Joshua Tree

Hi stranger! Where've you been? Or more accurately, where have I been?  Well, the short answer is "livin' life!"  Honestly, this winter was such a cold, long tortuous one when the weather finally broke and the sun came out to melt the snow, I kinda went a little crazy with being outdoors as much as possible.  That meant not a lot of computer time which is a good thing sometimes, you know?  

Alright, now that we're all caught up, there's one more place I've been... California!  My home away from home.  We spent a long week staying with friends and got away for the weekend to Joshua Tree.  I always love it there and this time was no exception.  We stayed in the most rockin' cabin ever.  The decor was straight out of the early 70s (in the best way possible) complete with a turntable and vinyl collection.  We checked our cellphones at the door and spent the weekend with great friends in a time warp in the desert.

Alabama Black Belt, Pt. 5

Here a just a few more photos from out time spent winding out way across the state of Alabama.  The town of Luverne has a sign welcoming us and stated they were "The Friendliest Town in the South".  I have to say they lived up to that as we ran into a couple of strangers that were more than happy to stop and tell us stories about growing up there.  One even opened an old building and have us a quick tour.  Now that the trip and entire project is over, we're getting excited for our next adventure... California and the Mojave Desert in May!

Alabama Black Belt, Pt. 4

By day four of our trip, we'd finally adjusted to the climate, had our camera routines down pat and were excited to see where the road would take us next.  We got to tour a cotton gin, visited George Wallace's birthplace (where there is a giant mural of him, complete with a black cloud over his head) and drove countless miles in search of our next stop.  Here are a few photos that I snapped along the way. 

Alabama Black Belt, Pt. 3

When we left our hotel room on the third morning of our trip, it was (of course) already impossibly hot and humid.  Overnight we'd kept the air-conditioner running in the room to soak up as much cool air as possible.  Our camera equipment was resting in the room with us as well, also soaking up the cool temperatures.  As soon as we stopped to take our first photo the hot humid air flooded our cameras fogging up every lens, viewfinder and mirror, inside and out.  We had to sit in the car, in 90 degree temperatures, with the heat on, holding our equipment in front of the vents to dry out our cameras and lenses.  Needless to say, it was not the best way to start the day.  But from there, things looked up quickly and we made our way across the state.  

Once again, all of these photos were taken by me with one of three cameras:  a Diana on 35mm film, a Canon Rebel T3i and a Fuji Instax 210.  You can also see some of the photos Tom took on his Tumblr. 

Alabama Black Belt, Pt. 2

After an unseasonably cold and rainy first day on the road, the second day delivered the sun and heat we expected when we planned the trip.  Hot and humid!  We drove through historic Tuskegee, explored old Cahawba and crossed over the Alabama River.  Here are a few photos I snapped along the way. 

Alabama Black Belt, Pt. 1

Our first (and likely only) Kickstarter project has officially come to a close.  The funds were raised, the trip taken, photographs edited, books printed and rewards mailed.  Now that the chapter is closed, I thought I would take this week to share some of the photos that I took for the project.  All of the photos were taken with one of three cameras:  a Diana on 35mm film, a Canon Rebel T3i and a Fuji Instax 210.  You can also see some of the photos Tom took on his Tumblr. 

Gulf Shores

Tom and I were recently visiting my family in Alabama and snuck away to the Gulf of Mexico for one night.  When I tell people here in Lancaster that we went to the beach in Alabama, the response is usually, "there's a beach in Alabama?"  Yes!  Quite a lovely beach if I may say so myself.   I grew up going to the Gulf every summer but since moving away, I hadn't been in, oh... ten years?  I can't believe it had been that long.  As soon as my feet hit the white sandy beach I felt right at home.  The water was warm, the skies were clear.  We waded out to the sandbar and walked down the beach collecting seashells.  There was even a rainbow when we woke up in the morning!

Chickies Rock

A while back I purchased a refurbished digital SLR (a Canon EOS Rebel XS) with the intention of learning to use it to improve the quality of photos I take.  The first few times I used it I just felt frustrated and it went into a drawer to be ignored for months on end.  With our upcoming trip, I knew I wanted to try one more time to master the darn thing.  So, the other day, Tom and I took advantage of the unseasonably nice weather (seriously, it feels like fall in August here) and took a hike out to Chickies Rock so I could practice taking photos. 

Chickies Rock is part of the Lancaster County park system and it's so close to us and such an easy walk I can't believe we've never done it before.  A short walk through the woods pays off with a beautiful view overlooking the Susquehanna River.  I snapped about a hundred photos in half an hour until I finally figured out all the buttons and gizmos.  Now that I have that figured out, I'm getting really excited about our trip!  On the way back to the car, we passed a spot where we joked we once would have stopped to take blog photos.  So... here's me in my rolled out of bed outfit, no make up and unbrushed hair! In other words, what I usually look like. 

The Black Belt Project

(Photos taken by Tom and me.  Although not an exact reflection of the work we're aiming to document in the Black Belt, here's a sampling of images taken in Alabama in the past.)

The closer we get to our trip to Alabama, the more excited we are getting!  Our Kickstarter project has only 8 days left and we're so very appreciative of all the support we've received.  We have backers for our project from Norway to Australia and scattered all across the United States!  We've been busy sorting out the details of the trip; studying the Alabama atlas, reaching out to local folk artists for tips on places to visit, researching the history of the area and makings lists of things to pack (lots of sunscreen and insect repellant).  

While we plan on making the trip on our own even if the Kickstarter project goal is not met, we are crossing our fingers that we're able to share our adventure with as many people as possible!  The funds from the Kickstarter project will be used to publish a record of our time spent exploring the Black Belt aimed at delivering a balance of historic, cultural, and contemporary influences from the region that put the Belt's vast diversity on full display. 

If you'd like to follow along on our journey, please be sure to check out the details via our Kickstarter page.  There are various levels of support available and each one carries with it a variety of rewards.  Every little bit helps!  Tom and I thank you again for your support, not only for this project, but for all or your support over six years (!) of blogging, photographing and exploring! 

Kickstarter: The Black Belt of Alabama

OK, here we go... remember last week when I mentioned Tom and I spent a day in NYC and visited the Kickstarter offices?  Well, this is what we were working on; a book project for our next road trip through Alabama!  As you probably already know, I'm a born and raised 'Bama girl.  I've since lived in California and now Pennsylvania, but a large part of my heart will always reside in that southern state.  

If you'd like to check out more details, you can read all about it on the Kickstarter project page.   Our plans are to spend about 10 days driving through the Black Belt region of Alabama (the region encompasses the central counties of the state, from east to west).  We'll stop along the way at any spot that catches our interest, photographing whatever landscapes, structures or people we discover.  We're excited to see where this adventure takes us!

Above you can see the video we posted telling you a little more about the project (why is it so hard to watch oneself in motion?  I swear I don't sound like that - but I guess I do).  And on the project page, you can read about the rewards we're offering;  everything from a digital PDF of the book, to signed & numbered printed copies, postcards, giclée prints and loads more!  

If you're interested in pitching in or just following along, I'll be posting updates here as we get ready for our road trip.  Thank you so much for checking this out and for all of your support! 

Pittsburgh

 - 30s cotton dress
 - 70s tooled leather bag
 - J. Crew flats

As  I mentioned last week, Tom and I made a road trip to Pittsburgh to see The National and on the way stopped by the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater house for a tour.  While on the tour we heard an old lady remark that it was "a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."  Meanwhile, Tom and I were thinking the exact opposite.  Although, I bet it sure is cold there in the wintertime. 

After our tour we drove into Pittsburgh and walked around to a few vintage shops.  The shops were mostly packed with 70s era polyester and tacky prints, but I did manage to find a pretty white eyelet cotton skirt that came home with me.  Perhaps there are better vintage shops there, but I didn't happen upon them.  

For lunch we sat at the counter at Primanti Bros. and watched sandwich after sandwich being assembled;  fresh cut bread, grilled meat, cheese, fries, coleslaw, tomatoes, topped with another piece of bread.  We had the cheese combo and the fries come right in the sandwich.  

We took an after lunch stroll around the river and across one of the sunny yellow bridges before heading over to the show.  The National put on a great show and played a 22 song set that I didn't want to end.  I was only slightly disappointed that they didn't play "Fireproof" since I wanted to hear my name in the song.  But I was standing in the right place at the right time and during "Mr. November" Matt Berninger walked out into the crowd and I got tangled up in his mike cord and he ending up singing six inches from my face.  Good times. 

Where We've Been

 - UO jeans
 - old Gap flannel shirt
 - vintage wool sweater
 - Elizabeth & James jacket via Madewell
 - Alexa Chung for Madewell hat
 - thrifted boy's hiking boots

Where we've been, in case you were wondering, is on a post-holiday Southern road trip to Alabama and Virginia.  We spent a few wonderful days lazing about my parent's house and property, a day visiting old friends in Birmingham and stopped along the way home to spend the night at a friend's home and animal sanctuary in the hills of Virginia.  When we got home I cleaned out my jacket pockets and found a couple of creek-smoothed rocks, a handful of chicken feathers, a beer bottle cap, a shotgun shell and two road trip Taco Bell receipts. Definitely hard evidence that we had a good time. We're already planning our next trip down. 

New York City

Over the weekend Tom and I slipped away quietly to enjoy a couple of utterly perfect autumn days in New York City.  A friend generously lent us a 36th floor apartment in Chelsea so we had an amazing view of the Empire State Building from the rooftop garden for sunrise.  We wandered the streets of Manhattan, stopping in galleries, bookstores and restaurants whenever we fancied, rested in Central Park, did lots of window shopping and enjoyed one of the last beautiful weekends of fall.  

Amsterdam, Pt. 2

Our second day in Amsterdam was the gloomiest and rainiest day of the whole trip.  We were beginning to get worn down after two weeks of traveling and it was hard to get up and head outdoors when we were greeted with grey skies and constant rain.  We started the day with a good breakfast of Dutch pancakes and they were so delicious it turned our mood around and we were ready to brave the rainy streets for one last day of adventure.

We wandered through the northwest section of the city that reminded us of the West Village in New York.  I had spotted a vintage store in the neighborhood the day before but we didn't have time to stop.  Now with it raining, we wanted to spend as much time as possible indoors so we stopped in.  It was a cute, small shop and had nice selection of pieces but at first I didn't see anything for myself.  Just as we were leaving, I spotted a 30s silk embroidered peasant top hanging in the front window.  I ran back in to try it on and ended up bringing it home with me.  I was my favorite find of the whole trip.

After a few hours of rain, the skies finally cleared and we had an afternoon of sunshine.  We were so tired of walking we decided to take a touristy canal trip so we could sit for a while and still see parts of the city.  We ended up on a boat with a really fun and informative tour guide and actually learned a lot about the history of the city on what we thought would be just a cheesy ride through the canals.

Amsterdam, Pt. 1

Somehow I got a bit off track with sharing our vacation photos with you.  Let's get back to it, shall we?  Here we are in our last stop along the way... Amsterdam!  Our arrival in Amsterdam was a bit later in the day than we expected after a train mishap. As in, we got on the wrong one.  Oopsy!  It really wasn't a big problem and we were able to get off at the next stop and catch the correct train, it just put us a bit behind schedule. 

Amsterdam was everything we expected it to be;  canals winding their way through the city, bikes and bikes as far as you could see, the smell of marijuana wafting out of coffee shops, house boats lining the canals and drunken tourists shouting from their party boats.  Honestly, if it wasn't for said drunken tourists, the city was quite lovely.  Our first day we walked the streets, sat at a sidewalk cafe to have a beer, visited the Bloemenmarkt where I met the world's friendliest cat, peered into the windows of house boats, had dinner with an old friend at an Ethiopian restaurant and wandered into an art gallery opening. 

Hirtzfelden

One of the highlights of our time in Germany was a day trip we made back into the Alsace region of France to visit a distant cousin of Tom's.  They had never met in person but had emailed several times and traded information on family ancestry.  She was an amazing tour guide, greeting us at the train station waving a small American flag, chauffeuring us all over the countryside and treating us to a home cooked meal.

One of the stops along the way was to the house in Hirtzfelden where their shared ancestor, a great-grandfather, had his home and blacksmith shop.  The house now sits abandoned and we were granted access to roam freely through it.  Inside held relics of the life lived there and the blacksmith shop that had once provided its occupants with their livelihood. 

Our home cooked meal was also a quite a treat.  It consisted of an onion tart, broccoli casserole and fresh garden salad with two bottles of local wine and four kinds of cheeses and bread.  Then... we had a custard topped with fresh wild strawberries picked from the yard.  Then... we had a caked baked with apples and raisins and topped with powdered sugar.  So delicious! 

Weekend Adventures

photo by Tom b.

- vintage skirt
-  H&M top
-  vintage hat
-  Madewell Zipcode boots
-  Julie Nolan zodiac bracelet
-  Datter eye necklace

Last weekend Tom and I had a few fun adventures.  On Sunday we went to a concert in Philadelphia for a band Tom has worked with over the years.  We stopped on our way into the city and picked up seitan Philly cheesesteaks (so good, by the way) and ate them on a freezing cold tour bus.  Why are buses always so cold?  Then we drove home late at night only to return to Philly the next day for a Phillies game.  Dollar dog night!  I love that the stadium there does vegan hot dogs.  We ate hot dogs and soft pretzels with cheese (which I managed to spill all over my jeans within minutes of sitting down) and rooted the Phillies to a win over the Reds.

Then after the Phillies game we headed north towards Connecticut.  Once there, we stayed in a roadside motel so we could wake early in the morning for a photoshoot in an abandoned opera house.  Tom was going to document the empty spaces of The Sterling Opera House in support of the Valley Community Foundation and invited me to go along.  Over the years the opera house has hosted acts from Harry Houdini to Bing Crosby but has been empty for decades and is now in line for restoration.

I'd planned out a shoot that would be similar to the one we did last year at Beekman Place but at the last minute, didn't feel up to being in front of the camera so I rearranged a few things and stayed behind the camera instead.  But I did let Tom snap this one photo of me.  I'll be sharing more of the project later this week!

In Bruges, Pt. II

Here is the second set of photos from our days in Bruges.  The city is known for its chocolate and its lace and there was plenty of both everywhere you looked.  Each street in the center of the city was dotted with artisan chocolate shops selling freshly made treats.  We sampled quite a few.  All delicious.

In one doorway there was a little old lady demonstrating lace making techniques and I was transfixed at how quickly she worked the network of pins and threads to come up with delicate, intricate pieces of lace.  Almost all the homes around the city had lace panels hanging in their windows.  

One night we went to the oldest bar in Bruges, one that's been continually operating in the same location since 1515.  That means they're about to celebrate their 500th anniversary!  Crazy old.  The beer selection was, of course, amazing.  Especially considering Belgian beers are by far my favorite anyway.  Three different kinds of Hoegaarden?  Yes, please! 

In Bruges, Pt. I

The next stop on our travels was the lovely Belgian city of Bruges.  I have to admit I would have never heard of the city if not for the movie In Bruges.  What a strange introduction to the city.  I have to say it certainly lived up to all of our expectations.  To say that the city is charming is such an understatement.  Every corner we turned solicited "oohhhs" and "aahhhs" and felt more like stepping back in time than any other place I've ever set foot. 

A few of our favorite moments: 

•  Our hotel room (we were mysteriously upgraded to the "chocolate suite") was located right on the canal and we could open our window to see the ducks swimming by. 
• The streets were swamped with tourist during the afternoon, but we awoke early enough that the city was virtually empty and we had the Markt all to ourselves. 
• If you ever get the chance to eat a fresh Belgian waffle from a street vendor, do so right away!  I got mine "met chocolade".  SO good.  
• More to come...

Triberg Wasserfalle

One of the things that we were most excited about during our stay in Germany was a trip we had planned to Triberg to see the highest waterfall in Bavaria.  The town is situated in the Black Forest and is also the home of the world's largest cuckoo clock.  Win, win right?  But on the morning of the trip, we awoke to a forecast of 90% chance of rain/snow and temperatures close to freezing.  We hadn't packed appropriately for a hike in the freezing snow so we contemplated changing our plans at the last minute.  In the end, we just layered on all the clothes we'd brought and decided to tough it out.  We're so glad we did, because it ended up being one of the highlights of our trip.

The train ride up the mountain and into the Black Forest was definitely my favorite of the trip.  We counted nineteen tunnels through the mountain before we finally reached Triberg.  The higher we got, the snowier it got and the more scenic and beautiful.  Triberg itself was most charming with typical Bavarian architecture and cuckoo clocks everywhere.  We walked up, up, up the streets until we reached the entrance to the waterfall hike.  The weather was strange the entire time; one second the clouds would part and the sun would shine then more clouds would roll in over the mountains and it would start to snow again. 

As we made our way up the trail I was amazed at how lush the forest was.  It was made even more enchanting by the thin layer of snow that was building up on the green ferns and moss.  I kept thinking to myself that it seemed like a place where Westley and Princess Buttercup would be found hiding.  The falls were impressive and had bridges that crossed back and forth for the best views possible.  Luckily the weather had scared most of the other tourists away so we had the falls all to ourselves.

We then took the trail down the side of the mountain and ended up coming out at Maria in der Tanne or "Mary in the Fir".  It's a small baroque style church whose legend dates back to 1644 when a young girl was cured of an eye disease in the water of a nearby spring.  Later, a man was cured of leprosy by washing in the same spring.  The man carved a small statue of Mary and placed it in a fir tree.  People began making pilgrimages to the site of the miracles and eventually a church was built.  The church is charming but unassuming from the outside, but the interior is as ornate and wonderfully gaudy and you could ever wish for.