Royal birthday today.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, today there is a birthday in the royal family. Our former queen(now Princess Beatrix, mother of our king) has her birthday. She reached the age of 76. Wishing her still many good and healthy years.

Jan's birthday on Wednesday was a nice day. He received a couple of phonecalls of some friends, also from his brother, and I passed on all your wishes too!
I did find something tasty for dinner when I did my shoppping, and afterdinner, when all the washing up was done, we spent a nice evening together.
Oh, at coffee time somewhat after dinner I had a little surprise for him( just for fun, nothing special). I snatched a cookey out of the tin and put on a tiny little candle on it and brought it into the room , lit and all, singing "Happy Birthday"to him ROFL!
We really had a good laugh about it and his comment was"You are completely nuts and probably never will get any better"!
But isn;t it lovely we still can have a good laugh together about such a small thing?

Yesterday I went to town centre for a couple of hours, not long though/ Had to bring a bill that needed to be payed to the bank, and also wanted to get some new noodle soups from the Chinese.
Also did buy us some tobacco( we make our own cigarettes, that's a lot cheaper than buying a package). Smoking isn't good, I know, but it's something we just like to do, and giving it p .....ahhhhh.........not yet.
I looked around a bit in some shops and then returned home. Still it was good to be out for a while, and linger along without any pressure.

We still have no real winter here, happy to say. In other parts there is some snow, and even a freezing at night time. But for now the weather forecast isn;t showing any real cold and such. Never know though how long that will hold on. We easily could have real winter somewhere in February or even March. Still, let's be happy with the weather we have now.

Can you believe that already next week the Olympics will start?  It's been such a long way to it for many sporters, and soon now they will have to give their best perfomance possible!
Of course I am surious to see how our Duch sporters will do. We hope to get a couple of medalls, specially with the speed skating.
I just hope all of the sportsmen and women will be able to give their best performance and have a great time.

Think today I will do a bit of work here in the house, and this evening we will watch The Voice of Holland Kids again. Amazing how many really talented youngsters there are.  They reach the battle rounds now, so it's really getting "serious" for them now.
Of course we hope that some of our favourites will survive this round and get perhaps into the final in a couple of weeks.

Well ladies, time to finish the post and get to the freebie.
This one is namend "Mélodies d'antan"  ( meaning melodies of yesteryear), a quite nostalgic, vinatge looking one. Two fantastic cluster frames made by Arlene too!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Happy Birthday to MY HUBBY!!

Goodmorning everybody!

(layout is made with freebie kit fo today)


Yeah,  today Jan has his birthday, and his 3 weeks of happiness(being younger than me) are over again LOL!
Later today I'll have to go out for some shopping and then I will look what to make for dinner. Not a real fancy one, but I'll try to come up with something easy to make but still is something to his liking.
Going out I will have to wrap myself in a bit, because we have colder temperatures today( still it's not freezing), mainly because we have eastern wind which makes it feel colder than it really is.

We had two quiet days, which I spent with little things of this and that, and yesterday I took it all really quiet, because I had kind of bad day( my epilepsie played some tricks with me).
So best is then to take a lot of naps, and I even slept well during the night. Now hoping all is gone again.

Jan is trying to get our backroom in good order again, but it is going slowly. Not amazing, cause he has to watch his back, and has to do things for a little while and then I want him to sit down. No time limit to the job, so if it takes longer, so what?

My posts aren;t really interesting the last few times, sorry girls, I can;t help it. Not much going on, only the usual things. That I don;t mind too much, but it would be nice to talk about some different things, I think that will go better if the weather gets warmer and Spring arrives( as quickly as possible if you ask me LOL).

I have a kit for you today, that suites my hubby's birthday, cause it's named Happy Birthday.
a kit for you to use for all kind of birthdays you will encounter.
I will finish now, perhaps do a little bit of designing and start my shopping no too late, to be home again quick and have time to do something about dinner already(if I can think of something grin!).
Have a lovely day!

Download    part 1 HERE
Download    part 2 HERE

Download    HERE

Winter is catching up on us!

Goodmorning everybody!

On Friday, after I posted, I just did a bit of designing and then quickly got dressed, because the weather still looked good. So I did my shopping, and quickly returned home.
It was a bit colder, but dry with even a bit of sunshine.
After I've put away the groceries I had a sandwich and then got busy in the house, like vacuum cleaning and dusting and such.
In the evening we had an "easy"dinner, meaning I normally don't cook, so Jan makes his own and i do my own, and we take whatever we want.
But as I fancied some meat croquettes out of the fryer and that on a slice of bread, I took out the pan and saw the oil in it was already used too much, It ended up in me cleaning the whole fryer( what a dirty job that is) and then i filled it with some fresh oil and started to fry me two croquettes LOL. And as I was busy with that anyway, Jan took a croquette also and later he made himself something more to eat.
We have had some serious rain during the weekend, but in the north dna east of the country that became snow. Temperatures are getting lower and lower so I think winter is catching up on us slowly.

The weekend we did spent quiet, doing just a bit of this and that, and Saturday evening we had two new detective series to watch, so it was really "and evening for me"LOL/

I've told you about our cat brodski, that every now and then he changes places he likes to take his naps? Well, suddenly he found our other couch. Normally we don;t allow him to lie on it, but we are soft hearted people(even Jan!) so we let him be, and read this well, JAN TOOK BRODSKI'S LITTLE BLANKET AND PUT THAT ON THE SEAT! Wow! And he said to me""okay, in fact the cat isn;t allowed to sit and lie on that couch, but he is already an older guy, so we have to be a little more tolerant, don;t you think?"
Oh my, my hubby is getting too soft LOL!

Now I will have to watch the time, because I have to phone the doctor to order a couple of repeat prescriptions for some medicines. Nice that we can do that by phone, it saves us a trip to the doctor and in the afternoon I already can pick up the medicines at the drugstore.
Hopefully it still will be dry when I go out for that, for now it's dry with even blue sky, but that quickly can change.

Nothing much left to ramble about, so I will finish the post, with your freebie. It's named "Most Tender Moments", all in soft pastels, most papers just with some texture, to brighten them up, I;ve made you two borders. With some lace elements and some lovely flowers, there is maeterial enough for you to make a couple of lovely layouts. You even could use it for Valentine, I think.
Or for some baby photo's, and lots more. Arlene made you some great clusters/frames to give your photos just a bit extra!
Have a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

I found a cute little thing!

Goodmorning everybody!

Although I was up rather early after a good night sleep, I started this post much later than planned. First I always start reading my email and then I got distrackted by a suggestion of a visitor, right away went to a seatch on internet and then time passes soooo quickly. I should do that search at another time, but..... I got some great things to use for what might be my next kit. No, not telling you anything about it yet!
Today the weather looks to be not too bad, at the moment we even have sumshine and almost no wind. So I should take advantage of that and get out while it still is rather nice.
Yesterday it rained almost all day.

But Wednesday I went out for  a moment, and found such a cute little lamp, just a couple of euros(2 to be exact LOL)and I brought it home and gave it to Jan as an early birthday present. We normally don;t do presents, but this I couldn;t resist. Jan has his birthday next Wednesday, just a few days left for him to feel "much younger "than me, grin!
I made a photo of the little thing, I though it might be nice for him when he makes a crossword in the evening, just to read better the tiny little letters they mostly use.

And it is really giving more light than you should think! Cute, isn;t it???

Perhaps you know that cats like to change there resting/sleeping spots every once and a while? Well, our cat does it anyway. Some spots are really forbidden for him( although he tries to be there at night, like on my piano) but for about a week or two he has found a new place. We have a few racks standing on the floor with records, and that he thought to be nice. Just a bit higher off the floor, nicely hidden a bit, and well, we are too soft but we let him lie there for the moment. I even gave him a little fleece blanket to stretch out on LOL!

That's about all for today, I think. I better put on the freebie now, take my second coffee and then quickly get dressed and go out. I think I will need my wool hat cause temperatures slowly are getting lower. At the coast we just don't have freezing during the night, but you really can feel, it's getting colder. Oh, I hope will will not be hit by snow and ice. But that can happen from one day to another, if wind changes the direction!
For now we will have to be thankful for the relatively nice weather we had till now.

The freebie! A kit named "Love Letters". may be a bit early to post( considering that in a few weeks we already have Valentine) but on the other hand, you always can keep it on reserve for eventual Valentine layouts, isn' t it? Arlene did a great job again(poor thing still has lots of snow and freezing rain, but at the moment I believe no electric power loss anymore!).
Have a wonderful day and weekend!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

I better shape than last weekend LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

It''s around 8.00 a.m. here and still rather dark outside, and I don;t like it too much! I cannot wait till the day I wake up in the morning and have real daylight and if possible some sunshine too! I really feel more energetic when that happens. Don;t like time to rush too much, but it has permission from me to tush a bit till Spring time and then it can slow donw again LOL!

Monday I felt a lot better after that good night of sleep and I finally did wash the curtains of the living room and even washed the windows(well, the inside, outside it wasn;t good weather for it).
But I felt good about finally accomplishing something again. Some little tasks done too after that and I was happier with myself.

Tuesday the day started with rain, but by the time I was dressed and so it became dry, and took advantage of it to go out and some grocerie shoppping. I picked out the good moment for it and there were some actions in the supermarket for things I just needed( you know, take two for the price of one) and I was ready in no- time and home again. By that time Jan was ready to go out to the DIY market to get him some small stuff he needed to finish the closet he partly dismanteled and made a snaller one of it, so it was all quiet in the house. Okay, good time to get some more housework done, and then I just played a few hidden object and match 3 games on the computer. Yes, once in a while I like that, it's relaxing and fun too.

Still not too bad weather here, although it is getting a little bit colder now, and we have somewhat more rain. But there is no real sign that "proper"winter will be here soon( and for me it can stay away LOL). However, I think it's a good thing to have some frost, and colder temperatures, nature is a bit disorientated, I believe. I have still some blooming things in my garden(which aren;t supposed to do this time of year), like a few roses and some Nasturtium, can you believe that????
Weather is completly crazy!

I hope to be a little productive today again, there are still things waiting to be done( as always).
Also I am back a bit in designing mode, which feels rather good.
Freebie time it is now.
This time a different kit from the last ones, it's a kind of fun one, found some sweet mouse pictures(some are Beatrix Potter I think, love those) and it may be a kit for some sweet kids layouts. Even made you a whole Alpha, that you can use to compose a name or title or whatever you can think of. I named it "Mouse Play". Add to that 3 so sweet clusters from Arlene and you are set and ready to make something real sweet and lovely!!
Off I go( after I first will do some bloghopping and perhaps some more), want to make it a productive day, the kind that makes you feel somewhat satisfied when you can finally will sit on your couch with a coffee after dinner and watch something nice ROFL!
Have a lovely day!


Here also a preview of one of the papers, to give you an idea.

Download    HERE

Download   HERE

I felt a bit like Zombie LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Here is posting now a person who is feeling a lot more awake and "fresh"than on Saturday!!
All was kind of my own fault. You could think I( and Jan too) am a bit crazy reading why I was feeling somehow like a zombie.
You know by now we love to watch speed skating and weel, this weekend there were held the world championships sprint in Nagano, Japan.
Consequence: time of live broadcast of it on a very akward time for us, as around 5 and 6 in the morning.
Start was Saturday morning very early, butokay, I tried to go to sleep at normal time for me on Friday, and that went well. Only thing was that I woke up too early again, think it must have vbeen around 4 at night. Now that isn;t an unsual thing for me, but normally I go back to bed after perhaps 30 minutes and catch some more hours. Only not this time. Knowing the skating started so early I stayed awake, as Jan too.
All that isn;t still too bad, but first day of it ended at about 9 in the morning.
All still not too bad, but then I tried to catch some more winks, and woke up after an hour or so. Impossible to have a really good sleep. Well, I stayed up then, did a bit of computering and thought it might be a good idea to go out for a moment in the fresh air, had to buy the newspaper.
Came home and did nothing else than sitting on the couch and watching some tv, without really knowing or understanding what I was looking at LOL!
So I stretched out on the couch and hoorray, had a nap for about 1 1/2 hour. Woke up again, wandered around a bit, felt the shutters of my eyes struggling to keep open again, so had another nap early evening, could follow then a bit better the evening programmes and went to bed somewhat earlier than usual. And oh my, I had a good sleep!!! Still, my inner alarm clock woke me up, but at a better time, although it was still rather early, around 6.30! But I felt already a lot better than the day before, no real zombie feeling anymore, so we watched the speedskating again. LOL! We are really unreformable!!!!!!!!!!
Still it was kind of worth it, our dedication, hahaha, at least we have a Dutch world champion again,
and the teams did rather well.
So yesterday evening I went to sleep real early (for my doing) and just woke up after about two hours, had a quick visit to the wc and a little drink and rushed back to bed and slept all through till 8.00 o'clock this morning!
All back to normal again.
Gosh, I am sooo happy that the upcoming Olympics are in Europe this time! There is just a little time difference, but we will be able to watched the games and matches we want at an acceptable time of day. Sorry for the folks who are at a real different time zone!
Of course you always can watch the re-runs at another time of day, but it is just not the same, what do you think? I kind of miss the excitement of a live broadcast, but sometimes there is no other option.

I was glad I did some housework already on the Friday, like dust bunny removal and vacuum cleaning and a laundry and such. So I didn'feel all to guilty about my Zombie time ROFL.

Our weather still is not bad for the time of year. It's still treating us with higher temperatures than usual, okay, sometimes there is some rain, a bit windy, not much sun, so it is a bit grey. The line of  real winter weather lies over Denmark to Poland and Russia, and probably will stay there the next week or so. It may become a little bit colder, at daytime as well as at night9 possibility of just light frost at night, but as long as the wind keeps coming from the south , south west, and even east-west, we will have no winter, and how lovely is that?
In the middle of Europe, like Switzerland and Austria there is snowfall, but nly in the mountain, which is good news for people who like winter sports.
I wonder how long this kind of weather will hold on, I rememeber some years, that suddenly winter struck us in end February and also March, but I really hope that will not happen.

Wel, ladies, time for me to finish this post and I have a nice freebie for you, as kind of reward reading all my bla-bla about our weekend and such(grin).
It's named "When two people meet", think it's a nice kit for some family or heritage scrapping.
Lovely clusters from Arlene, so there is work for you to do in making some great layouts.
You have a fantastic start of the week!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

I was a bit a naughty girl.

Goodmorning everybody!

Another two days of rather high temperatures for the time of year, accompanied by some rain, bit too much wind, but still not bad all together!
Wednesday I managed to get a few things done, not so bad, also went out for a moment for the usual grocerie stuff.
But Oh my, yesterday I was really naughty! I didn;t do anything, only spend hours on the computer, with some little brakes now and then, but I just couldn;t get myself into gear of doing anything else.
It ended up in something good, I made a whole new kit, using some of the textures of All ThingsPrecious and they are wonderful to work with.

So you can imagine there isn't much to tell you, only that today I will have to be more active, ( but not at the computer LOL).
The more that I am rather late this morning, slept loonger than I wanted to, but I think that was still part of the kind of "off-day" yesterday.
Okay, I will linger no more, and jump right to the freebie.
Sorry ladies, I am not inspired to a longer post, but every now and then that can happen.
Oh, Jan just woke up too, saw me typing on my blog and said I had to greet all of you, ROFL!!!
I sometimes tell him a bit about the things I write or some of your comments and such.
I don;t believe he fully understands it, this whole blogging thing but never mind that, grin!

I also will have to put on the freebies of January in the My Freebies list, think somewhere this weekend will be a good time for it. Already we have a big part of January beind us, and it seems that this year will not be other than the last couple of years, it will fly away!

Here the new freebie, thought you could use one in another color palette, so here's "Looking Back".
Some beautiful clusters from Arlene, to brighten up your pages a bit more and I hope I will have a somewhat more interesting post on Monday!
Have a fantastic weekend!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Wonderful textures discovered!!

Goodmorning everybody!

Did i execute some of my plans? Yes, a bit LOL1 Monday a whole pile of laundry disappeared, because I finally did iron it. That already was a little relief, and it feels good.
Then I treated myself with a bit of computer time, how maughty!
Tuesday I should have done a laundry, but instead decided to pop out for a little while, and I went into town centre. Oh, I saw a couple of nice things(mostly clothes, even some in sale, but I kept strong and din;t buy anything of that. I did however visit the Chinese supermarket again and bought a bunch of those noodle soups again and a few other things too.
It was rather nice weather, some drops of rain, but good temperature and I was happy to be out in the air.
Looked around a bit more and then went home again. I immeditely went into the kitchen and already prepared most of the dinner fo this evening, using some of the ingredients from the Chinese.
I had full attention again of my cat Brodski, who is almost always there to keep me company. But I think it's more the fact that he might catch a few pieces of chicken file, or minced meat or whatever, and not because he loves my eyes and talk ROFL!!!!!!!!
Yes, if he is around I talk to him, here and there explaining him what I am doing, or at times giving him a little soft kick to remove him from the place he is sitting, always in a spot where I can trip over him, hopeless!!

Must tell you about a site I already knew, but but never used any stuff of it. It's from Sharon, a photographer and designer, she has really awesome textures and makes such beautiful photos!! All she offers is for personal use, but as I offer my kits for download, although free, I felt it wasn't right to use her textures in my work without her knowing it.
I finally got corageous and mailed her to ask, if I could use her textures for my kits, mostly of course for the papers. And she gave me permission, isn't that nice? And a funny fact came up, she is living in Australia, but her mom is Dutch!! Now how about that?
She has several spots on the net,  I will give you her two links, one is of Deviant art and the other on Facebook. Take a look around and you will have to admit she makes wonderful things!

I will show you a few things of her work! Photos ( and photoshop actions and more)you can also see on her photography blog HERE

Okay, are you drolling a little bit? If you can have more, go and visit her, and if you do, a little comment would be very nice!

What else remains? Yes a new freebie, of course!
With so much winter around(not here, how blessed we are LOL) you could perhaps do with another "freezy kit? Here it is, simply named "The Winter". Awesome add-on from Arlene, real beauty!
You have a great day!

Download     HERE

Download    HERE

Two Dutch European speed skating champions this weekend.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, it was a nice weekend, with all that speedskating going on and specially for us Dutchies it gave a lot of cheering LOL. We have a champion with the men and with the women( and even second places  too at both!)If they will keep on having this shape till on the Olumpics we might gather some medals there!
So you can imagine we didn;t do much else, as it was all done during daytime, in short said: we were a lazy couple LOL!
But on Friday I still did some stuff here, first some shopping( and the new shopping trolley is great, grin), then I prepared the veggies for the freezer. Tooks a lot of cutting( like e.g. a big red cabbage), but now the drawer in the freezer is filled again.
We like very much to eat red cabbage, and of course it is best if you have fresh one.
It's very easy to make. First cut the whole thing in thing slices, or chop it in a machine, and I give it just a quick cooking. Just long enough that water starts boiling and turn the heat off.
Drain it and let it cool off, then put portion in freezer bags.
To make it ready to eat I do like this:
Take out a package, put it water, together with a little bit of white vinager(keeps the color on), then quite some fine sugar( it should taste a bit sweet) and a bit of salt, and depending on portion a handful of so of raisins. Also you can add  little dices of apple in it ( do that a bit later, then they stay firm).
Cook the whole for about half an hour ( cabbage has to be rather soft, but a bit of a bite cannot hurt), then drain, put a bit of butter in it and a good portion of cinnamon powder. Stir all well, and it's done.

Today I must kick myself in the butt and do something about the laundry. Some ironing to be done and a full washing machine is waiting too!. Well, that should keep me busy for a bit, perhaps I will feel brave enough to do some more, we'll see how the day will go , hahaha.
Weather still looking rather well, I was out Saturday too very short, temperatures are a bit lower, but not bad at all. It can stay this way for longer time, I don't need any ice or snow, if possible!

I know I am forgetting something, but it's not peeping up in my mind, so better go on to the freebie and may be I will remember later what I still wanted to ramble about. Shouldn;t be too important, it probably can wait till next time.
Today I have the kit "Moments Aimés" ( loved moments), for you. Think it is a rather versatile kit.
Have some fun today an stay safe and sound!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

CHRISTMAS 2014

 Download  Blue Velvet Christmas

 Download   Arlene Blue Velvet Christmas clusters

 Download    Christmas Joy

 Download    Arlene Christmas Joy clusters

 Download   Florence Christmas clusters 1

 Download   Santa Wears Pink Today

 Download    Arlene Santa Wears Pink Todat clusters

 Download    Country like Christmas

 Download    Arlene Country like Christmas clusters

 Download  Florence Christmas clusters 3

 Download  Florence Christmas clusters 4

 Download  Wonderful Christmas

Download   Arlene Wonderful Christmas clusters

I had a lovely birthday.

Goodmorning everybody!

Thanks to all who have left me wishes for my birthday, it made a part of my day, true!
I had a wonderful, quiet day, just did things I wanted to do, so it was all MY day LOL.
We went, as planned to the market, and yeah, I did give myslef as present a new shopping trolly.
I've found a picture on internet of about just the same one, only mine is in a nice blue tartan textile.

Funny, isn;t it, that someone can be so pleased with such a thing, but I couldn;t do my shopping without it!
So we did buy some stuff at the market, as veggies, some fruit and of course cheese!
Home again, I didn;t do much more, we just had a relaxed day and I loved it!

But yesterday I decided I had to do something more, so first I made dinner, that at dinner time only had to be put in the oven for a while, then did a laundry washing, hanged that out to dry and now the washing machine is almost full again, with all the Christmas rugs and pillow covers etc.
Then I treated myself with some computer time, and started a new kit.

Today will be another day of doing things. First have to do some grocerie shopping, need some coffee and cat food and such things, then I want to prepare the veggies for the freezer, and if still some time remains who knows, may be I will continue a bit on the kit.

The weekend we will spend lots of time at tv again, because there are the speed skating European Championships all-round, taking place in Norway.
well, by now you know we love to watch that sport, and add to that  a few detectives in the evening, we will have a great weekend LOL!

The weather looks to be not bad at all today, I can see blue sky, even sunshine, not too much wind, so it will be a good day to go out. The weather forcast is telling us that may be next week temperatures will drop some, even possible we will have a bit of nightfrost( only 1 or 2 below zero), pity, because temparatures now are still great for the time of year. But we shouldn't complain, other years we had much worse weather conditions!

Oh my porr friend Heidi didn;t have a good start of the new year! She called me on my birthday, to wish me a happy one, and when I asked her how she was doing, she told me, she almost couldn;t walk. She fell of the ladder when removing some Christmas decoration, fell on her bump and twisted her foot. Nothing broken, but at the moment she has a real swollen foot and has trouble when sitting, and it hurts a lot. Lucky they had still crutches(from the time her husband had operation on his knee), so she can hop around a bit, but it's no fun.
I think she has a lot of bruises and I know all about that, it's NOT nice at all!
Poor thing, I will try to visit her soon, but best will be, if she will be home alone( it gives us a better chance to chat about all we want ROFL).

Okay, that's about all, so we'll move on to the freebie, hey?
It's named "Remember that Moment"kind of nostalgic kit I suppose.
As usual some lovely clusters from Arlene, to finish off your layout.
You all take care and have a great weekend!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

My Freebies of Oct.Nov,Dec. 2014

Download AUTUMN COMES HERE

 Download Arlene Autumn Comes clusters

 Download  Love the Memories part 1
                    Love the memories part 2

 Download   Arlene Love the Memories clusters

 Download  Spooky Time part 1
                    Spooky Time part 2

 Download   Arlene Spooky Time clusters

 Download  Romantic at heart part 1
                    Romantic at Heart part 2

 Download   Romantic at heart quickpage

 Download  Remembering the First Love

 Download     Arlene Remembering the First Love clusters

 Download    Precious Winter Green

 Download     Arlene Precious Winter Green clusters

 

Download    Florence various Clusters 1