Telliskivi Creative City - Tallinn Estonia

Okay this area is a little bit away from the main touristy area of Tallinn which is Old Town. It is about 1.5kms and on the other side of the train tracks but it’s a very cool area. I also loved it because there were so many less people. The day I explored this area was a Saturday and there was so many people in old town especially tour groups from the cruise ships and I just had to get out of the main area. Also Tallinn Old Town isn’t that big so it is not hard to see most of it in just one or 1.5 days. So I walked over on foot to the area. I first walked through some markets and flea markets and a warehouse filled with antiques I got an old Estonia coin and a old USSR coin.

After I got lunch at Peatus which was a restaurant in an old train car and had a great pulled pork burger and fries. I then walked around and was amazed at all the street art and murals! They were gorgeous. I had to stop and get ice cream at La Muu my favorite was the toffee flavor. They had tons of vegan flavors so if you are vegan than this is the ice cream place for you!

Also there were lots of cool stores like art stores, kitchen stores, records, clothes, just lots of hipsterish boutiques. Very cool area. It started to rain when I was going to head back to the city so I ubered back. If you are in Tallinn and tired of Old Town I would recommend checking this area out. 

love, Carlee 

Parco dei Murales

Most weekends Clark and I have scheduled either a mini adventure or dinner or hanging out with friends but the weekend before I flew back to the states, Saturday came around and we didn’t have anything scheduled. I knew I didn’t want to do anything to crazy but I wanted to get out and explore the area a little bit. I have a list of street art that I want to find in Naples and this parco was on the list. I discovered it via Instagram like I do most things. But it took a little extra research to find out exactly were it was located. If you are in Naples and want to find this cool building the coordinates are : 40.859195, 14.342494

You can learn more about this apartment building and the story behind the murals here. There are murals are ever single main wall and they are so beautifully done. This is an apartment complex that people actually live in so if you visit you will see children playing, dogs barking, and people hanging laundry. Just be respectful of the area and people. 

My favorite mural was probably the one with the playstation controller. I also really liked boys playing soccer too and it was perfect because there were actually boys playing soccer underneath it. We had fun finding a new place and discovering a new area of Naples. 

love, Carlee

Shorts: DIY

Tank: Old Navy

Shirt: Target

Shoes: Nike

18/50

Clet Street Art, Florence Italy

When we were walking the streets of Florence, Clark kept noticing signs that had funny street art on them to make the signs look different then what they were suppose to represent. We mostly noticed them on Do Not Enter signs. After seeing 3 or 4 Clark started to take photos of them. Then a couple blocks from Ponte Vecchio we noticed a little shop that had the artists work in stickers and magnetics and a even a couple of original signs that the artist did. The lady that was working at the shop said the originals go from $5,000-$16,000 these days! What! They are really good and if I had all the money in the word I would definitely buy one as a piece of art.

On the other side of the bridge, the Piazza Michelangelo side. We found another shop that sold his stuff and turns out it was his actually work shop. There was way more stickers with I think close to all of his designs and there were t-shirts and other artwork he was doing as well. I definitely recommend going to his shop. Here is his Facebook page and you can find his shop on Google Maps by typing "Clet Abraham Studio."

We had a fun time looking for signs with Clet's work on it. We found a lot and there were so many all other Florence. There were also multiples of designs we had already seen. I guess he does it in a lot of major cities like Madrid and Paris and I can't wait to watch out for his work next time I am traveling.
love, Carlee

13/50

Copenhagen Day 2

The second full day I was in Copenhagen was lovely as well. Did you read about my first day? It was a little cloudy and colder this day but I was so loving the chillier weather. I still had my bike rental from the day before until about 4pm this day so I decided that the first thing I wanted to do was bike to the Norrebro district. I heard that there was some amazing street art and murals there and also a really cool park. I was not disappointed. On the way there I stopped to grab a donut for breakfast at The Donut Shop.

Once I made it to the Norrebro District I started scoping out the good murals. There is a really cool one by Cafe Lille Petter and just around the corner is another one. See both above. I then made my way over to Superliken park which is seriously a skateboarders dream! Clark would have loved it! Although if he was here with me he would have been very sad he didn't have a skateboard with him. It was also very colorful and modern. It is big to, I think it spans over like 3 blocks.

After visiting Norrebro I biked back down toward Indre By (the main downtown area.) I stopped to take some photos of the Palads theater it is just a movie theater but it is so bright and colorful. I also went inside the Axelborg building, there is a very cool spiral staircase inside and you can look up and see all the floors. I also biked along the river for a while and saw some people peddling boats that looked like swans and then there was a bunch of actual swans that children were feeding bread to.

I then went searching for the bakery Skt Peters Bakery which people say is the best bakery in Copenhagen and it did not disappoint! So yummy. I got the cinnamon roll with extra white sugar on top and it was one of the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had. At this point I didn't have my bike for much longer but I knew I wanted to go to the Christianshavn area. So I biked there and I stopped at the cool pedestrian bridge, Circle Bridge, and then I biked along the Christianshavn canal. The colors in Copenhagen are really pretty. They know how to do bright beautiful row houses. Even better than Amsterdam! Which is saying something I think. 

I went back to my hostel for a little while and rested and I also turned in my bike rental. Then in the evening I went to find some food and came across a place called Barburrito. It is a little hole in the way place with really good mexican tacos! I had the chicken tacos and they were so yummy also they service was really fast. I then stopped at Rajissimo which has gelato, churros, waffles on a stick, and soft serve ice cream and I was actually going to get some vanilla soft serve but there machine was broke (what is this McDonalds) but it was probably the best thing to happen because instead I got a waffle on a stick covered in chocolate and nuts and it was seriously so good. I just needed a big glass of milk to go with it haha. Also, did you know Lego was invented in Denmark? 

So yeah those were my days in Copenhagen. The next morning I slept in until about 930 and then headed to the train station to go back to the airport. I am going to be doing a Copenhagen Travel Guide so I can put all the food, places, and recommendations in one post. 
love, Carlee

Watercolor paintings and new products

I have had the best time lately just painting for fun. My former high school english and art teacher gave me a bunch of watercolor stuff to use while I am in my hometown recovering from my broken leg. At first I was not inspired at all to create but over the last couple weeks I have really enjoyed it. Here are two full watercolor paints I have finished, I have done these as well as other little paintings but I really love these because they are full size and finished. I loved the planet one so much that I turned it into a couple of products for my shop and casetify! I might do something with the other one as well but I just finished it yesterday so I am not sure what yet. Go ahead and shop the I Love You to the Moon card and the Watercolor Planet iPhone case!

I will hopefully be updating more and more over the next month or so. Just trying to get back into the flow of things and that includes updating more on the blog. 
love, Carlee

Abstract painting #2

Here is my abstract painting #2. I promise I wont be sharing all the painting I am doing. But I wanted to share this one because I used a new technique. Also wanted to share because I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a GIF and actually it was the first every GIF I made via Photoshop Elements. Check out this tutorial if you are wondering how to do it, that’s what I used.

Anyways I used a tool kinda like this, and that is how I got the effect that you see on the painting. I do wish I would have painted the whole canvas white or ivory before I put color down. But that’s okay, I love the way it turned out and these colors are my favorite right now. 
love, Carlee

My DIY abstract painting

The other day I walked to AC Moore craft store from my apartment. I was actually gonna go to TJ Maxx (again) but instead I made my way into the craft store which was next door. And let me tell you it was one of the best decisions I made all week. They carry awesome high quality craft stuff just like Michaels or Hobby Lobby but I found that they have way better deals. And no this post isn’t sponsored by AC Moore I just fricken loved there stuff and wanted to share. So anyways, I came across a deal for 2 canvas for $10 (I am not a painter so I don’t know if there canvas were good quality or not but they were perfect for me) and then I found acrylic paint on sale for 2 for $1 so yeah I knew that I had to buy some stuff. I figured this was the perfect time to check off the goal of painting an abstract painting this year. I picked out 4 colors of paint, the canvas, 4 new drawing pens, 2 drawing pencils all for $25. I got a 15% military discount and used a 40% off one regular priced item coupon I found on my phone while I was roaming the store.

The next day I pulled out the canvas and paint I didn’t really have a specific technique I wanted to use. I actually don’t know that much about painting but I knew that I could do something abstract. I had pinned some abstract art a while ago and used that as inspiration. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) I just kind of started. I painted a little bit then let that dry. I blended the blues at the corners and the orange/yellow. I tried not to mix the orange and the blues to much because I figured that would turn into some ugly brown color. So I was careful then those two colors got together and let dry completely. I only used 4 colors at the beginning then I went to AC Moore again at lunch one day and got two more colors. So there is a total of six colors: Seaside, Robin’s Egg Blue, Turquoise, Melted Butter, Carrot, Light Pink and they are My Studio Acrylic Craft Paint. 

I used my figures to blend and like I said I am not a painter so my technique might be totally lame but it worked for me and I really like how it turned out. I am excited to start another one, since I got two 18x24 canvas I have a blank one sitting by my window waiting for color. I think I want to get two more colors of paint but keep the same color scheme as it goes with our bedroom and I would like to hang the painting above our dresser. I wasn’t planning on leaving white space but after I let it dry I thought it was done. I really liked it and I didn’t want to continue and ruin it. So it is done and I love it. 

If you have any questions about what I did or supplies let me know?

love, Carlee