Brass and Copper, Barcelona

Hola todos. I'm off to a second hand market in a bar very soon (photos to follow) but I just wanted to quickly  share a recent find with you.


A couple of weeks ago I paid a flying visit to a craft fair. I didn't blog about it because I literally only had half an hour there before having to go to work, so no time to take photos or really shop.


One stall I did visit and grab a card from was Brass and Copper, jewellery designers who are inspired by Victorian and vintage styles and make the prettiest gee gaws I've seen for a while. These earrings in particular are on the wish list.

I can't figure out from the site if they deliver overseas, but I'm sure if there's anything you love then they can arrange something for all you non peninsula dwellers.


I'll be back tomorrow with a longer post and some photos from tonight. See you all then.

Arancino, Sicilian food in Barcelona...

If you're heading down to the beach to catch the sun before autumn really takes hold, make sure you pop into Arancino on Passeig Joan de Borbó, to try their very tasty food.

http://www.arancino.es 

We've been meaning to check it out for ages but we were trying to behave ourselves on the 'eating out' front (way too easy to spend a lot of money doing that in Barcelona). We finally succumbed to the temptation on Monday night. 

http://www.arancino.es

The basic idea is to bring a taste of authentic and inexpensive Sicilian food to Barcelona. It's not a restaurant, more of a take away, but that's ideal if you want to have a chilled day on the beach without spending too much, or if you're lucky enough to live just around the corner, like us. 

http://www.arancino.es

The main item on the menu is the arancino. I've sadly never been to Sicily so I've never had one of these before, but I think they may be my new addiction. The website describes them as a 'fried rice ball with a diameter of 8-10 cm, filled with meat sauce, mozzarella, peas and varied ingredients'. That doesn't really tell you how delicious they are, but oh my lord, they really are. Crunchy on the outside and melt in the mouth gooey goodness inside. The ragu is very tasty, a real tomato taste, not at all synthetic. So filling too, don't make the mistake we did of ordering 3 of these between the two of us, one each would have been more than enough. (Our eyes are always bigger than our bellies, which is saying a lot).

http://www.arancino.es

They have a great deal on at the moment too, which gives you an arancino, cold drink or granita, dessert (try the cannolo) and coffee or chupito for 6.90 euros, very good value indeed. I think this is a summer offer so get down quickly to grab it. 

http://www.arancino.es

I'm going to have to limit my intake of the arancinos, as they're probably very calorific (is that actually a real word, by the way?), but I know I'll be back for more. They're too good to resist for ever.


By the way, all the photos above are from Arancino's website as we were starving and couldn't wait to get stuck in, I couldn't be bothered to mess around with the camera. I will take some myself next time (maybe).

La Mercè Barcelona - part two...

Last Friday was the second night of La Mercè festivities for us, and it really was difficult to choose where to go as there was so much happening all over the city. Before I let you know what we did, check out the video I found on You Tube showing the projections that we saw on Thursday night.

We started on Friday by heading to the beach for a fireworks show. Fireworks are really popular here and are a part of every single celebration as far as we can tell. I love them, though I know some people find it difficult to get used to when they first come here. 

We then carried on by going back to Cuitadella Park to see Swan Lake performed  on the lake and in front of the massive cascade at the top of the park. It was really well done, starting off at the cascade then, by the use of a big illuminated arrow carried by one of the dancers, we followed on to the lake for act 2. Then, finally, back to the cascade for the last act. There was something so magical about this, the video should give you some idea although it can't capture the atmosphere. The park is lovely at night anyway and I think we all felt transported by the music and lights. 

After that it was a quick dash over to the Plaça del Rei to catch the end of the Villagers live. We made this just in time to hear his last few songs and again, the atmosphere here was amazing, with the ancient medieval buildings spotlighted to great effect. It was busy here but the crowd was friendly and it was great to see that there was a bar and toilets. I have to take my hat off to the organisers of La Mercè and everyone who must have worked really hard for it, as there really was something for everyone and spacing it out all over the city meant that there were no bottlenecks in the crowds and the atmosphere stayed friendly. It's also great to have the chance to see bands for free in a square full of old buildings, which in many other places would probably be fenced off and only admissible by paying some extortionate entry fee. 

Sadly I was working Saturday and Sunday night so this was the end of the party for me, although His Nibs went on to enjoy a few more events. He finished off on Sunday by joining in and getting his shirt burnt at the Correfoc on Via Laietana on Sunday night. I think alcohol may have played a part in that decision...

La Mercè Festa, Barcelona

Last night saw the kick-off of the La Mercè Festa which takes place in September every year. You can also read all about the origins and meaning of it here.

We decided to take it easy last night and just went to see the projections on the City Hall in Pl. de Sant Jaume, which were amazing, alternating between making the City Hall look like a huge Arcade Game and a shifting part of a dream, almost like something from the film ‘Inception’. I tried to take pictures but they didn’t come out too well as the images were moving so quickly.

Then we popped along to Cuitadella Park to see the Antigua & Barbuda funfair, a kooky installation of manually operated fairground rides and attractions which was surreal fun.

Tonight we’re going to check out the circus at Montjuic, the bands at the Bam Festival (especially Villagers who I love) and dancers from St. Petersburg (who are the city guests this year) performing an hour long version of  Swan Lake in front of the lake in Cuitadella Park. That should be enough excitement for one night…

Glamourum, Barcelona Beauty Boxes...

There's something so exciting about receiving a parcel in the post. I love it even more when I don't know what's in it. That's one of the things I've been enjoying about getting my monthly beauty box from Glamourum. I know that there are quite a few companies offering this service now, with mixed results, but so far I've been very happy with this Barcelona company's offerings.

For those of you who haven't encountered the idea before, it's basically a package that you subscribe to monthly, containing a mixture of sample and full size products and usually money off vouchers too. Prices vary but I pay 10 euros a month for mine. I like the idea of trying products I haven't used before and so far the quality has been good, in fact each month has been slightly better than the last, so I think I'll carry on.

Here's a quick run down of what arrived in today's parcel. I haven't tried any of these before so I'm looking forward to a bit of experimentation. 


First up is a sample of  Luxury Diamond Caviar Concentrate from Ainhoa, a Barcelona based company. I'm quite impressed with the fact that caviar is first on the ingredients list, though whether it's good for my skin or not remains to be seen. Diamond dust is not quite so high on the list of ingredients, but again, no idea what that does either. We'll see. 


The second product (full size) is also from Ainhoa and is their Precision Expression Lines Diminisher. I'll be giving that a good go around my crows' feet, here's hoping it sorts them out, even if only temporarily. (I'll just keep bashing more of it on).


Next is a sample of a face mask from Apivita, a Greek company. I'm excited about this as the brand has been on my list to try, as I'm always interested in natural cosmetics brands and I've heard good things about this one.


A full size pack of facial wipes from Comodynes. We all know what these do by now, so not much more I can say about these, although I will say that I'm glad that the brand is another Barcelona one. I'm all about buying local.

The rather witchy looking black velvet pouch contains small vials of a post depilatory soothing oil and a slightly larger vial of a regenerating (ooh, very Doctor Who) body oil from Alqvimia. These smell amazing, and are 100% natural, in fact, according to the website they were the first natural beauty / aromatherapy company in Spain. I'm looking forward to trying these. There's also a 10% off voucher for their e-shop so if I get on well with these that could be handy.

Now I'll admit, the last product in the box is not one I'd have picked for myself. It's a Playboy perfume from fragrance giants Coty. It's not unpleasant, with fruity and floral top notes and a sweet vanilla base, but it's too sweet for my personal taste. A good one for teenage girls perhaps, although I could go into a bit of a rant here about how much I dislike the Playboy products and the general tackiness of the brand. The plastic rabbit ears on the bottle lid of this perfume are not at all pleasing to my eyes, let's leave it there...

Overall though, I'm very happy with the box this month and the general quality of the brands. As well as the samples there are three full size products which would have cost quite a bit more than 10 euros if I'd bought them separately, so it's quite good value, I think. Do any of you subscribe to this kind of package and if so, what do you think so far? 

La Festa Major de Gracia, Barcelona

This blog post is going to be small on words and big on pictures (which some people may prefer). Last Thursday night was spent at La Festa Major de Gracia, which as you may know, is the big annual festival for the area of Gracia in the north of the city. I've mentioned the area before, as it's one of our favourites. It was really wonderful to see the effort that everyone had made to decorate the streets, especially when you realise how much of it was done with recycled materials. The best decorations get awarded prizes but I don't know how the judges managed to choose, it was all so good.

Matches...

Mozart...

The Orchestra... the curtains are made from old Estrella cans...

I want this chandelier...

A reminder of London...

Inside the Yellow Submarine...

Very groovy street lights...

Beautiful lamps...

Every bollard should look like this...

Not sure she meant to get her head wet....

The winning balcony, how brilliant is that?

An excuse to drink beer in the streets? Don't mind if I do...

As you can tell from my shiny face above, it was hot and humid (hence the need for beer, ahem). We had a great night, with bars, bands and DJs dotted around the streets and squares. I only wish we could have gone back every day but alas, work got in the way. I took a lot more photos but I won't post them here, it would be too much. We're off to the Sants festa this week, it's just one non stop party in this town. I'll let you know how we get on.

HatQuarters, Barcelona

It was His Nibs turn to go shopping yesterday, as he's been after a pair of casual summer shoes. The weather here is pretty hot and humid at the moment, so leather shoes just feel too heavy, and you can't wear flips flops all the time, tempting as it may be.

Strangely enough, it ended up being a hat shop called HatQuarters that had the perfect pair. They're a brand called Maians that are made locally and designed by Barcelona designer Alfonso De La Fuente Rey. His Nibs went for the Sisto Basico pair. Luckily we managed to get them half price as the sales are finishing up here to make way for the autumn/winter stock, even though it will be hot for a few months yet.

When I got home and looked the brand up I found out that the company is actually named for and inspired by our barri, Barceloneta. Maians was an island which was located a hundred metres off the coast of Barcelona . It was absorbed by the city for creating the first port of Barcelona, and the area Barceloneta, in 1477 under the reign of King John II of Aragon. One for you history fiends out there.

I'm already planning to go back to HatQuarters to get a hat for the winter. They stock hats from American brand Goorin Bros. and are also planning to stock a new range called Indhy Sombreros, designed by the Maians company. I like to wear hats all the time but it's just too hot in the summer. I've experimented with straw hats and light cotton but I just end up with my hair plastered to my head, it's really not attractive. I end up feeling like this fella...

There are a couple of branches of HatQuarters here in Barcelona (we went to the one in El Born) and one in Istanbul and it looks like they'll be offering online shopping soon too. If you want to get your hands on a pair of Maians they're available in quite a few stores around the world, check out the store locator on the website to find one near you.  


I still haven't managed to get up to the big flea market at Glories yet, the early start required has defeated me so far, but I will do it soon. I swear!