spread the christmas joy with these lovely angels by Jurianne Matter
Found via FRYD+DESIGN these lovely vintages posters
We love this creative Christmas card idea
Widely celebrated in Europe, St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, kept alive the stories of his goodness and generosity.In Germany and Poland on the evening before children put letters to the good saint along with carrots or other food for his white horse or donkey on a plate or in their shoes. These are left outside, under the bed, beside a radiator, or on a windowsill in hopes of finding goodies from St. Nicholas the next morning. During the night Sankt Nikolaus goes from house to house carrying a book in which all the children's deeds are written. If they have been good, he fills their plate, shoe or boot with delicious fruits, nuts and candies. If not, they may find potatoes, coal, or twigs.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds. Dutch television broadcasts the official arrival of St. Nicholas and his helper Zwarte Piet live to the nation.
During the next weeks children put out their shoes with wish-lists and a carrot or hay, or maybe a saucer of water, for the horse. When St. Nicholas happens by, the next morning children may find chocolate coins or initial letter, candy treats, pepernoten, and little gifts in their shoes. Everyone hopes for sweets, not coal or a little bag of salt. In the Netherlands, unlike other places, adults as well as children join in the fun. As the Dutch like an element of surprise, a small gift may be wrapped in a huge box, or it may be hidden and require following clues to discover where it is.
St. Nicholas, is a popular saint in Spain, has many churches dedicated to him. As a special devotion people make a Caminata in honor of Saint Nicolas of Bari.
To find out some more about how to celebrate the day like other countries...follow this lovely link.
P.S Tomorrow we have our Christmas Brunch in vonblum
so if you are in Barcelona, come see us
St Francis of Assisi introduced Christmas Carols to formal church services.
The word comes from the ancient Greek choros, which means "dancing in a circle," and from the Old French word carole, meaning "a song to accompany dancing."
The first instrument on which the carol "Silent Night" was played was a guitar.
The popular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One-Horse Open Sleigh." It was actually written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
Lets start the countdown to christmas eve in a numerical fashion:
12 Days of Christmas: The popular Christmas song involving leaping lords, milk maids, pipers and partridges. The European song dates back to the 16th century.
8: The number of Santa's original reindeer, according to the 1823 poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Their names were: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Rudolph --the star of a 20th century American song -- came later.
$848,600: The cost (100 million yen) of a Japanese Christmas cake -- a 35-centimeter (14-inch) chocolate cake -- decorated with 100 diamonds.
200: The number of mince pies eaten by Gus the camel after he broke out of his pen at an Irish riding school's Christmas party. The camel also drank several cans of Guinness -- which he opened with his teeth.
50,000: The typical number of letters the post office at Nuuk, Greenland, receives each year addressed to Santa Claus, or Father Christmas. Santa's helpers at the post office pledge to reply to every letter.
2 million: The number of visitors expected to visit Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt, one of the largest and most famous of Germany's traditional Christmas markets.
1434: The date when Dresden's Striezelmarkt began, considered the oldest Christmas market in Germany.
31 million: The number of real Christmas trees Americans will buy this year, according to Forbes.com.
$795.86: The average amount Americans will spend on Christmas this year, according to Forbes.com, with total Christmas spending estimated to reach $154 billion.
50 million: The number of copies sold of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," the best-selling single of all time. Crosby first performed Irving Berlin's classic song on a U.S. radio show in 1941.
38 meters: The height of the world's tallest Christmas tree in Stockholm, Sweden, which features 5,000 festive lights.
via CNN
The stickers are from etsy shop heyjenrenee
We will soon start our christmas advent countdown....
and along with the countdown we will also be hosting Christmas events.
If you want something different for your office this year - contact us as well.
We are oh so lucky to have people around us who go to places and take inspiring pictures.
One of them as many of you might already know is my aunt who lives in Eindhoven.
In October they had the Dutch Design week, which I went to last year and really inspired me while putting vonblum together.
This year I couldnt go......the little guy kept me in town and very busy.
So, my aunts this year brought tons of pictures of the week and it felt like being there myself.
Here are some of the very inspiring work and images they took.
From top to bottom: Numbered plated moths, Sugar spoons imagery cut and welded on to spoon, threaded pebbles...inspiring colours, lovely office cubicle - little house and my favourite by far old book wall
P.S. if anyone has more info on the pictures below please let us know :)
We have some cool new ideas at vonblum...in which you guys will participate.
Just like this lovely wallpaper from Lisa Bengtsson, we want to make a wall with pictures
of the lovely children that come and use our downstairs space.
So next time you come and see us be prepared for your portrait, or bring a pic along with you.
Tenemos algunas ideas nuevas en vonblum ... en la cual tambien estáis invitados a participar !
Tal como este bonito tapiz de Lisa Bengtsson , queremos hacer una pared con fotos
de todos los niños que vienen a utilizar nuestro espacio de abajo.
Por lo tanto, de la próxima vez que vengáis, prepare para su retrato, o lleva una foto junto contigo.
The rainy weather conditions here in Barcelona didn't stop us from having our monthly brunch.
As the swedes say...
there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
Croissants and umbrellas mixed well.
We have been mentioned in two blogs :)
The expression send in the clowns comes from the circus where, if there was an accident or some other problem, e.g. performers or animals not yet ready to go on, the clowns were sent out into the circus ring to entertain the audience...on that account, thank you all for waiting with out the clowns to entertain!
We are back with a new team of people working to keep vonblum going
See you there and here of course!
We had our last brunch on Sunday the 3rd of August before strutting off for our summer holidays.
We will still be around online with some news and info we would have loved to share with you before, but as we were busy busy busy inside vonblum...we had very little time for the blog world.
So this month we will update with some fun things that happened the past weeks, some news of what will be coming in September and as always some fun links :)
So stay tuned........
Ohh check out our music section on the side, lykke li is a great swedish musician, cant stop hearing her! Thanks Nicole for the tip
Coluored paper umbrellas just like in our window display now
from www.colourlovers.com - very inspiring web page go see for yourself!
Summer frenzie has arrived!
While most of us are getting ready for our summer vacations packing, organizing our tickets and places to stay very very last minute .....the sales hit the town!
In Barcelona they actually started on the 1st of July and the whole town was jam packed with people, we are following a bit later behind and have some of our lovely items on sale now as well. The cool supermarket trollies - only 2 left - candle holders, flower vases and some of the bijoux.
If you can come see for yourself......for those of you further afield we will be updating our big cartel shop soon.
It has been a while since our last post. For those of you who are following us through the internet - much has happened in this time.
Apart from our second brunch today....
we are not melting in vonblum anymore as we have a super super potent new ufo like aircondition installed and
we have new people working with us ..... Welcome Nuria and Fernanda!
Bruna is now also giving on site instructions at vonblum how to fold those little lucky stars we have close to the till - can you find our jar in the photo above? ;)
Today, tough I came across the best origami site via swissmiss, for those who just don't seem to get all that little folding right, enjoy instant origami!!
you wanted more & we listened - now vonblum is also open for breakfast on Saturdays
from 10:00 to 13:00
Today we also completed 2 months!!
To celebrate i will share with you these beautiful series of photographs taken by VON of our chairs.
ENjoy
SO now that the surprise gifts have arrived at their final destination......we are free to post what the lucky winners have won!
For those of you who had been patiently waiting, this is what they got!
A nice chocolate from the cool barcelona label wawas, a sample of revolution tea, our lucky stars, and the evil eye bracelet!
Our new image gallery is up on our website, so that you can see more of vonblum. We would like you to participate as well. If you have photos of yourself in our space, or an image which goes well with our concept, please contact us, and we will arrange to include it as well!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
After a month and a half, our café is working well, with lots of clients and friends coming by each day to eat vonblum style. The shop is now coming along nicely too. We are working with new designers, and that side of the project is growing.
The newest additions to our space is the work of two lovely girls in Barcelona, Monica and Cuca.
Monica is an illustrator, who makes magnets with local photos and her girls drawn in. She has had success in her gallery, and is now also available at vonblum. You can see her work in: her site and her blog.
Cuca is a jewellery designer working with images of women who have inspired us. We are tempted to wear her creations ourselves, but are making efforts to leave some so that you can buy them too! You can see her work in: her site and her blog.
celeste and maggie you will be receiving our little surprise package soon from Barcelona :)little reminder - post a comment and be chosen as one of the winners for the vonblum surprise gift!!
we will send it to you wherever you are :)
leave comments below the post of the 1st of may!
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