Today while searching for book end papers I discovered an amazing and inspiring paper collection “Sammlung Bartsch” on the german national library website. It includes lithographic prints, book end papers as well as paste papers (not sure how to translate Tunk- und Kleisterpapiere) from all over the world:

Book End Paper / Vorsatzpapier – D. Voigt & Co., Kopenhagen, 1906

Tunkpapier – Trepplin, Georg, Berlin,-Rixdorf, 1909

Book End Paper / Vorsatzpapier – Hoffmann, Josef, Wien, 1902

After our short stop at Lieblingsstücke we went to visit Sandra of herzensart and Bogi Bell at their wonderful studio at Alte Fabrik in Siegburg.

I had already wanted to visit the studio opening a couple of months ago, but couldn’t make it. So I was really, really happy to finally make it to the open studio days.

I had already seen lots of impressive pictures from their awesome studio on Sandra’s blog and flickr account – and it was even more beautiful and inspiring in real live. And of course it was really great to meet and fun to talk.

I’ve already been a huge fan of Sandra’s fabulous viking “softies” and paper artwork – you can see her love for details in every piece. Everyone who knows my weak spot for speechbubbles can imagine that I’ve been totally in love with her beautiful viking greetingcards set. Thanx so much for giving me those, Sandra! I really think I might have to start a viking wall because I’m too scared to actually write on them :-) BTW you can find these lovely cards on etsy too.

I also loved to see and read about Bogi’s amazing drowning memories installation project and I hope to see more about it on her blog. Just wish I had had more time to talk and take pictures :-) You can find some more impressions from the open studio days on Bogi’s and Sandra’s blog.

And if you ladies are ever in Cologne and have some time, please let me invite you to some cake & coffee!

On Sunday we went to see my bf’s family and his mum took me to this lovely store in Lohmar called Lieblingsstücke (that’s german for favorite pieces. I had heard so much about it and was lucky that it was open last weekend because of the village fair.

The house with its wonderful yellow and blue shutters somehow made me think of Astrid Lindgren and Bullerbü.

I couldn’t resist all these beautiful ribbons and bought some of the red & white one.

If you look closely you can see the red RikRak on the wall – isn’t that a cute detail?

There were soo many fabulous things to discover. So I’ll definitely have to stop by again. If you like you can check out the Lieblingsstücke website and also order online.

Last weekend was filled with some fabulous events. On saturday we went to the “Designer Frühling” (that’s german for design spring) – a market for beautiful things handmade at the Luther church in Cologne.

There were lots of cute things – especially for kids. But I have to admit that what I liked most, was discovering these beautiful tiles inside.