It's Friday and I Need a 'Scenic View Break'

I'm not athletic, by which I mean I am not in shape, by which I mean, well, you get it. My month in Switzerland was amazing (minus one incident involving the word 'sever') but there is one thing about Switzerland that I sort of forgot to prepare for. It's not a flat place, like anywhere. I was literally staying on the side of a mountain. So instead of going 'over there' it was always 'up there' or 'down there'. Since I was born and raised in Indiana my body has been calibrated from birth to be at sea level which made trekking up and down the mountain all day seriously hard work. So I invented the 'Scenic View Break'. It's basically, exactly what is sounds like. I stopped and enjoyed the view while I huffed and puffed. It is also served the purpose of giving me a moment to physic myself up for the rest of my climb.

All that to say is that sometimes in life (cue the Full House moral-moment music) it feels like an uphill climb and there are just days when you need to take a 'Scenic View Break.' That day is today for me. Maybe, like me, you can't take a literal 'Scenic View Break' but you can look at a few of my pictures from Switzerland and lose yourself for a few minutes. Enjoy!

Huemoz, Switzerland

Gruyères, Switzerland

Gruyères, Switzerland

Huemoz, Switzerland

Villars, Switzerland

La Barboleuse, Switzerland

Huemoz, Switzerland

Montreux, Switzerland

Huemoz, Switzerland

Montreux, Switzerland

See Scenic View Breaks totally work, right?

A Gift From Japan

Side note: The home tour went amazingly well! I'll be back on Friday with a post all about it!

A got a gift from Japan, actually I got several, but today I'm only talking about one, and it's awesome!

I had two students stay with me from Japan a few weeks ago and they were great. Sweet, kind, and came bearing gifts!

Can you spy what is new below?

I'll get a little closer...

I got a fan! Were you as obsessed with these when you were a kid? I always had one that I played with (which is retrospect is sort of strange... what did I do with it?). Anyway, I was really excited when my friend got me this one, mostly because I love the print on it.

It's little fish. Adorable! I really really like this print, too bad I can't go buy more of the fabric!

Scratch Map: Updated

I got a scratch map last Christmas and I still love it. It is such a fun way to document the places in the world I have gone.

When I first got the map I tried to only scratch the states I have been to, but it just looks sort of silly since there is no state outlines on the map. Since I needed to add Switzerland and Italy, it was the perfect time to fill in the entire United States (I've been to over half of the states so I think that counts) and Canada.

Side tip: You know all those annoying little tabs on the back of cheap picture frames? Those things that kill your finger pads when you try to lift them? Yeah, those. I use a butter knife to lift those up to save my fingers. It will change your life!

Much better! My map has a little more color! Eleven countries down... uh, a lot more to go.

If you are wondering why there isn't a pulled out 'after' shot of this area it's because my room is a hot mess and nobody needs to see that. 

A Swiss Souvenir

I've discussed my love of souvenir collecting several times (here and here), but it bears repeating that I love buying things when I'm traveling to bring home and display. My gallery walls are like storyboards of my life so adding things from my travels only makes sense. It all started with my ink and pencil drawing collection but I expanded to other items like a painted feather from Mexico when the right drawing didn't find me. While in Switzerland I couldn't find a drawing I liked but I did find something equally cool. 

I'm assuming what I got is considered very touristy in Switzerland but since I live in Indiana and I know very few people who've ever been to Switzerland I don't think too many people will judge me. I decided to place it on the big blank blue wall in my bedroom which is currently awaiting further direction. Until I decide what I want this wall to function as, a little 3M hook makes my new piece temporary eye candy.

Have you ever seen a fabric calendar before? It felt nostalgic to get this piece for several reasons. One, it is a good reminder of my trip (the chalet I stayed in is very similar to the one depicted) and two, my Grandma used to have fabric calendars and she even made me a quilt of them once (which is now in storage because it is threadbare). I especially like all the iconic imagery in black and white, it's graphic while still being sweet and vintage looking. Also, as soon as I saw it I knew it would look insane against my blue wall. Switzerland is surprisingly expensive, but I'm really glad I decided to grab this piece.

(If you are annoyed with how blurry these pictures are you may direct your complaints to my cast, which makes taking pictures a nearly futile adventure.)

Travel Souvenirs: Christmas Edition

Like most people I love to travel and I also love cool stuff, which equals up to me being a hoarder. I've written about my travel souvenirs here and here, but this post is specifically about Christmas themed souvenirs. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, congratulations! You don't have a retail problem! If you do, then like me you will shop for Christmas crap year round.

I like to buy stuff when I'm visiting a new city. Usually I try to find something that is a nod to the place I'm visiting without being obvious and that I will either use or will fit in with home's style. A pretty perfect example is this hook I bought in New Orleans.

Fleur de lis are everywhere in New Orleans so this hook is great symbol of the city and it is functional (Bob's leash hangs on it). Plus, it reminds me of my time in the city without actually saying 'New Orleans' all over it. 

But sometimes you go to a new place and you can't find anything you like or everything is overpriced or ugly... that is when I hit the Christmas section. (Of course, normal people would just leave without buying something.) Yes, every gift shop or tourist location has a Christmas section. If you've never seen a Grand Canyon Christmas ornament/snow globe/stocking than you've never been to a Grand Canyon tourist shop. 

I love Christmas because it is the one time a year where I just fully embrace kitsch in my life. No other time of the year do I have so much little crap sitting out, but at Christmas it's fun to just go with it. So Christmas + Tourist Souvenirs = Kitsch Fest 3000. Do you need an ornament of the Washington Monument? Absolutely not, but if you go the Washington Monument than an ornament is a better souvenir than a crappy little statue you'll never put out. At least at Christmas you can have out little weird things and no one will question it. 

So far I've only gotten one Christmas souvenir, but I'm sure over time, I'll acquire more.

This is an advent calendar that my Dad bought for me on a trip to Mt Vernon. We had talked about going there ever since I had moved to DC and we managed to go the last month before I moved back. It was a fun trip (we also went to Monticello) and when we saw this advent calendar we both loved it. He bought it for me as a sort of heirloom because it is a really large and well made piece. I don't really use it yet because I'm way to lazy to add things to it for just myself, but someday I'll use it. It is pretty country and it's not something I would normally have in my house but at Christmas anything goes and the bonus is that it reminds me of a fun trip I took with my Dad.

Are you souvenir hoarder like me? Please say yes. 

Inside Taliesin West

A few weeks ago I showed you pictures from my trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Arizona. In that post I promised pictures of the interior in a later post, but then I forgot. Well, better late than never! These pictures are all poached (but they are properly sourced of course) because no interior pictures were allowed.

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This is the main living area. It is quite large because he lived there with his family, his architecture students, and frequent guests. The seating and the outer walls are all very low to the ground. Frank Lloyd Wright was only 5'6" so he designed all his furniture and doorways to be the right size for him because he felt like his height was the perfect height (as a person that is also 5'6" I felt perfectly comfortable there!). You can see in the last picture how low the ceilings are, imagine if that man in black on the far left actually stood up... there were a lot average height men feeling pretty good about themselves there!

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Frank Lloyd Wright was the originator of the open floor plan. He liked to have big parties where everyone could be in the same room all doing the same thing or off in little groupings.

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These pendant groupings were everywhere and I loved them! Such a cool look and I don't think it would be too terribly hard to pull off in your own home.

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It's hard to tell from the pictures but the "ceiling" is actually just canvas pulled over beams. It is a very tent like atmosphere. He built gutters inside so that rain water wouldn't ruin the carpet. Two things I loved in this room were the animal skins everywhere (animal skins may be the theme of my blog this week) and these round rattan stools (it's like where's Waldo, but you can find them above if you look hard enough).

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I love the stone walls with wooden beams and shelves.

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This is his office. I love the table with the plant in the middle, he had several of these throughout the house.

Overall this house is kind of a hot mess, but a very cool well designed hot mess. Because he was using his own money and not being paid for his time he used what was available to him and added on when he could... the overall look is pretty hodge podge, but his design aesthetic still comes through pretty clearly. It is definitely and ode to the organic Arizona landscape. What I love about this home is that he lived there and so it more truly reflects on him as a person than his commissioned homes. Most designers design a specific way for clients but in their own homes they are more likely to do things they wouldn't do for a client. I really enjoyed this tour and if you are in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area I totally recommend it and don't worry I didn't ruin the tour showing you all these pictures. There is way more that I didn't show and plus everything always looks different in person.

A Traveling Collection

I love to travel. I mean who doesn't right? Experiencing new places is amazing. One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to go shopping. Growing up I was guilty of buying some crazy touristy things like t-shirts, shot glasses (I thought they were just tiny glass cups), and snow globes, but as I grew up my tastes matured. For the past 10 years or so I have really tried to buy cool stuff that is useful. That may sound obvious but it's not always easy to find beautiful and functional things that also represent where you traveled. In my next post I am going to show some of the odds and ends I've gotten on my travels but this post is solely about my "collection." Do you have a collection? I never was much of a collector. Sure I bought a lot of CDs (before digital music) and DVDs (before digital movies) and books (before digital books...hmm, trend?) but not really much else. Some people collect certain things when they vacation. My mom always buys a magnet from where she travels and my youngest brother always get a t-shirt, but I never really got into just one thing. That is until I went London in 2008. While I was there shopping in Covent Garden I found a beautiful pencil drawing of London Bridge.

This started my love affair with pencil drawings. How mean seriously, how cool is this drawing? I don't remember exactly how much I paid for it but I think it was around 30 pounds (can't figure out how to add that symbol), so about $60. It was expensive but it came framed and matted so I thought it was worth it. The next week when I was in Paris I happened across a street artist who was selling pencil drawings and I thought... This is it! This is the collection I want to start. So I bought an awesome pencil drawing of Paris for only $20! The artist was very kind and took American dollars because I was out of Euros. It is a pretty large picture and did not come framed but I put it in a floating frame when I got back.

My collection only consisted of those two drawings for a couple of years until I went to New Orleans for a conference in February. I was walking around Jackson Square where all the artists showcase their work and I saw a guy who did pen drawings. Not exactly a pencil drawing but pretty stinkin' close. I chose a small 5x7 drawing of a mansion in the French Quarter. I like it because it really evokes the feel of that area with the iron work and hanging plants.

I think this drawing was about $20 or $25. I've collected all my drawings into one space, the bathroom. Maybe it's a weird place to assemble a collection but I think they look good in there with the gray and white/off-white tones.

I've been "collecting" for the last four years and I only have three pieces to show for it but it's not for lack of trying. Most recently I was in Mexico and I was really excited to find another piece for my collection... but no such luck. I looked all over for a pencil or pen drawing (I was really hoping for one of the Mayan ruins) but I found nothing. I did buy two things which I'll share tomorrow. My collection may still be in the beginning stages but I have the rest of my life to travel to new places and find cool drawings.