Spring Festival Rotterdam

This afternoon I visited the Turkish spring festival in Rotterdam - Crooswijk.
It was very nice. People were so friendly.

As if we were for a moment in Turkey with traditional food and Art and old children songs and games (I even saw a giant Pinocchio) and that all just around the corner from where I live. I love my city :-)) It inspired me to aboves drawing

This was the photo I took which gave me the inspiration for the drawing.
Have a nice weekend!

Happy International Women's Day!

Happy Valentinesday :-)

Hope you all have a Wonderful Valentineday!
This week #happyvalentinesweek on the happymakersblog

Red Cheeks Factory on Instagram

It took a long time, but you can find me now also on Instagram

You are welcome to follow me there, if you like :-)
Have a nice day!

Europe: 12 points

Yesterday there was the Annual Eurovision Song Contest.
This year we have a very special winner:

Conchita Wurst is a Singer from Austria. In normal life it's a man, but on stage he performs as the bearded lady. She wants to make a statement to the world: it doesn't matter if you are man, woman, gay or straight, just be who you are. Let's live in peace together...

I'm very happy she won with this statement. it's promising. Yay for Europe! You can listen to her song here. It gave me goose pimpels. Also fun to tell the Netherlands were second.

say cheese!

Did you know we eat a lot of cheese in Holland?

I like it a lot. It's one of my favourite things to eat.
A pity it's not good for your weight, otherwise I would eat much more of it...

What's your favourite food?

Happy Sunday!
greetings from Holland!

friday afternoon face doodles

I'm a bit quiet lately, that doesn't mean I'm not busy.

I'm working on new products, that takes time to develop
The creative proces, inventing things and not knowing what the outcome will be.
Exciting, I have red cheeks, while writing this :-)

In between it is sometimes very nice to just doodling around
and I must say faces are still one of my favorite subjects

Have a very nice weekend!

ODE AAN IK - Toon Tellegen

A Dutch poem today made by author Toon Tellegen,
because it's national poetry day in Holland:

ODE AAN IK

Arme ik
arme arme ik
o arme ik

o arme steeds maar armere en armere ik
armelijke ik...

o arme armoedige armlastige armzalige armtierige armhartige ik

erbarmelijke ik
allerallerarmste ik

o doodarme straatarme zielsarme ik
in- en inarme ik

o arme arme árme ik.

happy new year!

bye bye 2013... welcome 2014...

Again a whole new year in front of us...still empty...
We now only can dream about what will happen.
I like this feeling of openess. It gives new possibilities...

I hope it will be a year full of health, warmth, sun, love, inspiration,
positivity, nice meetings, flexibility, creativity... for all of us.

Happy 2014!

selfie: word of the year

In Holland we choose the word of the year.
A word which is new and used a lot during that year

This year it is the word 'selfie', a bit strange because it's almost an english word...
But also the meaning of the word is a bit funny, I think.
People are taking pictures of themselves and place them on social media.

I'm often surprised when I see people in the middle of the street,
suddenly stand still to take a 'selfie' of themselves.
Redo their hair and looking in the camera with an appealing smile
They don't seem to notice their environment.
that surprises me and makes me smile :-)

I wonder what new words and phenomenons will pop up next year...

Nelson Mandela

Yesterday Nelson Mandela died. I have to think a lot about him.
I wanted to make a drawing to honour him.
He has done so many good things for the world.
May he rest in peace...

drawing red cheeks :-)

the golden carriage

Today is the third Tuesday of September. In Holland we call this day: 'Prinsjesdag'
This year it's a bit special, because we have a new King and Queen.

They will make a tour in the golden carriage and wave to the people.

After that the new King will read 'de troonrede',
a speech with the plans from the government.

Everybody is curious how our new King Willem Alexander will do it.
And what his wife Queen Maxima will wear...

Last year I made this drawing of the speech spoken by our old Queen Beatrix

singing in my brain

Miss Sunshine

and suddenly she was there: Miss Sunshine...

It is really summer in Holland, the sun is shining here for weeks now
Not like the normal summers in Holland
and I love it :-))

2000!

It's almost unbelievable, but my facebookpage reached 2000 likes!
For this special occasion I've made a party illustration

If you wanna join the party, you are welcome!
Here you can find my Red Cheeks Factory facebookpage

Have a wonderful weekend. Here it's still sunny :-)

hatsjoe!

Well, this is how I feel today, I must say: not funny at all!
hatsjoe, hatsjoe, hatsjoe...

cheers!

even wuiven misschien....

Today we celebrate we have a new king in Holland
The whole day there are several festivities.
One of the highlights is the famous balcony scene:

This morning the family appeared on the balcony:
First the old Queen and then the new King and his wife
after them three little princesses, with yellow dresses and a yellow flower in their hair
And they waved, minutes long to please the orange crowd and press.

orange dream

Next tuesday we will get a new King.
There's a lot going on around this day.
People prepare themselves for a big celebration

I had so much fun, when I went to the supermarket today.
There was a high heeled blond lady with drawn eye-brows.
She stood in front of me in the queue for the cash desk

She bought all kind of orange props. It was for her and her friend, she told me:
an orange crown, a pair of braces, orange hawaiian necklaces, an orange cowboy hat
and real Dutch treacle-waffles in orange wrapping

I saw this couple in my fantasy celebrating this party together
It made my day :-)

moustaches, moustaches and moustaches...

Last week I took some time to play around with new materials.
I cut out some old paintings and used them in these little characters.

I'm always fascinated by moustaches, they are a big inspiration to me
So I used them as a subject to play with.
I don't know why, but they keep coming back in my work.

What I liked about making these characters was to play with the actual shape
and the shape that remains. It can bring you nice surprises.
I like that!

For more of my moustache illustrations click here and here
Have a nice weekend!