Travel and Pack

So many blogs do "packing" posts before they go on vacation.  It's pretty awesome.  These lovely people of the internet will artistically place all the stuff that they are taking with them on the floor, and take photographs, so that their readers know what it is that they have when they are on vacation.  The outfits they will wear, the cameras they will use... it just makes me happy.  Since travel, fashion, and photography are three of my loves, this makes sense.

Thus, I have decided to do one of these packing posts.  I'm in West Grove, Pennsylvania at the moment, visiting my family.  I grew up in this house and it is always pleasant to come back and visit!  My family just had an addition put on- a sunroom and a patio, and wow.  It's so gorgeous.  I'm so happy for them!  My parents had been talking about doing this since I was a little kid, and I'm thrilled that they finally took the plunge and put on the addition.  The spaces are lovely, but they are also rather wonderfully decorated.  I'll probably be sharing some photographs on the Travel and Toile Facebook Page.  Which, by the way, is pretty awesome, so you should totally check it out.  For reals.  

In any case, I'm here because my little sister, Julianna, is graduating from high school.  I'm so proud of her! She's going off to school in Boston in the fall to major in Marketing and Communications.  And so the Buck clan spawns another artsy girl.  Hooray!

So, yeah.  Here's my stuff.

Hehe that's my new martial arts uniform!  Complete with my badass muay thai shorts.  Can you tell how happy I am about this???  I'm so happy.

West Grove, Pennsylvania, USA

Street Fair

It really is amazing the type of random stuff we remember from our childhoods.  There are all kinds of seemingly important details that I probably wouldn't be able to tell you about my early life.  I most likely don't remember the names I gave to some of my favourite toys, or even the names of some of my friends and teachers.  I most likely couldn't pick many of them out of a lineup.  Many people forget the silly, easy little grammar rules they learn (such as their, they're, there and your vs. you're).  But, I remember this song about a street fair.

When I was a little kid, my parents were really good about making sure that I listened to lots of children's music.  We did listen to pop and rock on the radio in the car, but I also had quite a bunch of tapes full of children's songs.  Yes... tapes.  Remember tapes?  We even still had a record player when I was a kid, and not in an "ironic" or retro kind of a way.  There were actually old records because records were what was there.  I didn't get my first CD until I was about eleven years old, and it was Leeann Rimes.  I remember it clear as day.  Anyway, one of my favourite of these children's singers was Tom Chapin.  He is the brother of Harry Chapin, and writes and records predominantly silly, fun songs for kids.  In addition to being pretty hilarious on tape, he also did a yearly free (or extremely cheap, this I don't remember) concert on the grounds of a museum near our house, where he would perform with his band.  We went every year, and it was a very good time.

I can remember every word to almost every song on every single one of his tapes.  I'm not lying.  I just went through about six of them in my head as I was writing the last two paragraphs, and I'm rather certain that I recalled them in their entirety.  My neighbors are probably wondering why I'm singing kid's songs at 11pm at night on a Saturday, but whatever, I'm not really concerned.  This is New York- if they think that's weird, they've chosen to live in the wrong city.  So, yes.  I remember most of these songs, completely.  And, as songs do, they pop into my head when I see things that remind me of them.  For example, every time I make pancakes, or it is Mother's Day, I am reminded of the song "Mother's Day," in which the children and clueless father make the mother buckwheat, chocolate chip, apple raisin pancakes in which they've used baking soda instead of baking powder, as breakfast in bed.  See, I told you that I knew the lyrics.  When I see a lemonade stand, I think of his lemonade song, where the lemonade is fifty cents, not from concentrate, fresh-squeezed, straight from trees, and really, really great. Lemonade totally is never only fifty cents here... or not from concentrate... but I still get reminded of it.  

The worst one, however, is "Street Fair," from the album "In my Hometown."  Because, well, in New York City, there are an asinine number of street fairs.  It is excellent- I love street fairs.  It's just that every time I see one, I think of the Tom Chapin song.  Then, it's stuck in my head for the entire day, like it has been today.  Ah, well.  I'll just have to share some of it with you, along with some photographs of the fair, which I encountered just north of Washington Square Park today.  

"Street fair, street fair

Unique and antique this stupendous affair

Everyone in the whole town will be there

We'll eat and we'll eat as we walk down the street

And we'll eat in the street at the fair"

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Do the Madison

Yesterday, during my lunch break, I grabbed myself a coffee and headed out to enjoy the beautiful spring day in Madison Square Park, in Flatiron.  The sun was shining, and so many people had the same idea, that I actually couldn't find anywhere to sit.  I hadn't brought my camera along to work yesterday, so I decided to capture some images with my phone, instead.  Putting on the silly filters is so fun for me, and is teaching me a lot about colour balance.  Some of the Instagram filters point out when my contrast is just abysmal, which is making me pay attention. I've become better at overall composition, but colour-wise, I've been a bit of an amateur.  So... thank you dear iPhone for making me a better photographer!  It sounds weird to say that, but it is true.

In any case, please enjoy the spring-tastic images, including the ones of the nifty statue currently residing in the centre of the park!!

Here is my happy, stuffed animal cap coffee from the awesome Cafe 28.  Maple Nut flavour, it was yummy.

A nice, pretty puffball of a purple flower....

The effortlessly excellent skyline of the area...

There were some superb chapeau choices happening in the park yesterday. I love this woman's floppy white sun-hat, and also how each person is so completely wrapped up in their own work.  

Here are some more lovely individuals enjoying the lovely day...

And here is the backside of the head statue.  I meant to go and look at the plaque to learn more about it, but then ran out of time and had to go back to work.  I'll post more about it again. This piece of art is fascinating- for some reason, it appears 2D from every angle.  I don't know how the artist achieved this, but I do know that I am insanely impressed.

Some more of the head:

Just a note: I know I said that this would be up at 9am est.... sorry.  I'm off work today, and slept in like the lazy kid I am.  But hey, I got it done, right?

If you didn't catch it in yesterday's post, I will now only be posting here on TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS and SATURDAYS with the occasional post on another day if I'm feeling really motivated.  I hope you don't mind- this will keep me more consistent, but make me stop attempting to churn out so much content.

In addition- I will be posting so many more photos on my Facebook Page!!
And by so many more, I mean I'm shooting for FIVE (5!) photos from Instagram per day!!!  So, if you aren't liking me on the book of face, you are missing out on a lot of my content.  If you're interested, I wholeheartedly invite you to check it out!  

On that note, here's the link: Travel and Toile on Facebook!

Thank you, you wonderful reader, for all you do.  Without your support, I totally wouldn't have kept this up for as long as I have, and found so much joy in this art form.

~Emily

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

South Beach Short Shorts

People in South Beach, Miami, seem to be pretty brazen when it comes to their swimwear.

I saw a surprisingly large number of men in speedos or short short swimsuits.  I wasn't that surprised- the majority of the tourists seemed to be from Europe and South America, where men are just generally better dressed, and more confident to wear such things.  Also, they don't have the false machismo, the pretending to be the concept of what people consider to be a man, as much as American men seem to.  I know I'm making vast generalizations here, but that's what I have experienced.

The women were what I expected in South Beach- thin and pretty.  Everyone who looked like a local also looked like a workout-a-holic.  Not gonna lie, I felt a bit pudgy lookin at my thighs.  But I wasn't wearing a swimsuit... so no one else saw them...  

This post is actually mostly of people!  I know I do that very rarely, but sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone. 

 And, to show you pictures of what South Beach was really like, I feel that I have to show you people, who are always more interesting than things anyway.

  Yes, there was a lot of sand which was surprisingly rocky, and yes, there was the ocean, which was a beautiful blue.  There were palm trees, and flowers, and seagulls. 

However, I've shared lots of photographs of sand and seagulls, and there were palm trees everywhere, not just on the beach, so you'll get your fill of those before my Florida trip posts are over.  

Thus, I share with you the life, the actual feeling of this place through the people.  

I only wish it had been sunnier- the photographs are a little bit dark. 

I let in as much light as I could without sacrificing it to super-blurriness, and some of them turned out blurry.  More of them turned out a bit dark.

But, everyone was just fascinating. I was so happy to see vibrant, diverse people who were not what I was used to, that I just kept snapping away regardless of the light difficulty.

Apparently I wasn't alone :)

There were also a lot of very cute children on the beach, who were surprisingly well behaved.  Many of them were surprisingly naked too, but as I said before, that's a cultural thing, I guess. 

I wasn't at all bothered by the nudity, but I am also not posting any pictures of it here, for propriety's sake.  

There werelots of other young couples too- I don't think we were the only ones with the idea to hit Miami as a romantic winter getaway!

It was such a great study of humanity, which as an actor, I am always trying to do.  Studying how different people from different places act, interact, dress for different occasions and such makes me really happy.  It brings a sort of fulfillment, with the knowledge that I can use that information for a character somewhere down the line. 

Miami, Florida, USA

Pictured:  Lots of people I don't know.  And me, in the last photo (taken by Daniel Garrison).

Cowboy Hats

I have never really been a cowboy hat kind of a girl.  I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where cowboy hats weren't really a thing.  John Deere baseball caps maybe, Amish buggies, absolutely.  But I always had a yearning to be more of a metropolitan kid.  I wore dresses when other people wore sweatpants, always winged my eyeliner, sported heels in high school while most of my peers wore flip flops.  You get my drift.

But over the past couple years, I've become a bit more relaxed. Which is hilarious, because I've been living in New York City.  Heels are broken out only for special occassions (which may have something to do with my ankle problems, which may exist in part because of the heels, but what does it matter), dresses are still my every day staple, but are worn more casually, and the winged eyeliner is not as thick as it once was.  Nor is it any longer paired with red lipstick.

Still, though, a cowboy hat?  Blame it on my Texan boyfriend.  I now own one... and I like it.

San Antonio, Texas, USA