The life of a Dutch scrapper

Reflecting over 2008

phew what a year it has been. For me the last 9 year haven't been easy. So much has happened and this year it was no exception. Here are a few "highlights" of the year:

The good:
Finding out I have ADHD made everything fall into place.

Scrap-A-Licious 2008, meeting my 'sister' Céline Navarro again, Laughing and teaching together on my own event that went soooooooooo good. So much fun to see something you worked so hard for come out just the way you wanted it to be.

My sister who got pregnant and not to long ago delivered a wonderful baby boy named Storm.
My friend Nicole who got pregnant after trying for years, what a joy. Her daughter Puck is born and they both are doing good.

Getting rid of my anger is one of the most important things that has happened this past year. I went to a Journey weekend (www.thejourney.com) and it changed my live and the way I was relating to other people that I love.

Teaching in Italy, Naples. Meeting some of the sweetest Italian girls out there who opened their heart for me and their home. Its was amazing. Getting to know Emily Falconbridge and her adorable family and walking through Pompeii with Chris and Jamie Waters, two of the sweetest persons I ever met and still so in love after all the years they have been together, beautiful to be around with.

Becoming a fashionista at SIStv was a dream come through for me, love those girls to death, truly family to me.

Quiting all of my manufacturers Design Teams. I could breath again.

Getting a personal organizer into my home was one of the best ideas I had in 2008. She made a big beginning in getting me more organized.

Getting to a ADHD group for adults for 10 weeks was wonderful. hearing the same stories that I could relate to helped me a lot to deal with many things and feelings I was going through.

Opening myself up more towards other people, letting them see the real me, the not always strong me. Letting my friends get closer to the real me, which made the friendships so much more to me. Having a group of friends that truly understand you in this Industry and who wish you well in all you do is rare to me, cause I have seen and experienced it otherwise way to often. Seriously love you girls(you know who you are ;)

Went to see Derek Ogilvie 3 times this past year and loved seeing him work, what an amazing medium and personality.

Went to Italy with my family. I love Italy have I said that before :)

Anthony who is finally doing better in school due to his medication and the NEI therapy, which is a huge relief.

Meeting Tim Holtz and Donna Downey and her lovely family this year was fun as well, what a creative souls!

Getting a dog named Issi. What a sweetie she is and such a handfull as well ;)

The bad:
Finding out I have ADHD. With the relief came also a depression, a lot that came back to me from the past and I just had to give it all a place, I had to accept me with ADHD, which was sometimes very hard to do.

Anthony going to a new school which didn't go to well in the first few months, not well at all. Depression, wanting to kill him self and such were topics of every day live. Very hard for him and us. Having anxiety attacks as well didn't made things easier. Luckily now it is going well. Getting the diagnose he has ADHD as well next to his PDD-NOS, poor kid.

I had to do a lot of self reflecting, found out that I needed to change in order to make a change in some parts of my life. Why can't things be easy, why do we always have to fight harder to gain something and to keep it good for at least a while?

not feeling creative. I feel like the last 6 months I haven't been creating from my heart and for me it shows. Something I will work on in 2009 for sure.

gaining weight again...............need I say more?

Well I guess that is it. I am actually surprised after writing this all down that I could come up with so many good things compared to the bad things, actually it makes me look at 2008 differently now :)

My blog readers I love you all and want to thank you for stopping by so often and leaving sweet and comforting comments and emails, you have no idea how much that means to me, seriously thank you! I hope to see you all in 2009!

Corinnexxx

pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.

I hate vacations. They get me out of my daily routine and they make me feel like I am swimming in no direction at all. Nothing comes out of my hands. I did clean a few rooms, which is good. And I just wrote down all the things I need to do, so it gives me some direction during the days ahead.

Christmas went OK, but I am glad it is over. I got some great books about ADHD that I can really recommend. The first one is by Benjamin Polis and is a book from someone who has severe ADHD and he tells about his struggles with schools(he went to 5 different ones), his anger issues etc. He now is in university which is unbelievable when you read his story. It showed me a lot on how Anthony thinks and acts and I understand it now a bit better.:
Dutch version
  English version
the second book I got is all about organising your life when you have ADHD. I just started but I have heard many great reviews on this book. Will have to look up how the english version is called(get back to that):
Dutch version.

So my plans for 2009 are that I will be getting a grip on things, even more than i already did. So I bought a planner/agenda where on each day i can fill in the hours from 8 am to 8 pm. I want to fill them so i know what i need to do each hour. I also will have to make 8 week menu's at least so I can pick a week menu each week with attached to it a groccery list. This way I will be able to have more control over what I will be eating. now it is often that I forget to cook and when it is time to eat i do not feel like cooking any more so we get take out, which is making me fatter each day ;). Hopefully with these week menu's also my spending money on food will increase, because a LOT is going now to that and it needs to change.

So lots of ideas and things to do for the new year.

Corinnexxx

I can't believe

it is one more night and it is Christmas already. This year I am not feeling it, the Christmas spirit that is. I am kinda sad about it because I always loved getting in the mood for the hollidays. This time I hope they fly by, is that bad to think? However I did do some things to get in the mood, but for some reason they didn't work, but want to share it anyway with you:
My table setting:
 
 
 
 
 
I have to admit that buying these things did made me happy ;)
 
Tried to do a photoshoot with the kids which was horror, thank God for Jadenn who saved the day.
 
Got Anthony this T-shirt which is so him right now.
 
Seriously this was the best I could get, sad huh, but anyway I want to wish you all a merry merry Christmas!!!!

corinnexxx

winner is:

Grundgedandy! send me your address girl and the stuff is on it's way to you, congrats! Thanks everyone for playing, sorry I can't give away a package to each and everyone of you.

I have a shitty day today, I feel cranky and tired I guess. Cleaning up my house, writing x-mas cards and doing groceries with the kids, I just feel bleh!

On the brighter site I got a couple of blog awards in the last few months and I totally forgot to mention it, sorry about that, I have ADHD you know ;)
Thanks to everyone who send me one it is much appreciated.

If you want to kick of the new year with a really good online class by my fellow fashionista Ashley Wren go check this out.

bye!

Corinnexxx

All kind of things

Ok update about Scrap-A-Licious , Lucy isn't coming, she is moving back to Brazil not too long from now. No panic, because I have a special list of scrappers that I would LOVE to come instead, so I am 100% sure that one of them can work it out and you and I will be extremely happy when it does...all I can say right now :)
As soon as I know workshop descriptions will go up and the registration date and time(remember last year, 6 am?! ;)

Ok let's see: My scrapping. Lately I wasn't into it for some reason, or at least didn't feel productive the way I wanted and creating the things I really liked. That were ME, you know. So today I took the word Strong from the OLW challenge blog that I hadn't done yet and made this lo. I love it, this is what I have been missing. hope you like it too.
 
Used the products from Color Conspiracy for this lo(check out the give away in yesterdays post).

Storm, my new nephew is doing well and I already miss seeing him :(Hopefully my sister drops by soon so I can take some more shots from him.
 
 
He is such a sweet and non-crying baby, some people have all the luck I tell ya ;)

Issi. Issi is growing rapidly and I hardly took any shots of her as of yet(don't know what I was thinking) so I took the camera today to make a couple, this is one of them:
 
It is truly HARD to photograph her, she is all over the place.

Corinnexxx

Another give away

I was asked to be a Guest Desinger for Color Conspiracy, a French manufacturer. I love their products so much and I adore their new Christmas line. Only had time to make 3 lo's so far but plan to make some more soon!:
 
 
Found this old photo of Anthony :) and had to scrap it.
 
This is also an old photo that I took when I was around 19/20 years old. I still think it is one of my favorites. It is just a part of a tree but I see some animal in it.

So for the give away, this is what you can win:
 
 
Cool huh?!

All you have to do is leave a comment in this post and I will pick a winner on Saturday.

Well, of to make cupcakes for the kids to take to school for their Christmas diners. Sigh still have to buy(yes you read that right), BUY , christmas cards to send, I know I am so bad.

Corinnexxx

USA here I come!

IEH! Jo-Anne and I booked out flights to Chicago(14-20 of January) where we will be driving with my Big SiS Diane and the lovely Martha to Nashville where we will be meeting up for some good times with JJ and many of the fashionista's, you will not believe how much I am looking forward to this!

Lots going on behind the scene with the Scrap-A-Licious event which I can't share yet, sad news but hopefully also some good news, just keep your fingers crossed for both you and I is all I can say right now :), hopefully an update soooon!

Ok let's see I just came back from NEI therapy(I believe NES in English), the same therapist that Anthony had also helped me out with some issues that I have been dealing with all my life.....Amazing is all I can say. Also there was still one thing she could do for Anthony which was amazing as well, now just wait and see :) Spoke to his teacher this morning and she can already see how medication is working for Anthony and she doesn;t have any rebounds with him, which is good news.

SISTV last day of 30% discount!!! Go check it out and if you want you can use the discount code SISFRIENDS when you check out.
Speaking of SISTV here are some more projects I made with the Girl next door kit(BTW couldn't anyone tell me that I spelled Angel wrong in my last lo :), of course I changed it):
 
 
and a card:
 
come check out my blog tomorrow for an awesome give away!

corinnexxx

It's the season

Decorated my house yesterday, finally put up the tree and I am so happy that I am done, it looks so cozy now, love that about Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas check out the new Collection The girl next door from SIStv!:
 
Already played with it and am almost done with two more things which I will share when I have finished them:
 

My fellow Fashionista Courtney is doing something so good, go leave her a comment and you will be helping out a lot of people by going so go, go, go, go.

Ok let's see. Anthony. He was reacting very well to just a quarter Ritalin at the time(3 times a day), but had a slight rebound effect one hour before he needed to get his other pill. Yesterday we went to see the psychiater again and he said Anthony could go to a halve pill each time. So today was the first day and his rebound is much more difficult. He can't take no, completely went nuts two times today, both in his rebound time. He was soooooooo angry and sooooooo mean to me. I reacted at first by getting angry at him for acting the way he did, but later told him that it probably had to do with his pillls, but I still was upset about it. I will have to keep notice in the next few days how this will progress, hopefully it will get better.

Ok what else....So you think you can dance. I just LOVE that show and we had the grand finale here last Thursday. My favorite was voted out the week prior and Ivar the one I voted for Thursday won in the end although the other guy Timor was pretty amazing as well.
Here are some of my favorite clips of the past shows:
First one is with Ivan the winner of this show:

Second is the sooooooooooooooo beautiful and this guy was my favorite Giannini:

And this was in the finale , the two boys just amazing!!!

Oh how I love photography

I really do. have I ever thought of becoming a proffesional photographer? yes I have, more than once, but I choose for scrapbooking and am just blessed to do a few shoots now and than, like yesterday for my friend Florence. Her mother turned 60 and the whole family came together in Bergen aan Zee for a couple of days(just 15 minutes from my house). They rented a gorgeous house close to the beach and Flo asked me if I wanted to surprise her mom with a family shoot. Which of course I did :)
Here are some of the family shots that I made(so much more editing to do!)click on them to get a better view if you want.
 
  
   
Bwhahahah love this shot, but of course have to crop him out later on.
 
 
 
Really like this last one.
Boy oh boy I was so happy to have at least a few good ones where everyone was sort of looking towards me at the same time, lol. Also did some of everyone alone or with their family, more on that later.

And second of course my second trip to my sister and BIL to see my darling nephew Storm again who just have become more handsome as the days have gone by:
 
 
Color of b/w?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Also made something for them with the Homebody Collection of SIStv:
 
 
This was made on the LP that was in the kit.

Oh and prizes are up and the schedule too on the Scrap-A-Licious blog!

Corinnexxx

Storm

Yeah the birth announcement is in so I can finally post a few pictures of my darling little nephew Storm,
but first the birth announcement itself:
     

Front and back folded in the middle(red is text, made unreadable now :)
 
Inside also has to be folded in the middle, but you get the idea right?! :)
The front and back where shiny and in the inside only the colored parts where shiny.
 
 
 
 
Self portrait :)
 
 
 
Not sharp and grainy but I really like this one.
 
Favorite :)
 
Peek a boo
 
Love this one!
 
My mom's favorite
 
Hopefully tomorrow it is sunny and not such bad photo weather as I had last Tuesday while shooting these, ugh had to shoot with ISO 1600! that dark.

Corinnexxx