double fun

some of the new greetings cards, vintage images glued fronts, cardboard stock

i seem to have committed to collaging geometrics, in the spirit of "getting rid of", and then in an elegant way. you see, my maverick mind has been the hiving hamster of all sorts of tidbits for decades...

studio, when working on the daily instagram project

although the past lead to the present, the old doesn't necessarily make as much sense to me as before.... so cleaning up the studio is finally paying off, and i am selling out on the old. 

cover-up! ☺

i have been throwing out bits and bobs over the past months, but the trinkets i cannot easily part with i am recycling. and i decided to make something from all odds and ends. 

blue geometrics

in the bigger scheme of things, i am using up card stock, vintage images (of which i have tons) and cutting and gluing away. yet another learning curve, and i may not be too handy at it ...  

yesterday's thrift shop finds

... but i'm having fun though, and the double happines comes from functional industry: a valid meditation exercise while making; handmade cards for the shop when finished. 

sint-hubertus shopping gallery, brussels

are you wondering why i'm going through the labour of single cards? well, i'm destocking ain't i... further along the process i'll scan and print, but for now : original one-offs!  

garden gnome, erm... not my garden ☺

so. if you're happy with this, then i am. before long you'll be peering into the shop and who knows, you may find what you've been looking for. for now, ...  

                                           have a wonderful weekend and a good week to come. ♥

one {disciplined} tiny step at a time

yup. my tiny booklets box!

i easily jump from one creative occupation to the next. i intend to draw and surprisingly i am painting pages in a tiny booklet. next i look up booklets in my to-finish-box. before long i am elbow deep in designing booklets. 

a tiny booklet i finished a while ago

i discover a few tiny booklets that desperately need photographing so they can hop into my online shop. and so my next step is to set up my mini studio and photograph the booklets in what tiny may light there is. 

studio photography session

because when i photograph these, and i look up my preps for the postcards i want to list, i can finally set up shop. and then i think. wait! all of the post and package razzmatazz needs to be sorted too. oh my. 

different style tiny booklet

and then i think, i so need a system, and a way to manoeuvre easily between the creative side of design, and the whole she-bang of getting an order to a buyer's door. and thus i need discipline. oh dear.

trying to keep up a system

and i suppose i could create a to-do-list, and a schedule i'll not keep to and an intention i will lose and some other chores that scream for attention and i remember how short a day is.

i will show the finished booklet later. soon

and then i sigh and i think, wasn't i happy this morning, as i was throwing some light on emily dickinson's bees poem, and i painted tiny pages that i then put together. and i remember... one. tiny. step. at. a. time. 

saturday. such fun

a very last splash of white paint from the tube 

i prepare a weekend blogpost during the week, but often i just write a more accurate one on the saturday. like today. it's evening, and it's been an interesting day, so i feel like rounding up on what was. 

one gigantic weeping willow across from the river path into lessines

i had the most amazing, the most inspiring and the shortest nature walk in wallony, just round the corner from where i live, early this morning. i set out to a thrift shop, and my alternative route paid off. 

some of my thrift shop haul

my thrifting was very rewarding too, not always the case. i found art books to take apart, a few crockery pieces and old wrapping paper which tells me once upon a time there was a Carnaby Street nearby. ☻

painting, erm... oh, what exactly? sssshhhtt... that would be telling

in the studio i am experimenting with a probable new 365 days project after the current one finishes. i've a few months left, and i usually get weary over halfway, which is like right now, and thinking up new themes is fun.

last weekend's lily-of-the-valley modelling for this week's tiny painting

so much fun that i almost lose interest in my current venture. i love working in the studio, listening to a podcast and letting the world go by. i don't mind one bit playing a bit of an ostrich.

today's mushroom, bok choi, mustard leaf, asparagus and bufala mozzarella sourdough pizza, just before baking

i expect sunday to run pretty much like saturday. that could sort of sound boring, but i'll have you know it is not. i'm loving every minute of my immersion and efforts, before monday will happen again. 

have a good sunday, everyone! ♥

travel notes

technology! i went to sleep last night, google photo library and instagram bugging me. not sync-ing properly. and i was in a right mood. on top of that, i was thinking, this won't do: getting upset by technological mayhem. 

i can't say i sorted it. i found another back door, more like. i'll just bin everything i don't need now... but hey, apart from a lousy instsgram lay out, i got my thing done. which brings me to the topic: 

travel notes. i start them when i sail, and i usually polish 'em off weeks after returning, if i finish 'em at all. but. as i intend to round up better, here's finally a few pages from my last trip's scrapbook. 

i spare you the in between scribbles, obviously. but i did enjoy sketching out another alphabet, and squeezing out the colours from my home studio afterwards. because, what better opportunity to relive moments? 

so as i scanned pages into my computer, i noticed a few hiatus. almost glad too to rediscover what still needs to be finished, because it means i'm revisiting Margate pretty soon. ah. mind travel. ...

have a great weekend and a wonderful week ahead! ♥

pattern concept, power sleep, death and birth

starting out, digging inspiration, draw

i've been learning from my daily drawings. returning to the drawing table on a set time keeps the habit going and loosens up my wrist, while my imagination and skills get a daily fresh start. 

pull in the real thing

at their worst however, my drawings feel static and i search for ways to liven up compositions. i enjoy a frill or two but don't take kindly to too much romance. 

being careful, yet loose

i want colour and composition to hone in on one another, all while i find a message attractive and the addition of a quirky element enthralling. i aim for impact but i also think beauty should prevail. 

trying out backgrounds

those dilemmas and conundrums frequently hold me in a tight grip. sometimes they gain power and lock me down into hideous self doubt. i try to go with the flow instead of resisting however.

unhappy with backgrounds, enlarging the page

i may then stumble upon a few good nights sleep and quite surprisingly i discover what the pattern is and how i'm going to translate all the separate bits into a whole picture.

even more unhappy with backgrounds, now watering down the dots, et al

one of my fixations in visuals is anything trellis: carved garden fences, elegant plant rhizomes (= roots, but i just LOVE that word, don't you?), skeletal tree shadows in winter landscapes. 

it's a birth of a myosotis flower, our late neko's († 2014) favourite

i will come back to those things that drive me. for now, a study of myosotis or the elegant forget-me-not. they've come up in the garden, after we missed them last spring. 

enjoy sunday, and have a fantastic week ahead! ♥