mimosa all over the place

Yellow puffs of fluff brighten up the house.

One bunch of mimosa divided over several vases, ergo mimosa all over the place.

fritillaria

Friday morning, 26th of February

Sunshine and fritillaria in da house, an announcement of spring.

Fritillaria are my all time favorite spring bulbs!

The delicate checkered pattern of the flowers, absolutely artwork.

friday morning

Friday morning.

Together at the kitchen table, Henk working from home and i'm having a day off.

We are already quite used to it, although for me it is less drastic because I still go to work at Villa Augustus 3 days a week.

The desk in the living room we hardly ever use.
I always like to sit at the kitchen table, which now is Henk's office during the day.

Especially in the morning when the sun is shining it's a lovely space, and Henk allows me to sit at his desk haha...

This morning i was working on assembling the new loopy patchwork pillow i've made this week.

We drink coffee together and both do our own thing. We're glad we have adult children and no home schooling at the kitchen table.

home-grown aubergine recipe

For dinner we had home-grown aubergine from the oven with curry, walnuts and honey.

A very simple vegetarian recipe for a quick surprise dinner. It looks exotic and oriental and has a very special taste.

Combine an aubergine with curry, walnuts and honey to get a real taste explosion. It takes only 10 minutes to prepare and the oven does the rest of the work. Serve it as a starter, side dish or lunch.

Ingredients for 2 people:

- 2 aubergines
- walnuts
- 2 cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- honey
- lemon juice
- curry
- salt
- black pepper

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Oven time: 1 hour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Wash the aubergines, pat them dry and cut them lengthwise into thin slices and put them in a greased baking dish.

Brush the aubergines with olive oil and drizzle the honey and lemon juice over the top. Cut the garlic cloves into slices and divide them over the tops.

Finally, walnuts, curry, pepper and salt over the aubergines and put the baking tin in the oven. Bake the aubergines for about 1 hour. Keep a close eye on the aubergines during that time. If they get too brown on top, cover them with aluminum foil.

Meanwhile set the table attractively, because with a nicely set table, everything tastes even better!

PS: Last week I made a Moroccan Zaalouk salad with the first harvested aubergines.

change of scenery

Change of scenery in our kitchen.

A tulip dining table and houseplant wall. We 'replaced' our long table and bench with Moroccan bread baskets.

Since the children both moved to their own homes, we sometimes felt a bit lost at our super long canteen table, which can accommodate 10 people. After three days breakfast and dinner at the round table in our apartment at Baixa House in Lisbon, we agreed we should have a round table in our kitchen.

I've always enjoyed dining at a cozy round table, but I did not want to say goodbye to the vintage Belgian canteen table and because of it's size (2.40 X 0.80m), it was not an option to store it elsewhere in the house. The xxl table has found a good destination at my colleague, who is now very happy with it.

I found a splendid round tulip table with a diameter of 1.20 meter, which also still fits 6 chairs if necessary.

We exchanged the white wooden chairs for two vintage garden chairs from the front garden, an old steel patio chair, we once found at a Spanish flea market and our Bertoia chair.

The new table brings a completely different atmosphere and the kitchen is much more spacious this way.

The plates on the serving cart are re-organized and the Moroccan (bread)basket collection is now displayed on another table in the kitchen.

And we found a second-hand Dutch design cross light lamp by Melis & Oostrom above the dining table.

On the table a Bordallo Pinheiro fish vase from our Portugal road trip 2017 with garden flowers.

Because there is still space for another plant on the plant bench, we adopted a chain cactus.

Usually the interior at some points have to become completely different after our vacation, because we always get so much inspiration abroad.

All in all a huge difference with minimal resources.

Change of scenery brings new energy.

peony power

Never underestimate the power of peonies to brighten up the house.

Henk brought home no less than 3 bunches of pale pink peonies from the local Saturday market, to support the market vendors and of course to surprise me ;-)

Flowers do really alter the energy of a space in such a splendid way, despite the grey, gloomily and drizzly weather... (all weekend)

Have a good week y'all!

in the mood

A perfect way to start the weekend.

Coffee with moroccan pasties.

Last night some friends came over for dinner and brought my favorite cookies for dessert. A box full of moroccan pastries, so enough for the whole weekend.

The delicious gazelle horns (at the top) are the best!

Welcome to the weekend!

maxi wallet

Friday mood.

Almost weekend, preparing for an exiting visit to Amsterdam.

On the kitchen table:

maxi wallet - handmade leather purse by Pien tassen, @piens_life on Instagram (big enough for phone, money & lipstick)
appetizer - new interiors for restaurants and cafes, interior book by Gestalten
red lipstick - rouge allure velvet lipstick by Chanel, no 57 rouge feu
bird mug - design by Hennie Haworth for Habitat (collection 2008)
make up mirror - by Primark
brandnew handmade cardigan - by woodwoolstool, unique piece called Infinity (because it's not finished yet, a lot more colors to be added)

Ready to have a party!

Cheers and enjoy the weekend.

crafted coaster collection

The current crafted coaster collection.

Collected over the years, found on Place des Epices and in the souks of the Medina in Marrakech.
All handmade from grass, wrapped with yarn cleverly.
The simple patterns and beautiful colors, some even sun-bleached on the spice square.
Not that i ever put so many hot pans on the table at the same time, but I think they look so attractive.
Normally they are pilled up on the kitchen bench, this time together on the family group photo.

It's nothing but visual pleasure...

s t u d i o

S T U D I O

My workspace is featured in the new S T U D I O book by author Sally Coulthard, published by Jacqui Small.

It's a very inspiring book about creative workspaces for creative people. I'm very happy and proud to be one of the creative people in this book.
You can find lots of bright ideas from the real-life studios of artists, crafters, designers, writers and painters.

A workplace is a place that feeds your imagination. Creating a perfect studio won't happen overnight, it's a growing process and that's how it should be.

Thank you Sally for including my workspace inside this fantastic S T U D I O book.
Studio will be released on March 16, 2017. You can pre order the book now.

catch of the day

Catch of the day; fresh peonies from my dearest flowergirl Pippa!

At the moment she's busy preparing her final school exam Flower & Design.

sunday breakfast & spring branches

Get up late.
Followed by a Sunday morning breakfast in the sunlight!
Magnolia branches on the table.

An excellent beginning of March!

daydreaming

Luckily we've got daydreams...

For today was all about hale and sleet in my hometown Dordrecht.
Browsing through an old Living Magazine from June 2009, I'm looking forward to return to Marrakech within a few months.

good morning & give away

Last month I announced the Mollie Makes Home giveaway.

I started with 5 magazines.
Already gave a few away to friends and family.
One is showing off in my magazine rack...
and I have another one to give away (signed by moi)

Would you like to win a copy of this colorful & crafty magazine?
Everyone can join! Just leave a comment.

(I will pick a random winner on Saturday 9 PM)

This give away is CLOSED.

L O V E

This new project is about two things i love:
crochet & typography!

Inspired by banderola post by Oh!Villo.

Oh!Oh! there are so many words I have in mind...

vintage bottle table lamp

Meanwhile on the canteen table in our kitchen:

Vintage bottle becomes table lamp stand. I took it from our jars collection on top of the kitchen cupboard. The lampshade comes from our attic.

Working on a new stool cover for a special birthday stool of my sweet friends daughter.

As you can see, Lammie also has left her name on our canteen table.

canteen table

We have dined at our self-made white wooden table for about 13 years.
Time for a change!

We've been looking for a good alternative for quite a while, however found nothing suitable for our kitchen.

Well finally we found this canteen table and fell in love instantly!
It's a beautiful design with 6 legs and up to 2.4 meters long.

It's a Belgian school canteen table and on the sides of the table are some notes written by students.
Some are really pleasant, so we decided to leave the notes for the time being...
(though 'eat your own shit' might be a bit rude on a dining table)