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

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.

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......

Clicking my heels, jetting away......

Maybe its the cold Sydney weather,  or the flu I have been getting over, or just the fact that there are no planned holidays on the horizon.....but I think I am suffering from a case of the 'post holiday blues'.  Sad. But true.   Travel is something I am very passionate about.  Lucky for me, Martino is the same.  Our passports are probably one of our most treasured possessions and the mere mention of someone, going somewhere gets us all excited.   Consequently this week, I have been doing lots of armchair travel (or simply adding to our ever growing "Places to Visit" list).

Like a true sign from the universe (via my email inbox) along came these stunning photos. 
 

Marble Caves - Chile Chico, Chile

Skaftafeli - Iceland

Norway,  Alesund

NY

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

Petra, Jordan

Moraine Lake, Alberta, Canada

Riomaggiore, Italy

Benteng Chittorgarh, India

While I patiently wait for the next holiday to come around, these photos keep me going.
For more spectacular shots check out this site and be transported

Art and About - Mission Murals - San Francisco May 2011

Art and About - Portland May 2011 - Happy snaps from our trip week 3

Week 3 saw us visiting our most anticipated and researched/read about city - Portland, Oregon. Armed with a list of must check out places we set about walking this very green, clean city. Seeing a city adopt initiatives to encourage people to look after themselves and their environment was very inspiring. Cycle ways, garbage bins in the city that were more like mini recycling stations, atriums and wind turbines in/atop office buildings etc. Portland also has a big push towards sustainable, local and seasonal eating. Fresh produce from the city grown by locals in the city included greens, berries and fruits. Along with many micro-breweries, and our favorite hangout for food - Wholefoods - Portland really made us happy.

On the handmade side....oh my....I was in crafty heaven :-) Small multi purpose shops like Tender Loving Empire that sold not only handmade goods (tshirts, jewelry, home wares etc) but also music created by local bands- some of them still on cassette!   Or Crafty Wonderland where I felt the need to pick up and touch everything in that store...and do some big shopping.   Oh Portland.....I could go on and on......

Our splash out - The Nines Portland

Wondering if I could fit her in my hand luggage......

Public Domain

So swish....

Portland - The home of Stumptown

what a fattie....so cute

on our travels we spot a hole in the wall place with one cool crepe maker.....breakfast!

and they are all this cute!

getting our hat fix at Goorin....spot me in the mirror

thats all it takes...a little attention to detail.

Portlandians  ♥ their bikes

I lost myself in    A N T H R O P O L O G I E 

Installation at SFO Airport

More Anthropologie goodness

and then it was time to come home.......