Awakening

Last week it seemed that Spring was on the verge of a breakthrough. We actually went for long walks in the forest again, left our coats unbuttoned and built castles in the sand. We even had ice cream! Every year I'm excited to see the world awakening again. To see little flowers pop up everywhere, to feed the ducks now their river isn't frozen anymore and to enjoy life at its prettiest. Especially now we have our little boy, who sees everything for the first time.  

But just a few days ago, Winter came back and turned our world into a large, white canvas again. 

And even though it looks pretty as well, I can't say I'm too happy about it. It's very windy and oh so cold!

I went to one of my favourite spots to take photographs and nearly froze my toes off, my car got stuck in the snow (of course I left my phone at home) and I almost broke my camera lens (luckily the filter protected the actual lens!). Maybe I just need to find some nice spots that aren't so far off ;) 

But despite all that, I love to be in the great wide open, with only the occasional farm in sight. Wouldn't you just love living in a house like this? I know I would!

And after a few weeks of us all having the flu and not being able to get much work done, I finally got my creative spark back. I've been working on new ideas, learned new techniques and best of all, had lots of fun! Having a chaotic mind can be a plus sometimes, especially when it comes to ideas and creating. But it can be a burden too! I have so many ideas and so many photographs still untouched, some still from Morocco (I haven't nearly finished going through all of them!), some I've been working on - on and off - for weeks, sometimes even months. And every now and then I just forget about them and find them again when rummaging through my files, leaving me puzzled why I didn't finish them in the first place. But I love doing this and I'm so very grateful to be able to go with my chaotic mind and create whatever I'm in the mood for!

Tomorrow we'll take our little munchkin for (hopefully) one of the last sledding adventures of this winter :) After that: LET SPRING BEGIN!!!
Stay warm and happy and I'll see you soon! xxx

A Moroccan Tale

Hello everyone! I'm almost sad to say that we're back from our week in Marrakech. We had such a wonderful time! Marrakech is truly a magical place, though you have to watch your step so you won't get overrun by one of the many mopeds or donkey carts! But believe me, you'll adjust ;) It's just not for the faint of heart, I guess.
Oh, but the colours!
The smells!
The food!
The madness of the Jemaa El Fna!

Although a week seems long for a city trip, we found it to be just perfect when traveling with a 2 year old. We stayed in the medina in a traditional riad, a Moroccan house with an interior courtyard, where we could sit and have some mint tea (they like to call it 'Berber whiskey') while keeping an eye on Ravi, who slept upstairs. We were the only guests most of the week, so plenty of privacy!
Our room was small, but gorgeous and the bathroom I would gladly exchange for ours! Lovely turquoise, chalk-painted walls and small indigo tiles... sigh.

Our host, Samata, was a really great guy who made us feel at home immediately. He provided us with his 'magic map', which we were happy to use, since the riad was in a dead end 'street' and we had to walk through lots and lots of small dark alleys and passageways to get there! Lol, and we only got lost once! Pretty good, huh?

We asked a man who was taking his three kids to school (on his moped) for the way and since he didn't have time, he got his neighbour to help us. The neighbour didn't seem to know the riad (or couldn't read, I'm not sure... and illiteracy is still quite common), but no worries, he knew someone who could help us. So he took us down yet another dark alley to a dark, heavy Hobbit-like door and knocked. When the door openend, it revealed a beautiful, quite modern riad with a small pond in the middle of the courtyard. It was run by a lovely Swiss couple, who invited us in, looked up our riad on the internet and even took us all the way back to the right street. Where we took a wrong turn (just for a sec!) and ended up in some lovely ladies' laundry. Well, they had a good laugh (and she got all her kids out to see the silly tourists!) ;)

Of course I couldn't resist taking photos of all the gorgeousness in the souks! Especially the babouches (slippers) and the spices were irresistable! So many pretty colours! Holland seems so dull now!

The next two pics were taken in the wool dyers souk. Here you see how the indigo colour is made!
One of the workers showed me a rickety staircase that led up to a roof from where I could shoot more pictures. Up there I saw a line of leather bags drying in the sun too. I love how you can see the process of how everything is made, from shawls and yarn to bags, baskets and sculptures. Even the food is made right in front of you and all fresh!

But that means that you see all the messy things too. Severed goat heads and all. But then again, it makes you think, right? Our western society is all about hiding the things people don't want to see. Neatly tucking away the process of how our meat lands on our plate. It doesn't seem fair to me. It's not that I like looking at things like that (far from it), but I do like the simple honesty of it.

Something else: stray cats. Marrakech is filled with them. And I guess |I could make a book of all the pics I took. You know I love my cats, right?
I loved the attitude of this biker kitty!

And last, but definitely not least: the people. We met lots of lovely people and I have to say that Moroccans are great with kids! However, if your kid hates being picked up and having his cheek pinched or even kissed (preferably by bearded man, lol) or if you don't like it, then Morocco is not the place for you! Luckily Ravi thought all this attention was fun :) He especially loved going to the bakery, where the baker tickled him and gave him a bonbon every time! Hmm, we might have to unspoil him a little now... ;)

By the way, he thought all the men wearing djellabas were wizards, lol! I love how kids think :)
Since Morocco is a fairly male-orientated country it was harder for me to ask people to take portrait shots, especially with older, more traditional men. However, it always is just something that has to feel right (and if someone says no, you just don't). And then there are my favourite shots, like this vendor and his cookies. He seemed so happy and proud, so I decided to wait around a bit for the right time to click the shutter!

This last photo of a Berber woman pouring tea was taken in a little village in the Ourika Valley, about 30 km from Marrakech. A great place to escape the madness of the city and get some fresh mountain air! I did a little mountain trek to the waterfalls (there will be pics later, I haven't sorted them all out yet!), while Erwin and Ravi stayed at some sort of hippie café halfway to relax. Erwin said it was too exhausting for Ravi, but secretly I think he was happy to skip climbing rocks ;) We had a fantastic view of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains. Just beautiful. There will be pics of that later too, but for now I'll leave you with these :)

I hope you enjoyed this little Moroccan tale! Some of these photographs will be available in my shop later this week, so keep an eye out for them. Have a fabulous week and don't hesitate to leave a message, I'd love to hear what you think!

One Year Old & A Giveaway!

Yay! Today it is exactly one year ago that I started my Etsy shop! You wouldn't believe how scared I was! My very first customer was from Australia and I remember having trouble sleeping until she mailed me that her order had arrived. Wow, what a trip it's been! And I loved every minute of it :)

I have found so many wonderful, supportive people through Etsy, facebook and several other places and as a big THANK YOU to all of you, I'm having a giveaway! Just have a little browse through my shop and tell me which photos you would choose if you win and why. There are several more ways to gain extra entries! Just scroll down to the Rafflecopter menu and enter, it's really easy! 

 

And now for the PRIZES: ONE lucky winner will get one 8"x10" photograph AND two 5"x7" prints!! Pretty cool, eh? 

On to bigger, better and bolder things!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

India!

India. They say you either love it or you hate it. We went to Delhi, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi (and to Nepal from there) 5 years ago and we've been dreaming of going back ever since. We've been to other countries in Asia and absolutely loved it, but there's just nothing that can compare with the overwhelming, all-embracing, otherworldly, incomprehensible experience that is called India. And finally we're going back! Well, in January that is, so we have to wait for a bit, but still...  YAY! It is such a wonderful feeling, I could dance all day!

Over the past weeks I've been checking out possible routes to follow, places to visit, train schedules and so on. This time we'll be visiting the south of India, the states Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The south is a whole lot more relaxed and less crowded than the north and since there are three of us now, we've decided to take it slow! Our little boy is all kinds of excited and wants to see the elephants!

And of course I just had to dig up all the old photos I had from India. Believe me, that took some time! My computer crashed a few years ago and I lost some files, got some back after a while and now they're scattered all over the place. Let's just say my computer could do with a clean up, which I now have done ;)
I really enjoyed looking through these pictures, reliving all the wonderful adventures :)

The holy city of Varanasi (aka Benares) is by far the most beautiful place I've ever seen (and possibly the oldest living city on earth)! Watching life, death and religion go together hand in hand from the sacred Ganges river was an amazing experience..

I miss the hustle and bustle and the complete craziness on the streets. Traffic in India is like nothing you've ever seen! Everybody is honking and it seems there are no rules in traffic whatsoever! To us it seemed the biggest vehicle or the loudest one got to go first. And of course the holy cow is king on the streets. Everywhere they go, drivers go out of the way! I can't wait to get in a tuktuk again!
I even miss the famous Indian head-wobble. It can mean 'yes', 'maybe' or even 'no' and you just have to trust your feeling when asking to take pictures of people!  

India is a world of contradictions. It breathes magic and its beauty is overpowering. India has it all: from the snowy tops of the Himalaya, to the lush green tea plantations, the vast plains, palm beaches, holy cities, sacred rivers, fantastic wildlife... But it has its downsides too. There is extreme poverty, pollution, corruption and so on... We'll be on the look out for schools and orphanages we can provide with books and other things they might need, which we will buy there to stimulate the local economy.  

Do you have a favourite place in the world? It doesn't have to be a specific country or even far away! It could be your own back yard! A place that makes your heart leap when you think of it? Please tell me, I'd love to hear it! xxx



Maximonstertje Photography's Fabulous 500 Giveaway!

YES! We hit 500 likes on facebook, so it is time for a GIVEAWAY!!!
First of all: thank you all so much for your neverending kindness and support. Really, if it wasn't for your encouragement, I would probably never have shown my photographs to anyone, let alone start a shop! I'm ever so grateful for helping me crawl out of my shell and face the world as a new and improved version of my old self! :D

But I'll cut the blabla, you want to know what the prizes are! Ok, here they come:
FIRST PRIZE: a 8"x10" photograph of your choice from my shop!
SECOND PRIZE: a 5"x7" photograph of your choice from my shop!

(Instead of an 8x10, you may also choose an 8x8 or 8x12. The same goes with the 5x7, that can also be an 5x5 or 5x8)

I've installed Raflecopter on the bottom of this page. Scroll down to find out how to enter! The winner will be announced on July 1st on this blog (with a link to facebook) and will be chosen by a random number generator! Go have fun! xxx

Some examples of my work:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

'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...