And we're back!

Mr. CP and his class went to France for a trip about architecture.  I tagged along and we tacked on an additional five days in Barcelona as a last hurrah...the babymoon.  =)  Although I am about 7.5 months along now, I found Paris and Barcelona to be very walkable.  It was great to stroll through the cities to museums, architecturally significant buildings and gardens and the food was great.

Before leaving on the trip, I checked out a ton of travel guides from the San Francisco Public Library, but none were really organized in a usable way for just a few days in each city.  Also, I wanted to pack light to avoid checking bags and didn't want to carry a bunch of heavy books everywhere.  I finally found the Frommer's Day by Day series and the Paris and Barcelona versions were very useful.  They are pretty small, contain great street and metro maps and feature about 20 different day plans to see the city.  You can decide to see the city by major highlights, or special interests (i.e., gourmet walk, architectural walk, shopping highlights, etc.), or neighborhood.

Paris Day by Day

Barcelona Day by Day

You can click through to purchase these from Amazon.com.  I'm also offering to sell mine for $5 each.

We had great weather the whole time, and I'll post some photos from our trip and some tips for traveling to these great cities soon.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

There's been a lot of hype about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now that it will be made into a Hollywood movie so when I was trapped at the airport with no reading materials, I did not hesitate to snap up my own copy.  I had no idea what the book was about apart from the fact that it's a thriller and a huge bestseller along with the other two books in Stieg Larsson's trilogy.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Without giving too much away, the book's main character is a disgraced journalist, Michael Blomkvist, who has been hired by a wealthy family to solve a murder/disappearance which occurred 40 years prior.  Somewhere along the way, Blomkvist enlists the help of a genius but troubled hacker investigator who can dig up dirt on just about anyone.  The opening was a bit slow, but the pace picks up after a few chapters.  I finished most of the book on my flights from San Francisco to Tampa, so it's a quick read, but it is graphic and sad.  The main theme of that permeates the book deals with sadism and violence against women.  It's not for everyone...and for that reason, I think I will have to skip the movie. 

Pattern - Orla Kiely's New Book

You may or may not know Orla Kiely's name, but you must have come across her designs at some point, whether it be in the form of a cheerful purse you saw some stranger carrying on the subway or a fun coffee mug that you've seen in a magazine.

{via Apartment Therapy}

Orla Kiely is a London-based designer who has created some of the loveliest patterns out there.  They're bold and they are colorful and all a little bit retro. Her designs and products are sold internationally in her own stores and through other retailers such as Nordstrom, Anthropologie and smaller boutiques.  She also created a line exclusively for Target in 2009.

Scribble Multi Stem Mug

Flower Abacus Tall Shade

Tripp Laptop Bag

Orla Kiely will be coming out with a new coffee table book called Pattern, which includes tons of lovely photographs and patterns and Orla's discussion of what inspires her.  (It's a hefty 4 pound book!) 

Pattern is currently available for preorder on Amazon.com and it looks like the release date is October 18, 2010.  For those of you who like to get things done early....this sounds like an excellent Christmas gift.