a handmade bed.

hey readers!

A few of you have asked if I also made things like furniture. Well, of course!
Since crafting is a bit difficult with the while house filled with moving boxes, I thought it would be nice to show you the bed that Joost and I made a year ago.

When I moved in with Joost last year, we discovered that we had a big shortage on storage space. So we decided to build a bed with not only a lot of storage space underneath, but also space for our dryer!


Before I talk you through the process, there is one thing I need to clear up!
As I looked through the old photo's, I noticed one thing: I was completely absent in all pictures! What the wup?
I engineered the whole thing. I measured. I sawed wood. I drilled holes. I fastened screws. I really, REALLy busted my ass off in this project. But who's in the pictures? Only Joost, that evil boyfriend of mine ;)

 so if you see a picture like this...                                         remember that it happened like this! ;)

Recycle week day 7: Magazine stool

" So... What are you going to do with your magazines?" Joost asked while we were clearing our bookcase. "Do you really want to keep them all?"
Whoops. Joost was touching a sensitive point here: my addiction for home design magazines. I just love them. I especially love looking at the incredible expensive things in them and thinking: "I TOTALLY could make that myself!!"

That addiction has resulted in quite an impressive staple of magazines. I really cherish that moment of smugness ("you little fools, buying all these expensive things that you can make or thrift?"), so the magazines had to stay. But something had to be done, so -after a quite ingenious design I saw a few years ago- I decided to make a stool with them!

recycle week day 6: Bottoms up!

Earlier this week, I received a message from Tambra, with a link to this creative lady. Bottles are so versatile, it immediately inspired me to make something with bottles as well!

But before I let you in on my crafting adventure, I first HAVE to show you the amazing work of this lady:

so, so, so cool!!! 

But as I started digging through my house looking for empty bottles, I suddenly realized something: We already had a quite amazing bottle-craft in our house...  So I hope you will forgive me for the fact of sharing that one with you today!

recycle week day 5: a trip down memory lane.

Last week, I've been going through my old belongings. Going through stuff I didn't even rememver I owned, deciding what should stay, what should go and -the things you've read about- the things that deserve a second life. The reason for this? Well, we're moving houses!

Yes, Joost and I have bought a really cute little farm house, and we are moving houses in only a couple of weeks. Of course I've known about this for a for a few weeks now, but I didn't dare tell you yet since we hadn't yet received a final decision from the bank. But now we have, and it's official: We are leaving!

For me, it will be the fourth home I live in in only 2,5 years (the end university life/start of working life is a chaotic time) So, first things first, I'm going to give you a little peek of what -in a 100 buckets of paint- will be our home:

If it's old, I'm sold...  and it has a huge backyard!!

recycle week day 4: soda can stove

Behold one of my all-time favorite upcycling crafts!!

I'm a pretty big fan of camping. Not just any camping, no the wild camping, survivalling kind of camping, where your ass freezes off, and your idea of luxury is a pair of clean socks. ( Hey, I live in the Netherlands, our most dangerous animal is the honey bee... I need some adventure in my life!)

making dinner in Dalarna, our shelter in Belgium (at -16 degrees),
wild camping whilst cycling through Nothern Sweden, wild camping whilst canoeing in Glaskogen.

Love those memories!!
Sounds like hell, you say? Well, don't worry yet: although today's craft might be veerry handy if you have a hobby like mine, but it works very well in the luxury of your porch/backyard/beach/at your BBQ. Because this is what I'll be making today: a stove made from a soda can (okay... beer can, but soda sounds nicer!)

recycle week day 3: the unloved vase

Hello crafty people!

Just a short post for today!

Joost went on a small business trip and took my laptop, leaving me alone with his incomprehesible computer.  So now I'm sitting behind his desk, and the computer and me are staring at each other with intense hate.

Tami asked me if I couldn't use this week to turn an incredibly ugly thrift find into something beautiful. I think that today's vase is a pretty serious contestant in the run for ugliest thrift shop haul...

I haunt your nightmares!
( too bad the thing quite matches my interior here. But rest assured; it's ugly!)

Only thing is that I didn't actually find it at a thrift shop, but in our basement ( I hope you forgive me for that Tami, there might be more thrift shop on its way!)  It probably came from a thirft shop though, but it wasn't bought by me. I'm guessing it was once bought by Joost's ex. Extra reason to change that whole lotta ooglay into something new, don't you think? (Don't worry, I only get hateful towards exes after at least 5 glasses of alcohol!)

Raffia may be making a comeback in interiors, but I absolutely don't care for this vase at all. This is the kind of thing that you only find with faded, fake flower in it, on a plastic table cloth. or worse: filled with dusty marbles that noone ever uses. So: it had to change!

recycle week day 2: the newspaper basket (crafting with cats gone wrong)

What do newspapers and green cats have to do with each other?

Very little.

Well, that is unless your cat happens to be a MASSIVE idiot named Broen, who couldn't withstand a basket if his life depended on it. Yep, as you may have guessed by now, things are about to go tits up!

But before we get there, we have a recycling-craft to finish. And the material of today is...

- drumroll -

newspapers!

recycle week day 1: upcycled candles

welcome to the first day of my recycle-week!

As promised, this week I'm going to give unloved goods a second life, and try not to spend any money on them. So I'll be saving items from the trash in my own house, seeing if I can find things on the sidewalk, or using free items from thrift shops (yes, they do that with certain items)

So to kick off with a simple upcycling project: candles!

As I was cleaning up my house - some of you may have guessed why....-  I realized how many discarded candles I have laying around. Used candles that are too short to use up, that have melted in the sun, ones where the wick has become too short, ones that I don't use because they're plain ugly ( I'm talking to you, oooglay christmas candles!) of just left-overs from tea lights ( these things never burn clean, do they?)

so many of these!

I know, doesn't sound too exciting. But the result is quite pretty! And, if you time your project right, it doesn't take any time at all. So, give it a try, it's cool!

a small announcement: recycle week

Hey people!

I'm usually not a big fan of H&M and their view on fashion/ fashion-industry, but this time they seem to have come up with quite a nice initiative; world recycle week. Recycle week, you say? I imagine your reactions to be either one of these:




If you tend to be on camp 2; don't worry yet! This is not going to be a lesson on recycling. As you may have noticed in all my previous posts: I really love giving unloved objects a second life. So yeah, I like that part of recycling. But as you -hopefully- also may have noticed I'm not your mom (shock!) So nah... I'm not planning on telling you why recycling is important.

But I will sort of join the initiative of H&M by sharing short, daily posts on easy upcycle-projects. Giving unloved objects a second life! So in a way, it is kind of what you're used from this blog, but then more frequently, and I promise not to buy my stuff at the thrift shop this time, but instead I'll go around my own house, and see how I can give things I would otherwise have thrown away, a second life. One craft a day.

So, do you think it's a good idea? Maybe willing to join the recycle-weeek in your own way? And do you have requests on things you would like me to upcycle? ( I'm keeping some freedom here, though ;) ) Please let me know!

Skirt day: the 10 minute no-sew circle skirt

In the Netherlands -not really internationally known for its beautiful weather- we have a phenomenon called "rokjesdag".- Skirt day. The first day of beautiful weather where women en masse shave the hairy caterpillars that have been their legs during wintertime, and emerge as beautiful, bare-legged butterflies wearing their newest skirts. The mystery of skirt day is the fact that all those women simultaneously know when skirt day appears.

As an author on urban dictionary writes:
"I woke up this morning, strode outside, saw dozens of beautiful girls in skirts on the way to class, said a brief thank-you to God for their smooth and fit legs, and promptly declared to my friends, "Today ... is Skirt Day."

Obviously, men love skirt day. And truth be told; so do I. Isn't there a sense of happiness in walking bare-legged, sun shining on your skin, feeling the wind breeze through the remnants of your leg hair? (haha, sorry!)

Skirt day is probably still weeks from here, but with the beautiful weather of last week, I began to look forward to my summer closet. Thus I decided to make a skirt.

Not just any skirt: the easiest, breeziest skirt in the whole wide world.  

celebration time!

Break our the champagne guys, we've reached a milestone...

This blog has reached 10.000 readers! Whooohhooooooo!

I never expected to get there within two months! Massive thank you to Jillian from refashionista for giving me a kick start, and also a massive thanks to you, my readers!

So it was time to host a miniature party. Luckily I had just the thing for it: a miniature pot of glitter galore!

break in case of awesome you say? Well, this sounds like a pretty awesome occasion to me... bring out your unicorns!

"Break" it!

SPARKLE!

(If you want to make one for yourself; just take a tiny pot, a lot of glitter and write a little label to go with it.. that's it! Makes quite a neat little gift as well!)

It's been a blast writing and making things so far. I hope to keep it up for quite a long time, and I also hope that you keep enjoying these posts. 

Much love! Marije

from ugly porcelain figurines to stylish tableware

Hey there!

Okay, riddle me this:

what can be found in every thrift shop, but is never bought by anyone..?