first year without a summer

Yesterday looked like this and it signaled that autumn in England had officially arrived. The old me, living in LA, would have been begging for autumn to begin by mid-July (was never a fan of too much constant heat) but the new London me is lamenting the fact that I hardly even knew summer this year.

I took Southern California for granted, always preferring fall and winter over its warm rays. Well, I got what I wanted and now I live where it's November year-round. I do love the cold and don't mind the rain but I think I'm developing a Vitamin D deficiency...it's just not healthy to lack consistent sunshine in your life.

Since there's nothing I can do to change the weather, I thought I'd create a mini summer escape through some photos from my warm So Cal days.

I'm already feeling better :)

happy friday!

This weekend I'm going to spend some quality time picking out fresh petals for our new home. Back in LA my local flower shop was practically the entire flower district, just three blocks from my apartment. Now, we've got a little corner shop that continues to impress me with their ever changing selection and sweet customer service. I love shopping for fresh flowers...anywhere, really.

Have a wonderful - and beautiful- weekend!

This week's three rad links: • As if my wonderlust wasn't strong enough, Because I'm Addicted posted these incredible travel videos (Move, Eat, Learn) by Rick Mereki. • From postcards to stickers, what to do with your Instagram shots via Ascot Friday • Dude....this girl levitates! Actually, she's just really quick on her feet and her snaps. These photos are beautiful via Honestly WTF

wanderlust

I always wanted to travel. Even when I was a little kid I was fascinated with seeing the world. The desire escalated when I saw that my school friends were going to Europe, Asia, or Hawaii for their summer vacations. My family didn't have the same means as my well-off peers so we went camping at Kern River just outside of LA instead. Despite having longing thoughts of being in a seaside hotel, I loved our trips up to the mountains. They taught me how to rough it, enjoy and respect the outdoors, live simply, and most important, be perfectly comfortable squatting behind a tree/boulder/bush when nature calls (I promise, this skill is strictly for the mountains).

As I got older I knew that if I wanted to see the world, I was going to have to make it happen on my own. In college I began traveling within the States to visit friends and racked up airline miles and credit card points to go to Colombia with my mom. No, I wasn't racking up debt, too. I worked at Nordstrom that has a commission based pay structure so I did pretty well for myself as a college kid.

After graduating I decided that whatever job I got, I wanted it to give me the opportunity to travel. I didn't know what type of job would grant that wish to a 22-year-old but luckily, I had interned at TOMS Shoes (now just TOMS) and was offered a position to coordinate their Shoe Drops, or shoe giving trips. I had the time of my life working there and got to travel to Argentina, Africa, and all over the States while helping children in need.

Flash forward to today, I'm living in London with my man and we're going for the "1,000 Places To See Before You Die" list. What's crazy is that six months before Joe's  job offer (he works in engineering, if you're wondering) we had agreed that in 2012 we would stop whatever we were doing, quit our jobs, and travel around Europe for several months. We decided how much money we'd need to save for expenses and even put the departure date in our calendars. Now, with Joe's job contract, we're able to cover housing and other needs while having some extra cash to travel with ... it put us two years ahead!

I share this because I'm getting ready to buy tickets to Berlin and I still can't get over the fact that the world is so accessible on this side of the pond. I guess I'm just reflecting on how I got here and am feeling really grateful. Also, I'm sure some of you have wondered what Joe does for a living and how we're able to live here (I know I wonder that re: other blogs!) so there ya go.

Okay...it's time to book our next trip...

book given to me by my fellow wanderlust friend, Tina | wire bike from South Africa | map from Sicily | vintage camera bought in Margate, England

happy friday + moving day!

Today is the day that we say goodbye to our first London pad but more important is that we will finally be able to stand upright to get clean. You see, we haven't taken a proper shower at home in six months because our "shower hose" doesn't have any water pressure above two feet. The little that it does have barely does the job so we've been using a plastic water pitcher to make do. Yep folks, we've been bathing like it's 1859 over here in London Town! It was funny at first, then really annoying, then I forced myself to get used to it, and then I really hated it. At least I'm a small person that can comfortably fit in a tub, Joe on the other hand...poor guy.

The only showers we've taken are when we've traveled and stayed in a hotel. Those rented waterfalls were the only saving grace for my hair as shampoo became increasingly difficult to scrub out with a pour of the pitcher.

We were all the wiser for our next flat (who would have thought that you needed to test showers, anyway?) and I'm excited to say that we have AMAZING water pressure! AND it comes down from seven feet above! To add a cherry on top, our new flat's bathroom sink has a dual temperature water faucet which means we can finally use warm water. I swear, I really don't understand why using either hot or cold is the norm here. Especially when 1) kitchens do dual so they know it exists and 2) safety laws are so crazy that electrical outlets in the bathroom and wall light switches aren't allowed (you get a pull-string or the switch is placed outside the room). But burning myself with scorching hot water is okay? So strange.

I'm beyond excited to be moving into the 21st century...my hair will be happy too.

Have a great weekend!

wall to wall

I started looking into wall decals like this for our new flat and it got me thinking about the amazing walls we saw in Segovia, Spain.

These Sgraffito (etched plaster) designs are simple yet decorative and though they're centuries old, they still look incredibly relevant. Joe and I talked about how nice it would be to recreate this technique in our backyard one day. You know....next to the pool as a cool statement wall or something. Hey, it could happen!

I'll have these photos as inspiration for the future but for now I'll consider getting a little wild with temporary wall stickers. Has anyone used them before? What was your experience?

happy friday!

This week flew by and thankfully so...I'm anxious to sign off on final paperwork for the new flat and get our keys! And, maybe even start shopping for some furniture ;)

Here are this week's three rad links:

• Not too new but still amazing - free download of STROKED: A Strokes Tribute To This Is It via Stereogum • Beautiful embroidered art by Jazmin Berakha via Creature Comforts • Easy + fun tutorials on the language and ways of the web via Don't Fear The Internet

Have a wonderful weekend. Ciao!

skipping around segovia

I've posted so many vacation photos that I almost forgot about Segovia! During our last weekend in Madrid we opted for another day trip via high-speed train. We had planned on going to Avila but the train for Segovia left first and we figured we'd rather get somewhere sooner than later. It wasn't until we were en route that we looked up what there was to see and do in Segovia so you can imagine how satisfied we were with our last minute decision. I'd seen a piece about the city's ancient aqueduct on Rick Steves' PBS travel show (anyone else a fan?) so that was extra icing on the cake. I want to go everywhere Rick Steves goes, basically.

Segovia was beautiful and the 2,000 year old aqueduct could not have been more impressive. It's simply unreal to think of this sort of engineering being done without any modern technology, no less without any mortar - it's practically self sustaining! There was also a lot of incredible work inside the old city walls from the Segovia Cathedral (hello, 16th century) to the decorative relief-like patterns on building walls. I know that we missed seeing much much more (like this awesome building) but at least we know the city is only 30 minutes from Madrid. God I love high-speed trains, America...get with it!

new flat found...at last

Things are really starting to get busy around here for many reasons but mainly because....drumroollllll... we've found our new flat! We put our offer in on Friday and it was accepted yesterday afternoon. I didn't mention it in the weekend post because I'm slightly superstitious that way but, YAY, it's a done deal!

After spending weeks searching online and visiting derelict flats that I wouldn't even wish upon my worst enemies, we feel so lucky to have found our new home. It has two bedrooms, it's modern, spacious, is in our current neighborhood that we love, and best of all, unfurnished!

I can't tell you how excited the word "unfurnished" makes me. The norm here is that when you rent a place, you also take whatever furniture is in it. I understand that renting is temporary and that buying furniture can be quite the expense but just because I don't own the place doesn't mean that I don't care about the environment inside of it. It is still our home.

Too many of the furnished places we saw were flat out nasty. They mainly consisted of  worn out IKEA sofas, mix-matched 90's furniture, and curtains from the 1800's. We don't need to live like college students anymore and we wont. Especially at the fancy rate these places were going for!

I was starting to worry that we may not find something that felt right but luck came to us between viewing appointments on Friday. We stopped by a new (to us) pub in the neighborhood and while we ate I decided to see if anything new had been listed online that morning. Our place came right up, I gasped in excitement, called the agent, and within twenty minutes we were checking it out and drafting the offer in our heads. It felt too good to be true.

While that feeling still sort of worries me (like, what will we learn once we're actually living there), I know that it's already a thousand times better than our current place. Why? Because it has a real working shower AND a dual temperature faucet in the bathroom sink! I think I'll have to explain our current bathroom woes in another post but for now, things are looking up!

happy friday + sicily round up!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

I couldn't be more excited for the weekend. Getting back in to a normal post-vacation routine is hard! My mind is still on lounging by the pool and seeing pretty new sights everyday like we did in Sicily.

Sicily was incredible. There is so much diversity on the island for things to see and do. We didn't do any research on it beforehand since we chose our hotel based on the fact that it looked to be in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to have a week of doing nothing but being lazy and not straying too far. Well...that didn't exactly happen.

It started with the two hour drive to our hotel in Ragusa from the airport in Catania. We were starving so we stopped in Syracuse for lunch and ended up coming across the most amazing swimming platform ever. We still hadn't eaten lunch and we were anxious to get to the hotel so I made a mental note of the swimming spot and moved on. The deviations from Operation Do Nothing had officially begun.

When we finally arrived at the hotel, Relais Parco Cavalonga, it was like a dream. The sun was setting and there were beautiful olive trees and stone walls surrounding the property. It was perfect. We spent the next day doing what we had set out to do and relaxed, read, swam, ate, and napped. The deviation started when we looked at the pamphlets provided by the hotel for nearby destinations and attractions. We had vaguely heard of Agrigento where there are ancient temple ruins and the receptionist recommended Scala dei Turchi in the same area. Seeing that it was only 160KM away we thought we could go up there the next morning and be back at the hotel just after lunch. Man, were we wrong! The distance sounded quick enough but what we didn't realize was that a) the road was one single lane throughout b) it was shared with the world's slowest trucks and c) it went through four main port towns with one having worse traffic than LA at rush hour. Long story short, we saw some incredible stuff at the temples and the beach but poor Joe drove for nearly six hours when we had only expected a max of three round-trip.

Feeling beat from walking in the heat and driving so much, we agreed to only seek out to local spots from the hotel if we were going to leave it at all. Turns out that there was more to the sleepy countryside than met the eye. Our hotel receptionist told us about a nearby castle open to the public, Castello Donnafugata (more on this later), and Ragusa Ibla, an old town built on limestone hills and its narrow canyons. Driving into Ragusa Ibla at night was something I will never forget. The road was extremely curvy so out of nowhere we suddenly saw a wall of lit up homes popping out of the pitch-black mountain that went deep into the canyon floor (one of those "WHOA!" moments for sure). From the outside it looked like all there was were homes built into the mountainside but when we went into the town we found a buzzing nightlife scene where locals and tourists were one in the same dining on outdoor patios and eating gelato on the street. It was such a beautiful evening.

Two days and a suntan later, it was time to leave Sicily for a final weekend in Madrid. Remembering the swimming platform we saw in Syracuse on the first day, I convinced Joe to make a stop there before getting to the airport. There was just no way that I wasn't going to enjoy that gem of a spot, even if for a brief moment. We got there with only half an hour to swim around but it was totally worth it. It was purely local, the water was perfectly cool, and it was free to access. Joe, after driving more than he really wanted to, admitted that he was glad we stopped there too.

That was pretty much the way our week in Sicily went: we did more driving and active stuff than we had expected but were simultaneously happy and thankful for every little thing we experienced. However, our next R&R vacation may literally have to be on a deserted island with no sight-seeing temptations. I'm totally okay with that though.

a hop and a skip away {toledo}

play me...[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eks4gB9tbE&w=425&h=25] lover's carvings - bibio

We were back in Madrid for a friend's wedding and had some time to kill before the ceremony. Instead of hanging around the city, we decided to take advantage of its close proximity to other destinations and hopped on a high-speed train for a quick escape to Toledo (just thirty minutes away!).

The sleepy town was buzzing with tourists yet we still found solace in its many narrow and winding walkways. Since we only had a few hours to explore, we didn't make it into any of the museums or cathedrals. Instead we spontaneously walked about and avoided staying on the main paths. Our rule is to turn where no other tourist turns and to eat where you see at least one local old man chilling at the bar. I swear, we've eaten some great inexpensive food this way while other people stay in the main plaza eating OKAY food at tourist prices. Or worse, eating Subway or McDonald's (why even travel?).

I am guilty of one "bad tourist" thing though, I didn't read up on the city so I can't share anything of academic value in this post. All I can say is that it was a tranquil and charming little town on a hill that was a perfect break from the bustling city of Madrid.

a hop and a skip away {toledo}

play me...[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eks4gB9tbE&w=425&h=25] lover's carvings - bibio

We were back in Madrid for a friend's wedding and had some time to kill before the ceremony. Instead of hanging around the city, we decided to take advantage of its close proximity to other destinations and hopped on a high-speed train for a quick escape to Toledo (just thirty minutes away!).

The sleepy town was buzzing with tourists yet we still found solace in its many narrow and winding walkways. Since we only had a few hours to explore, we didn't make it into any of the museums or cathedrals. Instead we spontaneously walked about and avoided staying on the main paths. Our rule is to turn where no other tourist turns and to eat where you see at least one local old man chilling at the bar. I swear, we've eaten some great inexpensive food this way while other people stay in the main plaza eating OKAY food at tourist prices. Or worse, eating Subway or McDonald's (why even travel?).

I am guilty of one "bad tourist" thing though, I didn't read up on the city so I can't share anything of academic value in this post. All I can say is that it was a tranquil and charming little town on a hill that was a perfect break from the bustling city of Madrid.

love london

As you probably know by now, riots and looting hit London on Saturday evening and lasted for several days while spreading to different parts of the city. Fortunately our neighborhood was unaffected but there are many people who, unfortunately, cannot say the same. It's devastating to hear of people's homes and businesses burning down, independent shops being looted, store-fronts vandalized, and individuals being physically assaulted, or worse, killed. Everyone works so hard for what they have in their lives and it's terrible that all it takes is a few opportunistic criminals to change their world and livelihoods.

The initial cause (a black man being shot by police) was used as an excuse by some London youth to take to the streets to "protest" their anger against the injustices they feel as black and/or impoverished citizens of the city. I'm not going to go in to the reasons or the politics behind the causes as discussed in the media but I will say this: if you want respect and you want a better life for you and your community, vandalizing and stealing from your neighbors (or from anyone, anywhere) is not the answer.

My heart goes out to all of the innocent people both directly and indirectly impacted by the mayhem of the previous days. Let's hope we've seen the last of it.