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We have now moved!
Thanks Kimberlee in Berlin for keeping our space so exciting and fresh with loads of pretty images.
The move was quite enormous, it was postponed twice, we're only just now in our new house and are still living in/out/of boxes and there is mess everywhere.



It's going to be a bright and happy place though, I've added some snap shots of new favorite corners :

-the dining shelves that divide kitchen from living area
-a 'Mekko panel to brighten up Lieveke's room (fast and easy ad interim wall hanging : sew an open hem, stick bamboo rod through, hang on wall, voila color),
-our art on the wall (including the hilarious 'floating lemon' and 'glorify', a hommage to Colin McCahon)
-our new/old sofa (I think we've finally found one that we like, guess what, it was made in Berlin!)
-a lithograph by German artist Michael Jaeger (finally managed to get it framed)
-bright poppies to celebrate.
Warm welcome.



ps.
I haven't sewn or crafted in about 6 weeks- I'm so sorry I know an Etsy update is badly needed, alas not only did we move, Lieveke had Chicken-'pops' and little Noor had a few problems with sleep through the move and she's only slowly slowly adjusting to the new house...
soon, soon X






I've missed you all!
-Lies

More interesting places and spaces: Abandoned Foreign Embassy

Luke went to an abandoned Embassy last week, can you guess which one?

These pictures are very spooky to me, especially the one above.

Paint peeling off the walls, scattered papers strewn about recklessly, shards of glass, scraps of wood, piles of rubbish, and broken down office furniture left behind to haunt the halls and empty rooms.

All this with no explanation. I don't know the story behind this, and neither did any of the people there. Though I suspect it was abandoned for political reasons since it was the Iraqi Embassy.

And it is just like Berlin to have strange and spontaneous party at the abandoned Iraqi Embassy, with nobody there really knowing the full story behind the place or how the gathering happened. Wish I could have been one of those people, but for some reason which escapes me now, I didn't end up going.

hope you all find your own spooky, beautiful haunts this week.
xokimberlee

our new place in Kreuzberg Berlin

I just thought I would quickly share with you some photos of our new sublet in Berlin. For me it is the perfect combination of grungy and sweet. Almost none of the things in it are ours, so I can't take any of the credit :) but I am quite enjoying living in the middle of someone else's world. Its like a bunch of different still lifes are especially set up for me to sit back and admire (or photograph).

hope you are enjoying the still lifes your world this weekend too:)
xok

in the neighbourhood

Well we are in a new area again, we are always on the move because renting 2 month sublets seems to be working for us at the moment. Our new place is in the turkish district of kreuzberg, and it also has the canal, the famous turkish markets, heaps of hipsters from overseas, plenty of parks, and a fair bit of dog poo on the streets.

Other highlighs include:
Kado, a little candy store stocking mostly Scandinavian sweet and salty licorice.
Swans
cobblestone streets
and Jumbo, a great vintage shop with heaps of great shoes. (Yes see my great new shoes? )


Its really fantastic here but today I am feel a little OUT OF CONTROL. some important things are breaking and it's kinda of getting me down/sending me into a panic. Like my mobile phone which is dead and will no longer charge, or our camera charger which is missing and I think we left it in paris, and my left eye, which has blurry vision since sunday, even with glasses on, and I don't know why. eeek.

There are a handful of other small challenges that are too boring to chronicle here, all of them together are a bit much for me right now. If we were in NZ I would be able to solve these problems like this (snaps fingers) but here.... oh boy.

okay one step at a time, right??
keep well folks,
xokimberlee

Parisian apartment

When this Parisian apartment was first purchases by its owner, a young french artist, she thought long and hard about the best way to maximise the space. Her dream was for this small, 30 square foot apartment to have all the comforts of home but to also function as a working space for her artmaking, a place to screen films, a performance space hosting an audience of up to 40 people, and a guest house for friends traveling through Paris.

After 8 months of thinking, drawing and designing, she finally achieved her goal. The result: multi level lofts, pull out bench seats that convert into beds, a wall for screening films, a compact kitchen including dishwasher and breadmaker, a large desk and studio corner, the tiniest bathroom that has everything one needs, comfortable living room area with plenty of seating, and all this while maintaining a open plan design with plenty of free space for performing.

My pictures do not do this interior justice. I would have needed to a wide angle lense to capture the openness of the space. Also my only opportunity to photograph the apartment was at night, so my apologies, daylight would have been much much better!

In other news I am starting up a German language course this week that will have me studying in the classroom 3 and a half hours a day, plus homework and much study in my free time. That in edition to my job will keep me pretty busy! I need to restructure things a little (read check facebook and youtube less often and do more productive things instead!) in order to keep blogging. Hopefully that old truism 'the busier you are, the more you get done' will apply to me here too. At the moment ENTIRE DAYS slip away with me doing just about nothing because I don't have enough structure. So bring on the learning!

keep well everybody!
xokimberlee

hello paris, nice to meet you

my first time in Paris
It was beautiful, romatic, historic, and charming -just like I dreamed it.
dear city, I miss you already. sigh.


I have many more pictures here if you want to have a look see.


Still having a wonderful time here in Europe, but seeing pictures and reading blogs from back home does make me miss it there too. So I guess I have a case of 'wish I was there, glad I am here.' Which is actually the story of my adult life.

Anyway, I soon hope to share some pictures and stories of interior spaces in Paris. But right now I am nursing one very sick husband.

xoxokimberlee

New times

Lieveke is looking to the future.


And we are moving in two weeks. To the exactly the same town-house unit, a row further. I know, radical.
The colorful 'Tippa' dress is Lieveke's new favorite, from this lovely shop, warmly recommended.
When he heard that we are moving, a friend gave us the happy sixties diy book, hilarious, and funky - oh ye primary colour-scheme - I like of course the craft unit.
The pussy-cat says : I always like to try the one I never tried before. Some time ago Lieveke chose this lithograph for her birthday, ...figures.





Have a sweet new week
-Lies