Persoonlijk – Illustrator under a blankie

The oxygen mask

I sit next to my little Christmas tree at my studio. As I look outside, wet snow pours from the skylight. I ponder for a moment.

I'm better, or am I? My life has changed a lot. This shot through my mind as I was brooding on a new blog. It only now seems to dawn on me how much my life has changed. It is sometimes confusing: does it mean I am 'better' or just that I have adapted my life so [...]

Cosiness and my 'world-burnout'

Cosiness and my world-burnout I have world-burnout. I can almost hear you thinking: 'a what?' I explain it all to you in this blog. Not to worry, it's not a lament, because I love focusing on things that help and make you feel good. Cosiness is exactly that.

About resilience

It was such a tough year, I almost dare not think about it anymore. But with the rest we are taking now, comes the space to look back. I only now see how intense it really was actually. What I also see is how powerful I am, how much resilience I have AND what [...]

self-care first?

Subconsciously, we hear it very often: you have to take good care of yourself first before you 'take care' of others. Sounds logical somewhere, but I fell for it again.

The bear in the room

9.5 years ago, I became ill. After a few years of fussing and figuring it out, it became clear what was wrong AND... that I had to learn to live with it. It felt like there was a huge bear in the middle of the room that I couldn't ignore. A bear that I hated but that I (or I [...]

It's too much, time to cocoon!

It's a lot, it's busy, it's too much. Renovating a house is one thing, but running a (fast) growing business is quite a lot. Especially considering that I am not 'fully employable', mentally vulnerable and I have to take my health into account a lot.

I burned my illustrations...

And I've never done that before. But I had to do something to give it closure. To give it a place. What exactly? I'll explain that to you in this blog.

Letting go (is hard)

Oy, you know that? You worry about things you'd be better off letting go of. A renovation that isn't progressing, a sewer overflowing, laundry bulging out the basket, to-do lists rattling around in your head or deadlines constantly rattling around in the back of your mind. I don't feel good about it [...]

After daring to take the leap

A while back I wrote a blog about me collapsing and it all going nowhere. Missed it? Read it here. Now I get super many questions about how I am doing now and how I like the new life. So time to take stock of 'after the jump' (you know, the one [...]