• About

snacks & adventure

~ oversharing is a way of life.

snacks & adventure

Tag Archives: design

Graffiti is awesome

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

art, design, graffiti, photography, Spain, Valencia

I first went to Spain while studying abroad, and while I was getting lost in Barcelona for six straight days in a week, I saw some really amazing graffiti.  The street art in Valencia was equally impressive, and this time I had the good sense to record a bunch of it.

It was particularly common to see it on garage-style shop doors that closed for siesta (things seemed to be closed a lot in Valencia, actually).  There were also some really intricate murals that covered the entire sides of buildings, but those were more difficult to photograph.

The picture of the bull (the simple outline drawing) is my favorite – it seems very Spanish, what with the legs like a Salvador Dali painting and the fact that its a bull.

Do you have a favorite?

Advertisement

Cambridge is so frickin’ pretty, Part II

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cambridge, design, England, Mathematical Bridge, Newnham College, Queen's College, travel, University of Cambridge

Alright y’all.  It’s been a week since my last post – it turns out having a time-consuming job is, well, time consuming.  In addition, I went to High Table at Christ College (because I’m fancy) and had a lovely meal with a collection of Brits who are a parody of themselves.  I watched England beat Sweden in the Euro 2012 match at the Champion of the Thames (that’s a pub)(with one of my favorite signs).  I spent an afternoon in Hunstanton, a Victorian seaside resort town in Norfolk (I would love to go back when its actually warm and sunny).

Since I haven’t really had time to process all the fun things I’ve done recently, I’m sharing some photos of Cambridge from my explorations of the colleges earlier in the year.  The red brick building is from Newnham College, an all-women’s college founded in the 19th century.  The chapel image is from I don’t remember where.  And the bridge at the bottom is a Cambridge landmark, the Mathematical Bridge, which is part of Queen’s College, Cambridge.  
 
Cambridge really is breathtakingly cute.

Mosaic Love

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

architectural details, architecture, Cambridge, design, England, entertainment, historic architecture, travel

So a couple weeks ago, I walked to yoga instead of cycled.  And that’s when I noticed became obsessed with the beautiful mosaic pathways in front of the Victorian houses on my route to yoga.

The most amazing and embarrassing thing is, if you’d asked me what my front path looked like before this project, I would have told you it was a concrete pad.  I would have been wrong.  Its black and white tile.  Ian and I never use the front door – it was sticky for the first 5 months we lived here – but still.  BUT STILL.

As always, I’d love to hear your suggestions for what other Cambridge stuff I should chronicle.  I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up without some reader participation.

Beer & Art Nouveau

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

architecture, Art Nouveau, Beer, Belgium, Brussels, design, historic architecture

This is my third post about my 4 days in Brussels, and I haven’t even talked about the Tintin Museum (or the weird city, Nouvain le Neuve, where its located) or Ghent, which is possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

While in Brussels, we searched for every Victor Horta building we could find.  Apparently the city went through a heritage-trashing phase in the 1960s, and a lot of incredible old buildings were lost.  But many have been reused – an old department store became the Comic Book Center, and the Musical Instrument Museum, which is surprisingly cool, is in an old Horta commercial building as well (that’s the floor in the lobby on the bottom right, above).  And some of the detritus from the buildings that were destroyed have been re-purposed, most notably in the Horta Metro Station (above).  I couldn’t believe how many beautiful details there were on even the more mundane buildings – incredible balconies, transom windows, doors, ironwork…its so sad that Art Nouveau was so short-lived as a movement, even if it is decadent and wasteful.  I love it.

The other highlight of the time in Brussels was the beer.  Belgian-style beers are called lambics, and use open-air fermentation.  That means they just let the beer pick up whatever yeast happens to be floating around in the air and ferment that way; the result is a sour sort of flavor (seeing as its the same process used to make sourdough, that’s not surprising).  Lambics are often sweetened with sugar or fruit, but we brought home 5 bottles of the darker stuff (our favorite, Faro, can explode if not consumed in 2-3 weeks, so maybe its just as well that they were sold out).  The drinking in Brussels was awesome.

We went to the Carillon brewery (loved it.  Amazing.  Don’t miss it); the Delirium Tremens complex (five bars adjacent to each other, all selling Delirium products); and to a number of other more low-key establishments, including a crepe place where I got cider in a teacup.  I thought that was delightful.  We also tried ginevre, a Belgium gin-derivative that is delicious if you like the taste of paint thinner.  And the best part is, it was super cheap (the beer, not the paint thinner). I hadn’t anticipated taking multiple trips to Belgium, but we are talking about a trip to Luxembourg via Belgium, if only to stop off and bring more beer home with us.

Belgian Details

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

architectural details, architecture, Belgium, Brussels, design, entertainment, expats, Ghent, travel

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Ian and I were recently in Belgium, where I took 676 photos in four days.  It made me realize how quickly Cambridge has become my home – while I’m certainly not immune to its charms, it very quickly became just the place where I happen to live.  I saw all sorts of mundane things in Ghent and Brussels that completely delighted me. The best example was the door handles/letterboxes that I saw on lots of the doors, particularly while doing the Victor Horta walking tour.  The variety was incredible, and some were so intricate and Art Nouveau.  I couldn’t get enough.

In fact, I had been taking photos of balconies (not sure that’s gong to yield a good collage yet…) when I pointed the door handles out to my husband.  He said “why don’t you make a collage of those?” and I said “I will, but you’ll be sorry” – we zigzagged the street looking at door handles for the rest of the weekend, until I finally just gave up and walked around like a (sort of) normal person.

Enjoy!

Addresses in Cambridge

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

architecture, Cambridge, design, England, entertainment, Mill Road, terrace houses, travel, United Kingdom

Because my doorknockers of Cambridge post was such a smash hit (biggest day yet! 20 likes! thanks, y’all!), I’m going to do my best to make it a series – weekly when possible, but every other week at least.  I’m going to try to find some recurring architecture detail around the city and post a bunch of photos.  I’m not sure how long I can keep it going, so I’m eagerly soliciting suggestions.  What do you want to know about Cambridge?

I chose address plates  for post #2 because once you start noticing them, you really cannot stop seeing what an incredible variety there are.  They don’t have the same visual impact as the doorknockers did, but there a whole lot of different fonts and styles represented.  Americans will also notice that the address numbers are low – Brits, on the other hand, don’t understand a grid system.  I gave someone my parents’ address, and he looked at it and said “Four numbers? there are over a thousand houses on your parents’ street?”

Valentine’s Day!

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, bicycles, design, entertainment, hipsters, temporary tattoos, Valentine's Day

It’s still a few days away, but here’s something that has set my heart spinning:

From tatty.com via UrbanRider

I love it.  Temporary tattoos were a big part of my childhood, and I love cycle-derived graphic design (because I love my bike!).  This bike chain temporary tattoo is available here.

Bonus Saturday Post: I love Ira Glass more than words can say.

04 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, creativity, design, entertainment, Ira Glass, This American Life

 

Its no secret that I’m a huge fan of This American Life.  And I really, really respect Ira Glass and the team of regular contributors and producers for the work they do – I wish they did more of it, and I wish they’d teach me how.  This video, if a little dizzying, contains a nugget of incredible advice that I hope I can manage to follow, and is probably the closest I’m going to get to personal tutelage from the This American Life staff.

Happy Saturday!

Doorknockers of Cambridge

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

architecture, Cambridge, design, doorknockers, England, Mill Road, placemaking, urban planning, vernacular

I live in a terrace house in Cambridge, which means that my house was probably built sometime in the 1880s, is very narrow and is sited very close to a narrow sidewalk and narrow street:

This is the view from immediately in front of my house.

I met someone recently who described my neighborhood as “gritty,” which I guess it is a little bit.  But I love it.  And one of the first things I noticed as we were getting settled in is, when your front door is inches from every passerby’s face, doorknockers become an important means of home decor.  The doorknockers in my neighborhood are amazing.  In a twenty-minute walk yesterday, I counted 38 distinct ones.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 172 other subscribers

Adventure or Snacks?

  • babies
  • Delivery
  • Early Days
  • Parenthood
  • pregnancy
  • Snacks
  • Uncategorized

Click me, big boy!

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blogroll

  • TAMBA
  • Twinny Life

TwitRoll

  • RT @mollyfleck: Scenes from Chicago’s premier car-free space during my bike commute this morning 🙃 https://t.co/2XKGIQPZtO 3 months ago
  • .@DivvyBikes I spent 20 minutes looking for a dock in the Loop this morning. When I finally left the Loop to dock,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 8 months ago
  • RT @WorldBollard: Bollards save lives AND bring immense joy and happiness to the world. #WorldBollardAssociation https://t.co/4IjwPZS1Nb 8 months ago
  • RT @kathleen_belew: One historian of abortion argues that abortion stays at pretty much the same rate per capita over time whether it's leg… 9 months ago
  • I've supported this project as a consultant since I started at Sam Schwartz and I'm so excited to see it go live. C… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 9 months ago

pinterest!

Follow Me on Pinterest

The Gist

adventure Amsterdam architecture art babies baking Bath Beer Belgium book review books breastfeeding Brussels Cambridge Christmas Cornwall cream tea cupcakes design England entertainment Family feminism food football Freiburg friends Germany Ghent Great British Summer high risk pregnancy hiking historic architecture history holiday holidays identical twins internet memes Kings College London Made In Chelsea media Mill Road movies multiples My Friend Jaime my friend kamilla My Friend Lauren nature NICU outdoors Oxford Parenthood parenting photography preemies pregnancy premature premature babies pubs rock climbing snacks summer the Peak District This American Life Toronto travel twins UK urban planning vacation Valencia Wales walking yoga

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • snacks & adventure
    • Join 172 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • snacks & adventure
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...