this was a nice find: a book with the rules for all kinds of cardgames.
comes in quite handy when there is discussion about a certain rule!




except for the rules, the book contains a lot of illustrations of old fashioned playing cards... very nice indeed. which made us remember we still needed to go to the play card museum in turnhout! so we did. there was a really interesting exhibition going on about the playing cards in china - part of europalia china- and the museum also has an impressive collection of printing presses! (on which they sometimes give printing demonstrations!)

i bought these "low vision playing cards" in the shop...





the funny thing about them is that they don't work better for people with low vision. i tried them with my grandma (she's 88) and she couldn't play with them at all. we never even finished our game. habit or malfunctioning cards?
conclusion: not easy to play with, but interesting nevertheless.

made in sewing class:
(well, the right is, the others are made at home with leftover fabrics)







and since my old singer sewing machine broke (sniff), i got myself an early birthday present... :)

everything tastes so much better out of this cup...

(and check out my new tea egg!)

a recent addition to my bookshelf:

just some photos of my workspace that i wanted to share.




spool rack made by andries (thanks again), filled with cheap sewing thread.


my button collection.

today, i send some photos in for the "take stories" photo competion from De Standaard. not that i'm expecting to win, but you never know. :)

soooo... please help me out and vote for my photos at the following links!

click
click
click



thank you!!

found in the kringwinkel in Geel, for only 75 eurocents per book!

these really caught my eye because there were at least 100 of them on the shelves. (yay for book collectors) and as you can imagine, i had a really hard time picking out my 5 favorites... these are the lucky ones i saved from a dusty life.

they are novels published by NBC, de Nederlandse Boeken Club, sold in the 60's and 70's. as you can see, they have a faux leather cover, with illustrations on the spine and front, always with some metallic details. bling bling!

i admit the illustrations are quite dated and cliché or cheezy... but i like them alot because of their simplicity.

yesterday my boyfriend and me went to cocoon '09. we already went there two years ago and to be honest, it was a bit of a dissapointment back then. but we had free tickets and we're always up for a little trip to bruxelles, so we went anyway.

most things aren't really worth mentioning, but some things are:






the levis' decorated walls... funny little details!


gorgeous marimekko wallpaper designs by hooked on walls!


if i had too much money, i would buy those (probably expensive) blankets, just to get the box... so cute!


in the afternoon, we strolled around the city a bit and we came across this second hand bookstore, with a nice shop sign:



by the way, we could really use some shopping tips for brussels. we always end up in the same cliché places... and there probably is a hell of a lot more to see than that... we already have got our (mostly english) bookstore-route, but what about second hand, clothing and shoe-stores? anyone?

this summer i discovered the following website/project: postcrossing.
sending and receiving old school mail, seemed like fun to me! so i registered and started sending... and receiving!

some postcards had such nice stamps on them... i just had to share!





florals from japan and hong kong.


birds from the phillippines.


beautiful "love" king and queen stamps from the USA. (these are actually two seperate stamps, which makes me love them even more!)

i have always preferred paperback and/or pocket books. lightweight, small, cheap, flexible, great to carry around all the time, plus you can read them hanging upside down in your sofa. so very practical for a student that travels between cities all the time.

but then i saw these:
i. want. them. all.
english classics, patterns, colours, clothbound... and prettyyyyyy.

also check out the designers website: coralie bickford smith; very inspiring! the "gothic horror" and "arabian nights" series are quite handsome as well.

WWW

finally, my place on the world wide web:

www.severienvandam.net

(now it's clickable!)