Taking some time to design

I moved into a new apartment semi-recently, and while I have a lot of stuff--a lot of coats, a lot of purses, a lot of gnomes--I have no furniture. Nor do I have anything on my walls and, as you can guess, I like pictures and I like walls covered in them. Naturally, decorating's been on my mind.

I'm not sure I even have room for a desk, but if I do I'm getting this chair from Urban Outfitters to go with it. I love the muted blues and pops of reds and I love that it looks like a collage of fabric scraps. Of course, I'm a sucker for anything that looks like a collage.

I'm loving this burlap and button piece by Cloth and Patina as seen on Etsy. The combination of the antique frame, the rustic burlap and the delicate buttons is so unusual! I want to hang it right over my bed and stare at it all day long.

The one thing I do have on my walls right now is a world map. I love looking at it and dreaming of past and future travels. But this map from I Screen You Screen via Etsy is so adorable, I'm thinking it's time for a new one.

And to go along with it maybe this map from Ork Posters via Apartment Therapy of my former college stomping grounds and one of my favorite cities.

Of course then I'd also have to get this key hook of my home state (from Old New Again via Apartment Therapy).

And for a little spring fun, I think these candleholders from CB2 need to come in bulk and be scattered all over my apartment. As a bonus they'd probably entertain the puppy and the cat for hours, don't you think?

Photo credits: 1) Urban Outfitters chair; 2) gorgeous Button Love from Cloth and Patina via Etsy; 3) awesome world map from I Screen You Screen via Etsy; 4) a tribute to Beantown from Ork Posters as seen on Apartment Therapy; 5) California key hook from Old New Again via Etsy; 6) Canary candleholders from CB2

Remembering little Knut!

I found out on Saturday that Knut, the once little polar bear in the Berlin Zoo who became famous when his mommy abandoned him, died in his enclosure on Saturday. :(

I was living in Berlin when Knut managed to steal the spotlight of the world and I have to say, his cute little white behind waddled its way right into my heart. Although I'm not much of a zoo fan (I hate seeing animals in cages, it just feels wrong no matter what the purpose), I took everyone who visited me to the Berlin Zoo that year to see baby Knut and his replacement human mommy, Thomas Dorflein.

The first time I saw Knut was the week I moved to Berlin, when German street names when indecipherable, Berlin seemed too vast for me to ever see all of it, and the face (or sometimes tush) of a baby polar bear was on every subway TV (because yes, they have TVs on the u-bahn there that show news updates all day long). Of course I had to go see this precious little guy, especially when I found out he was equally as newsworthy even back in America! My first sighting of Knut

he was so tiny he could barely clamber over the rocks to follow his "momma"!

And was quite the slowpoke when following him even not on rocks.

The next time I saw Knut he was minimally bigger, it was a wretched, rainy day (aka a typical Berlin day), and still the crowd around Knut was huge. During a rare break from the rain, Knut napped on his "momma's" lap

while Dorflein chatted with a friend--just a typical day at the office!

The last time I visited the zoo to see baby Knut was just a month later, but he seemed so much bigger--

and more feisty than cuddly.

I'll miss you, Knut, and your cute little polar bear tush!

Thinking of Japan

It's been hard to think about my light-hearted, free-spirited travels lately when so much devastation is going on in the world. With a friend living in Japan, I've thought about this disaster a lot lately. (He's okay and far enough North to not have been affected from the disaster, thank goodness.) It's hard to know what to do especially when we're so far away, but anything helps. There are lots of great organizations you can donate to, especially in the design community, and I chose to do so at This Paper Ship. They offer two beautiful prints you can buy and donate 90% of the proceeds to the American Red Cross's aid effort in Japan. I chose this one:

but this one is stunning as well:

If you're interested, you can still get a print for yourself here.Or check out this great fundraiser from the girls at Utterly Engaged to donate.

On Pets & Travels

I'm pretty sure I need to get a pet. I say this not only because I'm in love with my roommate's adorable new husky puppy, my friend's slightly evil black cat, and my mom's two fat cats who I've taken to calling monkeys; I say this also because I've been looking through a lot of my travel photos lately and a peculiar amount of them feature random pets I've befriended.

I'm pretty sure I know when this friending-random-pets-in-random-places obsession started.

It was here, in a third floor hostel in the old city of Barcelona. I was sick for the majority of the ten days I spent in Barcelona, and so lying on my hostel bed and willing the Spanish cold medicine I'd just bought to work, I hardly noticed my sister leave the room. Until I heard a squeal--a squeal I knew, a squeal reserved for only fluffy animals and chubby Asian children--and saw her dash back in. With this oh-so-happy striped cat smothered in her arms and a giddy smile on her face. (Followed closely by the old woman who'd checked us into the hostel, saying something in Catalan and cracking up at my sister's exuberance.) We force-cuddled the cat until he could no longer take it, and thus began our obsession.

We befriended animals in bars, like this little guy who clearly needed our love in a bar called L'Etoile in Paris. Or a chubby white bulldog who became our best friend during dinner and drinks in Biarritz, France (I'm sure the pate we passed to him under the table had nothing to do with that).

Or Stumpy, the sweetest tail-less black cat who did not want to leave us while we sipped red wine on a patio in Ravenna, Italy.

We pretty much made random animal friends anywhere we were,

 

whether we were watching the Milano Marathon,

taking a break from looking at churches in Parma, Italy,

or visiting a husky farm in Finland.

Yep, that's it--I need a pet.

Happiness...

I was inspired today by a quote my sister sent me: "For every second you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness" (as said by Emerson). So I started thinking about things that make me happy. Like

nuns on a gelato break,

 imitating husky puppies,

or statues,

(this makes me really happy),

nonsensical road signs,

thirsty gnomes,

my sister's giddy expression when a baby likes her,

laundry day in Venice,

 giant high-fives,

big dogs who think theyre small,

 and reindeer who want their privacy.

Who has sixty seconds to waste on anger with so many silly things to smile about?

Beer Gardens & Oktoberfest

Between the beer garden near my house that I keep passing and the fact that I recently booked my ticket back to Germany for mid-September, I've been thinking a lot about Oktoberfest lately. I went to Oktoberfest back in 2006 when I was living in Italy with my sister. We'd been briefly to Munich once before, but I had little idea what to expect of the massive celebration. I also had little idea how to consume as much beer as was expected of me, seeing as the majority of travel drinking I'd done up until then was primarily wine (and boy did I suffer for it; but hey, when at Oktoberfest...).

Some things about Oktoberfest were as I imagined, or at least as I'd hoped. Like the size of beers,

which, on our most impressive night, we each drank two of (or was it three...?); the very Bavarian decor;

the variety of pretzels available;

the wonderfully tacky yet irresistible souvenirs;

(and the fun that could be had with them)

and the omnipresence of lederhosen.

Other things I could never have even imagined. Like a merry-go-round bar,

(wouldn't Disneyland be a merrier place with that!)

 a tent full of traditionally dressed Bavarians,

a heavenly ceiling to party under,

or a giant spinny ride to try.

It was after the two (or three) litres and lots of shameless dancing that we decided it was a great idea to try such a spinny ride. Seeing as my sister lost her purse while doing so (and then proceeded to heed no care and leave the park as if everything were totally fine and normal) and was too nauseous to even sit up the next morning, causing us to miss our train back to Milan, I think we'll try going on the spinny rides before the mass consumption of beers this year.

Here's hoping spring nights at New York beer gardens and my next Oktoberfest adventure will all look like this:

10 Most Memorable Travel Moments

I'm constantly thinking about my past travels, browsing through old photos, exchanging ridiculous stories with my sister and other traveling companions. So the opportunity to compile a list of my 10 most memorable travel moments was a source of great fun, hilarious memories, and I'll admit, hard work (it's hard to narrow it down to just ten!) for me this week. But here they are. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

 My friend Sam trying to lasso reindeer. Our Sami guide laughing at her--"I don't have to worry you three will be stealing my reindeer!"

1. Learning how to lasso reindeer in Harriniva, Finland with my sister and best friend; obviously not mastering the technique, as the reindeer farm owner watched and commented, “I don’t have to worry you three will steal my reindeer!”
2. Crashing our rental car in a pothole in the middle-of-nowhere, Costa Rica and spending the next six hours being entertained by the locals, the town drunk, and their “gallo hippie” 
3. Making leis from fresh-picked plumeria with elementary school children in Rarotonga, Cook Islands
4. Finding the only turkey in Ljubljana, Slovenia at an outdoor market to make our first Thanksgiving dinner away from home
5. Sitting down to eat a traditional Russian dinner in St. Petersburg only to realize water glasses are actually vodka glasses, to be filled and drank before each course! 
6. Being chased in the Brisbane, Australia Wild Animal Park by a prehistoric-looking emu 
7. Eating at the same restaurant in Florence three nights in a row, and the last night being joined by the entire restaurant staff, countless bottles of wine, and off-the-menu tiramisu
8. Jet-boating to the middle of Lake Taupo, New Zealand to swim to an ancient Maori rock carving that’s only accessible by boat 
9. Driving to a disco in Padova, Italy, car stereo blasting, and being asked by Italian friends, “How do you translate ‘junk in the trunk’?” 
10. Going on a Picasso museum hunt throughout Europe, seeing Guernica, finding a surprise Picasso museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, and finding a painting in Antibes, France that would inspire my tattoo

This post has been entered into the Grantourismo HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition. www.homeaway.co.uk

My Belated Valentine's Day Post

I'll blame it on the fact that I was in Berlin for the past month having entirely too many good times with my twin sister to post this on the actual holiday, but better late than never. I'm fortunate enough to have a sister who lives in Europe, who has a guest bedroom (with a balcony! she'll exclaim if you ask about it), and who I'm able to visit at a moment's notice, for as long as I want.

Valentine's Day came while I was in Berlin this time, and while Germans aren't as big on the holiday as we are in America, there was still the assortment of heart-themed billboards reminding the menfolk to buy candy and flowers for their ladies. So my sister and I, always up to make an elaborate celebration out of anything, decided to throw ourselves and her tolerant German boyfriend a V-Day dinner party.

We decided an assortment of appetizers (and of wine, but of course) was the way to go, and eventually narrowed the menu down to this (we were going to be only three people after all, and still ended up with leftovers for the next two days): four types of homemade bruschetta, grilled veggies, bacon-wrapped parmesan-stuffed dates (to. die. for.), grissini with prosciutto, and heart-shaped meatballs! The meatballs didn't look quite as heart-shaped once they were cooked, as you can see below, but they were still festively adorable! And although we ended up eating at about 10:30 at night, because it takes my sister and I at least three hours, one kitchen disaster (this time me breaking the food processor), and entirely too much laughing to ever concoct a whole meal, it was a perfect little Valentine's celebration!

Photos by: Natalie & Nicole Acrey

Images clockwise from top left: 1. homemade bruschetta with olive tapenade, white bean and walnut spread, goat cheese and heart-shaped beets! 2. the dinner table, at long last. 3. heart-shaped meatballs ready for cooking. 4. cooked not-so-heart-shaped meatballs. 5. grilled veggies. 6. heart-shaped beets and goat cheese bruschetta! 7. V-Day bouquet (because the Valentinstag billboards worked).

Wintertime sunshine

It's been a long winter, especially in NYC. We've had blizzards, then more blizzards, followed by...more blizzards. But today it got up to a steamy 48 degrees with sunshine, which reassured me that spring and summer are not far away! I took advantage of this balmy weather (although back home in LA we would have called this weather "freezing") with a long run along the river, wandering along new neighborhoods I've never been to. Of course what I really wanted to do was laze around on sandy beaches in Costa Rica...

or on the Italian Riviera di Levante...

But for now, the cool breezes of the East River will have to do. Happy sunshiny day to all!