The Shop House

I stumbled upon a lovely Etsy shop, The Shop House, a few days ago and just have to share it with you. Tell me, how exquisite are these bookmobiles? There's something so beautiful about the written word, especially in this digital age, and these bookmobiles capture it...

VIA

VIA

VIA

VIA

These would just be lovely in a nursery, or hung in a study somehow. I just love them, and wish I could make one of them my own. They are so dreamy!

Question of the Day:

Do you read books on a nook or are you still holding on to the paperbacks?



Travelogue: Rabat, Morocco

Kasbah des Oudaias

As mentioned in this post, John and I honeymooned in Spain and Morocco. Our few days in Rabat were some of our favorites out of the whole two weeks. Rabat just has something. There's an electricity about the city, the people's smiles are contagious and their surroundings are picturesque. I love Rabat because even though it's a big city (the capital of Morocco) it still has a small town feel and you can really relax and enjoy the culture there.

Overlooking the Atlantic from Oudaias

Rabat is a coastal city bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It has been the country's capital since 1912 when it was moved from Fez. The city is broken up into two worlds- the new city and the old medina. The newer side of the city has nice hotels, bus and train stations, and lots of places to shop. The streets are impeccable (compared to other Moroccan cities, and other parts of Rabat) and are lined with tall palm trees.

John and I walked through the new city, but spent most of our time in the medina and surrounding areas. Our hotel was inside the medina walls in a beautiful old dar (house) owned by a French woman. If you make your way to Rabat I highly recommend the Dar Zouhour and it's central location. See my review here. 

Overlooking part of the city

John and I spent much of our time checking out the major sights and exploring tiny alleys.The oudaias is a great place to do this. Just inside the kasbah walls is a beautiful neighborhood. The whole place is painted in stark white and vibrant blue. On a sunny day the color is almost too much to handle, it just pours happiness into your heart. This is a must see, and on your way out you can take a walk through the tranquil kasbah gardens.

Warning: Men stand at the entrance to the oudaias telling you that you aren't allowed in because prayers just finished up. That's a lie. Blow right past them as politely as possible, anyone is welcome in the city and you can walk in, prayers or no prayers, as long as you stay out of the mosques (generally speaking Morocco does not allow any non-Muslim to enter the mosque, but in some cases you can stand just outside to peak in at a particularly historic one.)

Oudaias

Typical Moroccan doorway. Beautiful!

Another great sight to see is the medina and market (souk) at night. After dark, around 8 or 9pm head over to the souk and get lost in  the crowd. Moroccans love to be where the people are. If they go to the souk and it's not crowded they will go home until later when it's packed out. It is the place to be and it is full of new sights, sounds and smells. If you miss this, then you will have missed Morocco entirely.  Keep some cash in your front pocket for street food and hole in the wall restaurants. There's lots of great shopping around here, but bargain hard.

John and I at Le Tour Hassan

Lastly, but certainly not least-ly, make sure you take a walk over to Le Tour Hassan and the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. The Tour (tower) is an unfinished minaret built by Almohad sultan Yacoub al-Mansour in 1195. It was intended to reach 60m (the tallest in the Muslim world), but only made it to 44. Even at it's current height, the tower impresses.

The beautiful mausoleum (not pictured) is the burial site of the late King Mohammed V, much loved by the country and visited by many throughout the year. It's a solemn place to visit, and it is great to see all the care put into the design work inside.

To the right of the mausoleum is a large and beautifully decorated mosque. Go visit this area near the time for one of the prayers so that you can stand in the square between Le Tour Hassan, the mausoleum, and the mosque when they sing the call to prayer from the loud speakers. We enjoyed watching the locals flock to the area and leave soon after prayers were finished-  culture happened right before our eyes!

Rabat holds a special place in our hearts and we talk about going back all the time. Even though we visited many beautiful cities in the country, Rabat stood out among them all!

Question of the Day:

What's your favorite sight that I saw?

Virginia Trip, Part Two: Washington D.C

The Capital Building

Washington, D.C. It's one of the most beautiful American cities I've seen in terms of architecture. Being there, it was hard to believe that the buildings were real. I've only seen them in print these 24 years and seeing them in person was a bit surreal at first. I love that feeling. It always fills me with a sense of privilege. I've seen history with my own eyes. Do you know how many people in the world will never leave their village? I really do thank God for all that I've been blessed to see in this world!

My favorite building was the Smithsonian Castle (so Harry Potter-like!). My imagination was really able to run wild looking at that building. Unfortunately I couldn't snag a good picture of it, maybe next time. As far as all the political-y buildings, my favorite was the capital...hands down. We had a tour of its rooms and all the paintings and statues were exciting to see.

I wanted to share with you some of the best pics of the day...enjoy!

The front of the capital, flanked by the House and Senate

John and I with our nephew Zeb leaving the Thomas Jefferson Library

The Supreme Court Building

The Back of the White House (sadly, no Obama...)

Our zoom lens captured a sniper in bullet proof vest!

The Washington Monument

The Vietnam Memorial Wall

Me and honest Abe!

What is your favorite building in D.C.? Why?

P.S. None of you told me how flippin' spread out everything is there!! I think I walked about 1,000 miles in that one day. I'm still sore from it! It's ok though, I forgive you. ;)

A Weekend Getaway Full of Firsts

Well my friends, this is my last post for a little bit. My bags are packed, my stretchy pants are soon to be on, and the car is fully stocked for a red-eye drive to Virginia tonight. I'm going up for a long weekend with my husband to visit his our family, and it will be a weekend full of firsts...

Via

 The first time I've visited Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer.

The first time John and I have done a major road-trip together.

The first time I've had to drive through the night to get somewhere.

The first time I'll get to spend three consecutive days together with my favorite little siblings and nephew .

My adorable nephew, Zeb.

My favorite little siblings, Mei Leigh and Jin Tao

 The first time all of John's brothers and sisters have been together under the same roof since our wedding back in October.

And the first time I get to go here...

Via

That's right folks, I'm heading to D.C.! Words cannot express my excitement. I have never been there, and that fact has become an embarrassment I can't live with much longer, and won't have to come Saturday!Since I'm a capital noob, I need your help (see bottom of post.)

We're day tripping with my sister-in-law (Chelsea) and her husband (Justin) to see all that we can see. Justin works for a Senator and has gotten us a private tour of the capital building. (*jumps up and down*) Thank God we just got the new zoom lens for our d-slr because I'll need it to capture such a beautiful city. I can't wait to share my pics with you guys.

Via

I've really been keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get to cross paths with Mr. Obama. That would really round out my trip and knock another "first" of my list..."shake hands with president or presidential candidate." He's a big fan of the "thumbs up," so I would even settle for exchanging one of those if need be.

So, this is it until next Tuesday. My apologies for the radio silence. But I will be thinking of you all every time I snap a shot, and hope to be able to put some of your recommendations to good use...



If you've visited or live in or around D.C. do you have any tips on things we must do or places we must eat?

Bok Tower Gardens (Lake Wales, FL)

Bok Tower and its gardens are located about an hour outside of Orlando in Lake Wales, Florida. I had been to visit years and years ago, so long ago that I barely remember it and had thought for all these years that the tower was a lighthouse and not a carillon.

The carillon bells play ever half hour and the sounds resonate throughout the gardens, which are the best in Florida for getting a glimpse of native Florida flora and fauna. Edward Bok (the editor of Ladies Home Journal) built the tower and gardens in the early 1900s. The tower is one of the most well crafted buildings I've seen in terms of detail and design work. 

Here's some more pictures from around the garden. I hope that it can entice you to visit next time you're in our area. It's a great way to spend half a day and play with your camera!

My dad and I at the entrance.

These old Florida trees were everywhere and dripping with beautiful moss.

Close-up of the singing tower.

John and I at the reflection pond.

The first waterlily I've ever seen.

Heavy brass doors lead into the tower...tell the story of Adam and Eve.

The koi in the pond were ginormous, and very hungry. I almost touched one... :)

These lily pads were huge (about 3 to 4 feet across) and covered with spines underneath.

This mushroom was straight out of a fairytale.

Rows and rows of Florida citrus trees.

Which is your favorite picture from my day at Bok Tower?

Weekend Update| July 11, 2011

Good Monday morning to you all! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I don't know how the weather is in your area, but it's been quite nice around these parts. It's in the upper 90's and blazing hot, but we've had summer showers every day to cool the earth down a bit and make it more bearable.

After a run.

We spent a lot of our weekend outside. Did I tell you that we signed up for a 5k race? Lately we've been trying to train for that (we're not runners, so it takes a lot of training even though it's a pretty short race.) It felt so great to get hot and sweaty and then dive into a cool pool. I'm feeling so energized and refreshed this morning because of it, although I feel like my muscles might fall off at any moment.

Running isn't the only thing that took us outside for the weekend, we also went to Bok Towers in Lake Wales with my dad to celebrate his birthday, the big 5-0! Here's some pics from the wildlife we encountered and a sneak peek of the tower we saw. More on that in tomorrow's post!

Giant locust. Isn't he beautiful up close?

Squirrel, a.k.a. flufferchunks

A toad. I love his big belly!

Me and the birthday  boy in front of the tower.

Bok Tower...one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Florida.

Did you get outside at all this weekend? What's your favorite outdoor activity?

Pearlies

Via Don Kitwood

 Thanks to Carole of Mademoiselle Poirot, I now know what a "Pearly" is! I couldn't wait to share it with all of you following here. You all know how jacked up I get about culture! And now, a little gem from England...

Pearlies, or Pearly Kings and Queens, are kind of the English equivalent to the bell-ringing Santa in America (only, I assume they work year-round.) They are a charitable organization that work the streets asking for money to go toward a good cause.

Apparently, it all started with a young street sweeper who begged for charity. He started adding pearls to his clothes in order to draw attention to himself and generate more revenue for local charities. Fast forward about a hundred years and you still have a thriving organization of do-gooders helping support a local cause.

Have you ever seen a Pearly King or Queen in your travels to England?

You're a Tiger, Grrrr.

"So, clearly you're perfecting your food shots, what about those portrait shots you said you were going to work on?" -Viv

 I got called to the table yesterday by my blogger friend Viv (The Eclectic Life). She was spot on, and reminded me of a big gaping hole in my talents as a wannabe photographer. I mentioned long ago that I really need to work on my "people shots." Every time I try to take a picture of a human being, something goes terribly wrong. Although, I think I had at least one success in my picture of Kayla and Sherrife in this post.

But Viv's right. I haven't been working on it. In fact, I've been avoiding practice at all costs. Why is it so hard? Why is it that the beautiful lily or this "tiger fly" (below) is so easy for me to photograph? Nature and food are such willing subjects. They don't pose, they don't primp, they just are and they know that is enough for them when in front of a camera.

So how does one capture a human on camera without them posing and primping? And how do I snap shots without worrying I won't do them justice or will make them uncomfortable? The people in my life are so beautiful and for some reason I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to describe that beauty in an eloquent photograph.

So, I'm asking for tips. Thankfully I'm surrounded by amazing photographers here in blogland, and each of you can impart some nugget of wisdom.


How do you take good pictures of people? 

What keeps the subject feeling comfortable and natural instead of staged? 

2nd Annual Orlando Turkish Festival



American and Turkish flags waving together.


This past Sunday John and I went downtown to check out the Orlando Turkish Festival. I had heard great things about the one last year and as soon as I saw a billboard for this year's I made note! So glad I did. What fun! As you can imagine, this is right up our alley. There is absolutely nothing better than walking around a market, surrounded by doner kebab and baklava. It's my heaven. 

The event was put on by the Nile Foundation and they did quite a good job. Things ran rather smoothly, although a bit behind schedule. This no longer bothers us, as when we are at an event put on by Turks we expect to set our watches to Arab time. It's nice once you get used to it.



Women selling hijabs and other head scarf accessories.


I had heard of the Nile Foundation before, and was always curious about what they do. Turns out they do some pretty awesome stuff here in Orlando to promote friendship and understanding between Americans and Turks. They have three major departments: education, culture, and humanitarian works. They put on many activities throughout the year, from dialogue dinners to Turkish language classes and field trips to women's Turkish cooking classes. That's right- COOKING CLASSES! I can't wait to get my paws into that!



Blue Star Troupe performing a dance from the Romani people.


The festival was gathered around a large ampitheater where music and dance was performed. We got to hear some really wonderful traditional Turkish music with instruments like the oud and kanun. It was a really simple set up with two men, two instruments and a huge stage. They sounded great and I couldn't believe the way the musicians hands flew over that kanun. Wow! 

The folk dance troupe is called Bluestar Dance and they shared a variety of traditional dances from different groups of people living in Turkey. It was quite different than dances from the region I had seen before. I assume because they were traditional dances, and not just my friends messing around dancing in their apartment to similar tunes. They danced beautifully and always with a smile. That's an A+ in my book as when I dance I usually, without thinking, bite my lower lip and look ridiculous.

After the dancing they did a door-prize drawing for a Turkish rug and a porcelain Turkish dish. We had our names in the bucket, but didn't win. I blame the kids they got to volunteer who just picked names off the top...dig in there kids!!! We didn't win but one old American guy that won the porcelain dish comes to mind. When asked by the emcee "how are you enjoying the festival?" he responded, "well, we had our reservations about coming, of course, but it has been an ok time." He had "reservations, of course?" They should have taken that beautiful dish away from mister racist and given it to Mrs. Hannah!

Oh well, maybe next year.

Carving the doner kebab.

After the shows we moved on to the many food tents. There was food from Turkish restaurants all around town serving up their best fare for the festival-goers. Us being some of them, we took it upon ourselves to peruse the options a number of times, running into our friend Seljuk at one of them, and asking about how business is going for the day. It was a great time to have a little conversation with complete strangers, something that's 10 times easier to do with Turks than it is to do with Americans. As we stopped by one of the tents the men saw that we had a camera and asked if we could snap a picture. Of course...



The guys from Anatolia Restaurant.

We finally settled on a doner kebab wrap and some baklava after being told repeatedly by a Turkish man we met in line that the price they were asking was way over-priced. He was right, it was over-priced. But sometimes you just need to splurge to complete your experience. And $4 for 3 little squares of baklava totally completed my experience! (And totally drained us of any remaining cash.)



My wonderful John, doner in hand, trying to avoid heat exhaustion.


The festival was a success and hopefully a really great chance for the community to learn more about Turkish tradition, food, and culture. I know we learned a lot! We wish we could have stayed longer, but after just 2 short hours our clothes were soaked with sweat and we were ready to head home and jump in a pool. I can't believe that Florida picked this weekend of all weekends to finally jump up into the 90s. If it had been a bit cooler we probably could have enjoyed the festival for another hour or so longer.

On the walk back to our car we found a great sign in the grass. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day, and had us laughing for about a block...

The grass is "resting?"

Do you have cultural festivals in your area? Have you ever been?