I'm such a lucky bastard! I participated in a giveaway Blue Eyed Night Owl hosted a few weeks ago (by the way, check out Laura's blog because it's awesome and filled with lots and lots of owly goodness!)

I won 'Mocco Manuel', a cute little owl that was handmade by the lovely Olga from Wassupbrothers (her blog & etsy shop)



Here's how he came my way, wonderfully wrapped and with a sweet note.




Oh my, I think I'm in love. ♥







I'll be a good momma for him, I promise!



Thanks again Blue Eyed Night Owl for hosting the giveaway and Olga for sending me one of your sweetie pies!

I suggest you take a look at the blogs & shops of both of these ladies, especially if you're an owl fan! You'll probably fall in love with every single blog post/item you see. ♥

Well, hello everyone! First off, thank you Elisse for asking me to do a guestpost for you, I was happily surprised. I am Phara by the way, and my blog is called Neon Maria. I love everything vintage and love strolling around flea markets and thrift stores. I also like sewing and everything involving clothes in general actually. Oh and I really like dodo’s (yes, the extinct bird) and dinosaurs, just a random fact to end this introduction.

Now, I was thinking about what I would include in this post and when I think about Elisse, the first thing that pops into my mind is the image of an owl, so I thought I would look on the web for all sorts of fun related owl things. And here’s what I found.


And I could add a lot more, but that would be a bit too much I presume, but then I found this and just had to show it, cause it’s too cute.

How amazing are those owl mug cozies! I found them in the Etsy shop “handmade by Justin”, there’re a lot of other knitted things in there too.
I definitely must learn how to knit one of those, to knit in general actually. You can make them in all kinds of shapes, colours and you can choose whatever you want to be on it, just experiment with it. I’m predicting a mug cozy crazyness on the web soon!

So hope you enjoyed my guest post and be sure to keep following this lovely lady, can’t wait to see what creative things she’ll post next.

Lots of love!

Thank you so much Phara, for this amazing owl post! That watch MUST be mine..

SENT

to Christel:
As a 'thank you' for the beautiful owl necklace she sent me I sent her this flowery postcard (one of my favorites) in a handmade envelope (with a peacock on the front!) and one of the personalized stamps. Thank you once again Christel!




to Alexandra:
She also deserved a little thank you for the owlsome jewellery she sent me ♥ I included a pretty dried flower as a finishing touch.




to Jolien:
I sent quiet a long letter to Jolien and wrote about all sorts of things, like how I met my boyfriend, what kind of person he is like, how wonderful her little (spontaneous) roadtrip looked, ...




to Saar:
This 6 pages counting letter (!!) got posted to Saar, along with a birdy split pen, cute animal stickers, pressed flowers and two food/drink tickets from this year's edition of Pukkelpop. I had so much to tell her.




I'm already looking forward to what I will be receiving next week!

Remember this giveaway I hosted about a month ago? I couldn't put the pictures online any sooner, because I wanted to surprise the winners with these packages :)

Now that they've arrived I can finally show you what I sent them!

To Gabi:





To Maija:











I'll probably do this more often, because it's so much fun to put together these little handmade packages :)

Hi there! This is Jolien typing. I am a photographer, craft & DIY enthusiast and living a cushy life. I am (photo)blogging over at erwaseens.wordpress.com.

When Elisse sent me the invitation to write a guestpost for her superb blog, I immediately said yes. As I have a variery of interests, the foremost problem I stumbled upon was "what should I blog about". After a bit of pondering, I decided I would write about my notebook. You read that right.



I have always liked those creative notebooks. Unfortunately mine is always just text. So for the month of july I decided to keep a little "smash journal" at the back end of my notebook. Smash journaling is a combination of scrapbooking and a journal.



The materials I used were all found in and around the house, so smash journaling can be cost-free! I used pencils, ribbons, pictures, paper, stickers, tape, paint and so much more.



July was a very busy month, so I had a lot of photographs an such to smash into my book. BUT this activity is also a bit time consuming, wich resulted in having to do this with my last breath before I went to bed. Therefore, my suggestion is to keep a smash journal about your most precious memories or your holiday, and not just about any other day.

So I got a bit bored halfway, but I love the look of my colourful notebook.

Thank you Jolien! You're such a creative mind :)

I found an oldschool photobooth that still makes 4 different photos! Hurray! I couldn't resist getting in there with my boyfriend (♥) and so we took these hilarious - okay, only the third one is - pictures.



Every month we take a picture in a photobooth, a real one or the digital version. The idea behind it is to keep track of the most ordinary events or changes in life - as the months turn into years. You can find all participants here.
// Bij de Fotokabien maken we elke maand een foto - online of in een echt hokje. Meer info of meedoen? Nieuwsgierig wie er allemaal elke maand in een hokje kruipt? Kijk hier.

SENT

Oopsie daisy, I forgot to show you this letter last week. I sent it to Saar.




I also sent out this mistery package.. More about it in a couple of weeks/months!



RECEIVED

Every time they called my name on youth camp after lunch, I got so excited! Mail mail mail! I'm loving it!

From Marijke:
Ha ha, I was só excited for this one! Since the mail man wouldn't want to give me the letter (there weren't enough stamps on the envelope because of the square shape) I had to visit the post office and pay an additional €0.75. But I was surprised by this adorable letter from Marijke, in an owl envelope she made herself!


From Saar:
Another - reaaaaaally long - letter from Saar, I loved the fact that she used all different kinds of paper. She included beautiful lace and a ribbon :)






From Elise:
Another letter from my dear friend Elise. This was a party just to open! (Not so) oldschool photos of us, delicious "women's tea", a pin from Takkie (the dog from Jip & Janneke, drawings made by Fiep Westendorp), handmade magnets and an illustration from a fox (because it doesn't always have to be owls ;-) )






From (Celes)Tine:
Yay for Tine's surprising mail! She even drew a swan and included some hilarious drawings. I love the sticker she used (handmade?) to seal the envelope. Too funny!








From my parents:
A "Where is Waldo" postcard with some sweet words.


From Jolien:
Another sweet letter from Jolien, that included sea shells, a cute handprint card and adorable travel stickers.




From Christel:
And last, but definitely not least I got some owly jewellery from Christel. She bought this amazing owl necklace from Accessorize and sent it my way. Só sweet and só pretty. Thank you once again, dear Christel!




Phew, and now I'm pleased to say that my posts about incoming and outgoing mail are finally up to date! Yay for that!