Today, I present you all the spreads that I did not show you last year and the end-page that finishes each Chronicles journal. Enjoy!

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 49
I was busy doing other things that week so I glued some big magazine-photos on the pages and added my notes for that week… not a fancy page but my Chronicles art journal is primary for preserving memories and this is just another way to do that.

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 50
My mum send me the paper article about an exhibit in the neighborhood: textile in art, books and art journals. The article was very promising so mum and I went to see the exhibit… we spend quite some times in that art gallery. We were allowed to flip through the journals and it was one inspiring afternoon. I loved it!

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 51
The December month was rather warm, with temperatures above zero, rain and wind. Not “winterish”” and definitely not “Christmasish” at all. So in week 51 I looked for pictures in magazines to give the background of this spread that Christmas touch….

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 52
The last week of the year was all about the Top 2000 and my blogparty… the busiest week of the year! Also because it was my beloved’s birthday, my son came to visit and I hosted a creative Top 2000 afternoon. The small John Lennon card was given to me by Yvonne Koops & Monika, who joined in on the creative afternoon.

I always have one spread left in my Chronicles at the end of the year (that has to do with the number of weeks and signatures) and it’s become a habit to print out pictures of the pages I made during the Top 2000 party. If you want to take a good look at this Top 2000 journal and it’s content, I recommend you view the photos in this gallery on my website.

Another ritual: I always glue a photo of myself on the last page…. and like every year, I don’t like how I look on the photo. I probably will like it when I look back on it next year – that happens to me every time: I hate the photo and I kinda like the photo from the year before. I guess that’s what comes with ‘getting older.’

You may have seen the Chronicles journal I bound for 2017? I’m working on the first page right now – the page that shows my word of the year. I’ll blog about that soon and also show photo’s of all my art journals…a huge stack indeed! [See, I haven’t forgotten Michelle 😉 ]

So this is the last ‘regular’ blogpost I will write this year… and I have some ‘loose ends’ to show. I am behind with my Chronicles spreads, these are the last ones I created last week – I will have to work on the last spreads/weeks in the New Year then.

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 47

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 48

And that’s it dear ones… come back on Sunday (and every day next week) to see the art that was created with the music from the Top 2000 and if you love music, you might want to play along with us. (If so, you can find all the info by clicking the button in the top menu.) It’s fun and it’s free!

I wish you all beautiful days!
Don’t stress too much.
Keep cool,
sing a song

“Keep on rockin’ in the free world.”

I didn’t create much lately… my days were filled with appointments including a morning in the hospital, where my beloved had eye (cataract) surgery. It went well and his sight is much better now.

I might unconscious have had the surgery in my mind when I created this spread for week 46…

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 46

It is not uncommon that I unknowingly digest topics in my art journal which bother me or that are – latent – on my mind. I only notice it on the pages afterwards. I don’t see my art journals as ‘therapy’ but I guess they serve that function too. What is your experience with that?

We are rapidly moving towards the end of the year, my Chronicles art journal has only 4 spreads to go before it’s full so at the moment I am binding a new journal for 2017. I always do that at the beginning of December because the last weeks of the year will be filled with Top 2000 creating and posting. In fact, the Top 2000 posting has already begun, because I publish an ‘oldie’ from the archives in the Top 2000 blogparty Facebook group daily right up to Christmas.

I will of course show the last spreads that I create in this year’s Chronicles on my blog and I plan to photograph the whole stack of Chronicles art journals at the beginning of 2017 (thanks for asking Michelle.) It’s a wonderful, colorful, creative bunch of journals which makes my heart sing every time I look at it.

I wish you all a lovely week. Stay warm and cosy and for the ones in the Netherlands who celebrate: happy ‘Sinterklaas’.

WOYWW #391

Most deskers have all kinds of Christmas stuff laying on their desk but not me, no. I may create a few “New Year cards” for my most loved ones but I will not bother to create a whole bunch of Christmas cards… the postal costs are just too high to send cards to everyone.

Next, I have an art journal spread to show. Week 45 (three weeks ago) was the week in which a lot happened: my son received his degree (bachelor of science, artificial intelligence) Trump got elected and Leonard Cohen died…

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 45

The top photo (left) show my son while he was spoken to by a professor of the University. The other photo shows my son with his dad and me… pretty special, ’cause I don’t see his father much (he lives somewhere else.)

A full week, and then I heard that Leonard Cohen had died. So I added an extra page to my journal to create a tribute-page.

I added a (plastic) pocket to the page for keeping the articles from the newspapers.

It’s cold outside and I plan to spendmost of the day in my atelier, creating and visit other ‘deskers’ that participate in woyww. What’s On My Work desk Wednesday is a weekly blog hop hosted by Julia Dunnit.  She has the rules and regulations posted on her blog if you would like to hop along with us. We just take a photo of our work space and blog about it and then link to Julia’s blog.  It’s really easy and lots of fun and you can visit with so many wonderful bloggers. There is a lot of talent and inspiration to be found around the world.

Thanks for your visit and have an inspiring week.

Enough with the shouting now… and on to today.
Just an ordinary Wednesday, and here’s how my desk looks

WOYWW #390

I’m a bit behind with showing my ‘Chronicles’ spreads. You probably saw this one laying on my desk two weeks ago when I was working on it

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 44

While going through my journals to look something up, I found an old ATC that I forgot about. I created it last June for a tutorial (that only the subscribers of my newsletter got to see) and I think it is a good one to end this blogpost with, as the outlined word says “waving.”

Waving at you, dear reader, thanks for stopping by!

I’ve been away from the internet for a while… and I was even longer absent in the haiku-circle. I planned a haiku-post last week but the news of Leonard Cohen’s death hit me hard and I couldn’t do more than post the images of my Leonard Cohen art journal again (see last week’s post.)

The week passed by.
Cohen’s music filled the room and outside my window, seagulls screamed.

I needed to withdraw from the online world for a while, hiding and spending time with my beloved. But now I’m back online. Blogging. Waving.

Leonard Cohen died, the election in the USA has shocked me but I’m back in my atelier picking up the pieces, moving on and connecting with the Haiku My Heart circle again.

And then there’s some spreads from the ‘Chronicles’ art journal that I have not shown you before. It’s odd, that the first spread is all about Cohen’s latest album…

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 42

I added the review from the newspaper to my page that you can flip…

… the text on the back says: “What a wonderful, beautiful new album by Mr. Cohen. It is a comfort to know that this man exists. It is a pleasure to be able to listen to his music.”

And one more

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 43

I’m moving on.
Day by day
thought by thought.

Thanks for stopping by.

So when you read this, my son is the proud owner of a University degree (bachelor in Science: Artificial Intelligence) ’cause that’s where I am heading tomorrow: to the university of Nijmegen to be present at his graduation ceremony. It’s a three hour drive and we will not be home until late in the evening. On Wednesday I have another appointment so no time then either to write a blog post. I missed ‘woyww’ last week and I don’t want to miss another one (’cause I have something fun to show you!) That’s why I took a photo of my work desk on Monday afternoon and I am sure it will look the exact same on Wednesday morning.

So here it is dear readers: a photo of my work desk. You can tell I have been busy can’t you?

WOYWW #388

If you visited my desk before, you may notice the change: there’s a white ‘crane’ added to the window sill. It was quite a task I saddled myself (and my beloved!) with: “find/make ‘something’ that will work as a video crane so that I can easily film my creating process.”

I already bought a flexible tripod a couple of months ago that I bend on the desk-lamp, but it wasn’t very stable. However, he flexible ‘crane’ (is that the right word to use?) of the lamp was a good idea, so last week my friend Lena and I went to the second hand shop to see if we could find a similar thingie (and to look at all the other stuff they sell, of course!) I found another desk lamp with a usable ‘crane’ so YAY, first mission accomplished.

Now here’s where my beloved comes in…. he removed the lamp and instead, added an iron rod to the crane. The flexible tripod is attached to this rod and I can click the video camera right to it. We attached the crane to the window sill, but since this crane isn’t very long, the distance was too short to film whatever I am doing underneath… The crane needed to be higher, so my beloved went to town and came back with a wooden box – it’s mend to hold tissues but we took of the lid and used it to get the crane higher above my desk. The camera hangs at a perfect distance now!

After we finished this ‘project’, I looked at camera cranes online… WOWZAH, do you see those prizes?! Mine cost approximately 20 euros (and a lot of work!)

On to some other creativeness now (and let’s hurry a bit ’cause this blog post is getting loooong….)

Art journal spread: The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 41

I’m all into ‘faces’ at the moment… oh, and I love that crackle paste (see this post)

I loved the blue/green/yellowish colors on this page and the same color combo appeared on a birthday card I made for a friend.

And, last but not least, two fun ATCs I created today (Monday, that is.)

I used to create funny ATCs all the time, and had a lot of giggles creating them. Today, I decided I can do with more giggles in my life (“Giggles”… that may well be my ‘one little word’ for 2017. I’ll give it a thought but it’s a good candidate) and so I spend the day creating ATCs.

I thought of so much more today that I want to blog about but this post is long enough as it is. I hope you made it all the way to the end of my post. I will release you from my ramblings right here. Thanks for stopping by!

a journal spread I started working on last Summer. I finished it a few weeks ago.

Troostwoorden (“Words of Comfort“)

Size: 48 x 30 cm - 18.9 x 11.8 inch

Here’s a Chronicles spread for week 40… I’m on schedule with creating these weekly spreads (we are in week 44 now and the spread for week 43 is almost done) but I am a bit behind with showing them. I don’t want to overload you with these pages, so the rest will follow another day.

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 40

Size: 29,7 x 21 cm - 117 x 8.3 inch

As promised: photos from last weekend – workshop bookbinding & letter drawing.

I regret that I did not take more photos – there were so many gorgeous details and each cover was so beautiful! I just forgot to take my camera more ’cause we had so many things going on and had such fun that it’s a miracle that I remembered to take the group-picture. Aukje (the lady on the left of the photo) came all the way from Purmerend and had to leave a little bit earlier in order to catch the train back home – she was almost gone without being on the photo, I’m glad I thought of taking a picture time!

Thanks for stopping by my blog,
have a great day.
Bind a book!

WOYWW #384

See how those plants, which I put in the window sill last week, bloom? I love it!

Last month brought some really warm weeks, temperatures rose to 30 degrees Celcius in September. The art journal spreads of those weeks show the Summer-feel that our country experienced…

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 36

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 37

Ok now, you waited long enough (or did you take a peek already?) so here are the winners of last week’s Frightfully Fall Blog Hop giveaway. Jessica draw the winner of her stencils and you can find out if YOU are the lucky one by checking out Jesscia’s blogpost {now that’s a mean one, isn’t it 🙂 }

The winner of my giveaway, a packet of Autumn/Halloween related papers, ephemera, embellishments, art-postcards and notebook is…. VICKY (butterfliecrafter.) Congratulations Vicky, I’ve already sent you an email and will post the packet as soon as I have your snail mail address.

Have a great week you all, and see you again soon!

So now I’m back to participate in the regular Wednesday blog hop hosted by Julia Dunnit!  She has the rules and regulations posted on her blog if you would like to hop along with us!  We just take a photo of our work space and blog about it and then link it to Julia’s blog.  It’s really easy and lots of fun and you can visit with so many wonderful bloggers and there is a lot of talent to see as well!

Here’s how my desk looks this morning:

WOYWW #381

And here’s a spread from my art journal

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Week 35

That’s all for today folks. I need the rest of the day to prepare and work on a special project for a special (giveaway!) post – I’ll reveal more of it soon so keep an eye on my blog!