So, it’s been a long time, but Sarah is still hosting the ‘deskers’ and I have a little vacation (this week and the next) to fill with whatever I want – a lot of creating going on – and I thought it would be fun to join in this wednesday to see if all my former desk-collaborators are still there. HI THERE, MY FELLOW ARTISTS & DESKERS, I plan on visiting you this week and am curious to see what you’re all up to.

For now, here’s how my workdesk looks today

WOYWW #882

It’s a rather big project I’m working on: making 80 “prompt/inspiration cards”. I got a list of “prompts” from a woman in an art journal group on Facebook. I printed those prompts and selected eighty of them. Next, I spend an afternoon making gelliplate-prints and glued those on old playing cards.

Next, I dived into my stash of scrapbook papers to glue on the back.

I’m still cutting out and gluing the prompt-sentences, and it will cost me another afternoon or so to finish the task. I might decorate the cards even more, depending on the time I have left ’cause there are more things I want to work on this week as there is: my CHRONICLES!

For all the ones who knew me from former years: yes, I am still journaling and keeping my ‘Chronicles’ going.
For the ones who don’t know me yet… I am an art journaler, I bind my own journals to fill them with all kinds of things (‘mixed media’)
I work in different journals but there’s one ‘theme journal’, The Chronicles, that I keep going since 2010 and that can be seen as a red thread… These are handmade visual year-journals in which I create a weekly spread. It’s sort of a visual diary and on its pages I comment and reflect on my days or just try to capture the week in words and pictures,

My friend Lena took photo’s of me with all my Chronicles journals the other day, ain’t this a fun picture?

Here’s the latest week spreads.

Chronicles Week 13
Gelli print background, collage (the three little pictures = details of my art, older work) and yes, I’m a bicycle race fan…

Chronicles Week 14
Painted background, washi tape, gelliprint cut out ‘eggs’ (it was the week of Easter) and I painted the heads of me and my friend on cut-out figures.

Chronicles Week 15
The big portrait is cut out of a magazine: famous bicycle racer Wout van Aert

And that’s it for me this week. Hope you enjoyed seeing me and my art again… enjoy your week!

*inspired by Ingrid Jonker: “moenie slaap nie”
Photo: @LenaSchreijenberg

I had a busy month but I managed to keep up with my Chronicles art journal. Here are the past weeks

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

I wish you all a happy Easter.
Paint an egg or two, eat an egg or two and
keep on rockin’ in the free world!

I’m pretty up-to-date with the week spreads in my Chronicles art journal.
Here’s the latest weeks

Chronicles 2026 – Week 4

Chronicles 2026 – Week 5

Chronicles 2026 – Week 6

Chronicles 2026 – Week 7

Chronicles 2026 – Week 8

Thanks for stopping by to look at my art journal pages.
Je t’embrasse

I always start the year, and my Chronicles art journal, with One Little Word. I usually choose a word at the end of a year, but at the beginning of 2026 I still had not choose a word. I hesitated for a long time about whether I should choose a word at all, until this one popped into my head and stuck with me: “Ruimte” (space/room.)

I hope this year will bring many nice days and happy events so that the spreads, I fill this journal with, will be colorful and beautiful. Here are the first week-spreads:

Chronicles 2026 – Week 1

Chronicles 2026 – Week 2

Chronicles 2026 – Week 3

There are not as many people visiting blogs anymore so thanks for being here reading my post, I really appriciate you came by! Enjoy your day!

Friday haiku

Chronicles 2025 – Week 51

In mid-December, a nasty cold struck me. I had to stay home from work and sit it out. Acrylic paint, paperscraps, stamps and cut out images.

Chronicles 2025 – Week 52

Background: gelliplate print. Inspired by various art journal spreads I saw on social media, I ordered some punches to cut squares of various sizes out of paper. I punched out a square from each Christmas card I received, so I have the memories in my Chronicles journal without having to keep all the cards.

Chronicles 2025 – Last page

I close my journal, as I do every year, with a recent photo of myself (and this year, also with a short “review” of the year). The text on the right says “keep on smiling”.

I’ve been a member of a creative Dutch Facebook group Jook’s kunstcafé  for years. The group’s administrator, Joke, is loved by all the members and in early January, Joke would turn 70. At the end of 2025 there was a secret call to make a card for Joke’s birthday. All the mail was sent to her daughter-in-law, and on her birthday, Joke received a large box full of happy mail. It was a huge surprise for her! I’d responded to the request and created this card for her birthday.

… and now I close the book (journal) on 2025 and hope this year will bring less health problems and more happiness. My your days be peaceful and bright too! Seeya!

Chronicles week 48

I have a lot of cousins and for the first time in our lives, we organized a special “cousin day. It was lovely, fun, emotional, and at times hilarious… by adding fold-outs to my pages I was able to fit a lot of photos on the spread.

Chronicles week 49

My Top 2000 voting list on the left, photo’s of me with my friend Lenny on the right (‘then and now’)

Chronicles week 50

The brother of my beloved passed away… the memorial card is in that pocket. I also caught a nasty cold in week 50 (it lasted for two weeks, and I’m still coughing…)

This is my last ‘normal’ blogpost for this year… hope to see you at the TOP 2000 BLOGPARTY (check out the link, it’s fun and it’s free!) and if not, see you in 2026!

Chronicles week 42

Chronicles week 43

Chronicles week 44

I kept on running behind on creating weekly art journal spreads so at the end of this month I did what I advised my Chronicles workshop-students when they are running behind: I caught up up by making a few similar looking, fast and fun spreads.

Chronicles week 45

Chronicles week 46

Chronicles week 47

Thank you for stopping by,
Je t’embrasse

Chronicles week 38
Background: underneath pieces of paper painted over with acrylics. The still-life is a stamp I carved and the little letter-piece (“L’art pour l’art”) is a photo of a collage that I created for Special Agent Collage Collective (mission #21 Why art?)

Chronicles week 39
Acrylic paint partly through a stencil, border made from paper scraps. Not much more to say about this spread, just playing (and I love Pippi!)

Chronicles week 40
This week was my birthday so I created a fun looking birthday girl (although her eyes look a bit sad don’t you think?) My parents gave me money to buy a new perfume – my mum added a tester and I like the smell of it, that may become my new ‘signature perfume’. Also, my son came to visit. His birthday was back in July and I promised him that he also could choose a perfume for himself so off we went: visiting a perfume store. We had a lot of fun smelling different scents and we both ended up choosing a perfume to our liking.

Chronicles week 41
Background: acrylic paints and a few paper scraps from my stash. The pieces of leather and parchment are from a book-restauration course I take. We had to learn to determine the different pieces and how to handle it (glueing, restauring) 

Thank you for stopping by, I’m gratefull that you still visit my blog!
Je t’embrasse

Chronicles week 34
A bit of an angry/sad spread ’cause this was the week the specialist called me to tell that all the tests showed that I have dystrophy in my foot.

Chronicles week 35
The rheumatologist gives me a cortisone injection in my foot and wow, suddenly I can walk without pain again! He warns me that this is a temporary solution—the pain will return, and it will be a long process before everything is completely back to normal. But for now, the swelling is subsiding, and I’m happy with the freedom that comes with pain-free movement, although I can’t force it (no long walks!)

Chronicles week 36
A lot of journaling about my beloved having to go to hospital and in the middle of that all, me preparing for the leporello workshop I have to teach in the weekend…

Chronicles week 37
Completely drained… so I created a spread without much words.

Thanx for stopping by my blog
Je t’embrasse

Chronicles week 29
A quick and easy spread ’cause the summer came with tropical temperatures and it was way too hot to create or even stay in my atelier… and of course the Tour the France was on the tv so when I didn’t have to work, I spend the warm afternoons on the couch watching the race. Background: orange acrylic paint.

Chronicles week 30
Another quick ‘cycling spread’. More orange acrylpaint and big illustrations.

Chronicles week 31
A little more work-intensive spread: some collage on plain paper and a lot of text.

Chronicles week 32
Week 32 was one to quickly forget… my foot still hurts and I was grumpy all week. A toxic-coloured green/yellowish painted background, some grey/brown paint through a stencil and some ink splattering. The big words are all synonyms for ‘angry’.

Chronicles week 33
The week that an MRI scan of my foot was taken (I had to wait two months for that due to a waiting list!) and a postcard from my son – who was on holiday in the UK – arrived. O, and a picture of Madonna ’cause I bought a new bra and no, not one of those she wears ;D

Thanx for visiting my blog
Je t’embrasse