A new house

Wow..it has been a while. Again. But I did not have internet for a long long time. Cause: a new house! I used to live in Nijmegen, (the address displayed at the left is my parents) together with boyfriend S. and his sister. But we felt it was time for our own place. And that only took a few weeks. On the 27th of July we received the key of our own place in Arnhem. During the last weeks we've been very busy turning the house into a home. The last boxes are almost unpacked and only the stairs needs paint and wallpaper. When it is all ready I will post some pictures.

My mailbox did not stay empty. I received the two mix-cd's via the Mix Share Swap, I received an extra Mix CD from the lovely Croatian Martina, I also found two instead of one photo film on the door mat from Ciara. But because of the move I had barely time to listen to the cds or to have the films developped. All stuff to look out for the next few days :)

And offcourse, if good things happen, bad things happen as well. Last Friday our family dog Tommie died after 12,5 years. He was the best dog ever! It is so weird to enter my parents' house without the enthousiastic wagging of his tail. I miss him...

First Diana F+ photos!

*yay* Just yet I picked up the second film I shot with my Diana F+. I wasn't totally happy with the first one, but this film is a lot better! I still think the photos are a bit too dark, but that probably has something to do with the settings of the camera. I hope you like the pictures!

Like a lobster

It is way too hot outside. Today the thermometer hit the 30 degrees Celsius..pfft! And by then my energy level falls below zero...

Yesterday boyfriend S. and I had a really relaxing day at the beach of Schiermonnikoog, one of the Wadden-islands. The weather was wonderful but..we kind of forgot to put sunscreen on. And at the end of the day, back on the boat to the mainland, we both slowly turned redder and redder. Today we looked like lobsters. I even wear a permanent pair of glasses now... I will post some photo's of this day later this week *promiss*

To the lovely lady Martina in Croatia

To Sade in Finland

To Elena, Russia

To Nathalie, Belgium

To Jitka, Czech Republic

To Sabine, Germany

Busy busy busy

What a busy time of the year! June is 15 days on its way and this is my first post of the month. What was going on?! Well first of all I started my new job a few weeks ago, which means I am quite exhausted when I come home and the temptation of couch+movie with boyfriend is very attractive. And when I did spend an evening behind the computer I was busy finishing two websites for friends. This one for Marion, who has started her own dog training company. And this one for Ine, who is a great painter/sculptor.

And speaking about Ine, on the 3th of June I visited her. She lives with her husband and son in Garmerwolde. A tiny little village in the north of the Netherlands. I had a great time! First we visited a man whole sells flea market goods in his garage. It was good stuff! Ine bough two bistro chairs and a lovely blue bench. I bought this:

A retro jug with apples

And a lovely container with rose hips on it

After the flea market garage we went to see their new abyssian kitten. Only six weeks old and so cute! Unfortunately they have to wait untill 20 July to take the kitten home.

They already have a cameleon, who eates living grasshoppers. And I definately don't like grasshoppers (probably because of the hopping part) But the animal itself is great :) and not scared of the camera.

I also took the liberty to take some pictures of her house, because I'd love to live there myself

A part of the backyard where you can sit, warm and dry all year round

The kitchen she designed by herself

Other side of the kitchen, with large garden view

Detail of the sink (love this part)

A new letter from this great Croatian girl, can't wait to reply to her lovely letter and bits.

She has sent me 4 nice pictures from Zagreb...

...and two nice postcards

This card came in from the USA, from Nancie

I now work for a school where students are educated to be a teacher or knowledge-manager in green education. There are 11 study area's, which vary from livestock to floral design. Last week there was an exhibition from the last department, and I took some photo's. There were some real pieces of art, I didn't realise you could do so much with flowers!

Retro/vintage/old school: what's in a name?

In this 21st century people tend to revert to things from the past. And I don't mean products like floppy disks, no, I refer to retro design, vintage fashion and old-school techniques. For example: today I made two pillow covers out of thrift shop shawls;

And when I took those pictures (with my dígital camera) my eye fell on other retro/vintage stuff in the house...

This orange orange-shaped watering can was my mother's but she did not like the orange anymore.

Not sure actually in which decade this glass belongs...

Light bulb shaped bottle. In the Netherlands bulbs are about to be scarce.

And to stay in the vintage/retro section, this week I bought a Diana F+ camera. It is a so called lomography camera, which allows the photographer to take pretty unique analog pictures. The device is almost completely made out of plastic and the camera comes with a 'lifestyle' including ten golden rules.

1. Take your camera everywhere you go.

2. Use it any time, day and night.

3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it.

4. Try the shot from the hip.

5. Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible.

6. Don't think. (William Firebrace)

7. Be fast.

8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured on film.

9. Afterwards either.

10. Don't worry about any rules.

Today I finished my first film, and I hope to get it develloped and printed this week. While waiting on that, I will work on remembering those rules :)

My ultimate retro/vintage/old school wish.....

A few out going pieces

To Lily, Belarus

To Sanne, Wageningen in The Netherlands

My second attempt of sending a letter to Catherine in Russia, this time in Cyrillic...

To Olga in the Ukraine

To Michi in Poland

To Caroline in the UK