The London Sheep: Shaun in the City

Last week I brought you the Berlin Bears, this week I bring you The London Sheep. These are actually called Shaun in the City. I had no idea what they were but they were freaking cute...and as you guys can tell from my instagram and facebook pages I freaking love unique and fun art like this....especially if it is for a good cause.

These are to bring attention to and support children in hospitals across the U.K., from my understanding.

Playing the flag.

Royal Shaun.

Every time we saw this sign it cracked us up, they even designed it to look like a sheep!

A quick shot from the double decker!

It is the mint sheep!

Dressed as a Yeomen Warder-so cute!

I just think these are super cute! They also make it a fun way to sight see no matter your age.

When you visit a new city, do you have anything special and fun you like to make sure you photograph? 

To find out more about our time in London check out:

Another Day in London

What I Ate in London

The Berlin Bears and a bit of extra Wall art

When we go to different cities many times we see that there is a unique flair for some sort of art. It becomes a common piece and many times they are just temporary art installations for charity to be auctioned off later, but sometimes they are permanent installation taken care of by the community.

Which, just happens to be the case for the Berlin Bears.

According to Buddy Baer Berlin this started in 2001 inspired by something going on in Zurich and New York. The bear is iconic to Berlin as it stands in the middle of the city's flag. As you can see below on the white and red flag...

At the time more than 100 bears were created, I don't know how many still stand today, but I am going to show you the ones we managed to capture!

Actually not at the train station or an airport, but some random souvenir shop in the middle of the city!

Not an art installation but a bear with a wiener has to be shared more than once!

Our favorite bear of course! If you visit ask to make sure you can take a photo first...this is inside the U.S. Consulate building. As many of you may or may not know you can't take anything electronic in to the Consulate buildings, anywhere in the world, that includes cell phones. If you are sweet and no one is in the lobby {like what happened when I asked} the guards outside the building will tell you "off course!" {and yes it is said like that by Germans and Dutch alike and I love it}.

I wonder how hard this artist thought about the placement of this design?! haha

Also, as we wandered we noticed there were free standing pieces of the old wall with some art on them, thought I would share those with you as well.

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There was actually a lot more of this sort of thing, but they were heavily populated by all the schools visiting Berlin at this time. These are the sort of unique things I love seeing around a city. 

Does your city have any cool art installations like this? If not, has it in the past? 

When traveling have you seen any unique and fun art installations?

Van Gogh Museum

Amsterdam is full to the brim with museums! There are so many here. Since we are residents of the city we decided to invest in the Museumkaart. This came in very hand when the teenager suggested we do a museum week during summer holiday. I thought this was a great idea and many of the museums were free for her age!

The first museum I am going to write about is the Van Gogh Museum.

I've never actually seen this part of the building due to the long lines!

Update January 2015: Right now, I have been twice in the last two weeks and neither time has there been a line to buy tickets or to go in, so if you are visiting Amsterdam over the next week or two make sure you go in...with no line this is definitely worth seeing!

The Van Gogh, as you can imagine is a very busy museum. The line can get very long, especially at the height of the summer we saw it start to wrap around the block!

To avoid this you can book your tickets online . Once you choose which type of ticket you want it lets you choose the day you want to go and the time in which you should arrive. You can show up anytime after your allotted time, but not before. 

We arrived 15 minutes early and were told we would have to come back so we walked down the street and got lunch....

I love this area of town, it is so unique.

After lunch we made our way back to the museum and walked right in....I love that when you book the tickets online you can either print them or have them sent for your passbook. It is so convenient!

You can only take photos in certain areas in the museum, which I actually like because this allows you to continually move through the museum and actually look at the art.

This happens to be one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings. It just looks so inviting, a place where you really could relax. My favorite fact about this painting is that the doors have faded to a purple color but they were originally a vibrant blue! 

Update January 2015: the above pieces on the wall have been taken out, they have since done an update to the exhibits at the museum, the new exhibit is Letters to my Brother.

However, even though the ones above are gone I did discover this one of Van Gogh:

It is just near the window...

I cropped it to make it look a little better!

How to get there:

If you are in town, the Van Gogh is easily accessible by foot, bike, and trams 2, 5,  24 and bus lines 142, 145, 170, 172, 174, and 197.

Have you been to the Van Gogh Museum or seen any of Van Goghs original works in person? He is by far my favorite artist so it was amazing to see some of his work. I can't wait to get to New York so I can finally see Starry Night!

Cartas Al Cielo

Wow, do I have a post for today! I tell ya I love being a runner because I discovery so many new and interesting things I may not see if it weren't for try to get those miles in during each session. On Tuesday I went out for an easy 30 minute run. I just wasn't feeling it so I told myself when you see something that inspires you stop and take a picture. It will be worth it, it will make the run more fun, and you never know what you will find. Sure enough...I had no idea what I would find.

I crossed the bridge over the canal that divides our neighborhood from this area of Amstel Park and found this:

A very pretty, well maintained little trail. It leads out on to a road that goes throughout the park (I have never seen any vehicles aside from park official ones) and throughout the park there are several graveled areas and little islands of trails. 

So, as I ran and explored I came upon this:

I took one look into this sphere and immediately felt very small. It absolutely took my breath away at how big I realized the world was in that one little moment.

I backed up, looked around the sphere and just enjoyed the view for a moment thinking about why this was here. Who else had been here and felt what I was feeling...a sense of wonder and amazement! Then, I noticed the little slit in the front there and made a mental note to google this when I got home. But, as I continued to run I did not have to wait:

I came across this board that, lucky for me explained the piece of artwork in not only Dutch, but English. I hate being illiterate in Dutch (although my typing skills have gotten tons better from using translate lol), but am glad things like this come in English too so I actually know sometimes what is going on around me! This piece is done by Alicia Framis and is called Cartas Al Cielo, which means "Letters to Heaven".

The way I interpreted this is the thought behind this is it is a sphere that reflects the world around us, capturing the enormity of all we inhabit. Allowing us to reach those that have gone on to their heaven. 

The board basically says the reflection of the sky, which many believe to contain the afterlife, is a place where we can look in moments of hope, desire, or desperation. Many times we look to the sky to talk to those we have lost...so, the thought of this enormity being reflected in a mirrored sphere led the artist to create a postbox to reach those we miss that have gone to the heavens above. When you visit you can slip a letter in to someone you have lost and the thought is they will get your letter delivered in heaven.

I will admit this actually brought tears to my eyes. It is an unselfish piece to share with the world and allow others, especially people like me who love to write letters, a way to "contact" those they have lost and are looking down on us from heaven. 

Such a beautiful piece and I am so glad I live just a block away from it!

Have you ever come across a piece of artwork that just took your breath away?

Index Card a Day Challenge

In my July goal setting post I mentioned that I wanted to continue with the ICAD challenge I was doing. This is the Index Card a Day Challenge. 

I found it one day while browsing through Instagram and decided it was just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again!

Boy was I right! I really look forward to this everyday. I've really gotten in to getting up, having my warm lemon water, reading my copy of "f**k it therapy" and then setting to work on my index card.

A common question they say is why index cards? Well, they are cheap and you don't give a crap if you screw one up. ....and trust me I have a few uglies in there! hahaha No, seriously, just wait & see...I have a "galaxy" that looks more like a colorful chocolate chip cookie!

Anyway, I wanted to share a bit of my art with you guys, so....here goes....

(...and don't make fun of me, they definitely aren't perfect lol) 

My cover card:

The prompt was yellow so I colored the card yellow with a marker, threw on two different yellow washi tapes & a cute hello in yellow I cut out from some scrapbook paper.

This one is my name, thought it appropriate I should be waving over it ;)

The prompt was Prism...so I covered the card in washi tape & did a triangle with the all seeing eye to make it more prism-ish lol

Now...what you have all been waiting for...the cookie galaxy! haha It is pretty terrible...I need to work on this...so yes, there will be more galaxy attempts.

I loved drawing the puzzle one, I think this is one of my faves...

These next two were done in honor of our 15th wedding anniversary:

Next up, since we were going to Paris and this was a total dream come true for me: 

I love this one..I based the idea off of an art project I did in high school:

Next was inspired by a watercolor bookmark I saw on Pinterest. However, I don't have watercolors right now so I used a fine liner to draw the design on and then colored it in lightly with colored pencil:

I think this is my 2nd favorite one.

Here is my crazy ass mandala...I am going to keep working on these too:

Not completely horrendous, but not great either...any tips for drawing mandalas?

I am really jonesing for a beach, can ya tell???

In high school I created the swirly sun & perfected my wave drawing, I just incorporated that over here. My "sign" when I would sign all my notes to my friends would be the swirly sun with the waves over it. Oh yes, I was incredibly artistic haha Any of my high school friends reading that remember that?!

The prompt was circus tent...I've actually only been to the circus once in my life that I remember so this is what I came up with. I hate it. lol

I was feeling just a little "weird" the day I cam up with this one. It was cloudy and crappy out and I couldn't focus on anything to save my life so ya know, I drew a rainbow....and labeled it just in case you couldn't tell what it was lol (ok, so maybe the wine was involved in the labeling)

Last but not least...a little chevron blue daba de daba die...your welcome :) ('cause you know you will have that song stuck in your head now)

All-in-all this has been a fantastic challenge to participate in and has been just the kick in the tush I needed to get my creative juices flowing again! I love that I can just sort of doodle whatever comes to mind or if I need some inspiration there are tons and tons of prompts to sift through over at Daisy Yellow! 

What do you do when you are stuck in a creative rut?