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.

This is the "real" tree in the living room. It's the radical little sister of the big "fake" tree in the dining room. It's a little bit like me and my sister, not so tall and well figured, some rough edges here and there, dressed colorful and oddly instead of being perfect. But most of all, lovely to smell ;o)

Above the tree the famous "keep calm and carry on poster". I bought my copy here but you can buy it all over the place. Victoria sells some pretty colors to match your interior. We have the poster next to our big front window and you can actually see it very clearly from the outside when you pass the window. I love the text so much as for a lot of people stand still in front of this window and try to peep inside. I once was hovering under the window and made a sudden upright position and I was eye in eye with this woman who stood pressed with her face in front of the window. It scared the hell out the both of us. So in a way I like to say to people who pass our bright and colorful window "keep calm and carry on".

Here a close up of the German Weihnachtspyramide that's on the table. The heat of the candles makes the propellers spin and that way the heat will spin the nativity around. It's pretty nifty! I bought this one in Germany on a weihnachtsmarkt (boy I love those) but you can find beautiful pieces on eBay too. The German really know how to throw a good Christmas!

That's it for today, more Christmas news coming soon. Also thank you for the lovely birthday wishes :o)

The big "fake" tree is up, Christmas 2007 has officially started at my home!!

This year I moved the 'the village' from the mantle to the chest of drawers in the dining room. The Bo did the art direction, mountain work and moon and star mobile staging and I constantly said "oh that's cute, that is so cute". We tried to put Christmas lights in all the houses but we couldn't find a string of lights that weren't so near to one another, so we decided that the people with the lights out are just not at home. Ah I love the new location of the village.

Last night I celebrated my 33rd birthday. My friends, Myra and Auk, ended up staying the night because Myra drank too much and Auk missed the last bus home. We had so much fun pulling out mattresses and blankets it felt like we were back in high school. We should do this more often as adults, it gives so much comfort and love. I can't explain it but it just feels so damn special to have people in my life who really, really like me just for who I am. It was a special birthday this year.

More decoration news coming soon!! Because I've only just started ...

I'm officially ready for Christmas but Christmas isn't officially ready for me. The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December so it's rather a crime to put up any Christmas decorations before the 5th.

So lovely Jenny made me happy with her elf clog pattern because that keeps me occupied and kind of distracts me from the boxes in the attic that softly whisper my name ... Yvonne ...Yvonne ... Yvonne!! It's dreadful and I don't understand why I'm so influenced by the outside world and why I let other people boss me around about what or what not to decorate and most importantly when I decorate. It must be a tradition that's stuck somewhere in my genetic gene ... DO NOT decorate before the 5th of December because you'll cause a terrible epidemic of a horrible virus to spread the nation - Chrismasporadoxion perhaps???

I'm going loopy but that happens if you know that true Christmas people already have four trees up while I'm stuck with some ornaments in the chandelier and two wrapped presents - that are not even for me!!

So thank you Jenny for giving me something to do and for this lovely, lovely pattern. You also must check out the Elf Clog Flickr group it's fun!!

Tablecloth fabric
Wrapping paper and bows

This is how I spent my weekend, trying to brighten up the landing and the study by painting some furniture and doing some oilcloth on table stabling.

It was just such a glorious autumn day. The sun was shining, clear blue skies and it was actually really hot so I could work with the windows open. What a little light can do to a picture.

I painted the armoire in glossy Nursery Pink by Cath Kidston and for the inside I used water based eggshell in All White by Farrow & Ball.

I painted the table, I use as a desk, in glossy Nursery Blue and I used Dotty oilcloth by CK for the top. Don't be fooled by the colors on her website because this oilcloth is really, really white and not off white as shown on her site. Most of the fabrics on her site show quite yellowy, I recommend to get a free swatch before you order fabric. The swatches are also a lot of fun because they are quite big and if you save up a bunch you can make a really pretty patchwork quilt - but don't tell her!

And as a final touch, I lined the shelves in the armoire with the leftovers of the oilcloth.

Boy I had some good old fashioned fun. I love projects like this but I'm getting through them. This house is almost completely done and it may sound weird, because they say you're never done, but it's really true. I can't add anything or I should drastically change everything but I'm really happy with the results so I think I need to move!

Red fling cabinet
Pink chair
Blue Tubtrug
Turquoise planner
Dress and Bags

When we bought this house in 2003 there was no kitchen, well there was a dodgy counter with a sink in it and some hot water tank hanging above it and some stoves were left and a very smelly fridge, but nothing quite Yvestown-esque (ha ha, I read this over here and I love it, thanks so much for turning me into something esque)

This is the sight of the kitchen when we took all the mess out and after the stucco people left - man alive do they make a mess!

With a very tight budget we found this kitchen on eBay for no money and remodeled it and painted it white to fit our kitchen.

Now a couple of years later we decided that we are grownup enough to spend grownup money on a ridiculously expensive fridge. You should know that I have different prices for everything when I tell my mother how much I spent on stuff. It's always 50% off and I always bought it on sale. But I really couldn't cheat with the baby blue Smeg we bought. You should've heard the howl she made after I told her the price when she asked me if it was ok to give a donation towards the fridge for the Bo's birthday.

Before the Smeg could enter our kitchen we had to make some changes.

I decided that we needed new counters, the old (build-in) fridge needed to go and I had to do some new shelving arrangements.

The bookshelves were a later addition so I wanted to level the work tops and replace them with oak.

Here's the result. New Ikea (abstrakt) counters, a leveled work top and less shelves.

Oh and of course room for the baby bleu Smeg!

***

As I get so many email asking me where I bought this and that, I've decided to include as much info on the bottom of each post as from today. I can't impossibly write down everything and link to everything so you'll have to email me only if you really, really must!!

I bought the Yummy letters over here, the wallpaper and red clock are by Cath Kidston, the sink, work top and counters by Ikea and the china is Greydawn by Johnson Brothers.

We finally found a replacement for the HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP. The Norm 03 by Normann Copenhagen won me over after the Bo convinced me he would put the lamp together (it's a bit of a job) I went for it and I love it. I do miss my HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP just because of the whole conversation it brought with it. The constant bickering in the house about a lamp is actually quite funny to me and all the hilarious comments left on that one post cracked me up. It's so interesting how we can look at one piece of furniture so differently.

As I never really showed all the corners of the bedroom before, it's always a little corner or the view from the bedroom door, I decided to make a little bedroom photo set over at Flickr for you to have a peek.

Over the weekend Holly from the lovely Decor8 blog wrote a little post about me. I'm super flattered to be mentioned on such an inspiring blog like Decor8. Thanks Holly and thanks to all the people who left sweet comments on my Flickr pages and who sent me email. I can't believe how friendly people are. Thank you!!

One of the comments left on Decor 8 about my HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP cracked me up. I can assure, and maybe comfort you Melyna, my husbands finds it a HORRIBLE lamp too. Each time he walks in he's moaning about it. The other day a fly got caught in it and it made a terrible noise and he lost it. "That lamp is so ugly Yvonne, why on earth do we need to have this lamp? Oh God that fly is pooping all over it".

Well, I like the lamp. I like to throw some new stuff in the mix and this lamp so clashes with the rest of the room that in a sort of way it makes it a bit humorous.

My dream lamp for the bedroom is this one by Habitat. But since we don't have Habitats in The Netherlands anymore and because they're sold out in Belgium and because I keep forgetting to pick one up when I'm in the UK, I'll do with the HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP!!

The rose prints are Redouté replicas and the cat is mine!!

I'm going to answer some questions about my cabinet(s) because I often get questions about them.

Are they from Ikea?

No, I wish they were because it would have saved me a pretty penny. They are custom made by Jan from InterAntiek in Veldhoven The Netherlands. Yes that's Jan and Elvira's home on the main page.

How many do you have?

I have two, they are exactly the same. One is in my dining room and one in the living room. In one I keep books, cd's and the HiFi system in the other one my fancy china.

They look really big

They are. My ceilings are 3.15 m high so the rooms need something that goes up in height. The cabinets are both 2.45 m tall.

What's the material?

They are made from recycled old pine cabinets and doors. They are painted white with a thick water based paint and waxed to give it an old look.

***

Oh and yes yes I did yet another redesign but I just love doing it so much and this one suits my new landing wallpaper. I'm also working hard on the Housekeeping special, holy moly there's so much to tell. I keep writing little things down and in the end I'm going to put it all together. Thanks so much for the lovely response.

I just found out about Ikea Hacker (via sfgirlbybay). It's such a fantastic idea because I love to hack my Ikea buys. I basically love Ikea but I don't want my house to look like an Ikea catalog so I keep pimping all the items I buy.

I submitted two of my hacks; the SKRUVSTA slipcover I did last year and the Expedit bookcase I pimped recently.

The bookcase (click the photo for a larger image) is in the study and I'm using it to file my favorite magazine back issues. I pinned the retro wallpaper, I found in Germany, on the back of the bookcase (quite a job) to create a fun backdrop.

I can't wait to see more hacks on Ikea Hacker!!

***

Oh and thanks for the lovely pantry comments. Bo wanted me to add that he loves it so much that he wanted to sleep in it the night I finished it. Yes he's almost 40!!

One resolution I made for 2007 is not to be so easy anymore. Since I married Bo almost eight years ago I've become too easy. In easy I mean "oh sod it, Bo will do it when he gets home".

I've always been a hands on girl. My father passed away when I was only thirteen years old leaving three women behind and a boy with two left hands, we were forced to do everything ourselves. So by the age of nineteen I was quite the handy woman. Fixing VCR's, painting houses, trimming trees, driving tractors, sewing cushions, studying, working in a shop, cleaning two homes, participating in an amateur drama group and cleaning a whole Hall single handedly wasn't strange to me. I can't sit still very long and I'm really quickly bored. It's not that I'm not interested it's just that I want to get on with things but I've lost that a bit since I got married.

To get my old groove back I decided to start the year fresh with a new D.I.Y. project known as The Cupboard Under The Stairs a.k.a. my pantry. It needed a fresh coat of paint, some un cluttering and organizing.

This is what it looked like on Monday.

And this is what it looked like two days and a lot of pink paint in my hair later.

I did everything myself, even the drilling and the lightning fixture. I was pooped by Tuesday night but extremely satisfied.

Thanks for your sweet birthday wishes, I had a really good one.

The day before my birthday (Sinterklaas evening) the Bo and I went out for Sushi in our favorite city and afterwards to see The Queen. I can highly recommend this movie - but that's a whole different story. On my birthday the people that are building a whole new neighborhood around us decided to cut of our water. It's one of the privileges of being born and living in a country with tapped water, it's horrible to go a whole morning without it. The rest of the day we spent food and cake shopping and in the afternoon we had a soes (Dutch cream cake) feast with my neighbor Amanda and her son Jesse. At dinnertime my friend Mandy, Rob and my brother with his new girlfriend came over for food and drinks and more soesen! It was a good birthday :)

So on to another festive part of this season, decorating the house.

The tree is up. It's my first ever fake tree and I'm still working on liking it. I don't know yet if I can go without the scent of a real tree, without the wonky branches and the picking out ritual we have each year. Maybe I can go without that last one because it's terrible how we both fuss over a tree. There's still more to decorate - oh joy!!

That little aqua colored thing on the floor is the Boo's fish. She always puts it somewhere she likes. I often find it next to her food bowls, it's so cute!