Saturday 04 September 2010 at 16:44
Hey there!
Happy what? I know. I had never heard about it either, until Becky over at Bthrifty pointed it out to me. Apparently, cat-obsessed people like me (which I'm only slightly, just for the record, post pictures of their cats on their blogs every Saturday and then call it 'Caturday'. I know! Brilliant, right?
So here's Meneertje, letting it all hang out on the weekend!
And while we're on the topic: what are you doing this weekend?
I'll be taking the train to Holland in a minute to celebrate Valérie's birthday (woop! congrats!) and tomorrow I'll be checking out the Utrechtse Fabriek craft fair with my mom, plus, we'll be visiting the Inez van Lamsweerde exhibition in the Amsterdam museum of photography Foam! Busy busy!
I'll be back on Monday! Have a wonderful Caturday (or weekend, if you're not the kitty kind)!
PS: Check out Gemma Correll's kitty blog! A-dorable!
© Gemma Correll | www.gemmacorrell.com
Tuesday 31 August 2010 at 23:00
Last week, my colleague D. and I got to work super-early so we'd be able to leave early to go see the Moomin exhibit at the Belgian Comic Strip Center not far from our office. The center is housed in an impressive Art Nouveau temple by architect Victor Horta (one of my favorite architects here in Brussels) in downtown Brussels and really is worth visiting just by itself.
When I was little, I used to love the Japanese TV adaptation of the Moomin comics, Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka, so it was wonderful to see the original drawings and paintings the talented Finnish artist Tove Jansson made during her lifetime. Although the exhibition space felt a bit cramped (so many drawings! so little room!), I have gained a new respect for Jansson's work after having the opportunity to see her original pencil sketches and inked drawings up close in the exhibition. Some people seem to get every line just right, every time.
Sadly enough, the second part of our trip to the center was a bit of a let-down. My colleague and I had hoped to pick up some Moomin books and gear on our way out in the gift shop, but either they had just sold out of everything, or the museum lacks business-sense, because the shop carried exactly two of Jansson's books and both of the editions were in French. No Moomin-gear in sight either. So, I ended up taking a French edition of The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My home because someone had reccomended the book to me for its outstanding cutout work.
And indeed, the book is just lovely. Someone told me that Jansson was only allowed to use two colors per spread, but that she got creative with the cutouts to enhance the book's coloring and sense of depth. Very inspirational and awe-inspiring!
Link: Belgian Comic Strip Center, Brussels
Monday 23 August 2010 at 19:15
As my older (Dutch) readers will probably remember, Jessica Schroeder of What I Wore has been my personal style guru for a while now. However, every girl needs a change every now and then, and currently I'm in luurrrve with Kendi Lea from Kendi Everyday.
Kendi is a 'small town girl' who after she got married, resisted that terrible terrible urge to get started on a bunch of kids and a dog and started a blog instead! And although I'm sure she'd be a lovely mom, I'm very glad she got a baby blog instead because her sense of style (and humor) is amazing.
I love how Kendi combines casual clothes like tank tops, cardigans and jeans with more businessy and chic items. I usually look for outfits that work for a range of different occasions and Kendi is a true inspiration. All of her outfits would work equally well for work, a dinner with friends, or a relaxed Saturday-afternoon coffee in town!
If, like me, you want to make your fall comeback to the office a fashionable one, check out her blog over at kendieveryday.blogspot.com.
Friday 06 August 2010 at 09:00
I LOVE receiving emails, and yesterday I got a particularly fun email from reader and blogger Anna-Maria of The Shopping Sherpa. She awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award! Yay! Thank you!
Now the next step is for me to pass this award on to 5 more awesome bloggers, along with posting 7 things about myself. I'm passing the award onto:
Kendi Everyday - because I'm in love with her sense of style and humor.
Harika - because Samantha Zaza is one of the most talented people out there, she's an inspiration on so many levels.
Benconservato - because I love how Emma shows her readers her fantastic free-spirited creative process.
San Smith - because she has pink hair. Duh. I think people with pink hair should get awards, like, every day.
iHanna - because iHanna does it all and more, and with such positive energy. She's having fun!
And here's the 7 random things about me:
1. I have had a website since I was like, fifteen. My brother and I set up a Fortunecity homepage where we put up all kinds of random information about ourselves I would never (ever) put online today. Ah, the sweet, innocent beginning of the internet.
2. I used to want to become a heart surgeon (because it seemed like the most ambitious thing you could pick), right up until I found out that includes a lot of math. Ewwww. Math.
3. I often hold up my pee way too long for the sole reason of being to lazy to get off my chair and walk to the bathroom (too much information? sorry!).
4. Every day I save my leftovers from dinner, thinking I will eat them tomorrow, but I've never, ever actually ate them. (Yes. I do feel guilty towards all the little hungry children in Africa.)
5. When we were 8 yrs old, a friend of mine drew christmas cards to sell for money for baby monkeys in god-knows-where. We were doing really great, right up until a nosy neighbor called the police on us because we didn't have a permit. I don't think I knew what a permit was.
6. I'm mildly addicted to coffee. If I don't drink enough coffee, my head will explode. It's true. It's happened before. It was a mess.
7. I didn't draw in my journal this week and I feel superguilty about it, but I've decided to let it go. Perhaps I'll make it up next week, when I'll be chilling in the Provence in France with five girlfriends.
And that's that! Have a wonderful Friday / International Mustache Day!
Wednesday 04 August 2010 at 08:00
Yesterday evening was a special evening here at the Meneertje Mansion (where our cat Meneertje fortunately allows us to pay the rent and occasionally have people over). Not only is Danielle staying at our place in preparation for our French holiday appropriately titled 'Project Provence' (think: six girls, one car, two tents), but she and I had the honor of being the recipients of Nuria's 100th 'What I Ate' meal! Nuria prepared a lovely pasta dish with fresh almond pesto and an amazing desert. Here, see for yourself:
I'm pretty sure my body is in total carb-shock right now, but fortunately I didn't care too much, since I made some white wine with peaches to accompany Nuria's awesome cooking. It's something I drank in Italy and have just completely fallen in love with. I used a fresh Chardonnay from Carmel, California and (organic) ripe peaches from the grocery store across the street (which has a pretty nice selection of fruits and vegetables).
Hooray for good friends with very fortunate hobbies, for good friends who remain very good friends even if they do live so so far away, and for good conversations and for Chardonnay. And peaches. And pesto. Of course.
(Check out Nuria's blog and her mad cooking skilzzz over on: nuriamariarosa.blogspot.com.)
Sunday 01 August 2010 at 16:08
As promised, I sat my little (?) tan ass down behind the scanner today and scanned in my Positano pages! Enjoy!
07242010: Positano here we come!
07252010: Start of our Italian holiday! The cast:
- Asha + Simone (Ashwin's sister and her Italian boyfriend)
- The street kitties Asha is taking care of: 1) Francesco, 2) Sfinx, and 3) Stinky (who had an accident recently :-(
- Ashwin + me!
07262010: Ash and I had the day alone, because Asha and Simone were attending a funeral. We explored the city by foot and by bus and had a very romantic dinner at Da Vincenzo.
07272010: On Tuesday we went to Sorrento, a nearby town, to order Ashwin a suit. He goes to the same tailor every year, so the guy gave him a good deal! Afterwards, we went to the beach called 'Chiquetto' (I think) where we sat in fancy chairs and drank white wine with peaches (YUM!). We had dinner at 'Il Grottino', a cute restaurant nearby!
07282010: Today, we got up early and took the boat to Laurito - a secluded beach near Positano only reachable by boat. There's an awesome restaurant there called Da Adolfo where Simone worked for a long time and where we had a great meal & rest!
07292010: We got up late today and first walked downtown to buy some souvenirs and a thank you gift for my dad and his wife who house/cat-sat all week for us. Then, we rented a boat and Simone gave us a little tour of the surroundings. On several occasions we jumped off the boat to swim in the beautiful, clear blue water. Paradise!
07302010: On our final day in Italy TODOS:
1) Get a surprise gift from the boyfriend.
2) Drink coffee (of course).
3) Pick up boyfriend's new suit in Sorrento.
4) Catch a plane home from Milano :-(
07312010: Calm down.
Every time I get home from a trip or vacation, I immediately completely stress out. Ugh. No good.
Saturday 31 July 2010 at 23:49
Hello there! I'm back! Unfortunately, I might add, because Positano was absolutely gorgeous and so very relaxing, I wish our short week hadn't yet come to an end. I'll put up the journal scans tomorrow, because I'm just a tiny bit too tired to scan all of it right now (major asthma attack yesterday night up until about 3am + being woken up by hungry kitty at 7am = uggghh), but lemme break yall off with little preview (bounce, bounce, bounce*).
This is where we had our espresso each morning on the balcony of my boyfriend's sisters house. Can you believe that view!?
*Sorry!
Monday 26 July 2010 at 17:00
Hopefully, by now I am on a boat, eating tons of pasta, and getting loaded on limoncello (that's the plan at least). And of course, creating all kinds of wonderful travel journal pages. Before I left, I visited my favorite artists on Flickr to have a peek at their travel journals, and I remembered how much I adore Chris Buchholz work. See why:
Click here to see more of Chris's work!
Friday 23 July 2010 at 18:00
Just found out about this awesome website called Color Scheme Designer 3 through Ez's Creature Comforts blog! I am LOVING it! This will be such a nice addition to the Kuler website I've been using to choose color schemes for my journal pages (check out the tutorial on color schemes here).
You start out by selecting the color you want to start with, then you click on 'Adjust Scheme' to get the hue just right. If you're completely satisfied with the base color, you can play around with the various options available. It'll give you complimenting colors, contrasting colors, or 'accented analogic', which is my favorite in this case. If you're completely lost on what colors to use and don't have so much as a base-color, try clicking the 'randomize color palette' button on the top right! :-)
Enjoy!
Monday 19 July 2010 at 18:00
My summer vacation is coming up, so I've been trying to finish up some projects at work. My InDesign however, seems to think the holidays started last week already, and has since refused to function more than ten seconds at a time. Literally.
Just when I was about to throw my stapler at my iMac, my colleague and friend D. (her desk being in the line of fire), proposed that during our lunch break we might check out those vintage shops we spotted the day before. Man, did that cheer me up. Whoever says shopping is a superficial way of solving ones problems is clearly too intellectual for their own good, because BOY, that helped. And how can it not? Check out these beauties!
The blue & red dress I got at Gabriele Vintage and the yellow dress I got at Isabelle Bajart. Both shops are located in the Karthuizerstraat in Brussels and definitely worth a visit!
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