The month almost gone again

Goodmorning everybody!
Can you imagine that January is already almost gone again? I keep amazed over and over again how quick times passes!
The weekend was nice, well filled with tv watching and also some designing. I made a mistake about the speed skating. Yes it was there, but NOT the World chamionships allround, it was only for the Wrold Cup. There are several encounters for it all over the world, and it's interesting but not the same as the allround. We'll have to wait for that a bit longer.
I had a great time also watching the figure skating. Oh whee, some new talents are showing themselves and in just a couple of years they should be wonderful!
I have to make it a bit of short post, we planned to go to the market, at last, today so must get ready in time!

At the forum we already have the new theme and colourscheme for March(yeah, we try to work ahead) and it's a great one and I was so inspired by it that I almost have my part ready. I think I just need a few more elements.
And I also made another bloglayout for next month, that's almost finished too and even started a new kit, so all together I was rather busy, don;t you think?

Feeling so sorry for my friend Edna at the moment!! She has loads and loads of snow to battle and it seems there's no end to it yet. Then we should feel ourselves blessed around here, temperatures around zero point, not very much wind, some moments with sun and they say temperature will go up at daytime to 7 or 8 degrees C later this week. It isn't yet going towards Spring temperature, but the garden is trying to give an impression of Spring, yes! Not only the snowdrops are starting to show up. I even saw the noses of some tulips peeping out! Wow, nature is strong! It will take still weeks and weeks before they will bloom, but it is so hopeful LOL!
Okay time for me to get ready slowly to go to the market!
Have a wonderful day!

Download    PART 4 HERE

Water back, all is as it should be.

Goodmorning everybody!

After posting I started dressing myself(would be odd to see me going out shopping in my pyjama's and fleece blanket LOL) and then wnet to the  supermarket. I did the far away tour, cause I needed something I only can do in that area, putting a bill into the bank mailbox, sigh! I did the stuff needed and returned home. Took a break with a coffee and as it was rather early yet, I took all my courage together and went into town for the present of Séverine. Not before we checked on the water, and hoorraay, it was back again. ! All to normal again, thank heaven!
Well, it took me a while looking around in some shops, but I found her two books. One of ""Geronimo Stilton", a mouse who has a lot of adventures. This book is based on the story of Excalibur, and some other stories told by Merlin.
Then another book by Angie Sage, title Araminta Spookie: Vampire Brat! Araminta, the main character lives in Spookie house, so there are always strange events. This time there is something spookie to discover in the cellar, and she also has to deal with a spookie nephew, an irritating slimy boy!
Also bought a nice wrapping paper and pffff, glad I've done the search!

Done all this I was home rather late, so I have to appologize for not posting a freebielist yesterday. But today I will have one again for you!
Just after dinner I could finish a small kit I've made for Minky's blog, the "Lots of Love blog"
And it's amazing that often Minky and I are creating some new stuff at the same time. First preview is from Minky's entry and second is mine, you can find both links on that blog.

Oh, I had a nice time at the couch yesterday. I totally forgot that there are also the EC Figureskating on! So I watch a bit the pairs this time and saw some flashes from the men too, some extra-ordinary talents there!
All together it will be a busy sports weekend, I guess.
But first I will have to do a quick sweep through the house today(as I didn;t have time and/or energy for that anymore yesterday). Weather looks allright at the moment, Quit some blue sky and yeah, sunshine! Temperature is only just 1 or two degrees above zero, but okay, it LOOKS already a lot friendlier this way.
Snowy just was expressing her hopes on her blog, that there would come more snow! I gave her a nice comment there, that I WOULDN;T HAVE IT LOL! Is she completely nuts? I think we had enough, it's time for creeping up to Spring now, not the other way around. Jan brought to my attention that the first signs of snowdrops are showing in the garden. Come on sweet flowers, do your best and be the ones to encourage the rest of the garden, yeah!!!!

Oh before I finish this post I wAnt to say, don;t forget to our forum for the last weekly download of January!

And tomorrow we will have a special day! Yes,MY HUBBY WILL HAVE HIS BIRTHDAY! Just 3 weeks after mine and we are both 58 then, no more chance to say for him, that he is married to an older women LOL!
(okay, there is still the difference of three weeks, but the number is the same now, that's different hahahaha).
Here I have the 3rd part of the kit Rosalinde for you and only thing left is to wish you all a fabulous weekend!

Download  PART 3   HERE   or   HERE

Waterless day!

Goodmorning everybody!

I have a BIG pan of water standing in the kitchen, plus a bottle and a bucket in the toilet. LOL. I hope they works on the waterpipes will be over with early this afternoon. When something like this happens, you really notice how used you are to the simple fact, that you only have to open a watertap and have water! Then you can realize a bit how hard it must be in some parts of the world, where there isn;t such a system!!!

We went to the new Years party of the cafe yesterday late afternoon, it wasn't very crowded, but nice. The owner and his wife provided a whole table with food again, warm and cold, and they do the cooking themselves!They always make far too much food, I think they can eat from it for days after LOL! So we took a bite and stayed there for about 1 1/2 hour I think and then went home again. Later in the evening Jan returned there, I think he wanted to play a game of cards for a while. I didn;t mind, I was comfy installed on the couch and watched some tv. Then I felt very sleepy around midnight so I went to bed, and slept for 5 hours in a row, amazing! Went into the room, made me a coffee, watched a it of tennis and then went off for some more sleep, yippee 4 hours in a row again.! I feel a lot better today.

I didn't go to town yesterday afternoon, no energy for that and it was rather cold too! I'll have to pick another day for that soon. Not today, have to go to the bank and want to do all shopping for the weekend if I can. That leaves me kind of "free"for the weekend and those days can be filled with lots of other things. Some housework, yak, of course, may be a quick visit to town and also tv again, this weekend, starting on Friday is speedskating again, this time World Championship for allround and you know we LOVE speedskating. It's spead over the whole weekend starting on Friday.

With all those things in mind, I think it's a good thing to finish this post and start doing some of it LOL.
I have the second part of "Rosalinde"for you. Enjoy your day and just remember the things that went well, it should give you a good feeling, grin grin!!!

Download      PART 2   HERE   or   HERE

We start a new daily today!

Goodmorning everybody!

I did the things I had in mind yesterday, good girl. First took a nice loooong shower then had a sandwich and then did the ironing and put all the stuff in their place. Okay! Also changed the bedsheets, so that was fresh too! Then made a little potatoe salad for dinner, we had that together with a piece of fish and a little dessert. Okay!
Even a little dusting was done.
Don;t know yet what I will do today. I had the plan to go for Séverines birthday present, but I don;t think so. Yesterday I felt really good, but today the energy is a bt lower, I think due to the fact this night I didn;t sleep as well as the night before. Oh, it will come, but it takes a bit loger today LOL. Then this evening there is a New Years celebration in the cafe. Yes, only today, I have no idea why they do it so late in January, but it is so.
It's not really my kind of thing, but I know Jan will be happy when I go with him. Well, I think it over, may be I'll just go there for an hour or so, then I can leave the bunch behind and go home. It isn;t the case, that I don;t like the people there(although it isn;t the same as in the "old"cafe where we went years ago, that almost felt like family, really), but I am quickly bored a bit, sitting there, it just isn;t my kind of thing. Okay for an hour or may be two, then I just want to go home! It sounds terrible, but I can't help it.
Still if I go, have to think of some nicer slothes then the comfy ones I am wearing now, have to do my hair, you know, I have to look"good". Well, the best I can hahahahah.

Oh, I surley must NOT forget to save some water in large pans etc, because tomorrow they shut off the water for several hours, there seems to be some work on the waterpipes in our neighbourhood. Oh joy, I hope they do their work quick and well, they said it will be shut off between 9.00 and 14.00 during daytime, let's hope it stays that way and they don;t encounter big problems!

I told you about the new transportaion cards we are going to have? Well, at the news was yesterday that there is a problem with them(again). The chip inside can be hacked rather easyly and then you can put any amount of money on it, which isn't coming from any bankaccount, no, just change the amount. So then you travel for no money at all. So now there are questions in parliament about it and some parties already demand, that the card will be retired for the moment and has to be changed before the public is going to use it. We'll see what happens!! They had problems with that card from the beginning and don't seem to be able to make a solid one.

So let's go to happier things, the freebie. I have a daily download kit again for you, it will be in 5 parts. It's the kit"Rosalinde"Hope it will make you kind of happy! I am showing you the preview of the whole kit, so it's a little surprise each day, what there will be in the download.
Have a nice day!

Download     PART 1  HERE

No market, but other things

Goodmorning everybody!

I didn;t hear Jan about going to the market yesterday and to be quit honest, I didn;t mind that. But when I came home from the shopping, surprise, Jan already took off the long curtains of the backside of the room! Oh shame, they looked aweful! They were of quit another colour you could say then whe we just bought them LOL. So I put them into the washing machine and they look 100% better now again.

Today some more things have to be done. A house never cleans itself(wouldn;t that be an invention???????????), so it must be me I suppose.
I think tomorrow might be a good day to go into town to look around for the present for Séverine. I already have her birthday card. Specially when she was a little yonger she liked to do "kung-fu"with me(and sometimes she still does that LOL). And I stumbled upon a card, with a hamster in kung-fu clothes and when you open the card, you are overwhelemd by the sound of the song playing........."Everybody was Kung-fu fighting"! I think she will have a good laugh with that! It wasn't such a cheap card, but I couldn;t resist buying it.

Oh there is a new quickpage for download on Minky's blog that I made yesterday.This is the QP, made from items of a "create a card" from Minky.

And as we finished the daily download of the Abbigail kit, I had to think of somethig else again. And I Have something for you, yeah. With Valentines day coming up in not too long, this might be a nice mini kit for you for some special pictures. Although no really a Valentines kit, it could be used for it.Hope you enjoy it.
Now quick a second coffee and then get busy around here, I am already a bit late today, but I just took my time, hey hey!

Have a great day!

Download    HERE

Award, and another part of Abbigail

Goodmorning everybody!

This weekend I received an award from Zaza, from Scraps and Tubes and I was very honoured with it! But I won't submit to all the rules of it, while I find it difficult to boost about myself and I don't have really the time at the moment to think that over well, so I will not take advantage of the Gift certificate(only fair, I think), but I will pass the award on to some other designers. Am I making sense? I hope so.
Here's the award and the rules and then the designers :

 

Here the link to the blog:

                                                      http://jansislandtreasures.blogspot.com/

In order to qualify for the $5.00 Digi's with Attitude! Gift Certificate, you muststate 3 things that make you different from everyone else and you must nominate 5 blogs. Lastly you must display the Blog Award Badge (above) in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi's With Attitude! Blog.

If you have been awarded the "I got Attitude! Blog Award" and you have followed all the steps please email dwacblog@live.com to claim your Gift Certificate. Include your full name and your blog name. Only one Gift Certificate per person & blog please. Gift Certificates will be sent to you within 48 hours of receipt on a business day via a reply to the email received.
Here the blogs I nominated:
http://creativeelegancedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://scrappiness-sylviaesther.blogspot.com/
http://aisne-creations.blogspot.com/
http://minkythings.blogspot.com/
http://silversnowyraven.blogspot.com/



Okay, I think I;'ve done my best.
The weekend was very nice, I even didn't do really much at the computer, I think I needed a bit time off from that LOL. There was also the World  championship speed skating sprint to watch, and in between a little nap to do and it all felt very well!

Friday afternoon Jan did take his walk to the market , after I did some quick shopping. It gave me opportunity to do some dusting around and hoovering too, it always seems to go quicker and easier when the hubby isn't around LOL. Well, when he came back he told me we should go this week again to the market, cause a lot of vegetables and also fruit was very cheap, so time to buy a lot for a few Euro's and put it into the freezer. We'll see if it comes to that. I also have to go to town to look around for the present for Séverine and we also have to go for that bus and tram card I told you about.

Friday evening at about 21.30, suddenly the phone rang. It was Heidi, asking me if we could come over with the extra house key, cause she was out with the dog and forgot her house key. Séverine was home, but in her room, probably already sleeping, so she didn;t hear the doorbell, LOL. Heidi sometimes is such a chaotic, hopeless! Well, Jan went to her and all was well again. It gave him opportuniy too, to have a little chat with her.
Oh, I realize now, that perhaps we will have to give the doggie a walk Wednesday or Thirsday, or both days, cause Heidi is going to hospital and Danny will be working, as far as I know. Oh gosh, that is breaking a day, but of course we will do that to help. If it is at daytime, I will do it, but if it is in the evening(Danny works on different shifts) I think I will ask Jan to do it. I don;t like to be outside in the dark, later in the evening.
Well, I think it is time to put on the last part of the Abbigail kit and then put on some clothes and see if Jan wants to go to the market today.
Have a great day!

Download    PART 4 HERE

Relaxed day.

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh my, do I have a handsome looking hubby now again! Why, you should wonder. Well, perhaps you remember he needed a new pair of teeth? They were ready yesterday! So he went there in the afternoon and came shortly after back and I asked him to smile at me. WOW! He really had teeth again and they were looking bright, but not too much, just real good natural! Especially the under part made a real difference, cause the old one had just some real short teeth, they were broken off long ago. We both had a good laugh too, because he said(and I could hear it a bit) he had in a way trouble speaking, because his tongue was held back again  LOL. I am so happy for him, it really makes a big difference. Perhaps in a few days he has to go back to the dental shop to have some minor adjustments done on the protheses, but then it should be okay.
I am glad our health insurance pays a part of the costs, about 70%, hoorray, cause a complete teeth prothese isn;t the cheapest thing to have made!


That was about the big news of yesterday. The rest of the day we had a relaxed day, I just had a laundry done, and I keep wondering how quick the machine is full of stuff every time, ha!
But today I really should do a bit of grocerie shopping, not too much, but some catfood is needed and definately coffee, and a few other things(that i should write down on a little shopping list, otherwise I might forget them).
Weather looks not too bad for going out, there is a cloudy sky, but now and then we have a sparkle of sunlight, and best of things, there isn;t much wind.
Before I forget, there is another download on the magickal scraps forum, this time from Miriam, and you really should take a look, she makes real pretty things! An as you are hopping around then already also take a look at her blog, she has some wondeful quickpages again for you!

Next week Jan and I should go to the cunstomer service of the bus and tram company, because it is decided by the "big and important"people, that the tickets for bus, tram and train are disappearing and that there will be a chip card insted. Oh joy, I think it isn't easier, lots of people are having the same experience, there are still troubles with it now and then, but as from the 3rd of February, you only can travel with this card. I am not excited about it, but nothing to do about it, you are simply forced to buy it(yes, you will have to pay € 7,50 to get it) . Hmmmmm, nothing else to do then surrender, yak. The most annoying thing about it is that only YOU can travel on that card! So let's say you have a guest staying at your house and you want to make a trip to town-centre, you'll have to buy a special day card for the guest and then he or she can take the bus or tram. When we still had tickets, you could buy e.g. a card with 15 stripes or a big one with 45 stripes on it, you just put the necessary zones(stripes) into the time clock stamping machine and if you had more persons travelling, you did that twice or more times. Very simple, and much easier.No, not all changes are changes for the best, believe me! Now you also have to check if you have enough money on your chipcard, otherwise you even cannot travel. There is a possiblity to have a card, that automatically loads money from you bankaccount to it, or you can have one, that doesn't, then you have to upload money to it. We'll take the last one, I have the feeling I have better control over it then. But it sucks, certainly when there aren't yet enough "uploading"points yet. No, for the moment I am not really happy about it.
I may have explained the whole thing a bit poorly(just have some trouble translating some special words LOL) but i think you get the idea.

Well, that was my moaning for the moment, grin=-grin, and let's go to your 3rd part of the Abbigail-kit. Then I will have time to have another coffee and then I must get moving! Soon weekend will start for all of us again and I wish you all a splendid and happy weekend! See you Monday again.

Download   PART 3 HERE

Hoorray for pamper day LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

It was a good idea to do the bit of pampering yesterday. I woke uo in the morning kind of sweating all over, I think it must have been the start of a cold that came out, thanks heaven!So you can imagine I felt a bit "sticky"and after the posting I did take my shower. Usually I am done in about 10 minutes, but I took my time, and stayed longer and it felt good, all that warm water and shower gel, and shampoo! It really did me well!
And in the evening Jan went out for a quick visit to the cafe, I was cuddled up on the couch, watching some detectives and suddenly felt the urge, to take off my clothes and put on my pyjama's and curl myself into my fleece blanket and so I did. And it was soooooo comfy and sooooooo easy to hop into bed later, wow, I had a great day LOL.
I received a mail from my friend Heidi, with an invitation to it for the birthday party of Séverine. he girl already will be 9 years old on the 8th of February! Early evening Heidi phoned me, just for a little chat, she was just recovering from having a bad cold during the weekend. She spent two days in bed the poor thing. I could hear by her voice that it wasn;t gone completely yet. Next week she will have to go for two days to the hospital in Amsterdam and undergo several tests and the second day, if all the tests are well, she will have a special blood transfusion with extra iron in it. She was feeling lately so tired and without energy, but the normal pills with iron didn;t seem to work with her, so now they will try this way. I hope it will give her a boost again, cause I can imagine she must feel not really in good  shape. We talked a bit about that and she also gave me some ideas for a present for Séverine. I think it will be a book, she likes to read and may be i can find her also some nice stuff for hobbywork, the girl likes to make things with her hands, like cards and things like that. And why not stimulate her creativity? It's nice to have a hobby.
 I think I will go on search for that next week.
Today definately will be laundry day and some housework day.Not very exciting, but necessary sometimes LOL.

Okay time for the second part of the kit "Abbigail".
Have a nice day and till tomorrow!

Download     PART 2 HERE

OOOOOHHHHHH, a bit of sunshine!

Goodmorning everybody!

As I told you, I did some of the grocerie shopping yesterday and as I came homefirst took a sandwich and then went back to the kitchen to prepare dinner. I wanted to make a real Dutch recipe, "stampot zuurkool"( that is mashed potatoes with sauerkraut and little bits of smoked bacon ). As it is something that you better make in larger portion, it takes a little bit of time. I always make for two days at a time. And as the sauerkraut and potatoes were cooking, I made a kind of kebab on sticks from minced beat(of beef). The kebab I put in the fridge, and then finished off the sauerkraut. It always makes a bit of mess in the kitchen, so after all was made, I cleaned up the kitchen, and then could sit down again. But it means I have an easy cooking day today, all I have to do is put it into the oven and tadaaaaa, we can eat.
I think today will be a little bit of pamper time LOL. After I've done the posting, perhaps I will take another small coffee, and then take a nice long shower, do my hair and that always makes you feel better.
It even looks rather nice outside, though when I woke up the air looked real dark, but after half an hour it is much lighter and even I see some sunshine! Ha, if it stays that way for some more time, it could be a good day for Jan to take his walk to the market. I don;t think I will go with him, I just stay put at home, perhaps do a little bit on the house and then put on some music and go on with some designing at the computer i think. Hmmmm, sounds good to me.

I always wonder about my cats, you know. They always have their favourite places to have their rest and naps, but that places always change after a while. For example, Dikkie Dik suddenly found his spot in the hallway a few weeks ago. Jan even layed down a little rug for him there(yeah, you know the type of man: rather big mouth, but as it comes to it, so soft hearted, LOL). So the cat spent a lot of time there, only for a brief moment showing up in the room, to get a quick cuddle and gone again. The last week or so he suddenly found back his spot at the window and the rug in the hallway is waiting for him in vain! I noticed that my cats change every few weeks or sometimes months their "hang-out"places. Very strange, but amusing also. As Brodski is lying around in the kitchen lately. Not all the time, but very often again. He did that about two months ago, and suddenly changed that place again for his spot on a chair. Pets keep us amazed all the time!

Today we start with a little daily-download and after a few days you will have collected a small complete kit. Isn;t that a nice idea? So for the next few days I will give you two papers and some elements each time. I'll show you a preview of the whole kit, named  "Abbigail". I hope you will enjoy it.
And now it's almost "pamper-yourself-time"LOL!
So I wish you all a great day and see you tomorrow.

Download     PART 1   HERE

Hopping around day today!

Goodmorning everybody!

I will try to keep it a bit short, cause I have to do some things today and don;t want to push them ahead till later afternoon LOL.
It was a quiet day yesterday, although I did the ironing, okay, that's something! Jan had plans to go to the market yesterday afternoon, but after a good look out of the window he decided to stay home. It was raining, not very hard, but just the way, that after a while you are completely soaked. So may be he will get a better chance tomorrow. I was able to upload some things that were ready, finally, I even was such a diciplined girl, that I took time to burn some stuff onto cd's. I even took time to make a quickpage for Minky's Love blog, I was a bit low on designing for her lately LOL. I think it could be a lovely quickpage for Valentine's day.

I should tell you that for the coming time I really will cut back a little bit on the freebies, at least posting a  whole kit every day. I just am busy with a lot of things and don't find the time to keep that up for the moment. I know it will be a bit disappointing, but I hope you still will visit me to take a look around and read a bit about the daily life, and although I will not be able to post a complete kit every day, I surely will try to have a little something for you, mostly that will be quickpages, or bragbookpages, may be even sometimes a paper pack or so. Could you live with that for the time being?
Okay, time for me now to get moving around soon( among one of the things to do today is shopping for groceries, sigh!) and I've made you a quickpage from the kit 'French Cottage Chic", hopefully you can use that for a special picture!
Have a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

I am slow in changes LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

Did I tell you there may be some changes in near future? I think I did, but the trouble with me sometimes is, that I am slow in getting these changes done! LOL. It depends on the changes, how quick I will do them. Yes, I know, it's hopeless with me. I know, when you have made decisions, or at least have rather solid ideas about some changes you should carry them out too! It's mostly the trouble with some things you have to do that are new, or may be a bit complicated that hold me back now a days. I will take the leap suddenly, one day, but first want to have it completely figured out in my mind, before I start with it.
Yes, I agree, I sometimes talk slightly in riddles for you, please bear with me, hopefuly soon all will be more clear.
I can say I had a great weekend, all very quiet, but great for me to spend time on designing. Some of the things ready, still will have to be put together on a preview and then uploaded, but they are in the "waiting-room" and I will pick them up after I posted.

I think the herbal sirop I am taking in now for a few days, is going to do it's job. Well, I am still coughing, it will be something I just have to get used to, but when I wake up at night, it's not taking so much time anymore to get it "loose" and it seems I even sleep a bit longer before I wake up . So I wil carry on for the moment with this herbal sirop and see if it will do its job even better. We were all a bit hopeful about the weather here, temperature going up and up till even around 11 degrees C ! But we were to early, hahaha. They predicted that temperature will go down again during this week, and we even might get 1 or 2 degrees nightfrost. Brrrr, I am not liking that, but can live with it as long as we won;t get any snow. And let's be realistic: we still are very early in the year and I can remember we had sometimes even snow and frost in April!. I only hope it will NOT be the case this year. I am in desparate need of some nice temperature and sunshine.

I think today I should do a bit of a favourite occupation, hahahaha, ironing! Well, if I spit into my hands and get started with it I think I can have it done in about half an hour, which isn;t too bad. Some little things are wiaiting to be done also, but I will have time enough today to get all the previews done and upload the stuff and perhaps even start with another kit, may be even have a little chat on msn, we'll see.
For now that's about all, time for another coffee and then get moving.
I hope you all will have a lovely day!

Download    HERE

Some work is waiting

Goodmorning everybody!
I did my little shopping tour yesterday, and it was even not so bad outside. A bit windy, but no rain, temperature rather good for time of year. I also did buy me a sirop to make the couching a bit easier. It's all on natural basis, with all kind of herbs in it,  so I can use it for a longer time. I think it might help, but as I only started taking it yesterday, I cannot say much about it yet. Then I also found a pair of jogging trousers, LOL, not that I am planning to go out for jogging rounds, but it's nice warm and comfy when you don;t have to go out. So definately I am putting that on today, with a nice fleece sweater on top. Oh yeah, Kyra will be ready for a nice day, after I finished this post. Then I will first take a warm shower and then put on the comfy clothes. It sounds great to me!

Probably I even will do some little housework around here and then I definately want to have some playing time at the computer. I have several files, all with started kits in it, but now they need to be finished too! I just came from Snowy's blog, and she is having the same problem, lots of started things that have to be finished LOL.
Then I saw on Minkys blog that she added a new gift on the "Love"blog, so I just HAVE to download that and play around with that too. That should end up in another quickpage, I suppose. I even have some things more planned for this weekend, but let's see if I can do them, as you know by now, things I plan, often turn out differently!

Time now to make a fresh pot of coffee, have a cupper and then start with all the things I want to do. But first I will post the kit I promised you yesterday. Here you have the "Very Grunge"kit, from which I posted a quickpage yesterday!
Make the best of your weekend to come, start with having a lovely day today!

Download     HERE

We have Dikkie Dik back LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Remember I told you, I missed my cat Dikkie Dik? After I finished my blogpost yesterday I went a few steps into the garden and did my whistle act, but............nothing happened. That's strange, cause normally he shows up after a while. Okay, I first got dressed then and took a sandwich and thought I might give it another try later. Had to grab some clothes out of  the backroom, so went there( that part of the house has a door, so it is kind of apart of the rest of the house). And searching the closet what to wear, I suddenly heard a "boom"and "meow, meow"and who was there? Yes, Dikkie Dik! He probably slipped into that part of the house when I picked something out of the storage there, could have been the other evening. You have to be so careful, when you go into that part of the house, it seems intriguing for the cats to sneek in there! Well, I was glad he was back again, and all is to normal again. At the moment the two brothers are sleeping rather close together(which is a new thing)on the couch on the blanket I've put there.

I was a bit creative yesterday, first i can show you a little "create-a-card"kit I've made for Minky's "Lots of Love"blog.

I just made a composition with the elements, but you can make it look all different.

And at the moment I am busy on 4, or no, even 5 kits at a time LOL! Yeah I know, that looks rather chaotic, but for the moment it works okay. If inspiration for one is lacking, I continue on another one. I even have almost ready anlarge add-on on our January weekly download kit from the forum! I had so much material, that it didn;t fit into one weeks download, so I thought I could extend that part a bit and end up with another lovely kit. But it still needs a bit of work, so you will have to wait for that.
Today I surely have to go out, for a moment, and even though the weather doesn't look too inviting, it should do me good to stretch the legs and breath some air. Have to put a bill at the bank and oh whee, must not forget to buy us the new tv-guide for the next two weeks.
Tomorrow i will have a complete kit again for you, but today I have, as a teaser, just a quickpage for you, made with this kit. I think this will happen a bit more often in future, cause it is hard work to have a kit every day. I hope you don;t mind too much if I cut that down a bit at times.
So here you go, the quickpage from the the kit "Very Grunge".Yeah, I found the "grunge"style again, LOL. But it's a great style for heritage scrapping, or a family scrapbook I think.
Now time for me to go, I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Download    HERE

I overslept a bit

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, I am just in time to be able to say still 'goodmorning"LOL. I had a very bad night of sleep, read:  almost no sleep at all! Lately I have trouble sleeping through the night, and I hate it. But some day it will change again, I suppose and till then we will just have to deal with it. Don;t feel too sorry for me, I have the luck I can sleep when I feel the need too, so after being up an hour or two, I sleep again for a few hours and if really needed, I take a nap in the afternoon. The only thing I really don;t like about it, is that it breaks in into your normal dayrythm. I suppose it could be one of those things of getting a little bit older, hahaha.
So today I had a "night-break"too and then slept till about 11.00 in the morning again. I first took a nice cup of coffee and watched the news on tv and then started blog hopping and now posting.
I went out yesterday for some food-shopping, found all I needed, and when I came home, Jan was in full speed cleaning the bathroom! Now isn;t that nice?
It wan't even too bad outside, temperature is getting higher, what a blessing! Glad I can stay in today, because rain is falling down, and it doesn;t look as if it will quit soon. Still, you can notice the weather is a it better, the cats are spending more time outside, especially Dikkie Dik. Suddenly he is away for hours and hours, even so long I am worried a bit. I like it more when they show up for a moment between their expeditions. If he still doens't show up inthe next hour or so, I think i will go into the garden and send out my special whistle to call him. Most of the time that works. It may well be he has found a good spot to stay out of the rain and because of that isn;t showing up. Bordski is more the type of a quick tour outside and returning to have a nice nap again on the chair again LOL!

Oh, perhaps you could send out some healing thoughts to Minky, I just read on her blog this message:

Today I ask You to send Me some
Healing Rainbows ...
My Hand has gone into the first stages of RSD...
I am withdrawing to go into some serious Healing !
...Thanxxxxxxxxxxx for all Your Love and Blessings shared for taking care of My Sanctuary for Me .
I LOVE YOU ALL !

I hope her hand will be better very soon, so she can do all the things she wants to again!


Now I better get myself into some clothes(LOL yeah, I am still in my pyama's) and do some things around here. I have a little kit for you, with all this almost depressing blogging of me we could do with a bit of cheerful kit. Here you have: "Waiting for Spring". I truly hope Mediafire will work fine, lately there are some troubles with it, of broken links, I don;t understand a clou about it. Well, if that happens again, you just let me know and I will upload on 4 shared.
Have a great day, for all the ones that have loads of snow: be careful if you go outside and stay warm!

Download    HERE

Water, snow, heat, all in a mess

Goodmorning everybody!

Watching the news, it keeps amazing me, specially about the weather. In Belgium and even part of Holland too much water, even more water, disasterlike in Australia! Here and there spreaded over the world loads of snow. In other parts again too much heat! It seems it is taking place all at the wrong places. People are suffering because of that, loosing almost their whole life in floods, it's heartbreaking. And there is as always and always a lot of violence at the news. It's an Utopia, hoping, wishing that one day in future, all violence will be abandoned, I know it is almost an impossible goal, but how much better life would look, if at least there wasn't anymore violence. Without that life is already challenging us at time more than enough and everybody could do without violence at the least. I don;t think it will eer be the case, sadly enough.

Oh my, not the most happy sounding start of a blogpost, isn;t it? But we see it every day, hear about it every day, and we can shut oursleves off of it for a while, but there are moments, we clearly realize these facts and feel helpless and know, that although life is beautiful, it has way too much thorns.
Enough of this sad thoughts, I don;t want to get you or myself depressed, LOL

Yesterday I took an extra nap in the afternoon, it seemed to be necessary, I was watching a tv program, but every time I seemed to have missed a few minutes, hahahaa. So I thought it might be better to lie down for a brief nap. Due to that, I didn;t do too much on the designing, although I made a start with the February weekly download for the forum.Today I surely have to get out again, I've run out of some things in the fridge and so. It doesn;t look so nice outside as it did yesterday. It's a grey, dull day, with even some rain. Oh well, we will survive that.
Perhaps I can make your day a little bit happier with this freebie, named "French Cottage Chic".
And then I just have a little bit time left to do some designing and then should first do the shopping and afterwards I think some laundry is awaiting me, actually two parts, ironing and turning the washing machine. And I will have to think about dinner this evening. No clou yet what to make, one thing is for sure, it has to be quick LOL! I think I will come up with something during my shopping, at least, I hope so.
Have a lovely day!

Download     HERE

A new week, without any holidays

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, it's quite relaxing to be able to write that there aren't any holidays this week, you could say that regular life is taking over again.
First I want to send out a big thank you to everyone for their lovely birthday wishes! It made my day!
Friday night just after midnoight I finally could open my present, that was lying around from Christmas on and screaming to me "open me, open me"! It was from Edna and I received many presents, I really was spoiled by her! There was a cologne spray, vanilla, socks, a cd and dvd and a cd with gnomes and fairies and a lovely card. But imagine that not my hubby was the frist to wish me happy birthday, but some of the ladies of our forum, cause we were having a chat at the time! It was nice to have that again, but also gave us some things to think over. It seems that for some of us life will have some changes this year!

Also got a phonecall from my friend Heidi, she couldn;t come for a quick visit, cause her little daughter cuaght up the flue! So I told her it was a good idea to stay away, I don;t want to catch that!
She promised me we would go this year to the garden centre, cause we skipped that the last couple of years. Let's see if it will happen LOL!
The rest of the weekend was really quiet, which I didn;t mind at all, there was the speed skatig to watch, and though we didn;t make it to the 1st place, our Dutch men's and women's teams did very well! They ended up on high ranks, silver and bronze medals in the overall ranking and even some gold on the individual distances. Now soon there will be the World Championships to watch from Calgary. Yeah, it's definately the speed skating season again.
We also watched a new French detective series that started yesterday evening, and it's quite an interesting one, so we are settled with that too.
No idea what I shall do today. Weather looks real nice at the moment, sunshine making it look happier outside, don;t know about temperature yet, but may be it would be a good thing to step outside for a short walk.
Oh yes, almost forgot this! Minky did it again! What? you will ask. Well, she opened a new blog, dedicated to Love! You should hop over and take a look yourself. That women is bubbling with energy and inspiration., unbelievable! Here is the link
http://faerienuflotsoflove.blogspot.com/

So now it's time to have another coffee I think, and then move around a bit here LOL.
Here another freebie for you, a kit named: "Lovable Moments".
Have a great day, you all!

Download     HERE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME and a gift for you!

Goodmorning everybody!

Yeah an extra post from me, on a Saturday. Well it''s a little bit of special day, because I am having my birthday. I am getting a bit of old women now, boooooooooooh, 58 years I do have now! Yak.
But as long as the mind and heart are still feeling much younger, that's okay! And I think I do have that. As it was obvious in our hat yesterday evening. Yeah, after a long time we finally got together for a moment and it was real nice. We discussed some things about the forum, we planned already the next months for the weekly downloads and also had some fun, of course!
No definate plans to announce, we all are still in the "thinking it over"period"but I think there are going to be some changes.
I will not linger too long on the post, just wanted you to have a freebie I prepared for you to celebrate my birthday!
And may be I will try to start another kit and I will relax on this day, there's speed skating to watch and later, in the evening, some scouting for talent shows on tv, perhaps even a good detective, so my day will be nicely filled!
The freebie kit today is named "Garden of Tomorrow", it really gives you a spring feeling and I enjoyed making this kit sooo much.
You all have a fantastic weekend, see you again on Monday!

Download    HERE

Almost having "normal"home back!

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh my, what a day it was yesterday! It started as almost every day, nice and quiet, me posting on my blog, Jan still asleep, and so on. Till Jan woke up. Well, nothing happened yet, he first had to take a cup of coffee. I quickly went out to the supermarket(the other day they didn't have something I needed, so I went to the same supermarket, but on another location and yes, succesfull).Was home in a short while and suddenly Jan suggested we could already start with clearing away the Christmas decoration for a part! He said it might be a good thing to do, then it wouldn;t take almost all day on Friday(today). Okay, I surrendered and we were busy like two bees! Today we only have to take care of the corner with the manger and then sweep around the vacuum cleaner!Pfffffffffffffff, yesterday afternoon I was a bit pooped out I must say, but also happy we already took care of it partly!
So after I finish my post I will start with the manger and so, I will spit into my two little hands and give myself a kick into my butt and I think when I will be in full speed after an hour or so it will be done! Hoorray, then we can enjoy our weekend, and we certainly will, cause there is speed skating again, European Championship for all round, starting this afternoon!

But before I started this post, I lighted a little candle in front of my house-icon, to wish my father a happy birthday. Yes, in a way it is a bit of sad day, celebrating his birthday with him not arround anymore. He passed away already a long time ago, this year it will be 21 years ago! I cannot imagine that it is so long ago, it always seems just a few years ago, probably because I still miss him a lot on some moments. Still, it's life and I know he's somewhere in a happy and peaceful place, so I stood in front of his picture and just said silently: "happy Birthday, Dad" and smiled at him. And it feels okay again.

And tomorrow I finally can open the present I already got at Christmas, for my Birthday! It's on the dining table and it wasn't easy to let it unwrapped, but I am staying a GOOD girl till tomorrow!!Yeah, tomorrow it's my birthday, so just because of that I will make a little post tomorrow too and I will have a lovely freebie for you too! I will not do anything real special for my birthday, cannot realize that I will have 58 years! The mind isn;t accepting it yet, LOL, in there and my heart I still feel somewhere in my 30's, but the body tells me a different thing at times! Better not to thing too much about it, hahahaha.

As you can imagine there wasn't much time left yesterday to use as "playing time"at the computer with all that clearing away of decorations, but I did a bit and even finished a quickpage I've made from a "create-a-card"gift from Minky. It's posted on the Creative Club blog. Here's the preview:

And now I should first take another coffee and then I will kick myself to do the rest of the work. Not leaving you without a freebie, I have a small kit : "Home in the Country" for you.
You all have a terrific day, and see you tomorrow for a moment, don't forget to come over, cause I have a really nice kit ready for you then!

Download    HERE

Welcome the 3 kings

Goodmorning everybody!

This morning I placed the 3 kings in the manger, yeah, those guys finally arrived, LOL! So today is the last day we will have all the Christmaslights on and tomorrow, BIG working day!
But yesterday I was rather active too! After posting I watched a little quiz on tv(it's every day) and then started. What did I do? First dusted the room etc., then turned on the washing machine. Did all the ironing and also put all the stuff on its place, you can see the couch again in the room where I have the ironing board! Then machine was ready, so hanged out the laundry, then changed the bed, all nice fresh sheets again, after that I had planned to take the vacuum cleaner, but I skipped that. In fact it could wait for two days, because tomorrow we will remove all the christmas decorations, and that will give some mess again, so better I do the round with the vacuum cleaner tomorrow. Also will be easier to reach all the spots.
Then took a coffee and went to the computer. I finished another kit, yeah, I've uploaded yesterday evening 3 kits, wow!
Then had to prepare for dinner, and the day was almost gone again. But I was happy about myself, that I did some necessary things!
Today I will have to go out for a moment, to post a birthday card for a friend, need also some bread and cat food. Jan has to go out too, to find us a new doorbell. Yeah the one we are heaving isn;t working anymore, very unhandy! Lucky we live on the groundfloor, so people can tick on the window!


I have today a little kit for you, result of the colour challenge at the forum in December. Yesterday there was a spring kit, but this one is definately the opposite, a winter kit, but in very soft pastel colours! Named it'Silent Winter". Short post, but not too much to share, LOL.
Have all a fantastic day!

Download    HERE

Cleaning day today

Goodmorning everybody!

Wow, I did my shopping yesterday and still was lucky that it wasn't too crowded in the supermarket! It seems everybody ate and drank all they had during the holidays and that they needed a real good tour in the supermarket to fill all the empty places in the frdge and freezer! Amazing. Okay, I did ge t myself what I needed, and quickly went home again. Oh, I did buy myself two cd's, just of the price of € 2,50 each, one of Simon and Garfunkel(we have  the LP, but it was played so often that it has a lot of tics etc on it, so now we can hear the music as it should sound again LOL) and one of Clannad, nice quiet music. Well, I thought that for that price I couldn't leave it in the shop.
Weather wasn't too bad, a bit chilly, but okay. Today it seems much less, much more wind which makes it colder. But.... I don;t have to go out today. No, today is working time planned: dusting, swing around the vacuum cleaner, turn on the washing machine, do some ironing and also Jan said he would take a part in the cleaning(I think he will do the toilet/shower section hoorray!). With that all in mind to do I shouldn't stay too long at the computer!
Tomorrow is the last day of the Christmas stuff, then I will have to put the 3 kings into the stable and the day after, oh boy, getting rid of all the Christmas decorations. I rememeber suddenly, that on the holiday of the 3 kings, my mother sometimes made a kind of thin pie and in it was hidden an almond. And the one who got the piece with the almond(or it could be another little gadget too) received a paper crown and was "king"for that day. I know it is done often in France, I don;t know if it's a real tradition here in Holland.

For today I have a little kit for you that perhaps can bring a little sunshine to your computer. Thought we could do with a boost of sunshine so here you have "Spring, Come Quickly". After a lot of cold and snow(well, at least in a part of the world!) I think many people wish that Spring will arrive as soon as possible.
Have a nice day!

Download    HERE

Party time

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, it's a bit party time, cause today is Snowy's birthday!!!  I've made her a card and will show it here. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SNOWY!!!!!!!!

Poor thing is taking her sleep now, cause she had to work over night and tonight too, but then she can realx again a bit with a few days off!

There isn't too much too tell, we had another quiet day yesterday, I've managed to finish another kit and actually we didn;t do very much, you could have called us lazy LOL!
Today will be a bit different. Some shopping has to be done, but weather looks nice enough at the moment, even some sunshine! So I will not ramble all too long, want to do some things today plus the shopping, better start a bit earlier.
We watched a James Bond film yesterday, I always like them, this one was Casino Royal with Daniel Craig. I must say, I don't find him a real "James Bond", sorry if there are fans of him. He's good as spy, but he hasn't the same charm and humour as a Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan. Next week they will give the other Bond film with Daniel Craig, "Quantum of Solace". Always nice films, of course, because of all the action, but for me he isn;t the "real"James Bond. Pity.

You can snatch another quickpage on Minky's creative Club, that I've made from one of her gifts, another New Years page:

And we go right on to the freebie for today. It's with a vintage look and I named it ""Somewhere in Time".
Make some nice layouts with it.
I must get busy,so hope you all have a fantastic day!

Download    HERE

And off we go in the year 2011

Goodmorning everybody!

I hope everybody had a pleasant and happy New years Eve and Day!
We've kept it very quiet, but it was nice. And can you believe that already the new year is in it's 3rd day? I somehow have trouble realizing that a new year has started, funny hey?
Just a few more days and all the Christmas stuff will be put away in boxes again, and we'll have our home back.
And this week we already have two birthdays to celebrate.

I hope everybody already saw my previous post, about the lauch of the collab for little Mikayla! And what I saw of the other contributions it is really awesome! All the designers have done their best to make real beautiful kits, or quickpages and it's more than worth the $ 5,00 per part! I hope there will be collected a lovely amount of money for the research centre.

As you can  see I've made a new bloglayout, all made with a gift from Minky. Isn't it looking great? Soeaking of her I can show you a quickpage I;ve made for the Creative Club

Oh, my poor cats have their peace and quiet back now. LOL. They were really a bit upset at NewYears Eve, when all the fireworks were blown into the air. Specially Dikkie Dik was very nervous this year. So it was a good thing we were home that evening. Fireworks are nice but not for pets!
You really could see that the next day they were totally exhausted from the stress, they always sleep a lot, but on the 1st of January, they almost didn;t move at all!
Oh, we also received a small New Years gift from one of our neighbours. He came on th 1st to us to wish us happy New Year and offered us a bottle of wine. Isn;t that nice? Perhaps his way to thank us for the fact that we sometimes take care of the parcels the postman brings and because they work at day, the parcels are left with us and they pick them up later. It's a small thing to do for a neighbour, and saves them a lot of time.
He came with his little son(a beautiful child, so sweet!) and the neighbour said to the child that he should give me a hand. But the kid didn't wanted to, hahahaha. But I found the trick. I said to him: "you don;t have to give a hand, but perhaps you dare to give me a finger." So I reached out with my finger and yes, a tiny little finger touched mine! LOL

I've made you a New Years kit, but a bit different than usual, so I hope you can still use it for some nice pictures. Named it "Fairy-Like New Year". Now we all have to see what this year has in store for us, and I think it's a good thing we cannot look into the future, although for some things you would like to be able to do so perhaps. I just hope it will bring more good than bad things and that some of wishes will be granted.
Now it's time for another cup of coffee, and I hope you all will have a wonderful day!

Download     HERE

A SPECIAL COLLAB FOR MIKAYLA!!!

 Good afternoon everybody!!
A special post on this 1st day of the New Year. Please read!


I am proud to be  a part of the "Mikayla's Gift Colab"   at http://www.aussiscrapdesigns.com/ ,to honor a 7 year old girl who lost her short battle with cancer just a few short days before Christmas 2010. Mikayla's one fear of dying was that she would be forgotten. Thanks to these amazing store owners and their designers, the "Mikayla's Gift Colab" will remain a testament to a brave little girl whose love of Faeries was well known. We hope that the "Mikayla's Gift" will live on in your own memory pages. This colab is a 4 part series and each part can be purchased for just $5.00 each from the following links:

http://www.aussiescrapdesigns.com/
http://www.coolscrapsdigital.com/
http://www.wilma4ever.com/
http://www.myscrapbookplanet.com/shop/

All proceeds from sales will be donated to the Royal Childrens Hospital Oncology Department to help further research into this terrible disease and in the hopes that a cure will be found for the many children suffering from cancer like Mikayla Francis.

The colab will be on sale from January 1st to January 31st at all participating stores. We hope you support us and help to make this colab a huge success
This Colab Kit contains:
# 1 PSP Script
# 4 Wordart
# 23 Frames
# 42 Posers
# 97 Papers
# 412 Elements

Here is the preview of my part of the collab kit for Mikayla at
http://www.aussiescrapdesigns.com/

 THANK YOU!

JUST A WISH FOR YOU ALL!