2 sketches 4 you - Laura's sketch 20

What could you better do on a Monday afternoon, right after work? Of course, there's only one answer possible. At least for me ;-) It's getting so bad that I am checking the clock more often and checking the blog every five minutes if the new sketch is already there.....On the way home, on my moped, I am really wishing for a car, because my moped is going slooooow in my mind, hahaha. For some strange reason I don't have that feeling on any other day of the week ;-)

OK, enough jokes....I also need some punishment...because for the first time since I join the sketches I took new papers as a base. In my previous post (no so long ago, haha) I mentioned that I had to be patient for a good subject for a minibook to use this paper.....but it screamed: "use me!" And believe me, I think I have to be strong not to use it again...the cards are so easily made with this paper!

Birthday memories

It's a long time ago that I sat down in my scraproom and couldn't stop scrapping. But last night I just took a sketch from Valerie Salmon and started scrapping. And when my tv-program started I felt bad that my page wasn't finished yet....so I kept on scrapping, hahaha. I really like this page. It reflects who I am without having my face on it. Perfect!

And I think I can tell you with a 100% certainty: My Mind's Eye is my new favorite paperbrand!! I really liked all the lines they had for the last couple of months. I also have the new Bloom & Grow line in my closet.....waiting for inspiration on a minibook....So I have to be patience......and that is something I can't hahaha.

CP sketch 3

There is another card sketch blog in scrapbookland! You can find the Card Patterns blog here. They will post a sketch every week, just like 2 sketches 4 you. That's why I think I will be hooked soon to this new sketchblog. I am all into cardsketches lately....all into cards actually. I almost never make a layout anymore. And that is too bad I think. But I find myself having not as much time for scrapbooking as I want to. And cards are quicker.....at least for me ;-)

This week is already sketch 3 for Card Patterns.....and this is the first time I am doing the sketch. And believe me, it won't be the last time!! I found this patterned paper waaaaaaay back in my closet. I think it's one of the first papers I bought actually. I don't like them enough for a layout (a little bit too pink), but for a card it's rather cute!! And I have left, so you will be seeing more of this paper soon!

Saying goodbye

Today I went to Dolls and Decorations to say goodbye to Petra. Although I live a little too far away to visit every week, I mostly visited the Dolls-days. A lot of fun with a big group of nice Dollies. We all know each other through the forum Petra lead. So I was certain that I wanted to say goodbye today. Not only to Petra, but to all the girls because I know I will not see them as often anymore.

Although saying goodbye is not easy, we wanted to say thank Petra for all those nice years Petra had the store. Ingen came with this great idea to give her a little me-time and a little time with her men! So we all donated a little something and made card. And today we gave Petra all the presents. You could see that she enjoyed the attention today......And she was very thrilled about the presents. Good thinking, Ingen!!





And say for yourself: we did a great job with all the cards!! Nice and colourful and lots to read for Petra. Big thank you's from all of us!!

So excited!!

Back in November I booked my holiday already. 15 days of holiday to Thailand in June....Now February is almost over and I was still the only person who booked this trip!! Although the trip is garanteed....this won't be the case if I am all alone ofcourse. And in the meantime I saw the May-trip going strong.....already 8 persons who booked it. Wow...that made me think yesterday. Is there any possibility to change my plans and go a little sooner???? Well there was. In fact, my boss said May was a better idea than June...ok, that was settled....To make a long story short: I am going earlier!! In about ten weeks I am going already.....and I added a little addition to my trip....3 extra days in Koh Samui before we go back to Bangkok! Ladies, I am so excited....you don't wanna know. And tell me, who wouldn't want to see this? Who wouldn't be excited? I know I am...I am counting the days....73 days to go ;-)

Ayutthaya. This is where we start our trip. Beautiful temples. I can't wait.

The Bridge over the River Kwai. We will be sleeping two nights in a floating hotel with no electricity. How cool is that?

The beach of Koh Samui. And who wouldn't want to be sitting on this beach with a book...or just look at the ocean....and what a punishment: I will be spending 3 more days here!!

And last but not least: the sky line of Bangkok. I am a bit disappointed that we will only spend one day here. But hey, better one then none, right?

Little quiz

I stopped by Zoe Pearns blog and she had a little quiz on her blog. Just a fun quick quiz. Nice to read her answers...which are totally different than mine!

Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Mmm, the last person I kissed....wow, what a question to start with. It's a long time ago that I "really" kissed somebody. But yes...because it was nice.

What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
I was doing the dishes.

Last restaurant you went to?
That would be Massada with some friends a few weeks back.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
My father, this evening.

What's your favorite colour?
If I say something else than pink nobody will believe me....but red is one of my favorites too.

Have you ever crawled through a window?
No, I can't remember that...

What do you spend most of your money on?
The last few weeks I have been spending a lot of money on digital kits. I feel a new addiction coming up!

Are you wearing a necklace?
Yes, a square diamond look a like. It was a present to myself when I lost 20kg.

Are you a cuddler?
YES!! But I have no one to cuddle with ;-)

What do you want right now?
I quiet evening all to myself.

Have you ever gone nude/streaked in public?
Hahahah, no. I am to scared for actions like that.

Who was the last person to come to your house?
I think that was my neighbour asking me for an union!

Look behind you, what do you see?
A window.

What would you name your future daughter?
Amber...I really like that name.

Who and where was the last concert you went to?
A real concert? That's a long time ago. I guess it was Marco Borsato in the Feyenoord stadium.

What did you eat for lunch today?
Two brown sandwiches with cheese and an apple.

If you had to eat 1 thing for the rest of your life, what?
Hahaha, I think potato chips......it's good that it's just a quiz!

Do you eat junk food everyday?
Not anymore!

How often do you drive?
Not much, I don't have a car.

How late did you stay up last night and why?
I went to bed around 22.30 hrs. This is my normal bedtime as I get up at 5.50 hrs. Last night I went aquaspinning and I was tired. I had a good night sleep!

2 sketches 4 you - Kazan's sketch 20

I can't believe we are already came at Kazan's 20th sketch today. That means almost 40 sketches went by already. Time flies! And again the sketch is different and beautiful. No wonder the blog is so succesfull! Great job ladies!

Today I played with the Silhouette a little. I found a great cupcake between the files and wanted to use it for a while now. It became a simple card again. Every week I see tons of great cards with lots of ribbons and things like that. And I love them, every single piece. However...I almost never use ribbons, although I have a large jar filled with ribbons. The same for flowers and buttons...but those I use a little bit more. OK...next is to make the bonus sketch also....later this week.

5 things I love about me

As you probably know by now I am a big fan of the Sweet Shoppe Designs website. I buy stuff every week and I also check the community often. They have a challenge a day. I certainly not doing everything, not by far even, but sometimes the challenges are really nice for me to do as a beginner. They have templates now and then or journaling challenges. I combined two challenges in the layout below. One is the template I used...the other one is the journaling. There had to be significant journaling about things you like/love about yourself. I can tell you that's harder than I expected. But I did a pretty good job I think. I really like this layout. For me this is so much easier then with paper. I can delete and start over when I want to without me destroying the papers. Perfect!



Now I am off to make my bed! I have been so busy scrapping this afternoon that I totally forgot I have nothing to sleep under yet, hahaha. And the shower also waits for me! See you later.....

NWR - Week 4 layout: How she changed

Today I finalized the course by making layout 4. Too bad actually, because I think there is so much to learn more in Photoshop. But first I have to deal with all I learned so far....and make a summarized file for myself. Otherwise I forget what I learned or at least don't remember where to find certain things. It was fun to make a spread for once because I just never do. My last spread was actually made about 5 years ago when I started scrapbooking!!

For this layout I took new and older photos. In the journaling I mention that I am amazed of how my niece changed over the last two years. She lost the baby-ness face a little of course.....but some features are still the same. So fun to see actually.

I had great fun in this course from Jessica Sprague and although she probably won't read my blog, I do want to thank her. Because I have more and more fun in scrapping digitally. Thanks Jessica!!

Two lizards

In 2006 I went on holiday to the Dominican Republic together with my ex-BF. It was a great trip for me. I saw contradictions I could imagine before. I went one day to Haiti which is very poor and the people there are very black like in Africa. The the DR itself the people are less black and a little less poor, but still no where near ourselves ofcourse. We stayed in a five star hotel and as soon as you walked out the door you saw changes. Imagine that the hotel would throw away food probably every day and outside people are screaming (not literally) for food. It was really the holiday of my life so far. Just because I saw so much difference there. I was really glad I lived in Holland after that holiday. Normally you see those things on the news and it's far away, right?

Last week I was searching between my photos. I have a box full of them from before a had a digital camera. In this holiday we did have a digital camera, but I still found some pictures of me during this trip. They were made in the hotel outside at the pool. Every day a photographer walked by the pool with two lizards, and he shot some photos with the tourists. I had my photo taken on two separate days. I scanned them in and I used them on this layout. I am not very happy about the layout itself. It just misses something, but I don't know what. Probably there are too many empty parts, hahaha. But I did enjoy making the layout as the memory is good. That's what I love about scrapbooking in the first place.



I can't wait till I go to Thailand in June. Just to have so many new photos which will bring a smile on my face.

Happy Valentine's Day

For me Valentine's Day has nothing special. Not for the last 10 years. When I was in high school it still had something special when you had a secret crush on someone. But now that I am older I can't help thinking it's so commercial. The shops are all pink and red, have all kinds of heart-shaped items. At least you can't forget it's Valentine's Day. The last 10 years that special high school feeling changed drastically. My former boyfriend was not romantic at all. And especially not on days like this, hahaha. And for the last three Valentine's Days I have been single and not in love at all. I don't need to send any cards or anything. But I do feel a little sad sometimes. Not on this day specially, but sometimes I wonder if there is a special someone for me also. Of course there is, I just didn't meet him yet, hahaha. I make jokes about it now, but sometimes I do want that....someone to talk to when you come home from work, someone who sits on my couch with his arms around me. Other times I don't have this feeling at all....then I am happy I am single....can play with the remote control when I want....eat what I like, etc. But tonight.....I will be all alone, hahahah.....scrapping probably!!

To everyone who will have a nice evening with her Valentine.....happy Valentine!!

Weekend!

So, do I need this wow.....I love my job very much but this week was hectic! It wasn't normal anymore. I can tell you that. Normally I do more work when there's a little pressure, but this week.....wow enough pressure there. Haahhaha. To make a long story short: I really need weekend, hahaha. Fortunately, on Friday's I work untill 12 o'clock. Pfff.

Because of the hectic week I didn't scrapbook much, so I can't show much. But not nothing at all. On the Dolls forum we have a birthdaylist and you need to send everyone on the list a birthdaycard. Because it was my birthday on Monday I received lots of them! And I can tell you: piece for piece....beautiful stunning cards. Thanks everyone!

2 sketches 4 you - Laura's sketch 19

Happy Birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to me!! Yeah...it's my birthday today. Could you tell ;-) And how can you spend it better than making a card again. This is the first time I used my Silhouette for this job. I cut the letters. Simple Arial font but sometimes it's much more beautiful than fancy fonts.



So...yesterday I celebrated my birthday with my family and some close friends. I had a great time. Eventhough I never like birthdays. You yourself are never part of the fun. The only thing you're doing all day is making sure everyone has something to drink and enough to eat. Not my favorite time spending.....But with a small group this is easier. So I had fun. In a previous post you can see I baked some muffins. Well....my niece Anouk immediately grabbed a pink one. Doesn't she look cute???



Laura and Kazan from 2 sketches 4 you asked us who is our Eye Candy. This is a difficult question for me as I don't have a boyfriend, husband or otherwise ;-) But there is somebody who makes my cheeks go red....just because he's so very adorable!! OK, he is over 15 years older then I am probably. But he plays the geek so much....he's just adorable. I like every film he played. Sorry about this, hahahha. Who it is? Colin Firth....he's my Eye Candy!! And I must say...on this photo he is pretty sexy too!!

I won!!!

A few weeks back I bought my pink Bind-it-all at Scrapware. I received some lottery tickets. Today the prices were drawn. At first she had two prices to give away. The lucky winners could win 1000 dollars in Quickutz products. Not a bad price I thought. And I wanted to win very badly ofcourse. Who wouldn't. Today we found out there were three more prices: 1x 500 dollars and 2x 250 dollars. Also not bad. Unfortunately I didn't win any of these prices. But Nathalie from Scrapware donated a few extra prices herself. Three major alphabets......and she cleaned the stores display windows. The products we could win were in perfect condition, only a bit faded by the sun.....And this time I did win! I won a QK Nature Die Set. Not a die set I would probably choose myself, but there's a cute sun, tulips, flower and snowflake in there.....I think I will use them afterall! I say: a nice little present for my birthday!!

Lots of cake!

This morning I baked 30 muffins. I wanted something different than a normal whipped-cream cake or "vlaai" as we call another kind of cake here in Holland. I wanted to make something special. So I baked the muffins. You can leave them like they come out of the oven ofcourse.....but they are a bit dull I think. So I bought some chocolate and raspberry toppings. A few little M&M's on top and I think they look a lot less dull! I hope everyone likes them tomorrow! And I need to bake 40 pieces more for my work on Monday.....At least my living room is smelling delicious!





On the Sweet Shoppe blog they asked the question to tell the story about your favorite birthday ever. Because it's my birthday in two days I have thought of this. I must say I don't have much detailed memories about them. Only general memories. Like when I was 4-12 years old we could take treats to school. And then you may go around every other class with a treat for the teacher. In return you may choose a sticker. Wow, I know I was proud of them. And I also remember I turned six years old. My mom bought me a cake which was a 6....but I was clever enough to turn it around into a 9!! Those are things which I remember well...also the birthdayparty's. I could invite some friends and we would play games and stuff. So great. Now that I am older I don't like birthdayparty's anymore. At least, I don't want to be the center attention. I think it's great when my friends are coming and we have a great time...but everything around it...no thank you, hahaha.

NWR - Week 2 layout: Happy birthday

This week I have hard time again making myself do anything. Not just on the scrapbooking field, but also in household chores or anything else for that matter. And ofcourse the news I got on Thursday didn't help also. I am just thinking too much the last week. And what about exactly? I don't have a clue. About running behind on courses, needing to do so many things still before my birthday. You know how that goes. But yesterday I made myself doing week 3 of the Now we're rockin' course. And again, I loved it! I learned so much again, it's hard to memorize everything. So I am planning to make a summerize in Dutch for myself. Going through 25 pages each lesson to find something later takes too much time I guess.

One thing I did find out. I need to make more photos. And not only from Anouk, hahaa. She is my number one subject, but I noticed that Jessica Sprague also uses detailed photos a lot. And that's good!! Well, I enjoyed this layout again. Especially the clipping masks we made from brushes so you can use patterned paper there. How cool is that (to use Jessica's words)? Hopefully I have some time later today to do some more scrapping...but first I need to get some muffins out of the oven!!

So unfair

Yesterday I got the worst news I could imagine getting. I've been emailing with Marjan for almost three years now. And eventhough I never met her in person I have the feeling that she's really one of my closest friends. I never told anyone about her really. It's something from me. We emailed every day, really every day. Even during our holidays we tried to email each other. Maybe not every day....but often enough. Since Tuesdayevening it was quiet. I remember her writing to me: I don't want to go to work tomorrow....I just don't want to.....but she did. Unfortunately. Yesterday I got the phonecall....she has been killed in a car accident on her way to work. It's so unfair. Her husband also didn't know about me, but he saw my email on her computer. And he did everything to get my phonenumber. This was not something to do through email he said. I am so happy he found me. Her funeral is on Monday....my birthday. I am not going....I think. I want to remember her the way I have her in my mind. Through her emails......

Dear Marjan....hope to "speak" to you again some day.

2 sketches 4 you - Kazan's sketch 19

Monday means 2 sketches 4 u day!! When I am at work I can't wait untill I get home. Most of the time I peek at the sketch before I go and then I can think of it during my trip home. I can still do all the cards I make from left-overs....although I need to buy some cardstock now ;-) I really like todays sketch. So simple and fun. And check out some other cards on the 2 sketches blog, because then you can see the variety of cards a sketch could bring!! So here's my take on the sketch.

Auwie!

Last night I finally scrapped a bit. I found a great free template on Sweet Shoppe Designs community and wanted to start immediately. The kit Traci used for her page was so great that I first started shopping. Every Saturday new kits come out and you get 20% off. But because it's their 3rd birthday you get 30%!! So I bought and I bought and I bought. At the end I was 40 dollars lighter and a lot of kits and alpha's richer!! I really love the kit below. So many bright colours!!

This page is called "Auwie!". Anouk gave me a good left one on her birthday. I started quiet. She sat on my lap and we were reading the book I bought for her birthday. Winnie the Pooh is always a good choice! This was a 3D-book about Piglet's birthday. We were in a pancake restaurant and it was some other child's birthday too. Suddenly we heard music. A birthday song. Anouk just learned about this song, so when the word "hooray" was there she put her hands in the air. Right against my nose!! And ofcourse somebody was shooting photos at that moment, hahaha.