Turkey

Well - I finally got a bit of organising done and I've put up some pics of my trip to Turkey. Phewf. Lovely trip all round, beauty and wow the all the architecture over time. I don't think I really understand the time frame of everything. I have spared you all from my pictures of architectural detail (you know how I LOVE picture of detail). I tried to get a smattering of everything. We visited Istanbul and the region of Cappadocia. Both were really lovely. One word to sum up Istanbul is chaos!

Berlin...

It seems as if I have many a reason to visit Germany lately - I think the best one is that its so very close! I was in Berlin last week for a Bioplastic Conference, and decided to stay a couple of extra days to see the city! I mean, why not, I can't think of another time I might just happen to be in Berlin, with all this flexible time on my hands. It was a great trip, I spent some time bicycling around, going to museums, and just generally being inspired (I did get a design direction out of it, but I'm not telling what it is yet). What a great city, and I really did love the Curry-wurst with fries (sausage with ketchup and curry powder, and fries - yum!) The architecture is AMAZING - so many different styles and visions all in one place, I felt as if I was walking through a history of design class with Sue Barnwell. Enjoy my photos!

Bavarian Weekend

Well, I left the UK once again.  This time to go to the wedding of my dear friends Joe and Birgit in Bavaria.  It was rather lovely, and I took a few pictures.  I've posted some of my favourite ones here - the ones at the end are of Munich.  We ended up going to Munich on Sunday as bit of a last minute adventure.  We were accompanied by Mica and Wolfgang , and their son James.  We had a lovely time!

Vacationing in Battersea

Another mini-vacation for me... Fun fun. I had a nice long weekend break in Battersea a couple of weeks ago. It was absolutely lovely, I even styled my breakfasts for photoshoots (oh the luxury). I spent my Saturday wandering around, I found a local market and lots of very nice cafes etc. Then in the evening I went to a jazz concert in Battersea park and read a book in the grass. On Sunday I just relaxed. I did go to the Mall - woo hoo, I haven't been to a mall in AGES, it was surreal. They had a Poundland, how exciting. I got some school supplies (mostly tape - I always need tape). And then I went to H&M where they were having a clear-out sale, and I got a lovely t-shirt to go with my pretty red skirt. It was a lovely weekend, and I plan on another weekend like that in a couple of weeks, thank goodness, I think I need the break. I have more pics here if you happen to be interested.

Paris

J'adore Paris. Phewf, that was enough French out of me. I went to Paris last weekend. It was wonderful. The views were great, the weather was great, the food was great, and of course the company was great (I met up with Shan and Adam from TO). I just loved it. I took the Eurostar, which was so easy! I think I'm going to have to go more often! You can check out my photos here...

York, Glasgow and Edinburgh

Man, I'm on a roll today... Here are some pics of the trip I took with my parents to York, Edinburgh and Glasgow. For some reason they didn't upload in order, so you'll just have to guess where each one was taken. The trip was amazing - we drank a lot of coffee and saw lots of old stuff - fun was had by all.

Pictures of Romania

So, I went to Romania with Alex in April. We spent a week there. It was a great trip. I've posted some pictures here... I made this album for a friend (Rebecca in Mtl) - so you may not appreciate all of the funny things like the graphics, but I still wanted to share.

Very late Vacation Pictures

I was on vacation at home this year, and I haven't posted any pictures yet, so I will now. Some of them are from Radium, and the rest are from the Saguenay. That's it, just wanted to share

Sheep!

Just a picture of a sheep from my trip to Wales in January... look they have long tails, made me laugh, I had to chase this guy around to get a picture of him... I DO love sheep.

Pretty things on the sidewalk

So these little 'manholes' are on the sidewalk in front of every house on my street. They are really nice patterns, and I can't believe it took me this long to notice them... pretty, no?

My new pets

I got some new pets last week. 500 of them actually. WORMS. I'm doing some Vermicomposting and they are my experimental bunch. I'm trying to get them to eat some linen, no such luck just yet, but I'm sure something will actually happen eventually. I've named them Maximillian and his Merry Crew.

ABC

I keep seeing portions of this poster set around my neighborhood. I adore it. This is one of the best examples - as you get to see all of the letters. I think I walked by the place where the photos of some of the letters were taken.

On Purpose Siteseeing

I had some lovely opportunities to go siteseeing with friends, we had a great time, and look at all the pictures I took! From top to bottom: St. Paul's Cathedral (which I pass every day on the way to school), Near Portobello Market (Notting Hill area), Outside the Tate, Tower Bridge (where the #15 bus gets really crowded, so I generally don't take that one into the city, its a shame, because its a really pretty route), and lastly a cool tree near City Hall.

Random Siteseeing

So, I'm not very good at actually seeing things on purpose, but I have been doing lots of wandering around. Here are some pictures of some of the things I've seen. The first one is of the British Library. The second picture is Chinatown, and the third and fourth are of Leicester Square.

Camping in England

For those of you who don't know, I'm in the process of my Master's degree at Central Saint Martin's. The second day of school - they took us camping.

Now I have years of experience camping, but this was one of the strangest, we built our own tents from bamboo rods tape and plastic. My group's little tent got a make-over into a huge monstrosity when the organizer came over to 'help' us. Unfortunately, the plastic on our tent blew off before we could sleep in it. This happened to most tents - so we all slept in the main yurt - but there was one big problem with the yurt... it wasn't sealed at the bottom... So we just had the wind blow right through all night. I was alright, tucked into my sleeping bag, but I don't think it was a positive experience for all. We also built kites (sorry, I don't have any pictures) and a geodesic dome (those are my tutors playing on it).

Overall it was quite fun, we ate a lot, and chatted around the campfire, and went for fish & chips by the seaside the next day.

Oh yeah, we were in Dungenese, its somewhere in the South East, just past Kent.

100% Design

My first order of business when I arrived in London (yes, I moved once again), was to go to some design shows for a school assignment. I chose a couple, but the biggest one by far that I went to was 100% Design... It was amazing! It was just like going to any normal tradeshow - but just about everything was amazing... No Christmas ornaments here. Here is what I picked up in terms of overall trends...

Lighting: White and Frosted. Lightbulb was completely concealed by the fixture (maybe because of how ugly CFLs are... that's just my guess)

Wood: Everything looked raw and unfinished. Raw materials ranged from fiberboard, laminates to pure hardwood. I would say that laminates were predominant.

Wallpaper: Traditional patterns and newer patterns. The newer things had either a hand-drawn or constructivist look.

Textiles: Soft and nubbly textures. Quite a few booths featured organic leathers.

Materials: Quite a bit of innovation here, from small things like natural rubber flooring tiles to complete building systems (I saw a really cool water-harvesting proposal for a high-rise building that de-salinated its own water).

You can check out all of my pics here:

100% Design

Weekend in Gaspesie

So, last weekend I went to Gaspesie, and had the most wonderful time hiking. It was so nice to see all of the wonderful trees (if you can't tell, I'm sort of obsessed with tress), and of course the great sweeping views of the mountains. I know that they aren't big mountains, but they're still mountains, and I found out they are part of the Appalachian range. Another group of mountains to add to my checklist. Anyhow... Here are a couple of pictures of the trip.