Hopes for a better month to come!

Goodmorning everybody!

September played some real nasty tricks on us! Jan,s bike stolen, iron no t working anymore, new one bought. Then all the misery with Dikkie Dik, some other small things I even do not bother to mention, all together in one month. And now Jan has a strange spot on his leg, that even disturbes him, (first he thought it was just a bad bruise, but it didn;t go away, and has a strange shape and colors) so he goes to the doctor this morning. Oh yes, our doorbell "died"also, it's one wire free, but changing batteries didn;t help, so I'll have to buy us another one.
That in short was it all I think LOL.
Enough is enough for a while!

Let's hope October will not play tricks on us ad that we get back into our "boring"life, oh I cannot wait!
The weekend was quiet, thank God, although not so much for Jan. Saturday morning he had a shift, so that was still allright, but yesterday he had a double one. Morning from 7.30 till 13.00 and then evening from 18.00 till 23.00. All together long hours!
Glad he has a free day today, and if nothing changes, he starts wrok tomorrow evening, gives him another day to take it easy, hopefully!

During the weekend I was busy on a new kit, and I was adding and adding and I think it will need two downloads, I better split the kit up in two files, easier to download.
Soon I should start slowly on making some Christmaskits again! I know everybody is thinking."oh, that's still far away from us"......... but nothing of that is true! Believe me, you will be busy with decorating and planning dinners for it and already I'll give you advise to search for presents now. Perhaps you can buy some in a sale, and it will keep away the stress LOL!
(And don;t you LOVE a bit the view of your "hiding place"place for those presents, filling itself with all kind of things, and the pleasure you already have looking at them, knowing the receiver and imagining the look on their face, opening the present?)

I am thinking of calling Heidi later this morning to see if she has a moment today, so I can pay a little visit. It's about time we see eachother again and I still have to tell her about Dikkie Dik(it first was her cat, just like Brodski). Then I also must spend some time on the ironing board. Oh my, how quick the heap of clean clothes can grow?
Hmmm, I think the doorbell has to wait till tomorrow. Lucky we live groundfloor, we sticked a little note next to the door, telling people bell isn;t working and they have to knock on the window.
If we lived on 1st or 2nd floor, that would have been difficult, hey? Then I should have put a ladder LOL! Stupid little joke, I know, but sometimes I have to much fantasy and then I see those things happen in front of my eyes.

And it's again freebie time, and yes, I have a kit with matching clusters from Arlene!
The kit is named "Je Me Souviens..." (I Remember.......), in nice soft colors, and can be used for a lot of things. Oh, I also have some more Autumn kits, but that will be for later this week and soon I will post my Halloween kit.
Okay, Jan is almost ready to go to the doctor, I hope it will be a minor thing, to solve with some pills or cream or whatever.
Then I will jump under the shower and then call Heidi.

Yes, once again I want to thank everybody for their sweet support and all during the last week concerning Dikkie Dik. It was a heartwarming experience, but I knew we scrapbook friends are nice people! All of you, a big "thank you"hug from me (and from Jan too).
Have a nice day and good start of October!

Download the kit   HERE

Download Arlene's clusters   HERE

The inevitable happened.

Goodmorning everybody.

Let's start with the bad news. So happy I was, Dikkie came home on Wednesday. We  went to the vet in the evening, she's a very straight, but sweet person. She took another look at Dikkie, and after some talking to one another, she said, that she could do some research and tests on him, but she was afraid it wouldn;t just be a bad working kidney. His belly didn;t feel and looked good. And she was afraid that even after treating him, it wouldnl't get better. So at the end Jan and I decided we should put him to sleep. Oh, it was such a hard decision, but I didn;t want him to feel aweful anymore. To tell it as short as I can, I took him in my arms, the vet gave him first a kind of anesthesia injection and she left us alone for a few moments. When she cme back he got his final injection and he passed away very quietly.
Still some tears are running on my face, as I write this down, I am such a softy in these things. But I could see Jan had a difficult moment too!
It is better this way, and I am sooo glad he has gone to cat heaven lying in my arms. Because the uncertainty would have beeneven worse, not knowing where he was, what happened to him, if he didn;t came home.
So now we are left with only one cat. I could tell Brodski wasn;t in his usual mood too. I think animals somehow feel it when it goes bad with a buddy. It's already coming to almost normal with him, but he spends a lot of time very near to us at the moment.
Do want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for the sweet support on Dikkie Dik, all those kind words and thoughts, you're amazing!

Wednesday morning, when Dikkie wasn;t around yet, I got so busy in the house. Kind of reaction to all I think. Jan to work, I did get a few necesaary grocerie things, then changed the bedsheets, washed the curtain from the bedroom, cleaned the window, inside and out and as I was busy anyway outside, did the big window from the living room too. In the mean time washing machne did it's job, so that was done too. Clean windows and curtains can make a you happy for a moment LOL!
Top get my mind off the events, I spent quite some time at the computer too and started a bit of "new"project, at least for me. And the result.....yes, I can say I didn't do a bad job, there are still some improvements to make but it's rather nice.
The result you will get as freebie today. It's a photobook album, made with the Devine Silence kit, used there also the clusters from Arlene, so you could say it's a kind of collaboration kit.
The albim can stay on your harddisk in a file(some of the pages are for "blended"photos or photos with perhaps a mask, and a few have a frame to put them in.
You also could try to print them yourself and make a little photobook, for yourself or somebody else, but I think it will cost a lot of ink, and photopaper, and fuss, so you could let a service print your photo album. There are lots of companier that can offer you a nice result. Prices differ very much, as well as the way of uploading your photos there and so on.
So I did just a little bit of reading here and there and have a few links for you, that might help you to decide where to go and what to do.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-your-own-digital-photo-book
Take a good look around on this site, they have lots more of interesting posts, also tutorials, resources, so take your time.

http://www.simplescrapper.com/2010/03/your-best-options-for-digital-photobooks/
Oh, also don;t forget to read the comments on all sites, they can be very helful too and some have great tips!

http://www.cropmom.com/Digital_Scrapbook_Info/Tutorial.aspx?id=158

http://thedailydigi.com/12-different-photobook-printer-reviews/
(very nice and I think helpful)

And if you Google photo books, well, you get a lot more to read if you need to.

My great cluster creator(grin) did spoil me again with some great clusters, from kits not publshed yet, yeah she does a real terrific job.
But as promised I first will catch up on the clusters from kits already posted by me, and if it is all coming together as I think, we can start on Monday with kit plus matching clusters. Yippee!
It takes some time, but given some time I CAN get organized, ROFL!

Now first Arlene's clusters for the Never Let Me Go kit.

Download     HERE

Then the ones for the "Never Ending Story"kit

( These are real lovely ones, well, almost anything she makes, amazes me, she has such a feeling for it, I love them)
Download     HERE

And now the "new project". I made a preview of 5 phto pages, but there are 10 in total, each one has an opposite page, so in fact you have a double paged album. And I also made a front and backcover for it. I'll show you first an example of a double page(no photo on it, but you get a better idea of the whole, and then the preview of the pages. Pages and cover are made in 8 x 8 inch.
Hope you have some use for it, and it's allright if you make some extra books(or copies) in case you want to use this, perhaps offer a book to somebody for a birthday, or anniversairy, or whatever you use it for. Still my Tou rules for it, just personal use, no money making out of it. Perhaps not necessary to say this, but there are weird people out there on the net, so it's for them I say this.
Now have slowly got to start doing some things around here. Jan is working this morning so I want a few things been done, by the time he gets home again. May be we'll catch a little nap this afternoon, hmmm, it sounds not bad, hahaha.
Have a fantastic weekend, see you on Monday!

Here the couble page preview. (How could I do different, than start with an album in one of my favourite colours???? LOL!)

Download     HERE

P.S. Let me know if you are "in"for more of these photobook albums? Must say I love making them. Perhaps, next time I could make it in a different size? Something as 7 x 5 inch? Your reactions are much appreciated. Thanks.
Oh and if somebody perhaps, may be, in the case of, etc. should really let print an album with this, please, please, please, send me a picture of it?? Really would love to see the complete result.
I know, I ask a lot, but I am so curious!

EXTRA EDITION! MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!!!

Goodafternoon all!

You will not believe it! Dikkie is home again!
I was just looking a few minutes ago in the garden for his brother Brodski and what did I find
under a bush? Dikkie lying there.
As poor looking as before, soI tried to put a little bit of food in front of his nose, no, he won;t eat. So now we keep him inside, whether he likes it or not and this evening we will go to the vet.
May be it's just for a moment, that we have him back, but there is still hope.
Just had to post this.
Keep fingers crossed that we will be able to keep him for much longer than 1 day.

We are so sad!

Goodmorning everybody!

Monday morning I could get hold of Dikkie Dik, but he had to stay in the room for a couple of hours, till we could go to the vet. And he had to go out for a little pee or so, and so Jan let him out, saying he had to because Dikkie already was stressed. I wasn't happy with it, but couldn;t blame him. Well, I tried calling him, and finally he showed up on a little shedroof, but far away enough we couldn;t reach him. He knew something was going on!
And that was the last we saw of him. I think we will not see him anymore.
It's not his way of staying away from home for two days now. So Jan and I think he went to his favourite place somewhere outside and left this world.
The same happened with our former cat!
But it's so frustrating not to know what happened to him. I know somewhere in my heart he probably will not show up again, but we will keep an eye for him still this week.
I was all messed up yesterday, oh, I did some things in the house, kept busy, more to say, did something at the computer, but every hour or so I went into the garden and whistled for him, without result.
It hurts me to know he spent his last moments all alone, I've wanted it to be in a different way.
But he was more an outdoor cat than an inside cat, perhaps it suited him.
Forgive me, to talk such a long time about him, but he was such a sweet cat, and I cannot help that I have again tears in my eyes, while typing this.
And it looks as if his brother Brodski somehow knows it. He also behaved a bit different the last couple of days.
We still have a little shred of hope, but deep down in my heart I know different.
We'll just have to accept that those things happen.

(Thanks to Florence for this sweet quickpage)

Well, back to daily business now, life goes on, we must carry on, how hard it may sound, it's true.

I've decided to post some more clusters from Arlene today and Friday, to catch up with the kits, and then next week I'll be able to post the kits as well as the matching clusters.
I hope that's okay with you.
Fist are the clusters from the "Change of Season kit."

Download    HERE

Then here the "Go Steampunk"clusters.

Download   HERE

Still it doesn't feel completely right, just posting Arlene's clusters, so I dug up an older kit, that was only available for download on Minky's special blog, and I think a lot of you might not have downloaded it. So here a little fantasy kit, named "Fairies Dream Too". Hope it still will be of use for some of you. For the ones who have this kit already, sorry ladies, but probably already Friday I will have a new thing to download for you, and next Monday we start with the usual downloads, a whole kit and matching clusters.
Aren't you too cross with me LOL?
Have to shake myself up a bit, still feeling down about Dikkie Dik, but there are thinggs to be done(although I probably will peep out every now and then in the garden to take a hopefull look around, yeah I know, it's against better knowing it, but still...). Thanks for all your sweet words and support, it cannot really ease the hurt, but it helps a lot! You are fantastic!

Download    HERE

What will today bring us??

Goodmorning everybody!

In all the weekend was not bad. Jan had a lot of work, but today he is having a free day.
Weather is a bit so so at the moment. Rainy sometimes, colder, but still not really bad.
I was busy looking after Dikkie Di the last few days. I know I told you he was doing a bit better, that was around Wednesday. But after he had finished his cure on Thursday, all seemed to turn worse again. Not eating or really almost anything, and I have to hold it in front of his face to get him eat it, and even then not much. So today we will go again to the vet and see what will happen next.
This may sound not really nice, but we will have to make some decisions. If the vet wants to make an echo e.g. we will have to ask first, what it will cost us, because vet prices are high. And we just have to be very careful with our money at the moment, and cannot spend a couple of hundred euro for this. If there will be an echo and it will show he has kidney problems, next question will rise what to do about it. Perhaps operation, or just a specail diet? I have no idea. And will that make him really better again? And may be it will show that he has some bad tumor. What to do then?
I all cases I don;t want to have him suffer, and certainly not hustled about with all kinds of treatments and such. Perhaps the best thing will be then to put him asleep. I just don;t know yet. But I don;t have a good feeling in my stomach.
Still let's hope it wil show to be a minor thing, and that I worried too much, although it already is going on for about 3 weeks now, that he really isn;t the Dikkie Dik (dik in Dutch means thick or even fat) he was earlier. He is  looking so poor and skinny. It breaks my heart.

Well, this was all going through my mind during the weekend, and of course I tried to think about other things, and distract myself, but it's always on the background of my thoughts.
Lucky I have my computer, it helps to be busy and think for a while about other things.

It's not a very uplifting post at the beginning of the week, sorry.

But there are some nice freebies again. Oh, Arlene sent me a bunch of new  stuff yesterday, wow!
And I still had in store some of her last "shipment".
You still have to have some clusters from her made with earlier posted kits, but today I will do a different thing. I will post a kit and at the same time the clusters Arlene made with it. Good idea?
And I may post the clusters from earlier posted kit in one post this week, without perhaps a kit of mine, or may be another kind of freebie from me, and then we will be on track to post a kit as well as the matching clusters at the same time. Oh, gosh, quite an organisation!
So here we go, first the kit and then the clusters. Today''s kit is in one of my favourite coloors again, yeah! It's named "Just one Moment".
And the clusters are just adorable!
Have a wonderful day, I hope mine will turn out better than I feel it to be at the moment.

Download     HERE

Download Arlene's clusters   HERE

Oh, cleaning can make you happy LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Can you believe that in about a weeks time we will be in October already? I rememeber that in March I thought it was still a long time before summer came by and suddenly it's over with and we are heading towards the last 3 months of this year. We are growing old faster and faster.
Gosh, after taking a bit easier day on Wednesday, I got real busy yesterday.
First already rather early I went out to do some shopping, have all I need for the days to come, came home a little bit soaked, because I just catched a short rainshower LOL. So first I took me another coffee and a sandwich, by the time I had that in my stomach I was dried up again.
And then into the kitchen, with a buchet of water and some cleaning stuff in it and started with the cupboards. Took all the stuff out, sorted it through, cleaned the inside and outside, re-araanged all the things a bit better, got rid of things I really didn;t need or was too much etc.
By the time I was almost done, Jan came home and I could proudly show him the result LOL!
But it feels good to have it done and all clean again.
Almost done there, only a few drawers are left to do, hmm may be I will tackle that today, they are only small ones, so not lots of work.

Just got a mail fromArlene, happy to read she was okay after a tornado passed in her area(she only had to deal with a lot of broken branches and  a few trees that have fallen down, but not on her house), but now she seems to have problems with an update of her PSP program. How frustrating is that? Having an update done, hoping it will give you some better or quicker features or whatever and then it's not working properly? I think she will put her former version back again.

All talks and trading have started now in our politic department, just wonder how long it will take before the two parties come to an agreement! And may be they will not! They both say they have the intention to clear the job together, but there are real big differences between the two parties, and although everybody nows that deals and compromises have to be done, some of your principals you cannot let go. At least if you are a rather honest politician and you want to hold on to some of the promises you've made to your followers.
We'll see what will happen next week or so.

I have to direct you to Linda's blog, because there you can download a beautiful made quickpage with my Steampunk kit! I'll give you the preview but download is on her blog!

Clusters again from Arlene. Made with the Trail through the Middle-East kit.

Download    HERE


And from me a light colored kit, you could say a tiny bit romantic, named "Never Let Me Go."
Will be for a moment longer at the computer, perhaps start already another kit, have no clue yet what color or so, but that usually comes when I start my PSE program, suddenly decide the color or colorscheme and slowly the idea forms itself into my brain, what it will become. Strange way of working perhaps, but often it works well for me.
Have a wonderful weekend, thanks for all your visits and comments, always love them and also thanks from Arlene.

Download    HERE

Another bike, and work the whole week

Goodmorning everybody!

Jan's checkup visit at the hospital was good news. His doctor there(a female, I like her, she's really a good one) told him no strange blood vessels were found, also no sign of tumors or whatever. Still she had found a small change in his bloodsample, so to be sure all is well and it is just a temporarly thing, he is going to have a MRI scan one of these days. Well, good that she wants to be sure and gives him the checkups before something really is wrong.
And hoorray, Jan has found another bike, second hand but it's a good looking one, a bit more expensive than the other one, but I don;t mind, as long as he can use this one for a real long time LOL!
And good he found one, because he already has work the whole week, all morning shifts, only Saturday he has morning and evening shift and Sunday an evening shift.

Dikkie Dik isn;t yet completely the old one, but now he goes to his food himself and eats. Not much at a time, but if he does it several times a day, I am happy too. He even eats now the little hard ones again(must say I bought a pack of different ones for now, I know they like them) LOL.
So let's hope it will goup more and more. Still we have to be alert and monitor him well.

I was all active yesterday, wow! Did a laundry, washed the curtains from the front window, cleaned the window, plus all the glass windows in our doors, oh, even did some shopping, and was about ready with it when Jan came home.
We watched a bit tv, it was the opening of the new year in parliament, called Prinsjesdag. It's always nice to watch, the Queen rides in the Golden Coach, and speaks out the new "plans"of the governmnet for the next year. That isn;t the most interesting thing, but I like to see the ride of Her Majesty with her son(Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima) and all the parade  and things around it.
Now there has to be formed a new government, but it will not be so easy, I guess. Out of the elctions came two parties with really a lot of votes, so normally they should form the government, but they are two rather different minded parties, know what I mean? It will take days or weeks to talk everything through, everybody has to compromise, of course but who will give in the most? Hmmmmmm, we will see what happens.

In the afternoon I did some designing and later made our dinner, of course. I have made on Monday some minced meat kebabs, and there were left a few so we finished them and I made pasta with it. I already had some ready made tomatoe suace and spruced it up with some left overs from red and green paprika, some mushrooms and black olives. First fried the cut paprika, threw in the mushrooms later and then mixed it with the tomatoe sauce. Pasta isn;t Jan's favorite food, but I like it a lot. So I had a great meal, Jan a bit less, LOL, but it tasted well !

Weather really has changed now here, every day we have some rain, temps are much lower, although thank God we also have some periods with a bit of sunshine. Still you can notice Autumn is in the air.

Clusters from Arlene, yeah! Wonderful ones, made with the Just You and Me kit.

Download    HERE

And do you remember the sneak-peek? I decided I will post that kit today. I've made two previews, one of the whole kit and one of the papers, so you can have a good view on them. I really loved making this kit, it has been a long time since I;ve made this kind of kit. I will reveal now what kind of kit it is(if you didn;t already had an idea LOL). It's a kit named "Go Steampunk", well name says it all.
Have a fantastic day!

Download     HERE