Saturday, February 21, 2009



Hello you vintage wallpaper lovers out there!
I tried to make some kind of business cards today. The background is vintage wallpaper I received from the vintage button swap. Printing these cards was a bit of a disappointment because the cards turned out more brownish.

We all love that beautiful paper with roses, or flocks in candy colors, we love the crispy edges. Did you know that before there was wallPAPER there was wall linen, like the linen of paintings? In dutch we use the word: behang, it is related to the english to hang, like hanging on the wall. So in our language you cannot hear whether this is paper or not. The word used for the older type of 'behang' is 'behangsel'.
Last week I went to see some antique behangsels/wallhangings.





Dudok, Houttuinen Dordrecht

I didn't want to use a flashlight, because of the fragility of the 'behangsels'. You can see the 'craquelé', if you click the photos. These 'behangsels' are from around 1800, painted by Abraham van Strij, one of the famous Van Strij brothers from Dordrecht. The Dordrecht museum has recently bought five panels of 'behangsels', but unfortunately it was forbidden to take photos there. Here, at Dudok's the 'behangsels' are 'in situ' , which means at the place where they were meant to be originally. 95% of these paintings are vanished, either destroyed or exported out of the Netherlands. So these wallcoverings are quite unique.



Let's take a closer look. Though you could see in the previous photo that the light was bad, the colors are amazing. The panels which are hanging in the Dudok building at the Houttuinen in Dordrecht, where we were guests, thank you, are restored recently.





A detail. The gold is new goldleaf and in my opinion it is more beautiful when it will tarnish. New and young is not always more beautiful, hehehe!

And now a contemporary artist:



I won the month prize at Linnea Maria's blog 'Linnea på Landet'.
Linnea Maria's work is truly amazing. Look what she did with a simple piece of broken glass. The insect is a drawing of her hand, no reproduction!
I'm so happy with this piece of art. I'm making a wall of fame. This piece certainly belongs there! My husband was thrilled with this too!



Look what other lovelies she sent me too.
Thanks a million Linnea Maria!

The Pip room isn't finished yet and the wall of fame is still under construction but....



I wanted to show you this. I'm not always the last to decorate! I bought this cute guy this week. I think he will survive Easter!
Have a great Sunday, happy Carnaval (yes, the dutch word CarnAval!) or Mardi Gras!
Thanks for your visit, all your lovely comments and I hope to see you soon.
xoxo LiLi M.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Puppy love tag book

What a pleasure to receive this little parcel in my mailbox!
Today the puppy love tag book arrived.
Karla Nathan hosted a puppy tag swap in honor of Twinks' little puppies.
She assembled a tag book for every participant.
And she had made a tag book cover for every tag book.
That must have been a awful lot of work.
But I'm so happy with the result!
Thanks Karla!



Let's take a closer look:



The tag book cover is made by the one and only Karla Nathan! You will probably recognize it from the button of the puppy love tag swap. The lovely embellishments were also attached by Karla.


This tag is called "On the wings of love" and is made by Jen Kershner.



This token of affection was made by Carla Fisch.



'I am there for you' by Sarah Elder.




Lovely vintage embellishment, ribbons and flowers. This tag was made by Dawn Gahan.




'Puppy Love' was created by Cheryl Stoneham.

And the the last one in the book:


Another 'Puppy love' created by Valita Baxles.

Thanks to all girls! I love all tags but together I adore them!



Click the photos to see more details!
Thanks again Karla for hosting such a fun swap!


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Am I still in time?



To wish you a Happy Valentine?!

We usually don't celebrate Valentine, because this celebration is just not us.



Though I do have a bouquet.
Another man than my husband surprised me with this...
My husband works for 10 years at the same company and to celebrate this we had a very nice dinner, a present for him and a bouquet for me.



These branches should have been filled with those card-labels on top of this post.
Mmm I'll keep them till next year. Then I'll be the first with Valentine decoration!



We call these branches 'katjes' which means kittens. These flowers start like little furs, so soft and not flower like at all. They are another messenger that spring is coming.



These branches are some kind of Salix.


My favorite heart

Some vignettes:



Some love letters....



Love letters unpacked.

Peter started writing Sjaan in 1942 and they married in March 1944.
It's a little sad that their love letters ended up at Rotterdam market. On the other hand; I bought them there, treat them with respect and those letters play a part in Valentine decoration. Well how cool is that, while other letters have been thrown in the waste bin?






The mantle, centerpiece filled with heart shaped mercury glass.



Tip: the border of this heart is made from kitchen paper.



Another Valentine vignette?
No especially for Elly; it's my Pip diary and one of the fabrics I'm going to use in the Pip room.
Have a nice weekend whether you celebrate a special Valentine's day or not.

Have fun and remember; every day can be a special day. xoxo LiLi


Thursday, February 12, 2009



Where are those lucky numbers?



Ah, here they are....



Looking for initials...



Do you see yours?




Well Liisa has seen hers and her lucky number 6!
she won the One World One Heart give away.
The box of her choice is nr. 1
Congratulations Liisa!
Btw she has a lovely blog Ottilias Veranda.



And Cathy has won the box of her choice too!
She has more than one blog, I have to check myself. I have met her down Hazelruthe's during One World One Heart, I didn't know she is the author of Blog events dex, which is in my reader already, too.




If I didn't know better I would swear that this box was made for Jeanette! I already knew Jeanette before One World One Heart and I have told you before about our Dutch styling queen. So I guess you already met Jeanette at Just Jeanette.



This last box was won by Emily!
It's so much fun to meet new friends!

Ladies, congrats to all of you! Please send me your addies!
You can mail me, my e-mail address is on my profile page.

Every one else who gave comments: thank you so much.
I never had over 300 comments before!
This years' One World One Heart' was even a bigger succes than last years'. Over 900 participants were having give aways. Those give aways are closed now, but you can still jump on the caravan and make new friends as our host Lisa will keep the list of participants for a while over here. Thank you Lisa for hosting this great event!

I hope to be back on Saturday...


Sunday, February 8, 2009

Surprise!



Well, first you might be surprised that I'm still here at all...lol. Though this time of the year isn't my favorite, I told you that before, somehow the time speeder is working at full speed though. I am still making little hearts for Valentine, still busy with the Pip room. So what's new? What is that surprise?

When snow disappeared and the sun came out:



These little fellows showed up again! This is one of the reasons why I love these little pansies!



February definitely shows some signs of the coming spring. Everytime you look carefully in the garden you see little surprises. Here our Camellia buds. Cannot wait to see the flowers!

Another surprise awaited me some time ago at Betty's blog:



Thank you very much Betty for giving me the proximidade (this is Portuguese for neighborhood) award.
I copied these words from Betty's blog:

"This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. (blogging makes us close by proxy; friendly neighborhoods linked around the world)

Blogs that receive this award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. (effort is made to maintain a quality blog in terms of blog etiquette, response, and audience - just because)

Our hope is that when the ribbons of these awards are cut, even more friendships are propagated. (post the award, and grow more friendship by passing it on).'

Phew...and that wasn't all:
She also gifted me with the lemonade award; an award for bloggers with 'gratitude'.



Thank you very much Betty, especially those kind words meant much to me.

It was one of my resolutions to pass these awards on, I always tend to forget that. And as I always forget that, I think I can give both these awards to an extra large group at one time, as Betty did.
I would love to live in a neighborhood and drink coffee, play with dolls and bears, knit, work in the garden, craft and chat with:

Louise "At the pink gate"
Wil "Casa Nostra"
Karoline "Cherished vintage"
Lori "Faery window"
Beth "Gathering dust"
Karla "Karla's cottage"
Linnea Maria "Linnea på Landet"
Elly "My every day things"
Barbara "Oodles and oodles"
Constance "Rochambeau"
Marja "Rosabears" and "Rosabeer"

and of course Betty "She sews pretty" should live there too!

Ladies, I am aware that not every one does 'something' with these awards, that's fine with me, I just wanted to let you know that I always appreciate reading your blogs and your visits over here. That's it. I also understand when you don't want to make post after post with awards... as somehow this quiet time of the year is award time.

Our daughter was staying elsewhere the whole week. And she brought souvenirs home, especially for me:

She found this at the local thrift store. A vintage glass jar, just the kind I like. And a couple of early 20th century German travel guides. Cards included. I love that she thought of me! I love that she bought me something that I really like! It's a welcome surprise that she knows me so well!

The last surprise was that I read on the internet news that this lady is celebrating her 50th birthday right now!


I am a Barbie collector for over 10 years:


(unpacking a part of my collection which has gone back to the attic now, due to lack of time and a good place to expose). Barbie isn't celebrating her 50th birthday yet, she does that next month! But the European toy fair in Nürnberg (Germany) is right now and the New York Toy Fair starts next week. Is anyone surprised that the results of Barbie are disappointing at this moment? My results would be disappointing too if after 50 years still no one could remember my birthday!

Next time the prize winners of the owoh prize. You have until Wednesday the 11th to put your name in the big hat over here!