vacation plans

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

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

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

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 ?

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

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)

So I totally forgot to show you Colin's gorgeous bday cake (beware birthday photo overload ....) made by this 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My current fave

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 ;)

3 weeks of holiday have gone by

Updating on the last 2 weeks (I am typing up a recap of disney for your reading pleasure and will post it soon) of our very rainy days spent at home;

* My cute (& very tall) brother came over to stay for 2 days and the boys wore him out ... Hope he comes again soon.

* Went for a superyummy High tea over here with my aunt (it was her b'day present) and my mom. I definately want to go again with some friends of mine ! Here's some pics, I can't believe I took so many good shots and even got the girls to do some fun poses :

Oh and I'm sorry I forgot to take pics of most of the food, but it was so good and we were so hungry it was gone before we knew it ..... but if ever you are in Heemstede, check it out !

* Colin just had his 1st ski lesson and he did really well and enjoyed it a lot, I had to miss it but I'm going with for the 2nd lesson.

* Getting caught up on everyone's blog, that's a lot of work even with bloglines ....

* Dvd's I've watched (and I've been watching a few) are Cloverfield (I thought it was a fresh view but I hate open endings !! DH did not like it at all), Sweet Home Alabama (Love Reese Witherspoon), Love actually (1st movie I love that has Hugh Grant in it), Flight Plan (this movie really had me doubting what was true or not so thumbs up !!), Eastern Promises (sorry Liek but we turned it off after about 45 min. it's just not us ...) Save the last dance 2 and Step Up 2 (I so wanna take up street dancing again).

* Took the boys to an indoor playground and met up with friends Flo, Mar10e and Wendy. The boys had a blast and we had some time to chat about girlstuff, laugh, complain and care ....

* Spent a fun evening with my bf's Liek & Mar10e, going for dinner in Delft and to see the SATC movie. That was so much fun it's like watching a whole bunch of episodes after each other, I almost choked laughing @ the movie .... Mar10e you have to catch all the reruns soon and we'll watch it again, you'll love it even more !!

The boys went to stay with their grandparents for 2,5 days so that gave DH and me time to ;

* Scrap all day and evening with Kirs and Marianne, we had a dt lunch with the 3 of us. I've actually been scrapping a lot lately, one lo I cannot show yet, the others are works in process but I made this project for the mls blog, if you want a step by step check out the blog.

* I've been sanding (god I hate doing that) and painting a lot of woodwork, finally I have found the color I like, SCHUIM thanks to Wendy. And for next week I have planned to do the huge window in the living room and the doorposting (sorry I don't thing that is the right word for it ...), the week after that the stairs and I'll be starting on the walls in the hallway too. Then I have to do the kitchen woordwork and the downstairs is done !!! Yay can't wait as I'm on roll now I aim to finish the painting of the downstairs before I return to work.

* Went out to a movie with DH and since we are big scifi and Fantasy fans we went to Chronicles of Narnia; Prince Caspian and we loved it ! Can't wait till the next one (there are 7 books so we should have lot's more good ones to come) which is coming out next year. Till then sweet Prince Caspian ;)

* I've cleaned and re-organised the boys rooms, de-cluttered a lot of things. I moved stuff from Michael to Colin's room as he was determined to keep the fussball table in his room, and they play in Colin's room a lot so that won't matter if the toys are over there.

* we got the garden cleaned up, threw a lot away, so we're almost done just have to relocate some old pots (found them a new home @ Ed's aunt & uncle) and then it's cleaned out :D .

Dutch Dare #43 online

I love this long break from work, DH is home too so I'm taking lots of time to scrap, I'm halfway finished with one layout and made this dutch dare, I really like how this turned out :

You can check out what the other girls did here.

btw. It turns out we have about 1100 pics, wow lot's of scrapbooking ideas there !
I will give a little update on the disney trip this weekend, we're busy over here getting our life back to normal and having fun with the boys who just got a new trampoline in the garden and a foosball table that barely fits in M's room but is oh so fun !

We're back !!

DH is sorting through all the photo's, all 1000 + worth but I wanted to share a few favorites of our last day and will give you a big fat update of our trip to Euro Disney soon !

My Life an update

So I haven't been updating much more than the occasional lo so I wanted to update you on what's been going on in my busy little life :

*Been scrapping regularly but at a VERY slow pace
*went to a Bon Jovi concert
*Got tickets to go see Meat Loaf
*Did NOT go to Kylie :(
*actually watched 2 whole euro soccer matches
*And how could I not share out that Michael got his 2nd swimming diploma (B) and for some miracle he changed his mind and will be going for his C
*Colin who only recently started judo got his yellow badge, totally unexpected !
*caught up on EVERYTHING from Greys Anatomy
*Started watching Army Wives online
*Went shopping with DH and he actually bought clothes (ok 2 items but hey who's complaining)
Been buying a few cute outfits here and there
*Discovered the BESTEST brand Sally Hansen (nails, hands & feet) and boy do I recommend her creams for hands & feet !!
*jogged and went to the gym
*Enjoyed a BBQ to celebrate 2 colleagues graduation
*Had fun @ 2 peanutball tournaments
*Had dates with Revlie, Daphne & Flo no time for scrapping though just tea and cookies
*Went to Derek Ogilvie, wow he's a charming & funny guy
*Missed 2 weddings due to a logistical problem and a tummy bug
*Went for a retailers day to take mini workshops from Donna Downey, Lance Anderson (Rusty Pickle), Layle Koncar (Scenic Route), Jeannie Jamovich (Making Memories), Jennifer Moody (Deluxe Designs) and Karen Burniston.

*Update my playlists on http://www.playlist.com/ I'll share some of those lists with you in the future

*I won a scrap collection pack from Scenic Route and RAK from Hambley this month YAY lucky me !!
*Bought a trampoline for the boys (sssshhhh don't tell they won't see it till after our trip to disney)
*Getting my garden into shape, looking fun and comfy for the summer, will share some pics when it's done
*Watched more movies; Just Like Heaven, Stardust, Transformers (wow) and ehm the other one I can't remember so that probably wasn't that good LOL.
*Oh and I think we had a few kiddieparties that we went to here and there

So my mom is going to the states next month and I'm making a list what she needs to bring back for me, so far I've put this on the list:
A pair of basic UGGs
A pink baseball glove :D
THE martha stewart scalopped punch
A McGill tab punch (the round tab)

Anything else I should put on the list ?

We're going to Disney next week for a couple of days (well 5 to be exact) so we've organised a house sitter and hopefully a house painter too. The boys (and us 2 big ones) are so psyched we can't wait. Now everyone is amazed we are going for so long but this way we can see everything and do everything in a relaxed pace and more than once (or twice) if we want to :D
Now all I have to do is prepare my packing list and do shopping for it ...

Can I bring anyone back anything from the Magic Kingdom ? Some fairydust maybe :D