Most of weekend we had rain.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yeah, Saturday it still was okay, but yesterday it rained almost all day!
But... we still cannot complain too much, average speaking we have still lovely weather.
Friday I first did a bit of grocerie shopping and then Jan and I decided we better go to the market that afternoon, while the weather was still sunny.
So we did and came back with some stuff, of course. Potatoes, some vegetables, some fruit.
And I couldn;t resist buying a new plant for the garden LOL. Do;t yet have a photo of it, but it will come, I hope.
It is an Echinea, in a gorgeous red/purple color.
Our sunflowers are doing not bad  this year. We have a couple that are about 2 mtr high!
Also have some smaller ones and we already decided that next year we will only have the smaller ones. There still is blooming a lot, I am very happy with a few Dianthus I bought. They are gorgeous and as long as I pick out the dead flowerheads, they keep on giving lots of flowers. I definately will have them again next year(or perhaps they will survice the winter?).
Almost every evening, before going to bed I make a quick tour in the garden with a little flash light and yesterday I really had to be careful where to put my feet, because I spotted 16 froggies hopping and sitting around. And that were only the ones I could see LOL.
Jan already said, with a big smile, that we might need to have a bigger pond next year. We'll see abut that.

Jan is getting ready to go to the hospital for an appointment with his doctor, he will get the results of the MRI and the vasculair research he had. I wonder what she will tell him. Then he also can talk about the rather poor "after-care"of the vascular research. Only now, his big bruises are slowly disappearing.
Ha, he just left, so I have peace and quiet for a moment, hahaha.

I finally started with a new kit yesterday, Till now I have only done some papers, but the start is there.

Oh, I wanted to thank all of you who left a comment or an email, concerning my computer crash, and I am very slow in answering the emails at the moment. To whom it may concern: I am NOT forgetting you, I will get back to you, okay?
Today I have Arlene's add-on to the kit Happy Feelings. You will get a quickpage, a page cluster and a frame cluster!
Now I will do some bloghopping and reading, then I can do some more on the new kit and then it will be time to do some things, like going to the drugstore for some medines and also have to check at Heidi's house and feed the fish.
Have a happy Monday!

Download    HERE

Not yet back into designing

Goodmorning everybody!

No, I am not yet back into designing. still a bit searching and trying around the windows 7, and first building up my stash a bit. But I hope to start it this weekend, also, because the weather forecast speaks of rain coming in, and till now they say next week will be a bit "unsteady"weather, some sun, some rain, slightly lower temperatures.
As today should be still rather nice, Jan and I might go for a trip to the market. I am running out of vegetables a bit, could do with a big ack of potatoes, bit of fresh fruit is nice too.

We didn;t do all too much these last couple of days, just the usual housekeeping stuff, not interesting at all LOL.
About every day there is some news about the plain crash in the Ukrain, it is very hard for the search group to work there, with the instable situation there. They stopped the mission there for now, but probably they found all bodies (or parts of them, scattered around) and have been transported to our country to be identified. That still will take a long time.
Also a big load of personal belongings are brought back too.
But it is horrofying to hear the news on tv! One disater is followed up by another. All those wars and battles going on in the Middle East, with the 10.000' s of fugitives, deprived from everything, their homes, their normal life, their family members, their health, they have nothing left.
It is heatbreaking to see, and none of them really wants those wars and battles, They didn;t start them, always just a few power-loving people decide about it, and somehow they get people brainwashed, so that they get followers, but the average men and women living in an area where a war is atred, don;t want this. How can we ever change that?
Then there is another outbreak of ebola in Africa, also worrying, and very scary.
And in between you hear about earthquakes, ines that collaps and all that kind of misery.
No. large parts of the world aren;t a good place to be at the moment.
So we might say we are still belssed to live in a rather stable country, with rather good circumstances, although w have to deal with unemployment, a social security system that is dimishing(and how hard it was to accomplish a good system, and now that we have it, it is being destroyed slowly), to many taxes, etc. Yes, we are still blessed, but I wonder fo how long?

Oh my, I am sounding a bit desparate and gloomy, aren;'t I? Don not worry, I am not depressive, but just sometimes it hits my heart and I have to get it off my chest LOL!
Better we end this post on a happier note, with the second part of "Happy Feelings"
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download    part 2 HERE

Not yet having my "usual blogging rythm"

Goodmorning everybody!
After not having a computer for about two weeks(which at some times was terrible) it is funny that it is so difficult to get back into the "usual"| rythm of posting, designing and such.
But that will come back soon enough, I think.
Last two days were rather quiet, but I managed to get a few things done, both at the computer and in the house.
Also went to Heidi's home for a little check, all was okay there, fish happy again to have enough food, garden had enough water after my watering and then the rain that fell later.

Weather is looking a bit funny today. I see more wind then we had lately, it is a bit grey and temps dropped a bit too.
May be we will have some rain today. But it might be a good day to go for some food shopping, so that is one of the things I will have to do today.

The garden still is blooming well, and our tomatoes are a real success! We already had a salad for dinner with them, mixed with some cucumber and green salat. They taste wonderfully good, and we definately have to try them again next year.

Jan didn;t call the hospital yet about his bruises and such, I think he wants to wait till he had a visit with his doctor next Monday. It has no use to push him to call the hospital, he will not do it if he doesn;t feel it is really urgent, and it only will effect his mood. Yes, sometimes I have a difficult husband, pffffff.

I have good news for you, though. Before the crash I made already some new kits. And I had them already uploaded on Mediafire, so I downloaded them, copied the links and I have the start of a new kit for you today. How funny it may seem, the kit is named Happy Feelings.
Well, I am happy, that I have a computer back, that seems to be working till now again. Hope it will have a long second life, because I have the money to buy a new one, but that will cost about € 400- € 500, and I rather have the money on my account for a while, to have some back up.
Okay, that;s it for today, I'll have to upload a few clusters from Arlene on Mediafire and then will start to think about a new kit, may be.
Have a great day!

Download  part 1 HERE

I am back again.

Goodmorning everybody!

Finally I can do a post again on my blog. Gosh, almost two weeks ago I did the last one.
The guys in the shop, where I brought my computer took their time, bu I finally could pick up my computer late Friday afternoon, with Windows 7 installed on it and it looks that it works for now.
Worst thing of all is that I lost a lot of stash for designing, but I am sure i will get my files filled again, it will only take some time.
I don;t know where to start to tell about the last two weeks, perhaps I will not even try LOL.
Just before the crash I told you that two weeks ago Jan had to go to hospital for his vasculair research.
Poor guy is still walking around with big bruises on his upper leg, I think they start now a bit the re-coloring fase, although a part is still looking kind of funny.
He already called the hospital a few days after the research to get some more information, but that was a complete disaster. Normally we have not much to complain about the hospital, but this time it was hopeless.
He had received a little card with the name of a doctor on it(I think the one who performed the "operation"), so we tried to get in contact with him. No way. Then Jan tried to get some more information about the bruises and things from perhaps somebody else. Well, nothing. So far for the "after care", only a little form he received in hospital, but that wasn;t of great help.
I hope he will try again today, there isn;t too much to worry about, I think, but we should feel more comfortable if there was somebody in hospital that could take a look.
Perpaps he could have that done by our house doctor, but pity, he is on holiday and there is no use to go to a replacement doctor.
Okay, we will see what we can do.

Weather here is quite good, we have nice temperatures and lots of sun, with sometimes a rainshower at night.
Last week I already went several times to Heidi's house, just to check and put the post on the table and look after the fish and the garden. Yesterday I gave the garden there a good watering, and yes, as almost always when I water a garden, at night we had a good rainshower LOL. well, I don't have to water Heidi's garden in the next few days. that's for sure.

Last Friday we attended at a funeral, yes, not the nicest thing to do. Remember that Jan went to a cafe across the street? That already was a a couple of years ago. The owner kind of retired(because of illness too) and tried to sell the whole property(cafe + house above it). That wasn;t so easy,specially not with the crisis going on, but Monday a week ago he got a nice offer and the property was almost sold. He and his wife were happy and wanted to go out for a little celebration. Just before leaving he got a heart attack and passed away. How bitter is that????Perhaps he was saved this way for worse things, he suffered of over eight, had diabetes, looking forward to chance of amputation of a leg etc.
But still, it was a sudden death and he only was 65 of age.
Yes, life can play funny tricks with us.

Okay, I have not yet a freebie for you today, have to download some of the newest kits I made myself first( glad they were already uploaded at Mediafire). Then I also have to do a bit of learning of how windows 7 works and such and a lot more downloading designer tools, elements etc.
I will get there but you will have to be a little patient for a bit more time.

Have a wonderful day and stay safe!

COMPUTERCRASH

Hello ladies,

Just a brief post to inform you that I will be out "of the air"for a couple of days or so.
My computer died, I brought it to a repair shaop, window crash, so now they are installing a new windows, this will be windows 7. It's a lot cheaper than buying a new computer, and I hope this will last for a long time again.

Using now Heidi's computer, but they are about to leave for holiday, so this will be for now my last post.
Just wanted to let you know, so you will not worry about me.
Very nasty, all this, the more because I will have to install of course all software again, and I lost files(yeah, I know, backup would have done some good ), so will have to make new stash and all. Well, it is a bit pity, but also a good clearance.
Okay, that's it for now, I don't want to bother Heidi and Danny too long, they are very busy with suitcases and such.
Have a wonderful weekend, and perhaps next week I will already be back.

Jan in hospital for a few hours.

Goodmorning everybody!

We had a quiet and very warm weekend. Not really temperatures that invited us to do a lot.
Today is much better, even a bit fresh, looking cloudy, it might rain a bit again. But from tomorrow temperatures will rise again to 77-82 F and a lot of sunshine.

This morning we were up very early, because Jan had to go to hospital for his vasculair research. I went with him, because I know he was a bit nervous about it. It's not such a big deal, but he doesn;t like hospitals at all, and specially not if he needs to stay for a couple of hours.
Well, I left him in good care there, I hope he has been picked up now to undergo the research.
After the MRI he has to stay for 2 or 3 hours there, lying, to avoid a bleeding. The infusion has to go through the groin, there they will inject some contrast fluid into his vains.
And then they want to be sure, after the MRI, that his vains closes well, and he will have no bleeding after it. Hope all will go well, and then he will be sensible enough to stay long enough on his bed LOL.

The news about the plain crash in the Ukrain is coming in in just little bits, they now know 193 Dutch people died in that crash. But But it is very difficult for the OVSE and officials to come near the crash place and do research on the bodies and the area and plain debris. All because part of that area in Ukrain is under control of the separatists.
I just hope for all families involved that the bodies will be home the soon as possible and then there will be the research to do to try to find out who really is responsible for the crash.
I am not sure if that will happen, but let's hope for the best.

As I said, we didn;t do or moved a lot around in the weekend. We even didn;t spend that much time in the garden, because it was simply too warm there.
Yesterday though it had cooled down a little bit, so somewhere in the morning I managed to vacuum clean the house(oh my, it needed to be done!!) and removed a few dust bunnies, and did a few other things.
Being so warm, specially on Friday and Saturday, I thought it might be a good idea to make a potatoe slad for Saturday evening. I made a mish mash of things, like diced potatoe, of course, then apple, cucumber, sweet and sour pickles and chorizo sausage, some mayonnaise and also some olive oil, balsamico vinager, tiny bit of mustard, pepper salt and it tasted good!
I had a left over from it, so we had that for dinner yesterday, together with a delicious  roast pork tenderloin, and I made a fruit salad for desert with melon, nectarines and strawberry.

I have a couple of photos, I promised you one of the new rose, sorry it isn't completly sharp, but you get an idea of the lovely color.

And here the buckets and two smaller planters I bought last week, you even see already one in use for a tomatoe plant.

And here our Brodski, perhaps comtemplaiting about something, or just spotting something moving?

In a couple of days I hope to make a photo of our gladioles, starting to flower now, finally!

Your freebie today are the clusters Arlene made with the Foggy Summerevening kit.
Have a marvellous day!

Download   HERE

All our country in shock!

Goodmorning everybody!

I just start with the terrible news we heard on the mdia yesterday. In the early afternoon a passenger flight from Schiphol to Kuala Lumpur crashed at the Russian-Ukrain border, probably shot down and as far as known till now, it was by mistake!
All 298 passengers died among them till now 154 Dutch people.
The reason for the crah is still uncertain, but as I said it might be shot down by a missile.
I think everybody has heard of this terrible event on the news. We saw some images on tv of the site and it is horrble!
All our thoughts and condolances go to the families, friends  of the victims.
I have a link to an article about the crash, although nothing is certain about the cause, but there will be needed a big and international investigation.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/18/us-ukraine-crisis-airplane-idUSKBN0FM22N20140718 


After such news it seems so weird to continue this post with daily chitchat, but that is the hard reality of life, I also think it is a kind of selfprotection, to not loose complete control over life.
Not that there is a lot to tell. we will be busy today and perhaps in the weekend with filling in forms for request for a disability payment for Jan. I think there will not be a lot of great prospects for him, the more if you take in consideration his age and the very high number of unemployed.
Well, we will first do what is necessary and then will wiat for a call for a conversation at their office,
I gather.
Then Monday Jan will have to go to hospital for his vascular research, and he is rather nervous about it, the more because he might have to stay about all day there, just as precaution to see if he will not have excessive bleeding from the drain.
If that is okay, he can go home after a couple of hours, so I cross fingers that will be the case.
We still are waiting for a letter in which they give the exact time, a bit late I think. So if we don;t receive it in the mail this afternoon I think I will make a call.

Weather here is very warm at the moment, today temps should go up till around 82 to 86 F.
Which is VERY warm in our country. It doesn;t happen too often. Tomorrow also will be very warm, then perhaps we will have a cople of thunderstorms and it will cool off some. Next week there might be temperatures around 77 F, which will be a lot better.
So we will probably not do all too much, although we still are lucky we live at the coast and there is a little breeze. I pity the participants of the Four Days Marches, see link here,
it will be a very difficult day for them.

The kit today is one in only one download, and is named Foggy Summerevening.
Have a lovely weekend and stay safe.

Download    HERE