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Boy or girl?
About me
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27 Januari 2012 | 13:13:34
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Here's a little lesson I learnt this week: sometimes you have to be a bit fussy!
You see, about two months ago, when Rosa's hair was starting to cover her eyes, she got her first haircut at a little hairdresser's close to our home. That hairdresser's isn't particularly a posh salon: it's one of those cheap little shops where always tons of young men are hanging around waiting to be shaved and have a haircut. Also, not all the hairdressers who work there speak Dutch very well. But well, the window said 'Men, women and children', and since I only wanted her bangs to be cut, I thought we could give it a try. It was kind of difficult to have Rosa sit still for more than ten seconds, but the result was sort of sweet, and the cost of 5 euro isn't exactly the amount of money that one can be too fussy about.
Rosa after her first haircut, november 2011
But two months later her hair already looked like this again, some sweet but also a wee bit messy girl's hairdo:
I thought now it was time for a real haircut to sort of finetune her girly look a bit: not only some cutting of her bangs, but also a wee bit on the sides and back, so that from this point her hair could grow into more or less of a proper hairdo.
So we went to the neighbourhood hairdresser's again, where we first had to wait for like one hour and a half, because they don't work with appointments and there was a long line of young men before us. Finally, it was Rosa's turn. I took Rosa, who wore a floral dress, a little red coat, white tights and some pink/red dotted shoes, on my lap, and explained a bit of what I had in mind to the hairdresser, who happened not to speak Dutch very well.
So, the guy started cutting, and within a few moments I was already starting to get a bit concerned. This was some rather wild and vigorous cutting he was doing here! Not exactly the subtle way in which I assumed one would cut a little girl's hair... Within just a few moments and some wild cuts, about half of Rosa's hair was gone!
I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't want to be too fussy, so I just started mentioning the word 'girl' in my conversation with Rosa a few times. 'Hey, sweet girl, how are you, my girl?'
It took about a minute, but then the guy looked up, slowly pointed at Rosa and sheepishly spoke: 'Boy or girl?'
Ah well, I've been looking like a little boy almost my entire childhood, and it's not that it has ruined me or anything, so I'm sure our little boy Rosa will be okay! ;)
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New plates and teapots in the shop!
Things I make
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27 Januari 2012 | 11:39:15
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I'll be the cargo, you ride the bike
About me
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24 Januari 2012 | 20:36:38
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We bought Rosa a wooden cargo bike for her birthday last december, and so far the gift seems to be well appreciated. Only it took her a while to learn that she not only can be the cargo, but also ride the bike!
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Dublin without a camera
About me
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20 Januari 2012 | 14:13:22
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We went to Dublin last weekend, and I thought that would be a nice opportunity to practice some photography outside the house again for a change... But silly me left my camera in the backseat of the car at the airport parking, clearly within sight, so I was pretty lucky it was still there when we returned after the weekend... So no pics, except for these of Rosa getting ready for check-in ;).
(And a little away-from-home video, because we did bring a little video camera to document Rosa's first overseas trip!) |
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Mumami
What I like
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11 Januari 2012 | 20:02:34
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A while ago I saw Rosa's little friend, the daughter of my neighbour (hi, Irma! ;)), wear the most fabulous hat. I learnt that the hat was made by Mumami, a Dutch handmade shop filled with the loveliest crochet items. Lots of cool and original hats, but also home decor items and many more things. I'll be saving for a Bubamara coat for Rosa for next winter, but what about this cloud or strawberry coat? Seriously, I don't understand these mothers who already dress their four-month-olds in skinny jeans: why on earth would you do that if your baby or toddler could still be perfectly happy being dressed like a little strawberry? ;)
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Rosa's vintage wardrobe #5: 1950s dresses
Fashion
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04 Januari 2012 | 21:38:23
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A while ago I bought Rosa some real 1950s dresses from Rockstreet vintage, an etsy shop that's regularly updated with the most amazing vintage children's clothes (though normally they mainly sell adult sizes). I purchased the dresses below for Rosa, and though most of them are still a bit too big for her (and more summer-style), as you can see she actually wears them!
I'm a bit hesitant to buy vintage dresses in sizes larger than a size 3 or 4 for Rosa, who knows by then she has turned into a tomboy who only wants to wear baggy trousers, or one of those little princess girls who only want to wear pink stuff... But it was hard to control myself with dresses in size 6 or 7 like the ones on the images below! (that unfortunately by now have all sold out, by the way...)
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Slow mode
Things I make
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03 Januari 2012 | 22:07:38
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We're still in slow mode here, so I thought I'd show you some of the work I did a little while ago, when I was still working hard ;). These are some of the name plates and prints that I recently made!
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Happy holidays!
What I like
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24 December 2011 | 21:58:37
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December lazyness
Things I make
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22 December 2011 | 23:06:03
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Oh, these december days... I don't know if it's because I'm spending too much time inside the house, whether it's because of the lack of light, the cold... Or maybe it's just a normal period of slowing down after some very busy before-the-holidays months. But somehow I feel slow, heavy and lazy all the time and I don't seem to get half of the things done compared to what I'm used to in my more energetic periods. Ah well, I try to make the most of these lazy days: particularly Helmut enjoys it because I watch movies with him far more often than usual, happily curled up on the sofa under a little blanket. And as long as it's not going to last all winter I'm actually even enjoying it!
I however did get some work done earlier this week: I made some plates for a custom order and after a slow start I got enthusiastic again and made some more. So a few of these will be added to the shop soon. Tomorrow, maybe? (says slow & lazy me ;))
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The right mix
What I like
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20 December 2011 | 14:28:48
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In general I feel a bit of an outsider to society with my 'handmade job', but a while ago someone who knew a lot about marketing (you know, that utterly important, life-saving science that makes people buy more stuff), told me that in fact with my blog and online shop I do something very modern, that may even be The Future of Commerce: community marketing.
As I understood it, what we 'bloggers-with-a-little-shop' (or 'shop-owners-with-a-little-blog') do, is creating a nice little personal sphere around us that's all cozy and homy, and once everyone is sitting comfortably near the hearth-fire, enjoying a warm chocolate and looking at the family pictures, wham, the commerce enters and before you know it you're all buying our stuff. Well, at least that's how it should work when you take the noble art of marketing seriously ;).
I'm joking a bit, but of course there's some truth here: I see a lot of blogs out there (including mine) that with more or less success try to find the right mix for themselves between the personal and creative side on the one hand, and the marketing and promotional side on the other hand. I guess it's not always easy to find the right balance: blogs that are mainly directed towards product promotion are hardly ever interesting, but on the other hand if you make things that you're trying to sell, only showing your holiday pictures won't do the job (unless you're trying to sell those of course ;)).
In fact I'm a firm believer that a blog can only be truly interesting when it's made 'from the heart', with authenticity, which of course also are terms that are constantly being colonized by the world of commerce and marketing. I don't believe in all those brands that all of a sudden start blogs made by 'real people', because their advertising agencies and trend forecast agencies have told them that they should present themselves as more 'real' (whatever that may be). I do think an authentic mix between having a personal blog and 'trying to sell something' is possible, and it can even be a very nice mix, but it's not necessarily an easy one.
Taking my own blog as an example: it all started almost five years ago as a creative and personal blog, showing the things that inspired me and the things I made myself. Slowly but surely I started selling the things that I made, so a bit of 'hey, you can buy this' entered the blog. But I guess showing and selling your own stuff through your own blog is still quite a transparent thing.
But then commerce and marketing pop in from other directions. People send you images of their work and ask you to write about it. How do you feel about ads on your blog? Would you like to get a product for free and review it, preferably in a positive way? What about the chance to give away something you really love to your readers? Or maybe something that you in fact don't really like yourself, but that your readers will probably love?
It all isn't a matter of life and death, and on the one hand I don't think it's a subject that should be taken overly seriously. It's just blogs we're talking about here (and sometimes it makes me laugh a bit how seriously some blogs & bloggers take themselves), not the freedom of speech in a democracy or something like that. Commerce isn't the enemy and being dogmatic hardly ever makes things better. However your blog also is a bit of your baby, and you want to take care of it in a way that makes sense to you, and you don't want others to take over. Giving your integrity or opinion away just in order to make a bit of money doesn't feel right to me, and I hate to see others do it. I do see myself struggle with it as well, and while certain things feel as an obvious 'no go' to me, others are part of a grey zone that sometimes feels okay and sometimes not okay.
It's an interesting subject, that in fact got me distracted a bit, because I started this blog post wanting to show you these beautiful (product) images by Mr & Mrs Clynk, and aimed to mention their beautiful blog that in my view is quite a nice mix of 'product promotion' on the one hand and the further uncommercial sharing of beautiful and inspiring images on the other hand. I think this combination of 'the personal' and 'the promotional' can lead to really inspiring and beautiful things, and if we try to focus on that good part of 'community marketing' and try to stay away from it's uglier side, I guess this is the kind of marketing that I can live with.
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The Van Katoen dresses
What I like
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19 December 2011 | 20:01:03
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One grandma made Rosa the polar bear sweater, the other grandma made Rosa two sweet dresses based on this Van Katoen pattern that I purchased a while ago. Hip hip hurray for two grandmas who know how to knit and sew!
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More good stuff in the mail
What I like
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16 December 2011 | 11:49:50
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My mom sent the polar bear sweater all the way from San Diego, where she was visiting my sister Olga. But she added a few more nice things to the envelope: some of the vintage clothes that I had been buying for Rosa from American etsy shops, and that were sent to Olga's address to avoid high overseas shipping costs. The plan was that Olga would bring them home in january, but my mom already sent a few things because she feared that otherwise Rosa would already have outgrown them before the end of january... ;)
Also, our fox dress recently arrived! I ordered a bigger size so we still have to wait for a year or so till Rosa can wear it, but this is one of those pieces of clothing that make great wall art!
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