| City: | Barcelona, Spain |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 68°, sunny |
| Site: | Casa Mila |
| Activity: | Roof climbing |
Casa Mila was designed by Gaudi in 1906 and was full of textures, colors, curves. Loved it. Just wish we could live in an apartment where someone cared to design everything down to the window hardware.
| City: | Barcelona, Spain |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 68°, sunny |
| Site: | Park Guell |
| Activity: | climbing stairs, sitting on park benches |
When you go to Barcelona, even if you’re not looking for him, you will find Antonio Gaudi. Alex and I were very much in search of Gaudi’s famous works so we started the day early with his Park Guell.
| City: | Fez, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 80°, sunny |
| Site: | Nejjarine Museum of Wood Crafts |
| Activity: | climbing stairs, looking at wood artifacts |
| City: | Fez, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 80°, sunny |
| Site: | Jewish Cemetery, Royal Palace |
| Activity: | reading tombstones |
Day 2 in Fez, we visited a couple Jewish synagogues and their massive tomb site. The Royal Palace isn’t open for visitors but the entry gate is pretty impressive.
| City: | Fez, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 75°, sunny |
| Site: | The Medina & Tanneries |
| Activity: | getting yelled at by shop owners |
The stank of Fez Tanneries is worth enduring for a glimpse at the leather making process of Morocco. We were harassed by a few different guys trying to get money out of us just to see the tannery, but it was pretty amazing seeing the vats of dye, fresh hides, and over worked donkeys.
| City: | Fez, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 75°, sunny |
| Site: | The Medina |
| Activity: | photographing shops |
| City: | Marrakech, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 80°, sunny |
| Site: | The Medina |
| Activity: | attempting to barter |
Everything feels photogenic in Morocco. Bright colors and textures on all surfaces. And to be expected, aggressive bartering for anything you want to buy.
| City: | Marrakech, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 75°, sunny |
| Site: | Jardin Majorelle or YSL Garden |
| Activity: | Museum of Marrakech, looking at Cacti |
This is a 12 acre garden originally designed by a French artist in the 1920s, YSL purchased in 1980 so you can also do some pricey shopping here now.
| City: | Marrakech, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 75°, sunny |
| Site: | The Medina, Jamaa al F’na |
| Activity: | looking |
| City: | Marrakech, Morocco |
|---|---|
| Weather: | 75°, sunny |
| Site: | Ben Yousef Madrasa |
| Activity: | exploring every. single. dorm room |
This first image I was trying out my fish eye lens that The Reeves so kindly gave me for christmas! It’s pretty fun and dreamy but hard to get the focus right.
See I wasn’t kidding when I said “pattern cray”. This is our awesome rug from the West Elm Outlet in San Marcos. Otie looks like a precious baby lamb. I love lazy weekends.
Our project of the week was to paint the focal wall behind our (future) couch. The issue was that the couch’s off-white color didn’t pop against the equally boring off-white of the wall behind it so we decided to go crazy with pattern. I think Alex is still wary of all the colors and patterns but I think it’s funnnnn.
Not as cheap of a project as we thought because we had to buy 4 different greens to get the effect as well as lots of blue tape which is stupidly expensive. Think it was worth the cash though!
My handy husband working on our future couch. It’s been sad not having a couch. That means we’ve been sitting on the floor a lot watching tv/eating while watching tv. I think sofas are my favorite piece of furniture so I’m reeeeeaaallly hoping this little project turns out comfortable. I mean it wont be AMAZING since it’s pretty much a glorified bench but with a few throw pillows… maybe. So this gem was practically trash. Alex bought it in Hamilton a while back. We painted it a canvas white and we’re having an awesome velvety cushion made for it. Hope it looks nice. The ladies at the upholstery place didn’t speak the best of English (kind of like anyone living near us) so I’m hoping they understood me… Guess we will find out this week when they finish it!
One of the big reasons I love NYC: The city sees the value of spending money on public art and landscaping.
These showed up yesterday in Madison Square Park. They are made out of painted, knotted rope. Very cool and something I could imagine myself designing if I had thousands of yard of rope laying around. I prefer public art to art in museum for many reasons.
1. The looks on people’s faces as they walk by. Mostly disgust honestly. Sometimes glee as they take out their camera phones and pose in front of it. Art loses its pretentious-ness when average people can respond to it honestly without knowing they spent $25 in museum entrance fees to see it.
2. The ability to touch/photograph/let your dog pee on it and not get yelled at by eager docents. I got yelled at twice at the Guggenheim the other day. It hurts my feelings.
3. How it transforms a mundane experience into something novel. Lets you see your surroundings in a way you haven’t.
So that’s my two cents on the matter. I’m lucky to live in a place with money to put into their parks and even more lucky to have a job right across the street from such a beautiful place.
Alex, Brian, and I went to the Guggenheim Museum this Sunday for kicks and because Alex had never seen the famous Frank Lloyd Wright building. Luckily, the exhibit was good because we will not be making the visit regularly with those entrance fees…. sheesh. Art is not for the common man. And I of course pretended to be a student and it’s STILL too expensive. Not sure how long 18-year-old Kelsey photo will fool museum staff…
Our fav exhibit was by Zarina, “Paper Like Skin”. Pretty much a room full of beautifully manipulated paper. Trust me, it’s interesting.
The bathroom below was also a “piece” that I particularly enjoyed because I could take selfies in the mirror in peace. The bathroom was lock-able. Could stay in there all day.
This was last weekend. I have never loved Saturdays so much in my whole life… The joys of sleeping in, long walks with Otilie and my handsome husband, brunches with mimosas. NYC knows how to do weekends. Seriously. This city runs on Bloody Marys… and Dunkin.
We finished finished the table. Painted and sealed and everything. I like it.
Last Sunday we went to the NYC Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It was a perfect day so of course half of New York had the same idea. It was beautiful none the less. The feature was an orchid show! So sexy, those flowers.
This little goat wandered up to The Odom’s house one morning! I wanted to keep him but for some reason, Susie was really adamant about finding his owner… Sigh. I guess his little goat-turds wouldn’t be so great in our little New York Apartment. As you can see he was really sweet and obviously terrified of Otilie. She LOVED him. We need to get her a farm one of these days. With all our extra money.
