wine shelves, an updated shower and a quick guide into becoming a handyman!

Oh wine boxes, how I love thee!

DIY hanging planters || an office update!

Hey guys!

Today I welcome you in my office!! ( I now expect a slightly disappointed "whooooooo" from you)

As some of you may already know, I work as a researcher in a hospital. The main part of that hospital is - like most hospitals- a huge pastel-coloured concrete box, but my office is is somewhat different: a completely hidden office in the basement of one of the few old parts of the hospital building, with loads of marble, old architectural details, and you get there by a somewhat hidden marble staircase.And to make it even cooler: it also used to be the anatomy-lab/morgue of a very famous professor.  So: the place is quite cool.

or should I say was? Because somewhere in the summer, someone had this *great* idea to strip the walls to give with the intention of giving them a new layer of render.... to subsequently notice in august that they were never going to finish before the students would come back to the faculty, so they just.... kind of left, leaving a load of dust, desks moved everywhere, and a set of very unfinished  walls...

DIY | a hanging planter.

I kind of have locked myself out, my friends.

You may now raise a sceptical eyebrow and wonder "what happened?" well, this is what happened.

See, we (okay, it was Joost) oiled our new wooden kitchen floor this afternoon. No biggie, right?
Except that it has to dry for 24 hours and the kitchen is... well kind of the central place of our house.
So while I was sensible enough to take some measurements and lock myself into the part of the house that has a loo and a backdoor,  I was stupid enough leave many important things, such as my laptop-charger, in the now inaccessible living room.

So, here I am, in the bedroom with a slowly dying laptop.. wondering if I should use my last minutes of online time for a crash course in ninja-skills to get the charger back, or if just accept my fate and write you a post.

As you can see.. I choose the latter ;)

So, as you can understand, time for writing this is rather limited, so let's get to it! Today an easy peasy, nifty thrifty hanging planter!

and now for something completely different.. a DIY wire ring with a bee!

The kitchen may steadily become more and more beautiful, but my own appearance... ough, that has sunken to a whole new level.

There is paint on my fingers and my ankles. Dirt of a dubious nature beneath my fingernails. My mascara was lost days ago and is hiding somewhere together with my hairbrush, and I haven't really bothered looking for them. I can only say that I feel very sorry for Joost, having to live with this home-depot version of a cavewoman.

So for the sake of my relationship, I decided to pay at least a little attention to my own appearance, and frost myself with some home-made jewelry (and some good ol' scrubbing) Hence today's post!  

DIY leaf printed fabric

After the heavy rainfall of last week ( which created a temporary rivier in front of the house), the plants and trees in our garden are growing with such an astonishing speed, that I almost suspect that Hagrid has been toying around with them. So of course; what else could I do but giving today's blog post a botanic twist?

I really love the recent (well, kind of recent) botanic trend, but rather than hopping off to the nearest interior shop and buy the same botanic inspired that everyone else buys, I decided to make my own version of it, by printing fabric with leafs!  And guess what; it's really simple, and gives an awesome result! So why don't you give it a try as well?

kintsugi, the beauty of being broken.

Kintsugi ( or kintsukuroi) is a Japanese tradition of repairing broken pottery with gold. The idea behind this method, is that breakages are beautiful in themselves because they are part of the history of an object. This history, with all its flaws and lines, should be displayed rather than being disguised. 

My experience with western culture is that we are very reluctant about showing imperfections lines or history in all areas of our lifes. We are ashamed of the lines in our faces, our clothes must show no wear and tear, giving a guest a chipped tea-cup would be insulting, etc. Everything needs to be as good as new. I also often feel a bit ashamed for the fact that almost everything that I own is in some way second-hand.

Kintsugi - closely linked to the Wabi-sabi worldview- shows us a new refreshing perspective: that of showcasing flaws and history. I think we can learn a lot from this perspective. Therefore, when I broke one of my favorite plates -ironically one of the very few that was bought at Ikea instead of at a thrift shop-I decided to try my hand at Kintsugi. 

Light bulb terrarium

When I woke up this morning, I decided that it was spring. Even the traces of night frost on the bedroom window didn't change that. It was spring. And spring makes two things inevitable: a desire for house-cleaning and an urge to buy loads of plants. 

So as soon as I was dressed, I went to the recycle centre to throw away the old, and to the garden centre to buy the new. While I was at the recycle station, I found a beautiful, really big light bulb. I figured "I should make something with that", and so me, my massive amount of plants, and the light bulb made our journey home, where I began to figure what to do with it. Many of you may have seen the cool light bulb vases that inhibit pinterest. But as I am more a plant-girl than a flower-girl, I thought: why not make a terrarium instead? Here's what I did!

Experiments. Painting on plastic: the ugly duckling brush

We all have those items in our home that are useful, but not specifically pretty. In my case a hot-pink plastic brush. It originates from my days as a student, and I think my mum bought it for me, since I can't imagine having bought something this pink for myself (sorry mum!) It once matched an equally hot-pink plastic dustpan, which has now magically disappeared. I still use it quite a lot. Unfortunately, I really have outgrown hot pink, but since I hate throwing away something that still works perfectly fine, I figured: Why not paint it?

In general plastic is not a material that easily allows you to paint it. The surface doesn't absorb the paint, thus the paint stays as a layer on top of it, which usually ends in a misery of scratching, flaking and horrors alike. But with some experimenting I've done over the past years (read: failing a lot of times), I learned that it can be done if you consider several guidelines.

For those of you who are now wondering: why spend so much energy a brush that costs only €1? You are right. But it was an experiment to see how easily you can paint on plastic items. And since I only used materials that I had leftover from painting the house, so it didn't cost me a thing. If you do buy a whole can of paint for a brush, I suggest you paint a frickin' masterpiece on it to make it worthwhile. Got something ugly that you want to paint? Here we go!

DIY: Cushion case becomes Shoulder bag (2)

People who know me, know I am a bit of a hamster. Not that I sport a particularly furry face, or smell like sawdust ( at least, nobody has told me yet..) but I do like to carry things with me. I have done this since I was a little girl: making little "survival kits" that I carried with me. Nowadays, my survival kits have become a little more suburban, consisting in sketchbooks, pencils, books, a water bottle and so on. And since my cheeks won't stretch that far, I always need a bag to take all those things with me.

A week ago I posted this bag that was made from a cushion cover. But actually, that bag was only the first version of a bag that I made. Today, I show you how to transform a cushion cover in fairly easy steps into a nice shoulder bag!

DIY: Cushion case becomes shoulder bag.

You'll need:

- a cushion case made from sturdy fabric with a zipper (Mine was an old cover from Ikea, size 50x50)

- a piece of carton, approx. 25x40 cm. 

- a piece of fabric, approx. 25x40 cm.  

- Duct tape or something alike. 

- something that can be used for straps. (fabric belts work really well) 

-sewing equipment. 

Level: fairly easy.

A while ago, I was making a handbag. While I was fiddling with zippers and side-panels, I thought: "Isn't there an easier way to make something like this?"

Of course, there are many tutorials on very simple tote bags or envelope bags, but I wanted a nice bag. With a zipper. And nice fabric. That was suitable for work and could carry some weight. And then I had an idea.

Cushion covers!!

On making things.

A while ago, I was a little addicted to Pinterest. And with good reason: Pinterest is a wonderland for grown-ups. A world where everyone's hair flows in gravity-defying ways, where baking soda fixes everything, where you can turn anything into a cake topper, where lasagna is low-fat, and where weddings have disney-like proportions but only cost a dime.

Oh pinterest-gal, you just have it all