American history

For Americans this is probably well known reading material from highschool. I picked it up at a thriftshop in Holland. So I haven't got a clue how it crossed the ocean and who brought it to the Netherlands. It used to be the property of Woodland School according to the stamp on the inside cover.

My collection of the day

Inspired by Lisa Congdon's blog, a collection a day, I thought I'd show my tiny collection of small tin cans. Check out Lisa's collections at www.collectionaday2010.blogspot.com

Differences

My daughter Mila has a little trouble distinguishing the letter B and D. So I made these for her this morning. Hopefully it'll help her learn to recognize them soon.

Lead

My aunt gave me these printer's metal ornaments. They are quite small but quite decorative!

Love and marriage

This wedding invitation is the first one I made, ever. I still like the idea of the transparant paper and the building ornaments but I would definitely change the typography now.

Travelling by train

Every monday to thursday I take the train to Amsterdam. I love travelling by train, eventhough I can call standing the whole journey hardly romantic... I once bought this booklet, which is a timetable slash travel brochure. Eventhough the title says 'cheap journeys' the prices suggest otherwise. Back then travelling by train wasn't cheap at all!
I fact, two of my favourite things are combined in this book; information design (time tables) and the train!

Clutter in my cupboard

A few items in my small collection

Show me the money

When the euro came our local currency disappeared. Holland definitely had the best designed paper money, the 'gulden'.
I don't have the Dutch paper money anymore but I stumbled upon these from Italy and Poland when I was going through my vintage collection. The Polish currency is the Zloty and the Lire used to be the Italian currency.

Prehistoric chicken

This little collage is one of the first ones I made.

Dress-up baby

This is Mila's birth announcement which I designed more than 7 years ago. Corné took her picture the morning after she was born. She looks so fragile! Unfortunately I deleted the digital version, so all I'm left with are the printed cards. Nowadays it feels like something is missing when the digital version no longer excists. Times have changed!

Thanks for coming

I used to make these little gifts for the children who were at a Lewis' of Mila's birthday. Nowadays I don't get around to doing that anymore. Besides, I always forgot to give them at the end of the party. So we were stuck with about 15 of those little gifts...

Cross stitching

I love a good piece of embroidery. Besides from the occasional assignment when I was 6 or 7 I've never done it. But my mother likes to cross stitch. She made this piece for Mila, right after she was born. The other design was a pattern I made for an ex-colleague. She was very much into cross stitching so that was the concept for her goodbye gift.

Size doesn't matter

All of the cards above a quite small. The two together are the birth announcements of both my brothers (dating back to '61 and '62). The other one is probably a bit older. It was my grandfather's business card. He was a police-inspector.

Magenta again

Corné took a great picture of Mila when she turned 4. I used it to make the invitations. Magenta is a colour I really like to use...

Danni's friends

Im getting really experienced in making these friendbooks. I've made 4 of them so far; 2 for Mila, 1 for Lewis and 1 for Danni, Mila's friend. I order them from Blurb, quite expensive but definitely the best print quality.
If anyone is interested I can make one especially for you, just e-mail me!

Wall to wall

I took this picture in Gent, Belgium, great facade typography.

Play with your food

I love Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymanns' book 'Play with your food'!

The Sandeman secret

I bought this cardboard ad at a local thriftshop. It's about the size of an A4 paper. The text as well as the silhouette is embossed.
I've always loved this poster, not just because of the simplicity of the design but also for the simple reason that I see my familyname in the brandname.

Finally, presenting...

... the birthday calendar I made with a few of my collages. I didn't get around to making the pictures so it took me a while to post this one.

Colourstudies

In the first year at Art-college one of the assignments I remember was doing colourstudies. I discovered those studies years later in a box and decided to frame 'blue'. Even though one piece is missing I cannot bring myself to throw it out.

Fireworks

So soon after new years eve the streets in our neighbourhood are filled with the remains of the fireworks. I do not enjoy the loud bangs but I can appreciate the design! These are just a few I picked up in our street.

Pillowtalk

Years ago - when my pregnancy hormones were jumping up and down - I was very much into felt. Everything that didn't get away from me soon enough got decorated with a felt-application. This pillow is one of better results.

Another trip down memory-game-lane

This is the memorygame I used to play at home. It was a very extensive version and had a lot of cards I used to hate to look at. Of course I don't show those ones here. But take a closer look at the box... The game is by Otto Maier Verlag.