First: here’s what my desk looks like this wednesday morning

WOYWW #771

Those of you who remember my old blog posts and desk photos may now be surprised: what is this? You had a brown desk, right? And it was in front of the window, right? Yep…at the end of last year I bought new furniture and threw out the old corner desk. It was a great worksheet, yes, but the whole thing was not very flexible and when a friend or student came over, we had to sit next to each other. That felt rather awkwardly, especially when teaching how to bind a book… So I got rid of the old thing and bought me a new desk, new dressers and two smaller tables that I can slide around. Now there’s more flexibility and that was the intention. Mission succesfull, yay!
Here’s the before and after pictures

Before

After

I like sitting in that fresh, light corner behind the tables and I still create a lot on the days I don’t have to work… of course most of the time goes into keeping my ‘Chronicles’ art journal up to date. It’s my 15th year/Chronicles journal and it’s there on the table all the time. These are the latest spreads.

Chronicles art journal – Week 8

Chronicles art journal – Week 9

Chronicles art journal – Week 10 (with postcard in pocket)

Chronicles art journal – Week 10 (with postcard out of pocket)

Besides these Chronicles journal, I do create other spreads, drawings etc. but this post would get too long if I’d show that all to you… so I leave you with these and will go visit YOUR blogposts and desks now… have a lovely day, see ya!

Here’s my desk and instead of paper, there’s fabric and Sashiko stitching today. Not that I turned my back on paper, oh no… this stitched patchwork will be the cover of my new-to-bind art journal for next year (Chronicles 2019) and I plan to integrate the little beads in the binding so the spine will be decorated too.

WOYWW #492

I though I might start early on this ’cause it is quite a time consuming task I put on myself…

… and there’s another task I can get my teeth into today, look what stands in our hallway.

Boxes! Boxes filled with books to sort out.

Remember we bought book cases last month? We used to have a HUGE book case but there’s no room for that anymore in this apartment… these three cases will have to do and we put them in the bedroom, but we could not put books in yet. There was a problem you see…

Not a logical place for a light switch now is it? We thought so in the first place, but with book cases against that wall there’s absolutely no way anymore to turn the light off and on. However, we came up with a solution.

We bought a lamp with a pull switch! My dad installed this yesterday so now I can start sorting out the books and fill the book shelves. No atelier-time for me today. Instead I will be sitting on the bed, or on the floor, looking through the books and deciding which ones to keep and which ones I will part with… wish me luck!

A few weeks ago I promised you a ‘grande tour’ through my modest craftroom that I call ‘atelier’ and today is the day… besides ‘What’s on your WorkDESK” you will see what’s on my shelves and in the big closet… and as every Wednesday, I put a link over at Julia’s blog to join WOYWW

I drew a simple little sketch for you so you have an idea of what you are about to see on the photos

First you see the closet that finally got clung to the wall so I could load it up with ‘stuff’. The shelves hold extra ‘things’ that I don’t use much but that need to be in the atelier, like boxes filled with (old) photos and postcards. The closet works as a room divider too… the space behind the closet got transformed into a tiny little ‘guest room’ and I must say it’s quite a cute little ‘bunk’ to sleep in.

Here’s my desk in all its glory… I live in a corner-apartement and the ‘just around the corner’ neighbours have their balcony on this side of the building… that means they sit at an angle and only 3 meters distance: they can look right into my room. We all want our privacy so I put plastic against the window so I don’t have to look at them all day and they can feel more ‘free’ when they sit on their balcony. It works perfect for all of us.

Against the long wall I put up our former book case… the living room is too small to have it there so I turned it into an atelier-case. (b.t.w. I get confused about the English words for this piece of furniture… when do you say ‘case’ and when do you use ‘closet’?)

Right next to the door there was some room left to put this basket with paper rolls…

I’m happy to be able to call this room ‘my atelier’… it’s my little paradise and safe haven

and yes, I create in there.
Mostly art journal pages.
Here’s a spread from my ‘miscellaneous’ journal

Think Your Day was Tough?

Have a great week y’all:
stay in the shade,
drink some ice tea,
keep on rockin’ in the free world!

WOYWW #477

In the afternoon I watch the Tour de France on tv and I it’s only after dinner, when the sun sets behind the rooftops and it cools down a little, that I can sit outside with a glass of cool white wine and enjoy the evening sky and all the birds (see this blogpost.)

If you stopped by my blog last week you know that I crocheted a ‘box’ (well, it’s more a basket) that I planned to stiffen with glue. It turned out allright and I even took photos of the process. Here’s how I did it:

First, I mixed glue (I used my book-bind glue, it’s good for all kind of things!) with water. I didn’t really measure it but I think there’s slightly more glue than water…

I’d cutted a ‘bottom’ from cardboard that I painted blue.
I covered a box with plastic, so the wet/glued basket would not stick to it, and put the bottom on top of that box.

I soaked the crocheted basket in the glue mix and hang it over the bottom/box to dry.

I let it dry for two days and ended up with this:

It stands on the shelf an holds up to ten toilet rolls… some nice storage eeh?!
I am happy!

I put aside the jeans jacket I plan to Sashiko-embroider-alter to start a ‘small project’ in between and you can see it on my desk today. Here’s the photo of my desk first…

WOYWW #476

“A crocheted box?”

Let me explain: the handyman came last week and boy ‘did he handy’…. he secured the closet to the wall in my atelier, hung the whiteboard (I’ll give you the grand tour of my finished atelier in another blogpost), he put shelves up in the storage/washing room, hung the blinds in front of the window and hung all the lamps… yay!!! Oh, and he hung a shelf to the wall in the bathroom to store the toilet rolls stock… and that’s where my crochet project comes in. Putting a big stack of toilet rolls packed in plastic on that shelf looks hideous! So I went into town to buy a nice box to store the rolls. Did I tell you I’m no good at measuring things? Well, I’m not good at that… It happened before and it happened again… I got the size of the shelf/box all wrong and the box I bought was waaaay too big to go on that shelf.

I made a new plan: I bought lovely blue cotton thread and crocheted a ‘basket’ that I will stiff with glue (I looked it up on the internet and I hope it will work!) The gessoed cardboard will be painted blue and goes on the bottom. I will try to remember to take pics for you and show you next time how it works out (keep your fingers crossed!)

Despite all those ‘extra projects and house stuff’, I keep the Chronicles Art Journal going. Here’s two spreads for you that I created in the weeks I was working on my son’s jacket and these pages were highly influenced by that.

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 24

I discovered ‘Sashiko’ and ordered fabric and yarn to work with in week 24, so this spread got a Japanese feel to it.

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 25

“Fashion says: me too. Style says: me only”

Thanks for stopping by today… if you live in a place where it is as warm as it is here: stay cool!
And if you’re not in such a place… stay cool anyway!

WOYWW #475

I bought this jacket in a secon-hand store but it was brand new, the labels were still on and no-one had previously worn the jacket. It came in an ecru colour and I was so eager to dye it that I totally forgot to take a picture. I dyed it blue in the washing machine and started stitching the back before I thought of photographing it… at the neck opening you can see the embroidery that’s on the back, but this is the most ‘original’ photo I can show you.

The Japanes “Sashiko” technique is quite easy – simple running stitches…

… but when you combine horizontal and vertical running stitches you can create all kinds of fabulous patterns!

I sewed a patchwork-border on the bottom of the jacket, the sleeves and a bit behind the pockets and then I lost myself in stitching again… there’s Sashiko stitches at the strip that can be seen behind the zipper when you open the jacket. Oh, and I changed the collar to a ‘concealed collar’ (is that the right word?) to give the jacket more of a Japanese look.

I stitched one sleeve all up to the elbow and I stitched both the cuffs. The patchwork on the cuffs can be seen when you turn them, there’s embroidery on the outside that shows on the inside ‘patchwork border’… I find it difficult to explain in words but the photo shows.

Here’s the back of the finished jacket.

Last weekend we visited my son in Amsterdam and I gave him the jacket for his birthday.

Was he pleased with it? OH YES!!!

And… TADAAAAA… here’s my son wearing the jacket!

There’s an old jeans jacket hanging on the coat rack and I have lots of left-over sashiko thread laying around, guess what my next project will be? In a month or so, this mum will look as cool as her son 😉

First, this is how my desk looks this morning. (Photo taken for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. A bunch of artsy people come together at Julia’s blog Stamping Ground and share a photo of their work desk. It’s fun… check it out or – even better – join the tribe!)

WOYWW #474

Every now and then I create a scrapbook layout, just to preserve photos and memories so I usually don’t show it on my blog but since it’s my son’s birthday tomorrow I show you this layout that I created last winter.

I got the idea from Pinterest where some lady combined two photos on a layout (can’t remember her name though.) I combined two pics of my son, the photo on the left was taken when he was three years old (1995) and the right photo is from last year.

No matter what I’m busy with, I keep track of my days by creating spreads in my ‘Chronicles’ art journal on a weekly basis. I have four weeks to show but I don’t want to overload you, so I show you just two.

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 22

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 23

Thanks for stopping by today.

So, what is keeping me so busy then?
Take a look…

WOYWW #472

Yep, that’s my sewing machine. There’s needles and pins, scissors and fabric on my desk. And a paper with a sketch of my son’s sizes. It’s his birthday next month and he asked me to make (or alter) ‘some piece of clothing’ for him. He created a special board on Pinterest, showing pieces of clothing he likes, and I got my inspiration from that. I cannot tell or show you more than I do on this photo because he might take a look on my blog and I don’t want him to see what I’m up to. But there’s obviously patchwork involved. Oh, and “Japanese stitching” (Sashiko) – an old Japanese embroidery technique I discovered online and fell in love with.

Another thing I fell in love with years ago: the art of Robert Stockton

Robert is an amazing artist and such a kind man… I interviewed him years ago for Featuring magazine and we stayed in touch. Last month I commented on a photo he published on Facebook and I received this message from him:

(…) thank you for your kind words on Facebook about my piece “Fall Into Place” which you published in “Featuring”. (…) I have giclee art prints of this piece and I would love to send you one as a small appreciation for the many ways you have enlarged the ways of thinking about art (and music) for myself and so many others. In my opinion, you are Holland’s Shining Star!

And look what came in the mail this week!

The art print came with a beautiful card and nice words from Robert. You should have seen me jumping up and down with joy when it arrived! We are not quite ready with setting up our apartment but the moment we are finished the first thing I will hang on the wall will be this art piece. (I will frame it of course.)

Now that I’m all into ‘fabric’ these days, working on the ‘clothing’ for my son, I didn’t spend much time art journaling. I won’t leave you without showing a piece though, so here’s a spread I created before the move.

Fast-Forward and Replay

Have a lovely week y’all,
keep on rockin’

However, that does not mean that I spend all my days outside… my new atelier is also a wonderful place to be in. A few weeks ago I made it even more wonderful by doing something I’ve been wanting to do for years but never came to it… I painted a poem on the wall! You may have seen this photo already on Facebook or in my newsletter before but since there’s nothing on my desk to show ánd not all of you saw my wall yet, I choose this as today’s picture.

WOYWW #472

These lines from the poem “Homecoming in Zeeland” by Hans Warren amazingly fit with my feelings.

Heart of my country, I’m back
in the full array of your Summer,
I lie lazy stretched out on my back,
home again and still the same dreamer
(free translation of the text ~ M.)

Putting the words on the wall was quite a daunting task… after I designed the text digitally I printed it in pieces and puzzled the text back together. Using transfering paper, I copied the letters on the wall. I then outlined the letters with an acrylic marker and finally colored them with paint. I sat on my knees on my desk for two afternoons (OUCH!) but putting a cushion on te desk helped (why didn’t I think of that right away?!) I also got crampy hands and crossed eyes after a while but I took it slow and am proud and still very happy with the result!

You may remember my old “Poesie-album” (friendship book) that lay in pieces on my desk in my former woyww-post – Yes, I re-assembled it, added extra pages and bind it together again. Here’s the result.

I sewed plastic pockets to put the former pages in and as a result the book became slightly bigger, so I could not use the old cover. I didn’t want to throw that away so I integrated  the old cover (the part with the flowers & title) into the new one.

Here’s a view of the spine… the black part are the plastic pockets, I reinforced the plastic with tape on the folding lines. The white are the new, blank pages.

This book is all ready to make it’s round among new friends that haven’t written in it yet.

And that’s it for today, thanks for stopping by!

Here’s what’s on my desk this morning

WOYWW #454

Last weekend I taught an Art Journaling workshop at De Scrapheap – a lovely little craftshop in the Netherlands that has a big workshop-space. It was an inspiring and fun day with a bunch of enthusiastic and creative ladies who created up a storm!

And of course after the workshop was done I had to explore the shop and buy me some new goodies! On my wishlist was a mixed media paperblock which I had plans for…

I cut the thick paper in squares (8 x 8 cm – 3.15 x 3.15 inch) to use for the project 365 somethings Tammy “Daisy Yellow” Garcia and Hanna “iHanna” Andersson started this year.

I plan on creating 365 little ‘compositions’ on this white squares. Because I have to catch up I made the first a series of seven.

And I started the second series already, as you can see on my desk-photo.

I’m off now to fill the day with the ‘somethings’ I have in mind.
Thanks for stopping by,
enjoy your day.
Kiss your Valentine and
see ya again soon!