Hollywood Glamour, etc.

I was invited to participate in an ATC art trade with the Etsy All Handmade by Me team (check them out for sellers who offer completely handmade merchandise), and this seemed like the perfect excuse to make portraits of some of our favorite Golden Age celebrities which I would not be able to list for sale (well, without watching over my shoulder for the copyright gestapo). I'd also like to hear who some of your favorites are in the comments! I'm tempted to add Audrey Hepburn, but for now these are the five I'll be trading:

Marilyn

It's Raining Men

I've been working to get a better represtentation of men in my ACEO selection. These are a few of my recent ones, inspired by the lovely old photographs and snapshots available in the Library of Congress archives. I also had a very nice one of a gentleman with his dog, but it sold before I could take a photo. Not that I'm complaining.

Jay. Etsy

Sergeant Briscoe. Etsy

Alfred. Etsy

Jack. Etsy

Voorburg Artwork

The Voorburg city museum is starting a new exhibition about the town in March, and the art loan gallery there is holding a special juried art sale in conjunction with this. This is my submission, from the USA Day festival I enjoyed the first time I visited Voorburg. A parade of Cadillacs cruising down the main street was one of the highlights of the celebration. Ink is a challenge since it is so unforgiving of mistakes or lack of planning ahead, but I'm fairly satisfied with this one. I mean, there are always things to be improved for next time, but it's still a fun piece.

DAFT: The Residence Permit

Dutch Immigration Part VII

From what I had heard, 3 months was a typical amount of time to hear back from the IND. So, I waited for 3 months and then my Dutchman gave them a call. The person on the phone was able to look on their computer to see that it had not yet finished processing, though they did not know what it was waiting on. So we waited awhile longer, with occasional phone calls to check if there was any progress. Finally, we reached the 6 month mark, and still no permit. With another call, we were told that since they had passed the allowed amount of time, we could hold the IND in default. We would need to fill out a form, and then the IND would have 2 weeks to respond. If they missed that deadline as well, I would be eligible for a refund.

The agent also explained that they were unusually busy at that moment due to an extraordinary number of renewal applications. Seems a number of illegal immigrants had been pardoned awhile back and all of them needed their permits renewed at once. Apparently my timing wasn't so great.

So I was busy filling out the default papers, when I check the mail one day and lo-and-behold there was an envelope from the IND. Inside was the notice that my application was approved! It also stated that my permit was valid for 2 years from the date the application was submitted (so I had a year and a half left), though I had understood it would be good for a year. Maybe this was because the application took so long to process so I would have only had 6 months left at that point?

At any rate, I now have a nifty wallet sized permit/ID card to flash around.

Time for a celebratory drink!

Isabelle

Since I took many of my ACEOs to display at the Dordrecht Central Library last week, I'm trying to rebuild some stock so I have something to sell at the Connecting Women holiday bazaar on Monday. I was also gifted some new materials to play with, in particular a couple rolls of that glittery plastic stuff you can stick to book covers. This is what I came up with, and I'm pretty pleased with the portrait. Let me introduce you to Isabelle, #14 in my series of Glamour Girls portraits.

Find this on Etsy

Sinterklaas

The Dutch Sinterklaas was last week. It is a very popular holiday for kids here in the Netherlands. I wrote a description for the Etsy Expat blog, which you can read here.

Thanksgiving, Netherlands Edition

Pieterskerk, Leiden

The sky is an overcast gray and a chill breeze tosses orange and brown leaves across brick walkways. The Pieterskerk, while not the tallest church in Leiden, offers warm invitation to the festive Americans flocking through the red doors. This is Thanksgiving in Holland, in the city, as I learned, where the Pilgrims lived for 11 years before boarding the Mayflower for the New World. The Pieterskerk was their church where they worshipped, married, and mourned from 1609 to 1620. The church even goes so far as to suggest the inspiration for the Thanksgiving feast came from the celebrations held there in honor of Dutch freedom after the Eighty Years War with Spain--it's up to you if you agree with that.