Granny squares and a vintage bag.

A friend gave me a big cone with creme soft wool.

When I saw it I thought of a soft baby blanket. So I'm making squares and must say I love doing it. Every spare(??) minute I make another square.

And from the fabric that I bought 2 weeks ago in the second hand shop I made this vintage bag for my shop. You never have enough tote bags I think, they are so use full for all sorts of things.

Time to relax....?

The laundry is finished. Not really because there is always some washing to do but the painting and decoration is done. It looks great and I'm happy with the end result.

It looks fresh and welcoming although it is not my favorite room to be.


My little girl made the curtain in front of the cat door.

I found this piece of driftwood on the beach and with some hooks we made this.

Time to relax.... No , there are heaps of feijoas and I want to make feijoa crumble for dessert and I'm still painting more and more doors.

This is how it all looked before, that's why I don't want to look back.

Little peek

I think I have the best job ever. I'm my own boss ,can have a coffee break whenever I want and can work on my own projects when it is quite in the shop. I have my sewing machine here and this is a little peek of my work.

I'm already started making thing out of the fabric that I bought last week, show you the end results soon.

And Yes we are making a garden room/glass house with the old windows that bought on Trade me (second hand trading , like Ebay). I can't wait the plan is already in my head but we still have to make it. When I close my eyes I can see the tomatoes en grapes growing. I keep you updated.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, My Day.

Monday, my day again. What happened with the time, hours, days , weeks.
Monday, my day off . I'm not talking about my beautiful beach walk and don't show you lovely pictures. You probably have enough off them.
But in between my paint jobs (an other door, a chair, a kids kitchen for the shop and some other bits and pieces) I've been to the beach , to the second hand shop and made some flower arrangements from the last autumn flowers out of the garden.

A few pieces of fabric that I found in the second hand shop. Sometimes when I see a fabric I know what I want to make. So the ideas are there, now some time to make it.

Do you know what our winter project is?

Before and after

A quick post about my basket before and after the paint job.

After.

Have a great weekend!!!!!!!!!

Monday, My Day.

Monday is my day off. After everybody left to go of to school or work I went for my Beach walk. Try to do this every day. I'm in love with the beach.

Some people are lucky to life on the beach.

When I came home I enjoyed a great cup of coffee on the veranda in the sun. I think Autumn is the best season in New Zealand.

My goal is to paint every Monday a door from the hallway. There are 12 doors so this will keep me busy over the winter.

But this looks already great, don't you think so.

While I had my paint brush in my hand I gave this basket a make over. Will show you the result soon.

Time for some lunch with some blogging. We are lucky, the girls have a weekend job at a local cafe/lunchroom and sometimes they bring the leftovers home for us.

For lunch I'm having a feta/pesto/pine nut scone. Normally I have just brown bread with cheese so this was more than delicious.

Happy Mothers day !!

This is how I wrap the presents. I make the bags myself by sewing 2 nice pages of a magazine together. With a sticker from the shop and a ribbon made out of a piece of material it looks great.
All the customers love it and the come back because they love the wrapping!!
Great marketing.

Here are some great mothers day ideas from my shop.

The bath and body range from Cath Kidston.

Greengate.

Wish you all a nice weekend!!

Welcome in my shop, Lovely Living

Here are some pictures from my shop.

A little impression.

I was planning to open my shop in September 2009, but I went back to The Netherlands because my mum was really sick. She still is very sick.

Going back to The Netherlands was the best I did and it gave me a lot of energy to do what you really want because life is to short not to enjoy it.

I opened my shop in October and from the beginning it went very well. I enjoy every minute. It is a lot of work because I work 6 days a week but it is great.

My wish came true!

I make a lot of things myself but buy a lot as well.

I organize craft classes as well, some evenings and sometimes a Saturday afternoon, we call that the crafternoons. I provide every thing they need and coffee/tea and cake and it is always a lot of fun!

Here some pictures from the cushions that I make out of old blankets,they flying out. Sometimes I make them custom made with the name they want on there.

When you are in the area, you are more than welcome to pop in.