A short documentary about the work of kinetic sculptor Jim Bond

This is what my partner John has been working on for the last few weeks. He's filmed some of the amazing kinetic sculpture of our friend Jim, interviewed him and put together this wonderful short documentary.

Jim Bond - Kinetic Sculptor from John Coombes on Vimeo.

Eye opener

Now, I usually don’t do beauty posts, but this is worth sharing.

My eyelash curlers broke a couple of weeks ago. No surprise there. I’ve been using them pretty much every day for the last 20 years.

All-in-all my make-up is pretty basic and fuss free. I curl my lashes, use eye liner, mascara and kohl. All black. Sometimes, when I go out, I use eye shaddow or lipstick. Or both - not black.

So, in need of a replacement, I decided to upgrade. The ones I had were from Bodyshop, and though they did the job, I heard that there are some lash curlers out there that did the job better.

Shu Uemura and Shiseido are the best rated ones, in magazines as well as online. But which one is the one for me? They all looked pretty much the same and I’m sure they all do pretty much the same job. No? I mean how different can the curl on your eye-lashes be?

They are both rounder than my old curlers. Also the Shiseido is a bit wider than my old ones and the Shu Uemura is a teeny bit wider than the Shiseido. In reviews most people complained both of them would be too wide. I didn't want to make a mistake, buying something that I couldn't use because it’s too big. I was okay with my old curlers, so to be on the safe side I did decide to get the Shiseido.

It’s funny how after this long time of using my old curlers these minute differences feel HUGE. Since, apart from the colour - the new one is black - they look pretty much like my old ones. I was really surprised how all the slight differences make a big difference on my lashes. Curlier than ever!

In the past I had to curl twice to grab all lashes as my eyes are quite big. Also I always go from the roots to the tips in about three steps. With the new wider curlers I am nearly, but not quite, able to grab them all in one go, but it turns out I either need more practice or I should have got the Shu Uemura.

"You can't use up creativity. 

The more you use, the more you have."

Oscar Wilde

Self portrait by my daughter Johanna (3)

Cut flowers

John went food shopping with our three year old daughter the other day and they came home with a colorful bunch of cut flowers for me. Hanna saw them in the shop and said: "Look, Papa, they are so beautiful! Let's buy them for Mama."

We've just had a chat with our daughter's nursery teacher today and have been told that Hanna is doing everything she should be doing at her age. I didn't doubt that, I think she's amazing, but it's always nice to hear somebody else saying that. Especially since we've been told so many difficult things about Hanna and her condition, and the problems she might have, by all the doctors and nurses that looked after her and us just after she's been born nine weeks premature. She was diagnosed with Tracheo-oesophageal fistula with Oesophageal Atresia.

Down from the tree and up to the attic

Most of our Christmas decorations came down today. Generally I like starting to decorate things christmasy from the 1st  December or 1st Advent, whichever comes first, and take things down on Epiphany. But this year I'm in no rush. I enjoyed Christmas in Bavaria and I enjoyed having our house all christmasy and cosy.

This year on 1st December I moved our sofa from the living room to the studio for a photo shoot for "Blogging Your Way". When I put the tree up in the living room I thought it was great to have more space and left the sofa where it was. We put a couple of small mattresses and big floor cushions down and created a lovely space for cuddles under the tree. The children have been building forts and castles and boats and will probably complain when we'll move the sofa back in tomorrow.

This year is going to be awesome

This year you’ll find text or images or both in the following categories on my blog:

Design & Art
Textiles & Tales
Food & Drink
Decorate & Renovate
Garden & Outdoors, Freitag’s Links - Mashup of online finds
Children & Creative Crafts
Studio Glimpse & Sketches, Quotes & Food for thought

I want to share what I’ve learned, what makes me smile, think, or just go ooh, aha and mmh. I hope to inspire you and get in touch with you. Let’s make this year a good one.

Love, Katrin

P. S.: Be patient with me, I've got two small children, I'll post as often as time allows. 

Nikon D200, focal length 35 mm, aperture f/3,2, exposure time 1/20.

Back from the holidays + early spring clean

I hope you've had lovely holidays. We've been in Bavaria to celebrate Christmas with my family.
We've had a great time. More about our adventures soon. Firstly I need to get things back up to speed here at the studio. There's a lot of sorting, cleaning, planning and organizing to do.

I just read "Magic Cleaning: Wie richtiges Aufräumen ihr Leben verändert" by Marie Kondo and skimmed though some other books on tidying and organizing and feel totally inspired and encouraged to have a clear out. Usually I am not good at throwing things away so I want to crack on while this feeling lasts. ;)

The book will be published in English soon by Randomhouse: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying

My shop is back from the holidays, too:

Merry Christmas And A Very Happy 2014

This year all our Christmas cards are hand printed by Hanna (3).

It's official: Yorkshire is one of the best regions in the world.

Seriously, why was everyone so surprised when Yorkshire came third in Lonely Planet's ”Best in Travel 2014 - the best regions”, just after Sikkim in India, and The Kimberley, Australia.

It may have been unexpected, but it is not unjustified. 

Just look at this picture I took the other day, with my iPhone, out of a moving car - stunning, no?

This is how the press reacted to Lonely Planet’s choice:

By 'eck Lonely Planet! What's so chuffing great about Yorkshire? [The Guardian]

Yorkshire – it's even better than we thought!  [The Guardian]
Lonely Planet Reveals The Best Cities And Regions To Visit In 2014 Including - Wait For It - Yorkshire [Huffington Post]

But hey, Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide publisher in the world. They must know, right?

Babbling Fools - the rock and roll dub

In case you've missed it last week at the Oblong Theatre in Leeds, here it is online:



It's strange to watch the film nearly 5 years after working on it. I still remember all the lines, as I heard them over and over while John was editing.

P. S.: This is me at 8:00, stirring the semolina.

Don't invest in fashion, but invest in the world

"Buy less. Choose well. 

Make it last. 

Quality, not quantity. 

Everybody’s buying far too many clothes."

"Kaufe weniger. Wähle bewusst. Gebrauche es lange. 

Qualität, nicht Quantität. 

Alle kaufen viel zu viele Kleider."

Dame Vivienne Westwood

To my readers who understand English, please listen to this powerful talk by this amazing, inspiring Lady:

Und für meine deutschsprachigen Leser hier absolut lesenswertes Interview mit Vivienne Westwood.

Hier zwei Filme, die sich mit den Auswirkungen unseres Textilkonsums beschäftigen: Im ersten Film auf das Leben der Menschen in Fernost, wo unsere Kleidung produziert wird und im zweiten Film auf das Leben in Afrika, wo unsere Kleidung landet, wenn wir sie nicht mehr wollen. 

Der Preis der Blue Jeans

Die Altkleiderlüge - wie Spenden zum Geschäft werden



"Die meisten glauben, dass die hierzulande gesammelten Altkleiderspenden direkt in die Katastrophengebiete der Welt gehen. Was sie nicht wissen: Der größte Teil der gespendeten Bekleidung wird weiterverkauft - zum Kilopreis. Einige Hilfsorganisationen platzieren oft nur ihr Logo auf den Sammelcontainern von Altkleiderfirmen.

Ein geringer Teil der Kleidung wird direkt in Deutschland an Bedürftige ausgegeben. Die besten noch brauchbaren Sachen gehen nach Osteuropa und in die arabischen Staaten. Sechzig Prozent der heimischen Ware gelangt nach Afrika. Doch was passiert dort mit den Altkleidern? Die Reportage-Autoren Michael Höft und Christian Jentzsch haben in Tansania nach Antworten gesucht. Ihr Fazit: Nicht nur deutsche Firmen und einige große Hilfsorganisationen verdienen gut an den Kleiderspenden, auch für viele Händler in Afrika sind Altkleiderspenden ein lukratives Geschäft. Selbst die Ärmsten der Armen müssen dafür bezahlen. Die Billigkleider überschwemmen die Märkte des Landes und zwingen die afrikanische Textilbranche in die Knie."

 - Die Reportage, ARD und NDR

Colour of the Year 2014: Radiant Orchid

Pantone announced: "Radiant Orchid blooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination. It is an expressive, creative and embracing purple—one that draws you in with its beguiling charm. A captivating harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid emanates great joy, love and health"    Read the full press release here.

Above image of an Orchid on my kitchen windowsill was taken in natural light with my Nikon D200, focal length 35 mm, aperture f/4,5, exposure time 1/80.

For online text I use the HTML value B163A3.
Here's how you can find it in your colour systems.
RGB: R 177, G 99, B 163
CMYK: cyan 33 %, magenta 72 %, yellow 0 %, black: 0 %
And finally Pantone: PMS 18-3224

Don't get it mixed up with Radio Orchid ;0)