Wednesday, March 30, 2011


Something sent me off on a 'things that inspire me' kick today. It was a short burst of googling and mygodhaveyouseenthis?! But it reminded of the creative genius of everynone, their video 'words' gives me chills. It's just so incredibly well done and I'm a sucker for a a project based on subtleties that only a certain eye will see. I highly suggest you pause for three minutes to see what they do. 

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Before it I forgot it ever happened and these photos make even less sense, Lecce. 














With this in mind, you should know where exactly Lecce is. The location is really what made the biggest impact on me while I was there. Being 'in the heel of the boot,' as I have always described it, Lecce is very isolated. It's a different world. In Florence I would mention that I lived there and the response would always be something along the line of, "WHAT! Lecce that's in AFRICA?!" Being a pale, blond american girl I really stood out down there. The six months with AFS were difficult for me. But then again I was 17, lots of things are difficult when you're 17. Because I was having such a hard time with the language and general culture shock, it was hard to see the beauty in the city. Granted, once you leave the historic center things are less than stunning, lots more concrete. This time around I thought I would take a good look at the city the for what is, lovely and saturated with baroque churches. Of course I'm biased, as you know I am in with the locals. 


I just trifle-bombed the studio....








(for a back story on this: my friend James, who insists on going by Jai'me, says the phrase 'that's trifling' at least 5 times an hour. I cannot stop thinking of elaborately stacked puddings all the time)

Friday, March 25, 2011

I usually try to avoid re-blogging things this way, but there have to be exceptions to every rule. Especially when those exceptions are twin peaks related. Let me present to you:

David Lynch's hair compared to famous paintings

as seen on miss moss

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

my apartment wont let me have pets so I grow my own








It's funny how frequently I am reminded that I really am my parents' daughter. I've long since grown out of any rebellious teenager tendencies, in fact I'm not sure if I ever did much more than run away to Italy (twice)(with their permission...) to begin with. These days I've spent enough time away from home, had my space to be my own person, and found my place in philadelphia that I can happily say that my parents and I are friends. I love that. Lately though, I can't help but notice how many similarities there are between the three of us. Biking, designing, running, cooking, fluency in schipperke... and now I have added gardening to the list. That uncontrollable urge to grow food. It makes sense, I grew up in gardens. Between my moms enormous gated vegetable palace, my mini garden by the play set, or the rows of popcorn dad had out back there was always something growing. So it seems only natural that I start my own little experiment up here on the 19th floor.


Last month I adopted a chia pet and a cactus. This month I decided lugging a bag full of horse poop back from the suburbs sounded like a good idea. So now I am making (hopefully!) good use of the endless sunlight I get up here. This weekend seeds were planted, the chia got a new coat and I started a sprouting operation to keep me busy until the babies grow tall enough to peek out of the dirt. Luckily the alfalfa sprouts have already started to do their thing. They're as close to instant gratification as I am going to get right now. Waiting on seeds is an endurance test on the modern attention span...

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

From the galleries, Wexler and Minima:
this is 3d printed in nylon


this legitimizes my flash drive case... it's embarrassing, you'll see. 

these are bent pyrex rods, sadly you cannot sit on it.

mini (!)  wassily chair, the miniatures are fabricated using the same manufacturing processes as their full size counterparts.

the metal frame of the lamp conducts electricity through the LEDs, no wires just frame



and finally, this is makes all the pain and suffering of 3D modeling worthwhile:

Life in PHL

(I will be adding on some vacation stories in the next few days, lots of pictures to come)









Last week was ridiculous. It was one of those times where everything you were supposed to do for the past month (that you might have pushed to the side a bit..) all came crashing down at once. More specifically wednesday. I got attacked by wednesday. A paper on renaissance poetry did me in. But then things got better, it was almost 70 degrees on Friday. Thursday started off a trend of beautiful weather which could brighten the day of even the grouchiest of grouches. A leisurely field trip to old city led to a leisurely afternoon in the park, celebrating St. Patricks with cheap champagne instead of beer. High Life might be the champagne of beers, but nothing beats Andre. 


Saturday night Megan and I were treated to a slumber party with the most ridiculously wonderful, expensive, high-designed nightlights you have ever seen. Our friend James is working at Bahdeebahdu, a sculpture/design/lighting studio in Northeast Phila. (Free promotion for my friends: they're having an opening on April 14th, FRESHBLOOD, where you can see talented work of James and the others of the 'next generation' at the studio). The pictures above are from our visit, we were so lucky to get to spend the evening there. Sunday morning I scurried off the farm to spend the day at home with papĂ  and the schipperke, and most importantly collect a bag of compost and some seeds. In few days I will be starting a mini nursery on the 19th floor, my chia pet needs some friends. Pictures will come soon! 


Oh yeah, and I made challah (holla!), this recipe can be found @ smitten kitchen, highly recommended. 

Friday, March 18, 2011

Vacationing Part I



Now that I have been home for a couple of days, it's high time that I share some stories of last week's Italian adventure (just enough time to catch up on all the work I didn't do and lose too many hours of sleep already!).
Carnevale: Santa, a flower, little red riding hood, and a wee zucchini.
This is super image heavy post so I am going to add a break, click READ MORE to see the rest! 

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

So excited to be staying a night at THIS ADORABLE HOTEL in stockholm. I've got all of 18 hours in the city, any suggestions? 
Megan posted this and tracked back to me, therefore I am going to post it and track to her!

annotating her notes in studio (by me)

and of course, via mhild

Saturday, March 5, 2011

and with that note...

THINGS I BROUGHT ON THE PLANE:
proof that my mother and I are far too similar, she picked out the exact sock yarn I would have chosen for myself: georgia o'keeffe

and i started reading this, because it seemed relevant, and I wanted to.





This is going to sound a little ridiculous:


spring break in italy.
martha has run away from philadelphia yet again, back to italy. 


Thanks to some savvy traveler skill and the impossibility of purchasing one way international flights, I am back. And there is nothing like international travel to get you blogging again. Already my introspective, travel as a means of self discovery processor has turned on. In a day or two it will be joined by the cultural different machine, followed by the (hopefully) quick switch to thinking in italian again. 


So in the early stages of being in back in italy for the second time this year, I have got to thinking about just what brings me back. Why do I love Italy? It's taken enough time for me to admit this. After the first six months I would be hard pressed to say I loved Italy, far from it. But somewhere in my second stay here I warmed up to the idea. It's great to come back to a place that will feed you well no matter your dietary restrictions. Not mention some of my besties live here. 


Really though, what started me writing is something that gets to the crux of Italy, and just happens to be a trait of Philadelphia. Two of my favorite places, part of what I love about them is the embrace of the imperfections, the disfunction. Can any resident of philadelphia deny cursing out a pot hole, or lovingly mocking septa any chance they get? Of course not. It's our duty to make fun of the city of brotherly love. We know it will always love us back. Maybe it would be more appropriately named the city of little-brotherly love. Unconditional, because you have to, with a side of sibling rivalry. Well, I get similar feelings towards Italy. The italy I know is a proud dysfunctional mess. If you live there, you know this. The italian solution may not be to 'put a mural on it,' more along the lines of 'feed it a pizza,' but the idea is the same. It's a rite of passage to start making fun of Italian bureaucracy, civil services and Berlusconi. You know that when the country feels like it's falling apart there is always family to come home to. Why worry about, it's much more fun to joke about it instead.


Lastly my geographical comparison: Both places have very distinct regional differences. It is just as impossible to confuse Milan with Sicily as it is Rittenhouse to Fishtown.