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San Valentino

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and the internets are abuzz with everything from heart shaped foods, to quirky Valentine’s cards to the ULTIMATE gifts to make your loved ones swoon. Personally I like to keep the whole holiday pretty low-key and relaxed (easy here in Italy where it’s not so celebrated). I usually bake something sweet (and yes, heart shaped) and maybe make a little card or handmade gift to leave on the breakfast table for when the family wakes up. Here are a few of my favourite V-day recipes, diy projects, Valentine’s inspiration and cards that will make you giggle.

For over a month my lovely friend Giova has been posting a handmade heart a day on her blog One Bunting Away. She is a talented embroiderer and paper artist and I’ve really loved reading each and every heart post. Read her passionate Valentine’s Day manifesto here.

These seemingly rude Valentine’s cards from Etsy Shop Sunny and Susan really make me laugh.

I’m going to try and make these Red Velvet Cupcakes in a Jar (because we all know that desserts in jars taste so much better!). And as I do every year I’ll also whip up a batch of my grandmother’s rich and buttery Brown Sugar Shortbreads. And I’m thinking this heart shaped bacon and heart shaped egg in the hole would be perfect for a Valentine’s breakfast or brunch (although I think I’ll pass on these Weiner and Cheese hearts).

This round-up of Nerds in Love Valentine’s cards by Mighty Girl had me in stitches.

Last year my daughters and I sewed up some of these little puffy heart necklaces for their friends. Easy to make and really cute to see a little gaggle of girls wearing them. These necklaces were featured on some really great Valentine’s round-ups here, here and here.

Tags: baking, cookies, handmade, san valentino, valentine's day, valentine's day card

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Creative, Family/Kids, gift ideas, photography, Recipes, Sewing

Gratefully Grateful 5

7 Feb

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are in the world but here in Northern Italy we have had a pretty long stretch of grey and rainy days. Luckily in the middle of it all we had one glorious day of full sun and bright blue skies that helped keep everyone’s spirits (relatively) high. In all the years that we have lived here this has to be the most bizarre winter in terms of weather. We actually haven’t yet experienced any real winter temperatures or conditions this year. For me it’s absolutely fine. For my kids, not so much. They are praying every day for snow and I hope for their sake we have at least one good storm where the snow stays on the ground for more than a few hours. But despite the grey skies and rain (and a mild case of the flu) there have been lots to be happy about this week.

This week I am grateful for…

…that one glorious day of sun we had this week. Seriously, it recharged my battery and gave me some much needed energy.…our upcoming trip to Morocco and the fact I’ll be able to pick up a new pair of colourful slippers to add to our collection…a lovely walk along the lake with one of my daughters. And this very curious goose who decided to join us. Check out those gorgeous mountain views in the background!

Enjoy your week-end everyone!

Gratefully Grateful *1*, *2*, *3*, *4*

Tags: daily life, grateful, gratefully grateful, happy, photography, positive

Comments 30 Comments
Categories daily life, Family/Kids, grateful, gratefully grateful, gratefullygrateful

Surprise Message Bunting Cards

4 Feb

The other day I was chatting with one of my twin daughters about Valentine’s Day and all the fun we’ve had in the past making up special treats and cards for their classmates over the years. Over here in Italy (and I think generally in Europe) Valentine’s Day is a day reserved for couples and adults and not something kids celebrate like in North America. So even though my kids have always been one of the few that celebrate it in school it has still become a lovely yearly tradition to make something together for their friends.

This year we decided to make simple cards with sewn paper buntings that have little hidden messages. Easy, quick and fun for kids of just about any age.

This is all you need to make these sweet little cards. I used glassine for the actual bunting paper so that you can see the pretty patterned paper through it. If you don’t have glassine paper any type of paper would be fine.

I cut the glassine paper in long strips and folded it in half to have a square piece of paper. I then sewed the pieces of glassine squares together with the sewing machine (making sure the folded edge is on the bottom). This way the glassine paper is sewn on the top, closed by the fold on the bottom and open on the two sides (to make it easier to slip in the small pieces of paper with message on the back).After sewing the bunting together we slipped in little square pieces of paper with our special messages on the back. Seeing as the glassine is open on both sides the messages are easy to slip in and out. We then simply attached the sewn paper bunting to our cards with tiny heart stickers (pieces of washi would also be nice).

Now to come up with all the short little messages to go inside. Some of my favourites that my kids have suggested for their classmates are: ‘you have nice handwriting’, ‘you are pretty smart’, ‘you have the best snacks’ and ‘you don’t smell’. Let’s hope their romantic sides develop a little more in the years to come.

Tags: card, craft, diy, homemade, paper, photography, valentine's day, valentine's day card

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Creative, Family/Kids, gift ideas, photography, Sewing

Gratefully Grateful 4

31 Jan

Oh this Gratefully Grateful series is working wonders for my psyche. I spend my days really looking for things that I’m grateful for and that make me feel good and positive and all warm and fuzzy inside. I often find myself making mental notes of beautiful things that I see, kind people I spend time with, new things learned and ways that I can possibly change my life and my family’s for the better. Guys, I have become Pollyanna and I am so happy about it! Yeah, there are still those difficult and stressful moments but I let them pass quickly and get on with the good parts of my life. And I’ll be honest about the fact that I am so fortunate to have so much good in my life. I know not everyone does.

This week I am grateful for…

…the fact that my daughter has no fear of bright colours and patterns and mixing the two as she pleases. Even if she ends up looking different than anyone else around.

…our new family hobby geocaching and how it has made our week-ends so much more fun. Check out our homemade ‘calling cards’ that we leave in the caches we find (and our corny tag-line too!).…that I won a space in Xanthe Berkeley‘s online course Creating Time Capsules. I’ve been eyeing this course for ages and still can’t believe that I WON SOMETHING! Many thanks to Xanthe (who is one of my favourite photographers).

Gratefully Grateful *1*, *2*, *3*

I’d love to hear what you’re grateful for this week.

Enjoy your week-end!

Tags: family, grateful, gratefully grateful, kids, photography

Comments 25 Comments
Categories Creative, daily life, Family/Kids, grateful, gratefully grateful, gratefullygrateful, italia, Living in Italia, Living in Italy, photography

Handmade Winter

30 Jan

It’s a cold and rainy day here in Northern Italy. We had a very much anticipated snowstorm last night that had lots of local school kids crossing their fingers in their sleep for a day off school. Unfortunately the snow turned to rain and the school buses left at their usual time. There were quite a few disappointed kids heading to school this morning.

After months of mild and sunny days I have to get used to these lower temperatures and the need to wear scarves and winter coats. In general I’m not a huge fan of the cold but I do love these chilly days where I get to hole up in my house with the fireplace on and putter around keeping myself busy sewing, baking and crafting. I know the novelty will wear off pretty quickly so indulge me while I wax on about my love for these wintery days.

Today I wanted to tell you all about a great way that you can keep positive, creative, warm and busy through whatever kind of winter you’re experiencing.

A few months ago some very talented artists, designers, bloggers, mothers and overall amazing ladies put together an incredible e-book called Handmade Winter with over 50 winter-inspired crafts, activities, recipes, entertaining ideas and more. They’ve included everything from how to brew the perfect cup of tea to a maxi-skirt sewing tutorial to instructions on how to make yourself a leather and chain chevron necklace. One of my favourite things about this book is the variation it offers. There is something for everyone (husbands and kids included).

This book will help us all get through these long cold wintery months (especially thanks to the Warm Masala Chai recipe found on page 25/26!).

Handmade Winter costs $15 (US) and is easily purchased and downloaded on-line.

Tags: craft, e-book, family, Handmade winter, recipes, Sewing

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Creative, daily life, Family/Kids, gift ideas, Inspiring Souls, Recipes, Sewing

Traveling With Kids: Geocaching

28 Jan

I’m over on Classic Play with my newest Traveling With Kids column. This time I talk about our new family hobby geocaching. Yep, it’s not just for techies anymore. It’s a great way to get your family out of the house and in the great outdoors. My kids are so enthusiastic about it and we’ve discovered some fantastic new places where we live (you can see my kids doing it in our local park in this PBS Pen Pal video). We’re also really looking forward to geocaching on our upcoming trip to Morocco. So, any other geocaching families out there?

Tags: classic play, geocache, geocaching, travel, travel with kids, Traveling with kids

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Family/Kids, Travel, Traveling with kids column

PBS ‘Pen Pal’ Video

22 Jan

As some of you may know I’m a huge fan of snail-mailing and pen-pals (see some of my snail mail projects here and here). It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a little girl and something that I got my kids involved in since they could just write (those early letters are almost impossible to understand but man are they cute!). They started writing letters to their grandparents and slowly over the years started writing to some of my friend’s kids who live in other countries around the world. For our kids writing to their pen pals was also a great opportunity for them to practice writing English (my kids are schooled in Dutch and French).

Over the years I’ve loved seeing the relationships they’ve formed with their pen pals and hearing about their big plans to all meet in person one day in the future. In this technologically focused world these little things make a huge impression on our kids.

A few weeks ago Jen and Dave asked me if I would help them with the new episode of their PBS Adventures in Learning series and when I heard the topic was Pen Pals I jumped at the opportunity. It was so much fun to help make (with lots of help from my better half who has the patience to figure out how the video feature on my dslr works). Take a peek and let me know what you think!

Tags: family, kids, pbs, pen pals, photography, snail mail, video

Comments 6 Comments
Categories A Kid's Life, daily life, Family/Kids, Living in Italia

Gratefully Grateful °2°

17 Jan

Is it Friday already? Did this past week fly by for anyone else as well? The week was a blur of activities, appointments, organising the house, long chats with friends and even a shopping trip to check out the sales (which only happen twice a year in Italy…in January and July). I love being busy and having lots to do but I’m looking forward to a nice quiet week-end with my family. Our traditional Friday night ritual of curling up on the couch under a thick blanket with the fireplace burning and a big bowl of popcorn just might be my most favourite thing ever. Add in a little Master Chef and I could stay there forever.

It’s week 2 of my Gratefully Gratefully series for 2014. I love how doing this series makes me look for all the wonderful people, places and things I’m surrounded by.

I am grateful for…

…colourful washing lines on grey days.

…that I can wait in places like this while my daughter does her guitar class.…my kid’s love of Pasta Con Broccoli.…my daughters’ taste in shoes.

Anything that you’re particularly grateful for this week?

(Gratefully Grateful °1°)

Tags: 2014, family life, grateful, gratefullygrateful, italia, italy, photography

Comments 27 Comments
Categories Creative, daily life, Family/Kids, gratefully grateful, italia, Living in Italy, photography

A Kid’s Life: Melbourne, Australia

14 Jan

Hello everyone. Time for a new interview in my A Kid’s Life series. I have to admit that I’m really proud of this series and all of the great interviews I’ve had over the past few years. I’ve loved “virtually meeting” every single one of these families and luckily enough I’ve kept in touch with them all. These families have been warm, friendly and open to share the details of their daily family grind. I have big plans to meet them all in their native countries in the coming years (don’t worry, I won’t show up unexpected on your doorsteps!). But what a great excuse to travel around the world! Here are the previous interviews in case you missed them: Italy, Japan, USA, The Philippines, Tasmania, Canada, Belgium, New Zealand, Holland, Germany, Colombia, France, Switzerland, South Africa, India.

Today we get to hear from Bron and her family who live in Melbourne, Australia. I thought it would be interesting to hear from a family living on mainland Australia after reading all about family life in Tasmania in a previous interview. I was curious to see if there were differences between the two. So far I’ve noticed that more languages are offered in Tasmanian schools, both love to eat Weetbix for breakfast and dinner is eaten at about the same time that Italian kids eat their afternoon snack!

Bron contacted me last week about participating in the interview and after hearing her family’s story and feeling her energetic and positive energy just by reading her email I was excited to read all about their life. Bron and her husband Andrew have three kids. Their oldest son, Cooper, has Cerebral Palsy (Dystonic Quadriplegia) as he received a brain injury due to lack of oxygen during the birthing process (read more here). What this means is the damaged parts of his brain can’t communicate properly with the muscles all over his body. His whole body is affected including his arms, legs, trunk and mouth. He is cognitively a typical 8 year old boy who loves cricket and Lego though!

Last year Cooper started a fundraiser which involved him walking for 1km using his walker. He ended up raising $15, 000 AUD to help build a kindergarten in Cambodia. The family visited the school several times and were overwhelmed with the reception and gratitude that they were shown (especially Cooper).

Is this not an amazingly inspiring family?

Bron writes a blog about her family life in Melbourne, Cooper’s developmental accomplishments and their travel adventures.

And now let’s hear what they have to say about daily life in Melbourne, Australia…

Sihanoukeville in Cambodia

What country do you live in?

We live in Australia, in the state of Victoria.

Are you and your husband the same nationality?

Yes we are both Australian born in different cities/states.

Do you both work. Or does someone stay home?

Andrew works as an arborist and I’m a stay at home mum.

How many languages are spoken in your house? Which one(s)?

We speak English. We also learnt a lot of sign language and gestures before our son began to verbally communicate.

How many kids do you have? What are their ages?

We have three kids. Cooper is 8, Pepper is 5 and Elwood is 2. Continue reading →

Tags: A Kid's Life, a kid's life in australia, australia, cerebral palsy, daily grind, daily routine, family, family life

Comments 4 Comments
Categories A Kid's Life, daily life, Family/Kids

Internet Inspiration

1 Oct

Since I haven’t been able to do much of anything blog-related lately I thought I’d share some favourite projects, links and videos I’ve been enjoying on the internets lately:

Ever wonder what it would be like to buy an old factory in France and renovate it into an amazing designer house? My friend Judith from the blog Joelix did just that and is letting us all take a virtual visit throughout. So beautiful.

Another talented friend of mine Jennifer from the blog Classic Play just released her new PBS video series called Adventures in Learning. These short videos are a full family project with her and her kids starring in them and her husband filming and producing them. They are great fun to watch as a family and have the added bonus that they are educational! Above is the video on stargazing and learning about the constellations. Click here for the second video where they visit the local farmer’s market:

Here’s a great board to follow for all you Pinners out there. The Mamas….Making Pinterest board is full of the most amazing and creative ideas for families of every kind. Everything from kid’s art projects to family friendly recipes to sewing projects just for Mom. And I’m proud to be part of it.

I cam across this gorgeous purse made by Jane from the blog Buzzmills. It was one of her Selfish Sewing Week projects and I absolutely love her choice of fabrics, designs and colours. The pattern is the 241 Tote from Noodlehead. I’ll be buying it to make with my weekly sewing group (and I have the perfect Japanese Echino fabrics to use!).

Some days you just need something silly to put a smile on your face. This did it for me. And it’s possible I even headed out to my chicken coop with my old fashioned ghetto-blaster and re-enacted the whole thing.