Loveliness from Japan - my little Daruma

Hello everyone, I think everyone needs a little motivation to achieve a certain goal, or realise a dream or make a wish come true. That's exactly what a DARUMA is for.  A DARUMA is a traditional handmade Japanese wishing doll. It is a centuries-old tradition from Japan.
Those who know me well know that I have a special relathionship with Japan (like many French people) and that like everything Japanese. I had three years of Japanese at school (which I completely forgot of course) but I am still a big fan of the Japanese culture and I spent my honeymoon in Japan in 2008.

That's how daruma dolls work:

1. Decide on a SPECIFIC GOAL you are DETERMINED to ACHIEVE or a SPECIAL DREAM, you want to COME TRUE.
2. A Daruma always comes with two blank eyes, so DRAW one of your Daruma's blank eyes to signify your COMMITMENT to achieving your GOAL.
3. Place your Daruma somewhere VISIBLE in your home.
4. Once you've achieved your goal or your dream has come true, draw in Daruma's other eye to say THANK YOU!

I brought the first one, on our honeymoon in Japan. It was a traditional red one. My wish was work related, and it worked. The second one I brought at the end of the pregnancy, and I chose a golden one. 

I love the meaning of the talisman, but I also find it very cute as a decoration item. Mine now lives on my bookshelves in my living room. It reminds me of my sweet dream, which was (now that it came true, I can tell it) : give birth to a happy and healthy baby.

WHAT ABOUT YOU, WHAT IS YOUR DARUMA DREAM OR GOAL?

You can for example find a DARUMA online here on the Saroshi online shop. I bought mine directly in the shop situated in the Gertigstrasse in Hamburg.

Talk to you soon,

Elodie

Some dahlias for baby love

Hello everyone,

When I saw these gorgeous dahlias at the market yesterday, I couldn't resist! I decided to be crazy and spend € 2.50 even if I could go to the hospital any moment now, as I am already 8 days overdue. I think the shades of pink, red and purple are just beautiful. They make me look forward to the autumn and its fantastic range of warm colours. I also wanted to use my new mini-medicis vase I found last week. So here are a couple of photos for you and for my baby love. Maybe she will want to come out if she already feels the beauty of flowers. Have a nice day and talk to you soon! Elodie

Baby love's little nursery

Good morning everyone,As promised several times, today is the day of the big reveal: I will show you the finished baby nursery. Maybe baby love will want to visit it soon! So here is what I did with this room after I decided on the colour scheme and did a virtual moodboard and collected some inspiration on Pinterest. I will start with the main pieces of furniture and show you the little details:

Little black sheep by Jellycat

The grey bed is from the French brand Combelle - I bought it on the French website Smallable, along with a lovely grey changing table and I am very much in love. I picked a grey bed with a lot of cushions and made a padded cot bumper in different shades of blue and grey. The mobile adds some purple to make it a bit more girly, and some animals to make it more fun. Stars as a pattern can be found in the shape of the blue cushion, on the mobile and on the ribbons.

For the first months, baby love will sleep in a French antique crib my parents brought me in July, where my sister used to sleep as a baby 28 years ago.

I found this antique wardrobe in the lovely shop Lieblingszimmer in Hamburg (which by the way just opened an online shop) - and instantly fell in love. I like the fact that the vitrine has also got glass on the side. We didn't want to buy something too babyish and I am not sure that this will stay for ever in baby love's bedroom. I could image it very well later in a dining room for presenting pretty plates and glasses. For the time being, I love the fact that I can enjoy the beautiful clothes my mum made for baby love.

 2. On the walls

The print is by UK illustrator Kerry Layton from her beautiful brand Seventy tree.

The pompoms come from the German website Pompom your life. They are hand-made and they have a great selection of colours to choose from on the website.

I made the pennant banner myself. It's a great way to use little pieces of fabric. I used some Liberty of London art fabric, some Japanese fabric, some fabric by Swedish design Lotta Jansdotter and some French fabric from petit pan. I made a big one that hangs above the bed as well as a mini-version. A tutorial is coming soon on the blog.

I also made the embroidery hoops with Liberty of London of fabric that I showed you previously on the blog. They now hang above the changing table.

I wanted to put some contrasting elements on the night blue painted wall. I decided to go for a wall sticker in silver - I have been a big fan of Shanna Murray and was so happy to finally have a good excuse for ordering one of her stickers. The unicorn head is from the German shop Butlers.

3. The lighting:

4. The little animals:

 5. The little stars:

A big thank you to Jocelyn from the gorgeous blog little room of style for her wonderful photos and to my little assistant Cheddar:

So I hope you liked my little nursery tour. I am looking forward to your feedback. I hope it doesn't look too much like a little boy's nursery with the choice of colours.

xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Jocelyn Casey and Elodie Love

Flowers from Sabine's garden

Hello everyone, I am not making so many bouquets these days, but luckily my friends still are and I love looking at them. Today I would like to show you the little wonders from Sabine's garden. Sabine is a German copywriter and blogger and online shop-owner. Her lovely blog is called azurweiss and her shop la mesa. We first met virtually through the swapping action Post aus meiner Küche last year and in real life in February in Munich during the blogger meet up "I love you blogs and coffee". She posts a lot of charming flower arrangements on her blog, and has participated many times in our #2flowergirls photo challenge. I am a big fan of her Instagram feed, where she posts a lot of lovely flowers. She usually presents simple flowers in very pretty glass or white china vases.  Some are from the flea-market and some can be purchased in her online-store.

Today, I am so glad to be showing you some of Sabine's bouquets from her beloved garden along with a little interview:

Dear Sabine, what kind of flowers do you grow in your garden?

I’m very much in love with cottage gardens and I grow typical cottage garden flowers like cornflowers, cosmoses, delphiniums, peonies and old roses together with tons of herbs like sage, rosemary, mint and chives. And not to forget some tomatoes, courgette and pumpkins. Our garden looks quite romantic and often a little bit higgledy-piggledy (because I don’t have time to keep all the weeds away) but this contrasts quite well with our  house which is pure white and very functionalist, almost Bauhaus-style.

What does your garden mean to you?

Honestly –  I think I couldn’t live without it. Working in the garden just makes me happy and I wish I had more time to spend in this little green relaxing zone.

What kind of vases do you like using for your bouquets?

Most of my vases are made of white porcelain, many of them are vintage. I like to arrange them in groups with flowers assorted by colours – mostly white, pale pink or blue. I also use transparent or blue glass vases or even glasses (vintage or new). Liqueur glasses for example are wonderful to arrange flowers like forget-me-nots or single blossoms. Especially in autumn and winter I often use rough ceramics (mostly vintage) to decorate, for example, dahlias, asters or just branches.

Thank you so much Sabine for sharing with us your lovely pictures and your love for flowers.

I wish you all a great day and hope to talk to you soon if baby love doesn't decide to make an appearance. Only 7 days to go! xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Sabine Wittig

KALASON

Hey everyone, I hope you had a good start to this new week. Today I would like to share with you another shop I love. It's a very Scandinavian shop as often in Hamburg. That is, by the way, one of the reasons why I like Hamburg so much. It's because you often feel closer culturally and design-wise to Copenhagen than to Munich! The other shops with a great selection of Scandinavian design I presented to you in the past are LIV, Lys Vintage, smukkeStore or Nordlys. The particularity of KALASON is that they have a focus on design for children with brands like little elephant or sebra, but you can also find some classic design brands such as nordal or hay. The shop owner Katharina Langewender is also a graphic designer, and a lot of the postcards that can be found in the shop are her own design. Katharina also designs logos and is responsible for Lieschen's pretty logo. The shop is situated in the very lively and pretty district of Winterhude, where you can also find the  shop schön und ehrlich, next to the canal, but you can also purchase everything online via the great online shop.

Here are a couple of pictures. Even if online shopping is great, nothing can replace a real-life shopping tour:

KALASON Semperstraße 2 22303 Hamburg

Tue – Fri: 11:00 – 19:00 Sat: 10:00 – 15:00 Follow kalason on Facebook

The nursery project #2 - online inspiration

Hello everyone,The birth of baby love is approaching (the end of August) and I can already tell you that you will see less flowers and more decoration and DIY on the blog in the coming weeks, as I am decorating the nursery and planing to make some stuff for the baby. I will show you some pictures of the room slowly transforming into a nursery and some great resources to buy furnitures and decoration items online. Today I will start with my online inspiration and first where I store my inspiration when I am surfing the web. I created a Pinterest board, that I names LOVEly nurseries. You can have a look here

A great website, when decoration the nursery and waiting for the baby to come is the French blog called The Socialite Family - A SAMPLE OF SMART AND COOL FAMILIES .

The blog is written by Constance Gennari who used to be a children’s fashion journalist. The purpose of Socialite Family is to observe interior design through the eyes of a family and I find her blog very inspiring. The interviewed families so far live in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Nantes, Los Angeles and Barcelona. (the interviews are available in French and English). It is a very visual blog, and I find extremely inspiring.

Speak to you soon, xoxo

Elodie

Wild flowers in Spain #2

Sometimes images speak louder than words. As I promised in yesterday's post, here is my wild flower bouquet from the Costa Brava. I hope you like it!

Speak to you soon - I will be back next with some new ideas for the baby's bedroom.

Take care

Elodie

Cat on dog

Hello everyone, 2 weeks ago I received a little package I ordered some time ago on the online shop fab.com. Fab is a members-only website and mobile app that offers curated sales, featuring designers and manufacturers from around the world. You usually have to wait a pretty long time between the order and the delivery, but it is generally worth it. My last order was for my cat Cheddar and I promised on Instagram, that I would post some photos of the little present, so there you go:

The funny scratching dog is from the US company Imperial Cat. They are not on sale anymore on the Fab Website, but you never know, they might come back at some point. Anyway Cheddy loves it! I wish you a great day! Speak to you soon

Elodie

Blue variation

Hello everyone, I gave a little dinner party last Saturday, and it's always the occasion for me to pimp my flat with some fresh cut flowers. When I was on the market, I bought some blue flowers. I decided not to mix them, but to make three different bouquet and display them on different spots of the flat. Here is the result. I hope you will enjoy it. Which one do you prefer? Myosotis, delphinium or hortensia? Speak to you soon!

xxx Elodie

The nursery project #1 - book & magazine inspiration

Hello! As a lot of you already know, I am expecting a little girl at the end of August! I am so excited about it. That also gives me a great occasion to start a new decoration project - and I would like you to share my thoughts and my decorating journey with you. The nursery will be set in our former bedroom, and my old office/workshop is now our bedroom. You have to have a little bit of imagination if you live in a relatively small space (80 m2). The room is approximately 10 m2, but you don't really need much space for a newborn baby who will sleep in our bedroom to start with anyway. Today I would like to share with you where I find my inspiration offline. That's a question I am asked all the time when talking about the blog or about decorating in general: Where do you find your inspiration? So, here are some answers, some great books I am reading at the moment and the French magazine Milk (which also has texts in English). And what about you? Where do find your inspiration when you want to decorate/redecorate a room? Have you got some tips regarding kid's and baby's rooms?

Talk to you soon, for some more baby inspiration.

xxx

Elodie

1. Decorate workshop by Holly Becker  (the founder of the decor8 blog). This book is like no other decoration book I have read before. It can be used for any decoration project, it is more a guide, a companion than a book - very inspiring! 2. Children's room by Terence Conran (the founder of habitat). A very interesting book with a lot of tips, written by a design guru. 3. & 4. two brilliant books from my favorite publisher Paumes. This small Japanese publisher has some great books about children's rooms and family life in various countries. Most of the texts are unfortunately in Japanese, but the pictures are really inspiring. You can order them online via the online concept store Bodie & fou 5- The French Magazine Milk about children, now has a decoration issue, which I really love, with a lot of home tours and creative ideas. A lot of the texts are in English too.

My yellow anemones

Hello everyone,I haven't been very active on the blog lately. Soon, I will reveal you why, and I hope I will find more time to write and publish more. Today I want to share some simple and extraordinary flowers at the same time with you. I have always loved anemones. We used to buy some with my mum for my piano teacher who loved them when I was a little girl: the classical red, white and blue mix. The other day I the flower shop, I found some yellow ones! They don't naturally grow that way, they are artificially coloured, which I usually hate, but this time, I love the result! What do you think? I also love how they contrast with the blue grape hyacinths.

The flowers are from the flower shop Küchenblume in Hamburg. The fabric is from heuteschmidt. The vase is from Miss étoile.

Have a wonderful week and speak to you soon!

Elodie

Vase story - my little whale from Japan

Hello everyone, Inga from Glomerylane and I have been really overwhelmed by the success of our first participative edition of #2flowergirls. You can see the links to the participating blogs under Inga's blogpost and under mine. Thank you so much for all those flowers, and for the positive and encouraging feedback. It made us all warm inside - and we definitely need that at the moment in Germany. You can check out the result on the March Pinterest board of #2flowergirls.

Today I decided to blog not directly about flowers, but about vases - my other love! When I travel, I always try to bring a little vase back with me in my suitcase that reminds me of the great places I visited. I bought this one on our honeymoon in Japan in 2008. I found it at a gorgeous shop for handcrafted products in Kyoto. It always makes me smile when I see it. It combines my love for flowers and for Japanese design with my obsession about animals in decoration.

What about you, have you got a favourite vase? What do you bring back with you as a souvenir, when travelling?

I wish you a wonderful week!

Elodie

three little bouquets

Hello everyone,When I found those gorgeous old roses on Saturday, I couldn't resist and had to bring them home with you and show them to you on the blog today.

As usual, instead of making a huge bouquet, without rearranging the flowers, I chose to make three little bouquets in various glasses or candle holders I brought back with me when I was travelling or visiting friends.

When trying to make a small bouquet, there is no point in trying to keep all the leaves. So DON'T BE AFRAID TO CUT THEM AND CUT THE STEMS!

Next week Inga and myself will be announcing the flowers for the March edition of the #2flowergirls project, and you can be part of it and style those flowers as well and share the photos with us. I wish you a very good week and don't forget to buy some flowers!

xxx

Elodie

Stockholm #1 - First day in the city

Hello everyone,I spent the first days of February in Stockholm this year. You might find it a strange idea, as the meteorological conditions are not the best for visiting a city but I had an excuse. I was attending the "Meet the blogger" conference - An international event for home design and lifestyle bloggers. The conference took place on Saturday and Sunday, but I will talk a little more about what I learned and who I met in Stockholm in another blogpost. I arrived to Stockholm very early on the Friday morning with Clara, and we had a few hours to discover the city before the sun came down - and believe it or not, it was a very sunny day!

It was a charming first day in Stockholm with a lot of walking around. I will be posting more Stockholm in the next few days - So stay tuned. What about you? Have a visited Stockholm? Do you like the city? Talk to you soon

xxx

Elodie

Antwerp #4 – Where to sleep

Hello everyone, I think nobody likes Mondays ... I think the best cure is to plan your next holiday and think back to your last holiday. While doing it, I realised I still wanted to give a last tip about Antwerp, where I spent a fabulous break last October. After telling you what to do in Antwerp by day and showing you the city by night, where to eat in Antwerp and where to shop, here comes my ultimate tip: where to sleep in Antwerp - and the answer is a beautiful Bed & Breakfast called Home @ FEEK. It is one of the most fantastic places I have stayed at in my life - it was the night of my birthday and it was definitely special!

It is located in the old house of the harbour master and five minutes walk from the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom).

The place is run by product designer Frederik van Heereveld. Frederik is known worldwide for his collection with FEEK and new materials, which he integrates into his interior designs. All the furniture in the rooms can be bought. Even the lift is really funky.

The changing colour lamp in the bedroom was also a highlight.

Hone @ Feek Website: www.http://home.feek.be Oude Leeuwenrui 23, Antwerpen

Metropolitain in Hamburg

Hello everyone, There is a new place in Hamburg I would like to share with you today. It is very French and I am so happy I can reach it within five minutes the next time I am feeling homesick. Metropolitain is the long name given to the French Metro. This place is not an interior shop, it's a café/pâtisserie/wine shop/champagne lounge. The concept is really well thought through. You have three rooms:

1.  The first one is black and white, with a completely black counter, white tiles (the same as in the Parisian metro) and black bistro chairs. The area is designed to be like the entrance of a metro station. 2.  The second room is completely black, with sofas, and is the champagne lounge. It is conceived to be like when you are travelling in the metro and going through a tunnel. 3. The third room is completely white and reflects the interior of the metro trains.

It is a very atmospheric place with fantastic food, only organic French wines and a lot of attention given to details and corporate design. One of the owners is French and used to work in advertising, and you really feel that a lot of attention has been put into the concept, the choice of colours, etc. The green tone used in the logo is, for instance, exactly the green used in the Paris metro.

The products that are sold and the decoration at Metropolitain are so typically French that I decided to give you a little basic French course via the pictures.

A little French course:

Speak to you soon. xxx Elodie

Metropolitain Hegestraße 28 20249 Hamburg Tu. – Su. : 10:00 – 18:00 Closed Mondays

12 aus 12 by madame love

Dear readers,

My German blogger friend Ricarda, from the blog 23qm stil had this great idea to review your 2012 via 12 pictures. As I started searching my photo archive from 2012, there were far too many photos and great memories to only post 12 photos, so I decided to make 12 photo collages for the 12 topics that influenced me the most this year and which tell my story the best. The birth of my blog (on July 15th) was definitely my highlight and all the great projects I realised through the blog, the workshop and conferences I attended and the many more to come in 2013, and most of all, the brilliant people I met through blogging.

1- My year in flowers:

Flowers have been my main source of inspiration for my blog this year, they made me improve my photographic skills and transform my flat into a photo studio. I love working with flowers and will continue to do so in 2013. I love picking the right vase, waiting for the perfect light, before work or on Saturday morning and playing with colours and textures.

2- My year in shops:

My blog made me visit a lot of beautiful interior shops in Hamburg.  Each photo belongs to one shop: here are the links to the blogposts (from left to right and from top to bottom) Akiko, Palais 13, Küchenblume, Johanna Schultz, Lieblingsstück, Nordlys, Lieblingszimmer, my perfect Sunday, Manoir/Palazzo, Morgenthau,das 7te Zimmer,Richard, Eden Living, Lys Vintage, Human Empire, SmuukeStore.

3- My culinary year:

Even if food is not the main focus of my blog, this year I took part three times in the project Post aus meiner Küche (with the strawberry lollipops, the speculoos stars, and the mini-madeleines. I also took part in the food-blogger event France Bon Appétit. Here are some impressions:

4- My creative year:

I started sewing a lot at the beginning of 2012. I was seriously thinking about creating my own little label: L.O.D. Love On Delivery, and open my own Etsy store. In the end, I used my spare time for my blog and not pursuing my first project. I took part in the designer market -  Kleine Dachladen organised by my friend Merret in May, though, and I really liked it. What do you think, should I open my Etsy store in 2013?

5- My year in Hamburg:

Hamburg treated me much better in 2012 than in 2011. Especially because I found a job I like at DDB Tribal and my friendships grew deeper. Thanks Hamburg - you almost made me forget Berlin (but not my dear Berlin friends).

6- LOVEly white dinner

In August, I shared a beautiful white dinner with my dear friends from Girl Gone International.

7- LOVEly cruise

In May, just before starting my new job at DDB, I went on a cruise with Mr. Love. Venice, Dubrovnik and Corfu. Needless to say, it was lovely! 8- LOVEly Antwerp:

To celebrate my birthday, Mr. Love and I spent a couple of days in Antwerp, and as expected, I really enjoyed the city, its architecture and interior shops.

9- LOVEly Amsterdam:

On the way back to Hamburg, after leaving Antwerp, we stopped in Amsterdam to visit friends and I loved the city very much too. As another friend of mine just moved there, I will be visiting again soon. My blogpost about Amsterdam is coming up soon as well...

10- My star obsession:

Another thing I noticed while browsing through my pictures, is that I have been using a lot of stars this year in my sewing and DIY projects, as well as in my food projects.... 11- My year in red & pink:

...and that I have been using a lot of red and pink in everything I did.

12- My year with Cheddy

My cat Cheddar loves being the centre of attention, and while searching for photos, I found a least one picture of him in each album. So here comes a little collage - *cat content*

So I am ready! 2013 can come. I hope you enjoyed my little review. If you want to read what other bloggers think about 2012, here is a link to Ricarda's blog.

Only 7 days to go before Christmas!

xxx

Elodie

Mimosa - lighting up the winter like in the south of France

Dear readers, I hope you had a nice Sunday. It's all christmassy around us -  but today, I want to bring a little sun into the middle of the winter with the beautiful mimosa I found in a flower shop yesterday. I combined them with some beautiful dark blue anemones. The colour combination is my mum's favorite and I also love it. Mimosa is a neon yellow flower that you find at this time of the year in the south of France and reminds me of the wonderful time I had living in Aix-en-Provence. Apart from being so beautiful and delicate, this is a very scented flower. It is a shame I can't do a scented post yet. I decided to do a musical post instead with a song from the French singer Barbara, talking about the death of her mum and wishing that she rests in peace in heaven with the scent of a mimosa flower.

I wish a nice penultimate week of 2012! xxx Elodie

Que vos étés se fleurissent Dans votre pays, là-bas Aux senteurs odorantes D'une fleur de mimosa, Que votre hiver se réchauffe Au coin d'une cheminée, Que les saisons vous soient douces. Vous avez tant mérité.

Rémusat (Barbara)

My fake christmas tree

Hello everyone, This year my family are coming to Hamburg to celebrate Christmas and we are going to buy a proper Christmas tree on 24th December. In the meantime, I made myself my own fake Christmas tree, with some white branches and home-made ornaments.I used some German polymer clay called Fimo, with some organza ribbons. To personalise them, I used a Love stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE and the letters are from Muji. I decided to have a Christmas decoration all in black & white this year. It's very much like Coco Chanel!

Next week I am on holiday and I am so looking forward to it! I will take some time to prepare the celebration with my family and spend more time on the blog, working on future projects for 2013. So there you go, here are a couple of pictures of my fake, temporary Christmas tree. You can see more photos on my Facebook page. Next week I will be doing some more ornaments, but this time in black.

What about you? Which colours are you using for your christmas decoration? Have you got a proper tree?

Speak to to you soon. xxx Elodie

a christmassy still life

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely week-end. We had dreadful weather in Hamburg today - we had a lot of snow and it has been raining on the snow, so it's all slushy now. Whatever! It is a good opportunity to finish my small Christmas decoration at home. This year I decided to use my little home-made table (made out of an old bathroom mirror) to display a little christmassy, wintery landscape and I am pretty happy about the result. I love the fact that the table reflects the scene, especially when the lantern is lit up.

I wish you a fantastic week. Only 15 days to go till Christmas! xxx Elodie

• The centre of this still life is a metallic candle holder in the shape of an old Dutch house that I bought in one of my favorite flower shops: Blumenküche.
• On the left, I made a little star bouquet using old bottles from the lovely interior shop Lieblingszimmer.
• The stars are hand-made glitter stars from the shop Nordlys and the paper ornament is from House Doctor. Around the neck of the bottle is an home-made star I made using the German polymer clay called Fimo. I stamped my name on it, with a lovely stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE.
• The plastic animal under the cloche is from a local toy store and I love the contrast with the big porcelain mushroom.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the still life.