Cosy Melody.

Today I have to post something about music for the first time, because a friend of mine (Thank you P.) posted the name of this wonderful young singer from the states. Her name is Melody Gardot and her music got me from the first moment on. It is really great and cosy jazz and is perfect for this time of the year. So I don't want to bore you with my text anymore. Just sit down in your sofa, watch the snowflakes fall, fell the warmth of the fireplace and enjoy this great soft voice.

In the Shade of light.

Recently I walked through Vienna's inner city and discovered that another traditional shop closed its doors forever. It was one of the last shops for lampshades. What used to be a booming business in former times, is a craftmanship that is about to die out here. In Vienna there are not even a handful of them left. Unlike as in Britain where it is still a kind of art it seems that in Austria there is just no market left for it. Although you can create amazing effects by just having a great lampshade made to measure for an old lamp. Actually the shade is often as important as the lamp itself. A great variety of possiblities is shown in the picture below, which shows a part of the range of Besselink & Jones, a british lamp factory. The good thing is, there are two great women left in Vienna who are able to create great lampshades. Find their contacts below but don't forget that a lampshade should fit to your interior as well as the lamp. So contacting an interior designer for help is recommended.

Besselink & Jones, UK, www.besselink.com

Christine Sares, Vienna, www.lampenschirme-wien.com

Anita Markl, Vienna, members.aon.at/markl/

Annie Leibovitz.

What more can you ask of a perfect sunday in Vienna than to see a wonderful exhibition as the current Annie Leibovitz exhibition at Kunsthaus Wien? It is the sequel of a former exhibition that showed her work until 1990 and presents her work from 1990 to now. It is an amazing overview of her work and for the first time shows a mix of commercial work and personal photos of friends and family. Those different types of photos compliment each other in an amazing way and add a much more emotional touch to the whole exhibition, not only because some of those photos showed the last years of her dear friend Susan Sontag, who died from leukemia in the 90ies, and of Leibovitz's father who died shortly after Susan. So if you're in Vienna you shouldn't miss the opportunity to see that amazing overview of her work. The exhibition is open until 31. January 2010.

Kunsthaus Wien, Untere Weißgerberstraße 13, 1030 Wien, every day 10am - 7pm, http://www.kunsthauswien.com/

Hats off to Viennese tradition.

This time I want to introduce you to another great example of a company that was able to survive more than 100 years and that found its way to combine traditional craftmanship and modern design. I'm talking about the most famous viennese hatter Mühlbauer. It has been founded it 1903 and is now owned and operated by the 4th generation of the family. Every hat is still produced by hand and they found there way into the shelves of the most famous warehouses of our time such as Bergdorf Goodman in NYC or Le Bon Márche in Paris. As a lover of hats I naturally stop by every now and then in their flagshipstore in Seilergasse and I often can't resist to buy one of those wonderful headgears. But I'm pretty sure that one can never have too many hats or shoes. Below you'll see some examples of their recent collection for fall/winter 2009/10.

Mühlbauer Hutmanufaktur, Seilergasse 10, 1010 Wien, www.muehlbauer.at

Fresh fruit from the fleamarket.

The other day I browsed through Vienna's most famous fleamarket on Naschmarkt. I do that regularly since I live right next to it. Sometimes it is just great to walk around between all that funny stuff people try to sell there and feel the atmosphere. But once in a while there are little treasures hidden between all of that crap. So it happend that I found this wonderful tablelamp and I couldn't resist buying it. So this ca. 60ies lamp made in Italy now brightens up my living room and makes me happy everytime I look at it.

Vienna fleamarket, every Saturday 6:30 - 16:00, Naschmarkt/Kettenbrückengasse

Maroccamerican Gypsy in NYC.

One of my favourite places in New York City is definitely "Cafe Gitane" in Nolita. Not only is it blessed with a great retrostyle interior with a lot of funky details, big windows and some tables on the sidewalk (it must be wonderful there in spring/summer) guarantee a great view on busy life on the street. It is a great place to stop by just for coffee and cheesecake (which is delicious) as well as for lunch or dinner, when they offer a maroccan and french influenced cuisine for reasonable prices. The staff at Cafe Gitane is young and friendly, although it is a bit over the top to comment every order with "that's awesome", but somehow even that fits into the very casual and cool atmosphere. Depending on the daytime a crowd of cool and relaxed people mix with some businessmen for lunch. So whenever you're in the city stop by and if they don't have a free table just take a seat at the bar and be served directly by the cooks, who create their meals right in front of you at the bar. All in all a definite must for all New Yorkers as well as their visitors.

photos by The Lensviewer

Cafe Gitane, 242 Mott St., NY 10012

Sorry, I'm late.

It's been a while since I wrote my last post, but my latest trip to New York City reminded me to continue the blog. Not only am I suddenly full of energy thanks to that amazing city, I'm also incredibly motivated to stick to my dreams and follow my passion. Therefore I want you to take part in things I experienced and I'm gonna share all the places I discover. I hope this will keep you and me entertained, inspired and excited.