nerds

Friend in town for the weekend; won't be updating much. Hope to come back with lots of photos next week. Have a good weekend!

mauerpark flea market purchases

Alarm clock, €10.


Pharmacist's jar ("zinc glue"), €2


Milk jug (actually more of a periwinkle blue than this photo reveals), €3.


If you ever have the chance to go to Berlin, you must must must go to the mauerpark flea market. I've written about it before: it's massive, inexpensive, and fairly high quality, and I only today had the chance to photograph (and thus show off) some of my cool buys from there.

And I left so much that I wanted behind. I saw the most beautiful library card catalogue. I rejected a vintage leather shoulderbag because the guy wanted €4.50 and I only wanted to pay €4. You could've outfitted your entire home in grand, vintage style and not spent over, I don't know, €200 -- including furniture. So, so fantastic.


PS: This is completely unrelated, but, if I were you, I'd enter Paper Menagerie's giveway.

things in the apartment that need cleaning.

Well, the laundry is already clean, but it needs to be hung up to dry.




I don't think that surface has ever been tidy. It is made for clutter.




Those rainclouds very splotchy, dirty rain marks all over the balcony windows. You kind of can't tell, but this photo wasn't taken looking out the windows: it's the reflection on the window. Which is messy.




I don't understand how water makes things dirty, but, as these balcony tiles will attest: it does. I don't even want to look at the furniture. It's probably horrendously dirty.

it's been warm, but it's been rainy.

... so go to the beach whenever you can steal a bit of blue sky.


Been procrastinating doing some work, and decided to make a little mosaic of housewares that I covet but really aren't practical until I settle into my real home in September:



I'm noticing a lot of tea-themed items.

les aristochiens / un aristochien

auto ecole / lettres

block

Sorry for the lack of photos -- I'm in a weird headspace this week. Impatient and immobile at the same time, if that makes sense. I've turned into a reculsive little hermit crab.

In the hopes of compensating, might I direct you to Cicada Daydram's blog, which I enjoy reading daily? She's got this giveaway happening now -- check out the post I linked to for all the details. The woman makes the most beautiful fabric, and this is your chance at a piece (or two!).

In shop news, I hit my 500th sale on etsy the other day, with these bright little guys:

bleck

I'm feeling without inspiration today, so instead of posting any photos, I will redirect you to these wonderful photo recreations of children's drawings.

la nuit des musées

... was a bit of a bust. turns out you had to bring your own lampe de poche. Well, I don't own a lampe de poche, and neither did any of the other people that I went to the museum with! And, it's hard to see exhibits with the light of your cell phone. So instead we took a few photos and went home. Still, I thought the idea was neat ...

here, there

Under the railway bridge, Nice; Museum of Antiquities, Berlin; Jewellery, my apartment.

Tonigh I'm going to a free opening museum evening at the Roman ruins in the north of the city. I'm hoping that it doesn't rain, as that would really put a damper on the flashlight guided tour!

On the good news front, a necklace that I listed on etsy yesterday ...



... is now in the "her" section of the gift guides! Sweet!

Boat Street, Antibes.

Graffiti blocking sunlight on the train back to Nice. Train later occupied by smoking teens playing 50 Cent on their cell phones. Does this phenomenon exist in North America? Teens walking around with music coming out of tiny, tinny MP3 playes, annoying everyone? It's like a throw back to ghetto blasters, only the sound quality is worse. Horrible, detestable train ride.

ANTM in St Paul de Vence. Sorry for so many portraits, but 75% of my pictures from the last few weeks are of my friends.

cannes encore

I went to Cannes today, in search of stars and/or starlets. I went to the live broadcast of a radio show, which featured many French celebrities that I don't know -- including one guy who sang the not-quite-right-sounding "Some of these Days" ... surely you mean "One", monsieur? -- and then wandered along the Croisette, peering into hotel entrances fashioned to look like pieces of the Indiana Jones movie set. It reminded me of the hour I spent driving along the Vegas strip, only with more Italians. I didn't see Angelina Jolie or Sean Penn (whose name, when French people say it, sounds like "champagne"), but I did see a couple of not-famous-to-North-American Frenchies that I couldn't name if I tried. And lots of American tourists. My friends and I tried to catch a film -- any film -- only to discover that you need to have a 'badge' in order to get to a screening. And to that I say: lame. So we came back to Nice.

The photos above are more from St Honorat, which is about a 20-30 minute (slow) boat ride off the coast of Cannes. Today would've probably been more exciting if I'd returned there!

St Honorat; St Paul de Vence; Promenade des Anglais, Nice.

guests

Those funny-looking people in the first picture are my good friends Bronwyn & Adriaan, who left my apartment very early this morning after far too short a visit. I really loved having them here, and not only because Adriaan is a fantastic cook. We went to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, rode bikes up to the Roman ruin (I'm going back on Saturday -- it's so cool!), and, as the photos above show, visited the beautiful little island of St Honorat, off the coast of Cannes.

So, for the next few days, I'm going to leave Germany behind and post more photos of the Cote d'Azur.

Berlin (05)

Berlin (04)

It was really hard to take pictures of, so maybe you can't tell what these depict, but they come from the world's greatest and cheapest flea market. It's at the Mauer Park (well, next to it) and it's amazing. I'll have to photograph my purchases for you, but I can't do it now, because I have friends in town for the next week. Have faith, though, in the fact that it totally rules.

Berlin (03)

More graffiti, including the 3D piece I mentioned yesterday.

Berlin 02

I have so many photos of graffiti in Berlin -- I'll have to post some more tomorrow. I found the graffiti in Berlin more original and expressive than the street art I've seen in other cities -- even art centres like Paris, London and Melbourne. There's even 3D graffiti in Berlin (pic tomorrow). I'm guessing that it's because graffiti is inextricably linked with the wall (West Berlin residents would display their outrage against the wall on the wall); that's why, I think, you don't see much graffiti removal, nor to you see the repetative tags that don't really interest me.

In an unrelated story, I'm heading to the post office now with a whopping 17 envelopes, sales I received over my two week holiday. A large load -- I'm so pleased! Here's the load:



And I sold my 450th item on etsy today -- a favourite necklace of mine.

Back from Berlin

Turmstrasse U-Bahn station; Berlin Dom; beer garden & Burger King at Treptower Park.

Had a great holiday in Berlin, Bonn & London and will be posting more and more photos over the course of the week.