I am back from my 3 week American adventure.  

Cullen and I spent two nights in London before I flew out

(where I realized my passport was still in Durham - long story for another post)

Then I headed to Boston for painting and photography classes for my MFA

Spent 10 days working in Boston

Flew to meet my family at Grayton Beach, Florida for a week

Then drove back to Atlanta for a few nights at home with family and friends.  

Now that I am back in Durham, I have been thrown into a crazy busy week at work, organizing an international humanitarian aid conference, lots of overdue school work, and the OLYMPICS!

So a few highlights from my trip

But more to come once life slows down a bit.   

BOSTON 
view from my dorm

Fine Arts Department

Hard at work

 

Red Sox Game

 

GRAYTON BEACH

 

Lindsay's Birthday!

 

ATLANTA 


Girls Dinner
 

Meet Grover

.....GROVER

the newest addition to our family.
Grover is a Rover, an English made car.

It was a big day for the McKenney's: new car and a new bed.

things are moving along over here.

Paris

Antiquing in Paris.....

AMAZING













Visitors Welcome!

Paris

Part 2 : PARIS

Our great hotel ( right near the Arc de Triomphe )
we booked on Jetsetter.
If you are not familiar with Jetsetter, you should be...it is great!





Our first night in Paris we got in kind of late
and decided to forgo dinner for a cheese and wine picnic under the Eiffel Tower

I would highly recommend it!





We looked at quite a few book shops in Paris,
one of us enjoyed browsing a bit more than the other...





Biking through Paris beats the pants off of walking





velib!





Notre Dame








We sat overlooking court Marly of the Louvre and had a wonderful lunch at Cafe Marly
(thanks ray for the great suggestion!)





Then, off to another beautiful place...
Luxembourg Palace, where we admired the sailboats in the pool.
The children playing with the sailboats was my favorite.









to be continued...

London

Cullen and I waited to celebrate our 2 Year Anniversary in London and Paris,
your feeling sorry for me already, I assume.

We stayed one night in London and three nights in Paris,
here is a glimpse of our trip to LONDON








I thought this (below) was super cool, recognize the imagery?





Its the background from Starry Night.
This wall of plants is apparently catching on in London,
the Anthropology had a plant wall in the staircase





We ate a delicious lunch with a great view of St. Paul's, before we ventured inside.





We stumbled upon this amazing antique umbrella shop.
I never thought I would say this, but the umbrella's were beautiful!
They ranged from ₤45 to ₤400





Westminster Abbey




We enjoyed a lovely dinner with some family friends, and then off to Paris!

Dun Holme

Here are a few photos from our first day in Durham

The River Wear





Nicole and Nathan (our future flat mates) giving us a tour of town










This is North Bailey, where you will find a few of the colleges. Cullen is a member of St. John's which is just a bit past the end of the photo





The Cathedral





Cullen sitting in the Cloister (which is inside the Cathedral). For all you Harry Potter fans, you may notice the Cloister from the first movie.





Standing in front the Cathedral doors.
Dukies, you may recognize the door knocker

If you are finished looking at pictures and are still wondering why the title of this post is Dun Holme, congrats, you are officially a dweeb :)

The name "Durham" comes from the Old English "dun", meaning hill, and the Old Norse "holme", which translates to island.

The name Durham is attributed from the legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who in legend guided the monks of Lindisfare carrying the body of Siant Cuthbert to the site of the present city in 955 AD. Dun Cow Lanue is said to be one of the first streets in Durham.

It's always something

So, I like doing projects and sometimes I like to bite off a bit more than I can chew. Thus, why not refinish a table? I have had this green desk for a few years and have always wanted to paint it. But painting didn't seem like the appropriate plan of action.

(Here is the table before, also in our old loft)

I started stripping the paint and realized I liked the wood underneath so I scrapped off all the green paint on the top of the desk. The base would have been WAY to much to handle with all the nooks and turns so I decided not to scrape it.

I painted it a creamy white and then scrapped in a few spots to roughen it up a bit. I think as it gets more wear it will become better looking.

I really love to top, but the verdict is still out on whether or not I like the white paint color I chose? Thoughts?

Break Time

So Cullen and I moved a few weeks ago. We are loving our new home and I promise pictures will come soon! But one thing we learned while packing and moving is that good breaks are important! We needed a lot of motivation to get our loft packed up and my favorite break is above...why not drink smoothies out of silver mint julep cups?

Georgia Peach

This past weekend we celebrated the fourth of July at my parents lake house on Lake Lanier. One thing that is never in short supply at the lake is food. For some reason we eat constantly, so I have acquired some local favorites!

Jaemors is up there, some of the best peaches ever! Not to mention the hot personal peach and apple pies you can buy and eat while you shop, or the homemade peach ice cream...YUM

Another lake staple is Smokehouse BBQ. They are home to the best (in my opinion) Brunswick Stew! It is so good they are only open 3 days a week!