New layout!!!

Just finished this layout with the same photo of me I used on the previous layout.

This time I used 1 pair of Angel wings. I cut it in half to be able to spread the wings. I love how it turned out!!

Journaling says: Message to self: Go for it girl!!! Listen to your heart! You deserve some happiness & love in your life! xoxo

Finally a new layout!!!

Finished this layout this evening! I started it a couple of weeks ago, worked on it yesterday at Birgit's crop but wasn't inspired at all. We talked most of the time. Heidi and I hadn't been to a crop at Birgit's since April last year!!! So there was a lot to talk about!

Well, this evening I finally decided about the title (yesterday I had just put down the words: woman in love) and the journaling. I also put the angel wing (Xenos) on the right.

I love this photo of myself. It reflects so beautifully how I felt these last couple of months and how I still feel!!

Heidi came over to my house yesterday afternoon so that we could scrapbook together again. We didn't do much. I explained her some things about working with Scrapblog and Blogger and she learned me some new tricks on the computer. I also looked for photos for an old project Heidi and I started last year which we both still haven't finished!!

Full moon and another day on the ice.

From Saturday on Sunday it was Full moon (see the photo I took around 11 p.m.). I decided I wanted to do a moon ritual. In the old days - a very long time ago, when we were still living in a matriarchal society - woman were living according to the moon cycle (see picture with explanation). They felt that the Full moon gave them strenght and they thanked her by raising their arms to the moon. So that's what I did too, sucking in the powerful energy of the moon. Okay, I just pretended. I felt a bit awkward standing there with my arms raised and feeling nothing. Although it was calming just standing there in the light of the moon. I suppose it has to grow on me! I also put a bottle with water outside for a couple of hours and drank the water that evening and the next days.

Yesterday I went back to the lake for another tour on skates. This time there were also some people ice sailing, surfing and kiting! There was much more wind and at one point it was really hard for me to get forward. I was exhausted! I just made one tour around the lake and went home.

But it was fun to be able to skate on natural ice for a whole week!!!

Perfect day and weather for ....

.... a tour on the lake!

This afternoon I went skating on the Paterswoldsemeer. It's a small lake not so far from where I live. My friend Ina lend me the skates of her daughter who has the same size of shoes. I first had to sharpen them at the store because they were a bit blunt!

There were a lot of people on the lake but it wasn't too crowded! It took me an hour or so to complete the whole tour all around the lake. I'm not a fast skater and I stopped several times to take photos and to eat, drink and rest.

I have never done something like this before because I was more of a figure skater, but I liked it a lot and maybe I will go back there (or to another lake) tomorrow! Zander doesn't like to skate so I went alone, leaving him at home behind his computer!

I also found out that today it is full moon and at the same time it was the largest moon at moon rice of this year. I was on the ice when the moon appeared and took some photos of it. At the same time there was the sun set in the West. Beautiful moment!!!

The last photo I took arriving back home just after sun set!

Because it's full moon I'm going to do a moon ritual this evening. I'll be doing it for the first time and still have to decide what I want to do.

I have just been reading a book written by Denise Linn called: Secret and Mysteries (in Dutch the title is quite different: De godin in elke vrouw = The goddess in every woman) where she writes about moon rituals. Never knew that the mooncycle is the most powerful cycle for woman!

When it's full moon it is time to finish unfinished projects. It's a perfect time to do things that require a lot of energy. Use your creative powers. Be lively and animated. Be happy!!!

Love this!!!!

Wishing you all lots of love and hugs!!!

Snow and rain.

Finally we got some snow over here in the North of the Netherlands! It didn't last for long! When I was at the skate-rink this morning it started to rain.

My friend Ina lend me her skates (we have the same size of shoes) and the skating went much better.

This morning there were a lot of kids on the skate-rink because one of the local schools (my son's old school) was there with all the kids for school races.

Freaking cold!!!

It has been very cold last night and it still was very cold during the day: -8 Celsius!!

The weather was great though, lots of sun!!!

I went to the local skating-rink with natural ice (see photos) for a few rounds of skating before I had to go to the therapist. I felt very tired this morning and my body started to ache again like a couple of months ago. I called the therapist and was able to make an appointment for this afternoon. I'm very sensitive to spin-inversion and food poisening (which was the problem!). I almost never have diarrhoea when I have food poisening. I feel very tired in the morning and have problems with my neck (it feels stiff). In a couple of days I must start to feel better! The spin-inversion can be caused by a lot of things. In my case it could be the wireless internet!!

Yesterday, there was a lot of sun too and I took some photos during my daily walk.

And have you already noticed all the nice new widgets in the side-bar? You can get them for free at Buddhahands ! They have more to choose from but my side-bar isn't wide enough for the big ones.

Courageous me!!

Yesterday I went to a Festival in Groningen called Festival.NU, alone!! I asked 2 friends to join me but they couldn't come. Normally that's for me a reason not to go because I feel too insecure. But this time I decided I wanted to go anyway.

The Festival started at 4 p.m. with several workshops you could choose from.

The first workshop I did was about intuitief drawing and oracle cards. That was fun to do!! The group was very large so there wasn't enough time to go deep into everybodies drawings, but at diner I was sitting at the same table as the woman that had given the workshop and she was kind enough to look at my drawing and make an interpretation.

The second workshop was given by a lady who has known Osho for real (she lived in his ashram in India) and was about Osho zen tarot and the No-Mind meditation. We had to choose 2 cards. One before the meditation and one afterwards.

My first card was called Totality. This tells something about living your live with complete attention and energy. Being total in whatever comes. Live in the NOW!!!!

The second card was called Courage. This tells something about growing into the person you want to be although life brings you a lot of hardship. There's no point fighting them or trying to avoid or deny them. You have to be courages enough to grow into the person you are meant to be.

The No-Mind meditation was fun to do. At first we had to dance. Then sit on the floor and release all the negative/positive things you had felt through out the day (or past) by using your voice. Somebody told me later that in the ashram in India people do this every evening for a period of 3 hours in a row!! And it seems that after a couple of weeks they start to feel empty and burden free!! Wow, I want that too!!

Diner was great!! The theme was India. We had a nice soupe and then rice with all kinds of vegetables, a chutney, dal and so on. As desert we had a brownie with some kind of pudding, creme and some slices of banana. It tasted delicious!!

After diner there were some other workshops to choose from. I choose the heart chakra meditation because I wanted to move and to get warm (it wasn't very warm in the building) and ready for the swing party afterwards.

The swing party was nice but I felt a bit lost and all alone because I didn't really know anybody.

So I hope next time one of my friends will join me!!

Today ....

.... I went skating on natural ice with my friend Ina. Finally the ice of our local Ice club, called AOL-Gloep (= old decoy), was thick enough! The ice was great, very smooth. I don't have great skates but it was fun to make a couple of rounds on normal skates and then try out my old figure skates. I think they need to be sharpened because I couldn't make the figures I normally can make. We took a warm cocoa inside the cantine and when our hands and feet were warmed up again we made some more rounds.

After that Ina wanted to go and watch the young and older people of our village shoot the carbid cans just outside the village. This is a tradition that exists for a very long time over here and in some other regions of our country. You need an old iron milk can (or is it tin?), a piece of carbid, some water and fire. You put the carbid in the milk can with some water. Then you have to close the can with the lid that has to be made a bit wider so that you need to use a hammer to slam it in the can. After that you warm the back of the can with fire. The lid will explode off the milk can and that makes a very loud bang.

I never went to see the carbid shooting because Zander doesn't like hard noises, but because he's still with his dad I could go and watch this year. It's not really my thing, but it was fun! I even went home to get my camera and went back on my own to take some photos.

As you can see there's a lot of fog. I took these photos around 5 p.m. It was like that all day and it's even getting worse. Like last year we won't be able to see much of the firework at midnight!!

On the last photo you can see the lid of the can flying in the air.

I won't be alone on New Years Eve after all!!! When Ina found out I would be alone this evening she invited me over to her place.

Long walk and good talk.

Today was yet another beautiful sunny day!!! It was really cold up here in the North of the Netherlands! At night it was minus 8 degrees Celsius.

After my heart chakra meditation, a late breakfast, some computer time, and finally was able to make an appointment for this evening with the guy I opened my heart for, I left the house around noon for my daily walk.

Today I took a complete other route. I even walked over several crop and grass fields to be able to walk in the sun most of the time and to cut short the very long walk. I stayed outside for more than 1 hour and a half!. I saw a huge buzzard in a tree and flying away when he saw me coming his way. I was able to make a photo while he was sitting in the tree with my 12x zoom, but it was too far away to make it a cool photo. You can see the buzzard in the middle of the first photo in this post. He's sitting on the lowest branch of the tree. Just click on it for a better view.

The light was great today: clear but also a bit hazy in the distance. I'm not sure if hazy is the right word but look at the photos I took and you'll understand what I mean.

On the last photo you can see some rayes of sun!

In the wood I felt the need to stand with my back against an oak. I later found out that standing with your back against an oak can give you strenght. And I just needed that for my appointment later this day!

Back at home my legs were all red because of the cold, but other than that I felt great and very calm. Those walks, being outside and connecting with nature are making me feel more alive but also less stressful! I'm so glad that the fibromyalgia and the chronic fatigue don't bother me anymore. A few months ago I wasn't able to make these long walks!

When I felt warm and comfortable again I went outside again to do some shopping for the days to come. I probably will be celebrating new years eve on my own and because I don't want to gain weight again after I've lost over 6 kilos the last couple of months (yeah, love can do that!!), I decided to only buy healthy foods. So no oil-dumplings for me this year!!

After a nice dinner (ratatouille with rice and a steak) I waited for my appointment reading in an Osho book about chakras and kundalini.

When he had arrived we soon started to talk about the things in our sudden break up, that were still confusing to me. It was a good and open talk. I now have all the answers and I feel that it's okay. It is time for me to let him go. I still love him though, so I will be feeling pain and sadness about the loss of a love relationship, but we can still be friends! End of a very short love story! But also the chance of a new beginning and new opportunities for me!