happy birthday!

to my MIL,
our dear, sweet Mem
may you have more happy, healthy years!

a big kiss from us,
kj and odette

~♥~

since we couldn't celebrate mem's birthday with her, kj and i decided to give her a little surprise party the day before we left. coincidentally, mem plays badminton every monday morning at a fitness gym some 20 minutes away from her home. she left around half past nine in the morning, and told us she'd be back at a quarter past eleven. trivia: the dutch are very accurate with their schedules, they're always on time if not earlier.

so, as soon as mem left, kj and i quickly went into action. he inflated the pink balloons with a handy bicycle pump which i brought with me from ireland while i threaded on a ribbon the printed letters i made for her birthday banner. then we quickly went into the quaint shopping street to see if the bakkerij (bakery) is already open to buy a birthday cake. we didn't have time to arrange for it earlier because mem was with us all the time. note: not too long ago, some shops in holland (except in big city centres like amsterdam) open late on a monday, some don't open at all and on sundays, well, they're close.

we cheered when we saw that the bakery was open, but no, they didn't have a big cake that could pass for a nice birthday cake. so we got 3 different mini cakes, and a bottle of bubbly drink and a funny card from the supermarket. we were panting when we reached home, as we had a few minutes left before mem arrives. i was arranging the cakes on the table when we saw her car parking on the curb outside. kj saw me stare at the clock, 11:15. he smiled and whispered "i told you!"

kj and i posed under the birthday banner and waited tensely for the click of her keys on the door. we heard her shuffle inside the hallway, dump her duffle bag and slowly enter the living room. then kj and i sang her a dutch birthday song, and a happy birthday song as well. mem was so surprised she wasn't able to say anything except OH! again and again. she was so happy she was kissing and hugging me and kj. she told us she was wondering why the house was very quiet when she came in, as she was expecting us to be packing up already. ^-^

gefeliciteerd mem! i'm glad you enjoyed our little party!

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so yes, we're back from our vacation a few days ago. we had a very hectic schedule because we crammed everything to just a week of stay, thinking we could take a quick holiday to the countryside of ireland upon our return. unfortunately, we were both so tired and didn't feel like going anywhere at all. the ams-dub flight would have been very short at an hour and 20 minutes flying only. what sapped our energy was the train journey from the north of holland to amsterdam, which is another story for another time.

we arrived in the late afternoon of tuesday, and the next day was spent sorting the heap of mails on our doorstep, picking up my package at the post office because we missed its delivery (kj picked it up for me!), unpacking suitcases, and taking lots of naps in between (at least i did). i felt soooo tired then. the following days were still sunny albeit chilly, kj and i cycled to the main shopping street to return my overdue books at the library, mail off a shop order at the post office, and shop for a few supplies for my craft room. we stopped by a starbucks and had caramel macchiato and paninis. since my husband thinks their coffee is ridiculously overpriced, i paid for it myself (with his money of course, haha) while he waited for me at our table. it doesn't bother me that much as it does him. it's typical dutch attitude, hence, no apologies about complaining. ^.^

caramel macchiato is lovely by the way. even the dutchman is convinced.

so, i still have to upload the pictures i've taken from our holiday, hopefully tomorrow i'm able to do just that. i'm a bit busy in my shop working on for christmas products and listing new items for my shop. i'll see you then next time!

ik ben op vakantie

i am on vacation!
i am having a good time in the netherlands with kj and family.
yesterday i was in rotterdam with gracey and eloise; great food, great company! (we ate lechon!)
today we're going to a family party which my husband doesn't know about yet.
i''m going to take lots of pictures...i have taken looottss of pictures already...
thanks for the thoughts about ome piet. we visited his grave last wednesday. we met tante annie too.

i'll see you all next week when we're back in dublin.
happy weekend!

in memoriam

Ter nagedachtenis aan Ome Piet,
moge hij rusten in vrede
Wij wensen de familie van Ome Piet veel sterkte
toe in deze moeilijke dagen

liefs,
kj en odette

~♥~

this is the wedding card from Oom Piet* and Tante Annie, which they sent to me and kj for our wedding in 2007. i have never met them personally when i was in the netherlands as kj lived in amsterdam then and they in Friesland. all they've seen of me was from the wedding pictures which we gave to Mem. we all looked forward to meeting each other face to face, especially since the diagnosis of Oom Piet's brain tumor early this year. kj and i sent him cards the last few months and he had liked all of them. just two weeks ago, he gave instructions to Tante Annie to prepare a pot of flowers from their own garden for me to take back here in Ireland. he knew we were visiting on the 2nd week of september, and though i have never met this man, i felt a connection with him somehow because of his thoughtfulness, despite his illness.

last friday night, Mem rang to inform us that Oom Piet passed away last thursday. i was shocked i had no words for it. kj was still in the bath then, and i sat on the edge and cried. for so many reasons...for Oom Piet, for Lolo Kune, the thought that something might happen to my parents while i'm this far from them, what if something happens to the old ladies that i work with...

you just don't get used to the thought of people dying. especially if they're people you love and care about. everytime that happens, it strikes me as hard as before and the pain is just as raw and as painful like before. you don't fully get over your loved ones' death as well, the void they've left on your soul remains, and though the pain is not as much anymore, the longing to see them again lives on.


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*Ome Piet is kj's uncle, his father's brother. he also looked much like my late father-in-law.

mail goodness

as if i haven't said it many times before, i love everything shabby chic. a few weeks ago, a wonderful lady from australia (she's also married to a dutch man, yay!) ordered a few sets of lunch cards from my shop. as we sent convos (etsy mail) back and forth, she mentioned that she has recently opened her own online shop selling shabby chic goodness among other delicious things. naturally, it sent me clicking to her shop immediately and fell in love with her vintage metal bird! soon i was imagining how it would look like on my christmas tree, and how it will make a beautiful keepsake to pass on to my child someday as a reminder of her/his childhood. i had to snap off from my daydreaming because 1) i don't have a child yet, and i'm not even pregnant 2) i just had to buy one...for a start. i received it from the mail last week and it was just as beautiful as i imagined it to be, that even kj liked it! Thanks Fiona, i'll be back at your shop soon because i just have to have the butterfly...and pears! ^-^

{ buttons and giraffe are mine^-^ }

this week, i also received the loot i won from maythird (who, i found out later, is also a Filipino in the US, how awesome is that?!), of paper goods for scrapbooking from her etsy shop. i found her blog as i was "window" shopping over at etsy for my daily creative dose, and luckily, she was a hosting a giveaway then. what a happy surprise when i checked her blog a week later that i won the contest! thanks May, i love everything you sent! i have not tried to scrapbook yet, but i know someone who does and i have a long overdue package to send to her...so, i'm going to pass on to her these goodness because they're too good to keep in my drawer. i am sure she will love all these!

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don't forget to visit!

all things deliciously shabby : emily flutterybys
scrapbook supplies : maythird

Up, the Irish Premier

who can say no to a free premier ticket? for disney pixar movie, Up? with the award winning writer/director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera in attendance?

well, definitely not us. the thrill of watching the movie is too much to resist even for self-confessed anti-socials (the peace-loving kind) like us. i'm wearing a dress, and will be putting on make-up. i'm going to get dolled up and bring the high heels out from its dusty oblivion because tomorrow night is a special date with the husband. it's also the official start of our two-week holiday! cheers!

thanks to E from the charity org i volunteer for, for this sweet treat. ^-^

i hope you're all having a great weekend! we are, as the heavens finally smiled down and gave us warm sunshine here in dublin!


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p.s. just stumbled across this one:
if you're in dublin, you can win a free premier ticket here.

moments

saw this from toni

goin' crazy

...over my new toy!

i still have to finish my post about my new camera (ang bagong luma), and because i am in a hurry to catch my bus again, in the meantime, enjoy the pics i have taken from last week. thank God for lovely days!

{click to enlarge}

kj's first nephew

~♥ congratulations to my brother-in-law F and wife Z,
what a beautiful baby! ♥~

welcome to the world, little man!

A new baby is like the beginning of all things -
wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.
Eda J. Le Shan

new look

hello there!

after a day of tinkering with my blog, i'm back with a new look. ^-^
this just might be the thing that i need now so i can get back on the groove. i have been extremely busy this month, and on days that i was free, i was daydreaming for some exciting project so that should simply explain my absence. but with my blog's new clean look, i am sooo looking forward to blogging again!

anyways, i am thrilled to be able to share to you some exciting goodies i found recently online, of websites oozing with creativity and inspiration, sharing generously beautiful resources for your blogs with a whole bunch of tutorials especially for non-geeks like myself.

if you love shabby chic, then Shabby Blogs is for you! it is by the talented and fabulous Megan, and you can download for free her beautiful backgrounds, buttons and blinkies and lots of other shabby extras for that dainty meets vintage look you want. if you head over her blog, you'd read about tutorials on how to use the shabby goodness you have just downloaded for your own blog. she can make HTML sound easy peasy too, so there's no need to be afraid of it. i have absolutely enjoyed exploring all the pages of her blog! it was that good!

love my  new fonts? it's from the extremely talented amanda of the kevin & amanda blog, and i found her link featured over at Shabby Blogs. she has a treasure trove of the prettiest scrapbooking and handwriting fonts, and you can download them all absolutely for free. click on her step-by-step tutorials on blog design, and you'll be amazed at how easy she could make the procedures for you. she takes lovely photographs too and you can even browse through pages of her scrapbooks and recipes to top it all!

thanks Megan and Amanda, for sharing your talents! 

hi

how clean is your laundry...

*note: not a paid post!

one of kj's favorite dutch show is Radar, which is a consumer's TV, much like the BBC's Watchdog. even if my husband now lives in Ireland, he still likes to keep up to date with what's going on in his country and he tells me that it's good for me as well to practice my "dutch listening" skills. fine.

anyways, one episode that got us really excited was about laundry soaps, and not only that, it featured the brand that we are using being compared to five other more expensive brands. so it got me really excited i almost wanted to jump to the end of the program to see which product won. ^-^

the team who conducted the laboratory tests were:

Testteam (Hoger Laboratorium Onderwijs Leiden)

• Adrienne Tromp, student chemie
• Mariska Klerks, student chemie
• Anne Paulien Drenth, student biologie
• Mara Kröner, student biologie
• Karsten Kaspers (dr), docent chemie
• Tonny de Vos (ing), docent biologie

these were the brands that were subjected to several laboratory tests, to see if they can live up to their claims: Robijn, Wit (Albert Heijn), Persil, Omo, Formil (Lidl) and Ariel. the cheapest by the way, is Formil, from the Lidl. we shop for most of the time at the Lidl because they're definitely the cheapest in the block...

and guess which product performed better than the rest? my Formil! *insert my wide grin here*

it smells great too.


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Source: Radar

i wish...

...for warm tootsies this autumn and winter!

just a quick break from my crazy schedule to say i heart these Ugg Boots, and a pair is definitely on my wish list. the days are getting shorter now, the breeze colder, and the wind much stronger, signalling the coming of autumn. it's almost time again for wrapping warm and bundling up, and my poor little toes are dreading the cold days ahead.

these Ugg Boots from Whooga are made from thick merino sheepskin, which are strong and elastic and has the ability to counter moisture and odour. with natural insulation, these boots guarantee supreme comfort and warmth.

and now, the delicious part: you can actually win your very own free pair of Whooga Ugg Boots! how? click here. they will ship internationally, so your boots will surely reach your neck of woods.

while i'm tapping away this post, the rain is lashing outside and it's very chilly that i am wrapping myself in my old fleecy blanket. i can feel my two cold feet dreaming for warm toasty ugg boots. wishing....wishing...