My hubby is awesome at times!

Goodmorning everybody!

Yippee, I did send the packages away! On Monday I took courage for it and went to the postoffice. Well, the last year many of the postoffices were closed, the big ones and little ones, case of money you know!
And now we have small ones in mainly the reading shops,, where you can buy magazines, some books, cards of all kinds etc. In a way it's better cause it's not far away for me. But there are days, it is sooooooo crowdy there, with only one person to help, and only sometimes two.
And you can guess what was the case on Monday? Yeah, loads of people waiting to be helped, for all kind of things. But I took my number and waited patiently till it was my turn, which was after about 30 minutes or so. Pfffffff, that is a long time when you have to wait and wait! But still I left the shop/postoffice with a good feeling. I am sure the packages will be well on time at their destination, if the post will not loose them on the way.

And there was a pleasant surprise for me when I came home again. Jan already started with the curtains, what a sweetie! I offered to help him, but he didn't want it. So I went ironing, did it all, put it away in the closet, and the rack is waiting now for a next load LOL!
I am happy the curtains are done, they have a different look now, ROFL. And now Jan and I are talking about the place for the Christmas tree, as every year. I suppose it will end on the same place but we are thinking about another place. I tell you a little "secret"about that! At the usual place for the tree we also have a little window, at the side of the hallway. And just opposite of that we have our toilet. And when you are in need to go to the toilet during a film, you still can watch the tv and don't miss a thing ROFL. But when the Christmastree is up, it covers the window, so no more tv from the toilet, hahaha!

Tomorrow there will be the start of the Worl Wide Christmas Scrapbooking blogtrain!!!! So I will be posting again tomorrow. And to all designers I ask: "Please, join us in this awesome blogtrain! I am sure  lots of you have already prepaired several kits or whatever for Christmas. Perhaps you can send in one little thing for that blogtrain? You still have time till about 23.00 pm this evening on the 30st of November! It would be great.
You can send your preview to dutchsparky58@hotmail.com
Take a look at this link for all the information, and there's even a sneek peak of the contributions received till now!
http://dschristmasaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/

So I see you again TOMORROW, for a wonderful Christmas freebie!
Today I have a nice one too, named "Mysterious Nightfall". And now it's time to get myself dressed and do some shopping, it looks as if I am rather lucky, till now, sun is shining a bit, although there might be coming a bit of rain later today.
Have a wonderful day!

 Download     HERE

My pizza was delicious.

Goodmorning everybody!
Another weekend has passed, in an appropiate quietness LOL.
 Oh, I had a great time, don;t misunderstand me! It started Friday after I posted on this blog, I first went out for a few grocerie shoppings, just quick. When back, I took courage and did some dusting and vacuum cleaning around here. Even started to do some ironing, after I grabbed a sandwich first. But oh, misfortune stroke LOL.

I had to put in the closet a duvet cover and some other stuff and almost ended up with the closet door all over me. The hinges inside, that should hold the door, got loose in a strange way, which isn;t the best that can happen. So instead of ironing I tried to repair that. Well, I succeeded in such way, that the door couldn;t fall out, but it's very difficult to do it, holding with one hand the door in a good position and scewing the bolds with the other hand. The door is quite heavy. Which wasn;t the best thing for my back! I know, you all shout now, that I should have called Jan for it, but as I got into the room, I saw him catching some sleep at the couch(Later he told me, he almost didn;t sleep during the night, poor thing). So hardheaded as I am, I tried to do the closet myself.
It took me some time to at least have it safe for the moment, and all my energy for ironing some more wa gone.
But after a while I took courage again, ROFL, and continued a bit and hey, miracle, Jan came into the room, to tell me he wanted to get a little ride on his bike, to catch some fresh air. But as I told him the difficulties with the door of the closet, He right away took a look and also took action. It wasn't that easy, but with me as a helping hand it finally was done( even we did the other door of the closet, cause that one also was getting out of the hinges). It all took some time, however, so you can imagine I left the laundry as it was, no more ironing and it also was too late for Jan to take his ride, cause in the afternoon we wanted to watch some speedskating at tv.
So it was a good idea of me, not to cook that evening, and I had my 4 cheeses pizza and it tasted great! And Jan made his own dinner, porc meat with a lot of lard on it(I hate them LOL).

Saturday we planned to go to our neighbour, to bring the post again. So I got all dressed up, even got time to get me our weekend newspaper and then Jan said, he also could go alone. He though it might be better for me to stay home, cause of my back trouble. After given some thought I agreed with him, it wouldn;t have been wise to sit at the back of his bike, although I felt sorry for our neighbour. And I knew she would worry about be, much more than necessary. So I just hoped Jan would explain to her, I was much better already, but I didn;t get on his bike just as precaution. When he was away, I watched some ice dance at tv, something I love to see.
Jan came back and we watched some more speed skating and then I made us a pistolet( little French bread, I just had to bake off in the oven) with shoarma. And I think it was a good thing we had no visitors, cause I am sure we carried around us a terrific garlic smell( you eat the shaorma with a garlic sauce, yummie!) ROFL!

Sunday we just didn;t do much, Jan had his newspaper, I did some designing at the computer, in between we watch a bit sport at tv, it wasn;t such nice weather yesterday, rather grey and very much wind, and even a bit of rain, but today it looks better again. We are still around 50-53 F at daytime here, and I wouldn;t mind if it stayed that way for a looooong time, I can live with that till April!
I think today will be the curtain washing day, yes! I know, it was planned some days ago, but you kow how it goes with my plans, hahahaha. But today we can hang them outside for a while to dripp off a bit, and especially for the ones at the back of the room, the long ones, it's much better to do. Well, I hope it will be done, then that will be okay till after Christmas.
Okay, time to get busy around here, but I have a lovely kit for you. This time it's a fantasy, fairy kit again, which I didn;t make for a long time. I named it"I Found You a Fairy".
Have a wonderful day!

Download     HERE

No cooking today.

Goodmorning everybody!

Gosh, it's already Friday again! It seems that towards the end of the year, the days are over with much quicker than in say, the month of May! It doesn;t look all to bright outside, rather grey, much more wind and even expexting some rain. Not the best weather to go out, but I;ll have to go to the bank for the payment of the energy-gas bill.   ell, it will not be bad to catch a bit of fresh air, but I hope the walk will be without rain.
I heard yesterday some amazing news on tv: in parts of Holland the farmers have to water their fields, because of the shortage of water. And that in November! Real funny to hear that.

Ha, today is my not-cooking day LOL I think I will have myself a pizza, and Jan always makes his own dinner, yeah! As he isn;t a fan of pizza, I have a left over for him from yesterday's diner, a hotch potch with potatoe mash and sauerkraut and he will just have to make a little piece of meat with that. Oh, he doesn;t mind it.
So this evening it's easy peasy for me, just putting the pizza in the oven and after about 20 minutes get it out.

Not too much happened the last couple of days, so I guess it will be a rather short post.
Oh if you want to see an aodrable squirrel, then hop over to Miss Edna's blog, she had a very naughty squirrel visiting her and she made a great close up of it. And then you also can read a bit of the history of the Pilgrims.
Did you know they first took "shelter"in Holland for some years, before making the passage to The New World?
Oh whee, how nice us Dutchies could be at times, ROFL.
Okay, I should get busy around here, lots of things I want to do today.
But not leaving without a freebie. It's a kit you can use for a lot of layouts, named "Modesty".
Hope you will like it.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download   HERE

Postoffice, be ready!

Goodmorning everybody!

We had quite a lovely day here yesterday. Our part of the country was nice, with even some sunshine, so it was a fine day to do some shopping. And my Christmas boxes are ready for the postoffice! I think I will bring them at the start of next week.
I finished them yesterday, taping them well etc. There is just one thing I am always facing AFTER I have them ready for shipment. From that point on I always see some nice things I might have put in too! It's aweful, you know! I walk somewhere and see a cute thing what might have been a nice present for one of the receivers.
 And then I know it is time to bring them quickly to the postoffice, otherwise I am capable of cutting the boxes open and put in some more things. It's very frustrating!!!! ROFL.

I am hoping to do the washing of the curtains today, at least of one side of the room. And if I am brave enough I could do some ironing too, we;ll see how far I get, grin-grin.
And perhaps it's not a bad idea to start writing some Christmascards and have them ready to post somewhere next week. It's not so far away anymore, you know, that holiday!
Oh, got a phonecall from Heidi, the other day and she told me that they will not be home with Christmas. So I think we will be having guests at Christmastime, their rabbit and bird LOL! Heidi and family will be away for a week, so I rather have those pets here, much easier to take care of.

Must also not forget to make a phonecall to the hairdresser for an appointment. I always push that forward, but now it's really time to do something about my hair again, hahaha. And I better go there before everybody wants an appointment, just before the holidays.
Slowly time for me to get busy here, first will hop quickly under the shower and then do some serious business.
Before I forget, to everybody celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow:

                                HAPPY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING!

Take care, have a great day!

Download   part 2 HERE

My baking was successful!

Goodmorning everybody!

After a rather quiet weekend here we go again for another week LOL!
But I did some work in the kitchen and made on Friday my Pirog and did it well!!
I even have a picture for you of the result

I think something went wrong with the flash, but you can still see it well enough.
Someone asked me to post the recipe for it, okay, I will try to translate it, here we go:


(I just devided the ingredients in two, otherwise it would be much too big for us, but the recipe is for 6 persons)
300 grams of white flour
10 grams of yeast
1 1/2 deci ltr. of milk
2 eggs
100 grams of butter
about 300 grams of minced beef meat.(but also you can take mushrooms, or white cabbage, or minced meat with veggies like leak, cabbage, etc.) My favoutie is however minced meat.
1 bigge onion chipped
2 hard boiled eggs
salt pepper

Knead the flower, yeast en milk together till a doughand let it rise for an hour.
After that put in the 2 eggs(loose beaten), pinch of salt and the melted butter and knead until the dough comes loose from your hands. Let it rise again for half an hour and roll it out thinly.

In between you make the filling from the minced meat, with salt, pepper, onion, little bit of garlic, crash the 2 hard boiled eggs with a fork and put those away. Frie the minced meat in a pan without any butter, loosen it up, let it drip off a bit, then put in the hard boiled eggs.
Take the rolled out dough, cut it in two rectangles(if you will use a baking plate) or roll it out in two circles(like I did ). One part a bit bigger than the other.
Take the biggest part en put it on your tray, (don;t forget to buter the tray first), put on the filling and cover with the other part of the dough.
Bend the sides up from bottom to top, roll them a bit till they glue together.
Take another loose beaten eggs and "paint"the top of the Pirog.
Let it rise again for about 1/2 an hour and then bake it in the oven on about 200 degrees, ca. 45-60 minutes.
(mine took a bit less, cause it was smaller). Check now and then if it will not become too dark. If so, put over it a piece of aluminium foil. When ready take out and let it cool off a little bit before cuttiing.
Wonderful to eat with a bowl of soup!
Enjoy your meal!

When uploading the picture of the Pirog, I saw that I still had a picture of ages ago on it, from my salamander. But it was such a cutie, that I will show you .

Isn't he sweet?

Saturday Jan went on his own to our neighbour, I didn't had the guts to jump on the back of his bike with my soar back(though it is almost gone now). I think I will call her today or tomorrow, now that we didn;t see eachother.

Oh yes, I wanted to tell you too that Minky posted the Christmas stuff I've made on her Christmas blog, so you could go there and download it(and much more) if you want. You can find my contribution under the page Kyra's New Treats on
http://faeriechristmas.blogspot.com/
It's very foggy outside the last days, even to such thickness there were problems on the roads. Fog can be very nasty and people take care, but still not everybody and often there are accidents because of it.  I hope it will dissolve later today, it's so grey and a bit gloomy looking.
Well, time to have another coffee soon, and then finish the packages for Christmas yippee, I can send them away very soon!
And I think I'll have to get out the vacuum cleaner today too, LOL!
What about a lovely kit in pastel colours, very suitable for lovely layouts of new born or little babies?
I have one for you, named "Dear Child", it will be in two downloads, one today and the other Wednesday, cause it is a rather "heavy"one.
Have a fantastic day!

Download    part 1 HERE

Nature keeps amazing me.

Goodmorning everybody!

I did yesterday almost nothing! Well, I mean no housekeeping LOL! It was easy to do so, cause a little spot in my back played on again it's tune a bit, not funny at all, ouch! It's already a bit better today, but bringing on a strange look at my face at certain moves. Not to worry much, it will pass again. But I took advantage of the fact it was better to stay a bit quiet, and wrapped up all the Christmas presents I already had. Good thing I did, cause now I know I still need one little thing and then I can send it all away. Have to pass the toy store and ask them if they have one or two little carton boxes. They always have loads of boxes, so I think they will be so nice again to give me some.
Did also some designing, some quickpages for Christmas and even started a new kit.
In the evening we watched a terrific documentary of the nature of Madagascar! Nature there is very special, there are animal and plant species there, you will not find anywhere else on earth! And it keeps amazing me, how animals and plants can survive in sometimes harsh conditions. I love to watch those kind of films at times, and no matter how often you see perhaps the same things, every time again the "oooohhh's and ahhhh's" are uttered again ROFL.!

Perhaps this weekend I will try my hand again on a Russian recipe for Pirog. I found one that looks almost like my mother used to make and it's a very tasty kind of pie. My mom used to make it with minced meat, and it's a great thing to eat with a bowl of soup and very nourishing. But you can use all kind of fillings for it, like sauerkraut, or mushrooms, whatever you can think of.
Just have to buy me some packages of yeast. To make the "pie"is taking some time, but I really want to give it a try. It should look a bit like this:

Looks great, hey?

So I''ll be busy cooking a bit, and perhaps finishing the Christmas presents, and a bit of designing, and whatever I can think of hahahaha.
 Anyway, enough plans, not to forget that we will have to visit our neighbour again on Sunday. If I think it's wise to sit on the bike, with my damned hurting little joint in the back. We'll see.

And do I have a nice kit for you? I think so! I named it "Preserve your Heritage", in nice browns and I really like the frames I've made. So I hope you will make some nice layouts with this kit, and you know, I love to see some examples, grin-grin.!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Download     HERE

Getting colder.

Goodmorning everybody!

We sure can notice that temperature is getting down the last few days. Specially at night.
The most annoying about it is, that our front window is covered in the morning with moist, due to cold temps outside and warmer of course inside. It's now every day, but the last few days I have to dry the window when I get up and open the curtains. Very annoying, but it will only stop I guess, when we should have double glazed window, and that is too expensive for me now. So we will have to dry them in the morning LOL.
One thing is good about it, if you want it or not, you clean your windows ROFL!!! The thing for the worse is, that the curtains have quickly some nasty light brown marks on them,(because of the water dripping down slowly, and the curtains that glue a bit to the window, yak!) so I will have to give them a wash soon.
It keeps you busy, isn;t it?
You really can feel winter is coming nearer, at some places in Holland there is already a bit night frost, which can be very tricky for traffic in the mornings. But still, at daytime, weather is not really bad, till now we have rather bright days, sun is pouring out it's rays over us, and dressed in a warm coat, it still is nice to be outside.

Another sign of the days and nights getting colder is that our cats spend much more time inside. Specially Dikkie Dik, who is the most adventurous one, and normally spending lots of time outside. But not anymore!
Both of them love to get hours of sleep on the couch, and in the evenings, trying to wringle themselves between Jan and me, or even ON me.

I think I will have to do some ironing today, another load is already waiting in the washing machine, so I better get rid of the stuff that is dry already. It's always the starting that is the toughest, LOL, because when I get it going and do so for about half an hour, most of it is done.
I just counted the days will the day we will have to start our Christmas decorating again and there are only left about 20 days!!! I don;t want to think too much about it, yet, cause it's a lot of work, but when done, sooooooooooooo cosy. This last part of the year will be done with before you know it.

Today I will offer you the quickpages I was working on. There are 7 in total and I've made one layout with it, to show you a bit how they look with a picture. Here is one with our cat Brodski.

Have a great day, don;t get stressed yet about the idea Christmas is peeking around the corner ROFL!

Download   HERE