week thirty

Yes, it is Monday again and a whole new week is ahead of us. Hope all of you had a great weekend. This is no ordinary Monday or post, today marks my 200th post. On one hand I can't believe I have written so many posts already on the other hand it seems so little...

Do you remember my to-do list from Friday? If not here is a little reminder what I wanted to accomplish this past weekend:

- paint door frame around exterior door ✔

- prep other door frame for painting ✔

- install new flooring in the vestibule - did not install flooring but cut it to be installed this week

- email contractors for estimates how much having the old wood door stripped would cost us ✔
 

I didn't finish everything on my list but got a good chunk of it done. My new plan is to paint the other door frame after work so I can install the floor next weekend. We were also able to get rid of one of the mystery appliances in our basement. Mystery because we have no idea how they were able to get them into our basement because they do not fit up our stairs or through any of the windows. P managed to disassemble the dryer and just ten minutes after we put it on the curb somebody picked it up for scrap metal. Yipeeeh it's finally gone! Which still left us with the washing machine. Its screws are so rusted that P was not able to disassemble it. I guess we need some kind of saw to hack it into smaller pieces, which sounds like fun if you ask me...

to-do for the weekend

The weekend is here again and I finally want to finish the vestibule. I started working on it in the spring of last year and it has been in this half finished state for way too long. Two weekends ago I already painted the interior side of the door white, it still had the primed finish that the door came with. My parents are coming for a visit in mid September and this gives me a push to finish up projects like this before they arrive. We have used upcoming visits from friends and family before as deadlines for getting projects done on previous occasions. Last year it was painting P's office so my sister and her boyfriends had a nice room to sleep in. 

Here is a list of things I want to accomplish this weekend:

- paint door frame around exterior door

- prep other door frame for painting (maybe paint as well)

- install new flooring in the vestibule

- call or email contractors for estimates how much having the old wood door stripped would cost

  us (I wanted to do it myself but do not feel like it right now)

What are your plans this weekend? Will it be all fun or a working weekend like mine? 

road trip

Yes, this is my last vacation related post at least for now. P and I both to love road trips and I frequently take pictures out of the car. This is what happens, there are reflections from the window shield and dashboards, wipers and rear view mirrors get in the way. On highways you mostly do not get to see that much besides cars and signs so I like driving down country roads...

 

 

 

 

These photo-realistic paintings by Linden Frederick remind me of road trips we have taken. See a selection of his work below. They look like someone could have stopped somewhere in small town America and taken a photo. The low light paintings seem eerily deserted yet make me wonder what happens in the buildings or around them. 

Are you fans of road trips too? What is your next destination?

All images by Linden Frederick

week twenty nine

Another week has passed so quickly. I guess times flies by when you are having fun. 

On Tuesday I had dinner at The Mercer Kitchen in Soho with a friend. Currently it is Restaurant Week here in New York and all participating restaurants offer 3 course prix fix lunch and/or dinner for either $24 (lunch) or $35 (dinner). It is a really good way to try out new places. On Wednesday we had the hottest day ever but it cooled down after a big thunderstorm hit, there was o much rain and hail that day. Unbelievable! Even from running two blocks to catch a subway I got soaking wet and it wasn't even raining that hard anymore. Last week we also discovered another waterfront bar with view of a marina. Oh and I had a shopping spree at Target, I haven't been to one in a while. Stopped there to kill some time and left the store with two pairs of pants (see one below) and a pair of shoes. Have you seen the collaboration between Marimekko and Converse? Love it but do I really need another pair of sneakers?

All my week was pretty eventful. How was yours?

and it was all yellow...

Today I have no vacation post for you but one or two more might be coming in the future.

Back in March I posted about knitted home accessories and that inspired my mom to start knitting pillow covers. First she knitted two pillow covers for my sister but used a different pattern and yarn. Because I like yellow she decided to make mine in that color. Apparently it wasn't that easy to find yarn in the bright color she had in mind. Love how they came out and the color is a nice contrast to our couch. And they are so soft too. Danke Mama!

So what nice things did your family, friends or even a stranger do for you? Or have you done anything nice for anybody lately? 

Have a great weekend everybody!

somewhere over the rainbow

Another post about red rocks and blue skies but this time I'll throw some water into the mix for good measure. On our second day in Page we took a boat tour on Lake Powell with Rainbow Bridge being our destination. It is in the middle of nowhere and you can only reach it by boat or if you like you can hike but that takes about 2 to 4 days depending on your speed.

The whole tour took about 5 hours and most of the time I braved the sun and the heat on the upper deck deck, most people spent the whole time below deck, where it was air conditioned and beverages were being served. I only went there to cool off once in a while because the scenery was just too spectacular to miss or just see it through a tinted window and off course I needed to take lots of photos to document our adventure. Once you hit the dock at Rainbow Bridge you just have to take a short walk (the website says 1.25 miles but it felt shorter than that) on a paved path to see the natural arch in all its beauty. Looking at the photos now it somewhat reminds me of half a McDonald's arch. Pop culture ruined me ;) But actually I can see why the Paiute and Navajo had called it rainbow turned to stone.

Being on the lake almost all day with temperatures above 100° F I was tempted to jump in more than once. But I find swimming in lakes scary. The fact is I do not like it when I can't see the ground below and this lake is very deep. What's also weird about swimming in lakes is that the water where your feet are is always a couple of degrees colder. It just creeps me out...What about you? Do you have weird fears like that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

week twenty eight

Hello week twenty nine, good bye week twenty eight!

The past week flew by as always. On Monday I wore my Marni for H&M silk pants, which I snatched up on Sale in their German online shop. They look a bit like pajama bottoms and are super comfortable, just like my jammies. I also found happiness on the street last week, I stepped inside the box and felt pretty happy all week. Coincidence? Another reason for being happy was my first Zara online order. I ordered the studded sandals below (also on Sale. Yay!), they are not the most comfortable (yet) but I love them already.

We started our weekend at Pier 13 and took a friend who was in town for a business trip with us. What better way to start your weekend with a cold beer and views of the Manhattan skyline? The rest of the weekend I spend working on small projects around the house. I finally painted the inside of our front door, weeded the front yard and did some more browsing through photos for the final vacation post. Hopefully I can keep up the pace and cross a couple of more small projects off my list this week...How was your week/weekend?

Have a great and productive new week!

page, az

Next stop after Bryce Canyon was Page in Arizona. On our first day we took a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam and also headed to the Horseshoe Bend near town. But not before watching Germany loose to Italy in the Eurocup Semifinals. The tour of the dam was pretty impressive and kind of scary thinking about how much pressure is applied to the concrete structure. It prohibits the Colorado river to flow in its natural ways and the canyons behind the dam filled with water and are now called Lake Powell. Below you can see one of the turbines that are used to create hydroelectricity while the water is flowing through them into the Colorado river below.

 

 

After our tour of the dam we drove over to the Horseshoe Bend. The walk from the parking lot to the edge of the rocks was not really far but the heat and walking on very fine sand made it sure seem that way. How women in maxi dresses, flip-flops, wedges (yes, i saw a woman in those!) etc. were able to make from the parking lot to the viewpoint is beyond me. I had a somewhat hard time with wearing hiking boots and a hat to protect me from the sun...On our second day in Page we took a boat tour on Lake Powell to see Rainbow Bridge National Monument. I will post about it next week. And then I will finally leave you alone with my trip and red rocks ;)

Enjoy your weekend! Do you have anything fun planned? I need to get some small projects on the house done. First I want to paint the inside of our front door white, it is still only primed so far and the front yard needs weeding again...

 

 

 

bryce canyon

As promised I am going to share our next leg of our road trip with you. From CA we headed to Bryce Canyon City, UT. Basically we traded in the big city for a small town, which mainly consisted of two hotels, three restaurants, a campground and a bunch of stores at an intersection. From the little town you have easy access to Bryce Canyon National Park. We spent one and a half day hiking and exploring the park by car. There are great viewpoints that are accessible by car or by shuttle bus.

I believe I have uttered the word wow!!! countless times in our time in the park and after saying wow I needed to take a picture. All in all I took a little under 500 photos and had a hard time narrowing them down for this post. From every angle the landscape looked different, the colors of the rock range from white through orange to deep red. Paired with a blue sky and green forest it is the perfect landscape for taking photos. The colors also seemed to change over the course of the day and how the light would hit the rock formations. I feel that the photos I chose do not really do the park justice, it looked way more impressive in person. Some of hoodoos reminded me somehow of the terra cotta warriors in China, especially the ones in the fourth picture. I really hoped to see a prairie dog but we had no luck, instead we encountered a very curios chipmunk and a short-horned lizard.

Do you have a favorite National Park or other area for great hiking? I could start planning my next vacation right away...

 

week twenty seven

Hi there! It's the beginning of a new week and as every Monday I will share my previous week with you.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July! We didn't do much just hung out with friends in their backyard. After our bbq we were so stuffed and tired we were not able to walk a couple of blocks to watch the fireworks, we just stayed put in the backyard and kept talking. The rest of the (work) week was pretty uneventful. On Friday I jumped onto a train taking me to the Jersey Shore to hang out with two girl friends. Because all of us were very tired we spent the evening on one of the girls balcony with two bottles of Prosecco and chatted the night away. Saturday we hit the beach, P joined us as well. Today we walked along the Hudson waterfront after having brunch and shortly after I said to P that we need a bar on one of the piers we discovered Pier 13 which is just that. They had a bunch of food carts set up and one served as a bar. You could either sit on benches or on beach chairs. We enjoyed our (non-alcoholic) drinks and the view in a pair of beach chairs right at the water and definitely will be back! What adventures had week twenty seven in store for you?

Have a great week!

driving through LA

As mentioned yesterday on Sunday we met a friend in Venice and had a second and late Brunch. We ate at 3 Square Cafe on Abbot Kinney. The food is super yummy and at the adjacent bakery they have great baked goods too. After we needed a long walk along the beach and also checked out the stores on Abbot Kinney. When we got back to our car all three of us where hungry again and decided to eat some Mexican food. I can't remember what the name of the restaurant was but my burrito filled with a chile relleno was delicious!

From there we decided to stop by LACMA and see if they still had the Eames living room on display. Unfortunately they didn't. Bummer! The Eames chairs in the entry plaza had to suffice. At least we got to see the Levitated Mass and the Urban Light installation.

To end the night we stopped by the Standard hotel in Downtown LA for a drink. Of course we headed up to the roof bar where they also have a small beergarden. Since we partied the night before I wasn't ready to drink anything alcoholic I was more than happy to realize they sold Bionade in my favorite flavor Elderberry. Sooo goood! Because we were really tired we headed back to our hotel not too late and by 11pm I was soundly asleep just to be woken up by a fire alarm not even an hour later. I packed my bag still being half asleep and tried to convince P to do the same. He was reluctant to get up while I already saw us on a burning ship and starting to panic a little bit. My heart was beating so fast I could hear the blood in my ears. Luckily after a couple of minutes, which felt like an eternity, an announcement was made that the issue was fixed and we could all go back to sleep. I tried to fall asleep but only dozed off for a short period of time. The next morning we had to get up early to tour the Eames house in Pacific Palisades. And from there we hit the road to drive to Bryce Canyon with a stop over in Mesquite, NV.

Have a great weekend everybody! I will be back with more travel adventures on Monday..