A new start

A Happy and Creative New Year!

Dutch houses

The city of Zevenaar, where we're staying with our son, is small and quietly situated near the German border. Unlike our island Sint Maarten, where lots of people we meet are from far away, the people in this Dutch city are grounded and tied here. You can feel that when you walk the streets, the people seem to see that I am not from here. This afternoon, on my daily walk, it was slippery and at an unexpected moment I fell, out of the blue. Immediately people came and offered to help me, to give me a ride, and I was not even injured!

I had brought my camera and this is what I saw:

I was so used to this kind of house, but after having lived abroad for several years I now know that this is truly DUTCH style

as is this door: simple yet stylish

and this facade made in brick stone...

downtown Zevenaar...

thanks for joining me today!

Regina

Hello from Holland

Today we went to the market in a city in the neighborhood. On our way to the railway station we came along this old mill. It is situated in a street behind our son's home, it dates back to 1560 and looks very, very Dutch!

We sometimes notice that people from abroad expect the Dutch to walk on wooden shoes, well they don't! Except for farmers, they still use them during their work on the fields and in the stables. Yet they are readily available for everyone, especially in this part of the country (the East of the Netherlands)

and this was the view from the train this morning.
This is the Holland that I know from my youth, the Holland I love!
Thanks for visiting,

Regina

Wishing you all...

and thank you so much for your enduring friendship and attention!

XOXOXO

Regina

Collage (continued)

Almost finished with the X-mas preparation;

I remembered that there are a few collages laying around that I have not showed till today. These are the last ones of our journey this summer from Billings to Buffalo, here's the first one:

Greater Toronto
original collage, 4 x 4"
recycled tourist brochure

Just black and white please

maybe because the Sint Maarten weather is grey these days,

as much as I love colours, sometimes it is only neutrals that I want...

driftwood from the beach

detail of a journal page

Australian island with river

detail of safari style cushion

and finally some other beach finds

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day!

Regina

My sewing machine and I...

are best friends!

This has been so already from when I was 15 yrs young and owned my first Singer.

Though I neglect my machine sometimes for a short period because there are so many other passions within me, I could not live (me think ;-) ) without this favorite tool.

And as always, shortly before I will miss it for some time because of traveling and I come to realize that, I get the spirit and start sewing like crazy. Just like today!

I got up early, simply started and by now I have made 5 of the fabric baskets that are on the pictures.

the ocean themed fabric hads been laying around for some time and I decided to start my basket tryout with these. The lining is a pretty flower cotton I bought online at Pink Chalk Fabrics and this lightly red/pink colour gives the baskets just the little warmer feel that I was looking for

the one with the turquoise lining was too thick at the side seams to stitch by machine, too many layers also, so I hand-slipstitched it in the meantime and it too looks neat now.
The fabric mountain that is left will allow me to make lots more, it could be another addiction, oh boy...

Hope you all have a very creative day too!

Bye, Regina

In the garden today

click the image for details...

Look at these dots!

Enjoy your weekend,

Regina

My world

as it is at the moment...

living in this beautiful Caribbean region;

communicating in several languages, ranging from American English via Dutch to Papiamento and Patois;

spending my time with recycling many oldish necklaces into new jewelry, together with making panels for my fiber art and digital collages like the one below:

life is great!

My World

digital collage

Today was for shopping

and this was what I saw when I left our street...

Rumor has it that the farmer that once owned this land, when the valley was mainly consisting of agricultural terrain, refuses to keep his cattle in a fenced meadow. So now we see them wandering, sometimes on the main road, sometimes outside our property. Sint Maarten really is a weird mixture of high-end development and undeveloped country!

this is also clearly visible in the little streets of the French side's capital: Marigot

Very fashionable boutiques with the latest clothes from the catwalk in Paris, almost side by side with this kind of building. Shopping in Marigot: o la la!

this is my favorite, I love the stylish yet functional ironwork

the guy in the black shirt is selling tropical fruits from the back of his truck, he seems to do good business

dinghies in the marina,waiting for their owners to bring them back to the boats and catamarans after a day of shopping

Thank you for coming along with my shopping tour in Marigot,

Regina