Scrapping Carnival

Somehow Carnival always has this tropical feel to it. Well, not here. As in all the countries Carnival is celebrated on the same days. So here it is winter and somehow always freezing. The parade is on Saturday and that is the only real Carnivallish activity that we do. The last couple of years it has just been me and DS Joram. Ofcourse the last two DH Jinte was already born so she stayed at home with DH. The parade is just way to busy and loud for her. Eindhoven, where we live, is called Lampegat during Carnival and the prince takes over the city from the mayor. Some people just party fro five days straight. To me it still seems kind of strange but I guess that has all to do with me not have grown up here.

Though we are not Carnival people the parade is always fun to go to. The last three years we are always on the same spot downtown for watching the parade and more and more people we know are there too. Lots of kids so they can really enjoy theirselves and play with eachother.

So why am I telling you all this? Because Elise took this great photo of Joram and myself during the paprade. You can't really see that we are freezing, but as you can see I am wearing my gloves. Underneath my shirt I was wearing a thick winter jacket and my DH thermo jacket.

 

For this LO I used all stash (I am getting good at it!) and I even used some supplies I'd never thought I would use. Remember those Dress it Up flatbacks? I have so many of them in so many different styles and shapes, I think I can cover a whole wall with them. I wonder what I was thinking when I bought all those. But I used about a whole package on this LO. I remember when I bought them I did not want to use them because they were all soooooo cute.

I used the candies on this LO because during thep aprade lots of candies are thrown into the audience. The hat I am wearing on this pic was also thrown to us and caught by Joram but he did not want to wear it and I did not want to hold it the whole time so I just wore it.

I used some of the Sassafras Lass Bungle Jungle papers on this LO. I think I made about 10 LO's with this line of paper, but I still have papers left.

CS: Bazzill

PP: Sassafras Lass

Stickers: October Afternoon

Rub-ons: Basic Grey

Candy flatbacks: Dress it Up

Brads: Making Memories, American Crafts, Karen Foster

Journaling tag: SEI

Pin: Maya Road

Misc: Ribbon, border sticker 

The 'who knew' word was cut with my Silhouette Machine.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week! Spring has finally arrived here so we are enjoying it to the fullest!

Home made Christmas card with punches

I posted this card way back but wanted to post it again because I still like it and with time of Christmas wishes ahead I thought some of you might need an idea. This was such an easy card to make and the final result is really cute.

The pics that I am posting are a bit out of focus but since the card was sent to someone I have no possibility to take different pics. So, you will have to do it with what you get, ha!

Let me try and explain how I made this card: I started with a square pice of cardstock as a mat for my angel. I used my border scissors (can you imagine not having border punches?????) to cut the edges of the square. Then I punched two hearts, a little star and a circle with my Quickutz. But you can easily use normal punches or your Silhouette or Cricut. Whatever you have. In ancient times I probably would have cut them by hand............. The two smallest circles come out of a regular office hole puncher. 

You put the hearts behind the biggest circle with the point underneath the circle. When you look at the pic you will know what I mean. 

I used the two little circles for cheeks but you can also use a marker or chalk for that. I made the eyes and mouth with a black marker. The words are rub-ons from Making Memories but can also be replaced by stamps or even a printed text from your computer. 

I attached the angel with  foam dots so she would pop up a little. To top it of you can use some glitter spray or glimmer mist to make her sparkle!

Some family updates: DS Joram (now in 4th grade) had to do his book report today. He was sooooo nervous he even woke up last night crying . As most of you know Joram has a severe dyslexia so anything reading or spelling is one big disaster. Because of his dyslexia he did not have to read out loud in front of his class (which goes with the book report) but he could video tape it and play it in his class. He decided to read himself in front of his class. I was so proud of him when he decided that (well, at 3 am he wasn't to sure about that anymore, but you can imagine I was not going to video tape at that point......) And because he practised the part he was going to read over and over he knew it by head and 'reading' should not be a problem at all.

And the final result was: He got a B! I was soo proud of him! He said he was really nervous when he did it and even his book was shaking in his hands when he was reading. But no matter what: He said he had fun and he wanted to do one again.

And when I put him to bed tonight he said this: Mommy, I think they made a mistake when they said I am dyslexic, I had no problems today with reading.................... I did not argue with him and he fell asleep with a smile on his face..............................

Two layouts and hot weather

I love summer weather but today it has been a bit too much. Right now (at 8 pm) it is still 35 degrees celcius (95F) outside and it does not seem to cool down at all. Out attic (where I am sitting roght now) is unbelievably hot. So again: This is going to be a short post.

This afternoon the Netherlands soccer team beat Brazil and made it to the semi finals of the World Cup. Go Holland!

I was able two make two layouts this week. One of Jorams first day in grade 3 and the other one from Sinterklaas 2009. Sinterklaas is a typical Dutch tradition which takes place on December 5th. In general you can sort of compare it to Santa. If you want to read more about it in English: HERE's the Wikpedia link.

On both layouts title and joiurnaling are in Dutch.

First day of third grade layout:

Patternedpaper: Basic Grey

Stickers: Basic Grey, Making Memories

Buttons: Basic Grey

Ribbon: American Crafts

Misc: Embroidery thread

The word 'groep' was cut with my Silhouette. Except for the 'o', which is a Basic Grey sticker

The Sinterklaas layout:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned paper: DCWV

Chipboard: Maya Road

Flowers: Hero Arts

Stickers: K and Company, Sandylion

Jouranling spot: Making Memories

Felt mat: Prima Marketing

Studs: Prima Marketing

Misc: Buttons, bling

And again: The title was cut with the Silhouette

Baby taking shower / Baby onder de douche

DS Joram (who is now nine and a half) never really liked having a shower when he was a baby. He HATED the water splashing around and washing his hair was considered a small drama. He still doesn't like to be splashed with water but (thank goodness) washing his hair is no problem anymore and he turned out to be a very good swimmer. Who would have thought...........

On the contrary, DD Jinte LOVES taking a shower. She just enjoys playing with the water, having her hair done and even her face can be wet and she won't mind. How different siblings can be. Last week I took some photo's when she was taking a shower and after I put them on the computer I saw that I had the perfect before, while and after photo's. And when the new Let's Scrap sketch came out this wednesday I knew I wanted to scrap these photos.

Patterned paper: Basic Grey

Flowers: Prima Marketing

Chipboard: Maya Road
Rub-ons: Basic Grey

Misc: buttons, ribbon, bling

The title was cut with the Silhouette and I made the big blue flower myself. I loved how it turned out. It looks like a bought one. (Don't be modest if you don't have to, LOL)

There's another milestone I want to share: This wednesday Jinte started both crawling and talking. Her crawling is not exactly as it should be but ever since she has been moving all over the livingroom. I have to childproof our house........................ And her first word she said also on Wednesday. I think it is the funniest first word. She says: 'Kijk es', which is Dutch for 'take a look at that' and she knows how to use it. What happended to Mommy and Daddy?

For all of you: Have a great weekend! The weather is going to be good here so I hope to enjoy some outside time. 

Zoonlief Joram (nu negen-en-een-half) vond het als baby nooit een pretje om onder de douche te gaan. Hij HAATTE het als zijn haar gewassen werd en het spetteren in bad of onder de douche vond ie ook echt helemaal niets. Hij vind het nog steeds niet als ie wordt nat gespetterd, maar het drama haren wassen is (gelukkig) al lang geen drama meer en hij is ook nog eens een hele goede zwemmer geworden. Wie had dat ooit gedacht?

Daarentegen HOUDT dochterlief Jinte enorm van douchen. Ze vondt het heerlijk om met water te spelen, te spetteren en haren wassen is helemaal niet erg. Zelfs kunnen we haar gezicht afspoelen. Hoe verschillend kunnen twee kinderen uit hetzelfde gezin zijn.

Vorige week heb ik een paar foto's genomen toen Jinte onder de douche zat. Pas nadat ik ze op de computer had gezet realiseerde ik me dat ik een geweldige voor-tijdens-na serie had. En toen afgelopen woensdag de nieuwe sketch van Let's Scrap uitkwam wist ik dat ik deze foto's moest gebruiken.

Dessinpapier: Basic Grey

Bloemen: Prima Marketing

Chipboard: Maya Road
Rub-ons: Basic Grey

Overig: knopen, lint, bling

De titel heb ik gesneden met mijn Silhouette en de grote bloem heb ik zelf gemaakt. Ik vind dat die er helemaal geweldig uitziet (Waarom zou je bescheiden zijn als het niet hoeft? Hahaha)

Verder wilde ik nog met jullie delen dat Jinte sinds woensdag kruipt en praat! Wat een enorme verandering is dat! Het kruipen is nog niet helemaal volgens het boekje, maar ze komt de hele kamer door. En dat betekent dus dat ik heel snel ons huis kindvriendelijk moet maken.......................... Haar eerste woordje zei ze ook op woensdag. Ik vind het het raarste eerste woordje dat ik ooit heb gehoord. Ze zegt: 'Kijk es' en gebruikt het ook overal bij als er iets te zien is. Wat is er toch gebeurd met die kinderen die gewoon 'papa' of 'mama' zeiden als eerste woordje?

Voor iedereen: Een heel goed weekend! Het wordt hier geweldig mooi weer dus ik hoop wat tijd buiten te kunnen doorbrengen.

Big brow eyes / Grote bruine ogen

Both our children have brown eyes but both have such different brown eyes. DS Joram has very dark brown eyes (and blond hair) and DD Jinte has a mix of brown, green and grey eyes. Most of the times her eyes just seem brown but sometimes they look more greenish or grey. They are definitely different from Joram's.

What they both have is sparkly eyes in which you can see the fun and innosence. I love to see that in children's eyes.

I amde this layout simply because I adore this photo from DD Jinte. It was taken on April fools and I can not believe how much babies change in only two months.

Again, no baby-ish colors for me: Brights again!

Patterned paper: Sassafras Lass

Stickers: Making Memories, American Crafts

Rub-ons: Heidi Swapp

Cut-outs: Silhouette machine

Journaling spot: Fancy Pants

Glittle glue: Ranger Stickles

Onze beide kinderen hebben bruine ogen, maar toch hebben ze alletwee heel verschillende bruine ogen. Zoonlief Joram heeft hele donkerbruine ogen (en blond haar) en dochterlief Jinte heeft bruine ogen, maar soms lijken ze groenig of zelfs grijs. Toch lijken ze het meest van de tijd bruin. Ze hebben in ieder geval alletwee een heel andere kleur ogen.

Wat ze wel alletwee hebben is een bepaalde schittering in hun ogen. Je kan er de onschuld en het plezier in zien. Echt geweldig om dat bij kinderen te zien. Ze kunnen stralen!

Deze layout heb ik gemaakt omdat ik de foto van Jinte gewoon mooi vind. Hij is op 1 april genomen en ik vind het iedere keer weer ongelooflijk hoe babies veranderen in twee maanden tijd.

Nogmaals: Geen baby pastelkleuren voor mij maar felle kleuren!

Dessinpapier: Sassafras Lass

Stickers: Making Memories, American Crafts

Rub-ons: Heidi Swapp

Cut-outs: Silhouette machine

Journaling spot: Fancy Pants

Glitterlijm: Ranger Stickles

Offline for a bit / Een tijdje offline

I just wanted to let you know that I will be offline for a while. So don't worry if I won't post for a while, I am still here but just not able to get online.

These last weeks have been pretty hectic. As most of you know DS Joram has a very hard time reading. His teacher in first grade already mentioned it when he just started reading. Right now (he is in third grade) he reads like a first grader. At school they do a lot of effort to help him and he gets individual reading twice (!) a day. He does improve but hothing like it should be. Right now his reading is at the same level as a child that is just three months in first grade....................

He got tested for dyslexia and it turns out he has a very severe form of dylexia scoring at the lowest 10%. So he qualified for treatment (even though it is not curable they still call it treatment)

Last wednesday he had his first session and he was sooooooo nervous (I was nervous too). He came back (I had to drop him off and then come back when he was done) so enthousiastic! They are teaching him a whole new reading method. It is going to be a lot of work for him and he will need a lot of discipline and encouragement to do this but I have a very good feeling about it.

I want to end with some recent photo's

See you soon!

Ik wilde jullie even laten weten dat ik de komende tijd even afwezig zal zijn op mijn blog. Ik ben er wel maar heb even niet de gelegenheid om online te komen.

De laatste weken zijn erg hectisch geweest. Zoals jullie wellicht weten heeft zoonlief Joram erg veel moeite met lezen. Zijn leerkracht in groep 3 viel het al op en nu speelt het nog steeds. Hij zit nu in groep 5 en leest als iemand in groep 3. Op school geven ze hem alle hulp die ze kunnen en hij krijgt individueel leesonderwijs, twee (!) maal per dag en toch is er nog steeds niet voldoende vooruitgang. Hij heeft het leesniveau van een kind dat net drie maanden in groep 3 zit.

Hij is getest op dyslexie en de uitslag is dat hij een zeer ernstige vorm van dyslexie heeft. Hij scoort bij de laagste 10%. Dat betekent dat hij in aanmerking komt voor behandeling. Behandeling is dan toch een raar woord want he tis natuurlijk niet te genezen. Afgelopen woensdag had ie zijn eerste behandeling en hij was echt bloedje nerveus (ik ook). Hij kwam terug (ik moest hem afzetten en ophalen als ie klaar was) en hij was zo enthousiast. Hij krijgt een hele nieuwe leesmethode aangeleerd. Het kost hem heel veel tijd en hij zal heel veel doorzettingsvermogen en discipline nodig hebben maar ik heb er wel een goed gevoel over!

En ik eindig maar met een paar recente foto's.
Tot snel!

Park Irrland

Easter Sunday Nicole and myself and the kids went to Park Irrland in Kevelaer, Germany. The men and Jinte were supposed to join us but Jinte got sick. So both men stayed home.

Even though it was supposed to rain we took the change and went anyway. And we were glad we went. What an awesome park! If you expect a park full with thrilling rides you are going to be dissapointed but did the kids have fun. It is a nature themed park and they have the most creative ways to entertain the kids. Beside the normal slides (and were they HIGH!!!!) they have a pool filled with corn kernels, a 3d maze made out of hay bales where you can climp in and on top. I think Joram and Ralph (Nicole's youngest) were playing in there for almost an hour. Even though the temperatures were not too high and we had some rain we had a great time!
It is definetely worth the ride (just a little under an hour drive from our house) and we will visit again during the summer.

Paaszondag zijn Nicole en ik met de kinderen naar Park Irrland geweest in Kevelaer, Duitsland. De mannen en Jinte zouden in eerste instantie ook meegaan maar Jinte was ziek dus zijn de mannen thuis gebleven.

Ondanks dat er kans was op regen zijn we toch gegaan. En gelukkig maar! Wat een geweldig park. Als je een pretpark verwacht met allemaal achtbanen kom je bedrogen uit maar het is echt geweldig voor de kinderen. Het is een park gebasserd op het thema natuur en ze hebben echt hele leuke creatieve dingen om de kinderen te vermaken. Naast de grote glijbanen (echt heel HOOG) is er bijvoorbeeld een zwembad vol met maiskorrels en een 3d doolhof van balen hooi waar je niet alleen in, maar ook nog op kan. Ik denk dat Joram en Ralph (Nicole's jongste) daar bijna een uur in hebben gespeeld.

Het was niet zo heel warm en we hebben een bui gehad maar wel de tijd van ons leven!

Het is zeker de moeite van het rijden waard (iets minder dan een uur van ons huis) en we gaan er in de zomer nog een keer naar toe!

Heel prick layout / Hielprik layout

I think one of the things every mom can remember like it was yesterday is the moment they did the heel prick by their newborn. I still remember them taking it by Joram and that is more than nine years ago. I also have a photo from that moment. Back in 2001 the heel prick was used for diagnosing 2 diseases and nowadays they use it for 18! Can you imagine what the amount would be in ten years from now??????

It is not such a happy moment (even though it is for a good cause) I still wanted to have some pics from DD Jinte's heel prick and scrap them. Tears and joy all belong to life and need to be scrapped! There's not a whole lot of detail to see (who needs detail???) but my DH understood me (and knows me by now) and even took pictures of the needle and the testsheet.

I blurred out the personal info on the right side of the layout. People tend to do weird things with your personal information nowadays.......

Patterned paper: Collage Press, Rayher, Cosmo Cricket

Stickers: American Crafts

Die cut: Making Memories

Misc: Ribbon, lace

Ik denk dat iedere moeder zich het moment kan herinneren waarop hun pasgeborene de hielprik werd afgenomen. Ik kan me zelfs die van Joram nog goed herinneren en dat is meer dan negen jaar geleden. Daar heb ik ook nog een foto van.

Toen, in 2001, werd er bij de hielprik getest op 2 aandoeningen, tegenwoordig zijn dat er al 18. Kun je je voorstellen hoeveel erdat zullen zijn over tien jaar?

Ondanks dat het geen blij moment is (al is het voor een goede reden) wilde ik toch ook weer foto's hebben om te scrappen toen de hielprik bij Jinte werd afgenomen. Geluk en verdriet horen beiden bij het leven................ Er is niet veel detail op de foto's te zien (niet belangrijk) maar manlief begreep het helemaal (hij kent me inmiddels) en heeft zelfs foto's genomen van de naald en het formulier!

Ik heb de persoonlijke informatie op de recherhelft van de layout wazig gemaakt. Mensen doen tegenwoordig gekke dingen met persoonlijke informatie.................

Dessinpapier: Collage Press, Rayher, Cosmo Cricket

Stickers: American Crafts

Die cut: Making Memories

Overig: lint, kant