Planet Fur

A 1000 kranes around my neck

2012-01-29T13:17:00.003+01:00

I have a huge collection of scarves. I love something that keeps my neck (and the muscles there) warm, especially during the cold season. I found this one at Sissy-Boy and it contains everything a Good Scarf needs: good colour, cool print, it's long and lightweight. And if there's actually a 1000 kranes on it, it also gives good luck! Happy Sunday y'all!

In de koude seizoenen kan je me uittekenen met een sjaal om mijn nek. Het is niet alleen fijn om een outfit leuk(er) te maken, maar het houdt de spieren in mijn nek ook zo lekker warm. Deze sjaal van Sissy-Boy heeft alle elementen die een Goede Sjaal moet hebben: goede kleuren, goede print, ze is lang en weegt niets (verder ben ik echt helemáál niet veeleisend, dus laat ik maar zwijgen over de prijs die ook zeker niet hoog mag zijn. Deze komt dan ook uit de opruiming). Als er ook echt 1000 kraanvogels op staan, brengt deze sjaal nog geluk ook, wat wat mij betreft een hele goede bonus eigenschap zou zijn. We gaan het zien, fijne zondag!

Macabre/beautiful

2012-01-26T13:42:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Monsieur Felix (Diana's little brother, little only because it sounds sweet (and he is!) and I went on a thrifttour through Nijmegen. In one of the stores, there was this basket filled with deer skulls and even though I think it's a macabre thing and I can't imagine why someone would want to kill an animal in general, I reckoned the deer's death wouldn't be completely and utterly pointless if I gave it's remains at least an honourable destination. So what's left of Mother Nature's efforts are lying here on Bruin now, just being beautiful in all her bare glory.

Ik ging gisteren op kringloopjacht met Monsieur Felix, het broertje van Diana (broertje omdat dat lief klinkt en hij is een schat!). Eén van de dingen die ik zo ontzettend leuk vind aan kringlopen zijn de excentriekelingen die ze uitbaten, zoals de oude hippie in een van de winkels gisteren. Ondanks dat we niet veel vonden tussen de enorme hoeveelheid oude kleding, stoffen, hertenschedels (!) en troep, heeft zijn vriendelijke karakter een onuitwisbare indruk op me gemaakt, geweldig!

Maar terug naar het punt van dit bericht, de schedel. In die bewuste winkel stond een mand vol met hertenschedeltjes met gewei, iets waar ik enorm door afgestoten werd, vooral door het feit dat ik me niet kan voorstellen dat je een dier zou willen doden (ervan uitgaande dat dit hert niet door natuurlijke omstandigheden is overleden, iets wat ik me kinderlijk genoeg wel probeer voor te houden). Om bondig te blijven, aangezien het arme dier dood is en haar schedel ook nog eens voor minder dan niets bij een rommelwinkel lag, leek het me niet meer dan eerbiedig om haar overblijfselen een goede bestemming te geven. Haar overblijfselen, waar de natuur ooit zo hard haar best voor heeft gedaan, liggen nu dus mooi te zijn op Bruin.

Great expectations

2012-01-24T10:00:00.004+01:00

Today my Etsy shop will open again. And even though I planned to sew a huge pile of stock this time, it didn't work out that way. But not to worry, there's still plenty to choose from and you can of course e-mail me for custom orders! Must be off now, see you soon in the shop or on this blog..eitherway, have a lovely day!

Vandaag gaat mijn Etsy winkel weer open. Wederom nam ik mijzelf voor om een gigantische berg voorraad te naaien en wederom moest ik mijn verwachtingen naar beneden bijstellen. Toch, geen zorgen, er is nog steeds genoeg om uit te kiezen en anders kan je me altijd een berichtje sturen voor maatwerk. Ik moet weer aan de bak, tot in de winkel of hier...een fijne dag gewenst!

The eye of the tiger

2012-01-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

I've been playing with Molly while taking pictures of her (or playing and trying to take pictures of her). This was quite a challenging project, because A. Molly sleeps most of the bright part of the day and B. if she's awake she only wants to cuddle, which makes it very hard to take pictures of her, because everything I point at her (a camera for instance), she wants to cuddle too (or at least sniff at it and since she hasn't very much of a sence of smell, she has to do this at close quarters). The reflection of the cameralens onto the window-sill did the trick in the end, she freezed in an attempt to attack it, hence the alert look in her eyes. No lenses or Mollies were harmed during the making of this picture, by the way.

Om goede foto's van Molly te maken kan je best een heel dagdeel uittrekken. Molly slaapt namelijk het grootste (lichte) gedeelte van de dag en als ze wakker is tijdens deze tijdopening, dan wil ze kroelen en dan is het nog moeilijker om foto's te maken omdat ze dan meteen de camera ook mee kroelt (of ze duwt haar neus er tegenaan, omdat ze eraan wil ruiken maar amper enige reukzin heeft). De reflectie van de cameralens in de vensterbank was echter zo intrigerend dat ze bevroor (zoals katten dat zo prachtig doen in de seconden voordat ze aanvallen), en ik op tijd kon afdrukken. Zowel de lens als Molly hebben het project zonder kleerscheuren doorstaan, overigens.

I owe you this one

2012-01-19T10:00:00.001+01:00

There you go, a picture of the whole plastic flower-swan-pot (or swan-flowerpot, whatever you like). I can't help it, I love her in her all her kitschy-plasticness. Apparently we live in a world with factories that make plastic swans and with shops that stock them. Wow, isn't that just wonderful? (And yes, we gave her a name. We call her Fay which almost sounds like fake...a super lame joke that makes me chuckle for days now.)

Deze hadden jullie nog van me tegoed: een foto van de hele zwanenbloempot. Ik kan het niet helpen, ik hou van haar kitscherige-plastiekerigheid (plastiek, een pracht van een woord). Blijkbaar leven wij in een wereld waar fabrieken in bestaan die plastic zwanen produceren en met winkels die ze in hun collecties opnemen. Is dat nou niet prachtig? (En ja, ze heeft een naam. We noemen haar Fay'ke (zoals de Vlamingen de naam Fay zouden verkleinen en dan ook meteen als woordgrapje...je begrijpt dat ik hier al dagen schik over heb...)

Count your blessings

2012-01-17T15:26:00.002+01:00

Blessed! Sweet presents: my dear friend Michelle gave me the porcelain origami owl, the little tablecloth with angels is one of the many presents I received from Iris. She sent me this box with all kinds of devine thriftfinds, it felt like Christmas! The angels are especially dear to me, at home with Christmas we had placemats of the same brand. Such kind gestures of people I've never met in real life are still one of the greatest aspects of this creative adventure. There's so much kindness in the world. A lot of exciting projects ahead! For example, I will be curating a monthly ideabook for houzz.com. The first ideabook will feature somewhere at the beginning of February. Working full-time on this new course of mine instead of having to go to an office three days a week is a true blessing. I feel better than ever.

Gezegend met cadeaus van lieve mensen: van Michelle kreeg ik de porseleinen origami uil, het kleedje met de engelen was een van de vele cadeautjes die Iris me vorige week toezond. Een hele doos vol met prachtige gekringloopte spullen, ik voelde me jarig! De engelen zijn voor mij extra speciaal: we hadden thuis kerst-placemats van dezelfde serie. Ik blijf het zeggen: al dit soort ontzettend lieve gebaren van mensen die ik nooit in levenden lijve heb ontmoet, vind ik bijzonder. Er is gewoon heel veel goeds in de wereld (en ik laat mij niet wijsmaken dat dat volgens zwartkijkers toch echt anders ligt). Er zitten veel spannende en leuke projecten aan te komen, zo ga ik bijvoorbeeld een maandelijks ideeënboek voor Houzz.com samenstellen. De eerste zal rond begin februari verschijnen. Om full-time te kunnen bouwen aan mijn nieuwe koers is voor mij een bevrijding en een zegening. Ik voel me beter dan ooit.

Anki started to count her blessings and many followed. Take a peek here for the list of participants.

Birds of Paradise

2012-01-15T12:42:00.001+01:00

Two finds from very different era's, but with one of my favourite themes: birds. I found the Cote d'Or tin when I didn't expect to find anything that day in that thriftshop. Needless to explain why I love it so much. The plastic swan is a flower pot. I bumped into it with my husband and, open-minded as he is, he allowed me to take it home (he litary said: "I have good faith that you can turn this tacky swan into something beautiful", well isn't that poetic?). It needs a good clean and then I'm gonna fill it with hyacinths...can't wait to start with that little project!

Have a lovely Sunday my dear ones!

Twee goede tweedehands vondsten van de afgelopen week met een favoriet onderwerp: vogels. Het Cote d'Or blik vond ik bij een vast adres waar ik eigenlijk al niet meer verwachtte iets te zullen vinden die dag. Niet nodig om toe te lichten waarom ik het zo prachtig vind denk ik! De plastic zwaan is een bloempot. Ik vond haar samen met mijn Lief, die, ruimhartig als hij is, vond dat ik haar mee moest nemen. (Hij sprak letterlijk de woorden: "Ik heb inmiddels goed vertrouwen dat jij iets leuks kan doen met een Vreselijk Kitscherige Zwaan", is dat niet het ultieme gebaar van liefde?). De zwaan moet even flink in bad en dan ga ik haar vullen met hyacintjes. Heb nu al zin in dat projectje. Een hele fijne zondag gewenst lieve allemaal!

Paint it white

2012-01-12T15:20:00.000+01:00

We just couldn't decide what colour to give the unpainted stairs. We considered every kind of covering possible, from wood to rubber (!). We even considered to just varnish it, because we (well, I) liked it in it's rough and uncovered state. In the end, we went for the most cheap and (I guess) best option: we just painted them white. It's amazing how much brighter the staircase is now. It's so bright, we almost need sunglasses. If you're in desperate need of inspiration for your stairs, I collected some on my Stairs Pinterest board. It's not much, but it might help. Or you could just paint them white. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

We konden maar geen beslissing nemen over de bekleding van onze afgekrabte trappen. Ongeveer iedere mogelijke bekleding heeft bovenaan onze top 3 gestaan, van bekleden met houtdelen, zeil, gewoon een doorzichtige laag lak over het oude uiterlijk (dat vond ik vooral een top idee), tot het schilderen van een loper en de rest kaal laten. Om een lang verhaal kort te maken, de trap werd wit. Ongelofelijk, hoeveel lichter het trappenhuis nu is! Als ik 's ochtends uit onze donkere slaapkamer stap, heb ik bijna een zonnebril nodig (zó wit! ;-)). Mocht je zelf op zoek zijn naar trapinspiratie, ik heb er een heel Pinterest bord aan gewijd. Het is niet veel, maar het kan misschien helpen. En anders kan ik je het gewoon wit verven Bijzonder Aanbevelen!

Building an image

2012-01-10T10:00:00.001+01:00

Building images (in the literal matter of speaking) is what I love to do since I was a little girl. It's almost meditating: adding and removing items until I'm content with the result. In a different life I would be a curator. But then again, since I'm only 30..it might not be too late for that in this life too.

De liefde voor het bouwen van tafereeltjes zit bij mij ingebakken: als klein meisje bouwde ik ze al met Fabuland, My little Pony en Hello Kitty. Het ging niet om het spel met dat speelgoed, maar om het neerzetten ervan. Daarna ruimte ik het weer op. (Voor de kenners onder ons: het opruimen geschiedde zoals de ouders van Amélie dat doen in de film.) Het is bijna een soort mediatie, het schikken, weghalen en toevoegen totdat het beeld -voor mij- klopt. In een ander leven zou ik curator geweest zijn van mijn eigen museum. Waarbij ik me afvraag waarom het daar geen tijd voor zou zijn in mijn huidige leven.

Computerroom 1.3

2012-01-08T14:27:00.001+01:00

So here they are, pictures of the ever-changing computer room. My poor husband finally gave in when I shared my plans to change it..again (maybe he felt sorry for me losing my job and didn't want to disappoint me, I'm still not sure what made him change his mind, 'cause, two months ago he didn't even want to hear my new plans for this room). Anyways, we wallpapered the former green wall, we added a yellow (yeah I know, yellow again) Billie cupboard, and we placed the computer desk to the opposite wall. I now know why I didn't like it the way it was: I painted the wall on the top picture green, but with the lopsided wall ((if that's the right term) throwing a big shadow over it, the room became gloomy. On top of things, I added a black desk to that dark wall. Even my husband's lighthearted soul couldn't prevent that the room felt more like a gothic's grotto than a happy workplace.

The room is by far not finished, though. I still want to mount some prints to the walls, the cupboard is too empty for my taste and I might want to replace the current curtains. But one thing I have learned from decorating the spaces in our home: it needs time. I'm already happy that I dared to show this result in the first place! Hurray!

Zoo, hier zijn ze dan, de foto's van de computerkamer. Wat ik altijd zo fijn vind aan inspirerende foto's van werkkamers in het algemeen in tijdschriften of op Pinterest is dat de fictieve mensen die daar werken blijkbaar alles nog met potlood en papier doen. Ergo: ik zie in die producties nooit bureaus die vol staan met een computerkast en twee beeldschermen, hooguit staat er een snoepig wit MacBookje piepklein te zijn op een hoekje van het werkblad, maar met snoepig kom ik er niet wat het bewerken van foto's betreft. Ik snap het zeker wel, want computers zijn nu eenmaal niet de meest fotogenieke items in een ruimte, maar in ons leven is onze computer toch een redelijk onontbeerlijk item gebleken. Om dus iets gezelligs te maken van een kamer waar een huge-ass computer in staat, viel me dus niet mee.

Wellicht omdat ik mijn baan kwijt raakte, of omdat mijn Lief een ontzettend ruim hart heeft, hoe dan ook, hij was bereid om wederom met mij de groen geverfde muur te behangen. Inmiddels was ik er namelijk wel uit waarom de kamer aanvoelde als een kil hol, de groen geverfde wand met het zwarte bureau ervoor vielen onder een schuine wand, waardoor het weinige licht dat er nog op viel ook nog eens geabsorbeerd werd. Zelfs het zonnige karakter van mijn lief was tegen zoveel donkerte niet opgewassen. De wand werd dus retro-vrolijk, het zwarte bureau ging naar de tegenoverliggende muur en een (wéér gele) Billie kast kwam erbij.

De kamer is zeker nog niet klaar, uiteraard. Er moet nog Van Alles aan de muren gehangen worden, de kast is nog Te Leeg, wellicht dat ik de gordijnen nog vervang...maar als er één ding is dat ik heb geleerd van het inrichten van ons huis is het dat inrichten tijd nodig heeft. De ruimte is al zo'n stuk leuker dat ik haar zelfs hier aan jullie durf te tonen! Hoezee!

Sneak preview of the new workroom

2012-01-05T17:04:00.002+01:00

This wall has been wallpapered, painted, wallpapered and painted and wallpapered again. I had to change it, it bugged me...real time. I leave you now with this sneak peek of the redecorated husbands' workroom. This time I feel confident enough to really show you the result...next Sunday!

Deze muur is behangen geweest, geverfd, behangen en geverfd en nu weer gewoon behangen. De ruimte irriteerde me, het was er te donker, te bij elkaar geraapt... te rommelhokkerig. Nu een 'sneak peek' van de kamer zoals ie nu is. Ik voel me er dit keer wel zeker genoeg over om 'm helemaal aan jullie te laten zien, aanstaande zondag zal dit dan ook gaan gebeuren! ;-)

Voor ik het vergeet: op 26 februari ga ik in samenwerking met Lisa van Elle Aime een workshop 'hertenhoofdjes maken' geven. Heel spannend om te doen! Als je mee wil doen (leuk!), of er meer over wil lezen, hier kan je doorklikken.

Meant to be together

2012-01-03T12:52:00.000+01:00

These beauties crossed my path last week. I passed by the lamp in a thriftstore three times before I noticed it. How could I not notice it? It's pure vintage devineness. I bought the wreath with a 50% discount at Sissyboy Homeland. They look like they were meant to be together. And so they are now.

Deze schoonheden kruisten mijn pad afgelopen week. Ik ben in die kringloop toch zeker drie keer langs de lamp gelopen voordat ze me opviel, hoe dat in hemelsnaam heeft kunnen gebeuren is me een raadsel, ze is het toonbeeld van hemelse vintage schoonheid. De krans kocht ik met 50% korting bij Sissyboy Homeland. Zo samen lijkt het alsof ze altijd al bij elkaar hoorden, al die jaren. En zo geschiedde.

Happy new year, happy new wall

2012-01-01T16:34:00.003+01:00

Happy new year everybody!

The wall in my studio has become much happier, now we finally mounted these great pictures. When I discovered that Martine of Een Nieuw Avontuur had added the Für Neil poster to her shop (I've been searching for ages for that one), I finally found the Sza Sza Zu the big yellow wall in my studio needed. The Smile print is a pressie from sweet Kerry of Seventy Tree and sweet Monique of 101 Woonideeën sent me the 2012 card below (it's made by Geertje Aalders).

We've done so much work in our white lady last week, she became prettier by the day. I hope 2012 will be fabulous for you all, and that the only tears that fall are those of joy (like my blogfriend Ingrid so strikingly wrote on her Christmas card).

Gelukkig nieuw jaar!

Ik ben dan -eindelijk- tevreden met de muur in mijn studio, ze is een stuk vrolijker geworden met deze geweldige prenten eraan. Ik ontdekte dat Martine van Een Nieuw Avontuur de Für Neil poster verkoopt, (ik zocht al een tijdje naar een plek waar ik die kon bemachtigen) en heb nu eindelijk de sjeu toegevoegd die de gele studiomuur nodig had. De Smile prent kreeg ik van lieve Kerry van Seventy Tree en lieve Monique van 101 Woonideeën zond me de nieuwjaarskaart gemaakt door Geertje Aalders.

We hebben ontzettend veel werk verzet in onze Witte Dame de afgelopen week, haar binnenkant is weer een stukje mooier geworden. Ik hoop dat 2012 een prachtig jaar voor jullie allen wordt en dat er (zoals mijn blogvriendin Ingrid zo prachtig op haar kerstkaart schreef) vooral alleen maar tranen van geluk zullen vloeien.

(Naschrift: ik ben -helaas!- de kleurkaart van deze kleur geel kwijt (krijg regelmatig de vraag voor de kleurcode). Ik ga een poging doen om 'm weer terug te halen, right back at ya!)

Intermission!

2011-12-27T16:53:00.000+01:00

A tinsy winsy tiny blog break this week, we are very busy with some serious home improvements (the stairs will finally get some colour on it's pale wooden bones, layers of wall-paper have to be removed and I'm also changing the husbands studio (again!). Next Sunday I'll be back and 'till that time: I hope you can all enjoy a little holiday break and I wish you a splendid and smashing new years eve (I'm very much into Christmas crackers at the moment, so there will be a lot of cracker fun in our home next Saturday :-)).

Een mini-blog pauze deze week, we zijn weer eens bezig met een paar grote klussen in huis. De trap was nog steeds kaal (en dan te bedenken dat ik die vorig jaar oktober nog vóór de verhuizing "even af wilde schilderen"), er is nog een inbouwkast met tien lagen behang op de muren (helaas geen retro behangetjes, maar van die troep met zo'n wild gemarmerd net-niet-wit motief...onder andere) en ik heb wederom snode plannen om de kamer van mijn Lief te veranderen. Om nog maar te zwijgen over de zolder die nog geschilderd moet worden....enfin. Zondag ben ik weer terug en tot die tijd hoop ik dat jullie genieten van jullie welverdiende kerstvakantie en dat jullie een geweldig leuke Oud&Nieuw zullen hebben!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T16:00:00.000+01:00

Dear all!

Wishing you and your loved ones a very, very merry Christmas!

Lieve allemaal!

Hele fijne en gezellige kerstdagen toegewenst, samen met degenen die jullie lief zijn!

The lampshade tree

2011-12-22T17:04:00.000+01:00

I carried the December edition of 101 Woonideeën around like a toddler with it's favourite plushie. The article with a DIY for a tree made with stripped lampshades was my beacon for about four weeks, I could't sleep of it, so eager was I to make one myself. (Sometimes I feel this urge to throw myself into a project and I won't rest until it's finished!) So I went on a quest for suitable lampshades to strip (I've become quite a lampshade expert) and when it was done, I also made the Christmas bunting, just because I liked it so much on the one in 101 Woonideeën (that one is actually from Rice, but I couldn't find it anywhere). I'm already dreaming of the day that my children will tell their friends "We have three Christmas trees at home, a real one, a wooden one and one made of lampshades". I then might become the Crazy Tree Woman in our village and my children will certainly have very low-profile and mainstream Christmastrees in their homes because they detest their mother's and father's silly sense of style. Ah well...in the end, it's better to be remembered as a Silly Person than a Boring Person, right? :-D

Ik heb het decembernummer van 101 Woonideeën bij me gedragen zoals een kleuter zijn lievelingsknuffel bij zich draagt. Vier weken lang was het artikel voor de zelfmaak kerstboom van lampenkappen mijn baken in een woeste zee, woest omdat ik, zodra ik mij voorgenomen heb me op een dergelijk project te werpen, er amper van slapen kan. Bijkomend voordeel van dit project is ook dat ik een soort van lampframe expert ben geworden, ook geen onhandige vaardigheid wanneer je je baan bent kwijtgeraakt (tegen dat soort Emile Ratelband achtige positiviteit kan geen kniesoor op natuurlijk). De Merry Christmas slinger maakte ik er uiteindelijk ook maar bij, omdat het exemplaar van Rice (zoals op de cover van 101) nogal onvindbaar bleek. Ik droom nu al van de dag dat mijn wellicht toekomstige kinderen op het schoolplein aan hun vrienden vertellen over de kerstbomen thuis. Wellicht zal ik vervolgens gesleten worden als het Gekke Kerstboom Vrouwtje en wellicht zullen mijn kinderen in hun eigen huis de meest gewone kerstboom mogelijk neerzetten omdat ze hun ouders' vreemde kerstversiering té belachelijk voor woorden vinden.... Toch, uiteindelijk ga ik liever de geschiedenis in als een Typisch Persoon dan een Saai Persoon. :-D

Count your blessings

2011-12-20T12:12:00.003+01:00

These weeks are all about counting off. Last days at work, last days before Christmas. Someone gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to say goodbye. Such kind gestures make my heart melt. A nice 'unplanned' evening with family and a dinner party (the unexpected get-togethers are the best!). Spending one whole day at my parents, working on my mother's sewing machine, so nice to feel like a teenager again for once. ;-) Making plans for the holidays and enjoying these very early dark and cosy days.

The Christmas crib is made by my mother. She made one for every family member!

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

Deze laatste weken betekenen vooral veel aftellen. Laatste werkdagen, laatste dagen tot kerst. Ik kreeg onverwacht een prachtige bos bloemen van iemand, om gedag te zeggen. Zulke gebaren verrassen me en doen me smelten, zo ontzettend aardig! We hadden een niet-geplande super gezellige avond met familie. De ongeplande momenten zijn vaak het leukst. Ik was een hele dag bij mijn ouders, onder het mom dat ik mijn moeders handwerk-expertise nodig had, maar stiekem ook omdat ik het heerlijk vind om me weer een beetje kind te voelen, lekker samen rommelen, koffie drinken... Vakantieplannen smeden, genieten van de donkere dagen en de lichtjes overal. De kerststal is door mijn moeder gemaakt. Je kan onze familie met kerst herkennen aan deze stal, ze maakte er voor iedereen een!

I'm loving angels instead

2011-12-18T09:50:00.001+01:00

I'm smitten with Alice Apple's colourful and fun work. This angel reminds me of the Scandinavian Christmas decorations my parents took home from their holidays in the 70s. (Quite understandably, no matter how hard I try, they won't let me have those! ;-)) I was the lucky bastard that grabbed the last felt angel before Alice closed her shop for the holidays. And something tells me this angel won't disappear in a box in the attic once the holidays are over!

Deze engel doet me denken aan de retro Scandinavische kerstversieringen die mijn ouders meenamen van hun vakanties in de jaren '70. (Ik krijg ze nog steeds niet zo gek om het allemaal aan mij te geven, maar geef ze eens ongelijk!) Ze komt uit de geweldige winkel van Alice Apple op Etsy, haar werk is kleurig en vrolijk (en ik heb nu eenmaal een zwakke plek voor kleurig&vrolijk). Ik was een gelukkige bofkont en kocht de laatste engel voordat Alice haar winkel sloot voor de feestdagen. Iets zegt me dat deze engel na de feestdagen niet in een doos naar zolder verdwijnt!

Contemplating

2011-12-15T21:14:00.000+01:00

Two more workdays and I'm officially Absent With Offical Leave.
I'm sitting here, next to the Love of my life, Molly on my lap, listening to music,
wondering what the future holds for me.

I'm so excited to start living my new life.

Nog twee werkdagen, dan ben ik officieel statenloos.
Nu zit ik hier, met mijn Lief naast me, luisterend naar muziek, Molly op schoot,
denkend aan de toekomst en wat die voor ons in petto zal hebben.
Mijn nieuwe leven kan me niet snel genoeg beginnen.

A Very Happy candleholder

2011-12-13T15:37:00.000+01:00

For ages I have been searching for a candleholder that was suitable for this little project. There needs to be some distance between the candles and the decoration and as it turns out, those are hard to find where I live. I finally found this second hand one (I love those temporary Christmas departments that currently pop up at thriftstores), simply stripped it off it's decorations (believe me, I did the thing a favour by stripping it, haha) and painted it white. Then I used beads, plastic toadstools (thrifted at that same Christmas departement), plastic animals (I love to use those, for example here and here), ribbon and binding thread to decorate the frame. One happy little project, it's as easy as that!

Ik ben tijden op zoek geweest naar een geschikte kandelaar voor dit projectje. De kaarsen moeten namelijk niet zo ver op kunnen branden dat het hele decoratie gedeelte in de fik kan vliegen. Ik vond dit frame uiteindelijk bij een kringloop, bedekt met nep dennentakken, glittersterren, bundels takjes, appeltjes...de hele bij elkaar geraapte rommel (van die decoratie die volledig willekeurig en compleet emotieloos met een lijmpistool op een krans gefoefeld is, ik ging me bij de kassa bijna verontschuldigen dat ik zoiets lelijks mee naar huis nam). Enfin, ik heb alle decoratie van het frame gehaald en het frame wit gespoten. Voor de versiering gebruikte ik lint met pailletten, kralen, Schleich dieren (die gebruik ik graag en vaak, zie hier en hier bijvoorbeeld), vintage decoratie materiaal (paddenstoeltjes, plastic bloemetjes) en binddraad om alles mee vast te zetten. Fijn nieuw leven voor de krans, leuk projectje, goede reden om weer eens naar de kringloop te gaan. Altijd goed, blij moment!

The best presents....

2011-12-11T16:33:00.001+01:00

My dear aunt made this for us.
She put a little note on the back saying:
"Made with a lot of love for you".
The best presents are the handmade ones.

Mijn lieve tante borduurde dit voor ons.

Op de achterkant stopte ze een briefje waarop staat
"Met heel veel liefde gemaakt voor jullie".
Handgemaakte cadeaus zijn de beste.

The trees are up!

2011-12-08T10:00:00.001+01:00

Once Sinterklaas has left the building, I'm stamping with impatience to put up the Christmastrees. Because, let's be honest: Sinterklaas is a nice guy and it's a nice tradition, but his coming to the Netherlands doesn't include a good reason to decorate the home with fun home decor. Santa, on the other hand, thought of a very clever way of making his celebration more attractive (and commercially exploitable)! This year's tree is small, but doesn't look like it sneaked in through the backdoor. I love it to bits. And of course, there's the Wood&Woolstooltree made by fabulous Ingrid. Happy days!

(I'd like to thank you all for your super kind comments on the previous post, your encouraging words make me feel confident that everything will be just fine!)

Direct nadat Sinterklaas zijn hielen gelicht heeft zet ik de kerstbomen in huis neer. Want, laten we eerlijk zijn, Sinterklaas is een gezellige baardige man en zijn feest is een leuke traditie, maar zijn komst gaat niet bepaald gepaard met leuke versieringen voor je huis. De Kerstman daarentegen, heeft het beter aangepakt: zijn feest komt met leuke versiering én is daardoor commercieel bijzonder goed uitbuitbaar. Clever thinking Santa! Ons kerstboompje is klein, maar lief en ziet er niet uit alsof het via de achterdeur naar binnen is geglipt, zoals die van vorig jaar. En natuurlijk hangt ook de Wood&Woolstool boom van Ingrid weer! Ze maakte er dit jaar weer een heleboel mooie bij, zie hier!

(Bedankt lieve allemaal voor jullie reacties op de vorige post, jullie aanmoedigende woorden sterken me in mijn gevoel dat alles goed gaat komen. Dat is echt onbetaalbaar, bedankt!)

Bittersweet blessings

2011-12-06T13:17:00.000+01:00

Last week was a bittersweet one. Bitter because I lost my three-day job at the office (the crisis finally reached our company), sweet because the fact that I will be without work next year means that I get the opportunity to sit down and think about what I really want with my (professional) life. Those who know me know that Planet Fur means the world to me and that it's my one and only happy place, the thing that makes my heart jump with joy and makes me smile, even in dark times. Now I might be able to turn that into a full-time job and that is, to be frank, fabulous and scary at the same time. I will be on my own, without a financial safety net. And that scares the living daylights out of me. I will be sharing my stories about this great new quest here and I truly hope you will keep me company me on this adventure!

Now the best month of the year has come, I spend my days reading Moomin, watching Sex and the City episodes and building a Christmas tree of lampshades (you can see how it's gonna look at the cover of 101 Woonideeën). And my mantra of this month will be: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Afgelopen week was een bitterzoete. Bitter omdat ik mijn vaste part-time baan gedwongen moet verlaten (de crisis heeft ook ons bedrijf bereikt), zoet omdat ik nu de kans krijg om te gaan doen wat ik echt wil met mijn professionele leven. Het is geen geheim dat Planet Fur mij het meest gelukkig maakt, het is mijn uitlaatklep, hetgeen wat mij na lang zoeken het gevoel geeft thuis te zijn gekomen. Zelfs als alles tegenzit, geeft het me de energie om positief te blijven. Ik ga nu dus nadenken en kijken hoe ik dit om kan zetten naar iets waar ik een inkomen mee kan verdienen. Laat ik ook heel eerlijk zijn: ik vind het doodeng om op eigen benen te staan, ik voel me in het diepe gegooid en ik vind het doodeng dat ik mijn comfortabele financiële vangnet kwijt ben. Maar dit is de opmaat naar iets beters, daar ben ik van overtuigd. Ik geloof niet in voorzienigheid, maar ik geloof wel dat als een deur sluit, er een venster zal openen. Ik zal hier af en toe schrijven over mijn nieuwe avontuur en ik hoop natuurlijk dat jullie met me mee willen lezen!

Nu de beste maand van het jaar is aangebroken, besteed ik mijn tijd aan het lezen van Moomin, het kijken van oude Sex and the City afleveringen (ik lach de broek van mijn billen) en aan het maken van een kerstboom van lampenkappen (hoe het moet worden zie je op de cover van de 101 Woonideeën). En ik tel, boven alles, mijn zegeningen. Stuk voor stuk.

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

The owl and the pussycat

2011-12-04T11:56:00.000+01:00

Like I said, I had koop.

And this is what you get when you make a print with a cat that looks like Molly.

This giclee print is a limited edition created by Pilgrim Lee. A long time ago I wrote about her on this blog, when I was craving her alphabet series (back than I promised myself that, if I'd ever become the owner of a castle, I'd buy the sentence O-my-Gosh-this-is-gorgeous). Pilgrim's work is inspired by colourful 60s and 70s art and design and, well...I guess she doesn't need much more introduction, she's world famous! I mean, if you're called Pilgrim you're meant to be famous aren't you? So cool! There are three other designs in this series you should really check out, you can find them here.

Zoals ik al zei, ik had koop.

En een print met een poes die op Molly lijkt kan ik niet weerstaan, uiteraard.

Deze print is een gelimiteerde oplage gemaakt door Pilgrim Lee. Tijden geleden schreef ik al over haar alfabet serie en dreigde ik de wanden van mijn huis te behangen met alle letters van dat bewuste alfabet. Pilgrim inspireert haar ontwerpen op de kleurrijke ontwerpen uit de jaren '60 en '70 en aangezien ze best wel een beetje heel erg beroemd is, heeft haar werk hier waarschijnlijk niet meer introductie nodig. Wat wil je, als je Pilgrim heet: dan ben je gemaakt om beroemd te worden, prachtig toch! Voor deze gelimiteerde serie zijn er nog drie andere ontwerpen te krijgen, je vindt ze hier.

The Flavourites loot

2011-12-01T20:02:00.000+01:00

At Flavourites Michelle and I had this super nice chat with Marian, the owner of a shop called The South is Blooming. She sells ethically traded contemporary craft and design from South-Africa, like this crocheted cactus. I have a soft spot for these kind of quirky home accessoiries, so I took this one home. It has some sweet brothers and sisters too (in a perfect world I would have bought them all), check them out here! The other loot of the day makes me smile too: a fun Etsy card and a stamp from Moosmade (a cooperation with Larie!, one of my favourite Dutch productdesigners of this moment)!

Op Flavourites spraken wij een ontzettend leuke dame van de winkel The South is Blooming. Ze verkoopt hedendaags, eerlijk handwerk uit (Zuid-)Afrika, waaronder deze gehaakte cactus. Ik ben een weekdier als het op dit soort grappige accessoires aankomt, dus ik nam deze mee naar huis. De cactus heeft een boel broertjes en zusjes (in een andere dimensie had ik ze allemaal gekocht), je kan ze hier vinden! Verder werd ik (onder andere) erg blij van het geweldig leuke drukwerk van Etsy en de stempel van Moosmade (een samenwerking met Alja van Larie!, één van mijn favoriete Nederlandse productontwerpers).

I love doodle!

2011-11-29T12:16:00.001+01:00

I've been eying up Lim Heng Swee's shop I love doodle for ages and was finally able to choose one of his supercool designs for our home. This print is both funny and smart and I love the Japanese inspired waves in the fish that are also it's scales. According to my Love I've suffered a serious attack of koop the last couple of weeks, so I will annoy you with more beautiful goodies in the next posts! :-)

De winkel van Lim Heng Swee's shop, I love doodle, is gevuld met geweldig mooie printen en ik heb, na lang klikken, twijfelen, wachten en nog eens kijken, dan ook deze print gekocht. Ik vind de afbeelding grappig en slim en ik ben gek op de Japans-achtige golfjes die meteen de schubben van de vis zijn. Ik heb een vreselijke aanval van koop gehad de afgelopen weken (volgens mijn Lief), dus in de volgende posts zullen er nog wat meer Mooie Aankopen volgen! ;-)

Sunday rest

2011-11-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

Molly takes her Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday and...) rest very seriously (and practices her skills as professional book end in the meantime).

Molly neemt de zondagsrust (een maandagsrust en dinsdagrust...) Zeer Serieus (en oefent haar boekensteun vaardigheden in de tussentijd).

Pressies

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000+01:00

I've been a fan of Erika's work for a long time, so you can imagine how my heart made a happy little jump when she was into swapping some deer of mine for some of her handmade ornaments. This lady surely knows how to wrap things beautifully and I must say, if the package had been empty, I would have been as happy with it as I am now. Clever huh? I mean man, look at that cute little camera!

Ik ben al lang fan van Erika's werk, dus mijn hart maakte een klein blij sprongetje toen we afspraken om hertjes tegen hangers te ruilen. En man, ze kan zo mooi inpakken! Zelfs als het pakje leeg was geweest, was ik er nog net zo blij mee. Ik bedoel, alleen dat piepkleine cameraatje al! Zulke dingen maken me blij.

Count your blessings

2011-11-22T15:28:00.004+01:00

Having fun making my new blogheader and discovering that a lot of new people found my blog over the past months, so nice! Since a lot of you are Dutch, I've decided to write my posts in Dutch again too. Reading old yellow paged 'Gouden Beertjes' books. Dinnerparties with friends. Four days off with my Love and no need to be anywhere for a change. A visit to Flavourites Live with Michelle and Diana, meeting a lot of old and new friends (not often I get the chance to meet so many of my Tweeps in real life) and having dinner at McDonald's afterwards (yumm).

The tree right below is crocheted by Marieke of Club Geluk, she received a prize for her beautiful booth.

Een nieuwe blogheader maken en ontdekken dat ik er veel nieuwe lezers bij heb gekregen! Omdat veel van jullie Nederlands zijn, ga ik mijn posts ook weer in het Nederlands schrijven. Oude 'Gouden Beertjes' boekjes lezen. Uit eten met lieve vrienden. Vier dagen thuis met mijn Lief, zonder afspraken (heerlijk!). Een bezoek aan Flavourites Live met mijn lieve vriendinnen Michelle en Diana, daar een heleboel leuke bekenden ontmoeten en lekker vet eten bij McDonald's als afsluiter.

De boom rechtsonder is gehaakt door Marieke (en een hulpoma ;-)) van Club Geluk, ze won terecht een prijs voor haar stand.

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

Redouté

2011-11-20T10:44:00.003+01:00

This was the funny vase I was writing about a couple of posts ago. Why would any manufacturer make a vase like this? It's strange (but therefore I like it)!

Today I'll leave you with a picture of our 'Redouté' corner. The one on top belonged to my late dear grandmother (it hung in her boudoir and it reminds me of the hours I spend there playing with her little bottles of perfume, secretly rumbling through the drawers of her little boudoir cabinets. I get so nostalgic when I think of those wonderful times we stayed at her and my grandfather). The crooked one below is thrifted. I seem to be bumping into a lot of Redouté lately, last week I found another one with a beautiful yellow rose (and left the other lot for someone else to find).

I will be meeting two friends this afternoon at the Flavourites fair, can't wait! Anki (gorgeous pics) and Yvonne (made me chuckle) already shared their experiences on their blogs, you can find their stories here and here.

Misty mountains

2011-11-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

I bumped into this vase about four times in the same thriftshop. The first four times I didn't take it home, dunno why really, 'cause it did catch my eye. The fifth time I still liked it and I felt sorry for the poor thing. I often get overwhelmed by a feeling of pity for items that nobody seem to like. So I took it home. (Now you also know why I have visited an animal shelter only once in my life, it resulted in coming home with our furry mini Nazgûl.*)

Now I look at it, I know why I like it. The triangles look like foggy mountains, the ones you find on old Japanese paintings. I love it's powdery colours. It's even more beautiful with one fragile flower in it. Every day I love it more, isn't that the perfect find?

*) Molly brought imitating the sound that Nazgûl make to perfection. We also like to call her the Kraken (kraken means creaking in Dutch).

Triangles everywhere

2011-11-15T09:00:00.007+01:00

I've been looking for a Vicky Pollard jacket for a while (wanted one from Adidas, but my wallet didn't want one from Adidas) and eventually found this one at the Divided department of H&M for a very reasonable price. It's made of 100% polyester so I can wear it on a polar expedition and still feel sweaty. The triangles made me buy it anyway.

AWOL

2011-11-13T09:00:00.001+01:00

Instead of cleaning the house last Friday I took myself for a much needed quest for junk. (I'm that type of girl who gets restless when she can't thrift every now and then.) I didn't find very much, except this cute vintage doll and a very typical plastic vase.

It feels so good, going AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) once in a while. It gives a guilty pleasure that feeling of extra-specialness...love it! Don't you just love to do something when you're not supposed to?

To get to the pictures..
I still felt our hallway was a bit too clean for my taste so I spiced it up a bit with this great alphabet poster made by Janneke of Hikjes in Huis. I'm also discovering more and more the fabulousity of washi tape (I'm not exactly the example of an early adopter), and I'm actually becoming to love it so much that there's little piles like these everywhere around the house. You can probably imagine I'm over the moon with my latest Etsy purchase: Moomin washi tape!

P.S.: For one of my product pictures I've learned to fold origami hearts. Receipts, money and old to-do lists are much better looking heart-shaped, don't you think?

Secretly marching in

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000+01:00

Some Christmas ornaments
are so un-Christmas-like
that I allow them
to secretly
settle down in our interior
in November.

Count your blessings

2011-11-08T09:00:00.001+01:00

A stroll through a beautiful yellow forest. Nice flowers. Celebrating my 30th birthday with the ones I love. My Love unfolding my new pompoms, while Molly struggles to get his attention (she can be very persuasive). (Bought the pompoms here by the way, Martine's shop makes me very happy, it's filled with paper devine-nes!) Being featured in an Italian home decor magazine called Casa Facile (thanks Ilaria)! Plus a day out with my in-laws, I'm so blessed with my bonus brothers, sisters and parents!

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

Great! Britain

2011-11-06T15:04:00.001+01:00

First of all thanks so much for all your kind birthday wishes! My birthday makes me realise all the more how many sweet people (invisible and visible ;-) I have in my life. I feel truly blessed.

I found these items in Utrecht last Friday, they come from great British shops (hence the title). On top cards by Kate Hindley (for my Dutch readers: I stumbled upon them at Dille&Kamille, the last place on earth where I would go looking for Kate Hindley cards!). Like the rest of my humongous stash of beautiful cards, they will stick to some wall or cupboard and will never be send out..ever. (Recognise that? You keep promising yourself that this time you really, 100% sure, without a doubt will send off your newly purchased, gorgeous cards? Who are we kidding?) Kate Hindley has an Etsy shop too, you can find it here, the cards with the anteater and dog can also be found at Ninetyseventythree here.

The nesting dolls come from Paperchase, I'm so happy they opened shops in The Netherlands! I keep asking the husband which one of the dolls is his favourite...and keep telling him which is mine. (I sometimes drive him bonkers with my silly childish games, haha.) In case you'd wonder, the deer is my favourite. But that's probably because he looks a bit sad. I can't stand sad looking creatures. So I compensate that by giving them a lot of love.

P.S: The husband finally made a decision: his favourite is the cat. Because it looks like Molly. What stupid reason is that? ;-DD

The big 3-0 (an Instagram birthday)

2011-11-04T17:14:00.007+01:00

Today I turned 30. To celebrate this, we went a grand day out!

1. The year I turned 30 written by Aaf Brand Corstius (a very funny lady!)
2. Cool notebooks at Paperchase
3. Very hysterical Christmasornaments at Bijenkorf
4. Yummie pastry
5. The mighty Domtoren of Utrecht (Too hot for a wintercoat: 62 F!)
6. The famous origami birds shade by Tas-ka at Maan
7. Us in the train
8. Lion on het Neude

(Already) feels good to be 30. I'm looking forward to the next 50 years :-)
(A special welcome for those who found my blog via Casa Facile! So nice of you to stop by!)

It's her happy place

2011-11-03T17:43:00.000+01:00

Molly has moved into a box. We find her like this every morning.

Even cats need a happy place.

The miracle of seasons

2011-11-01T14:40:00.004+01:00

Every time a season changes into another, I'm deeply impressed by the incredible changes in nature. When sweeping up the fallen leaves in the garden this morning, I got struck by Autumn's beauty. Look at those spectacular colours! These leaves are so beautiful just on themselves. I put them on the table and shot the picture, that's all. Nature did the rest.

Droplets

2011-10-30T13:08:00.000+01:00

I found this air-drying clay in a craftshop and I can't stop making new little items with it, it's such cool stuff! I cut out these droplets from a flattened piece of clay, punched a little hole in them and hung 'em in the window with thin fish wire. This clay is paintable, but for now I like them plain as they are.

Luckily, these are the only droplets we've seen the last weeks, the weathergods have been very kind to us!

Rather mannish

2011-10-27T21:10:00.000+02:00

May I say that it's a helluva job to decorate a man's room? Not that my Love is the kind of man that freaks out when he has to sit on a pink cushion, not at all! This whole decorate a room in a rather mannish way was my own (stupid) idea. And now that it's almost done, I'm not even sure I'm happy with the result. (Blame my current crazy hormonal-I-don't-like-a-thing-I-do-mood for it, eitherway, I didn't dare to upload pictures of the result...it's pathetic.)

So here's an impression of my humble interpretation of mannish decoration objects: a thrifted wooden hippo with a vintage Ericofon and an Adónde? pencil box which I bought at sweet Nicole's shop Babongo. A cup of very strong Italian coffee (didn't I promise myself to cut back with that Evil Juice? Yup, but that's what it's evil for!) and an iBride tray I bought a long time ago at Habitat. (We're not allowed to use any other trays or drinks or cups in the boys room, that's what it's manly for, right!)

Not sure if butterflies are very manly though.

Maybe I should just dump an old scruffy couch in and a fridge filled with beer....I'll consider that when I'm really desperate :-)

Count your blessings

2011-10-25T17:07:00.001+02:00

Our little nephew made us a beautiful rabbit's den at school. We're so proud of him, he even got the colours of our meatballs (who he loves) right. (And to be honest, it almost made me cry that he made something especially for us). Needless to say we love him to bits, we're blessed to have him in our lives.

The embroidered alpine meadow is thrifted and huge. I can't imagine that someone would want to get rid of it! I payed no more than € 2 euros for it, it's insane!

Furthermore, we celebrated a lot of birthdays the last couple of weeks, being with my family is a true blessing. And I finally redecorated the husbando's studio, of which I'll show pictures somewhere in my upcomings posts. Happy days!

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

A very early DIY Christmas tree

2011-10-23T13:29:00.001+02:00

I found the super-easy tutorial for this sweet Christmas tree on Pinterest (where else?). It's made with circular shaped pieces of felt, I made this one for my cousin (guess which colours are her favourite?).
Look for the tutorial here.

(I collect cool 'n easy DIY projects (and lots more) on my Pinterest boards. You can find me here.)
Enjoy your Sunday!

Work - Silence

2011-10-20T09:00:00.006+02:00

I've mentioned it a thousand times already, but oh, I love my quiet workdays. Those days when I can tick things off my long to do lists. When I can drink as much coffee as I like (I really should cut back with that strong Italian coffee though, it makes me behave like a Chipmunk....RRRRRRRRR) I'm also following the Decor8 Blogging your Way e-course, which I can really recommend (if you'd consider subscribing). It's nice to overthink things while sewing or photographing.

The felt house I'm making is the home of my late grandmother and - father. I guess I'm trying to deal with losing them by doing something creative with their home, the only touchable, earthly memory that's left of my life as a granddaughter. Oh I miss being someone's granddaughter. So much, that one day I might pick two elderly people off the streets and pronounce them my grandparents (yep, I miss it so much, I'm capable of kidnapping ;-)). I guess all I want to say is: if you still have someone you call your grandfather or -mother, please cherish him or her. Or, if you don't, give them to me.

Enough (before I break into tears)!
It's also time to announce the new Craft It Forward participants! Thank you all so much for your nice comments on my give-away! The following people will receive a little deer from me:

Lou - Kylie - Lisa - Amanda and Ladybug&Co

Please send me your details at info[at]planetfur.nl ladies and good luck with your own Craft It Forward projects!

Let's play Craft It forward

2011-10-18T13:55:00.001+02:00

Let's play craft it forward! I joined in with Kerrie's Craft It Forward a while ago and she sent me the renowned fabulous 'Smile' print, handmade by her! Kerrie has this lovely blog called Seventy Tree (one of my daily reads) so you can probably imagine how happy I am with this cool addition to our interior. Thanks so much Kerrie!

The principle of Craft It Forward is quite simple actually, here's how we play:

I will send one of these five handmade (by me) little deer to the first five people that comment on this post. They must then post what I have sent them on their own blogs and pass it on (send something handmade to the first five people to comment) and so on. It can be anything, as long as it is handmade by you. It must be sent out by the end of 2011 (or somewhere in the beginning of 2012, since there's not much left of 2011 ;-))

So...let’s play Craft It Forward!

I'll confirm my five craft buddies in my next post

(assuming someone wants to play :)).

Stinky

2011-10-13T15:14:00.066+02:00

I'm currently reading the Moomin Comic Strips written by Tove Jansson. Stinky, the 'furry mammal' that lives in Moominvalley is my favourite character. He's a villain, he has an unbearable stench (which explains his name) and attempts to make the Moomins break the law ever so often (like in the picture above, where he persuaded the Moomins to let him use their cellar for one of his scoundrelly plans).

In Copenhagen I found the perfect substitute for my favourite action figure: a Stinky magnet. ('Cause let's be honest, since I'm turning 30 this year, I can't seriously buy real action figures for myself anymore, can I? ;-))

Count your blessings

2011-10-11T13:25:00.003+02:00

Pfew, busy times! Nevertheless, I'm overall busy with fun stuff and that's a blessing huh?

We are so blessed with our White Lady. Our quiet Sunday mornings when we drink coffee (real Italian coffee made with our little old-school Bialetti coffee machine) along with a giant piece of speculaas (my favourite Dutch treat). The launchparty we photographed together (meeting friends and having lots of fun dressing up). Dinner with two of my oldest and best friends. Going to the cinema with my cousin. And the Autumn weather that gives cuddling up with a cup of hot chocolate that extra cosy feeling.

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Saskia, Sacha, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series (please let me know if I forgot someone!).

50mm

2011-10-07T15:00:00.001+02:00

Been playing with the (fixed focal length) 50 mm lens. I never really used it, but after the launchparty we became good friends. This lens makes it possible to shoot pictures with a massive depth of field, which makes images (often) a lot more interesting than the entirely sharp ones (it took me ages to translate this by the way, does anyone know a good photography-dictionary?).

The more I make pictures, the more I love it. The more I do it, the more I learn, the more I like the pictures I made. It's just that simple!

P.S: The pictures me and my husband made at the Appracadabra launchparty are online now! Check them out here!

Succulents and doilies

2011-10-05T14:45:00.002+02:00

I'm quite fond of succulents. I am in fact a bit of a plant lover (not to be mistaken for a tree hugger) and I'm the happiest girl on the planet if you let me dig in dirt, preferably in the drizzling rain. Which is strange for a girl who usually washes her hands about 40 times a day and in whose home you could eat from the floor (without getting sick). Psychologists will definitely have an explanation for this behaviour, but that's not the point of this post.

Anyhooow.

A while ago, some people gave us succulents in a very very ugly flowerpot as a present (with a risk of sounding ungrateful, but it really was beaten with an ugly stick*). Since I wouldn't even think of throwing away the biotope in it (and hey, the flowerpot might also look better if I painted it green!), I pulled those out and put them in my lately thrifted bowl, together with some stones I took home from our trip to Denmark. On Pinterest (my latest addiction) I found this great tutorial for a table runner made with vintage doilies. I love that the doilies made by our beloved late-grandmothers are now united in one contemporary piece of home decor.

After all, much better!

*) Must thank mister Austin Powers for that fab line.

The Appracadabra launch

2011-10-02T20:49:00.008+02:00

Last Saturday was a Big Day. For me, but especially for the four wonderful people on the left picture: Diana, Marlis, Xander and Jochem of Appracadabra launched their first App for children: count the animals. They celebrated this first launch with a circus themed party and asked me to take pictures of this Special Day. And special it was!

The location where they threw the party was absolutely stunningly decorated, with a huge circustent made of paper flags as the merry centre of it all. There where a lot of fun things to do for kids and most guests came dressed up circus themed, which gave the party an extra dimension of cheerfulness. There where pancakes, balloons, soap bubbles, confetti and lots more to complement the lot. I actually felt I had jumped back in time and walked through one of those old circuses from times gone by...smashing!

So..if you want to learn to count to 20 in a foreign language (in a fab way!), or just want to enjoy the pictures of the launchparty (totally worth checkin'!), check the Appracadabra website every now and then the upcoming week. I most be off now, there's pictures that need to be edited!

Left: The Appracadabra team dressed up for the big party.
Right: Felix played Long Legged Gentleman for a day, he did such a swell job!

Washed upon a cushion

2011-09-29T11:41:00.002+02:00

Since I've changed the studio Molly doesn't want to sleep in my desk anymore. We don't know if it's the change of seasons or just her behaving like a queen, eitherway, I had to find a new place for her to stay in my studio when I'm at work there (just because it's so cozy when she's near. She snores a bit when she sleeps, so funny!)

Anyway, when I casually threw her cushion (Molly owns a lot of cushions, once she has sat on one it's so hairy, we don't want to sit on it anymore and we consider it hers) on the ground next to me, I later found her sleeping like this, like she crashed into it. She looked like a little seal washed upon the shore. Molly makes loving her so easy.

Count your blessings

2011-09-27T11:38:00.001+02:00

So much to be happy about! Little Molly who makes us smile (She's so soft! She's so sweet! She's so cuddly! Oh my gosh, how much we love that little hairball!) Fabulous thriftfinds. (The dish at the right is very old I reckon. It looks like the print is somehow stamped and not painted on and it has these black smudges, like the creator accidently smeared the paint. Yes, I've been practicing my Serious Investigator's skills again.) Enjoying the things we took home from our trip to Denmark. A delightful weekend away with my dear, dear family (and the fact that this nasty flu hit my body at the end of the weekend and not at the beginning, that's a blessing too!). And last but definitely not least: the sun shining!

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series.

Hebbie koop?

2011-09-21T18:01:00.005+02:00

When we feel like buying something, here in our home we say: "Hebbie koop?" It's hard to translate, but when we have "koop" we feel the unstoppable urge to buy something...anything.

In Denmark I had a lot of koop. These are a few of the things I found, from lovely paper from Grenes to cushions and towels from Gronlykke. Sweet Iris (my personal Sweden shopping expert) tipped me to pay Malmö in Sweden a visit too, if only to shop at Lagerhaus. We did, and I went a tiny bit bezerk there, such cool contemporary items for very reasonable prices (okay, that sounded a bit like a pay-off for Big Boy)! And I've always wanted to become the owner of a cloud shaped sponge!

I did some thrifting (of course!) too and found some 'season plaques' of Bjorn Wiinblad for 3 euros each. So, I'm a very happy girl (which I was already before these finds, I'm not that materialistic) and I think I know where I want to go on vacation next Summer :-)

Denmark III

2011-09-19T09:00:00.002+02:00

Denmark II

2011-09-18T14:43:00.001+02:00

Finding something ugly in a country like Denmark is very very hard. I found for example the most beautiful home products in the most crappy discount supermarket for very little money. Seeing gorgeous design everywhere (even the logo of the crappy supermarket was fab!) made me feel humble and overall, very amateuristic about my own home interior. I guess I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, it's just no use trying to describe how much I loved being surrounded by so much loveliness for a whole week!

Denmark

2011-09-17T23:07:00.002+02:00

Just got back from Denmark, we had such a fab time! I'll be back to blogging and will be answering e-mails tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow :-)), but first I need to unpack all the fabulous items I bought (and do the laundry, the less fun part of coming home)!

The biggest friggin Hermione on the planet

2011-09-09T15:48:00.001+02:00

Need I say more?

I made this party girl with a little help from my sewing machine.

The party bunting on her neck is handstitched.
She's made from nice thick grey felt and with a Lot of Love.

She's quite the character: she brought her own party hat and
in the wink of an eye, the studio was sprinkled with confetti!

No rest for the wicked

2011-09-06T15:14:00.002+02:00

This ever-changing mood of mine made me change my studio last weekend. To be honest, I didn't like the arrangement of the space that much, so when vacuum cleaning it last week, I felt the urge to change it (what great ideas have popped up during vacuum cleaning!).

Looking at these pictures it strikes me that, despite the effort of trying to make the rooms in our home look calm and clean, like for example Geninne's tidy and tranquil workspace, they actually look like a rainbow exploded there (my brother-in-law calls it a Happy Chaos (vrolijke bende). However, reorganising every shelf, drawer and cabinet soothed my restless mind a bit and now that's done I can focus on my latest new obsession: old children's books.

P.S: I'm playing Craft it Forward and will be giving away five little deer soon! Please read more about Craft it Forward on Kerry's beautiful blog here! Stay tuned!

Toile de Table Cloth

2011-09-01T12:26:00.002+02:00

I found this Toile de Jouy fabric at Dutch discount store Kwantum. It's colour combination is a bit weird, especially for a store like Kwantum that generally doesn't sell very daring things in their stores. The weirdness did attract me though, so I bought it.

I've been craving for some yards of real Toile de Jouy fabric for ages, but when I finally found it in a French shop for a reasonable price, I didn't dare to order some because then I had to speak French and that's no language I speak very well. (The only time I took the French-speaking-plunge was when I found some vintage-button-heaven-store in a tiny French village, but the lady that worked there was so unkind that I promised myself to never to have to order something in French again. I got my buttons, but it took my ego weeks to rehabilitate from that embarrassing experience.) Luckily, my patience (or reluctance) finally paid off and now I have my own Toile de Jouy without the busted ego. Can things get any better? Nay I say!

Count your blessings

2011-08-29T18:31:00.006+02:00

What made me happy last week?

Us being together for 12 years. A meet-up with sweet Diana at Appracadabra and our thrift adventure that evening with Michelle and Erika. We had so much fun! Dahlia's for my new Chinese vase. My dearest, cheeky little nephews riding racing stripes (they can sit on it together, so cute!). Making a new table-cover... and the first big Hermione the Rhino ever (which will get a seperate post, of course)!

Writing this makes me realise that even the most common week withholds so much blessings. I feel truly and utterly blessed by that.

Anki started counting her blessings, Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Suus, Tabitha and I joined her in this series.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

2011-08-27T20:49:00.007+02:00

Decorating is the ongoing and favourite project in our home. This corner in our livingroom makes me so, so happy, as it turned out how I imagined it to be: bright and funny.

I'm always on the lookout for accessories that are funny or on the edge of tacky ('cause let's be honest, white cockatoo and dog statues do fall in that categorie of items that could ruin your good reputation). There's always room for eyebrow-raising items in our home and the louder visitors yell that an item is very and utterly Not Done or sheer ugly (people tend to say "Oh, that is so very you", in other words: "It's as mad and wacky as you are" ;-)) the more I become to love it, secretly. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In my humble opinion, as long as the space makes you smile in whatever way, your good. No matter what other people say (unless that makes you like it more, then you're good also...;-))

Last week I visited a thriftshop with some sweet former-cyberspace friends (my shop and blog brought so much happiness and sweet people into my life!) where I bumped into the fellow below. My thriftcompanion bumped into it at that same moment, but kindly (and generously!) let me buy it, which made me blush and even more appreciate this treasure. I can see why we both loved it, his ears and little tail are hysterical, yet he's the cutest guy I stumbled onto in months. He made us laugh and so he passed my bended rules of beauty and found a place in our living room. Happy endings all over the place.

Chatterbox

2011-08-24T12:57:00.003+02:00

When I found the picture on the right on Flickr (photo made by Minitoko) I had a good reason to add the Fisherprice Chatter Phone to my thrifty-wishlist (I tend to invent new English words like I do in Dutch, please forgive me if it sounds like total Gobbledygook!). Anyway, I love the idea of mounting this phone to a wall. Maybe I should hang it somewhere low and pretend that Molly uses it to call her flat brothers and sisters (I have a lively imagination, so I can totally imagining her picking up the horn an meowing in it).

Count your blessings

2011-08-21T16:49:00.002+02:00

From now on I'm gonna count my blessings every week. I enjoy reading the 'Blessings' posts of other bloggers very much and I feel it's very important to realise we have a lot of reasons to be happy for! So I'm joining Anki (the one who started counting her blessings), Anne, Arnika, Belinda, Debora, Esther, Frederieke, Froukje, Iris, Judith, Leontien, Maartje, Maartje, Mariëlle, Marit, Martine, Marie-Lu, Maureen, Mireille, Suus and Tabitha in this series.

Boy, there were a lot of things that made me happy this week! There's of course Little Mole, who makes us laugh with everything she does (even when she sleeps). There was this nice evening walk with my parents. And a grand day out with my Love: we went thrifting (I married the most wonderful man that wants to go thrifting with me, which is on itself one big blessing) and I found the world famous Chatter Telephone of Fisherprice (in good condition, more about that in a different post). After that, we went to Utrecht where I bought the cute Nümph dress and some fab Marimekko scraps of fabric for € 1,-! We strolled around a bit, ate sushi and enjoyed the weather (the sun shined friendly, it was a bit windy, not too hot). It was a perfect Summer day.

The song of Gotye made me very happy too, I watched the clip endless times last week, I think it's the most original clip I've seen in ages. I can be a bit of a Teletubbie when it comes to songs or movies, I can watch or listen to them over and over, until somebody gets sick and tired of it and offers me money to stop doing that (that really happened once, when my brother offered me 50 euros to get me stop listening to a record of Savage Garden. In didn't work though).

What made you happy this week?

Meet our meatballs

2011-08-17T21:10:00.002+02:00

Molly isn't the only one who has about a hundred nicknames, our two rabbits are victim too of my never ending urge to give things (alive or not) silly names. Their official names are Haas and Streep (if I translate this, it's gonna sound pretty silly, but since the nicknames I'm gonna write about are even more silly, I'll give it a shot) in English they're called Hare and Stripe. There you have it.

I like to call them The Meatballs because of their brown with gravy like appearance. They also listen to the name Furpants (Bontbroeken). When I make a grocery list I write 'Vegetable for Furpants' on it, or shout at the husband "Hun, did you get food for the meatballs yet?!". At the moment, I prefer to call them Bruuske and Shania (and pronounce it like the Flemings do: "Allez! Bruuske!").

I keep laughing about it even when the joke is long past it's perishable date. Ah well, our meatballs don't mind. As long as we give them their Furpants food in time.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox

2011-08-14T15:15:00.004+02:00

And yet another cake topper. These foxes would be wonderful for an Autumn wedding I reckon, but they'd also fit a wedding that takes place in a forest (I tend to get very romantical when it comes to fantasizing about weddings). I'm not even sure it's permitted to marry in a forest in The Netherlands, but customers from the U.S. often e-mail me the most fabulous wedding locations, is that because of the hugeness of the country or is their government just less keen on silly little rules like ours? Eitherway, they will appear in the shop and since I finally got rid of that evil slow holiday rythm, the shop will open again the upcoming week!

08/16/2011: Shop is open again!

Vavavooom

2011-08-11T12:13:00.004+02:00

The hallway in our home was one of those places that bugged me. Like the word already says: it's a space you come across a dozen times, but not immediately important enough to give the highest priority when it comes to decorating. Still, it bugged me. It just needed that bit of Vavavoom...you feelin' me? So I decided to paint it. Not the whole space, 'cause I'm a major coward when it comes to painting walls in different colours (let alone a whole room in one) but just one wall to start with (and probably leave it to).

To cut things short: I hated the result at first. Because of the 80s tinted glass in the wall, our hallway is a bit dark and as the paint hadn't dried yet (I was a tiny bit hasty with my judgement about the result) it seemed the green became a bit greyish and dark, definitely not the result I had in mind.

That evening I annoyed my followers on Twitter with my doubts (luckily they reacted very sympathetic and advised me to sleep over it and Let-It-Dry-First!!), slept over it, worked a day, came home and all of a sudden the wall looked a lot better (ergo: it had dried). I love it now! To complement the lot, I painted one of my vintage West-Germany vases fluor pink (I added a primer and two layers of spray coating and it's still not entirely pink, which definitely increased my respect for professional painters) and we mounted the vintage flower chandelier. Now I love to cross this space. In fact, if it wasn't so draughty, I'd be transferring the telly there.

(When we switch the light on Cornelis appears. Cornelis de Graeff was mayor of Amsterdam somewhere in the 17th century. Design by Nicolette Brunklaus.)

Some new stuff

2011-08-09T13:56:00.001+02:00

I'm working on new designs and I've learned that that process can be a very happy one, but also a very frustrating one. Frustrating when I'm not satisfied at all with a design (even after making a couple of prototypes) and when I feel like I'm spilling precious time with sketching, trying and not-be-satisfied with the result. What I did learn is that this process is inevitable if you want to keep renewing and offering new cool things to your customers (and, of course, defy yourself to try something new).

The making of this new cake topper fortunately was a happy one. So happy that I even made a tiny little felt hat for the groom, which took about as much time as making the whole owlette. But I'm not complaining, I love the result. Another very happy aspect of new products is crowning them with some nice photos (and for this project, fold origami hearts to decorate it with)!

Overall I'm learning a lot about myself and the creative process (and that creativeness isn't a very easy to direct flow). If you like these two, I can already make them for you. You can contact me at info[at]planetfur.nl. They will also appear in the shop once I open it again (which will probably be somewhere in August..this year ;-))

[Photographing] in Ghent

2011-08-04T22:23:00.005+02:00

(The owner of the dog above must have been at the point to call the police 'cause some strange couple kept staring at his window.)

I love the grandeur and charm of Belgium cities Antwerp and Ghent. We've traveled to those cities a hundred times, but they can't bore me. I love the kind and polite people of Belgium and their gentle Flemish (which makes Dutch sound so loud and pushy, myself very much included since I have the most loud voice on this side of the globe). After this intro it's kinda needless to explain we stayed there last week for some shopping, strolling and eating. At Zappa in Antwerp I found the most fab red peeptoe shoes that my poor feet can handle and we paid Habitat a visit: look at this To Dribble For tableware by Ella Doran! (For the love of my marriage, Molly and everything else I hold dear I restrained myself from buying it, by the way.)

The weather was kind to us and I accidentally booked a suite instead of a room at the hotel (which turned out to be no more expensive but was twice as much fun!) so for three days we could pretend we had an apartment in Ghent (without a kitchen that is, but who needs a kitchen when he owns an apartment in Ghent?! ;-))

(Renowned wallpaper shop Priem in Ghent, owned by two (in the meanwhile) very old sisters. The last times we visited Ghent they were on holiday leave, but this time we were lucky! When you visit Ghent be sure you don't miss out on the Priem experience!)

There was, of course, also time for some serious thrifting and I scored an amazing (hopefully working and hopefully not to noisy) cuckoo clock for 9 euros. I just need to ask my Love if he wants to mount it for me (pretty please with sugar on top?) and once that has happened, I'll show it here!

Soo, that's what I've been up to last couple of days. Now I have to get to the less fun part of a mini-break: tyding up the suitcases. And give Molly some serious TLC, for she has missed us as much I as we missed her (we hope)...!

[Dreaming]

2011-07-31T14:24:00.002+02:00

Playing with Lightroom.

Listening to the American Recordings by Johnny Cash.
(Sad songs about cowboys in prison and loved ones leaving on eveningtrains.
A lot of people left on eveningtrains in those days, at least according to his songs!)
Reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
(Almost finished it and already regretting that.)
Trying to keep the Begonia's alive (I think I won't win the battle this time).

Oh Sunday, sweet, quiet Sunday, I love you so.

[Thrifting]

2011-07-28T12:31:00.000+02:00

When I finally got the space to take home a Ikea Trollsta sideboard, it had disappeared from the collection. And what didn't help either by processing this loss is that I am going through a yellow stage at the moment. I-had-to-have-it. I've been praying upon it since, browsing the internet, e-mailing people on Marktplaats (our Dutch E-Bay) and see it snatched away right under my nose about a dozen times.

Then the Summer came. A lot of people went on holiday. And a lot less people paid attention to the Marktplaats advertisements. I searched, e-mailed and finally..finally! I got it! For not even a third of it's original price (even though I would have paid the original price, for remember, I am still a girl who's vision is clouded by some silly colour obsession).

Apparantly I'm not the only one going through a yellow fase, but luckily some people got annoyed by all that yellow and wanted to get rid of it. Yay!

[Sewing]

2011-07-24T14:14:00.001+02:00

Little bear is one of the creatures I'll be adding to the shop when it opens again. I'm very into cute pink cheeks at the moment, so it was no surprise that little bear turned out to be a bit of a blushy guy (or girl? I'm not sure yet!) too. The pattern needs some improvement here and there, but I already like him. I really have to think of a name for him, which is a delicate task, for I don't want him to carry a silly name for the rest of his life (although a very mainstream name wouldn't do justice to him either I guess). Nothing came up though (the rainy wetter makes me and my brain extremely slow at the moment). So..if a suitable name pops up in your head right at this moment and you like to share it with us, be our guest! Me and little bear would be eternal grateful if you could help us out!

Thrifting Sewing Photographing Dreaming

2011-07-20T15:25:00.002+02:00

I'm currently filling my days with my favourite activities. I sew, take pictures, thrift and dream. Listen to fab music (for example Soul Steppin' with a selection of the most fab 80s soulmusic), meet up with friends and go out for dinner.

And count my blessings.

I shot this picture with our new camera. Have a lovely day my dears!

Can(n)onball

2011-07-17T13:15:00.003+02:00

Our new camera arrived this week and we're both as happy as two little children can be. With every new discovered feature we (well, mostly me) go Oooooeee and Aaaaah (25MB for one RAW picture? Oeoeoeoeoe! Creative filters? Aaaaaah!)

Even though I grew up in an era of fast developing techniques, I'm still so very impressed by every technical improvement or invention the Nerds of this World come up with. That's why I married a nerd (in the most positive matter of speaking), he keeps impressing me with his tales of tweeked phones, faster calculating computers and other mind-blowing technical devices and inventions.

This morning I shot a couple of pictures of my studio just for shits and giggles. Above a picture of my big studio cupboard (that's still not big enough for my bad hoarding habits), below Molly occupying my studio chair again (I actually called this picture 'Molly Doing What She Does', because every other picture on my computer of her is already called 'Molly Sleeping' and I couldn't notice any difference between them anymore).

An apple a day give-away

2011-07-12T11:31:00.002+02:00

Writing this post reminds me of something that happened at one of my first jobs (I was so young and blue, but back then I felt, so to speak, I possessed wisdom and no one could tell me otherwise). At that office we worked with those old-school little tape-recorders and my job was basically working (read: typing) out what the Suits in the office had recorded. One day, one of my collegues worked on this tape of one very cocky collegue and when she had finished the document she didn't stop and rewind the tape, but without thinking, she kept the tape running. She could hear this collegue make a phonecall with another office, arguing and negotiating about a case and when he finally hung up, he said to himself (not knowing his recorder was still recording everything he said) "I am SUCH a winnerrrrrrrr!!". How hilarious is that? Well, we thought it was. (And of course, we subtly let him know we knew...)

But anyways, today there's a real winner to chose! This time my lovely cousin wasn't available to help me draw one, so I used random.org this time. Sad thing is, now I don't have a good excuse anymore to invite my sweet cousin to our home for some good-old winner drawing, I have to think of another solution to make her come over...or do I really sound like some freaky kidnapper now?

The winning number is:

The 17th comment in the commentslist comes from Anki of Zilverblauw
(which is, now I'm writing about it, a gorgeous blog)!

Congratulations Anki and please send me your address, you can e-mail me at info[at]planetfur.nl. Thanks so much everyone, for participating and for your kind comments! I like this concept very much, so there will be another give-away in the (near) future. Have a lovely day!

Summer goodness or Molly Sunday

2011-07-10T18:55:00.000+02:00

For Molly every day is a Sunday. When I leave the house for Things That Need To Be Done I often feel jealous of her, seeing her lying on a chair, sound asleep without a single care or worry in her world.

Today we finally had a quit Sunday since weeks. So we sat next to our Persian princess to read, think and generally do nothing in particular. I envy her for being able to do that every single day.

The Hermione Prototype

2011-07-08T13:25:00.002+02:00

My Love gave me the book 'Misfit' about Hella Jongerius' work as a present. Most foreign people know Jongerius for her design of the PS Jonsberg vases and wall hangings for Ikea, furthermore she's one of the most influential Dutch designers of our time (and that still doesn't do enough justice to her enormous efforts for Dutch design and design in general). I visited an exhibition about her work in the Boymans van Beuningen museum a while ago, the book is a perfect addition for those who want to learn more about her work. I love the way Hella Jongerius combines industrial techniques with good old craftmanship and how her designs seem to have this conceptual, raw look, like the wallhanging for Vitra on the picture below. That said, I also think her work is very accessible for people like me that have a difficulty with understanding the meaning of a lot of art movements (Like the 'Hey-look!-A-pile-of-cow-dung-on-a-stick!-That-must-represent-the-way-people-hang-on-to-their-life-and-to-the-world-in-general' kind of art movements.) To come to the subject of this post: when I worked on my first bigger-than-usual-Hermione-the-Rhino-prototype, I wanted her to have this raw finish too. Not that I feel the least worth to even stand in Hella's shadow (I'm not that stupid ;-)), but I'm quite happy with the raw result of this project.

I made this Hermione on my sewing machine by the way, which was again a very nice and recommendable experience (recommendable because, if you'd still feel reluctant to use your sewing machine, you should really just go for it! If I can make it work, anybody can! And things go much faster on the machine, which is also very nice for an impatient person like me.)

I closed the shop for a while for I felt it was time to work on some new ideas and get creativity flowing again. Sometimes it's good to step back, look and think, to keep going and keep liking what you do. I love this time-out and I hope it will bring me more and new inspiration for new creations for my little shop. So, I'm dying to know: do you like this new rhino? Please let me know, I'd love to hear your comments!

(July 9: Perfectionist as I am I changed the photo of the prototype, I kept feeling the other one wasn't postworthy enough!)

La douce France

2011-07-04T16:25:00.002+02:00

This weekend we went on a short trip to France. We did what you're supposed to do when you're in France: we strolled along the shore, ate smelly cheeses (well I did, the smellier the better!) and visited Boulogne (a wonderful French town, but really, all the places in France have this kind of pitturesque-ness over them).

I love how the sea becomes almost silver coloured and how all colours fade to pastels when the sun shines bright. And I love the humongous amount of craftbooks that's available in France. I bought this gorgeous cross-stitch and embroidery book called 'Japon au point de croix', by Anne Sohier-Fournel (really, even if you would hate cross-stitching, you'd love this book!). I'm determined to make the cross-stitched kokeshi and, if I'd retire in short notice, I'd stitch the carp and all the lucky cats too.

If you're craving for more shots of the book, take a peek at this post at byPetra's blog here (that girl traveled to Japan once, I'm green with envy)!

So..that's what I've been up to this weekend. And now I'm here, you can still join the apple oilcloth give-away 'till the 11th of July, so don't miss out on that one!

Larie!

2011-06-30T21:32:00.005+02:00

Larie! (loosely translated as Gibberish!) is one of my favourite Dutch labels at the moment. Me and Alja (the sweet and super funny lady behind the label) have been Tweeps for a while and a couple of months ago she invited me to visit her at her lovely Larie! studio for a real Tweetup. *) Alja creates the most lovely and original iPhone sleeves, keycords, bags (and lots more) with her embroidery machines (she has like, five different sewing machines, I couldn't stop drewling by the sight of so many cool machines...and her beautifully decorated studio. I mean, there was some serious drewling going on man!) I almost kidnapped the (not for sale) horse on the picture below and I almost lured Alja's sweet dog into my car, so I guess she was happy that I left the building with only one bag filled with Larie! goodness in the end of the day. (And my Love was happy he didn't have to pick me up from the police station.) So.. this first tweetup ever was a big success (and I think Alja is happy to hear that the pictures with her on it turned out too dark...even though I promised her I would not post non-flattering pictures of us here :-D) Thanks Alja, you rock!

Check out the Larie! webshop here (and make sure you bring a big bag with money with you...and don't say I didn't warn you)!

(I have to find a way to get my hands on that horse.)

*) Tweeps = Twitterian for friends, tweetup = meet-up (I was a total nerd when it came to Twitter until I joined a while ago, so a little translation wouldn't hurt eh? I often wonder who thought of that silly but yet so funny Twitter gobbledygook. In the beginning I was determined to resist all that Twitter nonsense, but here I am now...heavily addicted. I might even invent some Twitterian myself in the future...)

Blossom in Summer and another give-away

2011-06-28T15:52:00.001+02:00

I replaced the once blooming and now terribly dry (and bit sad) branches I kept in the Jonsberg vase with this fake bouquet. The most fun about fake flowers is that you can put together all kinds of flowers that, in real life, would never bloom in the same period. Furthermore, the search for flowers big enough for the huge Jonsberg vase was getting a bit too annoying (one way or another, I kept buying flowers that completely disappeared when putting them in the vase). So, no more annoying flowers quests for me anymore, I will have blooming cherry branches and Anemones in the middle of Summer, Autumn and Winter...happy happy joy joy!

A dear friend of mine bought me the cute apple-oilcloth. It comes from a super nice Danish store and since she bought me two, I'm giving away the other one to one of my dear followers. Just because it's Summer and because I enjoyed my last give-away so much. And don't worry, giving away the 2nd oilcloth won't cause a big catfight with my friend, I got all the angles covered (in case you were wondering). It measures 200x140 cm (that's, if I'm correct, 79x55 inches).

What you have to do to join?
Leave a comment and of course, I would really appreciate it if you'd become a follower to this blog, if you aren't yet. You can join where ever you are. I'll draw a winner at the 12th of July!

Racing stripes

2011-06-25T10:00:00.003+02:00

I could not resist this little fellow. I'm gonna replace the silly bamboostick that got in the place of his former handles and I'm gonna give him a good clean. And I'm gonna love him for the rest of his days, because he's so darn cute. I've always wanted a rocking zebra when I was a little girl (I realised that when I stumbled into him, it wasn't much of a childhood trauma). It's always nice when one can fulfill a childhood's dream (even when you turn 30 that same same year. Ah well...some people buy the car they dreamt of when they were little, I buy a rocking zebra).

I'm off to the Meet the Blogger happening in Amsterdam now to talk Lifestyle Blogging for one whole sweet afternoon. Have a lovely weekend my dears!

Brown

2011-06-23T23:16:00.002+02:00

I wasn't a huge fan of the colour brown. But combined with vivid colours, brown becomes beautiful, a thing designers perfectly understood in the 60s and 70s. Every time I stumble upon a piece from those era's, I'm stunned by the wild colour combinations they used back then.

I'm a bit of a nerd, so I have a habit of exploring these kind of finds from very nearby (can you imagine me already? With a vase sticked to my nose? I should ask a magnifying glass for my birthday and practice more on my Serious Investigator's Look). The vase at the left for example, has these very tiny pale yellow and green spots, colours you'd never expect on an old German Vase from the 70s.

I gave this cute lampbase a Rie Elise Larsen shade, to give it a bit of a contemporary twist. I've doubted for ages about the colour for the shade, but I think I'm gonna like it (it's like that time I bought the Smurf blue curtains for our bedroom, sometimes it takes some time to get used to stuff. I guess my gut is as daring as those old designers, whereas my mind is still a bit conservative). In the end I had to buy it before the husband did, I drove him crazy with my whining "what colour to choooooose?!".

So... even brown has now the potential to get in my top ten of favourite colours, as long as it's combined with bright oranges, greens, purples or reds.

Our white brick home

2011-06-19T11:15:00.005+02:00

There was one thing we were absolutely, one hundred percent sure about when we went on our Quest-For-A-New-Home last year. We would not, I repeat, not buy a home build with white bricks. In our humble opinion, people who lived in a white brick home were idiots and above that, had no taste. They had to be arrested and punished for the fact that they voluntarily chose to live in a white brick home. Overall, we thought white brick homes were ugly. Period.

And then we fell in love. Truly, madly, deeply. With a white brick home.

We love our white lady. Now the painter is almost done with his work (the woodwork turned from brown and yellowish white to dark blue and bright white), we love her even more (as far as that's possible!). She looks like she is ten years younger and like she's ready to go to the Pub and pick up men half her age now. She's gorgeous and she knows it!

That's how things go in life. You think you want Prince Charming, you fall in love with Shrek. Who turnes out to be the best thing that ever happened to you...

(A "Hi!" to all new followers! Welcome to my little blog, I hope you'll like it here! Want to get to know me a bit better? Check out the 'About me' page. Have fun and thank you!)

Eclectic

2011-06-16T09:00:00.001+02:00

The little girl in me still loves statues of animals (mostly dangerously on the edge of kitsch). My eyes for detail love the look of flowers on old crockery, preferably those very detailed ones like the one on the teapot above. I love colors, but I couldn't live in a home with walls painted in every color of the rainbow, but I do love those bold and simple patterns from the 60s and 70s. I'm so very glad they invented that wonderful name 'eclectic' to cover my love for a hotchpotch of design!

Today I've been playing with my camera again. I love how those detailed patterns on old crockery come out even more beautiful when you photograph them from closeby. How the light reflects. And how on the picture the left side of this teapot almost becomes invisible with that bright Summer light.

I often feel that my blog is one big adverse mess of non-connected pictures of a lot of old stuff. But now I think about it, it is just really who I am. Eclectic! But would you please excuse me now, I have to go and stare at some detailed patterns and my animal statues are screaming for attention. So long!

Marie-Claire Idées

2011-06-13T14:16:00.002+02:00

I've been saying (or should I say threatening?) that I want to buy a sewing-machine for ages. Since my attempts to learn myself to knit and crochet ended up in two major disillusions, I reckoned that, since I am good with machines (read: computers) I should be able to work with a sewing-machine. And even when it ends up with madly-throwing-crochet-needles-in-a-corner-of-a-room, it's a good thing to learn something new (and learn that you're not made for crocheting or knitting). In short, working with a sewing-machine would mean the opening of a world of new and fast creative projects and I liked that idea.

Even the fact that my last encounter with my mother's sewing-machine wasn't a very good one couldn't stop me from obsessing about it.

A couple of months ago the opportunity to get my own machine came up. I was allowed to take-over the one that belonged to my Love's grandmother, which would be the perfect way to finally practise my sewing skills. And since it belonged to a dear family member, it would be terribly rude not to use it, so..no way back, no procrastinating, one way or another, I had to make it work.

Yesterday, I used it and what can I say? We're made for each other! Even 'taking the corners' (pardon me for my bad English sewing slang) went well, so even the ears of the little owl and wolf came out quite well. I used the easy patterns from a fantastic book of Éditons Marie-Claire (the publisher of Marie-Claire Idées) called "Knuffels om te naaien" (in French called "Doudous à coudre"). I can't find it for sale in Dutch anymore, but searching the internet I did find this fantastic webshop of the lady that designed the patterns and she still sells the book in French.

I'm happy to conclude that there's finally a technique I can handle, next to sewing little mounted animals. And by the way, all the animals in the book have a name. These two are called Lou the Wolf and Hubert the Owl. I should have known we had to be! ;-)

Our Alpine cabin

2011-06-10T11:29:00.001+02:00

All of a sudden, I feel strangely attracted to the so called Alpine theme. I ran across this old print in a thriftshop and it already sorta conquered a place next to my bedstand. Don't it's colours match perfectly with the Studio Ditte wallpaper? Also, I never feel comfortable with hanging pictures half across wallpaper, but I don't find that a huge problem with this fellow. Overall, I think this one's a keeper. :-)

Because I'm so happy with my Alpine themed print, my Love wondered if I already had thought of a name for the stag on the picture. I had to come up with something (quickly!) and so I gave the stag the most goofy name that popped up in my head that same moment: Bert. (If you say "Bert het Hert" in Dutch, it even sounds more silly. And don't ask why Bert was the first name that came up...I already feel sorry for our future children ;-)). Being the couple that has the most fun about the most silly things, Bert has become a recurring character in our jokes now: "I think Bert will not be happy with this" and "Be quit, Bert is trying to get some sleep". Aah, the silly joy a 1 € find can bring!

Obsessions and how they roll

2011-06-06T20:23:00.001+02:00

Yes, I am gonna annoy you with more reveries of my kokeshi obsession. This time I'm going right back to the beginning or the birth of my fixation for Japanese wooden dolls. Hoarding behaviour of this kind often gets triggered by something somewhere in the past. It's a bit inception-like *): a tiny grain of seed is planted somewhere in the back of your head and once it has grown to a nice little tree you find yourself waking up in a home with, in my case, eight kokeshi dolls...and counting ('cause, let's be honest, if I can my hands on another nice item, I'll definitely buy it). Let's get back to that day in the year 2006, when I opened this magazine published by a Dutch painting company (Flexa Magazine, for the Dutchies among us).

There was this page with two abstract figurines on it that immediately caught my eye. The little seed was planted. I had to know what those figurines were and, more important, Where-To-Get-Them! Three years and a little tree in my head later (I'm getting all metaphorical), I bought my first two Japanse figurines in San Francisco. (I'm writing this like it's some sort of heroic story about me becoming a billionair or something... I would have if kokeshi would be worth millions ;-))

So that's the whole story, there's nothing more to it. It's not a very exciting (or long) one, but I just love to write about my little obsessions. As long as they're harmless like this one, I'll go ahead and cherish it.

My two sparkin' new vintage additions to the little wooden doll flock:

*) Inception is one of the best movies I have, I dare to say, ever seen. It's about planting information in the unconscious mind and that's as far as I can explain what it's about. But it's so cool, you can really take my word for it! :-)

Gestures of love

2011-06-02T14:07:00.000+02:00

Two requests for wedding cake toppers this week. I love making them and I love how every bride (yes, it's still mostly the bride that orders them! ;-)) has her own sweet or funny customization requests. There once was this bride that called her boyfriend "Bear" and she requested if I could make the groom a chubby little brown bear? Small gestures of love like this make me smile. (The cake topper worked out very well, by the way, and I actually fell in love with the groom's little chubby alter ego, especially after the sweet words of his bride-to-be.)
All the ladies that crossed my path over the years are all so enthusiastic. Often I receive sweet messages afterwards with pictures of the cake topper on the actual wedding cake, which makes all the hard work even more rewarding.

Top: A purple theme for this couple.

Bottom: The first time I gave a bride bunny a birdcage veil and a little pinwheel in her bouquet. (Such an original idea!) The bride also sent me a picture of her boyfriend, to make his alter ego match. I hope she likes the result!

The Moving Cat picture

2011-05-31T13:41:00.000+02:00

Do you know those pictures of beautiful homes with a cat that's moving through the picture (a bit like this one here)? Every cat owner knows that the one thing that is not feasable with cats is managing them. Those people know too that shooting a picture of a cat on the move at the right moment at the right place is sheer luck.

I tried to do it.

Molly was dozing a bit in our upstairs hallway and I sat on my knees on the other side, trying to make a picture. But as you know, where I am, Molly is, so by the time my knees hit the ground she was already next to me on the ground, meowing and purring (just doing her Molly thing).

I put her back on her place in the hallway, petting her, trying to get her to go to sleep again, just to make that one picture.
In the end I think it's easier to stage a moonlanding than to try to stage a picture with Molly in it.

But finally, after a couple of staging-attempts, I was fast enough to run back to my camera and shoot this photo, just before Molly reached me.

Like I said, sheer luck!

New U.S. Polaroids

2011-05-27T12:15:00.002+02:00

I took my Harry Potter Polaroid camera (common known as a Fujifilm Instax 210) with me during our trip through Utah, Nevada and Arizona last April. America is such a photogenic country and even more when you look to it through a Polaroid camera lense! I love the pictures I took so much, that the ones I took home seem now a bit too plain to me, actually.

So here we go, a whole new batch of snapshots (in no particular range)!

A (very) old mobile home on Grand Canyon Camper Village. (The blob on the left is a big black dog on a very long leash.)

A handpainted sign in Golden Gate park, our last day in San Francisco. It was a beautiful bright day, with perfect light to shoot Polaroids with (I learned that light is very, very important when it comes to taking pictures with a plain camera like this Polaroid).

Another sign warning for crossing Prairie Dogs in Bryce Canyon National Park. And yes, that's snow on the sides of the road! The weather was bright but so cold (and I kept refusing to put on any other shoes than my flipflops (flipflops give me that extra holiday feeling), so you can imagine how cold my feet were that day :-)
It's sometimes hard to be stubborn *LOL*

(I am changing the lay-out of my blog by the way, so please don't pay too mutch attention to the fact that it looks a bit silly at the moment...working on it!)

Thriftin' and dreamin'

2011-05-24T13:07:00.012+02:00

Kokeshi dolls, Star Wars and kitschy statues...

Over the past years, I've developed an obsession for a list of strange things that don't seem to be connected in any kind, except that they're all liked by me.

Last week I've added two more vintage kokeshi dolls to my already bigger than average collection, the week before that I found (and bought!) this white Snowball the Cockatoo statuette at a thriftshop.

I often feel that the very kitsch part of those statues seem so decrease when combined with Peonies (or other flowers) and some contemporary home-accessoires. I love to play with objects from different era's and see what result I get when combining them. Sometimes it doesn't work out, often it results in arrangements like these. That's the fun part of the time we live in now: we can collect the beautiful items that where made over the last century and combine them with each other. It feels to me like one big playground, with endless opportunities and where I get to decide what the rules are (always nice huh? making the rules (and bend 'em if you don't like them! ;-))

One is never too old to play around and have fun. What does your playground look like?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-05-20T15:43:00.009+02:00

Problem is not that you decide to take in a new piece of vintage furniture...

the problem is that on that exact spot there's another piece of furniture that needs to make room for the new one.
But since you're very attached to that piece of furniture too, it needs a new spot.
The new spot is great, but pity that that spot was already taken too, so that piece of furniture needs to make room for...
I could go on forever.
I've spent one whole weekend refurbishing this sweet sideboard and replacing almost every piece of furniture in our home after giving this one it's spot in our livingroom.

We bought him in a thriftshop for about $ 30 and after a good clean & wax session, it's ready to do it's storage job again for the next 40 years. I love to clean and 'get to know' old furniture like this, dreaming about it's former home and why it ended up at the thriftshop.
As you know, I tend to name things I like, even if it's a piece of furniture. I call this one Bruin (Dutch for brown). Because he's brown. And because I love him since the first time I layed eyes on him.

"Dear? Where can I find my keys?"
"Did you look at Bruin?"
I think we'll have a very long and happy life together.

Swans, greyhounds and Lisa

2011-05-17T13:22:00.010+02:00

Last Sunday I visited the Swanmarket at the ROTABS Stylecenter in Rotterdam.

And I almost got home with one picture of some flowers and a bunch of greyhounds. (Because, I'm crazy of greyhounds. In fact, if I would ever get a dog it would be a pug or a greyhound and the greyhound would be called Frank...in case you'd wonder.)

But shooting pictures of things that don't have anything to do with that lifestylemarket wasn't what I came to Rotterdam for. I had to drop off some little deer I made for Lisa Manuels' brand new shop Elle Aime, which opened it's doors also right that day. In Dutch we call that combining the practical with the enjoyable (I risk sounding very silly when trying to translate Dutch sayings to English, but I still can't find a good English sayings dictionary on the internet, so I'll have to settle for sounding silly).

(Lisa in her shop, when it was finally a bit less crowded.
Don't you just love those Formica candy coloured chairs?)

Lisa selected the most beautiful handmade goodies for her shop and displays them so simple and yet so beautifully, I'm very proud my little deer will be for sale there. So if you're in the neighbourhood, be sure to pay her a visit (and don't forget, like me, to buy a parking ticket).
For more pictures of the shop, the collection (and Lisa's own work!), check out her Elle Aime blog: http://www.shopelleaime.blogspot.com/

The loot of the day: a screenprinted scarf, some Jessica Nielsen cards and (at last!) a handmade brooch by sweet Erica of MikoDesign...
and a parking ticket (so I even made a car-park attendant's day...one big sarcastic hurrah!)

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a winner

2011-05-15T21:24:00.008+02:00

Deary me, I've been so busy (and so absent here)!

In the upcoming posts I'll let you know what I've been up to (besides working at my regular job and doing a lot of boring housekeeping...the two things I won't post about, unless I'd want this blog to be the borest one in the entire world ;-)).
After the Major Blogger-Meltdown of Thursday and Friday, I tried to sit down yesterday evening to write something nice, but somehow nothing came up. I shot some pictures I was not happy with, I made a selection I didn't like, so I decided that a blogging silence somehow is better than to jabber about something that's not interesting at all. (I often wonder how other blogging-people do that? I often feel guilty for not blogging, but when I write something I feel is not entirely blog-worthy, I find myself annoyed by writing that post. Even though I did post something...do you still follow?)

But what am I meowing about? It's time to announce the winner of the fabulous one-and-only Special Rhino give-away!

My sweet cousin was willing to assist me to draw a winner (she has lovely fine hands, don't you think? I'm the one that got the chunky hands ... the ones you use to dig in dirt or to overhaul a motor section with) and boy, did she do a nice job with those gorgeous hands!

I'm proud to announce that she drew number 3 (even though the picture is not entirely sharp, it says 3 ;-)) which corresponts with number 3 in the row of comments. The lucky (and dashing) winner of little LouLou is
Llaria Chiaratti
Prepare for a lot of confetti girl, 'cause LouLou is coming your way (if you dare to send me your address of course, find me at info[at]planetfur.nl.)
Thanks so much y'all for joining and for your super kind comments, I wish I had a little Rhino factory, I would send you all a little party-girl. Actually, I had so much fun with this give-away, I might announce another one in the near future!

Guess how much I love you

2011-05-10T14:21:00.008+02:00

With a sugary title like this, you can of course guess the post is about little Molly. She's sound asleep at my desk in my studio, the only way to shoot a non-moved picture of her.

Many times, I compare her to a little dog, she follows me around the house, never leaves my side and sometimes (ah well, most of the time) I have the feeling she understands exactly what I say to her...and we understand exactly what she wants from us: love. A-Lot-Of-Love. Molly could die of a broken heart if you don't give her the attention she needs. It gets her through the day ;-)

When my Love and me have a bit of a row, she often starts rolling on the ground between us, showing her soft spotted belly, as if to say: "Instead of shouting at each other, better save that energy for cuddling me!". It's no fun fighting when a little hairy monster is claiming all your attention. I think Molly would be the perfect secret weapon in war. Why fight if there's a sweet litte, flat headed cat that needs attention...all day, every day?

For that reason, and many many more, we love her. From here to the moon..and back.

There's a new girl in town

2011-05-08T14:03:00.007+02:00

The little girl in me still likes to keep nice things on her nightstand to look at before going to sleep. The sweet blushing lady keeps me company since our trip to the U.S., I found her at a little shop in Japancenter, San Francisco. The Planet Fur Kokeshi flock measures now six ladies. ;-)

The book I'm currently reading (all of a sudden I'm into reading again, I devour one after another) is Water for Elephants, about circuslife in the early 20s of the last century.

Sweet Ingrid of Ingthings sent me the paper crane last year after my grandfather passed away, along with such a kind note that it almost made me cry. Now she herself goes through an incredible difficult time, I still can't believe her wonderful, happy Ingthings world is turned upside down so roughly. If I could, I would fold her a million cranes and hope happy days will return soon back into her life.

A very special Rhino give-away

2011-05-05T13:01:00.009+02:00

The 3rd of May, it was already two years that Planet Fur opened the doors of her little shop!
To celebrate this happy fact, I thought it was time for the first Planet Fur give-away ever.
And boy, is it a special one!
I've traveled to the darkest corners of Africa to find this little girl, Hermione's little white sister LouLou. She's extremely rare, 'cause she's white. And I haven't met very much Rhino's with a party-hat either. Like her sister, she knows how to throw a party. The reserve she lived in before I took her home, was covered with confetti and balloons, so prepare if you decide to join this give-away...LouLou is no roommate for the faint-hearted.

What you have to do to join?
Leave a comment and of course, I would really appreciate it if you'd become a follower to this blog, if you aren't yet. You can join where ever you are.
I'll let you know who will be the lucky new owner of LouLou the 15th of May.

Please remember, LouLou is one of a kind, there will be only one Loulou.
Good luck!

Yellow treasures

2011-05-03T10:09:00.008+02:00

I brought these treasures home from our trip to the U.S.
A bear shaped honeypot (why don't they sell such cool articles in The Netherlands?) It reminded me of this supercool picture made by (San Francisco based) SFgirlbybay (ow, how I want to be SF based!).
And I actually did some real American thrifting in Las Vegas, there I found the yellow-fishy-shape (heehee) at the background. I think it's some kind of coaster, but I don't dare to place a hot kettle on it, 'cause what if I'm wrong and it starts to melt? Funny thing about the coaster is that it's made in Denmark, maybe especially for the American market...?
If someone recognizes it, please tell me more about it.
A very busy week ahead: must work on more new stock, open the shop, write a tutorial, blablabla. In short: an almost full-time Planet Fur week ahead of me. How wonderful!
I'll keep you posted! Bye now!

The geek in me

2011-05-01T14:02:00.007+02:00

I must admit, with the years passing, I'm beginning to like geek things more and more.
Since a month or two I have this crazy Star Wars obsession.
Not that I'm planning to become a Jedi (my Love told me that that's an actual faith), that I want to walk around with Princess Amidala's hairdo, or decorate my home like a spaceship (it's not that bad), but somehow I keep spotting Star Wars things, almost like Star Wars merchandise is finally moving from the undergroud, you-don't-want-people-to-mistake-you-for-a-huge-nerd to the retro-it's-okay-and-cool-to-like-it scene or something.

Eitherway, I like it!

So after the purchase of two retro Star Wars prints for my Love's birthday, you can now find me walking on these Adidas Star Wars sneakers. They're actually one size too large for me, but my size was already sold out. It's a comforting thought there are other girls (I can't imagine there are a lot of guys with feet size 7) that are happy and geeky with them.

Which makes me wonder:
Do you have a bit of a geek in you?
Do you let it out, or do you hide it deep in the bottom of your soul?
Please share (and please don't feel embarrast)!
And of course: may the force be with you this Sunday (and the rest of the century :-))

My Harry Potter Polaroid Camera

2011-04-28T21:04:00.023+02:00

Aaw, my sweet poor Polaroid camera. After our Bumpy Start, he really thought we were fine. But then I took him for a 12 hour trip to the other side of the world in the chilly cargo hold of a plane, which already made him a bit grumpy.

And then I took him to the Grand Canyon. It was a wonderful sunny day, I shot one picture with him and then I thought: I think it would be a good thing if I'd attach that strap-thingy to him, so I can hang him around my neck. Thing is, I'm not very good with attaching strap-thingies to camera's (or attaching whatever one thing to another, I have the locomotion of a turtle, to be honest). Next, I took a stroll along the rim of the Grand Canyon with what I thought a firmly hanging Polaroid camera around my neck...which turned out to be a bit of an illusion. So after shooting one picture with my Polaroid, the not-so-very-firmly-attached-strap let loose and made the camera meet up close and personal with the canyon rim down below.

Woopsadaisy.

I guess at that moment the camera was really fed up with me. He refused to give one single sign of life and stubbornly kept displaying this giant 'E' one his display.
*Sigh* Stupid turtle skilled girl!

Luckily I married a guy that liked to dismantle and assemble electronic devices when he was a little boy (and still does). So that damaged, not working camera was just another nice electronic challenge for him. ("No worries dear, I'll fix that Polaroid camera for you and could you please stop crying about it now?") He fixed it of course. The little plastic cap that houses the batteries broke off though, so that is hold together now with a giant piece of white tape, the kind you normally use for bandages, or in Harry Potter's case, to fix your glasses with.

For those who read this blog for a while now know I love imperfect things. So the large Harry Potter tape on the side of my Polaroid camera makes me love him even more. And I love the yellowish, dreamy pictures I shot with him. But I wouldn't be surprised if one day my camera has left to find someone who takes better care of him. Someone who likes things to be perfect and who has the locomotion of a cat.

Above: The majestic Grand Canyon made us fall into silence.
Middle: I love these kind of old-school signs.
Below: Llama's and trailers in Escalante, near Bryce National Park.

There and back again

2011-04-26T12:16:00.007+02:00

We are back from our big road trip through Utah, U.S. We visited about every National Park that's there to visit, we couldn't get enough of it.

Made so many pictures, it's insane.

For old times sake, we spent the last couple of days in San Francisco, a city you should visit at least once in your lifetime. It's laid back, it's beautiful...what can I say, I feel almost home there (and it takes a lot for a city to make me feel home)!

Now my head is filled with memories of the wonderful red landscape. Of the soft-colored houses in SF...the sweet Hummingbird we saw in the Golden Gate Park (so closeby, so tiny and so precious I could cry)....I could go on forever.

I will be starting up the shop and everything else again in the upcoming weeks.
But first I need to get my head around this major jetlag that I have. I feel like sleeping at the most odd moments of the day, like now for example :-D

It's good to be back though! You can imagine how happy we were to be united with dear little Molly, our family and friends, our home. There's always so much to go back home for.
I made some cool Polariods too, can't wait to show you those!

Above: Monument Valley, after a sandstorm (red sand is still coming from my ears and nose ;-))
Below, left: the last day say we saw this Hummingbird sunbathing in Golden Gate Park.
Below right: a super-retro 7-Up neon-sign in San Francisco