40 year old BABE

Yep my babe turned 40 today ! I surprised him yesterday with a bigger party than we normally have and he was surprised and happy.
He wanted some fun techno prezzies so I asked everyone to give money and the good news he will be able to buy the things he wanted like an usb casette player, a tripod and a lens with some day money left over from last year. So he's happy and I'm happy he had such a great time. I had a lot of help from my mom on friday and saturday to pull it all off, you see we had party lights, lots of decorations, we made homemade food (yep I made my first quiche, pasta salad and potatosalad) that everyone enjoyed (and my stepdad helped out in that dept. too), a dj and lot's of our friends. It was fun !

I feel good

I knew (eventually) I would now ....


So I'm feeling so much better now that my toothache has gone, my knee is doing better, the sun is out a bit (but until it really comes out I've been going to a tanning salon) ! I've been going to the gym regularly, my mom is helping me out with the business once a week (which is also so much fun bcause we're spending more quality time together) and I'm building in more free time to do fun stuff. Phew I think I have that wintercrisis under control ....


I've been scrapping at least once a week now and this is what I made last week. A lo about the fun stuff I discover in Colin's room regularly; I like it, simple but not so clean as I went a bit overboard on the distressing and tried to repair it with a bit of inkt and now it looks a bit much but I'm ok with that.





Tommorow evening I'm looking forward to a visit from Kirs for a chat and a crop. If anyone wants to come too you're more than welcome to come over too !


Oh and yesterday I went to the movies with my friend Martine to see 27 dresses, we laughed a lot it was really funny and we saw some sneakpeaks of other movies coming out soon we definately want to check out like the babymommy and fools gold. Anyone in the US seen these yet ?

I wanted to share some things with you my friends (pic overload)

About my boys, haven't chatted about them in a while and I'm doubting wether to do this on their blogs or just continue here but for now here's the deal in the life of Michael :

He got his 1st Swimming Certificate after 2 long years of swimming lessons.... (Now 2years might be long and let me tell you it was, he switched teachers after 1 year and that was not a good idea, she wasn't the right combination of strikt and fun, she was way too sweet and a softie). So this saturday he's starting @ a new swimschool for his next certificate. Here are some pics of the final moment and his prezzies afterwards (wel after we had dinner @ his favorite restaurant Burger King LOL) some books from Geronimo Stilton which included Fantasia, Fantasia II and the smaller series. He was stoked as he loves reading !

There was a soccermatch between schools and although they took the 2 best players in his grade and moved them in the team of a higher grade, they lost all games they had so a lot of fun ! Here's a recap

now here's the deal in the life of Colin :

He's started judo classes and he's having a ball, I'll share some pics soon ! It's really a perfect sport for him as he's quite the touchy, feely, holding everyone kinda type but also because he's quite a restless boy who has trouble focussing his attention especially when he needs to listen....

His favorite thing to do over easter was play a game called toktoktick (sorry don't know how to translate it but it's basically a crashing of eggs and the one who's egg breaks after one time loses) with boiled eggs.

He likes to position his fave cuddly toys in a row around him, this time he made a row over his belly ;)

And I'm making a lo very soon with this photo



Something Colin calls Rocky Rock but he really means Rock & Roll (yep DH is trying to teach him the signs for their first rockconcert)

We had fun in the snow over easter

And the boys made us dinner, they picked the recipes and helped prepare it. It was so much fun we will be doing this more often !

Oh and here's something from my life. I'm sure we all feel this way, we don't like a lot of our old lo's but it's the road we travel to "get" a certain style so we leave them bcause if we should want to redo all our old lo's we would never get any scrapping done. But sometimes it's just so wrong in so many ways (i have about 3 of those) and this is one of them :



And now (thanks to a pencillines sketch) it looks like this :



:D

ps. did you see the cool dutch dare that went online yesterday ? Unfortunately I didn't have the time to participate in the last few but I hope to get into the swing of it soon !

Long Update

Thinking back I've had this crisis around the same time last year too... And I want to thank all my (blog & irl) friends for getting my spirits up through your comments and chats and especially Liek for her sweet happinez sentiment and Flo for the hugs. BUT the biggest surprise was this card and besides being absolutely fab it was so unexpected (you see I'm the kind of person that sends cards and gifts regularly but rarely receive them in return) that it blew me away. Thanks so much Ingrid, this was the cherry on all the sweetness I have received in the last 2 weeks.

I have thought long and hard and decided that things can only get better and I have to make some changes in my life to make them better. So I've asked my mom for some assistance and she is helping me out with the shop for a while, just getting things organized that I'm not getting done in the 2 days and 7 nights that I have off from my regular job. Want to get my healthy slimmer self back again so I've returned to the gym to get back into shape and give me some relaxation & energy and I've even made some time to scrap this week....

So as for an update from the last 2 weeks, here we go !

DH's been really sweet to me lot's of cuddles and backrubs :D and he got me the cd "Rockferry" by Duffy and I LOVE it ! Not only this song is fab but the rest is cool too, totally my style reminds me of Carmel.




A sweet scrapper in the US (thanks Wendy!!) helped us out and ordered this


and mailed it to us so we too can scare the world with our funny video's. Watch out LOL. It arrived right on time BECAUSE Michael is swimming for his A certificate after 2 years of lessons, we are so happy (and so is our wallet) and we will be having a little party, we bought him some cool books from Geronimo Stilton (Fantasia and some of the smaller series) and we are going to Burger King for dinner.

Colin started judo lessons and is having a ball, we got him the suit and everything we think it is the perfect sport for our bouncy ball who loves to grab and hold people hihi.

We've been trying to make a new banner but so far nothing has been good enough so we are still working on that (well DH is ...) so you'll have to wait for that.

The boys cooked dinner for easter and it was fun to see if the recipes they picked were to their taste (well not everything was LOL) but it was a good step towards awareness of other menus besides pancakes, fries and pizza which they choose when they can decide the menu ....

Oh and I yesterday I went to a workshop @ SDJZ given by the lovely Jo-Anne and Lucy and had a great time, they had a fab mini-album that I'm finishing off this week it's so cool ! We totally surprised Lucy by coming as she didn't know and sitting between the fab Monique and Corinne was fun ! I will show my lo soon too !

not coping

Yep that's me I'm talking about. At the moment I'm having troubles coping with everything in my life, not blogging a lot, not laughing enough, not responding a lot, not taking care of business a lot, no scrapping at all, not coping with evenings very well, basically I'm not on top of my game ....

What's up you may ask, well I'm damned if I know.......

What I do know is where the fatigue is coming from; I've had the last appointment with the fysio this week and he said I'd be tired but oh my this is really bad. I work on lots of MLS stuff during the evening and this week I'm crashing at 21.00 which does not give me a lot of work time. The thing is my fysio is an ostheopath and after dealing with my knee, he turned to my pelvic and back because since he was treating me they started to hurt. But he does that in a peculiar way, he's been messing with my muscles in my stomach (said they were all being pulled to my appendix scar ...?) and he's been prodding and pushing my organs around like crazy ... Appearantly my tummy doesn't give the natural resistance it should (none really) and appearantly that is not good for me ?? it seems to be working as my backpain is going away but because he's been doing that I had to drink lots and lots of water to get the waste materials out of my body and I would feel really fatigued and he was right. I have to go back in a month so we'll see how that goes ...

As for my state of mind, hmmm maybe I'm in bad need of lotsa sun, chocolate (I've got boxes full of the cocolate kind and I don't care if Bubbah tried to convince you otherwise ...) or just lotsa fun who knows. But it's good I've got spring break until next wednesday so I'll at least get some rest from the daily blahblah ....

Well I'm off to crash, Happy Egghunting to all this weekend !

1st Scrap-a-licious Weekend

This weekend was a lot of hard work but we've had fun too ! We had the whole shop packed into 19 moving boxes and boy that was a lot to move but it was worth it as we had just about everything everyone was looking for. Totally need more people to help out next time with the shop though as I didn't have the opportunity to meet people I didn't know, talk to people I did know or finally met IRL :( as I was busy making invoices and dealing with the payments.
Dear Diana, Marije, Astrid, Ingrid, Hanneke, Petra, Sylvia, Fauve I hope next time we meet we'll have more time to chat (next SiS Crop maybe ?) !!
I've almost unpacked everything, already been to the wholesalers for new crayons, skulls and pins, reordered a lot of stock for the shop and now I have some admin to work through.

Thanks DH, Mandy, Wendy & Corinne for helping out in the shop and other stuff and Celine for giving some awesome workshops that I unfortunately totally missed as I was working ;) and thanks everyone for your patience while trying to pay, it was our first big event and I'm taking it all in as a big learning experience for the 2nd Scrap-a-licious workshop ^^)

My toothache is slowly getting less and less, so I guess the dentist was right .... And my back took a turn for the worse over the weekend, hmmm I wonder why ;) but after a good massage on saturday (thx Wendy) and a visit to my fysio yesterday I'm doing much better !

extreme home makeover

Love that show but since Ty won't be visiting my house we're DIY it all the way .....

I went to Ikea yesterday to buy a guestbed for the guestroom that is being made by my DH as I write this. HUGE thanks to my friend Martine for coming along and helping me lug this heavyweight home !



I can never leave IKEA without buying some other bits'nbobs and these pillows screamed take me with you so I did :)
Front Back



They made me smile and they will totally fit into our new colorscheme (light browns, blues, pinks, greens) I'm working on this year (yes year because changing our interior isn't done in a week I'm afraid to say) but slowly we are getting there and everytime I add something it looks better and better. Cannot wait till the new couch and curtains as that will make the biggest change.

Blogreaders have been asking about my knee and it is healing pretty good actually, I can take little sprints when I need to rush, and I don't seem to have any pain. I cannot lean on my knee or go through the knees and stay like that bcause the tension is too big but other than that the knee is doing well. My back on the other hand :S ... how is it that physio's always seem to find another project to work on ....
My moulder is still giving me lots of pain but I have no time to go to the dentist again so I will deal with that next week.

Because I am having a bit or a rough time, just a lot of things on my plate right DH is being so sweet for me. He won a special preview to a chick flick and gave them to me, I took my mom as she could use a night out too and we went to see Definately, Maybe. Great film to go see with a good friend, I can definately recommend it ! Thanks babe !

Looking forward to this weeken, Scrap-a-licious weekend. WOW getting everything organised this week and it's actually going better than I thought. I am (i confess I need this every now and then) taking some natural relaxatives or else I'd be the wicked witch and we don't want to go there ..... I've bought some extra fab products that we will be sharing in the weekend and if we have any left we'll be showing them in our webshop after the weekend. And I'm making such cute little bags of goodies to sell, I've got the vintage ones done and I'm now going on to the pastels and brights.

I'm so looking forward to meeting a lot of blogfriends IRL this weekend CU all there !

Snowed Under

It's hard to get everything done in a holiday and now on friday, the last vacation day I officially feel like I'm snowed under ... Time is getting the better of me, (I feel a lot of selfpity about everything) on all fronts and I really am in no mood for anything but bravely (is that a word ???) plowing through.

I had to make a post for my friend Wendy though, it's pretty special as it's her birthday today and she can't say that every year ;)

HAPPY Birthday Sweet friend of mine (I hate you for going to CKU without me but love you enough to be happy for you LOL), here's some fun info about you !

You were born on a Tuesday under the astrological sign Pisces.
Your Life path number is 5.
Your fortune cookie reads: Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. H.L. Mencken

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/15/1972 and ending 2/2/1973.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Rat.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

As of 2/29/2008 9:02:03 AM EST
You are 36 years old.
You are 432 months old.
You are 1,878 weeks old.
You are 13,149 days old.
You are 315,585 hours old.
You are 18,935,102 minutes old.
You are 1,136,106,123 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Jeff 'Ja Rule' Atkins (1976)
Antonio Sabato, Jr. (1972)
Gretchen Christopher (1940)
Jack Lousma (1936)
Dinah Shore (1916)
Jimmy Dorsey (1904)
William Wellman (1896)
Herman Hollerith (1860)

Top songs of 1972
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan
American Pie by Don McLean
Without You by Nilsson
I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash
A Horse with No Name by America
Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me by Mac Davis
Me and Mrs. Jones by BillyPaul
The Candy Man by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Lean On Me by Bill Withers

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.14637964774951 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)
Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3 & 7.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Virgo. => hey that's me ;)

Your birthstone is Amethyst
The Mystical properties of Amethyst
Amethyst is used to increase spiritually

Your birth tree is Pine Tree, the Particularity
Loves agreeable company, very robust, knows how to make life comfortable, very active, natural, good companion, but seldom friendly, falls easily in love but its passion burns out quickly, gives up easily, many disappointments till it finds its ideal, trustworthy, practical.

Have a great day !

A post of all sorts

So it's been a week since my last confession, oops I meant post.

But seriously the past week was no fun, i still have a lot of toothaches/headaches and after having drugs (the cool stuff) for the last month I've had enough and am scheduled in to have the filling redone tommorow evening. If that doesn't do the trick I will have more extreme measures taken (said in my bravest tone as I am a bit scared of the dentist and i have a low threshold for pain ....)!

Best news the past week was that Michael got his final ribbon so he's off to get his first swimming diploma next month phew ... and the thought that this week would be a schoolvacation.

I've also had a touch of the flu and been busy getting everything oranized at home, the webshop, and I took a workshop from Tim Holtz on friday and went to the demo days of one of my suppliers Kars on sunday with some fun chicks so those are the excuses for not blogging. Everyone's blogs are suffering even Michael's and Colin's (whom we made a blog since he has a vtech kiddie camera that he saved for all by himself, but haven't posted for him yet ...) so it's time to get up to spead.

Tim Holtz really rocks, he not only designs fab products and makes fab things with them he also is a great teacher and gives lot's of tips and tricks (and that's what I like) so I really learned a lot during the workshop. And the kars demo day was fun saw so many people I knew either demonstrating or buying, some I didn't even recognize at first (sorry Moniqui ;) ) or knew only by name (Brigitte vdL.) and had fun chatting to.

On our last dt gettogether I showed the girls a technique and we decided to post it on the blog for our monthly technique share. I strongly believe it's more fun to show what an effect the technique has on a layout or project so I made this lo sundaynight to go with the post. While I was making it this title and journaling seemed apropriate and I couldn't get it out of my head (don't ask LOL ...) I might even do some hidden journaling to make it a bit therapeutic too ;) If you want to learn about the phototinting technique, hop on over to the MLS designteam blog !

Tagged twice

I was tagged by Corinne and Lucie S. so I'm spilling the beans :

Tag # 1.

My favorite sites:
omg I have too many to mention but since this is about sites rather than blogs it narrows it down a bit phew ....

Bloglines is a big fave at the moment bcause it saves me time, SIS TV is lots of fun but I rarely have time for it.


Challenge Faves:
Dutch Dares of course: www.mlsdesignteam.blogspot.com and I must say I like OLW but don't have the time to do them

Guilty Pleasures:
I looooooooooooove anything with Chocolate and creams for any purpose you can imagine ....

Babysitting fave:
My parents (they win hands down) always there for us day or night to babysit (thx mom :D)

Creative Fave:
Oh no this is very tricky .... uhm ...

Scrapwise : Corinne as she creates with such ease, Revlie because I love her journaling, Birgit cause I love her style and Jo-Anne for her vintage style ...

Writer : Francine (she's the mom I want to be, hmmmm and the photographer too ) and Bubbah for his view on scrapping

Interiors : Elly (love the vintage & love the little seasonal things)

Clothing fave:
I love H&M for the basics, O'Blue bcause of the colors (they sell this @ ladies sting) and anything else I can afford LOL

Tag # 2.

4 Jobs (I'll choose my faves):
- A&R assistant @ Mecado
- GM assistant @ Wieden & Kennedy
- weekendjob @ Steps (clothingstore)
- currently owning my own scrapbookstore

4 Movies:
- Blues Brothers
- Grease
- The Breakfast Club
- Remember the Titans

4 Places I've been :
- Canada
- America
- Greece
- Turkey

4 Places I've lived :
- Vancouver & Richmond, Canada
- Newcastle Upon Tyne & Bill Key, UK
- Deurne & Antwerpen, Belgium
- France would have been nice for my language skills but the other places are in Holland ....

4 TV-programs I watch (I watch way more than this, trust me....) :
- CSI (all versions)
- Medium
- Ghost Whisperer
- Extreme Home Makeover (gotta love Ty ...)

4 Radiostations (it's supposed to be shows but I don't have any fave radioshows) :
- Slam FM
- Juize FM
- Arrow Jazz
- Radio Veronica

4 x Fave foods:
- taco's
- souflaki
- lasagna
- anything chocolate

4 Places I'd rather be :
- on a tropical beach
- on a tropical beach
- Disneyland
- on a tropical beach

4 People to pass this one of the 2 on to (you get to chose which one you like better LOL):
Evi
Daphne
Liek
Monique B. (to get her back into the blogging swing of things)

I don't do sketches

Well not a lot, I find them difficult to make. Actually I have that with sewing patterns too that's why I don't sew .... But anyhoooo we had a design team day saturday (lot's of food and scraptalk) and unfortunately only the new gals made it but we had fun playing with the new sketch (posted yesterday, you can find what the rest of the girls made here) and I decided to join in and use some fab photo's and new K&Co Wild Saffron on it. Not happy really with how the title is done but somehow I couldn't find something to suit it, this'll have to do till I figure it out.

I'll show some pic's from Michael's bday totally forgot to share that experience :D

Another Birthday and something to think about in one post !

This young goddess :



Kirsty (for those who don't know here btw this is my fave pic of her) is celebrating her birthday today and I just wanted to share some details of her with you;

You were born on a Mondayunder the astrological sign Aquarius.
Your Life path number is 1.
Your fortune cookie reads: One who admires you greatly is hidden before your eyes.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Pig.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Otter; your plant is Fern.

As of 2/8/2008 7:15:08 AM EST; You are 37 years old.You are 444 months old.You are 1,930 weeks old.You are 13,514 days old.You are 324,343 hours old.You are 19,460,595 minutes old.You are 1,167,635,708 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Josh Keaton (1979)
David 'Phoenix' Farrell (1977)
Seth Green (1974)
Gary Coleman (1968)
Claudette Pace (1968)
Robert Klein (1942)
Ted Koppel (1940)
Nick Nolte (1940)
John Williams (1932)
James Dean (1931)
Jack Lemmon (1925)
Audrey Meadows (1924)
Freddie Blassie (1921)
Lana Turner (1921)
Lyle Talbot (1902)
Jules Verne (1828)
Willam Tecumseh Sherman (1820)

And I know how you love music so here are the top songs of 1971
Joy to the World by Three Dog Night
Maggie May by Rod Stewart
It's Too Late by Carole King
One Bad Apple by Osmonds
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Bee Gees
Knock Three Times by Dawn
Brand New Key by Melanie
Go Away Little Girl by Donny Osmond
Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone
Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves by Cher

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.28923679060665 years old. (You're still chasing cats!).
Your lucky day is Saturday.Your lucky number is 4 & 8.Your ruling planet(s) is Saturn & Uranus. Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.

And for those who love these details I have the link here.

On another note, ever since I read about this I've been thinking what I could do to raise some money, but I'm still working on that. If you haven't heard about it, here's some info I quickly "borrowed" from Corinne as I couldn't have said it any better really:

My sweet friend Kirsty Wiseman needs our help, well actually her daughter Ellie does.

Ellie is a a sweet and happy 12 year old who can't funtion like a normal 12 year old. Kirsty and her husband have been to many doctors but nobody can figure out what Ellie has. They said to her: "well what you see is what you get with her". and with those words they had to go home and live with it. Something that is unacceptable for every parent I think.

Kirsty is one of the sweetest woman that I know and such a good mother for Belle, as she lovingly calls her daughter. She has shed so many tears over this and now there is an opportunity to help Ellie get a diagnose and who knows even treatment. They have been offered a chance to be seen by a group of American doctors and specialists, a dream come true for them.

Now here is where you can help out. In order to get there they will have to raise 5000 Pounds. In return Ellie will walk a mile with out her stroller, which for her is like walking 7 miles. You can read all about this fund raising HERE and THIS is what Ellie had to say about it, isn't she the cutest little girl ?

Lot's of people have been auctioning off stuff, homemade and fave items of Corinne, this fab apron made by Lucie, Kerry, Kirsty will be too so maybe you would like check these links out !

Dutch Dare #32

This was quite a challenge for me the subject but also timewise, scrap your favourite dutch band/singer, as I don't like a lot of dutch music, those that I do are r&b and soul but not typical dutch music. But then I remembered something that would be just right and I will bear all about it next wednesday on our blog when we share our inside stories but the journaling already reveals a bit. I found the necessary flyer, had lots of paper and there I sat for about 2 hours, then I thought c'mon just do it and made this in about an hour, a bit different than what I usually make but I like it (haha that's also the name of their song), hope you do too.

Check out what the rest made here and I hope you'll join in and make a lo too !

2 birthdays

Well 3 if you count Michael's 3rd celebration today ;)

But seriously today I must congratulate my dt members Natasja and Evi as they are both birthday girls today !

Happy birthday to you both, i found out some details for you down here I know you'll like them !

Natasja :
Your date of conception was on or about 12 April 1977 which was a Tuesday.
You were born on a Tuesdayunder the astrological sign Capricorn.Your Life path number is 11.
Your fortune cookie reads: Your heart will always make itself known through your words.
Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/18/1977 and ending 2/6/1978.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Snake.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Goose; your plant is Bramble.

Celeb's celebrating today see info below !

Top songs of 1978
Night Fever by Bee Gees
Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb
Le Freak by Chic
Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees
Kiss You All Over by Exile
Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey
Baby Come Back by Player
MacArthur Park by Donna Summer
Thicker Than Water by Andy Gibb
Three Times a Lady by Commodores

Your lucky day is Saturday.
Your lucky number is 8.
Your ruling planet(s) is Saturn & Uranus.
Your lucky dates are 8th, 17th, 26th.


Evi:
Your date of conception was on or about 12 April 1980 which was a Saturday.
You were born on a Saturday under the astrological sign Capricorn.
Your Life path number is 5.
Your fortune cookie reads: Your life will be happy and peaceful.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Monkey.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Goose; your plant is Bramble.
You are 27 years old.You are 325 months old.You are 1,414 weeks old.You are 9,892 days old.You are 237,424 hours old.You are 14,245,472 minutes old.You are 854,728,374 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Alex D. Linz (1989)
Eli Manning (1981)
Danica McKellar (1975)
Michael Schumacher (1969)
Joan Chen (1960)
Mel Gibson (1956)
Victoria Principal (1950)
John Paul Jones (1946)
Stephen Stills (1945)
Van Dyke Parks (1943)
Bobby Hull (1939)
Dabney Coleman (1932)
George Martin (1926)
Maxene Andrews (1918)
Victor Borge (1909)
Ray Milland (1905)
ZaSu Pitts (1898)
Marion Davies (1897)
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892)

Top songs of 1981
Physical by Olivia Newton-John
Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes
Endless Love by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
Arthur's Theme by Christopher Cross
Kiss On My List by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield
I Love a Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbitt
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Private Eyes by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Rapture by Blondie

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 3.87162426614481 years old. (Life's just a big chewy bone for you!)Your lucky day is Saturday.
Your lucky number is 8.
Your ruling planet(s) is Saturn & Uranus.Your lucky dates are 8th, 17th, 26th.
Today is not one of your lucky days!
Your birthstone is Garnet -->The Mystical properties of Garnet
Garnet is used as a power stone. Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources) Emerald, Rose Quartz

Your birth tree is
Fir Tree, the Mysterious
Extraordinary taste, dignity, cultivated airs, loves anything beautiful, moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for those close to it,rather modest, very ambitious, talented, industrious uncontent lover, many friends, many foes, very reliable.

Happy Birthday Nicole

You were born on a Monday under the astrological sign Aquarius.

Your Life path number is 9.

Your fortune cookie reads: The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Life Path Compatibility:You are most compatible with those with the

Life Path numbers 3, 6 & 9.You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 7 & 11.You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 4, 8 & 22.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2439156.5.
The golden number for 1966 is 10.
The epact number for 1966 is 8.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/21/1966 and ending 2/8/1967.You were born in the Chinese year of the Horse.Your Native American Zodiac sign is Otter; your plant is Fern.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Justin Timberlake (1981)
Minnie Driver (1971)
Kelly Lynch (1959)
Nolan Ryan (1947)
Charlie Musselwhite (1944)
Richard Gephardt (1941)
Suzanne Pleshette (1937)
James Franciscus (1934)
Ernie Banks (1931)
Jean Simmons (1929)
Carol Channing (1923)
Norman Mailer (1923)
Mario Lanza (1921)
Jackie Robinson (1919)
Thomas Merton (1915)
Garry Moore (1915)
Zane Grey (1872)

Top songs of 1966:
I'm a Believer by Monkees
The Ballad of the Green Berets by S/Sgt. Barry Sadler
Winchester Cathedral by New Vaudeville Band
Soul and Inspiration by Righteous Brothers
Monday, Monday by The Mama's & the Papa's
We Can Work It Out by Beatles
Summer In the City by Lovin' Spoonful
Cherish by Association
You Can't Hurry Love by Supremes
Wild Thing by Troggs

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.00391389432485 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)
Your lucky day is Saturday.
Your lucky number is 4 & 8.
Your ruling planet(s) is Saturn & Uranus.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Leo.
Your opposition number(s) is 1.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

Your birthstone is Garnet -->The Mystical properties of Garnet
Garnet is used as a power stone

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)
Emerald, Rose Quartz.

Your birth tree is Cypress Tree
The Faithfulness - Strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give, happy content, optimistic, needs enough money and acknowledgment, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered, unruly, pedantic and careless.

The moon's phase on the day you wereborn was waxing gibbous.

Go give her some b'day wishes here !

Birthday Boy

This cute boy turned 7 today !

He came out of his room with a huge grin and I don't think that has stopped yet ! We gave him his presents, colin gave him a pokemon duvet cover(dekbedhoes) and we gave him 2 Wii games Avatar and Barnyard (which was a great deal last month so we've had them ready for a while) before we went to school with his treats (we made pokemons from candy which he loved seeing this morning) and he chose the restaurant for this evening which will be Burger King (sorry weight watchers LOL).

Tommorow we will host his Pokemon Party and on sunday the big Pokemon birthday bash (notice a pattern LOL).

Please leave him a message on his blog, he just loves it when the counter goes up, but even more if he has a comment ;). Thanks !

* ps. the photo is from Florence Bavinck Photography.

Catching up a very random post

We've been very busy this last week, 2 little boys with the flu, DH busy clearing/sorting the attic (so he can start building next week), preparing for a birthday bash (we always start preparing tooo late on M's celebration), updating the shop, and going to physical therapy. Wow the week went by so fast .... and the weekend even faster with 2 birthdayparties !


I've also been in a bit of indecision about a scrapping tool and needs some help here. I have a silhouette but have found I don't use it enough (Let's face it, it's too pricey not to use) and it does cut out smoother and all swirls and edges are nice and prettier than the small cricut. I'm still opting to maybe sell it and buy a cricut expression instead. Although in the end that is more expensive as a silhouette is just as expensive as a cricut and a cartridge are together and you don't need any cartridges for the silhouette just the pc; the fact that the cricut can cut thin chipboard makes it more worthwile with giving workshops and such ...
So help me out which one do you have and what are your experiences ?


Also I've been so happy that I finally started to use bloglines, I had so many blogs in my favorites but just didn't have enough time to visit all my blogfriends and other blogs I love. Let's face it I'm a busy gal and want to maximize every minute ! I love to keep up with my blogfriends lives and this way I don't have to miss any posts, scrap inspiration or any other lovely eyecandy and it only costs me about 10 minutes a day.... gotta love all the technology that can help us busy women out ;)


And on the blog of a cool scrapping gal (Sarah van Wijk ) I found this:









so glad I didn't miss this and just had to share it with you just in case you haven't spotted her blog yet !

Dutch Dare and Photoshop

I have never worked on such a recent foto (wel at least I don't think i have) and it was fun. I totally thought out of the box with my colorchoice this time and I'm really happy with the result !


The rest of the lo's and the fabbo projects of the dt kan be seen here of course !

And now what would I mean with the photoshop in my titel ? Well I really want to learn to work it and just cannot find an affordable course, don't think I will be disciplined enough for an online course although i know there are some great ones out there. So I think I will have to do it with friends, and that's where you come in. If you have a laptop, photoshop on it and would love to explore the wonderful world of photoshop with me drop me a line and I'll see how many people we can fit around my table. DH is also close and he knows a bit, I have a book or two on photoshop so we should be able to get reasonably far .... I was thinking once every 2 weeks orso or once a month on a wednesday or a friday maybe ... So who of my blogfriends are interested ?

Dutch Sis Crop

I had so much fun saturday, everything was great (except for the weather driving in such hard rain is not funny) I met fun new and old friends, made 2 cards (sorry they are being mailed out and cannot show them or it will spoil it) and changed my last Dutch Dare. You know how you should always go with your gut feeling (in my case use this was the background paper) ? I didn't and the lo didn't make me smile when I looked at it, now it does !


Old version:





New version:








I didn't buy anything that's probably why I got some scrapping done, when you own your own scrapstore it's no fun shopping for scrapbook stuff as much as it used to be.


And I took part in my first round robin ever, wow that was scary but after the 3rd lo I got into it. This is what the girls made with my photo ( I started it off with this lovely photo made by Francien, the scalopped circle and a bit of leftover cardstock) and I love it ! Thanks Linda, Mireille, Martine, Fauve, Iben & Jo-Anne !




I'm looking forward to the next crop, it was a real nice getaway, everyone was really friendly although we didn't know each other, we had a good lunch, yummy foods, I got a cute atc from Lucie and a cute RAK from Corinne.


Oh and if you'd like a chance to win something, check out our monday quiz on the mls dt blog !

I'm off

For the day ! I so hate to pack for crops ... I never know what to bring and always end up bringing too much ...

But now I'm all set and will drive to Ede for the Sis Crop and although I am leaving behing so much work I really need this to keep my sanity, DH has been going to the gym to get some time to himself we're trying to find our way to relax more and endjoy our hobbies. Hope to show you something that I've made this weekend, but then I might just end up chatting and eating way too much and won't get any scrapping done LOL.

So what work am I leaving behind you might ask, well thankfully only a tiny bit of admin, lot's of b'day planning for Michael (he would like pokemon party) but explosions about everywhere else in the house I'm afraid. Today I spent most of the day purging the attic, my god we have so much stuff and I have to make some space so DH can start building a spare room for guests (a special one is coming in march and I hope another in june ...) and we haven't even finished the hallway so you can imagine the state of our home .... This will be continued on sunday and we have to bcause we have so much stuff.... But once it's cleared I'm confident he will get lots done over the next 2 weeks !

Speaking of my DH, last week his blog had his 1 yr anniversery, very funny if you think about it as he made this as a joke and a year later he's kinda famous in scrapland and almost being published more than me as his 2nd interview for an e-zine is coming up soon. He is however a bit dissapointed about not getting enough comments as you can tell by his post from today .... So leave him a little comment, he'd love to read who his fans are !

I'll leave you a few photo's from our recent trip to the efteling, that I'd like to share with you, have a nice weekend !

Public anouncements

First off, I so forgot to congratulate Daphne with her birthday, but your card is on the way sweetie !

And psssht have you heard, Florence delivered her baby daughter yesterday, Olivia (beautiful name) !

Did you see our sketch on the blog this week, pretty cool what the girls did !

Oh and I'm going to the SIS crop in Ede saturday, looking forward to it and not, you see I have a hard time packing when going somewhere else to crop. I never know what to take so I take way too much, very frustrating since this is an all day crop so I want to bring enough.
Anybody else going ? What are you taking ? Does anybody need a ride, I'm coming from hoofddorp via Utrecht (Mandy) to Ede....

Presents

I don't often get prezzies but I so love receiving them whether they are expected or unexpected (the latter is of course the most fun LOL). I wanted to share some prezzie's frommy Secret Santa, a friend and myself (also great just giving yourself something because you deserve it ;) don't you agree ?).

In the Secret Santa Swap (I still don't know who had me ...) we were supposed to give scrapbookgifts, a personal gift and a handmade gift and I've shown them here in that order, thanks SSS whoever you are !










I received this gift last week from a sweet friend, because she thought I was a great friend. And to tell you the truth the wrapping and message alone was lovely, but she knows I love movies with lot's of music and dancing so this was right up my alley. Thanks M !

I gave myself this little treat to pimp my new not so girly phone (and I'm all about girly). It made me smile, reminded me of the supercute teddy bears (handmade by her) I had seen over at Jo-Annes and fell in love with. Isn't she cute ?

And this is my new phone I got last month, it has a gps system that I really wanted but didn't think I could afford. Thank goodness it was free with my new mobile subscription, just what I need as I have a hard time finding my way now and then ;)

Healthy Body = Healthy Mind

Or is it the other way around ? Or not ?

I don't care all I can say is I have finally found my word for 2008 ! Health ! I want to take better care of myself not only foodwise but also in the form of relaxation and a bit more fun.

Today I started my day eating healthy and ended it that way too. Tommorow I will go visit the Weight Watchers to lose the 5 kilo's I gained somewhere this year that results into my clothes not fitting .... that somehow I cannot seem to lose. After both boys I lost 12 kilo's following the WW regime (without attending, so I did it all by myself) but at the moment I'm so busy and not in the right state of mind and I cannot seem to do it on my own.
So I need a little help from them and my support group :D
My mother also has (we're jojo's each in our own weightclasses, yes just like boxers LOL) having weight problems (it's definately in the genes we can look at choc, chips etc. and gain weight which results in me always having to make choices) so I dared her to go to and promised ourselves something after 5 kilo's and I'm thinking of jewelry or a wellness centre.
I know that once I fit in my clothes I will feel happier, my leg will have less to carry (you see it should take another 6 weeks to heal WITHOUT surgery phew but in the meantime it's a heavy load for my other not so ok knee) and I can buy some fun new summerclothes. Things could be worse I know, but for me now, this is keeping me busy.

For relaxation I plan to scrap more, get together with friends more and with scrap together with some of them and dinner or dancing with others and go out more with DH and have some fun by going to movies (we LOVE doing this), we already have theatertickets and I want to go away for a romantic weekend together.

So have you found your word yet ?

And for those of you going on the health kick, what are you giving yourself (or receiving) to keep yourself motivated ?

Dutch Dare # 30

I just uploaded the new dutch dares on our blog and they are so great ! I'm still not sure about what the wow factor is in my lo, I'm such a "twijfelkont" when it comes to making lo's always thinking it's missing something and are the colors right etc. (you get the image right ?) , well let's hope my photo is the wow factor this time ....

Here's a sneakpeak, check out the rest and what the dt made here.

journaling : on 9.12.07 I was hit on the cyclist lane by a driver of a car who was in a hurry. The fact that I was riding with 2 bikes did not help when you want to avoid a collision ...

Back to work

Wow what a difference a good night of sleep will do for me ! Yesterday I went to the orthopedic doc and he gave me some good news (well it's just how you take it but I was so relieved, as you can imagine). Turns out only my cartilage/gristle (?) is badly damaged and needs time to heal (about 6 more weeks orso and a little help from a physiotherapist).
And damaged it is as my knee only started turning blue a week ago (the accident was om dec. 9th) ... I will take a new pic today to show you if you don't belive me.


These 2 weeks holiday have just gone by so fast. What have we been up to you may ask, well loads;


Seen the Bee Movie

Went to the Zoo

Played lots on the new Wii

DH worked hard on our hallway which is coming along nicely


Treated each little boy to a meal of his choice so 1 x NY pizza and 1x Mac Donalds


Spent a lot of time looking for new lampshades (Wendy would you mind if we got the same lovely green ones as you have ? hihi)

Counted the whole MLS stock (had some help from Corinne and DH which helped so much)

Cleaned out the scraproom (again)

Went to visit Nicole in Geleen (a good opportunity to see if the boys liked each other and they did so we can meetup more, get the boys to play so we can scrap LOL and I got to try out my new mobile with navigator and yay it works like a charm)

Organized the boys rooms (again)

Organized a Baby Shower with Nili for Flo

Sent out all overdue RAKS from my old stash

Gained a bit of weight :(

Went to the winter Efteling

Got the admin sorted for 2006 (waaaaaaaay overdue)

Washed numerous laundry piles (and I still do not see the bottom of my 4 laundry baskets)

Spent time with friends

Learned not to play 2 consecutive boxing matches on the wii (ouch)

Thought up/Made fun new workshops for jan/feb


What I still need to do SOON;


Organize a Pokemon Party for Michael (all ideas are welcome)

Clean up the attic so Ed can build a guest room for a special guest in March

Lose weight 5 kg = 1 waistsize = no more tight clothes

Get scrapping again ! I just have not had the time and this has to change this year

Xmas & New Year's impression

Here are some impressions from our christmas. First xmas day we stayed in, pj's only, nice old school tradition : "gourmet" (lot's of meat and the kids cook it themselves with little cooking pans) and playing with the wii the whole family received as a gift from santa ! Second xmas day we went out to the Zoo and walked around a few hours enjoying the nice weather and being together (although I was in pain the rest of the evening ;) ...) and then the boys played some more on the wii while we prepared a chicken roast.

New Years Eve we played with fireworks a bit (Colin found out you cannot touch sparkles even when they stopped burning .... we learned a good lesson here, when we tell children (ours or others) not to do something we need to repeat it specifically to Colin or else it will just not reach him (a problem we run into a LOT with him), before the boys went to bed and then woke them up just before 12 to traditionally eat "oliebollen", toast and watch fireworks from our bedroom. That was fun but after an hour the fireworks died down (really soon this year) and we all went to sleep.