Bed Of Flowers in Beuningen

What is so great about this place?
A weekend away, just the two of you? Bed of Flowers is a beautiful, romantic spot and it’s situated on a little dike near the river Waal, surrounded by nature with fields, woods and orchards… Simply beautiful in any season. The love of flowers is a family affair for owner Florien, as her mum named her for the Floriade (an international exhibition of flowers and gardening, held every 10 years in the Netherlands).

How do you sleep?
In a flowery bedroom with exuberant colors like pink, turquois, and apple green. There are fresh flowers everywhere, colorful paintings, and floral pillows. The communal breakfast room has French doors to the delectable garden. Breakfast is served on floral crockery and decorated with fresh flowers from the garden!

Tip:
Stroll around with a guide along the prettiest spots and come face to face with Deep Red cattle and Konik horses. Nearby is the medieval castle Slot Doddendael (http://www.doddendael.nl/), which has great food and you get to enjoy the romantic atmosphere of an age-old castle as well.

Prices start at € 110,- per night for 2 people, including breakfast.

www.bedofflowers.nl

There’s an enlightened idea at the base of Ellen de Clerq’s web shop: interchangeable covers for lampshades.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

“I am 38 years old, mother of three, wife of a wonderful hard working man. In my day-to-day life I am mainly working on Cozette*: making lamps, following up on orders, preparing for trade shows, blogging, keeping the site up to date, there are so many aspects to running a web shop. I studied to be a sociologist, I even worked at the university as a researcher for a while, but it bored me to tears. Up until three years ago I worked as a coordinator in after school child care. When there was a problem with the after school child care for my own kids, we decided that I’d take a career break. The children were growing up and I got more time to do the things that had been sitting gathering dust on my to-do list for far too long.

 How did you come up with the concept of interchangeable covers?

“I came up with the idea when I decided to try and make something different as a present of a friend’s newborn son. She is also into sewing and has a very specific, beautiful style. So I thought I’d make a lampshade and if she didn’t like it, she could change the cover.”

On your site you write that you prefer to keep things small-scale. Does that mean you you’d say no to other shops wanting to sell your lampshades for you?

“I have had that request a few times. But up until now I haven’t taken anyone up on that. It’s hard to keep a balance between staying small-scale and maintaining profitability. You’re out in a market where ‘handmade’ doesn’t have any added value anymore. But it has been a conscious decision to keep producing the covers myself. Having them made in some foreign country doesn’t add any value for me and it would mean a totally different kind of company and interpretation for Cozette*.”

 So what’s with the little star behind the name?

“The little star refers to a light shining, and secretly it also refers to my mum (she died in 2003) who taught me the joy of handicraft/sewing.”

 http://cozette.be/

Bed & Botram Bie Os (‘a sandwich at ours’) in Thorn (Limburg)

What’s so great about this place?
Such typically ‘Limburg’ (the southern, hilly part of the Netherlands) hospitality in the small white village of Thorn. Jo and Jolanda are very warm people. Their family home has been lovingly decorated, there’s a story behind everything. Jo has a thing for items with a royal connection, which will often have been bought on Koninginnedag (our former queen’s birthday , when the whole country gets to sell their stuff in the street) in Amsterdam. One of the rooms features a beautiful statuette of Queen Juliana. Another room has a collection of framed lacework and small rugs. Some guests even bring stuff from their own homes, something they found in their attic and felt would really fit in here.

What’s for breakfast?
Wake up slowly with fresh rolls from your friendly baker, Joost. In summer there’s homemade jam. Every day is a little different so if you stay a bit longer, it’ll never get dull.

Tip:
Rent a sailboat at Sailcenter in Kinrooi. The surrounding area is just lovely. And have a nice meal at De Hoeskamer (‘living room’) café, which is choc-a-bloc with paintings and where you can still get a simple young cheese (four weeks old cheese) sandwich.

Rooms begin at € 84,- a night for a double room, including breakfast. There’s an optional cot for a baby or child.

www.bedenbotram-bieos.nl

 Being the mother of a little coffee shop means that five days a week I rise with the sun and walk with Daisy Dog to start my day as a barista (which basically means coffee maker). I’ve been brewing for 16 years! I must admit when I first started at the young age of 14 I had no knowledge but I knew it felt good. Being the boss is wonderful as it means I get to make the decisions and showcase coffee the way I want to by using my craft and understanding.

My day is full, buzzy and very social and I usually make around 200 cups of coffee. My hands are stained, my wrists and elbows hurt and I smell like a walking cup of coffee by the end of the day (there are much worse things to smell of). I have made friends from all over world by doing my job. What a privilege!

Every week a fresh batch of coffee arrives…. This is exciting for me as I get to taste, experiment and share the new beans. Some days are fueled by caffeine, other days I’m too busy to make myself one and on the rare occasion I get to sit with a few customers and have a good old natter. I enjoy my customers’ reaction to coffee and the love I have for it is reflected in each cup.

Posted by: Hayley

“I’d love to use the wrapping paper in the Flow Rijksmuseum stationery line as wallpaper.” our art director Annelinde said in Flow number 3. And what do you know? Suddenly a nice man rang to tell us that he has actually made Annelinde a roll of wallpaper…. More on the stationery line we got to make for the Rijksmuseum (Dutch national museum in Amsterdam) when you click on the button on this page. And if you’d like your own personal wallpaper, with your favorite picture or print? You can via www.repro.eu. And now we’re off to happily wallpaper our walls. Posted by: Astrid

Nature is the main source of inspiration for the creations by Belgian Sarah. Each creation gives her a little buzz and the process relaxes her.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
“My name is Sarah and most of my closest friends call me ‘Snaara’ or ‘Snaara Baara’. Which explains the name of my shop. I live in the small country of Belgium, near the city of Gent. My tiny workspace is in my snug little home. Surrounded by my three adorable cats and my (generally ;p) adorable boyfriend I feel completely at ease. I’ve been working as a management assistant these past ten years. I am currently taking a Distance learning course to get a bachelor in Office Management Human Resources.”

You discovered Etsy about a year ago and you wanted to open your own shop. Why? Were you already into making jewelry?
“Finding Etsy was a revelation to me. I discovered a range of beautiful and original products there. I spent hours and hours online (I still do actually) looking for beautiful and original stuff. My creativity (I didn’t even know I had any!) was stimulated in all sorts of ways. Seeing everybody else’s creativity made me want to try and make my own gems. So I simply ordered some starter kits for making jewelry. I searched for youtube videos to see how it was done and my collection just quietly kept growing, so I figured: why don’t I try to sell these on Etsy? The notion of people all over the world walking the streets wearing your jewelry…. I cannot begin to describe how that feels.”

Will making jewelry be something you do next to your office job or do you dream of bigger things?
“I’ve only had my web shop for a year and I know there are so many of them, so the competition is extreme. Simply covering my costs is enough for me. At the moment I see it as more of a hobby, but who knows… making a job out of your hobby… Who doesn’t dream of doing just that?”

www.etsy.com/shop/SnaaraBaaraBijoux

You’ve probably noticed: there’s a small garland in the latest Flow magazine international. And we also put that same garland in the third Dutch edition of this year. Then last week it suddenly hit us: wouldn’t it be great if we made one big garland with readers from all over the world? So the garland would literally connect readers from Canada to Callandsoog, from Bergen in Norway to Bergen in Holland, making it the longest garland in the world? Not everybody has received their copy of the international edition yet, but we’ve already made a great start. Want to join in? Put your garland in a fun place or hold it up, and take a picture with the garland about in the middle of the shot and send it to us (redactie-flow@sanoma.com), or put it on either Twitter or Instagram with #flowhappygarland. Posted by: Jocelyn

Slapen in het bos (Sleeping in the forest) on the Veluwe (a woody part of the Netherlands)

What’s so great about this place?
It’s a former forester’s cottage in the middle of the woods, where your morning wake up call is birds singing. When you go to the property, you’re the only one that gets to drive beyond the  “No entry” sign. The cottage looks incredibly cute with rugs on the floor, antlers on the wall and a wood burning stove. The living room has French doors that lead on to the garden and if you’re lucky there may just be a whole herd of red deer passing through. You can cook up a storm as well, as there’s a great range and lots of pots and pans.

How do you sleep?
You sleep under crispy white linen on a box spring with lots of pillows and views of the woods. In the morning you’re served an amazing breakfast with croissants, fresh orange juice, poffertjes (delicious typically Dutch small pancakes) or French toast, fresh eggs, organic preserves and lots more. If the weather is fine you can eat al fresco on the terrace between the trees at the picnic table where the birds will come and steal the crumbs.

Bring your hiking boots, because just outside the front door there’s a forest trail that leads you further into the woods. Places where nobody ever comes and where it’s so quiet that you can hear the flies buzzing and the wind rustling in the trees.

Prices start at € 125,- per night for 2 people

www.slapeninhetbos.nl