Italy Photos

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. They're posted in reverse order just because I don't feel like taking the time to correct them here. This is just a small sampling of the 120+ I took. If you care to see more and are my friend on Facebook, they're posted on there.

A mermaid sculpture.

The peonies were just one of the amazing flowers in the garden we visited.

I love fiddle head ferns but have only seen them in bouquets. I was very excited to see them growing "wild"

The azaleas in the garden were amazing. The mountains on the right are part of the Italian Alps.

The villa and its private museum in the garden we visited along Lake Como.

This was from the wedding. Don't know how it got posted here instead of by the rest of the wedding photos. My hubby is a lot more handsome than the swirly face suggests!

The ceiling of the chapel in the garden we visited. The frescos and plaster detail work was amazing.

A sculpture in the garden we visited.

Another sculpture in the garden we visited.

Some beautiful Japanese maples in the garden we visited in the town of Bellaggio along Lake Como.

The bride and groom. The bride is a friend of mine from highschool/college. The groom's Scottish...thus the kilt.

The city of Manarola along the Cinque Terre. Hubby and I hiked between three of the five towns. It was fun and picture perfect.

A statue I found in a kids park and it has the colorful city of Manarola as its backdrop.

A photo I took in Corniglia...one of the towns in La Cinque Terre. You may see this showing up in some form in my shop.

Our sleeping quarters at the monastery. Thankfully the couple who was supposed to share the room with us didn't show up...that would have been a little awkward!

The view from the guest house we stayed in on the monastery for the first three days.

The Cutest Artist I've Ever Seen

This picture just makes me grin from cheek to cheek every time I see it. Someone found the crayons during his nap one day while daddy was watching him! He was so proud of his work!

My brother-in-law is getting "deployed" to Las Vegas this summer so my sister and nephews are going to come hang out with me for awhile and I'm so excited!!

Three? Really?

I don't even know where these past two weeks have gone. Life is flying by at an unbelievably fast pace and I'm just trying to catch up. My bedroom, bathroom, and craft room are feeling the neglect and are desperately in need of cleaning.

Hubby and I had a good time in Italy. The weather was ho hum and the first few days we had limited transportation while at the monastery for the wedding, but made the most of it. We even got to sleep in bunk beds...hubby on top and me on bottom for the first three days. Oh, and hubby got to take a shower while the bride's great aunt used the toilet directly across from him and tried to carry on a conversation...interesting times! The last day in Italy we rented a smart car (I was the driver seeing how hubby forgot his license) and drove to the town of Bellaggio along Lake Como. It was GORGEOUS! Hubby read about this garden in the travel guide so we visited there and got some great ideas for our backyard. I'll post photos in their own post.

In addition to that suitcase that is still needing to be unpacked, I also have a suitcase to unpack from the road trip hubby and I took last weekend to install patches on cow's butts. All part of life here on the farm! We drove to Indiana for our first stop and then back tracked, stopping in Ohio at another farm on the way home. While hubby was installing the systems and patches, I sat in the car and looked through 15 magazines, tearing out the items I want to keep and recycling the rest. It was great just to spend time with my hubby and getting to stop at our favorite burger joint on the way home.

Oh, and let's not forget the original suitcase that is still needing to be unpacked from Easter weekend when we made a trip out to do some more demo on our kitchen and visit my grandma and cousin to deliver her wedding invitations. Thankfully the bride was very pleased with them! Pictures of both will follow in their own post.

Besides these three trips and suitcases waiting to be unpacked, I've been busy working on items for my store's "grand opening." I know I announced here that I'm shooting for the 30th, but that's two days from now and some of the items I need before I can open have yet to make an appearance, so I'm going to have to delay that for a little bit. But, SOON, it's coming!!

Hubby is gone again today and tomorrow at a farm in Idaho installing yet another system. I figured while he's gone it'd be a good time to clean our bedroom, bathroom and my craft room, not to mention unpacking the three suitcases.

After all, I'm going to need to pack one of them again in a week to head back out to visit my cousin again to practice her hairstyle for the big day in June!

Pesto & Gelato Are Calling My Name

I said I was going to go two weeks without eating sweets so I could enjoy all the gelato and pesto Italy has to offer, and I'm proud to report I made it a week and a half before succumbing to an ice cream sundae at my grandma's house on Good Friday, one of hubby's grandma's homemade Eclairs on Easter and a lemon poppy seed cake I made for a birthday at work yesterday. Not too bad compared to the amount of sweets I used to consume.

Tomorrow hubby and I are off to Italy for my friend's wedding. We are so excited! We'll be spending a few days near La Spezia and Cinque Terre for the wedding and then a day and a half in the Milan and Lake Como areas before heading back home. I already informed hubby we'll have to return someday because I really want to see Rome, Florence, and Venice. But for now, I'll take any part of Italy I can get and I'm so excited to see my dear friend, "Josh", who I haven't seen in over 7 years or so.

I'll be back to post here sometime the week of the 20th with photos of our trip and more demo work we did on the kitchen over Easter weekend.

Getting closer

I'm so excited to post this today because it means that I'm one step closer to opening my shop! I've finally finished the wedding invitations I was working on and will be delivering those to my "client" this weekend (at the end of the 9 hour roadtrip hubby and I embark on tonight at 7pm) and now I can devote all my time to making jewelry and note cards and home decor items. I'm so excited!

I've received great reviews so far on the items I have done and need to complete a few more projects to make sure my shop is well stocked. Once I finish that and designing my website, the doors will be open. I'm shooting for April 30th as my "Grand Opening".

For now, here is my button that will be used on my packaging, business card, and advertisements.

Worth the drive??

Hubby was supposed to leave last Wednesday to go finish demo on the kitchen so we can get a good jump when we are there this summer. Just before we got ready to leave, the airline called to tell him that his flight had been cancelled and they'd have to rebook him. He chose to leave Saturday late afternoon instead.

Saturday morning hubby tries to check-in online and print his boarding pass, but the computer kept saying it couldn't assign a seat number. Finally we track down a number for the airline and call them only to have them say their computers are down and they wouldn't be able to tell him if he as a seat until he checks in at the airport. So, we start out on our way for the journey to LaGuardia in NYC. Of course we hit traffic for both the Yankees and Mets last pre-season home games and finally get to the airport. I wait the five minutes to see if he gets a seat and once I get the call that all is good, I pull away from the curb and start the drive back home through Manhattan (it's the cheapest route so I'll fight the traffic).

No sooner do I enter the Midtown Tunnel when hubby calls to say that the flight has been oversold and that they're offering a free roundtrip ticket to anyone who's willing to give up their seat. He says he really needs to go in order to get the new water meter installed, but that if nobody else offers he will. So, as I'm exiting the tunnel, he calls to say that they sweetened the pot and offered two roundtrip tickets to anywhere they fly and he jumped at the opportunity. So, looks like we'll be making a trip to the Caymen Islands or some other warm place next winter! And, he only paid $40 bucks for his original ticket!

Yeah, it took two hours to get to the airport and another four to get home thanks to having to turn around and head back to the airport and then back through Manhattan only to have the police constantly close entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel just as we got within 3 car lengths, but I think it was well worth it for the two free tickets and four extra days with my hubby before he leaves!

Plus, we needed some cheering up after we lost a suit against one of hubby's company's on Friday to the tune of $14,000. More to come on that later.

Holy Week

Last year I posted this too late for anybody to really be able to participate, including myself, but this time I'm only a day and a half late!

Hope you all had a wonderful Palm Sunday yesterday. The weather here was lovely and we had such an awesome church service. Last night I watched the Discovery Channel's 3 hour special on "Who Was Jesus?". It was sad that they had a Baptist minister and two other Biblical scholars, yet not one of them seemed to be a true believer. They basically just presented Jesus as a historical man instead of God himself. And, they gave about 2 minutes out of the the three hours to his resurrection.

I'm anxious to read through these Scripture passages this week as we remember the last week of our Savior's life on earth.

**NOTE: The below was originally from an insert in the bulletin of my parents' church.

The final week of Christ's life leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection has been known as "Holy Week" throughout the liturgical history of the church. This week provides a powerful opportunity for each of us to retrace Christ's steps that week...and journey with Him...and reflect on who He is and what He did...and worship.

Sunday: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
Mark 11:1-9 (Matthew 21:1-9, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19)

Monday: JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE
Mark 11:12-19 (Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48)

Tuesday: CHRIST'S TEACHING
Mark 11:20-13:37

Wednesday: JESUS IS ANOINTED AT BETHANY
Mark 14:1-11 (Matthew 26:6-16)

Thursday: THE UPPER ROOM SUPPER, BETRAYAL AND ARREST
Mark 14:12-72 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Friday: THE CRUCIFIXION
Mark 15:1-47 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Saturday: SECURING THE TOMB
Matthew 27:62-66 (Hebrews 10:11-25, I Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 5:8-11)

Sunday: THE RESURRECTION!
Mark 16:1-11 (Matthew 28:1-8, Luke 24:1-10, John 20:1-31)

It's only 2 weeks, right?

I've had a little bit of a blogger block in case you haven't noticed.

Not much to report on here besides the fact that I'm still covered in blue glitter (I think my in-laws' living room will have a nice blue sparkle to it for awhile too), we got a new dishwasher (woohoo clean dishes again finally!), and my pants are starting to get a little tight. Guess that's what happens when one eats a lot of sweets and hasn't taken the time to workout in about two months.

So, realizing that hubby and I leave for ITALY two weeks from yesterday, and knowing that I'm definitely going to want to indulge in some gelato and pasta while there, I decided that between now and April 14th I'm going to forgo the cookies, brownies, ice cream, candy, cakes, etc. that have made their way into my diet over the past couple months. This is going to be HARD for a sugar addict like me! But, hopefully ya'll will help keep me accountable and two weeks from now as I'm on a plane to Italy, my scale will be back down to where it should be, my pants won't be fitting a little snug, and my tastebuds will be ready for some of the best gelato known to mankind!

Lord, please give me a LOT of willpower!