Today Snorrepot was visiting me in Den Haag. It had been a while since she was here. I picked her up at the train station and we walked to the city centre. It was raining, but we had already decided that that didn’t bother us – we brought our umbrellas. We had wanted to visit the tea salon Lapsang for years now, and finally we did.
The new roof of Den Haag CS
It was a lovely little shop, and fortunately they had room for us. We ordered some tea and cake (they even had arretjescake! – but I took the monchou). The tea tasted nice and so did the cake. We chatted a bit, but we could not hear each other that well because of the acoustics of the place. So we didn’t linger, and we decided to pay a visit to the local paper shop, Damen!
The wonderful (and financially dangerous…) thing about crafts is that they are all rabbit holes. Once you get to know a new craft, you discover all kinds of specialist materials and tools, that make the crafting even more pleasant. When you start knitting with Wibra acrylic on your Prym needles from the thrift store you think that that’s all there is (and they do have their time and place), but then you discover Ravelry and knitting fairs and before you know it you are frantically trying to buy some Wollmeise or Posh Yarn from an update while you are waiting for your newest exchangeable needle set to arrive. You know what I mean, right?
Damen is such a shop for people who work with paper. They carry standard things like notebooks and boxes and post cards, but if you walk a bit to the back of the shop, you will find handmade papers, papers with patterns, origami paper, and more. It is presented nicely (almost like fabric – which it kind of is), and the owners do their best to help you find what you are looking for. Snorrepot bought some very interesting handmade paper, and she also bought me some origami paper as a present!
Bonus points for the shop: they have a super mellow shop cat:
We then went to Scheveningen harbour to visit the Beeldhouwwinkel (sculpting shop). We took the bus, and it was almost like taking a tour of Den Haag and Scheveningen.
The Beeldhouwwinkel was next to the harbour, and there was a lot to see there. You could find supplies for woodworking, for working with clay, for sculpting stone. Very inspiring! Snorrepot needed some knives and they had quite a collection to choose from.
If there is so much to choose from, it takes some time to find out all the options you have. Different kinds of handles, different blades. Try them in your hand. How is the balance? What do I need? Snorrepot was able to try many knives and she managed to find some that she was happy with.
Before we went there, I said that I was only going to look. I was not looking for a new obsession hobby. But I failed. For a while I have wanted to start working with clay. However, I do not really have space for an extra oven (it’s not a great idea to mix making food with baking clay). But here I found something that I wanted to try: clay that does not need to be baked!
I can’t wait to try this, I have quite some ideas for things to make… Perhaps I can start tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning, a singer friend is coming over for tea. Oh, and on Saturday my mother-in-law is coming over for lunch. Like I said, busy week…
Anyway, after visiting the Beeldhouwwinkel, we felt like having some more tea, so we decided to be adventurous and go to a little cafe, ZO, that we saw on the way there. This cafe was a bit lighter and roomier than Lapsang, and I ordered lunch (eggs with onions and mushrooms, hmmm), while Snorrepot ate some boterkoek with coriander seeds with her tea. We chatted some more, and generally had a good time. Of course, when we decided to leave, it was raining again. It didn’t matter, it was a lovely day!
a lovely day indeed! Thank you for your excellent company and urban navigation skills. You live in such a diverse and marvellous city!
Your photo’s are beautiful.