Jeau&

Life in Instagrams

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:00:23 +0000

[scroll voor Nederlands]

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post on my blog. I’ve been really busy! We bought a house and moved, we went on vacation in the UK, I designed a couple of bespoke wedding stationery suites and I’ve also been quite busy being pregnant, decorating the nursery, knitting baby sweaters and plushy’s, and designing the upcoming birth announcement. Today I’m 37 weeks pregnant and the baby is now full-grown! I can’t believe I’ll be a mommy in just days or weeks from now!

Meanwhile I’ve been pretty active on Instagram, so let me give you a little look into what my life has been like these last few months.

X Jo

Het is alweer een tijd geleden sinds mijn laatste blogpost. Ik heb het super druk gehad! We hebben een huis gekocht, zijn verhuisd, zijn op vakantie geweest naar Engeland, ik heb een aantal ‘bespoke’ (custom made) huwelijksuitnodigingen en huisstijlen ontworpen en ik heb het ook nog druk met zwanger zijn, de babykamer inrichten, babykleertjes en knuffeltjes breien en het geboortekaartje ontwerpen. Vandaag ben ik precies 37 weken zwanger en de baby is nu volgroeid! Ik kan nog niet echt geloven dat ik tussen nu en een paar dagen tot een paar weken mama zal zijn!

Ondertussen ben ik wel vrij actief geweest op Instagram, dus laat me je een blik geven in hoe mijn leven er de afgelopen maanden uit heeft gezien.

X Jo

Engaged Event 2014

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Mon, 12 May 2014 15:51:29 +0000

(Dutch) wedding events used to be generic, boring, old-fashioned, pink and purple, non-creative and totally focussed on brides only. Until Engaged Event NL. It’s young, fresh, creative, colorful, unique, trendy and everything else you really want. It’s not an event to just find a lot of things to (over)spend your wedding budget on. But one where you can find vendors who really work with you to create a unique and personal wedding day. Also it is just a fun event to go to, to get inspired and have a great day. It would be a great date to go on as a couple, because there’s a lot of cool stuff for grooms too. The wedding industry seems to forget that grooms are a pretty important part of their business sometimes. Well, not Engaged. Just go grooms, you won’t be sorry!
Since I am a fan of Engaged, it was a true honor to me when the organizers asked me to address the envelopes for the vendor info packs in calligraphy. Engaged loves modern calligraphy. As do I, and so I spent some days calligraphing a bunch of pretty yellow envelopes.
I hope to be one of the vendors at Engaged in October, but as mentioned in my previous post, we’re expecting a baby then. So it might be hard for me to be there. We’ll see. I guess Engaged is here to stay, so if not this year, then the next.

Have a great week!

XO Jeau

A year ago…

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Sat, 10 May 2014 14:31:39 +0000

…I was busy finishing the last details on my wedding and was getting ready to say yes to this wonderful, WONDERFUL man I may call my husband. I was SO excited for the day to come and what a day it was! It’s truly been the best day of my life so far. I wouldn’t do anything different, but I’d do it all over again any day. Please, can I?

I’d like to let you have a little look into our day. Here we go, have a click through.

Photo credits: Hanke Arkenbout Photography

A couple of favorites of the day in no particular order:

Feeling the layers of my dress flow around me, having everybody I love and like around, the greenhouse, being driven around in the car by my groom, his face when he turned around to see me, the wedding shawl I knitted, the flowers done by my friend Lucy, everybody looking pretty in our wedding colors, seeing every piece of diy we did before the big day, the music during church and the party, dinner from the great organic caterer, lunch made by my friends, feeling super pretty all day, dancing with the flower girls, dancing with my husband, dancing with my friends, dancing all night long, sleeping in the hotel I always had wanted to go, waking up with this beautiful man beside me, being sent of by our guests holding the lantern favors we made and forming a gate of flickering candlelights, the romance and happiness, having so much fun, enjoying every minute, smiling until my face hurt, having breakfast the next day with our parents and reliving everything once more, seeing our absolutely perfect wedding come to life… and so much more.

And now we’re a year further already. So much has happened in a year. We went on honeymoon, went looking for a house to buy, I started a business, David got a new job, we might have bought a house and last but not least…

…we’re expecting a little baby in October

We are probably two of the happiest people alive. We are enjoying each other so much. Married life is great. I can recommend it to anyone.

Lots of love,

Jeau

Calligraphy

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:24:50 +0000

When I was in art school years ago, I learned calligraphy with a broad tipped pen. I enjoyed writing the beautiful letters so much and my teacher was excited about my results. Later I sort of forgot about it, I didn’t practice anymore and lost interest in it. Last year though, I got back into it. Now I am using a pointed pen, which requires a totally different technique and gives a completely different look. See the difference here:

Roundhand Calligraphy with a broad pen

Copperplate Calligraphy with a pointed pen

(click on picture for source)

In learning to write copperplate calligraphy I have found many great resources. Like these:

Mellisa Esplin’s ‘I still love calligraphy’ course [website, instagram];
Molly Suber Thorpe’s ‘Modern Calligraphy’ book and her Skillshare class [website, instagram];
Eleanor Winter’s ‘Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy’;
The ‘Curious Calligraper’ community by Margaret and Fozzy [instagram, instagram];
Jessica Beltran from Design House of Moira [website, instagram].

I’d like to give thanks to the people who are behind these resources. You are a great inspiration. Really. Thank you.

I find that the best places to get inspired are Pinterest and Instagram (#calligraphy #pointedpen #istilllovecalligraphy #curiouscalligraper). There are really so many great artists in this discipline. I am grateful to be part of it!

The place where I shared most of my calligraphy pieces and practices is Instagram. Here’s a selection of my feed:

I love that there’s history in calligraphy, but that it is also very relevant for the times we live in. A time where people value handcraft, tradition and quality again. Calligraphy has been wonderful to me. It has helped me to rediscover what I like to do creatively and what direction I want my business to go in. Right now I’m using calligraphy in the design of a business logo and for a wedding stationary suite that is going to be LOVELY!

What are things you like to do creatively? Are there things you enjoyed as a child or later in life that you now don’t do anymore? What forgotten skills would you like to pick up again? I’d really like to read your answers in the comments!

X Jeau

Explore | Reflect |Create

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:57:56 +0000

2013 was a year of reflection for me. After a year of exploration (2012) I needed time to really think things through. To guide my hopes and dreams in a certain direction. The second half of 2013 I have concretized my business plans and now, at the start of a new year, I feel ready to show it to the world.

For 2014 I chose the word create. A word that will hopefully remind me to use my creativity on a daily basis. Whether it’s by drawing, photography, writing, knitting or other crafts. I have learned that I have to creatively express myself in order to live in harmony with myself and the people around me. There might be periods of time that I get into a creative vibe easily, but there can also be times that it’s harder to actually make something. I’ve learned that it is not helpful to pressure anything right then. These times are not lost or spoiled. It are times to think things through, to gather inspiration, to mentally create. Until there comes a time when creativity starts flowing outward again.

In the demands of everyday life it is often hard for me to give creativity a priority. I want to make 2014 count by being true to myself by setting time apart to create. No holding back in favor of self doubt, criticism, busy-ness etcetera. I create, because that’s just me. It’s what makes me happy.

What’s your word for 2014? How are you going to make 2014 count?

X Jeau

Welcome

Jo Dik-Tunderman (JeauAnd) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:14:18 +0000

Today’s the launch of my new website. I’ve been preparing for and working on this for quite some time now and I must say, I’m pretty darn proud of it! The birth of my website, in a way, is the birth of my creative business as well. I have been dreaming, thinking, doubting and hoping my business for years. Until last year I didn’t have the time and courage to actually make it happen. Well, that has changed.

So meet Jeau&. Meet me.

Take a look around. I’d love to hear what you think, leave me a note if you like.
Make sure to come again from time to time, to stay up to date on everything. Since this is a work in progress constantly, there will be new things often. Also, as it is with all new things and just about everything actually, it is not perfect, so there might be some changes and improvements often.

Jeau