restaurant Caseros

Quite close to where we live at the moment, there's a lovely restaurant, called Caseros. Especially nice to go there for lunch, because the interior is nice and clean, and the food they serve fits the atmosphere: nice and light, with lovely grilled vegetables, salads, marinated salmon and shrimps. I also enjoyed the grilled Provolone. Go here if you happen to be in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, and you're looking for a nice alternative for the grill restaurants (who are also mostly very good, by the way).

my big dream...

One of the (many) reasons for this sabbatical-holiday is to find out what exactly I'll be shaping my company in. I'm getting closer and closer to the answer. Being in Buenos Aires helps a lot with getting new ideas for interior design, color schemes, design and living happily in general. But The Selby, one of my favorite websites, helped me along a bit more. I know now that I don't have to move to the country have a green dream come true. Annie Novak, founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm shows the way. A lovely green haven, with a view to a beautiful city, and a wonderful shop to go with it, also one of my big dreams. I want that as well! And I even know who can build the perfect roof top garden for me: De Dakdokters, an Amsterdam-based company that's specialized in green roof top gardens. Getting closer and closer to my (and the rest of my family's) big dream.

San Telmo, my new neighborhood

So... we're in Buenos Aires. All the stories I heard about this city are true: alive, vibrant, inspiring. I'm still in the middle of exploring our new neighborhood, San Telmo, where will be living for one months. Because we have two small children, it probably takes a bit longer before we have seen everything. But because we walk in a slow pace, we won't miss a thing! San Telmo is divided in two parts by a big high way. We live in the more quiet part, in an amazing house (more about which later). Actually, we're surrounded by beautiful architecture, old and new. Run down or rebuilt. Near us is a small park, Parcue Lezama, some colorful shops, and two fantastic restaurants. Hierbabuena is good for lunch, with or without children, because they have great salads an the most delicious fresh raspberryjuice I have ever tasted. Nicely decorated with sparkling green tiles. A few doors down is Caseros, a sparsely decorated restaurant, very stylish and chic. We had a beautiful lunch there with family and friends, and we'll go there for dinner tonight. More about that later.

colorful dreams

In Tanti, near Cordoba, we rented a beautiful house, with a giant garden, close to the river. It's owners are Dutch, so you get an interesting mix of Argentinian architecture and Dutch classic furniture, Argentinian nature and Dutch landscaping. With a very beautiful and calming result. There was one room in the house that was absolutely my favorite. It was semi-separate from the house, and the stairs to it already gave me a good feeling. Fresh, tangy but still soft yellow-green walls combined with green tiles, and on top of the stairs a nice promise for the room. It was painted in a lovely soft pink-orange tint, walls and ceilings. On the bed a nice, handmade, quilt, a lappendeken we call it in Holland. Nice idea for boring winter evenings (next year). Even the closets gave a new inspiration: a small little round metal screen to let in some fresh air. The flowery curtains were a bit faded, but that only adds to the romantic atmosphere.

color inspiration from Carlos Paz

Milky white, blue-ish white, grey white, pink-white, green white, yellow white, with a touch of caramel, black, green and pink. The houses and walls in the streets in Carlos Paz are probably not intend to be an inspiration for a color palette. But they give me new ideas for a raw, but still calming color combination anyway.

inspiration from Carlos Paz

Before I report on the wonderful things that I'm seeing in Buenos Aires, where we are now, I want to show you the beauty of Tanti, Carlos Paz and other small towns and villages that we visited near Cordoba, Argentina. Carlos Paz is a strange little town. At first glance not beautiful at all. But if you take a closer look, fascinating. Beautiful houses next to the ugliest buildings you can imagine. Trees and flowers everywhere. Amazingly beautiful rivers and streams, where everybody gathers on a free afternoon or to spend a sunday. And everybody cleans up after they leave. And even the pavements, or a hand painted sign on a car, are a joy for the eye.

inspiration point: Tanti, Argentina

Now that I'm not surrounded by high tech design, fashion and architecture, I can focus on other sources of inspiration. Tanti, a charming little village in Argentina, an hour from Cordoba, is a good starting point. The nature is breathtakingly beautiful, and is well respected by everybody. and the people that live here, with their calm and gentle, and funloving nature, are teaching lesson or two in how to live your life. Now that we're on a sabbatical, just the thing that I'm looking for. Besides that, I have time to explore more settings and techniques on my camera, like Diarama and Black and White Grainy images.

happy christmas!

Almost exactly three years ago, we moved into our new home. The day before the move, our house was clean, empty and ... white. A perfect setting for a nice Christmas shoot. Time to do a productions together with Patricia Hessing, an architect and a designer at Soap Ateliers. To give an answer to the question: how to celebrate the perfect christmas production even though you're surrounded by boxes, paint and other moving stuff. The beautiful images were taken by James Stokes. We called it Take Away Christmas, but now it's shown in VT Wonen, called Out of The Box. And now, because we're moving to Argentina in two weeks, we're surrounded by boxes again! How convenient. (I hope I have time to show some more of this production, I still really love it).

christmas mini-market in my street next Saturday

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift or a last-minute Sinterklaas-gift?

Coming Saturday, december 4th, I'm organising a Christmas mini-market with and at Mondo Mediterraneo, next to my house. Mondo will be selling their lovely food and culinairy gifts, I will be selling some of my beautiful styling accessories, fabrics and materials, but also some baby clothes (girls, size 50 - 80). As we speak (or rather: read) I'm working on some home made Christmas decorations with Maaike Koorman, who is also a designer. I'm also selling some beautiful hand made stuff made by my sister Pauline Rammeloo. And probably some other friends will join in as well, amongst whom Jeske Weel. So, if you happen to be in Amsterdam (or if you live here) next Saturday, drop by! The address is: Czaar Peterstraat 174, we'll start at 11:00 and it will (probably) end at 18:00.

I love books

I received a beautifully wrapped parcel in the mail. I saved it for a while, because I loved the wrapping so much that I wanted to have a picture of that as well. Today I had time to do some picture taking and unwrapping, assisted by my two lovely ladies. I loved the parcel, but I love what's in it even more! Three beautiful, leather covered diaries, in soft pastels. They are hand made by Marjolein Delhaas. The leather covered diaries are a limited edition, a perfect Christmas gift (I hope that the two persons I'm giving it to are not reading this) (I'm keeping one for myself). You can find more beautiful books, dairies and journals on Marjolein's webshop I love Book. Me too! Jeske Weel gave this tip to me through Facebook, thanks Jeske!

snow

I'm still so very happy with my camera, the Olympus Pen E-P2, because it allows me to capture magical moments like these, first snow, in such a beautiful way.

redecoration of a showroom, part four

To give the sunglasses a better display and give the stylist an opportunity to try them on, I designed these mirrored shelves, and Douglas van Vugt made them. They sort of wrap themselves around the pillars in the showroom. Normally those pillars just take up a lot of room, not anymore! One of the shelved walls I covered with sackcloth and painted white, like the front desk in the entrance. In the area where all the clothes are processed, curtains were made of raw linen. They give a calm, pure look in an area that is normally quite cluttered. And they match the white, beige and black palette perfectly.

redecoration of a showroom, part three

..so the wall can function as a clean and neutral background for brochures, booklets and small items. The walls in the entrance were painted white. The front desk was also painted white, and I stapled sackcloth over the light boxes and painted that white as well. Now the entrance is clean and welcoming and it gives a preview of what you will find when you turn the corner.

redecoration of a showroom, part two

With Richard from Tools, I made this wall, using only old timber (except from frame).

And then the painters painted everything white...