Photo: @LenaSchreijenberg

In March 2013 I bound an art journal in which I included a text on the first page that said: “discover the Zeeland soul” (see this blog post) So I called the book my “Zeeuwse Ziel” (Soul from Zeeland) journal and worked in it every now and then. When the journal was filled, I bound a second journal and… that one is now filled with artspreads too.
Here’s the last spread in Zeeuwse Ziel II

*** click on the photo’s to enlarge ***

However, I am far from finished with journaling about my “Zeeland soul” so last month I bound a third book. Here’s the cover of the new journal, showing a photo of a typical Zeeland landscape (sand and sea)

Zeeuwse Ziel III

This is the first page (on the left you see the inside of the cover with the endpaper)

Chronicles 2024 – Week 39

A couple of weeks ago my beloved and I bought a car! Now I have to tell you that using public transport in the Zeeland region is a complete disaster, especially if you have to go somewhere outside of town. Since I visit my parents (in a small, nearby village) every week, I can say that I am experienced in going around by bus which is very, VERY frustrating! It even was on the national news the other day: an item about how bad public transport is in the countryside. I am so happy with the freedom that owning a car brings us that I created a spread all about the car.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I created over the past weeks,
thanks for stopping by my blog,
have a lovely weekend!

WOYWW #580

There’s some creativity on my desk but I cannot show much as it’s meant to be sent to a friend who reads this blog… you can see a little ‘peek’ on the far left though…

As a guest designer, I made a scrapbooking layout for the new Dutch Dares Challenge. If you’re a little rusty and need a challenge to start creating, the latest Dutch Dares challenge, a sketch, might get you into the mood.

The sketch inspired me to finally scrap some photos from years ago… I didn’t feel like scrapping them for a long time ’cause they remind me of dark times – but I can now look back on it and smile, it wasn’t all bad back then you know.

Here’s a detail

Journaling says: “Meanderflat 2014-2018. Life in that gray, concrete apartment-block became more bearable when the Penny Waffle House opened its doors. Coffee, a chat and a creative studio made me forget the daily worries. Good work from Marlou Pluymaekers and Anda van Riet.”

Art journaling

Another spread in my Zeeuwse Ziel (‘Soul from Zeeland’) journal. Some of the pages in this hand-bound journal are extra large and can be fold. This is one of those pages… the right side is folded (and will therefor also be part of the next spread/image)

Here’s the complete, unfolded, spread.

I’m in love with this page and plan on doing more ‘diary-like’ writing and creating in my journals. I feel a change in my way of journaling coming… let’s see if it will last.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a lovely day. Stay safe, and when you’re a little down: cheer up, better times lay ahead! I have a scrapbook layout to prove it!

Friday haiku

The photo was taken by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart

Strange days indeed (art journal spread)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, enjoy your weekend!

Je t’embrasse

Friday haiku

The photo was taken by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart

April is ‘birthday month’ amongst my friends and since I cannot visit any of them now, I created fun birthday cards.

Birthday cards

This one is for an old friend, Karin

and the next one is for my daughter-in-law Guus

As you can see I used my sewing machine on those cards, I am in love all over again with my sewing machine! I might even leave it on my desk and start sewing face masks this weekend… we don’t have to wear them in the Netherlands but I have the feeling, by something that was said on tv, that it won’t take long before our government will ask us to wear them outside just like they do in other countries. Better start making them now.

My latest Chronicles art journal spread (see this post) was to my liking so I copied the idea to make another spread in a similar way.

“Zeeuwse Ziel” art journal

A women in pyjamas, and a piece of an old dictionary-page to the right, where I scribbled over the words exept one…

… that says it all.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, stay safe!

Je t’embrasse

Friday haiku

The photo was taken by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart

and I finished this art journal spread.

“The world came to a stop. Vacant land is holding its breath, plows through thoughts and waits for better times.”

Stay safe!

Je t’embrasse

WOYWW #528

There’s two half-finished art journals on my desk. That’s not my usual way of creating but yesterday it somehow worked, as I was at the computer writing a Quirky post and every time my mind  wandered off the topic, I turned my chair and ‘did something’ in my journals.

The journal on the left is my ‘Chronicles’ art journal and last week you could see it on my desk while I was working on a spread for week 26. That one is finished now.

The Chronicles of Marit 2019 – Week 26

Next is my ‘Soul from Zeeland’ journal. Months ago I created the background for this ‘spread’ (actually this are three pages, you can fold the part on the right and when you do, the next page will be visible and works with the left page of this spread… sounds confusing? I’ll show you how it looks when I finish the next pages.) Last week I gave this spread it’s final touches.

Voor altijd naar huis (Forever going home)

Because I spend most of the past days at the computer, typing, I will keep this blogpost short. This is it, from me, today, but if you like to see more artsy desks, hop on over to Julia’s blog where you can find the link-list with all other ‘deskers’ to visit. You can even join in yourself if you want to… I assure you it will be fun! Thanks for your visit, enjoy your day.

So here is my desk today

WOYWW #487

Another EDM drawing – a bit better than the former one…

And an art journal page I created last Monday

Summer is yours but Autumn will be mine

Have a beautiful Autumn day! Enjoy the coloring of the trees. Enjoy wind and rain. Go do something that makes you happy. Drink tea with a friend.

… and look how sunny the day was! I wore my new sun glasses and my son took this photo. You can see him, mirrored in the glasses. The girl in the back is his girlfriend.

Today is no day to go outside so I sit at my desk to work on the ‘project’ I started yesterday: re-binding my “poesie-album.”

WOYWW #468

A so-called “Poesie album” is what you – abroad – probably call a “friendship book.” A little book that you give to friends and family to write a poem (or something nice) in. I started this book in 1976 and it is still going strong… the last entry is from my former neighbour in Eindhoven (dated 2016.)

After all these years (decades!) the book almost fell apart so I decided to cut out the pages and rebind it. I sew plastic folders in the right shape, that will hold all the former pages, and I plan to add extra pages of thick paper so the book can take another round of friends writing in it. I hope it will last at least another forty years.

I still am not completely settled in my new atelier but I did some art journaling last week… here’s my latest page.

Thanks for visiting my blog today, I really appreciate it! Have a nice day, whatever the weather!

That last journal contains ‘fold out’ pages and that’s what I want to show you today, ’cause when you have pages in a journal that fold out it means that several images go work together….

Here’s the spread I created back in November 2017. I added lines so you can now see where the middle of the book is and what part was fold out when I created it.

While creating this spread I already had the folding in mind… I glued the photo of the man inside the line so he would be covered when fold. Although I did not yet know what the next page would bring, I thought that particular part of a map (of the island I live on) would be a nice part to work together with whatever the next page would bring so I glued that on the spot where the back of the next page connect.

When I started working on the next spread, I first folded the page and found an image that would work with both the former spread (connecting with the map-image)…

… and the spread as a whole.

It’s quite a puzzle when you work with folding pages but it’s fun! This spread/page folds out on just one side. I also have journals with pages folding out on both sides – which makes for three spreads to combine together and once, years ago, I made a little book with transparency sheets, which was a big challenge as all the pages and images were visible and had to work together.

I’d say: if you like to try something like this in your journal, start with one folding side. If your journal has no folding pages, just use tape to add an extra piece of paper to your page.

Have a great weekend,
fold a page,
Create!

First, I had a dentist appointment and after that we went to view a house to see if it would be a place we want to live. Yes, we’re planning on moving and are looking for a new home. The apartment we live in is not a place to stay. Although it is a spacious place, it is a concrete block built in the 1970s and therefor very noisy, which means we have a lot of noise pollution from the neighbors and the neighbourhood we live in.

Anyway, we went for a house viewing yesterday but I had a tendency to immediately turn around the minute I walked in… the place was a lot smaller and the balcony made me sad… right at the road and too small to make it comfy, not a place to sit in the Summer. We will probably spend all winter here, listening to the top neighbour walk around, shifting furniture and turn in her bed at night. Keep your fingers crossed we find some place nice to live soon.

This experience made me remember the art journal spread I created a couple of weeks ago. It’s about a neighbourhood that I would love to live… the nicest big Dome Church called the ‘East-church’ stands right in the middle and the streets and houses are beautiful. It’s just a lovely neighbourhood.

I called my spread: Oh, to live near the East Church!

Today is a grey day that I plan to spend in my atelier… at least that is a nice place to be!
I hope you spend your day in a nice place too, thanks for stopping by.