Artlife

After a week of holiday I'm back at work now. For most people that means lack of inspiration and less time for crafting. Well, I can't really say that!

I work in a lovely little shop in Melbourne city called Artlife. I discovered it by coincidence and never left!
We sell lots of pretty things: inspiring books, beautiful and unique home wares, great vintage items and lovely craft materials.
Every time when new stock comes in, it feels like Christmas. And everything I earn goes straight back in to the shop...haha!

If you happen to be in the city, make sure you visit us at 118 Lonsdale Street. We are a bit different from the average shop, but I'm sure you will get inspired!

Curious? here's a little sneak preview...

Somebody should have warned me!

A few months ago I'd never heard of 'blogging' before! No really, I'm not kidding! My interest in computers went as far as playing 'Donkey Kong' and 'Oerm' (remember that one??) on the Commodore 64! After that I lost track of everything digital.
Seriously, Sander who works in IT (how ironic) actually calls me a digi-illiterate :o)

So it took some time before I decided to start a blog. And guess what? The incredible happened: I have a new addiction besides crafting now! Whaaaaa.... somebody should have warned me! Now I spend at least two hours per day behind the laptop. And I'm loving it. There are so many great blogs around and so many inspiring bloggers. It's a whole new world for me. It's almost as coming home....haha!

Anyway, something completely different now. Today we drove to Mornington. Browsed around at a craft market a bit and then went for coffee and scones (Yummy!).Afterwards we explored the beach and its lovely colourful beach houses. I brought a few of my bags made of oil cloth and took some pictures. Have a look!











And how could I let you miss out on these massive scones...



And Sanders coffee was served in a mug that could not have been more suitable for him!

Sweet!

This cute little girls bag is made of layers of cotton bands, red fabric with dots (I love dots!) and finished with a crochet flower!

A sunny winter morning in July!

This morning I decided to go for a nice bike ride around Albert Lake. It was a beautiful, cold but sunny ride. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to share it with you.


A massive tree! Look at its roots!


Parked my bike next to this palm tree to show you how tall it is!


The tree from under neath.


Look how all the branches are growing towards the sun!


Melbourne City.


Crazy flowers?!


You will not find these in Holland.


Oh, and these are a few of my new range of sun glass cozies I designed...



And as if the day didn't start good already I received a little box of goodies from my sister! Oh, It's just so nice. I can't stop looking at the amazing oil cloth!
Luckily for me I'm enjoying a week off so I can craft the whole afternoon! Yay!





Thanks sis!

Swing to Crispness!

Having tea at a friends house she served it in this lovely mug! I immediately fell in love with the pretty image of this vintage Kellogg's add. It's just so happy and sunny!

A few weeks later my friend came back from a holiday in France. And guess what she brought me? My own Kellogg's mug! How very kind of her.I was so pleased.

I decided to make a big painting of the image. 'Realistic' painting is not something I do very often. I think it's because I normally don't have the patience. And I never took any painting lessons or what so ever. So I'm always worried that I will not be happy with the end result after putting so much effort in it. Yep, I'm a perfectionist!

But I actually was fairly happy with my new vintage painting after I finished it. I know I'm still very care full with painting shadows and creating dept. But I suppose that's something you learn by doing it more often!

And whilst you are having a look at my blog, I will clean my balcony. I dropped a raw egg during my photo session of the mug. Got a bit to enthusiastic I guess. Egg everywhere...

Matryoshka Dolls

There's lots of Matryoshka dolls around lately. Why is this wooden doll so popular? I must admit that I love them as well and I have been using the Matryoshka image a lot in my crafts.

Wikipedia tells me that Matryoshkas date from 1890, and are said to have been inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. However, the concept of nested objects was familiar in Russia, having been applied to carved wooden apples and Easter eggs.

Well, and there you have it! Easter eggs.... I used to love painting eggs at Eastern! Actually my family still paints Easter eggs every year. So it must be the shape of the doll. The cylindrical shape, no arms, legs. Simple and so easy to decorate. Just like an egg I guess!

My handmade Matryoshka collection so far:

Post cards:

Fridge magnets:

Softies en key hangers:

Pear tree.

'I want a pear tree in our living room!' I said to Sander (my boyfriend) when we just moved into our new apartment. We have been together for a while so he didn't look to surprised when I said that.
'You want a pear tree in our house?' he asked. Probably thinking 'here's one of her crazy ideas again'.

It took me a few weeks to convince him that I really wanted this tree but in the end he came along to 'Bunnings' to buy a big piece of plywood and a cheap electric saw.

I started with my project on a Monday morning. Standing in our hall with this massive piece of wood I was sawing as if my life was depending on it. Using the crappy electric saw and my little fretsaw. What a work! The whole hallway was covered in sawdust and so was I.

But that Monday evening I had my pear tree in the living room! It is not just a pear tree, it's also our family tree. Pictures and postcards we receive from our family go up in the tree.

This week I made some fabric pears. I spotted them in one of my favourite sewing books (sew pretty by Tilda).
And I think the little basket with pears looks so great underneath the tree.

Pink flowers

Unbelievable...in the middle of the winter we spotted this beautiful tree in Healesville, covered with hundreds of these gorgeous pink flowers! Absolutely stunning!

Villa Villekulla!

This is the biggest project I worked on so far. This little house is standing in the backyard garden of my parents. Me and my father build this together for my sisters kids. Unnessecary to say that they love it!

And my mum and dad are so proud of their 'second' house (and so am I offcourse). Poor mum has now two houses to clean...hehe!

Drie kleine kleutertjes at the craft market!

Yahoo!!! Great news. I will be a stallholder at a craft market for the first time here in Australia. How exciting is that?!! I will be standing at the Healesville craft market at Sunday the 2nd of August! Also a bit nervous, as this will be a 'try out' for me to see if there is actually any interest in the things I make.... But it will be fun anyway (if the weather is good....fingers crossed!).

Here is a bright and sunny painting I made. It's based on a Dutch children's song about three little toddlers sitting on a fence on a beautiful, sunny day in September. The song is called 'drie kleine kleutertjes' in Dutch and so is my painting. For some reason the image is a bit blurry if I upload it to my blog but I think that if you click on it, it shows much clearer.