Exchange Hotel

If you have a preference to stay in boutique hotels when you travel and like avant-garde art, have I found the hotel for you.  I was in Amsterdam last week working on the wedding plans and toured several hotels around the city.  One of the most interesting hotels I visited was the newly opened Exchange Hotel .

Located down the street from Central Station, the Exchange Hotel is the sister hotel to Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel and replicates the room system of offering guests the choice between 1 – 5 star hotel rooms in the same building.  On a design front, the hotel teamed up in a creative partnership with the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and commissioned the school’s students to design the hotel rooms.  The result is that no two rooms are the same and I can confirm, having toured five or six of them, the rooms are spectacular works of art.  Examples of themes include a pinhole camera, the Marie Antoinette room, the mattress room and a room that looks like a hooped petticoat structure.  I will share with you that my only disappointment in this innovative property, is their lack of AC in rooms.  I think AC is a necessity in this day and age, however I am sure there are loads of people out there willing to forego AC in the summer for cool digs.

Another great feature of the Exchange Hotel is its cafe and contemporary department store, Stock and Options.  Their cafe, Stock, is a much-needed retreat on a strip of fast food, touristy junk.  Stock has your typical cafe roundup of items such as smoothies, yogurt, muesli, coffee, tea, croissants and some sweets but really stands out from the crowd due to its beautiful interior design.

Options, their contemporary department store, is the third gem tied to the hotel.  Options is a showcase for all things design.  It is a terrific store for both local and international design brands and will quickly become a favourite of locals and tourist alike looking for something special.

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Cupcakes from Lithuania: Kepejai

I’m always a fan of writing posts on baking; an activity near and dear to my heart.  The location of this post may be a bit exotic to my North American readers but I love it as it demonstrates how universal the cupcake trend has truly become.  Kepejai, is a bakery in Vilnius, Lithuania.  How did I find out about Kepejai you ask?  I’ll tell you.  If you don’t mind a somewhat convoluted web search story that I am about to type…..  Here it goes:  I discovered their shop while reading through a cool, new, online Lithuanian (English) design magazine called “Llamas’ Valley” (page 122).  I came by Llamas’ Valley in a post written last week by one of my favourite blogs, Vosgesparis.  Complicated web-searching aside.  I fell in love with Kepejai’s contribution to a wedding photo shoot by Fotopastele (seen below) and decided to share it with my readers.  I hope I have the opportunity to visit Kepejai in Vilnius while I am living in Europe.  I was already planning on making a trip to Riga, Latvia sometime in the future to check out an old-world Jewish bakery in the city that I read about in this article.

 All photos via Fotopastele and cupcakes from Kepejai 

martin creed

Martin Creed is a British artist who currently splits his time between London and Alicudi, Italy.  I am in love with his work and found it thanks to a terrific blog called My Adventure is Your Advantage (MAiYA).  It certainly is in this case!  Below, is a selection of my favourite pieces from Martin- ultimate favourites are #2 and #3. Happy Thursday.  Next week I will fill you in on my second trip to Amsterdam.  There has been a lot of exploring going on this past week. Excited to share.

All images via Martin Creed’s website.

minimega

Minimega is my kind of paper brand.  Based in Denmark, Sara Andersen, graphic designer and owner offers loads of fun and colourful items like wrapping paper, prints, postcards, journals and adorable gift tags under the Minimega brand.  However, we are not just talking about any old wrapping paper, cards and tags.   We’re talking wrapping paper, cards and tags with triangles, squares, and polka dots- brightly coloured!  Rest assured, Sara uses 100% recycled Danish paper and vegetable inks making the products environmentally friendly.

For inspiration, check out the company’s blog to see what the Minimega design studio is up to.  You can shop products from Minimega’s online store but from what I gather, they only ship to countries in the EU (good for me!!), sorry my North American friends.

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kokoro chocolate

I recently read about Kokoro chocolate and I am loving this cute brand.  Based in Belgium, Kokoro chocolate makes beautiful, mouth-watering chocolates which have some pretty stylish packaging if you ask me.   The chocolate flavours are innovative as well ranging from white chocolate sake pearls and dark chocolate piemonte hazelnut to dark chocolate fleur de sel citrus confit and dark chocolate mint passionfruit.

The website is also great.  On the home page, when you scroll over a chocolate, the chocolate breaks and you get to see what is inside; every chocolate eater’s favourite part.

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Love This: Holiday Gifts

Raw Materials

I am heading back to Amsterdam next week to continue planning the details of the wedding.  I have a list of vendors to check out and I think, by the time spring rolls around, I will be an Amsterdam event planning expert.  Researching and interviewing vendors is a fun process and I am looking forward to my task.

One store, non-wedding related, that I look forward to returning to, is a shop I found on my last visit called Raw Materials.  Raw Materials is recycled, reclaimed and reused materials at its best- in furniture format.  The store, almost museum-esque, merchandises its products over three floors.  Walking around inside is truly a sensory overload to those interested in recycled, natural products like myself.  Raw Materials carries a broad range of items from lighting, and chairs, to dishes, tables, floor rugs, ceramics and textiles.   One could easily outfit an entire house with the products they offer or, at the very least, walk away with a unique accessory to decorate a room.    I hope these pictures are a bit of a tease, but really, you have to check out the store yourself next time you find yourself in Amsterdam!

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Design Supermarket Part II

On Saturday, I attended Prague’s Design Supermarket to check out the latest fashion, jewelry, home accessories and art that is being produced by some of the city’s young, talented designers.  The exhibition was located at Palac Archa, a building located beside the Starbucks not too far from subway stop, Florence.  An entire floor was used to showcase the artists goods.

On the fashion front, there were certainly some unique pieces ranging from wearable-fashion forward, to avant-garde.  My favourites included a stylish, marshmallowy, winter jacket by No Fashion (pictured below) in a champagne colour, that I tried on and loved- too bad it was close to $600 CND.  I also loved Ether‘s cow purse and clutch and Leona Skanderova’s oversized, crocodile bowling bag purse (both also very $$.) Likewise, the whimsical, multi-material purses by Gabang (pictured below) were pretty cool.  Lastly, on item that really stuck out and will be a piece that I will purchase at a later date, is a print by a local artist that goes by the name of Antimultivitamin (pictured below).    I’ve included a couple other shots I snaped while walking around to give you a sense of what’s new and exciting in the Prague design world.

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