12.8.10

Sailing around the world...



Hello my dear friends,
I hope this finds you well, healthy, happy and productive to the most possible extent.

Days here are full and are shared among processing pictures, most of them to be placed at the shop's shelves,
making cards and other products which I'll present to you quite soon, working on the appearance of this new blog here and preparing the plans for the renovation/redecoration of a teenage boy's room, to be taking place this autumn.

At the same time, I'm finding temporary solutions to incorporate this small business in the arms of this also small, loft apartment, trying to organize the products made, the orders and packing station, while keeping it simple and spacious.

Not the easiest thing to do...We are surrounded by prints in various sizes, paper boats, cards, recycled paper, twine and strings all over!
I owe a lot to the patience, understanding and support of my partner for having all this done.

But enough with talking, I'll make new pictures (again!)
of the apartment and working station and share them here with you. Better see than talk ;)

In the meantime, I thought I present to you the post I had prepared for Ikea Family Live, which got aired yesterday.

So, are you ready for some action?
Time to wake up the crafty child inside and have fun while reusing newspaper pages...
We are making paper boats!



Let's get started and remember to ask your children to join you for lots of happy time together!
Choose the colors that you like and match to your environment and proceed with cutting square sheets, as many as the amount of boats you wish to make.

this print is available here
If you wish your boats to have some charm, as I personally consider it, cut one or some of the sides of the squares by hand, so that is has a look like the one which appears above.
 You can achieve that by patiently folding the sides a few times, until cutting by hand becomes easy and appears precise.



This is how your garland will appear seeing the bottom side of the boats and...




above is an easy decorative idea for your dining table.
Spread them all over, or place them on the plates, standing on a handwritten note, stating a name or wishing a good morning for example.

And some tips for incorporating them into a garland:





Use baker's twine in your preferred combination, as there are so many possibilities. Here a brown and white one has been used.
 Now this is the part where you can exercise your patience, as you should be careful as to not destroy our little, happy, paper boats while threading them together.




And there's a secret for keeping the boats steady:
Use a bead underneath the "sail" which you'll then knot in place.
They will not sail away at all, instead they'll make you drift away with your own thoughts when looking at them!
Below is the garland that I came up with using the pages of a Dutch newspaper, brought from an Art Gallery in Amsterdam this May.


About the way to display it, there are few possibilities
but am mentioning here two :
 Hang it horizontally and you have a summery, stylish, happy garland!
Hang it vertically and you have a lovely mobile!

These little fellows make up for wonderful decoration for your boys' rooms as well, but also your girls, if you use patterned, flowered and dotted paper in cheerful colours.



print available here


And for those of you that prefer minimalism, muted and natural tones, the print above would be suitable to come and live in your home.

Ivy ~ xx

5 comments:

  1. Hi there, Ivy

    I'm posting here because I understand completely how nice it is to get comments after all the time we put into our blogs. I fully appreciate what you said about blogs vs Flickr. We can control how our blog looks and feels (try embedding a video!) but Flickr has a more immediate contact with the rest of the world. Built in traffic. Probably Facebook is that way even more, but I find it a bit tiresome. Good luck on your endeavors. They're looking fabulous as ever. Now may I invite you over to my little place? Please stop by when you get a moment.

    http://wreckorated.blogspot.com/

    big hug,

    Melanie aka Avant-Gardenist

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  2. Hi Melanie,

    firstly thank you so much for stopping by and creating some lovely traffic, as you said, also here. I really appreciate it.

    Secondly, I came over quite quickly to your place, only to find a fabulous looking woman, who administrates the most elegantly looking group of interior design, with a minimal approach and preference to natural tones.

    And finally, I thank you for the invitation, as it resulted in hosting your blog in the list here. Great as it goes hand in hand with the group, which I've also mentioned of being so glad to be hosted there, just below.

    Big hug to you, too wonderful lady and am always happy to be coming home.

    Ivy :)

    P.S: thank you for the nice comments about my work!

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  3. Dear me, your blog is so beautiful! Your photography totally reflects what you are trying to convey, your vision of the world.

    By the way, why the change from the other blog? You already had some rank on it. I mean, if you don't mind sharing.

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  4. My oh my!! I have been missing all this beautiful writing! Yes Melanie is right..Flickr is more hands on but must make some time to read your wonderful blog, Ivy.

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  5. Ok...starting with the easy stuff, meaning responding to the lovely compliments of my friend Madhu...so, thank you so much, for being a real treasure, always present in happiness and sorrow everywhere I am, whether blog, flickr, mail account or our actual mail box, receiving gifts from you.
    I'm so pleased to know that you are a reader of these pages!
    Always the best of wishes for you my dear :)

    And now to proceed with you dear Clara, such a creative and hard working lady!

    I know you 've already read my last blog posts and therefore you have some answers. Still let me add a few more things here.
    The most important thing is that I felt the need to have a new design around the place where I come to write and post, while at the same time I wanted my very first blog's appearance and itself to be kept intact.
    I want to remember my very first, baby steps exactly as they were. I always cherish my beginnings and the people who have given me a helping hand.
    Keeping these in mind, there was only one solution, to create a successor blog, where the content and style is very much the same, still it has the fresh new look that corresponds to the current activities I'm involved into, the Etsy shop being one for them.

    There we are dear! All said and done. Thank you with all mý heart for following me here,too.
    I'm honored to have a lady like you and amazing, creative blogger as a reader!

    All the best of wishes,
    Ivy :)

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