Bad things happened, due to aweful people.

Goodmorning everybody.

Don;t get too startled up by the post title, we are okay, but still there has happened a bad thing to Jan this weekend.
He had evening shift on Saturday, but he came home rather too early again, so I was curious how come.
Then he told me the bad news. When attending to a patient/client for a short visit only, he came on the street again and..............his bike was gone. Simply STOLEN! So he couldn;t finish his round, had to walk back to the central post, tell them about it and then came walking home.
What miserable types are that, who just steal a bike, that is locked, placed against a house, so not looking abandoned at all???!!
And Jan's bike is crucial to do his job. Oh my, I was sooooo pissed off, not to mention Jan LOL!
Okay, no need to go to the police for a declaration, first his bike wasn;t insured(only a second hand one) and it takes ages to make that declaration and result is practically zero.
So today Jan first is gone t a doctor's appointment at the hospital for result of his echoscopie and then he has to search for another bike. That has to be another second hand, at the moment we cannot afford to buy a completely new one. Not nexessary neither, cause you can find real good second hand for a nice price. I truly hope he will find one today, because tomorrow he has already work scheduled and without bike he would have to cancel it.
Damn, all was going rather good at the moment with acceptable amount of hours for him and now this again!

Quick about Dikkie Dik. It seems he is feeling a bit better every day, he is now on his pill cure, that will end on  Thirsday. Eating still isn;t great, but at least he does eat something. I have to put him in front of his little saucer to push him eating, butthen he takes some pieces and even some more when I feed him by hand. Imaging, our cat the biggest eater of the two needs to be fed by hand. Okay, if it needs to be done for a while, I will do it. He takes something to eat about 3 times a day a bit, so all together it is already more than at the beginning of last week. Still crossing fingers we won;t have to go again to the vet.

Hahaha, I was so p.d off by the bike stealing I had no energy left on Sunday, so I spent almost all day at the computer LOL. But today some work has to be done so I must hurry up a bit. Oh above all also our iron died on Friday. So I had to buy another the next day too.
Sometimes money just flies out of your pocket before you even have put it in ROFL!
So I hope we will have a more luck this week, and why not? Better to try to stay optimistic as much as possible!

Well, time for an Arlene freebie, don;t you think?  This time some great ones made with the Nature's Change kit

Download    HERE

And my freebie for you is a bit different one. I love to make sometimes a fantasy kit, but I didn't do that this time. I've made some quickpages for you, in fantasty style. And was inspired by Linda, who makes sometimes smaller quickpages, that you can print out if you want and frame it in borderless one dollar frames from e.g. Wallmart.
So I thought these could be nice in a bedroom from a grandchild, or somwhere in your own house with a sweet picture of your child when they were still young, or with a grandchild. I have four recrangular ones in a 5 x 7 inch dimension and 4 square ones in 6 x 6 inch dimension.
Hope you can make something with them.
Now I really have to get moving, shopping to do, ironing to do, preparing something for dinner, and possibly a couple of little householdchores more.
Have a wonderful day!

Download all 8 quickpages  HERE

Going to the vet, can be a problem!

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, I start with what is bothering me the most at the moment. Our Dikkie Dik.
I got Jan to the point to go to the vet yesterday. We wanted to go in the afternoon, but I first had to get Dikkie into the house. So I whistling and calling yesterday in the garden and oh yes, he came near. But he stopped on the little roof of a neighbourshed, and that was it! I could do what I wanted, it seemed as if he felt there was going to happen something strange with him!
Luckely we had another chance, in early evening they had another walking-in consultation hour.
So I started around 16.30 calling Dikkie Dik. That took a lot of patience, but after a while, oh wonder he came to me. I took him into the room right away with closed door!
Around 18.30 we went to the vet. She is a very noce lady, she looked at him, told us that perhaps, only perhaps one of his kidneys could be the problem, but as easy something else. She took his temp, and he had a fever. Then she injected him with some sort of anti biotic, gave us some pills to give him starting Saturday, and told us to see him that would give a change. Keep him in during the night and if nothing changed after s few days, come again and then she suggested she would make an echo, to see if that would give some answers.
We went home again, I prepared a little saucer with some chicken filet(!) for him and a little water too in the room.
He wasn;t too happy about that, but finally he lay down and even slept a little. Also I manged to let him eat a few pieces of the filet, not much but it was a start.
This morning he  was happy to get out of the room, but... stopped for a moment in the kitchen to drink a little bit and.....yes, he even had some chicken filet again, I first had to point it out to him, but then he did it all by himself.
Now he is out, I cannot keep him indoors, he has to do "his thing"outside, never was used to do it on a litter box.
Well, he did even looked a bit better this morning, so let's cross fingers, that the spiral keeps going up and that in a few days he will be eating by himself and much more again.
Pffew! I am a little reliefed, and so is Jan! By the way, going to the vet isn;t the cheapest thing to do! And still this one isn;t the most expensive. But if it helps, I am glad to pay!

They changed a bit Jan;s shifts, the shift on Sunday evening was redrawn, but in place he has now two double shifts, today, the morning and evening and tomorrow afternoon and evening.
It's a bit long, but hey, now he comes to an acceptable amount of hours.

eather has definately changed now, today there is much more wind, temps aren;t too high, around
62-63 F. Even there is expected some rain, so not all too nice for Jan being a lot outside.
Perhaps the sun will come out in the afternoon, shich will look at least a bit friendlier.
It might be a temporarely dip, LOL, who knows, somewhere next week it might be better again. You can count with it, this change, it;s the time of year for it. But I hope there is still some nice autumn weather in store!

Yesterday I took a "free"day, LOL, well, I wasn;t much in the mood for anything with Dikkie Dik's situation, so Jan had his paper reading day and an extra nap, and I spent a lot of time at the computer. Today must be different, have to do a bit of shopping and some household chores, perhaps, and prepare early dinner. May be I leave the chores for tomorrow afternoon.
Wednesday I already did some things like a clean of the toiletroom and a vacuumsweep through the house and such.

Yes, now it's freebie time ROFL.
From Arlene lovely clusters made with the "Make a Wish kit"and my kit is a seaon related one again, because I love those warm autumn colors. So here is Change of Season and I can promise you that I have one more Autumn kit in store for you!

Download   HERE

Download    HERE

Have a great weekend, thanks by the way for all your sweet support and compassion concerning Dikkie Dik!

Worried about my Dikkie Dik.

Goodmorning everybody!

To start with the thing that keeps my mind busy the last few days:
I am worried abou tour cat Dikkie Dik. Something isn;t right with him. He was always the one who had great appetite, looking more than healthy, a nice round shaped and heavy cat.
But the last few days he isn;t eating, or almost not, I tried all things they really adore, like fresh heart, chicken filet and minced meat, and normally both cats swllow that with pleasure and in a rush!
But not Dikkie Dik anymore. Just a few little pieces and that's it. I saw he still drinks water, thank God for that.  It can happen, that once in a while cats aren;t just in the mood for a lot of food, but this is diifferent. I tried to figure out if he is in pain, and I cannot tell. I don;t think so, but he doesn;t feel well, I can see that. He also lost weight, of course, so may be we should watch it for today and if there's no change, I want to go to the vet with him in any case tomorrow, but if you ask me, I already want to do that today.
I know, Jan isn;t the quick running type when it comes to that, and sometimes he is right in waiting a bit with it. But now I am feeling myself real nervous.
I so hope it willl not be something real bad with him. I don;t want to miss him yet.

We have the elctions for a new government today and I am definately going to vote. None of the parties will get the full majority to form the cabinet, so there will be a coalition, which is not a bad thing. We always had that. But how long will it take to form a new cabinet? There are some big differences in program between the parties, so if you want it or not, there must be done some compromises. It is an important day for the future of The Netherlands. I hope a lot of people will vote and that they will use their brains a bit LOL.

Jan is working this morning, so it's quiet here now. However soon I want to hop into some clothes and get some things done, e.g. I think I will tackle the toilet/bathroom section.
Oh, yesterday we had the mess of the gas pipeline change, we even had to shut off the gas for a few hours. But rather quick in the afternoon they told us we could use it again, we checked it and all worked fine. Now they are "repairing"the sidewalk again, I am glad, cause all that sand was moving into my house LOL. Not too much, but every time you come from the street you pick up some of it and the hallway and even sitting room isn;t the right place for it.
So probably I will take out the vacuum cleaner too this morning.

Before I will post the freebies I want to tip you for a few lovely downloads on my fellow scrapperblogs.
First one is Mat, made a great cluster  and you can get it HERE
Then Linda, who made such adorable quickpages with some of my kits, get them HERE
Last but not least Edna posted yesterday the start of a new weekly download in collaboration with Su, and this time they offer you all kind of CU-goodies. Get them HERE adn HERE

On to Arlene's clusters, and today there are some wonderful ones made with the "Close to Heaven"kit.

Download    HERE

And my kit is "Celestine", rather nostalgic, and a bit vintage you could say. Hope you will have some use for it.

Download     HERE



Now after another coffee I will give myself a kick at my bottom(ROFL) and get started in the house.
Have a wonderful day!

Mess at our front door today!

Goodmorning!

Well, if I wanted to or not, I just had to wake rather early today. How come? The guys that are repairing or changing some pipelines, started this morning just in front of our house! The noise waked me, because they first had to lift part of the tiles and then dig out the sand, with a machine that makes NOISE!
Oh well, I hope they will be ready by the end of the day, one can always hope, isn;t it?
The weekend was ever so quite.
Jan worked Friday morning, so i did my things, but he washome a bit earlier than I thought, so I wasn;t even ready, had to give the house a good sweep with the vacuum cleaner. And then he told me, he also had to do an eveningshift that same day. Okay, nice for the money, but I had to change a bit the plans for dinner.
So the evening I was alone, but it passed real quick. I watched the match of our Dutch soccer team, they won with 2-0, that's good, but the team still has to grow a bit.
Then there was The Voice of Holland, which I didn;t see. No, I watched some debating from our politicians, which can be sometimes interesting. And it's good to do, cause coming Wednesday we have the elections!

Then Saturday- and Sunday evening Jan had to work too, so during all the weekend I was alone in the evening, sniff! It's not dramatic, but some programs on tv are nicer to watch when you do it together, like a quiz or so.We always try to give the answer on questions before the other does, LOL, and if we have the right answer and the candidate on tv doesn;t we always look at eachother with a look like: "How is that possible, he(or she) gives the wrong answer? It was sch an easy question! "
It's just more fun together.

During the day we just sat in the garden, it was beautiful weather, and I also had some computer time and really was in a creative flow, wonderful!
Today it still should be nice weather, although it is changing. It rained a bit, and still is cloudy at the moment, but later today the sun should come out again. May be a good time to go out for a little walk together, who knows?

Friday I promised you a sneak-peek of a kit I was working on. I did finish it and yes, I have a sneak-peek for you. Here it is:

Any idea what kind of kit this is? It was fun to make this one, and I am happy with it.

Oh, have to get something of my chest! Last weeks there were the Paralympic games. And I thought it a real shame that on tv they only had about two sessions of half an hour to show just flashes of all events! Remeber the Olympics some weeks ago? Every evening there was one channel that covered all events  as much as possible live, during the whole evening and during the day there also were some flash backs and so on.
Shame on the people who just gave the Paralympics a few moments on tv. It should be left to the choice of the public, weather they want to watch it or not, we have several tv channels so they could do it on one and give the other programs on the other ones, isn;t it? But I think the athletes perhaps deliver a bigger effort than the valid athletes, one should admire their determination and will power and they achieved great things. And you know what? Sometimes you feel a bit akward to watch handicaped people, let's be honest about that. But watching a good volleybal match, or a sprint of any sport, you just forget about their handicap, it are very exciting matches and I have great admiration for all those athletes!

That said, I think it's about time to finish this blogpost.
So here are first some clusters from Arlene, made with the kit "Petit Coin".

Download    HERE

And my kit for you is a versatile one, I think, good for some heritage scrapping, as well as a lot of other subjects, it's name is"Never Ending Story". I will take my second coffee, and play a little in PSE, perhaps I can finish the kit I started on in the weekend.
Have a lovely day!

Download    HERE

Beautiful days are here

Goodmorning everybody!

May be a bit boring to read all the time about our weather, but after a quite rainy summer we are having some great weather now and still lasting! So why not be enthousiastic about it?
Wednesday Jan came home with the message we had to have early supper, cause he got an evening shift too at the last moment. And he was annoucing it with a rather happy face, LOL.
Yesterday he was free, so could take it easy, but when I was doing some ironing, I heard some noice coming from the garden. So I peeked out of the window and saw Jan busy there, making a mess of the terras, sorting out all pots and stuff that was collected there the last few months, cleaning the tiles, levelling some of the tiles with heaps of sand, etc.etc. I must say he did a good job!
Well, during my ironing, I already put some of the clothes and things in the closet, but then I couldn;t stand the bit of mess that always arises after some time, so I took out all of it, arranged it nicely again, switched some things from one closet to the other, and it looks much better.
And yes, Wednesdaymorning I did give the fridge a cleaning up, sorted out the content and it looks sooo good again.
Sometimes you can feel happy about yourself, because you actually did what you planned and when it works out fine, it's hoorray for yourself ROFL.

Today Jan is working the morning, so all quiet here, but there are a few things to be done. Have to get me a refill for some of my medicin, have to sweep around the vacuum  cleaner.
There will be time left with that, but I'll see what I can do more. Hmmmm, also have to drop a bill at the bank, and I am sure I am forgetting something.
In our street it's a bit of a mess now, they are changing some pipes, I believe for gas, so parts of the sidewalk are broken up, you have to slalom  walking there, in a way it might be a good thing, because they lay down the tiles again after they have done the job, and perhaps that will be an improvement. I just saw that they arrived at our front door, so we have the mess now. Hopefully they will be ready with it today, otherwise it will stay "broken up"all weekend.
It is good for one thing, LOL, Jan took a bit of the sand there for our tiles in the garden. Yeah, he snatched it, oh what a bad guy!

This evening there wil be a soccer match from the Dutch national team, against Turkey, preliminaries for the world championship. Well, I am curious to see what the new coach did with the team. It appears he has changed several players, I think that was a good idea, but I have no idea if the team is already strong enough. You know I am a soccer fan, so hopefully they will not disappoint me, hahaha. Then there also is "The Voice of Holland" and certainly some more to watch, it will be a busy evening.

So, after all this rambling along, I think you deserve some freebies.
First some lovely clusters from Arlene, made with the Your Soft Touch kit.

Download   HERE

And I have a bit different kit for you today. I run into this colour pallette and somehow it made me think of something middle eastern. So here you have "Trail through the Middle-East". I hope you can use it somehow, I must admit I love the bright almost neon pink color in it, a bit tempered by the yellowish- oker and dark purple.
Let your fantasy work and I am sure you come up with some marvellous things!
Time for another coffee and a bit longer computer time(woring on a great kit, well, I think it will become a great one, not giving you a hint yet, but may be after the weekend I can give you a sneak-peek!).
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download     HERE

It'all about elections!

Goodmorning everybody!

The day for the elections for a new government are approaching, just another 7 days and then we'll know.
Every evening there is something to do about the elections on tv, like yesterday evening a debat between the leaders of the largest parties. It was an interesting one, but you only can hope that if one or more(it cannot be other than a coalition) will form the government, they can fulfill there promises.
That's always the question, LOL! But these debats can be of help (a bit) to make a choice.
We'll see next week where it will lead to. And then there will be the formation battle, can they compromise enough towards eachother, to form a government that can change something?
Hopefully that will not last weeks and weeks, like last time.

Oh my, what a wonderful "aftersummer"we have at the moment, don;t you call it an Indian summer?
It really is nice weather, good temperature, not too warm, oh so nice.

Hahah, I played "secretary| again yesterday. I told you Jan's schedul;e for this week wasn;t too bad, but he could do with a few more shifts. So I mailed to the agency, first complimenting them with the nice work they do( and it's a true thing), but then asking if they could try to give Jan a shift or two more. And I got mail back, that they were trying too arrange something and a little bit later, yeah, we got message his schedule had changed, and he got an evening shift on Saturday.
So now his only day off was Monday, he keeps that as a free day, and no shift on Thirsday (yet).
But Friday a morning shift and Saturday and Sunday an evening shift, is already okay. (The weekends are always great to have, because that pays extra).

Well, about that mail to the aganecy, I don;t do that too often, but every now and then I think it is a good thing to shake them awake a bit. And when you do that with a bit of humor, they don;t mind it too much LOL.

Well, thats about all. I am thinking about "my work"today, here in the house, grin grin! It might be a good idea to tackle the fridge, it could do with a cleaning. Always a bit of a mess, cause eyou have to take everything out, but also a good chance to clear things out. Yeah, I think I will do that, and if some energy is left I could do some ironing too. Hmmm, also we must not forget to take a bit advantage of the good weather as long as it is still there, perhaps Jan and I can do something this afternoon.
Oh, I tasted my blackberry jam yesterday, and it isn;t bad at all! Yippee, I could make some more, perhaps a good idea to take plums this time. Depends a bit on their price at the moment.

Now the freebie from Arlene. I had to make 2 previews of these, to do them right a bit. This time they are made with the Lonely Looking Sky kit. I think they are adorable and beautiful! She even made you a wordart!

Download     HERE

And the kit is: "Just You and Me". Very soft kit, and I myself am in love with one of the elements in this kit, the statue of the two aged people I found. Don;t you think that is fantastic?
Well, hope you can do some nice layouts with this kit.
Have a wonderful day!

Download    HERE

The unexpected surprise!

Goodmorning everybody!

On friday I had such a nice surprise! During the day I checked my bankaccount, and I can do that by phone, very handy. And you had to see my face when I heard the balance! Much more than I thought it should be. Didn;t understand it and listened to the amounts that were payed to me. Didn't figure it out, so as I was in the neighbourhood of my bank later that morning I popped in and asked if they could tell me from where that amount came from.
It happened to be from the tax office, a refund from taxes.! Oh my, now THAT is really a nice surprise, totally unexpected. Now I only hope they didn;t make a mistake LOL, so I "parked" the money on another account for the moment, but now we have a little reserve for moments Jan may have not so much work and the balance is too poor.
So I was a very happy person that Friday.

I did that morning all the shopping necessary, at different supermakets and now the freezer is all filled up again. It is a bit of work, to make smaller packages from the bread and the sandwichfilling, but it's oh so handy.
Saturday we were up early again, Jan to work and I did some householdchores, so by the time Jan came home around luchtime, all was done! I knew there was a little fair not far away so Jan relaxed for a moment and then we went out. It was great weather, only the fair was kind of disappointing, so we took a longer walk, all to towncentre, using an "alternative"route to it. That means we go through little streets we don;t know, but seeing all kind of lovely gardens, little houses we loved to own, LOL, exploring corners of The Hague that we still don;t know.
Nice day, yes, it was.

Sunday I took it easy on myself, Jan working the morning again, and I did nothing, I just was parked at my computer. Ja had a very easy an quick shift, so he was home earlier than I expected.
I knew there was another fair, also not too far away, so weather was nice again, and we walked to it. Now that was nice little fair. Not very big, but all the stands had home made products, some of them offered for a little price something to eat, there were lots of people and we also saw several of our "old" acquaintances, of the time we still went to "our"cafe where we had that geat group of friends too. Oh, it was a real nice afternoon.

In the evening we also had it nice, some of our favourite programs on tv are back again after summer holiday time, yeah,
And today we have an all free day, meaning Jan isn;t working, so no waking up with the alarm, but a little bit later, and that is oh so wonderful ROFL.
It looks to be again a great day, almost no wind, sunshine and nice temperature. No idea if we will stay home or not

That was our weekend, and now the new week has started, already we have September, it's unbelievable. One thing is for sure, if weather could stay the same as now till the end of November I would be a very happy person, but I am afraid it will not. Lets not complain before it is necessary and be greatful for the nice weather we have at the moment and live it by the day!

Perhaps you could take a moment time to visit a "new"blog, it's from one of my followers and she makes real nice things with my my kits(not only with mine, but they are used a lot). The blog is written in German, but she has a translator on it, so it shouldn;t be a problem.
You even can download some of her stuff, freebies for personal use, so why not take a look?
Here is the link ( and she has several blogs, you will see that when you visit)
http://ukkisbastelbilder.blogspot.nl/

Okay, time for some great clusters again from Arlene, and she keeps me busy, because this weekend she did sent me a lot of new stuff again!
This time she offers you clusters from the "Always Close to Me"kit.

Download    HERE

Hope you have some use for my little kit, named "Make a Wish".
Have a lovely day, be creative and don;t forget to give a little smile here and there!

Download    HERE