The Secret Club

Today I have fully embraced something that I have had suspicions about for some time. That is that I am now unofficially in a new group, organization, club, gang? I don't know what to call it. What's strange is it happened without me really knowing it. It just kinda snuck up on me until today, when I fully engaged in a behavior that I have only witnessed but never participated in. What I'm referring to is the "secret biker hand greeting". If you own a bike or any two wheeled vehicle you know what I'm talking about.

Up to today I've only been the recipient of said "hand greeting", always thinking "that's interesting, I don't even know that person, but I guess since I'm on a two wheeled vehicle also we now have a common bond". I've never returned the gesture, primarily because I'm never prepared to do it and by the time I see the other person's wave it's too late, or early on I was too afraid to take my hand off the handle. Today though I saw another scooter coming down the opposite side of the road (pink I might add), I was prepared and we totally connected, both giving each other the full on "low wave" as I call it. I then immediately thought "yep, I'm now definitely in". If you want to see pictures.

If Ever You Go

Here is the first installment of Joshua and Tiffany's Travel Tips. We don't have tips for every place but if we noticed something we jotted it down.  These are all things our guide books didn't mention.

Italy:

FLORENCE

• Don't buy the 1 Euro tourist map, ask for one at the bus window. It is free and better because it has the bus routes on it too.

VERONA

• A rarely visited place is the Giardino Giusti.  It is a little hard to find but well worth the effort and here is why

VENICE 

• Skip the audio tour for the Doge Palace unless you really care about all the art you see, there is really nothing else in it
• Buy the Rolling Venice Card for just one day even if you are staying longer and then just make sure you buy your museum ticket that same day and show it to your hotel
• The Ticket to the Doge Palace includes admission to one other museum in Venice, Murano or Burano
• Go to the Cemetary if you are going to Murano or Burano

Austria:

VIENNA

• The Treasury is not what you are expecting.  Don't think jewels, think Catholic reliquaries and tapestries and in my opinion those things aren't work the 10 Euro admission
• Schonbrunn Palace had the best garden we saw in Europe (as far as palaces) so go on a day when it is sunny and you can explore-not when it is rainy and cold like us!

Keeping Up with the Wedelichs

We had some friends who moved to New York while we were in Europe. They are loving it and we were so excited to see the pictures of their new place. They moved in to their new place and not 2 weeks later it looked like this. We have been living in our house for 6 months (post construction) and we only have 4 things on the walls. In our defense, the whole ripping the house down to the studs and building it back in 2 months did wear out our decision making muscle, however, seeing their finished space was the encouragement we needed to start up again (you know, that and not planning or being on a 6 week trip).

Now we didn't get 100% completed but we did get 100% planned so now I am on the look out for the missing elements (a chair, the perfect fabric and various wall stuff for one space). We hung 1 small picture, 1 big piece of art that was intended for our dining room in Austin but it reminds me of my favorite artist so I couldn't put it in the garage, and 20 little square mirrors in 2 vertical lines on a wall. The biggest project was hanging the chinese lanterns behind our bed but I think it was worth it, plus when we hang the fabric in front of all the cords it will brings some more red to the room, hide the mess, and be perfect.

Josh says his favorite thing is going to be turning on the warm light in the winter, I think it is cool that we don't need bedside lamps anymore. Also, in linking back to Sam's picture I noticed that she had chinese lanterns which isn't where I got the idea, but it does confirm the "sure chinese lanterns are still cool" statement I made.

Still Not Fully Dealing

Some of you might remember that right before we left for our trip we participated in Express (an art festival for our church). Although I'm still not dealing with the window that fell to the ground and broke, I am moving forward with trying to recover some of the cost of that piece that is now in shambles.

Last night, we spent part of the evening listing 2 of our pieces on etsy in my shop and I think I'll add 1 a week for a while. I sold some scarves there a couple of years ago and I just love to browse through all the cool stuff listed by everyone else. So even if you aren't interested in stained glass, check out the other cool stuff at etsy-be careful it can suck you in for hours.

You can find people I know here and here as well.

My Favorite Video in a While

So Heather M. sent me a link to this guy's story, but it wasn't until I saw the video here that I really fell in love with it. This is such a brilliant idea. This embodies everything I would love to do with video.

You watch it and tell me what you think (a little viewing tip, move your mouse off the video screen to get the controls to disappear).

6 Weeks Missing

So after 3 or 4 mornings of up at 6am I think Joshua and I have recovered from the jet lag. We've had 3 client meetings and we have 2 projects we are moving full speed ahead with. I would say we are back to reality and that makes us both thankful and a little scared.

Scared, you ask? Now that we are back to reality it feels like we never left. It is the strangest feeling, almost like those 6 weeks never existed. If we stop for a second they are still there but otherwise it feels like we never left our Salem home and our FYK Architecture business. While we were gone it felt like this was going to be a huge marker in our life, and the fact that it doesn't even register just one week later is scary.

The Cold and Rain

Well today it was a rainy cold Paris day. Josh and I bundled up in our warm layer of clothes under our jackets and donned our ponchos and headed out. It was also windy so we walked around looking like marshmallows when the wind would fill up the plastic.

One thing that the rain couldn't ruin was this amazing sandwich that we had for lunch today. It was from this little counter place that our friends told us about (thanks Rory and Jeni) and it was to die for. Because it was a counter there was no where to sit and the rain made a park out of the question, so we decided to each in the subway like a homeless person-right beside a homeless person actually. By the time we were done with it we were plotting how we were going to get back down here to have it again for lunch tomorrow.