Long walk, good for us!

Goodmorning everybody!

I am afraid today still there will be no continuation of the story. I was a tiny little bit lazy in searching, but.... also didn't get much time for it this weekend.
Result is some things to show you.
Saturday I first had to do something about the chat challenge. Chat Friday evening was nice as ever, although not much ladies came to it. Well, next time I hope there will be again some more. And a stunning thing during the chat! The ladies(including me ) were rather neat, not as naughty as usual. That's to say, during the time I was on line. LOL.
Snowy provided us with a two page sketch, had to do something with summer and we should try to use some stitches and so. I came up with this, most of the stuff is from my kit Enchanted Garden.

http://i30.tinypic.com/14a8olx.jpg


http://i32.tinypic.com/9sgqb5.jpg

So that took some of my time at Saturday! Then I had to finish of a kit and made even another one. Then still there was the ABC challenge to do, I still had the letter T hanging. And just on the last day, yesterday, I finally found it. I'll show you the result too, but have to tell first about the day yesterday. Every year there is a Book and Antique market in the centre of town. We don;t go there very often, it;s not a flee market, so the things( beautiful they are, nothing else to be said) are rather of a high price. But still, nice to look around, get an idea again of what some things are worth. We took the tram to near the centre and walked from there on. I was so clever to take my camera with me, perhaps I got lucky to make some nice shots. Some of the tuned out well and will be used probably in layouts. But I can show you a bit of how the market looks like.

Not the best shot, but okay it will do, LOL. It is on a beautiful location in the old part of the centre and it was a nice walk. Then we decided not to take the tram home but do walking. If you know us a bit, you can imagine we didn't take the straight and shortest way, no way! So all together we walked for about 3 hours around. And I had now two pictures for the letter challenge. I could pusuade Jan to take the camera in his hands and take a picture of me! I am not looking at my ever best ROFL but still nice picture and as I took one of Jan too, here is the layout, using an old kit of somewhere in 2008 of mine named Friendship

http://i31.tinypic.com/6r0mxv.jpg

So you see, if I also put down a part of the story, this post would have been endless!! As soon as we came home I could already start making dinner and after that I just finished of a few things on the computer and watched then tv.

OH MY GOD!!!! ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU!

Today is the last day for the DD for August, the Men at Work kit. Don;t forget to get them all! Now already have the sneak peek for you for next month. Yes I am early on posting, a day ahead but what the heck! It's just another great kit of the team!

Look at the top of the blog and you will see the NEW Daily Download of http://www.magickalscraps.com/ for September, called "Seahells". As in last month there is a free DD on the forum but we also have a collab kit in the shop, for a very, very low price that will really complete all the daily downloads. Be sure to take a look at it I think Snowy will put it up shortly. I will give you the previes of the shop kit, but be sure to take also a look at the daily's, they are free! Great kit.

Okay ladies, I think I covered it all for today, except, of course for the freebie. No, I didn't forget that. It's a fantasy related one, and I named it Unicorn's Secret Hiding. Hope it will bring out your fantasy for some great layouts! Now have a nice day and take care.

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No story today but other things

Goodmorning everybody!

Haha, we finally did go to the store and came back with a full shopping car. We even manage it to do that within an hour so we could travel back with the tram on the same ticket. Now I only have to get me a few things more for the weekend, as a newspaper, some cigarettes, probably a bit of 0,0 % beer for Jan and may be something for the sandwiches for tomorrow evening.Not a big deal.

I have no family story today for you, have to put something still together and must find some pictures to with that and that will be a search! Something for the weekend to do.

But I have something else for you. In the shoutbox I got a message from Catkins, who let me know she made already an LO with the last freebie, Priceless Memories. Wow, she was quick! I'll show it to you, but to have a better look go to her blog, and it;s a nice read too. It is http://catkins-pages.blogspot.com/

And Edna had also a nice surprise for me. She made a quickpage of the Romantique kit and a beautiful layout.

Go to her blog and grab the quickpage, which she is offering as freebie to you, http://missednasplace.blogspot.com/

Tonight there is again the chat evening on our forum. I hope everybody can make it this time, cause it's such fun and good to get the latest news. But mostly laughs all around! Yippee.

Now your freebie. It's a kit with I think lot's of possibilities, I named it "Enchanted Garden". Make some great LO's with it! Now I am finishing the post, I am in the middle of a few kits, want to finish them this weekend, but also will have the chat challenge to do, no way that I will have time to do it during the chat, so that will have to wait till tomorrow! You all have a lovely weekend and Monday I hope to have another little part of the story, if everything is working out the way I want. Bye bye

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Small story part and announcement

Goodmorning everybody.

You know what we are looking at for the lat couple of days on tv? The European Championships Soccer for WOMEN! Yes, it exists and I must say the matches are often much more interesting to watch than the ones for men! There are lot of teams that play rather well, they have not bad technique of playing and the teams look much more dedicated and eager to win. Much less offences are made, they play the game as it was intended. Really a great thing to watch. A pity that there isn;t to much attention for it yet, because it's great to watch. For the first time we have a Dutch team competing, yes, and they won their 1st match and sadly enough lost the 2nd. But they still have chances to get to the next round. That already would be a splendid result for them.

I want to do an announcement! Probably Sunday, or next week I will remove some of my freebies. That is to say the ones of 2008 and from the beginning of this year and the Christmas kits. So if you still want some of them, you better grab them now, or they will be gone! I think I will leave the freebies up from starting April. I don;t want the My Freebies all together to become too long!

And now we go on with a little bit of family story again.

FAMILY STORY PART 11
Last time I told you a bit about me. So we arrived at the 60's. My father did better and better in his job, started to earn a bit more money and finally he could buy his first car! At that time it was about 4000 guilders( about 1800 euro). Remember the calue of the money was a lot different then! So it was a big expence but he managed and he bought our first car the Citroën Deux-Cevaux( normally called the Ugly Duck!)I remember it well, it was soft yellow with a green tartan like cloth for the seats.

Quickpage is from http://rosa1.vefblog.net/
Better view: http://i27.tinypic.com/29moqrk.jpg

Wow, it was an event. So now we could take a holiday a bit further away. At that time this car was't yet very powerful, so with wind in the back and good weather it reached at the most 90 kms. p/hour!!! Not important, we sat dry and were free to go where ever we anted. So once we went on holiday to Germany. not too far across the border, but it was a voyage! We, means, my parents, my brother and I, plus a bit of luggage, of course. All went well, till we arrived in the neighbourhood of a town, called Padervorn. The road went slowly up a little hill. With SLL the weight in the car, it just road slowly, slowly up against this little hill till about the half of it. And no more power, so we just stood still. What to do?????????"Okay, everybody out and push" said my father. We did so but no effect, you can imagine that, a little girl of about 7, a boy of about 12 and my mother. Also not the heavy weight of the family!Now my father stept out and told my brother to sit at the sterring wheel, so that papa could push. I still see it in front of my eyes!!! And yes, in that way we reached the top of the hill, yippeeeeeeeeeee. Quick everybody inside again and in almost free rear downhill. Much easier.!!!But we always had all kind of smaller and bigger adventures on our many holidays that followed. Well, that are the memories you have to keep in your mind, they make the juice of life.
Now I arrived at a point I already told you on this blog, but it disappeared, as I notived. So later on I still will tell you some more about some things that happened in our family life and I just have to think hard to recall some things that I didn;t already told you. But... I;ll find them I am sure.And even if I tell some things for the second time, I will try to find pictures of that event, so it still will be a bit different.
Yesterday I was a brave girl again, concerning the housekeeping part. Did some stuff, and it felt good. And you know what? I had bought myself a new multo-map and finally put in some important papers from the taxes and such, that I just collected in a big envelope! Yeah I made a start again of putting it all together so that it can be found a lot easier. Still have to look through some papers I put on one big(and I mean BIG) pile to see what has to be kept and what I can throw away. I don;t like this work, although it was a part of my work and there I did that very well and organized. But for myself, chaos all over.! Strange.
Now the freebie I have for you. Yes, I am still holding on to every day a freebie and most of them kits. Sometimes not easy to keep up! But here you have it, in the light of the story telling I made"Priceless Memories". Hope you can use it for some unforgetable family pictures!Perhaps Jan and I will go to the "chepa in price"supermarket today, we'll see how his mood is! if so, it might be a bit later that I put up the freebielist.Anyway, have a fine day, and have some laughs, it makes you feel better!

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I guess I am a bit lazy today

Goodmorning everybody!

It was such a strange weather yesterday! In the morning for sure it was very dark, clouds all over but temperature was nice! But... although it looked there could fall some rain(should be great) I had to go out. When I started, still it looked rather cloudy, but it was nice waether. And it almost stayed dry all time. Just felt a few little drops and that was it. Came home and unpacked the shopping car, and kept my engine running instead of turning it off. Yes, I did some housework too! Hoorray for Kyra! Only when I finished that I went back on the computer to finish off a kit and that's on the shelf now, waiting to be posted as freebie. But not yet today.
Today I have an all different kit for you. May be your remember the first "airships"from pictures, those sometimes gigantic zeppelins and dirigables. Well, I found some great brushes of that and made a kit of it.

No, I am not going to put on a family story part today, I think I am a kind of lazy, LOL. No, it's not really that, but I have to find a picture or two to accompany the next part. It makes it so much more vivd, those pictures. So on the search I have to go and then the scan and then scrapping them. Hmmmm, could take some time.

Yesterday Jan and I found another surprise in the room, given by the oldest cat, Micky. Ohhhh, it wasn't a nice surprise. She had left us some pee-pee, yak! I guess we have to learn to live with that, but it's giving such a mess. She seems to have trouble getting outside in time, or may be sometimes she just forgets where she is exactly. We can deal better with the "relieves of nature". that you just pick up and celean it a bit with a towel and done. But the fluid is much harder to het rid off! She really is getting old, but on the other hand full of life still. Well, you take a pet and that is for as long as they live and just as with humans, it's for better or worse. No point there taking her to the vet for the moment, I don;t suppose they have a kind of papmers for cats, and if so, it would be a struggle to get them on to her! LOL.
But although she still is eating like crazy and not getting much more weight, it looks as if she's a bit better than some time ago. It must be so, cause for some time Brodski wasn;t teasing her at all( suddenly jumping on her or chasing her), and now again he's doing that, the devil! And she still can fight back rather well. But when I see it I run after Brodski, and warning him off and ohhh, he knows he's doing something not too nice! Yesterday I put on the waterhose for the garden on him for a moment to chase him off. And wow, he doesn;t like that. But...... just this morning he was busy again and I only had to show him the waterhose and he already ran off. And they say animals don;t have any intelligence!!!!!!!

Okay, on to business again. I will post your freebie "High Flight"now and will go first make a start for another kit. Edna gave me the idea for it with her beautiful fantasy quickpages. I hope to get something kind of fantasylike together. But..as you know me, it easily can change suddenly into something different first. We'll see where it ends. And I have to go for the pictures too! So busy day, besides of the household tasks and may be, if the weather is nice a little walk with Jan, who knows?
I hope you will have a fantastic day, and till tomorrow again!


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Probably not a too short post, again!

Goodmorning everybody!

We had a relaxed day yesterday, even took a little walk, it was such nice weather. I also started another kit, whcih will be a filled one, as it seems.

You noticed of course that I already changed the bloglayout, eve it's not the new month yet. Well, I just felt like it, and with the small anniversary yesterday I though it was nice. Isn't it a beautiful one? I picked this one up at Brenda Dezignz, http://hookedoncountry.blogspot.com/(i have her blinkie in the side bar). She makes great bloglayouts!

Then I had a nice surprise again in my email, somebody gave me a link to her blog to show me a layout she did with my strawberry kit.

I have a link to her blog, where she has more lovely layouts and even a few freebies: http://feli-scrapblog.blogspot.com/

I think I better start now with the next part of the family story.At the end you will find another freebiekit, named "Romatique". I must be a bit more active today, shopping time again. and some other "fun"stuff wiating for me to do. LOL. Well, I hope your day is great and you enjoyed this post a little bit.

FAMILY STORY PART 10

In the last year of my secondary school another compettition. I came into the final and it was a "tough battle"but my pianoteacher always managed to get me such special music to play and which was really like written for me. Well, the big finale came. Everybody nervous, but I ended at the 2nd place. And the prize was to play once with the "Residentie Orchestra", leaded by the wonderful conductor Willem van Otterloo. It was to be performed in a big hall! Isn't this excting for a 17/18 year old? So now to find a piano concerto to play. My pianoteacher, Josy, didn't want me to play the usual ones, no, Kyra had to come up with something a bit specail! She came up with a little pianoconcerto from an English composer, Rowley and it was an adorable piece of music. So after a period of hard study and only ONE time a rehearsal with the orchestra the big evening was there. I performed(in a dress my mother knitted herself, a faityrale to see!) for an audience of more than 2000 people. It went very well, and i't's something you'll never forget your whole life!

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All this very much due to my pianoteacher. I hope to tell you a bit more about her, because she stayed an important person during 45 YEARS, untill she passed away in 2006.
I passed my exams at the secondary school and went on to another school for one year, a sort of secretary education. I must say, I was a little bit lazy that year, I had my diploma of typing and shorthand, but concerning the other items, which was economy and commercial correspondence, I let it down. Well, I still had it in my brain, and it still came useful to me later. So i was 19 when I finished that year and now the big question: what kind of work and where? In that time my father had already a good position at the firm he started to work just after the war. And I worked there already some times during holidays, to earn a bit of pocketmoney for the vacations. And it just happened that a girl, working at the administration, was leaving, because she was pregant. How wonderful for me, my father got me into the job and I started to work at that company at the 16th of October, 1972. Mark the date? Exactly the same(only years later) as the date my father joined that company!) End I stayed there for 29 years! I really had to prove myself, because I was looked at by the personal as the daughter of one of the bosses, but I did so and was really accepted by them and treated as one of them and had good times there.

Hopping back in time for a moment, already in the 60's my mother became more and more known for her egg painting, there came articles in all kind of newspapers and magazines about her, came on the radio with an interview(and I even played there a little piece on the piano). Then she got a phonecall by an interviewer from television and they came to our house to make the fiml and interview. What an exciting thing that was!

I made a layout in March in which I put a picture of one of my mother's eggs. So I can use that inhere, although because it explains a bit about the Eastern celebration at our home.


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This was an opening to a wider public and during years we noticed that. But that will be for another time. I know, it;s not that exciting and interesting may be as the one of my grandparents and parents(in there young years) but it means a lot to me and I think all this is a contribution to the forming of the kind of person I am now. How you get along with your family, the way your parents bring you up is a very important thing in someone's life. And I realize that not everybody was so lucky to have had a happy and warm family life as a child, like I did.
Probably the continuation of the family story will hop now a bit back and forth in the years, but I think it's not that important to get the chronological part all just, it's more about how our family lived through the years, much infulenced I must say by the character and temperamental nature of my mother !

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Anniversary, some forum fun and story continues

Goodmorning everybody!

Today there is a small anniversary, because Jan and I are married for 2 years now! (all counted we are almost 17 1/2 years together already!). How time really flies! On the opening of my email this morning there was a real sweet surprise, I found a ecard with some lovely wishes for our anniversary, thanks Becky Jo!. Now if that's not a good start of the week!
We didn't plan anything special for today, but of couse I will give my Jan a BIG hug, that's for sure!

The weekend passed nicely, I think you can say I was rather creative, made some freebies, yeah!, layouts for the family story and something to laugh on the forum. First Edna came up with a GREAT layout for Snowy and I made a picture of a sign during one of the walks and made a layout out of that for Snowy ( and the rest of us at the forum). Both LO's brought some big smiles on their faces. If you want to see them, you go to Snowy's blog http://silversnowyraven.blogspot/ or the forum http://www.magickalscraps.com/ and take a look under the topic August chat challenge!!

So it's time to continue with the family story, I am trying not to make the post tooooo looooong. LOL. At the bottom you will find the freebie for today, "Nostalgic Memories". Hey, it fits rather well to the subject of "family story" I realise. Coinsidence, I suppose.
Have you all a great day, and make the most of it!

FAMILY STORY PART 9
We arrived at about the year 1953, my year. The little Kyra grew up well, she went to nursery school and elementary school. I remember at the elementary school(first years I was at a school run by nons!) there had to be done some decoration and repair. And the nons heard that my mother could paint not bad and asked her to come up with something for the halls and corridors. You know what she did?? She painted the story of Snowwhite, with all the funny dwarfs and fantasy forrest etc. And life size! Such a pity I don;t have any pictures of that! But it made the school a lot more interesting!

bigger view http://i28.tinypic.com/2dhd1z5.jpg

School went well and everybody was happy. So I had 8 years. And I was already interested in music and wanted to learn to play the piano. From neighbours(their girl was my best friend at the time) received an address of a young women who gave piano lessons and they made an appointment. And this young women came along. She was called(at the time) Mrs. Watson. Married to an Englishman, lived for some years in England, got devorced and came back to Holland. Everything was talked over concerning the lessons with my parents and Mrs, Watson wanted to see me of course. I came in the room and her first reaction was something in the way of: "Oh, boy, what a pretty little girl, but do you see her little, little fingers? I don;t know how she will be able to play the piano!"But nevertheless she agreed to come to our house once a week and we started the lessons. It seemed I picked it up quite easily and progreesed rather fast. It was nice that my pianoteacher each year organized an evening like a little concert, on which all her pupils performed. And also I was present after a year of lessons and was soooo proud I could play a little piece! It was an exciting event for a little girl, you can imagine!

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Then as an 8-9 year old there came up another important event. To do the First Holy Commuion(I was brought up in the catholic faith, as my father was catholic and my mother too, although my mother did practise it a bit in a different way, in the Russian orthodox way. So I went to the western catholic church but also to the Russian church and because of that I did my Communion twice! In both churches). It was a lovely sunny day and I looked like a little bride in a dress, my mother made for me!

From left to right: my sister, my brother, me, my father, my mother
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Also school still went well and I went to secondary school Here it was called the MMS, which is something like the Middle school for girls. I t was a broad education, you got languages, some science, some arythmetic, some art, some history, in short a lot of things. It was a thouroug and well based school education. There were also music lessons, no problem for me of course. We had a very nice and good teacher, Mr. v.d. Meer, who happened to be also a very good singer. And he got it through the board of directors that the school organized a pianocompetition. There were 2 categories: for pupils who had less than 4 years pianolessons and the other for elder children with more years. Stricktly I was just to fit into the "less than 4 years" but it was to "easy"for me sp I competed in the higher catagory. And wow, I ended in second place. Not bad for the little one! Every year there was such a competition and I have to say I always did very well, not less than 2nd place, blush blush!At the end of my schooyears l the competition had become more important, because it was between all the secondary schools of The Hague. And now also girl AND boys!

Till here we go now, there is coming more of this tomorrow.

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And more story and layouts

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, we were all prepared for some "heavy"weather yesterday evening but where I live we didn;t notice much of it. Perhaps it rained during the night or may be had a little thunder but I don't know of it(I slept almost through the whole night, lovely!).But it's looking a lot less beautiful outside, for now.And it is not so warm anymore, although still not too bad temperature. Hmmm, I will see later in the morning, then I must go out for a bit of shopping, oh, I see the sun is trying to shine already a bit now.! Good.
Then I also have to kick myself at a certain place and do some ironing! In the weekend another machine will turn happily, so better get rid of the things still hanging around. I was soooooooo lazy yesterday, didn;t do a thing around the house and even not too much on the pc. I think it must have been the quick change of weather or so. It makes you rather lazy.
Oh well, I have learned a bit, to not get myself crazy by doing too much, because it has to be done exactly that day! We always hope there is a tomorrow(what would we be without hope???) so it can be done tomorrow also. LOL.
Not always a good attitude, but every now and then it doesn;t hurt. ROFL!!!
Let's go on with the story.

FAMILY HISTORY PART 8
And she started with great enthousiasm. In no time this department of the club grew and grew and soon they gave a performance every year for a rather big public. And although they were and stayed amateurs, they did very well. My mother made all the choreographies of the dances and danced herself too. Also the costumes she made with help of some of the mothers of the dancers, because there wasn't a very big budget to spend. My sister Vera also danced there and she was a gorgeous ballerina. Even my brother did join in the early years! He was the only man there(at about 11-14 years old). And because of that, a lot of the men-parts were also danced by my mother.

better view http://i29.tinypic.com/125pb1z.jpg

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Going a bit back in time again for a moment. Just after I was born my Russian grandmother died in Paris. I always regret not knowing her. She seemed to me a wonderful and interesting women!. So now my djedushka(grandfather) was all alone . My mother's sister was living somewhere else, also had a little daughter to raise and wasn't able to take enough care of my grandfather. Wiatschelav. So he came to Holland and lived his last years with us. He died when I was 8 years old. I remember him well, he was the one who taught me the Russian language for 4 years long. He wasn't a big man of appearance, but meeting him, you knew he was a great man and someone of noble birth. He was quite a character, you know! Beginning the 1960's in the Sovjet-Union was the communist president Chroestjov. My grandfather loved to watch the television(although he didn;t understand a word Dutch!), but whenever there was Chroestjov on the screen, he demonstratively took his chair, turned it around and sat with his back to the screen! He really lowed that president! Well, grandfather was of the Tsar's period so I can understand him a little bit. Among other things I always see this in my mind, when I think of him.It was sad he didn;t live a while longer, but he missed his wife a lot and didn;t had an easy life, lots of blows to concure and simply the candle went out.
But life went on for us and my mother was giving these ballet lessons and took up some of the other Russian customs, e.g. painting eggs at Easter time and making the special food for it. She was a gifted and really talented lady, very artistic, so she didn't paint the eggs only with Russian folklore patterns, no, she painted icons on it in miniature. Perhaps you know it's a custom with the Russians to give eachother and egg with Eastern, it's the symbol of life. So my mother did that to all the friends they had(and that were not just a few!)Each year she painted about 30 to 40 eggs this way, made the Pascha and Koelitsch (first is made for Eastern of raw curd and the second of pastery). And then on Easter-Saturday, each year, my parents and I drove to all the friends and aquintances to bring them their Easter package. It was so nice to do and me being still a little girl at that time, I received a lot of candy and chocolate. Yammy!!!
Till here we go for now again, next week I will continue.

Today's freebie is, as I said to you already yesterday, a small one. I made you 2 quickpages of my own kits. One of the kit "Purrrrfect Blue"(a cat-kit) and one of the kit Douces Mémoires. I hope they can be useful to you. I will try to get one or may be more kits done again this weekend. I am not promising anything for now! LOL.
I hope you will have a great day and also a lovely weekend. Come back Monday for a next part of the story, if you like. This afternoon I will post another freebielist, of course.!

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I did layouts, good for me!

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday it was a rather warm day and today should be the same, with in the afternoon possible rain, strong wind blows and thunder storms. We'll see how we will be treated.
I am on a low flame with the designing stuff for the moment. I think I am too much into the story telling for the moment, searching for pictures to go with it and than scanning and making a layout. It's also a good thing perhaps, like this I will have a little family album digital for myself, that I can put together on a cd. If loosing the "old"pictures, I never will get them back. At least some of them are saved in this way.
What is it with us humans, to want to look at pictures and keep them around? We always want to remember things from the past and make new pictures of the things happening at the moment, so that we can look back at them again.
I like it very much for the moment looking through my old "paper scrap"albums with the pictures and choosing the right ones for the story telling and then making the layouts. It gives me a chance to go through my old scrapkits and finally use some of it myself. I like to use my own, although sometimes I take something from another designer. It's hard to choose at times!!
Well, let's put down another part and at the end I have a lovely freebie for you, a kit named "Douces Mémoires". I used some of it for the layout I made for my uncle Victor.
I may happen I don;t have a big freebie for you yesterday bt I make sure I will have something, okay? For now have a nice read perhaps and enjoy the freebie!
And have a great day, of course!

FAMILY HISTORY PART 7
So my father was in Holland again and my mother still in Paris. I'm not exactly sure when she came over, but I think it had to be somewhere in 1946 or may be even 1947.My father still didn;t found a house, so they went living for the time being with my grandparents( parents of my father). They also didn;t had a big house, but somehow everybody did fit in.
As I told you my father was one of 9 children and some of them still lived at home with the parents. So you could imagine it wasn't always easy. On top of that, one of their sons came home with a Russian wife, divorced once, two children from her first marriage and then also the little baby . So in the beginning it was a bit tricky. My mother was "kept an eye on"for she had some other customes than a "good"Dutch family. One of the remarks made to her was""Well Kyra, now that you are in Holland, we have to make sure you become a "good"Dutch housewife!.!
Okay, they meant it well, so my mother just nodded her head, said not too much to it, but had her own ideas of that! It was lucky my mother had a good feeling for languages, so rather quick she learned to speak Dutch. Although she never did loose her Russian accent completely. It was also a kind of her charm and she knew it!
Finally they got married "for real", which still took some time, but pooh, pooh, it happened in.... 1950!!, which was also a relief for my grandparetns of course. My father found a regular job, at a wholesale trade in non-ferrous metals. His first day of work was on the 16th of October(remember that date!!!). He started there as bookkeeper and worked at that company for over 40 years.!
They found a little appartment and could start with their own lofe. At last there came a bit of peace and quiet in their lives. Slowly my mother also got accepted by the family of my father, they saw that although she did her household etc. in a different way they were used to, it also went very well and that my father was a happy man. The little girls went to school, the little boy also and they made some friends here and there. I don;t know how my mother did it, but she could move her self in any surrounding and was appreciated by a lot of people. So she made aquintances with people in high places in the government, the Home office and also with "normal"people like you and me. She always had that ability.
I just skip some years from time to time, otherwise it's becoming too detailed and too long. Then arrived the year 1953. And hey, a little girl was born, yes, it's ME!!!(In between my brother and me my parents had two more children, both boys, but sadly enough one was still born and the other one only lived for one day, he had a heartfailure). And yes, also that grieve they my mom and dad had to overcome.But now the little dolly was there and she was fine. Born about 8,5 pounds( say more than 4 kgs, I didn;t gain much more weight since that time, LOL)all healthy and well.

Better view http://i27.tinypic.com/jsne9t.jpg

In the time I grew up life settled itself a bit, my mother had too much energy to only do the household. In the neighbourhood there was founded a club for gymnastic, but they also though it nice, if the girls could lear a bit ballet. Well, you can gues who did organize that! My mother.

Till here we go again and tomorrow another part will be there.


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Going to be HOT today!

Goodmorning everybody!

They forcasted a real hot day here, if they are right temperature should reach close to 30C. And that's real hot around here! Hmmmm, suppose I will not do too much today. The trouble here is that we have 2 very warm days then temperature goes down again rapidly to 21C and then again flies high to 27 C, and it;s like a jojo almost all the time. So your sustem cannot get used to a certain weather situation. Better to have same weather for a longer period. Well, better not complain too much, at least we have the feeling that it is summer!
We go on with another part of the story again, I think, today it will be a little bit shorter. It's may be just the right time to tell a bit about my father's side of the family. You can have a better idea perhaps how was when my mother ariived in Holland. Sadly I have not much information about this side of the family. Not in detail, that is. But... better something then nothing, hmmm?
And after that I have a nice kit for you I made for the colour challenge of June on the forum. We got a colour chart(of course, hahaha) and the theme had to be "whimsey".So I came up with this one named"Animal Giggles". I was rather happy with this one and lovely to make.
So all, enjoy your day, the reading and the kit.

FAMILY HISTORY PART 6

The family Roof originated from Germany. From there they travelled slowly to Holland, they were mostly peatdiggers. Finally they ended up in the surroundings of Amsterdam. And that is about all I know about their past.
My grandfather, Klaas Roof, was carpenter and was in that profession all of his life. It was a very sweet grandfather, sadly enough I already lost him when I was very young. Granddad was a quiet man, who went to his job and could come home with a peaceful mind, because he knew that his wife Trui(short for Geertruida) controlled all at home. When he came home, dinner was there and he enjoyed to smoke his cigar after it. My grandmother was a real robust Dutch women. She really was the center axe of the family, not always easy to get along, but understandable with a big family.

Better view http://i25.tinypic.com/zu4ide.jpg

They had nine children , 3 boys and 6 girls, and to support such a big family wasn't an easy task.
But they did all for their children, worked hard and brought them up as fine people. They wanted them to go to school so that they could have a better start in life. They were good catholics and how a great joy for them, one of their sons went to seminary and became priest. That's was my most favourite uncle, John.
One of the 3 boys was thus my father, Theodorus Cornelis Roof, born the 7thof January 1920.
(My birthday is the 8th of January 1953, isn;t that funny???)

better view http://i32.tinypic.com/2ykgpj6.jpg
He was a normal, real boy, and at times a little rascal. It wasn;t too easy to stand up to his sisters all the time, although he had some help of his brothers. But they were a few years younger than he was.
But it seems he succeeded rather well in that. Daddy went to primary school and then the Mulo, and ended that with a good result. He wanted to do a administrative job, and so he did. In between he didn;t quit studying, but took several other studies, languages, correspondence, bookkeeping etc, to be well-prepared in his working life.
And he did a great job, ending up years later, as a director of a trading business!
But he had the misfortune, that when he started to work already soon the 2nd worldwar started. And as you know that had a BIG influence on his further life!!!
=========
So tomorrow I think I will continue with the part that my parents almost got to Holland after the war and we will pick up their life from there.



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A looong read ahead for you!

Goodmorning everybody!

I have a rather long part of the history, so I'll start it soon. Yesterday I wasn't too creative at the computer, although I made a few LO's to go with the story. Have to get moving on the designing again and some challenges too are still waiting. I think I have a little black out again concerning the designing, but it will be only for a short time, don;t worry too much. LOL
Get yourself a cup of coffee or something else to drink, if you like to read my story, because this part is longer. If not in for the reading, you just skip to the end of the post and look at the freebie.
Have fun with both, and spend a great day!

FAMILY STORY PART 5

Now it's funny, but I don;t know exactly how my parents did meet eachother. It was in Germany, that I know. My father also was called up to do work in Germany and was lucky to get an administrative job. So I think they met because of that, life sometimes direct people in the strangest ways,My father, named Theodore Cornelis Roof, but shortnamend Dick and my mother fell in love. Yes, it also happenes in bad times.! They survived quite some bombardments, certainly to the end of the war. I remember my parents told me of them, as this one.During a bombardment they were in some house. Due to the smoke they got a bit seperated so called out to eachother. My mother was already pregnant at that time of my brother and tried to get to my father. Suddenly the floor disappeared and she fell some meters down., luckely or not on a iron bar from the construction that this was kind of holding. Flat on her belly! She could hold on tio her position and cried out to my father. With a lot of climbing (and cursing! which he almost never did)to his avourite saint like this"Dammed you, Saint Anthony, for once you coud help me!! I MUST get to my wife to safe her. I'll be ever so grateful to you, you hear!!!!"he reached my mother. Perhaps his cry out to St. Anthony did help, they came out of it and more surprising nothing happened with the baby.

Here a very romantic layout of two pictures of my mother, which she gave my father, in between a diffence of about 2 months, can you see??? She had been really VERY ill there, they feared for her life then. The texte is what my mother wrote down at the back of the photos.

Bigger view: http://i32.tinypic.com/jja1l1.jpg
I'll try to give you the English translation( not easy)
this is from the upper left:
The clock belled for everybody, you hand
is still in mine
It's almost tomorrow
that you will remember it
Save me(meaning : in your mind) don't cry
I go, see here the aurora
No my love, not yet.
Suffer I will as much as you want
But sayy "goodbye"I am not able.

For you, my Dick
in remembrance of a beautiful deam
and our time in exile
For always, my heart will be yours
For ever only, your Kyra
----
This the down left:
For my Dick, as souvenir
Take this photo in awaiting
to make me yours for ever

For lifelong I will be only

your Kyra
-----------

Towards the end of the war they were both stationed to the eastern border of Germany. And with armies of the Americians and Russians nearby it wasn't sure who would be there first! This could be tricky, if it were the Russians. My mother being a "White-Russian of the tsar's period"could encounter some unpleasant moments, to say it nicely. But just in time they were liberated by the American troops, really only a difference of a few hours!My parents always told me, that although the Germans weren't very pleasant in that time, also a lot of the "common"people were different and nice and if possible helpfull. They encountered a lot of good people, who tried to help them any way they could.So we children were never brought up with hate for German people, which is a good thing, I think. Perhaps my parents had just a lot of gardien angels on their shoulders, who knows?After a while, with of course troubles here an d there they arrived in Paris. They married in the Russian church (although they already were married in Germany, but all papers were burned, and even so, it wasn't recognized officially!)then they had to marry for the coucil.

Bigger view:http://i30.tinypic.com/10s9oxh.jpg



Bigger view http://i27.tinypic.com/15u42w.jpg


PROBLEMS!!!They had to produce the divorce papers of my mother, she hadn't them all, she had even to take a lawyer to do all the official correspondence. At once my mother was again a "stateless citizen"( person without nationality), and more of that. Papers had to come again from Egypt too, etc. It took months and months. At the end I think my parents were married 4 or 5 times, so if you talk about a "good"marriage, I think this was one!My father had to go back to Holland, to try to find a job and house. He had to go alone at first, my mother no being able to travel without papers, caused by the trouble of the divorce, her being stateless etc. And all that with a baby to be born soon.I will end this part with a kind of funny story, my mother told me:It was september 1945 and my mother felt the baby should come very soon. She had to go to hospital, so called for a taxi. It was quite a young driver, seeing my mother having her woes , getting all in panic and nervous. He broke all rules of traffic and speed records I think, crying out all the time:"Madame, s,v,p. attendez un peu, ne le faites pas dan mon taxi!!"or, in English:"Madam, please, wait a little bit, don;t do it in my taxi!!". They arrived safely in the hospital were my mopther gave birth to a helathy boy of about 8,5 pounds(say about 4 kg). He was named after my father, father of my father, and brother of my mother: Theodore Matthijs Victor, to be called"Dick", just as my father.
Wow, this was a long part, and only putting down a fraction of it, because they encountered a lot of "adventures"during that time.
===============
Here is the freebie, named "Metallic Look", have fun!

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Believe me , it's Monday!

Goodmorning everybody!

After my stupid mistake of yesterday, today it is really Monday again! Hahahaha, I felt sooooo stupid when I discovered this.
Oh, yesterday I had a great time. Just after noon I got Snowy on the msn and we were really chatting along and I think we stayed on a bit on and off basis there for at least 2 1/2 hours. Later on also Edna joined us. We had some good laughs, glad we still can laugh about something!
In the mean time Jan was busy with our lp's and we had a great time listening to all the "old"stuff. I don;t know which singers we all heard, too much too mention but to mention a few: The Cats, David Bowie, Allison Morisset, Bee Gees, Madness etc.
Don;t know if I told you that we received about 500 lp's from a friend who passed away last year, and wanted us to have his music collection of lp's. I think we have quite a collection now with ourr own lp's to it I think we have about 900 or so. It takes a lot of place, but there are some among them that are a bit rare and we just cannot part of the lp's/ Some of the music we have you even cannot find on cd.

As I gave you already yesterday a part of the family history, I skip today, so that I also have a bit time to search some pictures I can scrap to go with the story. It makes it sometimes more vivid.

But I do have a little freebie for you, all in soft colors, may be good for some baby pictures or just some happy summer pictures. I named the kit "Softy"and hope you will like it.
Have a great day!

Download HERE

It was a nice weekend,

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, I had a nice weekend till now, quiet but nice. I say till now, because I totally lost track of days!!!! I was in full conviction it was already Monday! I AM DUMBO! SO FULL ENERGY I POSTED AND THEN AFTER A WHILE REALIZED IT WAS JUST SUNDAY! Well, I leave it on, you have a nice surprise this way. LOL!
Friday afternoon I finally managed to visit Heidi and I picked a good time, because she was all alone at home. So good for us, we talked about this and that, merely girl things, nothing really interesting, but still nice to do!
It was about time we had a real chat again together, without husbands around. Much more releaxed, LOL
Saturday was just a Saturday, I was all free, yeah. No shopping to do, great. So instead I turned on the washing machine, so that's done too. I took time to scan a few pictures, which will match my family history.
In the afternoon Jan said he wanted to take a walk, I went with him and we went walking to another area of The Hague, where lots of beautiful(expensive, most of them) houses are and a lot of green, nice gardens and so. It was a nice walk, in a quiet pace, chatting along about all kind of things, a great way to spend your time. I took my camera with me, but didn;t take much pics, but one of them I will certainly show you and it;s a kind of joke for my friend Snowy!

Now it''s time to give you another part of the family history.

FAMILY HISTORY PART 4
Before going on I'll show you a picture from my mother and her brother at the Russian scouting group. The quickpage is from http://rosa1.vefblog.net/, a nice blog with lots of great freebies.

for better view http://i25.tinypic.com/2s8n51s.jpg

This QP is from http://vjscraproom.blogspot.com/

http://i30.tinypic.com/15dw6f8.jpg
Then a day she met an Egyptian man, and married him. He was well fortunated and at first it went well. They had two children, girls, Vera an Anja. But as things happen in life, they seperated and had a divorce. Now my mother had to go back dancing, to earn money of course, and the little girls stayed with her parents when she wasn't home bacause of the performances> So again life didn;t bring only happiness.


http://i31.tinypic.com/29nth8h.jpg

As she was a strong women, she survived and the family held together. Years passed by and slowly another nasty period in worldhistory approached: the 2nd worldwar.Everybody knows it was a difficultand at times dangerous period. A lot of people had to do "Arbeideinsatz", in Germany. It meant, you had to work in Germany for the Germans, if you refusedthat, you had a very big chance to end up in prison or more like in a "Lager", a camp. And that was worse, cause you probably wouldn't survive that.So also my mother had to go to Germany. aAs she was Russian se was already looked at very suspiciously. A day she was summond and came to the office of an officer. He asked her what she could do, what her skills were. She answered she had finished the gymnasium, could do e.g. administrative work and that she was very good with different languages. The officer looked into her papers and saw she was Russian. He said: "We could make you an interpreter, because we have a lot of Russians working here at the fabrics and living in a camp nearby. But we have trouble understanding them when we have to interrogate them. And because you speak very well German, French, English and Russian you could be useful to us in that way, also for translating official papers etc."But the nicest thing was, that this officer had a Russian grandmother(talking about coinsidences in life!) and said to my mother: "I can arrange such a job for you, you will not have it too bad, you can live in a little appartment and not in a camp, and I must do this because if I sent you to camp(and for a women there were happening very nasty things) I will never be forgiven by my grandmother". So somehow there was sitting a little angel on her shoulder, I suppose!So said, so done and despite of the war situation, she hadn't such a real bad time there, and just had a lot of luck. With her job she also was able to help sometimes some prisoners, to get them a better job, in a better situation etc.

Next episode will be of the war time and how my parents got together. Almost not to imagine this all happened for real, because sometimes it just looks like a suspence novel!
=================
Today I have a kit for you I made for the colour challenge of May on the forum. It's named "A Magickal Wedding". I think you can make lovely layouts with it.


I give you a little preview of some of the papers too:



Download HERE

Later, but I have a next family story part.

Goodmorning everybody!

Still had some issues with the dvd part! Can you imagine? Finally yesterday evening late, we resetted the whole thing and Jan tried it out and it works as it should be apparantly! I said to him, not to touch any more cables or buttons, or whatever, leave it as it is! It works, so why bother! But I can see looking at his face he still isn't completely satisfied, cause their are more possibilities on that thing and he wants to find them out! Of course that is a nice character quality, not giving up too easily, but on the other hand......................gggrrrmmmpppfff........ you know what I mean!

I continue now with the story. The reason I am posting later than usual, is because I first wanted to make a layout wich fitted this part of the story. Ia mde the layout with a kit of mine, named "Douces Mémoires"that I will offer you next week as the freebie.

FAMILY HISTORY PART 3
Well, you know how my mother started dancing. In the meanwhile my grandfather wasn't there for some time, because of his accident in Germany. But at last he arrived in Paris too. But now to find work! He had a family to support. What could he do? Two things he knew very well,: to command soldiers and to drive a car. So he became a taxidriver. I know from the stories, that one count became a windowcleaner, another a servant in a restaurant, some women of noble birth became ironing ladies, or found a little job e.g. as clark. Money had to be earned, as most of them arrived in Paris without a lot of means. Yes, sometimes you hear stories like that and you almost cannot believe them. But these things really happened. I met several of their friends, although not many of them are left, but some of them stayed very loyal and we still have contact from time to time.
Life became a little bit easier, slowly arrived more and more friends and aquintances, who fled Russia, in Paris and this became a whole community. Lucky they had friends, almost everybody in the same position as my grandparents, only a few managed to take their money with them. But they survived, helping eachother with some food or other things, sometimes receiving a bit of support from the ones who had still some money.
They were now with 3 children, a little girl, Sascha, had been born. My mother went to the Russian gymnasium, as was her a few years older brother Victor. Her brother was an intelligent boy and did very well and hoped to be able to study further for engineer and so help to support the family. Both my mother and her brother joined the Russian scouting group. Yes, it was a close community those Russians and despite of all their troubles and hard life, tried to hold on a bit to the traditions, their language and honour. One day the scouting group with brother Victor went on a pelgrimage to Lourdes in the south of France. He was the leader of the group. And then the terrible message came to my grandparents.Their so beloved son of 17 years old had an accident in mounting climbing, trying to rescue another member of the group. He fell of the mountain and died!

For a better view
http://i26.tinypic.com/42hif.jpg

Can you imagine what blow this must have been to them? They already suffered a lot and then this had to happen on top of it, their hope and pride was no longer there. It really broke their hearts.
Now all their hope was on their Kyra, because the other child, Sascha was still much too young. So after Gymnasium my mother could join the Ballet Russes and danced for several years. In this way she was able to support her parents a little bit.
============

Till here for today. Now will have to wait over the weekend to read the following part! To make it up to you I also have a freebie LOL! I was playng a bit bit some fractal brushes and this was the result of it, kit "Fractalicious"
I wish you all a fine day and great weekend.


Download HERE

We'll go on with family history

Good morning everybody!

So, how do you think about the first part of my little family history? It happened in turbulant times and effected the lives of many people.
Yesterday was a real quiet day, not a day to be in the garden, because there was some rain, however temperature still not too bad.
I did a tiny bit of cleaning in the kitchen, threw some things away from the closets and re-arranged it a bit. If I do that every day for a short time, the whole kitchen can be done in a few days. Nice idea, now to do it! LOL. It just has to be done every now and then, so I'll give myself a slap on my bottom and go for it.

I have another little part from "the story"for you and also a nice kit. Thinking of it, I have a kit with a name that fits the looking back in time. The kit is named "Remains of Yesterday".
I used this in the layout I made of my grandmother, only I took another frame.
Have fun reading and have also a lovely day.

FAMILY HISTORY 2
Sometimes my mother, in that time little Kyra or Kyrotchka(yes, I am named after my mother) went with her mother to the Opera. She already loved the dance, andwhen there was nobody on the stage practising, she danced what she had seen from the balletdancers. And one day, a prima ballerina, for which my grandmother was making a ballet costume, came into the little room my grandmother was working. She said"Who is that little doll, that is dancing on stage like she never did anything else? "Öh, my God", my grandmother said (and believe it or not, the ballet dancer was the famous Anna Pavlova!) "that must be Kyra, I quickly fetch her, so that she will not bother you!" "That's okay" said Anna Pavlova, "but if you don;t let this little one take dancinglessons. you will commit murder to the art of dance.""But how do I pay for a good ballet school and all the lessons, I haven't the money for it"my grandmother said. Don't bother", Anna answered, "I will give her her first lessons, while I am still in Paris, and when I go on tour I will hand her over to one of my best pupils, who is one of the best ballet teachers and don;t talk about money. The only thing I want is that Kyra shall dance "The dying Swan" when she'll have 16 years of age".(This was a choreography from a dance, specially for Anna Pavlova, it made haer famous).And yes, so it happened. And later, as I was a little girl,I saw my mother dancing it and it was beautiful.
Well, you see how just sudden encounters can have an effect on somebody's life. It certainly did on my mother's.


for a better view http://i30.tinypic.com/25k1mo1.jpg

And here, at last, your freebie

Download HERE

Start of a story.

Goodmorning everybody.

I will not talk about much, in fact there isn;t much for the moment, LOL, but still I will take a little bt of your time, by telling a bit of the family history. I will give you probably each day a little part, but I think it will be interesting to read.
And I have, of course, a freebie for you at the end of the post. I must give credit to Zaza from http://blogchezzaza.vefblog.net/, because out of her tubes I made kind of overlays for the papers. You should take a look at her blog, she offers an awesome amount of freebies and beautiful they are.!
I called the kit "Felicita", because all those bright papers and flowers make you just feel happy!
Have a nice read, great day and enjoy the freebie!

FAMILY HISTORY PART 1

As you know, my mother was Russian. She was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1916. In that time Finland was a part of Russia. Her parents belonged to the Russian nobility, yes, in fact my mother was a countess. My grandfather was an officer in the Tsar's army and was at that time detached to the fortress of Sveaborg. Well, all was well until there came the big revolution in Russia. This reached Finland a bit later, but suddenly all was dangerous and the family had to flee. If they shouldn;t have done that they probably have been killed. My grandparents and family witnessed some aweful things during that turbulant time. I still remember the story about a little baby. A few days before they could flee, my grandparents had some visitors, among them an officer and his wife and their baby of a few months. Suddenly the appartment was invaded by soldiers(turned to the "Reds", the communists), and were all searched for weapons. One of the men asked the officer if he still had some weapon, because he didn't trust them. To get his answer he took the baby on the table and searched the dipers. And found a pistol! And in front of all he just shot the baby through the head with the found pistol! And this was just one of the things they witnessed.
Still there were some soldiers and officers, who liked the family and helped them to escape. They were fortunate, but it all had to be done hush, hush and in a hurry and there was no more time to secure some money on a foreign bank. All borders were already closed. And they were not poor people! So the soldiers turned against the Tsar, but still helped my grandfather and family to flee, but it wasn't possible to do this together. My grandmother and the two children had to go by boat to England and my grandfather via Germany. They only could take just some spare money, a family icon, two or three rings and their personal documents with them. Just before separated my grandparents promised eachother to meet again in Paris, where many Russian emmigrants went to. Although it wan;t easy, at last my grandmother arrived after weeks in Paris. Each day she went to the cityhall, to see if there was any news about my grandfather. It took months before she heard, my grandfather had an accident in Germany, in a steelfactory where he went to work for a little while to have some money for the voyage. But a steel bar had fallen on his legs and they were both broken, so it would take some time before he could travel again. Still he was lucky, because the legs healed well. And there my grandmother was in Paris, with practically no money at all, no husband, a tiny appartment to pay and two children to raise!! What to do? First she sold the few rings she had, but that money was in no way enough. She had never worked in her life, but was a very artistic and intelligent women, who spoke several foreign languages, so she just had to figure out something. For example she could paint and sew well. She went to the Opera of Paris to see if they needed anyone to make the ballet and opera costumes.And with a lot of begging she finally got the job. That already was a little relief. Now she could pay for the school for the children( at that time son Victor and daughter Kyra, later they had another daughter Sascha), because she wanted them to have a good education. And although the money she earned wasn't much, she managed to have some food on the table and send the kids to school.
=======================


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Those bloody tv cables

Goodmorning!
Is that a catchy post title or not? Not that it is very disturbing, but I hate those things!I'll try to explain! Probably you will get a big, understanding smile on your faces, reading this! LOL
Somewhere in the late afternoon yesterday, we were zapping around a bit on tv and suddenly the sound disappeared. No big deal, you think. I thought so too, it happens now and then. But it stayed that way, so Jan, all energetic started to remove all the connection cables from the digital modem, tv, dvd, video and tried some other ways of connection. Here comes the stressing thing! For me, at least!!! It was almost dinner time at that point, all stading in the oven and so, and Jan had trouble in finding the right way of connecting it all. That CAN happen, but it's nothing for me, I don''t understand a THING about it(if I dedicated myself to it, I could do it, but I don't want to know, LOL) and then it's becoming more and more stressing to me, waiting with dinner( my stomach protesting already) and this stuff taking more and more time. Poor Jan, he didn't understand it, but after some time I had the brilliand idea that it may not be in the connections(because it worked all well and suddenly not) but perhaps in the modem of the digital tv( the analogue worked well) and perhaps we could try to disconnect the modem from the electricity for a moment and reset it again. Sometimes that is a solution, because somewhere in the "distribution"central they were working on it or so. Well, Jan tried this at the end and voila, all was normal again, we had sound, as we should, also image and so and this took over an hour or more to find out! And now this was a simple solution! But......... Jan is still right about his remark, to connect tv, dvd, video and modem the right way and also being able to taking programs on dvd and / or video it's always said....oh that's so easy, a child can do it, it takes you only a few minutes to get it working........ well, FORGET IT. at least for us.
So when Jan wants to change anything in it for some uncomprehensible reason, I surely hope he will do it when I am NOT at home, because on me it has a very bad effect! I am getting all nervous and because of that I am getting grumpy and because of that we say less nice things to eachother. Humans can be very funny and strange in behaviour when things aren;t going too smooth. ROFL, ROFL!!
Well, at the end we finally could have dinner, an hour later, so my appetite was vanished already a bit. Oh, when all did work again and we were eating, we could laugh about it again, so no harm was done. Hahahaha.

Weather here is changing a bit, there are more clouds and sometimes it rains a bit. But temperature still is nice, so I suppose it's a good thing for all things nature. I still can open the garen doors at about 8 in the morning and it is feeling good. I didn't finish much at the computer yesterday, although I named and uploaded the files already for the new daily download of September, and I can assure you, that is a real beautiful one! Not giving you a sneak peek yet, but you'll agree with me in September.

And now the freebie. It's named "Henrietta", don;t know why, this just came into my mind. I tried to make it in a little bit different colour scheme and I think the colours work well. I also have to look up the printed pages about my family story, so that I can start with it again on this blog. Perhaps already this week, otherwise surely next week. I will do it all in small parts, it will keep you busy for some time, LOL.
Enjoy your day and off I am!

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Our house is kind of empty

Goodmorning everybody!

I hope your weekend was a nice as mine. Not that we undertook a lot of action, LOL! Well, Friday early afternoon Heidi came with family to pick up the pets. They stayed a while for a cup of coffee and told a bit about their holiday. They all looked well and had a very nice time in France. As soon sas they were gone, I started action, first hoovered the place thouroughly to get rid of all the left overs from the animals and then took the wet sweeper and cleaned the floor with water and a bit of stuff in it. Gosh, that was necessary!!! Starting with clean water at the end it was really black! But it gave me a good feeling and all smelled real fresh again.

We had terrific weather during the weekend, not too warm but very nice. If it stays a bit like this, the people who are on holiday now and stay in Holland have a good time. I was rather productive this weekend and have some nice stuff for you. During the week it will come to you.

I can show you a challenge I made for the forum, it had to bee something in which we use shadows, and things, to make the LO more 3d, well, I gave it a try and used a picture I took myself and a paper and frame from my kit Sonata Appasionata.

For the bigger pic http://i27.tinypic.com/1hr1q0.jpg

I finished the book of Agatha Christie I re-read again. So time to take another. And you know what? On one of the tv channels they are showing now films of Miss Marple, so when I think of it, I watch them in the afternoon. I always liked the character of Miss marple more than the one of Poirot, although the stories are nice too. And also love to read the ones with Tommy and Tuppence, lots of humour in it!

Okay, the freebie today is in a one colour scheme named it "In a Blue Mood". Wasn't feeling blue in the sense of "mood"but just because of the colour LOL! And on we go with the new day and week, and let's see what that will bring us.

Have a great day!

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A Colour challenge kit.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday afternoon I got a telephonecall from Heidi, that they arrived safely at home again. And she asked if it was allriht to pick up the pets today in the afternoon. I already thought so, and of course that's okay. I told her to settle down first and take it easy. So yesterday was the last day of seeing a rabbit hopping around in the room with all its side effects. LOL. In the mean time Jan refreshed the cage, then we put the rabbit back in his cage and I did the sweeping up again, oh, how lovely!

I think it was realy a kind of holiday for that rabbit, getting out so often of his cage and such. Heidi leaves him out of it also, but only just sometimes, so it will be a change again for him after the "freedom"he had with us. ROFL.

Today I have a kit from a colour challenge at the forum for you. This time the April challenge, and it supplied us with warm colours and it made me think of Italy, especially Tuscany, so here I give you ""Soul of Tuscany". I realized I have am blogging in total already for more than 2 years, if you count with it my wordpress blog, where I started. So funny sometimes it looks much shorter and sometimes as if I am doing it for ages and ages! But what I am the most surprised of is that there are still people coming here almost every day to read what I am rambling about! But that is one of the things that keeps me going on with it! So a big

THANK YOU

is the least I can say!! And may be the little quote I am posting here is an explanation too (LOL)

Now here is the preview and link for the freebie. As I am not posting during the weekend as you know by now, I wish you a terrific, joyful, uplifting weekend and hope to see you back first this afternoon somewhere for the freebielist and then all refreshed again on Monday!

Hugs

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Perhaps last day of pet sitting.

Goodmorning everybody!

If all has gone well, my friend Heidi and family started the drive home yesterday evening late from France. So if nothing special happened I think they will be home in the course of the day. It might be our last day of the "pet-sitting". Do we regret that? Yes and no. Funny hey? We are getting used to them already, but thinking it over well, I think 3 cats is enough to handle. Jan is ggoing to refresh the cages for the last time, so that when they are picked up, Heidi and Danny can wait with it a few days.

Today it is supposed to be the warmest day of the week, let's enjoy that as much as we can, I suppose. However I have to go out for a bit, but better in sunny wather than in rain(is it?, yes for me it is).

Yesterday I posted the LO of my dancing mother, and got some nice reactions on that, also at the forum. But I got a few questions too and then I realized for a bunch of you my family history is rather unknown. Why that? Well, I started a little sotry telling about that when I just had my first blog, but that was on wordpress and when I started on blogger I removed everything from the old one. So I was thinking that it might be nice to tell it again in little parts, for the "new"comers". I still have it all, because I printed out all the blogging and save that in a map(I need already a second one now). I thought it would be nice to have that, and fun to read it back in a couple of years or so.
The lives of my parents are quite interesting, especially from my mother, so it might be nice to get aquainted with.

Well, you see, I always come up with some new plans, now execute them, hahaha! I got the question if I danced too and yes I did, but not too long. Till I was about 14 years old and then I played the piano during the ballet lessons my mother gave. Yeah she did that too! But I always liked dancing and from time to time I danced some folklore(Russian of course, LOL). I have some pictures somewhere from it, so if I scan them I could do a layout of it. May be a nice idea, but I must be careful not wanting to do too much at a time, still some projects are waiting for me at the forum and also some for myself, better to do that first. But you know me, sometimes working very chaotic, a bit of this and a bit of that, just doing it along my mood. You are still visiting a rather STRANGE, sometimes NUTTY person here!! ROFL!!!

The freebie today. A bit different than the others. I came across some pictures(public domain, yes) and stories form the French writer La Fontaine. He is very known of his animal fables, and this is what the kit is about. I took a few little fables in poems and made a little kit around it. I think they are fun! The kit is named "Fables to Remember" and I am sure you know some of them. I'll give you a preview of one of the papers so you know what I am talking about. I tried another kind of preview, it's a premade one, but I think it's not too god for a whole kit, but great when you have a freebie of some elements, or a daily download part . Well, sometimes have to try something new, isn;t it?



So that's it for today, some things to be done, better start it a bit earlier, to avoid the warmest part of the day. Have a great day and let me know what you think of today's kit!


Download HERE