Miami Remnants

As the weather starts to warm up, finally, I'm finding it really easy to look back on our January trip to Miami! It was so lovely, warm and sunny there... ah... I just want to go back.  I loved that city, and honestly, I had no expectations going there at all.  I knew it would be neat, but it far surpassed anything I could have thought of.  Very nice.

Remembering the warmth and happiness also made me remember something else... that I still have about seven million photographs from that trip that haven't made it onto this site!  Due to laziness, internet failure, etc, I've been pretty bad about posting consistently, and new photos have gotten in the way.

So, then, let's usher in some spring with palm trees, parrots and beach, shall we?

Miami, Florida, USA

Photographer Feature: Susan Gayley

  I am a psychology major with a minor in marine science.  I recently did a independent study on psychology as portrayed in photographs, it was specifically on dogs and human relationships.  I am an animal trainer, currently working with dogs, and one day hope to be training marine mammals, like dolphins and whales.  I love taking photographs of animals and capturing those special moments between humans and animals or animals doing cool things and even just being themselves interacting in nature.

 This photo was taken in Sea World Orlando at the Dolphin and Whale show.  

This was the end of the show and each dolphin was doing different trick.

  This photo was taken in Sea World Orlando at the Shamu show.

 This photo was taken in Sea World Orlando at the Shamu Show.  The large killer whale on the left is the mama and the smaller whale on the right is the baby.  This baby was 2 months old and the 16th born in Sea World Orlando.  The spots on the baby killer whales are brown and change to the white when they are 3 months old.

This photo is of my Bichon, Gigi.  

She was very much enjoying the last bits of yogurt from my mom.  

This was taken at a dog show in Flemington, NJ.

  This photo was taken in my parents backyard in Lanoka Harbor, NJ.  

This Rhodesian Ridgeback pup is three months old and enjoying a fun game of Frisbee in the summer.

 This photograph was taken in the Florida Keys.

Orlando, Florida, USA

Florida Keys, Florida, USA

Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, USA

Flemington, New Jersey, USA

Lincoln Love

Who doesn't love Abraham Lincoln?

He made the Empancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the United States of America.

He was president during the Civil War.  How cool is that?

He has an awesome beard.  And was really tall.

He also was basically not a politician until he was suddenly a politician.  Isn't that the best kind?

Oh, and he's the emblem and darling of nifty steampunkers everywhere. 

Could he be cooler?  

Oh, yes that's right... he became a martyr too.  Snazzy.

 Danny is a big fan of Lincoln's.  We've found all kinds of incarnations of this man, including an unbelievable comic series called Time Lincoln, where Lincoln starts to time travel just before getting shot, and must, with the help of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, use his new arm that has been crafted into a gun to defeat the evil Voic Stalin.  It's pretty incredible.  We framed it and hung it on the wall over our dresser in our steampunk-themed bedroom.

Lincoln has been popping up all over the place in pop culture.  He's even known now for being a vampire hunter.  Abraham Lincoln- Vampire Hunter.
It's real, and it's becoming a film. I swear.

However, where we did not expect to see him was... Disney World.  Walt. Disney. World.  Abraham.  Lincoln.  But, there he was.  Standing out from the crowd in the Hall of Presidents.  Every president got to nod as the announcer (which happened to be the voice of the excellent Morgan Freeman) called out their name.  There were only two presidents who actually spoke- Barack Obama, the current president, who is actually fantastic enough that it was indeed his own recorded voice in the Disney spectacular event, and, you guessed it: Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Disney just picked you and Obama, Mr. Lincoln. If that's not an ultimate win, I don't know what is.

Random side note: sorry about the terrible quality of some of the photographs in recent (and unfortunately a few upcoming) posts!  They are very pixelated.  There's this setting on my camera called "low light," which is meant to take, well, better photographs in places with not very much light.  What I didn't realize, because the screen on my camera is so small, is that this setting reduces the pixel quality by a lot.  Henceforth on this blog, this "low light" setting will be referenced as the "suck setting".  It'll be my excuse, a very true one, for any bad photo quality.

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

So Many Updates

Happiness!  Yay!

Tomorrow is a post about Abraham Lincoln.

Thursday is a new Photographer Feature!

Friday is a new Inspiration Friday.

Everything is exciting.

Oh.  And I am actually tweeting. 

@travelntoile if you want to join in the party.

That's all for now.  Please, enjoy this photograph of fireworks over the Disney castle.

Also... no worries.  I'm done with the short little posts like this.  Substance, my friends.  It's coming your way full force!

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Vintage Splendor.

I just... I just wish that I could wear a corset all of the time.  I wish that this was socially acceptable.  I would flaunt my little corset up and down the street and feel so skinny and ladylike.  It would be awesome.

Part of me wishes that people still dressed like they did before the flappers.  That women had to wear giant bustle skirts, with hoops, corsets, high-necked frilly lace blouses and heeled, laced boots.  All of those pieces are so elegant and gorgeous.  They make you feel womanly.  Well, they at least make me feel womanly.  For my job, I'm an actor, I've gotten to wear some pretty authentic stuff, and I just love it.  Though I know we've moved forward, and that progress is wonderful and all that, I wish that I could just dress like that occassionally.  I mean, I could, but I'd probably get some odd looks.  Less here in New York than most other places, but still, some.

Some types of corsetry have become acceptable, and I couldn't be happier.  I've picked up some nice clubwear bustiers and a few corsets more acceptable for normal wear too.  I got a neat burgundy one from Forever21 about a year and a half ago that I sometimes incorporate into my ensemble.  However, I'm loving some of the stuff I'm seeing from Topshop and H&M for spring.  They make me want the warm springtime to come even sooner!  

If I do pick up some awesome near lingerie-as-clothing kind of stuff like that, I promise a fashion post.  That's too exciting to me not to merit one.

Photographs taken in Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

Back on Track

Back to Positivity. (I've been a bit negative lately it seems...)

Back to Good Health. (I've been sick...)

Back to Loveliness. (Hard to dress yourself up when you're sick...)

Back to Auditioning. (Hard to audition when you growl instead of talk...)

Back to Waking Up at a Normal Time. (Yeah... this just hasn't been happening...)

Back to Not Traveling. (Nothing is planned now!  I can stay home!)

Back to Lack of Sarcasm. (Apparently I've been a bit sarcastic lately too...)

Back to School.  (Well, not taking classes, but I am volunteering at my old school!)

Back to Life. (After being sick for a week it's easy to feel a bit dead...)

Back to Disney!  (Not really... I wish...)

Back to Travel and Toile. (It is what it is.  I like it.  You like it.  That's all that matters...)

All photographs were taken in The Magic Kingdom, mostly during the Block Party Bash Parade.

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA

What IS Travel and Toile?

... I don't know.

Travel and Toile is currently having a bit of an identity crisis.   

What is it?  

It's not a fish...

It's not a fashion blog.  I don't show photographs of myself, or anyone else modeling cute outfits. It's not a lifestyle blog either.  Though it was a photography blog for awhile, it has morphed away from that.  I write too much to justify calling Travel and Toile a photoblog these days. Also, I sometimes sacrifice photographs of quality so that I can have something more interesting to say.  By that, I mean that I don't necessarily post my best shots, I post what I think will serve the overall entry.

Hmm... entry...Is it my diary?  No, I don't write what I do every day as it happens.  I kind of write what I'm thinking about and couple it with photographs I have taken, or pick out some photographs I have and come up with something to say that will weave it all together.

But, what is the classification for that?  Is there one?  I write a blog... blog.  Have I allowed myself to be so random that I defy classification?  I know I'm nerdy and let that show though, but have I only overextended myself by writing about what I'm thinking?

I keep coming back to the idea that I'm an awful photographer, a terrible writer, and an ugly, good-for-nothing, lousy web page designer and overall person.  But, I do have some readers, so that obviously isn't it. My readers are way too nice, classy and cultured to be reading a crappy blog.

  Maybe I don't advertise and put my blog out there enough?  I feel like I do though.

My conclusion... my skirt is in a bunch.

My actual conclusion:  I have no niche.  This blog is rather general haha. 

What is Travel and Toile?
 How can  I end this identity crisis?

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA
Photographs of me taken by Daniel Garrison.  As usual.

Nunchuks and Such

These photographs were taken in the China area of Epcot, in Walt Disney World!  Danny and I are both big fans of Chinese culture.  Well, we can kind of claim that.  We've never been there.  We don't have any really close friends who are Chinese.  But, we do hang out in Chinatown a lot.  We both love dumplings and could probably survive off of just them and stir-fried vegetables.  Danny does martial arts and likes Bruce Lee.  However, we've never been there, so I don't really know much about the culture.  I do love what I know, though!

I know that I like pandas.  They are cute, vicious, endangered, and not actually bears.  They also look absolutely adorable on umbrellas.  It started raining the day that we visited Epcot, and there is a part of me that is still having shoppers remorse for not having bought this gem of an accessory.  But, in New York, I probably would have just been labeled as a teenage Harajuku girl wannabe.  Honestly, I do want to be that, but I'm generally more discreet than a giant panda umbrella.

I also know that the movie "Mulan," is set in China.  It is based off of... a Chinese legend?  I think?  I'm pretty sure she wasn't completely real.  Though, I might be wrong.  In any case, I seriously doubt that she had a talking dragon.  And, as funny as he is, I know he didn't sound like Eddie Murphy.  First off, he would have spoken Chinese.  Don't think Eddie Murphy speaks Chinese.  

Check out how beautiful that Mulan is!  She was lovely.  Talked in quotes from the movie and everything.  She was also very gracious to everyone who came up to her in a way that wasn't totally fake- a lot of the character actors around the park were extremely facetious, and overly spunky.  It made them slightly unpleasant at times. 

OK then, back to China.  Nunchuks.  I associate China with nunchucks.  Like these dandy little foam ones:

So fun!  Grr, I'm about to whack the crap out of those puppets... no not really.  I have no idea how to use nunchuks.  I'd just swing them around a lot and make angry noises.  I'm obviously super effective.

You know, it's weird.  I feel better about how I look in the nunchuck photograph than the one of Mulan and me.  It took me a while to figure out exactly why that is, but I think I've nailed it.  In the nunchuk pose, I'm not trying to be pretty or attractive.  I'm attempting to be quite the opposite, in fact.  Thus, there is no pressure to look particularly good.  I can be goofy and have face dimples and eye creases, and it doesn't matter because I'm pulling a Tina Fey and ignoring the fact that I could be potentially pretty for the sake of humor.  Not that I think I'm as pretty as Tina Fey, but you get my message.

Oh!  And now, for two more things I associate with China, quickly, as this post has gotten a big lengthy.

Gorgeous patterns with red and gold in them.  Those seem Chinese to me.

Also, the clay soldiers.  Those ones are Chinese, for certain.  I know I'm right on with this one.

As a closer- I hope I didn't offend anyone with my assumptions about what is Chinese.  Really, I tailored this to the photographs I happened to take while in Disney World.  I know quite a bit about Chinese history and culture from books and such... but I haven't experienced it.  If you feel like I have to, I would not be opposed to a trip there.  Especially if it was paid for.  

Anyone want to pay for me to go?  Anyone?

... alright then.  :)

Walt Disney World, Florida, USA