mɛ̈rmɛ̈r

➜ after getting a thousand advertisements about the clothing brand halara and filling my cart in their shop at least 5 times (and always clicking it away again because I kept thinking ‘do I really need another pants’ and ‘how is the quality’)… I decided to just order the pants I was eyeing for so long. let’s hope this was a success buy! 

➜ we decided we wanted to have a little family trip this summer and looked at holiday parks in the Netherlands. we’re planning to go for a few days at the end of July (looking forward to this!). 

➜ on Tuesday morning we had a shopping trip with grandma to get all the craft supplies we needed for our littleartistsroom workshops. I really splurged so that we could make allllll the artworks.

➜ it was also the week that I sent out my first studiomalu newsletter (since starting again). if you want to be the first to get updates about all my prints and illustrations, sign up here.

➜ I was frustrated this week because I found more copycats (2 in 1 day actually) on Vinted selling artwork that was stolen. I just can't believe people are trying to earn money with something that isn't theirs to sell! and it seems to get worse by the day... I wrote about it here.

➜ thankfully there were also good things happening... I ordered a new stamp that I will use on my business cards (that I will make during my mini art retreat, will show you then!).

➜ on Wednesday I had my hairdresser appointment (after missing my last one) and asked for a more summer proof hairdo (shaved sides), so she went wild with the hair clipper ;)

➜ Wednesday was also the low point of the week. my body was starting to grumble and it was hard to manage the day at home with D. I wrote about it here.

➜ I don't know what it was during the workweek, but I was so tired every evening after work! now that the weather was a lot easier on my body, I would've expected to feel a bit better... but it was the opposite.

➜ despite feeling tired, I managed to work on a new series on Thursday evening, and I posted a sneak peek on instagram. it's a series that I call 'heimat' (German for home or homeland), and it shows the typical houses of this region, vakwerkhuisjes (half-timbered houses).

➜ on Friday we took upon the grandparents offer to let D stay there for a mini vacation (which she really wanted to do badly this summer!). the husband brought her on Saturday to stay with them for 2 days. so that meant: kid free weekend for us!

➜ to take full advantage of this extra time, freedom and flexibility, we started directly after work on Saturday. the husband biked to my work and we had a drink in the biergarten of our favorite brewery. cooking dinner seemed too hard to do when we left the brewery, so we treated ourselves to fries on the snackbar terrace and then biked home to watch a movie. it felt like vacation! exactly what I needed :D

➜ on Sunday morning I got up like normal and had a lovely quiet breakfast just by myself. after that I went hiking, and the best thing I saw during my hike was this. so cute! and look at these clouds!

➜ I've been reading up on heart rate zones. I always put in the standard numbers because I never really tested my personal zones. now it seems the heart rate maximum can be a lot different for women than men. so the standard rate in sports watches is not really fitting for me. for women, the most accurate formula is the Gulati formula, calculated as: max HR = 206 - (0.88 × age). I directly changed it in my watch.

➜ Sunday afternoon was for continuing with my new vakwerkhuisjes series. and I was looking for my posca markers but couldn't find them. so that resulted in a deep clean of my art supplies drawers. that was really needed!

➜ Making a new sports routine directly made me super motivated again. The past two weeks were quieter in the sports department (heatwave, ugh) and I was finally full of energy to start again. It was a good week for hiking, because I went on Monday and Tuesday morning. And the motivation didn't stop there... I got the app Motra and made a new lifting routine that I do 2 times a week now. On Tuesday evening I even did a Qi Gong lesson after 5 months! Where did the headspace come from to even add that?!

➜ In the afternoon I had my first hand therapy session with a new physiotherapist and a lot of things got clear. I wrote about it here.

➜ I spent quite some time working on my digital notebook in Notion for my citytrip. Writing down what I want to take with me, making a daily schedule, prepare what I want to work on there, what I want to see. And even making a 'stamp playlist' with songs that help with creating. Ohh the excitement!

➜ I even made a daily schedule for my Qi Gong practice, to do a morning and evening session every day that I'm there. This will definitely help with getting the energy and creativity flowing. I remember from last time being there... that I did a Qi Gong workshop and that this really did something with my energy, with how I felt, how I perceived the weekend. It's hard to explain. But I still feel it if I think about it now! Crazy.

➜ Tuesday evening was reserved for testing out a new linoleum supplier I found. If this would work well, I could place a bigger order and restock up on lino. And bring it on my mini art retreat as well.

➜ Wednesday morning I had a break from sports... no hiking today. Because I wanted to make a new print that was going through my head for some days. Before falling asleep yesterday evening, I saw the print in front of me. How I wanted to make it, and I needed all morning to sketch, cut and print it. But I'm happy with the result! I got inspired by a building by architect Aldo Rossi, check it out on my website.

➜ The workweek was definitely the start of a slower summer. All schools were in their last week, so that meant most families were getting ready for going on their summer holidays. We still had some weddings and big orders to work on. But from next week on we expect it to get quieter.

➜ On Saturday morning the grandparents from Germany came to our place. They were already here at 07:30! I had to work and the husband had a 5 hour long run on his program, to train for the 100MeilenBerlin in a few weeks. So D needed someone to look for her.

➜ In the evening we had our yearly work outing. And this time it was a BBQ in the bosses garden. We had good food, the weather was lovely and we played a quiz in the Kahoot app. The first time for me trying that and it was so much fun! We had a great evening! I was very tired after, but not as tired as I expected for first a warm day with 30 degrees, work the whole day and very late in bed.

➜ After finishing my portfolio, I also made a new stamp of my logo. The old one was still okay, but it's so old that it could use an upgrade. So that's what I did. You can see it here.

➜ With more focus on creating, there's also more motivation to dive into printmaking and everything that comes with it. So I spent a bit of money to buy printmaking books and new material and tools. I really want to keep the creative juices flowing and get a new routine back up and hopefully stick with it.

➜ On Tuesday I spent a big part of my morning researching for my new print project. That's so fun to do! I get a thousand ideas, work them all out and have to select what I will continue with. I love the process of sketching and selecting and later on the real design coming to life.

➜ After contemplating for some time if I wanted to go on my yearly solo city trip (because most of my vacation money was spent on my new tattoo and I could also do without a trip this year), I decided this week that I will do it! But I'm giving it a completely different direction than the years before. I'm making it into a mini art retreat, so I can have a couple of days to fully concentrate on my art. I've been looking up things I can do, like courses I can follow online while I'm there. And I will take some time to visit a museum and get the creative juices flowing ;) I booked 4 days in August and I'm already soooo stoked! I'm going to a city where I've been before, where I loved the hotel I stayed and where I had such a great experience overall, that to this day I regularly think about my last visit.

➜ The workweek was very busy this time. we had weddings to work on and more customers in the store. it felt good to work hard in between the quieter weeks!

➜ I arranged some weeks ago that I could have the Saturday off, because onkel O. (the husbands brother) was celebrating his birthday. On Friday evening after work we drove to the grandparents in Germany. We put D in bed, talked a bit with the grandparents and watched some tv.

➜ On Saturday we first had a quiet morning, the husband ran his 40km practice run and after lunch we drove off to the Sauerland for uncle O's birthday party.

➜ We stayed in a very cute hotel, Forellenhof. It had the typical Sauerland look, a white house with black beams and flowers on all windows.

➜ After a short walk we arrived at the party location. A wooden hut at the edge of the forest. From 6 on there were 5 punk rock bands playing. It was a lot of fun! Everyone enjoyed themselves. And around 8 D said for the 3rd time that she was very tired, so I went to the hotel with her to sleep. I didn't mind at all, because I was also pooped!

➜ Unfortunately I closed the weekend off feeling ugh… The whole Sunday was filled with extreme tiredness and a big headache (and I didn't even drink at the party, I rarely drink alcohol). So I allowed myself a big coke at Mickey D's, where we had lunch, in hopes it would get a bit better.

june in highlights

✶ hello tattoo This month I had my tattoo appointment to fill my lower arm. I had a great day in Fleurs tattoo temple. It was a lovely experience, because we seem to have so much things in common! We had a great chat and I felt so at home with her and in her studio. In July we will finish my arm.

✶ moments.im I was so thrilled I found moments.im this month! It's a website where you can make your own photo journal and see the photos from people all over the world. It's made in a way that it's social, but not with likes, a weird algorithm or with any pressure. Just sharing and a slow and intimate feeling. I love it! Come find me on there: MRMR.

✶ hot, hot, hot I probably don't have to list it here to tell you again that it was HOT. But for future reference to remember how June really was (when I long forgot it), it was HOT! A 2 week heatwave with temperatures of 30+ degrees and in the night not cooling down lower than 24 degrees. I had a lot of days with headaches and some with migraines. But I survived and longed for autumn ;)

✶ vinted It was also a good month for Vinted. I had a lot of great scores. You could even call it a streak! Sometimes there go by months without any luck and then boom, 10 items all at once. I also took the time again to clean out my closet and sell some things I wasn't using anymore.

✶ studiomalu.nl Visiting Fleur in her tattoo temple gave me the motivation to make a lino again (we talked a lot about making art). And I even decided to start up a new lino portfolio website: studiomalu.nl. I want to motivate myself to start creating again and one way to do that is to fill my portfolio. So if you want to follow my art, here you can find my RSS feed.

details worth remembering

✏ this month I introduced D to an old school game: shooting marbles. so much fun to play it together.

✏ I had to call in a pest control operator to remove the - still tiny - Asian hornet nest in our shed (thank god it's gone!).

✏ we celebrated Father's Day and the husband got a crafted gift from D, a Cotopaxi cap and a bike-mountians-beer shirt.

✏ with D I made a drinking bowl with marbles for the bees.

✏ dyed my hair brownish again, because I was done with the red.

✏ took almost 2 weeks off from hiking because of the heat.

what I listened to

hello a*****e - jimi jules ebb and flow - max cooper palace - kid call it in - editors I built you a tower - death cab for cutie

what I watched

the four seasons S2 foodies michael jackson: the verdict the investigation of lucy letby trust me: the false prophet evil influencer: the jodi hildebrandt story should I marry a murderer? don't f**k with cats: hunting an internet killer

what I wrote this month

03.06 routine & food changes 07.06 a kick in the butt... 07.06 week 23 ◦ good things of the week 15.06 week 24 ◦ good things of the week 22.06 week #25 25.06 the intimate photo journal 25.06 the doodle noodle 28.06 week #26

things I would like to do in july

➜ I was able to go on 1 hike this week, when I thought I would have a 2 week hiatus because of the heat.

➜ I was so thrilled I found moments.im! it directly became my go to spot to save my photo journal.

➜ hollyhock season officially started!

➜ the husband took the Wednesday afternoon off and we had some family time at the outdoor pool.

➜ after a very long break, my teen heroes are playing a concert again next winter, and I got tickets yeahhh!