jump into the unkown

Merry Christmas Ho Ho Ho

2008-12-24T12:18:00.003+01:00

Today we are preparing for Christmas .... making 'stoofpeertjes' and cranberry compote which makes the kitchen smell yummie! ........

Mister is enjoying everything (including X-mastree ho ho ho) as well as me typing on the laptop ... looking for the arrow going to left en right but does it really go to the back of the screen ...... hey were is it now ???? Right now he sits right in front of the screen so that leaves me no sight ha ha ha. He has been ill the last 3 weeks and there was poop allover the place ..... The vet gave him a injection and now he is doing allright so we are happy to hold him again!

Mister and we say: Merry christmas everybody!!!!

Tomorrow we will have company for X-mas dinner and we are looking forward to this special day! Tonight we will have a dinner for two ... a romantic time for ourselves!!!

Take care!

Mister is HAPPY and so are we!

2008-12-01T13:46:00.006+01:00

Can YOU refuse this little face anything ?

We both are so happy with our litle 'guy', he shows his love to us every minute of the day...

He did NOT ruin anything ....yet .... keep fingers crossed :-)

He chases everything (his tail by choice)...

Do not leave a pencil waiting for the crosswordpuzzle on the newspaper .....

you will find it back under the couch ...

I am a little worried because he has a running eye, but that can be due to the shot he became at the vet's. So I am looking it closely for a couple of days.

Today I tried to make pics for our christmascards and it worked out very good (bless the one who developed cat treats !!!!!).

I am of to do some housework ... have to do it little by little because I have a very sore right shoulder. I fall down twice in the last 2 weeks (just being clumsy) and my weight was tooooo heavy for my shoulder muscles......

Have a great day and:
Take care!!!

Special day ....

2008-11-21T11:35:00.003+01:00

Today is a special day for Peggy and Sebastiaan because they bought their OWN house. They still live apart so this is going to be a hugh turn in their lifes together! We congratulate our dear niece and her boyfriend with their HOME !

Mister is already totally 'at home' and remembers us at how it is with a cat ... jumps on everything ... so do NOT leave:
- scrapbookstuff (like flowers) on the table because that is simular to TOY !!!
- pillows on the couch or chair, they end up on the floor !!!
- empty bowl of yogurt on the table, has to be licked clean !!!
- your spot on the couch, it's warm and cats love warm spots !!!
- the door open, he'll jump up the stairs and hides underneath every little space !!!
- him with a NO because he doesn't (want to) understand ;-0

But he is tooooooo cute, can't refuse him a thing. We will enventualy I promise (hope???).

Have a great weekend y'all and ...

Take care!

Call me crazy ...... but I did it !

2008-11-19T13:29:00.007+01:00

Last night I went to bed at 12 ... layed there turning and turning...

Finally I went down and layed myself on the couch acompanied by our little fellow. I felt so sorry for him to be all by himself in his first night in our house... He was so happy to see me and crowled all up in my neck and fell asleep and so did I !

At 3:30 I woke up, put him in his limegreen catbed and went upstairs to have a good sleep hahaha!

This morning he was sooooooooo playful, tried to eat: the newspaper, enveloppes that the postman brought, my fingers (!!!) but this was all nothing compared to the catfood I gave him a little later!

He usses him catlitter to play in and you can imagine how the wooden floor looks like ...... When I get the broom to clean it all, he chases the broom.... hahahaha. I am sooooooo happy that I am wearing the grin on my face again, which I thought had passed away...

Leave you with these pics:

Isn't he ADORABLE ????

.......and so handsome!

Take care y'all !

HE arrived!

2008-11-18T23:18:00.007+01:00

Today is one of the luckiest days of 2008 ! We got a new familymember:

His name is : MISTER
He is : a CAT
He is: 3 months young
He was fostered by: Karin
His color is: grey with a little beige
He loves: sleeping in a neck (not specific mine)
He adores: playing with anything
He eats: catfood :-)
He snoops: catsnoops
He pee's and poops: in the catlitter
He sleeps: in a LIME GREEN catbed

He is sooooooo CUTE and we already love him sooooooo much! Wish he would sit still for a few seconds so I can take proper pictures ... He already thinks that his 'mommy' has ONE BLACK EYE ...hihihi.
I am off to bed ..... give the little guy some rest and get ready for new plays tomorrow .... can't wait :-)

Take care and ........ if you want to come by and meet our funny one please let us know!

really .... I am still here!

2008-11-03T11:19:00.005+01:00

Hello everyone.... Yezzz, I am still alive ...... It has been a wierd past half year.....

When we came back from Italy my MIL was ill. We saw it was really bad with her but the doctors did NOT... Finally in August a doctor agreed to check her into the hospital.... it was already too late.... she had cancer in the latest stadium. Her last 2 weeks she spend in a hospice and all her kids and grandkids were there with her. It was a very special time : I got to see a MIL that I never had seen during the past 30 years....... I treasure this time because I had to say goodbye to a very loving and caring MIL, which I wouldn't have had if she passed away a year ago... We had a good time with our hole family and we all gave her a beautiful funeral, just the way she wanted. Goodbye 'Ma' and again ........ thanks for a wonderful boy who is my husband for almost 30 years now!

During all the running back and forth between my PIL's home, hospitals etc. Our home was getting new windows and doors, so every day there were people in and around my house working, wanting coffee .... 'something nice' with lunch (like soup or croquettes :-).... After 2,5 weeks they were done and the next plow of working people came in to redo our bathroom and downstairs toilet. It would take them 3 weeks they said....... but now we are 9 weeks further and it is still not 'all done'.... It is going to be beautiful (we still keep our hopes up.....)

When I write this down in just a few lines I think: That is not much, but belief me: my house has been a desaster area for over 3 months now....

To top things off : We had to lay our beautiful siamese cat Lady to sleep last week at the age of 18 years and 7 months ........... She has been in our home for over 15 years and gave us sooooooo much joy and comforted us when we were sad, always happy when we got home !

So I hope you understand why I didn't think of blogging in the last couple of months......

We are looking at the future now and hoping it will bring us some good moments to add to our memories over 2008.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment if you wish, so I do know there are people who check me every once an a while .....

In the mean time : Take care!!!

Hello .... from Tuscany!

2008-05-18T11:32:00.003+02:00

We found our way to Tuscany yesterday after being in Cinque Terre and Rome. We are in a beautiful silent resort and enjoying the sights of Chiusi/Sarteano. Although there is rain today we are relaxing every minute. After the walking we did in the northern part of Italy and walked (all of) Rome we so need this quiet time!

In Rome we joined the Pope on the St. Pieter square will he was having an 'audientie'. It was a surprise we actually got to see the Pope....

Right in the middle of the picture you see a man dressed in white.....

Offcourse we saw all the major sights like: Fontain the Trevi, Spanish stairs, National Monument and The Colosseum all worth while to see. Tell more about it in the future.

Now Tuscany is our 'thing to do'. Pray for good weather please....our plans need SUN !

Take care!!!

Gone home ...

2008-05-05T12:00:00.003+02:00

Willis is home ... and left us with the great feeling of having a dog in the house (and sore muscles :-)

We had a great week walking, playing, chasing, loving a dog and ......... loosing 3 kilo's !!! DH chanced his mind about having a dog ... so in the future .... who knows!

Saturday we celebrated our 29th anniversary with family and friends. It is always so nice to have people around who want to celebrate with us! They (read: the younger generation) already are talking about next year ... 30 years has to be celebrated differently (as THEY think :-) You must know we had a big celebration when we were married for 25 years, we took 40 people for a weekend away in a small hotel and had great fun party-ing, eating, drinking etc. So know they think we should do 'something' next year ...

I am going to be buzy preparing a vacation . . . . . . .

Take care!!

This company is great FUN !!!

2008-05-02T11:32:00.003+02:00

I like to introduce you to our company (for a week) : Willis, is the dog of our friends Ries and Anita.

He is such a lovely dog, behaves very well, listens very good, is playfull, doesn't bark (!!!) and gives a lot of cuddles. Yesterday we took him to the forest and he played with every branch he could find....and there were many, I tell you. We walked for 2 hours and he was happy to go for an other 2 hours but.......we were excausted hahaha!

For me it is a good training for all the walking we are planning to do in Italy... The musclepain I have right now will not appear during my holiday (I hope).

With Willis around there is not many time left to scrap but when he is home again there will be a lot of pics waiting to be glued down...

It is such nice weather today overhere, so I am going into the sun to get a pre-tan :-)

Tomorrow I'll be teaching a workshop at Creatief met Foto's in Heesch and in the evening we expect family to join us celebrating our 29th anniversary!

Talk later and take care!

expecting . . . company !

2008-04-29T00:16:00.002+02:00

Woooooowwwieieee ..... tuesday we are getting company for 6 days ...... we are soooo excited!
Want to know what company we get ........ return wednesday and I'll show some pics of what we did with our guest!

Take care!

New blinds ...

2008-04-28T13:01:00.004+02:00

Everybody who knows me, knows how much I love LIMEGREEN! So ... when we needed new blinds (the old ones were broke) I managed to order white, blue and LIME! My DH was really sceptic about my choice (can you imagine?) but (as always) he went allong :-)

Saturday the new verticle blinds arrived and we put them up. Guess what he said: "Dit is écht GAAF"(This is really COOL). Watch this:

I am SOOOO happy with it!

Talk soon, Take care!!!

Hooked on .... HAKEN (crochet)!

2008-04-21T09:15:00.006+02:00

We had a great weekend with lots of sunshine. And ..... I am hooked!! Yeah right hooked...on 'haken' (crochet) flowers:

My dear friend Anita showed me how to crochet hearts last year and I started up crocheting flowers a few months ago, but I didn't think they were worth showing, but now everybody is making beautiful flowers ( Anita, Natasja, Monique, Norbiba, Petra). I looked on the internet to see if I could find some paterns and yes I did here.

It is so relaxing ... sitting in the sun in the backyard with my crochetwork. Guess were we are going in a couple of weeks:

Yezzzz ITALY!!!

I am off scrapping a photoswap and this afternoon you'll find me in the backyard, with my crochethook!!!

Have a great day and: TAKE CARE!

It was a great day!

2008-04-10T10:30:00.003+02:00

Yesterday my FIL celebrated his 80st birthday. Not that he likes birthday's, he really enjoyed this one.

Happy 80st Pa !

My SIL and I 'managed' the catering during the day and we laughed a lot. Ofcourse there were only 'older' people but it was nice to meet aunts and uncles that we didn't see for a while. In the evening all (grand)children and inlaws came and that was for the first time in 8 years ! So great to see my PIL's happy !!! We surprised FIL with a digital SLR Sony A350. He was stunned.......

He is a amature photographer for over 60 years now, always worked with a analoge SLR and made millions of beautiful pictures at the 'Hoge Veluwe' (which is his biggest hobby').

This morning I called him and he is already into the instructionbook ...... Way you GO Pa ! Have fun with the birds in the backyard this afternoon.......

At the Stamping Show in Zeist this weekend I bought a few Magnolia's ...... yum yum ! Coloring with my Karisma's is the only thing I do these days....... only coloring the images......I am going to make cards with them later and I will show asap!

Going to make outdoor pictures this afternoon with Femke because it is such nice weather today!

Talk soon again to y'all ........ in the mean time:

Take care!

I have been told...

2008-04-04T14:58:00.006+02:00

that I am a very BAD BLOGGER ... and that is SO TRUE. I am sorry for not keeping up my appearences :-). So for the tenth (or more) time I say I am sorry if you stopped by and didn't read any news about me.

I have been busy with preparing workshops and finding out there were not enough participants :-( It took my mojo away and I am still trying to find it....

I held myself busy with making cards the last week, nice 'working' with stamps of Magnolia and Hero Arts in combinations with Karisma colorpencils and 'doezelaars'. Wanna see some???

Here you go:

Today I found myself being sad... so I had a GOOD TALK to myself and started a layout about my dreams about our holiday to Toscane next month. Down that way I started feeling better and promissed myself to hold on to that feeling!!!

the picture has been taken by Matty Ringelberg.

Tomorrow is going to be a FUN day at Dolls and Decorations in Almere. The 'Dolls Good News Box' will be released and (ofcourse) Petra prepared free Make & Takes, so a lot of girls will be visiting and creating (and BUYING hihihi) all the yummy stuff she has in her beautiful store.

In the evening my dear friend Hannie will celebrate her birthday...so finally we have a change to catch up ....

Sunday morning I will be up EARLY ... to go to the Art Specially (stamping) event in Zeist ... lots of creativity will be there and I will have to hold on to my wallet (hihihi) wanting to buy all the gorgeous stamps I will see. In the afternoon Peggy will celebrate her birthday and we won't miss that PARTY!!!

I do want to finish with a positive note: I will be published (again) in June ...

Have a great weekend y'all and talk soon (don't promiss anything, but want to be a better blogger, can you help by placing a comment, please???)

Take care!!!

Yes, I am still alive....

2008-03-11T21:12:00.003+01:00

Oh boy, I am such a bad blogger...., I know! But every day (for the last 6 weeks) I thought : I have to write my blog tonight ... You must know : normally I am a good listener (but not to myself ... hihihi).
Well to give you an update: I was alone at home for almost 3 weeks in februari because DH went to New Zealand, playing a Tattoo in Rotorua and some concerts around the northern island. In those weeks I planned my scedule completely, I knew I was going to miss him very much and that kept me busy! I worked during the KKD (with 7 Gypsies) and shared a room with Agitte, which was so much fun, old days happened again! We had dinner together on sundaynight, finally having time to catch up on eachothers lifes, and ofcourse a lot to laugh!!! One little story: I gave Agitte a bunch of flowers (that stood at the entrance) and said : "I luv' U", Agitte fell on her knees and asked me: "will U marrie me?"... Imagine how people looked at us ... we had a blast!!!! We went of to the hotelroom kicked out our shoes and dropped on the bed, still yapping around... at 1 o'clock we went asleep. The next day we had a great day again demonstrating for store-owners. Tim Holtz was there too, we didn't see much of him because his booth was crowded with women...and we only got to see their behinds ! Agitte and I had a wonderful time and I thank her for being my friend!
Also demonstrating in the 'scrapbooklane' were: Lydia Visser, Corinne Delis and Birgit Koopsen and they all made beautiful samples.

Last week I was busy making an article for a scrapbookmagazine.......can't show our tell more but as soon as it is published I'll show!!

Okay....hubby is home and wantto chat with me, so I am off. Try to post again tomorrow!
Take care!

Hooked ....

2008-01-17T09:52:00.000+01:00

Birgit Koopsen hosted a Secret Santa Swap last year (2007). It was the first time I attended a swap like that. It was sooooo much fun!

My secret santa sister was Anja from Dresden. She did a great job by surprising me with a great Santa gift .... which I had to store under the X-mas tree for 18 (yes....eightteen !!!) days !!!! Can you imagine looking at a gift for soooo long and not getting to touch it ?!"#?$@But finally at christmas I got to open the present and this is what she packed for me:

THANKS Anja it was a great gift asspecial the mini book you made me !!!

Since a few weeks I am totally hooked on the hot chocolate of Chocomel. I bought the starterskit to make the drink with my senseo-coffeemachine, and now I am hooked!!! Getting the refills is really a problem but until now a manage to have 1 cup each day, which is the LIMIT for me (still 'Sonja'-ing but this is my treat for the day).
When I visited Anita last week, I bought the starterskit and refills for her as a gift, and now she is totally addicted as you can read here. Anita showed me how you really should drink hot chocolate..... with whipped cream and ......marshmellows on top! Because we couldn't find marshmellows, she bought a bag of little 'party-spekkies'. Cut 3 spekkies in small pieces and lay them on top of your chocolate with cream and wonder of to ............ cloud number ?

This is it for today, I am of to visit my friend Cora who is in the hospital with meningitis. Luckely she is doing better so she can have visitors now. We truely hope she will be alright with no consequences left.
So, if you have positive vibs left, sent them to Cora!

Take care!

I am BACK !

2008-01-15T15:10:00.000+01:00

It was sooooooooooo necesary ... My eyes were half way closed, couldn't open them without raising my eyebrows. The last couple of years I had this 'dark look' and had often headaches which didn't make me a happy at all. There was no nead of puttinf eye make-up on, because nobody would notice that I was wearing it. Only a big smach of mascara so that would keep my a little more 'open'. It looked like this:

One of the last days of 2007 the eyesurgeon operated me on both eyelids and lifted them. He took 2 cm skin away and some fat ....... I said that I wanted to 'donate' some more fat (from different area's) but he wasn't certified for that, hmmmmmmmm too bat.

I looked like this for a couple of days:

Look what they made of me:

I am soooooo happy with the results, can you imagine? It is only 18 days ago and already I can show off my new me!

With Christmas DH gave me a certificate to buy some new eye make-up when the operation was done :

This morning I went to 'Parmuferie Douglas' and bought some new eye make-up. I had a good advice and they gave me a 'make over' as a treat!
And I felt treated!

Now I am all new and looking forward to the new year, which (I hope) brings me lots of work in the scrapbook business. I was already invited to work during the KKD (Knallende Kars Dagen) and I am going to work with 7 Gypsies (Yeeeeehaaaaaaaa). I love that brand and it is so ME to do heritage and vintage. They sent me two big boxes full of (old and) new supllies, every single minute is scrapping now!

I took a one-day-a-week job at Primera, which is a store that sells sigarettes, magazines, cards, books etc. It is fun to work with different people and have to go outdoors to do so.

I am one happy chick!

Talk later... and

TAKE CARE!!!

..... 2008

2008-01-05T11:07:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody ! I am not going to appologize for being a bad blogger (you wouldn't believe me anymore), I am just going to tell what happened and make a new start in 2008, if that's OK with you :-) ........

We had a great december-2007 (allthough I suffered the flu):
* dinner at Cor & Henny's on 'Sinterklaasavond'
* being 'assistant' of a proffessional photographer when Peggy & Sebastiaan where 'shoot'
* was so happy putting up our X-mas tree with all the memorie-decorations we have
* start my new job
* went to the (Hour of Power) Christmascelebration at the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam with my Tante Pietertje and her 2 daughters
* made a 7 course christmas-dinner for 6 wonderful guests, together with DH
* had a family christmas day on the 26st at my Sis and Pajan and all their (grand-)kids
* had my eyes lifted ...

That is the end of my year in a nutshell....

Starting the new year of 2008 by :

WISHING YOU: ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR YEAR BEAUTIFUL TO YOU ! ! !

Talk to you soon.
Take care !

DH got a ..... YES!

2007-11-16T10:32:00.000+01:00

Finally he's got it ...... his diploma ! Two weeks ago he didn't pass the exame and today he passed it with an A. I am so happy for him, you can imagine :-). He was very nervous the first time and the second time wasn't less ...... So, this morning I was running around my house, being busy doing nothing.... but now the tension is of my back and I am going to pack for the anual Alliance weekend away!

Six lovely girls in a bungalow in the woods with food (!), drinks (!), snacks (!!). new pj's :-), gala-outfits(!), photocamera's and lots, I mean LOTS of scrapbooksupplies (!!!!!). Last year we all brought our supplies (read: our intiar scrapbookrooms) so this year we are going to take less boxes (as we said .........). I am wondering what LESS means to all of us .......

Monday I'll be back and I'll tell you all about it then.
Soooooooo excited, soooooooooo looking forward to this it's like I am going on a schooltrip .....

Daniëlle, Corinne, Anita, Birgit and Kirsty here I come!!

Take care!!!

Port of Holland (Hoek van Holland)

2007-11-12T11:24:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to the Port of Holland to see if the Nortsea was still 'angry' at the beach..... :

as you can see it was furious!

The weather was cold and very windy (as you can expect) we could lean into the wind... A great afternoon spent in natur's glory!

Last week I guestparented Femke again. I picked her up at school and her respons on my new hairdo (color is darker) was: "Why do you have THIS hair???" On which I asked if she likes it, she reponded: "I find it stupid (stom)" ..... Well as long as she is honest, I think I have to accept :-)

She is getting used to the thursday's Tante Bonnette is joining her and finds it fun 'doing things together'. We had a great time baking 'pepernoten' :

Femke making dough .................... Doesn't it look yummie ???

Later (when the pepernoten were ready) Femke decided to give some pepernoten away to the neighbours (everyone 2 .... ), save some for the 'juffies' at school (teachers) for tomorrow, save some for mommy and daddy but have to give 2 away to Eline's 'juffies' (at kindergarden). So when we picked up Eline, Femke ran into the room screeming "I backed pepernoten myself" !!!

Eline gave us her most beautiful smile when we walked in and she was happy to go home with us. Lately she is very into posing for the camera so that left me with these:

Isn't she beautiful?

Next weekend I am going to scrap at the Alliance anual scrap-weekend-away (friday till monday)with 5 scrapgirls, all away from home and being ourselves (not being a wife, mom, sitter, cook, or whatever 'normal' life is expecting from us) ..... so looking forward to it ! ! !

Okay I am off to prep some kits and organize what I 'HAVE TO' bring ........

Take CARE!!!

Today ...

2007-11-06T10:15:00.000+01:00

I promissed yesterday to blog but suddenly I was feeling sick ... my hole bodysystem was running ... so I spend most of the day in the bathroom and in bed. This morning I felt better so here I am ...

I have been working for 3 days during the KreaDoe in Utrecht last week, at the booth of Dolls & Decorations. It is always fun to work at such a large show and with the people in the booth.
I treated myself with the QuicKutz Silhouette ... just installed it and now I have to figure out where to place it (near the computer ofcourse but there are a few other machines attached and the cords are not long enough...).

I have been in a episode of CreaTieV on SBS6 tv and a lot of people respond to that on email and during the KreaDoe. Great to hear that people liked me on tv (but were they objective ???) and even some girls saw that I lost weight :-). Eleven kilo's are gone, another 4 to 5 to go...
It's fun to go shopping at see that I lost two sizes ........ !

I want to pick up HSMS again and I have to be very creative for the workshops I give at Hobby van Eijk in Vianen. So I leave you with:

Take Care!!

sorry sorry sorry....

2007-11-05T11:56:00.000+01:00

I have been soooooo busy and (again) blogging was gone on my priority list .......
But......
From today .... I promiss I will be back on blogging my daily life! I'll go and get my act together and will blog tonight to let you know what has happened over the last couple of weeks......

Talk soon and:
Take CARE!

Real quick ...

2007-09-20T10:12:00.000+02:00

I wanted to close the curtains yesterday ... see what happened : ..............today prompt at HSMS...........

Break
To seperate into pieces. Show us 'break' in your space today

Does: 'break' in my space yesterday, count???

It was such a cute pot ..... rip...

My course yesterday was nothing more then I already knew but the teacher said that he is going to learn us things in the coming weeks...... I will keep faith....... :-)

That's it for today..... going to'guestparent' this afternoon (and tonight babysitting) so I leave you with:
Take Care!!!

Need to ...

2007-09-19T13:15:00.000+02:00

catch up with HSMS . It has been a few days that I didn't have time to write and when I had I missed the spirit (know that feeling?). Today I pushed myself to : GO, DO IT !!!

Curious
Eager to know or learn.

Find 'curious' in your space today

This is Eline, curious what's that
'red thing' doing there... and ....what
can I do with it.....?

Tweezers
An instrument for picking up small objects. Find tweezers in your space today

You know this one belongs in my beautycase ...

SPS
It's here again...i know youve all been itching to do it ;)

Yeah, yeah itching... before I had the right spot to make a self portrait, this little fellow made his web.....just infront of my face :-)

Hang
To suspend, be suspended or dangle.Show us 'hang' in your space today

I bought this multiple card holder some

time ago and customized it with MDF-letters

which say: Life is Great!

Quirky
Something characterised by the peculiar or unexpected.
Find something 'quirky' today in your space

This is the most 'quirkiest' I could find in my space ...

(what the hack is quirky, Kirsty??)

That was a h*** of a job catching up. Glad I've done it.

Now it's time to catch up with all the other girls who probably made fabulous shots...

Tonight I am going to attend my first Photoshop course ... eager to see what they are going to teach me. I want to play around with Photoshop for ages but couldn't figure it out myself (who can ???). So, tonight Doritha and I are going to start unwrapping the mysteries of photoshop.....

Tomorrow I will be guestparenting Femke again, who now is OK with me picking her up at school and taking care of her. When I left last week she said: 'Tot volgende week !' Which means: see you next week!

This week no workshops, so I can scrapbook for myself (and ofcourse do some prep for coming ws).

As always I'll leave you with:

Take Care!!!

Finally ...

2007-09-12T11:03:00.000+02:00

I can show you want I do like most ... thanks to HSMS!!

Kiss
AKA: Pucker up, swap spit, snog, tonsil tickling (tee hee). A show of affection by means of mouth to mouth contact. Go on, give us a kiss!

I confess: I cheat this one ... It was taken on our 25th anniversary (3 years ago) just before we arrived at our country and western (dance-)evening. We had a great weekend in the east of Holland with 40 of our dearest family and friends.

Have to go real quick now so ... I'll leave you with:
Take care and KISS!!

early bird (just today...)

2007-09-11T09:27:00.000+02:00

Yes, I am early this morning, I don't know why but I am haha! I liked my day yesterday, did a lot of scrapping and played with Gesso..... even managed to make my own banner for "Jump into the unknown" (thought you had to have brains for that but ..... this was so easy.....!!)

This LO is all about my wrinkles..... The journaling is in dutch, the translation is:

Yes, yes ... my face in showing my wrinkles .....Every wrinkle made me wizer although the kid in me still speaks up!!!
Luckely I have NEVER suffered any serious illness, and I have never spend a night in the hospital.
MY LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

Then I played with Gesso, new (and old) stamps, dabbers (sóóó love them) and a couple of cute pictures of Femke:

Todays prompt at HSMS is:

Print
To produce in large quantities by mechanical process. Find 'print' in your space today.

Well....that was an easy one ..... I walked down the stairs and there it was : PRINT in my space!

Yes, we are lucky the paper arrives IN the house... we don't have to get out and get it on our frontlawn (that is only 3 meters long :-).

Talk to yu'all tomorrow !
Take Care!!!

Catchin'up ...

2007-09-10T12:25:00.000+02:00

We had a blast fridaynight with the Blue Man Group! My DH 'managed' to get us tickets on the 5th row. That was the last row that was supplied with (plastic) raincoats... I was happy that we were NOT on row 6 (haha) ... The first half an hour I sat down with my mouth open ... so amazed by the performance! I cannot tell what we saw because it was soooooo much ... the only thing I can say: "if you have the opportunity to see one of their shows, GO ... it is somuch FUN".

Saturday I went to Dolls & Decorations my favourite scrapbookstore! Had a nice talk with (the owner) Petra, helped some customers out with choosing "scrapstuff" and went home with some 'goodies'. When I came home I sat down and played with my new paper(s) will show tomorrow!

Sunday I had to work ... teaching 20 ladies how to use stamps in their scrapbookalbum. A lot of talking & teaching, everybody went home inspired by this class, so I went home happy!
DH made dinner which was great (we're on a diet and we ate fries, steak and salads....yummie).

So ..... that brings me to today : Have to catch up with HSMS.

Selfportrait saturday brings you this shot:

Still holding the camera myself ... have to go practice to make pics with using the tripod :-)

Well ..... sunday...... hmmmmm
SOS : 3
Show Off Sunday !!!Show us the best of your shots :)

I don't know if this is the best picture ever ... but I am sóóó proud of this XXL-Hibiscus ('winterhardy') in my garden, that I really what to show-off with it:

You might ask what this toothpick is doing there ... it is to show-off how BIG this flower is. The ruler is in cm ...... No,no: no inches haha!!

Today the HSMS prompt is:

Cake
A soft, sweet food. Find 'cake' in your space today.....

... and that is FORBIDDEN in my house lately because of the dieting we're on! It is really going well since we don't buy all the good stuff (read: creams, chips, cheeses, etc.) anymore and just stick to the healthy foods! DH lost 11 kg and I lost almost (!!) 7 kg. But.......

I managed to find CAKE in my space today:

Going to be creative today ..... I will leave you with:
Take Care!

**edit** fiddled around with blogtemplate ...whatcha think better???worse??

Went on my bike to ...

2007-09-07T16:02:00.001+02:00

make a picture for today's prompt at HSMS :

Talk
To converse or communicate. Show us 'talk' in your space today.

Since I was 'home alone' all day there was no talk in my space ... I had to go out to make a shot...:

I went to the market which is every friday afternoon and saw (and heared) a lot of people 'talk', A mom with her little son, a husband and wife, two friends meeting spontaniously, mothers and daughters etc. When they saw me with my camera ..... there was a box full of quotationmarks above their heads...(who wouldn't ?). So a thanks to Anita and Kirsty for getting me of my b** and on my bike and gave me the excersize I so needed :-)

Tonight is going to be a great night (I hope) because my DH bought us tickets for the Blue Man Group ... we're on row 5 ... I heared that is NOT the comfort zone .... have to wear rainjackets....it is going to be some experience .....

No need of doing my hair, wear special clothing so I am going as ME and enjoy a special night with my darling!

I'll tell you tomorrow how it was ........

Leaving you with:

Take care!

Today will be a special day...

2007-09-06T13:26:00.000+02:00

because I am going to be 'guestparent' to my 4-year-old (grant)niece Femke. She is the daughter of my niece Marjolein and every thursday afternoon I am going to pickup Femke from school. I am very excited to be part of her life by spending weekly one afternoon with her. This afternoon she wants to go to the 'hertjes' (deer) to feet them some bread. Then around 5 we are going to pickup her sister Eline and play a little till mommy and daddy come home from work!

I'll let you know what my experience will be.......

Today's HSMS:

Feast
A large meal or a plentiful supply, show us 'feast' in your space today.

Well.... in our household that is going to be a problem because we're on a diet (hihi) but I managed to make this shot of our dinner for tonight (I had to prepare it in advance because my DH works the nightshift and wanted to take dinner with him)

I'll leave you with lots of thanks for visiting my blog (I love all the comments) ans as always:

Take care!

EDIT:

Just came home from my first 'experience' as a 'guestparent'..... Femke ate all of her lunch today (she didn't eat her sandwiches the days before) and got this for it:

I am proud she managed to eat it all!! The rest of the afternoon was all about "trying out Tante Bonnette". Want this, don't want it, do this, I don't want you to do this etc. etc. At the end (when mommy and daddy came home) she said she had a great day! I hope that involves the afternoon with me ...............

Being creative today ...

2007-09-05T12:02:00.000+02:00

This is soooo much FUN ... I am being creative for myself today. I always make lay-outs, minibooks etc. for workshops and (almost) never make something for ME.

Today I picked up my dabbers, posca pens and funny pictures and let the creative juices flowing ........

HSMS was really a challenge, but I took this shot for today's prompt,
Hold To grasp, carry or support with your hands

I've been grasped ... by little niece Eline !

I am going to be creative again and leave you with:

Take care!

thinking of ...

2007-09-04T09:45:00.000+02:00

Thinking of us while you are on vacation, sending us a postcard (from all over the world) suits todays prompt at HSMS:

Thoughtful; Absorbed in or involving thought .

Take care !

Did what I had to do....

2007-09-03T19:40:00.000+02:00

This morning I got it : energy to clean out my scraproom ! So I did...

It was on my back for months now and I couldn't get to it. Every day it bugged me and now it is (almost) done, I am a happy kid (and so proud I did it... while I had to do it so long ago :-)...you know that feeling?). Have to clean the windows, vacume the room and tidy up a little bit more and then it's ready to be photographed and to welcome others (then me).

Today's HSMS prompt is: Fall, to move downwards rapidly.

I think I have to cheat this time because I have this picture from last january, it happened in my backgarden:

It is not the most perfect picture, but the experience we had ... was enormous (so was the tree :-). It was an huge pinetree which was grown way to high for a cityhome backgarden. The firefighters had to come to chop it into pieces, the neighbourhood was all exited (so were we...)

Well I'll leave you with (as always):

Take care!

Sunny ..... Sunday!

2007-09-02T12:57:00.000+02:00

This is my contribution to HSMS 'Showing of Sunday'. I so like this picture it shows serenity, love, comfort, protection, bonding ...

What do YOU see in this picture of Madelons hand and the foot of her 20 hours old sister Daphne ?

Yesterday I had a nice day promoting my workshops in Vianen. Many people came by to see what we offer in fall and several workshops are booked, so we're back at work!!

I'll leave you with a few pics of my 'table' yesterday ...

Well .... it's still sunny outside and my DH put my sunbed in the garden so I am off. Will check in tonight again!

Take care!!

after a hard days work ...

2007-09-01T19:26:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note to show you what I did for HSMS on Self Portrait Saturday ...

Not as beautiful as Anita's and Kirsty's but hé ..... you can count every wrinkle (which they don't have :-) ...

Have a great saturday evening and

Take care!!

Great wheather for being creative ...

2007-08-31T15:19:00.000+02:00

Today is a 'gray-sky-day' no rain, no shine....nothing, so good wheather to do some scrapbooking. I finished some LO's and a minibook for my workshops at Van Eijk in Vianen. Tomorrow will be a demonstration day, where I show my ideas for fall workshops. So I had to finish several projects ... pfffffttt. Now I have to prepare my demotable with al kinds of stuff.

I wanted to have a break and looked at HSMS what Anita and Kirsty came up with today ...

Hahaha the word is 'Chew'. I was wondering if I could ask my DH to model for me with his mouth full, chewing but unelse I want to have a misserable weekend I better NOT ask. So I had to be creative (well....that's what HSMS is all about isn't it?). I took a piece of chew(!)ing gum (helps me during my weightlost program...) and it hitted me :

Chew
To bite and grind with the teeth.

It took me a while to get the camera in the right settings but this came out...

I hope I have enough time tonight to scan my projects and put them up but if not, I promiss to show you later this weekend (probably sunday).

Okay, I am off doing some housework, groceries, cooking and preparing tomorrow!

Wish you all a happy weekend with lots of sunshine (if only in your hearts)!

Take care!

Dish . . . ?

2007-08-30T10:51:00.000+02:00

HSMS today says : Dish : A shallow bowl or radio antenna. Find 'dish' in your space. Okay, dishes enough in the house... but this is a special one:

I got this for my 'birth'day in 1956 (back then nobody ever heard of radio antenna dishes hihi). I ate from this dish till I was old enough to go to highschool (I think). My mom didn't want to throw it away and she gave it to me when I got married (loooooooong time agoooooo). I didn't know why I kept it, since we don't have kids but today I now why I kept it (thanks to HSMS). It is on a picture now, só ready to get scrapbooked!!

Now we eat from different dishes (:-). Sunday's (X-mas etc) dishes are made by Wedgwood and called 'Edme plain'.

During weekdays we eat from these bright colored dishes.
Since we are not the kind of people who throw dishes at eachother (!!!) and we never drop them, they are still around for 10 years now...
They 'heard' a lot of stories ... every day at dinner we talk about our days (no, not me and the dishes....My DH and I!!)

Okay enough of the dishes ... going back to work again and see what creative thing(s??) come out of me today ...

The projects I was talking about yesterday is not ready yet but asap I'll show it!

Have a great day and...

take care!

The sun is shining...again

2007-08-29T13:16:00.000+02:00

Today I feel much better then yesterday. With help from very special people around me, I made a decision that is going to change my attitude towards work. I decide that I am going to enjoy my freelance work more then I did for the last year. I was demanded to be creative in a way that wasn't mine and in the future I am only going to create that what I think is going to be ME !
I still think that scrapbooking is all about the story behind the picture, so journaling is more important on a lay-out then art. I will keep teaching scrapbooking in combination with journaling and let everybody tell their stories!
I start with this:

Today on HSMS is :
Cloud
A mass of water vapour. Show us 'cloud' in your space today.

This morning I opened the blog and looked at the word and directly to the sky ...... OOooohhh NOOooo ! No clouds today!

What a disappointment was for me was for everybody else a releaf (haha). I made myself a cup of coffee, wondered how to get a cloud on my SLR today, had a call with my friend Anita and all of a sudden : YYyyyeeesss ... Clouds!

So I took my camera and went to a nearby village and took this great sho, at least I am very cloud euhm proud of it!

Now you know what I mean with journaling .....

This afternoon I am going to be creative in my OWN way and I will show you later what I did...

In the mean time I wish you all a very sunny day and okay 1 cloud (to make a picture of).

Take care!

Can not resist adding this one:

August 28th

2007-08-28T12:30:00.000+02:00

has been a special day all my life, at least the first 43 year of it.

It is the day my mom was born in 1922. In september 1999 she past away leaving me with good memories. Although I do miss her, I never regret her passing away because she was sick for several years and did her very best to stay as long as she could. Every life has its end ...

I know she is watching us (living our life) from above, sitting on her special cloud together with my dad(who passed away in august 1963).

Well ... life goes on and as I mentioned yesterday: I am joining Her Space, My Space (HSMS) and the today's picture has (something) to do with 'Apple',

so I was almost on my bike to go

to the supermarket to make a picture

of a stash of apple when I remembered

the Applesirop I have in my cubbards ...

so ..... here you go !

Want to leave you with good wishes for today and 'talk' again tomorrow !

Take care!

It has been way to long ....

2007-08-27T14:34:00.000+02:00

that I wrote my blog..... appologies for that.
Now summer holidays are over and things are (going) back to normal I (will try) to update my blog more often, hihi.
I heard a lot about my friends 'Her Space My Space' blog and this morning I decided that this is going to be the time to join them. So later today I will show you what I made!
It is a great that Anita and Kirsty take time to inspire everybody with a word a day ... that you can make your photography-subject! Cool!
Well I am going outside to watch the Eneco-tour (cycling) coming by my house ...

Talk later
Take care !

Yes ....... I am still alive !

2007-07-25T21:37:00.000+02:00

It has been a long time since I wrote my blog, not that I had nothing to write but ......... I was sooooo busy doing things that I just forgot to keep this blog up-to-date....

I am sorry when you visit time after time and there was nothing new here, but now I am going to fill you in about ALL the important things that happened in the last 6 weeks......

First of al: my hands are doing much better; no need to wear my braces continuously only when I am sleeping ( although that is a big period of the 24 hrs a day lasts, hihi).

Second: I went to Nova Scotia -canada- to see my DH playing the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in Halifax.

Canada happens to be the country where my sister and BIL with their family live. When I was making arrangements to go there (back in october 2006) I thought it would be nice to meet my family there, so I asked them to come too. Not that I thought of the 2500 (!!) kms they have to drive (fly) to get there ...........

My niece, nephew, their 2 boys and my sister liked the idea so much that they made planes to come. Sister Coreen (who is the 2 boys Oma) took her 2 grandsons by plane to Halifax and dear Leanne and Steve DROVE the hole d... 2500 kms with their camper.

I arrived on saturday June 30 at 10pm with my rental car (a beauty with 44 kms on the meter) at the campground in Hubbards where Leanne and Steve just arrived 15 min earlier. Can you imagine to fly 6000 kms west, the other party drives 2500 kms east and you arrive almost at the same time? WE DID IT !

The next day (sunday) Oma arrived with Carter and Spencer, by plane in Halifax. Everybody was happy to meet again.

We spend a great week together in a cottage in Hubbards Beach, got a few days of rain but planed the in- and outside activities around the wheatherforcast and here again we did a great job :-)

The greatest of all was that we (all 6 of us) saw Oom Henk playing the Tattoo. We were the only family of the dutch band in the audience. We wore neon-light-necklaces so the players could see us in the dark (which they did....)

I had a great time with my family and DH had a good time although he had to work every morning and night.......

I will upload some cool pics later this week..... I got this awsome (300 mm with image stabilizer)lens for my camera (already for my birthday which is in 2 weeks) so be prepared........ haha.

These are the major things I wanted to join with you for now (still taking care of my wrists).....

Till soon... take care!!

gettin' better

2007-06-09T22:53:00.000+02:00

First I want to thank you all for the good wishes to get better.

While wearing the braces for 10 days now...I think (knock on wood) it's helping !!!
I am pleased, although it's like wearing wintergloves with 30 degrees celsius (pffftt), it's still better then surgery. I hope to get some more news next week, about the plan my doctor has when he sees the results of the tests...so I'll wait and see.

I am sooooooo happy with our airco these days ... and wonder how you are doing with the (sticky)heat lately???

I'll be back soon,
take care !!!

It's been a long time ...

2007-06-04T20:14:00.000+02:00

Since I wrote my blog... I am sorry ! I have been taking some time of to rest my hands which are suffering from CTS (carpaal tunnel syndrom). My hands are still not recovered but now I wear braces to afix my wrists and it really helps. I don't want to get an other problem (wrists that are stiff) so I am still working out how/when to wear them (doctors told me to wear them 24 hrs) to get the total profit out of it.

Besides this (health) problem I am OK ! Did a lot of fun things during the last couple of months. Went to the Apenheul to see my 'family' (that was long before Bokito in Rotterdam teached us to be careful with making contact...), watched great sandsculptures in Scheveningen, went to the Libelle-week with my niece Marjolein, had a great day at Dolls&Decorations doing a 'make and take' with POSCA pens (luv'them!) and ofcourse I gave workshops at Hobby Van Eijk and Creatief met Foto's. So have been busy...

May 20st, my nice Berthe gave birth to a beautiful little girl and together with DH Barry they called her Daphne. Within 24 hrs I was there to take some (haha 250 !!) pictures, one of them was put on the birthnotes (you can imagine how proud I was about that !!).

The picture I love most, is where Daphne lays on her mommies arm and hand:

You know who inspired me to take this pic???

I'll be back soon to show some of my new work and to share more news (because there is !!)

Take care, please!

Photography is all I think of these days !

2007-05-01T15:04:00.000+02:00

With the weather so beautiful everything looks so pretty in nature. The blossom in my magnoliatree has never been so pretty and longlasting as this year. We never planted the geraniums (Austrian hanging type) as early as we did this year.

We too, are a little bit out of the normal timescedule ... eating dinner in the garden for already 2 weeks, meat on the bbq every night, no 'time' to clean the house (the weather is too nice to be inside)...

Yesterday was Queensday with a wonderful orange sun (oranjezonnetje). We had (fun)company and DH had to make music with the band, twice. I enjoyed the sun in our garden, the hole day.

For a week I am busy looking through 350 pics I took from Grandma Visser (Zeist) and her 7 grandchildren. Besides that I have to sort out some (150 !!) pictures I took during the Crop-till-you-drop weekend and sent them to all the girls.
So ... I am busy with pictures ... it does not go very smooth because my hands are still sore (specially when I am working a lot...)but hopefully I get it all done by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Well, this is all for now .. gonna give my hands some rest .... (arghhhh)

Take care !

My hands are sore ...

2007-04-18T16:29:00.000+02:00

Since 2 weeks I have terrible sore hands, was not capable of typing so that's why I didn't post! Thru bloodtests we know it's NOT reuma and (as you will understand) that's a relieve!!! What the soreness causes nowbody knows ... it's only guessing till I have an appointment with the neurologist (May). In the mean time I am trying to give my hands some rest ...

Luckely I have my camera which is a lightweight (!!!) and the weather is so beautifull in this time of year. I do a lot of practicing for my photocourse which I am enjoying more every day!

This week we had to choose a picture out of a magazine or paper. I saw this one in Zoom.nl and it intrigated me. I took the challenge of remaking it. I had to do it with a blanc skin man, I didn't have a black beauty for hands.....
DH is taking place as a model...He was soooo sweet to let me get him in the right position, tossing and turning his head, hands and fingers, giving directions to turn his eyes (No, not your head!!! haha).

I am pleased by the result and wondering what my teacher will say tomorrow..... What do you think?

Well, I am off to give my hand some rest (typing is not a good excercise).

Take care!

Happy EASTER everybody !!!

2007-04-07T14:56:00.000+02:00

Easter stands for our door and I love this time of year. When I was a child I also got a new dress and new shoes for Easter. First time I could wear them was on sundaymorning when we walked to the church, I was so proud of being 'all new' and then in church we listened to the minister who told us about the new start we all could make because Jesus died to take our sins away.
New beginnings that's what Easter means for me.
Also nature is 'beginning' around now with lots of fragile flowers in the trees. I love the magnolia and almond blossomtree in our back yard:

Instead of buying new clothes and shoes for Easter (I kept that tradition for all my life) I treated myself with a new lens for my Canon EOS 400D. Yesterday I bought a 50mm 1.8 lens and boy, I am happy with this one. I immediately started playing around with it and it gives me so much joy to work with!!!

I decorated the house with a (porcelain) chicken and eggs and 50 tulips! The tulips have seen all corners of the room because I 'had to' make pictures with my new lens and wanted light doing it's job to my pictures......... :

And this one is to all of you wishing you

Enjoy the coming days and take care!

On my way to : Finding ME !

2007-04-05T14:13:00.000+02:00

Okay .... I am on my way : here is the first spread I made to Corinne's workshop "Finding You".

This wasn't very hard to do because a few years ago I had to do something simular to this and that came out GOOD. The hardest part was choosing paper ;). I didn't use any embellishments because I wanted it to be ME (all done by myself). Ofcourse I bought the paper and pens the rest is handwriting and doodling. I 'had to' (hihi) use my CriCut tho, for the capitals !

Thanks to Birgit who took this beautiful picture in november last year.....

Take care!

Spring !

2007-04-03T10:19:00.000+02:00

This time of year: I LOVE IT ! The warm sun, the beautiful (little) flowers on trees and the bulbs that try to give me asap a range of colors .....

Last week we went to the bulbfields in Lisse and Hillegom and the first field that occured we stopped the car, opened the doors and ........... WHAT A SMELL !!!

Gorgeous hyacints and their fragance came to our eyes and noses .....

For my photography course I have to make pictures every week with an other technique ... it's great to get to know all the buttons on my camera and what they do for me .... Shuttertimes, diafragma etc. have less secrets for me now, but still a few (!!) to get discovered.

My DH went with me and was so patient with me ... he took his Sudoku book and enjoyed himself with it while I was 'playing' with my Canon EOS 400D.

This is my Scrapbookbear which I bought in the US, he didn't know anything about bulbs ..... so we took him :-)

Isn't he CUTE ?

I was at Blokker last week and they have great (felt) flowers ...... I HAD TO buy them :-) and made a quick layout with it for my photography buddy Doritha :

Well, I think this is all for know.

This afternoon I am going to take pics for an article and then working on a deadline!

Take care y''all !!

GREAT NEWS !

2007-03-22T16:13:00.000+01:00

I got GREAT NEWS this morning .....

Norway is getting their first scandinavian scrapbook magazine and .....

I am going to be IN it!

Karan Olson Smith (yes, my 'twin' with the glasses) caught my attention on this magazine and I wrote them right away if they were interested in some of my work and they are!
I am going to be in their first edition: SPRING. I am sooooooooo happy that I needed to tell you right away.

I am also happy for my (Alliance) friend Birgit she is going to be in the new german scrapbook magazine DT,
Corinne is 'doing' France,
Anita is covering the UK together with Kirsty,
so you see we are covering most of Europe with our group :-) !!!

There was a saying (by 'unkown') :

if you join THE ALLIANCE, you get published !!

Well ...... I don't think 'unknown' knew how close the truth was ......

I'll tell you one thing:

we all did it on our own, with our own creativity and courage !!!

So to every one who is going to be published in the near future : GOOD LUCK !!

Take care!

Beginning of SPRING ???

2007-03-21T13:02:00.001+01:00

Today (March 21st) is the day that Spring starts, euhmmm I mean should start ! What a terrible weather it is today nothing about spring at all.
But ... with a bunch of springflowers my room is keeping my springspirit up :-)
Last fridaynight a babysitting event with Femke and Eline turned out to be a real event ..... At the end of the visit (just before mom & dad came to pick them up) Femke became SICK and puked alover me, the couch, plaid and pillows. OMG was she sick , I feld so sorry for her !!! I held her in my arms and rubbed her back to comfort her, but it didn't seem to help.... I am sorry I couldn't take the sickness away. Luckely Femke was OK again the next morning, then her Mom started, sundaymorning my DH was SICK and monday it hitted me! It seems to be a virus that 'cleans' your body and 2 days later you're on your feet again ...

I am really making progress with my photography course. It's fun to try different things with your camera knowing what you are doing !!! One of my favourite pics I took ....

It is Doritha (whom I go to course with) in her backyard.

I am so happy with my Canon EOS 400D... it gives me beautiful colors and REALLY sharpe details. I LOVE IT !! Now wait for good weather and I am outdoors with my cammie :-).

Take care !

Love a mailman with BIG boxes!

2007-03-14T19:51:00.001+01:00

I do love the mailmen ... when they bring BIG boxes. Tonight I just came home from a visit to Luigi's IJssalon, who opened his doors again today and gave away free icecream in a cone. The real handmade italian goodie YUMMIE ! Ofcourse we had to go and see (read: taste) if he improved his good stuff and ........ YES he did! It was again a treat to my mouth, I had one scoop with rum ice and one with all kinds of nuts.... DELICIOUS.

So, when we came home the mailman rings (no, not twice because I ran to the door) and delivered a big box from Magic Mesh, Lake City Minnesota.

I opened the box in a second and there it was:

All different sizes and colors of the great mesh that Karan (read my message earlier today) designed. So if you need any of this for a article (or a workshop), please let me know!

I am of ....... going to play with my new goodies!

Take care!

Where was I ?

2007-03-14T15:28:00.000+01:00

My priority list was gone but luckely I foud it again!!! Oh boy, did I do a lot the last 10 days ... or not? The days are passing by, like the hours in my youth ... Did a lot of fun stuff tho. Had a great visit from my darling niece Marjolein, her dear hubby and their two adorable daughters Femke and Eline. We had great fun eating dinner (made by Domino's Pizza), cuddling the two girls and hearing the wonderful stories of their skiïngvacation in Austria. They showed us a video of 'little'(height 1.05 m) Femke (only 3,5 years) on ski's. If I could be a fly a would have flown over there to see how she experience our love for skiïng. My DH and I went for (over) 25 years to ski in Austria sometimes during summer (on the gletcher) and often in wintertime. We love snow and ski and ofcourse the après-ski! May be next year we can go again ..... who knows.

I did a lot of scrapping lately, what do you think of this one:

This one is about a lady I ran into on the CHA show in Anaheim. She pointed to my limegreen (crop)suitcase and said: 'Where did you get that?" I looked at her and it took my breath away ..... it was like I was looking in a mirror ..... she wore the same glasses as I did ... We were both stunned !
She turned out to be the founder of Magic Mesh : Karan Olson Smith. Since our 'bump-into' we are emailing back and forth, as Karan says : "there is a reason we met, don't you think" and I agree. So we will see what the future has in mind for us!

Last sunday I went to my (photocourse)friend Doritha and we made beautiful pics in her stunning garden .... I'll have to show them later because they are on DVD and my computer doesn't read this.

Last night my canadian sister called to say that she is coming to Halifax (I am going and DH is playing in the band at the Tattoo) too alswell as my niece and family, so we're gonna have a little familyreunion this summer ....

Coming saturday I am hosting a workshop at Van Eijk in Vianen. It's going to be a minibook with wood, paper, fibers, bookrings and so much more. I will show the little book later, when I have finished it (pics must be added).

Take care !

My saturday was WACKY !

2007-03-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

O, did I have a great time yesterday ? YES ... I had a wonderfull day at the Wacky Workshop Weekend in Veghel. At first I attend a workshop by Corinne Delis. We made a beautiful arrowbook (Maya Road). I put pictures in it of the Knox family during 2006:

Then we had a great lunch with all yummie salads and pasta ...
Later I attend a class 'transparancies' taught by Celine Navarro (together with Florence, who had all three workshop with me). It was a technic workshop so we played around with medium and aceton on pictures ... We didn't make any project.
The last workshop was the 'eye-opener' of the day. Boy did I like this one ...Celine inspired me with her freestyle !

She brought my creativity to the MAX!

After a perfect dinner (again salads but now with gorgeous meat and fish ...) with great company Corinne, Birgit and Florence took place right before we went upstairs to the croproom to crop and chat together. There Daniëlle, Mandy and Agitte joined us. I started freestyling again and because I really felt myself a freestyler I took my shawl and put it around my hair so I was a 'Elsie look-a-like' (when she will be a lot older, hahaha). Some girls said that it looked good on me (where they telling the truth or just trying to be nice ??)

Till 10 pm we scrapped and chatted and then I went home (45min drive). As soon as I entered my house I put all my scrapstuff (well, not all because the table is TO small for that) on the table and went balistic again with my signo-pen, black fineliner, paint, paper and a picture ... my creative juices were flowing and flowing. At 1.30am my DH came home and ofcourse I was happy to see him but ...... he could have come a little bit later if I had to say something about it(hahahaha).

Today I had to share this with you and now I am of to do some scrappin'..

Take care!

weekend away ...

2007-02-20T10:51:00.000+01:00

This weekend was a weekend for ME and my (girl)friends. My darling H leaves me the space to do my own thing during the weekend (as long as the goceries are done ;-) so of I went!!!

Spending the day at Anita's with (most of) the alliance girls on saturday:

was as wearing a nice, comfortable, old, wide, fluffy fleece sweater.

The idea was to surprise Anita at her home AND WE DID ! We all brought something to drink and eat : Florence's teriffic carrotcake (thanks to her DH Rutger), Jo-Anne's 'spakenburgse bollen', Danielle & Corinne's delicious sandwiches, Birgit's famous Malthezers and M&M's and my quich. We scrapped all day in Anita's studio, although I didn't bring any scrapsupplies (haha what was I thinking ...) thanks to Anita's 'warehouse of scrapping supplies' I could scrap to.

We had a great day full of talking and 'debating life' and most of all: together we created a smile on Anita's face again, which made me graceful.

I came home to my hubby who was waiting for me with a glass of portwine (yummie), I spend half an hour talking what a great day I had and fell asleep on the couch ... hahaha

The next morning there was a 'pamperingday for DT members' at Dolls & Decorations for which Petra invited me too. NO scrapping but mozaïc was the theme of the day.....

I bought this huch scale at the KreaDoe last year, that I haven't finished... so that became my project for the day:

Petra pampered us during the day with farmers appelcake and lots of other yummie (read: calories) stuff. Natasja made a smaller scale with beautiful blue's and green's, Monique made a pink with yellow butterfly and Petra had a huch scale as well, but she made it with all the pink's, blue's, green's that colors her life!

We had a great day with lots of hilarious talking and laughing. Thank you girls !

I was home in time to eat dinner with my (lonely) DH who said that he enjoyed being alone (???) doing his own thing but glad that I was home again and so was I...

Monday I had a creative day as I haven't had in months ... so girls who are going to attend the workshop at Hobby van Eijk , be aware: we are going to make beautiful pages !!!

Now I am going to see if my creative juices are still moving around and SCRAP ....

Take care!

Happy Valentine

2007-02-14T14:53:00.000+01:00

I am wishing my DH : HAPPY VALENTINES DAY ! Hope you liked your surprise this morning, dearest ...
And thanks for you lovely present ... (which was a small heartshaped cookie).
It is the smallest things that you do, that makes me feel loved. But never, I say NEVER, quit doing the BIGGEST things, that you do daily, to make me feel loved!!!
Come home save tonight and be my valentine the rest of the YEAR!

Love ya ...

Take care!

Honey ... I am home !!!

2007-02-05T15:39:00.000+01:00

Yes, I made it ! I am home again from a great trip to Anaheim (Los Angeles-California).
Thanks to everybody who left a comment on my blog when I was away! It was fun reading your comments....
I unpacked my suitcases (yes two ... little overweight but hey, who counts the lbs???) and now am have to go thru all the stuff I picked up ... hard to do :-) ahum...

I flew into Schiphol around 9.00 sundaymorning and Henk was waiting at the doors... great to hold him in my arms again! We drank a real DUTCH coffee at the DeliFrance at Schiphol with Petra, her hubby and her son and then we went HOME.
Lady (our cat) was purring when she saw me again and that made me even more happy to come home. Henk unwrapped the presents that I took and yeeeaaaaaahhh the christmas ornaments I bought, were still in one piece, hurray!
In the afternoon I took a nap for 2 hrs and then Henk made me dinner: 'boerenkool met worst'. After a week of burgers, fried shrimps, bagels, pancakes, tuna- and clubsandwiches all with chips and/or frence fries, it was great to eat a real meal again!!!
I went to sleep at 10:00 pm and woke up at 09:00 am and had a terrific sleep on my waterbed!
I talked to some friends and family on the phone and now I am back to do wat I am suppost to do... thinking what we'll have for dinner...
The jetlag is not getting to me yet, so hope it will leave me alone this time!!

We (Petra and me) had a great time. We saw lots of new stuff (not sooo REnewing). Every manufacturer has flowers now and it's all bohemian or freestyle. But it was inspirational and I hope to show you some in the near future.
We enjoyed staying together in Anaheim and we loved our times at Starbucks !!!

I am off doing my job as a housewife ..... (which I missed doing : NOT) and talk to y'all later and share pics!!

Take care!

Mickey and me...

2007-02-02T06:47:00.000+01:00

Oh, we had a great day today, walked a hundred miles (no feet left) and saw so many beautiful things. I met Dagobert Duck and he gave me money (or was I dreaming ???)

And I met Mickey.....
cute couple hè?

A want to tell you so much more but my eyes are calling it 'closing time' so I'll tell all about it when I am home.
Just an other day to go, pack our suitcases and saturdaymorning at 4:00 !!!! we'll be picked up to go to the airport. I guess this is going to be it whilest saying in LA.

Talk to y'all when I am home!

Take care!

My feet are killing me !!!!

2007-02-01T02:45:00.000+01:00

They are, really!!! The walking we did yesterday evening .... and 4 days at the show it's no good for those ends of my legs...
Yesterday evening we wanted to go to Disney downtown. Okay we did ut on our walkingboots and started walking.... What we didnt know': we took the 'longcut' instead of the shortcut, but it was the walk worth while. We ended up in disney downtown with all beautiful stores (great prices too !!) first we went to the Build-n-bear store, Petra had to buy a new suit for her boy's (Robin) bear....he gonna love it (don't tell you, you never know who is 'listening'). Ofcourse I fell in love there too (NOT gonna tell you now, but eventually you'll get to know).
We walked home and 'we had to buy ourselves some dinner. We were so excausted that we just bought some donuts and took that for dinner......

Today was the last day of the show. We got some really nice prices (people didn't wantto bring home) and in the afternoon we went to Michael's. We had to stop at the cassier hahahaha.
Now we're of for dinner... hope y'all have a nice day at work while we sleep......

Take care !!

Half a day to go

2007-01-31T01:46:00.000+01:00

OMG ... time flies when your having FUN! An other day is gone by and we walked the show again (3rd time). Still we see new things and Petra is still buying (yummie stuff).
Today I took time to do some make&takes: I worked with alcoholink, did a tagbook at K&Company, made a great standing-up book with Inkadinka doo, talked to some manufactors to work with their products ... So you never know how a cow catch a haze.... haha!

Yesterday evening I had it....I layed on my bed watching some TV (07:30 pm) and next thing I knew, Petra said to me:"wake up you have to go to bed........." Boy, was I nice company.....

This morning I was OK again. Tomorrow is the last hours of the show, we'll go and see what the (sales)people don't want to take home.....
In the afternoon we are going to do some scrapshopping in the neighbourhood with Marcia and Miranda, Petra and me.

Thursday is going to be Disney-day...... (when we keep our schedule......)

Take care!!

and the winner is ...

2007-01-30T02:04:00.000+01:00

BONNETTE, you won clearstamps, body butter (;LK%$#), lipbalm and a coupon of SassaFrass ...... YEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!

Anybody who ever experienced a drawing in the US knows how crazy women can screem when they won something..... I just called out loud: JA ! I picked up my price and was very happy.

"Okay", the drawinggirl said"the next price"....... "326601" again I heared somebody in the croud saying "JA" and yezzzz is was PETRA !!!! Hahahahaha, we both got the same price!!!

We had a great day at the show, again Petra put her creddie in the dangerzone.....

I did well...

Yesterday I bought a nice piece of equipment (show you when it gets there) and the bonus was: a PINK cropsuitcase.
Petra was desperate to get a pink one, so she put a big order in and got a limegreen one so we tossed !!!!
You can imagine how I was PLEASED !!!! YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA !!!!

Today I walked the show with my suitcase, red pants, green shirt, green shoes and green glasses with red accents..... Numberless times I got the comment that I was really 'in color' and : "where did you buy these glasses" and "OOOOOO you're so in color".... It made my day !!!

If you want to see what Petra bought, just go to http://scrapbookpapier.nl/mb/album_cat.php?cat_id=35.

Well I am going to finish my glass of 'JD' and then we're of to dinner. Petra can choose the location because she kept the floorplan all day with her (she usually looses it after half an hour....). So, it's going to be "Joe's Crapshack" (FISH tonight....).

Thanks for stopping by and ...

TAKE CARE (I do...)

The show is ON ...

2007-01-29T05:16:00.000+01:00

First thing I did this morning (after shower and breakfast): went to the Crystal Cathedral Garden Grove Anaheim -CA-. I was in, when the service took place. I gave Henk a call on my cellphone so he could hear the music in church (so he really knew I was THERE). The music was overwhelming in this big and I mean BIG church. Robert A. Schuller was the pastor this morning. It was a great experience to be there. After the service a checked the security if there was an opportunity for me to meet Robert A. Schuller, telling them I am from Holland and that I have special resons to meet him. Every man I spoke to was willing to hand me over to a next responsable human being and after seeing five (yes 5) people I got the sign to come with the head of security, up to the office of the pastor. Yes, he was willing to meet me......

So here is the proof. . . . . . . . .

I told him the story about my 'Oom Henk' with whom I watched 'Hour of Power' when I visited him and his wife Tante Pia in Canada in their summer residence, several times. My uncle passed away some years ago and he was my dearest uncle. So the service and meeting Robert A. Schuller was more a deja vue with my uncle... you can imagine I was in tears when I came out of the church and called my DH to tell him my story. I am still very impressed with my experience today........

I took a yellow cap to the Convention Centre where the SHOW takes place. I met Petra, we went for lunch and after that we 'did' the show... We saw a lot of new cool stuff, she is still deciding what to buy... on her bed with tons of catalogs, papers and of course a calculator !

Special for my Alliance friends I took this picture in the 'Hambly-joint' ......... it is gorgeous NEW stuff!

Well, this is going to be IT for today, I am suffering from a very bad cold so I am of to bed now, hoping tomorrow I feel a lot better....

Take care !

the eagle has landed...

2007-01-28T03:45:00.000+01:00

The eagle (read: united airlines) has landed in LA. Boy are we happy we made it... It was a long day travelling with stops in Chicago, Denver and last but not least LA !!! We had great flights, good service and lovely sleeps (haha).
When we came in Chicago, my suitcase was lost ... GREAT I didn't have to carry the thing around....
When we landed in LA my "kikker" (lime green suitcase) was already there.
We took the blue van and the driver dropped us at our hotel which is only 0,5 mls from the Convention Centre Anaheim (great choice Petra). We have a good room with two kingsize beds, bathroom, microwave, tv and refridgerator (which we filled up with Pepsi, water, juices and........WINE!!!)
Today we first went to the Convention Centre to pick up our passes and then we visited STARBUCKS (yammie yammie) after that we went to a shoppingmall and viewed Calvin Klein, Emporio Armani, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton and all (quote Petra) their 'friends'. Petra gave her creddie a hartattack and I did 'pretty good' with only buying 'Crocs' and I a new set of (french manicure) nails. When we came 'home' we went to the liquorstore and now we're of to go for dinner.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the SHOW.
At first I am going to the Crystal Cathedral to attend a service of Dr. Robert Schuller (Hour of Power). I am looking forward to that, I dreamed about it since a was a kid of 12 years old... so tomorrow is going to be the day. After that I am going to the Show and later (in the evening) i'll let you know how that was.

Talk to y'all later,

Take care

Finally I have my blog back on my prioritylist ...

2007-01-22T20:51:00.000+01:00

Oh... it is so hard to have my priorities in the right order. It has always been my problem (and probably always will -grin-). I am working hard to keep my list updated but there's always something (-one) trying to be on the first row... Years ago, people (co-workers) told me that I had to be more flexible and trying that my prioritylist is no priority anymore. I'm confused ... have to work out a good balance in this.

I really had a great week:
- thursday I had great company: Anita came and at 09:00 am we were at the kitchentable scrapping... and this is what I made:

She and her DH left late at night (they waited till the stormy weather would calm down) we had a exciting evening .... the firemen came to tear a tree down in our neighbours backyard (I call it "backinch" because the size of our backyard isn't worth the name yard). We took pictures as we were both papperazzi ...

After the firemen brought the tree down, they chopped it and now it's ready to go into the fireplace....

During the weekend I gave a workshop in Heesch (at Creatief met Foto's) and 10 ladies had fun making a distressed minibook with bright colors from Ranger.

Today I went to the hairdressers (Monique) who gave me this new look:

Tomorrow is my last day at home (for this month...) a day to pack my suitcase because friday I am off (together with Petra) to Los Angeles (Anaheim) for the largest hobbyshow in the world. The scrapbookdepartment will be my battlefield for 4 days!

We're gonna take a laptop and since our hotel has wireless internet access I am planning to write my blog over there... so keep an eye on me...!!!

Next time I talk to you I'll be at the other side of the world...how EXCITING!

Take care,

Long time ...

2007-01-15T20:35:00.000+01:00

It's a long time ago I wrote this blog, so I will update you now!
It's been very busy with preparing workshops, giving workshops and all kinds of normal-life-stuff, haha.
I gave 2 great workshops with pictures from New Years eve, fireworks, oliebollen and champagne.
Last saturday there was one workshop (the hole day) with making a lunchbox including a harmonicabook. For the first time I had a attendee of 10 years old... she did a great job, she was very precise cutting the paper and folding it, plus she was very happy with the girlie pinks, greens and oranges..... She came with to aunts (Ada and Els) and boy...if I had aunts like that when I was young, I would have experienced a lot more creativity in my youth!

Yesterday I teached a distressing workshop which was also great, so many happy ladies went home with a minibook of treasures!

Tim turned 1 year old yesterday and we were invited to stay for dinner. His Dad (who is an egyptian) made lots of egyptian food for us and it was delicious!
Tim has a special place in my heart because I was invited to be in the deliveryroom when he was born last year.
I once told his Mom (Katinka) that I wanted to watch a birth so dearly because I never experienced one myself. She is such a graceful friend, so she (and her husband) invited me to join them when she was going into labor.
I was THERE from the beginning to the end and I never had an experience so emotional as that one, it will always be in my heart . . . . .

I'll show you a picture of Tim soon !!!

Take care!

LADY my kittie

2007-01-05T12:24:00.000+01:00

I was 'demanded' to show a picture of our cat 'Lady' so here you are:

Lady came into our lives 13 years ago when she was already 3 years old.
Two days before we had to send our cat Valentijn to catsheaven because he was old en very ill.

We went to the asylum and there in a corner she was... we fell in love with her at first sight! Because she has a (BIG) attitude of a LADY we gave her that name. She is 16 years old now and having a little kidney problem which she gets pills for, besides that she is deaf and that is a bigger problem...
She doesn't hear anything so she does NOT hear herself 'meowing' and now it sound like : MEEEOOAAARRGGGHHHHH...
But she is soooooo cute and we LOVE her!

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Take care

Today I DID IT !!!

2007-01-04T15:50:00.000+01:00

I tried scrapbooking the 'freestyle' way and went completely OVERBOARD!!!
I thought is was NOT my thing but I gave it a try...

When I was halveway I was kind of "mwoah...this could be fun" !
I kept on adding, adding, adding .....
You must know that I am the kind of the scrapper that is very neet; I don't tare much, if I use paint it is always in a 'clean' way and when I use a writer there's a ruler/template.
So, I dared to write without masks(or templates), used Paintdabbers direct on the paper, sand my paper ... scary though !!! BUT I DID IT !!!

Here are the results of my first freestyle LO :

and your votes are ??????

Thanks to Petra who took this great picture of me and Jo-Anne on the Dolls day in Almere (17-12-2006).

Now I am off: need to do some scrapping ... dabbers/writers/cardboard/felt HERE I COME !

Take care !!

2007 starts great !!

2007-01-02T12:31:00.000+01:00

We were invited by Cora and Bert to celebrate the very last hours of 2006 and ofcourse the first hours of 2007, at their place. C&B are our friends since we met in Austria on our skiing trip way back in ..... 1976. We shared weddings, anniversary's, the birth of their boys (Stefan and Frank) the loss of parents (both sides) and thousands of happy occasions like skiing vacations, boattrips (YEZZ they own a boat), birthdays etc. So they are a big part of our 'chozen family group' we call friends!
We shared the evening with Cora's mom (Omi Maaiks), Marja & Bert and their friend Marjan, Frank, Stefan and Martine.
We listened to the Top 2000 on Radio 2 and talked... talked ... talked ... making jokes over any/everything (hahaha), we ate oliebollen which Cora baked herselves
(yammie)

and later that evening we had (yammie 2) salads, cheeses, chickenbits, little spicy meatballs (yammie 3), stuffed eggs: (yammie 4) tomatoes stuffed with shrimps (yammie 5)and a lot more of yammies ....

24:00:00
I kissed my darling Henk with words I am NOT going to share with you!!! hahaha

We drank some champy, shared good wishes with the people in the room and went outside because Frank boughta 'chinese rol' ( a ???thousand cracker)

and we wanted to see and hear.
To bad it rained like h*** but hey ... we had fun.
We were surrounded by beautiful fireworks, lots of colors !!! The most important thing of all: NOBODY was hurt.
When we were all soaking wet we went inside to join Omi (82 years) in drinking champagne.

We went to bed 05:00 and were wakened by the smell of fresh baked bread around 10:30 !! Thanks to Cora for making us feel guests in a 5star hotel!

During the day we travelled around Rotterdam to see family and friends and wish them all a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

At 20:00 we got home and finally sat on our own couch again, with our cat Lady on my lap snorring and licking my hand when I was (only thinking of) stopping to pet her.....

Today DH went to work again and I slept in (oops 10:30 !!) I just had a long chat by telephone with my friend Anita and I hope she finds the courage to deside what's best for her.

Still I am wondering if I undo my house from all the X-mas decoration TODAY or TOMORROW ?

May all your choises become the best ones you ever made!

Talk 2 U soon !

X-mas is gone ...

2006-12-27T13:32:00.000+01:00

Christmas and New year's celebrations are over and yet I want to celebrate more ...
Today I am celebrating LIFE! and I intend to do this for the coming 365 days because I feel blessed with my darling Henk: we are both in good health, still in love with eachother, having a beautiful house that we both call HOME! , both have great jobs, we share a zillion memories (joyful ones and sad ones) and we give eachother space to enjoy life our own way!
We have family we love and 'choosen family' (friends) we love dearly. So ... we have SO MUCH to celebrate every day, but ... are we?
It's always the x-mas season that makes me feel blessed in this life and today I spoke to myself (in the mirror) that from now on I am going to hold on to that feeling during 2007 !!!
I remember my Mom saying (around mothers'day) :"Girl, I rather want you to think of me every day except on mother's day, then remember me only that day!"
This saying is so true, that I turn it into my blessed feeling:
"I am going to treasure my blessed feeling during the hole year except for 1 day and I don't know when or if that day will come! ... "

Wishing all my family and friends that their wishes come true (hey... don't 'overwish' ) !!

Luv ya'll !!!

Merry Christmas everybody .....

2006-12-22T00:26:00.000+01:00

My DH Henk and I want to wish everybody
the most beautiful Christmas you ever had !!!
I'll be back with (I hope) a lot of 'different' X-mas picts in a few days...

Talk to you after the holiday...

In the mean time:
TAKE CARE and have
lots of

J O Y ! ! !

Tree is UP

2006-12-20T12:02:00.000+01:00

YES... we did it... it's up and bringing JOY into our livingroom!

All our vacation memories are in there. As I told you already from every vacation we take a christmas ornament home (instead of all the rubbish they call souvernirs...).

From Las Vegas: From Sydney:

So our tree is filled with all kinds of ornaments (treasures). Every year it takes us a long time to decorate the tree because with unpacking every treasure, our minds go back to a wonderful time in our lives. I can tell you: we have A LOT of them..... and it makes us grateful. We laugh a lot!!
I also have two ornaments which are a memorie to my Mom and Grandmom (Opoe) they always make me smile ...

Tonight is my last workshop for this year, we are going to make a paperbag-book with Basic Grey.
I baked Brownies (thanks to Florence who made me a addict to brownies during our alliance weekend) for the girls tonight, still have to put the icing on... yummie!

**** HO-HO-HO **** HO-HO-HO **** HO-HO-HO ****
TAKE CARE

X-mas greetings

2006-12-14T11:24:00.000+01:00

Oh boy, every day my doormat is full with X-mas cards and do I like it: YES!!!!
So many people who want to wish us well for the christmas season and the coming year...

Like these 4 from Canada:

Carter Knox, 6 years

Spencer Knox, 4 years

Two boys who are the pride of their mom and dad. Mom (Leanne) and Dad (Steven) are related to us through their mom (Coreen), who is my sister and she is married to my favourite brother in law Sjoerd (George). They all live in Dundas-Ont-.

Katelyn, 2,5 years
Drew, 9 months
These two are the pride of their mom (Tracy)and dad (Kevin) who are also related to us trough their 'OMA' and 'OPA'.
They live in St.George -Ont- and are one happy family too!
Great to have relatives overseas because you always have a destination for a vacation!!! hahaha ! My sister and brother in law emigrate in 1968 to Canada and since then I visited them regularly, sometimes for 4 weeks and a few visits for only a few days. It is always great to see them. Last time we saw eachother was in spring 2005 in Canada and the year before they came to Holland to join us in our 25 anniversary weekend, which was great fun!

These pictures I will scrap later(I'll show them when they're ready) because I have so much to do for X-mas .... who doesn't???

I'll be back later this week. In the mean time TAKE CARE!

Busy week !

2006-12-09T15:28:00.000+01:00

Oh boy ... I've been busy this week with Creatief met foto's. Two articles in the next issue so busy with photshoots, creating LO's and 'componing' text, but is was worth the afford. Both articles are ready. When the magazine is ready I'll show you what I made (beginning of Feb'07). Now it's saturday afternoon and finally i make time to write my blog...

Last week we spend a day at the beach ans made some pictures with my new Canon 400D. Oh man ... I am SO happy with it. Even my DH likes to make pictures with thisone (and did a good job).

It was a windy day and we had some little rain but it was nice to let the wind blow trough our minds (and hair). We started with lunch at Grand-Café Westewind : delicious Club-sandwich with smoked salmon and a good cup of Cappuccino!

We walked for several hours along the beach and boulevard of Scheveningen.

We also visited harbour 1 en saw some big ships.

The Greenpeace Artic Sunrise was there to get some painting done. In 'het Haringhuisje' we picked up some haring and a 'zure bom' yammie!

Around 5 pm it was dark and we walked back to the boulevard and sat down for 'pannenkoeken' again: yammie!

Then we drove to my SIS Jenny and her hubby and had a great night talking, just the four of us! We don't do that often and now we promissed eachother to do this on a regular base (Jan when are you calling ???)

I love these people although we are not bonded by blood but we feel more family then if we were! Already looking forward to X-mas when we spend a day together with their hole family (16 in total) !!

Tomorrow we are going to a play called: JOKE. This play is based on a true story, by a policeman's wife. It seems to be a tragic play but I will tell you my experiences when I saw it.

Tomorrow will also be the day that we are going to re-arrange our home into Dickinson's with all our X-mas stuff. It will be nice to hang the ornaments in our tree. We collected a lot of our ornaments on our many trips around the world. This year will be new in our tree: Kangaroo from Australia!!

Next time I'll show some of our ornaments....yehhh even Elton John is there all the way from Las Vegas!!!

Wish you all a great weekend!

Take care!

yammie !

2006-12-02T17:46:00.000+01:00

Ohhhhhh, I tried the CriCut today!!! Don't try this too, you'll be hooked I tell you! It is an amazing machine that has a lot (and I mean A LOT) to offer. (No, I am not sponsored for this ...)

So next thing I have to do = organise a meating between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus so they can split the costs and give me this 'musthave'! Anybody ever tried to get these two people together because I don't know where (how) to start... :-)

As soon I have some used on a LO I'll show you! Have to go now, tonight I am visiting friends and tomorrow we will be having company by Cora and Bert (29 years of friendship). I'll have a great weekend!

Take care!

Minibook is done !

2006-11-26T14:19:00.000+01:00

Finally I figured out how to put pictures of my new camera on the pc! So now I can show you the minibook I made of the wonderful weekend I had with the Allicance girls.

It's a treasure which I keep closeby ....

Yesterday I had a busy day.... After I did the groceries and cleaned our 'mansion' (H helped!) I had to dress up for the Sportgala Lopikerwaard. Our friend Frans is voiceover during the presention of the nominees and we joined his wife Ank. The host of the evening was Hein Vergeer (winner of: Sterren dansen op het IJS, tv-show) and I had the honnor of sitting beside him during the reception ahead of the Gala. I told him that I SMS-ed a lot because I wanted him to win so that he owed me !! He gave me a glass of white wine... :-)
Later that night when the afterparty was heating up, I spoke with Joop van Tellingen (he is a Dutch 'papparazzo') and may be I am going to meet him again soon ... who knows?

We were home late, drank a glass of port together to slow down because the music (bass) was loud and hey ... we are getting older, not much used to the loudness...

This morning I had to get up early for an assignment for Creatief met Foto's (I'll let you know what and why, when I can ...).

Tonight we're going to Daphne's (18th birthday) party. She is such a beautiful girl !!

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY
'NICHTJE' !!!

(hope you like your present !)

Well ... this is all for today. Have a happy sunday !!!

Lazy Thursday

2006-11-23T21:35:00.000+01:00

I am so lazy today... this morning I woke up at 08:00am and heared the rain fall. My (water)bed was soooooo cozy that I turned on my otherside and crowled into my 'dekbed'; an other 15 minutes, I tought....
Next thing I no : it was NOON !!! Hmmmmmmm.....
I ate breakfast and went opstairs to my atelier and began to finish my alliance-weekend-booklet. When it's finished I'll take picts and show it to y'all.
Tonight we had dinner out of the Wok ... I love this food!!! Rice, chinese vegies and chicken and on top a Conimex woksauce ... yammie yammie. Luckely it's H's favourite too, so we enjoyed our meal.
Might be an 'interesting' idea for you too: I cook a kilogram of rice (add a bouillon blocs to it) and suff it away in portions into the freezer. Every time we want rice, I take a portion out and beep-it-up in the microwave (5 min at 700). Great idea I got from a friend.

After dinner a took a nap ... and now I am thinking of going to bed already (21:45) ha ha ha ...
Take care everybody and have a good night sleep!

I might gonna like this ...

2006-11-22T12:58:00.000+01:00

Hi hi hi, I believe I am going to like this blog-stuff. So nice to see all your comments. . .
My workshop yesterday went great.... we made metal embellishments ourselves with metalfolie and nobody ever experienced this technic before so everyone went home happy. After the workshop I picked up H from work. It was his last day there, next month he is starting een new job. In the meantime we have a little (stay-at-home) holiday. We are doing our own things, but having breakfast, coffee, lunch and dinner together is joyful. Maybe next week we'll take a day to go to the beach to make picts :-) !!
This morning I had to make a LO for my workshop tonight, believe it or not but when I view a deadline ........
I deliver my best work.
So you all will be with me tonight while the title of the workshop is :
"A GOOD FRIEND IS BETTER THEN THERAPY" .
I didn't have to search for a good picture, wonder how that comes ???
I love this feltstuff I can't have enough of it. Just talked to H on the phone he is bringing me more from Blokker..... he is soooooo sweet!
Gonna make some lunch for my hubby.
Take care everybody!!!

the second day ...

2006-11-21T16:51:00.000+01:00

I want to thank everybody who gave a comment on the first day I was in the AIR.....
Today I woke up late (09:00 am) and my hubby bought already freshly baked bread at the bakery so I had a wonderful breakfast together with H. (yes I am spoiled ...)
The morning and half of the afternoon went by preparing a workshop for tonight (metal embellishments) and then I HAD TO go to the Xenos and Blokker to get some felt: black, white, orange, lime and pink in strokes and I found the round ones too, so happy with them!!!
Xenos had also very nice red hearts which I bought for a Valentine LO in february (hope that I know were they are by that time :-) ).
Now I am going to give in to my third addiction (As the world turns) together with my second addiction (smoke) and have a nice cup of tea. Then dinner and tonight workshop.
I'll try to put some more on my blog but I need to figure it out first what I want were and why......
Talk to you all tomorrow!

I own a blog now !

2006-11-20T16:24:00.000+01:00

Oops ..... I am a blog owner now !!! My 7 (new) girl friends insisted to make my own blog, so I did. I am grateful that they think my life is important enough to share on the digital highway!
I am going to fiddle around to see what will be the next thing I have to/want to do to make this a pleasant blog to read. Please let me know what you think about it because I am a (little) insecure how I handle this .....