Scraplift Tough Teen

Today I finished this layout with a picture of my son. It's kind of a scraplift from a layout Corinne Delis made for the latest issue of Creatief met Foto's, a Dutch Scrapbookers Magazine.

I used patterned paper from Basic Grey. Love their new lines!

I sanded the picture and all the borders of the pp, cut the big stars and the letters from jeans and painted with white acrylic paint around the jeansletters. The turquoise arrows are made from felt. I also used some turquoise acrylic paint to bring more color, more life into the layout. The little stars are made from silver cardstock and from ducktape. The black stripes with white letters are actually those small letterstamps in a black circle. I stamped them on white cardstock with black ink and then colored more black around them with a thick DVD pen. After that I put some double sided tape on the back and cut them in small stripes.

The 3 silver "brads" you see in the corners of the photo are actually tissue brads I bought at Action. They are used to make nice patterns on jeans. Also used some black distress ink on all the borders of the layout.

Kitchen stamps

Today I made a scraplayout with the use of some kitchen utilities. I used them as stamps! It's a challenge from Birgit's blog.

I used the large metal thing you see on the photo for the background. In the Netherlands we use this to mash the potatoes and vegetables for what we call: stamppot (hotchpotch?). The CocaCola item is a bottle opener. I stamped it on a transparant sheet with green acrylic paint.

It was fun to do! You should try it too!

Acupuncture

This morning I went to see my acupuncturist. I went there with my mother who's also been treated with acupuncture since a couple of weeks. I get treated very regularly. In the past every week, than every other week and finally every 4 weeks. But whenever the pain because of the fibro gets worse I go back to every week.

Normally you don't feel the needles when they are placed in your skin but I feel them very often. Especially when I feel very stressed. Last week it was terrible. I could hit the man for hurting me with every needle. Today he explained that it was probably due to the fact that I was really upset and stressed out about what happened on Monday. It felt better today. I didn't feel every needle, just a few.

When I went to this man for the first time a couple of years ago, I had major problems with my left shoulder. I couldn't lift my arm further than horizontal and it hurt all the time. I was feeling miserable. According to another doctor I had to do some exercises 3 times a day. The pain however got worse and worse and I felt the exercises weren't helping me at all. When I told the doctor that it was getting worse and not better, he told me that I was an affected person. That's when I decided to go to the acupuncturist. It took a while but after a couple of months I could lift my arm above my head again and behind my back. However, the shoulder still feels sore and sometimes even painful but I suppose that's because of the fibro.

The Secret of Happiness.

Here's another link to the website I shared with you yesterday. http://www.aish.com/spirituality/foundations/The_Secret_of_Happiness.asp

Two new Daily Somethings and an inspirational website.

I made two very simple DS layouts! I'm still not in the mood to scrap.

Yesterday I went to a small lake in the woods near Schoonloo, were people can swim in Summer. It is near a campingsite where I used to go camping with my son before the fibro got this bad. I went alone because Zander didn't want to come. I just sat on a bench in the sun with a book (What the bleep do we know). I took a photo of this lonely leaf in the water and I knew right away that I wanted to make a DS about it. Today I was looking on the internet for a poem or quote that I could print on the photo, but I couldn't find something appropriate. But I did find this: http://www.aish.com/spirituality/kabbala101/Mystical_Autumn_Leaves.asp I think it's very inspirational.

This afternoon I had to do the laundry. My cleaning lady changed the sheets on the beds this morning. And my son seems to think that he has to put on new clothes every day. Teenz!

I have changed Like this on the right side of my blog. You can listen to some songs by Ilse de Lange. She's a Dutch singer with a country music sound. The songs you can listen change very often but if you see Ilse de Lange & Paul de Leeuw you should listen and look at it (the clip appears on top of my blog), it's funny. Paul de Leeuw is a Dutch entertainer and he can be quite hilarious.

I felt down all week!

I'm still feeling tired, my muscles hurt and some stuff happened on Monday that has made me feel down even more. You could say I have a lot on my plate lately, too much!!
I felt a little bit better yesterday and I have made all my daily somethings of this past week! I kept notes all week and made some photos in order to not forget about what happened.
Next week Zander is going to stay at one of his teachers house. I really need this time alone to recuperate!

New stuff!

Yesterday, I bought the Cutter Bee Bugs and a heat gun at Pipoos! When I was there on wednesday the Cutter Bees hadn't arrived yet so I asked them to phone me. They phoned me on friday and so I just went to town yesterday to get them. Than I remembered I need a heat gun for trying out the techniques with gesso from Celine and so I also bought the heat gun.

I used the Cutter Bee on the DS from yesterday!

This morning when I was sitting in our study a little birdy flew against the window. It sat down on the terrace. looking a bit dazed. Because our cat was outside I ran outside and picked the little birdy up and took it inside, where it was safe. I took some photos of it, keeping my hand a bit closed and later on I opened my hand to see if it was already able to fly. It was, because it started to fly through are living-room. I managed to catch it again and took it outside where I put it on the fence. It stayed there for a while, so I was able to grab my camera which I had left inside the house, and took another photo of the birdy before it flew off and disappeared.

This afternoon I wanted to use the heat gun for some embossing, but I couldn't find the embossing powder. So instead of creating something new, I started to clean my scrapbook space and re-ordering everything. Still haven't found the embossing powder though! I wonder where it can be!

CK

Got the latest CK today! Love that magazine!

I still feel tired. Went to lay down for a while this afternoon. Couldn't sleep! My jaw hurts. It started yesterday and because it felt as toothache I made an appointment with my dentist for today. He made some photos of the roots of the teeth, but there was nothing to see. But maybe there is an infection deeper in the jaw and so he gave me antibiotics. I hope it will help soon!

Latest Daily Somethings

I felt very tired yesterday after I went to do some shopping in the city. I didn't stay that long, but because I still felt a bit tired from Saturday, my trip to the city yesterday was too much!

I have to keep my life simple and find a good balance between things that have to be done and things I like to do. The things I really like to do, that are my passion (like scrapbooking), give me energy, all the other things are wearing me out. But because of the fibro this doesn't always count for me anymore. Even the things that I like to do are wearing me out if I do too much. So it's always important for me that I listen very carefully to the signals of my body.

So today I didn't do much. I had an appointment this morning and in the afternoon I went to the library. I found out that I was a week too late and had to pay a fine. This never happens to me! I really thought it was this week that I had to return the books! I don't like to pay fines! I have to write down in my agenda when I need to return the books!

Because I felt too tired yesterday I wasn't in the mood to make a daily something. So, today I made two!

I took a photo of the library this afternoon and just added the date with a date stamp.

Remember 9/11

My daily something of today is about what happened 6 years ago! Every year on this day I think about all the families that have lost their loved ones in the attack on the WTC, Pentagon and the plaincrash in Pennsylvania.

I shall never forget what happened that day! I was waiting for Oprah to start on Dutch television when they started to show live images from NY about the first attack. And then there was the second attack, live! My heart stopped for a moment. Couldn't believe what I saw! I felt miserable for days!

Ever since that day I have lived with a certain fear about the possibility of similar attacks over here in the Netherlands.

Today I read about turning this day into a day of good deeds. I think that's a great idea! Instead of reliving that day remembering the fear, it's more positive to help out other people that are in need.

Daily Something september 10

I have made 2 daily somethings today! I already had finished the one with Misty when the package with Birgit's RAK arrived! So I had to make another one.

I love all the stuff I won with the challenge, especially the Hambly sheets and rub-ons!

Daily Something

Some photos of the flea market

I went to the flea market yesterday and only made 41 Euro with selling my stuff and another 14 Euro with selling sponsor items for Doc Dolphin Fund. But I had fun and it was great to be there! When I came back home I left all the boxes in my hallway and put my exhausted body to rest on the couch.

Today wasn't the best day of my life. I felt (actually still feel) every muscle in my body, but especially the ones in my lower back. I also still felt very tired so in the afternoon I went to bed just to lay down for a while, but I fell asleep and woke up at 6 p.m.! I suppose I needed it!

Here are some of the photos I took yesterday! On the first photo you can see all my stuff.

Busy, busy ...

... preparing for the flea market tomorrow!

I had to take all the boxes and sacks down from the attick, with stuff I want to get rid off.

There's a flea market in our village tomorrow, and me and my walking-friend Suzanne, have reserved a spot. We have to be there at 8.00 a.m.! The actual flea market is from 9.00 a.m. untill 3.00 p.m.!

I hope we sell most of our stuff, because the money I'll earn is for the dolphintherapy for my son. I also want to sell some dolphins that I made myself (see daily something) and some other stuff (bracelets, t-shirts, cards) from Doc Dolphin Fund.

I won Birgit's challenge!!!!

I'm so happy! This is the first time ever that I won something with a scrapchallenge. It's so cool!

Ofcourse I had to make my daily something about this subject. This is really something to be remembered!

I bought something yummie to celebrate my winning with my son. He doesn't care much about me scrapbooking, even thinks it's ridicilous, but he likes 'puddingbroodjes', so that is what I bought for us.

I also found out that the head-ache that I had yesterday (and still a bit today) is because of my monthly period that started yesterday afternoon. This is new to me. I always had terrible cramps but never head-aches. I suppose it's because of my changing hormones because of the menopause (?).

Check out the new Scrap (Dutch magazine), there are some stunning layouts by Corinne Delis and Celine Navarro! I'm sure going to try the gesso technique of Celine!

Daily something.

Every wednesday afternoon my son has to deliver a local newspaper and folders. So today my dining-table looked like this!

Have a splitting headache and feel tired and not in the mood to blog.

Smile!!

This morning I had an appointment with my dentist to get my upper teeth done. The ones in the front! When I was a kid of maybe 6 years old my dad abruptly had to stop with the rental car he and I had just picked up from a garage. Because it was just a short ride he allowed me to sit in the front. Not such a good idea, because at that time (1963) there weren't any seat-belts yet, so I fell with my mouth on the dashboard and a little piece of my front tooth broke off. Because it was just a little piece I didn't bother to get it fixed.

But lately, ever since I did Corinne's online workshop Finding You, I didn't feel comfortable with my front teeth anymore.

I love what my dentist did with my teeth. He not only fixed the broken tooth but he also changed the old fillings between my front teeth.

Can you see the difference?

Before and after!

Today I finally sorted out all the papers in my 2 baskets filled with mail, bills, brochures, insurancepapers, printouts, etc. It took me almost 2 hours, but after I finished, I could fill only one basket. I threw away a lot of paper. I wonder why I always want to keep everything? Made my daily something about cleaning up my baskets.

I also went to the vet because Kuifje had another funny looking egg that looked like a windegg, but very small and brown. The vet (never had her before) told me that she probably has an inflammation at the ovary and she gave me some antibiotics. When I got home I gave her the antibiotics right away. When I picked her up I saw this lumb on her chest. It looked and felt the same as what the other chicken had before they died! So I'm afraid I'm going to loose this chick too! That would be very sad. She's so funny!

The name of the antibiotic is different from the one the other chicken got, so maybe this one works better! I hope so!

Intruder in the kitchen.

I made my daily something about my chicken yet again. Today she almost walked into the livingroom, she was already on the threshold when I came into the room.

I used a transparant overlay of My Mind's Eye, called Tres Bien "Summer" Frame. The large letterstickers are from Making Memories.

I'm still feeling tired and I have a lot of pain in my lower back. I went to bed in the afternoon to rest and made another crochet flower. I have made 8 thusfar.

Hope I'll feel better tomorrow.

Daily something september 1st

These are 2 daily somethings that I made about the Flower Corso!

One is a collage made with the ArcSoft Collage Creator and the other one are just 2 photos and some letterstickers. I felt too tired to make something more creative!

Flower Corso Eelde 2007

Yesterday afternoon I went to see the Flower Corso in Eelde, a village nearby. It's the biggest event for the villagers every year since 1956 (one year before I was born). They work for months on the parade-carriages and there are a lot of volunteers needed that can make this happen. Imagine all the flowers that they have to stick on the figures on the parade-carriages with needles, on the last day before the parade! Some people had to work through all night!

The theme this year was: World-famous. I have seen some very pretty carriages!

I took a lot of photos but I wasn't in a really good spot. There were so many people that it was hard to find a spot where I could take better photos.

I can't tell you which carriage won, because I left after they made the first tour around the village. Because of the fibro I can't stand for a long period of time. Even this one hour was too much for my muscles. I'm feeling very tired right now. But it was nice that I saw this parade. I hadn't been there for years!