I am sure I am not alone in thinking… ” I can’t believe it’s 2012!” When did that happen?  Where did 2011 go?  I really can’t believe how fast 2011 has come and gone.  Beau and I know we have been missing in action but in our defense I think we have been on another planet with a totally different rate of time.  You will have to excuse us.  We didn’t mean to abandoned our duty to post on the blog regularly.  Truly we’ve just been really focused on trying to launch our new e-commerce website.  We are excited to say several containers of beautiful product are currently being photographed for the website. 

Launching our online store has definitely been a lot more difficult, has taken longer, and is a more intensive of a process than we had originally anticipated.  I have decided to call 2011 the year of “discovery” because we have learned so much on this new path.  Working with artisans and expanding the numbers of countries we are currently working in has truly been rewarding.  I hope 2012 will be the year of “growth” where we put all our new knowledge to use leading us to even more great new experiences.  So keep your eyes open for World Effect to launch our online store full of  beautiful socially and environmentally responsible home decor this spring.  We also have another website in the works called Color Cord Company specializing in DIY pendant light cord projects.  Thank you for your patience and support! 

I know, I know its been a while since we posted.  We don’t have an excuse except to say it is hard to find a balance in your life when you are starting a business.  Beau and I are back in the states working hard to launch our e-commerce home decor site.  Its both exciting and stressful starting a business but we are really grateful for the support our family and friends have given us.  Thank you guys! The one request we keep getting from our supporters and blog followers has been “I can’t wait to see what your working… Please give me a peak!”  Ok!  We are going to start giving you guys sneak peeks of our the products as they rolling in from the high seas.

Our first sneak peak is from our trip to Turkey.  While in Turkey, we picked up several vintage nomadic kilim and jajim rugs ranging from 40 yrs to 80 yrs old.  We also sourced several patchwork rugs pieced together from vintage cut pile wool rugs or woven kilims rugs.  Enjoy the sneak peek!

If you’re like us and read  many travel publications, you’ll inevitably read how Istanbul is such a culture clash, how it’s the gateway to Asia or where East meets West.  Yes, these things have become cliche but it is remarkable how all these traits ring so true and what an an amazing city Istanbul really is.  From people to food to architecture and art all seemingly being attracted by their polarity.  Meggan and I strolled through the city for a late afternoon with our cameras.  Within just a few dozen shots in a few hours they reflect the new, the old, European and Asian influences and everything in between.  Without a doubt, Istanbul remains on our shortlist of the best cities in the world.

Far away from any news footage you may see of the debt crisis in Athens and just a stone’s throw from Turkey lies the sleepy little island of Kastelorizo, Greece.  We haven’t yet made it to Greece, so we couldn’t resist taking a short boat ride from Kas, Turkey to spend a day in Greece.Kastelorizo, also known as Meis in Turkey has been footballed between empires, alliances and countries throughout history.  This little island in a strategic portion of the Mediterranean has been a part of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, France, Italy and Greece to name a few.  Since 1947 Kastelorizo has belonged to Greece.  Due to the rivalry between Turkey and Greece, it is quite difficult for the Turks to get a visa to visit the island and vice versa.  Although this island is nearly close enough to swim to from the Turkish coast, the atmosphere is entirely Greek, from food to language.This place is really small, I mean really small.  A day there gave us enough time to walk around and explore, eat a Greek salad along with fresh seafood, and soak in the Mediterranean with a few cold Mythos beers. 

Without much to do or places to see, time seems to slow down in Kastelorizo.  The storybook vibe of the harbor has a comforting quality sure to eliminate all stress.  Red roofs, white walls, blue shutters, yachts, fishing boats, cafes and the Mediterranean Sea,  what’s not to like?

Insomnia can have some advantages. Looking out the window of our sweltering room I began to see the sky turn from black to a deep shade of blue. This sign means it would be a somewhat sane time to get out of bed. I decided to grab the camera and walk around our favorite town in Turkey. Other than an occasional stumbling tourist making their way from the bars to their hotel or nearest bench and a few fisherman here and there, I had the whole town to myself. In just about an hour I walked all through town and along the pier. This is such a great little town, we really can’t get enough of Kas. We’ve walked along the pier before, but for whatever reason, I’ve never noticed these cool murals on the seawall before.  The art seems to be an interesting mix of Turkish, Egyptian and Greek.  I thought I’d share a few of the photos I took while the rest of the town was asleep.

Making our way to Denizli, the textile capital of Turkey, we couldn’t resist taking an afternoon to check out Pamukkale.  This may look like a field  of snow or frosting, but it’s actually natural mineral terraces made from hot springs.  You can wade and climb your way up from the valley to the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis.  The texture is really interesting on bare feet, kind of like climbing on a huge smooth pumice stone with coral patterns.  Our feet are now nicely exfoliated.  The Romans built a city on top of this structure, so people have been bathing in these same pools for thousands of years.  We’ll spare you all the historical details and leave you with a bunch of photos, enjoy!

Greetings and sorry for our absence!  Just a heads up, if your hard drive is starting to fail, sometimes your backup drive is about as worthless as a broken hard drive.  Apparently, our misbehaving hard drive was sending corrupt data to our backup.  As a result, nothing worked including all our photos for the trip.

We are long gone from Turkey, but the good news is that we found a place that was able to recover everything and give this laptop that’s been beat up and around the world twice a shiny new upgraded hard drive.

Long story short, we will start back up where we left off.  After India, our next stop was Turkey to check out some reclaimed rugs and textile artisans.  We landed in Istanbul and then took a quick flight to Antalya which is on the south coast.  We rented a car and made it to our favorite Turkish destination, Kas (pronounced Cash).  The slower pace of life here was certainly what we needed coming from Mumbai.  Kas brings back great memories from exploring this area a couple years ago with some of our best friends Jevan and Casey (KID Collective).

We’ll have more posts to come from Turkey.  For this post I’ve included a few shots when I was experimenting with long exposures in the middle of the day.  It kind of smooths out the water, and hopefully represents just how gorgeous the water is here.  These were all taken with ND300 filter and around 15-30 second Exposures.

It’s good to go where everyone knows you’re name.  No, we’re not at Cheers, we’re back in Jodhpur, India.  We always stay at the same place, the Devi Bhawan.  We’ve spent probably about 30 days here over the last year, so the staff has become very familiar with the American couple lugging camera gear around.  Meggan and I really love staying here, it’s a little outside of the old town area, but it’s like a little oasis among the honking rickshaws.  The Devi is a really a great place to stay at a really affordable price.  We highly recommend it for those of you that may make it out to Rajasthan.  We were really busy working with one of our artisan groups, so we didn’t get a lot of time to take the cameras out, but we were able to sneak out to the old town one morning.  We never get tired of taking photos of the “Blue City”, it’s always a great place for a camera.  The night shot above was taken during diner from the rooftop patio at one of our favorite restaurants, Indique.  A great place for a nice view of the blue buildings, fort and the clock tower.  

More photos continuing our post from Bhaktapur, Nepal.