Wishlist

This week I've been working on my art school application. Everything's getting closer and closer and I've been thinking it would be nice if I found a place to live and could move out of my mom's place, hopefully to somewhere closer to the academy. Now I know it won't be the prettiest place if I do find one, but I can still dream right?

One of my goals is to one day own a lovely green kitchen, it doesn't have to be big, it just has to be cute. Here are some of my inspirations:

I actually already own a few things in those shades of green: two really cute terrines, a plate that you can warm up and a few glasses. But if I could somehow ever manage to get a fridge like this, I'd be one happy girl.

Now I could easily settle for other colors I love almost as much, namely the combination of teal and red.

Now I don't cook that much, although I will later on of course, but just look at these pots and pans!

This last picture is something we have in our current kitchen, the shelves are really cute and my mom has a small collection of jugs displayed on them.

I have always thought that if I actually were to give cooking a proper shot, I'd love it. And so far I do, I love baking and I love preparing all sorts of breakfasts and lunches. But when it comes to dinner I know I will start doing it more and more. And come to think of it, our kitchen is actually pretty green.

How about you? Do you have kitchen dreams like I do or do you have other parts of your future houses planned out? Let me know, I'd love to hear what you have in mind.

Book Paper Scissors

No owls today, but I would like to show you a little treasury I made on Etsy. It is inspired by books, scissors and their colors.

It has some cute art in it, but also jewelry (including from my favorite store, Chouettes'), clothing, a bookmark from my shop and a few other goodies. I hope you like it. You can view the bigger version here, where you can also click on the shops and items.

Treasury is such a cool concept. It is hard to get one, because spots only open up occasionally, but today I was lucky for the second time. And I really enjoyed putting it together.

Just a Little Update

A little while back I got my first request on Etsy, whether I could make a cat. It was something I was planning on doing and I was looking forward to making one, however I ended up with four!

They are all available in my shop right now, except for the brown cat, I just sold that one today. But I am able to recreate it, so I might list another one soon.

But that's not all. I've also been making Matryoshkas, because I just love them and given they are pretty popular, I thought others might like them too.

Apart from shipping a few orders out, there won't be a lot of sewing going on this weekend. I am too busy drawing, with pens, pencils, charcoal. And I just started a new painting, which even has relief. And that is definitely a first for me. I'll probably show you when it looks a bit more interesting.

What are your plans?

Lovely Movies

My taste in movies, just like in music, is really broad. And even though this one appealed to me, I totally understand that weird and slow Japanese movies aren't for everyone.

The story sounds like one written by Murakami(an author of really weird but very good Japanese novels), but is actually based on a manga. And it's a pretty simple concept: an inflatable sex doll comes to life.

Even though she was made for that purpose, the sex you see in this movie is quite limited, which must have been dissapointing for the large amount of single middle aged perverts at the cinema.

But apart from that, it's not exactly a cute movie. Guessing from the trailer I thought it'd just be slow, sweet, beautifully filmed and a bit bizarre, so I was shocked when they went all blood and guts on us.

If you think you can handle that, I do recommend it. It was very good and the acting was superb. Sometimes I thought they were filming the doll when it was actually the actress.

It has a few flaws in it, some things that don't add up when you think about it, but considering the nature of the story I guess anything should be possible.

Just a Little Update

If you take a look in the sidebar you might notice that the banner to my Etsy is a different color. That's because I changed it to match my new shop banner, which looks like this:

I know it's not blue eyed any more, but it is very cute and it even has a similar background to this blog.

You might wonder where I got it and the answer is Naomi, an Etsy seller with not one, not two, but three Etsy stores! The newest one specializes in banners, avatars, business cards, pretty much everything you need to brighten up your shop. You can choose either one of her colorful designs or ask her to make a custom one just for you.

But it doesn't stop there. Her second shop sells these amazing dolls. They are very cute and unique and yet again show her love for color.

They seem like the perfect gift for a baby or a child. When I see them I imagine a little girl just loving her doll and taking it with her everywhere she goes.

Her final shop is filled with supplies: ribbons, buttons, lots of things for scrapbooking and also pretty lampwork beads like these:

Her service was really fast and I was surprised at how easy it was to install the banner. I only had to save the image and select it in Etsy's shop appearance menu. Just a few clicks and my shop looked completely different.

I hope you like the new look too, and if you ever need a banner, or a doll, or some supplies, you now know who to go to.

Pretty Paintings

Another cute and creepy art post, although even do I guess they could be considered cute I don't think they are.

Yes, KuKula's girls are all dolled up and have that baby like quality, but they also seem a little soulless. Apart from that I think they're the Lady Gaga version of Audrey Kawasaki's work.

I know this might sound really negative, but I do quite like it, it's just that I prefer the "soul to be cute" and the rest to be creepy. This is completely the other way around. I hope I still makes sense.

Now onto why I do like it. What I noticed right off the bat are the colors and that most of her work is painted on wood. And I love that even though it's quite translucent it still has depth.

As you can see on the painting above she even included an owl. Which is pretty much enough to win me over.

If you go through her gallery you can see that her shows are really cohesive, maybe a bit too much. She really sticks to the same colors and subjects, and basically all of her shows include girls with the same hairstyle as well as that slightly tilted position of the head (you might have noticed that in all these five paintings). However, when you take a closer look at each painting individually, they do seem very different and don't get boring at all.

This last piece is one of my favorites, mainly because I adore that snail. And I also love the suitcase with the tea set.

This is probably my least positive post so far, but I guess you just can't love everything equally. Art's just a matter of personal taste. Again, there's a huge part that does appeal to me. And I think that the more I'll see it the more I'll learn to love it.

Marvelous Music

Last time Justin Nozuka came to Amsterdam his show was sold out before I found out he was coming. But this time I managed to get two tickets. And I'm going to see him tomorrow.

It's at a venue I've never been to before, but I'm guessing it's a small one, which is even better because it's more intimate. If it's allowed to take pictures I'll probably post some soon.

Speaking of pictures, I took quite a lot of them today. In this lovely store that sells antique and foreign furniture. But I also shot a few portraits. Hopefully I'll be able to take some more portraits tomorrow.

And maybe manage to play some guitar again as well. I was once able to play a few songs by Justin Nozuka. "After Tonight" which is pretty simple, and "Golden Train" which is more complex. I really regret not playing it regularly, because now I have to learn it all over again. But I expect it to be easier the second time around.

What are your plans?

A History of Penguins

Ever since "Happy Feet" lots of people have enjoyed dancing penguins, but they weren't the first and probably not the last to make penguins popular.

You might remember Pingu. I know I used to watch it and even had a little stuffed animal Pingu as well. I lost it in an airplane once and my parents had to get me a new one.

I'm sure most of you have seen Mary Poppins as well. But I'll be honest and say that I had forgot about the penguins completely until just now. Here's the reminder for you too:

When I was in high school my French teacher used to play us little videos, the only one that really stuck was this. Ok, it's not really music you'd put on your iPod, but the video is so cute.

Keep your eyes open for the gangster penguin with adidas stripes.

Those animated creatures now bring us back to "Happy Feet". Even though the movie is cute and funny enough in and of itself I'd like to show you a fanmade video. There are quite a few rap videos out there, but this short one is probably my favorite. Enjoy!

Lovely Movies

Somehow, in the past, Kirsten Dunst was on my list of least favorite actresses. But it has completely shifted and now I love watching her. That change of heart may have to with the fact that she's in so many awesome movies, including Elizabethtown.

It's one of those movies that starts off a little depressing, but then the lead character begins to travel and everything goes uphill from there. Let's not forget about the romantic storyline that is just adorable. I love all sorts of movies; arthouse, action, basically anything, but nothing beats the excitement of a lovely romantic comedy, does it?

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, you should. I'm sure you'll enjoy it too. And you'll just love the ending, which of course I won't spoil, because you will see it for yourself.

Just A little Update

I just came back from a photography workshop. It was about portraits, more the artistic than the technical side, so I still have to read that manual by myself. Which makes sense.

We can only bring one picture to the next and final class, four days from now.

It is said to be the most helpful part of the workshop because of the feedback. So I'm really looking forward to that and of course to taking the pictures.

There will probably be a few portraits posted soon then.

Feel Good Food + Recipe

Bagels are getting more and more popular here and I am loving it. There's a bagel place quite close to my home that I visited today. Apart from a bagel I ordered a nice drink made with carrots, oranges, ginger and royal jelly. It was delicious.

When I got my food I was too excited to take pictures, I'll try to keep that in mind, so you don't have to see my half devoured food next time. But it was just too good to wait! Here's the bacon, goat's cheese and pine nuts bagel.

The past few days have been filled with delicious food and drinks. I even tried out a new idea for a smoothie.

After working out I'm always a little hungry and one of my favorite things to make is a smoothie. Often with bananas and sometimes strawberries too, but yesterday I made one that's a little more exciting.

For two large glasses you'll need:

Milk

2 tablespoons of Yoghurt

a handful of Strawberries

a handful of Blueberries

1/3 Mango

1 Banana

2 teaspoons of Coconut shavings

4 overflowing tablespoons of Oatmeal

1/4 teaspoon of Cinnamon

First off put the oatmeal, coconut and cinnamon together in a glass, fill it up with milk, stir it a little and let it sit there.

Cut the fruit up into smaller pieces and put them all in the blender. Add the yoghurt. And then the oatmeal etc. Fill it up with milk till about 75 cl.

Voila! Push the button and you are done.

Queen's Day through My Nikon

As promised here are my pictures from Queen's Day. It was raining at first, so I couldn't take any pictures then, but it stopped eventually. The sun came out later and so did my camera.

This picture basically sums up Queen's Day, this was a genuine antique stand, most people just sell old clothes or toys or movies, although there is definitely some new merchandise too.

You can also find a few artists selling their work. This man is pretty well known in Amsterdam, he made a mosaic in the center of the city, but he also paints.

Apart from all the buying and selling, it's a chance for kids to show their musical skills and earn a little (or a lot of) money doing it. It's mostly just really cute though.

Just when I was about to head home, I met a group of amazing looking people. I asked if I could take a picture and they said it was ok, so I took a few. They were really nice and I love the pink hair and make up.

Now onto the things I bought. My favorite item is a porcelain doll's head. It looks like it came out of a Mark Ryden painting and that's exactly what I'm planning to do with it, draw or paint it. Her hair is a bit messy, but I'll leave it like that because I'm afraid to mess with the vibe.

You might know about my love for medieval sad women's portraits. And I happened to found one, tiny, but nevertheless a serene little woman.

Of course I was on the lookout for owls, it was only at the very last minute that I found some, including these:

I managed to get my hands on some other great things as well. Including a book about Frida Kahlo that was under a dollar, very cheap tin advertising signs(love those!) and a few items of clothing.

What started out as a wet and depressing day turned out to be nice and sunny and full of surprises.

I hope one day you'll get to visit Amsterdam on Queen's Day, but for now I hope you enjoyed my pictures.

Marvelous Music

It's my 6 month blogging anniversary! Yesterday I thought about how long I had been blogging and guessed it'd be about 6 months, so I checked and was only off by one day!

I figured I needed an amazing musician for a post like that. Regina Spektor sprang to mind.

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Her music is great, but I guess it's a love it or hate it type thing though. You can hear she's classically trained, but she really made it her own. With quirky melodies, sounds and lyrics she manages to create something truly unique.

I've chosen one of her more "normal" songs for you to hear. Fidelity would have been an obvious choice, because it's awesome and has a great video. But I went for another song that I absolutely love. The video is nearly as amazing as the song, very reminiscent of M.C. Escher, and let's not forget to mention she looks gorgeous in it.

One day I hope to see her in concert. In all the years I've been a fan she's only been here once, when I was on a holiday. Better luck next time!

P.S. May I just point out that even though I always try to match the first picture in a post to my layout, this has to be one of my favorites. I love how her hair's the color of the background and her dress/top matches the banner. It just makes me really happy! The little things, right?

Just a Little Update

Yesterday I mentioned I had listed two new bookmarks. I've been really into bows and most bookmarks new designs have been bows. Here are the two that I made before that aren't listed yet, but will be soon.

The bows a little tilted, because I thought it looked cuter than just plain horizontal or vertical. I know they look a lot a like, but I liked both color combinations so decided to just go for it and make them both.

Then onto the ones that are listed already. This one is a different bow design and is embroidered with glitter thread. I like the black and pink together, because it's both vintage as well as punk looking.

The last bow for today is a nice and bright orange. This one isn't tilted, because I liked it better this way.

A friend of me and my mum came over today and during our chat I had the chance to sketch some portraits and work on my bookmarks. I ended up with another bow, similar to the black design but in different colors and with a button. It'll be up for sale soon too.

I'm glad to have somehow managed to work on both my Etsy and portfolio at the same time.