Famille Summerbelle

We moved & House boxes offer!

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past weeks. We moved from the Netherlands to the neighbouring country, Germany this August. We are slowly settling in this beautiful white house who must have been built in the early 1900. How stunning is this entry with the stained glass windows?! This is the 5 of us waving goodbye to our dear friends Esther from Babyccino, her husband Tamar and their 5 beautiful kids. They stopped overnight before heading back to Amsterdam after 6 weeks exploring Eastern Europe with a camper van. I'm sure you have followed their wonderful road trip on Instagram!
We spent a lovely evening together listening to their travel stories and dreamt the rest of the night of doing the same one day soon...

The removal boxes have been emptied although we pretend not to see the pile of remaining unpacked boxes when we go down to the basement ;-) I think it takes a while to get used to a new place, how to organise each room and where to place the framed artworks on the walls. We lived for 5 years in Amsterdam and yet I never felt like the flat was done in terms of decorating. I had lots of ideas still. I like to know that it is never done and that decorating is always work in progress!

Saying that we managed to organise the kids bedrooms relatively quickly.
The boys are so happy to finally have their own room while they have always shared the same space in Amsterdam. Lucien who's turning 9 soon is delighted to have his own space to build his Lego towers without having them knocked down by his younger bro.
Téo has a bedroom with lots of light (there are 6 windows in his room!) and a big door surrounded by shelves. They were already there when we moved in this rented house. These shelves are perfect for displaying his books, toys and I was very happy to add some more colourful touches with the House Boxes! It is a cute and playful storage solution to hide all the small toys like Playmobil, Lego, cars, pencils and the never ending small things that kids have in their room!

New bedroom for little Téo:

HOUSE BOXES OFFER:
We have currently an offer on. When purchasing a set of 4 HOUSE BOXES, we will offer you the fifth FREE. It will be added to your order and the colour will be a surprise (Pink, Yellow, Pink or Black).

Unwind in l'ile de Ré

We arrived in l'île de Ré exhausted after busy weeks in June and July preparing our move to Germany, but so happy to finally switch off for a couple of weeks. We've planned nothing apart from going to the market, make jam, cycle around the island, draw and read book by the pool :-)

Recycling a cardboard box into a birthday present!

I was surprised by this beautiful painted box by my children for my birthday! It was filled with fresh flowers, drawings and candles. Ophelia and Lucien painted it secretly in their bedroom adding adorable flowers and bees. I first got this box from the supermarket to carry the groceries and I love how they recycled it, transforming it into such a unique and pretty storage box. It's already in good use in my office!

Téo turned 3!

We celebrated Téo's 3rd birthday on 1st March, well actually his birthday was celebrated every day of the week as the kids were on holidays. He was the happiest boy!

Say it with flowers! DIY paper flowers.

Make your own paper flowers bouquet with these Paper Flowers! They are so pretty to hang in your home to add touches of colours.

The kids and I also decided to cut a bunch of flowers to make a bouquet as a Valentine's present. Isn't it always best to receive a hand made gift? Especially coming from your kids ;-)

Look how beautiful and unique they are! (Of course I'm in total admiration in front of my kids designs!)

Ophelia made the one on the left with some pattern details and a very elegant hand with rings and nail varnish.

Lucien made the one on the right that we framed. I like the bold colours and the simple and graphic shapes he gave to his flowers and stalks.

We wanted to share with you how easy it is to make.
- Before starting paint with your favourite colours several sheets of paper. It's best to use paper of a certain weight so the paint doesn't go through. I would go for a minimum of 180 gsm.
- Add lines, dots, circles or any patterns you like to some of your painted sheets.

- Draw the stalk and flower shapes on the reverse side of your painted paper.
- Cut the shapes with scissors or a scalpel.
- Once you have cut several shapes it's now time to have fun making a collage and create your own bouquet!

Here Lucien cutting the stalk of his hand drawn flower:

HAPPY VALENTINE!

A visit to Popham Design in Marrakech

If you think of cement tiles, no doubt you'll have one of Popham Design image saved in your Pinterest board (like mine on Floors) or in your Inspiration folder. Every single interior mag has been featuring stunning homes decorated with the highly colourful and bold patterns of Caitlin and Samuel Down-Sandes, the owners of the brand. They have revolutionised cement tile designs thanks to their vision and collaborative projects with international designers such as Claesson Koivisto Rune who designed the iconic Dandelion tile.

ZigZag and Do You tiles:

So when I knew we were going to Marrakech this Winter I immediately contacted their Head Office which is located at about 10mn car drive from the city center.

We were greeted by the lovely Mariam who proudly showed us around their beautiful showroom, with floor to ceiling examples of their most iconic designs.

Here is Lucien in his djellaba in front of the blue and white wall panel featuring the ZigZag pattern.

Pentagone design:


Splinter asymmetrical design:

Mariam offered to give us a tour of their nearby factory and ask the kids if they wanted to make their own tile. The answer was a cheerful YES! OUI!
Our first impression beyond the amazement of the fine craftsmanship was the smile and the warm welcome we received from the artisans. They were so happy to share their skills and knowledge of their craft with us. It felt like entering into a large friendly family.
The children were fascinated by the process of layering the pigments, marble powder and cement into the different sections of the moulds. Each tile is entirely made by hand by these skilled artisans.

ZigZag design with a different pattern layout.


Check out their Pinterest, Instagram and website for an overview of their huge collection and colours.

I am 8 years old

I can't tell you how much I love taking these yearly birthday photos of Lucien and compare them to the previous years to see how much this big boy cute little face has changed over the years!
Happy birthday, Joyeux anniversaire mon Lulu adoré!!

Look Here when he turned 7, and here when he turned 5!

Afternoon creative: Painting birds with a 7 year old

This was a drawing and painting session with my son Lucien.
Little bro Téo fell asleep for his afternoon nap so Lucien and I decided to make the most of this quite time to do some creative stuffs before little tornado woke up.

We set up the paint brushes, paint tubes, chalk and cardboard sheets out on the long kitchen table and started to draw birds. Why not? Lucien came up with the idea while looking out of the window and saw a couple of birds standing on the rooftop.
It wasn't sadly toucan birds...this one he remembered from our trip to Mexico!

How beautiful is Lucien's toucan!


It was a real pleasure to spend an hour or so drawing and painting with Lucien. It's so inspiring to watch him draw and I love his drawing style so much! I think he has a very good eye for proportions and has a firm hand to draw lines.

For the colour palette I was inspired by an image I saw on Pinterest. It was a photo taken by Charles Eames of Alexander Girard's home in Santa Fe.

Ready for a new school year!

The Summer has gone too fast as always. We had a wonderful time spent with our family in the south of France. The 14 cousins played every day until dark, riding their vintage bikes in the old village. I love Summers in our family house. It's party time with all the siblings, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles and so on. Big tables, lots of good food, wine and laughter :-)

Now we're back in Amsterdam and I have to say I am very happy to get back to work and plan the year ahead.
Téo started his new nursery - in Dutch - Lucien is back to the French school in CE2 and Ophelia is moving to Secondary (how did this happen so quickly?!?). For her no more French at school but Dutch and English. She will be fluent in Dutch in no time! She started her new school this morning, a bit nervous but also very excited about this coming year.
I love how she has organised her desk and decorated her bedroom. Like me she likes to surround herself with lots of pretty colourful things and some fresh flowers...

Illustration from Flow magazine. Wooden spoon painted by Ophelia.

World map notebook by Famille Summerbelle.

Ophelia drawing pretty illustrations on Famille Summerbelle notebook.

The House Boxes for storing all sort of things.

Friends book - Vrienden Boek - a must for the new school year ahead!

Wooden spoon painted by Ophelia.

Beautiful Roma

It was few weeks ago, mid July.
The sun was hot. Very hot.
The sky deep blue.
The 5 of us were strolling the streets, churches and palazzi of Roma with a big smile on our faces and our eyes wide open in wonder at so much beauty.

Sant' Ignazio di Loyola. Mind blowing Baroque fresco ceiling made by Andrea Pozzo

De Ritis.

A seagull standing on the statue of Giordano Bruno at Campo de' Fiori.

An afternoon sketching the Greek and Roman sculptures at Palazzo Altemps with Ophelia and Lucien.

We escaped the heat of Roma for few days to meet with our friends in the beautiful Umbrian hills.
Ophelia turned 11 on a 14th July. I am fascinated to watch my girl grow so beautifully every day.
The children made fresh pasta and bread and we ate like kings and queens thanks to Danny, our Anglo-Italian-friend-chef!

Slowing down means having the time to draw this flour packaging. That's my kind of holidays!

With my favourite 3 in Todi.

Arrivederci alla prossima bella Italia!

Birthday Party: Paper flower headbands!

Yesterday we celebrated Ophelia's 11th birthday with her girlfriends.
She wanted her party to be around the theme of FLOWERS so we made some paper flower headbands inspired by Frida Kahlo famous flower crown.
This crafty activity is very easy to make with children or for yourself (wouldn't it be lovely to wear at a Summer party or imagine little Flower Girls wearing those pretty flower headbands for a wedding- it would look so beautiful!)

Bamboo Circus party tableware.

Materials:
-Tissue paper - lots of different colours!
-Elastic bands
-Stapler
-Scissors
-Thread and needle

1. Start by cutting lots of square shaped tissue paper. A good size would be 10cm x 10cm
2. Take 10 to 12 sheets and staple them to the middle of the elastic band. Make a cross shape with the staple.
3. Cut the tissue paper in a round shape once it is attached to the elastic band.
4. Starting with the top sheet, start creasing each sheet with your thumb and index, and then continue sheet by sheet until you get a beautifully shaped flower.

Wednesday craft time

Wednesdays are a short day for the children so I try to plan some activities to make it fun for the kids.
On our way home from school we collected a handful of flowers and leaves from the local park.
We then decided to draw and paint them to make a leafy wall hanging for our upstairs landing.
Lucien preferred to draw the leaves with a thin chalk, Ophelia used a thin pencil to draw and painted over it. I really enjoyed making this 6 hands project and how our different style made it very unique.

This is what you'll need:
- Fresh flowers and leaves
- Thick paper or cardboard. If you use cardboard it is best to apply a white primer before painting.
- Pencils to draw or thin chalks.
- Cutter & blades + a cutting board
- White or transparent thread
- A Needle + scissors
- A long stick

Enjoy!

Ta-da! This is our cute little wall Spring mobile! We use the House Boxes to store the threads, paints and pencils. The blue box is for brushes, the yellow box for sewing threads, the pink and black boxes for paint tubes!

A la plage

Drawing on wet sand...

Climbing on top of WW2 bunkers...

Looking at the horizon...

Easter Decorations with Famille Summerbelle

On Wednesdays, Ophelia (10 years old) and Lucien (7) finish school at midday so I often plan creative activities to do together. Last Wednesday we decided prepare for Easter with a fun egg decorating afternoon.
That same morning I went to the market with Téo (2) to buy a selection of branches to display on our kitchen table. To give it an Easter touch we added onto it the decorated eggs and some tiny yellow fluffy cheeks that I got from Hema.

While Téo was having a nap we started by blowing up the content of the eggs in a bowl (we saved it for dinner to make a big omelette). Ophelia decided to decorate her eggs with cute little faces so this is all the things you'll need to do something similar. It's super easy and fun to make:

As a special offer in the lead up to the Easter weekend, Famille Summerbelle is offering a FREE 'Ludo Lapin' tea towel with every basket that exceeds €60 | £55 | $65.

Nothing to do at checkout, we'll just send you the tea towel in your parcel.

!Offer ends Sunday 23rd April 2017!

Ludo the bunny, birch wood tray.

The Performers fine bone China mug.
This is our small Easter selection...
Click here to discover more!

Making masks with children

Designing masks with children is always so much fun and so easy to make. Just get some cardboard, paint, glue, feathers and beads and let your imagination do the rest.
This time we got inspired by the masks we saw at the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City. We visited the museum back in November and were blown away by their mask collection.

Téo,2 years old already!

On 1st March we celebrated Téo's birthday. 'Deux' as he likes to say! Because 2 is better than one, especially when he asks for biscuits!

Poor little boy he had a nasty fall on his scooter the day before his birthday, but this didn't bother him to blow his 2 candles!
Funky party hats and garland by Engel.

Voorlinden Museum

Last Sunday we all woke up early and drove half an hour out of Amsterdam to Wassenaar to visit the newly built Voorlinden Museum. Upon our arrival kids were playing ice hockey on the frozen lake. It was a very cold yet beautiful sunny morning.

Voorlinden Museum is a private museum of contemporary and modern art. The art collection is owned by the Dutch industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh and it is one of the largest private art collection in the Netherlands. The museum opened its doors only few months ago, on September 2016.

The museum building was designed by Dutch architect Dirk Jan Postel. I love the huge floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the fields and garden designed by the renown Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf. The design of the museum was inspired by that of the Danish Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Swiss Fondation Beyeler.

The vast art collection of Joop van Caldenborgh known as the Caldic Collection was built over 40 years.
The collection on display consists of a permanent collection with impressive sculptures by Richard Serra, Roni Horn, Ron Mueck, James Turrell and the walk in Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich. This was a big hit for the children. Also walking inside the Open Ended large scale sculpture by Richard Serra was an incredible experience.

Leandro Erlich, Swimming Pool.

Ron Mueck, Couple under an umbrella.

Richard Serra, Open Ended.

Also on display from the permanent Caldic collection was Full Moon, an introduction to little more than 40 artworks from various periods, movements and styles.

Esther Tielemans, The Performance 2011:

Tom Friedman, Untitled (Apples) 2012.

The other part of the building is a temporary exhibition by Martin Creed SAY CHEESE. As you enter the museum the first room you see is filled with blow up balloons. Our little Téo who LOVES playing with balloons of all sorts was over excited to 'swim' in this sea of blue balloons!

Oh and we ended up our visit with a delicious and typical Dutch lunch with cheeses and charcuterie!

A little sunshine in 2016!

So, this is the last post of 2016. I thought it might be a good moment to share something I wanted to show you a little earlier but couldn't find the right moment.

Here's some images from a wonderful trip we took en famille at the end of October. We were invited to Mexico to celebrate the wedding of my step brother and his Mexican fiancée. We spent 10 beautiful days in the stunning Yukatan with my family before flying to Mexico City (where the wedding took place) and where we were joined by more members of the family.

This trip was the highlight of our year. Hope it brings you a little cheer. We wish you all the very best for 2017.

The Mayan temple of Tulum overlooking the turquoise sea:

Xpu-ha beach on the Riviera Maya:

Swimming with tortoise at Xcaret:

A watercolour sketch I did on the 1st November during the day of the deads:

Walking the leafy streets of Mexico City:

and eating colourful ice cream cones and delicious churros!

At the Museo National de Antropologica with the children.

The wedding was held in a 16th century hacienda in the South of Mexico City. We were all dressed up with touches of colours for the occasion!

Lucien is 7 years old!

I can't tell you how much I love taking these age portraits every year. Seeing our Lucien changing physically makes me smile and laugh so much! He blew his 7 candles the day we left Mexico but we've been celebrating for over a week with family, friends and more friends! Happy birthday one more time Lulu! XXXX

Nice to be home

That nice feeling of coming home after a long happy Summer... displaying the garlic braid on the kitchen shelf, watching Lucien draw endless airplanes, watering the -dry- plants after a hot Summer and sitting at my desk with a cup of tea. Simple pleasures.