All Pretty Things

Lunch for dinner

The other day, my husband and I had lunch for dinner. As in this is a lunch recipe. But ever since my friend Vicky made it for me I kept craving for it, so I made it for dinner. The picture is not that good, I know, but I wanted to show it anyway. And we didn't eat those huge portions either, I think we ate half! 

I would give you the recipe (it was delicious!), but I can't. This recipe will appear in the book I am styling and my friend Vicky, the Amsterdam Foodie, wrote: Vicky Hampton's Working Lunch. I wrote about it here.

However, there is a way you could get the recipe! You just need to buy 5 or more shares of our book (it is being crowd-founded in order to get it published) and we will send it to you!

And trust me, you WANT this recipe! yum!

 

Thank you

xoxo

Lunch, like Vicky would do it

   {Vicky preparing a dressing. Photography by Trey Guinn}

You heard me talk about my friend Vicky sometimes. She is the talented Amsterdam Foodie and one of my best friends. Some months ago, she approached me with a business proposal:we would get her book, Vicky Hampton's Working Lunch published. Click on it to see a preview!

Vicky had written this book some time ago after she realized her colleagues looked at her lunches with envy while they were eating a ham/cheese sandwich. Vicky Hampton's Working Lunch is a cookbook for everyone who has a kitchen at work. It's for busy, working types who are nonetheless keen to eat healthy, simple food made from scratch.

So how do I come into the equation? I am responsible for the look of the book; photo styling, graphic design and the overall look&feel. 

Many of you are bloggers too and publishing a book has probably crossed your mind sometime. It is not an easy task, let me tell you. But we found a company to support our process: TenPages. Basically, one can place his/her manuscript on TenPages and let people buy shares (each share is 5 euro). If a book sells 2000 shares, TenPages takes the book to all big publishers and if all goes well, your book will get published! We are positive (ok, maybe really really hoping) ours will be published! It's a crowd-sourcing method, but shareholders can also make money from investing on the book.

This means YOU can also invest! If you are from the Netherlands, just follow the instructions on the web page, its fairly simple. If you are not from The Netherlands, I have some good and some bad news. You can still invest (good news) if you have a credit card, but you cannot make any money from your shares (not so good news). I am afraid the system at TenPages is not prepared for this yet. But you could see it as a donation? ;) In this case, you will also need instructions since the web page is in Dutch. But not to worry, here is Vicky's explanation on how to do it. 

{one of the yummy recipes you can find in the book excerpt on TenPages. Photography by Trey Guinn}

 

Thank you for supporting our journey into being published!

it's been a long road

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

I don't like our bathroom

I don't like our bathroom. It's small and old and as much as I clean it, it never gets that super clean look. I've been thinking of ways of redecorating so it looks more 'loved&taken care of'. I've been considering painting the walls dark. Our tiles are not as pretty as the ones in the image below, but I still think it could work. The issue then would be light I guess. I need to think some more.

{Lauren Bradshaw's apartment, via Design Sponge}

Happy Weekend

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!

 

getting back on my feet

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}
 

 

call me stylist

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

a preview...

...of my final project. one week to go!!

 

 

unstoppable?

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.

Have a look at this below...

Yes, you guessed it. I have another blog. Well, it's not really a blog. It's my online portfolio. It will one day evolve into a website, but for now it will linked to APT. Here is the link: andrea ibargutxi styling

I've also been changing my study room and it's almost ready. Here's a peek to how it looks now. I will show you the other side of the room once it's ready, together with the before and after pictures.

That's all for now! I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday, I sure will.

Wasting no time

I only have a couple of holiday weeks left and I can't wait to start my second year at Artemis. But in the meantime I've been busy with other fun projects. One of them is still in progress so I'll show you when it's ready.

The first project I want to show you is this!

 

That (above) is my very first post at ONLY.com, where I'll be blogging once a month. So exciting!! Go check it in case you can't get enough of me ;) or you want to read other wonderful bloggers writing about fashion, style and beauty.

The second project I want to show you is a menu card I designed for Hidden Kitchen, a culinary event organized by excellent chef, writer and even better friend Amsterdam Foodie. She was looking for a rustic yet minimalistic look. And this is how the menu cards turned out.

{front}

{back}

More projects will follow but for that, I need to start working on them! So, for now, I leave you with this. I hope you like it!

Some styling

I have decided to show some of my first year's stuff here at All Pretty Things. One exercise I really enjoyed was food styling & photography. These pictures were taken at school with food we brought from home. My food doesn't make any sense, I know, but I think that's why I like it ;)

Next year, so we've been told, we will be doing some real food styling. I can't wait!