All good things....

It's been a while since I wrote a post, three months to be exact. And I have been wondering about the blog and going back and forth about it and made a bit of a difficult decision: I'm going to stop blogging.

I have been doing this blog for over ten years and it has been a wonderful experience mostly. I have gotten such sweet responses and connections through it and it has really broadened my horizon to share my art and photographs from my little corner of the world.

But times change and people change and over the past years I have had more than one time where I wondered if I had just grown out of it. I have moved most of my sharing to Instagram and Facebook and find them direct and quick and easy ways to share my artsy stuff, my photographs and even the books I read. 

I don't really do this to gain followers or anything. If I did I would have spent a lot more effort on things like marketing and drawing attention. To me both the blog and the socials have been an instrument to help me be aware of the good things in my own life. When I feel like everything sucks a good look at my Instagram feed can perk me up, just because apparently there is always something beautiful to share. It helps keep me grateful. It's also my way to quickly pick out the photographs I want to print for my journal. So all in all it's a very self focused thing. 

That doesn't mean I don't also enjoy the online interaction with others and the lovely things that can come from it. There is a reason after all that I have kept going with this blog even though I struggled with it too and that reason is you, my little group of sweet readers. 

But keeping a blog is a lot of dedication that I just can't seem to get around to anymore. 

In addition to the above: since the beginning of spring I have been asked to do the social media for our local tourist platform that tries to promote our island and get people to come on over in order to expand the tourist season. It means that I get to use the many photographs I make (and those of other people) for an actual practical purpose other than my own pleasure and show a bigger group of people how nice it is over here. It's a volunteer job and it doesn't take up a lot of my time, but it is an extra commitment next to my regular job, so it makes my free time a little extra precious. 

So here we are at the end of an era I guess, or at least the end of a decade and definitely the end of a blog. ;-)

I will keep the blog up of course, I'm not going to remove it or anything. I may try to stop the possibility for commenting in a few months, because otherwise spammers will take over and I don't want that. I will also remove the widget that makes it possible to contact me and follow the blog through e-mail. You are of course more than welcome to e-mail me through regular means about anything. You can do this at c.m.j.winkelman[at]gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. 

You are also welcome to follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/carin.winkelman/ or through Instagram @caatjes_artsy_stuff. But I completely understand if blogs are still your thing and you don't want to switch to socials. 

If you are interested in my 'work' for the TPV (Toeristisch Platform Vlieland), you can see that at https://www.facebook.com/vlielandsite (you don't need to join facebook to see the page) or at instagram @vlieland_site. They are both in Dutch, but that doesn't take anything away from the beautiful photographs of my island. ;-) 

Finally I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your support, your kindness and for staying with me through the years. I hope we will find each other in other online (or real life) venues and I wish you nothing but the best. 

All my love,

Caatje

PS There is somebody else who would like to say goodbye too:

Goodbye Blogsy People!

PS on August 18, 2021.

On 18 august 2021 I have hidden all comments. They are still there for me, but can no longer be seen by you, so you also cannot comment anymore on any post. This is to protect the blog from spammers. Just wanted to say thank you for the kind responses I got to ending this blog. Again: I appreciate everything we shared over the past ten years. Lots of love!

A fine walk

I love walking and take pictures all the time, which I share on social media and this here blog.

Sometimes a walk has just the perfect conditions with a nice bit of wind, a lot of sun and big enormous clouds.

These photographs are from such a walk:

Being outside in such circumstances is good for body and soul and for recharching your batteries. I know I could not fully function without this.

Hope you have some amazing skies outside and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day. 

Cats being cute and in the way

Whether it's working for my job or working on my art, there's almost always a cat that likes to be part of the process. My own cat Spooky now has full on competition of my intruder cat Garfield who is feeling more and more at home at my place. 

Sometimes they compete in cuteness and sometimes they just work together. So here are some pics of cute cats wanting to be part of things I do.

In these times of video meetings there has not been one meeting where at least one cat got in the frame. It's all very professional over here at Casa Caatje. ;-)

Hope you have a furry companion or two to get in your way and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day. 

Digital Doodles

Drawing on the iPad gives me great joy. It's like having an entire art studio in one little tablet that you can just take anywhere. Mostly I draw my patterns, but every now and then I do like to experiment in different approaches.

Here are five doodle drawings that I did on my iPad in Procreate:

These really were a lot of fun to do and I intend to do many more. I am also thinking about having a couple of these printed on canvas to hang on my wall. I'm very curious how that would turn out and I'll keep you posted when I do. 

Hope you are doing colourful things and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day!

A whole week of winter

If you've been following this blog for a while you know that I am a great lover of winter. You may also know I live in a place where winters are mild. On my island even more so than on the main land of The Netherlands. It's the influence of the sea. In summer that's a blessing, because I don't like hot weather and summer is usually cooler on the island than elsewhere, but in winter I am sometimes cranky if a whole year goes by without even a little frost. That's what happened the past few years and I felt cheated.

But this year halfway February we actually had some actual winter. A whole week of it! 

I know, it's nothing compared to those of you who have winter all winter long (I am so envious of you all), but for me it may have to last me for another three years.

Anyway, it being cold and having actual snow and all made me want to take pictures of ...well... everything. So here are some postcards from our winter week on the island. Enjoy!

I actually took afternoons off work so I could go on long winter walks. It was fabulous. 

Of course after that one week the thaw set in and since then we have been mostly moving towards spring. I would have liked it to last a little longer, but in this place I take what I can get.

Hope you are enjoying the weather whatever it is and wherever you are and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day!

Collages

Next to drawing abstract doodles and patterns, my biggest love is collage. From time to time I take out my colourful scrapbook and make a small series and I also like doing collage cards for snail mail.

Today is about my scrapbook though. Here are six collages I recently finished.

I think the ones with the black paper background are my favorites. It makes me think about buying a black paper scrapbook just for collage. But maybe I should just finish up this one first, haha. 

Hope you are all playing with paper, scisscors and glue, and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day!