Not that it is very warm in the Netherlands. In fact it’s rather chilly, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining so as long as I can sit in my heated atelier, looking at the getting-greener-every-day trees at the other side of the street I am content.

There’s quite some activity in my atelier lately – let me sum it up for you.

• I am preparing for the duo-workshop I teach on April 29 & May 27 together with Jenny de Bode. There’s two spots left in May so if you like to join check out the (Dutch) info here
• I’ve heard about ‘Midori notebooks’ before but it wasn’t until I read this iHanna’s blogpost that I really got curious and checked out these particular notebooks and systems. After that, I bound one myself, a so called ‘Fauxdori.’ (The brown leather book with the black elastic band on top of my art journals.) It needs a filling and I didn’t work in it yet so I cannot tell you if I will like this system. However, iHanna’s blogpost is worth reading if you are interested.
• I filmed the proces of how to fold an origami paper box with a lid. You can see it here.
• I created a number of art journal spreads and I am up to date (or better: ‘up to week’) in my Chronicles art journal now. As you can see on my desk, I’m almost finished with the spread for week 15 (= last week.)

And that brings me to my desk… after all, it’s Wednesday and you came here to take a peek at my work desk didn’t you? Here it is

WOYWW #411

For the ones with sharp eyes: yes, there’s a photo of Amsterdam on my page. We visited my son in Amsterdam last weekend and did some sight-seeing. He moved to Amsterdam last year after he got his bachelor’s degree at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. and he is now finishing his last year master-study by writing a thesis. He hopes to get his master-degree in the Fall.

The spread for week 15 is not yet finished, but here are the spreads of the weeks before.

The Chronicles of Marit 2017 – Week 12

The Chronicles of Marit 2017 – Week 13

(Doesn’t that ‘astronaut makes you smile? I came across the picture in a magazine and glued my own head on the body. I gave myself a helmet using ‘glossy accents‘ and put myself floating on a cloud. “Ground control to Major Marit…” ha!)

The Chronicles of Marit 2017 – Week 14

The bicyle season has started and we watched a few races on television already. “Paris-Roubaix” was spectacular so it had to be mentioned on my page (and OOPS… I made a spelling mistake there!)

I wish you all a wonderful, colorful and sunny week.
Whatever you do: enjoy it!

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.

WOYWW #317

Near the tourist market is a small store that sells all kinds of objects that are made in other countries. It’s called a ‘Wereldwinkel” (“the world-store”) and my aunt Eveline works in that store. I fell for a cocktail stirrer made of glass, it was made in Mexico and had this lovely seahorse at the top… somehow I am ‘into seahorses’ these days.

At first I didn’t want to buy it because I never drink cocktails that I can stir… but my aunt can be very persistent and when I said I could stir my glue with it (I always mix my glue with a bit of water) she cried hallelujah; the stirrer was ‘made for me’… ha! At last my mum bought it for me and I promised my aunt to show it on the Internet… we may well have been her only customers yesterday as the weather was so nice that all tourists probably sat on the beach instead of strolling a market and shopping in the little boutiques.

It’s been weeks since I showed you an art journal page… I did create some you know!
Here’s the latest spreads in my Chronicles journal

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 23

In week 23 I went to the dental hygienist and she wanted to try a special method to clean my teeth (by spraying a powder on my teeth, a bit like sandblasting.) She put plastic around my mouth to protect my lips and we had a lot of giggles… when she asked if she should take a photo of it I said (well… I could not speak much so I mumbled) YES PLEASE! Don’t you think these photos are hilarious! They just HAD to go in my Chronicles!

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 24

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 25

I posted ‘Week 25’ in Monday’s Quirky Dutch Summer post already as that post was about shadows (and the ‘guy on the right’ is a picture of a shadow.) Quirky Dutch Summer is a series of weekly ‘inspiring posts’ filled with tips and tutorials from guest-artists and me. Like Summer art camp for free! Click here if you want to check it out.

I hope my atelier stays a bit cool today, so I can get something creative done and visit some of the other deskers. I wish you all a lovely day. Stay cool, be sure to drink enough water and enjoy Summer!