Day #30: What's in my purse...

I thought maybe, just maybe you were kind of curious what I carry around in my purse... LOL. Well I can tell you it is nothing special :) Here ya go: Shewing gum, a new pack of cigarettes, my drivers' license (wich of course I sometimes forget when taking another purse and forget to put it in there, oops), 'supradyn' vitamin drink tablets, my bank-card, 'rituals' hand cream (love that stuff), paracetamol (like ibuprofen), tissues, some change, 'rituals' eve's kiss lipgloss (there you go again, no day without 'rituals'), rouge blush + brush and two hairpins...

So that's all...and well most of the times I also carry my camera in my purse, but as you can see I had to take a photo with it! LOL

Only one more day till January is over and well I had a blast this past month. I never expected I would keep up as good as I did and only missed posting one day...well ok, two if you count in the day when blogger was down. I do however kind of neglected my own scrap blog, because of this! LOL, but will try to get back to that too! But yeah I'm kind of proud at myself and well also of all those ladies out here who kept up. You all rock and so loving all those sweet comments. I'm such a blog lover and well love to see what's going on in your life's and the ideas for photos you come up with. It's really inspiring! So bring on february, cause I'm ready!

Just a little note... I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to blog tomorrow. I'm going out to dinner with my two colleagues to a fancy 3 star restaurant/castle, with a 5 course diner. We got this as a present when one of our 'special' kids left daycare, since she turned four (will tell you more about Roos tomorrow). Anyway I though it would be fun to make a photo of me and my colleagues at the restaurant and will probably be home late. So we'll see...I'll either blog when I get home or the next day in the morning! :)

Day #29: Spring??

Well it's still too far away and can' t hardly wait... I need the sun and blooming flowers! I went to this parc today and well it had the saddest look! The sky was kind of greyish with the sun hiding behind the clouds and it kind of gave me the chills. No one was there and felt soo lonely!! This was my first time in the particular parc and I don't think I'm ever going back there... Took some photos of the scenery around there, but not even going to show you. Put my camera back in my bag and left as soon as I could! LOL

When I came home I noticed this grass, half covered with ice and some parts were already defrosting. So here's my photo for today... Love how this turned out!

So now I'm off and going to think of an idea for week 5 and 6... see you tomorrow! :)

Day #28: Point & shoot...

Well first of all... I missed posting a day!!! Can you believe that... I kept up so well, but knew this was going to happen one day! LOL Last night I had indoor soccer practice and well I came home around 11.00 PM and just didn't feel like turning on the pc and post my photo. So here I am... it's now 10.36 AM, day 29 and woke up 30 mins ago. So make sure to check back later today for my photo for day #29! :)

Now on to my day #28th photo... Last weekend I ordered a fun new gadget for my camera. It' s a tiny remote control and had so much fun playing with it last night at my parents' house. I think the remote has a reach of like 200 meters...and it works on infra-red. Right next to my lens there's the infra-red spot on my camera. Here's a photo of me trying it out and well just wanted to show you my new fun gadget! :)

Isn't it fun?? :)

Well see you guys later today... Hugs!

Day #27: A little cutie...

So today one of my colleagues had a meeting with the works council wich she is in, so I worked for her... Her little girl Anouk came to our group today and she's really such a little cutie. She usually goes to another group, but had they too many small kids and the colleague from that group had to work with a substitude and so we got to enjoy Anouk's little smile and babbling today... here she is...

I told my colleague yesterday Anouk was going to be my photo for today.... Wanted to process it, but kind of in a hurry! Gotta go change and head to softball practice before I'm too late... again!! LOL So will be back later on to leave some lovin' around the '365 world' and maybe I'll play around with the photo too! Hugs!

Day #26: skyline...

When I got home from work at 5.15 PM the sky was truly beautiful and just knew that was going to be my photo for today! It was one of the first days since months, it was still a little light out side and you can clearly see that spring is coming closer... Finally! I so love spring and seeing all those flowers pop out of th earth... So when I got home I took my tripod and camera to the balcony and used a long shuttertime. I love how awsome this photo turned out...

As you can see the skyline was seperated with these different colors...the bottom layer was green-yellowish with a couple of dark blue stripes/clouds, then soft and warm orange... Then a small stroke of light blue and dark blue and purple at the top, I loved it!

Day #25: An old book...

Ok we were supposed to go outside today and go for a long fresh walk. But we both didn't feel like going out and so we decided to go clean the house. We're looking to buy our first house in the next couple of months and well we've got a LOT of stuff! And well to be honest a lot of that stuff just need to be tossed out! There are a lot of pretty and useful things, that I just don't wanna keep anymore like: electronic things, books, crockery's, films, computer stuff, games and lots more...So we decided to go this flea market in Febr. and try to sell some of that stuff.  What's not going to be sold, we're just going to throw away :)

When cleaning out the big built-in-closet Abdel found a stash of coloring books and wanted to toss those in the garbage... He asked me to hold the garbage bag open en then this book fell out of the pile and I'm soooo glad it did!

This book is so special to me and it was the first ever book my mom read to me. I always loved this book, but it's kind of beginning to fall apart. I don't know why but I'm getting a little teary eyed here...it's just so special and what would've happened when it didn't fell out of that pile!  Just don't wanna think about that right now, but I'm so glad it did!

Here are two pages from the book...it's filled with all these cute little verses and rhymes and one day I'm going to be reading this to our little ones...

here's what is says on the left page....(although it does rhyme in dutch..LOL)

Bye car

Hi daddy on the stairs  -  I can hear you  - step, step

A little kissy  -  sting-sting (from his beard)  -  de biggest one is me

 

Thanks for stopping by and off to leave some sweet Sunday lovin'

Day #24: Today I got a new...

Ok let me tell you the story first... Last night my dad called and said he had a suprise for me...then he asked if my guy was home and passed the phone. While I was finishing diner I heard them talking and my guy said stuff like: "wow that's is so right", " yeah it needs to be replaced", "that's awsome" and more things like that... Honestly I don't like surprises if I know it's going to happen, they DO keep me up all night! LOL... So I asked, and asked and asked again untill he gave in...Since my parents are making a new bathroom he told me that my dad asked if we want to have the old shower cabinet...since I just love that thing! He needed to measure the thing we have, to make sure it would fit... So you think that's it, right?? Well not...my guy still had this sneaky expression on his face, but he said it was nothing! So I just gave up and let it rest!

So this afternoon I went over to my parents and pretended like Abdel didn't told me anything... My dad said they needed to work on it, and that it would come soon...what?? it's in the house already, isn't it?? Well my guy made the whole thing up!!! So when he went outside last night to go to his parents, he called my dad and told him what he told me...well you can guess they laughed!! And I didn't knew a thing... You know I'm just a curious person and don't like to be out of the know... KWIM??

So around 4 Pm after a few phone calls...wich I thought were with my brother...were phone calls with my guy! My dad told me to come outside and there was nothing...but then around the corner of the street came my guy in MY NEW CAR!!!! Yeah I got a new car!!! It's not new, (10 yrs. old) but to me it is new and I love it!!!

So here's my new  dark green 'Kia pride'. My old car was about to die and well my dad owns a garage... So after my dad did a full winter check-up on my old car, he told me I needed to go look for another one, since it was in bad condition...he also said he would keep an eye open to anything that people traded in for a new car. My parents told me that I needed to buy the next car myself!  I've had 3 cars in the 7 years I've got my drivers license and never bought one of them. I always got them from my dad. ! My guy thought we needed to buy this one, since that was what my parents said...Well guess not, I just got it! Isn't that sweet?? I love it and I thought my old car was fast...this one is even FASTER!! Yeah I kind of always speed, runs in the family... LOL. That's what you get when your dad owns a garage and races cars, LOL! It's in my blood.

So mom and dad, THANKS sooo much...I'm so happy with new car! And really can't say thank you enough!! Love you! :)

Oh yeah, one more funny thing... While I was at my parents house waiting on my guy to finally come over, wich kept waaay too long btw! He kind of messed up a bit... LOL. He went to the garage to put my stuff from my old car and my own radio in the new one. There were 3 Kia pride's there and one was standing inside the garage! So put the radio in there and had all my stuff too... Then he drove to my parents house ... my dad went outside with a lame excuse to check it out...Guess what?? That was the WRONG car!!! LMAO!!!! So he needed to get back to the garage, take out the radio and my stuff and put it in my NEW car(wich was standing outside the garage)! The funniest part is that none of the employees of the garage noticed and just let him drive of with that other car!!! That was really too funny!!! :) :):):):):)

Day #23: reading....

Mmmm not my kind of thing! I do however like to read one thing and can't wait till it falls in our mailbox on Tuesday. Well look wich hottie I found in the mailbox this week... Yeah Brad Pitt!! Although I do have to say, he's getting older and you can clearly see that from this cover :(  I like our weekly TV guide/magazine. I love to read what's going on with some of the stars and well I like the comics too. I always used to read my horoscope too, but well they're always wrong, so I decided not to look anymore...and also if it was true, I wouldn't wanna read what's going to happen that week! LOL Do you?? hihi

Well I'm still not feeling to good, so stayed home from work... To get some extra rest and make sure I'm back in business on Monday! xo

Day #22: Apple pie

So after Biancka made me long for apple pie and then when Janet from 'As you wish' designs at SPD made this cute new kit... I just gave in and made this yummy crumble apple pie today! I turned out great and can't wait to try a piece... With fresh made whipped cream! No that wasn't me who ate a piece of this pie... This afternoon my SIL asked me to babysit her oldest and youngest for an hour, since she had to take the middle one to the dr. And so I brought her a piece...she just called me and said she looooved it! :)

Then since you haven't seen any people on here except me of course, I got another photo for you today! This is Dina, our little niece... she's 8 months old and the cutest!! With other people around her she's always timid and only wants her mom, except when I'm around! She starts laughing and 'talking' to me as soon as she sees me :) Yeah I don't know why I seem to have that kind of effect on little children...that's also one of the 100 reasons why I decided to work with kids!  I just love em and can't wait to have my own some day...wish I hope will be soonish! :) So enough said!!! Here she is...

Day #21: Not leaving the house without....

Some make-up on...especially the last few days! LOL   I don't wear a whole lot of make-up though,...just: mascara, eyebrow pencil and some bronzing powder. I always use Maybelline's volume express- lift up mascara. The eyebrow pencil from lancome is waterproof and was way too expensive, but well...I just have to wear some since the hairs over there are very light, yeah got that from my mom! hihi. At Christmas she told me I could have my eyebrows tattood on her costs, so sweet...So I need to make an appointment for that! These bronzing pearls are the best and well not too shiny, I love 'em!

Day #20: grocery's

So today I HAD to get out to get some small grocery's, since we didn't got those on the weekend. So I just got a couple of things we needed or were on sale. At this grocery store they're having some sort of promotion weeks and 100 products are only 1 euro..... here's what I got; apples-raisins- butter-mix to make an apple pie (your fault Biancka, been longing for apple pie ever since you made it! LOL), fresh parsley & leave celery(??)- onions- pasta (for diner), milk, paracetamol (like ibuprofen kind of), dark chocolate sprinkles to put on bread(called vlokken), lemonade syrop, deodorant, custard cakes & spreadable cream cheese...

Still sick so didn't feel like getting a whole lot, since we live in an apartment on the third floor...Mmm without elevator! So I'm taking my guy on saturday so he can do the hard work! LOL

Day #19: Fast food!

Ok I'm still sick, but did went to work since my coleague was off today and just couldn't leave 'my kids' with a substitude teacher today... So I went, but I can tell you I'm totally pooped right now! So when my guy called on his way home he asked me what to get for diner...FAT, uhmmm fast food! LOL.. he went to the snackbar and got me this>>> Fries with mayonaise & hot peanut sauce and a cheese soufle and frikandel (chicken kind of long sausage, LOL) on the side. It was good and so glad I didn't have to cook... Tomorrow I'm going to try to cook some healthy food to make up for tonight! LOL

Day #18: a sweet gift!

Last week one of our kids from daycare left us and as a little goodbye gift we got these hyacinths in a cute basket... I really love flowers and especially the smell of these ones are wonderful. When I was watering them the water drops slowly slided down the young leaves...I so can't wait for these to start flowering!! I'm still in the flu mode and well looking at these kind of brought a little smile to my face!

Then I got this cute little award from both Sarah & Kelly.. Thanks girls and so glad you're loving my blog and my project 365. It has been so much fun so far and love visiting all your lovely blogs and have seen tons of amazing, inspiring photos these three weeks, you ALL rock! So here goes...

We need to list 5 things we are addicted to....

1. My canon EOS 400D

2. my guy of course, although he needs to bring home flowers more often! LOL

3. My new Dell PC, it's so freakin fast!

4. a shower in the morning, great way to wake up and start a beautiful new day! Except they aren't that beautiful the last couple of flu days...LOL

5. yeah sadly my cigarettes! WTG for trying to quit Kelly, you're going to be my hero!!! :)

Now Five people that receive this award from me, are...

1. Biancka, simply because she is such a sweet friend and her macro photography rocks, well all her photos are awsome! And because she's going to make me her fav. brownies one day! LOL

2. Annie, as in Annie Manning...ladies have you seen her stunning photos??? and the way she process them is truly an amazing job. Everytime she has me in total awe! She's got one beautiful family too! :)

3. Anne C, she's such a sweetheart and her photos are always so colorful. She has two of the cutest boys and always knows how to capture those sweet smiles on their faces!

4. Photos by DJ, (sorry hun forgot your name) her photos are truly awsome and love the way she thinks when photographing any subject.

5. JanMary, of course I won't forget you!!! we're kind of blogging buddies and we go waaay back! LOL. I always love to read her blog and her photos are always beautiful and perfect and well she's just a sweetheart too!!

So girls, go spread the love... going to relax and watch tv for a bit, since my battery is getting kind of low here, it sucks being sick.  In a bit I'm going to be leaving lots of lovin'  xo

Day #17: Music!

Ok people I just love music and can't go a day without!! I love a lot of different kinds of music. From UB40, Beyonce, Dutch music, Stevie wonder, Mary J Blidge, Tustin Timberlake, Celine Dion!!!!, Bob Marley, Arabic music (yeah my guy is moroccan and he infected me!), The Eagles, Lauren Hill, U2, Alicia Keys to Supertramp...Really and there is tons more!! I think we collected over 300 CD's from just single artists or groups and well I love them all! I always turn up the volume a little more when I'm; driving my car, under the shower or cleaning the house...  Here's just a tiny stash of our collection!

I also have to admit I love to sing... Ok don't tell anyone I said that, let me just sing a little course for ya... JK! No really those places where I turn my music up a little louder, that's where I sing! Especially in the car. I don't think I'm really good at it, well not too bad either, but I don't see myself audition for one of those populair watched tv shows...no way! I'm too chicken for that. My 4th grade teacher always told my mom I needed to take singing lessons and well I just didn't want to! If only I did, I may have turned out to be a ...never mind, keep on dreaming! LOL.

I did once (ok twice, keep reading!) sing at my aunts wedding, uhm yeah when the happy married couple already left. LOL I sang 'pour que tu m'aime encore' by Celine Dion...My mom keeps begging every time there's this special occasion to sing that song again, but well like I said, I'm a chicken!!! LOL... Then I sang one time with one of my older cousins from the states, during his parents' 25th (?) wedding anniversary and boy did we amazed everybody and they loved it...aaah those days! :)

Oh BTW, Biancka did you send those nasty flu germs my way??? Cause I'm caught with the flu too and I can tell you it sucks and I feel like total cr**!! :(

Day #16: Addicted...

to...chocolate milk! Yeah I gotta have one little pack a day! On work days I always drink one pack while driving to work and man is it good! But I don't drink every brand...no B-brand, no whole chocolate milk...just my favorite 'chocomel light'  by  'frieslandfoods'!!! :)

 

It's sooooo good!!! My guy always says it's not good for me, but it's light right?? LOL The only time I don't drink one is when I'm out of these little packs, but that happens like only once in 3 months or so! :) So there you go another thing I'm addicted too!

FYI, I'm not a brand kind of lady, but I guess our parents' spoiled us a little...Like I only eat 'Calve' peanut butter and only bread from the backery and not from any other food store! LOL

Day #15: A little lazy!!

Well sometimes, but especially when it comes to cleaning the house and folding the laundry. So another confession this week and well another one I'm not really proud at! LOL I'm just going to say I'm not made for these things! LOL I had the idea to let this week be all about me, but I can say it's kind of hard. I could have made a photo from my hands, but then you would see I'm a nail-biter LOL! I could've made a photo from my living room, but then you would see the piles of bills that came in this week! So I'm just going to show you this pile of laundry that needs to be folded...and well didn't showed you the whole pile and just a little piece of it! LOL In this pile you'll find tons of Bjorn Borg boxers (my guy loves them!), towels, socks, shirts, jeans & more. But I told myself I'm going to fold this tonight while watching tv!!

I do have to say I love to wash my clothes...that sounds a little silly doesn't it, LOL. Well ok I don't like the part of washing, but the part when they come out of the dryer and they smell soooo good! I love just my fabric softner!! LOL

Day #14: A BAD habit!!!

I admit it, I smoke!! I would love to quit, but right now it doesn't feel good yet. I tried quitting before, but it didn't work. Like this summer: we went to the USA with my parents, my brother and his GF. We were all suposed to quit, but only my mom, Kiki (my brothers' GF) and my dad managed to quit this nasty habit! And I'm still so proud at my dad. Well we also tried, cause my guy also smokes and so does my lil brother...but my little brother and I well...we just kept having words and these small fights and it was mainly because of him. I couldn't do or say anything right and so we both gave up...for now that is, LOL. My dad used to smoke a lot and quit without any help like patches, gum, or anything else. Seems like there was one thing during our vacation that I said, what switched a button in my dads' head and he just quit! So on Sunday after he said that for the 10th time or so, I asked him: so when are you going to me that favour I did for you... LOL. He said: I know you can do it, and you'll feel it when the time is there!!! So I'm just going to wait till that one day when my brain says...THIS is THE day! And to be honest I hope it comes soon, cause it would save us a lot of money So when will that light in my head pop up and tell me it's time. I can tell you we're going to quit this year, but when...we'll see!

Day #13: Rituals

Ok I looked all over the internet to find a rituals store in the USA, but I can't...I did found them in Germany, England, Belgium, Spain and some other european countries... But rituals, you probably have no clue what I'm talking about, do you?...LOL

Ok there's this brand called Rituals, they make inspiring products for the care of your body and home. This is what they say:

'Happiness can be found in the smallest of things: it begins with feeling good about yourself, savouring the intensity of ordinary things. It is our passion to transform everyday routines into more meaningful rituals. Just by taking the time to enjoy a warm bath, a cup of tea or relaxing massage: special becomes truly special again.' 

Each product is based on a ritual. I love their 'refreshing rituals', especially the 'hammam' line. The ancient Hammam ritual is based on the tradition of cleansing your body. For centuries, the bathhouse or hammam has been an important part of Asian culture. Originating from Turkey, this ritual steam bath takes you on a mysterious, relaxing 'journey of warmth' through both body and mind. Let's begin the mysterious ritual.

The 'hammam olive secret' is an ultra moisturizing shower paste, including natures purest oil, olive oil and a hint of eucalyptus. The 'hammam delight'  foaming shower gel sensation, with the aromatic and revitalizing properties of refreshing Eucalyptus & Rosemary, gives you the expierence of a hammam bath at home!

Really these products are a part of my everyday ritual, taking a shower! I never leave the house with taking a shower! :) I love the smell, the foam and the delight of taking a shower! These products are really the best, they truly soften my skin and I love just it! :)

Day #12: Got milk??

Uhm yeah I do and really to be honest I can't life without it! LOL With every breakfast, lunch or diner I just gotta have a glass of this yummy white drink! :) But if I can choose it would be fresh 0% fat milk and must be served cold! :) But it's hard to find good milk when we're on vacation or something... Like in Morocco they do have milk wich you can buy in this little plastic bag and can only keep it for like 2 days. My FIL always went to get this for me every morning! And it is a little fat, but better then no milk at all, right? LOL

I just love it!!!

Day #11: All about me!

So we survived week 1 & 2 and now we're on to week 3. This week I had the idea to let this week be all about me, my habits, my rituals, my things...well just me! So today's photo goes perfect with my theme... Yup that's me and my sweet camera, the Canon EOS 400D (aka the rebel XTi) I love it and have had for like 1,5 years now... I know this thing from the inside out and well something in me says it's time to move on to a bigger and better one! LOL But well my photography dreams are kind of expensive and well just can't affort that right now! :) I do save up and have bought some great lenses and other stuff to go with it. here's what I've got: the battery grip, the kit lens 18-55mm, a 50mm steady lens, a 55-200mm lens, a 70-300mm macro lens and of course the 340EX external flash and then I have some smaller things along the side...

So there's one thing about me & my camera...what will my subject for tomorrow be?? :)

Day #10: Ice-skating!

Well this afternoon I went ice-skating with my little brother Melvin, our cousin Robin and one of his little friends. It was fun, but man was it cold! It's been like 4 years since I last went ice-skating with Melvin. We used to be very good on our ice-hockey skates, so we challenged eachother to see what we still could do. Man is that guy fast! LOL, it was fun... Here are the boys :) f.l.t.r: Patrick, Robin, Melvin... The quality isn't as good as with my DLSR, cause I took my dads' Sony compact camera since I didn't want to carry that heavy thing with me all the time! :) But loved how it turned out...the only thing that is bothering me is the date on there...LOL, but well as you can see I didn't cheated! :)

Day #9: Look at those trees!

Well last night I forgot to set my alarmclock for this morning, but luckily my guy had to get up early too. So as I was rushing to work this morning it was still dark. When my colleagues arrived an hour later then me she asked if I had already taken a photo and looked outside.. Uhm no I didn't, my morning was so weird and rushed. I told her about this project and well she so not into photography as I am, but...she ordered me to go outside and take some photos. This was a sight I didn't expected. It had snowed lightly last night and it was still freezing.... The trees & bracnhes were covered with this thin layer of white iced powder and looked amazing. With the sun coming through slowly they had this pretty orange glow! This photo didn't really turned out how I wanted it to, but it will do :) Next time I'll make sure to put my tripod holder back in the bag after I used it! LOL

Day #8: Something antique

Ok today I've got something special to show you ladies... When I was little I loved to sit at this little bench/stool at our grandparents house', that stood right next to the fireplace.... When they both passed away we needed to clean the house. I got to pick out some stuff I really wanted to have from them....There were two things; a stuffed animal my grandma always kept and this little bench. I love the old look of this and it's standing right next to my heating system. So when I'm cold I love to sit on it, get warm & comfy and think back to those good old days!

As you can see it's really old and I'm so careful with it, the seat is already a little loose. I'd rather not let anyone sit on it and just let is stand there. I'm just too scared it's going to break, cause I want to keep this thing forever!

Day #7: We had snow!!

Ok here we go...it magically fixed itself after a good night sleep!!!!

Oh yes we did, when I was waking up my guy came back in the room since he was about to leave for work. Telling I might needed to get out the door a little earlier, since evrything was white! Well I did and I knew I had a long day at work...First work till 6PM, then had a work metting till 9PM... So what to do, this snow wasn't going to last all day!!! So after we ate fruit with the kids at daycare we dressed them warm and went outside for a bit.... I asked them to pose for me this way, since it's not legal for me to post their faces on my blog. So that's why they're turned away from me. I do love how this turned out though and I can say we had a blast in the snow! Oh yeah I was right about the snow...at 3PM it was all gone :( So I think this will be my only snow photo till at least November... Well you never know of course!

Well I really have to go to bed, cause I'm totally exhausted. I will be leaving lots of loving in the morning since it's my day off tomorrow! see ya then! Hugs!

Day #7: Has to wait!!

Really I'm sad!!! I did made a photo today, but somehow I can't post images right now. I usually blog in live writer, but keep getting this error. I also tried here in blogger, but that didn't work either. Then I uploaded my photo and my week one page (wich I know you want to see!! LOL), but those turned out HUGE...I had this problem on my scrapping blog before and hope it can fix it tomorrow. I know how, but the place I have to fix it in isn't working either... So I was kind of hoping that other people have the same problem and that it's a world wide web thing...let's hope so! I've got my day off tomorrow, so all the time to fix this thing, but hope it will fix itself, how great would that be?? :) Well we'll see in the morning, but really gotta go get some sleep now..I'm exhausted!

:( even my new header won't show up!!!! I'm gonna crawl under my blanket and cry!!

Day #6: A walk in the parc

Right behind our house we have this beautiful nature parc, with a huge lake... Today I went out there to find the perfect photo for day #6. Last night we had frost and well it was bad! It had been -15 degrees or less all around our little country. When I got to the parc the only thing frosted I saw was the frosted grass and this little pool where kids were ice-skating. I was about to go home when I found this...

I didn't notice these untill I got a little closer to the water to make a photo of these swans. The big lake has these sharp edges and they're kind of...Mmm not sure how to explain. Well just see for yourself :) Since it's not dead (stagnant) water, the water bangs against the edges. And probably because it's still freezing they made this beautiful icicles. All the edges of the lake were covered with this.

Day #5: She's back!!

My colleague Lista that is...after a 4,5 month maternity leave. I'm so glad she's back, cause I just missed her!! Well today at daycare some of the kids needed to get used to her being there again. Some of them even tried her out to see what she would do... This is what happened with one of our 2 yr. old girls. Isabella was sitting at my colleagues' table during lunch. Lista was amazed by how fast she was eating her bread! Well when I was putting the kids in bed and Lista started cleaning the tables, I hard her saying: OMG and she started laughing. This is what she found behind the bench... Isabella ate 4 slices of bread... uhm yeah excluding the bread-crusts!!! The kids always need to eat the crusts before they're getting another slice of bread... well this time she ate a lot, since she usually just eats 2...Well she tricked us and sneaky threw her crusts behind the bench. Lista and I both had to laugh and we'll keep an eye on her the next we're eating lunch!! LOL. I just had to take a photo and knew this was going to be my photo for today! :)

Day #4: Winter characters

As I was taking down our Christmas tree...(uhm yeah i know a little late! LOL) I was about to put away my two fav. winter characters. I bought these two years ago at a christmas fair. I love their cute faces and when thinking of it, why not let them stay  were they are for a bit longer.

It's still winter, isn't it??

On a side note: I'm really loving this project so far. Already 1200 visitors came by my blog and love all your sweet comments. Thanks so much, love ya!!!

Day #3: cupcakes

So today our Moroccan neighbours are having a baby party for their little baby boy Ihab, born November 27th. Family & friends are coming and I've been helping her out with diner & sweets this morning. She asked me to make cupcakes for her and so I did! :) When a baby is born here in the netherlands (aka Holland, LOL) visitors get ' beschuit met muisjes'  (biscuits with little mouse -Wikipedia). Blue 'muisjes' when it's a boy and pink when it's a girl. I decorated these cupcakes with chocolate , used white chocolate & colored it with a blue icing color I got in the USA last summer (love that stuff!) Then I dipped them in the 'muisjes'  Aren't these cute? :) Well gotta go take a shower and get back to my neighbour to help her out and put on my Moroccan party dress!

Day #2: The Greatest tree

Christmas tree I mean... It's 375 meters high and on a clear night you can see it from as far as 40 km.  And here it is, standing in my hometown IJsselstein! This “tree” is, as you can see, not a typical christmas tree like the one you would place inside or around your home. This tree is in fact a communication station, 375 meters tall. From this tower the signals for television and radio are transmitted in order to reach 16 million people in The Netherlands. Every year this transmitting station gets turned into the greatest Christmas tree in the world. In 1992 the tree was lit for the first time.

On a side note: I had to take photos of this tree tonight as the lights are on for only three weeks. I wasn't sure when they're turning them off, but I'm sure it is this week. I just didn't want to miss this. I brought my tripod and had a F22 shutter time. I love how this turned out and how the lights are really sparkling!

Day #1: Happy new year!!!!

What better way to start and ring in the new year with fireworks! Last year I attempted to make photos of the fireworks, but well I think of all the 100 photos I took, there were only a few I really loved. So this year I was prepared!! I brought my tripod, had my ISO on 1600 and had a long shutter time setup. Well it worked... this year I only took like 60, but there were over 40 that are really awsome. So you can imagine it was really hard to choose just one. I choose this one because I love the colors and the 'star' effect on this photo.