Showing posts with label notebooks. Show all posts

Morocco


Morocco. Where do I even start? It is such a fascinating, beautiful, storied place. The colors there are so vibrant, and every unassuming doorway hides a secret garden in the courtyard of a riad. We covered a lot of territory in a week, but we never felt rushed or hurried through things.


When we were en route to our next stop, our trains and buses took us through the Moroccan countryside or small villages scattered in the mountains. I love traveling by train (though they are sometimes crowded and stuffy) and vistas like this swept past, with plowed and emptied fields, olive orchards in neat rows, and mountains in the distance. And the sunrises and sunsets from the train were vivid and beautiful.


This is a map adapted from my notebook drawing—simplified and with our general trip route added. For a frame of reference, the first night we took an overnight train ride of 10.5 hours from Marrakesh to Tangier; going from Fes to Casablanca by train was about 5 hours.

Each city was unique and distinctive, and I loved them all. It's hard to pick a favorite, but when pressed I would say Chefchaoeun (of which I believe there are five or six accepted spellings). Things I loved about Morocco in general: the textiles! (you can count on an entire post dedicated to this topic), the citrus, bougainvillea everywhere you could possibly want it, the couscous, and the zellij tile work.

 . . . . 

Chefchaoeun reminded me so much of Italy at times—here, with its green hills and terra cotta tiled roofs.


Tippe and I unwittingly wore/packed/brought matching coats. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E commented on this throughout the trip, which was comical. We finally took a photo because we matched each other and the train station in Fes.


The larger-than-life Moroccan moon. We saw several moonrises throughout our trip (basically if we happened to be outside at the right time) and each time they took my breath away.


SCHWEPPES AU CITRON. This beverage was life-changing! From my research and asking around, it appears it is only available in Morocco. (We looked all over in Spain during our long layover explorations to no avail.) Even the Coca Cola website seems to affirm this, along with oodles of online forums of other former Moroccan travelers lamenting its limited accessibility. I am a little heartbroken. You have this, among many other things, to look forward to, should you ever find yourself in Morocco.


The fanciest breakfast of which I have ever partaken: Moroccan mint tea in pretty silver teapots, some kind of fruity sweetbread, tasteless pancakes in fluorescent colors mirroring the Moroccan flag, European butter (it is 100x better than ours), amazing olive oil (also 100x better than ours), several types of breads, and on and on.

To be continued...

(A handful of posts to come: food, textiles, Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes & Casablanca, Marrakesh.)

noted

I go through various phases of notebook usage where I use one notebook for everything, and other times when I have several, each with a distinct purpose. Right now is one of those latter phases (fueled by a love of browsing the stationery aisle).

sono d'accordo


"It was fascinating, especially the stationers' shops—I could look at stationers' shops for ever and ever." —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle, p. 77

things I love: a running list

the best quinoa salad. New York City. WICKED.
Shake Shack's 'shroom burger. happy texts. Daniel Radcliffe as Finch.
"Travels with Charley." irony. dark chocolate pretzel slims.
roadtrips. fine family affairs. Harry Potter references.
beautiful prose. childhood memories. She & Him.
happy voicemails. family friends. writing.
the best surprises. reunions. the HBLL (love).
heart-to-hearts. good night's sleep. herbal tea.
Italian classes again. stripes. run-ins.
day-brightening. periodicals. my sister's style.
favorite Italian words. sleeeeeeeeeeeeeping. blueberries.
Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn). go-to outfits. skinny black cords.
the healthiest midnight snack. bonding. sitting on the floor.
morning runs. french vanilla almond crunch granola. last-minute plans.
snail mail. dinner with my sister. bedtime.
jewel-toned sky. rendezvous. copious emails.


In the front of my notebook (and notebooks previous, for most of my collegiate life), I have a running list of 'things I love' which I always write in groups of three, as the mood strikes. As well as being a good indication of any current food fads in my life, these are some happy reminders to me of the little things which make the world a nicer place.

miscellany

(these items are unrelated, but here they are nonetheless.)

In Italy, the juice we drank was closer to nectar as it's much thicker, and consequently delicious. We had either pear or A.C.E. (a combination of orange, carrot, and lemon juices) every morning with breakfast, and in the states, you can buy pear nectar, which is so similar!

I made some envelopes from maps after seeing the idea here (via pinterest). This is probably a better alternative to purchasing stationery, as I love pretty stationery and always have something on hand from which I could make an envelope, be it a map or otherwise.

Another stationery item: a notebook covered with some of my train and bus tickets from Italy (including my train ticket from Poggibonsi to Siena on that fateful day when we went to San Gimignano, ha). 

calling for travel recommendations.

...specifically for Italy, (Paris) France, and (London) England. I'm in the midst of figuring out lots of details, which details (potentially) involve those places. so, let's hear your ideas!

I really love moleskine notebooks, and this one contains my various lists and recommendations that I have already gotten from friends.

I already have a mental list of some places I absolutely must see. My mental lists are also predominantly made up of architecture...and art or design museums... but I definitely want advice from friends of where to go! I would much rather hear about places that my friends thought were really cool instead of only referring to guidebooks while planning (speaking of guidebooks, my pre-internship class textbook is the DK Italy guidebook, and it is great. so many photographs and diagrams and maps and it is in color, which is a plus!).

Oh my, I am more and more excited about this every day.

unreal

A few days ago, when I received the news about my summer in Italy, I filled this page with architectural doodles of some of the places I hope to see. I'm so excited to be surrounded by culturally and historically rich and significant places and events (I'll be in Siena for the Palio!!)

translation of the page above: I'm celebrating. I will be going to Italy this spring and summer for an internship!! I am so excited! (though this translation definitely loses the nuance of the -issimo suffix. shame.)

home.

I am currently packing and cleaning and doing laundry, which are not exciting. But going home is, and I'll be there soon!

[this photograph doesn't really have to do with going home... I just found this photo of a collage I never made, and it has elements of red and green, which most people consider Christmas colors, so that is reason enough to put it here as it is close to said holiday.]

Travel safely if you are in fact going to be travelling!

in between

 just getting past that awkward stage of notebook-usage when i still need to carry around both the old one and the new one because i hadn't yet fully transitioned everything i needed to the new one. [ie ideas & sketches for my final project for my interior design class]


[speaking of my final project, i want to share some of these ideas soon...but it's still too soon, as i am still formulating & refining! i'm rather excited about it.]

hope your monday is really great!

sNOw.

we woke up to snow on the mountains...so naturally my roommates turned on some Christmas music and i had 'i'm dreaming of a white Christmas' running through my head all day....which likely influenced the color choices of this doodle during class...


well, back to my midterms & associated studying.
[i think professors should only be allowed to give midterms once during the semester. sadly, this is not the case]

oak trees & notebooks.

here is my new notebook! it's slightly reminiscent of last summer's.....because i'm a fan of woodgrain patterns...



and because oak trees hold a special place in my heart.

i found this photocopy.

it's from a sketchbook of mine from 2 years ago. i don't know why, finding this made me so happy! maybe because this simple sketchbook page helped me realize that many of my interests now were also interests then. which is reassuring, that i'm pursuing a field of study that i truly love.

ahhh!

i was so excited [understatement] to find this picture today:



mostly because of the dress & mannequin on the left. that was maybe my favoriteee thing that i saw at the cooper hewitt design museum (it's hard to choose) when i went over Christmas break and they didn't allow photography, and so i drew it in my notebook, but i always love a good photo reference too!

the dress was designed by Isabel Toledo [she designed Michelle Obama's inaugural gown!] and the mannequin was the greatest. it's hard to see in this picture, but you get the idea.

no longer long-lost & an ikea idea.

i just barely rediscovered these [what i thought were long-lost] photographs I had taken in philly! circa 2006.

with all of its people and bicyclists, this photo of a clothespin statue by Claes Oldenburg really gives you a feel for what Philly is like.

and i love this quintessentially-Philadelphia sculpture too... its location is so perfect. if you've never been to Philly, it's pretty much a straight shot from the art museum to city hall; you can see the art museum in the distance and city hall was behind me from where i was standing as i took this picture. both the art museum and city hall sort of anchor the ends of a stretch of road diagonally-oriented compared to the rest of the city and for that reason i think it's really neat to drive through philly.

i think this is really clever. it used to be in the entrance to the Franklin Institute, i'm not sure if it's still there...

and now for the ikea idea:

i love the display rooms in ikea! for one, they allow you to see the furniture in an actual setting rather than just on a catalog page. and an even better reason, all of the ikea set-ups are done in such exciting and interesting ways, and seeing them gives you great ideas!

this bedroom setup had the closet along the back with a wall with a cutout dividing it from the main part of the room. the thing about the cutout was that it was at eye-level, meaning someone could get changed behind the wall whilst continuing their conversation with whoever was in the main part of the room! also this could cut down wasted space. so brilliant.

some recent things.



sunburned & burned out...

but only a little!
I'm working two jobs for the summer [in a department store and on a farm, hence the little bit of sunburn] in order to save money for school [and a camera i hope! ha]. but working two jobs leaves little time for much else which is very unfortunate.



here's some of what has been occupying my precious and few moments of non-working time:

-PUSHING DAISIES 

I miss Pushing Daisies so so *so* much! I'm really bummed ABC cancelled it. Really ABC? Really? And the show that took its' place is "Wipeout" ??? who even watches that? Continuing... Pushing Daisies holds the place in my heart for favorite TV show, and I have really missed it. The last three episodes of the second and final season :[ have just recently aired and made me realize just how much i have missed this show. I love it so greatly because not only it is so whimsical, but also because it reminds me of some of the people I love the most. and so this week I re-watched the first season and have been listening to the soundtrack as well.. call me obsessed.

-writing letters
     in progress [aka. stamped and addressed but not quite finished] are letters to Amy and Erin. recently mailed: to my cousin Jessica. coming soon: some of my missionary friends, and Hannah.

-other miscellaneous things
     such as dentist & eye doctor's appointments.

-there were some other things but i am reeeaaalllllyyyy tired after 12 hours of work [SO MANY] today so I'm going to leave it at the above-mentioned things.


As a final note, i realized i never posted pictures of my bookbinding final project.  so here they are!

notebooks

When I am feeling like doing something productive but don't have any ideas...I fix up the covers of my notebooks! It makes them more interesting to look at and gives me something to do, which then sometimes sparks another idea. :]
"Fill a space in a beautiful way." Georgia O'Keefe
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