end of year reminiscence, pt III {road works}

♥ ♥ ♥

as i twist and tweak sometimes, i simply can't help myself. the tinyshop business has lead me up many roads already, and the one i'm trundling on right now, it's been a bumpy morning ride, but i think i've just headed uphill. i've only decided to merge woolfenbell and tinyWOOLF into one and only spot {since it will not do tending two blogs, even if one is to play shop only}.

♥ ♥ ♥

welcome to my new surroundings. how about this for an end of year reminiscence? i'm still adapting, and coming up for short breaths, so i expect no less of youse all. {and forgive me for older posts being thoroughly shaken by this new lay out. it can only get better.} ha-howl!

♥

andenne {ceramics} offensive

le fête flamande - the flemish feast

the days between december 25th and december 31st always come pretty serene, a moratorium-of-sorts to seasonal madness. {because one does get soaked in occasionally}. so, enamoured by a contented car engine hum, we drove our way to the belgian pre-ardennes, unaware of the historic importance of our intentions.

biscuit porcelain

our debriefing by the museum conservator offered us an hilarious introduction video
(informative but dated, both on the reader's and the technological side).

art deco ceramic tiling detail

we climbed two flights of impressive vintage stairs to break into a treasure's throve of art deco finery.

detail on vase

detail on vase

[making some pictures on the sly, i am a

little weary showing these.]

while precautiously concealing most images for courtesy reasons, i simply cannot deprive you of the sight of a small terracotta sculpture by adolphe wansart {1873-1954}. the unnerving simplicity of his couple d'amoureux mystified me. if i was to express love, i'd be tacitly tempted to offer you this.

{the art deco exhibition is on until january, 8th. it is so worth a detour into the valley of andenne, which will be officiated in 2014 * to do with the great war}  

 ♥ ALL PICTURES ENLARGE GLADLY BY CLICKING ♥

end of year reminiscence, pt II

with the window open a little to mild december air, a few more takes on the wallpaper side of the house. as i'm scanning snippets i steamed off last week, ideas {to work those paper shreds into a little project or two} fizz up like bubbles in a glass of champagne. 

how do you like this,  

and this 

or an alternative map of the world, for wallpaper relics?  

ending on a soft, warm and rolling note. i should really get both these ones finished first, but someow i always come up with the same excuse: i need a proper workroom first, before i can finish any started projects. yeah right, {as tinyWOOLF sighs inaudibly}. ☻

end of year reminiscence, pt I

[son's room then]
i did push most of the stuff
in adjacent attic room
so i had space
that, and a mattress.

an itch. it's been a year exactly since i moved in, in our new, old house. son residing at dad's, two doors down, i slept in one of the two attic rooms that seemed livable and sleepable. the chaos in all other rooms felt quite confusing. but i hid, and i hid well, watching the tudors season 4 on my notebook, whilest munching away on toasted ciabatta with melting salty butter, three year old cheddar cheese and the odd glass of burgundy red wine. those were, erm, one way or another, the days. ...

[my room now]

still. so glad to be one year later ... ☻ see, i've been at it again, stripping of paper off walls. downstairs now, we're slowly and definitely rounding up. plenty of wallpaper musings ran through my head, which explains a reminiscence of sorts. more to come this week, no doubt. first things first though: front room decorations (about time) and preparing a reception of 12. no worries. just the starters... hoping fervently you are having a jolly good time. ♥

corner view ≈ seasonal

first the weeks, then the days running up to seasonal festivities; those are the moments i cherish most of christmas and the new year.

the humming buzz, the rush {i am careful not take part in}, the occasional snow drop, carol music in the street, ice skating somewhere uptown or imaginary, the smell of booze.

you get the general idea, don't you? {and i know! totally ran out of another 'y' in holidays. oh well.} ♥ this week's theme seasonal on jane's corner view, hosted by francesca.

drawing | hat {trick}

a walk amongst books, thrifting up and down aisles, who wouldn't? once a year we do, and we do it good and proper. waiting at the till a little less daunting than usual, as the cashier recognizes our local accent and joins in our jolly chin-wag. i'd taken off my hat as we were leaving, but i didn't have one on. 

my next door neighbour is a hats freak, besides a few more malfortunes. when he's walking to the station in the mornings, he does this under a cowboy hat, stomping next to a wife who methodically wanders dressed-down. his hat doesn't impress me, since that man, he has no horse! and when the couple goes out driving in their car, it's the wife that does the wheeling. a cowboy with no licence makes me chuckle. this we can not say of mister johnny cash. 

too true. i only just now saw walk the line, and the film baffled me. all the while as i was hearing these well known melodies, i kept on shrugging, didn't know that belonged to johnny! as a matter of fact i did not know anything about the man, for the simple reason he was alive and kicking his fierce life when i was just a toddler and i heard his songs on the global radio. mister johnny cash wore no real hat, but i saw it dangling nonetheless, all through the crazy beautiful movie. hell, he got me drawing one! [include this movie on your holidays-to-{re}watch-list!]. greta collects hats for the weekend. hee-haw! off to find me another one.

corner view ≈ lonely together

walking home, wondering what exactly i would throw in the skillet to brave an evening to a day filled with rain, wind and cold, i was also musing upon lonely ≈ together, whilest getting hungrier by the pace.

consider the humble pea, and how peas roll about like it's nobody's business. a pea sometimes feels very lonely. if so, it needs company of a handful of other peas. 

that shouldn't be too hard. but now. what happens if a carrot pops in for company?

kristin chose lonely together, on jane's corner view, hosted by francesca.

drawing | rush

image shown for size

glaring at a silver swan

perhaps no bigger than my thumb,

renders one humbly silent,

and still. 

image from a grimm brothers
fairy tales collection

ariane built up her rush week beautifully. it is a theme which traveled with me up and down criss-cross, which kept me focused, all while a rush came over me last nite, as i had somewhat forsaken my plight. nothing like a trustworthy poirot to remind me of life's values : solve a murder or two, and get on with drawing and stippling, unperturbed. 

did your week fly by? the swan i found in the thrift shop was so tiny and charming, i put her in my shopping basket, to consecutively forget about her existence at the till. the cashier fished it out of the basket's depth and queried, '.... this swan yours?' ☻

down the unknown path

♦ alert ♦
high alice content to this post

this morning i dared to walk the distance instead of jumping on a local train. the sun out, my heart hot with anticipation. 

already the office mornings this week held promise to a fair friday. it was not just the brussels town hall tower that glamourously lit up in the morning east blaze, 

the mont des arts did, just yesterday and 

just so glimmered the brazil europalia building (although i do tend to opt for the china temple of some years back).

today though, i found my way to a local wood supplier, and in between that job and the much-longed-for thrifting i thought i might just stray a little. 

walking, i polaroided my way through an unknown path, 

which felt like a sweet pit, or hole, if you like; meeting a succulent partridge, who fearlessly warned : no photo, no plate promise (my father was the chance killer in the house, so to speak). 

i wonder if a squirrel, perhaps, could be served, at any time....? unforgiving, i agree. ☻ but no further jokes. 

this is, quite simply, how one woman makes her way, from one place to another. any given day, the alice way. 

♦ have yourselves a rocking weekend ♦ 

i will most definitely be back

with some thrift shop goodness by sunday

♥ try and stop me ♥

lewisnluke encore

i love it. i've had some of you fooled, haven't i? i hadn't even expected this. i thought you'd gotten used to my sense of humour by now. but i'll say it once and then no more : i work at the (serious) union, and if ever these guys come dancing in our (serious) office, i won't be sitting still behind no (serious) posh desk! and i agree, the film quality of these scenes is awesome. ☻ having said that, we do have a similar parking lot underneath our offices, we do.

if you like, you can watch all advent (!) countdown songs by simply double clicking those guys.

lewisnluke

today. in the office.

corner view ≈ today you are...

susanna is the winner of the longest corner view topic title ever, isn't she? i looked up dr. seuss, and learned a thing or two,

"... today you are you

that is truer than true

there is no one alive

who is youer than you..."

from : happy birthday to you - dr. seuss

{images from 2007}

haven taken this topic rather personally, i shall now track down that book! theme chosen by susanna, on jane's corner view, hosted by francesca. 

drawing | vacation

from the V&A to piccadilly circus
to emergency buy myself a new pair of sandals
and foot lotion. overheated feet!

vacation. it is such a dreamy word. it laughs in the face of the rain pouring down outside our window. fair deuce. i love pouring rain. 

vacation is the only time i ever start a scrapbook, months before the vacation, as a source of inspiration. i hardly ever take it with me, on the trip. and it seldom gets finished afterwards. that's my style, 'afraid. on behalf of scrapbooks, that is. 

my walk from dulwich park
to horniman's grounds in lewisham

in the soon-to-happen year of 2012, yours truely has decided against extensive traveling. i will not city trip. i sometimes do not practice what i preach, but this coming year, i want to invest holiday money in a pro cooker or fridge. it's either one thing or the other.

coming back
gazing at the white cliffs of dover

leafing through my latest {last summer} scrapbook, i have also decided to scrapbook travel instead and finish a collage book already.

london skies are poisoned of 'em
♦ planes ♦
[south london area]

above are a few tracks to my last teeny weeny couple o' days spent in london. as you can see, many pages unfinished. as you may well gather, plenty of completion ahead. {all tracks open to a click}

the one thing i always settle straight off
is the {hard back} outside cover.

i will now head towards greta's adventurous ship and go see what she means by vacation. perhaps she gives away what mummy wouldn't say??!! la la lala la...☻

today's toast

today is happy friday. today there is time to enjoy breakfast, cheerfully clean a few messes up, tear the wall paper steam machine from its cave, walk errands instead of running them, go thrifting, get back to tinyWOOLF a little, day dream, anticipate christmas preparations, dress up a plain pancake into a worldly wrap.

take out pancakewrap
with greens and salmon
[to be eaten in the park, i think]

☻

it is officially december, 

and we are loving it. 

are you getting in 

a spirit of a kind? 

☻ 

corner view ≈ joy {renov # 24}

when one has been waiting 

on a leveled downstairs floor for almost one calendar year ...

... the  
feeling of j*o°y
when the floor levels, 

quite frankly, 

is an understatement. 

that's right! all that remains of the blue and red highway are the bits stuck up... ☻this week's theme chosen by karyn on jane's corner view, hosted by francesca.