Headache, a sore throat....

and sneezing .... oh, oh, I hope I don't have the swine flu ("Mexicaanse Griep")!!! I've taken some paracetamol, but it doesn't seem to do the trick. Better make this a quick post, walk the doggie real quick too and then off to bed!

Wanted to show you the layout I made for 52 sketches 52 weeks. Used photos from Manon's streetdance performance last year in the theatre in Rijswijk. We were so very proud of her!!! I love to dance myself and it's just great she loves it too (although tonight she told me she wants to quit dancing because she got accepted at a soccer club - and I hate soccer!! to be continued...)

Used my Pink Paislee stash, Bazzill, Prima bling/flowers, Autumn Leaves journaling stamps, AC Thickers, Maya Road sheer, LYB transparencies, posca & signo pens and some ribbon.

10,000 visitors and a give-away!!!

Wohoo!! This week I had my 10,000th visitor on my blog!!! I can't believe it!! When I started this blog I thought "why would anyone want to see or read what I create or write"...and now there have been over 10,000 visits!!! (I don't wanna know how many of these visitors have been ME!!)
This calls for a celebration!!! and this is what I have in mind: If you become a FOLLOWER of my blog (or if you already are a follower) and leave me a comment with this post you'll have a chance to win this little RAK:
It's inspired by my recent holiday in France and this is what you can win (also open to international scrapbookers):

• the French magazin "Moments Scrap[booking], issue June/July/August 2009;
• ribbon from the Brocante (antique) market I went to;
• buttons on a cute vintage card from the same Brocante market;
• a vintage postcard from the Brocante market, between 80 and 100 years old;
• some (French) sunflower stickers;
• clear scraps flowers;
• creative borders dies (for i.e. Cuttlebug or QK Revolution);
• a "this & that" diecut sheet;
• some A4 vintage papers;
• a SURPRISE item!

Hope you'll like it!!

If you don't have a blog, but visit my blog regurlarly just leave me a comment and you'll be in the draw too!

You have until the end of September to participate!! On the 1st of October I'll post who the lucky winner is!!! Good luck to you all and THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR KIND COMMENTS SO FAR!!

Love you all!!!

A new sketch, a new layout!

Have you seen Tanya's new sketch for Little Shop of Sketches??? It's awesome, as always!!I loved playing around with my Lemonade line from BG and my new swirl clear stamps from Autumn Leaves and of course my sewing machine!!! If your want to see what the other designers did with this sketch, hop on over to Little Shop's blog and leave some love for them! This week we had Janis as our Guest Designer and she did such a wonderful job!!! Looking forward to see her take on sketch #46 as well!

A new pet!

Did I tell you about our latest addition to our household?? No, I don't think so....Manon's biggest wish was to have a little rabbit, but as I'm allergic to them I've always told her NO!! until now, that is.... Last Sunday we collected this little dwarf-rabbit:

Isn't he cute??? He has his home in the garden, so I hope I'll be okay with my allergy (as long as the kids keep washing their hands after cuddling him! and how long will that last.... I know... sigh).

Jippie thinks this little rabbit, his name is Smiley by the way, is a special present for her!!! and is trying to find a way into his pen. Although now, a few days later, it seems they have accepted one another. They greet each other nose to nose and Jippie has quieted down a lot. But as she is still a hound I have to keep alert though!

Weer thuis! Home again!!

Na 2 weken Zuid-Frankrijk zijn we sinds gisteren weer thuis!
De vakantie was heerlijk, het weer was lekker (wel beetje erg warm), de omgeving mooi, de kinderen vermaakten zich perfect, omringd door vrienden en familie.... wat wil je nog meer?! Maar toch wil ik na een week of 2 altijd wel weer naar huis! Het gekke is alleen dat als ik eenmaal thuis ben, post en emails heb gelezen, ik zo in de auto zou willen stappen om weer terug te gaan. Idioot, waarom wil ik dan naar huis?

After two wonderful weeks in the south of France we're back home!! France was just as beautiful as ever, here are some photos:

Yahoo!! We arrived!! Having our first breakfast in front of our mobile home: croissants, "pain au chocolat" and french bread!
Mats, Manon and Joey playing in the river:
Mats in the Gardon floating on his Mickey Mouse chair and trying to catch some fish for the barbecue:
Jumping from the rocks!! I found it a bit scarry, but did it too (no, no photo!! I look like a whale in my bathing suit!!). Here are photos of Manon and Timothy jumping!!

The antique market in Barjac! I just love these markets and if I would have enough space at home I would buy carloads of "junk", but as our house is packed to the rafters, I limited my amount of purchases. However, I did find some wonderful things to scrap: 100 years old postcards (!), old buttons and antique ribbons!And of course we took Jippie with us to France! She adores the luke warm water of the Gardon, the little river in front of our camping site:
And Manon loves the river too:
Everywhere you find these adorable "ponts", typical French bridges, you just have to love them: Wat een prachtig land is Frankrijk toch; die schattige dorpjes, de zonnebloem- en wijnvelden, de zon, de rivier, de marktjes....alles! Alleen die taal hé, na 10 jaar Frans gehad te hebben op school (lang geleden) zou je verwachten dat je toch iets onthouden had, maar veel verder dan wat boodschappen doen en een klein praatje maken kom ik echt niet. Verstaan valt wel mee, maar zelf een verhaal vertellen .... terrible!

France is such a beautiful country!! all those little villages, bridges, sunflower fields, vineyards and antique markets!! It's such a shame that the language is so hard to understand. After 10 years of French lessons in school (25 years ago) I do understand part of it, but it's often too fast to understand everything.

One afternoon we went to the beach near Carnon Plage. Timothy finally got to use his surfboard!
And here the entrance to the old centre of Sommières:
And the bridge in Sommières:
And Mats on the dolphin his grandparents gave him!
And the market in Anduze: Vineyards everywhere:
And again one photo of one of the houses in Cardet. Can't get enough of this village!

New sketch at Little Shop of Sketches!

And here is the new sketch Tanya from Little Shop of Sketches made!! It's it wonderful?!
And here is my take on it!

The photos are from my very favorite little village in the South of France: Cardet!!!
TFL!! Monique

Sketch challenge at Scrappin'Kids!!

The new challenge for this month is up on SK's blog!! This time it's a sketch challenge created by Jessy!!

This is the sketch:

And this is my take on it:

Title is "the pacifier has to go" (but then in Dutch) and the journaling is about how Manon threw away her pacifier in exchange for the dolls buggy when she was 3 years old.

If you want to see what the other designers did with it or if you want to give it a try too, hop on over to their blog!! You have until Monday 31 August to submit your lo!!

And some other fun news: I won (!!!) the Paper Popsicles July sketch challenge with this layout:

A new layout, new awards and new prizes!

This morning I felt like scrapping and when I saw the new challenge on "Scrap the boys" I decided on that one (I never seem to scrap "just for me" anymore....I'm hooked on challenges!). The layout had to contain a photo involving food and in the title you had to use a cooking term....(while typing this I start to doubt whether bite, dribble and spit are cooking terms....more eating terms??? nah, I think it's ok). I had a funny photo of Timothy and decided to use it. Furthermore I used the July kit from the Nook: BG Lemonade.

Here it is, hope you'll like it!
Then last week I received a few awards:

3 (!!!) from Romy (thanks hun!!):
and this one from Stefanie (thank you dear!!):

Which I have to pass on to my favorite bloggers! This is so terribly hard because I have so many favorites, so I have decided to give them to my 9 followers:

• Mieke
• Stefanie
• Vicki
• LG
• Helen
• Ewonne
• Stefanie S.
• Cindy
• Jessica

Thanks for following my blog guys!!! You don't know how much this means to me!!!!

And then I wanted to tell you about the prizes I won last month:

• 2 shaped cards (digital) from Paper Popsicles;
• vintage rubons from the Rasberry give-away;
• a RAK from Scrapbook Nederland which I won with my lifted Elsie lo!!

Woohooo!!!! Great isn't it?!