Had to run some errands in our beautiful city centre yesterday. Tried to focus on the colour red on my walk.
It’s not really like I need another thing to focus on right now… I’ve taken on the task of (re-)establishing some routine habits. But I think I can handle a little added colour adventure.
It’s fun and easy: once the colour is in my head, I have no trouble finding it everywhere.
Saturday was all about missing tram stops, cool ceramics, photography, inspiring people, great food and truly wonderful conversation.
In the afternoon my dear photographer friend Liesbeth and I participated in a Vivian Maier inspired street photography workshop at FOAM.
I carried my compact camera with me for the occasion. It isn’t my favourite camera and I’m not entirely accustomed to it, but I thought the DSLR would attract to much attention. I couldn’t use my trusty iPhone because I needed to be able to share the photos with the class afterwards.
Using the compact meant that I missed out on some shots because it was too slow or I didn’t have it on the right settings for the shot at hand. I’m still pretty chuffed with the result. I don’t tend to photograph complete strangers very often… And I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed myself photographing these strangers!
The new word up on the One Little Word blog is ADVENTURE.
I didn’t have this assignment prepared before I went to Version Scrap. I was thinking I could make an art journal page, or maybe a scrapbook page about a little everyday adventure. And then the weekend trip to Paris came up and it turned out that the Universe wanted me to document a brand new ADVENTURE instead.
As if travelling to Paris on my own wasn’t ADVENTUROUS enough, I found out at the airport that my flight was overbooked. This was at 06.15 in the morning and clueless me was still hoping I would make the flight. Instead I was one of the five people to miss it. I was booked on a second flight that would depart 1,5 hours later. It didn’t depart until 10.00 o’clock… And all this time I was telling myself to please stay calm and to not freak out!
Fortunately because of the flight delay, I was able to text with Riikka (who by this time had just arrived in Paris) before I had to turn off my phone. I was supposed to meet her at the airport in Paris, but now at least she knew I wasn’t going to be there on time.
When I finally got to Paris, I quickly found the train station. I had to get a train ticket, but found that there were three kinds of machines… I had to go to the info point to find out which one I needed.
The guy at the desk not only pointed me to a green ticket machine, he also took his time to find out which train I should take (which I actually already knew, but he didn’t like it when I tried to interrupt him, so I kept my mouth shut…). When I stood in front of one of the green ticket machines, it turned out that said machine only took credit cards and coins. I on the other hand had a purse full of fresh bills and no credit card…
I found a money changing machine… that didn’t work. I kind of gave up on catching the train and went to the ticket office to stand in a very long line… All was not lost though, because although the line was impressive and the ticket sales persons weren’t exactly friendly, they were fast!
The train rolled in almost immediately after I had set foot on the platform. But… the sign on it didn’t read the destination I needed to go to. There was no other train… And my train was supposed to depart in the next two minutes. All the other tourists occupying the platform were looking as clueless as I was! So we all took the chance. Fortunately it turned out right!
I paid attention to all the stops, just to be extremely sure I wouldn’t miss the stop I needed to change to the metro. I didn’t and I miraculously found the platform to the connecting metro line without any problems.
When I got to Vincennes, the promised little train that supposedly took visitors from the metro stop to the venue wasn’t there. I didn’t see a stop for it, so I decided to walk. I knew it would take me approximately 25 minutes, but I didn’t know it would involve dragging my suitcase (small one on wheels) over various dirt paths, that had a variety of stones sticking out of them…
I finally made it into the venue just before 01.30… I was so sure I was going to miss my first class, Birgit’s class… I had been sure of it from the moment I had learned that my flight was overbooked at 06.15 that morning. But… I miraculously made it! And if it hadn’t been for a lady at the entrance having an argument with the woman at the desk… I would have been EXACTLY on time. Birgit hadn’t even started her class when I came in. It was unreal!
And all this was only the story of the first morning! This trip was full of observations and ridiculous situations. I wanted to record it right away!
I thought it would be fun to be ADVENTUROUS with my documenting method too. I wanted to incorporate the supplies and class projects I gathered during the trip. It took some time to figure out how… but I think I’ve got it. I bought a Snap album and I mixed the pocketed pages with the tags from Birgit’s class, the mini book pages from Magda’s class and I’m also going to use the covers I made during Françoise Melzani’s class.
I still think the idea that pocket scrapbooking makes everything quicker and easier is a misconception… I’ve only just about finished the pages for the first day.
It’s not a pretty book either. It’s a mash up of everything. But I like that. It’s just as confusing as the trip was, with loads of writing, artsy stuff and towards the end there are going to be loads of pretty pictures of Paris!
As you can see, it’s still in progress. I’ve got the pages for day two planned out and I keep all the photos and memorabilia for day 3 behind one of the Snap album tabs that I’m going to take out later on.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into my process and I’ll be sure to share the finished pages with you in the near future!
Please check out this month’s ADVENTURE projects on the OLW blog too. We would love for you to play along with us!
Hi there! I’m back again with a whole new Inspired by!
Riikka and I were both in Paris this weekend for Version Scrap 2014 and some sightseeing. I promise I will tell you more about that soon! In the meantime you can check out my Instagram feed for a visual update on what we saw and did.
We came back brimming with ideas, of course, but because this Inspired by was scheduled so close after the trip, we prepared something else ahead of time. Don’t worry: there will be an Inspired by connecting to the trip in the future! This month however, we chose to be inspired by Nathalie Kalbach’s awesome blog series ‘Stroll through the Hood’.
You must know by now that I can draw inspiration from almost everything. I also see photo opportunities everywhere. I don’t always take the actual photo because it’s not always convenient to stop (while riding a bike for instance…). So for some time now, if I get the chance, I try to walk where I need to go. Sure, it takes more time, but one of the pay offs is that it enables me to stop and take advantage of a photo opportunity when I see one!
Because I take my iPhone everywhere, I didn’t really need to stroll through the hood for this challenge. I already had more than enough photos of my neighbourhood! Most of them aren’t of buildings or people though… It seems that I’m especially attracted to the colours, textures and patterns of the hood:
Riikka and I had agreed on using 12 photos for this challenge (I cheated a tiny bit there) and I think the brief was to write about what you like about your neighbourhood… So that’s what I did:
It will be fun to revisit this idea sometime, because I’m sure that in a couple of years (or even months!) some of it will have changed!
As said, the journalling is about what I like about the place: that I can always find something to attract my attention, that everything is within walking distance and I also like that there is a forest nearby, even though we don’t go there very often. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty good place to live and we don’t have plans to leave any time soon.
And now it’s time to visit Riikka’s hood… I can’t wait to see!
Last week I took the train to Groningen to see Birgit and to visit the Groninger Museum.
We spent hours and hours and hours chatting and exploring the museum, drinking at a terrace and browsing a couple of shops without even noticing how much time had actually passed. This day went by way to fast!
I didn’t take a lot of photos in the museum, but I truly enjoyed the Jaime Hayon exhibition. Especially the combo of the finished art and then seeing the rough sketches and ideas in his art journals!
I also loved the Marilyn Manson presentation. In first instance you see beautiful watercolour and mixed media pieces. The colours alone are stunning! And then when you take a closer look, the subjects are just what you would expect: bizarre and discomforting.
Only downside was that the glass reflections (from both the museum lights and the windows) on the art were annoying. And I would have loved to see more of his art… this presentation was tiny!
Anyway: this was another fun and inspiring day! Thank you Birgit!!!
My Mondays have been surprisingly photogenic lately…
Yesterday Liesbeth came over and we went for a long walk through the neighbourhood and the city centre.
We had lunch at a terrace, soaking up as much sun as possible.
I can’t believe the beautiful weather we’re experiencing right now!
I’ve had a quiet weekend: I’ve been reading and writing, changing and tweaking my blog (not ready yet) as well as doing a little bit of cooking and cleaning.
I’m reading this book on creative photography and I’m taking loads of notes. I can’t wait to try some of the ideas in the book, it’s full of great tips and tricks!
On Monday morning I took the train to Antwerp. Klari was waiting for me at the top of the stairs.
We wandered the city with regular coffee intervals.
The weather was beautiful. We even had one of our coffees at a cafe terrace!
We stumbled upon a couple of remarkable shops, stood at the zoo gate (and decided not to go in), saw lots of people in Jewish attire and admired beautiful Art Nouveau buildings.
It was extremely quiet, even in the city centre, where we headed after I took that last photograph in Zurenborg.
Harold joined us in the evening and after dinner it was time to head back home (because Tuesday was a regular work day for all of us…). But what an extraordinary start of the week!
