Happy Valentine's Day !

14 feb 2012, 20:38

source It is Valentine's Day and I have no secret admirer, and no boyfriend to celebrate it with ;) . I  actuallly never really celebrate it, but maybe one day I will. Did you celebrate Valentine's Day ? I hope you all had (and have) a wonderful time today with the person you love.
Valentine's day has been around for ages, but the time which attracts me the most is ofcourse the victorian era and the crafts that were made to give it a special touch. Here you can find information about victorian and vintage Valentine's Day and several crafts you can make yourself right now, or for next year ;) .
My apologies for not posting in a very long time. My laptop was broken and even my father could not fix it (and he is very.very good at repairing computers ), so he bought a secondhand Lenovo Thinkpad and I am very happy with it. Altough I am in my last year of school and get tons of homework, I'll try to blog a lot  and make sure you can read something interesting !

Kitties, kitties, kitties !

24 jan 2012, 18:17

After days and weeks of searching for a maine coon cat or a kitten, we stumbled upon an advertisement on the German Ebay, where you could buy severall kinds of items (including pets)  -istead of the normal Ebay, where the highest bidder wins the object -. There were six kittens offered. One was black smoke, one was tabby, and the other four were red-haired. Initially we only wanted the tabby one, and we visited the family a few times. When it was time to take the tabby one home, we heard that the black smoke was still available, because the buyers did not respond. So we decided to take him, too. Now we have two brother kittens and they are so cute ! At first we (and the formal owner) thought that the tabby one was a girl. But it turns out he wasn't :) . I'll stop to call them 'the black smoke one' and 'the tabby one', as they have names...

This is Pim (Pim sounds innocent and so he is. He always follows his big brother).

 And this is Banjer. He's very naughty and bites sometimes (he actually thinks we like it ;) ).
As you may have noticed by the quality of the photos, we have bought a new (well, second-hand) camera. It's A HP Photosmart 945, with 5.3 MP. It's really professional to us and takes great pictures. Do you have this camera, too ? What are your experiences with it ?
- love, Jip -

Do you know what this is called ?

20 jan 2012, 19:22

Today me and my mother were visiting a friend of hers. She is sewing a dress for me (she sews very, very much ). Then she found this vintage hair clip/bow clip thing in a dresser and we know how to use it, but we really don't know what it is called.


Do you (or does your mother/grandmother/aunt) know what this is called, please let me know !
love, Jip.

Delicious cherry dessert !

12 jan 2012, 21:26


We made this dessert in home economics class on Tuesday and I liked it so much and it was so easy that I decided to share it with you. The measurements in the recipe will be in grams and milliliters, as I am completely unfamiliar with cups and ounces. This is what you'll need to make this delicious cherry dessert :
For 4 persons :

- 250 milliliters of cream (like whipped cream, but ''unwhipped'') ;- 500 grams of  cream cheese (the one used in cheesecake) ;- 375 grams of cherries (without the cherry-juice it should be 375 grams) ;- 10 grams of vanilla sugar for the whipped cream, if it is unsweetened. ;- 3 or 4 tablespoons of regular sugar for the cream cheese ;- Some grated dark chocolate (as much as you want ).
Step 1 :
Add the vanilla sugar to the 'unwhipped' cream and whip it.. Mix this with the cream cheese and 3-4 tablespoons of regular sugar. 
Step 2 : 

Take a bowl (or something else you want to put it in) and start to layer the cream mix, then cherries and chocolate. You can do as much layers as you want. Just be creative ! It looks pretty if the top layer contains chocolate and cherries.
I said it was easy ;) . If you liked this recipe and tried it out, please let me know or send some pictures. 
Love, Jip.

Happy new year !

31 dec 2011, 17:58

I know, 2012 hasn't started yet, but I would like to wish everyone an amazing year ! My sister and I will be using firework for the first time in our lifes ! This will be my last '2011' post, and I thought of some goals for my blog next year :
- I would like make more DIY's for beauty products and fashion;- I want to take more pictures and maybe save some money for a better camera ;- Maybe I can start making youtube videos for Hairstyles and DIY's
If you have any more ideas to improve this blog, please let me know.
P.S. My Ebay auction for the Penny Loafers is -click here- ending today. I can send to Germany, Hollandand the USA (although the costs would be very high, as I live in Germany).
with love, Jip.

Sewing adventures # 1

18 dec 2011, 14:57


This will be my first 'Sewing Adventures' - post. It is not that I need hats. I have a lot of hats. This is a hat I made for a friends friend. There is this girl in my school, called Julia and she is in 5th grade (I'm in 10th) and she also comes from Holland.  She once asked what hobbies I had and what I did in my free time and I answered this question with blogging, buying vintage clothing, playing the piano and sewing. Then, she asked me if we could sew so a hat for her friend back in Holland together and that afternoon we started right away. 
I used a hat pattern on this website. The lady who owns the website is a very experienced seamstress, I think. And although the site is half Japanese, it is really easy to understand, as she posts videos on how to use the patterns, too.
Photos were taken by my sister, she wanted me to use this one :) .
Love, Jip.

Ebay shop update

10 dec 2011, 19:44

I added this pair of Penny Loafers to my Ebay-shop :
      
My Ebay shop
Love,
Jip.

Ebay shop

8 dec 2011, 19:47

I will be adding more items on my Ebay shop this week. Today I added a 1950s blue and white striped dress.
 
The dress My Ebay-shop
Love,
Jip.

Homemade nail and cuticle oil

6 dec 2011, 19:33

This is my first 'beauty DIY'. It is a recipe for ordinary nail and cuticle oil. My friend got a bottle of  ''Sally's nail and cuticle oil '' (Holland) for her birthday. I put  it on my nails once and have been since then in love with nail oils. Because I could not find the product at my local drug store, I decided to make my own. And although there are millions of recipes on the internet, I decided to post my tutorial. So here we go !
This is what you'll need :

 -A small glass bottle (you can get these at any drugstore) ; -Do not try to clean an empty nail polish bottle. I    tried this and it didn't work out. There was still nailpolish in the bottle left ..- -Extra vergin olive oil or baby oil (you can use almost any kind of oil for this) ; -Some perfume of your choice, I chose my grandmothers 'Gloria Vanderbilt'.
Step 1.
Pour some olive oil into the glass bottle. Make sure you don't spill it on the floor or table, mommy won't be happy ;)
Step 2.
Spray a little perfume in the filled bottle and shake it well.

Step 3.
Your homemade nail and cuticle is now done and ready for use! Put some oil on your nails and cuticles and rub it in. You can pad-dry it a little and than let it 'dry' overnight. If you're in a hurry (like in the morning before school starts), you can rub it in and than wash your hands with water and soap so you won't be dripping oil onto your exercise books :) . Enjoy !

Love, Jip.

Ebay shop and sewing adventures ..

29 nov 2011, 19:33

It has been over a week since I posted. I am so busy with school and playing piano at the moment that I can hardly find time to write. I don't even have much time for sewing.
This idea has been in my head for a few days now. I want to start writing a new kind of posts, in which I will show and share with you my experiences on sewing. I will call them 'Sewing Adventures', as sewing is fairly new to me - I am just a beginner -.
I 'updated my Ebay shop'. I added a pair of penny loafers. Take a look, maybe your interested :)
Ebay-shop