HEY GUYS, WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS THREAD?

please ignore my totally dumb post title. (This blog is courtesy of Christina, your friendly neighborhood dysfunctional geek, despite it being under Ricardo's name) (Ricardo is helping.)

ANYWAY (IGNORE MEEEEE!)*

here's some fun pictures of some things that are in Florence! yay, fun! LET'S DO THIS.

After it was rainy and gross for SO MANY DAYS (too many days), it was finally dry and not even that cold, so it was *~*~* ADVENTURE TIME *~*~* we had a geometric, algebraic time of it! **

IL DUOMO in all its glory (the Duomo is bigger than Christina)

We started at il Duomo because it's at the end of our street and because we hadn't really given it the full once over on the outside, we had just looked at it from the front.

also SIDE NOTE: the first time I (Christina) went to Europe and my mom hadn't seen the Duomo in twenty four years, she said it looked like it was wearing ugly pyjamas. For these kinds of reasons KenTisa says my mom is a doll (also because she sent him chocolate from Colombia. FABULOUS CHOCOLATE)



Ricardo and the Gates of Paradise being best friends.



the doors of Il Duomo, in case you were wondering how small it is...

after we left the Duomo we just picked a street that went in the general direction of the Ponte Vechio (which was our ultimate goal) and started wandering

A baby door! on a street! it's medieval fo sho.



d'aaaawwwwwhhhhh

also side note: I bought this scarf before I left. SOOOO cute, right?

These people permanently restore the Duomo because they are BADASSES.

on the way I saw a cool looking building, so I was like "OOOOO let's go see that!" and then it turned out to be Orsanmichele which has a BUNCH of crazy awesome sculptures ALL OVER IT.

Ricardo in front of Donatello's St. George...

and not Ricardo in front of Nani di Banco's Four Crowned Saints. These tabernacles were each commissioned by a different worker's guild of Florence, who were majorly influential in the politics of Florence during the medieval period and the early Renaissance. This is pretty cool and what's also cool (which is where I'm going with this) is that in this tabernacle you can see that it was commissioned by the carpenter's guild because it shows them working in the block beneath the tabernacle, which is mega cool.

after that we literally stumbled upon the palazzo vechio in the piazza della signoria, which is the main central piazza now and forever ago. The palazzo vecchio (old palace) which is that square medieval building is like the town hall, or the civic center. The David used to be set up outside the palazzo vecchio, but now it's in a museum and there's a copy outside.

here I am in front of it, because it can't be ignored.



This was the view from la piazza della Signoria looking towards what we think is Santa Croce (the church) but we're not sure...

from there it was just a short walk to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) and there it was!

Ponte Vechio being all awesome.



we didn't go onto the bridge, because we were tired but this is what it looks like, and it's full of expensive shops and nice restaurants, bu also touristy shops and carts and things.



on our way back we got mildly lost and ran into this cool looking intersection...



and this awesome little Baroque church (it was closed and didn't have a sign so we don't know what it's called)



we found a cute dog outside of the bakery around he corner from our house!



and we got home to a lovely sunset outside our window, which was welcome because our whole week was very very grey.



we tried this chocolate bar from the alimenteri (small super market) IT WAS SO GOOD. It had whole hazelnuts in it and the chocolate was super smooth. deli! (spanish slang for Delicioso (delicious) for those of you greengos)



lastly and of interest to very few people, this is what I wore a few days ago and I was proud of it, then it got cold and now I'm back to jeans, sweaters, docs and my little black hat that makes me look like a liverpudlian boy from the 60's. *glimmer*glimmer*gleam*gleam*

ciao amori!


*Venture Bros. quote... mom, dad, and Lina

** look up "adventure time" on you tube if you find yourself with further questions as to WHAT THE F is she talking about?

CATCH UP

We've been in Florence for almost a week now and for what was only a few days but seemed like forever we had no internet, so here's what's happened in the mean time! Ricardo was mega excited on the plane and couldn't sleep AT ALL. We watched "the Informant" which was really good, less funny and more sad than I thought it would be. On an unrelated note though Matt Damon looks AWESOME as a totally dorky 90's era man.


We knew we were in Italy when we saw the mountain range that cuts across it (we still don't know what they're called)


we were mega tired, with only half of our bags having arrived in Florence and we had to go to the school first (because they refuse to tell you where you live before hand) and then walk home. Luckily neither the locale nor the apartment were at all disappointing. We live on Via Ricasoli (ree CA zoli)which if you look at a map is across a very small street from la Galleria della Accademia WHICH HOUSES THE DAVID and ends at the piazza of il Duomo, which we can see from our FRONT DOOR. (yeeeeessssssssssssssss)

This is our living room, it's cute but a little awkward so we don't spend much time in here...


This is the beautiful part. It's really just the big hallway that has all the rooms on the left, but our room is down a tiny staircase at the end of his hall and is all by itself one floor down (and by a floor, I mean just our room)


there's also a little staircase that goes up and has this tiny room on the way!


that staircase actually goes up to our baby tiny terrace, where we can dry our clothes because there's a washer but no dryer.


we'll do a full tour of the apartment later, because it has lots of nooks and crannies and bussiness but for now there's the highlights.

I COME FROM OUT OF THE DEPTHS

Hey!

So I'm back from Colombia, where instead of finding myself with plenty of free time to post and many awesome things to post about I found myself in the countryside with no internet access whatsoever, sorry about the unfulfilled dreams. In other news I am now studying abroad in Florence! although the internet situation here is only a small improvement, I'll be posting very often about all the amazing things to see and do as well as my other nonsense like ramblings about things that I like and things that I see and things that I make and so on. I just got here a few days ago, so for now please just indulge in these beautiful garments:
I've been obsessed with this Christian Dior dress since I saw it on the last cover of Vogue on Rachel Mcadams, I plan on copying the top when I get back home.

I just really love the top and belt in this look. (Rochas)


last, but most certainly not least, if I were a matador (which I totally could be) this is what I would wear. AND EVERYTHING WOULD BE WONDEROUS.
(Anna Sui, who Rubino went to school with)

ciao!

something about being a heathen

Christmas happened early for me since I'm going to Colombia to spend it with other family, so here's some cool things that were bestowed upon me that I think you should know about!
Everyone's been in a tizzy about Rob Ryan lately since he's been doing work for EVERYONE (starbucks, Target, etc.) so I found out that this laser cut print that I got at an art fair in High School was actually his! I'd totally forgotten his name in the mean time. Luckily he has a book and it's super cheap and my mom got me a used copy WHICH IS AWESOME.





And my dad outdid himself and gave me a really personal and creative gift. Part one was this postcard that he bought in London at Portobello Rd. when he and my mom lived there for three years right before they got married. It has Queen Victoria and the rest of the royal family on it! SO GOOD.



and part two was his old 4x5 negative large format camera. ALL MY WILDEST DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE. Ricardo almost peed himself over this one. I can't wait to use it! too bad it'll have to wait until after I study abroad and come back to MICA.


It'll be 2010 when I come back from Colombia. And I will be turning 21 in 2010, how weird is that?

I may be a hipster

But I really need new glasses and what's wrong with these?! NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT. yeah that's what I thought.

Finals have come and gone and now I have time for you

not to make you feel unappreciated or anything. I've basically decided that I'm going to post onmy blog as though there were actually people who read it, and then maybe they will come? YEAH I THINK THAT'S HOW IT'S GOING TO WORK. So just to recap:

-I finished that costume! and it was met with roaring success. Pictures with a hand painted solar system back drop to come soon.

-I wrote two stupid papers (the seond one is being turned in today, finals are not technically over)

-my final crits for drawing and junior independent told me NOTHING about my actual artwork. which was fun, if by fun I mean unrewarding and a little useless. not totes useless, just mostly.

the big news is of course that I go home to Florida tomorrow because of winter break, where I will spend all of 72 hours and then go spend Christmas and New Year's with my family in Colombia! I am so mega ridiculous excited. I miss my cool Colombian cousins and Christmas Colombian style (please refer all you questions to what a Colombian style Christmas is to the latest Modern Family episode: http://abc.go.com/watch/modern-family/235331/243912/undeck-the-halls) and then the real big news is that I'll be spending my spring semester in Florence! There will be a lot of travel blog posts, street style posts, food posts, art posts, random posts, outfit posts etc. it will just be excellence all around. I'll post my little heart during the break because there's so much I want to share! I've been looking at so much fashion, and watching a lot of movies and amassing a lot of inspiration pictures. you will see them soon. I leave you with some Sally Mann, who I have rediscovered my everlasting love for while rewatching Art21 while I should have been writing papers:

Also, I want to wear this outfit.
also I wish that I am this bad ass in the future.

toodles!

THE GIRL WHO IS THE SUN

Here's my finished costume design for my final costume. I hope I don't die. Happy December to everyone!