Cosy Corners

Christmas DIY

Making Christmas Decorations

We are in Christmas mood at home. Its been a lot of old books and newspaper DIY this year, also a lot of recycling , old yoghurt jars and toilet paper rolls. 

I find it good to not buy lots of material and the things the kids make are really nice. 

We made our own candles in yoghurt jars. 

Old books became nice candle covers with stamps. 

We also made angels of books and flags for the christmas tree. 

We will continue this week to make wreaths for the windows and doors. 

(Also making Limoncello as I know quite a few that appreciates that as a christmas present.)

The time before christmas is over before you know it so better profit now. 

Have a lovely week! 

The Calendar  this year  is a wooden box with presents wrapped in japanese newspaper. All the gifts bought during my trip in Tokyo. (Well except the one for my husband, he is happiest if he gets beer. )

Eating in Tokyo

For me Tokyo has it all. And especially they have great food. So during my week i was eating myself around Tokyo. Fish and salads, noodles and wonderful meat. There is restaurants everywhere and you can always eat good, but you can also do your research and eat the best! 

Here is a glimpse of the outer fish market where you can walk around trying lots of nice things and also get your kitchen tools.  

And some pictures from the wonderful food experience I had. 

Japan Fleamarket

Japan is an amazing country with such a mixed culture and so much to see that it overwhelms you .

 After each day in Tokyo I came back exhausted from all the impressions and all inspiration that this city gave me. I did not even know where to start writing, how to start...only to live this enormous flow of people, on their way somewhere, that line up for everything, that are so polite so friendly. Stations are great, looking at people and wondering how their life is and where they are gong.
As i love to take the subway only to look at people , Tokyo is the place for me. With trains going in all directions and lots of fun people to look at. People that wants to be seen, also a big group that just melts in to the mass. Sometimes i got lost or took the train in the wrong direction, 90 percent of the time this led to a new experience and new meetings that added value to my trip. (Once or twice it was really annoying)

So travelling,
it must be about meetings, meeting interesting people. Living different cultures.
Everyday in Tokyo and around gave me a new view.

This post is about the flea market in Kawagoe, like I said before imagine you are in heaven!
My kind of heaven.

So the flea market is every 28th of the month, lucky for me. It took me about 1 hour to get there, I did not have a map and had not much clue of where i was heading. But i badly wanted to see this market. Sometimes willpower can take you far. I was going to find it no matter what. A helpful bus driver wrote me a note in Japanese how to get there and finally i was there. For a flea market loving girl this was a great place, the whole day was about the things i like most, meeting people, interesting objects, beautiful fabrics, old knives and other tools.Explanations in  English/ signs/ japanese how these are used . Of Course i ran out of money and for those who have been in Japan you know that it is not obvious to find a place to get cash. But i walked until my feet were bleeding , got my money and went back to the market. My market experience ended with a few knives, some lovely brushes, an old japanese game for kids and a kimono.

After this i also found a little adorable vintage shop. It was about 4 square meters and so full of stuff that you could hardly enter. My day was completed!

Autumn Glory

Apples, Juice, Veggies, Flowers and Decoration.

Autumn is here and the air is a bit colder. 

From being outside most of the time we now move in, light a fire, cook a soup, make juice. 

Now is the time to enjoy all the autumn veggies, the beautiful colours, candle light and why not folding books. I will take the opportunity to decorate with fruits and veggies. 

Now I want to be creative, dark autumn evenings are the best for workshops with the kids or with friends, I will pick some leaves on my way home for the table, put the kale in a big bowl like a flower arrangement (it will last a few days and after it's a lovely dinner). Once again , simple is beautiful, decoration is everywhere, just outside your window. 

You only have to see it.

Härliga Höst! 

Enjoy your day

Summer in Sweden

Sommar i Sverige

Det är verkligen något speciellt med sommaren i Sverige. Natur, vatten och härlig mat. Jag kan inte få nog av att fiska och plocka svamp, plocka ostron och njuta av naturen.

Nu är vi tillbaka i Bryssel med massor av ny inspiration och nya ideer. 

Full of Inspiration.

We had a lovely summer in Sweden, enjoying the nature , fishing and picking oysters. 

Of course we did some trips and visited lots of nice places and I will post some pictures from our summer memories. But most of all I am inspired by the simple life that our summer village can offer. Who needs more than this? More than ever i want to eat bio and closely produced food.

It also inspires me alot in my decoration jobs, the scandinavian colors and the down to earth living. 

How beautiful simple can be. 

The most colorful room

The most colorful room in the house. It makes me happy to be in this room. 

The chair from Ikea recently became yellow and I love the color. I also painted the chest of drawers  red it was a bit of a job but it looks nice. Carpet is a market find, always nice to know there is not two of them. The pillows are from France handmade by a friend of mine, find them on alittlemarket.com, Crafty. 

My daughter bought the old typewriter on a market and she is using it all the time.

A Minecraft Birthday party

A Minecraft birthday party.As I told you before you will see a bit of everything here now. 

And then it was Noahs turn, 11 this year. He invited 30 kids to his birthday party, just to be sure to give mummy something to do! It was great, a good theme for the birthday as everything is squared makes the decoration work simple. I must say that it does not take 30 minutes to prepare... I read all these blogs from American mothers saying how easy it was , how you simply throw a Minecraft party for your child, Hmmm I would realistically say that it takes a week to prepare but it's certainly worth it!  We had a lot of fun! Specially happy about the TNT sweet bags made of empty kitchen rolls.