i’m in manhattan, it’s spring, it’s friday. happy weekend!

prenzlauer allee
berlin
april 19, 2013
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sunday morning coffee walk
amsterdam
april 14, 2013
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schönhauser allee (my last morning)
berlin
april 19, 2013
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along the amstel river with la ninja
amsterdam
april 13, 2013
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i flew from amsterdam to berlin on monday april 15. i stayed in prenzlauer berg, which is where my sister lived for a year in college (she and i also stayed there when we went back 8 years ago). first order of business: find a place to sit outside and have a beer. it was about 70 degrees and it felt so good. then i went wandering. i went right to alexanderplatz and was so disappointed to see that all the soviet era buildings in the square had been demolished.

tuesday morning i met stephanie levy for the first time in person, and she gave me a great walking tour of mitte, the neighborhood she lives in. we walked and talked for hours. i’m so lucky to be able to travel and make friends with amazing people!

wednesday started with frühstück (breakfast) outside, then i wandered. i walked to the brandenburger tor (gate), then peeked at the reichstag, then went through tiergarten (berlin’s version of central park) to the neues nationalgalerie to see an exhibition of modern art after world war 2. then i made my way back to my hotel, going through potsdamer platz, and stopping for a beer along the spree river. i’ve since mapped the route out, and it was around 7 miles… i met stephanie for dinner and then fell asleep early.

thursday: more walking and a little shopping. i had my last dinner with stephanie and some of her friends at street food thursday, in kreuzburg. i had a large serving of kase schnitzel, which was yummy but so filling — i had no room to try anything else. but it was a great way to spend my last evening in berlin.

when i woke up friday morning, i decided to take my polaroid camera with me on an easy run. the photos i took that morning are my favorite, and the perfect way to remember berlin. i’ll share them here over then next few weeks.

i miss both cities so much, and i’m looking forward to my next visits.

when i arrived in amsterdam (last friday the 12th), it was raining hard and it was cold. but the rain soon cleared, and i was able to begin my wanderings. i actually didn’t do a lot the first day, other than wander, and end it with reading a book at a cafe while the danish young men sitting right next to me were raucous and rowdy.

on saturday, i met la ninja for a late lunch and we did a walking tour, stopping at the library where we went to the top floor and had a great view of the city from a high vantage point. we later had dinner & drinks and contemplated joining the other 13,500 people that were visiting the rijksmuseum (it was the first day the entire museum was open after 10 years of renovations), but we missed the cut off at 10pm, which was ok, as i’m not a big fan of large crowds.

on sunday i took the ferry to amsterdam noord, and gineke picked me up and took me to her studio. i lusted after her new york painting pictured above, but it was too big for me to take home, too big for any walls in my tiny house, and too big for my budget. (i did bring home a much smaller painting of amsterdam zuid — i’ll share a photo of it soon.) we then hopped into gineke’s car and she drove me even further north and through old fishing villages along a dike that is holding back the north sea. we had lunch in the noord, and then i slowly made my way back to the hotel via prinsengracht. sunday was rokjesdag, which translates to skirt day, and it’s the first day of spring when the girls are wearing a skirt with their bare legs. i love that the dutch have a word for that first awesome day of spring! i’m adopting it and hope to use it this weekend in minnesota.

and then it was time to head to berlin. i would have loved to stay in amsterdam a few more days, but i was also excited to see prenzlauer berg! i’ll write about that part of my trip in tomorrow’s post.

on a break from workshops
phoenix az
april 3, 2013
expired polaroid 600 film

last night i got on a plane and i should be arriving in amsterdam any minute now for my sorta-annual europe birthday trip.

i’ll stay in amsterdam until monday, and then i’ll fly to berlin and will spend 4 days there. i’ve got a list of things to do and places to see for both cities, but what i love the most is just wandering, taking my time, having a beer in the middle of the afternoon, reading, pretending i’m a local and not a tourist. and eating a lot of cheese. i’m looking forward to seeing la ninja and painter gineke zikken in amsterdam, and will be meeting artist stephanie levy in berlin!

(pictured above is the travel journal i made for the trip. i make one for every europe adventure.)

el zocalo mexican grille
phoenix az
april 1, 2013
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same spot as 2012, but different angle (second photo)
san francisco ca
february 24, 2013
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18th street & van ness
san francisco ca
february 22, 2013
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as i was walking to sonya’s studio, i stopped to take this photo. when i later shared it with sonya, she said “i knew you’d take a photo of that sign!”. i’m so predicable… chairs, tulips, and signs…

ferry building
san francisco ca
february 24, 2013
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dresses from 100 acts of sewing

sonya cutting linen

sea urchin

bicycle lace

ordinary objects and wax quilt

my ordinary object

when i was in san francisco, i met sonya philip at her studio late one morning and she gave me the full tour while we noshed on pastries from tartine bakery. while i have the super-awesome honor of having dress #36 of 100 acts of sewing, it was really wonderful to see her other work in person. i’ve been following her work for a while and many of the pieces were familiar to me from her online presence, but they are much better in real life.

before we left the studio to visit heath ceramics (and not one, but two heath retail spaces), sonya gave me the ordinary object she created using an unfinished pack of my birth control pills. i believe the impetus of the piece was a conversation about women’s rights and birth control that sonya and i had in her car when i was in san francisco last year. the respect and admiration i have of sonya as a woman and artist is huge, and that she gave the piece… it’s hard to put in words. maybe it’s that i’ve somehow done a good job of surrounding myself with strong, creative, nurturing, amazing women — women my mom would have been drawn to — and that i might be able to categorize myself as the same. that’s what the piece in my hand says to me.

it was the end of feburary last year that i spent 3 days in san francisco, and when i got home i was a little “meh” about the city by the bay. i think i was put off by the amount of public transportation needed to get from A to B (i prefer using my feet in new cities). but i decided to give it another chance, and after i booked my trip for last weekend i was excited about going back.

the first thing i noticed when the plane landed last thursday was green grass. i have not seen living grass for over 5 months. and there was sun, and the temperature was hovering around 60 degrees.  and i started to fall in love. by the end of the trip i was doing calculations to figure out if it’d be at all possible to get an apartment in the city and spend the majority of my time there (so far, it looks to be tough but not impossible).

alexander calder
SFMOMA rooftop garden
san francisco ca
february 21, 2013
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yesterday i went from this:

to this:

green grass, sun, 60 degrees… san francisco, if your cost of living wasn’t so high i’d make you my home.

vintage store on cherokee with krissy
st louis mo
december 28, 2012
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st. louis public library
st louis mo
december 27, 2012
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lemp brewery, cherokee street
st louis mo
december 28, 2012
impossible project px 680 color protection gold frame