vintage finds | jackie boy bear

it's been a while, and i've missed the crowd. circumstances required a different approach, until i almost burst. i'm talking visiting thrift shops, baby. i'm talking, finding i'm hooked. i'm also talking, to heal myself and my longing demands, high time to hit the road. jack. 

☻ ☻ ☻ ☻ ☻ ☻ ☻ 

shop window on vlaamsesteenweg, brussels
winter 2010

there. i've done my (un)fair bit of complaining. now, let's get down to business. you're so welcome to hop along. mind. hopping is required.

boggle & co, here scrabble
i still have plans with these
bear with, bear with

these a-ones esp. for quiet paws

she might go ta-dam, ta-dam

run dmc ;)))

so glad to feel this china in my hands

and then some

scenes from urban wallony

{they are modest coffee mugz}

which brings me to jackie boy bear

he sat in a dusty corner

he came really cheap

he needed a wash, a scrub

and now he's cuddly happy again

i thought. about jackie boy bear.

until mr. right hops along?

[this sign being vintage, and real life BIG!]
couldn't take it home.

an awful lot of hopping going on here, no?

i guess, now hopping over to sophie & co.

you lot! i'm off. to yours... hi-de-hi!

corner view ≈ destination

destination uncalled for, just a random thought popping to mind. if i could make some sense of it, i would offer you a front row view. truth is, i'm at a loss. maybe for lack of direction. 

until stepping out last saturday, when i stumble upon this weathered, handmade road sign. i've seen the sign blowing up and down the other end of the street all week. on further inspection, i'm affected by its cardboard quality, a furtively jotted down ball point destination by a  traveler anxious to get out, go elsewhere or come home. only then i notice the misspelling of this town's name, and the stilted lay-out. the sign makes me smile.

in its process of decay however, the board got blistered and beaten. some end to a recent, promising destination. ☻ circumstantial theme by kelleyn, on jane's corner view, hosted by fuoriborgo

brussels central
railway station on saturday night
i was starving, does it show?

out of africa

walt whitman traveled in my handbag, the very handbag i drew in my previous post. i bet the late poet didn't see that coming. myself traveling back from the museum on an airconditioned train, i lay the hard back in my lap, and let myself be blown away. i (only just now) realize SPECIMEN DAYS was written by mr. whitman, whilest michael cunningham reapplied said title in his 2005 novel (inspired by whitman). therefore i dare to conclude, that mr. cunningham loves walt too.

however. not my intention to go on about word and poetry right now. the africa museum in tervuren (brussels) hasn't moved since i was last there on a federal national holiday twenty years ago. 

back then fighter planes flew over low, as part of the day's patriotic show off. i was so young. i was without son. it's a fickle thing we can't look into the future. who knows. i may head back to tervuren in twenty years time. (and probably get off at maison stoclet this time. i noticed it briefly from the tram window, heading back downtown).

if i'd hoped to trip over inspirational african jewelry at all on this museum viewing, i assure you, i did not. 

the taxidermic elephant and giraffe seemed smaller than i randomly recall. 

the butterflies really spoke to me this time, in fluttering their wings complacently. 

as did the beetles. they smirked even. which made me wonder on how beauty also conspires to a mere impression in the mind, irrevocably leading to personal interpretation. 

loitering from one monumental hall to the next, feeling small for colossal surrounding walls, in term oozing mahogany colonialism, i felt suddenly lost for my own little country, that simply won't settle. 

i really felt/fell. for belgium. today. 

drawing | everyday life

as much as i love this week's theme, i'd warned elisabeth this one was gonna make me sweat. but then, as per usual, i boarded a commuter train, both ways slow. i set about in an unusual place, for my sketch book lay at home. i cooled down a bit, started... doodling. 

i've had to cut and paste a little, in order to get it all sorted out on the scan (sounds pretty nurse-y, don't it?), and i advice all viewers to click and enlarge. if not, you may get lost in my hazy daily nitty-gritties. a thrift shop-a-day is no exception round here. sort of. in my dreams it is not!

 

corner view ≈ m is for ...

recap. refill. when bell and i go cruising, there's no sure telling where we'll end up. 

this time we drove past napoleon's lion, almost without noticing, but we did grab ourselves a coffee. 

our destination being the university community of louvain-la-neuve, we stumbled upon a deserted entity. uncanny how a campus university can almost stand outside of society, or am i, by saying this, putting my foot in it? 

from campus to rural landscape is but another cruise away. and bell's

madonnas, 

communion figurines and 

majorettes came vastly packed, for we had some serious shooting ahead. 

apart from a handful of passers-by and a bunch of catholic scouts scoring the field, the place remained pretty sunday afternoon undisturbed. 

that was just before we decided we could all do with a wash. a little soul cleansing goes a long way, which leads us back to image one. 

wondrous theme chosen by valerie, on jane's corner view, hosted by francesca's fuoriborgo.