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.

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!

Berlin... day 3

I was up early cause I couldn't sleep.  Nothing to do with being excited and everything to do with the experimental jazz music coming from the upstairs apartment. I swear.

Made my way to Wilhelmstr on the bus, via a donut purveyor (I was worried I might not get another chance to eat donuts.)  It was a beautiful beautiful day, and I was super excited so when Amanda and I met up and found Ewerk itself - a building which was originally an electrical substation built in the 1880s we squealed a little.  Check out the awesome building Hello Etsy was held at.

Went into the main hall and it was like an etsy seller's dream come true. There's cute tablecloths on the tables with herbs planted in milk cartons. There's a mezzanine level with sewing machines and Marimekko fabric to use and super nice ladies to help you make whatever you want. There's a fridge full of Innocent smoothies, a 'write home' area sponsored by Moo

(Photo by happy serendipity)

(Photo by Matzen)

(photo by Miss Minoes)

Danielle who writes the Etsy newsletter was there with a lifesize 'treasury' made from cardboard,


(Photo by happy serendipity)
the bathrooms even had Dear Colleen  hand towels and handmade soaps in beautiful soap dishes.

Everything - even down to the signage, nametags, and gosh darn cushions on the seats -  had been thought out and executed stylishly - a whole electrical substation full of awesomeness.



But most importantly, a whole electrical substation full of nice, talented, interesting people.

The conference was kicked off by an unavoidably motivational talk from Doug Richard. Here are a few nuggets of wisdom I took away from him about what young business means:

Tom Hodgkinson from the Idler followed with a talk (which started with "I'm 43, living in rented accommodation and have no money") about being self-employed- and later, being self-employed as a parent. I really enjoyed his talk, I think it was the one which stuck with me most throughout the course of the weekend.  I was also so glad someone asked the question about 'giving up an interesting life and blaming it on your kids.'  (The secret is not being afraid of losing everything.)

Some books to note: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, and The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  Also, check out Tom's article in the Independent, 'This was business with a punk spirit.'

The third talk was by Charty Durrant, and I like this photo by Matzen - I think it sums up what she had to say.


She finished up with this great quote:

After a break sponsored by cheese pastries and earl grey tea, we were back in the main hall for a "Finding your Courage" talk from Chad Dickerson, who is the CEO of Etsy.  You guessed it, his life story was very inspiring - deciding to move to California when he was young despite everyone (including his mom) telling him not to - he told us "Noone will be as committed to your dream as you." I really liked the point he made about recognizing that there's no failing.  Every time you think you've failed, you're actually a little bit closer to finding a solution.  Go your own way.

Lunch was a delicious veggie soup served in a stylish glass jar followed by amazing Wonderpots frozen yoghurt.

Two lectures after lunch were upstairs, on the roof.



And finally, Farai Chideya was my favourite speaker of the afternoon.  She told us about her best friend from Alaska, an Etsy enthusiast who bought her wedding rings, the necklace she wore on her wedding day as well as the wedding day glassware from Etsy.  "Craft is soul."

A delicious mango cocktail was the icing on the cake of a very special day!  Tasty.

(Photo by happy serendipity)

"Courage is about listening to your heart."

Berlin... day 2

Day two of my trip to Berlin was ace!  Early start (as if I don't usually get up early...) and went to meet Amanda for some caffeine at The Barn.  If you squeal inside at the sight/smell of a good coffee and a slightly overpriced but beautifully rustic baked item, like me, you'd also find yourself photographing the pretty coffee and scones.

I had an appointment at the Reichstag viewing area at 10.45 so two flat whites later I legged it there as I really wasn't sure what happens if you're late in Germany.  There's probably not even a word for it in German.  Oh, but I made sure I stopped to take a photo of a pink bike basket and some little toys in a window.  Priorities.

Got a special Reichstag badge. Woo. I'm a tourist.

I then visited the Holocaust Memorial which is very beautiful, much bigger than I had expected and a little overwhelming.

From there I went to the Bauhaus Archiv and was starting to feel rather weak and feeble as it was nearing 3pm and I'd not yet refueled.

Short tube journey later and I was happily chowing down on a sausage covered in curry powder covered in ketchup.  Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

With an hour to kill before the Hello Etsy pre-registration tea party I leisurely wandered through Kreuzberg, stopping at a coffeeshop to catch a little bit of wifi on the way.  I also found this bit of doodling on a newsagents window.  I walked past a type studio nearby who did a lot of hand lettering and I can't find the name of them - I'm guessing maybe they did it but if anyone knows I'd love to find out.

The Hello Etsy registration meetup was at Hudson's English Cafe, who really made us feel at home with a heaped basket full of scones, endless amounts of clotted cream and jam and bottomless pots of earl grey, pg tips and english breakfast.

At a nice table outside I met Zena, Melissa and Anke, stuffed a couple scones in and drank so much tea I actually would later find myself wide awake all night. (I know, I'm wild!)  It was really nice to chat to some like minded people who made me laugh loads and got me excited again about what I believe Etsy's all about.

We were also given our Hello Etsy goody bags - containing a lasercut wooden name badge (uhh.. amazing!) some stuff from google and Burda magazine and a bottle of Charitea as well as a pretty special handbook on small business and sustainability full of secrets to success from the speakers at the conference.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, as if I'd not eaten enough already some turkish food was also crammed in on our way back to our apartments.  (I know, right... does this girl ever stop talking about food?)

Berlin... day 1

I visited Berlin this month for a summit on small business and sustainability called Hello Etsy.  Well, I kind of made a rather long weekend out of a 1.5 day event... but 1.5 days is not enough time to eat many currywurst and boy do I like currywurst.  

As I'm still reeling from the amount of information, inspiration and awesomeness the weekend spewed at me I'm going to deliver my blogposts in bite sized chunks - for you to digest as I did.  So here we go.

Day 1, Thursday 

Since I was flying solo the anticipation and nerves leading up to my trip couldn't really be shared but turns out the journey from my flat in Manchester to my flat in Berlin was painless and actually rather enjoyable, and I refrained from peeing my pants in excitement.

Check out my sweet as a nut apartment.  (Can highly recommend Airbnb to find and book other sweet-as-a-nut apartments 'round the world)  

I spent the afternoon/evening of my first day with my new buddy Amanda (who is from Perth, via London. I know, right?!)  She pretends to be not good at sewing but she can sew these crazy complicated footstools and can out-beehive anyone's beehive.  

We found this totally rad button shop that was like something out of Harry Potter.  So organized.  Who'd have thought. 

And since I'm borderline neurotic I of course had mapped out all the nearest eateries which I had read about in the various districts of Berlin.  By early evening we were near enough to a burger joint I'd read about so although I'd polished off a bagel and cookie the size of my head just hours before, the thought of not visiting all the places I'd planned on visiting made me feel more sick than gobbling a big fat juicy burger.

Even on a full stomach, this burger was friggin tasty.  In fact, it was the tastiest burger, cheesiest cheesy fries and coldest beer I've ever consumed underneath a tube station in Berlin while listening to harmonious hip hop beats.  

Oh man now I need a burger.