minne

minne, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Eighteen...

Today is the 18th birthday of our dear son Minne. So my first born child is now officially adult.

I remember it like yesterday that I've become his mother. He was so small and 5 weeks premature, his weight was 2200 grams and length only 44 cm.

Nowadays he's a head taller than me and a first year journalism student.

Happy birthday Minne! (the English translation of his name is love)

His life so far in a few Flickr thumbnails...

julija's shop

julija's shop - antwerpen, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Thanks to a mistake by Urban Outfitters (the shop girl had forgotten to remove a security tag on one of my purchases last week and I discovered it at home) I visited Antwerp again yesterday.

Well it was a blessing in disguise because I always love visiting Antwerp and now I've discovered Julija's shop, a truly beautiful hip yarn shop, stylish and not as rigid as usual wool shops I know.

I was totally enjoying myself in there, browsing some Japanese crochet books and admiring the yarn bobbins. I bought a book with beautiful pictures and patterns. The shop staff recognized me as the 'lady of the stools'. How funny is it, that I get recognized abroad. (well at least by a wool freak)

If you ever go to Antwerp, Julija's certainly worth a visit and also go to the Superdry store located on the same square.

wood & wool clothes hangers

wood & wool clothes hangers, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

I love that little white antique dress. (yes it's over a hundred years old) It once belonged to my grandmother. She died at the age of 99 years when I was pregnant with Pippa. My mother gave grandma's dress to me when Pippa was born.

Although the dress is perfect and dazzling white, the white cotton fabric looks quite vulnerable. With her blonde curly hair, Pippa looked so cute in that dress, just an angel.

It's a kind of family heirloom and I will take good care of it. I used it recently to exhibit my wood & wool hangers, for a DIY production in an issue of 101 Woonideeën Magazine, a creative Dutch interior magazine.

I've produced a mini course: how to make a crochet baby hanger.

The crocheted hanger is not only striking but also very useful, nothing will slip away from the hanger. A perfect way to display a lovely garment of your child, or of course your own favorite dress or lingerie.

vintage schoolbag

vintage schoolbag, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Last weekend I visited Antwerp and accidentally stumbled on a vintage schoolbag, similar like I used to have in high school.

Initially I thought it was a remake, because I was at Zappa, a shoe store and not in some kind of second-hand shop, but when I had a closer look I discovered the name of the former owner. Her name 'Ruth Neirinck' was handwritten with marker on the inside. I read it aloud and liked the Belgian sound of it. (Why is it so contagious to talk with a Flemish accent?)

I was thinking where my old schoolbag must have remained and all of a sudden felt so sorry that I didn't keep my own schoolbag.

Ruth's schoolbag still is in perfect condition so I bought and renamed it, like the saleslady suggested.

(wood &) wool photo frame

(wood &) wool photo frame, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Last week I experienced my "15 minutes of fame" in Design Blog Land.

I was interviewed by Irene of Bloesem in "let's get personal" and was an "unexpected guest" at Victoria's blog sfgirlbybay.

They asked me to send some fresh images and I photographed unknown corners of my home and my handmade products for the interviews. When I was looking for a picture to put in my (wood &) wool photo frame I found this sweet yesteryear photo of Pippa, Mees and me. It reminded me of the time she was mothering of her little boy Mees.

Two weeks ago we changed Pippa's room into a teen room and all the pink baby stuff was banished to the attic. I was pleasantly surprised that Mees was allowed to stay.

twenty ten

twenty ten, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Twenty Ten

Years ago I bought a FLAP clock at Habitat in London.

Every first day of the year I’ve to change the year of the analogue wall clock manually.

This year the zero & nine had to be changed in one & zero and I found out that the one-piece is less than half the size of the other numbers. There was also a blank piece to fill the extra space. It looked stupid, like a gap between the 20 and 10. So I was asking myself if I really had to look at a stupid clock for the next nine years.

I searched in the numbers to check if there was no larger "one" hidden somewhere. No, there wasn’t. So this is it. Twenty ten! Or like my son Minne said; “it looks like if it’s always ten minutes past eight”.

After a few days I’m used to it and actually I’m starting to like the sound of it; twenty ten. An alliteration that will sound all year.

It’s funny to read and hear people around me wishing eachother a Happy Twenty Ten. I wonder; do they have a FLAP clock at home?

When I took the photo it was ten minutes past ten and that happens to be the state of every IKEA clock. A friend who worked at Ikea, once told me, it's because the clock hands look like a smile that way.

The l'amour toujours print is made by Ninainvorm and the South African frame is from OXO in Den Bosch.

hand-carved woodwoolstool stamp

woodwoolstool stamp, originally uploaded by wood & wool stool.

Yeah, yesterday I received my own unique hand-carved stamp made by Vlijtig.

Kristel and I agreed to do a swap; a custom made stool-stamp for a little recycled wooden tree.

The stamp is even cooler than expected and when I unwrapped it, I hardly couldn't resist stamping everything. Hereafter there will be no stool sent to it's new home without an original woodwoolstool stamp on it.

And on the first day of a brand new year I wish you all a HAPPY NOW HERE!