Chairs and bookcases

I was looking through some old holiday photos and saw this one, taken at a flea market in Saint Tropez, France. I was there with my father and stepmother in 2005 staying in a little town nearby Saint Tropez and it was extremely hot! When I saw these chairs, I immediatly wanted them but unfortunately couldn't take them with me because they couldn't fit in the car that we had with us.


At the moment we have these chairs around the table but hopefully not too long because I would like new ones...What kinds I don't know so if you have an idea, let me know and also where I could buy them...

Last week I saw a great bookcase in an empty store next to my work and I fell in love with it. The empty store was a tea store where you could buy tea and everything that has to do with tea. The store went bankrupt and left but except for this bookcase. The building is owned by my work so I asked if I could buy the bookcase and they will contact the previous owner of the teashop and ask if it's possible. Unfortunately, I made a picture of it with my phone but the quality was pretty bad so I have to come back to you with a new picture. Meanwhile, I can show you which bookcase the (hopefully) new one will replace...




As you can see, there's nothing wrong with it but I would like to have less Ikea furniture in the house plus that the one that I saw will fit in perfectly regarding the atmoshere around the house.

Well, I wish you all a nice weekend. I have to work so please think of me when you're relaxing and enjoying the days off!

Bye

Fiep Westendorp

That's what I felt like when I came home after an enormous effort at the gym today. Although I'm a bit thinner and younger than the woman in the picture, the feeling is still the same; hoping that you maybe have lost a few pounds...

This picture is from one of my favourite illustrator Fiep Westendorp because all of her drawings makes me smile! Here's some more of her...







The one with Jip and Janneke at the circus is the same picture that my sister gave me a few years ago because she knows I love the colours that Fiep used for that. It just makes me happy! Fiep made drawings for the books of Annie MG Schmidt who was a children's book writer and every child in the Netherlands has read a book of her so everyone knows the pictures that Fiep made. Last weekend I saw that they also have Annie's books in English (at the American Book Centre in The Hague for example) so if you ever see a book of hers, buy it for your children. They don't want to miss it!

A difficult start

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since my last blog but I just didn't take the time to write something. And to be honest, I was looking at other blogs just to see how they look. I'm a big fan of Yvestown which you can find on my list of favourite blogs and I would advise you to see it. Her ideas are inspiring and I can't help of fantasizing about her work when I'm at work doing something dull... ;-)

About two weeks ago, I started working out at the gym because we're going on holiday in September and I want to look better than I do now but all this time exercising is keeping me away from my beautiful house. I don't know about you but I love to stay at home and just do my thing when no one is around. Like Carrie says in Sex and the City: "Doing that stuff you never want your boyfriend to see you do". Everyone does something that calms them down. For me, it is coming home and watch tv and watch Oprah Winfrey or looking at my favorite websites on the internet. When I have the time, I like to clean my house for about a hour or so (it isn't a very big house) and then to look around and see how beautiful it is... I may sound silly but it calms me down and relaxes me.

What I also like to do is bid on items on Marktplaats (like Ebay). Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to buy expensive furniture but on this site, I've found and sold a lot of stuff. One of the last thing I bought was this great cabinet.



You may recognize it. A few years back, this cabinet was at sale at Ikea but they stopt selling it but I never forgot it. So, after looking around on marktplaats for a while, I finally found it and bought it immediately, put it in my small car (it barely fitted ha ha), drove back and my boyfriend and I put it together and now I'm the new proud owner. I was determined not to have any more Ikea in my house but there you go.

With that in mind, I bought a book from VT wonen (a Dutch interior magazine) called Gevonden Chic (Cheap Chic) and in the book they give tips about how to decorate your house with design and stuff you buy at flea markets. I got inspired today and went to an antique market the city centre in The Hague (it's there every sunday on Lange Voorhout) after work and hoping to find a hidden treasure. I was there in the late afternoon and if you ever have the change to come to The Hague, you should do it because there are so many beautiful spots to go to. On the street Lange Voorhout, there's a lot of trees, the sun was shining through them and the atmosphere on the market was very cosy (the dutch word for it is gezellig). I fell in love with the little canal houses that they sold that KLM gives to the passengers who fly business class (please correct me if i'm wrong).



I haven't bought one but maybe this could be the start of a new collection. Ha ha, I don't think my boyfriend is going to be pleased but there you go.

Ok, I'm going to look at a few other websites and then of to bed because tomorrow is an early day.

See you soon!