My blog is nearing it's 500th post. 500. I can hardly believe i got so far. I'm proud of myself. And of all my readers. Those who just recently found my blog and those who are with me from the start. I love all. Those who only read and those who leave comments and emails. You are all appreciated!
And now the blog is almost reaching the very big 5-0-0. Can't let that go by in silence. So i'm thinking GIVEAWAY. Major Giveaway. To celebrate 5 times 100, there will be 5 (!) giveaway packages. I'm not sure yet if they will be given away all at once at the 500th post, or some before that, as sort of a count down, but one thing is for sure, there will be a lot of goodies up for grasp!
So stay tuned, tell all your friends, or if you want to increase your chances, keep it a secret! ;) Counting down...
Happy Queensday to all Dutchies out there! This is the first time in my 31 years that i won't be there to celebrate. Besides this post i'm gonna try not to even think about it. So in honor of Queensday this is my orange post. A blittle bit sad. My all time favorite bowl did not make it in one piece from storage in Amsterdam to my new home in New York. And i was so looking forward having it here. Hooray for superglue. I got it all back together. Not completely smooth, so i won't be eating my noodles from it anymore. Now it's just a decorative bowl i guess. Happy Q-day!
If you're not already a frequent visitor of the inspirational cruststation weblog, pls do take a look soon. As of December 3rd, all dollhouse rooms will be unveiled! Of course i'll show mine here on my blog too (after it's unveiled at cruststation), but all other rooms are well worth a look too! I'm very excited to see the project being finished. It was lovely to work on and i would so much like to see all rooms together.
The image with this post is from a book i thrifted back in Amsterdam. Never did show it before. Maybe unconsciously i saved it for this dollhouse post? It's called "Kleine Tom - en de huisjes van mensen en dieren" freely translated as "Little Tom - and the houses of people and animals". It's by the French illustrator Alain Gree. Very cute!
Got to share this. There's a new magazine: B612. Oh how i love magazines! Especially when the first issue is called 'Lovely Creatures'.
B612 is an independent publication about fashion & the rest of the world. It's new, cute, fresh and different. It approaches fashion in another way than most regular glossies do. The magazine is made in my previous hometown Amsterdam, but all content is in English. You can order it through the mags myspace page, they will ship worldwide!
The magazine is named after a classic fairytale, but it approaches fashion in a modern way. Fashion stylist and former fashion editor Maaike Holvast developed the concept for B612. She asked freelance journalist Kirstin Hanssen to be her partner in creating a collage like photocopied zine about fashion in relation to society. The 1st issue was released at the opening of the Amsterdam Fashion Week; a professionally designed and printed publication of 50 pages, partly in color and partly in b/w, with the look & feel of a self-made magazine.
B612, #1 - Lovely Creatures covers a report about cow cuddling, an interview with the organization of NY Pet Fashion Week, a fashion shoot with the mascot of a leading jeans brand, and much much more! The magazine will appear twice a year. Issue 2 is expected in January 2008.
Project Spectrum v2.0 is what i'm talking about. Last year i had so much fun participating and this year i signed up again with much delight. But i have totally not got to the first 3 colors in the first two months. Maybe its a combination of lack of time and it not being my fav colors. February and March were Blue, White and Gray months. Don't get me wrong i could have made something beautiful. I just didn't. Ooops. These next two months i promise to do better. The colors help: Green, Yellow and Pink. I can work with that. Can i cheat and put up the Green baby dress as a Project Spectrum project? Maybe. But i will also make something especially for PS 2.0.
A group passion for dollhouses turned in to a great collaborative project! I never had a real dollhouse. I once had a lovely figurine treehouse i gave to my cousin when i 'outgrew' it. she threw it out one day when she got bored with it and i wanted that i could have had it back... i always adored paperdolls. i loved to draw paper dolls and their houses.
And now we're making a paper doll house! I got one of the bedrooms to design/decorate. Woohoo! I would have taken any room since i almost missed out on this project. A house only needs that much rooms, so participants had to be limited. I was so happy that my friend Babelfish came through for me and included me in the fun! I'm excited and inspired. Flipping through my decoration magazines, going through my fabric stash. So many possibilities. My thoughts are going at highspeed, so read a much clearer explanation of this Paper Doll House Project over at cruststation! I'm not sure what i will be doing, but we have time. i don't want to dissappoint the rest with a silly room when they, talented bunch receive my room. hm. i will do fine. another time i will update on this and i want to list and spotlight the rest of the 'interior decorators' in this project!
I'm soooooo proud of my Love and my friend Sotu the Traveller. Last Sunday we had the official release party of the Daydreams EP! And even if it's Sotu's name (he's the producer) that's on the cover, i like to think of it as my hubby's EP too. Since he is on 3 of the 6 tracks on it.
Daydreams is the titletrack, the girl on it is our friend, the talented Tasha. I can listen to it over and over again. Is it just me since i love the man behind the voice so much? (so far positive reviews have been popping up on the internet and in Dutch daily newspapers!)
Going back into time. Do you remember the days of cassette tapes? Of sitting in front of the cassette deck pushing the fast forward and rewind buttons? Of spending hours making mix tapes with your favorite songs?
A lot of memories came back of the old days when i rediscovered this amazingly cute green cassette tape. I remember having a pink version too. But i had no luck finding that one again.
With tidying up the house i came across a pack of magnet sheets that i had never used and sort of forgot about. So with a couple of minutes to spare it was time to try them out. They are easy to use, just put them in the papertray of the printer and print whatever you want on them. And then you cut out the desired size/shape. I used my cutting board and exacto knife, but i guess you can use normal scissors for this too.
Of course i chose to print an original Ismoyo image for my trial runs. And i printed a vintage image that connects with my Indonesian roots. It's an old advertisement for an Indonesian recipe book. Another personal connection with the image is that is was published by "De Bijenkorf" (beehive) which is a large department store where i, as a young girl had my first official job.
Who does know how to write my name is Mia over at Onehourcraft. She was so sweet to ask me to be the first impossibly creative lady for an interview series on her site. Hihi, i like that, 'impossibly' creative. But the superhero series? hm. too modest to ever call myself that. plus i'm not. i can't fly.
I know to take the compliment graceful. Thank you.
My ipod was already personalized from the moment i got her. I had her shipped from asia with a custom engraving on the back. It is a quote from Shakespeare and it says If music is the food of love, play on. After she had played me many hours of music something terrible went wrong. Oh no! Everything gone!We had a love hate relationship for a while. It just wasn't the same anymore.. I'd put a pink sticker on the side: cruel but cute so I'm worth it. (A happy bunny quote.) And time heals all wounds so by now i'm loving my ipod again. In her celebration i used a bunch of nail stickers to make her look extra pretty.
people, i have noticed that since the upgrade to blogger beta comments posted don't show right away. so it looks like nothings got through when you leave a message. but it does. my blog just needs to be republished before it shows up. It is visible through the comments link under the original blogpost. I'm not sure yet if it's something that's still needs to be fixed by blogger or it's something that i now have to adjust in the settings. i will check up on it tomorrow. for now i'll leave with this, it's not nescessary to post your message again. it will show up. hm. doesn't make me too happy about beta.. not that there are too many messages left for me lately. but i'm not hurt. i know i have readers. somewhere. ;) edit 29.11; not sure, but it seems that bloglines isnt' getting the updates through my feed anymore. but the feed works. i'm confused here. maybe i should leave it alone for a bit. it might not be something i can fix. >later: i think i have it fixed changed the target of the feed in my blogger account. i still don't understand why it wouldn't work with the regular location of the atom xml feed. but looks like bloglines is recognizing the updates again. pfew..
edit 30.11: ohoh now i notice that joining my mailinglist doesn't work anymore either. but i doubt it has anything to do with blogger beta this time. i used the notifylist system and it appears to have dissappeard all together. luckily i saved all applications in a seperate folder, so with the upcoming site restyle i'll go back to setting up my own system. i could really use to go without these little annoyances. and i'm not so sure about bloglines picking up on the updates anymore either. got to try out something else now. could have used this time on something else. republishing doesn't work great all the time also. hm. not too happy up til now with this upgrade. i do like the new interface for editing posts and the possibility of categorizing them. but i'm not a happy puppy overall.
My Love will be performing in Amsterdam. A new recordcompany Appletree records flew him over. Woohoo. I'm happy. Our hearts can hug again. Dedicating love i scanned a couple of stickers from my old "Love is ..." sticker album from when i was still a little girl. I never made it to collecting all the stickers needed to fill the album, but i do got plenty to enjoy going through the pages. I must say there is a lot of old fashioned believes portrayed in the illustrations. Woman stays at home, cleans after the hardworking man. But then in other illustrations it makes up for that by honoring the woman and spending time together. Kim Casali created 'Love Is...' back in the late 1960's when she drew the little pictures as love notes for her husband-to-be
Since most of my blogvisitors don't read or speak Dutch, let's translate, we go from left to right, top to bottom.
Love is ... "... being a good listener." "... listening even though you don't believe it." "... finding a moment to call her all the time." "... typing loveletters instead of invoices." "... someone to cuddle all night." "... celebrating your first anniversary and looking forward to the 25th."
Still catching up here. I have been wanting to put up these pictures, and I don't know why I couldn't find/make any time to show them. So finally.
They are fabric covered canvases. Can't have enough wall art. I was reminded of them by Meshell's creations a while ago. It took me awhile to get to take pictures of them.
I've gone wild sewing on buttons, fabric, trims and other decorations. I enjoy making color compositions. It feels like everything has it's specific place, even before I even start, their own spot where it belongs. My task is to get them there. Sometimes it works and I get it, but sometimes I don't and that makes me sad..
The girl with the geese on the checkered fabric is a picture I found on one of my vintage children's postcards. I got her onto the fabric trying out the freezer paper fabric printing for the first time. The border under the ducky, or is it another goose? are three different trims stacked on top of each other. The flowers on the right fabric canvas were printed on iron-on paper. Used some scraps of white felt to iron them on to. (think I'll make more of these 'appliques', I like!)
More decorations on fabric. It's like making a collage. One of my favorite pastimes! The lady on the right canvas is my mom. I used the same image on my very fist handmade bag too! And same as with the flowers above, ironed the image onto white felt.
I was catching up on my blogreading when i read about a inspiration box on Cut Out + Keep Out. Cat posted a tutorial on how to fold a box to use as an inspiration box. Now, i didn't feel like folding, plus if i would make an box for inspiration i want it to last a little while. Hm. what box to use and upgrade to become the special box of inspiration? Hold on, didn't i just recently got this pretty shoebox on a lucky day? It's perfect! It hasn't gotten a purpose yet, no items have found their way to the box yet. Pink fake fur will protect the inspiration. Cut out in a box shape, sewn the tops edges and spray glued it into the box. Since i didn't attach any to the outside, the top of the box still fits perfectly.
Exactly one year ago I started this weblog. Wow... how time flies. I love all the adventures I've shared here, and all the adventures that came from here. All the great people who visited, read, commented and or sent kind emails. Thank you so much. It really inspires me to go on and be creative. I decided to celebrate this lovely day by uploading this picture show. Most have been featured on my blog before, some are never before seen pictures.(Yes, there's a picture of me in there too!)
When I started this blog I hoped there would actually be people who would be interested to read what I'm putting out there. Maybe even some who would be interested enough to favor me with a return visit. But I couldn't have asked for so many lovely visitors, some of whom have become new online friends. I cherish you.
I thought I would have done more by now (I know, I done a lot already...), would have learned more by now (I know, learned a lot already). I'm my worst critique and always hard on myself, girl, you can work harder than this... I thought I would have opened up shop by now. But that's so connected with my immigration to the States, it's kinda out of my hands, all I can do is prepare and be ready when my time comes. I had also planned to be able to launch a new website layout on this anniversary, but no no. I have to prioritize and thus the current look and feel will have to do for a little longer.
I couldn't have predicted all the fun this blog is bringing me. I am very thankful and full of inspiration for the future. Hope you will all hang around and share in my creative adventures.
I would love to have my own fabric screenprinted. And maybe one day i will. But until then i have to find other creative ways. During my last visit to NY I've bought some original Freezer Paper. I had read a lot of interesting things about the different kinds of usage of freezer paper, got some tips and tricks from my lovely blogvisitors and got everything i needed to get started. The paper, the fabric, images i wanted printed. I picked some illustrations from vintage children's books and postcards. And then i sat down to think it through. Don't want my beloved printer slash copier slash scanner to break in the process. In the end it wasn't even that difficult, but it was an adventure doing it. Basically, you just iron the fabric to the freezer paper and run it through your printer. The freezer paper has a regular paper side and a waxy side. I started by cutting the freezer paper to the size of a regular sheet of printer paper and then lightly ironed the fabric to the waxy side of the freezer paper. If you would want to try this, don't put the iron too hot, medium will do. It will make the paper stick to the fabric and at the same time easy to remove later. When you're ironing check if the paper is sticking to the fabric. If not, just iron some more until it does. Then cut around the paper through the fabric so they're still stuck to each other, but now the same "printer paper" size. You can also start out by cutting both the fabric and the freezer paper separately and then iron them together, but i like to cut afterwards. You don't want no loose ends go through the printer, the edges must match up, otherwise threads can get stuck inside (yep! happened to me, spoils all the fun of the printing adventure). When you're sure its ok you can use the sheet of paperfabric like you would a regular sheet of paper in your printer. Maybe stating the obvious; know how you should place the paperfabric sheet (which side up), you want to print on the fabric, not the freezerpaper. After you hit the print command, let it dry and gently peel the fabric from the freezer paper. You don't have to throw away the freezer paper, you can re-use it a couple of times!
When using this technique you don't want to wash the fabric afterwards. The ink won't hold up. There are waterproof inkjet cartridges on the market and there is a liquid you put on the fabric before you print, but i have neither. So I'll only use my prints in projects that aren't prone to end up in the washing machine.
**Note later today: While doing my blog reading round i just found out that Maria over at One Hour Craft has posted a link to a recently posted tutorial on A Beautiful Craft doing what? Yes, freezer paper fabric printing. I feel a bit silly and slow now. My first instinct was to delete this post of mine, there is no need for it right? But decided not to and leave it here anyway. *feeling soooo unoriginal right now...*
The two Micro Pet cuties on the top left really interact and play with each other, they react to each others movements and sounds. Very cute as long as they are happily playing together, when they get grumpy it can get a bit less cute...
The small cat and dog are really robot look-a-likes. They don't really move or do anything. You can move their legs and head yourself if you would want to.
I love my Meow-Chi pet cat. She sings, dances, purrs, her eyes light up (and turn into hearts when she really likes you!), totally adorable. But you have to give her attention, otherwise she'll get a real bad attitude! And the attention is also needed to have her develop her own personality(!). Meow-Chi has 7 different sensors to react to different situations. Because she doesn’t like to be alone, she has a little mouse friend, the sight of which makes her happy: eyes that light up with joy.
The bird is my latest addition. I found her in a small Chinese store in Brooklyn. All the way in the back of the store, her box was all dusty and she was clearly forgotten about. And most likely nobody wanted her either, since she was marked down to only 3 dollars. I needed to save Chat Bird from the shelve! I took her home, feeded some batteries and she was responding cheerful by singing and dancing. Cute! (I do miss her, since she's still in Brooklyn, waiting for me to return)
I've talked about my buttonhat before, so here it is. It's inspired by the picture found in a Japanese fashion magazine. There are currently 16 cute pins and buttons on it (it's an ongoing work-in-progress!). The three newest, which i got from my friend, are in front. One of a monkey, 'Cheeky', one of a cow, 'Mad' and a pink one that says 'I only look sweet and innocent'. *giggles*
I got a very belated birthday gift from one of my friends. First i got a tiny envelope with three cute buttons in it. For my button hat. I've got an old hat, decorated with all these cute buttons. (Will post pictures in another post) So when she saw buttons she bought a couple as a little something extra to go with my gift. Sweet! Then the main gift, her buying it for me was based on this decora post. Because she saw that on my blog before, she knew her gift would be received with great excitement. And it did! Ooh, how i love my Fruits box filled with great picture cards of all those Japanese fashion styles! I have had it in my hands myself in the store before, but it was never my priority to spend my money on, but it surely was one of the things on my wish list! Thank you girl, i love it! I'm going to frame some of the great pics and showcase them on the wall!
The husband & wife design team of the Inhabit design store will be having a Pillow Design Competition. There isn't much information available yet, but it's open to everyone, there are cash prizes to win and the designs of the talented lucky winners will be part of the 2007 spring line!
I found out about this thanks to the wonderful blog of Moenia.
I love colors! Thanks to Lolly of Project Spectrum for sharing the 'Reading Rainbow' idea. I am a book addict. I like spending time in libraries, but feel bad when I read a library book and then having to bring it back. When I was a little girl I already knew that I would want to have a large bookcase filled with my own books when I would grow up. Now I have. So in honor of PS yellow and orange month I pulled out some of the bright bookcovers and lined them together. (Which felt kinda weird since all my books have their own spots in the bookcase and never really get too much out of order, cookbooks with cookbooks, Asian stories with Asian stories, Bio's with Bio's, poetry with poetry, etc. etc.) For those who are interested, here's the reading list of the books in the picture: - A day late and a dollar short, Terry McMillan - Hoge hakken, geen gelul, Chater & Gaster (High heels, no bullshit) Funny title, business book about women in a men's world. - Bob Marley, Rebel with a cause, Dennis Morris - Indonesisch koken met groente en vis, Ciska Cress (Indonesian cooking with vegetables and fish) - Mijn boek met bijbelverhalen (My book of bible stories) Children's book from when I was little - Hoofdstukken Sociaal Recht, CJ Loonstra (Chapters Social Law) From when I was still in college - Mijn woestijn, Waris Dirie (My desert) - Siberische droom, Irina Pantavera (Siberian Dream) - Song of Survival, Helen Colijn - Fear of Flying, Erica Jong - I'm the one that I want, Margaret Cho - Slam (poetry book with multiple authors) - Een slavin in Parijs, Henriette Akofa (A slave in Paris) - Jeugd EHBO (Youth First Aid) Yes I got my certificate when I was a young girl!) - De krant op Zondag, Rene de Bok (The Sunday Newspaper) - Basquiat, Phoebe Hoban - I'm the king of the castle, Susan Hill - Penguin, Frans Lanting (Taschen book) - Ups en downs in het Indische leven, PA Daum (Ups and downs in the Indonesian life) - De Polong, Aya Zikken - De grootste belhamel van de school, Enid Blyton (The Naughtiest Girl in the School)
I have taken some time to make pictures of all things pink around my house as my participation in Project Spectrum. Believe me, I could have gone on for a long time. Yes, I've got a lot of things in pink. Going through my rooms I already started to kinda worry about the next months with the other colors... what to do? Do I even have items in blue or green? That's gonna be the real challenge to come up with some kind of interesting photo collage with the right colortone.
I might make another round through my house next weekend. Because I really passed on some great pink items. Like this small retro looking digital clock a friend of mine once gave me when he came back from being in Canada for a long time. He's a great designer. I'll check and see if I have a url of his website. Ofcourse I'll have to add it to my link page.
And can I take this opportunity to show an earlier made craft project? It is pinkish. I started out with a small blank wooden chest of drawers and some funky paper napkins. I decoupaged those onto the outside. The borders and insides of the drawers are painted white. The three cuties on top I found one day in a large dollar store in Brooklyn.
I have officially signed up to participate in Project Spectrum! The idea of Project Spectrum is a celebration of the colors around us, and taking the time to notice them. Each month over a six month span will be devoted to a color group: March - Red and Pink April - Orange and Yellow May - Green June - Blue July - Violet / Purple August - Neutrals / Black & White
Great idea, thanks Lollygirl! And lucky me, it starts with my favorite color, Pink! I'll be making aphoto montage of ‘red and pink around my house’. Will post pictures soon!
I know this blog is about my creative adventures, but i think it's okay if i also show off some creativeness of my man and some friends. Last January 17th, the Food for Funk CD "Wake Up" was released during a great party in Paradiso, Amsterdam. The public was treated to a high energy 2-hour live show. I was dancing the whole night! A friend of mine plays guitar in the band and an other connection is that my man has written the inlay text for the cd! I'm so proud of his talent.
Isn't it cute? And it's free! Really, not even shipping and handling. Yeah, buy two bottles of bacardi, but that's no problem... hihi... I don't know how long i have to wait for it to arrive, but i'm hoping it will be here soon!
My blog is nearing it's 500th post. 500. I can hardly believe i got so far. I'm proud of myself. And of all my readers. Those who just recently found my blog and those who are with me from the start. I love all. Those who only read and those who leave comments and emails. You are all appreciated!
Happy Queensday to all Dutchies out there!
Hooray for superglue. I got it all back together. Not completely smooth, so i won't be eating my noodles from it anymore. Now it's just a decorative bowl i guess. 
Planted seeds the day i got back from my trip.
If you're not already a frequent visitor of the inspirational 
A group passion for dollhouses turned in to a great collaborative project!
Going back into time. 
With tidying up the house i came across a pack of magnet sheets that i had never used and sort of forgot about.
Still catching up here. I have been wanting to put up these pictures, and I don't know why I couldn't find/make any time to show them. So finally. 
I was catching up on my blogreading when i read about a inspiration box on 
Exactly 
I would love to have my own fabric screenprinted. And maybe one day i will. But until then i have to find other creative ways. During my last visit to NY I've bought some original 
My robot pet collection that is.
I got a very belated birthday gift from one of my friends. 
I love colors!
I have taken some time to make pictures of all things pink around my house as my participation in 
