Band of Outsiders

I’m feeling a little French this morning. Just like Maria, I like to mix it up a little. British one day, Irish the next, and what do you know, French today.

Have you seen this movie? Read more here, from the NY Times.

Of course just about any city, seen in the proper light, through sensitive eyes, can look good on the screen. Venice and Prague have held on to the delicate Old World beauty that Paris, as obsessed with modernity as with self-preservation, has let slip. Other capitals of film production — Rome in its midcentury glory, Mumbai more recently— have obligingly turned their vivid, living faces to the camera.

Destination Scratch-off

I was asked earlier this evening which country I think is the “best” or my favorite. How can you pick one? Just thinking of all the countries I’ve scratched off… it’s an overwhelming thought. And I’m not done yet…

Scratch Map via Hither and Thither

Travels from Home – Ireland

Today I’m thinking about Apple and how much she loved Ireland! I can’t recall a time when she wasn’t speaking fondly of the landscape or the people… well, maybe when she remembered the cuisine circa 1980. I don’t blame her, but now there is a brilliant renaissance in Irish food! What are your favorite things from or about Ireland? You can tell, I love Avoca!

1. Avoca Circus Throw, 2. Burren Perfumery Soap, 3. St. Patrick Ceramic Plaque, 4. Doonbeg Hotel Coastline, 5. Galway Oyster Festival, 6. Vintage Ireland Posters

Travels from Home – Gotland

images via NY Times

Travels from Home – Vintage European Beaches

I’m loving these images from LIFE of vintage* European beaches. I’m mad for surf and sand today consider our high temp of 101* – you scorch me, man! I dig the classy style of the Euro bathing beauties and the effortlessness of the hot sun and the lapping waves.

If you want to search outside the wanderlust in you, there are plenty of interesting photos galleries, including newly released pictures of The King of Cool Steve McQueen. If you ask me, that sounds like a good way to spend a Tuesday night.

*take some time to sift through the entire “vintage” collection, including Italy, Greece, England, Scandinavia, and Croatia.

Around Town – Seeing Pink

I love Denver in the summertime. Even though it doesn’t have a beach, I still love all the things happening around town. Joseph and I live in the thick of it all, so we can take a stroll at any moment and find fun things to do (for free)!

The Biennial of the Americas is here in Denver the entire month of July. You can help Denver celebrate anything and everything art related (that means dance and music too) by visiting events throughout the city. You can click on the above link to check out scheduled events.

Joseph and I took these photos of the Biennial opening day location of the recently renovated McNichols building. I think everything in Denver should be covered in pink! It was amazing and oh-so summery!

Travels from Home – Taiwan Persimmon Garden

These images of the Taiwan Hsinpu Persimmon Garden have been taken directly from my fav – Flickr Blog! I couldn’t leave any out – they are so beautiful and colorful and a way to escape from brown Denver to saturated Taiwan!

OPA! – Greek Festival 2010

Opa, Denver! Did you get your Greek on at the annual Denver Greek Festival this weekend? Since high school, I’ve looked forward to this event every summer. Summertime wouldn’t be the same with it! Since I’m currently traveling from my couch these days, little festivals like these take me away for an afternoon or evening. The weather is beautiful, the music is loud, the food is BRILLIANT, and people watching is my favorite! So last night I took my camera and indulged in Greek culture. The best thing about going on Sunday is the pastry sale! Opa to that!

Inspiration – Global Domination

Are you currently plotting your course for global domination? Do you wish to have an empire in which the “sun never sets?” If so, you should probably invest in this charming map of the world, pins included, from You and Me the Royal We via Famille Summerbelle.

Red is for headquarters, blue is for next target.

The Scoop – NY Times App

While I’m grounded at home this summer, thousands will flock to the hot cultured streets of New York City. One of those jet-setting folks will be my friend of many years, Bree. The only difference is that once the heat has left the city, the museums have emptied, and those I ♥ NY shirts are seen on local Hipsters, not tourists, Bree will continue her stay in the Big Apple. She is making the big move, just like I always thought she should, to continue her higher education with a PhD program in Art History at CUNY.

Maybe while Bree’s there she can first buy an iPhone, second get The Scoop App for her iPhone, and three, invite us to visit her this fall!

*loving this NYC blog Hither and Thither, a blog about “Musings on travel, food, design, inspiration, and navigating life in New York City.”

Travels from Home – Portland

Look out, Sarah! We’ll be visiting you at some point in our lives!!! Then you can show us around town, especially the sweet Portland food digs! I’m really dying to see the northwest part of the US. Have you ever been to Portland or Seattle? What are your favorite finds?

By the way, don’t you just LOVE the color from these Flickr photos? I think they beautifully capture that summertime feeling.

From Print to Pixels – T Magazine

I used to read the actual T Magazine, as well as the NY Times paper every day. Since times are tough, and the digital age is here, I’ve moved strictly to online readership.

I’m still excited when new additions come out, like the Fall Fashion T Magazine, or 36 Hours in… but I miss the tangible paper in my hand, the glossy magazine, the black fingertips, and the swoosh of the paper as it is turned.

My little morning escape comes from this year’s Travel Summer – full of sunny seascapes and whitewashed coastal dwellings. Enjoy the latest T Magazine Travel Summer 2010, and think about that next luxurious trip you are going to plan (with me).

The latest travel issue of T magazine starts off nice and easy — just the way summer’s supposed to be. For the cover story, we get lost in time in Portugal’s sun-soaked Alentejo region. Then we head to the quiet coastline of Dorset, England, and to the shores of Lake Michigan for a classic American summer

sojourn. We’re big on tradition this season, and you’ll find us visiting old-fashioned country ham makers in Kentucky and Tennessee, an expertly restored 18th-century palace hotel in India, and a vintage kids’ camp in Francethat’s been transformed into a chic retreat. We also lay out an

insider’s guide to Napa Valley, that blue-chip destination right here at home — but we don’t shy away from places on the edge: The souks of Damascus get a thorough exploration, and we party till the sun comes up in the buzzing nightlife capital of Bogotá.

Travels from Home – Tuscan Coast

Outside of Italy you hear so little about Tuscany’s beaches that it’s easy to forget that this sun-kissed region even has a stunning coast. Left, the beach in a cove near Portoferraio on Elba. Read more about the Tuscan Coast at NY Times Travel.

Photographs by Dave Yoder, another brilliant photographer.

Travels from Home – Going East

For all links and photographers, visit my favorites link on Flickr.

Travels from Home – Istanbul

I love images from Istanbul so much that I’m sure more photos will pop up on my blog during the summer months! Joseph and I have always wanted to travel to this part of the world (what part don’t we want to explore?), but for now, we’ll have to make due with these amazing photos from Flickr pools. And if you really want to escape, you can watch movies like my favorite, Monsieur Ibrahim with always debonair Omar Sharif.