Work in progress: 18th century cats

This is my newest project. I wanted to portray  our cats in a way that reflect their caracters in the best way. Cats are the most elegant creatures, so I decided to paint them in the fashion of the 18th century. From top till bottom we have: Squizzy, who is actually our neighbour cat, but is part of the gang ;-) He is representing a messenger boy.

Lux had to be the cook, because you always can find him in the kitchen.

Then there is Tau(tje). He is the most aristocratic cat I've ever seen. He's acting if he is the king, so I made him the baron. The painting is almost done, but I think he has to have bigger ears.

The last one has te become Burberry, but she (obviously) is not finished yet. When she's done she will wear coat with Burberry tartan. Burberry is the baroness, because she always
acts like one.

I am very satisfied with the results so far. I only have to think of a character for Nikolai, our other cat. Maybe he will become the court jester, but I'm not sure about that. When I am completely done I will show you the result of course!

Aurora Borealis

The most fascinating  phenomenon of nature has to be the Aurora Borealis. I can't be totally sure ofcourse, because I've never seen it. But I can't immagine something more beautiful. With the beautiful winterlandscape surrounding me I can't stop thinking about it.
Last year I saw an amazing documentary about it, featuring Joanna Lumley (from Ab Fab). She always dreamt about seeing the Northern Lights. As a child she had a book about a penguin how saw the Northern Lights and was fascinated about it. With is a bit weird ofcourse, because there are no penguins on the North Pole. But that is were here own fascination started. My own fascination started with the books of David de Kabouter.
Happens to be Joanna Lumley is also a vegetarian and she likes to draw, which she shows in the documentary.
I recognised a lot of myself in that documentary and in her.
When she finally gets to see the Aurora Borealis she is completely overwhelmed and gets a bit emotional.
It's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. You can buy it on DVD. But it's also on YouTube in parts. You can see the first part here:



When I see this I'm so eager to go to Norway and see it myself. I can't wait to finally go there. Because it's one of my childhood dreams. I remember sitting in front of the telly, watching a documentary about Norway. There was a scenery of fjords and I said to my mom: "I want to go to the fjords!", or something like that. I also was totally addicted to Niels Holgersson and Wicky the Viking.

I think many artist can find inspiration in the Northern Lights. I've seen some beautiful painting on the net. Some even specialise in painting it. I was really impressed with Ken Farrar's painting (he is Canadian).
You can see them here
I don't know if the following band got inspired by the Northern Lights, but you have to admit, the music and the movie are very well matched. It's a time lapse video from National Geographic with music from the Scottish band 'Boards of Canada'. Watch it on full screen with headphones. ;-)

Ode aan de sneeuw

This song is in Dutch, it´s an ode to the snow. Written by Willem Wilmink, the singers are Daniël Lohues and Herman Finkers.

Bye, bye Etsy...?

I'm a little sad...because I can't open up an Etsy shop. I need a creditcard to do this and unfortunatly I don't own one. I checked my banks' website and it said that you have to pay € 20 per year for a creditcard. I now it's only once a year, but I think it's a lot of money for something you normally don't use. Grumble! I hate it! I allready desgined a logo for my shop and photographed some of my articles....

This would be the name and logo for my shop. It's named on the edge, because I live on the edge of the Netherlands. That's what the green hill (dyke) and little waves stand for.

I also made these pictures of my finished products:

 Sooo, now what? I could of course open up a webstore, but I don't have enough product to fill an entire shop. Gaaaaaaaah I don't now! Anyone who has an idea?
Oh, yes I forgot! I also made a Christmas garland :)

King Winter

As many of you may now, I love the winter! Every mornig when I wake up, the first thing I do is take a peek out of my window to see if the night brought me some snow. When I woke up friday the 26st there was actually a lot of snow! Which was a bit of a surprise to me, cause I didn´t expect so much! It was only november when King Winter made it´s entrance.

Obviously I haven't made this myself. I  just love this picture and decided that it would fit my post. So if anyone doesn't wan't this picture to me at my blog, sent me an email.

Yes, I edited this picture ;)

Last friday it snowed again! The first time we got 6 centimeters and now there were another 6 centimetres of lovely white crisp snow :) It was pretty cold with the wind coming from the east, but I don't mind. I have a hat from real wool and a jacket with fake fur, which I don't like at all, but it's nice and warm. Our cats go a bit mad, they wan't to be outside and inside at the same time! So we keep running at the door to either let them in or let them out...
The only one who doesn't go out is Lux. He stays in all the time to sit on my lap and wait for food. :)
I've made some lovely walks in the snow with my mom. But sadly the snow's melting away now. At night it's still freezing so the roads are getting very slippery out here.
I do hope we get more snow, but the winter is just beginning, so there's a fair chance.

Aah, beautifull, isn't it?
Goodnight to you all!