To Prague

After what felt like ages (I hadn't seen them since Christmas), my parents finally came to visit us in Amsterdam this May. My Mom came first and we took a mother-daughter trip to Prague since neither of us had ever been there. Despite the weather being less than perfect, we had a great time and both really enjoyed the city.

The architecture was really interesting, and we were both impressed at how Prague had really seemed to grow after being out of Communism for such a short period of time (about 20 years). We had tons of amazing food (always a priority), sampled the local Prague beers and walked through the sites in the Jewish Quarter and explored the city as best as we could with my Mom's torn ACL (poor Mom). It was a really fun trip and so nice to get to spend some mother-daughter time together.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

The view of Prague from the Castle

My Mom and I in Old Town Square

Old Town Square

Our typical break: at a coffee shop with our trusted Rick Steves' book

- Krista

Brian's Dad Visits

My dad came as a part of his world tour this spring. After stopping in South Africa, India, Hungary, Spain and other locales, Rick visited us in Amsterdam. We had a great time in the city, but the big highlight was the trip him and I took to Texel island over the weekend. It is a small island in the dutch Wadden Islands.

We rented bikes and rode around the island both days. Our day started with a ferry ride to the island and a scenic journey of sand dunes, beaches, forests, marinas and endless tulip fields.

Great to see you dad!









- Brian

Queen's Day 2010

Queen's Day is the biggest holiday of the year in the Netherlands - everybody gets the day off to celebrate the Queen's birthday and it gets pretty crazy and chaotic, to say the least. Everyone wears orange (the color of the Dutch Royal Family), people sell random stuff on the streets, and anyone who has a boat cruises the canals all day with as many people as they can possibly fit on it.

Since we were here last year for the festivities we knew what to expect, and decided to spend this Queen's Day on a boat with some friends. It was a really fun, exciting, claustrophobic day, and we were lucky that the weather cleared up enough so we had some sunshine to cruise around all day.

Here are a few photos from the day (there are more on Facebook for those of you who are members):

On a boat, wearing orange of course!

The view from our boat on the Prinsengracht

Our friends Jesse and Michelle on the boat

Enjoying the sunshine at the end of a long day

Happy Queen's Day! Or in Dutch, Fijne Koninginnedag!

- Krista

A Weekend in London

We had a long Easter weekend and since we hadn't planned to go anywhere else, we decided to take a quick trip to London since we haven't spent much time there since being in Europe.

It was a really fun, relaxing trip, and we both appreciated the luxuries of the UK - the English language, the amazing food, the friendly people, etc. The city seemed so much bigger than Amsterdam (it is), and there was so much going on compared to our tiny Dutch home.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Brian and I in Hyde Park

At Oxford Circus

Walking along the River Thames

Brian in the London Tube

Waiting for pizza...

Happy Easter everyone!

- Krista

Spring Has Sprung

Sorry friends and family, I know a few of you are loyal followers to our exciting little blog and we've been really bad about posting lately... we haven't actually traveled anywhere since Paris, and I always hate to bore you with details about our day to day lives in Amsterdam.

But that being said, here's what's been going on lately in our lives:

Winter has finally ended. We've had a few really nice, 60 degree + and sunny days here, and I can't tell you how amazing it has been to feel a little sunshine on our faces after such a long, cold winter (I know all you Pacific Northwesters have enjoyed several of these wonderful days already this year, but we haven't been that lucky).

I've actually been busy (another reason I haven't written)! I'm still doing some blogging and have been taking a few online writing classes which has been a lot of fun. I also got lucky and scored a freelance writing assignment with an ad agency called BSUR here in Amsterdam. It will only last a couple of weeks, but it's great copywriting experience for my portfolio and has been really interesting so far.

We're still planning on coming back this summer (although we still don't know where we'll be living... I'll explain more later), and have a lot of exciting things to look forward to... Farm Fest with Brian's family, my cousin Tyler & Estelle's wedding, and Sunriver with my family. I'm also signed up with a mini triathlon along with my Mom, sister, sister-in-law, and whoever else decides to join. It should be a fantastic summer!

I'll try to be better about posting and keep you updated on everything going on. I hope all is well with everyone in the States!

The first time all year it was nice enough to sit outside... I love spring!

- Krista

Dog Blog Photo

Since her teething has finally been subsiding a little lately, we decided to reward Rocket with her own fluffy bed. Needless to say, she's pretty happy about it.

- Krista

Brian designs shoes with Keith Haring foundation

Last weekend in Paris we were actually there for a work trip. I got to work on a cool project for Tommy designing a line of sneakers and rainboots for men, women and children. We partnered with the Keith Haring foundation to make the collection, and it was really cool to be able to work with the art of a cultural icon. Tommy made a donation to the Keith Haring foundation so that we could use the art. Its nice to work on projects like this that have a charity angle. I have been really lucky to sort of fall into that work on the job with the Doernbecher Foundation, Nike Foundation and Project Red and now this. Read more about the foundation here.

As you can see the shoes are pretty crazy. His art was really Pop (Haring is was just featured in the exhibit Pop Life at the TATE Modern) and very 80s so I thought I would try to make a retro inspired collection with the same energy that Haring's art had. Check out the pictures from the store Colette. I wanted to take the look of Haring's famous "Pop Shop" and adapt it for the store. They painted a pattern on all the walls and floors and I designed the logo and neon for the program. Very cool to see it all come to life!

See below a picture of me and Pepe, the designer I worked with from Tommy.

The store Colette also created a microsite for the shoes, its here. There you can see all of the million styles we did. (Maybe overkill in my mind).

They did a great job promoting the event and there were loads of people there. Colette promoted the launch by combining it with a gallery showing of modern graffiti artist Andre. It was a nice connection with Keith Haring and it brought out a lot of the Paris cool kids crowd. Local music sensation Sebastian Tellier was there, along with Busy P and other people I didn't recognize.

Overall it was a really cool thing to do, a great experience and a neat chance to make something that people will enjoy wearing. See more pictures on my re-designed website here.

- Brian