Marching Through the Landscape

Sebastien and I have been very busy lately, packing up our apartment, and making arrangements to move (we are leaving our apartment this Friday). I will take some photos tomorrow, of our home filled with boxes. Thankfully, we still have some of my favorite things on the walls (photos, etc.). I am dreading taking them down, even though I know this move will be a great thing for us.

Seb found this proposal online today, and thought I would like it (I really, really do), and now I am sharing it with you. Designed by Choi + Shine for the Icelandic High-Voltage Electrical Pylon International Design Competition, these pylons carry electricity across Iceland's landscape in the form of monumental people. I think they are beautiful and serene, somehow. What do you think? I love how cheeky they are, too.

They remind me of a post I saw on Cup of Jo, of this fun video Iceland put together to promote tourism after the most recent volcano:

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

I will get there someday.

Oh Joy!

I just found this post on Oh Joy, about a project to beautify a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. It is by some artists who collectively are called Favela.

I think it is beautiful, and I would surely love to live in a neighborhood like this, but I couldn't help but think, "I am amazed that everyone said yes!" Perhaps this is pessimistic thinking, but if this was in the US, do you really think the entire project would be painted? I feel like someone would say, "Nope. Sorry. I know I haven't painted my apartment since 1973, but I kind of like it this color gray."

Pretty cool, huh?

Portland via Europe

I have been a little mum on here about our long-term-goals (mostly because some of my co-workers read my blog, and I didn't want any awkwardness about it), BUT now it is the time to out with it.

Sebastien and I are moving to Portland, Oregon!

I am so happy (and so nervous)! For me, it will mean "moving back" to Portland; for Sebastien, it will mean moving to two hours away from where he grew up. This decision was a long time in coming, and came about with many different factors in mind (many of them having to do with border issues). We have thought long and hard about it, and are now putting our plan into action.

When we first said, "okay, now we can start thinking about a move" (we put it off for a long time, so we could get married), we asked ourselves what some of the opportunities were, and one was that we will both be unemployed at the same time for an extended (although hopefully not too extended) period of time. We thought, how long do we have to save to have an ample cushion for moving AND be able to have a bit of fun in between?

We talked about this a bit, and decided it was very important to go see Sebastien's family in France (his grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins), but we figured we might as well do some other things, "I mean, we're in Europe and all." At the very beginning of this conversation we realized that neither one of us knew that the other person really wanted to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, from southern France across Spain. That, my dear friends is what we are going to do. We will visit his family for a few days at the beginning, go on a month-long walk (more on that, I am sure), visit Granada, and then head back to see his family again.

We are also using this time to visit my family in New York for a bit. I will finally meet my newest nephew Henry! I am very happy about that! It will be nice to have a solid chunk of time to visit them - I think we will be there around a week.

When we fly back to Portland, we will be coming back to a lot of uncertainty - at least that is how it looks now. We have our fingers crossed, and are doing everything we can to get prepared. As things progress, as I am sure they will, I will keep you up-to-date. Right now, we are happy that we have the resources to be able to do such a big move AND trip at the same time. We feel pretty lucky.

Those Little Monsters (in Vancouver)

I never posted these pictures from a while ago, of the little monsters I sent to Chris and Chip. Like I said, these monsters really wanted a tour of Vancouver, so away we went....!

We went to the Farmer's Market first thing in the morning:

Then we headed to the beach.


--And then to the playground (Red loved the slides).



Finally we headed to the Science Center, and then home.



Believe me when I tell you that I slept well that night!