What a difference a year makes

Just had a little moment of thinking about the past year, and its been one crazy ride. I seemingly know quite a bit more than I did before, but its still not enough! Another submersive year of textiles and science and design... Now all I have to do is stop reading and get started!

Pretty Pebbles

I saw these over on designsponge today - they are absolutely gorgeous!!! They are made can be found at Ashes & Milk, and their whole site is filled with the most lovely objects.

Michael Braungart Lecture and my scanner is broken...

How exciting its is to go to lectures by people you hold in high regard. I recently got the opportunity to go to a lecture put on by the Design Council and MADE at the RSA featuring Michael Braungart. I was so glad to have been able to go. I often use Cradle and Cradle principles as a starting point for my design process - thinking about how things could be better. I've scanned in my notes for any of you who might want to read them. I must say so many things stand out as being little gems of wisdom - I think my favourite is "[sustainable design is] not about being less bad but more good" - if that make any sense out of context. PS - my scanner is broken so the notes have had to be slightly touched up in photoshop. The pic above is a raw scan of the cover of my notebook - kind of interesting I must say.

Relevance

Sometimes I need to focus on this kind of information. I'm so happy to have seen this lovely little post-it drawing by Marc Johns. via Swiss Miss

“Let us stop talking falsely now, the hour is getting late.”
via this article from Treehugger, quote by Dylan.

New Discovery!

Thanks so much to my lovely friend Jen for the introduction to a new materials database - Inventables! They even have an affordable student subscription - of course to which I have signed up for! Oh the knowledge at my fingertips! I think they may need me on their team, I'll let them know certainly :P....

Happiness is...

After a long summer in London - I took a vacation. Two vacations actually - and I rediscovered what makes me very happy. The first one was a trip to Paris, where I spent 3 days wandering around and just discovering things. The second vacation was HOME. Every moment spent with my friends and all their little people made me so very happy. Highlights include witnessing Luca's FIRST STEPS, Matteo's adorable motioning meaning glasses, and cuddles while reading stories, Malcolm and Emery's giggles (baby giggles are absolutely delicious), Pheonix's amazing break dancing at the Studio 54 room at the Andy Warhol Exhibit, and cuddles with the sweet Earnest. And how could I forget the one thing that is so important, but its hardest to grasp, the absolute joy of being home, surrounded by familiar things and people who really like me. And the landscape and air. Oh my goodness, how nice it was to breathe actual oxygen - I'm not sure what I'm breathing in England, but it doesn't seem like air in comparison. The mountains were gorgeous, I loved every second - thank you to all of my lovely friends who made my time in Montreal so wonderful, give me 8 months and I'm going to try my very best to be back!!!