LOVEly guest post by Mel from Armoire, Pegs and Casserole

Hi everyone, I’m Mel from Armoire, Pegs and Casserole and I’m so pleased to be guest blogging for Elodie while she takes some time to get to know her beautiful baby. I have three small children myself and know how precious these first few weeks are to adjust into new routines. It’s also the time when we need those around us to lend a hand and offer support. While I can’t drop a home cooked meal into Elodie, as I live far away in New Zealand, one of the things I can do is offer a little advice.

Last night I had one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. It was a date with my three kids. Their “Papa” and my husband, is away on business at the moment, so to make us feel his absence a little less, we had a movie night. I ordered pizza, bought ice cream, turned the iPhone off and the four of us snuggled under a blanket on the couch and watched the original version of Annie, a movie I had watched when I wasn’t much older than my eldest boy who is six this year. Apart from the wonderful feeling of us cuddling uninterrupted for a couple of hours, I revelled in the expressions of each of their little faces through the various scenes and the questions they asked. Like clockwork, they belly laughed at everything I found so funny when I was young and they looked in wonder at the song and dance routines. I’m more aware of these little moments lately because I realised that I haven’t been doing them. While I would take the kids to the park or the beach, I wouldn’t be completely “there” with them because there would always be the distraction of my iPhone. At home while I might be building a train track or Lego village, I’d get up every so often to look at my MacBook that’s always sitting open on the kitchen table.

Many of us a guilty of this, I’m not writing about anything new here. The common theme during conversations with friends who had their first child around the same time as me is that we just don’t seem to be giving our kids the same amount of attention as we once did. It’s not the hours we’re giving them; it’s the percentage of “us” we’re giving them while we’re doing it. I believe this could be even more prevalent for us bloggers who work from home and often in our “spare” time. The catalyst for this awareness came when I read an interview with Si from French By Design on SF Girl By Bay; she mentioned that she tries to have tech free weekends to dedicate to the family. I thought this was such a fantastic idea, yet I found it rather interesting how uncomfortable I felt with the concept. Perhaps I could start with just Sundays? So I guess my little piece advice for Elodie and any new mums to keep in the back of their minds for a little time down the track when their babies grow: Take the time for yourselves, that is without saying ever so important, but when it’s your little ones’ time, turn off the computers, put away the iPads and phones. Just stop, be there and enjoy. Your kids will feel it, and so will you.

Congratulations Elodie, you’re in for the most magnificent ride of your life!

LOVEly guest post by Jocelyn from the little room of style

Hello everyone, I am Jocelyn from the blog the little room of style. It is lovely to be joining you here whilst Madame Love is enjoying the special moments of being a new mother. When Elodie asked me to guest blog, I was honored to be a part of the blog I always find so much inspiration from. I am happy to be here and hope you enjoy a story I hold very close to my heart. Dream {Big} like a Kid Again…..

When I close my eyes and replay the memories from my childhood, a gentle tear streams down my face. This little droplet of water represents the pure happiness that fills my heart when I am reminded of how I lived my days as a child with my sister, Jenny. Living and growing up on a three hundred acre ranch in Central Florida brought endless opportunities to dream and create whatever we wanted at any moment. One thing we had more than ever was the capacity to dream, and dream really big.

I remember I had a dream of opening a shop just like the ones in the shopping mall. I carefully thought about what I would sell, how I would engage with my customers, and most importantly, how I would make money to support my horse habit. When I wasn’t playing shop in my room I was tending to my horses and let me tell you, that is a full time job. My little room of style was born one afternoon on a rainy day when the horses were fed and enjoying the rain on their backs. I remember this day so vividly, I was eight years old and my heart was bursting with excitement when I realized I could make my dream come true of having my shop. With concentration I carefully curated my room, there was a section for clothing, accessories, and furniture. Thankfully my room was quite sizeable! I hung the clothes from the ceiling fan and turned the spin speed on very low, you know, like the rotating racks in a clothing store. My closet doors were great for those extra special pieces I wanted to showcase. I had a vintage school desk with a calculator and a faux cash register with monopoly money inside. I would invite my sister and her friends to come to shop as well. I had imaginary customers too; they were very nice and always had nice things to say about my petite shop. I always put customer service at the top of my priority list; no one was ever treated unkind. I loved my little shop and have a picture of it in my mind forever.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to automatically dream like a kid again without the constant worry of “is this a silly idea”? or “will this even work”? I don’t ever remember thinking my shop would not work or be possible. I believe my little shop was born purely from my passion for creating things. The ranch taught me how to create and tend to what matters to me. It is hard to believe that vegetable crops and horses could teach me the principles I hold in my heart but it is true.

Dreaming like a kid again is something I remind myself of every single day. As an adult I know a lot through experience just like you. I tend to talk myself out of some things because they seem too scary or I feel they may fail. When this happens, I take myself right back to my little room of style and then I realize I already have one. I call it my blog, The Little Room of Style.

I wish you all a wonderful day and remember to dream big, like a kid again.

Jocelyn

Many thanks to Elodie for allowing me the opportunity to share with you my favorite story from my childhood. 

pennant banner tutorial + free pattern

Hello everyone, As promised when I showed you the pictures of the nursery, here is a little tutorial for the big and the mini pennant banner I made for baby love.

So here you go! It is a very simple project that will not take you more than an evening or a week-end to complete and that is suitable for beginners. I also made a mini-version of the pennant banner. You just have to use the smaller triangle and a smaller portion of bias tape. I made some pictures to illustrate the steps of the tutorial and a pattern to download:

FREE DOWNLOAD

Items needed for a two-metre pennant banner:

You will need:

• the pattern (see above)
• 32 fabric triangles (for 16 triangles). It is good to use leftover fabric pieces from other projects. You don't need 16 different fabrics - just be careful not to put the same pattern next to each other when you assemble the garland
• 2.5 metre bias tape.
• assorted thread (same colour as the bias tape)
• a cutting mat and a rotary cutter (or some fabric scissors)
• masking tape
• a sewing machine
• pins
• iron and ironing board
• 2 curtain rings to attach the banner to the wall.

Step 1: download the pattern, print it and cut it out. Place the pattern on your fabric on the cutting mat and fix it with masking tape. Step 2: cut your fabric. Always cut at least two of each pattern for both sides of your triangles. Step 3 - 4 : place your triangles' right sides against each other and sew them along the two longer edges.

Step 5: cut the point of each triangle with a pair of fabric scissors. Step 6: return your fabric on the right side. Step 7: iron your triangles flat. Step 8: iron one side of your bias tape flat and pin your triangles (2 to 3 pins per triangle) next to each other. Be careful when you assemble the banner not to put the same pattern next to each other and to have a harmonious succession of fabric. Sew on the fold of your bias tape. Leave at least 8 cm of tape on each side, so as to be able to attach your banner to the wall. Take away your pins.

Step 9 - 10: with the help of your iron, fold your bias tape and pin it in place. Step 11: sew your bias tape as close to the edge as possible -  backstitch at the end. Step 12: attach the rings at each sides of the banner, and fix it to wall with simple nails.

Voila!

Take care and talk to you soon! (I really hope this time after the birth...)

Elodie

my favorite French online shops for babies

Hello everyone, there you go. I have another baby related post for you. I hope you don't get bored with it, but I am only a couple of days away from the delivery and getting a little obsessed... A friend asked me the other day for online shop tips for the decoration of the nursery. I have been online a lot, searching for inspiration and I thought I would share some of my favorite French online shops with you.

1. Smallable:

Smallable is my favorite one - I purchased the baby's bed on grey (which you can see below) as well as some very cute baby's clothes and toys. Smallable is a French shop but they also deliver in many European countries and the website is also available in many languages.

1. Grey cloud Mobile by the BUTTER FLYING | 2. Mobile Mr Magique by JALL AND TOFTA |  3. Cloud carpet by PILPOIL |  4. baby bed by COMBELLE | 5. Miffy light by PAPAMARIA

2. Petit Pan

Petit Pan is not only an online shop. It's a parisian decoration and fabric shop, with a lot of asian influence, vibrant colours and beautiful bamboo accessories. Their collection for babies (accessories and clothes) is really beautiful.

1. White animal head | 2. Mobile | 3. fabric banner | 4. plaid | 5. little blue dragonfly

3. Les enfants du design:

Les enfants du desig - is a great website if you want a stylish nursery. They have a great selection of brands such as the British Donna Wilson, or the designer Seventy tree.

1. Chinese paper lamp | 2. cushion by LUCKY BOY SUNDAY | 3. white pompom | 4. Squirrel by Donna Wilson | 5.Poster by seventytree  | 6. grey cushion by NUMERO 74 | 7. pigeon lamp by Thorsten Van Elten  | 8. cushion Liberty Betsy

I wish you a great afternoon!

xxx

Elodie

Baby love's little nursery

Good morning everyone,As promised several times, today is the day of the big reveal: I will show you the finished baby nursery. Maybe baby love will want to visit it soon! So here is what I did with this room after I decided on the colour scheme and did a virtual moodboard and collected some inspiration on Pinterest. I will start with the main pieces of furniture and show you the little details:

Little black sheep by Jellycat

The grey bed is from the French brand Combelle - I bought it on the French website Smallable, along with a lovely grey changing table and I am very much in love. I picked a grey bed with a lot of cushions and made a padded cot bumper in different shades of blue and grey. The mobile adds some purple to make it a bit more girly, and some animals to make it more fun. Stars as a pattern can be found in the shape of the blue cushion, on the mobile and on the ribbons.

For the first months, baby love will sleep in a French antique crib my parents brought me in July, where my sister used to sleep as a baby 28 years ago.

I found this antique wardrobe in the lovely shop Lieblingszimmer in Hamburg (which by the way just opened an online shop) - and instantly fell in love. I like the fact that the vitrine has also got glass on the side. We didn't want to buy something too babyish and I am not sure that this will stay for ever in baby love's bedroom. I could image it very well later in a dining room for presenting pretty plates and glasses. For the time being, I love the fact that I can enjoy the beautiful clothes my mum made for baby love.

 2. On the walls

The print is by UK illustrator Kerry Layton from her beautiful brand Seventy tree.

The pompoms come from the German website Pompom your life. They are hand-made and they have a great selection of colours to choose from on the website.

I made the pennant banner myself. It's a great way to use little pieces of fabric. I used some Liberty of London art fabric, some Japanese fabric, some fabric by Swedish design Lotta Jansdotter and some French fabric from petit pan. I made a big one that hangs above the bed as well as a mini-version. A tutorial is coming soon on the blog.

I also made the embroidery hoops with Liberty of London of fabric that I showed you previously on the blog. They now hang above the changing table.

I wanted to put some contrasting elements on the night blue painted wall. I decided to go for a wall sticker in silver - I have been a big fan of Shanna Murray and was so happy to finally have a good excuse for ordering one of her stickers. The unicorn head is from the German shop Butlers.

3. The lighting:

4. The little animals:

 5. The little stars:

A big thank you to Jocelyn from the gorgeous blog little room of style for her wonderful photos and to my little assistant Cheddar:

So I hope you liked my little nursery tour. I am looking forward to your feedback. I hope it doesn't look too much like a little boy's nursery with the choice of colours.

xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Jocelyn Casey and Elodie Love

Schön und ehrlich

Hello everyone, Today I want to present you an interior shop I love in Hamburg-Winterhude. It's called "schön und ehrlich" which could be translated as beautiful and simple. I love the puristic design of the shop and the selection of pretty design objects. It is the perfect shop to visit if you want to decorate your home with original items or find an exclusive present for a friend. When you enter the shop, you can see that the two charming shop-owners have a passion for typography and design. The selection goes from home accessories such as beautiful lamps, bare light bulbs and stools to paper craft, postcards and stamps. You can find a lot of pretty prints, for example from the Hamburg-based label Stellavie. I also love their tableware selection from the Hamburg manufacturer ahoi marie, from kopjes or from design letters with the beautiful letter cups designed by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. Indra is an art director and Christina an architect and you can feel it through the things they sell in their shop. Besides some well-known brands such as house doctor and pantone, you can find a lot of small brands with lovely hand-made products.

You can find a list of the brands they sell on their lovely website.

Have a great day,

Elodie Here are a couple of views of the shop, from my last visit:

SCHÖN & EHRLICH Gertigstraße 18 22303 Hamburg Tue – Fri: 11:00 – 19:00 Sat: 10:00 – 17:00 Follow Schön & erhlich on Facebook

LIV - A new shop in Hamburg

Hello everyone, Last week I visited a new shop in Hamburg for you. The newly opened LIV in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel is full with Scandinavian and German design and fashion. You will find some usual suspects of Danish design such as house doctor but also some less well-known brands. On the fashion side, you can find some great stuff from the Swedish brand Twist & Tango for instance. The presentation is lovely and the selection amazing. The shop really feels cosy as if you were visiting the charming shop owner Mareike at home. Mareike is not only a shop owner with a very good taste. She is also a graphic designer and has her own postcard label called Papier ahoi. The lovely postcards can also be purchased in the shop itself. Here are a couple of photos from LIV. I hope you will visit the shop yourself soon. It should definitely be on your to do list if you want to do a design and interior tour of the city. Have a great day, Elodie

You can find the beautiful and colourful Becksöndergaard Scarfs at LIV

I am in love with the mini-pompoms from OMM Design designed by the Swedish artist Ingela Parrhenius.

LIV Lutterothstraße 8 20255 Hamburg Tue - Fri: 11:00 - 19:00 Sat: 12:00 - 17:00 Follow LIV on Facebook

Nelly Castro - beautiful postcards from Hamburg

Dear all, Today I would like to introduce you to Nelly Castro. I met Nelly at the pop-up store event of 7 Avenue, and she invited me last week to the presentation of her new postcard collection.
Nelly is a designer and illustrator based in Hamburg, who started producing postcards some years ago - and I really like her fresh style and hand lettering. The cards are printed on a very nice thick paper.
The texts on the postcards are in Spanish (her mother tongue), English and German. Nelly also designs wedding invitations. You can find more information on her website.

Baby Love's little wardrobe

Hello everyone, My mum came to visit us at the beginning of the Month with a car full of presents and mini-clothes for the future Miss Love. What she made is so beautiful that I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Some of the stuff were even made 28 years ago for the birth of my sister Alexia, and kept since then! This is so amazing and my mother is so talented! The clothes are all displayed in Baby Love's little wardrobe, an antic wooden cabinet with a glass door we found in the great shop called Lieblingszimmer, that I featured on the blog there. I wish you all a great day. Speak to you soon Elodie

The Nursery project #5 - Lovely Doudou

Hello everyone, Today I would like to talk about "doudou". A "doudou" in French is an object than a baby/young child sees as its favorite one - The babies/young children sleep with it. A good translation would probably be cuddly toys. Here is a selection of my favorite doudous for the nursery in the nursery colours. One of them (N°2) has already found its place in the nursery.

1. Cat Girl by Kathryn Davey via Kathryn Davey 2. Bear by Makie via smallable 3. Zakka Crocodile via Babyssimo 4. Badger by Maleig via Room6 5. Mr. Bell by Lucky Boy Sunday via Millimètres 6. Tobi little Berry by Dimpel via smallable 7. Doll Chiara from Jess Brown via smallable 8. Mono Cat from Donna Wilson via Donna Wilson 9. Fox with scarf by Maleig via Room6 10. Rabbit via smallable 11. Mama Mouse with baby via Milchmädchen

Baby Love already received a beautiful present from ma sister. It will probably be a bit big to start with, but I am sure that she will love it as much as I do. He is called Auguste from the French company Moulin Roty.

I hope you could find a little Doudou inspiration today. Have a lovely day! Talk to you soon, Elodie

The nursery project #4 - Playing with fabric

Dear readers, as a lot of you already know, I am a little bit of a Liberty addict. I just finished a baby blanket with Liberty fabric on one side and a very pretty Japanese fabric on the other side. I will show it to you later. Yesterday, I have been playing with three different Liberty of London patterns to decorate the walls of the nursery. I used embroidery hoops to frame them. It is a very easy way to display your favorite fabric on the walls. I bought them at the German DIY shop Idee. Here are the three fabrics I picked from my collection - I chose fabrics that fit in the colour concept of the nursery.

Becci Tana Lawn from the spring/ summer 2012 Glencot House collection was inspired whilst a member of the Liberty Art Fabrics team was reclining on an old patterned chair in the drawing room at Glencot House in Somerset. A layered design of leaves and flowers creates three dimensions drawn from the gardens at Glencot. Becci A is shades of blue, jade and grey.

Poppy and Daisy is on the Classic Tana list since 1979, Liberty Poppy and Daisy was designed in 1974 by the Jack Prince Studio. Version K has brown, blue and purple flowers.

Wiltshire is a leaf and berry pattern which was designed for Liberty in 1933 and redesigned for Tana in 1968. Wiltshire has been on the Classic Tana list since 1979. Colourway L has blue, lilac and olive berries on a dark background.

I also played yesterday with Muslin squares and Liberty bias tape. I gave it then yesterday night to my friend Sabrina for her 6 weeks old baby - but I will definitely also make some for baby love!

My next project is a nursing pillow with Marimekko fabric. I can't wait to show it to you!

Speak to you soon!

Elodie

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The nursery project #3 - mood board - the colours

Hello everyone, As promised there, I will share the evolution of my "nursery project" with you on the blog. Today I want to show you a little mood board I created in order to illustrate the overall look I want to give to the room and decide on the main colours in want to use in the decoration of the nursery. As you can see the two main colours are blue and grey/silver.

1. Pompoms to add some lightness and fluffiness to the decoration 2. Print Everyone's friend from seventy tree - looks perfect for a future multilingual child 3.Wall hooks in different shades of blue 4. A unicorn - this one has already moved in... 5. A lovely star carpet. 6- The Egmont bunny lamp - In fact I have had this lamp for ages in my living room. Now, it lives where it belongs: in the nursery! 7. Lovely fabric: from left to right: Liberty art fabric - Capel blue Liberty art fabrics- Eloise blue Liberty art fabrics - Betsy grey France Duval-Stalla - Grey with white cloud of stars cambric 8- soft toy - dog - in Japanese Zakka style

1. Why blue? I decided to pick blue as the main colour, even if I am expecting a baby girl. The baby's bedroom is going to be set in our former bedroom in which we painted one of the walls in midnight blue last year. I still love this colour so much and find it so peaceful, that I decided not to change it and build the decoration around it. To make it a little more girly, I am adding some flowery Liberty fabric. I am a big fan of british stylist, shop owner and book author Abigael Ahern and her choices of dark colours in decoration, and decided to apply that to the nursery. I also decided to mix different shades of blue.

2. Why grey/silver? First of all, grey is my favorite colour in decoration. I painted the main wall in my living room in grey and I really love it. Grey/silver is more going to be used as accents in the nursery, as a contrasting colour to blue and in fabric. We will leave the other walls in the nursery plain white. For me silver as something magical in it and I hope it will inspire my little princess.

3. The Patterns I am going to use a lot of stars in the decoration of the room, as well as animals, as I think they both fit perfectly in a baby's room.

So! I hope you got inspired. I think we are also going to add some neon yellow to the room.

It's all for today. I will be back tomorrow on the blog with a great flower project - so stay tuned.

xxx Elodie

The nursery project #2 - online inspiration

Hello everyone,The birth of baby love is approaching (the end of August) and I can already tell you that you will see less flowers and more decoration and DIY on the blog in the coming weeks, as I am decorating the nursery and planing to make some stuff for the baby. I will show you some pictures of the room slowly transforming into a nursery and some great resources to buy furnitures and decoration items online. Today I will start with my online inspiration and first where I store my inspiration when I am surfing the web. I created a Pinterest board, that I names LOVEly nurseries. You can have a look here

A great website, when decoration the nursery and waiting for the baby to come is the French blog called The Socialite Family - A SAMPLE OF SMART AND COOL FAMILIES .

The blog is written by Constance Gennari who used to be a children’s fashion journalist. The purpose of Socialite Family is to observe interior design through the eyes of a family and I find her blog very inspiring. The interviewed families so far live in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Nantes, Los Angeles and Barcelona. (the interviews are available in French and English). It is a very visual blog, and I find extremely inspiring.

Speak to you soon, xoxo

Elodie

Cat on dog

Hello everyone, 2 weeks ago I received a little package I ordered some time ago on the online shop fab.com. Fab is a members-only website and mobile app that offers curated sales, featuring designers and manufacturers from around the world. You usually have to wait a pretty long time between the order and the delivery, but it is generally worth it. My last order was for my cat Cheddar and I promised on Instagram, that I would post some photos of the little present, so there you go:

The funny scratching dog is from the US company Imperial Cat. They are not on sale anymore on the Fab Website, but you never know, they might come back at some point. Anyway Cheddy loves it! I wish you a great day! Speak to you soon

Elodie

The nursery project #1 - book & magazine inspiration

Hello! As a lot of you already know, I am expecting a little girl at the end of August! I am so excited about it. That also gives me a great occasion to start a new decoration project - and I would like you to share my thoughts and my decorating journey with you. The nursery will be set in our former bedroom, and my old office/workshop is now our bedroom. You have to have a little bit of imagination if you live in a relatively small space (80 m2). The room is approximately 10 m2, but you don't really need much space for a newborn baby who will sleep in our bedroom to start with anyway. Today I would like to share with you where I find my inspiration offline. That's a question I am asked all the time when talking about the blog or about decorating in general: Where do you find your inspiration? So, here are some answers, some great books I am reading at the moment and the French magazine Milk (which also has texts in English). And what about you? Where do find your inspiration when you want to decorate/redecorate a room? Have you got some tips regarding kid's and baby's rooms?

Talk to you soon, for some more baby inspiration.

xxx

Elodie

1. Decorate workshop by Holly Becker  (the founder of the decor8 blog). This book is like no other decoration book I have read before. It can be used for any decoration project, it is more a guide, a companion than a book - very inspiring! 2. Children's room by Terence Conran (the founder of habitat). A very interesting book with a lot of tips, written by a design guru. 3. & 4. two brilliant books from my favorite publisher Paumes. This small Japanese publisher has some great books about children's rooms and family life in various countries. Most of the texts are unfortunately in Japanese, but the pictures are really inspiring. You can order them online via the online concept store Bodie & fou 5- The French Magazine Milk about children, now has a decoration issue, which I really love, with a lot of home tours and creative ideas. A lot of the texts are in English too.

From Switzerland with love #2

Hello there, Lucile is back on the blog today with more Swiss adventures. I am so glad to have such a talented visitor on my blog!  Talk to you soon! Elodie

Hey everyone!

March just ended and I have to say, it’s one of my favourite periods. Once a year, spring just pops up in the middle of winter and says hello. It happens every time in March, just for few days, just for everyone to be surprised and to think again of all the good memories from last summer… Now I’m used to this little joke and I know it’ll pass, it’s not spring yet and the snow and the cold will be back soon… But these few days are so good ! It's a perfect excuse to go out, sit at a terrace, drink a coffee, do nothing and just feel the air and enjoy the sun. I like this little preview, it's helping me to get through this never-ending final part of winter.

So, today I decided to present to you my favourite place from last summer. It’s a café/bar called Zar, located in the Mattenhof area. I like this spot because: 1. it’s like being at home, a small place where people stop by after work and it seems that everyone knows everyone and even if you know none you feel instantly welcome. 2. they serve delicious cocktails. Last summer I used to drink Amaretto Sour (after of course having tried all the different ones) and this winter I have been enjoying Zar, a hot drink that mixes calvados, apple juice, cinnamon syrup and a slice of orange. Mmmmh !

This month too, I was glad to recieve my grandma’s Christmas gift. A real Eames coat-hanger! It’s said it was designed for children but I don't care, I love the flashy colours.

Breakfast of the day : yoghurt, fried egg, crunchy choco muesli and black coffee. Last week, it was snowing again and it’s not warm outside yet, but I look forward to the real spring and summer!

See you next month!

xxx.

Lucile V.

Vase story - my little whale from Japan

Hello everyone, Inga from Glomerylane and I have been really overwhelmed by the success of our first participative edition of #2flowergirls. You can see the links to the participating blogs under Inga's blogpost and under mine. Thank you so much for all those flowers, and for the positive and encouraging feedback. It made us all warm inside - and we definitely need that at the moment in Germany. You can check out the result on the March Pinterest board of #2flowergirls.

Today I decided to blog not directly about flowers, but about vases - my other love! When I travel, I always try to bring a little vase back with me in my suitcase that reminds me of the great places I visited. I bought this one on our honeymoon in Japan in 2008. I found it at a gorgeous shop for handcrafted products in Kyoto. It always makes me smile when I see it. It combines my love for flowers and for Japanese design with my obsession about animals in decoration.

What about you, have you got a favourite vase? What do you bring back with you as a souvenir, when travelling?

I wish you a wonderful week!

Elodie

Antwerp #4 – Where to sleep

Hello everyone, I think nobody likes Mondays ... I think the best cure is to plan your next holiday and think back to your last holiday. While doing it, I realised I still wanted to give a last tip about Antwerp, where I spent a fabulous break last October. After telling you what to do in Antwerp by day and showing you the city by night, where to eat in Antwerp and where to shop, here comes my ultimate tip: where to sleep in Antwerp - and the answer is a beautiful Bed & Breakfast called Home @ FEEK. It is one of the most fantastic places I have stayed at in my life - it was the night of my birthday and it was definitely special!

It is located in the old house of the harbour master and five minutes walk from the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom).

The place is run by product designer Frederik van Heereveld. Frederik is known worldwide for his collection with FEEK and new materials, which he integrates into his interior designs. All the furniture in the rooms can be bought. Even the lift is really funky.

The changing colour lamp in the bedroom was also a highlight.

Hone @ Feek Website: www.http://home.feek.be Oude Leeuwenrui 23, Antwerpen

My fake christmas tree

Hello everyone, This year my family are coming to Hamburg to celebrate Christmas and we are going to buy a proper Christmas tree on 24th December. In the meantime, I made myself my own fake Christmas tree, with some white branches and home-made ornaments.I used some German polymer clay called Fimo, with some organza ribbons. To personalise them, I used a Love stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE and the letters are from Muji. I decided to have a Christmas decoration all in black & white this year. It's very much like Coco Chanel!

Next week I am on holiday and I am so looking forward to it! I will take some time to prepare the celebration with my family and spend more time on the blog, working on future projects for 2013. So there you go, here are a couple of pictures of my fake, temporary Christmas tree. You can see more photos on my Facebook page. Next week I will be doing some more ornaments, but this time in black.

What about you? Which colours are you using for your christmas decoration? Have you got a proper tree?

Speak to to you soon. xxx Elodie

a christmassy still life

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely week-end. We had dreadful weather in Hamburg today - we had a lot of snow and it has been raining on the snow, so it's all slushy now. Whatever! It is a good opportunity to finish my small Christmas decoration at home. This year I decided to use my little home-made table (made out of an old bathroom mirror) to display a little christmassy, wintery landscape and I am pretty happy about the result. I love the fact that the table reflects the scene, especially when the lantern is lit up.

I wish you a fantastic week. Only 15 days to go till Christmas! xxx Elodie

• The centre of this still life is a metallic candle holder in the shape of an old Dutch house that I bought in one of my favorite flower shops: Blumenküche.
• On the left, I made a little star bouquet using old bottles from the lovely interior shop Lieblingszimmer.
• The stars are hand-made glitter stars from the shop Nordlys and the paper ornament is from House Doctor. Around the neck of the bottle is an home-made star I made using the German polymer clay called Fimo. I stamped my name on it, with a lovely stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE.
• The plastic animal under the cloche is from a local toy store and I love the contrast with the big porcelain mushroom.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the still life.