Weather is spoiling us a bit!

Goodmorning everybody!

I didn't spent all too much time at the computer this weekend, due to the nice weather we have at the moment and it's getting even better for a few days.
So I managed to make a new bloglayout, thought it was about time again.
Finished some preview of Arlene's clusters and even started a couple of papers for a new kit.
But I also did a lot on my throw over blanket project and yesterday I spent time in the garden, together with Jan.
Because the weather is improving again ( temps are getting higher and sun is doing its best in between some clouds), you can see some of the seedlings speed up in showing that they really can kame it to real adult plants LOL!
Jan has foud a new project for himself. We found somewhere a little tray and he will make a bird feeding place with it. He already has found in our shed a pole he can use for it.
I wanted to have such a bird feeding place already for a long time, now he makes me one!

Oh, I did make an appointment for the check up at the neurologist, good girl! Even for the thorax photo, but that is easy peasy, I can come by any time without making an appointment.
So somewhere this week I will try to go there, it better can be done with.
However not today, because I will have to go to my friend Heidi again, for the doggie walking.
We didn;t speak with eachother for a couple of days, so I am curious to hear and see, how her ankle is behaving and more how she is behaving LOL.
I just hope she stayed a bit sensible and didn't do too much walking around already!

As a birght note I can confirm, that till now our central heating system is behaving as it should, pressure stays the same, oh, what a miracle! But as I know how that can change in no-time, I am still keeping an eye on it, checking it every now and then.

Now it would be nice to win a bit substantial price in the lottery and life could be almost perfect, ROFL!
But I am not counting on that to happen( althoug somewhere, all deep inside a sparkle of hope it might happen, always remains, hahahaha).

I think you can do with a nice Spring kit today. So I offer you "Suddenly it's Spring", with an awesome add-on from Arlene!
Have a wonderful day!

Download HERE

Download     HERE

More and more Spring coming to us.

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh yes, we are definately heading for a few really nice days if we can believe the forecast.
I really don;t mind, it will make us feel more cheerful and it will be good for all the little plants that want to grow.
Wednesday I first went for the shopping, and oh was I glad to be home again! I filled my car so much, that it was real heavy to pull, but I managed LOL.
I first sat down for  a moment, but then ecided there was enough time left in the day, to do something more. So I did some ironing and at the same time sorted out some shelves of the clothing closet. I had so much t-shirts lying there, and I sorted that out, some of them are almost like new, so I put them aside to give to Séverine(yes, she almost has the same clothing size as I have now). If she doesn;t like them I ams sure Heidi knows another kid that can use them.

Yesterday I had to post a payment for a bill at the bank, and it was nice weather so I took my time for it. Then I took a walk, just looking into some shops, didn;t buy a thing there! and walked on to a nice parc. On the way I did buy me half a bread and some sausage and took a "luch"on a bench in the parc. Oh my, that simple sandwich tasted so well, sitting in still a bit of fresh feeling air but with a lot of sunshine and looking at the pond with some geese, and ducks.
It was all so quiet and peaceful, I really anjoyed that moment.
Then I walked a little bit further and saw this magnificent tree that just "begged"me to take a picture(yes, for once I took my little camera).
Don;t you think it is a wonderful sight, this big tree, with all those new leaves on it??

On the way home I came by a smaller garden centre and of course I popped in, how could I resist it!
I restrained myself from buying, well, almost, hahaha, couldn;t walk away there without ANYTHING!
So I just bought two plants for the garden. One Fritellaria ( Sneak's head lily)and one Campanula glomerata"Caroline, I've found pictures of them both for you, first is the Fritellaria.
The Campanula should reach a hight of ca. 60 cms. but plant is just a small cutling.

I hope my new babies will do well !


Today or at the last Monday I should pick up the phone to make appointments for the yearly checkup with my lung doctor and the neurologist. Sounds scary, but I see them once a year, tell them all is going not bad at all, I get my prescriptions and it's done with again. Only this year the lung doctor wants to have a photo of my thorax again. Just to have an extra check.
Hmmmm, so I will have to go to hospital next month or may be even later( the specialist have a very full schedule) probably 3 times. But okay, it that's all it takes it must be done.
Today it looks to become also a nice day, not yet too warm but in the sun it can become around 64 F, and that is not bad at all!
No idea what I will do today, I am "free'" more or less, so we'll see.

I have another "Nutshell"kit for you today. I named it "Carefree Childhood". Not everybody's childhood was really carefree, I know, but despite of that, when we look back to our childhood, oh my, what a wonderful time it seemed to be, we didn;t have to worry about jobs, insurances, taxes, energy bills , mortgages and rents to pay and lots more of that awefull stuff! How would it be to have that time back for a while??
With that idea I leave you alone, enough of the rambling today.
Have a wonderful weekend with a smile!

Download    HERE

Download     HERE

Heading for better weather??

Goodmorning everybody!

Today it will be still rather cold and even rainy. But themn the thermometer should show some higher temperatures, creeping up slowly but steady! Oh, if that might be true, it would be great!
Last two days I didn;t do all too much, except for the doggie walking.
I misunderstaood Jan telling me about the 2 weeks that Heidi should have the cast on. That wasn;t so, She got rid of that yesterday, but was told it would take for sure another two weeks to heal completely and that she would be able to walk as usual again.
Okay, that is better news.
Yesterday, as well as Monday I went to her place for the doggies. And yesterday she just was home again from the hospital, when I returned with the two rascals.
And she was without the cast, hoorray! She was a bit afraid to take off her boots, silly girl, so I helped her out of them, very carefully and brought her her pair of slippers LOL!
Then said to her that she really should take it easy with the walking around, no bunny jumping yet should be done, her ankle still is very weak and she will have to "learn"to walk on it again, but slowly!
She is a very stubborn girl, so I just hope she will keep to the advice everybody is giving her.


I promised you to take a picture of the new knitting project I have started. It should become an overthrow for the couch. Loooooooooong project LOL!
I've finished one part. I want to make it in several parts, all in a different pattern. Perhaps it will look nice whan it all is finished.
Here the 1st part.

And here the beginning of the 2nd part( I like that pattern)

And here a photo of one of the latest seaters I've made for myself. I am happy with it, it is soft and really warm!

I am not at all a first class knitter, but I like it. I really love some sweaters you see with cables in it but it's hard to do. But may be I will try a simple cable on one of the parts of this overthrow( still thinking about it LOL)/

So that's the thing I am busy with when watching tv, it keeps me from fighting against the shutting down of my eye-lids ROFL!
Today I really will have to do some shopping, and if there is still some energy left, some housework too(like ironing or clearing out my little desk where I keep all the pens and paperclips and tape and all that and the computer stuff too)
We'll see what we can do, grin!
Today I have a kit for you, that perhaps isn;t all to "general", even might be hard to use but I stumbled uppon a few elements and thought I might make an Egyptian kit.
Hope somebody can use that.
It's named "Nefertari's Dream". Arlene told me she had some trouble coming up with clusters for it, but I think she did a wonderful job!( I very much like the cluster with the cat)
Have a lovely day!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

More doggie walking to do LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Friday was still a buisy day for me. But my hubbie was so sweet to me to say, he would go for the doggie walking, so I could do shopping and didn;t have to hurry doihng so.
That already made a big difference to me!
So first I did do some grocerie shopping and then home I first took a sandwich and was brave by putting on the washing machine, and even did do the vacuum cleaning(desparately needed thing to do), in the mean time Jan went to Heidi.
Both home again I really was up to some rest and so I did.
Jan told me that Heidi visited the hospital for a check on her ankle and got the message she had to carry still the brace and that it would take another 14 days untill it wold be removed. I know she certainly wasn;t happy about that, but I had warned her already it could take some more time than she had in mind!
So we still will have to do some doggie walking. And doing so I can keep a little bit an eye on her too, so she will not do too stupid things LOL.

Saturday was such a great and wonderful lazy day! I only got out for a moment to get us the newspaper and some wool( I started a new knitting project) and quickly returned home.
Jan went out then to look if he he could find a coffeemaker for us. We have one, of course, but it's already old and started to show some defects. Nothing serious, but every now and then it seems to loose some of the water of the tank, and it alsao makes a bit of funny noise when filtering.
No problem to get another one, but a new one is at the moment just a bit too much for our budget.
Well, often you can find one in the charity shops of recycle shop or in the dollar shop. Not of the best quality but good enough( I wanted one with a thermo can, so the coffee stays warm and tasty for a longer time).
As always, when you really want a thing, you cannot find it. Till this Saturday afternoon Jan came home with a box. He found a coffee maker, it even was a new one, for a very nice price, it even has two thermo cans!
It works fine, and everybody is happy again, grin.

Rest of the weekend we didn;t do a lot, certainly not me, and it was wonderful.
We watched the last speed skating event of the season, the world championship allround for men and women and we have two new world champions!
In between watching that, i was busy on my new project( when I have done a bit more of it I will make some pics of it) and jan was nursing his seedlings and bulbs and a mother hen!
I even did a bit of designing on the computer, not much, but something.
Now today I will go again to Heidi, to "do"the doggies, no real rush though, haven't planned anything else for the day, dinner is ready already, only have to put it in the oven this evening.
So may be I even can do some more work at the computer this afternoon.
Still, tomorrow there are a few things I will have to do, beside of the doggie stuff.
Best I enjoy today, still another rather quiet and more or less lazy day. Weather looks not bad at all, I spot sunshine outside, not too much wind, good  conditions to be outside for a while.
I am glad we live in a part of The Hague, where we don;t notice much of that Nucleair Top that is going on now. Some other parts are almost totally shut down, cut off, heavily secured and all.
Okay, your freebie today is another Nutshell kit, bamed Easter fun. all in bright yelllow, and Arlene made you two sweet clusters. Oh, speaking of Arlene, if you want some more Easter clusters, or just some backgrounds, go to her deviant art spot HERE, she just posted some new stuff there!
Have a fantastic Monday!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

"Running around, and back and forth, Oh poor body!

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh boy, I will have to slow down in the weekend and be lazy, I can feel that!
You knopw i am helping my friend Heidi with the doggie walking the last couple of weeks and I am glad I can help her. But as there are also other things to do, I am pretty busy with walking here and there LOL.
Some groverie shopping has to be done, then something else comes up that has to be done so I go out again, then I try to do something in the house( not very succesfull, I must admit).
Yesterday I really felt my body protest a bit after I came back from Heidi's place.
In the morning I did the usual email reading and some bloghopping and even managed to finish and upload the little freebie I have for you today.
And then I went for a quick visit to town centre, to the Chinese supermarket, cause Jan didn;t have any more of those noodle soups. Well, we cannot have that, do we?
Of course I could have wait one or two days more, but when I have something in the brain, I want to do it.
I didn;t spend too much time with hopping into other shops,, there wasn't time for it.
So I went to Heidi's straight away, with a bag full of little packages with noodle soups, and a couple of other things. Okay, I sat down there for 10 minutes then took the dogs and made the half hour round. Oh, they were soooo happy again, they are really funny.
On that "round"I pass a small petting farm, where they have two cows, a couple of sheep, some goats, bunnies, a pig and some chicken. And what did I see, there were already two little lambs lying around. Seeing that is bringing on a smile to your face, isn;t it?
After I returned to Heidi, I took a little break with a cup of coffee ( yesterday it was gorgeous weather here, with temps around 18 C = 65 F), and then went home.
Gosh, by then I was real happy to be home, I felt my legs a bit protesting on the way home, so I sat down at the couch and didn;t move very much more untill it was time for dinner making LOL.

But..........today I must go out again, we need some refill of hte usual things, like coffee, cat food, eggs and such. And this afternoon again doggie walking, oh yeah!
Normally on Friday I didn;t have to do it, cause then Danny is home, but this weekend and today too he has to work, because of the Nucleair Top that is held this weekend in our city. No, he isn;t working in security, but he works with the National Road Traffic, and with all the roads that are closed and such, they are summoned to work.
I just hope the rain will stop by the time I have to go out.
Yes weather changed, yesterday all bright and sunny and even close to warm, today much lower temperatures, raining and cloudy. They don;t expect a real temperature rise next week, so it's back to "normal" temperatures again for the time of year, we only aren;t used to it anymore. Yes, we have been spoiled a bit lately.

I think, I forget something to tell, but it surely can wait, and I will remember it by Monday(I hope).
As I am not filling my stock of designs very quickly at the moment, I just found time to make you a small freebie. It are just 4  pages, sized 1800x1200 pixels, in vintage look, but perhaps nice to make a sweet layout and print and frame it?
I think on the "free spot"on the cards a blended photo would do great.
Have a wonderful day and weekend ahead!

Download     HERE

There isn't enough time in a day!

Goodmorning everybody!

The complaint in the post title is often heard, but there are really days that it seems to be the truth!
Perhaps it is just because I am doing things sometimes a bit slower, who knows, still a morning has passed before you know it. Specially when I have a blog-day, read and answer some of the emails, hop though a few blogs, etc.
Then add to it, I have doggie walking duty LOL, 3 times a week, and that cuts the day in pieces.
Just like Monday, I was not too late awake, first have to wake up properly, so there's coffee and a bit news watching.
Then to the computer, doing the things needed, that finished I tried to design a little bit, still going slow, but I accomplish a start. Before you know it it is almost midday, so quickly get into some clothes, have  another coffee with a sandwich, and then it is time to go to Heidiá for the dogs. I try to take them out for about half an hour, ad when I come back to Heidi, well, we usually have a little chat, and when I come home and look at the clock, it's already 3 or 3.30 a.m.!
Can do a little thing and am left with perhaps half an hour, ot to the most an hour. Then dinner time, so back to kitchen to finish the cooking, and gone is the day.
Then I am glad to sit down after the washing up, and watch some tv, knitting something while doing so.
Yesterday I first had to get a few things for dinner, so I went out a bit earlier, grabbed the few things needed and walked on to Heidi's again.
Just had time to take a quick look in the garden, and finish a little kit I started.
Today I have a "free day"concerning the doggies, but then I will do the weekly shopping stuff, so soon I will have to kick myself in the butt again and start walking. Okay, I will not be home too late, so I really should take out the vacuum cleaner, that is the least I can do.
May be there will be a bit more time left to make another freebie, I hope so(and that the inspiration will come at that time).
I really try to get several things accomplished in a day, but time looks like sand slipping through your fingers, LOL.
Oh well, some things can be done another day, I know, but I know myself, if I push it forward to many times, it never will be done!
But I am not really complaining, I am just wonder-struck that at times you just have no grip on a day passing.

One thing is good, we have still rather good weather, although it is a bit colder than last week. Even had some rain, but only in the evening(good for the garden), and the next few days it will stay a bit low in temperature, but hey, as long as there is at times some sunshine, I feel better.

Yesterday evening we had an unexpected visitor in the house. I started washing up the dinner dishes and such, but had to change the sack in the garbage pail, and I put the sack in the garden.
Coming in again, I saw a strange thing at the floor, I first thought it was perhaps a little branche, or even a poo-poo from Brodski, so when I bended over to take it away, I suddenly saw it was a little frog.
Ghee, real funny, I suppose he hopped in while I was out in the garden, but it's not the place to be for a froggy. I even called Jan to take a look. I managed to direct him to the garden door and happily he hooped out into a flowerbed.

Enough rambling for today, I really need to accomplish a few things, so I do have a freebie for you, and Arlene made you some clusters. Kit is named "Empire of Flowers"and hopefully you can do something with it.
Have a wonderful day, with lots of extra hours to spend ROFL!

 Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Still going okay with the central heating stuff.

Goodmorning everybody!

Of course our first concern was keeping an eye on that meter of the central heating, to see if pressure stayed the same. And till now it seems to go allright! Still not completely convinced, LOL, so will keep a sharp eye on it this week too!
After all that misery there had to come again some regularity in life!
So Friday I had a really busy day!
First I did the posting on my blog, as usual, then I took a bit of time for bloghopping, email and such.
But at a certain point that morning I kicked myself at the butt and started to do something.
First i cleaned the fridge. It needed some real attention, so I took out all it contained, and cleaned all the little shelves and the inside of it. Even Jan gave me a little hand with it( all because he wanted to take a shower, and with me taking fresh water all the time, he would jump around under shower like a bunny, having suddenly very hot and then rather cold water LOL).
I checked all that I had in the fridge, tossed away a couple of things and now it looks all organized and is smelling fresh again. Then Jan took his shower, and I took a short break.
Then as I was in the cleaning mood, cleaned all the outside of the cupboads, and felt already proud of myself.
After that attacked the floor in the hallway and the living room, where the plumbers left their marks.
Then right away did the trick with the vacuum cleaner, even removed some dust bunnies before, and then I thought I did my best for the day and sat down at the computer. In the mean time Jan had left for a little walk to somewhere.
As I just was about 10 minutes sitting finally at the computer, the door bell rang. Oh my, who could that be? Opened the door and surprise, it was Jan's brother!
We didn;t see him for a long time, so I really was surprised. Okay, no problem, he came in, and i first phoned Jan on his mobile to tell him we had a visitor.
Jan's brother, Rob, stayed a while, a lot of things to tell eachother, so as it approached about dinner time, offered his something to eat and then he went home again.
So all together a busy day, without much chance to do something in PSE.

No problem, I thought, we still have Saturday and even Sunday.
But never think ahead too much, things always go in a different way. I did get a chance to do a little bit of designing, but other things came in between, and suddenly the day was gone too.
Sunday still left, and I promised myself to do at the least the finishing touch at the kit I started. That worked at least, LOL. Oh, it even was a bit of special day for us two, because it was the date that Jan and I became a couple, soooo long ago, 22 years! It doesn;t seem to be that long at all!

Today I will have less time, because it is again doggie walking day. Yeah, I know, I have the whole morning ahead, but that is gone before you know it, with first the posting, then have to do a bit of checking on sites for serious things, so may be I just can do a little bit on a new kit before leaving.
And by the time I will be home again, I soon will have to start dinner, oh, must not forget to post a letter for the accountant( he already sent us the tax stuff back, it looks a bit bright, if all will be accepted by the tax office, we might recieve a bit of money back, let's just hope and see). and soon another day will be gone.

Weather here is still rather well, a bit cooler though, but okay. Some seelings are showing their heas above the soil already, but it isn;t goping fast enough to Jan's liking, ROFL!

I found a kit I made already a loooong time ago, I am not completely sure I didn;t post it it already at a certain time, but I will take that chance,. If you already have this one, okay, I am sorry, I not, you are lucky LOL. I have another kit I could post, but I first have to upload the clusters Arlene made ofr it( she seems to have a new computer this weekend, a bit struggling with the new way of using it, but the sweetie did make the clusters for that kit, and I received them this morning).
No chit chat anymore, here is the kit: Embrace your Memory. As I found it in the older archives so to say, I have no extra cluster for it today, but I hope you will forgive me for that.
Have a lovely day and I will do my best to have the latest kit ready with clusters from Arlene by Wednesday.

P.s.  There was something strange going on with the download of today's kit, so I deleted it. Sorry.

Think our problem is solved.

Goodmorning everybody!
Well, it's the week of the central heating stuff LOL. Wednesday evening we filled the central heating again, because it became very chilly in the house. It warmed us up, but after about 1 1;/2 it was all back to zero point again. So we plugged it out and hoped the plumber would come the next day.
And yes, he did come and on the time he said he would.
It's a real nice guy, who works together with his son.
Well, they looked at all places, specially UNDER the floor and found the evil spot. It was an old pipe that was rusted to the bone, so they replaced that and some other spots and connections that were bad too. They even disconnected an old expansion barrel, that was completely rusted, ( it the thing that regultes the pressure and such don;t know if I have the right name for it), no use at all, cause we already have a new one in the kitchen for several years.
This plumber was very surprised to see it, and couldn;t believe the former plumber didn;t remove it,
when installing the new one. I tcould have been even a bit dangerous, because it still was connected for a part to all the installation, and if it had broken down(bound to be happen sooner or later) we could have had a serious problem.
To keep it a bit short, all is fixed, and till now all seems to work well, presure is still the same as yesterday, hoorray. We will keep a good eye on it for the next week or so, to see if it stays that way but I have good hopes.
Of course it was un unexpected expense, but we just could manage that, ab=nd I am glad it all was so bad that a new kettle was necessary! Because that we really couldn;t afford at the moment.
This plumber was real nice, did a good job, even gave us some good advice about a few things, even changed a few minor things with new, cleaned out the kettle, and I don;t think he charged us for that.

When the plumber was busy, I left Jan in charge, cause I had to go to Heidi, fro the dogs.
That was a good thing for me, that way I didn;t see all the work at home, and get nervous about it LOL.
Stayed for a little while there, just to have a cup of coffee and bu the time I came home, plumber was as good as ready with the work.
So we even could take a moment of rest, before I started dinner. And how wonderful it was, to sit in a room, that wasn;t chilly anymore! And lucky, that this didn;t happen, while freezing outside!!!!!

Can you beliebe that at the moment I am happy as a child??

Of course today I will have to clean the house a bit, already yesterday swept the floor with a mop, but also have to give it a sweep with the vacuum cleaner.
For once I will be happy to do that ROFL!
At the moment it is a bit grey outside, clouds are a bit low, but may be this afternoon the sun will come through again. We had some really lovely days, even some seeds are already showing their little heads above the soil! Next days temperature will go down somewaht, back to "normal"temperatures for this time of year. But still with a lot of sunshine. So it still could be nice to spend a bit of time in the garden, who knows?

That's about all for today. I really hope I will be able to make one or two kits during the weekend, because the one I am offering today is the last one of the stock, oh goodness!
But I may have another one again on Monday, perhaps not with clusters from Arlene yet, she needs a bit of time for it too.
This kit is named "Teatime in the Garden". well, we are reaching the time of year we can do that (or instead take a cup of coffee or a soda if you like).
Wishing you a wonderful day and weekend, till Monday again.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Oh my, we have another problem!

Goodmorning everybody!

I better get it of my chest right away, because I am kind of concerned about the last thing happened here. Yesterday I checked on our central heating(it is acting sometimes a bit strange) to see if the pressure was still up, but I had to re-fill it again with water. Okay, that sometimes already happens,but it goes slow. Now yesterday I checked again later in the evening and again, the meter was all down, oh boy!
So Jan and I refilled it again and I went to bed(oh miracle, I had a good nights sleep, despite of this), and Jan would check later again. I woke up this morning and first thing was of course looking at the heating. Oh no, I already saw the plug was out, so I could tell it was wrong again. Jan woke up and told me it went empty in a real short time.
So this morning I called the plumber(who also does central heating installation) and he will come by this afternoon, if he has still time, or it will be tomorrow.
I really do hope it will be a minor problem, that can be fixed easyily. But I have a feeling it will not happen and then it's a big operation, which will cost a large deal of mney, and to be honest, I don't know where to find that at the moment.  Well, let's first wait what the plumber has to say, before getting stessed about it, and if there is much work to be done to have again a proper working central heating, a solution will come up or be found to pay for it.
But why there always has to happen something bad, when for a moment all seems to go without any major problems or events?

Okay, enough moaning, it has no use, facts are there, and a solyution will be found.

Apart from this naty thing, all is going rather well, I can say. I do have to laugh about Jan lately. He is picking up that gardening with so much enthusiasm, he is busy there like a bumble bee LOL!
Monday afternoon I went for the doggie walking to my friend Heidi,  and I stayed with her for a while, chatting about all and nothing(like girls do LOL), even did a bit of pruning for her in her garden. Came home and just had time to change the bedsheets.
Yesterday I first wanted to do some shopping, but then decided it could wait another day.
Better, cause I had to do again the doggie walk,  and so I did, stayed for a shorter time , just to have a cup of coffee. Heidi is taking up the French language. At school she had the language, but never practised it in the time after, but as she goes on holiday to France the last few years, she wants to be able to talk and understand it better than she does now. Well, we will see how long she can keep the good work up LOL. I said I could help her a bit with it, like with the pronunciation and I can help her with the little tests. Could be fun, you know!
When I came home, Jan  wasn't home, so I had a quiet moment for a little while. Then Jan came home and you never guess what he had found. Oh yeah, he bought us some more bulbss(lilies this time) and some more seeds, specially herbs and a little greenhouse to grow some of the seeds, oh and even two little lapms for the garden, working on solar.  LOL!
He was happy as a child with it, grin!
He found it all in a kind of "dollar-shop"so he didn;t spent a lot of money o it, and that too was part of his fun!

So, today is shopping day, perhaps a bit of garden work or may be just sit there for a moment( we are lucky that weather is nice, and not too cold for now, ) then see if the plmber will have found time today, if not, tomorrow is another day. I will have to go doggie walking again, but then Jan is there, to let the plumber in and talk the thing over.

The last week or so I don;t spend so much time at the computer, designing is going very slow, so I will really have to do more, I am running out of kits!
If so, you will have to be a little patient, and I hope you still will come and visit me, but I will try to get some work done and have some freebies"on the shelf" by this weekend.
But today I still have one for you, named "N oubliez pas le Passé" ( meaning don;t you forget about the past)/
Have a wonderful day, and please cross your fingers that the central heating problem will be fixed without much work!!!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Almost Spring here, fantastic!

Goodmorning everybody!

What a lovely weather we had this weekend! And although the temperatures will be slightly lower this week, it still looks to be wonderful, with lots of sunshine, not too much wind, and practically no rain!
Friday Jan and I walked to the market, we were rather early there, but as there might be a little rain later on, we took no risk. Oh my, we came home with a completely filled shopping trolly, and my freezer is filled to the limit with stuff.!
And oh my, the stand of ower flower guy with all bulbs and and seeds and lots of roses and such was still there. You already know what is coming now hey?
I went there looking for some seeds of beans, couldn;t find the ones I wanted, but instead Jan fell in love some bulbs of dahlia's LOL. They had a great offer of several bulbs so our hearts melted again and we came home with 4 sacs of bulbs, of gladiolus an dahlias(the last ones we bought the smaller kind, so all together in the last week or two Jan had to plant a lot of bulbs.
Only have to wait a bit with the dahli's but ina week or two I think we can put them in the garden too!

Home again we first took a bite and then Jan hoovered the house, I did some laundry, and watched a bit TV, jan went into the garden for a moment and I did some knitting.
Nice day.
Saturday it was even better weather, so we were up and around rather early, I quickly went for the newspaper, Jan already was busy in the garden again. Yes, he has caught the "gardening virus"at last!
And I joined him for a while there, cleaning out some pots, preparing them for the new season etc.
Oh my, yesterday it was even worse. we had a big heap of soil lying at the terras, coming out of the pots and so we cleaned up, But it's a pity to just throw it away, you only have to clean it a bit, take out as much as moss and old roots as possible, but then you easily can re-use a lot of it again.
So that was mainly my task yesterday, as for Jan, he was busy with putting up some shelves, that he repianted first, digging out some plants, a part of it re-planting, sweeping the terras, arranging some pots , well, a busy bee. After a while I went in but he kept going on.
I knew it was kind of useless to tell him to stop too, because he would regret it later ( his back would protest), still I did it, he even came in for a moment, just to have a sandwich and was gone again.
I must say his work pays off! We have a sooooo clean and fresh looking garden now, all ready for real Spring and Summer, he did a real marvellous job there. And he is happy with it like a child LOL!
Now I hope that the seedlings will produce something and that the bulbs will florish well too, and the worst thing is, that after Jan;s cleaning up the borders, we have still some "free| spots, that just are crying out: "Fill us with some wonderful colorful flowers like pansies, and later on with lots more annuals"!!
Terrible to hear that and difficult to resist, even more for Jan than for me, believe me! ROFL.

Okay, I have to hurry a bit now, because I will have to go to Heidi for the doggie walking early afternoon.
As I have to do some things before( otherwise they will not be done anymore today, grin), I better post the freebie and just have time to stay at the computer for a little bit, and then start the day.
Kit of today is for all pet lovers, named Adorable Companions. With the sweet clusters from Arlene, I am sure you cannot wiat to make a layout with your favourite pet!
Oh, by the way, Arlene is getting famous! She is also making clusters with kits of Laurrie from CheyOkota, visit her blog and you can download some more wonderful clusters from Arlene, as well as some freebies from CheyOkota, who makes lovely kits!

You have a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Loveloy weather, and a shock LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh yes, it almost looks and sometimes even feels like ral Spring here lately.
Which is a good thing, because Jan and I did some more garden work on Wednesday afternoon!
I cleaned out some pots, with some indefinable green things in it, some also dried already, so I took that out, and now we have already some pots ready for the new seedlings, and other ones, looking much better and having room for the plants to grow a bit.
The other day Jan found a great big container in a recycle shop for only € 2,50 !!!
We filled that with soil and planted there anemone bulbs Jan bought at the market. Oh, I so hope they will grow and bloom well, they are so lovely with all their different colors!
We also got rid of a lot of weeds and pruned some more bushes, and at the end of the day we had a bunch of sacks and a BIG pile of prunings, that we got rid of all in the evening to be taken away the next morning.
Slowly we are getting back our garden a bit.

Yesterday I had to do a bit of shopping, so I asked Jan, if he could go to Heidi, to take the dogs out. I could have done it too, but it would have been a day of running around from left to right for me. Well, no problem, he went there, and I did my shopping.
Both home again, Jan got busy again in the garden, he had to stain some shelves, where we have a lot of pots standing on.
And I got brave and ironed all the laundry and stashed it away into the closets. Pfffff, good girl LOL1

As it looks to be another rather good day here, we probably will go to the market, We could do with some fresh fruit and perhaps some veggies too. This year the municipality decided to re-organize and improve the market place, so some of the stands already are gone, and others will have another place for a while, it all will get very messy I guess, but perhaps it will look and also be better when it all is finished. I just fear, that when it is all done, the rent of the standplaces will go up, and then as result the prices of the products will go up too. Hmmmm, we'll just have to see.

The weekend weather will be even better, lots of sun, temps going up to around 15-17 C ( 59-62 F), and if that really will be so, we can look forward to some more garden work, or perhaps a little walk to somewhere, I don;t know. But it sure is helping to get the spirit up a bit, and it also gives one a little injection of energy!


Today's kit is mostly in my favourite design color, Lilac, and named "Plunged in Thought".
Arlene made some splendid clusters as add-on.
I am working again on another kit, and I think I can finish that this weekend( if I do;t spend too much time outsiede, grin).
Also have to make two previews of clusters of Arlene of two other kits/
And if Jan and I are up to it this weekend already, we should plunge into some paperwork.. Perhaps we can apply for some reduction of municipality taxes, we received the forms for it, but oh boy, it is complicated to fill them in. You should think they could have all the information, or about all of it already from the tax office, but no, you have to fill in all kind of questions again, add a lot of papers to it, and probable will have 'no' as answer. well, we will see if it is really worth all the trouble.

Back to brighter things in life, here is the preview of the freebies, just got the shock of the day, LOL, it's only 9.30 a.m. ad Jan is up already!!( considering he always goes to bed late at night, it seems his systems work a bit different from other people, ROFL and he sleeps nrmally longer in the morning), so I better finish now my post, he already told me he wants to go to the market rather early( gone are my precious silent hours in the morningm hahahaha).
Wishing you a fantastic weekend with lots of fun and hopefully also some good weather.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Doggie-walking.

Goodmorning everybody!

starting with the weather report. We have had some rather nice days and are expecting even some better ones, with practically no rain, lots of sunshine, low winds and temps around 52 till may be 60 F later this week. Only at night it will be a bit colder, could go down to freezing point at some places, but okay, if that doesn't last too long, it cannot hurt the new sprouts and early blooming crocus and daffodils.
Monday I went to Heidi. just for a chat and see how she was doing. Well, poor thing almost cannot walk with that foot of her, so I ordered her to stay put on the couch. It was nice to chat again all quiet again about all kind of things that came into our mind. Some "gossip"of course LOL, but in all real girl talk. There was no need for me to let the dogs out, cause Heidi(real stubborn as she is at times) tried to do it herself, but had to admit it was almost impossible, without using her one foot.
So I told her she was a stupid girl, and that I could have done it.
She looked a bit guilty to me, and promised not to do that anymore, LOL!
Before leaving her I told her I would come over the next day in the early afternoon, to take the dogs out for a good walk.

Yesterday I had a rather busy day you could say. I decided that it wouldn;t be a bad idea to combine a few things. So I first went to the supermarket I have to reach with the tram( bought us a lot of  sandwich spreads ( they have very good tasting ones there and cheaper than in the supermarket near by), and also some things we were running out of, at the same time could deposite a couple of bills that had to be payed at the bank, then took again the tram home. It passes almost Heidi's home too, so I got out there and did my visit, with shopping trolly and all .
I right away took the dogs, and we had a nice walk, great to see they did deposite all that dogs get rid off during a walk, ROFL, so I didn't do a useless doggie wal.
Came back at Heidi's and finally sat down to realx for a moment with a cup of coffee.
Stayed a bit longer than I planned, but okay, why not and then walked home.
Stashed away all the groceries and such, and then at last took a sandwich with another coffee and watched a bit tv, did some knitting on my sweater, even a bit of computering, and then started dinner.
It was a well-spent day!

Today I don;t have to worry about the dogs, cause Séverine is free from school early afternoon already, and she can take them out for a quick round of things dogs need to do.
But I have made an appointment with Heidi that or Jan or I, will come for the doggie walk in the afternoon again.
Friday and the weekend her hubby is home, so he will take the dogs out. But next week I'll do it again a couple of times, probably even longer, cause she has to give her foot a rest of about 4 weeks. For now she even likes it, doing almost nothing( she needs that rest and some extra sleep too, because she always is far too busy), but in a couple of days I know it will be itching, that she cannot move around as she would like too, specially now that the weather is improving and she wants to do some gardening. I already proposed sending Jan over if she needed some space and pruning in her garden. Told her that she just needed to point out the things, that definately should stay in, and Jan will take care of the rest, without doubt she will have much spacier flowerbeds ROFL>
I know, I am teasing Jan a bit but in my heart I am happy, he is having some fun in gardening, I try to be not too much a control freak there andlet him do as he likes(difficult sometimes, but all will turn out well enough, I am sure)

Now time for me to start getting busy around here a bit, still having some ironing to do, and if the weather will be as nice as they predicted, perhaps in the afternoon some work in the garden will be nice too.
So on to the freebie then. It's named "Family stories to be told", nice for some heritage layouts perhaps. Some sweet clusters from arlene too, poor thing is still fighting the flu, although it's getting better a bit. Oh, I\ll give you the link to her deviant art site, where she has posted some beautiful quickpages, made with self made textures, all free to download.
http://babybear782.deviantart.com/


Have fun and a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

Download     HERE

Some garden time.

Goodmorning everybody!

We spent a nice weekend, rather quiet, you could say, well, without any shocking events anyway LOL!
There was some speedskating to watch, there were the Dutch championships all-round and sprint.
I cannot completely understand why it was held this weekend, so close after the Olympics and all medal winners had such a hectic week with all the events they had to join, and all interviews on tv etc.
But the skaters could earn a place for the upcoming world championship so they had to attend.

In between we did some work in the garden, well, to be honest, most of it was done by Jan. He started to cut away oled branches and prune a lot of stuff, full of enthousiasm ROFL. I just was out for a little while, and then returned into the house, it was a bit too cold for me.
I settled myself onto the couch and proceeded on my knitting work, a sweater for myself in light blue.

If I am on schedule today( I always try to make a kind of schedule, but most of the time it doesnl;'t work, I wonder why?), I want to pay a short visit to Heidi, to see how she is doing and probably give the 2 doggies a walk. She asked me, if we could do that a couple of times this week in the afternoon.
Her husband is back to work ( was at sickleave because of his bad knee, but hospital still doesn;t want to operate and give him another one)and Séverine is back to school, so normally heidi takes the dogs out for a pee and such in the afternoon.
But with her bad foot and ankle, she isn;t allowed to walk a lot and for more it isn;t easy to have both doggies on a leach and walk with on eor even better two cruches!
Perhaps tomorrow or next day Jan can do it, gives him an opportunity to talk a bit to his "daughter", LOL.

Watched the news yesterday evening and I am very concerned at the moment about the situation in the Ukrain and the Krim! With all the movements of the Russian armee at the Krim, and now the president( temporal for now) has called in all reservists under 40 to build up an armee.
I think the situation at the moment is kind of explosive, and surely hope it can be worked out in a diplomatic, talking way.
This isn;t the only trouble spot in the world, there are actually wars going on at several places, but this commotion is very near to us, in Europe and can effect a lot of countries.
I can understand the people of Ukrain that they want a different life and future and government, but they will have a very difficult time as they are still very depended of Russia at the moment, specially economic.
So I hope the situation will not escalate too much and a solution will be found, without using arms.

Sometimes you can feel so sad when you read and/or hear about all the wars and killing, like with bombs going on around the world, then also there is the economical crisis still going on(of which our government is trying to tell us it is slowly getting better in our country, but it is hard to believe if you hear all reports about increasing unemployment, more and more businesses going bankrupt etc).
Then you just have to find a small thing that makes you feel better, and yes, we all have the scrappng for instance LOL!
Let's put on the freebie for today, may be everybody will feel a little better for a moment, okay?
Yes, Valentine's day is over for a long time already, but I have a kit here, that might be nice for another "loving"layout, or you just can use it any other way too.
It is named "Cherubini". Arlene made you 3 delicate clusters ( although she wasn;t feeling too bright yet, isn;t she a sweet lady?).
Wishing you all a happy day!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE