First Time Crocheting Adventure

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start crocheting. I think I have done it when I was a child, but I can't exactly remember.
I searched for tutorial videos on the internet to help me starting out. I thought it would be very easy, but found it to be quite difficult. At first I just start with a crochet hook and some wool that I already had. But the wool was too thick for the hook, which I didn't know until I watched a video that explained how you know what hook goes with what wool (for people that don't know, on the label of the wool it sais what size of needle you need, and on the crochet hook it sais what size it is). Besides that the wool I had was very.... woolly... It had lots of threads that sort of got in the way and I couldn't see where the put my needle. So I bought a new hook and some wool that was not so fluffy. That helped a lot!
The first thing I tried to make was a hat. Only in the video they used thicker wool and of course also a thicker hook. So I thought that if I would do exactly the same, I would just get a baby hat. That didn't work, I got an egg cosy! Oh no, it was even too small for my egg, haha!

Then I started again with another video.



Again I was trying to make a hat, but this time the aim was to make a baby hat in the first place. This time I didn't follow the pattern exactly, because I already saw that then the hat would become too small again. So I did a few more rows of increasing, until I thought the top of the hat was big enough. I made a little bow to increase the cuteness of the hat, and this is the result!

And then the beautiful Frederique was born, the little baby girl of a colleague of my boyfriend. We gave her the hat. It was a little bit to big, but the parents liked the gift anyway. Isn't she cute with my first crocheted hat?

Powder Star!

These are the photo's of a shoot that I did a while ago...

I love the softness of the skin in these photo's, and also how you can see the structure of the powder. Doesn't she look amazingly beautiful?

*       *       *

Credits

Photography: Serena Bregman

Model: Daisy Ruter

Make-up & hair: me :)

Jewelry: Quiero!

*       *       *

Natural Look for a Romantic Dinner

For a romantic dinner with my boyfriend, I put on some beautiful, natural-looking make-up. Also I did my hair a bit different than normal.

For this look I put on a fluid foundation by MAC. I used concealer for the under-eye area and to remove some red spots on my skin. Then I put powder in my skin tone on my face to fix the make-up and to take away any shine. I used a little bit of dark powder underneath the cheekbones to create a nice shadow. Also I put on some blush. 

This eye make-up is very easy and quick, and can be used in your every day make-up. I marked a line along both the top and the bottom eyelid, from the outer corner until about the middle of the eye, with a black kohlpencil. With a eyeliner brush (angled brush) I softened the line, towards the eyes, so that the black will be the most intense close to they eye and is blurred away from the eye. On top of the kohl line I put some black eyeshadow, also with the eyeliner brush. This is to fix the kohl pencil. With a eyeshadow brush I softened and blended the line. On the inner corner of my eye I put a highlight, for a fresh look. I used MAC cream colour base for this in the color 'Hush Frost'. I put this on with a cotton swab. I also put some of this just under my eyebrow to create a highlight there as well. You could use a light color of eyeshadow for this as well.

Last but not least I put on mascara! A little bit of gloss on your lips and you're ready to go!

In my hair I plaited in from the right side of the face downward and to the left to the back of my head. There I just finished the braid, and then rolled it into a knot. The knot I attached wit some bobby pins. I found the first part quite hard to do with my own hair, because I can't see what I'm doing. It became a bit messy, but I still like it!

Big Improvisation Shoot!

A couple of weeks ago I had a shoot that was supposed to be themed 'Modern Barber Shop'. The photographer I was going to work with, was Daisy van Knotsenburg, a great lady who I've worked with a couple of times, and who I love to work with. Her idea of this photoshoot, which was free work for all the participants, was to use the hairdresser's saloon as a theme for the shoot. This hairdresser's had a bright pink wall. So we were going to do a shoot with many bright colors, in the styling, the make-up and the whole atmosphere. Unfortunately this hairdresser's had a leakage the night before, and half of the floor was flooded! All of a sudden we had to change plans, and this became a big improvisation shoot. We went to Daisy's house, and used her place as location for the shoot. I still like the results a lot!

What do you think?

*   *   *

Credits

Photography: 

Daisy van Knotsenburg

Make-up: 

Judith van Vugt

me :)

Styling:
Amanda van Effrink

Models: 

Sarah M'Peti

Amanda van Effrink

Bella O Pattinasarany

Babette van Vugt

*   *   *

Publication of my Work!

Wooehoooeee! As you might know, I work as a make-up artist. In December last year, I worked together with a great team, and our aim was to get a publication in a magazine. And so we did! Our photo's are in this month's issue of En Vie Fashion Magazine. We are all very happy! In this post you can see some photo's of this serie. The publication itself you can find at my Facebook-page.

*   *   *

Credits

Photography: Roxanne Le

Model: Lynsey Sims

Make-up: moi!

Hair: Patrice Troost

Styling: Tamara Neslo

*   *   *

DIY - birthday card!

It's been a while ago that I wanted to make a personal birthday card for a friend. This was the result. I was quite happy with it, and it's so easy to make!

What you need:
- magazines
- thick paper in a color you like
- twine
- glitter, sequins, or other stuff to pimp up your card

I cut out a balloon shape of the thick paper, then I searched for a nice page in the magazine that I wanted to use. I used a page about lipgloss. I cut out the same balloon shape out of the page. I glued the two balloons together (so you'll also need glue and scissors of course), with a bit of bakers twine in between. Then I pimped the card and made it really special by glueing neon glitter alongside the lines of the products on the photo and I glued some sequins on the card. On the back of the card I wrote a birthday greeting!

Paris je t'aime

It has been quite a while ago when my boyfriend & me had an amazing time in Paris. I was planning to write about it, but never quite got to it. Now I finally have some time to write about the great places we discovered in Paris!

At first, we had a great apartment! It was in the middle of the Quartier Latin (34 Rue de la Montagne), very close to the Panthéon. Behind big doors there was a courtyard with several apartments and a dojo on it. The apartment on the courtyard was a beautiful, quiet place, in the middle of a big, noisy city. It was small, but had enough space for the two of us, and the interior was very nice.

The first few days we went around walking and by subway, but than we took the Vélib Bikes, which was much better! Vélib is bike-sharing with 1800 bike stations located every 300 metres. There's always a bike station somewhere close (although sometimes you do need to search quite a bit untill you've found it).

We are real foodies, so good food & wine is about the most important thing when we're travelling.
We went to a few real good places in Paris, that I would absolutely recommend.

Crêpes à Gogo (12, Rue Soufflot) is, obviously, a restaurant for crêpes. The restaurant is not very fancy, but it's very busy and the crêpes are good. We went there for breakfast. They had all sorts of crêpes with (almost) all the toppings you can think of. For less than € 30 we had a real good breakfast for two.

L'Agrume (15, Rue des Fossés St-Marcel) is a very nice restaurant, with a good 'menu of the chef'. We sat on the bar, where we could enjoy looking at the cook preparing the meals. The staff is very friendly, the food very good. Through this restaurant we also came to know about a great restaurant in The Netherlands, that's owned by one of their former interns. This very young girl, Estée Strooker, started her own awesome restaurant 't Amusement in Arnhem. Okay, this post is about Paris, but 't Amusement is an absolute must-go when you're somewhere near Arnhem!! Great ambiance, very good price-quality ratio, very good and original dishes. Back to Paris...

La Pré Verre (8, Rue Thénard) is a great restaurant in Quartier Latin. We went there on our first day in Paris, sat on their terrace, and had a beautiful set lunch menu. It included two courses, a glass of wine and a coffee. All of that for only € 13,50 per person! This is a real good price, because the food was absolutely amazing!

Au Dernier Métro (70, Boulevard de Grenelle) is a bistro serving Basque (South-West of France) food. This place is also used as a bar, so it can be very packed. We had to wait about 45 minutes to be seated, but enjoyed every minute of it. There are lot's of locals going to this place.

Bistrot du Sommelier (97, Bd Haussmann) is a restaurant that's run by sommelier Philippe Faure-Brac. We went to a special event that's held every Friday. We had a lunch with five wines of one winehouse. The owner of the winehouse was also there, to tell us something about the wines. We had this lunch in the cellar underneath the restaurant itself, and sat all together (about 15-20 people) on a big table. It seems to be a very social event where wine-lovers meet. We don't speak French, I think it's more fun if you do speak French. At the same time it's not very touristy. It was mostly a special experience.

Angelina is a tearoom that has several branches in Paris. We went to the one on 226, Rue de Rivoli. They have all sort of beautiful sweet things. It is expensive, and the interior is quite old-fashioned. So we took out one beautiful little tartlet and ate it in the Jardin des Tuileries, which is right on the opposite of the road. The tartlet looked amazing and it was very yummy!

 

Around the corner from our apartment, there was a little cheese-shop with lots of different cheeses! It's called Laurent Dubois and they have two sites in Paris. We had a taste here and there, and also bought some cheese for lunch!

Because I design jewelry, I love to stroll around bead shops. Unfortunately I only went into two in Paris, my boyfriend wouldn't let me go into more ;). One of these two is really nice. This is Matière Première (12, Rue de Sévigné). I could look around in this shop for hours (and probably I did, haha).

Also we went to the Marche aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt. It's said to be the biggest flea market in the world. When you go there, you take the subway to Porte de Clignancourt. Skip the first stands with fake brand clothing and other rubbish. On the market they have all kinds of stuff, from furniture and books, to clothes, jewelry and house wares. I loved to stroll around here.

Last but not least I want to share with you this very cool store. It's a kind of supermarket, but with only deep-frozen food! I've never seen anything like this before! They had lots and lots of food, from ingredients, to starters and main courses to desserts, and all kind of pies. Everything from simple food, to very luxurious food. I can't remember where it was, or what the name was, but maybe someone else will know...

Some of the photos on this post aren't made by me, so thanks to the photographers :)

Below some other random photo's of Paris, that are made by me!