Dog Blog Photo

Since her teething has finally been subsiding a little lately, we decided to reward Rocket with her own fluffy bed. Needless to say, she's pretty happy about it.

- Krista

Brian designs shoes with Keith Haring foundation

Last weekend in Paris we were actually there for a work trip. I got to work on a cool project for Tommy designing a line of sneakers and rainboots for men, women and children. We partnered with the Keith Haring foundation to make the collection, and it was really cool to be able to work with the art of a cultural icon. Tommy made a donation to the Keith Haring foundation so that we could use the art. Its nice to work on projects like this that have a charity angle. I have been really lucky to sort of fall into that work on the job with the Doernbecher Foundation, Nike Foundation and Project Red and now this. Read more about the foundation here.

As you can see the shoes are pretty crazy. His art was really Pop (Haring is was just featured in the exhibit Pop Life at the TATE Modern) and very 80s so I thought I would try to make a retro inspired collection with the same energy that Haring's art had. Check out the pictures from the store Colette. I wanted to take the look of Haring's famous "Pop Shop" and adapt it for the store. They painted a pattern on all the walls and floors and I designed the logo and neon for the program. Very cool to see it all come to life!

See below a picture of me and Pepe, the designer I worked with from Tommy.

The store Colette also created a microsite for the shoes, its here. There you can see all of the million styles we did. (Maybe overkill in my mind).

They did a great job promoting the event and there were loads of people there. Colette promoted the launch by combining it with a gallery showing of modern graffiti artist Andre. It was a nice connection with Keith Haring and it brought out a lot of the Paris cool kids crowd. Local music sensation Sebastian Tellier was there, along with Busy P and other people I didn't recognize.

Overall it was a really cool thing to do, a great experience and a neat chance to make something that people will enjoy wearing. See more pictures on my re-designed website here.

- Brian

Paris... Again!

We lucked out and got to go to Paris again for a few days this week thanks to Brian's work. It was such a nice trip even though we only stayed two nights. It's just so easy to travel when the train ride is only 3 hours each way!

We had wonderful weather - 50 degrees and sunny the whole time with a single 10-minute rain shower, so we got to be outside and walk around the city all day long on Friday. It made me think that spring is coming - that is, until we came back to Amsterdam which is still in the 30s with predictions of snow later this week. Sigh... it's only February, right? March has got to be warmer than this.

Anyway... I'll let Brian tell you about the work part of it since it was his shoe collection that brought us there. Stay tuned!

For now, here are a few photos:

Me outside of the Louvre

Brian in his signature pose outside of the Louvre

French Macaroons! Yummy.

- Krista

Photo Op

One day it was snowing outside and Brian decided we should get out our new camera and take some photos.

Here are some of the results:




- Krista

Happy Birthday Rocket!

Rocket officially turned one year old this past weekend! It's hard to believe we've had her for nearly a year already. She's definitely less work than she was when we first got her, but I wouldn't say she has quite grown up yet!

We spoiled her for her birthday, a puppy only turns one once, right? Below she's loving her new bird stuffed animal. And by loving I mean tearing it to pieces.


- Krista

Amsterdam's Winter Blast

In case you haven't been following the weather across Europe, it's been really cold here - for Amsterdam standards, at least.

It all started in Berlin - there was snow, and lots of it. Our train was rerouted due to the massive amounts of snow in Germany, and the moment we got back, freezing levels dropped in Amsterdam and it started snowing like crazy.

Snow is not a normal thing in Amsterdam - being on the coast, it usually stays pretty mild all year round (hence why the summers rarely get above 75 degrees Fahrenheit).

So it's quite unusual that for the past week and a half or so the ground has been covered in snow and ice. This has made it extremely hard to walk/bike, and of course we don't have a choice since we don't own a car here. Brian has still biked to work nearly every day though (what a trooper!), and I have yet to fall on the icy sidewalks, though there have been many close calls.

In one way it's been pretty fun to have our own little winter wonderland for a little while, though I think we'll both be relieved when we can actually go outside again without having to bundle up like we're going to the mountain (I am definitely getting sick of my puffy coat, my uniform for the past two weeks). Our dog will sure miss it though! Who knew Beagles loved the snow so much?

Here are a few pictures from the past week:

This canal in the center of the city is completely frozen - we even saw some young guys playing soccer out on the ice the other day (risky!)

Bundled up in my coat and boots

Bikes covered in snow

Rocket enjoying the snow

- Krista

New Year's in Berlin

We didn't have any New Year's plans, so when our friends Michelle and Jesse said they were going to Berlin for a few days, we decided to tag along.

We stayed in an apartment for two nights with them and their friends John and Katie who are currently living in Germany. Michelle was a great tour guide (apparently the rest of us aren't very good planners), and we had fun exploring the city during the two days we were there. On New Year's Eve, we joined over a million other people to brave the snow and watch some famous Berlin fireworks.

The trip was a success, although the train ride back wasn't the highlight of our lives - it took 12 hours instead of the 6 it was supposed to (who knew trains could be delayed because of snow?), and neither of us were feeling great from the night before. But we made it back, and were happy to get home and see our animals!

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

From left to right: me, Brian, Jesse, Michelle, John, Katie

Brian and I on New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

- Krista