Merry Christmas

For some of you a bit late but here we have a 2nd Christmasday. Last night we had dinner with the 3 of us, with our 3 year old. Our oldest stayed at Grandma's and we will all have dinner here tonight.

Here's our picture from last night:




I hope you're all having (or had) a Merry Christmas!

Karen

Winter Wonderland

Hello from Winterwonderland!!
Last year we only had to de-ice our carscreens once or twice and look here today! We have a wonderful winterwonderland, it snowed a little last night... ok not much but Dutch kids are really happy with this!




The kids are now in school and kindergarten and I have been packing, we're leaving this afternoon for a weekend in Germany (Cochem) and I am looking forward to a small vacation together. We are all off school and work for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Year! But I needed a little time to share the winter scene with you....

I have done some layouts too and I have to tell you about some great new alpha's that Melissa Bennett created.... ok, let me share the alphas with you! This is "Little Light Alpha no. 5" (image is clickable)... and she has 4 others to check out too....!




Gotta run now, have a great weekend!

Karen

Merry Christmas from us, the Elfs!

OMG I had such a laugh today... I hope you will too:

Best wishes from all of us....
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you who read my blog!

Hi!!

We're back... landed last night at 8.50 pm and got home around 10.15... Prague was wonderful, I have to pick up the kids but just wanted to show you a quick photo impression!!




Have a great day!

St. Nicholas, CT news and Prague!

Hi all!

A bad start
This morning didn't start of so good to say the least.... I felt powerless when my youngest didn't want me to put his clothes on, he's just so into "NO!" at the moment! He's turning four next Feb. so you would say he's getting over it but no way! When I took them to daycare and school by car I couldn't find a space to park in front so I had to drive to the next block to park my car there. Around 8.00 am it's always extremely busy and when I put my car in reverse to get into the parking space I noticed the car behind me had put his car so close to me so that I couldn't go backwards to park into that space. He went a little backwards in the end and then turned down his passenger seat window and started yelling at me that I couldn't drive, couldn't park and HE had to go to work! Huh?? Hmmm... what was I doing here?? Just dropping off the kids so I could turn into my cosy little bed again?? No way SIR! These accusations always hit me really hard, don't know why... and I also don't understand why I always stay 'too' polite! GRRRRRRR!!!
I dropped off the kids - the teachers were singing christmas carols with christmas hats on in the front of the school, this makes me teary again - and back to the car, off to work. On the way I get some sort of rock on my front window screen... At the office (a little later than most of my co workers) I find out someone disconnected the internet hub from my desk ... GRRRR again... Glad to hear more people think it is not so nice of this colleague! I know he did this to get one of the classes started but well, it was just too much for me! OK I found another spot to work (but if I'd known all this before I really would have stayed in the house today!)

St.Nicholas
Ok, I have to think of the nicer things this week so I'll make myself feel better. Actually the week was pretty good until today... and will probably be good from tomorrow! St. Nicholas day was GREAT! Piet knocked really hard on our backyard window last Wednesday and there were 4 large sacks with gifts in the backyard! The kids loved it! We celebrated it with their grandparents and us all here so it was a nice evening. I had great presents but my most fantastic one was my new TRACY JOY camera bag... yes I now own a real Tracy Joy! Can't tell you how happy I am with it and will post pics later! I also got new mugs and teaglasses and a watercooker.

CT news!!
Actually I have great news!! I applied to Simonetta Rossi (aka Scorpiosue)'s CT and I got in!! She sells her designs at Sophia Sarducci's website. I think this will be a good fit for me! And then I also got a PM from Deanna Tafoya, if I would like to be a guest on her CT?? I had a look at her products and yes, I would love to be your guest Deanna... we'll start that off in the month of January!

And then this morning... another surprise! I have been on Melissa Bennett's CT for a while and I am still so happy to be on her team... she surprised us this morning! She sent us 2 coupons, one for Heather Manning's store and one for Jill-D Zines! WOW!! Thank you so much Melissa, you're the sweetest!

And now I am doing some more work here in the office and then I am off to go home and PACK... Yes, yes, yes... in all the misery of this morning I forget that we're going to Prague tomorrow....tonight we drop off the kids at their grandparent's house and tomorrow morning at 6.30 am we're going to Schiphol to get the 8.30 plan to Prague!! It will be rainy but I don't mind...it'll be fun anyway!

Have a great weekend!
Karen

He's finally here!

Hi all!

Is it Thursday already? On Sunday we headed for Edam to see if St. Nicholas was really coming into town... We got a great spot right at the bridge (that had to open later because St. Nicholas'ship had to sail through) and my boys enjoyed every minute of the arrival! First there were Pieten in canoes (they had wrapped their candies, pepernoten, in small plastic bags, how clever :)).... After a lot of canoe Pieten we saw a large ship with a lot of little flags coming closer! On the boat... Sinterklaas and a LOT of Pieten!! I always go back to my own childhood when I see this!
Many people were watching the arrival but it was not too busy so after Sinterklaas got ashore we all went to the Townhall where the mayor welcomed Sinterklaas. I made a lot of pictures and I put a couple on the website of a local newspaper Noord-Hollands Dagblad. You can view these pics here (mine are the ones from Karen).

I also did 2 layouts with the new Sinterklaas kit from Digitaal Scrappen, I am on their CT now as a guest so a little promotion can't hurt right??






Two more weeks for Pakjesavond or Giftnight, on Dec. 5th.... The following day it is our 10th anniversary (we're not married so we celebrate the day we met) and the day after that we're flying to Prague to celebrate! No kids, just the 2 of us!!

Have a great day!

Karen

St. Nicholas is here!

Around noon we were all watching television, I guess it was what most families with small children in this country did... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland today! With his steamship, his black peters and his horse Amerigo! Even if you don't understand the language it is fun to get the vibes ... so you can watch it here!

I did this layout this evening (it's a photo from last year but today we unpacked the box with our St. Nicholas stuff and my boy wore this suit all day!)



Click for credits here... St. Nicholas arrived in Holland so from now on you can find him anywhere... tomorrow we will go to Edam to see his arrival in this little Cheesetown! So more photos after tomorrow!

Have a good weekend!

Karen

Coughing, cold, layouts and 3 more nights!

Hi,

I have a cold, coughing my lungs out so I am at home... don't know if it's flu', it looks like it... Hopefully I will feel better at the end of the day because 3 days in a row is just too long for me... But at least I have time to post my 2 latest layouts. My youngest is at daycare and my mom is here to clean a little and to take care of Mauro, he has a day off school because all the teachers have their study-day...they're taking classes themselves today.

Layouts

Credits can be found here


Credits can be found here

I did another St. Nicholas layout but I have it on my computer upstairs and I am on the laptop now so it'll have to wait!

So hopefully tommorrow I am back in the office, and Friday I work at home because school is closed AGAIN. One goes to daycare but the other one is invited to his friend's Max house to celebrate his 6th birthday. During the weekend we'll have our 'very' oldest over because Mitch will turn 16!! We're throwing him a small party here on Saturday after we have watched the arrival of St. Nicholas on TV! That is the biggest thing of the year for a 3 and a 5 year old so we can't miss that! On Sunday we are going to watch the arrival of St. Nicholas in the town of Edam, that is going to be soooo exciting!

Have a great day!

Karen

Out for dinner tonight

We're out for dinner with 6 of our friends tonight... One of the friends chose a great restaurant and their boy is staying at our home with our 2 boys and our babysitter tonight... Well can I call her babysitter?? It's my scrapfriend, blogfriend... Petra aka Milo82. I promise we won't be home too late Peet!

The winner is....

HI,

My own little SUAS winner... is my week 4 layout... It's the one you can see in the previous post and it is called 'Beautiful Greece'.

Last night I made some more layouts with Melissa's new Christmas kits. She has another one in store today and I love them all! The newest one is Homespun Holiday and will be available at Elemental Scraps soon!
My creations with the other kits, Mistletoe and Jingle Jangle can be found here and here

Off to work!

Karen

SUAS Revea and some Christmas enaBLINGl!

Hi all!

Ok... the results have been published and I am not a winner although one of my Layouts got 11 points... Can you tell me which one scored points?? I will tell you in my next post! These are my layouts and I am proud of every single one!

I had no illusions I would win so it's not a dissapointment, I am glad that I did all six assigments and stretched myself. Some of the layouts would not be here without the SUAS!

Did you see the collab fall Autumn Splendor kit by Melissa Bennett and Cori Gammon?

I did this layout with it:

Melissa also has some wonderful new Christmas kit in store.... Have a look:

This one is called Jingle-Jangle and is available at Scrapbook-Bytes from TODAY!!

And the other one is Mistle Toe:

You can also have a look in her shop at Scrapbook-Bytes for her Christmas Magic Brushes 1 and 2 and her quickpages.... they are awesome!

That's all for now!!

Karen

Back in town!

Hi all!

Ok so we've been back for a week... the week off was great! The place in Belgium is wonderful for us (forest and beautiful nature) and for the kids (pool, indoor playground etc.)... we didn't even have time to do all the things the park offers... that's a good sign, right? Our littlest one had a great time with one of his best friends as a neighbour (we rented two chalets), when they would up they could wave at eachother through the chalet windows. :)

This week we were all really busy here and I had to cancel a dinner with a friend because my eyes couldn't stand my contacts.... my eyes felt a bit weird... still have my glasses on... Another dinner with (ex)co workers was cancelled because some people couldn't make it and it wouldn't be fun without them... so in the end there was even some time to scrap!

But last night, we did go out! We went to the Gelredome Stadium for a new Symponica in Rosso concert. Last year we bought tickets because we both like Marco Borsato's music and this year because we liked last year so much! The Symphonica is performed by a different artist each year and needs 3 components, Red, Italian and Music. This year's performer is Paul de Leeuw. Let me tell you, 5 concerts are sold out and each night 30.000 people have a blast.

The fun thing was that before and after the gig I heard that many people were going or have gone to the Stadium but I didn't see anyone I knew! Marco ... Ines... better luck next time!

Here are some impressions, photo & video:

Next time more about scrapping! I can reveal one BIG little secret:

I am a guest CT for Digitaal Scrappen!!! Woohooo!!!

Karen

A week off.

See you next week... we are off to Belgium for our Fall Break!

Karen

Toot, layout and weekend!

Hi everyone! (sometimes I wonder who will ever read this... I just don't have time to promote my blog a little bit more).

Anyway, here I am again with a few layouts, I did more so if you want to see all of my layouts check my gallery.

So here are a few of my layouts, for the credits check my gallery:

(uhm.... this is or rather was me...)

This last layout was made with Melissa Bennett's new kit Autumn Mist. It's available at the Digishoppe and you should really check her store out... she has amazing stuff! (So ok, I may be a little biased because I am on her CT but I really do love working with her designs!).

You know what I am really excited about? Next week on Monday I am going to meet one of my best friends from elementary school! We were 12 when we were 'split up' because we were going to different highschools and I don't think I have seen her ever since. In Holland we have this website called Schoolbank. You can put down info about yourself and add the info to the schools you have attended. Everything is narrowed down by year and that's how I found Ilona, or rather she found me! Of course we used to live in the same neighbourhood when we were young but guess what... she's living about a mile away from me now! She has two boys, just like me... she has a bachelor in Communications, just like me! She works for the local government and I design and coordinate training for the local governments in Holland... It's all such a coincidence! I am so curious how Monday will turn out... I am all excited!

And then there is more: LOOK AT THIS:

Petra is such a sweetie to put this on her blog for me! Of course it's up to me to decide who I am paying this foward to... and I do have a few favorite blogs, apart from Petra's of course! I have many favs but here are 2:

Ellens Blog... ok she's not so active as a blogger anymore b/c she has lots of other things to do... but her blog is a little special to me! Perhaps I can talk her into a little post every now and then, lol.

Sunflower blog.... I don't know if she's a new designer but I just recently discovered her stuff and her blog and I love both!! So the 'I love your blog is for you too!

There's one more blog I loved by a girl named Karen and she posted on DST also... She had amazing photos on her blog.... Sorry but I have lost the url so I cannot show you!

That's all for today!! I am off work and at the hairdresser's tomorrow and shopping too!! Have a great weekend!

Hi,

I just wanted to share my bookshelf with you... I read most of the titles in Dutch and I couldn't find my Shopaholics favorites but still, here's a selection



Have a great day!
Karen

Pssst... my blog rocks!

Pssst, are you there? I am at the office but just had to share this rockin' news with you! Petra has something on her blog. She's passing on this to me:

Can you believe this? Me, the rocking blog award?
I just warned myself that I have been neglecting you all lately, that I have been neglecting sharing my stories and layouts... I promise to do better in the near future, just this week I have such a busy schedule... tonight going out for dinner with a friend, Wednesday to the hospital with our oldest son and at night we have a friend over for dinner. Thursday I reserved for the Stand up and Scrap Contest! Friday is just another working day and Saturday my youngest has a party of his little friend Christian. Sunday we'll go to our friend's house (yet another one) and visit the Haar Castle and have dinner at their place... hmmm... I hope my blog fits in!

Have a nice week!
Karen

Not a lot of news...

Hi... sorry I have been so lazy to post on my blog lately... I have done some layouts... I have been working... I have been busy with my family and all that but there's no excuse, I hope to get more time as nights get longer!

After some breaks I am back to work, the summer is finally over and one of the boys is back in school (daycare never stops for the other one, lol). My youngest does not like daycare at the moment. At the age of 2 he had his own group of little friends, 2 boys and 2 girls and he was the youngest. The two girls had turned 4 before the summer but one was staying in daycare until school started again, that was last week. The other boy will turn 4 at the end of the year but next month his parents are taking him on a long trip to Australia! So no more friends and every morning when he wakes up - even still in his bed - he asks me if he has to go to 'school'. 3 days a week the answer is YES, just because I have to work, pay the bills and he did like being on a trip? Those things have to be worked for you know? He cries... But the silly thing is that I get ALL stressed out and when he's at daycare he totally forgets about everything he cried for in the morning and starts playing with other kids... Leaving me alone with my guilt and mixed feelings.... Oh well... just 5 more months and he'll be in the 'real' school too!

Oh and yesterday I had a super night... we went to a restaurant called TOF in Gouda and we had a great meal. It was sort of farewell dinner (just the 2 of us) because my friend Petrina is moving to Aruba... finally!

Karen

boys on film... fabeltjeskrant

You might nog understand the word Fabeltjeskrant but it is a children's programme (or used to be) when I was young.... and it has a revival now so the dolls are for sale and my boys are enjoying the songs:

Hi! We're back from our break... in fact we have been back since last Friday but I was still in the mood to be away from the computer... Today I worked again and put the pics on the computer. Here are some!

We stayed in one of the northern provinces of Holland, I always love being there, it feels more relaxed than in the busy western part (where we live). They boys had a great time, also because the grandparents were on the campsite, near our chalet. We had bicycles for 2 days and visited the Boomkroonpad. It is an artificial path on the same height as the top of the trees.... very exciting for kids! On the park there was lots to do for the kids, Koos Konijn was the mascotte and did a dance every morning at 10.00 am and after that it was arts & crafts time. In the evening Koos was there again for the minidisco. The morning we had to leave we hear sobbing from the room next to ours, Mauro was sobbing because he didn't want to leave... poor kid!

I also did these layouts from our vacation:

Did you notice the kit I used??? I already got some parts of the kit because I am on Royanna's CT and let me tell you, it's SO WORTH IT... so download it in September from Divine Digital!!

Here's the sneak peak:

You can read more about this Daily Download here

I have 2 weeks off this week, tomorrow and Friday... I was hoping to get a haircut but my hairstylist seems to be quite popular because there's no time for me.... I just called too late, oh well... perhaps another time and it leave me with more time organizing ACDsee or doing layouts.... and perhaps cleaning the house...lol!

Let me know what you think about this kit and the layouts!!

Karen

Bye bye!!

Hi all!

Yes yes yes!! Petra is off to Mallorca and tomorrow we're off to the north of Holland, Drenthe to be exact.... Ok so not exactly the sunny spot you'd love to be at on a vacation but we already had Greece in June so we're not complaining... hopefully the weather will be OK here.... So we're out of town for a week... then it's just another week until school starts again!

So about two weeks ago we went to the Zoo. I have plenty of animal pics but thought I'd scrap my boys first... The Polar bear b/c I scrapped Mauro 2 years ago with a pic on the same Polar bear... and the horses b/c they were more popular than the REAL animals (at least with Mauro).

This one is for Sherry Ferguson, I am on her CT....

Credits can be found at DST

This one is for Royanna Fritschmann (on her CT too)....

Credits at DST

Did I tell you we will be going to Prague for our 10 year anniversary in December? I booked this great hotel near the Old Town Square.... it's called the Three Drums... at least I hope it's great (could still cancel it, lol)....

Bye have a great week!

Karen

Wow... this looks like something I would like to have! It's called CyberClean and for about $5 it cleans your keypad over and over! I saw it in a magazine and looked it up on the internet... It looks like something we had as a toy when we were little kids. It was called Slimy!

Not much news for now as the kids are at home... One is watching Pokémon (he's 5) and the other one is bugging me... he wants to play a game on the laptop :)

Hae a great day!

Karen

Hello everyone!!

I was just giving someone tourist advice because she is going to NY next weekend... I sooooo would love to give her a shopping list...lol! GAP Kids... some nice sneakers.... coffee from Starbucks...hmmm I really need to find an excuse to go...lol! See one of the musicals 'for real' (Dutch translations suck.... how can I listen to Dutch lyrics when I usually hear the songs on the radio or cd in English... it's just NOT it!).

Just finished this layout for Sherry Ferguson. She's a great designer at OAKS and now that DST is down most of the time you have time to check her out :)

She just released this funky paperpack I am in love with, just click on the picture to grab it:

I mad this layout with these papers and the stars are also Sherry's (hurry, now on sale for only 1 buck!!)

Then I got this today:

The picture is clickable to get it... So how did I get this? A while ago I bought all of Micheline's PSP Scripts, she offered such a good deal that I really could not refuse. So I PM-ed her and asked her if she would sell me the scripts and she did. Today she PM-ed me a coupon to get her latest script also, isn't that sweet?? I mean, she didn't have to do that and she did!

I can't wait to use the script, it says there's a description included... I'll show you when I get something done.

OK Thursday tomorrow. Andy is going to visit his parents who are back from their trip to Germany, they always go to the same campsite on the Rhine near Koblenz.... Perhaps Lorelei is more famous. Grandma offered the youngest to stay over with them for 1 or 2 nights but it seems as the oldest is going ('so I don't have to go to the daycare, mom... )... We'll see who comes back with dad tomorrow... you'll never know! Luckily they fit the same size of clothes, well almost so they can decide until the very last moment...

Going for a nice cuppa now and then off to bed... Have a good day/night!!

Karen

PS... I am a real WANNABE for Micheline's guest CT:

New layout, lifts with a twist.... new blog layout

My blog has been a mess the past weeks... Last night I tried to redo it with the help of Petra's blogger code and it's 99% better.... Just my CT's are still at the bottom but I will try to fix that later....

Weekend now.... This morning we went to IKEA for the $1 breakfast and the intention of buying a small desk for Mauro. We now know what we want but haven't got it yet... we were too much in doubt about the right size. Perhaps we'll get it tomorrow as they are also open on Sunday this week. We have also looked for large closets to divide the attic. It means more space and we don't have to build a wall. It is also more flexible, if we want a large room later on we can remove the closets.... It's a bit more expensive but I think it's the better choice! After breakfast the boys went to the ballpit and we did our round in IKEA.... that works great.

Tonight I did the Lift with a Twist, here's my layout:

Credits can be found here

No more news for today.... the kids will sleep over at their grandparents tomorrow night because I have some things to do for myself... can't tell you what... some people might be reading along, lol! The weather is going to be great so enjoy it!!

Karen

Prague, Paris, Prize and a bit of a cold...

Yes,

I am having a bit of a cold... nothing serious, it just feels a bit numb inside of my head... I think I'll just turn in early... oh well... I have some European capitals to share with you....

Prague!

Yes, yes, yes!! In December dh and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary!! We try to get a weekend-with-no-kids once a year, usually financed as a birthdaypresent for both of us (we're 8 days apart so we usually celebrate it together) from my parents.

So where to go?? Last year it was Paris (more of that later in this post). We also did New York, Glasgow, Barcelona, London, Vienna...and we each have been to Rome. On our wishlist (or rather, mine :)).... Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Stockholm....

In Europe we're now dealing with Low-budget flight companies... a good thing for us. Companies like Ryanair and Easyjet make it easy to go to the rest of Europe, sometimes you only pay taxes! But you have to be flexible, the hours the flights are, are most times not very convenient hours for a short trip... you want to make the most of your days right??

Today I found my dreamflight and booked it!!! We're going to Prague with SkyEurope! Now I have to find the best deal for a hotel so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!!

It's not until December, but I like that time of the year... just before Christmas is a good time because we both love shopping!

Paris

So last year it was Paris. I am Royanna Fritschmann's CT and got this Tour d'Eiffel kit (it's for sale at My Digital Muse) from her and made this layout:

Credits can be found here

Grunge didn't fit with these photos so I made it a bit different... I like how it turned out.

Prize!!!

A couple of weeks ago Petra had her first blogversary, do you all remember?? I won a WW prize!! I totally forgot about the prize until she asked me if WW already contacted me. Oops! No I hadn't heard from them. Yesterday I got mail from Gina from Weeds and Wildflowers and I was BLOWN AWAY!! Because they'd been too busy to send out the mail to me I now get a GiftCertificate of .... $20.... WOW!! I didn't expect this and think WW rocks so I am really really happy with this!

You see... I already got to the point that I am browsing their shoppe and thinking of what to get... These are my favorites!

Have a great day!!

Karen

DST is one... so I dedicate this post to scrapbooking!

Happy birthday DST!

Ooh yes!! Today is DST's first birthday... I discovered it this morning and I am going to take a look again after I finished my blogpost... So let's dedicate this to digital scrapbooking and show you some layouts.

A new thing

But first I show you something handy....

Try this link: http://karenkool.favorietje.nl/

I know some of us have had their own favs page for a long time but I didn't think I needed it... Now I am messing around with my favorites because I have so many... so I decided to put all my scrapbook favorites in one page with one link... What do you think... would you use this? Of course more links have to be added (want to be on my site... let me know), but it's a start! I hope it will turn out as useful as I hope it will be!

On to my layouts

Lets start with the last one, I did this one for Nancy Comelabs challenge, read about it on her blog:
It turned out like this... what do you think?? All pictures were taken last Saturday when we went to Belgium for a weekend break. We promised the boys to go to Plopsaland. It is a themepark with TV characters and the boys love to go there. It's a 2,5 hour drive (which is quite a distance for us Dutchies), so we usually go there once a year. This year we bought an annual pass so we can go more often. This weekend we were there 2 days, overnight we stayed at the Novotel. The downsite of this trip... ?? Our 3,5 year old thought he could discover the park on his own and we lost him not once but TWICE!!

I always thought my boys wouldn't run of, until now they always stayed with us. Luckily I had put my phonenumer on his arm with a pen and was called within 5 mins. that someone had found him and he was with 'Lost Parents" (your read it right... LOST parents, lol... it's all about the kids right?)....

Next are some layouts with pics from Greece:

A portrait I made of the little runaway boy:

And two portraits of my boys made by a photographer at the daycare center:

And Mauro's 5th birthday (one at home and one at school)

And the last one, my boy took pictures with his FP camera:

All credits can be found here in my gallery at DST

All for now... I have a day off tomorrow and my boy needs a haircut first and then we're probably off to the Zoo, I have free tickets! So I will probably come back with lots of pictures... again!!

Have a nice day....

Karen