Amsterdam (Part II ) for Urban Jungle Bloggers

Our theme this month for Urban Jungle Bloggers is 'botanical zoom' looking at the details in our house plants, and so, as I bought many new plants in Amsterdam, I thought I would continue to talk about shopping in that city and show you what I came home with.

Something I haven't talked about so far is my latest tattoo, I have waited for some time to be able to book with the legendary Angelique Houtkamp of Salon Serpent and finally I managed to see her.  I will be revealing the tattoo when it's healed over on Instagram, alongside my new wood watch.

Angelique sells her artwork, limited edition prints like this below of wolf girl.  I bought these two plants in Wildernis which is just along the road from Salon Serpent.  I find the spotted one really fascinating, it looks like someone has painted the spots on!

We can't talk about plants without talking about planters and pots, this for me is all part of the fun, finding the right pot for the plant, allowing enough space for it to grow and allowing it fit with the decor.  This year's story for plant pots is natural baskets, seagrass, wicker and woven.  The above two came from a man on a street market (Lindengracht on saturdays).    

this is the orange tree blossom from a mini tree I have in my house, the smell is absolutely amazing

Jeska Hearne who blogs at Lobster & Swan has recently got hold of a lovely and delicate plant called sophora prostrata.  I was lucky enough to find some sitting outside a wonderful florist shop called Fleur Monde on Haarlemerdijk, an enormous shop full to the brim of wonderful specimens. That was the first time I had ever seen one other than in Jeska's photos, it had quite a journey home in my hand luggage, Im still hoping it can get established nicely.

The good people at Urban Jungle Bloggers have also found some great colouring illustrations for us this month, I only had a small set of coloured pencils which came out of a Christmas cracker, so my palette was somewhat limited!  Still it was pretty relaxing to do even so. Also in the photo above you can see one of the little mother of pearl spoons I bought in Zenza. 

These two hands came from de Weldaad which I featured in the last post.  The victorian tile is actually English, I intended to buy some antique Delft Tiles, even beaten or battered ones just as a souvenir, but boy were they expensive!!  The tile above came from a man specialising in tiles, mostly Delft, on Noordmarkt and his prices were much better than in any shops.  It seems that the cheapest you can find old Delft tiles for is around 20 Euros, but frequently they are up to 60 Euros and more, so you would need to be a pretty serious collector to buy these.  I stuck with the English one because it has the same colour tones as those set into my new cupboard.

This is the old Indigo scarf with tassles I bought on Noordmarkt from Stern Africa. It feels like a light denim and the tassles are a status symbol for men in certain parts of Africa. Birgit really knows her stuff and can give you so much information about the things you buy from her. This type of cloth is from the Mossi people of Berkina Fasso, it is thin strips of fabric sewn together to form a whole cloth and then Indigo dyed. The prices from Birgit are about a third of what you will pay elsewhere, so well worth finding her.

My yoga teacher was talking to us this week about being 'present' in all things you do, she had been away and while everyone was madly dashing down the Ski slopes she was stopping and appreciating the weather and nature.  I can honestly say that this approach of slow living, is well worth practising.  I have visited Amsterdam many times, but all too frequently when on business dashing from one place to another. This time I took it slow, appreciated the details, walked instead of dashing and enjoyed the city so much more for it. 

Have a lovely week everyone while we are getting ready for some time off over Easter. J x

Cool Amsterdam for Interior Design lovers

I have just returned from the most amazing time in Amsterdam and it didn't involve any alcohol or funny cigarettes, quite the opposite, I decided to walk it and hunt down the healthiest food and the most beautiful shops.  So get yourself a nice cup of tea and sit down with me now to walk around one of Europes most beautiful and stylish cities.

I was super blessed with the weather, although I came prepared as the wind can be biting here.  Don't even think about wearing heels, get your most comfortable trainers or boots and prepare to be impressed.  The architecture is totally unique, the classic tall thin houses set alongside the canals, and bicycles everywhere due to the fact that public transport can only get you near the destination but not outside the door.  First thing to conquer as well is the trams, find a tram map and buy a card which you use like an oyster card, touch in and out. The stops are clearly announced and indicated on the tram itself so you won't have to worry about not recognising when to get off. 

I started my treck on day one with the Nine Streets area, this is easy to see on maps if you google.  Here are the most stylish shops in my opinion, the one off boutiques and cool cafes.  I tried two cafes on Reestraat, Ree 7 and Pluk, both serving very healthy clean food in simply and sleek surroundings.  Also on Reestraat at Number 1 is the boutique small shop of what was to be my most favourite discovery of all - de Weldaad.  The shop on Reestraat on the corner, is full of more small decorative home and gift items, to describe it I would say take a mix of Victorian weirdy, Scandi chic and natural history museum, then perhaps you would be somewhere near to imagining. Fossils, shells and bones, under glass domes, beautiful containers and vases, feathers, mercury glass, wooden birds, and so on.  It's larger mother store is up in Noordermarkt and that has all this and much larger pieces, leaning more towards the architectural salvage. Here's some photos of the larger shop..

old painted tin ceiling tiles can be found here, my current latest crush.

De Weldaad is beautifully laid out and curated, grouping objects in colour sections and mixing old and new seamlessly.

Also to be found in Nine Streets which I thought was quite unique is a bedhouin and tribal jewellery shop called Parwan on Herengracht. 
For interesting smells and quality bath products have a sniff around Marie Stella Maris, their liquid hand soap is something quite different to your usual supermarket brand, leaving your hands feeling soft and smooth instead of dried out, I chose the Cedre Intime as it has Patchouli notes, but they even have a smell like the falling autumn leaves in Amsterdam!

All the plant and florists shops are outstanding and I managed to get hold of some great plants which are hard to find in the UK. There are two plant shops on Bilderdijkstraat quite close to each other, one of which is Wildernis.  But wherever you go you will pass a lovely florist and spot some great house plants.

We popped up to Noordermarkt on Saturday when the market is on. On the outside of the market square is de Weldaad's larger store and on the market itself the most wonderful lady who imports from Africa. This stall has a wonderful selection of Shibori and indigo dyed fabrics and scarves, some new and some old, plus lovely tribal jewellery. Birgit's company name is SternAfrica and she personally travels and chooses very good pieces. Food wise, we ate at Finch on the corner and it was excellent, I had a great avocado on toast that Nigella would be jealous of.

From Noordermarkt we walked to Haarlemmerdijk, further North.  Here you will find a bathroom shop full of antique baths and all things bath related.  The Shop is called Affaire D'eau at number 148-150. The collection of antique reclamation is superb.

We walked there via a street market on Lindengracht and there I found a man selling African baskets at very reasonable prices, you will see these a lot in the shops this year particularly when used for plants. I will feature these in some future posts.

If you are restoring a period bathroom you will find the perfect authentic pieces here in Affaire D'Eau.  It might be worth considering driving over to the Netherlands so that you can bring the larger items back home.

Further down the road, as if you are heading back towards Grand Central station, Haarlemmerdijk turns into Haarlemmerstraat, and here you can find one of the Zenza stores.  This store to me, sums up perfectly one of the looks that I personally champion, the fusion between ethnic design and craftsmanship with the colour tones of Scandinavian chic.  Zenza have primarily a large stock of lighting, which is made in their own factory in Egypt.  Both the silver and copper light shades are stunning but there is so much more to this store as well, lovely carved side tables in a pale coloured wood, plant hangers and unusual accessories, I bought some spoons made from shells with silver stems. 

To visit the Nine Streets area I got off the tram at Spui and walked through the floating flower market, for Noordmarkt we started at the Dam Square stop and took the back streets heading North.  There was a marked difference between the weekday and weekend for numbers of people, and the weekend tourists can make it very busy, so if you can try and go out on a wednesday or thursday so that you can mooch for several days with the streets to yourself.  Mind out for those cyclists too, they are ruthless!  There are defined cycle lanes and they are strictly not for walking on unless you want to get mown down.  I bought a number of plants and to bring them back in my luggage I took them out of the plastic pots, removed some of the dirt and put them in shoe boxes with some tissue paper.  One of them is looking a bit sad but the others seem to have survived ok.  I will be featuring these in both my Urban Jungle Bloggers posts and for Lobster and Swans new hashtag #botanicalpickmeup

I don't have any photos but there's a really good antique furniture shop on Prinsengracht at 579, set in a lovely old building vof Prinsheerlijk Antiek has very traditional grand old pieces, do have a look if you are passing.

In all my years of visiting this city, since the 1980's, I have never been to the red light district once, so my advice is to see the city like a local would and not like a tourist, it will be so much more rewarding and I hope this blog helps you to do that. Happy Days. J x

Home Style

Giving you a sneak peak of what I've been doing for a photo shoot of my home tomorrow, it's for Home Style magazine.  There's nothing like the jolt of a home feature to make you look at things and make those changes that you've been thinking about for a while. I don't need much of an excuse but some of the more major things are done because you want to present your best ideas and work.

When I put the old pine floorboards down I told the carpenter at the time, eventually I will paint them, well Ive held off for a while, trying to enjoy the natural wood colour, but after seeing the white painted floor at the home of 5ftinf, I was convinced.

I have also chosen seagrass flooring for a bedroom and stairs, it's a bit prickly right now but it does smooth down after time and I just love the tweedy natural look of it. 

Also time to let go of my painted dresser as I totally fell in love with this sideboard buffet.  It is Indian in origin, very very heavy solid wood, with antique tiles set into it.  

The carved water buffalo skull is from my good friends, the antique dealers Brocant Antique.  Also from them is the painted planter stand, west German pottery and the small roe deer skull. 

I used Little Greene floor paint in Slaked Lime colour, it looks white in the tin but is off white which tones better with the cream colours in my dining room.

The feature will run in the May edition in the UK, I hope to be able to share it with you when it hits the streets. 

Im off to Amsterdam next week and plan to do a lot of walking around seeking out the interesting and unusual.  See you when Im back in the UK. x

February Styling The Seasons

So February is drawing to a close and this year seems to be flying by.  Such a mild year seems to be increasing that feeling as Spring comes earlier than normal and even the babies at the wildlife hospital are being born before their normal time.  The little welcome pops of flowers and colours are so encouraging and uplifting. I'm a bit sad that I had to refuse some orphaned squirrels this week, don't worry someone else will look after them, but my house is in upheaval and I just didn't feel that I could devote enough time to the premature babies. I expect that from mid March there will be lots of abandoned baby squirrels for me to mummy, and I can't wait.

I thought I would just post a selection of my favourite photos from this month as my Styling The Seasons post.  Blossom picked from the roadside, Eucalyptus from the florist and spring blooms from my garden.

I've just read (listened to actually as Im a massive Audible fan) the book called The Year Of Living Danishly.  It rang true for a number of reasons, my good friend in the UK is from Denmark and she has a very unusual and refreshing take on life. Also, as you may know, I travel to Sweden a lot and there are certainly similarities. Actually, I've just got an App to teach me Swedish, it's really quite hard for an old bird like me, but maybe I will have a few phrases for the next time I visit.  Myself and Van Asch are longing for a road trip with my god-daughters through the Swedish countryside and off the beaten track.  Fingers crossed for that. 

A word that has become very used outside of Denmark is Hygge - a word that describes being cozy, make tea, light a candle and eat a nice pastry, while tucked up in the warm.  This I'm very happy to do with the aid of some lovely tea from The Teashed and a candle from Clement & Claude.  Teashed teas are remarkably fresh tasting, I like breakfast tea and you can taste the difference from the normal major brands.

There is a magazine coming to photograph the house in two weeks so Im using it as the catalyst to make some changes that I've been thinking about for a while.  One of which is painting the wooden floor.  I've lived with it's natural wood colour for a few years now and bravely decided to see if we could cope with white floors! Four cats muddy footprints ! The other half is under strict instructions "no more shoes in the house".

I hope to show you the completed looks soon. Have a nice cozy time with some Hygge if you can, lots of love. Jx