a rainy sunday...

Yesterday was glorious weather and since the early morning all it has done is rain. They did forecast that it would, but after such a beautiful day one always hopes that the weathermen have got it wrong!! So we will stay indoors and paint. Yes, we are finally at the stage of painting the walls and finishing off the last few jobs in the kitchen, and WEDNESDAY the new one will arrive!!!! Can't wait! We are so looking forward to having it in and being able to use everything we have chosen for ourselves. Learning how the ovens work, making lovely food for Easter - I will try a Simnel cake maybe.....yummy! Not that I can eat any of it on my diet, but it is still a joy to bake. Look it! When we can have a larger freezer I will be able to have my saturday baking day again - wonderful. And I will be saving up for my KITCHEN AID, oh yes, that is on my wishlist Ineke!!!! Ineke asked what I would like for my birthday - but that must be something that people de here 'cos it isn't typically English really. We do ask our friends what they would like if it is a special birthday or occasion, but usually we like to guess what would please them or try to listen out for hints during the year when you are out shopping etc. I am always happy with a garden centre voucher, Ineke - I enjoy the garden and have got lots of ideas for this year! The Kitchen Aid needs to be scourced and bought for the lowest price as it is truly enormously expensive but utterly desirable, sigh.................I will start the search! Being 50 next year I hope to treat myself to some of the things on that wishlist of mine, right?! The pennies in the piggybank are growing slowly towards next february!!!!! Thinking about it, these are things I would like, not necessarily for my birthday but just 'things': an olive oil pourer with a long spout in RVS. a cake stand microwave dishes ( really must try and use it now we have one!) Intratuin vouchers DVD 'Atonement' CD by Alicia Keys CD by Amy Winehouse Tickets to see Cirque de Soleil ..........can't thing of anything else right now!! Mostly it ends up being stuff for the house or my scraproom - I will have to go to Ikea for the handy cupboard that Loes has - great for storing my stamps! Ah well, better get into the painting mode shortly and do the ironing and washing that Tim will give me today!! Only 4 days of school this week and hopefully we are going to see around the Horeca set-up which is his course of choice next year. He is 15 in 4 weeks - where has the time flown?

My latest cards

Where's our kitchen gone?!!!

This is the current state of our kitchen - bare! And this is where all the contents have moved to! We are now waiting for the new one to arrive, hopefully the start of next week, as we still have to paint and do the last few preparation jobs. It has arrived in the storage depot so that is comforting to know. I can't wait to get started with making it all pretty once the chaps are finished installing it. And then learning how to use all the new appliances - why do they come with in-built computers I ask myself?!! I shall have problems working the knobs out without the complication of extra computer programmes to master!!! Maybe Peter will have to take up cooking sooner than he thought...............I have got my first test all planned anyway; for my birthday we are having a luncheon (sounds posh!), but this will be the moment of truth with the ovens etc, and how we have planned the kitchen to suit all the ergonomic movements we need to make between dishwasher/sink/oven/'fridge etc. I am having the sockets put in to suit my let-handedness so that will be wonderful. No leads draping everywhere instead of being on the left out of the way... free worktop space to bake etc. Dreamy!!!! Loes has volunteered to come and help me cook as she is interested in seeing what I do that is 'english'; not sure what I have chosen is strictly speaking an all english menu but it 'aint a Dutch one I know that!!! We English do love a good pud!!!! so they will be evident on the day. As for the rest - surprise, surprise!!!! We are suffering the storm at the moment so this is why I am sitting here doing my blog and not going out anywhere. My little Opel Agila will rock and sway in the wind today when I do go for Tim later on! I have been busy with my cards too so they will come be here shortly I hope. Enjoy this 'rather blustery day' everyone!

CHAOS!

Well, the kitchen is gone and all we have is an empty space.........................which is slowly being filled again with Peters tools, and rubbish and our dishwasher with a microwave resting on top, and Amienke's electric cooking plate!!!! And that is it! The good news is that the major jobs for Peter are over - only one more awful drilling session to go, and then we can paint the ceiling and walls etc. Once that is done we can move our oven into place and connect that up, and then we wait. What are we waiting for? The new kitchen, which has arrived at the delivery depot, but which we cannot pay for until we get the money in our bank account which is now several weeks overdue! So we are being held up unnecessarily which is rather frustrating to say the least! And I have now sent out all the invitations to my birthday lunch on the 30th!!! Whoops! I am firmly of the belief that it will all be ok, but as every day goes by I get a little more unsure. But! I remain optimistic 'cos someone has to be, and Peter is already shattered with all that he has done so far, so hey ho, that's life, never mind, it'll be alright, etc. etc. Did go and get Loes' Cricut Expression today! We just need to work out how it works and we are away. She has got wonderful paper etc for her China album and that has to be our priority now. I think it will turn out to be fabulous Loes!!! I got some of my paper and stamps from Sylvia and Pauline too, so I can get on again as well. I have reserved a lovely cat album for all my cat layouts too, as they can go in there and free up my spare album really. Be nice for them to have their own!! And now I am going to read the latest on other peoples blogs etc, and have a cup of tea!!!

what a great day!!!

We started at 9am and finished at 3pm and it was really great! Loes helped me with the stitching on the inner pages of the starbook, cos I made a mess of it myself, so I cut out her other pages etc and then Amienke came and we got her started on one too, and Jeanette concentrated on getting her first page of her wedding album completed. After lunch we worked out how to make the waterfall, and moved onto card-making, sharing punches, swopping stamp prints etc. and thinking about when to go for the day to Art Journey!!! We consumed copious amounts of coffee and tea but my diet stayed on course, so that was ok. A quick lunch and then on with more fun! I have taken a couple of photos but not yet done anything with them so they will follow. It was nice just to be sharing scrapping and not leading a workshop for a change although the habit of watching what everyone is doing and seeing what help is needed is hard to ignore! On Monday Loes and I are going over to Sylvia to collect her CRICUT EXPRESSION - hurrah!!! And the other small things we have both ordered along the way..................via Pauline's shop of course, after we have been to the gym and had a sauna and coffee etc.....................what a life!!!! Since we are taking out the kitchen over the weekend and tomorrow I will be packing all the stuff into boxes and getting ready for it, and cleaning etc I reckon Monday is just the ticket!!! Maybe I will make my starbook into the story of the new kitchen....might be nice to do that, eh?

A starbook..........hmm....foody thoughts............

Ok, I have put it off long enough really, so now is the moment of truth; I am going to try and make a Starbook on Thursday when we have our scrapday. Loes and I have studied the video on Youtube, and apart from the stitching I reckon we have got it sussed!! I have cut out the first 7 squares anyway, and made my holes, but that is it so far. It always feels like a lot of work but the result is super so it is high time I got over my fear and made one. There! I like the look when it is cardstock, on design paper, on vellum so that is what I will try. I am using paper with butterflies on so that allows me to use my wonderful butterfly stamp a lot! If there is a result worthy of being seen I will add the photos here. Maybe Jeanette and Amienke will try too, so that will be intense! All of us sitting there pondering the ins and outs of the stitchery part!!!! I am also trying to decide on my birthday party - what to cook, when to hold it, how to get it all done once the kitchen is completed...before Peter goes away again......Tim's birthday.........so I have decided on 30th March. I have a rough idea what to cook now, some things I can buy in and others I know how to make them myself so that is down to planning and preparation. Since I am going to be in Den Helder at the Card Club Day on the 29th, I will need to do a lot on the Friday...........so the kitchen better be in soon!!!!!( Ineke, if you are reading this, I am inviting you and Jan so keep the day free please!!!!! ) I am going to do a lunch I think, as then people can get here from afar and enjoy the day before thinking they have to travel home again. That's the theory anyway! I just have to make up some invitations and send them out, and hope that it all falls into place! I like using English recipes so that it is something different - so sometimes finding the ingredients is a problem, but I hope I have chosen wisely and can get what I want either from the market or my cupboard!!! So, my thoughts are taken up with food and planning at the moment, and shortly the tax return which we need to do today according to my husband. Yippee!!!!! But first I am cooking dinner as Tim is going training soon.

layout of Xander with detailed close-up of the flowers etc.

This is the layout I have made using the transparent flowers I have shown you how to make in my tutuorial below. I have also tried to show you the details of the butterfly stamps and the raised flower petals etc. The challenge Yvonne set was to make a 12.12inch LO only using one area of your cardstock. As a DT member of Scrapfever I cannot enter officially, but I like to have a go and see what inspiration follows! The blue of Xanders eyes decided the colour scheme I wanted and these two hearts were perfect for under the flowers. The gems are a part of the Heidi Swaap circles you can buy and really useful. I am pleased with the result so I hope it inspires you to create something using this technique too!! Bye for now.................

How to make a flower from a sheet of Hambley transparency.

What you need to make this flower:

a sheet of Hambley transparency.

a candle and lighter.

a template of the petals you wish to design and use.

scissors.

a prick pen.

a small brad.

a paper flower or two.

some cardstock paper for leaves if desired.

Stages:

1. cut our 5 petals using your template.

2. light a tealight or other small candle and hold the one petal at a time, approximately 5cms above the flame.

3. as it gets warm, the transparency will bend, and you stop when you are satisfied with the shape it makes. Only takes a few seconds really.

4. lay the 5 petals down to cool slightly before pricking a small hole in the base of the shape.

5. take a paper flower or two, or what ever you prefer, and push the brad through them, adn the petals one by one.

6. once everything is on the brad, move the petals arund to give the flower its shape.

7. you can add some paper leaves under the see-through petals if you want to, again pucking them through the brad. You can also use ribbon etc. in the same way.

And that's it!!!! This is not my idea, but one I saw in the recent copy of SCRAP! so the credit goes to someone else, but I have adapted it to my needs and added a few other details. This is what makes it so great as you can do so many different things once you realise that the transparencies will bend in heat!!!! The photos are self-explanatory really, so you should have no problems making these lovely flowers! The last photo is a layout I have made using this technique. Let me know how you get on!!!

Aah! My husband has started the kitchen!!!

I may be many things, good and less so, BUT, the thing I detest most is MESS. And I know we need to go through this stage to achieve our new kitchen, but it is awful. I could weep!!!!! Peter, bless his cottonsocks, is a keen DIYer...................and is determined to do it all himself. Ok, that is fine but he has a very bad back so the result of even one days work, is incredible pain and discomfort and a bad nights sleep. ( is it all worth it????....get a younger trades-bloke in I say!!). I appreciate why he wants to do it, but I hate to see him suffering afterwards. But, back to the mess!!!! He has started drilling out the channels in the walls for the electricity cables etc and re-placement of our sockets. This leads to a WHITE SNOW falling on the entire ground floor of our house!!! Yes, folks, here in Holland we have open spaces downstairs so no walls or doors to enclose the dust!!! It is simply dreadful, I have no words to express my loathing of this stage of DIY. I ought to leave home for a month and come back when it is all done but then the control freak in me would not be able to check and make sure it all goes where I want it to, etc etc..........torn between a rock and a hard place 'fraid!!!! I know it is all necessary but I find it hard to keep my temper under wraps when I see all our stuff disappearing in the white haze......................and the fact that cleaning it has no point at this stage 'cos he's only going to make MORE MESS soon!!! So here I am bright and early on a Sunday morning while Peter sleeps, washing all the kitchen tools, work surfaces, and then the floor before he gets up and decides to clean the oven!!!!!! Please let it all be over soon!!!!!!! The good news, scrappers, is that I have tried out a wonderful technique I saw in a magazine so I will take some photos and show you all how to do it later! I have made a layout for the challenge "scrap in one corner or place on a 12x12inch LO" and used this idea there so I know it looks amazing!!!! Curious? Check back later today or tomorrow and I will have the stages here by then. Floor cleaning duty calls!!!