Berlin... day 5!!

Some iphone photos from my last day in Berlin.

(As you can see I started the day with a nutritional breakfast from a local purveyor of traditional German cuisine.)

I got the U-Bahn to Moritzplatz and spent about 2 hours at Modular Hous, thinking I'd died and gone to heaven.  A German art and design supply superstore that's as far from 'craft' as Hobbycraft is from bearable.

After tearing myself away I wandered through Kreuzberg, squeezed in one last Wonderpots Frozen Yoghurt and finally jumped on a bus to the airport.

It was such a fantastic trip and I'm looking forward to finding any excuse to visit Berlin again soon.

♥ Winners! ♥

Congratulations to Michelle Price who is soon to be the proud owner of a taco kitty tote bag :)

And because I was so flattered and excited by all you super nice folks joining in the giveaway I've chosen two runners up who I will send a package of stickers and cards.

THANK YOU to everyone for commenting, tweeting, facebooking and generally showing super taco kitty enthusiasm.  If you are a winner please email me your address and I'll get your loot in the post. x

Alasdair Gray

In September I visited Glasgow to complete my first half-marathon, the Great Scottish Run.  I stayed with my good friend Shalini and the day before the run we journeyed into the city to purchase sports drinks and overpriced socks.  The Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art was holding an exhibition of Alasdair Gray's work and we went to have a browse... his work is so awesome, I am a huge fan.

I'm completely in awe of his work.  It's so good!!!

Love is in the air

I've been doing quite a few pocket lovebird commissions recently. These are they.

This one was for Emily Green who makes the most beautiful jewelry.  She is based in Melbourne Australia and she was having the pocket Lovebirds made for her real-life lovebird.  It was their anniversary.  ♥

These were the original pocket lovebirds - first ones ever made! A wedding gift for Toki and Mika getting married in Hong Kong this month.

Chris and Tempest, who have framed and hung theirs on the wall!

Ryan and Lisa, who are doing the long-distance thing... a gift for Lisa from Ryan. ♥

Piers and Liz... ahhh...they're cute.

If you're interested in a pocket lovebird set, you can order one from my shop - and then just message me with a nice clear photo of the people you would like lovebird-ing.  The pocket lovebirds usually take about one week from receipt of your photo to day of dispatch.

Fooding

If you're looking for something to fill your Sunday and ultimately your mouth/belly, I can recommend visiting Joy the Baker's blog for some awesome recipes - this one particularly - cinnamon tear & share loaf.  I made it a few weeks ago and I must warn you, it's not a quickie (you'll need to set aside a couple of hours) but goddamn it's a goodie.

I can also highly recommend the peanut butter bacon cookies (I know, right?) for a taste sensation and for some aural (this pun is making me feel uncomfortable.) pleasure tune your ears into the Joy the Baker podcast.

Please leaf me alone

A couple weeks back I put this new print in my shop.  It's on a textured thick matt paper, a5 size.  Autumn-y.

Pocket money

1. Zigzag sweater by NoraKnitwear 2. Desktop calendar by Michelle Brusegaard 3. Saki cups by EKD Pottery 4. Be Present print by  Groundwork 5. Beaded Collier by Donauluft

Porridge - off

This morning my boyfriend and I went head to head in a porridge-off.  Granted I started eating mine before him so there's less of mine to judge, but it's not difficult to see that if points could be scored for gloopiness and porridge most resembling glue in texture, mine would deffo win.

Conclusion: if you want a deliciously creamy porridge, don't use oat milk, soya milk, or rice milk.  Also, don't ask me to make it.

Oh, hi Melissa

She has a small brown cat called Bruce and a secret stamp collection. Vegan. Conditions her hair with coconut oil.  Melissa is a nice girl. She could be your girlfriend.

Hipster DIY

In other news... my boyfriend is ripping up the kitchen floor and re-tiling it.  Note, the sunnies are of course to protect his eyes from rogue tile shards.

Sure they are.

Berlin... day 4

Goodness me it's been a whole month since I went to Berlin and I'm only now writing about my fourth day there.

So I public-transportation'ed (can I once again comment on how good the public transportation in Berlin is?)  myself to Ewerk, secured a large receptacle of black coffee, caught up with my new homie Annabel and arrived late for my first talk, an intro to Video blogging with Niamh Guckian.

It was a good session and I've now got a video which I shall be posting on here very soon as a result.  The session took place in the control room of Ewerk - check it out!

Niamh showed us some tasty blogs - ohhellofriend, designsponge and finelittleday.  Oh and we also watched loads of twinkie chan videos.

I then raced over to catch the end of Douglas Rushkoff's talk on programming and by missing the beginning I may have missed the point - which was disappointing.

But then it was lunchtime, and I love lunchtime.

Lunch was a healthy lunchbox packed with veggies and dip, a meatball, sandwich, yoghurt and chocolate.  And I of course had to take advantage of another amaaazzzing Wonderpots frozen yoghurt.

Oh and I forgot to mention at lunch I met my internet buddy Dave who runs Holiday Matinee.  Dave was the social media guru extraordinaire at Etsy who asked me to create a twitter background for the Etsy Artist Series back in February so it was super awesome to meet IRL after emailing/tweeting in cyberspace for a couple of years.

I also went and drew a bearded man on the collaborative blanket sponsored by burda... check out the serious crafting going down...

After lunch I went up to the roof for a Social Media Roundtable with Etsy, TOMS, Bitly and Holstee.  It was another of my fave talks from the conference mainly because it made me think about YOU people, who are at the receiving end of my endless online spewings.  I'm now making a conscious effort to talk less about my products and more about... me.  Cause we all know that you're more interested in me than anything. Right?



I raced down to catch Dannielle's Secrets to Success talk and was glad I did cause it was super inspirational.  Especially the part where she asked people in the audience to share a little bit of advice they'd received... I won't lie... it made me feel a little emotional.



And then it was suddenly all over.  And I started to feel a little sad... it started raining, and people were leaving slowly - and it was basically over.  In an effort to make the conference last longer I just hung around for ages like a bad smell... I was glad I did because I met Miss Minoes, Renee-Anne & Angela from Leeloo, and Anne from Magalerie.

Amanda and I decided (I convinced Amanda she needed a burrito) to go get some burittos and we encouraged Melissa that she really needed a burrito in her life - so we reconvened at Dolores near Alexanderplatz and laughed about balls and why our hair hurts.

And it was a good ending to the day.  And that was that. Day four over!