Lazy sunday

The sun has finally started shining and I'm enjoying it fully!

What am I doing this weekd? Well not much... Bought an stool yesterday at a secondhand store and have sanded it and already gave it three coats of paint. I think it will be finished tomorrow and then I will show you.

Furthermore, nothing exciting, watched some episodes of the Dutch Antique Roadshow called Tussen Kunst en Kitch. I secretly love this show. Every time it's exciting to see if someone has an item in their possesion which is so expensive and they have no idea! Two weeks ago there was a man who had an old wooden statue of an African man and it turned out to have a value of 80.000 Euros!!! I wish I had something at home that is worth a lot of money. Sadly, our budget reduces a lot lately because of the renovation on the house and all kinds of plans we have which we need to save money for. Meanwhile, I'll just bought a stool that I love and is going to look great in the living room and then read a few interior magazines. My sister gave me a few old one of 2008. See if the interior taste has changed of the last two years.

I'll leave you with a few bright pictures and enjoy your sunday!

Another visit to Amsterdam

As a birthdaypresent, S and I went to see a concert of a famous Dutch band called Blof who played in Amsterdam last sunday. And just for the fun of it, we booked a hotel in the city Centre, called Carlton Bank Mansion, who I really recommend.

On monday we went shopping and I had a few shops on my list to go to. The most imprtant one is the Frozen Fountain on the Prinsegracht. They specialise in modern Dutch furniture which is very expensive. They sell furniture of Piet Hein Eek and Vitra so a lot of Eames furniture and Hella Jongerius. I bought a small frame made of old pieces of wood.



We're planning to hang a shelf in the living room full with art and pictures.

After that, we went to the Rituals shop which I think is a wonderful shop if you want to buy a special present for someone. We bought soap and a home fragrance bottle with wooden sticks for in the bathroom.

Ofcourse there was a lot more to see and buy but we were sensible this time, ha ha. I have a lot more on my wishlist now that we live in our home for a few months and I can see what the house needs. But I'm starting to become a patience woman (yeah right!) and I have all the time in the world. Besides It's fun to buy stuff and slowly see the result. So I'm streching out the time and enjoy myself when I go out on a mission (ha ha) for our home.

The Hummingbird Bakery

For our kitchen I wanted a nice painting or framed photo of somthing that looks nice in a kitchen but doesn't look like an item that you use in the kitchen. So no pictures of cultery, ingredients or something like that.

Then I remembered that I made a picture of the logo of the Hummingbird Bakery when we were in London in 2008. So I have the picture enlarged and hung it in the kitchen. And then I heard from a friend that there was a cookbook of the Hummingbird Bakery so I got that too and this is the result!





On the other side of the kitchen I made an inspirational board. So every time I see something nice or inspiring in a magazine, I hang it on the inspirational board. This is sort of my own painting, ha ha

My very own!

About a year ago I blogged about a painting I saw in Amsterdam. I never stopped thinking about it and hoped that one day it would be mine.



But unfortunately it was already sold. But they told me that I could ask the painter if he would make somthing like that again. So I did and after waiting for a few weeks, this is how our painting looks like!



I can't believe hoe great it looks. I gave it S. for his birthday but I'm equally happy with it. It hangs in our living room where I can look at it everyday!



This is our first real piece of art and hopefully not our last. I have become really exited about beautiful art and hopefully in the future we will buy another piece.

Please tell me what you think of it! I would love to hear from you!

First a lot of rain before spring arrives

Just wanted to say a quick hi this weekend!

It has been poring rain all day... So I went out this morning to buy groceries, did the laundry and then took a long bath. I am completely relaxed and have shaken of the work and daily life pressure. I also did one other thing but will tell you about later...

For dinner it will be soup with sandwiches and a chick movie. Maybe Maid of Honour, Julie & Julia or You've got mail. I haven't decided yet.

Before I leave, check out the bookcase that S and I made last week. Well, he put it together and I painted it. I think it looks great for a first time try!



Enjoy your weekend, hopefully it is just as relaxing as mine.

The Bedroom

I am finally ready to show you pictures of our bedroom...

When we first moved in, this rooms was the only room that we could live in for about 6 weeks. After that, our attention went out on the ground floor where the living- diningroom and the kitchen is. So the bedroom became a storage space for furniture that we had no room for. So yesterday I sold the last item of furniture on the internet and it was finally a bit of how we want it to be. The pictures are a bit dark because although spring is on it's way, it is still very cold and dark outside...







The cabinet under the tv belonged to my grandmother and she had her administration in there. I always loved this cabinet and hoped that one day it would belong to me. She died in 2008 and since the family knew how much I like it, they gave it to me. Offcourse, S thinks it horribly old fashioned and wants me to paint it white. At first I agreed with him but yesterday I told him that it was going to stay the way it is. I use it for my scarfs.

And as you can see, only I have a lamp by my bed. S hasn't found his lamp yet so we are still lokking. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know!

The rock lamp

I have mentioned before that S and I are not on the same level when it comes to interior. We have had long discussions as to how we would decorate the house. The last house we lived in was my house where he moved in and it was already decorated. So S decided that now it was his turn and wanted to decorate the house with only items that was choosen by him. Now I am not a girl that agrees easily so for months we discussed, discussed and argued from wallcoloring to which baskets shall we buy to put magazines in.

And as some kind of miracle, everything changed and we were on the same level... It became fun to buy furniture together. Like this lamp for instance. S saw it in Trendhopper and loved it right away. I was amazed that he would like something like that but kept my mouth shut. It was too expensive at the time but a few weeks back it was on sale and I bought it as a present for him.



I put it on an antique table that I got from my sister. It didn't feel as it was on the right place at first because both pieces are completely different but now I have decided that it looks great!

Ofcourse, the discussions haven't gone away but we respect eachother more and are willing to make compromises. Maybe not because I tend to go my own way and convince S that it was his decision. Am I terrible of is that a woman thing...?

Keep calm in the bathroom...

When we bought our new home, it had a bathroom that was an original for the 1930's. When we viewed the house for the first time, I thougt it was charming but when we actually lived there, it wasn't so charming anymore and we asked the contractor to make us a new bathroom. This meant that I had carte blanche and make it just the way I liked. I saw in a interior magazine these Portugese tiles and loved them but I knew that S was more of the contemporary feel so it was a challenge to put our taste together. I think it worked out very well!





I love it when an interior has a bit of humour in it, it doesn't need to be all that serious and our bathroom is a perfect example of that! The 'Keep calm and carry on' poster, I bought online and thought it was funny to hang it in the bathroom.

Please tell me what you think of it because I would love to hear from you!

Flowers

I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my old work. It was very beautiful and very big. So big in fact that there was no place at home to put it. So I decided to make small centerpieces and put it all over the house.



I think it looks quite good, don't you think?

Birthday present

Last week was my birthday (the B I G 30!!!) and S and I bought a chair together. Because S's birthday is next week, we bought the chair together. We saw it in the store of Riviera Maison and it was on sale and had to take it with us right away. The thing was that we weren't by car so had no idea how to bring it with us. I dedided to call for a large taxi and asked if we could bring the chair and they said it was allright. So we hurried back to the store, bought it and then rushed to the taxistand and wait for the taxi to arrive. The driver thought it was funny to have two persons and a chair in his car and it ended up being a lovely ride back to our house which is about 20 minutes by taxi.




I can't stop looking at the chair but I haven't sat on it a lot because it's more eye candy, to be honest with you. We were looking for quite a while for a chair like this so you can imagine how excited we were to find it and that is was on sale! I am sure that it will stay with us for a long time!