A Walk in the Forest

I love autumn, don't you? It's such a gorgeous season, filled with golden light and amazing shades of green, yellow, orange and red... This week was all about taking it slow. Everyone in our little family is or has been ill and it just didn't seem to go away (which might have something to do with our little one going to kindergarten now), so we decided to all just take a little time off and enjoy the peace and quiet.
One morning we were up very early as our munchkin was too excited about the new day to sleep and after a quick breakfast I decided to wrap myself in a big coat and shawl, grab my camera and head out into the woods. I promised myself to do that at least once a week from now on! It was so incredibly relaxing to just stroll a bit, admiring the scenery, taking photographs of everything that caught my interest!

When surrounded by only the faint sounds of wind rustling through the trees and the chirping of birds, it's easy to let the mind wander. Drink in the magic of the hour. Feel the light on your skin. Imagine yourself in a fantasy world, where anything goes and everything is possible and where little Hobbits live and offer you the best (second) breakfast you ever had...
Can you feel it? It's like inspiration becomes tangible at moments like this!


Not having to go anywhere opens up so many possibilities. In my excitement I drove past the forest I intended to go to at first, so I kept on driving and saw a good place to park the car a bit further. The logical way to go from there was to head up into the forest from there, but then I noticed a smaller path behind me leading a little bit off-road into a less dense part of the woods, where beautiful fields lay bathing in the morning sun. Just glorious. It's moments like this that make me realise how incredibly lucky I am :)

I'm thinking of offering some of these photos as a set,  I love the dreamy mood! What do you think?

What do you do when you're up early? Do you like to take walks by yourself? Head into the woods? How do you clear your mind? I'd love to hear from you! xx

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

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

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

 

  

Onwards and upwards!

Hello and a very good morning to you! I haven't been that active in blogging lately, sorry about that!
It's mostly because I have medication to help with my anxiety issues and luckily it's going so well that I can slowly reduce and eventually (almost, just another month!) quit the rotten pills. Which is of course a good thing, but the side effects of reducing the amount haven't been that much fun ;) My terrible mood swings are killing me (and my husband, for that matter). But it will all be for the best! Keeping positive here!

So, that set aside, I've been working like mad! Making my first calendar (sneak peek later!), adding new iPhone cases and editing new and old photographs and having so much fun doing it!
Also, more and more people are inquiring about doing photoshoots and I'm thinking of really going for this!
I have my first official appointment for a family shoot and I'm so incredibly excited (and just a little bit nervous)!

Here's a little sneak peek of what will be listed in my Etsy shop soon :)  

More iPhone cases:

More photos:

   

And the 2013 calendar (NOT finished yet, so some of these images might not make the cut):





What do you think of it so far? I would love to hear your opinion! Have a wonderful day and enjoy the sunshine! x

Little Family Photo Shoot

It might be a bit late for an introduction, but I've been doing some photo shoots lately and thought it would be fun to make one of our own little family! Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we went to a nearby park and had some fun! It seems to me it happens all too often that I take photographs of everything I find interesting, of our little boy, but never of us as a family (and then there's that thing that I hate to be in front of the camera ;), so here you go: it's us!

Just the two of us (our munchkin kept running away to play, can't blame him!) I couldn't help the bunny ears, I have a very geeky sense of humor.

  We caught him eventually! It didn't last long...

Our sweet little boy standing perfectly still for a minute :) Love him to bits!



See you soon and have a wonderful weekend! xxx