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Gratefully Grateful 9

It was another great week with sunny beautiful weather. I managed to finish up some fun sewing projects. I introduced the Days For Girls project at a local Women’s Day event and received lots of interest and support. I went fabric shopping with some of my favourite fellow sewers and ended finding some really gorgeous materials. I spent the week-end catching up with an old friend and his sweet kids (and laughing a lot). I got to eat my favourite garlicky pizza at our local pizzeria. And I actually ticked a lot of items off my to-do list. Nice.

I’m grateful for…

…sunny days in my living-room.

…my daughter’s washi art projects to be found around the house.

…the fact my kids still want me to wipe the sand off their feet after a day at the beach.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.

Gratefully Grateful *1*, *2*, *3*, *4*, *5*,*6*,*7*,*8*

Tags: family, grateful, gratefully grateful, italy, photo series, photography

Comments 19 Comments
Categories Creative, daily life, Family/Kids, grateful, gratefully grateful, italia, Living in Italy, photography

Gratefully Gratefully 8

2 Mar

We’re just back from an amazing week in Morocco. We spent time hiking in the mountains, eating the most delicious Moroccan meals, visiting ancient Kasbahs, driving through the ever-changing mountainous landscapes, speaking French, building sandcastles on the beach and even surfing. It was a full week to say the least. And even arriving back in a freezing cold and rainy Italy at midnight didn’t dampen our high spirits. Many family memories were made that will last a lifetime. And obviously for that I’m extremely grateful. As you’ll see, my grateful post is pretty Morocco inspired this week.

I’m grateful for…

…Moroccan olives. I miss them already

…this neighbourhood outside of Agadir with painted trees in bright and cheerful colours and patterns.

…Mint Tea. We drank it daily and even brought home a few bundles of fresh Moroccan mint and a new teapot to make some ourselves.

I wish you all a lovely week ahead!

Gratefully Grateful *1*, *2*, *3*, *4*, *5*,*6*,*7*

Tags: family, grateful, gratefully grateful, morocco, photography

Comments 29 Comments
Categories Creative, daily life, Family/Kids, grateful, gratefully grateful, gratefullygrateful, photography

Gratefully Grateful 7

21 Feb

Happy Friday folks. Here in Italy it’s a beautiful sunny day. The tulip bulbs are sprouting in the garden. The forsythia (say that 5 times quickly) is already in bloom. The mountains are in full view and covered in snow. My purple hyacinth has filled my living room with a lovely pungent perfume. And I’m in the midst of packing for a trip to Morocco. Life is pretty great.

This week I’m (also) grateful for……Monday morning gnocchi making lessons with my lovely friends.

…a new project of mine that I’m so excited about. It involves sewing and helping girls and young women in need. I’ll be writing all about it very soon.

…colourful cushions and quilts made for us by friends and family.

I wish you all a great week-end. I’ll most likely be offline most of next week but I’ll try my best to post photos of our Moroccan travels over on Instagram.

Gratefully Grateful *1*, *2*, *3*, *4*, *5*,*6*

Tags: family, grateful, gratefully grateful, photography

Comments 26 Comments
Categories Creative, Family/Kids, grateful, gratefully grateful, gratefullygrateful, italia, Living in Italia, Living in Italy, photography

Traveling With Kids: Venice

20 Feb

My latest Traveling With Kids column is over on the creative parenting site Classic Play today. This time I write all about traveling to Venice as a family. We spent a few days there at Christmas and it was absolutely beautiful. We all loved wandering along the canals and admiring the stunning architecture as well as visiting the sites and museums. My kids have officially declared it one of their favourite cities in the world. Lucky for us it’s only a 3 hour drive away…

Click here to read more.

Tags: classic play, photography, Traveling with kids, Venice, Venice family travel, Venice with kids

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Family/Kids, italia, Living in Italia, Living in Italy, photography, Travel, Traveling with kids column

San Valentino

12 Feb

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

Vive La Difference

10 Feb

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely week-end and are ready to kick off this week with a spring in your step. The weather over here today is grey and rainy which makes it a tad bit difficult to get too much of a spring in my step. But I’m trying my best.

Today I’m over on the the London-based design blog Colour Living taking part in their Vive La Difference series. Tina (the blogger behind Colour Living) sent me a list of themes and words in which I had to choose a few to interpret into a creative image. Tina then created her own image using the same words as inspiration.

After reading the list I chose the words book, fabric and library. Three things that I really love. Click over to Colour Living to read all about my dream library as well as to see TIna’s interpretation (and inspiring description of her imaginary library). Thanks for having me Tina!

Tags: books, colour living blog, creative, fabric, library, photography, vive la difference

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Creative, guest blog, photography

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

Gratefully Grateful 3

24 Jan

This week, I am grateful for…

…this little fur-face named Birdie who spends his days attacking my ponytail.… colourful little sunny spots such as this that are to be found all over my house.…yellow striped guitar cases and the little guitarist who carries it around with pride.

Have a great week-end everyone!

Gratefully Grateful week *1* , week *2*

Tags: grateful, gratefully grateful, italy, living in italy, photography

Comments 30 Comments
Categories Creative, daily life, grateful, gratefully grateful, Living in Italia, Living in Italy, photography

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.