Day 4

and the schedule is AWESOME!!! I get more done, and have more time to myself than when I just winged it :-)

Just got done posting day 4 in the mini madness...... and realized I hadn't posted day 1 at all, so there's 2 to show off today....... and,
YUP! I went for the "kits not played with" approach! LOL. More by necessity than design, I may add. I figured out there are 10 days of challenge (coupons) and my list is 38 kits long, so until I trim that one down, instead of keep adding every time I look at he mini-kit section on the site.... I'm kinda stuck. Not a bad place to be, I agree, but it's not really conducive to getting pages scrapped. :-)

BooLandDesigns  ONE PAGE WONDER # 38

 ONE STEP BEYOND #1.  

I had OSB-1 slated for the trip to the beach we've been planning for a good 6 months now, but I figured there's no harm in using it twice.... and we're not even sure we're going to make it this year...... I know, 2.5 hour trip, should be doable, right, but with both Mike and me being tired, and worst of all in a fair amount of pain, every day...... we'd have to have more than 1 day between work, so Mike has a chance to veg at least one day before going back, so... until he takes vacation, I don't think that's going to happen.

I won't post tomorrow, or Friday, maybe not even Saturday, and there's a very good reason for that!

Tomorrow, is Sisterday. Nicky is coming up to our place (Or is it down? never could get that straight LOL) so it won't be an early start, or a late night, but we'll be enjoying eachothers company none the less. I have a dinner planned for the crockpot, so even if we decide to go out, we can eat when we come back, and if we decide not to come home for dinner, at least Mike will have something to eat......

Friday, we go fix the car. The brakes finally came in yesterday. Well, the parts we were waiting on. The front brakes came in last week, but instead of going twice, we decided to wait until everything was in, and just rent the lift for the day. Base has a garage with 4 lifts, where you can work on your car. There's a mechanic on duty, for when you get stuck, but you're supposed to do the work yourself. Which is fine by me. I need to learn these things, so..... I'll be dirty, grimey, tired and more than likely hurting more than a little by Friday night, but it does mean that our baby will have stopping power again! Just in time for the annual APK check on April 11. April is going to be a weird month. The whole family (People, pet and car) will have a check up! LOL  I keep thinking, besides that, it will be busy, but I couldn't tell you with what, so that will be a surprise to all of us!

Well, gotta run. Took a posting break, and now it's on to Cooking dinner. I have this plan, that will take a little bit to finish, so it's a good thing Mike won't be home till 6..... He may just have dinner when he gets here. I'll let you know how it panned out (aka whether we needed to implement plan B - Chinese take out)

Don't forget to hug that loved one!

MADNESS, I say... Pure madness

I am "making" myself, scrap a page a day....... Well, that's nothing new, really, but the challenge at The Studio is, kinda....... It's in day 3, actually. Barely made the deadline on day 2, and had to cheat a little to even do that. I had one page done for the new One Step Beyond kit, that I hadn't posted yet, so I posted it under the challenge. It's allowed, I just feel like I'm going to have to make it up, and make 2 on another day......

I am using yesterdays coupon, to buy tomorrows kit, so I have to do one a day....... OR, I may just go thru the kits I haven't played with yet, and go for them....... Haven't really decided yet.

So, Day TWO was:

There's a story behind the picture...... (Isn't there always, though?)

My sister has a pond, and ever since they got back from Singapore, every spring, there is a month or so that all you hear in the back yard is frogs. There are several kinds, actually. There is a bullfrog, and the "regular" Dutch pond "kikkers". She has no idea how/why they started coming. They weren't there when they left for her hubby's work. Every year, they have so much eggs, that they take a bucket to clear most of them out, and put them in the neighborhood pond. It's big, and has several little canals, and tons of birds (including a loon) and fish, so it easily accommodates the brood. It's just a little disconcerting when you're sitting in the sun, enjoying your coffee, and a frog hops on and off your foot!  My niece took this picture, and I just can't get over the fact that you can get that close, but than..... he may have had other things on his mind than humans. LOL

 Day THREE was:

Back when we had an oven, I LOVED baking. This shows the prep-work that went into making cookies to give away at Christmas. I found a bunch of cookies that had been Pilsbury bake off winners, and I decided I would give them a shot, make 2 or 3 dozen each, pack them in a cookie tin, add the printed recipe's and give them to the neighbor for Christmas. Between chemo and napping.... I actually got it done! I was so proud of me. LOL  

I DO wish I could find the cookbook again. It had so many recipes that were simple, some that completely went over my head, most all of them looked so scrumptious!!!!  I looked online, since the book has been out of print for more than 20 years, but from here, all I get is a message that "this book is not available in my area...." Stinks though, I can't even tell if it is really not available as a download, or if it is just off limits outside the US. Had I looked when we were still in Iowa.... I possibly could have downloaded the whole thing, not a problem. Oh well,  I'm making a list, and when/if we ever go back, I will take the laptop, and download for 5 days! (There's a lot of county histories I still need too, and I'm finding new ones as the family tree expands.....)  BUT, you're not here to hear me moan about copyright, public domain and sales zones......  

I'm being busy though. I have made a plan a while ago, and I think, barring weird, strange and extra-ordinary things happening (not holding my breath that they won't, but I can dream, can't I?) I can start and keep up with it.

I took all the chores (you know, monthly, biweekly, weekly, twice weekly and the daily ones) and put them on a list. Than I wrote me a list with every day of the week on it, with chores to be done per day...... and crammed everything in the days that Mike works! LOL.......  THAT does sound like me, doesn't it? It' not really what I ended up doing though...... 

I work on the house until the chores are done that need doing, catching up and working ahead, if my time gets used otherwise, and have lunch after I'm done. 

Than I work on my Web Design Course for 4 hours. 

Starting dinner at 4.30, so when Mike gets home everywhere form 5 to 6.30, dinner is almost if not all the way done.

After dinner is done, I try to do the dishes, if I don't, they're on the list to do first thing in the morning anyway! But after dinner, is "my time" I can scrap, research, or........... (and I never thought I would ever say this), I can play my new game on the computer!  My niece told me about Zoo Tycoon...... I so wish she hadn't! I'm completely and utterly hooked! Mike picked it up from his mailbox on Thursday and I've installed it on Saturday but didn't play. Yesterday, Mike was playing the Sims, and normally, I mill around, or do some research, but yesterday I didn't even fix dinner!  Mike fixed tacos, and just told me it was ready. I hadn't even noticed he started it, and believe me, the house is not big enough, not to notice when somebody is cooking..... but I never realized it was 7PM, and I started playing around 10. Today, I'm staying as far away from the laptop as I can.... Don't want that temptation interfering with my "to do" list.  

Well, lunch is over (I know, I got done early) and it's time to go get the groceries in, and than..... Study. I SO love this course. It started out to see if designing websites, and the coding is as much fun as it seemed...... YES IT IS!!!!  It completely unearthed my inner geek! Can't wait to build my first website, including the coding that goes with it. I first got interested when I hit the wrong tab on FrontPage, and saw all the coding, and I've been wondering about doing that ever since. Now that the powers that be have decided that with my medical history, and the fact that the last 25 years of working in the US is like not having worked at all (!), I will probably never work again..... I thought this would be something I can do from home, on my terms, but before committing to a more focused (read "expensive") course, I got this one. It's basically web design for somebody that has only surfed, and never done any coding.... 

Just my speed :-)  I'm loving it!

Just wanted to catch up with you, and I will spend a little more time next time on the CT things... I promise.

Don't forget to hug a loved one!?

BACK!.....?

Brother In Law is home and doing as well as can be expected. Thankfully!
So hopefully, I can catch up on my loss of sleep, and body aches that come with "over doing it" by beginning of next week, and start on that schedule..... I swear, if our life will ever trickle along without mayor rocks being thrown in the stream, we will NOT know what to do with ourselves, but I know we'll settle for a calm period, just for a little while, to get our barings. Not to get complacent, mind you, just long enough to catch our breath LOL

I started this post on the 8th of March..... YUP, that rock hit the stream. Nothing mayor, just a lot hitting the fan at once, again, a couple of really bad days, a couple of just bad days, and you're 2 weeks further on the calendar before you know it!

On the upside of things........ I signed myself up for the Mini Madness Challenge over at The Studio. It started today, and will run thru April 5th. and every day you can make a page with a mini-kit of your choice, and when you do, you will receive 1$ coupon....... BUT, and this is the awesome part (besides the scrapping, of course) all the mini kits are 1$ during this challenge, so you can buy the kit for tomorrows page, with the reward you received for yesterdays page......

My first page was with one of Boo's new series the One Step Beyond kits.... #1.  I had planned to use it for our trip to Panorama Mesdag, sometime this summer, but I remembered I had taken this picture of a whole row of seagulls on our trip to Den Bosch in January...... So I used it for that, and I'm sure there will be a kit for the "yet to be taken" pictures by the time they're taken LOL.

Well, it's late, I'm bushed, Perky and Mike already took off to bed, so I think I will follow.

Don't forget to hug that special one?

Ok, maybe not ALL the way.....

Last week Thursday, I get a call that my brother in law is in the ICU, he has had a severe heart attack, and the 5 stents he already had were clogged completely, so they put 2 more in. There is talk about an open heart surgery but in the same breath, it is stated, that he does not want it, and he does not want to be revived. Can you imagine everything that went thru me at that time? My oldest sister, has had a rough time of it, and I just couldn't begin to think what she would be going thru.  Needless to say, sleep was eluding me that night, and every night since.

Friday, I get a call that he has had another heart attack, and they DID shock him and performed heart massage, but he was awake, be it disoriented, and they were going to do the surgery Monday. It would take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours and they would start between noon and 2. Later it turned out to be an arithmia, but even so.... more stress on his body before a surgery that is not at all without risk.

So......My sister doesn't want anybody there during the surgery, so I'm at home, burning candles, mumbling to myself and in general going nuts! Mondaynight at 8 I still haven't heard anything, and I'm climbing the wall. Turns out, happily, that surgery was over and done with by 5, he's in recovery, and he will be woken up over the course of the night. If he breathes on his own, and his heart beats without help, he can start healing. But the next 48 hours will be critical.

That's the last I heard, so I'm assuming, all is going well..... My assessment of life going to hell in a handbasket, was a little premature. Thankfully!

The downside is, that I haven't slept more than 5 hours since last week, and I'm feeling it. I can't think, when I sit down, I nod off, but when I go to bed, I'm wide awake, and tomorrow, I'm going to have to catch a train at 9, with a stop at base on the way, to get train fare LOL. The good thing is, it's for Sisterday. Nicky and I are going to spend some quality time in front of the fireplace, catching up with eachother. The last time I saw her was around Christmas, and that is way too long! Maybe I will sleep tomorrow :-) and I can get back to what I need to do by saturday.... Keeping my fingers crossed while typing that one! LOL.  I hope to get thru all the emails and snailmail by Sunday, and get caught up with everything else I've been neglecting by Wednesday, and than I should be back to following my schedule of chores, courses and scrapping.......

I'm going to say "nighty night" and set the alarm for 2.30. I don't want to sleep thru Heritage Chat over at Ivy again...... I feel like I have been "phoning in" all my duties with Ivy, Boo, PattyB and Emst. I will get life straightened out, someday, I promise! LOL 

So, don't forget to hug that/those special someone(s) extra tight?

life went to hell again

I will fill you in at a later date. Everybody is fine but I will be Awoll for a couple of days

Found this one on Pinterest a while ago, and today just seemed like a good day to pull it out in the open......

 

Almost back to normal......

Well, as normal as our life will be, I guess LOL.

I'm a little worried about my sister in law. We haven't heard from her in a while, and she hasn't visited the blog and doesn't respond to emails.... So Kim, let us know what's going on in your neck of the woods?

StarSongStudio's announced her retirement from designing at the end of this month.... I'm bummed, but I understand. She has to do what is good for her, but I will so miss her talent! I'm hoping she'll miss designing so much, that she'll be back in no-time, but  you really can't tell how life is going, as we have found out over the last couple of years. Sometimes, something just "gotta give" to allow some breathing room. I wish her all the peace she and her family needs, and we promised we'll stay in touch!
If you had any thoughts of "later" on any of her beautiful kits, please visit her stores before they close on February 28th!!!!





I don't think there was one kit of hers I didn't love, but there's always a couple that stand out (Usually the ones with the pages that came out better than I could imagine... LOL) and some that were much better than my talent for showing them off, and for that I apologize!
It was a fun ride Ann. Thank you so much for trusting me with your creations!

Here are some of my favorite pages/kits/memories put to paper, in no particular order.

Sweet Rememberance

Berries and Cream

I know this is made with Anns kits, but I cannot find it in my stash. I want to say it was Tangerine dream.........

Winter Symphony

Raspberry Truffle

DecemberDawn

Bright Blooms

Passionata

Rosy Dawn

Enchanted

Nymphea

Autumn Prelude

Sea Bundle (Sea Passage, Sea Journal, Sea Scapes, Sea Side

Lavendar Dreams

Nostalgia

Mountain Whispers 

Atumn Reflections

Autumn Reflections

Frosted

Painted Ladies

Teacup Garden

Wildflower Symphony

Lady Steampunk

Remember this day

Time for Tea

Sea Passage

A moment in Time

Lavendar Dreams

Toys in the Attic

Winter Wonderland

Sea Side Christmas

DogTales

Winter Ruins

Nouveau Nostalgia

Forest Fantasy

Even Tide

Blue Poppies

Just a quicky,

a couple of things, and "sign of life" LOL.
Yes, I'm still around, no I haven't been visiting with you much, but it's nothing personal.... Just life setting its own schedule, no matter what my dayrunner sais.

The POINT IN TIME challenge is up in The Studio:

I used the newest kit from OVER THE FENCE DESIGNS for the announcement. The only thing not from the kit is the glitter used for the month.

Boos new kit Peaceful Moments hit the stores last week. And before I even saw what was in it, I had the picture picked out. It's Perky (what else is new, right?) sleeping on the MyHealth. He can be on the other side of the house, and the minute I turn in on, he comes running. It's amazing, so after I'm done with mine and Mike's sessions, I put it on the internal peace setting, and put it on the floor next to him. Within a minute his head is on it, and within a couple more, he's out like a light.

A while back, ALL the way in January LOL, I had posted this page in de galleries, but not here yet. 

The template is from the double page template set that Boo just released a couple of weeks ago. The kit used was

The pictures are from the Bask black wolf enclosure in Gaia Zoo. In the newsletter the other day, they were explaining that there will be another pack of European Grey wolves coming, with a viewing gallery at eye level.... That will be something to see. Can't wait! They're in a building frenzy at the zoo right now, so it will be time for me to snoop around, one of these days, when I can walk for longer than an hour..... I over did it a bit a week or so ago, and I'm still paying LOL. Did I have fun? MOST definatly! Would I do it again? YUP!  

This reminds me of a picture of a T-shirt Mike lovingly sent my way from www.roadkillshirts.com......

I went to the Den Bosch archives on Thursday, and on Friday I decided I really needed out of the house again, so Mike and I went back and did part of the city walk. I had found out at the archives, that my grandpa was baptized in the cathedral there, and I also found a couple of the addresses, but...... I forgot to bring them with us. No harm done though. We're going back when the weather is a little less BRRRR :-) The sun was shining, so that was ok, but in the narrow streets, the wind was rather frigid at times. Add to that that Mike ran a splinter thru his foot at work, and was hobbeling worse than I was, so we didn't spend as much time as we wanted, but that just leaves more fun for next time. 

I will go back to do some research too, all I have to do is find discount train tickets LOL. When they have those, it costs about 15 to 18 Euro's (depending on the offer) to travel, by train, all day. For me to go to the archives without that discount, it takes 46.......... So, on discount tickets, that would be at least 2 trips for the price of 1. Were we to take the car, the parking would run into the 20's for all day, plus the gas, so unless you go with more than two, train-with-discount is the way to go :-)     I even have an alert set up on the computer for several chain stores that offer these tickets, to give me a buzz if they're having a sale, and hopefully, when they do, we have the spare-cash to use them LOL.

I found a couple more pages I should have posted a while ago :-(

I'm starting to like the double pages though, they're just a little tricky to show off here, or in the galleries......

AND.........!!!!

I've been hooked on getting into web-design ever since I hit the wrong button on Frontpage a couple of years ago, and saw the coding, so I started a course in "getting to know how it works"..... If nothing else, I will learn something, and either find out if it looks more fun than it is, or if I can make it work as a business, so I can work from home :-)

Currently, I'm starting the 3rd lesson, and I'm still hooked, and tempted to "read ahead" and see what's next, but I'm being a good girl, and going one step/lesson at a time. LOL  Just got done with a little bit of the history of websites, domains and hosting and now starting on design-tools.... YEAH!!!!!

I may have to break down, and join the cloud though, since Adobe doesn't sell the programs anymore, just cloud-subscriptions........ That's a bit of a downer, but it may work out ok. I can do my classes, and if I decide it's not for me, I cancel, and not have a couple of grand in programs sitting idle..... But I'm so excited to do this! 

So, I think you're all caught up on my shenanigans...... I will go pick up the house, clean the carpet (Perky is in between winter and summer coat, with the inevitable hairballs, even with the special food) and than, oh chucks :-), it's back to class! LOL

Don't forget to "Love a Hugged One" :-)