the lake, the cabin, the fields

I live in the literal centre of this continent, snowed in from every direction. Consuming excessive amounts of Vitamin C, curling up in sunbeams on the living room floor like a cat, and watching these videos are my saving graces during this fifth month of winter. If you're feeling a little chilly, go ahead and visit one of my summer homes:

(watch all in HD here)

The lake:

The cabin:


The fields:


--
Abbey

staff picks: valentine's edition.

Our email threads this month have been full of lots of giggliness, cute valentine stories, and gushing about proposal videos. Enjoy this month's staff picks.

Will & Charis get married.

A love poem, and another.

A love story, and another.

Read my lips: chocolate tea.

I think you're rad.

Hello. Also, I love you.

Make a wish DIY bracelet.

Let's all write love notes and letters to our crushes.

Unconventional compliments.

Proposals.

Salted caramel brownies, perfect for Valentine's Day.

The longest married couple in America.

Quiet love.

Five ways to love.

Gorgeous sculptures by Takanori Aiba.

Have a happy weekend from the entire Fernweh staff!

a winter mixtape.

This month's playlist is one of my favorites- and not because I like Christmas music. In fact, I shy away from Christmas music as long as I can. The reason I like this mixtape so much is because it's such a clear picture of the different personalities of the six of us who run this website. We have the more traditional Christmas music. The typical Mariah Carey can't-get-it-out-of-your-head songs. The songs that aren't Christmas songs, but fit the theme perfectly. While I was preparing this playlist, I realized how thankful I am for the five other girls who sent me songs for this playlist. Thanksgiving is over and it's Christmas season now, but we never did do a thankful type post on here. So here it is: I'm thankful for Libby and Kendall and Hannah and Abbey and Carlotta. Thankful for their friendship, and their impeccable taste in music. You can listen to the mixtape here. 

EDITED: Katie is going to put the playlist on grooveshark later, but until then, here's a list of the songs. --Carlotta

+ Silent Night//Stevie Nicks

+ White Christmas//Bing Crosby

+ Hallelujah//Handel's Messiah

+ Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas//Sarah McLachlan

+ You Make Me Feel So Young//Frank Sinatra

+ Santa Claus is Coming to Town//Nat King Cole

+ All I Want for Christmas is You//Mariah Carey

+ Barcarola (You Must be a Christmas Tree)//Sufjan Stevens

+ Baby, It's Cold Outside//She & Him

+ Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing)//Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler

+ Coldest Days//The Rural Alberta Advantage

+ I'll Be Home for Christmas//She & Him

+ White Winter Hymnal//Fleet Foxes

+ All That I Want//The Weepies

+ Stubborn Love//The Lumineers

+ Winter Song//Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

+ Blood Bank//Bon Iver

+ Horchata//Vampire Weekend

+ Zombie Christmas//Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler

staff picks.

Braille.

This is an old video, but Marcel the Shell is just as cute as always.

The Daily Chicken.

A guide to autumn from Anthro.

The Plug is a discontinued online zine that's well worth perusing the back issues. ( Bonus: MURDER KROGER. *profanity warning*)

True & Brave.

Ming Makes Cupcakes has so many varieties, and the sour cream raspberry cupcakes look particularly delicious. (Apple cupcakes with caramel look wonderful for fall.)

Gorgeous street style photos.

Lucy Chadwick.

Beautiful fuzzy slippers.

Emma and Elsie have a tutorial for simple, homemade photo filters.

(photo via True & Brave.)

october mixtape.

october mixtape from fernwehmag on 8tracks Radio.

or, Spotify.

september mixtape.

september mixtape from fernwehmag on 8tracks Radio.

or, listen on spotify.

staff picks.

Hannah wrote me a poem about homesickness.

Eat your memories.

Lost to found.

I'm here for you.

Best Coast has a free song for you to download (featured on the Fernweh August playlist).

To be human is to catch the falling person.

Meg Fee writes about growing up.

The quiet place.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

august mixtape.

This playlist is especially good because there are so many songs on here that I love (ie. Atlas Hands) and it makes me happy that collectively, we have such great taste in music ;) Hope you all have a lovely   August full of good music.

july playlist.

Just minutes ago, I sat down at the deck table to scrawl out this month's playlist. I'm still in a post-lake trip daze, which may or may not explain the paint chips (i stuff them in my suitcase to document the many hues i see from the dock). There's also a necklace from that one shop near the boardwalk, and a half-finished crossword puzzle grampy and I started in the camper. 

One good thing about coming home was seeing all the fantastic songs the girls had sent me. I'll probably just spend the rest of today listening to them and finishing up that crossword. 

listen

abbey

how to beat the heat

I live in Texas, so one of the staples of summer time, right up there with barbecues and campfires, is the heat. Last summer we had weeks of days where the temperature would be over 100. It broke lots of records. I know that it's not like this all over the world (be thankful!) but it can still get pretty hot. So here's some tips for dealing with those sweltering days of summer.

1. invest in some good warm weather clothes. Shorts, tank tops, sundresses. Anything light and flowy is bound to be more comfortable than layered tops or pants. Going barefoot is always a viable option, but it's also great if you can find some stylish yet solid sandals to wear when you have to venture across pavement or hot sand.

2. drink lots of water. It seems obvious, but especially if you're outside, it's important to stay hydrated. Take a water bottle with you and fill it up with ice cold water before you leave.

3. on that note...eat cold food as well. There are an abundance of fruits & veggies -- watermelon, strawberries, pineapple, etc.  -- that make delicious chilled snacks. The heat is also great excuse to delve into popsicles and ice cream cones, of course. I found a recipe for ice cream sandwiches that looks good, although it's usually best to limit time using the oven, as that can really heat up the house.

4. go swimming. What better way to cool off than in the pool, lake, or ocean? Another alternative, if you don't feel like going anywhere, is to turn on the sprinkler. That's my childhood, right there. See also: water balloon fights and slip-n-slides.

5. simply stay inside with the air-conditioning. There are a lot of things you can do indoors, like go bowling or watch movies or read at the library or I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

A few last minute tips: whenever you can, stay in the shade; get one of those hand-held fans; and keep your hair up in a bun or a ponytail to get it off your neck.

Stay cool, my friends.

Kendall

june playlist.

Us fernweh girls seem to say this every month, but I can't believe it's finally june. It's probably safe to say we've all been waiting for this. For some of us, summer has already begun, and as for the rest of us - we're frantically studying for final exams. That, or procrastinating by listening to our june playlist. Most likely the latter. It's pretty fantastic, you should give it a listen. 

abbey

ps. please excuse my chicken-scratch penmanship. if you can't read something, just let me know. i won't be offended, promise. ;)

big yellow taxi

(featuring two of Joni Mitchell's versions and three covers)
If I were to curate a list of my favourite Joni Mitchell songs, Big Yellow Taxi wouldn't ordinarily take top spot. I much prefer the story of Cactus Tree, or singing along to California, or feeling heartbroken to A Case Of You.
But on a day like today, Big Yellow Taxi is what I needed. There's a deeper political and environmental meaning to it but when I listen to it, there is also just a message of, "go outside."
Switch off the computer. Step away from distractions. Spend time in a forest or a field or an ocean.
Take notice of the natural beauty all around us, and appreciate it.Care for this planet, and spend time in it too.
And don't just listen to songs about it--go and live it.
Somehow, this song means more to me the more I listen to it.I've played this playlist over and over several times now, and the more I listen, the more I want to step offline this weekend. It's a four-day bank holiday and I have already promised myself that I will take that time off from internet happenings and instead pour my energy and time into appreciating summer.
Do you have a song like this? Let us know!

xx
Libby

a brew will see you through

Sometimes, there are just weeks when everything feels overwhelming. There seems to be a lot of homework, a lot of tests, a lot of pressure. And it seems insurmountable. I will never get through this list of assignments. I will never remember all this new vocabulary. I will never pass this exam. 
But I am finding that, in some cases, making a mug of tea makes it all better. It's not just a Libby thing, but it's an England thing too, and a Fernweh thing (see here, here & here). Somehow, a mug of tea--or coffee, or hot chocolate, or whatever your boiled beverage of choice may be--makes it all better. The simple practise of boiling the kettle, brewing a mug and drinking it slowly forces me to step back from the revision and the notes and the confusion and just be still for a few minutes.
A brew will always, always, always see you through.

xx
Libby

earth day

Happy Earth Day! Today is a great day to get outside and celebrate the wonderful planet we call home. Go for a walk, go for a bike ride, or just take your book outside. It's a beautiful world out there.

Kendall

reawakening the feelings

Spring is an extra special season. You are reminded of traditions and rituals that take place in the sweet new sun, the ones that return just as you were beginning to forget during the long, grey winter. You relearn what the feeling of sunlight on skin feels like, what waking up in the tent to the birds chirping sounds like, what eating outside tastes like. Whether it takes place in your backyard, along the river, or in the woods, here are a few tips on how to reawaken all those feelings.

bring

A quilt (one that preferably has memories of springs past intertwined in the fabric), a sketchbook and pencil for recording things, a book to get lost in.

eat

Pack a thermos of lemonade, bread, cheese, jam, and other snacks.

do

Study the pattern of the new leaves and bark, listen to the bird calls, crunch through leftover leaves, explore anything that looks enticing.

Happy spring!

much love,
carlotta

april playlist.

these are the songs that, collectively, we've had on repeat recently. also on spotify.

an april hey

We loved the responses to the March desktop so much, that we decided to make it a monthly thing! Below is the April desktop for you to save to your computer. While March was a transitional month, April is truly the beginning of spring. Buds are blossoming, trees are growing, and grass is stretching awake from after a long winters sleep. Instead of creating a calendar of what to do daily, I thought it would be fun to have a spring list that focused on the organic and natural. Happy (almost) April!

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xo
Hannah

eating outdoors

Take the plates out to the patio. Bring the cutlery too, and the napkins, and the water glasses. We will gather barefoot over bowls of good food and we will let the sun warm our shoulders and we will talk. We will most definitely talk.
And our neighbours will be outdoors, the ones on either side and the ones next to them. I can hear them laughing, and I can hear them playing, and I can hear them dancing.
Let's eat outdoors tonight.

xx
Libby

silence

These moments are for quiet and for hush. For sitting and drinking tea and watching the world from your window. For feeling the peace of the weekend that comes before the storm of a Monday. As the mug warms my hands and the sun shines onto the flooring, there is a moment of silence.

I have a feeling this might just become a Sunday ritual. Finding the space and the time to just sit--this needs to be done intentionally and often. 

online magazines

It's confession time: my name is Libby and I like magazines. In fact, I love them. I keep finding more and more fantastic pieces of work in the format that is a magazine, and with the internet, they're even more easily accessible. Most weeks new emails arrive with links from the other staffers--read this, watch this, how amazing is this? Here's a selection of the online magazines we read, for your perusal and pleasure.

{front page of rookie, 9th March 2012}

Rookie
Rookie is like the cool older sister of your bestest friend, when you are both still young and the sister is all cool, maybe at art school or something? It's a little bit political and full of opinions but also has pretty pictures and crazy DIYs. Good stuff.

{winter 2011/2012 cover of freckled}

Freckled
This online magazine with an aim to inspire is a dreamy collection of stunning landscapes and talented artists. It's gorgeous and makes us all want to travel.

{cover of Wayfare Pilot Issue}

Wayfare
Another gorgeous travel-orintated magazine, Wayfare is full of beautiful images, wanderlust inducing articles and unsual experiences. Well worth a peek!

{cover of Trp 2011 Volume 1 UK}

Borrominibear
This issuu account is full of incredible artwork from documenting the international travels of borrominibear, who 'loves to sketch'.

Which magazines, either online or in print, do you enjoy reading?
xx
Libby