Judith de Graaff, a Dutch graphic designer living in France, celebrates places, spaces & faces on her blog and portfolio website.

Plant-loving coffeelovers, I found THE place to go... if you are in Barcelona. This coffee place is called Satan's Coffee Corner and I stumbled upon the address when looking for the beautiful Matagalán terracotta pots. Matagalán's designer Caroline styled the entire coffee place with her creations. Don't you love how the terracotta pots and plants pop against the blue wall?





Satan's cookies:



At Satan's Coffee Corner you can get the best (self-proclaimed) coffee of Barcelona and they serve different coffes like a V60 or aeropress. I ordered a simple and delicious flat white. Please note: no decaf, no wifi, no unattended kids. Cash only. Fuck Tripadvisor, fuck Yelp, aussies keep it quiet!



Satan's tools:



And right there... in the back...



... a spiky & stylish bathroom corner:



Satan's Coffee Corner /// Carrer de l'Arc de Sant Ramon del Call, 11 /// 08002 Barcelona, Spain /// +34 666 22 25 99
Open Monday through Saturday 8 am - 6 pm and Sunday 10 am - 6 pm.

With the current COP21 conference in full swing here in Paris, I can only find one reason why the climate change would be a "good" idea. It would make it possible to plant my cactus plants and palm trees directly in our garden instead of keeping them in pots. I would be able to grow my own botanical garden with dozens of cactus species, succulents and strong palm trees right here in Northern France. No seriously: let's try our very best to prevent this from becoming a reality! I really don't mind traveling southwards to admire lush Mediterranean gardens. The Jardí Botànic in Valencia for example: it was truly one of the (many) highlights from our trip to Spain.



For the first time ever I saw an Opuntia just like mine: they clearly like growing in the strangest directions while keeping perfectly balanced:



Extremely spikey Cylindropuntia:



What's not to love: the pattern, the abundance, the shapes:



The botanical garden of Valencia, El Botànic, was founded in 1567, but only in the late 1980s they started restoring the garden until its completion in 2000. The garden has over 3000 different tree and plant species and it's known for the many varieties of palm trees and cacti. The botanical garden carries out research into plant diversity, conservation of rare, endemic or endangered species of Mediterranean flora and the conservation of natural habitats.



Yummy figues de Barbarie, also known as cactus fruit:



Botanical gardens make me happy:





I couldn't help but picking some palm tree seeds from the ground. It was pretty hilarious because the flower beds in the entire garden were covered with baby palm trees (that grow from the seeds that fall from the trees). They will probably remove these off sooner or later, because palm tree roots are really tough, but it looked so cool!



The perfect bench in the sun:



Amazing palm tree seeds from a species I had never seen before (unfortunately I don't recall its name...):



Strong and tall palm trees everywhere:





And as logo-obsessed as I am: the logo of the Jardí Botànic is actually a leaf drawn by Matisse! Love it!



That moment when you recognize a plant in the wild from Justina Blakeney's drawings:



Jardí Botànic /// Calle Quart, 80 /// E-46008, Valencia /// +34 96 315 68 00
Open every day (except Dec 25 & Jan 1) from 10:00 - 18:00 (winter) / 21:00 (summer) /// admission 2,50€

The smell of darkroom chemicals will be forever linked to my childhood. My dad was (and is) a passionate photographer and used to develop all his photos at home. We also had a mini photo studio in the attic and every once in a while my dad would ask my sister and I to be his models and I clearly remember the hot lamps and silver reflection foil. The results: tons of beautiful grainy black and white photos of ourselves, that still have that particular photo paper smell today. (I shared some of them on Instagram if you like to see).

In my teens I liked cheap disposable cameras and for the first time we sticked colorful photos in our photo albums. Later in artschool I used an old Minolta for my projects. Photography has always been part of my life in some way, but I really fell in love with photography on our first trip to Iceland. I didn't have a photo camera at the time, but brought my mobile phone and snapped so many pictures. Iceland is very photogenic, the light, the landscapes, their design, the colors, the Northern Lights... Soon after our trip I bought a little compact camera because I wanted better quality without carrying around a heavy DSLR. The compact camera was replaced by a bridge camera (a Sony NEX5N ♥) and earlier this year I  bought myself the first mirrorless fullframe camera (a Sony A7R). It still fits in my handbag, because I think the best camera is the camera you have with you. I also believe that good photography is all about training your eyes by practicing a lot, like every day. With my previous camera I started shooting in RAW which made a huge difference too. I think I'm too lazy and impatient to read big manuals about photography, I prefer to spend my time looking at beautiful photos ;) Or trying to make them myself.

Two months ago, Anki from Zilverblauw published her first book, called Shoot! It's a book about photography, but as you can see on these pictures, it's not a dark black & white book with tons of technical details. It's a book that looks good in your home (HELLO gold foil letters, pink and yellow!) and it looks good in the inside as well thanks to Anki's love Casper's graphic designer skills. Actually it doesn't only look good, it feels good too: in the book Anki tells all about making photos with your heart. Of course you need to know a little bit about aperture, lenses and white balance. But above all photography is about learning to look & see and show the world with your heart and through your eyes. A little peek into the book:



Inspirational photos made by Anki. Don't you immediately recognize her style?



See, even the technical pages look nice and easy:



All handlettering in Shoot! is by Milou, also known as Mevrouw Knot:



And a proud moment (and a complete surprise!) when I flipped through the book: my blog & instagram are mentioned amongst other inspiring creatives:



I can't wait for Shoot! to be published in English (wink wink Uitgeverij Snor), because this is a photography book you actually WANT to read. With lots of helpful tips and gorgeous photos, but without the boring technical details... well, there's of course some basic stuff you need to know, but Anki makes it very easy to understand, and easy on the eyes. A beautiful gift for anyone (or yourself) who enjoys taking pictures and wants to improve their skills. You can buy Shoot! here.

What a heavy week. Ever since I heard that there was "something" going on in Paris on Friday night, my emotions were all over the place: horrified, shocked, angry, sad, scared, invincible... We hear about suicide attacks in far-away countries, war crimes, poverty, epidemics, natural disasters every day on the news. But this week the horror was here in Paris. So close and the consequences directly influence our daily lives. My first impression was that people around me, friends and strangers were so extremely sweet, supportive and cohesive. I wish that this will become the new "normal": that we help others, share more and care for each other.

Horror like this makes me realize how furtunate I am to do what I do (and love), and travel to so many beautiful places. One these gorgeous places is the Desert de Les Palmes, north from Valencia in Spain. It was one of my favorite hikes during our trip through Spain last month. According to Robert, it's not a hike if you don't have to use your hands. And really: we climbed over the ridge of 3 mountains, with steep precipices and giant rocks. The views over the Mediterranean were dreamy and it smelled like pine trees the entire time. Pure bliss!

Robert "tricked" me into this hike by explaining this was the only place in Europe where you can find indigenous(!) palms. The Chamaerops humillis were beautiful, and yes: we climbed to that mountain peak in the background:



The mountains were so peaceful, and from almost anywhere we could see the Mediterranean and the cities of Castellón and Benicàssim. We didn't cross paths with anyone the entire afternoon, except for one trail runner and a mountainbiker. Really, if you love hiking and being outdoors, you should go here: it's beautiful!





Subtle colors of pink and orange heather:



My sister asked me to bottle the smell of the pine trees, because it's one of the best natural perfumes in the world. Unfortunately I don't know how, so i brought her one of these pine cones:



Desert de Les Palmes /// Parque natural del Desierto de las Palmas /// Perfect for a day trip from Valencia
More information about routes here. We parked our car in the National Park near the visitor center and followed routes 1, 2 and 3. We covered a total distance of 10km in 4 1/2 hours, including breaks ;) Not very fast, but we loved it!

Coming home after a three and a half week break meant it was back-to-business straight away. It felt like we hit the ground running: new projects, new clients, a weekend in a cabin on the water, and a bathroom that needed our attention too. Knowing that I have so many sun-drowned photos and stories that I want to share here... oh sometimes I wish I could skip some work and go straight to photo editing and blogging. And go back to Valencia to have a delicious raspberry muffin at Pastelería Dulce de Leche:



Souraya from Binti Home has a big crush on the city of Valencia and when we met at Meet the Blogger in Amsterdam in October (we were actually on stage together!), she suggested me to check out the tips on her blog. I did and had to check out Pastelería Dulce de Leche, because it's not only a bakery, they also sell beautiful lifestyle products... and plants!



It was super busy when we visited Dulce de Leche. Really: coffee, cake and plants are such a successful combination! And their staff is super friendly and laid-back, like most of the people we met in Valencia. The neighborhood Ruzafa is probably the hippest area of the city, lots of fellow graphic designers have their studios in Ruzafa and there are some really nice boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses too. If you're in the area: don't forget to visit the Ruzafa food market. It's so vibrant!



I'm not sure if it's the delicious cakes, the abundance of sanseveria, monstera or rubber plants, or the nice coffee, but everyone at Dulce de Leche was smiling. Including us, because what's not to love when you're in a lovely and sunny city with your favorite person, eating cake, drinking coffee, surrounded by plants? Yes, I know, I want to go back too ;)

Funny detail: I immediately recognized the ochre plant pot that Souraya has in her plant hanger, next to the counter:





Pastelería Dulce de Leche /// Carrer de Cuba, 43 /// 46006 València, Spain ///  +34 (0) 960 03 59 49
Open every day from 9AM to 9:15PM