Fridays Fabulous Photos - Ocean Blue

For this week's Fabulous Photos, we made a collage of beautiful, inspirational pictures of the sea. Being from the Netherlands, we love the ocean, and we love everything about it! The deep blue/greenish colour, the smell that is carried by the wind, the rustling sounds of the waves... In fact, we love all these aspects so much, that they have snuck into our jewelry over time. Some of them, like our Sunny Beaches and Greek Goddess bracelets and anklets, are clearly inspired by the beach. But also, this lovely version of Menage a Trois, our turquoise Soft as Stone bracelet, our blue calcedone Fresh Spring Leaves bracelet, the shell "tusk" necklace Token of Triumph and many more, show the beautiful ocean colors and/or contain natural materials of the ocean (shells, irregular shaped gemstones, etc.). And of course, we shouldn't forget to mention our most recent item: All I Want Is You, which holds a heart shaped charm made of shell. 

Anyways, for now, let's just take a moment to enjoy the stunning beauty of the ocean!

Love,

Lisa and Ivanna

PS: Don't forget about our surprise tomorrow!

ocean beach, seagulls, shells, waves

Personal - Etsy Valentine Gifts

You may not have noticed this yet, but we don't only sell on Etsy, we also like to shop and "window shop" there. It's incredible how many lovely, handmade items you can find, in every possible category! Therefore, we thought it would be nice to show you our favourite items on Etsy every now and again. We start of with a treasury filled with ideas for Valentines gifts. If you want to see the pictures in better quality, or want to find the shops where they sell these items, you can click here.

By the way, can you believe how close Valentine's Day is already? Of course we have very suitable Valentine's gifts in our own shop as well, but don't order just yet! We have a little surprise for you this Saturday ;)

Love,
Lisa & Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #24: Drums Songs 2

A long, long time ago, I promised you I would post another playlist of drum songs, so here it is. These are songs that I like to drum to when I'm warming up, or when I don't really have anything better to do. Most of them I can play pretty smoothly, but some of them I'm still trying to learn. (So, in case you were impressed to hear No One Knows and Pretty Visitors - don't be :p) Anyways, have a good listen, and enjoy!

xx Lisa

PS: I would love to hear suggestions for songs I can play along with!

Weekly Inspiration Post - Head in the Clouds

The bracelets that we combined in this set were actually all designed in different periods of time. Throughout the years we have developed different styles for specific collections, but as this set shows, we also stick to the same idea. We love gemstones and symbolic charms and this is something that you will find in a large part of our jewelry.

The lovely white topaz bracelet 'Fresh Spring Leaves' was designed as one of the first bracelets in our collection. The romantic lilac tourmaline 'Royal Princess' bracelet was designed about a year later and the playful wish bracelets 'If I Could Have One Wish' and 'Wish Upon A Star' are our latest designs. Together they make a sweet and romantic set which is also perfectly suitable for winter.

xx

Lisa and Ivanna

Antwerp and Queen of Waffles

A while ago my boyfriend and I got the idea to make a city trip when we had a day off and we decided to visit Antwerp, Belgium. It doesn't take a very long time to get there by train in our case, so we had all day long to explore the city. We strolled along the big market, looked through windows panes with fountains of chocolate behind it and visited the Rubenshuis (the house where famous Belgian painter Rubens once lived). Antwerp is a very cozy city, especially during winter days. The buildings look like doll houses with their cozy rectangular shaped windows and elegant facades. Everywhere you go the streets are decorated with twinkling lights and there are many old historic cafes where you can drink special beers and warm up. At these moments I always imagine I am back in time a hundred years and visualize the citizens that lived there back then.

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Girls just wanna have fun

Because making jewelry takes a lot of concentration sometimes, we have to alternate periods of ultimate concentration with relaxing breaks. In these breaks we usually do stuff to clear our minds, like making coffee while talking about all the stuff that has been happening in our lives, taking a walk to the shopping centre or cooking nice things. We also like to discover new places around town, so we planned to have more meetings outdoors in small cafés, as you may be able to see on our blog in the near future!

Apart from our 'Spring to Fall meetings', we regularly meet to go out and have fun. We both like to visit concerts, shop for clothes, go to the movies and eat in nice restaurants. 

Usually when we have been working on our jewelry for too long, and our focus is starting to fade, we get into a churting mood. This is when we start to find everything funny and we know it's time to stop our work. Then we decide to surrender to the feeling that we want to leave everything for what it is and completely get into the fun mode.

What do you do when you want to set your mind off your work for a while?

xx

Lisa and Ivanna

girl dancing, girls at fun fair, girl on edge, do not enter

Men's Jewelry Moodboard

We have had some requests from our male friends to make more jewelry for them as well, instead of just their girlfriends. Of course, we have made some men's jewelry before (like our leather Dead Or Alive bracelets, our Squaretacular Bloodstone, and Rocking Charms), but now, we wanted to dedicate ourselves completely to the task of designing an entire collection of men's jewelry!

The obvious thing for us to do, would be to make the same items we made for our female customers, only darker and sturdier, but we think our boys deserve more than just these cliché pieces. We always try to create from a natural angle, using as many pure materials as possible, and trying to capture the colours and textures of nature, while combining them with emotions and symbolism. And who says men can't wear this type of jewelry instead of just black leather and skulls? In order to assemble our ideas, we created the moodboard you can see below. Of course, this is just a little taste of what we have in mind, but since we've already started working on the new pieces, we can assure you it will look great!

Lisa & Ivanna

PS: What kind of jewelry do you like for men?

Photos by us, the Hemp Beadery, Allthedumbthings, and Sayila

Wednesday Words of Wisdom - The earth has music

It's pretty weird, what Mother Nature has been doing the past few months. America has frozen over almost entirely. Countless countries have been tormented by floods and hurricanes. And here in the Netherlands we seemed to have skipped winter altogether and are now moving on to spring (although we are still hoping for some snow!) We reckon it's not very enjoyable when your house is devoured by snow, water, and/or tree branches, but to us this just shows us again how powerful and wonderful our earth really is. Anyway, all this talk about earth and nature reminded is of a quote by Shakespeare, which inspired us to make this beauty.

Lots of love,

Lisa & Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #23: Blue Monday

It's hard to miss that today is "Blue Monday", which is said to be the most depressing day of the year. I don't really believe this myself - all Mondays are all equally depressing to me, especially when it's raining :p However, for those of you who woke up this morning feeling a bit down, I made a "happy" playlist. Let's see how blue you can be, when listening to these cheerful tunes!

Have a lovely week!

Lisa

Weekly Inspiration Post - Dazzling Spring Colours

As Ivanna was looking through all the Weekly Inspiration Posts that we posted from the start of our blog, she noticed that we hadn't posted one of our favourite sets. This set is very cheerful and colourful, and the irregular shaped gemstones create a natural, fresh look. We always instantly get happy by the look of this set! What do you think? Doesn't it make you want to skip around in shorts and a tank top?

xx

Lisa and Ivanna

PS: This set contains a turquoise and a white version of Greek Goddess, a yellow version of A Little Peace and a pink version of Delicate as Stone.

Friday's Fabulous Photos - Pretty In Pink

In contrast to all the manly stuff that we're working on, this weeks Fridays Fabulous Photos is pink and girly. We love pink, as you can see in our Wish bracelets (If I Could Have One Wish, A Simple Wish, Wish Upon A Star), this Delicate As Stone, Dead Or Alive and A Helping Hand. This color can be worn in different styles; chic, girly, playful, subtle or outstanding. It is easy to combine with other colors, but it is also nice to combine different tones of pink.

What do you think of this colour? Do you like to wear pink in your outfit?

Love,

Lisa and Ivanna

PS: Soon we will publish a moodboard, and maybe even a small sneak peek, of our new men bracelets!

 

Wednesday Words of Wisdom - Robert Frost

Since we've been working on our new men's bracelets so enthusiastically, we felt like posting a quote we used for one of our earlier men's items: Squaretacular Bloodstone. We always like quotes and sayings that give you hope and strength, and this one does exactly that. It is very reassuring to know that, no matter how big your problems may seem, there is always a way out - usually through them!

Lisa & Ivanna

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #22: Nostalgia

We've had some radio silence lately, because Ivanna and me have been very busy handling orders, and developing new men's bracelets. Also, I spent most of the weekend trying to clean up and reorganise all my stuff, in order to create a little room in my head. Everything turned out great, and I felt very productive, until I made an attempt to organise my CDs. This was actually very counterproductive, because instead of cleaning, it just made me find and listen to CDs I had almost forgotten about. Of course, the first one I played was Spiceworld by the Spice Girls :p And my Bon Jovi albums as well (I was a huge Bon Jovi fan when I was twelve). Anyway, let's have a little trip down memory lane :)

xx Lisa

PS: What are your childhood songs?

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Lazy Days

Sometimes, when we have a day off, we can spend the day doing absolutely nothing. And this can be very satisfying! What do you do on lazy days? I like to sit in a blanket on the couch after waking up and watch television, until I suddenly realize that a few hours have spent. Then I can enjoy my time while making a great lunch, playing videogames and cuddle (or talk) (mostly talk a lot) with the cats. And after this, I always think; where has this day gone? They say being lazy is a sin, but sometimes you just can't resist..

xx Ivanna

kitchen, lights, blanket, cup of coffee

Monday's Musical Delight - Playlist #21: Clean-up music

I told you before that I did not really have any New Year's resolutions. However, seeing as I had the day off today, I figured it was the perfect moment to clear out the house. I tell you, it is unbelievable how much stuff a person (in this case: me) can hoard in one year! Of course, this tedious task needed some background music! The list turned out a bit random, bit it wokred just fine for me! 

What is your favourite clean-up music?

Lisa

Weekly Inspiration - Pretty In Pink

This Week's inspiration post is so sweet, it almost hurts your teeth. The set contains a Misty Mountains, and a Royal Princess, which are both made with gorgeous rose quartz beads. Also, it holds all three of our new Wish bracelets: a bright pink A Simple Wish, a powder pink Wish Upon A Star, and two version of If I Could Have One Wish. If this combination isn't girly, we don't know what is!

Do you like this combination, or is it a little too pink for your taste?

xx

Lisa & Ivanna

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Live, Laugh, Love

In line with our last post of Wednesdays Words of Wisdom, I created this inspiring black and white collage. Instead of trying to achieve difficult goals for the new year while trying to be that perfect person, these are the things that actually matter the most!

Live, laugh and love! These simple words with a great meaning are very beautifully portrayed in the pictures below. Now that we're in the mode of alliterations, I also added another goal, which is going to be a very important one for me in 2014: Learn. I will graduate this year and I'm gonna have to start looking for a job, but that doesn't mean I am going to stop learning. In fact, the real learning process will start from that moment! I am very excited about this and I am very ready to start this new year with great challenges in front of me.

xx Ivanna

boy on bicycle, kids jumping in the air, old people dancing, little girl painting

We have a winner!

Ladies and gentlemen,

thank you all for joining our giveaway! We had lots of fun reading your comments, and getting to know new people. So now, we are very excited to announce that we have a winner! The winner of this lovely set of Wish bracelets is: *drum roll*

Janne Snoeck

Congrats, Janne! We will contact you today by email, so keep an eye on your inbox ;) Also, you can start choosing your favourite bracelets in the collage below, or in our shop. You can choose a Wish Upon A Star, A Simple Wish, and a If I Could Have One Wish bracelet, all in the colours you want :)

Again, thank you everyone for participating. We really enjoyed it, and we're already excited about our next promotion!

xx
Lisa & Ivanna

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

2013 has been a great year for us. Not perfect, but really very good nonetheless. And even though we've hardly posted any "best of 2013" or "hello 2014" articles, we have been thinking lot about this transition to yet another wonderful year. Especially in the form of a very strange, but common concept: New Year's resolutions. For some reason, we always believe that the next year is going to be THE year to lose weight/stop smoking/start exercising. We all make resolutions, and we all know we're going to fail miserably - probably before the end of January. And that's OK. Because it's not really about achieving these goals, it's about thinking about them, and, most importantly, trying. We don't have to be perfect, and it really is quite liberating to realise this!

We wish you all the best for 2014, and even though it sounds a bit quirky: just try to be happy, and make other people happy :)

xxx

Lisa & Ivanna