Hi, my name is Claudia and I live in Raamsdonksveer, a little village in the south of the Netherlands. I am married to Martin and we have a son named Lars.
I have always been creative, I learned to crochet from one grandma, and knitting from my other grandma when I was around 6 years old. At the age of 10 I lost interest in knitting and crochet and I started drawing, later also painting and I started to sew my own clothes. During my financial studies I always wanted to make my own stuff instead of studying, so it took me a long time to get my degrees (but I finally did 😉 ).
In 2002 I started a webshop in jewelry and beads
In 2002 we bought an old house from before 1900, so all my creativity went in rebuilding and redecorating the house. I had no time for the webshop or for being creative with beads and jewelry. When in 2013 our son Lars was born, I started to blog about interior decoration stuff (www.goodlives.nl), I also started to knit and crochet again, mostly items for in my house. Later I started posting pictures on Instagram with colorful crocheted items on @cottonandcandlesnl
But I also like more natural DIY projects, and they didn’t fit in so well between the colorful items, so I made a third Instagram account named @okariconcepts. My knitting and crochet became everyday hobbies and I started with designing my own patterns. I also started working with my webshop again, but now not only with beads, but also with yarn and other materials for knitting and crochet.
With my Blog Cottonandcandles I would like to show you what I make with products from my webshop okariconceptstore or from other shops.
You can see more of my work on my Instagram pages @okariconcepts and @cottonandcandlesnl
Greetz Claudia
