I'm on vacation.... and I'm in bed sick! :(

When I woke up yesterday morning I felt horrible, My head felt like it was going to explode, my jaws hurt including all my teeth and my throath felt like sandpaper. Yet we had to pack the car and drive to Zeeland for our holliday.... during the ride it got worse and worse and I was glad when I could get into my bed when we arrived. I was in bed all day today and really hope to feel a little better tomorrow!

Anyway, this is what we've been up to in the last couple of days:

- we celebrated Christmas Eve at my sisters house with my family, she made a delicious italian buffet and there where presents for everybody under the Christmas tree. Unfortunatly my camera died and Marlijn was sick (yep, just like last year) but thanks to some medication she also had a wonderful Christmas Eve after all.

- on Christmas morning I finally could open the gifts my Secret Santa send me and I loved all of it. Gorgeous 12x12 velt with white dots (Creative Café), buttons, brads, pins and a lot of felt and chipboard shapes. Thanks so much Charlotte!!

- Christmas day we spend at my BIL and SIL, Marlijn was still not feeling well, we had a nice quiet day with Erik's family.

-On Boxing day Erik and I went to Amsterdam while the kids stayed with their grandparents in Wijchen.

We had a great time together, had lunch at the Three Sisters (Rembrandtplein) walked through Amsterdam, sat in the lounge of the hotel with a drink and a magazine, (wanted to see a movie in the Tuschinsky theater but all movies were sold out :( ), had a wonderful Christmas diner in De Port van Cleve, went shopping in the Kalverstraat and the Bijenkorf, (so fun to discover Marlijns face between the magazines at the Bijenkorf!) had lunch at De Beiaard (Het Spui) and returned to Wijchen on Thursday evening. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Because my camera broke down (I'm afraid it's really bad and can't be repared.. :( ) I had to use hubbies little camera in Amsterdam but at least we have some pictures so here a collage:

I'll leave you with some pictures of the handmade item I made for my Secret Santa Sister, so Andrea if you read this... now you finally know who your Secret Santa is :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great weekend! Hope to update about our vacation soon (borrowed my BILS camera, luckely he could do without it for a week, unlike me!!) so I hope to make some nice pictures in beautiful Zeeland as soon as I feel better!!
Birgit

Give away time!

I had such a fun journey along all your blogs seeing all your gorgeous ornaments and reading the fun and touching stories behind them!!

To choose a winner I used a Randomizer (http://www.random.org/ (list randomizer). Typed in the names of everybody who particpated and let the computer choose a name....

...and the winner is Brigitta!!!

Congratulations Brigitta!! The mini snow flake album kit is coming your way!!

Thanks all of you for sharing!

I'll leave you with some pictures of my own Christmas ornaments.

The story?

Well, I decided to have just a tree this year. Since we're leaving home on Christmas Eve and won't be back untill januari 4 I thought it was not worth all the trouble decorating the whole house. But.... I saw these gorgeous plates with random ornaments on Ingrids blog and got totally inspired to get out a little more decorations (and buy some new :)). Quick, easy but with a great effect. Got really into the Christmas mood! So thanks Ingrid for sharing!

My sister gave me a huge lantern for my birthday and in stead of putting just one candle in I filled it with different ornaments and candles and it looks soooo nice especially when it's dark and everything is shining in the candle light behind the glass doors!

Wishing you all lovely weekend and a very merry, warm and joyful Christmas, hopefully together with all your loved ones!!!

Birgit

For those of you who missed it, here's the information about The Buzz' upcoming workshop weekend on March, 7-8-9, 2008 in Wehe-den Hoorn (Groningen).

The teachers:

Christiane Müller

My name is Christiane. I live with my husband Jörg and our two boys ( Hauke /13 and Mattes/10) in Northern Germany near the Danish border!! At the moment I'm a SAHM.I spend half of my life doing all sorts of crafts. In 2003 I started scrapbooking as a CM-Consultant, but was not satisfied with this. After some research I found several links on the Internet that opened me up for other scrapbooking styles. A year later I learned even more about scrapbooking during my vacation in the USA and I was hooked. For three years now it has been my passion and my *way of life”.

Anita Mundt

My name is Anita Mundt and I live in a small village in Friesland with my Dutch husband. I am English in nationality but moved to the Netherlands in 2000. In England I attended Art school and then university to get a degree in design.
I worked for a short time as a designer before switching career and have spent the last 14 years as a primary school teacher.
I discovered scrapbooking 8 years ago whilst traveling in America. It brought together a love of photography and my creative side. Scrapbooking has helped me adjust to several life changes and is now a part of my everyday life.

Birgit Koopsen

My name is Birgit Koopsen, I live in Winsum, up Groningen, in the Netherlands.I’m a SAHM and freelance scraper and happily together with Erik for more then 20 years now. We have 3 beautiful children, Anne (girl,1994), Lennart (boy, 1995) and Marlijn (girl, 2002).
My first love was photography and when my sister in law (who lived in the US for a year) told me about scrapbooking it only took one week to get me totally addicted.I started in October 2003 and don’t think I will ever stop. First of all scrapbooking is a creative outlet for me and besides that it’s a great way of preserving my children’s history.
Scrapbooking has become a way of life for me. There’s not a day that I don’t scrap or do something related to that.

Workshops:

What Lies Beneath by Birgit Koopsen

What you see is not always what you get! It’s time to be honest with yourself when creating this special mini book.

Windows of Wishes by Anita Mundt

Don’t you ever wish you could see into the future and know what it holds? Attend this workshop and ‘create’ your own future in a mini album.

Jump Start Your Journaling by Anita Mundt

We all struggle at times to get started with our journaling. In this workshop we explore one method to help you develop your journaling from a new angle.

Chip ‘n’ Chunky by Birgit Koopsen

Create ‘one of a kind’ embellishments to make each of your projects unique.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… by Christiane Müller

Look at your scrap supplies in another way and the way you look at yourself will never be the same again!

In Grandma's Footprints by Christiane Müller

When our grandma's sat evening after evening with their crochet needles they probably didn't see it as a fun hobby, but we're sure you will after this workshop. Give "old fashion" a modern twist and pimp up your LO’s in a funky way!!

Price: 199,-

Price includes :

2 x nights accommodation (Friday & Saturday nights)

2 x breakfast

2 x lunch

1 x 3 course dinner (Saturday evening)

Drinks during the daytime

6 inspiring workshops

All materials to complete the 6 workshops

cropping space

... and loads and loads of fun!!!

Location :Groepshotel De Ster

Mernaweg 42A

9964 AT Wehe den Hoorn

De Marne - Groningen

For more information you can go to http://www.thecreativebuzz.net/ or e-mail info@thecreativebuzz.net, also for signing up!

Don't mis it! Full is full!!!

OK, and now something to show again. Just for me, just for fun! Made this LO using one of the lovely pictures Anita made of me, maybe you recognise it from my blog banner :).

Journaling says:

The gorgeous pictures Anita took of me in her studio made me feel really pretty!

Supplies:

Patterend papers, felt flower, paper flower, ribbon: Making Memories (Note Worthy)

Foam letters: American Craft Thickers

Crystal flowers: Zeeman

Bling cardstock: Doodlebug

Transparency: Hambly

Black marker: Edding

Other: pin, tag, flower button

Doodle template (to make the branches): Creamotion

You can still leave a link on my last post and have a change to winn an kit to make the mini snowflake album! Seen some gorgeous ornaments already, but would love to see more :)

Thanks again for stopping by!

Birgit

Yes! Finally something to show again!

I just had to scrap these pictures of Marlijn decorating the tree straight away, so that's what I did yesterday :)

The ornament in the upper right corner actually comes from my tree!

Credits:

Red note book paper on the left, sticker word strips, tab: Creative Imaginations

Transparency: Hambly Studios

Bracket stickers, patterned paper: Making Memories

Rubon letters: Mustard Moon

Crystals: Make Me

Crystal star: Zeeman

Cardstock: Bazix

And now it's RAK-time!!!

Do you remember my little snow flake book, the one I thaught at my last workshop?

Did you like it?

I have one kit to make this little ornament book left and I feel like giving it away!

It's almost Christmas, right?!

But you have to do a little something for it.

I want to see your favorite Christmas ornament and learn why it is this specific one.

So you have to make a picture, post it on your blog and write a few words about it. Then you leave a message with a link to your blog on this post. If you don't have a blog you still leave a message and e-mail me the picture and the story.

**Editted: You can do this until wednesday december 19, at midnight**

I will ask my family to help me pick a winner!

Thanks for looking and your comments!

Birgit

Oh my goodness... it's been almost 2 weeks since the last time I blogged!
And what have I been doing all that time???

Well, on december 5th we celebrated Sinterklaas ofcourse. I started really early that day. I helped get Sinterklaas and his helpers ready for school and therefore had to be at the teachers house at 7 a.m. Then I went to school where Erik, Lennart and Marlijn were already waiting for Sinterklaas to arrive. I stayed at school with Marlijn to celebrate until 10 a.m.. Then school was out for her and we went home. During dinner Sinterklaas' big sac arrived and the 5 of us had a wonderful and fun evening. I think the best gift was the one Erik got from Lennart... a X-mas tie *LOL* it has Santa and reindeers on it and if you squees it it plays a x-mas song. Anne was ROFL, she was actually crying and just couldn't stop, hehehe. Can't wait until x-mas day when I will make Erik wear it! He ows that to his son who did such a great job finding his dad such a thoughtful gift!!


birthday of 3 of his cousins too. They all have their birthdayMarlijn is showing Sinterklaas how good she can climb and what a good helper she could be!

Friday, december 7, was Lennarts birthday. He turned 12! Ouch, somehow that makes me feel older then being 40!

We had a nice day with part of the family and some friends.

The other part of the family we met on sunday at an indoor playground/restaurant to celebrate not only Lennarts birthday but also the birthdays of 3 of his cousins who are all celebrating their birthdays within one week so it's easier to meet up somewhere and have a fun day together.

Four cousins celebrating a special day!



Yesterday after school we went to my mom who was also celebrating her birthday! Yep I know.... al lot of birthdays.... and we have another one next week, then X-mas and after that we will need a good, quiet and relaxing vacation... it's a good thing we'll have that :)!

I've finished some LO's for CMF and for Scrapfun and I've also been working on a really fun project! Love how it turned out. Unfortunatly I can't show or tell anything about it, not even which magazine it's for. The only thing I can tell is that I used the gorgeous Noteworthy line from Making Memories and a needle :)

A long time ago someone asked me to show some picture of my house, I think it was not to long after we moved, so a really long time ago. This last few days I had the possibility to use a camera with a wide angle lens so I finally made some pictures of my living room. As you can see, my favorite scrapbooking color is also the favorite color in my house :)







My home made notice board, I bought a big mirror with a nice silver painte frame at Xenos, took out the mirror (used that in another way), painted a piece of softboard and put that in the frame. Easy but with a great result!

My Secret Santa present arrived and the packages are lying here, staring at me and I'm not allowed to open them before X-mas morning. I'm not sure I can wait that long! I have to admit I did some shaking and squeezing but I haven't got a clue what's in there.





Yesterday we got our X-mas tree and this morning I took it inside. While Marlijn was in school this afternoon I put in the lights so when she came home she could start decorating right away. We listened to a X-mas CD and had a lot of fun! Marlijn takes her job sooo serious and really enjoyes this!







I know the pictures are not completly sharp but I didn´t want to use the flash light. I love the warm feel of the orange light!

Well, that's about what I did the last 2 weeks! Hope you had fun too :)
I'm cropping tomorrow, looking forward to do some scrapbooking just for fun!

BTW, talking about scrapbooking... The Buzz's website is updated! You can now see who will be teaching and what the workshops are. Click on the Buzz button on the right, go to Get Buzzin', choose your language and click on "meet the teachers" and "workshop info" to read all about it!

Thanks for stopping by!
Birgit