Buttons!

Hi button lovers of the world!

Through Heather's blog I arrived at Sugar*sugar where the lovely miss Analise asked whether we could show our buttons to the world. Well, being a button addict myself, I couldn't resist of course. One sign of my button addiction: I once went to Amsterdam by train (1.5 hrs) to buy heart shaped mother of pearl buttons. I needed them so bad to finish a pincushion.

It all started at my grandmothers'. When I visited her I loved to play with:

Those shiny black glass buttons. I used to play 'shop' with them.

Since I'm reading and lurking an awfull lot of American blogs, I have noticed that your buttons are far more colourful than ours. When I buy a box of buttons the vast majority of them is grey or brownish. That's also the case with our button cards:

Very to the point huh? No playing children or lovely ladies...I guess that's typical Dutch. Even nowadays there still aren't many people who buy beautiful and expensive buttons. The market is a typical place to buy such supplies.

But I still managed to collect these:

Well ladies for every 100 grey/brown dutch buttons there is one red one. So take your calculators please, to calculate my total amount of buttons...

Ok, I'm not playing a fair game as I buy vintage buttons loose sometimes. For my dutch readers: the Noordermark(e)t in Amsterdam is a great place to buy vintage buttons but the best is 'De Winkel' (Vrouw Juttenland 39) in Delft. I only have to warn you (probably an addict yourself). Don't fall apart when you see what they have done there with all vintage buttons on cards:

They just cut old cards in half or in more pieces AND they write prices on the face of the cards with black markers. I couldn't believe my eyes and of course I couldn't keep my mouth shut either. Someone has to save what's left of the diminishing button-on-card population. So I asked whether it please could be possible to write the price on the back of the card, preferably with pencil. The lady laughed loudly...Why on earth? They were pricing the buttons this way for more than 20 years now and NO ONE she repeated NO ONE did ever mind...I should almost boycot that place, but they have amazing glass buttons:

So lets skip the greys and the browns. I sometimes use them with old fashioned rope to pack something a little bit old fashioned.

If there is 1 red button on 100 grey/brownish oned, pink is even more rare. I guess 1 on every 200.

Mother of pearl, one of my old time favorites, is quite common, except for the heart shaped ones, but you know now that you can find them on the Noordermarket in Amsterdam.

And here some blue buttons. I have added the biggest blue one because its a typical one. My mother who was often sewing clothes used this one on a jacket for herself. In the sixties she used to wear costumes (jacket and skirt) complete with gloves, grace kelly bag and high heels. I can see her image vividly just when I look at that peculiar button. My parents' button box is like a photo album to me!

Like this one: a carved peach stone given to me to my neighbour Mrs. Trense. She was a very sweet old lady, who used to give me all kind of treasures. Like empty Avon bottles and boxes. I cherish her memory.

I remember those green ones, they were typical childrens buttons in the sixties.


Later on these childrens buttons arrived here. Of course I like everything. No limits for LiLi M. again.

Well I'm off to see the worlds most beautiful buttons now. I just wonder is there any blogger out there who buys just as many buttons as necessary, not just one for pleasure only? Have a nice week!

Bling my birdcage

Today it's Karla and Beth's bling your birdhouse day!

So ya wanna see my blinghouse?

You really didn't think that I would live in an ordinary house outside, did you??

It's bad enough that this cage was bought at the Action (a super cheap store here in the Netherlands) for less than 2 euros and revamped by LiLi into this:

Yeah, yeah it's a little of Sandra Evertson and it's a little of LiLi M.
Of course, the legs are LiLi's!!

(In fact I asked Beth if it was allright to bling a cage. Btw In case of not noticing the bling its a brooche on Marie Antoinette's dress. Just click the picture.)

I love bird cages. I have them in and around the house:

Mmmm, those inhabitants outside seemed to have suffered from winter. Aah, let them eat cake! Wait until spring, my little defeathered friends and your cages will be cleaned too (and you will be replaced I'm affraid, but I will allow them this one minute of fame now).

Not too much bling here either. I'm more the kind of girl who likes her birdcage the best just before it falls apart. I'm off now to see some more real blinghouses. You should do too and have fun. Thanks Beth and Karla for hosting this event.

Happy Easter to all bunnies and chickies....

Hi!!
I can't hardly hear myself...
Easter has started here already...
First I had to stand in a corner behind a curtain. Some bunnies and chickies have suddenly disappeared. Every one is very cheery here, all having brown stuff in their mouthes. Wishing each and everyone a happy Easter!

(this was the last message of this funny bunny, never heard of him since)

Spring is in the air!

Hi!!

I'm in Heather's junque in my trunk swap too!! I am soooo excited about it, shopping vintage again, yes! I have spent part of the weekend enjoying my swappartner (I do hope this is not supposed to be a secret, well it isn't anymore now) Carol's blog. What creative talent and she has such a beautiful garden. Be sure to visit her at Boxwood cottage, but don't do that if you haven't got plenty of time!
We did a total make over of our garden last year, if you don't remember you can refresh your memory here. I think my garden has potential but looks still a bit shabby ( no, not that shabby way we all want things to look, but the shabby way no one likes). I realized that having a beautiful garden as Carol has, must have been the result of hard work, so I started today. It was cold but sunny and I worked so hard that the cold didn't bother me at all. Luckily I have a garden facing south. When you're working in the garden you suddenly see things like:

hey, the Camellia has flowers and a lot of buds!!

little forget-me-nots!! I always like that blue!

This is Euphorbia, the first time I have this cultivar.

Helleborus in white and pink still has flowers

and a big surprise!!! I have several pots with this lavender, I wanted to cut it back when I saw I am already too late for that...there are new flowers already!

I had a great time discovering, thanks Carol for inspiration.

Another very lovely lady I want to thank very much is Elly. She gave me an award again and I am very happy to receive that honour. Also I have won one of her atc's!! Be sure to check her blog. You wonder if Elly has found those gnome armies. She is so creative and productive and everything she makes is so nice!! When I'll receive that atc I'll show you of course.
I will let you know another time to who I will give this award....

Have a nice week, btw do you have spring in your garden already? Hugs LiLi

Time management

Hi!!!
Last time I told you quite a few things about myself. I didn't mention that I ... well ehh how do I tell you this? That I do like to recycle a lot? Or is it that I like things that I can have for free a lot? Sometimes I think I have been a very poor girl in a former life. How come that I see the beauty of things that are thrown away by other people? Sometimes I think I have the mind of my grandmother who couldn't throw away anything, my mind is still 1920-ish. Anyhow, there is so much that people just throw away, that is not only useful but far more better than that; quite unique. I always pay attention to shop windows. Did you know that most materials will be thrown away after a short while? I think a sale cycle doesn't even last 8 weeks.
I spotted these clocks in the window of Didi, a fashion store, around Christmas. Those clocks were part of Christmas decorations. In the beginning of January (sale time) I asked the shopkeeper what was done with those clocks because I would like to use them for a time machine project (this is no lie). She told me they were probably thrown away and that I could have them if headquarters approved. And headquarters did approve and I got all those paper clocks. I (read hubby has) have put them in my little studio, which is still under construction. Those clocks are symbolic, because I always have to little time, especially when I'm in here. You know what I mean.
Some clocks have no pointers (anymore) and I have made new ones, plenty of time suddenly n'est-ce pas? But those little things to adjust the pointers to the clocks are temporarily out of sight. Yes, now I have the time I still cannot adjust the pointers...lucky me :-(
By the way, this saving of things that would be thrown away (definitely not to say searching trash) is inherited by my daughter; look what she brought me:

Those green paper bags are awesome and they are wonderful keepers of vintage wallpaper. They were nominated as 'old paper' at the beauty shop, where you can find lovely boxes (disguised as old paper as well), if you have an eye for it, but you can develop one. I wonder are there any thrash lovers out there??

When my pointers will be adjusted I can play with time!
You will never have to wait for a tutorial or another promise I have made this long.
Here's the tutorial 'victorian waving hand card'. Finally.

Most important is that you need Mameloks scraps nr.79 and then use your imagination...hahaha

Well you didn't wait for that all time did you?
This is what you need:

First you divide a common cardboard for making cards in half and glue some nylon (think of frings) lace on the edges:

After that you glue the hand on a card board to consolidate the hand and then cut it out.

Don't forget to put a little gem on the ring.

Put a hole into the card as well as in the hand and tie a gold ribbon through both holes.

And now tie the ribbon. Your card with waving hand (if you shake the card) is ready.

You can put a stamp on the blue card as well, I did bonjour, but 'get well' or 'congrats' are possibilities too, of course. And now for the best part. You could recycle this card, ooh how LiLi-like. Such a hand could start a second life as a bookmark or....as a receiver of this card you could remove the blue part and send this card again. Save the environment!!
Have an inspiring week and don't forget to look for 'trash'. Hugs LiLi.

Let's talk about...me!

The view from our little cottage in Kröv at the Mont Royal.

Hi all!!!
Hope you are all doing fine. I have suffered some kind of flu or a pneunomia or something else that makes you feverish and cough a lot. And of course these kind of diseases don't know any boundaries; so I was ill in Germany as well. But it was nice to be in a different environment for a couple of days, just with my family. We stayed in a little town called Kröv, in the middle of a couple of million vineyards. Here the Germans make their famous Moselwine, like Piesporter. We didn't do as much as I wanted to do before, but we had a great time anyway. I took with me to Germany a banana box filled with magazines. And I have read them all and started a new inspiration book as well. I'll show you some of that in the future.
Coming home I noticed that I had been tagged by three people, and I was already tagged by 3 other people. So I will do my best and fill up this post with tags. Yep let's talk about me!! I'll start with the 4 tag, which is easy. Marloes and Isabelle after her have tagged me with this one:

For those of you who don't like to read a lot, there are some pictures of my little shops in between. I collect old play shops and I like to fill them with old dutch miniature boxes, bottles and tins.

4 jobs I have had:

1. When I was a teenager I had this funny job: I worked at an Austrian Bowling Center, where I had to point the number of fallen bowls at a clock and throw the ball back in a gutter.
2. I worked at a car leasing company Hertz Leasing. At that time I didn't even have a drivers' licence and no interest in cars whatsoever.
3. I have been a bank employee, working for an agency, so I worked in another office every 6 weeks. Once I worked at the bank office at the Space center 'Estec' in Noordwijk. This was of course before there were pin machines at every corner of the street.
4. My last job was to assist members of the dutch Labour Party in Parliament. I tried to help the representatives writing their speeches, do some research and point out their way into the jungle of rules of the political 'game'.



4 movies I like:

Four??? Mmmm...should be 40 at least, well let's try.
1. Moonstruck
2. The big Lebowski
3. Brutti Sporchi e cattivi
4. 4 weddings and a funeral
5. Clockwise
6. A fish called Wanda
7. Being John Malkovitch
8. Moulin Rouge
9. Love Actually
10. Die Blechtrommel
And yes I have seriously limited myself.




4. Places where I have been:

What is the meaning of this question? To sum up some exotic places?? Or places not every one has visited? Or places I loved to visit? Mmmmmm
1 + 2 I have been to communistic Prague and the former German Democratic Republic when the iron curtain was still firmly closed. The GDR doesn't exist anymore. Prague is nowadays one of the most touristic places in Europe.
3. I have been to Istanbul in Turkey, both the European as well as the Asiatic part.
4. Do I have to mention Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rome, Firenze, Copenhagen, Brussels, Barcelona, Berlin and so on? I've have never been to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica but I know that's not the question right now.




4 places where I have lived.
I lived all my life here in the Netherlands;
was born in Rotterdam
grew up in the Hague (den Haag, where our government resides)
studied at Leydens university and lived there for 12 years and then moved on to
Dordrecht, a city founded in the 12th century.




4 places I would rather be:
There is no place like home.
But when we have to go anywhere it better is a cheap flea market, with great finds and enough space in the car to take everything with me.
Shopping in New York for about two weeks with that no limit platinum credit card in my purse wouldn't be too bad either.




4 tv programs I like to watch.
Since march 2007 I am sitting most of the time behind my computer...I seldom watch tv. I used to watch Home make over shows. And I like to watch the first time of...a new programme like Big Brother, Idols just everything that is new, to create your own opinion. I guess there is not much news under the sun anymore.

4 radio shows

I hate radio shows. When I listen to the radio I want to hear music. When somebody talks especially during those stupid games, like which noise do we hear, I immediately switch over to another radiostation.

4 favorite food

1. Chocolate
2. French fries, I actually mean fresh cut flemish fries with mayonaise.
3. Fresh pasta with my home made pesto, accompanied by an Italian salad and Italian spiced steak.
4. Actually I like everything I cook myself. From Indonesian to Indian, from homemade soup to apple pie. I simply like my own cooking. Lucky me!

One of those beautiful houses in Trier, where we were last week. Took too little pictures because of the weather and the fact that I was ill.

and now the 7 weird or random facts. Well who wants to know random facts??? All hands up for random facts!! Hahaha, I just knew it!! By the way Anja of my new classic home and Deirdra Doan tagged me.

1. I once wore double lenses.
I always loose things, cannot remember where I have put them. After wearing lenses for more than 30 years I still have one box where I keep them. I buy new boxes once in a while but they all magically disappear. Well this time we were going on vacation and I searched for a spare box to put in my lenses to pack before. I would leave my regular box at home. Just put on the lenses in the morning and don't have to think about packing the liquid or the box. I miraculously found one. The next morning I discovered that I left the liquid to put your lenses on your eyes at home. What a bummer. I could do that job with water too, less comfortable but it was my own fault. So I put my lenses in with water. I did see a bit blurry, but ok water is not the right cleaning solution for lenses. All day my lenses didn't fit nicely. When I took them off before I went to bed I took a closer look. I managed to take with me an old lenses box filled with old lenses. I just put my newer ones on top and then put them in my eyes as if it was one lens.
I guess you can say that my eyes are not too sensitive anymore after wearing lenses for 30 years.

2. I do have a mobile phone but I never have it
a. with me.
b. and its battery uploaded.
I have this phone to be able to call people myself. I don't want to be called by my children when I'm at a flea market.

3. When I was a student I had this job to help the elderly so they could stay in their own home. Once I helped a woman who took my horoscope. Libra Venus and Mars in da house. Yes, you are going to deal with an awful lot of money. I see huge piles of money with you.
Mmmm, that didn't sound too bad.
Now for the best part. She was right!!! After a few years I worked as a bank employee, a cashier. Throwing with packages of money (5000 euro/dollars were the smallest packages) to my collegeas. Haha, I just imagined those piles of money in my purse, not close to it.

4. I have a slightly different sense of priorities than other people:
When I'm off for Germany for a week, I think it is more important to write a post in my blog than to pack first. When I was expecting my second I was determined to plant a lot of violets on the balcony before cleaning the house properly. It's so important to be surrounded by beautiful flowers when lying in labour. Who cares about a cloud of dust more or less? And those flowers grow, become more beautiful everyday. Vacuum cleaning never stops.

5. I still have not decided yet what I want to be when I grow up.

6. I was born afraid of animals. My brother and I as babies were even afraid of this little bear. Oh it's so good to have another weird person who has the same odd thing in your vicinity. My mother thought it was a good idea to tuck in this little bear with the little baby. It was pink then not this brownish color and it had it's original face, which I cannot remember (let Freud speak) anymore. We pushed the little bear away, looking carefully to the other side. I was afraid of living animals too. Well afraid, terrified is the better word. I guess when I should have been God the dog shouldn't been invented, but with all those doglovers on this planet I never tell anyone. I have outgrown my fear for animals.

7. I have read somewhere that the average woman thinks she is fatter than she actually is. I'm not sure but I think I suffer from the opposite. I always think: it isn't that bad!!! It's some kind of the opposite of anorexia. I see myself thinner than I actually am.
And I'm very happy with that! And of course you knew it already; no cell phone and no scales too!! I always think that a lot of women are too skinny. And too wrinkly too! When a girl gets my age it is important to keep those areas around the eyes filled, it's a natural kind of botox. You know that.

Now for the last tag part;
I was tagged by Michelle of Cowboys and Custard and by Sue of Vintage to Victorian with the archive meme tag. I will give you 5 links to former posts which are special to me and meet the regulations. Well I'm a blogger since September 2007 and I haven't made 30 posts already. I try to write at least once a week. And I don't make posts with one picture of let's say a bunch of flowers and one sentence like: spring at my place. That just is not my cup of tea. I always spend (too) much time to create a post. And then postpone the next one. And so on!!
So I really don't have an archive but I'll tell you which of my posts I like best. You can read them (again) and don't forget to leave comment (again!).

1. the first post should be about family. Well that's easy its: Having a party with my cousin
That was such a fun weekend. I love to write about self made stuff and about vintage finds.

2. The second one about friends: Counting down about my friend Mrs. H. and about her vintage finds, which were presents to my birthday.

3. About myself; Must be my hair dye adventure. Having a bad hair week


As you can see my daughter is already experimenting with hair colors too!

4. something I love: its about our environment. We all should take much better care of the environment. This was a blog action day post.


At first I was going to refer to my husband, but he really is not some THING I love. By the way do you know this doll Dilbert? My husband was having him as a mascot on his desk when somebody asked him: Hey, Where do they make these dolls that look exactly like yourself?? ( no joke LOL).

5. Other special posts are Girls on wheels
and the tutorial about making Victorian Cards.
I should have given you another tutorial about the 'waving hand' card. But this has to wait again. The winner of the self made Victorian Cards (the February giveaway) is Linnea Maria!!! Congratulations! Ehem you only have to wait a little, because I have to make new ones. I have all sent them away. But don't be afraid; I will make it up to you!

Thanks for your patience reading about me. I know that I have to tag other people again, maybe next time, I'm still a bit ill. Have an inspiring week! Love LiLi.