holiday: adventures

Through a big coincidence my best friend happens to be in England right now as well. He's teaching on a program that travels to Oxford, Paris, then Tuscany... jealous yet? Did I mention that they spend a week at a private villa in Tuscany? Yea...

On Friday he came to London with his class of 6 students and I joined as an art historian/someone who knows their way around.

It was a blast.

free piano outside the Museum of London

Diane Arbus at the Tate Modern

challenging the kids to do their own street photography, resulting in hilarious events

And taking the Thames Clipper to Greenwich (one of my favorite things in London).

Not only did they pay for my tickets to exhibits, the program also invited me to dinner and paid for me to join them at a great show at the Soho Theatre. All in all, lots of fun was had. And it was great to spend some time with someone who lives the equivalent driving time away from me in the USA as a plane ride to London.

Hoping to have an encore this coming Tuesday. I may re-jig their schedule if I'm allowed, take out some of the things that weren't so great, and add in some other photo exhibitions that look promising :)

life: lil

oh, sometimes I think she knows what she's doing...

holiday: happy 4th

Luckily, since we now live in the city of independence I got to see real fireworks before heading back over the pond for 3 weeks. You see, in Philly we get fireworks in the build-up to the 4th as well. But even with that being said, it was still very exciting last night when Vicky remembered she had a whole bunch of unused sparklers from bonfire night!

unfortunately I only had an iPhone for photos, so no pretty long exposures with writing here, like on rockstar diaries, but still some pretty exposures :)

the most complete circle we achieved

yay sparklers!

week: June 13th

Images that inspired me the week of June 13th...
I'm in a bit of a backlog, I'll catch up soon, promise.

craft: liberty fabric aw11

Liberty has some sneak preview information about their new Autumn/Winter 2011 art fabrics...

"Art and popular music are entwined as Liberty worked with musicians who have links to the art world and artists with links to the music world. They were invited to contribute to a rich and varied collection in a range of different fabrics, from Tana Lawns to exquisite Crepe de Chines. The Liberty Design Team have created a dynamic collection of new print designs, while also re-invigorating their classic designs from the archive.

The collection is divided into seven different design groups with five colour stories, each highlighting a different aspect of music. From colourful fabrics inspired by early rock’n’roll, to a selection of archive prints specially chosen by critically acclaimed singer Florence Welch, Liberty Rocks encapsulates the creativity and energy that has defined pop and rock over the last 50 years."

For more info go here