I´ve been tagged

I have been tagged by An from vANalles en nog wat.

The mission: put the forth picture of the forth folder on your computer on your blog. So here it goes:

Our friends and us had a great idea about have a picture taken of our children by a photogragpher. We bought them matching T-shirts with their names on it and went to the studio. This is the result: three children didn´t want to be in teh icture, one boy walking away angry, three crying babies and a very funny picture... at least that is what I think of this picture. I think it is really cool.

I tag: Evelyn, Jill, Molly and Mee

The Great International Stash Busting Giveaway

Katy over at I'm A Ginger Monkey is hosting a great event which I joined.

On wednesday February 4rd I shall have a giveaway on my blog like some many others, I will be giving away a selection of fabrics from my stash. I haven't decided what yet, but it'll be a nice little stack, and the colors will go together, so it can be used for the same project.Check out all the other Great International Stash-Busting Giveaway participants via this link and come back for the giveaway on the 4th.

Blue and white hex quilt

This is my faithful little sew box that I use for my Blue and white hex quilt. As you can see, it has everything I need, siccors, fabric pre-cut, little wooden pegs, etc. It is the perfect little plastic box that I received free in the mail from a butter brand. It is a lunch box but I saw other purposes...
What do you use to put your WIP in?

Crochet

I bought this crochet magazine in Austria. It came with another German magazine called Lea, also a crochet magazine.

The reason why I bought it is because I love the crochet rug in the picture. I looks really neat and I wanted to know how you can make it.

Looking at all my magazines I realised that I haven´t heard from my subscription to Sew Hip. I received the first issue without the present, and haven´t heard from them since. So I contacted the subscription Manager and she responded very quickly and ensured me that something must have gone wrong since they are already at issue 3. She will resend the magazines so I can´t wait to see all those lovely patterns.

So great service from the people at Sew Hip Magazine!

This weekend I have been working on my Cars quilt for Peter. Teh back turned out bigger than I thought, so I have to look for a solution for my front part, since I don´t have enough black and whiet chequered fabric. Will have a look at the market to see if they have a matching fabric.

Cupcake swap pictures

For those of you that joined my cupcake swap, please see this link for the pictures of all the goodies you made for the cupcake swap 2008. Sorry that it took so lon, but we are still missing one parcel. No problem since it was a parcel sent to me, so I don´t feel bad that someone didn´t get a parcel. I will also email all the participants this link.

Back home

We arrivedyesterday evening back home, so now I have internet acces where I can upload pictures. The chalet we rented was great but we missed (OK, I missed) an internet connection. As you can see, we had a great week. The weather was great, great snow so we all had a good time.

This is me on the longest Roddelbahn in Europe. It start around 2000 meters and you descend until the village of Bramberg. There the skibus brings you back to the parking at the Talstation where you took the gondola to the top. I can recommend this roddelbahn, the beginning is a bit steep, but then it is great fun and most of the course is situated on the sunsite of the moutain. The first picture is taken half way where there is a small bar where you can heat up with a hot cocholate with rum, before you further descend.

On thursday the weather was not so good, so we visited a local museum on the local wildlife and life in the Alps. And no, this is not a living cow next to son #3. It is part of the display at the museum.

The next picture is at the Murmultiere. These are local animals that hibernate, but you can see their daily routine in the museum.

DH on the skies. He loves to ski.

Son #1 on skies, he is so proud of his first medal, he even sleeps with it. Great job Nic, we are very proud of you.

And offcourse all the stuffies of all our sons went with us. We always take a picture of them on our holidays. We started with only son #1´s on our first holiday, and continued the habit. So here they all are: sheep, bear and dragon/crocodil.

Son #2 is still too small to start ski lessons, so he spent his time well as you can see with coloring, even on the skipiste.

So it is already over, I am glad that we all made it home safe, because yesterday we past quite some accidents on our way home, and since Germany has limited speed limits, they are most of teh time serious, especially when foreigners are envolved. We are not used to the speeds the Germans drive, so a miscalculation is easily done.

So we are already looking forward to next year.

News from Austria

A small post without pictures, since I only have internet access in a local internet cafe, but you are not allowed to upload pictures.
The snow is perfect here in Königsleiten, the sun was shining but since yesterday a fog entered the valley and it started snowing, so teh wether turned a bit.
Nic had lessons since Monday and he was sooooo nervous. The quickly passed once he learned that the teacher spoke dutch and that most of the kids in his group were dutch. He had to ski and was allowed to ski with a higher group, and he did very well.
Yesterday the had a slalom contest and he was so focused on doing well that he forgot his speed, so he came in seventh, but he didn t fall and he passed the flags the correct way.
We then left him since it was snowing hard and Ruben was getting snowed in. Around 14.50 we returned and we just could see that Nic s group was coming down and that Nic felle and could t get up.
By the time the reached us, I could hear him cry for me. It turned out that after lunch they went to the highest point being, Königsleitenspitze (2315 m) and came down, it took the kids two hours to get back to Königsleiten (1600 m), so Nic was completely exhausted, poor thing, he was the youngest in the group, the oldest was 11 years.... so maybe it was a bit high fedged for him, but he did well.
At 16.00 there was the official end of the course and the small ones all got a medallion, so Nic was all proud and won t take the thing off...
We are very proud of him. Tomorrow morning we go riding with a horse drawn carriage in the snow and tomorrow evening, we have to pack so we can leave on Saturdaymorning.
So few time, so much to do...

Leaving for ski holiday

Just letting you know that we are leaving for one week of snow fun in Austria. Normally tomorrow I would have the day off to prepare everything, doing the laundry, packing the suitcases, but nothing ever goes as you plan.
I was called by school during lunch that Peter was sick and needed to be picked up, since I was at work in a client´s company, I told the people there the situation and the told me it was offcourse OK to leave. So I rushed home, but now I have to go back tomorrow morning to finish the work.
When I got to school, Peter was lying on a bed so I picked him up and we went to Nic´s class to get him as well, since I wouldn´t be able to pick him us a couple of hours later if Peter was sick.
But he wanted to stay in school so his teacher proposed to bring him home after school.
And she will also pick him up tomorrow morning. Isn´t that sweet? She is a wonderful teacher. Nic and we are very lucky with her.
So tomorrow afetrnoon I will load up the car and we will be on our merry way. I will pack my craft things as well, so if it snows, I will stay comfy in our chalet.
I will try to post from Austria - provided I find an internet connection.

Homespun - help wanted

Does any of you crafters know where you can buy this copy of Homespun magazine in Europe or for a resonable shipping price somewhere else. My son loves the rocket.
I asked my cousinwho lives in Melbourne, but she couldn´t find it. Do any of you ladies in melbourne know wher you can buy it?
I looked in an online australian bookstore, but the charged 16 dollars to ship it... A bit high for a 9 dollar magazine.
Or is there a crafter out there that wants to swap the magazine for an European magazine?
Any help is much appreciated.

Still snow

As you can see, after three days the snow is still here. For our part of the world, this is rather weird, it has been a couple of years now since the snow stayed put...
Peter had great fun this afternoon, when he made a snowman with his dad, as you can see on the picture.

The cupcake test

You can do a Cupcake test and check out what person you are. This is my cupcake:

At parties, you tend to be a social butterfly. You enjoy making conversation and making sure everyone is having fun.You hardly have any restraint. You only hold yourself back when absolutely necessary.The most important thing in your life is your significant other.You are dominant, vain, and a bit of a show off. To know you is to worship you.

It is a bit true...;-)

Alien bunnies

During the holidays I made these ´Alien´ bunnies. I think I will make a little pink vichy square skirt for the girl bunny, to make her more girly, although the pink color cannot be interpreted wrongly. The blue-ish bunny is a boy and I think they both turned out great.

As you can see, we have quite a bit of snow. Yesterday night it started snowing and at the moment it is still freezing so I think that it will stay for a bit. This morning a car got stuck in our streeds because of the slipperly road.

But for the kids it is great, I brought the boys to school on their sled, it hasn´t been used in quite some time, so it was big fun this morning.

Mushroom swap

This morning I went to the post office to pick up this parcel. Because we weren´t at home when he came by there was a note in the mailbox. It said a parcel for den Heijer, it didn´t say a forename. So this morning in the postoffice, the lady behind the counter refused to give me the parcel, because she said that it mentioned den Heijer on teh note. And my maidenname is Aerts. But on my ID card, it said Aerts, married to den Heijer. But she said that is was cleraly a parcel for my husband, and that I couldn´t pick it up... so I went home quite frustrated...

My husband went to the postoffice and showed the note and the lady left the counter and somebody else helped him out. What turned out? It said on teh parcel Margy den Heijer... so she gives the parcel to my husband who says, I am not Margy den Heijer, as you can see on my ID card. My wife was in here fifteen minutes ago and she was refused the parcel...

The lady said nothing and justed handed over the parcel. So I am no going to write a complaint... I am fed up with Belgian Post.

But the parcel is lovely. It was form Maria who was my swap parnter in a mushroom swap. She made three mushrooms for each of my sons. Thank you very much Maria, the boys love them.

January 1st

OK, so we survived 2008 with all our fingers and eyes and are all save and sound. As you can see I have real boys, who love fireworks. They spent an hour outside last night watching DH and his friends lighting fireworks.

We were one minute late looking for an accurate clock at our friends home, LOL, but we had a wonderful evening.

And according to Dutch tradition, we ate Oliebollen (the dark brown ones) and Appelflappen. Not really my cup of tea,but these were from a friend of ours that has a bakery and they have tasty ones. They received a 7/10 for their oliebollen. Last year they were the best Oliebollen bakery.

And according to Belgian tradition our children gave their best wishes for the New Year in the form of a Nieuwjaarsbrief. It is a poem that they memorize and tell to their godparents, grandparents and parents and they expect a little financial stimulanse for it. So here they are at breakfast.