Hey all,

I'm just back from a reunion with several friends. I haven't spoken several of them for years, unfortunately. I'm glad we had this reunion. It was so much fun. But of course, with 15 people together, it's impossible to talk with everyone personal. I do think however, this is something we should do every year. I enjoyed it very much! And I hope we'll have more contact again throughout the rest of the year. I think I'll Joyce and Evelien to ask them if they'd like to come over here (or somewhere else) to get a chance to really catch up and stay in contact.

It was a great afternoon!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 6:24 PM
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Hey all,

I've been in the scrapping mood lately. I've created yet again several new layouts for our Italy Album. You can view all the new items starting here.

One of the layouts I'm particular happy with, is the following:

I've included 11 photos in this layout. I wanted to include most of the photos from the Garden of the Villa Monastero. Especially one part of the garden, which is the waterfall. You can see the full picture (in three photos) here. I had to measure everything correctly, otherwise the photos wouldn't fit, or it would become a messy page. I think it worked out pretty good.
One more layout I'm quite happy with, is the following:

This is one page of a spread. I've included lots of photos there. I had decided I was going to use the brochure from the "Alfa Romeo Museo" so that I had all the information about the museum in the album. The brochure already has a lot of photos, but there were several things I had on a photo which were not in the brochure. So, naturally, I wanted to included those in the layout. And an opportunity to have James in the album again too, is something I just can't let go! :)

I still have several photos left (two be more accurate I have two more roles of film left), so I'm not done yet with the Italy album, but I'm getting there. The end is nearby. Which is good, seen the fact this holiday has taken place three years ago!

I'm also working on getting the photos from Switzerland and the zoo printed. And let's not forget all the rebuilding we have done! As far as scrap projects go, I still have a lot of them ahead.......

Thanks for looking and talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 6:09 PM in Category: Italy , photos , scrapbook , Villa Monastero
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Hey all,

No, there's no need to worry. I'm not really addicted to anything bad (well, if you don't count the chocolate in..... that's not an addiction, right....?). I'm just addicted to computer games. I've found a perfect place to find new and fun games: Zylom I'm so addicted to their games, that I've actually bought several. What do you think of:

• Da Vinci's Secret's
  
• Diner Dash (Although I can't seem to finish it.....)
  
• Cake Mania
  
• Feeding Frenzy
  
• Mystic Inn (same here, I can't seem to finish the last but one level, it's frustrating!)
  
• Digby's donuts

I've just played Da Vinci's Secret for.... a few hours? Was it really that long? No, this can't be?
*checking the clock*
Hmmmmmm..................... it seems it really was a few hours. From now on I'm gonna play on for one hour? Okay, where's this timer..... Oh, right I need to buy a new one. The one we had in the kitchen has broken down.

Anyway, Da Vinci's Secrets. I think it's fun the makers have worked from the Dan Brown book. After finishing a level, you'll get new clues. It's fun. And the game is not to hard to do. Just click here and there, try to solve the puzzle in time or put the keys in the locks in time. Now, that's not too hard, is it? These are the games I like! I don't like these fighting games where people (or other beings are shot). Where's the fun in that? I've been wondering that for ages, ever since my brother started playing these kind of games years ago, and I still don't have the answer. Just give me some puzzles or riddles I can work with and I'm happy.

But I've been busy with it quite enough for now. If everything is correct, the Scrapping Memories site should finally work properly, so I'm gonna add all the products I have here this weekend. So customers can finally start buying things.

Have fun and see you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:58 PM
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Hey all,

Just fixed a few mistakes and everything is working perfectly again!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:08 PM
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Something is apparently wrong with some settings for publishing. I keep getting error messages. I've changed a few settings. Let's see if this will do the trick.

Babbled by Ilse at 12:47 PM
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Hey all,

The trees are losing there leaves, it's getting colder outside and it's raining more. Those are all signs that the fall has really settled itself. Although it's too bad that it's not summer anymore, I do like this season a lot too! All the leaves have beautiful colors and there's a whole other life in nature. For colors, summers isn't the best time. Okay, I have to admit that everything is green, but that's it, almost all the plants and trees have green leaves. There are hardly any other colors. Only flowers have other colors. And that, my friends, is the beauty of Autumn. A rich colorful environment. And this environment gives us a lot to see also. Bugs are hiding under the fallen leaves, birds are looking for these insects and are finding them of course. It's wonderful.

In short, maybe I even like autumn better then summer.

I think I'll get out later on to make a few autumn photos. I have excellent papers and cardstock to scrap them with, so why not........

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:30 PM in Category: autumn , foto's , herfst , photos , scrap
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Hey all,

I've finally upgraded to MT 3.3. It was about time. It was taking way too long! It took a while, but everything seems to work, so now I can continue writing!

Since I've had several questions of people asking how I've done particular scrap projects, I've decided to include a "How - To" for my scrapbook projects. I'll be writing more descriptions as I go along. Don't hesitate to ask a description if you'd like to know how I've done a particular thing and there's now description yet!

Have fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:40 PM in Category: description , project , scrap , scrapbook
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Hey all,

I promised to show you the new layouts I made for our Italy Album. Well, here they are. I've made a few changes to the layout where I've posted our route and I've added several new layouts. You can see all the new layouts from here.
Of course I couldn't let out the view from our hotelroom:

We have made a tour around the lake and we've had some astonishing views. It was incredible! I've made a special layout for it:

Thanks for looking!

Babbled by Ilse at 9:38 AM
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Hey all,

I've downloaded all the photos we made in Switserland. It turns out we've made 325 photos. Most of them are really great and useable. So now it's the challenge not to take as much time to scrap them all as I did with our holiday to Italy three years ago (that was a two week holiday instead of five days....).

I've decided I'm gonna burn all photos on CD-ROM's so that they are safe. It will give me some more space on my computer too :) When I'm starting a new scrapbooking project for which I need photos, I can select them from the CD. Maybe that will be easier to do..... we'll see.

I've been scrapping again together with Bianca this weekend. Recently we decided to scrap every two weeks instead of once a month. That way we'll get more done and it's a very fun thing to do. I've made two new layouts. I'll show them later on. I've also checked how many photos I still have left from Italy to scrap. Well, I have about 100 photos left. I hope I can scrap them all in the album I'm currently working in. This is a non-refill album. Since I do want to keep it all together, I'm going to select the photos I really want to scrap from the last three roles of film. And I'm going to see if I can make a few sketches for the pages where I want to use the photos. That way I can see if I can indeed stick to the album I'm currently working in. I hope so. I'll definitely let you know!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:20 AM
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Hey all,

Late last night James and I got back from our holiday. I haven't written online, but I have kep a special vacation diary. Since it's become pretty long, I'm not gonna post it here. I just wanted to tell you that we've had a terrific holiday. We'd like to return to Switzerland again. Better yet, we would have liked it even better to stay in Switzerland longer. But unfortunately we didn't have the time. We have to get back to work again today, so...... maybe next time.

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:00 AM
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Hey all,

Today we said goodbye for the last time to my greaat-aunt. It's weird knowing she won't be here anymore, but it's good to know her suffering has finally ended.

The memorial service was good. It was emotional, as is every service of thiskind, but it was good. I'm glad I was there.

I have nothing more to say at the moment.

Talk to you later.

Babbled by Ilse at 7:43 AM
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Hey all,

I've finally doing some cleaning up on the hard drive of my computer and in my e-mails. It was about time! I've also defragmented the hard drive. This was neccessary too. Now I have to burn several things on CD to make space for other things. And I hope my computer won't have the problems anymore as it did before.

I've deleted almost 2500 e-mails. I've checked most of them for scrapbook layouts before I deleted the mail. All that's left to do now is another 2000 mails and then my inbox will be empty again :) And of course I have to burn the e-mail archives on CD too. That way I can throw away all the old stuff and start with a fresh plate again. That would be a very good thing!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 2:50 PM
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Hey all,

Several years ago I sold things through eBay, but at some point I stopped doing that. Now I've started again. And I've sold both things I put up there! That's fun. I think I'm gonna sell more. I do have more things I can sell, so why not make a little bit of money that way. If I can make it happen this way that I can pay, in example, for this website with the profits I make from the auctions, or pay for my scrapsupplies.... That would be very nice, wouldn't it?

How are your experiences with auctions at eBay?

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:03 AM
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Hey all,

As I said before I've been working on our Italy album again. I've posted my newest layouts in the gallery. You can click here for the first new image.
I'm particularly happy with these layouts:

Here you can see I've put a map on the front. Inside I decided to do some journaling first and after that I've put the last part of the map. I've made a slice on each side of the folded cardstock to insert the ribbon. It's working perfectly!

The photo in the right uppercorner is a photo I made when James began tickling me. So, although it seems like it's a failure I deliberately chose to keep this photo and to include it in the album.

Thanks for looking!

Have Fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 3:35 PM
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Hey all,

Well, the moment was finally there this morning. At 09:20 (GMT+1) my great-aunt has finally passed away. Of course we're sad about it, but we know she finally doesn't have any pain anymore. My dad was able to fullfill his promise to her and he stayed with her until she had died. One aunt of mine stayed with her too, as did my mom. I was in a meeting at the time and they called when she had just died. We're all glad that there has come an end to her suffering. However the way it went, we're not at all glad about it. She has had to suffer 12 more days until she could finally seek peace. It's incredible how "care-takers" can act.

In the end there wasn't really a lot I could do, besides being there for my family. I've helped writing the cards and we've posted them yesterday. If all goes well, everyone should get the the cards about her death today or at the latest tomorrow. Her funeral will be Tuesday in the afternoon. I think I'll go to her funeral.

It will be strange, though, since we're leaving for Switerserland the next day for a short holiday. Right now it all still feels weird.

Talk to you later.

Babbled by Ilse at 1:44 PM
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Hey all,

My great-aunt is still alive, although barely. She hasn't eaten anything anymore since Sunday. We do give her something to drink, but it's nothing then a few drops on her lips. The hospital said that given her something in a glas will have the risk tha it gets into her lungs instead of somewhere else resulting in many more problems. So, she's only getting a little bit to drink. Due to this she's a bit disoriented. I was in the hospital yesterday to check on her. She was just turned on her other side and it caused her pain. I could see that in her eyes. And she doesn't like it when someone's leaving. She had tears in her eyes when I left yesterday. It was a tough thing to do, but I knew James was waiting for me at home. Today he's going to sport, so he'll be home later. That means I can stay in the hospital longer. I know she likes the company, although she can't say it anymore. She does express it with her eyes.

This situation is a little strange. I'm waiting for the phone call in which they tell my great-aunt has died or that it's going to happen soon. In the meantime I'm at work and doing the normal things. It's weird.......

I have done some scrapping last weekend and this week. I'll show the pictures tonight. I'm finally getting through all my roles of photos. I have four more roles to go and then a few more photos of the role I'm working with now. I don't think I'll have it done by the time we go to Switzerland, but I hope I will have done the major part of it. And I AM taking my photocamera to Switzerland. I can't just not do it, while it's a country where I've never been before! Okay, its just for five days, but still.......

I've weight myself this morning again. I haven't been paying much attention to what I'm eating,w ith the result that I've gained a few kilo's again. I weigh 78,5 kilo's now. It's not good, I now that. So I'm gonna keep up with my eating diary again. Also I want to look for menu that will contribute to lossing weight and not undermining my health. And I've started weighing everything for diner. This has two effects:
1: I won't make more then we eat, which makes a difference in the costs.
2: I can make sure we do eat enough of everything we need to eat.
I'm gonna make more changes, but I don't know what yet. I'll let you know.......

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:55 PM
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