Kickstarter: The Black Belt of Alabama

OK, here we go... remember last week when I mentioned Tom and I spent a day in NYC and visited the Kickstarter offices?  Well, this is what we were working on; a book project for our next road trip through Alabama!  As you probably already know, I'm a born and raised 'Bama girl.  I've since lived in California and now Pennsylvania, but a large part of my heart will always reside in that southern state.  

If you'd like to check out more details, you can read all about it on the Kickstarter project page.   Our plans are to spend about 10 days driving through the Black Belt region of Alabama (the region encompasses the central counties of the state, from east to west).  We'll stop along the way at any spot that catches our interest, photographing whatever landscapes, structures or people we discover.  We're excited to see where this adventure takes us!

Above you can see the video we posted telling you a little more about the project (why is it so hard to watch oneself in motion?  I swear I don't sound like that - but I guess I do).  And on the project page, you can read about the rewards we're offering;  everything from a digital PDF of the book, to signed & numbered printed copies, postcards, giclée prints and loads more!  

If you're interested in pitching in or just following along, I'll be posting updates here as we get ready for our road trip.  Thank you so much for checking this out and for all of your support! 

Pittsburgh

 - 30s cotton dress
 - 70s tooled leather bag
 - J. Crew flats

As  I mentioned last week, Tom and I made a road trip to Pittsburgh to see The National and on the way stopped by the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater house for a tour.  While on the tour we heard an old lady remark that it was "a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."  Meanwhile, Tom and I were thinking the exact opposite.  Although, I bet it sure is cold there in the wintertime. 

After our tour we drove into Pittsburgh and walked around to a few vintage shops.  The shops were mostly packed with 70s era polyester and tacky prints, but I did manage to find a pretty white eyelet cotton skirt that came home with me.  Perhaps there are better vintage shops there, but I didn't happen upon them.  

For lunch we sat at the counter at Primanti Bros. and watched sandwich after sandwich being assembled;  fresh cut bread, grilled meat, cheese, fries, coleslaw, tomatoes, topped with another piece of bread.  We had the cheese combo and the fries come right in the sandwich.  

We took an after lunch stroll around the river and across one of the sunny yellow bridges before heading over to the show.  The National put on a great show and played a 22 song set that I didn't want to end.  I was only slightly disappointed that they didn't play "Fireproof" since I wanted to hear my name in the song.  But I was standing in the right place at the right time and during "Mr. November" Matt Berninger walked out into the crowd and I got tangled up in his mike cord and he ending up singing six inches from my face.  Good times. 

Where We've Been

 - UO jeans
 - old Gap flannel shirt
 - vintage wool sweater
 - Elizabeth & James jacket via Madewell
 - Alexa Chung for Madewell hat
 - thrifted boy's hiking boots

Where we've been, in case you were wondering, is on a post-holiday Southern road trip to Alabama and Virginia.  We spent a few wonderful days lazing about my parent's house and property, a day visiting old friends in Birmingham and stopped along the way home to spend the night at a friend's home and animal sanctuary in the hills of Virginia.  When we got home I cleaned out my jacket pockets and found a couple of creek-smoothed rocks, a handful of chicken feathers, a beer bottle cap, a shotgun shell and two road trip Taco Bell receipts. Definitely hard evidence that we had a good time. We're already planning our next trip down. 

New York City

Over the weekend Tom and I slipped away quietly to enjoy a couple of utterly perfect autumn days in New York City.  A friend generously lent us a 36th floor apartment in Chelsea so we had an amazing view of the Empire State Building from the rooftop garden for sunrise.  We wandered the streets of Manhattan, stopping in galleries, bookstores and restaurants whenever we fancied, rested in Central Park, did lots of window shopping and enjoyed one of the last beautiful weekends of fall.  

Amsterdam, Pt. 2

Our second day in Amsterdam was the gloomiest and rainiest day of the whole trip.  We were beginning to get worn down after two weeks of traveling and it was hard to get up and head outdoors when we were greeted with grey skies and constant rain.  We started the day with a good breakfast of Dutch pancakes and they were so delicious it turned our mood around and we were ready to brave the rainy streets for one last day of adventure.

We wandered through the northwest section of the city that reminded us of the West Village in New York.  I had spotted a vintage store in the neighborhood the day before but we didn't have time to stop.  Now with it raining, we wanted to spend as much time as possible indoors so we stopped in.  It was a cute, small shop and had nice selection of pieces but at first I didn't see anything for myself.  Just as we were leaving, I spotted a 30s silk embroidered peasant top hanging in the front window.  I ran back in to try it on and ended up bringing it home with me.  I was my favorite find of the whole trip.

After a few hours of rain, the skies finally cleared and we had an afternoon of sunshine.  We were so tired of walking we decided to take a touristy canal trip so we could sit for a while and still see parts of the city.  We ended up on a boat with a really fun and informative tour guide and actually learned a lot about the history of the city on what we thought would be just a cheesy ride through the canals. 

Amsterdam, Pt. 1

Somehow I got a bit off track with sharing our vacation photos with you.  Let's get back to it, shall we?  Here we are in our last stop along the way... Amsterdam!  Our arrival in Amsterdam was a bit later in the day than we expected after a train mishap. As in, we got on the wrong one.  Oopsy!  It really wasn't a big problem and we were able to get off at the next stop and catch the correct train, it just put us a bit behind schedule. 

Amsterdam was everything we expected it to be;  canals winding their way through the city, bikes and bikes as far as you could see, the smell of marijuana wafting out of coffee shops, house boats lining the canals and drunken tourists shouting from their party boats.  Honestly, if it wasn't for said drunken tourists, the city was quite lovely.  Our first day we walked the streets, sat at a sidewalk cafe to have a beer, visited the Bloemenmarkt where I met the world's friendliest cat, peered into the windows of house boats, had dinner with an old friend at an Ethiopian restaurant and wandered into an art gallery opening. 

Hirtzfelden

One of the highlights of our time in Germany was a day trip we made back into the Alsace region of France to visit a distant cousin of Tom's.  They had never met in person but had emailed several times and traded information on family ancestry.  She was an amazing tour guide, greeting us at the train station waving a small American flag, chauffeuring us all over the countryside and treating us to a home cooked meal.

One of the stops along the way was to the house in Hirtzfelden where their shared ancestor, a great-grandfather, had his home and blacksmith shop.  The house now sits abandoned and we were granted access to roam freely through it.  Inside held relics of the life lived there and the blacksmith shop that had once provided its occupants with their livelihood. 

Our home cooked meal was also a quite a treat.  It consisted of an onion tart, broccoli casserole and fresh garden salad with two bottles of local wine and four kinds of cheeses and bread.  Then... we had a custard topped with fresh wild strawberries picked from the yard.  Then... we had a caked baked with apples and raisins and topped with powdered sugar.  So delicious! 

Weekend Adventures

photo by Tom b.

- vintage skirt
-  H&M top
-  vintage hat
-  Madewell Zipcode boots
-  Julie Nolan zodiac bracelet
-  Datter eye necklace

Last weekend Tom and I had a few fun adventures.  On Sunday we went to a concert in Philadelphia for a band Tom has worked with over the years.  We stopped on our way into the city and picked up seitan Philly cheesesteaks (so good, by the way) and ate them on a freezing cold tour bus.  Why are buses always so cold?  Then we drove home late at night only to return to Philly the next day for a Phillies game.  Dollar dog night!  I love that the stadium there does vegan hot dogs.  We ate hot dogs and soft pretzels with cheese (which I managed to spill all over my jeans within minutes of sitting down) and rooted the Phillies to a win over the Reds.

Then after the Phillies game we headed north towards Connecticut.  Once there, we stayed in a roadside motel so we could wake early in the morning for a photoshoot in an abandoned opera house.  Tom was going to document the empty spaces of The Sterling Opera House in support of the Valley Community Foundation and invited me to go along.  Over the years the opera house has hosted acts from Harry Houdini to Bing Crosby but has been empty for decades and is now in line for restoration.

I'd planned out a shoot that would be similar to the one we did last year at Beekman Place but at the last minute, didn't feel up to being in front of the camera so I rearranged a few things and stayed behind the camera instead.  But I did let Tom snap this one photo of me.  I'll be sharing more of the project later this week!

In Bruges, Pt. II

Here is the second set of photos from our days in Bruges.  The city is known for its chocolate and its lace and there was plenty of both everywhere you looked.  Each street in the center of the city was dotted with artisan chocolate shops selling freshly made treats.  We sampled quite a few.  All delicious.

In one doorway there was a little old lady demonstrating lace making techniques and I was transfixed at how quickly she worked the network of pins and threads to come up with delicate, intricate pieces of lace.  Almost all the homes around the city had lace panels hanging in their windows.  

One night we went to the oldest bar in Bruges, one that's been continually operating in the same location since 1515.  That means they're about to celebrate their 500th anniversary!  Crazy old.  The beer selection was, of course, amazing.  Especially considering Belgian beers are by far my favorite anyway.  Three different kinds of Hoegaarden?  Yes, please! 

In Bruges, Pt. I

The next stop on our travels was the lovely Belgian city of Bruges.  I have to admit I would have never heard of the city if not for the movie In Bruges.  What a strange introduction to the city.  I have to say it certainly lived up to all of our expectations.  To say that the city is charming is such an understatement.  Every corner we turned solicited "oohhhs" and "aahhhs" and felt more like stepping back in time than any other place I've ever set foot. 

A few of our favorite moments: 

•  Our hotel room (we were mysteriously upgraded to the "chocolate suite") was located right on the canal and we could open our window to see the ducks swimming by. 
• The streets were swamped with tourist during the afternoon, but we awoke early enough that the city was virtually empty and we had the Markt all to ourselves. 
• If you ever get the chance to eat a fresh Belgian waffle from a street vendor, do so right away!  I got mine "met chocolade".  SO good.  
• More to come...

Triberg Wasserfalle

One of the things that we were most excited about during our stay in Germany was a trip we had planned to Triberg to see the highest waterfall in Bavaria.  The town is situated in the Black Forest and is also the home of the world's largest cuckoo clock.  Win, win right?  But on the morning of the trip, we awoke to a forecast of 90% chance of rain/snow and temperatures close to freezing.  We hadn't packed appropriately for a hike in the freezing snow so we contemplated changing our plans at the last minute.  In the end, we just layered on all the clothes we'd brought and decided to tough it out.  We're so glad we did, because it ended up being one of the highlights of our trip.

The train ride up the mountain and into the Black Forest was definitely my favorite of the trip.  We counted nineteen tunnels through the mountain before we finally reached Triberg.  The higher we got, the snowier it got and the more scenic and beautiful.  Triberg itself was most charming with typical Bavarian architecture and cuckoo clocks everywhere.  We walked up, up, up the streets until we reached the entrance to the waterfall hike.  The weather was strange the entire time; one second the clouds would part and the sun would shine then more clouds would roll in over the mountains and it would start to snow again. 

As we made our way up the trail I was amazed at how lush the forest was.  It was made even more enchanting by the thin layer of snow that was building up on the green ferns and moss.  I kept thinking to myself that it seemed like a place where Westley and Princess Buttercup would be found hiding.  The falls were impressive and had bridges that crossed back and forth for the best views possible.  Luckily the weather had scared most of the other tourists away so we had the falls all to ourselves.

We then took the trail down the side of the mountain and ended up coming out at Maria in der Tanne or "Mary in the Fir".  It's a small baroque style church whose legend dates back to 1644 when a young girl was cured of an eye disease in the water of a nearby spring.  Later, a man was cured of leprosy by washing in the same spring.  The man carved a small statue of Mary and placed it in a fir tree.  People began making pilgrimages to the site of the miracles and eventually a church was built.  The church is charming but unassuming from the outside, but the interior is as ornate and wonderfully gaudy and you could ever wish for. 

Alsace

On day nine of our journey we were staying in Germany but headed back across the border into France for some ancestral research.  Part of Tom's family is from the Alsace region of France and we met up with a distant cousin that he'd never before seen for a tour.  The Alsace region is made up of land that borders France and Germany and has exchanged hands between the two countries four times in 75 years.  Tom's ancestors would have considered themselves German while the family that remains in the area today consider themselves French.  The history of the area makes for an odd meshing of cultures and architecture.

Looking for information about Tom's ancestors led us to many small churches and their long neglected graveyards.  We walked through tall weeds and wiped years of dirt from headstones looking for family names.  We knocked on church doors in hopes of looking though their archives but did so in vain since no one answered. 

After a few stops we headed to the Monastic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Ottmarsheim, not because there's family history there but because it is one of the oldest remaining structures in the region and is simply not to be missed.  The Abbey was built in 1030 and I had the hardest time wrapping my mind around the fact that I was standing in a building that is nearly 1000 years old.  

German Flea Market Books

One day while we were staying in Freiburg we walked through the market that is held by the Gothic church that towers over the city.  There were vendors selling fresh flowers, local produce and sausages and small souvenirs.  There was even a vendor selling locally made vegan sausages upon which we stuffed ourselves for lunch. 

We wandered around for a bit and finally came upon a man with tables full of old books.  In a box on one of those tables was a collection of dozens of small books with the most amazing prints on the covers.  I wanted to bring all of them home but we finally narrowed it down to these six.  The man selling the books hadn't even acknowledged our existence after browsing around his tables for half an hour so I thought it would be the perfect time to put all of my German lessons to use.  I was so excited to finally try it out, since most everyone we encountered spoke very good English. 

I was able to say, "Hello.  I would like to buy something, please.  Six books.  How much do I owe you?" It was rudimentary at best, but he finally acknowledged us and we walked away with the books in hand.  I think they are too lovely to put on a bookshelf so I'm looking for some deep frames (shadow boxes maybe?) to put them in and hang as a collection in our living room.  

Freiburg im Breisgau

The next stop on our trip was Freiburg.  It's a charming little town in southwestern Germany.  Tom had been there once before on a business trip and had told me all about the streams running along the cobblestone streets and the wisteria vines draping across the narrow alleys.  His descriptions were so lovely it was hard to believe the city would live up to it.  But it really did.  It's a university town so there were a lot of young people riding around on bicycles and sitting out in the town square after dark.  It gave the city a really vibrant, lively atmosphere.

We stayed in a small hotel with a restaurant on the first floor.  They served us breakfast every morning which meant croissants and Nutella for me.  Yum!  One day we hiked up the hillside for a view of the city and the surrounding landscape.  On other days we took small trips outside the city;  one to Triberg and the other back across the border into France to visit Hirtzfelden.  More on those trips later! 

Les Puces Saint Ouen

Our trip to Paris wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the flea market in Saint Ouen.  I'd heard so many wonderful things about Parisian flea markets, this legendary one was a must when we were planning our itinerary.  I have to say, it did not disappoint! Thankfully, it was a beautiful sunny day and we took the train north of the city to find the market.  After a few wrong turns through the neighborhood, we finally stumbled upon the entrance and wandered in.  I could have spent all day rummaging through every single stall but we only had a couple of hours before we headed off to our next stop. 

Walking through the furniture stalls made we wish could completely start over in decorating our home.  So many amazing things!  It was a bit hard to take photos because you know how picky flea market vendors are about photos but there were so many pretty things to look at.  There were a million things I wanted to buy, but unless we were going to charter a boat to take us home we had to leave it all behind.  There was not going to be any room in my backpack for a new couch or a collection of vintage mirrors.

There were not as many vendors selling vintage clothing as I had hoped, but there were still plenty of things to look at.  In one stall I found two vintage wool striped sailor sweaters in a perfectly small size.  One in cream with navy stripes, the other in navy with cream stripes.  They reminded me of A.P.C. sweaters.  Then there was Chez Sarah, which strictly forbid photos (so I took a couple of sneaky ones from outside the shop) that was full of so many wonderful vintage dresses it took my breath away.  I was tempted by a 30s silk embroidered peasant blouse since I've been looking for one for ages but ended up walking away because of the outrageous price tag.  Luckily that all worked out in the end because I ended up finding nearly the same blouse at a shop in Amsterdam for a fraction of the price, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with that story. 

Paris! Ooh La La!

After a few cloudy grey days in London we took the Chunnel to Paris.  I thought the Chunnel would be a bit scary, but it was actually quite a boring ride.  At the exact minute we were scheduled to arrive, we pulled into the train station and I stepped into mainland Europe for the first moment in my life.  Here are a few photos and notes about our first couple of days in Paris.

• The city was a bit intimidating to navigate at first, but once we got our Metro passes and figured out the train routes it was quite easy. 
• One day we bought Batobus tickets so we could hop on and off the water bus as it circled round and round the Seine.  
• There are literally cafes on every corner.  That is not an exaggeration.  I did not eat any macaroons, but I did have more than my fair share of crepes and croissants.  
• The Simpsons is still funny, even when overdubbed in French. 
• We enjoyed the times we spent exploring the neighborhood where our hotel was located (the Latin Quarter) more than the time we spent doing the touristy stuff we tried out. 
• Vintage shops were either full of junky 70s polyester for relatively cheap, or  beautifully curated and way out of my price range.  I think everything I like was close to 120 euros!
• We went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, but not the Eiffel Tower.  The line was too long! 

More London

Oh, dreary and grey London!  How we loved you.  It's true.  The grey skies and mist in the air couldn't have dampened our spirits.  We wandered through the streets, took a tour of the Thames, stood in awe of the Eye (but didn't take a ride), listened to Big Ben strike five o'clock and bundled up against the chill.  After spending some time along the river we wandered through Picadilly Circus, stopping along the way for some amazing Indian food.  Then we walked down Shaftesbury Avenue (insert Harry Potter reference here).  We arrived back in Camden late and had to (had to) stop for a late night snack of cheese fries & milkshakes;  vanilla for Tom & Nutella for me. 

London Calling

Here is another dose of vacations photos from our days in London.  We did so much walking while we were there!  We went through the Camden Markets, along the canals, wandered through Regent's Park and Queen Mary's Gardens, past Abbey Road studio, on to Primrose Hill for dinner at Manna (spotted Russel Brand having dinner with a pal) then back to Camden Town for drinks at the Chelsea End and Hobgoblins. 

Camden Stables Market

I think I've finally gotten myself together enough to share a few photos from our trip with you.  Things around here have been a bit hectic since we got back but I'm working on getting back to my regular routine.  In fact, I scored a bunch of late 40s-early 50s cotton dresses at a flea market over the weekend that I spent all day yesterday soaking and drying in the sun (but that's another story). 

This story involves shopping at The Stables Market in Camden and a hat that I found at a vintage shop that hardly left my noggin' for the remainder of our trip.  Our time in London was based in Camden Town, in walking distance to the Stables Market.  The first day we were there, we wandered into a vintage shop and spent some time sifting through the racks.  Honestly I didn't find much that piqued my interest but I did spot a vintage felt fedora in the exact shape and size I'd been hunting for.  I bought it despite the fact that it closely resembled the thrifted J.Crew felt hat that I'd brought with me.  I could sense Tom's confusion as to why I was buying a hat that pretty much looked exactly like the one I was already wearing. But they are different!  Subtly so, but different nonetheless.  I also bought that feather-printed-cape-dress at another shop.  I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, so I thought I'd just show it to you on that super tall mannequin. 



As you can clearly see, the hat was my constant companion throughout our trip.  I wore it while goofing around in the Stables Market, walking along the locks, riding the tube, visiting Big Ben, shopping at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen and wandering along the canals in Amsterdam.

We're finally back from our adventure and are working on getting settled back into day to day life.  I have so many stories and photos to share!  Here's just a little peek into our travels.  I'll be back soon with more photos, a huge shop update and regular posts.  It's good to be back!