There are 3 main themes for their new collection, and I’m pretty sure that will see more of these trends in the upcoming season. First, there is the “wood and denim” theme, second – the deep purple motif, and third – the classic white for china:
The Autumn will start officially in just a few days, so it’s high time to take a look at what my favourite interior design brands have created for their fall collections. Let’s start with the Dutch Riverdale: Joy of Living, which, as always, does not disappoint. There are 3 main themes for their new collection, and I’m pretty sure that will see more of these trends in the upcoming season. First, there is the “wood and denim” theme, second – the deep purple motif, and third – the classic white for china: And here are a few shots of what Riverdale proposes to decorate our houses with this Autumn; you can fin more at www.riverdale.nl .
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OK, time to think abort something creative and fun :-) What about a spin in a huge bubble which floats and wobbles on water? Ever heard about it? I saw it for the first time last month at one of the outdoor festivals organised in the park surrounding Kasteel de Haar, near Utrecht. Didn’t have a chance to try it though, and I wish I had – sure looked like fun, with a bit of adrenaline thrown in.
The basic idea is as follows: you’re put into a big, transparent, rubber-like bubble and once you’re inside the bubble is pushed onto the water surface. You keep trying to stand up, but the gravity and other forces of physics get in the way so you end up falling down on your face or your butt in a number of creative ways ;-) Now that I think about it, is seems a bit masochistic when described like that, but look at the photos – fun, eh? ;-) Phase I of my big move is officially over (phase I - getting all our stuff and furniture packed and shipped, and the apartment cleaned) and phase II is about to begin this weekend (phase II - unpacking all our stuff and furniture, and cleaning the new apartment…). So I’m snatching moments from this dreary reality and, in order to try to stay sane, I’m escaping into my “creative land.” This time I did some more work on this year’s Keukenhof photos, preparing a collection of shots overflowing with tulips from top to bottom – enjoy!
Another Spring spent in Holland means – not surprisingly – another visit to the Keukenhof garden with my photo camera. I think I’ll never have enough of tulip photos – there’s so many kinds of them and they look so amazing on photos that I just keep shooting! This year – as those who live here know very well – the Spring has been a bit late in coming, especially when it comes to warm temperatures. So when I went to the Keukenhof at the end of April, half of the tulips was in bloom and the other half was just beginning too – while last year, about the same time, many tulips were already past their blooming period. So this time I got a chance to take some shots of not-yet-opened tulips – and some of them looked very creative indeed. I almost froze my fingers off – the temperature and wind outside were freezing – but I’d say it was worth it – here is the selection of this year best photos! I think everyone has heard at some stage in their lives that babies are brought by a stork. The story itself might not be very creative, but the Dutch took it further than the others and created a 3D stork window decoration ;-) When I moved to the Hague, I noticed that some of the windows in the city had a "bird butt" sticking out of them, with some artificial break lines made from black tape around it. Initially, I thought it's a joke, a fun gadget of sorts - a bird landing which has gone wrong. But then it finally hit me - it was the baby-delivery stork! A window decoration people put out when a baby is born, and it turned out that it consists of two parts. The back one you put on the outside and the other which you paste to the inside of your window (as shown on photos below). Cute, fun and creative way to say to the world that your family has expanded ;-) In Dutch it's called a "3D Ooievaar," and you can buy it e.g. here. And they also come in pink and blue , for girls and boys respectively, and of course they're waterproof ;-) Meet the “Bad Hair Day” duck – a new photo trophy in my bird photo collection. Officially it’s called the Tufted duck, but I think my name fits better ;-) It has this one tuft of feathers at the top of its head that tends to stand up when it wakes up – substitute feathers by hair, and you get a problem well known to at least 90% of the human female population ;-) While the other ducks tend to have an ADHD syndrome and keep moving around too much for a good photo, this one seems to be more stationary by inclination – but it tends to fall asleep exactly in the middle of every lake, thus without a good zoom lens, you won’t get much... An interesting challenge it is :-) A few weeks ago the Darling Market in Rijswijk held the CreaWeekend event – the fairs for all creative hobbies such as scrap booking, card making, memory boxes, decoupage, jewellery making or patchwork. For those who have a passion for one or more of these, the fairs are a fantastic place to be and even a more fantastic place to do major shopping for craft materials. Since I do enjoy the creative tinkering and the weather that weekend was (what a surprise…) not very inviting for outdoor adventures, I visited the fairs. The sheer number of gizmos which exist only for the sake of all these crafts is amazing, and the hundreds of stalls selling thousands of papers, cut-outs, flowers, rub-ons, stickers, stamps, boxes, materials, beads etc was enough to make you dizzy. Nevertheless, I did manage to enjoy it, did some sporadic shopping (always good) and took part in a very interesting workshop. There was this one stall which was slightly different than the others – the Natural (Natuurlijk) one. It was selling a range of natural materials – such as a variety of tree boughs, dry flowers and grasses – to be used to make canvas arrangements. It looked quite original, so I signed up for the workshop, and an hour later, after some very creative and pleasant tinkering, I ended up with a lovely arrangement of my own – see the result on the photos! Definitely a creative way to decorate a wall, or a great idea for a gift. Check out the shop’s website at www.natuurrlijk.nl for more inspiration. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present you the newest addition to my bird photo collection – the abstract looking duck-relative called the Smew ( in Dutch it goes by a cute name of Nonnetje, and in Polish by equally cute name of Bielaczak). Small, agile, with a flamboyant tuft on its head and a black patch around the eyes, it looks a bit like a tiny dressed-up super hero! ;-) Enjoy the photos. Remember when I introduced you to a James Bond sleek model of a duck? Well, a few days ago I came upon a few of them on a pond in Rotterdam, and there was a vicious battle going on for the two present ladies. Let me remind you , these are the James Bond ducks - or what the scientists call the Common Eiders - but I like my name better! ;-) The battle for the James Bond’s girl is, of course, quite vicious. It starts with the males lifting their heads up, inflating their throats to the size of a small balloon and emitting a truly disturbing gurgling sound – it looks something like this (sorry, I have no audio for this…): When it finally comes to battle, it’s quite a vicious one – not like the playful chasing and butt-pecking of the Mallard ducks which I’ve already written about once. I only managed to get one shot – see how much water gets stirred up when two ducky Bonds fight! The winner of the fight proceeds to perform a ritual washing, which looks like this: And after this fast freshening-up he’s ready to take the place at the girl-trophy's side - looking all smug and satisfied. A truly James Bond coup!
Have you ever heard of IJmuiden? No? Well, I’m not really surprised, it’s not exactly on the list of Top-25 places to see in the Netherlands. I went there last Saturday only because it’s supposed to be a good birding spot, but unfortunately the birds failed to turn up :-( Still, I’m very happy I went there, even though the moment I got off the bus I had an impression that I’ve just found the Dutch “middle-of-nowhere” – there was not one person in sight! Well, they don’t know what they’re missing - there’s a gorgeous, huge beach, a picturesque yacht port and of course Zuidpier – a 2,5km long pier you can walk along all the way till the end. Huge industrial ships are passing by, sailing into the inland harbor port. Next to the beach is a large park with a lake and extensive dunes – great walking and water sports area. See for yourself! |
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August 2012
AuthorA fiery red head, a writer and a photographer in love with beautiful design and all things creative |