Today I took some pretty Pino-pictures, to showcase a lunular necklace created by better half. She was born to model:
I made that look so easy, didn't I? In reality, it took about half an hour and close to 60 pictures to get enough material for Facebook and the professional blog we keep for our goldsmithing activities.
The outtakes obviously didn't make it into the professional blog (hence the name 'outtake'), but I thought they were too cool to let them go to waste.
I know it's been a while, but I have the best excuse ever! A new home! Or rather: a new studio. Although I plan to spend so much time there, it feels like a second home. Or a vacation home, because when I'm there, I only need to do happy things, yay!
Have a look:
Better half is joining me there, because we added a goldsmithing area as well:
So this is my new happy place, whiiiiehhh!! Oh, and this guy lives there too:
Sunbathing isn't my kind of thing. I simply don't have the patience to sit or lie idly in the sun. That doesn't mean I don't like the sun. I'm quite fond of it. Plus I really need it. I suffer pretty badly from winter depression. That's not something I made up, it actually exists. Although recently they've given it a slightly more impressive name: Seasonal Affective Disorder. So yes, during winter, I has a sad.
But now spring's here and things keep getting better. Except for the days when I have to get up at 6 (ish) to get to work and it's pouring. Then I'm right back to the sad thing. My friend Ernie doesn't seem to be bothered by it though. Ernie and I go waaaayyy back. He's been around for as long as I can remember. We don't see each other all that often anymore, but every now and then he pops up somewhere. Like this morning. On the parking lot at work. He was having a great time, singing in the rain.
He's such a happy trooper! Just ask yourself: would *you* be singing if you were tied to the front of a garbage truck at 7 in the morning in the pouring rain?
In springtime it's nice to take a walk during lunch break, but the weather has been kind of 'meh' lately. The office squirrels provide a happy distraction indoors as well as outdoors. I had brought some leftover chocolate covered nuts with me, and I could swear the squirrels were giving me the evil stare of doom.
So I graciously decided to give them a share. Just to be safe. After all, nuts and squirrels go well together. See how happy they look?
All this made me think of one of my favorite movie moments:
As a kid I loved this movie, and I'll happily confess I still like watching it every now and then, usually around Christmas. I'm quite sure one day like Miss Hannigan I too will end up in a nut house with all the nuts and the squirrels. I hope they'll be chocolate covered nuts as well.
Did you note Tim Curry in the end? Difficult to believe the singing and dancing dude from this film would later play Pennywise in It. *shiver* No wonder so many people dislike clowns.
I don't want to spoil my happy blog with nasty pictures, so let's just enjoy my favoritest bit from the same movie:
While searching for an appropriate picture, it struck me that this man is not exactly typecast, he's played an incredibly wide variety of odd characters:
That last picture reminds me of the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett. A great mind gone too soon. He'll be sorely missed.
Today we went to Urk, a small fishing-village not far from here. It's famous for its fish (duh) and its folkloric costumes. Since the tourist season hadn't properly started yet, nobody had bothered to don their costumes, but in summer you see quite a few people dressed like this (I kid you not):
Walking through the village I got the strange feeling I'd somehow gone back in time. The dialect, the old houses, the people going about their fishing business. Sure, there were mobile phones, cars and a *very* modern pricing policy in the restaurant we went for lunch. (Needless to say we had lunch in the tiny fish shop where the locals went, which is usually a good sign.)
But the cars we saw must have belonged to the tourists, since local cars must look like this for the signs in the village to make sense.
The clock tower confirmed the existence of a time warp, so it wasn't me going (more) crazy:
Have you ever walked into a room and noticed that it was so much smaller than you remembered? Or travelled somewhere nearby and wondered why it always seemed so far away? When we're little kids, the world around us seems much bigger in comparison. So when we grow into the world, our memories are sometimes distorted. Obviously gnomes don't grow all that much, but even we recognize the phenomenon.
Some things can't be blamed on growing (up) though. I'm quite confident the 'gnome garden' in my childhood village was a colourful and happy place. But now it looks like a toy cemetery. And not a very nice one either! I spoke to a neighbour and he told me that tragically the toy collector had lost his marbles. He could no longer made a distinction between displayable objects and junk and simply put everything he found in his garden, whether it could brave the elements or not.
A very sad story. I hope parents aren't taking their kids there to see the gnomes. They're in for a nasty surprise. This is the stuff horror movies are made of. Perhaps the perfect set for the next Child's Play movie?
Today is a beautiful day. It's almost as if the world outside is holding its breath: could that be spring lurking? We've had a few beautiful days so far and the birds have begun marking their territory and I've already seen a few bushes that had the beginnings of leaves on them. So far it's been a lousy winter, but I'm not complaining: let's skip winter altogether and go straight on to spring. The snowdrops seem to agree with me:
A great opportunity to visit Paleis Soestdijk, the palace where queen Juliana of the Netherlands used to live. After the passing of Juliana the palace had no new destination, but after a few years the doors were opened and the public was welcomed inside for a glimpse of what royal life in the 20th century had looked like. I'd already done the guided tour twice before, but inside the palace is currently an exposition of the work of one of my favorite artists: Rien Poortvliet.
Not only did this man paint the most beautiful portraits of animals you've ever seen, but he was also very much into gnomes. So I guess the attraction is mutual! I found this little fella hiding in the corner of a painting:
And here's proof that I'm not the only gnome that has a special relationship with bunnies:
During the guided tour I also found a secret door in one of the walls. I'll happily admit I was soooooo tempted, but I was inside a palace, so I was probably expected to act a little bit more ladylike. Still curious as to where it led, though!
This is it: I've officially reached the quotum of all the bags I'm allowed to have. For a while I got away with the excuse that my camera needed a place to live, but it's there, and so's the spare. So yes, this bag is more than I need. But damn, ain't it shiny?
Better half created the skull ornament to add a bit of a feminine touch. <3
