highway angel

“Don't be afraid; people are so afraid; 

don't be afraid to live in the raw wind, naked, alone...

Learn at least this: What you are capable of. Let nothing stand in your way.”
― Tony Kushner, Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches

The Angel of the North is an enormous steel sculpture designed by Antony Gormley 

that overlooks the highway in Gateshead, England.

And I mean enormous: it is 66 feet tall and its wings measure 177 feet across. 

It can withstand winds over 100 mph.

We drove by one afternoon and I was agog. Luckily, we followed the same route back the next day, and as it was a gorgeous sunny day, we stopped to see it up close and personal.

Totally, totally amazing and awe-inspiring:

i felt so small.

and safe.

xo, liv

soho you di'int!

you're welcome for the post title.

we had some more time off in london and spent a few hours wandering around soho.

it's like nyc's soho in many ways, and therefore we loved it/were homesick.

i'm learning how much blogging influences your day (mostly a fanatical need to document everything with photos), so i tried to not be staring at my phone all night.

can i sew? 

sort of.

did this shop fill my head with visions of making all of our clothing a la maria von trapp?

yes.

do i like pastry and sugar that i know is called demerara here but i call chunky brown sugar?

duh.

and that's it. that's all that's in soho.

sewing supply shops and patisseries.

they should call it sew-ho.

i've clearly been spending too much time with rich. 

(more more more more london coming up!)

a little bit of this, a little bit of that

the last week in random/embarrassing/awesome iphone snaps:

rich and i have very different ideas about acceptable dinner beverage sizes:

 look at the following pictures and guess if we have been in the hotel room pictured for:

a. 3 minutes

b. 3 hours

c. 3 days

(answer at the bottom)

a: 3 hours. 

oops.

i don't know what's worse: 

the fact that i have no pants on in the first pic,

the peanut butter smeared knife and pile of picked off gel manicure in the second, 

or the subway trash on the floor in the fourth.

we are nomads, ok? we can't help ourselves.

m & s aka marks and spencer is a store that simultaneously sells groceries, clothing, and these beauties:

i told rich I could not go to breakfast with him anymore because I cannot eat one more bowl  of yogurt with muesli. He went without me, and came back with this:

yes, for all of my "blah blah vegetarianism blah blah green juice blah blah probiotics"

i effing love burger king fries.

not only did i eat them, but i ate them in bed.

like a reallllllll champion.

we're in london for the next 48 hours and will do our best to limit our wagamama intake.

toodle ooo, dearies!

sleep tight

we have stayed in a premier inn every night for the last 6 weeks. they are nothing swanky, but they are always clean and since every room looks the same, it does help us feel less like homeless people wandering from place to place. the other major bonus is that all of the beds and mattresses are the same, and they are insanely comfortable. like, comfortable enough that we looked into buying a bed and mattress and shipping it to the states. apparently, the Queen sleeps on one of these bad boys. i want to stay in it all day long, and i am not really a stay-in-bed-all-day kind of person. 

(i prefer the couch + an intervention marathon.)

we bought a new bed frame in the spring, but left our craptastic tiny mattress on it because we knew we were leaving and didn't want to spend the cash. now, these mattresses (hypnos, btw), plus some time lounging around on the tempurpedic beds in harrods (yes, literal lounging around...we were trying to only spend imaginary money), have got me thinking about mattress buying.

i've come to the conclusion that the world of mattresses is way too big and stressful and i want an organic mattress but they $2873682.00 and maybe i am brainwashed into buying everything organic and can't someone just tell me which one will be the comfiest for someone who sleeps on her stomach in a position not unlike a symbol most associated with a german political party during wwii?

then i came to another conclusion:

i will sleep on rocks as long as they are piled up on this bed:

this is the jonathan adler woodhouse bed and it is my dream.

not my dream bed.

just....my dream.

i wouldn't even need a mattress with this bed. 

i will happily sleep on the floor, knowing that headboard is above me.

siiiiiiigh.

oh and by the way....

my birthday is november 28th.

just in case, you know?

xo liv

(dream bed image via here)

Brighton

In mid-September, we spent the afternoon in Brighton 

(should have been an entire day before the show that evening but we missed the first train because I was 

working out I mean reading Proust I mean saving children I mean  

putting my hair in milkmaid braids. 

Shameful.

It was the greatest place ever. We were so, so, so mad we didn't have more time there 

(Rich was very nice to me even though it was my fault). 

In just a few hours, we ate some incredible food at a farmers' market, tried on and purchased 

a vintage turban (why not?), saw the royal pavilion, 

and enjoyed the crazy little shops. 

sidenote: i am almost always disappointed when someone touts the "amazing shopping" in any location. i just don't understand what that means. maybe it's because i live in nyc and am spoiled for choice (you can buy customized bubblegum- fo' real), but 99% of the time, people say "oh just wait til you get to blankity blank- the shopping is ahhhhhhhhmazing" and then it's either zara and h & m and a weird place i keep seeing called the chocolate hotel or junk you can buy on the street in union square. do not get me wrong: i love me some zara and junky trinkets but that is not exciting. brighton is one of the only places i have ever been in which the shopping actually was seriously fun and unique. yes!

tomatoes are so pretty, but so gross to my tastebuds.

bread: both pretty & delicious.

this was ridiculously good. it was like lavender/raspberry/lemon vegan goodness.

mmmmmmmmmm

the royal pavilion simultaneously reminds me of:

james and the giant peach
sweeney todd
&
the taj mahal.

weird, huh?

one of the tastiest things we've ever had to eat, with the most inspirational menu!

my new sweet friends from the market.

how british can you get?

and last but not least. the infamous turban (in front of the london eye):

how could i resist?

I would love to visit Brighton in the summer on a beautiful day when the beach is hopping and 

dotted with colorful umbrellas and have a farmers' market picnic on the grounds of the royal pavilion. 

Next time!

back to school

class is in session, my friends! i hope you have your TI-83 calculators and 5 star single subject notebooks.

(seriously, though....people who can actually use a TI-83 calculator in the way it's intended boggle my mind. i could never ever ever get the hang of it. the only thing i could do was store formulas in the notes section so i could cheat on tests and play space invaders...usually during the test because math beyond the basics is not something my mind can grasp. i had a testing method of answering the problems i could solve, then leaving the rest blank and playing space invaders until the last few minutes in which i would just write some numbers and letters in and hope for the best. anyway.)

one of the things that confused me most when we moved here was the difference between all of the terms you hear tossed around to describe the countries and people of these islands. i was like "who is british? who is english? are they the same? are we in the UK or great britain? what is the deal with ireland? how long will it take to meet prince harry and make him fall in love with me and have a polygamous marriage with rich and me?"

and other such important questions.

as explained to me by the other puppeteer, fitchy, and without getting political or too in-depth, here are the absolute simplest definitions* and a map to help you visualize:

Great Britain is England, Scotland, and Wales.  

the United Kingdom is technically the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

the Republic of Ireland is its own country.

residents of Great Britain can identify themselves as British, or as English, Scottish, or Welsh. it's a matter of personal preference as to how one refers to oneself. for example, fitchy is very proud of the United Kingdom, and refers to himself as british first, then english.

therefore, we are technically touring Great Britain as we are not going into Northern Ireland (boo!), but calling it a UK tour is perfectly acceptable.

and in case you've forgotten what a union jack flag looks like, ginger spice is here to jog your memory:

and that's that. now i am going to the cinema on a rare night off (yes! plus two nights in the same hotel! utter luxury!) with a brit, a scotsman, an aussie, and an american. the best part of the night is definitely going to be the inevitable moment (usually after a few beers) when we all start trying to talk like each other. trust me, it's pathetic and offensive and hilarious all at once.

cheers!

xoxo, liv

*disclaimer: if i effed up any of the definitions and offended any brits, i am very sorry. 

i am punished enough by the horrible exchange rate. please forgive me.

colored pencils image via here

uk map via here

ginger spice image via here

livving out loud

hi friends and fam,

i am not really sure what to say to start-

so i will state the obvious:

welcome to my blog.

for years, i have loved this quote:

if you ask me what i came into this life to do, i, an artist, will tell you:

i came to live out loud.

-emile zola

so this blog is me, olivia, liv, living out loud. 

i have toyed with the idea of starting a blog for a long time, 

and it seems like now is the time.

also, my editor (read: rich) gave me a tight deadline 

and in typical olivia fashion, it's up in 40 minutes. 

so i'm writing in a hotel in chesterfield, england.

i am not a huge hemingway fan, but i am a huge fan of these words of his:

all you have to do is write one true sentence.

so, here goes. all my true sentences. and maybe even some fiction.

books, intenSati, acting, marriage, friends, family, fashion, comedy, music, film, interior design, DIY...it shall all be here at some point.

capital letters probably won't be here very often. 

please ignore the ugly template for now- i am surprisingly super tech savvy 

when i get going, so it will be beautiful soon, 

but the important thing today was to get anything at all up.

so this is it. my awkward first time post.

good news is that i never have to hit "publish" for the first time again.

coming up soon:

places i've (we've) been

where we are now

pics galore

why i love intenSati

beautiful music

magical books

and most of all:

an explanation of the UK vs Great Britain, 

British vs English etc etc etc.

because i know you don't get it either.

we will kick off with brighton, where we spent a magical day 

(cut short by the fact that i made us miss the first train...

i was trying to put my hair in some crazy milkmaid braids 

and then bought a turban in brighton anyway so it didn't matter).

(oh yes....a turban)

get ready for it!


sneak peek:

love, liv xx (one for each cheek...très european)