Giveaway Winners Announced!

Thank you all for entering my 500th post celebration giveaway! Happy to see the sweet comments coming in and getting to know some more of my readers. Not many seemed to be interested in my decorating books, but most of you really liked the cute goodies, so i've decided to change giveaway package #4 into a surprise package filled with cute goodies! Share the cuteness!

My Vintage ceramic friends were happy to help me with the Lucky draw...

The five lucky winners are:

Package #1: Debbie Hill. Girl, i love that you collect shopping lists! I will send you one or so along with the package ok?

Package #2: Tess! It is nice to know where some of the goodies are going to!

Package #3: Sarah from Girl Land. Love your blog and Etsy shop!

Surprise Cuteness Package #4: Jessica from Funky Finds. I will gather a package of cuteness for you. You loved the elephant totebag from the other package, i have a similar Sweet Face tote bag but it's not an elephant. I will put it in your package, what is it? A surprise!

Package #5: Anne from GreenJello! Hope your crafty hands can use some of the supplies!

I will email you all today for your snail mail addresses!

Visiting grandma

While i was in the Netherlands, i of course visited grandma. My sunglasses in her wonderful vintage interior.

Vintage Friday

I like the way my Collage Sundays are going. Mainly the fact that i'm actually sticking to it. Posting pages of my collage journal every Sunday. I like it so much i was thinking of doing something similar on Fridays. Vintage Friday has an (obvious) easy to remember ring to it.
So on every Friday there will be a Vintage minded post on here. Can be a scan from a vintage fashion magazine, a page out of a 70's interior decorating book, an item that i scored in the thriftshop or like now a vintagy photo of myself and my brother!

It's us in the backyard of the home where we grew up in. I remember this swing very well. Loved it. We could swing together or by ourselves on the single swing next to it. (i still love the swingsets in the park!)
It's funny that you do see my face in the photo and not my brothers, makes it easier for me to post it here too. Why? Well, my brother is like a pretty much famous person in the Netherlands, musician/producer/etc. So he's in the media quit a lot, i wouldn't want some thorough journalist scanning my pages and coming up with kids photos of him all of a sudden! Haha, this way he's unrecognizable! As if he already knew he would be famous later in life! (bonus for me, if i miss him, since i moved so far away, i can always type him in youtube and find lots of movies of him and his music videos!)

Love you bro!

Happy Mama Day!

Happy Mothers Day! This is my all time favorite photo of my mom. She featured on my blog before, in her modelling days and helping me clean my room when i was still a little girl.
One of my all time first illustrations was made based on this photograph of my mom. Now that i'm looking for that image on my blog, i realize i never showed it here.
Why? Don't know. Maybe i will one day.
Mom, Love you. Miss you. Was great talking to you earlier today!

Ohoh...

More new hardware needed. Just when you think you have everything up and running with a new desktop computer, of course there's something else. My camera broke down. Ohoh. I knew it was going to happen, i have it for a long time already and noticed it sometimes just made up strange color combinations. Now it just makes up colorful photos by itself. It has something creative, but i do also need it to take pictures of what i want to capture.
Got to say goodbye and get a new camera. It's time.
I do have some other things already photographed and never shown on my blog before, so there's still posts coming with pictures, but there are also new felted friends that need to be shot to be able to appear on the blog.
Ok, tomorrow i'll go camera shopping.

Issey loves the theatre

Issey spends a lot of time running in & around the Laguardia Theatre!

Corner of my home

I am working on my crafts, i really am! Will show new finished projects over the weekend.

For now, this picture of a corner of my home. Photography is creativity too, right?

Hi Momma!

I'm so proud of my mom. Yesterday i was over at my parents to celebrate her birthday and she told me that the other day she, by herself, got behind the computer and visited my website! Good job mom, i knew you could figure out how to do the whole 'online' thing!

It's us in the photo and it fits my current activity (well, just 'til i started this post): Cleaning out clutter and reorganizing my home. Thank you mommy for making me all those cute dresses and helping me tidying up!

On another note, i want to say my heart goes out to all people in Jakarta, my mothers birth place in Indonesia. They are recovering from immense flooding. Please let the lingering rain stay away...

Five going on Thirthy

feathers and a makeup mirror
so young yet already so grown up
dancing and watching the planes go by
she cried

fabrics and a sewing machine
so grown up yet still so young
working and running to catch the late night plane
she smiles

I used to write poetry. I used to do spoken word performances. I used to write. From time to time the words boil up again. Or maybe it's just that some photos deserve to have their own poem.

Sights of the streets

This last Sunday i woke up early. When i looked outside the weather wasn't half bad so i decided to take this opportunity to enjoy my city when i most love it; early mornings. Funny enough, I'm not a morning person myself so i don't get to enjoy these moments too often. But this weekend i did. This city is large enough to be a big city with it's different area's and vibes, but then again it's small enough that you can cover a lot of ground walking around for an hour or two. Or three. And i took my time. It was lovely. The city was lovely.
Of course i spotted some great free art during my walk around town.

I'm getting addicted to making streetart pictures. Can't walk the streets normal anymore. Got to stop everywhere to take pictures. People look at me funny when i take a picture of a lamppost. Or a mailbox, plywood scaffolding or drain pipes. Boring city street furniture that has been decorated with art!

I have been making notes on different artists and locations and my thoughts on streetart. Will write more on this topic tomorrow or so. Got a lot of great pics to share too!

Dreamland photography

Red Shoyru Neopet Interactive Robot in apple field.

info voice activated neopets more robopet descriptions Flying Shoyru Shoyru Description
Red Apple martini recipe

Dreamland photography

Close your eyes.
How would your world look like?

Feels like fall

Hide and seek

I came home today and found my friends Oogie and Woogie playing hide and go seek...

The adventures of Oogie and Woogie

Remember Oogie and Woogie?
I introduced them before. Oogie and Woogie are the youngest of the four friends, and love to run off on their own little adventures.
Oogie went of to the beach the other day, to play by the ocean. But Woogie didn't want to hang around and be lazy all day, so she visited these lovely estate gardens, to walk amongst all these beautiful plants and flowers. It was so peaceful there.

Vintage at grandma's

This is what you get when I'm spending my Sunday afternoon at my grandmothers house with my camera! Vintage galore!
I love all her old nick-nacks. Some i even remember playing with when i was still a little girl.

Just thought i should share some of the pictures...

Bye Bye Brooklyn

I miss Brooklyn already.

I miss the baby bird that came to sit on my shoulder one morning when me and my love were drinking coffee in front of the house.

I miss the kindness. I miss saying and being said goodmorning too by people on the street.

I miss the sun. (even the heatwave!, it's cold and raining in A'dam!)

I miss the creativity.

I miss finding bargain treasures at an unexpected stoopsale.

I miss the guys from the band.

I miss walking through Fort Greene. (note: most pictures on the left were made during a walk through Park Slope though)

I miss the laughter.

I miss so much, but i especially miss
LOVE.


I don't know. Is it because I've been away a couple of weeks, is it that I'm going to move overseas in a while that I'm focusing on negativity in Amsterdam, to make parting easier? I don't know, the vibe here isn't what Amsterdam used to be about. People have a very short fuse here nowadays. Are getting more aggressive every day. Expect to deserve everything, just because. And if not, aggression. Wow. Be humble for a change. Be kind. A lot of things have happened lately to change to overall feel of the community. Let me ponder about this some more. I might post my thoughts about it another time.

For now, I just miss Brooklyn baby!

I'm part of the expo!

Not my creative work, but my persona is. I told about the expo in another post before.
Yesterday was the opening and it was a success. Lot of people showed up and while it was raining outside, inside it was nice and cozy. We got some unidentifiable green drinks as a welcome when you arrived. Tasted nice. But i heard somebody name it Dreft (that's a brand of a green dishwashing liquid). hihi. Didn't taste like dishwashing liquid!
There were some speeches, but mostly it was walking around, looking at the pictures, talking to friends and strangers. It was a good afternoon.
The whole exposition derived from the book 'Door Blauwe Ogen' (talked 'bout that before too) written by one of my girls. I was already proud of her, but yesterday she earned a new star of pride. Good job girl!
And you know what? She has just started a weblog, and i would love it if she would hang around for a little while with all her cool ideas, projects and creativity. So, Harimau Kecil, also known as Kasumi, welcome to blog land! Visit her blog if you have a spare second, maybe even leave her a comment one day. Let's get her hooked on this blogging thing too!

Project Spectrum: My Blue Friends

June is Project Spectrum's
Blue month.
Looking around my house for blue items made me realize I have a lot of cute blue friends hanging around! Enough to group them and honor them with their own photo collage.

May was the month of Green, April was an Orange/Yellow party, March celebrated Red and Pink, and I celebrated it twice.

New Asian Expo

If you find yourself in the area of Amsterdam on June 25th, get yourself of the couch and get to the restaurant 'Kantjil & the Tiger' in the Spuistraat. The New Asian Exposition will be opened that day. It is a presentation of the book and the portraits from 'Door blauwe ogen' which i talked about in a previous post.

If you can't make it to the opening, go visit on another date, have a nice Indonesian dinner and enjoy the photographs and stories then.

Photos: Pasar Malam Besar

A while ago i posted a photo collage i made of the Pasar Malam Senang. Currently, the annual 'Pasar Malam Besar' in The Hague is in full swing. Literally that's the 'Large Evening Market'. It's the largest EurAsian festival in the world (20,000 sq meters, over 100.000 visitors). Check the other Pasar post if you don't know and want to know about what it is.

I visited the Pasar Malam Besar last Thursday on Ascension Day. It was the first day of the event and it was a day on which everybody has a day off, so it was very crowded with people. Which didn't bother me, but it made it difficult to take photos sometimes. Move, people, move!

The old Singer sewing machine was beautiful. There was a stand with two old machines and loads of gorgeous fabrics. Two Indonesian ladies were on site sewing beautiful tailor made garments, original sarongs and kabaja's.

I made the picture of the books because I'm so proud of my girl who wrote it! And got it published. Okay, the fact that there is a large picture of myself inside and a printed interview about being biracial and a 'third generation Indo in the Netherlands' helps too. Hihi. It's a great book about my generation descendents of Indonesia over here. Lots of beautiful photographs and illustrations. It's called 'Door blauwe ogen'. (Through Blue Eyes) Check out some preview pages!

I also bought a beautiful green beads 'n wood bracelet from one of the Indonesian vendors. I had much fun talking a bit of Bahasa again. It had been a long while and i didn't knew if i could still have a small conversation, but then the words came back to me slowly. I was proud of myself. It has been over 10 years since I've visited my mothers country. (way too long ago!)

I must send my love and support to my people in Indonesia. After the volcano eruption not too long ago, my Mom's island of Java has been hit by a large earthquake. It makes me real sad to see they are getting so little help. But i know they're strong people so they will get through. I hope help will arrive soon for those in need. You're all in my prayers.

26 degrees C and updating my links

Whoohoo! Feels like summer. I started out working on my balcony this morning, but when the sun turned it reflected heavily on the screen of my laptop and i couldn't see what i was doing anymore.
So i decided to walk one block from my home and sit at the river (or an offspring of the Amstel river to be correct).
A lot of the benches along side the water were obviously already taken, but luckily, one of my fav spots under the pink blossom trees was still free for me to sit!

I brought my ipod, some icetea and my notebook and really enjoyed the sun, while working out some ideas and adding to my todo lists. I had a good afternoon.

I have been updating my blogroll with some links of other great blogs that i try to visit regularly. Let me mention a few crafty ones i stumbled upon: Moopy & Me, Shim and Sons, Oh joy! and Cutesypoo. More next time.

Queensday pictures!

As promised, some pictures of Queensday which was held in the Netherlands this weekend.

The weather forecast was really, really bad. They predicted heavy rain and wind in combination with possible thunder and hail!
So we prayed for some sun, and what do you think? No rain all day! (other cities did, we didn't!!)

My brother is an artist and had to perform on several large stages throughout the city. I think this was the biggest one. It's on the Museum-plein. I heard that because of the large crowds, there was no way they would arrive on time at the next gig, so they got a ride with the police, sirens and all!

My girl and me wondered through the South of Amsterdam (my part of town) first on my search for goodies. Then we walked to the city center and met up with our other girl and some friends. Went walking over the canals to the Jordaan area and partied hard at cafe Werck. There was a guitar player on the roof!

I love walls and/or doors that are being used by artists to showcase themselves. I just had to put up an Ismoyo sticker on this beautiful artsy door!

Oh, we bumped into a lady with this cute little doggy all dressed up in the Queensday color Orange. So sweet!

The cute but kinda scary mascot of the day was this little creature which I've bought for 20 cents! I have fallen in love with it. hihi.
The cute scary mascot is a tradition of me and my girls. Started out last year when i bought the blue doll (which i also post a pic of since it was her 1 yr anniversary). When i noticed her last year i jumped up and down. Bought her for 25 cent and she was still in plastic. Brand new!
One of my girls understood, she loved her too. My other girl. No, no. She thinks it's ugly. Not only thinks it's ugly, but screams it out. So we're always having a laugh with her and the blue creature. We even named it after her! So we had a mission this year to find another cute creepy creature. I think we have succeeded.

I couldn't leave the rabbit with a personality disorder alone. 15 cents and it was mine. I need to give this one her own personality one day. It's added to my list of things to do.

I collect small plastic animal figures. I have a lot on display in my living room (will post picture soon). So on Queensday I'm always on the look out for cute new items for my collection. I found only three. Last year i think I'd bought 5 times more!
Okay, now there is a reason why i had to limit myself besides the fact that i didn't see a lot of treasures this year. Hm. You now what, i will make a separate post about it later today. It deserves to have a separate post.

About Queensday, we had a lot of fun. After the party at the canals we walked through the city some more, had something to eat and started to feel our legs. Our body got so tired from walking and dancing all day, we just had to go home and take a rest break at the beginning of the evening. Later that night I went to the Paradiso club with one of my girls to enjoy the final part of Queensday 2006. We danced, drank, walked, laughed, partied, met funny people, it was great!

Project Spectrum: Orange and Yellow

April is Project Spectrum's Orange and Yellow month!
Fits perfectly with the spring feeling that currently flows through my home.

I enjoyed myself very much looking around for bright items in my rooms.

Previous Project Spectrum posts:
March: Pink around the house
March: Last day of Red and Pink

Project Spectrum: Last day of red and pink

Last day of March, last day of the Project Spectrum Red and Pink month.
As of tomorrow the color theme will be Orange and Yellow. Can't wait to get started!

But I wanted to end this month with another photo collage of things pink and red around my house.
The first one I did can be seen here.

Photo: Back in the days

I found a bunch of great photographs of my family back in the days.

This one, I think, was taken by my mom. Since she's the only one not in the picture. Well, me neither, but I'm peacefully sleeping in the crib. My brother and dad are collecting fall leaves or something I guess.
I love the way this picture came out. I wonder if my mom planned it out like this. The composition, the colors. I wish I could step into the photo and hang out for a day. Crazy right?

Pink around the house

I have taken some time to make pictures of all things pink around my house as my participation in Project Spectrum. Believe me, I could have gone on for a long time. Yes, I've got a lot of things in pink. Going through my rooms I already started to kinda worry about the next months with the other colors... what to do? Do I even have items in blue or green? That's gonna be the real challenge to come up with some kind of interesting photo collage with the right colortone.

I might make another round through my house next weekend. Because I really passed on some great pink items. Like this small retro looking digital clock a friend of mine once gave me when he came back from being in Canada for a long time. He's a great designer. I'll check and see if I have a url of his website. Ofcourse I'll have to add it to my link page.

And can I take this opportunity to show an earlier made craft project? It is pinkish.
I started out with a small blank wooden chest of drawers and some funky paper napkins. I decoupaged those onto the outside. The borders and insides of the drawers are painted white. The three cuties on top I found one day in a large dollar store in Brooklyn.

Photos: Pasar Malam Senang

Yesterday I was visiting my parents, when one of my aunts called to ask if we wanted to go with her and my uncle to a small Pasar Malam in Amstelveen.

For those who don't know, a Pasar Malam is an Indonesian market. Pasar means market, Malam means evening. Indeed orginally most eveningmarkets, but currently like here in the Netherlands, a Pasar Malam is a large gettogether market of Indonesian people with lots of food, music, dance and old friends.

The largest and most known Pasar Malam in the Netherlands is the Pasar Malam Besar in Den Hague. The one I went to yesterday is multiple times smaller. But that didn't matter to me and my family, we had a good time anyway.

Because I also love photography I took some pictures to share my day at the Pasar Malam Senang. Hope you enjoy!

Amsterdam is so beautiful

We had a friend over from Miami for a long weekend. It was good to see her again. Me and my man have stayed with her before when she was still living in Brooklyn. We took her all around town and had a great time. It got me acting all tourist like. Making pictures of everything that i see everyday, but not always taking the time out to realize just how pretty it looks.


Ooh.. i think the church on Dam square is looking so beautiful with the lighting and the red 'Indonesia' banners! Just had to make a picture. I haven't been to the exhibition yet. But it's high up on my to-do list. It runs till April so i must be able to find a good afternoon to go to the church.

From the Nieuwe Kerk website:
'Indonesia: the discovery of the past'. It consists of over 300 masterpieces from the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta and the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde) in Leiden. On display will be six large sculptures from the Singasari period (13th century), important gold finds and palace treasures from Sulawesi, Lombok and Bali, as well as unique ethnographica from West and East Indonesia, including New Guinea. Much of the material has never been exhibited before. The recently discovered Wonoboyo gold treasure also receives attention.
The exhibition presents the history of the collection and distribution of the Indonesian heritage brought together by the Batavian Society. This society's collection grew as a result of scientific and military expeditions, the passions of individual collectors such as governors and missionaries, and gifts from princes and sultans to the Dutch royal family or Indonesian rulers. The collection includes gold and other jewellery, buddha's, sculptures, krises and wayang puppets. From 1862 official policy was to divide collections between two institutions: the Museum Nasional in Jakarta and the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. This is the first time that the collections have been brought back together again, for an exhibition in Jakarta (opening on 15 August) and then at The Nieuwe Kerk.
In total some 330 objects will be on view, 160 from Indonesia and 170 from the Netherlands, which are both archaeological and anthropological. The two museums in Leiden and Jakarta have the two largest and finest collections of the Indonesian heritage in the world. In this exhibition these collections will be brought together for the first time. After the shared colonial past, in which the collection was assembled but also divided between the two museums, the exhibition now puts the accent on the new cooperation and connection between Indonesia and the Netherlands as equal partners.

Who saw my photo camera?

Oooh.... I forgot my camera when i went home from Christmas dinner!

And i made such a cute little bag yesterday and now i can't even take a picture to show it off on my blog...
Guess I'll have to do without my camera for a couple of days...