Simple Decoration

I found this simple decoration idea in a book I got from Sinterklaas. Cookie cutters as christmas ornaments. By the way, so much more inspiration in this book! Especially if you love second hand and vintage stuff. Maybe an idea for a last minute christmas gift?

Looking Forward

Sinterklaas was great! We all were spoilt with nice (and lots of) presents.... And now, I really can't help it, I am looking forward decorating the house with christmassy things. And not only the house but also T-shirts and maybe napkins or a table cloth? That is why I have these iron-on reindeers in the shop, temporarily available in red and white. And I am not the only one who is into reindeers at the moment. You can find some great DIY Holiday Reindeer Cards over here.

Experimenting

I have so many beads and buttons, time to do something with them. I made this necklace, what do you think? And any other ideas on how to use them?

Funny Movie

I came across this funny little "movie". Wanna see more? Check this website.

Autumn

Here are some felted acorns that I made today. I saw the idea on the internet a few times before and I really like it. Such a pretty Autumn decoration, don't you think?
You can make the felted balls yourself or, quick and easy, buy felted beads. Add a bit of glue and a nice walk in the forest with the kids to find the caps, et voila!

Woollight

I already saw them in a shop here in 's-Hertogenbosch a while ago but I didn't know that the designers of these beautiful lamps were living in my city as well. Until a few weeks ago, when I met one of them in the post office. We happened to know each other from a ceramics course 6 years ago, what a coincidence! You can find more about Woollight here.

Back in stock

These two beautiful fabrics. Now in the shop. And later Today, more great fabrics.

Time

To announce the winners of the give away!
Due to a busy autumn holiday and being busy with the shop afterwards, I didn't have the time to do so, sorry! We enjoyed a culinairy weekend with friends at the Swarte Ruiter in Holten. Good food, good wines and good company, very nice!
And after the weekend we spent a week in a holiday home with the kids. Relaxing, swimming, indoor playground, even mini-golf (not my favourite, but the boys insisted to play!) and, as we were close to it, a visit to the Hertog Jan brewery. This picture was taken in their beer-cellar.

But now the most important part of this post, the winners....
The random number generator picked number 15 and 34, which are Kir and Tania. Congratulations ladies, I will contact you regarding you wishes!

Time for a give away!

Since last week, I am selling these do it yourself keyfob kits. Pick your colour and the ribbon of your choice and off you go. Easy to make and great as a gift (yes, before you know it, it is christmas time;). I am giving away one kit per 25 comments and all you have to do is leave a comment here before or on sunday October, 24th.

Six

Today, our oldest son turns 6! Had already a party on sunday and will have one on friday, but today it is really his birthday.
And today also his party on school, with popcorn in selfmade boats to give to his friends (and as parents we were allowed this morning to stay and celebrate the party in the classroom, which was so much fun!).

Carrots

These carrots were harvested by the boys last weekend at the farm where our "groentetas" comes from. The people from the farm organised a tour and it was very nice to see where our vegetables grow.
We managed to take a few carrots home, but most of the carrots were used to feed the ponies.....

Looking back

To a succesful weekend at the Textielweekend in Tilburg.
Had good sales, met nice people and feeling a bit sad that there wasn't time for me to follow one of the great workshops. I managed to buy a re-bag, a beautiful project from Kant Social Design, which will probably continue for a while (at least, that is what somebody told me). And I couldn't resist buying a piece of this beautiful vintage fabric from my neighbour on the market Mijn Pakkie An. We met before on several markets and she sells lots of lovely antique and vintage sewing stuff.

Garland

Our son will turn 6 in two weeks time. And he really wants a pirate-themed party. And poporn as a treat for his friends at school. And a bike. Yes, big boys know what they want!
I made him this party t-shirt to wear on his birthday (and luckily he likes it).
Easy to make, just stitch a string on a t-shirt (don't forget to use the stretch needle). Cut out some flags from iron-on velours (size 2x2,5cm) and iron them on. Ready! Also nice as a gift. I am thinking about adding a 6 somewhere, what do you think?

Happy!

I am so happy with our "groentetas". It is a bag full or organic vegetables that we receive each week since a few weeks. The nice thing about it is that it also contains vegetables that we wouldn't buy for ourselves and this makes cooking more creative. One of the results: this simple and delicious fennel soup for lunch.

Textielweekend 2010

From 1 to 3 October it is again Textielweekend in Tilburg. With lots of workshops, expositions, demonstrations and a market. Really worth a visit if you are a textile lover! And VANMARIEKE will be on the market on the 2nd and 3rd of October too, so if you are visiting, please come and say hi.

I won!

Remember the lamp that I've showed you a while ago? I also sent the picture to the Dutch magazine "101 woonideeën". And to my surpise, I received an e-mail last week to tell me that the picture is in the september edition of their magazine and that I won an IKEA gift certificate with it!

Preview

A little preview of the goodies (little gifts to promote my webshop) that I am packing for various goodiebags for colleague (web)shops. And because I am so happy the way these little iron on appliques turned out, you will receive one too if you order something from the shop in September.

Big Bubbles

Making big bubbles from soapy water! We also did this on a campsite in France, it is very easy to do and great fun!
All you need is two pieces of rope (one of 40 cm, one of 80 cm), two sticks of 50 cm (can be branches that you found), a bucket filled with 4 litres of warm water (not too hot) and half a litre of cheap liquid dishwashing soap.

Attach the ropes to the branches/sticks (short one on top, long one below, I hope you can see on the photo's how it works). Now put them in the soapy water and slowly walk backwards to make the best bubbles ever (blowing bubbles is possible too).

France

We are already back for a week, but the kids still have holidays and I was busy sending out all the orders that came in, so no time yet for blogging.
We spent our holiday camping in France and the best pictures were made by our oldest son, who used our old digital camera (with lots of shoes and garbage cans ;).


The market in Sarlat (very touristic and busy):

The only church we visited and of course we had to light a candle (picked up this tradition from my mum):

And the last few day we spent in the railroad house of and with my parents in the Creuse (a very nice quiet area in the middle of France):

And now back to daily life! But with nice things to come in the near future.
Hope you all had a good holiday too!

Four

Our youngest son turned 4 last Tuesday, time flies.... No more little kids in our house, but two big boys! And after the summer holidays he will go to school. How exciting (for him as well for us). Anyway, the best present he got was a steam engine, to attach to his wooden trains. See them testing it in our empty living room.

Temporarily Moved

This wall decoration from the Scandinavian brand Isak is normally standing in our living room but has now temporarily moved to my working room. All furniture had to move out of the living room, because we spent the whole weekend sanding our wooden floor and re-oiling it again. Pfff, what a job, but so very necessary and worth the effort.

Lucky Me

Another Swap Bot swap and this time it was a pincushion swap.
And look what I got!!!!!! A toadstool, isn't it beautiful! I really don't want to stick pins into it ;) I think I will give it a nice place in our living room, it really needs a bit more attention than just being a pincushion.

Baby Girl

A little baby girl was born.
Her parents designed a birthcard in Beatles style and with a dad working at a recording studio and a granddad playing in a band, she will most probably become a very musical girl..... As a present I bought a t-shirt where I ironed a headphone applique on.

Growing Vegetables

At the moment, the boys are really interested in where everyting is made. Like where do they make cars, where do they make bread, where do they make blankets, etc. When I saw these little greenhouses, they seemed just perfect to explain to them where the tomatoes and peppers come from. They were very pleased to put in the earth and the seeds and almost every day they follow the growth process. We hope to harvest our home grown vegetables later this summer as well of course.

Shop Update

I had to wait a long time before these new Japanese fabrics arrived. And now they are here and will be in the shop later this evening.
Most of them are plain cotton, like these:



But two of them are jersey fabrics (100% cotton) and I am so very pleased to have them in the shop (more will follow):

Weekend

Finally some time to upload the photo's from last weekend.
We spent the saturday at the farm from my uncle for a family reunion. With great weather and so nice to see all my nieces and nephews with their kids.
The farm is not a real farm anymore, but still with a lot of space around it. For the kids a perfect playground and they couldn't be more happy when a tractor arrived to make haystacks and they could drive along. The picture says it all!

Two Winners

85 reactions (one double), wow! A big thank you to all of you!!! So nice to read all your comments and to visit so many blogs that I haven't seen before, a little treat for me as well.
And two winners of course:
Number 45, which is Needle work (no blog) and number 14 Christel, congratulations to the both of you! Needle work, could you please send me your address?
By the way, the picture was taken last summer in Sweden.

Poor Blog (+give away)

I've been ignoring you too much these days! Too busy and (as a result from being busy) little inspiration.... Sorry. Nevertheless, I still enjoy reading other blogs and hope for a bit more inspiration soon. Sigh.....
On the other hand, business is doing pretty well and that is a good reason to share a bit of my happiness with you.
Time for a new give-away!!

These ribbons arrived for the shop last week, so very pretty. I love the wooden spools that they are wrapped around as much as I love the ribbons themselves (and the best thing is that I can have them when the ribbons are sold ;).
I will give away one metre of each of these 4 ribbons to one of you (or if there are more than 50 comments to two of you and more than 100 comments, to 3 of you etc.). Just leave a message on this blog before or on thursday, 20th of May and I will draw the lucky winner(s) on friday.

Another Swap

I am starting to be a real Swap-Bot addict and especially the Dutch Swappers group is what I like a lot. I wrote about it before and I really have to show you what I received for the "Kringloop Goudmijntjes" swap. Mission was to buy something from the thriftstore for a maximum of 1,50 euros. Afterwards you could upcycle it if neccesary. And I got this very cute (and eco cotton!) bag, decorated with lovely flowers, made from recycled sweaters and blankets. I am going to put it in my bag and use it when I am in the city to put in my purchases. A good way to avoid ending up with tons of plastic bags.

Tip Top Tas

When you ordered something from VANMARIEKE's webshop in the last few weeks, you might have received a nice goodie together with your order. Why those goodies? They were donated to VANMARIEKE by other webshops to promote their shop and make a nice little present too!

Tip Top Tas has donated goodies too and the webite is really worth a visit!
Not only is she selling beautiful bags from various talented designers and nice accessories like keycords and cardholders but she sells also the Bag-in-Bag. This handy bag is a perfect solution if you have more than one bag or a bag just like I have, always looking for my keys and other stuff.
By the way, if you like to donate a goodie too to promote your (web)shop/site (it will only cost you a few goodies), please send me an e-mail and I will send you some more details.