Tic-tac-toe

School is finally over, which means I've got to arrange my 'mess' again. The pile of paperwork has doubled within a year and I have to find out what I must keep, what I want to keep, and what I can throw away.
Now look what I've found. I had crafts lessons in the first and second grade, and I've once made this Tic-tac-toe game! In the Netherlands, the game's called Boter Kaas en Eieren.

We had to make sure the piece of wood was a square, then we had to grate it smooth. You could leave the edges the way they were, but I wanted them round. Funny how I still prefer round shapes. I remember I struggled with the measuring staff, so the holes are deeper than my teacher wanted them to be. Oops! I'm not sure whether I made it in the first or second grade, but that's not too relevant.

Isn't it cute?

Tree time

I know good materials are essential for crafting good quality products, but I think I can say now that working with primitive tools isn't too bad after all, as long as you don't have a deadline for which you need to rush, because it takes an awful lot of time. Carving out that little block of wood took me hours. But like I said, it was fun.

Clocks.. I don't know what it is, but i love them. Especially antique ones, such as old pendulum clocks, English station clocks and pocket watches. Probably because they're so refined.
So I decided to craft a clock..
Four 'o clock it was finished. Perfect! Four 'o clock is tea time. Or eh.. tree time.

Being primitive

And then, when school's almost finished, suddenly there's time to really do something. Finally. So I decided to finally do something with this tree trunk I found on my way home a few weeks ago. I can still remember how hard two little boys laughed at me because I was carrying a tree on the bearer of my bicycle. I can imagine that must have looked stupid. :)

To start off with the question: How to chop out a square of around 16cm³ without any electric machines? In the shed I found some ancient chisel and the most basic hammer you can imagine. And there I went.. Carving out little pieces of wood.
Primitive? I think so. And my afternoon has been great fun, even though my hands, legs ánd foot is now covered in scrapes. Don't ask me what in hell I have done. I was just very impassioned. I felt a bit Scandinavian after all.

Stairway to heaven 2

So, I've finished it.





If I had more time, I would have put more effort into my top ten, but since time was running out, and I wasn't planning to spend my complete afternoon thinking about artists, I made up this top 10:

1. Ton van de Ven

2. Café del Mar artists

3. Radical Face

4. Kengo Kuma

5. Coldplay

6. Erwin Olaf

7. Godfrey Reggio

8. Leonardo da Vinci

9. Johannes Vermeer

10. Gaudi

I've put Ton van de Ven on top of my list. He really inspires me. First of all, he graduated from the Design Academy, and secondly, he's designed great dark rides in the Efteling, such as the Droomvlucht, the Fata Morgana, and Villa Volta.
The roses climbing up the stairs have something fairytale-ish, which refers to the fairytale dark rides Ton van de Ven has made. A little light, just on top represents heaven.
This is my stairway to heaven.

Stairway to heaven

I've got to make a stairs with my personal top ten of all artists.
They made it quite difficult. How to choose only ten when there are hundreds of great artists?
Anyway, I'm crafting a wooden winding stairs, which should represent my stairway to heaven.
I'll show you people when it's finished. I'll also tell more about my thoughts behind my choices etc.


Sawing is difficult without electricity and thick wood. Haha. But it's great fun though!

Oldtimer Hubcap

I just want to thank Milan for his amazing gift. You're awesome.





Haha, check that amazing smile in the reflection. Says enough, eh?

Finished artwork

Remember that I wrote about the art class project in which I had to design and work out a pair of slippers in combination with a matching pair of sunglasses?
It's finally finished!
Minimalism, feminine, soft and simplicity describe my works of art. It describes my preferances in design. Embrace your round shapes, embrace your charms. Curves are devoted by many.
My art crafts embrace the feminine curves by accentuating the posture.

Wrapping tutorial 3

There are times when there's no gift to wrap, because the birthday boy/girl prefers money or you just simply don't know what to buy. However, I bet that there are only few of you who'll disagree on the fact that pressing some money in some other's hand is simply not done. Money can be given in so many ways..



Like a message in a bottle! Or well.. money in a bottle.

One flowered ear hype

There's this new hype in Holland, coming from two Dutch soap-actresses. It's the 'one big earring' hype. You buy only one big earring, and wear this flower in one ear, like this. Well, personally I'm not too fond of hypes, and I hardly follow trends, but I know some girls like the earrings very much. I've looked on the official website, and found out that one piece even costs around €30,-! WHY?
I'm not planning to wear them, but I wanted to prove that €30,- is way too much for one simple earring. All you need is an old mediterranean flower necklace, a silver earring, and some chain. Optional: beads and pendants.

Costs? It can never be more than €5,- and that's because of the price of silver earrings.

DIY Personal planner

It seems to become more difficult to find a nice agenda by each year that passes. I guess it's just me who's growing up, while most of the agendas in the bookshops are made for younger students. I'm not so into little bears, flowers and glitters anymore. All I need is a nice, clear and ordered agenda. Colourful insides, drawings and lots of fuzzels on the inside only annoy me. I want to see immediately what I have to do for homework, and most of all: I want to have enough space to write down what to do, because I'm chaotic. Maybe that's why my agenda is always so ordered.

Anyway, I went to see the new collection agendas in the book shop, because the nicest agendas are always sold out already whenever you buy one too late. However, there was not even ONE i liked. All of them were too childish, too flowery, too fuzzybusy-making-me-dizzyish.
I bought an extremely boring one, but I realized that this was the best thing I could have done.
It meant that I could pimp it my way.


Here you see a before and after. It's ever so easy. Lace is excellent material.


I just sticked it onto the inside of the cover. Now it's multifunctional. It's decorative on the outside, and useful on the inside, because it's a 'week indicator' now as well. It didn't have a lace inside to put between the pages of the week, but those are so easy because then you don't have to search for the right week that long.

Pinkpop

I came home from Pinkpop last night. Three days filled with amazing concerts..
With only three hours of sleep I had to wake up to go to school again. All I want right now is to go to bed to sleep for a couple of hours, but I can't even find the time to reload.
There's so much homework I still got to do!
Anyway, back to Pinkpop..
I've been on television! The cameras have caught me during Coldplay's concert!

Here I am!
Click here to see the concert. You can see me at 11.31 min. It's only two seconds, but hey, at least I've been on tv!

By the way, when my mum picked me up this night, she told me she had been to Loods5, which is an enormous shop full of furniture and home accessoiries. She told me that I really had to visit it someday, and that even though she only had seen 1/5th of the shop (it's that huge), she was full of inspiration for me. I'm curious about all the things she'll come up with!

(Releasing) stress

The closer we get to the summer holidays, the busier it seems to be in school. I've never been so busy this entire year! I hardly have any time to do some crafts, nor to sit back and relax. STRESS!
However, when studying has caused a terrible headache and my brain doesn't allow any new information from entering, I relax while painting the doors.
My mum really wanted the doors to be painted at home, but she found out that she wasn't the best painter. Now I am appointed to door-painter, but I found out that I really like doing this job. It's one of the best ways to relax after a long day of studying.

The right door is painted. The left door is not. Doesn't it look light and fresh?

Note: There will be no post this weekend. I'm visiting pinkpop, and I'll be away from Saturday morning until Monday night!

I would / I wouldn't

Sometimes I've got a moment in which I'm irritated by something at home. Small things. At those moments I make the intention to do it differently whenever I live on my own.
And I decided to write those plans down. Maybe I will keep to these promises I made to myself then..

1. I would keep the coffee table free from random stuff such as letters, notes, pens and magazines.
2. I would have a fixed place for my key so I won't have to search for it in my morning rush.
3. I wouldn't buy candy which I can't stop eating whenever started.
4. I would order my mail in a cabinet with drawers, labelled 'unread', 'read again' and 'keep'.
5. I would throw away the papers which I don't need anymore.
6. I would cut out discount coupons and put them in my bag, otherwize I forget to bring them while shopping.
7. I wouldn't buy home decorations, unless something else has to be replaced.
8. I would throw broken accessoiries away instead of keeping them because I think it might be useful for something.
9. I would have a fixed place for my laptop.
10. I would only buy accessoiries I love so much that it's impossible for me to leave it behind in store.
11. I would only buy furniture that mix well together.
12. I would light candles in my backyard/balcony on spring and summer evenings.

I'm already wondering how many of those intentions will ever become reality.