fair enough

1. That lovely urban feel of an (empty) car park and a warehouse.

2. Oh these typical English houses!

3. Tate Modern

4. E with her pocket mirror in Amsterdam

5. Part of the wall in my room

documenting life (part 1)

monohalo

jumper second hand market amsterdam, trousers uniqlo

I don't want to spend money on mass-produced garments anymore.

High street fashion stores make me sad... with their cheap fabrics and copied trends.

And the "made in China" labels even more.

On the other hand I would prefer to support young, creative designers who put a lot of effort, time, energy into creating something special, but their creations are usually over my student budget. So right now I am left in the middle, with nothing.

This doesn't mean I am going to stop posting outfit posts though! I still love clothes and combining and styling and maybe this is just a phase I am going through and will pass with time, but for the moment I am done with (exaggerated) consumption behaviour.

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amsterdam

Sorry if these GIF animations give you headaches as well. But I like how it is moving. They should move forward though. I always want to see what happens next, instead of returning to the beginning, like every single time.

I really enjoyed the school trip to Amsterdam. It was strange to be surrounded by a group of English people in a Dutch-speaking city though.

 I can actually tell so much more things about this trip, but I don't feel like writing, so I just leave you with the idea, and the photos of course.

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heartbeats

Right now I am in Amsterdam with school, but these pictures are still from a week-end in London. The photos I take and post lately can be categorized in 'documenting life' I think, so that's also why I should post more often, because life never stands still, and my camera doesn't stand still either, but this blog sometimes does.

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wilderness

1 // First time that I went to this awesome market on Brick Lane in East London. It's every Sunday, and you'll find many different stalls full of beautiful jewelry and clothes for good prices!

2 // Hallelujah, I finally found a new pair of shoes. And just from H&M!

3 // Found this amazing photography gallery down a side street just off Oxford Street. It's so strange how this place, located in a small and quiet street is completely in contrast with bustling Oxford Street.

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new life: part one

I got several questions from people asking me what I am exactly doing/studying here in the UK, so in this post I am going to clear this up. Furthermore I want to write about the beginning of my experience of living alone in a new country.

I am currently sitting on a chair at my desk in my room in my flat in block two. My room is the middle one of the top floor with the best view on the clouds. I like having my own space. Living with flatmates is something completely new and it has been a great experience so far. I thought I would miss the cosiness of family dinner in particularly, but luckily we all cook and eat on the same time, so we are never alone. And the cooking part! It's going well! The only things I cooked for myself in Belgium were... eggs and pancakes. Luckily it got much more variated now.

I thought the transition from 'never having lived/cooked/washed alone' to 'hello I have to do everything myself now' would be a complete adaptation, but it wasn't that much of a big deal, as I was settled in my new life very quickly. I am not really homesick and I definitely don't miss my old life... I do get strange feelings when friends or family come and visit me during the weekends and then suddenly when they leave I am left alone again.

Back to my first writing intention: explaining you what I am studying here! So, I am doing a foundation diploma in art and design. It is pre-degree university and a one-year course. The course has three stages. Right now I am in stage one, which is "rotating" through different art areas. Every week I am sitting in another studio, learning and experiencing a different art and design discipline. I already did fashion and textiles, visual communication and fine art. Right now I am in the middle of photo media and afterwards there is only one more left, 3D. The main focus in all these rotations is "experiment!". The tutors want you to look outside the box. And as I am in art school, everything is more focused on the art aspect of the medium. In fashion and textiles we did not literally sew, but we manipulated fabric and experimented with it while working on the mannequin, in photomedia we don't take photographs but we make "photograms" (cameraless photography!) in the darkroom.

After these rotation weeks I will have to choose one of the art areas to specialize in for the rest of the year. Then we will sew or take photographs and get to know all the technical details. It's called stage two. The last months of the year we have to develop and realise a personal major project, which is stage three. This last stage looks the most exciting thing of the year. Having the time to do something you completely choose yourself and in the art medium you love most.

This year should help me making up my mind. Do I want to study something creative? If so, what specific art medium? Or am I going to do something completely different?

And as my tutor told us the other day: "every single human being should do a foundation course in their life!", I completely agree. It makes you much more open minded. It gives you the chance to try out new stuff. I usually stick to photography and film, but now I have to try out new art mediums and I am pretty sure these will help me expand my vision on photography as well.

If you have any more questions, you can always leave a comment or e-mail me.

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