My week on Instagram #1

A new idea as I use Instragram more and more. A round up of my nicest Instagram photo's made in the last week. In these selection: the Cat plate of Donna Wilson, some cushions form Tas-ka and Ferm Living on the shop sofa, a Ferm Living baby blanket, used as a shawl and a finished colourful project.

Photo's made by Femkeido on a iPhone 5

It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be.

It's not the first time, I write something about this book. It must have been about ten years ago that someone bought me this book. Without saying too much about it, buy it and get inspired by these simple lessons of life who have been so important for the progression of my career and where I am now. I had to buy this book for the second time as the person I lend it out to never gave it back to me and ironicly also did something what was  determining to my career ;) I hope it brought him what it brought me (I doubt this....) 

I made these photo's at Ottolenghi in Islington and bought the book and Kinfolk magazine at the beautiful Artwords Bookshop on Rivington Street, both in London.

Photo's by Femkeido

The shop windows of East London

I love London Shops, I think there is a chance that I like the shop windows even more. Totally inspired by East London (Hackney and Islington) and I shifted one beautiful Liberty window in :)

Photo's: Femkeido

London apartment by Femkeido Interior Design

Last week, I was in London to fine tune an interior project, which I did for an old friend and her partner; Lizzie, Fashion Stylist and Andy live in a newly build apartment close the embankment of the Thames. On the edge of trendy and upcoming East London (more about this in my next post) they live partly in Brussels and partly in London and asked me last November to decorate their new London apartment. As I had to deal with a limited amount of space, I choose for a beautiful round table and light Eames DSW chairs. In the kitchen I advised some accessories of Ferm Living. Storage space was one of the biggest challenges: I proposed to build two closets to get this problem out of the way. As Lizzie has a huge collection of Vogue’s and other fashion magazines/ books, this also a great place to store them. The rug, lamps and round tables are from Habitat. We are still waiting for the sofa and some other pieces (for the master bedroom) to be delivered so I will need to come back in September. The spare bedroom is used for visitors but mainly for Lizzie's fashion styling work. So it is full of beautiful clothes, shoes and accessoiries. I decided to go for the woods wallpaper of Cole & Son to give the room something extra.

Photo's and project by Femkeido

Hotspot Report: Villa Augustus

A place what was already on my list for a long time was Villa Augustus in Dordrecht. I never had the time/ possibility to go there, as I am not in that area too often. And then all of a sudden in a situation of luck, I coincidently drove past it on my way to a client where I went for a Flexa colour advice consult, on a very sunny day and with an hour gap, exactly at 12 o’clock! It happens to be my lucky day! Villa Augustus is one of those places that could have been made for me. When you walk in, you start at the “market” and shop and you will follow your way to the restaurant and then terrace and biological garden. Strolling around a bit, I sat down outside to eat a very tasty sandwich with Dutch goat cheese and Dutch “applestroop”. Only being there for an hour it felt like being on holiday J

On my way out I bought some home made jam, scones and cheese. The god news is that it is a hotel as well. After visiting Villa Augustus, the Dutch saying: “Hoe dichter bij Dordt, hoe rotter het wordt” can be suspended!

Photo's by Femkeido

Femkeido at the Hive!!

I was so lucky to be in Berlin to join Bloggers conference The Hive. Explain that to someone who doesn’t know anything about blogging can be a bit difficult. What is it: first of all lot’s of fun! A place to meet people you already know online but sometimes didn’t meet in real life yet. It is a place to listen to presentations of successful bloggers. Some even make a living out of it , share best practices, be inspired. I arrived on Saturday midday as I went to a beautiful wedding on Friday. Entering the Betahaus in Kreuzberg it was really cool to bump into Cindy from My daily garbage and Stephanie from Neongroen. On Saturday I was impressed by the beautiful, very personal story from Deborah Beau form Kickcan and Conkers and the spontaneous story from Marlous about her online magazine Oh Marie. We had a BBQ dinner the Betahaus, but as I had such a short night before I returned early to my beautiful apartment to relax and rest. The following day I was lucky enough to have a full day. We started off with Kirsten Jassies who told a very clear story about bloggernetworks. I went to workshop about Vlogging presented by a lovely blogger called Katarina Bon Vora from Zero the One. For me, pretty up your blogposts was very helpful as well. It was so wonderful to meet: Holly, Stephanie, Cindy, Nathalie, Tessa, Iris, Kirsten and Anne.

On Sunday evening I had dinner in Mitte at Monsieur Vong the most famous Vietnamese hotspot in town!

After 2 days of non stop rain, I woke up on Monday in a very sunny Berlin. How great as I had a whole day playtime as I had a whole day playtime! My apartment, was located in Kreuzberg on beautiful pond, on this pond there is a cool cafe called Cafe Engelbecken. I had breakfast outside!! I even couldn’t believe it myself. After that I decided to head back to Mitte. The first shop I entered sold this funny t-shirt I am wearing in the photo above :), after a coffee in Kaffee Mitte I did the some shopping in the small nice shops and walked up to Prenlauzerberg.. I really liked this area. It is a bit quieter than Mitte but has also nice one off shops and cool cafe’s and restaurants. I bought the best Nike’s ever and had Sushi there. I did some more strolling around before taking the tram to the last piece of the Berlin wall. I thought I had been there 11 years ago but realised I didn’t. I was impressed by this sad piece of history, the stories about families being thorn apart got me. It was a peaceful and quiet place now, with children playing around and some nice architecture. This was my last stop before heading to the airport. As many of you know already: Berlin is cool, its relaxed and the Berliners are so helpful and nice. I will come back soon!

Photo's: Femkeido

Back to real business

I am experiencing a bit of a strange week. After being so extremely busy with setting up the webshop and offline shop, with interior projects, going to Milan, getting everything in place, it seems like we are landing right now. Last Friday we threw an awesome party to celebrate the official opening of the Femkeido Shop. We were already open for a few weeks but didn't have everything in stock yet, so decided to postpone the official opening to last week. Many thanks to everyone who came along and to everyone who made it happen that we are now out of stock some pieces again ;) 

This morning I took the time to fotograph some gorgeous items who have just arrived in combination with some of my own pieces. Above you see the J110 nature chair form HAY. A blanket from Ferm Living and a cushion form Tas-ka. On the photo on the right you see the marble stone table (M) from Zuiver a Kaleido tray from HAY and a beautiful vase from Lenneke Wispelwey. On the photo below you see the absolutely gorgeous plaind from the brand new ISH collection from Mae Engelgeer and the Harlequin wallpaper from Ferm Living at the back. On the photo on the right a cup from Donna Wilson and again a Kaleido tray from HAY. Everything is in stock.

Photo's: Femkeido

Farm lodge in Twente

We are on a well deserved holiday for a week. After many busy weeks, it is time to relax. We are staying in a stunning refurbished farm (Erve Heerman) from Droste's Boerderij Lodges in the eastern part of the Netherlands in an area called Twente. They are really nice contemperary styled and have luxury item such as crockery from Iitala and a Nespresso machine. There is enough space to play for my 2 boys and Kate is also anjoying her first holiday! We celebrated Queensday in a small village nearby yesterday, far away from the busy area's. Via Instagram, I found out that I just missed Cindy from My daily garbage, she and her family left on Monday and she also wrote a beautiful blogupdate about her stay here. 

 Photo's: Femkeido

Bye bye Bea

As our Queen Beatrix is abdicating on the 30th of April it is time to say goodbye to her. She has been our Queen almost as long as I am alive (33 years). I like her and I have always loved this painting made by Andy Warhol of her. It was made in 1985 in his serie: "Reigning Queens" Andy was the most content with the portrait of our Queen. This is what he said about it:

• Do you think these are your masterpieces?‛
• Queen Beatrix is! That’s the one I like the best because she is the best looking of the bunch‛

You can see this work in our newly openend Rijksmuseum!

Femkeido Shop: one step closer to official opening!

After Milan now back to normal days. Well normal days? At the Femkeido Shop we are working hard to get everything ready for the official opening on the 10th of May. Both Merel and I are going for a short break next week and I am busy with finishing off some great projects and starting off some new ones. I hop you all like the look of the shop opening invitation! Happy thursday!

Trends at the Salone del Mobile in Milan #3 GOLD

My last post about the Salone in Milan 2013. Tomorrow I will start with new things on my blog again. I saved the best for last! Gold!! I have a love/ hate relationship with gold. There are periods that I love the glamour of gold but I will always remember that I put myself in a very dangerous situation to once paint my huge golden mirror in my livingroom silver a few years ago. Anyhow, gold. More important about gold in fashion and interior is what it says about trends, about moods, about confidence. That last one; we all want to have confidence in a better economy. Confidence is a good thing in many ways. In my opinion using gold in designs tells us that these designers are condifent about the fact that better times are yet to come! So wether you like gold or not. Today GOLD is a good thing!

The photo's above are form the presentation a Tom Dixon

The photo below, of Sander Mulder you'd probably seen before in my post for Bloesem

Above a picture at Rosanna Orlandi and Moooi

Tradition Chaire Jaime Hayon

Impressions at the Salone del Mobile in Milan #1 Ventura Lambrate

Impressions at Ventura Lambrate, one of the design districts in de Milan Design week. In this district you can find a lot of young designers and design academy's who present their designs and final academy assignments. This year there was also a "Ventura at Work" venue were designers produced their designs on the spot. I love the buzz in Lambrate in these days. It is both edgy and inspiring!

Photo's by Femkeido