Queensday market in Baarn

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool

Here's a short video impression of our Queensday in Baarn. We are selling brocante/antiques at my mom's stand!

40 and Happy Queensday!

Two parties in two days ... and it was fun!

Ok so I did not really throw a party for my 40th birthday (I mean, what's to celebrate, lol)... but I did have a good day. First the boys gave me my gifts around 7.00 am.... I had the a beach bag from Riviera Maison , one of my fav stores! I also had a Dirty Dancing dvd (special edition), a picture of my 2 little ones and a lot of self-made crafts with happy birthday on it! After that I had an appointment at the hairdresser... and then I found a Wii at the MediaMarkt!! I had tried to order the Wii at different stores but all sold out.. and there they were 8 of them at that store! And it is fun! Yesterday we tried some bowling, tennis and boxing from the Sports Pack and today we did the games of Mario's Carnival!

Anyway, so I stayed in the citycenter of Utrecht for a while to do some shopping. I bought the new book by Sophie Kinsella because I loved the Shopaholic series... Now I bought Remember me. I bought some clothes, a nice brown jersey dress, a poloshirt and an orange t-shirt... which you will see on the pictures later on. I ran some errands at Albert Heijn because we have two holidays ahead of us... Queensday and Ascensionday. Around 4.30 pm we pick up the kids from their day activity center (they are off school this week) and drive to IKEA... It's my birthday so I can decide what we will have for dinner tonight and I love to treat the boys to a meal at the yellow letters (as they call it because they can't read yet, although Mauro has thought himself a little). One boy picks the Swedish meatballs, the other the chicken nuggets and Andy has a kid's meal too (because there's an ice cream with the meal, lol). I get the salmon which is ok as a birthday meal...lol! When we got home and put the boys to bed the phone rang constantly... so nice to hear people remember my birthday! Arond 9.30 another phonecall... It was Mick my friend from Wellington, New Zealand!! She's Dutch, we took the same course years ago (that's how we met) and she moved to Wellington 5 years ago with her husband and 2 kids. It was so great to be chatting away for an hour (!!) on the phone...like she had never left Holland! I would love to see for real how they live but tickets (for 4!) are expensive! Anyway, thank you Mick for calling...it was a great ending of the day!

And today it was Queensday....

We left the house at 7.00 am for the first flea market. It's a special fleamarkt because children sell their spare toys mostly.... also adults sell second hand stuff.... We went early to get the best deals and the best things! Came home around 8.00 am, had breakfast and the boys played with the toys they bought on the market... Then we left again to go to Baarn... here's an impression:

Me at 40... lol! Wearing my Queensday shirt!

Our stand

Royal mugs... all with the royal family on them (for sale!)

The boys sorting out grandma's silver teaspoons (all for salem except for the boys!)...

That was all for now.... tomorrow is Ascension day so another bankholiday...it fact I have off work until Tuesday... woohooo!!!

Final countdown

Hi,

It's the final countdown... that song keeps going through my head... :)... 5 more days until the big four o... A friend of ours gave us these '40' decorations since her husband turned 40 on April 11th (happy belated birthday Peter!)... These decorations are already up in our house since Andy turned 40 last Monday and we couldn't be bothered to remove them, after all what's 8 days ... or should we have taken them down and put them up again a week later. Perhaps our neighbour will now miss the fact that it will be my birthday too and just think I am too lazy to remove the decorations, LOL...

One more schoolday and the kids have a week off... It will be Queensday on Wednesday and we might visit a themepark on Friday or Saturday, all depending on the weather... lucky us that it is a very long bankholiday Wednesday until Sunday! Schools are also closed on liberation day (Monday May 5th) and since I don't have anywhere to put the boys on that day I took that day off too... Long long weekend!

I didn't do a lot of scrapping lately ... just no inspiration I guess. I like this one I did:

image is clickable for credits

Did you see the latest by Natali Designs? I bought this yesterday:


I have been buying a lot of Natali's stuff lately..so please can you send over some scrapping inspiration?

Have a great Thursday, Friday or whatever day it is in your part of the world!

Just a fresh look

Since I am at home with the flu' for a week now (I hope to get back to the office tomorrow) I decided to give my blog a fresh look... Might make me feel better too... let me know what you think... Do you like the new 'me' or did you like the old one better? People say they get weird close to 40... my birthday is less than 2 weeks away so 'they' may be right!!

Have a great day

Easter to April....

Hi all!

White Easter.

Sorry, it has been a while... no excuse really! I have been on a 2-day training (Practical Coaching) and work has been busy since Easter! But today my oldest boy is on the couch with fever and I think he's taking a little nap right now...so I have time to update my blog. In an hour I have to pick up the youngest from school too. Meanwhile I will try to get you updated about the past weeks... So there was this Easter that people were joking about...people wished eachother Merry Christmas because the weather forecast said it would be a White Easter! Well here's proof of what happened:

It was more difficult to find the Easter eggs this year...lol... Can you find it?

Just a little bit of snow on the branches!

Our Almond Tree in Bloom!

The snow didn't last long that day so we got up and were playing in the snow by 8.30 am. Later that morning we drove to Hapri (short for Half Price), it's a fahion outlet store where I love to go a couple of times a year. They had marked down all the children's items to 5 euro a piece. I bought some things for the boys and 2 items for myself. On the way back didn't take the highway but the smaller roads and the ferry across the river Rhine. Especially the boys love these routes! Near Veenendaal we stopped for lunch at McDonalds.

Drums

This looks great huh? My oldest boy (who is now on the couch with fever) loves music and last year he took some general music classes. He thought (even though he was only 4!) they were boring because he didn't get to play a lot of the instruments. He had this toy drumset but it broke quite fast and now we got him a new set! I bought it on Marktplaats and he is sooo over the moon with this (and it wasn't even his birthday!).

Just after Easter our friend Debby gave birth to her new babyboy Max! We visited him when he was 3 days old but unfortunately I had brought a camera without a memory card! Stupid me! I can tell you it's a really sweet boy! My co-worker had delivered the week before and she has a baby girl named Sophie. I hope to see them soon!

And then there was last weekend... they boys stayed at their grandparents in Cothen. It was sort of last minute decision to let they stay over... we thought of taking them there in the morning so grandma could babysit them. But an extra night off is very welcome and they love to stay over at gran's so we were all happy! We took them there and when we left we drove to Zeist to see a new movie called 'Zomerhitte'. This movie is directed by Monique van de Ven. She's also a famous actress in our country. Anyway, I already loved the themesong of this movie:

When summer ends by VanVelzen:

On Sunday we went to the Sample Sale at the Amsterdam Fashion Square and I did some great shopping there... bought 3 skirts, a blouse and 2 shirts and a knitted sweater! All items were 10-20 euro a piece so I thought I had a good deal!

Today is Monday and I have taken the day off because of the sick little boy... tomorrow I have to work and my mom will probably look after him... I don't see him going to school tomorrow after such a fever!

Well have a good day you all...next time I will show you some more digistuff... I hardly scrapped the past weeks!

Karen

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone... hope you found all of the eggs today :)

Will come back soon for a real update ....

Karen

Busy girl

Hi all,

Oh no I don't feel sorry for myself, it's just that I sometimes feel that I am a busy girl. Like last Monday... I wanted to list what I did but I didn't have time to blog it....

7.00 am got up (kids woke us up, very reasonable time :), get us all dressed (not dh, he's off to work already, lol) and fed.

8.05 am all in the car, drop both the kids off at school in their different classes (8.20-8.30) and off to work.

9.00 am my first cup of coffee in the office and I stay there until 2.00 pm.

2.00 pm I run some errands and drive to school

2.45 pm school gets out and I pick up the kids in pouring rain (I hate that!)

3.00 pm home, give the boys a drink and a little snack

3.15 pm I start doing some of my chores, this time it's an hour of ironing (kids are playing)

4.00 pm The youngest is watching a dvd and falls asleep, I can peel some potatoes for dinner

4.30 pm dh gets home

5.00 pm early dinner because I have to be at a workshop at 7.00 pm

6.15 pm I leave the house and dh takes care of the kids from now on, bath, bed etc.

7.00 pm I meet my old co-worker Marije who has just opened this great meeting center (http://www.ruimteutrecht.nl/), I introduce myself to the other people there and the workshop starts

10.30 pm I say goodbye to Marije and thank her for the nice evening... my drive home is 20 mins.

11.00 pm I sit on the couch and feel tired.. so off to bed...

Ok... so not every day is this long...and today I am off work, like every Wednesday. Of course other things are waiting for me today, the kids are off school at noon already and the oldest has to be at his swimminglessons at 3.30 pm. I still have to run some errands and clean the house... scrapping, reading a book? Hmmm, I think it's time for a day off, and I mean OFF... When will that be do you think? When they're 18?? LOL...

Ok I think I did make a couple of layouts last week to show you, let me see....

Ok that's all for today, I hope you don't have the stormy weather that we're having right here... I want Spring!!!

Have a great day!
Karen

February... spring break

Hi all!

It is Spring Break for the boys! They have a week off from school but we both have to work, ok not all week we have Friday off, woohoo!! So they go to the extracurricular activities today and tomorrow and I have my regular day off on Wednesday and Andy on Thursday...

On Friday we leave to go to down south for the weekend, we have booked 2 cottages on the park Weerterbergen:

We have been here 2 time before and it is great for the children, they love the indoor playground, the swimming paradise and the dances and crafts with Koos Konijn. The boys know exactly who Koos is because he's the mascotte of more vacations parks we have visited....

He even has his own fun website! Of course it is all in Dutch but perhaps you manage to get something out of it anyway. So we will be with Koos for the weekend, until Sunday night because we have to get back to work and school on Monday. When we are there we have time to celebrate my mom's 64th birthday, she actually has her birthday on Thursday but I have to work on that day, so we postpone it.. Unfortunately she won't be able to enjoy the cake she will buy for us because she will have her galbladder removed soon, since it has gone bad, full of gallstones...yuck! I hope she will feel better soon and can eat anything she likes soon!

Anything else? I haven't scrapped a lot lately but I did this one page with photos you saw in my previous post, let me find it... ok right here!

Oops when I look into my gallery I see that I did 2 more... wanna see those too?? One is my friend Kitty and I at the Indian restaurant in Brum, and the other is the AAM I did for the new Weeds and Wildflowers forum.

All images of layouts are clickable for credits.

Ok, I am off to shop now, I have to get the girls from daycare a farewell gift. Milan is now in school and tomorrow is his last day in daycare... I already bought some treats (food) for the kids but the girls also need a big Thank you for all the four years they have taken care of my little boy!

Have a great day!
Karen

A little spring... a better mood!

So hello again!

I hope you have been checking my blog and noticed I wasn't here for a few days... No I wasn't away... it can't be party time every day, now can it?? I was busy doing other things than blogging but I didn't forget about you all so I did do my homework and made some layouts!

Weather

Can you believe it's the beginning of February and the temperatures climbed up to 15 degrees Celsius last weekend!! We were so lucky! On Saturday we celebrated Milan's fourth birthday and many people came over to visit us including Petra. She brought Milan a watch... such a great gift for him! I hope he'll start to tell time soon and wear the watch so that he knows 6.15 am is NOT the right time to get out of bed, lol!

On Sunday we had tickets for Harderwijk. I just recently got us a Girafpas, it's an annual pass for 18 euro per family (2 adults and up to 6 kids). With this pass we get 4 times a year free entrance to a zoo on specific dates. This time it was Dolfinarium weekend. We had never taken the little boys there (we took Mitchell once but at 16 you don't like the zoo anymore) so it was a great opportunity. We also took our nephew, niece and their dad!

The weather was sooo great on that day that we had a great day out. We loved the shows and to see the animals (sea lions, dolphins) but the small beach and playgrounds were just as good for all the kids! Here are a few photos:

Layouts

A few of my recent layouts... there was enough to scrap, Milans first schoolday,

Carnival... one of the trip to the forest on Christmas day and an older picture, when Mauro was little... but oh so cute!! All images are clickable!!

Well this is all for now, one day left of this week and then there is a weekend full of NOTHING... Nowadays I love these weekends most... no obligations, no birthdayparties... nothing :)

See you soon!

Karen

Happy 4th birthday little boy!

All day I am thinking about this day exactly 4 years ago, I had to be at the hospital at 6.30 am for a c-section... Milan was born around 9.00 am (an hour late because there was NO doctor to perform the surgery, she was still at home, in bed!)... But today is my youngest son's 4th birthday!!


He started school yesterday and next Saturday will be the big party for family and friends. He got presents from us this morning, the biggest gifts were a V-smile Pocket and My first dr. Bibber. His grandparents are picking him up from school in 15 minutes and we are all having dinner together later tonight...

Have a great day!
Karen'

Birmingham... great to see my friends again!

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Originally uploaded by Karen Kool.

Last weekend I left one boy with grandma and the other with dad... so had the chance to go to England for the weekend with my (higschool)friend Kitty.

We chose Birmingham for the time zone (extra hour to shop), the shops (GAP, M&S) and perhaps there would be a chance to see my friends from Wolverhampton/Cannock/Stoke-on-trent....wherever they live in the area.

After a bumpy landing we were in time and all ready... so we shopped until we dropped... had the nicest meals and on Sundaymorning we met Carol, Danni and Gary. It was a great weekend, my head was all empty and that's a good sign....

We have to plan more weekends like this one!!

Karen

January.... january

Hi!

I don't like January after the first week... The first week makes me happy, it gives me sort of 'clean' feeling, like there's an empty page in front of me and I get to write on it... Usually I have the first week of the year off so that makes me feel even happier... and then real life starts again... Short days when you take the kids to school in the dark, drive to the office in the dark and only see daylight if (if!) I get the chance to peep out of the office for lunch... I finished work at 5.30 pm tonight, got home at 6..... DARK! Oooh I know I must be glad I don't live in the Scandinavian region but I want DAYLIGHT!

Ok so I better think of other things... I start looking for holiday destinations...when and where can we go this summer... I have worked at a travel agency for a while and I was a rep in Switzerland and Spain so I know where to find it and I know at what price... NOT! I search the web from here to Tokyo and back (not that I want to go to Tokyo)... Everyone says NOW it's the time to go to the States and hey, I have a long long GAP (and other stores) shopping list here so why not? Gladly I can give my shopping list to Petra because when I see high season ticket prices... it's NOT so funny anymore and we may have a strong Euro compared to $$$ but double the fares because the children have summer break? I vote for a president who makes fares lower when children have time to travel!! Hillary change your plans! Still don't know where we will be heading but well... at least I have spent hours in front of pictures of tropical beaches, hey!

A few layouts??

All credits can be found here

Ok I am off to get some WEEKEND... a little daylight perhaps on Saturday and Sunday...lol... ow and some groceries...vitamins...feel like I have a cold and earinfection but I am not complaining...no work for 3 days!!

Have a great weekend!

Karen

Digiscrap Hyves!

Hi!

If you're Dutch you have probably heard about Hyve...it's kind of Facebook with friends and groups and so you create your own internet community....

About 2 years ago I started a hyves group about Digital Scrapbooking.... we now have over 100 members. To celebrate Melissa Bennett was so sweet to give away a $15 coupon for her store at SBB . Miranda from Rotterdam won the coupon and she already picked some great items from the store....woohooo... I hope we'll have 200 members soon and I am sure we can think of another give away!! Take a look here and become a member:

Karen

Happy New Year!!

So here we are in 2008!!

I hope you all get the sort of year you are hoping for! I still have to make my mind up what kind of year 2007 was... If I count all ups and downs it ends up in being a good one... I found my half sister again, I think I haven't seen her in 20 years... internet makes the contact a lot easier so that's how we got back in touch! Jana, you're the best!!

I just finished 2 layouts, images are clickable....






Let me know what you think of these!!

Karen

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