When I look out the window today, there’s a ray of sunshine and a small, blue spot visible in the grey and cloudy sky…  I also noticed that the little blue flowers in my front yard (don’t know the name, I should take a photo!) finally came to bloom – they are very late this year because of the cold, but now Spring seems to finally has arrived. It is a good day for a long walk and I might just do that this afternoon. But first a blogpost with a haiku, art journal pages and some link love…

Haiku My Heart Friday

This haiku was found/written for Haiku my Heart Friday.
Visit Rebecca at Recuerda Mi Corazon to find the list of participants of this haiku circle.

Last month I started a new project – some of you may have seen the photos laying on my desk in an earlier blogpost. I call it Schrijven over Schrijvers and I have to explain something to the English speaking amongst you. Schrijven Over Schrijvers means both “Writing Over Writers” as “Writing About Writers” (the word ‘over’ in Dutch has both meanings.)

The idea is simple: I write my thoughts about the writer over his or her portrait.

I finished a few pages (and have plans for a lot more) and since I bind them together with bookbinder rings, I can add as many pages as I like in the next months.

Here’s how the cover looks like.

Connie Palmen

Jan Wolkers

Ayn Rand

Tammy “Daisy Yellow” Garcia started a mission to spread love via blogging this month. I like her campaign to give virtual hugs to our fellow creative bloggers – so I happily commit to posting a set of 5 or more links once each week for the month of April.

You can read all about the Link Love {a mission} HERE

FOUR POSTS – FIVE LINKS…

• Effy Wild talks about The Courage To Fail Spectacularly… something we all are terrified off, aren’t we?

• Marcia Beckett wrote a tutorial about a very fun technique for unleashing your inner child in your art journal. Crayon Transfer Technique

• I love to visit Lisa at  ‘Being Breath’ – she always has wise words to share. Lisa brings food for thought, like in this blogpost Whatever the Weather

• Leslie over at {Words of Me Project}  created her own ‘dream neighborhood’ on canvas: My Soul Neighborhood. Such an awesome idea!

• I am a fan of Sarah, we share the love of using music/lyrics in our art journals and her work is just great. And funny. John Lennon in the bathtub 🙂 Isn’t it good… Norwegian wood…

And a few extra links – that don’t link to blogs but bring you to spaces on the web that are also worth a visit!

•  in December 2003, a large part of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (you all know “The Night Watch” I guess?) closed for a renovation that initially would take only several years, but due to various delays, eventually took about ten years to complete. The museum re-opens its doors tomorrow and I found this fun announcement movie (from a sponsor) Our Hero’s Are Back

• Creative, funny, good for a giggle…. Draw a Stick-man (really, you should do it!)

• It may seem awfully quiet around FEATURING magazine, but I can assure you: there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make the next issue as good and interesting as the other ones. In the meantime, all former issues are still available HERE.

Have a great weekend dear ones.
(Draw a stick-man!)

and this…

..

… to find its apotheosis in this…

It might not be that visible, but our cellar was flooded.
We scooped out at least 7 big buckets of water.
Thank goodness we were prepared, and got out all the stuff
before the heavy rain and thunderstorms started.

The photo was taken about an hour ago…
right now, the sun shines brightly.
Aaargghhh… Summer in Holland!

Last week was much more pleasant.
As you could see in my former post, I went to Zeeland.
My art journal page for last week shows the happiness
and brightness of those days.

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 33

(30 x 21 cm - 11.8 x 8.3 inch)

The photo is from a postcard I bought at an art exhibition. It’s an aquarelle
made by Maurits Schoenmaker. I lived nearby the church he painted when I
was 19 and I saw this – almost exact same – silhouette from my balcony daily.
Aahh.. sweet memories and a lovely painting!

I leave you with some inspiring links to wonderful artists/blogs/work
I discovered over the last months. I haven’t linked you up to other artists
in a long time, so here’s some new faces/work for you to explore!

One Artist Journal (Orly Avineri) – an exeptional art journaler and
a woman I would like to meet one day!

Natalie Stopka – her handmade books take my breath away! I got
definitely inspired to make a book with embroidery on the cover myself!

Sandee’s Sanity – Sandee is a sweet lady with humour and colourful
art journal pages!

Cerulean (Eric) – I found this Dutch artist through Seth.
He makes beautiful work and has a most inspiring blog!

Dye~ing to be yours (Deb Christensen) – Deb is such an inspiring woman!
She stays on Kodiak Island (Alaska) in the  ‘Alpenview wilderness lodge’
from August ’til October to cook for the fishermen. Isn’t that neat?!
She takes the most wonderful photo’s… check out her former posts!
I can’t wait until she’s back!

The public gallery on my website – I uploaded work from participants
that they made with prompts in the Creative Summer Camp…
A lot of versatile and inspiring art pieces!
There are also galleries that show the work of the students who were
in the former online workshops ‘ Let it Loose’ and ‘A Creative Art Journey’.
Those two workshops will start again in September. For more info
and registration, go to the shop.

I can see the sun still shining through my window.
I might take advantage of the light to get creative at the dining table.
Hope you lovelies have a nice week.
Keep it dry!