Art journaling

I received these books a few weeks ago and even though I haven't had enough time to read in them, they are already inspiring me and I've only read a few pages.
Keri suggests to start a journal. I'm one of those people who is afraid of filling blank pages with my horrible handwriting. I also have a fear of drawing. How do I start?

The perfect push I need is the Etsy Labs in Brussels on the 24th of May but when I flipped through my calender I saw that I already filled that day with activities. Boohoo!
Perhaps you can go? I'm sure it will be a blast!

What: Etsy Labs | Art journaling with Anna Denise
When: Tuesday evening 24 May 2011
Where: Turtlewings, 165 Rue Washington, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Bring with you: a journal (like a moleskine or some other kind of journal with strong paper that can be used with watercolor)
Entry: free of charge, but you have to tell Marta that you’re coming ( mpakovska@etsy.com ) and you will get a confirmation of your participation if there is enough space (max 25 participants)
Language: English

image via Dutchhandmade

Special shop

My friend Vanessa came over to spend the weekend with me. She's a kiwi living in the Netherlands and speaks excellent Dutch. Unlike me, she loves shopping so I took her to a very special shop...
Ann van De Zilverij told me about this shop a while ago and I thought it was the perfect place to visit with Vanessa. It has loads of stock that they bought in the seventies and for some reason they still have loads of that. So much that lots of it has to go at really cheap prices...
Shirts and shorts in orignal packaging and it brought me back into my childhood. How fun!
We spend 2 hours in there rummaging through all the boxes and racks. Even I loved it although I usually hate shopping.
Vanessa fitted on I don't know how many dresses and brought home two of them. They looked mighty cute on her! We didn't only buy clothing as we couldn't resist some buttons, wool, fabric and hooks and all got packaged in vintage packaging material. Haha! So cool! :)

Here's where you have to go if you want to go back in time...

Flickr Favorites

1. popjes, 2. Untitled, 3. Scarborough Beach Huts, 4. .. splash !

I can't get enough of happy colors.
They give me an energy boost and make my heart jump.
Do you like happy colors & what do they do to you?

Messy monday

Can't believe a week went by without posting in my blog. Somehow life took over and I just didn't get around writing a post... I kind of hope nobody noticed my absence but when I saw that my blog passed over 2000 blog followers, I think this hope might be idle! ;)
THANK YOU for your interest, support and being part of my community!

Today, Mariana came around to help me make a mess in my studio. We planned on making molds together. We first made a little trip to the secondhand shop around the corner to search for some cool objects to mold. We brought back lots of cups and bowls so it took quite some time to prepare 'em for the plaster treatment.
Luckily the activity is not of the kind that you have to concentrate on really well so we had plenty of time to drink lots of coffee and catch up chatting in between.And to make a mess of course. After all, that was the plan. It even followed us into the kitchen... :)We didn't only make a mess but have been really productive as we used up about 20 kilo's of plaster. I tell you, that's a lot of molds... and will hopefully make lots of pretty objects. :)

Flickr Favorites

1. scene not heard, 2. fly, 3. Painting 04-09-10 C, 4. °

Loving a bit of fog, mist, mystery!
And you?

Curtain skirt

When I saw this fabric in the shop, I knew I had to make something with it.
At first I thought a dress but then I was afraid the print would be too overwhelming so I decided to make an A-line skirt from it. It is actually fabric that I found on the curtain department but I don't really care as it's mighty happy.

It's not totally finished yet but I just wanted to show you that I can do zippers now... I don't do it the way I was thaught at school as it's too much hassle. My co-worker showed me to do it another way. I also looked it up on You Tube so that I could do it step by step and it works perfectly! YAY!
The pattern I used was from Neue Mode J 23250.
My next goal is doing the invisible zipper. Just need to find a neat pattern or project to use it in. And some extra time too of course...

The rebel's manifesto

Keri Smith inspires me.