X-mas lights in London

Strolling through the streets of the city the other night we captured a few images of the abundant Christmas decorations that we would like to share with you here....enjoy!
Ps: our favorite is the shoe tree. Which one is yours?

S'well thermos bottle

The new Riot Collection in Matte Finish is perfect for keeping your favorite drink chilled or warm. Available in six new vibrant colors, the Matte Finish Collection is a sleek new way to show how S’well you are!

Special features of the S'well thermos bottle:
Food safe stainless steel without plastic coating avoids changes in taste.
Mouth is big enough for an ice cube, small enough for drip-free sipping
ThermaS'well Technology™ keeps drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours.
Complies with safety standards of the FDA (the American public body responsible for food safety)
So well insulated that water won’t bead on the outside: hands, bags and papers stay blissfully dry.
Available in trendy colours.
Ergonomically designed to fit in your hand and your cupholder (car, bike, pram, ...)
S'well donates 10% of its profits to WaterAid, who support water projects in third world countries! 
Polished enough for the office, tough enough for any adventure

Size 17 oz/500 ml

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Don't put the S'well thermos bottle in the microwave.
Don't fill with carbonated drinks.
Don't put the S'well thermos bottle in the freezer.
Hot drinks carry danger of scalding.
Clean the S'well thermos bottle thoroughly before first use. Not suitable for dishwasher.

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Toronto!

At arrival in downtown, Toronto doesn't necessarily greet you with its most charming side at first, but once you take your time to discover the other individual districts, it reveals truly interesting features such as quirky shops, cool galleries, excellent restaurants and good architecture! Here are a few photographic impressions we captured during our recent visit to Canada's hotspot.

                  

An impressive sculpture by Richard Serra at Pearson International Airport 

                                         

early morning downtown

     



On Memorial Day

Wall in the Drake Hotel, Art and Design District

Lamp made from bicycle frames, Drake Hotel

Quirky fashion made from vintage clothes, by Preloved

American Diner in downtown



CN Tower





The Art School



Installation for the International Thread Festival at GalleryWest on Queen Street 



On the way to Distillery District



Seen from the CN Tower





Beautifully hand-crafted wood toys for the 21st century

Beautifully hand-crafted wood toys for the 21st century, inspired by today's sea transport.

The Wooden Giants series by Papafoxtrot, comprising models of three of the largest cargo ships in the world.

Emma Maersk

About

At nearly 400 meters in length, the Emma is the longest container ship in the world. Besides being the longest, she also has the world’s largest diesel engine producing nearly 110,000 horsepower. She carries over 11,000 containers from China to Europe every seven weeks, with stops in Africa and the Middle East on her way. Emma’s first captain, Henrik Solmer, said that piloting her is a fantastic feeling and “what younger people would say is cool.”

40 cm × 6 cm × 8 cm

Emma Maersk  blue                                                                   Emma Maersk  grey

Arctic Princess

About
With nearly 150,000 cubic meters of liquified natural gas, the Princess carries enough energy to power 45,000 homes for a year. Each of her spherical tanks is 42 meters in diameter and cooled to -163°C. Although designed to transport gas from the world’s northernmost natural gas fields, global tracking reveals that her current position is just off the sunny shores of Puerto Rico. Congratulations, Princess!
30 cm × 10 cm × 4 cm

Arctic Princess Blue                                                                  Arctic Princess Grey

 

TI Asia

About

“No Smoking” is written in two meter high letters on the bridge of the Asia, which is a good idea when you are carrying 3 million barrels of oil. Four TI-class supertankers were built in the early 00’s and are currently the largest ships at sail; Asia was the first of these. Despite being spec’d for a 40 year life span, after less than a decade she has been retired to the sunny coasts of Qatar to spend the rest of her days as a stationary oil storage vessel.

39 cm × 12 cm × 4 cm

TI Asia blue                                                                                              TI Asia grey

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The Spice Trader

We found fine organic spices for you in Toronto! Passing by this beautiful shop, the seducing scent coming through the door drew us inside. We entered a colourful and mouth watering world, met the charming owner Allison and instantly ordered her exquisit and beautifully designed products for our shop!

She has created various collections of herbs and spices with themes of different cuisines, such as a French Box, an Italian Box, the Around the World Box, the Herb Box and especially for the holiday baking season the Baker's Box including a vanilla extract that blows your mind!

Enjoy!

Here you see the Herb Box and its contents

This box contains the following organic herbs:

summer savory,marjoram,oregano,parsley,sage, tarragon, lemon thyme and thyme.

SUMMER SAVORY is a herb from the Mediterranean region. Its flavour is reminiscent of THYME with a hint of MARJORAM, and it is an essential ingredient in chicken stock. Its flavour does not overpower dishes but adds a particular dimension and so works well in blends, especially stuffing seasoning.

TARRAGON is an aromatic herb cultivated for its sweet, anise-like flavor. Tarragon imparts its flavour readily, and is one of the herbs often used in making flavoured vinegars and oils, not to mention mustard! It is grown in Europe and is found extensively in French cooking. It has a distinct flavour found in tartare and bernaise sauces and is one of the ingredients in HERBES DE PROVENCE.

MARJORAM is a herb that is native to Europe and is now grown all over the world. It is used in European and American cuisine. It is similar to Oregano and has some of the same flavour. However, it is more delicate and sweeter than oregano and is used in many blends such as BOUQUET GARNI andHERBES DE PROVENCE.

OREGANO is a herb native to the Mediterranean. It has a sharp, spicy flavour muted with a lingering lemony taste. It is used in Italian cuisine and is essential in ITALIAN MIXED HERBS. It is also found in American and Mexican cuisine.

PARSLEY is a herb that has been around for centuries. Dried parsley is mild and fresh in flavour. It is a flavour that helps enhance other flavours and is used in herb blends and to complement delicately tasting foods like white fish. It can be found in HERBES DE PROVENCE, BOUQUET GARNI, and ITALIAN MIXED HERBS.

SAGE is a herb from the Mediterranean region that has been used for centuries. It is a pungent herb that has a slight minty and musky tinge to it. It is used in traditional stuffing blends and is an essential ingredient in ITALIAN MIXED HERBS. Sage works well with fatty meats as its astringent flavour profile cuts through the grease. It is delicious when used to make savory breads.

THYME is native to the Mediterranean region. It has been used for centuries. It is found in many blends both spice and herb. It has a pungent, sweet, antiseptic flavour. It is always found in BOUQUET GARNI, HERBES DE PROVENCE, ITALIAN MIXED HERBS and ZA'TAR

We also offer a box of 200gr. Organic Black Pepper 

.

 

 BLACK PEPPERCORNS are known in India as the King of Spices. Black pepper is produced from the green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which time the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer around the seed. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns. Try it on strawberries!

The finest spices make the finest food!

All available in store and online

TIN OF TIME

Our time is not only the most valuable but also the most personal gift we can make.
Nothing new actually but in our fast-paced and often hectic everyday life this fact is getting more and more eminent.

Share this valuable and fleeting substance of time with the people who are important to you.
We all know: time shared is twice as enjoyable. Time, once it has passed, cannot be brought back for all the gold in the world. Memories, however, stay forever in our hearts.
As Ludwig van Beethoven once said "Man possesses nothing more valuable than his time".

So, give something really special, offer a TIN OF TIME®!
In this special silver tin you will find a set of instructions, together with inspiring ideas, rolled and tied with a red ribbon. Within this roll are two further rolls, one for extra special friends or loved ones, and a general one for colleagues or neighbours. Simply fill in the chosen voucher, roll it up and tie it with the ribbon provided and place it back in the silver time tin ready to present as a gift. The tin is food safe and can later be used to store all sorts of things, even biscuits or chocolates. The label can be removed easily.

see here how it works

(in German)

Dispatch Work

London is wonderful! We just LOVE discovering something new, something quirky, interesting, fascinating -you name it - nearly every day!
Such as this fun little work of art, that suddenly caught our eye on our morning walk through Clerkenwell today. As we are big Lego fans ourselves (surprise, surprise!), we were thrilled with this idea and happy to find a veritable example of the so called "dispatch work" movement rolling around the world.
Read more about that here: http://www.streetartutopia.com/?p=1279
and here: http://www.dispatchwork.info/

Just to show you where it is:

on the corner of "The Modern Pantry" on St.John's Square