Winter wonderland...

Winter is here... The Meatpacking District looks white and beautiful covered in snow.
It's a good thing that it's warm inside our studio.

Beautiful book covers

It is time to make space on the book shelf! I want to buy all these nice books just for their covers! It is the new F. Scott Fitzgerald reissues by Penguin Classics and other titles from Penguin. They are all designed by award winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. 

Popquilts from Julie Ansau

The French photographer Julie Ansiau creates these wonderful multi coloured objects which she draws, sews and embroiders entirely by hand. She calls these objects « popquilts ». Take a look at her website - really amazing hand work and fun objects that makes you happy!

Julie is inspired by pop culture, referencing everyday life and reproducible objects, a deliberately simple language that then comes to life through her needle. 

Uppercase magazine

Today I received a really lovely magazine called Uppercase from Canada. It is a magazine for creative and curious and it is really nice. Their blog has a lot of inspiration so check it out. You can also buy good looking books on their webshop.

I found this really nice book to pre order at their online shop: Dottie Angel, The Suicase series Volume 2: Dottie Angel. It is a book about the lives of designers and artists. It looks great!

Sayonara Japan!

The last day we spend in Tokyo, shopping and packing our big suitcases filled with stuff, ceramics, sake, kimonos, books and magazines. It´s been a great trip and such a beautiful culture to get to know.

Thanks for following my posts from Japan. I hope to go back there again some day soon. Here are my last snaps from Tokyo.

We had dinner at Higashi Yama, a really nice place serving Japanese food with a modern twist.

Kawai! The Japanese just love kitch. We did these in a photo booth in one of the many game arcades around Tokyo . You can decorate your pictures with all sorts of cute and tacky stuff. Check out the size of our eyes - it's so funny! 

We visited Opening Ceremony in Shibuya. The have a really nice 8 level conceptual store. It is decorated like a home on each floor, so the clothes are hanging in a pink kitchen on the 1st floor and the next floor is made up like a bedroom (Sorry,  I wasn´t allowed to take pictures in there but it was really well made and a very cool concept for a store)

We went shopping at the Japanese street wear label A Bathing Ape shop in Omotesando. Such a cool store with white tiles all around.

Next time I go to Japan, I would love to go when the cherry blossom is in bloom. It looks so amazing.

Close to nature

Our last days in Japan were spend at this wonderful Japanese inn Hanafubuki in Izu Kogen surrounded by mountains, the Pacific Ocean and wild nature. It was a magical place and we felt like being in another world. We stayed in a Japanese villa with balcony looking out at wild nature. There were private hot springs with water coming from the mountains full of minerals. The food was simply the best I ever tasted and every plate we had was a little piece of art. The prefect place to think back on all our experiences in Japan before returning home.

Ikebana, art of flower decoration.

What a nice beginning of the day, great view, porridge and 9 small Japanese dishes.

Hot springs and Fuji-san - we were lucky to catch a glimpse of the beautiful, magical mountain on a clear day.

Kimonos

I am in love with the kimonos here. They are so beautiful and colourful. They are really expensive to buy from new but I bought two vintage ones at a really fair price. The fabrics are really amazing and the colours and patterns are very inspiring. The women over here still wear a kimono to dress up for ceremonies and festivals. 

My new outfits.

The Obi belt ties in front. Check out these colours....

I bought this fine little book about Kimono patterns. Great inspiration.