Friday 24 December 2010

For you all

a Merry Christmas from us. May you all have a wonderful time with the ones you love, sharing laughter and maybe some tears but always greatfull for being together.

This Maria statue is given to me by old neighbours where it was standing in the garden of their new home. At our place, it stands beside my daughters bed, watching over her when she sleeps. At Christmas times she's standing in the middle of the dinner table surrounded by light.



Thursday 23 December 2010

Party

Yesterday we had the last childrens party of 2010 in our family. Our daughters wish was to do this at the the Hollandse Manege in Amsterdam. Beautiful place & great party.

Flow

Nice, our Add & Edit Notebooks are in the Flow, THE Dutch magazine for a mindfull living full of creativity.

Only sad thing is, we are not mentioned as the ones who designed it & making them by hand. Only Skoon Ecodesign, an excellent online shop who sells them.

Anyway, it's always nice to see your products promoted! And just to remember you, we also offer this as a possibility for our Add & Edit Notebooks.


Takes my breath

For the very first time in 41 years I found a couch that takes my breath away, what a beauty! Apparently this is what happens when you mix India & Scotland. By the designersduo Doshi & Levien.



Sunday 19 December 2010

Not cold enough?

This would be lovely in summer, but we want the ICE CREAM BOMBE as a Christmas dessert!






Recipe via: BBC good food

Getting acquainted

Did I tell you that my husband got me a huge present last week, the Macbook Pro, yes, yes, yes, he did! You can imagine how happy I am. I don't know if any of you share the same problem as I have, meaning having troubles buying these pretty costly things for myself. If it were up to me, my precious Macbook should at least have waited for another six months to find its way home to me.

Were getting used to each other, like all new relationships one shouldn't be too eager. So we're taking it slow, only a few hours a day, no sleeping over yet. For making it feeling welcome, I made my new baby a nice cover, a special one of a baby blanket a client once gave to me.

Friday 17 December 2010

Rocking Christmas songs

This week some rocking Christmas songs, actually except for Mariah Carey (sorry, but I'm only allowed to play her on Christmas at home, restricted to once a day, so forgive me).


Photograph via henk jan van der klis

Trying to get somewhere

Bummer

Its not my day, I've spend an hour making nice photographs of the Christmas decoration at our place. And while trying uploading them on the computer, the disk was empty, it doesn't work anymore!! So my Iphone & Hipstamatic followed, but its poor.


Anyway, last year I created a tree of boxes filled with old mostly handmade Christmas cards, fabrics, embroidery, photographs etc. Some of them you have to look through the holes, some have windows and most of them are filled with ledlights. It really looks nice, if only I could use my Nikon to give you a good impression.

Saturday 11 December 2010

Friday 10 December 2010

Result

Well, meet the pink barbie cake in a dress of marzipan & sweet sprinklers. I must say, it turned out pretty good given the fact that I can only make apple pie from a package or an extremely well Maitre Paul from the freezer.

And lets just pretend she's kneeling down, for the queen or something, otherwise she would have very short legs (none actually as I torn them of).

Leftovers

Baking is not my thing, but with two birthdays in a row I can't make the same easy recipe twice. These are the leftovers for the one in the oven at this very moment. Some spare legs anyone?

Wednesday 8 December 2010

So nice!

It's a shame, I can't spend any more money! But I still have this on my wishlist for Christmas, so pretty. I also know where I want to place it, in my new to be re-furnished, re-designed garden house, soon to be transformed into my palmistry practice. Wouldn't you just feel happy by looking at it.



For sale at: Simply Hue

This weeks favourite band

Golden Oldies Chaps, The Byrds


Photograph via: KEXP

Monday 6 December 2010

Only two days

It was only two days in Hamburg, Germany, but so much can happen in 48 hours. We were received at the hotel by this enormous but friendly smiling Steiff bear. The hotel was full of Christmas decoration and the snow outside was the finishing touch. Looking so much better than the ordinary snow spray, really Astrid, don't know how you pulled that together :).


The first evening we were invited for the Opening Night of Sister Act. A bright & swinging musical. Honestly, when you're feeling depressed, go there, it's an absolute party! Isn't this a wonderful picture of Whoopi (co-producer) & the leading lady of the show? For more: Sister Act

I remember going to the World premiere of Sister Act in London in June 2009, a similar wonderful evening, different temperature though! But through my eyes, not being an expert on this, I would say the show even improved since then.  World premiere June 2009 London


We all know, and in case you didn't, now you do, the Germans are big fans of Christmas. They decorate everything, in style I must say & have Christmas markets with loads of people actually standing outside chatting & having fun. Never got the part of having fun in the cold, but that's me. It must be said Hamburg looked like a fairytale, it was a joy and extremely difficult NOT to spend huge amounts of money.


One more thing. At the superb Christmas dinner I learned that one of the guests,  which I know for almost 10 years now, opened a shop full of delicacies. Mostly German, based on grandmothers recipes. You can visit it online, but also in Hamburg. So, if you're still looking for that special Christmas present for mom or dad, hurry! My Supper

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Toffee & Advent Calender

I'm an absolute fan of online magazines. Why, well 1) environmental reason like less paper which also means for me 2) more space available in my house as I have a difficult time throwing magazines away. 3) Print only what you really want and simply read everything on your computer. I wish, wish, wish we would have them more over here.

I believe it was last month that a new Australian online magazine called Toffee came out. I meant to write about it, but simply forgot. Absolute adore this Advent Calender which you can print for yourselves as soon as you bought yourself a copy, believe it was 2.99 Australian dollars for the whole magazine at Toffee


The influence of..

Look, even 'zwarte Piet' is transformed in a Little Pet Shop mega head figure.Looks like we're finally beyond the Disney princess phase, it's still wearing a dress though. Wonder what 's next.


By Tinker

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Wouldn't this look nice...

on the Christmas dinner table? Wondering how they did it, can't be too difficult, right?


via Willow Street

If I was a little boy..

...than I would ask Sinterklaas or Santa for these.

By Floris Hovers

Via Frozen Fountain

Monday 29 November 2010

Dutch recycling with a twist

We love things made out of materials that are no longer used for what they originally were designed for. Marnix Kleefmann is one of those people who sees and creates completely new objects out of the ordinary stuff.

Can you imagine going up to your grandmothers attic finding these old everlasting indestructible Brabantia bread bins, and you remember that your mother use to have the same one, rush over to her place, pick it up and just before you want to go home, you'll drop by your neighbour for a cup of coffee and there you spot your third similar bread bin. But, your neighbour doesn't want to separate from it because she feels its a very useful bread bin. You decide to make deal, you'll buy her a brand new modernly designed upper class super deluxe extremely expensive bread bin. But HEH, it's worth it, because now you can make your own Brabantia cabinet.

Sorry got carried away. Have a look at Marnix-rated

Sunday 28 November 2010

and the winner is...

As there were so many participants for this weeks giveaway, we thought it would be wise to have a solicitor present & have the drawing on record.




And the winner of this wonderful 2011 Liefgoed agenda is: Marietta Harjono YEAH! Congratulations Marietta! We'll get you a sealed copy over to your place as soon as possible.

Saturday 27 November 2010

Looks like...

...we've found the right school for our kids. Time to move! Make no mistake, we love the school the kids are right now, only problem, it's not in Bali.

Friday 26 November 2010

This weeks favourite artists

Kings of Leon


Photograph via Citypaper

Ny-Na, One of these places!

Once a month we like to highlight one of the shops that sell our products & have some more inside information about the people who own them. All of the places that sell our products are selectively picked by ourselves as we want to keep them as exclusive as possible.

This month, Ny-Na at St. Jacobsstraat 11, in Leeuwarden. Ny-Na sells our postcards for a long, long time now.
Hope you enjoy!



Who is Ny-Na & what was your motivation for starting the shop?
We are Nynke and Anna, together we form Ny-Na, started 14 years ago in Leeuwarden because we thought that this small city could use some colours and craziness. The things we sell are something completely different what Leeuwarden is used to.

Your favorite article all times in the store
Our favourite article changes every month, it depends on what new stuff we find(like the Liefgoed cards they are amazing), it could be the Mexican altars, lucky charms and right now we have some awesome self-made puppets from local artists.

The worst day of the week & why
We don't have a special worst day but every quiet, rainy day seems the worst hahaha

Your biggest wish for this coming year
Now that the crisis is more or less over we hope that all the small businesses pick up and of course we hope that Ny-Na will become the most popular giftshop in Leeuwarden! Peace, love and happiness would be cool too.

You sell Liefgoed products because…
The cards from Liefgoed fit perfectly in Ny-Na, they are beautiful made, nostalgic and funny just like we are!

Sunday 21 November 2010

yes yes Giveaway!

Our giveaway is this Liefgoed agenda 2011! Only five test copies are being made & YOU can be one of these five people. All you have to do is retweet and let us know you did, or, for the people not on twitter, shoot us an email (on the right under Contact).

What's story?
Maybe you remember me telling you that my husband was quite annoyed by the fact that he couldn't find a suitable family agenda. Not big enough, no room for extra notes etc. etc. Our species know that a well organized schedule is essential for a happy life, so 2 weeks ago I started designing our own agenda.

It's big, almost A4 size. Has 5 columns for five people. Lots of space notes & the inspirational thoughts every week! Every week another theme. It's filled with old postcards, pictures and Liefgoed designs. Of course this copy has some themes related to our personal live, like the week with the bride & groom is related to our wedding date. The dog theme = birthday of our dog, the car = my husbands beloved old car.

Last Thursday I printed our own copy and it looks even nicer than I thought.
When I visited a new client she saw this agenda and said 'Why don't I have this? I want this!'. Sorry it's not in print for now, we're just too late.

At the pictures below you'll see columns with our names in it, but no worries, your copy will be without them. Oh, almost forgot, everything is in English.

There's 1 tiny thing we want from you, just tell us after using, what you liked, disliked, missed or what could be better. You can do that, right?

Next Sunday we'll let you know who the winner is.










My photo
A brand born from the creative minds of two friends, Joyce & Monique. Sharing their imagination, using the old, mixing it with the new, creating a product which is sweet 'lief' & good 'goed'. Sweet in the sense you want it, good in the sense: good for the environment. This blog is about what inspires us, things we love & updates. Thanks for coming around. *********************************************************************** What else? Well Joyce is married, having two small childeren, and one large one, a cat, has her own palmistry practice. Hates cooking but realizes its a necessity having a family. Vegetarian. Loves Bali & can't wait to move there permanently. Monique has two dogs and two chicken who refuse to do their job. Works at a financial advising agency. Is dieing to come back to Amsterdam. Drives a very cool cabrio, adores the sun and long walks on the beach. Likes gardening (minus the worms). She does like cooking (that's why she picks the recipes). Loves Pearl Jam, but Joyce refuses to have that on the blog.