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Welcome to Day 23 of my Christmas give away 🙂
If you’re not sure what this is, check the Announcement please

I love cross-stitching and I’ve tried to give these images a cross-stitched look. Three frames including images and one empty frame to add a picture.

The snowmen, tree and bear are converted pixel graphics – outlines from MPP and coloured by me.

Download link:

Stitches kit 1.5 MB

Welcome to Day 22 of my Christmas give away 🙂
If you’re not sure what this is, check the Announcement please

Snowflakes Kit freebie #2

Today’s download: Snowflakes mini-kit

The WordtArt download link is in yesterday’s post 🙂

Download link:

Snowflakes mini-kit 3.6MB

Welcome to Day 21 of my Christmas give away 🙂
If you’re not sure what this is, check the Announcement please

I can’t help it, I love this mini-kit. It’s an overlay, with a snowflake frame, a snowflake element and snow WordArt. It was the perfect thing to create a layout for two of my pics which I took on New Year’s Day 2004. Apart from the roads – which were a mess and looked awful – everything else looked beautiful, covered in a thin layer of snow.

This is the Observatory in Leiden – my hometown – which is a beautiful building by itself, but with the snow it looked even better.

Today’s download: Snow WordArt

Download link:

When Snow Falls WordArt 169 KB

Ah yes books, one of my favourite subjects. I’ve promised myself to get to the point and not write a novel though, but I’m afraid I won’t keep my promise 😛

Found this meme at Scraps of Mind, Karen was tagged by Tea Party Girl.

1. How many books do I own? Can’t possibly tell for sure. Probably more than 1000. Part of them moved to the attic – as there isn’t enough room in this house for a family of four and the books on display. Here’s a picture of the bigger part of my book collection in 1990 when I lived in an appartment of my own, big enough for one person and the books on display! Many books have been added since then.
2. What was the last book I read? Hmm, I know the last book I finished was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when it came out in July. Finished it in record time. The last book I read is Chronicles of Narnia – one of the five on my nightstand. There’s always a pile of books next to my bed – in various stages of being read. When I go to bed I pick a book that fits my mood and read one chapter. Now that I’ve limited my online time to two hours a day (because of my accident) I found myself reading during the day again, which is something I hardly ever did since I discovered the wonders of technology and devoted my time to the Internet. Because of the size of the book I’m reading The Grimmerie during the day – a must have for all Wicked fans!
3. What was the last book I purchased? Harry Potter en de Relieken van de Dood, Dutch version of Deathly Hallows. I prefer to read them in English, but also found – when I re-read them in Dutch – that I missed some of the details, so now I read them in both languages. Hubby had first dibs on this one because: “You already know how it ends”, and he was right. As soon as he finishes it, that’ll be my next project.
4. What five books are the most meaningful to me? That is such an impossible question. You don’t ask a parent: “Which of your kids do you love the most” – well, *I* wouldn’t ask that anyway. But, for the sake of the meme, here’s my list, in no particular order (ask me again tomorrow and the list will probably be different):
   1. The Diary of Anne Frank. Since many members of my family were involved – and lost their lives – in WWII this story had an enormous impact on me when I was a kid. I’ve read it many times since then.
   2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I cried so much when I read this for this first time.
   3. The Twins by Dutch author Tessa de Loo. The story of twin sisters, orphaned at the age of six and separated to be brought up with family members. Both have to endure WWII, but one grows up in occupied Holland, the other in Hitler’s Germany. They meet again by chance, 70 years later, bonded and separated by their past. (You can read an excerpt at Amazon!)
   4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The book grabbed me from page 1. Me! – not interested in fantasy stories what-so-ever. J.K. Rowling introduced a world with so many clever invented words and items, I couldn’t put the book away. Though I love all the books in the series, this one means the most to me. (I have to add that I prefer the covers for the Dutch version though).
   5. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. Just amazing!
5. What is my most obscure favorite book? I’ve been looking for the translation of the word obscure and found many different explanations: ‘dark’, ‘mysterious’, but also ‘not prominent or famous’. So I’ll go for the latter and pick The Cats from Moon Cottage. It’s a series of four books, written by UK author Marilyn Edwards with beautiful illustrations by Peter Warner. The books are written with so much love for the feline inhabitants of Moon Cottage, it’s impossible not to fall in love with them. A must have for any cat lover. I’m not sure if Marilyn’s books are available in the US yet, but you can order them at her website! Marilyn kindly personalized and signed the books for me, she’s a wonderful lady and I treasure my signed copies.

Ah, why only 5 favourite books, now there’s no room for Dickens, the Brönte Sisters, Jane Austen and all the other wonderful authors. An impossible task, just what I thought!
If you’re interested, I’ve added some of my favourites to my LibraryThing

And to answer a question from Tea Party Girl:
Nope, I don’t read books while drinking tea. I prefer coffee. No cookies when I’m reading though. Books are sacred to me, so they’re in mint condition (well, almost) and with cookies comes the risk of crumbles. Don’t want those in my books!

Not going to tag anyone, but feel free to copy it to your Blog 🙂

Welcome to Day 20 of my Christmas give away 🙂
If you’re not sure what this is, check the Announcement please

Nativity Kit download #2.

Today’s download: the elements & wordart – check yesterday’s post for the papers.

Download link:

Nativity Elements & WordArt 345.8 KB