Thank you for your order

Back in December, when my meditation CD was ready, I decided I do not want to send the CD out in a boring way. So, I bought gift wrapping paper, ordered some nice cards with my mandala's on them and....I found great appreciation labels on Etsy.

I am always excited to receive mail. Fun mail. Not bills. I mean, really, how much mail besides bills do we get these days?

The envelope contained...an envelope...and the labels.

144 of these little beauties. I picked them because they are little mandala's on their own.

And the colors match my mandala website.

Joy had put in a little gift as well.

And in case you wonder what it is, turn it around:

And then there was...the envelope. Ready for more cuteness?

A little calender!
All doodled months..

And little stickers to put on the calender.

Want some labels of your own now? Or stickers or cards. Then hurry to the Art of Joy on Etsy. Her service for my custom order was extraordinary.

Plaksels

Three birds Vinyl wall decal

One of the blogs I follow is Dutch Handmade. And too often they post great Etsians from Holland and their products. That's how I noticed Plaksels.

Plaksels offers tooooo cute vinyl wall decorations for your home. And while I was planning to paint birds above a cabinet in my house, I saw these birds and decided to take the easy way out. No paint. Just vinyl.

The birds came with great instructions on how to apply them to any smooth surface you wish. So I did. And if I can do it ... you can do it even better.

Google reader 'Next'!

I never understood Google reader. No, re-phrase. I never understood the advantage of Google Reader. But recently I discovered a little button of joy. The 'Next' button.

“The ‘Next’ bookmarklet allows you to use Google Reader through just one link — clicking on it takes your browser to the next unread item in your reading list (marking it as read in the process)."

It has been there since 2007, but hey...I am no internet innovator. Plus I hate RSS feeds. Yet the button is easy to install and brought so much fun into my blog-reading life!

If you like to grab yours, go to “settings” in Reader and then “goodies”. And ones installed, shout: Oh Goody!

Trees

1. January 2010 winter, endless path, endless snow
2. January 2010 winter, trees way up in the sky to catch the light
3. January 2010 winter, light at the end of the path
4. January 2010 winter, left are the beech trees, right the conifers

Mushroom (Dutch: Tonderzwam)

1. January 2010 winter, 2. January 2010 winter, 3. January 2010 winter, 4. January 2010 winter

Foot prints in the snow

1. January 2010 winter, 2. January 2010 winter, 3. January 2010 winter, 4. January 2010 winter

Except for the bird prints, the foot print appeared when I wiped away the snow in our garden. Frozen old foot prints came up, including the ones from a cat that visited the garden.

First days of January

(left to right: niece Ashley and nephew Jamy in the front, I am standing behind them, Juri, brother in law Ferry and their dog Elvis)

The first thing we did January 1 was walk in the woods with my sister and her family. Not a big success as my (almost 4 yo) nephew thought he could walk on thin ice laying on a big pool of melted snow. The dog could...he could not.

Result, the kid was wet up to his belly button and we had to run all the way back to the car because it was freezing cold. 'Daddy said I should not walk in the pool', he said when we put him under the shower. Let's see if next time he listens to daddy.

January 2.

As Juri and I did find the walk 'refreshing', we decided to try again in the woods near where we live. But, Juri is not a huge fan of walking, so within 30 minutes we were back at the car. I saw that there was a route set out in the area we walked in, so this morning I went back and followed the route.

It was a 2 hour walk and I loved it! I took quite some pictures and I will be sharing some of them with you the coming days. I took today off and Tuesdays are always a day off for me, so my 'normal' life does not start until Wednesday. Lucky me!

Snowy lock lid near our house