Its time........

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard 

We are off on adventures and will be back to regular blogging on our return.

xox
craftyclaudes

Apartment Love :: Gothenburg

I am always inspired by the light filled apartments in the land of design. This 1900's Gothenburg apartment teases me with its stunning original fireplace, high ceilings and fabulous way of using books to add a touch of colour.

For more inspiration go here

London Design Festival :: 14 - 23 September 2012

This year marks the 10th London Design Festival. One of the events we hope to visit is 'Enter the Imaginerium' which is a workshop space located within the Fabrications gallery/shop.

Fabrications is a shop/gallery and studio space located in Hackney, East London that is dedicated to upcycling and eco design. It has helped to promote and sell the work of over 200 local artists as well as held crafty workshops. As part of London Design 2012 they will be holding various workshops as well as inviting everyone to visit their space. Some of the upcycled creations on offer include:

Upcycled Shirt and Tie made into cushions:

Also their popular Rethink Rubbish kits. These kits are full of carefully selected materials and instructions to create such awesomeness as knitted mobile phone cases (made from plastic bags), fascinators, sustainable gift wrapping and these beautiful brooches!

For more information check out their online shop here.

Took my blog for a coffee yesterday.....

Here is what I said:

Dear Blog,

I know I have not been paying you any attention.  I have been indulging in a few of my latest crushes (pinterest, google reader, instagram, blood orange gelato)

 Right here, Right now, I promise to you I will think of you daily.  I will nourish you with my words and ideas,  I will share with you the wonders I come across on this big wide world of Internet land. I will give you a spring spruce up!

If nothing else, I promise that from this day forth, I will be mindful of your existence.

Lets be friends again....

xoxo
craftyclaudes

Passport, luggage and our Google Spreadsheet.......

We have been preparing for our up coming trip to Europe and doing research on galleries we plan to visit.   I love this time prior to going on holidays.  The pre-holiday research time, to me, is where my holiday begins.  This is where I get to read about the places that are off the tourist track, a little bit odd or unusual and very interesting. This time ALWAYS involves the birth of a big Google docs spreadsheet.  It is then filled with places we want to check out.  Cafes to walk to, restaurants to sample, exhibitions to see, little fabric/handmade shops to visit (me)  and bicycle/shoe shops (martino) to check out. Its like putting together our own personal guide of the cities we will go to.   We have been very fortunate to do this for many cities we have visited.  Tho, not something we stick to in absolute, its good to know we have a list of places we can walk to after a long and lazy lunch and bottle of Pinot ;-)

Researching Copenhagen at the moment I came across this Brooklyn based artist Tom Fruin. His work Kolonihavehus is located in the plaza of the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen.  Tom works with reclaimed pieces of coloured plexiglass sourced from various locations in the cities he has installations in.  For the Copenhagen installation he used plexiglass from a frame shop, a closed down plexi glass distributor and even the trash from the Danish Architecture Centre.

Kolonihavehus:: Allotment in Danish

His most recent work :: Watertower ::  is located in DUMBO,  Brooklyn until June 2013.   For this work he used thousands of scraps of plexiglass sourced from such varied locations as from the floorsof Chinatown sign shops, to the closed DUMBO studio of artist DennisOppenheim, to Astoria’s demolition salvage warehouse Build It Green!NYC.





A beautiful addition to an already magnificent cityscape. 

Hope to share more of what I discover......

Enjoying every moment.......

I have been enjoying these crispy wintery days.  The air fresh, the sun warming and very welcomed as I walk to work.  Along my walks I think a lot.  About how lucky I am to live this life, at this time.  To be surrounded by people who make me laugh, inspire me and are kind.    People who are interested and interesting.   I love that my days are filled with these interactions.   To me, it is important to recognize this and even more important, to be thankful for it.  

I am also enjoying  this yummy creation.  DIY Muesli!

I received homemade muesli as a birthday gift a few weeks ago. A very scrumptious and nourishing gift made by my beautiful friend Theresa (si chica...).    The cold mornings and my power walks to the office require a little treat and having this with boiling water (no milk for me thanks) has made THE best breakfasts this season. 

Having finished the supply I received, I asked for the recipe and found it very easy to make.  So I got to toasting the organic oats under the grill.  I sprinkled ground cinnamon and cardamon before placing under the grill for a few minutes.  The apartment filled with the scent of these beautiful spices. 

After toasting the oats for a few minutes and setting them aside.  I toasted a selection of raw nuts, seeds and shredded coconut.  For my selection I used :

Macadamia, pistachio, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, sesame seeds and shredded coconut.

The smell of toasted coconut and cinnamon.....if you close your eyes, you could be wandering the spice bazaars of Morocco and India!!  ahhh...my senses taking a little trip from my kitchen.

I wanted to add some natural sweetness to the Muesli so I opted for some  of Queenslands finest little raisins (of sunshine) as well as tart cranberries.

Ready to be enjoyed this winter......

Loving these days.......

Fashions of 1981 and all that make up......

Recently Martino came home with a bag filled with sewing patterns. A conversation with a cafe customer (who happens to be a professional dressmaker) resulted in the kind lady gifting me all sorts of patterns and instruction books.  Fashions from 1981, which although are a little questionable, would help me learn the basics of sewing clothing for myself.  So the deal is for some time, I have been watching hours of online tutorials and experimenting with mini versions of dresses and tops (using fabric from thrift store finds) all in the quest to sew pieces for myself.  At the same time I am getting used to the all the stitches and different sewing feet of my new machine.  So these patterns have come at the perfect time as now I have even more information and tips that are simple in their construction allowing me to move towards to finally cutting into real fabric pieces.   Its a little scary - but very exciting!!

Before I do tho, I wanted to share with you the fashions - clothing, hair and make up of 1981/1982.....

shoulder pads - check / big hair - check / over sized dresses and awkward stares....and check!

Culottes - remember them?

A party in your pants!! hahaha

Bed jacket?  really.....and all I can manage is a tshirt. I would be wayyy under dressed for bed in the 80's!

the front view was not included in this pattern.  very odd.....but allows for much self expression..

Ok the pictures might not be very fashion forward, but the wealth of information contained in these patterns is very useful to me. So let the fashion creations begin........

Craft and Quilt Fair - June, 2012 :: Darling Harbour, Sydney

Mum and I visited the recent Craft and Quilt fair held at Darling Harbour.  A day filled with so much colour, creativity and love for all things hand stitched.   Hundreds of thousands of stitches created work that made me feel very excited about this age old craft of sewing.   I promised a blog post to a few friends who were unable to attend.  Unfortunately the day was cut short due to a cold I was fighting off.  The virus won out in the end and I had to come home and straight to bed.  However, we still got to see some wonderful creations which inspired us to continue creating beautiful work.

Here is what we saw:

Intricate hangups from all over the world.  This beautiful piece entitled "Poppies of Love" by Geraldine Alix was my favourite:

Another detailed hangup by Californian fiber artist - Myra Wood

The fair also included this wonderful Travelling Friendship Quilt.  The story of a quilt that came together after 8 suitcases (one per state) traveled within each respective state, passed from friend to friend, group to group, each creating a square depicting their town.  At the end of the year all 8 suitcases return and are incorporated to create a 4 metre square quilt.  Read more about the project here:

A map showing all the places that participated

The fair also included an exhibition of Loani Prior's  latest book    - How Tea Cosies Changed the World.   These tea cosies show how a humble teapot can be transformed into an wacky and very creative piece of art.  Sure to start many conversations....and isn't that what sharing tea is all about?

Even in my feverish state, I managed to capture this beautiful work just as we were leaving the show.  From a distance this looked like pencil drawings, upon closer inspection I realized it was free form machine embroidery. Gorgeous work by Cheryl Bridgart - more of which can be seen here......simply stunning.