Galapagos Book - Finally!

I'm sorry its been so long since I've posted anything, especially anything creative.  As mentioned, I'm on budget extreme 2010 these days - the good news is I will pass the halfway mark of my credit card debt pay-off on October 1st.  The bad news is I still have probably 8-10 months to go.  So, that said, my focus has been on podcasts, books, and research.  Not drawing as much.

I DID however just return from a weekend in the Cleve to visit with family and drop off these books!  My granddad asked me to compile photos from our recent trip to the Galapagos Islands into a picture book - one for each household.  It was a ton of fun to put together and I, personally, and so glad he came up with that idea - having a book of all of these memories and photos in one place is awesome to have.

Open publication - Free publishing - More travel

PS: Thanks to Suzanne for using Issuu - awesome!

Why not?

I got an email about an amateur photography contest... now, I'm no photographer, but I like to take a picture here and there.  Why not give it a shot, right?  I entered this baby into the contest - never know what will happen!  If you think it's worth anything it'd be so nice of you to vote - it's free!  Your call :)

Vote here!

Before I Can Clean... I Have to Plan.

I have this stack of a few books, a gigantic wallet, my passport, and a couple other things that I usually toss in a travel bag during trips and vacations.  I cannot bring myself to put it away until I have plans of when I will take it away...

From kelleybozarth.com

4400 Photos Later...

Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but as my our recent trip was a celebration of my grandparents' anniversary (60 years - incredible!) and my grandmother wasn't able to participate, my granddad asked me to put together a book compiling everyone's photos (about 4400 total) and favorite memories.  With the wedding and all planned-travel OVER, I was dying for a project.  I'm going to take them home with me over Labor Day Weekend and may or may not wait to post any images (probably not.) of the inside of the book, but I just got them in the other day and the covers aren't too bad.  FYI - Blurb's templates for InDesign aren't exact... note the graphics for the spine spilling over... even though they were well within the boundaries set-up in the template.  Hmm.  Oh well!

Side note : we have all of these movies and audio files from various cameras and recorders... any ideas on what to do with THOSE??  At this point I'm just going to load everything onto a disc, put it in a sleeve in the back cover of the book, and call it a day... but I'm curious about any thoughts anyone might have...

Back and Ready to Go Again

I got back on Thursday morning from a trip to the Galapagos Islands with my family.  It was one of those life-changing trips, as most tend to be for me.  I seem to find something to take away from every trip I take, whether its a stronger opinion on what to do with my life or where to go next.  I've always thought that I had a stronger appreciation for urban city environments, especially during traveling - more people to talk to, more of the built environment to take-in, etc... but on this trip, almost completely devoid of "architecture" as we think of it today, I couldn't have been happier.  We went hiking and snorkeling everyday, walking and swimming with sea lions, iguanas, turtles, schools of fish, penguins, and more birds than I can name.  It was an amazing trip, and as always, I'm a little upset to be back.  It has, however, re-inspired my goal to pay off my personal debt and start funding my own adventures as quickly as possible!  Below see some of my favorite photos (out of the 3000+ I came home with).

El Crabby Patty

We leave in about a month for our trip to the Galapagos Islands - there are 11 of us going and I'm not going to lie : the timing is perfect.  I can't wait to see the girls and have some time to hang out with Meagen... the wedding will be over the stress done with (at least on my part), and we will be taking a siesta from our day-to-day routines far off the coast of Ecuador.  Yes please.  I looked up a few things about these islands and found lots of photos of crabs like this.  Can't wait to see them!

From kelleybozarth.com

ps: more bachelorette party + bridal shower details soon.  i just wanted to take a break to draw something for once!

Family Trip 2010!

So... my family takes trips together, for which I am EXTREMELY grateful.  We're not a small group, though - 12 of us will be going on the next one this July to the Galapagos Islands, right after my twin sister's wedding / honeymoon!  I am so, so, so excited about this trip!

As we've traveled together, we've developed a method and (in my opinion) each trip goes a little bit smoother than the last one.  This time, my Granddad sent out an email (5 months before the trip) assigning tasks / duties to each person.  Reading through them and imagining each person fulfilling his / her task, I had to sketch.  You'd have to know the fam to be able to picture them in these roles, but it will be hilarious.  I know it. 

From left to right, as I'm imagining them :


My grandmother : "enjoy position of high princess and be waited upon"
My granddad : "final word on all matters."
Ryan : "cruise manager"
Erin : "Grandmother gopher" (I'm picturing a hat... with teeth and ears... and erin texting...)
Adam : "Grandmother gopher" (also in the hat.)
Me : "historian and book publisher" (they want photo books made summarizing the trip - for this i am THRILLED)
Meagen : "tour director" (BEST. ASSIGNMENT. EVER.  Meagen will exceed everyone's expectations... she was made for this job.)
My Aunt + My Mom : "Group mothers, settle all disputes...keep tour broods in line, etc"  (Yes.)
My Uncle, Meagen's Fiance, My Stepdad : "Luggage locators."  (We don't travel lightly - this is not an easy job.)

This is going to be amazing...

From kelleybozarth.com

We're baaaacckkk.....

Last night I got back from Costa Rica with a few bug-bites, a complete lack of sleep, and weighing about five pounds more after a long weekend of some amazing food.  We ate everything we could find of the local cuisine, took a wonderful tour of San Jose, and spent Pamela's 27th birthday riding through the mountains, on a boat down the Tortuguero Canals, and walking through the Costa Rican rainforest.  In all, it was a wonderful trip and for two girls on a budget (both in terms of money AND paid-time-off) well-played.  We had a great time after / during / before some long hours at work and I can't wait to start planning Round II! 


Of course my immediate inspiration came from what else - THE FOOD.

From kelleybozarth.com

Distracted? Me?

My motto in life. And my top distractions.

From kelleybozarth.com

Globe-trotting...

After this weekend I've gotten really, really excited about all of the trips in the works for the next year or so. I've got a trip to Pinehurst to see my second family over Thanksgiving, Cleveland over Christmas, then the Galapagos Islands with my family next summer and next fall a trip overseas with friends - details to be determined :)

From kelleybozarth.com

Seems like 25 will treat me well.

UK 09 - Day 11

From kelleybozarth.com

Our last day in the UK we spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. We did some sight-seeing and souvenier shopping (after a flat tire on the way in) and at night had the highlight of our trip - the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It's a display of heritage and tradition of Scotland's military by way of music and dancing. There were performers from Scotland, England, Ireland, Switzerland, China, and "Polynesia" - not sure where, exactly, that is. We saw dancers, tons of bagpipers and plaid, great costumes, and fireworks. It was excellent :)

The next day we flew back to the states - no sketches... The End.

UK09 - Day 10

From kelleybozarth.com

I'm sure it's just because I think they are wonderful, but I feel like we saw bagpipers and men in kilts EVERYWHERE! While sight-seeing, Meagen bought a hat. Very rarely will I post pictures on this blog, as I really want to get in the habit of sketching or posting work, not pictures, but this hat warrants an exception to the rule:

And it plays music! Honestly - how can you look at that and NOT laugh?

Moving on, they were hosting an event at the Hilton and as we were leaving for dinner, we saw a ton of fancy dresses and men in kilts! Apparently that's our tuxedo? I love it. I want to marry a scottish man just so he can wear a kilt at my wedding. And then I can adopt his "family tartan."

UK09 - Day 9

From kelleybozarth.com

After leaving Manchester the next morning, we drove over to Liverpool - not far away, but I've read / seen that there's quite a rivalry between the two cities / football clubs. I made the mistake of wearing my new M.U. tshirt there and quickly learned to button my cardigan up all the way to hide it a bit. Liverpool was a fun city - I love that it's on the water, the restaurant we ate at for lunch was SOOO good, and we went to "The Beatles Story." Afterwards we hit the road for Glasgow, crossing into Scotland, clearly. Lots of mountains and sheep along the way - GORGEOUS.

When we got to the hotel to check-in we had a box waiting for us... In that we were checking-in on our 25 BIRTHDAY, my mom sent us a huge bouquet of lillies - they smelled amazing and the entire (fancy) hotel room smelled like a garden - along with two Happy Birthday balloons and a bottle of champagne! It was so, so sweet and everything - Glasgow, the flowers, the hotel - was great.

We went out that night and came home to desserts from the hotel staff (who heard us mention it was our birthday) and a basket of fruit - two plates of chocolates, each reading "Happy Birthday" - one for each. So cute.

UK09 - Day 8

From kelleybozarth.com

Our first night in Manchester, preceeded by some AWFUL traffic, we went to a Manchester United football game. It was a "friendly game" - pre-season, I think - against Valencia. As much as I love Valencia, their team isn't great. The game was insane - it was definitely one of the highlights, probably second best to the military tattoo in edinburgh. It makes American Football look like such a pansy sport - half-time show, cheerleaders, dance team, music all over the place, fancy lights / jumbo-trons, all kinds of vendors through the stands, padding everywhere, helmets, etc. Rugby and football both are about the game and only the game. And they are TOUGH.

UK09 - Day 7

From kelleybozarth.com

En route from London we rented a car to get us through the rest of our trip. We got a manual (which is what I drive state-side), and couldn't even get it out of the parking lot. Literally, a woman volunteered to pull it back in from the road (where we almost got hit by a double-decker) and we marched back in and switched to an automatic. We were on the way to Salisbury to stay in a super-cute b&b but when we saw signs for "Legoland" we made an impromptu stop. When we finally got to Salisbury and went to a pub for dinner, all three of us were starving / exhausted and ordered a burger - now, the woman said something like "I hope you brought your appetite," which has never been a problem for any member of my family. She was not playing around. The burger had EVERYTHING - I think I listed the toppings... check it out. Not that I'm complaining - it was awesome.

"Galway Girl" in Dublin

This is the band we heard live our second night in Dublin - I'll be posting more of the 5 or 6 videos I have of them (because they were awesome) on my facebook and will try to link them on here, as well. There were also trad'l Irish dancers, but the music was wonderful :)

UK09 - Day 6

From kelleybozarth.com

Our second day in London, we tried to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Problem? It was like a U2 concert - everyone and their mom and brother were there, trying to get as close as possible to the palace (mind you the Queen wasn't even there). We kind of watched the crowds, caught a glimpse of the boys in red, and were on our way. I had an amazing lunch at Pret a Manger - can we PLEASE have those in Chicago?! - and that night we went to see WICKED!! We took a few pictures out front of the performance, all of which were lost in a formatting error on my camera. Typical. But it was great, none the less :)

UK09 - Day 5

From kelleybozarth.com

When we left Dublin and headed to London we hopped on the train and headed to our hotel. After checking-in, we hit the streets. We saw everything around Parliament - Big Ben, the London Eye, and Hyde Park. Afterwards we headed to Picadilly Circus for dinner and Ripley's Believe it or Not - despite being really cheesy, it made for some hilarious photos and a lot of fun!

UK09 - Day 4

From kelleybozarth.com

Our last day in Dublin, we did a "viking splash tour" - like a duck tour - and saw the last few sights we could squeeze into our time in Ireland. We went to Howth, a fishing village near Dublin on the bay, for dinner - supposedly the "freshest seafood you'll find in Dublin." They supposedly take the fish out of the bay, cook it, and serve it to you. I gotta say - my swordfish was AWESOME. In fact, the dinner as a whole was pretty much award-winning. The bay was beautiful - the rocky cliffs and lighthouse and water you think of when someone says "the shore of Eire." Of course my camera died towards the end of the night and I was forced to experience it without photos, which probably means I'll forget it soon. Anyways, goodbye Dublin - it's been fun :)

UK09 - Day 3

From kelleybozarth.com

The third day of our trip, still in Dublin, we toured around the city. Stopping at the Guinness factory among other places, we ended up in a restaurant that not only had a beer tap IN THE TABLE, but a stage where we got to hear / see live, traditional Irish music and dancing. It was one of my favorite nights of the trip :)