Emdeko Up Close

Here are some examples of the shots that Dick took of the sewing machine. Cool huh?

Crafty? Really?

This Christmas I came to the realization that perhaps I'm a crafty person. While this may not be much of a surprise to people who know me, I've never thought of myself as crafty before. Perhaps this is because the word "crafty" has held a bit of a stigma for me. In my mind it conjures up thoughts of old ladies with hot glue, fake flowers, and baskets. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these things, but I've never been particularly interested in them myself.

Through photography, Photoshop, home-made greeting cards made from shredded origami, crocheting, painting & drawing, I'd always hoped to be perceived as being "artsy" rather than "crafty". But as Dick has so eloquently expressed "I think you're over-thinking it." Hmmm... perhaps he's right. There are enough people out there debating the differences between arts and crafts. I'll let them duke it out. In the meantime, here's why I'm finally embracing the whole craft concept.

Knitting
On the way home from Amsterdam, one of the airline attendants noticed my crocheting and talked about the fact that she had been knitting. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to knit. So the very next weekend, my mom and I added a knitting-lesson to our regular visit over coffee. I love it! Christmas rolled around and Santa brought all sorts of knitting-related goodies, as well as other crafty items.

work-in-progress using needles and yarn from Mom

Embroidery & Cross-Stitch
Also in Amsterdam, when we went to the de Afstap yarn shop, Christina and I both picked up small cross-stitching projects. I haven't started mine, but I will soon. Add to that a few embroidery patterns found under the Christmas tree this year, and I can now say needlework is on my growing list of crafty hobbies.

Craft Magazine
Dick got me a subscription for Christmas. There's really not much more to say about that one, except that I love the ideas in the magazine and can hardly wait to get started.













Sewing
After just a little page flipping of Craft Magazine, it became clear to me that in order to do many of these projects, I'd probably need a sewing machine. No problem - I have two. Both very old... when I looked the models up online I think the word used was "relics". One needs a belt replaced. But the other actually works - and it's gorgeous. Dick took a bunch of photos of it the other day. I plan to post those shortly.

Dick photographs the "relic"

Okay fine. So I'm crafty. Big deal.

Now that I've added these new activities to my list of crafty hobbies, and have faced up to the fact that I enjoy crafting, I'm ready to get started. But first I have to get a little organized. We've got this armoire. Once upon a time, before Dick and I lived together, this cabinet held a television. However, the television was far too small for Dick's taste and a larger one wouldn't fit, so I would need to come up with another use for the armoire. This is when it became the "boozoire" (in case you didn't get that - we made a bar out of it). The boozoire survived a few good parties, and it looked pretty darn cool, but really wasn't all that practical. Having it there unnecessarily increased the odds of spilling in the living room when the kitchen was so close by.

Dick took this on his film camera 12/31/04

I started taking art classes a few years ago, and this is when the "boozoire" turned into the "artoire". Art supplies and finished projects were stuffed in here, as well as anything that I thought might contribute to a cool art project in the future, like colorful candy wrappers... okay okay, basically it was filled with art supplies... and trash. Last weekend I decided that if I really want to start these craft projects, I would need to clean out the "artoire". And I did! And I love it!

the "artiore" before and after

Finally! Craft projects in mind, art cabinet organized, and I'm ready for the next step: stocking up on more supplies. So I took a trip to Michales, walked past the hot glue, fake flowers and baskets, and picked up supplies that I would need to create all the cool, crafty things that have made me decide that it's okay to be "crafty" after all.

I'm thinking 2009 is going to be a very creative year.

Christmas Decorations

Before taking it all down, I took a few shots of our holiday decor this year, just because it was so bright and cheery.




Paper chains (yes, Dick helped) and paper snowflakes were inspired by the movie "Elf". These evening shots were taken shortly before people arrived for a holiday party.

happy holiday gift tags

Sarah and JT

So adorable! (the dog is cute too)

Maren's having a baby!

A couple years ago we shot Maren & Michael's wedding. They're such a great couple - so down to earth and fun... and they're into the Muppets, so you know they're cool! Well now they're expecting a baby boy and I was able to take Maren's maternity shots last weekend. Here are a few of my favorites.

the many faces of Baby Cole

At the end of last year I took some photos of my beautiful friend Valerianne while she was expecting Baby Cole. Last weekend I was able to take some baby and family photos for them. Look at that sweet face! My biggest dilemma: choosing which to post, he just had so many great expressions.

tickled.
interested.
curious.
joyful.
contemplative.
mesmerized.
distracted.

our last day in Amsterdam

Finally getting around to posting photos from our last day in Amsterdam. I know I've been posting photos of the buildings - but I really just love the variety.

Loved the colors.
Houseboats everywhere.
Cool glass tile inside one of the foyers.
No trip abroad is complete without a photo of McDonald's.
Strange art in a park.
Dam Square.
"Amsterdamned"

So... in Holland, Sinterklaas' helpers aren't elves at the North Pole, but instead "6 to 8 black men" join him as he visits children. All of them come from Spain on a ship in late November for a celebration in early December. Their Christmas story is an interesting one dating back as early as 1845, and apparently is the basis of our own Santa tradition. The wikipedia entry is here if you're interested. His helpers are referred to as "Zwarte Piet" and are part of the holiday mall decoration in the following two photos.

Dinsdag in Amsterdam

We passed a flower shop on our way to breakfast - what beautiful cabbage.

Breakfast was delicious. Dick and I both had cheese sandwiches.
Mike and Christina had the special fried eggs with ham, cheese and tomato. Yum.
We walked through a swap meet-style market, where I had herring, Dutch-style... (we'll have to get that photo off of Dick's camera later). Then we had a quick drink at Cafe Biljart. This is where we met Butchie the dog. He liked Christina.

We walked through one of the parks and took some photos.
Then we checked out the amazing Van Gogh Museum - which was really quite fantastic.

On our way home, we stopped at Van Dobben for the best croquettes ever.

Maandag: De zon schijnt

When we booked our accommodations we threw in a bus/canal tour. I talked about less-than-impressive bus tour on Saturday. Our canal tour was far better. The driver took us onto the Amstel, several canals, and out into the harbor. If it weren't for the glass windows, the photographic opportunities would have been better. The sun finally came out in the middle of the tour.



Next we shared some of those famous Dutch fries or frites, covered in mayonnaise and mustard. Before you assume that it's heavy and gross, I gotta say that the mayo is much more mild and creamy than mayonnaise I've had in the states. It's really pretty darn good.

Mike is serious about those frites.

Next we walked around the beautiful Jordaan area.
So many of the houses remind me of New York - you can really see the similarities in the layout and the architecture. It certainly drives home the fact that New York was once "New Amsterdam" initially inhabited by the Dutch.
On the plane trip out, I started crocheting a scarf for Dick, but unfortunately I ran out of yarn before I was able to finish it. This necessitated the discovery of de Afstap, a yarn shop in Amsterdam. A quick google search returned a blog post from someone who had visited the shop and it became our mission to find it. Mission accomplished.

He probably won't get his scarf until after the trip home, but the visit to the shop was great. The ladies who run the shop were really helpful. I got some beautiful wool yarn and Christina picked up a hand made hat while we were there.
I really love the prevalence of "shop pets" in these places!
During our boat tour, the guide pointed out what he called "the oldest Cafe" so we had to check it out. Built on the corner of Brouwersgracht and Prinsengracht in 1642 I'm not sure if Cafe Papeneiland is indeed the oldest, but apparently it is one of the oldest and well-known of the old cafes, known as "brown cafes".

We sat and enjoyed our beverages in the small, cozy, gellezig area upstairs. Speaking of gellezig: this is apparently a word used quite a bit in the Dutch language to mean warm, friendly, and cozy. There really is no English equivalent to the word, but I'm thinking it is the same as the German word gemütlich which my family has used ever since some German friends introduced it to us years ago. I'm finding that gellezig could be used to describe quite a few of the places we've visited on this trip.


As we continued to walk...

What do you think Mom & Dad, wouldn't be a bad look for Izzie, huh?


As the sun started to set...
Dat doet de deur dicht.