Polka dots

Bij House Mouse Monday challenge #15 is het thema Polka dots. Stempel is 'Tweet kisses', papier Provo Craft. Bloempjes Daisy D's.

At HMM challenge #15 it's Polka dots everywhere! Image is 'Tweet kisses', DP Provocraft, flowers from Daisy D's, ribbon from stash.

Music off!

I decided to remove my playlist (for the moment). As Deena wisely mentioned, most people have their own music on. And I also noticed that it's rather chaotic to come on a blog with music, when I still hear the music on my own blog and my radio in the background, and ... So for the moment I removed the music on my blog, till I find a little device that looks like a radio or something and that visitors can easily switch on or off depending on their mood/taste. If you have any suggestions or tips, please let me know!

Wonderful awards

I received this beautiful award from the very sweet and talented Carolyn, who has become a very dear blogging friend.
Here is what accompanies this award: This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time, and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming; and these kind bloggers, aim to find friends and to be friends. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please, give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more, and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award.
I find it a bit hard to pass on this award, as I feel it's going to turn around in circles. I don't have a blog that long, but I have made a few wonderful friends. Sadly enough I noticed that once you don't frequently participate in challenges, the number of visitors quickly becomes less. Luckily enough, I noticed that the same 'bunch' of people keep visiting, even when I don't post that often.
I'm sure you all know who you are! Some live nearby, some a little further, some speak the same language, some don't, some pass almost every day, some from time to time: but to ALL of you: Thank you for visiting me, leaving sweet comments and encouraging me!

I received this wonderful award from Mary, an extremely talented lady. I'm really honoured to receive this from her! I also received it from Carolyn, but haven't passed it on yet! Sorry lady's, I've been a bad blogger and an even worse friend!
There are also some rules to follow. These rules are:
(1) Select 5 blogs that you feel deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
(2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
(3) Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
(4) Link to the Arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
(5) Show these rules.
As I feel that most bloggers I know already received this marvellous award, I suggest that you take it and give to someone who hasn't received it yet. I bet there are loads of creative, friendly people out there, but I just can't seem to find the time or links to visit them, so I invite everyone who visits my blog to expand our borders, and please leave me a link to those new blogs!

All about Christmas

Bij House Mouse Monday challenge #14 gaan ze helemaal voor het kerstthema. Stempel is 'Along for the ride', DP van Cosmo Cricket en CreaMotion.

At HMM challenge #14 it's all about Christmas. Image is 'Along for the ride', DP by Cosmo Cricket and CreaMotion.

Home...

Home is ... where the best places are taken by our dog Emurphine (an Hungarian Mudi) and our 4 cats. (Btw: all our pets are adopted). Here you see Opera (a Birman) and Snoopy:



As I live in the city, I try to to put flowers everywhere to get a bit of green instead of bricks and concrete everywhere. And of course we hired this great looking dog to watch over them:


Snoopy who thinks he would love to be (get?) a rabbit:


Piccolina, our American Curl, who loves to help sort out the cardstock and DP and likes to keep an eye on everything:


Opera again, looking beautiful (as always) in the sunshine and Zohra, our Persian cat, who loves to drink from the tap!:

Junk... or not anymore?

House Mouse Monday challenge #13 gaat over het gebruiken van junk! Enkele weken geleden wou ik deze shampoofles weggooien, maar bedacht me omdat ik ze heel handig vond en omdat het pompje zo goed werkte. Vanochtend dacht ik er opeens aan en besloot ze voor de challenge te gebruiken. Omdat ze haar tweede leven ook in de badkamer zal doorbrengen, gebruikte ik de stempel 'Relaxing bubbles'. De zeepbellen zijn met Diamond glaze bewerkt, maar dit is niet zichtbaar op de foto. De tekening werd beschermd met zelfklevende plastic folie alvorens op de fles te kleven. En nu nog iets met een lekker geurtje erin...

HMM challenge #13 is all about using junk. I wanted to throw away this bottle of shampoo some time ago, when I realised that it was a very handy one and the pumping system worked perfectly. It wasn't until this morning that I thought about it again and decided to use it for the challenge. As it will get a second life in our bathroom I decided to use the stamp 'Relaxing bubbles'. The bubbles are highlighted with Diamond glaze, but it's not really visible on the picture. The image was protected with adhesive plastic film before I glued it on the bottle. Now all it takes is something perfumed inside...

The heat is on... finally!

Joepie! Eindelijk terug centrale verwarming! Sedert vorige zaterdag zaten we in de kou. Vandaag is er eindelijk iemand langsgeweest. Voorlopig zitten we toch terug lekker warm!

Yeehaa! Finally it's getting warm again in our house! Our central heating broke down last saturday and today we finally saw a technician! For the moment the heat is back on!

Music On/Off?

I just added a playlist to my blog (I like all different kinds of music), and would like to know if you prefer a blog with or without music! You can see the playlist at the bottom of this blog.
Ik heb net een playlist aan m'n blog toegevoegd (ik heb een heel uiteenlopende smaak van muziek). Laat even weten of je liever wel of geen muziek hoort op een blog! De playlist staat onderaan deze blog.
Bedankt.
Thanks for letting me know.

I love your blog Award!

I received this fabulous 'I love your blog' Award from Heather, who has this magnificent blog: Rica's Haven. Thank you so much Heather, I'm so happy with it! I secretely was a bit envious of everyone who got it! Not anymore thanks to you.
The rule says I have to pass it on to 7 other blogs, but I think I'm keeping it to myself a little more!

I received a truly amazing Award from Carolyn

I received this truly amazing award from my dear and very talented blog friend Carolyn! Thank you Carolyn, for giving me this gorgeous Award! It has something mystical!
I would love to keep this for myself, but that wouldn't be fair, would it?
There are some rules to follow. These rules are:
(1) Select 5 blogs that you feel deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
(2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
(3) Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
(4) Link to the Arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
(5) Show these rules.

I'm going to look around in blogland and leave a message later with the blogs I nominated.

House Mouse: een recept - a recipe

Bij House Mouse Monday Challenge #12 is het de bedoeling 'een recept' te volgen: lint, 2 knopen, vilt en een gekartelde rand. Dit verwerk je met een schattige House Mouse stempel, et voilà! Ik 'bereidde' hiermee deze verjaardagskaart. Stempel 'Donut birthday', papier Craft Provo, bloem en knopen Daisy D. Nog een vilten strikje en dat was het!

At HMM challenge # 12 we had to follow a recipe: you take some ribbon, 2 buttons, some felt, a scalloped edge and add it to a cute HM stamp! I 'prepared' this birthday card. Stamp 'Donut birthday', DP Craft Provo, flower and buttons Daisy D. A small felt bow and that's it!

Helena has great birthday candy!

Helena got 41 today (altough she looks so much younger!). To celebrate this (altough she's not sure about it, lol) she offers some great candy! So please visit her blog, leave her some sweet comments and a big hug for her birthday! Hip hip hoera!

The wall

I just bought a stamp with this wonderful text:

If life and distance
build a wall between us,
please promise that together
we will steal the bricks

I wanted to buy this stamp several months ago to make some cards for my best friends. I truly regret not having bought it earlier, because one of my dearest friends, Edgard (I have a very funny picture of him here), past away in August.

So please take the time to let your friends and family know you care and while you're blogging, take time to leave a kind comment here or there!
(Time to go to sleep, I'm starting to sound like a preacher, or even worse, my mom, lol!)

Candy here, candy there, candy... everywhere!

Wow, it sure feels like Christmas is not far away anymore! There's fabulous blog candy all over creative blogland! (I feel like a child in a toy store!)

Check out the The Craftbugs blog for some great blog candy give away! International bloggers are welcome!

Check out the 'Biggest Blog Candy Evah' at Scrap Bitz for celebrating over 50.000 hits! It's gorgeous! You can enter just by answering the following question 'What is your favorite Holiday song of all time & why?' Sounds like fun! (or like Christmas).

And as I mentioned before, there's also great blog candy at Diane's 'A Pink Sunflower' and Deena's 'A Necessary Creativity'.

Off now, going to check if I left them a message myself, wouldn't want to miss these opportunities to win some great stuff!

An amazing Award!

I got this amazingly beautiful Award from this sweet and creative blogfriend of mine: Diane! Thank you Diane, you are the best!!!

The Rules are :-
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Ok here I go; I 'm passing this award to the following lovely ladies, whose blogs I don't visit frequently enough, so I hope they will forgive me now! (That's the problem with all those challenges; we don't have time for anything else anymore!)
Emilie
Gabi
Helena
Theneon
Vanja
Go have a look, and please leave them a sweet comment, so they know you've visited them!

I would also love to give (giving is different from nominating, isn't it? lol) this to Ann (my fellow witch, but she hates pink, so I'll give her a big hug instead, lol) and to Raisa and her talented kids Eveliina and Valtteri, and to Deena, and to Carolyn, and all those great bloggers out there... . So please visit their blogs, and leave them a kind comment while your there! (I guess this is a bit of cheating, but I'm sure you don't mind)

Diane has some great blog candy!

Diane has some great candy on her lovely blog 'Pink Sunflower' to celebrate 20.000 hits!
Check it out here, and while you're there, leave her some sweet comments; not only is she a lovely person but also an extremely creative one!

One last flew...

Op Deena's mooie blog 'A Necessary Creativity' vond ik een verwijzing naar de Crafty Creations challenge, waar het nog rond 'Halloween' draait! Joepie, eentje om het af te leren dus! Heks is van 'Stamp of Excellence,Inc', achtergrond 'sponged' met Adirondack Butterscotch, Stonewashed & Eggplant. De scene van Peddler's Pack Stampworks werd met Versamagic op zwart papier gestempeld, net zoals de vleermuizen van Stamp Crafter (Ik hoop dat het zichtbaar is op de scan).

At Deena's lovely blog 'A Necessary Creativity' I found a link to the Crafty Creations challenge, where the theme is Halloween! Yeehah, one more to unlearn! The witch is from 'Stamp of Excellence,Inc., background sponged with Adirondack Butterscotch, Stonewashed & Eggplant. The scenery from Peddler's Pack Stampworks is stamped on black paper with Versamark, as are the bats from Stamp Crafter (I hope it shows on the scan).

Deena has some creative blog candy!

Deena has some wonderful creative blog candy! She's in a sharing mood because of Halloween or because of reaching 40 000 hits!!! (yes 40 thousand!!!).
Check out the blog " A Necessary Creativity" of this kind, wonderful, creative and extremely talented lady!

That natural feeling

Bij House Mouse Monday challenge #11 is het thema 'Dat natuurlijk gevoel'. Hmmm, natuurlijk... natuur, moeder aarde, bron van leven - water - yep: regen! Wat is er natuurlijker dan regen, zeker in ons kleine landje! De keuze voor de stempel was vlug gemaakt: 'Sitting in the rain'. Papier 'bamboo' van Basicgrey. Tekststempel van Stamps, bloemetjes van Aladine met Versamark gestempeld op bruine cardstock.

At HMM challenge #11 the theme is 'That natural feeling'. Hmmm, natural... naure, mother earth, source of life - water - yes: rain! What could me more natural than rain, especially in this small country I live in! The choice for the stamp was easy:'Sitting in the rain'. DP 'bamboo' by Basicgrey. Sentiment says:'when the sun is shining, you don't think about rain anymore'. Flowers from Aladine are stamped on brown cardstock with Versamark.

Only 364 days till Halloween...

Only 364 days till the next Halloween, lol.
Next year I'll definitely have a party. Last year I cancelled it because life was to hectic and I'll always regret it because one of my dearest friends ever, Edgard, who loved our Halloween nights, passed away last August 17th, only 61 years old. I miss him so much, although we have only known each other for 6,5 years, he was 'my buddy'.
Here he is 'fooling around' (eating a - fake- spider - Halloween 2005):


Now for this year: I invited our dearest friends and a couple of Portuguese friends we don't know that long, but who have become very dear to us real fast. Guess what happened; our oldest friends were invited only two weeks ago to the wedding of their niece, who's husband to be secretely planned the wedding on 31st of...October! OK, that was a pity, but the party could go one, couldn't it? But last tuesday, Paula stumbled into my office, with horrible news: Carlos got hit by a bus and was in hospital. Luckily he could go home soon, but the poor guy is all bruised and stiff and to be honest, looked more like Frankenstein than himself! I told him he didn't have to go through that much trouble for just a Halloween paty, lol. But without kidding, I'm so glad he's feeling better everyday!
So it was just me a my darling: we had a real nice evening with bread, cheese and wine and our pets (who always take care of the animation on Halloween, and every other day too, lol) and talked about the past parties. We shed a few tears in remembrance of Edgard, but had some good laughs too, talking about all those wonderful memories!
So I guess this weekend was really all about the death and the living, as those days are meant to be!

Some more pictures of our past parties and decorations: