Urban Jungle Bloggers: Jungle Animals

It's that time of the month again! It's still so much fun to join the monthly Urban Jungle Bloggers themes that Igor and Judith come up with! This time it's all about Jungle Animals... With this theme I immediately thought of the inspiring Justina Blakeney and her amazing Jungalow style that I absolutely love!! Just browsing through her images for a couple of minutes inspired me to get going. Actually I don't have a lot of animalistic things in my home (except for my two cats) so I decided to give the thrift store a go (any excuse will do). I was positively surprised by the cool things that I found! First I stumbled upon some wooden elephant figurines and later on a wooden and a marble (!) rhino. You can imagine how excited I was when I found the hanging monkeys that were just perfect for this theme! It's funny when you have a certain theme in mind, how different you look at things. Otherwise I probably wouldn't even have noticed these fun jungle animals!

Oh and congratulations Igor and Judith with your upcoming Urban Jungle Book!! Very well deserved and I can't wait for the result!

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Kitchen Greens

This month's Urban Jungle Bloggers theme is "Kitchen Greens". The kitchen is a place that I like to spend time in... I actually really love to cook when I have some time on my hands. Right now I'm in a healthy phase again (with me it comes with phases) so I try to use as much fresh ingredients as possible. Fresh herbs are the perfect example of kitchen greens but at the moment I didn't have any. I do have a couple of cute small plants to spice up my kitchen! Recently I found this little cacti family at the gardening centre. I had to take them home because of their little yellow flowers, did not see those before!

That other little plant, I don't know the name of, I have for a long time now and this one keeps doing so well! It doesn't need a lot of attention so it's a keeper. If you're curious about the rest of my kitchen? There's a reason you're not seeing it! There's still a lot that I would love to change but maybe it would be better to get a complete new kitchen! Oh well... Maybe one day... But for now I'm just showing you some details ;)

Pictures by Marij Hessel

DIY Flowerpots for Vtwonen

I made these diy flowerpots for my latest Vtwonen blog after being inspired by a couple of similar ideas on Pinterest. I still had some paint left from the Flexa workshop that I gave in October at the Meet The Blogger event and I decided to use it for this project. The terracotta flowerpots I bought at Ikea some time ago because I loved the design and shape, they were perfect for this diy!

With tape I created a graphic pattern on two of the three flowerpots and filled it in with yellow and mint green. For the best result I did the painting part twice but it didn't take too much time because the (wall) paint dried up quickly! For the third pot I made a template of half a circle and used it to draw the pattern on the pot with a pencil. After that I used a small paintbrush to fill in the pattern. I'm very happy with these updated flowerpots that are now on one of my favourite thrifted drawers!

As you can see, my cat Def, was not that excited as I was! He still wanted to be in the picture though...

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plantshelfie

I joined the UJB community about one year ago. The first blogpost I wrote for Urban Jungle Bloggers was about a Plantshelfie as well and now Igor and Judith decided to bring this classic back! This time I used my workspace to create a green setting. Evert and I made this little wall cabinet from OSB boards which I wrote about here. In the meantime, my workspace has changed a bit but the cabinet is still there. I collected some of my plants and made a little hanging garden above my desk. It's always nice to have some greens around when you're working right?!

The desk I found at the thrift shop an painted it in a mint green. I'm still not sure what to do with the top so if you have any suggestions, they are more then welcome!

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plants & Flowers

For this month's UJB theme "Plants & Flowers" I was a little delayed but that's the great thing about this community, it's ok!! This weekend I found the time to visit the garden center in my home town where they always have new plants and flowers that I haven't see before. When I'm shopping for plants, I never leave uninspired! This theme brought out a whole new sense of creativity for me and when I was just looking at the results of other Urban Jungle Bloggers, I feel like I'm not the only one, it all looks so great!

My intention was to only get some flowers because I already have enough plants at home... It may not surprise you that I came home with a couple of new plants as well! I especially loved the flower shaped succulent called Echeveria, isn't it beautiful? The second plant I bought because of the intense dark red colour. This one is called Sienna Sunset Peperomia Schumi Red (I decided to look at the names from now on).

When I got to the flower section, there were a lot of autumnal flowers and branches so it was hard to pick just a few! I chose the black berries, the kale flowers and an artichoke. The shapes and structures of these plants & flowers are fascinating and together they make a beautiful colour palette!

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plants & Art

It's time for some green inspiration again together with Urban Jungle Bloggers! This month's theme is Plants & Art. I think some plants are already little pieces of art because of their shapes, textures & colours. Especially leafs, sometimes they have the most beautiful pattern, almost like a print! That's why I decided to make my own artwork with different leafs. I've cut a couple of leafs into triangles and created a graphic artwork with them. I used double-sided tape to stick the triangles to the paper, very therapeutic!

I combined the green artwork with a couple of framed leafs that I loved as well. I like the frames that are transparent so it looks like the leafs are floating.

Again it was fun to work with a new green theme! 

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Make Your Plant Pop!

Plantcolorpop, again a fun and original theme Igor & Judith came up with for this month! This theme also made me realize that I hardly have any colored walls at home... A bit strange for a color lover like myself! Does this mean that our interior is in need for some changes? It's always good to have an excuse right? For now I used some colored paper in my favorite colors pink, mint & yellow. I love the way these beautiful plants pop combined with a colored background! I want to wish all the Urban Jungle Bloggers a nice summer break (and everyone else as well off course)!

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Show Your Plant Gang!

It's so cool to see all those Plant Gangs from bloggers all over the world through Urban Jungle Bloggers! I'm happy to show you my very own Plant Gang! I gathered (almost) all of my plants and thought the Tomado shelving unit was a perfect place to make a composition of my green friends. As you can see, some of them are in glass and some of them are in terracotta or porcelain. I love to mix them all together in different sizes, structures and shapes! For all my UJB posts, click here!

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Offer a Plant to a Friend

I really like this month's Urban Jungle Bloggers theme "Offer a Plant to a Friend"! Just showing your loved ones that you care about them with a little green gift! I found this small Cacti garden at the garden centre and thought this would be a perfect gift... I painted a triangle pattern in white & light pink on the flowerpot to give it a personal touch. The person I wanted to show some green love is my sister. She deserves some extra love because she had a tough year. Nevertheless she makes the most of it! Love you sis!

Pictures by Marij Hessel

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Happy Green Easter!

When this month's Urban Jungle Bloggers theme was announced, I didn't immediately had an idea. So what do you do when you're not inspired? You go to the Thrift Shop! When I was browsing through the store, my eye fell on this glass egg planter, perfect! I also found a very hideous yellow flowerpot. But the longer I looked at it, the more I started to love it! I bought a couple of mini plants and placed them into the egg, not that easy I can tell you... But it worked out and I think this mini Easter garden looks great in my living room! Happy Green Easter everyone!

Pictures by Marij Hessel