Sunday, May 15, 2011

STOCKIST SPOTLIGHT: sid en liv

The shops, the people who sell my work worldwide...who are they? What are their dreams, their inspirations, what made them start their own businesses? A feature in words and images with a little surprise-coupon at the end...

This month the stockist spotlight is on Sid en Liv , located in the beautiful city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.


Owners Bob Tönissen en Mirjam van Rijt in their ‘living room’

What is Sid en Liv?
Sid en Liv is a lunch and lifestyle store. A kind of living room where you can have breakfast, lunch or high tea and have a good time. All the food is traditionally prepared and comes from our own open kitchen.

During your lunch or coffee you can sit back, look around and get inspired to buy a present or get some lovely decoration ideas for your home. Everything you see, even the chair you are sitting on, the cutlery you eat from - and the lights, the vases, the tea-caddy, the glasses, the chairs, the paintings and accessories - is for sale at Sid en Liv!!

On sunny days you can sit in the lovely courtyard. You will find benches and chairs from Fermob, the sustainable furniture coming from park Luxembourg in Paris…
The café is child friendly and our little customers will love the yummie menu as well!

What made you decide to start your own shop?
This ‘living room’ concept - a combination of good food, lifestyle and home decoration - was our dream for years! Two years ago we sold our house in Utrecht and we found a building in Nijmegen where we saw the living room of our dreams.
Summer 2010 we opened Sid en Liv.


What are your Sid en Liv ‘classics’?
Some of the classics are already the wall stickers of Ferm Living , the ‘Blommen’ of Jurianne Matter and the handmade aprons of our friend Marie. The one-of-a-kind baroque flower paintings are unique falsuries from old masters, painted in China, with love!



What articles did you buy for the shop recently and why did you buy it?
The paper balloon from Petra Boase, makes a nice letterbox present and cheers up every childrens room.
“Cookie in a Jar” by Merei de Ruiter. It is a glass jar filled with all the ingredients needed (including a how-to) for baking and decorating your own cookies. A great looking and pure DIY-present, which suits our Sid en Liv concept!


The egg warmers designed by - again - Marie, she does have such an eye for detail and makes beautiful combinations of materials. And also the cards from Who’s Loes?! All the people pictured on her cards are her relatives!


I choose products that make people walk out happy…

Do you have a particular way of styling in your shop? Your own ‘hand’?
I (Mirjam) decorated and styled the food section and the shop myself. After years of interior styling experience I can use it on my own store, love it! Inspiration I get from Scandinavia and places like Haarlem, Antwerp and Copenhagen. Ideally I would change the wallpaper in the shop every week ;) ! But it will always be fresh, light and creative. A space that makes you smile...


Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
We are happy to announce that we opened a Sid en Liv WEBstore on the 1st of April!

And I would love to share some other links with you:
Bolig Liv - A Danish magazine someone showed me once when she visited Sid en Liv. I am a big fan since that moment! Such a nice magazine!
De wereld van Jansje - You must visit the store when you are in Haarlem. A great lifestyle and design store also combined with catering during daytime.
Bloesem Blogs - I visit this blog often, it inspires me big time.


Coupon
To celebrate the fact that we opened our Sid en Liv webstore we offer you a discount in our webstore!


Thank you so much Bob and Mirjam! It was a pleasure having a peek in your lovely store. Can’t wait to visit Sid en Liv in Nijmegen. In the mean time I’ll keep checking out your webstore…

Sid en Liv Van Welderenstraat 95 - 6511 ME Nijmegen - The Netherlands - NEW! Sid en Liv webstore - Twitter: @sidenliv

Saturday, May 7, 2011

brandnew: slow wood







Congratiulations to Christien. Your Slow Wood furniture collection is breathtaking! The shape, the material and the concept are so pure. With this collection you show us that you are not only a a great stylist, but a wonderful designer and a real eco-friend too. I am sure your Frysian handmade ecofriendly Slow Wood collection will conquer the world!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Hellen


Somewhere hidden in my attic I have lots of hilarious photographs of Hellen van Berkel and me, taken some 33 years ago. As 12 - 15 year old girls we were close friends. We were very different, but found each other somehow. There was this creative click between us and she was and is a sweet, funny and very frank person. We lost track for about 30 years, found each other in the magazines recently and we started reviving our contact cautiously.
Hellen has become a wellknown textile designer. She has this lovely delicate Hellen-style, unfortunatelly often badly copied by companies that have no conscience and no ideas of their own. Hellen is continiously developing her style and her techniques, she is a real crafts woman and she understands the art of 'combining' very well. Hellen recently started her own inspiring blog! And her house was on Bloesem last winter.

Blogfriends in the Netherlands: don't forget to check out the Dutch Elle Decoration this summer (june-july issue), Hellen, her work and her house are featured!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Cubism


I saw one of his paintings in my newspaper the other day and since I am in the process of designing a new product I was immediately drawn to it. Life brought back to it's essence: circles, triangles and rectangles. I love Auguste Herbin's (1882-1960) work because of his use of colours and his elegant graphic touch. Paintings like this must have been shocking in those days...

Bonnie & Buttermilk


As soon as I get in the mood for clothing again (it is bikini weather in the Netherlands!), I'll check their shop and buy myself one of B & B's awesome shirts, skirts or dresses.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

raindrops on a sunny day


A little treasure fell on my doormat a few days ago, a gift - just because - from Guusje! Delicate, handmade, porcelain raindrops... aren't they simply amazing?

marie claire maison (et mes fleurs!)



Last Friday a very nice person wrote me an email: 'your Blom is in the French Marie Claire Maison. Not just a little product shot on the shopping pages, but big time and beautifully styled!' Thanks, Jolanda, for letting me know.
I am honoured: one whole page for my Bloms! And styled in a way I have never seen before. I am used to the Scandinavian pure and white style, this is so different, so fresh, floral and French!
I have had a lot of attention in the press up until now - I feel blessed by it - but strangely enough not in France. This might be a turning point...

To my distributor & Klevering who obviously arranged this publicaton and of course to Marie Claire Maison: MERCI MILLE FOIS!