Just a PENNY???

If you think this is going to be a cheap post, you're on the right track.

It starts with this Richard Quest ad we often hear while watching CNN Int'l these days (my only channel for watching American and world news):

When it comes on and Astrid hears his voice, she immediately says,

"Just a PENNY?"

You could say Richard and I are on the same page, as surely was my dad, whose daughter I truly am when it comes to all things "conservational."  I know I embarrassed my kids every time I bent down to pick up a penny, let alone when I bought them brand-new clothes at yard sales.

You probably know where I'm going with this.

Richard's ad got me thinking about all the things in our small apartment that we've either acquired for free or for pennies on the dollar at flea markets or our nearby Kringloop (circle-loop = second-hand store).

Where do I start!

Our dining table with 6 chairs for €50 at Kringloop, which Astrid lovingly refinished.

Our €15 antique koffie grinder from the flea market, also refurbished by Astrid.

My €25 rollator after knee surgery from Kringloop.

Our €30 exercise bike and €65 cross-trainer, used every day!

Free planters and such (from our center's freebie room) for Astrid's green thumb.

My favorite freebie of them all, for the amaryllis each year.

I could continue on and on about how I saved in this life and past lives...as well as did Astrid.

But now...THIS!

YES!  Astrid and I are gonna be grandmas!!!  (A Freebie??)

Astrid's son Jeroen and Eva are expecting their first child around the first of September!!!

On March 11 we expect to find out the gender with only the name to remain a secret from us.

So, guess what we're already finding.  HA!

A brand-new hoodie for €.75 at Kringloop,

the perfect size for next winter.

A freebie caterpillar and a bike that Astrid will restore once she's retired in May.

Disney piggy banks from Kringloop....everything perfectly sanitized by Astrid.

Astrid and I often say to each other that we make good Jews.  If you're Jewish and reading this, surely you know that's the highest compliment we could ever pay you.

Do we like money???  YES!  That's why we save it, one penny at a time.  Are we too proud to admit it???  NO!  

After all, it's NOT just a penny.  "Every penny has power and it's not how many you have, it's what you do with them that counts!  That's the marvel of money."

Hamburg Waterboys and...THE OREGON DUCK

Okay, follow me with this.  It's kinda like a "back to the future," once you get to the end.

First, let's go back.  On Monday a dear Shutterchancer (photo-blogger) from Germany, Philine, posted a photo of a waterboy statue in Hamburg:

Yup, that's the waterboy on the left.

[Philine's image]

That took me way back to memories from 2005 (13 years ago!) when my ex-partner, Donica, and I took a trip to Hamburg, Germany.  I did a post on it then, talking about the origin of the 100 statues,  painted by different artists, auctioned off to benefit the homeless.  Back in 2005 I was making photo albums (instead of collages) whose links no longer work.  So....

I really got motivated to bring those waterboys back to life, to not lose them forever!

That's Donica, giving scale to the size of these Johann Wilhelm Bentz (1787-1854) waterboys.

Johann was an ill-tempered bloke the kids made fun of by calling "Hummel, Hummel" (bumble bee).

Because he was carrying water, he couldn't catch them but would yell after them, "Mors, Mors,"

a Low German word translated as "Arses, Arses."

We walked around the city in 6 hours to find as many as we could.

Who knew we'd have to also look up!

We even found a modified one inside.

In those 6 hours, we found 67 of the 100 statues.

Yes, I was "collecting" even back then!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Now, zoom from 2005 to the present...and then into the future.

This past weekend we got the BIG NEWS that grandson Nicholas was accepted to Oregon.

As daughter Amy said (The Mom!), "You gotta hand it to Nicholas.  One application

to only one school, the only one that mattered to him.

And (drum roll), he was accepted!

A strange mixture of pure joy, pride and panic just set in.

For now I choose pride."

Me, too!

Back last September Amy and Dennis flew Nicholas out to Oregon (from Atlanta!) to check out the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, attend a football game...and to see if Nicholas really DID still want to attend university there.  

He had the chance to tour campus with an orientation group...

and immerse himself in the GO DUCKS team spirit.

Even with a bit of rain, his spirits were not dampened.

He wanted to be a student there EVEN MORE than ever.

Now we'll all be saying "GO DUCKS" forever and ever, amen.

Okay.  Waterboys and Ducks.  You know there's got to be a connection there somewhere...like water, of course.  But wouldn't it be fun to suggest to someone that "they" come up with 100 ducks for artists to paint and auction off for something like...football concussion injuries?!

You're welcome!

GORCUMS MUSUEM: Glass 4 Ever

A benefit of buying the annual Museum Card here in the Netherlands is getting to pop into museums anywhere almost any time we want...including our museum where we live here in Gorinchem.

What I love most about our museum is what they call it:  Gorcums Museum.  In other words:  Gorinchem's Museum.  And now you know how to pronounce it, except with an 'h' sound for the 'g' (HOR-cums).  Easy-peasy, right?

So, right now we're in the middle of a 5-month exhibition on glass called Glass 4 Ever.  And as we have done a couple times before, we invited Margreeth to join us...as well as her daughter, Natascha (a co-worker of Astrid's).

We begin in the lobby of the old city hall on our main square.

This is the appetizer, which everyone can get for free...before going upstairs into the exhibit.

Would this be enough to whet your appetite for more?

I hope so.

Glass is a wonderful, useful material, like window glass, drinking glass or vase.  But there is another application:  art.  In the Glass 4 Ever exhibition, the Gorcums Museum shows what glass looks like when it has no other use than as the creativity of the maker.  With the work of 30 predominantly Dutch artists, the Gorcums Museum shows...how versatile the material can be glass:  
fragile or strong, transparent or opaque, flat or baroque.

Once you're upstairs, you're immediately presented with a few objects in the lobby.

But the real show begins as you enter the adjoining rooms.

Look and be amazed.

You can get a feel for what amazed ME.

All glass!

Wouldn't you love to read a book about women who only wear red gloves and red stockings?!

Did Darth Vader have children????
A Mickey Mouse Darth Vader?

Notice how the erotica and macabre themes are mixed in with the fun and games....

....the elegance....

...the opulence.

Then there's the "disturbing" Facebook addiction.  YUP.

Look at Astrid's fabulous take on it for our Shutterchance blog.

(Did you find her signature??)

Or what about the...???...from here to there...addiction pathway?

In case you look away too quickly from addiction, you can enjoy the seaweed?

Who thinks up these things!

Let your imagination soar, right?

 If you can imagine it, you can make it.

Why not.

But would you want to dust it?

Just laugh and drink a toast to it.

Which is what we all did!

Well, what we then did is go outside and eat an ice cream, thanks to Margreeth.


In case you want to see it all again but with Dutch subtitles.  HA!
And the things I missed in my own show, of course!
(The exhibitions always start out with an overview in the Grote Kerk on the square.)

Watercolor Sunday and Saturday's Color: January 2018

Guess what!  1/12th of 2018 is now gone.  Do you believe it?

Moving right along, these are my Watercolor Sunday posts on Facebook for January 2018:

January 7 (photo manipulation):

"Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save;

they just stand there shining." --Anne Lamott

January 14 (photo manipulation):

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

--Henry David Thoreau

"Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open."

--Dalai Lama

January 21 (photo manipulation):

"The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important 

than wealth and privilege." --Charles Kuralt

These two hands are from the Gorinchem citadel friendship statue

that brother Nelson and I touched together this past Thursday.

January 21 (photo manipulation):

"This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me,'

whispered the Rat, as if in a trance.

'Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely."

--Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

These are  my Saturday's Color posts on Facebook for January, 2018:

(finished on 21 January 2005, posted on FB 6 January 2018)

To start off this first Saturday of the new year, I've chosen a Saint (which one???),

rendered from the Book of Kells on translucent paper from my Celtic Stained Glass book.

Happy New Year, again.

(finished on 14 November 2017, posted on FB 13 January 2018)

What do you see, I wonder, in this Color Me Happy design?!

I saw skewed bull's eyes floating and stretching across the page, 

making it very difficult to hit the mark.

Hmmmm.

(finished on 5 September 2017, posted on FB 20 January 2018)

There are 8 of us.  8 kids in my family of origin, with Nelson at the top as our Elder.

I suppose Susan (#2) is on his right hand and I'm on his left (#3).  

Ruth is at the bottom (#8), holding us all up!

And now, after a fabulous week showing Nelson this fair country,

we drive him back to Amsterdam this morning for his flight back to Holland, MI.

Travel mercies, Nelson.  We'll never forget this time together.

(from my Mandalas book)

(finished on 24 December 2017, posted on FB 27 January 2018)

As Voices are being heard around the world these days,

I'm drawn to all that is indigenous, native, aboriginal...guttural!

Lest we forget!

(from my 12 x 12 Mandala book)

After last night's Super Blue Blood Moon eclipse, ending the month of January...carry on!