Wednesday 24 December 2008

TWENTY FOURTH


Its today! Spread the joy.... its not only about the gifts.
Do
, sit together and think about the ones that are not with you.

Share stories from past Christmases

Sing, eat and be merry

We wish you a very Merry Christmas


we will celebrate Leon's first Christmas!!

Tuesday 23 December 2008

TWENTY THIRD


Christmas give away!!
A little gift from us at vonblum, leave a comment and the winner will be chosen on the 25th!

Monday 22 December 2008

TWENTY SECOND


I have already mentioned sweetpaul on this blog and I must say it is always a pleasure!
have to add one of his Christmas ideas for our countdown...
candy snowflakes!
highly recommend to browse the other ideas

Sunday 21 December 2008

TWENTY FIRST



a classic send to us via nicole

Saturday 20 December 2008

TWENTIETH

lovely origami wreaths tutorial at bloesem for today

Friday 19 December 2008

NINTEENTH


twenty holiday party ideas from food& wine you can still pick out one or more just before Christmas :)

Thursday 18 December 2008

EIGHTEENTH



sit back & enjoy
via
swissmiss

Wednesday 17 December 2008

SEVENTEENTH


From 8th December here in Barcelona there is a interesting & different christmas tradition apart from the caganer I had mentioned to you last year.
Children (and adults!) look after a Tió de Nadal or Caga Tió. This hollow log, often with a smiley face is cared for until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day when it is then brutally beaten or thrown on the fire while children sing to it asking for presents to appear!

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Monday 15 December 2008

FIFTEENTH


its getting colder and darker outside as Christmas approaches
We couldn't think of a better way to get through this is a merrier way then
with a good hot chocolate
At cookie they have the perfect recipe for you to make at home
or come by vonblum and enjoy one made by us.

Sunday 14 December 2008

FOURTEENTH


Today I will tell you about a Scandinavian Christmas tradition,
seeing that yesterday was
Santa Lucia day.

There is another common symbol to the scandinavian christmas and it is that of a straw goat.

They have a tradition of making goats out of straw and using them to decorate
the house at Christmas time.


Some believe that it comes originally from Norse mythology, in which Thor’s chariot was drawn by two goats
Tannginost and Tanngrisnir

Nowadays, it is customary for one of the adults to dress up as a Christmas gnome (tomte) and deal out the presents, but apparently, before this became the custom,
someone would dress up as a goat to do so.


There are other stories told about Christmas goats; one says that there was a game played, whereby people would make a large straw goat and attempt to hide it in their neighbors’ house, who, upon discovering it, were obligated to hide it in another house without being discovered, and so on.

Saturday 13 December 2008

THIRTEENTH


Follow the link to maya's blog and look what a lovely family tradition.... Leon will have something to look forward to the following Christmases ;)

"It's such a surprise every time you unfold a snowflake, but the magic of opening one that my grandfather had drawn just for my delight cannot be described in words."

Friday 12 December 2008

TWELFTH

spread the christmas joy with these lovely angels by Jurianne Matter
more about her and her lovely work at this blog

Thursday 11 December 2008

ELEVENTH


Today we thought everyone should get a chance to make a gingerbread house.
Get a ready made one as Blavish suggests or
for the traditional way and then for the architects around, go to bake for a change.
There you can show all your cooking and environmental skills in one!

If you dont have time to make a real one, have some fun with this online version by Jenny b. Harris from allsorts blog.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

TENTH

Found via FRYD+DESIGN these lovely vintages posters
to celebrate xmas in style
look for them at all posters

Tuesday 9 December 2008

NINTH

We love this creative Christmas card idea
follow cheeky magpies template
and do one yourself
If you dont want to send it off....keep it as a Christmas ornament

Monday 8 December 2008

EIGHTH



Lovely gocco gift tags, will make any christmas present special
Go check this at SAmantha's and Owen's Etsy Store
desTroy

Sunday 7 December 2008

SEVENTH


Today apart from our brunch at vonblum, we also celebrate the second advent.
I found out that many people didnt now what it was about so....

Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming"), the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus; in other words, the period immediately before Christmas.

So join us light up the second candle on your wreath, if you dont have one improvise with two candles in the house and sing some carols or read a nice christmas story.

Saturday 6 December 2008

SIXTH

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


Friday 5 December 2008

FIFTH

did you know....


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.

Thursday 4 December 2008

FOURTH


Christmas pudding anyone?
Head to ouissi's lovely etsy store and find out some more about the one you see in the picture
plus some great pudding knowledge

Wednesday 3 December 2008

THIRD


Today we found a different and lovely way to decorate your gifts this year,
with
Creature comforts beautifully recycled pompom.
Will be seen under our christmas tree ;)
Follow the link for the step by step instructions.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

SECOND


Make your own advents calendar at home or even at work
with this lovely idea found on
design sponge by dsharp,
Just download the numbers or do as loobylu did in a hurry, and then with more time this one

Monday 1 December 2008

FIRST



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


Thursday 27 November 2008

Christmas is just around the corner

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.


Tuesday 25 November 2008

inspiring images






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 :)

Sunday 9 November 2008

FUNday




just great - ENJOY!

Wednesday 5 November 2008

photos

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.

Sunday 2 November 2008

Sunday Brunch


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.

Saturday 25 October 2008

from other blogs.....


We have been mentioned in two blogs :)


One is a lovely recipe blog cozinha quente who passed us the golden blog award.


If I understood correctly, no we have to nominate another 15 blogs so here we go:
housemartin,monix, cuca, emma, madeinnorthlondon, bloesem, smosch, finelittleday, hollymaus, papeisportodolado, husmusen, siagrafica, sofiabarao, spagat, mamasita

and we have been mentioned in a basque blog! blomst

Thank you to both of you.

Thursday 9 October 2008

send in the clowns


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!

Thursday 11 September 2008

Welcome Leon


It has been a fairly long time since we kept you updated with all that has and is happening at vonblum....
For those of you who didnt know, we have a new member in our family!

Leon has arrived and even delayed the opening of he space as we had predicted.
As we get used to each other, we will take a small pause from the blog!
See you guys soon

Friday 8 August 2008

bloesem world tour


for all you world travelers out there
...go check out bloesem blog

lots of tips from us and another great little gem in Barcelona called Duduá
Thanks Irene!

Talking about world tours, today we can all go look at the Olympic opening ceremonies in China

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Enjoy the summer


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!

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Congratulations ink&peat


We are really happy as Pam from housemartin - has opened her shop in Portland!

We have been following her from across the ocean and can't wait for more picture updates on the blog.

All the best for Ink& Peat


Friday 18 July 2008

rebajas


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, w
e 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.


Sunday 6 July 2008

its sunday again


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!!

Saturday 14 June 2008

open on saturdays




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

Sunday 8 June 2008

post IT


How much joy a wall full of post its can bring!
The bright colours on the wall, followed by the great incentive messages left behind!
keep it coming......

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Curious?


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!

Tuesday 27 May 2008


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!

Sunday 25 May 2008




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.

Thursday 15 May 2008

and the winners are ......

celeste and maggie you will be receiving our little surprise package soon from Barcelona :)

Monday 5 May 2008

Surprise gift

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!



Sunday 4 May 2008

Slurp




Today its Mothers day in Spain, but as our mothers live in other countries, an enticing blog post of what is yet to come shall do.

Thinking about my mother, couldn't stop grinning as I thought that this time I would actually get away with a good SLURP
.

SLURP is a fantastic book as a mothers day gift or if you like, for yourself.

The pictures in the teasers for the book are so enticing that imagining summer and these recipes is just a step from reality...


Great job Paul - we at vonblum will have one of your books at our kitchen counter for sure.

If you would like to have the book go here if you want to know more about Paul Lowe enjoy his lovely blog

Thursday 1 May 2008

first of may


As we start feeling the smell of summer in the air...we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you.

vonblum is becoming more of that space we imagined.

Not only for the food as many of you have already savoured, but for a great place to hang out and enjoy.

and as we continue learning how to make all of this space a treasure for you to unearth

YES... we will be having the terrace soon, and it seems like the downstairs might be ready for use in a month time!

we would like to celebrate with you with a giveaway of a surprise package with some vonblum treasures for two blog readers.

Just leave us a comment and we will post the winners on the 14th of may when we complete a month of our opening!