Karlita's shop

Good promotions during my holiday!!!

2009-07-15T07:57:00.005+01:00

Finally, we're leaving for Naples and the Amalfi Coast, Italy - I'm really longing for it this time, just doing nothing besides well ... enjoying ourselves!

To make it fun in the shops, I'm running some promo's during my absence (to make up for not being able to ship during that time).

In the etsyshop it is free shipping worldwide + a very large 'christmas in july' salesection! (so combine both and get a double promo: salesprice + free shipping)

In the dawandashop i'm giving free shipping worldwide with any purchases over 20 euro's in total. There you can also find a salessection.

Same for the belgian karlita-site - free shipping within europe + new items in the 'koopjeshoek' (=salescorner).

See you in two weeks!

Vitrine in Gent ...

2009-07-05T20:12:00.008+01:00

Last weekend we hopped on a train to Ghent to visit the last day of 'Vitrine' - a fashionwalk througout the city - different designers created a little world of their own in the shopwindows. To be honest, i was a bit dissapointed - there were not many windowhops that made my heart beat faster, but this one did...The shop is owned by Elisabeth Leenknegt, who is a silversmith, designer and glass artist in the heart and soul. She comes from a family of passionate glassartist so its no wonder she makes and designs jewelry out of hand-forged silver and mouth-blown glass. Her creations are characterized by a playful design and a great amount of colouring. Humour is the main ingredient of her work. This piece was my favourite: on the picture it is Elisabeth Leenknegt - the designer and owner of the shop, showing off her creations :). Go take a look at her funky website! And it was a nice way to walk around in Ghent - we stumbled upon a little live concert by classical musicians - those little unexpected things are what i love in a city!I found a great journal by Sukie in this shop 'huiszwaluw'(actually there were many more things i wanted to own but a girl can't buy it all, can she?).I'm allready using it to write, research and illustrate the things i want to make.And these rings were pretty darn cute too - i saw a similar thing last year at the jewelry exhibition in Mons. It's literrally sawn out of the porcelain plate! They are made by the 'vlijtige liesjes '.

We have this nice widget on our beloved applecomputer that counts down the days to our next vacation - 12 days, 2 hours and 17 minutes and then we are outta here - off to Naples and the Amalfi Coast for 10 days! Yay!!

Just having fun making things ...

2009-07-01T22:03:00.003+01:00

Dawanda discovery sale 15% off - extended until tuesday

2009-06-28T07:38:00.007+01:00

I'm participating in the Dawanda discovery sale that will run until tuesday 30th of june - if you buy in participating shops you have never bought before (on Dawanda), you get an automatic 15% discount when checking-out. So check it out, i'm participating :)

Dawanda has been good to me in the last couple of months, so good I discovered this: So hop on over to my shop there :o)

It was fun ...

2009-06-22T07:38:00.005+01:00

... at the beparkte oplage yesterday. Many creative people, good buyers who could appreciate handmake work (which is always fun, isn't it?:) and a nice atmosphere. This is what my stall looked like: My very friendly neighbor had a XL clothesline so I could hang all my scarfs on it. It was a pretty sight because there is quite a bit of wind (it was colder inside then it was outside) and that made the scarfs move the whole time.
My fav. booth was the one were they sold these totally adorable brooches. Unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced their card, so i cannot give you a link to their website (but i gave them my card so hopefully they'll read this and let me know!).And there was one other Hasselos there (=Hasselos= slang for a person from Hasselt). She makes beautiful kids clothes and here website is somethingstrange.(on the picture here you see her sister, who i went to Thailand with two years ago, small world huh!).

I had so much fun that i'm going back for the next editions on august 23th and october 18th. So i hope to see you there ....

Visit me at 'de beparkte oplage'

2009-06-15T18:58:00.006+01:00

If you want to see my products and me live in action (and you live in or around Antwerp), come visit me at the next edition of the Beparkte Oplage in Antwerp next sunday June 21th!You find the details about what, when and where there here.
The typewriter felt collection is also slowly being listed in the etsy shop:

A little sneak preview ...

2009-06-11T19:15:00.002+01:00

... of a new, limited jewelry line soon to be in the Etsy shop. It's made with two of my fav. materials: old typewriter rings and felt. Even though the ring hadn't completely dried yet, i could not resist wearing it and showing it here ...

It's almost all about ducks ...

2009-06-07T18:39:00.005+01:00

Last weekend we were walking around in my hometown Hasselt and noticed a big yellow duck in the water of the canal (and i had my camera with me). Did some research and found it it is the big start of a campaign to bring more art into the public sphere. Don't know much about that but looking at the duck just made me smile. I like those unexpected things in life, especially happy ones!Closer to home, but from a far-away place, is my mouse-pad ... you guessed right (or not) also a little duckling. It's from Tucano, an italian company, but i bought it in NYC. And this afternoon i did some well needed cleaning and sorting in my little workroom and also finally got around to hanging up my new inspirational flags, from a big chinese warehouse on Broadway, in ... NYC of course...
Hope they bring me some inspiration, they sure brighten up my atelier and my mood :)

In her shoes - modemuseum hasselt

2009-05-30T07:37:00.006+01:00

Yesterday was the official opening of the new exhibition 'in her shoes' in the fashionmuseum of Hasselt. As you probably have guessed, it's all about shoes! I did not take many pictures this time, but if you are an avid shoe fan, you'll love this exhibition. These blue shoes were custom made by Manolo Blahnik for Carrie in the Sex and the city movie:And how original idea to make boots out of plaster, although i don't know how healthy they would be if you had actually broken something :o)But of course, looking at this make me most happy - my jewelry in the museumshop!On the way home i took a picture of a poster that hangs on the wall opposite of the main church in hasselt, it gives a direct message from God to us and it says: 'i have been waiting a long time for you - God' - and i like the humor in it (that's something you usually don't see in our belgian churches).And very close to home - i cute my hair short! Went to the hairdresser and said she could do what she wanted and this is the result - i love it! I was actually winking at my hubby who was at work but was very curious to know HOW short it was (my hair was a lot longer before, to over my shoulders), so i send him a picture (and he loves it!).

New necklaces in the shop

2009-05-26T06:48:00.006+01:00

I'm having a workweek off - don't have to go into the real world to work but want to stay mostly at home trying my hand on new things.But first i had to make a lot of typewriter key rings and necklaces for the fashionmuseum shop in Hasselt - i was very happy to hear they wanted my typewriter key collection back for the next exhibition (which will be 'in her shoes' - opening saturday 30th of may).

But than i could finally play with my new beads:I'm very happy with how the necklaces turned out - they are listed in the Dawanda shop and the Karlita shop - but if you see something you like and you want me to post it on Etsy, let me know and i'll be happy to do that for you.Sterling silver necklace with coral flowerSterling silver necklace with coral flower and big rose quartzHuge purple agate stone with coral flower and coral pearlsHuge agate stone with aventurine stones (i made one like this for myself)Sterling silver and pink coral necklace with a freshwaterpearl

Oh, and still 6 more days left of the FREE SHIPPING in my etsy shop!

The sound of music in the central station of Antwerp

2009-05-17T20:16:00.003+01:00

I just came home from a long meeting for my indian organisation to find a message from my american hostsister Janet in my mailbox with a link to this video on youtube.

It made me happy on two fronts: the video with the happy song from the past and the unexpected surprise for the travellers. And that my sister and I, thanks to the virtual world, are still in touch and that ... 17 years after my being an exchange student in her american home!

Paperfashion Momu

2009-05-13T09:00:00.008+01:00

Yesterday was a good day - there are these days when you just feel energized and good ... I took an early train to Antwerp to go to some shops to get supplies and to visit the PaperFashion exhibition at the Momu. Walking from the shops to the museum i came across a big poem written by the current citypoem on the wall:That's what i love about walking around in a city (instead of busses, subways,...), you stumble upon these fun things you normally wouldn't see.
Like this window by Wouters&Hendrix (two jewelrydesigners), which is utterly useless but fun and energizing at the same time:
But back to the exhibition - it is one of the better ones I have seen there - learned a lot and just thoroughly enjoyed it. Like, did you know that the paperdress (see pic above) was first (in modern times anyway) used by the Scott Paper Company in 1966 as a promotion for their new line of paper towels en toiletry. If you bought sometime from the new line, you got a discount coupon to postorder a paper dress. After a couple of months, they allready sold half a million dresses!And of course lots of companies and even politians jumped at this success and used paper dresses for promotion of their products or persons!
The exhibition also explored how moderndaydesigners use paper in their fashion. Like Hussein Chalayan for instance with his airmail dress from 1999: you could send this as a gift to someone (in the airmailenvelop) and write a personal message on the paperdress, that way - even though you were not physically present when the receiver wore the dress - in a way you were because she was wearing your message on her dress!Or what to think of this runwayshow from 2007 by Jum Nakao who made a collection all from paper (gorgeous clothes) and the models destroyed the clothes (which took 700 hours to make) at the end of the show! I don't want to spoil all the fun for those of you who will visit the expo but there is lots more to see! So if you are in the area - don't forget to visit! (it runs until august 16th).

And closer to home - I have so many things i want to make but so little time. But did manage to make two new necklaces last monday, i'm quite fond of them! They are made with a wooden flower bead i brought home from sweet New York and with either sterling silver and pearls or with jade. And hopefully this afternoon can be a quiet creating sort of afternoon!!

New York City, part 2 ETSY!

2009-05-09T11:16:00.007+01:00

Finally, I have been going to NYC for three years in a row now (and many more to come, if it's up to me!) but never made it to the Etsy-offices, although it had been on my wish list each time. But this time we made it! Partly thanks to a message from Liz, the etsy admin for international who send me a convo to welcome me to NY.

The Etsy offices are located in Brooklyn on a very boring street to be honest (but there is a rumor they might be moving to a nicer location?) but still, i was excited! We took the elevator to the sixth floor and by the big handmade sculpture in the hallway i knew i came to the right place.
Liz was very welcoming and showed me around - it is obvious also in their officespace that etsy has grown a lot in a short time - they made offices of each and every available space. It was messy and crowded but for me, a girl who has worked in a youthdepartment for 8 years, it felt very fun and energizing (it had a big chiro and scouts feel to it!) Oh and see the guy sitting in the common/lunch/meeting room (picture below), if i remember correctly he's working on a shipping option for Europe (so Liz and I cheered him on a bit!)Ha ha, and funny detail - to take the elevator down you had to press the up-button. Yes, liz said, it's handmade all the way :)

Not so funny was walking in Battery Park that morning, where we saw this big plane circling around the statue of liberty and coming very close to the high buildings again and again. The plane was accompanied by and F-16. Of course the first thought that goes through your mind is that it is a kidnapped plane. I made a scary picture (but that is how it looked for real): When we walked a little bit further into the financial district we noticed lots and lots of nicely dressed office people standing all outside. Of course i couldn't keep my curiosity in check any longer and asked why everyone was outside (i could not imagine that they were all on a coffee break :). Well, there had been a massive evacution.
The day after, we read in the newspaper that the government wanted to take a picture of the airforce one plane with the statue of liberty. You can read more about it in this article or watch it on tape. I think it was a bit inconsiderate of the US-government to all those people that witnessed 9/11 and must have been thinking it was happening all over again! And to be honest, i was a bit scared at first too.

New York City, part 1

2009-05-04T17:32:00.007+01:00

Back from an exhausting but oh so energizing trip to the big apple (yes, both at the same time!). After an 8 hour flight we managed to get to the hotel (once again the Washington Square hotel in Greenwich Village) and after a quick 'freshen up' we stepped outside to get a bite to eat. And there it happened ... just a few steps away from the hotel ... came this very elegant lady walking towards us. Mom and i said to eachother what a very beautiful dress she had on. She also had a big hat on her head (hey, it's manhattan) and when we came closer ... it was SJP or Sarah Jessica Parker (with her son)! Now, i'm not big on being a fan of famous people but if I had to choose one gal, it would be her! She looked even more beautiful (and younger) in person. So my holiday got off to a very good start, let me tell you. We didn't take pictures, i would have felt stupid doing that. So you'll have to take my word for it :)(these pictures i found on the net, just to get an idea how close we were:)

After a good nights sleep, we were ready to conquer the city (if it can be conquered). First stop was the Guggenheim museum, unfortunately a couple of floors were closed due to a new exhibition they are getting ready for, it's about Frank Lloyd Wright). But i enjoy just looking at the beautiful building with its smooth lines, inside and out.

The Guggenheim is close to Central Park so we went for a walk there. It was sunday and 31 degrees celsius, so most of the city was walking, jogging, sitting and laying in the sun there - which made the park feel very much alive. Unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures of the people and just made some shots of the park itself. Once again, you'll have to take my word for it :o). It was also the blooming season for the japanese flowertrees - gorgeous!

Part two, next to come: visiting .... ETSY-OFFICES!!!

I have allready been working hard to fill my Dawanda store again. Today i listed some necklaces, in the next days there will be more to come, including of course typewriter key rings and some new typewriter key items ...

New York City, here we come again ...

2009-04-22T20:02:00.005+01:00

Yay, we're visiting New York City next week - those of you who read my blog regularly know this city and i just click!! So, even though there's lots to tell (about my colourtype for instance :) - it i'll have to keep until we get back!

Shops stay open of course, but the next shipping date will be may fourth.

stocksales from famous designers - stockverkoop stoffen!

2009-04-14T05:58:00.008+01:00

As usual I'm posting the dates and places for the stocksales that the belgian designers have of their fabric and clothes (twice a year) - for those of you who are from belgium (or live close) - i will give the details of most interesting ones here:

My three favourites:
Ann Demeulemeester en Haider Ackermann
When: 22 en 23 april from 10 am until 7 pm
24 april from 10 am until 6 pm
25 april from 10 am until 5 pm
Where: populierenlaan 34, 2020 Antwerpen
My opinion: lots of clothes and a small but cheap (and very good quality) selection of fabrics.

A.F. Vandervorst:
When: 22 april from 9 am until 6 pm
23 april from 10 am until 6 pm
24 april from 10 am until 7 pm
25 april from 11 am until 6 pm
Where: Indiënstraat 8, 2000 Antwerpen
My opinion: I checked it out a couple of times: more clothes than fabric (but the fabric is quite cheap).

My favourite fabric stock sale:
Dries Van Noten
When: 22-23-24 april from 1 pm until 6 pm
25-26 april from 10 am until 5 pm
Where: Godefriduskaai 36, 2000 Antwerpen
My opinion: This is my favorite one - i've been going off and on for more than fifteen years. He has a huge selection of beautiful fabrics at very reasonable prices for that quality. And if you're interested - a large selection of clothes.

Some new ones that I haven't checked out yet:

Anna Heylen:
16-17-18-22-23-24-25 april from 1 pm until 6 pm
Where: Lombaardenstraat 16, 2000 Antwerp

Tim Van Steenbergen:
When: 16-17-18-23-24 april from 10 am until 6 pm
27 april from 10 am until 2 pm
Where: Arsenaalstraat 3 (rooftop), 2000 Antwerpen

Bruno Pieters:
When: 16 + 23 april 10 am until 6 pm
17+ 24 april 10 am until 4 pm
18 + 25april from 11 am until 4 pm
Where: Aalmoezenierstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp

Veronique Branquinho:
when: 23-24-25 april from 10 am until 6 pm
where: Hessenplein 2, 2000 Antwerp

If i get notified of any other stocksales from designers, i'll also post it here(in this post).
I'm hoping i'll be able to go, since i'm leaving for NYC in two weeks (yay!) and it's quite busy in the weeks before. This wednesday my best buddy Isolde and i will participate in a colourworkshop to see which colours suit us best - i'll def. be taking pics and write a report here. But for now (since we don't know which will be 'our' colours) - a black and white picture:

And since i'm leaving for a weeks holiday soon, i'm trying to do multiple updates on the shops in the next two weeks so they are well stocked, some with the familiar items but some new. Here are some:(on karlita)

(two necklaces and the scarf you find in the etsyshop)(in the dawandashop)

New collections in the shops ...

2009-04-07T08:53:00.005+01:00

Desperately needed some creative time - i had not had to much of it lately, so i cleared my schedule yesterday (at least most of it) and got creative :).
Since the sun was shining and i bought some new porcelain beads - Happy Mood necklaces just had to be made! I love the colours and i'm def. also keeping one for myself. You find a selection in the etsyshop and in the karlitashop. And some are waiting to be photographed and listed - it is so time consuming to do that but oh so necessary of course ...

A new collection of 'Letterpress' necklaces are in all my shops. So far there are only the letters A,,E,J,K,S and M. It was a bit of a financial risk to buy the whole alfabet but as soon as i have sold some necklaces (and see that they are liked), i will try to own the whole alfabet for sure!Anyway, i just loved the vintage look of these letters, they look a lot like the old alphabet that was used in printing, don't you think???

To me they are a modern interpretation of the Carrie necklace from Sex In the City - remember, my fav. show ever in my fav. city in the world!!!

Last weekend my hubby and I tackled some more keys with our big machine. Unfortunately it was a frustrating experience since these keys seemed to be very delicate and melt if to hot (one even caught fire!), as you can see from the pictures. Oh well, the ones that succeeded, are beautiful!

Having fun with Vistaprint ...

2009-04-04T08:21:00.005+01:00

I discovered vistaprint a while back - i have known it for a while but never played with it. But after investigating it a bit more, i realised you can make your own businesscards, postcards and adresslabels for little money (just sign up for their newsletter to get their free deals). You need to play a bit with adding and leaving out things in your order because even with their free products, they can add quite a bit of costs at the end (+ VAT). But you only pay an upload for a picture once (and sometimes you get it for free), so once you have it you can f.e. order 140 adreslabels for 4 euro's or 100 postcards for 6,5 euro - ok, their postcards are not always cut perfectly sharp, but for that price - i'm happy! (oh, and i always choose the slowest way of shipping, i found out they usually ship within a week anyway!)Last wednesday my sweet buddy Lies came over to my house to play with pictures of her little son (my godson) and we created beautiful thank you cards:Isn't he as cute as a button?
And in the Dawanda shop there is a batch of new necklaces - the K, A, S, E - they are usually gone quite fast, so interested? Hop on over to my store there. It is funny how every website has its own customers: etsy is 95% US, dawanda 95% german and my dutch website, not suprising of course, mostly Belgian or Dutch customers!

Easter came early this year .. and i'm loving it!

2009-03-24T17:11:00.005+01:00

Today i received a big package in the mail and wondered what it was. But than i saw the sender and i realised: Easter comes early this year!!! Yes, i participated in the Secreat Easter Bunny from the EST-team (look at our blog here). It's like the Secret Santa from last december.
The package was from Mkaae, a Danish designer who makes some serious pretty stuff. Anyway, this was in the package: some yummie chocolate and a box ...
And in the box ... a beautiful flower ring (i can never resist a good flower) - it fits me perfectly!. Thanks Malene!!And now i'm off to enjoy a nice cup of tea with some yummie chocolates, and than i'll be packing my secret easter bunny gift, just in time for the deadline of tomorrow.(oh, and i just bought the huge vase yesterday, doesn't it give the room a very spring feeling with the fresh tulips???)

Limited 'baroque' necklaces and typewriter key earrings ...

2009-03-22T20:00:00.006+01:00

I experimented some more to make necklaces with these acrylic pendants and with some tassles I bought two years ago in Marrakech. Don't you just love the curls and design of the acrylic pendant? I do, that's why i'm keeping this one:And the other ones will be in the etsy shop soon - i'm just pondering wether to retake some pictures ...
the one with the blue tassel
as you know, i'm a big fan of olivegreenand i can never resist a good burgundy red!

And in the Dawanda shop some new clip-on earrings will be listed tomorrow or so. It will be X Y earrings (female - male you know :).

And yay, my felted scarf got featured on the Etsy Trends blog:

Love from Holland and some happy polkadots

2009-03-18T14:30:00.004+01:00

I've been having a touch of winterblues lately - so I cannot wait for spring and summer to come around... I decided to treat myself and just do what i want today. I wasn't going to do anything for Karlita - just for Karla. But a girl just can't help herself so soon I found myself in the little atelier experimenting with fabrics and jewelry:o).

The first necklace is made with the same red and white polkadot fabric as the scarf from a couple of posts ago (btw, thanks for all your nice comments on it!).
I'm not buzzzzzing with joy over the necklace yet, it's just not perfect! It's stuffed with some polyfill but since it has to bend a lot to get around your neckl, it has some 'bends and pleads' in it.And the second is made with lovely fabric that is plastified. Is that a correct word? The google translator couldn't find it, but i'm sure you know what i mean... It depicts an old holland scene with a couple exchanging a tender kiss - so sweet!
So after all, it turned out to be a good, fun sort of day ...

Spring is in the air ... and in the house

2009-03-15T18:24:00.005+01:00

Spring is in the air so hubby and i want to start doing (and buying) things for the house again. We are in need of more lighting, a nice comfy chair and some fun things, ... and we want to have our little city garden designed (but more about that later).

So we allready bought some small things, and feeling very content with them and with ourselfs :o). We bought this magazineholder at the donum, one of my fav. interiordesignstores, we had been looking for ages to find one we both liked: Maybe my favourite is this fun coatrack - is that the correct word? The thing you hang your coats on... This is a vinyl sticker that resembles old typical coatracks you find a lot in belgium. We still need to put some black nails in the walls so you can actually hang something on them :) This coatrack is made by Nr5, a collective of 5 creative young people, each with their design-specialty. They have a small store in Hasselt and i love to peep in the window to see what they come up with.
At last but not least, we have been living in our house for 5 years and never replaced the ugly '15' at our frontdoor.Yes, yours truly and her hubby can be very lazy that way. But anyway - we found some nice outdoorstickers at a hobbystore for 2 euros and now we have a better '15':And maybe even more important, it will make sure the postman will find our mailbox better - everytime we have 'replacement'postman, he has trouble finding the mailbox!

Oh, and we have been looking for the chairs and the lighting. I love this classic Eames Lounge chair but 1. hubby doesn't sit comfy in it and 2. it has a pretty steep pricetag ... So let's keep on dreaming for now (ha, probably for a long time) ...

New design for summer scarfs ...

2009-03-10T09:05:00.003+01:00

My felted scarfs are perfect to wear in fall, winter and autumn. Actually they are perfect for the in between season since they are not so thick that they are too warm but since it's made of wool, it gives warmth to your neck. I wear my felted scarfs most in those seasons, and on sweaters in the harsh wintertimes.

But so I wanted to make a scarf for the summertime (and the warmer spring days), so i came up with the idea of recreating the effect of my felted scarfs on cotton fabric (since i still have quite some fabrics laying around in the cupboard, and i would love to buy some more, since i loooooovvve fabrics :). It is quite a bit of work to make, and with all the short curls, it's not the easiest to sew but i thought it was kind of funky different... ... but what do you think? I would appreciate some feedback on my idea, you can be harsh :)

And on another note, my mom called me this weekend and said she thought that a minister of the government, Veerle Heeren, was wearing my necklace on a picture in the newspaper. And yes indeed, she was ... that is so much fun to see :). It is a happy mood necklace and you find them here in my dutch website.

Kunst tegen kanker - art against cancer

2009-03-03T14:55:00.004+01:00

My sister-in-law Heidi, who had cancer about two years ago but luckily recovered very well, has been active in the belgian team for Roparun. Roparun is the longest non-stop relay race in the world for people with cancer: it's not only a unique running event but it also has a unique goal: "Aiming to add life to the days that remain, when no more days can be added to life"

Anyway, she has been very active in searching for funds and has started to collect work of artists (they donate their art for free) that is currently being auctioned on this site . The proceeds will go to the 'kom op tegen kanker'. This year the funds will go to the treatment of children who have cancer.
If you are dutch and want to read more, you can read this article in 'het belang van limburg'.

Now, i know that most of you guys probably cannot participate in this auction, but i do have quite a big belgian audience so hey guys, you can!! You can bid online until april 19 and then there is a live auction in Zonhoven. Of course i donated a little 'verwenpakket Karlita' (=spoil yourself package) to the auction (just scroll down quite a bit on the site to find it). If you win, you can choose 1 scarf, 1 necklace, 1 ring and 1 brooch of your choice on my flemish website. And i also created two scarfs especially for this cause, the 'lotgenotensjaal' on karlita.be. For each sold scarf, i will donate 10 euro to the cause.

This is a picture of Heidi with a 'lotgenoten'scarf:

ps if you are wondering: the first picture is a collection of ceramic tiles that were made by kids from an elementary class in Zonhoven - it's also up for auction!

What's not to love ...

2009-02-23T08:05:00.004+01:00

... about this sweet little cat of mine in the sink? She is the cutest (not little really, more big and fat but oh so adorable) - and - more important ... no chance to do the dishes today!Yes, that's our Tsuki - the noisy, talkative one that can not resist any cuddling!