About my eccentric taste, discovering leather scraps and my quote for you..

What is this post about?

It's about some new bracelets I made but also

LoveLea's brown leather minimalist bracelets

About shopping with my daughter and showing off my personal new leather jewelry. 

2 Weeks ago I went shopping with my daughter. We had a super day: we hadn't been doing something just the 2 of us for a long time, so the fact of being both of us together, away from household problems, without my daughters lovely children, no husbands was thrilling. We tried on & bought  diverse tops in small boutiques, had lunch at our favorite restaurant, had a bit of flea market and went to the nearby bra shop. AND it was the perfect time to wear my new acquisitions:

I got myself a present in January: I saw a large/long cuff in black leather on Etsy and fell in love with it.  I ordered it and showed the cuff to my daughter. She liked the cuff but remarked: how are you going to wear it? I planned on wearing it very simple: a pair of jeans, a white tee and 1 long tassel earring, a creation of mine: the cuff on my right wrist and the earring in my left ear to keep everything in balance.

Me with my new cuff and long tassel earring in leather

Our shopping day was the perfect moment to get my things in the open; I got several flattering remarks from boutiques owners and quite a few appraising looks.

I like out of the ordinary things and stuff, extravagant things. When I was 16, my sister and I each had a black maxi rain coat in oilcloth; we lived in a small town and the whole town was gaping and staring at us, surely gossiping!! We didn't mind because we loved our coats. My mother liked out of the ordinary things but in a subtle way: subdued colors but extravagant patterns! It was all so subtle, I didn't even get it until later, becoming a teen and seeing pictures of her.

It wasn't always fun having a mother who liked "different, special" clothes. We got laughed at by the classmates even a teacher said: you have to be different all the time. But I am grateful that my mom learned us to daring to be different, to be not mainstream.

My grandmother on my fathers side refused to settle for the black and dark colors a widow had to wear in those times, instead she choose bright colors. She read somewhere that during the Middle Ages  (maybe it was another era), people painted their houses in colors and the next day she ordered her house to be painted in a lovely pink. Very shocking at that time.

Yes, I have strong women in my ancestry.

Discovering leather scraps

Last April we left the summerhouse and returned to Belgium. And in Belgium we moved to a bigger house; well not that bigger but to a house with an attic that I am sharing with my husband who is a musician. We use it as a workshop/studio.

In 2 months of time, we moved the belongings of 2 houses! I am still sorting out my stuff. I am still finding things I don't recall possessing. I found a bunch of pieces of brown, thick and a bit stiff leather. What a bonus! It fell like finding a small treasure. My fingers yearned to manipulate this nice leather, I immediately went to work.

Since the leather is so nice, I decided to let speak the leather and created three minimalist bracelets and 1 a bit more elaborate (see image on top).

In the narrow bracelet to the left, I made tiny incisions to break the surface a little bit; they'll show up with wearing. The bracelet to the right shows off the leather nicely because of the width of the bracelet. If you like inornate, subtle jewels, those is for you!

                           

LoveLea's brown leather
minimalist narrow bracelet.

LoveLea's brown leather
minimalist wide braclet.

Pinterest!

I love  Pinterest, it is my savior in time of distress. At one time, a lot of leather flower making tuto's were thrown in front of me; I kept ignoring them but they still came in front of me and I decided to try out some flowers; practice and patience failing me, I gave up, things should make headway! I made an abstract flower with the core out of a vintage evil-eye glass bead. The button and loop are from the same leather as the flower. Wear it with a denim outfit and you have a statement!

Detail of leather flower with vintage bead

LoveLea's black leather cuff
with black leather flower.

And here is a narrow bracelet that would become a teenage girl in a boho outfit, well: brown leather with glass beads:

LoveLea's brown leather narrow bracelet
with green glass beads.

My quote for you:

A couple days ago, something between a thought and a feeling, experience came to my mind. I molded it into a nice phrase, a quote. I had  planned on pasting the text to a befitting image but the lamp behind my screen failed and my laptop is in repair. All my pictures are on that laptop; I am not getting angry, I see this event as a warning that I should back up my pictures. Anyway, this doesn't prevent me from sharing my quote:

Don't merely look at a breath taking view of nature.

Feel it, absorb the view, allow it into your heart,

Until you vibrate and pulsate

Until you're one with nature, the Universe. 

That's all for this week

I don't know where you live, but here where I live, we have a heat wave since 2 weeks. I function alright till 25°; above this my functionality diminishes and above 30°, I am K.O. To counter this, I get up early in the morning, open all the windows to refresh the house and do some tasks while it is cool in the house. Around 2 pm I take a good nap and then I feel refreshed enough to perform small tasks until the evening brings some relief and solace. I am all for a siesta! Viva la siesta.

See you next week!

3 Glam & chic leather necklaces! After 40 years back on a horse! Win facing your fear!

Glam and chic: leather/chunky-chain necklaces!

I love the combination of leather and chunky chains! It inspires me and more ideas keep popping up in my head. About 3 weeks ago,  I needed more chains and went to my shop, Veritas. My blood drained and I felt a big panic coming up: no chains in the usual place!!! I asked a shop assistant and she showed me the front of the shop: there they were in a big box and on sale!!!  Good that I went that day: I had wanted to go a couple days earlier but was prevented. I came on the right day,  just in time! I bought all what was left: 2 spools of meters and meters of chunky chain and 3 spools of smaller chains! 

This is what I call a windfall! in which everybody has its part: the shop is rid of stuff that isn't selling, I have my chains for a good price and I can sell my creations for a good price! Honesty is the best policy! 

LoveLea's glam leather pool wear necklace

Last week, I felt like making  necklaces: I measured my neck, estimated how much of chain and how much of leather would be required, cut out the strips and made the necklace or choker, as you wish: it was a bit tight around my neck;  I forgot to take in count the thickness of the chain; so the cerulean blue one is for somebody with a small neck, the white one fits me as a glove.

White is easy to match and will look gorgeous with your tan; the cerulean blue necklace will look good with or without tan.

LoveLea's glam white leather necklace

LoveLea's glam cerulean leather necklace

A long piece/strip of black leather has been laying around for quite some time: my eye was drawn to it: bingo, the strip had the right width, maybe a bit long. I started weaving the leather strip through a 20 cm of chain, tried it on: perfect and very chic! I attached the snap buttons and here is a very chic black leather chunky-chain necklace. The metal has a pink shine and this makes it  less bling, more chic!

LoveLea's black leather chunky chain necklace/choker

The necklace measures 41,5 cm.

LoveLea's black leather chunky chain necklace/choker

All my creations are available at my FB-shop: https://www.facebook.com/denyshildemaria.lovelea 

Horseback riding!

My daughter's youngest, 8 years old, is horseback riding since  a couple of months. And she just loves it. She is a quiet girl but when horses and riding come in the picture, she opens up. That made my daughter curious about riding and she made a reservation for last Sunday and there we went, all 5 of us. My husband fell of a horse when he was young and didn't want to experience this again.

The instructor saddled the horses and gave my granddaughter little tasks to do, very clever of her. We were all a bit nervous since neither my son-in-law nor my grand son were ever on a horse back. My daughter rode a couple of times and I rode 40 years back!

Grand daughter carrying her saddle;
courtesy of Lis Vaessen

The whole of Saturday and the Sunday morning my grand daughter had been worrying about the horse she would be riding. She asked the instructor which horse she could ride and she asked: which horse you want? she said Sue and the instructor said: Sue it will be. My grandson mounted Splash, Sue's friend.

Grand daughter on horseback;
courtesy of Lis vaessen.

Grand son on horse back;
courtesy of Lis Vaessen.

The instructor gave the most concise instructions: how to turn left and right, kick your horse to go! and the rules: don't let your horse eat, don't leave a gap between the horses and Wayne should go last because he kicks!!!! Wayne was my horse. I was secretly relieved that I hadn't to ride a horse, labelled as biting, but the instructor gave me a kicking horse.  We went off leisurely to the adjacent national park.

All went well; I felt grand and young on a horse again, took me way back to my teenage years! I enjoyed my horse, the ride, being in the open and the environment. We even saw a heron, fishing in a pond. My grandson (who was just in front of me) just loved it: his horse went left when he pulled left on the reins and right and Splash went on as he kicked him, easy peasy. After 30 min of walking, the instructor started a trot; all of us went bouncing (me included) and jouncing, hitting the saddle, our insides shaken and shouting, crying out the most bizar and weird sounds; especially my grandson shrieked and roared from fear and pleasure. We trotted for maybe 2 minutes?

After some more trotting attempts, something went wrong: on a narrow and sandy path, Splash went through his front knees, got up and there went my grandson, landing on his head and then on his back between the horses' legs! Splash got up, wanted to bolt but was stuck by the other horses, turned around and then my grandson got hold of his horse. I had been shouting: get up, catch your horse so he would get up and back on his horse again. We had yet to go back to the stable! The instructor came to untangle the reins and helped my grandson on his horse again. And that was it for trotting! I would have liked to exercise the trot some more but in this circumstances.... Returning to the stables, my grandson declared: never on a horse again, his fear of tumbling bigger than his initial pleasure.

Fear, our ally.

This takes us to another subject: fear. Fear is a good thing, a sign we can work with! Yes! why? Because it shows us what is slowing us down or worse, hindering our growth. Your fear tells you: this is an issue you have to work on.

Dissect your fear: what is the trigger, what are the circumstances, what am I fearing? Is this the real reason or am I fooling myself? Most of the time, the fear is in your head: when you do what you fear, when done, you think: was that it? Did I fear this?

Fear confronts you with yourself: you think you are courageous but in front of your fear, you find out how big your courage is! Very deflating, a big eye opener, very confronting. But when you conquer you fear, you know it is possible and then nothing can stand in your way!

A nightly visitor

Two nights ago, the king of the night payed us a visit; he stayed the whole night. In the morning I prodded him so he would open his wings. I had seen his nice colors the night before. He flew up and tried to get out by the window. I didn't help him until a got some nice pictures! Then I took him in the hollow of my 2 hands and released him outside.

My King of the Night

I call him King because of his waistcoat with 4 buttons; admire his royal red colors!

That was it. Hope to see you next week with more news and pictures!

See you!

How to create your own boho style! about the correlation between stress and weight gain! a baby boy!

What is boho style?

Boho style is all about vibrant colors, soft statements, elegance, nonchalantness, carelessness, the special feeling of living on a small island and the 3 s's. More specifically it is about leather, beads, tassels, fringes, corroded metal, lace, crocheted lace, intricate or simple, repitition! No bourgeois chic.

What makes jewelry/clothes BOHO?

 

Boho is about color and boho colors are: turquoise and pink and all of its variations and earthy colors! Mix a lot of shades of the same colors! What shows off vibrant colors? White, flowing, comfortable, loose fitting, long, maxi cotton muslin dresses!  If you want a print, think flowers, embroidered or painted! Feel the wind going through your dress and toying with the tassels of your bracelets, the fringes of your clothes!

Bogo jewelry is about LEATHER, mostly bracelets; cognac colored leather or very dark brown leather are basics! The bracelet should have beads, fringes, tassels, charms; it is about layers and layers, so be sure to wear lots of the same type of bracelets or make a statement with 1 very simple string bracelet.

And top this all with a wide brimmed hat! If you don't have a hat, a scarf around your hair will do also.

 I don't possess Ibiza or boho style clothes so I borrowed them from my daughter. Her whole family are Ibiza fans, especially my grand daughter in the picture above. I'll show you some dresses/outfits so you get the hang of it paired to a jewel or an accessory.


This dress (in the picture below) already has a necklace. Choose either the white leather bracelet with turquoise accents and corroded charms or the cognac leather bracelet with turquoise accents and metal charms.

LoveLea's  2bracelets in cognac & white
with metal corroded and shiny charms.

Artfully mixed colors.
 Photo courtesy of Fred Vaessen.

The dress below is a more modern version with a little touch of neon; wear it loose with shorts or wear it with a belt, but not very tight; it should accent your hips or wear the belt as a choker or necklace. The beads are nice glass beads

LoveLea's white leather choker/belt,
with white glass beads

Ibiza/boho colors with a modern touch;
 Photo courtesy of Fred Vaessen.

LoveLea's brown leather choker/belt 
with turquoise beads

This chokers can be used as a choker in different ways: wrap the choker around your neck twice and let the ends accentuate your "poitrine"; or fold the choker in 2, lay it around your neck and pull the ends through the loop and show off the nice turquoise beads. And use it as a belt on a white mousseline dress.


They aren't all elaborate bracelets, I have some basics one too: a leather strap with a vintage glass bead.  Some of them have 2 glass beads, even 3. They used those turquoise beads to dress up their horses' attire in Turkey. Now they use acrylic beads and they call this progress and modernity! All of bracelets open and close with a sliding knot. Wear just one or combine 3 strings or even 4.

LoveLea's leather string bracelet
vintage glass bead & sliding knot

LoveLea's leather string bracelets
 with 3 vintage glass beads & sliding knot

Although the following dress isn't a typical boho dress, the colors are right. This 4 wrap bracelet/2 wrap choker in cognac leather & wooden beads that can be spaced to your liking looks, definitely all right with this dress.

My beach dress in boho colors.

LoveLea's leather 4 wrap bracelet
or 2 wrap choker,  wooden beads.

And of course, there should be lace, crocheted lace, por favor! And wear a longleather tassel earring dangling from 1 ear! That is a statement!

Strapless top with lace. Courtesy of .F Vaessen

I designed and created a long tassel (10 à 12 cm) earring in 2 boho colors: pink and turquoise. Would style great with this strapless lace top:

LoveLea's  leather earring,
boho style

I want to close this sequence about boho style and boho jewels with one of my favorite pictures: my daughter and grand daughther in Ibiza:

Stress and weight gain!

The week before my birthday party I was very stressed: will the rented table and chairs be all right? will the food and the beverages be sufficient? the cooking and preparing of the food etc. But all went well. 

Then there was the extra tableware to wash and stash away, extra laundry to do, empty bottles to get rid off... When I sat down to eat, I was all nerves, on edge and jittery: I couldn't take time to chew my food and just kind of swallowed it down my throat. I felt hungry all the time, ate a bit of every thing my eye got hold on.With the result that I started to put weight on! That set me on alarm and then it downed on me that I didn't chew my food as I should. In 2 days I regained my newly acquired good habit of chewing thoroughly my food and my weight went down again, thank God!

It's a boy!

You remember my highly pregnant niece from my 65th birthday party? She gave birth to a cute, lovely baby boy; my grand daughter isn't the youngest one any more!

Are you used to my new colors? Do you like them? I'm not sure yet if I like it better; it is lighter, that's for sure.

That's it for this week. I have a nice weekend in prospect. I'll tell you about it.

About celebrating and being 65! Serendipity again! and a tough question!

Celebrating my 65th birthday

Last Sunday I turned 65! We celebrated it on the 30th of June for convenience sake. Almost all my brothers and sisters with their offspring were present. It makes a nice family photo, mostly young people. I am in the middle with my husband to my right.

Picture of my big family.

As I told you in  a previous post, my son and his girlfriend graciously offered their garden as location for my party. They didn't only offer the location, they decorated the place with paper lanterns; we ended up eating inside because of the heat:

Garden ready fort he party

And balloons at the entrance!

Balloons welcome the guests

My lucky star, 65 wasn't lacking:

The first guest are arriving: my daughter with husband and son, my sister with husband, daughter with boyfriend:

First guests overcoming the heat!

And here is my niece: she is high pregnant; how courageous of here to attend. The birth was expected for the 1 st of July. That would have been wonderful: a little cousin born the same day as me. But then she couldn't have attend my party. We are 4 days later when publishing this post, still no news.

My fearless high pregnant  niece.

At about 13.00 we are complete and my eldest brother prepared a speech:

My big brother is giving a speech.

Finally we are eating: everybody was famished and the buffet was halved in no time. Too bad I didn't think about taking pictures of the buffet. You can read what we had on the buffet in this post I you want recipes: you can request them by emailing me. We were 28 people. Most people have left to sit outside in the shade.

We are eating inside to escape the heat. 

A small serendipity event

And after a nice meal, a coffee is "de rigueuer". In the above mentioned previous post, I spoke about my worry of not having a coffee machine. I was on the border of ordering a machine but something hold me back and then I got a mail from my benefactor that she had a coffee machine. Wow, this was great: buying is simple, storing when you don't need the thing is a problem. My advice: never be to quick to act!

Coffee time outside in the shade. Courtesy of S. OZONDER.
 

And here are my son and daughter with her son:

My soon and daughter with her son. Courtesy of S. OZONDER

Around 17 hr we went for a short walk, too hot to explore a big part of the countryside. When back, I cleaned the tables and put everything in place for the cheese buffet. Around 20 hr, one by one people left and we did some cleaning up and went home, exhausted but happy full of new energy that loving people give you.

This is the only close up picture of myself with my friend and a splendid bouquet of flowers, my new hair cut and newly made tassel earring.

Me with flowers and a friend Courtesy of S. OZONDER

A tough question

My eldest sister-in-law asked me why I was so happy turning 65. The most easy to formulate reason  is that now I can ride the train or bus at a very reduced price! Besides this, I feel that my age gives me some weight and by age I mean experience, personal, life or practical experience,  my learning, my knowledge.

Another reason is that I am retired: I finished officially my career and have my own income. But life doesn't end with the end of my career, I still have a big portion of life ahead and can start a whole new, completely new life.

But there is another feeling creeping in: I don't have days to waste any more. Not that I am ill or feeling bad; you know, 65 is not 45! I decided I will use my time very well and balanced: no more reading whatever comes my way, I'll select carefully my reading and wont spill my time any more.  This recuperated time I 'll spent with my beloved ones.


Sorry guys, no boho jewelry styling in this post. I didn't get the jewels in my head created and haven't yet taken pictures of the existing ones. I should think all will be ready by next week.

Do you have any serendipity stories to tell us? What do you like about your age!

See you next week!