Friday, October 31, 2008

Eh

I have five bottles of water sitting on my desk. That means I either recycle or am a pack rat.

I'm going to an ABBA dress up/sing along pantomime soon and my eyes are hurting from sewing sequins and psychedelic prints. I can't believe I just admitted that. The costumes are going to be crazy fun. 

Though halloween is well over, I'm still reaping the benefits of the free candy aspect of the situation, though I didn't actually collect any. 

I went into London Saturday and tried to go shopping, didn't get a single thing. I think its because I get so overwhelmed by choice and shear abundance. 

I had my hair done about two weeks ago so it would all be one overall tone, instead of the variations it seems to turn so randomly. Unfortunately after only a few washes, its lighter than it was before and looks like I need to have it done again because apparently I have an albino streak and my hair rejects dark color. This leaves me only one choice, back to blue.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I've Information Vegetable, Animal and Mineral

Penzance feels as though it is the edge of the world, or at least England; probably because the land stops and there's just an amass of sea. I didn't get to take too many photos, only 241, so here are a few I managed to snag on my short jaunt/marathon bike tour extravaganza. Unfortunately, though my trip covered an immense amount of seashore, I failed to see any pirates. Maybe next time...

Sunset Over Penzance
Penzance
Somewhere between Morazion and Penzance
 
St. Michael's Mount, Morazion
(Note: this is an amazing place because its half and island. When the tide is low, people are able to walk across to the area, in high tide, one must take a boat. Pretty schnazzy.)
Gullbert, my new friend

If one hasn't realized, St. Ives is a gorgeous beach town. Once a person discovers The Digey, the main pedestrian walkway through the town, everything local is suddenly unearthed; from art studios to Cornish Pasty shops. The Tate Gallery, St. Ives is located right off The Digey and Porthmeor Beach, so its easy to visit good friends like Pablo(Picasso) and of course Barb(-ara Hepworth). 

Penzance






St. Ives
More St. Ives



The Tate Gallery at Porthmeor Beach St.Ives

Little house on hill, St. Ives
Another view of the little house on the hill, St. Ives

Monday, October 27, 2008

Tour de England





Starting out at 6 AM from the train station in Hook with just a small backpack and a bicycle, I decided to take a trip down to the seaside, get in touch with my inner hippie, and visit St. Ives, St. Austell, Penzance, Morazion, and everywhere in between. Riding about 10-12 miles a day on Saturday and Sunday, going around the coast was really fun but very tiring. Saturday I went through St. Austell out to The Eden Project, which is a huge center housing several geodesic domes(green houses) and home to plants from everywhere in the world. 

I'd say these are the largest greenhouses I've ever seen. Thats not even all of it, there's another set of structures behind me, a huge bridge and an ice skating rink.

This is made from the average amount of garbage a person throws away in their lifetime; tons, literally-3.3 tons(or tonnes as the English like to spell it).



Sunday, October 19, 2008

Yogminton

After trying a type of yoga called Bikram, which is done at 104 degrees for 90 minutes and goes through 26 different postures, one discovers muscles that were otherwise non-exsistent. At first the heat feels like an average summer day in Oklahoma, but its intense compared with the cold weather outside. The best part of going to a yoga class is watching people randomly fall over, so I'm proud to say I didn't because there were plenty of folks who did.
I've also been playing badminton, which I hadn't ever played before this week. Tennis and badminton incorporate a few of the same weapons: a net, racket, and something to hit, so I already had parts of it down, however it is fairly difficult to correctly hit the shuttlecock, and the technique used is completely different from that of hitting a tennis ball.
Upon trying these activities, I've decided to fuse them in order to spawn the new sport of Yogminton. Players contort themselves into weird shapes at extreme hot or cold temperatures and hit objects around a room, trying not to fall over. It could be highly entertaining. League play starts in 4 years, hopefully gaining enough worldwide popularity in order to make the olympics in 12 years, so sign up while there's still space left.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pigeons

"I've Found a Racing Pigeon...What should I do?"

I found this fantastic site about pigeons. What should I do? Get a life probably. . .Who picks up stray pigeons? Stray pigeons are everywhere, in fact every pigeon could be considered a stray. 

Well this weekend I went shopping in Basingstoke and watched a few highstreet store fashion shows, which were ok, but not thrilling. I left half way through to go thrifting in the old part of the village and stumbled upon a little string of pearls(I'm sure they're fake because they're not knotted between each pearl, but they're a nice heavy vintage fake). I'm becoming obsessed with vintage lately. Ossie Clark is my current favorite.

I'm working on dyeing fabrics with different fruit juices/substances and drawing prints as well as creating some skirts/dresses/costumes so has been keeping me busy, I'll post some pictures when I'm done. I also had to write a 7 page paper on 4 pieces of artwork from the non-western world yesterday, which was interesting but it took a while.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Lun-Dun

Upon traveling to London this weekend, I gave a quick semi-guided tour to a friend who had never been before; so we hopped on the Underground and hit the tourist-y places such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen's Clock Tower and Harrods(Ok, ok so that was for my personal enjoyment and creation of my Christmas list-"Dear Santa, I would like that cute 3000 pound Valentino handbag and oh yeah a few of those floral Hermes scarves in my stocking..."). I am fortunately getting much better with directions and able to locate any shopping districts and espresso bars fairly well. Call it intuition. 

No visit to London would be complete without a quick trip to a museum and I thought my friend might enjoy seeing a nice Monet or Picasso, except she had never heard of them before(!?!). On top of that, it was some sort of Trashy-Tasteless-Nudie-"art"-Day at the museum and before I saw the warning sign, BAM, it was too late and my corneas are now seared forever. Yikes. Call me a prude but I don't consider that art, not even modern. Barf and barf. 

Fellow garden-viewers.
Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm not photogenic. 


In a fuzzy alleyway near the Tate Modern.



More alleyway.
Token tourist-y photograph. 
The Queen was in at the Buck, and although I had originally planned to storm the gate, chose not to because these relatively threatening, highly-trained individuals were obviously on high alert.
Clip of a statue near Tate Modern. Watch carefully. 

360 Buckingham Palace

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Hay School Musical

Why Not? 


I failed. My tree climbing skills are lacking.  Thomas, on the other hand is quite good at this.

Conquering bay o' hay
Thomas upon bale o' hay




Dancing on bale o'hay; this is the part when the cheesy background music comes on and I lip-sync with great emotion while someone else sings a ballad concerning stars and wishing upon them.
Field in which the bale o' hay was discovered.

Thomas




Uncle John pulling a plane(not involving bale o' hay)



Inside 
I bet they have bales o' hay in Germany. They're probably not as good as the one we found.

Here I am sitting in the plane.

Care to try water skiing?


By an old warplane.