Kind of birthday today!

Goodmorning everybody!

We had a rather grey weekend here, Saturday it rained almost the whole day, yesterday a bit less, I suppose nature needs that, but I hope we soon can emjoy a bit friendlier kind of weather. Oh well, at least it isn;t so cold anymore.
The weekend I was working on a new project, all inspired by something I found on the Gutenberg site. You can find lots of wonderful old books there with lots of pictures too, and a great deal are copyright free, so heaven for us designers LOL.
Because it rained so much you can imagine we stayed most of the time inside, but I didn't mind. It gave me opportunity to work at the computer a lot, in between had some laundry done, watched some nice films and series on tv and yesterday we had almost a ball.
Jan found again a lot of old singles and we listend to a lot of music of the 60's and 70's ! Like e.g. The Beatles, The Animals, The Bee Gees, The Cats, Bobby Solo,  and lots more. All the music Jan and I listened to as teenagers(oh whee, LONg time ago). Listening to some songs all kind of sweet memories came up again, one remembered of a love, that certainly held on for two months! Another of a special party I attended, etc. etc. So funny that by hearing some songs, those memories come to your mind again. I think we listend for about two hours and didn;t even get to the end of te pile !
For dinner I had it planned easy for the Sunday, I had bought us a small roasted chicken, yummie, and made us a potatoe salad to go with it. Delicious and the best of it is, that there is still left enough of the chicken and certainly of the salad for this evening. Now that I call planning ahead!

Imagine it's already the last day of another month today, and it is a bit of special day, it's my Name-day and also my mother's(cause we are both called Kyra) and in Russia this day is celebrated more than your day of birth. No, I don;t do anything special for this day, I only light a little candle for my mother as to wish her a happy Name-day, that's all.
I think I will prepare today the envelope for my accountant with all the stuff for the tax , I just received the last specifications of the council that are needed too, so it's time to post it all, cause the tax papers should be done before the 1st of April. Well, I am in time with it, and may be I will receive a few bucks back from the government.
After I finish my posting, I think I first will have a nice long shower, and then see if I can get something done around here. And I should make an appointment with the hairdresser tomorrow(today he is closed) to have a hair cut again. I always wait far too long with it, but at a certain point you cannot do anything anymore with your hair, no matter what you do!! Well, I am at that point definately LOL!
Oh, Friday evening Dikkie Dik got me startled a bit again. Late evening he came in and I noticed he had one eye opened as usual, but the other one stayed almost closed. I managed to take a look at it and it seemed kind of irritated. Oh boy, I hoped it would get infected or so, he definately got into another fight. One of his ears had a little bleeding cut too, he is hopeless, very often he has little injuries because he seems to defend his "aerea" full-hearted! I am glad I can say, the eye is to normal again, so hoorray, no visit to the vet is needed!

On friday I promised you to post a full kit today and yes, I do keep my promise. This kit is named "Bird Watch" and I hope you will like it.
Have  a lovely day!

Download    HERE

Fairy things to show, I was busy!

Goodmorning everybody!

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly was missing Jan for a while so I looked around what he was up to. Oh whee, he was in the backroom, where I do my ironing and the rack for the laundry is standing etc. He had already in mind, to change the things a bit in there, but without saying he started. He moved around a bookcase, some other things that were standing around, and I must say the room looks bigger, well, say more spacy now.
I can place the rack now at the side of the room, closer to the central heating , so laundry can dry even quicker, the whole center of the room is free now and although we have to arrange some more in there, it looks already a bit less cluttered.
I must say, when Jan gets to it, he works real good. He is a bit like me too, if no help is needed for replacing furniture or such, he likes it best to be on his own. We can work fine sometimes together, but we do have at times different ways of doing things and then our characters don;t fit all that well if you know what I mean.
LOL!!!

And was I busy yesterday with designing? Yes, for a while. I finished up a serie of bragbookpages for Minky's blog. Be a little bit patient, she hasn't had time yet to post them for you, she is real busy with also a lot of other things, e.g. making little fairy homes for the garden, oh ,my, that lady is soooo creative!!! Just take a look at the picture she posted of it.!
But..... I have made a serie of 7 bragbookpages, named "Fairy Invitation". I will let you drool a bit LOL, by posting the previews. Download will be on the special blog from Minky.

Well, what do you think about them? I had great fun making them, it has been some time  ago I was busy with the fairies, but now I noticed, I've missed them, really! It's such a difference from designing "normal"kits. but it is a good thing to have a complete change at times.
As yesterday was more or less filled with "playing-time", today I do have some errands to do, not too much, but a few. So I will just have another coffee and then slowly get to business.
Today I have the las part of the collect kit for you, ( I like the frame in it), probably Monday I will have a complete kit for you as download.
Have a fantastic weekend!

Download    PART 4 HERE

Again a young life gone.

Goodmorning everybody!

Just a couple of days ago I wrtoe about a friend of Shaun, Snowy's son, who was badly injured in Afghanistan. Well, there is sad news, I just read on her blog. Jamie has died, and another young life is gone! It must be devestating for his family, and also his friends, but just may be for Jamie himself it is better. Being so terribly injured, it would have been a very hard life for him. Still it is sad, that we know that almost daily lives are blown away because of wars, or other kind of violence.
My thoughts are with his family and also with Shaun, loosing a such good friend. Perhaps a little thought of him from all of us will guide Jamie to his peaceful place, and give some extra strength to the people he is leaving behind.

I did get my medixines yesterday, only they didn;t have enough for the whole prescription, so I will have to get the remaining tomorrow. It's no big deal, because the pharmacy is very close to our house. I also bought myself a thick magazine with all kind of tips, tricks, small tutorials etc. for Photoshop Elements. I know you can fined almost everything on internet too, but sometimes it is nice to read it in the old-fashioned way, with good pictures and in my own language. I already saw a few things in it, that are going to be very helpful for me.
So this weekend I think it will be "trying out-things"time, yeah!

We did watch a soccer game yesterday, I was a bit confused yesterday which one it was, well, this was for the Champions League, Inter Milan-FC Bayern-München, 0-2, nice match, specially the first half.
Today there are the matches for the Uefa Europe League, with 3 Dutch clubs in it.
I hope they all will survive to the next round, of course.

In the afternoon I started with some bragbook pages for Minky's blog again. I think they look quit nice, I will show you tomorrow a bit, still have to upload them and then send the links to Minky first LOL. May be I even will make a few more, like a real serie, nice to make a mini albnm perhaps.
So today there is part 3 of the Almost Forgotten kit, and tomorrow will be the last.
Have a great day!

Download    PART 3 HERE

I was a bit creative, even my hubbie!

Goodmorning everybody!
Don't get startled and surely do not expect to see creative art from my hubbie, as you might think from the blogpost LOL!
But, in a way he got creative yesterday. The plants in the room desperately were in need of new soil and as he is taking care of the plants(though I am not too bad in the garden, I always forget the plants indoors LOL) he made some fresh soil from the package that we still had( compressed and dried soil, put it into a bucket with water and tadaa, after a few minutes you have loads of really good soil) and moved all the plants to the the kitchen, took them out of the pots, cleaned all the roots as much as possible from the old soil and gave them all a new load of fresh soil and some a bit latger pot. Yes, he did that in the kitchen, cause outside it was much too cold for that.
It was even a cosy moment, because I was busy making the mish mash with the sauerkraut. Yes Jan, was so nice to leave me also a little bit of place for it. Well, the plants seem to look happier now in their pots, hahahaha, and the mish mash was delicious! Still have enough for today!


I also put the bills at the the bank, did a few grocerie shopping and when you could walk out of the wind, it even was not too bad, although it was rather cold! After al this I thought it was time to try to make some new stuff for Minky's blog again. And how amazing, I even succeeded in it. Often, when I want to do something, somehow inspiration isn;t working with me, but this time it did. I will give you the preview of the small kit, you can download it on the special blog from Minky, to know how, read it all on her blog.
It contains only 4 papers and some elements, but I think you ca do nice things with it.

And I also went on finishing another kit, still have to do some things, but I think I can finish it today.

Oh, I had a nice surpise on my bank account overview yesterday! The health insurance payed me already the percentage for the protheses, that was real quick! And gave me much nicer feeling when I put the payment for the whole bill of it at the bank. There is a difference if you have to pay a big amount of money or only  a few hundred(still pity to say goodbye to that money, it always hurts LOL).

Today I should go to the pharmacy, get some medicines again from prescription, yes, that's something that keeps coming back, I need them every day, and I should phone the hospital to make the yearly appointment for the doctor, who controls my epilepsy. Well, nothing much to control, she usually asked how I did, it almost every time the same LOL, perhaps I should be happy that I can tell her the same, and not that it got worse or so, and I merely go there, to have new prescriptions for my medicines. The pharmacy isn;t far from our house, just about a 10 minutes walk, so no big deal.
This evening will be sports evening again, several soccer games are on fro the UEFA championship and we still have some Dutch clubs playing in it.
I think I will see if I can design a bit after I finished this post, it still is real quiet here in the room, at the moment only me and one sleeping cat at the couch!(oh, cat nr.2 just entered the room!) I will leave you with the 2nd part of the "Almost Forgotte"kit.
Have a magnificent day!

Download    PART 2 HERE

Brrrrrrrrr, still too cold for me !

Goodmorning everybody!

I promise I will not start this post as depressive as yesterday. I know it's an illusion, hoping, wanting to have peace all over the world, but also thanks to people who believe that war isn;t a real solution, there are parts in the world where we have some peace, so we need this wishful thinking!
It is very interesting at the moment to see going on all the changes in different countries in the Middle East at the moment! I really hope for the people over there that the changes will be for the good and that slowly it will bring them a better way of life.
No, no more politics, I promise really!

Oh my, I was a good girl yesterday. I did the laundry, did the ironing and gave the house a real good sweep with the vacuum cleaner. It was a real thourough one, moving around the couches to really reach the places under it(amazing, what is collected under them in due of time LOL), going also into the little corners, well you know the trick. So that took me really some time, but then looking around it gives you a good feeling.
Then in the later afternoon I first made the freebielist, did also a little bit of blog hopping and commenting here and there and then finished off a kit, only have to upload it.
But that will have to wait till later this afternoon, cause first I will have to go out for the groceries and also to the bank, to get rid of some money, sadly enough. Bills have to be payed.
I also did a very quick tour in my garden yesterday and oh my, it was real cold! But I saw more tulips coming out of the soil, and some daffodils already have thick buts, ready to bloom soon! Still loads of snowbells are blooming and on several bushes and climbing plants I already saw little new buds, ready to become fresh green leaves! Now the only thing they need is a bit higher temperature.
I really hope that in a couple of weeks temperature will be nice enough to be able to work a bit in the garden, may be with a thick sweater and such, but there has to be done some serious pruning!

I think today I will make a real winter dinner. A mish mash from mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, well stirred together, with little bits of smoked bacon, first fried a bit in a pan and then hop, into the mish mash, and I will accompany that with a real good tasting sausage, a smoked one, so you only have to warm that up in just not boiling water for a while. Yeah, it sounds good and I always make it enough for two days, so tomorrow it will be real easy, and if there would be still a left over it will taste good if you fry it for a moment in a pan and then put it on a white sandwich! Are you getting hungry already?? LOL!
Okay, today we will start again with a small daily download, I have 4 parts for you to collect over the next few days. I think it's a kit that will be okay for some heritage scrapping, but of course it will suit other themes as well. I named it: "Almost Forgotten".
Have some fun  with it and also have a great day!

Download    PART 1 HERE

Make peace, no war

Goodmorning everybody!
Yeah, the title of the blog post seems to be taken out of the hippy years! But it still is something that would be nice and probably make the world a better place. It came into my mind, after reading Snowy's blog where she told that a friend of her son Shaun just was flown back from Afghanistan, very very severe injured, as one of the many casualties fo that war, that I belive cannot be won.
 It lately was again a point of discussion in our parliament, if we should send another mission to Afghanistan or not. Most of the Dutch people don;t want to go on with it, but it seems we are sending again men to another province there, as they say for training policemen, so no military mission, but nobody believes that! For the moment one cannot do without the other. It may seem hard to the Afghan people who do want a change for their country and get a better life to say to them, : "we aren't going to help you anymore" and it is, but I just don;t think this is the right way to do it. But who am I, I am just a simple person, who thinks probably too simple and straight on.
And then you hear again about a young man who's future is completely changed by bad injuries, others who loose their lives, and also young men, who seems to be allright, but have sever psychological problems after returning, and that often aren't well-guided by professionals! Then you really think that life and the world suck!
Oh my, this is a real depressing start of a blog post and start of the week. Sorry, I didn;t meant it to be, but I just had those thoughts and they land via my fingers on the keyboard and into this post.

The last few days it was much colder around here, but they said probably later this week temperatures will go up again a bit, bringing more rain, well we will see. For the moment we have some sunshine, and that already looks much friendlier. Oh, this morning I saw some pigeons having a party with my bird food, but I also saw a robin! It's always a great surprise what birds come now to my little garden.

The weekend we didn;t do much, apart from watching some tv, and I could design rather well. But today I really must get away for a while from the computer, other things have to be done around here. Not that I will spend all day on them, hey, we don;t want to get into overdrive LOL! No racing car for me anymore, I think it will be more like a diesel, or perhaps to be real modern: an electric car, that needs to be re-charged every now and then, whoopeeee!
So,  what's there today for you in store? A small kit, fantasy style, in which I played a bit more with blending and cutting out pics and putting it all together on some papers. Hope you can make  a few nice layouts with this!
Time for my second coffee and then starting my engine!!
Have a fantastic day!

Download   HERE

Lots of soccer and a bit of detective

Goodmorning everybody!

I think you could call me a bad girl LOL. There was an idea of doing some errands, but............I just passed the day in quiet and leisure, some computering and also watching e.g. Bargain Hunt on the BBC.
So I should give myself a good kick in the butt, hahahaha.
In the evening I did watch a bit of the soccer games, I can say the Dutch teams did rather well, two of them won the match and one had a draw. Then my daily detective, it was a real interesting this time. Also started with another kit, well in fact two, but the first one didn't go to my liking, so I have put that in the refridgerator, may be I will skip all of it. But another is progressing bit by bit.
Oh, I even already made copies for the tax stuff, just one important paper I didn;t yet receive, but when it comes, I can send all to the accountant(yeah, this year I am not doing it myself yet).

Now today I really have to go for some groceries shopping for the weekend and if all goes well I should give the bed some fresh sheets and probably the washing machine will fill up nicely with that, so I think tomorrow it will be washing day.
Jan is busy at the moment to look into the tv programs for this evening, on Friday there are usually some films and series we like to watch, but starting at about the same time, or there is also another program we also like to watch, very complicated sometimes LOL. And yes, I know, you cannot watch it all, you have to make choices, but we are lucky to have a dvd and video, so we can register some of it. And that's stuff for the moments there really isn;t anything interesting to watch(and believe me, there are evenings the offer is very poor!!)
Yes, it's time for the last Victorian Circus freebie, but don;t worry, I have some nice stuff "in stock"for next week! Whooo, weekend almost there, for a lot of you a time to relax and spend your time on your hobbies and family. For others it's the time to go working again. Whatever you will do this weekend, I hope it will go smoothly and working or not, I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Download     PART 5    HERE

Could we do without internet?

Goodmorning everybody!
It may seem a bit weird question as blogpost title, but I am wondering about it for a moment. It is in my mind now, because I just read the blogpost on Snowy's blog LOL! As you know she has no internet connection at the moment, only via her mobile, and she's enjoying a hooliday. But she wrote that in a way it is a blessing, cause now she is having much more time to do all kind of other things and having a great time with it!
It's the truth, internet is so weaven in to our lives, that we use it without thinking much about it. But when you suddenly have no connection , you are lost for a moment.
But there were days, not even so long ago, that most people did without it, and we survived too LOL!

I surely would miss it, no doubt about it, cause e.g. email is such a great thing, and we use internet for search, or blogging or whatever. But sometimes doing without it, can be very relaxing too!
I can announce you that Minky is back! She had a great holiday time, and just posted some wonderful pictures of the place she was hiding out! You should take a look, and admit that the house looks terrific!!! And the surroundings also. Wow, I should love to spend some time there( well, I keep dreaming, LOL).

Yesterday I did a real quick tour in my garden, and I saw blloming snowbells and even some scattered crocus and lots of daffodils ready to bloom when there will be some more days like we had! And lots of tulips half-way already on their trip to the light! Here and there already news buts of leaves are showing up, like on the climbing rose!
And in the evening we watched some tv, another debat of some politicians, which was more interesting then the last one, I enjoyed it and after that we watched the second hal of a soccer match between FC Barcelona and Arsenal. We were more in favour of Arsenal, and finally they won the match with 2-1 yeah!!!
This evening there will be more soccer to watch(do you get the impression we like to see sports????), even two matches wow! Well, the season has started again for the Champions Leage and Uefa Cup games,  then coming up some more speed skating and tennis and darts and more, so more than enough to choose from.
I have no idea what I shall do today, yesterday I took a kind of free day, so today must be a "doing things"day I suppose. What kind of "things"????? I have lot of options, probably only one or two will be done hahahaha.

Sometimes still people have trouble with the download links from Mediafire. Perhaps it's due to the ads they sometimes pop in lately. It may help, if you leave out, or delete, the url from the ad in the link, somebody did that and it worked fine. So if you are having trouble, try that, or when you just use the link as is, it may happen you will have just skip the add and then you can download. Please try that if you are having trouble.

Okay, time for part 4 of the Victorian Cicucs(crossing fingers this link will just work "normal")
You all enjoy your day!

Download   PART 4   HERE

The sun shows a bit more

Goodmorning everybody!

The last few days we had some hours with sunshine! It almost makes you feel reckless LOL! But how different the world looks when there is some sunshine and parts of blue sky to admire, Though they predicted that temperature would go down a bit again at the end of the week, it still looks nice outside for now. We have temperatures around 40-45 F at daytime for now, and I cannot wait till the day we can leave the doors to the garden open again and have a nice moment there, with a coffee and a book or magazine!
But I think we will have to be very patient!

I went for my shopping yesterday and was back within the hour, not too bad, considering I have to walk to and back from the supermarket which takes around 10 minutes, then jumping around in the shop, waiting a rather long time in the row at the pay cash desk, getting all into my shopping cart, etc. Also did some dusting around and swept around the vacuum cleaner. Bit of diswashing and so on and then I thought I earned some time at the computer again, making first the freebielist and then worked a bit on a new kit.
Very usual day, with no big ups or downs(thank heaven for that LOL). Oh a nice thing was that I received in the post a letter from the health insurance company that they acceptated my declaration for the protheses and that the amount of money they cover will be soon on my account. So that was done quickly for once!
It's a substantial part of the whole amount, they cover 75 %, so we're talking about real money!

If the sun stays shining later as it does now, I might take a real quick tour in my little garden, to see how perhaps some snowbells are blooming and how tall the daffodils and tulips have grown till now. For working in the garden temperature isn;t yet high enough for me, so really cleaning up is out of the question. For pruning it is still a bit too early, so just a few minutes will be enough.

Tine for part 3 now of the Victorian Circus kit.
Have a lovely day you all!

Download   PART 3  HERE

Valentine's day?????

Goodmorning everybdy!

Hopefully everybody who celebrates Valentine\s day had a great day! Jan and I agreed alaready long ago we just consider it as a ordinairy day and don;t celebrate it. Also for me this date has a double feeling. It's the day my mother passed away, years ago, so I just light a little candle that day and that's all.
Though it was a sad day when my mother passed away, I thought in a way it was a beautiful day to go, for her, and meet her beloved husband in a far better world!
As I said yesterday, I made the minced meat roll and it tasted good! I still have half of it left, so we're settled for this evening's dinner too LOL!

Jan had a flow of sorting out things-day yesterday hahaha. He tackled the place where we keep the dvd's and videao tapes and sorted them out, re-arranged them in some boxes, and it looks quit nice in the cupboard now again. Today it will be my day to get a bit busy, I first have to go out to get me some groceries, and then a good sweep with the vacuum cleaner will do some good to the room! Weather looks rather nice, some sunshine, also some rainy looking couds, but I think we can keep it dry today! It's also good that the sun is shining a bit into the room, it gives you a good view on the dust and stuff that is on the floor LOL!

There was a debat on tv yesterday between some leaders of diffferent political parties, because next month there will be elections again, this time for the government of the Provinces(sort of Counties) we have and they choose then the people who take place in our First Chamber( kind of the House of Lords in England). They have e.g. the task to look into a new law that the government wants to change or make a new one, so in fact it's very important how all the parties will be represented in it. If the parties of the "daily"government aren't in majority it could be very difficult to have new laws passed through. But the debat was a bit "hazy"and not really about the subjects that do matter the most, hmmmmmm!
I think we will go voting when time is there, but I find it always very difficult, because most of the time you don;t know anything about the candidates, so what you do isn;t voting for a person, but for a party and then hoping for the best of it LOL!

Okay, time for me to do some things and get busy! I have for you the second part o Victorian Circus.
Have a marvellous day!

Download    PART 2 HERE

All seems well again

Goodafternoon everybody

Yes, it's already afernoon, I had a long sleep this morning! I surely needed that, because Saturday and Sunday there were the speed skating WC to watch, and it was held in Clalgary, so we had the time difference to overcome! meaning it was till rather late at night! But it was worth it, it wass thrilling till really the last ride, so we had fun.
Our heating is working okay again, but we had still some more trouble on Friday! After the guy left, it worked, so we were happy, in the evening Jan went for a while to the cafe, and thugh it seemed to work I still went checking several times. At a certain moment it became too warm, so I changed the temperature at the thermostate. After a hile it became a bit chilly again so I turned it on , to be sure i checked the kettle and oh no, it didn't burn, nothing to do, completely out!
You can imagine I was sad and also uttering some not so nice words! Jan came home at about 01.00 at night, I told him what happened. He went checking, tried a bit of this and that and suddenly it worked again, oh glory! But not for long, sadly to say. Well, let's keep it short! At a moment he removed the contact from the power point, put it back and kabam, the lights wnet out! It was a short circuit ! So we had to look at the plugs, etc. It took a bit of time, then we tried to connect the kettle to another power point, and that was the trick. But things like that aren;t doing good to your health, you know! All this resulted in the fact, I only got to bed around 5,00 o'clock at night! No, that Friday wasn't my happiest day! LOL.

As you can imagine Saturday was a bit low speed day, hahahha, although I went out for a quick shopping, and got us also new fuses , cause you always need some reserve ones. Sunday I had a nice long shower and got dressed to go to Séverine's birthday party. I think she was happy with her books and we stayed there for about 2 hours and were home around 16.00 o'clock.
All  together I could do some designing during the weekend, and with a heating that was working normally again, it was nice.
This was our weekend in a nutshell, reading it back now, it seems almost nothing happened, but the event on Friday was enough for me and took more time then it seems in writing LOL.
Now I should get busy a little bit, I already lost some time today, due to my long sleeping, all schedule is mixed up ! Nothing special plaaned, but I need to do a laundry and want to prepare our dinner a bit in advance. I am thinking of making a roll of minced meat and inside some boiled eggs, it's a simple dish but tastes good! But it takes a little while to prepare, then I want to make the freebielist for today and finish up a kit. And then I think all afternoon is gone with it. Time still slipps through my fingers some days.
We start today with a new daily download, in 5 parts, I;ve made you a kit "Victorian Circus". I don;t have a complete preview, I just made preview of each download. It's nice to see the whole kit, but on the other hand it will be a surprise for you each day again. Hope you will like it and that you can use it.
Have a nice day you all!

Download     PART 1 HERE

Update central heating

Hello, just a quicky to let you know, it's working again(till now LOL). The guy had to change a small element and it seems the thing! Always costs money though. It wasn't too much, but you never count on those things.
Let's hope it will hold for a longer time and I am afraid we need to think about a new central heating kettle. Brrrrrrr, now we are talking about serious Money. Well, we don;t have to decide in a few days or so, we first think it over thouroughly.
Well, that's all, soon I can put off a thick fleece vest I am wearing at the moment over my sweater!
I am glad it's done and hopefully will have no trouble in time to come, say 10 years ????? LOL
Have a great weekend

Central Heating trouble.

Goodmorning everybody!

Surely hope your morning is better than mine.Yesterday already in the late morning, the central heating kettle was acting funny. It switch on when temperature needed it, but then duddenly stopped and the red light was burning. I asked Jan to check, we tried several times, to switch it on again, it then did for a while, so we weren;t completely without warmth, but it kept going on. So we called the service guy for it and he is coming this morning to take a look. Oh, my God,  just what we needed!
Now I only hope it will be a rather minor repair and that it will be fixed! We are lucky it isn;t freezing at the moment, though it isn;t very comfortable inside, it is bearable with an extra sweater .
Everybody cross fingers now, that it will be fixed soon and that it all will work again as it should this afternoon.
The guy said he would be here between 11.00 and 12.00 this morning, hopefully he will be on time!
No long bla bla today, I am not really in the mood LOL!
I will post today, as promised, the whole kit "Sweethearts"for you now. Oh, yes, there will be also a new weekly download in the forum today, it's mine, whoooooo!

Well, perhap I come back later for a little update, it depends on the outcome, hahahaha.
You all have a troubleless and wonderful weekend!

Download      HERE

I was happy about myself yesterday.

Goodmorning everybody!

May be a bit strange blogpost title, but it's all true.
AFterposting and qatching the daily little quiz on tv I first went shopping. Weather wasn't that nice anymore, not bad, but it was a bit misty. Oh well, we can cope with that. Found what I had to find and back home. I did it rather quickly, I must say. Then Jan went out for a little walk and I had all the house to myself, and I love that at times, Specially, when I want to do some hoovering and dusting and such. So I did that and Ireally can enjoy looking at a room just been dusted and hoovered and some stuff stucked away where it belongs to be, LOL.
And i went back to the computer to do the freebielist(still no hubby, so I had my favourite music channel on the radio, wheeeeee) and then put a new kit for you in files, uploaded it and started to collect some stuff for a new kit. In the mean time, Jan came home again, he did some crosswords and it was a nice afternoon.
Now I have to get the papers ready for the yearly tax stuff, and get it to the accountant. Hmmmmm, Jan said that we easily could fill in the forms ourselves, and save some money on the fee of the accountant. He is probably right, but I really hate doing it and I don;t see Jan doing it either, hahahahaha. So I will try to get it done, at least for this year again, by the accountant and we'll see about next year. Is that pushing things forward, because you don;t like them? I think it is, but grant me this little excess, it surely is a saving on my nerves, LOL, cause I am not good at filling in tax papers.

And we arrived already at the freebie for today. It's a small one, just a quickpage, as a kind of teaser, grin, because tomorrow I will post the whole kit for you, now isn;t that nice?
The kit and quickpage are namend "Sweethearts", so you can guess it is a Valentine realted kit. That'it for today, not a really long post, and just finishes in time, cause Jan just wake up LOL! And then I have to be alert, answering to the questions or remarks with a right word, oh I am rather good in it!
Is this sounding familiair to you??? I suppose it does.
Now you all have a real fine day and come back tomorrow to get the whole kit, okay?

Download     HERE

Going into Fairy land

Goodmorning everybody!

We surely had a bright day yesterday! In the end we didn;t go out as we should have done, but it was also so nice to be at home and having bright light all around in the room, so we only sniffed a bit the air LOL.
But today it still seems okay, a bit less sunshine, caused by more clouds, but I am still happy it is some degress above the zero and we don;t have snow!
So definately I will have to go out today abd it will do me good.
Yesterday afternoon I had Séverine on the phone, hey, we had to wish her Happy Birthday! I talked with her for a moment and that girl is celebrating her birthday 3 times this month!
Yesterday, on the day itself at school a bit, then this Sunday for family and friends and on the 25th of February(then the kids will have a few days holiday) she will have her party with some of her friends, and Heidi told me they are going ice skating!!! Brrrrrr, it wouldn't have been my choice, for sure!

I can remember the way we celebrated my birthday when I had her age! I could invite some friends from school, I think we were with about 8 or ten kids. The party was in the afternoons. The day before or the very morning my parents decorated a room with garlands and balloons and such and when the guests arrived and were all there, first there was the Happy Birthday song and everyone gave me a little present. Very exciting! And then my parents and brother and sister and even aunts did their best to guide us through the afternoon LOL! There were all sorts of games invented, I remember one I always liked:
A rope with smallpackages attached to it was held by two adults, the kids had to pick a piece of paper with a numer out of a bowl, and then each was blindfolded and given a scissor. Then you should try to cut off one of the presents, hanging from the rope. The fun part was, that the adults moved around the rope a bit higher, then lower, so it was funny to see for the others how the blindfolded kid tried to grab one of the presents. We shouting all kind of directions and tips, yeah it was fun. Also there was most likely a "chair dance" Put together a number of chairs, one less as there were kids, somebody put one a record and as long as the music played the kids had to walk around. Suddenly the music stopped and all kids had to try to conquer a chair! But one didn;t manage, and so on and on till there were only two kids left with one chair! And the winner received then a little prize. We did lots of little games like that. And in between we had some rest, we sat around the table, with our little party hats and then we were given something to drink and of course there was a piece of the birthday cake with candles!
And at the end of the party, each kid received a little bag with some sweets in it and perhaps a colouring book and some colouring pencils, or some other little gift, to take home with them. All wrapped up in nice paper. And what fun you could have with some really simple games!
So far for some nostalgy LOL!

Oh, goodie, I have to leave the post for a moment, I have again a staring cat at my feet LOL!
Okay, caress is done, I am back again.
Today I have a little kit for you, all Valentine, oh yeah, and all in fairy style! Named it"Fairy Valentine". Enjoy it.
Time to finish now and first take another coffee, then get dressed and out!
Have a great day!

Download     HERE

Looking like Spring, may be for one day.

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh, what a surprise to wake up, open the curtains and see sunshine and blue sky and very little wind! Sometimes you almost forget that the weather can look this way too LOL!
Only one things to do: to gaze with open mouth through the window in a kind of awe, stock the view in your memory, and get it out of it when at times weather isn;t so nice to us, just to remember it can be different, hahahaha.
My friend Snowy is a bit out of the internet air at the moment! She's changing from company and provider and I see it's going as smoothly as it does here, often! I know all about it, cause a few months ago Heidi also changed from company and [rovider and that gave problems too. They all promise you that all goes well, that they can cahnge it without very much trouble, may be just a few days without connection but then you can go on as you used to do, promises, promises..............................................but in reality there are often difficulties with it. That's why I stick for the moment with my provider, in general there are very few problems, the price is about the same as with lots of others, so why bother all that trouble, perhaps for a couple of Euro's, not really much improvement for e.g. internet connection, or digital television etc. As long as it goes as it is at the moment, Kyra isn;t thinking of changing.
What did I do yesterday? Not too much LOL. I did the laundry though, filled in the declaration for the health care for the teeth protheses, and prepared a stew with mashed potatoes and white cabbage for dinner.I had a part of the cabbage left over from the cabbage rolls with minced meat and it had to be prepared in some way, so it was the stew. It tasted good and there's enough left for this evening too! So easy peasy today, whoopeee!

Must not forget to make a phonecall to little Séverine, because it's her birthday today! She will have her party on sunday, but that's for family and friends, I suppose earlier this week, may be even today, she will have a party for her own friends. As she is at school at the moment, I will have to wait till in the afternoon to make that call. I hope my old brains will remember it, grin grin.

If I am smart I'll go to the supermarket today, when it is still this kind of weather. Oh, excuse me, I have to caress my cat Brodski, who just entered the room. Then he walks towards me, specially when I am at the computer, sits down and starts staring at me, kind of "Hello, I am there, do you rememeber me? I like you to take notice of me for a moment, if not, I will stay sitting here and staring at you for much longer"!
And do you know how annoying it is, a staring cat at your feet????????? So often I bend ove, give him a quick caress and most of the time he\s satisfied with that and walks on. Pffffffffffffffff. My cats are brothers, but have completely different characters. As Brodski comes into the room quietely and then starts staring at me, Dikkie Dik is doing that in another way to catch my attention! He takes a sprint through the door, makes a big jump in full speed and lands then on my lap, and somehow he manages to pull his "breaks"and stops in time, not touching my keyboard! Amazing! But you can understand, that I sometimes have almost a heart attack here, cause he can do it sooooooo noiseless and isn;t announcing himself, till the time he almost lands on my lap and then makes a kind of squeeke!
Well, I think I will have to live with it LOL!
Ladies, it's time for the last part of "From  Old Books", hope all the download links worked(seemed to be some trouble with it, if it's still so, let me know again and then I can upload the parts for you on 4 shared)
I will give my eyes a feast, gazing at the sunshine that is all around now!
Have a wonderful day!

Download   PART 4   HERE

News all around doing bloghopping LOL

Goodmorning everybody!
I was a brave girl and went out on Satuday afternoon, just a quick visit to supermarket. Must have picked out just the right time, because I still could walk pretty easy in the wind. Well, I was lucky I could walk most of the time in the shelter of the houses, wind coming from another side, but from time to time, already during the night there were some real strong blows!
If not necessary, this weekend ws a great time to spend inside the house. And we did so. I could do some designing and also watched some films and so. Very dull but also great. Ecen took a nap during the day.
Yesterday I really cooked again(the other day we just had sandwiches) and we had a trount I bought the other day at the market. Yummie, it was long ago we had that nd it tasted real good! Add some portatoes and brussels sprouts with a bit of bacon to it and your stomach is filled again!

During the weekend I was a bit lazy with bloghopping, so I did it properly this morning, at least, I visited the blogs of my friends. And in a nutshell there was all kind of news LOL
Quick reading at Snowy's blog: just saying she didn;t had internet.
Edna had the good surprise she's almost having a heatwave( surely compared to the last weeks) and snow is melting slowly. And Minky's blog is in control now of Almary-Elve and Princess Zetty, because Minky and Ian are having a holiday at the cost I believe.
So it may be that elves and princesses have some difficulty posting but forgive them, normally it isn;t their task LOL.I still want to show you a quickpage I've made for Minky's and you just have to pop in from time to time there to see if you can download it. Sorry for a possible delay, but we will make it up to you, hahaha.

Today definately is still a day to stay inside, although  bit less, there is rather strong wind. They say at the forecast it will be much better from tomorrow on. Let's hope so.
But today will be a good day to have the laundry done and I don;t have to forget to fill in the application for partial restitution of the theeth prothese. If I send it today or tomorrow, perhaps I will receive it in time to pay the whole amount to the dental practise, Should be nice if all comes together for once LOL.Cross fingers then!

Oh, and I can wrapp up the presents for Séverine, on Sunday we'll have to go to her birthdayparty. So there still is time, but I like it to be ready in time. It's unbelievable how quick time passes, she will be 9 years old already! I still can remember the time Heidi was pregnant! Yes, we definately are growing older and much faster it seems, than we want to LOL.
Time to post the 3rd part of "From Old Books"for you, then probably continue fora short wile on a kit and then taking a sandwich and then do some work around here.
You all have a terrific day!

Download    PART 3   HERE

A whee bit of Spring for a moment.

Goodmorning everybody!

Told you yesterday, it looked all bright outside and that I might go out for a moment. Well, I did take a little walk, and when I left, the sun was still shining, though less bright then early morning. It still was rather mild, but the longer I was outside, the more the weather changed and slowly I even felt getting a bit cold. So I turned back home and was very pleased to be inside again. But at least we had the impression for a while, that Spring was waiting around the corner.
Today it seems to be all different. Lots of wind, grey, a bit rainy clouds, I think we have the wind now here, that was in Snowy's area yesterday. It quickly took the cross over from England to Holland!

Yesterday I found the bill for the teeth prothese of Jan. Wow, it's not a very pleasant view, the amount of money! But we are lucky, that we have a basis health insurance and that it covers 75% of the costs. So in the end, it is to oversee what you have to pay for yourself. But if you don;t have an insurance, lots of people could afford it, which is the same with some midicines and doctors fees etc. But helth insurances are becoming also more and more expensive and if it goes on like this, I fear that at a certain point, a lot of people cannot pay anymore for it and ehat then? It's a very difficult issue, but it started to go all wrong when they changed it from "state ruled"to "commercial". Already some time ago everybody paid a certain percentage of the wages for health insurance and if you wanted to cover more costs you could take a supplementary insurance, of course payed by yourself. So of course, the ones that earned a lot of money, could be insured for almost everything, but at least everybody had a basic insurance, which wasn;t bad at all.
Now they changed that, it has gone to insurance companies, who also slowly are neginning to decide in which hospital you can be treated and in which not, completely crazy. Government said, because of the competitive character of it it would improve the price. I don't believe a sh..... about it and it isn;t so.
I don;t think that all changes are good changes. Sometimes the "old ways"aren;t too bad, they only could do once in a while with a little adjustment, okay.
Oh my, I am turning grumpy again, LOL!
Better I cheer you up perhaps with two previews of quickpages I've made yesterday for Minky. This morning I didn't see a posting on her blog yet of it, but it might be so later today. She is very busy at the moment with
moving all the creative inspirations to the new place Sulina's has obtained shortly. Now she finally is able to make a special place for the Star Children project. So give her a bit of time, LOL, she has to do all things still almost one-handed!
But here are the 2 previews:

Don't you think they make you feel a bit lighter of heart?
Brrrr, the wind definately is blowing with some force today! Guess I stay inside today, and do some things around here. Just saw in my garden a little sparrow, enjoying the treats I placed in the garden. Well, that's the first guest, I hope there will follow some more.
Today I have the second part of the kit "From Old Books"for you. And then it's time, as always for another cup of coffee. And as the weekend is approaching quickly, I wish you all a wonderful weekend, full of creativity!

Download     PART 2   HERE

Looks a bright day!

Goodmorning everybody!

So I did take a bit of air yesterday and washed a load of laundry.
Then I prepared already something for dinner. I bought a little white cabbage and some minced meat. Took of several leaves of the cabbage and cooked them shortly. Seasoned the minced met, made little rolls of it and put them into the cabbage leaves. Packed them well, with a little thin rope and put them all into a nice tomatoe sauce, let them cook on very small flame and later on only hd to cook some potatoes. Tadaaa. Tasted real good, and best is I still have a portion left for today too.
With the rest of the cabbage I can do the following:
cut the cabbege very fine, give it a quick cooking over, make mashed potatoes and mix that together, little bit of salt and pepperand you have a nourrishing basis for a dinner.And it even tasted good.
Then I did some mail reading and sending and finished another kit. In the evening there was tc, at the moment there is a very good Italian detective/maffia serie going on, based on true events. I love it.

And looking out of the window what do I see??? Bright weather, with sunshine! If it stays that way I shuld go out for moment, cause even if temperature isn;t really high, it is a bit milder and it makes you happy to walk in a bit of sunshine! Didn't see my feathered friends this morning, but I hope they will return one of these days. I even bought them some treats that are hanging in the garden now, at a place, cats cannot reach!

I replaced the slideshow at the top of the blog, now you can see the February weekly downloads at the forum.Very unusual colour scheme for the month of Valentine, which made it interesting to make. Should take a look at the forum myself, if there are already a few challenges up for this month, and I should come up with one myslef too. Hmmmm, not really an idea yet, but it will come surely.

LOL, my peace and quiet I usually have in the morning, is gone already! Jan woke up early this morning too, and I love him, but sometimes I can do without him, hahahaha. It's a bit difficult to type your blogpost and having to listen to his remarks to a tv programme or something else at the same time! One thing is okay, he isn;t speaking as much in the morning as he does on other times at day, so I will survive it. I am used to it already for almost 19 years now! You can imagine you get a certain skill in handling this kind of thing!
Okay, let's see what mischieve I can come up today!
Not leaving before we start another daily today. It's a little kit named "From Old Books"and it will be in 4 parts.
Now you all have a spledid day!

Download    PART 1   HERE

I worked hard!

Goodmorning everybody!

After finishining my post yesterday, first watched a little quiz on tv, for about 20 minutes, then I got dressed and went into the kitchen. Wow, i was busy there with my veggies for almost 2 hours, cutting, quick cooking(not completely cooked through), putting into another bowl or into a strainer, cause I needed the pan again. In between I just took a 5 minute break for a sandwich and went on again. Well, by the time I had all the stuff in portions in freezer bags, still open to let it coll down, I was really glad to be able to sit down for a while!
But it's all done and I am happy about it.

I feel very sorry for folks who have to deal with "heavy"weather as we say it here, like in America and Australia!
Seeing and hearing that at the news, we should be ashamed of ourselves to complain!
This morning I took a peep out of the kitchen window and oh how lovely, there were about 5 or 6 great tits flying happily around in my garden. It may not seem a big event for a lot of you, but here in town you don't get to see as many different species as you do in the countryside. And the more, while there are a lot of cats around too. And although the weather is gray at the moment, and it is raining a bit, I was feeling all happy!

After all the veggie-stuff, I could finish up a kit and also I've made a quickpage from one of Minky's gifts. Go to her blog and there she writes on which of her blogs you can find it.

Soon I will have a new slideshow at the top of my blog, of the new February weekly download of the forum. First contribution will be there this Friday! There are beautiful downloads, so don;t miss that!

I hope that the rain will stop later today, I really want to go out for a moment, for a hsort shopping tour actually. Then I should turn the washing machine on, yep, it's filled again and may even do some ironing, we'll see about that LOL. I may skip it today, taking a kind of "almost day off"today.
What about the freebie today? I have a mini Valentine kit for you and I think we will start with a new short daily download tomorrow.
And before I forget I want to wish all my friends and all people who celebrate the holiday of Imbolc a very Blessed, Shiny and Inspiring Imbolc! You can read more about this day on Minky's blog too!

Hope you like this mini kit and wish you all a wonderful day!

Download     HERE

A day in kitchen

Goodmorning everybody!

Incredible, but true, as planned we did get to the market! Dressed properly(that means warm! ) we took the walk. And returned after a while with a whole shopping car full of things, and for very little money again.
As walking around there, slowly, like a sniper, the cold came a bit through our thick coats and it became not so nice anymore. Though cold, there was practically no wind, and that makes already a big difference, but it stayed cloudy all day and then it still isn't too funny outside, with temperature just above zero point.

Now today will be a kitchen day for a while, preparing all the vegetables for the freezer, I have Brussels sprouts, leek,cabbage, cauliflower, fresh dille. Also bought there 4 small trouts(yummie) and mandarines and bananas.
Oh, also a chunk of cheese, mildly old. And a bag with middle sized onions too.So this afternoon the freezer will be well willed again with portions of vegetables, very handy.

I better take perhaps now another coffee and start slowly the work in the kitchen, then there may be left a bit of time this afternoon to play around with some of Minky's gifts, and make her some stuff for her blog. And go on with another started kit. Oh my, I will feel like a busy-bee LOL.
Today is the last part of the Rosalinde kit and then I will have to think what there will be next. Don't worry, something will come up!

This is really a short post, but if there isn;t much to say, you better keep it short, isn;t it?
Now have a fantastic day and see you tomorrow.!

Download   PART 5 HERE