New York

Last October we visited New York. For me it was the first time. We were there for 6 nights, though we found that this wasn't long enough to visit the whole of New York. We've already planned our next trip :). I've just finished editing my pictures (shamefully late I know).

Here are some of the pictures I took:

The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.


I love these signs which you will find everywhere. Especially the One Way signs.



Some colorful Obama art which we found in East Village. Here you can find tattoo and piercing shops or you can book for a psychic reading. We've also found a Belgian 'frituur' in East Village where they sell the original Belgian fries.



Brooklyn Bridge which we've walked across and the took the subway back to Manhattan. The skies that day were beautiful.

In this collage you can see on the left the Chrysler building and the view of Manhattan on top of the Empire State building. On the right you can see ground zero and some of the beautiful houses in Soho.

Atlas statue at the Rockefeller Center, memorial globe WTC, Brooklyn bridge and Confucius at Chinatown.

Saint-Patrick's cathedral, the Flat Iron building, an unknown building, the Chrysler building.



Some more impressions of New York.

A new year ... a new blogpost

Happy new year to you all!!

I've been neglecting my blog due to a lack of spare time. But I'm back (at least I will try to be here more often)!!

Here are some new designs that you can find in my shop.

My new 'Unwritten' earrings:



These 'Tiny roses' earrings:



My 'Falling leaf' necklace:



And last but not least, this beautiful 'Secret garden' ring:

Picture

Week three.

This week our EST challenge is hosted by Antigoni, the winner of last weeks challenge. For this weeks challenge, she picked not a color and not a theme. Instead she gave us an inspiring picture. Looking at this picture, I decided I had to make something using vintage components. I still had these lovely vintage Indian charms lying around screaming at me to be used. I kept the design simple because these matte brown charms speak for themselves. So these charms were hung from handmade oxidized sterling earwires. I can only make three pairs of these earrings and will keep one pair for myself (*yay*). So if your interested, be quick!! You can find these earrings here.

Here's the picture taken by Antigoni:


Here's what I made, my lovely Indian bells:


Check out the other entries here.

Summer

Week two.

This week our EST challenge is hosted by Nanouke, this winner of last weeks purple challenge. For this weeks challenge, she picked not a color, but a theme, namely summer. When I think of summer, blossoming flowers and nature are the first things that come to mind. Sunny wheather and vacation are next on the list. So for my design I used soft colors and an all time favorite of mine, glass Czech flowers. Here's what I made:




These earrings are available in my shop. You can find the other entries of my team-members here.

I'm already looking forward to next weeks challenge!!

Shop update

It's been a while since I listed some new designs into my shop. It's not that I've not been creating, but the poorly weather has not allowed me to take pictures outside. The coming days these and some others new designs will find their way into my shop. Here's a little sneek preview of what you can expect. Including amongst them is my design for the purple challenge of our EST-team.

This is my favorite newcomer. I named these earrings faded roses. They have a sort of antique feel to them.

Scandinavia Part Two: Sweden

The second country we explored, was Sweden. We got there by driving over the toll bridge (Öresundsbron) that forms the connection between Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö (Sweden). The entry in Sweden was more hectic then our entry in Denmark because we had to cross some big cities first. After about an hour driving in Sweden we got back in touch with nature. The weather was great and we could first experience the lack of natural darkness (so much for buying a brand new flashlight just before leaving ;) ). It was hard falling a sleep while it was still light outside. Our bodies felt just a bit confused. On the upside, the days were long so we could undertake lots.



What I liked the most was exploring this long and narrow island called Öland and the region around lake Siljan. We visited Öland just before the holiday season started in Sweden. And this was a good thing because apperently loads of Sweeds spend their holiday in Öland. The environment their is still a bit ancient, rough and untouched. You can still find some little shops/stalls their with just a piggy bank but no shop keeper. You're expected to take what you want (homemade honey, lettuce, flowers, ...) and then leave your money for the shop owner to pick up later. We also saw many windmills there and loads of wooden red houses.



In the region around lake Siljan we picked up some original Swedish bread straight from the factory (knäckebröd) and we learned how they make the traditional Dala horses (like the grey one in the pictures above). We visited Orsa in the hope of spotting a bear, but we didn't see any.

Scandinavia Part One: Denmark

For about two weeks we (= my partner, myself and our two adopted dogs) visited Scandinavia, well part of it to be more accurate. We left in Belgium with a fully loaded car and were eager to discover these countries which we didn't know a lot about. We skipped Finland, but tried to explore the other three countries a bit.

Today I will start with the first Scandinavian country we visited, Denmark. In our traveling guide Denmark was described as the cheapest but also the least Scandinavian country. But I loved it! As soon as we entered the country I was impressed by the amount of nature that surrounded us. The roads were calm and only a few houses here and there. The villages we visited were beautiful and many houses had a medieval feel to them. Not many people were around though, especially after closing hours. Our first night was spend on an island called Romo connected to the rest of Denmark by a long bridge. Sleeping with the dogs in one tent was quite a challenge as they tried to extend their territory. The first night was not one of much sleep.


Roskilde as well as Copenhagen must have been my two favorite cities. I also collect snow globes of the different countries we visited and in Copenhagen I found one featuring the beautiful Nyhavn area. It is a lively area with loads of colorful houses and a little harbor. Also Hans Christian Andersen used to live here. In Copenhagen we also saw the statue of the little mermaid (paid for by the Carlsberg brewery). We only stopped there for a little while because it was such a big draw for all the tourists, that it was a bit too crowded. The most impressive statue however were the four men looking at the sea.