Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner, and as tradition has it, we are once again sending out a special gift to our clients, co-workers, friends and relatives. This year, why not give something practical and useful that everybody can use in their everyday life?

Introducing Bluebird’s mini measuring tapes! These handy tools are perfect for any DIY project, from measuring furniture to hanging pictures.

Not only are they a practical item that can be used to measure things on the go, but they may also serve as a reminder every time you see our smiling bluebird of our commitment to providing you with our accurate and reliable translations!

And where does this idea come from? Well, it starts with a love story (last year, I was blessed to marry the love of my life, Julia, who is from Poland) and ends with a little act of plagiarism! I basically copycatted the idea of the keyrings from Karwasz Polskie Rozdzielnice, the company of my parents-in-law, but as you can see in the photo, their merchandise project and ours have a love story of their own!

We wish you a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year in full measure!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million! This December we are back at it again following last year’s example when we decided to make a video explaining the real purpose of our gifts. We did this after a couple of friends thought we were being quite original with the our supposed “merchandised shower caps” we were giving out during the last Christmas. (if you're curious, you can check here what our presents really were.)

Make your bet for this year: Is it a fridge magnet? A badge you can proudly display on your clothes? Stop wondering and take a look at our 2022 unboxing video!

This year we've come up with a extremely useful gift: a PopSocket, which you can use to hold your phone securely or as a phone stand while streaming videos, for example. And, believe us, this comes from first-hand experience: some weeks ago Laura was using her phone while on the bike (yes, we know she shouldn't), and it slipped out her hand, falling on the ground and cracking her screen and camera lens. If she had only had this tiny little PopSocket attached to it, it would have spared her a few hundred euros on a new phone.

The PopSocket is also easily removable and reusable. We've been running some tests and it clearly seems that the PopSocket can easily be removed without leaving any marks (and just in case, a mobile phone case can be the best place to mount it), ready for reuse. Just make sure to adhere it back to the 3M paper it comes with when you are not using it. For a more precise procedure than just using your fingernails, the manufacturer recommends mounting it on a phone case rather than on the phone itself and dental floss to remove it.  

The PopSocket also has optional accessories (commercially available) for mounting it on your car dashboard or other surfaces. Check the original manufacturer's website or find them on Bol.com. Sadly, we do not earn commissions from either website!

The only thing left to do is to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, secure-phone-holding 2022!

It has come to our attention that a few people thought that the brand-new Bluebird merchandise, specially designed and produced for this Christmas season (an Amsterdam-must for rainy days: waterproof and totally portable bike saddle covers) were shower caps (egad!), so we let our imagination run wild, resulting this short movie:

It was very fun to make! Thanks to Maaike, our fantastic coworker and translator (Chinese/English into Dutch), the amazing acting skills of Mr Charlie Moose (note for Hollywood talent scouts: this is an aka, as he wishes to remain somewhat anonymous), and juka design for the final edits, we managed to create this story in record time. We hope you enjoy both the film and the new dryness of your pants for this coming rainy season! And jokes aside, we wish you all an abundance of Light and Hope for the coming new year.

It has come to our attention that a few people thought that the brand-new Bluebird merchandise, specially designed and produced for this Christmas season (an Amsterdam-must for rainy days: waterproof and totally portable bike saddle covers) were shower caps (egad!), so we let our imagination run wild, resulting this short movie:

It was very fun to make! Thanks to Maaike, our fantastic coworker and translator (Chinese/English into Dutch), the amazing acting skills of Mr Charlie Goose (note for Hollywood talent scouts: this is an aka, as he wishes to remain somewhat anonymous), and Juka Design for the final edits, we managed to create this story in record time. We hope you enjoy both the film and the new dryness of your pants for this coming rainy season! And jokes aside, we wish you all an abundance of Light and Hope for the coming new year.

We all know that "What happens under the mistletoe stays under the mistletoe!"

This year, Bluebird has thought about all the kisses you will give (and receive!) during the holidays. That's why we had these Bluebird lip balms made specially for you to make sure your kisses are extra soft and as sweet and spiced as Dutch speculaas cookies!

Every year around November, we start brainstorming about what kind of gift to give away to our clients, coworkers, collaborators, friends, and relatives. And this year we decided to have this cute lip balms made with a lovely image on them of our beloved street in the Jordaan.

Celebrating the birth of Christ Child in this way has become an annual Bluebird tradition. In 2018, we made these Christmas lanterns. In 2017, we sent out the  Bluebird test tubes with Belgian chocolate powder. In 2016 Marrit van Natten created a watercolour painting of our office building, while in 2015, we recorded our (hit) instrumental cover of Silent Night. In 2014 we sent jamón serrano of the highest quality all over the globe, including to Japan, the US and Singapore, and in 2013 we had handcrafted notepads made from recycled materials. Last but not least, in Christmas 2011 our clients enjoyed our Bluebird-branded Belgian Pralines.

So we at Bluebird would like to wish you a Merry Kissmas and a Happy Healthy Lip! :D

This Christmas season we have created these lanterns—based on the Amsterdam houses design used on our business cards by MO DESIGN and featuring the façade of our office—and are sending them out to our clients and collaborators in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, UK, US, Malaysia, and Japan.

This is the 6th year that we have prepared something special for Christmas. Last year we prepared these Bluebird test tubes with Belgian chocolate powder. In 2016 Marrit van Natten created a watercolour painting of our office building, while 2015 was the year of our instrumental cover of Silent Night. In 2014 we sent jamón serrano of the highest quality all over the globe, including Japan, and in 2013 we made handcrafted notepads out of recycled materials. 2011 was the first time we used Belgian chocolate in our Bluebird-merchandised Belgian Pralines.

All the best wishes for this coming 2019!

Christmas is an important period of the year for us. At the beginning of December our office displays a Christmas tree, Nativity scenes, stars and colorful lights. In the last week of the month we usually leave Amsterdam to spend some time with our families and friends in Spain. Over the years we have shared our Christmas spirit with our clients and collaborators and have written about this on our blog.

In 2016 Marrit van Natten created a watercolor painting of our office building, while 2015 was the year of our instrumental cover of Silent Night. In 2014 we sent the highest quality Jamón Serrano all over the globe, including Japan, and in 2013 we made handcrafted notepads out of recycled materials. 2011 was the first time we used Belgian chocolate in our Bluebird-merchandised Belgian Pralines.

This year Belgian chocolate has again been the main ingredient in our gift. We filled these cute lab test tubes with authentic Callebaut dark chocolate powder. Our sweetest wishes for the New Year!

Two years after the Belgian pralines and one after the well-liked handcrafted recycled blocs, our clients, friends and collaborators have recently received this succulent Christmas gift: Jamón Ibérico from the town Jabugo, which is the most popular Protected Designation of Origin in Spain.

As we explained in the card included in each parcel, at Bluebird Translations we’ve been lucky enough to have a new neighbour at walking distance from our office in Amsterdam: Ibericus, a delicatessen concept store specialising in Spanish jamón serrano produced solely from the Iberian breed (pata negra). As I've been doing since it opened, it’s possible to buy full legs and request one of the specialist jamoneros to cut it all "a cuchillo" (with a slicing knife).

By the way, we do know that some of our collaborators are veggies, but I'm quite sure that they have found someone special to delight at Christmas time with our selected Ibérico ;)

Selecting the best legs...

Jamonero in action.

Ready to be enjoyed all over the world!

After giving away last year’s Belgian Pralines, the Spanish bishop who kicked Santa’s backside out of this country (aka Sinterklaas) has once again visited the offices and homes of several of our collaborators, clients, and friends in the Netherlands, USA, UK, Germany, Spain, and Japan to deliver these beautiful notepads made of recycled materials.

The artist behind this idea is Lilian Urquieta, a half-Danish, half-Spanish creative designer based in the gorgeous coastal town of La Herradura in southern Spain. She has used real leather remnants from her artworks to cover our navy-blue recycled notepads and hand painted our smiley Bluebird on their cover. The results are unique items that are ready to be filled with your favorite poems, your grandma’s best recipes, or your hand-drawn sketches while traveling during 2013!