Divine Brown

ies ;)



I got this book from the library a while ago and we'll probably buy it if we see it at the bookstore just so we can avoid having to keep paying fines at the library (yes, we are that kind of people).



My son and I just made the brownies (using cashew nuts instead of walnuts) and they smell divine. We used only half the recipe and a little less sugar than the recipe said, hoping that this would make the calorie count go down a little... since we will eat them all within two days!

Actually, K. made these the first time and I could not stop myself from eating them! Ah, the life with a domestic god at home... it adds a few pounds but it sure is divine!

One can never have

too many books.



I think creativity runs in the family...

[jen-er-uhs]

gen·er·ous

–adjective
1.
liberal in giving or sharing; unselfish: a generous patron of the arts; a generous gift.


A little while ago I got a message from Dani who wanted to buy some butterfly bookmarks for some bloggy friends. I think the Pigs in Space would have loved one too, since they kept practically all e-mail correspondence concerning this gift. Dani was very patient and we found a way around this problem.

Now that all butterflies have safely reached their far away destinations I wanted to put Dani in the spotlight. There have been pictures of these bookmarks on all of your blogs so you would think you had seen them all. But... you haven't. There's one that none of you have seen:



Yes, Dani actually paid me to make a bookmark for... myself! That's how generous Dani is.

Thank you Dani, for being the generous person that you are. I'm so glad to have met you!

Unwrapping

A lot of you have wondered what would be inside the "Beary Special" wrapping. Nobody guessed right, but some of you were close. No, not you Amanda: I'm not having twins :) but it would make an awfully nice baby shower gift for someone who was!

So here's what will actually go inside:

A felt keychain with a handembroidered initial and a little bit of love attached (sorry, cute little house and ladybug not included). Initial is embroidered in either blue or pink (matching the cord) and then outlined in white.

Available in blue or pink. I was wondering if I should do a neutral one as well with an initial in white and the outlining in brown?

Of course they don't have to be used as baby shower gifts only. They can be hung from backpacks or pencil cases, purses or trousers. They'd make a unique christmas decoration! And, hey, maybe you could even use it as, I don't know..... a keychain perhaps! Or maybe you just want one for yourself ...

Both the Chocolate and Strawberry bookmark and my Beary Special keychains will be in the shop by the end of the weekend.

Win for Life

Do you know the lottery ticket Win for Life?

Well, I've won!

Not today, no, some years ago. Fourteen to be exact. My life has never been the same since.

I'm the richest girl in the world... even more so after the post below. He's been there with me enjoying all the good times (there have been many) and he stood right by my side dealing with the not so good times (there have been some). And he'll be there for the rest of my life.

He didn't think I would remember this anniversary (since, well, ahum, I did forget about this one a few years), so he was very surprised that I wished him a 'Happy Anniversary' yesterday morning. The day before I had thought about using Blogger's 'publish later' feature to put him in the spotlight, but I was so tired that I just vegged out in front of the TV (which I hasten to add, hasn't happened much lately).

I wanted to do a post from work at lunchtime yesterday so imagine MY surprise when I saw a blogpost titled 'Anniversary'! I thought "what?". I had no clue whatsoever... it was so very sweet of him and my eyes got all teary reading his post. I immediately called him at home to say

"I do"!

We have been thinking about renewing our vows next year but I had been hinting that he would have to propose again. He did a very good job the first time: it was at a Bryan Adams concert during the song "When you really love a woman", just after Bryan had sung "when you can see your unborn children in her eyes". I was pregnant with my son at that time. I guess K. didn't pay attention to the exact lyrics at the time, but I did. He did a very good job this time too.

My own post would have been called "Goodnight girl". This song (by Wet Wet Wet) was playing on my radio when we first kissed. I don't remember the kiss exactly, but well, he must have been doing something right since we're still together!!

So, I am putting K. in the spotlight today. I hadn't put any pictures of K. on my blog myself, because I wasn't sure whether he would like it or not, but since he did so himself, I guess I can upload one of my favourites.

Love you now and forever,

Tania

Anniversary

Surprise! Yes for once it’s not Tania but Kenneth.

First of all I want to thank Tania’s blogfriends for the nice comments. And the support you give her on the Etsy shop. I love reading her blog and the comments. She writes really well – not like me…..
The main reason of my writing is the following: today fourteen years ago we started dating! Our first kiss! And many more have followed ;-)

It’s been an awesome 14 years – in first it’s learning about each other and looks like we’re a perfect match. We believe in the same things and as you’ll know by now family is in first place. We both place the kids at number one – and whatever we do we always consider the kids. We do things our own way and that is not always how the family goes or thinks. So we’re considered as the outsiders – but I know that our parents and brother and sisters are proud of us.

Next year we have a special year a kind of anniversary 10-15.

We’ll be together for 15 years and be married for 10 years. In a previous blog she mentioned about renewing our vows. We’re planning a party next year for friends and family but to make it official:

Tania I love you. You’re such a wonderful person and there are so many beautiful things about you I can write about (but I will stop here I’ve abused the English language enough).

Will you marry me?

Love Kenneth

Beary busy

This is just the packaging. Can you guess what will be inside?

Coming soon

to my Etsy shop.

My Chocolate & Strawberry bookmark.



The pink cardstock and the little brown flower have been aged to give them a worn look. The white cardstock has a pressed linnen look. The colour of the paper flowers on top may vary a bit (white - soft pink - dark pink). Some 'a-b-c' ribbon and decorative machine stitching finishes it off.

I just took these pictures yesterday evening and I love how they came out (can't get the second picture to turn, don't know why, I never had problems with that before on Blogger). I usually end up taking quite a few on different days with different lighting and backgrounds, but I'm guessing I got lucky this time. I ♥ them!

Sweet little tag

I was tagged by Tabitha over at Twinkle Twinkle to ask a loved one to tell me three things about moi. So I asked each of my loved ones for one thing and here's what they said:

• Caitlin said I was sweet.
  
  After giving a few examples that I found on other blogs like 'my mom is taking pictures all the time' or 'she's funny' (I decided to use another word than 'freaking hilarious', Dani!) she said "My mommy is crazy". I think I'll stick to the first answer she gave.

• Robin said I take good care of my kids.
  
  OK, we'll be going to Kung Fu Panda this weekend boy!

• And Kenneth said I was creative.
  
  I told him that I knew that's what he was going to say, so he elaborated a bit and said that I come up with great ideas for the kid's birthday parties.

I'm glad I didn't ask my sisters. The answer would have been boring... ;)

MAG(net)IC

They all arrived safely at their snail mail destinations.

Little magic magnetic gifts embroidered with love. I'm so glad you all like them!

We were on a break!

How you doin?

:)

We got back yesterday evening from our weekend at the seaside. Just a little break but long enough to feel like we did in fact have a little holiday. We had some rain, we had some sun, we had lots of clouds and lots of fun!

Building dinosaur skeletons in the sand.

Using sticks to draw.

Happiness.

Crack, crack, crack went the shells.

And some lovely shots by my husband

These pictures took a while to upload, so I've been checking up on my bloggy friends in the meantime. I missed you guys! I'm off to do some more commenting...

A new addition

We had all been playing
what's called 'the waiting game'
but now we're so excited,
we finally know his name!!!

Congratulations to Elise, T. and big sister Sav who are finally all home together again enjoying the company of little Blake.

There's no better inspiration than a newborn baby...

Welcome home Elise. The design is yet to be perfected, but I'll send the prototype over to you once I've taken enough pictures to help me remember how I made it.

Lost in Space

Dear Pigs in Space,

Have you seen my friend Dani's emails floating around anywhere? They seem to have gotten lost somewhere in cyberspace. If you see them, please bring them down to me. I would really like to read them. Oh, and should there be any others that I don't know about, please bring them back as well.

Please know that I will always reply to your emails, so if this happened to you, please leave me a comment and I will send another SOS to Pigs in Space.

I have

I just had my first sale on Etsy (joepi! yay! wahoo!) and I would really like to thank my friend Tabitha for buying one of my bookmarks. You have no idea how happy you've just made me.

I'll be off to do some happy dancing!

Treasury

On Etsy there's a feature called the Treasury. I managed to get one (well, Treasury West that is - kinda like its little brother) and I chose some random undiscovered artists. If you would like to see it, you can click on this link. It expires on Sunday.

I don't know how to get a print screen on here, otherwise I'd show it to you. I tried to upload the URL as an imagine, but I just get the famous little blank screen with the small red cross in the corner. Not exactly the undiscovered artists...

Bonnie & Clyde

Nice weather - two kids - one tiny watergun - a little syringe and a garden that has been turned into a building site (kitchen extension, remember?).

Obviously this is the Before picture. I didn't take an After picture as immediately after taking this shot my son hit my daughter right in the eye (edit: with water I mean - he didn't punch her or anything). Game over.

They watered the plants after that.

A Sales Girl & a Play Date

Today I was supposed to get some chores done around the house.

Instead I became a sales girl: the sales have officially started now so the kids and I hit the stores. I scored some nice dresses for my daughter and some Tshirts and cardigans for my son. I prefer buying at 30-50% off. That way they get nice clothes that I probably wouldn't buy at the original price. My wallet agrees with me on this (as does K!). For me it doesn't have to be trendy. They'll wear these clothes next year (I always buy a bigger size) or as soon as they fit into them.

I also had a play date: the kids and I went to the playground where I was left guarding the bike and rollerblades while the kids disappeared into the crowd. They had fun. I sat in the sun. I think the summer I asked for finally arrived...