I'm Back!

Hallo, blogfriends.

I have been back in the USA for about a month now, and this is my first blog post, so yay!

Some thoughts on recent events (In no particular order):


The Olympics: London is so cool. I didn't get to explore much of it when I was there (IT IS ENORMOUS) but I like revisiting it through the bike races. And the opening ceremony was awesome. Also, poor Jordyn Wieber! I love watching the women's gymnastics stuff, and this is the first time I've been older than, like, ALL of them. And it must be really hard going through whatever you go through when you're 16 on top of being a world class athlete and needing to have that kind of discipline. Anyway, random tangent.

My goddaughter: I had a visit from Beth and Diana last week! For those who don't know, Beth is an old friend from church. We met when I was 5 and she was 16 and I fell in love with her peekaboo skills. Anyway, 17 years later (wow) I am her daughter's godmother. And she is the cutest, smartest, best little toddler I've ever met (no bias whatsoever). We had a great time when they were here, mostly in the pool. She LOVES the pool. It's hysterical. Anyway, we got to be quite good buddies, and she might even be able to say my name the next time I see her. (She's only 20 months, and "Lizzy" is a tough one. I'm currently Yi-yi.)

My trip to Europe: It was amazing. I stayed in hostels. I went with my friend Sarah for the whole thing and we met up with Loryn for about a week and a half of it. I went to all the cities on my previous list (to reiterate: Milan, Venice, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Rome, Florence again, Milan again, London, Paris). My favorites were Florence, London, and Paris. Venice was also beautiful and a ton of fun to explore (and shop in) but the leather markets in Florence just killed me (seriously, along with a large chunk of cash, I think I left part of my soul there).

Some highlights (Also in no particular order):
- Art exhibits in Paris on Degas' bathers and da Vinci's Saint Anne with Jesus and the Virgin Mary (one of my favorite Renaissance paintings anyway, and seeing it on this trip was so amazing).

-The beach in Pisa, where I found a live starfish and a live hermit crab, swam in the Mediterranean, built a sand castle, and learned how to duggie on top of a boulder.

-The exhibit Americans in Florence (in Florence) of Impressionists like John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassat and a bunch of others that I walked through twice because I liked it so much.

-The aforementioned leather market in Florence, which was full of color and vendors and people and where I spent more money than I had.

-The Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens in London, where Sarah and I went with Del, a family friend on my mom's side who had us stay with her (She's 84, and her late husband met my grandfather during World War II in Trafalgar Square in London and invited him over for tea). It was one of my favorite moments. I love Peter Pan and I love fairies, and the statue had tons of fairies, with Peter on top playing the flute. They put up the statue at night so that the children would think it was a gift from the fairies. I could go on about that statue for ages.

-Having 2 buses break down on the way from Rome to Florence. It took 3 buses to get us there, and we were waiting at a gas station for at least an hour in between the last 2, so the three of us had a sing-along. I think we entertained some of the older Italian onlookers.

-Gelato.

-My peaceful afternoon in Paris's Luxembourg Gardens with my camera and my kindle (soon to be uploaded to facebook).

-Getting home.

-Sketching in Venice and Florence and Paris. Sketching in a lot of places, actually.

-The waiters--We had funny ones, flirtatious ones, and some that were a mix of both and spoke imperfect English. Such as the one in Pisa who said "I know my chickens" when he was talking about the three of us. Probably meant "chicks." But we liked chickens better.

-The handmade candle shop in Siena. It was really cool to see all their candles hung up, on shelves, just everywhere. There were tons of colors, and they had melted wax in regular old spoons (probably for painting details) suspended over larger vats of wax, so you could tell they made them right in the shop.

-Fish and chips at a pub in London (now I'm hungry).

As for what I'm doing next, we shall see. I am hoping to join a writer's group that meets in Syracuse, and maybe go to some figure drawing classes (expensive) and join a book club (hopefully free). So for the immediate future, I will continue to live with my parents (did I mention that I'm completely out of money after this trip? Still working, but paying off some debt for the foreseeable future. Not exactly going on shopping sprees). And I will be trying to write. Not so much here, but I will be writing. Let's go, dream-followers. We can do this.

Ciao and cheers!

Updates on le grande TRIP

1. I am pretty sure Sarah and I are going to do a mask-making workshop in Venice. It's kind of expensive, but it's also kind of like a master craft class/history lesson through art. Sooo I'm game.

2. There will be a gelato festival in Florence while all three of us are there the first time around. Um. Thank you, gods of food, travel, and timing?

(I found a link for the festival too, but the website's in Italian. So just use your imaginations as to how awesome this will be.)

3. I'm probably not going to be blogging much (if at all) while I'm there. I don't know that this really impacts anyone, but the facts of the matter be: we will be traveling around a lot, I will be journaling, and I won't be bringing my lovely little Bertha. (My laptop. She can't help being a Bertha any more than I can help naming her.) So I will probably post about it when I get back. That, or I'll skip posting about the trip, and I'll end up posting about my post-trip anxiety about not knowing what I'm doing next with my life. (Since you ask, currently I am all back-up plan and very little Plan A. But hey. Europe's inspiring. Right?)

Holy Guacamole, I'm Going to Europe.

I'm actually leaving. Tuesday, to be precise, but today I'm going to stay with my grandma in Westchester, and I'm staying until my flight. I can't believe it. This trip still feels like a crazy fantasy, only now I feel like I'm about to drive to the house that contains the wardrobe through which Narnia is available. (Yep. It's gonna be THAT magical.)

The tentative list of cities I posted in an earlier post ended up being correct, but here is a slightly more detailed itinerary:

Milan (The Last Supper and shopping)

Venice (Tours of lacemaking and glassmaking factories, gondola rides, and the opera!)

Florence (for a couple of days--chilling and exploring)

Pisa (as in, the Leaning Tower of)

Siena (BEACH DAY and a cute b&b)

Rome (Tour of the Vatican, a night walk tour, and a tour of the catacombs!)

Florence (This time a more extended visit)

Milan (ditto)

London (Staying in a family friend's home, and being crazy tourists.)

Paris (Art art art shopping shopping shopping art. Nough said.)

Reasons I'm excited:
1. The things I'm going to see. Architecture, historical landmarks, ART ART ART, and the beaches.

2. The shopping. Designer stores, markets, the LEATHER, lace and glass from Venice, scarves from Paris; you name it, I'm psyched to bring something home from it. (Are Parisian scarves a thing? I feel like they are, although maybe that's just because one of my college roommates had some. I love scarves though, so I'll probably buy some there regardless. AAHH I'M GOING TO PARIS!)

3. The food. Pasta, pizza, pasta, wine, cheese, bread, nutella, pasta, gnocchi, and PASTA. 

4. Getting lost. I'm actually really excited to wander the streets of Venice, Florence, Rome, London, and Paris. I've heard it's the best way to see a city, and I am positive it's a great way to get inspired. Which, for me, is part of what this trip is about: inspiration for writing, art, and finding/creating a frame of mind that will help me stay happy in the next year while I figure out what I'm doing with my life.

5. The people I'm going with. I wish I could bring everyone I love on this trip, but as things are, I have two of the best travel buddies I could ask for. I'm soo psyched to be tripping around Europe with Sarah and Loryn. THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!! :-D

Hello, Europe. Nice boot you've got on there.

Dear Blogfriends,

I'm going to Italy! And France! And probably London!

I just bought the plane tickets for the trip I'm taking this summer. Since August, this has been my post-undergrad year off, and as I hoped, prayed, and swore I would do, I'm finally using it to work toward a trip to Europe.

I'm incredibly excited about this trip. I'm going with two of my best friends, one of whom will be touring around Europe with me more extensively, the other of whom will be there exclusively for the Italy part.

List of cities I will be visiting:
Milan
Venice
Florence
Rome
Pisa
Paris
London 

I will post more when I know what our more specific plans are. We may try to visit more places in France (And I'm not 100% sure about London yet), but those are the definite ones so far.

This is a super rough map of the trip.

We will be arriving in Milan and leaving from Paris, and visiting a lot of places in Italy during the first couple weeks of the trip. So far the rest of the trip is not that detailed, but I'm looking forward to planning it! 

Please, those of you who have been to these places, post recommendations (or email me) of where to go for shopping, eating, art, and music (like any pubs where local artists play or anything). Keep in mind that I will be short on funds, although I will be working right up until we leave in May, so I might end up with more than my estimated budget...a girl can dream! 

Coming Soon:
The Clothes I Want To Wear in Europe
Shopping in My Closet
and/or
Packing For a Trip Way Too Far Ahead of Time.

The Restless Bum

Okay, I haven't been anywhere except New York in over a year. I'm getting The Restless Bum.


It feels like this:

 

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When it looks at pictures like this:

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It gets turned on by this: 

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And it is wearing these pants:

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...
I really gotta get out of here.

Missing Summer

I miss summer so much that I have been going through the pages of Vogues and staring crazily at the pictures involving the ocean. And bathing suits. And short skirts.

I have been listening to Yellowcard, and MIKA, and other rock-ish kinds of stuff that reminds me of summer vacation. I'm listening to 3 Doors Down, for crying out loud. I don't even know where I got 3 Doors Down. (Katy, if you are reading this, I need new music. Anything MIKA--I'll tell you what I already have. And if anyone else feels like exchanging mix cds, I would be down. Ahh, mix cds! Another thing that reminds me of summer!!! Or maybe just high school..)

 Soo here are some pictures that make summer feel a bit closer when I look at them...

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Source: Because of this blog, ladders are my new favorite things.

Source: Pretty sundresses from Dolce and Gabbana spring 2012 collection.

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Source: Santorini Blog. Only the most beautiful place on Earth.

Same source as above.

So if you, like me, are sick of wearing the same warm pair of blue jeans all the time, leggings under your pants, and nothing with flowers on it, I feel your pain. And I hope we can all find some summery things to pull us through these crazy months.

Watercolor inspiration

I've been thinking about doing watercolors again. I did a ton of them when I worked on my fairy book for Mixed Media, but since then I've pretty exclusively used oils. (Although some of those have been really watery, so maybe it halfway counts.)

So here are some inspirational watercolors, to get me excited about maybe painting again.

 

Source: artist's website

I love making my own cards. I've never seen this technique before, with the watercolor and then the metallic cutouts over it. They must use a special stamp and emboss, or maybe it's metallic paper glued on top? Very crafty. If I could figure out the technique, it would be sooo easy to make variations.

Source: someone's blog

Source: Design M.AG. Some really awesome watercolors here.

Source: Keith Williams' Behance
This is probably my favorite from this post.

If you've never heard of Behance, it's an artists' network where you can post your work, and I think you can also buy artists' work. I have an account, but it's really a fan account so that I can check out art I love. This is my favorite artist on Behance: Sveta Dorosheva. I love his/her (foreign name..? Boy for now.) art so much that his profile is on my bookmarks bar. Here's one of his paintings, which I think is ink and watercolor, although I honestly can't figure out which materials this person uses...

Sveta Dorosheva book illustrations

Source: Stina Persson's Watercolor Portfolio

This one has to be partly digital. But even besides that fact, how can someone have this much control when painting with watercolors?? And get colors this bright? Maybe it's a different medium. Like gouache. Which I've never used, but it sounds really fun. Just the word gouache. Right?