Mushroom buckets

Triple score! Found at the fleamarket in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I like walking the market, but it is small and mostly overprized. Still a stroll can be usefull when you end up with a triple score like these vintage buckets with mushroom lids! They fit inside each other when empty, and are of great size (large one is 9,5" high). I had to do an intensive cleaning, but now that they are sparkling clean i ♥ them!

Vintage Crochet

Since i'm doing some crochet again lately it is fitting to show some pages of one of my vintage craft books filled with crochet pictures. These are from an old German Burda craft book.


I really love all these crochet tablecloths. Should try and make some. If i ever have time for new craft projects again. Why do i always feel like i have too much unfinished projects laying around and even more in my mind that i want to start?

Hello Kitty

Not Sanrio's Hello Kitty. Vintage children's book "Hallo Poes" which is Dutch for "Hello Cat" but don't you agree, Hello Kitty just sounds a better than Hello Cat.


For your viewing pleasure!

Giveaway Winners Announced!

Thank you all for entering my 500th post celebration giveaway! Happy to see the sweet comments coming in and getting to know some more of my readers. Not many seemed to be interested in my decorating books, but most of you really liked the cute goodies, so i've decided to change giveaway package #4 into a surprise package filled with cute goodies! Share the cuteness!

My Vintage ceramic friends were happy to help me with the Lucky draw...

The five lucky winners are:

Package #1: Debbie Hill. Girl, i love that you collect shopping lists! I will send you one or so along with the package ok?

Package #2: Tess! It is nice to know where some of the goodies are going to!

Package #3: Sarah from Girl Land. Love your blog and Etsy shop!

Surprise Cuteness Package #4: Jessica from Funky Finds. I will gather a package of cuteness for you. You loved the elephant totebag from the other package, i have a similar Sweet Face tote bag but it's not an elephant. I will put it in your package, what is it? A surprise!

Package #5: Anne from GreenJello! Hope your crafty hands can use some of the supplies!

I will email you all today for your snail mail addresses!

Visiting grandma

While i was in the Netherlands, i of course visited grandma. My sunglasses in her wonderful vintage interior.

Happy Birthday to Me.

Is it me or does time go by too fast? It's my birthday today. Not sure how i feel about it. I turned 32. I do like life better after 30, but it does feels like time passes faster after 30 too. Days like this make me miss my friends and family in the Netherlands, but the sun is shining in New York, so i'm out to have a good day.

Vintage Crochet and a Queen

I found this amazing Phildar hobby book on a market where my mom took me when i was in the Netherlands. There was this lady selling a lot of great vintage craft magazines and i bought a couple but wished i could take them all. Don't be greedy, leave some for someone else. That, plus the fact i couldn't bring all of them and bring all back with me to NY with everything i still had in storage. Okay, i admit, if i could have, i would have taken them all...

Look at how relaxed this lady looks. Just finished crocheting her new table cloths, poured fresh squeezed orange juice, watered the plants, placed some decorative shells on the table and made herself comfortable petting her dear cat. Probably waiting for some amazing guests to appear any time soon.
Not only this photo is like this, all project photos in this print are so wonderfully propped!

And this is the new Queen in the house. Okay, she is basically a very pretty big eyed girl in a sort of clowns costume, but the painting is so big and has a gold painted frame and she is just too adorable, so we are calling her the new Queen of the house. O no. That would be me. I'm the Queen of the castle. hihi. She is the Queen of all my big eyed vintage art pieces. My collection is starting to grow and i enjoy looking at them every day. Now that Queen has arrived i have to rearrange all my other pieces to go around her. Will make a picture and show soon. There are more there that i haven't shown yet.

We found Queen last weekend in Park Slope. I lured my Love to come along, i wanted to stroll around and check out some stoopsales. Love was not excited. Buy honey, there will also be sales with a lot of old records. Score. He went along. And we did find a bunch of great records and this painting. Glad Love was there to convince me to give her a new home and to carry her all the way back.

Vintage Friday

I like the way my Collage Sundays are going. Mainly the fact that i'm actually sticking to it. Posting pages of my collage journal every Sunday. I like it so much i was thinking of doing something similar on Fridays. Vintage Friday has an (obvious) easy to remember ring to it.
So on every Friday there will be a Vintage minded post on here. Can be a scan from a vintage fashion magazine, a page out of a 70's interior decorating book, an item that i scored in the thriftshop or like now a vintagy photo of myself and my brother!

It's us in the backyard of the home where we grew up in. I remember this swing very well. Loved it. We could swing together or by ourselves on the single swing next to it. (i still love the swingsets in the park!)
It's funny that you do see my face in the photo and not my brothers, makes it easier for me to post it here too. Why? Well, my brother is like a pretty much famous person in the Netherlands, musician/producer/etc. So he's in the media quit a lot, i wouldn't want some thorough journalist scanning my pages and coming up with kids photos of him all of a sudden! Haha, this way he's unrecognizable! As if he already knew he would be famous later in life! (bonus for me, if i miss him, since i moved so far away, i can always type him in youtube and find lots of movies of him and his music videos!)

Love you bro!

Happy Mama Day!

Happy Mothers Day! This is my all time favorite photo of my mom. She featured on my blog before, in her modelling days and helping me clean my room when i was still a little girl.
One of my all time first illustrations was made based on this photograph of my mom. Now that i'm looking for that image on my blog, i realize i never showed it here.
Why? Don't know. Maybe i will one day.
Mom, Love you. Miss you. Was great talking to you earlier today!

no title

So busy. So busy. Where does time go. Not even came up with a title for this post. Nothing pops up and i don't want to take time to sit down and ponder. Not important today.
I am doing good, looking forward to my trip to London and Amsterdam, but kinda freaking out if i think about the amount of work still has to be done before i leave. Ohohoh.
I love the fact that all projects are finished for my book. Now it's the actual writing part. You know, tutorials so that people actually figure out how to make the projects on their own.
I will get it done. Some way.
With that said, what are the pictures with this post? Thrift scores!
Two small decorative plates. (yes i really needed those!) There is no makers name on the bottom, but the print is very seventies.
How happy was i when i found these vintage craft magazines? Very delighted! They are called 'The Workbasket' and are focused on making crafts and making money doing so. Most are from the fifties. When i got to the register, the man behind the counter told me that just an half hour before me someone bought a whole stack of the magazines! There were more??? Well, at least that person left a couple for me to find.
I was on my way to do grocery shopping when i saw this item out on the curb. Immediately i knew i could fix it up and make it into a pretty display for my collectibles. I know, it's meant to put potted flowers on. But groceries were needed. So i decided if it would still be there on my way back i would bring it home. I think i never did grocery shopping as fast as this time! Ha. It was still waiting for me when i got back. Now it's waiting for modge podge and pretty papers. But that will wait until i come back from my trip.

Mail sent and mail received

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day. I got some mail sent out and there was some mail received. By me and by people who were waiting to get something from me.
First of all, Suki has been sent on to the first part of her journey!

Then there was the email from Mandy saying that she received my Pay it Forward crafts. I made her two mini (3"x3") fabric art pieces. One with one of my illustrations turned into a felt applique and one with a felt flower on the front. I added two bottlecap magnets with images taken from my vintage postcard collection.
More surprises arrived at new homes. I did a cute and crafty swap with Roxanne and she got the goodies I've sent her. I don't have a picture of all the goodies i put in the box, but do have a picture of what i made for her. I felted this little bear like animal for her. I found this pretty box which made a perfect little home, it fitted like a glove!


Last month i was the very lucky winner of this gorgeous milk glass set from the wonderful blog at happydash! It took awhile for it to arrive here, due to the wonderful service at my local post office (yes, this is sarcastic).
But let's say it was just to build up anticipation and my joy was even greater when it finally did arrive! It is soooo gorgeous i can't even explain. The two cups and plates with their lovely prints and the shape of the plates resemble painters tablets. Oooohhh... loving it, thank you Tonya for spoiling me with these!
And i got even more spoiled when i opened up a surprise package from Jonah of Maluhia Designs. The prettiest and cutest fabric! I really needed to catch my breath for a second. I can't think of any crafty project that is so wonderful that i will be able to really cut in these fabrics. But i'm also aware they are meant for me to use. Maybe one day i'll think of something. Thank you sooo much for this amazing treat!

Start of a new collection

As if i don't collect enough things.
I would just love to see a grouping of small gorgeous thrifted white vases. And some green ones too. I found the white one like two weeks ago at the Salvation Army and the green one last week in a small thriftshop in Queens.
So a grouping of small green and white vases would be nice to look at.
Another thing to be on the lookout for when thrifting.

The white one is #175 milk glass bud vase from the E.O. Brody Co. from Cleveland Ohio.
The green is colored glass but has no maker's name or anything on the bottom. Which is a shame, but nonetheless i think it's pretty.

Talking about collections, the vases are now in front of my vintage Sarah Kay tin collection. They are filled with ribbons, buttons and other small craft supplies.

Mail surprises

Who doesn't like surprises in the mail? I know i do!

And i'm feeling very spoiled.
Should have posted this earlier since it arrived in my mailbox a while ago already. Dear Roxanne has sent me all these goodies for our cute and crafty swap. How sweet is the poptart cozy she made for my pink ipod?
She surprised me with cute Hello Kitty goodies and pink poodle erasers, pretty postal stamps, vintage handkerchiefs and a gorgeous clutch which she embellished with a little bit of sparkle on top!
And then the other day my mailbox was happily filled with a little package from my friend Tess from London. Oh, how i love tiny things! Look at these.
Small Pucca's, Hello Kitties and My Melodies! They all have a little hanging loop on top so i can make something with them. Ohoh what to do with them? I adore them. The pucca figurines have a little edge so they can sit on the edge of something. Too cute!
And she also added this Hello Kitty lollipop/popping candy too. I normally never open cute candies, just keep them and admire their cuteness. But in this case i'm tempted. Because A) i love popping candy + lollipops and B) it looks like there might be stickers inside. Of course i'm curious and want to look at those. If there are any.
Well, it says '48 stickers to collect' on the package...

Dollhouse unveiling

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!

The Brass Ring

Another thing i love to go thrift hunting for, are vintage records. For two reasons, for the music, and for the great cover artworks. What is it that the records from the 60's and 70's have so much more impressive artwork than most cd's out there today? But maybe it's just a matter of taste.
I still have to get a recordplayer in my new apartment so i haven't listened to my latest find 'the now sound of the brass ring'.
When i just buy an album for the gorgeous cover i mostly don't have a clue how the music sounds, but am always curious. There is one track i know on this album, 'The look of love' composed by Burt Bacharach. Can't wait to listen to it.

Pay it forward

Have you heard about the crafty Pay-it-forward movement already? I am following Deborah at Nesting Notes, who followed camilla, who followed bibi, and the list goes on with beautiful crafty bloggers who are participating.

How it works is, I send a crafted gift to the first three people that comment on this post that want to p(l)ay. Each of them then posts the message below on their blog and invites another three people to join in on the fun.

The gifts of handmade stuff gets paid forward, and we all get packages in the mail! Who doesn't love that?

The promise:
"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

Even if you've never commented on my blog before, only came to read my adventures, now would be the perfect time to come out and say hi!

(Image with this post is from my vintage postcard collection.)

1970 thinking bout 1980

"1970... and Dacron already thinks about 1980!
You make today what will be in fashion tomorrow"

I was surrounded by vintage fashion illustrations for a new crafty work in progress which involves a lot of vintage images. Realized it had been awhile since i last shared some of the wonderful images i have in my collection. It's about time huh?

These are from my vintage sewing magazines.
I'll scan and post some more soon.

Earn your angel wings

Earn your wings at the lovely Angel Street Thrift Shop on 17th street. (all the shops proceeds benefit individuals and families affected by Substance Abuse, HIV, AIDS and Mental Illness)

Can't believe i never found this wonderful shop in the city before.





Got these great vintage patterns. Don't we love McCalls and Simplicity from the old days?








On another (shopping) note; i read on the back of an ikea folder (not the catalog, i just have the folder) that they are opening a store in brooklyn. how lovely! got to wait till spring 2008 still, but it will be closer than having to travel all the way to New Jersey!

Precious vintage book covers

Why are these so precious? Because i love guns or westerns? No not really.
Because it's my mother on the cover!

"The burning hills" on the left is from 1970, "The land of the devil" (eew!) is from 1969. To me that is almost unbelievable since (and i am not lying) my mom really still looks the same today as she did on those pictures.

I have used the picture on the right as the base for an illustration which i put on my very first handmade bag and later on one of my fabric wall art pieces.

I know my mom will go like, eewww, did she have to put these pictures up on her website? yes mommy i did! ;)
Love you miss you. See you soon.

Paper doll house project 2007

My dear online friend Babelfish is doing a great job organizing the Doll House Project.
Due to my overseas move i haven't had much time before to work on it. But i'm getting there. Wasn't expecting to be moving so much in my first two months here. (moved apartments again this week! ohoh, and i'm not a moving person at all)
but i've got the feeling i'm in a good place now, where for now i can get things up to speed again. i'm so behind on so many things. and i hate it to keep people waiting.
But about the dollhouse project. It is supposed to be done by the end of this month. I will have it done by then. That's my plan at least. Get it send out first week after. Risa had her room done way in advance. You go girl! You can see her wonderful dressingroom on flickr.
I won't be able to get all crafty crazy with this project unfortunately, but i'm making a digital collage mixed with illustration in Ismoyo style. So i'm hoping to be able to send out a vintage/cute bedroom when i'm done!

70's fashion

photo source Libelle 50 jaar

It's peace, love and freedom in the seventies. Also in fashion. In the beginning of the seventies there wasn't one prescribed fashiontrend. Everything goes.
Midi, mini, maxi or hotpants. Everyone chooses the style they like. Freedom!

More on fashion in the 70's.

Pretty cardgame pictures

i can't remember when it was last that i actually sat down and played any card game at all.
doesn't take away from the fact i do love pretty cards.
especially vintage ones with lovely illustrations on them.
I found these in a whole set on my Queensday thrift hunt.
Bought them from a sweet lady with a heart for vintage.

Queensday thrifting

Yesterday the country was celebrating Queensday and i had such a lovely lovely time!! (No clue what queensday is?)
My feet are still hurting from all the walking i did.
This was the first time since years that i didn't go into the city center and party all day, i just wasn't feeling the large crowds. I spent the morning treasure hunting the flea markets in the South of the city and got some wonderful thrift finds. In the afternoon i went outside the city to celebrate with my family and i had so much fun with them, esp with my cousin and her two cute little daughters (ponyriding!). And when the flea market kinda ended, there were lots of people who didn't want to take their non-sold items back home and left them there in the park. And what do you know, i found some cute ceramic pieces and a stack of great vintage craft books! For free! Woohoo!

I will take pictures of my thrift scores tomorrow. In the meanwhile, you can check the Queensday pictures and story from last year.

this, that and something else

I opened my mailbox and found that my Love had sent me this adorable image. How super cute!
I don't know where he found it, it reminds me of a page from a coloring book. All of a sudden i want to go to the petting zoo and feed a small deer. Don't we love Bambi?

My friend has delivered her babygirl! I'm so proud of her. The little girl is an Indonesian/Dutch/Italian mix and already looks so pretty! They haven't send out their baby announcement cards, so i won't show the design i did for it here yet. Wouldn't be fair. But i did dove in my fabric scrap box and whipped up a pink congratulations with the new baby card.

I went to the market yesterday to get some zippers and found these wonderful old fabrics. I really wasn't planning to buy that many, but the lady was so kind to make me a deal i couldn't say no to. I bought some pink trimmings too. I was so happy that i totally forgot about those zippers i needed to get!

Vintage mail presents!

What a joy to pick up my mail this morning!
I was jumping up and down with joy even before i opened it. hihi. i love pretty foreign stamps and cute wrapped presents!
My Portuguese friend Micaela has sent me these lovelies. The letter included was filled with creativity, thanks for the inspiration.
I can't read Portuguese, but the pictures in this children's book are sooooo perfect! Jumping up and down in excitement again! The vintage flower pin is so pretty too! And the plastic baby diaper fabric; what can i say? I want to make some great things with it, but at the same time it's so precious i don't want to cut it!
Thank you for the wonderful surprise mail gifts, I'm loving it!

Vintage baby

Very much inspired by my pregnant friend lately.
I've made a simple pattern for baby bibs. Planning to use vintage fabrics and decorate with sweet trims. But decided to first make one or two asap (as simple as possible). Trial runs.
My friend will be asked to use, wash and test it.
If it survives usage and laundry (which i think it will) i will be making more (decorated) vintage bibs!





Another thing vintage fabric related in my mind are baby dresses.
I have a pattern in my head. I know how i want it to come out. But i haven't made any sketses yet. Not sure if i want to figure it out by myself or go out and look for a premade pattern which resembles the one in my mind. The last would be the best choice regarding sizing. I don't know about measurements for baby clothes and i don't know if i want to figure it out before i can start.
Because? I found these wonderful vintage pillow cases which would be great to use as fabric for little girls dresses.
We'll know as soon as i figured out the pattern thing, because then i will be cutting and sewing these wonderfull old flowery fabrics!

crochet inspiration

Ooh!! I've found some wonderful vintage (early 70's) crafty magazines while thrifting last weekend! (huge indoor fleamarket at the outskirts of Amsterdam)
Many great pictures and ideas for new creative projects. I'm especially inspired by all the lovely crochet pictures. I do need to up my game. Learn more variations. I could do this. I have put it on my work in progress list so it will get more priority in the following week.
For now, let's just look at the great pics from the magazines.

Vintage Loesje Comic

Loesje - Village without friends
Loesje is living in Fieldvillage now. Her only friend is Anita. Anita doesn't want to have to do anything with the 'farmpeople'. One day they go swimming together...

1."Much nicer than a Real swimmingpool... in the middle it's really deep!"
"He, he... this makes you feel better!"
2."What must Jannie have thought when she saw me at that pigsty..?!"
"I am incredibly thirsty!"
3."He, how stupid... i forgot to bring drinks..."
"doesn't matter... i will go get something!"
4."...that is... eh...i believe that is that guy from those sorbets..."
"Hello! i believe we have met each other before!.."
5. "if i'm not mistaken you are that girl that wanted to be treated by me!"
"yes, sorry! but i didn't know that it was self-service there and i thought..."
6. "ah well, we here in fieldvillage do follow modern technology closely. We even have horse riding stables!"
"oh yeah? over where?"
7. "At our home! We have a farm and stables... come over if you feel like it. The first ridinglesson is free!"
"i will think about it!"

I thought i would share a page from my Tina magazines.
I still haven't decided what to do with them, so for now i'm just enjoying and reading them. Getting them in order at the same time. Every two pages is a storyline, that continues weekly in every edition. I have put the entire stack of mags next to my bed and read one every night before i go to sleep. Lovely end to each day!

it's a pair

One of my most precious things in my house is this sweet vintage doggy clock. I have found it maybe two years ago during a thrifting spree. The clock does work, but runs a tad bit slow. So for me the doggies are there for decorative purposes only.
The two glass swans in the foreground were a little surprise gift i got from Love one day.

Interior Decorating of the 70's

with Amazement I'm flipping through the pages of my latest vintage thrift find.
A Dutch edition of "1601 Decorating ideas for modern living". Bare in mind 'modern' is published 1975. It's a yellow fabric covered hard bound book full of beautiful photographs and great ideas from past times.
I have a chair like that! My parents bought it when they were decorating their first apartment.
The photo caption said (translated) "Not too high shelves and cupboards are used more often now, to divide large spaces in two. Here they also serve as support for the couch and the fold out table."














Photo caption translated "In the work of ground breaking designers the furniture, the use of space and the color scheme give us an impression of the future. 'Visiona 3' of Olivier Mourgue consists of living zones on different levels. A sleeping unit, bathroom unit, the lounge area and the kitchen can be placed where you want. The hanging closets (right) and the dividers can be moved along rails attached to the ceiling."
hihi. It gave us a great impression of the future. Who of us Doesn't live like this nowadays? ;)

Hi Momma!

I'm so proud of my mom. Yesterday i was over at my parents to celebrate her birthday and she told me that the other day she, by herself, got behind the computer and visited my website! Good job mom, i knew you could figure out how to do the whole 'online' thing!

It's us in the photo and it fits my current activity (well, just 'til i started this post): Cleaning out clutter and reorganizing my home. Thank you mommy for making me all those cute dresses and helping me tidying up!

On another note, i want to say my heart goes out to all people in Jakarta, my mothers birth place in Indonesia. They are recovering from immense flooding. Please let the lingering rain stay away...

Pollie Poodle

Pollie Poodle, Ducky Quack and the bunny Wiesje Wollepop. Wonderful illustrations done by Yvonne Perrin. From the Nutricia childrens book series from the early 1960's. Back in the days you could save up for them by collecting points from the Nutricia coffeecreamer. The entire original series exists of 15 precious booklets. Nutricia did do a reprint in the '90's of 8 of the booklets. Until now i've found numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8. Hope to find the remaining ones on a lucky thrifty day and make my serie complete.
I've found this link where somebody scanned in the pages of Wiesje Wollepop. It's in Dutch, obviously, but there is no language barrier in looking at the pictures!

Ideas please - Vintage magazines

What to do with these? Awhile ago I got my hands on this pile of vintage Tina magazines. And I just totally LOVE them.
For many reasons. Even though these editions are from just before i was born (1973 - 1975, i was born '76), i remember the magazine well from when i was a little girl. Of course i had a long lasting subscription when i was growing up. Child hood memories. I really looked forward each week to the postman bringing me a new copy of the magazine. Those have been thrown away in the past. Luckily some people held on to theirs and now i have so many beautiful copies again.
The magazines are filled with girl comic stories and few advertisements and crafty ideas. All drawings are so well done and have such beautiful styles. I adore. If you flip through them they aren't just comics for girls, they are very much fashion magazines too. Back then you didn't have no MTV's, Internet or many glossy magazines that showed what was fashionable. So all the characters in the Tina's were so incredibly fashionably drawn. Great outfits on all pages!
Every edition also has some pages of sent in letters from readers, and a funny thing is that lots of times kids would draw the vintage postcards that i collect and sent in their drawings.

But back to my question, I know i have lots of creative readers here, so what to do with these? The thought alone of having them already makes me smile. But it feels like a shame to have them stacked up in a box. They are too pretty for that and i see all the possibilities of inspiration and /or input for my creative projects. They also take up some space, so maybe that's a good excuse to use them. But would it be a sin to cut some images out? Should i just choose a couple to cut up and leave the rest in tacked? Ohoh, how to handle them?
Of course ideas for creative projects in which i could use these magazines are very much welcome too!
I'm thinking collages, ATC's, print some images on fabric ...

Moerman's boys

I have shown my collection of 60's/70's artworks before and promised to make some more close up pictures.
Today's spotlight is on the print on wood (bottom left) done by the artist J. Moerman. It has a small mark on the back from art dealer 'van Hulsen'.
Like most illustrators of my collection i haven't been able to find information about Moerman. Except in my own collection of vintage postcards. Well, not really any background info, but i do have two more illustrations. Both have been printed for the