Happy weekend!

Today a little quiz to find out if you're left or right brained. This is my result, I think that's pretty true!

I am 25% Left Brained, 75% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

How about you? Play the game and let me know!!
Happy weekend!
Birgit

She's 4 now...

...my little girl and not that little anymore!
The evening before we told her she had to stay in bed in the morning and wait for us to come. So when we heard her yelling that she was awake :) we went to her room to sing for her and give her her presents.
She sat like a princess in her bed, her eyes where shining and she loved every single present that she got!



When we where all dressed Anne, Marlijn and I went into the village to get the birthdaycake we ordered and to buy Marlijn a ring wich was Anne's present for her. And just as I had thought she picked one with a little lady-bird! It looks so cute, her little hand with the tiny ring... I think this was her favorite present, she showed it to everyone all day!!
Since it was vacation we had visitors all day untill about 7.30pm. Marlijn had a great day and got spoiled terribly.



Around 8 it was time to go to sleep and she wanted her daddy to bring her to bed and read her the book she got from him. I guess she was very tired, we didn't hear a word from her after her door was closed!
So now my little girl is 4. From monday she'll be going to school 4 days a week. It will be so quiet in the house! But she is so ready for it, looking forward to it so much!!! She went "practicing" 6 times already and loved it. She can't wait to go every day! Ah well, and I had an empty house before. Anne and Lennart both went to school before Marlijn was born. I got used to it then, I supose I'll get used to it now!

Have a great friday!
Birgit

Shopping in Amsterdam

Last night we came back from 3 fun days in Amsterdam. Marlijn stayed with her grandparents, Anne and Lennart went with us. We had a hotel on the Damrak so in the middle of Amsterdam Centre. The hotel was not quit what we expected but the room was ok. Breakfast though was so bad (and not even in the same hotel, we had to go to another building 3 doors further) that we decided to go to another (chique) hotel for breakfast the second moring. It was everything we could have hoped for :)
On sunday we went to Madame Tussauds, Anne really wanted to take us because she had been there once before with a friend. It was fun, some of the statues look very real, but to be honest... I don't think it's worth THAT much money. It took less then an hour to go through there and without reduction it costs € 59,- ($ 74,-) for a familycard for 4 people.



We wanted to visit the Anne Frank House but we where not the only ones. There was a line standing outside all from the Prinsengracht to the Keizersgracht and we where told that waiting time would be about 2 hours... OK, I guess if we want to go there we better not go in a vacation period. So, we didn't do that this time.
In stead we went shopping in the "9 straatjes" (9 little street). Thanks to Flo who's living in Amsterdam and gave me this tip! These little streets are filled with all kinds of little shops and bars and restaurants. An absolute must if you ever visit Amsterdam! I went ribbon-shopping at Kerkhof's and bead-shopping at Beadies and had a great time!
On monday the weather was so nice we could have lunch outside and I had a delicious club Sandwich.











Of course we also went to all the other famous shopping streets. The Bijenkorf ( a big shopping centre) was the kids favorite! We had great dinner and a lot of fun together!



You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

In about an hour Marlijn will be back. Her grandparents will sleep over because tomorrow is Marlijn's 4th. birthday! I'd better start preparing now :)
Have a great day!
Birgit

When your life seems to full this is something to think about.
First in green the dutch text, then in orange my english translation. Hope it's good enough :)

De pot en het kopje koffie
The pot and the cup of coffee

Wanneer dingen in je leven teveel voor je worden, wanneer 24 uren in een dag niet genoeg lijken te zijn, denk dan aan de pot en het kopje koffie:
When things in life get to much for you, when 24 hours in a day seem not to be enough, remember the pot and the coffee:

Een leraar stond voor zijn klas.
Er stonden allerlei dingen op zijn bureau.
Toen het lesuur begon, pakte hij zonder woorden een grote, lege pot en deed hem vol met pingpongballetjes.
Toen de pot tot de rand gevuld was vroeg hij de leerlingen of de pot vol was.
Ze zeiden: “Ja”.
A teacher was standing in front of his class.
There where several things on his desk.
When lesson started, he took the big pot without saying a word and filled it with ping-pong balls.
When the pot was filled to the edge he asked his students if the pot was full.
They said: “Yes”.


Toen pakte de leraar een doos met kleine kiezelsteentjes en goot die uit in de pot.
Hij schudde de pot een beetje en de kiezelsteentjes rolden in de open plekjes tussen de pingpongballetjes. Toen vroeg hij zijn leerlingen of de pot nu vol was.
Ze zeiden: “Ja, de pot is vol!”
Then the teacher took a box with little pebbles and emptied it in the pot.
He shaked the pot a little and the pebbles filled all the empty spaces betwee the ping-pong balls. Then he asked his students if the pot was full now.
They said: “Yes, the pot is full!”

Daarop pakte de leraar een doos met zand en goot die uit in de pot.
En natuurlijk: het zand vulde alles verder op.
Weer vroeg hij zijn leerlingen of de pot nu vol was.
Weer zeiden zij: “Ja, de pot is vol!”
On that the teacher took a box of sand and emptied this in the pot.
And of course: the sand filled all the little remaining holes.
Again he asked his students if the pot was full now.
And again the said: “Yes, the pot is full”

Daarop nam de leraar 2 kopjes koffie en goot ze leeg in de pot. De koffie vulde de ruimte tussen de zandkorrels.
Then the teacher took 2 cups of coffee and emptied them in the pot. The coffee filled the space between the sand.

De leraar zei: “Deze pot staat voor het leven.
De pingpongballetjes zijn de belangrijkste dingen in je leven: je familie, je kinderen, je gezondheid, je vrienden.
Het zijn de dingen die zo belangrijk voor je zijn, dat wanneer al het andere in je leven er niet meer zou zijn, maar dit wel, je leven nog steeds meer dan genoeg de moeite waard zou zijn.
De kiezelsteentjes zijn de andere dingen die er toe doen: zoals je werk, je hobby, je huis, je auto.
Het zand is al het andere, de kleine dingen in het leven.
The teacher said: “This pot stands for life.
The ping-pong balls are the most important in your life: your family, your children, your health, good friends.
These are the things that are so important to you that even if everything else in life would be gone, but this is still there, life still will be more then worth living.
De pebbles are the other things that matter, like your work, your hobby, your house and your car.
The sand is all the rest, the little things in life.

Wanneer je het zand eerst in de pot doet, is er geen ruimte meer voor de pingpongballetjes of de kiezelsteentjes.
Dat geldt ook voor het leven.
Wanneer je de hele dag al je tijd geeft aan de kleine dingen, zul je nooit ruimte of tijd hebben voor de dingen die echt belangrijk zijn.
Let op de dingen die belangrijk zijn voor het geluk in jouw leven. Zorg eerst voor je pingpongballetjes, de dingen die er voor jou, echt toe doen.
Stel je prioriteiten; de rest is zand.”
When you put the sand in the pot first there will be no room left for the ping-pong balls and the pebbles.
It’s the same with life.
When you spend all day, giving time to the little things, you will naver have room or time for the things that really matter.
Pay attention to the things that are important for the happiness in your life. Take care of the ping-pong balls first, the things that really matter to you!
Set your priorities; the rest is sand.”


Toen hij uitgesproken was, bleef het even stil.
Toen stak één van de leerlingen zijn vinger op en vroeg waar de koffie voor stond.
De leraar glimlachte: “Ik ben blij dat je het vraagt.
Het laat zien dat hoe vol je leven ook lijkt te zitten, er altijd ruimte is voor een bakkie leut!”
When he was done it was very quiet for a moment.
Then one of the students raised his hand and asked: “How about the coffee”
The teacher smiled: I’m glad you ask.
It showes that no matter how full your life seems to be, there’s always room for a cup of coffee!”

I'm off to Amsterdam, happy sunday!
Birgit

Today I can show more of the projects I've been working on for scrap-club.
The november kit is featuring CherryArte's Midnight Rouge, chipboard and rubons!

For the first LO I used Cactus Pink chip board letters as a mask and painted around them to get the title, used a black pen for the outline. Actually this happend unexpected. I wanted to use the letters for the title and painted them red on a piece of scrap paper. When I took them of I saw the effect and liked it so much that I decided to re-paint the letters on my LO!
The lyrics ("She's got a way" by Billy Joel) are the same as I used on Elsie's workshop LO because I I'm doing my song-lyrics album on 12x12 in stead of 8x8 I wanted to use them again.



For the second LO I used the song lyrics of Natasha Bedingfields "These words" .



For the altered frame I used chipboard stars covered with paper and I mimiced the pattern of the paper on the chipboard arrows. The little pink bling letters are from "Blokker".
Made my oldest DD very happy with this, it's now standing on her night-stand. She just loves her little sister :)



Thursday was the last day of pre-school for Marlijn. She's turning 4 this week so she will go to school next week and since it's fall break now she had to say goodbye last week.
She enjoyed all the attention and was not sad at all that she is leaving pre-school. She has been practicing in school six times and she can't wait to go there every day after vacation! My baby is growing up so fast, I hope I get used to it just as quickly as she does.... I'm sure gonna miss having her around all day. She's just such a sweet, funny, silly, companionable kid!



The last picture I want to share today is of an almost daily ritual. Every time I take Marlijn to the supermarket - wich is almost every day - she has the same ritual all the time. First thing she does is run to the butcher to get a slice of sausage and then she goes to the magazine stand to see if there's an empty space in the bottom shelfs. If so, she takes a kids magazine, sit down and "reads". I thought this was worth taking my camera to the supermarket!



My friend Anita is having a difficult time becuase her sister is very ill. She's now in England to be there for her and taking care of her sisters children. Please leave an encouraging message on her blog! Thanks!

It's fall break so tomorrow morning my family and I will leave for Amsterdam for 3 days of fun, shopping, visiting Madame Tussaud's and maybe the Anne Frank Haus!
Have a great weekend!
Birgit

It really is fall!

Since the weather has still been so nice the last couple of weeks and it was way to warm for the time of the year I didn't really realize that it is fall already!
Last sunday though, we went to the woods and I was very surprised to see so many mushrooms, fir-cones and acorns.
This morning on the news we heard that the next couple of days we'll have some real fall weather with lots of rain and much, much colder.
I guess I will have to dig out our winter coats and gloves then...
Although I call myself a summer girl (I love the heat) I have to admit that I enjoy long dark evenings, when it's raining outside and we stay in, light the candles and watch tv or read a book. As long as I don't have to leave the house it's ok....
I also look forward to "Sinterklaas"-time and Christmas, but I know that in january I'll start longing for spring already!

Here are some mushroom pictures I made sunday:





The next picture I took in my own backyard last week. Aren't these colors beautiful?
To bad most of it is gone by now already...



Have a great day, enjoy fall!
Birgit

BUTTONS!

If you have seen my latest couple of LO's you must have noticed that I'm kind of into buttons :)
I LOVE buttons!
Tuesday I seemed to run out of buttons so I needed to get me some.
I went to the market in the afternoon but didn't really find what I was looking for. Buttons are so expensive here, at least 0,25 € a piece! OK, if you only need 5 or 6 that's not such a big deal, but if you want a LOT in all different colors and shapes and sizes, because you don't know yet what exactly you'll be needing, then you have a problem.
Suddenly I had this idea... I went home, sat down at my computer and searched "marktplaats" (like ebay but in dutch).
And this is what I found:



Someone wanted to get rid of a box with 2 kilos of buttons!
Yesterday the box arrived and this is what I sorted out so far, there's much more!
Just gotta love buttons!

Enjoy your day!
Birgit

sneak peeks

Monday I received the november-kit from Scrap-club where I'm in the DT.
I was still overflowing with inspiration so I started to work with it right away.
I've almost finished my third LO!
Unfortunatly I can't show them yet so today I only give you a little sneak peek of the 2 LO's that are ready!



This is all I have right now.
Did these sneak peeks make you curious??
Then make sure to check back later to see the whole LO's ;)

Have a great day!~
Birgit

Happy monday!

It felt like my creativity had no end yesterday! I had so much inspiration, must still be the result of thirsdays workshop. I amazed myself by making THREE! LO's! The loosening up seems to start working!

The fisrt LO I did is a belated Happy Birthday to Revlie . I scraplifted her "sweet little feet". Hope you had a wonderful day Rev!



I just love that Urban Lily pp!

The second one is about my DD Anne meeting her idol Maud again. This time she was so lucky to meet Maud at the back entrance at a concert and nobody else realized that she was there. So she got to spend about half an hour with her, gave her a little present, talked to her and got a big kiss on her cheak. Afterwards Anne said it was the best day of her life!
Journaling on the photograph says:
I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life, Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life.
This is a song lyric by Dido wich Maud also sung in one of the live shows at Idols!



For the last one I used a quote I read on Chris Jenkins blog yesterday. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to scrap it!
Quote says:
"To wake up with a smile
without a doubt, to burst, grin, giggle
bliss, skip, jump, sing and shout,
let's get happy"
- Robert Smith
Used the paper scraps we got in our goodiebag last thirsday. Have no idea who this paper is by, but I sure would like to know. So if anybody knows who the manufacturer of this beautiful paper is, please let me know!



Creative days like these make me happy!
That's it for now!
Thanks for poppin' in,
have a great monday!

Birgit

Complete make-over

So, as you can see I've changed my blog!
I've been wanting a black background for ages. Anita's got a black background and I love how the pictures pop up in it!
I just had no idea how to change it and I just didn't want to take the time to find out...
Now, as you know I went to Elsie's workshop last thirsday and I got sooo inspired!
I came home and decided to scrap my own new banner.
And of course with this new banner my blog needed a new color too... black!
And while I was thingking of how to get this all done I said to myself: how stupid can you be?! You've got the expert living under your roof. My 12 year old DD Anne is so good with computers. She makes her own websites and gets ask by other people to make them website-LO's and help them out with things. So this morning I asked Anne to help me, wich she gladly did, because she loves to work on the computer and she's not alowed to do it all day.
And this is the result! I totlay love it!

The only thing bothering me is this NavBar in the left upper corner. We can't see to get rid of it. I've seen it on other blogs like just a little line on top of the blog and that sure looks a lot nicer!If there's anybody out there who knows how to change this PLEASE let me know!! I would be sooo thankful!

Hope you like "my" new look, let me know what you think!

Have a great day!
Birgit

It's a colourfull world

As promissed, a few of the great shots we made yesterday.




Revlie, Florence and me.


Corinne and me enjoying the lovely weather.





Thanks for peeking!
Birgit

Going freestyle!

Today I went to Lelystad to do Elsie's Challenge at Scrapboek.nl
I didn't really know what to expect and if I would like it at all... I'm not a freestyler, really, but I thought this would be a change to learn to loosen up a little. I'm the long thinking, re-thinking, re-re-thinking kind of scrapbooker. I don't glue anything until the whole page is ready and I'm totaly happy with the result.
So today really was a challenge for me. We had to take pictures and song lyrics to go along with them to create an 8x8 album.
Now these 2 black pages where lying in front of me and Corinne, who was also there, told me I was not supposed to think, just do... and quick! So I just took 2 pieces of fabric, layered my photo's over them, took a handfull of buttons and literaly threw them on my page, wrote and cut out my song lyrics, et voilà, done! That's all!
And it is so much FUN!! not to think, just create!



I know this is not "my style"' and I'm probably not going to do a lot of LO's this way, but it might change my way of scrapbooking a little. And I promissed myself I'm gonna complete this album in Elsie style!
Not only the workshop was fun, it was also fun to meet Corinne again and it was nice to finaly meet Revlie and Florence IRL! We had a great time making pictures of eachother in front of a graffity wall. They turned out really great with all the bright colors. Will post some tomorrow as I need Corinne to e-mail me some.
Of course we did a little shopping afterwards and then we had a nice lunch with a couple of girls before we all went home.
So I can only say: I had a great day!!

Birgit

a little photoshoot

As I told you yesterday Marlijn got her first pair of glasses. Well, actually, she got two pair of glasses because she could choose a second pair for free! She's got a pink/blue one and a red one.
Yesterday morning she choose the red one to wear because she was wearing a red sweater.
She was such a good girl, kept her glasses on the whole day until 5 p.m. Then she said: Mommy I'm so tired, can I take my glasses of?"
I would love to see myself how her sight has changed. Is she getting all kinds of new impressions or is the difference not that big? She tells me she sees better now but she's just to little to tell me specific what has changed.
In the afternoon I asked her if it was OK to take some pictures of her "new looks" and she said "YES!" I think she feels kind of proud about her glasses 'cause so many people are telling her that she looks so pretty and her glasses are great, and I'm happy they do!
So we went outside because the weather was so nice and I started making tons of pictures... but I never realized it is so hard to get nice pictures of glasses without a lot of bling and reflection.
Marlijn had to be very patient with me, and smile over and over again... and she did, just like a real model!
So in the end I got a few great shots after all.

Here's my beautiful little girl wearing glasses:











Thanks for looking!
Birgit

Getting in focus

Yesterday afternoon we picked up a pair of glasses for Marlijn.
At the last two check ups at the "consultatiebureau" (a children's doctor where children in the Netherlands go on a regular basis from birth until they're four and going to school) it seemed that she wasn't seeing right. So a few weeks ago we had an appointment with a eye-specialist at the hospital. It turned out that Marlijn is far-sighted (+ 2,5 and + 3,5), wich means that she would have trouble reading. Because she's not even 4 so not reading yet we never noticed. Even when we payed extra attention after the first bad check up.
So, she got her glasses yesterday! She was very excited, was already asking for a few days when her glasses would be finally ready. This morning though, she wanted to take them of after only 15 minutes. Guess it will take some time to get used to it, not only for her, but for us too. She looks sooo different with glasses. I don't know, older, wiser... just not my little girl... It is that I know she really needs them, so we just have to get used to it...



Something else that's new and easier to get used to is Anne's new little bunny.
We picked her up last wednesday and she's very adorable. Anne named her Nina even though we're not sure it's a she. Because she's only six weeks old it was to soon to tell. And if it turnes out to be a he, Anne said, bunnies don't know that Nina is a girls name...







Have a great day!
Birgit