Free friday

In between rush hours I'm still taking time to cook healthy and tasty dinners, tonight for two...

For those of you living in or nearby Utrecht, sunday is the Uitfeest (the start of the cultural season) and I've been involved in organizing an event for the UCK: 'The UCK serves...' Come and have a taste of courses and fun stuff you can do at the UCK!

The illustration courses I teach at the UCK will start in the third week of september. For more information go here and here.

Happy weekend everyone!

Newsletter

After some thinking I've decided to stop with my newsletter. I'm simply too busy and reckon that people will spot 'the news' on my blog anyway. Hope that's ok with all of you who subscribed (thanks so much!).

Good tv

While I'm busy with new commisions and the preparation for an exciting event at the end of September (will tell you more about that later), I don't have time for my fave series Mad Men, luckily Seb knows good tv and watches it for me... ;-)

Free friday - grow

A few weeks ago I planted an avocado pit (for a tutorial see here) and look at my new plant now! I'm growing my own avocado tree, wow!
Another handy plant (on the left): aloe vera. I bought a small one (the bigger, the more expensive) and it grows really quick. When you have a (sun) burn or dry skin, cut off a leaf and you have an instant ointment (the juice comming out) at your disposal.
Did you know lavender also works great on burns? I have an lavender bush in my garden and when needed, I cut some flowers, grind them and put them on the burn, cover with a bandage and it'll give a quick pain relief. Lavender oil works even greater (but not always at hand).

yoga drawing

One of the works I made during my yoga week. A combination between drawing, painting and collage.

Wild

My tomato plants have gone mad... I left them unattended for one week and look what monsters they've become! And this picture was taken after I pruned them big time! So much for the well organised garden I imagined...

Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch

I bought a new illustration book, Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch by Harriet Russel. I love her drawings, funny and with a smart hand drawn feel.

Free friday - yogi's day off

On sunday, the last day of our yoga retreat, we had some spare time in the afternoon and went to an organic market in and around a house in the next village. On the way we drove by the cute hay bale-guy in the last picture.

yoga retreat III

Some snapshots of the area around Velem (Hungary)...

yoga retreat II

The food at this yoga retreat deserves its own blog.
Our yoga teacher Danielle cooked ayurvedic indian, malaysian and indonesian dishes. We also got a workshop ayurvedic cooking (A and I made Naan bread), so much fun!

yoga retreat I

Last weeks yoga retreat by Studio Vandaan was the best! I didn't want to leave! It was very inspiring, relaxing, interesting, yummy (food!) and fun. I'm already looking forward to next year's yoga holiday!

It boosted my inspration big time and in between the yoga and meditation lessons I did some drawing and painting, a perfect holiday. More about the yoga and surroundings in the next posts.

Free friday - yoga holiday

This weekend I'm travelling to Hungary for a yoga holiday. I'll return on the 12th, till then I'm taking a blog holiday, the shop will be closed too.

See all after the 12th :-)

Gift from Berlin

A few of my friends went to Berlin last week and surprised me, when coming home, with this cute gift they said felt 'very Kim'. Things like this make my day, good friends who know you so well. Thanks E, N and M!

Wrap

My order from Babongo arrived: Wrap Magazine No 4!
It's such an amazing concept (from Chris and Polly from the UK): a magazine that's also wrapping paper. Designed with no staples or stitching it can easily be reused as wrapping paper (and is printed eco-friendly).

You can buy it at the Babongo webshop (they also ship international) or at www.wrap.bigcartel.com.
Babongo, by the way, sells wonderful eco friendly goodies from paper goods to pressies for your home.

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ps: I'd like to thank everyone who commented on yesterday's post. It's so nice to hear others are thinking about the same things. I love that about blogging, connecting with all of you around the world. It makes life a little bit easier sometimes ;-)  Big Thanks!

Some thoughts on age

Can I share some personal thoughts with you?
I'm thinking about age. Why do I feel I'm too old for certain things, because I (after more than 30 years) know myself better or do my preferences really change with years?

I got a reality check some time ago. I was 28 at the time and trust me (I'm not trying to flatter myself here) looking 28 or even slightly younger.
Shopping for a new pair of jeans I walked into Men At Work (a dutch clothes shop). While browsing through the clothes racks I found it hard to think with this loud music booming through the shop, what was looking for again?
A girl working there approached me, offering her assistance. I asked her (no, screamed at her) why the music was so loud. The answer? This is what our traget costumer likes. 'But to be frank, I'm not really fond of this, it makes me want to leave', I said. With a friendly smile on her face, this girl responded: 'Well, you're not our target costumer, you're to old'... Ouch.
When do you get too old for jeans? My wallet got bigger with age, not older. I rushed myself out there and didn't come back for a while...

The next time I dared to go there again, I was looking for shoes.
It was around lunch time when I walked down the stairs to the shoe basement. When looking through the boots department a (17, 18 year old?) girl came up to me. 'Hi there, shopping in the early morning?' Early morning!? It was noon, I had half a day behind me! 'Are you having a nice day off? How nice, shopping, hanging out in the city, good for you to enjoy yourself!' my self proclaimed shopping assistent chatted away...
Since when do these girls think they should address you as there new best friend? Is this a shop policy, act like your costumers BFF and they'll buy more?
It made me feel awkward, like when someone is standing to close to you and you don't want to tell them cause it makes you look cranky so you just stand there being uncomfortable (and smelling their bad breath). But worst of all, it made me feel old, stiff even.
Since then I've successfully ignored the Man at Work shops.

Some other things that make me feel old:
-festivals (crowds, loud music, people being too drunk)
-nights out that start at midnight (I've already fallen asleep on my couch while
 waiting for the appropriate time to go to a club),
-mobile phones used as a stereo in public transport
- people in their twenties calling me 'madame'

Am I getting old or did I never like these things just because it's not me and am I only now accepting this, accepting who I am? Probably, as always, a little bit of both.
Anyway it makes me more determent to do the things I do like:
-walks through the woods
-growing my own veggies
-having coffee (during the day or early evening) with friends
-seeing art house movies
-drawing and painting

Thank god there's lot's left, but one last question to you:
Am I the only one struggling with the this?