Luloveshandmade's Blog Sponsors in December

Hello everyone! Here's a quick mini introduction of my current blog sponsors.
These are all shops / blogs / labels / projects that I personally like or find worth supporting and it's a pleasure to be sponsored by them and to partly get to know the people and their stories behind it.
If you are curious or still looking for some Christmas presents (or some inspirations), feel free to have a closer look, all links can be found when clicking on my sponsor's buttons in the left sidebar. :)
Happy December days!
Lu

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Shop Update: New Christmas Postcard.

Hey friends, here's just a quick update for you: I just added this new postcard to my shop, it's a candy color reindeer illustration for Christmas. You can find this postcard here in my DaWanda shop. :)
Moreover, there's currently a discount special on DaWanda in which I am participating and you get 12% discount on many items when shopping in my online shop. Make sure to have a look if you are still in need for some Christmas presents. :)
Happy Monday!
Lu

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Review: PhotoLove Prints

Hello everyone! Today I've got another review for you! I have recently been contacted by PhotoLove, a great small company from Hamburg which turns your photos from Instagram, Facebook or Eyeem into pretty polaroid pictures. Of course I was super excited and chose my fave phone photos for this review.
When ordering your prints on PhotoLove, you have three different options:
a) PhotoMail, an envelope filled with four prints for 5€
b) PhotoBag, a bag filled with up to twelve prints for 13€
c) PhotoBox, a handmade cardboard box filled with up to 24 photo prints for a total of 24€

You can see all three options in the photo above (but my PhotoBox has been shipped in an additional gift box). I really like that there are those three different options and I think their price is fair, too. When receiving all those three packages, I immediately thought about the PhotoMail version with its four photos as a nice surprise gift for a friend, such a nice idea. Moreover, the PhotoBox is great when you want to have more photos at once and the Bag is great for just for fun projects for which you need some polaroid prints of your photos. One package for each occassion, that's fine!
For the PhotoMail package, I decided to order four prints of some of my favorite outfits to turn them into a collage that makes me happy when looking at it.
The only thing that I didn't like that much about those PhotoLove prints is the back: of course this black background reminds of the back of original polaroids and it's a nice visual contrast with the information about PhotoLove, but I rather prefer anything colorful instead of black and I think the information in the back is way too big so that the polaroids don't serve well as a present. Nevertheless, I really like the kind note on the cardboard holder of the photos.
This is a collection of twelve photos, exactly the amount that you can get when ordering a PhotoBag. I love all the colors of my photos and I love seeing them at another place than only on my phone's display. :)
I'm super satisfied with the quality if the prints: the colors are super bright and the surface is a little but glossy which makes the polaroids nearly look like real ones, that's super cool!
Next, here's my gift box I received with the order of a PhotoBox with 24 photos. Nicely packed and handmade in Hamburg, that makes it extra special.
When I have finally been holding all my pretty photos in my hands, I immediately thought about what to use them for. Some will be added to presents and some will simply be glued into photo albums:
You know I love bright colors and I love masking tape, it's a perfect combination when attaching the polaroids onto the plain pages of a photo album. Keeping memories like this is a perfect way to spend a grey afternoon in fall. :)
Apart from filling my photo album with the photos, I also hung some of them up on my wall so that they can always be seen and make me happy! Because the colors are so bright, they perfectly match everything else in my home!
Here are finally two of the prints with the original place where I took them. I like those kinds of photos

All in all, I'm super satisfied with everything - the good service, the quality of the photos, the colors and their overall look which is very close to an original polaroid. Moreover, the website is really pretty and the ordering process is super easy, you simply have to log in your respective account (Instagram, etc.) and choose the photos. The black back with the big company information is the only tiny thing that I didn't like that much, but as long as I don't want to use them as postcards, that doesn't matter.

Have you already ordered at PhotoLove? I hope my review was helpful for you and you enjoyed the colorfulness in this blog post! :)
Happy day!
Lu

P.S.: The items in this blogpost have been sponsored for the purpose of this review, but this doesn't touch or influence my personal opinion!

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Shop Update: Postcards and Posters for Fall and Winter

Hello, hello! :) Eeeeeks, here's a shop update! These past days I've been working like crazy to finish each a postcard and a poster with an illustration for fall and winter. 
This is Frieda Fox, the colorful lady who lives in the forest. Her favorite season is fall and she loves cozy evenings. 
This is Rosa the Reindeer. She loves winter, the holiday season, long sleigh rides and crafty Sunday evenings at home, drinking some egg nogg.
Eeeeeks, which one do you like best?
If you want to call one of the illustrations your own, they are available as DIN-A-4 posters and DIN-A-6 postcards, you can buy them here in my DaWanda shop. :)
Happy, happy!
Lu

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Shop Update: New Crochet Heabands (See Who's Wearing Them).

Dear readers, it's time for a shop update for the cold season! :) Remember last year's collection of handmade crochet headbands I listed in my shop last fall? During the past weeks, I've been crocheting like crazy and I relisted nearly all of the colors and some headbands have already been sold. :)
So that you do not see only me wearing my handmade pieces, today I've got some extra special photos of some fellow bloggers and friends wearing my cozy headbands. Each of them is wearing their favorite color and combining the headband with their personal style, so exciting! See yourself!
This is me wearing a headband in apple red.
Cute Juli of heimatPOTTential wearing my dark green headband, perfectly matching her yellow accessories.
My lovely Instagram-pal Kathleen of msterious wearing my olive green headband that she bought last year.
Yeah, I often go for a mustard headband as fall accessory!
My sweet friend Stefanie of Squeaky Swing wears her dark green headband with a fall outfit. So cute!
Although you will probably all be staring at her cute kitty, have a look at my super pretty best friend Anja of aentschie's Blog, wearing a grey crochet headband from my collection. :)
Pretty Stef of Magnoliaelectric wearing my handmade mustard headband last winter, color splash!
And last, but not least, sweet Laura of Tagträumerin with my dark green headband in her adorable living room. :) I love how she combined it with her knitted handmade orange dress!

I'm really excited about all those photos and as always, I'm happy about seeing my handmade items in usage in other people's lives! :)
Below, you can find a screenshot of the headbands listed in my DaWanda shop. In addition to a white headband which is also available, below you can see all colors listed in my shop.
As you can also see in all of those photos, please note that the colors can vary, because each photo and pc setting displays different colors!
So if you have just fallen in love with one of my crochet headbands and have chosen your favorite color, you can simply find them in my crochet headband section in my DaWanda shop.
Keep yourself warm for the cold season! :)
Lu

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Favorite Shops: Lu Loves Wohnzimmer

Hello, hello! :) Here's the first post of a new blog category called "Favorite Shops: Lu loves (...)." Because my blog is about all the handmade and pretty other things I love and because there are always so many great things, people, places or shops that I admire and would like to show you, this is definitely worth starting a blog series! :) Moreover, I often receive mails in which people ask me to share sightseeing and shopping advice for Potsdam and Berlin and from now on, I only have to point out my blog series. :) So here we go:
In Berlin next to the Maybachufer, there's a super cute shop called Wohnzimmer (in English: living room). In this shop you can find all kinds of pretty home decor items, kitchenware, pretty interior and everything you need to make your home look more pretty and colorful! :) I came by there about two years ago and since then, I've been visiting this shop several times and always found something useful, but still pretty. I love things you need anyways, but which aren't only useful, but also so pretty that you can enjoy looking at them. Wohnzimmer is definitely the right place for such things! :)
See yourself:
Here you can find Wohnzimmer:
Wohnzimmer Berlin
Paul-Lincke-Ufer 44
10999 Berlin / Kreuzberg
Call: 030 / 61 62 38 72

E-Mail: info@wohnzimmer36.de

Click to visit their website

Happy shopping!

Lu

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Lu Loves Indie Labels: Interview with Koo

Hello, dear readers! Hope your weekend has been a nice one! :)
Today I want to introduce an idependent label which I personally like a lot! I got to know Maggie and her jewellery label Koo by chance this spring and since then, we've been in contact with each other. I had already shown two of her great necklaces in a blog post some months ago and since then, they have belonged to some of my favorite accessories.
A while ago, Maggie has released another collection with new shapes, pastels and bright summer colors and I was again given the chance to choose two pieces for a cooperation, yay! I chose those two yellow necklaces and I simply love them! Because I didn't only want to show you her handmade items, but also wanted to let you know more about Maggie and her label Koo, I asked her some interview questions for your. :) Here we go!
"Hello dear readers! I am Maggie and the head of Koo. I like to be creative and to make people happy with my jewelry. I just finished my studies in product-design and I am 24 years old. I love to read and to eat great food. Normally I am a little bit shy. :)

How did the idea develop to sell handmade things and to establish an own indpendent label?
I am a creative person. When I need something new, first I try to create it myself. I love to knit, to sew and to paint. When my sister wished for handmade jewelry for Christmas, I invented some shapes for pendants. My sister liked them and I thought: "That was fun, do some more" and had many other pendant-shapes in mind. And as a student, there is always the need for some more money, so I decided to open a shop, at first on DaWanda and some weeks later also at Etsy. I am lucky that so many people like my jewelry, because I have tried other student-jobs like working as a waitress - and I was lousy. ;)
Could you tell something about your process of creating a new item? How does an idea become a finished product?
It's always different. As a design-student, I had to work very hard to create a new product. It took about four months to finish a semester-project. I had to research other products and also society, had to make a lot of sketches and to consult a professor every week. There were alway ups and downs when ideas were rejected or my concept just didn't work. But with my label I feel very free to make everything I want. Just today in the morning I had some new ideas for a new material I want to use (copper) and some new shapes. It always gives me thrills to imagine the finished product. So I immediately made some sketches and I am looking forward to make some models. Unfortunately, the workshop of my university is closed during summer, but I am lucky that my father has an own workshop, too, and is always happy to help me. So I am going to build some models and try to make a variety of the first idea. That is always important to me because so I can choose which model is the best and I also ask friends and wear my designs myself before I sell them.
Any future plans regarding your creative work? :)
Right now, I am very satisfied how my shop is developing. It is so much fun to know that there are people who wear my designs and also like them. In my university studies I specialized on designing industrial products like furniture. I am currently thinking about another shop with furniture I made, but I also want to make an internship in a design-agency and then gain a master degree. But whatever I am doing, I am sure that my label "Koo" is going to play an important role.
Thank you again for answering those questions, Maggie! :)

So dear readers, here are again the necklaces I have chosen. I love their shapes, their colors and their material and they match my style quite good! :) The yellow is perfect for summer outfits and I'm sure I will still use the necklaces in fall quite often. Moreover, I really like Maggie's shop concept (link below), because her product photos are so bright and colorful.
Which of those two shapes I've chosen is your favorite?
What I most love about working and cooperation with other small labels (apart from testing their great handmade items :)) is to get to know the designer better and to get insights into other people's working process! :) This interview also helped me to get to know more about the design process and the designer and for me, this makes the main difference from buying mass produced products! Horray for handmade!

So if you are interested in Maggie's other designs and are in love with her jewellery as much as I am, simply visit her shop! :)

Those necklaces were sponsored for a cooperation, but this didn't touch my personal opinion!
Lu

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