Etsy treasures: Paperwork!

Who: Go make me
What: DIY paper trees, downloadable pdf
Why: It's paper, it's trees and the design is adorable! I am definately going to buy the pdf, make them and plant them in my own tiny desk garden!

Teapot parade

Apart from the fact that they are breathtaking: all of the teapots below are designed some 50 years ago. Isn't that amazing?
These postwar modern ceramics prove that even horrible wars don't kill inspiration!
From top down:

1. Jens Quistgaard
2. Stig Lindberg
3. Lucie Rie

It is striking that I love wooden/bamboo handles!

May-pole dancing

This is how my sons celebrated whitsun on their (Waldorf)school this morning. In fact I danced around the may-pole myself as a kid, since I attended the same kind of primary school. This spring celebration looks like a fairytale, everyone dressed up in white, flowers, coloured ribbons. My sons weaved perfect patterns while singing and dancing, I am so proud!

Augustus

On my wish list for this summer: visit Villa Augustus in Dordrecht, near Rotterdam! Wouldn't you love to eat or stay in this amazing hotel/restaurant, or take a walk in the (vegetable) gardens? It is located in an old watertower, with surrounding buildings. I'm proud that they sell my work so well! Would like to see how my little wishboats float on the tiny canals that are running through the gardens.

Etsy treasures: ceramic buttons

Who: Sienna Orlando
What: ceramic buttons
Why: Wish I had boxes full of her buttons, just to 'play with' on Sunday afternoons...

Etsy-treasures: tea towel

Who: Skinnylaminx (Heather Moore, from Cape Town, South Africa).
What: screenprinted tea towel 'Summer Day'
Why: the use of pale primary colours, natural materials, and above all: the scandinavian looking designs.

Brecht's Birthday

My son Brecht turned 10 today! On his wishlist was a new cupboard for his toys. We bought an old one and Peter painted it in a real cool boys grey! We wrapped it in a huge piece of wrapping paper, even tied a ribbon around it... and now I want to keep the cupboard downstairs, it looks so great in the livingroom.

Buttoned up

The day after I gave the bag of Willy-buttons (see below) to Bjørke she already created an amazing new necklace full of memories. Bjørke understands the art of sampling! Thank you so much, B!

Moss-graffiti

Tell the walls of your home-town your secrets in moss! Here's a recipe by Stories from Space. With thanks to Homemade Charlotte for finding posts like this.

1 can of beer
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Several clumps garden moss

You will also need a plastic container (with lid),
a blender and a paintbrush

Read the full instruction on their website. Hope this graffiti will replace all the bad spraypaint in the future!

Work for Bjørke!

A very special person, my almost eighty years old friend Willy, gave me these buttons last friday. Every button has its own story. About the dress she wore during the liberation in 1945, about her mothers winter coat, her hip and hot maxi-dress back in the seventies... It was great fun going through these boxes together!
I'll bring them to my Buttonqueen Bjørke, she will create another great necklace for me from these buttons and I can't wait!!!

Congratulations Jansje!

De wereld van Jansje is a store. A beautiful store, with the greatest staff ever and a wonderful assortment (ha, ha, they are selling my work), located in the very centre of Haarlem. Jansje proofs that it is possible: doing business with your heart! They combine a highly stylish store with doing good, not only for the local people, but also in selling fair trade and ecofriendly stuff. The people who work there are, as we call them, mentally disabled. But they work with so much joy, they use their talents and they don't don't mind their disability. What a great athmosphere!
Because of their first birthday I gave a little workshop in making minibuntings with my own designs. It was very inspiring, good vibes. Hope to show you some pictures soon.
Hurray for Jansje!

Salty biscuits - very sweet

I bumped into these on a market. It are Japanese salty biscuits in beautiful little kimono's. They are adorable. The woman who sold them told me she bought them at a shop in the Netherlands called Parfumerie van Wonderen in Dronten. But I am sure they will be sold in Japanese supermarkets anywhere in the world.

Arrived from Stockholm

Okay, my wonderful new Swedish 'Toffels' are a bit pale from the long journey but with a little olive oil (recommended by mr. Hasbeen himself) and some dutch summer dirt they will get their real natural colour.
The only thing: I need a course in walking on Hasbeens! Used to Birkenstocks, this feels so 'cloggy', my fist 50 steps I walked like a chicken.
I ordered them through the offical Hasbeens-website. Even with shipment cheaper than buying them in a shop in Holland.

Souvenirs from the south of France

Cévennes

The weather is great, the house was still standing, birds are busy, trees are full of blossom.... only the internet-connection didn't work, I am sitting in an internet-café in a small town. Can't get the wonderful pictures I took on this blog, I'll post them later!

It feels good to be here.