Pour yourself a glass of champagne and head over to Fashion.net, where you'll find links to sites about fashion, designers, art, photography, design, magazines, blogs, books, travel, shopping, music and more! 

I am so excited about Gypsy Girl Guide's new Etsy shop, featuring prints from her travels around the globe.  See that one above?  It is going soon going to have a home on my wall. 

My husband and I just became members of REI when we went to stock up on gear for an upcoming cycling/hiking trip all over southern California, and I just learned they offer trips all over the world.  So many ways to see the world...so little time! 

Have you been to Joshua Tree?  No?  Get going! 

Alas, I was supposed to be in Tibet right now, but my trip got cancelled as a result of the protests a few weeks ago.  Until I am able to try to go another time, I can at least explore and learn more about the art of the Himalayas at Himalayan Art Resources, a wealth of images and information! 

The travel gods have informed me - loudly and clearly - that I am supposed to stay home right now, as I have had so many potential travel plans fall through in the last few months it has become laughable!  So be it, but in the meantime, here are some of my favorite travel accessories & tips and where to find them.  I have developed certain routines and easily packable creature comforts over the years, and it is a quirky hobby of mine to search for the perfect little travel accoutrements.

To be honest, I don't own a travel neck pillow; it is one of those things I keep thinking I should invest in but I haven't yet for some reason.  I hereby vow to purchase one before my next trip, just to see what I've been missing.  I might have to get the Minnie Neck Pillow, pictured above, from Flight 001, a great website with every possible travel amenity you can imagine.  They have a few stores here and there too, so see if one is in your neighborhood. 

I have this passport wallet from Tepper Jackson and it makes every international travel experience a colorful adventure!  I L-O-V-E Tepper Jackson's travel accessories.  I have the passport case, luggage tags (helps you spot your luggage easily on the conveyer belt for checked bags), an overnight bag and toiletry kit.  Their pieces are indestructible, eye-catching and can be cleaned easily because they're all plastic.  My favorites!!!  A little P.S.  Tepper Jackson does have a website, but right now it looks to be only a splash page, so do a google search for Tepper Jackson and go hunting.

Another confession:  I have no idea what my brand of luggage is.  I don't feel terribly passionate about finding the perfect suitcase.  As long as it holds my belongings and has strong zippers to hold it all in, I'm happy.  But if I were going to go all-out, I'd try one of these beauties - maybe the International 20" Zippered Expandable Carry On, pictured above, from the Rolls Royce of luggage, Tumi.

Or maybe this colorful number by Orla Kiely.

A few other goodies I always have with me when I travel, particularly on longer trips across oceans:

* Hardcover journal - I am a big fan of the 8" x 6" basic black sketchbook, but I know many people swear by Moleskin notebooks.  There are also handmade Lama Li travel journals and I just received this set of Jonathan Adler Blue & Brown notebooks as a gift and they're FAB!  I also bring plenty of my favorite pens and a few pencils for sketching.  When I am feeling really ambitious, I'll throw in a travel watercolor set.

* Travel candles - You can find these pretty much anywhere, but right now my favorites are from Aroma Naturals, which I get at my local Whole Foods Market.  While I'm there I also pick up Emergen-C, which I like to have on long trips as well.

* Siggs Water Bottle - I just received one of these as a gift on my recent trip to Boulder as a reminder to stay super hydrated while at altitude.  Word on the street has been that these are the super deluxe, super cool water bottles to have and I've never believed the hype, but I am now a believer!  They are indestructible and...

"Due to SIGG's special, proprietary internal coating, these high-tech bottles are resistant to fruit juice acids, energy drinks, alcohol and virtually any consumable beverage. Because the liners are taste and scent neutral, you can enjoy any beverage you'd like – without any lingering smell or taste of the last beverage you drank. The composition of the liner also reduces the chances of bacteria build-up." -SIGGS website

They may or may not make it with me on every trip depending on how packed my suitcase is, but if there's room it's worth bringing it along.

* Skin Care - I am a fanatic about washing my face every night, and a little dab of moisturizer on a ten-hour plane ride can feel blissful.  Pictured on the left above is a complete travel kit from Juice Beauty, an organic skin care line.  On the right is from Origins, whose products I've been using for years.  Things that smell nice and feel good on your skin in a foreign place can make your day!

* Other items I find handy and/or indespensible - Nail files, lip balms, sugar free lozenges (pictured above), granola bars, tissues, anti-bacterial towlettes (I found lavender wipes by Giovanni Cosmetics at Whole Foods and they are heavenly), and another trick I use sometimes is to take along lavender sachets to put in my pillow.

* One more note - When it comes to your ipod, use it sparingly.  There are times when it might be nice to shut yourself off from the world in order to recharge - a long bus ride, at the end of a busy day exploring, but I encourage you to go without it as you are out and about, particularly in a foreign country.  Having your headphones on sends a clear message that you want to be left alone, and if you aren't feeling particularly worn out, left it in your bag and listen to the sounds around you, open yourself up to a potential conversation with someone fascinating.

Now all you have to do is decide where to go - head over to Lonely Planet and go exploring!! 

Anahata Katkin is leading a creative retreat in Bali next year and it looks DIVINE!  Details are here. 

Morgan Spurlock - the brainchild behind Super Size Me - has a new documentary film opening this weekend in Los Angeles:  Where In the World is Osama Bin Laden?  It is terribly easy to look at the Middle East as a place that requires nothing more than our worst fears and our harshest judgements, but the truth is that these countries are filled with human beings who are raising families, shopping for groceries, reading books and having coffee with their friends just like us.  An article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times explains that "[Spurlock] explores America's culture of fear as he travels the globe for a sense of understanding."  I hope crowds flock to the theaters for this, and I applaud Spurlock for recognizing that we are connected to other people all over the world through our humanity, even people in the Middle East.

To do list:

Buy artwork - check

Read an inspiring blog - check

Make a difference - check

Find something fun to do in San Francisco* - check

Read another inspiring blog - check

Live vicariously through a European traveler - check 

Be inspired - check 

Thank you Kate Swoboda! 

* I don't live there, but I love to visit!

I saw this gorgeous book on a recent trip to Berkeley and can't stop thinking about it.  This is one in a series of books with photographs and wisdom from around the world.  Pictured above is Offerings:  Buddhist Wisdom for Every Day.

Awakenings:  Asian Wisdom for Every Day

Wisdom:  365 Thoughts from Indian Masters

Origins:  African Wisdom for Every Day

Revelations:  Latin American Wisdom for Every Day 

These are not only beautiful books that can be a source of inspiration every day, but I think they could also be wonderful travel guides - a way to learn about a part of the world that you are going to visit or would love to explore.

Two of my artistic soulmates - Kelly Rae Roberts and Mati McDonough - have dreamed up and made real a creative feast to be held in Tuscany this fall.  Details for Take Flight!  Discover Your Creative Wings in Tuscany are here - does this sound ever so dreamy or what?  

[Cambio de Color :: Quiala]

From one of the spots on our globe I am obsessed with:  this is an interesting article about Cuban art, the market for which is very likely to go through a surge if U.S. - Cuban relations are able to open up in the next many years. 

The amazing, talented and very well traveled Ann Howley has a show coming up so mark your calendars!  Sunday, April 6, 2008, 1-5pm.  Visit Ann's website for more information!

*****

Apologies for such light posting yesterday - I have been totally pre-occupied with this. 

Last week in London, darling Susannah took me to Portobello Market, as my one shopping request was not cashmere from Notting Hill or Jo Malone perfume, but "...old papers, pictures, books, etc."  These are my favorite treasures on any excursion - bits and pieces from antique stores, flea markets and my own wanderings.

Portobello Market is indeed such a treasure hunter's Mother Ship, with stall after stall of vendors selling teacups, silver spoons, hundred year old engravings, gorgeous vintage alligator purses, printer's blocks and yes, old papers, pictures and books.  My first long visit was with Paul, who is showing me one of his books in the photo above.  He was a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm, giving me a brief but powerful glimpse into the world of wood engravings from the early part of the 20th century.  I am a sucker for anyone who is passionate about a subject, and I ended up purchasing a slightly worn down 1937 copy of "Down the River" because of its incredible engravings by Agnes Miller Parker.  At one point while showing me this book Paul said, "Someone might come along and rip this page out to frame it, but one mustn't do such things..." 

Just in case you're reading this, dear Paul, I wouldn't dare do such a thing.  Although I have been known to tear apart old books, this one will remain intact in my library. 

In addition to Parker's incredibly detailed work, I fell in love with the work of Eric Gill, an engraver and typeface designer.  Paul had a wonderfully fat book of Gill's work, but I couldn't bear the thought of hauling it back to the states in my suitcase, but luckily it has been pretty easy to find his work online and learn more about his life.

There is even an Eric Gill Society.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason it doesn't surprise me there is a cult following of his life and work.

There was an article in today's LA Times about a group of Southern California Muslims who traveled to Mecca in December to "...perform the exacting rituals of the hajj...that is the pinnacle of an observant Muslim's life."  2.3 million people gather for this ritual every year, and I can only imagine what it must be like to watch this incredible event. 

"In a way, the scene symbolized Islam worldwide. When Muslims pray five times a day, they face the Kaaba, so across the globe Muslims in ever-growing concentric circles focus their energies on this one spot."

I found the article and photos powerful, intriguing, inspiring and fascinating.

Soon after I wrote this entry about a link to a website that was all about India, I received an email from a lovely woman named Nina McConigley, a writer and Wyoming native who has been working as an intern at Tara Publishing in Chennai, India for almost a year now.  India has been on my travel radar for quite some time now, and our email conversations caused me to seriously consider a spur of the moment detour from London to Chennai next week (by the time this entry is posted, I will actually be in the middle of my London trip.)  I decided to come back down to earth and wait until I can plan a more detailed (and longer) trip, but in the meantime I am savoring every delicious tidbit Nina has been willing to share with me about her travels, her writing, Tara Publishing, and life in India.

Her interview was a bit more relaxed and done over many days and emails, as I found myself asking her a slew of questions right off the bat, not even really considering them part of any official "interview".  Before I knew it, I realized I had my interview!

Here is how things got started, in this excerpt from Nina's first email to me:
My name is Nina, and I work at Tara Publishing in Chennai, India . We are a small independent publishing house in India -- we focus on children's books, visual arts titles, and have a small fiction/non-fiction list, and many of our books are handmade.

I grew up in Wyoming -- but my mother is Indian, my father Irish. I completed my MFA in Creative Writing two years ago, and am finishing my own book about East Indians in Wyoming. I have always wanted to live in India. I only came to India twice before moving here. Growing up, my Indian grandparents had died and most of my mom's immediate family is now in the states. So, we went to Ireland instead.  When I finished my MFA, I moved home to Wyoming to work on my book. I thought that just picking up and moving to India was a little nuts but then I saw one of Tara's books, I wrote them...and the rest is history. I am an intern here, and my internship will be over in April. I'll come back to Wyoming then.
 
Being here in India for the past year has been one of the most wonderful and hard experiences of my life.  It has changed my writing and my book, it has changed the way I look at the world. It has changed the way I see life and death. It's really changed, well, everything. I am a little scared to go back to Wyoming -- where everything is so orderly, and everyone is just in their houses. I say this with such a torn heart, as I love being in Wyoming in ways I can't express -- the mountains, they sky...but it is sometimes so hard to be the only brown face in a crowd. Living here has been the first time I have not been in the minority in my life -- and yet, I am actually very far removed from people as I am essentially American. The streets are so alive here. Every weekend, I take a bus to visit my family and I pass by all sorts of funny sights.  I am humbled every day.
 

What is the weather like this time of year in Chennai?
South India is almost always hot. I was just in Delhi for a week and it was freezing in comparison. Most days are in the 80's and 90's -- and we are now moving into summer, which means many days around 100. Coming from Wyoming, it was very strange for me to experience such warm humid weather all year round. But it was the monsoons that really threw me off. I had never seen that kind of rain. I live with two other North Americans -- and our house flooded three times. By the second time, all we could do was laugh (and move furniture). You can't just tell the rain to stop. But there were moments standing in water in my bedroom that I thought, "What am I doing here?" Here in India, a very common expression is, "What to do?" I think to live here, to some degree, it becomes your mantra. What to do. If you got frustrated by power outages, no internet, things like that...it would make you crazy. So, I love the very go with the flow attitudes of everyone around me.
 
What is a typical day for you?
 A typical day is usually waking up and making breakfast at home. My one roommate does yoga in the early morning, so she usually makes breakfast for the house. We all walk to work together, stopping on the way at a juice stand. There are fresh juice stands everywhere. This morning I got a fresh watermelon juice for 12 rupees -- which is less than 30 cents. We are greeted at work by the office dog -- a stray that seems to just live at Tara (and we feed him, which doesn't help!). I think one thing I have found about being at Tara is there is no typical day. One day, we have Gond tribal artists in showing us their work and collaborating with Tara on books, other days, we'll sit and talk about possible ideas for books, some days I spend sending out copies of our books for reviews or organizing exhibits of our artwork, other times we are out in schools in Chennai doing art education outreach. We get a lot of visitors stopping by from librarians in the US, people from Oxfam, writers...Some people want to check out our books, others want to see our press and check out how the handmade books are made -- as we make books using silkscreening, letterpress and offset printing.
 
I have learned the hard way about being a small independent press and how much harder it is (with almost no publicity budget), to get the word out about Tara. But luckily, once people see our books, they usually fall in love. Since Tara is a collective of writers and artists, the office is always lively and full of conversation. I am so happy that I work for a place that brings a voice to people that perhaps would never be in the mainstream. Most all of our illustrators are not "illustrators" per se -- but tribal and folk artists, cinema billboard artist, textile printers -- we use all sorts of untraditional things as illustrations.
 
Through Tara, I am writing a book on teaching children Gond art. I used to teach, but my own writing has always been fiction or as a journalist. But I love art, so I feel like in some ways, I get to marry my interests. Tara is so flexible. After doing some art education workshops, I was interested in how you could teach Gond art to little kids. Gita Wolf, our publisher, said "Why don't you write a book on it?"  So, I am. I never would get to just say and do something like that in a bigger publishing house -- especially as an intern!
 
After work I try to work on my own book and take a yoga class. I had never studied yoga till coming to India. I don't speak Tamil, so sometimes my attempts at yoga are a bit of a comedy of errors. My life here is quiet. I don't miss the things I thought I would -- TV, internet, a car. It's actually allowed me to work a lot on my own writing.

How did you find Tara Publishing?
I saw one of Tara's books, it was The London Jungle Book. I thought it was such an interesting book -- a mix of art, travelogue, and since it written from the perspective of a man from a small Indian village and his take on London, I found it really different from other travel books I had seen (I also loved the art!). So, I got on Tara's website, and saw that they took interns. At the time I was doing my MFA in Texas, so I wrote to them and kept in touch over the years. But, by the time I finished my MFA, I was 30, and thought maybe I was a little old to be "interning" anywhere. So, I moved home to Wyoming instead to work on my own book, which I had started in my MFA.
 
I love that you traveled around the world...where did you go?  Were you on your own the entire time?  
I was home in Wyoming for less than a year, then decided to travel. So I bought an around the world ticket. They are great, as long as you are going in one continuous direction. My mother is originally from Chennai, India, my father grew up in Ireland -- so one good thing about having a multi-national family, is that I can travel and visit family. I bought an around the world ticket, and went to England, Ireland, and France, then jumped to India, where I stayed for two months, then went to Thailand, then to Australia. My grandmother actually lived in Australia, so I went to be with her as she had not been well. As it turned out, she was really unwell, so I stayed three months with her and was with her when she died.
 
The experience of being with her made me rethink what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to finish my own book, but also knew I wanted to be back in India. Being in India made me feel happy in a way almost no other place has. I would have loved to come to India just to travel, but I really wanted to live and work here -- and experience day to day life. I hadn't grown up traveling to India (prior to moving here, I had only been here twice) as my Indian grandparents had passed away before I was born. I got in touch with Tara again and applied for the internship. I was worried  about being older (as most of Tara's interns are just out of college) but that was all in my head. I am learning more and more to just go out and do things that fill you creatively, even if some people are puzzled by your path.
 
I was alone on and off when traveling. My mother traveled with me some, and almost everywhere I went, I met friends or family. This year of being in India has been a lot more of being alone in India. Which is so nice. I love my Indian family very much, but they don't quite know what to make of someone who is 32 and not married (their attempts to marry me off are a whole other story...) So, they are very protective. My aunt still can't understand why I take public busses in India and not a taxi. It is some times a down side being a woman in India alone. Sometimes, it can be frustrating when traveling on trains and buses, when getting service when eating out. But that said, I feel very safe in the South traveling around.

What has your experience in India been compared to what you thought it might be before you moved there?
In many ways, my prior trips had taught me to have no expectations -- I think when coming to a place like India, which can be very easily exoticized and romanticized, you really have to come with a very open heart and mind. For me, in a bit of a cliché, I hoped I would discover my roots and figure out all sorts of questions from the universe. In that way, I have realized that moving to a new place doesn't automatically make things clear for yourself, in many ways, you can feel more muddled. But you also do learn all sorts of things about yourself when you are stripped of the comforts (or sometimes crutches) you rely on back home.

The ease of the West is something that I never thought about till I came here. It's a given that power works, that you can, for the most part, drink water out of your tap, that when you go to the grocery store you can get what you want. I think I took all of that for granted. Living in a city of 7 million from a town in Wyoming, all of my experiences here have been so far removed from what I have known. I also thought I would pick up Tamil very easily, which, well, isn't quite as easy as I thought...

My idea of India has only become more complex. In that I realize that you can live here for years and years, and only scratch the surface of this country. I feel like I really only know my little pocket of Chennai. When I was in Delhi recently or in Bangalore, they are so different from Chennai. Every city here has such its own feels and rhythms. So, I feel like I have just started a relationship with India, and will continue to come back again and again.

Share an experience where you said to yourself, "YES, this is why I wanted to live in India!"...an experience when you knew you made the right decision to take that leap.
I think it was Vinayaka Chaturthi, or the Ganesha Festival. I have always like Ganesha. Out of all the Indian gods, he seems really jolly. He is the remover of obstacles, and the god of beginnings. During this festival, all these make-shift shops spring up on the roads. They sell mud Ganeshas, which at the end of the festival, are submerged into the sea (or water). At temples, elaborate light sculptures (think Christmas lights as art) tower over rooftops. I got up early on the morning of the first day of the festival. I took a walk to the temple near my house. People were buying their mud Ganeshas to take home and decorate. My landlord had been making all sorts of sweets to present to her Ganesha. The sweet shops had special foods. As I walked around, I just felt part of something much bigger than me. India's culture is so old, so beautiful, and to watch certain rituals makes me feel, well, for lack of a better word, connected. Also, since Ganesha is the god of beginnings, it all felt very auspicious to me.

But, I have to admit, I also felt pretty happy when I finally could get an auto rickshaw and bargain in broken Tamil. I knew my mom would be proud!

What have you learned about yourself while living in India on your own over the past year?
To let go of control. To not worry about time. To laugh. To also be more aggressive – with so many people competing for space, I’ve had to learn to push my way through a crowd. Also, I grew up with a lot of open space around me, so India challenges my notions of space and silence. I’ve learned that I can quite happily move through an Indian street with its maze of people, cows, auto rickshaws, scooters, cars, bullock carts.
 
Do a brain dump of adjectives describing India...
Friendly, dynamic, loud, scented, hot, humid, colorful, joyful, green

When will we be able to order the book you are working on?
The Gond art book will be published in early 2009. I hope my own fiction book will come out soon after that…

Thank you Nina for an extraordinary interview and for sharing so much of your incredible journey!  I can't wait to see where you go next... 

I'm heading to LondonTown today to visit this lovely soul.  The rest of this week's posts are already scheduled to keep you inspired while I'm away with phenomenal interviews, Etsy favorites and other goodies!

Kabul Beauty School was given to me a few months ago and I finally started reading it yesterday.  I have already plowed through almost half of the book, and I know it will be one of those books that I will be sad to finish.  Incredibly inspiring on so many levels - the story of one woman's mission to create a Beauty School in Afghanistan to give women financial freedom.  Order this book NOW! 

I have been enamored with the idea of traveling to India for a while now, and decided to get a little India inspiration by googling "India Photographs".  Through this search, I came across the Kamat's Potpourri, a personal website that celebrates "The History, Mystery and Diversity of India".  The site includes information about the history of India, temples, the arts, and countless pages of photographs.  My favorite of these was the page entitled "Old Photographs of India".  How I would love to sit down and have tea with these people and hear their stories.

It's official - I must go there someday. 

I am taking a trip to Tibet with eight other women this May organized through Lotus Expeditions, and they are looking to organize a Sea Kayaking & Yoga for women trip to Chile at the end of March.  Click here if you are interested!