The magical day

The 14th of Februari is originally a western Christian lithurgical day, meant for honoring one or more Saints called Valentinus.
Throughout the years it became a commercial celebration: people buy flowers, chocolates and gifts for their loved ones. Also greeting cards are send to express feelings. In the 19th century handwritten Valentine cards were made with love and passion.  Nowadays all cards have become mass production or are send by e-mail.

Am I so romantic to expect something on this day?
My husband is not familiar with days as Valentine's Day. Probably my prince will arrive late from work not aware of this magical day. Will he hand over a handwritten Valentine's message?
I wonder...

The fishbowl and the romantic guy

One of my favorite articles is the fishbowl!
I love making them. They have different sizes and different amount of fishes. Sometimes people have special requests. Pink fishes, a mother and a baby fish, a shark, it is all possible!
One day a guy bought a fishbowl for Valentine's Day for his girlfriend. He asked me if it was possible to write something on the back of the bowl. With a DVD marker it is very easy to do. So I asked if I would write the text for him.
But he definitely wanted to write the text himself and I am still wondering what he was going to write.....

Stuck in bed!

Sometimes things happen that you didn't expect.
This happened to me last week, I got the flu and was stuck in bed for several days!
So what can you do?
-Watch Netflix
-Think of things you can do when you are better!

I also installed the App Trello on my mobile to give all my plans a more controlled place. I'm not sure it will work for me but I give it a go!
This week  I start working again and I hope my energy level will be 100% very soon.

January: Month of the unfinished projects!

Happy New Year!!!

A few years ago I started this blog. I have to admit I am not a very good blogger or writer. I am not so handy with words as I am with a jigsaw machine! I am a lousy typer and spelling was not my strongest school subject either. At school I would rather draw beside my notes.

For my webshop I love to start new projects, sometimes I start another one without finishing the first one.  And that is what this is all about. I have a lot of unfinished projects so I decided that January is my month of unfinished projects!
This week I start to continue to blog and finish these cute handpainted lasercut brooches. I have a lot of different ones, I hope at the end of the month they will all be sold in my shop!

For now you can find already a few brooches in the Etsy shop:
link to Etsy: handpainted brooch with a pig and a red balloon

Breaking news...Today the small windmill is moving!

At first I was afraid the windmill was to small to have moving parts, but with some help of the lokal tool shop the blades of the mill can really rotate now.
Because I am so happy about that I wanted to share this with you, although its not the best video :)
See and watch for yourself.
Wishing you all a happy, sunny, windy day!

1 day to go...but the Swan Market is canceled :(

I was so busy making new things that I didn't realize how bad the weather was....half an hour ago they canceled the Swan Market for tomorrow. And tonight? I stop painting.... Hmm I think I'm going to watch the songcontest and drink a glass of wine!
Anyway, I made a lot of new items. Tomorow I 'll make some photographs.

I feel a bit like these clouds now.

3 days to go until the Swan Market starts

This morning I worked with Nicole from Studio Big, on the Etsy school program about SEO.
For those who do not know Etsy, please visit:
https://www.etsy.com
Great to spend time on rainy days as today!
(The weather got a 3 on a scale to 10 today and it rained 35 mm!)
Of course you can start with visiting my shop or Nicole's
https://www.rosesarerednl.etsy.com
https://www.studiobig.etsy.com

Today I painted a lot, but I don't think you would like to see more pictures of that :)

And I made pictures of my new brooches! This is a project I am working on for quite some time.
Tomorrow I'll try to list them on Etsy.

4 days to go until the Swan Market starts

At some days the time flies away! Today was such a day. I packed my Mother's day cards and brought them to Spring Stores...in the pouring rain! I also had to buy some new supplies.
And I had to make a babyhat because there was an order in my webshop. I forgot I gave my last baby hat with pink flower to a friend.

So no time for sewing, what I planned for today. Instead I did a lot of painting. The coloured items need to be painted several times. Now I have plenty of time to let it dry.

5 days to go until the Swan Market starts

Today I did a lot of painting for the Wooden Rosies. This is not very exciting to see...because today I painted everything white!
I finished new fishbowls with a mama fish and small baby fishes.

I also made Mother's day cards. You can buy them with or without a brooche! On the market I will bring my letter stamps in this case people can add a personal message!

6 days to go until the Swan Market starts

On sunday 11th of May I will sell products of my webshop Roses are red on the Swan Market at the Maliebaan in Utrecht.
The days before a market are busy days. This week I'll let you take a peek how such a week looks like at my place

So don't pay any attention to the mess in my house...I'm producing all kind of new items for the market!!!!






One of my new projects is called "Don't feed the birds!" Besides the wooden fishbowls I am working on more carefree pets.

Curious how it will look like? Follow me the comming days to the market. Update every day!

What I did this weekend

This weekend I started to make new items. As it is almost Easter, I made new baby chickens.
I want to make a lot of them so they can sit all together on a shelf at Spring Stores Utrecht.

I also made some other items.
Finished photo's will follow later.

Sometimes my family complains that my work takes too many space on the table....


I'm not sure what they mean :)
I just love the sight of all the shapes together!

What I did last sunday!

Some people like to take a walk in the forest, some like to read a book, but I love to saw and paint!

Here is a photo of my big help, the sawing machine. At first I started to saw by hand, but it took too long and I got aching arms.

The little machine works great. Take a look at my sunday afternoon production!

Spring Stores on local channel

Yesterdag I was invited to a TV recording for RTV Utrecht. The reporter wanted to make a program about the new concept store Spring.

They filmed a lot of shots and this is the result!

This is the link:
rtvutrecht Spring Stores

Opening Spring Stores

Saterday the first of Februari a new concept store opens. The shop is located in the Voorstraat 16 in Utrecht. Designers can rent a shelf to sell their hand-made products. As this is close to my house and I liked the concept very much I decided to join.









The store is a project of Robbert and Stephan, 2 enthousiastic guys who were looking already a long time for a nice shop location.
But they found it!

These pictures are made last week, the week before the opening.
For more information visit their website:
http://blurredlines.nl
or Facebook page:
facebook SpringStores

If you are in the neighberhood, the shop opens at 10 and will be open 7 days a week.

Finally on Etsy

Today I finally launched my shop at Etsy. It took me some time, but I carried on. First of all I want to say to all Etsy shop owners, what a great job they did to set up a shop. All the steps you have to take; write information about shipping and policies, add text, add headlines, add pictures....
I found out I'm not such a good storyteller with words.  Pherhaps it is because I'm not really a reader but more a maker.

I hope you like the shop. After the sad news that the Art shop in Apeldoorn was closed, today the good news that we opened at Etsy!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/rosesarerednl

My other blog: The difference of 25

2 years ago I started blogging. In October 2011 I started my first blog 'The difference of 25'. A blog about creating artwork. Every month I put a theme on the blog. Everybody can send in artwork. You can paint, draw, sculpture, make pictures, whatever you like. At the end of each month I put all the artwork together. That is the fun part for me. It is great to see so many different styles. On the 25th of the month I put the collage on the blog.

One of these themes was shops. I made a flowershop as my granddad had a flowershop and I love flowers.

I didn't realize that this drawing would become so important for me. From a lot of these flowervases I made Wooden Rosies. Wooden Rosies are the handpainted vases and figures from wood, which I sell in the webshop. I even made very big ones for the window in the shop in Apeldoorn.
Today I started making Christmas items in the same style. Pictures will follow later!

Blog of Roses are red

Welcome to the blog of Roses are red
On the 7th of March 2012 I started my webshop
Roses are red  Now 1,5 year later it grew out with a lot of articles. A part of them are sold in real shops, in Apeldoorn and Amsterdam. Soon you can also find us on Etsy.

Sometimes it takes time to put all the new items in the shop, or I am already working on a new project. On this blog I will share this news.