So much Stuff...

...has been going on in my life!




On december 10th, our little daughter Lilith Guinevere was born. She is a very good baby so far - lets me sleep at least parts of the night and keeps me awake during the day. Unlike our first kid, Dorian, she's growing and gaining weight like a troll - our doctor is really happy with her!

Dorian loves his little sister dearly and I have to be careful because he always wants to cuddle her and carry her...

The LO above was done for Kim B's color challenge on DSO - For the first time I have submitted a LO for this challenge, I just didn't have time to design a kit with the baby around :-) I used various professional use products made by Kim B - I love that stuff, her last grab bag was a stunner - again...

She also has a new kit out - it looks quite sweet and ist called Hearty Tarty and 25% off at the moment. There is another kit out that I love - and I hope I'll scrap with that for the whole year. It is called "LIFE 365" , available at Weeds and Wildflowers. It is designed to make it easier to follow through with project 365. It has a ton of 2 page 7 picture templates and is really easy to use . I scrapped with it already, and while I miss the challenge of actually doing the whole Layout, I can see myself doing this every week because it is so quick. And if I have time and want to, I can concentrate on scrapping Lilith's and Dorian's Baby pictures, our christmas pics and whatnot....

Here is my scrappy week three




I'm going to try to post a little more regularly this year. Maybe I'll manage to at least post my "project 365" things.

I'm going to make a post about our Christmas as soon as I find time to scrap some of the pictures...

See you around!

Finally! I got something done!

There's a freebie for you today - I finally finished Kim B's color challenge on DSO and I've got a kit for you - I loved the colors this month :-)

In other news - we're going to visit my mom in germany in two weeks. This will be the first long drive with our new car, so we're pretty excited. We bought a Renault Modus in August and we're pretty happy with it so far - but this will be the big test. Its a 5 hour drive to Nürnberg where my Mom lives.
Also, on that weekend there will be a class reunion of my old school, so I'm pretty excited to show off my big belly there :-)


I'm almost done ith my 2009 calendar that I'm doing as a present for family and friends for christmas this year. With the baby due in the middle of december, I have to get my presents done very early this year!
If you're on a budget, a scrapbooked calendar is a pretty good, low clutter and fun to do present. I use www.foto.com to develope the calendar - I'm using a big calendar, but they start at 12 €. And I'm sure you can get them cheeper at other companies - they just have the format I want :-) You digitally scrapbook and they do the nasty work...
Its a great way to give friends and family some pictures to look at for the next year.
Consider scrapbooked presents this year - they are a nice alternative to bought presents, much more personal, fun to do and not too expensive.

So, after reading my little excursion into the world of christmas presents, here is you're well deserved reward:

Its on 4shared as usual - please do not share the link, send people here instead. I love comments, but I like them better here than on 4shared. Thank you loads!

Yes the Handyman can...

NOT!
Uugh, we had no warm water over the weekend, because our heater was being checked on Friday, and the guy told us that we were lucky that it hadn't blown up...
So I was quite looking forward to having a new heater installed and having warm water again - do you know how EVIL dish washing is when you have no dishwasher and no warm water? I had to boil pots of water... Very 19th century :-D
Well, our heater was supposed to be replaced yesterday. Luckily, we're in a rented apartment, so it's our landlords duty to get us a new heater - would have been very expensive otherwise...
They show up, don't even greet me or my son, stomp through our apartment with dirty boots, mess up our bathroom, take HOURS to get finished...
And the end result is THIS!!

They hung it up too high, now we have a huge gap between heater and bathroom tiling, and our top tiling will not fit either.


A hole all the way through the wall into our "toilet room"


I'm not impressed at all! They left total chaos! But I have warm water again. Now, if only our shower wasn't broken...

Hello there...

I am ashamed of myself, really!
I haven't scrapped over the summer, I haven't designed ANYTHING, I have not visited ANYONE'S Blog *hangs head and puts some ash on it*

Well, that said, I actually had a good reason (well, if there ever is such a thing as a good reason to neglect your friends...).
There is a lot that I have to get done before our new family member arrives! Yes, I'm pregnant again! ETA is December :-)

I've been playing around with some photo effects ;-) Here's what I came up with - its for the final round of Gaia's Next SimModel, if anyone remembers this. We were supposed to dress our Models "manly" and I went for a Marlene Dietrich look...I'll try not to neglect this part of my internet social life any further! And here is a cute pic of my son - we celebrated his second birthday in July :-)

Hello everyone,
today I have a very important message for all the moms out there. I saw this on one of the message board I frequent. The author asks us to share this with as many people as possible, so I thought I'd share it on my blog.
Her son was shaken as baby and PLEASE, PLEASE read what she has to say.

Today marks the start of National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week (April 20-26). It’s something that most people who have never had a child who was shaken overlook. They think, “That doesn’t really apply to me because that could never happen to my child.” Really? Think so? Think again. I never thought it could either, until it happened to my son.
Other people might still be thinking, “OK, well it happened to you but it won’t happen to me because I trust everybody who cares for my child.” Again, so did I. Simple trust ISN’T enough. You have to fully educate everyone who cares for your child – your parents, your DH/SO, your siblings, your best friend, their babysitter… EVERYONE. Have a talk with everyone who cares for your child – a simple talk, not anything confrontational.
Of course you don’t think they would do anything like shake a baby, but you know what? I didn’t, either. NO ONE who has ever had a child who was shaken thought that, until it was too late. Most people who shake babies aren’t violent people normally. They have no criminal record, no bad tempers… they’re normal, average, everyday people. When a baby is shaken, it happens when a person just gets to the point of being too frustrated with a crying child that they completely lose it for a few seconds and shake the baby that they’re holding, that they’re supposed to be caring for. Unfortunately, a few seconds is all it takes to ruin the rest of a baby’s life FOREVER.

Every year in the United States alone, an estimated 1,400 babies are shaken for whom treatment is sought. But the numbers don’t end there… a study done recently at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill found that for every one diagnosed case of Shaken Baby Syndrome, another 150 babies under the age of two are shaken.
These kids, the ones who aren’t shaken severely enough to warrant immediate medical attention, nevertheless can suffer lifelong problems. They are the ones who, years down the road, will enter school and have learning disabilities and behavioral problems. And if those numbers aren’t real enough for you, those statistics equate to 1 child in 38 who is shaken at some point before the age of two.

Think how many moms there are, right here on this website. I might be one of the only ones who knows she has a child who was shaken, but how many more are there out there who might be shaken and their moms will never know it? Why not stop it before it happens to your child? How, you wonder? Again… educate. Tell everyone who cares for your child of the harm that shaking a baby causes, and don’t stop there. With your husband or significant other, have a plan in place – a well thought out plan – for when frustration gets to be overwhelming. What will you do when you can’t take the crying anymore? Know that it’s okay to put the baby down in a safe place and walk away. Take a breather from the crying. Phone a friend, exercise… watch TV or listen to music.
Letting a child cry when you’re feeling frustrated does NOT make you a bad parent. Even getting frustrated doesn’t make you a bad parent – it’s what you do with that feeling that counts. No child has ever died from crying too much, but TOO MANY have died from being shaken.
Also realize that crying in infants is completely normal. Crying is a baby's only way of communicating. Not being able to get a child to stop crying does NOT make you a bad parent. Sometimes babies just need to cry. Newborns, in particular, starting at about two weeks of age, go through this completely normal period. It used to be called colic, but recently field experts have partnered together in research and found something more descriptive and helpful - it's called the Period of PURPLE crying. For more information on PURPLE, visit - http://tinyurl.com/35t2vd
Statistically speaking, biological fathers are the perpetrators most often in shaken baby cases. Men are the abusers far more than any other group. Many moms have an irrational fear of leaving their child with a babysitter or daycare provider, while in all actuality children are in much more danger under their own roofs.
Scary thought. That's why it's SO important to educate everyone your child might come in contact with... no matter how much you think you can trust them, or how well you know them, or anything else. Educate EVERYONE.
One in four shaken babies die within a few hours to a few days of being shaken. The vast majority of the rest (85%) are left with severe, lifelong disabilities. Blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, paralysis, developmental delays, seizure disorders, learning disorders, behavioral problems… the list goes on and on. Many will never walk, talk, see or eat by mouth, ever again. I know that no one here wants that for their child.

We are all on this site because we love our children and we want what’s best for them. Also realize that while it might be called "Shaken Baby Syndrome," it's not ONLY babies who are susceptible to injury from shaking. Children up to the age of FIVE have died from being shaken. Even adults in domestic violence situations can suffer brain injury as a results of a severe shaking. So please, take it from someone who has been where you are now – don’t wait until it’s too late to start educating others. Start now… what better time than during Child Abuse Prevention Month and SBS Awareness week? Talk to those who care for your children. And never, ever make the mistake of thinking it can’t happen to you. It can and it does happen every single day.
For more information on SBS, visit:
www.stopsbs.net
www.dontshake.org
www.aboutshakenbaby.com
www.sbsprevention.com
www.shakenbabycoalition.org
*Jennipher* http://stopsbs.net

Sorry...

for not posting in a while. I've just been really busy...

Here are some more LO people sent me - and I can tell you, I've got so many LO now, I don't know what to do with them!

Here are some more :-)


This pretty quickpage comes from Tracie over at http://neenysplace.blogspot.com/

This one comes form Jessica - I guess she's from Sweden. Here is her blog http://start25okt.blogg.se/

Please go and check out the following blog : http://www.smallmiracles.blogspot.com/ Kim's family has been struck by disaster - we are trying to put together a charity kit for them.

It worked! YAY!

My plan to get people to send me some LO to get the second part worked! I got a lot of really nice ones that I'll show off over the next couple of days.

this one was send to me by Dragonlady22 from germany - what a cute dog!

I got this from dawn5778 on DSO - she is really new to scrapping digitally. But I really think she's got the eye for it. I love this LO!

And this one was done by Haende - leave her some love on her Blog? She's got beautiful freebies!

My Mom has gone home and things are getting back to normal again. It was a nice visit, but you know how it is - it's always nice to have your place back for yourself..

Its a Spring Thing! (Freebie)

Hehe, I just noticed that there is a typo on the preview - I hope you're all able to live with it since the .psd file is already deleted...
Sorry, Girls (and guys!! - although I haven't seen any scrapping guys around, there are bound to be some...)

OK, my color challenge kit is done! here is the preview:

I love the colors this month, they have such a scrapbooky feel to it...
You can get this one on 4shared.
But this time, there is more! If you send me a LO that yopu did with my kit (as I said - e-mail veelana(at)chello(dot)at, comment, PM on DSO, Gaia, Menewsha..., Smoke signals), you will recieve the second part to this kit. and here is the preview:
(I know, same typo... *bangs head on keyboard*)

I really hope you enjoy my cration!
Special thanks to Shazbutt and Kim B. - I used some of their commercial use things!

Long time no see...

Hey to all of you out there reading this,

I have had such a busy time - sorry for not updating. Easter was nice - our little one was hunting for chocolate eggies in our living room (he actually found all five that where hidden for him), and in the afternoon, we met up with some of our family to hunt for some mor eggs outside. The weather was OK - coolish but no rain, so we actually had a nice time (piccies soon, I promise!)

right after easter my mom came over from germany and she's staying with us still - it's nice because she likes playing with her grandson, but still - having someone over for a week in a small appartment gets kinda stressy. This visit is MUCH better than the last ones, though...

I have a LO to share - I made this for the scraplift challenge on DSO, I used Kim B.'s lovely unda-da-sea kit. Leave a comment in my gallery?
I scraplifted shazzbuts "little miss grumpy bum" - LO for that challenge, and I'm quite pleased with the way it looks.

I have a freebie in the works - this time, it will work a little different. I REALLY want to see a LO done with my stuff, so this is how it will work.
I will post part one of my freebie on my blog (I's color challenge time on DSO, so there should be many people dling it), and I will give everyone a link to the second part that sends me a LO.

I don't care where you put it:
- put it up in your favourite gallery
- put it on photobucket (or something like that)
- e-nail it to me directly at veelana(at)chello(dot)at
- leave a link in the comments box,
- send me a PM on DSO, Menewsha or gaiaonline
- send smoke signals (OK, just kidding here...)

Its going to be a cute kit and there is a long time limit to this - I will at least leave it up until the end of the month.

See ya'll!

happy early paddy's day!

I've been really busy - this is one HUGE freebie! I had to put it into two files because it got too big.

File 1 containes paper, frames and ribbons

file 2 contains stickers, buttons and other embellishments

as always, please don't share the link to 4shared - send people to my blog instead. I love comments, btw :-)