Dolls Day

Today I had a fun day at Dolls & Decorations. Petra always organizes a Dolls day when the new Dolls Good Newz Box is released. Today's Dolls day was the first time with the new Design Team, and it all went very well. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the DGNB, the make & takes and the catering. And as always there were lots of delicious home-made cakes and cookies. I would like to say THANK YOU to all the Dollies who made this day very successful.

Here are the pictures of the mini book that I created with the paper from the DGNB.

And here is...

...another photo swap layout to reveal. This is the layout that I created for Danielle. Fortunately she too was happy with my creation. I will probably get her layout in the mail tomorrow.

Busy day

Today my dad had a surgery to his oesophagus (slokdarm). It always causes a bit of stress when you have to wait, especially when it takes quite a long time before you hear if everything went well. He had the surgery around 1pm and was back to the ward at 4.15pm. Just 5 minutes before my mom arrived who couldn't stand to wait at home any longer. I went to see my dad this evening. He was still very sleepy due to the anaesthesia and morphine, but he was doing well. He has to stay in hospital for a few days. We don't know yet when he will be released.

This morning I went to Amsterdam to visit my former colleagues and spent almost 3 hours with them. Pretty strange to be in the office as a visitor. Had a cup of tea and a chat with some girls, and lunch with my manager. It was good to see him again. We worked together for more than 9 years and I still miss him from time to time.

No time to scrap today, so I will leave you with a picture of one of the photo swap layouts. Yvon got mine in the mail today, so I can now reveal the layout. Fortunately she was very happy with the result. I will get her layout on Saturday, so I have to be patient for another 2 days. I am really into Scenic Route lately. I just LOVE that brand. I am very curious to know what new lines they will introduce at CHA in July. Has anyone already seen a sneak peak?

My first 8.5x11" layout

I did my first layout on 8.5x11" and I can tell you that it was quite a challenge for me. I really had some difficulties with it, but I managed to get something on paper. I am not completely satisfied yet, so I might add a few extra embellishments or so. I guess I am a little insecure because this one is for my sister-in-law. Lisette, here is a little sneak peak.

Busy bee

I am really in the scrap mood these days, and worked on 3 photo swaps today and yesterday. I am full of inspiration and even scrap faster than I usually do. LOL! The 8x8" layouts for Yvon and Daniëlle are already finished. I also started on the one for Lisette, but I haven't finished it yet. Below are some sneak peaks of the layouts for Yvon and Danielle. The layouts will be sent to them tomorrow, so I can show you more on Thursday or Friday. I hope to finish Lisette's layout this evening. I can probably show you a sneak peak tomorrow.

Sneak peak Yvon





Sneak peak Daniëlle

Photo shoot

Eric is very happy with his new Canon lens he bought himself a week and a half ago. Today he took some black and white pictures of Fleur and Sanne. The girls don't always like having their picture taken, but this time they were willing to pose. Here are some nice shots.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte

This one is for Charlotte in Denmark. Have a wonderful day with your family and friends!



For this card I was inspired by my sister-in-law Lisette.

1 Down, 4 to go

Talking about photo swaps here. I have committed myself to do a photo swap with 5 different people. No. 1 on my to do list is Mandy. We already exchanged photos in April, but so far hadn't started on our layout. Mandy finished her layout last week, and I still had to start. I began with my layout last weekend, but all of a sudden I had to deal with a scrappers block. Mandy is a member of the Memory Lane Scrapbooking DT, and that made me a little nervous. She makes wonderful layouts and mini books, and her style is different from mine. I was "glad" to hear she dealt with the same nervousness. LOL! My first attempt was a failure. I had an idea in mind, but for some reason it didn't work out on paper. I tried to work on the layout this week, but really NOTHING came out of my hands. Last night I started all over again, and this time it all went very well. I just added the final details and now it is ready. I am pretty happy with the result, and hopefully Mandy will be happy with it too. I have to leave you with 2 sneak peeks as Mandy left for her holiday destination early this morning. She will be back about 2 weeks, and we agreed to post our layouts online as soon as she is back.





Now that this one is finished I can finally start on the photo swap for my sister-in-law Lisette. She finished my layout a few weeks ago, but since I had some deadlines to meet for the Design Team call, my work for the quarterly scrap kit and some make & takes I haven't had time yet to work on hers. This one will be quite a challenge too. We agreed to scrap on 8.5x11" - which I have never done before - and like Mandy Lisette also has a great and different style, so this one won't be easy either. I am sure I will manage, but it may cause me some blood, sweat and tears again.

So cute

Earlier this week I saw these cute Sassafras Lass stamps of Oliver & Friends and Sweet Serendipity on eBay, and just couldn't resist them. I LOVE to use stamps on my layouts and other projects, so I had to order them. LOL! They arrived in my mailbox today. O, and I also ordered the Autumn Leaves Ledger Tabs and two boxes of Prima Flowers Sprites, but ssshhh.....don't tell anybody. ;-))

DGNB Sneak

Here is a sneak peek of a project that I made for the Dolls Good Newz Box, a quarterly scrapbook kit sold by Dolls & Decorations. It is my first official project as DT member, so quite exciting. I enjoyed working on this little project, and hope the kit members will like it. I will share more pictures after June 30th.

A letter to...

Scrapbooking is my number one hobby, but another favorite hobby of mine is pen palling. Although I must honestly admit that I spend less time on writing letters than I used to do in the past. I had my first Dutch pen pal at the age of 9. When I was in high school I had my first foreign pen pal. Back in 1992 I joined the International Pen Friends organization and met lots of new friends all over the world. I became close with some of them, and with others I had quite a superficial penfriendship that didn't last that long. I even met a few friends in person. I went to Berlin twice in 1993 to meet up with my Nigerian friend Maurice. In 1994 my Australian pal Toni came to visit me. She stayed with me for 6 days. We had a great time together and did lots of sightseeing. In August 1996 I went to Southport, UK for 6 days to meet my American pal Jonette who lives there. Pen palling is a great way to meet new people, improve your language skills and learn more about the other person's country or culture. Besides, I enjoy getting a letter in the mail. Nowadays lots of communication is done via e-mail, but I still prefer a snail mail letter. Through the years things changed in my life (busy job, relationship, children, etc.) or my pen pals' life and most friendships ended with or without any notice from my or the other person's side. After all those years of writing I had only three pals left, but due to my own behavior I have lost touch with two of them. I have neglected our friendship due to various reasons, and I am not sure if I am able to renew these friendships. During the years there are only a very few pals with whom you really connect. One of those people is my dear friend Carol from Canada. We met each other through a long letter ladies pen pal site some years ago. Yes, we both enjoy writing (and receiving) very looooong letters. Much to my regret she too had to deal with my neglect for more than 6 months. The neglect had nothing to do with Carol, but everything with my personal situation. The situation with my job, lack of energy, etc. I recently e-mailed Carol, explained the situation and asked if she was still willing to write with me. I was a bit afraid for her answer, but fortunately she said YES! Today I spent a few hours on writing a letter to Carol. I hear you thinking "a few hours?". Yes, a few hours. I typed her a 12 page letter today. Handwritten it would be even more. Well, at least in my case. Of course there was a lot to tell and I really wanted to have this letter in the mail today. I have already kept her waiting for too long. Dear Carol, I am not sure if you read this post, but I truly hope that my letter was worth the waiting. XOX

And the winners are...

My girls each picked a name. The winners of this weekend's RAK are....



and



Congrats, girls! Please e-mail me your address.

To speak in scrap terms.....a little birdie told me there will be another RAK within a few weeks, so keep an eye out for my blog if you weren't lucky this time. :-)

Happy Father's Day

I made this mini book as a Father's Day gift for Eric. I signed him up for a photography course. Actually I wanted to give this course as a gift on his birthday, but I couldn't wait till the end of August. I signed him up back in February, and already had to keep it a secret for 4 months which wasn't always easy. Eric had plans to sign up for this course himself, but so far he hadn't done so. Lucky me! His sister Lisette did a photography course recently and he got very enthusiastic by her stories and beautiful pictures. I heard him talking to Lisette on Skype yesterday and saying that he would sign up for a course too. As I didn't want him to end up with two courses I already decided a few weeks ago that I would give him the mini book on Father's Day. I almost revealed my secret last Monday. I worked on this book while he was away in Cayman Islands and left it on my desk in our scrap/computer room. I wanted to finish it before he got back, but I didn't scrap much while he was away and completely forgot about the mini book. On the day he got back he wanted to edit some pictures and used the computer in the scraproom. When I got downstairs I noticed the book was still on my desk. HELP!! I immediately covered the book with some papers. I really thought Eric had seen the cover, but this morning he told me he didn't see it. Pfew! With the course and his new Canon F/4 24 - 105mm lens - which he bought himself for Father's Day :-)) - he is a happy man!










PS: Don't forget to leave a comment for the RAK.

New blog banner

I wanted to give my blog a fresh look and asked Eric to make me a nice banner. So glad he is the Photoshop Elements expert, because I have no clue of that programme at all. I am very pleased with the result. What do you think?

Weekend RAK

Not much going on at the moment. I am busy working on some assignments, but I can't show you anything yet. Not even a sneak peek. Sorry! But.....to make it up a little I thought it would be nice to organize a little RAK for the weekend. I will give away 2 RAKs this time. One for the blog readers from the Netherlands, and the other one for the readers from abroad. I am really amazed that I have quite a lot of visitors from all over the world. Thanks! If you leave a comment please don't forget to mention where you live. Have a nice weekend!



PS: The winners will be drawn on Sunday June 17th at 19.00 CET, so make sure you leave a comment in time. ;-)

Home

My sweetheart got home from paradise today. So glad he is back. We missed each other a lot. Needless to say, the girls missed him too and were very happy to see him again.

Congratulations, Fleur!!

My alarm was set at 6am this morning as Fleur had to take the final swimming test for certificate A at 8am. Quite early for Saturday morning, but of course I didn't mind. We arrived at 7.30am and met opa Hans, oma Yvonne, oma Willy and opa Arie. The exam took about an hour and 15 minutes and all 59 kids passed the test. I am very proud of Fleur. She did a great job!! The pictures didn't turn out too well, so there is a lot of photoshopping to do.



Fleur got spoilt with lots of gifts by her grandparents. My friend Wendy was there to watch her nephew, and also brought Fleur a nice gift (thanks!). We surprised Fleur with a new bike. She needed a new one anyway, so we thought it was nice to give it on this special day.

Ssshhh......It's a secret

I am working on a fun, but secret project. Nothing DT or contest related, but just a project I cannot show yet. I will leave you with a little sneak peek.

Ribbon addict

I have ribbons in all sorts of colors, but I never seem to have enough. Do you recognize that too? The same goes for buttons, by the way. I just love ribbons and buttons. A few weeks ago I signed up for the monthly ribbon kit by Little Silver Hat. My first kit was just delivered by the mail man and it looks great. I also ordered a few meters of bandana ribbons and retro ribbons. Great colors and I haven't seen these designs over here yet.



This morning I went to Dolls & Decorations to spend my Mother's Day gift coupons. A great way of shopping, because it doesn't really "hurt" your bank account. ;-) I bought a few sheets of patterned paper and cardstock, lots of buttons, Autumn Leaves and Heidi Swapp clear stamps, Hambly rub-ons and journaling transparency, flowers and two idea books. If I don't blog in the next couple of days you know that I am in my scrap room. LOL!

A fun day

Today was a fun and busy day. Fleur and Sanne went to school from 8.30 - 11.30am. After lunch we went to the hairdresser as the girls needed a haircut. The weather was beautiful today, so I treated us to an ice-cream at the local gelateria. Afterwards we went to the garden center where we bought some plants, rainboots for Fleur and Sanne - fortunately we don't need them at the moment - and a table cloth. When we got home at 3.30pm we first had a drink and then made delicious cupcakes. Of course the girls wanted to eat one as soon as the cakes were finished, so I guess they won't eat much for dinner today. I think we will have a sandwich.











PS: Eric arrived safe and sound in Cayman Islands.

Goodbye and....hello

Eric left for Cayman Islands today. You may remember a blog post somewhere in March telling that WE would go to Cayman Islands. I was supposed to go with him on this incentive trip, but I cancelled my part of the trip about 3 weeks ago. You probably call me stupid to cancel this trip, but it didn't feel good for me. Since we have children I find it hard to be away so many thousand miles from home without them. I love to be away with Eric for a few days, but not being miles away from home accompanied by hundreds of colleagues and their spouses. It was hard for me to tell Eric and let him go alone, but I did what was good for me. When we said goodbye to each other at Schiphol this morning it wasn't easy for me, but I was strong....until I got back in the car. He will only be away for 6 days, but I miss him already. Love you, sweetheart!



When I visited Dawn's blog on Sunday I came across a comment left by Charlotte in Denmark. That combination triggered my attention. Some years ago I had quite a lot of penpals abroad. One of them was Charlotte from Denmark. The name on Dawn's blog reminded me of her, so I clicked on the link to visit Charlotte's blog. When I saw a layout about her boys their names sounded familiar to me and I wondered if she was the Charlotte I used to write with. There was only one way to find out, and that was to leave her a comment on her blog. And guess what.....she left a comment on my blog and she is THE Charlotte I wrote with for a while. Isn't that amazing? The scrap world is a small world after all. So HELLO to a 'lost' friend.

TOOOOOTTT!!!

Last week had a very happy end, and this week has a great start. I made it to the Dolls & Decorations Design Team. Woooohoooo!! I am a very happy girl! I really look forward to working with Petra (owner), Monique and the other new DT-members Diana, Ceciel, Wendy and Norbiba. Congrats, girls!

Workshop by Dawn Inskip

It has been only a few months ago since I came across the blog of Dawn from the UK via someone else's blog. So glad I did. Her work is gorgeous and I think she is very talented. I so love the details on her pages......the handcut letters, handmade embellishments, different techniques, her doodles and so on. Her blog is in my favorites from the very first moment I visited her blog, and I always look forward to her weekly post. She recently mentioned on her blog that she will be coming to the Netherlands to teach workshops. Today when I visited her blog - just curious if she already posted some new layouts - I read that she will be here from August 17th through 19th. She will be giving a mini book workshop on Friday evening August 17th and since I love to make mini books I immediately subscribed myself to that workshop. I really look forward to meeting Dawn in person and learning some great techniques from her.

Treat Yourself

Sometimes you have to treat yourself, and that is what we did by buying this set of garden furniture. This beautiful set was delivered this morning. Hope we will have a good summer so we can often sit outside.



Today I informed my new employer that I accept their offer. He was very happy to hear that I would like to join their company. I agreed to start in my job as of August 20th. I first wanted to start at the end of June, but since I have some commitments in the first week of July and would like to be off for 4 weeks during the girls' summer holiday I thought it would be better to start in August. Fortunately he didn't have any problems with it. So I will enjoy being a stay at home mom for another 2.5 months.

Happy Friday

What a great ending of the week. Fleur had her weekly swimming lessons today, and she finally got a note to do exam for swimming certificate A. I say finally because she started in November 2005. It wasn't always easy for her, but she really made progress in the past few months. I am so proud of our girl. And she was proud too. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture of that BIG smile on her face. The exam will be on Saturday June 9th at 8am.



As mentioned yesterday I would receive the conditions of employment today and I did. The conditions are very good, so I will say YES to this job. Didn't have to think about it for too long though. Never thought applying for a job would be so easy. I will inform them about my decision this weekend, and also let them know when I would like to start. I am very, very happy. The job sounds great, and I am so glad I have found a job close to home.
Now that I go back to work Eric wants us to find a cleaner for a few hours a week. Not a bad idea at all, but good cleaners are hard to find. I have someone in mind, but I first have to find out if she can do another household.

This evening I submitted my projects for the 3rd and final round of the Dolls & Decorations' DT call. This time we all had to work with supplies provided by Petra, the owner of the store. Quite a challenge I can tell you. Especially because you have to work with materials that you didn't choose yourself and are not always your taste. But hey, isn't that what a DT membership is all about? The requirements were to make at least 1 layout and 1 item of your choice. I made 2 12x12" layouts, a simple birthday card, and decor boards (handmade of chipboard) of 8x8". Here are my entries. I didn't have time to photoshop the pictures, so not every picture looks good.

Item of choice - Decor Boards 8x8"



12x12" layout - Me at 2


Birthday Card (made of left-overs)


12x12" layout - I {Heart} You