How to: Keep Following Punkrockparti After Tomorrow!

*Update* The process of transferring Punkrockparti.com is taking a bit longer than planned. I am working hard to get it perfect, and will of course let you know when it is ready! x.

Hey babes! I hope you had a great weekend and are as excited about tomorrow’s launch of the new design of Punkrockparti as I am! Now since the switch is a big change and I will be moving platforms, I want to make sure that those of you who follow along will stick around :]

So here’s the deal:

If you follow Punkrockparti by email: Email follows are currently run through WordPress, and I will be switching to Squarespace tomorrow. I will still have an option to ‘subscribe by email’ but you will need to re-subscribe once I am on the new platform.

SO. If you are an email follower, please log-on to the site sometime this week and sign up for my email list again! I would hate to lose you!

If you happen to forget or are looking for other ways to keep up with me, here are some great options:

– Follow through Bloglovin’

– Like my Facebook page

– Follow me on Twitter: @punkrockparti

– Keep up with me on Instagram: @punkrockparti

– Or follow me on Tumblr

I hope that is clear and that you guys will transition with me and love the new look! I’ll see you tomorrow! x. Paige

 

 

New Year, New Blogging Goals

So I’m aware that we’re well into January by now, but alas, I was traveling and knew that my New Years Resolutions would be on the back burner until I was settled again in Copenhagen. Now that I am back and have had some time to work, I want to share my new plans + goals for Punkrockparti for 2014!

Here we go:

Goal #1: First of all, as you may have guessed from the updated logo above, Punkrockparti is getting a new look! This is something I had planned to do in the summer, but I started daydreaming about it on vacation and redesigned not only the logo, but the entire site, myself this past week before school started. I will also be switching blogging platforms [scary, I know!] so I will be sure to put an update out about that tomorrow so that I don’t lose any of you lovely followers! My goal is to launch the new site on Monday and I am very very excited, so stay tuned!

– My next goals relate to the content of Punkrockparti.com, and who I want to be as a blogger and where I will focus my time. First, I still plan on blogging as much as I typically do, about 5 times a week. However, I have felt inspired lately to write about more things that I am interested in. Here are some of my thoughts:

Goal #2: For a long time I have felt that the focus of this blog was mainly my personal style, with a bit of art + architecture thrown in. Since I have been traveling quite a bit and living in Copenhagen I feel that I have a pretty unique perspective on architecture and urban living, and I want to share more about that. I of course still plan to blog about my personal style, but I would love to see the posts become way more lifestyle based and talk about the neighborhood I am in or the event I am at!

*So, if you are one of my fashion-loving-readers, please stick with me! There will be some new content but it will always be an important aspect of this blog. I also share a lot of my fashion finds on Instagram, @punkrockparti, so keep up with me there!

Goal #3: Another new perspective I will gain is from interning with an urban renewal organization this semester, and that is a topic I have become very interested in. It is an exciting position that I plan to blog about after the launch, and I would like to continue sharing my discoveries on the blog.

Goal #4: As an architecture student, I would like to continue sharing my knowledge + advice with you. One of my post successful posts was How to Stay Motivated as an Architecture Student, and I just recently launched my advice video about the same topic, which you can watch on Youtube. I find that there is a lack of advice or just general blogging about architecture school, and I would like to change that!

Goal #5: Finally, some of my favorite posts in 2013 were the interviews I held with designers + also architects. With the launch of the new site, I have a couple of great interviews lined up with really fascinating people in the design world, that I hope you will love as well.

Alright, still with me? I sure hope so! I know that it may sound like I may be making a lot of big changes, but I think this will only lead to better blog posts + more interesting content in 2014. I hope that you’ll get excited for the new site to launch Monday and will see what kind of new posts will be coming your way in the new year.

I love you all + you reading along with me means the world! I really hope to see you around still. Check back this weekend for some reminders on how you can still follow along, and I’ll see you on the new Punkrockparti.com on Monday! x. Paige

Travel Diary: Beautiful Barcelona

Oh Barcelona…I wish I was back there right now. After a rainy few days in Madrid [and a very dark Copenhagen winter] we were definitely ready for some sunshine, and boy did we get it. It was a gorgeous two days of exploring Gaudi’s masterpieces and hunting down even more tapas restaurants…we obviously didn’t get our fill of them in Madrid after El Tigre! Note: if you go to Barcelona you HAVE to check out Can Paixano. One of the funnest dining experiences I’ve ever had. We actually went twice!

But back to the architecture, I was really just blown away by Gaudi. The fact that this man designed all of these organic yet structurally sound forms without digital tools blows me away! It was amazing how Barcelona really celebrated his architecture. The city was also just very fun and there were a lot of cool corners to explore. I can’t wait to go back one day and dig a little deeper!

Of course our #1 must-see in the city was the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. It was just around the corner from our AirBnB apartment so we would pass by it all the time, which was really cool. I mean, what can I even say about this church? It speaks for itself and leaves me speechless at the same time.

Another really fun Gaudi project was Park Guell. We ended up not wanting to pay to get in to the actual built work because it was pretty expensive, but I got all of these great shots just from looking in at in and walking around the park. The park was quite beautifully landscaped with a lot of cool [free] things to explore and was on of my favorite parts of the trip.

The Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe was also a must-see. It’s pretty small so we also had some time to take some fun pictures and sketch a bit. It was so cool to experience it at dusk!

Right next to the pavilion is a big palace converted into an art museum, but the part we enjoyed about it was the killer view. It’s fun to get a great view of a city at both day and night, and we caught this one just as the sun was setting.

A few more of my favorite shots from some modern parts of the city. With such a wide range of old and new buildings, you can see why it’s a place I want to visit again one day!

Where have you explored lately? x. Paige

Florence Street Artist: Clet

So I’ve raved about Florence quite a bit on here already, but there was one part of my week that was especially fun for me. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of street art, and will usually photograph any of it that I see. When I first started walking around the city I kept spotting these funny characters on street signs. I enjoyed that they weren’t especially political or controversial, and were mostly just for laughs. It started becoming a little game for me to try and find as many pieces as I could while exploring Florence.

Then, early in the week my friend Steph was taking me up to Piazza Michelangelo to check out the view and sketch a bit. On the way there, we ended up stumbling upon the artist’s studio, who we now know as Clet. It was a such a cool space where you could not only buy stickers of the street sign art, but there were also quite a few works in progress like a big junk + wood sculpture in the middle of the room. Peeking at all of the art on the walls and browsing through his prints was really fun. Touring a lot of cities, you tend to keep coming across the same tacky art for sale on the streets, so finding something like this is always really special.

I found quite a few throughout the week! I think that contrast is something I’m drawn towards in both art and architecture, and I especially love how Clet’s work contrasts the ancient architecture of Florence.

You can check out more of Clet’s art on his Facebook page or maybe you will spot some in the next city you visit! x. Paige

Inside My Sketchbook: Florence

My time in Florence was so relaxed and reflective. I had lots of time to walk around the city and sketch, which I hadn’t done yet during my month of travels. I will be taking an architectural watercolor class at school this semester, so I thought I should start brushing up my skills [no pun intended]! I also was in need of a watercolor sketchbook, and found this beautiful one at the San Lorenzo leather market. It has a Harry Potter vibe that I’m kinda digging alot. While I need to keep practicing, I was really happy with the amount of sketching I actually did, so let’s take a peek into my book today.

First, is this baby. I honestly can’t remember the last time I sat down and did a detailed architectural drawing. The journaling class I took last semester was more focused on urban spaces, and not as much so on buildings, so this was a new little challenge. I sat on the steps of the Capella de Medici scrawling away at this for over an hour, and was pretty pleased with my patience.

Another little visit I took was to the Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti [the royal palace]. It was very rainy while I was there, but afterwards I ducked into a cool café to dry off. I pulled out my map of the gardens to make a more diagrammatic drawing of my experience there. That’s also when I realized I didn’t actually see all of the gardens…oops.

A trip to Florence wouldn’t be complete without a drawing of the Ponte Vecchio. As an attempt to make mine less typical, I decided to stick with only one color story for the sketch. When you look out at the skyline of Florence, the most dominant color is yellow, so I figured that was a nice nod to the tradition of the city.

As mentioned before, I spent a lot of type analyzing Copenhagen’s public spaces in my urban journaling class last semester. I really enjoy it, so I don’t plan on stopping. This was my observation of Piazza della Republica at 5:19 PM, complete with little symbols and all. Yes, let’s just admit it, I’m a nerd.

One of my favorite buildings in Florence was the Instituto Degli Innocenti, part of which was designed by Brunelleschi. This is where abandoned babies were left to be cared for when it was first constructed, so it is adorned with ceramics of infants on the front facade. I had seen a [too expensive] vintage postcard earlier in the week of a picture of one of the ceramics, so I decided to paint it for myself instead.

Finally, I’ve saved the worst for last. Ha! It’s no secret that I’m not that great at drawing people. I was actually pretty hesitant to make an attempt at a statue, but my friend Steph encouraging me on this day. We hung out in the loggia of Piazza Signoria while I sketched “Rape of the Sabine Woman.” I guess it came out better than I expected, and a I threw the Palazzo Vecchio in the background for a little context. I definitely need to keep practicing though…

What have you been sketching lately? Or perhaps now you’re motivated to start? I’d love to know! Thanks for stopping by, x. Paige

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Travel Diary: Madrid!

Let’s backtrack a couple of weeks to the 4 days I spent with my friends in Madrid. Yes, it’s finally time to catch up on sharing all of my travel photos from the past few weeks. [P.S. If you missed my London or Germany diaries, check them out!] Since I don’t want to completely flood you with photos, I’ll be sure to space out my travel catch-ups with other posts this week! Now let’s go back to Spain…

The three of us stayed in an AirBnb apartment very close to the city center and some great food options. Check out our view here! We had 6 days to travel within Spain before heading to Rome, so we decided to stay for 4 in Madrid, and 2 in Barcelona. Looking back, we really wished we had more time in Barcelona, and I would recommend the same to you! Madrid is a great place, but there isn’t as much to do there in comparison to Barcelona in my opinion. However, it was a great time filled with lots of paella, sangria, and exploring!

One of our favorite spots was this glass food market, Mercado de San Miguel. It was right around the corner from our apartment, and while it was a little fancier than Madrid’s little corner restaurants, it was still really cheap and delicious. No joke, I probably ate paella for every meal of the day and this place had 2 different booths to choose from! The design of the space was also really intriguing. The glass was a modern touch, but the wood construction on the exterior was a nod to the archetypes of Madrid.

Another highlight was visiting Herzog de Meuron’s Caixa Forum Art Museum! It was the perfect outing for us on a really rainy day. We saw an exhibit called Japonisme on the tradition of Japanese art in Spain, that turned out to be very good.

Next food recommendation: mmm_US. Shoutout to Alex for discovering this place for us. We were searching for good tapas places, and this one ended up being walking distance, yet again, from our apartment. It ended up not even having tapas…but it did have the best empanadas I’ve ever had in my life! Also a plus, the decor was super interesting and filled with lots of fun objects.

One of the most culturally exciting things we did was check out this huge street market, El Rastro. We weren’t expecting to come across something this huge. It ended up being a great way to witness local culture while browsing through items.

Which reminds me of this funny story…the only thing I picked up at the market was this Iron Maiden patch, which I thought to be cool at first. The vendor had so many to choose from, that I didn’t look as hard as a should at it. Hours later I realized it’s strongly supporting the confederacy…awkward. I’ll definitely be altering this baby in some way before stitching onto a jacket, ha!

The other museum we checked out was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. The main draw to this museum is to see Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, amongst his other work. There were also a few Richard Serra pieces, who we’ve learned about for years, but lets be honest they were underwhelming. This museum was very large, and I imagine that the plaza in front of it is a fun place on a day with nicer weather.

Finally, the best food spot we checked out was the tapas restaurant, El Tigre. It was recommended by a friend who had stayed there before [thanks Antonia!] and was just, like, the most awesome place ever. We walked in to this crowded stand-at-counter place not knowing how to order. But no worries. The waiter seeks you out, asks what drink you’ll each be having, and he takes it from there. They basically just provide you with enough food for everyone in your party. Actually…it’s more than that, we couldn’t finish it all! The drinks are huge glasses of beers and sangria, and the whole shabang only cost us 6 Euro each! Such a steal!

One last favorite place was this urban renewal public space we spotted while walking to the street market, which you may have seen on Instagram while I was traveling. It was such an intriguing spot that I’ll actually get a whole new post up about it once I do a little research!

These are the last few nice shots from the trip! Lots of exploring, of course, but also quite a bit of time escaping the rain with coffee and playing cards. I think it’s always a good thing to find some down time when traveling.

One last thing, I’ve linked all of these spots on my Pinterest board City Guide: Madrid which I have been creating for each city I visit, so you can easily locate everything if you find yourself in Madrid sometime soon! The new mapping option that Pinterest offers makes it so easy for me to create these guides for you guys super easily! Enjoy!

x. Paige

Credits // Madrid map in cover photo created by Walk With Me

Favorite Pieces in Firenze

While being all finished with my travels is bittersweet, it is so nice to be back in Copenhagen and be able to blog again regularly! I just started getting settled in to my new apartment with my also new roommate, more on that later, but I was so anxious to get this style post up from my time in Florence! All of the different cities I visited were amazing, but Florence was so nice because quite a few of my friends live there and the vibe was just so relaxed. On this day, I met up with my friend Steph in Piazza Signoria, where the replica of Michaelangelo’s David stands. Granted, it’s a pretty touristy area, but it was a good meeting spot and we also stayed and sketched one of the statutes for a bit before grabbing some coffee at a nearby cafe! I got a lot of good sketching in during my down time in Florence, and I’m excited to share them on the blog this week.

Another highlight of this day has to be that I wore my new bag out! I’ve always loved the structure + style of Celine bags, but let’s be honest…$$$. I spotted this perfect nano knock-off at the San Lorenzo leather market. I was pretty excited because a lot of the other bags were plain, so I was surprised to find this one with a print. Believe it or not I only brought one purse when I moved to Copenhagen, so I’m excited to add this cross body into my rotation!

Get the look:

graphic tank // Unif [similar]
cardigan // Vero Moda [similar]
ripped skinnies // Monki [similar]
boots // Forever 21 [similar]
crossbody // San Lorenzo Leather Market [Authentic Nano Celine, and similar knock-off]
cross earrings // Forever 21 [similar]
lightning bolt earrings // Forever 21 [similar]

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P.S. Firenze, I love you

Yet another short + sweet blog post, but I can’t help but check in with you guys! As much as I love blogging, it has been so nice to take a break this week. The past 7 days that I’ve spent in Florence have been one of the most amazing weeks I’ve ever had. Wandering around the city, actually having time to sketch, and catching up with old friends is so wonderful. This was a fantastic time and a great last hurrah before school starts again next week!

Here are a few photos from my time here so far, and thank you for sticking with me during my vacation time! x, Paige

// Today’s view while eating lunch

// Beautiful view of il Duomo. Cherishing the blue skies here that I won’t find back in Copenhagen.

// Good times with good friends. I can’t get over how fun it is to hang out with my friends from school in all these amazing cities.

// Prison-turned-café my friends took me to. I loved this wall shelving made from metal containers

// Mini Celine knock-off I picked up at the San Lorenzo leather market with my Christmas money. I’m obsessed!

Stay tuned for more of my travel photos and stories on the blog soon!

Designer Outfit: Audrey of Preciously Mine

As a longtime fan of designer Audrey Precious, I’ve followed her work for quite some time. She is a super talented, not to mention rad, lady running her brand of handmade clutches she designs and sews herself known as Preciously Mine. Not only has she built the business herself, she is always coming up with new styles and offering the coolest prints.

Another one of her talents are these outfit layouts she creates on Polyvore! I was so excited when she wanted to collab on an outfit for the creative girl, incorporating one of her designs [the Wu-Tang clutch]. Below you can check out our interview + shop the look!

1// Sleeveless Blouse – Dolce & Gabbana 2// Clutch – Preciously Mine 3// Flats – Carvela Kurt Keiger 4// Lipstick – YSL 5// iPhone – Apple 6// Good Vibes Spray – Wild Enlightenment 7// Denim – Abercrombie & Fitch 8// Infinity Scarf – Modcloth 9// Geometric Earrings – C.Wonder 10// Watercolor Pencils – Staedler 11// Revolver Notebook – Megawing

Did you study design or fashion design, or are you self taught?

I would say both, but mostly self taught. I started sewing at 14 years old, taking sewing class from a seamstress in my town. I then went to fashion school for two semesters but I didn’t really like it. It took away my creativity and I dropped out. That’s when I taught myself how to make bags!

How long does a typical piece take? Do you have any assistance?

It’s really hard to tell. On a good day, I can make a clutch in 30 minutes, on another, it can take me over an hour to make a purse! My husband helps me a lot!

What inspires you most?
I’m inspired from all kind of art! From painting to tattooing, from fashion shows to nature!

What’s in store for the future of Preciously Mine? Any dreams?

There is a lot of new things to come! We are working on a big collaboration right now. You will have to stay tuned to find out! The ultimate dream would be to have Preciously Mine in retail stores!

Thank you so much to Audrey for creating this rad look and sharing a bit about her brand! Don’t forget to check out her line on her website + follow her Instagram accounts @audreyprecious and @preciouslymine to keep up with her adventures and cute goods!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! x. Paige

Advice Video: How to Stay Motivated in Architecture School

Lately, I’ve been shocked at the lack of advice resources available online for architecture students. Perhaps this is because we are naturally very busy and don’t often find time to blog or reflect, but it was something that I wanted to change.

After writing an article on Staying Motivated in Architecture School, it received a great response and has actually been one of my most popular posts to date, and has also created a lot of feedback + interaction with my readers.

Since it has been quite a while since I wrote that, I wanted to expand on the topic a little further, and decided to do that in video form. My goal is that this not only provides more info, but also feels more personal than my original article.

I am admittedly nervous to put this video out into the world, but I want to share my experiences over the past 3 1/2 years of school, and hope that it would help someone out there struggling. Of course, I am no expert and don’t even take my own advice sometimes. I still have a lot to learn, but I would love to start writing more architectural content for this blog and think this will be a big start.

Check out the video below [I apologize in advance for how long it is, oops!] and hope that you find it interesting or it helps you out!

I’d love to hear your feedback, advice, or constructive criticism as well! Thanks for watching! x. Paige