Today it’s Father’s day in the Netherlands and I made my dad this card.

Journaling:
“Dear,
the ways to say
“daddy, I love you”
aren’t way from
petered out yet.
Kisses from
your daughter.”

Back of the card,
you all know
this one…

“Je t’embrasse”
(I give you a hug)

He was very happy with it when he received it last week….

Yep, that’s right! I’d mistaken the date and send it one week early!
It was good for a laugh though, ’cause he called me and said he was honoured
that I loved him thát much to send a card already, and that he couldn’t wait
to see what next week (the correct date) would bring… heehee

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We had a wonderful weekend! Temperatures were Summer-like and I spend Saturday playing with glue… Alice wasn’t in Wonderland, but on my big crafting table, very much alive and laughing! (Sneak peek soon to come!)

Late in the afternoon, I got a phone call and it was a big surprise to hear my niece Lisa talking from me all the way from Canada!!! She spend the weekend at home (on Sunday, she had to go back to the hospital again) and it was so nice to hear her voice!!! She wears a bodice to protect her back and a collar (as you know she broke her neck and back) and she can’t use her left arm, so she’s handicapped but was glad to spend a weekend at home with her parents and brother! She has to wear all that “gear” for at least another few Months (we don’t know how long) and it’s not sure if her arm/hand will recover either, but at least she walks and talks and sounded good! Hooray for my strong niece!!!

On Sunday, we drove to my parents in Zeeland where we spend the day sitting in the garden, laughing and talking and getting a tan! I also payed my friend Lena a short visit, and she informed me that there was something wrong with the menu on top of my blog…. It’s fixed now but I’m sorry I asked you all to take a look at my gallery and pick your favourite lay out, while the menu
wasn’t working!!! So here’s my question again! Which of my lay outs would you pick as your favourite? Take a look at the gallery and let me know, I’m curious!

OK, enough with the talking!
You’re all here to see my latest work so I’ll show you some pictures of
the lay outs I finished last week, but didn’t publish earlier ’cause the
“Lotus introduction post” got in the way…

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Thought of writing a short post to update you all ’cause I’m afraid it won’t be until Friday before I find the time to write a post again.

So just a few things:

• Tomorrow my friend Lena will come visit me and it will be two days
  of fun, giggling, crafting, eating, drinking and definitely NO blogging.
   
• Thursday it’s “Queens Day” over in the Netherlands (Yep, I live in a monarchy) The whole country will turn into one big orange “thing” and I’m planning a post about that to tell you foreigners what a bizarre country I’m in (and maybe show you some photo’s too, to illustrate the madness – so stay tuned!)
   
• I applied for the Design Team over at Lotus paperie… Eeeeeeck!
  Keep your fingers crossed, ’cause I feel ready to join a DT now but
  I don’t know if they feel the same and
  I. SO. WANT. TO. BE. PART. OF. IT.
   
• The “Alice in Wonderland Journal Circle Swap” is finally getting somewhere… 
  There are already 6 participants (you can still join the fun! Come to the SIStv forum overhere , sign in will be due May 15th) It probably will be a 6×6 journal; everybody makes a left and a right page, and we all end up with a “Alice Journal”…. Exiting huh!
   
• My niece is doing a little bit better (under the circumstances).
  The surgery on her elbow on Friday went OK and from yesterday on
  she breaths on her own (at least, that’s what the latest mail told us.)
   
• Nout (my son) has school holidays this week, he’s with his dad now but he’ll come to join us on Wednesday. I asked him to come over early so he can take a photo shoot of me and my friend Lena. Nout is a real good photographer (at 16!) He works with a tele lens most of the time and I can do with some fresh pics of me and Lena! (it’s been a long time!) He uploaded some of his pics here and you really should take a look at that, or at his weblog! (He likes to get comments too you know, and if you’re a mum you know how much it means to a teenager to get a compliment now and then!)

I’ll leave you with a photo Nout took from me and my beloved last week.
(Don’t forget to love each other!!!)

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M: “Hey, that’s a nice lay out you’re makin’…”

Me: “Oh, but that’s not finished yet.
I’m just cutting squares to glue them in a grid.”

M: “Why in a grid? It looks great this way.”

Me: “Yeah, now that you mention it…
but uhhmmm, the challenge at “Scrapping out Loud” was:
“This week we want you to get out those rulers and get measuring,
because we want to see you use the grid technique to create a LO!”

M: “But you’re measuring already, and you ARE using a grid, aren’t you.
You just glue them outside the grid, they didn’t say it had to be all square,
did they?”

Me: “No………”

M: “Well then, look at it!
But it’s your lay out after all…. you don’t have to listen to me.”

I looked at it.
I thought about it.
And I did it!
I glued the squares just as it lay there, random.

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I want to thank you all for the sweet comments you left on my former post!
It’s good to read all your kind words!

This is just a short post to keep you all updated.

On Sunday Evening, Lisa should have the first surgery (her elbow) but she got breathing problems, went into a coma and was brought to the IC instead. 
Because of the time difference between Canada and the Netherlands, we learned this only yesterday morning. (My brother writes an update every evening when he comes home from visiting the hospital, but we read that only the morning after…) so yesterday our family had a bad and fearful day again.

This morning, the e-mail brought better news… (Well, what’s “better” in a situation like this?) She woke up out of her coma. She’d had the breathing problems because a lung folded up… and they discovered she had broken ribs as well. Anyway, she’s awake and today they’re gonna start surgery on her elbow. Let’s hope and pray everything goes well and stays that way.

My brother also sent this picture… OH MY…
this is her car after the accident.

Today, our family is full of hope and I got a bit more energy to DO something, so in the background I hear the printer spitting out some nice photo’s and I’m gonna play with patterned paper for a few hours! I’ll keep you informed…

Again, thanks for all your support! Je t’embrasse!

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I had planned a weekend full of scrapping time for myself, but life doesn’t always follow your plans, does it? On Saturday, very early in the morning,
I was waked by the phone (and everybody knows that when the phone rings that early and that long, it’s gonna be sad and frightening news…) My brother called me from Canada (he lives there with his family) to tell me his daughter Lisa (my niece, she’s 17 years old) had been in a car accident and was very badly injured…

It wasn’t yet very clear what injuries she had at that time but now, two days later, we know a lot more and briefly this is it:

Sad news,

Lisa was involved in a serious car crash Friday afternoon, and is in a serious condition in The Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg
It’s not life threatening anymore, but she will be in hospital for a long time. She got a broken neck, broken back, fractured elbow, her arm and wrist are broken and a couple minor injuries. The doctors say she will recover 100%, but it will take a long time.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the weekend…

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