Instagram: playing catch up

I haven't posted for months and months, so I thought that a little was better than nothing. Here's a little game of catch up via my iphone and instagram. Hope you enjoy!

Venice 2011

Trevi Fountain in Rome 2011

One night my date took me to see a real Banksy.

Paris 2011

Inside the TARDIS at the Doctor Who Experience. 

Dead to Me in Camden Town

I've become a lover of a good flat white.

And a lover of Marmite...I've gone native.

I've been taking lots of walks. (Parkland Walk)

Amazing street art in Valencia, Spain. 2011

I went back to red and blonde.

Lots of walks and adventures in the country.

I started interning for Standon Calling. 

And I found my dream car. 

I hope that your year has been equally full of joy and wonder. 

Best! ♥monica 

Photo Drop: London Snow

It snowed in London! It's really exciting because from what I've been told it doesn't snow so much in London. It usually snows a lot further north in the UK and Scotland, but not so much here. Me being a 'Southern Belle' (I use that term loosely.) I've never really played in snow. I've seen snow on the ground, but I've never played in fresh snow while it was snowing. It was terrific fun and I wanted to share some photos with you all. Enjoy!

eating snowflakes 

Courtfield looks so magical in the snow!

The Tardis in the snow

This one makes me think of Narnia. 

We built snowmen on the truck of someone's car.

beautiful effect from my flash on the falling snow

I hope you all had a magnificent weekend! I've got to get back to my school work now. Have a great week and be kind to yourselves! ♥monica  

An Open Thank-You Letter

Dear All,

As a part of the proverbial "we" I've noticed that we do not say thank-you often enough or sorry, but I'll see to that on a later date. I'm writing this to so that I know that I have said thank-you thoroughly to as many people as possible. Our society does say thank-you, but it strikes me as a force of habit, rather than something felt. Entirely lacking in resonance. It troubles me that such a important and sincere phrase has become disingenuous and I'm here to make a very heartfelt declaration of my appreciation. I suppose it may strike some as odd that I care so deeply for manners, considering how crass I can be, but I value people and the relationships we share and our interconnectedness.

My memory is particularly odd. I can't remember the names of people I just met, I've gone entire semesters in high-school and my undergrad only to discover that I don't know my professor's name, but I remember the tiniest things that any of you have ever done for me. Chances are you might not, but I do and when I reflect on the kindness and love that I have received from all of you I feel like the luckiest person alive. Somehow I have been fortunate enough to be graced with a set of beautiful family and friends that are supportive, kind, encouraging, generous, tremendously talented in so many ways, funny, brilliant, helpful, passionate and compassionate, great to get into trouble with, have their own lives and problems that I can listen and offer help for and manage to keep me within the range of sanity most of the time. 

I'm flying back to London tomorrow night and after being away and coming back to such an incredible group it's going to be far more difficult to say good-bye this time. Last time I was so enthused to get away from my hometown that I couldn't truly appreciate how wonderful it is, when you have such family and friends. I love you all and will miss you dearly. If you would like a postcard please email me your address or contact me. 

Stay excellent and be kind to yourselves. ♥monica 

Inspiration

Happy Wednesday everyone in internet land! I thought I would share this video. I found it particularly inspiring and quite lovely, not to mention I'm a little cycle-obsessed after receiving my beautifully restored bicycle for Christmas. (Thanks a million Steven!)

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video from Holstee on Vimeo.

Oh, you'd like to see my bicycle? I'd be happy to oblige/ I'd love to show off my bike. ;)

Sorry for the recent posts being so short, but I'm currently in the middle of reconsidering the tone/ content of my blog and I don't want to rush into a new style with out really think it out. 

Stay excellent and be kind to yourselves. ♥monica 

Forgive the poor quality, these were taken with an iphone.

Photo Drop: Paris

Last semester I took a day trip to Paris, so it was a bit of a highlights trip, but I did manage to snag a few photos worth sharing. 

First stop of the day was the Louvre

Viva la France!

I ate my first crepe in front of Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Candles in Notre Dame

Shakespeare and Company 

Inside of Shakespeare and Company, by far my favorite place we visited.

We ended the night at the Eiffel Tower and L'arc de Triomphe,
but I wasn't able to get any really good pictures of the arch. 

Be kind to yourselves and stay excellent.
♥monica 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Downtown Valdosta

First I would like to wish a very Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone. I have been very lax with my blog lately and one of my resolutions is to post twice a week. I unfortunately am finding myself drained of brilliant and encouraging things to share and say for the new year. All I have is that everyday is a moment to change everything, you don't have to wait for a new year. It's just easy to project a clean slate onto a new number and that way we are also placing a bit of responsibility onto something other than ourselves. So remember as always to be kind to yourselves and to stay excellent.

♥monica 

Ryan Gosling gets it.

Oh, Ryan Gosling, you always know the right thing to say. 

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. ♥monica

source

Inspiration

voyages of the creative variety

Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm so busy these days and I don't have time to blog regularly.

However, every needs to take time to laugh. I get my regular stress relieving laughs in on reddit usually, but I was recently shown this video and it always makes me smile. So take a gander. It isn't entirely safe for work. It really depends on how cool your job is and if your boss looks over your shoulder.
I present LMFAO's song Sexy and I know It. 

Enjoy, have a good laugh and I'll be posting pictures from my Paris day trip in about 2 weeks. 

♥monica

Moog

For the past several years I've had friends go to MoogFest. I would love to go, but I've never had the opportunity. But this isn't about me talking about music festivals I would go to, but just sharing the photo a friend of mine took. This quotation really resounded with me and I just want to share it. 

"To be human, to be fully human, is to need music and to derive nourishment
from the music you hear."

I hope you all had a great week and the next one is looking just as well for you all. For everyone back in Georgia, I look forward to seeing you all again, but first I have to bust my hump for a few more weeks before we can catch up. 

Be kind to yourself. Cheers! ♥monica 

Bonfire Night: November 5

Last night was Bonfire Night/ Guy Fawkes Day. I went down to Battersea Park to view the bonfire and the fireworks and it was incredible! There were so many people there it was pretty intense for me, it's estimated that there where 40,000 people there! Yikes, but I am getting better with crowds. I have to living in a city like London. Here's my first attempt at making a gif. I thought it would be nice if I could share the spectacular fireworks from last night with you all. 

This is was my first attempt at making a gif and it's a little slower than I would like, but much better than the first I made. It was so fast I was afraid it could trigger a seizure. (I'm only half joking about that too!)

 Have a great weekend and remember to be kind to yourselves. ♥monica 

Photo Drop: Italy

I'm too busy these days, but I want to get you all up to speed on  my adventures.

Last week was reading week, essentially spring break in fall, so it goes without saying that there was not much reading done. I do however have a mass of photos to share, so without much further ado

....Italy Pictures!

Venice: How perfectly Italian!

Canals 

Venice Biennial 

Great Britain's Pavilion at the Biennial

Biennial- I forget which pavilion. 

The Colosseum 

The Colosseum

The Pantheon 

Trevi Fountain- Yes, I did make a wish. 

Rome at Night

Self Timed and Auto-Focused- This is what I got.
Haha, brilliant photobomb!

The School of Athens: Raphael

No Pictures in the Sistine Chapel?! Ha! I didn't have my flash on,
so no harm was done to the fresco. 

St Peter's Basilica 

Mt Vesuvius and a derpy jumping picture of me in Pompeii.

I hope you all enjoyed my pictures. The trip was incredible and exhausting. I'll try and go through and post my iphone pictures sometime soon. I don't always have my Canon on me, so I don't get nice pictures of everything. I do,  however, always have my iphone so I always have picture from it and the pictures are surprisingly good. I hope you all have an incredible weekend. I'm off to do some school work and reading before Bondfire Night and the fireworks. It is the 5th of November and I am in London, so I'm going to do this properly tonight. : )
Be kind to yourselves. ♥monica