SPOTTED!

Check out the latest edition of Urbis magazine for some design inspiration (giant Lego blocks anyone?!). We're excited to see several pages featuring our products, as well as our beautiful winter collection ad on page 9... 

Posted by Amy Tonkin / Citta Design Team

Spotted!

on Fancy! - New Zealand design blog.

Their write up made us laugh!

A tiny world

Teeny tiny crocheted animals by Suami.

Paper Lanterns at their best

Our paper lanterns have been used in the newly revamped Island Thyme Eating House on Waiheke Island. Don't they look stunning?

Thanks to Anna Church for using our product!

Urbis Design Day

There has been a lot of excitement surrounding Urbis Design Day and finally it's here - Yippeeee!


New Zealand's hottest creatives join forces with some of Auckland's most well known design showrooms and 'a series of eclectic and inspirational temporary installations.' The theme of the day is 'Colour in Motion' and I for one am really excited to see the variety of works on display plus enjoy a few nibbles along the way!


Tickets are $30pp or $50 for a double and they will transport you from showroom to showroom.


BoConcept will be one of the stops and upstairs on Level 2 is Citta Design, along with Leeann Yare's new store 'Collected' and the infamous World Beauty & Pencil Boutique, all part of Bloc.


Got your tickets? I have!

Buy tickets here.
Posted by Emma / Citta Design Team

Around the web loveliness

1. Painted ceiling* - this is amazing! Are you brave enough?
2. Washi tape - Pencil Boutique is about to open across the road**. I wonder if they will be stocking this lovely tape
3. Delicious!
4. What a beautiful tattoo. This is something I could live with for the rest of my life.


*Image found on sfgirlbybay via Coco+Kelley
** Citta Design, BoConcept, Collected by LeeAnn Yare, World Beauty & Pencil Boutique are the start of Bloc, an exciting new development opening at 20 Normanby Rd.


Posted by Carina / Citta Design team

Pantone Sweets

If pantone chips looked (and im sure, tasted) this good we would never get any work done in our office.
This fun 'pantone sweets' project is by Griottes {palette culinary}


Found via Creature Comforts.

A design team favourite

These pleated paper lampshades are a design team favourite this season (along with the umbrellas which Emma posted the other day).

The only problem they present is choosing which one to buy. I'll take one of each thank you very much.

Posted by Carina / Citta Design team

Quote

Image source.
Posted by Carina / Citta Design team

CAKE!



EAT CAKE FOR BREAKFAST  I  KATE SPADE


This is so me!  I found this Kate Spade bag on a german blog The Bootlace -  by Merle Primke, another Citta Design fan.
Personally I love eating cake for breakfast, the italians do it all the time, I'm sure people would smile more if they did...


Posted by Katrina

International Women's Days / Part 2

What's the only thing better than roses? A surprise delivery of delicious mini cupcakes!

Water on the Lens

No matter how many times I look at this photo (by Pinewood Studio) it always blows my mind. Amazing.

Posted by Carina / Citta Design team

Happy International Women's Day!

Don't flowers just make your day?!?  White are my favourite too so thank you Patrick for surprising me and brightening this rather gloomy day in Auckland.
.
Happy International Women's Day girls!

Posted by Katrina

Why we want it to rain!

While most are willing the sun to come back, us designers are very excited about the next downpour so we can take our brand new Citta Design umbrellas for a spin! The clever Amy Tonkin designed these umbrellas for the Winter Tokyo Collection which will be hitting the shelves this week. The patterns and colours are so fun we couldn't just choose one... you may spot us this winter with a different umbrella for each day of the week... and what do you know, it's just started raining. Bye!

Posted by Emma / Design Team

SENSIBLE OR JUST SEXIST?

From beach towel to cushion

This is the first time we have ever seen our product (in this case a beach towel) repurposed into something new - a cushion. What a fun idea!

Have you used any of our products for a DIY project?

Find out how to make your own beach towel cushion right here.

Oh my dumplings!

Ever since my Chinese aunty introduced me to dumplings about 11 years ago, they have been one of my favourite foods. I made them for the very first time this week and I think I did a fairly good job (see photo above). I had googled a few recipes for ideas of what to put in them, and then made up my own recipe. Were they tasty? Im pleased to say they were!
My recipe is as follows:


Dumplings
Prawns - I didn't have a set amount for this, I just grabbed a few handfuls which equated to about 30 prawns (deveined etc). I was making enough dumplings for two people. I could have fed a third.
1 large spring onion, finely diced
1/2 tblspn fresh grated ginger (I love ginger, so was pretty generous with this)
1 tblspn light soy sauce
1 tblspn sesame oil
Dumpling wrappers


If you have a food processor use it to dice the spring onions. You want them to be quite fine. Dice the prawns - dont be too fussy as slightly bigger pieces are ok. I roughly chopped them, then threw them into the food processor and gave them a few one second pulses.
Mix all dumpling ingredients together in a bowl (minus the wrappers). It should smell delicious!


Place a dumpling wrapper in your hand and spoon a teaspoon of the mixture into the middle of the pastry. Wet your finger and run around the edge of the pastry. Fold in half onto itself, press edges together to seal the mixture inside, and crimp the edges. Repeat until you finish all of your mixture and/or wrappers.


Heat a frying pan with some oil and a dash of sesame oil. Once hot, place the dumplings in the pan and fry the bottoms for a few minutes. Next, add approx 1/4 cup of water - it may spit, so stand back! You don't want more than 1cm of water in the bottom of the pan. Place a lid on the frying pan and let the dumplings steam for about 6 minutes (hopefully all of the water should have evaporated by this stage).


Serve with dipping sauce (recipe below) - yum!


Dipping Sauce
2 tblspn light soy sauce
1 tblspn freshly grated ginger
1/2 tspn chilli flakes, or 1 fresh chilli
1 tspn palm sugar (brown sugar or castor sugar would be fine as well)


Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.




Posted by Carina / Citta Design team.

Origami Lovin'

Origami paper is one of my favourite things and always has been. Those little packs of assorted paper, each with its own gorgeous detailed print and such lovely colours...many a shopping trip has seen me come home with another small pack of paper goodness to add to the collection.

While brainstorming for our winter collection photoshoot, we had a go at some origami in the office and all the memories came back of getting absorbed for hours, folding pretty papers into various shapes and forms. Here's a sneak peak of some origami-inspired products from our upcoming winter collection Tokyo: Collision of Contrasts...



This is the cutest video EVER!

Robert Longo

Robert Longo is one of my favourite contemporary American artists. The dynamic movement captured in his Men in Cities series has inspired and influenced many, from fashion house Bottega Veneta to American Psycho director Mary Harron. I found an interesting short clip on YouTube where his talks about his Men in Cities series. Enjoy!


Posted by Michael / Citta Design team