Have a lovely evening and a great New Year!

2013 was very good to me! I am very thankful for that. Hope it was a good year for you too! I wish you all a great evening and a fantastic 2014!

GoodMoodKid

For some years now a number of prints that I designed are available on  the baby- & kidsclothes from GoodMoodKid. Unfortunately GoodMoodKid has decided to close their webshop at the end of this year :-(. The only good news about this is that you get 50% off in the next 4 days. So if you want one of these nice and comfortable items with one of my prints, please visit their website.

New product at Studio Haikje!

Yayyy, I am very happy with this new item in my webboutique! It’s my modern interpretation from the old painting: Girl with the Pearl Earring from the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It's printed on canvas which is stretched on a wooden frame from 4,5 cm thick. I made it a while ago for our living room and actually never thought on selling it. But I got so many positive reactions that I decided to sell it in the shop. Whish you all a good week! Here it’s very busy with all kind of nice things: work (it’s my hobby you know ;-)), Christmas preparations, fun Christmas activities at Tein’s school, furnish the attic again after we have had it isolated and so much more things to do (I also still have to make and send a lot of Christmas cards…) Wish you all a nice week prior to Christmas.

 

Sorry neighbors!

A few weeks ago our big roof & attic renovation started. At first we got all new roof tiles and after that was done the attic got isolated and finished with a filler ceiling. After the roof people were done I bought our neighbors flowers to say sorry for the inconvenience. And though our working crowd worked very neatly some inconvenience is inevitable (sound from the carpentry, work vans which are sometimes parked at the sidewalk etcetera you know waht what I mean.). I bought 2 big bunched of gladiolas and made a little rabbit tag which I attatched to the flowers with a big ribbon. The neighbours loved the flowers and so did I, so I made some pictures for you guys. Each bouquet contained 15 gladiolas which where taller than a meter each! It was a heavy but pretty bouquet. About the renovation: yesterday our painter did the last painting and now we are waiting for the electrician to make the lights. And then we are finished! Soooo happy with that. The whole house feels like a mess because everywhere are boxes and all the other stuff you collect (and what a collector I am!: I sea potential in every piece of paper and can't get rid of anything (one very little, minor thing Rik doesn't like about me...he is very neat!)). Normally all that stuff is hidden away at the attic, but for the renovations we had to clear precisely that space out. Well it's going back to the attic and soon! I will post some photos from our new attic when the lights are on over there ;-)

Tricia Guild

A few weeks ago I met Trica Guild. What a lovely and powerful women she is!Tricia is the leading lady from the colorful brand Designers Guild. She established the brand in 1970 and after all these years her company is still going strong. Designers Guild designs furnishing fabrics, wallcoverings, upholstery and bed and bath collections worldwide. The company is headed and owned by brother and sister, Tricia Guild (Founder and Creative Director), and Simon Jeffreys (Group Chief Executive). The Designers Guild business philosophy is to combine creativity and innovation with the highest levels of quality: quality of design, product, service and people. The color use from Tricia is remarkable and in her new book and collection I am happy to see a lot of blue and lots of grey (which I like and also happen to have a lot in my living room :-)). Here you can see some photos from the collection (and from me & Tricia!). For more beautiful interior photo’s you have to check out her new book: Tricia Guild Colour Deconstructed  

Flavourites Live

Go, go ,go to Flavourites Live! Flavourites Live is an event where 160 webshops present their products live. So you can do your webshopping in person and on site. Always wanted to see the faces behind you favourite webshops? Today, tomorrow and sunday you can! The opening hours are:
Friday 22 november 10.00 - 18.00 hour
Saturday 23 november 10.00 - 18.00 hour
Sunday 24 november 10.00 - 18.00 hour.
The event is in Amsterdam: for more info see the Flavourites Live website.

Esthex

The dolls from Esthex are very cute and to see that they are getting new beds now is great! I really melt when I see these beautiful tiny beds for the Esthex dolls. Since I have kids I am full with ideas for design toys & furniture for kids. One of those ideas is beautiful furniture for doll houses & dolls in a contemporary style. Well these beds could have come right out of my head, they match my style perfectly. And how cute are those blankets & pillows? Esthex turned 10 this year and I hope they will be around with their sweet and nice products for a long time. Congrats Esthex and keep up the good work!
 

Enjoy your weekend!

Just some inspiring words to send you into the weekend! Last week my computer broke down and I did receive it back yesterday (my harddisk crashed!!! Luckily for me I have a great computer store (thanks Robert & Peter!) which restored most of my files! Yayyy, that was a big relieve! I am going to make a back up now every week (which I can highly recommend you to do too)). So I spent a whole week without my computer. It meant that I did'nt work a lot and that gave me some spare time which I enjoyed at the beginning but at the end I started to miss my computer & work. Well I am back at my desk now behind my computer and besides all the work that I have to catch up I couldn't resist to write a quick blogpost to you. Wish you all a warm & cosy weekend. I am going to spent the day tomorrow with some very dear friends from high school. We try to meet up with all 9 of us every 6 months. It's a big puzzle to set the date, but we always manage to find a day in our busy schedules and when we meet we have a great time. So I am looking forward to tomorrow! Hope you have some nice plans for the weekend as well.

Haikje's Home: My house

This is our house! Or better I can say our Home, because that's exactly how it feels. In this column "Haikje's Home" I show you bits and pieces of our house. Today I show you the outside and the entrance. I love our house. I love every authentic detail of it, I love the space it has (very handy for someone like me who can't get rid of anything), I love it's warmth, I love it's Majestic looks and I love that it gives me a Home. I can go on and on like this. But in short: I LOVE our house. I believe that if you want people and even "things" to be good for you, you also have to be good for them and cherish and love them. Our house is very good for us and we try to be good for the house. A few weeks ago we gave the house a new roof. Just in time because since the roof is finished we hadn't had anything else than rain and storm here in The Netherlands. In a few weeks the attic will be renovated and then we are going to take care of our front yard (there is a reason why you don't see it at the picture...). Have a lovely week!

Dutch Design Week Bloggerstour

Last week I attended the Dutch Design Week Bloggerstour. Together with some other lovely bloggers we made a journey in Eindhoven Designland. We met designers, saw original products and a lot of creativity. The only thing that I missed this day was a visit at the Graduation Show from The Design Academy, but the program was already packed so there just wasn’t time enough for it (you can wander a whole day alone at the Graduation Show). About this Graduation Show you have to know that it is the Mother of the Dutch Design Week. When I studied at The Design Academy the Graduation Show was held in Amsterdam in De Beurs van Berlage. We as students were really looking forward to expose our graduation work in this well known building. But the year before I graduated the board of the academy desided that they were going to move the Graduation show to our own building “De Witte Dame” in Eindhoven. Well I can tell you that we were really bummed and didn’t like this at all. You have to know that at that time there wasn’t a DDW and we thought: “who is coming to Eindhoven to see our work?”. Luckily we underestimated the power and big influence The Design Academy has and the Graduation show became a big succes. Such a big succes that now, 11 years later, a gigantic and succesfull Dutch Design Week is planned around this Graduation Show with more than 250.000 visitors! Well back to Eindhoven last week and our Bloggerstour (which was organised for the first time, who knows how big this event will be in 10 years?). We were droven bij Mini cars from location to location. Really artsy stuff to genuine industrial design passed by. It was an inspiring and lovely day. Thank you Ulrike Jurklies from Mo Man Tai, Jasmijn Van Weenen and Willemijn de Wit for organising this tour, you did a great job!
 

Jar with seal which I saw at The Kazerne - Bicycle from Brik – True Colours from Lex Pott – One of the Mini’s – Text at a wall from Dik & Stijlloos (a wonderful project about food) - True Colours from Lex Pott - Pink Gradient Lamp from Studio WM - Horse Equus from Soon Salon - Tea towels from Mae Engelgeer - Pattern sheet “Hier” for your own art work from nails from Mo Man Tai - Gradient Table Lamp from Studio WM - Copper Lights from David Derksen

My Little Girl

Just a quick hello from me. This week started great with the #DDWBloggerstour! I will get back to you about that later this week. Today I just wanted to post this photo from Fiene. A few weeks ago my mother gave her a haircut and my little girl wanted her hair short. So my mother gave her (after asking me) a bob line (on the photo her hair is already a little longer than it was). Rik and I really had to get used to the new haircut. I like it but we are "saving" again for a ponytail. Luckily Fiene is also ready again to have her hair long :-)

Woonbeurs house from VT Wonen

Taddadadaaa, here is finally the house from VT Wonen at the Woonbeurs. I promised it already last week to you, sorry that I let you guys waiting... We are having our Autumn Holidays here in The Netherlands so we did it a little slow this week. We took the children out for a day trip, spent some lazy time at home etctera. About the VT Wonen house or rather I have to say "Barn": it was refreshing, original and above all: HUGE! I liked it an I believe a lot of people did. I would like to hear what you think of it! I am going back to my Holiday modus and for all of you who are also having some time off (and everybody else of course): I wish you some good quality time with the people you love! 

 

Win a Piet Hein Eek cabinet!

Are you in a creative mood today? Well use it and try to win this Peet Hein Eek cabinet. In collaboration with paint brand Histor, Piet Hein Eek designed this simple but lovely cabinet. It’s for a Dutch comepetition called “101 Karakters”. Only 101 cabinets are made and you can win one! How? By sending in your idea about how you want to paint this cabinet. If your idea is selected you will win one of the 101 cabinets and get to paint it yourself at 9 november! Enthousiastic? You will have to be quick the competition closes on 15 October!
 

Woonbeurs house from More Than Classic

As promised here is the More Than Classic house from the Woonbeurs. I loved this stylish house with a lot of glitter & glamour and it's shades of soft pink. In the past I also did some freelance work for this magazine and it was very nice to see some familiar faces again. I really love how MTC spices up the "old-fashioned" classic style and gives it a more contemporary look. So thumbs up for the magazine MTC and their Woonbeurs house!

 

Woonbeurs house from Eigen Huis & Interieur

Today I continue with the beautiful houses from the Dutch magazines at the Woonbeurs (yesterday ended this fair, so unfortunately you can't go and visit it anymore). This week I start with the house from Eigen Huis & Interieur. This magazine has a special place in my heart because I did a lot of freelance work for them. About 10 years ago (a few months after I graduated at The Design Academy) a teacher called me and said that Eigen Huis & Interieur was hiring and if this wasn't something for me. To be honest I wasn't really looking for a permanent job because I already started my own Studio. But my teacher said to me that it was good to go over there and just have a talk. And so I did. I met the editor in chief (back then Irma Goedemondt) and the assistant editor in chief (Jose Molenaar). We had a very nice conversation and I was enthousiastic about going to work for them. However I still didn't want a permanent job. For me it would be great if I could do some freelance stuff for them. Well they were looking for someone to hire permanent. We left this question in the middle and I desided to do the test assignment (make some example productions for the magazine) they gave all the sollicitors and see where it would lead me. I turned my work in and within a few days Irma called me that they loved my work (serious, I am not bragging here :-)) and if I wanted to reconsider working for them full time. I thought about it and decided no (it was difficult because as a starter being offered such a great job you have to think twice before you turn it down. But I really was dedicated to my own Studio which also was doing very well). Then Irma said that they liked my work that much that they also wanted to hire me then as a freelancer for 2 days in the week. Wow! That was perfect and so my freelance career for the magazines began.

Well back to the Woonbeurs and the EH&I house. The house was filled with rich colors and felt very cosy, retro and joyful. The kitchen was old pink and that happens to be one of my favourite colors at the moment. And those flowers in the kitchen! I also really like the Tulip vase from Pols Potten that I happen to sell myself at Designshoppen (which is currently under construction). Later this week the houses from VT Wonen and MTC will follow, so stay tuned!