All Posts By

Stacey

Taking Care of Business

Friday in Manhattan was just as gorgeous, weather-wise, so we once again set off on foot, scoring a fantastic turkey sandwich from a deli on the way. We headed down towards the Flatiron district, through Bryant Park and sat outside a café by the Flatiron in the sun. We then carried on walking, all the way down to the lower east side, stopping to share fish and chips at a really nice place called Bar Fish.

Once we were near New York Adorned we nipped into a Cuban bar for a couple of fortifying vodka shots. I’m not used to being tattooed without heavy-duty painkillers but I didn’t have any – luckily the spot we’d chosen on the ankle turned out to not be painful at all.

We had chosen a classic TCB design, with the lightening bolt and a thick outline. Madge had taken it from a picture of a replica Elvis Presley pistol, cleaning it up a bit in Photoshop and removing the trademark! It was a simple stencil but really, really relied on the artist having a steady hand, as the lines are dead straight.

Madge went first, while I sat and watched. It took longer than I expected, but it was soon my turn to hop up on the bed. The tattoo didn’t hurt at all – a tiny pinch near the ankle but apart from that, plain sailing. It’s very, very different to everything else I have – which is why I really like it. It’s got hard edges and it’s very graphic, in a way it kind of jars – everything else is organic and natural and fading, so it stands out. I’m really pleased with it.

Save

11th March 2016

Travel

New York, New York

Before we went, I made of big long list of all the things I wanted to do in New York. I think we ticked off about 2 of them. That’s not to say we didn’t have a wonderful time and that we didn’t find brilliant things to do – we did – it’s just that New York has a way of getting involved and messing up your plans!

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to sunshine and lovely warm weather. The drive into the city was fine, and after we’d checked in we set about finding food. Carnegie’s deli/diner did the trick, serving up a lovely chicken noodle soup, a cheese burger and a corned beef sandwich the size of my head. Luckily we were sharing! We followed that with cocktails (Cosmo, natch) in the hotel bar and an early night. After an obligatory shot in Times Square, obvs.

Thursday dawned bright and even sunnier, so we ditched the heavy coats and set out for a walk. We had lunch plans with a friend, so decided to take a slow walk from Times Square down to the West Village, along the High Line, via a bagel shop for the best cream cheese and lox bagel I’ve ever had. It was glorious, and on leaving the High Line we stopped for coffee and for a handbag at Kate Spade!

After another coffee stop a bit further along we found our lunch venue – The Ear Inn on Spring Street and had a great lunch with our old friend and colleague Tim. Two hours flew by, with so much to catch up on and before we knew it we were walking him back to work and heading off to the East Village to see if we could get an appointment at New York Adorned.

We were in luck and booked for Friday, to get a small 10^th wedding anniversary tattoo. We then wheedled our way back through the Village, via beers and chips n guac outside a Mexican restaurant, before getting a cab back to the hotel.

I reckon we walked about 15km all in all, and we absolutely wore ourselves out. So much so that it was a struggle to go out for dinner. Luckily we found a fairly decent looking Japanese Ramen bar nearby and it turned out they did a pretty good Katsu curry and Ramen, which we shared, before heading back to the hotel for a couple of nightcaps.

Save

11th March 2016

Live

Thundersport Round 1: Brands Hatch

The weather this weekend was forecast to be pretty dismal, so I wasn’t sure if we would make it down to Brands to see our friend Michael race, but Sunday dawned fair and sunny so we decided to make the effort. Though we did wimp out by going in the car, rather than on the bike – which proved to be a sensible decision given the temperatures!

We got to the track about 45 mins before the first race and met up with everyone. It’s been ages since we’ve seen them and ages since we’ve been to a race meeting. It was bloody freezing but great to see our friends. I miss regular bike racing, but I don’t miss standing in the cold for hours.

Save

6th March 2016

Live

When in doubt, wear red

Last night we went to a wedding reception. Greg and Mike got married, and we went along in the evening to celebrate with them. It was lovely. And I wore a dress. Not only a dress, but a red dress.

The dress is from Jasper Conran at Debenhams, and I teamed it up with some sparkly cuffs, sparkly shoes and a super-sparkly bag. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of me in the dress, so here’s one of the model!

I’ve had it a while, but never actually worn it. In fact, I’d never even taken the tags out of it. I’ve tried it on a few times but have never been brave enough to leave the house in it, but a wedding seemed the right time to dress up a bit. It felt good.

Save

6th March 2016

Design

Getting geeky about type

This week I had the very great pleasure of listening to a talk about my favourite design discipline – type.

Legends Bruno Maag and Vincent Connare came into Friday to talk to us about why type matters, how they create new typefaces, the impact of their font for Kindle and how Comic Sans was created.

I was in my element, listening to these guys talk to us about the process and craft of creating type and I’ve rarely seen Madge so animated or fired up about a lecture subject matter. I could have listened to these guys talk all night, and they even left some lovely takeaways for us. My Dalton Maag notepad is so nice I probably won’t ever actually use it.

Big thanks to Jo Simmons and Alex Mecklenburg for organising this.

Save

19th February 2016

Play

Gibson Bar

There’s a new(ish) cocktail bar opened on Old Street, called The Gibson. In the place of a previously old and dark pub, it is based around the Gibson cocktail, a variant of the Martini – made with gin, vermouth and an onion.

It was the perfect place to meet my pal Joe, who I hadn’t seen since just before Christmas. I’d been ‘warned’ that this wasn’t your average cocktail bar, and that advice turned out to be very right.

The inside of the bar is gorgeous, harking back to 1930’s New York, with mirrored tables and low seating. The staff are fab – attentive, without being overbearing and keen to help you choose the right thing. The challenge is, the menu is very diverse. There are barely any straightforward mixes on the list, everything seems to have tons of ingredients and it takes quite a while to choose.

I went for a classic vodka martini to start, followed by the more adventurous Gibson Girl. It was nice, but I couldn’t have had two as it has quite a strong flavour. I then plumped for something I can’t remember the name of. It came served in a ceramic onion, and to be honest I had to give up and send it back, as it wasn’t to my taste. The bar were great and didn’t charge me for it (I’d happily have paid, after all it was my choice) which was very generous. They also did the same for Joe, who had ordered something that appeared to be more akin to a desert than a cocktail (let’s just say, it had a ‘chocolate rim’!!)

We had a great night, chatting about anything and everything and I would definitely go back to the bar, for the staff the ambiance and the atmosphere, but I would most likely stick to a classic martini or be very careful about my next adventurous choice. Check out the menu.

Save

14th February 2016

Design

Tattoo: Left arm

Left arm finished 🙂

It took a lot of work and a lot of time, but I am over the moon with the final result. Just one more arm to go!

Save

31st January 2016

Design

Jewellery organiser

It seems that Japanese decluttering consultant Marie Kondo’s ‘KonMarie’ tidying method is everywhere I read at the moment. Her book ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising’ apparently offers pretty radical advice on how to rid your life of stress-inducing clutter, based mostly on what brings you joy, and how you store it. While I’m not quite ready to thank my belongings for their service before I throw them out, I can definitely agree that getting organised and decluttered makes me feel good.

I’ve been doing it on a smaller, much less radical scale during January and as well as throwing things out, am building a steady collection of boxes marked ‘eBay’, ‘Boot Fair’ or ‘Charity Shop’.

I started to go through all of my jewellery last weekend and realised that while there is not that much of it, I do have some nice things that I never wear, mostly because they are tucked away in a box and I’ve forgotten about them. So I got all the boxes out and opened the lids, but I pretty quickly realised that takes up tons of space and looks messy. And you still can’t really readily see everything and access it quickly in the morning.

The obvious answer was to have something hanging on the wall, visible and organised so I sat down with Andrew from Very Woody Things and we quickly designed the answer on a post it note. Four days later my lovely jewellery organiser arrived in a neat parcel.

It was easy to put up, on one hook and looked great on the wall straightaway.

Made from recycled wood and rope, and backed with cork board, the design incorporates pegs that are deep enough to hold earrings, rings or necklaces, but also allow for necklaces to hang freely. I can accommodate everything apart from ear studs – but I’ve only got one pair of those and they can hang in a pretty bag.

While I didn’t actually do any of the hard work of making the board, being part of the quick design process and seeing something you envisage come to life is great. Owning things that you are part of making brings much more happiness than ordering from Ikea, so if that’s what Marie Kondo means about the whole ‘joy’ thing then maybe she has a point.

Save

30th January 2016

Live

Planning

New wallchart finally arrived, and my stationery fetish is satiated for a short while.

I’ve had this one by Crispin Finn before, and I love the clean, simple design. The use of their signature colours is really striking and it’s beautifully screen printed on a pure white 120gsm fully recycled uncoated stock. No shiny shiny laminate.

The planner arrived folded and sealed in a screen printed brown kraft bag, with a sticker seal.

I couldn’t wait to get it on the wall and start adding the really important dates for the year, and I love seeing how the wallchart fills up as more plans are made and 2016 shapes up. I’m such a stationery saddo.

Save

21st January 2016

Older Posts

Newer Posts