decorate

remember last year's washi snowflakes? the genious thing about them is that you can reuse them every year and this is what i did! i so much liked the wreath of last year that i practically replicated it (cf blog entry 12.11.12). to this i added a second mini-wreath that is not shown here (this picture is not of the current window display).

there are so many ways to use the snowflakes, below you will see another decoration i did last january. just hold them against the window pane, wet them with water and they will stick!

2003-2013

dear friends... today it's precisely 10 years since i opened the shop door for the first time!!!

you may wonder why i'm posting a picture of the parquet floor... it's a little nod to the weeks that preceded the shop opening, you will see that this floorboards were quite fought for.    

unfortunately i don't have any pictures from what the shop looked like with my predecessors (it was a far cry from a promissing place!). but i found some pics of the renovation works. it was a rather daunting task, but i vividly remember the joy of it.

small changes

i've taken out the muuto stacked shelf of the shop window and put in room 3 instead. i had to take out my makeshift sofa with the cushions... there's just never enough room!

out of proportion

basically yesterday's still life with some additions.

inspired by a photograph (posted on june 20) i cut a stem of yellow lilies on an outing on sunday and today took one blossom to the shop. love the disproportion of the lily with regard to the small ceramic vase. and yes i like some yellow in small doses!

if you're lucky enough to have a chimney piece at home, that would be an ideal playground.

40x26cm still life

maybe you would find it more helpful if i provided some great solutions to lack of space but unfortunately this is beyond me (i'm doing very poorly at home!)

i'd rather provide you with ideas how to effectively waste space. just for pleasure. for example with a little display of things you like.

flowers around the shop

i don't know about you, but i feel totally excited by the sun and mild temperatures today: spring is in the air!

and it's already friday again... so i leave you for this week with flowers around the shop. lovely stuff made by nature and made by man.

glass, flowers and ceramics

winterdays au boudoir...

the new vases are in (cf post entry 27.01.)and except for one i'm lucky (=happy) with the freeblown vases. the tropical green bottle being one of them. phantastic colour and really thick glass. the ones familiar with the boudoir vases will recognise the white cased vase which is available again for a limited period of time. the mint green one is new. on picture two again a familiar one that i have reordered: the turquoise tube vase (42cm high) with stripes. (for a better view click on pics to enlarge)

i wish i had a peach blossom branche to put in the green bottle vase!

a new perspective...

i have a few more things to do to finish room4 (price tags etc), but the "decision, decision" and "precision, precision" phases are finally over. the challenge now will be to keep the hallway and room4 as it is now and ward off rampant chaos. in short: no easy task! is my shop life really going to change that radically? seem's quite improbable to me...

the good thing is i can always close the door should things get out of hand temporarily.

special day!

not that i'm ready, but this evening room 4 is opening, no matter what! the goods have been sitting in place for over 2 weeks now, but i couldn't get decided on the walls... strange problem you will say and you're completely right!

one lateral wall of the room is almost entirely taken up by a large ikea cupboard with 25 compartments which i inherited from the former tenant of the back appartment. so i was left with two walls and i couldn't make up my mind if to put some wallpaper on display or use one of the large stickers i have. after much to and fro i decided to go for the stickers to keep the room more light. so far so good. it didn't occur to me then that the actual sticking process would take up so much time...
so here we go: room 4 is now officially opened!

on another note: exactly 6 years ago i started this blog and as a little special i'm starting a series "21 q&a" which will become a weekly feature starting from next week. i hope it should last well into autumn and that you will enjoy reading it.

cupboard

hmmm... i can't say i did get much done today. the only real progress to room4 is that i cleaned the window (for the first time in 2 years), with some success you may say as i think there is significantly more light coming in.

so taking advantage of the light and as promised, i have taken a picture of the meanly expensive cupboard. it's now fixed in the corner where the door in the picture of yesterday's post opened.

at the outset, no ace card up my sleeve...

to be honest room4 is only 7.3m2 small and sort of plain and you have to wait for the late afternoon to get some direct light in. hardly any wonder it carved out a misearable existence as a storeroom so far...

so the question is how to add some interest while keeping it light, show a good deal of products, all of that on a low budget.

because the budget i already blew in a major way last autumn when ordering the custom-built cupboard (see post of 21.10.10). so for it to pay off it has to be seen! another incentive to clear room4 and open it to the public.

want to see how the cupboard with the 11 compartment looks fixed and floating in one corner of room4? get a sneek-peak tomorrow.

room 4 improvement

i only just replaced the "for" by 4 in the title and it makes me smile to myself because it's so fitting!

so yes, i have some exciting news: room 4 is nearly there. so nearly there i dare say this time it's going to happen for reals!

still in doubt? keep posted for the countdown next week...

room for improvement (continued)

yesterday first thing at work my computer got infected by a vicious virus and i had to shut it down for the remainder of the day. very funny.

feeling a bit aggressive i did the unthinkable: attack the chaos in future room 4. i don't really know what the chaos theory is about, all i can say is the one i have in room 4 must be the proof of it.

for those not in the know: room 4 was supposed to become part of the shop in autumn 2009. it never made it. in a way that some have come to believe room 4 doesn't even exist at all...

so i attacked. well sort of, as i really only managed to clear the passageway that leads to room 4 by cramming things into room 4. so you might say the chaos in room 4 actually increased.

nevertheless, i'm quite pleased with the result. see picture for a sneak-peek.

in the evening bf fixed my computer (what on earth would i do without him?), so today work as usual resumed. so far, so good, but now, will it take another virus to continue the good deed?

finally...

look closer and you'll see more than the wood bench corroded by leagues of woodworms... yes, the "not so new anymore" pendant lights have finally come out of the closet and have made it straight into the shop window, thank you very much!

arguably, this pendant light is really just a giant bulb with a silicone socket, but hey, it's really cool. especially if you put it near wood as a contrast. the cable is extralong, the idea being that you can make it hang between two points from the ceiling. (look at separate picture below and to see what i mean).

the pendant light is on stock in the colours red, grey, purple, yellow and white. please note that the cable comes in the same colour as the silicone socket.

what's more? i'm afraid this picture is not so good (and the others taken from the outside turned out even worse because of the reflection), the problem is i wanted to show my bespoke mobile too! best as usual to drop by and have a look 1:1.

why?

ok, so this is not new, in fact i made this collage in blue hues nearly two years ago. i really like it so it's practically twisting the knife in the wound to tell you that aside from my cousin (who might be biased) i never got a compliment for it! sigh...

so if you're in the mood for some diy and unafraid to make a fool of yourself: ready, steady, go!

summertime!

today it's official: summer is here! let's hope we'll have plenty of icecream-eating and barefoot-walking...

it is a shame to remain inside the whole afternoon as i do, but since i have room #3 i get some lovely sunbeams in the late afternoon.

today i added this to my playlist: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DBcbZc3ck

play it again

as i'm on my own this week-end and as i've got a lot of new jewellery in lately i thought it was a good moment to re-shuffle my jewellery vitrine.

to take all the jewellery out of the vitrine is done in a minute, but i wanted to line the glassshelves with new paper (a slightly lighter shade of grey than the one i've had for ages now)and it took me 35 minutes on my knees, back bent (cutting, adjusting, glueing, swearing...). then, i don't know how long to put out the new jewellery, still in this very unconfortable position, standing up all the time (rubbing my aching back) to see what it looked like from the front, putting straight all the price tags...

and suddenly it dawned on me that the old paper really looked much better, or didn't it?

shall i rip it all out again and put back the old paper? to ponder on this might take me all week-end!

delivery day

it's always amusing when a big lorry stops in front of my little shop... today it's trolleys, unfortunately you won't get to see them as they have been ordered by clients and will go straight away. but i also went to the post office to get 2 parcels with new jewellery: one parcel from france and one from the uk. Can't wait to unpack!

goodness!

after 7 years of loyal services i thought it was a good idea to send my two presentations blocks of the front room for a much needed lift. not so sure anymore, because now i'm left with this floor!

oh happy day

friends of the boudoir, this evening i feel really elated! the last few days i was forced to clear the future 4th room of the shop. whereby "to clear" is a massive exageration, when i really just managed to shuffle things around. room for my custom-built, corner-hugging cupboard that M&M brought today. it looks phantastic, i love, love it!

keep posted for more pictures as the 4th room is not yet ready to open. (waiting for new pendant lights and oh... remember the re-shuffle didn't really solve the problem #§!%**#!).