with la ninja
amsterdam
april 13, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

utrechtsestraat
amsterdam
april 14, 2013
impossible project px 680 color protection

prinsengracht & brouwersgracht
amsterdam
april 14, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

sunday morning coffee walk
amsterdam
april 14, 2013
impossible project px 680 color protection

this is the painting by gineke zikken i brought home from amsterdam. titled amsterdam zuid, it’s a scene from amsterdam south. i loved the hints of orange and the construction crane.

along the amstel river with la ninja
amsterdam
april 13, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

when i arrived in amsterdam (last friday the 12th), it was raining hard and it was cold. but the rain soon cleared, and i was able to begin my wanderings. i actually didn’t do a lot the first day, other than wander, and end it with reading a book at a cafe while the danish young men sitting right next to me were raucous and rowdy.

on saturday, i met la ninja for a late lunch and we did a walking tour, stopping at the library where we went to the top floor and had a great view of the city from a high vantage point. we later had dinner & drinks and contemplated joining the other 13,500 people that were visiting the rijksmuseum (it was the first day the entire museum was open after 10 years of renovations), but we missed the cut off at 10pm, which was ok, as i’m not a big fan of large crowds.

on sunday i took the ferry to amsterdam noord, and gineke picked me up and took me to her studio. i lusted after her new york painting pictured above, but it was too big for me to take home, too big for any walls in my tiny house, and too big for my budget. (i did bring home a much smaller painting of amsterdam zuid — i’ll share a photo of it soon.) we then hopped into gineke’s car and she drove me even further north and through old fishing villages along a dike that is holding back the north sea. we had lunch in the noord, and then i slowly made my way back to the hotel via prinsengracht. sunday was rokjesdag, which translates to skirt day, and it’s the first day of spring when the girls are wearing a skirt with their bare legs. i love that the dutch have a word for that first awesome day of spring! i’m adopting it and hope to use it this weekend in minnesota.

and then it was time to head to berlin. i would have loved to stay in amsterdam a few more days, but i was also excited to see prenzlauer berg! i’ll write about that part of my trip in tomorrow’s post.

last night i got on a plane and i should be arriving in amsterdam any minute now for my sorta-annual europe birthday trip.

i’ll stay in amsterdam until monday, and then i’ll fly to berlin and will spend 4 days there. i’ve got a list of things to do and places to see for both cities, but what i love the most is just wandering, taking my time, having a beer in the middle of the afternoon, reading, pretending i’m a local and not a tourist. and eating a lot of cheese. i’m looking forward to seeing la ninja and painter gineke zikken in amsterdam, and will be meeting artist stephanie levy in berlin!

(pictured above is the travel journal i made for the trip. i make one for every europe adventure.)

amsterdam, april 2008

my amsterdam polaroids sit on my studio table in a glassine bag, a neat stack waiting for the next big thing. i flipped through the stack last friday and revisited my trip, and i decided that i really must figure out what the next big thing is for these polaroids. it’s probably a book of some sort, and i briefly considered trying to get one done before the end of the year. then the reality of time and cost smacked me in the head, and i decided this isn’t a project to rush into.

but it now has a higher priority on my list of things i need to do.

top: red chair outside of second life music on prinsengracht, april 11.
bottom: red light district off of singel, april 10.

(it’s poppytalk’s summer colors week)

top: sugar bowl at bagels & beans on haarlemerstraat, april 10.
bottom: flowers along lijnbaansgracht, with la ninja, april 9.

(yes, i’m pushing it a bit for poppytalk’s summer colors week)

top: vintage chair outside of bebob on kiezersgracht, april 12.
bottom: vintage mini on leidsegracht, april 13.

(it’s poppytalk’s summer colors week)

top: hearts hanging in ndsm in amsterdam noord, april 10.
bottom: tulips in bloemenmarkt, april 10.

(it’s poppytalk’s summer colors week)

top: tulips outside of ivy on leidseplein, april 13.
bottom: graffiti on spuistraat, april 10.

. . . . . . .

it’s poppytalk’s summer colors week, and i’m playing along with polaroids from my spring amsterdam trip.

new in the shop! amsterdam polaroid magnets.

i’ve put together a set of magnets using some of my favorite polaroids from april’s amsterdam trip. it was hard to chose which images to use! but i think this set is a good visual representation of amsterdam… a bike, begijnhof, chairs outside of an antique shop, handmade soaps, hearts, and tulips. take a look!

here are a couple of the postcards i bought at typique in amsterdam:

i love the little scenes that rené creates with letterpress ornaments, like cows and windmills…

and his beloved trains…

a horse and palace (it reminds me of a sad fairy tale)…

birds and ships and the orange sun… i asked la ninja what van harte means, and here’s her reply:

it simply means “happy b-day” (as it is short for “van harte gefeliciteerd”). a sort of “many happy returns”. alone, it literally means “from the heart, heart-felt”. so, happy b-day from the bottom of s/one’s heart is my best shot. thanks, la ninja!

i get so giddy every time i pull these out to look at them. not sure why they delight me so much… it’s nice that sometimes the littlest things can make my day.

my birthday present: orange clogs from denmark

houseboat on reguliersgracht & prinsengracht

laundromat on haarlemmerstraat

have no idea what kind of car this is (update: it’s a citroën ds break — thanks, henk!)

lof, haarlemmerstraat

vintage chairs on keizersgracht

sanitation workers (in bright pink) playing football with pre-teens

i really wish i had brought this beauty home (and its left foot partner)

trash container in the ndsm hall

spring chicken

happy easter weekend!

when i was in amsterdam, i visited artist gineke zikken‘s studio in amsterdam noord. (i met gineke for the first time when i went to amsterdam in 2008, and first saw her work in 2004… i am a huge fan of her work.) i had saved money for this occasion, and was excited to see her new studio and her recent work.

gineke had beautiful dutch landscapes arranged on a wall for me,

but i was actually hoping to find a scene from new york city to take home.

i admired her current work, of wilhelmina-dok restaurant, which was where la ninja and i had just had dinner. (i love the orange umbrella.)

and then there it was… and it was big, and a bit out of my budget. i wandered her studio, we caught up, and i decided that i was going to do it. here’s what i brought home:

i was pretty anxious about how it was going to get home, but amazingly, it fit in the overhead bin on the plane. and customs had no questions for me.

thank you, gineke! xo, your american fan

i met andrea last summer when we both participated in the walker’s local art mart (andrea creates wonderful, wearable leather goods!). after the event we kept in touch via the interwebs. a few months ago i learned that andrea and her husband were moving to belgium. so we made plans… and i met andrea at centraal station last tuesday morning.

we had coffee/tea, and andrea liked my idea to find some of the shops/boutiques featured in amsterdam: made by hand: it’d be a great way for her to see the city, and i was looking forward to finding new spots. off we went!

our first stop was typique. i LOVED this little letterpress shop. the owner, rené, has an endearing sense of humor… he made little jokes as we clomped around his little shop. he loves trains, and turned on his model train that’s in the front window for us as we browsed. his postcards are absolutely wonderful: some are very simple, with one image on a plain white board. but then there are the postcards that have little scenes, with random dutch imagery… i really need to take a photo of the pile i brought home. i will do that soon, i promise.

then we walked down prinsengracht, popping into juffrouw splinter curiosa (a vintage boutique), la savonnerie (my favorite soap store), and leafde (home goods). we did a tiny bit of shopping at an h&m in leidseplein, then had lunch at café hans en griejte (spiegelgracht 27):

stopping here is tradition for me… every time i go to amsterdam i need to have their mozzarella, tomato, and pesto french bread. it’s amazing.

and then we were back on our feet, to the de pijp neighborhood. we found keramik van campen, atelier tempel, and werkplaats willemien.

we also stumbled into de fietsfabriek, a stunning bike shop. they had so many beautiful bikes… i wanted to be dutch right then and there.

as we left de pijp, we stopped into the heineken brewery gift shop. and then more… lots more: magere brug (“skinny bridge” over the amstel river), bloemenmarkt (flower market), begijnhof, and then up damrak to the de oude kerk, so andrea could experience the craziness of seeing the city’s oldest church bordered by the red light district. as you walk the cobblestone street: to your left, the church, and to your right, prostitutes.

we ended our day at café de doffer on runstraat with wine and olive tapenade. when the bread was gone we ordered the cheese plate, which actually was a big pile of gouda cubes with a side of mustard.

and then it was time for andrea to catch her train back to brussels. we found small bottles of wine at the train station so we could each have a toast and a swig or two on the train platform to end our day. in less than 8 hours, i was able to share the amsterdam that i love with a fellow minnesotan who is pretty damn cool. and we’re plotting adventures for next spring… belgium is 2 hours away via train from amsterdam which is 2 hours away via train from paris…