Happy Halloween!

We don't celebrate Halloween as much, but I know this is a big thing for my US friends, so Happy Halloween to you! Celebrate and enjoy! (oh and share the candy, will you?? LOL)

Here's a funny Halloween card I made a while ago with a Frankenstein stamp that I got at the StempelMekka this last September. It's a stamp from StampFrancisco. The text is from Stampin' Up! I thought those two stamps were like made for each other. ;-))


This was the first card ever I made using my Derwent pencils. I love coloring with these and then the blending part. It's far from perfect, but I like the way I did this image. If you have any tips on improving my skills, please do let me know! I'm always all ears to learn new things! :-))

On the DWYTter blog they're already on sketch number 5, but here's my card for sketch number 4. Only one this time, as I was in too much pain this last week to do more.


The bird stamp is from StampAttack, also an acquisition from the StempelMekka this year. It's a stamp with loads of possibilities, and I have more ideas with this so I haven't put it away just yet.

Let me know what you think of my newest creations, okay? The comment section is now open. :-))

Hugs,
Wezz

Hello 2009!

The new year is well on its merry way, it's already 1 week old! Time just flies by, doesn't it?
Did you make any New Year's resulotions? I gotta admit, I used to do that every year, and every year come February, there was nothing left of my resolutions. I had given up. So, the last few years, I haven't made New Year's resolutions. Instead, I try to do as my grandmother used to tell me. "What you do at the beginning of the New Year, you will be doing for the rest of the year."
Well I certainly hope that's true! At the stroke of midnight, I wished my significant other a Happy New Year and cuddled and kissed him. Yeah yeah, I know, mushy and romantic, but hey, that's me! We spent New Year's Eve with friends so I wished them a Happy New Year too, and I sent some text messages with my cell phone to those who were celebrating somewhere else. We talked til late that evening. New Year's Day we went to see the family on both sides, had a good meal, drank champagne and cheered the New Year on. I beaded. Yup yup, I did! I touched my stamps, some cardstock and some ink pads. I didn't actually stamp, but thumbed through a stamping magazine with the intention to do some stamping/cardmaking soon. I flicked through a beading magazine so I will have plenty of inspiration throughout the year. I also spent some time online to send my well wishes to my cyberfriends on the various groups I belong to. I added a new Ruffles necklace to my etsy store. I've also added some earrings to the ESmarts Team Shop. My new tumbler is still tumbling, with stones in one barrel, and jewelry to clean in the other barrel. I've already taken a beading class last Saturday too! It's snowy and cold, for the first time in years we finally have a real winter here again. Let's hope the freezing temperature will keep the sick bugs away this year. They predicted another week of this cold weather. As long as it doesn't rain, I'm happy. Oh and it didn't rain on New Year's Day! I tweeted on Twitter to wish them all a Happy New Year as well! I blogged about our little kitten who just loves playing in the snow and I'm blogging here now.
I'd say the New Year is off to a good start! :-))
How 'bout you? Did you make any resolutions? Tell me, I wanna know!

Hugs,
Wezz

Patience, patience...

They say it's a virtue. But I don't know... I love the anticipation of something to happen long time before it actually does as well! How 'bout you?
In exactly two weeks I'll be leaving again for Germany to attend one of the largest rubber stamp conventions on the european mainland. StempelMekka. And I'm going for the whole weekend again! I can't wait to meet my stamping buddies from surrounding countries again! And from Belgium of course, this hobby is finally starting to get off the ground here and attracts new people all the time! heheh.... Plus all the US vendors that come to this convention! Last year I demo'd for StampFrancisco, and hopefully I'll get to do that again this year. Otherwise, I'll be helping out at their booth, so you make sure you come and say hi there if you are going to the Mekka! ;-))
But two weeks??? That means I really should start to get cracking on stamping a bunch of ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) for swapping with the other attendees. Ooh, time, where is more time?? I need you!! Badly.... LOL
Traditionally we go with a bunch of stamping buddies to a nearby chinese restaurant on Saturday evening, and last year we were with a group of 14 people I believe! No, "quiet" is not exactly something we have in our dictionary at times like that. Hey, we only get to see each other once a year too! Of course everyone wanted to have their picture taken with everyone else, and then there's all the group photos too. One with every camera... Hilarious!!
Here's a digital scrapbook page I did with a digital ALSB page from the A Study In Red digikit by ClubScrap.


It's great to look forward to this event again, and this year I think we'll be close to 20 people attending the Saturday evening dinner!! Waahoooooo!!! :-))

Hugs,
Wezz

The most recommended place

Hi all,

After staying at Fremont for the night we drove to Shipshewana. This was the place that was most recommended by my online friends, AND I got a chance at meeting one of them there too!!
We took the toll way on the I80 and in Jamestown, Indiana, we left the interstate to go a bit to the south to catch the US20 until we reached Shipshewana. It struck us as very odd to see so many big trucks on this road while the Interstate is almost next to it. We would think that heavy traffic like that would take the bigger road.
Before we had left home, we had made arrangements to meet Sallyann and a friend (called Jan btw, so to avoid any confusion I won't mention her name again... LOL... If I remember correctly it was short for Janice) at Yoder's in Shipshewana. At Yoder's we waited for half an hour wondering who could be Sallyann. Neither of us knew what the other looked like. I only knew she was coming with a friend. I had gone up to one of the store owners to ask if there was a way to page her, but no such luck. Paging in Shipshewana amongst the Amish?? I should have known better of course. They were extremely helpful though and within the mall they walked us from one place to another to say that we were "the belgian couple" just in case someone would mention something like that to them. Then they'd know who we were and could point us out. Finally a light bulb went off in my head!! I got out a marker and piece of paper and wrote my name on it and pinned it on my shirt in hopes that Sallyann would see it. I started walking around through all the stores and making sure everyone saw the sign. In the mean time Jan was getting very bored of the waiting and started studying the city map of Shipshewana. And guess what??? He found that right across the street, there was another mall called Yoder's!!!! So we went to check that out. Oh yeah, of course we had been waiting at the wrong Yoder's!! We had a kind of déja vu feeling with this incident. Many many years ago we had a rendez-vous with some dutch friends in a small belgian village at the church entrance. We couldn't possibly miss each other that way. But guess what?? There were TWO churches in that small village!! It looks like are born for this kind of funny situations, doesn't it?? LOL
When we came in to the other Yoder's we immediately saw a sign saying "hi Wezz" so we knew we were in the right place this time. :-))
Me standing there with a large sign with my name on it, and Sallyann and her friend sitting on a bench with a big sign too immediately broke the ice. We laughed from minute one and didn't stop anymore, right up until the end of our visit there!! They told us they had been so worried we might have been caught in a very bad traffic accident on the I80 which resulted in both directions being closed. So, THAT explained all the big trucks and heavy traffic on the US20!!! Guess we were lucky to get off the I80 when we did!!!
We had lunch with Sallyann and her friend at a local restaurant where we exchanged goodies. Of course, what else, right??? LOL
She gave me the nicest small scrapbook for putting in some of my best pictures of this trip and also a folder with a bunch of pre-stamped images for me to color in. Plus a magazine or two, and a stamp or two....
After lunch we almost ran to the local stamp store run by Amish. Yet another big mistake according to Jan. Our bellies were already aching from all the laughter and it only got worse, but we just had soooo much fun!! The stamp store didn't look like I would have expected a stamp store to look like on the outside. But since there are no stamp stores in Belgium, of course, I wouldn't even know what a stamp store should look like anyway. hahaha!!
Inside, the store was very well organized with the bargains right in front... (ggg)
The amish guy jokingly told us we could get bigger baskets if needed, and I was the good girl saying "no thanks, I can't, my husband is here with me"... ROTFLOL!!
I found some Ancient Page inks on the bargain table. Regular price was already less than half the price in Belgium and they were 50% off!!! Wow!!
The stamps were very neatly organized, with the mounted ones categorized and the unmounted ones right next to their mounted counterpart, so you could immediately see the image. No fooling around with a mirror or guessing what it might look like. Also very easy to see if they were out of some unmounted images. I got just a few... LOL
One of them was a squirrel, I was so happy to find that one!! :-))
Jan didn't even complain about my shopping there, and when I later asked him about that, he said "well, I could see things were cheaper there, so it didn't really bother me". HUH????? Is this MY Jan???? I couldn't believe my ears!!
I then proceeded to explain that most craft things are cheaper here than at home, if I can even get them at all. He said I shouldn't push my luck.... hmmm... LOL
The Amish people at the store were really interested to know what life is like in Belgium, how come we speak so many languages, and how come I could understand his "Amish talk" too. I believe he said it was Pennsylvania Dutch, but I could be mistaken. It sounded like german to me. But because he said "dutch" I thought he might understand me too as that is my mothertongue. But alas, he didn't, though his wife kinda did. Probably the Pennsylvania Dutch is actually "deutsch" which is german and would explain why he spoke some form of german to me.
When we were done shopping, Sallyann drove us back with her real american Cadillac car to where our real american Suzuki was parked and it was time to say our goodbyes. With lots of pictures, more laughs and hugs of course!! Sallyann tried real hard to convince Jan to come back again to visit soon!!
Well, I wouldn't mind at all!! (ggg)
When we left Shipshewana it had just started to rain. Blèch, feels too much like belgian weather!! I like a lot of things belgian, like chocolates for instance, but I'm not that fond of the rain!! LOL
We had spent a lot more time in Shipshewana than planned (more Jan's plans than mine, I never mind staying longer... LOL), but had so much fun that we didn't really mind. Especially since driving to Chicago that day we crossed a time zone and gained an extra hour that way!! Ain't that nice??? LOL

hugs,
Wezz

Hit the road Jack... err, Jan...

When we left Jennifer's place we drove through the nice scenery of Connecticut, stopping once in a while to take some pictures. Not as often as I wanted though (and this goes for the whole trip), as I can't expect Jan to stop every time I see a good photo opportunity. Kodak moments just happen way too often. LOL
I should have taken a picture of a sign that said "Adopt a Highway Program" while driving through Connecticut. But hopefully I'll get a chance to do that in another state where they have this program too. It's definitely something we don't see in Belgium!! Maybe this has got something to do with the condition of the roads here.
It's just such a smooth drive, nothing like in Belgium. There's got to be a reason for the good condition of the roads here!! In Belgium I could never type on the laptop while on the road, here that's no problem at all. I could never do any crafty stuff of any kind in the car in belgium, here that's no problem at all.
As we were continuing our trip along the Interstate 80 we really enjoyed the views. We can't believe how GREEN this country is!!! Someone had said this might be a boring piece on our road trip but nothing could be further from the thruth. Jan just loves to drive and is now really getting used to driving an automatic. I jokingly
said that once we get home after three weeks he'll need lessons again to learn how to use the manual gear box again of our own car. LOL
We both enjoy looking outside as the world passes us by. The sun is out and everything just looks so much nicer then!! I can imagine this could be a boring part when the weather is not playing nice though. But lucky for us it is!!
Even the ton of roadworks we pass along just about every route we take don't bother us as the traffic is still moving nicely. I took a wonderful picture (okay some may think this is just weird) of a truck that was behind us in the next lane. I took the picture from the truck using the rear side mirror of the car. It was black and all shiny in the sunshine. Very american. :-)
We had booked a room in a bed&breakfast type of place in DuBois, Pennsylvania.
I actually got the address from Manda, one of my many cyberfriends, and I can't thank her enough for pointing us in the direction of that place. If you ever want to go on a short break or little getaway, this is definitely THE place to go to!! Wonderful people run the Narrows Creek Inn, the rooms are absolutely gorgeous, the garden is amazing, and the breakfast... well, what can I say. It was of course home cooked and absolutely de-li-cious!!! Owner Linda brought it to our room even.
And it's only about a mile away from the Interstate 80 too, very easy to find!!!
Check it out here: http://www.narrowscreek.com/

We're just sorry that we didn't get to meet Linda's husband Henry. We were told that he's quite a character!!
After we settled in and I had shopped at their wonderful store (okay I'm running out of more different words to describe this place!!) for some gifts for the family back home, we met up with Manda, a british lady living in Dubois. She took us out for a meal at the local Ruby Tuesdays, we talked and talked like we had known each other for years and years!! Then she took us for a ride and showed us where the rich people live in that area ("Treasure something" - sorry, can't remember the full name of the place). Man, such nice houses!!!!! But not so nice prices.... LOL
Wow, and the deer just walk out on the street and in the front lawns. They're not afraid of people walking by or cars passing on the roads. They just wanted their dinner I guess, they ate all the flowers from the rich folk's gardens. I tried taking a few pictures but by then it was already too dark for that. Of course I had some belgian chocolates for Manda and a british stamping magazine. I don't know if you guys can get these over here or not (I haven't seen them yet), but I hope she likes it anyway. It even comes with a small stamp too!!
After we said our goodbyes we took a long relaxing bath and had a really good night's sleep. First time really since I got here. Guess the first three nights the jetlag and excitement still got the best of me. LOL
Btw, the sleeping is getting better and better with each day now. :-)
In the morning before we left I took loads of pictures of the garden, I already had taken some picture of the room we stayed in, and the amazing shop too!! Heheh, yep, photography happens to be another hobby of mine. (ggg)
I'm sure gonna try to keep in touch with everyone I meet on this trip!! They're just the nicest people!! Or is that just coz they're stampers?? I'm really such a lucky gal to be able to meet them!! :-))

Many hugs,
Wezz

Our first US weekend

Hi all,

well we got settled in, with alllll of our bags, and it was a lot. Jennifer can testify to that. I'm not exactly known as a "light" traveler. LOL
Besides, one of my suitcases looked like I had robbed the chocolate store and the local craft store. No, it didn't look like a stamp store. We don't have dedicated stamp stores over there.... But I did bring loads of belgian chocolate, dutch and UK craft magazines and local craft stuff to swap or as gifts for the people I'd get to meet along the way.
We freshened up, I found out that they have a polish type of shower, you know, where the C stands for Hot and the H stands for Cold... LOL... and then it was time for dinner. The fish Jennifer had prepared was just slightly overseasoned, guess that was a polish thing too, but if husband Bruce hadn't made a comment, we would never have known it wasn't supposed to be like that!! Who are we to know what life is like in an american household?? On this trip we were specifically looking for totally submerging in the american life style if possible, and if that's what they are used to, well, we'll go along with that!! So we didn't even blink and ate that fish. But I think Bruce gave her a restraining order for any further cooking that weekend since he did the cooking for the next two days. LOLOLOL
Bruce's cooking was very good, btw. More on that later. First things first.
While sitting at the dinner table we talked the night away so to speak. There were no awkward silences at all. We were all very interested in each other's life styles and compared how things worked in both countries. It was like we'd known each other for years. Which is true for Jennifer and me, but through e-mail only and that's still something entirely different than spending hours on end together in real life!!
Trust me, the real life experience is waaayyyy better than e-mailing each other!!!
Jan and Bruce got on well too, so that's a bonus for when Jennifer and I started swapping goodies and talking stamps. Heheh.

Am I going to much into detail?? I'm just trying to remember as much details as possible from this trip, and I'll probably read these stories for years to come! Hope it's not too boring for you guys though!!

Anyway, we had been up for quite some time and finally went to bed. Usually I am soooo not a morning person and I even warned the family about that, just in case, but of course I was wide awake by 6am. I blame it on the jetlag. LOL
Though maybe the excitement of going on this trip and the prospect of meeting so many of my online friends might have played a slight role in that too of course... hmmm....
But Bruce was already up too, and we just chatted and chatted and chatted over a cup of coffee... It's amazing that almost perfect strangers would find so much to talk about!!! And it wasn't even about stamping or crafting either!! LOLOLOL

For a three week car trip I wanted to get me a nice large sleeping pillow so I could rest/sleep during the longer parts of the driving, or whenever I'd get real tired. We also needed a cooler box if we wanted the chocolate to survive this trip at least until we'd reach the place where Jan's niece is staying. We have some belgian chocolates for her and her guest family of course. So on Saturday morning Jennifer took us out shopping (another big mistake according to Jan!) for the pillow and the cooler box. I was totally blown away by the cost of some things here!! I had just bought me a large bottle of contacts fluid for this trip and lo and behold, they had the exact same brand and bottle size here!! For less than one third of the price in Belgium. Duh. Of course I'd never leave on a trip without this and I didn't buy one here coz I just got one back home. But I might get one before we head back home though!! Oh, and remind me again why we spent over 50 euros on a battery recharger back home?? Oh yeah, because we needed one to recharge the batteries for the digital camera and the MP3 player, and coz we didn't know we could get that recharger here at Walmart for 7 dollars!!!!!! More duh!!!
There are some plans on getting started on a scrapbook, but I needed something to put the pages and cardstock in so I could get it home without it all getting wrinkly. So Jennifer took us to an AC Moore's. Third big mistake according to Jan. I really felt like a kid in a candy store and was again really amazed at the prices!
The 12" Fiskars cutter was on sale for $9.99; this little baby costs about 35 euros in Belgium. I have one, but was still tempted. I was good though, coz I saw that the stamps were 40% off, so I wanted to spend my money on those!!! LOLOLOL
Also saw a three pack of 3M double sided tape for the price of just one back home.
The price differences are truly mind boggling. Jennifer asked us if we would like to go to a flea market on Sunday morning. Would I LIKE to go??? What a question!! OF COURSE, I'd LOVE to go to one!!! And we invited them for lunch afterwards, as a way of thank you for taking us in for three days. Of course since we didn't know anything there we relied on her to pick a nice place. Suddenly she got all excited and started jumping up and down with twinkles in her eyes saying she knew the perfect spot. A restaurant with a stamp store inside!!! It doesn't get any better than that, does it?? Jan just rolled his eyes... LOL
Bruce's roasted chicken for dinner was like we were out in a restaurant, soooo good!!! And coz Jennifer and me were still busy exchanging more stuff and explaining it to each other, he was on his own for the veggies too that evening. Hahaha!!
The next morning I was up again very early, around 7am this time. Still waaayyy early for me, but hey, it's getting better!! :-)
We went to the flea market with Jennifer and Bruce, and browsed around. It was held at the grounds of a drive-in movie theater, and I hoped I would get to see one. Well at least I got to see it during the day, with the big screen up and the speakers in the parking lot next to the cars. At the flea market I found a leather baseball glove and a baseball as a real american souvenir. Also found the bat, but Jan insisted on "no!".... hmm.....
Jennifer and I found some interesting old books from the forties with nice ads. Some local old business directory book or so from Waterbury. Then we stumbled across some very old handwritten letters from the thirties. When I took my nap in the afternoon they all spent some time reading them, even Jan. Never thought he'd be interested in anything like that, as they turned out to be love letters from a gal named Fran to a certain guy Raymond. Fun to read and what a nice handwriting!!! At one point I was browsing through some stuff at one of the booths when I suddenly saw Jen waving with a stamp in her hand!! Wow!! I almost tripped over in my haste to get to her! Actually husband Bruce had found them, and there were several large boxes to rummage through! I got a few and asked the lady if she would make a deal on those. She took them out of my hands, held them lovingly and kept fondling them while saying to me "oh I so hate to let them go"... Duh, you're selling them!! If you don't want to let go of them, don't put them up for sale, and if you are selling them for whatever reason at a flea market, you gotta be prepared to make some kind of deal on them. Didn't get much off the price, but I still got the stamps... Hahaha!!
I know that one of the stamps I got there would cost around 22euros in Belgium, so I actually never had bought one of that company before. Sad, isn't it??? LOL

Then to top it all off Jennifer showed us the place where we would have lunch, a local restaurant that also has a stamp store inside! There's no words to describe how I felt going in there. It's so different from anything I've every seen before! I was completely overwhelmed! Jan and Bruce got bored and went outside, chatting while they were waiting on Jennifer and me to finish up the shopping. (ggg)
That evening we got a treat: Bruce's famous ribs!! Man, they were sooo good!! I should have asked him to make us some for take away lunch the next day when we would leave. Jennifer and I kept busy swapping treasures with each other until after dinner and FINALLY, we got down to stamping. It's funny how you think you have all the time in the world, after all we were gonna be there the whole weekend, but then time seems to start running away from you and suddenly you realize there's so much more you wanted to have done or said!!

Well, anyway, our first weekend in the US was a complete success and I wouldn't have minded staying longer if we hadn't had all these other plans!!
Thank you so much Jennifer and family, it was a great time together!! :-))

Hugs to all,
Wezz