a Day in the Garden

Yesterday I went to my parents home. I don't really go there often, I see my family at birthdays and stuff and they come to me sometimes. But this means I don't really get to see my pets there so often.. So yesterday I took the opportunity to make some pictures of them! (Also to try out my new camera! the Sony HX50)

We have two cats, Flame (mine) and Razor (my brother's cat). And then we have a dog, a German Pointer, called Astor.
My cat is the quiet type. She loves to just lay in the sun and is home most of the time. Razor on the other hand likes to roam around the neighbourhood. Since we live on the countryside there's enough for him to do. But this also means he has already quite some scars from fighting the other cats for territories (I guess). Yesterday his front paw was hurting :( but after he had dinner he was gone already to find more adventures haha.
The dog is getting old, but he stills love to play with his ball and always wants our attention.

So, here are some of the photos I took:

Flame, my fluffy cat

Flame, keeping watch

Razor aka the adventurous tiger

Razor with his hurting paw

Razor with Astor in the background

Astor (too bad I didn't focus on him, but it still looks nice)

The sun is setting after a nice day

It was really nice to see my pets again. And my family of course. I should visit there more often, it's quite peaceful on the countryside compared to the small city of Delft where I live now.

Have a nice week!
Xx
Anne Lien

Growing Tassel House

So yes, I'm still alive..

Let me share with you a project I've recently been working on for an elective course I did. This course is called 'Beyond 3D'. The goal was to create one single image, an artist impression. You could use one of your own architectural projects or an existing one.
This is the end result of my project:

Want to know how I created this? Then continue reading please :)

5 random facts about me

Hello there. I wanted to make this blog a little bit more personal by sharing these 5 random facts about me. I hope you'll enjoy! :)

1.
I actually live in a tiny blue apartment. It's a little studio in the 'outskirts' of Delft where I've painted the walls sky blue. I've been living here for about two years now and I share this place with my two fluffy gerbils.
(Blue is also my favourite colour!)

2.
Which brings me to the second fact. I have two gerbils. These little desert rats always need to have a roommate to keep eachother company. Mine are black and white. The black one is called Yoru and the white one Tsuki. It means 'night' and 'moon' in Japanese. Doesn't it sound cute? They're both male and so cute together! They sleep together and wash eachother. It's adorable to watch ♥

3.
The only sports I like are yoga, pilates and fighting sports like thai boxing. This year I did yoga at home and bikram yoga with Emilia!, I'm hoping on continuing with thaiboxing again next semester at the sporstcentre of my university.

4.
My 'favourite' drink is water. Seriously, I drink so much of it everyday. If I go to someones place and they ask me what I want to drink, I would say water. When I'm working at home, there's always a can of water and a glass next to me. And I always have a bottle of water in my bag.

5.
It has been a year and a half since I've been obsessing about everything with robots on it. (It used to be penguins) Last year I designed a robot ring and ever since I have been really drawn to anything with robots on it.. I even made a special pinterest board for it! There are so many cute items out there with robot print, but I would be broke if I bought them all.. So apart from my ring I only have this water bottle I bought at Søstrene Grene (always have it in my bag) and a robot dress from Zara.

So that's it!
I hope you enjoyed it and know me a little bit better now :)
and please tell me if you like to see more posts like this!

Have a great week!

Building spaghetti bridges

Over the past few weeks two friends and I have been quite obsessed by spaghetti. And glue. This was the third time in a row we were competing in the yearly spaghetti-bridge competition organized by our university.
Every year there are two challenges to compete in: the team-building challenge and the student-building challenge. We were competing for the third time in the last challenge. Here you need to build a bridge before the actual competition/testing day according to the released assignment. We also competed in the teambuilding challenge for the first time. This takes place on the day itself. You get 3 hours to build a (smaller) bridge.
 

Last week Wednesday was the big day. In the morning we brought our big bridge in and we build a smaller bridge for the teambuilding challenge. There was a nice spaghetti lunch (spaghetti-overload) and in the afternoon they would test all bridges from both challenges.
Before I share our experiences, let me reveal that we didn't win anything ;)

Fabric Market in Delft

Today was a beautiful sunny (and windy) day. The perfect day to visit the fabric market in Delft with a friend. This market is set up by the 'Stoffenbeurs'. Every season they visit different cities. If it's close by, I always enjoy going there. Since today they visited my hometown I had to stop by. It is so nice to see and touch all the different kinds of fabric and imagine what you would create with it..
I didn't allow myself to buy anything since I already have so many (sewing) projects waiting to be finished. Or to even start on.
We did hunt down the perfect shiny black fabric so my friend can make hooded capes for her society board. And it was only €2,- per meter! Perfect since she's only planning to use them once ;)

What's a market day without some lunch? Even though it was sunny we decided to go inside our trusty Bagels&Beans to have some bagels and an ice coffee/hot chocolate.

More photos after the break!

Sneak peek ~ new products

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging for a while is because I have been working on new products for my brand tiny purple treehouse. At the moment I only sell 3D-printed jewelry, but I'm planning on adding some new (handmade) products!
I'm super excited about this, but the process is taking such a long time.. All products are still in testing- and adjusting fase so that's why I haven't blogged about them.

So for now I won't show (or tell) more than these photos. I don't want to make promises I'm not sure I can keep ;) sometimes I talk to much anyway hehe

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is an elective course for school. Well obviously I have more, but this one I'm really enjoying. In this course I learn how to build websites through html, css and jquery. Actually not a website, but a portfolio. Since I'm studying architecture, most students make a portfolio about their design projects and skills. The teachers however were fine with me making a portfolio for my tiny purple treehouse products! If I can do it (not making a promise here), I can maybe even build a webshop or something similar.
Isn't that great? I can make something I was planning on making anyway, plus I get guidance and credit!
ahh.. I love college..
(as long as I don't think about the scary courses -.-")

Bye bye!

Søstrene Grene bloggersevent

Hello! Oh my it has been a while.. I'm sorry!

Last Wednesday I went to my first ever bloggers event/evening organized by Søstrene Grene in Groningen. It was pretty amazing! I met the nicest people and I just love the shop. It was well worth spending 6 hours in a train ;)

Søstrene Grene is a Danish shop with lots of items for low prices. They have multiple shops in Scandinavia, but only one in the Netherlands. That one is all the way up north in Groningen. A beautiful city which I happened to visit quite a few times this last year.

Winter Series ~ Cozy Mittens

Second in the serie: a cozy pair of mittens!

I had been on the hunt for some nice mittens for a few years now. The ones I liked were mostly made out of wool. Which is nice, but not when you're cycling a lot. The wind (and rain) just goes right through them! If you can't find what you're looking for: make them yourself :)

And so I did. I used interior fabric, because it is sturdy and quite water- and windproof. For lining I opted for some fluffy shearling material. So soft and cozy! And an absolute dream to work with.

Final presentation & Revit renderings

Last Friday was my final presentation of the design project of the past semester. Because of this, last month has been really busy for me, so sorry for the lack of updates and replies.
Doing a master architecture project is pretty intense in itself. I worked on the same building for almost half a year, it was hard work. When your building is 'finished' you need to prepare a presentation. I have to say, I was totally not feeling the vibe and my presentation was a bit of a let down in terms of drawing techniques. Anyway, I passed the project!

 The one thing I did really enjoy was working in Autodesk Revit. This software is pretty new. When I started this study 4 years ago, we were thought Maya. Now the kids learn Revit in their first year. Even though I never had lessons with this software, I started using it in an architecture project last year. This project I used it again and it's a really great product!

Winter Series ~ Knitted Scarf

This winter/autumn I started making myself some nice and warm accessories. Today we start with the first one in a serie: a cozy knitted scarf!

I actually started this project last year, but spring was already there when I was halfway..
So I finished it this year! It was even still autumn when I attached the little tassels. These photos were also taken in that time.

new 3D printed pieces!

As I mentioned in my Busy October post, I've ordered some new pieces on Shapeways. A few weeks ago they arrived! In the meantime I took pictures and made a simple video. Now I want to share these together with background stories / conclusions of the pieces :)

Triple Chocolate Brownies

Last weekend a friend celebrated her birthday. Another friend and I threw her a little party, including party hats and cakes. There was an apple pie and I made her brownies. A few years ago I found a brownie recipe in a magazine. I tried it out and it was so perfect I never tried a different one. Almost every time I make these, someone will ask for the recipe. With this post, I can just refer to my blog ;)

Now let's make some brownies!

Busy October

It already has been a month since my last post -.-
Life has been crazy lately, so I wanted to give a quick overview of my October.

School was pretty busy. I had to prepare and give two presentations. This means a lot of work for just 10 minutes of talking in front of your professors. Most people don't get that much sleep during these periods. This time I managed to get some sleep in :) But my presentations weren't that good.. maybe I should have worked all nights straight. Cause that's what being an architecture student is all about..

I've been doing a lot of other things as well. I finally managed to finish two other products for tiny purple treehouse to be 3D printed at Shapeways! Because of Sandy, the servers of Shapeways were offline for a few days. Fortunately they're back on now and they can process orders again. I hope everyone affected by the storm is doing ok now!
Also, I've been working on new different products for tiny purple treehouse. No 3D printing this time. For now it's gonna be a secret what they are..  I want to finish my prototypes first ;)

It's fall again! The weather in Holland has been the same as every other year. One day, clear blue skies and a nice breeze of fresh air. The next day, lots of rain, grey skies and a mean wind. No matter what the weather is like, I still enjoy the beautiful view of yellow and orange leaves falling to the ground. Plus, now I can finally wear nice warm sweaters and scarves again!
One night, my boyfriend couldn't sleep, so he decided to go outside and shoot some pretty pictures. Don't they reflect the perfect fall feeling?

I'm gonna get back to my schoolwork -.-
Have a nice week!

Xx
Anne Lien

(free) Digital Design Resources

palette by Design Seeds and the parrot is from All Silhouettes
font is Caviar Dreams by Lauren Thompson on dafont.com

 I've been spending maybe a little bit too much time on the internet lately.. But I did found some awesome websites that might come in very handy when you like to design things on your computer!
I know there are many more useful sites out there, but these were my recent finds and some staples I wanted to share. Also, I like free stuff, so pretty much everything in this post is for free ;)

Wedding in Phoenix

Time for a new post! Sorry for the long silence, but as the title suggests, I've been on a little trip to America. I've already been back for a week or so, but now I'm finally jetlag free and I have my head back together for a new blogpost ;)

DIY ~ laptop sleeve

Last week I've made myself a new laptop sleeve! I've had this idea for a long time, cause the old one was actually not more than a T-shirt I cut and sewn to size. It was already shredded at the corners..

Awhile ago my mom got her hands on some interior fabric samples from a store. She said the best ones were already gone, but there are still some little jewels in there ^_^
So I've got a whole bag of samples. The nice part is, you have the same patterns in the same dimensions, but in different colors. It's a fun way to mix and match!
I've also made a little purse to hold my passport, phone and other stuff. It was perfect for my holiday in Spain! This is slightly more difficult project so that will be up after this. I'm also planning om making a shoulder/tote bag. So keep tuned for that as well ;)

In this tutorial I will show you how to make this laptop sleeve! Including measurement instructions so you can make your own custom pattern :)

My Projects ~ dark blue jacket with a touch of gold

I think I came up with the idea of making my own jacket/blazer about 3-4 years ago. Together with my mom I've searched fabric markets high and low to find that one perfect fabric for my creation. In a magazine I had already found the pattern I was going to use. After I found the fabrics I got to work. I altered the pattern so it would have long sleeves, pockets and it would fit my figure better. I was going ok with this project, but then I got busy or I got stuck.
So for the last 3-4 years I have worked on this jacket. I would work on it for maybe 3 days and then I put it away. Because the fabric gave awful blue stains, because the shoulders would look chunky, because I didn't understand what the magazine was trying to tell me, because I didn't have any room in my tiny blue apartment..
But last semester in March, I finally finished it! ^_^

Fortunately I still love the fabric even though it's quite a bit out there. Also, I found the most amazing buttons ever! At first I had silver buttons, but I think the gold adds just that little more 'oomph' to it. (I'm going through a gold-accessorize period right now)
I have sewn some bags and clothing before, but I was still quite amazed I achieved this, if I may say so about myself. It was a fun journey and I've learned so many new techniques ^_^ not sure if I'm gonna do it again soon though.. I'll tell you in about 4 years about that ;)

It's almost weekend!
Xx
Anne Lien

Gift DIY ~ wrapping paper (kraft paper look-a-like)

Here's another gift inspired DIY. This time it's a gift wrapping idea.
I really like how this kraft paper looks, but I didn't have any.. and it was already in the evening so I couldn't buy some. For some reason I always come up with an idea when it's getting dark, not a good thing when you're trying to make clear photos. Luckily I had my boyfriends camera now instead of my old iPhone ;)
So, I've used up a few rolls of wrapping paper recently and I kept the cardboard rolls that were inside.These have the same look and feel as the kraft paper. It's only a bit sturdier. But it does the job! I wouldn't try to wrap anything but box-shaped items though.

All-time favorite iPhone apps

Today I'm gonna do a different kind of post. I have my iPhone 3GS for about three years now I think. And I have a lot of apps, my friends are always kind of surprised of how many I have.. haha
I don't know I just like to have a lot of choice.. or something.
But there are a few apps that I just keep using. Besides the standard FB, Whatsapp and Instagram apps of course.

I've got 4 games and 4 non-game/useful apps I want to share.

Gift DIY ~ birthday coupons

A friend of ours turned 21 recently. We got her some gifts, but we also made a little coupon book for her. I know it sounds kinda cliche and like something you would make for Mothers Day. But this study year we will all be doing something completely different in different cities, so we wanted to have some kind of guaranty we will meet up again. Also, it's a great way to come up with funny ways to spend time together haha