Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
If fire engine red screams Valentine’s Day, blush whispers it sweetly.
It’s a romantic yet subtle shade, as lovely on walls as it is on flowers. Although it’s a more traditional choice for this holiday than last year’s black and white, they look fabulous together. Blush is also great with deep blues or teal-y greens.
Like the illustrations, destinations, and DIYs in this post, blush doesn’t even have to be about Valentine’s Day at all.
Continue reading “Blush: A Color Story”
2018 was the Year of the Dog. Adopting our Quijote in May was a watershed moment for us. There has definitely been a before and after to how we approach travel, socializing, and our daily life with this adorably sweet yet feisty addition to our family.
I have a tradition here of summing up my year in photos from my Instagram, both my own favorites and the year’s “Best Nine,” as counted by an app.
View this post on Instagram
This time it seemed a little different, since I hadn’t been posting to my Instagram gallery as frequently, and a lot of the photos I did share were from earlier years.
Still, I think this can give you a little window into my 2018…
In a way, you (or anyone who liked my Instagram posts) voted for this first set of photos, since Best Nine just automatically selects the photos with the most likes.
Best Nine (from left):
Row 1 — Motel sign, Sedona / Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix / Women’s March Phoenix 2 — Dragon tree shadows at Coronado Island, CA / Spreckels Organ, San Diego / Monet Pond, Denver Botanic Gardens 3 — Typewriter at George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Phoenix / Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Consuelo, Altea, Spain / Mosaic in the Vatican Museum
This collage I put together somehow feels more like my past year — especially with Quijote at the center of it all!
1 — Pompeii at Arizona Science Center / Date Night, Yuma, AZ / Typewriter at George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Phoenix 2 — Downtown Tucson / Quijote / Dragon tree shadows at Coronado Island, CA 3 — Sunset at La Jolla, CA / The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix / San Marco Square, Venice, Italy
What memories stand out from your past year?
I saw the tape deck buttons on this vintage stereo, and it gave me one of those deja vu-y moments where you’re transported back in time for just a fraction of a second, like remembering a flash of a dream. They looked just like the buttons on the stereo my parents had when I was a kid, so I had to capture it.
It’s funny how objects from childhood leave such a strong imprint on your memory. I think it’s because kids tend to look at things more closely with fewer preconceived notions.
Speaking of capturing things that are strangely familiar, I’d seen reprints of this map of Italy long before knowing it came from the Gallery of Maps (Galleria delle carte geografiche) in the Vatican.
Seeing it in Italy felt a bit surreal, and I had to take a photo. And so did Phillip. Apparently, at the same moment. So he became part of my picture.
I was skeptical about the palm tree on the Genoa travel poster and whether it could actually grow in a city that far north.
What I hadn’t realized is that Genoa is on the shores of Mediterranean — specifically, the Italian Riviera. This coastal region in Liguria also includes towns like Portofino and the Cinque Terre, and it has a climate warm enough to support palm trees, agaves, and sun-seeking tourists.
In fact, the Italian Riviera was already a tourist destination in 1884, when Claude Monet visited and painted scenes like the Palm Trees at Bordighera.
Now if the word “riviera” initially made you picture a river (same here), you weren’t completely wrong. The Italian word rivièra can actually refer to the shores of a river, lake, or, in this case, a sea.
Because there’s an Italian Riviera, English speakers called the Mediterranean coast on France’s side of the border the “French Riviera,” borrowing the Italian word again. Apparently, there’s also a (much) lesser-known English Riviera, which seems like a tourism-bureau invention.
And, yes, in Italy, you can just call the Italian Riviera the “Riviera.”
Photos via:
I’ll be linking up with Thursday Tree Love at Happiness and Food.
I stumbled across all these 1930s Swiss and Italian travel posters online that are up for sale at an auction house in Dresden, Germany.
I had intended to quickly share some of my favorites, but then I got curious about some of the places pictured and ended up doing some research/getting sidetracked. So I have a little extra backstory for some of them.
Pilatus Bahn, Luzern – Pilatus Railway, Railway Chemin de Fer, Lucerne, Switzerland poster by Otto Ernst, c. 1930.
At first glance, I thought this was the same mountain railway (funicular) I’d posted about previously, Gelmerbahn, but it’s actually Pilatusbahn, which is on a different Swiss peak about 40 minutes away. Different sources claim each one to be the steepest cogwheel railway in Europe, so that may be where my confusion came from.
Anyway, I found a 2009 photo of Mt. Pilatus that was taken from almost the same angle as the poster – you can even see the little red funicular making its way down the hill (on possibly-the-steepest-grade track in Europe).
Genua und die Italienische Riviera – “Genoa and the Italian Riviera,” lithograph, 1931.
Are there palm trees in Genoa? I wouldn’t have guessed that, but I’m not going to verify that right now. This post has sent me down enough rabbit trails already! (Yeah, more are on the way, I just rearranged the post to spread them out a bit.) For now, I’m going to refrain from even doing an image search.
Leuchtender Sommer – Beschwingte Fahrt. Die schöne Schweiz – Zürich poster “Bright summer – Lively ride. The beautiful Switzerland.” by Augusto Giacometti, c. 1930.
This design is such a departure from your typical travel poster. Instead of focusing on a scene from a city or landscape, it’s just a close-up of a slightly abstracted, watercolor-y butterfly.
Continue reading “Vintage Travel Posters”