welcome to the World"
You have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

Politics, politics.

2011-09-23T11:06:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, the last two days we spent a lot of time watching the debat in parliament. Oh my, there were some akward moments as one of the members of the Chamber( and also partially from the government) left the ways of politeness.! I think it was too much. I don;t mind if they debat sharp with eachother, but there is still a way to do it properly.
Well, it was interesting to listen to everybody, not that it will change a lot LOL!
In between I did a few things around the house, went out for a bit of shopping too, so we are all settled for the weekend.
Jan read in a neighbourhood paper, that there is another fair here in the shopping street close to us. As it seems that we will have real nice weather the next few days, may be we will take a look.
Who knows, we even might finda shirt for Jan, hahahaha.

Also started on a new kit, but there is still some work to do on it. And talking about kits, we could jump to your freebie, as I don;t have much more to tell.
It's a fantasy kit, all about Autumn. Hope you can use it for something.
Have a lovely weekend, till Monday!

Download HERE

Probably long tv day!

2011-09-21T09:32:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Okay, the "new parliament year"has started again. It was nice to see the Golden Coach and the Queen again, but the poor soul didn;t have a very optimistic speech(written by the members of the government) to give. It will be a difficult year for all of us, in short it will cost everybody money each month LOL! But I am afraid that the "average"citizen will still pay more then the ones who can miss the money, though the Minister of Finance wnats to let us believe, that isn;t the case, hahahaha!
I liked very much the dress and hat of our Queen, it was very stylish. I didn;t see very much zoom shots of all the hats of the members of Parliament on tv, pity!
Today in the Chamber of Parliament we call it Tweede Kamer, something like House of Commons I think) it will be a looong day. They will debat with the Ministers of Government about the plans they have to try to make the country "sound"again. Oh my, I wonder if it will change a lot, but it is always interesting and sometimes even funny, to watch and listen. It will be on tv all day long. So Jan and I will spend certainly some time in front of the tv.

Monday afternoon I decided to go into town centre, and perhaps find me a few new sweaters for the winter. That wasn;t even so easy, the trend is sweaters with short sleeves, so you always have to wear something under it with long sleeves. Very nice sweaters, indeed, but I like to have warm sweaters with long sleeves LOL! And of course I don;t like to pay a huge price for a sweater, like around € 40,00 or € 50,00, I am not nuts! I cannot afoord it either.
But finally I found myself a nice pair of dark grey jeans, a nice sweater you can wear under a lot of different sweaters and a real nice cardigan, also in a greyish colour. I will try to make a picture of them to show you on Friday. Oh, something miraculous happened. Jan asked me to look for a shirt for him!!!! He wanted to have a dark blue one and perhaps a light lilac one. Worst was, I couldn;t find them, Well, there were just a few available, but they were real expensive, so I didn;t buy them. Not to worry, sooner or later I will find some nice ones.
Now I will have to go through my closet and clear it out. I still have colthes there, I actually don;t wear, but somehow cannot throw away yet. Stupid, of course, but looking at them the thought comes into my mind: "Perhaps in some time I will wear them again(as trends always come back again)". Do you know that feeling?????

Yesterday I wasn;t very productive on the desiging, but I did scrap a few pictures of our cats, using stuff of my own kits, yeah, finally. Here are the layouts:

Done with my "Autumn Colors"kit.

Done with the "Whispering"kit.

'Done with "Through Faeries Seasons"

Done with "Dolce Ricordo"

Okay girls, I have for you the last part of the "Whispering"kit and a little extra, if you want it.
I just was a bit playing around in PSE8 and made a desktop wallpaper, I have it on my computer now too(I like to change it from time to time) and I must say, it looks rather pretty.
Have a fantastic day, and till Friday!

Download part 5 HERE

And your Extra, the desktop wallpaper:

Download Autumn desktop wallpaper HERE

A lovely layout from Nanette

2011-09-19T10:16:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

After a really relaxing weekend on to a new week of who knows what!
Friday we went looking for the bike Jan saw, but it was gone already! So I told him once again that if he sees another bike again that looks okay, he should buy it immediately if the price is nice for a second hand one. Or at least leave a little deposit and come home to fetch me if he wants. So till now no bike for him. Instead we did buy something else for just a few euro's, and you will grin when I tell you what.!
We bought us 4 pots for our indoor plants, LOL! Jan wanted to repot a couple of the plants, they really needed a size bigger pot, but we didn;t have any pots of pottery anymore. And as it was nice weather on Saturday, Jan repotted most of the plants, and did that in the garden, much easier and the mess of it is easier to clean away. In the meantime I did some pruning of the lavender and removed some weeds and "old"plants.
Still have to do some more, but a start has been made.

I also was rather productive on the designing side, only I have a bit of trouble in uploading the kits on Mediafire. The uploading speed is SOOOOOOOOOO low, unbelievable! Don;t know if it is something from my internet connection or that it has to do with Mediafire. I will try it again today and hope that it will speed up a bit. Very annoying when it takes a real long time to upload a kit!
Oh, this morning I found a nice message in my mail, from Nanette of Scrap-4-Kids blogspot. She made a layout with papers from another designer but the frames she used where from a kit of mine! And she got it published in a magazine, I will give you the link to Nanette's blog to see her layout and also the link to the site of the magazine, Enchanting Creations. I went looking to that site and must admit that it is an awesome magazine for scrappers of all kind! They also have a forum and much more and every month some themes to make layouts with and if you do it well enough they publish it!
Here Nanette's link http://scrap-4-kids.blogspot.com/2011/09/enchanting-creations-magazine-october.html

Here of the magazine http://www.enchantingcreationsmag.com/

Tomorrow we will spend some time in front of the tv, during the day, watching the opening of the year of parliament. The queen will arrive in the centre of The Hague, at the Ridderzaal to have her speech, and she will ride in the Golden Coach. That always is nice to see.

What I always like to see is how the Queen and also Princess Maxima( wife of Willem-Alexander, oldest son of Queen Beatrix and successor of the throne) are drssed. And very amusing to see are the different hats the ladies of the parliament, or wife of members of parliament and guests are wearing! It's rwally a hat-parade. Some of the hats are really nice, but some of them have a really weird thing on their head LOL!
Here a link if you want to have an explanation of this day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsjesdag
And if you like to see the Gouden Koets and the ride with all the entourage there are enough videos to see on youtube.

Time for me to finish this post again, with another part of the Whispering kit. Yet one more to go to have it all complete, last part will be posted on Wednesday.
Have a wonderful day!

Download part 4 HERE

Trousers are done!

2011-09-16T09:52:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I had a terrific good night of sleep, and I can feel that too. After months of broken up nights, it now happens a lot more I can sleep 6 or 7 hours in a row again! And if I wake up at night(sometimes natures just calls to me, ROFL) it can get back to sleep much sooner than before. Hoorray for that.
My talk about Jan, finally buying some colthes again got a lot of comments, hahahaha. It seems a world-wide spread virus, isn;t it ladies??
Wednesday afternoon we went for a walk to the market, where I just bought me a new pile of potatoes and onions and yeas, also the wundaweb for shortening the trousers(thanks Chris, for telling me the English word!). We also did pass several stands with nice jeans, but no, I didn't succeed in letting Jan buy a pair of them! So I suppose his short-time madness was already gone again, LOL!
It was another rather fine day, so it was good to be outside for a while.
Yesterday I did most of the shopping for the weekend already and after return, I kicked myself in the bottom and did the job on Jan's trousers. I did them all, oh my, what a good girl I am at times. Happy that it's done, and what a wonderful stuff that wundawebb is!!!
Then I prepared the dinner, which was really yummie. Made chicken filet filles with salami and mozarella, self made french fries and some butter-beans. Some strawberries for desert, and voila, our stomachs were loaded again.
In between some quick hoovering, and usual cleaning up, so I am rather satisfied with myself, grin grin.

And I even had a bit of time designing on a new kit, almost ready with that, just have to upload the files.
Oh, I might have a nice link for you I found, when I was looking around on internet for something, it's a Flickr account, where you can find a lots of beautiful textures and also pre-made backgrounds, most of them Creative Commons. Worthwhile to take a look at Brenda Starr's photostream.
And if you like Victorian postcards, take a look here
Another one with cute stuff is Magic Moonlight
And may that not be enough, take a look here
Last but not least, try this one, with LOTS of links to other sites, and the bst is, that they are almost all free to use, so be sure to check the TOU of the one who offers those wonderful things!
Ha, I think I gave you enough to spend some time on the internet in the weekend! Oh, if you download something from one of the sites, don;t forget a little thank you. It always makes people happy, is just a small gesture with great effect!

Today Jan wants to go for a bike search, but he wants to find a good second hand one, and there are lots to find, if you take a bit of time. It saves you really a lot of money, so if you don;t need one right away it is a good thing to do it this way. And though the weather is colling down a bit, it still ca be nice outside, specially when the sun is shining. So perhaps Jan and I will do our best this weekend to make a start with the winter-preparing of the garden. We'll see if that will actually happen.
Tomorrow I just will have to buy us some fresh bread and the weekend newspaper, and may be I will do some ironing, not sure about that yet, hahahaha.
Both of my cats come in the house a little bit more often, at the moment they are both lying asleep on the couch, like two furry balls, leaving almost no space for someone to sit. And they are acting very cross when you try to move them aside a bit, so that with some effort you just can squeeze yourself on a small spot!
Well, that's about it again, so I will give you the 3rd download of the Whispering-kit.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download part 3 HERE

My hubbie will look smart LOL!

2011-09-14T08:22:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!
Already for some time Jan wanted and needed a few new trousers. And then yesterday morning the aweful event took place, he had to throw away one of his favourite ones. Yes, part of the cloth was sooooo thin, that he could actually put his finger through it. So he finally decided he should have some new trousers. And the more extraordinary it was, because he allowed (yes, ROFL) me to go with him to town centre.
He hates normally to buy clothes, especially when it is needed to try them on in the shop. But arrived at the store he took a good look around, chose several models and tried them on.
At the end he ended up with 3 pair of trousers. But if you know me, I always look around some more, the more because it is VERY difficult to get Jan into town for buying new clothes, sigh!
Of course I saw some nice stuff, grin, specially a sweater and showed it to him. And oh miracle, he LIKED it and more miracle, he decided(after a bit of work by me, grin grin) to buy that too! It will go well with all 3 new
trousers and so my hubbie will look smart this autumn and winter.
Today we will have to go to the market, potatoes are needed and some veggies and I will have to buy the stuff I can use to shorten his trousers a bit. Don't know how you call it, but it looks like a thin band of fleece, that you can put at the cloth, take a moisty textile, like a handkerchief or so, and then iron it and voila.... it glues the hem, nice and easy. I probably give it a few stiches too at the sides, for extra security. As I have no sewing machine, it's the quickest way to shorten his trousers, otherwise I will have to stich it by hand.
And may be, just MAY be, Jan will look for a pair of new jeans at the market, he could use aother pair and then he will be all ready for the next season.

It was real pleasant weather yesterday afternoon, so returned from the town, Jan went for a moment into the garden, with his crosswords, but also made his little tour through the garden and came to me full of enthousiasm, to tell about his find there. It seems that our toads had a busy summer, LOL, because under a little tile he found a whole bunch of eggs. So if all goes well, next spring we will have some new born toads hopping around again.
You can find the wonders of nature sometimes in your own garden.

Hmmmmm, time now to get me another cup of coffee, just a little bit of playing time with my PSE an then get ready for the market. Let's see if there are any miracles left for today, like Jan finding and buying his pair of jeans, hahaha! If so, I know that for the next year at least I shouldn't mention anything to him about buying perhaps a new shirt, or sweater, but let's be happy with yesterday and perhaps even today ROFL!
I have today the second download of the kit "Whispering".
Have a lovely day!

Download part 2 HERE

We still have "funny"weather

2011-09-12T10:53:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

On Friday I did make it to the supermarketas I planned. At first weather was nice, but on the way home it was rather warm(not the part that I mind too much) but with a lot of moist in the air. And that is not the best weather condition for me. But... after a little rest with a sandwich and a cup of coffee I was allright again and did some housework too, plus a landry. Saturday I just had to buy us the weekend newspaper, weather okay, less moist,a bit cloudy, a bit sunny, but then in the evening a lot of pictures were taken of us again LOL. Thunder and lightning and some sudden serious rain. Still it was nothing compaired to other parts of Holland , what I;ve seen on the news. WOW, that lightning was really impressive at some places!
Yesterday we stayed at home, nice and calm, I could do a lot of desiging, while Jan was reading his newspaper.
Seems a boring weekend, hey? Well, that may be so, but I enjoyed it, grin grin!

I will show you something I received in my mailbox. It's a quickpage from my kit Collect memories, made by Nathalie, to be found on this link, where you can download the quickpage. I think she did a really nice job! Go pay her a visit, she just started with her blog and some encouragement will do her good!!
http://nathl-digiscrap.blogspot.com/

I am hoping that soon the wind will ease down a bit, because there has to be done a bit of work in the garden, I don't mind so much if it's a lower temperature, but working with a hard wind isn't very practical. I have to do some pruning this month, e.g. the lavender has to be cut down a bit to ensure we have lots of flowers on them again next year. Also have to get some weeds out of the ground , well in short preparing the garden slowly for autumn and winter time. May be I can get Jan also to it, he could do some pruning with the BIG scissors, needed for the ivy. That is lovely, but grows much too fast!
Okay, we are heading towards the freebie. It is a 5 part download, so you will have to come back a couple of times, to get the whole kit, well, if you like it, of course. It's a vintage looking one, named it "Whispering".
Have a great day, allow yourself to smile a bit, it makes one feel a lot better.

Download part 1 HERE

Diffficult job, being weatherman???

2011-09-09T10:06:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I just come from reading the blogpost of my friend Edna, leaving it with a smile on my face! And why? Because she can write with such humor about in fact ordinairy things of every day. This time about the weather forcast, predicting just some light rain, in fact being a real waterballet for Edna LOL!
Her weatherman isn't the only one who sometimes says funny things. It happens all over the world I believe. And yes, I know and realize they cannot influence the weather, and have to make an average for the whole country(well in Holland they can, cause it is just so small), and still they are at time completely wrong! And what to say about their joy glancing on their faces, when they give us the forecast for the next two or three days! Specially when it is bad weather! Our weatherman on one of the channels, can predict the worst possible weather with still a BIG smile on his face, just saying: "yes, I know, it will not be nice weather, but how beautiful are the rain and thunderclouds, and let's be honest, it fits Holland, and if you live at the coast, go to the seaside and admire the HUGE waves because of the sotrmy wind, just like a painting from and old Dutch painter, isn;t that great???" Imagine, me, dwarf Kyra, height 1.53 mtr, weight around 38 kg., going for pleasure to the beach to watch the HUGE waves in the stormy wind!!! They better send somepeople with me with large nets to catch me in time, if I an blown away! ROFL!

But today it could be not too bad weather, though it is raining a bit at the moment. But every now and then there should be some dry moments, with a bit of luck even with some sunshine( cross your fingers! LOL).
So I want to do some shopping today, cat food running out again, bread, some sausage for on the bread, the usual things and also want to to some dusting and vacuumcleaning around the house. And when that is all done, I want to get back working on a new started kit. Or actually, on TWO new started kits LOL! That often happens to me, working on two different things. Well, if inspiration for one is a bit lacking some moment, most of the time it goes well again on the other.
And in between I am working on four cards for Minky's blog too. Have to make just one more and then I can zip them.

Today I have a kit, that probably my friend Edna will like a bit, she likes the colors in it, I know. And as we are heading for autumn, this is a real Autumn kit( in this part of the world it will be Autumn, grin grin).
A simple name: "Autumn Colors".
Have a wonderful weekend, and see you on Monday again!

Download HERE

Lazy days are great at times!

2011-09-07T08:45:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

What a title for a blogpost! It just came up to me after reading my friend Edna's blog, who had a lazy day LOL! And I must admit, I had one on Monday too! With weather not being all too bright at all, I just didn;t do a lot, only spent time at the computer. Instead, my hubby was very active, yeah!He cleaned the toilet, thouroughly, and also in the kitchen he had been busy with the tiles and the floor. WOW! Best I can do than is NOT having a look what he is doing exactly, so that's what I did ( a bit hard at times, cause every now and then I hear a bit strange noises, or I know he is looking for something and then it itches to go to him and ask what he needs etc, not good to keep the peace and quiet ROFL!)

It was raining a lot, real autumn weather, with result that every now and then Brodski comes in to let us know he is still around, but mainly to dry up and then he goes outside again. Have you ever had the experience of a wet cat, that jumps full of energy and enthousiasm on the couch, where you sit nice and warm, with the only intention to rub his wet furr dry on you? NOT a pleasant thing. Most of the time it's only Brodski, but sometimes Dikkie Dik has the same idea, brrrrrrrrr.
Yesterday evening it was really raining cats and dogs in double! And here it wasn't even the worst, as I saw on the news. Other parts of Holland had lots more of water in short time.
It should be a bit better today, though there still is a lot of wind. Have to pick the right moment to go out for a little shopping. Let's hope I can keep it dry then!

As this is about all to tell, we better skip to the freebie, a kit you can use for several topics, I guess, named "Was it Yesterday?".
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

A little trip to town centre

2011-09-05T10:43:00.002+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Hope you all had a nice weekend and charged yourself with new energy for this week.
Weather here was a bit strange the last couple of days. But for a bright note, temperature was real nice! Only suddenly Saturday evening it started to rain, but I mean serious rain! And with it some lightning and even a few thunder blows.
First things first, I had a blog award again, from http://matsscrapbooking.blogspot.com/
Thanks Mat, I really appreciate it. Now up to me to pass it on to 5 other blogs and of course let them know they can pick up this award on my blog and then they have to pass it on to 5 other blogs.

Okay here are the blogs:
http://missednasplace.blogspot.com/

http://minkythings.blogspot.com/

http://aussiescraps.blogspot.com/

http://mywarehouseofdreams.blogspot.com/

http://scrappiness-sylviaesther.blogspot.com/

Oh, Jan did an awesome find in the garden. He found a very little bat! The sad thing about it was, that it was a dead one. But I never knew they lived around our area! It was great to see it and in his own way he was quite cute too. And once in a while we still see our summer guest, the toads, around too.
But you can notice that summer is almost at it's end, in the garden and in the streets and parcs. Leaves are falling, changing color, and though autumn has it's own charm, I am not hasty to welcome it yet.
Yesterday we planned to go to town centre, there was the yearly market of the opening of the theatre season, then there are lots of stands with documentation of their programs and here and there also some little perfomances, mostly of music and cabaret. First we weren;t sure to go, weather was a bit cloudy, every now and then with a little drop of rain, but finally we did go(and we were right to do so, nice temperature, sometimes a ray of sun, and we catched just a couple of lost raindrops).
I must say it looked a bit smaller in comparison to last year, which certainly has to do with the cutting in money for cultural events by the government. Still we had a nice time, and I even could make a few pics. Here we go:

This was at the entrance of the event, a HUGE bronze statue of a guy sitting on his knees and hands, beuatiful made.( there were some more statues standing in between, part of a exhibition)

This poor guy or girl had to walk in this stork costume all day, but I thought it looked funny.

I liked this statue of Japanese fighter.

This was was real nice. It was a stand to promote the city of Delft, very known buy it's porcelain fabric, the Delft Blue. Don't you think the dress is awsome?

And what a great idea, to make a big lamp( it even gives light in the evening)

And here we had great fun to watch. I think it was around a stand for some kind of theatre program, but I just loved the policeman on his iron horse. The horse even made horse sounds! The guy perforamed a little show, at a point being very "annoyed"because his "horse" had dropped some stuff. And looks at his costume! They even didn;t forget the horses tail!

Then walking towards the tram, we made alittle detour through a little park, whaere there are a lot of deer. They are just beautiful creatures, hey?

We were home again about 4 o'clock, so time enough to give our poor feet a little rest and then I had an easy but tasteful dinner for us. I had an alreaydy roasted or grilled small chicken, which I warmed up in the oven, made a potatoe salad to it and then we had strawberries with cream. That all made our stomach full enough!
Between all that I had some great time at the computer too, as I did all the "necessary house stuff"a bit on Friday and the laundry on Saturday morning LOL. Made some nice stuff I think, some of it will be offered in seperate downloads, two very different kits that will be.
But today I have a fantasy kit for you. In it just 8 papers, almost like premade backgrounds, I suppose, I tried to catch the 4 seasons in fairyland. Here a better view on a couple of papers:

There a lots of elements in it, I hope you can make some nice layouts with this kit. The papers are made a bit like stacked papers.
Here the preview and then downloadlink of the whole kit, named "Through Faerie Seasons"
Have a wonderful Monday and some great creative moments!!

Download HERE

Cable TV, don;t talk me about it LOL!

2011-09-02T09:15:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Starting the 1st of September our cable company, which provides us our tv channels, thought it might be nice to extend the offer. Well, nice thought, but suddenly we missed several channels! E.g. our Crime/detective channel. That was in an extra subscription we pay for, together with some Discovery channels, on top of the regular channels. I wasn;t happy about that, mind you, I payed extra for that and just like that, they remove it! Okay, yesterday morning I phoned the company, and asked the nice guy at the telephone an explanation. In short: they have 3 subscriptions now, TV z1m TV plus and TV extra. No more extra subscriptions for a bundle specials, like we had, they are now included in.................yes, you guessed well, in the PLUS (some of them) ad all in the EXTRA.!!! And of course our package was in the EXTRA now. And to keep it short, if we want our extra channels, it costs us a few Euros more, OF COURSE! This apart from the annusance that when they change channels, we also have to reprogram them on our tv( you can make your own "favourite list with channels you watch often which is handier, cause you can give them a channel number a bit more logical than the tv company does). I must say the guy at the telephone was very patient with me, explained it all very clear to me, no bad word about that. The end of it all is that we changed our subscription to the most extended offer, and hopefully this will stay a long time as it is now LOL! I asked the guy too, how long it should take to give us our extra channels back again on our tv and he answered that it shouldn't take more than 48 hours. Hmmmmm, I could live with that, but to my utmost pleasure already ysterday mid-evening we had them all again.
What I mind most of those things is that they just change things as they please and at the end it always costs you some money!
But okay, we have a lot of extra channels, and one of them might even be nice or interesting.

It looks as if today we are going to have a real summerday! And tomorrow also, so perhaps we should enjoy that. Well, I already did about all the grocerie shopping that was necessary and also some housecleaning Wednesday and yesterday, just need to do a laundry. I have no idea what we shall do today, if we go somewhere or that we'll stay home, catching some sun in our garden. Difficult desicion ROFL!
First of all I think I will take another cup of coffee and then we'll just see what today has in store for us.
I have for you the 2nd part of the "Passage to India"kit.
Have a mighty nice weekend, see you on Monday!

Download PART 2 HERE

Will we get an "Indian Summer"???

2011-08-31T11:08:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last couple of days the weather is slightly changing, to the good side I think. Although there is a difference between our part of the country and the East part of it(and imagine that from the coast to the border with Germany there are only about 200 kms!!). Yesterday Jan even sat for a little while in the garden, sun was shining! But towards the weekend they say we will have warmth again, about 24 degrees C ( think in Fahrenheit that is around 75F). Now THAT is waht I call a nice temperature LOL!

Monday was my laundry day, oh boy I was good again, did iron all that was dry, and that always feels good to see it all gone into the closet. Today will be hoovering and dusting day, and I must go out to get a few of my mecicins. I still have a bit, but I like to get them in time, it happens that they don;t have it all in stock and then it could be tricky if you wait till you have taken the last pill or puff.
There isn;t too much to tell, it were just quiet days. I did finish another kit and even started on a new one, it's a kind of present I give myself, do some designing AFTER I finished some work in the house, you know, the more bouring stuff LOL!

We still are having from time to time a dinner with a salad of tomatoes, yes, Jan's tomatoes! They really taste good. And the harvest isn;t over yet, but the ones one the plants do need a bit of sunshine to get all red. So Jan is having great fun of his tomatoe plants and is determined to grow them again next year!

I had some sweet peas growing, they flourished weel and yesterday I could already collect the first seeds from them. Have to have a few more to be ensured that some plants will do well, but it's such fun to grow some plants from your own seeds.

Today I have the 1st part of a kit for you, Friday will be the 2nd part of it. It was just a bit too "heavy"for one download. It's named "Passage to India". Hope you can use it.
Now you all have a wonderful day!

Download Passage to India part 1 HERE

Visit to the market

2011-08-29T11:07:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

I did put all my courage into my shopping car and went to the market on Friday. The weather was looking a bit tricky, but then I thought: "All that could happen to me is having a rainshower on my head, and we can survive that "LOL! But I was lucky, although sometimes the sky got dark at moments, I kept it all dry. And it was really warm outside, not all together the bst weather, it was very moisty just like a hige thick blanket. So I did my things quickly at the market, got me some things that I wanted, skipped the French Fries and went home again.
But in the evening and night we had some tunder storms, lots of pictures were taken from us by the weather devils ROFL! and even the cats, who like to be outside, came for a little shelter inside.
Saturday it kept raining on and off, but I found a moment between rainshowers to do a quick visit at the supermarket, well, catched a few raindrops, but nothing serious, and you know girls, it was sooooo lovely outside in the air!! The air was really fresh and crisp, a real relief after the Friday!

I was soooo in the good mood, that I also changed the bedsheets and gave a really thourough sweep with the vacuum cleaner in the bedroom, and a quicker one in the hallway and kitchen. Jan did the living room for me( in the time I was out to the supermarket), I also prepared a bit of the vegetables from the market for the freezer. That was done rather quickly, because I didn;t buy too much of it this time.
And during the weekend, after all the work done, hahahaha, it was good to do some designing. I almost finished a new kit, but also made something again for Minky's blog. As I just visited her blog, I saw she already posted the preview, but she will give you the link for the download later, on the special blog. Well, if you would like to download, keep an eye on her blog.
But.........I can tease you and show you the preview! It are 3 cards, you can print out, fold them and send them to somebody. You know, email is very handy and quick, but it just isn't the same as receiving and envelope in your mailbox, opening it and holding a card or letter in your hands to read!

Can you imagine that August is almost done with already! Mark my words, sooner than you think your thoughts will be filled with Christmastime and all the preparations for it.! And as much as I like Christmastime, it can wait for me a bit. I rather like to havea nice after summertime in the next month with also some nice days at the end of September, because then we'll have to get the garden prepared for the winter time.
Hmmmmm, time slips through my hands today, I better finish my post now, then I might be able to finish the preview for my just finished kit and then the laundry is waiting for me, one in the machine and the dry one to be ironed and put away in the closet and I have to prepare some meat for our dinner, that has to be on the stove for several hours to get tender.
I have another multi purpose kit for you, also in a bit darker colour scheme, named "Dolce Ricordo". Hope anybody can make use of it!
Have a wonderful Monday!

Download HERE

No market, no French Fries LOL!

2011-08-26T11:24:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The blogpost title says it all! We didn't go to the market on Wednesday! It was a bit due to the weather, It kept on raining and looking grey, and only rather late in the afternoon the rain stopped and here and there a little ray of sunshine came through. By then it was too late to take the trip. So that has to wait for another day. I thought today could be the day, but after hearing the weather forecast, I don;t think it will be today either. It seems today could be the worst day of the week, rain storms could be passing over Holland, with sometimes hard wind, and looking outside now, I see we already have the first of rain. Weather at the moment is going like a rollercoaster, one day great weather, warm etc, the other day, raining, lots of degrees lower temperature, next ay a bit of mixture of both, I really hope that will pass by quickly. Very difficult to make plans this way LOL!
But it gives some time for little jobs in the house and also some extra playing time at the computer.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a message in my mail from Maureen, who made a layout with my "All the love in the world"kit. Do pay a visit to her blog http://moscraftsandotherthings.blogspot.com/2011/08/few-more-layouts.html, you will see some great layouts she made and leave a little word if you visited. Here the layout:

Then I tried my hand on something else. I;ve made some "affirmation cards"for Minky's. It's great fun to make them. Here a preview of them, you can get them at Minky's blog. And it's worth the visit, because there are also some other treats for you there.

Time for me to get dressed finally and do something around here. May be, just MAY be, later on today the weather will change a bit, and who knows, it might be just good enough to make that quick trip to the market. If only the wind will lay down a bit more, that would be great already, not too confident though that it will happen soon ROFL!.
Today I have a kit you can use for several projects, I think. Hope you like it, it's named; "Collect Memories".
What would our life look like if we hadn't our memories? They may be a mix of good and bad ones, but they all were learning cases, tought us valuable things, and for sure, thinking of the good ones give us some good moments. And because we are just human, we also are bound to forget things, and therefore scrapping pictures of all kind of moments in our lives is such a wonderful thing.!
Have a gorgeous weekend!

Download HERE

It's a special day.

2011-08-24T09:14:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

It still is early morning, and it is raining at the moment. I hope it will stop later today and if possible a bit of sunshine will come too, because we want to go to the market, for some veggie and fruit shopping. Jan was there a few days ago and told me, the prices are quite low at the moment. So a good time to buy and make some stock in the freezer.

Today is a bit special day, this 24th of August! This same day, but 4 years ago, we got married! Gosh, already 4 years passed by, in a rather quick way! Thinking back of it, I remember I told you of all that happened towards that day, and on the day itself it was beautiful weather. We were very lucky with that, and had a wonderful day.
And I almost cannot imagine that next year March Jan and I are already together for 20 years!
Oh LOL, yesterday evening Jan said he knows today is our wedding day but we will not do anything special, but if I behaved well, he might buy me some French Fries at the market, hahahaaha!He's such a sweet guy at times!
But I think I will ty to make something nice for dinner, may be at the market I can find an avocado and fill that with Dutch cooked and smoked prawns(these prawns are small and very tasty! yummie) together with some mayonnaise, bit of pepper and some drops of lemon juice. If the avocado's are of a nice size, it even could be enough for dinner, when I have some strawberries with cream, or a nice melon for dessert. Hmmmm, not a bad idea!

I like to show you a preview of some quickpages I've made for Minky, from the kit of the Pink challenge(well, the one you receive, when you enter a layout with the challenge kit). If you like to have them, just go to her blog and read how to get those quickpages. May be she didn;t had time yet to post them on the special blog, well, be patient, they will be there, you'll only may have to return a bit later. Anyway, here already the preview(a collage preview Minky made)

As freebie for today I have a vintage kit, in light colours for you, named "Past Time Childhood".
Now I just enjoy the quiet and peace at the moment and play a bit in PSE8, then hopefully the rain will stop and we can prepare ourselves for the market visit.
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

New things to share

2011-08-22T10:20:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, we had a nice weekend, although the weather didn;t bring us what they promised! So we didn;t go to the beach, or the blackberries, I hope somewhere this week we will make that walk.

But the temperature was just god enough to spend a bit of time im the garden, Jan making his crosswords and me reading in my new book. I used to be able to read for hours, really, but not anymore! After some time I get very sleepy, ROFL! So Saturday I took a little nap in the afternoon, was just awakening a bit when Jan came to me to wake me up, because we had a visit from Rob, his brother. Rob and his son Dominique, were on a walk to Scheveningen, the beach, to watch later in the evening the fireworks competition. We have that each year, and a lot of countries compete and during a week or so, every evening two countries show their fireworks.
We had a nice chat with them,in the garden.

Sunday should have been more sunny, but it wasn;t really, so we stayed home. I didn;t spend too much time at the computer, but have some things to show. I've made a little kit for Minky's blog(when you visit, scroll down a bit to find the link for it), here's the preview:

And when you are at her blog, you can download a little challenge kit again, entries of your creations please before the 17th of September, so you will have enough time for it and if you send in a creation you will receive a lovely kit! Here the preview of the challenge kit:

I also managed to finish another kit and for another just have to make the preview and upload it. Yes, I am glad the inspiration-flow is working nicely, hahahaha.
But.... a new week started today, so there also must be done some "serious"work(that's always the not really nice work, ironing, hoovering, etc. etc.). But if I try to keep up with the intention, to do every day something, then it is;t too bad.
Okay, I will end this post now, not before I will post the preview of your freebie, then I might have a bit time left, so I can play with Minky's challenge and then on to the serious stuff LOL!
The kit today is all about Love, named it "All the Love in the World", a real romantic kit. I also added two "stacked"papers in it, here is a preview of one of them and then the preview of the kit.
Have a wonderful day and stay creative!

Preview of stacked paper.

Download HERE

All to normal here again!

2011-08-19T09:30:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Wel, it seems that Jan is free from his cold on the stomach, glad that is over. I am too back to normal, so all is well around here. Now I really hope we will be free of any bugs or whatever for the coming time!
Yesterday there was again real bad news on tv, about a musicfestival in Belgium. It's a rather big festival every year, and well visited. But yesterday bad weather caused a terrible accident on the place, a tent broke down, caused by sudden hard winds, together with curtains of rain and hail and till now 5 people died because of it and there are also several wounded, some of them real bad.
What had to be a gathering of around 60.00 people, enjoying music, ended up in panic and as worst a few deaths. We saw some of it on tv and it really looked terrible. All muddy, broken tents, trees that were fallen down, a real mess. The festival was planned to take place till saturday, but they have cancelled it now.
So you see your life can change in a matter of seconds!

Wednesday afternoon I had a real quick visit from Heidi, who was a bit exhausted. Reason was, that her dad was in hospital already for several days and she has been busy with some friends in her father's house, (he lives alone)cleaning up the whole place. Her father suffered from a sudden temperature raise, real high and that's no good, specially because he also has some heart trouble now and then. They still don;t know what was the cause of it, but he has been given antibiotics for several days and temperature seems to be normal again. Probably he will be home this weekend again, if all stays normal. So my poor friend came back from holiday, and just a few days after this happened. I'll phone her today, to hear how things are by now.

I don't have the most uplifting blogpost today, is it? Well, there are always things happening in the big world and also in our near surroundings, and we don;t have influence on it. They just happen and we have to deal with it.
Weather forcast seems to be good for this weekend, with quite high temperatures and lots of sun, so we better take advantage of that when we still can. You never know here in Holland how long that will last!
But first I will have to do some shopping today and may be tomorrow we can make a nice walk. Perhaps we can go to the seaside, or perhaps to a small wood I know, where there might be blackberries to find. It's about the time they are at their best.
Better I don;t make too many plans, most of the time they aren;t realized and we end up doing something different ROFL!

Now here's the second part of "Timeless Memories", have a great day and wonderful weekend.

Download part 2 HERE

Things are improving here

2011-08-17T10:10:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Glad to say Jan is already feeling much better. His "interior"isn''t yet completely up to date yet, but he's back on the mend.
I was having an off day yesterday too, had some trouble with my epilepsia, like it happens every now and then.
So I went to bed early and had a looong sleep through the night, that's always best to do to get rid of it.
Still feeling a bit wobbly, LOL, but I think later today, I will feel allright again.
We had a nice visit yesterday, completely unexpected, by the daughter of a friend. It's a real nice girl of 21, and she even got us a little present. Two coffee mugs with the picture of a Smurf on it, which she specially picked for us. Through the years she always teased us with the nickname of "smurf-couple"ROFL!
So we had a nice chat with a cup of coffee.

Monday I was a busy bee, washed the curtains from the bedroom, did the window too, dusted it all around, ironed some laundry, while a new load was turning in the washing machine. Hoovered the room and gave a thourough clea to the coffee table in front of the couch. It's having a glass panel on top and that needed a clean on both sides, cause the eveing before I spilled my coffee over it. So at that moment I just cleaned it quickly, but it still was sticky the next day. Now it's all shiny again.
Oh, and I went to the hairdresser yesterday to have a good cut. Now my hair is real short, very easy to handle to get it in shape with a bit of foam or gel. Yeah, I'm happy with it.!

Today I have a first part of a freebit kit, named "Timeless Memories". When busy on it, it grew and grew, so I ended up with a kit of around 100 MB. So I thought it would be better to split it in two parts for quick downloading. Friday will be the next part of it.
Okay, time now for another coffee and I think I will keep quiet today, no house keeping today, only will prepare dinner of course. Hopefully later today the sun will show up again, then I can sit in the garden, under the parasol, with my new book. Good idea!
You take care and have a nice day.

Download part 1 HERE

Hopefully this week all "bugs"will be gone!!

2011-08-15T10:59:00.001+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

My Jan is still not feeling very well. But it's so hard to know, how he is feeling, or what is really bothering him. He isn;t the most talkative guy when it comes to saying how he feels when he is sick, and I cannot continue asking him the question, cause that gets on his nerves. Sometimes he can be a difficult guy, LOL! But over the weekend he did sleep a lot, still is having trouble in his belly and is having dhiarrhoea. Doesn't eat too much, which I can understand, although he said yesterday it was a bit less. Nevertheless he is having that already for a few days, and if it is no better when he wakes up today, I hope I can persuade him to call his doctor.
He is the kind of guy, that keeps his health things to himself mostly, cause he knows I worry when he says too much,but when he doesn;t tell me something, I think I worry more and then he worries again because he knows I worry, etc. Does this make any sense? LOL! We are a strange couple at times, at least that must look so to the world.
Well, let's take a a day at the time, and hopefully during this week it will all pass by.
You can understand that I didn;t do too much during the weekend. Normally I would have done a few jobs in the house, but it's no fun to the person who isn;t feeling too well, seeing the other running around a bit, with a vacuum cleaner, and busy cleaning and so on, it gives no rest, you know.
It gave me time to be at the computer a lot and at least that payed off a bit. I have made a whole new kit and I am happy about it.
Saturday I was out for a moment to buy a newspaper and some other little things and also bought me a book of the writer Santa Montefiori, it's a real thick book with two stories in it. No thriller, no detective this time, more a romatic book. I didn;t yet start in it, but perhaps today there will be a moment I can sit a little bit in the sun and then a good book is nice.
Okay, in a little while I will see if Jan is awake and find out how he feels and may be, may be, I can get him to the phone to make that call, without a too big word struggle, ROFL;!
Then I could do some ironing and a quick vacuum cleaning and think about dinner, should be something small and light, at least for my hubby, may be some fish and potatoe mash.
Freebie for today is a sweet little kit, named "Delicious Beach Time
Have a great day!

Download HERE

My hubbie has a cold, I believe!

2011-08-12T11:17:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh my poor hubbie! Already yesterday during the day, he didn;t feel so well, couldn;t get warm, had to pay many visits to the toilet, ROFL, so he went to bed real early in the evening. He did catch some sleep but was up and down all night. Now he is on the couch, trying to catch some more sleep, warmly dressed in a thick fleece sweater and a real warm pair of trousers. I think he just catched a cold, he has to empty his nose too a lot of times. Poor thing, you really can feel real uncomfortable when you have a cold. Well, let's hope he will get rid of it very soon again. I'll try to let him swallow some soup, already tried to let him take an asperine or something like that, but he is a stubborn man! Best is to let him rest as much as possible and he will be allright in a few days.

I am glad to say, that my back trouble is over more or less! Still being a bit careful with sudden moves, hey, I don;t want to have that again! But I could do some more work around the house, wednesday I did the bed, and a quick hoovering. And went out for some shopping. Yesterday I stayed in, the weather wasn;t too good either, so I did some more ironing, washed the bedsheets, and gave a serious cleaning to the toilet/shower. I took little breaks in between, we don;t want to overdo it, do we?

I received such a nice mail today, from Nanette from Scrap-4Kids, giving me a link to a blogpost of her, with a sooo sweet layout of her new born son Okke, made with a paper of my Splash at the Pond kit. Here is the link to it, and when you pop in give her a little word in the comment box, to congratulate her with her son! She has a real nice blog where she also offers some cute freebies!
http://scrap-4-kids.blogspot.com/2011/08/okke.html

Then I can show you the previews of two paper kits I've mae for Minky's 2nd blog anniversairy. And when you are there you will see that this lady cannot be stopped, LOL! She has been busy with another "special place", you will certainly hear more about it from her.

And then I think I must finish up this blogpost slowly, it looks as if the weather is slightly better than yesterday, at least it seems to stay more or less dry and even some sunbeams try to come through. So a good time to do some shopping, to be all settled for the weekend. And I will probably take the rest of the day "free", I would like to finish a started kit and do some more designing during the weekend.
I have a nice kit for you today, in fact I believe I gave you a sneak peek from it. It's named "From Granny's Lace Box". Have fun with it.
And now to you all: have a fantastic weekend!

Download HERE

We'll HAVE to make that visit!

2011-08-10T11:58:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

The last two days past by well. I did some house work, whoopee, a bit of designing too, all seems to be almost at normal point LOL! One of the things I did, was defreezing a little freezer we have as an extra. Oh boy, that was really necessary, you don;t want to know how thick the payer of ice was inside. Good news is,that I seem to have a lot more space in it, funny hey??? ROFL!

Already a few months (!) ago one of our friends moved into a new appartement, it's in a building where he can have some help if he get's ill, but where he is free to do whatever pleases him. It's just better for him, kind of reassurance, you know. He took his time to move and install himself, but now it's REALLY time for us to pay him a visit. Somehow all the time there seem to come some things in between, and when not, days go by sooo quickly, it's almost hopeless. LOL! To be very honest, it might also be a bit of lazyness of us, true.
But I've decided that we should pick up the phone this week and make an appointment. Now we'll see if that really happens!

You know what I am happy about? That soon the "holiday season"on tv will be over again and that some new programs will be shown, as well as some of my favourite shows etc. Oh, there still is enough to see, but slowly I get a bit tired about all the re-runs they give. I think by the end of the month or starting somewhere in September, we will see what there will be on during the autumn and winter time.
At the moment I am a kind of "fan" of a program early in the evening. Every time again I watch it, with unbelieve in my eyes, that this really exists! Do you know this program "How Clean Is Your House?" I know it's in England on, or it was, at least, because we see most of the time the English version. In short it's about two women(with a crew of professional cleaners), who visit a family, or a single living person, who asked for help to clean up their house, which is in a state of total disaster, a REAL mess, and dirty too, almost not possible to live in anymore. There are all kind of reasons why they ended up like this, but you cannot believe your eyes, I garantee you that!Watching this program has good sides too: 1. They give some good and simple tips for cleaning all kind of things, and 2. It gives you a good boost to finally do that little job in the house you always forget or postponed for some reason!ROFL!

All right, time for me to get busy but first of course a freebie. A little kit in one colourscheme, named "Purple Haze". I think you can use it for various layouts, how nice, isn;t it? Hahahahaha.

Now I am really off, just another cup of cofee and Kyra will be all set to face the day!
Enjoy your day!

Download HERE

House is a bit empty.

2011-08-08T11:45:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Quick update on my back: it is going better every dya again, I am careful with too quick movements and too much bending over , but if it goes the way it does till now, I hope to be rid of it in few days time. Let's cross fingers.

Friday morning I got a telephone call from Heidi, that they were home again. Danny drove the whole night, so when they were home, they first took a few hours sleep and then they had to do some shopping to fill the fridge again and such, so they asked if they could pick up their pets the next day. Of course that was okay.
So Saturday afternoon they made the visit, we first chatted a bit about their holiday. They were in France and also in Italy and had a splendid time. And then they went home with the bunny and bird and it was strange, but we kind of missed the little creatures!!
Even Jan shared a little secret with me yesterday ROFL. Most of the time he is the one who is going to sleep later than I, so when he turns out the light in the living room, normally there is a cat around and he says "goodnight" to it, and so he did with the bird and bunny, with a little whistle. And he told me that also Saturday night he turned out the light, made his way in the almost dark towards the door and "whistled"good night, moving towards the door with a curve(otherwie he could fell over the cage with the bunny) and with the doorknob in his hand only then realized, there was no bunny anymore LOL!
Well, you can see that we were used to them after almost 4 weeks, cause I too was checking on the bunny Saturday evening, when for some time I didn;t hear his waterbottle and little ball with the bell in it ROFL!
But the cats are all happy again, now that they noticed the "guests"are no longer around, certainly Brodski!

We'll see if I can get a bit more productive today, talking about some housework. Real hard work, like cleaning woodwork, or windows is no option yet, but ironing some laundry is and turning on the washing machine with a load of laundry too. Jan is real sweet, cause he is doing things that are "dangerous"to me, and although he isn't the real "pampering"type, he is keeping an eye on me, be sure of that!
Remember I gave you some sneak peeks some time ago? Well, today you get the kit of the first sneak peek. It is a kit, that goes soooo well with the name of my blog LOL! It is named "Russian Roots" and I do hope some of you can use the kit.I even have a recipe in it for a real Russian-like cup of tea!
Have a fantastic day!

Download HERE

I wasn't carefull this night!

2011-08-05T10:03:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday was a rather good day, talking of my back. I did some shopping, without too many problems, and all felt pretty good again. May be I did a bit too much, cause I also took out the vacuum cleaner and gave a quick sweep around. But this night I had to do a certain thing, LOL, and bended over for my slippers and kabaaaam !!
it was an "ouch"moment. Probably did it too quickly, should have been more careful. Okay, I went back to sleep and when I woke up this morning, it was a bit sour. Hmmmmm, I don't want to experience another weekend like the last one, so today it will definately be a real lazy and restfull day.
I just did a quick bloghopping and saw that Minky has made a new blog again, that girl is unstoppable!
She made a new blog with a lot of kits that are meant to raise funds for the Starchildren project. She made a beautiful layout and the kits are offered for a very small price, you should take a look there, it will be worthwhile.
There are also some free gifts to download, among other things also some new quickpages I've made, with some of Minky's kits. I will give you a preview. And perhaps you are persuaded to buy a little kit and be part of a wonderful project. Here the link to the new blog :
http://faerienufcreativeinspirations.blogspot.com/.

I am wondering if my friend Heidi will be back from holiday this weekend! I didn't hear from her so we'll see if we get a phonecall one of these days. Always is a bit of surprise when they come home LOL! I think we will miss a little bit their pets after about 4 weeks of taking care. And may be they will miss us too a bit, because they were spoiled a bit, hahahaha! Specially the bunny, who had his playing time in the garden or in the room almost every day! And the bunny as well as the birdie had some treats too, they were given every now and then some"candy" bars. It doesn;t mean Heidi and Danny aren't taking good care of their pets, not at all, but we are two nutty people and really spoil sometimes our cats, and if there are "guest", well, they get the same treatment, ROFL! I think there is one, who will be quite happy when the bunny and bird are gone again, and that's our cat Brodski! Although he finally dares to come into the room sometimes, takes a rush through the door, passing the bunny cage with speed, but all together he isn't feeling too comfortable and at ease, stupid cat!!!!
Okay, time for the freebie, as promised the 2nd part of the fairy-bragbookpages.
Have a marvellous weekend and hope to see you again on monday, and hopefully in top shape again!

Download part 2 HERE

Another day of rest.

2011-08-03T08:23:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

My back is feeling already much better, still feel somewhere a muscle in my upper leg that isn;t working along completely. Gosh, it takes longer than I thought. Well, I hope it will settle itself in a day or two, it has bothered me long enough!
I guess I will have to take it easy for another day, not that I mind that, but on the other hand, there are some things that I want to do and they keep waiting.
Perhaps I can walk with Jan today to Heidi's house, just for a little chek-up there. I think they will be back somewhere end of this week from their holiday.
It should be a nice day today too, but until now I only see a bit of rain coming down. They promised us that it would be a warm day, with sunshine, let's hope the sun will come out a bit later this morning.
There isn't much to tell, as you can imagine.
So I hop right to the freebie. It will be a bragbook kit in two downloads, a fantasy one, hope you will like it and be able to use it. There is also a front cover to it, not shown on the previews but this is it:

You can make your own title for the little picture book if you like.
And here the preview of the first 4 pages. Friday I will put the 2nd part on.

Now I need to sit a moment on the couch again, still with my big pillow to support my back LOL!

Have a very nice day, hope to be in usual shape again on Friday!

Download HERE

My body messes up with me LOL!

2011-08-01T14:29:00.000+02:00

Goodafternoon everybody!

Sorry I am later than usual with posting but I am sitting at the computer with a bit of trouble.
Somehow, must happened friday, I must have strained a muscle in my lower back, or perhaps a little bone got moved a bit and is holding a nerve in it's grip, but shortly, I had a lot of unconvieniance during the weekend, at some times it really hurt, it produces a kind of walking pain from the back to the left leg at times, couldn;t move around much, very annoying. I am still having trouble, but it is a bit less, so I will see for another day or two, if it will settle itself. I am not in a haste to another doctor's visit. So it's not very easy for me to sit for a long time at the computer.
I think it will be allright after a few days, but I don;t like it, that I cannot do things that I do usual, Jan made us a quick dinner yesterday, and is doing a few shopping necessities today. A lot of rest and sleep will probably do the trick, but it asks patience from me, and oh whee, that is difficult.
Well, I just want to tell you that Minky has another chellenge on her blog with a lovely kit to win, if you send her a layout with the challenge kit. She is celebrating the 2 years of her blog!!! Here is an example of a layout I made with the challenge kit.

Now quickly on to the freebie and then I will go to the couch again, to sit better, LOL!
We have gorgeous weather today, by the way, so I did let a bit of sunwarmth enter my body too.
Have a wonderful Monday!

Download HERE

Another cleaning day in great weather.

2011-07-29T08:57:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

It was a really lovely day yesterday, so first thing we did was putting the bunny outside in the late morning. And oh miracle, Brodski had the courage to put his nose against the gitter of the bunny cage! First time I saw him do that. But poor cat, bunny was all excited to see a cat again, he thought to have a playmate and enthousiaticaly offered the cat his ball with a little bell in it and jumped up and down of joy. Well, that was too much for Brodski so with a jump and run he save his "skin"LOL!
And we did some great work yesterday. I took the curtains from the back of the house and gave them a good wash(by hand), then I planned to clean the windows, but my sweet husband offered to do it, nice hmmmm? So I went to the kitchen, took the little curtains there and washed them and cleaned the windows and the woodwork around it too. Pffffff, all together it is heavy work, but the result is great. Then also gave a good sweep in the house with the vacuum cleaner and prepared also the meat for our dinner and then thought it was enough for that day LOL!
But today I have to do a bit of shopping and turn on the washing machine, not too much. It doesn;t look to be such a good day as yesterday, but they promised us much better weather next week, so may be the summer will return in August.

Didn't do really much on the designing, I hope to do something during the weekend. Still I have two sneak peeks fro you of kits, oming up in August. I like to puzzle you a bit!

And on to today's freebie. We go for a bit of temperament with the kit "Gypsy Trail".
Atill early now, but I think I like to have a coffee now and then up to the supermarket!
Have a fantastic weekend and see you back, I hope, on Monday!

Download HERE

May be summer will be back

2011-07-27T10:01:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

At the moment clouds are hiding the sun, the last couple of days we had some on and off rain, but temps are slowly going up again and they say in a few days it might be dry all days, and there also will be some sun again. May be we'll have a summer like month of August.

Gosh, I was in the mood on Monday! I noticed for some time, that the inside of our toilet door asn't looking to bright, it definately needed a good cleaning. So Monday I tackeled that and to do it a bit properly, it is hard work. In the hallway we have several doors with between the door and ceiling a little window. Perhaps you can guess what's coming now??? I took all my courage together on that Monday and cleaned them all too! I
The hard work is not really cleaning those little windows, but moving around all the time the stairs. And it's not easy to move that around in a bit marrow hallway. But I am proud of myself and it's a real difference now, specially with the light that can come in through clean windows LOL!

Now I hope one of these days weather will be nice enough to open the garden doors again and when that happens, next task is to tackle the windows and woodwork and wash the curtains and let them dry a bit in the sun till they are not dripping anymore and they can dry as I put them back again. They almost don;t wrinkle when you hang them still a bit wet.
So as you may guess, I am feeling much better every week, although condition is still not too great. But with some work done every day, or every two days, it should come back too. Just have to divide the things I have or want to do a bit more but I don;t mind, as long as they're done, tadaaaa!

I really hope the next days there will be more sun, because for one, it's nice and makes you feel better but second, the tomatoes of Jan need definately some sun to get a nice red colour ROFL. He is worried a bit, that they will not mature in time! He still is hunting snails almost every day, cause he does't like them to eat several plants. But he likes them too, they are in fact beautiful little creatures, he says, funny in a way too. I have a strange man, don't I????????

Okay, enough rambling, I think it is freebie time. A summer kit this time, named "Garden Corners to Relax".
Make some beautiful things with it and have a marvellous day!

Download HERE

News that shocked the world

2011-07-25T11:28:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

In fact, it will not be a good morning to everybody. I suppose you all heard the terrible news this weekend of the shooting and bombing incidents in Norway??? Over 80 people died, just because a really crazy person thought he had to "save"his country from some undesired people(this in |HIS opinion!) I don't denie to anybody to have his or her own opinion and thoughts, but then to freely take a bomb and let it explode and then go to an island and start shooting around is completely out of order!
The guy already confessed his actions and even started to explain why!! I hope, they put him in prison for the rest of his life!
My thoughts are with the Norwegian people in this hard time.

Back to the order of the day, that's the overview of our weekend, LOL! Oh my, we had LOADS of rain th e last few days, I think all gardenplants do need webbed at their roots to stay drifting on the water in the soil! LOL
So you understand, I didn't go out, only on Saturday morning, when it still was dry, to buy a newspaper and some strawberries. But, this weather was a good excuse to do some more at the computer, although I also did the ironing yesterday. And I told you I downloaded a lovely freebie at Aussie Scraps, and I made some things with it. Probably you noticed I changed my bloglayout again, and be honest, don;t those trolls look sweet????
Then I also made two new quickpages for Minky's blog. If you like them, you'll just pop over to the blog and read where you can download them for free. Here the previews:

Just before I started posting, I went to my friend Edna's blog, for catch up and she made me laugh, again. I just love her way of writing and the humour in it. And I have the feeling she things I know may be not ALL, but a lot about plants, because she put two pictures on her blog of a shrub in her garden (a lovely shrub by the way) and thought I might know the name of it. Well, my guess is, that's a Viburnum, perhaps somebody could also take a look and might come to rescue, if I was wrong????

Slowly it's getting time to put on some clothes and do a bit of housekeeping again, sigh! Oh, I did a lot on Friday, but there are always new things waiting for you, how exciting, hmmmm??
Today I have a kit for music lovers, perhaps. Named it "Music for Life" and hope somebody can do some nice things with it.
Have a lovely Monday!

Download HERE

Sneak Peek, and market shopping results

2011-07-22T11:32:00.000+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Yeah, we did make it to the market on Wednesday. It was delicious weather, so we chose a good day.
We didn;t stay too long there, it was rather crowded, and Jan doesn;t like that too much LOL. I could have spent a bit more time there, but perhaps one of these days I will go alone.
Still, we got home with a filled shopping car, ha collie flower, some leak, a white cabbige, two melons, onions, potatoes, mandarins, bananas, paprika, some fresh parsil and dille, garlic, so when we came home I started right away preparing the vegiies for the freezer. You know, cutting all up, give it a real short cooking, and when cooled down, I could put it all in little bags. Oh, on the way home I also bought some chicken breasts and chicken liver, so the freezer is quite well filled again. LOL.
Yesterday I took it a bit easeir, but did change the bedsheets, always nice to go to sleep when they have been changed, isn;t it?
Poor bunny didn;t have some playing time yesterday, but today weather looks good enough to put him in his play-cage in the garden.
I also managed to finish up a kit I was working on, and you know what????? I have a little sneak peek for you. Up to you to figure out what kind of kit it will be!

I also spent some time this morning catching up on some blogs, and I run into a lovely freebie from Gail, from Aussie Scraps. Take a look at her blog, it's a lovely freebie and I am sure I will be playing with it this weekend!
Then also Minky has a new freebie on the Creative blog, so take a look there too! I will have a lot to do this weekend LOL!
But first I must do a few things around here, and then perhaps later today I can start playing around in PSE8.
But there is also something on tv, meaning I will have lots to do. ROFL! This afternoon there is a heavy and difficult day i the Tour de France, one of the biggest cycling events in the year, yes we do follow that too a bit and this evening I will amuse myself watching the show Holland got's talent.
This all meaning I must get moving around here and actually start DOING some thing( does vacuum cleaner sounds familiair to you???).
I have the last part of the Flower Ladies for you and Monday a new kit, not the one from the sneak peek, yet another one! Oh yeah, I am busy again designing.
You all have a fantastic weekend with lots of fun and creatice energies!

Download part 3 HERE

Market day.

2011-07-20T10:31:00.001+02:00

Goodmorning everybody!

Even though Monday didn;t look too bright outside, I did go out and found the temperature quite nice! It was only a pity that there were sudden rainshowers throughout the day and of course on my way back home I got one on the head LOL! I managed to get home relatively dry, so it wasn;t too bad. But it was a "bad"day for the bunny, he had to play inside.
Yesterday it was real gorgeous weather, although there was some rain-threatening, but there didn't fell a drop! So bunny could play in his outside cage and Jan and I did make a visit to Heidi's house. Danny's parents are watching their house an feeding the fish, but we needed some stuff for bunny's cage, so went to get it. I promised Heidi that I would take care of the garden, but as enough rain fell the last week, there was no need for me to go there earlier and when I took a quick look yesterday, all was fine with it.
Now today it looks as if the weather will be as nice as yesterday, so Jan and I will take a walk to the market, and hopefully return with a lot of vegetables and fruit and may be even some fish and if we return with enough vegetables, I will have a busy day tomorrow, preparing them for the freezer.

I just want to show you the two other quickpages I've made for Minky's blog, as I just showed one yesterday. You can find the quickpages on the
http://thestarchildrenproject.blogspot.com
under the header of "Scrapbookkits"

Well, you can understand I am a little bit in a hurry, don;t want to go too late there.
I am posting the second part of the Flower Ladies.
Have a wonderful day!

Download part 2 Here