My scrappin' life

So happy he said yes 19 years ago!

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary!

After dating and living together for a couple of years we said YES to each other on March 26, 1993.

I can truely say that we have been very blessed in the 26 years that we are together! My hubby is my best friend. We talk, laugh and cry together and I can not imagine life without him! We have 3 wonderful kids, a caring and loving family, we both love our jobs, we have a lovely home and we're all healthy, our life is good!! I would give it a big fat A+!

And here we are on our wedding day. Don't we look cute? .... and young..... oh and skinny!!!??

I might come back later today and post the winner of the "Art of Layers" blog hop!

I just need to contact Ronda first and since she is probably just waking up that might take a while :)

See you soon!

 

I've got my own little Christmas angel!

Yesterday evening at the schools Christmas play our little girl had one of the leading roles for which she had to sing solo in front of a loaded church. She was Tikai, a little angel who was wondering if all the loud singing, the overdone dressing, all the gold and silver and the perfect hairdressing is really neccesary with Christmas. She asked if being who we are isn't good enough, and if there isn't something much more important about Christmas. Proud mommy here! :) Watch the video to see our own little Christmas angel sing. She will be right after the loud singing. :)

 

 

Wherever and whoever you are I hope you have your own personal angel. Whether it's you partner, your child, your parent, a friend, a friendly neighbor... I hope this person brings light to your life!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, may there be a lot of light!

Little bits of this and that... and first sneakies for the REVolution Event!

Yes, I know, i've been neclecting my blog lately AGAIN!! Especially when it comes to the everyday and personal stuff...

So, what have I been up to lately?

Well, I bought some new IKEA drawers for my studio. I had like 15 boxes filled with workshop stuff piled up in the guest room. I had no idea anymore what was in there or where to find the stuff I remembered I ordered. I HAD to sort that out. Lennart put together the drawers, pfff, so glad I didn't have to do that myself!! And then I had to sort out the boxes. My studio looked like a bom exploded there and at first I thought I would never get trough it, but then slowly the pile of empty boxes grew bigger than the pile of full boxes and everything found a place. It's so nice to open the drawers and see all the lovely goodies sorted out so neat and tidy! :) Makes creating a new workshop so much easier!

And I've been creating a lot! Wow, I've been booked for so many workshops in the first half of next year, it's amazing and very exciting! I will be traveling all over Europe and even teach in the US and I'm so looking forward to all these adventures! But ofcourse everyone wants sneak peeks and examples, so a lot of work to do!

Yesterday I finished the sneak peeks for one of my workshops I will be teaching at Revlie's REVolution Event on March 10-11, 2012 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Go to her blog to find out more about this events and registration!

I hope to show the other 2 workshops somewhere this week, so stay tuned!

Last wednesday we celebrated Marlijns' 9th birthday and we had a lovely day! I ordered a birthday cake with a picture of her riding a horse which she loved.

 

We had taken her to a riding school the week before (it was fall break here) for a ride outside in the woods. She had the time of her life!

 

 

She's been riding for about 1,5 years now and she just LOVES it! :)

As you might remember Lennart broke both his wrists a little more than a year ago and lately he had been complaining about pain in his right wrist so we made an appointment at the hospital to have x-rays taken. The bones seem to heal very well and the x-rays didn't show anything that could cause his complaints so now he is sceduled to have a CT-scan next month.

I also took Marlijn to the hospital because she is having blatter infections time after time ever since she was a baby and we can't seem to find what causes it. Yesterday she had an ultrasound of her kidneys and blatter and now whe have to wait for the doctor to call with the outcome.

Anne is making plans for a multi language year abroad next year after graduation. She and I went to an information evening of EF last week which was very interesting! She wants to study english, french and spanish in 3 different coutries for 3 months each. Exciting, but also a bit scary. Letting her go all on her own... and I will miss her so much!!! But she's been talking about doing something like this for years and I would have loved doing something like that myself so I'm the first person to encourage her to go! Gives us a good excuse to visit her in places we normally probably wouldn't go!

OK, I think this is all I have to share right now. It's weekend, have a great one!!

Happy birthday my little girl!

Today it's Marlijns 9th birthday. Oh my, how time flies! I can't believe that the tiny little baby I gave birth to nine years ago turned into such a selfconfident, sweet, happy and cheerful little lady so fast!!

Yesterday evening the 2 of us made mushroom cup cakes to take to school today. Luckily for her it's wednesday and she has the afternoon off to celebrate!

Happy birthday sweetie!! <3

  

At the lake of Annecy, vacation pictures (warning: picture overload)

We're back home! Today 4 weeks ago we left for the lake of Annecy in France and now it's already over. Time flies when you're having fun! I took over 2,000 pictures and after spending a day on my laptop I'm left with a little over 900. Today I want to share a "small selection" with you. I hope you're having a wonderful summer too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I've got to scrap them all, LOL!

Have a great week!!

Anne singing Empire State of Mind

My daugther Anne singing Empire State of Mind this afternoon at a fundraising concert at her school for Younior a foundation for children in Kosovo and Bosnia. Don't mind the little bit of shaking, I guess I was more nervous for her then I thought :)

WOW! words on wednesday for my sweet birthday girl!

She is 17 today!

And these are the words I choose for her:

 

I hope you never stop singing!!  And...

 

I hope you won't grow up and forget what you want to be when you grow up!

Always hold on to your dreams!

And finally:

Happy birthday sweetheart!! xxx mama!

 

My cool new car! :)

Last Saturday my new car arrived. I knew that it was coming for a while but creating and adding the lettering took some time. On friday it was finally finished and I proudly present my awesome Fiat 500.

We saw this car for the first time at a garage in Italy in 2007 when it was just realeased and not available in the Netherlands yet and I've wanted one ever since :) I love it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool huh?!!!

Remember to check in for WOW tomorrow and don't miss myStamp BOX blog hop starting on Thursday, 23th!

 

Do you know that feeling...

that feeling that you created something that turned out just the way you imagined and it makes you really happy?! That you look at it and think "this is so perfect"!? Something like a 1 in a 100 projects feeling...

That's how I feel about this travel diary.

 

About half a year ago my sweet friend Liesbeth made this "december daily journal" and I just love it! I knew that one day I would make something like this. Instead of sewing the pages in like Liesbeth did I used a Zutter spiral. This way I can add (or remove) pages while working in my journal since I don't know exactly how many pages I need.

 

I collected all kinds of papers, envelopes, tags, little page protectors, a little book that came with Flow Magazine, pages from my Flow agenda and notebook pages. For a book like this you don't need the newest paper collections and fancy embellishements. A great way to use your stash!

 

 

I made a chipboard cover and applied fiber fill on the front and back. Then I sewed a cover from fabric to slide over the chipboard pages. I just LOVE my soft and chunky journal and already looking forward to work in it this summer! All I have to bring is a black pen, watercolor pencils, a water brush and a MyStik!

So how will you be journaling your vacation this year?

Ascension Day

Yesterday was Ascencion Day which is a holiday here in the Netherlands.

Since the weather was beautiful we decided to take our boat and go to that anual Ascencion Day market in Eenrum a little village a cuople of miles from where we live.

There were all kind of activities at the market and marlijn decided that she wanted to make her own candle at the candle factory. It takes 45 minutes making a candle. Dip in the wax, wait for a minute, dip in the wax, wait for a minute and that about 25 times. There was a big clock and a n abacus with which the kids could keep track on how many times they had dipped the candle. Then it had to be shaped and dipped into cold water 50 times quickly. After that the candle was colored with a cover of colored wax and finally it had to be dipped into cold water a 100 times. It's quite some work but really worth it. Marlijn is sooo proud and happy with her handmade candle!

   
   
 

And the result, a beautiful "dutch" candle! :)

On the market I came across this sign. Well, I won't question that, LOL! Ofcourse it was at the candy stand :)

 

Marlijn needed new sun glasses and found just the one she wanted, a purple one!  Now ain't she a cool kid?! :D

 

From the market we went to Garnwerd where we had diner at the terrace at the water side. When we returned home in the evening we all looked as if we had being lying in the Italian sun the whole day :)

What can I say... a perfect day!

Wishing you all a perfect and sunny weekend!