Synchronized Watching

A few weeks ago I participated in an online photography event called “synchronized watching” organized by Else Kramer. Around 1250 people participated, me included. The premise was simple: sign up and for a whole week you get a new assignment or theme every day. Then you post the pictures you’ve made on various social media and tag them appropriately.

This was the first time Else Kramer organized this, but it was so succesful she is already looking into the future of doing it again in the Netherlands, as well as worldwide. Not only was it succesful in the number of people that participated, it was mighty fun as well! The themes were very varied, there were all kinds of ways to interpret them. Here’ are my results:

Day 1 : Socks
The first one was pretty straightforward, to ease us in. I chose to use my macro lens (a very cheap add-on to your existing lens, but it does the trick!) and get a nice close-up. I tried out various arrangements till I was satisfied with this one.

 Day 2 : Something that you made yourself
Another subject that is pretty easy to interpret, but this time it already has a slightly wider range. There were pictures of children, sandwiches and grocery lists. I photographed a necklace I made a while ago. I had some plans to sell them, but I never got to making a whole line. This is what I would picture the product photography would look like. I’m very pleased how it turned out

Day 3 : Summer
This theme was tricky all on its own, because the day (actually the whole week) we got this assignment it was lousy weather all around. So how are you supposed to use that in your expression of what summer means to you? I did it by picturing something that is my go-to summer refreshment: homemade iced tea. It’s a simple concept and I added frozen raspberries for extra freshness and summer feel.

Day 4 : Blue
A very broad theme once more. I didn’t want to make a staged photograph so I biked around the city until I found this door with the gorgeous knocker and snapped it up with my phone. It’s simple, but I like it.

Day 5 : Void
Now were talking! A very deep theme indeed. Some participants really laid their life bare with this one. It’s very interesting to think about picturing something that’s not there. The only way to do that is to make it visible in some way. So I bought a bubble blower and started experimenting. Not as easy as you think when you’re on your own! You can’t hold the camera to your eye and blow the bubbles at the same time. You don’t really have the time to alternate the two (especially if it’s windy, which it was). So after over 200 pictures I was lucky to have snapped a few that had both and interesting composition and were sharp.

Day 6 : Something small
Ah, I got to combine two of the previous results in this picture! I set out with my macro lens, but didn’t really find anything interesting. I had the idea to maybe take a picture of a bubble’s reflection or something, but it didn’t really work out nicely. There aren’t really much interesting flowers or plants around here so that plan was out as well. Then I had the idea of sticking a bubble to a flower. Now this was even harder than my attempts of the previous day! My boyfriend was with me to assist me and it took a few tries but we eventually managed to do so.

Day 7 : Self portrait
Now this was the scary one! Would you just show yourself to over a thousand other people you’ve never met? Of course you were allowed to only show a small part of yourself, like feet or hands. And there were some who took selfies, used mirrors or photographed shadows. But I went for the all-traditional and quite simple head shot. It turned out dark since I was home late that day and light was scarce, but I kind of like that. I use it as a profile picture now.

As for the verdict: it was a fun and very interesting week! It really forces you to get out your comfort zone to photograph things you normally wouldn’t (or didn’t have time for in the past). Moreover, it motivates you to keep up so you can share your pictures with the other participants! And that was truly the most fun part: to just browse through all the pictures and like or favourite them and strike up a conversation with another photographer. I will definitely try and participate again next year.

Craft Party

Some very exciting news this week: June 20th is the international Etsy Craft Day! All around the world people are organizing crafting parties and little get-togethers. You can search for a party in your area on Eventbrite. I am helping with the hosting of a craft party in Amsterdam and will even give a workshop myself. The theme of our craft party is Reuseability & Recycling. Don’t be deterred by all the Dutch, practically everyone there will speak English as well and I myself will provide instruction sheets in both English and Dutch.

Ever since I have started Foregone Finds I had the aim of using and reusing as much of the old and fallen apart books as possible. I never threw anything away asides from scraps. I already started a line of original paintings that I’ve used the book pages for. However, there is still so many possibilities to recycle the text from those books. That is how I came up with my mini story books!

They are ridiculously easy to make (I will post a tutorial after the craft party is over), with a minimum of supplies needed. They can be as simple as a folded paper sheet with some writing or drawing on it or as intricate as tiny scrap books. You can make a single booklet with six pages + the cover or you can bind several booklets toegether and make a longer story. They are cute, versatile and are perfect as a little snail mail treasure. The text in this particular story book is cut from left-over pages of the old books.

Helping to host this craft party made me think back of all the crafting events I attended myself. I will admit, I was a bit nervous and stand-offish  to go. I had no idea what to expect. But since it was in my home town I forced myself to attend and had loads of fun and met many new people. Even if the workshop itself is not quite up your alley, you’ll always learn something new and there are loads of people to have a nice chat with. Above all, crafting events are great ways to establish a sense of community and to promote creativity.

I hope I’ll see you there! You can come by at any time, the workshops are given continuously from 16:30 to 19:30 at Storm Space at Swammerdamstraat 44. Other workshops hosted are:

– Make your own zpagetti from old shirts with tutorials to make bracelets with Maggie Again and heart shaped decoration with Le Chat Crochet
– Spread some joy by making your own feel good cards with Kim’s Little Monsters
– Reuse glasses and pots by painting them with Byvala

It’s my birthday and I sing if I want to

Hey everyone! Today is my 25th birthday and all in all it is a fantastic day! To explain the title: I lost my voice last night, but it’s not stopping me from talking or singing! I even did a little serenade for all the people who have congratulated me for my birthday. Listen to my rendition of Margaret’s Thank you very much; it’s pretty bad and hilarious.

Anyway, for the occasion I wanted to bake something nice. However, at the moment I’m following a keto diet. This means I can’t have many carbs and especially no sugar. This is kind of tricky, since carbs are in so many foods I love. Luckily there are many wonderful recipes and sometimes the no-no ingredients can be substituted by something else. I still browse through normal recipes as well, to save them for later when I’m not following the diet so strictly.

So there was this very yummy looking picture that came by of raspberry lemon bars. I am a professional grade cake, pie and pastry eater. My mom is an amazing cook, but her desserts are from another planet. All my life she has served me the most delicious dishes. Even so, I have never been a fan of tangy desserts. I like, no I love them sweet, sweeter, sweetest. This recipe really shouldn’t be for me, but the pictures really won me over. I needed to try them. So I substituted the flour for almond meal and coconut meal, the sugar for artificial sweeteners and cut back a bit on the butter. I also found out that I did not have any (frozen or other) raspberries present; I must have used them all for smoothies. I did have strawberries and blueberries so I used those.

Look at those beautiful colours!

They taste amazing! And they look so good too… And best of all: they are super easy to make, just follow the instructions and everything should come out fine. Just do not make them in a metal pan because it reacts badly with the lemon juice. One recipe should give you 16 servings. They may seem like small servings, but they are really dense and fill you right up. And a mere 120 calories a piece too! You could even add a bit of whipped cream guilt-free.

Strawberry Blueberry Lemonade Bars

adapted from The IMPROV kitchen

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 stick (125 grams) butter
1/4 c. sweetener
1/2 c. almond meal
1/2 c. coconut flour
>1 t. vanilla extract
pinch of salt

For the filling:
1 heaping cup frozen strawberries, thawed
1 heaping cup frozen blueberries, thawed
2 tbsp liquid sweetener or 1/2 c. sweetener
4 lemons worth of lemon juice
2 lemons worth of lemon zest
3 medium egg whites
1 meduim egg
1 c. coconut flour
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350º F (175º C). Line a non-metal baking pan, about 20 x 20 cm or 8″ x 8″, with parchment paper so you can easily lift the bars out once they’ve cooled. 

To make the crust:
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, then add in vanilla. Add flour until just incorporated. Dump dough in baking pan and press with your hands until it evenly covers the bottom of the dish.

To make the filling:
Blend the berries up in a food processor or blender. Add sugar, egg whites, egg, lemon juice + zest, flour, and salt to the bowl and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 25 – 30 minutes depending on your oven and the sized baking dish you use.

Let cool to room temperature and then place in the refrigerator for a few hours (or until they’ve cooled completely).

I have never used a nutritional calculator before, so this might be a tiny bit off:

16 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		121.0
Total Fat		10.8 g
	Saturated Fat	6.5 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.7 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	3.0 g
Cholesterol		29.1 mg
Sodium		23.9 mg
Potassium		94.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		5.5 g
	Dietary Fiber	1.6 g
	Sugars	2.4 g
Protein		1.9 g

Sunday Tea Story – Pictures of Utrecht

Lately I have become very interested in finding pen pals and send good old snail mail to each other. I guess I have Giova of One Bunting Away to thank for this. She often posts interesting projects and DIYs that are snail mail related. So I set out to find like-minded people from all over the world to exchange mail and crafts with. One thing I really wanted to do is show my new friends the city I life in.  I don’t really love Utrecht all that much, it’s too crowded for me. But that doesn’t mean the city isn’t beautiful and very diverse.

I first set out to the outskirts to show a little of the country-side and forest around Utrecht.

I live on the edge of Utrecht and I love it there. Right outside my building there are fields where sheep are kept. Every spring I can enjoy the little lambs running around. There are also lots and lots of rabbits where I live. They are everywhere!

You don’t need to bike or walk far to end up in the country side!

Now of course it’s completely different when you go towards the centre. Utrecht is an old city, so lots of old buildings.

This is pretty much the view in the centre. There are canals everywhere (though not as many as in Amsterdam) and the streets are narrow. Most streets are one-way only because there simply isn’t enough room for cars to pass each other!

The Dom Tower is seen from every side. I can even see it from my bedroom window even though the tower is over 3 km away in a straight line. It’s a great navigation point too.

Of course no Dutch city is without its bikes. Though the cities that are renown for having lots of students also have more bikes on average. And they are seriously everywhere! Lots of bikes end up in the canal, so I don’t dare leave my bike in the centre for more than a day. And it’s also very important to lock your bike with big chain locks.

All in all it was pretty interesting to walk through town and trying to look at the city through the eyes of someone who isn’t familiar with Dutch architecture.

Artist, interrupted

I have pretty much dropped most of my activities in every day life. I haven’t updated the blog in  months and ignored my shops (though luckily I did sell a few prints and cards). I have made exactly one new artwork in 2013:

I wanted to make a new custom card for my boyfriend. And it took me far too much time and energy to finish it at all in time before Valentine’s.

Basically what happened is that I had a bit of a nervous breakdown in December and am dealing with a burnout since. I’m tired every day, all day. I’m constantly stressed even without immediate deadlines.

And did I mention tired? I am so, so very tired.

I’m trying though. Very slowly I’ve been gathering creative juices and looking for inspiration everywhere. But I don’t have the energy yet. I haven’t even uploaded the new love card design yet because I don’t have the energy. And I know it is probably only 5 minutes of work. But it would take me all day.

I’m just not there yet. But I will be eventually.

Sunday Tea Story – Music as a muse quiz answers

Last sunday I announced a giveaway quiz where you had to guess which songs I listened to when creating my art. Unfortunately only one person entered :p (Okay, my boyfriend wanted to enter too, but I didn’t let him because he already pretty much new all the answers) But that’s okay, because Estella guessed everything right! Congrats! So for this tea story post I thought I would give some background information on my artworks.

1. Anger Screams | Black Strobe – I’m a man

I’m a fan of Guy Richie movies. When Rock’n’Rolla came out I went to see it in the theatres. Then the next day it was on in the living room I watched it again 😛 I was really impressed with the opening sequence with the song “I’m a man” and absolutely loved the grungy style! I was really inspired and wanted to give my own twist to it.

2. Heaven is just a drop away | Muse – Knights of Cydonia

I saw this amazing stock photo by M. J. Ranum that I just had to use. In the description he plead for it to not be turned into a boring angel. So I made a beer angel out of her! The Muse song was perfect to listen to when creating this piece.

3. Evolution of Nature | Björk – It’s oh so quiet

I was participating in a long and winding competition that lasted for half a year with new submissions every week. The theme of that week was nature. I really love dandelion petals and the idea they can travel very far away and the idea just came to me.

4. The Rainbow Samurai | DJ Okawari – Bluebird story

This artwork was made for the same contest and the inspiration for it all started with this tutorial. As you can see the result looks nothing like the tutorial 😛 But I really liked the retro style and the use of a toy. I used my own cat keychain and my roommate’s samurai figurine to make the final piece. The song is a real delight and I love how it’s kind of jazzy and more traditional Japanese influences.

5. Amphitrite| Clint Mansell – Lux Aeterna

I wanted to make something grand and dramatic. There is no music more dramatic than the Lux Aeterna. I love it so! It was perfect for making this Greek goddess of the sea. I like how vector and vexel art is made with layers of shapes on top of each other. It reminds me of height maps. So I made the goddess part of the sea surface.

6. Gloria | Mando Diao – Gloria

This was obviously the easiest one! When the song came out I was listening to it all the time. Then I saw an amazing stock photograph of a gorgeous red head with a beautiful and strong expression and I immediately thought of the song. I used a watercolour tutorial on negative space I was eager to try out and this was the result.

Sunday Tea Story – Music as a muse and a giveaway!

First of all, head over to my shops Katlix Design and Proverbial Productions and use the coupon code thanks2012 to receive free shipping on all your orders! This offer is valid until November 27th.

I don’t know about you guys, but music has always been a great source of inspiration for me. I have used it for writing short stories, creating art and even for the making of treasuries on Etsy. There is something very powerful in the way music can set the mood and influence your mood. When I’m swimming (I have an mp3 player for underwater) or riding my bicycle I love fast paced music and it makes me go even faster.

When creating artwork though, I tend to pick one song and play it over and over again to hold onto the atmosphere. This can go on for hours at a time (and usually when I am done I am sick of the song for a short while). As with sport acitivities it motivates me to keep going. I thought I’d make a little quiz for this week, to see if you can find out which artwork was inspired by which song. I am combining it with a giveaway to make it extra exciting.

Rules:
– The contest is open to everyone
– Below are 6 songs and 6 artworks, try to figure out which song has inspired which artwork. I have put in links to youtube so you can listen to the song if you don’t know it.
– Only one entry per person, your first answer counts.
– You have to be a follower of my blog, either through bloglovin’ or by signing in to follow the blog through email. Please mention you’ve done so in your comment.
– You can share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, your blog or anywhere else, but it will not get you extra entries.
– Deadline is December 1st, at 23:59 GMT + 1. The winner will be drawn randomly from the correct answers the next day and posted in my sunday tea story of December 2nd.
– If noone guesses everything correctly I will select the winner from the contestants with the most correct answers.

Prize:
On December 1st I’m going to sell my products in BoxXshop, a 180 minute christmas market full of handmade goodies and gift ideas. I am using this event as an opportunity to introduce a new line of products (stamps, notebooks and wrapping paper) as well as a new line of fancy bookmarks and framed prints. The winner of this giveaway will get a sample set of my new products! The winner will receive a notebook, a bookmark and a stationary set.

The songs:

1 – Black Strobe – I’m a man
2 – Muse – Knights of Cydonia
3 – Björk – It’s oh so quiet
4 – DJ Okawari – Bluebird story
5 – Clint Mansell – Lux Aeterna
6 – Mando Diao – Gloria

The artworks:

A – Evolution of nature

B – The Rainbow Samurai

C – Heaven is just a drop away

D – Amphitrite

E – Gloria

F – Anger Screams

Sunday Tea Story – Mobile photography

Checking in from not always sunny but at least a lot warmer Mallorca! My mom, sister and I arrived yesterday morning and have already done a ton of things for our girls-mini-vacation. We explored the town we’re staying in. Which was kind of creepy because the place is deserted! It’s pretty clear we are staying at party central, because almost everything was closed. It must be obnoxioulsy busy during the high season. It’s so weird to walk around this place and hardly see a soul on the streets.

The seagulls didn’t seem to mind the absence of tourists.

Then after that we went to do an important activity: shopping! There is a nice outlet with designer brands. The wares are still a bit pricey but I’ve bought a few amazing items for good prices. There is some more shopping to do tomorrow (like I said, a very important actiivity on our girl-mini-vacations), but for now I would like to talk about what we did today. We took the rented car and drove around the coast line. It was absolutely amazing! I can only imagine how much fun my boyfriend would have with all those curved roads 😛

But back to the sight-seeing! The views were absolutely amazing and the water has such a beautiful colour. Now usually I would bring my DSLR with me on trips because I know I like making pictures and will always kick myself in the head when I don’t bring my camera with me but want to capture something. So I drag that thing around with me even though it’s heavy and I usually don’t have a lot of time for picture taking (because the most important activity is shopping). This time however I decided to rely on my phone camera. When my cell phone subscription ended I got to choose a new phone with a new subscription. I researched a lot of possibilities, but eventually decided the Sony Xperia S because of the camera function. What I really love about this phone is that I can acitvate my camera function with one push on a button. The camera itself is pretty good as well for a point-and-shoot (of course the quality will never be as good as that of a DSLR) and it’s just easy to take with me and take it out.

My mom and sister stealing olives from someone’s garden. Karma got them because they were very bitter and yuckie according to my sister 😛

It turns on very quickly and aside from not having an optical zoom it perfoms rather well. There were a few moments on this trip in which a DSLR would have been a lot better since the lighting, colours and zoom would be better. But at least two of those three can be fixed in photoshop and I never post unedited pictures anyway. So in the end it’s no extra hassle.

The sky is fifty shades of grey (sorry, couldn’t resist it) but the sea is blue.

What I’m left with is more space and weight allowance in my suitcase and decent holiday shots. Would the focus of the vacation be on sight seeing and hiking I would have probably preferred my DSLR for its quality and the ability to play a bit more. But for quick and easy picture taking to save some momentums the phone camera was more than adequate. All the pictures of todays blog posts are made with my camera on this trip and are completely unedited.

Sunday Tea Story – Shoes

I can be a stubborn person. I can also be pretty impulsive and not always think things through. A combination of these two character traits have led to some (in hindsight) pretty hilarious incidents. Everyone has buyer’s remorse once in a while. I have a few of my own. Denim boots (they seemed so great, until I realised that denim boots do not mix well with jeans), gold pants (not even “in your face”-gold, more like a golden shine on dark blue jeans), fake fur coat (though admittedly, I looked friggin’ adorable) etc.. But the situation I have in mind is something else entirely.

Yup, so here’s me, looking like a teddy bear.

My mom, my sister and I take city trips together. Short little vacations that usually consist of culture, shopping, relaxing or a combination of those things. But usually lots of shopping. The trip I have in mind took place in Brussels. We were staying in a 5-star hotel in a small town outside of Brussels that was supposed to have this wellness area. When we arrived the area and the hotel looked absolutely gorgeous. The wellness area… did have some resemblence with the pictures and looked very fancy, except… it was so tiny! The pool was so small that it was crowded with three people in it. With a few strokes you’d already be at the other side.

What’s this, a pool for ants?

So instead of combining shopping with wellness, we combined shopping with shopping. The first day I had seen a beautiful bag and I was already kicking myself for not buying it, so the second day of shopping I bought it. I also bought a pair of ankle boots. I was a bit in a hurry because my mom and sister were waiting for me. So I only tried one shoe on it was the display shoe) and was satisfied so I grabbed a box of a pair in my size with a quick check that both the boots were in there.

That however was all I checked. Big mistake.

When I came home I wanted to try them on to see how they looked with an outfit and I found out my mistake. I had a pair of shoes in different sizes. The right one was my size, 37, the left one however was size 36! I facepalmed myself so hard at that moment of discovery… But like I said, I am really stubborn. No way I’m going to let this pair just rot away! So bravely I put them on anyway because I could get the smaller one on. No problem, right? No one is going to notice it, right?

Oh yes, someone noticed. I noticed it big time.

While I’m used to buying shoes that are more suitable for admiring and sitting instead of walking, this was something else entirely. My left foot was so incredibly cramped in the boot that I was in terrible pain after a mere 15 minutes. I was ready to chew my foot off. But I remained stubborn and kept wearing them for when I had to go to class so I knew I’d mostly be sitting anyway. Over time the left boot stretched and though it was still a bit tighter than the other one, but thankfully not so painful anymore. My stubbornness paid off, sort of.

Now the soles of both shoes have cracked and I discovered that while walking through the rain. Of course I’m still going to wear them. I like the design way too much! I’ll just have to check the weather forecast and avoid puddles.

Sunday Tea Story – Hamsters

Another little snippet from my life. I have always been a cat person. I just love how they all have their own little personalities, usually keep to themselves, but can also be absolutely cuddly! Or maybe I just like them so much because we share some similar interests: the love for lazyness and warmth.  When I moved out of my parents’ house to go to university I had to adjust to life without a furry friend around. It is just so weird how empty a room can seem if you’re the only one living in it. After a few years I decided to get a pet. Unfortunately a cat was out of the question (too little space, too much responsibility) and I opted for hamsters.

I have always loved hamsters because they are just these little balls of fluff. To me they are way cuter than other small critters like mice, rats, guinea pigs, bunnies or chinchillas. Also they are pretty easy in upkeep. And really, who could say “no” to those big black beady eyes? And the way they stuff food into their cheeks? I am not even mentioning the way they clean themselves… Everything is totally adorable about hamsters! Okay so you can’t really hug them like you can hug cats or dogs. However, if you find one that doesn’t pee or poop on your hand when you hold them, you’re golden!

So I went to the pet store and chose these two little furballs. I named them Shift and Enter; with no special reason other than that I was trying out some names and combinations and these were the ones I liked. I immediately discovered that Shift (the left one) was the born escapeologist while Enter (the right on and the one pictured in the first picture) was more mellow and liked attention (and food). I soon discovered that having two hamster was going to be a real hassle. First they were disagreeing about the exercise wheel. Usually Shift ended up the sucker because Enter was bigger (fatter). I got a second wheel and it went okay for a while. After a few months or so they just didn’t get along at all, constantly fighting, and I bought a second cage so that they could be separated.

What completely amazed me is that these little guys could have these complete different personalities. Shift was the most distant, didn’t really like being picked up and loved roaming through the tube system (and escaped a few times). Enter was way more social, didn’t bite and only pooped rarely in my hand. When these two died (one quite shortly after the other, I wonder if it is coincidence) I waited for a short while, not sure if I wanted another one. Still, when I stepped into the pet store I made up my mind really quickly, even though there was only one left. I named her Bacon (I was going for Jason Stathamster, but that was a bit too long, so I named her after the character he played in “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”) and she was such a sweetheart!

She loved all the attention I could give her. If I would pick her up she would be completely relaxed (so no pooping!) I could let her roam freely in my room, because when she was done exploring she went back to her cage to sleep all on her own! Even my mom completely adored her, and she was the one who first didn’t really see the appeal of hamsters as a pet. And when she passed away this summer it really hurt. More so than when I lost the other two because Bacon and I really had a bond. I haven’t gotten a new one, because they simply don’t live that long and I can’t imagine losing one every 1-2 years.

I didn’t mean this to be a sad post, because I really loved having a little life in my room everytime I came home. I guess what I really wanted to share is that it doesn’t matter how big or how small, everything can have a meaning in your life. Even if it may seem silly to someone else. So treasure what joys you have in life.