list 17 - my favorite places in the world

quiet back streets
Villefranche, France

the 'Shoe
Columbus, Ohio

Central Park
New York, New York

Pikes Place Market
Seattle, Washington

the top of the Duomo bell tower
Florence, Italy

water front piers
Alexandria, Virginia

Park Guell
Barcelona, Spain

Millennium Park
Chicago, Illinois

a hammock, anywhere in the world
(in this case: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas)

the Carib Beach Bar
Sandy Beach, Barbados

some blog news

After months of basically posting the same thing on both my personal and business blogs, I've decided to combine the two. My life is my photography, and my photography is my life, so it only felt natural.

A special welcome to all my faithful readers of the Christina Saull Photography blog - I think you'll like what you see here. If you don't read my blog in a blog reader, you'll notice a few changes coming up soon to this site, but I promise to continue delivering the same witty, thoughtful, mundane writing and lots of colorful photos.

Questions? Shoot me an email at christinasaull (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Happy reading!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my amazing Dad and my wonderful grandfather, Papa, and all my uncles... and to all the Dad's out there!

my Dad on the subway in NYC... his favorite place in the world

doing a little aisle walking

a little beaching

a little swing dancing

hanging out with my bro

conspiring with my husband

dancing with Papa at my wedding

Shut. Up.

There was absolutely no way I couldn't share this with my faithful blog readers (all, you know, three of you).

Bakerella is an amazingly talented baker who posts her amazing creations pretty regularly on her blog. When I saw these today, I was literally stopped in my tracks.

Tell me: would could possibly be more cute than these Mr. Potato Head cake pops?


I'll wait for you to think of something.

Stumped?

Obviously. Because these are the cutest things ever. EVER.

Rock on with your bad self Bakerella. Rock on.

(photo from Bakerella.com)

Five for Friday

... or not. It has been an exhausting, busy week at work. So I'll just post some cheery, summer-like pictures instead :)

Because what says summer more than...

list 16 - if I had $1,000,000

Remember the song "If I had a million dollars"?

"If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a green dress. But not a real green dress, that's cruel. If I had a million dollars, I'd buy your love. blah blah blah. If I had a million dollars, I'd be rich."

Barenaked Ladies?

Remember?

No?

Oh well.

You know, if you think about it, one million isn't very much money in this day and age. Still, I'm not complaining if it landed on my doorstep tomorrow.

list 16 - if I had $1,000,000, I'd*....

1. take an unpaid leave of absence from work (a "sabbatical," if you will) throw some clothes in a backpack and hit up Europe for a few weeks.

2. wouldn't be driving a 2001 Ford Focus... but also wouldn't be driving a Mercedes.

3. make a nice donation to the Ohio State University Political Science Department... because without them, I wouldn't have met my husband.

4. buy Ohio State University football season tickets. And Cleveland Indians half-season tickets. But those are cheap these days anyway.

5. buy some good, high quality, a little more expensive, staples for my wardrobe

6. buy shoes. I'd definitely buy shoes as well.

7. and buy books. Because I love, love, love books.

8. get bi-weekly massage appointments and monthly pedicures

9. send my grandparents, and my Dad, on a fabulous vacation (although not necessarily the same one!). Because they're fabulous and they deserve it.

10. probably head to B&H and do some serious shopping as well.

11. buy a timeshare in Florence.

12. take another sabbatical and write a book about traveling. Preferably from a tropical location.

*me, personally, not sharing with Brad. He has to get his own $1,000,000. Okay, maybe I'll share a little. He can visit the timeshare in Florence with me.

something pretty

to brighten your Tuesday :)

Five for Friday - the "obsessed edition"

As we finish out our week here in, I find myself loving/obsessing about a whole handful of things that I clearly must share with you.

1. My new "piano"
Actually not a piano, but an electronic keyboard with touch sensitive keys that when you strike them a little hammer hits an electronic sensor, just like a real piano (minus the electronic sensor).

We went to the bike store last night to get Brad some gear for his ride this weekend, and were walking to Moe's (which now serves whole grain tortillas. holla!) for dinner when we walked past a music store. You know, your run-of-the-mill shopping center music store with kids honking on clarinets in the back, racks filled with books of etudes and scales, some random accessories for all your high school musical instrument needs... and some random keyboards of varying quality.

Since I grew up playing a real piano, I have always poo-poo'd keyboards. They never felt right to me; even the ones with weighted keys always felt too plastic. But because we live on the fourth floor in an apartment, with no end to that in the near future, having a real piano is just not a reality right now. So it's a keyboard or nothing. I had sadly resigned myself to it being nothing.

Until I randomly sat down at this piano last night (I refuse to call it a keyboard. A keyboard sounds like I should be standing in the back of an 80's hair band, rocking my graphic t-shirt and long stringy hair). I grabbed a book of sonata's (the same 17-minute long ones I used to play in high school) and sat down. And played. Played as if not a single day had passed. As if it hasn't been almost ten years since I seriously sat down at a piano. I was instantly transported back to that empty auditorium in 11th grade solo and ensemble where I kicked the butt of that ridiculously long Beethoven sonata, scored myself a superior and a spot in the state competition.

Anyway, back to last night... I'm sitting there, playing away, hardly listening to Brad and the sales guy talking, vaguely hearing words like "last one," "older model" and "clearance price." Before I know it, the piano I'm playing is mine. I may or may not have actually hugged it in the store (okay, I did) and squealed like a school girl.

It has pedals and a beautiful casing and a built in metronome and, best of all for my neighbor's sake, an outlet to plug headphones into. We go back to pick it up on Saturday afternoon, once they box it up all pretty. Hopefully Brad wasn't planning on anything productive happening Saturday night (or Sunday. Or any night next week). Because I have a whole book of sonata's to relearn.

2. these awesome city prints

I stumbled upon these this morning and have the urge to buy one for every city I have been to, frame them in simple black frames and line them up across my living room wall.

Heads of State, you guys are awesome. My only hope is that they continue to churn out all the awesome places in this country (world?).

Oh, and right now, they have a print for sale with benefits going to clean up efforts in the Gulf. If that's not a worthy cause right now, I'm not sure what is.

3. Cleveland
Long before I lived in our nation's capital, and before I became a beach bum Floridian, I was born in Cleveland.

The "Mistake by the Lake" seems to always get an unfair bad rap. I think it's actually a grand place, filled with amazing ethnic food, hard working people, some amazing cultural sites (hello? Cleveland Orchestra? Cleveland Museum of Art? Severance Hall? awesomeness.) and one of the best small breweries in the country, Great Lakes Brewing Company (Burning River used to be my happy hour staple). Perhaps now best known for the misery that their professional sports teams bring to fans (please don't leave, Lebron! And Tom Izzo, seriously?), one scoop of Mally's ice cream will bring a smile to any downtrodden Indians fan (62 year drought since the last World Series win? only the Cubs can claim a record worst than that!).

Over Independence Day weekend, we're headed to see my brother-in-law in Rocky River, catch a few Tribe games (I suppose going to more than one gives me a better chance of them not losing by 10+ runs) and check out all my old haunts. It is going to be a grand old time.

4. my husband

Duh, he's awesome. Just read the list above and this should be obvious: he bought me a piano. He lets me decorate our house with crazy travel-themed stuff. He's taking me to Cleveland. HE BOUGHT ME A PIANO (okay, still a little excited about that one).

He's the most selfless, loving, forgiving, sweetest, nicest person I've ever met. He mingles with my large Italian family with the same ease he mingles with politicians. And he mans the bbq grill like no one's business. He's riding in the Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure next week - 63 miles on Sunday morning (I'll be camped out at Panera with my coffee and wifi).

Oh, he also organized a big volunteer day for his office today. They're doing a mock disaster drill where they learn how to set up and run a mass shelter (you know, with the Red Cross and PB&J and cots and everything). I volunteered to be a victim; he said my services were not necessary. I volunteered to fill the roll of "aggressive member of the local media." While I would have been perfect, my services were again turned down. Probably better for them... there is a lot of pent up frustration you can harbor after doing media relations for over four years...

Anyway, Brad = awesome. That's all there is too it.

5. Cary Grant

Because it has been a few weeks :)

list 15 - a summer fun "to do" list

1. Wolf Trap
2. water park
3. Tour de Cure (shameless promotion of the 63 mile bike ride Brad is doing in two weeks to raise money for diabetes!)
4. picnic on the National Mall
5. Tidal Basin paddle boats
6. the National Building Museum
7. Cedar Point
8. baseball - Nationals. Indians.
9. walk in the rain
10. county fair... with farm animals!
11. jazz in the Sculpture Garden
12. cruise
13. day trippin'
14. mini golf
15. brats and corn on the cob on the grill

(15 lists down, 37 to go!)

Five for Friday

1. I was going to start this post with an apology for not doing a "Five for Friday" last week by saying "Sorry I didn't post last week, we were in ______." But then I momentarily forgot where we were (answer: Ohio for Brad's ten year high school reunion). Do you think that's bad? Perhaps it's a sign we've been traveling a lot lately. Or that life is insane. Or that I'm getting old.

2. So yes, we were in good ol' Marion, Ohio (small town, about 90 minutes north of Columbus) last weekend for Brad's ten year high school reunion. It was a fun time had by all, filled with extremely cheap drinks (Hello $2 Blue Moon!), reenacting where Brad fell and broke his ankle his senior year, and extremely bad dancing to old songs (the "Thong Song" and Justin Timberlake. Hello 1998). But it also made me glad that I am boycotting my ten year reunion, which is at the end of July. Since I have a desire to really only be good friend's with one person in my class of 680 (or 630. or 640. something like that).

3. Summer has officially arrived in D.C. Too bad spring decided to skip out on us this year, as a sunny, 65° day is really the best...

4. I forgot the highlight of our trip to Ohio: strawberry chip ice cream at Graeter's. Mega yum. Really, summer isn't complete without a scoop of strawberry chip. I even splurged and got the waffle cone. I justified it by having a salad for lunch the day before. One day I will open a Graeter's franchise in D.C. There are so many Ohio people here, I wouldn't even have to change the flavor name from "Buckeye Blitz" to "Peanut butter chocolate."

I ♥ you Graeter's - you make my summer complete.

5. This weekend we are headed out of town, up to the Big Apple. We'll be meeting a bunch of my family there to celebrate the life of my great-grandmother. She always enjoyed the finer things in life, like awesome Italian food and a good glass of red wine, so I know we will be toasting her in style!

list 14 - 114 things I love

some previously mentioned... some not :)

1. my husband - clearly
2. cute new shoes that are actually comfy
3. warm beach breezes
4. bold primary colors
5. contrast-y black and white photos
6. Veterans and their families
7. maxi dresses... even though I've only found one in two years that works for me
8. hand-written letters
9. brownie sundaes
10. s'mores
11. long walks on sunny days
12. autumn
13. turtleneck sweaters
14. OSU hoodies at football games
15. fro-ZEN-yo
16. walking the Long Walk hand-in-hand with Brad
17. my family... they're the best
18. malbec
19. chianti
20. pinot noir
21. Facebook
22. laying in soft grass, looking up at a cloudless sky
23. the last line of The Great Gatsby
24. music that makes you want to dance
25. my black pashmina
26. college football
27. Cleveland Indians baseball
28. glass skyscrapers reflecting other buildings
29. Chicago
30. walking on the beach in a long sleeved tee-shirt and shorts
31. jeans and flip flops
32. trains as a mode of transportation
33. reading on the balcony of a cruise ship
34. hot coffee
35. fingerless gloves
36. NYC
37. show tunes
38. playing the piano
39. spontaneous memories from childhood
40. the first few hours after you get a new hair cut
41. finishing a really good book
42. bicep curls
43. pretending that I'm more Southern than I really am
44. pretending that I'm more Italian than I really am
45. big bear hugs
46. calling my grandmother every Sunday afternoon
47. decisions that come from the heart, not the brain
48. ultra-modern hotels
49. random roadside attractions
50. Seattle
51. neon signs
52. a hot pretzel in Times Square from a street cart at midnight
53. my wedding ring
54. blogging
55. unedited photographs
56. backyard kiddie pools
57. Washington Post on-line chats
58. text messages from my BFF's
59. old friends and new friends
60. the idea of Girl Scouts
61. awesome accomplishments at work
62. beach umbrellas
63. my new sandals from Target
64. Target
65. my iPod commuting mix
66. songs you haven't thought of since high school
67. the band Oasis
68. my ever growing list of "must read" blogs
69. talented photographer friends
70. bacon cheese fries
71. a cold Blue Moon
72. driving with the sunroof open (preferably to the beach)
73. key lime martini's in the backyard
74. Plank's thin crust pizza
75. giant neighborhood bookstores (I'm talking to you Book Loft and Elliott Bay Book Company!)
76. nostalgia
77. photos of returning soldiers, sailors and airmen
78. early morning in Old Town
79. the Sunday paper
80. learning new things
81. vodka martini's with a twist
82. the Gap Outlet
83. the Nine West Outlet
84. Bob Evans' biscuits
85. the Pioneer Woman
86. laughter
87. DVR
88. "Modern Family"
89. Monday Night Football
90. Sunday Night Baseball
91. TBDBITL
92. sending flowers to people
93. planning trips
94. massages and pedicures
95. I'm Not Really a Waitress
96. a really good biography
97. when a book makes me cry
98. when a book makes me laugh
99. planning big surprises for Brad's birthday
100. making lists and checking things off
101. typing fast... but not hard
102. Cary Grant
103. "An Affair to Remember"
104. "Sleepless in Seattle"
105. "When Harry Met Sally"
106. Carrie and the gang
107. movie theater popcorn with extra butter
108. the idea of running
109. Conde Nast Traveler magazine
110. Five Guys little cheeseburger and fries
111. hugs and kisses from old friends
112. my first car
113. Pandora
114. sun

list 13 - things that are rocking my world this week

1. the blue skies that come with summer (we can call it summer since it's 90° out, right?)

2. the awesome, awesome, awesome concert that Brad Paisley put on last Saturday evening. Literally two hours of me standing there, dancing and singing my head off (apologies to those sitting around us!). Added bonus? Opening act Darius Rucker (aka Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish) who sang all the songs from junior high!

3. the great discussion with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert that Brad took me to see last Friday night. Added bonus? We went to a meet-and-greet afterward and got them to sign books (I won't share the incredibly dorky thing I said to Mr. Bourdain... I was trying to be so cool, but ended up much more star-struck than anticipated!)

4. the new Sex and the City movie that opens tomorrow (even though it just got a horrible review in the Post)

5. the three photos below will be appearing in a display at the City of Alexandria Historical Museum this summer

6. the Pandora Radio station created by searching the song "Roll to Me" - a great mix of 90's music (a thanks to my colleague Lauren for this idea!)

Five for Friday

1. So, as planned, my brother David arrived this morning (unfortunately one of his bags did not, thanks United. It was not very comforting when the guy at the baggage office said "Are you sure it's not out there [on the belt]?" Um, yes.). But anyway, it's great to have him back on U.S. soil and I'm sure he's sound asleep and exhausted from traveling for, literally, over 24 hours.

Oh, and his reaction to my sign: "Wow... um, did you make that?" Clearly, my artistic ability won him over.

2. Tonight, Brad and I are going to hear a talk by Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert. I AM SO EXCITED!! (sorry about the caps... I get a little excited talking about this) I just finished Bourdain's book and, well, I love to eat, so it just seems like the perfect thing to do. Too bad it means ditching my brother his first night back in the U.S. :)

3. Tomorrow night, we are ditching him again and heading to see Brad Paisley in concert. This is actually our fifth year in a row seeing him, as he seems to tour pretty much all the time (I'm sure his wife (who was the daughter from the "Father of the Bride" series!) is loving that, since they have two little ones). It's always a fun time and maybe we'll get lucky this year and it won't 1. rain and 2. have nightmare-ish traffic (but I'm not holding my breath). Check out this photo I dug up from the 2006 concert - scary!

4. So, as you saw, last Saturday's trek up to NYC and back was indeed successful. It was such a great day, spent leisurely strolling through the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit at MoMA, having a nice leisurely lunch at La Bonne Soupe on W. 55th Street and enjoying a leisurely few hours in relaxing in Central Park, reading and journaling. The overall theme for the visit: leisure.

5. Dunno much else, my brain is fried from being up all night checking the status of my brother's flights (yes, the neuroses about flying extends beyond just when I'm the one traveling).

Bon le weekend!

Christina Saull Photography featured on The Travel Photographer's blog!

A big, big shout out to New York City based photographer Tewfic El-Sawy, author of The Travel Photographer blog, for the shout out today!

His blog is one of my favorites. His travels are amazing, his photos even more so. He is an inspiration to broaden my travel horizons.

in a New York minute

last glimpse before turning onto the highway in New Jersey...