Hi everyone! I am Marieke and here is a little more about me.
Well, I'll try to be short and to the point. :-) I am from the Netherlands and I am married to a German, Stephan, who is also my best friend. We are having four kids; two boys: Robbert and Lennart and two girls: Katharina and Josephine.
I am born deaf, but I am an excellent lipreader and my hearing aids are as important as airpods are for some other people. :-) I prefer to joke about it, but to be honest, it actually isn't a joke of course. I also have tinnitus and hyperacusis and it took me quite some years to deal with it, and some days are still bad.
Anyways, because of the different countries we where studying/ working, my husband and I had a long distance relationship for many years. Of course this wasn't ideal when the kids came, so 10 years ago we decided to move to Germany all together. My husband finished his study, found a job and I became a staying at home mom.
I have absolutely underestimated the emigration. Not only because of living far away from my family and friends, but also the differences in culture. This changed when I found a job and slowly felt at home.
Well, my job was gone because of the moving, my youngest was born, the kids had their school, sports and friends, I was done styling the house and now I wanted to do something else too.
I started baking, decorating cakes, crafted, made yearbooks, photoboards, did a juggle course, started decorating the house more and annoying my husband for more projects in the house; we dealt with some major problems as water damages, car accidents, sewage system problems. I started gardening, crafted more, did some handlettering, I am even an official Wedding Planner and I joined all the school activities from the kids.
Till.. on the 27th of March 2017, I was walking in the shoppingmall with my youngest laying in the stroller and I saw a sewing shop.
To be short, I spontaneously bought a sewing machine, came home, plugged it in and I never turned it off.
I started with sewing some straight stitches on a kitchen towel, zig zagged our curtains and made a pillowcase. I started watching YouTube videos, reading blogs and I was hooked!
And what I will never forget is the day I thought: "ow well, maybe I can look on Facebook and check if there is a group with people who are sewing too......." I am still laughing, because since that day, my life absolutely changed!
I became a pattern tester quite quickly, finished my Teaching and Advanced Teaching Course at the Burda Academy, started writing blogs for other designers and I just found 'something' I absolutely love to do.
In the meanwhile, two years ago now, we moved back to the Netherlands and again we had to start over..
Nowadays, I am doing what I love the most! I am an Admin at the tester groups and design for Ellie and Mac, I still do some pattern testing, but only for designers I admire ( Ann from Designer Stitch for example I love her!) Some German designers as Viva la Mila (who I admire!) Indie designers and of course all from Project Run and Play! I love the whole concept so much and I am sewing complete capsules in, what is feeling like, 1 test, lol.
I learned so many from testing! Not only different techniques, but also different ways of thinking, how to deal with...And the most important: people. I got to know so many beautiful persons over the whole world and I made a lot of friends. Some I meet, some I will meet and when that's not possible, a pm or a zoom meeting is always possible!
Important to say is that I am lucky to have a family that is supporting me, not only for modeling for pictures, but also for missing the cakes and cookies, since I am baking a lot less, which I know it isn't appreciated that much..lol.
I am not saying that all the problems are solved, I always will be deaf, the tinnitus will never leave, but I am looking forward for every day I can learn and do a little more and I hope people are getting to know and enjoy my designs.
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