foggy

But at least no more snow and ice.

Truth is, I don’t really mind bad weather all too much. Sure, a heavy rain on a cold day is never nice, but foggy with a soft drizzle is still beautiful to me. I actually stopped three times on my way to the barn this weekend to take pictures.

With a fulltime office job in winter I only really get outside on sundays and I relish every minute of being out in the light (however dull the day) and the fresh air.
And the funny thing is, that the duller the day the brighter the little flecks of color still left everywhere appear to be. We went out riding in the woods and there was all shades of brown and bright mossy green and I regretted not taking my camera.

You see so much when you start looking.

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through the woods

On a cloudy day.

It gets dark so early now, but the colors are beautiful and the air is fresh and clean.

Somehow nature has a way of allowing us to breathe deeper than city air ever can.

dye fun

Before posting the last series of pictures from our Amsterdam trip I have to sneak in this little post about batik.
Obviously dye and batik is back, I’ve been seeing lots of batik scarves everywhere and this dip dye pillow ist just gorgeous. So of course my first thought wasn’t ‘where can I buy this?’ but ‘how can I make this?’
I vaguely remembered batik from school and the colours weren’t expensive and it really was much simpler than I’d thought.


Besides making a silk scarf that I love I’ll give you a little sneak peek of something else I’m working on:

travel diary: amsterdam

After we had to cancel our plans made for an extended weekend unexpectedly, my friend and I quickly had to think of something else to do instead.
We found the perfect solution when a friend offered us the keys to her student housing apartment in Amsterdam, where she had been doing an internship for 6 months which was now finished.
Amsterdam is less than 3 hours away and we left very early on friday morning. We dropped our stuff off at the apartment and took the tram into the city center.
Our plan was simple: see much as much as possible and spend as little as possible. We did have to get typically dutch friet speziaal (fries with mayonnaise, ketchup and onions) for lunch though and some yummy dutch cheese.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, green and full of flowers and beautiful canals. Despite the many people and an unusual number of cats about, it is one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen.

There are of course bikes in every variation and color and dozens of ‘coffee shops’ where people can legally buy small amounts of drugs.

We strolled around the main sights like the flowers market but also tried to find little treasures off the tourist routes.


When we got to Prinsengracht (a beautiful large canal), we found the prettiest house boats and I kept clicking away, with my friend having to shove me off the streets when I was threatened to be run over by cars and bikes.


All in all, our electronical counting thingy showed we’d walked a good 20km that day. No wonder our feet were killing us!
After a long day we had enough of the crowded city and went back to ‘our’ apartment and sat down at the canal in the warm evening light and had a perfect dinner with our delicious dutch cheese, some fresh baguette and grapes and a bottle of white wine.

I’ll have day 2 (at the beach) and day 3 (Amsterdam on a quiet sunday morning) up as soon as possible 🙂

holga color love

The first color shots out of my Holga are finally done and scanned and I am in love (again). Unfortunately medium format color film is pretty pricey but I will have to splurge on it once in a while I think.
These were all taken at the last rodeo at the barn:


Aching feet after a day’s riding:

Yummy candy for sale:

The oppressive heat we’ve been having has been hard on the horseys as well, with little shade and lots of flies on their pastures:

And, to save the best for last (something I always find very hard to do…anyone seen the movie ‘Remember Me’? I have my dessert first too):

loving film

I never got around to posting them, but I got my first test roll of film from my Olympus OM-2N scanned a couple of days ago. They’re only a couple of test shots I did when I was hanging out at the barn, but I am so in love with these lovely retro colors. Also I had forgotten how soft film is. We’re so used to tack sharp digital photos that these seem sort of dreamy in comparison.
Sweet baby at the barn:

Don’t even know what I love about this picture but somehow this draws me again and again!


Taking full advantage of the Zuiko 50mm 1.4 lens. Very interesting bokeh I think, definitely different than with my Canon (though my lens there is also 50mm 1.4).

And of course my cats, what would a post on this blog be without them?

I will be going on holiday next week (yay!) so don’t be surprised if things are a bit quiet around here. I hope to be coming home with lots and lots of new pictures for y’all, both film and digital (keeping fingers crossed for good weather!!) 🙂
Also I have been thinking of starting a series of tutorials on how to use a vintage treadle (or how I use my treadle to be specific), very basic things like threading, oiling, changing needles, adjusting tension and stitch length etc. Might be handy if someone buys a treadle without a manual and wonders how to use it. Would anybody actually be interested in that? Let me know!

circus elephant pillow

After all those photo posts at last a little sewing again! This little pillow was inspired by Sara Gruen’s great book ‘Water for Elephants’. The idea just popped into my head one day and I already had the little elephant stamp which I had carved out of lino. The scraps are mostly a selection of Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks line (my love for that collection will never die!) and are handstitched on a piece of white fabric with red embroidery floss.
The gold fabric is a satin-woven Ikea cotton, which I love to use for almost anything, because it’s so silky and I’m in love with that precise colour so much 🙂

The combination of gold and bright reds and purples feels totally ‘circussy’ to me!

It’s up now in the shop and I will probably make another one or two when I find the time. If they don’t sell I’ll just keep them all for myself 🙂
I’m also working on another Sunny Circles Pillow, which will also go to the shop in a couple of days (I know that one is a favourite among my friends so I thought I’d give heads up here…talk about lame excuses for shameless self-promoting!)
Wishing you all a day full of colour and sunshine 🙂

orange studies or: project 365

Inspired by Julie and Jaqui I too am now doing Project 365. When I first read about it I thought it was a good idea but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it. I didn’t want to feel pressured to take a photo every single day. I am feeling bad enough about not getting enough work done on my thesis day by day, I didn’t want to add the guilt of not having taken a picture.
I chewed on the idea for quite some time though and it grew on me. I looked through my photo folders and realized I was taking pictures nearly every day anyway! So surely the pressure wouldn’t be too bad, right?
I’ve been doing it a couple of days now and it has been so much more amazing than I imagined! Such an eye-opener, in every sense of the word. Instead of feeling pressured at the end of the day to just take a photo I find I am walking through the world with an open eye for beauty more than ever. I feel I finally SEE.
I had a long day yesterday, travelling 3 hours by car to a business meeting, sitting around there waiting for clients for 6 hours and heading back home. Still, yesterday’s harvest was bright and colourful and lovely and I can’t decide on a favourite at all:



If you’re thinking about doing Project 365 too, go ahead and jump in! You won’t regret it!
By the way, I am planning a major shop update over the next two weeks. I will be adding a bunch of lovely prints and maybe some sewing, so stay tuned 🙂

weekend shots

Been busy working all weekend with my dad (I’ll post those pics another time) but I took my camera along and here’s the result:
My mom – she’ll hate me for posting this. I begged her let me take her picture because she wore a gorgeous red jumper that went well with the gray walls…and now I’m being mean and posting the black and white version 😉