Shoreditch street art

Dublin zoo

Red pandas!!!

Apparently peacocks like pizza... 

Giraffe eating his morning spinach

Cute baby gorilla cuddling with mom & staring at me 

Male giraffe tasting the urine of a female giraffe to see how much estrogen she has. Love learning about animal mating rituals!

My relative, the Gibbon

Shrine of St. Valentine

I was in Dublin visiting my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, so of course we had to visit the shrine of St. Valentine at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street. In 1835 Pope Gregory XVI gave a reliquary containing the remains of St. Valentine to John Spratt, an Irish preacher who was visiting Rome. He brought them to the church, and a shrine was built to house the remains. You can read more about St. Valentine here: http://www.carmelites.ie/stvalentine.html

Sweet princesses

Saw these "sweet princess" chocolates at Fallon & Byrne, a really nice grocery store in Dublin. My boyfriend said they reminded him of me. :-)

Day after the tube strike

Heart biscuits at Carluccio's

Sunny grey day

The skies are rather strange today - sunny and grey at the same time! 

Rose petals

I love the fact that Waitrose sells rose petals. I'm going to google recipes with rose petals now!

Liberty fabric sale

Bear sneakers

Gotta have these Jeremy Scott sneakers at Selfridges! Sparkles + bears = complete awesomeness! 

Apple store fun

James came to visit, and we had some fun playing around with Photo Booth in the Apple store!  

Atlantis Bookshop

Atlantis Bookshop is my new favorite book store in London. They have tons of books related to magic and the occult. I was happy to find The Magical Creatures Handbook, a book containing hundreds of line drawings of beasts, gods, and other fantastic beings. 

Tower Bridge

Back in London

Poe dolls

The Edgar Allan Poe exhibition at the Morgan Library is a must-see! Plus, you will find these awesome dolls in the gift shop. 

Junk

I love stopping by the store Junk in Brooklyn whenever I visit NYC. I always find the most unusual treasures - gold glass bears, monster figurines, test tubes, Samuel for Congress buttons, tea cups, and creepy art! 

Donut break

I was in NYC for a few days and had to make a trip to my favorite donut shop, Peter Pan in Greenpoint. Their donuts are outta this world! 

Old book covers

Found these old editions of Sense and Sensibility and Eugene Onegin at my parents' house. Really love the book cover designs (though the ladies with blackened eyes look a bit like zombies). Also hard to believe that copy of Sense and Sensibility was only 45 cents!