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 © Anna Denise Floor for VERS

During the Amsterdam Film Week you get to watch all of last year's 'top movies' again on the big screen, plus some smaller productions that haven't gotten enough airtime. Great news for busy people like myself, who always miss out on something awesome.

This year was even better for me, as I was asked by VERS magazine to go see three movies, and draw my reviews of them! Great fun, as knowing you'll have to draw a key scene really changes your perception.

Here's the first one for Argo, which I loved. Two more to follow, so check out VERS magazine here, or follow them on Facebook!

I always thought that I would never design my own wedding invite. Heck, up until pretty recently, I didn't even think I would get married any time soon. But then I did!

The Wedding Invites

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 © Anna Denise Floor

Jochem and I decided on the style and content of the design together, which was great. We felt since it was a simple and small wedding, we wanted to keep the invites as clean as possible. 

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 © Anna Denise Floor

We had the cards professionally printed on heavy card stock, then wrapped them in blue tissue paper. A true collectors item ;-) as only 14 people received a package.

The Party Invites

Of course, silly us for thinking we could just get married and be done with it. A party was in order, of course. Last weekend, almost 70-80 people (I lost count) showed up for our modest wedding bash. So fun. I shared a cigarette with my mom, I think my grandma got a little drunk, one of my best friends poured vitamin water into my brothers mojito. It was a classy affair, let it be said. 

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 © Anna Denise Floor

The invites (sent out digitally) of course had to include some pictures of us (taken in a photo booth in France last summer), as somehow in between the butterflies and wedding rings, we hadn't quite gotten around to introducing each other to everyone just quite yet. Dus.

You like?

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 © Anna Denise Floor

Am a bit behind on posting my journal pages as you can see. These past two weeks have been absolutely nuts. I travelled to London and Dublin for work (yes, my life is actually that awesome, hate me), threw a big wedding celebration with the Fantastic Mr. Floor, somehow messed up my big toe, making it ever harder to walk normally, and generally spent a lot of time feeling Very Responsible for Everything (which is a great way to spend your time. Squiggly mouth smiley face). 

Anyhow - here's a drawing. Tadah! 
Now go away and ignore the fact that it's almost freaking November. 

"It's a journal, and it's all about you," she said, whilst handing me a plastic bag. A very personal wedding gift, with two more volumes to follow, "for when you have kids of your own". Hypothetical children Jochem and I had just promised to always take care of together, no matter what, in good times and bad. 

From the moment I was born, until age 5, my mother kept a journal of my life. What I did all day, what I ate (or refused to eat), who I played or fought with, what words I learned or made up, and all the other fascinating stuff that makes up a childhood. 

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 © Anna Denise Floor

It's weird - reading about yourself. Having your mother tell you, directly, the hopes and dreams she had for you when you were three. Theories about what you would be like when you'd grow up and the things she hoped you'd learn to do or stop doing at some point (almost all wrong, hehe). But what fascinated me the most were the mundane details about our lives. About my mother's life, mostly. Picking me up from daycare, trips to the library, disagreements with friends about how to and how not to raise children, debates with my dad about what to do about my stubborn behavior (they were powerless, I tell you, powerless).

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 © Anna Denise Floor

Reading her thoughts and worries made me remember that my parents were my age when they had me. I was their first and like I would be and no doubt will be, they were clueless. How do  you raise a child? I suppose everyone just stumbles along and tries their best, and I know this journal (and the two preceding it) will be a great reminder and comfort to me when I someday have children of my own. Because my parents were just trying out this and that (and then that and this), and I turned out somewhat sane. I know how to hold a job and stuff. I pay my taxes! I water my plants!  Eh. Well, mostly. Sometimes. 

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 © Anna Denise Floor

I do hope I can turn this into some kind of family tradition and do the same for my children. In the meantime I'll treasure this amazing gift, this labor of love (can you believe she did the same for my two brothers?!). Thank you, mama!

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Nuria & Jochem's Save the Date © Anna Denise Floor

This summer, my best friend Nuria got married three days before we eloped (hehe). I was lucky to be one of her witnesses, and, on top of this, had the honor to create their wedding invites. I've done a few now, and I absolutely love doing them. It's such a special thing, to create something so personal for what's one of the most important moment's in people's lives. Needless to say, I was feeling the pressure, but I'm actually pretty proud of how they turned out.

For the 'Save the Date', we decided to base it off of the location in South America (Point Pirulil on Isla Grande de Chiloé to be exact) where (her) Jochem got on one knee and proposed. My friends are big travelers and the proposal came near the end of their 9-month trip around the world. Awww...

The invites had to have a weddingish food-theme - traditional but fun, and mostly delicious. They hosted their wedding at a gorgeous historical farm / restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and got married amidst the zucchini flowers growing in their organic vegetable garden. Fitting, as we're dealing with two total vegetarian food snobs here. The farm is in the background here.

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Nuria & Jochem's Wedding Invite © Anna Denise Floor

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Nuria and Jochem's Thank You Cards © Anna Denise Floor

The food was marvelous, as was the wine, and we turned the thank you card into a food fest as well. Nuria and Jochem left for their Italian honeymoon right after, so we included some more food, pasta, and a Fiat 500 in the design.

Overall, I'm happy with the result, but mostly - I'm just so glad I got to do this for my dear friends and helped to make their special day. It's such an honor. 

Ok. That made me feel the feels. I'm out.
Have a fun weekend everyone, and see you soon! 

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Journal page for the weekend of October 4-6, 2013 © Anna Denise Floor

Look at me posting this within the week. To be honest, I had this finished on Monday, but I had some other posts lined up and I wanted to spread them out a bit all professional-like. So here it is. If you're in Amsterdam: go see that Pixar exhibition before it ends. It's awesome. I may go back for more myself. 

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Meneertje, by Katie Noonan!

One of my favorite things to do in life is to complain. Ah, a day without the sound of my own voice nagging is like a day without coffee (and we all know that leads to scary, dark things).

So the other day I was whining about how much I miss my cat. I know, right. Tragic. Thing is, when my ex and I broke up, we decided to leave Meneertje (the cat in question) with him in Brussels. The ex has a big apartment, which happens to be the place the cat has lived his entire life, and at the time wasn't sure where I'd go and where I'd be. It seemed like the best thing I could do for the furry beast.

Anyhow, since our current mansion is wonderful but not tremendously spacious, we've decided to hold off on the kitteh-front for now until we know where we'll be next. Look at  us being all grown-up and rational and whatnot. Doesn't mean I don't miss the little loudmouth. 

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Some more cat portraits done by Katie!

To make a long story not much shorter but definitely not any longer: my friend and colleague Katie Noonan, crazy cat lady, self-made illustrator, and world traveler, is doing this wonderful thing where she decided to draw 300 cats on Instagram. And she drew Meneertje for me. Yay! Such a fun idea (and I wish I had come up with it). So, if you're interested in getting your furball set up with an Instagram portrait, make sure to tag her @afternoonan! Also, she sells amazing cat magnets on Etsy.

Be sure to check it out. Katie surely made my day. 

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 © Anna Denise Floor

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'Aha-moments'. I don't really have them very often. I know there are people out there who do. People who have seen that proverbial lightbulb, but not me. For me, realizations come slowly - inklings, ideas, they unfold for me rather than pop up ('slow' is what my brother would say, probably). So when I say that picking up drawing again, was a life changing event for me, I don't mean there was a ray of light hitting me from the skies whilst dramatic music made all the animals in the forest perk up their fuzzy little ears.

When I picked up a pencil again in 2007 it was kind of slow and annoying. My hands wouldn't do what I wanted them to do and it stayed like that for a long time after that first day. They still won't listen to me, always, but taking that first step has changed my life in so many ways. I learned to listen to my passions again, I learned to express myself fearlessly, to find stillness in creating, and remembered what it feels like to be inspired again. But it came slowly and through continuous practice. 

Through blogging, my work at Etsy, and the many courses I've taught online and in person, I've tried to help other people pick up a practice of their own. So when the Fantastic Mr. Floor showed me his paintings and drawings a little while back, but also mentioned he hadn't touched an easel in years, I knew I had a mission. 

So we bought paint, canvas, brushes, sat down on our living room floor and got going. No singing cherubs to be seen here, but boy, that was fun! And fortunately, when you get sick of staring at your own drawings and paintings, you can always give them away to your parents. They're supposed to love everything you do. Use it. 

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Drawings in Vers Magazine. © Anna Denise Floor

Last week saw the start of the Dutch Film Festival in my hometown. Tons of Dutch celebrities I don't recognize are said to roam the cobblestoned streets, cool looking hipster folk crowd the bars I never go to at night, and I myself walked the red carpet (it was the only way to get into the theater and kind of hard to avoid). Exciting times. 

Well, actually yeah, kind of. Because the new magazine VERS ('Fresh') was presented at said festival. VERS is a magazine for 'nieuwe beeldmakers', which really doesn't translate very well, but in short: it's a magazine for those in the business of creating images or pictures, may it be film, photography, illustration, you name it.

And guess who had the honor to not only create two portraits of the editors , but also a page filling comic on the stresses of 'stepping out of your comfort zone' when self-promoting? 

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 © Anna Denise Floor for VERS 

The answer was 'me', of course. But I know you knew that. 

I'm curious, though, if you're in the business of self-promotion: what makes you feel uncomfortable when it comes to doing your own marketing? Or is it 'anything goes'? 

Let me know! 

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Jasmin tea in one of Kim's delicious tea cups she left behind for me to use. 

Summer is definitely over now and the Dutch skies above us have switched back to those smashing shades of gray it dons most of the year. I have purchased myself a pair of new boots to replace the old ones that none of the shoe repair men (and one woman) in town could save, have dug up the winter coat (ok, it was hanging right there in the hallway, but I denied acknowledging its presence for a few months), and am dreaming of pancakes, tea, and pumpkin pie. 

Also, this video is about a year old, I think, but it's magnificent. It's a dance performance by Yokoo, one of our top sellers on Etsy, creator of amazing knitted accessories and gorgeous Etsy shops. She truly is amazing.  Check it out.

It's been raining this week and Monday and Tuesday I've been mostly cooped up inside, enjoying the comforts of working from home, drinking coffee from our new machine and starving to death as obviously I wasn't going nowhere near that supermarket in this kind of weather. Ok, that's not true. Ok, it is. All I'm saying that cookies were consumed.

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So the portrait sale is a smashing hit, of course! I've sold a whopping total of eight portraits and my financial woes are a thing of the past!

I made one of Marta, the amazingly talented lady behind 'The Luscious Joys of Princess Misia' - your one stop destination for prettyfingerlicking food photography and recipes. Where's the food, indeed. Then, two more, for VERS magazine. There's also a comic of mine that will be published in the magazine, but more about that later. And finally, I made a whole bunch for the amazing Turtlewings crew. And then I took a nap. 

Anyhow. The big sale came not a minute too late, as me and my freshly earned 'doekoes', as we like to call them here, took the husband (or, the husband took me, as I still can't drive) to Friesland, where we attended a wedding, partied it up, contemplated sailing (rain, no wind, no dice), and went to see 'Borgman' instead. 

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Journal page for the weekend of Saturday September 7th and Sunday September 8th!

Ola, my darlings!
Two things are happening.

1. I am broke 
as a very non-funny joke from all the marrying, traveling, and driving around with expensive instructors (and ehm *ahem* failing *cough* my first test). and am especially interested in experimenting with drawing portraits.

2. I am feeling the itch to draw again
 So. Put two and two together and what we seem to have on our hands here is A SALE, my friends. 

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My grandma in days gone by. 

For €20,- I will make a high res digital portrait of your beautiful face and email it to you. Great for all sorts of (online) birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, and pool parties. Or you could use it as a profile picture. Or print it and put it on your bathroom wall. So many options!

This here above is a photo of my grandmother rocking out on vacation about 20 years ago. She doesn't have ze Facebooks, but you know she'd totally be blasting this one out through the internets if she had a connection. 

So head over to my Etsy shop and make me rich. 

Or not so disastrously poor. 

So, I've been drawing a lot more, lately, feeling inspired. But alas, my trusted MacBook pro has 'turned the corner' as we say in Dutch (it died) and I have yet to tackle the issue of whether to buy a new Mac, or install my (perfectly legal, thankyouverymuch) copy of CS on one of the work Macs. The boss has given me the blessing, but it feels odd to use company property for personal use. Ah. I would have made such a good communist. Or wait. Maybe not. 

Anywho. Update. 'Tis a big one this month (yes, I do realize that's what it has come to. I blame happiness). 

I got married, y'all!

I have no idea whether my husband ('We'll call him the Fantastic Mr. Floor') has strong objections to being on this blog, so I probably should check, but lemmetellyou: he's pretty much the most amazing man on the planet. Duh. Like I would have married anyone less than absolutely freaking brilliant and awesome. I'm sure you don't want to hear my rants about his awesomeness (seriously, even my journal tried to bail on me the other day, when it spontaneously 'jumped' out of my bag. It's that bad). Here's a picture. The dress was made byRaori, the hair jewel by SIBOdesigns. It was the happiest day of my life (which I always thought was complete BS, but it's true!). 

+ Honeymoon

Yeah, so I love how a good ol' roadtrip across France then all of a sudden becomes a 'honeymoon' but it was sweet nonetheless. We drank wine, sailed, bumped our butts on big rocks in a river (I didn't "up my bottom" enough according to the guide), got sunburned and ran up (and down!) a mosquito-infested mountain. Oh, and of course we had a shitload of croissants. C'est le 'thing' à faire in France. 

Also: Work is still awesome. Etsy is awesome. My colleagues are awesome. I get to go places and do good things. In fact, I'll be at Lowlands this weekend with our kickass Etsy bazar. Come say hi if you're around and I'll be happy to disgust you with my shinyhappypeople-glow. No really. Please come say hi! It'll make me look popular with my colleagues, and god knows I could use some street cred (or muddy field cred, in this case). 

See you soon, folks. Hope you're having an awesome summer.

Me and Mr. Floor after the ceremony at city hall.

Consuming coffee and croissants like a pro.

Been slowly getting back to journalling, and even took some time to do this little doodle. I really do love big books.

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I Like Big Books © Anna Denise Floor

The final Pieke eehm, Pieter sign. 
 © Anna Denise Floor

Just a little while ago, one of my good friends gave birth to a beautiful little baby boy named Pieter. Of course, I'm one of those dorks who can't NOT make people something they don't need (and have to act all grateful about) instead of just going to the store like a normal person and picking out something they'll actually use like... pacifiers, and socks, or like, earplugs. 

Seriously, when I got my first real apartment, my parents were like "Great! Here's four boxes of useless drawings and clay art projects you've brought home the last 20 years! You can have 'em back! Tadaa!*" - and I totally get it. I'm like the sultan in Aladdin, stuffing birds with crackers they don't want (and we all know what happened to him). It's out of love, folks. All love.

Anyhow. I decided to make one of those little door signs for the little dude and here's what I did and how it happened. It's not a tutorial, as I didn't take any decent pictures or actually included any useful information on how to do it (Pet peeve: tutorials that go like "step 1: get some wood, step 2: pick out some colors, step 3: do the entire thing and make it superawesome" which I am not saying happened here, but you catch my drift. If I knew how to do the entire thing, I'd go do it and instead of wasting my time reading your so-called tutorial, but hey, that's just my personal opinion). But anyhows. I took pictures with my cell phone. Here they are. And yes, I know you can't actually read his name, which is really the only thing it needed to do, right. #Signfail

* Actually, my mom sifted through all of the drawings and turned a selection of the best/most memorable ones into a book, and then gave me the box of drawings that didn't make the cut because she didn't want to throw them out. Seriously, my parents are pretty awesome, and I had a very happy childhood, but where's the fun in that, right? ;-)

 

Extensive studies have proven that this really is the only right way to ever consume raspberries. So glad we cleared that one up.

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© Anna Denise Floor

I am not a big believer in faith, or destiny. And by that I mean I don't believe in it at all. I don't think there's a bigger plan, or even that some things are meant to be. Coincidences are, in fact, most likely, just that. 

Nevertheless, some things sometimes just turn out too darn perfect. And by that I mean just right. And, coincidentally, lately things in my life have been going just right a lot. Very right, in fact, most of the time.

An example (not random, nor the most important): When I decided to move back to The Netherlands earlier this year, Kim Welling, an Etsy seller whose work I've been a fan of for so many years (see her shop here) reached out to say she'd be interested in subletting her apartment in the center of my native town of Utrecht. I dropped by for tea, gaped at the place, we shook hands, and the deal was pretty much done. 

Two weeks later, we both signed on the line that was dotted - and I moved in. And, well, for lack of a better word - it's just been awesome. Kim (who has an amazing blog filled with her superb illustrations, great tips for creative entrepreneurs, and gorgeous photos, so go read!) has a wonderful sense of style and it's just been a perfect fit. It has felt like home to me from the second we dumped those 30-some boxes (ugh! how did that happen! why do I own so much shit?) in the middle of that superbly yellow-wallpapered living room. It's been the perfect place to unwind, read, listen to music, love, and chill in between travels and work. 

I have so many things to be grateful for, and this place is one of them for sure. Thank you, Kim!