from photograph to art: painting for dummies

Although I hardly ever do it anymore, I love painting.

The way in which a few splotches of colour are able to create an image or evoke a memory, are quite magical. 

I do not think that in painting we have to strive for resemblance; in fact perfect resemblance usually creates boring paintings. 

However; while we shouldn't be bothered by not being able to create picture-perfect paintings, it is a reason why most people stop doing it. I mean: there is a limited number of times where you can start out painting and hoping to create a beautiful portrait of the person you love, only to end up with what can only be described as: Gollum with severe constipation. 

And being surrounded by people who stopped being creative just because they weren't able to reach perfect results, I decided to think of a way to get adults back into painting, and getting the fun of painting without worrying over the results.

So, are you one of those people that has ever said: " I can't paint?" Then I urge you to grab your paintbrushes, and read on! Because I've got news for you: you can! 

bleach polkadot trousers.

Long gone are the days that bleach dominated our kitchen cabinets. My Grandmum -not really known for her casual disposition towards hygiene,- would clean her entire house with it, like a criminal wiping down a crime scene.
Luckily, these days, most of us are a little more careful with such aggresive products, and Pinterest offers us plethora of ideas to clean our houses with products that don't make polar bears cry.

I've been busy to make my cleaning habits slightly more sustainable than my grandmothers' routines, and usually endeavor to stay away from bleach and its nasty companions, but somehow I had a bottle of bleach leftover somewhere in my cleaning stash. With the rate I'm using it now, this bottle will probably last until 2040, so, feeling all good and fluffy about myself and my greener cleaning habits, I decided to treat myself to a little bleach-powered refashion: polkadot trousers!

refashioned shirts: t-shirt yarn version

I'm not entirely sure how it happened.. I blinked a few times, and all of a sudden my youngest niece, Eefke celebrated her fourth birthday..

I dig it! Garden upcycling

Hi friends and other creatures!
I just started to write this post, when I thought about what this project must have been like from the point of view of Joost. You probably remember him: my long-suffering boyfriend.
I'm guessing it must have been something like this..

"You know.." I looked up from my computer to see Marije looking at me. Before continuing her sentence she smiled with what she probably thought to be an innocent smile, but what actually looked like the expression of a gnome brooding on an exceptionally bad idea. 

I sighed, putting my pleasant thoughts about work, sports and computer games aside, because in my three years experience of dating Marije, I know that whenever she says "you know.." in that way, my peace of mind flies straight out the window.

And there came the rest of the sentence: "I'd like to have a pond!" 

Of course, I should have known better: ever since Marije developped an unhealthy addiction to a BBC tv show called 'Gardeners world', Marije had been frantically digging in our garden, moving plants and bits of grass around, and planting every thing that vaguely resembled plant-life. But a pond, really?

" I don't think I like that" I tried.

"You dug a pond that last year, and it was shitty" I tried.  

"We have quite litterally finished an enormous renovation in the bathroom 10 minutes ago" I tried. 

But Marije didn't listen, having refocussed  on what that blasted tv-show said about installing a pond in your garden, and googling every picture of ponds that the world could offer her.

"The chickens would drown in it" I tried as a very last resort ( because, in fact two of our chickens had drowned in the neighbours pond over the last months, and I knew Marije -rightly- felt quite guilty about it.)  She did indeed look a bit guilty, remembering the fate of our beloved chickens 'Omelet' and 'Nugget'. But it wasn't enough: she should absolutely, most definitely wanted to make a pond. 

And so, while I reevaluted my life-choices and thought about the possible benefits of having a post-order bride instead  of strong-headed Dutch girls, it happened that Marije grabbed her spade, went into to yard, and started to dig a pond. 

far away and back home again (oh, and an easy necklace!)

Who doesn't think of him- of herself as a traveler at heart? I most definitely do: fawning over pictures beautiful landscapes, whistfully writing "wanderlust" on he back of my notepad (you gotta give it to the germans; for a language that sounds so much like sneezing, they do come up with awesome words), secretly wishing I was the kind of person that could throw a suitcase and a tent over her shoulder, and just disappear for a year...

And every now and then actually travel!

It's like magic.. floating bookshelves!

Happy new year, all of you!

Last week I read an article about the good news resolutions that people make, and was gobsmacked to find that "reading more books" was in the top 10. I thought: well, there's at least one new year's resolution I don't have to worry about!

I don't read books; I devour them, and have done so ever since I was a little girl.
I read secretly at night, I read outside, during holidays, in school, in my old tree house... I simply read everything I could lay m hands on. There's even one not-so-proud moment where my mum found me reading the telephone-book, because I liked reading the adverts in it, and the weird family-names.

Some books I read so often as a little girl, that they literally fell apart, and I can still remember the weirdest little details about them, such as what Harry Potter ate during the start-of-term feast. (a bit of everything except peppermint humbugs) It's weird how willingly my brain absorbed such useless facts, while it blatantly refused to remember any of the French grammar rules during tests.
But the general message stands: 1) I love reading, and 2) We own way too many books.