About me

 

Dear readers, 

Hello, my name is Elaine and I am the founder of this blog.

I am a retired online bead seller; my mother is Irish and my father is Dutch. 

I live in the Northern province of Groningen; it is lovely there ❤

I am a 41 year old mother of 2: my son Dimitri is 9, and my daughter Alice is 7.

In May 2022 ( I was 40) I had an aneurysm in the right side of my brain. For 8 months I was in a rehab clinic, learning to walk and regaining function in my left arm. I also have aphasia. I try to take care about my spelling, my speech is far worse than my writing.

 

In 2018 at the age of 38, I was diagnosed with autism. During my months in rehab clinic, I learned that I have ADHD too. After 40 years of careful masking, my symptoms have gotten worse, and I no longer hide , which is a great relief 

My motto for my online shop ( it was called The Beadmixer) was "inspired by women and history" I took my own product photos, my husband built my site with open source software, I polished my pics with GIMP (open source, also available for free).

I just needed graphics free of costs; so I explored the concept of 'public domain'.

I was looking for things to do after I am finished with this part of my recovery, so I started a reddit sub; r/publicdomainimages.

I have decided to start a blog about images in the public domain, "revealing" all my sources (which is rare), telling about running an online business, selling and shipping around the globe, by preference using free resources; of which there are many!

The subjects I am interested in:

Art ( Art nouveau, art deco, Medieval art, Roman & Greek Art, Rococo, Pre-Raphaelite, Symbolism, etc, etc)

Language and Etymology ( I did high school exams in Dutch, English, French, German, Latin) ( did 3 years of old Greek) Before my stroke, I had an Ulster accent! I studied English & Culture at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (did a bit of Old English and Middle English as well)

Mythology ( Greek and Latin added to my interest)

Many things vintage & thrifting (I used to work in a thrift shop!)

BEADS and JEWELRY(mostly vintage if i can get my hands on them!)

Literature and film

Music from the 60s to present

I hope you enjoy my blog!

Greetings from Elaine!