Brocante in St Paul(Le Marais)

While Paris charms with nostalgia Berlin is futuristic, inspiring  with cutting edge home grown labels & a street with the cutest babies I have seen. Berlin too whips up some amazing food:  mostly pork and apfel, is a city of cyclist, has great cheap hotels (we lived in the michelberger with interiors done up by movie set designers) believes in big fluffy pillows and have much pride in their stationery.

R.S.V.P in Mulackstraße Berlin and its fine curation of stationery.

London for me was home-cooked dinner, bonding over cider, bagels, hummus, tapas, tea and then off my beaten track, I visited the Natural History Museum with its intriguing taxidermy and brilliant typography on label for exhibits, the Geffrye Musuem presents interior design throughout the century and the Greenwich market offered me good finds.

A pretty corner in the Geffrye Musuem.

This is the longest vacation I have had since 2002, as much as I love it… I am glad it ended and I am looking forward to get some work done! Figured out I cant be a vagabond but a nomad. I am happy to travel if I can move my bed with me.

It’s my first purchase of a Werk magazine, despite the goodness, its a little pricey for a magazine to me and the real instigation had been a tad more personal…

This issue was put together by my dear friend Joanne*clap clap*. She endured all processes ending with a 48 hours press check and starting with the selection and compilation of the fabric cover.

Her little accomplishment is reminiscent of our time in design school and our conversations about working for Werk, where she is now, and Kinetic, where I just left. So here is a little clink* to old dreams realised and new ones yet to be conquered .

ps: Joanne and I have worked on a series of tear doll postcards and she has since developed her own which I would be helping with a product shoot….soon!

La fleur x La nourriture=♥
Flowers arranged to look delicious are as enticing as aesthetically prepared food.

Steckmasse / Take-out Flowers by sdesignunit

This is how my life is now, a flurry of activities… a new lifestyle, travels to plan, favours to finish, leçon de français youtube, projects to start. Pretty much chaos but I am loving it all. Tout Baigne!

Sight Unseen provides insights to some great designers and artist via interviews and studio visits .

A customised order for a birthday girl who loves blue.

Painted over the bambi’s original green scarf which was quite shoddily done up so I had to paint over some bits that weren’t meant to be… and then I dotted his nose blue with a pin head.

We were awarded as one of the 10 individuals in China who have contributed to the environment. There is nothing I would like to receive for a trophy more than a handkerchief!!(I have detached it from the frame it came with).

Psychologies magazine had generously sponsored a trip for two to Shanghai and two nights stay at the Hyatt. Upon arrival, I was greeted with these bundles of goodies . It was pretty awesome!

This welcome bundle contains yummy Kiehl’s products and an issue of Psychologies with a write up on Mimipong and other Green Hankerchief awardees***.

The next bundle was a gift from Hiro’s okasan. I love the bunny on the furoshiki! After 4 layers of Japanese packaging are cream cookie sandwiches that comes in 2 flavour: original and green tea.

The green tea flavoured cream tasted more like black honey accented green tea and was held between butter cookies. Biting into them elicited a satisfying crunch and then a rich decent flavor of savory sweetness. They were so good I only had pictures of what was left… The box, gift wrap and a catalog of probably more amazing sweets by Takoya…

The latest issue of Little Thing magazine coincidentally came with a free furoshiki.

This Green Life issue features organic markets around the world, stylish girls with their stylish bicycles, a write up on Jane Birkin’s straw basket and more… It also has Mimipong’s showcase in Shenzhen featured on the back pages. I imagined to have thoroughly enjoyed this issue if I could read the content but for now, looking at pictures will do .

***I managed to have a chat with one during the ceremony, Zhao Zhong, founder of the Green Camel Bell NGO in China.  His organisation aids farmer in central China by improving their livelihoods with education and introducing farming methods that aids the ecosytem. Mr Zhao Zhong was really friendly, chatty and seemed like the genuinely nice guy I imagine anyone who would dedicate their life to others would be. I also  meet up with the CEO of Shenzhen Development Bank who introduced the usage of bio-degradable plastics their credit cards. I think its great that such details is insisted to to better the environment… I guess it shows how it is possible to be eco-friendly no matter the industry you are in?

So with these amazing awardees, I had been very tentative towards the acceptance of such a recognition that I know Mimipong is unworthy of at this point in time and I do not wish to hypocritical about it so… I really see this more as a motivation to start emphasising on the environment with future projects.

that opens up to a creamy interior…

Along with it is my first record: The Velvet Underground and Nico.

and here some vinyls from a slash of old goodies saved off a tiny shelf in my grandpa’s kitchen.

I am in love!