Swans

Or should I say a lonely swan. At first there was a swan couple, I reckon the same couple who last year raised their chicks here, just across the street from us. However, couple of weeks ago the other swan disappeared. No idea what happened to it. Hope there will be a happy ending and we will get to see another set of chicks this year.

Bedroom update

Ever since we bought the old mahogany mirror to the bedroom I have been looking for a matching lamp. In this case the modern silver lamp did not go at all. We found this old lamp from a small second hand shop in Haarlem. It needed a new lampshade and a new cord and now it fits perfectly (we still need to hide the cord a bit).

Snowy Easter

This Easter had a surprise in store; snow and hail. It has been the coldest Easter for 40 years! I am gutted. I hope our garden has not suffered too much and all the budding leaves and flowers will survive this...

Slow motion

Currently everything seems to move in slow motion. We have not made any progress with our dining room or bathroom projects. Patience is required. At least our kitchen has gone through some changes in the form of new freezer, fridge and cooker. But that is hardly exciting, just practical. And some outdoor painting has taken place. I will show results later (it was too rainy today).

Something old, something new

Here is our old 1920's kitchen again from another angle. The open shelf is a new addition, made by my father-in-law. The chef of the house (my boyfriend) likes it as everything is in easy grasp. I like the original tiled sink. Even the cupboards underneath are from the 1920's. Not always as practical as modern ones would be but my boyfriend wants to keep them and when it comes to the kitchen, he is the boss ;-)

Pottery perfect

Yesterday we visited our local antique shop again and this pottery vase was one of the things I ended up taking home with me. I picked it up (it is surprisingly heavy) and could not let go anymore :-) It is not antique though, as it was made in 1978. I like its simple shape and beautiful earthy colours.

Our view

This is the view from our house. Currently the field is filled with small narcissus. Last year it was hyacinths and before that, tulips. The "flower show" only lasts for about 4 weeks. It is a bit short but we enjoy every moment of it.

Ceramic art

This small piece of ceramics is by a Dutch ceramics artist Marieke van Katwijk. She held an exhibition together with my father-in-law and we spotted this piece at that exhibition. We did not have any ceramics art yet, so I thought this would be a nice addition. I like its natural colouring and the shape, which is almost fossil like.

A small paint job

We thought this dark brown bathroom sign was no good, so decided to give it a lick of paint and voila, perfect! Now we just need to to tackle the rest of the bathroom... and that is a little bit bigger job.

Pure white

This pretty white bowl comes from a Fair Trade shop. It is very simple, but the pattern gives it some interest. In general, when I use white around the house I like to use different textures, patterns and shades.
Our house will never be completely white (my boyfriend already gets nervous when he is holding a glass of red wine in our living room), but it will definitely be a lot lighter and brighter than it used to be once we are finished with it.

Cherry blossoms

We have had sunshine, rain and hail this week, and in many parts of The Netherlands also snow (gladly no snow where we live, yet). Even though we have had some hail, it has still been so warm and sunny that our Japanese cherry tree is already blooming and looking very pretty indeed. It stands on one of the sunniest spots in our garden and is obviously loving it :-)

Chinese table

We spotted this folding table at Hoet's Antiek and my boyfriend was instantly smitten by its lovely three dimensional decoration. Table had just arrived and the antique shop owner had not had time to do any restoration yet. We took it as it was and hence got it with a good price. We call it Chinese but I reckon it has rather been influenced by Chinese designs than actually being a real Chinese piece. I'm not an expert though.

Previous owner pretty much destroyed it by keeping (by the looks of it) plant pots on top of it. The water leaked through the pots and damaged the surface. I can not understand how someone can be so silly and ruin a beautiful piece of furniture. We keep a bowl or a large tea light holder (no water!) on the worst damaged spot.