Sea finds: Sepia

On a quiet Saturday morning I was strolling along the beach and found a lot of food for my friend's parrot. Sepia is rich in minerals.

It was on Koh Ma - Mae Haad. But don't be surprised if there is nothing left anymore :-)

Koh Phangan

I have arrived.

I am home.

Koh Phangan.

My island.

A Thai version of Bali. 

Or is Bali an Indonesian version of Koh Phangan? ;-)

It has changed immensely in 4 years.

  I am here to stay for awhile.

SYLK Studio

Where oh where art thou?
My little precious studiou?

At some point I realised that working from different locations and having my jewellery in both SE-Asia and Europe was not very efficient. Too many times I had to explain customers that the piece of jewellery they were interested in was located on the other side of the world. I also felt I needed a steady home for my tools and materials. For that sewing machine I want, the Dremel, kilos of beads, a corner for silver smithing, a space to display the pieces etc.

So about a year ago I decided to set up my studio somewhere in a warm country, a place yet to be found. Could it be Spain? Close to my family in Europe and stay abroad during Spain's winterly months? Could it be Central America? Costa Rica, Mexico? I still haven't found the right spot to settle down, I just don't know. The only thing I do know is that SYLK is begging for a studio.

But for now... I am about to leave for a Thai Island and will be staying there for awhile. Just to charge my batteries. It has been a pretty dynamic year for me and I seriously need a time out. Yoga, meditation and nature will be on my daily menu. And when the right moment appears the search for SYLK's studio will be continued.
But first things first: Sun, here I come!

Buddha's Garden of Eden

Thanks for the painting, Chris!

Bracelet Chris Design

Traveling light means...

Wearing no jewellery except for this bracelet.

It is 100 % natural.

I love how light it is to wear.

It is designed and made by my 9-year old nephew.

I love the warm colors of wood with fresh blue Turquoise sp-stones.

It makes me happy.

Inspiration of the Day: Li Ka-shing

Google image

I have always had a great interest in entrepreneurs, especially when they start from the bottom and climb all the way to the top. And stay humble once they are standing high in the sky.

So this morning when I read an article about Li Ka-shing taking over waste centres in the Netherlands at age 85(!) he had my interest. He also owns 2 large chain stores in cosmetics and container terminals in the lowlands. Because it was printed in a Dutch regional newspaper I thought it was about a Chinese immigrant who had made it to the Dutch top, but Google taught me he is a large, a very large fish in the Ocean. He's one of the most successful and richest people in the world. Besides being a philanthropist.

Soon I will be traveling to SE-Asia again, but with a different strategy than the first time. I will be using my nephew's motto as a guideline "It is what it is, and make the best out of it". No longer searching and hunting like crazy for something that's far away from me, but optimizing the situation I am in. To be is the key.

While googling I found this article about Li Ka-shing about a similar toned motto and felt deeply inspired by his words.

"When life throws a lemon into your hands, you may as well squeeze it and turn it into lemonade. Only after your own spiritual blueprint takes shape can you really begin to love life. Only by drawing on your own intelligence and capacity and establishing your own unique self according to your own principles and ideals can you pursue a life beyond yourself.

"Poverty is not necessarily due to lack of money but to total submission following the evaporation of all hopes and opportunities"

"I am happy that I am myself"

In a process of getting back in an upward spiral, these quotes reminded me of the road I was on before. I feel I am heading the right way. 

Cloud (online) storage COPY

I am cleaning up my laptop, it's about to burst... I have a 1 TB external drive where I store my data I don't frequently use. But in a month or so I'll be on the move again and I want to travel as light as possible. Some years ago I installed Dropbox, but I only used it once to receive a map with photos.

This week I installed Copy with at least 15 GB free storage while Dropbox offers 2GB.
When you invite a friend to register you both get 5 GB extra! For signing up use this link ;-) https://copy.com/?r=6sSaM0

Cloud storage makes it easy for me to have my private and jewelry making photos accessible anywhere I am. It saves me extra space on my laptop and in my luggage, plus I don't have to worry about losing my photos & documents. It's already working for me, I feel much 'lighter' :-)