Ciao ciao 2011!

This year was a good year. I started blogging, I got my driver license and bachelor diploma, I played in a theatre show, I run half a marathon, I went to Thailand and the World Youth Days in Madrid and have been creating and playing a lot. I thought it would be fun to do a little re-cap of my blog, so I have listed some of my favorite posts of this year below.



1. Acrylic giraffe painting 2. Wake-up list 3. Rainbow nails 4. Bike make-over 5. Lars the Laundry Monster 6. Efteling 7. Flying a kite 8. Thailand 9. Painting t-shirts for the Big Bug Collection 10. Creative Challenge: Keep an art journal 11. Carved mandarin 12. How to be a master 

Hope you have a great new years eve!

Melted crayon artwork

Ever since I saw this idea months ago, I have been wanting to create one of my own. I found some ladybird crayons that I never use, hot glued them on a piece of canvas and heated them with a blow dryer. Et voila!






The crayons reacted a little bit different than I expected (probably due to the type or quality), but it is a super simple and fun project to try yourself. Also, it would make a great gift!

Sponsor opportunity

I have decided to try something new; if you would like to have your blog button up at Magical Day Dream, that is possible! I always enjoy visiting other blogs and would like to give you the opportunity to sponsor Magical Day Dream by offering a button swap. It doesn’t matter if your blog has 2 visitors a month or 10000 , let’s simply exchange links and have fun discovering new blogs!

If you are interested, check out my sponsor page (yes I have one now) for details and simply shoot me an e-mail at magicaldaydream (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

(Haha can you tell that picture is a few months old ;) )

When I grow old...

I want my house to be similar to that of my grandparents.

Today I visited my grandparents. It was great to see them again. Although I have been there numerous times, there is always more to discover. I love my grandfather’s attitude towards his house (and in a certain sense perhaps towards life). He sees his house as something that should be used and should be lived in, which results in a house full of unexpected features that ceased to amaze me as a kid but still make me smile today.

A simple toilet visit takes a while because you can’t help but want to read the many quotes and doodles on the toilet walls.




The hallway is full of little marks, dates and names. On a closer look you will discover the growth history of the entire family. I have my personal line there as well (the last one is from 2009 and I haven’t grown ever since). The kitchen door is full of fruit stickers. I’m not sure why, but I guess not everything needs a reason.

My grandfather invents his own ingenious little systems. For example he will hang tin cans over the doors on a nail every night as a low-tech burglar alarm. When someone opens the door the cans fall down and the massive noise will wake my grandparents and scare anyone away who was up to no good.

The house is packed with items from their exotic travels, including instruments. I have many memories of music in that house.


Who knows grandparents with still rings in their bedroom? I do ;)


I remember one day he was painting the window frames, without using masking tape and paint was dripping over the glass. Somebody pointed that out and he cheerfully said that now the window had become a piece of abstract art. He later stuck some pieces of paper on the window as well and declared his masterpiece finished.

To my grandfather doodling on the wall is perhaps as common as on paper or body parts (he used to make little drawings on my hand as a kid). Even leakage stains in the wallpaper become works of art.



I want to be like my grandfather when I grow old. But perhaps I am already a bit ;)

(Klick here for a past post on flying a kite with my grandfather and here for the tutorial)

How to do a research semester

My first deadlines are over, and therefore my design research project is nearly finished. This semester I have struggled somewhat to merge my vision of design with that of research, but succeeded in the end and learned a lot. So, I thought it might be fun to share my insights in another ‘How to’ booklet (you might remember my first edition on ‘How to be a master’).

Past Project: Ballpoint doodles

I play with things when I listen. It can be a pen, my chair, a glass, basically anything near to me that can be moved. Sometimes I doodle. I think doodling is a form of fumbling around as well. Usually they will just be ‘non-shapes’, little scribbles, nothing that interesting. But when I was in high school I went through a phase where I started to make more structured doodles. I would start somewhere with a middle point and build little shapes around it while it grew into more interesting patterns. I have kept some:






As you can see this doodle was on the back of my study schedule. Wanna learn Dutch? ‘Lezen’ means ‘read’, ‘opdrachten’ means ‘assignments’, ‘week’ is just ‘week’ (but we say it differently).

On how a crazy cap keeps me sane

It’s that time of the semester again; meaning crazy workloads and deadlines and little time left. At the one hand it is the time when I am on my best (at least in terms of efficiency) at the other hand there is a serious risk of physically and mentally dying considering where I am and where I need to be.

So in times like these I need to remind myself to not go crazy or take everything too seriously. It’s just school stuff in the end. If I fail I’ll live and at least I know I tried hard. As a physical reminder I tend to wear a goofy cap with a propeller these days. I simply can’t take myself seriously whenever wearing it (sometimes I wear it during brainstorms as well when I feel blocked in my creative process).

And thankfully I have Lars to keep me company. I like having 3.30 AM coffee breaks with Lars. He understands me and my daytime distractions and nighttime working like a mad person.



I don't know what I was thinking in that 'chewing my cup picture'. Probably because I wasn't thinking at all. I prefer to blame it on the time.

But for now, back to work...

What's inside my party kit?

I love theme parties, but I usually am pretty last minute with deciding to go and then realizing I don’t have a costume yet. I have more than once attacked our ‘to-be-recycled-old-paper-stash’ to fix a last minute improvised costume made out of pizza or and cereal boxes. Fortunately, I have the ultimate box that is always there for me in times like these, to add a little something to whatever the occasion is. It contains fun junk I collected over time that is especially suitable for silly parties.

(Note that not all important party items fit into this box, like fairy wings, tutu’s, glittery leggings and duct tape. Never underestimate the power of duct tape when it comes to last minute costumes.)



1. Hawaii flower necklaces
2. A black curly wig and an orange long haired one
3. Cap and glasses in one (was a silly gift during my internship in Chile)
4. Glasses: sunglasses, 3D glasses even paper ones
5. False black and rainbow eye lashes
6. Blue feather ring
7. Face paint
8. Break lights
9. UV lipstick
10. All things glittery
11. Pirate and panther print shawls
12. Glow in the dark beads
13. Button & Entrance (I once got it on a party, I don’t even know why I still have it)
14. Fake tattoos
15. Different kinds of moustaches

Today I made a new friend

I was concentrated working on analyzing the interviews I did for my research design project, and there he was.


He looked at the coding work I did so far,

read about analyzing qualitative data,

and then looked carefully at my data.

He even examined the lamp I used for doing a simple user test. And right at the point where I was hoping he would start writing my project report he said goodbye and flew away.

It was a short friendship…

Dress pretty: the result

I set weekly creative challenges. The challenge of this week was:

Dress the way you would like to feel rather than how you feel and record your outfit in a visual way.

I have to say I put more effort in deciding what to wear than to record it, so here are a series of quick sketches on my outfits.



What was difficult?
The moment in the morning when I had an internal conflict to some grey days just go for my favorite jeans or whatever seemed most comfortable at that moment.

What was fun?
In the first place feeling more positive by what I was wearing. Also I got some compliments of other people on my looks, like “you always dress so pretty” (which isn’t necessarily true) and “your look is so cheerful” that made me feel good about myself.

What did I learn?
Putting a little effort and invest a small moment in myself goes a long way. These days are really busy and it helps to at least feel good about myself. External factors really do have an influence on how I feel and even to my level of motivation to do everyday tasks. It helps me feel more creative and express my creativity in my looks. Also: don’t dress cute when you go silkscreen printing (result: major textile paint stains all over my dress).