COLLAGES: From Picnik to PhotoScape

Many of you know by now that the photo-manipulation site, Picnik, that also happens to offer collage making, is shutting down in April after having joined Google. Some of us went into panic mode!

Making collages of my images instead of photo albums has totally transformed my posts for me (in case you haven't notice). I NEED collages in order to function photographically because I have too dang many images!

Thanks to Linda/Shoreacres, I now have a new collage-making site that I'm thinking is even better than Picnik. Did I say that? I've been playing around with Photoscape (FREE!) all week and will use this post to experiment.

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Meet Marius, the 3-year-old son of friends Irmgard and Wim, whom we met on our anniversary weekend, 4 February, in Zutphen, NL. He's adorable!

Because Astrid and I both have sons who grew up on Legos,
we assumed Marius would like them, too.
JACKPOT!


It didn't take long for Astrid to get him started!
These were his first real Legos...a step up from his Duplo sets.


Once Irmgard came and joined in,
I asked if Marius is a Mommy's Boy.
BINGO.


And why would anyone argue with that!


Astrid certainly didn't care!


Look at those precious little hands!


It didn't take Marius long to become a Lego pro.


Look at all that concentration...
and pay attention to the wee man on the bottom right (above),
because Marius carried him in his hand later when we took a walk outside.


It doesn't get more adorable than that.
(And yes, Ruth, it made me hungry for James Lawrence.)


Here's my YouTube of Marius, made on 29 February,
in honor of Gioachino Rossini's 220th birthday.

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With this post I end our 2nd anniversary weekend from a month ago! But before I leave...

...here are 3 gevelstenen (gable stones) from Zutphen.
The one on the right was made in honor of Wim who is an etcher!


And last but not least, here are weathervanes from the anniversary weekend.

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Since the last Jan van Haasteren puzzle, here are two more we've finished (both images are from Haasteren's site):

The Dog Show, 1500 pieces.
This was given to us by 2 of Astrid's co-workers for our anniversary.


The Office, 1,000 pieces

Zutphen: the other Zed

In my last post from a week ago (what have I been doing with my life?!?!), I told you about the first Z/Zed/Zet: Zaanse Schans. What a fabulous place in Holland! Well, here's another one, when Astrid (my partner in crime) went with me on another photo hunt east of Amsterdam, not only to see the historic old town but to meet up with our etcher friend, Wim, and his darling wife.

This is the street where Wim lives and that building facing you is his neck of the woods!

That same building up close and personal!

Maybe you remember by now that this is a classic stepped gable front. When you see it on both sides of a building, it's usually on a corner, which I love to see. Two for the price of one.

This church above is the same one below from a different part of town, of course.

By now I have found out this is a water tower and every city has it's own unique design. Look at this one from Utrecht!

The Saint Walpurga church is one of the oldest and largest churches of Holland from the 12th century. It's hard to miss it wherever you are in this lovely city.

We left at sunset after a glorious day. You can see why I'm so in love with this country. I want to explore every square inch of it, can you tell?!

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To catch you up a bit, we spent the entire weekend at Mom's, cleaning and sorting and selling and disbursing the household goods. We had help from family members both days but we are plum tuckered out. Daughter Amy fed us a gourmet dinner last evening on our way home and I told her this is when I feel my age. Seriously!

Next weekend we plan to have a yard/garage sale to get rid of as much as we can. Slowly but surely, things will be ready for the house to be sold, if possible, or readied for rental (terrible market right now!). We need wisdom as we make these decisions, because, as you know, we aren't around most of the time...and the mortgage still needs to be paid.

Miles to go before we sleep.....