Sick

There is no much creativity going on here.. Even more.. there is less life going on here. Since the weekend I feel so sick. My head, my tummy, my back, my muscles, everything is painful. I go from couch to bed and back. And with the beautiful, beautiful weather outside and the 'sauna' feeling inside, that's a bummer extra.

Dreaming..

Dreaming of a house on the country.. with a big garden.. maybe a nice veranda..

Summer sun is going down on the horizon, a glas of wine.. maybe some tapas at the side..

A good book or some crochetwork in my hands..

sitting/hanging/rocking in the magical hanging eggchair...

I think, for tonight I'll stay in my dreams... I love it here to much..

It's so relaxed..

find it here: anthropologie

Nika Zupanc

5 o'clock chair

boris, vladimir, alexander cradles

lolita lamp

I really like the work from Nika Zupanc.
Especially the seat! That's definitely my favorite.

Purple and lilac children's beret

I finished up a custom order for these two children's berets. I designed an adult beret for the Winter and redesigned it into a tiny (baby size) pink one for my nephew and his girlfriend, who become parents soon. Never showed you that one... But it was a good hat/beret and soon I got an order for a beret for a two year old girl, and her sister who's almost four. So I figured it out and made a purple wool one for the oldest and one in an old pink colour, which is wool with a little bit mohair.

The thing with the HandMaid liset company lies within patience in the beginning... At least for a part of it. Let me tell. It's not like I buy some cups, put them together and tadaa, a lamp. It's all about the colourcombination, the way the cups or the teapot is shaped, how all the shapes come together and how to make it a solid combination in the end. It's about the beauty of the old cups, the old teapot, the motif that's on it and to combine that. It's about recycling!

And that's with this lamp but also with projects I'm working on including vintage fabrics, old crocheted tablecloths, little scarfs, off course my 100% wool blankets and old footbenches. So it's a lot off 'collecting' in the beginning. To have the patience to wait to start, but get ready for all the right materials, to make the right combination. (Off course, I already have some of the cups and teapots to make colorfull combinations!! But it's about the perfect combination..)

But to get to the point of this story! haha! I was really glad I found this vintage blue curtain fabric this morning on the Noordermarket in Amsterdam. A bit expensive but couldn't leave it there..

I see a light

I'm still flabberguested by so much sweet reactions on my news to start up my own company! Thanks so much you all! As I told you I'm going to work with textile and recycle design, covered with a layer vintage. Textile designs are my crochet and knitting work, felt and embroidered work. But also my collection textile made with 100% wool blankets (the Pure line), vintage fabrics and I'm working projects with old crocheted vintage tablecloths, old scarfs and sweaters too. The recycled design collection is about furniture and interior accessoiries that's refurbished (mostly on a original way) and about items that have a new function. So I'm trying/experimenting/working hard on new designs, also to make a little stock of items to use for the photography for the website/shop. Like this recycle design lamp! Besides the electrician wire, the plug and lamp socket, all is recycled. Personally I love this one and it would be hard to sell it. The combination of cups, the hight, the color is perfect. What do you think?

What is going on...

What to do when you have a job you don’t like anymore? And don’t get me wrong! I love my students, love the social skills and arts classes I teach but I have a lot of trouble to work within such a enormous organization. I frustrate myself by the way they work, hate the bureaucracy, the way money gets spend and I get irritated all the time. What to do when you notice you don’t have a limit, don't get a balance? I mean, I always have my mouth ready to protest (which costs so much energy!!), to go for the educational rights for the students, for my rights and my colleagues (again a lot of energy). And I always work too much, way too much hours and get too involved. And now, with the new educational system (which I’m totally against) I loose more and don’t now why I’m doing it anymore. For my students... Yes, off course, I love them. But there is also me.. And I can’t do my job with only one thing to love. I need more to love, less to frustrate. More passion, more balance.

The choice to stop teaching needed time but I made that one a few months ago. But then??? I started to apply for a new job but I just applied. Not with love, or passion. Meanwhile I had this ‘dream’ in my head, for a while, to start up my own business. To get a living out of my creativity, out of textile designing but I thought that’s not possible. I can’t make a living out of it.. So I kept searching for a new job but meanwhile this dream went from head to heart, and back, and it was more and more in my whole body. So I wrote a business plan. It took me weeks to write it and at the end I threw it in the garbage. I didn’t followed my dream or my heart but I wrote a plan that was about making money. So in the end, it was indeed a ‘business’ plan and/but all the creativity was out of it. This wasn’t the dream I was dreaming about...

not all is going right the first time..

Again I thought this isn’t going to work and besides that, I’m too scared (what if I don’t make it and in a year I’m broke, with no business and a lot of debt??) so I went searching for a job again. But still I had this dream in my whole body (and besides that, what job to apply for?)!! So I started to write a new business plan but this time from the heart. What is it that I want? What am I good at? What is it I believe in? What do I really want? Well, I want to be creative. That’s for sure. Work with textiles. Off course!! And with thrifted goods. I believe in sustainable goods, in recycling, in old but solid, good materials. I think I have the capacity to give old products a new life or a new function. I love interiors, and love to decorate. I love to work with groups, and would love to give creative workshops to children. I love to sand and paint cabinets, tables and other furniture... And while working on such a plan, I got more and more believe I can work this. And at the times I got nervous again, I was approached by shopkeepers who wanted to sell my stuff, I got a custom order, or was approached to write about my work which made me confident. Bit by bit I got more believe that maybe, maybe I can make a living out of it. Please notice that I’m single and don’t have a friend/husband that brings an income in the house. And not that a husband makes it easier but with an extra income there is more security there is food on the table each night.. So as said, I worked on a business plan with my heart and after that with my mind. Did the financial calculations, marketing analysis, made plans for promotion, did some courses about how to set up an administration or do taxes (really that’s so, so new to me!) and I think I can make a living out of it.

ideas with new a new function for old suitcases...

So besides the business plan I worked on a lot of new textile and recycle designs in the last couple of months. I had a first meeting with a bank which was very positive and I talked to my current employer about my plans. I’m still not there but I’m in the process of getting there. A lot, a lot of things need to be done before I can start. And I mean a lot but the plan, and some of the designs are ready. So finally I can tell you that I’m going professional fulltime. HandMaid liset (the name is going to change a bit..) will be a label/company, whatever you want to call, for textile and recycle design, covered with a layer vintage. That will be the main business. Selling from a website/shop, selling to shopkeepers and depending on the space I'm going to rent, selling from a shop too as well as giving workshops too. I don’t know if my dream will be reality, in a sense that I will make it but then I proudly can say I tried, I followed my heart and lived my dream.

Cups

Found these lovely, and I gues handmade, cups in the thriftstore. See how they slope/skew (scheef zijn, schuin aflopen)!? And I love the drawings on them. Pretty inspiring!!!

And Sunday I have time!! Time and space to tell you why I've been such a bad blogger and what's been going on here in the last couple of months. I finally can tell you! I can now but I won't. I'm exhausted and I'm going to crash on the couch. Promise to be back this weekend!
Enjoy!

Going crazy on color

A lot of felt, a lot of color. And no, not stitched with the locker! It's a perfect machine but I don't have the hang on it yet.. One stitch hasn't the right tension yet and I can't seem to figure that out. To get out of the locker-modus, I worked on some other (felt) sewing projects.
But for for today. I'm heading of to a bachelerette weekend. And besides drinking, eating and dancing we're having a boat trip through the Amsterdam canals and we have the best weather ever!! Can't wait!

Words

'picture from me, lyrics from VT wonen magazine juni 2010'

Old book but a new machine

Today I bought myself a lockermachine! I needed and wanted a locker for sooooo long now that this weekend I decided to buy one. Did a lot of research and I bought a Yuki. No pictures yet because I'm in a hurry for an appointment in town, with a friend. (grrr.. no time to try my new machine (and jp, love to see you too!!)... or just look at it, smile at it and caress it ones in a while.. although, that last one can be done late when I'm back again :-)
Something I did make some pictures of, is this book I found in the thrift store today! It's an old craft book from 1972 and it's al about the history, fashion style and some patterns starting from 1865 (crochet/knitting and some tapestry). How about that??!! Love it! So I gues, I have two things to smile too.. this evening..

How about these knitted ladies underpants!!??