Recycled Christmas Trees

Now, I'm all for Christmas trees for the holidays... lamps and all. Though, I think we should leave the real trees rest for a while and reside in the awesome plastic trees that are out there. 

Anyway, these recycled paper Christmas trees are simply great! I surely hope they do last for a couple of years, but again, they're much more environmentally aware and cheaper than any other tree solution. 

 

Dashing Through The... Wait!

There may be no trace of snow here, there may not be any one horse open sleighs around, but that does not mean that we can't keep up with the festivities!

Have a very Merry Christmas! (And remember to eat sensibly...)

Diana Krall made me re-love this song! Enjoy!

A Week in Brussels

In preparation of my next personal & professional step, I spent a week in Brussels: where I plan to set-up my own little creative studio and use Brussels as a departing point, in terms of career and location as well. This time, I've seen aspects of Brussels that I had not seen the first time I was there. 

Despite the rain, the freezing cold and the loads of snow, I managed to go to some really awesome restaurants, cool coffee shops, nice shopping areas, I had great food (I might have overdone it a bit), and met cool people. However, I wasn't able to come across a good cup of coffee (homemade Nespresso is excluded and I surely and passionately missed Starbucks). 

On a different note, I tried doing Bikram Yoga, which was excruciatingly exhausting and I was lead to the conclusion that I prefer Pilates to it, by far; but this does not mean that I wouldn't go back...

**There's more inside the post**

Exodus!

On September 18, 2010 I woke up early, much earlier than I was used to, I got in my car and drove for a good one hour and something to my new job. 

Right before that September, I had found out about Alex Moulton's Exodus, and needless to say, I was heavily addicted to it, so you can imagine what was the soundtrack to that very first drive to my new work.

For two years and almost three months I was immersed in publicationland so deeply I often had nightmares that I couldn't fit all the text on the given number of pages and woke up stressed under the impression that I hadn't completed all pre-press procedures. 

My course there was a bumpy one; a truly awesome, yet turbulent, studded with wonderfully pleasant moments but also with enough stress to last me for a lifetime. Many, if not most of,  times the two facets of this job were firmly entwined and I guess that's why these two-something years are, now, rendered in such a pleasantly nostalgic light in my mind. 

**There's more inside the post**

Orangina: Can't Get Any Weirder

The weirdest Orangina TV ad EVER! Created by Fred & Farid agency in Paris, directed by Tom Carty / Gorgeous Enterprises. 

I guess they HAD TO do this ad to top up the previous awkwardness fiesta which can be experienced in all its glory here.

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Only In New York: Can I Be There Now?

When I first saw these images I was like: "What a funny-looking tennis court?" but then I read what it was all about. The Hypar Pavilion, located on New York's Upper West Side, is an ultra-luxurious restaurant and at the same time, an awesome green urban park. 

Designed by New York-based interdisciplinary studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (who, apparently, did some amazing stuff) the park is open to the public and not just the clients of the restaurant... Can I just beam myself there now?

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