Love This!: Rossana Fani

I would die for one of these necklaces by Rossana Fani, the Florence based jewelry designer.  Her lengthy design career has evolved from being a window dresser, to collaborating on tableware designs, creating handbags and now to making stunning fashion jewelry.  The necklaces below are made of leather and resin beads (some cases, crystal beads).  Rossana’s necklaces have a beautiful minimalist quality to them but are textured, sculptural and interesting to look at.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Corns n’ Pops (and more)!

Breakfast is my ultimate meal.  I am one of those people who could eat breakfast three times a day.  I am” mildly” obsessed with starting the day off right with a bowl of something.  Be it cereal, oatmeal, or muesli, or if I have extra time- eggs, pancakes or french toast.

While some people are happy to eat breakfast at the hotel and get their day of exploration underway, when I travel, breakfast is part of my exploration process.  You don’t have to ask me twice to forfeit the hotel menu, unless of course the hotel is known for its breakfast menu.  I tend to integrate breakfast AND city exploration into my travel itinerary.

On my recent trip to Vienna, I decided to check out Corns n’ Pops (Gumpendorfer strasse 37,Vienna’s 6th district by Saint Charles Alimentary), a cute breakfast cafe focused on serving interesting combinations of cereals and muesli!  This place had to be good, right?

Corns n’ Pops has a great menu where you can choose from a pre-mixed muesli or a mix your own concoction from their show-stopping, rather extensive cereal-muesli-goodies counter.  They also offer snacks, sweets, smoothies, coffee, tea and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (a nice breakfast accompaniment!).

On the day I visited, I was unfortunately in a bit of a rush and did not have time to mix my own muesli at the bar so I went with their daily muesli special.  The muesli was dense, not overly sweet (they brought honey to the table to self-sweeten) and full of good things like poppy seeds, dried fruit, nuts oats and topped with lots of fresh fruit.   I would have liked to try mixing my own creative bowl but that will have to wait for my next trip to Corns n’ Pops (which I hope will be soon).

I was so inspired by the poppy seeds in my muesli, when I came home I added poppy seeds into my batch of granola.

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Here are some other bloggers who are talking about Corns n’ Pops:

1. Spotted By Locals: Corns n’ Pops DIY Cereals

2. Sushi and Strudel:  Corns n’ Pops

3. Irene’s Vienna: Corns n’ Pops

4. Jules Lazy Days: Corns n’ Pops

Cioccolato

Good morning.  I am busy working away on re-formatting two of my marketing classes and close to the launch of a new digital magazine.  Did I tell you about the project?  You will get to see a sneak peak soon and the full version by end of July.  The topic of the digital magazine is entertaining (at home) globally and I have been working with a really talented graphic designer who has made the visual process a lot more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined.

In my role as marketing lecturer, I have to admit, it is quite nice to have the summer “off” so I have time to think about how to better present material, make my business classes more interactive, creative and fun for my undergrad students in September.  I am surprised by how creative the process is to develop and create lesson plan decks.

On to more visually attractive topics this morning: How amazing is this bakery/pastry shop/decor spot in Mexico City?  It reminds me of the stylish Mexico City macaron place I wrote about two years ago called Theurel and Thomas.  Cioccolato (website under development) is shiny and white with a laboratory-esque feel.  The interiors are kicked up a notch with a heavy dose of  colour, fun and playfulness as a result of the plentiful eye candy around the shop from the pictures on the wall to the center “work bench/island” that looks like it had a bucket of pink paint or icing was dumped down its side leg.   The branding and interiors were done by a fabulous firm named Savvy Studio (based in Nuevo Leon, Mexico) who has also worked on some cool projects like Villa de Patos and Costa Nueva. Why am I not in Mexico City enjoying all of these fun restaurants and bakeries?  As a blogger, the travel list gets longer and longer by the day….

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Doughnut Vault

Happy Monday.  I am back in Prague after spending a couple days extra hot days  in Vienna with our house guests.  We had 35 degree plus weather every day but still managed to tour new parts of the city and stay cool with lots of gelato (even tried poppy seed gelato)!

Before I delve into Vienna later this week, I wanted to  briefly blog about the Doughnut Vault in Chicago.  This place looks awesome for a couple reasons.

#1 The Doughnut Vault makes fresh, home made doughnuts in interesting mouthwatering flavours such as Dreamsicle, Coconut Old Fashioned, Powdered Sugar Stack, and Double Chocolate Yellow Cake (to name a few)….

#2 The Doughnut Vault close after they sell out of their doughnuts- which is usually sometime before noon!  Using various forms of social media these doughnut experts alert customers what doughnut flavours (their blog/Twitter) they will have on offer that day and how long the line up is out the door. Brilliant digital marketing!

If you are not in Chicago, or don’t have a plan to visit the city, I thought I would provide you with a visual of the Doughnut Vault process.  Below is a beautiful time-lapsed video to illustrate the company’s popularity and impressive sell out rate.

Doughnut Vault Timelapse from Mark Pallman on Vimeo.

And don’t think I would leave you without some pictures!?!

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

Daniel Hotel

With daily temperatures well above 30, one would not think it is the ideal week to go touring around the country.  The heat can be tiring.  As my fiance says, “We’re Canadians. We can travel in all weather.” I agree.  However I think he was referring to colder weather.

I was having a conversation with a friend last week saying there weren’t enough well-appointed, reasonably priced boutique hotels in North America.  It seems once you mention boutique, the prices jump to at least $200+.  In Europe, it’s not the case.  Every country we travel to it is quite easy to find a design forward, reasonably priced hotel that is not going to cost you an arm and a leg to stay in.

Here is a new one I just found:  Daniel, in Vienna.  I am not staying here as I just learned about it yesterday but I would totally consider it when I return the next trip. (There is a second location in Graz (Daniel Graz), my other favourite design city that I have blogged about here and here).

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

It’s adorable right?  You have nice wooden floors, funky lighting, plants, an in-house bakery, nice looking rooms, iconic design furniture pieces.  It looks like you are walking into someone’s really nice vintage chic living room.  I wonder why this model has never quite taken off back across the Atlantic?

See you Friday….