Suprise mail and New Years Dive!

My first post of the year 2009 and I want to wish you all the best, good health, luck, joy and lots of creativity!

The last day of the year I got a very nice surprise in the mail!

This cutie Christmas card, made by Linda, I love it..... great idea to use a beercoaster for a card, gotto keep that in mind!

But..... there was lots and lots more in the envelope!! Look at that cute skull stamp, my gosh, I'm in love!! And all the vintage pictures... jute..... doilies.......

Music paper with old Dutch childrens' songs, and the pictures with poems on it.... Linda, I told you already, thanks so much, I love it all and I'm sure I will make some nice layouts with all this!

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Today, the first day of the New Year, there are a lot of countries that have the tradition of the New Years Dive! We had it in Holland, but... here in Canada they do too, and not far from where we live, about a 10 min. drive, friends of ours live in Port Dover, which is situated at Lake Erie. Very good place for a dive...... but with temperatures at about -15 C. I can tell you, it's very very cold too!

Egbert, our friend, wanted to do this for years and years but just never got to it, until today! He had asked Henk to join him, but.... not that Henk chickened out,...... he just thought it was a little too cold for him, so he stayed on the safe side!


A lot of people from all around the area gathered at the lake, it was just great to see the enthousiasm of everybody, participating in the dive, or just watching and cheering!

And there he goes, off to his first dive in ice cold water!!!

And a lot more people joined him!! We wanted to get closer to the lake, but it was not doable for me, I was kind of scared, cause it was all ice you had to walk on, really very slippery, and I was just too afraid to fall. So, somewhere in this picture, Egbert is walking the last couple of meters to the water!



AND HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!! Very cold, could hardly feel his legs, but.......oh so proud of himself, and.... so are we!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

I really, really want Spring!!!!

I'm really very sorry for everybody in countries or parts of countries were there's no snow..... but, you can have mine!!! I'm definately sick and tired of it.. Look and weep with me....

This is how our drive way looked Friday afternoon around 3 pm. Not too bad, I know, but still, it's white and I want green, as in gras!

This is........ right, at the front door..... about 50 cm. of snow.... this afternoon.... around 5 pm. And now it's almost 2 hours later and you don't even see the front step anymore........ :-(

Henk's trying to put the shovel in the snow..... didn't work out so good, but...... it sure is a lot!

The backyard, photo is taken out of the window and we have wire gauzes in front of every window, so it looks kind of "gauzie" here he, he! Oh and you see that scare craw?? There is a low fence where he is..... I can't see it, can you???

Another one of the backyard..... Can you understand why I'm so fat up with this kind of weather? It's really bad outside, the police advices people to stay in, unless you really really have to go out! Henk's on call this weekend and he had to go out twice... the last time towards Delhi... which is about 15 min. When he was done and was on his way home, it was the first time he was scared on the road, total white outs, blowing snow, he really couldn't see a thing. It took him about 40 min. to come home..... Man, was I glad to see him and he was glad to be home! He's not going out again, this is really to dangerous!

Have a good Sunday and if you're in a snow covered area...... stay save!

Cold, sunny Sunday afternoon

This is how you spend a cold, sunny Sunday afternoon here in Canada! You hop in the car, go to friends who have a large farm, a large open field, thawed snow, which frooze up again and turned into an ice skating field!!

You send your husband and kids on the ice with hockey sticks......

Let them have lots of fun........

Stay on the save side yourself.......

Take some nice winter photos........

Love it when you get a good shot of your daughter...... and in the meantime freeze your "youknowwhat" of.... Man, I was really chilled to the bone, couldn't feel my toes anymore, but had lots and lots of fun! My friend Cindy had made hot chocolate with marshmellows (which is sooooo good!), rice crispie cookies (also good!), chips and all kind of snacks for everybody! After about 2 hours we (the ones that didn't skate and the ones that were frozen he, he) headed back to the house and Cindy and I had coffee with Baileys, well, can tell ya, that'll warm you up fast!!!!

And now.. everybody here is hanging on the couch, all rosey cheeks and still kind of cold, but we really had a fun afternoon!

Finally some more scrappin'

Yes, I finally got some scrappin' done for this week! Yesterday I managed to do this one in just an hour, love it when things work out just the way I want them to!!

Photo was taken last Monday, the day the kids had a snowday and Anouk and I went for a walk. Love this photo!

The papers used are by Carolees Creations, an old Winterline, but hey, I like old lines!!

And today I did another one, lifted a layout of myself, and it's done by a sketch of Pagemaps!

Anouk, tobogganing down the hill in our back yard, she had so much fun! Papers are Basic Grey Blitzen and Dasher.

There is a shadow on the photo of the layout, that's a part of me he, he!! So no, the cardstock isn't half yellow!!

Just in case I don't have any more blogging to do this weekend, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Lots of snow!

Yesterday we had our first snow storm of the year! Man, it was bad, grey skies all day, very very cold, chill factor -17...... No day to go out and take photos. But.. the roads were still full of snow this morning, so the kids have a snow day, and I love taking photos in the snow:-) Anouk and I went outside, very cold still, can't feel my ears anymore, and we took some photos!

Cause I had to take a shot of my dear daughter!

The church at the end of the road, isn't this beautiful!

See how deep the snow is??

" Hi mom!!! I'm so cold, can't feel my toes!!!"

Our very own Christmas tree and our house, small part of it!

Ok, I had that one coming!!!

View of our street, just cleaned by the snow shovel truck. Can you see the heaps of snow along the curbes of the road?

Just a nice shot...... Canadian flag, schoolbus.... rooftops..... I liked it!

Dream your dreams and snow!

The new challenges at Category Stories..... Dream! Everybody dreams, big ones, small ones...

Sometimes maybe life changing ones..... Me? I've had my dreams.... I just wish for my daughters to Dream their Dreams....


Everything I used is Basic Grey Blush, yes, another BG line, another old line, but I still love them so very much, that I don't even mind working with older papers!

Buttons, chipboard letters, rub-ons, ribbons and the use of a Zigpen did the rest of the work and I love it!

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Another thing...., it is snowing...... a lot...... very tiny flakes, but so many, it's weird, you can actually hear them fall... This is the neighbours front yard, with on the bottom, my driveway.

In an hour time, it's completely couvered with snow....... and they say it's gonna snow all day.... 5-8 cm.......

This is the deck, photo shot at 10 am.... wonder what it's going to like like in a couple of hours... I'll just shoot some more at lunch time I guess!

Here's the deck again.... at noon.... lots more!

And my drive way, after I was cleaning it for about 45 minutes! It looks so different now, do you know the sound of snow? Well, I didn't, till I live here... It's really silent, and still, you can hear the snowflakes fall, I love it!

Sunny afternoon in Port Dover

This afternoon we went to Port Dover, to get some fresh air! Spring's around the corner I guess, it was so nice outside. Sun shining, beautiful blue sky, still cold, but who cares! So we took the car and headed out. Port Dover is at Lake Erie, which was still frozen, and looked super! So, as usual, I brought my camera and took some pictures!

One frozen lake!

Lots of ice in the distence.

Zoomed in it looks so cool!

And Marloes...... a really great close up... My oldest, boy isn't this a gorgeous picture? I just love it! Hair blowing in the wind, serious look on her face, sun shining from behind...... Girl, I love you!

I need Spring!!!!

On some blogs from Dutch friends I see the wonderful things that happen in Spring..... Flowers start blooming, grass is becoming more green.... birds building nests..... but here...... No way! All I can show you, is that white stuff, that's here since mid January.... And well, to be honest, I'm getting sick and tired of it! I need to see grass, want to have my morning coffee on the deck, in the sun, want to hear the birds sing their songs outside instead of through the window....But unfortunately, that's not happening yet, temperatures are still below zero, actually, yesterday it was -20 and the windchill made it so cold!! Today it's better, -6 at the moment, at least, that's what the say on the news, but when I was outside taking some pictures, without gloves!!!, it felt a lot colder, had frozen fingers, but hey, who cares! That's winter, and everybody keeps talking about the mild winter we have..... OK well, I don't mind, think it was cold enough last month and that we didn't have snow in November, what seems to be normal here, well, that was fine by me.

Here are some pictures of the front yard...... now you know why I would like to see some green!

Eliane, I tried some different things, with the ISO, but don't know if it turned out ok? Guess so, have to try more I guess!

Snowstorm on Valentine's Day!

**EDITED 18.58...**

Oh my..... I'm checking my blog, cause I almost had 20.000 hits this morning and now..... 20.072......... this is so great!!! And that on my birthday! THANKS SO MUCH EVERYBODY WHO DROPS BY EVERYDAY!!! Love to do this blog, and love your comments even more!!! BIG HUGS FROM ME!
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Last night and overnight we had a storm snow, well, actually we still do! It just keeps on going, no schoolbusses so the girls are at home today! Not bad, it's my birthday, so we're going to make the best of it...... doing what? Well, cleaning the driveway for example;

If you try to walk, the snow is up to your knees, that much fell last night!

So, we'll see how we will spend the day, think we're gonna go outside again to finish cleaning the driveway! Bundle up is a very good idea:-)