Last but not least.

Hi all,

In the last few months you have been introduced to the incredible Art Journey designteam. I am so fortunate to have such great girls in my team. They are all lovely ladies and very talented. Each one of them is unique in her own way, ofcourse in their Artwork, but also as a person. Unfortunately I haven't met some of the girls in real life (Paula, Deborah and Jo) but who knows what the future will bring. Just another reason to make a trip to England and Canada I guess. LOL.

And okay, they all have introduced themselves, so for the people who don't know me, I will try to tell something about myself.

My name is Louise Kolker, I'm 52 years old and I am married to Jos. We are married for 23 years now and are living together for 28 years. We have a son of 22  who studies law and lives in Groningen.


me and my dh

 We live in a lovely village called Sleen in the North-East of Holland. Sleen is a small village with 2311 inhabitants (just looked that up) and that's also the location of our Stamp Store.


The view outside our window last winter



Our house covered in snow

I run the Stamp Store known to you all as Art Journey. I started out with Art Journey 8 years ago, just trying to get people acquainted with stamping by giving workshops at my house in my attic. But you all know how stampers are, they don't only want to learn how to stamp, they also want to get their hands on all those lovely stamps. As there weren't alot of shops in Holland that sold "my kind of stamps" that's where I jumped in. I remember mailing Sija a picture with three shelves on the wall of my stamproom with about 25 stamps and proudly annoucing: This is my little shop! Five years ago I launched my first website and three and a half years ago we moved to the shop I have now as the whole house was filled up to every nook and cranny with boxes and stuff. There was no space so I had to move out. This was a very scary enterprise, but I haven't regreted it one second.
And now last week again we launched a new website as the old one didn't "get along" with the new browsers and we needed it to be more up-to-date. I can tell you it was a hell of a job, but we did it and now not only the Dutch customers can shop online, we also have thought about the English and German speaking customers.

Our new website, click on the flag on the left upperside to select your language http://www.artjourney.nl/

I am very fortunate being able to make a job out of my hobby, but the downside is that sometimes life is so hectic ( I also have a job as managemet-assistent in a HR-department of a hospital for 2 day's a week), there isn't enough time to do alot of stamping myself. But hey, who's complaining? Some people would kill for a job and I've got two.

Last year, Jeanette (my best friend) and I discovered a new hobby. Geo Caching. And yes this is also an ediction. Geo Caching is kind of treasure hunting with a GPS-device and we really love it. You can read all about our Geo Caching trips and other travel adventures on our blog: De Dames Reiziger. Sorry it is in Dutch. More about Geo Caching in general you can read here.

Jeanette and I on one of our Geocaching adventures

So thats it I guess. I hope you have enjoyed reading about us all. We also hope that you continue to visit this blog and the private blogs of all the designteam members and that it will inspire you for all your own artwork.
Thanks for stopping by.