Inspiration Fridays Part Deux: Favourite Awkward Animals

I'm inspired by even more things, so I decided to post two Inspiration Fridays posts this week.

This post is about some of my favourite animals.  Why are they my favourites?  Because they make no sense.  These animals don't seem like they could possibly be real but, they most certainly are.  This makes them extraordinarily loveable.  It's almost as if they are fantasy creatures, but they aren't.  

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that it's Saturday, but, this deer has fangs.

That, my friends, is a Chinese Water Deer.  They really do have fangs (tusks).

This is a Highland Cow.

This is an Angora Rabbit.

This is a Star-Nosed Mole.  Maybe the scariest of this bunch.

This is a Sun Bear.

This is a Kiwi.

These are two Bush Babies.

These are two Emperor Tamarins.

These are Narwhals.

This is a Coatimundi.

This is a most-adorable Red Panda.

When you are having a bad day, just remember- You might not be as cute as these animals, but you also are not as awkward.

Happy Saturday!

~Emily

It's Vegan

I love getting feedback on this blog, no matter what that feedback is.  I'm a pretty small website, so I don't hear from my readers all that often, but even if I don't respond automatically, or even respond at all, I always appreciate that someone took a moment out of their day to share their thoughts about my work.  It really is incredibly flattering.  So, thank you to all of you who have ever done this, and to those of you who  have always wanted to leave me a comment and haven't done so, please feel free!  Introduce yourself and say hello.  Even though I'm occasionally a bit sarcastic here, I'm generally a nice person, and if you are awesome enough to want to say something to me, I'm sure that you are a particularly lovely individual!

Anyways, on occasion, I google search random keywords for this site, such as travel and toile, "travel and toile" and my name.  You know, just to see what comes up.  Most of the time, the first few pages are all information that I have sent into the magical land of the interweb, but also I get to see who has linked to my stuff.  Generally, when I do this, I will find a couple of sites that I did not know showed my link.  The majority of these are actually cleverly disguised ads, but sometimes I'll discover that someone used one of my photographs on their blog, or posted it on their tumblr, or linked to me in their sidebar, like I share some of my favourite blogs with you.

 Today, I found that a blog review site had linked to Travel and Toile.  I was simultaneously excited and a little bit nervous.  Did they like my site?  Did they enjoy my pictures?  What if they think that my writing is no better than that of a kindergartener?  The blood was rushing to my head a little bit as I was waiting for my slow, slow internet to load the page.

It turns out that the review was of an article I wrote about two and a half months ago titled What IS Travel and Toile?  I was going through a rather angsty and decidedly cold and unemployed period at the time, and the article was my way of sharing with you how I had no idea where to take this blog.  I was kind of tired of my general format, and starting to wonder if this was worth it at all, and shared that with you.  Basically, it was a bunch of paragraphs of me complaining and feeling bad about myself, and looking for sympathy.  You did sympathise with me, and I truly appreciated it.  However, since then, I have gotten my act together, acquired a new (and totally awesome) job, stopped complaining, and used all of that energy with which I was feeling bad about myself to take better photographs and write longer and more interesting articles to go alongside them.  So, hooray for that.  I'm loving doing this these days, and I hope you are enjoying reading it!  Seriously, writing the posts for this blog is a lot of fun, and all of my readers (yes this includes you) are just fabulous.  Thank you.  You win!  I mean, you don't really win anything other than my affection, but that must be worth something.

IN ANY CASE,  

Congratulations!  You've reached the punchline!  The review of What IS Travel and Toile? was only two words long:

What IS Travel and Toile?

-It's vegan.

...

... um... what? 

 I suppose that it's good to know that my site is friendly to all living creatures!  A bit bizarre, but I am deciding to take it as a compliment.  Cheers, review site.  You've simultaneously made me feel great about myself and confused me utterly.

Please enjoy some celebratory photographs! The first  one (above) shows me in my fun straw hat I purchased on Easter, and the second and third (below) are of the delicious cupcakes my friend Mariana made for me as an Easter present.  The fourth and fifth photographs (further below) show buildings on the Sarah Lawrence College campus up in Yonkers, where I spent my Easter filming a time-traveling mob thriller.  All photos taken with Instagram (real photos return tomorrow).

Happy Belated Easter, by the way, if you happen to be someone who celebrates Easter.  Whether or not you celebrated the holiday or not, I hope that your week has just been excellent thus far.  You rock my socks.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
and
Yonkers, New York, USA

A Little Slice of China

Manhattan's Chinatown is one of my favourite places in New York City.  It has enough Chinatown in it, but a lot of people still speak English, so for those of us who know only what we learned from one fun episode of "Ni hao Kai Lan," it makes the culture fairly accessible.  And I really love what I know of Chinese culture!  I've said this before... but I'm craving the opportunity to learn more about it, by traveling there, or learning to speak the language or something.  This morning, as my boyfriend is off to take a belt test at his martial arts studio in Chinatown, it is really on my mind.  He's a little further along, since he is working on learning some martial arts from China, as well as from other countries, but I think I might be eventually able to catch up. 

In the meantime, I will eat my dumplings, drink my tea, and dream.

 

  

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Genève, Vous Etes Merveilleux

I thought that today I would feature photographs from another French-speaking city!

Last April, my dad and I visited Geneva, in Switzerland.  It is such a lovely place!  The streets are very old, and the people were very nice.  My dad was there on a business trip, and I met up with him.

These photos were taken in many locations around the city.

Pour voir ce même texte en français, s'il vous plaît regard au dessous des photographies.

J'ai pensé qu'aujourd'hui je présenterais des photographies d'une autre ville français-Parlant ! 

Avril dernier, mon papa et j'ai visité Genève, à Suisse. Elle est tres belle! Les rues sont très vieilles, et les gens étaient très agréables. Mon papa était là sur un voyage d'affaires, et j'ai rencontré avec lui.

Ces photographies montrent beaucoup de lieux dans la ville.

Geneva, Switzerland

Dainty Little Things

The original Anthropologie store in Philadelphia is absolutely worth a trip.  If you find yourself in or around the City of Brotherly Love in the near future... go.  Just, go.  It's beautiful!  All Anthropologie stores are very well designed.  They sell lovely products, and show them off on vintage and antique furniture, using cute little tags and signs to advertise the price and name.  

The original store is particularly good though.  It's in a lovely old building just on the corner of Rittenhouse Square, near a bunch of little French Bistros and such.  There is a winding spiral staircase with what used to be a big grand fireplace on a landing from the stairs.  Gorgeous.

I'm basically obsessed with this company.  If I could fill my wardrobe and apartment with their goods, I would in a heartbeat.  In the meantime, I am content to enjoy their sale racks and photograph their home goods!  

While at the store in Philly, I did pick up a stunning black floral apron from their sale rack... for only $20!  It was very exciting.  My sister bought the little bunny dish in this first photograph... I think it was about $10.  So, they do have cheap things.  You just have to dig a bit.  But, everything is fantastic.

 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA