dining table

My dining table has been with us for a long long time. And over the year it has been one of my favorite places to use for my pictures, You can almost say it was part of my photo "studio"

I showed you my coffee and tea moments on it

Sometimes even while I was poring it  ;)

There were sweets on it occasionally, 

and a whole lot of dinners and good conversations took place here. Of course a pretty table setting could always count on a picture.

It was part of all seasons activities , such as birthdays, Christmas and Easter

Both sides were used to show the world all sorts of my stills  

but I have to admit the left side was always favorite

mainly because of the big garden doors on the left which makes that the light is always the most moody on that side and I prefer that with the grey background.

so it's always been a much used place to take my Instagram pictures, especially the floral ones.

I even did my first (and only one ever) selfie and introduced myself to you while sitting at the table (not noticing than that the lamp above made it look as if I had a silly hat on!)

But now the time has come that my table and me will have to part. After our home renovation is finished it's place will be taken by a new one.  (If you are interested in her just sent me an email)

Luckily enough I have loads of pictures to remember it by. 

♥

Dinner with Kinto

Some time ago I bought myself some aqua culture vases and that's when I discovered the Japanese brand Kinto (wrote a blog post about it which you can find here). 

Looking at their website I came across some wonderful tea and coffee items and I was especially impressed by their ceramics. Love the minimal look and design of it. When I posted some pictures of their vases on Instagram I came in contact with Kinto Europe and they offered me to try some of the items from the new NORI collection from Kinto. I choose the grey and black colors (who would have guessed!) but it's also available in white and pink. When they arrived at my home I couldn't wait to use them and I came to the conclusion that the NORI bowls and cups where even prettier than I expected. For the pictures below I did some styling with them and they make a lovely table setting.

So now we have dinner with Kinto every once in a while.

♥

winter vacation

On this years first day with a temperature above 20 degrees C it's very strange to imagine that these where my views just a week ago went we spent Easter 2018 in the snow of Austria. I can assure you, even though it was Spring already, there was more than enough of it. Id did make some beautiful pictures though.

Okay, that's all folks. Now let's enjoy  S P R I N G T I M E  to the fullest!

♥

Simple Easter DIY

My yearly Easter deco isn't as exuberant as at Christmas time, but I try do do a little bit of it every year. This year I wanted to decorate some Easter Branches, but in my style, monochrome. 

You probably know by now I'm not that colorful. So here's what I did.

Over the year I gathered some feathers which I found in my garden. I sticked them on a piece of card board with some wasi tape all neatly in line.

Next I covered them up with some paper, but let the top of the feathers stick out like this

Now the fun part. Spray Paint!  Of course you can use any color you want, I went for gold.

O, please take your feathers outside before you start spraying ;)

Take of the paper carefully and you see a perfect straight line! Just wait for them to dry now.

All dried, I love how they look so we can go on with our diy

And that's not hard also, just hang them randomly in the branch. I used some flower wire which I attached to the pin of the feather and then bend it into a small hook.

For the final result I added some plastic eggs which I wrapped into white blotting paper and finished off with some rope.  Et voila!

All prepared for Easter now ♥

Tulips

I've always had this thing with tulips. They come in so many colors and shapes, but I'm very particular in the of color I do and don't choose. I'm not the kinda "let's take 'm all" kinda girl, more of the one color at a time, mainly white, a few or a big bunch. They are really photogenic and I've used them for that in all kind of ways and in different moods.

In my flatlays for example, to bring some color to it, and the green always accentuates so nice with the white.

Love it when they stand up straight with their bulbs showing ...

But even more when they hang!

And sometimes I make them swirl, as if they dance behind the glass.

They can be portrait light and bright ...

or in a dark grey background depending on the mood I'm in.

And I'm not only buying them for myself, I like to give them away too. So here you are, you can pick your own favorite 

#givingyouaflowerpic

project floor

This is how the current situation is, looking from my dining room into the living room.  From the start I had a problem with the floor, especially with the one in the living room, I don't like the color and the raw structure (I've worn out numerous mops) but especially because it are rather small tiles which gives it a very busy effect. But also the choice of the previous owners to have two different materials in each of the rooms wasn't to my liking although I liked the wooden floor.

True, you could say it are two different rooms, but as a chamber en-suite it also makes it one living space, and the wood next to the stone adds to the busy feel I get of it.

So you might ask why didn't we change that right away. Well because of several reasons.

Budget: a week after we bought this house the economical crisis started. We were at that point the lucky owner of two houses (auch!)  It wasn't sure anymore if we would sell the other house soon and for a good price so we decided to cut on our budget just to be safe. 

Preference: We didn't agree on how or what we wanted it at that time.

Momentum: When we finally sold the other house, this one was rebuilt and painted and we already had moved in. We didn't want to start all over again and the thought of living in a mess for months...

So we left it at that, but it was always one of the thing we wanted to change....someday...

And now, 9 years later, we thought it was about time to finally make a start with our project floor. 

After long conversations, much time spent on the internet and talking to all kind of specialist we finally decided to go for a real concrete floor in the living- and dining area so it will look and feel as one space. I like the fact that it's a natural and sustainable material. 

Here's a few examples of the look we're going for. Pictures all found on Pinterest

So in a few weeks my house will look like a construction site, we'll have dust everywhere, have to live in the kitchen and upstairs, but we won't mind that at all (cough) because we can't wait to see the final result. I'll keep you posted.

Oh and yes we know that concrete can give cracks, but we don't mind, it only adds to the natural look. And if ever there is a crack we can always make it look like this, as a little artpiece ♥

Seam (gold leaf in concrete, 2007), Catherine Bertola; 

image courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Hello Lumio

Wondering what Lumio is? I'll tell you, Lumio is

“The Most Beautiful Book You’ve Never Read”

 and let me tell you why. I came across it online last year and was impressed immediately by its clever design for which they won several prices.

In case you are still wondering ... it's not a book ... but it's a lamp!

When you open the cover, just like a book, this is what you see, stunning isn't it. And you can use it on a numerous varieties, check out some of them below. 

You can even hang it!

And when it's dark and you open the book this is what you see.

Magical isn't it. 

Can't wait to take it into my garden this summer. 

If you want to see more of it you can go here and untill the end of March you get a 10% discount when you use the code KAATJECOM10.