Darker decor.

Finally I am through with showing old pictures. The reason was that my camera was broken and now I finally got the new one I ordered a couple of weeks ago. I'm still learning to use it (different brand), so I took some test pictures of pieces of gothic decor in my apartment.

This bottle holder is carved from a single piece of wood and the usual comment I hear is "macabre" and I always reply to that "yes, isn't it wonderful!" It was bought in a little boutique in Amsterdam. I think it was on Doelen-Hoogstraat but I would not bet on it.

This picture is not flipped. That clock is from London and it "goes the other way". I'm so used to it, that I no longer know how to check the time from my normal wrist watch. I use it very seldom. Underneath the clock is a picture of a Swedish designer Ludvig Löfgren's glass statue. There are many different variations of that beauty and here is a link to Kosta Boda, where one can by those. I unfortunately did not have money to buy a real one, so I had to be content with a postcard in frames.

http://www.kostaboda.com/products/single-product/product/vanitas-romance/vanitas-romance-sculpture-purple.html

This cage-like thing is actually meant for a little candle, but I decided to put corks of champagne bottles in it. Those are from times that we celebrated something special. I guess many save corks from special occasions, but I have learnt it from my mother. She is a writer and every time her book is published, she and her husband will open a champagne bottle. She conserves her corks in a huge glass chalice.

Peeping through windows.

I was rambling through my old pictures again and wanted to show these. These pictures are from the Netherlands, Amsterdam 2009, when I was on holiday with my significant other. For some reason I spotted many windows that were broken or had some interesting content. Here are the best.

This was apparently some sort of security glass (there was a little sticker about that at the bottom) and I thought this spiderweb-like pattern was pretty.

This here is a brilliant solution, if one has had a family fight and a plate has once again gone through a window.

This was the bottom part of a window of a small art gallery. Unfortunately i can't remember what was the gallery's name or at what street it was located.

This here is quite a generic picture of a gothic church. Still, I think it is pretty (but smeared, because one could not use flash) and it is in fact Oude Kerk, wich is an old church that is in the middle of the red ligth district. It is in the middle of a small square and it is surrounded by brothels, where ladies are showing the merchandise in the windows. Oh, almost forgot to mention, it is no longer used as a church, there are exhibitions, like in 2009 there were journalistic photos.

Another scattered window. Those old houses in their slow decay were just breath-takingly beautiful.