Designed in Arnhem

Making time to get out the door is a struggle. I decided the same day to take a mini trip to my college town of Arnhem for a winter event; Strikje, in the fashion district. I now appreciate the quirky uniqueness of my town more than when I lived there and that includes this super hip hub. Probably because I spent most of my free time travelling down South so I never realised how amazing my own town was. But some things never change. I still love the hills and green. The slopy, greener setting gives it a more relaxed vibe than my current design hub of Eindhoven. The fashion district is set on just such a long sloping road that adds to the character. 

There are several spots I always hit on when I’m in town and this occasion being no different. I stopped by Graphic Playground where I found yet another amazing coffee cup to add to my collection and the most lovely of geometric decorations which will be finding a home in my soon-to-be-updated home office! I loaded up on sugary goodness at Sweet Sugar Hill, which I think is amazing! I had one baba au rhum in the car before setting off for home and I swear I understand why pirates would go to great lengths for this liquid gold and why they acted the way the did..seriously my poor car. Patisseries  are common enough but a sugar house carrying everything from confectionery to lemon curd and lemon meringue pie (I have a thing for citrus), I melt and willingly travel. A stop at Lenneke Wispelwey was also on the cards, where I got a good look at the collection she did for PT and there might have been one tiny little ceramic treasure sitting under the tree. But the first and most rewarding stop was at Mirte Engelhard.

I will be doing a couple of posts on the treasures I scored on the trip. What can I say but that I am still in holiday mood and a bit ahem.. relaxed. Plus I think each piece is lovely enough to shine by itself! But for now a couple of quick snaps I took with my iPhone at Graphic Playground of products now firmly on my wishlist..my birthday is getting close.

 

 

Read more

Schedule

Few posts and no schedule during the holidays. Spent time at home, with my kids, alone in my trusty comfy bathrobe, doing nothing and I mean nothing, not even exercising beyond the daily set. Plus all the little things you usually don’t get around to. Fun things like mega cleaning (my shower and kicks are new penny shiny), sewing and paperwork .. oh and the real fun things like getting through my magazine, website and blog backlog and even reading the latest book in my favourite series.

Plus I finally stopped procrastinating and pared my wardrobe way back..all that is left is offloading about 100 pieces but for now they are neatly packed away for the next sprint of time and energy because it took me days to get this far. But now back to business as usual. To kick of the first blogweek of the year, I want to share;

• A daytrip I took to my college town to visit the fashion & design district
• The transformation of my daughter’s room into a space demanding an entry fee and protective gear
• I’ve said it time and time again but I love me some lighting, so here comes another stunner
• A little bit of old/new year inspiration with an art twist

Have a great start to 2015!

Read more

2015

Rang out 2014. So now it is time to ring in 2015. I have no idea if and how I will celebrate its arrival because despite 2014 leaving me stronger, wiser, sexier and a hell of a lot more independent, I’m more than bone dead tired. Seriously I discovered two steel grey patches of hair that I thought was frost but turned out to be ahem my wisdom marks. So I might just stay horizontal and try and find some physical calm before the new year starts.

For 2015 I have no long list of things I want to do or achieve. Like most, I still have most of the list of 2014 left. Yet there are a few things that seem to be floating around in the back of my noggin. And once that happens, I know what comes next..

• Starting with my running. Running is my release, my passion, my thing. I want to work on my arm and foot placement mostly because I want to stop holding back. I know I can go faster. I want to go faster. And I want to go longer. Funny when I started I told the trainer 3km. I now want to do another a second and third 21km in the first half of the year and the 42km, a full marathon distance in the second. I want my speed closer to my original 12 an hour. I want to burn the path beneath my feet as well as bounce a little closer to the heavens with each step.

• For my power yoga I want to not only learn more complex poses, I want to do them the advanced yogi way. I want to find calm in the most uncomfortable of positions. I want that beautiful, tranquil lotus blossom that I can see to be me, always. To see with my third eye; my true eye, my feeling.

• To get where I want to go with my sport, I need to fuel up and that means eating. I developed poor eating habits after moving out from my parents. God, I used to drive my partner slightly deranged because I'd rather not eat than eat something other than what I craved. But more importantly cooking and meals are the way I show I care. Feeder? Guilty. So not having anyone there half the week, means not only is there is no one to say it  but no to do it for and your body adjusts and rapidly so. For a while I kept thinking I needed to turn meals into a practical situation instead of a care instrument but now I think differently. I need to care for me. I feed my soul, now to feed my body. If I can do what I do on a coffee, just imagine... 

• I want a vacation. I haven’t been away for years and never somewhere truly isolated, always urban. I want to go somewhere peaceful, where I can stretch, meditate and run over the hills, down the paths and towards the beauty of the orange glow of sunrise and the red of the sunset.

• The previous points brings me to number four. The last and most important one. The one that encompasses the other three and everything else; love, baby. What else is there?

• 2014 found me love for myself. Only towards the near end of the year did I become the best thing that ever happened to me. That grey patch doesn’t faze me nor the fact that losing ahem my baby fat makes me look older. Those laugh lines only show I live and I embrace my molehills because I worked for it, everyday. I look at my abs first thing each morning and don’t wince for the pain in my knees at night. I am Lisa, hear me roar and purr, strong and soft. I am amazing as is.

• 2014 also strengthened my belief in kindness and so I give more because others showed me how. And I plan on giving more because I more left to give. I think it is time to volunteer my time as well. Actually I would like to do something with cooking, whether as a volunteer or maybe cooking and sharing a meal with those who don't have even half a week.

• It taught me trueness. Friendship is the foundation and friendship is not so much those you smile with, invite into your home, cook for and share moments with. It is for me true when I can share tears and sadness as well and above all when words are not always needed, when there is sense and feeling.

• The past year brought me a deeper lover for being the mom of my two cubs. They make me mama bear, both ferocious and soft, protective and tender. Their love is my reason, full stop!

• I am passionate about my passions because I am a passionate soul. There is a part of me, deeply centred, all the way to the base and never before unfolded as the person I am now. That person, that strong and soft chick, longs for a soul just as passionate, not afraid nor in disdain, not of a spat, the differences, the similarities or of the depths but revels in the beauty found even in the faults and cracks of which I have plenty. I do not believe in the one, nor even in halves completing. I believe in connection. I want  to connect, soul to soul. My run buddy. If not in silent understanding, to run with towards the sunrise, then the reason to come back from the run. I have a heart bigger than my chest and it broke to its depths but guess what? It now beats harder and louder than ever, so much so I can hear it pounding in my ears. It is full with love for design, art, beauty, discovery, strangers, friends, Zoe Isobel & Mika, for life, love and love of live. So maybe the sayings hold true, it is not breaking, it is only expanding. I believe in hearts, more today than yesterday. More this year than the last. 

My 2015 is my heart expanding till there is nowhere left to go but upwards and outwards. The strongest four letters, one for each number in the year. 2015 is love.This year and every year yet to come. For everyone. Happy New Year!

Read more

2014

I have a few design oriented posts planned or at least floating around in my head but since my heart is definitely in the drivers seat at the moment I decided to do two soulful posts as well; 2014 & 2015.

2015 is more than a resolution since it is not a bullet list of things to achieve but before we get to that; 2014, which explains why. I am writing this post at midnight because I feel the most at night. The gift of feeling is not one that comes with great hours. What got me feeling was understanding love, what it means to me. Love is my 2014. Odd as heck to say of the year your relationship and entire foundation dissolves but let me try to explain..

This year I did lose much. Things some might not even realise or value but to me right up there. Innocence, purity of feeling, belief in the neverending, softness. No matter what, deep down, I always believed in ocean depths and trying. All your heart and never give up. I realise now I stopped feeling my feeling awhile back. I put away pureness, special times and noseys. Hid my hurts behind walls of silence, anger and not asking or even expecting. Stop listening to love or even happy songs when that gifted Roxette power ballads CD always made me cry and then smile. Stop watching movies that made me feel love above self exists, not even Disney. Just stopped.

When everything crumbled, when it was just me, I got up and kept going. Getting on with it was the theme for years and so automatic that I never realised the numbness. The doing was great and what I needed. I needed to have to stand on my own, not just as someones shadow or lesser half. I can haul, drill, shovel and anything else that needs to get done. I will continue to run because I am so proud of it. It helped me to feel achievement, something I never owned before despite achieving quite a few things in my life. Those 21 kms, I did that. I did that in seven months. I will do my power yoga and which each pose and each step closer to calm, I feel I can. I can do this, I can live, I can love. I can be. I am no longer afraid, not of the dark, not of being me, of being vulnerable, of feeling. 'Be practical', 'don't be so vague', 'be realistic'. I am more than that. I have a job, a home, two kids and that means practical and day-focused like you wouldn't believe. Yet that practical aspect is balanced by the feeling. Two halves together complete. Yin and Yang.

And so I found what I had put so far away, I forgot how much I needed it because it's me. My heart, my soul, my feeling. Thousandfold greater, for the all the self I found, all the grit, all the strength, all the confidence, all the pain, all the lost, all the (re)discovery. Someone wished me perseverance and strength for 2015 but for me it is love. It is always love. That is what I thought when my little girl said the moment she saw me this morning 'wow, mama, wat ben je mooi'. It was something I wanted to hear so badly at home and she said if for me in my work-out clothes (though I do think I'm smoking in my gear) and ponytails. The same thing I thought the night before as I carried my kids up the stairs to bed one by one and they hold on tighter so I don't let go. Seriously I have to pry them down inch by inch. I love them more now than when they were born. I don't get love at first sight for newborns. I'm sorry they were gross, covered in goo and stuff and I kept thinking ick they put in on my chest.. But how I love them now. My daughter says spontaneously the most lovely things to me and it reminds of a mug I wish I still had 'your soul is a good one, I see it in your eyes'. She is the most beautiful part of me. The mirror in which I wish to see myself. My son is my innocence, his giggle tickles my heartstrings and when he sings at night 'in de maneschijn' I feel that moon's light and I sing back.

The sense of achievement. The depth of feeling. The joy and pureness of my kids. That is what 2014 was about for me. Love; of self, of others of love itself. Love is now what gets and keeps me going. After everything is said and done, after the dust settles, it is always that for me. And so I do have a few songs that both make me smile (Geronimo) and cry (Superheroes, Say something, Beautiful war) because every love story has mountains as well as a few twists and bends. 2014 is my love story. Guess you can figure out what 2015 is built on? Because 2014 it is just the beginning and my heart is my biggest and most valuable possession. My love is not a burden or too large. That too is a gift and I will give it again wholeheartedly to those who treasure it with theirs.

What was your 2014?

Read more

We luv Miffy's house

Christmas week means Christmas break, for adults and kids alike. For us that means a lot of bump on a logness, face stuffing and Christmas movie watching. Don’t forget playing with all the new gifts, including the flipping indoor gym (working on those saltos..) and hide-out. That post is coming soon. 

But to combat the laziness and keep the extra pounds or worse yet kilos to a minimum we did some outings as well. This one was to the Nick Bruna house in Utrecht, who is Nijntje’s/Miffy’s creator. Both my little guy and older girl had a blast and so did I. Of course I picked the day that it snowed..heavily for Dutch standards and so getting there took forever. I was so baked by the time we arrived that I couldn't even remember my bank code to buy the tickets. Luckily there are creditcards. And I remembered the code at the end when the kids picked out, surprisingly handy, things in the giftshop.

It's not a big museum and so probably not work the half a day's travel that we did but even that was fine because no matter how hip and urban you (think) you are as a mom, your bag is still loaded with barbies, dumptrucks, snacks and juiceboxes. Plus I have grade A troopers..who sing the entire way. Did I mention the raging migraine by day's end? But that aside, plus that my car is in worse shape for a tiny parking slip and the fact that Mika's nickname is carry-me boy, it was great. Zoe Isobel gravitated like a magnet to the colouring screen and Mika was conductor for the day as he fell in love with a giant wooden train. We spent most of our time in this room. 

There is also an indoor gym where kids can follow moves being projected and also a more interactive space including a seesaw where Mika promptly got injured (bit lip) but even that never slows my energy balls down. While the other kids went on to the crafting table, mine, my kids plead and beg for more spins in the spinning chairs and pushes on the seesaw. It popped up in my head the outing before and dawned on me today, most people have the common sense to go with multiple adults, especially if you are with multiple kids and especially kids like mine who are typically the most rambunctious of the lot. How did that happen, as a quiet introverted mom? Probably because I love it  and encourage it. But for parents with quieter kids there are also spaces that cater to those needs..needless to say my kids did a beeline around those.

And because I said for Christmas you can eat what you want (never say that to a four year old) we even went through the drive-thru at Mickie D’s, somewhere I never thought I would take my children. Nothing like chicken nuggets and Fristi to round off a nutrition packed week. Heck who cares, it's Christmas! Let the good times roll!

Read more

Tablescape

I showed you my Christmas decor here and here. Here is the final Christmas decor post, scouts honour.

This is our table as pictured on Christmas eve, ready and set for Christmas breakfast. The runner is a piece of crafting paper from the kids supplies cupboard, which I near stamped to death with a mix of Christmas themed stamps in glittery silver and after cutting bows to the ends. The letters are clay cut-outs I made with my daughter (my son was totally not into making any recognisable shapes). The letters then got baked and spray-painted metallic silver. That with the existing flower piece I made earlier with some new lighter blooms, the kids funny 'Domoor' cups and my piggy 'Snout' one and we are good to go for a stylish yet fun Christmas mealtime, starting with breakfast.

Breakfast, hopefully brunch, being full-on and a mix of bricks from my childhood and my kids Dutch one. Poffertjes homemade out of my trusty cast-iron pan. Bacon baked in the oven with a brown sugar glaze, scrambled eggs, fresh-baked croissants and my love of the season; eggnog. Being the cook means an early start after days of prep but that is OK. Because both sayings apply ‘If the kids are happy, then mama is happy’ and ‘if mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy’. This table makes all happy and stuffed.

And then, then it is time for presents! Including the big surprise! Elves move over, this is Santa’s super-helper busting a Christmas old/new-school move.

Read more