It's the last day!

Goodmorning everybody!

Unbelievable that we already reached the last day of 2012!
We will spent it together at home, easy peasy. My friend Heidi invited us for New Year's eve, but I told her we better liked to stay at home, I don't like to let my cat alone, because of all the fireworks.
Brodski can handle it, but I can notice he is a bit nervous. So it is better we stay home, than he feels more safe, and I think he will find a place in the house where he feels rather good, despite of the noise of the fireworks.

I don;t have too much time to chat, because I have some things to prepare in the kitchen.
One of the things that are in our tradition is "appel beignet", looking like this:

Only when I am eating them I put on a LOT more icing sugar!!!
Then I also want to make us some filled eggs a bit like this:

After that, I suppose there isn;t too much time left, so I will have to make us a little dinner.
For me not so necessary, but Jan likes it, and as I have some left overs from yesterday evening, I can make him something nice. I think I will have perhaps a bit of pizza, and then we have still so much food for the evening, that a real "dinner"will not be for me.
We will have those appel beignets, the eggs, some french cheese with french bread, some warm snacks of puff pastry ( those little ones filles with cheese, or minced meat or lots of other things),enough to have a full stomach LOL!

So without delay I will post my freebie now, a winter kit, "Snowman's World", with clusters from Arlene.
Wishing you a wonderful year's ending and safe start of the new. We'll meet again in the New Year!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

We had a great Christmas!

Goodmorning everybody!

Suddenly in a rush Christmas is over. Always so funny, we are looking forward to it for quite a long time and then in a split second it's all over.
I must say we had a great Christmas together.
On Christmas eve I could find a few channels(mostly on German television) with some lovely Christmas songs. Later that evening we also watched a splendid show on a German channel, it was not  real Christmas show with carrols, but oh my, how really good was that show. It lasted for 3 hours and the artists that were invited by the host(Helen Fischer) were fo a so different kind, it gave so much variety and it was of high standard.
On Christmas day we had a quiet day, but we we enjoyed ourselves tremendously and also the evening was great. I must say our fondue was really yummie too!
The second Christmasday we were also busy watching all kind of programs and even the weather did i's best. Almost no rain, although it was forcasted. Only when we had to leave for the visit to our friends, it started to rain! We didn;t have far to go, so it wasn't that bad and we spent a most enoyable evening at their house.
It was just around midnight that we came home again.

And yesterday it suddenly was a "normal"day again LOL!
After a few real lazy days, it was time to do some serious housework. Hmmmm, I did some, but also did a bit of shopping, just needed a couple of things. And when I came home I saw Jan bsy in the kitchen, scrubbing the kitchen floor! Of course that was sweet of him, but it could have been a bit too much strain on his not yet splendid condition. The more because the evening before we went to our friends on the bike and he had rather hard work with it(there was a lot of wind and specially coming homeward it was blowing just in the face).
Hmmm, I think he felt the muscles protesting in the evening.
But on the other hand it's also good he is trying to do things again, he wants to go back to work as soon as possible(which will have to wait for some weeks I think).
Anyway, after he had finished I could enter the kitchen again and turn on the washing machine.
And in the mean time took the vacuum cleaner by hand and even used it ROFL.
For dinner I didn;t have to do much, because we had still so much left from the fondue, that we could have another go with it.
Today I think I will stay indoor, want to do something with the bed ( it calls out to me that it wants fresh bedsheets and such, grin grin)and as they forcasted more rain, probably staying in is a good idea.

What about a new freebie? I think you would like to see one. or two. It was hard thinking to decide what to post today. But I know what to do. I muself have 3 bragbook pages for you, that you might print out and hang somewhere in your house with a lovely photo in it, or make a little gift with it for somebody you have in your heart. And then I have 3 downloads from Arlene, all with extra Christmas clusters she made with several of my kits. It seemed a pity not to offer them, surely you can do with some extra clusters for the last layouts of the Christmasdays.
And then on Monday I will have a winter kit for you.
Hopefully you all will have a great day today, and have time to recover a bit from the hectic but oh so lovely Christmas, and gather some energy for New Year's eve, which is already at the start of next week.

Download    HERE

 Download Clusters nr2  HERE

 download Christmas clusters nr3  HERE

Download Christmas clusters nr4  HERE

IT'S CHRISTMAS!

Goodmorning everybody!

It's arrived, CHRISTMAS DAY!
After a good long sleep we woke up and it was there!
So even in daytime today the Christmastree is standing in full glory, with all the little lights switched on!
This just will be a short post,only to bring you yet another Christmaskit.
I am sure everybody is very busy at the moment, not too much time to do blog reading!
Once again to all of you:

Thanks very much for all the Christmas wishes I received, by mail, or on my blog.
They bring a warm feeling into my heart!

Now I will try to do some designing and later on I will prepare already for our dinner. I don;t have much cooking to do, as we take a fondue, with different kinds of meat and some delicious sauces and french bread with garlic butter, yummie!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and still can use another Christmaskit, named Wonderful Christmas Time.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Last day for preparations

Goodmorning everybody!

Hopefully everybody is almost ready for Christmas. We were looking forward to it for such a long time and suddenly tomorrow Christmas day is there.
I have a few things to do, but they will not take all day, and this evening we will have Christmas Eve, hopefully with some great Christmas shows to watch and hear the old fashioned Christmas carols! Already looking forward to that.

This weekend Jan and I gave ourselves a kind of Christmas present LOL. For a long time already we wanted to have a deep fryer and also a contact grill(just a small one, enough for making a tosti or some snacks) and we ran into a great offer for them. So we bought them and I am sure we will have lots of pleasure from it.

I promised you a photo from the presents under our Christmas tree, and I finally made one. Also made a photo from the "Christmas village we have on a side table and one from the little manger.

If you look well you even can see on the left chair my knitting stuff!
Still busy with that, it's a loooong project, but steadily growing!

On second Christmas day(we have 2 days in Holland) we are invited to come to the house of the owners of the cafe Jan was going to(they don;t have it anymore), and that's very sweet of them. Now I want to go today for a quick trip into town center to see if I can find a little Christmas present for them.


And here is my little present for you, another Christmaskit with lovely clusters.

Download    part 1 HERE

                     part 2 HERE

Download Arlene's clusters  HERE


WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!
Don't know if I will post on Christmas, may well be that next post will be on Thursday, we'll see.

Have a wonderful day.

We are getting ready for Christmas in time LOL

Goodmorning everybody!

Can you imagine that just in a couple of days we will be celebrating Christmas?
Days are rushing and flying by at the moment.
But, we will be ready in time. Yes, lots of things have been done that were on my to do list, but a few are left. So that will be for today and tomorrow.
Yesterday Jan got his phonecall from his doctor, about the reust of the latest bloodtest, for B12 and folium and some other things, and no shocking things found. In one way that´s a good thing, but on the other hand his doctor doesn+t understand, why he still is retaining his fluid in the belly)although it is a little bit less' and why he is feeling sooo tired. She keeps him under close control, he has to go on with medication she gave him, and in a 3 or 4 weeks he has to come back again. She had talks with the team, if it was nevessary or useful to send him to Leidenm for more check ups, but for the moment it wasn+t an option.
What to say? He is a mystery case!! As I said before, we just have to be patient, and it will be solved some day. At least we are pretty sure, there is no shocking disease going on, his heart works well, blood mirror is good enough, etc.
So let´s not get depressed, we can celebrate Christmas in good mood, I´ll send a tiny little prayer upstairs and may be it can help for a quicker recovery, you´ll never know!

The weather here is quite amazing! We have some rain, every now and then and it will fall during the days to come, but there are also long periods of even sunshine and not too much wind, and temperatures in our region are around 50 F, amazing!

Oh, nice thing happened. I don+t know if it had anything to do with a mail I received some days ago and had to be sent forward, and if you did, you might have some financial surprise. I really don+t believe in those things, but ......it bever can hurt to just forward it, and voila, on Wednesday I checked my bankaccount and was surprised by the amount. Hmm, some money received from unknown source. I went to the bank to let them check out from where it came( I have no internet banking yet)
and it was money from Jan´s agency. They paid him his vacation money and days, which normally is done around May. At first Jan wasn+t real happy about it, because he thinks they wrote him out of their database, but I know he always can go back there. And we could do with a bit extra. I immediately put a part of it on a second account, because next year there will be some serious bills to pay)all kind of council taxes and such more), but now we have a  little backdoor so to say.

This last week I am a bit low on production of kits, hmmmmm, perhaps not an all good thing, but sometimes there are other things to do. As is the same with Arlene, the poor soul is very busy for Christmas, but more with her sister, who isn+t doing very well. And that is a sad thing to hear.
She told me that her sister is still under chemo, but it looks as if her sister has given up fighting against it. And as family, you cannot do much, just being there, supporting her, praying, and hoping for the best. In those cases we are so helpless. Well, I told her to take all the time she needs and that the designing can wait! But it also is a distraction for her, so that she can forget for a moment all the sadness. Perhaps a little prayer for her and specially for her sister can help, so keep her in your thoughts, together with all people who need a bit of extra support.
And sadly enough there are lots of people who can do with that, if only you look in your near surroundings.
Then a little smile, or a card, or just a few words, may be a kind gesture in whatever shape can make a big difference to somebody.

Time now to finish the post, things have to be done like some last shopping(better doing it today than on Monday, ), a few household things to be done too and then I can relax, do some designing and continue on my knitting LOL.
Here another Christmaskit( I have more to post next week) , named  Christmas Blessings. And Arlene did a real great job for the clusters, so much that I had to make 3 previews, wow!
Have a wonderful day and weekend, and see you on Monday.

Download    HERE

Download the clusters    HERE

I've spent time well!

Goodmorning everybody!

The plans I had on Monday worked out rather well. As I was still at the computer, posting on my blog, I saw Jan moving around, heard strange sounds from the kitchen, so I went looking. I found out he started cleaning the toilet/shower room! In a way I was a bit angry, because he should take care with his sore back(yes, still not back to normal there), but on the other hand is was sweet of him!
So then I finished posting and did turn on the washing machine. As that was turning I ironed all the laundry that was still there and also put it all back into the closet in it's place. Then I vacuum cleaned all the house and by that time the machine was ready, so I hanged the laudry out to dry.
Great! Lots of the things were done already.
Yesterday I didn;t do too much, just went out for a bit of shopping, it was not bad weather for it, no wind, and temperature some degrees above zero.
So today I should do a few other things, may be it will be cleaning the fridge, it could do with some re arranging and cleaning.
Could also be for tomorrow, I am not sure yet LOL!
This afternoon Jan has to go to the control of the sickness benefits organization, after a few weeks you have to show up there, and have a talk with their doctor. It will not be a problem, it's just taking you some time. If they want to they can get info from his doctor at the hospital.
Tomorrow Jan will get a phonecall from his doctor for the result of his latest blood test. We'll see what they might have found.

Heidi called me yesterday, to ask if we could take care of their fish, because they are going away for some days with Christmas to a little home in another part of Holland. Danny still isnlt doing too good with his operated knee and there are some other helath issues with him too. Not really alarming, but very annoying. I could tell Heidi needs a bit of rest, she almost had no voice at the phone, and it wasn;t because of a cold. Hopefully they will have a few nice days.
Taking care of the fish isnlt a big thing, they only need food every other day, and it is a good thing for Jan to do, in that way he gets out in the air some more and the little walk will do him good.

Slowly the Christmascards are coming in now. Always nice to receive them and put them out on the mantelpiece. That are all little clouds of thoughts from people that remember you, isn;t it?

Still no photo made of the tree WITH presents, oh I am so lazy sometimes. But it will be done, I promise.
Now you will just have to do with the preview of another Christmaskit and clusters from Arlene.Today it is the kit "Elven Christmas"a truly magical kit, you could say. Elves belong to Christmas, don;t they?
So have fun with the kit, I am sure you can make some lovely layouts with it.!
And have a enjoyable day!

Download    HERE

Download   HERE

Good to do little after busy week

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, I took it real easy this weekend after my rather busy week LOL.
However, I kicked myself in the buts yesterday, and cleaned the veggies Jan brought from the market, gave them a quick cook, just for a minute and packed them all in little bags, so they are ready to be used out of the freezer.
But that's about all I did this weekend.
I promised you to make a picture of my Christmas tree with the presents under it, but just was too lazy( how lazy you will have to be to not tack out a little camera to take one or two pictures?????).
Aweful, I know, but I will make one and post it later this week.
I had time to knit more for the blanket, although I am not completely satisfied with the results, so it may be that I will take it all off and start over again LOL! Not yet sure about it.
It wouldn;t be to distressing, I had some experience again for some of the patterns, could see how they look and may be I do it a bit another way.
Not making a lot of squares, but knit long parts changing the pattern in it and then swe or crochet them together.
It keeps me busy, won;t it?

Our cat Brodski has changed his "resting"place again, hahaha. Cats do that every now and then, this time he found the utter corner of the "snow balnket"where I have some of my bears, and also likes to take a nap on my chair at the computer corner. That gives problems when I want to do something at the computer, cause he has to move then. He doesnt like it, and only will do so under great protests LOL!!

The weather isn;t the best one, but we sstill shouldn;t complain. At the moment we have around
7 C(around 44 F) at daytime, not much wind sometimes a bit of rain, and during the night it isn;t freezing. How wonderful is that in December? Now just cross fingers that the "real"winter will not come at a later point in the next year, like February of even March!!!

Today is the start of a week of houshold charts, yes it must be! I want to have everything done by the weekend, so that it's all clean and neat at Christmas. So I think today is washing and ironing day, and put also all the things in the closets and the shower/toilet area is in desparate need of some scrubbing.
It's mostly the "starting" that gives problems, hahaha, once busy I go on and finish it too.
The house also needs a good vacuum cleaning everywhere, the bed calls out to me that it needs fresh sheets, get rid of some dust here and there is necessary too, have to sort out some paperwork, must not forget to get some of my medicine too , want to make a quick visit to Heidi too, etc etc.
Enough to do this week.
No doubt you all know this kind of "routine", sigh!

Ah well, it keeps us busy, it's good for the condition and muscles, and when all is done it makes you feel good. And then we can cut in some playing time at the computer too, yeah!
So without any delay I will post the next Christmas freebie for you.
It is namend "Joys of the Season", mostly in purple!, witheven 2 previews of Arlene's clusters.
Will that be a good start of the week for you? Hopefully it is.
Have a great Monday you all!

Download    HERE

Download Arlene's clusters    HERE