Some good, some bad news.

Gopodmorning everyody!

Although temperature could be a lot better, still we cannot complain all too much, because it rains a bit, most of the time in the evening or night, so at daytime you can be outside without getting wet, and if the sun is peeping through the many clouds, it even feels rather nice. All could be better, of course, we didn;t had much of a Spring, so let's hoppe for a good summer.

Yesterday in the mailbox we had some good and some bad news.
One was a letter of the health insurance, that the allowance Jan received had been stopped, because he had an agreement with their doctor that he could be at work again from the 27th of May.
But that isn;t completely the way it was agreed with the doctor. That man had a few weeks ago a conversation with Jan and according to that the doctor wrote in his report that it might be possible that Jan started to work again by the 27th. But he also told him, that if jan though it wasn;t yet possible, he should call him about a week before the 27th and telling him about the progress and eventual re-start of work. So Jan did and told this guy, that he was doing his best and may be he needed another 3 weeks and then would try go back working again. Doctor understood and said to Jan that it might be possble he would get a call by letter to appear at the office for another health check and / or conversation. I thought that was okay, and understandable, but now they just assumed he was ready to go to work at the date of the 27th and from that day Jan wouldn;t receive any more insurance money. And we do need it, of course, bills have to be payed.
Well, Jan will make a phonecall to the doctor he had the last appointment with to know why this letter is sent to him, although he had a different agreement with him. It might be, that different departments of the health insurance are working  at cross purposes(which unfortunately happens more often than you think). Hopefully there will be found a solution, If not, Jan will have to go by the agency today too, to say he will be back for work as from Monday. I hope it will not be too soon, but from somewhere money has to come in. And even if we would ask for temporary support of the social services ( you can have also a partly support if you cannot work enough for a decent income) that would probably take some weeks to get through.
We'll just have to see how his back will hold and his whole comdition, he is much better but I am not at all sure it is as good as he says.

We also had a nice letter in the mailbox, from the tax office. Jan is recieving some money back, and it comes just in the good time( with all that helath insurance thingy), Now we hope I too will receive some money fro the tax office( according to our accountant I should). If that's so, we have a bit back up money.
Okay, we will see how all things go, somehow we will survive it, and may be life will smile at us again in the second half of this year LOL.

Did you see perhaps the layout I made for my friend Edna? It is the phot of Pogo ( her doggy) and Joe ( the doggy sitter when Edna is at work). I thought it was such a nice photo it deserved a layout so I;ve made one for her to chear her up.

I told Edna, that it is a good thing she shows so many great photos on her blog, so sometimes I can snitch one and practice a bit in making layouts. I do that not often enough and really, I loose a bit the creativity and skill for that. Anyway, thanks to Edna, I can have some fun making layouts for her LOL.

On to the freebie for today, and I'll throw in another Nutshell kit, named "Serenata d'Amore".
with clusters from Arlene, you can make a striking layout, I hope.
If this weekend the sun will pop out from time to time I may have a picture soon of a first rose bloom of my climbing rose. Some of the buds are close to open.
Now have a wonderful weekend.

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Weather is driving us mad LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Well, we had two real nice days, but today temperature has dropped again and it's not springy anymore.
Oh, our seedlings were jumping of joy the last two days, because they had lots of sun and their feet could get dry a bit LOL!
And as I was on snail hunting yesterday evening, I encountered two frogs, one very small youngster and an older one. Hoorray, they are still around.

Jan's check up with his doctor was okay, so happy to hear that.
Now we are waiting for a call from the health insurance doctor, and Jan has the idea that in about two weeks he could start working again, but only partly, it wouldn;t be wise to work at once a whole week of about 6 days. Hopefully he will soon have the appointment with the insurance doctor and will come to an agreement of partly working and partly getting money from the insurance.
Let's hope his back will hold and not cause him too much trouble. It is much better, but he souldn;t overdo it for now.

Because I didn't do very much the last couple of days, I really should do some laundry and ironing and more today again. Not my favourite time spending LOL, but it is necessary.
Every day something will do the job too.

I have nothing more to ramble about, although I am sure I am forgetting something. If it is of any interest it will come back into my mind and I can write it down oin my Friday post.
Today I have a kit for you in a single  colour pallet, ( at least the papers) together with a beautiful add-on from Arlene, also containing a quickpage.
Kit is named "Just a Gesture".
And now I should get moving, if I want to have anything done in the house.
Have a wonderful day.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Today we should enjoy a lovely day.

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather hasn't been as bad as we thought this weekend. Not that it was warm, but at daytime we didn;t have rain and even some spots of sun.
So Friday was the worst day, and therefore I went to the supermarket with the tram, it's the market where I go sometimes when I need specific things, and it's there the cheapest.
Back home I got rid of some dust bunnies and went around with the vacuum cleaner.
Saturday was a better day, so first I went out for the newspaper and took a quick tour at the fair.
And I came home with 4 second hand books. Two novels, one garden book, with just simpe, tips and advice for gardeningn which is ideal for Jan and a little cook book for pastry. All that just for ONE EURO!
In the afternoon Jan and I got busy in the garden. Remember i told you we collected some great planks at the street? Well, we made a great place for the plants nursery with them.
It is placed at the spot where we had metal rack standing( at the terras where we sit) and it looks great!

We have more place for our seedlings and it also looks a bit more organized this way.
Now we had the metal rack as spare, and we found a great place for it in one of the borders.
At the moment there are two long containers standing on it with onions ( I have no idea if we will have onions later this year, but it's fun to try). Later on we can put some pots on it with flowering plants.

And I've made you a photo from our azalea again, now in full bloom and it looks gorgeous.

Yesterday we could even sit for moment in the sun, although you had to have your sweater on.
But today temperature suddenly rises up to around 65-70 F, with almost no wind. Just for one day, tomorrow it will drop again about 4 degrees and some rian again. So the quote "Carpe Diem" , ( pick the day) applies for this day.
Jan has to go to his appointment with his doctor at the hospital . She keeps him under strict control, and that is a good thing.
And then I think we will just enjoy this spring day, may be I will start in one of the two new novels, comfortable sitting in the garden LOL.
Today our street is having more mess, they started digging again this morning, and we even are without water supply for  a little while, hopefully just for an hour or so.

What do I have as freebie for you today? I have another photoalbum for you, which I made with the Beyond Time kit. I hope you can use it, and as an extra I have two lovely quickpages from Arlene.
Time now to have another cup of coffee and then get dressed to be ready for a sunny day.
Have a beautiful day!

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Lots of rain, it goes on!

Goodmorning everybody!

No, the weather isn;t yet how it is supposed to be. Too much rain and it is cold. Sometimes we have a moment of sunshine, but even then it is not really nice to be outside.
Grrrr, what is the matter with the weather all over the planet?
We still hope for better times, but if it goes on like this, we surely ill have a short summer.

Sometimes you can find the most nice things along the street, did you know? People do change their homes, or do some cleaning up and they put all the stuff along the treet(when you have a lot you can call the city hall,where there is a department for "big stuff garbage"and they come to collect it.
Wednesevening Jan put out the normal garbage sacks on the street for collection and came into the house and called me to come with him. Oh my, we found some great lovely planks we could use, and some other full wooden ones, so we took them home LOL!
The planks are now in the bedroom to serve as book shelves. We had shelves there, but they weren;t quite the ones needed. Now it looks a lot better.
The other ones we probably will use in the garden, they have a little upstanding side, so I think we will put them on some bricks and they will do fantastically as nursery for seedlings and also I will put some pots with flowering plants on them. If you have to buy them in a shop, you have to pay a lot money for those kind of shelves.
We still have a spot we want to make nices in the garden. That is against the wall of the little shed. It is mostly in shade, so I will have to look for plants that will do well in shade, but there are lots of them, also flowering ones, so I hope to have that finished soon.
Also want to put there some nice flasks or pots or other fun things in between, to bring even more color. We only need a bit nices weather.

Our street is now becoming really messy! They emoved almost all the tiles of the sidewalk and the digging will start soon. It isn;t easy to get to the front door anymore LOL.

This weekend, starting today, there is again a fair in our shopping street near to our house. And every year again(some exceptions you always have) they have not good weather. Amazing, but true! poor souls that have to stand 3 days in their stands, in the wind, rainshowers and that together with low temperature. Not something to become very happy! I cross my fingers for them that along the day may be some sunshine will appear to make it a bit bearable.

That's about all I can think of to tell you, not very exciting, I know, but that is life.
Better I make you happy, perhaps, with the freebie.
Perhaps this one can bring a bit of summerfeeling to you, Blossom on the Wind. And I am certain that Arlene's contribution will help too. She made two lovely clusters and also a wonderful quickpage.
I will stay at the computer for a little while longer, perpas work a bit on a new kit I started yesterday, and then I think some dust bunny hunting is necessary with some vacuum cleaning LOL.
And meanwhile I will cross my fingers, that we will be able to see some sunshine, at the moment it is very grey and rainy outside.
Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe!

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Autumn is back, grrrrrr!

Goodmorning everybody!

It is really unbelievable, but it is almost autumn weather. We had a lot of rain, and real cold temperatures, about 9 degrees lower than it should be this time of year.
Jan went out the other day to look if he could find some mini diving equipment for the seedlings and other plants, but there weren;t any to find! Such a shme, I would have loved to see them all with the diving mask on and then take a picture LOL.
Not too much happened the past days, well, it was not the weather for it, we stayed in a lot, I did some things in the house, and yes, it looks as if Brodski is on the mend.
He is eating better again, even goes out for a moment, and yesterday evening he came sitting on the couch again. He isn;t sneezing a lot anymore, so I have good hopes.
I will try to put on some more pictures I took of the garden, the one lovely spring day we had on Sunday.

No, still impossible via the Picasa, so i will do it via Tiny Pic.

Here the right side of the path.

Above you see some seedlings of herbs, slowly they are popping up, the front two should become poppies.

This one I took from the back of the garden, looking a bit direction terras.

And here a close up from a gerbera we bought lately, couldn;t resist it, just a lovely color!

And this is a Lewesia, you can find them in all sorts of sweet cany colors, they should be perennials, well, I hope they will survive this winter. We planted them around the little rock garden( we have three different colored ones)

Hopefully you can feel a bit better, despite of all the strange weather circumstances. Like the tornado's that are sweeping over the US at the moment. Then we here must not complain, those poor folks have to endure a lot, and sadness too with all the casualties.



To end on the bright side, I want to show you a quickpage Linda made from a kit of mine. You can download the freebie on her blog. This lady is a real artists, don;t you think?

Now the freebie for today. That will be a Nutshell kit again, named it Il Passato ( the Past).
Have a great day.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Had lovely days and I have photos

Goodmorning everybody!

First weather talk. Weather was improving a bit and yesterday it was just lovely. We reached about 68 F, and it was enough to sit in the garden and it was lovely. We had good hopes the improving would continue this week, but as we saw the weather forcast for the next few days we were really disappointed. Temperature will drop to very low for this time of year, not much more than 53 F and the days will be rainy! You sure get a bit discouraged seeing that! I don;t know what is the matter with the weather but it isn't acting normal.

Oh my, I had a busy day on Friday. After the posting and a it playing around on the computer, I got dressed and went into the kitchen. And I baked the pie, the "pirog", it took some time but it turned out well. Only next time I just have to let it stay in the oven a bit shorter time. he top was slightly too dark. I didn;t make a photo of it but I have an example I found on the net.

On this picture it is filed with cabbage, I made the filling with minced meat, lots of onions and hard boiled egg ( cut in little pieces). And I sure can tell you it tasted wonderful!
In between the making of the pirog(the dough had to rise twice), I started also making the soup, all with fresh veggies, little minced meat balls and a bit of vermicelli).
I can assure you that when you have a bowl of soup together with a piece of pirog, you have a good filled stomach! it was yummie.

I also did some dustbunniy removal and swept around the vacuumcleaner. When all that was done, you always have quite a lot of dishwashing to do ) I was a bit pooped out, but oh so satisfied!
Saturday Jan and I just went out to buy us two sacks of soil, and yes, we also came back with 3 very sweet plants for the garden.
Yesterday we did't do much, we just enjoyed the lovely weather, although Jan went out for a ride on his bike, to see how that would go, he went to Scheveningen,to the beach, where there was a regatta.
I wasn;t really in the mood for it, I just wanted to to stay home, have some reading in my garden magazines in the sun and keep an eyeon our cat Brodski.
The poor thing surely catched a cold last week, it started on Friday, he sneezed at times and also sometimes he had an attack of "coughing"you could say. It was morean urge to vomit out some slime that troubled him. So of course I was worried about him. He didn;t do much more than lying on a chair, sleeping a lot. I already was thinking about going to a vet on Saturday, if there wouldn;t be any improvement. But on Saturday he was looking much better, he reacted again as we approched him, he even did eat a bit, didn;t sneeze as much as before, also the slime couching was less. So even though I still wasn;t re-assured, Jan said we should wait a bit and see how it goes. Till now it looks as if he improves, so we give it some more time.
( Not that I am completely happy with it, but I am always quicker "in panic"than Jan is LOL)

as it was such nice weather yesterday I took my camera and made you a few photos from the garden again. Last week or so I posted a few, when you compare you can see really changes.

Sorry Ladies, suddenly Blogger won't let me upload pictures anymore. Probably has to do with some changes they made again. I found another option, yeah! I upload them on tiny pic and paste the url and now it shows the picture. Something isn't working at the moment from the Picasa.
Anyhow, I can show you some pictures, I think I will post some today and some on wednesday, okay?
In the back you can see my azalea, in full bloom now.

On this one the little "rock-garden"in front still quite some open space, but if all goes well, some seedlings will have to grow there.

Here some chives, that survived winter and how lovely it can bloom!

That's all for now, I hope next time I can upload more easily the rest of the pictures.
( could upload the preview of the kit, but pictures don;t work yet on Blogger, very strange)
On to the freebie then.
Not too big kit, but a sweet one, I think. Named it "Hug someone today", with 3 nice clusters from Arlene.
Oh, yes, almost forgot. If you have time for a quick visit go to Mat's Memories and wish her an awesome birthday, which is today! She has wonderful layouts on that blog, but is also posting lots of freebies on another blog, on Miriam's Scraps (and Miriam herself offers freebies too!)

Have a fantastic day!

Download   HERE

Download    HERE

Today i plan to have a bit busy day LOL!

Goodmorning everybody!

Spring has left us a bit, at first the little and big plants in the garden were jumping of joy because of some rain. But now they don;t look too happy anymore, there are getting too wet feet LOL!
It is about time we got back some of the nice spring weather we had some time ago and then it should stay for a longer period!
wednesday I went to the annual appointment for my lungs, and oh my, that has taken time!
I was there on time, even before, but had to wait for more than an hour till I was received by the doctor. Such waist of time. I can understand that there can be a little delay, but I think that an hour or more is too much. But, once I was in his chamber, I was out quickly too again. As all goes well, we didn;t have much to discuss, he listened too my lungs, they were as they were, so I got my prescriptions and for next year I will get an appointment for a lung photo, just for control. Now I just have to go to the neurologist in June, and then hopefully we are done with doctor visiting.

After I finally got back from the hospital, Jan had done some floor cleaning in the kitche and hallway and toilet. So sweet of him. So I took a cup of coffee and then went to the market. I found some nice fresh veggies, like a bunch of 5 courgettes, some paprika, leek, garlic, new potatoes, mango and apples. Apart of the potatoes and garlic, I didn;t pay more than € 1,00 for the each of the other things. That really is a big difference from supermarket prices!
Back home again, I put on the meat for a stew, where I used some of the veggies too, and potatoes and after a couple of hours of the stove, we had a good dinner with it. And as dessert a bit of yoghurt with some fresh mango, yummie.
So yesterday I and Jan too, took it a bit easier, after I did a quick shopping of things that were needed in the fridge and Jan went to the city council to give them the papers for the good-conduct declaration he needs for his work. For some professions it is required to produce one. It's rather easy money earning for the council, Jan had to pay € 31,00 .

Today I want to spend a bit of time in the kitchen, making a "pirog"for the weekend( kind of Russian pie) and make a soup too, so I don;t have to bother about dinner today and also not for tomorrow.
The the house can do with a bit of dust bunnie clearing and a vacuum cleaner tour, well, I can do that when the dough has to rise, and hopefully this priog will taste about the same as the one my mother made!
Tomorrow we probably will watch the Eurovision contest. Although it is not the same anymore as it was years ago, it is nice to watch and even there are sometimes some really great songs.
Jan and I always have fun with it, we make a list of the countries that compete and we give them a figure from 1 to 10 and at the end we'll see if some of our favourites ended up at the first places. I must say not verymuch of them got a figure above an 8 and then we already think it is a really good song LOL. But often some of our favourites end up at the end of the list. Oh well, as long as we had our fun, I cannot be too bothered with it. I must say that for once in a loooong time The Netherlands have a not bad song, it is a bit different from the others( we did see some of the semi finals already), but I don;t think it will be a winner.

Enough bla bla for the moment, I want to start my activities not too late so I will be done with it in the earlier afternoon.
The kit for today is one I really like, it's a bit romantic, perhaps you could call it even a bit Vintage, love the way the colors turned out in the pages. It's named "I Remember You"
Oh and Arlene, made a super add-on for you. two frames and one quick page!
Have a wonderful weekend, have fun doing some scrapping, see you on Monday!

Download     HERE

Download    HERE