Just a quick post to let you know that The Yvestown Shop is open again. After receiving so many e-mail and so many orders asking me to come back, I just couldn't resist. I also really missed it. To celebrate, 5% off on all your orders :o) Thanks so much for your support.

I'll be upgrading my blog publishers software tomorrow so maybe there might be some difficulties viewing my blog for a little while. Just that you know.

After two years of happily running The Yvestown Shop I've decided to close shop. The reason for it is that I can no longer offer you cheap book prices as Paumes is selling them directly for just €13 a book. I think it's a crazy world when a publisher is forcing their retailers to sell their books for €24 while they sell them for €11 less.

I started this shop to make the édition PAUMES Books available to us all, I did this almost profitless. I just can't make it fair anymore. It's a sad day people.

All édition PAUMES Books are now €15 while stock last! The MilK books are sold for the regular price while stock last.

Just to let you know ...

I want to say Thank You to all my loyal costumers who shopped for Paumes books ever since I opened shop in April 2008. I'm not such a great track keeper but I've sold hundreds of books to parts as far as Thailand, Singapore, Mexico and Australia and I'm super grateful for your trust and loyalty. There has not been one missing order in the past year and even though sometimes we were pinching our bottoms tight, being scared that some books just didn't make it across the pond, all went well in the end.

Since March 2009 I've noticed that sales have dropped and that has all to do with the financial crisis we're all currently in. Because of the uncertainty I've been a bit careful with buying stock and because of that shipping has been a bit slower. You've all been rock stars for not complaining, mailing or being impatient. I think I have the best costumers ever. Thank you again.

I've noticed that sales have gone up a bit again and I do believe that now is the time not to hold your money but to spend. If we all say things are better, they will be.

To reward, and to pamper a bit in these weary times, I'd like to give a book away to one of you. You can pick between one of the three new titles all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me which one you'd pick.

London Ateliers

San Francisco Kitchens

or Appartements de filles à Paris.

I'll draw a winner in a week, Wednesday June 17th, and make sure to put in some lovely other bits and pieces.

I also want to say thank you to all the lovely people who have been supporting and promoting my shop.

Because I wasn't able to do any sewing for the past six months I started crocheting like mad. It's such a good thing to do while you do another thing. I'm all about multitasking. I don't like to be 'just' on the phone chatting. In a regular phone conversation of approximate an hour I have done the washing up, laundry folding and a sanitary stop (cleaned that up a bit) or I have painted one door or crocheted one pillow. I also crochet while I watch television because that's one activity that's so useless, sitting down on the sofa watching something. The amount of work I can singly process watching television is amazing.

For the past six months I have been crocheting afghans (I haven't finished) and these pillows.

They've become my absolute favorite thing to crochet as I can mix all kind of colors and because they are done in no time. They've actually become an addiction and most of my friends own one or two because I just kept making them, and still do. So I've decided to sell some in my abandoned Etsy shop.

I'll be adding 7 or 8 pillows on Tuesday April 21st to the Esty shop.

My other shop, the bookshop, is back to cheaper prices. I've been begging Paumes to let me decide my own retail price and not use the one that most shops are using. And they are allowing me to set my own price again - yay!! To celebrate this fantastic news (because I was about to close shop) I give all readers of my blog a 5% discount. Use code sfkitchens in the shopping basket.

On your way out don't forget to order the fabulous new book San Francisco Kitchens.

Just want to let you know. There's even more for sale and there's still 50% off on all Shinzi Katoh goodies.

I also want to highlight some really cool things some really cool people have been writing about me. I want to thank Holly for this amazing article on Simply Stated "THE REAL SIMPLE BLOG" whoooo ... the mother ship has called me home. And I want to thank Christie from Bemz for the lovely "meet the judges" she did on me. Good vibes to end the old year with.

Are you ready for 2009? I am, I have my first set of three white doors and next week I can start to unpack some boxes and give some of my stuff a new home .. yay!

Yesterday I finally received the second batch of my Blurb published book "The Yvestown Book - vol.1". I'm planning to make a series of little books all with different subjects. The first volume is titled "The New Old House" and shows photographs of my old house in The Netherlands. The second book I'm planning will be about my new kitchen and all the cooking I love to do.

The Blurb publishing thing is really cool and really easy to use but the quality of the books are quite ok-ish maybe perfect for someone less picky as myself.

This book contains 42 pages and hardly no text.

You can buy one directly from Blurb or you can buy a limited signed and numbered copy in The Yvestown Shop directly from me. Either way I'll earn a bit of profit.

I'd like to give one of the signed and numbered books away as a gift to one of you.

You'll also get a set of these crochet coasters I've been making. All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll draw a winner December 6th, on my 34th birthday, at noon CET.

Have a lovely weekend.

New in The Yvestown Shop - Shinzi Katoh Stationery!!

And as a special thank you, to all of you who've made this such a successful year, I've started my shop sale before Christmas. Go to the shop for a special Pre-Christmas Sale with 50% off on all Shinzi Katoh products and some of the Paumes book titles.

And now I'll shut up about my shop ... that's for now!

I didn't tell you yet but there's a fantastic brilliant beautiful new Paumes book out!

The book is really inspiring and as Paumes always includes great places to shop I'm really exciting when I go visit Charlotte in London next week. Maybe, if the achilles allows me, we can visit one of the shops - as we don't have enough shops to visit yet!!

As I always go a bit loopy when a new Paumes order arrives. It was so lovely today with the sun shinning over the brand new lovely smelling books - there's this great new book smell over the Paumes books and each time I open the door of the cabinet the books are stored in to get books out I smell it!! Go, have a sniff, they smell great.

Good news for the people who've e-mailed me and who I have promised that the Skruvsta Slipcover Pattern would be back in stock (soon, really soon, maybe next week ...) it's finally for sale again in the shop.

As far as my house goes I have to explain to so many of you who've asked me for photos, there's honestly nothing to show but mess. You have to understand (and I do appreciate you love the things I do) but the house holds 13 rooms, a kitchen and a conservatory. The last house update was in 1971. It was horrible when we moved in and it's even grosser now we took wallpaper off, kitchen units out and walls out. There's new electricity wires going everywhere, bare floors, dust, piles of dust, cobwebs and honestly I don't really feel like posting these images on my blog because they not make me happier. Also I do not like to photograph dust, dirt and derbies. I do post the occasional "how we're getting on" photo in my Yveshouse Flickr album but that's as far I will go! As from January 2009 I'll be able to show you pretty stuff again - and I'll make sure to smear it all over the blog because I quite had enough of all the mess. Thank you though for all your interest and compliments and lovely words, you're the best and you pull me through this dusty time. xox

I love when I get new stock in.

I also love geek things like JavaScript. They have this cool free rating script over at js-kit. I've used it for the shop and I would appreciate it if you could cast a vote so that Paumes virgins know what books to get first. I already did my voting :o)

I also love the new 'Retro Paumes' page, I just ordered a few to see if people are still interested.

There's a change in the shop's currency, it's changed to British Pounds. I also now need your telephone number as someone STOLE $95.00 from me (that's a lot for indie shop keepers). And there's only a 3 day shipping waiting time as from today. Thanks again for your business!

The Paumes books (or as Holly thinks I'm referring to my porn books) have finally arrived. Some of you were getting nervous but most of you have been truly superstars and were able to hold your breath and wait silently. Thank you for ordering from me, it means a lot to me as I really like to put books in boxes.

Children's rooms Copenhagen is of course yet another wonderful book. So many inspiring rooms and such lovely colors.

See this rug? It's been on my wists for a while but after seeing it in this room I must get it for my new studio.

I have a lot of boxes to send and I'll be doing that this afternoon. Do not panic by the sold out icon behind the Copenhagen book in my shop because everyone who placed an order before 18-09 will get their books hopefully after the weekend - that depends on how quick the post works. Do not hesitate to put in a new order because a new stash will be send to me next week. I have plenty of stock this time so shipping will be fast.

Thanks again for shopping with me, I can't say it enough so yet again thank you!!!

Thank you for all your sweet comments, e-mail and cards.

Now I have something to tell you that really excites me. Paumes is having a new children's rooms book out and I can't express how much I love these books. And because of that and because I'm really loving how great the book sales are going (and so are the Paumes people - thank you, thank you) I have an offer up for a limited time only.

And to make it really special, I have a gift for all the buyers of this fun pack.

Packs will be send out as soon as I have the books in stock early September.

Just a quick shop update to let you know that all late April and all May Paumes book orders were sent today!

I'm so sorry for the delay but, as I explained to some of you, Paumes is a small family run business. If they don't get enough orders to qualify for cheaper shipping rates, they have to save up orders until they have enough for those cheaper shipping rates. So sometimes shipping takes a bit longer. Most of you haven't mailed me and are superstars so I'd like to give a big THANK YOU for your patience. There's enough stock again for your orders - yay!!

The Box Letter Cushions will be back in the shop next week with new fabrics!!

I bought the bookends over at Velda's.

Thanks so much for your well wishes. You can imagine it's a bit of a chaos in our heads. We kind of made an order of events we wanted to happen and selling the house was last on the list. So in a way we have to throw everything round and start all over with the list. But it's great of course and the new owners are super lovely people (hello Matthie and Joyce) and only super lovely people deserve this house - there!

I have some other great news concerning Yvestown shoppers; as from today I can officially announce that I'm up to date with all my Paumes orders. It's been a bit crazy but everyone should have or get their books by the weekend. Orders that were placed 4 days ago and up will get their books next week and as from next week shipping will only be 3 days - Yay!!

I've been placing a bunch of orders with the Paumes people this month and they are extremely happy business is going so well. So yay for keeping the Paumes people happy too. I've found a brilliant system with 'nails' from the post office. We've nailed (ha ha) it down to a 5 minute routine of shipping an order of 45 parcels to various parts of the world, now that's what I call fantastic!

The top 3 bestsellers are

1. Children's Rooms London
2. Ateliers de Filles 2
3. Paris Brocante

My favorite top 3 is

1. Children's Rooms London
2. Stockholm's Apartments
3. Stockholm's Ateliers

Also for people in Europe and especially The Netherlands, do not hesitate to e-mail me to place an order if you don't have the opportunity to pay with PayPal.

That's my shop talk for today, back to regular blogging soon. Thanks!!

Thank you so much for the many orders I've received this week. By Saturday (one day after my announcement) I was sold out and already had to place a new order the next day. Again I sold out two days after and placed my third order today. So please, please, please bare with me to get all these books to you. I've ordered quite a large new stock so do not hesitate to put in an order because those Paumes books will get to you and will make you extremely happy.

Today I've put my delivery bike to use and took the first batch of Paumes books to the post office. I was so scared that I was going to have one of these women put into hospital but it turned out to go quite well. I hate the women at the post office in my town. I call them tits, nails and grandma. Tits has big tits and always wears a tight t-shirt without a bra so I'm instantly focused on her tits. Nails doesn't know that Japan is not in the EU and has unsightly long (fake) nails with various art on it. Sometimes of the Empire State Building and the American flag and I wonder if she knows that there's actually an Empire State Building and that America isn't a part of the EU. Grandma is one of those women who successfully raised a bunch of kids and is bored because now that they all left home there's nothing else she can do. She's by far my favorite because she doesn't have an attitude. I can just about accept the fact that one doesn't know that Japan and America aren't part of the EU but than one isn't allowed to have an attitude! The path from the main entrance to the post office counter (this is a post office in one of those "we sell everything as long as it sells" shops) is quite long and sometimes when they don't have any costumers and I approach the counter I can hear that awful Coldplay song starting in my head and I hear them thinking "hide, hide, hide under the counter ... there sheeeeee iiiiiis!!". So yes, it's always a little party for me to go there.

Nothing else to report today, have a lovely weekend!

As promised a shop update!

I'm utterly excited that as from today you can shop for Jeu de Paume books in my shop!!

I'm starting off with selling new and newer titles but once I know if it's a success I'll be adding older titles too. I just can't tell you how much joy this brings. Last night when I was making the page I was grinning and giggling and the Bo asked me what was so funny and I could only say "I'm going to sell Paumes books" and he totally got me - bless him!

So please spread the word, the books are a little bit more expensive but the shipping much lower so I'm cheaper than Amazon.co.jp ... oh and add, it's in English and I have pink postal bags.

And yet another new thing in the shop - Scrap Sacks, have fun!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel like blowing kisses in mid-air. It's lovely reading all your comments and they definitely go in the memories book. I feel even more excited about the move now. I don't feel it's time yet to explain and tell why we are moving and why we are leaving The Netherlands because everything is still in it's baby shoes and I don't want to jinx things - superstitious me.

What I do want to tell is that the new shop is up and running. As I liked selling on Etsy I felt that I wasn't able to get to please everyone. Eventually the idea came to build a store where you can combine your own choice of fabric (within my selection) with your own choice of letters. This goes faster, is more fun and I can make your cushions fresh and they don't have to sit and rot in my boot room.

I have a special new shop discount on all the sample cushions so go get yourself a Box Letter Cushion pronto!

These two samples are traveling to the offices of Real Simple tomorrow. I'm so excited they are going to be used for an extra family edition this August. You should've heard the shriek I made when I read the e-mail they sent me. It's like the mother ship is calling me home.

I often get the question how I get the cushions to smell so lovely - this didn't occur to me but I think it's what we do isn't it, smelling something we've bought? I for example never put new clothing on before it's washed let alone new bedding or towels. I need to have stuff smell like me first. I'm a bit like a cat I think.

I use Robijn laundry detergent and Robijn Aloë Vera fabric softener. Robijn is an Unilever product and is sold in a lot of EU countries under the name of Comfort. I've checked the site and it's actually called Snuggle in America but they don't have the same products as we have in Europe. To top it off I use the Robijn/Comfort ironing water for my iron. Ooooh and for some good booty shaking check the dodamoves website. The Bo already danced around the study and can't believe they've used the phrase "feeling irie" for an ad in that context ;o)

Shop update!

This week I'll be adding letters by the day so I'm not going to tell you every day ;o)

I promised so many times (via e-mail) to show how I go about my table stapling - it seems, one of my great pastimes.

So here we go.

These are the tools you need:

oilcloth
stapler
staples
measuring tape
scissors

Also a cloth surface is a must for easy sliding when stapling small objects.

This is what my table looked like before. It's an INGO table from Ikea. I didn't paint the surface because I'm going to cover that with oilcloth

Cut the oilcloth so that you have a couple of centimeters to spare on all sizes. First staple all ends with just a single staple to make things easier. Don't forget to pull it really, really tight.

Finnish stapling all around the table. Thanks to Bo for professionally showing us how to do this.

And here's the result, aaaaaah - Boxed Letter Cushions A for sale in the shop.

Just quickly want to let you know that Boxed Letter Cushions T, I & L are for sale in the shop.

And for those who bought the Skruvsta pattern or are thinking about it, I've started a Flickr group. I'd love to see your finished projects. Thanks!

I have been working on a few things for the Etsy Shop, things I actually made for myself during Christmas and enjoy so much that I'd like to share them with you.

First there are the Boxed Letter Cushions I've made. I love letters and cushions so this is a perfect blend. I've been working on simple letters only but I'll be working on round letters in the next month. I actually made a big Y for on my bed and snuggle on it when I watch TV before I go to sleep. The Boxed Letter Cushions will be for sale in the shop on Monday the 28th.

Second are the Scented Teacup Lights I've made for Christmas gifts. They're all vintage (used) teacups and come with rose scented candles in a lovely box wrapped in my favorite wrapping paper. They are for sale right now in the shop.

Have a lovely weekend!

Hold your e-mail!

Just a quick post to let you know that you'll be able to buy the Skruvsta pattern after the weekend. I've found a way to get it on paper. I only need to get it under a mega copier and write the instructions, I'll be doing that this weekend.

Have a good one :o)

Update!

The pattern is now available in the shop (there's also a little button in the menu). Sorry about the price raise but with the USD being so low and the Euro so high I really have no option, I hope you understand.

Here's some news about the a long waited slipcover pattern for the Ikea Skruvsta chair I've made many moons ago. I'm not such a pattern girl. I always make something that fits the object and forget to actually make a pattern. But after I literally withhold someone to go to the Ikea because I wouldn't give her the pattern and about a dozen e-mails later I decided to rip my cover appart and make a pattern.

The only way I can give you this pattern is to make a fabric pattern. I'm not sure if all Skruvsta chairs are identical so by making a fabric pattern you can stitch it first, fit it and if necessary make alterations before you make one with the actual fabric. I first want to check how many people are actually interested, now that I ask money for the pattern, before I start taking orders.

What you get for $15

• one white fabric pattern fit to size
• sewing instructions
• worldwide postage (most expensive)

Please leave a comment if you're interested or despertly want one or send me and e-mail. By the end of this week I'll decide if I go for it.

I can't believe how the prices change so much per country for this little chair. In the UK $181, in the US it's $129, in Sweden $106 and in The Netherlands we just pay $97. And it's not even a comfortable chair and if you spin too hard the seat comes off - already happened in my house. But it's a great decoration piece, a great chair if you're short in seating (just tell your guests not to spin) and it's such a nice alternative for a desk chair.

I'm looking forward to your comments.

I've always been in love with the shape of this Ikea chair but I don't like the fabric they come in and I also love everything that I can take off and put in the washer. So, while browsing Amy Butler's website, I came across this chair and this one and this one and thought: "I can do that!!". So I went to Ikea (only a 10 min. drive from my home, isn't that heaven?) and picked up a SKRUVSTA.

This is what my SKRUVSTA is looking like now. I've made two covers, one in a cheap plain white sheet fabric to fit, pulled it apart and cut the flowery fabric using the white fabric pattern I made. Then I stitched the white fabric and the flowery fabric together (to protect the red of the chair shining through the new cover) and that's it. I can wash it, make another cover for when I get sick of the flowers and it's matching my interior. The Boo's loving it too!!

And after one successful covering story I'm trying to make a cover for something a little bit more difficult.

To be continued ...