Letter.

Hello december 2015 Winnie,

I'm writing you this from my sisters room in London. A place you won't go to anymore after leaving it te 4th of january. This isn't your last visit to London this year, though. I hope James McAvoy will blow you away and that the rest of your stay in London will be as satisfying as you need it to be. After that, Plymouth is planned, where I hope university seemed as amazing in real life as on the internet. You should have also started applying by now... (!!!!)
Apart from that, another planned exciting thing is Pinkpop. Even if it wasn't Pinkpop, I really hope you have seen Muse by now. I really hope that dream came true this year.
With friends, I hope you made Spain happen. Right now, it seems like such an amazing idea and I really hope it didn't die down with words.
On the not planned side,
I hope you've finally made a proper nice portfolio website, where you used your own identity you've hopefully perfected this year. School should have bought you some time to finally do things for yourself. Talking about school, an internship? Please tell me you'll have found one by now. A good one, preferably, one to be proud of.  And please say you've figured out your jobs. Working 2 jobs next to school isn't the best thing in terms of time and with you being in the middle of graduating the more time you'll have, the better.
On the 'deeper' things,
I hope you've kept going building your confidence and pushed down your feer for judgement just that little more. I hope you took the chances of going on more adventures, memorizing it with photographs, preferably analog, or did you let that go by now? I sure hope not.

Please, say you've done things, seen things, read things, felt things, Lived. You deserve to. Now you can.

I hope you've had a nice life this year,
Xoxo
Winnie.

December things | Day 4

Time for my Album top 10 for 2014. Or not.

You see, this year didn't really consist of listening to new albums as much as I would have liked. Because of that I don't feel like I can properly put together a top 10. 

But, I do want to share some with you, because I do want to talk about albums nontheless.

First off, Passing Through by Chef'Special.
Beside the amazing album art, the music is pretty great as well. It came out at the start of the year and I listened to it a lot around that time. I think you can describe it as a nice funky, happy vibed album. It's really an album that makes you feel good, with some good songs on it to make you do nothing else then move, dance, be happy. Nothing but love for that one.

To go with another Dutch love right away, there is Rivals by Kensington.
It's really recognizable Kensington, as it's their second album. The music is great and the voice makes everything even better. I've loved it since the first time I heard it.

Moving away from my own little country, TRXYE by Troye Sivan.
TRXYE is Troye Sivan's first EP. In june or july the first single came out and it took a few listens, but I ended up playing it on repeat non-stop. You will probably understand I was quite excited to hear the rest of the EP. I am completely in love with the songs Fun and Touch. They are both on my most played this year list on last FM and they will remain in my Spotify playlists and they will remain being listened to a lot in 2015. I'm less of a fan of the songs Gasoline and The Fault in our Stars (MMXIV), but I can't deny they are quite good songs. He's talking about working on a new album and I would be lying if I said I'm not excited to hear what he makes next.

An old love renewed, Nick Jonas by Nick Jonas.
I'm not sure if I talked about it on here before, but as a teenager I was in LOVE with the Jonas Brothers. They were everything. But, as known, they stopped, came back together last year and ended it again right before starting a new tour together due to 'Musical Differences'.
This year, though, Nick Jonas came back into the picture again. And he brought new music with him. He started of with the song Chains, which had to grow on me a bit but in the end I liked it quite a lot. But, then came Jealous. I was sold. Completely. What a song. Can't get tired of it. When the full album came out there was no doubt in my head about the fact that I had to own this album, even if it was only to have it in my collection next to my Jonas Brothers albums. I had to give it a try and there was a rather big chance I would end up liking it, as there is not much I don't like at the moment.
Honesty hour, now, it's no Fastlife (Joe Jonas' solo album, as the genre is kind of comparable, in a way), which I can still play over and over again without getting bored of it. I'm not completely sure of it, yet, as a full album. I prefer having it in a playlist and hearing the songs by themselves. Wilderness, though, needs to be mentioned. WILDERNESS. If you're going to listen to Any song from this album, listen to Wilderness. Instant happiness and dancing. Even if it's only on the inside. Love that one. A lot.

I'm going to leave it there. You probably get why there's no Top 10, now, as that would be kind of scraped together from albums I kind of heard once or twice but would still be mentioned as I need 10 albums to fill the list.
My year mostly consisted of finding old bands and albums (Arctic Monkeys, The Joshua Tree) and songs on their own that kept me going through 2014. Maybe it'll be better next year.
We'll have to wait and see.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

December things | Day 3.

Let's change the name of this seasonal series. More fitted to the things I want to write about, more time to post the planned blogposts. I'm pretty happy with it.

Now, let's get on with what I want to write about today. It's something I've discovered this year and I'm planning on keeping it going in 2015 as well: Analog photography.

Before going to Sziget, I got the idea to capture the festival with a disposable camera. So early this year I got myself one, to get used to how it works and see how it works with lighting and focus. I ended up not using it as much as I would have liked to. Not in my day-to-day life and not at Sziget I kind of regret this, to be quite honest. I was very doubtful wether the things I wanted to photograph were 'worth' the spot on that roll, since you only have one go. Quite a scary thought. This scary thought kept me from using the camera's to their full potential, which made me end up with far from the amount of captured memories at, for example, Sziget.

But, a few months ago, my mom showed me an automatic analog camera we had laying around, that hadn't been used in some time. We also, luckily still have some rolls as well, so, for me, there was no question but to start using this baby as well. Same as with the disposable ones, though, I was very scared photographing with it. I used it far from enough and that was a real shame. But I'm starting to get used to it now. I'm making myself take it everywhere i go when I go do something else than sit at home in my bedroom or go to internship and I'm starting to get the hang of it. At my last London trip I finished my first roll and I'm soon bringing it in to get developed. This roll was black and white, so I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out. It contains pictures from my first London trip with my sister, as well as the second one with my parents and grandparents and some things that happened in between. So excited.

i can't wait to get more into it and more experienced next year. I'm finding myself having less interest in the digital DSLR camera and more in the analog one and pinning kind of analog-feel pictures on my pinterest. I just love the atmosphere they have over them and I'm really excited if I've managed to capture it as well.

Maybe, just maybe, if I'm happy enough with the outcome, I will share some shots with you. You'll just have to wait and see.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

PS. If you're wondering where the blogpost on last saturday is, I'm not writing one. Not really anything exciting to tell really. I had an amazing time with my friends, we talked, laughed and exchanged presents and christmas cards. I love them.

Christmassy things | Day 2.

Last saturday I went out with one of my friends to get a christmas sweater. But that's another story. This story will be told after coming saturday.
Today is for something else: Music.

To be exact: Songs. The songs that got me through the year.
Later this month I will compose an Album top 10, but I'm not quite ready for that, just yet.

So first I'm going to talk about songs, because when I thing about the past year, I mostly think about songs that ment a lot to me for a period of time, or still do. In no particular order (because I just can't):

This year I REALLY got into The Heist, the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album. From that, Ten Thousand Hours stood out for most of the year. (I love the whole album, but that one touched me on a spiritual level, or however you want to put it) 'A life lived for art is never a life wasted.' 'Take that, system, what'd you expect? A generation of kids choosing love over a desk.' 'I could be who I wanted if I could see my potential.' 'The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot.' I'll stop now, but I could easily go on. When I was standing at Sziget and I realized they started this song, I felt like all year had been leading up to that moment. Perfect music, perfect people, perfect place. Pure happiness.
But hat's not all from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (who I truly fell in love with, such amazing music), after Sziget, where I heard some ~for me~ unknown music, I hade a wade through everything they made and I found the gem that is Irish Celebration. Just listen and be happy about life.

Something else I for real found this year was Arctic Monkeys. I loved their last album (as seen in my Album top 10 of 2013) but I left it to that. After catching their show at Pinkpop on tv, I was sold. Form that also came some songs that became anthems for different periods in this year.
The first one probably was Crying Lightning. 'The next time that I caught my own reflection it was on it's way to meet you, thinking of excuses to postpone.' Not sure why but I feel so 'connected' to that line. It did something to me. This made me love the whole rest of the song right away. Just that line made it. One that has been Really, Really important this year is Secret Door. One part of the song gave me some kind of... hope?... many, many times this year. 'Fools on parade cavort and carry on for waiting eyes, ones you would rather be behind then in front of, though she's never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares. Fools on parade frolic and fuck about to make a gage, turn to a scribble on a page, by a picture, that holds her absence, but you're daft to think she'd care.' Every time I felt unsure or unconfident about something, this is what I sang to myself. In my head, or softly out loud. These are the lines I quietly sang to myself as I was rising up in the little basket, ready to see the Sziget sight from high above and then jump towards it. These lines gave me a lot of hope and confidence this year and I feel like they will keep doing this for times to come. A smaller one is Love is a Laserquest. The line 'I've tried to ask you this, in some daydreams that I've had, but you're always busy, being make-believe.' is relatable to me, since I'm a day-dreamer, always coming up with whole stories in my head. I love that line. So much. Oh, and find an acoustic version on youtube. I promise you'll fall for it, too, as soon as you've seen that.

For a very short time, but a very important one nontheless, there was one more song. That was One Three Hill by U2. It was mostly one night, to be honest, but that one night it did its work in a way that stayed with me right up until now. It was a few nights before Sziget. I was home alone and I was so nervous. It was unreal. Constantly feeling nauseous. Being a ridiculous emotional wreck, ready to cry at any given moment. Being really unsure about myself en al the decisions I've made. Feeling like the whole Sziget thing was a big mistake and I should just not go and leave it for what it was. Worst mistake ever. It was pretty bad. Not really a time to be home alone, let's be honest. But I was. That day I also worked, where I said goodbye to one of my co-workers, who said something immensly nice to me that kept haunting me the rest of the day. She brought back a little bit of hope deep, deep inside of me. That night, I dicovered 'The Joshua Tree', the U2 album. I had listened to it all night. Then late, late at night, I finally let out all my emotions about the amazing, sweet things my co-worker had said, wrote it down, cried very loudly out of confusion and decided to put the music back on. This song started playing. It was all I needed and more right then at that moment. That particular moment stayed with me for the rest of the year and I stil haven't forgotten it now, which makes listening to the Joshua Tree in particular song number 9 just that little more special.
~I did go to Sziget in the end. I stepped over my worries and insecurities and just did it and ended up having the best time ever. I can't imagine there was a chance I could have missed Macklemore & Ryan Lewis just because I was a bit nervous for something new. Thank god I didn't. This didn't change the fact that I couldn't properly eat for that rest of the week, though. Sadly. Luckily my apitite was back when at Sziget.~ 

Wow. Big story around one song, there. I'll just leave it at that. Long post. Maybe I'll come back with some more songs later. These are the songs that came to mind at this moment, but I'm sure I'll be hitting myself tonight over some really important songs that I forgot to mention.

I will be back soon. When I have something else to tell. Until then:

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

The songs on Spotify:
Ten Thousand Hours
Irish Celebration
Crying Lightning
Secret Door
Love is a Laserquest (+Acoustic)
One Tree Hill

Christmassy things | Day 1.

Sooooo What is this about, then? Day 1? Planning something, eh?

Well, yeah, maybe.... Some idea I got literally just a second ago and typed out. This is a day 1 in, hopefully, a christmassy series of blogposts leading up to christmas.
Today I got the idea to talk about my wishlist, as I realised I have some things I want.
I'm not going to number them. I can't. Just a ~fun~ little list.

- http://catandbot.com/collections/necklaces
I want them all. So ridiculously beautiful. Usually, I ALWAYS wear my triad necklace, but lately I found myself seriously looking at other necklaces with a serious, wanting, eye. Mostly when looking at these necklaces. So minimalistic, simple, pretty. I want them.

- http://macklemoremerch.com/collections/music/products/the-heist
You may know about my love for CDs. If you do, then you may get why this is in my wishlist. Apparently Mackemore & Ryan Lewis (who I've come to love a ridiculous amount in the past month) get what music is about. Fully. And they sell it. I want this so bad, only the shipping costs are $20,-, which is more then the album itself, so I have already found something else to crave from that shop.
Go to this video for more. Brings back my faith in humanity.

- http://macklemoremerch.com/collections/posters/products/heist-scarf
The scarf I've been looking for for ages. I've always found the 'The Heist' flag really cool and I always had this thought of 'if I could have it I wouldn't mind it at all'. This scarf is all I need. It's the type of scarf I have been seriously looking for and the fact that it is the flag makes it the PERFECT scarf.

- Gossip Girl, the complete series
God, I love this serie.

- http://www.danandphilshop.com/collections/prints/products/whiskers-mug
I want this. Secretly. Maybe not so secretly. The cat whiskers, they come from within.

I'll leave it there. Just got myself way too excited for the things I want.
I just want to order EVERYTHING right now. Oh god.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

London.

I went to London the other week. This is what I wrote on the bus arriving and leaving this Amazing city for a weekend with my sister.

30-10 // Before.

On the bus. Went on my first ever flight alone today. Went pretty swiftly. Happy with myself for how I handled it. Now I'm on the bus taking me from stansted airport to the center of London, where my sister will pick me up at Victoria railway station. Very excited about all this. Now the flight is behind me and I only have to sit and wait 'till I arrive, the pure excitement kicks in and I'm so ready. Finally I'm in London. After dreaming of going here for so long. I'm in the land of Dan Howell and I couldn't be happier.

Xoxo

3-11 // After.

What a weekend. A continuem of 'Wauw''s. I cannot believe it happened and I cannot believe it's already over. I had an amazing time. It was so great to finally see my sister again and spent time with ger and it was so so so amazing to be in London. The city I've wanted to go to for years now. I've won for myself by crossing the Tower Bridge withouy panicking, unlike last time, I've seen the massive field around the Tower of London, filled with Poppies, a breathtaking sight. I couldn't be happier about my visit. I feel like I really got out of it as much as I could. No, we didn't go anywhere for Halloween in the end and we were home relatively early every night, but those were the times we just spent time together as sisters. We cooked, we watched Doctor Who, we talked. It was great. I don't regret not going out at night. This was just as I like it. Another weekend to cherish forever. I couldn't be happier.

Xoxo

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

Let's go have Fun.

Internship is great. The whole feel of working at a company, full time, no school. It’s great. But I do miss something. I remember last internship feeling the same, but that one only lasted 10 weeks, not 5 months.

The thing I’m missing is going on adventures, to put it down really easily. When I think about it, I realise I didn’t really do that when going to school, eather, but I miss it. I miss having the time to do something fun. Going on ‘adventures’ is something I want to do a lot more of in the future, and hopefully school, after internship, will let me. 

Luckily I do have some adventures to look forward do. And even more luckily, most of those adventures will take place  in England. In London, to be exact, visiting my sister. I can not wait ‘till I can finally see her again, but also to be in The city that is London. I have wanted to go there again for so long now and knowing it’s finally almost happening gives me great pleasure. 

To this trip, I will take my analog camera, with a black and white roll in it. I will finally be able to photograph with it. That excites me. It’s analog, so you have to wait ‘till its done before you can see what you’ve made. You also have one go. If a picture goes wrong, there is no turning back. I really like this concept. I’m hoping to take a lot of photographs, not only on that camera, but also on my phone, for Instagram, so I can cherish as many memories as possible.

I’m also traveling alone, which makes it even more of and adventure. I can’t wait to experience this, it literally is a dream of mine to just travel on my own, so I think this is a great start.

Exciting times are coming, people. Every month from now on (October, november and december) I will be in London. This is a dream. So many pictures, so many memories. 

And in between all those times I will be at internship, sitting behind a desk for 40 hours a week. Designing things. Doing what I love.

Have a nice life,
XoxoWinnie.

P.S. If you want to see what I’m up to in my adverntures, I think it would be an idea to have a look at my instagram account. Maybe even follow. It is the plan to fill that one up quite a bit in the coming months. If it’s not with crazy ~cough~ adventures, it will be with knorrige day-to-day vieuws on things around me. So have a look, just an idea.

Silhouette. | DBTC 38

It was that time of the week again, last saturday. The day to be creative in my everything-is-possible-you-just-have-to-try sketchbook. And this was another week of being rather happy with myself in the end.

I got the rough idea for this from a picture I saw on pinterest, but it ended up completely different. In the picture it was a wood palette, where the silhouette was outlined with black, which left the silhouette itself filled with the pattern of wood. I really liked the idea of doing a silhouette inside out, but I didn't want to do it on wood, as that couldn't go into my sketchbook when done.

So I did a thing with watercolor.

I put some colors together on the paper, smudged them around a bit, splattered some more color on and let it dry.
When it was dry, I drew the figure on and got my black paint out. After outlining the figure with a small brush first, I started to fill in the blanks with black. I left it to dry and I was ready to feel proud. It came out as I wanted it to and there is no better feeling then that. May or may not make another one or two. Different colours, different techniques, different faces, this excites me.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

~Ah-ma-zing photo quality. I'm sorry, I couldn't wait 'till i could take proper pictures for putting this up...~

What is all this about? Go to this blogpost and you can read all about the project I've started for this year!

Quote of the Day.

"Every life is a pile of good things and bad things.
   Good things don't always soften the bad things but visa-versa
   the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.
   We definitely added to his pile of good things."

- Doctor Who 
  S05E10


Xoxo.

Intern.

The new internship has started. This time I'll barely be at school for 5 months.

I'm an intern at a furnishing company in the marketing department to take care of everything graphic. My first week has given me excitement for the next 22. I can see myself walking around here as a part of the company. Pretty happy right now.

It is going to be a very busy period, though. I don't only work as an intern 40 hours a week, but I also have my usual job one day in the weekend and my last internship company offered me a job, which I will do in the evening hours after internship days. Not sure if this is a good idea and if it will work out, but only time will tell.

I'm excited.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Sziget '14 | 10-day journal.

>DISCLAIMER this is probably going to be a very long post. It is litterally going to be my diary from Sziget. I'm not expecting this to entertain you in any way. This is more just for me to look back to in some time. This blog makes it a bit more easy to find. So if you're not looking for a gigantic 11-day diary blog post, happily scroll along. Thank you, Love you Bye!<

Sziget 2014.

I think festivals are great. I went to my first full on (whole festival plus camping) festival last year with two friends and I loved it so much. I told myself I had to do this more. So this year I went to my second: Sziget Festival in Budapest.

Sziget Festival lasts 7 days and is held on Obudai Sziget (Sziget means Island in Hungarian) in the Donau. It doesn't only host some big music names but also has a lot of art shown over the whole island.

My musical favourited were, hands down, A Day To Remember, Bastille and Macklemore&Ryan Lewis. I enjoyed all those gigs greatly and they will be charished for a long, long time.
Jimmy Eat World was pretty fun as well and the little bit that I've seen and heard of Tom Odell was pretty damn good. On the last day I quite liked The Kooks and Calvin Harris, only I, sadly, wasn't able to see the big finaly with the fireworks.

The rest of the festival was greatly enjoyed as well. There was a lot to see ~for example the Luminarium a big balloon building you can walk through~, to do and to experience ~I bungee jumped~, there was great choice in food and the food was pretty damn good as well ~Zing Burgers are fantastically good~. The paying method they use here is quite handy, you get a pass you can charge money on and you just hold it in front of a scanner thing and you payed. The only things a not so cool about it were the charging, the lines usually were very long and the charging took quite some time, so you couldn't just 'go and charge your card' and it's a bit harder to keep up with what you payed and what's left on your card. Apart from that I loved it. Oh, and all the prices are Florint, so you do have to do the maths every time you want to buy something plus a lot of things in stands are only written in hungraian and a lot of the people working there aren't very good at english, so sometimes ordering something could be a little more challenging.

The festival is great. It's long, very long (7 days!!!!) (You can read about how tired I was here (you get a pack of Salted Caramel TimTams squished into your mailbox if you've read that whole blogpost) (Not really but I love you if you did)) But it's great. 

So much music, so many experiences. A lot of love from me. 90% would reccomend. ~You do have to be up for not too much sleep in a loud enviroment.~

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

A life lived for art is never a life wasted.

I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I have a fascination for Damien Hirst. One of my dreams is to go to a full on Damien Hirst exposition.

So when I saw some of his work was shown in the Netherlands, I had no choice but to go there and see it.

They were 'Photogravures' of For the love of God , other skulls and butterflies, all signatured by Damien Hirst. It was amazing. I got just this one step closer to seeing For the love of God ~I would almost go as far as saying my favourite Damien Hirst artwork (but I don't do favourites)~ in real life. 

This exposition was very small, so my mum, my sister and I chose to also take a look at the rest the museum had to offer. 

This was a good idea. We sawa lot of great things. One of them being an exposition on Mondrian & De Stijl, where we saw the Victory Boogie Woogie the famous unfinished Mondrian piece. 

There also was an exhibition that showed artworks from unknown artists. Regular humans could submit their artworks in the theme 'Light' amd a jury chose some works to display in the museum. This makes for a great variety in art. There was photography, normal paintings, mixed media art, sculptures, a little bit of everything. A lot of inspiration for me. I loved it. I saw some things I have to write down to not forget, for they maybe be useful later in time for school...

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

Ps. Please, if you have the chance and are interested in art, go to a museum. It brings inspiration and creativity and there is so much greateness out there. Something of every taste.

~photo's were taken with cameraphones, hence the quality. Taken by me and my mum.~

Welcome to your new family | Albums.

I went to Nijmegen again. Nijmegen is a great city in the Netherlands with a great recordstore. No way I will ever skip that one when I'm in this city.
So of course, I got some albums.

First of, I got Humbug form the Arctic Monkeys. This was the album I was mostly going for this time. Since I knew I was going, I told myself to get that one. And I did. The album id great. It contains Crying Lightning, something that makes it undeniable allready. But it also has great songs like Pretty Visiters and Cornerstone. Very happy to finally own it.

Next I got Save Rock and Roll by Fall out Boy. I've loved this album for a while now and I finally got it. Not really a lot to say here, I told you about my love for this album when I put it on number 4 in my 2013 top 10 albums. So it's just good to hold it in my hands now.

Then, I found Woodkid's The Golden Age. I think I wrote about this one as well in my 2013 top 10, so you'll know I love it. It's just a great album to come to peace with and now I have it standing on my shelf between the rest. So great.

There you have it. My last new buys. Very happy, as you can probably tell. I love just wondering around a recordstore and finding the little treasures you're looking for. Always makes my day.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Watercolor. | DBTC 27

No, this wasn't planned out. I know I happened to post something about my DBTC project a few days ago, but today I just got inspired and made something and I got confident enough to also post it on my blog.

This week I decided to experiment with watercolor. For a while now, I've been following the artist Allison Kunath, who is great with watercolor and I really love her work. 

Recently, I got myself a block of watercolor paper, to encourage myself to try things with that as well. I finally did it and I'm so happy with myself.

I made a circle filled with red, orange, yellow colors and I'm so happy with how it turned out. This is the kind of thing Allison Kunath makes and I was able to kind of do that as well. So, so, so happy! 

If you want to see what Allison Kunath makes, I will link you to her website. I knew what kind of technique she uses to make these artworks from this video she shared a while ago.

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

What is all this about? Go to this blogpost and you can read all about the project I've started for this year!

Don't mind me, just having a chat.

A while ago, my all-time-favourite youtuber danisnotonfire ~Dan Howell~ uploaded a video that touched the very core of my heart and left a mark that sometimes forces me to watch it again. Because he might as well have just said it was about me. The relatability (is that a word? Now it is.) of this video is immense. For me, at least.

In the video he tells us that he talks to himself. And by talking to himself he means having imaginary conversations and walking around the house mumbling to yourself, making everyone around you think you're crazy.

I am not alone. That's the only thing I could think the first time I watched it. His conclusion at the end of the video just tells my story.

So, if you're wondering what the hell I mean by 'talking to myself', you think "there's more people doing this!" or you just want to watch a nice video, follow this link and enjoy. You'r welcome.

Danisnotonfire - I talk to myself.

Have a nice life
Xoxo
Winnie

This tells my story. Unbelievable.

Update. | DBTC

If you have read my pevious blogposts, you may be wondering what the hell is going on with my Don't Break the Chain 2014 project. Well, I'm proud to tell you it is actually going pretty good. I just have not taken the time to blog about it.

At the moment I'm on an 11 week continuous streek of drawing. I had some struggles in the first few months, which resulted in 2 missed weeks because I wasn't completely sure where I wanted to go with this. But now I get it. I'm much more relaxed with this project now. 

I originally started drawing from tutorial videos to try and learn new techniques, but I let that go. It wasn't working for me. For some reason I was looking up against doing the drawings every week, which resulted in a quick drawing on sunday night to at least have something. But that was not how I wanted jt to be. So I changed my own rules.

Now I just draw whatever I feel like. If I happen to feel like drawing a tutorial, I will. But of I feel like sitting in a park and drawing the gees I see in front of me, I will do that. I have even done some handlettering now. 

I'm really happy with where I am now with my project and like this I really don't mind to keep going for the rest of the year. 

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

Why I bought Knee Socks.

It's time for another music post.

So, a screenshot of my top-8 artists on Last.fm.
The exciting thing about this screenshot is one new band that joined not so long ago: Arctic Monkeys.

4 weeks I got back into them after I saw their performance at Pinkpop fest 2014. I already really liked their album AM, but never looked any further then that. Not until a month ago.
They were ~in my humble opinion~ so, so, so good at Pinkpop, that I had to hear more. So I went to Spotify and had a listen.

This innocent little listen resulted in ~at least~ a week of not listening to ANYTHING else but the Arctic Monkeys. (Ok, it was way more then a week. I would almost go as far as saying it were 2 weeks, but I'm not too sure about that. (Let's just say a pretty long time.))

Not very surprising, it didn't take very long until they were in my top-15. Then my top-10. And with so much joy, I watched them climb up in my top-8 up until the point they are at now. I don't see them moving up any time soon, so I'm happy they reached this point. (altough I wouldn't be surprised if they did climb up, seeing how much I'm STILL listening.)

Of course, with all this listening comes a 'most listened to song'. And not just a little bit. ~Don't get me wrong, I love So many of their songs and I would say "DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE FAVOURITES" but this is what the numbers say and I'm not complaining~ It even went as far as All-Time number 12 in one short month:

Crying Lightning. Welcome to your new family.

So, why díd you buy knee socks then, Winnie? you may be wondering.
Well, to any Arctic Monkeys listeners amongst you, this will probably be very obvious, but there is a song called Knee Socks and I happen to really really like it and when I saw knee socks hanging in H&M I couldn't contain myself. I'm not sorry.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Arctic Monkeys

Online portfolio.

I have been gone. For quite a while.
I have been gone for so long, I don't think I told you about my online portfolio.
Because, yes, it is finally up. It's on the interwebs for everyone to see.

I ended up making it with the website wix.com, which is  really nice and easy way to build a website of your own. The only thing not so cool is that it shows everywhere on your website. This is why I contemplated even putting it online, since it doesn't look very professional (for a graphic designer, that is). But when our internship periods changed and we had to go apply at companies right away, I decided to throw it on the internet anyway, as a temporary online portfolio, just to make it easier for them to see what I make.

In the meantime I want to make a more professional portfolio, which I designed and built myself. I put a goal for myself to have this done by the end of this year. Let's see if I'll make it.

So, in case you were wondering what my portfolio looks like and what became of the thing I've been writing about since februari, here it is:

My online portfolio.

Don't hesitate to take a look and tell me what you think and, if you have one, link me to your online portfolio. I would love to see what you make!

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Dreams.

Traveling.

I think it's safe to say that's the thing my absently dreaming brain thinks about the most. Seeing the world, going on adventures, meeting people, photographing what I see along the way. Oh, if I could just leave right now, I wouldn't think again. I'd be gone.

Since this is something I think about a lot, I thought I'd just list what countries, cities, places I want to go to. So here you go: My list of travel dreams. (this could be a long one)

- London
- Manchester
- The English countryside
- Ireland
- Scotland
- Chicago
- New York
- Texas
- Los Angeles
- Alcatraz
- Vienna
- Berlin
- Scandinavia
- Venice
- Rome
- The Acropolis
- Australia
- New Zealand
- The White House
- Hawaï
- Rijksmuseum
- Argentina
- A full on road trip through America
- Canada
- Indonesia
- Antarctica
- Salt Lake City

I don't know what you are supposed to do with this information, but for me it is now nicely put down and kind of slightly out of my head.
I want to travel. A lot. That's what this comes down to.

Wauw, what a great blogpost this is. I'm sorry.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie

Website struggles.

So well here I am again, in need to write.

I told you about the online portfolio I was working on ~and super excited about~. Well, I decided I wasn't going to use the website I made there because it constantly shows the 'free website made with Wix' pop up thing and that annoyed me. I don't want to be known as the designer who can't even put up a proper website (even though I literally can't). So I started looking around for other options.

But I quickly walked into the problem that it's pretty fucking hard to build a website.
I also quickly found out that I am not very good at learning myself or just figuring out how it works. I guess I just don't have the patience or something, i don't know. It just won't work and that annoys me. Apparently I'm not able to just make what I want. I just can't put it together and that makes me feel like I'm a total failure.

I'm trying. I really am. But I just can't make it my own and make it pretty. Damnit.

So, I asked a friend (who has some experience with building websites) if she maybe wants to help me and she does. So I now put myself the goal of having an online portfolio up and running before 2015 starts. I would say that should be manageable, right?

Do you have any tips and tricks that could help me? Don't hesitate to let me know. I need them.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Confusion.

So, like. Hey, I'm back.
I guess.

I'm sorry. I'm just in the middle of a really weird and confusing time. My internship is almost over and I'm (thank god) almost going back to school. I can't wait. I'm so looking forward to going back to my normal life and not be afraid to give a bad impression to the people at the company thing I work at. Just go back to my usual environment, with the people I know, and the people who know me. Where I can just wear whatever I want and not have to worry weather it's appropriate for the job. Oooooh what a bliss it will be.

Bliss. That's a good song. Let's listen to Origin of Symmetry again. Oh, hear the sound of the piano intro of New Born. What an amazing peace of music this is. Yes. 

Getting back to what I was talking about.
You can maybe understand why my head is in all sorts of places. Or maybe you can't I don't know if it's understandable, really. All I know is that I don't really know what the actual fuck is going on anymore at the moment.
My biggest problem at the moment is my constant doubt about me as a human being. Everything is feeling wrong. I feel like I'm a pretty annoying person. I don't know how my friends keep up with me. I feel bad for my colleges, who are forced to work with me. I feel like I don't do them justice or something. Does that make sense? Like I'm a really bad friend. I just don't know what to say most of the time. Not when they are happy about something, not when they feel bad about something. I try to say things to maybe make them feel a bit better but afterwords regretting that and feeling like I said the complete wrong thing and that now they will hate me. Like I feel they originally do. Like, why would you even like me? I'm not a fun person to hang out with. I will just stop all the conversation on you. It happens way too many times that I feel like I'm too tired to even talk or be nice to someone. Wow that's not very good. Can't say it's one of my favorite things about myself.
The problem is, I don't know how to change it. At least now I don't. I'm hoping that once I get back to school, once I'm around my friends every day of the week again, I will figure something out. Because I don't really want my friends to have to be dealing with someone like me.

There were good things that happened lately as well, though. It was my 18th birthday, at which I had an amazing time out for dinner and afterwards for drinks with my friends. I had a blast. Never want to forget that day.
I went to the Tefaf with my mum. This is a big art exhibition, originally meant for selling art but very very interesting for an Art&Design student. They had Damien Hirst. I saw my first Damien Hirst artworks. I was so happy. I had (as my mum likes to call it) 'a Jonas Brothers moment'. I was SO extremely excited to be there. I was shaking. I would almost say butterflies in my stomach. As you can imagine, taking good pictures was kind of hard with shaking hands, but at least I saw it. And it was amazing. And I only want to see more. Damien Hirst exhibition, where you at?! (If you happen to be reading this, I very wouldn't minde Relics to come to somewhere near the Netherlands. Thank you in advance.)
Lastly I went to a little exhibiotion of a dutch Graphic designer, Boy Bastiaens. It was very interesting. I really liked his designs. I was in LOVE with the designs he made for the K. Karl Lagerfeld collection. Really amazing.

I just kind of moaned when I heard the first notes of Bliss. Fun fact for you there. Music gets to me way too much. Oops.

My DBTC has been going, well, in a way, good. Yes, in a way. I did miss one week (sorry don't hurt me I hate it so much) but now I'm back on track and I know what I'm doing. When I went to the Tefaf, I saw some pretty interesting things that showed me how I should áctually doing this, so I've taken that to heart and went on a completely different road. Maybe I'll show you some when I feel like it.

Ok. I'm very sorry about this. I will stop now, since this has become way too long.
I'm also very sorry if none of this makes any sense. I just needed to get this off off my chest. Just needed to write. So here we go. Thanks for reading, if you got this far.
If you did, I love you.

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Music addict.

Hiyaaa, I'm back. And here is my music post.

I have had a few interesting musical finds in the last 2 months. A few new addictions. And I am loving it. Let's get this show on the road.

Firstly, I became addicted to the album 'Vultures' by Dutch band Kensington. A great rockband with a singer who has a really nice raspy voice, which gives the music just this little extra thing. Loving that. Played the album almost non-stop. Amazing. Until one faithful sunday.
I heard a song by Panic! at the Disco in one of Dan and Phil's BBC radio1 shows and I thought 'oh that's quite nice, I should have a listen to what music they make'. So I did. And it was life changing. That's maybe a bit overreacted, but a new addiction was born. Oh my god they are amazing. How did I not find this before? I found my favorite albums are 'Too weird to live, to rare to die!' and 'Vices & Virtues'. Been listening to them a lot. Over 500 plays in less then 3 weeks. I'm proud. I am.
My third addiction has been Chef'Special. They are another Dutch band. They make really fun and funky ska-ish music. Really mellow and just fun. I already didn't dislike the music they made and when I heard they brought out a new album, I thought it would be a good idea to give 'Passing Through' a little listen. And yes. It was indeed a very good idea. Good for every moment of the day. Amazing.

So there you have a little catch-up on my music playlists lately. It's so nice to find new music and get completely addicted. I love that feeling. Almost playing nothing else, until you find something new to obsess over. But they always stay in my playlists, I can never get rid of them. Music is amazing.

Aside of music, I turned 18 last week! I kind of wanted to have my online portfolio up by that time, but there are a few things I not so certain of, just yet so just sit tight for a little longer. It is coming! I can assure you that! So keep an eye on this blog and I will tell you as soon as it's up.

I'm going to leave you with that. I hope I gave you some new interesting stuff to give a listen, if you have tips for me, please let me know! I would love to hear! I'll leave a link to the albums on spotify down here, so you can find them!

Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

Kensington - Vultures.

Panic! at the Disco - Too weird to live, too rare to die!

Panic! at the Disco - Vices & Virtues.

Chef'Special - Passing Through.

Lacking.

Well hello there,

I'm lacking. I know. And I'm sorry. But let me explain.

Last week I didn't do my regular Don't break the chain post. Partly because I am on internship at the moment, which means working days from 9 'till 5, but also because I was a bit reluctant to share this page with the world. I know I said I would share everything, even if I wasn't 100% happy with how it turned out, but when thinking about it, I realized I didn't really have anything new to say. I practiced shading some more. I used the same technique I used the week before, because I want to make sure I can actually do it. So putting up a DBTC post would be just the pictures. Nothing more. And I feel like I don't really need to do that. I can also just write a normal blog post, in which I also address what I did this week.
Don't worry, though, the weeks I do something new or noticeable, I will ~of course~ put it up and explain what I did and where I found the inspiration. That is what this all is about. Sharing the new things I learn. But I feel like it's unnecessary to also put up all the practicing that comes with it. So I won't. From now on.

So, this means:
No more weekly DBTC. Only when I actually have something important or interesting to tell/show you.
But, I will be writing normal blog posts. To keep you up to date on what's happening in the rest of my life.

For example, I'm now walking around with a pair of glasses on my face. This is new. And I'm loving it. Headaches have decreased and lines are actually lines now. They are completely focussed and it's amazing. So that happened.

I'm going to leave it to this. I don't want to make it too long. I just wanted to explain what was going on and tell you about the slight change I'm bringing to my blog-posting. Don't expect a DBTC post this week, either, btw. More practicing, nothing new.

So,
Have a nice life,
Xoxo
Winnie.

BTW. Expect a new musical blogpost in the ~very near~ future. I found some new things, I have some new obsessions. So look forward to that!

What is all this about? Go to this blogpost and you can read all about the project I've started for this year!

Shade. | DBTC 4

*WEEK4*

A celebration of music.

This week, tuesday to be exact, my Last.fm account turned 1. Time for a relay of this musical year.

Practice. | DBTC 3

* WEEK3 *

No, as you can see no fancy banner-ish thing and if you scroll down you will notice there is no collage of pictures from every angle of my drawing. Sorry. 

Today I've had my first day of internship and let's just say it's energy consuming. So I'm not really feeling it to now take my camera, be arty and take pictures of my work, edit them and make a nice collage out of them. ButI did want to post my drawing from past week, because I want this blog to be another way for myself to kind of keep track of what I'm doing. 

So now that's explained, let's get to this week.

*WEEK3*

To make it even worse, I've been sick for 3 days last week, so my drawing time was litterally pushed towards the last possible moment: sunday night after work. Nontheless, this is the most time I've spent on a drawing yet.

I've had the idea of what I wanted to do this week for a few days. It was an image I saw on Pinterest. I knew immediately knew I wanted to do something with it and then I got the idea that this would be a great oppertunity to get familliar with my pencils. So I've made some patterns with different shaded pencils to kind of see what they do, how they feel and how dark they draw. 

To remember afterwards, I've put the pencil kind in every line. 

It's not perfect, far from. It's definately not what I had in mind when I started, but I do think it was a good practice for myself. This gave me a little more feeling with the pencils, which is kind of what you need with drawing as well, I think. 

So I'll just leave you with this picture of my drawing, and hopefully next time I will be able to do a proper blog post.

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

P.s. Sorry, also no link to the explanation of what the hell is happening in this post. I'm on my iPad, so it's really difficult to get to those things. 

If you do want to know, you can find a blogpost called "Don't Break the Chain *2014*" on my blog. 

I hope this will be back to normal next time. 

Sketch. | DBTC 2

*WEEK2*

Explore. | DBTC 1

*WEEK1*

Back in peace.

I'll confess it right away. I already failed.

This post was supposed to be my first DBTC post, but I didn't make my first exercise yet, so I can't show you anything yet. I hate this, but school comes first.

Now, I finally finished this period. Finally, there is peace in my head. 

The first 5 days of this year were kind of packed with school.

I went to antwerp for 3 days, where I also did schoolwork when we were at the hotel and the other remaining days were fully packed with school. Finishing off every assignment. So I didn't get to my project. 

But I'll get back. 

Next week you'll see 2 exercises I've made. Now I have no more homework to do, so I can work at my own project.

So, I would say, look forward to next week. Then will be the start of my Don't Break the Chain. With 2 weeks in one. 

This should be good.

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.

Deadline City. 2.0

And here we are again. The end of a term.

No calm, peaceful New-Year for me. No, on the first of January 2014 I'm sitting in my room making homework. Frantically trying to get everything done before next week. Next week is our deadline and I'm not even close to ready for that.

This vacation has been very different to what I'm used to. It's been everything but relaxing. At the moments I didn't have things I had to go to (the funs of christmas), I was working. And if I wasn't working I was trying to squeeze homework time into every possible moment. Not something I love to do. 

So after a lot of planning, working and a mini mental breakdown, I think I might actually get it done. Maybe. Let me tell you, there is a lot to be done. A lot. But I believe that with some ~very~ loud music in the background I should be able to make it trough these last days. 

But I'm not only worried to not get it done for school and the grades I'll get. I'm also worried I won't be able to get to my first Don't Break The Chain (DBTC) week. Yes this worries me. I don't want my first week of my own little project to go wrong right away. I want to start my chain. 

So let's just hope I'll get it done. I'm sure I will. Because I have to.

Have a nice life,

Xoxo

Winnie.