dutch goodies

Bianca and Peter brought me a bag full of Dutch goodies today, Bastogne cookies, canoe's, smoked sausages, chocolate sprinkles, and oliebollen!! I'm so happy because I was convinced I was going to spend my first new year's eve ever without oliebollen. We can't have that. I was planning on baking, but the drawings weren't ready. They are now, almost. We're going to a party at the neighbours tonight, should be good. I heard from someone who completely does not live in our street, that somebody she knows in our street already heard people from Amsterdam moved into the street. Our reputation travels ahead of us. And we're not even from Amsterdam.

almost done

If only I understood how that stupid pen tool works...

parts

I tore the drawing apart, so I can work fast despite a high resolution. I'm not giving the kids much of a christmas break, but they seem happy enough. Homely characters like their mother I'm afraid. A big new year's eve party to look forward to, that's a comforting thought.

yet another sketch girl

Seeing the entire sketch is the client's privilege. For you to figure out which of yesterday's thirteen puppets is this little girl. Poor Michiel has been scratching off wallpaper all day.

busy

Michele and I were the working women today. She upstairs, practicing a clarinet piece, and I sketching on the computer. The guys at home depot. And we also managed to go tobogganing.

butter dish

Incredible! Cockie blogged our old butter dish! We used to have this exact poppy crockery a long long time ago. I think I took the last couple of plates when I left home, but they gradually died. I asked Cockie for more, I hope she still has some. On second thought, our crockery may have had smooth edges and a silver rim, not scalloped like in this picture, mmm.

For more challenging christmas entertainment go visit Michiel. Don't read the comments, I believe Willem's solution is wrong.

joop visser

Dear Volkskrant, this is for not even publishing the link:

De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant is een kutkrant en een plaag voor het gezin
De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant wordt steeds dikker en d'r staat steeds minder in
Vroeger was 'ie katholiek, een pijler van bedrog
Nu is 'ie niet meer katholiek, maar toch maar toch maar toch
De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant is een kutkrant, 't is mij niet gauw te dol
Maar als ik 'ns een krant lees, als ik 'ns een krant lees
Dan wil ik ook een krant en geen papieren drol
Waar de redaktie drijft op drank en zelfcensuur
Je krijgt de halve waarheid, maar wel twee keer zo duur
De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant is een kutkrant, ik houd hem voor gezien
De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant heeft geen mening, de Volkskrant heeft er tien
De Volkskrant is een pokkeblad, een geitenwollen-sokkenblad
Een jouno-ego-kokke-blad, het lijkt wel een riool
De Volkskrant, de Volkskrant, de Volkskrant is een kutkrant
De Volkskrant is een kutkrant, geef mij maar Trouw

And give me the NRC anytime. Yesterday they published my father in law (again).
And again! In today's NRC, they're spoiling him.

richard scarry

A christmas present from my publisher! And I haven't even sent out cards myself this year, I don't deserve it. It's an animated version of Richard Scarry's Gingerbread Man, and it's adorable. With the voice of Willem Nijholt, a very famous Dutch actor, and music by Henny Vrienten, a very famous Dutch musician. Whom I was introduced to by the way, in October in Amsterdam, ha! And I carried around Willem Nijholt's flowers all night, who was absent at the presentation. The next morning we tried everything to find out his address in order to bring him his flowers, but we couldn't find it. No flowers for Willem Nijholt. I am on the verge of starting a third project for my publisher, and an extremely exiting project I dare say...

tit for tat

The site is live! Hiram says the radio and the newspaper already called. And I hope Hiram will be asked for his ID real soon.

sketch girl

I already finished the drawing, but I grant Hiram first rights and show you a sketch. I am very curious, he thinks he is going to arouse serious media attention for his campaign. The campaign is about the obligation to carry ID for everybody over fourteen, which is new in Holland. Hiram wants everybody who is being asked to show ID to exercise their right to ask ID back from the police officer. It's a child's game, "gelijk oversteken", I don't give you this unless you give me that simultaneously. How is that called in English?

Ineke had the answer, in less than ten minutes: "tit for tat". How appropriate indeed, I would never have guessed. Thanks, Ineke.

henri pieck

What ever would I do with these finds if I did not have a blog? I never knew the (searching for the right adjective here) Anton Pieck had a drawing brother? I was searching for police officers because I'm doing something really political for Hiram, who is paying me for that with hundreds of hits, my stats are going crazy. Welcome, Hiram people!

11

Not only the weather, but even the forecast changes three times a day minimum. This morning there was no snow in sight, and still nothing when I look out the window. But I can tell you it hurts outside. We went to the cinema with Otger and three other boys, he's 11 today. Boy, were we lucky we didn't have to wait for streetcars, they just appeared miraculously when we needed them.

ethnic christmas

Christmas with a Moroccan feel seems to be the thing this year. Sorry about yesterday, I had the migraine attack of the century, I am still aftershaking a bit. They are located in different parts of my brain each time, this one sat somewhere above my left eye. Although yesterday my whole head seemed to be falling of. It isn't until the migraine fades away that I can tell where it originated. Depending on that location the migraine manifests itself differently each time. Yesterday was interesting, hadn't had that one before. I had hallucinations. I relived dreams I recognized from the past weeks, and they were so real it was quite scary. I didn't even remember those dreams but I recognized them. And I was wide awake. They came with strong waves of sickening sickness. My brain is a weird beast.

sick

piffin's bomb

This is because of the wonderful Themerson gift I received yesterday. It is a scene from Stefan Themerson's book "Euclid was an ass", in which Piffin commits a bomb attack. I drew it some twelve years ago, I think. A professor is the victim, but he is the innocent victim. His house is in between that of an ambassador and a general, either one of them could have been the targeted victim. It was never found out. Years later I happened to see a BBC program in which women told about how they got on with their lives after being widowed. One of them was a speach therapist. One day, when her husband was walking their poodle, a bomb went of and he died. This had happened right in between the houses of an ambassador and a general, and it was never found out for whom the bomb was meant. Piffin commited her bomb attack with her grandmother's poodle. Themerson must have read a lot of newspapers.

Drawing in PDF format.

franciszka themerson

Working against a strangling deadline here, but I just have to show you this. Last week Jasia from the Themerson Archive mailed me. She thought I had written nicely about Franciszka Themerson and she was going to send me a book because of that. Now how sweet is that?! Picture above is Jasia's card, I don't want to break the back of a gorgeous new book in my scanner. And now for Chinatown noodles.

christmas sketch

We got new hot water pipes in the basement, no more leaking. And they did something about the sewer drain, no more stinking!

franz ignaz pollinger

Ölgemälde von Franz Ignaz Pollinger aus dem Jahr 1848, das die Familie des Rieder Handelsherrn und Bürgemeisters Josef Anton Rapolter um den ersten Christbaum in Ried versammelt darstellt. Gleichzeitig scheint es sich, wie aus den Spruchbändern am Christbaum hervorgeht, um das Geburtstagsfest des Vaters zu handeln.

Don't ask. I'm looking for inspiration for this week's drawing. Have to show you this one.

mantelpiece

This beautiful junk emerged from under the mantelpiece. The mantelpiece was gigantic, and covered in hideous linoleum, like the floors. We brought the mantelpiece back to it's original -more than big enough- size, sanded it down and revealed the hardwood floors. And Michiel bought outdoor fairy lights for on the porch!! Now he just has to install an outdoor socket. Minor detail.

everyday insanity

Today's newspaper. It's a review of a book about the mild personality disorders all of us have. Here's the illustration in big.

seasonal work

I almost thought it was not going to happen this year, but a christmas gig came in. So next week it'll be real work for a change, not just renovation business.

Reno update: Michiel bought a fantastic circular saw and discovered a hardwood floor underneath the hideous linoleum in the living room!

working area

Mail from Patricia:
are you settled in yet? judging by your latest post, i would
say....maybe not yet.
how is your working area? will you take a pic of that?
what's the neighbourhood like? have you had a chance to explore at all?

The neighbourhood is terrific. I already went to a neighbourhood meeting last night! Very very odd, to see the kind of people we apparently are. Frightingly enough, I think it is so. We fit in. Totally. These people could not live in the valley (Patricia's neighbourhood). In Dutch there is a saying for this phenomenon: "soort zoekt soort".

By the way, lower left corner a small piece of B&B.

skirting board

Found the camera cable. This photo is day before yesterday, the wallpaper is partly gone now. All the woodwork in the house is this adorable red, we think it may be iron oxide primer. It would be super grand to reveal it throughout the house, but a hell of a job too. And the fire alarm goes of constantly. Right now the Polish furnace guys are demolishing the basement, it's Tarkovsky all the way down there.

reupholstery

We bought our outrageously expensive B&B couch some ten years ago. You could say that's a fair timeframe for reupholstery. But the fabric wore out too long ago. So long ago that I grew to hate the damned couch, the thing looks like we bought it at the flea market, holes and everything. Flat cushions. It's not the one above, oh no, same colours though. As we bought the couch we were assured that we could order new sleeves, everything is velcro and zippers. But when I tried to do just that, I of course could not. Our model was obsolete. So now Peter with his upholstery shop around our corner is going to facelift our B&B. In January. He's too busy now, everybody wants their furniture done before christmas. I like the walls in the picture by the way.

Oh yes, birthday alarm. I blog one year today.

wallpaper

Now people start begging me for actual renovation progress photo's. But I can't find the cable to connect the camera to the computer. I did manage to get the scanner running however. So here's a piece of wallpaper from our bedroom. We really should do a decollage and just cover everything with varnish. Unfortunately we're not that romantic. And for those of you who missed this picture the last couple of times I showed it; this is the house.

santa claus

Do I have to explain this? In Holland Santa Claus is uneffected by Coca Cola, he is called Sinterklaas, and he does not celebrate his birthday at Christmas, but on December 5th. He visits all the children in all the schools, above the Dutch class in Toronto. He can do so because he rides his white horse over the rooftops and puts the presents through the chimneys. Countless Zwarte Pieten (Black Pete's) help him do his job. Of course this would be considered way too racist in North America.

ms kirk

Parent teacher interviews, I met Otger's new teacher. Which way will this one go, will she understand him or will she not. She seems nice enough, so we're hopeful once again. And the class is full of weirdo's like Otger, smart but at grade two level for the simplest of things. She was reading a book on the subject, so at least the teacher is willing to learn. Otger has to start work on a science project. I'll show him WunderKat, see what he thinks.

golden bookstore

The printed version is almost ready, they tell me at the publisher's. In the meanwhile the production guys had a little fun with their 3D software.

intelligence

It is not intelligent to look all over for the washing machine hoses, then do all the laundry by hand, and then find the hoses inside the washing machine. The pipe cleaning above would be interesting. Our warm water pipes are in danger of cardiac arrest, they're completely clogged. It takes hours to fill a bath, and after having taken the bath, the water finds it's way through the kitchen ceiling.