Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you!! 

Wishing you a lovely 2013 full of happiness, love, laughter, specials moments and all that in good health.

This was my year, our year, of me and hubby, buying a house together and renovating it. Before we did that we went on a trip to Finland in search of the Northern Lights. Which we did not see, but all the more reason to return as it was a great trip anyway.

A big, big thanks to all my fans out there. I created a little less and attended less fairs, but online sales are up,  more and more people all over the world enjoy my work. So with a new year and a new atelier and most of all lots of ideas, 2013 is looking bright.

Have a great party tonight! We hope to have a sofa and a tv in our living room after half a year without, that will be our party :)

Treasure Trove

Last week I bought all these goodies from a treasure trove. Someone inherited the items from a haberdashery her great aunt had run. There were lots lots of buttons, ribbons, lace, tread, and other odd bits.

I bought lots of buttons, from different decades of the last century. 

The black lace  I'll use it as a table runner.

Got ribbons, tread, buttons to for cuff links, beads (complete necklaces which I'll recycle), black tread for mending socks. I just liked the fine ball shape so much, I got 2 of those. 

There was also some trim made with fake pearls in green and gold tones, I'm turning this into a choker and bracelet/cuff to wear for Christmas. Is was just long enough :)

Recycling

The person who lived in this house before must have been  bit of a hoarder. We found a cupboard full of old boxes for sending encyclopedia and books. Since he kept the boxes so long, I kept them too knowing they would come in handy when sending my creations into the world.

Story Bowl: the Charioteer

Some weeks ago I was asked to make a story bowl with a charioteer, a female one, dressed in a long garment. The horses did not need to be there. It meant to go with a poem the client had written. She allowed me to publish it here. It's in Dutch, I will not attempt to translate, so apologies to any non Dutch readers.

De Wagenmenner ment

het paard Paniek, de Tomeloze,

de hengsten Haast en Plicht,

de merries die met gebogen hoofden

door de oude voren hun hoeven voeren.

Voetstoot niet. De Wagenmenner maant.

Volg de ronding. Omarm de bocht.

Galoppeer. Draaf. Win de race.

En draaf. Ken ook de avond.

Weet het hooi. De nacht. Het stilstaan.

’s Avonds tel ik of jullie hoofden kloppen.

The bowl is about 18cm in diameter. 

To get an idea of size, here's the chariot and driver while I was working on it:

KADO KADO 2012

This year is is the second edition of KADO KADO , a temporary shop in Ekeren , near Antwerp.

There will be a good variety of items at affordable prices available, perfect for your Christmas shopping.
Want to know more about the participating artists and their work, head over to the facebook page.
I hope to meet you there :)

Sweet Saturday: Aniseed icecream

As you might or might not know we moved house. In the house we bought we found a good as new ice cream maker, nothing fancy, but worth a try now we finally got some nice weather. I made strawberry sorbet following the recipe and than something I came up with, an ice cream with aniseed. Once I googled I soon discovered  was not the first one, but well what did I expect; not so difficult to replace vanilla with aniseed ;)

In the Netherlands you can buy aniseed flavourited sugar cubes. To make warm aniseed flavoured milk, lovely in wintertime. For a mug you would use about 4 cubes. I used 12 cubes for the ice cream, this gives a strong aniseed flavour.

• 125 ml cream
• 125 ml milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 45 gr sugar
• 12 aniseed sugar cubes

Heat the milk and the cream, bring to boil and than turn of the heat. Mix the yolks and the sugar until it become whitish in colour. Add this to the milk and the cream also add the aniseed cubes. Bring this to the boil and boil for a couple of minutes, leave to cool.

Take your ice cream maker and pour the cooled mix into it, let it work for about 30 minutes (same as vanilla ice cream, as I'm not sure that all machines need the same amount of time).

Once finished I put it in a plastic container and back in the freezer for (minimum) another 30 minutes. I served it with home made berry juice/jelly, works well together, the acid of the berries is a good contrast for the aniseed.

Bon apetit :)

Friday Find: M.OSS design

Today I want to share with you the work of a Netherlands-based designer Marcel OSSendrijver; M.OSS design. I think his lamps are just so light and pure. And somehow cute too.

If you want to find out more head over to the facebook page of M.OSS design.

Fridy Find - Esther Hörchner

Somewhere on the internet I came across a cute teacup. It made me smile instantly.

It was by a design by a Dutch illustrator: Esther Hörchner

There are more cups, saucers spoons and teapots in this series named "blote meisjes" naked girls. 

Someone has been a sweet tooth and emptied the sugar bowl :)

 Be sure to check out her website for more awesome illustrations, creations and paper-cut art.

Friday Find: MouseBlossom

Today I want to share with you the work of Yvonne de Jonge, the woman behind Mouseblossom. 

She has a great hand for drawing and her illustrations are so delicate and sweet. She uses her illustrations to decorate a variety of objects, like brooches in fabric and felt, so you can carry these adorable little creatures with you at all times.

To see more see and read more:  Mouseblossom.

Belgium Obsolete

We finally got the keys to our house in the Netherlands,so I'm adjusting all my banners which still had Belgium in the name. So a new banner for this blog, my etsy shop and my twitter-account. All thanks to the talented Alex from Ralev, who designed my logo in the first place.

Apart from a change in banners you will notice much more from my move. I shipped most items from the Netherlands anyway as it was cheaper, so better for both of us. But in the background I've closed my Belgian company and set up a new company in the Netherlands. Lots of paperwork, especially the closing of the Belgian one; I'll be glad when it is all sorted. I'll keep you posted on the makings of my new workspaces. Yes, I'll have 2, one atelier for the clay, silver and glass and and office/library/gallery where I'll be making parcels to post, keeping up with admin, taking pictures of new items, blog, tweet, .... and so on. Will be so much better than the current temporary solution.

Friday Find: MOTE

Today I want to share with you the creations by MOTE.  

The woman behind MOTE is Annett Fischer, she creates together with her husband with felt and clay. They have something with lights and create them in any shape possible, both in felt and in clay. 

They also finds inspiration is in Zeeland, the area of the Netherlands where they live.

A set of a mug and a dish with a place for a typical Zeeuwse Bolus, a sweet cake/cookie. 

The hairy bikers discovered these strange looking, but great tasting sweets as well, as you can see here.

Zeeland is famous for it's mussels too, wouldn't this make a great tile for you kitchen back-splash, just set in among other plain ones as a feature or a wall with only tiles with mussels, as if they're washed up on your kitchen shore.

Besides lights and Zeeuwse items they makes much more, have a look at their website.

Spiders

This year we got unexceptionally many nests of little spiders in our garden. As any baby animal, even these are just so cute, all bundled up together in a ball. When something upsets their nest, they start crawling all over the place, such fun to watch.

Jane Goodall

Last Friday I was fortunate to be able to listen and meet Jane Goodall in real life. She visited the GaiaZoo in Kerkraden, the Netherlands. I had counted on listening, so when I had a change to speek a few words with her I went completely blank and just mumbled some words of appreciation. I had just bought her book Harvest for Hope, about mindful eating, which she signed with the inspiring words: "Together we can change the world."

She is such an inspiring person, at 78 she travels the world 300 days a year to make the world a better place. Not just for her beloved chimps, but for everyone. She believes we lost our wisdom, our connection with the past, today and future, our connection with the earth and the cosmos, our sense to be part of this completeness which is life. With her both her Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots and Shoots program, she seeks to bring back wisdom. The goal to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs and to inspire each individual to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment. There is bound to be a roots and shoots group near you, just check their website.

She spoke for an hour and for the whole hour there was a smile on my face. She is a great storyteller and an oasis of calm, but passionate energy. An evening to remember :)

Sweet Saturday - Rhubarb Buckle

When we move house I want to plant some rhubarb, there's a ditch at the end of the garden where it should be real happy. For now I have to buy it and that's what I did. I thought of making rhubarb crumble until I saw this coming along on pinterest: a recipe for Rhubarb buckle. I adapted it from cups and sticks to grams and added my own touch ;)

For the dough:

• 200gr self raising flour
• 50gr sugar
• 110gr butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of cream (I used sour cream)

Mix the flour, sugar and butter until it's crumbly; mix the yolks with the cream and add to the crumbly mix. Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Flatten this to a disk of about 10-12cm and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Filling:

• 5-6 stalks of rhubarb (or about 650gr once chopped)
• 100 gr sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

Chop up the rhubarb and add the sugar and lemon zest, leave it for a bit.

Topping:

• 125gr self-raising flour
• 50gr sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 90gr butter
• 80gr of ground almond

Mix all together until it resembles a bread crumbs.

Roll out the dough between parchment paper till about 0,5cm thickness, as much in the shape of the baking tray (I used one close to the size of an A4 paper) as possible. Peel away the top layer of the parchment paper and transfer the dough on the paper to the tin. Leave a rim of max 1cm. So trim away where needed and add this where needed. Divide the rhubarb over the dough. If some fluid has formed meantime, don't put all the fluid on the dough. Sprinkle the crumble mix over the rhubarb.

Put in the oven for 30 minutes, than lower temperature to 150°C and leave it to bake for another 30minutes.

Enjoy! with a bit of ice cream or cream or just as it is :)

1m² - the story

Last weekend there was a new handmade event in Hasselt, Belgium: één vierkante meter, 1 square meter in Dutch. That was the space the participants were given to present their work. It was a challenge, but inspiring. Most participants let us know how much fun they had had preparing. And we were blown away with their creativity both in quality of work and in their presentation. We is Mitsy from Artmind and myself, we organised this event together. An impression:

Moving

Somewhere in June, July we'll be moving. We found an house from 1928 in the a tiny village in Zeeland in the Netherlands. It has been for sale for 4 years and the price had come down considerable to something we could afford. Which we could not imagine it ever would, but last night we signed the sales agreement.

It does need some renovation, new kitchen, bathroom and lots of insulation. We'll take our ideas we had for the straw-bale house with us. We will insulate the walls with natural fibre and the stucowork we'll do with loam instead of plaster.

We will of course keep the original tiles n the hall way

This is the garden and the view over the fields behind with some nice cows :)

The front of the house with top section of the windows with glass in lead panes, real nice.

An indoor green house, can't wait to grow our own tomatoes, salad, herbs and much more

A library which we'll change into an office/shipping room/gallery for my work.

There will be a separate atelier to play with silver, porcelain, glass and clay, with a view to the garden.

The current living room with veranda and  2 lovely fireplaces. This will become the heart of the house with a soft seating area with woodburner, dining table and kitchen with AGA (or similar) stove.

The corridor upstairs, I do love the lead in glaze window at the end.

A very late 1970's bathroom, which we'll replace in time. Note; it has one of the first hanging toilets. 

The view from the bathroom.

The room that will be our bedroom in time, which has a view over the garden and fields too and a terrace.

The back of the house.

We'll start middle of June with getting one room ready for us to sleep in. Than we can move and start renovating bit by bit. There's plenty of room, so any one wants to come give us a hand, you're more than welcome and you can stay overnight too.