vrijdag 26 december 2008

Riviera Maison concept store

Last week, I went to the Riviera Maison concept store in Rotterdam with my father and his wife. It's my alltime favourite interiorstore!







The store is an old barn that they made into a interiorstore. There's a huge shoppingmall around it and the barn was a protected building so they couldn't break it down. So they had to build around it and now the barn is in the shoppingmall!




Christmas breakfast

I know christmas is almost over but I just worked the entire two days but I still had time to had breakfast bij myself.




I found the christmas plate and cup and saucer, there from Wedgewood and I completely forgot that I had them but found it just on time. It brought a little feeling about christmas. But I can't wait for tomorrow when we go to Brussels! That's going to be our christmas time!

talk yo you soon

donderdag 25 december 2008

Merry Christmas!


Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful christmas, wherever you are!

S and I are working but we celebrated it last night and it was lovely. This weekend, we'll be in Brussels for two days, going to the christmas market and do a bit of shopping. Can't wait but first work for two whole days... At least we have something to look foward to.

Enjoy this day and this time of year, love the one you're with and relax, even if the christmas dinner doesn't quite go as you had in mind ;-)

maandag 22 december 2008

Isn't it a beauty?


I bought it on Marktplaats(the Dutch Ebay)from a woman who made it and I immediatly wanted it. So after paying for it, it arrived after a week and I can't stop looking at it and putting beautiful stuff on it. Don't you think it looks great?

This is something that we can make ourselves and I'm planning to do so with a good friend of mine. I can't wait! I'll show you the result as soon as it's ready!

New diningroom chairs!

Well, not exactly new but after a long time I finally made the time to paint them and it was a hell of a job.




Because I have absolutely no patience, I want these kind of jobs to be done quickly so I started on saturday afternoon and on tuesday I was ready!



The result is exactly as how I imagined it would be and I'm so happy with it. The diningroom area is already so dark because of the limited sunlight that shines there but now it looks great! Now, I would like to paint a part of the diningroom table but S doesn't want that because then it would look to girly.... Oh, what can you do... Maybe it's better to buy a new diningroom table but let's just wait and see, maybe I'll find a way to convince S. I'll let you know.

vrijdag 12 december 2008

Shopping in The Hague

For all of you christmas shoppers and planning for a day in The Hague, take a look at this website with all great places to shop!

Christmas at our house

In between work, shopping for christmas presents and just being busy, I had put up the christmas tree!



The other day, there was a man at the hotel singing "It starting to look a lot like christmas" and ever since that song is in my head, ha ha.



S has no idea that these presents are not all for him, hi hi.



My two santa's. Usually, I seperate them and put them in different places but I thought that they looked nice together, don't you think?



Well, It's something nice to come home for, putting on the lights and just enjoy this time of year. Unfortunately, S and me are working during christmas but we are going to celebrate christmas on the 27th so we extended christmas for another day (christmas is celebrated for two days in the Netherlands). We problably going to cook something simple and spend all day in our pj's and enjoying ourselves! I can't wait.

dinsdag 9 december 2008

Christmas at work

Yesterday, a group of work decorated the hotel in christmas style and it turned out beautiful!




De people at the flowerstore where we buy all of our flowers and plants made a real special creation, don't you think? See what they made as a christmasball ornament...




I worked on the stairs, this was only for the picture for the photographer to make a group picture because the decoration isn't fireproof, unfortunately. But it looks great, right?



I'm about to go out to buy our christmas tree and then tomorrow I'll decorate it, looking forward to it!

zondag 7 december 2008

Ikea vase

Finally I have it, the white vase by Hella Jongerius made for Ikea!



After going to Ikea for three times, made four telephone calls to make sure they keep one aside for me and not sell it to somebody else, I finally have it and am so glad and happy. I can't stop looking at it. !



On friday, I'll start decorating the house in christmas style but I already bought these branches especially for my new vase. My mother is coming on friday so it'll be nice when everything is finished and I can show her and you the result.

Talk to you soon!

Lazy sunday


After working for 6 days and a very busy day yesterday, I thought it was time to relax...

So I made myself a nice cup of tea, had something sweet to eat and watched two great movies: Alles is liefde (a Dutch movie based about the Dutch tradition Saint Nicholas wich you can compare to Santa Claus) and the Holiday. Ohhh, I'm so ready for the holidays!

Enjoy your sunday!

woensdag 26 november 2008

Cath Kidston's tea cosy


In the beginning of this month, we went to London and visited the Cath Kidston Store in Notting Hill.


I bought the house tea cosy and put with the rest of my collection of specials things and I think it looks great. By the way, this is the rest of the collection:



I would love to see your special collection so please send me your pictures! Maybe I'll get inspired to change my things or even buy something new to expand the collection!

Talk to you soon!

New shelves

Recently I talked about that my father and I put new shelves up and now I have pictures to show you. This is a before picture, taken in the morning...


The night before S and I discussed how it should be hung. We didn't agree right away and but finally this is the result in the afternoon...



I love it, it looks like it is the only place where it should hang. You can also see on the right the new lamp that we bought and I think it's a perfect combination of us both. I'm really happy with the result!

maandag 24 november 2008

I love this city!

This is not the first time I talked about my love for Amsterdam. Some people ask me why I never moved there. But unfortunately it's too far away from my family and I still like to see them regularly plus S would never want to move there, has something to do with football...

Fortunately S doesn't mind going to Amsterdam for a day so we go about 5 times a year to our capital city. We went a few weeks ago and made some great pictures with the new camera. It seems as though the pictures are black/white with some colour accents but it really was like this, real Dutch autumn weather.


This is a canal nearby the Herengracht which is in the city centre and we had lunch at this great place.

We walked around for hours, did a little bit of shopping and took a boatride along the canals. The captain was very nice and showed us some great locations and waited patiently while I made pictures



These tours are great for tourists who are interested in the architecture of the city. The buildings are so beautiful and you rarely see them in any other country.

We ended the day eating in a Thai restaurant that I won't recommend knowing there are better places to eat.

Please remember that Amsterdam has much more to offer than only just coffeeshops; there's so much history, culture, museums, architecture, great food and shops. I talk to a lot of people from around the world in the hotel that I work and I try to explain them that Amsterdam has many treasures but you need to know where to go. The same is for The Hague. When the weather is better, I'll show you some great places to go. In the meantime, please enjoy these pictures. There will be more to come!

Have a great day!

maandag 17 november 2008

Home Project

Finally I had the change to spend some time in our home because we're usually busy with working or doing stuff outside of our house.

So I had the last two days of and S was out working or playing football (or soccer as some call it) so I was all alone at home and looking around to what has to change around the house. This is my list so far:

- a new bathroom and find a contractor to do it
- new counters in the kitchen and find somebody who can install that for us
- a new fridge
- redoing the doors of the wardrobe closet (we didn't hang them correct so they're open all the time and I have to close it with an elastic band)
- Finally hang the shelves that I bought from Ikea months ago
- paint the diningroom chairs white
- buy the cabinet that I say at a second hand store which is on my way to work and paint it white and put it in the bedroom
- buy flowers and plants to make the home cosier
- Find a solution for a glass door that I don't like and maybe look for a new door or only replace the glass inside it. Maybe discuss that with S first...
- Finally hang a lamp in the study after three years (I live in our house for three years but never hang a lamp in the study so it looked empty and unfinished)
- Put up the paintings and pictures that are still standing in the study for years and never taken the time and effort to do it.

So I started on my list by calling my father to help me. So he came by today and we redid the doors of the wardrobe closet, hang the Ikea shelves, hang the lamp and put a new door handle on the door with the glass. When my father left I hang some frames with pictures in the study and so far, it already looks so great. I'll show you pictures another time.

S and I talked about the kitchen and we're doing that in January but we haven't decided on the bathroom because that's going to cost a lot of money. So what's left of the list is this:

- a new bathroom and find a contractor to do it
- new counters in the kitchen and find somebody who can install that for us
- a new fridge
- paint the diningroom chairs white
- buy the cabinet that I say at a second hand store which is on my way to work and paint it white and put it in the bedroom
- buy flowers and plants to make the home cosier
- Find a solution for a glass door that I don't like and maybe look for a new door or only replace the glass inside it. Maybe discuss that with S first...

Well, there's still a lot to do but we're getting there. This saturday, hopefully we're starting on painting the dining room chairs after after that, we will see... But I'm sure it's going to look great and then I can show you!

Talk to you soon!

donderdag 13 november 2008

the UK, part 2

So last week we went to the UK to visit the cousin of S and his family. They live in High Wycombe which is an hour away from London and we had such a great time! And... I love their home:


Love the kitchen, especially the green tiles!


Love the piano, tried to play a tune but it was too long ago so it sounded rather silly!

They have two children and, well look:


I asked her to smile as adorable as possible...


Doesn't she look adorable, even with the green stuff allover her face?

We had dinner with the family last saturday to celebrate the birthday of S's cousin
and there was a special birthday cake. Guess how old...



The dinner was wonderful, so was the company and the wine which made the evening fantastic.



So thank you dear family for making us feel like home. See you again next year.

woensdag 12 november 2008

The UK



S and me went to the UK last week and really enjoyes ourselves...

We went to London a few times...





Visited Notting Hill... (remember the movie?)



Had tea and cupcakes at the Hummingbird Bakery...




And shopped a lot in special stores that they don't have in the Netherlands...



Harrods



Cath Kidston



A local doorknobstore

So we really renjoyed ourselves and we're planning to come back soon!