Squiggly Squiggy

The multiple personalities of lil' Squiggy. This little champ ran 3 miles with me this weekend! Snaps**

Sidenote: so I've been meaning to get an Etsy store for a while now. I'm not great at doodling but I really like it and I like making money so it's a win-win. I'm also a big fan of my puppies so I named it after them, The Squiggly Bee. There's a few more steps til it's live, but I threw together a quick vector draft/logo/banner/thingy and we're running with it until I sit and think hard.

Peace, love, and pumpkin ravioli,
Marie

The Aesthetic of Lostness

Directions not included

Tunnel Vision

Gray skies, freezing temperatures, blizzards and unending darkness trigger my endorphins like nothing else. Maybe I just secretly feed off everyone else's misery like a reverse Dementor. Maybe I've got a drop of vampire blood in me and the sunlight is just chowing on bits of my flesh little by little. Maybe I'm a cold blooded reptile– part Godzilla, part T-Rex. Soooo many DNA tests to do! 

New tangent: I got great credit. Mint.com put me in the excellent credit score category which is a pretty, dark forest green. How do I leverage this awesomeness to convince someone to hire me? Perhaps a 'P.S. If you hire me, I can co-sign a loan with you and we can split a Porsche 911. I call Tuesdays & Thursdays!' (See how I gave them an extra work day -- 3 instead of my 2? Subliminal messaging, they won't be able to resist!)

Any who... my dogs are demanding a demonstration of my superior canine walking abilities (resume skills section?) and I can't resist a chance to peacock.

Till we meet again,
MK

Alaska | Behind the scenes....

Behind the scenes of the Alaska portion of the illustrated resume...

©2014 Marie King

In the Summertime...

An iPhone's perspective on the end of Summer 2014

An Illustrated Resume

Now that I'm getting into the job search once again, I decided to try and spruce my digital resume format up a bit this week. Tweaks still to be made but this took oodles of hours so my brain now needs to decompress at the gym. Let me know what you think! 

Señor Poofcakes & the Serious Questions

From the series: 'The Adventures of Señor Poofcakes and Monsieur Smooshcheese'

In Pursuit of Beauty

Florence, Italy

When traveling to Europe, people have different approaches to their journey. Some people make sure to visit all the big cities, some follow the history or the art or the food. I appreciate and enjoyed all of that to be sure, but my guide was a bit simpler -- I was in pursuit of beauty, of loveliness in its broadest sense. In this quest I did not fail. There was the pure aesthetic beauty of cities such as Paris and Prague, there was the creative beauty of Berlin, the untamed beauty of Slovenia, the barren beauty of Scotland, and cheerfully colored towns in Ireland. 

Traveling by train and by foot are the best ways to see the world and I was lucky to be able to do both through Europe. Below are a few of the beautiful things I witnessed...

Annecy, France

Countryside of Ireland

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Barcelona, Spain

Hvar, Croatia

Berlin, Germany

Wolfgangsee, Austria

Budapest, Hungary

On the run...

~ A brief update ~

I'm a hightailing it through Europe -- vagabonding, scattadoodling, rumapoodling through the world at varying speeds, absorbing everything I can so I can try and make a bit more sense of this here life. Ventured around England, Wales, Scotland the past few months and now Ireland. Headed to Paris on Tuesday and then in the direction of the winds from there. 

I've made some incredible friends along the way, have learned a bit more about the world and even more about myself, and have more blisters on my feet than hairs on my head (and am thankful for every one). Climbed some mountainous hills, wandered through lake valleys, biked on islands, and have seen the most spectacular cliffs. I'm grateful for every day I wake up on this side of the ocean. 

 If you want to follow me these next few months, I try to update my Instagram more regularly —@marieeeka— so feel free to follow me there.

Prost, 

M

'What are men compared to rocks and mountains...'

The beautiful lands of Derbyshire, home to Mr Darcy and Pemberly. 

The Perception of Silence

The sound of the tree falling was heard by the birds, whose songs were heard by the bears, 

whose growls were heard by the winter wolves, whose howls were heard by the moon.

And the sound was eerily silent,

but the echo, incredibly loud. 

Bonjour Blokes! [London, Pt 4]

'

I reside in Camden currently. It's a lively area with lots of characters and interesting people. It's a bit of a tourist attraction, but the real heart of the area is the winding backstreets, the late night street music and the gypsy canals. 

Camden Market is the facade, Camden Town is home. 

Holla Blokes! [London, Pt 3]

Our adventure started as everything does in the UK, with rain. Lots and lots of rain. So much rain, that we bought another rain jacket in town before setting off. We took the bus to Seaford which is on the southern coast of England. We hiked through town with the general direction of the sea as our compass. 

The pictures don't really capture it that well, but the southern cliffs are quite tall. And although they're called Seven Sisters, there are definitely more sisters to climb. Some were nice and mild, others quite steep. It was definitely the rainiest, windiest day I've ever experienced and sometimes the wind would burst so hard, you were literally pushed up the hill. Literally. If the wind had been coming off-shore, we would've been pushed right off those cliffs to sea-salty death. 

However, just as we neared the end of our hike, the sun peaked it's head around the clouds and cut us some slack. I don't know that I've seen a more spectacular sight. Double rainbows, white chalky cliffs and the raging sea. 

We actually had to take quite a rather long detour because I didn't think about the implication of a river going across the way we needed to get. For some stupid reason, I assumed a bridge would be in place. But there wasn't. And so we had to go 3 miles our of our way, at turtle speeds through mud and puddles. So, by the time the sun came out, it was on its way into the horizon for the evening and we still had miles left to go. It didn't seem very smart to walk along the cliffs in the darkness so we hightailed it across fields, hopping fences and braving the barbed wire. We crossed by pastures of sheep and cows... the animals would look at us curiously as we passed by, but for the most part ignored us. 

Part 2 of my poor planning, we finally made it to the road leading into Eastbourne where our return train was taking out from, but unlike the small town we expected (like Seaford), it was a rather massive and expansive city. We were soaked to the bone, hungry and exhausted at this point. It was pitch black and there was nothing but lights ahead for miles. We had no idea where the train station was and so we hitched hiked. I was rather nervous about doing so, but I stuck out my thumb as good as any. As expected most people passed us by, but just when all hope was to be lost, a well-traveled engineer took pity on us and gave us a spot in the back of his car. He took us directly to the train stations while regaling us with tales of his own hitch-hiking experiences and favorite travel destinations. In return, we probably left a great deal of mud and animal crap in the back of his car. So sorry for that! 

We made it home alive. Tired and muddy but alive. It was one of the most spectacular hikes I've ever done and I highly recommend it if you find yourself in the south of England.  

Howdy Blokes! [London, Pt 2]

Howdy Blokes!

I've been in the UK for almost a month now. It's a most delicious place with delightful people, beautiful scenery and good beer. I've made it my mission to do something fun and new every single day and so far I have succeeded. I've giggled more than my fair share, eaten the most delicious cheeses and pastries, and drooled over the countryside. I'm on my way to level 2 expert tube rider.

I've explored much of west and north London, dabbled in the east end, have run across most of Camden (where I live!), and have done 5 terrific markets so far (Camden [my favorite], Borough [best food!], Portabello [cute-ness overload], Old Spitalfields [hip and happening] and Covent Gardens [great performers!]).

I did a running bootcamp in Hyde Park, a pub crawl in Whitehall, hiked the Seven Sisters (from Seaford to Eastbourne), got lost in Kentish Town, went touristy at the sight of Big Ben, and have mastered the currency (so many bloody coins!). Attempted some 'yoga meditation' (false advertising -- it was basically an attempt to convert us to some type of religion), did swing and jazz dance classes, ate some delicious vegan food on Oxford Street, attended the Philaharmonia Orchestra performance of some of the worst contemporary classical "music" I have ever heard (with perhaps the most moving lecture I've ever heard  from an Oxford professor), did the London Art Fair, and hiked across Crowborough (with stops at the last home of Arthur Conan Doyle [author of Sherlock Holmes -- *I definitely fan-girled it up at Baker Street] and witnessed the view that inspired the author of Winnie the Pooh). Also, I traipsed across fields and farms, failed at cuddling with the sheep, and hitch hiked (my first time... you guys are probably so unimpressed, but I'm high-fiving myself right now).

Let's not forget the inhabitants -- these people are fantastic. I've met so many really interesting people from all over the world -- Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Brazil, Kenya, Belgium, France, Poland, Japan, Canada, etc. To be honest, I think I've probably met more international people than British people, and sometimes I think I hear more French than I do English.  I live in a cute house with a family from South Africa who are splendidly cosmopolitan, always out-and-about and full of useful tips and tricks from which bus to take to what queues to stand in for for theatre tickets and what latest exhibits are a must see [*skip Paul Klee, do see Isabella Blow]. The 2 other lodgers are very nice a Brit bird (english for girl) who's dating a professional hockey player (unfortunately, it's not ice hockey) and an Argentinian film-maker/cook-extraordinaire.

Everybody's got a story, everybody's got some new insight into life and I'm doing my best to put it all together -- to figure out who I am and what I want from this here earth. I've consider my travels akin to dating; I'm looking for my soulmate city and though I don't think London is 'the one,' it's going to be a wonderful whirl-wind fling that will probably leave me brokenhearted when I leave.

I'll stop the rambling now and leave you with this: "Bob's your uncle"

Cheerio,

MK