Queens Day Fever

If you ever have the chance to visit Amsterdam on the 30th of April, you will be surpised of the craziness in town. It's Queens Day tomorrow here in Holland and we are a crazy nation. We all dress up with a touch (or completely) Orange (which is the national color) and we celebrate a good night and day. The famous canals of Amsterdam are full of boats with party people as you can see;-)

me and my friends in Amsterdam on Queens Day last year

image: Lise for Urban Style Vibes

Garden to Go

My lovely readers, did you had a good weekend? Today I have my regular day off and I'm planning to work on my balcony since I have 'balcony fever'. This means that I want to have my balcony ready for the summer as soon as possible. Do you know this feeling??

Maybe I will end up with a balcony like this. I love the Bacsac concept and the good news is that they sell them in my hometown now!! This afternoon I will take my bike and see what it's all about!

And when we decide to move, we can easily take our garder with us. What a wonderful idea!

Q: Do you have experience with these Bacsacs? Please let me know your thoughts!

Have a fabulous weekend!

My sweeties, how are you this weekend? Do you enjoy the Spring? Here is a list of a few lovely blogs for your weekend reading. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Home Office part III

My sweethearts, how is your weekend? Do you enjoy the spring season in your country? I certainly do!
Last weeks I told you about my home office restyling and you gave me some wonderful tips to change my roon. However I changed my plan and started to redecorate my living with some bookshelves. (pohoto's will follow shortly when they hang on the wall:-). But the good news is that I think that I have found the desk that I want: It's from West Elm, the Parsons collection;  it's simply, it's stylish and small.


Q. Do you know if you can buy this in Europe? Please let me know!

via: Apartment Therapy

10 Things that make me happy!

Part of the Award that I received from Carole I need to mention the 10 things that make me happy:-)

Here you go, the things are mentioned in undefined order.

The sun

The sun is always fascinating. It give warmth, energy and most of the time a lot of fun for everyone.

2. Travel the world

I love to explore new place, new cultures and new people. It's always a treat to travel the world and get back home with new inspiration.

3. A good cup of coffee

In the morning I'm just an addict. I need a cup of good (Starbucks) coffee. I prefer a Tall Skinny Latte.

4. Blogging
I started blogging almost a year ago. And I'm so happy to do so. It enables me to write down my thoughts, it brings me a lot of new worldwide friendship and inspiration.

image: Madebygirl

5. Friends and family

My friends and family are the most important to me. I try to spent as much time as possible, especially during the weekend, with them.

6. Running
In 2005 I ran the NYC Marathon and since then I'm addicted to running.

My car
My car is my best friend to travel around in the Netherlands.

My bike
My bike is my best friend to travel the city of Rotterdam

Reading
I love to read as much as possible, magazines, books e-zines, blogs it all makes me happy during the day.

Q. What do you think of this list?

By the way, have a wonderful, sunny weekend!!

Thursday give away

My dearest readers all over the world. Today I'm proud to present the first give away on Urban Style Vibes*. Together with Design Hotels I offer you the lovely Design Hotel 2010 book.

The Design Hotels Book showcases a curated portfolio of hotels in 108 destinations across the globe as well as some of the most passionate, creative 'Originals' behind them.

How does it work?

1. Please leave a comment below
2. Join Urban Style Vibes* as a follower
3. Tell people about Urban Style Vibes* on your own blog

The winner will be announced on April 26, 2010

Window dressing

I love windows at home. They just give me inspiration and a lot of light. If you remember the images of my home, we have 5 large windows with white shutters and an additional balcony window which gives us a lot of lovely daylight. However if you live on the ground floor and you do not have a room with a view, like we have you might consider thes window films from Emma Jeffs. Love the texture and simplicity.

I just found these images browsing the web. Holly Becker from Decor8 recently posted about these lovely window films.

Q: Would you consider to use this at home?

Eyjafjallajökull

The daily news in Europe was dominated by the ash cloud due to the disruptive vulcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland A few years ago I was with one of my friends on a trip in Iceland a guess what we did, we rented a 4x4 for 2 weeks and even drove up to this gletcher. Needless to say I did not have any clue that this could happen a few year later...

Epic Summer

Many of you have a special memory of one Summer holiday. Do you have a good story? Show your most memorable summer trip via photo or video here and win a 3 night stay at Design Hotel Fontana Park in the beatiful city of Lisbon,  Portugal. I will add my story and picture as soon as possible because I would looooooooooove to stay a few nights in this lovely design hotel. Please share your stories!

Stars 'n stripes deco

My sweethearts, how are you today? Found these lovely Anglo Saxon styling images via Cote Maison today. Would you consider country items in your home styling?

I wish you a fabulous weekend! I hope you have enough time to spend with your loved ones. Enjoy!

To travel or not to travel..

...that's the question today. An immense plume of volcanic ash cast a silent pall over the skies of Northern Europe. All air traffic across the Netherlands, Britain, Scandinavia, Belgium and France has been cancelled What a pitty, my fiancee is travelling home from his short break this weekend I hope he will be home soon!

PS. Did you see the wonderful sundown due to the ash cloud yesterday evening. Just awesome!

London calling

London is after New York, one of my favourite cities in the world so far. It's vibrant, it's cool and it gives me a lot of inspiration. I used to come here every year but I think it's been 2 years now since I visited London the last time. So, time for a new travel plan. Actually there is a good reason to take a weekend break London. 2010 marks the opening of the Townhall Hotel & Apartments. It's an amazining building which has undergone a metamorphosis.

All 98 guestrooms are individually furnished and composed of the extremely fluid juxtapoition of original elements with clean, contemporary furnishing and the most advanced of luxury technology. They even have the renowned fine dining restaurant viajante, as well as a gorgeous coctail bar. 

The hotel is now open for books. Please check Design Hotels for more information.

via: Design Hotels

Help!

Help! As I told you last week I'm preparing the restyling of my home office. However, at this moment I'm a bit stuck in the middle. I'm in doubt what to choose and how to continue so I would love to ask for your help before I start. This is the room now: 1.80m x 5.00m The window is 1.20 x 1.80. The room has a wooden floor and I would love to keep it like that. On the right hand side of the room (when you enter it) there is a big closet.

My ideas so far:

1. Buy a new desk Q. Any suggestions for a design like but affordable desk?

2. Find a lovely curtain e.g. Marimekko design to bring in some colour

3. Paint one wall in a different color. Q Which one?

4. Add some shelves on the wall

5. Add a moodboard to give this room a human touch.

Please note that this remake needs to be done on a budget, since I've just bought a new car and we are planning a trip to Japan so my budget for this summer is almost spent;-)

Thanks for sharing your ideas and thoughts with me! You are so kind and you give me lots of inspiration every day!!

Sneak peak Lonny

My darlings, the new Lonny Magazine is out now!! I just give you a sneak preview and I would recommend you to read the full magazine here.

Loft Life

Today I would like to take you on a city trip to New York. Imagine a sophisticated Loft in Soho. This is the work of SPI Design, based in LA.  In this loft htey have intentionally maintained the original industrial elements inherent in the space while also creating a warm, cozy chic environment. I love the color coded book shelf, the photo gallery and look at that bedroom with bathroom aside...Dream on my sweethearts and have a lovely Monday!!

via Loft Life