In November I made a short trip to Barcelona with my friend and textile designer Ella De Vos. We both visited the city a couple of times already, so our plan was to do absolutely nothing but relax. We needed a few days to escape our busy lives in Antwerp and a few days where nothing was planned but drinking coffee or wine and eating tapas seemed perfect to us.
One particular day, we decided to be a little more adventurous, so we followed this book‘s advice and rented bikes to ride up to Montjuic. Maybe Definitely a little too ambitious for someone who doesn’t work out regularly (the hill is really steep), so we decided to make stops on the way up instead of on the way down, like our city guide recommended. This still is quite an effort, but the views you get along the way definitely make up for it.
When I moved about a year and a half ago, I promised I’d show some photos of my new bedroom soon. Somehow I never managed to do so, until I was contacted by Ikea Family Live magazine to share some pictures of my house in one of their online issues. As I share my home with 3 other people, I’ve limited the photos to only my bedroom, but this is my favorite place in the house anyway.
Welcome to the new and improved Au Pays Des Merveilles! It’s been six years since I started blogging under the name Au Pays Des Merveilles and while I still love the name and the sentiment of everlasting wonder behind it, I felt the need to take this blogging thing a little bit more serious. When I had to take a break from blogging to focus on graduating, it seemed like the perfect time for some blog reflection. After a much longer break than I anticipated, it is much more clear to me where I want this blog to go and I’m super excited to share more beautiful homes, fascinating people, impressions of cities and their most interesting places, still complemented by collections of all kinds of pretty things.
A little word of explanation on this whole new design: if you go to hello > about, you can find a few words about me and the blog, but also a list of all the cities and countries I’ve visited. This gives you the chance to browse through the posts by city. If you go to wanderlust, you can find my Lisbon guide and soon guides for other cities will be added. I will keep these up to date with new discoveries, so keep an eye on them when you’re traveling to these places! Under topics, you can find all the categories I’ll be writing about. Architecture contains all the posts I’ve ever written concerning architecture. Collection will replace pretty things but the concept stays the same, I’ll regularly share a collection of certain items. Explored will cover all the places I’ve been to and want to recommend to you: coffee bars, restaurants and shops, but also parks, beaches or cool buildings. Fragments will show snippets of what I’ve been up to, a broader image of a city I’ve visited and a bit more personal stuff. Insights gives a peek into someone’s home. First up is mine, but others will follow soon. These will focus on people who, just like me, have just started their career or are still figuring things out, who don’t have that much funds (yet) but care about making their place feel like a home anyway. You won’t see design filled houses but real homes, with hand-me-downs, thrift shop discoveries and surely some Ikea. For sundaze, I will tag along with someone on their favorite weekend activities, to see their city through their eyes. Lastly, you’ll find some of the results of my job as a freelance photographer under work. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have questions (or discover some things that don’t work yet), feel free to let me know!
PS. I’d like to give a little shout-out to Light Morango, who designed this theme. If you’re in need of a new wordpress theme, be sure to check out her shop! Her designs are not only super pretty and affordable but they come with a really helpful guide that helps you set up your new lay-out in no time. On top of that, she’s happy to help if you’re not entirely satisfied with the result or run into some problems. Two thumbs up!
A few months ago, Whiz (former Roadburg and The Galacticos) invited me into their studio to take some photos while they were recording their album with Koen Gisen (also known as An Pierlé’s White Velvet). Somehow I didn’t get around sharing these photos, but this seemed like the perfect timing to introduce them on the blog. Now that the festival season started, the band is doing a few concerts so head on over to their facebook page for more info. To give you a sense of what they sound like, the boys have composed a playlist of their musical heroes, which you can find at the bottom of this post.
By the way, this is exactly the kind of photography job that I love: people doing their thing while I can observe and try to capture the atmosphere. (The space being dark and quite small, it wasn’t the easiest task with the limited material I have, but in the end it didn’t turn out so bad.) I can’t wait to have more time on my hands again to photograph! Chop chop, back to work now.
My daily bag is most definitely a canvas tote. Whether you need to bring just your daily necessities, do some groceries on the way home or bring an extra sweater: it always fits and it’s never too bulky. There’s just one problem: they don’t last a very long time. Now that my favorite tote bag (I’m talking about the white version of the “my bauhaus is better than yours” tote which already replaced the black version) has developed holes big enough for my keys to fit through, it’s time to think about replacement. I’ve been keeping an eye out for a pretty substitute and I’ve gathered my finds here. Number 2 is probably my favorite, although I have a hard time picking just one. (Especially when I look back at this post from two years ago, where number 4 and number 6 caught my attention again.) Which one would you pick? (And feel free to share if you found other great designs!)
The amount of pictures I took in the month of June is astonishing. It seems like I’m finally getting used to that phone camera and being able to take pictures at any given moment, and I’m loving it!
A few weeks ago, some friends from my erasmus time in Portugal came over for the weekend. It was so nice to see them again after such a long time, and to be able to show them my new city. We walked around my beautiful neighborhood Zurenborg, cycled through the city and admired Antwerp’s skyline from the roof of the MAS. Soon I’ll finally have more time on my hands and be able to spend more weekends like this.
It’s hard to imagine that some of you have never bought anything on etsy, but if that’s the case: this is your chance. If you register on etsy now via this link, you’ll get € 5 discount on your first purchase, not bad right? Etsy offers an amazing amount of pretty things and it’s easy to get lost when you’re looking for something specific, so I’ve selected a few of my recent favorites that I think you might like as well.
Jing Zhang designed these inhabited letters with an astonishing amount of detail. (source)
Anna Ladd questions privacy in these times of blogging and social networks in her series “Things I told the internet but didn’t tell my mom”. Each of the handmade banners expresses a statement that she posted on the internet over the years but never talked about in person. (source)
In the series “Kings and queens of architecture”, illustrator Paul Stuller drew starchitects wearing their most iconic building on their head. (By the way, you can find my photographs of Bjarke Ingels’ “hat” here.) (source)
Opening Ceremony is paying tribute to Belgium this month, by posting a Belgian Slang Dictionary on their blog. You can find all of them here and even send in suggestions!
These wonderfully simple animals are drawn by Andrew Fox with just a few strokes of his calligraphy pen. (source)
These engraved rolling pins look like so much fun, but the best is yet to come: you can even get them custom made! Get them here. (source)
With the cacti-craze and succulent love that has been going around lately (you can read more about my personal plant favorites here, here, here and here or on pinterest), it was just a matter of time before someone combined their love for plants with their love for food. Thanks to Brooklyn-based baker Alana Jones-Mann, you can find out how to make these cupcakes yourself here. (source)
You can find the most fun infographics at truthfacts.
“Landscapes for the People” is a series by Mark Lyon, displaying the contradiction between these peaceful landscape that are used as a background in stressful environments. Quite ironic. (source)
I saved the best for last: design bible Apartamento explored the world of Wes Anderson’s movie sets, all of which are designed up until the smallest details. More photos here.
The past month has been super busy once again, as you might have noticed on my instagram. I divided my time between working on my thesis and a few photography jobs, but luckily there was time to catch up with friends and time for a few blogging events with pretty clothes and yummy ice cream. Here’s a little recap of what I’ve been up to, featuring instagram shots and a few photos that you haven’t seen yet!
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