A walk around Kelsterbach

Kelsterbach, I have to admit, is not the prettiest of towns.  But on my walk the other day, I think my iphone and  I captured some nice moments.

Send me some pictures of your favourite parts of your town =)

xoxo
Holly

insp-i-love weekly

Hello there,

Here are some things I'm enjoying this week:

 

images via Chiara's website

 1.  A wonderful installation called Light Butterflies by Chiara Lampugnani Design at Milan's LED Light Festival.  The name Chiara means clear in English and the word lamp is in her last name.  It is no wonder she makes such beautiful light installations =)

* * *

2.  Reinterpretation of album covers by Thirty Three and a Third - art show.

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via Alexa's website

 3.  Alexa Meade is an amazing trompe l'oeil artist.  But instead of making the 2D look 3D, she makes the 3D look 2D ... ok wait...  What I'm trying to say is that she paints right on her living 3D subjects and when she's done ... voila!  A painting.  A living painting.  So that picture you see above is of the artist painting directly onto her subject.  You have to check out her site to understand it fully.  Go!  Go now and click around her portfolio.  You'll be amazed.

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4.  
Stop the water while using me! from BLDG//WLF on Vimeo.

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 5.  This Chinese garden I found in the middle of the city.  I was walking along one of my favourite streets in Frankfurt, the Berger Strasse.  I could imagine myself living there, or on any other connecting street.  It's really nice and right at the end, this garden!  I'm beginning to like Frankfurt more and more...


Have a great weekend's end,

xoxo
Holly

Vero Beach, Florida

I thought I would feel comfortable in the US.  It is after all America, a culture I am familiar with.  But how I felt when I got there was much different than I expected.  I don't know how to explain it other than I felt uncomfortable and out of place.  I was shocked by the huge stores, the amount of space and how vast everything felt; the oversized roads, the oversized cars with oversized people driving them.  Even the English sounded unfamiliar.  For the first two days I even kept reading all the English signs in German and of course they make no sense that way.  It's surprising how quickly I got used to living in a country with a different language, even one that is not my own and that I'm not even that good at yet.

I guess I expected it to be more familiar.  It probably didn't help that we weren't exactly  in a big dense city.  After all that is what I am used to - whether in Canada or Europe, and big cities have a different feel.  There are people all about and a sense that you belong to something (although some people have said that big cities have just the opposite effect on them).  One night driving, I asked Pauli why they would put a restaurant here in the middle of nowhere.  He replied that this was not nowhere, it was downtown Vero Beach.  We laughed. It felt so empty.

But the weather was great and beach time was amazing!  The ocean is such a wonderful place to be.  Sitting there, listening to the crashing waves, watching birds soaring overhead and some pelicans hunting for their lunch, I thought - gosh, I never want to leave.  Plus having Pauli by my side was the cherry on top of this whole trip.  I missed him so much.  I was just so happy to be with him.  He really has become an extension of me.  I felt somehow complete with him there.  I guess he really is my partner in life.  It felt really good to feel that.

I mentioned the weather was great.  Unfortunately not great for flying though, pretty windy and low clouds.  Pauli only flew once while I was there (sad for him, but good for me since I had him practically all to myself) and luckily I got to go along for that flight.  It was a fantastic flight.  We flew past sunset so I got to witness day and night flying, I saw some lighting in a cloud not so far away and Pauli got a complement on his "nice steady approach" from a fellow pilot who was flying next to us.  I was so proud and grinning ear to ear the whole time.  Pauli practiced some engine stalls and steep turns, landings and takeoffs from neighbouring airports.  It was really the highlight of my trip.  Here are a few pictures:

The first stripe.

I see a big claw ... you?

I'm certain I heard angels sing...

I'm always looking for hearts...

That shadow is us!

so HOT

That stuff coming out of that cloud is rain. Pretty cool.

The sky is a wonderful place.

Proud pilot's wife.

Into the night.

Well.  That was fun.  Now I'm back and I have to really apply myself to finish those assignments.


See you later,
Holly

"Dancers among us" by Jordan Matter Photography (insp-i-love weekly special edition)

I've been so inspired and so into what I'm about to share, that it deserves to be the only feature for this week.   

*(all photos by Jordan Matter Photography)*



 The topic of dance has been constantly reappearing in my day-to-day.  People seem to be talking to me about it, I see it on TV and read about it on the internet, more than usual.  I even went to a sneak preview this week and the movie they played was "Black Swan" - that new, dark, dance movie (superb, btw).  And just today I watched a dance movie on the plane.  These events have led me to already be in contact with two dance schools to check if they have any classes I would like.  So, yes ... Dance has been on my mind, and the little flame in my heart that permanently exists, has been growing stronger and brighter.

This week, I found Jordan Matter.  His website has been constantly open in my browser and I can't get enough of his photographs.  Yes, Jordan Matter is a great photographer, but the reason I'm so obsessed is because of his "Dancers among us" project.  It's an ongoing collaboration since spring 2009.  He photographs dancers in an everyday, city setting.  Just amazing, especially for a dance enthusiast.  Here are a few of my favourites, though it was hard to choose because they are all my favourites.

Now these are super favourites because they were taken in Montreal ...

You have to check out the rest of his gallery.

I just love these photos, I love this project.  Jordan Matter, if you're out there, somewhere, reading this - Thank You!

Happy Sunday,
xoxo
Holly

Montreal in the 60's

Recently, I discovered Building a Wolf (a.k.a. bldgwlf), a Montreal based blog.  Its focus is illustration, photography, design, music, street art and fashion.  Must check it out. Very cool.


Today they posted about Jimmy Deschenes (with a 'chapeau' on the second 'e'), a multi-disciplinary artist from Quebec.  They featured one of his videos and I would like to share it with you.




I love Montreal and I am always proud to say that that is where I come from.  It holds a special place in my heart.

via Deluxe Tours

xoxo
Holly

Rainbow House - Whacked!

Ab Rogers Design, in collaboration with DA. Studio created this Rainbow House. Check out this video.


The Rainbow House, London from Ab Rogers Design on Vimeo.

What on earth...?
I mean, it's fantastic ... magical even.
But would you want to live there?

xoxo
Holly

insp-i-love weekly

Hello.

Here are some more things I found this week and would like to share since they make me happy.


1.  Living small. Designing small living spaces takes creativity.  When done right, you end up with something like this, which I'd be more than happy to call home:

designed by Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture

2.  I'd also take a prefab house by kitHAUS:

3.  I would love a staircase like this one day:

Courtney & Trevor's CHI House Tour via Apartment Therapy

4. These ghost-shaped urns for ashes by Anna Marinenko left me feeling a bit strange.  I'm not sure if I like the idea or not.  I think, in a dark way, they are quite humorous.

via Design Milk

5.  Tracy Schumate is a Canadian Photographer.  I enjoyed the time I spent on her website. You might too.


6.  Miss Moss is my new blog crush this week.  She is a graphic designer from South Africa.  She posts such beautiful things.  I especially liked the colour comparisons she made using fashion, art, flowers, vintage designs, movies and even textile and wallpaper designs.

via Miss Moss

I wish you all a happy Sunday and a wonderful week ahead.
xoxo
Holly

How it all began, an inspiring story and ... I miss Berlin.

Shop window in Kreuzberg

Before leaving Montreal, when I knew we were moving to Berlin, I have to say, I was feeling excited but also really overwhelmed.  I'm moving to Berlin?  I'm moving to Germany?  A place where I don't even speak the language!? What am I doing?  So I started searching online for blogs about living in Berlin or Germany.  I wanted to read some stories by real people about what it was like there.  I'd been to Berlin before but I had no intention of living there then, so my perspective was different.  I loved the city, but what was it like to live there?  What's up with these German people ... are they cool or what? 

One of the first blogs I found was Haus Maus, a blog about an American setting up "Haus" in Germany.  I thought this was good for me to read and a good place to start.  I spent the next few days reading all her posts.  I was pleased to have stumbled upon a blogger with whom I had very important things in common.  First of all, we were both from America (ok, so I'm Canadian, she's American - whatever), second, we are married to Germans, next we are both into Interior Design (she's well established, I'm still a student), and lastly, we are both called Holly.  These factors made me feel like I could take her opinions seriously and that I could learn and discover a lot from reading her blogs, whether it be about design or about living in Germany as an American.  I soon started following her other blog Decor8.  And then a whole new world unraveled for me.  Suddenly I was reading all these blogs by other people about things I liked.  It was very fun.  During this time, I started my blog - but only for the purposes of my family and friends so they could keep track of my thoughts and experiences in this new life - that was only just beginning for me and oh so far away from them.  I also thought that maybe there is someone out there who is also embarking on such an adventure and maybe they will need reassurance, as I did.  I hoped that by reading my blog, they can see that life is life, no matter where you are - but that Berlin is super awesome!  Now, this blog has turned into more of a personal exercise for me and I find I benefit from it greatly.  And I have a nice blog list that keeps me busy reading and learning about interesting things everyday.

So that's how it all began.

Today, I was over at Decor8 and Holly had a great post I would encourage you to check out, featuring an interview via  Freunde von Freunden (FvF) about a self taught American artist who's in Berlin at the moment getting ready for a show.  His story is quite inspiring, especially for those who are looking to change something (aren't we all, or haven't we at some point?).  Also, I'd never heard about FvF - a Berlin based interview magazine that focuses on displaying the working and living lives of creative people. I'm definitely adding it to my blog list.  I'm grateful to Holly for blogging about this today.  I love reading things about Berlin - I miss it so much.

Biking in Friedenau

xoxo
Holly

Dance

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight, 2010) via Cinema Style

I love dance.  I was a passionate jazz ballet dancer for some time.  I had dreams of being in a troupe and touring the world.  I had dreams that after my performance career I would become a wold famous choreographer.  It was all set up in my mind ... but then, life happened.  I know many of you can relate.

Here is a nice post about dance movies.  There are a couple on the list I haven't seen.  I will probably watch them this weekend.

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight, 2010) via Cinema Style

See you around xoxo
Holly

Party Down

I started watching this great show:  Party Down.


You'd think, given my recent words about my waitress-ing career, that I'd hate this show and that it would bring up all these horrible memories.  But I find myself totally enjoying it and laughing really hard because I can so relate to this group of people.



So I started thinking about it all.  There were always similar waiter types in every service team I worked with.  Today, I'd like to reminisce about three general types: the newbies, the bitter waiters and the career waiter.

The newbies are all excited about the people they are meeting, all the glamour (depending where you work), and the constant cash in their wallets.  Basically, they're being paid to party and chat people up.  Usually they are hopeful with all these dreams and aspirations ahead of them. They're networking themselves and they smile a lot. They're thinking, "this isn't my real job", but they're still proud of it.  All these new relationships and friendships begin to develop and before they know it, they are part of a cooky and often incestuous family - the restaurant staff.  This is a super fun time.  One that I look back on with great fondness.  You all work hard, and then after work you play hard. 

But soon enough, the bitter waiter develops.  They are either still students, students on hold, artists, or looking for their next venture.  They've been there long enough to realize that all these wonderful people they meet and serve are highly repititious and that no one is really that original. The magic behind people and social interaction is no longer existent.  All the customers they serve at the bar or at the table, the've met before.  There's the successful business man, divorced three times and now ordering a Cosmopolitan for his super young girlfriend because he thinks Cosmos are still 'in',  the cougar obviously on the prowl, the young entrepreneur always trying to get you on board or trying to sell you something, the partyers who ingest nothing else but vodka/redbull, the young girls trying desperately to get some attention, the rich kids mixing coke with a quality whiskey and returning their food because you (the waiter) didn't mention that there was meat in the spaghetti bolognese or the families pretending to be perfect thinking they're hiding their dysfunctions so well.  These people are all the same, yet they think they're unique and that is so sad. These waiters are tired of saying the same things and laughing at the same jokes over and over, as if for the first time.  They're tired of being expected to jump at a snap of the fingers or to produce extra tables on the terrace out of thin air.  Believe it or not, many people think waiter = slave or magician.  These people have probably never been waiters.  And the reality that these waiters go to work everyday, just to be treated like dirt is sad.  But they are willing to take it, willing to swallow it all for the money.  They often remind themselves about their nice clients or their friends at work who can empathize, and that somewhat makes up for all the crap.

Then you have a special kind of waiter - the career waiter.  He takes himself very seriously and has a lot of experience.  He is resolved with the fact that waiter is his profession.  Some of these guys or gals are cool - really cool and they have developed their skills into a sort of artform.  They can control their clients and elicit the desired responses from them.  They are excellent at their job.  They fully understand behavioural psychology, even if they don't know they do.  They just really suck if they're power trippers and they can make your life, as a coworker, a living hell.

Being a waiter has its good times and bad times.  It's not a complex job, but what makes it hard is the extreme physical and emotional demands.  But as I've mentioned before, and of course depending where you work, it's an easy way to make fast cash ... legally that is.  One could then always consider being a prostitute or a drug dealer...

'till next time,
Holly

Doors

Sometimes, images just overwhelm me in such a good way.

I found this on Miss Moss:

via Fonk's Flickr

I can't remember where I found this one but if someone knows please share so I can give credit:

 

So...what are you up to today?

xoxo

Holly