Liesbeth's World

Working on a little project

There is so much going on in and around my house, that when I got these Maya Road chipboard houses I decided to document the things that are happening at my place. I took photos of the "right now" during the month of November and printed them. I found an old L'il Davis album (where had that been all this time?! I still think it's too cute!) somewhere in a box and used that as a base.

I painted the houses with acryllic paint and used patterned papers for the roofs and behind the windows. This is what I've done so far:

Tomorrow evening revlie is coming over to scrap and I'm planning to work on this little album.

I'm happy to have found a place to stay for Nemo while we're on vacation. The animal hotel didn't want him, because our two other cats died of FIP. And most of the people I asked, were reluctant for the same reason, because they have cats of their own and don't want to risk them getting infected. And we even don't know if little Nemo HAS the virus - it is not detectable, unless the cat is actually getting sick. And then it's too late. But, Natasja offered to take care of him! Woohoo! That makes me a very very happy girl! Natasja it was so good to talk to you face to face - it had been WAY too long!

Have a fun evening everyone!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

INSANE...

that's the only word that comes to mind when I see this:

But after three hours of packing we got this:

... and that feels a LOT better! Every crate has a detailed list of its contents. Last time that helped a LOT when we had to go through the customs and I hope that this year will be no different!

I know I will sleep a lot better tonight now that this is off my list!

On another note: Dennis is doing well. The virus blockers are doing a tremendous job. No more fevers. The cough is still there, but it sounds better and Dennis is slowly feeling a bit more energetic too so that is good news. :) Thank God for virus blockers!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

We hit the jackpot...

or so it seems... The dr. just left. I called them this morning because I didn't trust the way Dennis was breathing. His cough sounds so painful. So the dr. came by this afternoon to listen to his lungs. He says that, although they don't do tests and cannot confirm, all symptoms point in the direction of the Swine Flu and he advised us to treat it as such since Dennis is in a "high risk group". He doesn't have pneumonia but the dr. prescribed a viral inhibitor which is supposed to prevent the virus from growing. I just gave him his first dosage, if all goes well the fever should be gone within 48 hours and he should feel a lot better. Besides the terrible coughing he doesn't feel too bad overall. Right now he's watching a dvd (Charlie's Angels II) but he has a really weird color on his face and is still shivering. He needs to drink a lot of fluids but his throat hurts so bad that he doesn't want to. ANY IDEAS?

I had to cancel his physical therapist and people who are vulnerable to flu/colds should stay away. Usually my neighbor comes over on Tuesday afternoons to scrap but she has asthma so we cancelled for today. Too much risk for her. During the bandage changes we are supposed to wear mouth masks but have you ever tried one of those? Killing, I tell ya.

Need to go. Just wanted to post a quick update.

Isolde & Petra: we're going to the US for FOUR long weeks!!! It seems like a very long time but I'm sure they'll fly by.

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

It's been a while...

I have so much going on right now... it's just not funny anymore! Time for a quick recap...

Last week Suzanne had her test week. She was ill all week but wanted to go nonetheless to make the tests since there were so many (10 throughout the week). So, she would wake up having a slight fever, we gave her soms meds to get the temp. down and off she went. She would make the tests and come home, crawl in bed or on the couch and started studying for the next day. I have no idea how she held up but she did. On Friday she was exhausted though and she slept a big part of the weekend. I hope that she did her tests well... although I'm not sure how well your brain functions when you're having the flu.

And during the weekend, Dennis started couching and not feeling well. Now he doesn't do "slight fevers"... he dives right in with temps of 104 and higher. But he's not sleepy/dopey or whatever. He's still playing at the computer so I think that's good. When they want to lie down and feel sorry for themselves, it's not good. But we have to keep a very close eye on him because I'm scared to death about the swine flu. If he gets it, I don't think his body will be able to manage. He's still sleeping right now, I figured that the rest would do him some good. Let's hope so!

I've been working on a new article for the next issue of Creatief met Foto's and in between layouts and cards I tought a workshop at the Scrapbookwinkel in Heesch. It was a workshop that was created by Moniek Jannink, but she is ill and will be out of the loop for some time. It was an honor to teach her project. Moniek - I hope you will recover soon!

I finished the article yesterday evening and sent everything out today. And now the countdown to our vacation has really begun. Four week minus two days and we're off!!! And my to do list is insanely long I don't even know where to begin! This saturday, our nurse Michelle and I will tackle ALL the necessary medical stuff. Counting, cutting, packing, etc. A lot of it is done already (little by little, over the past few weeks) but the real packing still needs to be done. So... saturday is the THE day!

A really fun thing that I have planned for our vacation is... a PHOTOSHOOT BY JACLYN & NATE KAISER!!! It's actually Corinne's fault that it has come to this... I'm soooooo looking forward to this! They're funky, cool, crazy... just like we are. I think the photos will be amazing... Check out their website and tell me what you think! I know at least one person who will be jealous of me... sorry Corinne...

And what is a blog post without a photo? It has nothing to do with this post, but it's just funny. Last week Janny and her son were here and he brought his laptop. And guess who thought that was a nice place to sit on? (nice and warm that is).

I totally love the look on his face - "is something wrong?"

I'm off. Dennis just called and he wants to get up. Which gives me a chance to clean his bathroom for the bandage change this afternoon. I need to prep the bandages as well so no time to loose!

Hugs to all

Liesbeth

I'm here...

I realize that I sound like a broken record, but I've been soooo busy! While Suzanne was on her hockey trip, I spent two days in the hospital with Dennis. His blood levels were so low he had to get 3 units of blood and because of the volume they add to your vains, there have to be several hours between each unit. So he had to spend the night there. I hurried home to call the nurses that were scheduled for the next morning. Both of them were able to come to the hospital and do the bandages over there, while the third unit of blood was going in. We were home somewhere in the afternoon and he has such an amazing skin color ever since! Woohaa! He says he doesn't feel the difference... yeah right! Instead of dozing off most of the afternoon, he now spends his time at the computer, playing games and doing home work. No difference, huh?

Suzanne came home from her trip with deep dark circles under her eyes (and she was not the only one):

Their last night, on the boat, there were drunk guys all over. They were guided by an adult to their sleeping cabin and were instructed to lock the door as soon as they were inside. Scary, huh? But it seems to be normal on a nightboat, that truck drivers don't sleep but just want to get loaded because it's tax free and cheap booze! Talk about fun...

Suzanne needed the weekend to recover... and then the stories and the photos were shared :D

About the basement - we had serious leakage:

This caused some serious delay and a lot of extra costs but it has been repaired by now and it feels a whole lot better. It smells better too, the smell of the ground water is almost gone and it was EVERYWHERE in my whole house! Tomorrow the last wall plastering will be done to cover up where the leaking was.

That needs to dry for a few days. Then next week the ceiling and the lighting will be installed, and  the week after that IT WILL BE FINISHED!!! We will ofcourse have to paint, put wallpaper on and etcetera but I don't care! Since we're going on vacation in 5 weeks I don't think we will have it all done before we go, but I don't care about that either. It just feels good that it's finally finished! More photos in the next post - I promise!

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween. I LOVE Halloween. The pumpkins, the ghosts, the vampires, the candles, the spiders, the everything. Did I mention I love Halloween? On Friday, we started with carving our pumpkins:

This is my garden:

And this is me:

Thanks to my good friend Janny, who did my makeup again. The evening itself was a blast! Lots and lots of kids, lots and lots of candy to give away. And we were lucky with the weather! It was dry and the temperature was nice and today we had nothing but rain and wind - so we were REALLY lucky!

I've got lots of new photos to scrap and that always gives me inspiration!

Suzanne has a difficult and tiring week ahead of her, with nothing but tests for her first report card. She has been studying all day long and at the dinner table she told me that she had a terrible headache. Poor girl! She's now back upstairs to study for another hour and then we'll be watching "So you think you can dance" together. What are your plans for next week?!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

Hockey tournament in the UK

Suzanne left this afternoon for 5 whole days. She's off to England with 23 other girls and 7 adults to accompany the group. They will be the guests of three English colleges, where they will get lessons, have hockey practice and play matches. Suzanne LOVES the lessons part, as her English has improved so much these past few weeks. Of course there will be English food, a high tea, a youth hostel, and shopping. I doubt that there will be much sleep but hey that's what a vacation is for right?!

We started collecting her clothing and stuff that she needed to bring along yesterday and when she put it all on her bed, it seemed like a CRAZY amount of stuff. But when we arrived at the bus, I noticed that she wasn't the only one that brought a trunk with her:

All the girls got sponsored sweaters in a bright orange color. Look how cool they all look:

And here they are, inside the bus:

And off they went, to Rotterdam, where they will board the boat to Hull. She'll be back home Friday morning - exhausted I think. :)

The four of us that will be left behind snapped a quick photo for her (not that she will have ANY time on her hands to even begin missing us):

 

Dennis looks pale - it's time for blood again. We have an appointment in the hospital for next Thursday. I hope he will feel a bit better once he had the transfusion - he's REALLY tired right now.

A quick update about the basement: the concrete wall is made of poured concrete in several layers. Between layer 2 and 3 we have water coming in... Another financial misfortune... It feels like a never ending story. Tomorrow morning we have a special company coming in to take care of the leakage. Hopefully that will be the last of the misery... Hopefully we can get some of the money back through our insurance.

I'll update again later this week! Have a nice Sunday evening everyone!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

Photoshoot on the beach

I got the green light today for the photos that Revlie and I took two weekend ago. Six parents and six kids on the beach in Noordwijk. I must say - I surprised myself this time and I am my worst critic :)

Lookie here - is this guy gorgeous or what?! LOVE LOVE LOVE his hair, his freckles and his glasses:

The next one is one that is technically NOT correct since the whole sky is blown. But the expressions of the kids make it a favorite anyway:

And the last one, with the whole gang (definitely one of my favorites!!!):

I heard from Revlie that the parents and the kids liked all the photos so I am one happy camper!

Hope to be able to do a shoot like this soon!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth   

Hole in the... FLOOR!

My house is a mess right now due to lots of construction work. But hey - I'm not complaining! I'm glad that the action is going on around here! Last week, they finally made the hole in my floor where the entrance to the basement will be. The next day, the staircase was installed. All the walls have been plastered. The doors have been installed. The heating and electricity wires are in there. The next few weeks are needed to get the walls dry. There are two enormous drying machines doing their thing so the humidity in the house is getting better by the day.

We can now enter the basement by using a decent staircase instead of a hatch and a ladder (which scared the hell out of me because it was a small hole).

You will not believe the mess that was made by drilling the hole. There was dust and dirt EVERYWHERE, even in my hair. We've been camping upstairs for a few days. But it's all for a good cause, since we're really making good progress now.

It should all be done (and hopefully forgotten) in a few weeks.

And then we can go on to the decorating... defnitely more fun.

Hugs to all - Liesbeth

What have I been up to...

Last weekend I did a photoshoot on the beach with REVLIE. She was asked to do this for a few families (3 couples and six kids in total), and she asked me to help her. We had the kids running towards me while they held hands and I was lying in the sand snapping away. And look what Revlie did:

She took a picture of me lying there, while the kids checked out the pictures I took. Heehee... glamorous, right?!

I have made some GORGEOUS photos (even though I say so myself, ahem), but I don't know if I'm allowed to post them. If I get the OK for that, I'll show some of them later. These kids had fun while Rev and I chased them w/our cameras. Their parents dressed them in something purple and something jeans. They matched together perfectly. We were lucky with the weather because the sky was amazingly blue and the sun was shining. If all shoots would be like this, I think I want to be a professional photographer.

Liesbeth

FASCINATING PLACES - THE ALBUM

I created this for the KKD where I demonstrated Making Memories products (sept. 6/7). Today I finally found some time to take photos of the album. They're not too good because the weather was grey and dreary over here so bear with me. But I'm glad I can finally show it!

All supplies are from Making Memories. I used the Great Escape line for this project. There were gorgeous papers, cork and bamboo letters, and fun embellishments. I used both 8x8 inch and 12x12 inch papers.

The album came with 4 tab pages, 2 envelopes and several page protectors. I used most of it, and I also used some Making Memories packaging material, since the backs of the alphabets were really cute! Why waste it if you can use it?!

I sewed along the sides of ALL my photos (a lot of work!) - I really like that effect - it's just that little bit of extra. I combined handwritten and typed journaling. In the page protectors, I added coins and other stuff and sewed through and through to secure that.

On the cover, I used paint and a LEGO brick. The title is made from MM felt letters.

All the shapes are cut with the Slice. I had several cartridges to work with - for this album the International Travel one is the one I used the most. All shapes are cut from ColorCore cardstock, and are sanded to get the worn and aged effect.

OK - on to the photos:

WOW! That was a LOT! If you made it to the very end - YAY for you!

I'm really happy with this album - what do you girls think of it?!

Have a nice weekend! I have good stuff coming up - more tomorrow or the day after that!

Hugs to all - Liesbeth