My husband's parents are super nice and not only did they help us with the wedding costs, but they also gave us the starting pieces of our new cutlery. It's Pott's 25 and I love it. We got it from Vivian Hann, one of my favorite stores in Amsterdam. It's very exquisite and the eye for detail in the store is impressive.
I will take us a while to get all the pieces, but it's one of these things you buy with no rush and thinking that it's for 'forever'.
Have a lovely weekend!
Hello!
Today is a special day for me. I have just launched my new website! It took me some time to get the energy and time to do it but I am glad it's up and running! Please visit it at andreaibargutxi(dot)com. Or just click on any of the images below. They are a selection of the ones on the web, showing my work.
Wish me luck with my career!
xoxo
This week's inspiration wednesday is dedicated to a very special woman with an exquisite personal style.
The moments I lived with her are precious to me and although I'll miss her always,
I intend to remember and celebrate her life dearly.
All Pretty Things: Our Wedding
{Our wedding invitations. Want to see more? Click click click}
Last week my sister was here and she brought our wedding gift along. We got an Eames House Bird!!! We love it and it will always be with us, as originally intended. ;)
Thank you Li!
Hello!
Sorry I haven't been very good at wednesday inspirations lately...So, what are your weekend plans? I have a nice weekend ahead of me! Tomorrow we have a bbq with some friends and Sunday we're going to the theater with my in-laws, who are coming tomorrow to ours. And then I need to get ready for Tuesday because my sister is coming for a week!! I'm so excited! But I still have to work a bit today. I am about to finish and launch my website and it's being quite some work. But it's all exciting and interesting, so it's good work.
{Some of my work that will be featured on my website}
Happy weekend!
My dears,
We've just come back from our honeymoon in NYC. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all the wedding stories, whether to share them here or somewhere else. But you'll be informed. First I have to wait for the pictures! In any case, a report on NYC will soon be here.
And how are you?
we got married! and tomorrow we'll be leaving for NYC for our honeymoon.
i'll be absent for a couple of weeks. i'm a very happy married woman ;)
xoxo
I thought I would share a bit about my journey in search of my wedding dress. Obviously and since we're 18 days away from our wedding, I can't tell you much about it, but I wanted to talk about the process itself, there will be time to talk about the dress afterwards. I have read many many brides in the blog-sphere talking about the search of their dress, the one you will only wear once and has to be perfect. And that's the thing about weddings, isn't it? Every step you take you are bombarded with the idea that it will only happen once, don't regret your decision. That is quite a pressuring thought, let me tell you.
I could say I started my search many months before I even got engaged. I knew the Pronovias catalogue by heart when I got engaged, ha! And I had an idea of what I wanted sketched in my thoughts. I even tried to sketch it on paper, it turns out I can't draw. So, Christmas came, I flew to my parents' and off I went to search the dress together with my mom and sister. Going to the shops was quite fun and I was quite relaxed, enjoying the huge dresses and layers of tulle, feeling like a princess. But nothing was really what I wanted. Mind you, it's hard to say whether a wedding dress is you or not; I mean, I hardly ever wear white, almost never a long dress and only once (remember?) will I wear a train! Do I feel like myself? eeh, yeah, I guess. I am lucky in the sense that because I'm a big dreamer I can easily imagine myself in Lady Di's wedding gown, no problem. But this wedding in general has been a huge reality check for me, so I could sense that a huge dress didn't really have much to do with our lives.
Since I can't give any details, let me jump a chapter or two and tell you that I found a designer (her name will be mentioned after the wedding too) that made a custom dress for me. Yes, I am a lucky girl. She is patient and she listens and she created a wonderful gown for me. I can't thank her enough. I felt no pressure, no rush and she did always what I asked or advised me otherwise. She's a true professional. So I am happy. Last time I went to try it on I shed a little tear and I said "whoa!" like a million times. Happy, happy, happy!
But. Does this mean I don't have second thoughts? No. I still do. I sometimes feel I would have liked to shop much more before making the decision, other days I feel that my dress is 'complicated', that I forgot what suits me best while choosing it, that I never liked that fabric before so why did I choose it??...endless second thoughts. I've come to think that this is normal (for me at least) and if I get those thoughts I think back to the moment when I put it on and I gasped. I have seen the dress twice in my entire life and I'm supposed to have this very close relationship with it, that's hard to do when you've seen it twice!
So to all the brides-to-be our there, if you're having doubts, the only thing I can say is that you're not alone! how can we not have doubts of something you do for the first time and only going to do once?
Oh, I can't wait to see you again wedding dress.
xoxo
Lobby of Hotel Maria Cristina, our wedding location.
These are the stamps we chose for our wedding invitations. You can't use vintage stamps in The Netherlands, so this is the closet we could get. I am aware of how small this detail is, but I love love love details :) I will be showing the invitations once I know everybody received them in all countries and continents.
There are many envelopes in our apartment waiting to be addressed.
After this weekend all our wedding invitations will be sent! I hope our guests like them.
Have a nice weekend.
xoxo
Bris-bris is the Basque word for glittery. It's rather onomatopoeic, right? I love it. And I love bris-bris! Like this dress by BHLDN.
//no words//one image//every wednesday//
yesterday a new pretty life was born; one of my best friend's first baby girl.
this post is dedicated to her.
welcome sweetie!
Wedding shoe shopping is not being very successful...but it has been super fun! I truly thought this would be the easy part, as I looove shoes; yes, I've been called Imelda. I guess I need to look further.
Anyway, in my search, I found these flats by Jenni Kayne. Oh how I love them. The nude pinkish suede, the 90's shape, lovely. I wish I needed flats. :) And I also used the image for a little nude color palette for myself.
Have a lovely Sunday!
xoxo
...we've been looking for a priest who would marry us, searching for confetti and mainly designing our wedding invitations. I'll show them here once they've been mailed to our guests!
All that designing and the being close to paper, envelopes, stickers...awakened one of my dreams: owning a paper store. Always one of my passions, paper, I get nervous at paper stores facing the endless possibilities of stacks of paper, notebooks, cards and utensils.
Maybe one day...
{Nieves (which is a book store but I love the look), via Lena Corwin}
Hello readers.
As you know, I am immersed in wedding planning with less than 100 days to go for the big day! I haven't spoken much about the whole process here. Partly because I didn't want this space to become a wedding blog, partly because it was a bit stressful and partly because well, I am lazy. :)
But I thought I'd share something with you. In the very beginning, before I even got engaged, I dreamt about getting married in Iriarte Jauregia. It's such such such a beautiful place. Decorated with such taste and in the middle of the mountains... a truly dreamy place. It's a hotel, but they are so flexible and nice that you can basically use the space as you wish for your whole wedding weekend.
We eventually decided not to get married here though. There were several reasons: it was just a bit too far for our guests and it was a bit too expensive for us. On top of that, we had to build a tent outside the main house, and let me tell you, tents in the Basque Country are not like the ones you see in american blogs. They are ugly. And making them pretty, well...that costs a fortune. So we decided it wasn't for us.
I do sometimes still think of it. Style wise it would have been perfect for us and the idea of having a weekend and not a day is also a nice idea. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled about our wedding location, but dreams are hard to forget sometimes. I am sure we'll go one day though. And if you are around, you should too!
More or wedding location madness to follow.
Have a nice day!
.thinking.about.my.wedding.dress.
So maybe I said I wouldn't turn this blog into a wedding blog. And maybe I lied a bit. But you forgive me, right? I have been searching for dresses, color schemes, venues, menus, save the dates, invitations, rings...you name it, for about three months now. And somehow I can't stop looking at Grace Kelly's wedding portrait every time I go through my files. I am not sure if it's the color, her perfect face or the wedding dress. But I just love it.
Oh the gray grey days have started. Rain, rain, rain...
{our chronically wet and rainy balcony just a minute ago}
But there are always things that make one smile, even in gray grey days. Like this sweet little gift a good friend gave me the other day. In case I needed to think of the wedding, you know. Because I hardly ever think of it. ;)
** the correction of gray into grey is dedicated to my friend Vicky, who never gives up on my English. hihi
I don't think I explained here that finishing school was not very pleasant, to say the least. It was rather traumatic actually. I don't want to go into details, but I felt that I was constantly pushed and forced to work in a mini corner with no room for exploring, learning or succeeding. And the result was not what I had envisioned either, as you can imagine.
But slowly, my interest in styling is coming back. Not that I ever lost it, but I felt sick thinking about it, all the nerves from the past months coming all together to my stomach...
Before I started with my last project, I had all these ideas of how to present my final work, how to make a video, which photo-shoot to make...and then I ended up not doing any of it. Which means, I still have all these ideas in my head. One of the points I really wanted to deepen, maye even dedicate my end project to, was color. Unfortunately, school wouldn't allow it, so I am now starting up on it again, this time on my own. I made this color palette just for practice and although I realize it's not my best yet, it's a start. And a sign of recovery. At last.
{photo from Elle WONEN}
{blush} This is my engagement ring. My super engagement ring. My I love it, I'm in love with it, I look at it constantly engagement ring. I'm happy.
The first time I went to Paris with boyfriend we went to Centre Pompidou and wandered around for hours. I think it was the first time art really really got to me. The new Centre Pompidou in Metz had this effect too.
The building itself is a masterpiece, totally worth a visit, regardless the exhibition! (which was also worth visiting).
I love that feeling when an art piece makes you stop just a little longer than other works. These two did just that. The first one by Marcel Duchamp, the second by Joseph Kosuth. Needless to say, there were so many other pieces I enjoyed and made me stop, but I feel like showing you these two:
"I enjoyed looking at it" "Just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in the fireplace."{Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel}
"I used common, functional objects - such as a chair - and to the left of the object would be a full-scale photograph of it and to the right of the object would be a photostat of a definition of the object from the dictionary. Everything you saw when you looked at the object had to be the same that you saw in the photograph, so each time the work was exhibited the new installation necessitated a new photograph. I liked that the work itself was something other than simply what you saw. By changing the location, the object, the photograph and still having it remain the same work was very interesting. It meant you could have an art work which was that idea of an art work, and its formal components weren't important." {Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs}.
And yes, it seems I really really like chairs. ;)
If you have a chance, I would suggest you visit the new Centre Pompidou and the city of Metz. I think you would enjoy it as much as I have!
I just came back from a weekend to Metz. Being abroad, trying to speak French, sleeping at hotels...it feels like holiday even if it's only for two days. {I will tell you about the new Centre Pompidou (the main reason for our visit) tomorrow.}
Did you have a good weekend?
One month ago I had finished my final exam and got engaged to boyfriend, after eight years, seven months and five days of relationship. Yes, I am engaged!! (blushing...) I was super excited and tired and happy to go home and tell my family and friends about it. I am still tired and excited too, although it's been a weird month. Adding to the fact that I am not sure what my next professional step will be and that we are organizing our wedding (more on this later), a friend of boyfriend suddenly died a couple of weeks ago. Not a close friend, but a very good friend of a close friend of ours nonetheless. I didn't get to know him. The mood changed drastically at home. And the whole 'I'm a stylist and I'm getting married' craziness got forgotten so we could deal with more important issues.
{irrelevant photo take in the Basque Country and then played with in photoshop}
Somehow, I feel that the importance of each moment (graduation, engagement...) has been shadowed by one other happening. And I feel that I still need to place each of them, honor each of them. And I don't know where to begin. My graduation didn't go as I hoped it would and I didn't get that euphoric feeling I thought I would. And after the disappointment, the prospect of going through my work and adding it to my portfolio doesn't make me specially happy. So I started by creating my website, at least so I could have the domain. I thought this would be progress but in small doses, just enough to get me started. Let me tell you, I wish I had the money to pay someone to do all this! I don't even know where to start!!
And then the wedding planning. This deserves a new post on its own really. I promise not to bore you with wedding stuff continuously though.
So here I am, saying nothing new and hello at the same time. Felling confused and trying to digest all of this while trying to make normal daily life.
Did I say I needed a holiday? ;)
Hello, I am back. Back from crazy life doing homework constantly to I just had my last exam, now what?
I can now say I am an interior stylist although I still have to figure out what that entirely means for me. The final exam was a little disappointing, to say the least. I worked really hard for two years, neglected my social life, made boyfriend run the house entirely (almost) and I had expected, well...more. Somewhere along the past three months something went wrong with my project and although I passed and I had good grades, I am not feeling satisfied about it and would do it again if I could, only this time better. It's strange for me to feel this way. I have put a lot of work into this and that, I had never done in my life. This is my second degree, but with the first one, I didn't really care. With this second one on the other hand, I was determined to succeed. And I feel defeated right now.
{part of my school end project (not published), illustration on top by Camilla Engman}
But. It's over. School is. And what matters is what comes next! and also, that I finally have time to see friends and family. Speaking of which, I am leaving on holiday tomorrow and I am very excited about it!! Will tell all about it when I am back. Oh, and I am happy to be back here too.
xoxo
...of my final project. one week to go!!
Two weeks for my final exam and still plenty to do..all the little (and not so little) details, the printing...I can't wait until it's over. I don't lie when I say that I am also a bit scared of what the future might bring, going back to my 'normal' life (was there ever such thing?)...
What I really feel like doing is going to the beach, feeling the sand under my feet, the sun and sea on my body...
But I first need to finish..wish me luck!
xoxo
..when one is supposed to be doing other things. ;)
I quite like the little font I drew though! ha ha, maybe I should do this more often.
xoxo
with loads of tea and water and music. Exams coming up again...
Good morning from my messy studio.
I haven't found the necessary inspiration this weekend
and I am going to class with zero decent ideas.
Strange how iI all of a sudden can't be creative...
Have a good Monday.
xx
..from InDesign while looking through my new Aberlardo Morell book that boyfriend gave me and remembered I never told you I even got it! It was for my birthday, two months ago almost actually.
I'm in love with some of the photographs...
{'Down the rabbit hole' 1998}
Ok, going back to my presentation...
Talk to you soon!
Exams coming up in a week, I'm really busy. But I feel that my lack of posting is shameful, really. So I thought I'd stop and say 'hi' and show you a sneak view of what I am working on.
See you soon!
xx
{mysterious looking photo from our window ;)}
{balcony baby-stalactite}
I don't think I've seen so much snow in Amsterdam, ever! And tonight I am going to a birthday party. Can one wear heels on when it's all snow and ice all over the streets?
Happy weekend!
xox
Happy New Year!
Long time I haven't written here...and I had all those Christmas related posts waiting for revision that never made it here simply because my Christmas didn't really turn out to be like I hoped. I an one of the hundreds of people who couldn't make it to their destination because of the bad weather all around Europe. To make matters worse, my suitcase did go somewhere, not sure where, and I still didn't get it back. It's been 14 days now. I have no clothes, no shoes, nothing. I managed to pack almost all my life in that suitcase and now it's gone. I'm left with the clothes that you don't take with you because you don't like them so much...Hope is small at this point, I think I will never see my things again...
But, anyhow, boyfriend had booked a trip to Paris for New Year's Eve and off we went and had a wonderful time! Here are some pictures of Christmas and Paris. And I hope your Christmas and New Years were as you had planned and better!
{Christmas decorations at home in Amsterdam}
{Church in Maastricht}
{Paris, oh la la}
{Paris cafe}
{La Duree macarons, of course}
Happy New Year to you all, I wish you all a lot of love and wealth and mainly good health for 2010.
...this Ally Capellino bag. Thank you.
The past three weeks have been crazy, had two exams last Monday, I've been sick for some days and time seemed to fly away from my hands. This is basically what I saw for the past weeks:
{the desk}
{messy stool}
But now that it's over and the result was more or less satisfactory I get to enjoy the weekend, sleep longer that 6 hours and see friends again.
Enjoy your Sunday!
I would love to own this Pomellato ring. Isn't it cute??
Last week a good friend of mine was visiting us in Amsterdam and while shopping with her we talked about accessories and I told her that I don't buy any ear-rings, necklaces or rings anymore as I used to ten years ago. Sometimes while I'm getting readu I feel like wearing some other jewelry than what I wear everyday, but that's where the thought stops. For some reason, the conversation has been in my head ever since.
And the truth is, I wasn't totally honest. True, I don't own many jewels nor I buy them, but the reason why I don't is not because I don't like half of the things I see (which is also a reason), but because the half I do like, I can't afford! And I don't want second bests.
So for now, the only thing to do for me is dream! One day, one day...
Not mine, boyfriend's. So, I took the opportunity to bake! (and decorate :))
Maybe! Eight days to start school and I feel the urge to leave every other project finished and ready. And so I have a couple of new things to show you.
I know it's August, new collections in all places, days getting shorter... but I still feel like buying summer dresses and thinking of beach nights.
