Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Dear friends and followers,

Remember me? Don't worry, I always look startled in pictures. It might be an awkward characteristic for a photographer, but I never liked having my picture taken. I hope you're doing well! I'm very sorry about neglecting this blog, I will try to do better from now on ;) 

The reason I've been away for so  long is that we moved! Things happened so fast and I can hardly believe that we've lived in our lovely new home for over a month already. Sometimes wonderful opportunities just cross our path and we better grab them before they're gone, right?  

It's an old house (from 1950) and a ninety year old man lived here before us, so the house needed a lot of improvement. We removed suspended ceilings, repaired and sanded all the walls, painted them - including two wooden walls, which look lovely in white - laid new floors and so on and we're still not finished, but that's alright. It's a home of our own and we already love it to bits! I absolutely love how it has a character and a story of its own, as old houses do.
We finally have a garden now and the cat and the kid love to play outside. Our cat Ziggy is twelve (that's her in the pics) and has always been afraid of traffic, so she has always been inside. But in this short period of time she turned into a true adventurer, exploring the garden and the alley at the back! I'm so happy for her, it's a whole new chapter in her life :) Our other cat, Zelda - probably the sweetest cat in the world - sadly passed away this year, so it's nice to see Ziggy this excited about her new home. Nothing more relaxing than having breakfast while watching her hunt and "kill" fallen leaves ;) 

However, in all this time I've missed photographing! But now things have settled down a little, I plan on catching up as soon as possible. Starting with some family snapshots and some refreshing autumn walks! Lots of new ideas are taking shape in my head and now there's finally time to enjoy the process! I'll keep you updated and I promise to take some photos of the house soon as well :)  

                                                                                                                                                          


























Last but not least: as a token of my gratitude to all my followers and supporters of my work, I'm having a giveaway on my facebookpage! Just like and share (make sure you've liked my page as well) and you might be the winner of a 8"x10" print of my original photograph "Tonight, Tonight"! Good luck!

Studio Yuki Giveaway   

https://www.facebook.com/StudioYuki

See you all soon and have a great week! xx

Just A Perfect Day

"Just a perfect day
drink Sangria in the park
And then later
when it gets dark, we go home"
Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Sometimes it's just the little things that make me happy. 
Finding little lost treasures when cleaning the house. 
Seeing my two year olds eyes go wide with anticipation 
when he realizes he can have those hand puppets that 
have been lying in a closet for ages. Hearing a big 
'Weeeee!' when he bounces around the room, happy 
with his new toys. Playing endlessly with them, me - 
holding a french looking police man puppet - exclaiming ridiculous half-french sentences and 'parbleu!' and 
'affreux!', while he - holding a puppet of an old lady - 
giggles like a school girl. Simple moments, but oh, 
so precious...

Later that day I took my camera for a walk (I have a feeling it may become unhappy if I don't take it out regularly, or maybe that would be me) and that's when I found this. A little place of magic. 

I've passed that place so many times and it never occurred to me before to walk downhill a little, to check what's down there, closer to the stream. Now I'm glad I did. I felt like being in the Cambodian jungle again, only this time in my own back yard (not that I actually have a back yard, but it wasn't far and it sounds pretty good, don't you think?)

Some days are better for magic than others. This was a perfect day, finding treasures everywhere I looked. Imagining the end result, the way the photograph will be once I've sprinkled my own, personal magic over it. But isn't that what life is? A treasure for us all to see and experience in our own way? 

What makes you happy? Where or when do you find your magic? I'd love to hear from you!

Farewell, for now. Keep dreaming. xxx

New Beginnings

When a friend told me about Etsy a long time ago, I decided to check it out. Maybe it really was a great place to find those little eyes for my amigurumis.... So I created an account by the name of Maximonstertje, a name inspired by one of my favourite children's book: 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak. Little did I know that I would start my own photography shop on Etsy within a few months! Well, when it comes down to it, I never really thought about a good name for my shop. I already had the account and I had nothing to lose, and thus Maximonstertje was born!

Although I love the name, I do realise it's not easy to pronounce, let alone remember. That's why I've decided to change it. The idea has been brooding in my head for a long time (and I tend to take my time with things, have you noticed? ;) and now it's finally official: Maximonstertje Photography will from now on be STUDIO YUKI!! Weeee, exciting times! :D

Now I've explained the why, I'll fill you in on the new name. 'Studio' pretty much explains itself, the name 'Yuki' is a name I've loved since childhood. I always had a thing for Japanese animation (and everything Japanese, for that matter) and, having a 'boy's name' myself, I dreamt of having a cute, girly name like Yuki (though Yuki is also a boy's name in Japan, to make it just a little bit more complicated). Yuki is a name that is used a lot for anime characters and it always stirred something inside me. It also is the Japanese word for snow!

So, what's going to change now?
Not that much. I'm still me and my work won't be any different! I will be focussing on doing some more photo shoots this year, on learning new techniques and on creating more of the ideas that have been jumping up and down in my head! And on getting organised, but I'm not going to talk about that now... it would fill an entire blog post!
What will (and has) changed is my facebookpage! I would love it if you'd visit me:

www.facebook.com/StudioYuki

Since facebook doesn't allow us to change our page names (isn't that ridiculous?), it felt like the right thing to do. And of course I'm changing the name of this blog, my Flickr page, my Fine Art America shop and so on too!
I'm also working on an actual website! Won't be long now! I'll keep you posted :)

And...... to celebrate new beginnings... I'll be doing a giveaway soon! Stay tuned and enjoy your week! xx

Christmas Giveaway!

Hello lovely people! It's time for a Christmas giveaway! I really can't thank all of you enough for being so wonderful and supportive, it has helped me so much over the past year! I'm a lucky girl, being able to do what I love the most :) And since Christmas is approaching fast, I want to share my passion with you!

One lucky winner will get one 8x10* AND one 5x7 photo! 
You'll have your own little instant collection!
* 8x10 may be replaced by 8x8 or 8x12!
The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve (Central European Time)!

So scroll down and enter through Rafflecopter! Just follow the easy steps to gain even more entries!

GOOD LUCK

AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Collection of Firsts

Finally a new blogpost! I've had some major issues with my computer lately. It kept blocking everything that is powered by Google, which includes this blog and I hate working on my hubbies computer (I'm weird like that), so that's why I haven't posted anything! Luckily all is (or seems) fixed again and we're good to go!

Wow, the past month was a complete BLAST! I'm not going to write much about it, I think the photos say so much more! First of all: I had my very first official photoshoot! I was so lucky to have the opportunity to shoot this gorgeous family (as a matter of speaking ;) How cute are they!? Such a magical day!

The lovely pretty lady in these photos is Rakhee and she's the owner and artist of Poppeke - Art for happy people, a wonderfully cute and colorful shop on Etsy! You can find her on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poppeke-Art-for-happy-people and of course in her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoppekeArt

I love this painting she made of a girl named Tickle! 

And now she's making these gorgeous little custom dolls as well! That's me on the right, see the camera? :)

Another first was our little boy going to kindergarten for the first time! It was a lot more nerve-wracking for me than it was for him, I have to admit.                          He's doing really well, he's been going for 2 weeks now and he loves it!
Proud mommy here! I love seeing him play and sing and dance with the other kids, our munchkin is growing up so fast! Here he is being all excited for his first day.

And finally I can proudly present my first calendar! It took me a while to make, but I'm happy with the result! Captain Peacock insisted on being on the cover and he got his way too (somehow he always does, the little brat...)!

And, since I haven't posted in a while, last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to have a photo shoot with these lovely girls! I feel so immensely blessed to be able to do what I love most! Please bubble, don't burst ;) I love shooting outside and these girls were just fabulous to work with! 

Ok, now I'm finally back blogging I'd love to keep talking, but I can't do that to you, so I'll save my rambling until the next post ;) So tell me, what is new with you? Any firsts you would like to tell us about (no, not those... pervert!) ;)

Have a magical day! x

Road Trip!

Can you believe it's already September? I'm constantly wondering where the time has gone! Maybe I should buy a watch... ;) Lots of things have happened over the past few weeks, but I won't bore you with the details. However, I wanted to share some pics from our little trip to Germany with you! Erwins brother rented a house in a beautiful rural area called the Eifel region and invited us to come and stay with them! Sweet, huh? So we packed our bags, got in the car and started driving. I love road trips! One of the more fun things to know about us is that we are extremely lazy... Not lazy when it comes to the things we like doing, but lazy as in not doing the ironing and letting it pile up until we can barely enter the room, so we have to spend the better part of the week catching up. Or, in this case, having a GPS (got it from a friend who bought a new, fancy one) that hasn't been updated in years. Which led to some hilarious moments where we got stuck in a corn field, but all in all it made for a very adventurous trip ;)

One of our stops on the way there was in Monschau, a gorgeous historic town located in the hills of the North Eifel. This town has many, many preserved half-timbered houses, and its narrow streets give a true magical, medieval feel to it.  It's not even that far from home, so we will be going back! Such a beautiful place.



I loved this house! I could totally picture us living there!


Our little man had a lot of fun and even started talking a lot more during this trip. His favourite word by far? Car. It's so much fun driving on the highway hearing 'Car! Car!Car! CarcarcarcarcarcarcarcarcarcarCAR!' over and over again, haha! Luckily that changed once we got to the rural area. From then on it was 'COW! Cow! Cow! Cowcowcowcowcowcowcow  ...COW!'  When we stopped for coffee and waffles he even called the lady who served us 'cow'. I'm not sure she appreciated that.

Oh, and this cute little guy went with us! His name is Trubbs. He's on holiday with us and Ravi loves to take him everywhere. Trubbs was made by Polly from Polly Doodars and since Polly couldn't go on holiday this year, she decided to send a Doodar instead! You can find Polly here:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Polly-Doodars
Trubbs' adventures can be followed too! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dinky-Doodar-Days

Now.... on a completely other note (while still posting pics of our trip, sorry about that, my camera is just glued to my hand I'm afraid), Maximonstertje is almost ONE! Wow, and what a trip it's been! Can't believe it's already a year ago that I started a shop on Etsy! I want to THANK YOU all for your wonderful support, kind words and everlasting positivism over the past year, I am so grateful to have you! Keep an eye out for an upcoming giveaway (probably this weekend!)!!!  

I'm so excited and curious what the next year will bring!! Starting this Friday with a very special photoshoot with a very special lady! Weeeee! :D 

Do you like road trips? Remember your first or your favourite one? Tell me, I'd love to hear about it :) xx

 

  

Weird Week

It's been such a weird week. Someone who is very dear to me just heard she is terminally ill... She's been fighting cancer for years, had chemo twice and last year she was 'recovered'. I know it's terribly naieve of me, but I really thought she made it: she was going to live happily ever after.. But sometimes life just throws mud at you when you least expect it. What's weird about this is that though I'm having a hard time dealing with it, it has made me appreciate all the wonderful things in life more. I just hope I can give her as much comfort as I possibly can and help her make the most of the time that's left!

This week really has brought me back to the beginning. My love for photography started with my dad. I remember him, hanging upside down from a cliff in Switzerland, to take a picture of a blooming edelweiss, only to find that he forgot to take the lens cap off... Haha, I teased him for years about that!
When my dad suddenly died, now seven years ago, I really started to think hard about what I wanted in life. I made some of the best choices after that. We finally stopped talking about how 'some day' we would go to India and Nepal, we just went. I picked up photography, which turned out to be my greatest passion!
Ok, I made some bad choices too. Somehow wanting to 'prove' myself, I became a high school teacher, worked way too many hours and I just didn't want to see that I am much too soft for a job like that.
I couldn't sleep, I had too much stress, I kept worrying about kids that were being picked on and I just kept saying yes when people asked me to take on another class, until one day I just collapsed and couldn't do anything anymore. Just cry.
Looking back, that was a crucial moment in my life and probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I went to a therapist after that, a lovely lady who helped me embrace my artistic side and helped me block out some of the negative elements in my life. She lived on a farm and while we were talking, sheep were pressing their noses against the window... I loved it there :) Anyway, she helped me accept myself for who I am and finally I dared to do what I always wanted: be an artist. And, even more important, I found the peace that was necessary for me and my husband to choose to expand our little family and we had a beautiful baby boy! He is everything to me!

Wow. There. I've said it. To be honest, I feel much better now. It's good to be able to share things like this once in while :) I just hope you didn't think it's too personal!

Now back to the good stuff!

Chelsea of Loud Waterfall Photography is a wonderful photographer (and fantastic person!) and she was so generous to send her first 10 blog followers a wonderful gift! This awesome photograph is coming my way as we speak! Can't wait to frame this baby and hang it on my wall! Gorgeous, right? You can find Chelsea here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LoudWaterfallPhoto, here https://www.facebook.com/LoudWaterfallPhoto and here http://loudwaterfallphoto.blogspot.nl/! Be sure to check out her fabulous photos of Africa too!

And then there's the lovely Keri from ColorWorkStudio! She had a giveaway to celebrate her new blog and I won one of her beautiful photographs! Of course I had to choose the coffee ;) I'm already the proud owner of her lovely Winter in Central Park and I think they'll go wonderfully together! Find Keri here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColorWorkStudio,

here https://www.facebook.com/ColorWorkStudio and here

http://colorworkstudio.blogspot.nl/

Oh, I wish we could all meet up and have a cuppa together! Maybe go on a photo trip afterwards :)

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday!! Oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't already! There's still time! :)

xxx
Danny

'Ello!

'Ello! Would you care to come inside? Have a nice cup of tea? Yes? I'll have coffee myself, if you don't mind. You will too? Nice! Cookie? Here, have a chair. Mmm, this is such a great way to start the day...

So. I've started a blog. Yes, it's true. I've been thinking about it for a long time and when facebook announced that giveaways weren't allowed anymore I decided to go for it. It took some time, but here it is :)

I know there's not much to see yet, but that will come and I'd appreciate all the help/ideas I can get, as I really am clueless when it comes to blogging! I just think it's another great way to connect with my fellow artists and followers some more. Show a bit more of the person behind the photographs and hopefully get to know you better as well. Share some stories, some wonderful artists I have gotten to know over the past months and of course a giveaway now and then. The first one will be fairly soon, when I've reached 500 likers on facebook! Stay tuned and thank you for visiting!

Feel free to follow me and/or leave a message. I do like mail :)

Here's something to show you what I'm working on at the moment (and for me to check how the hell I post photos on here ;) I'm doing a series based on Red Riding Hood and the magical forest she travels through on her way to grandma...