Walking through Amsterdam we discovered this lovely shop called the Otherist, carrying many things from popular etsy-sellers like Ashley G.’s bearded guys but also lots wonderful (handmade) things I’ve never heard or seen before.

the Otherist
Leliegracht 6
1015 DE Amsterdam
Netherlands
On the Map

www.otherist.com/

A little bit sad that all of last weekends snow has melted and while the sun was shining beautifully yesterday, the weather has decided to give us rain for christmas.

But I’m very happy that everything is ready and packed and we’re enjoying a quiet christmas afternoon, preparing some yummie sauces for the family dinner tonight.

I hope you are having a wonderful christmas time too.
Happy holidays & take care!

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!

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.

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.

I’m very very excited to be working as an editor for Labbé – a wonderful kids craft store and publishing house here in germany. Their beautiful & inspiring shop here in Cologne has been one of my favorite places to spend my lunch break and do my craft shopping in the last years.

There’s a lot more news and quite a pile of photos & things from the last weeks to share – including an update on my yellow wall project with some great additions from etsy. So talk to you soon.

Since I love the simplicity of muji style, this wrapping by reeseau is one of my
faves.

This is a fabulous solution by popsie@flickr, if you like your gift wrapping to be eco friendly and beautiful at the same time.

If you are into calligraphie, this handmade giftwrap by Unhindered by Talent might be your thing.

I really like these floral bags by Craftpalooza, who used some buttons and ribbon for the closing.

The site http://www.boakart.com/wrap/WrapArt.html offers a whole galerie full of inspiration.

And in case you have something really big to wrap, you might consider this method by Wellstone:

Happy holidays!

One reason for that is probably that my first ever tutorial on How to brighten up your photos that I originally posted on flickr has been published on the Storque thanx to daniellexo. If you try the tutorial I’d love to see your results – you can share them in this flickr group as well as post questions there, if you have trouble editing your photos.

Another thing that made my week was that I discovered a wonderful singer called Lenka – she has an awesome website with great wallpapers. I’m totally in love with the art work and could listen to her song “Trouble is a friend” on repeat for hours.

And I’m really excited about my latest purchase – I’ve been a huge fan and frequent visitor of emmapardos etsy shop for a while and simply couldn’t resist this beautiful neck thingie!

The thing that made my week completely perfect was that I took my courage to ask about an exhibition in my favorite cafe called Vreiheit (that’s like Vreedom in english) and they said YES! I’m sooooo excited. They have tables that are covered with glas panes and work is exhibited inside of the tables, by a different artist every months. The date isn’t fixed yes – but it’s probably going to be in February. I’ll need the time to prepare as I have to fill 20 tables… OMG. This will be sooo much fun.

And last but not least I’m going on vacation tomorrow. I’ll fly to Abu Dhabi to visit my parents, who moved there almost a year ago and I’m excited to see them and Dubai and Al Ain and being in the sun and taking tons of pictures and visit a camel market and and and… Which reminds me, that I should get back to washing and packing like right now.

Handmade speechbubble stamp

Handcarved anchor stamp