Last day and a birthday!

Goodmorning everybody!

I want to start first with a happy birthday wish for our teammember Miriam. Yes, on this last day of the year another Capricorn has a party! So Miriam, I wish you all the best, that you may have a wonderful birthday!
Oh, go to her blog, she has prepared you a lovely freebie kit!!!

It's an odd feeling that another year has passed by, with ups and downs, may be a few more downs than ups, and despite of that I think we are still the rather lucky ones on this world.
It will be a quiet day here, there will be some nice tc this evening and Jan and I will stay at home, just the two of us and I don;t mind. Also it's better for our cats that we are around, there will be fireworks, I heard people spent millions of Euro's again on the fireworks that will be gone in a flash! Oh, I like fireworks, but we don;t buy it anymore ouselves. But in the neighbourhood there are some people who have always lovely firworks and we can watch it from our window. Only the pets don;t like that at all, every time something makes "bang"somewhere in the streets around us, you see them looking around with big eyes. Well, they are a little bit used to it, but at midnight the big blast noice isn;t their favourite moment at all!
I havee bought us a few "oliebollen"and "appelbeignets", traditional things we eat on this day! I used to make them myself, but it's a bit of work to do and as we like to have a few, but not loads, I buy them at the bakery.

                             Oliebollen

           Appelbeignets

The "oliebollen"were made in early days to sacrifice to the Germanic goddess Perchta. By baking them in fat(oil) they believed that the goddess would do you no harm.
The "appelbeignets"(made with slices of apple ) are round because the Franks believed this shape brings good luck.
So this is done already a long, long time! Hmmm, they are yummie, specially with LOADS of casterd sugar on them!!!

Then tomorrow at 12.00 o'clock midday weare sitting at the couch with a cup of coffee and another oliebol, and watching and listening to the New Years Concert from Vienna. That is always cheerful, although I must say it has changed a little bit over the years, not as much ballet and sometimes they throw in another composer. I remember still the BEST years of it, with the conductor Willy Boskowski! All that music of the Strauss family, a lot of ballet, so happy and with also a lot of humour! Nevertheless we still like to watch it. Also kind of tradition, you could say.
I hope everybody will enjoy a good ending of the old year and a brilliant start of the new year! And let's wish and hope the New Year will bring us some happy, good things, that it will give us good health and a lot of friendship and love!


And yes, I havea freebie too on this last day, with a suiting name "Memories of the Past Year".
Enjoy it and we'll meet again in the New Year 2011!

Download    HERE 
                  or     HERE

May be we are still a bit lucky

Goodmorning everybody!

Remember I told you of our boiler, that had a dripping-syndrom??? It seems it stopped by itself. Till now. We still keep a good eye on it, but for the moment it is dry there again. It might have been a problem of a too high pressure in it and that one of the connections just wasn't closing off as it should. Let's hope it only was something like this. When the weather will be a little bit better(read.... warmer) we still wil call in the boiler guy to give the thing a good check up and cleaning. But..... cross fingers with us and let's hope all stays as it is at the moment: no drops, no water leaking, just doing it's job as is needed!!

Imagine that in two days the year 2010 is over already! Unbelievable! But at the forum we start again with the weekly downloads, and in January we have a new designer, Miriam, from Miriam scraps joining us in it. I will put on the slideshow for the January downloads on the blog after I finished this post. And you just have to take a good look at it, cause it's a marvellous "collect a kit". And we are very happy to have Miriam on the team, she makes such lovely things, as you can see on her blog.

It was a very quiet day here, yesterday. I decided to let it be a "free"day, LOL, so I did spent some time at the computer, also watched some spee skating, just doing nothing special. Today should be different. Want to do a few grocerie shoppings( it might be not so crowded yet) and want to give the house a good sweep just before the New Year arrives.
And what a blessing, just looked outside the window, almost all the snow disappeared, well, there might be still some in the smaller streets etc. but you can see the road and sidewalks again. And they expect it to stay that way for the days to come, at night just around 0 and at day about 4 C. Great! Cannot wait till temperature goes up to something like 21-24 degrees C!!
I was looking around yesterday on my harddrive(that needs some cleaning again, have to get rid of some stuff, but don't want to loose it, so we'll have to burn that on cd. I should take a little bit time for it) and found yet another Christmas thing, I completely forgot about it. It's a set of Christmas quickpages. Yes, I know, your harddrives are probably filled to the ceiling with Christmas kits and such, but may be somebody still can use some quickpages, well, bragbookpages they are really. Tomorrow on the last day of this year I will have a lovely kit for you again.
Okay, time to post the freebie and then the slideshow, in the weekend I think I will change my blog layout, done with some great things from Minky's gifts!
So you all have a great day, see you tomorrow!

Download    HERE

End of year with problems?

Goodmorning everybody!

It seems that this year wants to have an ending in trouble LOL! Oh well, we had a fewleaks this year, some other trouble at the house, why not give Jan and Kyra another one just before New Year starts??? Bummers, yesterday evening I was in the kitchen to get us a little snack and I heard a bit of strange noise. Something like "plop, ........plop". Hey, what is that? I first thought it was the little clock we have there, it's making a bit of ticking noise, but no, it was something different. I arrived at the cv installation( the boiler) and heard a dripping sound from there. I uttered silently some not too nice words and checked. It was dripping from somewhere inside the boiler. Oh how great. I called Jan, he took a look, same conclusion, so we put a little bucket under it( it was slowly dripping, that was still a bit of luck), then later I went checking again, hey it stopped. This morning drop, drop drop again, so it's doing it only from time to time. Hmmm, I think we still have to phone the guy for the boiler to take a look at it. I will do that a bit later this morning. I hope he is at work, yeah, I think so.
Just checked again and no dropping at the moment. Very weird. Oh how nice surprises we get this year, whoopee!!!
Well, it might be not too serious, let's cross all fingers for that!
We are not the only ones having trouble of some kind. Read on Edna's blog, that because of the heavy snowfall a tree in her yard came down, partly on the roof and partly on the side of her house! Oh my, I truly hope that it didn't cause too much damage!
So what a nice ending of the year, tralalalalalalla!
Well, perhaps next year we will be without all those things. Would be nice for a change.

I went out yesterday, to the bank as I said. I didn't take my shopping car with me, oh blessing! As I was in a nice street with some nice shops, I thought, "why not take a bit of time looking around?" Not that I needed something special or particular. Now big question is:"did I got ome without buying anything"? Of course NOT! LOL. But I didn''t buy much. I stumbled upon an offer for birthday cards, so I bought 10 of them for only € 3,50. They always come in handy, specially, because soon there are some birthdays from friends coming up. What else? Oh yes, a new cover for my ironing board. How exciting, hahaha. That was about all. Very modest, I should say.
First weather was rather nice(snow is melting more and more away, yippee), but by the time I was on my way back home it started to snow again! It wasn;t much and more the wet-snow kind, and it stopped also quickly.Pffffff, please no more of the white stuff!!
And home I sat a while at the computer, continued on a new kit, not yet finished, and trying to extend another one. Oh, I also uploaded two new things for Minky's blog. A card and a quickpage, made of a gift Minky offered on her blog. Here the results:

Found this little poem and thought it fitted well , isn't it a true one????

Well, I think I covered about all again, so time for another freebie. I wonder how I manage to get you still every day another freebie??? But I have to admit, sometimes it's really hard work, as I also make things for Minky and even sometimes some things for the forum, and of course read some blogs, doing email, sometimes that's not much, another day I got loads to answer. I should find another schedule in the freebie thing, but still puzzling with it. All will come as it has to come, we'll leave it up on the future and see what will come of it, okay?

Anyway, here is the kit, named"Name of the Rose". Hope you like it.
Have a wonderful day, without any leaks, falling trees or other trouble you don;t need LOL!

Download     HERE

Snow, go away! LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

Just came from reading Edna's blog and wheeeeee, saw her pictures! Lots and lots and lots of snow overthere!
Yes, everybody has to admit that it really looks like a fairytale! But such a pity, it also causes so much trouble around! I am glad to say that snow is still disappearing here( might not be the same in other parts of Holland yet, but at the coast it is) and it was possible for me to go out yesterday, with shopping car and returning without being completely exhausted. Okay, at some places you had to plough a bit through the melting mess, but most of the way home, I could walk on the stones of the sidewalk again and that feels really good! So today I will go out again, but without shopping car! Yes, there are some bills to pay, so I will bring them to the bank, I could do it by post, but it's a good excuse to bring them there and be in the open air for a while. Yeah I know, I am old fashioned, I could have internet banking also, but I keep that off for the moment. I suppose I will have to surrender to it some time, but not yet now.
I did really some of the things I planned  yesterday, how amazing! First I went to the supermarket, then did some dust sweeping around and even did some ironing. I must have been out of my mind!! LOL.
Today some other things still are waiting for me, every day something works okay.
I still have about 10 days of Christmas decoration around. I know, lots of people get already rid of it right after Christmas, but not this old stuboorn lady!NO! It has to stay on till the 6th of Janauary, the holiday of the 3 kings that visit the manger. I always put them into the stable on that day(till then they are placed at the side of it, as if they are still travelling hahahha) and the day after will be the BIG cleaning day again. Pfffff, all the boxes out again, getting it all into them as nicely and orderly as possible, so that next year it will be easy to get them out again and find all back. And it has to be done on the 7th of January, cause the day after I want to have my "normal"house back again, on my birthday. Hmmmm, that's coming up too again, but I don;t like to think too much about it. I suppose we are growing a bit too old for that, don;t want to be reminded of my real age.Oh boy, I am in that stade of life already??????????

Did I do a bit of designing yesterday too? Yes, not too much, but for the moment it goes rather steadily. Grateful for that already LOL. Yes, ladies, don't forget to go to our forum in January too, cause we have a really beautiful weekly download for you! Okay, I know, still have to finish the December one, but believe me, January is a special one.

I have the feeling I am forgetting something to write, but if so, I may be remembering it later(is that age playing with me???). Whatever, it doesn;t matter too much, surely it isn;t something real important. Let's go to your freebie. The second part of "Memories are Golden". And then I should get moving, well, first I will take another coffee, to get my enery flowing, and then there are things to be done.
You have all a fantastic day and although everybody is a bit tired of the holidays, don;t loose all that holiday spirit from Christmas. We should try to practise the real thougt of it throughout the whole year! Yeah not easy sometimes, but worth trying!

Download     part 2 HERE or HERE

And suddenly..... Christmas is over!

Goodmorning everybody!

Isn't it wierd how quickly Christmas is gone again? We are living towards it for several weeks and then there are the two Christmasdays(yes we have TWO) and whoops, now it's Monday and it is done with!
I hope everybody had a lovely Christmas time. And a warm thank you for all your wishes!
We surely enjoyed our Christmas days.
On Christmas eve Jan went for a moment to the cafe( there was the lotery, remember?) and I had a terrific evening! I watched among other things the "Miracle on 34 th street" on tv, popped in on a German channel and heard some wonderful Christmas music, then for a moment hopped behind my computer screen,  with a cd of Christmas music at the background, wnet back to the couch and watched some more great programs on tv. Then Jan came home and oh whee, for once he wasn't lucky with the lotery, no prize! I didn't mind too much, to be honest. As it was already past midnight, we decided to open out presents, waiting for us under the tree. We agreed not to buy anything for eachother, but there were still some presents, yeah! all the way from America, from my friend Edna! Soooo sweet of her.
 Here a picture of the things we received. The two scarfs really came in handy, we didn;t have real nice an good ones. And I can drink a lot of tea, big box with 100 teabags in ti, wow! in 4 different blends. And I just LOVE my mug with the rose print! Thanks Edna, you've made our Christmas eve!!!

On Christmas day we took it real easy. Jan registered a lot on videao and dvd and on tv there was a lot more to watch. So we had a great time watching it all. Then for dinner I decided we should have some smaller dishes, so we started with two plates with a little green salad  and on it some slices of smoked duck breast and some slices of graved smoked salmon. That was really Yummie. Then I had small medaillions of porc filet, with roasted potatoes and a green salad and a dessert after it. Then coffee and later in the evening we took some italian ciabatta(bread, I had to bake if off in the oven) with some French cheese and some left over slices of the salmon.  Yeah it was a real cosy day.
Second Christmas day it was also quiet, hoorray, outside it looked even not too bad, and snow and ice are still melting, for the moment the leak also stopped, so why not be happy?
I did some things at the computer Jan did his puzzles, later we watched a bit tv, and for dinner I had a pastry cup filled with a feral or wild hash (ragout) and then I made my potatoe salad and on top slices of smoked salmon!  Yeah, again the salmon, but we love that! So dinner was easy to pprepare, but very tasteful! I can say we had a great Christmastime together!
And now we have to return to the "normal daily life"again LOL.
There are some things to do now, I don;t know if I can manage it all today, but I have another day tomorrow.
I do have to go out, have to get me a medicin at the pharmacy(I've almost run out of one) and some little things to fill the fridge again. Oh there's still enough left in there, but I need some stuff to put on our sandwiches, some cat food, usual things.
It looks better outside for me, there still is some snow but much less than last week, so I hope it will be easier to carry around my shopping car!
Now that the weather is slightly improving here, I heard that e.g. in America and also in the area of my friend Edna there is  falling a LOT of snow, causing also problems, and in Australia, Queensland, there suffer from too much water, caused by heavy rainfall! It doesn't seem to be a great time when you speak of weather conditions, hey? Also in other parts of Europe they still have problems with the snow, so I hope for everybody in the world, tat a more"normal"weather will come their way!
Oh, there is an anniversaire to celebrate, the blog of Miram, from Miriam's Scraps celebrates it's 1st anniversairy. You might pop over there to congratulate her with that and at the same time you can snatch a lovely scrapkit she made and offers as freebie there!
Hmmmm, I think I covered all I wanted to write, I suppose, so it might be the right time to go to your freebie here. It's a rather big kit, so I splitted it into two parts, one part today, the other tomorrow. It's named "Memories are Golden"and it's a kit for all kind of pictures and occasions, I hope. I've kept it in a brown colour scheme with a few brighter accents. Enjoy it, I hope.
And have a marvellous day today!

Download    HERE part 1  or HERE

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This is to all of you, my wonderful visitors during the year, enduring my moaning and rambling LOL !

Almost Christmas

Goodmorning everybody!

Just one day to go and suddenly Christmas is there! Being busy with it for already some weeks it like a miracle that suddenly the day is almost there!
No news about the leak, it's still leaking, it will be so for a longer time I am afraid, but during daytime the snow and ice is melting again. I cannot wait till the day it will actually be gone!
In other parts of Holland weather is still very bad, lots of snow, only on the main roads it's possible to drive, and even that is dangerous and even fobidden for the moment for real big trucks I believe.!
In other parts of Europe, like Belgium and Germany, to take only two that are close to us it's even worse!
So you will have top agree, that it is nice for a moment to have that wonderous white world, but that it is good for only two or three days and that is should be gone after that!

Oh I had such an easy, great day yesterday! We both stayed in, cause there was no reason to go out, I did a few little things around the house, prepared our dinner already in the early afternoon, so I only had to shove it in the oven for a while. And I spent some time at the computer, while Jan was making some Swedish crosswords, accompanied by some nice music, just lovely. In the evening we watched a very dumbo, but oh so great Christmasmovie at tv, "Karoll's Christmas". Super! I think this evening I will watch another Christmas movie, I think it will be "Miracle on 34th Street". I just love the little girl who plays one of the leading characters.
But there also is a fantasy film, I think it's more for children, but at Christmas we are all a bit child again, and that one is "Arthur and the Minimoys". But those films are both at almost the same time! And no, I cannot take one of them on dvd or videao, cause Jan already has programmed a lot of things to register this evening. Well, we'll see what it will be( I think the 1st one LOL).
Minky is a bit back again, having trouble with electricity, also leaks LOL, and lots to do at the Sanctuary, but you can go there now and download some lovely things. One is on Minky's Things, and the other on the special Creative Club blog and there you also can find a few quickpages I made during the last couple of days.
These are Minky's:

adn here are mine:

I even did a challenge at the forum, the "all colours"one, and it turned out into a little kit. Not showing it yet, it will be a freebie on my blog somewhere next month.
Oh, talking about the forum, I will post another part of the weekly download there today, so perhaps you should take a look a bit later, what it is.!
And today I will prepare all for tomorrow, here and there perhaps a new table cloth is needed( all in Christmas style), I will put in all the candle holders candles, but most of them are for those little tealights(much safer too!), clear a bit the room of some unwanted objects, hahaha, like newspapers, already read, and such,
look through the fridge for the things we need for tomorrow's dinner and place them all together, much easier to handle and you cannot forget something!
I hope you all are almost ready now to celebrate Christmas! Most important things is, I think, that you know somebody is thinking of you, this person may be in your house or far away, it's the fact you are in somebody's heart that is important. And all the other things are real nice, but less important.
I have a freeebie too for you, it may even suit some Christmas pictures, named it simple"Reds and Gold".
Have a fantastic day, see you back on Monday!

Download     HERE

Why such a surprise???

Goodmorning everybody!

In fact, it's not such a good morning! We've got a nasty surprise yesterday. Jan needed some clothes from the backroom(there is the closet and the ironing board etc.) and came back into the room with this remark:
"Did you notice we have another leak???? Just in the passage from the small corridor to the backroom?????"
Wow, we went to take a look and it was really dripping, not yet a stream, but drip- drip- drip etc. wall also rather wet, carpet wet and so on.
Jan immediately went outside to check from where it might come. Well, it wasn;t the roof of our backroom, but it came from much higher. So he went to 1st floor neighbour to see if it was from there, but no, neighbours wall also was wet. So it had to come from 2nd floor neighbour. As we know they come home late in the evening,I had to wait to call till about 20.00am. We were invited immediately to come up and check what it might be.
After looking around on their balcony, Jan found it. It was caused by the melting water(temperature is just above zero at daytime now), but because we had such rather extreme weather conditions lately, snow melts but at night freezes again, causing a lot of ice in the draining pipes and lots of icecles hanging everywhere! Water cannot go anywhere so it searches the nearest spot and that is causing the leak. Well, at the moment there is no use in calling a plumber or so, they cannot do anything about it. So the neighbour right away removed as much icecles as possible( worst was the buch of them between the drainage p[ipe and the wall, coming from the roof). I hope that will at least help a bit. We are not the only ones at the moment in Holland with leaks like that! It was even on the news. Loads of people have trouble with it! And with and old house, there are always little spots and places, water will find it's way down, only not the right spots LOL.Of course it helps if you clean some spots of the snow, but there are places you cannot reach and then this can be a result.!We will just have to sit it out, hoping that soon it all will melt, specially the drainage holes at the top of the pipes so that the melting water can go the right way. Then it will take a bit of time to dry the spot and then we will have to see what is the dammage. Oh joy, what a great Christmas present!
We are lucky we have reasonable neighbours, they are quit nice I must say. Oh, so sweet, they even invited us to come over on Christmas eve. I don;t think we will go, because we already had the invitation of the cafe to come there, but still it is a nice gesture. They also said we are welcome at New Years eve. Well, we will see aabout that, may be we will just pop in for a moment, to wish them a happy New Year.

That was the big news from yesterday(I could have done without it LOL). But I even did the curtains, they hang now all bright and clean again at their place, gave the house a good vaccuum cleaning, removed the dust here and there, so today I have an easy day, all is about ready for Christmas. I only have to do a little bit of ironing, but it's not much.
I think I still didn;t receive all my Christmas cards, but that's to understand. Because of the strikes of the post, they have to catch up on the post in just a few days. It might easily be, that some of them will not arrive in time. But it isn't the worst thing that can happen, hmmmm??
But we will not let all that spoil our Christmas, oh no, we still will enjoy our Christmas, let that be said!
And I have a wintery kit for you today, named simple"Winter Fun" ( there still can be fun at winter time hahahaha).
Now you all have a great day, I will spend mine in a real easy-does-it way and see you again tomorrow!

Download    HERE

A mail made me smile today!

Goodmorning everybody!

I better say good afternoon, cause I started real late posting. Reason is I was awake, again, real early, but went back to sleep after some time, and had a good nap again, till 10.45 a.m.!!! And it feels good!!! It does set me back in my schedule for taoday a bit, but I don;t care too much. Tomorrow is another day LOL!
Wow, I took courage in both hands yesterday and went out with my shopping card to get the last things for this week. Despite of the snow it wasn't too bad to walk, till I got out of the supermarket with a filled card!!! On the sidewalk it went rather well, but the worst is when you have to cross the street, then you really have to plough through hills of snow and half melted stuff!! That's NO fun at all when you have to pull your shopping car. I was glad I went to the nearest supermarket, but still was really exhausted when I arrived home. So I really had to recover my breath first and then slowly could put the things away and even managed to hang out the laundry, waiting for me in the machine! So if I may have forgotten something, then it will be for Jan to get it and if not, then it's a pity, we'll do with what we have now (which is more than enough).

Before starting this post I first opened my mail and it brough a big smile on my face! I got message that another parcel arrived at its destination, so it still was in time for Chrsitmas! Yeah, I was already a bit worried, but thank you postoffice, you did your job well!!! Hopefully the small things I sent will bring some cheer to Snowy and Edna, they deserve that, after this not so great year for both of them!
(that's a bit of understatement, but you know what I mean, I suppose).

Oh, just looked out of the window and it even snowed again a bit. Gosh, I thought we could keep it completely dry today, but it was just for a moment. It has been enough, I really hope that it soon melts all away! Kind of nice to have a white Christmas, but it certainly isn;t at the top of my wishlist!
Time for me now to get busy here, I have one last Christmaskit for you, named "Christmas de Luxe".I think you will have more than enough stuff to scrap your pictures from Christmas!
Have a lovely day!

Download    HERE

I have had enough of the snow!

Goodmorning everybody!
Yes, it's still white around here, but it's starting to look a bit messy now. Towards end of the week there is expected some more snow, I think most of it will fall in the east and south, but we will have some too. And to be honest: I think it's enough now! I would be rather happy if it all melts quickly and disappears! I know, there are people happy with it, but sorry for them, enough is enough LOL!
All around Europe there are problems because of the snow, I truly wish for all that they can travel towards their destination, specially the ones that are spending already some days at the airports!

How about yesterday? Yes, I did go with Danny and Heidi to the supermarket by car. Oh boy, yo always spend a bit more than you intended, but I am almost ready for the Christmas weekend now. There are always a few things you cannot buy now, it has to be bought just the day before, like e.g. some salad and things that won;t stay good for several days. But my fridge and freezer are filled, and I am happy for that.
When done with the shopping, Danny took me home and they came in for a moment to have a cup of coffee. Now today some laundry to be done, some cleaning around, I will spread the things I want to do over the next couple of days and all should be done and sparkling again on Christmas eve!
Jan went over to the cafe yesterday for a short time, because therewas the monthly lotery again. As exception he didn;t win anything! But still came home with filled arms. The owner of the cafe had a big Christmas bread for all the regular customers, you know, a bread with raisins, nuts and almond paste, I think we can eat from that for a week! And some Christmas candy too.
It was as if I just felt he would be home with such a bread, cause when in the supermarket I first put such a bread in my car, but took it out later! Strange hey?

As you can imagine, there wasn't much time left for me, to play around on the computer, but I've made a quickpage for Minky's blog and by the way, you should hop over there because she has made you some lovely treats! Okay, today I also qwill not spend too much time on designing, first I want to get things done around the house. So I better finish this post with a real nice freebie, I think. Found some lovely vintage pictures of fairies and gnomes and made you a kit with it, named "Far in the Woods"
Have a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

Some pics for you

Goodmorning everybody!

We still have a white world overhere. Apart from it causing lots of problems on the roads, train tracks and the airport, it looks beautiful! And I did go out and made a few pics. First on Friday afternoon. I dressed nice warm although it wasn;t really cold, I must say and just took a little walk in the neighbourhood. Then I got a brilliant idea: I was more then halfway to heidi's house, so I decided to take my chances and see if she was home. And I was lucky. So we had a nice chat together and we made an appointmetn for today, somewhere early afternoon, that I go with her and Danny by car to their supermarket, as they needed to do some shopping anyway. It's a different supermarket than mine here, so perhaps I can find just the things I need there. Well, hopefully she will call me a bit later, then I have to walk over to their house and we go. Later Danny will take me home with the car. It's always a bit tricky with them to make those kind of appointments, cause they change easily ideas LOL. We'll just see how it goes.
And then Saturday even the sun was shining, so I went out again, took another direction and it felt real good to be in the fresh air. Let me show you a few of the pics I took:
Here some of Friday, in a little park not far from us, but I start with pictures of my garden, on the second you can see my footsteps in the snow!

Here the little parc:

And here some of Saturday's walk, but the first one is a view from my window, I took it real early in the morning:

Then Friday  returning from Heidi, I found a surprise waiting for me. Santa Claus delivered me a parcel, and Jan and I were both like little children unpacking the box! And now the presents are waiting under our tree:

And I just HAVE to show you this picture I've made from Brodski and Dikkie Dik, together in cat's dreamland, on the couch!

Then I also found time, of course, to design a bit, and even made a little "create a card"for Minky's special blog, here the preview:

And now I better prepare myself and get ready, in case suddenly I receive the phonecall from Heidi LOL!
I think I have a real nice kit for you today, it's a sweet one, and also fits into the holiday season, it is named "Angel Song"Hope you can make some lovely layouts with it.
Have a wonderful day!

Download     HERE

Let it snow!

Goodmorning everybody!

When I woke up I peeped out of the window and we had a white world, with still snow falling! It was still very quiet out on the street and with the street lamps shining, it almost was a fairy tale like world! And especially when I took a look at the garden, oh I have to make a picture of it today. At the moment it is really snowing hard, it makes almost a curtain, real nice to see, but feeling happy I am inside and have no particularly reason to go out, LOL!
Good news : the post: strike is over( at least for the moment). They seem to have come to an agreement, now the workers have to work real hard to get all Christmaspost at time in the mailboxes!
Strike at the distribution- centre of the supermarket is still going on, we'll see how long that will last!

I wahed a load of laundry yesterday, probably will have to do one more in a couple of days(with sheets from the bed, a cover for the duvet and the rest) the machine is filling quickly, sigh!
Good thing is that there IS a machine doing the work for you, and that you don;t have to do it all by hand!

I am looking forward a bit to Christmas a bit. I will have to take a marker and highlight all Christmas programs, starting already on the 24th! There are of course a lot of films to watch(LOL every year they repeat a bit the same movies) but I like to watch more some Christmas shows, in which there is a lot of music, with all the Christmas carols. With that kind of thing they aren't too giving on the Dutch television, but thanks for cable television, I can watch German tv, they always have some real nice shows and also on BBC there is to find something. I just HAVE to see and hear that, otherwise it doesn't feel Christmassy for me. I have treated myself yesterday evening already by putting up some Christmas cd's(Jan was at the cafe for a while, yippee). I think this evening will be a bit the same, how relaxing! I sit at my computer, in a room full of Christmaslights on, the tree and manger etc., two cats at the couch and then some nice Christmas music. Sometimes there isn;t needed much to feel satisfied and happy.
I've made two things for Minky's faerie Christmasblog, I hope she finds time to post them for you(she all mixed up in the Christmas hectic at Sulina's at the moment). But I can show you the previews. It's a little kit, to create you own card or quickpage, and one all ready quickpage.

And to get you even more in Christmas spirit I have another Christmaskit for you. Next week i will have still another for you, Oh, don;t forget to go to the forum for the weekly download! If all is going well, it will be Nana's contribution!
But today's kit is named "Christmas Cheer". Not a too big kit, but it has some nice elements and really nice papers in it. Hope you can use some of it for all your Christmas pics!
Oh my, it still is snowing here, I wonder how it is further east of Holland. I know, we don;t have a big country, from coast to east border is about 250 kilometers, but it can have already a big difference in weather situation. I really hope people will be careful when they have to be on the roads, an accident happens quickly, with this slippery conditions!
We'll see how weather will be during the weekend, if there still will be snow here, may be there even will be a moment, that it looks good enough to take a little stroll in the snow, it might end up in some nice pictures.
Anyway, you all enjoy your weekend, we'll meet again on Monday!

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I was in town centre for a moment

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday I decided to go into town, weather wasn't too bad, so why not? I wanted to find just a few little Christmas decorations, to finish it all off, cuase Jan decide to also hang something at the window. It's just a garland, but there was needed something to hang on to that and believe it or not, there wasn;t anything left that could do. Well, I finally found some nice things, and for really a low price. Yes, you can find it if you know where to look.
That was about all I did, just looked around in a few shops and bought me a portion of French fried potatoes with mayonnaise, yummie!
I was surprised to notice, that it wasn;t really crowded in town centre, think next week it will be different then!
When I came home, I just changed the sheets from the bed,  and that was about my day.
Oh, I was happy to kNow that one of the parcels I sent away arrived safely at it's destination! I always like to make those kind of surprises to people, hahaha. Now they just have to wait a bit, before they can open the presents!
It's real nice to know that despite the strike of the post, that part went well.! I think they will strike a bit more. And now there is a strike too at a distribution centre from a big supermarket, they want to have better conditions and a small raise of their pay, hmmmm, I wonder if they will get it all. But for that supermarket it isn;t the best time, you notice it a bit in the shop, some things aren;t there yet and they need a bigger stock for Christmas time!
There still isn;t an agreement between direction and workers, so it's possible they will strike again today or tomorrow for 24 hours. And who knows, may be even next week again!
It's not too bad for us, cause there are other supermarkets around, but this is just the one that is nearest to us.So I hope the problem will be solved in time.

Think it is time for the freebie now. I really like this one, made on one of my "better days"LOL! I really am back a bit into the vintage look, and this is a result of it, the kit Grandma's Time .
Have a fun day, don't get stressed by now because Christmas is so near! You'll see you have eveything done in time, although it may seem now the contrary!

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Slowly Christmascards are coming in!

Goodmorning everybody!

It wasn't such a bad day yesterday, speaking of the weather. I did go out and it felt warmer as I thought. But it is still a bit tricky, you never know exatly what to expect the next day. Today the sky is looking more greyish, of a weird colour, it may start to rain or even a bit of watery snowfall. For tomorrow they say there will be snowfall, oh my, poor Jan then, because he has to go to his checkup at the hospital. It will be a very early rise for him, I'll have to wake him before 08.00 o'clock in the morning. I know, for a lot of people it is not so early, but as he goes to sleep mostly really late at night, it will be hard for him! Okay, he can always take a nap in the afternoon.

It's now a nice time of year, to see what the post brings you. Yes, lot of times it still is the same thing: BILLS, but every now and then there is also a Christmascard to open.! Slowly they are coming in now and I always like that. Does it happen to you too, that every year there is a card from someone, you forgot to send one to?
 It happens to me almost every year, and mostly because I've lost an address, or didn;t see or speak to that person for a long time. Shame on me, but then there is still time to quickly write one and post it and it even arrives on time!

Oh, forgot to tell you about a thing that gave me some shivers for a moment! I think it was Sunday evening, rather early. I was at the computer and suddenly lost internet. Okay, no big deal, that sometimes hapens, then the provider is doing some maintenance or so. I shut down, was ready with my stuff anyway, but went looking to the connection box. It's standing on the windowsill in the coner, good place for it. But then I also saw that all the loghts of my Christmas village weren't burning! Hmmm, strange, I looked down if they were connected and yes, they were. Looked at the box of internet, ALL LIGHTS WERE OUT! Whee, I don;t like that. Well, to make it a bit short, Dikkie Dik was sitting at the windowsill, he wriggled himself into a really tiny open spot on it and with his large bump he must have touched the connections of the power-point and that was it. I put back well the connections and voilà, all was burning again! So I chased him away from that place using a few harsh words on him ! and placed a little plant at that spot, now he cannot sit there anymore!
Pfffff, I was glad it only was that and not something else. Oh, pets are nice to have but sometimes they give you nasty surprises LOL!

Your freebie for today is a smaller kit, all in teal colourscheme, and because of the colour I named it "Mysterious Nightfall". Hope you will like this one.
Have a marvellous day!

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Most of the post happy news

Goodmorning everybody!

Yeah for me, I did my tasks yesterday!!! Dusting, hoovering and some ironing!!! Today is shopping day and later some cooking, meat that has to be on the stove for several hours.
I just came from Snowy's blog and read some WONDERFUL news thee! Although real slow, Erik is making progress! And the most wonderful is..........bo........ I will leave that. Read it yourself on Snowy's blog, but it's happy news after a long time of fearing, hoping and such.

And oh whee, did you know that Minky's blog had it's 1st anniversairy? I didn;t but most funny is that Minky herself did forget about it, being soooo busy with her Christmas party and a lot of things. So congrats to you Minky, you made a very special place in cyberland, or better said. sveral special places LOL. Thanks for being such a lovely, warm-hearted, really special person!

So reading a bit of this happy news should brighten up your day!

But as always, when there is good or happy news, also on the side there is less good news. It was on the news bulletin and it is something aweful. A guy, working in a daycare for really young children, from 1 1/2 to 4 or 5 year) seemed to have abused at least 40 or 50 in a real bad way, they confiscated his laptop and he had protected it real heavy but police encrypted it now and it appears he had hundreds or thousands of pictures of really young children, was involved in a pornosite etc,etc,etc. he already confessed a numer of abuses but it could e only the top the mountain! The guy is 27 years old !
This is uncomprehensible! It is really a big case here and I suppose at least the next few days there will be more about it on tv. But can you imagine a grown man abusing children that young? It  isn't really clear yet how far the abuse was going, but we can assume it got as far as you can imagine.
He also was sometimes baby sitting at home of some of the children, nobody suspected him from anything, he really had the confidence of parents! Even he wanted to start his own daycare!
When I hear these kind of things, I really feel sick, you know. How twisted his mind must be to be able to do this kind of thing? Well, the case will be followed on tv as I said, but I think it will take a long time before it will come to court, cause police has to investigate so much material and it seems there is another guy involved in it and probably even a women.

It may even be in some newspaper or so in America, cause the whole case started from a tip from oveerthere.
I hope this guy will be put away for the rest of his life!

Let us just forget for a while this terrble news and jump over to your  freebie. This kit was inspired for a great deal by Eriks and Snowy's situation, as you could figurre out by the name of it: "Never Give Up Hope".
And we shouldn't, although it is hard sometimes to have hope. And I know, in some situations there is no hope left anymore, but for the times there is just a sparkle of it left, we should hang on to that with all our heart!
That said I wish you all a hopefull day in good spirit!

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Keeping low profile lately.

Goodmorning everybody!

Are you all a bit exhausted of the Christmas shopping? I am glad I did that in parts and that's it's done already!
Well, almost. Only have to do some of the grocerie shopping for it, but that will be around start of next week I think.
Jan and I are keeping "low profile"lately, LOL, meaning we aren;t too active, no, that isn't completely true. We are doing things, but that are the normal things around the house etc., no activities outside, which is understandable too with the weather.
But for a few days that is improving, weather I mean, a few degress above zero at daytime and during the night just may be 1 degree under. Don't get excied now, they expect it to get worse towards the end of the week again.
Still this rather "quiet"time isn't too bad. It gives me opportunity to design again, yes, some inspiration is settling in my brains again, so I did a couple of kits and even a new quickpage for Minky's Fairie Christmas blog. I've made it with one of her angel kits and found a lovely little poem for it:

We watched yesterday the second part of a fabulous program, called "Boer zoekt Vrouw" (Farmer searches Women), kind of dating program for Farmers(also women farmers) who are looking for a partner in life, but seem to have trouble doing it on their own. We have a great host for that program, a lovely lady who is first visiting about 10 farmers, showing their farm and the persons itself and then it is waiting for the post. Oh my, some of them received bunches of letters. The largest amount was around 1025 letters!!!!!!
Now they have to choose 10 out of their letters, and next week they will have a kind of speed date with that women(or men, on women farmer in it) each letter writer gets 5 minutes.
This program is really done in a very nice way, it has been on already several years and the nicest thing is that the host is visiting the farmers after about a year, to see if they are still with the partner of their choice.
And it may be amazing, but from last years series, almost all are still together and very happy, we had a show about that two weeks ago!
Now we are going to follow a few of the new "set of farmers". Of the chosen ones, not all will be in the program, but every now and then she will give an update about the ones not in the tv program and if you like you can follow them on internet too.
It's really a blast of a tv program, mostly because of the way it is made!
It has nothing to do with a normal dating program you sometimes have on tv.
This program is one of the best watched in all Holland! Every time about 3,5 million or may be even a bit more viewers! And that's really a lot over here, when you think that a soccer match of the national team(and that is attrackting really very much people believe me!) is making around 1,8 to 2 million viewers!
 Well, at the most it could be 2,5 million!

So for the next few weeks our Sunday evening is spoken for LOL!

Today will be time  for some dusting, hoovering and such, not too interesting, isn't it? But that are things, that have to be done sometimes. I better show you a preview of your freebie for today! I think it will be another Christmas kit( have some more on the shelf, hahaha), this time one named"Vintage Like Christmas".
Have a wonderful day!

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I have a few pics for you

Goodmorning everybody!

It was an "easy"day for me yesterday, I just thought I treat myself with a day of no housekeeping(well, almost not LOL). So I finished off a project I was busy with, uploaded finished kits and such.
I've tried to come up with some decent pictures of the Christmas room, they are not brilliant, but perhaps you get a bit an impression.

I've tried to make them without flash, but I had to make several ones, cause some of the pics I took were very blurry because of the without flash taking. Still they aren't brilliant as I said, but at least the lights are showing better. Don;t you love my bears with their bonnets? I do that every year, only the composition differs. And you see the little viallage Jan won in the lottery of the cafe, but it was a bit small, when I first put it up. Luckily I found some more houses in our boxes and with Santa added and some little figurines we also had lying around it is looking not too bad now. It's really a nice view in the evening when the lights are bruning in the houses.

Oh, I can show you the preview of the little project I finished yesterday, you can find it on Minky's
http://faeriechristmas.blogspot.com/, under the page of books. It's a small booklet of 12 pages together for the kids, with some quickpages, a bookmark to color, a tic tac toe game, some little task to do too, I only was a dummy and didn;t make 3 elements for the the tic tac toe, so you'll have to print the elves 3 times, sorry! When all is printed and done, you can punch two wholes at the side and tie it together with e.g. a ribbon( made a front and back cover for it too).

Yesterday evening I did write my Christmas cards, so I can bring them to the postoffice today(need to buy some stamps for them, they go all over the world, hahahaha).
And for later today I was given a task by Jan. The owner of the cafe asked if I could make a small poster(just on A4) for announcing a special Christmas lottery that will be done on the 24th of December. The tickets will be
€ 1,00 a piece, but there will be really great prizes they promised. Of course I will make the small posters. Shouldn;t be a problem, hmmmm?
Well, that's about all folks, so I will show you the preview of a smaller Christmaskit I;ve made, named "Heartwarming Christmas". It's all in one colourscheme, a bit different from the usual I think.
Have a wonderful weekend and meet you again on Monday.

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I have a treat for you!

Goodmorning everybody!

First thing I did yesterday was of course blogposting and then I finally had a chat on MSN with Snowy! Don't know why time is going away so quickly when you're on a chat, but I had to cut off our conversation, cause I had to go out also. Perhaps we find another moment to chat some more.
I did the shopping yesterday, had to find also some nails for Jan, so he could adjust our Christmaslights hanging at the ceiling, but showing them to him he wasn;t pleased, seems I didn;t get the right ones  LOL! Oh bummer, why do I bother to look for it  myself????? Okay, I can use the nails for other things, no problem, but my answer to him was quit simple: "If I don't get you the right thing, you should go and buy them yourself!!!"(And I wasn't saying this in a very nice way hahahaha!).

After the shopping and putting them into place, I turned on the washing machine and the laundry is hanging. The dry laundry I put away for a part, but still have to do some ironing. Should be a thing to do today.

Did some other small tasks and then thought it was enough and worked a bit on a little project I started.
And I have some lovely news for you!
Minky decided to open up one of her special blogs to the world, so now everybody can go there and take a look at all the treats we've posted there.! If you are still lacking a bit of Christmas spirit I advise you to go there and I am sure you all will LOVE the place. Lots of great things to download I can promise you that! Only thing we ask in return is a little thank you, you can do that in the comment area or in the shoutbox! I don't thnk that is too much to ask. It takes may be a minute or two from your time!
Here is the link to the blog
                          http://faeriechristmas.blogspot.com/

You will see at the top of the blog links to different pages, be sure to check them all !

I haven't yet made some pictures from our "Christmasroom", think I will do that today, and then hope they will be better than the first try!
And opening my mail this morning I found a really yummie recipe for Christmas from Miriam! Is she a lucky lady perhaps? Why, you probably ask! Well, her hubbie is a chef cook!!!!WOW! She must have loads of tasteful recipes, I can imagine she will have to try out at times some of his creations, not too bad to spend your time with LOL! She also told me she has started to make her own ice-cake for Christmas! Is she good or not????

Okay, I've brought you a link to get into real Christmas spirit, perhaps gave you inspiration to think about Christmas dinner(although I didn;t gave you the recipe from Miriam) so enough to spend the day with hmmmmm? And on top I even have a small kit for you! Named it" Magic Winter Forrest".
Have a splendid day you all!

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CHOO CHOO!!!! BLOGTRAIN!!!

Goodmorning everybody!

The Sleigh Ride blogtrain has left the station! Come on and make the ride with us and you will see a lot of great contributions! At the end of this post you will see mine and for the whole list of contributors just go to
http://aussiescrapsblogtrain.blogspot.com/.

Yesterday we did almost finish decorating for Christmas. I think Jan just wants to check on the lights at the ceiling ( a little nail here and there and clening a bit the little lights) but all the rest was done yesterday . I even did make a few pictures, but I looked at them this morning and they weren't good enough so I will try again  and then show you the result of the hard work LOL!
What else waa done overhere? Well, as you can imagine not much more happened, but I did make some new stuff for Minky's blog and also finished another Christmas kit.
Oh, Minky is also offering a contribution to the Sleigh Ride blogtrain and you know what? On her blog you also can find and download 2 quickpages I made with her gift. So you have a little extra to download. Here's the preview of the quickpages:

And on the special Christmas blog from also Minky, you can find a new memory game I've made. Just look on that blog under the page for Games etc. It's really fun to make these cards. Just print the cards twice and you can start your game with the kids or grandkids. Dont'you think they look cute????

Okay, enough bragging done LOL!
Now today I really have to do some grocerie shopping again and also a load of laundry is waiting in the machine, so that has to be done too and if there is a bit of time left and more important if I still have some energy I should do a bit of ironing. But may be I will leave that for tomorrow, I'll think about that!

Also it's time to think about Christmas dinner, I have no clou yet what I'll make for it. I am opting for some smaller courses, only big question is WHAT! Suggestions are welcome, LOL! We like meat, we like fish,so there are many possibilities. Not being too big eaters, this will be the best thing to do. When I have "the plan" I will let you know, okay?


And then is here my contribution to the blogtrain: ""Christmas Joy". You will find a link to this post in my sidebar as well as to Aussia blogtrain blog and you can also find the download in my Christmaskits 2010(see sidebar)Have fun with it and oh yes, if you are going to download some more fantastic contributions at Aussie's blogtrain blog, don;t you forge to leave a little "thank you" in the comment box of the designers. It will make Christmas time extra happy!
Have a marvellous day!

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P.S. If Medifire doesn't work well, just let me know, I can upload it elsewhere. Although the last few days it seems Medifire works better again.