The year is almost done with!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download   HERE

Catching up a bit of sleep

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download    HERE

And suddenly Christmas is over!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

Download   HERE

CHRISTMAS, ALMOST!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

Download      HERE

It's almost Christmas!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download    HERE

Here I am again already

Goodmorning everybody!

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

Download     HERE

It's quiet and peacefull in the house again LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

Download      HERE

A small disaster happened ROFL!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download      PART 1
Download      PART 2

Dark days before Christmas

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

Download      HERE

I have trouble understanding people at times

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

Download the papers    HERE

Download the tags    HERE

Freezer is filled again LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download     HERE

Christmas can begin here!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Download     PART 2   HERE

Mr. Postman brought a present!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

Download      PART 1   HERE

Doctor's visit this morning

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download    HERE

I wasn't singing in the rain!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download    HERE

WWCSF blogtrain has left station!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

Download     HERE

My hubby is awesome at times!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

 Download     HERE

My pizza was delicious.

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

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

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

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

Download     HERE

No cooking today.

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

Download   HERE

Postoffice, be ready!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

                                HAPPY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING!

Take care, have a great day!

Download   part 2 HERE

My baking was successful!

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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


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

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

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

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

Isn't he sweet?

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

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

Download    part 1 HERE

Nature keeps amazing me.

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

Looks great, hey?

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

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

Download     HERE

Getting colder.

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

Download   HERE

Weather Gods are still good for us.

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

Download    HERE

I AM GETTING OLD!!!! FORGETTING THINGS!

Goodafternoon everybody!

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

Download   part 4 HERE

Sinterklaas is coming to Holland again.

Goodmorning everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a wonderful weekend, and till Monday!

Download  part 5 HERE