Broek in Waterland

I would like to thank everybody who visited my studio last week, it was a bit crowdy but very cozy and I loved to meet you all, thanks for your visit!

Hallo allemaal,
Wij hebben vakantie en doen 'dagjes uit'. Misschien vinden jullie het leuk om mee te gaan naar Broek in Waterland, dat zo'n 10 kilometer boven Amsterdam ligt. Ooit zag ik een artikel over de pastelkleurige houten huizen in Broek in een tijdschrift. Dat was inspiratie voor onze schuur. Dus op naar Broek in Waterland en een sloepje gehuurd. De foto's spreken verder denk ik wel voor zich.

We are having vacation right now and as we traveled to the US this spring, we only do small trips this summer. I know, some people take inspiration from places like Paris and Istanbul when they create,

but when hubby and I built and painted our shed,

we took our inspiration from this:

The wooden houses in Broek in Waterland, which I had seen in a magazine.

Broek in Waterland is a small village a few miles up North of Amsterdam.
Nowadays I should translate 'Broek' (pronounce brooke) as pants, but I discovered that Broek is an old word for swampy. Somehow I think I don't have to tell you what Waterland means. So as you can understand, we didn't use our car to discover Broek in Waterland, but we took our picknick basket and rented this baby:


a very flat boat, which we call a 'sloep' (pronounce sloop). Yes this is an electric, silent, environmental friendly and non stinking boat. It is small, which is very convenient in our landscape see:




A huge yacht is of no use over here. Too bad for the heirs of Aristoteles Onassis!


While there is so much water around, the ground here is soft and that's why the people up here used to built wooden homes.


And they used to paint these homes in pastel colors.




Even the dogs over here have wooden and pastel colored homes.


Not to mention the ducks!


We did enjoy the beautiful wooden houses


and the blooming hydrangeas everywhere


and the typical Dutch open and flat landscape, which will always be something special to me.


Someone abroad once told me that the Dutch are born with webs between their toes.


Like this aalscholver.


I wish we were!
We could sure use them over here.


Bye girls, thanks for having us in Broek in Waterland, it was even better than in the magzine.

Thanks for visiting me, have a great day whether you are having vacation or not.
xoxo LiLi M.

Where bloggers create.

It's always the same around here...doubting, thinking and (what we call) weighing what to do and then do it in the very last minute...so here I am; with my little studio in 'where bloggers create', hosted by Karen Valentine of 'my desert cottage'.

Na lang getwijfel en geaarzel en een verkoudheid heb ik toch besloten om mee te doen aan 'where bloggers create', ik weet het nog niet zo lang geleden heb ik een studio tour gegeven, ik heb nu weliswaar een paar nieuwe foto's maar toch...vond ik het leuk om het nog eens te doen, veel plezier!

Here it is; let's open the door:


Ohhh and let's close it immediately!
Mmm, I guess I have to confess that this is how I create...in a mess...So what do I do now? Show you some details?


some pink...


a little cutie...

a little birdie...

or we could do a little time traveling, sometime in April I showed you my little studio too and then my studio was nice and clean (especially for the occasion).
Ok, open that door again:


Well that's better!
My studio is in the smallest room of our house, such a room is called a 'kabinet' and you can obviously see why, but no one hears me complaining, this is small, but cozy and in the center of activity in our house; next to the computer and television room, which we call the study.


Above my desk I have an old mail divider from the post office in Vlaardingen.


Behind my desk there is a ladder, otherwise I cannot reach the highest shelves.


Chest of drawers that a friend of mine didn't want anymore.


And a rack filled with jars of buttons, bells and other supplies.


The bigger candy jars filled with lace and knick knacks on the other side of the room.


This is inspiration to me.


I like to see my little knick knacks so I use letter trays as storage, some revamped like this one, or just as is...


as this one, don't forget to click on the photos to see more details.


I use these cardholders (50 cts at the thrift store) as keepers for all lovely cards etc. I get from you! I have about 6 in this room!


my papers and the wicker cases, all are tagged, to keep me from searching.


I keep my yarns and fabrics (and paints) in the basement. What I am using is here in the wire basket (which is filled up to a yard high presently)


I try to keep rubbish (well one girls' trash is another girls' treasure) out of side in these bags. But when I work it is still a mess. I know I have too much, but I can only create from abundance.
Have a happy day touring around and finding inspiration at other creating bloggers, have fun! Thanks for your visit over here and thanks to Karen for hosting.
xoxo LiLi M.

Winged messengers

Are you getting in the mood for a vacation? I thought this little girl might help, but she is hard to photograph,

or maybe I should take away a little glass to get a clearer view, or maybe I just need a good photographer? Someone like Susanna Gorden!

Do you know Susanna? I think you have met her; here, here or
in this issue of

there is an article about her art.

I met her for the first time through Constance's blog 'Rochambeau'. Constance is a very talented lady herself, but she doesn't hesitate to highlight other talented people on her blog. I love her and I love her blog. Today happens to be her birthday. Here is to you Constance! Have a great party down in ol' New Orleans! Dance them off their socks over there!

Back to Susanna Gordon: Besides being a very talented photographer Susanna has all kind of drawing and painting projects. One of them is 'winged messengers'. The first time I heard of that was in this post, at Rochambeau's.



Susanna draws and paints envelopes with wings, and she puts a message on the envelope. Such a message could be:

'Share your dreams with someone'
'You are beautiful'
'You are a work of art'
'Your opinion matters'

And so on, all very strong and positive messages.

The envelopes are left behind in several places. First Susanna did that herself, but soon she was asked to send her envelopes to other people who left them all over the world.

To make a long story short: I contacted Susanna and she sent me two winged messengers as well. One with this message: 'Share your dreams with someone'. The other was left blank, and that one got my message: 'You really are a friend'.
I made some photos in my home town Dordrecht, but in the end I left them in Rotterdam.
As it is vacation time now and I didn't share this with you before, I thought it might be a good idea to do some sight seeing now.

Let's go:


One of the shoe shops in Dordrecht. Dordrecht has been a poor town since the decline of the 18th century. So people tend to keep what they have for a long time, they don't modernize. Hence you can see this kind of a shop window, that seems to be out of the 60ties, just in line with modern shops.



Bike with wings...



16th century wall around the famous Dordrecht church.



Someone's car.



Cosy party, they might share their dreams about drinking acorn coffee, what do you think?



The historic harbour of Dordrecht.



View of the famous tower of the largest church of Dordrecht.

Now we'll go to Rotterdam: the city where I was born:

In the 2nd World War the historic centre of Rotterdam was bombed away. Now the centre of Rotterdam has a lot of world famous modern architecture, like these dice houses:



Yes, you can see two winged messengers on the left, on a brown panel. People live in these houses and one is open as a little museum for public. (Fun!)



There is a historic harbour in Rotterdam too and like in Dordrecht only antique vessels are allowed to sail here.



Mural painting in the historic port.



These people didn't mind that I glued (I used bubble gum) the messages on their car while they were waiting for the traffic light. Okay it's for Art's sake folks!



And this is the place where I finally left the winged messengers.
Here in front of the Willem de Kooning Academy, the art academy of Rotterdam. This cardboard house might be a project for the homeless, made by someone of the academy, I don't know. I thought it was appropriate to leave the winged messengers on this little house as decoration.

Thanks Susanna for letting me take part in your project. It was so much fun to do this and my assistents, my hubby (in Dordrecht) and my daughter (in Rotterdam) were very pleased to help too.

Would you like to know more about this project? Just check Susanna's blog about the winged messengers and have fun!

Just a last note: Thanks for all your comments and tips about the fork part; I never felt anything edgy of that fork again, and no I didn't check.

I'll be traveling through blogland, and have a post about once a week in vacation time.
Thanks for visiting me, have a great time where ever you are and what ever you are doing, hugs LiLi M.

Sorry geen nederlandse vertaling, omdat ik in de veronderstelling ben dat iedereen die daar behoefte aan heeft met vakantie is. Laat me weten als je toch zo'n vertaling op prijs stelt, dan schrijf ik er alsnog eentje bij. Bedankt voor je bezoek xoxo LiLi M.