My day is Friday

Hello again friday and friday peeps :)
Guess what; we will still stay in Netherlands, why leave once we got here, right? Today we will meet Kim from viltalakim.etsy.com
who makes your world nicer and warmer with felt. That's true for sure!
Enjoy your Friday!

My day is Friday

Monday 25-01-2010

Written by Kim Nijsten. Vilt à la Kim.

I think it was 07.00 ‘O clock when my husband tried to wake me up and took this picture. 15 minutes later I finally raised myself out of my warm, cozy bed and so my day begun….. with washing and dressing up my girls and myself first before heading downstairs, where my husband is already making breakfast for the kids and their lunchboxes for school.

08.10 H Time to get the coats on and cycle the kids to school. Meg was sick today so I cycled with Janna. Their school is about 5 minutes far away and starts at 8.30 so we are well on time.

8.40 I am home again. Hubby is waiting for me curious to know if it went fine. As Janna doesn’t like to go to school…..

Now time for own breakfast. Yoghurt, muesli with bread and grapesjuice today. I love sitting here and watching the birds come and go in my garden.

09.00h now is a good time to check if I sold anything last night: No luck for me today no sales, off to the europeanstreetteamthread to wish everyone a good morning and organizing my mail.

9.20 h. I need to be at my school where I teach at 10.00h , normally My lesson starts at 8.30 and I’ll should have left the house at 7.30 then, but as I now need to go to my work on therapeutic basis, I can arrive a little later and not for a whole day but for only 2 hours. I kind a look up to going again as it gives me a nervous feeling and heartbeats in my throat… But I am no softie so here I go driving on the high way. The picture is halfway my20 minute drive through a misty landscape today.

09.40h I am lucky I found a nice parking spot in front of my school. Do you see where my classroom is?

09.45h I wanted to take a pic of my class room as well so I went straight to room 109 . My collogues where in the classroom with older students and I took a quick shot. While students were making display materials. It is a very big room and behind “my back” are even a tap and some more tables. I teach children aged 12-16 how to make flower arrangements, did you know?

09.55 h I made sure I was at “my office” before 10 o’clock as the students are having a break then and it is always very crowded in the hall ways . We have to share our computers so you drop where a pc is free, I always try to sit here as it is light and with a view outside….

11.45 time to leave , PFFF I made it, hihihihi

So happy to see Maastricht on the signs again. As that’s very close where I live.

12.15 I am at home and make myself a sandwich for lunch.. and after that I am so tired I fell asleep on the couch till 14.30h. Nearly time to pick up Janna from school. Today I had a appointment and needed to collect some things for it. You see on the picture. For 8 years I arranged as a volunteer a “collecte” for the “Reumafonds” A collecte is something very typical Dutch, I heard: People are walking from door to door with a bus (the green thing on the picture) and ask if people want to give some money for new cures for Rheumatic diseases. We collected last year 3,7 million Euro’s. It is always happening in the first week of March but As I organized it for our town, all by myself I didn’t feel good about it this year. I am going to visit 2 ladies who are willing to take that part over from me.

17.30 Dinnertime, This evening we are eating Indonesian food: chicory soup with corn , meat and roasted unions, cucumber and rice. I love eating Indonesian as my father came from there. After dinner a quick on-line check again, to see what I missed. Today I didn’t have much time as the kids wanted to make some “ fat balls” with grains for the birds before I took them in.

20.30h Kids are finally in bed and my sister came by to get a start at some new carnival costumed I am going to sew for her as she don’t know how to sew. A bit later my mother drops in too. She has more experience then me in sewing and we are trying to get as much parts out of the fabric as possible.

23.00h my sister and mother are gone and I take a last view on the internet. Which results in closing my pc on 0.13h. It was a long day…… without felting, sigh….. But tomorrow will be a new day!!

The grey day

The day starts at 12.00h in the evening doesn't it? Well I was rolling balls of yarn at that hour, very meditative I must say! At 02.15 I went to sleep (which is very late for me), so my day started very early today! I decided to try to change my biological clock and to try to sleep shorter. I woke up at 7.30 and send my bf a text message saying "good morning". Normally we would wake up together but today he's at a nerdy conference with fellow physicists. So I stood up alone.. well not totally alone... this week is very different... Litto the hairy bearded collie woke up in the same room. I'm watching Litto this week, because my mother is on holiday. This means for me that my day looks different.

First thing I do in the morning is run to my MacBook to see if something has happened while I was sleeping :) I found out that my nomination category at the Poppies opened. :) So I started my campaign ;)
7.45 Then I had a quick shower with the best soap in the world ( www.etsy.com/shop/ultimateorganicsoap ).

8.15 Now it's time to walk the dog (dog is already waiting). The morning walk is always very difficult, a big conflict of interest: walk the dog for a long time or compensate the time that I slept too long and walk not that long. But generally the first one wins, because it's best to have the dog a bit tired before I leave to work.
9.00 Normally I would go to work by bike or car, but car is broken and I feel ill, so I have been going by bus for the last week. This is not the best way though. I have to wait for a very long time.
And then I arrive at work, too late. I work in one room with one colleague. I was used to working alone, but now I love sharing a room. I generally bother her with all my stories the whole time :) and listen to her as well :). Today I brought her some Japanese tea with apple. :) Yum. She always gives me home made jam :) I get my first cup of coffeee and probably second one. Eat candy out of the jar (too much).
14.00 After working a few hours I go home, not too late, because dog is waiting. In between two busses I did some groceries and when I came home I walked the dog. The weather was nice for the first time in a few days and even dry, which gave me the opportunity to make some pictures of my sleeves outside in our small little outside place. :) Dog helped me out, by blocking the sun ;)
15.00 A quick lunch... and a good coffeeee
15.30 I had to go out again. A colleague is leaving us tomorrow and I have to buy him a trolley as a gift. So I went out and doggie watched me walk away. How can you leave him alone?? Well have to!
15.45 On my way first to the animal store to get him some more things to chew on. So I got him two toys, one bone and a bag of cookies. Now on my way to the trolley, which I found! Choosing was difficult, because they had like 50 different ones. I also found some nice letters with the first letter of my (new) surname and my bf surname! And only for 1 euro p.p. Want it! Buy it! Where to hang it? I don't know.. we'll see!

17.00 Back home again :) The canals are nice in this light :) And yes.. walk the doggie again! pfff.. soon it will be over! :)

17.15 I opened my mail and found my new etsy order that arrived :) yes yes yes :) My Black Felted Barette arrived and it's so cute! Ok now enjoying As The World Turns :) I just love watching the serie and doing whatever (generally playing with my mac) :) very relaxing :) Doggie also wants the play though ;) Play and eat his bone!
17.30 BF send me message, he will be home in 30 minutes :) So I will prepare dinner :) But first some more ATWT

18.00 BF comes home and we talk about the day that passed. He fixes the internet that was off for a whole day. Ooh! I sold a sleeve! :)

18.45 Dinner is served! (very easy almost ready dinner)

An the evening begins.. If we don't have any plans it means that we put on the TV and start working on our Macs. Two whiteys on a white couch. I also knit and bf works on his extended family tree :) Sometimes we are like 65-year olds. But who cares, these evenings are relaxed if you have a busy life. :)
We're both tired, so we want to go sleep early, but yes yes! Doggie comes around the corner again, but now it's bf turn :)

And now we sleep!

Imagine now different my day is, when I'm not babysitting the dog.

Things I didn't do and normally do/should do: write my thesis

I woke up at about 8.20. Rob, my partner, had already left to work in Amsterdam. It was dark and cold outside. The ground was covered with a lot of ice and snow. But then about 9 o’clock the sun began to rise. It was so beautiful.

I went to the kitchen and made some tea. I like to drink tea with lemon and honey while I check my online shop www.thongbaitatong.etsy.com and read and answer emails. This morning I was greeted by 3 sales.

I wrote to all the three customers to confirm the order and to tell them when the orders will be shipped. At about 10am I had my breakfast. I like to sit by the window looking outside while having my breakfast. It is quite peaceful.

After breakfast I worked on my new spring/summer piece. I designed this bolero a few days ago and came up with nice pattern. Today I cut the fabric for two bolero’s, both in size Medium. It is beautiful white cotton with rose print.

I worked non-stop for a few hours with some help of a huge mug of coffee. I love this mug firstly because it is the biggest mug in the house and secondly because it has lovely tulips on the inside and outside with the word “ HOLLAND” .

The two bolero’s were looking great. But I had to stop halfway because it was already almost 3pm and I was hungry. I still had to pack some orders and take them to the post office before 5pm. So I made some two-minute noodles. Not very healthy but fast and good enough.

After I finish making each of my products I usually hang a tag on it and pack it neatly in a resealable plastic bag. Today I had to send 7 items, mainly to the States. I first printed out the stickers with the names and address of the customers. Then I made receipts to accompany each package. It is very official and professional with my company logo, address, VAT number, etc.

Each item is neatly gift-wrapped with handmade paper and a tag saying ‘Thank you very much”

I usually check my emails and my Etsy shop every hour. It is good for me because my studio is upstairs and my computer is downstairs. I get to exercise a lot each day running up and down the stairs. I first had my computer upstairs but it did not work because I spent too much time online;) It was quite distracting.

Actually, when I began to pack the orders I knew that the main Treasury on Etsy would open soon. After finished packing I waited for about 30 minutes for Treasury to open.

I caught a T but did not fill it because I had to run to the post office. It was already 4.20. Rob came home early and he offered to drive me to the post office, which is about 5-minute away. The post office is not very far from my house, just cross the river, then a lake. If the weather is nice I like to walk or ride my bicycle there. There is a dam cutting through the middle of the lake where no cars are allowed. It is a wonderful walk in the summer.

However, last year and this year it has been cold enough in the winter for some ice to form on the surface of the lake, thick enough for ice-skating. Today we went to the post office by a car and we had to go round the lake. We stop to take some pictures.

People were skating ans the sun was setting. It was so beautiful. On the right of the picture you can see a pointing roof of a church. This church is situated across the road from the post office.

It was getting dark on the way home.

I was busy all day and I almost forgot to take my medicine. I am allergic to grass and I have to take this medicine, one tablet a day, for 3 years to build some kind of anti body against this allergy. I began taking them 3 months ago. Well, I have only about 900 tablets to go!

It has been a long day for me and Rob offered to cook. He is such a wonderful man;) He made some beef and vegetables. And we ate at around 7pm.

I was very tired;) I was thinking about working on the computer, writing a blog post or updating my website www.thongbaitatong.com but I had to call it an early night. However, I did not forget to fill the Etsy Main Treasury I had caught. We watched the television and went to bed at about 2am, after me falling asleep in the couch since 10pm… So I was told and I did not believe that.