Lisa in England - Day 2 (+ Vlog)

As promised, a little journal and vlog on our second day in England!

Last week, my boyfriend and I spent 6 days in Oxford and London to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. After a rather adventurous first day, we started day two with the delicious breakfast our friend Susanne had prepared for us. Most Englishmen would probably have a seizure at the sight of what we did to their national products to call it breakfast, but it was scrumptious nonetheless.

After this hearty breakfast, we headed off to the Oxford University Museum National History and the adjoining Pitt Rivers Museum, which were both incredibly beautiful and interesting. I was actually promised human heads in jars, which was the whole reason I wanted to go to the Pitt Rivers Museum, but unfortunately they only had "regular" shrunken heads. Which were also pretty disgusting interesting. And the architecture of the Natural History Museum was phenomenal!

After that we sneaked into Christ Church, where Alice in Wonderland was written, and several scenes of the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the Great Hall due to reconstruction work. Bummer. We also briefly visited the covered market before heading for lunch.

Lunch consisted of fruit and juice packs (daytrips like this always bring out the mother figure in Susanne), and pasties we bought at Sainsbury's. Very fancy ;)

And after some well deserved rest and coffee and hot cocoa, we walked up the hill to enjoy a splendid sunset over Oxford.

To see the rest of the evening on our second day, and to enjoy even more visual input, check our vlog below!


 

There are 4 more days of vlogs to come, so stay tuned!

 

Love,

Lisa

Friday's Fabulous Photos - Pastel colors

We love pastel colors!! The sweet and soft tones are seen quite often nowadays in all kinds of fields; in home decorations, fashion (clothing as well as hair dye) and even in food. Pastel colors remind us of spring and give a calm and romantic feeling. We are really in the mood for buying some stuff in those colors in order to get the real springtime vibes. And about the macarons on the picture.. Ivanna is convinced that she's going to make them herself in the very near future. Lisa told her she tried it recently and that it's very difficult to make them, so unfortunately they didn't come out as planned, but still. We feel like a blog post is going to roll out of this idea, no matter what!

Love,

Lisa & Ivanna

shells, cape town, flowers in a vase, macarons

Friday's Fabulous Photos - Rough Textures

We've been pretty preoccupied with our men's jewelry lately, and we're very, very sorry that we have not even offered you a glimpse of it! We had simply forgotten how much work and time it takes to make a collection like this, when you also have to worry about work and internships. The funny thing is that making the jewelry doesn't even take that long - it's the whole process of ordering supplies, trying out different things, photographing the items, and eventually creating a "listing" with all the information, that takes a while.

To make a long story short: we'll give you a sneak peek real soon, and we hope to have the collection online this month. In the meantime, you can gaze at these mesmerizing pictures of different rough textures that - at least partly - inspired us.

Have a great weekend!

Lisa & Ivanna

staples, stone wall, leather, labrodorite

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Spring is back

The last couple of weeks I've been working inside most of the time, so I didn't notice what was happening with the weather, or even with the whole world, to be honest. This afternoon I was heading home by bus and when I was looking through the window, I suddenly saw it! Winter is coming to an end! There were spring flowers everywhere!! Even the sun was shining and I instantly got into the spring mood. The result is a lovely collage of sweet spring blossoms.

What is your favourite season?

Love,

Ivanna

blossom tree, girl with flowers, blossom, pink flowers

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Individual

Two weeks ago I started with my internship of Veterinary Medicine and I have already met a lot of new people. My days are very busy, I am learning a lot of new things in a short period of time and I get to see different techniques that are used by the veterinarians that I work with. In just a couple of months I will graduate and at the moment I am focusing on developing my own methods. With all the possibilities and different approaches that I observe it is sometimes difficult to create your own ideas. This does not only apply to my internship, but actually to a lot of things. That is why I chose to make a collage with lovely pictures of  'one' being in the centre. These pictures show individuality, freedom, and maybe also a bit loneliness, because that is what you sometimes get through when developing yourself to being a unique person. But that isn't always a bad thing as long as you know that you are not completely on your own! :)

xx Ivanna

tree island, bus on road, girl in grass, tree

Friday's Fabulous Photos - Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We hope you all had (and will continue to have!) a wonderful day. Personally, we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day with our boyfriends - mainly because we sort of celebrate every time we see them, but also because we're just not very fond of the expensive gifts and cheesy Hallmark cards. However, there are lots of other ways to celebrate your love for each other: go to the movies on a Thursday afternoon, cook breakfast together and enjoy it in bed, show up with an enormous bunch of handpicked flowers, go for a long walk in the woods or on the beach... Anyway, you get the point.

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Have a lovely (and loving) day!

Lisa & Ivanna

walk, music paper flowers, candy hearts, flour heart

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

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

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!

 

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

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

Fridays Fabulous Photos - Merry Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and we are already very much in the mood. We love the cozyness of Christmas lights and other decorations, which you can find all around town. We love visiting Christmas markets, meeting with family and friends and eating good food. When decorationg the Christmas tree we instantly get in the cozy mood and we catch ourselves singing along with all the Christmas carols on the radio (OK, maybe I have to speak for myself here, not sure if Lisa is having the same rituals as I do, especially with the Christmas carols).

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and we hope you have some very lovely and special days together with your loved ones. 

What are your plans for Christmas?

Love,

Ivanna

lights, reindeer, presents, lantern

Lustrous Greens

Looking at the bracelets we've been making these last few months, it is remarkable how much more colourful they are compared to our older items. Our main idea has always been to capture nature in our colours and textures, and this often resulted in pale and nude shades. We still really like these natural tones, but - as we mentioned before - we do feel we need to add a bit more colour. And who says bright colours aren't natural? Below you can find a collage of pictures in blue and green hues, which are very popular at the moment (both in fashion and interior). We both adore this palet, and we are happily expanding our collection with gems and beads in these lustrous hues

What is your favourite colour? Do your prefer pastels or bright colours, or something entirely different?

Lisa & Ivanna

flowers, greenhouse, door, forest path

Gypsy

We are very attracted to the gypsy style. We love the cozyness, the colors, the idea of living in nature and the expression of freedom. When we were younger, we wanted to live in a gypsy trailer and travel the world with our best friends. Also, we figured it would be great to own a pet goat to travel with us. Unfortunately this did not happen, but lets say it's never too late..  

Ivanna & Lisa

gypsy woman, trailer, campfire, rooster

All That Glitter

You wouldn't say, with all of our "pure" and "natural" inspiration photos and jewelry, but we actually really love glitter! But then again, who doesn't, right? Everything looks better with glitter. So, to celebrate the fact that it is finally Friday - we sprinkle you with glitter. Yay!

Have a great weekend!

Lisa & Ivanna

face, blowing, feet, throwing

Soft & Smooth

It's funny how moods can change; at some moments you're really in the mood for some action, you want to party, wear noticable clothing. You have a lot of energy, and because of this, your style changes. And at other moments, you just want to withdraw - take some rest, clear your mind, and relax a little with some soft and soothing music. Since I've had a very busy week, I'm really in the mood for pictures that will bring some relaxation. How about you?

butterfly, birds, hair in the wind, dandelion

xx Ivanna

Pop Of Colour

Recently, we received our new jewelry supplies (photos are coming soon!), and we can't wait to get started with these colourful, new materials! It is really interesting to see how our style and choice of materials have changed over the past two years. For instance, we noticed that we are slowly adding more colour to our jewelry. Most of the things that are on the drawing board now, are based on neutrals (brown, beige, ivory) or pale hues with a pop of colour. Just because we want to stay close to nature, doesn't mean the colours have to be dull, right? You can see the proof of that on the pictures below.

cherries, cat with flowers, green bird, blossom

Have a lovely weekend!
Lisa & Ivanna

Beautiful Fog

Even though the weather has been pretty terrible the past week, we couldn't help but noticing how beautiful these absurd amounts of wind and water can be. Especially the heavy fog that covers the streets from time to time really looks quite spectacular to us! Fog almost has the same effect on the environment as snow: they both seem to wrap the world in a quiet, mysterious blanket. 

trees, cliff, boat, pink leaves

Love,

Lisa & Ivanna

PS: We have already been breaking our heads on possibilities to capure the beauty and magic of fog into some new jewelry. Fortunately, we already found the perfect glass beads for this - so keep your eyes open for our "new supplies" post!

Spirit of Nature

We get a lot of inspiration from nature. Not only do we love to enjoy nature in real life, for example, by going for a walk in the forest, or by camping, but we also love to use natural elements in our personal style. We like to show it in our clothing, and we have worn feathers in our hair for several weeks. But of course, we also use nature as an inspiration for our handmade jewelry. It was even the first inspiration that we had for making our bracelets, when we started with Spring to Fall. And it still inspires us today. That's why, for this Friday, we want to show you some wonderful pictures about living close to nature, which is beautifully displayed in this pure photographs.

girl in forest, wise woman, feathers, wolves

What do you love most about nature? Do you have special memories about it?

xx Ivanna

Sleeping in on weekends

It's weekend again, which means we get to sleep in! One of our favourite things to do ;) At our age, it is probably more socially accepted to go out and be, well.. social, but sometimes our beds just seem a lot more appealing. Besides, if you want to be creative, it is important to get enough rest, and to clear your head sometimes. It will ensure that you get inspiration again, help you stay focused, and makes you able to  resume your work with a fresh view. And quite frankly, we don't think there is anything more enjoyable then staying in bed till noon. Don't these pictures look absolutely dreamy? They sure make us want to catch up on our beauty sleeps...

birds, dreamcatcher, sleeping girl, clouds

Do you like to stay in bed all morning? Or are you an early bird?

Lisa & Ivanna