Ruba loves the new design. She's showing it off to everybody.

Like almost everyday we had an afternoon summer storm. This time with loud thunder and lot's of rain.

Jeroen, our wall flower had just installed a lamp, so we could keep on reading.

Santana

Wil, Jeff, Joanne, Jeroen and I went to see Santana in Chastain park. Did we like the opening act Steve Winwood? Mmmm not too much. Did we like Santana? Despite the heat, we danced the night away.

Burlesque Opalesque

It's a necklace! Of course! For sale.

Seedbeads, vintage faux metallic pearls (gold splatter), bronze glass dangling petals, crystal gold lined baby bell flowers, vintage topaz German glass cupped flowers, crystal Japanese magatama drops, pearls, German glass button: Burlesque Opalesque.

What's it gonna be?

White, orange, pink, gold....

Location:Ponce De Leon Ave NE,Atlanta,United States

Metal collar with pendants (2)

Location:Ponce De Leon Ave NE,Atlanta,United States

Metal collar with pendants

First part of the necklace is done. Working on the pendant now.

Location:Ponce De Leon Ave NE,Atlanta,United States

Spoiled

She really does like her new spot at the window. Had to open the curtains for her.

My jewelry at the purple door salon

An impromptu show of my jewelry at the purple door salon. Already 2 pieces sold. Thanks Roy. He arranged it.

What a beautiful evening

We made a construction so Ruba can look out the window. She seemed to like it.


And what a beautiful sunset.

Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Caught in a shooting!!!

I went to get my hair done today by Roy Deekman, who I met at last Sunday's Atlanta Suriname Day. He works at Dwight "Real Housewives of Atlanta" Eubanks' The Purple Door salon on Edgewood Avenue and did a good job. I was ready to pay. So far not a very interesting story, but I could not have dreamt up what followed next. It certainly made for my most exciting salon experience ever, and my TV debut. We heard gunshots and watched police cars pulling up in front of the salon, officers jumping out drawing their guns and rifles. First one car, than a second, a third, a fourth, and soon the whole street was blocked and sealed off by at least 50 police cars! Georgia Patrol, ATL Police, SWAT team with bullet-proof vests and gas masks over their green uniforms. Complete chaos. We were trapped in the salon, with other clients around me still with half-cut hair or chemicals and curlers in. After a while we were evacuated by a giant motorbike officer with big rifle, who shielded the door with his big butt, leaving only little space for us to squeeze by, and sent us running down the street - "Ladies first!" TV crews caught a good piece of that action and you can admire my adrenalin-filled TV debut in the news: 

www.wsbtv.com/video/24343846.

Dwight and Roy at Edgewood Avenue

But the story is not over yet. Both Roy's and my car were now in the middle of a crime scene and the police did not allow us to get to them. They were still hunting two of the three suspects, one of who had shot a police officer. After two hours, a lunch in the neighborhood and more waiting in the smothering heat, we could get back to the salon but still not to our cars. Roy the hairdresser was so distracted that he severely burned his hand on a little oven to heat flat irons when he was gathering his stuff. Jeroen came down from his office to pick us up and had his share of action along the way as well: two cars in front of him on I-75 slammed into each other and while he passed them the front car speeded like crazy to flee from the scene, probably another uninsured Georgia driver. At the emergency room to have Roy's hand checked, he decided it was not that severe so we drove on to the local CVS with his hand in ice and a big rag, only to be recognized by the woman at the register: "hey, I just saw you running on television. Did you get shot in your hand?!?"

Who would have thought that a trip to the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" salon would make me real TV celebrity as well, at least for 18 seconds?

Mrs. Slicker

Mr. Slicker has a friend. Mrs. Slicker. Nice muted colors and some shiny flowers.

Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Nostalgia

Ruba is missing the squirrels. 

Suriname-Atlanta Family day 2010

Wil invited us to celebrate the Surinam Heritage in Atlanta. Good food, good laughs, lots of rain and new friends.

Kimya, Mikael, Jeroen and Wil

Going to Timbuktu

We, Joanne, Jeroen and I went to the International Market of the National Black Art Festival. This year it was at the Centennial Olympic Park.  Hot. But water for the kids to play in.

Lots of paintings, African inspired clothing and Henry! We met him 2 years ago at another Art Market. He specializes in African Artifacts, Paintings and Prints. But foremost he is a very talented and inspiring metalsmith.

At that time I bought a ring with a ivory stone (recycled!!! From a piano key). I loved it and wore it all the time. At one point, we noticed some saw dust on the floor. Then we saw that the ivory had fallen out of the setting. A ring without a stone. We checked everywhere, but could not locate the stone. Later that day, I took my socks off, walked around a little bit, looked down and....the stone was stuck to my ankle!! What a miracle. We called Henry and yes of course he could fix it. He invited us to his home, into the workshop. I also brought a big purple Calcedony stone and asked if he could make me a ring one day. " I'll make it now!" And that's what he did. Jeroen and I sat there for 3 hours, watching 'Dirty Dancing', 'Akeelah and the Bee' and Henry fixing a ring and making a beautiful new one. He talked about the Vietnam war, Peace, Life, Art and Inspiration. It was very special, so it was great to see him again today.

Jo and I each bought a ring with an Amber stone and I also found a Peace Piece. A Pass Amulet, a hundred years old from Zaire. With this amulet you can go everywhere in peace. 

Please check out Henry's Website: www.timbuktuartcolony.com. It's great stuff. Thanks, Henry.

Maters

Yummie, Last night we had redneck sandwiches. The best. Maters from the garden. And a Pinot Noir Jeff and Jo brought from Oregon to top it off.

Atlanta Artishock

At my bead group today we said goodbye to Bobbie, who is moving to Miami (FL). It's always sad to see a friend leaving, especially when it's a very good beader with a lot of refreshing work.

The view from our roof terrace at night still is pretty amazing, and brings some artishock results if you disable the anti-shock mode on your camera. Another (arti-)shock for Jeroen: the National Black Arts Festival (www.nbaf.org) that's on now in Atlanta brings a tribute to Curtis Mayfield. Jeroen's all-time hero is already dead for 10 years! "To Curtis with love............"

Fanatic Fringing

And another project finished: another Laura McCabe design, but with a different color scheme. It was a lot of work, just getting the Keshi-pearls embellished on the beaded rope necklace and then decorating with all the fringes! My mind was set on getting it done today, and I did finish it. The colors and design came out very nice. so I'm very happy............... :)

Fanatic Fringes

The heat wave continues on, with only a short relief from the high temperatures during yesterday's rush hour summer storm. But by morning it was heating up again, with beautiful morning skies and freaky clouds scraping the Westin Hotel.

Skyscraping cloud (no Photoshop!)

The Telephone Factory

So our new loft is in Atlanta's telephone factory. It has about 60 units and 35 dogs live in the building. Most of the ground floor units are artist studios and I just found out that there is a yearly art festival (since 1996) in December. Something for me? Let's check it out.

Our unit is on the top floor, a little further to the left than shown on this picture, facing downtown.

Lizzie

Finished a bead embroidered leather cuff today. Do lizards have 5 toes on each foot? Ah well, never mind. I love my new red friend: Mr. Slicker.

Beach Punk

We visited the opening of an art exhibition at Avisca Fine Art Gallery in Marietta with mixed media paintings by South Carolina's April Harrison and oil paintings by Jamaican-Canadian Zoya Taylor. We loved the depth of expression in Zoya Taylor's line-up of characters.


Jeroen and Zoya Taylor at her collection of acrylics

These ranged from her Jamaican childhood memories, such as "Duppy Man", to her more recent experiences living in Norway, such as "Euro Rasta" and "The Poser - I know you want me". Her view on the human condition is "that we all have a cast of characters that define our lives. Personal demons or angels--spiritual or not, there's a communality in these characters. They draw on human themes of secrecy, pride and hurt, but also humor and love." We ultimately went home with "Beach Punk", Jeroen's favorite.......... perhaps because of the Euro-style speedos and some other resemblances? It sure makes you smile !!!

Beach Punk

Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Summer Nights

The summer heat lingers on, with pretty average highs in the 90s. What's apparently unusual about this year is that it does not cool down much in the night. The low temperatures are already in the mid 70s (about 25 oC) for weeks now and the airconditioning in the new house is working overtime. With the loft comes the exposed ductwork, which gives the space a good vibe but it certainly is not the best noise-canceling solution. That's a big change from the almost complete quiet in our previous lakeside house, but we are starting to get used to it. And a nice plus about warm summer nights in the new loft is to relax in Adirondack lounge chairs on the roof terrace and enjoy the great view on both the Downtown and Midtown skyline.

Rings and things

The piece with dark blue Swarovski crystals and gunmetal beads indeed is finished. It's inspired on Laura McCabe's Rings and Things design - the colors came out very well. Next project is beaded lizards to put on leather cuffs................ The studio in the new home is great and inspirational and we figured out a way to keep it comfortable during the current heat wave in the Southeast with highs in the upper 90s (37-38oC)!!!!

Interesting morning walk

Rubs and I had our morning walk at the back of our building, an old railway track and future Belt line. We saw flowers, aliens, bunnies. Today I hope to finish a jewelry piece I already started before the move: dark blue Swarovski crystals and gunmetal beads.



Some real artsy flowers.



What kind of alien is this?



Sweet bunnie!

Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Time to do other things

Although it was already hot and humid, Jeroen went biking. For the first time in almost 2 years.



All geared up and ready to go. Have fun!!!

Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Hotlanta

It's hot today and we all are tired of moving and unpacking. But we are down to the last two boxes after days of hard work. The house is great and we even got back online after 6 days of hassling with the cable company. Annoying to the point of ridiculous, but a technician finally came by the morning of 4th of July and reconnected us back to our independence. Happy 4th!!!



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Location:Ralph McGill Blvd NE,Atlanta,United States

Moved into new house

Our new living room with 25 feet (8m) high ceilings. Yes a real factory loft. We moved in last Monday (took them 9.5 hours) and we worked like crazy to unpack everything. It's a rough space with 4 enormous windows.


Living room


Dining, relaxing and studio space.

We love it.

Location:N Highland Ave NE,Atlanta,United States