Category Archives: other

happy weekend!

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Today is Koninginnedag (Queens Day) in The Netherlands, a national holiday celebrating the birthday of former queen Juliana. We have been enjoying some beautiful weather lately, hopefully it stays like this over the weekend. Happy weekend to you all!

(images from Toast)

i’m having a ‘garage sale’ on ebay

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I’m having a ‘garage sale’ on Ebay! Most of the items that I have for sale are new: things that I bought but never used, products that I bought for Le Souk but are not placed in the webshop yet, etc. Above are some of the items that I am selling: silver Moroccan teapot, embroidered pillow case with pompoms, Butterfly clothing hook, silk Ikat pillow. Click here to see all items for sale (more will follow in the next days).

white tomtom


I don’t write about electronic goods very often but I do like gadgets. They can be fun such as Nintendo’s Wii (which is on my wishlist) or very convenient such as Sonos’ wireless music system (which we recently purchased for our new house). Two gadgets that I can not live without are my iPod and my TomTom. I am happy to hear that there is now a white ladies TomTom available. The White Pearl is a special edition navigation product with a pearlescent design and ‘swirl’ pattern

tulip fields


We have been enjoying lovely weather here in The Netherlands. Spring has arrived! This means that the tulip season has started.

The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit our country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi. In April the hyacinths and tulips blossom to some time in mid May, depending on the weather.

Happy Easter! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

kindred spirits


Holly from Decor8 and Ez from Creature Comforts colaborated in a new project called Kindrid. A few days ago their website was launched showcasing desktop wallpapers from artists and designers and printable paper designs created exclusively for Kindred. You can sign up for a free member account, login and participate in a fun forum where you can interact with us and make new friends, download the complimentary artist wallpapers, and more. What a great intiative girls!

ready made design competition

If you love design and good ideas, then take part in this great design competition organised by Das Rote Paket! The task: Create and build a “ready made light”! Your lamp should be made of prefabricated parts. It doesn’t matter if it is a floor lamp, pendant or chandelier provided that the costs for all parts do not exceed 40 Euros. And it should be possible for others to replicate the lamp.

The price: Of course you’ll get fame and reputation among the internet community, but it is also fun and makes you feel good to be a lamp designer! If that is not enough, you might be the happy winner of an extraordinary, original sausage rug WURSTTEPPICH, a Das rote Paket shopping voucher or at least a little surprise … Click here for more information. Get your creative juices flowing! The deadline is 30th of April 2009. The best designs will be showed here on the style files of course!

rare groove orchestra


I normally don’t talk about music here on the style files but I want to make an exception for my boyfriend’s new CD. His Hammond Funk band, the Rare Groove Orchestra, was founded in 2003 and they now have their very funky their second album out! If you like funky, booty shaking party music then you might want to listen to their album here. If you like what you hear, you can buy the album here on iTunes (€9.99) or here if you would like to order a hard copy (€15 incl. world-wide shipping).

renovation update


We are still in middle of renovating our house. I have good days (when I can see how gorgeous the end result will be) and bad days (when it is getting too much..). Luckily we have had the worst. Just a few more weeks to go! Here some images of our living room / kitchen. This living space once was a stable for cows!

Our kitchen arrived today but is not finished yet. The shelves had the wrong size and the composite kitchen top was not ready yet. But I’m being patient!

our little village


Today I would like to show you more of the village that we recently moved to. The village is very small with only 70 houses and 300 people. There are no shops or restaurants but Amsterdam is just 15 minutes away.

These photos were taken last week when there was still ice. It was the first time in 12 years that we were able to skate on the lakes.

It is estimated that one million people were ice-skating last week (there are 16 million people living in The Netherlands).

This is the view from our back-yard (and from our living room).

(images taken by me)

happy thanksgiving


Happy Thanksgiving to all US readers! This beautiful photo is from Sweet Paul.