On Vacation + Free shipping

Original artwork by Matteart

Bye bye, we are off to France! see you all on the 8th of august!

During my vacation I offer FREE SHIPPING on everything in my shop

(I will ship when I am back on 8/8!)

Creative workspace today

Ebony Lady in Green (available in my shop)

On Saturday we leave for our holiday in France, Here is where we stay. I look forward to it, it's a very quiet place in de middle of nature. There is a swimming pool for the kids and a little lake after the house, you can't swim there , but make beautiful walks and enjoy watching the birds that live there.

These last days, I am still preparing for the fair, think I will never get ready, so much to be done!
I found some cool punchers in the sales (normally they are quite expensive) to make my tags and price labels. Of course I chose flowers!!

Find some other cool creative workspaces on kootoyoo's blog.

Preparing for France and Maastricht!

Felted pebble rings

Next Saturday we leave for a holiday in France (14 days!).
I am not very good in packing, and I have to do it for the six of us, so better start early with it!

And I can also use every free minute to prepare for the Craftparking fair I am attending in Maastricht: . Find more information on their website.

And now some new designs I have been working on, some are already available in the shop, just click on the pictures.

Cat Brooch Odile

Cat Brooch Trudy

Fringe and Flavour necklace in grey

Fringe and Flavour necklace in blue

Blue satin Trio Necklace

Indigo Blue

The new EST challenge hosted by Iragrant has the theme: your favorite color!

I combined one of my fav's: turquoise, with the beautiful color indigo blue.

I let me inspire by the beautiful vibrant blue of the Tuaregs .

The Tuareg are sometimes called the "Blue People" because the indigo pigment in the cloth of their traditional jallaba and turbans stained the wearer's skin dark blue.

The indigo blue-colored veil that Tuareg men wear is called Alasho. Taking on this veil is associated with the rite of passage to manhood; men begin wearing a veil when they reach maturity. The veil usually conceals their face, excluding their eyes and the top of the nose.

You can find my new 'Tuareg Blue' creations in my shop.

Featured

YAY!!! My blue rose ring has been featured on Etsyitemoftheday!

After hearing about Etsy from a friend, Jackie has moved from an interest in Etsy to a passion for the site. Each day, Jackie looks for her next favorite Etsy item and posts it on Etsy Item of the Day!

Take a look and follow Etsytoday on Twitter!

Summer = Boules de Berlin!

Guess what, they want to be cool!

My daughters M & M would give a million for these yummie pastries, they taste a bit like a donut (same dough) but are filled with crème patisserie (sometimes jam) and covered with powder sugar.
In Belgium we call them "Boules de Berlin", but it seems in Germany they are called 'Berliner' and in Berlin they know these pastries as Pfannkuchen :-)
- find here a little history about those Berliners, in Dutch)
- find here the recipe in English and here in Dutch

Those Boules de Berlin are very typical for the Belgain coast: each summer ,men dressed in a white bakers outfit sell them on the beach.
And there is a funny Boules de Berlin campaign for promoting the Summer music Fesitvals on the coast: "Be cool: taste a Boule!"

In the meantime Ginger and Jeanne, two cute Cat brooches came to join me in my shop, they are looking for a nice and cosy new home! (click on the pictures to go to the shop)

Summertime = Flea market time

Pink rose ring (in my shop now)

I found some real cute doll furniture on a flea market, I already had the little cupboards, but could now supplement my collection with a cute heart chair and an even more cute rocking chair :-)

You see I could not wait to use them in my pictures, they give the perfect vintage look I want!

I am really pity I can't do more thrifting... Summertime is the ideal time for flea markets, but when I go with the kids they get bored after 10 minutes, ... while I could stay there for hours!

Minna from Karuski alos blogged about her flea market finds, go here to read about it!

And as you see, I am halfway pimping my felted cats! I hope to make much more these days, (thinking of the fairs I am going to attend :-) It's fun making them, I will give them each a name, if you have suggestions, just drop them in your comment :-)

flickr favorites

1. you & me stamps, 2. IMG_2293, 3. ooak254, 4. hydrangea cards

It's time for Flick favorites again,

I don't have a theme, I think I never have a theme, I just put together some awesome pics.

It reminds me of my previous life as graphic designer.

Oh, how I like to mix and match these pictures, there is no job, there is no purpose, just put togheter some beauties and make them even more beautiful in this mosaic!

Go to Artmind's blog to find more Flickr favs!

Busy holidays!

It's calm here on my blog lately...
But absolutely not here at home!
Although the weather is absolutely not like summer, we do enjoy this vacation time...
The kids have been experimenting with cooking almost every day, the result is that I have to put myself on a diet now, for some days...:-)(and that I have been cleaning the kitchen every day!)

a handfull of beads on my desk , completely by accident an awesome colorcombo

There is always a littlebit of time left over to play (in my case creating). And as I am more into textile accessories these days, I enjoyed making linen flowers, felting pebbles, felting cat brooches...

Cat heads awaitening to be embellished like these.

I am attending two craft fairs in August and I have the feeling I have to stock up a bit. I am really excited about it, at the craftfair in maastricht I will meet up with lots of EST friends!!!

And now a glimpse of my latest makings:

(Find more pictures on Flickr.)

Purple Linen Trio (available in my shop.)

Polkadot challenge

Dots, is the theme of the EST challenge hosted by Staroftheeast.

Find the other entries here.

ingredients:

- felted balls with little seed beads sewn on them

- ethiopean silver beads

- a beautiful big resin bead with little wooden dots

gathered on a copper chain with a toggle clasp closure on the front.

The necklace measures 44 cm.

available in my shop

Inspired by Africa

Some days ago I blogged about the etnic roots of my eldest. But we do have some other genes in the house. Our second daughter Meron is from Ethiopean origin.
Unluckily we don't know anything about her parents or family. That s a hard nut to crack for her. You really can't imagine how one feels knowing nothing, but just nothing about her roots.

She has been found as an orphan in Jimma, Ethiopea and there, most of the people are Oromo,
she has indeed the Oromo physical features.
The Oromo represent one of the largest Cushitic-speaking groups inhabiting the Horn of Africa. Their physical features, culture, language and other evidences unequivocally point to the fact that they are indigenous to this part of Africa.
The Oromo people are the largest ethnic grouping in Ethiopia. About 95% are settled agriculturalists and nomadic pastoralists, practising archaic farming methods and living at subsistence level. A few live in the urban centres. They are dominated by the minority tribal group, the Amhara, who have controlled the country almost continually for the past 100 years.
Find more about the Oromo people in Ethiopea here.

So I found some beautiful pictures from Ethiopean Oromo women and girls adorned with the most beautiful clothes and jewelry. I let me inspire by the colors and materials and made this long copper necklace and a pair of earrings. Both are available in my shop.

Harara Earrings

Jimma Necklace

summer is here!

Summer vacation has started, the last days of June and first week of July were so wonderfull,
as we are used to grey rainy weather here in Belgium, now it was like we were in the south of France, yep, that hot!
Eating outside, children playing in the swimming pool from morning til eve, warm evenings outside on the terrace with a glass of cava, and picnics and BBQ's with friends and neighbours.
Most of those picnics or BBQ's are improvised and that's how I like them the most, unprepared, just see what's left over in the fridge: tomatoes, lettuce, greek cheese, olives, dried tomatoes ,
and home baked bread dipping in olive oil! mmmmmm.

My lovely gang of 4 gathered around the picnic-bag!

We have an expression for that in Belgium: "Living as god In France"

And creative work is still going on, as it is a little bit slower these days, children are home and , I have to admit , that hot weather makes me really lazy.
A lovely customer ordered my Donna Necklace and asked for matching earrings.
I like that colorcombo a lot: Lilac, purple and warm terracotta red and I have the feeling these warm colors fit perfect with this summer weather!

Cherry time

We are lucky to have a little monkey in the house who picks the cherries from the highest branch!

And today I just want to show some new creations. They are already in my shop!
(click on the pictures to go to the shop) !
And I will soon blog about what inspired me to create them :-)

creative workspace and a little help from my friend....

Gorgeous weather these days, hot days and cool nights,.... I hope it lasts....
What else to do then work outside with Merino wool, water, soap, and cool linen.

After the (belated) birthday party (of Mies) yesterday, I needed a little break and drove to a shop where I had my eye on some gorgeous linen, I bought it with 50% off, long live the sales!!!

can't wait to make flowers of them, to make perfect summer accessories!

you can find my linen flower (and silk) creations here.

Hop over to Kotoyoo's blog to find more creative spaces!