Life is good

halleluya!

i'm healed. cured. PAINFREE. we drink on that!! yesterdaymorning i had my appointment at the dentist, and i've seriously never ever had such a sweet, caring and most important CAPABLE dentist! and i've had 5 different dentists before, so i guess i am an expert now. she even freaked out a little when she saw the massive infection once she drilled my teeth open. she said "i would have been screaming & crying and knocking on my door this weekend if i had this!". i reacted: "well, i gave (natural) birth to a 5100 grams weighing boy, so i guess i can deal with some pain...". haha. cracked her up. laughing in the dentist chair. never happened before. sigh. such a big relief. she started the 'rooth canal treatment' and i've had many before, but those man were butchers! she simply said: NO NEED to feel any pain, just wave your hand and i've got this drawer full of anaesthetic.. unbelievable, makes me even more ANGRY at the dentists before who always argued with me about the amount of anaesthetic. but enough of that. Liesbeth, thanks a million for recommending her. she's amazing. and to say that about a dentist is amazing itself.

another MIRACLE happened tonight. remember Ruben being afraid as can be from the bath tub?

yes. that is Ruben. IN the bathtub. not in front of. he FINALLY relaxed. FINALLY. after months and months of trying & trying to explain to him that there is no danger or nothing to be afraid of... Sanne made it happen by playing with him, having fun. letting him throw water over her with a cup made him laugh so hard, he simply forgot he was IN it. the last time he was more relaxed and i simply felt this was coming and i never felt so good watching my little boy having fun. (ofcourse we tried before to let her entertain him, but he had to cry so hard he had to throw up even BEFORE entering the bathroom so that was not an option. we kept trying though. important lesson: never give up!).

yesterday, after my happy appointment, i went with Ruben to see my sweet friend Liesbeth. i took Ruben with me, Sanne was staying for the night at grandma's house. first he had to get used to Liesbeth (who doesn't...ha) but when her gorgeous daughter Suzanne entered the room, he was da man. dancing, playing with cars, eating tosti's WITH mayonaaaaissssse and reading his favorite book. so dang cute, go check her blog, she took some gorgeous pictures of them interacting together! melting my heart. and he felt they were really special, cause i asked (when they walked us to my car) if he would give them a kiss. he said YES (normally he nonchalant waves, see ya later alligator...) and after that, when i tried to put him into the car, he said "again?". haha. he wanted another kiss. but ofcourse, the ladies were more than happy to cooperate! tada. mister macho man is born.

created a mini-album for the new word over at One Little Word. my SWEEThearts. this time it's Denise'schoice and i LOVE her word and her look on life! go check out the One Little Word blog and join the fun!

this mini is made with the generous sponsor Evalicious. don't you love that fabric? this time i glued it on with Decorator Chemage Glaze, but i guess you can use Modd Podge just as well. go check out her shop, she has some gorgeous handmade embellishments and journals!

the collage

and the more detailed pictures

the front.

there is something about helicopterviews that makes me want to eat this stuff...

there's a lot of (Dutch) journaling in there. i don't feel like typing the whole bunch up in English, but if you want me to.... just let me know. it's about how special Sanne & Ruben are to me, especially about their relationship. how they handle eachother, play with eachother and truly truly love eachother.

the quote on the right, i stole from a magnet i bought from Kal Barteski one of my most favorite artists. she's so good, go check out her blog and be inspired.

she really really takes care of him like a mini-mom

pic simply cracks me up.

off to eat some M&M's.
life is good
rev

my teeth, new work and truckstar Festival

kind of a rambling post coming up here. i warned you. first a little update on the teeth. tooth. whatever the ever lasting pain is still here. i'm on antibiotics and that helps a bit. Friday i finally spoke to my "parodontoloog" (don't know the English term and can't find it, but specialist for my gums...) and she tells me that that infection has been there for 6 years now... so the backtooth is bad, but stable. she's NOT going to pull that one out. sigh. what's next? the Masters of Science simply do not know where the pain is coming from. i've got 3 suspect tooth. suspect. ever heard of suspect tooth? i've got them. sigh. so anyway. monday i'll be calling my dentist again and will ask what the votes are. i have to let somebody do something to stop. the. freaking. pain. bare with me.

on a brighter side, some new work!

remember Ruben still being afraid of the bath? he still is. Sanne did make him laugh the last time, acting silly, so we are on the better hand. layout is about my wish for him to PLEASE grow over it... ofcourse used 100% American Crafts. i guess everybody is entering their DT Call and the chances are very very low to make it there, but hey, a girl can have dreams right?!

the last time we had our 10 minutes talk with her current teacher... she's doing so great. she will be going to group 3 next year. learning to read & write. so excited for her.

the green border is handstitched with embroidery floss.

and i simply had to make another shadow box. getting kinda addicted to that. enough room in the house to fill though! not sure if Arjan thinks the same...

and tomorrow we are going to the Truckstar Festival. i know i know you didn't think much of me as a trucker right? you are right. but Ruben adores everything with wheels and we got free tickets. so why not? it's more than a 2 hour drive, so that's MUCH for us (although when we go to Italy, that's a 15 hour drive....). i'm planning on taking lots and lots of cool pics and painkillers... especially pics of the muppets INSIDE those huge trucks. the sun will be shining, i'll put my happy-cap on and off we go!

life is good. roaarrrrrr.
rev

my tip

i'm not much of a stamper. or a paint-user. and i think that's because i feel like i can 'mess it up' easily. so i thought of a plan. to get more stamping & painting going on my work (cause i love looking at yours!). with the clear stamps, it's easy. just place & see where it lands... but with the mounted stamps... so i figured i wanted to feel 'save'. and maybe you are already doing it, or not, but i thought "what if i had the stamp as a layover / transparancie and i could simply look at it BEFORE i stamped it on my precious work?". now that sounded as a fabulous idea. so here's how i work:

when i buy a new stamp, i first stamp it on a blanco transparancy. i bought a box of these a million years ago (actually i stole it from my work, but it's my own company, so my own money :D. we used it 'back in the old days' for Power Point presentations):

it was kinda useless so i thought it would be perfect for scrapbooking :D (now don't go steel on your bosses, i didn't set you up to it!)

 

when i'm creating a layout and feel the need of a stamp... i simply get to my stamped transparancy and hold it over where i would love to have it. then i can place and replace it just as long as i want and when i feel happy with it, i get the REAL stuff and stamp.

ofcourse i use it a lot for journaling stamps, cause that's the stamp i use most regular, but also for quotes, symbols, trees, swirls whatever stamp you have you can use this tip for! and if you are like me (mmmmm where shall i put this??) it's a perfect 'saver'.

and what if.... you DO make that mistake... on my next layout (published in Scrapbook Magazine in 2008) i dropped my journaling stamp after i had already stamped on the layout. aarggh. do you feel the panic? ha. i simply dropped it again. twice. and just wrote my journaling on it. i loved the effect. problem solved.

and if you are planning on buying a box of those blanc transparancies, ofcourse you can use them for numerous things. i also use it as a 'color card' for my acrylic paints. this way i can view the color better. hold it over my project and decide what color of green is best.

and what about creating your own transparancies? you can find lots of cool free patterns you can use to print on the transparancy. or maybe you can even create some coolness and print it?! if you do so, please share!

dentist update i was on the chair yesterday and OFCOURSE i've got this huge infection in one of my back tooth. and she thinks also in a tooth. i've pain like everywhere, even in my ear. sigh. but she's not going to burn her hands on this one. no. mister Specialist has to take a look. so she'll be contacting him to see "if he thinks he can save the dude" and otherwise she'll get it out. my opinion? YANK IT OUT NOW please. but i'll wait till mister Specialist votes. hang in there with me. on antibiotics now and 6 painkillers a day. getting cranky i tell ya.

life is (not so) good (right now)

rev

August kit!

the new Scrap-Club kit is here!!! so let's get started!

totally forgot i used this picture just a few layouts before, and also in colored and b/w version. at least i stick to my plan...

embossed with the beautiful clear stamps (the stars), handstitched the edges of the layout.

based on the sketch this month! how does she do it?!

made 3 layouts based on beautiful quotes. i used shadowboxes from IKEA to put them in. to get a better view:

i've clear embossed the stars. and the white on the black stars are the white rubons in the kit!

and ofcourse i coulnd't resist to make a mini out of the beautiful fabric that was in the kit this time!!

my little book of inspiration. when i'm browsing the internet i see so many gorgeous freaking projects, i save a copy of the image on my desktop. once in a while i print them all out, small sizes, and finally i had the time to create a mini out of these images. remember: i don't pretend i made those beauties, i just keep them for inspiration, cause i LOVE to look at them!

i've used fabric and backed it with felt as the 'tab pages'.

the pictures are printed on normal photopaper, and glued them on transparancies.

there are 3 'sections' in my mini. 'scrapbook stuff, crochet stuff, fabric stuff'. i handstitched these titles onto the felt.

than a few pages of transparancies (Hambly & Color Conspiracy) with the pictures will folow. it's just to look at for me. to get ideas, to get inspiration.

it can be the design i'm drawn into. or the colors used. or the products used. i just love looking at it.

and the best part is: i can keep on adding more and more stuff. more 'sections' like 'home decor' is in the planning. and i keep hoarding beautiful pictures of projects i adore.

the albums is binded with rings, so i can make it as fat as i want to. yeah for fat albums.

and some detailed pictures

it's real easy peasy lemon squeezy.

tomorrow i'm going to call a NEW & FRESH dentist. i've had 4 so far and every single time i end up with some kind of argument about anaesthetic. i say IT HURTS. they say: it only takes a minute. or 2. NOBODY can tell me what the level of pain is i'm feeling and if it's manageable. so. onto the next one. sigh. this lady is recommended by a sweet friend of me (not calling names here, but also not a huge fan of the dentist) so i'm certain things will work out fine. i've been taking painkillers (about 6 a day) for week now, and it seriously needs to be fixed...

life is good. with anaesthetic.
rev

WHY

we all have our WHY's. if you take a minute and write down a few, you have a base for a beautiful mini-album. WHY is such a strong word. WHY do things happen. WHY is the world the way it is. WHY are we the way we are? think about it. i teach my kids that there is a solution for everything. no matter how difficult or hard the problem is (in their eyes). and not only for everything is a solution, also for everything is a reason. but i'm not sure about WHAT the reasons might be. for some things i'm certain though. WHY i am the way i am. and it was about time to document that. mostly for myself. scrapbooking is a form of therapy for me when i scrap about me. but also for my kids to understand how i role. and of course for Arjan, but he doens't need the mini-album. he figured it out by himself :D.

to keep you thinking about the WHY'S in your life, i leave you with this gorgeous gorgeous song from Norah Jones. join us and tell us about the WHY'S in your life!

i've created the mini from fabric, felt & cardstock and used the gorgeous embellishments from ZVA Creations. the journaling is printed on cardstock and simply handstitched it into the felt. the pictures are with a simple x-stitch (on every corner) attached to the fabric. the felt & fabric squares are, after completely finishing them with journaling, embellishments and pictures, machinestitched around the edges.

why i am the way i am

Used the gorgeous Heather Bailey fabrics for this mini-album.

journaling is in Dutch: i hang onto who i've got. Arjan, Sanne & Ruben. they are my only real family and it feels so vulnerable. such a thin line. i seriously would go insane if i had to miss one of them. i don't have contact with any other member of my family. that's why i hang onto them. as long as i don't sufficate them, everything is ok. they give me love, energy and trust. i need them more than anything.

journaling: i keep a lot of stuff. A LOT. it's so hard for me to part with it. to throw (or give) it away. not only from myself, but also from Sanne & Ruben. i know this is because i've barely anything from my childhood. i was on the street, literally at age 16. the few things i had were put in bags and as trash put on the street. other things were broken or simply thrown away. i have had so much pain and grief over this. so i guess that's why i keep a lot. but i keep it nice and tide :D

journaling: the desire and choice to be at home a lot isn't a coincidence. i think i wanna make up for the lost feeling of being loved to BE THERE for them. unconditionally. and that i had to sacrifice other (financial) stuff, so be it. i want to be with them, take care of them, play with them, teach them, enjoy them and grow through them. i can and WILL give them a safe base so they will venture into the world, full of self confidence.

journaling: i cannot stand it if anybody throws away, or put away my stuff. ofcourse that's something from my childhood also. one big fight with Arjan over a stupid felt flower he simply had 'put away'. i snapped. after explaining to him (it's not the stupid flower, it's the action), he totally gets him (love him for that). the feeling of my childhood about throwing away stuff is just too heavy. just say what you want to do with it, and it's ok.

journaling: i can be so afraid in the dark. not just afraid, but pure and heavy anxiety. feel my heart beating, sweaty hands, shaking and 'flight behaviour'. ofcourse that's also a nice heritage of my childhood and i've learned to live with it. you don't see me alone on the street at night. parking garages, corridors of appartment buildings, elevators: you won't see me. when i've visited friends they simply walk me to my car. no questions asked. no judgements. that's real friendship.

journaling: i take very good care of myself. i want to be creative every single day. scrapbooking, crocheting or making other projects. i just wanna make stuff. and housekeeping comes second usually. Ar is so supportive, he sees me being happy and getting more energy. enjoying it. i feel like i've lived in hell for the first 16 years of my life, i more than deserve it to have time totally for myself now (and ofcourse for Ar & the muppets). i'm worth it.

and the cute french knots.

so. what's your WHY?

life is good
rev

ouch!

OUCH. BIG. TIME. last night i got stung by a bee. or a wasp. or a wasp dressed as a bee. or a bee being a sneaky wasp. anyway, Arjan was having fun at Dance Valley with our friend Patrick, and i was about to get the kids to bed. later on i had a birthdayparty to go to and Grandma was going to babysit. so Sanne, Ruben and i head upstairs. they were walking in front of me on the stairs, BAREFOOTED. i was also. they passed him. or her. but the tiny little bugger was probably ass & sting lying up WAITING to catch a nice sweet bare foot! and BANG i stood on him. or her. and it HURTED like hell. UNDERNEATH my foot, where there's no hard skin. he really hit the jackpot.

i seriously thought i stepped into a needle and it went up my foot, in my leg and ended in my head. com'on! are you kidding me? some not-to-nice-words came out of my mouth and Sanne & Ruben were standing there, watching me jump up and down. and than i saw the sucker. still shaking his sting at me. on the ground. i got a paper towel from the bathroom. picked the basterd up and put it in the toilet. and than i had to pee. seriously. so like a real lady i peed on the bee. f him. or her. and it felt like sweet revenge. but it still hurted like hell.

i got Ruben into bed and he remarkably listened so well to me. usually he runs & hides, but now he walked with me, got into his bed and was okay with no story this time. just a hug & kiss and he was good to go to dreamland. Sanne on the other hand thought it was cool. got her 'insect-kit' to take a real good look with her magnifying glass. i called grandma and she told me there was nothing to do about. nice. i called one of our friends who live across the street and he came with some kind of pump to pump the poison out. but it was too late already. the poison was nicely finding a home in my feet. and they were having a PARTY.

i did went to the birthdayparty and Malibu is a nice distracter of pain.... i had trouble falling asleep at night though. after so many hours it still was stinging & hurting and it's hard to try NOT to focus on it. geesh, i sound like i broke all my bones in my body but i seriously didn't know it hurted that much. but i got to pee on the sucker!

what a fun weekend this was.

on the brighter side: have been working on the fabulous August kit from Scrap-Club and it's such a fun & bright one, you so do not want to miss this one. sneaks:

so gotta keep this little brain of me distracted. get some coffee and scrap the night away.
life is good. pee on bees. and wasps.
rev

meet Luke

the boy in the dinosaur suit

grrrr his cute spikes

i don't have the special amigurumi 'eyes' yet, but brads will do :D. and still have to buy some skincolored whool, but white will do for now.

bought this pattern at this fabulous etsy shop.

today Sanne has her little 'speach' from the teacher. her last few days in kindergarten. next year she's in it for real! and Ruben will go to preschool also at the end of August so i'll be home alone for 2 mornings. boohoo. or: RELAXED. ha.

Ruben is having fun in my scraproom right now with the boxes of brads, eyelets and stuff. i'm okay with it. clean up can wait :D. so mommy can scrap some more. planning on a few cute mini-albums and maybe i even throw in an online workhop or 2. vacation is getting closer. what are you planning? we'll be going to Italy!

life is good
rev

my sweet little girl turns 6 today!

(lyrics of one of the best Dutch artist about 'daughters'). sorry for the non-dutchies... no time to translate. but click on the link below. i warn you & believe me, you'll cry if you hear it...even if you don't speak Dutch...

dochters (daughters)

Kwart over zeven op zondagmorgen
Hoor ik een stem die heel zachtjes aan me vraagt
Ben je al wakker pap?
Kom je gezellig mee naar beneden?
Moet je straks werken of ben je vrij vandaag?
En ga je dan even met mij op stap?

Ooooh wat gaat de tijd toch snel
Gisteren nog zag ik haar voor het eerst
Lag ze hier in m’n armen
Wat is ze mooi
En wat staat de tijd haar goed
Ik knipper m’n ogen en zie hoe ze steeds
Weer een beetje veranderd is
Maar hoe groot ze ook mag zijn
In mijn ogen blijft ze altijd klein

Kwart over zeven op zondagmorgen
Hoor ik de voordeur heel zachtjes open gaan
En val ik gerust in slaap
Ze is thuis
Ik was 'r veel liever op gaan halen
Maar ze had me gevraagd of ik er niet wilde gaan staan
Ze vindt nu inmiddels haar weg naar huis

En oooh wat gaat de tijd toch snel
Gisteren nog zag ik haar voor het eerst
Lag ze hier in m’n armen
Wat is ze mooi
Wat staat de tijd haar goed
Ik knipper m’n ogen en zie hoe ze steeds
Weer een beetje veranderd is
Maar hoe groot ze ook mag zijn
In mijn ogen blijft ze altijd klein

En soms ..
Wanneer ik m’n ogen sluit
Lopen we samen op het strand
Haar handje in de mijne
En dan ..
Zet ze de tijd even stil
Is het weer even net als toen
En heeft ze mij weer nodig
Ik hou haar vast
Zoals ze was
Ik hou haar vast

Kwart over zeven op zondagmorgen
Hoort ze mijn stem die haar zachtjes wakker maakt
Vandaag is je grote dag

Wat is ze mooi
En wat staat de tijd haar goed
Ik knipper m’n ogen en zie hoe haar hart
Nu voorgoed van een ander is
Maar waar ze ook mag zijn
In gedachte is ze hier bij mij
In mijn ogen blijft ze altijd klein

Sanne turns 6 today!! happy birthday sweet sweet sweet girl!
mommy

new word.

well hello. how's your weather?? here it has been gorgeous. beyond gorgeous. summer is hitting of really good. like she's telling us hey look at me, i can do this!...

new word is up over at the best challenge blog there is and it's Gigi's choice. gotta love her. she's so dang creative i want to be her! anyway. her word was JOY and here's my take:

keeping it simple. "the stuff that brings me JOY". finally figured out how to print text from Photoshop Elements, hurray. dork. i know. created with the Studio Calico June Kit.

today it's gonna be like 30 degrees or something. bare with me. i do best at 25 degrees. tops. but i'll hang low with the dude & dudette. bought him & her a watergun and we had lots and lots of fun yesterday. or better THEY had lots of fun. mommy had to hideout for the monsters. but i'm loving that. two hysterically crazy laughing kids THINKING they can get mommy. WRONG. i'm as fast as lightening peeps. really.

but today i'll hang low. and crochet. next amigurumi is Luke the dinosaur.
life is good
rev