Tuesday 29 April 2008

Orange?

Hurray! Tonight is Koninginnenacht!
and tomorrow Queen's Day (
Koninginnedag)!
Party! Youpi!

Dress code is simple: whatever you fancy as long as it is orange.
The same goes for the house here: I've taken out of their boxes the Halloween orange paper doilies, cut fresh orange flowers, almost hung the garlands.

Of course we won't have the 25 wild tipsy dancers per pedal boat on the canal in front of the house but we'll at least enjoy the view of these littles umbrellas:


Talking about orange, there's no need to recommend Jessica's excellent blog that you probably know. If not, enjoy the visit.

Now back to the umbrellas.
Sometime ago, I saw a pastel version hung on wall but can't recall in which magazine is was...
Have tried on a first one (matching the colour of the living room) and was actually thinking about doing the same with the orange ones.



The orange comes out nice in the sun but once inside it turns in too a kitsch fluo orange that I'd like either to turn down or coordinate with something else. Any advice, feeback or help about the picture I saw would be absolutely welcomed. Am ready for any idea, even to turn them into a mobile or lamp shades.

Thanks in advance,
Béa

Monday 28 April 2008

And the winner is.....

Thank you all so much for taking part and for all your kind comments. It's all been good fun!
So with no further ado, the winner is ....
Congratulations! I will be sending you an email shortly to ask you for your address to put your little prize in the post asap. I hope you like it!
To everyone else who took part, it all seems terribly unfair and we would like to send you all a little something, but there will be other giveaways. You never know you might win next time.

FORK


Yes, can't wait to announce the winner!
To make the wait shorter, here are few pictures:

Right next to POP, comes....FORK.
(sounds like IKEA names...)

Now that the corks are finally on the wall, it was high time to hang these old forks...
a left over piece of wood, a simple coat of 'lei' one of my beloved Flexa paint, a little sanding, a little nailing....tadaa...





I saw this once as kitchen towels holder. If I knew how to knit or chochet I would probably do some of these, but since I haven't reached even the beginner level yet, I may for now use it as display or picture holder with some rope and vintage wood clothepins maybe.

unless Rere, you feel like unleashing your wild needles for me......(ok, you don't see it but I am soo smiling....)

Bis bald!
Bea




Friday 18 April 2008

Our first giveaway!


After quite a confidential start, we feel it's time for us to go global. We thought a little giveaway would be particularly appropriate! So here you go, if you feel like taking part, and winning the handmade broach and heart (and the tiny little shroom), leave us a comment (with your email address) and we'll pick a name out of a hat. Let's say you have until next Sunday (April 27th). We will then get in touch with the lucky blogger.
Good luck!

Wednesday 16 April 2008

POP!





With the help of (few) thirsty friends. Those corks were desperate to pop back in the kitchen after their loud finale.


Cheers!
Tchin Tchin!



(Yes you could argue if you have a good memory that this was inspired by MCI, 51st issue on page 105)

Monday 14 April 2008

I can feel a rant coming on!!


My oh my, how pleased was I with myself when I finished the Marie CLaire Idées inspired chandelier. In fact, I was so pleased that I decided to email my pictures to MCI's blog for them to put it in their creation gallery. I had noticed it had worked for Fred's pictures so I thought why not me. By the way, if you're reading this blog (likelihood of that happening: not a lot!), nice one Fred! Great combination of pattern on the cups and colours.

Anyway, so I send my pictures and wait until the end of the day to check if they've put them on, NOTHING. Ok! Nevermind, they're probably busy, they are probably receiving them by the bucket load. Checked again today and guess what, NOTHING STILL! It can't take that long to copy and paste a bloody photo! Deep breath, keep calm. So it occured to me there might only be a limited amount of pictures that they put in the gallery. I then checked the winter catalogue section and there are thousands of them.

So, if you work at MCI and you are reading this, let me tell you. I am not best pleased. I am not a happy bunny! Am I going to have to boycot MCI and buy 'Les idées de Marianne' instead? ... No only joking, I am not that upset.
Take Care
Reg
PS: Just for the fun of it, here is another picture of one of my little broach. Would this one have made it into MCI's blog?







OUI OUI OUI! I'm not even commenting this time.
I totally agree with R
éré. (she's not even aware I'm writing this and hopefully by now asleep).
Is it that tiring to send at least an e-mail to thank back for the pix?
And I think I am allowed to say that loud after buying every single issue of MCI since 98.

Béa

PS: if you girls from MCI read this but don't speak English, go get yourself a dictionnary. I'm french too. and not happy.

Funny how...


Five years ago, as I was still in the Netherlands I got a huge crush on BLIJ. ('happy' in dutch, pronounce 'blay').
And the rest of the delicious VTwonen collection from Flexa. My addiction was so severe it drove me to buy sample tubes of EVERY shade to paint small objects.


Not long ago, totally by chance, I bumped into this dress and have adopted it at once:



With a t-shirt underneath or not, with jeans, easy to dress down or up.
I instantly fell in love with the red and the slighly pink grey.
As you can see on the picture, I had the perfect necklace to wear it with and was quite 'BLIJ' showing off for several days in a row (hence the much needed ironing). Everything was perfect.

Until, I found back this:


a simple bracelet homemade back in the NL and directly inspired by Blij and Oester from Vtwonen, completely forgotten about and not worn since.
Pinkish grey and orangy red: the picture makes it hard to see but it's the exact same colours as my dress....
Destiny had pulled it back from under piles of things in my closet as I was rummaging there yesterday, looking for something else. I am compelled to wear it.

I know I tend to be talkative but this time, I'm still speechless.
Call it chance, good timing or retinal persistence in my brain if you want... I call it LOVE.



Thursday 10 April 2008

Here it is




Here it is.
I thouroughly enjoyed making this little thing. Cheers, Marie Claire Idées!
I rarely do the exact same thing as in the magazine, I usually use it as inspiration, but this time there was no way around it. It had to be done.
The chandelier was 1euro from a car boot sale and the tea cups 3.80 euro from Emmaus. The most expensive item was the paint but I'll get lots of use out of it. All in all, a bargain.
take care
Reg



Wednesday 9 April 2008

united colors

I know, rodeo time is just over. You'll tell me I may have been unconsciously looking for something western when I recently flipped through the pages of the latest ELLE US version and saw this Benetton ad:


Not very western I know. Goldrush meets Baroque rather. More like those menlike striped shirts you see everywhere in the US this spring except for...the ropes.
Now I'm obsessed with these fabric ropes/braids.
Last time, while searching at Goodwill for some cups -you know the story-, I found two shirts begging me to get them. One for me, one for crafting.
Once combined with two other fading fabrics I already had, voilà:



This is still at a very early stage: too short to be a belt, I haven't thought about how to turn it into some kind of necklace (that wouldn't look like I've left a rope hanging round my neck)
, key chain or even door knob embellishment.
But I got so thrilled with the result I couldn't wait!!!
The rest on the picture is just an attempt at making it look like a casual nature morte. Only the ones you see on other blogs like Yvonne's seem much better.
Well, 'la critique est aisée mais l'art est difficile'. I'm just a beginner blogger.
The scorepad is for bridge I think but I use it as a notepad. Isn't the colour too cute?


Am off to more braiding.
Cheers!
Béa

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Oh noooo!

Finished already?

So that you all know, I have owned two candlestick holders for I don't remember how many years. Found them for a ridiculous price at the market in The Hague. Have painted them white and later green. Have even made a brief attempt at ancient gold. Gave up and recently decided I might go for a super glossy black.
But all that was before MCIdées, and before Réré.
God, she is so persuasive and made me agree on giving my version of the chandelier+teacups too. This is one of the fellows I'll work with:



I don't mind the green but I think it may a little too bright next to delicate china.

Still, one small detail: however hard I've looked around here (the only option would have been to glue my greatgrandma's coffee set...), however hard I've scratched my brains (thinking I would try vases, even stock or tea tin cans), I am still missing the cups....
The only potential version I came across on the web was Maria Liliegren's lovely cups:



But this would take some time to realize logistically speaking.

Oh well, can't wait to see yours Reg!
And,
I'm afraid, you won again.

Béa

Monday 7 April 2008

Béa, hope you're ready, 'cos I am!





In my last post I said I was ready for some crafting, and yes there has been some crafting done. Not a lot, I have to admit but my new job is keeping me busy!

This rather ugly piece of home ware has now turned into quite a cute teacup chandelier, courtesy of Marie Claire Idées. I will post the pictures soon. At this very moment, the chandelier is in the basement waiting for the glue to dry and for the horrid smell to wear off.

Charity shops, car boot sellers and junk shop keepers all over the country must be wondering why they are selling all their candle stick holders, there wasn’t a chandelier in sight in my local Emmaus centre!

So Béa from across the pond, I hope you’re ready to show your version soon!

The first picture was taken last summer. I basically spent the summer recovering from moving back to France after nine years in Britain by making these little brooches. I am trying to work on a new and improved version. This is proving to be more difficult than I thought but I ain't giving up!

Take care
Reg