For the May theme I decided to take some photos around my neighborhood while I ran a couple errands. I had a grand design of taking a long walk around the neighborhood and take lots of pictures but it's about 100F outside right now and I lost the will to live immediately stepping outside my door. So it's just stuff from right around my place, sorry. XD So anyway, I live in Tempe, Arizona, USA, about 20 mins outside Phoenix. It's the desert, and it's hot.

( Enough blather, PICTURESSSSSSSSSS. )

I'm a city girl these days, but I didn't grow up that way.

Nebraska - land of GO BIG RED! ( and other strange things )


I think my favorite one is the 4 seasons..


What jokes do people make about places you've lived?
Do they have any accuracy?

New York City! I grew up for most of my childhood in a nice enough house in a nice enough town, with nice enough friends, but in truth I couldn't leave there fast enough. I've lived in NYC for all of my adult life (and some of my childhood before we moved to that other town). I love it here. I love that I can stumble out my door at any hour, and I mean any hour, and there is a place to go and things are open. Not that I wouldn't enjoy living somewhere else (I lived in Brazil for a short time and loved it there too - and there I could stumble out the door and onto the beach, hee) but I am definitely a New Yorker through and through.

I live alone in a studio apartment, no pets. Nothing special about the place, other than when I can manage to keep it entirely neat and uncluttered. Also, I've got books everywhere (I love to read).

Of course there is so much about this city to talk about, and a rich history. In many cases landmarks are gone because they were always altering things or tearing things down to build something else. Sometimes they leave one old building up between newer buildings like this:



Although the buildings surrounding it aren't entirely new, which would really make a striking picture, they are quite a bit younger than the smaller building pictured, which dates back to the 1820s.

Sometimes they only leave parts of a building still intact, instead of the whole thing like in this case. So in the middle of more modern buildings you'll see a single wall from an old church or something that was left standing. I don't have a camera (a friend of mine forwarded the above pic to me) so unfortunately I can't snap anymore examples right now.

And being as we were recently talking about television series finales that made a lot of people angry: if you're ever at 79 Walker Street you can check this out in person:

( Read more... )

I made this video a few months ago to show off my new house I just bought (with my mother because bank of america sucks lol).

Hello, Coffee House!
How was April? Have you been infected with Spring Fever?

A common tradition this time of year is the idea of 'spring cleaning*'. Clearing out the cobwebs of winter and refreshing our homes with spring sunshine and such. Walking through the city park yesterday, I realized we not only do this in our homes, but in our neighborhoods, communities, etc.

*I realize this is hemisphere-dependent (sorry southerners) but the concept of renewal and home and nesting is universal, no?

Our home is more than the physical space in which we live; it's also outside our front door in where we have shared space with neighbors. It's in the family on the other side of the country and in the town where we grew up.



So for the month of May, I challenge you to make a post to the community and talk to us about your home, about where you live or have lived or even where you plan to live.

Some ideas you could use:
- Tell us something interesting about your city/town - is there a historic landmark, is there a town moto, sports team you love?
- Walk around your neighborhood like a tourist and snap some random photos
- Talk to us about your gardening or about the redecorating you did to your room/apartment/house. Or about projects you'd like to do this year.
- Tell us about your childhood home - what it smelled like, sounded like and what makes you nostalgic.
- Who shares your home? Family, roommates, pets?

Or anything else that reminds you of home and community.

P.S. Our community does have open membership, so please be aware of any identifying information you might inadvertently share. For example, if you're taking photos of your home, you may want to obscure the address if it's visible, etc. - that sort of thing. :)