Living in New York City and Makeup Gurus

I’m in New York City right now. I’m staying here for the rest of the summer. I thought I’d update with what I’ve been doing. I’m doing an internship is at an art gallery which I just started. I’m also volunteering at an animal rights organization called Mercy for Animals which should be interesting. I’ll update on those once I do more stuff with them, but I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing just exploring New York. If you have any recommendations for things for me to see, let me know in the comments.

This photo is from the plane ride.

I signed up for this yoga event on June 22nd called Yoga at the Great Lawn. The idea was to have 10,000 people do yoga at a huge class in Central Park. It was a great idea and I was really looking forward to it, but unfortunately it rained and it got canceled. They did start the class, but I was in the back of the line and didn’t have a chance to do any. I did get a free yoga mat though and I’m hoping to take a yoga class this summer. I found some photos on their Flickr.

I met I met two makeup gurus from YouTube on June 23rd. Makeup gurus are girls who are usually teen/college age who post videos with makeup tips. The videos are generally informal and just done from the person’s home, but a lot of makeup gurus have gotten so popular that they have been featured in magazines and on TV. I met Elle and Blair, who are sisters that each have a video channel on YouTube. One’s 17 and the other’s 22. I’ve been watching them for about a year. The event itself was really crazy because there were so many girls (even though they were only expecting 30 people, about 300 showed up). It was weird how much they were treated like celebrities just for being on YouTube. They took pictures with everyone though and they were really nice.

I also went to a concert (I’m planning to go to a bunch this summer) and did a lot of shopping around (I found this cute cupcake place right by where I intern). Etsy is located in New York so I have to visit their labs sometime.

What are you planning to do this summer?

06/29/15

Places I Want to Visit

These are some places I want to visit from around the world:

Paris

I'd love to go to France. My mom has been and I have learned a little French because of her.

Asia 

I'm not sure exactly where, but I'd like to explore Asia someday like Japan and China.

Italy 

I've already been to Italy, but I'd love to go back there and explore it more.

Canada

It's not that far from the United States, but I've never been to Canada. I've always wanted to go. I'm not sure where in Canada I would like to go, but I'd just like to visit some day.

Las Vegas

I've been to most major cities in the United States, but I've never been to Las Vegas so I'd want to go someday.

What places do you want to visit?

Italy Inspiration

I love Venice, Italy. Here are some photos from Venice that inspire me:

What places inspire you?

Venice Oil Painting

I'm currently in art school. I took a painting class last semester and this was one of the paintings I did. The subject is a landscape and my oil painting is a view from a gondola in Venice, Italy:



I based my painting off this photo I took while I was in Venice a few years ago:



You can see more of my artwork here. You can see more photos I took in Italy here. Have you ever been to Italy?

Food in New York City

While I was living in New York this summer, I tried out a lot of new restaurants. This is some of the food I tried.

I have been trying to go vegan and I have been looking for a good vegan cupcake shop. BabyCakes was one of my favorite vegan cupcake places I found. You couldn't even tell they were vegan. I also found this shop with mini versions of cupcakes.

I found this place in Brooklyn called the Chocolate Room. I got chocolate mint tea and an ice cream sundae.

I got this sushi from a grocery shop near my apartment. The sushi on the bottom is Mexican sushi from a Mexican restaurant.

These are some of the pizzas I tried while in New York. The first one is from a grocery shop. The bottom left is from the Brooklyn Botantic Gardens. I found the slice of pizza from a vendor while walking around. 

The fries are from Coney Island. There was an African restaurant near where I lived in Brooklyn. This veggie burger pictured on the bottom was one of my favorite meals I had.

These breadsticks with marinara sauce were really good.

What are your favorite restaurants in New York City?

Vatican City Photo

I'm back at college now. Since I've been back, my internet hasn't worked on my laptop yet. I had to sign up for the system and for some reason, it's been taking them a long time to approve me. I should have it back by next week though and I'll post about my classes, etc.

A photo I took in the Vatican while I was traveling in Italy this summer got featured in an online travel guide from Schmap. They contacted me before on flickr and said I was a finalist, but now it's published on the site. :)



Just go here and scroll over "Vatican City". You might have to use the arrows, but you'll find my photo. I also got a screen cap of it here (the image is too big to fit on the blog page).

I took Photography in school last semester. I don't know how I plan on using photography in the future (if just for fun or something more), but it's pretty neat to get featured. It also links to my flickr which is great for both my photography and shop (because I use flickr to promote my items). Ahh, I'm so excited it got featured. :)

Italy: Florence

This is part of a series of posts of my trip to Italy. See past posts here:

Rome   Montefalco   Florence   Verona   Venice

After being in Siena for a few days, we went to Florence which was one of my favorite places. I’ve always wanted to go to Florence since it’s so focused on art. I love all the art there. I got to see some famous paintings I studied at the Uffizi gallery. I also got to see the famous David statue in real life which was really neat. They also had unfinished statues by him on display which were kind of like “sketches” of his larger statue (though it’s not known for sure if there are actually unfinished).

This is from Gates of Paradise, three sets of bronze doors in front of The Baptistry.
One of the days in Florence, I went to these really pretty, famous gardens called the Boboli Gardens. There were huge fountains and great views. Apparently, it inspired some of the famous Italian artists.
I also found a paper store in Florence and got some handmade marbled paper for my shop to make journals. It was nice to buy paper in a shop in person that was made in Italy.


On the very last day in Florence, I woke up early in the morning and climbed the Duomo tower built by Brunelleschi with four other girls. We had to walk 463 stairs to get to the top.




When we got to the top, the view was definitely worth it. I don’t think the photos completely captured what the view looked like in real life, it was one of my favorite sights to see.



Have you ever been to Florence?

Some Italy Photos

Rome:


The Vatican:




I'm also making a scrapbook using a journal I made that I was originally going to sell, but it has some flowers. It uses this really pretty red flower paper that reminds me of Italy and this:


I have to edit some and I also just scanned a bunch today (I didn't get them all developed digitally because I wanted to save some money so some I'm scanning myself). It's been a lot of work to go through all my photos, but a lot of fun and makes me miss Italy. I still have two Italy papers for my class that are due tomorrow. It's basically travel writing pieces about experiences in Italy, which is fun, but it's a little harder than I thought and I'm having trouble getting them long enough. Like I mentioned before, I think when I get all my photos scanned, I'll write a little blog about the whole trip.
I was thinking it might be fun to sell some of my prints sometime in the future, but right now I'm just doing photography for myself. I started making a mini journal with some really pretty blue, marbled paper I got from Italy. I just have to stitch it together. I was going to use coptic stitch which I always have to practice a little because I always forget exactly how to do it. Once I get my board, I'll start working on new, bigger journals. :)

I started posting my first photos of Italy. Most of them are from Venice or Rome. You can see them all in my flickr album. I'm going to be adding more gradually.
On my gondola ride in Venice:

Italy: Bologna and Verona

This is part of a series of posts of my trip to Italy. See past posts here:

Rome   Montefalco   Florence   Verona   Venice

Our next stop was to Bologna. It wasn’t so tour-isty which was nice, but it kind of felt like we were in a bad neighborhood and we were warned not to go out alone. There was graffiti everywhere. We didn’t see as many sights there as in the other places except on the first day where we broke up in teams and went on a “scanvenger hunt” for different places.

 Verona was our next stop which is famous for Juliet’s balcony from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Even though the story is fictional, the story makes references to the balcony in Verona. It is the most famous balcony in the world. I thought it was really fun to see. Somebody was blowing kisses while I took a photo. Romeo’s house was also there, we couldn’t go inside because it is privately own.



I went to a garden in Verona. It was really pretty and I loved the lemon trees.

Have you ever been to Bologna or Verona?

Travel Card Sale

I made another sale today. :) I'm happy because because I haven't got a sale in a while. It's for my Travel Card:



One of my Halloween cards is featured on the EFA blog right now. I hope some of my Halloween cards sell before Halloween. I'm also entering the diy Halloween contest on etsy/instructables.

I just watched a video on gluing when bookbinding and it made me in a journaling mood. I wish I had time to make more books, but it's hard to find the time and space right now with college and everything. Also, I lost the little blade for my cutting board, so I don't know how I'm supposed to cut paper now. :\ I have fall break this weekend though (which is 4 days) which will be nice, even though I just found out I'll be staying here instead of going home.