Thanks to the peacekeepers

We made it! DH and I have been walking in Nijmegen - 4days marches, for us it meant some 120 km in total - and we are back. Without blisters and loose toe-nails, for us really better than we even hoped for! Just look how we feel after 100 km, still going strong =^)

Safe from some hardware problems checking in or out went well. For me it has been the first time I was allowed to walk a mere 30 km per day, officially declared grey wolf ;^} Not too bad for a formerly known black sheep. Only thing is that on this distance there are less soldiers to keep pace with, for me the best cure for tired feet. Maybe next time 40 km again? Who knows....

In the meantime I am busy to set up a webshop, keep an eye open! I am planning to have the shop up and running before the end of this year. Until then putting a business plan together, puzzling the ins and outs of import and export, contacting people, wholesalers and manufacturers. Sew much to do, sew little time....

Tonight we are going to a friend of ours, having her - forever! - "18 till 120" birthday party! Just like me celebrating our youth with an abundance of grey and colored hair! Only our bodies age, we don't!

sew I quilt - shawl community

Just finishing the binding on the 'shivers' shawl!

I will be off for a few days, to Nijmegen. Weather is not going to be hot ,just steaming. Rain for the next week, I really hope that there will be some sunshine in between the "clouds are silver lihihining, doo bee doobeedoo!"

I will greet all the great soldiers from the Netherlands, Germany, the States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Great Brittain and Israel! And all the other ones, who will keep our peace.

My DH and me will be going for the eezy piezee, just 20 miles a day. I am officially declared from the golden age. Its a difference of 10 kilometer per day. Less. After 4 days we'll join this little fella =^}

So we are letting the neighbours in to take care of the cats.

C U l8ter

Happy days are here again!

Never thought I would be able to thrive without drugs....

Cold-turkey'ed the uppers two months ago, and have been growing since then.

Next step will be to tackle the allergies, read something about Kefir, have to try it. That's another story all together.

And Hurray! All the wood needed for a nice little house-on-the-greenfields, where we grow our veggies, arrived last week, tomorrow the fundamentals will be made concrete, litterally!

The snails and slugs still feast on the squases, the pumpkins and the beans. We had to put a fence around it =^{ Repellent grains are no option, we love the birds and we love ourselves, eventually poison will end up in our own bodies.

Started to swap siggies, I know I am a little slow in making them myself, today and tomorrow will be dedicated to make some. At least I can find a few things again, clearing messes never has been my strong character trait! Worked on that as well lately, love the outcome, not the process however. Just a little peek of what I am working on shown here. I did some more already, but that is for another time.

Count Your Blessings!

Today I spent my time washing, ironing and folding fabrics from other people's buying sprees. The monthly hunt on the flea market was so rewarding! A few shirts, including black stripes ;^}} jumped right into my arms.
The camera problem is still there, I have to take time to go and look for a shop to repair it. The web is a good thing, only service is a little hassle through the wires and the cables. No single arm can be put through my way, especially not when the wires are optic fibers...
Its already time for a drink, tomorrow DH and me will be eating (at least the soles of our shoes) some 15 miles in the vicinity of Almere, a town condtructed out of nothing on the bottom of a former sea. Dutch!

Rest in Pieces

It's a pity, it's a shame. Just a few months old, my camera went to rest, maybe 4ever?

I have to blog without fresh pictures, and I am not that happy with it. No instructions, no beautiful updates on my beloved Dutch landscapes, no records on my plodding along in Quiltland. It has been for 1 1/2 week now, this is why there is hardly an update on Green, Fabrilicious or even at Home. This week will be filled - there is no escape - with filing, clearing and finding out what to use as follower-up to the unwilling camera. There is still some guarantee on it, but as I ordered it on the web, things have to be found out in real life =^{

Look for what still is updated on the other pages...

There is nothing like technical progress... NOTHING....

But: spring is in the air, and love is all around, I am definitively descending from my attic to the ground floor to deliver a xxxxx to DH. A good advice for all of you, but today a special hug for Lane and Rob, and any others in love!

Be well and stay well.

Books to spend time on

Today has been a happy day in the end. After a grey meeting - the subject was grey: how to construct legal backgrounds for functioning as an organization - the sky didn't clear up, but my life did!

I went to one of the candy stores I visit whenever in need of cheering up, only to hear that the workshop I thought I registered for is fully booked. Some things go wrong, other things do turn out brighter than expected. Just to say hello sometimes is enough!

And: Tadaaa! I got the books I ordered from Unruly Quilters and Scrappy Shirttails! Wait, what's the name? It was Word Play by Tonya Ricucci, and Scraps & Shirttails # 2 by Bonnie Hunter! I have already been sorting out frabrics for both of them, yummie! Go to www.quiltville.com and order them! You won't be sorry!
DH is calling, he deserves to be fed ;^} pasta & homegrown peas!

Thinking about you....

Dear oh dear! Get a little sightseeing done from here, I do know a whole bunch of people will like the pictures and the crispy-ness that emanates - advertising! - from these pictures. So, visit www.markenphotography.com
The nice fabrics, when new, are available at www.dutchquilts.com
I love my country, and am really aware why tourists are coming over. Its not the coffeeshops in the fist place, but places like these that will keep you nailed and hooked on the spot! Me included.

Drawstring bag and wrapping up

Sew, whenever you want to send anything in good shape, wrap it up in another useful thing: a drawstring bag! Very useful for sporting out or inviting in!
Just follow instruction in the presentation that will be up tonight!

2day is election day in the Netherlands, for the regional layer of our government. Cutting back on nature, education and culture seem to be the main issue for the occupants of the governmental seats up high.... while the working class is robbed - gradually, it's a salami game! Just take a thin sliver, and nobody moans. Till there is nothing left to hold on. I have a faint idea that we are rapidly approaching that last knot-in-the-rope when allowing this, and be left with nothing for our children to inherit: from pension plans cut down, to education made unimportant, humanitarian and christian values sold out. Radicalization is for have-nots: nothing to loose, everything to win. It's the story of so many a declining civilization. No hope left, no safe seats anymore,even not for members of the board. We need common sense, love those in need. Mystics tell that when Evil spreads, Nature will take revenge. There is just one answer: Spread Good for everybody. Not a single soul should be left out.

I just brought belongings from a dear friend of mine to the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam. He passed away ten years ago, may his remembrance be blessed, and things he saved in hiding during the Shoa arrived at the place where they belong. For future generations to see: how even grownups in hiding can look beyond their misery and are able to build a community from litterally scraps and tons of hope. Not hating those who inflicted the worst on them and their community. Remember to build. Remember to cherish and love. Remember that life is precious, whatever happens to you.

Be well.

ADHD is boring me.... you'll have the instruction of the drawstrin bags somewhere further in the week.... 8^{

Getting things straight

You know what? I just cut up a jelly roll, but had to trim width of the strips in total for about half an inch... wobbly sides, strips in width changing between 2 and 2 1/2 inch, the latter mentioned on the label. Do you understand that people might feel robbed by the factory? This time no selfedge-spam, but width-inflation 8^{
Finally had notification that after so many weeks the post did deliver - still have to get confirmation from addressee - my birthday present to one of our dear sister-quilters. Even tooth fairies can look crossed > **<
I spent this day filling in notebooks, time tables and procedures for personal and professional use. Maybe that I will remeber all birthdays and festivities. Be the Force be with us all!

Compu-Quilter at work!

If we could only be quilting this fast and furious ourselves!
< 8^}
This quilt, its pattern, voice-over and machine do belong to Bonnie K. Hunter from www.Quiltville.com Visit her!

Cleaning up and sorting out...

Well, the meeting (NHWB annual meeting) has turned out to be a pleasant one in the end. I went there with a flu, a real one, you know: acking back, full watery head, red eyes even with flash regulation and feeling like having the famous monday-morning-hangover-of-the-teenage-years. But it behaved well. After two hours raining (I rained, not the clouds 8^) LOL) and feeling miserable, I told it to act really Irenish, and it went. Once every few years it heads my way, hurting hard and behaving badly at 08.00 AM, and vanishing like lightning at about 14.00 PM. May all your sicknesses behave like this "friend" of mine....

The rainy days of late do remind me of what walking is about. Just like quilting: savouring what's around, and creating lasting memories. One of them I want to share with you, this picture was taken only 10 miles from here... to cherish golden moments!

The road to Haarlemmerliede

Haarlemmerliede? A village situated some 3 miles east of Haarlem, Netherlands. The building on the pic is not there, it's a "fridge" - ijshuis - in Elswoud. From about 1800 I guess. Being secretary of the NHWB, I have to attend a meeting in De Zoete Inval, a place where already more than 100 years ago a restaurant in modern times has its origin. C U back on Sunday...

finally done!

Found this picture on internet, and it says it all.... Because today I have finally done it: let the pills have their own life again, snuggled together in those cute white boxes! Save the environment, don't digest pills, at least, not these 4-a-day'sies.

No peppers, no uppers, no sleepers....

And a huge pile of torn apart shirts in the washer ;^}

Thank you Bonnie for starting this addiction! For my birthday yesterday Aunt Lucy came with half my years in whole sleeves, the other half of the bunch I'll savour when we visit her again. And.... tadaaah, a new opportunity emerged from my mail to earn a life living from scraps, will work on that tomorrow and Friday. Saturday will be the annual meeting of the walking league, for another year of secretary volunteering.

Underneath the snow that just started falling, life is color again!