Days 4, 5, & 6: Naples/Pompeii and Milan

It's been awhile since I posted Italia pictures.. mainly because I've been really lazy about going through them. But here are days 4, 5, and 6. Day 4 we woke up early and caught the metro to Pompeii. It was definitely a better day than our first in Naples. I took a LOT of pictures. It was a really neat little destroyed city, although definitely a bit wicked. There were fresco's of bath houses, and animal bestiality, and posters of male genitalia carved in to the faces of buildings. I'll let your imagination wander there, because whatever you're thinking is probably accurate. It was interesting to compare how our world is now to how things were in this ancient city. I thought the sexuality in our world and media was bad, but you can just tell this place was worse. Miles told me that when people wanted to be elected to positions of government they would promises the people more bath houses. Anyway, we walked around Pompeii for entirely too long.

The next day we woke up, had a wonderful breakfast in bed, and hopped on the bus to get to the train station. For the first and only time our entire trip we hadn't purchased the 1euro bus ticket. And for the first and only time of our trip, there were officials checking for tickets. So after a 75euro ticket (yeah a tad ridiculous and overpriced) I was more than happy to get out of the Naples. I told Miles as we headed in to the train station, "take a good long look at the city sweetie, because we are never coming back." And with that we hopped on the train for the longest ride of my life to Milan. Luckily our hotel was right outside the train station. Milan was a lot colder than the other cities we went to. There was even some snow on the ground. I was pretty excited to wake up and go shopping the next morning. Milan is one of the world's fashion capitals. I could definitely see why. On every corner there was a Fendi, or Prada, or Burberry, or Armani, or my personal favorite, Tiffany's. It was so much fun to walk in and out of shops. I fell in love with the store United Colors of Benetton. I wish we had it in the States. Lucky for you, because we were shopping I didn't take too many pictures. I also realized I had about 3 rolls of Holga film left to use, and started clicking away on my Holga instead. We also went to a Da Vinci exhibit, totally Miles idea, I was proud. We spent the day viewing art, eating pastries and pizza and pasta and shopping. Perfect day? Absolutely. 

 

Happy Birthday Jenny!

Today is my best friend, Jenny Riddle's birthday. And while I wish I was a millionaire and could fly the 2,500 miles to surprise her with a birthday visit, I'm not quite that fortunate, so a lousy blog post and homemade card in the mail will have to do I suppose (check your mail Jen, I sent it yesterday). I just wanted my best friend to know I'm thinking about her on her 23rd birthday! We've been friends since Mr. Cordon's homeroom and better friends when her and Emily Grimes got in a fight on the playground in 6th grade because Emily called her a poser. I went to the guidance counselor's office with her. From school dances, to soccer and lacrosse games, and boring Brookfield nights, boyfriends and girls nights, parties, and sleepovers, she's been my best friend through it all. We've had some of the best and worst experiences together, from having all of our best friends sit across from us and tell us they don't want to be our friends anymore because we don't drink, almost missing our English final sophomore year and telling our teacher that our car broke down and we had to walk to school (oh and that worked by the way) to sledding in bikini's in her backyard in a laundry basket and me flashing her neighbor (I didn't know he was watching). In our yearbook senior year for our senior quotes we found this quote that really explains our friendship to a T: "A best friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad." I wish I had all of my pictures of the two of us, but they're in a HUGE box under my bed in Connecticut. But I had these ones, so here is an ode to my bestest friend. Now we need to start planning our girls trip this summer. I'm thinking somewhere tropical.

Monday ramblings and thoughts.

My sister played a mean practical joke on me today.

She let it go on for 20 minutes.

I was sitting in bed with mascara running on my face.

Miles was comforting me.

She said she didn't get the job with us this summer

When she was done being evil she sent me the "haha it's a joke" text.

MY SISTER IS COMING TO NASHVILLE THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!

I'm very much excited by this.

So excited I think I can forget her mean joke.

It's my best friend Jenny Riddle's birthday tomorrow.

I really need to go mail off her card.

I also need to figure out how to fit myself in the envelope.

Speaking of birthdays, today is Bria Lee Lee's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My brother-in-law Scott is interviewing with a job in Connecticut today.

Good luck Scott!!!!! (and Jen for that matter).

My nephew Matthew is the cutest boy alive.

Don't believe me? Watch these videos. 

That's all for today.

Obsessions

I'm having severe creativity/photographers block and am trying to break out of my funk with a new project to spark a little creativity (I feel like this is quite similar to writers block). But none of my ideas are really flowing and transforming the way I want them to. Nothing I photograph lately seems interesting or exciting or intriguing. So I'm starting a photo project on the things that people are obsessed with/collect. For me, it's cameras and vintage books. I'm having a tough time coming up with thing that people are obsessed with/collect. Please leave a comment with any ideas you might have.  Any help would be oh so greatly appreciated!

Taking a Break

So in case you haven't noticed.. I've taken a break from posting my Italy pictures. I've had 5 photo jobs I've needed to edit pictures for, plus some little projects on the side. One of which is the newest addition to our home decor! I'm pleased to say that I reupholstered my first piece of furniture! (I can't take all of the credit, because Miles did nail the nails into the bottom of the chair, but I feel like it's fair for me to take most of the credit). Miles and I liked to go peruse through the DI every once in awhile to discover what people throw away. One mans junk is another mans treasure right? Well we've been feeling like ever since we took down our Christmas tree that our living room is missing something, and we felt like it was a chair. And guess what! It just so happens there was a junky little chair sitting in the furniture section. It was only $10 so I figured, how hard can reupholstering be? We also found some bamboo blinds for $5 each to put in our living room, which is a killer find because we almost bought the same ones for $25 each at Target. So we came home with our little treasures and decided that the chair needed to be a patterned fabric. I hit up JoAnn's fabrics and found a cute red upholstering fabric that would fit with our living room decor for only $30. So at midnight on Friday night Miles and I started our little project. We stayed up until about 3am finishing the body of the chair and then the next morning I started sewing the cushion. I think it turned out pretty great for our first go at it. Only $40 for a new chair that looks quite lovely in our living room. Here are the before and after pictures. Let me know what you think. And check back in the next few days for more Italy pictures. It will be my Pompeii post! Oh and if you're bored and want to keep blog stalking, check out my photoblog. I'm slowing starting to post those 5 photo jobs.

old chair ---> new chair.