#vacation 2018

[o-h-hello]

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[joi-in-the-tardis]

This pretty, delicate bismuth necklace almost went hurling across the room many, many times. But, I stuck with it and I'm pretty pleased. I was aiming for something unicorn-y without actually containing a unicorn.

Also, this particular piece of bismuth is from my trip to the AMNH last year. :D I'm happy to finally make something with it. I find wire-wrapping intimidating and went super simple with it for my own sanity.

[bestsportmedia]

Leo Messi in Formentera

[pallanophblargh]

I Survived!

Just a quick check-in text post to say that I’m back from vacation, and that I’m about to bombard you with photos. I saw some SPECTACULAR places, and even the smaller gems along the way made for wonderful experiences. We did all find out that we would NEVER AGAIN make a trip via a rented RV. (By far the largest source of anguish and drama along the way, ha!) All the same, all of us survived in one piece.

Unfortunately, I barely had time to get around to art on the trip, as our stops were filled with hiking/sightseeing/etc and the shakiness while traveling limited me to a handful of rough sketches that still don’t look like much. If I hadn’t been on anyone else’s time, I would have gotten some plein air painting in, but thankfully I’ve got plenty of photographic reference material for landscape practice later on.

Speaking of art, and specifically commissions, things might be slower than I’d like once again, as a large project has been dropped into my lap that I’d like to finish sooner rather than later. I’ll be doing my best to accommodate everyone, and will post progress when I have it. Thanks for your continued patience!

[saintvader]

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[frugalhoe]

Colorado Springs stop #4

Green Line Grill

Cost: $16.88

The Green Line grill had great reviews on Yelp so I decided to grab lunch there. I ordered a deluxe burger and a veggie burger. The fries are free on Fridays and the sodas are all served old fashioned in vintage bottles.

It was busy and the place felt cramped. The food was good but nothing amazing. The atmosphere gave my some anxiety and I honestly didn't appreciate the waitress being referred to me as 'the girl sitting alone over there".

I'll probably go somewhere else next time I'm in Colorado Springs.

I plan to come back and run the Manitou incline & the Garden of the Gods in the Spring.

12/7/18

[blueartistic813]

One of the places I visited

[becomingkatie]

Heyyyyyyyyy so Ken and I went to Amsterdam and Prague last week and it was amazing and I will share some photos later but here are some bullet points (below the cut because it’s a LOT of bullet points)

there are no fat people in Amsterdam - everyone is super thin and also super fashionable and it’s bizarre

also there are no cars. literally everyone rides a bike and it’s wild.

amsterdam is PRISTINE, yall. And it’s this fabulous combination of uber-modern-clean-lines and these gorgeous old buildings. Honestly it was beautiful and wonderful and I instantly decided I want to move there and didn’t change my mind the more we saw of it. I LOVED it.

right next door to our hotel was a fabulous cafe that had fabulous croissants and it was FABULOUS and we went there three times in three days because we loved it so much

a bird flew at my head and then shit on my shoe, and then later a bird landed on our table and tried to steal food from ken. just really, the birds in amsterdam were aggressive as fuck

public transportation was AMAZING in both cities - soooo easy to use, everything was on schedule, the maps were super clear even though we didn’t speak the primary language in either place. just awesome

buttttt we were too scared to use public transportation for the first few days so we walked SO MUCH and were SO SORE by the time we decided we had to give it a go.

prague was MUCH grittier than amsterdam. graffiti everywhere, and a much wider range of people (not just thin, fit, fashionable people). coming from the pristine amsterdam, it was a bit of a shock and i didn’t like the city at all at first

we are BAD tourists - we got to the city center in prague and immediately left without seeing any of the things we wanted to check out because there were so many people and we had no desire to be around all of them

the more time we spent in prague, and the more residential areas we walked through, the more i liked it. Still, i couldn’t get over the grittiness and don’t think I’d be eager to go back.

Prague castle was pretty cool, but I thought it would be more... castle-y? like I expected Hogwarts but the whole thing was just like... a big bunch of buildings, but nothing spectacular? the cathedral in the castle was AMAZING and i think i was expecting the whole castle to be like that, so it was a bit of a let-down

honestly i think all of prague was a bit of a letdown for me? like it’s this uber-popular destination for tourists and i just expected it to feel “older” ?? idk how to describe what I expected it to be like, but instead it felt dirty and overrun with tourists in most parts, and i just didn’t like it a whole lot

BUT there was another wonderful cafe that we went to twice and i looooved it

also there were so many dogs off-leash alllll over prague (amsterdam too!) and every time we’d see one we’d go “there’s a free doggie! run free!” and it became a running joke and i loved it

we did a food tour in prague and it was ~4 hours long and i LOVED it! even the foods i wasn’t excited to try ended up being good, and it was a really good way to learn more about the city and its history and culture from a local and i 100% recommend doing a food tour wherever you travel!

we went to a cat cafe in prague and i was in HEAVEN

we also went to the KGB museum which turned out to be some weird dude showing off his weapons collection lol. it was more expensive than the van gogh museum or rijkmuseum in amsterdam and it was whack, but it was a pretty hilarious experience

ken tried to order a pastry one morning but said it wrong and ended up with a coffee instead and was too embarrassed to go back up and try to order again, so i had to do it for him and the whole thing still cracks me up

the pastries in both cities were AMAZING and just... why don’t we do pastries so well here??

i got sick on our last day in prague, and then felt horrible the next day as we endured 14 hours of travel, and am STILL not feeling well. blechhhhhh - don’t get sick abroad, guys. it effin sucksssss