The house used to be part of a cotton plantation and therefore had a large amount of ground around it. In fact so much land that if I went for a walk in the woods, I could walk for over half an hour and still be on our own land.

When we came to live in the house two dogs were living on the property. The former owner of the house had left the dogs behind. The dogs spent most of their time hunting in the woods; they were pretty wild and not approachable. They caught small animals like rabbits and squirrels and so provided in their own food.

It took great effort and a lot of time but eventually I managed to tame both dogs and later on they just lived in our home.

Lately, this video was a big hit on Dutch TV so maybe you are familiar with it, but every time I see this movie I laugh and remember my wonderful wild dogs in Georgia … because I too have never managed to teach my dogs not to hunt deer.

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Once upon a time I lived in Amsterdam. I was very young, had a room to live in, a bike, lots of books and a small dog. Wherever I went the dog went with me,
also on the bike.

This is not me, I never looked this stylish but you get the picture…

And this is certainly not me, imagine having 4 terriers!

Aah … this is me with my two dogs!

And if you don’t go for the real thing … just click over here to see the dogs of Scottish designer Domenica More Gorden.

First photo via

Just like now we had our own Atelier and made our own line of handmade jewelry. We sold through galleries and did many (juried) Art Fairs.

On those Art Fairs we met many people and received lots of compliments and comments about our jewelry. The most common reaction we heard was; “ your jewelry looks so very Scandinavian” … and I always had the feeling people had to get used to the clean lines of our jewelry.

The brooch Confetti, with its clean lines by Atelier The Jewelry Story

I had to think about those comments when I read that Finnish textile and clothing design house Marimekko opens another flagship store in October 2011 in New York.  And …they plan to open 18 more new Marimekko shops in major cities by the end of the year 2013.

So by now Americans must be used to those clean Scandinavian lines …

Did you know it was Jacky Kennedy who back in the sixties put this brand on the map when she bought 8 cotton Marimekko dresses?

I lived in the middle of nowhere, in Georgia, USA in a big wooden house standing on a large piece of land which once was a cotton plantation.

Around this time as daffodils are blooming it always reminds me of that day a pickup truck came driving up our driveway. A big pickup with an old man at the wheel. I also saw a long rifle in a gun rack behind him.

I stayed on the porch waiting for the man to step out of his truck. Very slowly the man came walking towards me and when he came closer I saw that he looked pretty rough. Although the man was quite old, I found the situation somewhat intimidating but fortunately the man had left his gun in the car, which was sort of reassuring. He introduced himself as a previous occupant of the house, he told me he was born and raised in this place. Despite his redneck appearance and his rifle he proved to be a nice man.

From then on every year when the daffodils were blooming, he came around asking if he could pick a bunch of flowers. He allways used his long hunting knife, and cut off the daffodils one by one…

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Foto of the old house via Flickr

Almost every nook of Amsterdam is familiar to me because I moved house many times in that city. Always on to a wee bit bigger place. At one point I lived in a beautiful spot along one of the canals.

The attic I lived in had a magnificent view of the Magere brug, a famous 17th-century drawbridge across the river the Amstel.

My favorite spot to live was the Jordaan in a part what is now called “The 9 Streets”. Even back then there were many small shops, little restaurants and of course lots of cafes.

Do you know I once moved all my belongings in an old transport bike?
Ha… those where the days…

Why all those memories all of a sudden you ask? Well today after all those years
I finally framed a print of Picasso, the print survived moving to all those houses, even a move across the ocean to America and back again.

It was my first art book I bought while living in Amsterdam and it had this lovely print inside which is now hanging in my freshly painted hallway…

Portrait of Paul Picasso, the son of Pablo Picasso. By Picasso in 1923

Photos … Henry in Amsterdam,  SFGirlByBay

This drawing dates from the time when Jan was a medical student in Amsterdam. It was a time when he got to see a large number of naked people
and for the first time saw the human body in all its manifestations …

TATTOO

Click here to read the story behind Jan’s drawings and where to buy them.

A long time ago we lived for a few years in the U.S.A. When we came back we had to make up our minds where to live in Holland. We bought a car and drove around our country for a few weeks to look at landscapes and houses. While driving around in Friesland, the very northern part of Holland, we saw high up on a dyke this abondoned windmill.

It was a handicapped mill, a mill with no wings; the mill was badly burned after lightening struck it way back. To make a long story short, we lived in this mill for over 4 years and it was a great experience.

A canal run along our living room. In the summer we had boats driving by and in wintertime hundreds of ice skaters came flying by our mill. It was all typical Dutch, just what we needed when we came back.

Potters, methalsmiths, a woodworker and most important; my good friend René Guerin a painter.

Red Grove by René Guerin

René could not only make beautiful paintings, she had the biggest vegetable garden you ever saw and she taught me, a city girl from Amsterdam, how to grow a garden and how to cook from such a garden. After all those years I am still in contact with René and as you can see she is still making lovely paintings.

Al Fresca by René Guerin

This tiny prefabricated treasure is not situated in America though but in the Australian outback.

Sheathed in copper, the 10×10 foot building closes down to protect it from brush fire, as well as precipitation.

In an odd way this prefab structure resembles a turret feel, almost medieval. This compact house incorporates passive heating and cooling technologies, and a water-harvesting system for some keen “green” appeal.

Don’t you think this small building is the perfect hide away and an excellent example of contemporary modernism?

I came across this small house on a site called The Tiny Life and the design is of Casey Brown Architecture

So when I came across the picture of this house it reminded me somewhat of Sea Ranches. Located on the Oregon Coast, in Bluff Bandon, where Coquille River meets the ocean, this contemporary wooden residence comes from Johnston Architects.

The two wings of the L-shaped plan reach out to the ocean and river views, which are framed by enormous cypress trees. A very large wooden deck is also part of the architecture.

The house provides shelter while opening to the expansive sky, ocean and dunes beyond.

So what do you think… does this Sea escape match your dream house?