Friday 31 January 2020

Goodbye Ernie, Hello Luna


We lost our sweet curly Ernie. He was the brother of Lili, Mimi and Toffee, all four grew up in our house and after 14 years it was tough to see him deteriorate all of a sudden. He had dementia, causing him to walk around in circles all the time. He lost a lot of weight and he just wasn't there anymore. We miss him terribly, he was incredibly sweet and just one big teddy bear and the King of the curls. As the second of the siblings is gone we are trying to prepare ourselves for the other two. The only hard part of taking care of so many dogs is losing them.


With losing Ernie and Simon we were down to eight dogs, a number we haven't had for 15 years, at one point we had 15 and for many years 13. In the past few years we kept the number at 10. A lot of people find it crazy to hear how many dogs we have but honestly, they are pure joy and love and we love having them. Their favorite hobby is sleeping and they are pretty calm and quiet as we are usually home. We have a big garden and a doggy door so they come in and out whenever they want, they also have each other.


Last Sunday we got up at 6am and drove to Izmir. We first went to the flea market as it is a 3-hour drive we wanted to visit there as well. We scored some awesome finds.


And then we picked up this pretty girl. She was taken from the shelter and brought to the animal hospital as she was so skinny.


You can see her ribs but her spirit isn't broken, she is very cheerful and already very attached to us. She is very sweet. She is extremely obsessed with food. but we're sure she'll calm down when she realizes she never has to stay hungry again. We've never had a dog that was that emaciated. People...


Although declared healthy at the hospital she has diarrhea and an eye infection, it might be side effects of her weak immune system, we have her eyes under control and will keep a close eye to everything else. It will take months for her to get to a good weight and be completely healthy.


She felt at home right away and has a good bond with Mimi. We called her Luna.

Tuesday 21 January 2020

Get the Look Vol.18


I find owls always so mysterious and beautiful, I hear them sometimes at night, it always seems a different world at night when the critters come out. I loved the photo above especially due to the beautiful old books. Our owl is a signed handmade Mid-century piece made in the Brutalist style very cool.


These etched brass plates with enamel details are from India. There are many variations made of them. Ours are even cooler due to their open lace-like details.



Don't you just love little airplanes? I love how these are hung but they also look great on a bookshelf.
Ours is a tramp art, handmade, torch cut from the 1980's.


These brass Mid-century sailboats are made in various variations all with small differences. They are sleek and cool and a perfect gift for sailing lovers.
Ours has a little base which is rare.


I love birdcages, not for birds but purely for decorative purposes. I have two which I'm going to turn in to planters in our new home. They also look great with candles or lights, I'd go for led candles.
Our birdcage is a decorative Mid-century piece, very cool.


Although these candle holders from Anthropology are cool, I find our one of a kind candle holder made with real sea urchins even cooler :)


Check out our other Get the Look posts for more decor pieces.

Friday 17 January 2020

New Sea Urchin Lights


I've been making some amazing sea urchin lamps this week. Their bases are made out of thrifted vintage candle holders, I drill them and add cables. They will come ready to use with a little bulb and an electrical system according to the country you live in.


I'm totally in love with them and there will come more of them as soon as I've made them :)


The sea urchins are huge, with a width of almost 12 cm (4 1/2''). They are gorgeous with and without the light on but their colors change a lot.



Due to the vintage candle holders and the natural colors of the sea urchins, each lamp will be one of a kind.



I'm in love with them and will definitely make one for our new home as well!




Changing the bulb is easy as the sea urchin can easily be lifted, which makes it also easier to ship as the sea urchin can be packed separately. Check our shop for these amazing lamps!

Sunday 12 January 2020

Last Vacation post, St. Augustine


Happy New Year everyone! Already 12 days have passed, time flies. We have already been back home for a week but Jet lag and both catching the flu (most likely on our flight back) took a while to become human again.
We spent our last week in Florida in St. Augustine, we were there for a few hours last year while driving through.


St. Augustine was the exact opposite of Tallahassee, it is right at the coast and due to its history very touristic. The house we stayed in was a 5-minute walk from the beach.


There was this beautiful sculpture garden, free to visit, donated by a local sculptor, Thomas Glover, who passed away a while ago, here is the story behind the park.



8 sculptures were made by Glover, and 8 more were from other artists.




We were staying in a house taking care of 2 Scottish terriers and a parrot. After weeks of missing our own dogs, the dogs we took care of in Tallahassee and St. Augustine were wonderful.
We arranged these sits through TrustedHouseSitters where we also get our own sitters when we travel, no money gets exchanged (besides of a yearly fee at the site itself which ensures a safe environment), it is a great site. If you want to become a member use this code for 25% off RAF112470.


We saved quite some hotel costs this way and we could travel in a calmer way instead of changing hotels every 1-2 days. We had a few rainy days but it was not cold and it was great to wind down before our long trip back.


We didn't do a lot of shopping here as our stuff could barely fit in our car when we arrived :)





We visited the historic part on a sunny day, I did not take that many photos due to last years visit.



Traffic is crowded so we parked a little further away and walked, parking in town can easily cost 20$, we found a free spot :)



The town gets also lots of visitors due to the fireworks during New Year, but it was a bit chilly and we rather stayed with the scared dogs than go outside.






The town gives a bit of a staged feeling, it doesn't feel like the usual American towns, but is worth a visit when in the neighborhood, 1-2 days is plenty. We mostly went to the beach as the dogs loved that as well.







Like last year we had the extra atmosphere due to the Christmas decorations.







We did not go to the lighthouse this year, it has a cool black and white swirl design.


Some people had the beach as their back yard!




These people know how to enjoy life :)


We came back with 9 large suitcases and 4 pieces of hand luggage, it was crazy! Some stuff for the new house, and materials for the shop, all thrifted, of course!