Ik ben gek op Holland!

or for those non-dutch readers, I am crazy about Holland! Yes, I'm back and the trip was a trip of a lifetime...AMAZING!  No projects have been done, hubby was left by his lonesome, there is now laundry all over my house, I have no more vacation for the rest of the year, and my daily blog readership has vanished...was it worth it? Totally:)

It was two weeks straight of getting up leisurely, having some wonderful cheese and chocolate sprinkles(yes we do that in Holland) on our bread and a ridiculous amount of tea for breakfast and heading out in whatever direction we felt like exploring!  This country is so clean and beautiful, they do so much with such small space compared to us in North America!

Want to take a little picture tour of some of the places we saw? Take a look!

These delicious deep fried beauties are kroketen! One of our fave dutch meals.  We aimed to have one every day and just about did that. They come with bread in real restaurants, or plain at a snackbar for about a dollar fifty!





Or you can buy them 'out of the wall' in some places! Its like a vending machine for hot items! Crazy:)

A royal palace:

Paleis Het Loo and its royal gardens!














Schiermonnikoog! A beautiful island in northern Holland.













We also went biking like the dutchies do on the island!  They have so many bikes that there are parking garages for bikes in the big cities!

A beautiful bakery, just one of the many we tried out.  Think cream puffs but ten times better!

Panenkoeken of course!!! This is their version of pancakes which come with anything you can imagine in them!







Including pizza ones!! This was A-MAZING!

Beautiful Canal houses in Amsterdam!

Windmills everywhere, for all kinds of uses! Others may have invented it, but the dutch utilized it beyond anyone else!

A sobering morning at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. No pictures allowed so you can only see the front of the simple house hiding the amazing story of this young girl.

Followed by a less sober visit to the Heineken Experience!









This barely touches all that we saw but it was amazing to see all these little pieces of the dutch traditions we were raised with come alive!  Coming home was pretty hard after the whirlwind tour making it to 10 out of 12 provinces of the Netherlands but the best part of coming home?  Finding the house cleaner than when I left thanks to my sweet husband:)  And now life returns somewhat to normal...but I feel a little less phony saying I'm Dutch now!  What a wonderful, fun, crazy, beautiful vacation!

Tot Ziens Everyone! I will try to return soon with some new projects:)

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Time & Memories:)

Goede Ochtend!!
Well, as we speak I am hopefully in Holland, given no volcanic ash came in our path:) But no worries, I saved a few projects to share while I am away gallivanting through Europe for a couple of weeks!  This one comes from my very crafty Mom who took this ugly looking cardboard.....














And turned it into this!  A clock mechanism, pictures, a cricut cutter, and some scrapbook paper later and a great decor for any room is ready to be given for a wedding present!
















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New Friend Friday and...A $2000 Wedding???

Happy Friday everyone!   This is the last post I will make live for the next two weeks as tomorrow night I head out to the Netherlands and the house we are staying at has no internet so sadly I will be "off the grid" :)  Although at the same time, it is a wonderful feeling to be completely disconnected and unreachable...only way to really be relaxed I think!  Don't worry though, I pre-published some posts for the next two weeks to give you an idea of what I'm up to and some more little projects I've been working on:)

And now, on to my fave blog of the week!! This week I went for a bit of a change...normally I pick my favorite project that inspired me this week but this site just wowed me as a recent bride myself:)  Take a look at how this lady put together a wedding for under 2000!!!

EXPENDITURES

• Thank You Postcards + Stamps = -$31
• Balloons to Mark Ceremony Street: -$4
• Money Remaining from Lodging: +$110
• Margarita Machine: -$232
• Whole Foods: -$317
• King Soopers's (Food): -$372
• Sam's Club (Food): -$403
• Boxed Wine: -$80
• Beer Kegs: -$140
• Clips for Nametags: -$24
• Photography (extra flickr storage): -$25
• Wedding License: -$10
• Cakes: -$178
• Wooden Sticks for Ceremony Program Fans: -$19
• Wedding Quilt for Ceremony: -$8
• Wedding Favors: -$21
• DJ (iPod): $0
• Photographers (friends): $0
• Bride's Hair (friend): $0
• Bride's Necklace and Shoes (reused): $0
• Groom's Tie (made from old fabric): $0
• Sash for Dress (made from old fabric): $0
• Fabric for Cloth Napkins: -$50
• Tablecloths: -$33
• Stamps to Mail Instructional Dance DVDs to Our Wedding Party: -$6
• Compostable Forks, Spoons, Bowls, and Cups: -$64
• Stamps (Invitations): -$20
• Water Color Paper (Invitations): -$6
• Embroidery Thread: -$2
• Wedding Dress (+Shipping/Handling): -$20
• Domain Name for Website: -$7
• Wedding Books from Library: 0
• Total Spent: $1,962
• Total Remaining: $38

Those who know me and my family know we are thrifty (some mention cheap but that seems a little harsh!!) and both my sister kept our weddings within a reasonable budget; however, this lady....I think she put us to shame...some really awesome ideas like a margarita machine make me want to do my wedding all over again!

That's it for today! Anyone got some good advice for an 8 hour plane ride?? Pass 'em on! :)
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A Night of Enchanted, Little Girls, and Making Things Beautiful

I teach a girl's group in my church called GEMS where each week we do games, crafts and Bible studies.  This past Thursday was our final group night so I wanted to do a special craft for themselves and for their mom's for Mother's Day.  So our night consisted of watching the movie Enchanted(so cute!), popcorn, and making a chalkboard frame! One for themselves, one for Mom:)

So last weekend my yard saling consisted of searching for cheap suitable frames...Here's my finds!

















The girls were very excited to get to work, though most of them were not patient enough to do several coats..just one big one, but hey....they loved it!










And at the end of the day, my door now has this beauty waiting to welcome our visitors!  I was iffy about the yellow but now I LOVE it!! Makes me so happy!











Have a great day!

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My Favorite Mom ;)

Happy Mother's Day! To my mom, the crazy ridiculous funny lady, the most supportive loving  mother, my generous best friend who would do anything I ask...no matter how silly it is, and the most creative lady I know whom all my blogging could never compare to.....I LOVE YA!   From practically doing all the work for my wedding, coming out to visit me for a mother-daughter weekend each year, every vacation you planned for us and each thoughtful gift you give....I can't express how much it all means and thank God for the mom I am blessed to have.  

Have a very Happy Mother's Day:)




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A little Cardboard, glue and paper...Fabulous!

Just getting creative with things lying around the house can have fabulous results as this week's feature blogger shows us!

Take a look over at Christie's Creative Chaos at what this crafty lady can do with a little cardboard:)  You would not believe how easy this looks to do!

Well, I'm off to pack to Holland! Have yourselves a good weekend!

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Mother's Day? Oh...Crap!

Yup, that was me a few days ago realizing that Mother's day was this weekend and we were suddenly invited to celebrate at the in-laws this Friday!!  So a new project of mine I had in mind quickly transformed into a present for my MIL:) I hope she likes it.

For my engagement a couple of years ago my sister in law gave me this  beautiful frame that had sheet metal where glass should be so that it was magnetic! I loved it and there began my fascination with different things to create with frames.  I recently saw an idea to turn it into a serving tray so I pulled out my good will find and here's the result!

Unfortunately the pre-transformation pictures were lost somewhere along the way:(  But you can imagine a really ugly drawing in the center of this frame, ok? Seriously, awful landscape...got it?


So the frame was already white but needed a little spruce so I gave it several coats of cashmere paint, an off white color and added cabinet handles to the side for carrying purposes.  Then I took the picture from the center and glued material cut to fit to it, leaving one side open to fill with batting...or in this case, fluffy snow leftover from Christmas...use what's on hand right?? That's also why I used a cut up pillow case for the material...who's to know right?  Then close up the last side and place back in the center of the frame.   I also cut a piece of the material to cover up the rest of the back of the tray, just in case someone looks:)

And there you go, Mother's day present? Check!





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Another Starburst Mirror...

No wonder I have seen tutorials and numerous DIY's of how to make a starburst mirror at home....cuz it is EASSSYYY! A friend from work mentioned she liked them so of course I thought, I can make it way cheaper!  So I did, and gave it to her for her birthday:)

Here's what it took:
1- package of skewers
1- Styrofoam half ball
1- can of spray paint (I used aluminum)
1- 1 glue gun and glue
1- Scissor
Packages of mirrors in varying sizes based on preference:)

Since I had most of this on hand, it cost about five dollars for all of it.  Most of it from your local Dollar store:)



I used the Styrofoam ball to hold the skewers while painting.  I just found this was easier than trying to turn the sticks while holding, etc...

Now cut the skewers to varying lengths and space them out around the back of the mirror.   I eyeballed it for spacing but if you are a bit more Type A than me, use a ruler and draw on the back of the mirror.

Then just glue them in place and when done cut out a piece of cardboard to glue to the back so you can attach a hook for hanging.

And VOILA!!!


















C'est magnifique, non? (Mandy, if your reading this are you proud of my en francais skills???)

Easy, about twenty minutes of work and some sparkly decor:)

Have a happy Monday everyone!  I'm feeling good as the countdown to Holland is like 12 days!! woot, woot!!

Linking to:



Sumo's Sweet Stuff
http://thepersimmonperch.blogspot.com/
Making the World Cuter

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Medieval Times

I told you that we went to Medieval Times to celebrate our 1st Wedding Anniversary so I thought I would share some pictures from our time.  It was great! We both got really into cheering for our color so it was a lot of fun:)

This is us right before leaving for Toronto:) About a 30 minute drive from our house...and yes, that is the awesome wall paper in the entry way to our apartment...I'm trying to ignore it but its difficult:)

So every gets a crown of the color of their section.  And you are taken back into the 11th Century!! Very exciting...You are each assigned a knight to cheer for and the games begin with all kinds of jousting contests and such.

The Chancellor!

Our blue Knight!  He was pretty good but lost in the end:(

Our dinner setting, minus the bowl...

Note the lack of utensils? Yes, apparently they didn't need those back then!  But, they did have Pepsi:)

And I caught a carnation from the Knight:)









All in all, a wonderful time and if you have good neighbors for cheering, it can be a ton of fun:)  Unfortunately our neighbor was crying for the first ten minutes but we had fun anyways!  If you have one near you, GO! So much fun and good entertainment:)

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