Designers shape their creations out of nascent ideas in their fertile imaginations. Imaginations that have themselves been configured not just by the sparking of the creative gene but also by the objects, people and place that impinge on their lives and, of course, by a wealth of aesthetic and design history. The designs they conceive shape the lives of the rest of us: good liveable-with design enhances our individual worlds in so many immeasurable ways .
Category Archives: Dublin
Design Week 2012: Living with Design
Dublin: Vintage Photographs
One of the things I like about the photography class I recently enrolled in is that the subject is taught in the round. By that I mean the class is not just about the technical aspects of photography but instead takes an overview of the subject. For that I am truly grateful as in truth two and a half hours of tech detail every Tuesday evening would rapidly turn my brain to a mushy pea consistency.
Filed under Dublin, Ireland, Photography
Favourite Shops//Dolls
At the corner of two leafy streets, lined with period red brick townhouses, in a quite but interesting Dublin 8 residential neighbourhood, a mere stone’s throw from the city centre, is an alluring independent clothes shop – Dolls – owned by Petria Lenehan.
Filed under Designers, Dublin, Shops/Shopping, Style
Snapshots of my Weekend
I had set aside this weekend for a clean up of my place which looks like some mythical beast had ground down a ton of Saharan sand and huffed and puffed until it covered every surface. No, not sloth on my part – I had some minor work done, very minor, which has generated an inordinate amount of dust. However Friday came and went and the work wasn’t completed; Monday is now the new finishing date. It seemed pointless to do a massive round of cleaning only to have to do it all again forty-eight hours later, so this weekend was instead dedicated to doing as little as possible.
Tall Ships Festival
I am smitten by the sea and I especially love the way the ever-changing seascape reflects the annual onward inexorably march of the seasons. I also like looking at boats bobbing in the bay and if I am passing Dublin port enjoy spotting the cargo ships and cruise liners docked there. It was therefore a racing certainty that I would go to look at the tall ships which arrived in Dublin recently for the Tall Ships Festival (August 23 to August 26th).
Snapshots of my Saturday
I often, thought not invariably, work on Saturdays. However, today was a work-free Saturday so I decided to go into town, town is as I mentioned before, is what the denizens of Dublin call their metropolis despite the fact that it’s a city.
Filed under Dublin, Food/Wine, Restaurants/Cafés, Shops/Shopping
Walking: Killiney Hill
Because, these past few months, I have eaten a surfeit of sugary treats aka slices of cake and put regular exercise on the back burner the land of healthy living seemed as distant as the far reaches of the solar system. It was time for a change, so this week I munched my way through gargantuan quantities of fruit & vegetables. And I walked, walked and walked some more. As I live beside the sea, my neighbourhood is a pleasant place to stroll around but if I was to pound the same route continuously I could very easily get bored. Variety is after all the spice of life so it was time for a change of scenery.
Favourite Shops//Smock
Smock is a rather special independent boutique on Dublin’s Drury Street that is co-owend and run by friends Karen Crawford and Susan O’Connell. They came to retailing from different backgrounds; the creative Susan is a graduate of the Grafton Academy (fashion college) and the no less creative Karen had a corporate career before she teamed up with Karen to open Smock.
Filed under Dublin, Shops/Shopping, Style
Coffee in Dublin//Seven: Clement & Pekoe
When I am in town, I am constantly on the trail of the holy grail of caffeine – a decent cup of coffee. Town incidentally is Dublin, which is actually a city but for some reason native Dubliners, myself included, often use the noun town when talking about it – as in ‘going into town’, ‘working in town’, and ‘shopping in town’. Anyway that semantic digression aside the good news is that there is an excellent newish café/shop called Clement & Pekoe serving equally excellent coffee (and teas) at 50 William Street South in the centre of Dublin.
Vintage Shopping Tips
I asked vintage expert Wendy Crawford, one of the talented trio who co-owns Bow a wonderful independent shop located in the Georgian Powerscourt Townhouse Centre in Dublin, what her top five tips are for vintage-clothes shopping. Bow, incidentally, is one of my favourite shops I have written about it here. Bow stocks: clothes by gifted Irish designers such as Eilis Boyle (the second co-owner of Bow) Tim Ryan and Emma Manley; vintage gems sourced by Wendy; and a treasure trove of jewellery made or sourced by Margaret O’Rourke (the third co-owner of Bow).
Filed under Dublin, Shops/Shopping
Just Add Attitude
Just Add Attitude 