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.Sanne
Fashion
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20 November 2009 | 20:44:00
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The textile museum in Tilburg is currently having an exhibition about the Japanese designer Akira Minagawa, the man behind fashion label Minä Perhonen. Since I live close to Tilburg, I'm planning to visit real soon. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an interesting exhibition, but it's not just Akira Minagawa's work that I'm curious about. A small part of the exhibition will be dedicated to a Dutch fashion designer, Sanne Jansen, who has been working with Minä Perhonen in Japan.
Though the balloon-styled pictures above look rather festive, Sanne Jansen is especially inspired by the strict calvinist culture that has been dominating the Netherlands for a long time, and in some ways still is present here today. In her designs for her label .Sanne, she tries to find a balance between the beauty of this conservative, calvinist style and a more frivolous, feminine touch.
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New stuff
About me
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20 November 2009 | 09:46:27
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Some new things available in the shop... With quite a few polkadots this time.
And yes, in fact I wear a lot of polkadot dresses myself...
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Oprah
What I like
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19 November 2009 | 12:36:13
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She's assumed to have an influence that reaches from making people run to the stores for a previously obscure book to convincing people to vote for a certain president candidate. She even made Tom Cruise jump on her couch... (or maybe that was just that one thing beyond her influence? ;)) Anyway, right now she says you should all buy my products... Well sort of, cause my pitcher is featured in the current issue of O, the Oprah magazine.
The featured pitcher is from a small series of pitchers that I made for Huiszwaluw in Ghent a while ago, so if you're living in Belgium and want to have that special pitcher with Oprah's approval (or one of the other ones from the series), it may still be available over there!
And now I just sit back and wait for all those millions of customers coming my way... ;) |
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Proud to be part of this
What I like
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19 November 2009 | 00:36:17
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Every once in a while I fully realize how wonderful it is to be part of this colorful, creative community that's both so local, personal and low-key and global and ambitious at the same time. I discovered the Australian online magazine Papier Mache (you can read it online, it's free!) because one of my little plates is in the second issue of the magazine, and I wasn't just happy because I was in it, but also because I love seeing initiatives like this flourishing. I saw so many beautiful things, some from people whose work is new to me, but also quite a few things from people I sort of 'know' through blogging. And then all of a sudden I felt so proud of all of us, making this big global creative thing together, not for much money or lots of prestige, but just for the sake of beauty and sharing it. Hurray! (and go and read Papier mache!)
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Flea market fun
About me
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17 November 2009 | 14:39:17
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It always makes me laugh: those overly romantic women's magazines that refer to every flea market as a heavenly brocante. If you should believe those mags, every flea market is situated on a sunny, picturesque Southern French village square, where everywhere you look you see beautiful old farmer tables and cabinets, antique silver, lace and linen and all other vintage goodness you could wish for. The greatest treasures are just waiting there for you, all you have to do is pick them up and pay the seller a ridiculously low price... Meanwhile, on a nearby terrace, some elderly French men are drinking a pastis, you can smell the delicious scent of good and honest French food while the local musician plays on his accordeon...
Well, what can I say? Our local flea market is situated in the dark halls of the old cattle market. You can smell fried food everywhere, and at about eleven o'clock in the morning you already see tons of people eating loads of junk food. The average people visiting? I remember once saying to my boyfriend, who was accompanying me to the market: under whát rock have these people been hiding all the time? Let's say the average visitor isn't the eccentric local artist or blushing farmer woman you'd expect on the romantic magazine's brocantes... There's no accordeon player either, only a poor-quality singer with a synthesizer who's crooning some awful Dutch songs that already weren't much of a success in their original version. And the offered stuff? Mainly the cheap and low-quality remains left of the most recent decade of our consumer society.
Yeah, I think the vintage & antique hype of the last years has left us with some overly high expectations of what flea markets and thrift shops are and have to offer. I guess the thrifty bloggers among us are also a bit guilty of creating this 'thrifting bubble': we only show our best finds online, and hardly ever mention all the times that we've just been digging in huge mountains of ugly, useless trash. I’m not saying that there are no treasures to be found, cause there are, and that’s just a big part of the fun of thrifting, but I think it’s good to be a bit realistic about what flea markets and thrift shops are like. When you’re not ‘on a mission’, they can be pretty depressing places. So while my heart starts beating enthusiastically as soon as I see a flea market announced somewhere, I never have a hard time understanding why my boyfriend hates to go there with me.
So in general, I go thrifting alone, or sometimes with my elder sister. But when I’m with my boyfriend and we accidentally stumble upon a nice market, like this weekend, we have to find some sort of middle between my enthusiasm and his deep despair. This weekend, when we were in Antwerp together, we had found some sort of way: I quickly went through the market, while my boyfriend sat on the improvised terrace in the middle of the market hall reading his book. So far, so good.
It was a nice market, where I found quite some good stuff. I could have walked around for hours, but after an hour or so I decided to check on the boyfriend. And there he sat, the poor boy: after he had been happily reading his book for some time, two elderly people had joined his table. The woman, who maybe suffered from Alzheimers or something, kept asking him the same questions every few minutes: where are you from, did you come to Antwerp by car, where did you park? There was no chance for him to read anymore. Meanwhile the woman's husband was eating his bread with sausages in a not so very tasteful way (when I arrived, the sauce was already all over his face), which wasn’t a very pleasant sight, especially given the fact that my boyfriend is a vegetarian who doesn’t like the smell and look of meat at all.
I realized I’d been testing his patience long enough, so we went somewhere else. A bit of a shame, cause I think I could have found some more nice stuff if I had been around longer. They always say that the Belgians have a better taste in clothing and spend more on expensive (designer) clothes, and I guess that’s true, cause I saw some beautiful clothes and shoes by brands such as Dries van Nooten in the stalls for reasonable prices.
My best find at the market was a beautiful 1950s illustrated children's bible with drawings from Veronique Filozof. Such beautiful, super detailed illustrations with a lot of great patterns... really inspiring!
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Still so sorry I didn't mail back...
Art and design
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16 November 2009 | 12:11:21
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Everyone who sells things on the internet knows how annoying it is: people who commit themselves to buy something from you, but in the end don't pay nor respond anymore. I guess clear & proper responding is one of those things that you only fully learn the relevance of once you're a seller yourself: as a neglecting buyer, you probably don't realize that your non-responding-behaviour may cause the seller trouble.
A few years ago I used to do a lot of bidding on an online auction site, and though I always tried to properly take care of my bidding business, I guess I've also been one of those annoying non-responders a few times. And one of those situations years ago I in fact still regret today...
You see, my love for great design sometimes overrules everything: time, space, money... Through the years I've learnt a lot about this slightly obsessive tendency, so today I'm not that vulnerable for it anymore, but let's say that wasn't always the case. So a few years ago I was able to for example see a gorgeous mid-century modern credenza on an auction site, fall in love immediately and then I just had to place a bid. Easily forgetting that I didn't have room for a credenza, nor the money, and that I didn't have a large van to pick it up three hundred kilometers away either. Usually my bids weren't high enough so in the end someone else would buy the item (which to me always caused a mix of disappointment and relief), but every now and then my bids were answered with a 'yes you can buy it'. And then the real trouble began... Cause yes, I wanted to buy that lovely piece, but how to pick it up and where to put it? Creativity (such as picking up a large chair by train!) was often needed...
It was in the middle of moving house to our current apartment that I spotted a very cool yellow Acapulco rocking chair and placed a bid. The seller mailed me that I could have it, and I already started making plans where in the new house I could put it. But we were super busy in the middle of renovating the apartment, because of the moving house I didn't have an internet connection anymore, we were already spending so much money and had way too much furniture... Also I realized that a rocking chair would make scratches on our new wooden floor. And driving three hours to pick up an expensive chair that we didn't need while I should be painting and renovating... not such a great thing to sell to my boyfriend. So while I kept comparing the pros and cons (pro: it's such a great chair, con: all the other things), not able to contact the seller with a clear yes or no, the opportunity just went by. It felt bad and inpolite towards the seller, and what a missed chance with that beautiful chair, but there were just too many disadvantages...
Why am I telling you all this? Well, cause I recently saw the Acapulco chairs appearing again in a few places. On Michaela's blog I found a link to the Scandinavian company that is producing them again nowadays, Oficina Kreativa. Not sure if they also make a rocking version of the chair, but it's good to know that I can still have my chance to buy one if I want to!
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The winners
About me
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12 November 2009 | 22:42:40
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Seriously: I think it's official now that they should never ask me for any kind of jury. I would so be this annoying 'the jury had such a hard time, cause you're all equally nice'-person, and then I'd probably send everyone home with some candy while keeping the big prize to myself...
Anyway, so many kind reactions to the giveaway... So very nice! And then choosing a winner... not so nice! After a few rounds of -don't start laughing at me- longlists and shortlists and considering to send all of you just one postcard and realizing that's ridiculous and that those of you not winning won't sleep any minute less tonight, I decided to spread the joy as utilitarian as possible (=the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people) by giving away one big prize (the magazine & a print of choice) and four small prizes (different card sets).
So, here are the winners (selected by a very elaborate procedure including long- and shortlists, writing things on little papers, closing eyes and pointing with fingers and a few more rather random variables ;)):
First prize:
The other prizes:
Jane Kavanagh
Madelief
And now let's continue with the honorable mentions... (Oh, I'm so very able to do that!) No, five winners should be enough! ;) Please contact me with your addresses at ik_ben_nina [at] hotmail.com.
Some pics from my trip to my very favorite city Antwerp last july (yeah, that's where I drank that one too many margarita!), we'll be going there again tomorrow!
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After-birthday bits
About me
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12 November 2009 | 12:22:01
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One of the nicest birthday gifts I received was a large pack of beautiful fine art print paper, which enabled me to start printing lots of art prints and postcards again the days after my birthday. It's really funny that gifts for my little business make me almost happier than gifts that are just for me (while I also love those a lot!). I've decided not to invest money I don't really have in my creative business, so often I have to wait till I have sold things before I can buy supplies again. Maybe it's not the best business model, but it feels good not to make any debts, and also it makes me really appreciate the things I buy. Never thought I'd feel so happy when I would be buying a huge roll of bubble plastic or a large pack of cardboard envelopes... Buying beautiful fine art paper is even nicer, because the paper itself is already so beautiful, let alone what you can do with it.
I guess it's this awareness of the value of certain supplies that usually makes me super frugal when using them. This is something that surprised me probably even more than the people who know me: yes I can be frugal! Usually that's not a characteristic I'm very well-known of, but somehow when it comes to my craft supplies, I can become ridiculously frugal, saving even the smallest scraps of paper 'cause I may be able to use them again'. I have to say that on the other hand I regularly manage to for example spill a cup of coffee over my most delicate supplies, so I guess that neutralizes the extreme frugality a bit...
Anyway, because this large pack of paper was a gift, I felt I could let go of the frugality for a while and I printed a lot of cards of different sizes. I keep them all in this beautiful vintage wooden box that I thrifted a while ago.
Some more birthday gifts were the beautiful flowers and this wonderful Marimekko pouch...
The limited edition (whatever that means) of the new Editors cd and a 101 Woonideeën agenda...
And also a lot of books and a weekend trip to Belgium for this weekend... So I have work to do! I'll announce the winners of the giveaway at the end of the day! |
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Through my blog I travel
About me
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11 November 2009 | 16:57:51
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Though I love to go on all kinds of trips and travels, I'm not the super-globetrotting-Lonely-planet-addicted type that goes backpacking to faraway areas all the time. I can say I've been to Asia cause I've once been in the Asian part of Turkey, but that's pretty much it, so the large part of Asia still lies unexplored before me. But while I stay at home, this blog does some of the traveling for me, cause this month I'm 'blogger of the month' in the Singapore interior decoration magazine Home & Decor. Good to know that in Singapore I'll still be 26 this month... ;) (oh, and maybe after all I shouldn't have sent in that photo of me sipping a margarita while I already had one too many...)
Oh and thanks all for your kind and overwhelming response to my post-birthday giveaway so far. You can still enter till thursday, but I've already decided to give away a few more postcard sets cause I'm pretty sure I can't choose just one winner. In fact after reading the first sweet comments I was almost ready to give away everything in my shop to all of you... Oh, I become such a softie when you flatter me a bit! ;)
And now I'm going to risk my throughout the years well-curated image of super-stylish minimalist design blogger (?) by showing you one of the cakes my younger sister and I made for my little birthday party... We went kind of crazy with the colorful marzipan, and when at a certain point I asked my sister 'Isn't this more like a cake for a 12-year-old?', she replied: 'No way a 12-year-old would ever want a cake like this!' (and she knows, cause with her 19 years she should be much closer to knowing what a 12-year-old likes than I do!)
I honestly had planned to make a very subtle cake with just a few carefully placed raindrops or flowers or something, but somehow once I started coloring and shaping the marzipan, the child in me prevailed! ;)) |
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A post-birthday giveaway
Things I make
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09 November 2009 | 23:53:54
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November the 9th is my birthday, which means from now on I'll be a 27-year-old student & art & craft lover... (off to change my blog profile right now, it was about the first thing my boyfriend reminded me of after waking up: you're not a 26-year-old student & art & craft lover anymore... ;)) By the end of this year I hope to also be able to finally delete the word 'student' from that profile...
Anyway, on a birthday it's time for a birthday treat, so here's the deal: I'm giving away a parcel consisting of a copy of 101 Woonideeën interior magazine with my house (but also many other good ones!) in it. Also I'm adding a sample set with some small and larger postcards/mini art prints of my work (including some new ones) and a fine art print from my shop that the winner can choose him/herself.
All you have to do is leave some comment below. Since my birthday will be over within fifteen minutes, 'happy birthday' won't be that necessary... ;) Instead, just tell me a nice little something, like why you read here, who your favorite artist is or how you keep sane in this weird world. Something else is fine too... I'll pick a winner on thursday!
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The Vogels
Art and design
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08 November 2009 | 22:43:52
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Tonight I watched this beautiful documentary about love, art, love for art and a little bit of madness: Herb & Dorothy. It's about a now elderly couple, Herb & Dorothy Vogel, who've dedicated their life to collecting modern art. They managed to gather a huge and important collection of minimalist modern art, but not because they were super rich people looking for some sort of hobby or anything: as a postal clerk and a librarian they had a very moderate income (and a one-bedroom-apartment stuffed with their enormous art collection!), but their huge love for art and dedication to collecting it was stronger than those limitations. Read their beautiful and fun story here, or watch the wonderful documentary if you get a chance!
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A final visit
What I like
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06 November 2009 | 23:10:10
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Today my sister and I enjoyed a super relaxed day at a spa, a gift from my sister and brother-in-law to thank me for taking pictures at their wedding. A facial treatment, a massage... It's not the kind of thing I do very often, so I felt very spoilt. Back home and all relaxed, I finally found the time to finish this last post about Villa Augustus (only 1.5 month after visiting... which is not so bad compared to the fact that I still have to select and edit most of my summer 2009 Italy pics! ;)). I'm pretty sure that with the changing of the seasons the Villa Augustus gardens already look very different by now...
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Sometimes my sister says stop
Fashion
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05 November 2009 | 13:08:12
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Since we have our little nephew Kasper, my sister Olga and I like to spoil the little boy with a lot of new clothes. Every once in a while my sister Sanne, Kasper's mom, begs: 'Oh please, no more in that size, he already has more than he can ever wear!' Isn't it a shame that people are overloading you with beautiful clothes and gifts at the time you don't even notice, while when you're, say, 26, no one does that anymore? ;)
So I guess I have to wait a while till he really needs some clothes again, and meanwhile just enjoy some nice children's clothing designs online. I really like the patterns of these clothes by the Danish brand Nanoou. Though I found quite a few Nanoou selling points online I couldn't find much information or a website about the brand itself, so I wonder if it still exists? If so, why don't you also make a few dresses for grown-ups with these nice prints!
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New in the shop
Things I make
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04 November 2009 | 13:16:38
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I've added some new items to the shop today...
This very large platter is my absolute personal favorite. It was quite a lot of work and I'm so glad it turned out really well... I had a hard time taking proper pictures cause it's so very dark and rainy here, but this platter has such bright colors, it's very cheerful.
Then there's a little teapot...
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