Little Sister

As a huge bag lover (a collection of above the 100) I just needed to have a peek in others bags! It's not known as polite to peek in bags in normal life but when you ask someone they are willing to show their treasures.




Anna, who lives in Greece with her husband originally came from Australia. The talented artist behind AnnaRubyKing makes beautiful cards, ACEO's, Gocco prints and more yummy things . She also makes very unique sterling jewelry which you can find in her other shop, LilaRubyKing. She recently started a blog, a real treat for the eye.
Her story of her bag:
'I do love handbags. Fortunately common sense (and also trying to be green and also trying not to spend all my money) prevent me from falling into addiction. But it is a fine line I tread, I could slip up any day. Right now I have three handbags. This number is okay right? Two summer bags, and one winter bag. Throwing all caution to the wind, I am currently living in a summer bag. It's a very pretty bag, and it was made especially for me by the lovely Ira Grant, as part of the EST secret santa last year. I don't carry too much in it, my sunglasses and their case
a carry bag that folds down tiny so I can save plastic
Lip balm
my purse (which contains 22.57 Euros)
two used tram tickets
a tissue
my little camera
50 Euro cents, 5 Australian cents
my keys, some headache tablets, an old shopping list, and a postage receipt from January. Scandalous hey!'

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Minna, shop owner and creator of Karuski, lives in Finland with her partner. You can find lovely pouches, textile jewelry and other pretty treats in her shop. You can read more about her and her creations on her blog.

Here is her story and contents of her bag:

'I design and make bags and purses myself. I often test the prototypes myself and sometimes like them so much that I continue using these pieces. That is what happened with this purse. I made it almost two years ago but I'm still using it. It's made of vintage linen with vegetal print. I think it's pretty much my own style as I love natural materials and prints are close to my heart as well.

Bag revealed the following:

green coin purse by 10gruppen (Swedish design collective)

box of chewing gum

keys on my birdie key chain

eco shopping tote for small groceries

agenda note book ipod shuffle (older model!)

Body Shop's lip balm nail file (but no handcream which I'd desperately need)

my lovely Leica C-Lux 2'

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Ana aka Nanouke , from Portugal, is the kind of girl that always seem to have more work to do then she can handle, she has her Etsy shop where she sells her beautiful wire knitted jewelry, she works and she is a Geologist who is now back to school for her Masters on Engineering.

Her is her bag story:
'This is my bag, which I bought from kraplap when I started my Masters Degree last year. I love small purses, but going to school again demanded a messenger bag, and this one is just perfect. As you can see, I'm a clumsy person, so it takes forever to find something in my bag. This is what I usually carry in my messenger bag (from top left to bottom right):

1- My notes and papers and a small pencil case I bought from flapi a while ago (I used it for my Double Point Needles, but now I put actually pens inside)

2 - Car and house keys (that poor octopus needs a serious bath)

3 - My calculator, without it I'll be naked

4 - Coin purse and wallet

5 - A small bag with pliers, beads, needles, wire and others, so I can craft if I want (isn't it weird when someone says: "If only I had a plier.." and you take one out of your bag?)

6 - My "poison" and lighter, something I always have with me

7 - My Mp3 player, so I can sleep in the bus without listening to other people talking

8- My USB pen drive, with all my papers and work, which I sometimes loose :P

9 - Cellphone and chapstick, this last one comes from USA, it's Burt's Bees. A friend gave me one a couple of years ago, and now I can't live without it. It's amazing. They don't sell it in Portugal, so I have to ask people to buy it for me. '

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Bianca of bndesign makes very cute jewelry which you can find in her Etsy shop. Beside her jewelry shop she works partime in a jewelry shop. And she blogs here. She has quite a collection of tissues in her bag, after asking it seems she hasn't got rid of a nasty bug for more then a year, so the tissues are highly needed!

This is her story:

'This is my bag. Well one of about 20, I love bags. But because I moved back to my parents there are only 2 unpacked, and this is the one I use daily. It is broken. The shoulderband has snapped off at both sides, the zipper is broken and the fake leather is cracking. I need a new bag and I am already on the hunt. The new one should be made of real leather and have a shoulderband (and handles to wear it as a handbag) difficult to find. I did find some lovely ones on Etsy though, so saving up for one. This is in my bag:

- black gloves

- my cute black grey striped (with little bow!) beanie

- my home and car keys (although I mostly go by bike and train)

- my little cute notebook to write in all my to do lists (the striped teal white one)

- my dairy (the flock flower one)

- pens to write in them

- handcreme for my dry hands

- chewing gum (have been in there for ages)

- my (broken) umbrella

- old receipts from shops

- my meds (asthma)

- dextrose, fruitsugars for a bit of energy

- sugarfree salt licorice

- LOTS OF paper towels ( I also use the package that I find first without looking for an opened one)

- vaseline (I use it for my lips)

- my wallet, a big blue fat one so all my cards fit in there! there isn't any money in it;)

- bandages for blisters

- the bill of the acupuncturist I just been to

- giftcards from the shop I work at. We'v gotten those for selling so well in december'

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Karla aka Karlita always makes me green (of jealousy) because of the wonderful travels she makes around the world, which you can admire on her blog. She makes wonderful felt scarfs, textile and sterling jewelry and many more pretty things. She lives with her cats and husband in Belgium and has beside creating a part time job.

This is what she revealed:

So i’ll start with this quote from my mom ‘Karla, you can never resist a good bag, how many bags do you have allready, do you really need this one???’ (my answer always being ‘yes, mom, I do need it!’ – ha, so Star was right asking me to show you the bag I currently wear (next week it would probably be another bag :o). Anyway, this bag is made my Michael Verheyden who has his atelier very close to were I work. The bags are pretty expensive but I snatched this one up at a stocksale of his. It is quite small so i keep only the essentials in there:

- my wallet, which is made my Mandarina Duck (of which I have many bags in my possesion). It was made in coöperation with Yohji Yamamoto. I love the red circle on the black wallet.

- the pouch with the bird on it is one of my first etsy purchases, it's from MichyMoo, I just love it!!!

- my cellphone (I always look for a pretty but cheap one, since they usually don’t last long)

-a comb (I bought it in the oldest pharmacy of New York City, Bigelow

-a mirror by TheNebulousKingdom

-a little medical box that contains ... medicine (bought in Boston long time ago)

-another painkiller (a strong one, for when I have a major headache)

-lipgloss

-a little fake leather pouch I made myself, for coins

- and a hankerchief, made by LindeHermans, she is in the superstories exhibition I blogged about recently here

- oh, and when i leave the house, I will of course also take my keys!'

Next peeks, next week!
Thank you Anna, Minna, Ana, Bianca and Karla for sharing your photographs and little bits of your lifes!

Another Passion

After a few weeks of peeks in others home's I thought it would be nice to show you my room. I think it is one of the fullest rooms you can imagine, and I am not showing all parts or full walls, just a few. Now that I'm showing pieces of my room I wanted to share my other passion beside jewelry making, is painting. I go twice a week to a course here in town to make time for it and I love it.

As mum's birthday is the 20th of December I wanted to give her something special and handmade. Beside some lovely wall hangings from HeliS, I made a portrait of her. If you know our avatar of our shop you know the girl with a big bunch of branch hair, that is a selfportrait I made a few years ago. I wanted to make such a portrait of mum too. By the 20th I was almost ready, and now we are in March I'm still almost ready LOL. I got stuck with it as she looks a bit like Medusa. Her face is not completed either, especially the eyes and mouth have some work to do, but I got mostly stuck at the hair. Mum thought about making stencils of real tree leaves and then stamp them, but I don't like that idea. Maybe I should make some finer branches? Any ideas are welcome, I need some more eyes as I have been looking at it for too long! I guess mum will have to wait a little longer for her birthday present.

This is the picture I made it from, somehow it got all cracked, looks vintage but it isn't!

In the mean time, I started and finished some other drawings untill I see the light for the portrait. The first one is an African tree, I found the photograph in National Geographic and loved the structures and perspective.

Then I made this huge eye, found the inspiration of this one in a fashion magazine with an ad for make up. Hardest part was the eyebrow. I'm waiting for it to dry completly so I can add the shiny part on the iris, just a white dot to finish it.


And now that I'm on it here some older paintings I made in the past years. I'm not a fan of reproducing famous paintings, but I love Mona Lisa and wanted to make her in my own style and color palette.

The hands worked out good, I think.


Only thing that is bothering me is that the nose is too thin which makes it look too long, but I won't touch it, that's the way we learn it, by mistakes.

Here another full wall in my room, you can see our avatar (selfportrait) on the left side and some little drawings. The big bright one on the right was my final project for my art history class with the theme inside and outside. There for the sea and boat is coming in to the room, inside and outside got mixed together, and it brought me through my exams so it has a special place for me.

My bathroom, which I don't use to shower, is the place where I keep my easels and wet paintings, my room is about to explode...

Today I went to drawing class, just like every wednesday and thursday, here you can see the class. Mostly women, these courses are arranged by the municipality for very low cost and perfect for housewives and the people who only work in summer time (like most people do here because of the tourism).

I sit in the hall, nice light and quite as the ladies chat a lot, you can see what I'm working now at, I almost finished this one today, I took this picture before I started.

This is what I see from the window of the class, the main boulevard and the beach.

New Project Part 4

Instead of a lazy sunday we have been busy with the new working space again, here the results of a productive sunday...

Everybody loves Ikea, right? In Holland we had beautiful antique furniture, which is now here gathering dust under the roof, but since we share our house and life with many dogs, we have become Ikea addicts. It is cheap, easy to keep clean and no tears if a doggie eats the legs of your table. Even better, you can buy it online!

The table tops come from the local DIY market and with Ikea table legs and drawers, the next stap on the way to our new workshop was done today.

Many hands make work light, and our good friend Ahmet came to help.

You have to love the smart construction and the easy to follow instructions. You can do no wrong!

Up till your armpits in supplies? Get yourself a new set of drawers and you can see de light again.

Still lots to do but slowly it will take shape.

To be continued...

Little Sister, on the Couch

This week I've contacted 5 ladies from Etsy to share their pictures of their favorite chair or couch, apparently couches are more in fashion as all of them sent me pictures of their couch. I can imagine that a couch is more comfortable and pretty, unfortunatly in our house it has become impossible to sit on the couch as it is always occupied with atleast one doggie, as you can see here.

Yasmin of YasminBochi moved from Belgium to the UK in november and lives with her fiance. The first 2 months they only had an inflatable bed as furniture, after that they bought the couch, one of the few items that is actually new in their apartment as mostly is vintage, recycled or restyled. Her shop is full of revamped vintage bags, so no suprise that vintage comes back in her home.

The couch is soft and comfortable, perfect for a TV night or just to relax or read a book.

Beside her beautiful bags Yasmin makes unique jewelry, you can find that here.

She has a lovely blog about vintage, trips and more here.

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Tina aka theprincessnextdoor lives with her husband and two little boys in Athens, Greece.

She took pottery lessons for 2 years, painted children murals and furniture and occasionally made jewelry. But 3 years ago she refound the pleasure of making jewelry, you can find the results in her shop.

Tina has quite a story about her couch:

'It belonged to my grand mother who had bought it from a decadent egyptian princess in the 50s in Istanbul. Were there princesses in Egypt? Anyway that's the story I heard and it suits me, I like to think I sit on a principal couch. I like its shape, I find it elegant. I changed the fabric when I brought it home, the man who upholstered it for me told me it was the heaviest couch he ever lifted. I guess it is very well made, the way old things were made. In the picture it's obvious that the fabric has faded and the lower part has lost its shape. It's made in the old way, springs, so it's natural after 8 years of constant use to "sink". I want to have it repaired and also change the fabric. If you could see closer you would also see a lot of stains and marks, the result of my couch's acquaintance with my children. But I think Ι have to postpone the repair and re-upholstering for some years and be content with a throw since this is what happens every day (second picture). I let them have fun for the moment. When they are mature enough to understand how to take care of our things I'll do it, I hope it won't be too long from now.'

Tina is also in the middle of deciding of what to hang above her couch, any ideas? She has a great blog too.

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Everyone who knows Renate aka Kreativlink, knows that she dreams of a house by the sea, she will buy it as soon as she wins the lottery (send her some luck please!!). In the mean time she lives in the middle of Austria without any water near her, in a little house with her husband and son. Her cozy living room has everything she needs:

' Our couch is in our tiny livingroom with a lovely view and already well loved. As you can see, I have all the very important things within reach there. The tiny laptop, drawing stuff, books, TV, the old playstation I got from my son, some shells when I want to "hear the sea", dying flowers for when I feel too happy (okay, that's stupid), alcohol (that I don't touch usually), a big warm blanket, some board games ....Okay, the only thing missing in there is a fridge. I would not have to leave that room ever again! ;)'

If you would like to help Renate making her dream come true of a house by the sea, it sure will help to check out her wonderful shop with handmade journals! :) (You can see my Kreativlink journal here). And here you can find her lovely blog.

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After seeing tiny colorful mouses (handmade by Anna of felt) all day Anna aka TheHouseOfMouse obviously needs a calm living room to relax with her cat (!!?). Anna moved from the UK to the Netherlands with her husband a few years ago, but is planning to move to a warmer climate.

She says: 'Most of the chairs in my house are more practical than beautiful, this one is my favorite because it is the place I go to relax and read when I have time. Within 5 minutes of sitting down my cat Nicki is guaranteed to come and curl up on my lap, giving me a very good excuse to stay put. '

Please check Anna's shop, full with the cutest mouses, all with different caracters. She also blogs and give great tips and info about making your Etsy shop successful.

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Heli has a yummy bag shop and a shop full of little lovely things (I purchased some wallhangings of her for mums birthday, they are even better in person!). Heli is a Finnish woman living in Istanbul, Turkey for 3 years now. She has studied ceramics and visual art therapy back in Finland (has a degree in both) and now doing all kind of things handmade.

She gave her couch a complete makeover a few months ago and this is the result. You can see the before and process picture here below.

This is her story about the couch:

"We got this couch from my mother-in-law when we moved to our first apartment. It is an old couch but I love it for some reason, hubby would have rather left it but I insisted to take it with us. I didn't like the upholstery at all and from the very beginning I started to think to cover it again. Well it took 2.5 years until I finally covered it with my own little hands. The hardest part was to rip off the old upholstery...my poor fingers! I am quite pleased and proud with the result though I wish I had found a more calm and light colored fabric, even though I know the darker the better in our messy family :) p.s we don't have kids "

She has a lovely blog, don't miss her Friday is my day posts!

Next peeks, next week!

Thank you Yasmin, Tina, Anna, Renate and Heli for sharing your photographs and little bits of your lifes!

Carnival on Etsy

Thanks to pearlswirl we have been featured in this wonderful Storque article about Carnival with our All Year's Carnival necklace.



Please check out the article, it has some amazing pictures of pearlswirl's journey to Venice, you can see more at her blog.

New Project Part 3

After quite some stress, the windows are finished!



It looks very pretty but mum, as a civil engineer, was a bit worried about the work and quality, I had to hold her back often to let it all be untill they where finished. It is not done as it should but in Turkey we often have to learn to live with things for 'less'.

Now comes the more challenging part, we have to get rid of the old stuff, making new tables and drawers, and then move the tons of supplies to our new space. Luckely the distance is not as far as the last move, but it will be quite a task, to be continued....

Here you can read Part 1 and Part 2.

Today the postmen brought a box with a little treasure we purchased at a lovely new shop on Etsy, ComeDayGoDay.


This trinket box is hand constructed with copper wire, vintage Mother of Pearl and linen buttons, bone beads, lead fishing weights and is lined with wood veneer and pale grey cotton organdie. A beauty!