Glow Trees in Liverpool Street

My sister and I came across these lovelies a few weeks ago in Broadgate, next to Liverpool Street station – beautiful glow trees. The art installation is called Lumen, part of artist David Ogle’s collection called Light Traces, and designed to make us stop from our busy lives and appreciate the environment around us, by enjoying the bursts of colour in the dark after a short winter day.

One of the things that I liked about these pretty trees was how cheerful and calming they look, and how nice it is to walk around and bask in the coloured lights. It’s striking how simple the trees look together, and yet when you look a little closer and see how the different pieces are fixed together, it’s surprising how much more complex it actually is.

This art piece will be up in Broadgate until 22nd February 2018, so if you’re around then take a quick look, it’s a nice place to stop and admire for a little while.

Weekend Pretty…Pink Doors

Something pretty for this weekend, this pink and white house that I saw yesterday  in West London, which captured my eye (and my camera). I love that there’s random spots like this hidden around London, which show a little part of the city which which is different from the usual : )

The Grand Details of Leadenhall Market

I recently found myself walking through the beautiful, 14th century Leadenhall Market which is located near Tower Hill. I didn’t realise that the actual market doesn’t run on weekends, so got the chance to see the ornate walls and arches up close and while it was quiet.

There’s something beautiful, yet eerie about walking through these halls – you can see just how much history it carries, and the grandness of it all encapsulates the beauty perfectly. Apparently the Market is situated in the centre of what was Roman London – which just shows that it is so much more than a market or a walkway to it all.

If you’re around the area, I’d recommend a visit through the grand halls of Leadenhall Market so you can explore and feel the weight of the history, and to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere as you walk along.

City Sunsets in Canary Wharf

I’ve been a busy bunny these days, so it feels like I hardly get time to blog. It’s frustrating as heck because I have a few blog posts to write and a few book/food/cupcake/city reviews to write and I keep getting caught up with domesticity!

I’ll do my best to post this weekend, but in the meantime, here’s a beautiful sunset hubby and I caught last week while dining in Canary Wharf. I feel like I don’t see enough of these (either the day is too long or the sky is too grey!), so this was a special one for me – first sunset picture in ages!

Happy weekendings all, I’ll be posting soon!

View From My Window: Blue Skies and Concrete Jungles

We’ve been enjoying some late summer weather recently (although we haven’t been enjoying the humidity!), so I thought I’d post the view from my office window. There’s plenty of buses, trains and pedestrians below (there’s a train station and a bus station nearby) but I thought I’d crop out the hustle and bustle and focus on the serene, beautiful blue clouds : )

Weekly Dali-Disney Links

Time for the weekly links!

So these look cool – trainers which can let you upload any digital design on the surface, so you can change them to match your outfit! ShiftWear sneakers – there’s debate about whether these are a scam or not, but it’s cool idea! You can see a demo here as well.

The famous Salvador Dali and Disney made a short movie together – and it’s available to watch more than 50 years after it was made! You can watch it on Youtube now – it’s got the signature Dali style to it, very surreal and dreamy, but I kind of loved it.

Buildings designed to look like other things – some of these are bonkers.

Smart-ass vandalism, gotta love some of these.

I thought these were brilliants – a gif of 11 actors and their most iconic film roles summed up.

Harry Potter – re-done by Pencilmation! The entire movie done in two minutes in a pencil, cartoon style. Check out their other movies too (I love the Ghostbusters one!)

I thought this was interesting – a photo series by artist Baljit Singh to highlight the mentality of dowry in Asian culture, and how this can affect a girl’s life from a young age.

Cat heads placed on owl bodies – it’s weird how well some of these fit.

Gemma Correll’s guide to the mundane, everyday worries of life.

Norway’s Beautiful Doorways

One of the things I really loved about Norway when travelling to the different towns was how beautiful the architecture was, particularly the doorways in the buildings. I managed to snap a few pictures of each doorway which stood out to me, and there were plenty! Each door had it’s own memorable decor and embellishment which looked gorgeous, and each seemed to have a story of it’s own : )

 

Writing on the Wall: Classical Colours

One of my biggest issues with my attempts with art is that I never feel that it’s as good as other people’s masterpieces, or that it’s not quite right, so it needs to be a little better. When I was younger I was convinced that I’d be better as I drew more and learned more about art – used different techniques and mediums and just find my niche. Sadly enough, over the years, even though my enthusiasm still sparks into life when I’m in the arts and craft section and when I read about different styles of drawing, it fizzles out a little when I pick up a pencil (or drawing tablet!) to draw something myself.

I saw this a few days ago and loved the riot of colour in all this – even though it’s framed and placed against other frames, they don’t act as boundaries, there’s patterns within patterns, and beautiful details which overlap and pulls the eye.

I’d love to paint something like this, and it’s when I see beautiful things like this that I feel inspired, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to paint with oil paints just yet, but I’d love to try mixing colours and media to see what beautiful colours and patterns I get. So here’s a little colour to brighten up the weekend.

Journal Your Ramadan – Day #14: N is for Night

Night-time is becomes a busy time in our household – as the sun sets the kitchen bustles with ovens warming up food, glasses clinking and plates being set out with food; and the lights slowly pop on all over the house as the blanket of night creeps over. (And occasionally I’ll creep out into the garden and whisper ‘I AM THE NIGHT’ as well before the husband shakes his head and drags me back in again.)

I took these photos today to show the view outside my window, it’s difficult to take pictures at night because they seem a little blurry but also surprisingly, the pictures came out a bright blue compared to the dark outside.

So here’s a peek of the clear sky, I tried to looking for the moon but didn’t have much luck, but I’ll keep trying – until then, it’s evening time so back to stuffing my face!

Harlequin Travels in Santorini – DAY 7 & 8: Final Tours & Departure

Santorini Day 7 & 8: Final Tours & Departure

I won’t bombard you with too many photographs in this post; the last two days in Santorini were quiet for us and we spent the last couple of days relaxing and wandering around. Because we’d already visited most of the sites on the island, we weren’t in a hurry to visit everything the way we had been before, and we picked and chose the places we wanted to go. It would have been amazing to go on another cruise to further out islands, or do a day trip to Athens, but this would have taken hours by boat, and we wanted to be able to take our time. We’ve decided to take a separate trip to Athens on another date, so more planning in the future!

We spent a lazy morning at the local beach after breakfast, sitting in the sun, looking at the sea and the quirky things around town (we wanted to try a hammock but it looked unsteady so we didn’t!)

We went to a really interesting local restaurant called Gecko for lunch – we’d been here for dinner a few times and loved the impeccable service and cheap food. This was a newly-opened restaurant, and the chef was willing to tweak anything we wanted to menu – with some amazing egg sandwiches, clubs and veggie burgers, as well as their signature piece called Tornado Potato (a twisty piece of potato skewed all along a stick , very nice and crispy!)

After wandering around for a while and looking at the signs, we took a bus from Perissa to walk around Fira one last time and see what we could buy.

We also spent rest of the day souvenir shopping – there were some local shops with a lot of beautiful hand-crafted goods, such as these different glass and clay beads which I thought were beautiful. We also got the standard fridge magnets, bookmarks and touristy stuff as well, and had a look at some t-shirts (which we didn’t end up getting because they were surprisingly expensive!)

After one last peek over the edge of the cliffs towards the beautiful sea, we headed back to the hotel to get our things ready for the flight the next morning.

The drive to the airport was strangely surreal, after seeing all the blue seas, sandy beaches and beautiful buildings, we drove for a while through green fields, hilly mountains and past mis-matched buildings and shops.

The airport itself is tiny – we’re used to the buzz of London airports and this one was pretty small, with a small cafe to wait in, a tiny duty free corner and a long queue to get to the place. The surroundings of the airport is quite sparse, but there are a few ruins around the area (including a fake building which is on the edge of the runway below, which is bigger than it looks and gives a taste of what is waiting in Santorini!)

It was really relaxing holiday for us, and lots to see – we got back to London pretty quickly (back to drizzly weather!) with a beautiful view of the countries below from the airplane window, and plenty of good memories. : )