A peek into Daan's Life

My Nanna ~ Mijn Oma

2012-01-10T05:00:00.001+01:00

My nanna (Ali Rosbergen - van der Ende) passed away last friday, she was 89, and we will be saying our goodbye's to her today.

It's hard to be honest I've been numb since friday .... I will miss her, she was the only Oma I had and for the boys it's their first loss to deal with so that's pretty difficult too.

I've had many sweet messages when i told people via FB, and one person said this and I thought it was so true as I did feel that. I hope when I have grandchildren I can make them feel this too, I know my parents make sure my boys do !

Grandpa's and grandma's are special, they are unconditionally proud of their grandchildren and as a grandchild you feel that.

This is a totally spontanious picture a friend took on my wedding day as I was chatting with my oma.

Organizing a household

2012-01-05T10:11:00.002+01:00

So we've been trying hard for the last year to get our house decluttered and more organized and I must say (I haven't thought this for the longest time) but we're making progress. It's a very slow and painfull one you see it's going way to slow for my taste... But even with baby steps we will get there one day.

One of the things that helped us get on track this last year was a menu planner. After using it this past year and me switching to low carb food the planner just wasn't working as it could so we adapted it, made a dry erase version by putting it in a frame and there you have it our menu planner 2.0. If anyone's interested I can email it to you so you can adapt to suit it to your lifestyle.

We also made a home management binder ( I was so inspired with the ones I saw on pinterest) in which every bit of info we could need that is at our fingertips (which would normaly be everywhere and nowhere) . Things like emergency contact numbers, finance info, insurance refund forms, stamps, id & library cards, discount coupons, school information, fave take out menu's, adres list etc.

We also made a new calendar for 2012 ourselves. The family planner that we usually bought changed in format and we didn't like it one bit. We couldn't find one that was similar or if it was that fitted our budget (purchase and shipping costs :( were too much) so again we made one ourselves. It's based on this calendar below (i will show our version as soon as we've assembled it) and if you're interested I can email it to you, again so you can adapt it to suit your lifestyle and family names.

And instead of buying the boys a weekly planner, they will be getting a dry erase version (still in concept) with their chores on it so they can check them off and re-use it the next week. Less paper :) Will share when they are done.

Gwen McCrae Keep The Fire Burning

2012-01-03T01:33:00.000+01:00

22 years and we still keep the fire burning

One little Word

2012-01-01T23:03:00.002+01:00

I am aiming to work hard on my one little word this year, I chose the word EMBRACE.

I want to embrace that I cannot be perfect, embrace that I can let go more and let the flow take me along, embrace my loved ones more, embrace the fun things in life more, embrace the slow proces of decluttering my house (Rome was not built in a day i am told), embrace blogging again (looking at my stats I have been blogging less and less since 2006 when I started), embrace that I have to say NO even if people don't like it (i cannot be friends with everyone), embrace my blog more, embrace my body more, embrace 2012 !

What's your word for 2012 ?

Dutch Dare #85 a Q&A

2011-12-11T22:46:00.001+01:00

I have no clue if there is anyone still reading my blog (leave me a comment if u do ) since I've been slacking in the blogdept bigtime .... ???

I blame facebook, goodreads & pinterest, it's so easy to keep everyone updated with my life through short bursts of info and/or pics there that I forget to update here ....

So there's a big gap between june and november which I will try to update over the next week !

Until then I leave you with my most current layout for the dutch dare of this month, a Q&A that was a lot of fun to work with !

If you like to scrap, please join our dare and show us your work. Who knows you might win a guest dt spot or a fab RAK !

Give away @ the vintage pearl

2011-07-07T17:53:00.003+02:00

Trying my hardest to win a certificate from the vintage pearl, they have a fab giveaway going on, you can win a gift certificate of 75 dollars ! I would <3 to win her messy nest necklace and square names with <3 necklace. I never win give aways so I've got my fingers crossed !

If I could choose again I'd still choose you...

2011-07-03T01:09:00.003+02:00

Happy 22nd anniversary babe !

May update

2011-05-29T22:12:00.011+02:00

Stuff that happened in Daan's life this month (photo & info overload):

Ed finally tried his first cakepop and was surprised he liked it more than my cupcakes .... pffff

Queensday was a bit of a dissapointment, my total score has never been so low; 4 boxes of embroidery floss & 2 tupperware items.... I'm going to Alkmaar next year with Corinne Delis ;)

I went to the Beautician for the first time in years, i used to go every month but since the kids this became less and less. It was only a basic appointment but I definately want to go again and for an extensive one soon !

My paypall account was hacked, that is not a joke people ... It takes all kinds of hassle to get this fixed !

The boys took part in the peanutball school tournament, they won :) Although Ed, who played coach for both their teams, told the boys all games were a draw ;) They loved being the best in their team and sometimes it feels great to rock and show off for your classmates.

I went to the springmarket in Heemstede with my mom, sun was shining, it was fun ! Said hi to Danielle Muit-Krusel who was working there and ran into my friend Leonieke, it was a huge market with a wide variety of stalls.

We gave the garage a good reorganisation, basically it was a lot of trash and putting shelves in to give things a new place; we can finally fit all of our bikes.

We watched a bunch of movies; Toy story 3 (1/2), the hobbit, TRON, transporter 3, SITC 2, Soulmen, the wolfman and Cadillac Records.

We spent the weekend in germany for mom's bday, it was great to spend some time with my aunt & uncle and their kids. We went siteseeing, shopping and had a bbq. Funny thing was that my brother and his girlfriend drove up with us and the kids went a day earlier with my parents, turns outthere's no difference between having them on the backseat or our kids LOL just as quiet ... They really should stop making out in public, but since they're so young & in love and such a cute couple, they're forgiven ....

Colin <3 any kind of school sports activity that is offered so when they asked who wanted to be in the waterpolo schooltournament he couldn't wait and they did real well, they came in 3rd ! there were about 29 teams in their age category (but since Colin skipped a grade he was by far the youngest) so that's awesome ! He was really tired as they started around 18.00 and the last match was @ 22.00 ....

Made a bunch of felt hearts, cause i fell in love with Revlie's forest of felt hearts. Just need to find some time to attach them to sticks to make a forest.....

At 40 years old I still have never been to the Zuiderzeemuseum, so we wanted to do something cultural and took the kids. It was fun, and not so busy so we got a great tour in one of the fishers family homes, the kids got to lie in a bedstead and play some oldfashioned kids games.

The kids had a schooltrip to Archeon, i volunteerd to go along accompanying Colin & a few classmates. We saw almost everything there was and did some fun things like make fire, drink tea from a fire, make pre historic jewelry, repair pots, played a viking game, archery, make a felt bracelet and speer throwing. I gave the kids some extra lunch because the lunch provided wasn't enought and I was the best, according to the kids....

The boys had a day off from school and since Michael was going away for the day so we went out for lunch with Colin at a goatsfarm in Amstelveen, he got to feed them bottles, play a little on the playground and we had a good walk in the woods. But mind you goats are not only cute, playfull and they like to eat your clothes ...

Colin & I both got glasses, Colin needed them for school and watching tv from a distance. Appearantly he has trouble reading beyond 4 mtrs, the letters are distorted to him but he refused to admit it even after tests. He can grow out of it but for now he has a pair at school (orang/black) and a pair at home (green/black). I got mine as I kept getting headaches at work because of my increased computer screen work. Here they are :

We had a spontanious dinner with Michael's bball team, wow that was a big group but we sat all the kids at one table and all the adults at one and it worked out fine @ a wok restaurant.

You know what can really make my day ? When I pipe a perfect rose swirl on a cupcake, makes me smile every time I see the pic

That's it for May folks, sorry for not keeping up weekly updates ...

Scrapping can heal

2011-05-18T10:27:00.003+02:00

I'm making a mini album about my childhood, just scrapping some feelings, memories and sometimes that's just as healing as therapy. This is my second page and I think it's funny that I even dared to put this feeling to paper, but it makes me laugh and it's real !

This page was for the sketch dare over at our dutch dares, for some inspiration come check out the great pages the team made !

This is another page I made a while back but forgot to share, hope you like it, photo's are from a photo shoot from last year (Corinne Delis).

Oh and I also helped my mom make some new cupcakes, but you can find those at my other blog ;)

Scrapped for the Dutch Dares

2011-05-04T19:11:00.001+02:00

More scrapping going on, really happy about my breakdance LO ! All made for the dutch dares blog, some schetches some dares, if you're into scrapping check us out for lots of inspiration ....

I needz me some glasses

2011-04-26T22:56:00.005+02:00

So my frequent headaches that I've been experiencing the over the last 3 months appearantly have to do with my increased computer work over a workday. I need glasses to solve my teeny reading problem (light compensation and cilindric problem).

I went to the optician and took some pics of the options I had

But I just wasn't happy, pricewise and modelwise.

So I went to visit another optician and have some cuter & more affordable options that I really like. Now to make the decision ... Which one do you like best ?

Thanks for helping ;)

Happy Easter !

2011-04-24T10:44:00.002+02:00

I've been feeling creative again :) I'm scrapping, baking and making a cute felt project. Here's my latest cakepop creation ; chicklets cakepops. Have a great Easter weekend everyone !

43 no way

2011-04-13T00:13:00.002+02:00

Yes way, but still as sexy as ever ....

Happy birthday babe !

He doesn't want to have a party :( but we are going out for a celebratory birthday dinner (as per our tradition the birthday boy get's to pick a restaurant) and he didn't want a gift yet, he has his heart set on an original Red Sox jersey so we will buy that when we are in the States.
To make him feel special today, pleas give him some ♥ on his blog or on facebook. Thx !

Recharging scrapchica style

2011-03-21T21:07:00.004+01:00

Since I've been scrapbooking I've met lot's of fun, warm & creative women but with a few I've kept in touch more than others. We'd see each other at scrapworkshops, chat online or get together for an evening every now and to scrap. Yet with so many busy lives we rarely all could make it to a date at the same time.

So last year I decided we should try and solve that so we tried to find a date (www.datumprikker.nl works wonders for that btw), I found a great house near the beach and the waiting game began.

Until this weekend that is :)

We laughed, cried, almost peed in our pants, chatted, created, posed (lot's and lots of great photo's came from this), primped, ate too much, exchanged gifts, cooked, baked, did whatever we wanted, lost sleep and still recharged our batteries.

(photo's by Delis Photography, collage by Marsha)

A weekend that brought each and everyone what they needed whether it was some time to finish things, start things up, experiment a little or just work on a project without being disturbed ... And that's what it's all about, 8 different women connecting and being themselves and everyone being ok with that.

Thanks girls for an amazing weekend, let's do it again next year !

Scrapped with help of a sketch

2011-03-16T20:55:00.004+01:00

My scraproom is not finished by a long shot but I've finally started scrapping again, but it's a slow proces as I'm having a hard time getting into the groove of it but I'm sure it will come easily again.

This sketch was for the dutch dares, check it out and join in if you like as there is a prize involved and you have a chance to be a guestdesigner too.

You make me feel

2011-02-14T06:00:00.001+01:00

I love it when music can speak for me ! Happy Valentine's day Babe !

Finally a tenner / Eindelijk een tientje

2011-01-29T03:13:00.000+01:00

Well that's what he thinks anyway, I'm more in a state of shock that he's 10 already.
He's growing up way too fast, my first little baby boy and I wish I could keep him like he was here.....

But I can't, he has to grow up and be the best he can be and make his dreams come true. And I'm glad we are helping him do that !

One Little Word

2011-01-05T09:50:00.000+01:00

For the dutch dares we decided to start the year off with scrapping our personal word for 2011. This is what I made, it was a rush job so I might dress it up a bit more, what do you think ?

We made our blog all fresh and pwetie so come check us out what and see what the rest of the girls did with their personal words here. Join in if you want, we'd love to see that we've inspired you, and you get the chance to be our guest dt member !

New Year, New Word, New Resolution

2010-12-29T22:31:00.001+01:00

This year my resolution will be to be more joyful, be more crafty, bloggy and more energetic !

But most of all more joy in everything, i think JOY should be my word for 2011

joy will be my word for
joy thinking about the past instead of tears, something I've been dwelling on too much in 2010.....
joy with the guys
joy with friends
joy in life
joy in the everyday
recording the joy
joy @ work

I sorta lost joy for a while, stressing too much about just about everything, one of the downsides in being a controlfreak, and I just didn't have enough joy.

So joy is what I want back again, less stress and more joy ! bring it on 2011 .....

Merry Xmas

2010-12-25T07:00:00.001+01:00

Listen to the lyrics, this is what we are doing today ...

a little update

2010-12-15T08:06:00.003+01:00

I've been really busy baking and purging in my house, so far the purging has been a very very slow process.... the baking has been fun trying out new recipes and the purging wel .... let's face it this stuff has been lying around since before I started my memory lane and it will take a while to get this up to scratch.
And I'm not even talking about scrapbook supplies here. I will have to sort those out too as dh and I are trading places, he gets the cold (smaller but finished and painted) room downstairs and I get the warm (bigger & unfinished) room in the attic. We're both very happy with this deal so we're working very hard to get this done before the new year.

I've also been very busy with the Dutch Dares, looking for some new talent for the dt, promoting ourselves on Facebook and scrapping the dares and sketches, unfortunately not joining in as much as I'd like to.

And we have new Family photo's ! It's hard to say which ones are my favorites since they are all so fab, but here are one of us each and a group photo all made by the fabulous Miss Delis.

So what do you think ?

almost as great as a dance flashmob

2010-11-26T08:35:00.002+01:00

Ok so by now the most of you know I love the dance flashmobs, but this this is tres cool also ....

the welcome home advert by t-mobile ....

A new Blog

2010-11-01T19:05:00.001+01:00

No not another one for me ;) my sweet husband aka Bubbah has started a new blog.
Less about me & scrapping, more about baseball and hopefully he will share his photography skills as well ! Check it out !

The One Book by Dan Zadra and Kobi Yamada

2010-10-22T07:00:00.000+02:00

Lovely words !

I used to scrap

2010-10-13T20:38:00.003+02:00

And I'm doing it again, finally making more time for my hobby's.

Trying to bake something yummy every weekend so I can finally try out some recipes, trying to get back into scrapping and join in the dutch dares team more and making my own birthday cards to send out to friends (hopefully more on time these last few weeks ....) and trying to work out more. Gives me more balance thus happier me :)

Reflections of Motherhood

2010-10-13T08:43:00.001+02:00

We should all reflect a bit more and be less hard on ourselves .....

The Party's over now

2010-09-13T05:28:00.004+02:00

I'm now.

What?! I know crazy ...

And when you reach a certain age you either go in denial or go crazy and celebrate in style, I chose the latter ....

I threw a Tea Party for my friends, I got spoiled, we laughed, chatted and we had a great time it really was a sweet and wonderful day. For those who couldn't make I have photo's (all courtesy of the fab miss delis) so you can see what you missed ;) !

Want to know what I made and see close ups ? Check out my other blog !

Colin's Birthday Party

2010-08-23T21:08:00.005+02:00

It took a while before we really celebrated his birthday (we did this intentionally because everyone was on holiday and we wanted him to have lot's of guests there to celebrate with us) but when we do we go all out ! Spongebob was our theme and I think we rocked it !

A bigger shot of the dessert table & photo wall since I'm so proud of how it turned out (credits : table by me, wall by Ed) !

Sometimes you need a little time

2010-08-07T06:35:00.000+02:00

Time to but read a lot of books (the darkest powers & House of Night series), be ill (twice), make plans for the summer, make plans for redecorating in your home, purging and raise 2 highly intelligent kids. So that's why I needed a little blogbreak somehow I just didn't feel like writing here ...

But we have been doing a lot more than just the above to be honest, never a dull moment in this household.

After getting his B swimming certificate it took Colin only a month to get the final C certificate and that didn't come without a tough injurie because he somehow got a chunck stripped of his little toe and that bled so fiersly he was afraid to go back into the water. So even though he did not do all the necessary required obstacles he did get his certificate ! We were very proud and happy that the lessons (twice a week) were history :)

On May 25th, I started with ear-acupunture and a special diet which basically means no Carbohydrates at all so I could fit into my clothes again, be confident and feel like I did 2 years ago before my car/bike accident & the pleuritis.
The past weeks have nog been tough really, i don't miss a lot of foods but mostly fruits, french fries and potato chips. The great thing about this combination of diet and stimulation is not that I've been losing lot's & lot's of kilo's but lot's and lot's of bodyfat ! So far I've only lost 5 kilo's (3 and I'm @ my goal) but so much fat I could already fit into my clothes after 2,5 kilo's :) Only a few more weeks to go and I'm confident I will find a new balance with my food, weight and gymroutine.

Michael and Colin are doing very well in school, Michael will be going to the next grade (6) and since this will be a grade in which he will be getting lot's of new things to learn, he will have plenty to keep him busy as he already is in an excell program because he is way ahead of the rest. Colin will be skipping a grade and going from 3 to 5 as his level was, at the end of the schoolyear, already at the same level of the 4th graders. We're hoping he will be okay on a social aspect, but his former teacher and new teacher seem to have the utmost confidence as they've never had a student of which they are more sure he will be ok than him. So I'm trusting their judgement and we'll keep a close eye on how he's doing at school and at home. Colin is very excited he's been visiting the class and likes the kids much better than his own class, according to him there are less kids that tease there.

For the last day of school I wanted to do something special for the kids so I made them cookie's for them to bring to school. They turned out ok for my first try, i put them in little bags with labels saying have a great vacation, for Colin it was a goodbye gift in disguise. The teachers, the internal mentor, the head master and the concierge also got a bag of cookies and they were happy surprised.

We took the boys to see a Kiss concert, they thought it was fun to see but it just takes a while before the concert started and usually they can stay up real late but Colin fell asleep at about 9.30 pm and Michael at about 10.00. Don't worry they had earphones in, and they needed them as the opening act was ridiculously loud and nothing at all in the genre of Kiss. It was a good concert and they played really long, well worth the money. We weren't the only ones that took the kids along, there were a whole bunch of them with kiss t-shirts and make up on !

I tried to host a bbq party but unfortunatly it was not a good date i set, lot's of people couldn't make it due to prior engagements but I was dissapointed a tad when a lot of people just didn't respond ... I mean hello I cannot host a party if I don't know wether you're coming or not. I must say I have been a bit dissapointed on more fronts with friends/aquaintances inviting us around for fun stuff, it seems I'm always the initiator and I really should learn from this but it's hard ....
Oh well that's just us I guess, we're not the popular crowd never have been but we are a fun crowd and I'll someday be ok with it, it always takes me more time for things to settle down with me.

Now we're well into our summer vacation (7 weeks for me, 6 weeks for the boys and 3 weeks for Ed) it's been all about Dutch Baseball week, waterguns, sunscreen, geocaching, Movie Park Germany, relaxing at my aunts hotel in Germany, purging, Colin's 7th birthday, sleeping in, volunteer work for a handicap baseball day and getting the house back into a respectable state that has been long overdue for the last let's say uhm 4 years .... And hopefully a visit to the beach before the summer ends as every time it's been beachweather we couldn't go ....

the tale of a boy who finally turned 7

2010-08-03T15:10:00.007+02:00

He's finally 7, been counting the days and reminding everyone the day before (like we could forget) that his birthday was finally close and wanted breakfast in bed but was on the sofa watching tv @ 8.00 (he went back to bed to eat it once we were up LOL).

He's a bubbly little boy, repeats the starts of his sentences numerous times until he knows everyone is listening, is the grouchy one but also the easisest to turn into a smiley one, highly intelligent ahead of his years (which frustrates him more every year as his brother will always be older and thus able to stay up later than him ...), still love watching nick jr., has trouble finding his own friends in the neighbourhood but is never afraid to be assertive in shops or fastfood restaurants when something needs to be asked/returned, has a hard time doing what he's told but if you tell him why he is more accepting, cannot be asked more than 1 chore or else he'll forget the rest, a very polite, easygoing and considerate boy when playing over at afriends house (so somewhere it is getting through whereas we only notice this in him when his brother is away), loves to cuddle you to death all the time to the point it's annoying LOL, is becoming quite the little baseball player getting better every game, can write really neatly for a lefty, hates cleaning up his room but when he does does a reall good job, likes to help getting the laundry done but hates setting or clearing the table, loves goin to bed late but we hate it that you don't know how to sleep in, love eating cereal for breakfast and faced a lot of fears in Movie Park Germany this year ( I have a really good picture I'll share soon of us 4 in the sponge bob ghost chaser rollercoaster) and adores his brother even though he gets upset with him a lot. Life would be a lot duller withouth having you around !

oh my how i am wishing for this

2010-05-12T21:52:00.002+02:00

Love and Laundry

Spring High Tea Party

2010-05-02T19:56:00.000+02:00

This weekend my mother celebrated her birthday, a week earlier because of mothersday, and hosted a high tea for the occasion. Last year I got ill and wasn't able to help her with decorations and baking but this year it all came together perfectly.

Here's an impression

We served lots of green & yellow candy, scones, vanilla & chocolate cupcakes, apple cinnamon muffins, banana bread muffins, mini club sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, chocolate, cookies, strawberries, mini pigs in a blanket and quiches.

A few things went wrong with the scones (they were intentionally smaller but I had a hard time figuring out the baking time and since I was rushing I had to throw quite a few out)and the cupcake toppings (i forgot to bring my mixer along so i didn't think it tasted ok enough but the guests seemed to like it).

Now that's the way to travel !

2010-04-23T12:57:00.001+02:00

Check this out => I’m Blogging from Japan

My guitar hero

2010-04-17T12:58:00.000+02:00

Michael and Ed started guitar lessons together last year.
After a few performances (Happy Birthday to you for grandma and his dad) Michael enthousiasticly told his teacher at school that he could maybe play something during the monthly show. And here he is with his first official performance, we're so proud that after only 4 months he's confident enough to play in front of the entire school including parents.

Way to go Michael, you are my guitar hero !

Scrapbooking

2010-04-15T09:57:00.006+02:00

Yes I still do ! Inbetween alle the purging & decluttering I'm starting to get the itch to scrap again so I haven't missed a project for the blog.

Above the current dutch dare (not totally happy about this one, liking some elements and others not so much, any tips are appreciated !)Check out what the other girls did here ...

Below the dutch dare before that, the dare was "sport" totally happy with this one !

Happy Birthday Babe ♥

2010-04-13T08:30:00.005+02:00

This gorgeous man turns 42 today and we are going to spoil him when he gets home this afternoon !

I wish I could say go over to his blog and give hims some love as he hasn't been active on it for a while. You can send him a comment or birthday hug here if you like.

♥ Yah !

I love the 80's

2010-03-07T11:11:00.002+01:00

I saw this on Layle's blog and just had to share, I don't know if we had these championsships here in the NL but I guess it passed me by ...

The 1987 Dance Aerobics Championship - Watch more Funny Videos

update bday's, swimming, crafting

2010-02-28T05:00:00.000+01:00

ehm a long one I'm afraid as I haven't updated since uhm well way too long sorry life got in the way

What's been going on, well we've had a few dinnerparty's, I did my taxes for 2008 so only one more year to plow through and then it's bye bye business admin, scrapped a bit, made a cute valentine bunting, oh and of course doing lots of baking which can mostly be seen here ...

Colin got his next swimming diploma B, one more to go

Michael had a star wars party, here's a little slide show of his party

some Love

Oh and for anyone still interested in some London Pics, here's a quick slide show

scrapped a sketch

2010-02-17T10:51:00.001+01:00

I loved working on this new sketch that Kirs made, finally some inspiration for the baseball pics of Michael. Loved how it turned out, in one evening no less and I'm a happy camper (oh and so was Michael when he saw what I was working on).

Check out the what the other dt members made here and get inspired & join in !

For my mom

2010-02-05T22:13:00.002+01:00

And all the other fans of The Sound of music ...

I just love these, love how people you think are watching and totally not like they are about to jump in and join the group dancing, love how in sync they all dance makes me all happy. If you know a good one let me know and make my weekend :)

how old ?

2010-01-29T00:00:00.004+01:00

Can you believe it, he's 9 already omg ....

Our cute little boy, highly intelligent, a bit moody but oh so sweet, we love him to bits !

So we're throwing him a theme party this weekend .... it's star wars this year !

A pretty cake for a pretty little girl

2010-01-18T12:45:00.006+01:00

A friend of mine asked if I could help her out with a birthday cake for her pretty little girl as she couldn't make her yummy cakes this year. I didn't hesitate to say yes, although it was a pretty busy time already, cause that's what friends do. My first pink cake with more than 1 layer .....

good music

2010-01-09T12:09:00.001+01:00

somehow this post went wrong so here's trying again .... I loved this song in an old episode of house, like it ?

My word for 2010

2010-01-04T12:02:00.004+01:00

I love Ali's idea of chosing a word every new year, a word that fits with what you would like to do more, your ? for that year or just a word that shows what you find inportant. Now when I thought about my word last week I had a hard time choosing one and don't think I found the right one to be honest, that I just chose one to have one you know what I mean ;)

So as I was catching up on blogs I read a word that a blogger chose for herself (love that they did it for the whole family) and thought that's it, that's my word for 2010 it fits me in every possible way this year ! So I decided to change my word, because hey who says you can't .....

My word for 2010 is FLOURISH and if you want to know why it fits so much better than the one I chose (which was creative ) well I mean duh it means this : to grow well, strong: thrive well that's want i want to do this year !

New Year, New directions, New Plans

2010-01-01T01:00:00.000+01:00

Starting my own business has been one big adventure, meeting new people, climbing mountains, putting out fires and building towards something bigger and better, making friends along the way and sometimes doing things you wish you hadn't and learning something new each and every day.

Today the day has come that I have decided that I don't want to be in this adventure anymore, a decision that’s took me quite a while to make but I believe it’s a good one for me and my family. Another step closer to a better balance in our quality of life, more time for each other, for baking, for being creative, for spending with friends, for spontanious ideas and endeavors !

The much needed and positive changes have been made, I’m excited to embrace 2010 and wish you, my blogfriends, the same !!

I will give you all an update on the london trip and how we spent december soon I promise !

2009-11-16T18:54:00.000+01:00

Hope all is well with all my blog readers ( I know there are some LOL just always wonder who ...) ! Thought I'd let you know what's up in Daan's life ;)

I'm busy getting organized for my trip to London this weekend with my mother, leaving friday morning and will be back sunday evening. It's been a while since I was in the UK and I cannot remember when my mom and I have been on a trip for more than a day together or in the UK together (I think this was when I was like 14 orso) so this will be fun ! I'm looking forward to visiting Anthropology, GAP, Cath Kidson and Alfie's Antique Market. I bought a fun touristy book called 100% London and it has lots of fun restaurant, shop and just touristy things in it so we plan to use that for some info if we run out of idea's but any other tips are welcome ....

Oh and my diet did it's job I'm totally cleansed, just have to keep up with avoiding white sugar and use cane sugar instead so I will be testing that in my cupcake recipe's. I decided to stay on this sugarless route as I'm used to it now. My vitality and energy levels are still not good so he advised me to take vitamin's (he said Centrum and Supradyn are very good) that I should take throughout the winter. I still fall asleep on the couch about 2 to 3 evenings a week so I'm not feeling a difference yet ... Any tips are welcome for this !

Another thing I just have to share with you is that Colin is swimming for his A certificate tommorow, we were amazed he was at all ready for it since he started last year december, swimming twice a week. We're very proud as we know how hard it is for him to focus with so many distractions !

I'm sure the boys won't miss me too much as they have a pretty full weekend planned and lot's of boys things they want to do.

A day in the life of Colin, a typical 6 year old ?

2009-11-09T21:27:00.010+01:00

At school today the toilet was dirty but I really needed to do a nr. 2 (for the dutchies : dit betekent poepje), I was not pleased. So i decided to try this on a urinoir, which is kinda hard but I made it work. But they don't have toilet paper by the urinoirs at our school to i had nothing to wipe. The lunch mommy wanted me to put on clean "loan" underwear from school but I didn't want to so I went commando. Mommy and daddy where not pleased as now my pants were also yucky, they came to school early bcause we had a sponsor walk which they wanted to be there for and it's a good thing they were early as they had to race back home as they forgot my sweats but this way they could bring some clean underwear, that was nice.

Michael brought home a friend to play on the trampoline, but I was having some problems playing nice so mommy made me come in. I was not pleased but mommy promised me a long bath and I like playing in the bath so a bubble bath it was. When Michael's friend went home he joined me cause he likes to play in the bath too. We were having a ball, then mommy made us come out for dinner. She sent Michael back as he hadn't dried himself off properly, but after dinner (yummy bacon and egg sandwiches) his hair still looked wet and she went out exploring. And well she wasn't amused, you see I washed Michael's hair with natusan baby oil gel (which as mommy describes it as a thick hairgel like texture but is oily just like normal oil. I washed Michael's hair with it, never mind me being able to read I just grabbed the first bottle that too my fancy. Mommy had to wash Michael's hair like 5 times before she gave up, only to find that my hair was in the same condition from lying in the same bath for about 15 min.... My hair looked like this (see picture below) even after 6 washings and you should see our bathtub I almost slipped and fell when my hair was being re-washed. (* insert sigh from mommy as she tells you it took a week for michael's hair to recover even a swimming pool trip didn't help, my hair took a week and a half ...).

While mommy was washing michael's hair I was clearing the table, my turn and I wanted to help out while she was playing hairdresser. But ohoh I dropped all the eggshells on the floor, didn't tell mommy but tried to clean it up but couldn't do it fast enought so I hid the towels I used under the table (she found them when i was asleep in bed) and didn't say a word. Mommy was not amused when she found herself walking the eggwhites through the kitchen for about 5 min. until she found out. She sent me to my room, to bed can you imagine how upset i was ?! pfff to bed because I had a little accident, there were no hugs to give away let me tell you ! But I made up with mommy once she explained she wasn't upset about the spilling but the fact that I didn't tell her well who knew that was the answer ?

Boy I was tired by then time for sweet dreams and for mommy to clean up even more mess and wait for daddy to fill him in on the fun.

Inspiration

2009-11-06T08:55:00.004+01:00

I get inspired a lot, and when I say a lot i mean A LOT ! Through bloglines i am connected to so many, many fun blogs that I get overinspired and save a lot of fun ideas but don't get around to actually doing something with it.

So when our latest ducht dare came around, which we changed last minute so we could pay tribute to an inspirational blog One Little Word that closed down, I had to use one of my saved ideas.

This cute little quote was found on the blog of Vicki Chrisman and she made the cutest canvas of it which I scraplifted and made my own. I'm loving it and want to make more little canvasses with inspiring quotes on it for my home. Check out what the rest of the girls made here, hope we inspire you !

A new Layout

2009-10-28T22:24:00.005+01:00

Did you know that not only little girls like nailpolish ? I made this LO for the latest sketch on the MLS blog. Check out what the rest of the girls made here and we'd love for you to join in, use our sketch and share it with us !

food

2009-10-21T22:02:00.002+02:00

Amazing when you can eat everything you never bother to read the food labels isn't it ?

Now I know that when the boys had their milkallergy I only had to mind a few things as a docter was able to help them with their allergies and all was good so that was easy. Then there's my friend Mandy has a little boy that is allergic to a lot of stuff and she has to read every single label like a detective. I know from her how hard it is to find things or recipe's for him that he is able to eat.

But now I have to watch out & read every label for food I come across and boy it takes a lot of work, shopping takes twice, no thrice (LOL) as much time as it does normally.

Let me tell you a little story, you see I'm someone that has had a bad resilience with her health for the last 20 years, always catching the flu or other stuff that germs seem determined to give me, but before that was never ill, i mean almost never as I've had like one typical childhood ilness. And this year I've decided (for a lot of things in my life but this is step 1 since i couldn't get it right last year) that enough is enough, I want to survive Fall and winter on my terms and not those of the germs.
So a war has been launched and with the help of a special docter, a very good docter, same one as my boys have seen and various people I have recommended him to or I meet quite by accident that know about him; Dr. Soema.

Dr. Soema figured out quite a bit about my energy levels, intestins and liver that were not good, stuff living there, thriving of food that not only I love. So i'm on a very strict diet for 30 days, lot's of natural herbs to make the intestins and liver stronger and cleaner and antibiotics.

So I'm off sugar, milk, cheese, cacoa, yeast, glucosepaste, tomato's, pig, veal and cows meat, pepper, goatsmilk or cheese, mushrooms and let me tell you once you start looking out for these ingredients it's everywhere ... yes also in cupcakes :( so I ordered myself the babycakes vegan cookbook so I can make some nice cupcakes as dessert for a dinnerdate at the end of this month. And try thinking up a nice dinner besides the standerd meat, potatoes & veggies ? Only thing I can come up with is a healthy version of nasi goreng and fajitas (but no sour creme or tomato saus to go with it but a cheesy soy spread) with corn chips. If anyone has any recipes plse let me know, I'm craving changes in the menu !!

An upside, well the first week I didn't think there was one because i was in detox (kicking a sugar habit is not the easiest) but there is one is I'm loosing weight, finally 2 years after the knee-accident I'm losing weight. 2 down, at least 5 to go ..... And I should have buckets of energy at the end of this, this is what keeps me going, more energy, less feeling blah, less catching the flu and overall a better healthier me !

Something to consider, cutting out certain products I "though" were healthy from my lifestyle after the 30 days.

Tom Jones Rocks

2009-10-18T17:00:00.006+02:00

Boy does he ever for his age ! Went to see him on the 6th with my mother and we had a blast ! Here's 2 video's I made with my new camera

This song always makes me think of Carlton Banks from "The fresh prince of bel air" (know what I mean ;) LOL)

cool song too

Oh and yesterday I was invited to the musical Mamma Mia by my friend Corinne and although I couldn't enjoy the complimentary lunch buffet it was a great afternoon, good company & the musical was fun now I really want to see the movie ! Thanks Babe !

DD # 59 - herfstig

2009-10-14T21:22:00.005+02:00

This dutch dare was to make something that had fall written all over it... I think this qualifies

We are growing

Check out what the other DT girls made here.

a new camera part II

2009-10-12T07:14:00.001+02:00

Not only did dh get a new camera, but I got this for my birthday a samsung wb500.

It takes great pictures which is not hard with a 10 x optical zoom, dual image stabilization, photo style selector (which I have yet to explore), 10,2 megapixel, face detection, high sensitive iso 3200, beauty shot, self portait angle guide smart album, recycle bin and 24 mm ultra wide lens.

It high definition filming is pretty good too !

So I'm happy....

I love my goofy brother

2009-10-09T07:16:00.000+02:00

Just having fun while waiting for my bday dinner trying to get a good pic of mommy & my goofy brother ...

A sisters Hope

2009-10-07T10:36:00.000+02:00

This post and RAK is connected to the Dutch event "A Sisters Hope-60 KM walk". Due to this, only Dutch people will be able to enter for a chance to win the RAK below, sorry to international readers!

Hallo allemaal! Oktober staat zoals elk jaar in het teken van aandacht voor borstkanker een doel die ik erg belangrijk vind. Een lieve scrapvriendin, Monique Helfrich zet zich met hart en ziel in om donaties te werven ten behoeve van A Sisters Hope. Vorig jaar heb ik zo'n 90 pink ribbon cupcakes gebakken en versierd om haar hierbij te steunen maar dit jaar had ze deze zelf gebakken ... En niet alleen ik wilde haar steunen maar ook het dt leek het leuk om iets te doen om nog wat geld voor haar in te zamelen en dus hebben we het volgende bedacht.

Alle vier hebben we een RAK samengesteld. Als je kans wilt maken op één van die prijzen en tegelijkertijd een fantastisch doel wilt steunen, ga dan naar de MLS blog om te lezen hoe. Hieronder zie je de RAK die ik heb samengesteld voor, ook al lijkt het ver weg, de kerst. Leuke chipboardfiguren van Making Memories, rikrak lint en mooi nostalgisch kerstpapier van daisy d. Stiekum ga ik daar nog wat kleine embellishments aan toe voegen maar die houd ik nog even een verrassing.

Aankomend weekend loopt Monique samen met vele anderen de tweedaagse wandeling van 60 kilometer. Ik wens haar heel veel succes! Wie weet steun je Monique al, maar als je graag een steentje wilt bijdragen aan een prachtig doel èn zo tegelijkertijd kans wilt maken op één van de vier prijzen (zie de andere 3 op de MLS blog), lees dan hier hoe!

Monique, je bent echt geweldig en suc6 met de 60 km !

doesn't this song make u wanna dance ?

2009-10-05T07:11:00.000+02:00

Love it, one of my fave's right now

I've got 'em

2009-09-30T08:19:00.001+02:00

I really got myself a pair of snuggly ugly uggs

And I can tell you they are everything everyone says (after a long hot day at the dolfinarium) and I'm looking forward to nice warm feet this winter !

a new camera part I

2009-09-28T12:11:00.004+02:00

DH has a new camera and besides being new, shiny and pretty it has a wonderful sportsapplication ... oh and how cool is that t-shirt ?

in the scrapping saddle

2009-09-23T10:39:00.003+02:00

or getting the scrapping groove back as you wish....

We had a sketch made by Liek for the dt blog and this is what I made of it, bummed that you cannot see how cute those big black glittery letters are in the pic ...

Wanna see what the other girls made ? Check it out here ~!

A pink High Tea Party

2009-09-14T20:15:00.012+02:00

I fell in love with the lovely parties I've seen on all the blogs I've been visiting and thought it was high time I showed off my organising& baking skills.

A pink dream was born and executed

The invites

The decorations ( I wish I had a shot of my beautiful old teacups ... but trust me they are cute !)

The food

The guests

The Prezzies

I haven't had such a fab bday in a long long time !

I can't believe it

2009-09-07T04:48:00.003+02:00

my age that is, I'm in denial LOL, so here's me about ehm 36 years ago

My summer holiday

2009-09-01T23:52:00.000+02:00

Spent purging, re-organizing, beach, babysitting Issie, Slagharen, De Efteling, Geocaching, lots of sleep-overs, Ice Age 3 3D, Linaeushof, Waterspeeltuin, 7 days of DYI, Scrapbooking, THE biggest Carnival of the Netherlands, lot's of dvd's (watchmen, new in town, the pursuit of happines, the wrestler, baby mamma, the bankjob, we are marshal = loved this one, home of the brave, st. trinian, suburban girl, need for speed), physiotherapy with lot's of tummy excercises

here are some pics, that I used to make a mini album with for the boys so they could show in school what they did in their summer holiday. I wanted to share more but picasa keeps making the folders that I put in there, after 2x I give up...

I just LOVE this wedding entrance

2009-08-14T08:00:00.000+02:00

Most of you may have seen this on Ali's blog, but for those of you who don't read her blog I just had to share this.

How cool of all their friends and family to make this a wedding entrance to never be forgotten !

Promotie voor een vriendin

2009-08-10T23:45:00.006+02:00

Voor diegene die onze fotoshoots kennen is Florence Bavinck een bekende naam maar voor wie haar niet kent zie haar leuke aanbieding hieronder voor Herfst mini-fotosessies !

We zitten nog volop in de zomer, alhoewel voor ons de zomervakantie bijna ten einde is. Gek om dan na te denken over dingen als herfst, kleurende bladeren aan de bomen, een frisse kou - maar toch heb ik dat gedaan. Naast de lente is de herfst toch wel mijn meest favoriete tijd om te fotograferen -- daarom dat ik dit jaar de Herst mini-sessies introduceer!

De sessies zijn het best geschikt voor families tot 6 personen!

A bubbly little boy

2009-08-03T11:19:00.001+02:00

From the moment he was born ...

he's been bouncing through life, he turned 6 years old today and we're celebrating it here ....

Scrapping is therapy

2009-07-01T23:47:00.004+02:00

Just like baking cupcakes but unfortunately I don't have enough energy for that (which should come back into my life in august orso according to the doc). I really needed to relax, had a bit of a rough week to do with my volunteer work and I decided had to stick up for myself to a few people and although it was quite hard (it's just not who I am really, conflict is something I try to avoid like a headache in my work even if it is volunteering LOL).

So after getting over the initial uncomfortable feeling of the whole situation I decided I really needed to do something to help me relax and scrapping does just that. Not my best work, and I still have to figure out where & when this was taken (hope mom can help me out since she has the original) but it felt pretty damn good !

Life & Health has been kicking my butt

2009-05-27T12:54:00.004+02:00

Over the last half year life has really been kicking my butt and now my health is too. For those close to me you've already heard it, i've been bedridden for 2 weeks & 2 antibiotics due to pleurisy (nl=pleuritis), appearantly because I had a stomach problem my immune system (which lets face it is bad as is) was low and wham I get hit with an ancient inflamation.
Being tired is really getting to me now that my head & the rest is starting to clear up, very slowly i might add.

So what do you do when you can do nothing and have no energy to pick up a book ? You watch tv/movies, online that is. So far I'm all caught up with desperate housewives (saw season 3 through 5), ghost whisperer (4 episodes), greys anatomy (2 episodes), Penelope, Make it happen. And now I'm on to bloglines which has been waiting since i was back from our wonderful holiday in turkey.

And going through bloglines, through all my fave party, bake & design blogs this preview really cheered me up. I think all you bloggers & food lovers will love this too.

I'll be back soon as i get better & more energy!

Happy Birthday Mommy

2009-05-09T11:49:00.004+02:00

It's my mothers b'day today, and in honor of mothersday tommorow I decided to show a pic of us together made quite a while back but it shows how much we look alike and it's not only the exterior LOL

We're going to spoil her today :D

And for all the mothers who are giving everything, everyday for their loved ones, a pretty song that I like

Happy Easter to all my blogfriends

2009-04-12T22:43:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, just a quick post to wish you all a great easter holiday. I'll give you an update soon, right now I'm real busy getting a cake made for my DH's birthday tommorow and we're just giving a small BBQ but will have a big party when we've had our holiday.

Just wanted to share this easter bunny I made during a chocolate workshop a week ago.

Adjusting and our boring life

2009-02-21T10:13:00.001+01:00

Thanks for all your sweet comments, so far we've survived the first few weeks of DH's surgery and he's doing better every day. Although the pain after the surgery was much more than we had anticipated (not at all what other people who've had meniscus surgeries) which is probably due to the extra looking, searching, probing they did after all DH had been walking around with a bad meniscus for 2 years so it wasn't exactly a clean break .... let's just say they had to gather up all bits and pieces they could find and clean it all up. On our own request he started fysiotherapy after 2 weeks and things have been going much better since then, still limping around but he's building up muscle in his leg again, the pain is getting less and he's able to help out again with the boys. Good news too is that his fysio is located in my gym (yes i still have a subscription I just wasn't going) and so I'm taking classes when he's there as I have to drive him everywhere (no biking, no driving still for another 3 weeks at least) oh and i ache everywhere LOL.

As for other stuff we've been doing, I've been getting my scrapshop (irl and on the web) a bit more organised and i hope to start scrapping a bit again now that I can find stuff and have a bit of space.

I've taken up reading books again, those of you who are my pal on good reads have seen I've uploaded all the books I have waiting to be read by me that I've been buying ... But "Twilight" and "New Moon" have been keeping me busy most (reading both in 2 days flat), wow Love that genre (suspence romance) and I cannot wait to see the movie DH managed to find for me on valentines day :) Tommorow I'm off to the bookstore for the 3rd and final book in that trilogie.

Oh and I've been updating my favorite finds blog with fun stuff and I went to the theatre for some stand up comedy (love that) and can recommend Jandino to all the dutchies ! Not only is he very funny he can also sing so good, this is him on you tube

And that's not all, I decorated a cake, yep a cake a big one 25x25 and it was less hard than I thought, and yummy too. Can't wait to make one for the next bday we have in our family !

My holiday is over this week, have to work again on monday and the boys have their holiday then, since we can't do anything fun together till friday we went to the movie BOLT this week and it was fab ! Definately recommend it !

wow 8 years sure flew by

2009-01-29T21:52:00.009+01:00

Sweet Michael turned 8 today and he came out of bed with the biggest smile I've seen since ages in the morning.

He got to open 1 present in the morning a big box of Star Wars Lego and enjoyed the view of his Avatar & flower (for the teachers) cupcakes that he could take to school. DH and I both worked on them and they looked pretty darn cute (as you can see those need some editing but i wanted to share them anyway).

When he got home from school he received his gift from Colin and really loved it, some iron on bead patterns from Pokemon and a pokemon surprise bal that contained a pokemon he didn't have (the boys really love playing with the little pokemon figures they have).

Then my parents & brother came and they gave him an even BIGGER box of Star Wars Lego and we went out for dinner as tradition calls for and this year Michael surprised us by requesting a pizza dinner so we all went out to the local italian and had a really good time.

Wish us luck tommorow, DH is going into surgery in the morning !

Life's a rollercoaster

2009-01-15T19:27:00.007+01:00

So this post was in the works in my head but it just never seemed to make it into blogger so I antidated it to keep the flow going ....

Talking of flows , we did not do that very well into the new year, things are a bit ups and downs so I've been very busy trying to stay positive (which unfortunately does not come naturally to me but is something I have to work hard at) & keep all the balls from crashing on me ! And so I thought I'd share some stuff as not everyone is aware of the stuff that's going on and hey if you were wondering why stuff is quiet or why I'm not calling, mailing, updating blogs or inviting you this is why..... but to keep it a bit upbeat I'll try and list something "UP" with every "Downer" as I'm trying to stay positive .....

Ups : Had a really good 2 weeks christmas holiday and got a lot done on my todo list like sort out DH closet, paint the doors of the boys with magnetpaint (3 layers and I'm doing one more), reorganised our clotheswardrobe so all of our bedlinnen fits in so we could sell our chest of drawers (our bedroom is looking more feng shui and less crowded), gave my mothers bedroom a extreme makeover in 2 days while my stepdad was in Canada and had fun with the boys.

Down: in the last week of the year we found out DH kneeproblem wasn't going away (it played up again after de makeover)and he needs surgery on the 30th ... It's his meniscus/patella and they also think that his partilage/gristle is damaged due to all the active sports he used to do when he was younger (like basketball, iceskating, judo, wing chung, american football, baseball, body building, jogging) so he's been in quite some pain since then as the dokters like to pull and bend etc. and he took a wrong turn with his back last weekend due the funny walk he has developed to take the edge off the pain.

Up: We've bought a new chair & footstool from ikea

Down : I've lost a brandnew redken rough past tube while shopping, I put it on the counter while paying at H&M and forgot to take it with me when I left ....

Up: We bought a couch from IKEA and it was delivered the same day

Down : the couch is damaged so we're not sitting on it, hoping to hear from IKEA tommorow !

UP : I got my first order for birthday cupcakes and the birthday girl exclaimed they were totally what she wanted :)

Down : Just yesterday we received a HUGE bill from the watercompany of 3000 euro, which totally freaked me out, bcause apearantly our meter thinks we own a swimming pool ..... God I sincerely hope this gets sorted because I don't want to shed any more tears on this than i did from shock....

UP: My 2nd attempt at Red Velvet Cupcakes (I converted the recipe myself this time) and OMG I totally get the addiction ! Great therapy that baking .... see downer above ....

Down: The scrapbooking industry is on it's ass (pardon the language) over here in the NL the shops are dropping like flies .... this might into an upper but I haven't found that so far .....we'll have to wait and see.

UP: I got the custest thank you gifts for my dt in and I can't wait to see what they think

DOWN: During december I found out I haven't been working enough hours in a week for the salary I'm being paid. A mistake in my contract and nobody (not even me) ever noticed it, now I have to work 4 more hours .....

UP : I don't have to pay back the 2 years of overpay

DOWN: I have to work even more hours because my colleague and I weren ever told by my boss to keep up a timesheet that calculates the worked hours in comparison with the holidays we get and if we don't want to work most of the summer holiday we have to work even more hours a week. I'm working 2 more a week and will probably have to work about a week in the summer holiday.

UP: we were invited to a fun new years party.

DOWN: So I work 25 hours a week now, besides having my own scrapbook store and a family

UP: I rearranged my hours so we only have 1 day we cannot pick up the kids and only have that day to organise whoever can to do it.

DOWN: I've gained a bit of weight over the holiday that I lost through all the fly so it's back on the health regime asap.

UP : We booked our summer holiday and we're going at the end of april LOL

DOWN: Mom's nek is still a big problem, she's getting a new consult from a neurologist

UP : She's taking the train to come see me and help us out where she can with admin and cleaning up around the house (I'm so grateful for the help bcause with all the hours I'm working now I just don't have enough time in the day)

DOWN: we had a very emotional Michael over the holidays, try to imagine a little boy who's already an emotional little kid but x 10 bcause of the holidays. While we're at xmas dinner eating chicken, which he thought was fish at first, and feeling sorry for the fish he suddenly begins sobbing for 30 minutes about our cat that died 3 years ago ... Still with me ? This happens every now and then, he misses her and the bomb exploded during dinner. Then a few days later because I wanted to take his picture and he refused. Now I have to tell you our boys rarely pose for us and I just couln't get it so I tried bribing, being stern nothing worked and he got really angry and after I put him in the hallway to cool down we had a chat and it turns out he hates being an older brother because he thinks he has to do everything perfect. Which he doesn't have to but because of his competitive and perfectionistic nature he thinks so and this makes his life harder than it has to be..... Boy this parenting thing is hard !

UP: he's finally settled into his new class as he was had a hard time adapting to 2 pt teachers & a new teaching method in this grade. Still doing brilliantly at his academic work, above average.

UP: Colin started swimming lessons in december and he's doing amazing ! 2 x a week is a lot of driving up and down to heemstede but worth it by seeing how well he's doing.

DOWN: the theatre show we were going to with the kids got cancelled last minute and will not be rescheduled.

UP: The boys loved all their gifts from Sinterklaas and Santa. Fave is their new pj's, books, underwear and MP4 player with favorite songs and stories (Michael = old rock & house and Colin = sinterklaas & smurf songs).

DOWN: Car repairs costs were way more than we expected, aren't they always ?

UP: Tradition is that kids get a bit of money for new years from the grandparents but this year we also received a financial gift from my parents, that was so sweet of them and unexpected.

DOWN : I broke a mirror this month ....

UP: Thanks to my mom's help and Ed being at home to recouperate from his operation in a few weeks, it looks like we could get our taxes for 2007 & 2008 in on time :)

Down: I didn't go iceskating at all .....

UP: the boys did and that was a blast, so cool to see them getting into it !

DOWN: I had a huge fight with my brother on the day before xmas

UP: I read a book this month and plan to get more reading time in as I loved totally sinking into a story

DOWN: I lost a whole sheet of 50 postage stamps .... Bought them, walked to the next store in a shopping mall and lost them ....

UP: I really did make xmas gifts, mini albums for the granparents and my godparents of our latest photoshoot.

DOWN: I'm still mourning over things that happened a long time ago, or 5 years ago and cannot let things go. It's in my nature I just cannot shrugg things off when they happen, I need to wallow, adjust and then move on, but it's never ever forgotten ......I think I need therapy, but what kind ?

UP: I received a small payment from the insurance as compensation for my year of pain & weight gain due to the car accident.

DOWN: I have the working mommy syndrome; I feel guilty for not having enough time for the kids, not enough energey for them, for DH, for me.... it's getting worse every year ....

UP: Had a fab time at a junksale with Daphne and we're definately doing that again soon !

Uhm I think that's it for now, enough complaining and I have my fingers crossed for no more setbacks, as I really want to have more fun 2009. You know it actually helps to write it down bcause as I did I found I do have more ups than downs although it didn't feel like it before ! THANKS for letting me share and if you need to share you know where to find me !!!!

Have you ever

2009-01-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

Saw this on Haggit's blog and thought it was fun so I wanted to do this and encourage you to do this too ! Just copy and paste this entry and highlight the ones you've done.

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited Hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more that you can afford to charity
7. been to Disneyland (once and several times do Paris)
8. held a praying mantis
9. climbed a mountain
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visited Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen Niagara Falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an Amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen Michelangelo's David
41. sung karaoke
42. seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. visited Africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (not the top just the 1st floor)
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling (with dolphins but I found out I can't ...)
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theater
55. been in a movie
56. visited the Great Wall of China
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited Russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold Girl Scouts Cookies
62. gone whale watching
63. got flowers for no reason
64. donated blood, platelets of plasma
65. gone sky diving (no sky diving, but I did take a dual leap "parapenting" off a mountain and sailed through the sky. btw: wasn't afraid of heigths then)
66. visited a nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a check
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. eaten caviar, and it's gross!
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. toured the Everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the Guards in London (a lot)
77. broken a bone (my wrist)
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the Vatican
82. bought a brand new car (yep our current one)
83. walked in Jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the White House
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone's life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the Alamo in person
96. swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cellphone
99. been stung by a bee
100. read an entire book in one day

ok so what have you done from my list that I haven't ???

dreamy music share

2009-01-07T21:38:00.000+01:00

Heard this one an old episode of House this week and loved it, just thought I'd share

Really like the circus

2009-01-05T21:00:00.000+01:00

But somehow we never seem to go :(

On new years day we saw part of the 31st Circusfestival of Monte Carlo and I was very impressed with this and couldn't understand why they only received bronze for their act.

A few of my wishes for you in 2009

2009-01-01T21:40:00.002+01:00

A good friend who always has a listening ear
Lots of creative mojo
More balance
Less stress
Good health
Good Bargains
A whole lotta love
Flowers every day
Sunshine in your life every day
Good times
At least one co-worker to make you laugh (read this on another blog and thought it was a great wish)
Good fortune
A chuckle a day
Someone who smiles at you at least once a day
A good hug
Many a beautiful sunset to enjoy
Safe driving
The perfect cupcake
Lots of favorite songs

And here's a pretty one to start this year off (i have no idea what she's singing but her voice is so pretty !)

My Fabulous Finds

2008-11-29T10:31:00.005+01:00

I started a new blog, I know I know as if I'm not busy enough already but let me explain .......

This past year I've been making mails with links to fun things I'd found on the net on a regular basis, I was mailing them to my crafty friends when this past week one of them said I should be sharing this on a blog or something (well Kirsty I decided to do just that !). Because I was afraid I would otherwise forget about the great things I shared with you all when I needed them as inspiration.

You can find all the links on my new blog Daan's Faboulus Finds, put in the date order that I shared them with my friends and I hope they can inspire you too !

For ?

2008-11-27T09:59:00.003+01:00

I don't know if I have (m) any US readers (although Clustrmaps begs to differ) but just in case I do I wanted to wish you all a wonderful and special thanksgiving !

I feel good

2008-11-21T20:02:00.005+01:00

First of all, something for someone who has a fun blog, is a cupcake & scrapbook lover like me and makes the most fun jump pic's in the world ;

crowdSPRING, hire Kelly Purkey for your new Community Marketing Manager!

Second thanks everyone for your good health wishes, it took me 2,5 weeks but finally I'm kicking this bug in the BU... unfortunately DH is ill now ...

Third, our DT getaway was so much fun. Didn't have much of an appetite so we had way too much food but it was great fun. Got some scrapping done, back in the mood for it, good conversations and lots of laughs always good for the soul !

Fourth, did you see the sketches the girls made on the MLS blog, very cool. I love them all except mine. Oh well that happens a lot ...

Fifth, I've lost a total of 3,5 kilos since the flu started so I'm back on my old weight from before my car vs. knee accident. Very happy about this ! and I'm aiming for another 3 kilo loss before the new year, I'm starting to feel better every day getting back to my old self.

Sixth, I'm set tommorow to get creative for Xmas with the boys and make about 6 orso overdue raks ...

Seventh, so whadaya think of my new banner, my DH made it for me. He's the best (better in photoshop than me that's for sure !) !

That's all for now, hope you have fun creative plans too, thanks for checking in !

I was tagged

2008-11-12T14:16:00.002+01:00

by Martine and I've taken my time thinking about this (nothing else to do as I'm ill again, for the 2nd week), are there any more weird things I can tell you that you didn't already know from last time ?

Uhm yep ...

1. When I'm naucious I cannot lie on my back or left side only on my right side or I will throw up ... I realised this again on monday .....

2. I like eat 2 toppings on my sandwiches and have already got the boys eating cheese and jam, which not everyone thinks is too weird but I also looooove peanutbutter & jam, peanutbutter, banana and chocolate sprinkles, peanutbutter and just chocolate sprinkles and nutella with banana :) not allowed this for a while though ....

3. I like to have complete sets of things ... when I'm collecting I can go a little crazy and not only with material things you see I also collect images on the pc like crazy. It's a good thing we have a big server or it would be too full ... You see if i don't I can't remember it and where I saw it so I love to keep them safe if i ever remember i saw something I can browse in my little files and find it again and be inspired all over again :)

4. My pillowcases are much nicer to lay on when they are ironed, I don't mind it when my duvet cover is not ironed though.

5. Everything has to be dated that comes in to our home. Whether it's drawings & art from the kids or photo's & home movies it has to be dated to keep me sane as I cannot remember when events were or when art was made and I hate guessing & not knowing. This is why preserving memories is VERY important to me.

6. I love whipped cream but not in pastry ! I love it on ice-cream, I love it on an apple pie (notice the on part), I love it on my hot cocoa, I love it on fresh fruit but not in pastry. So no slagroomgebak, bossche bol or slagroomhoorntjes for me ....

7. My starsign is virgo, yet since I have kids & my own company I've become very chaotic. This is so not working for me .....

I won't be tagging anyone as my recipe swapp didn't go very well either so just enjoy the info and share something with me in a comment (big hint for Kirs, Marianne & Evi) and I'll be happy ;) it will take my mind of being ill ......

This is me

2008-11-10T03:31:00.004+01:00

Just me and my aura ....

For those interested in what the colors mean in general (an english version can be found here) and if you want to know what kind of cupcake I am (LOL) check out my other blog.

Hier geven we informatie over de basiskleuren in het aura. Hiervoor gelden algemene uitspraken.Uiteraard is iedere aurafoto uniek en kent dus zijn eigen verhaal. Een veel gestelde vraag is dan ook of de aura verandert. Het antwoord op deze vraag is volmondig JA. Want je bent een mens met veel ins en outs. Ieder mens is een onafhankelijk individu, en je kunt te allen tijde kiezen iets wel of juist niet te doen. Je leeft en beleeft en daarmee verandert ook het aura. Zeker als het gaat om de rechterkant en linkerkant op de foto.
De linkerkant staat voor je uitstralingskant, deze geeft informatie over je recentelijk verleden.De rechterkant op de foto staat voor de energie die je op dat moment nodig hebt. Dit kan een snelveranderend veld zijn. Je karakterstructuur is stabieler en verandert naarmate jij zelf verandert. Wanneer je een sterke emotionele beleving ondergaat; je wordt boos of de vonk slaat over en je bent ineens verliefd, geeft dat ook een directe verandering op je aura. Wanneer alles weer rustig is, ga je terug naar je basiskleur.

De overwegende basiskleur van je aurafoto is:

ROOD

Rode mensen zijn sterke karakters, vechters en over het algemeen harde werkers. Het zijn de pioniers onder ons, want ze houden van avontuur. Er valt ook altijd iets te beleven met deze aura's en vaak trekken ze het voortouw. Ze hebben regelmatig een prikkel nodig van buitenaf en zoeken daarom graag spanning op. Rode persoonlijkheden kunnen bijzonder goed individueel functioneren;maar moeten hun eigen ideeën kwijt kunnen, vrijheid staat centraal. Hoe meer ruimte; hoe meer rood zich kan geven. Rode personality's kunnen een eigen bedrijf hebben en zijn de managers onder ons. Rood is ook emotioneel en gevoelig, al willen ze dit vaak niet toegeven. Het vulkaantje op de foto zit eigenlijk binnenin. Ze hebben dan ook moeite om zich emotioneel te uiten. Ze komen lekker stoer naar buiten maar hebben in wezen een klein hartje. Tijdelijk rood treedt op bij ingrijpende gebeurtenissen in je leven; dit kan variëren van verliefdheid, verhuizingen (liefdes-)verdriet enz.

ORANJE

Wanneer je oranje op je aurafoto hebt is er nogal wat gaande, er zit veel beweging in. Het is een tijd van verandering, vernieuwing, emoties en actie. Oranje staat ook voor ambitie en een hoge mate van creativiteit. Uit ervaring zien we dat oranje veel voorkomt bij jonge mensen. Oranje mensen zijn gevoelsmensen met een snelle hang naar stress. Wanneer zich problemen voordoen gaan ze echter niet bij de pakken neer zitten want het actieve aspect van de oranje energie maakt dat ze zelf goed in staat zijn zaken te veranderen.
Geel staat voor verstandelijk denken en bied je dus de mogelijkheid om helderheid om je heen te creëren. Oranje-gele aura's zijn over het algemeen aura's die tijdelijk optreden wanneer je voor belangrijke keuzes staat en het aura verandert snel wanneer je in rustiger vaarwater komt. Oranje kan schilderen, tekenen en vormgeven maar is ook zeer creatief in zijn denkwijze, bijvoorbeeld het bedenken van nieuwe concepten. Oranje aan je uitstralingskant staat voor enthousiasme, levenslust en warmte. Een fijne uitstraling dus.

GEEL

Geel staat voor openheid en extravertheid. Gele mensen beschikken over goede sociale vaardigheden, zijn snelle denkers en ze zijn in staat om een aantal zaken tegelijk te doen. Gele mensen houden van lachen en beschikken ook vaak over een flinke dosis zelfspot. Gele types komt graag in vreemde landen en zijn gek op nieuwe ervaringen. Met een heldere geest en goed ontwikkeld verstand kan hij zich buitengewoon goed aan passen en is meestal creatief. Geel is levenslustig en dynamisch, warm en open tegenover andere mensen. Het gele type is zeer actief in de buitenwereld, is continu in beweging en heeft altijd een volle agenda. Geel beschikt over een goed organisatietalent en is een goede leider. Wanneer je geel in je foto hebt, betekent dit dat je toekomstgericht denkt.Geel met oranje; wij noemen dit beweeglijk geel en dus een tijdelijk beeld van de situatie waarin je op dat moment verkeert. Je bent dan nl. bezig om een stuk helderheid te creeëren in het maken van keuzes.Is het toekomende energie ook geel dan zien we dat je goed in staat bent geweest om die helderheid naar je toe te trekken en zul je dus de komende tijd in een rustiger vaarwater komen, want je hebt de zaken op een rijtje gekregen. Binnenkort gaat je aura veranderen. Geel aan je uitstralingskant vertelt dat je een zonnige, warme en open uitstraling hebt. Dit zijn ook de gezelligheidsdieren onder ons.

GROEN

Wanneer je een overwegend groene aura hebt beschik je over een bijzonder goede communicatieve vaardigheid en betrokkenheid. Het sleutelwoord van groen is evenwicht. Groene mensen zijn verzorgers en wanneer in hun privéleven iedereen waar ze van houden maar groeit en bloeit zit groen goed in zijn vel. Volgens de kleurenleer van Theo Gimbel, een expert op gebied van psychologisch kleurgebruik in interieurs, is groen een perfecte kleur om binnenshuis te gebruiken wanneer de bewoner de neiging heeft om het 'werk mee naar huis te nemen'. Iets wat nogal eens voorkomt bij mensen uit de zorgsector. Daarmee komen we op het genezend aspect van de groene kleur. Groen is ook de kleur van de hartchakra; het energiecentrum waarmee we diepere emoties beleven. Mensen die op wat voor manier genezend bezig zijn hebben ook vaak groen in het aura. Groen biedt troost, schept vertrouwen en laat je voelen dat je belangrijk bent. Groen is een vrouwelijke energie. Wist je trouwens dat veel jonge full-time moeders ook groen zijn. Groen staat mede voor liefde en overgave. Groene mensen hebben enorme behoefte aan veiligheid, het gezin. De familieband is erg belangrijk. Groen doet moeite om de familie bij elkaar te houden en streeft naar evenwicht. Mensen die voor de klas staan zijn ook vaak groen. Begeleiden hoort bij het groene type. Groene mensen zijn mensen van principes en verdedigen graag hun eigen standpunten. Journalisten zijn groen, denk maar weer aan die betrokkenheid, fysiotherapeuten; betrokkenheid en genezing. Groen heeft ook een valkuil; we zien dat groene aura's mensen zijn met veel kwaliteiten, ook vaak mooie mensen . Helaas worden deze mensen nogal eens geplaagd door een stuk onnodige onzekerhekerheid. Soms zien we ook een patroon van veel groen om en rond het hoofd en sterk oranje op de keelchakra. Dat betekent dat deze mensen zeer begaan zijn met het lot van anderen, maar hun eigen emoties als het ware opslaan, ze houden die te veel emoties bij zich. Groen aan je toekomstkant (rechterkant) duidt op een veranderingsproces in jezelf.

BLAUW

Blauw vertegenwoordigt intimiteit. Blauw "geeft om..." en "zorgt voor...". De belangrijkste sleutelwoorden van blauw zijn rust en ontspanning. Wanneer je aurafoto blauw is, het gebied rond en boven het hoofd, dan ben je een overwegend introvert persoon, je neemt het leven serieus en bent voor velen een rots in de branding. Blauw beschikt over toewijding en betrouwbaarheid. Opmerkelijk is dat blauwe aura’s vaak zijn terug te vinden daar waar het om precisiewerk gaat. Blauwe aura’s zijn perfectionisten. Blauw houdt niet van verrassingen, ze willen graag weten waar ze aan toe zijn en bouwen daarom graag zekerheden in hun leven in. Mensen met een blauw aura zijn gevoelige mensen met een sterke belevingswereld. Blauw heeft stijl en is kwaliteitsbewust. Ze zijn in staat om vrij sober te leven, maar wat ze aanschaffen is goed, degelijk en stijlvol. Ook gaat hun belangstelling vaak uit naar kunst en cultuur. Wanneer blauw zichtbaar is aan de uitstralingskant duidt dit op afstandelijkheid. Deze mensen kijken graag even de kat uit de boom. Typisch bij deze uitstraling is dat de omgeving deze zgn. afstandelijke uitstraling als vertrouwelijke energie ervaart. Blauwe persoonlijkheden zijn altijd op zoek is naar de echte zaken in het leven. Waarheid, eerlijkheid, rechtvaardigheid. Daarom zijn vriendschappen voor blauw vaak voor het leven. Het duurt even voordat ze iemand in hun hart sluiten, maar eenmaal binnen dan zit het meer dan goed.

VIOLET

Heb je violet in je aurafoto dan sta je het hoogst op de ladder van spiritualiteit. Zien we paars, lila of violette kleuren aan je uitstralingskant, dan ben je niet goed in te schatten door je omgeving en straal je een bijna geheimzinnige innerlijke wijsheid uit. Mogelijk zit je in een periode in je leven waarin je de kans hebt om contact te maken met je eigen spirituele taak of overtuiging. Je hebt de behoefte om jezelf te uiten en je hebt een vanzelfsprekend begrip voor de gevoelens van anderen. Als je doorgaans niet zo heel veel toegang tot je gevoelens hebt, dan is dit de tijd om te proberen er naar te luisteren en vast te stellen wat ze je vertellen. Een uitstekende tijd voor zelfontwikkeling dus. Violet droomt graag weg in een wereld van fantasie en geloven sterk in idealen.

Naast de 6 basiskleuren zijn er nog een aantal kleurnuances; deze kleuren ertegenwoordigen emoties welke je in deze periode van je leven ondergaat.Hieronder volgt de lijst welke ook terug te vinden is op de achterkant van je kleurenkaart:

Rood: activiteit, extravert,avontuurlijk, beweging, nervositeit, emotionaliteit, impulsief, dynamiek.Lichtrood: enthousiasme, vreugde, seksualiteit, gevoeligheid, dominantie, vastberadenheid,zeer erotisch.

Donkerrood: daadkracht, sterke wil, mannelijkheid, ergernis, leidersnatuur,moed, eigenwijs.

Oranje: creativiteit, actieve intelligentie,zelfverzekerdheid, levenslust, warmte, openheid, ambitie.

Oranje-Geel: scherp verstand, speels, zelfbewustzijn, ambitie, humor, vrijheid.

Geel: spontaniteit, intellect en verstand, organisatietalent, ego, sociale vaardigheden, originaliteit.

Geel-Groen: communicatie, sympathie, medegevoel, toekomstgericht, opgewekt.

Groen: communicatie, betrokkenheid, groei, verandering, overgave, rust, liefde, zorgzaamheid.

Blauw: introvert, rust, verdieping, afstandelijkheid, stijl, waarheid, toewijding, stabiliteit, perfectionisme.Lichtblauw:toewijding aan idealen, zachtheid, incasseringsvermogen, mededogen, helderheid.

Indigo: genezende eigenschappen, goedheid, geslotenheid, serieusheid, voorzichtigheid.

Lila: mystiek, magie, diepzinnigheid, tolerantie, artistiek, fijngevoeligheid, expressief.

Roze: sensibiliteit, emotionaliteit, vrouwelijkheid, onvoorwaardelijke liefde, tederheid, sentimentaliteit.

Violet: intuïtie, kunst, creativiteit, inzicht, geloof, fantasie, gereserveerdheid, spiritualiteit, wijsheid, eenzaamheid.Wit: hoger bewustzijn, invoelingsvermogen, levenservaring, ontwikkelde spiritualiteit, tevredenheid.

Aura en erotiek, zin of onzin? Bepaal het zelf!

Rood: Een persoon met veel rood in het aura is gewoonlijk dol op sex. Voor hen is sex een dierlijke, wellustige, speelse en vrolijke ontspanning. Roden hoeven niet persé verliefd te zijn om van sex te genieten, het fysieke plezier is voor hen het belangrijkst. Bovenal zijn roden gepassioneerde minnaars die niet bang zijn zich seksueel compleet te laten gaan. Rood geeft enorme energie op fysiek, emotioneel en mentaal vlak. Wanneer een rode geen actief sexleven heeft, kan hij die dynamische levenskracht inzetten bij andere activiteiten, zodat die passie tot uitdrukking komt in hun creativiteit, zaken en sport.

Oranje: Oranje personen houden ook van sex. Voor hen is sex een vrolijk en natuurlijke bezigheid, maar ze zijn niet zo gericht op sex als de roden. Ze houden van avontuur, opwinding en intrige, vaak zullen ze meerder partners hebben. Zij hebben een neiging tot onafhankelijkheid en voelen zich minder emotioneel gebonden.Voor hen is de spanning en de uitdaging van de jacht meer opwindend dan het werken aan een emotionele en intieme band. Vaak zijn de oranje mensen zo onafhankelijk dat ze het aangaan van een langdurige en monogame relatie beperkend en verstikkend vinden.

Geel: Mensen met overwegend geel in hun aura zijn gewoonlijk speelse, humorvolle, plezierige en wat kinderlijke types. Zij flirten graag, houden van hun vrijheid en genieten van het fysieke plezier dat sex hen geeft. Sex is voor hen als spelen, maar zij kunnen ook veel liefde en aandacht aan hun partner schenken. Omdat een geel persoon ruimte en vrijheid nodig heeft, kan een veeleisende relatie hun energiepeil omlaag halen, waardoor zij zich gevoelsmatig voor hun partner zullen afsluiten.

Groen: Wanneer groene mensen hun gevoel voor ambitie sterk nastreven en dus voor succes gaan, vragen zij van zichzelf een bovenmenselijke inspanning. Als resultaat van zulk een doelgerichtheid, zal het sexleven vaak op een tweede plan komen. Hun partners zullen zich dan ook vaak afgewezen en jaloers voelen door de betrokkenheid die een groene heeft met zijn werk en carrière. Boven alles willen de groenen graag de zaak onder controle houden. Vaak uit zich dat in dominant gedrag van macht en heldere intelligentie. Groenen hebben een sterke partner nodig die zich niet geïntimideerd zal voelen door de kracht van het groene.

Blauw: De blauwen vertegenwoordigen de zorgzaamheid in het kleurenspectrum. Zij zijn emotioneel en heel gevoelig, houden van intimiteit en zinvolle communicatie. Bovenal houden ze van een liefdevolle, ondersteunende en monogame relatie, waarin ze kunnen geven en zorgen. Zij willen liever ondersteunen dan zelf het middelpunt zijn. Zij zijn zeer warmhartig, gul, gevoelig,meevoelend en spiritueel. Blauwen moeten er meestal niet aan denken sex te hebben met iemand waarmee ze geen liefdevolle relatie hebben. Voor hen verhoogt de sex de emotionele intimiteit, nabijheid en liefde tot de partner.

Violet: Mensen met veel violet in hun energieveld hebben de neiging in een fantasiewereld vol dagdromen te leven. Zij leven in de prachtige wereld van hun magische voorstellingsvermogen. Met als resultaat dat de fysieke daad van de sex voor hen minder belangrijk is dan hun fantasieën hierover. Zij houden van een fysieke intimiteit met een liefdevolle, zorgzame partner, maar alleen als zij zich bij deze persoon veilig kunnen voelen. De partners van violette mensen moeten dan ook zeer behoedzaam en geduldig met hen omgaan, om de sexualiteit van de violette mensen aan te moedigen.

October may have gone

2008-11-07T10:21:00.004+01:00

But we still have to be aware that Cancer hasn't ....

As a wife, daughter-in-law & friend of cancer survivors I urge you to never forget to donate, never forget to check yourself, never forget to keep showing you care for those that have faced the battle even after they've had the worst of it behind them cause that's when it really hits them and most of all ..... live life like there's no tommorow !

this film (with thanks to CZ) reminded me ....

I did it all

2008-11-05T15:36:00.000+01:00

Well almost all during our fall break;

*pumpkin decorating
* Lego World
* purging in the attic (that went really well)
* spending a day with mommy
* wrote all bday cards on time !

The downpricing in the store didn't happen, didn't plan the crop yet, no research on italy yet. But 5 things out of the 7 that I had planned, that's not bad !

And the week after was such a busy week, every evening was booked I was really tired this weekend but had just enough energy to go to the Piens Album Track, great to have an album almost finished ! And this brings me back to some more scrapping which has been on the backburner a bit since I just wasn't in the mood for a while. I didn't join in the dutch dare although I had a pretty good one I could make and I will sometime but you really should check out what the rest of the Design team did !

Now I'm off to bed as I have the flu....

don't you just love

2008-11-03T22:45:00.010+01:00

Downloading really old pic's from your "extra" camera that you had forgotten and finding gorgeous, special & other fun time photo's on there ? I know I do !

I cannot wait to scrap these pics of the boys !!

Love these quotes I saw in Utrecht. My favorite is the protect me one ;)

He loves a special lunch or dinner at school, I believe this was easter 2008.

A fun dinner with friends a while back

A gamecomputer makes everything better in his world ...

Yes she really can be a diva sometimes ;)

vacation plans

2008-10-16T21:02:00.005+02:00

Life is getting back to normal after the schock of the accident has settled.... She's doing ok, very sore and tired still and lot's of pain in her shoulder. DH and I are very concerned it could be whiplash but appearantly we are the only ones there (probably bcause dh knows what it's like to have one ..) as the doctor and mom aren't too concerned.

I'm so happy with the slide show I received from our new photo shoot with Flo :D Oh my that is always so worth the money !

And now my fall holiday has already started and I have so many things I want to do I already know it's not all do-able.

I know I want to bake more cupcakes (that is do-able)

I want to purge the attic (hmmm I hope I can do a lot there, but need some help in that dept. unfortunately the ones who have offered help are allergic to my cats or recouperating from a car accidnet so I guess I'll have to see how that goes)

Continue downpricing most products in the store (that should work as I have been doing this everynight) and I'm already a long way and I hope this will be tempting for all my customers ;)

Write a lot of overdue cards (I love sending people cards and I should be able to do that)

Go to lego world with the kids (I have tickets so we are going, if anyone wants to join in let me know)

Plan a fun crop with friends SOON (haven't scrapped in ages :( ...)

Do some research on our Italy tips that lot's of friends have been giving us (but keep them coming if you have any LOL)

and... and.... well that should be enough for one week don't you think ?!

Miracles do happen

2008-10-06T21:10:00.004+02:00

And boy there was one last friday !

My mother had a car accident, only 10 minutes from our house, due to a black out (probably due to wrong medication) she had. We were lucky there was an icu nurse at the scene who helped my mother and called me so she wasn't alone long. Bcause she had the black out she took a left turn without any notice and got hit by a car and stopped against a traffic sign. She was shipped off to the hospital, been checked, photographed and scanned and held overnight and now she's back home (this is the short version) :D

You will not believe it but besides being sore all over and a slight concussion she has nothing, NOTHING ! Now that is what I call a miracle ! (she can't believe it either after seeing the pics I took, lucky thing I did as she cannot remember a thing and how do you explain all that ...)

Me, I'm a wreck, been sleeping for 2 days, but over the worst shock ....

whaaaaaaatzzzz up

2008-10-02T22:36:00.008+02:00

So it's been a while, I've had a bit of this weird flu thing that's going around and very busy trying to get some stuff more organized at home and in the shop inbetween the normal day life.

We've been making some changes on the MLS designteam blog and it looks even fabber if that is possible (just small changes here and there) and some new changes in the schedule as well. We've made ourselves a hyves group so we can connect with even more scrappers. And the newest dare is so fabulous, Dutch Idols LOL !!! I will be working on one this weekend.

We've been making some plans for our home, new exciting stuff and I have to do plenty of research for these. Starting with bathroom inspiration ! You see I would like to have a new bathroom but without tiles but paint on the walls, specialist paint or colored swimming pool paint. But I have a hard time finding pics for inspiration/tips/ideas, as I lost the magazine i saw it in. So if you know of pics online, or have experiences to share (or have the Ariadne at home with the beige/cream bathroom without tiles) plse let me know !!

Oh and speaking of tips, we're thinking of Italy. A ready set camping ground (no DH and I do not like tents ;) .... ) with a caravon or so would do fine but there are so many so we'd love to hear your fave spot/place so we can check it out.

I haven't been running pr to the gym but I've been taking streetdance classes ( yes I secretly want to dance like they do in Step up ;) and no I cannot ....) and they are so much fun. I recommend it to everybody bcause you get a work out without realizing it (trust me I have the sore muscles to prove it ...), have a lot of laughs and great music, it's over before you know it !

Bought myself this pretty bracelet to support pink ribbon, and the magazine ! How are you supporting Pink Ribbon this month ?

And this website was brought to my attention and I'm sending this little dutch boy some cards bcause he's pretty lonely and could use some cheering up!

And I've been making fun plans with friends to get together every month and have some baking fun, can't wait till next week girls so I can try my new mixer ....

Oh and would love it if the lurkers would say hi, so I can see who you are and check you out, I love to make new blogfriends !

Busy enough wouldn't you say ;)

I do good, you do good, we should all do more good

2008-09-22T12:20:00.005+02:00

I like to do good, give money to a cause, walk the sponsor walks, give promotion to something I feel strongly about (hence my 90 pink ribbon cupcakes ...) and if I had more time I would surely be a volunteer somewhere so that's why, when I read about these 2 causes I just had to share it with my blog friends.

Unfortunately I cannot donate to the 1st one for obvious reasons which will become clear when you read it. But the other cause is so easy for everyone who wears crocs, you just have to do this ! I read about it after I had thrown Colin's out and so I jumped in our trash bin to get them back out, I told you I can feel very strongly about good causes ;)

Healing Miles = This dutch foundation asks people to donate their frequent flyer miles for sick children & adults that need medical care abroad but cannot afford the costs of the tickets. They also take donations btw for the airport taxes etc. that need to be paid.
Now how cool is that because you don't really miss your frequent flyer miles if you were to donate a few, it's different to say giving them 100 euro's or 100 miles ... Great deal if you ask me, kinda wishing I traveled more !

Soles United =
the first-of-its-kind recycled footwear donation program. give back your worn-out crocs shoes to be recycled into new shoes and they will be donated to people in need around the world.
Now how easy is that, just send them your old crocs instead of chucking them in the bin and you've helped someone, all you need are stamps and an envelope .... I will be emailing them to find out if they have a european place to send them !

Makes me feel better even if I only share these links with you bcause I feel really crappy today after a busy weekend I think due to a bit of frustration/disappointment and a bit of a really bad cold.

May we have your votes please ?

2008-09-18T17:53:00.002+02:00

My dt member Marianne is one of the finalists for the Dutch Scrap! Awards 2008 and she needs your vote. Only a few clicks for you but a joy forever for her ;)

1. click on this link

2. fill in first your name, then your e-mail adres, then the place where you live (this is all to avoid fraude). You may fill in your phone number, but it's not necessary.

3. then you click on the Marianne Hope's name

4. click on the "stem nu" box, and you have voted

Itsa simple & I thank you !

A song for my friends

2008-09-16T13:01:00.003+02:00

You know who you are & you know you are stronger than you think, I've felt it ! And like she says in this live version, some times you just have to hear the good words ...

B'day Recaps (not only mine)

2008-09-14T19:51:00.011+02:00

So I totally forgot to show you Colin's gorgeous bday cake (beware birthday photo overload ....) made by t his lady found via this forum.

He had a disney party and she was totally into making a toy story cake for him. When Colin saw it he exclaimed "oooh that's buz" (so happy we have that on the flip !) and I can understand he was in awe :

Oh and he liked the mickey mouse confetti on my cupcakes as well ;)

He was spoiled a lot here are some prezzies he got and there were a lot of vouchers for which he bought an epet (monkey), 3 boardgames (of course), a flashlight, a smurf, a game for his vtech and he still has plenty left but we're spreading it not letting him spend it all at once ...

And some pics from the celebration @ school:

For his party with his buddies we had a whole summer beach party planned but it was cold & rainy .... so we had to revert to plan B (which is actually something he came up with a week prior to the party but we had everything set for the beachtheme ...) and that was to go bowling (he loved it and kept asking all the kids at the end if they liked his party, how sweet is that?!)! To add another fun factor we did our "wild fast food" lunch which is always very popular with the kids (translation : we package our whole table in alu foil and spread the french fries, snacks and mayonaise, appelsauce etc. on the table and let them eat ... ALWAYS guaranteed to give you faces full of amazement LOL). And then as a grand finally stomping (well sometimes it's sitting or lying) on the numbered balloons so the corresponding presents can be opened :

And as for me I was spoiled too on my birthday by the boys and my family and we had a fun day celebrating together. No breakfast in bed as the boys had a game, but a fun breakfast together and the unwrapping of presents. The boys gave me a pink apron and a baking book with great recipes and Ed gave me a Wii FIT !! then my parents joined us to go to the game (they won and Michael scored a homerun !) and a great brunch at home, they got me a tickets to go to Stevie Wonder (mom & I are going, so excited), my brother joined us for games and installing the Wii Fit (hilarious with the weighing and such but hey I'm very healthy appearantly) and then we went for dinner. It was a very relaxing most perfect birthday in a very long time ....

And yesterdayevening my party.... although I didn't have a lot of guests (somehow there was so much stuff going on ?? what the &#@$%!!! it all was I still don't quite know but it depressed the hell out of me ... and I didn't even want to make cupcakes for the guests that were coming) but at a certain point I just said f... I am going to make cupcakes anyway bcause otherwise I will have nothing partylike to serve my guests so I started making them anyway and it's just like scrapping I swear ! It's very therapeutic to bake when you're a bit depressed when your friends are having a rough time and there's nothing you can do about it (it was definately a full moon this weekend...), but I must say, the cupcakes turned out yummy (click on the picture to see the embossed fondant), I felt better and it was great fun with the girls that came !

Some gifts I got were Nigella Lawson - domestic goddess, a kookbook with kids bday cakes, a gift certificate for a chocolaterie, great bodylotion & showergel, a cute bracelet, lipbalm, a candle, a soap with some money attached to the package, money, a ticket to see Alicia Keys with Martine, a gift voucher & money over the mail and a gift voucher so I can get this perfum that I've been wanting for a while :

Yep this girl was definately spoiled :D!

Special Events

2008-09-07T01:00:00.000+02:00

It's my birthday

I've supported a friend in her goal to get 1.500 sponsor donations for a breastcancer charity fund "A Sisters Hope" walk (she not only has to raise this money but also walk 60km) which I think is so awesome !!!! I wanted to help so I baked about 90 cupcakes which sold really well at a bake sale. Feels good to donate some time and ingredients that quadrouple it's value :D

I started a new blog so I wouldn't bore you with all my cupcakes on this blog (I've been making a lot lately), if you want to see them you can find them here, but wanted to share these, since they are my fave's till now. Made them for a special date with my friends Co, Jo & Flo

photo courtesy of C. Delis

New addiction

2008-09-01T12:17:00.007+02:00

I regularly send my crafty friends fun links I know they will enjoy for inspiration, fun or just plain IWANNAHAVEIT stuff.

This was the latest : WORDLE

And with it I created a wordle based on this blog of mine

(sorry the image is so small I have nooooo idea how to make it bigger, I was happy with the mere fact I was able to paste it in LOL). I will work on one based on words I think are important to me but I am still working on that list.

So busy that I'm behind with EVERYTHING

2008-08-27T23:06:00.007+02:00

So what's everything you may ask ? Well I'll start today and work my way backwards ....

nr. 1 Totally forgot to take a pic of the card I sent to Mandy that is too late for her b'day today(shame on me ...) ....

Congratulations sweetie, I hope you got spoiled today, you deserve it !!

nr. 2 Totally behind on posting about her b'day due to Colin's last bday celebration today ... Will share lot's of pics this weekend.

nr 3. Behind on telling you what a fun day I had with my friends Flo, Corinne and Jo-Anne yesterday ....

nr. 4 Totally behind on sharing my sketch with you, that went online monday ...... Here was my layout :

nr. 5 Behind on sharing this thought with you: I really should laugh more till mu jaw hurts. Discovered in bed whilst replaying the fun night out with my workcolleagues !....

nr. 6 Behind on sharing the great news my mom is home safe and sound from Canada and she spoiled us rotten, me especially bcause she shopped till she dropped for the following stuff i had on my list : Martha Stewart punches, life savers, chap stick, lanacin spray and loads of prezzies for the boys ! ...

nr. 7 Behind on telling you I've developed an addiction to baking cupcakes ! Here are a few I've made and this coming friday I'm going to a workshop to learn some new techniques.... with marzipan and such.

Now you're all up to speed !!!

I do scrapbook

2008-08-20T14:37:00.006+02:00

Really I do and here are 2 layouts to prove it :D

First one is for the Dutch Dare, about your fave yummy recipe, check out what the other girls did over here and you really should, total eyecandy in all styles you can imagine !

Most of you probably know what klaasbrokken are, they are a recipe from supermommy Francine shared on her blog and they have been a big hit in our household ever since....

And the second one just for fun, clean and simple about Michael meeting Colin. I really didn't think any journaling was necessary, the pic says it all ;)

Super Size Me

2008-08-18T22:21:00.003+02:00

OMG I am watching the SSM documentary and am becoming sick to my stomach, also quite amazed by his appearant addictive reaction to all the Mc Donalds. Hmmmm I think that I've found an explanation for my potatochips addiction that I seem to have aquired after my little knee accident .... I should just stick to chocolate, a better addiction bcause that at least gives you a happy feeling !

But anyhooo I have decided after today I'm really going to leave them alone during the week and get back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon (which for me equals just eating healthier according to their guidelines).

We do eat pretty healthy I think, the boys (and so do I, DH is another story) take fruit and veggies with them to school, we don't eat a lot of gravy with our food and we all get plenty of excercise. But we eat from our local fast food (patatzaak) once a week, I think we shold cut down on that a bit. At least how many snacks we order with our french fries ... And lemonade & juices we try to keep that to a minimum and give water & tea too, but sometimes it creeps in as it's easy to grab so I'll be watching that a bit more.

What do you do to eat & stay healthy ?

I showed off

2008-08-11T23:10:00.007+02:00

My techniques on the MLS Blog today, wow it took me a while to think up what to do, but once I had the idea it was a sinch to work out.

So many things on the news today making me sad (the war going on over in Georgie) and the news about Isaac Hayes who died, he truly was a talented soul man ! So here's a little tribute :

Thank goodness there are also happy things in the news, like a silver medal for Holland in Judo !

And my boys having a great first day @ school was also a happy thing today. Here they are with the taking of the obligatory 1st day pics :

The worst concert of my life

2008-08-05T10:35:00.005+02:00

Yep and I've been to quite a few but let me tell you Meatloaf has had his best days. I wish we had read into past reviews so we had not bought any tickets. He was slurred, off beat, catatonic at times and I have to hand it to the band and backup singers for attempting to carry him through the show, which didn't work btw .... They were fab, he s%$#@!d. Such a shame I was so looking forward to this but DH, and I couln't even bear it after Paradise by the dashboard light and Bat out of hell we bailed before the last 3 songs of the concert ..... (Daphne couldn't stand more than 4 songs if I'm not mistaken and went out for drinks ....) It is understandable you cannot singalong with newer songs but usually you can singalong for a bit but in we couldn't even singalong with the songs we knew as the songs were played way slower and because he was constantly off beat it was impossible ... such a shame

I don't think I will ever be able to listen to his cd's without the memory of this fiasco ..... RIP Meat Loaf and Michael Lee Aday you should think about a retirement home even though you're only 60. Or maybe better become roommates with Ozzy ....

He's 5

2008-08-03T07:00:00.004+02:00

Yep our bubbly bouncy boy is 5 today ! You can congratulate him on his blog, he'd love that.

My current fave

2008-07-28T22:01:00.002+02:00

A layout I made from Evi's sketch posted on the MLS Blog today, you should definately check out what the other girls did here. I'm loving this layout I made with one of my alltime fave pics of Jo-Anne, I guess you're allowed to be really happy when you think you've made a fab one right ;)