Movin' the Blog

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I will no longer be posting on this web address.

If you still want to see what I've been up to, check out my new blog, here!

My New Favorite Thing

Hello Blogging World! Long time no post.

This is going to be short because I'm already exhausted (and it is only 9:15).

I have this app on my Google home page that give me "Art of the Day" even though it refreshes and gives you a new piece of art whenever you leave the website. ANYWAY, I saw this and froze. She is gorgeous. The lines and the colors - not to mention the texture the piece (oil on canvas is one of my favorite mediums).

The piece is Boreas by John William Waterhouse, painted in 1902:

When I first saw it, I thought it looked vaguely familiar, but I knew I had never seen this before. So, I googled John William Waterhouse and figured out why this looked familiar. You may recognize this beauty:

Lady of Shallot. (This always reminds me of that scene in Anne of Green Gables.

Once I googled John William Waterhouse, I found SO MANY pieces that I love. I don't want to post them all, because that is ridiculous, but here are just two more that I wanted to share:

My Sweet Rose

and, finally, Ophelia

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. A great find.

2. I'll be blogging about my recent trips to Seattle. Someday. Soon. Ish.

3. Seeing Blue October in concert yet again. Chelsea and I sat down and figured out that we've been seeing them every 6 months for the last 2 years. I hope we can keep it up!

4. I bought a MacBook Pro and I LOVE it.

5. My new ergonomic keyboard for work. HEAVEN.

Naomi Anne

For those of you who didn't hear the spectacular news - I have another niece!!

Naomi Anne was born on 12 July 2011 at 3:30am(ish). She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long! From what I hear, everything went well!

Congrats to Dan, Ashley, Hannah, and Rachel! I can't wait to meet you, Naomi!!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. All of my nieces. I can't stand being away from them.

2. Mary Martin's Peter Pan. Holy cow, I love this movie. I'm watching it now and can't stop laughing.

3. I'm surrounded by pictures of people I don't talk to anymore. Must remedy this.

4. Maureen O'Hara. She has to be the most beautiful, classy woman ever to grace Hollywood.

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the book and the movies). Seen it twice and can't wait to go again!

Skipping Through the Rest

Before I start giving you all the last day's activities, I did promise an update on the cemetery - it is St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone. MILLIONS of graves (at least, that's what it looks like...). See?

Day Seven

Our last full day in London. How depressing.

Once we got into central London, we headed to the British Museum and skipped around. We didn't have a ton of time in the city and I wanted to see the museums - as much of them as possible within the one day we had. We stopped at the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian History sections, then headed over to the Greek and Roman bits.

And then we found the clocks. My life will never be the same.

Once I was able to be pried away from the clocks, we headed over to the National Gallery and worshiped the likes of Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Durer

. I got to see Madonna of the Rocks by Michelangelo and good ole Arnolfini.

I can't get over the sensation of being within touching distance of multitudes of pieces of art that you dedicated 5 years of your life studying (I was a humanities minor with a penchant for artwork in particular).

I could smell the paint, see the brushstrokes - admire the ludicrous amount of paint that Van Gogh insisted on having on his brush at all times.

When I die, I want God's vocabulary.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Apparently, the National Gallery doesn't let you take pictures inside anymore. Woops.

2. One week of no cell phones.

3. Reading an entire book on the flight home. And watching a few movies.

4. I don't understand how I get homesick for London, but I do.

One Wicked Day

Day Six

We left Francis and Trevor's house and Surrey all together and made our way over to Newbury Park in London for the remainder of our stay in England.

Newbury Park doesn't LOOK far away from central London on the map. Guess what? About an hour's train ride outside the city. Luckily, our hotel there was quite nice and the train ride was fairly interesting because of this one cemetery. In fact, I'm going to try to Google it and see if I can find pictures or something online. You'll have an update tomorrow.

Anyway! Once we figured out how to ride the trains with our massive suitcases and got settled into our room in Newbury Park, we made our way into downtown London. After discovering that the two different sets of directions we got from the Receptionist in Newbury Park were dreadfully wrong, we found what I was looking for: the original Hard Rock Cafe. There was a crazy wait, but it was worth every juicy bite.

After our VERY late lunch, we headed to Portobello Road for souvenirs and so that Mum could watch Bedknobs on Broomsticks and say she'd been there! Another tip if you ever plan on traveling to London: do all of your souvenir shopping on your last day and do it on Portobello Road. Blocks and blocks of street vendors selling everything imaginable at fair prices (for fairly good quality) - most vendors will even haggle with you and are more apt to haggle the closer they are to closing down (5PM). You're welcome.

I bought presents for practically everyone in one stop. Among the gifts: scarves for 6 women, 1 pair of earrings, 2 different pendant watches, 1 necklace, and a magnet for Lizzie.

Once our shopping was done, we headed to the Apollo Victoria Theatre right outside the Victoria Station (right next to Buckingham Palace) to see Wicked!! I have no words to describe the show. I had chills from the moment the show began until the very last person stopped clapping at the end. The show was riddled with understudies and it was still that mindblowingly stellar. It is coming to LA in December, but I doubt it will live up to the high standard the London cast set.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. I'm in love with the guy who played Fiyero; what a twirling, singing, stud.

2. People watching on the Tube. 'Nuff said.

3. Shauna. You are one amazing person.

4. The best thing about being a nerd? Randomly finding other nerds through your nerdy shirt collection.

It's a Tudor (and Pirate?) Life for Me!

Day Five

Linda left early in the morning. It was NOT fun saying goodbye and was really hard to watch Mum say goodbye. These women are practically her sisters and she never gets to see them.

Francis always needed a day off the day after we had been out and about, so she stayed in Surrey while Mum and I headed to Hampton Court - home of Henry VIII and his insane court and later to George II. The place was quite exquisite, actually.

There are two different palaces on the grounds at Hampton Court - one was the original structure (Henry's palace) and the other structure was built several hundred years later by King George on the grounds. It looks a bit weird having structures from two different periods, but they were both beautiful!

Henry's Palace:

George's Palace:

There were period actors walking around the grounds to help you imagine you were in Henry's court. There were different areas to teach you about each of Henry's wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) and living in Tudor England.

George's palace should look familiar to anyone who saw the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean film.

I had fun taking pictures - the weather was perfect and the grounds were immaculately kept. As if Henry would tolerate it any other way - even in death!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Skyping with Peter (aka: Harrison Ford).

2. Snowdrops.

3. My aunt was Queen of England after Henry VIII died for 9 whole days.

4. Horse-drawn carriages.

Chaucer, Fudge, and Romans, Oh My!

Day Four

When I booked this trip, I had lots of grandios ideas about traveling to other cities around London to see some of my favorite sites. Alas, we didn't make it to all of them, but we did make it to CANTERBURY!

Francis, Linda, my Mum, and I drove passed Hever Castle (heave a brick at Hever Castle!), out to Canterbury to see the Canterbury Cathedral. There are no words. I love St. Paul's (still my favorite), but there is something almost other-worldly about Canterbury. This place is MASSIVE and was originally built in 1070 (it has had some work done - the most recent major work was in 1834). The stained glass, stone carving, and intricate sculptures are amazing. I think my favorite part, though, are the graves. Yes, I'm weird. Make peace with it - I have.

Francis and Linda had been to the cathedral a few weeks before, so they shopped while we toured the cathedral. I always love to see Edward, the Black Prince's tomb!

The thing about Canterbury is, there's this fudge shop. I have been dreaming about this fudge shop since 2005. I said I wanted to find it as a joke while we were on the way up. I honestly didn't think it would be there. IT WAS!! So, I bought some fudge. :)

Turns out that there is a Roman village underneath the city of Canterbury. (I do not remember this being here before, but it must have been!) There's this strange hole-in-the-wall of a museum with some interesting artifacts (most of which are NOT from the area, oddly enough) and even the remnants of an old house.

Pretty neat!

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. Free fudge.

2. The fudge shop ships around the world!

3. I got to Skype with my Mum's other cousin, Chaz, whom I've never met. He seemed very kind - I wish I could get to know him more!

4. The delivery boy at the restaurant where we had lunch set off the fire alarm. It was LOUD.