Project 365

(Yes, I know that at the start of the year I was very happy to be doing this, and I know I could have quit if I had really wanted to, but now I'm proud I stuck with it and most of all.. Happy it is OVER and DONE WITH!)

(You can see the whole set here.)

Three into one

Right. Bear with me, this will be a long post on how three projects will turn into one huge project as of Nov. 1st.

First of all: Nanowrimo. Nanowhatoh? Nanowrimo; (inter-)National Novel Writing Month. It starts on Nov. 1st, and it's all about writing that book that you always said you wanted to write, in one month. Yes, you heard that right, writing a book in one month. Or well, writing a 50,000 word novel in one month. I've been doing this for a few years now, this year will be my 6th time, and I absolutely love it. Last year, I actually finished the story at the end of the 50,000 which had not happened to me before, and I was quite pleased with myself. I can't wait to get started again this year and not only get those 50k down, but also finish the story I want to tell.

Ok, now hold that thought...

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this blog, telling me about Fake Journal Month. FJM is in April, and the idea is to keep an art journal, but not your own. You keep one for 'someone else', living or dead, or maybe even fictional. You might want to use materials you normally don't use, or techniques you normally would not use in your own work. Try something different, but as if you were someone else.
Sounds cool, right? But April is so far away...

Now, hold that thought too...

The other day, I was going through another 'I don't know what to take a picture of today' sort of mood. I'm still loving my Project 365, but sometimes there is simply 'nothing to take a picture of' and then it's hard. As I was looking around at my stuff and things to see what I could use for my daily picture, I saw my old Little Red Ridinghood doll. It can change into the Grandmother and the Wolf, but I only took a picture of Little Red Ridinghood. Here it is:


Nowwwwww... Put all those three together and you've got: a Nanowrimo novel about Little Red Ridinghood (but different, I promise) and a Fake Journal I will of course take pictures of to go with it! Ha! Because after 5 years, I know I can do the writing, and this would make it a bigger challenge. Besides, I love art journals and I can't wait until April to try a Fake Journal.

I'm already doing backgrounds in a Pokemon magazine that we got for the 3D glasses so we could watch a 3D episode of Chuck (it did not work... wrong colours I guess) so come Nov. 1st I can let Red pour her heart out in her new art journal! Can't wait!

Bye oma!

Today it's eight years since my nan (or gran or 'oma' in Dutch) passed away. It's hard to believe it's been that long.

She was a great knitter, and she enjoyed sewing too, so it was not that strange that she started to collect thimbles. Whenever we went on holiday, or on a daytrip or even schooltrip, we would try and find her a thimble.

When she passed away, my aunt took over her impressive collection, but not before I took out the couple I knew for sure I gave her. One from Eindhoven, the first place I lived when I moved out of my parent's house, one from Dierenpark Emmen, a wonderful zoo in Holland (sorry, link is only in Dutch and German), and one from Lourdes....

I was hoping to take a picture of the sky today, as she loved cloud formations and would always tell us 'Oohh, look at those clouds!', but it's grey and raining again today, so this was the next best thing for this sad anniversary.

Dag oma!

Lightening strikes

Yesterday we had a massive thunderstorm. At one point we thought it had hit something, at first I thought it was the school around the corner. This morning however, while walking the dog in the park, we saw this tree... Thankfully it had rained heavily before lightening hit it, so there was no fire, but the damage is severe.

Happy Easter!

Or should I say: Happy Chocolate Day! Because even if you don't celebrate Easter, you can still enjoy the chocolate!

Woohoo, Day 100!

I promise I will post an update on my Art Journal soon, but first I wanted to celebrate Day 100 in Project 365. Can you believe we've already had 100 days in 2009? How time flies!

Truth be told when I first started I thought taking 'a picture a day' was going to be easy, but it turns out it's not. Sure, when you're out and about and you've got something to take a picture of it's fine. But when you have to 'hunt' for a picture idea, it's incredibly difficult.

Today was one of those difficult days. I struggled. I wanted to do something special for today, but could not come up with anything. I had thought of letting a balloon with a tag on it up in the air, but today is grey and miserable, so that would not make for a nice picture. Then I thought I'd write down 'Day 100' in chalk on the pavement. I was sure I had some. You think I could find it? Of course not.
The picture of 'Day 100' on a banana peel came out looking rather gross... So then I decided to go with the simplest of ideas; a picture of my calender... Far from original, but at least it's a picture, right?

As I said in my description on Flickr; I should not moan at myself for not being able to think of anything original, but rather be proud of myself for having stuck with it for 100 days.

So here I am, celebrating and feeling proud!

(You can see all 100 pictures here.)

Spring

Oh it's Spring alright. Just look at these brave little grape hyacinths peeking out from underneath the hedge.

Of course, it's forecast to rain for the next couple of days. Oh it's Spring alright....

(This is Day 96 of my Project 365: take a picture every single day of the year and post it on Flickr. Those and other pictures can be found here.)

You can take the girl out of Holland...

..but you can't take Holland out of the girl.

This is picture 91 of my Project 365. Taking a picture a day seemed easy when I first signed up for this, but it's proven to be difficult at times. I don't always know what take a picture of. But so far, I haven't missed a day and I'm rather proud of that.

I'm still not sure what to do for Day 100 though....