my #1 scarf

It has finally arrived! After what seemed waiting for years for the right one to come my way, suddenly and surprisingly it fell into my lap. It must have been destiny, for it was just about a few days after watching the movie "Laputa Castle in the Sky" again and it was offered to me by a lady who lives in walking distance from my house. :-)
I am so lucky! If I could choose only one scarf, one design, it would be this one. Happy, colorful, airships and magical.

Here is my very own "Les Folies du Ciel"!

new adventures!

It has been a long long time... time flew by since I last posted in July. Many things changed and others have not a all. My life changed a lot since moving to the new apartment. Much needed more free time for sure! More days out and about, and more traveling. This summer we planned a holiday to India. It took us a long time and a lot of energy to organize everything but the end of December we were on the plane! While not everything was peachy (think incredible poverty, waste), I adored the weather, the colors, the friendly, smiling people and not to forget the food and drinks! Now we are back again with a beautiful experience and adventure in our souls.

One of the highlights for me was the visit to the Sri Meenaksi Temple in Madurai. It was just incredible.

I also absolutely adore Indian food (including drinks). It is so tasty and perfect for vegetarians.

We have kept a log of all the food we ate and made pictures. With the India experience and my perfect cookbook as well as a spice cupboard stacked with all the familiar spices, such as cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, I will start experimenting with cooking Indian food.

One of my favorite refreshing drinks: lime soda.

Mint lime soda, kulfi falooda and delicious dhal and paneer masala

les folies du ciel

When you are a scarf collector, one of the questions people ask are if you have a "grail scarf", a must have scarf. As far as I am concerned, I love so many designs. There are some though that are special to me. Sometimes unexpected, like the ducks - I am a bird lover. But there is one scarf I have been eyeing for a long time and makes my heart beat faster. It reminds me of the incredible Japanese Ghibli movies I saw, especially the one with the floating castle in the sky, Laputa. It is one of my favorite movies.

The scarf is called Les folies du ciel and it is designed by Loic Dubigeon. I must have this scarf. It is a only matter of time. I am not sure yet about the color, but I do know I want a scarf with as much color in the balloons as possible. It is such a happy scarf and for me it can only be full of color. I am scavenging Ebay and vintage shops for the scarf and just recently was overbid in an online auction. Pity but it will come to me anyway. And until then I am fully happy looking at pictures of the scarf and dreaming about the beautiful colored airships that one day will come my way...

the duck pond

Some time ago I found a really beautiful vintage H in turquoise, La Mare Aux Canards, the duck pond. It was from an older lady and it has signs of wear. The color here and there has faded a little bit, especially on a folding line. I just fell in love with the colors and the ducks. They are so beautiful. I love vintage scarves, and don't mind they have signs of wear. It would be such a waste to discard all vintage scarves because they are not perfect. What can one expect of scarves that have been worn, some of them for decades? I like the idea of continuing to wear and love them. It's also pretty necessary to focus on vintages scarves if there are some designs that you like that have been produced in the past and not re-issued. One of the best qualities of vintage scarves for me is how soft the silk feels. It feels just so velvety. And I love the "treasure-hunt". You never know what you will find and every now and get to meet the nicest people. Back to the ducks. This scarf has been issued in 1981, according to the HSCI Hermes Scarf Catalogue, and it was designed by Daphne Duchesne. The scarf had the care tag attached, but it was loose so I removed it. I hand washed the scarf. I always do that to get smells out of the scarf and making sure it is clean to wear. Then I dry it outside on a drying rack. After that, it feels light and crispy clean and smells wonderful. I had to do some small repairs to the hemline. First time ever! After drying it, I noticed the hand rolled hem had come loose at 3 points. I could have let it hang loose but risking it to go further. I found the right color thread and, after a failed attempt, with a good instruction on you tube (how to hand roll a silk scarf ) I just did it! So now I don't have to worry about the hem getting loose when wearing the scarf. And even if it gets loose I know I can repair it.
I read that Daphne Duchesne was inspired by the cloisonné enamel when designing the ducks. I am a bird lover and they are so elegant and so like real life. They are incredibly beautiful and swimming around a pond with grasses. And turquoise is one of my favorite colors to wear. Time for some more pictures!

the repaired hem

a fresh start

So, after a (too long) period of chaos due to our plans to sell and move, we have finally settled at our new place. No longer in the little-big-house. But in a modern apartment at a great location, in front of the royal palace, stables and garden. What's not to like?

my new view

Although we already parted with a lot of stuff, we still need to unpack a lot of boxes and say goodbye to much more stuff. Keeping up with the spirit of a lighter life with less things... I have parted with my vintage china and many other things that I collected and only used sometimes. Partir c'est mourir un peu. For me that was especially true regarding our house and the garden with its inhabitants. They became part of our family during the years that we lived there. But, nuff said, we are here now and making a fresh start in life. Time to grab new opportunities and enjoy! We already started making plans for traveling again :-) and funny thing is we already spent more time outside on our balcony than we did when we had a garden. It's just so much easier.

I have picked up some beautiful vintage H scarves along the way (lucky they don't take up much space ;-)). I always hand wash my scarves without any problems. Until now (maybe I was lucky) I have never had any accidents with colors leaking (or bleeding I think they call it) or scarves losing their color. I feel safer hand washing them carefully myself then having them cleaned with harsh chemicals by someone who might not care about them as much as I do. And, also, I just love how soft the silk feels after hand washing. My new treasures are a Mexique and a L'or des chefs.

Mexique. I love the feathers (reminds me of the Brazil) and blue/turquoise

a magical detail of L'or des Chefs

I have already worn the Mexique plenty because I love a combination of blue, green and turquoise colors. I had to go to Geneva for work at the UN in june and my Mexique scarf was a loyal companion during those long days (an sometimes evenings) of meetings. One of my new favorite ways to wear my scarves is by tying them as a belt. It's perfect for hot summer days! I guess the darker colors of the L'or des chefs will be nice when the summer moved on. I was also very lucky to find a scarf from a relatively recent collection, from AW 2015. Its colors are a combination that I very much love too. In fact, in our home, there are lots of pink, red, orange and purple. I can imagine it will be perfect for autumn. It's a Sieste au Paradis.

wearing my Mexique at the UN meetings

afscheid en goodbye

Er is geen makkelijke manier om dit te vertellen. Er was geen makkelijke manier om het besluit te nemen. We hebben ons huisje verkocht. Het kwam misschien niet geheel onverwacht als je bedenkt wat we allemaal aan klussen in ons huis hebben gedaan om het nog mooier en nog gezelliger te maken. Vorig haar hadden we besloten minder te klussen en meer te gaan reizen. Begin dit jaar spraken we toch nog over een grote nieuwe verbouwing. Daarna is een en ander in een stroomversnelling gekomen en we moesten heel snel handelen. Het besluit om ons huis te verkopen en om te verhuizen naar een andere locatie moest snel genomen worden. Ken je het gevoel dat je een besluit neemt maar dat je gevoel er achter aan hobbelt? Alles ging eigenlijk heel snel en ons huisje werd ook heel snel verkocht. Binnenkort verhuizen we. We gaan nieuwe avonturen beleven in een modern appartement met uitzicht over de skyline van de stad. En veel reizen. We hebben kopers gevonden die, net als wij, helemaal weg zijn van ons huis. "Een nieuwe ronde, nieuwe kansen (voor het huis)". De nieuwe bewoners geven het huis nieuwe kansen en zullen het zeker nog mooier maken dan het al is. Ik heb met veel overgave en plezier onderzoek gedaan naar ons huis, de geschiedenis en zijn bewoners. We hebben met veel passie in ons huis geklust en gerenoveerd. Ik ben mede daardoor ook erg gehecht geraakt aan ons huisje en de tuin en alle medebewoners (muizen, vogels). Dat maakte afstand nemen moeilijk en ik zal het missen. Maar ik ben ook trots, op het huis en op wat we in ons huis gedaan hebben. Ik kijk nu met verlangen en spanning uit naar de nieuwe avonturen die we gaan beleven. Times are a changing. Goodbye, little big house. Dag tuin, dag vogels en dag muisjes. Bedankt voor alles. Ik zal jullie nooit vergeten.

ons nieuwe uitzicht!

Long time no see and ch-ch-changes

My last post dates already from a long time ago, in March. It has been hard to find the time to blog. I am thinking of shortening the posts. Still, a lot has happened. We did a lot of enjoyable things and I have found new ideas and inspiration. 2015 has been a year in which we decided to enjoy more holidays and see the world instead of spending all our time (and money) on renovating our house. We started in April/May with a long holiday in Greece. A wonderful holiday visiting all the antiquities. Late summer we enjoyed a week at home, with a couple of days visiting some cities near us and a day of learning how to surf the waves in our home town at the beach of Scheveningen. That was nice too. We had to cancel a planned trip to Sicily, but we will be back for sure. Beginning of October, we went to our friends wedding in the Bourgogne and combined it with a couple of days Ardennes for my birthday. And recently we stayed a short week in London, where we enjoyed a concert of my favorite band at the O2. Not too bad!

In London, we visited Battersea Power Station

I have picked up some new hobbies this year. I started making pictures of stained glass windows. I walk around our city a lot and always enjoy the beautiful old houses with the beautiful stained glass windows. Why not photograph them? And so I do.

I also picked up the hobby of wearing Hermes scarves. This may sound a little decadent, but isn't "life too short to drink Prosecco"?... It all started with a vintage H scarf, an engagement present from my father to my mother in the 1960s, a green Promenade de Longchamps. It was given to me by my mother when I was about 20. I carried it with me always and never found a decent way to wear it. Until I discovered MaiTai's blog this year. She has been an inspiration and taught me many different ways of wearing and knotting H scarves. I ordered one of her scarf rings and voila - since then I started wearing the scarf many times. And I started collecting other vintage scarves... they are all such works of art, so beautiful. And, I love the idea of scarves that have been worn and cared for by other people in the past and that now it is my turn to care for them. Another new hobby is born. :-)

Wearing my mothers "Engagement scarf", a 1960s Promenade de Longchamps by Phillipe Ledoux, with a scarf ring by MaiTai.

One of the beautifully packed MaiTai scarf rings

One of my lucky finds! A vintage H Merveilles de la Vapeur by Philippe Ledoux. I adore it. The theme, the colors, the fine drawings.

Another lovely find: a 1970s vintage Couvertures et Tenues de Jour from Franz Sauer Koln in bright yellow!

One of my hobbies is still cooking. When I can find the time, I love to try out new recipes or just make something easy and healthy. Last night, after a day of work and running for an hour, I made a quiche with fresh vegetables and salmon. It tasted great. Such a happy life.