CED - Weekly update

How fast a week goes by. It feels like I just updated CED yesterday, but in fact it's been a week and a half...

It's been quite a normal week. Working, cleaning, crafting and workout.
My dad still is on top of my "things that aren't usual"-list.
His health is getting worse and worse. It's getting more difficult to deal with it. I can't say to myself "He is going to be okay" anymore. Doctors are now testing him for a brain tumor. Omy that sounds very scary. Next monday they will start treatment, finally! Let's hope it will work.



The springflowers are doing nice. I'm still very pleased with it and I enjoy them every day.
At the end of summer I placed some of my garden plants inside the house. They are not winterproof. The plants looked really miserable, but this week I noticed some of them are getting new leafs. I was hoping for that and it's so pretty to see them recover.
Just a few more weeks and it will shown in the garden as well.

My husband and I are decorating our home. Sounds like fun, but it's really a challenge. I don't like his style and he doesn't like mine. But we found some wallart we both agreed on. Can't wait for it to arrive.
We need someone to make frames for it. They are big and the size is odd for a dutch frame.

I'm also making plans for my own room. That's the only room in the house I can do anything I like (he has a room for him too)It's going to be bright and full of colours. The wall already is a bright pink.
If you have any suggestions or links or whatever, let me know, cause I'm still looking for ideas.



~I am taking an online class of journaling and worked for that this week.
~I worked on my crochet blanket. It now covers my upperlegs.
~I did a lot of emailing for my yahoogroup this week.
~I made a start with sorting my photo's. It's a big task, wish I was finished already.

Homecooked soup

You need this for 4 persons:

*3 spoons of oil
*onions
*sweet pepper
*leek
*800 gram of lentils (preserved)
*200 gram smoked sausage
*1 litre julienne
*little bit of Cayenne pepper
*grated cheese
*nacho chips

You make it like this:
Slice your vegetables into little pieces.
Heat the oil and bake the veggies.
Add the lentils, julienne and cayenne. Let it boil.
Add slices of the sausage to it and let it boil 3 more minutes.
Put the nacho chips in an heatproof dish and add the cheese. Place it into the grill.

Serve the soup and the chips.
Enjoy your meal!

CED - Weekly update

And the second week has ended.
There was so much more I wanted to do this week, but hey, there are only 24 hours in a day and I need to sleep sometimes.
Maybe it's a good thing I can't do all things in 1 week. Now I have something to do next week.



This week ended with a very happy and satisfied feeling.
My family and I had a talk with my fathers doctor about his cancer. Yes, he is in bad health. The tumor is at the top of his lung and is closing his bronchus. They have also found cancer in his lymph glands. But bespite all that Doctor is going to treat him and thinks getting cured is a good possibility.
I know treatment isn't going to be easy, but I am very happy with these results.

At work I had some talks about my job. I feel I'm heading to the right direction now. After those meetings I felt very satified and they have given me a feeling of doing a very good job.
I'm happy for that too. Last few months I've had so much fun at work and I'm very glad my bosses think it's usefull. I can keep playing! Isn't it great when you go to work and think "playtime!!!"

I had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant I had not been before. The food tasted good. The service was good and my company was fantastic.
I met those people a while ago durning a training. We bounded in a very short time and we all feel the urge to see eachother again. It was so good to see them again. We decided to do this more often. I'm very pleased with my new friends.



And what did I do for CED this week. Again it feels I didn't do much, but when I make a list I did a lot again.
* I wrote a blogpost about why it's so important to have a creative life for me.
* I blogged about the Januari technique for my yahoogroup here and here.
* I made my home more cosy by doing some indoor gardening.
* I took a homemade salad with me to work every day. I learned not all salads are suitable to take along.
* I know now that doodling and making zentangles really relaxes me. It's fun to do, you don't need much time or supplies. You can do it at your sofa just before going to bed and have a good sleep after it.

So Let's move on to week number 3. Enjoy your life. Take good care of yourself and remeber this: De soep word nooit zo heet gegeten als hij word opgedient. This is a dutch saying. Translated to English it says: You never eat soup as hot as it is served. It means things that happen to you aren't as hard as they seem to be.

A cosy home

Do you know what I mean if I say I'm suffering of Januari blues?
December always full of celebrations and parties and then there is Januari. Outside it still is dark, cold and rainy or snowy. Everyday life feels so boring. Nothing to look forward to yet, it will take a long time before spring is here.
Time to take some action!



I went to the flowershop and bought some nice flowers and plants.
I took a tray to serve drinks on that I never use and made it waterproof with foil.
I did some flower soil in it and put in the plants. Some nice blue glass stones on top of it and Yeah it looks nice!



The tulips are placed in a very special vase.
I made it myself last summer when I explored the world of ceramics. It's not perfect, but I am so proud of myself I was able to make something with a round shape. It thought it would be very difficult to make a shape like that, but there are some tricks to make it easy :) And I love how the colours turned out to be. And best of all: It is waterproof!!! With no experience at all I've made a vase I can actual use!

The urge of being creative

What is the meaning of a creative life for me?
I completely agree to everything said in Leahs post: "Creativity is meant in the broadest sense, so it doesn't have to be something art related."

But why is this so important to me? And this year it feels even more important than before. Is it because I joined the challenge, becouse I feel comitted?
I do feel comitted, but it's not the main reason for this to be so important.

I've had a couple of tough years and last year I started with making a change. I learned to love myself. I don't need to punish myself for everything that goes wrong. I am allowed to make mistakes. I am worth it to take care of myself.
Changing your life vision is not something you do overnight. It's a proces with ups and downs. Being creative helps me to keep going on. It helps me to see the things that happen in my life in the right perspection.

Back to the question "What is the meaning of a creative life for me?"
Being creative is my way to express myself, to show the world who I am. This challenge combines all those things I want to do and learn this year to have a good balance between my body and my soul. The outside of me needs to be in balance with my inside.

~By cooking a healthy dinner I take care of myself. I give my body the vitamins, protein etc etc it needs to grow.
~By cooking a new dish I give myself an opportunity to explore the world a little more
~When I play with my journal I give myself time to reflect, to think about what happened. It gives me the opportunity to re-encounter the event and to see how best to react next time.
~If I try a new art technique I just feel so happy and at peace. I deserve that just as much as any other person on this planet.
~By making my home cosy I show I have a right to a nice and safe enviroment.
~Going to the gym takes away the stress of life. I take care of my body by training my muscles and becoming more fit.
~Taking a picture outside means I'm not scared of strangers who might ask what I see.

I guess this list is a neverenging list. Anything you do in daily life you can connect to take care of yourself. And THAT's my real challenge this year.

Technique for January #2

See yesterdays post to see what tutorial we are working on.



Before adding the Adirondack inkts I completely covered the foil with tacky glue. This will make your colours more intense.
I covered the wet inkt with some clear embossingpowder and used my heattool. Now there are some little sparks on top. I also did the 3D glue again.
My foil wasn't big enough to cover the whole piece of paper. So I used 2 pieces of foil. This gives a nice effect.

Technique for January #1

A new thing at MixedMediaDiva is exploring an online tutorial together. We discuss how to do it best and we experiment what other materials one can use to get the same result.
We start with this tutorial:





I started with not only glue papers, but also some pieces of fabric, a little yarn and some stickers.
I dont't have a hotglue, so I used 3D glue.



I found only 1 bottle of spraypaint in my stash. I used it and let it dry. It looked a little boring with only 1 colour. So I used aridondack inkt to colour the foil. It isn't very intense, but it looks good.



My best discovery was the effect of pearlEx on the 3D glue. It shines like there is a little lamp inside!

CED - Weekly update

The first week of Creative Every Day has ended. A challenge should be easy when it is just started, but it was difficult for me.

31 December my father went to the hospital by ambulance. He was not feeling well for some time already. We didn't know what was wrong with him, doctors where still testing him. But that day he felt down and they took him to a hospital.
We now know he haves cancer in his lung. We don't know yet if it can be treated and if it's also in other places of his body.
I spent a lot of my spare time with my dad and my family. It's very difficult to not panic and I look forward to this week to hear more testresults.

It's hard to focus on a creative, healthy life, I feel so many emotions. I come home from work, make dinner and eat and then go to the hospital. When I come home from the hospital it still is quite early in the evening, but I feel really tired and I'm just not into crafting.
I did do a few things this week. I must take care of myself.



*I tried 1 new easy recipe. I blogged about it. Give it a try yourself, it tastes very good.
*I did a lot of crochet. I'm working on an amigurumi with leftover yarn. It's my own pattern. It's very simple, I have not made patterns myself before, so it's a start. It looks nice with all the different colours.
*I've been updating this months challenges for MixedMediaDiva. This is the mixed media yahoo group I own. We're gonna do lots of fun stuff this year. Feel free to join us, you don't need to be good at it, you don't need to be an artist or whatever. We're a group for everybody who likes to swap and share some creative ideas. However you do need to write and read dutch, cause that's the language we are using.
*I worked on a monthly challenge for my group. We explore a tutorial together. I didn't have everything needed in my stash, so I experimented a little. I will blog about it coming week.
*I made 2 zentangles.
*I joined an online workshop about ArtJournaling.



I went to the gym this week. At the very end of 2010 I became a member and this week I started with my program.
My goal is to get a little more energy and find a balance between my body and my mind. I will do some fitness and some yoga.
Surprisingly I liked it, doing a workout. My muscles in my stomach hurt a little, but I feel really good. I suspected to be very tired after working out, but it's not so bad.
Part of my program is taking a sunbed and going to the sauna. I love it!

So I think I can say I did pretty good this first week. Keeping faith is hard, but I did manage to do some crafting, which is good for my mind. I did go to the gym, which is good for my body. I didn't eat as healthy as I wanted, but I tried 1 new recipe containing vegetables.
Now lets try again and improve myself in week 2.

A dish with eggs, rice and vegetables

I tried out this recipe last week. It's easy to make, taste good and sort of healthy (I think)

You need:
2 eggs per person
rice
vegetables you can bake or grill. (not cook)

You make it:
Boil your rice.
Bake your eggs.
Bake your vegetables.

Lay the eggs on a plate. Put the rice on it and on top your vegetables.
Fold the eggs with topping and enjoy your meal.
You could spice it up with some chillisauce.


I know, it's not a very adventures dish. But as a working woman it's important to me that my food is fast and easy to make. I also want to eat healthy, with a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits.