wonderful wallpaper week 39 (2013 edition)

Tinybop Triangles, by Tuesday Bassen

wonderful wallpaper week 27 (2013 edition)

Springtime, by Solefield

wonderful wallpaper week 18 (2013 edition)

Pantone 1505 C wallpaper, by Pantone

This week's wallpaper just had to be orange as tomorrow we will be celebrating 'Koninginnedag' here in the Netherlands. It's going to be a really special one as Queen Beatrix will be passing the crown to her son, Willem-Alexander. 

On this special day everyone will be wearing orange, the colour of the royal family.



P.S. I just realised I haven't posted anything since last Monday... weeks go by waaay to fast!! :-)

wonderful wallpaper week 12 (2013 edition)

 

Free wallpaper, by Ampersands and other things

At the very North of The Netherlands: Groningen

Hi all! 
Today I'll take a tiny break from the Australia posts to show you what we've been up to recently here in the Netherlands.

We decided to use the few days off we had last week to go and explore Groningen, right at the top end of the country (pretty much at the opposite end of where we live, since we are at the very bottom of the Netherlands). 

Here is a little peak at what we did and saw.

Well... to start with, we saw... a lot of grey skies! A bit of snow and very cold winds too. The weather didn't exactly score points in favour of the city but then again, it's nothing we're not used to down here in Maastricht. :-)

 
And thankfully there were plenty of other things that made us have a tremendous time!

Let's start with the food:
We had a lovely breakfast at Puur! Natural Food one morning where we looooved the pancakes with a hint of cinamon and the delicious jam that came along. The place was really cool (I especially liked the mural shown below).




Also (and I don't have any photographic evidence), one evening we had the most amazing dinner at Hanasato, an exquisite Japanese restaurant where we had shabu shabu for the very first time. It was delicious and the whole meal was a wonderful experience! We decided to go there after reading this post by Livlig and we were so glad we did!
 
We also followed Livlig's advice and headed to Sostrene Grene; what a cool shop! I'll show you all the little things I bought there soon.

And we spent a significant portion of our time in Groningen in the magnificent Groninger Museum. We particularly loved the Nordic Art exhibition they have at the moment, and I loved walking through all the rooms painted in different colours...




Other highlights of the trip included climbing the Martini tower and admiring the foggy view below us, relaxing at the complimentary sauna and turkish bath at our hotel, and even scoring a bottle of prosecco to go along because it was Valentine's Day! :-)  

wonderful wallpaper week 5 (2013 edition)

Trapezoid Love, by Melanie Mikecz

our wedding | super simple white and pastel garlands

 
I couldn't have imagined my wedding without some garlands somewhere. They're such a simple and pretty way of making a place feel festive!

Mart and I, together with my brother and his girlfriend, punched thousands and thousands of circles out of white and pastel coloured paper and sewed them together with a sewing machine. The day before the wedding, my brother hung it all in the gallery where our wedding took place, together with several strands of fairy lights. 

It looked just like I hoped it would!

Photo credits | 5: Mathieu Collioud, 6: Claire Dalgliesh

our wedding | colourful wooden cutlery

 

During a few (very) warm days last summer we painted some 400 wooden spoons, forks and knifes with pretty pastel colours in anticipation for our wedding. 

We also made little pouches that we printed with our names to hold the cutlery and napkins (using the same stamp as here). It worked great with the personalised fish & chip bags!  

Photo credits |  8 & 9: Claire Dalgliesh

Happy birthday Rosalie!

Our little friend Rosalie turned two a little while ago. I made her a little play-shopping set, decorated with pretty washi tape.

Cafe Blossom

Cafe Blossom, in The Hague, is such a lovely place. We ate a delicious lunch there on Friday.


I'm sorry it's been so quiet over here lately - I've been b - u - s - y !
(also we've had a few really beautiful sunny days recently, and I've spent them reading in the sun, on our roof terrace. Who wants to be at the computer when it's so nice outdoors!).

wonderful wallpaper week 30

source

Red plum present

wonderful wallpaper week 26

source

Another paint sample idea

I've been collecting paint samples from our local hardware store for years, mostly to make garlands, but also just to have pretty colours at hand whenever I feel creative. I have seen countless crafty projects and tutorials using them on blogs and websites (see a good collection of them here), but I had never seen this (see below) until cycling home from work yesterday afternoon.


Isn't it just wonderful? And you should have seen it when the girl was cycling - it looked so pretty and happy!

Paint sample triangles

I gave a go at this very easy and fun diy with paint samples. The final product is now on its way to a little girl who turns 5 today... how time flies, it's amazing!

Bright triangles

Hi again everyone!

It's been a little quiet over here lately; sorry... I've kind of been feeling like there are never enough hours in a day (I'm sure you all know exactly what I mean) and so I haven't been at the computer half as much as I usually am.
But it's been good busy though, don't get me wrong! We've been on a lovely long weekend in London last week, and I have lots of photos to show you.

sources: left - middle - right


But before I do so, I wanted to send you over to this guest post, which I wrote for Fellow Fellow a little while ago. It was so much fun putting it together; these bright triangles really do put me in a happy mood.

And during the weekend we happened upon a DavidDavid boutique. It was my first encounter with this London-based fashion designer, and I was in complete awe. As you can see, it fits with the theme perfectly!


sources: left - middle - right

Bright jewels

Photo credits:
Left: neon collar necklace by a pare and a spare
Right: 'end of the party' necklace by French 76


After seeing these two beautiful necklaces I went straight to the hardware store to buy a can of neon yellow spray paint. I just needed to make one too (and now I might just start spraying random things in bright colours too...).


P.S. Claire, from Fellow Fellow, has asked me to do a few guest posts on her beautiful blog. Head over here to see the first one!
It seriously makes me want to be all tanned and in the middle of summer...

Why should love be pink?

I have seen so many Valentine's day decorations in a multitude of pinks, reds and purples that I was getting close to reaching a complete overdose. As a remedy, here is a good measure of fresh minty greens inspired by the beautiful typography (pictured in the middle) my friend Claire posted today.


Photo credits: (clockwise)
Chocolate letter
Typography by Claire from Fellow Fellow.
Photo of New York’s Williamsburg Bridge by Mon Zamora (via)
Fluo elastic with seeds and beads necklace by Turina.Jewellery
Bird No.17 by Geninne

Bits of purple from the past few months

Bits of mint green from the past few months