Back home

Back home again from a week in France with my parents at their (vacation)house in Fouvent le Haut between Nancy and Dijon. The weather was not really great, but we had a lovely quiet week. I made lots of pictures, good time to practise my skills. Here some shots I like.

The back of the shed:

My mom
The boys playing soccer with grandpa on the 'cour':
Woodstove, which provided us with very welcome heath in the cold house (it has very thick walls, so it is always chilly and the only heating they have are 2 woodstoves, (they do stay there in the wintermonths, too cold and a bit depressive I think ).:
Taking a stroll around the little village:
Beautiful nature:


we wanted to take pictures in the gorgeous yellow coleseed fields (they extract oil from the seeds the fowers develop later in the season), so we took the car and Tristan (Camiel didn't want to join) found a nice field and did a shoot. We also found a woodpile which was great for a backdrop.

We use the timer for the one.
Last day we when for a hike in the neighbourhood

We found a property with old 'garbage' wher which was also cool for pictures.
Another one with the timer.

Back in the village.
A lot of reading, playing boardgames and Nintendo DS (Camiel) during the week. (I managed to do a little scrapping but I didn't had much inspiration there.)
And now where back and today everything went back in routine, school, work, daycare (and blogging :) )

Wednesday the new Dutch Dare sketch challenge goes live, come an join us if you like (we absolutely would ;) )

Another thing I like to write about is my 40th birthdayparty, Etienne threw me a (kind of) surprise party. It was so nice, I really enjoyed it. I will write more in my next post, now all I want to do is sleep.

Hugs,
Astrid

Almost 40

In 2 days I will turn 40, so I tought time to make a Lo about it. Made it with Joyland, Studio Calico kit. I misted the chipboard banners and also the stars and little heart.
Picture made by Camiel (I think he is really talented ;) you should see him walk around with my big SLR camera taking pictures of everything. I know a bit too expensive for a 5 yr old. But with strap around his neck and he is careful, I think next birthday it's time for his own camera)


Time flies when you're having fun :)

Hugs,
Astrid

More LO's

Here are a couple of LO's I made this week.

zacht: this picture was taken on our holiday on Mallorca (2006) after a reptileshow. Etienne loved holding the snake, he felt so soft he said ;) SO typical Etienne ;) I used a old Fancy Pants chipboard, feels good to finally use up some older stuff. I also used lots of twine (SC)


Laugh: Some crazy faces of Camiel and Xena during the photoshoot a blogged about last week.

I also made a LO about me being almost 40, will post that soon. Need to put the pictures on the laptop (and be at home :) ).

Thanks for coming by, feel free to leave me something, I will come to visit you too.

Almost vacation, yeahhh!!!
Hugs,
Astrid

present for grandma

My mother's birthday is may 4th we celebrated it on sunday the 2nd. Usually I let Camiel make something for her. This time I let Tristan join and decided that we made little book.
This the result. It was just fast and easy peasy made with some cardstock and jute thread and some misting.
Camiel made this iron beads sunset (with some help from us, I was a bit too much for his concentration level)
A liitle message and an evelope for the real present.
A fun card and a picture of us 4.
Paper punched by Camiel (and a little help of me, the lining up is a bit too hard) with my crown punch (he always want to use my punches) and some drawings of Camiel and Tristan.
More drawings
And a 'card'made by me.
On the back some pink misting, a fun card and some SC stamps.
And guess what she loved it :). They always treasure the things the kids make.

Hugs,
Astrid

Dutch Dare Freedom

The Dutch Dare for may 5th is about freedom. This day we celebrate the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945.

I made a LO about Tristan who wants to have his freedom and likes to explore the wide world on his own.

Take a look at the blog what the other girls made and who are the other 2 new designers. And feel free to join us!

PS Yesterday I gave Xena the LO I made with the pictures of our photoshoot (see this post) as a present for her birthday and she liked very much. I glued the LO on a canvas so it's easier to hang it on the wall.

Hugs,
Astrid

more layouts

Posting 2 days in a row, good huh ;)
I realised that I hadn't post these two LO's on my blog, so here they are.

Beppe Anna:
I made this 1 for The Color Room, a new challenge blog where the give you a color palette to use, click on this link for the colorpalette (#2) for this LO. Thid is a picture of my grandmother ('beppe', this is the frisian word, my mom's family comes from 'Friesland' in the north of Holland.) She died 11 years ago. I come across this picture, which they used for the funeral. She was a very sweet woman, I have really good memories on the time we stayes at their house. Because we lived so far away we always stayed for a couple of days.
I used the the lower diecut pape (BG) as a model to cut the upper paper (SC).

Ritueel (ritual):
Made the for a sketch challenge (again SC ;) ) I use a Cosmo Cricket cardstock (sanded) as background. Love these cardstocks. And as you can see I like my new crown punch (Martha Stewart), I use it on every LO lately ;) About he ritual we have with bedtime stories for Tristan.


Hugs,
Astrid

queensday

Yesterday we celebrated queensday, the weather could have been better, but in the afternoon it stopped raining, so it also could have been worse. We went to Delft in the afternoon, we were there last year and because we liked it we decided to go again this year. Camiel bought 2 boardgames on the 'fleamarket' where everybody can sell their old stuff on the street. We also went to the fair (kermis) which Camiel really likes. We did some rides and Camiel ate cotton candy. It was a nice day. How was your day?


And now about the scrapping stuff, I made 3 LO's, I can show you 2, because 1 is for the next Dutch Dares , don't forget to take a look the blog on next wednesday.

Bro's 4 life: I was happy to get this shot of the 2 monkey's kissing each other (will the hate me in about 10 yrs, or sooner??) They don't always get along that well, especially when they are playing. But they also enjoy each others company. A bit of a 'messy LO' I was just adding stuff to the page without really thinking, don't know if I like it a lot. But I do like the Studio Calico rubons, made it with the SC kit Joyland.


Supermodel:
A few weeks ago I did a spontaneous photoshoot with Xena a little girl from Camiel's class who also lives around the corner. I wanted to practise for my photography workshop and the boys are not really willing. But she was, it was so much fun, she was really posing like a model ;) and I really like the pictures I made. So I wanted to scrap them, this the most girly page a made in a long time. Her birthday is may 5th, so I think I give it to her as a present, maybe put it on a canvas so she can hang it in her room, hope she likes it.




Speaking about birthday's mine is in just a week (may 9th on motherday) and I will be turning 40, yikes I'm getting old, can't deny it anymore. Etienne is organizing a party for me, the only thing I know is: that it's not a home, lots of people are coming, there's food involved and I don't have to do anything (normally I'm the one running around when we have a birthdayparty at home). It will be next saturday, I'm looking forward to it. :) I have to think about what wear, maybe I have to do a little shopping ;) what do you think. May 4th is my mothers birthday and we will be celebrating it tomorrow, she will be 64.

The mayholiday has started here. No school for 2 weeks for Camiel. Next week will be working so he is going to the after school daycare, on monday, thursday and friday. Monday they will be going to the pettingfarm and friday to a playground. Hope they have nice weather, the forecast is not that great. The week after that we will be going to France to my parents house, together with my parents.

Hugs,
Astrid