New days, new chances, they say!

Goodmorning everybody!

I am getting a bit grunchy here too at times, specially with all high bills coming in. They always come in a group at the beginning of the year(the nastiest ones!).
Now it is up to me to do something about it, but it always is such a lot of work. If you have a real low income you can apply for reduction or even remission, but gosh, you have to fill in enourmous forms and send all kind of copies of almost everything with them. I understand the minicipal or other authorities want to know something about you, but they also could just send a form that you have to sign in which you give permission to get info from tax office or other municipal agencies and then they should have almost every information. Perhaps one or two copies of special things and vooila, all done. But no. For every occasion you will have to send a pile of copies again. Soooo frustrating.
And then it isn;t yet sure that they will grant you request!
Well, I will try to start on it in the weekend, get all I need together then make copies start of next week and then cross fingers that it is good enough and such.

Jan has gone to an appointment from a department of social security where they coordinate volunteer work and this person will be your coach too, as I understand it.
Well, Jan can show he is working on getting a volunteer job, but without succes till now.
we'll see what will be the outcome of the conversation there, May be they will have a nice little job and if they could introduce him, it will be easier to get the job.
Monday I have an appointment finally with the social security guy, I had to go to last month, but seemed to be ill, remember??
It still took about a month before I heard anything from him!
All those appointments take precious time and non of them seem to be very helpfull, till now. But you have to go, if not, or if you come late, you might get a penalty on your payment!
Somehow I can understand it, but on the other hand, if they cut on your already very poor income, people might come into trouble, because they cannot pay the necessary bills anymore and what then?
So i wonder if that really is the best of measurement.

Let's try to go to a brighter side of life.
The weather looks rather nice today, the sun i shining, large parts of blue sky, almost no wind.
Temperatures are around 7 C here now, so not too bad for the time of year.
This weekend there is some speedskating to watch, World Championship for different distances, like 500, 1000, 1500, 3000,5000 and 10.000 metres.We already have one golden and one silver medal on the 10.000 mtrs for men( all started already yesterday) and a silver and bronze one on the 3000 mtrs. for women.
So this event will help to forget a moment about all official and nasty things, but reality will come back real soon too LOL!

Yesterday I was busy for several hours( including waiting time for dough that had to rize) in the kitchen. Made a Boeuf parmentier for dinner(is a kind of sheperds pie with minced meat) and also made a Russian pirog for tomorrow which we will have with our soup I'll make.
Looks a bit like this

Today is "free cooking day", meaning jan and I will look after ourselves, to make a quick bite. I love those days, I sometimes just have a pizza, or some spaghetti, anyway, something that is ready very quickly, without using a lot of pans and time LOL.

And now it's time for your freebie. It will be in 2 downloads again, one today, the other one on Monday(oh, I might post later in the afternoon then, because of my appointment in the morning!).
As it is Valentimes day tomorrow, I;ve made a kit for it. And I have a nice surprise to go with it too!
A lovely and sweet fram cluster made by Florence.
Next week you also will have some additional clusters from Arlene. Oh, you also should pop in on her blog, because she also has a lovely Valentine freebie for you.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, all the folks that are sick and tired of lots of snow I wish a very quick rise of temperature and speedy melting and then sunshine!

Download part 1 HERE

Surprise from Florence:

Download   HERE

My Freebies of Jan. and Febr. 2015

 Download    HERE

 Download    HERE

 Download     HERE

 Download     HERE

 Download    HERE

 Download    HERE part 1     HERE part 2

 Download    HERE

 Download    HERE

 Download    HERE part 1        HERE part 2

Download    HERE

 Download part 1 HERE          part 2 HERE

 Download    HERE

Download    part 1 HERE       part 2 HERE

Download    HERE

 Download    HERE

 Download   part 1 HERE         part 2 HERE

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

Disappointment about volunteerswork.

Goodafternoon everybody!

Only had time now to write a little post. This morning Jan and I were up early, because we had to be at the nursing home at 10.00 for the information assembly.
Beautiful home and nice people. So we had a little explanation about the in's and out's and filled in forms again.
And just a while ago when I checked our email, we already had an answer from the nursing home, that they didn;t want to go on with us any further.
This really was a disappointment. Perhaps even more for Jan than it was for me.
So we have to look around for a new one, but you should think with all the volunteers asked on the site for volunteerwork, that they would be happy to have people that are at the least a bit motivated and, like Jan, already have experience in working with elderly and such.

It is almost as hard to find a volunteerjob that suites you more or less as it is to find a proper job!
well, we;ll just have to forget it and start looking again.
Best of all is that we have proof for the social security that we are busy with it, but had no success till now. And you almost cannot apply for several aat the same time, because there always is a waiting time till you have an interview and then have to wait for a decision etc.etc. But if we dont find smeting ourselves, there is possibility that social security points out some volunteerwork to you that you will have to accept, and I rather find one myself, that is a bit to my liking, you know?

Weather here is kind of okay, we have no frost anymore, till now, but we could do with some more sunshine.


There isn;t much more to tell, guess inspiration for writing is gone for a moment, because of the rejection for the volunteerjob. 
And I almost have to start making dinner, so I better sign off now, with a lovely freebie for you from Arlene, made with the Curious kit.
Hopefully Friday I will be more cheerful again, LOL.
Have a great day.

Download    HERE

Catched up a lot of sleep!

Goodmorning everybody!

Oh whee, I slept long this morning! I first woke up around 4.30 at night, I sat down in the living room for a while, had a drink and watched a bit of tv. But after an hour or so my eyelids fell down, so I decided to go to bed again. And only woke up at 10.30 this morning! Gosh, that only happens a few times. Guess I just needed the sleep.

Saturday we went to Séverine's birthdayparty, mostly for the grown-ups but we had a nice time.
had some chit-chat with a few people and a few laughs and came home later than I wanted.
But okay, I still had time enough to make something for dinner. As we usually have a "quick" one  I already planned to make something Jan never tasted before. I made Kartoffelknoedel mit Pflaumen, in english Potatoe dumplings with plumes. never made them before, but it didn;t seem to be very difficult. and I had some good memories from eating them tenths of years ago, when I was on holiday with my parents in Yugoslavia( it then was still called that way ) visiting good friends.
There we often had lunch with that family and she made us those Knoedel and I just loved them.
Now made myself I must say, I had the same sensation, covered with a lot of icing sugar!!
I made rather big ones, so with two of them our bellies were completely filled up!. next time I will try to make them a bit smalle, and perhaps fill them with some other fruit. You can use almost everything you want, but plumes are really great for it, as well as apricots or cherries.

Yesterday I was rather lazy, only turned on a full washing machine, and made us some stewed pears for desert. That was all and rest of the day I spent mostly at the computer and I uploaded two new kits to Mediafire !. I seem to have found a sparkle of inspiration again and I am happy with it.
Also made previews of add-ons from Arlene and a surprise from Florence that I will post later in the week.

I see that time has flown, so I will end this post now with part two of the kit Curious. if I don;t stop now, I will never get active for the rest of the day I fear LOL!
Have a lovely day and till Wednesday!

Download    part 2 HERE

Still cold, but hoping on next week's weather.

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, I slept well this night! Once I closed my eyes  yesterday night, I knew nothing about the world and slept through all night, how wonderful.

Wednesday afternoon i decided to go to the market. Weather looked allright at that moment, even with some sunshine, so well and warm dressed it wasn;t so bad to be outside.
But halfway my strolling at the market suddenly the sky became dark and there was a meldted snow shower. Not the most pleasant thing to experience, but thank God it didn;t last too long.
Glad I had my furred hood.
Think it lasted for about 15 minutes and then the blue sky and some sun came back again.
By that time I was all done so I returned home and gosh it was good to be there and be able to put on my sweatpants.

Jan received a ltter from Social security office that he should be at an appointment next Tuesday for some volunteer work. he will have an interview with somebody there, and will probably hear what they have in mind.
In the mean time Jan already was busy to contact another organasation for some volunteer work.
He got in contact yesterday and there will be an information session for volunteers in a nursing home
next Wednesday. I will go there too, and hopefully we will find a volunteer job there.
It will be great, because the home they need the volunteers is very nearby, about 15 minutes walk at the most! 

At the moment there are debats in parliament about the  decentralization of government functions to municipalities program, specially for the house care budgets for elderly, disabled and lots more. This to provide possibilities people can stay for a longer time in their own home.
I've found an article about it in English if you might be interested and if you scroll down on that page more explanationary articles can be found.
But in very short: there is chaos at the social security department, that is responsiblee now for the health care budgets, and I don;t think you can blame the civil servants who have to deal with it, it is government that pushed it through too quickly, I think.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/02/officials-cant-cope-with-personal-healthcare-requests.php/

So far for politics now, don't want to bore you too much with it, but for a lot of people this is a very concerning issue and very important too!

Well, it is getting really late now, soon I will take a sandwich and another coffee and watch one of our favourite programs in the afternoon on the BBC, "Bargain Hunt".

 I have a new kit for you today,  named "Curious" and it will be in 2 zips, so one today the other Monday. Really like how the color pallet turned out in this kit.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend

Download   part 1 HERE

Done some needed work last couple of days.

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, I feel so bad for all the folks that have to deal with the loads of snow. It is beautiful for a short time, but then it should be gone quick too.
Looking out the window now and it isn;t looking too good. Sky is getting dark grey and I see there is a rain, or even melted snow shower going on. Yak, not nice at all.
But I already see some lighter sky too, so it will be over soon.

Monday I really have done some things I had planned, hoorray! I sent some "official"emails, did a necessary phonecall and then after I got dressed and had a sandwich I took out a bucket with some hot water and cleaning stuff in it and threw myself into the bathroom.
I gave that a really thourough cleaning, and when i was almost ready Jan also did his bit LOL.
He had a bottle with some cleaning stuff in it to get rid of any mold that was left in between the tiles. Gosh, what a pest that stuff is. As soon as he started spraying it, it had trouble breathing, so I left him there to finish it, and he mopped the floor when all was done.
As I had the mop out I also did the kitchen floor and hallway. All is looking clean and shiny again.

Then I spent some time at the computer, and now almost am ready to upload one kit and another one is also half done.

Yesterday I had to go out to get some bread and cat food and potatoes and i did pick out a good time for it. It was a bit cold but the sun was shining too, so in all it was nice to be out for a while.

I should go to the the market one of these days, to get us some vegetables, of which we are running out a bit. But i don;t know if today will be a good day for it, with the weather changing every half hour. Perhaps it will be better later today, and if the sun will shine, I may pop out quickly and hope for the best LOL.

Today I have some beautiful clusters from Arlene, made with the Happy Moments in a Box kit.
I am sure you will love to use them.
Have a wonderful day!

Download     HERE

Unpleasant weather around here.

Goodmorning everybody!

After a rather lazy weekend we will have to do a few things today. Not too big things, but necessary ones.
Weather here is rather unpleasant at the moment. Too low temperatures to my liking, some showers that have just rain, but also sometimes melting snow. Not too much wind, but whatever wind there is blowing is a cold one. Brrrrrrr. Now I know we shouldn;t complain because in other parts of the world there is real winter weather bothering people.

We stayed in all weekend, on Friday I did the necessary shopping, Jan made a little walk to the market and on the way he passed the bank, so he left there a bill to pay.
I spent a lot of time at the computer though, and almost finished a started kit, and also already made a start to a new one. Every now and then I did some blog reading or hopped around on internet, or left the computer for a while to wath a bit tv, it all was very relaxed.
Oh my, i just looked at the window and the sky went rather dark and now melting snow is falling down.
I see people passing on their bicycles, wrapped in warm jackets, with the hoods on their head, not looking very happy.

Coming Sunday will be the anniversairy of Séverine, which she will be celebrating for family and friends on Saturday. Of course Jan and I will pay a little visit, as we recieved a little invitation.
It is a;ways a pity of such gatherings, that you don;t have really an opportunity to have a nice talk with Heidi, which is understandable, because she is busy with Danny to provide everyone with a drink and some snacks and they have to give everybody a bit of attention.
But it will be nice to be out for a moment.

Oh, this weekend there was a bad accident in Rotterdam. Because of an explosion( we don;t know yet of what kind, but it could have been a gasleak or something similair) now about  20 appartments are heavily damaged and ca. 150 people had to leave their home. Probably damage will be so severe that restoration will not be possible. I feel so sorry for them, still a wonder that only two people had to go to hospital and others only had minor injuries and could be helped in the ambulances. But imagine, in a second you don't have a home anymore. and no idea when and where they will have another place to live! It must have been a very big explosion, in a circle of a 100-150 meters lots of windows have been shattered not to speak about the damage of the appartments most close to the explosion.
Aweful!

Well, if I want anything to be done today I think I will have to finish this post and soon take some action. Today you will have the second part of the kit Happy Moments in a Box.
Wishing you all a wonderful day, and stay safe.

Download    part 2 HERE