This was supposed to be a Halloween post, but of course, other things came up. In October, my Mom, Nana, and Papa came down to visit us for (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner, and we had such a great time. We are all food obsessed and we had so much to eat--Thanksgiving dinner, the Junkyard special from Sarcone's, some Tamales from a lady at the market, we made some Alligator (yes, deep-fried, tastes just like chicken), seafood jambalaya, and some apple cider doughnuts.

Non food-related, we took a trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary up in the Fairmount neighbourhood. It wasn't for the haunted house, though it's supposed to be the scariest in the US and I don't think I could handle it... It was a really amazing space, beautiful in an eerie, decaying kind of way.

I have been wanting to share some of my work at Free People for a while, and I have finally gotten around to collecting some of it (we're busy over here!). Here are some emails and gateways (for the website) I have worked on over the last little while (from April to July, we'll call this part one)

Above is a gateway with instruction for tying scarves, April 2011.

Sometimes I photograph our bi-weekly walk to the Urban Farm to pick up our CSA share, in Fishtown. Fishtown is mainly residential, but there are still some very industrial parts of it on the fringe, as well as on the main streets (Girard and Frankford). It is currently on the mend, and being gentrified. The nightlife is popular, and many of my coworkers live in this area.

I take a lot of pictures, but some of them don't really tell much of a story. I thought I would share a few of what has been surrounding us lately. Above is from a recent trip to New York, where I hardly ever take any pictures for some reason. But I think we might head over this weekend for the sole purpose of exploring and photographing.

Last weekend we took a little trip to Manayunk, a quaint kind of touristy town on the outskirts of Philadelphia. It's one of the places we were looking at moving to when we came here, but it is definitely a little far out, we would have needed a car. We took the subway, then a train to get there, and we walked around for a few hours. It was really nice, a little chilly but also a sunny day.

First thing's first--sorry for my absence, I lost my confidence in my personal blog a bit I guess, and I haven't posted in a while. I really wanted a redesign, because I need to redesign my websites once a year for some reason or I feel they get out of date so quickly! Also my style has changed significantly over the last year, I think for the better.

I took these pictures a while ago (aiming to get them posted a while ago) of our new apartment in South Philly! The walls are still pretty bare, especially because most of them are thick thick concrete, and also because we didn't take everything we own with us. We took the necessities, and even with a box or two still unpacked we realize we could have survived with even less!

The way we got this apartment is pretty strange, too. After visiting the city to look at a LOT of apartments in one weekend, and seeing a LOT of very awful ones, we were a bit nervous to get something in time. In the end we rented this apartment on the day we moved in, crossing our fingers it would be clean and reasonable. Thank goodness.

This year has undoubtedly been a whirlwind, filled with the unexpected (good and bad of course), and we made so so many changes to our life. While it's crazy and so hard to be away from family and friends for the holidays (and for always), this is something I always expected myself to do--travel and work in other places. What I didn't think, would be that it would happen so fast, and so soon after graduating! I anticipate great things for the year, even though I know it will be hard--physically, emotionally, financially, etc. etc. The United States is a much different place.

We are finally here in Philadelphia, settling in to our new apartment and finding our way around! While we get things at home sorted, I would love to introduce you to our new neighbourhood. We are living in the Italian Market, or Bella Vista neighbourhood in South Philly, where everyone suggested was the best place suited to us. And it definitely is! (And I bet none of them knew I was half Italian... also Croatian, not at all Irish). We love food and this neighbourhood is all about it. Above is a photo of 9th and Washington, a couple hundred metres from our apartment, and where the better part of the market basically begins.

So, some of you know I recently made a trip to Philadelphia to interview with Free People... It was so exciting but I was also so nervous I tried to keep my mouth shut about it! It was one of many firsts--but most nerve-racking was that it was my first time traveling alone! No Jory to help me figure anything out. I am lucky we made that Seattle trip in January (so at least I have been on a plane before). I dream of someday being well traveled...