Simple, beautiful

 I have this huge book about North American Indians since ages

and use it to flatten all things that need to be flattened. It is big, heavy and thick...

bark of a coconut tree can be stored and flattened as well in this book of mine. Though placed inside the book randomly, this one seemed to go quite properly with the picture...

Upon checking the state of the leaf coral that I gathered at one of the island's beaches

 

these pages offered instant eye candy...

click this picture to see the coral in several stages of development

it was the surprise of the day for me: just opening a book

and then finding such beauty!

Thanks for visiting today!

Beautiful people

Those of you who have been following this blog for some time know about my problem with pictures of people. Mostly I snap a shot when driving by in my car and the results are (needless to say) not what I was really looking after, how could it be? It has taken me several years to get a little courage and simply ask the people if I may - please- take their picture. I was kind of afraid of the possible question: why you want my picture for? Now I have finally formulated the right answer, and it is an honest answer also:

'I have, during the years that we lived on the island, taken so many photographs of all possible beaches and places and the most important part of SXM is missing: I have no pictures of people!'

And they understand !! And they are willing to pose, though not all of them. I had some awesome 'models' that looked quite uncomfortable when I asked them and as I did not want to bribe, or push (that is soo not me!) I let it go: so you will have to forget about this very cute baby with cornbraided hair, she was a beauty queen already and very St. Martinish, alas! 

But what I have till today is in this post.  The opening picture is made in our garden during a yardsale. This very young mother was so proud of her little son, I do hope that her little one will have a prosperous life and find his way!

ladies of the Heineken promotion team can be seen on the island during events that are sponsored (of course), this was January 1st during the Karakter New Year Dive. Karakter is a very popular beach bar/restaurant and the owners are Dutch, hence the new years dive in the Caribbean Sea, similar to the dive in Scheveningen, Holland, which is a longtime tradition.

This very nice old lady sells papers during morning rush hour. She usually looks pretty grim, but once asked for a picture her face broke into a big smile and she took her time. Me in the car, window open and I did not even have to say CHEESE...

a mother and her two young kids on the Grand Case boulevard.

So this was it for today, thank you so much, beautiful women of Sint Maarten/St. Martin!

Wishing you a wonderful Mother's Day,

Regina

Caribbean Lovelies

My style - a fashion post

 When I was living in Holland, while certainly not being a fashionista, I more or less was influenced by fashion. And whenever I am back there, I feel a bit out of place, because following fashion stopped once I came to live in the Caribbean. For the past seven years or so, I mainly dressed in tops (all colours of the rainbow), linen pants, nothing as good as wearing linen in the tropics, and flipflops of course. I do have some 'real' shoes, but I only wear them at night when we go out, and I am always so happy to cick them off at the end of the evening... my feet just don't appreciate being tied in shoes  anymore

.

Then, some weeks ago, I found a lovely blog of an Australia migrated British woman and I immediately felt a connection. Her blog is nice, even great and I am hooked ever since. The girl's style resonates with me. Especially the fashion part of it is wonderful. And I realized that within a few months, now we are about to leave this flipflop island, I might be going (needing) to dress in a more stylish way again, something I did not realize while looking at the internet for beautiful houses and places in Spain. So recently I had a fantastic bargain at the Marigot braderie. The three pants in the lower right corner (picture below) I bought in the only store on the island that sells clothing for REAL women, Animale. They were 5 bucks each, size 3x , and yes, I had some sewing to do to make them fit more appropriate, fortunately I would say ;-), and having made my own clothes since the age of 15 that was no problem at all. Five bucks each for real linen pants, bought in a real French boutique, that felt like heaven! Btw, the blog that inspired me is here

I like to dress in neutrals, have liked forever, with black being my all time favorite. That could be because I'm a REAL woman and not a barbie doll as most fashion designers seem to think. One of the great things of being mature however is that the opinion of designers are not important anymore, not important at all! I have my own style and you can see it on these pictures... neutrals, linen and stripes with a a  hint of color, and yes, that is often turquoise

necklace by 'moi'

top shirt: Promod

other one: H & M

pants: Animale

Scarves are another passion of me. I love to wear these! Here in the Caribbean only useable in airconditioned places or at rare times when it is fresh. The bangles have also been made by me.

That was it dear folks, my fashion post. Next time I will be back with faces, not only backs, of some beautiful locals I met.

Thanks for reading! (and oh, how I would love some response...)

Yellowstone National Park

2009

Hi!

Again it has been way too long before  a new post. It is not that there is nothing to write about, though the attention has shifted somehow since I interrupted my artmaking for the time being, yet life offers enough material to write about. For one part it is due to the fact that I don't want my blog to become too personal, I am well aware of the vast extend of everything that is being written here and on the internet in general, so I am very cautious with my privacy... A lot is happening around here, as well back in Holland and sometimes this makes me feel unable to simply babble about all kind of less or not so important matters, I am sure you know what I mean.

I have been thinking about stopping with this blog, but then, when I reread some former posts and the information these hold, I simply cannot do that, as yet, maybe never. But there is our  move to Spain by the end of this year and I would like to write about our preparations, the things that have to be arranged, and I am convinced that I want to have a blog once we arrive there, a blog about our time in Spain. I wonder if there will be enough English speaking readers to keep writing in English, whereas I am sure many Dutch people love to read in Dutch about our future adventures.

All this thinking/doubting is another reason that I feel a little blocked right now.

Not sure how I will continue, but then I realized that this may not be the reason to not post anything at all!!

So, while we are also preparing our 4th USA-trip that will start mid July, I have been looking at my collection of pictures from our former trips and I rediscovered this storyboard which I made after our travels in 2009. It was the first trip we made with our modest class B motorhome, our Roadtrek SS Agile. We started in New Mexico and then went all the way up through the Rocky Mountains to the Icefield Parkway in Canada where the town of Jasper was our most northern destination. Of course I shot pictures in abundance and our files contain thousands of them by now.

I made the above storyboard with one of the great templates of the CoffeeShop, you can find them for free here.

So this was it for today, I hope to be back sooner next time and really appreciate your patience and stopping by.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Regina

Braderie in Marigot, St. Martin

Hello dear blog visitor, long time no post here. But I am not going to apologize, for I am not making any art at the moment, have been packing most of my materials and tools and the only thing I seem to do is saying goodbye to this island, little by little. I know, I made an early start since we are only leaving somewhere in September, but you know, some things, some happenings are only a few times or even once a year! As with the European/Caribbean style braderie in Marigot yesterday. I am so glad that this beautiful island consists of two, yes two countries. As small as this island is (you can drive it completely in let's say 2 hours, traffic jams included LOL), the fact that there is a Dutch and a French part really makes you feel that there are two very different countries here, so you can easily go 'abroad' without having to travel by air. And that is exactly what we, Dutch ladies, do, when we want some European feeling shopping experience...

the braderie: it was busy, very well attended by people from both sides of the island, plus tourists of course. One might say that tourists visiting SXM yesterday had a lot of luck!

these pictures I shot quite randomly. Some of you may know about my goal to shoot more pictures of faces. Well, as from the beginning of this year I started beginning asking permission to picture people and I will show some results soon, but yesterday was bad luck referring this. I asked a young women with a stunningly beautiful little girl on her arm that had the most wonderful braided hair and she did not want it. She was hesitant, did not really refuse me, and then there is my lack of persistance and maybe too much of respect. Anyway, I left it and did not make the photo.

Somehow you can see the pride even from the back, I think...

it was quite busy at the lingerie stalls

many people (myself included) had a great time!

oh-la-la!

Seeing old and young, real mothers and wannabe's: I will fondly remember Marigot's
braderie!

Baie des Froussards

Yesterday I took a walk with a friend and we discovered one of the beaches at the French side of the island. To our very surprise it was chockful of beauty, hardly any human waste to be found which is pretty uniqye!

we stumbled upon this beach as it we intended to take a different route, but the sound of the sea seemed to surround us and we were curious to see this exact location...

there was an abundance of the most beautiful compositions, made by nature...

this was the view of the beach as we entered it through a small path, shaded by bushes

this leaves me speechless, so I continue without further comment (some pics are clickable!)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!