Europe 2011: Part 8, La Tour Eiffel

Next on my trip, I continued walking from the National Assembly all the way to the Eiffel Tower (on foot)... please enjoy the pictures from when I got there! The journey continues in my next post on Europe!

Close up panoramic shot

Very nearby, panoramic photo synth image (click to activate and pan around using silver light)

Very nearby, panoramic photo synth image (click to activate and pan around using silver light)

Close up normal photograph

They periodically turn on strobe lights

Here's a video of the strobe lights!

Taken from exactly underneath the tower, panoramic photo synth image (click to activate and pan around using silver light)

Europe 2011: Part 7, From the Élysée Palace to the National Assembly

Élysée Palace

This time, we return to the Europe series! I'm not nearly done, there are a bunch of these posts waiting to be written and published in my drafts! (Once I finish with France, there is a whole week or so of England to tell you all about!)

Please enjoy my photo journey as I walked on foot from the Élysée Palace (aka, French Presidential residence) to the National Assembly by way of the church of La Madeleine.

Being that the palace is important, the state news service was actually in the region when I walked by doing some sort of a report!

The journalist was actually reading off an iPad, definitely pretty cool!

Church of La Madeleine

This Obelisk is from Egypt and sits on top of a pedestal describing what went into bringing it to France

Additionally, it happens to be at the center of a large circle (view facing away from monument)

Here is another view with the monument behind me

Panoramic closeup of the monument

Just down the street in the other direction from the Obelisk is the National Assembly... we will get there shortly

Panorama of Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde

Close up of the writing, describing the dedication by HM King Louis-Philippe

Pictures showing the transportation of the obelisk

Additional pictures of obelisk transport

In the other direction there is a lovely park (notice the obelisk in the background)

This garden used to be the site of a palace, but it burned down and all that remains is this park. Sadly I didn't have time to walk around much and enjoy it, but I did take a few quick shots!

Jardin des Tuileries

Jardin des Tuileries

The gate for Jardin des Tuileries

This is the hill above the gate for Jardin des Tuileries

Panorama of the Jardin des Tuileries

And now, the National Assembly

(and at night)

These last three are all panoramic shots including the National Assembly building and some portion of the landscape near the bridge that crosses from Place de La Concorde to the National Assembly:

Social Media Update

Dear readers,

I'm working on trying to be present on as many social media platforms as possible. Sadly, I don't update all them equally well, but I do try to allow for additional ways to interact based on your preferred medium.

However, I feel that as I have been adding newer platforms, I haven't necessarily announced them! Please find them all below--you should totally follow, like, +1, etc. all my pages!

Blogger:

This one's obvious, you're looking at it right now. I had almost 1,700 views last month! Thank you everyone for reading my blog, really appreciate it!
www.lifelibertyelegance.com

~

Facebook:

I tend to update this one the best.
www.facebook.com/lifelibertyelegance

~

Twitter:

If you tag me, I will probably eventually respond... feel free to retweet me!
https://twitter.com/#!/elegancehq        @elegancehq

~

Foursquare:

I don't really update this, but if I get followers, I'll try to start checking in at interesting spots!
https://foursquare.com/elegancehq

~

Dailybooth:

Watch my style unfold through time!
http://dailybooth.com/elegancehq

~

Google+:

Still working on this... any of you use this? I just created this page within the last few weeks, so I need you guys to get on it and add me to your circles!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/114859147583826004173/

Space Shuttle Flyby (Silver Spring, Maryland)

On April 17th, the space shuttle Discovery was flown to Dulles after being decommissioned. It will be in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center) at Dulles from now on.

This is what it looked like flying over Silver Spring as seen from the office windows in the Lee Building. I took these pictures with my point and shoot camera:

Say hello... incoming from South/East!

At this point... I ran from one side of the building to the other... and got the planes from the other angle as they rounded the building...

Leaving town on the North/West side of our building

The Red Slippers, Kansas not Included

As a continuation of my on-trend application of smoking/albert slipper/shoes... I have added red shoes to my collection (again, from Topshop). That means I have both tan and red shoes, which allows for extra variety. I am getting tons of compliments on both, which makes me wonder why they aren't easier to find!

However, this color was a bigger challenge for me to pair with outfits than the previous one. Tan goes with just about anything.  However, red shoes aren't as popular with men at large, so there aren't really any accessories to match. In fact, the shoes are such a light color red (nantucket red/sailboat red/etc.) that I couldn't find anything in stores that was even the same shade.

Cutting out fabric (colors here are incorrect due to lighting)

Getting ready to sew

The result is that I ended up having to go to my local fabric store (G Street Fabrics) to pick out fabric that would match. I purchased a beautiful red silk, red poly silk-imitation, and light green silk/linen blend fabrics to make projects. The first two projects are pictured here: red silk cravat/ascot and light green linen/silk pocket square for accent color. I was in a hurry making them, so unfortunately I don't really have construction pictures. However, my technique hasn't changed on the ascot/cravats and you can find the instructions here on my blog! There will be forthcoming additional accessories made out of the fabrics, as I bought a yard or two of each kind. 

See, it matches!

Check out my awesome complimentary color pocket square!

And another closeup so that you can see the color better.

~

I then came to the conclusion that the grey trousers had a tendency to make the shoes appear pink under certain lighting. As a result, I decided to try these accessories and shoes with my seersucker suit. I think this was generally more successful and I rather like the end result. This is also the first time I've ever worn the seersucker suit with an ascot/cravat.

Closeup of this color combination

I decided to use white socks, because my tan/white stripe suit basically looks white and I couldn't find a good contrasting sock color

Modeling the outfit