A few of my favorite things: Bloesem
Such a lovely invitation arrived in my inbox the other day sharing my favorite things with you, dear decor8 readers. My name is Irene and perhaps you know me from my blog Bloesem and or BloesemKids. About two years ago my husband and I moved to Kuala Lumpur and are enjoying the Asian way of life. After living in apartments since I left my family home it was time to move to a actual home ourselves as our family had expanded with two fantastic boys. The new place feels like a ‘castle’ to me and I still have to get used to all the space, to make it a bit more ‘gezellig’ (=cozy, a Dutch word Dutch people love to use when talking about their home) I tried to create some small corners in our home showcasing the pieces that have a special meaning to you… so here we go!
The cabinet was one of the first contemporary pieces my husband and I bought together in great vintage store in Toronto, Bungalow. Luckily for me my husband loves to be part of decorating our home, he loves to buy art books and has a passion for lights. So one day he brought home the beautiful Joe Colombo light, which we truly enjoy every day and yes, Sandra Juto lives in our living-room, I just find her artwork amazing!
I grew up with these lovely vintage books by Rie Cramer and my mom made me really happy this week when I found them in our mailbox … it gives me a feel of ‘home’ and that is something you really need when living so far apart from your family, I miss my mom enormously … the clock is by Dutch designer Dick van Hoff and perhaps you recognize the felt trivet from my dear friend Arounna.
We just moved into this house (2 months ago) and we are still moving around our furniture to see where everything fits best and I finally have a good feel by putting the dining or should I say ‘work-and-read’ table here … we bought the marble table here in KL and I’m so happy with this purchase, I love the cold looking marble especially in this warm climate. The bookshelf was bought a long time ago in Amsterdam together with the original Herman Miller chairs…and yes now it’s time to hang some of my favorite prints on the our wall, Maditi you will definitely be here, the prints are finally off to the print shop and hopefully next week your beautiful pictures get the place they so much deserve…
Some of you perhaps know that I recently gave birth to our second son, called Kiet and during that time I received some amazing gifts from friends and B:Kids readers, including the gorgeous wooden block puzzle from Fidoodle. They are so beautifully made that I have given them a place downstairs in our living-room and yes it relaxes me when playing with them…the lovely little bird print is from the amazing artist Reka Kiraly.
This is Lode’s room, our three year old son and now when I still am able to decide what his room looks like I decided to hang the gorgeous alphabet prints from Ida Pearle on his wall. My sister, a mom of two boys too, recently warned that soon these walls will turn into sports, transformers, motor… the bright yellow chair comes from a shop here in Chinatown, sorry but I have to admit it’s an original copy-cat …I love to collect vintage little golden books, but my son is of course allowed to read them whenever he feels like it…
And finally …. our bed, my absolute favorite thing in the world, what should we do without it…at night I think about my life, my dreams, our family and when Holly asked me to share with you some of my favorite quotes this one popped-up into my head immediately :: live life to the fullest :: perhaps not very original, but sooooo true and I also like this one :: Do all things with love :: I’m a strong believer in living your life passionately, embrace it and try to smile at least once a day… music from Angie Stone, Alicia Keys, Freddie Mercury and Elvis Costello always helps me to do this.
Thanks Holly for the invite, wish you a smooth move to your new home and of course a wonderful future in Germany! -Irene x
(images: irene hoofs)
Hello friends… it’s me Holly checking in to say hello. How was your weekend? What did you do? I had a very balanced weekend — I got a lot of things done (shopping, organizing, flea market visit), but also enjoyed some relaxing times too. See this shelf below, it’s in my kitchen which I love cooking in by the way. It’s so sunny and everything is new so it has that showroom feel. I wish the “new car smell” would last forever! And by the way… the weather has been beyond beautiful since we stepped off the plane so I’m very grateful for all of the sunshine. Today it will be sunny and 9o.
Last night I wrapped up the weekend at our neighborhood bar, Blattgold. Remember it? I showed you a glimpse of it before — if you missed it here’s the post. I’m on a crazy detox/fast program so no mojitos for me… I only had a ginger/orange Bionade but still… it was fun to hang out at Blattgold and to listen to Bob Marley and Clueso – a band I’m really enjoying right now that I highly suggest checking out.
How about you? How was your weekend? What did you do?
(image: holly becker for decor8)
Well it’s that time again — the weekend! Yahoo! Tomorrow I’ll be at a flea market and then off to visit friends and family. Then next week, I’ll still be popping in from time to time and reading ALL of your comments as they come in on the blog (I am approving all comments so I am able to keep in touch with everyone and also so you know that I haven’t abandoned you!) and my guests are reading your comments and replying to them, too! I have tons more guests for the “My Favorite Things” series, as well as a few others writing about indie designers they love and of course, Leslie will be back with another installment of Color Me Happy to appear on Monday so stay tuned for that! She shared it with me yesterday and wow, oh wow! You have a lot to look forward to on Monday…
So for now, I’m signing off and wishing all of you a great weekend. I hope you get to chillax a little and catch some sunshine where you live — sunshine makes you happy as does a giant scoop of gelato as I’m learning VERY well here in my new city with gelato cafes all over the place. I think next week I’ll go play roving reporter and shoot photos of local cafes and share with you a bit of my daily life here. Would you be interested in seeing that? If so, I’ll get started on my assignment. :)
See you on Monday! Bis Montag, Tschüss!
xo, Holly
(images: holly becker for decor8)
I am beyond honored to learn that Hus & Hem magazine in Sweden, a favorite of mine, has named decor8 along with 9 other bloggers as one of the best decorating blogs! This is a great opportunity for decor8 and those featured on this site to receive increased exposure in Sweden to some new readers. I’m always grateful and very happy when decor8 receives a press mention — it means that we’re all succeeding together — not just me but those who are featured on this blog or who have been guest blogging recently while I’ve been keeping a temporary part-time blogging schedule. We all stand tall and succeed together and I’m proud of us when decor8 gets a good press mention because without all of you — from your link backs to friendships, contributions through posts or submissions, we ALL get the credit and I thank each of you for always supporting this site. :)
If you are new to decor8 and coming over from Hus & Hem, I’m Holly Becker — an American writer and design consultant (interiors) who just moved to Hannover, Germany last week and will now be based here full-time after 5 years of living and working between Germany and New Hampshire, USA. I launched this blog in May 2005 but was not sure how to go about blogging and didn’t know what exactly to say until I officially started writing in January 2006 and the second I started typing I wrote about art & design from all over the world – and I still do!
Everything that you see on this site was found and curated by me with the exception of posts written by guest bloggers (clearly indicated in each post if not authored by me). On Tuesdays I feature a special column called “Etsy Take Five Tuesdays” where I write about 5 Etsy stores and share images of some of my favorite things from their shops. On Thursdays, I write “Musical Thursdays”, a post spotlighting 2-5 CDs of the week that I’m listening to since I love music and think it makes a huge difference in the home environment and ones mood and even emotional health.
In between these columns, I post about things that have caught my eye, interior designers, photographers, fellow bloggers, anything and everything that falls under decorating, art & design and my own personal design aesthetic. I write daily Monday through Friday 3-5 times each day, more if I’m feeling up to it or super duper inspired. :) Anyway, thank you for visiting and I hope that you will enjoy reading decor8!
Thank you Helena for telling me about this press mention (tack!), and to Anna for sending me this image above.
(image: anna)
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