Lost Buttons

lost buttons
I like to pick up lost buttons on the street. These are the ones I've found so far. I started shortly after moving to Amsterdam. I think one or two may have been picked up while on holiday, but I decided early on that I couldn't be bothered to keep track of where each button was found. I was not surprised to discover that more than half of the buttons I've found are black. There are 3 metal buttons and 2 wooden ones. The purple heart-shaped one is the only non-circle I've found. Do you collect anything unusual?

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Happy New Year!

I wanted to make a "year in review" photo montage like I did last year, so while the fireworks burst outside (annoyingly waking the Wee Lass several times), I searched for a couple photos for each month. As you might expect, nearly all the photos that I took this year were of her. But I did take photos of other small moments and that's mostly what I've included here.

This year was amazing, exhausting, and inspiring and I'm looking forward to the exciting new things in 2012. Wishing you all the best in this next turn around the sun!

January



February



March



April



May



June



July



August



September



October



November



December



Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A walk in the park

leaning tree

I took a walk in the park today and these are some of the things I saw.


texgtured mossy roots

I don't think I can properly express how much I love spring in February.


tiny bobbly yellow flowers

After years of finding February and March incredibly dreary with that never-ending-winter feeling, I can promise you that I'm not taking the weather in Amsterdam for granted!


draped tree

At my current rather waddling pace, I enjoyed spotting all the different textures in the park.


ropey trees

There's no showy flowers yet to steal one's attention from the subtler details.


spiky seedheads

It was a beautiful day.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

As the old year passes

The last day of the year is a good day to review and think over the previous year and imagine what's to come in the next. This year was full of exciting change (moving overseas) and travel (lots). I was in 10 different cities this year: Montreal, Toronto, Amsterdam, Brussels, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, Rome, Paris, and London! There was so much new to see that I'm still uploading some of our holiday pictures. Much of this year has also been spent expecting our Bun. That will pretty much guarantee that next year will be filled with exciting changes too, once Bun arrives in the spring.



Moodboard Review

I also took a little visit to the archives of my blog and saw my mood board for our apartment. I wanted to review how our apartment came together, so I searched through photos I'd taken of our home throughout the year and put together this collage, with the original moodboard in the middle. I think I was pretty successful and I'd definitely use a moodboard like this again.

Once I'd done that, I couldn't resist making a little "calendar" of the year, with a couple photos from each month.

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December


It's been a lovely year and I hope yours has been too! Best wishes to all for a Happy 2011!


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Unplanned photography

"Once upon a time she sat there drinking lemonade."

I took this photograph the other day while running an errand. Something about that vine and the worn checkerboard veranda really called to me. I do love that I always have a camera with me now that I have an iPhone and I have a lot of fun with the filters in the CameraBag app. This one I ran through the "magazine" setting to give it that warm tone. I love living in a city filled with beautiful buildings. So much of North America is just so unabashedly ugly. Cheap to build, but it doesn't make your soul sing.

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.