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
Friday 27 August 2010 at 00:04
Ok. Some people would probably consider one of the three options below when their colleagues start buying birthday gifts for their cat:
1) Call a therapist (always a good idea for people who own cats, I think, those manipulating little SOB's got more mind tricks up their sleeves than you can even start to imagine - you'll need the backup, believe you me);
2) Stop talking about said cat and remove all 23 pictures off office wall (and hide the little picture sitting in your wallet);
3) Thank above-mentioned colleagues and never tell anyone else it ever happened, lest they start to suspect you might actually be wanting a human baby boy soon, and you're somehow projecting all of your motherly affection onto your cat (which isn't true and come to think of it, those colleagues must probably die for even making you suspect in the first place. HIDE ALL -supposed- EVIDENCE.).
Of course, I never even considered any of these options and instead I thanked my sweet sweet colleagues, made Meneertje write them a Thank You note (but hey, he just turned 1 yrs old. It's not like he can write yet), and went on to throw him a smashing birthday party*.
Look! A real birthday meal! Nom nom nom...
Of course we got him a bunch of new toys, played with him all evening and he got to (well, did) pee on our bed. Congratulations sweet Meneertje!!!
*In my defense, the boyfriend totally joined in on the birthday-fun!
Annnnd some more pictures of Meneertje when we first got him. Because it's cute. That's why.
Thursday 19 August 2010 at 23:48
Hi there! Phew! Almost didn't make my own deadline! And what's worse than being a total and utter disappointment to oneself right? Juuuust kidding.
As promised, here are the scans of my 'Project Provence' journal pages. It's been a very eventful holiday. Packed with fun activities and good conversation (and fortunately NO allergy issues, whatsoever), but also with a lot of drama. I suppose that is to be expected when you go camping for ten days with six girls, and we've certainly had our share of bad luck last week, but I've been feeling very sad about the tensions that arose between me and others.
Have you ever been on holidays with friends that turned out different from what you expected? How did you deal with it? I'd love to find out!
In any case, journalling was a nice way of creating my own space amidst the other group members and I think the pages turned out nice. Ah, the healing powers of art! *enter dramatic music*
Have a great night + Friday!
08062010: Project Provence - 6 girls 1 van
Let the games begin! This evening, myself and 5 (!) other girls will go on a 10-day camping trip to the Provence in France. I am SO excited!
0807/082010: After a long, long journey, we arrived at the very beautiful campsite along the river Verdon. The first night was difficult for me, my spoilt back not being used to the hard ground and sleeping in a tent. My back hurt a lot. Fortunately, we did enjoy the cool river water.
08092010: On Monday, we went to Castellane - the town closest to our campsite and explored the options in our 'neighborhood' of the province.
09092010: 'A cheesy detour'
On Tuesday we went to a cheese-makery, that turned out not to be as close to our campsite as we had guessed and when the factory-tourguide went missing, the whole thing turned out to be kind of a let-down. Fortunately, the cheese was still really good. Unfortunately, on our way back, we stopped to see if we could help two motor cyclist who had gotten into an accident. I got out to see, but when I got back in (they were fine), I bumped my head really bad. For a minute there, I thought I really had a concussion, but fortunately after a day, the pain went away.
08112010: Market Day @ Castellane
Today, we spent most of our day in Castellane, doing groceries at the local market! Awesome!
08122010: Randon Aqua > And then, you die.
On Thursday, we went to do a 'randon aqua' (aqua trekking) with our hilarious guide 'Tof' (short for Christoph we guessed), who kept trying to scare us while we had to float down rapids, jump off rocks and swim underneath rocks and trees through the canyon of the Verdon. I had SO much fun. This was definitely the highlight of my holiday. Unfortunately, Bic hurt her foot really bad when going down a rapid. Very sucky.
08132010: Today we went to Grasse, to visit the Fragonard perfume factory, which was really great! We learned all about perfumes, eau de toilettes, their makeup and the production process. Fascinating!
08142010: An eventful day @ Aix-en-Provence.
Oh my, what a day. 1) We had to say goodbye to one of our group-members, Mar. 2) We had lots of rain and fighting at Aix-en-Provence (a BEAUTIFUL city despite both of these things), and 3) We ended with a nice dinner at Le Zinq d'Hugo, thanks Rick Steves for the great tips!
08152010: Bad luck (+ muddy) central!
This has not been an easy holiday, and when we came home last night, our campsite was flooded by the rain. Seems the drama isn't over yet. Today, while we tried to clean up the campsite and rest a bit, there was also more fighting and disagreement. I wish this wasn't happening.
08162010: An emotional hangover
For me, today was all about processing the emotional things that happened in our little group yesterday. So, I kind of detached from the group and drew a lot. The other girls went horseback riding (I'm allergic to horses and couldn't go) and it was nice to have the time to myself before we go home tomorrow.
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.
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!
Thursday 22 July 2010 at 23:09
The fun thing of keeping a visual journal, and keeping a visual journal for a while, is being able to look back, literally, through time. Today I was looking back through all the scans on my Flickr account and I noticed I had some pretty exciting birthdays these past few years!
In 2010 I celebrated my birthday in London with my boyfriend! But, I also threw an afternoon birthday party in our new Brussels home, where I got spoiled rotten.
In 2009 I celebrated at home with my dad (where I then stayed) and boyfriend and I got a Nikon D60 for my birthday (awesomenessss). But, I also threw a Beards & Moustaches party for my friends at my mom's house.
In 2008 I kept it simple and celebrated my birthday in Paris! City of love! But, a girl can't go without celebrating and I went out on the town with my friends!
In 2007 I came to visit my boyfriend who was then studying in California. I got to celebrate my birthday three times that year. Once, on the airplane, once in California eating fancy desert with good friends and my boyfriend, and once together with my brother during a sunny outdoor picnic.
I love how you can truly see my style develop and change over these few short years. Yay! for keeping a visual journal (is the propaganda working yet? No? You should take my course this fall!).
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!
Sunday 18 July 2010 at 22:00
Sorry for abandoning you like this! As some of you have noticed from my Facebook and Twitter-messages, my grandpa passed away last week. With all the traveling back and forth between Utrecht and Brussels, keeping up the blog has been a little difficult. I had another post scheduled about vintage dresses, which I will put online tomorrow. I'd like to thank all of you for your kind messages, texts, emails and comments.
Last Thursday evening (July 15th) my grandpa has finally found peace. He passed away without much pain, for the first time in a very long time. He'll be buried next week and this weekend I went to see his body with my family, which was weird, sad, and awful at the same time.
Saturday 10 July 2010 at 00:52
Thank you everyone for your sweet comments and well-wishes on the post about my grandpa. It seems to have worked, since my grandpa is (very) slowly recovering, although he'll probably never get back to where was (which wasn't a very good place to begin with). It's hard to see someone you care about suffer like that and most of all I wish him as little pain as possible.
I'm now back in Brussels and pleased to have some good news for you this time.
This fall I'll be teaching art journaling classes at the Turtlewings atelier in Brussels! YAAAYYYYY!!! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this.
Art Journaling Course
I'll be teaching one full day course for adults on October 9th (10-16h). Think this tutorial but in real life + fun times + lunch + awesome supplies! I'll be explaining some of the different techniques out there, give you some tips and quick tricks to make your pages and layouts look good, we'll figure out what kind of journal you'd like to keep, and we'll all be working on journal pages together.
Art Journal DIT
Then, I'll also be teaching a 'do it together' art journaling course for parents and children (aged 8-14) together with Turtlewing's wonderful Julie Anne. This course will take place on four consecutive Saturday-mornings (10-12h) in November (term begins the 6th and ends the 27th) and we'll be exploring how keeping an art journal can enrich your child's and your own creative life and manner of communicating.
You can sign up through Turtlewings (click here for the form) and if you sign up before September 4th, you get an early bird discount (which means €126,- instead of €140,- for the adult course and €108,- instead of €120,- for the DIT course).
I can't wait! :-)
Previous 10 entries
