photography

I have tons of Etsy stuff to take pictures of and list in the shop. First, however, I have to go through the trouble of cleaning and mending. Sometimes it's fun, but mostly, because we don't have a washer machine inside the apartment, it's a big mess. Seeing these hanging in the morning made for a beautiful picture though.

Happy Sunday!

philly

It's April 2012 and though I have completed my taxes I've hardly kept the pact to myself to post on this blog at least once a week. But hey, today is a new day! We did a trip last weekend to Philly. It was rad. Philadelphia is a little big city. There are tons of things to do see and yet it has a smaller town feel. The people in Philly love there city and are happy to enjoy it.

First of all, the great things about Philadelphia: It's a tiny little bus ride from New York, your butt doesn't even have a chance to get tired, it's all good by the time you get there. It's also wonderfully walkable. While there are plenty of places to go in the city individual neighborhoods have there own charms and there was plenty to do in the area where we stayed.  Also, the place we rented rocked my socks off! An architect's design DIY place with a rooftop deck, amazing furniture design and vintage galore. My favorite part, though, was the morning sun coming in. I love morning sunlight.

Roof top deck. You can't get that in New York too often so we really enjoyed ourselves.

PBR in a bottle? You're too fancy for me Pabst. We had a few drinks a the local watering hole. Okay, we went to a few watering holes.

Beautiful morning light. I love it. If I could get up everyday and watch the sunrise I think my life would be better. That is if I could get up.

The streets are small and filled with people. The best spots to hang are evidenced by the crowds. We just enjoyed meandering and of course we had to test out the Pat's-Geno's rivalry. We say it may just have to go to Pat's!

friends photo op

before our trip to st lucia i took a few pictures of some friends. and seeing as how today is a very special day for them i thought i would post a few pictures!

these are our friends kivanc and rona. i love candid photos and think it is perfect that rona is just cracking up in the second picture. isn't that ring awesome in the third picture?! kivanc gives a pretty great gift. rona runs a sweet cooking blog with her sister here.

st lucia driving tour

st lucia is a small island you could see it in one long day. so one day we took a driving trip through the south and up to castries. everywhere we went people were saying hello to one another and moving about. moreover, everywhere we went were the blue waters, warm sun, and a soft subtle breeze.  

st lucia melting ice

melting ice in the rain. in a rainforest we had to expect a little rain even during the dry season. we left some ice in the plants when a downpour of water come through. it was a cool juxtaposition. fun.

st lucia

this winter we decided to stay in the city (like last year only this year we wouldn't sleep through christmas) so come january we wanted sun. we traveled to st. lucia with my husband's grandparents, who are terrific company. it was important to us that we find places accommodating to grandmas slow scenic walks and yet challenging enough for grandpa to climb a mountain (boys will be boys, even at 80.) we started at the south of the island near view fort. we stayed at a guest house set up by a great couple. every morning they woke to check in on us and take us for walks, in the afternoon they stopped by to share drinks. they were really lovely people, and their place was amazing. simple, tons of fruit near by, nicely laid out with great views of the water. it was the perfect slow start that we needed.

we awoke each morning to the sun rise directly through the windows. if you slept past six you would completely miss it. we had great people taking care of us, the smooth wood under our bare feet and this view.

the highline

the highline in new york is one of my favorite places in the city. located on the west side spanning 14th street to 33rd street, it is railway once threatened but then revived to be a sweet piece of public space. i love the fact that you can feel like you are in the city and in a great place of greenery. it's a must see in the city and new yorkers have a great appreciation for their green space. the greenery (or brownery since it is winter) is native to the area, i think it is just as beautiful as the flowering spring.

 i imagine there will be more pictures to come but for now i hope you enjoyed these!

etsy front page

hello hello! owning your own little shop means you are constantly thinking about it! here is a front page link from etsy that i was featured on today! my hob nob clear glass collection is two in and on the second row. yeay me!

                                                                              klinker.

photo moto.

i'm no photo moto. i'd love to be but i'm still the novice phase. i notice the more i take pictures the more my style changes! good right? not when what i'm trying to do is hone in on a style. but it's coming. sometimes i have to go through the muck to get somewhere lovely. this is a bit of the muck in the journey to what i'm trying for...but it's got it's own lovely-ness. 

jellyjars

lighting. central park.

a few friends took a stroll after brunch through central park and this is what came up. i've been taking my camera with me places with the intentions of posting on my blog but am never happy with the photoshop work i do! this is an attempt at just practicing. i'm sure in a few years i'll look back and have perfected my style. for now this is my humble beginning.

the guggenheim

tonight i was determined to get out of the house and visit a museum. my attempts to visit moma yesterday were thwarted by planning for my husbands birthday party. tonight we rested from the after party and finally made our way up to the upper east side. i love living in new york. museums. theater. fall. now just to take advantage of it all.

visiting the guggenheim today was a wonderful step at taking advantage of new york. on saturday nights going to the guggenheim is by donation so we always spare a few bucks, borrow the free headsets and walk through the memorable spiral. tonight we couldn't be bothered by head sets. when you see these piece you would agree! maurizio cattelan had everything from foosball to taxedermy hanging from the ceiling. he made looking down into the spiral the main attraction.

the hanging horses at the end really do it for me. the art of making something look real and suspended is amazing! he's known for being a prankster and provocative and this piece was just that to me. i couldn't take my eyes off of it but it wasn't heavy. if you haven't had a chance i'd recommend stopping by. this exhibit is supposed to be until jan 22 2012. enjoy!

travel. thailand.

after vietnam we were looking forward to thailand. we met a few of my former students in bangkok and they showed us such a lovely time! may i recommend the massages. there are tons of specials try all of them and if you like get a mani/pedi everyday they are so cheap!
leaving bangkok was only made easy by the fact that we knew we were heading to an island! so fun! we flew in to koh samui which is a gorgeous place but then we walked out of the airport to the water front to catch a boat to our island. all of the local taxi drivers were only willing to take us to a certain boat area where we knew we'd have to pay more to get to koh pangan so we managed to walk about half way until we ran into an australian names kent who we tried to get directions from and then offered to drive us over. it was such a relief.  we don't mind walking as often you get to see a little more and we had nothing but time however if you don't like a long walk, don't. just don't let those guys get the best of you, walk out to the main road and stick out your thumb offer to pay a little bit and you'll be much better off! we got to our boarding station docked the boat and headed out to sea. my favorite part of the boat ride was getting off at the end! the boat was too big and there was no real dock so we had to get off in the ocean and wade ourselves in! it was so fun! if you have tons of stuff this part really stinks but otherwise it's a great laugh. and then we were there to our island vacation far from tons of people nothing to do but eat drink and be merry. i absolutely loved our jungle bungalow. there were a few resorts to choose from one really swanky one right next to ours with beautiful carvings and decor.  it was perfect enough for us to have the cheaper place at 22 dollars a night and walk next door to the beautiful pool and spa area.

vietnam. halong bay.

from hanoi we traveled by bus to cat ba town where we immediately decided to leave and head on a cruse through halong bay to a bungalow in the jungle on the other side of cat ba island. the boat was huge and the view of the rock formations was absolutely amazing. we took the boat to a dock and were left in what seemed like a strange situation where we waited until someone came along and opened a shack full of bikes. we road the bikes to our bungalow and were one of two couples in the entire town. the food was more expensive than in the rest of vietnam but they remembered that i don't like shrimp and cooked meals according to what they through westerners would like. a few days later a korean group came through and they fed them a more eastern meal, they were spot on with accommodating tastes! every one seemed happy and it was quiet and the perfect place for a little r n r.

vietnam. hanoi lake.

we were jet lag for a week, which worked in our favor in hanoi. the city really has a different feel at 5 am and even at that early hour you feel like you're showing up late to activities that have been going on for centuries. we took a motorbike to the lake and slowly walked around as people did their morning exercises. pull ups from tree branches, sit ups under benches, and synchronized tai chi to music. it's so communal and beautiful it's hard to imagine that some of the synchronized exercises were to tunes like on top of spaghetti!

 

  

vietnam. motorbikes.

the biggest culture shock by far of traveling in vietnam were the bikes. the sheer number alone was overwhelming, crossing the roads filled with them was a death wish, but riding on the backs of them was exhilarating.  my favorite memories of vietnam were zipping through the streets of hanoi and ho chi min on the back of a motorbike. you can see in the second picture a woman on the far right crossing the road. the trick was to just go and not change your pace, you depended on the cyclist to ride around you!

travel. vietnam. powerlines.

power lines. we couldn't get over these power lines in vietnam. how does this just simply work?