my first trade show!

Amazing...it was only last week that I was an ultra relaxed woman, just looking at the Italian hills in meditation mode, sipping my espresso coffee... Where has this woman gone in such a short time?

Back in Holland I had this large trade-fair-to-do-list, for the 'Najaarbeurs', the Autumn Trade Fair. Uitgeverij Snor already asked me some years ago to share a stand. This year I said YES. Uitgeverij Snor - translated: Moustache Publishers - is the most hip & funny publisher on the planet. I feel honoured to have these wonderful neighbours.
After spending a couple of years in a kind of solitairy confinement in my studio, I am really looking forward to MEET old and new retailers in real life...

So, if you are a retailer in Holland (or elsewhere) you are invited to meet me there on September 4, 5, or 6 in Utrecht. The Trade fair is being held on the 7th floor. Our standnumber is C341. The najaarsbeurs is not the most wonderful Trade Fair for interior accessories, but it is the only one we have in Holland...so you can find lots of nice little businesses like mine there!
Would you like to receive free entrance cards for 2 persons? Just send me an email and I'll send you one back with a printable attachment.

Hope to see you there, would love to hand you over one of my new Shine lanterns in person!

summertime...

Hello again, dear blogreaders! Just came back last night, after a wonderful vacation in Italy.

On the way to Umbria we stopped near Basel in Switzerland, to visit the Goetheanum in Dornach. It is the Mekka of the Waldorf movement. Visiting this strange yet stunning building was one of my wishes for a long time. When my boys saw the building on the outside they thought it was a huge prison... inside it felt like being back in the womb though!



The first week in Italy we spent in Umbria, which was at the same time the highlight of our vacations. Umbria stole my heart. Our fantastic apartment (the terrace, the garden, the pool) did too. This year was the first time ever we rented appartments - I'm not so fond of tents and campsides - and I am really enthusiastic about it: never came back so relaxed as this time!
I will start saving money today already for the same concept for next year, it's worth it big time!

Left: The books we read. Right: me on the doorstep of our beautiful old house, a former convent built on roman remains (see also below).

Keeping in touch with your friends new style and old style...

The streets of Perugia.

We have visited many cities and villages. Amongst others: Perugia, Cortona, Assisi, Castel Rigone. Staying in Tuscany we 'did' (like thousands of other tourists) Siena and Florence and during our stay in Le Marche we went to Loreto (where we rented a house), Recanati and Ancona.
Culture, nature, good food, heavenly coffees, sun, water and being together with my men... this was a good summer!