wijeisenijs

New shelve

2012-02-03T21:21:00.000+01:00

English below

Wow, het is al bijna twee maanden gelden sinds m'n laatste blogpost. Ik heb me een tijdje niet zo fit gevoeld, en kwam niet aan bloggen toe, maar ik realiseerde me niet dat het al zo lang geleden was. Hoe dan ook, in de tussentijd zijn er weer wat kleine veranderingetjes geweest in huis. Zo hingen we deze Ikea-plank op, waar ik meteen -bij slecht licht- foto's van maakte. Maar dus niet hier postte. Inmiddels staan er al weer wat andere dingetjes op, maar daar zijn nog geen foto's...

Wow, it has been almost two months since my last post. I didn't have much energy for a while, and didn't feel like blogging, but I hadn't realized it was that long ago. In the mean time some small things changed in our house. We hang this Ikea shelve on the wall behind our table, and I immediately took photos of it, despite the lack of light. I didn't post them here, and now there are other things on it, but I didn't make photos of that yet so I'll show you these now...

Our living room

2011-12-06T15:39:00.001+01:00

English below
Ik realiseerde me onlangs dat ik eigenlijk niet veel recente foto's van ons huis op dit blog heb geplaatst, met uitzondering van de babykamer. Dat komt omdat ons huis nog steeds niet helemaal klaar is. maar ik realiseer me inmiddels wel dat als ik wacht tot echt alles af is, ik kan wachten tot ik een ons weeg. Dus bij deze een paar foto's van de zithoek.

I realized I haven't showed many photos of our home here recently, except for the nursery. he reason is that it's still not finished. But I don't know if it ever will be, so for now some pictures of our living room as it is now.

BTW: the smaller font is due to new Blogger interface

The prettiest book

2011-11-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago it was my mums birthday and I bought her a book, 'Tikken tegen de maan'. Before I wrapped it, I read it myself and I found out how amazing this book is. I knew I had to show you because I'm sure most of you will love it, so I quickly took some pictures.

It is a collection of Dutch and Flemish poetry for children selected by Joke van Leeuwen (Dutch author, illustrator and performer). The poems are written by (relatively) well-known poets, and great on their own, but what I love about this book is that the publisher has asked starting talented -but not so well known- Dutch and Belgium illustrators to illustrate this book. When I see a book like this I'm so glad there are still small independent publishers like Ons Erfdeel.

Each spread is definitely worth framing, and there are 50! Needless to say, I had a hard time, giving this beauty away...

The risks and joys of buying online (2)

2011-11-23T10:32:00.000+01:00

So, one more post about the risks of buying online and than back to something more positive.
First of all, the shop which never delivers my purchases apparently read my post and decided to refund after all, and send me some nice items and apologies. Of course I'm glad that that's over now, although that wasn't the reason for my post. The reason truly was that I couldn't get this experience out of my head and that I was really curious how you guys deal with situations like this.
Well, that question is answered too, because I've got a lot of reactions on my previous post, in the comments, e-mail, Twitter and IRL. It's clear that I'm not the only one with an experience like this. Luckily most of you say that it has happened only once, while they made many online purchases and that's the same for me. It is striking to me though that most of you say they have never made that experience public, and the one person who did regets it. Only one person said we should make it public because it increases customer services at webshops in general.
The reasons for not telling about negative experiences are "not liking a negative athmosphere on your blog", "a negative comment on the internet is permanent" but also "because the seller might be popular among bloggers and a negative comment might shine back on you". You are the sweetest people really! I guess I had the same thoughts and that's why I never posted or tweeted about this before. But if it happens to me again I might tweet about it (in a constructive way if that's possible), that's less permanent than posting on a blog and it seems only fair since I also tweet about positive experiences.
Anyway, I'm glad it's over and out of my head now. Thanks for all your comments, here and elsewhere. I'll be back with a post about some beautiful stuff -a pretty children's book- soon!

The picture shows and old screenprint design by me

The risks and joys of buying online

2011-11-07T11:36:00.000+01:00

You all know I love to buy from independent sellers online. I'm always looking for unique items to decorate my house. I've bought numerous prints on Etsy, and many handmade, vintage or other products in mostly Dutch webshops. Usually I recieved nice packages, really quick and more often than not nicely wrapped and with great extras.
I've always tried to spread the word about these shops and their amazing service on my blog and Twitter because I know shops like that can use all support.

However, I also once had a really bad experience which I can't get out of my head. I was still relatively new in online (indy) shopping when my friends gave me some money for my 30th birthday to buy something pretty for my home. I bought a cushion and a towel at a Dutch online shop I had read about in Dutch magazines. It felt ok, since I also 'knew' the owner via our blogs (and now also Twitter). So I thought it was safe. Then, I never received my items. I have send a couple of emails, and the answer was always: ' I am waiting for a delivery from my agent'. After a couple of months I din't believe I would ever get it and asked for a refund. I never got my money, although I've kept asking.
This person is still active in the blogging community. I could meet her in person if I would go to meet-ups of Dutch bloggers, so it feels like someone I know has stolen my money. Now every time I buy something I feel hesitant.

The thing is, although I always tweet or post about good service, I've never done so about this bad experience. I've thought about it a hundred times, because I know some of you are still buying at this shop and are taking a risk of loosing their money.
Still it feels like it's 'not done' to do so, I don't know why. I guess one of the reasons is that I don't want to discourage anyone buying from Indie sellers, because in the end usually it is a great experience. I do know I wish someone had warned me.

So guys, whats, your opinion on this? Ever hesitated buying online? Ever had a bad experience? And did you share that experience online? Did you go to the police? I'm so curious for your thoughts!

Pretty books

2011-10-31T18:14:00.001+01:00

I love beautifully designed books so when I run into these two books by Annette Tamarkin I had to take some pictures to show you.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On the road (1)

2011-10-09T16:33:00.001+02:00

Now I can post on this blog from my IPhone, I figured it would be so easy to make a series of things I see when I'm on the road. So this is part one, graffiti in Delft, where I live.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Smile!

2011-08-30T11:00:00.001+02:00

Wooden nesting dolls by Ingela P Arrhenius via Kidsdinge, wooden bird via Sissy Boy, softie via HEMA, vintage chair and blanket.

Last week I found a great surprise in the mail. Kerry from The Seventy Tree send me one of her beautiful 'Smile!' prints and two Dala horse cards. She wanted to thank me for sending her a little package with amongst others a VTwonen magazine in which her work was featured but which she never received from the publisher.

Top: Artwork by Hollie Chastain, Stanley Donwood, Sandra Juto. Number nine via VTwonen. Left chair via Yvestown. Below: Yellow balloon via PSikhouvanjou, postcards by Vincent van Gogh, Fiep Westendorp en Sanna Annukka. Tiny label by Bombina Studios. Framed bird card by Rural Pearl.

This gift really made my day and I immediately started to look for a nice place for the print. I first tried a spot on the chimney, but I thought there was enough artwork already. So I ended up making a whole arrangement in a nice corner of the living room, in stead of cleaning the house like I had planned. Know that feeling?

Actually I had intended to put up some small shelves there, but I like this so much, I'm not sure what to do with the shelves. I might still do that and frame Kerry's print later on, but for now I'm really happy with this corner.

Jeu de Paumes books via Yvestown and Juffrouw zonder Zorgen, vintage crocheting (haken) book via Ingthings, yellow notebook 'Smile' via Studio Stationary, white cup via Ikea.

Stamping away

2011-08-24T16:54:00.000+02:00

I meant to make some hand stamped wrapping paper for a while, but it took some time to find white ink and Kraftpaper. The ink I found a year ago in Stockholm and I recently run into the paper. So when I was making a package for Kerry from The seventy tree, I had a good reason to finally try it. At first, the stamps weren't very visible, but when I added some water to the ink pad, this was the result. I think it looks quite good.

White ink from Versacolor by Tsukineko, also available via PSikhouvanjou.

And since I had the stamping tools out anyway, I thought I could give another idea a try as well and so I made this stamped notebook. The idea was to make a symmetrical pattern, but I didn't have the time to draw lines first, so I just stamped away...And now I actually quite like the random pattern. I'm not sure what would be better. What do you think? Next time I'll make both, so I can compare.

Notebook via Dille & Kamille, red ink Colorbox by Clearsnap

Nursery (2)

2011-08-19T17:24:00.000+02:00

Daan is exactly like me (besides he cries much more than I do). He never wants to go to bed, he is always hungry and needs lots of attention. Which I love to give of course. But because of this, I can never find time to make some more pictures of his room, as I promised to some of you. So when there is the tiniest possibility of quickly taking some pictures, you have to take advantage of that, even if the weather is cloudy (little natural light), your baby is crying and the floor is dusty. Right?

So, this is it. The room still isn't 100% finished, but someday it will be. For sure. I'm so happy with the little cabinets and the hospital closet. And with the dresser, which I bought for nearly nothing on Marktplaats (Dutch Ebay). The colour is even better in real, it's painted in Soft Jade by Abbondanza Paint.

Lamp, medicine cabinet and yellow tin via Retroloekie, all other cupboards and rocking chair via Marktplaats, pillow via Lagerhaus, circus box (which is holding a very cute breakfast set) via MadebyGUP, yellow fish via Een nieuw avontuur, blue fish (next to curtain) via Juffrouw zonder zorgen, yellow bin via Ikea, basket and stool via HEMA. Miami green wall paint via Abbondanza Paint.

Nursery (1)

2011-07-20T09:00:00.000+02:00

I received some great links and advise in reaction to my Twitter and blog requests on nursery decoration advice. However, I hadn't finished decorating the room when Daan was born. The bed wasn't assembled, the curtains were somewhere in a bag, the dresser missed its door knobs and the wardrobe missed its doors. Daan didn't mind of course, but I realised it wouldn't be easy to find some time to finish it with him around. So in fact, it still isn't finished, but we are getting close. So I wanted to show you some previews, but what I hadn't realised is that it is not easy to take pictures too. You have to wait for some good light, and when its there, he was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him, or I had to feed him or something like that. Anyway, last week I finally made some pictures, hopefully some more will follow soon!

Wall decal by 41Orchard via Bloesem Kids, paint for bed via Abbondanza Paint (color Brigth Ocean), blanket and wooden train by Hema, Ikea Beckvam spice racks (inspiration from Ohdeedoh via Doorkyra on Pinterest). Claudettes postcards by Darling Clementine via Een nieuw avontuur.

Birth announcement cards

2011-07-18T09:00:00.024+02:00

Daan was three weeks early, and hadn't decide on a birthday announcement card yet, even though I wasn't surprised that he came early. We couldn't easily find a nice card that we both liked, so I decided to make one myself. It took me more than a week to draw some designs, cut the stamp, decide on the text, find the right cards, ink and corner cutter and make the cards while taking care of a baby, but we managed to send the cards in the week after the due date, not unreasonable don't you think? it was the first craft project since his birth and since then I haven't found time to make something else, so I'm very happy that we managed to make these.

Ink by Versacolor via PSikhouvanjou, rubber and cutting tools by Speedball via Stampeaz.

Daan is born

2011-07-15T13:08:00.000+02:00

The 7th of May our son Daan is born, three weeks early. He had to stay in the hospital for a week, due to some minor problems, but he is totally fine now. Since then, my whole life is filled with taking care of him (never new breastfeeding would take so much time!), and I couldn't find any time to make a proper blogpost about this great news. However, after a whole week in which he hardly slept, it seems like he is starting to like his bed, and if found my Macbook patiently waiting for me :).

Daan is of course the cutest baby I've ever seen, we are a very happy little family now, so I doubt if I will be able to write about other things in the near future. Hopefully in a few weeks I ....until then, if I've any readers left, I hope you will stay with me!

Nursery decoration advise needed

2011-04-08T10:08:00.000+02:00

I know it has been quite here, and even on Twitter you won’t hear me as often anymore, because my Iphone is stolen. However, of course I’m still busy renovating the nursery and the guestroom/workspace. In fact, the nursery is almost finished, all walls and the ceiling are freshly painted and looking really fresh and cute. I bought a vintage dresser, baby bed and rocking chair online, those need some paint soon and I hope to start with it this weekend.

Than I need a wall rack to hang above the dresser and a wardrobe. I’m thinking about some white lockers, but if you have better ideas for those two?

Beside the renovation and decoration work I’m also shopping for lots of babystuff. And I actually have a hard time finding cute blankets, sleeping bags, a diaper bag, stuff like that. And I also need some nice lamps. Usually I have a long list of things I would like to have for the home, and the same goes for clothes. That’s because I read so many blogs and magazines. But I hardly read any kidsblog, so I’m really behind on that kind of stuff. I just don’t really like the stuff they sell in the large babystores, so if anyone has great tips on nice brands or online stores, please let me know in the comments below.

I’m really looking forward to your ideas!

To show you what I like, some screenprints of my Pinterest page

See more of me...

2011-03-23T15:03:00.000+01:00

Life has been pretty busy lately with all the preparations for the baby who is expected at the end of May. We have been painting the nursery, looking for nice vintage furniture online, visiting day care centers, making lists of things to buy and so on. I never expected it would take so much time. But on the other hand, we are also both working (almost) full time and renovating our home, so I guess altogether it is quite a lot.

Luckily I'm still feeling quite good and the baby is doing great. But the downside is that I hardly can't find time to make regular blogposts. However, i do find time for one or two tweets a day. Apparently I'm so much more critical when it comes to blogposts. I want the photos to be perfect and write a nice little something to go with them. For tweets, I just take a picture with my Iphone and that's that.

So for those of you who want to see what I'm up to but who don't use Twitter, it's possible to pollow me on Twitpics. You can see al the (crappy) pictures that I post on Twitter there, together with the original Tweet. it's even possible to subscribe to the RSS feed. The most recent pictures are also shown on this blog at the bottom of the right sidebar.

I hope this will help to stay in touch with you all.

In four weeks my maternity leave will start and I hope I will find some time to blog by then.

All pictures in this post are also shown on Twitpic and are taken with my Iphone and not edited.

Portugal

2011-02-21T21:51:00.001+01:00

Last week we went to Portugal to celebrate one last holiday together before our baby will be born. It was so nice to relax and think about all the exiting things that are coming. We had a lot of fun, although the weather wasn't great. Because it was raining a lot, I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are some nice ones...

I did make some drawings though, of which I showed some on Twitter and maybe here later.

The weeks before Portugal were very hectic. We got new doors, windows and window stills, but lots of things when wrong and need to be redone. we also bought some baby furniture and got new white linen curtains for our living room in summer. I really hope to take some pictures soon, but it's such a mess in here because of all the construction work, it will have to wait.

BTW, I still don't like what blogger does to my pictures, the look less bright and sharp, any advise on that?

Stockholm

2011-02-04T08:30:00.001+01:00

I'm making room in my house and in my head to prepare for the little boy that we are expecting in May. This also means that my old PC has to move out and therefore I'm browsing through my holiday pictures and that reminded me of a promise I made to you, namely that I would publish some pictures of our visit to Stockholm last July.
So here they are, if you like them, I might publish some more pictures of other holidays here as well. Perhaps London, Sicily, Berlin or Maroc?

BTW, what does Blogger to my pictures? They somehow look less sharp and less soft at the same time....Anyone ideas what to do about that?

Still renovating our house...

2011-02-01T21:47:00.000+01:00

Hi guys, it's been a while, isn't it? I just couldn't find the time to make more blogposts. There are so many things I would like to do before the baby is born and I just don't have as much energy. We are renovating the guest room, so it can be both guest room and study in one to make space for a nursery. And we are having new windows and doors in some of the rooms and replaced a radiator. In between, we thrifting furniture for the nursery and renovating that too. If you are following me on Twitter, you'll get a glimpse of all that.

But, although I haven't been blogging as much as I would have liked lately, I did make some pictures and scans for my blog. This stamp I made for the son of a friend who was baptised last summer.

Christmas ornaments or spring decoration?

2011-01-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

I just bought three really cute christmas ornaments with 50% sale at Sissy-Boy's. The tree I will save for next year, but I think I can still hang the little bird and flowery heart somewhere, don't you think? They look quite spring like to me...

I won't just tape them to the wall though, like I did for this picture, but it was the only place in the house where there was a little daylight....

Update

2010-12-21T10:33:00.000+01:00

As you can see, I've added a Twitterbox to my sidebar. And a tweet by Annadenise.nl reminded me that it would be more consistant to use the same name for all my accounts. Which means I've changed pinterest.com/floddertje to www.pinterest.com/wijeisenijs, so now you can find us at: wijeisenijs.blogspot.com, www.twitter.com/wijeisenijs and www.pinterest.com/wijeisenijs. That's easy, isn't it?

2010-12-19T13:33:00.000+01:00

I've created a Twitter-account. I figured that the combination of limited time/energy, lots of commuting time and a new Iphone could be very well used by keeping you guys up-to-dated. But since there isn't a good blogspot app, I thought a Twitter-account could be a nice addition to this blog and my Pinterest page. I'll try to add a Twitterbox to this page soon. For now, you can follow me on http://twitter.com/wijeisenijs. Hope to see you there as well!

For now a belly picture of 16 weeks....

Surprise, surprise

2010-12-10T11:06:00.000+01:00

I know you haven’t heard from me for a long time, but I had a good reason. I was to tired to post anything because…I’m pregnant! I’m so happy! We had to wait for over a year to get pregnant, and sometimes I still can’t believe there really is a little baby in my belly now. I’m feeling quite good, I’m almost 16 weeks pregnant now and my energy is starting to come back a little. What remains is pain in my lower back, so I can’t really work on the house now. And we’ve just started rebuilding a room on the first floor. We’ve taken the walls and ceiling of that room down and my husband now has to rebuild it on his own.

I hope I’ll be able to post more often from now on and I’ll show you some pictures of that room then as well. For now, just some recent Iphone poleroids.

While I was too tired to write anything for this blog, I did read blogs from others now and then and have been pinning my favourites to my pinboards on Pinterest and I will continue doing that, so, even when it’s quite here you might find something new there….

Just a little more patience

2010-11-12T16:30:00.001+01:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have my reasons and I’ll tell you more about that soon. In the meantime, you don’t have to do without me, because I do post on Pinterest once in a while, because that doesn’t take time at all. So check out my pinboard on Pinterest!

Sometimes it's just waiting for you on the street...

2010-08-30T13:12:00.000+02:00

Where I live, there's an antique and thrift market every weekend in the city centre, and there I just bumped into this dresser. I really like it!

What about Pinterest?

2010-08-20T14:00:00.001+02:00

Recently I learned about the existence of a website called Pinterest. Many of you probably know this site but for those who don't, Pinterest is a site where you can "pin" all the interesting things you find on the internet on your own virtual pinboards. For me, it seemed like the perfect solution for all the pictures and links that I am saving on my computer, and the one at work, and on my husbands notebook, my Moleskines, and of course my favourites on Etsy, Google Reader and so on. Of course, when I am looking for one of those images I can never find them. And when I do, I don't remember how I got them, which is not so nice if you want to show them on your blog and give proper credits. So from now on, I' am using Pinterest. I'm still pinning things from all the sources I mentioned above, so apologies if I missed some of the credits. Hopefully I'll do better with this new tool.

Anyway, I’m allowed to invite five friends to Pinterest, so leave a comment if you want an invite!

Art journal try-out

2010-08-18T09:00:00.002+02:00

This summer I went to Stockholm (tell you more about that later) and soon after that we went to our summerhouse near the sea. My mum was there too and she brought some postcard sized aquarelle paper and water-soluble crayons. I wanted to try them and with Stockholm still fresh in my mind I made two postcards in art journal style. I like the result, and it is a great way to keep memories alive, so I might try to start a little art journal later this year.

It would be a great way to use the many hours I spent in the train commuting to work. I need to find other materials though, because the crayons I used (Caran d'Ache) were not really suited for the job to my opinion. The good thing of the crayons is you can use them without water in the train, and than finish it with water at home. However, when using such a small paper size (A6) I need something that you can use for very detailed work. And since small paper is easier to carry with you, I might try markers or perhaps aquarelle pencils. But I am afraid the colours won't be bright enough then. What do you think?

Screenprinting class (4)

2010-08-15T20:15:00.000+02:00

This is the final print I made in my screenprinting class and the one I am most proud of. It took me a couple of lessons and a lot of drawing, copying, cutting and glueing but it was definitely worth it. I didn't use the computer at all, so it was a lot of work.

And even though there are definitely things that could have been done better, like putting the birds in a straight line instead of slowly bending down to the right corner this is the first print that I really like to show to other people. It is a great feeling when you wear your own printed shirt and people compliment you on your shirt and you can say: 'made it myself'. Yay!

Nestje bouwen (building out little nest)

2010-07-29T19:34:00.001+02:00

I was hoping to a nice looking To Do list would look a little less frightning and in fact it's working!

New haircut

2010-07-26T19:09:00.005+02:00

I went to the hairdresser last weekend and I asked her to cut it short and curly, but still long enough to make a little tail. Her idea was to cut it shorter in the back than in the front. I liked the idea, because when I see other people with haircuts like that I always thinks it looks nice. But I was always a little scared to do that, I thought it was a little too experimental for me. However, I was in a holiday mood and said yes. And I like the result, although it's a lot shorter than she promised me. It was much longer before the cut, so my husband was very surprised when I came home. Of course he prefers it longer. What is this with guys that they always like long hair?

…and inspire to cut some new ones.

2010-07-23T19:00:00.001+02:00

The shades of green and the shape of my Cat’s Eyes ink pads inspired me to cut some new stamps. I know it’s not the most original design, but I think they are great to experiment with different colour combinations.

New inkpads make my old stamps shine…

2010-07-21T19:00:00.001+02:00

I bought some new colourful inkpads from Colorbox and the colours are amazing. Beautiful shades of green and turquoise, and bright orange, yellow and red. They really make my stamps shine. I immediately made some cards with my own handmade stamps and I love the result. Only next time I will use cards with a little less texture, because the ink cannot reach every spot. I like textured paper better than normal paper though, I think it adds to that handmade feel. But I need to find a compromise, paper with just that little texture, don’t you think?

I've won!

2010-07-19T20:59:00.000+02:00

I've won one of these Fossil bags on The Bright Side Project. I've taken part in many of the giveaways on this site and now I've won, I'm so happy. I posted something about the sweet memories when listening to that old holiday mixed tape of the past, something that we seem to have lost with our Ipods and their never ending playlists. And with that I won this prize. I haven't heard back from the Bright Side Project yet, so, I don't know which one I'll get or when, but I'm secretly hoping for the turquoise one. Although the other one is great too. Lucky me!

Screenprinting class (3)

2010-07-09T20:00:00.003+02:00

In the next class I wanted to try a two-colour print. I didn't have much inspiration for a subject, so I drew my house. This time I really found out how hard screen printing is. I spend four lessons, each three hours, and to b honest, I am not happy with any of the prints. Unfortunately I didn't get much help of the teacher and I lost a lot of time waiting for other students who were using the tables, or the materials. Anyway, it was a good experience, I had fun making my prints and I have some nice prints now.

These are some test prints that turned out better than the real prints. I used some scraps of paper for them, on which the yellow and blue circles where test-printed by some-one else.

These two are the best result from the red and orange series. Unfortunately, in the left one the red paint was a little too fluid which ou can see for example on top of the left window and in the right one there are some strange stripes in the blue paint. Most likely, the paint I used was a little thick, I should have added some water. And I didn't hold the squeegee under the right angle.

Going to Stockholm

2010-07-07T22:09:00.000+02:00

I am going to Stockholm in a couple of weeks! I am really looking forward to it. It's the first time I will visit a Scandinavian country. From what I've read about it, it think it will be amazing for art, design and vintage lovers like us.

Have you ever been to Stockholm? Any advise on what we should visit? Thrift shops, cafes or restaurants? What are nice magazines to buy? What are nice Scandinavian brands of clothing? Do you need a public transport card or is everything in walking distance? I'd love to hear from you.

screenprinting class (2)

2010-07-04T21:52:00.001+02:00

On my third screenprinting class I tried to print a cushion and a towel, but it was more difficult than I expected. Especially to put the screen on the exact right place turn out to be quite difficult. I wanted to make multiple prints on the same fabric, but after the first print there is paint both on the fabric and on the screen, so it's not possible to try where the screen should be, because paint gets everywhere.

For the towel it put tape on the whole screen except for one line of oranges. I think it turned out quite nice even though the line isn't straight.

BTW, I tried to lighten up the photos in the online photo editor on photoshop.com. I don't understand how these photos get so dark since the room they were made in is a very light room and it was a sunny day. I tried everything using different kinds of exposure and white balance. Anyway, I think it looks good enough to show here, but I wish I was able to take better pictures.

Collage experiment

2010-07-01T20:00:00.002+02:00

I try to keep things a little chronological here, but I am hopefully behind with showing you the results of my screenprinting classes and the latest stamps I have made. That has everything to do with my awful skills in photography. I just can't get the photos right so I can't show you anything.

However, yesterday I made a collage and immediately photographed it and it turned out fine. The white wall is a little darker than in real, so I probably should edit it. But the colours look good and if I wait until I have time to edit this will become one of those post that stays on my computer forever, so I just show it now as it is.

(Have you heard about fashion magazines that have a 'no photo-editing' logo on their cover because they don't make models look better/skinnier than they are? Perhaps I should use that logo to on my blog ;). Although, now I think about it, the fasion industry has great photographers and while some of them edit to make people look better than real, I have very limited photograph skills and would use editing software to try to make the object in my picture look as good as the real thing. Conclusion: I should buy a good camera and sign up for a photography course. Or just make things that fit in my scanner.

But back to the collage. Sometimes nice package material inspires me. Especially wrappings of drinks and snacks are very appealing to me. Not surprising, as I love to eat! Anyway, when I see a nice label or something in a cafe I take it home with me. In my mind, I always make nice collages with them, but today I made one for real!

I used Ninainvorm's tutorial (sept '09) for 101woonideeen for inspiration. I had never made this kind of collage before and I thought it would look good as the background for the labels I had collected. It was more difficult than I expected but I loved doing it. I started with a A3 sized white sheet of paper, because the labels are quite large. Soon a problem arose, because I don't have a large paper collection. I used every nice paper I have in this colour combination and it took me two days, but now I am quite happy with the result, especially for a first attempt (except for postcard sized collages).

I had some problems with finding the right balance between the colours, textures and patterns. I didn't want to make it a boring piece, but I didn't want to put too much different things on it either. Somehow, it think if you would draw a line from the left corner above to then right corner below, the part above the line is more successful than the part below. What do you think?

Next time I might stamp the collage with some of my hand-carved stamps, to make it a little more 'mine'...

Sale!

2010-06-30T22:19:00.000+02:00

It's sale in my favourite shop Exota, so I bought two shirts, a cardigan and a dress! I just couldn't resist...

Italian magazines

2010-06-13T18:44:00.000+02:00

Speaking about international magazines, in Florence I bought two Italian magazines. Of course, I can't really read them, but the pictures speak for themselves and I am able to find out what is written about the products (brand names, price, stuff like that). And that's enough, isn't it?

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on them, since I can't read them anyway. So I just choose some of the cheaper ones. There were many to choose from, so that wasn't a problem. I think the magazines are much cheaper in Italy than here in the Netherlands. The Casa Facile spoke to me right away, and was just 1,90 euro so I choose that one. The Hachette Home was packed in plastic, so I couldn't flip the pages, but since it was just one euro, I bought that one too.
It seems like there are more ads in it than in the Dutch magazines, but maybe that's just because the ads are new to me, so I might notice them more.

I don't know which one I like better, they are both good. If I had to choose, I would say the Hachette. I guess the CF is a little more low budget and DIY, like our Dutch 101 Woonideeen and the HH comes a little closer to our VTWonen. I really wish I had bought more magazines....

In the HH I saw a picture with a little stool in it that reminded me of Wood&Wool stools, which I adore. I love it when there are hand-made items in magazines, especially if I know them from the blogging world, it feels a little familiar right away. In this case I am not sure if it really is a Wood and Wool stool, the size seems a little different and I can't find the name in the texts. I will ask Irene of Wood& Wool Stool on her blog.

try-out

2010-06-09T21:09:00.002+02:00

Last year in London I bought an Elle Decoration magazine. Inside was an advertisement by Ford that somehow attracted me. I started painting it but never finished it until today.

I hadn't done any painting for a long time and just used some old paint, both gouache and acryl, from my childhood. The result is far from perfect, but I do like it. What I also like, is that during this one painting, I saw my skills improving. I know some of you like it when I tell about the 'mistakes' I make and about what makes me learn, so here we go...

For example, the big flower was painted a couple of months ago, the other ones today. I definitely like the small ones better, especially the right one. There's more dept in it, I made much more use of dark and light colours. You can also see it in the background, I started down left and worked up to the right corner. Down left there are too many brush strokes visible to my opinion.

I finished with the branches, which I think are the best of the whole painting

Maybe I should try more, and see what I can come up with. If I only had more time....

New furniture

2010-06-08T18:08:00.010+02:00

Recently I bought some new additions to our living room.

The chair was bought on 'Marktplaats'. That's the Dutch version of Craigslist. The plaid is a bit too large for it, so I need to buy some nice pillows or something, but I am very happy with this.

The little red vase I thrifted in a second hand store in Delft, just as the plaid. The yellow lamp was bought on Modcloth. I saw it in a post by Deedee and I had to buy it. So I went to Modcloth and immediately bought it, without thinking. When the package arrived, it turned out I had to pay a lot of taxes and the plug doesn't fit our Dutch socket. Still have to fix it. But I love it and I think it looks really good on my grandma's desk.

Modcloth claims it's handmade, but i've no idea by who.
I guess some of the stuff Modcloth sells can also be bought here in Europe, but I've no idea how I can find out if an items is also sold by other shops. Does any of you know how to do that?

Florence

2010-06-06T18:08:00.000+02:00

I went to Florence for a couple of days with my mom. It is such a beautiful city. Last time I went there was ten years ago, when I went on an Interrail trip to Italy with my boyfriend. I remember very well how impressed we were with al the amazing art. It was the first time I saw these kind of things. Since then we have visited many beautiful places and I was very curious how I would look at the same things with more experienced eyes.

It turned out that the things I had remembered all those years were the things I still loved most. All the other things I had simply forgotten, but all memories came back when I saw them again. And with them a lot of good romantic memories of our first big holiday together.

So I had a very good time. I also noticed that this time I noticed the beauty of the more ordinary things much more than the first time, when I was just amazed by all the famous stuff.

Sneak peak

2010-05-25T19:00:00.004+02:00

Left: before, right: after

We are still working on the living room, but I wanted to show you a little sneak peak. Hope you like it so far!

My bedroom

2010-05-23T17:44:00.001+02:00

I took some more pictures of my bedroom to participate in a give-away for window decoration. I've showed you the room before, when it was empty, but now there's furnitue in it and we actually sleep there. I think it's the best room in the house!

Stamps for kids

2010-05-14T21:10:00.001+02:00

I made these stamps a while ago, but never pubished them. In fact, the stamp for Bram, my little nephew, was the first kids-stamp I made. But I forgot to take a picture or to make some prints for myself, so I had nothing to publish. Lately, when I visited him, I made some prints to show here.

The other one I made for a collegue, but I guess I just forgot to publish it here.

This is rain

2010-05-13T21:00:00.001+02:00

I recently bought some funny colored stickers in all kinds of shapes. I had to make this collage with the coloured drops.

Swedish Hasbeens

2010-05-10T22:42:00.000+02:00

Another great brand: Swedish Hasbeens. I wanted to buy these last year, but I couldn't find them. And ordering shoes online, without trying them on, scared me a little. But 'De Klaproos' in Amsterdam has them in their collection, so now I own a pair of exactly these.

King Louie

2010-04-15T09:56:00.000+02:00

I love the clothes by King Louie, don't you? Especially the skirts and dresses. I recently bought this skirt and top, cute, don't you think?

Quick collage

2010-04-11T16:47:00.002+02:00

A couple of months ago I quickly made this collage for a colleague who was leaving our team. It is inspired on Java-eiland, an island in the part of Amsterdam where we work and he also lives on his boat. I wanted to post this earlier, but I made the mistake to scan this in high quality on my then new scanner. Now it is 173 MB large and I can’t do anything with it. I tried many things to make it smaller, but it didn’t work. So now I just copied it to Paint by using Print Screen. But if anyone has a better idea to solve this problem I love to hear from you.

screen printing class (1)

2010-04-11T16:17:00.001+02:00

I have attended my first two screenprinting classes. The first lesson was filled only with screenprinting theory, showing how the machines worked and all that. At the end, my head was spinning of all the information. I was afraid I would forget everything before the next class.

We were asked to bring a black and white image for the next class. I didn’t have much time to draw anything, so I just stamped a pattern with my orange slice stamp. During the lessons everybody seemed to have forgotten some things, but together we managed to make our own screens with just a little help.

I had planned to buy some tea towels or anything to print on, but I didn’t have time for that, so I use some scrap pieces. I really like the result though, so kept the screen and paint for the next lesson. I hope I can find some time to buy tea towels or cushion sleeves this time.

I made the photos with my mobile phone, so don't mind the quality...

Thrift store finds (2)

2010-03-28T21:55:00.007+02:00

Again, I found some nice children games. I am not sure what I am going to use them for. I might use the pictures for collages and perhaps the throwing marbles game for making a coat rack.

And I found two lovely children books. They both are written and illustrated by Polish artists and transelted to Dutch. I had never heard of them, but I am very happy with them. Especially the left one has beautiful pictures.

Graduation gift

2010-03-24T15:22:00.000+01:00

A couple of months ago one of my best friends graduated from Uni. Me and my friends wanted to give her a special gift and planned to buy her a nice piece of art. We all looked at hundreds of pieces on the internet, mostly on Etsy and Poster Cabaret. In the end we decided to buy this beautiful testprint by Strawberry Luna, with whom I had a very nice email-conversation by the way. As I had to pay shipping fees anyway, I decided I could buy something for myselve just as well. So I bought the V is for Vulture screenprint.

Both items are lovely, just as all the extra's Strawberry Luna sent me, and Luna herself of course. In fact, the whole thing got me interested in screenprinting so next week I am starting with a course myself. I am so excited about that.

postcards

2010-03-17T17:12:00.002+01:00

Recently I needed some postcards but I couldn't find anything good in the shops here. Of course, that's what happens when you need a card right away. So I decided to buy some on Etsy for future purpose, because next time I don't want to buy too expensive Hallmark cards that I don't even like.

The set on the left is by Ninainvorm, the set on the right is by Bangbangyourethread. And the little painted stone I also bought on Etsy, it's by LillaJizo

New couch

2010-03-15T11:09:00.000+01:00

I haven’t posted for a while, because I have been so busy working on the house and unpacking boxes (again). Last weekend we bought this couch at Depot Rotterdam. Only ours is made from red felt and has just one arm-rest. But I’ll show that later. It's the Rambla by Sur&Plus. We both felt in love with it the first time we saw it. Only it was one of the first couches we saw, so we kept looking but we just couldn't get this one out of our minds. So after a couple of months, we just decided to buy it.
Depot Rotterdam is an amazing shop, it definitely is my favourite in Rotterdam. The owner is very nice, and he even drew a very inspiring lay-out for our living room. Great service! The photo is taken from their website.

This weekend we have sanded the floor and window-stills in the living room and bought lots of paint. So next weekend we can finally start painting!

My Valentine

2010-02-03T16:23:00.006+01:00

After spending so much free time working on my new home, I decided I really needed to see something of my new town. So I went shopping, which was a good idea, because it reminded me of why I wanted to live here in the first place. And that is good to realize since I'm getting a little tired of all the hard work in the house. But Delft is such a cute town. I wish I could send it Valentine's card, I'm totally falling in love with it. I found many nice shops. In one of them, I started chatting with the owner and it turned out we live in the same street.
Anyway, I also found some nice thrift shops and there I thrifted this small glass and the little game.

The glass would look nice in our bedroom I think, because the wallpaper also has orange in it.

The game I might cut up for collages. When I opended the box, I did not only found the game inside, but also a poem. As it turned out, this game once was a Sinterklaas gift to someone. (Sinterklaas is a Dutch tradition in which we give each other gifts accompanied by a poem).

By the way, I've tried to edit the pictures in the online version of Photoshop. It was my first attempt to edit pictures, but I was not happy with all the results. I feel I really have to learn this, to show the colours and brightness of the items photographed, especially when the light is poor on grey days like these. What do you think, how does it look? They are all edited, beside the last one Any tips? Which program do you use?

colourful hypes

2010-02-01T11:52:00.002+01:00

Before I entered the blogging world, I didn’t know even colour can be subject of hypes. But now I think there is a little hype going on about turquoise. After I saw it on many blogs about a year ago, often in combination with red, I felt in love with this colour. I bought some artworks in which this colour combination is very prominent and I planned to sheer up our black and white kitchen with this colour. And now The Bright Side Project is giving away a turquoise cooking pot. I would love to win one, because it would look great in our kitchen!

In progress

2010-01-31T16:36:00.008+01:00

Spend another weekend sanding, painting, wall papering and shopping at Ikea, but we're getting somewhere!

By the way, as I told here before, the wallpaper is bought at Swiet.

What we are working on

2010-01-27T12:38:00.004+01:00

The attic looked like this when we bought it

I am staying behind on my posts, because I am still so busy painting the new house. Last weeks we have been working on the attic, which will be our bedroom. I never had expected that painting takes so much time. We had some hard lines though. The red bars needed four layers of white paint (and sanding in between all layers of course) to become as white as we wanted. The walls were almost white already, so we expected to need just one layer to make them really white. But then the old paint started to come of. We had to remove all the paint, put a special layer on the bare walls and than paint it three times!
Anyway, it's still not finished, I hope next week I can show you pictures of the finished room.

New house

2010-01-06T10:33:00.005+01:00

First of all, a happy new year to you all. I have been away for a while and the reason for this is that half november we got the key of our new house and since then, we have been removing walls, stairs, sanding, painting, packing and moving every free hour, The whole christmas holidays, even on christmas day, we did nothing but working in our new house. But that's okay, because it is starting to look great. In the following days/weeks I will show you how the rooms looked like when we bought it, and what we are doing now. We are still using every free hour beside our full-time jobs, so it may take a while, but I'm sure it will be worth it!

For now, only a picture of the front of the house (it is the white one next to the red one) and on of the backside and the garden. Later on, I will post some pics from the inside.

My first graphic design

2009-11-22T19:17:00.004+01:00

I wanted to show you some designs I made before I started this blog, and I figured that now is the time to do it, since most of my new stuff is packed in boxes for moving to my new house.

When we found a nice place on the beach decorated retro style for our marriage over a year ago, I new immediately I also wanted a retro style wedding invitation. I have no clue about graphic design, so I made it in MS Word and printed it on sand coloured paper. The original cards are packed as well, so I coloured the background of the original design in MS paint. it is not the exact colour, but at least you'll get an idea of what it looked like.

How to and where?

2009-11-11T17:27:00.005+01:00

Since I started this blog, I get many questions on stamp-carving techniques. So when I stumbled upon this video I knew I had to post it here. Geninne basically uses the same technique as I do. I found out she also has a very nice blog, on which a 'Hand carved stamps' tutorial can be found.
When i started making stamps, I learned a lot from this website.

However, I also get questions by Dutch readers, who want to know where you can buy Straetler or Speedball rubber in Holland and I don't know the answer. I buy it at Stampeaz. Does anyone knows a shop in Holland which sells stamping materials?

vintage wallpaper

2009-11-10T21:23:00.007+01:00

I've been away for a while. I went to Morocco and when I came back I had to start preparing for our new home. This Friday we finally get the key. We bought it more than 5 months ago, so it took a lot of patience. Last weeks I have been busy with selecting paint, wallpaper, floors, a couch and find some good professionals who can help to fix the stairs and walls. The top floor of our house, which is quite large, will be used as our bedroom and we want to style it in retro green with sand colors and some nice retro furniture. I would especially like to have a hanging rotan/rattan chair. Anyway, we first have to paint, place a floor and put some wallpaper on the wall before I can start thinking about furniture.
So, I bought vintage wallpaper for our bedroom from Swiet. It arrived today, but as it turned out, there were two different prints. I've send Swiet an e-mail and I'm sure they will take care of it. However, the colour of the wallpaper is exactly what I hoped for, so I am very pleased with it.
By the way, to colours in the photo are a bit different from the real thing. I just made a quit photo (with flash) to show the difference to Swiet. in real, it is, sand, lime green, olive green and orange.I'll show a better picture later on.

Edit 14/11: I chose the left one. Luckily, Swiet had still one (1)in stock, which arrived yesterday.

Learning the hard way

2009-08-26T21:56:00.006+02:00

With every stamp I carve I learn something, usually because of the mistakes I make. For example, I forgot to take pictures of the first stamps that I gave away and stamp any prints either, which I now regret I little, because I would like to keep an ‘archive’ of the things I made. So when I made the stamp for Siep, I quickly took some pictures.

It gave me a good purpose for the ‘Floddertje’ notebook that my husband gave me a long time ago. (I will tell you about ‘Floddertje’ later). I can use it as an archive by stamping prints in it with every new stamp I make. My last post shows the prints I made with the Siep stamp.

As it turned out, you can make really nice patterns with stamps, another good lesson. I adore the Siep pattern. It looks like those little images they make for children to learn reading.
So yesterday I decided to make some patterns with the stamps that I have. Some turned out really nice, but I also learned another important leasson: don’t stamp on the backside of a page, because it will show through the paper. The Siep-pattern is ruined, but at least I learned a lesson!

Smile!

2009-08-17T21:04:00.004+02:00

Now my stamp-making skills have developed a little, I felt confident enough to make a stamp for a gift for someone who is not family. So for Siep, the new-born baby of my sailing loving friends a made this cute stamp. I had to make the whole stamp in one night, and by hurrying so much I cut a little too much off the 'e', but I still think it is very cute, and my friends, who love handmade stuff, really appreciated it. And that feels so good, when something that you have made by hand put a smile on someone's face.

Learning by doing

2009-08-17T20:54:00.004+02:00

For two of my favorites stamps I preferred a better looking solution, so I sawed two blocks of nice wood, sanded it, stamped the picture on it and varnished it and this is the result. I think it looks much better than the previous ones, although I think I still made some small mistakes that I hopefully won't make next time.

Practical practise

2009-08-17T20:35:00.005+02:00

I am still learning the basic techniques of rubber stamp carving myself, but I can tell you a little bit about the material by now.
here are different types of rubber. I use Staedtler MasterCarve, which is white, or Speedy Carve, which is pink. The white stuff looks and feels exactly like eraser. My experience is that the white rubber is more flexible than the pink rubber. The advantage of this is that it cuts more easily. However, there is also a little down-side. Because it is flexible (and thicker), it happens easily that the rubber twists or wobbles a little while stamping. On a stamp, there are always parts that have ink on it, but that are not supposed to touch the paper. But because of the twisting, it might just touch the paper and leave some marks. For me, it is part of the charm and character of stamping, those little carving lines, but too much is not pretty. Mounting the stamp on wood is a way to make the stamp less flexible and improve the stamp. So last week I tried this with some stamps I made earlier. I had done it before with stamps that I gave away, but I didn't have stamps mounted on wood myself. So this is how they look.
It is very practical, but it doesn't look very nice, so that is something to work on.

Dooo yooou speeaak whaalee?

2009-08-10T21:31:00.005+02:00

Last summer I bought the book 'Softies' by Therese Lasky. Shorty after, i discovered stamp carving and never got to make one of the cute Softies. At least, until December, when i got a sewing machine for my birthday. Of course I had to try it immediately and I made this cute whale. I think it looks cute for a first project. The bird on his head was to small to sew with a machine, so I did it by hand and now it looks a bit like an old seagull, all battered and plucked. i am not sure if they are a happy couple, they seem to be on a different level...

As original as can be

2009-08-02T19:37:00.000+02:00

When I read the funny story about Nina’s seven Dala horses I immediately knew I wanted to make a Dala horse stamp. Later I learned Nina has one of those too. That made me doubt for a while if I still wanted to make one. But I guess this is what happens when you see a lot of creative work on the Internet, you learn soon enough that your ideas are seldom very original. And because I didn’t want to kill my renewed love for crafting even before it came fully alive, I carved my own Dala horse stamp. And while I was carving, I decided to make also a two sided ‘orange slice’ stamp and an ‘&’ stamp.

Since Ninainvorm inspired me anyway, I thought I could just as well try to make some little collages and so I did. I am quite happy with the result. My only handicap was that I had hardly any nice piece of paper in my house, so I immediately ordered some Japanese paper from CraftingBug on Etsy. They arrived this weekend and I am very happy with it.

My mother-in-law

2009-07-20T11:17:00.008+02:00

As I told you in the previous post, my mother-in-law is an amateur bookbinder. Which is great for me, because she made me some really nice notebooks over the years. And this year she even made a beautiful Photo album for our wedding pictures. I adore it. The cover is made from hand painted paper that we found in a shop for art supplies. I immediately loved it and thought it matched the wedding invitation that we made very well. So we asked her to make a book for us and she said yes. I know she spend many days to make it, but it is the best gift we could wish for. And she stamped it in the back with the stamp I made for her. Now all we have to do is put photo’s in it.

Stamps I made

2009-07-20T11:15:00.001+02:00

Previous posts might suggest that I didn’t do anything crafty since last summer, but that is a bit exagerated. In fact, I made quite some stamps, of which I gave two of the nicest away (without taking a picture). One of them I made for my little nephew and showed a little train and his name. The other one was made for my mother in law and in fact consisted of a set of four stamps. They showed: ‘Ex Libris’, ‘Handmade’, her name and a rose. The idea was that they could be used seperately or I combination to stamp her books or the handmade (note) books that she makes. Because they were presents I glued them to little blocks of wood on which I first stamped an image of well, the stamp of course. I put them in little wooden boxes that I also stamped. They made nice gifts (although I wish I had taken pictures of them). I planned to make wooden blocks for all my stamps some day….

Finally awake!

2009-07-12T19:59:00.000+02:00

Since my husband and I started looking for a house in January I somehow stopped spending time reading and crafting. I had been reading almost non-stop for about five years, and since the summer of 2008 I also started to pick up some crafting project that had been in my mind for a long time. But with all the major decisions to make about the new house, like how much to spend, what kind of mortgage, city centre or city fringe, more room or a garden and so on, it seemed like there was no space left in my head for crafting or reading.
For inspiration and to relax, I started reading interior design magazines and blogs and I developed this new interest. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, because I am already interested in so many things, but anyway.
Lately, I have been reading Ninainvorm’s blog. She is a great writer and artist and she managed to wake up the crafty girl inside me. So this week, I started to make some sketches during my train trips to work and although they are nothing special, I am really happy that I have picked up the creative stuff again.

Stempels (1)

2008-08-03T19:40:00.001+02:00

Na een periode heel veel met boeken bezig geweest te zijn, heb ik nu het knutselen weer herontdekt. Ik ben op het moment vooral into het stempels maken. Op internet zag ik nl. allemaal mooie handgemaakte stempels, dus dat wil ik ook kunnen. Volgens allerlei knutselsites kan je met een gewone gum en hobbymesje een prima stempel maken, dus bij de Hema een gum gekocht en aan de slag. Als eerste een lieveheersbeestje gemaakt en vond het zelf best goed gelukt. Onder werktijd me dus even verder verdiept in het stempelmaken. Inmiddels weet ik dat er ook allerlei speciale materialen voor te koop zijn, al kon ik nergens vinden waar je die in Nederland kan kopen. vanmiddag nog een stempel met een kipje gemaakt. Je ziet de vooruitgang, hij is al veel fijner. merkte ook meteen dat gum en hobby-mes niet meer voldoen, dus vervolgens via internet in Amerika wat gutsen, rubber en mesjes besteld. Even van de gunstige dollarprijs profiteren zullen we maar zeggen. Hoop dat het pakketje snel arriveert, ik ben tenslotte een ongeduldig typje. Maar ondertussen ga ik wel vast wat ontwerpjes maken....