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Montagna e Mercato

13 Dec

I did a quick trip to a local market today.  It’s a beautiful and clear (although chilly) day and the views of the mountains are amazing.   I meandered through the outdoor market and through the cobblestone streets of the little lakeside town.  All the shops were closed but I did spot a little old nun on her way to what I supposed was church.  But in the end I saw her dropping into the local bar for a caffe macchiato.

This was the view out my bedroom window at about 7am this morning.  The clouds were fuchsia.  The moon was out.  And the mountains were full of snow.  Gorgeous.

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Tempo libero

11 Dec

With all the Sinterklaas parties and various holiday events lately I haven’t had a lot of time to sew.  But the last few days I have managed to start sewing some of the Christmas gifts for various teachers and friends.  One sewing machine is broken and the other one seems to be holding up so far (even with all the oilcloth I’ve been using). 

This shows how many different projects I have on the go at the moment.  By looking at our calendar I can’t seem to find a lot of time to get it all finished before Christmas.  I guess they’ll be some late nights spent in the sewing room.  It might actually help if our internet cut out for a few days…

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Sacro Monte

8 Dec

It was an incredibly beautiful, sunny and warm day today.  We decided to take advantage of the weather and the fact it was a vacation day (Concepzione Immaculata) and go for a nice walk up the Sacro Monte.   Our kids don’t really know a lot about biblical stories so the walk up the hill with all the little chapels depicting the life of Jesus was actually very interesting for them.  There are 14 chapels and views as far as Milan and of all the local lakes.

 

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Benzina

8 Dec

Living near the lake means that almost every day you walk along it.  Which means you have a lot of lake related photos.  Here’s a quaint little gas station waiting for it’s next customer.  Most likely a rich Milanese with an oversized, loud speed boat. 

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Albero di Natale

6 Dec

After the kids arrived home from school today we put on a nice cozy fire, put on some Sinatra Christmas music, set out some chips and dip and got busy decorating our Christmas tree.   Here’s a little compilation of the photos we took during the decorating.

My hands are still stinging from all the needle pricks that I got trying to hang the ornaments.

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Passeggiata

4 Dec

Another beautiful day along the lake.  Sunny but chilly.  Perfect for a morning passeggiata (stroll).

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Sorpresa

4 Dec

Yesterday we surprised our kids and my in-laws with tickets to see Serena and Venus Williams play an exhibition tennis match against Schiavone and Pennetta in Milan.  It was the first real tennis match that we’ve seen live and we all loved it.  Those Williams sisters are STRONG.  When Schiavone was playing against Venus Nico kept asking if the girl or the boy was winning (sorry Schiavone).  

Bad quality photo but check out this tennis dress!

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Adventing

2 Dec

For some reason I decided to make an advent calendar for my girls this year.  In the almost 10 years of their life I have never even contemplated making advent calendars.  It could have something to do with the fact I was offline for 4 days this past week and I was wandering around the house with nothing to do one evening.  Being sans internet will do that to you.  I found some tiny boxes and a stack of beautiful paper.  Then I found a frame from an old painting in the attic.  And this is what resulted.  It took me ages to find all the miniature presents to put in all the boxes – dollar stores don’t exist in Italy.  I attached all the little boxes with velcro so the kids can take them off and put them back on.  In some boxes I wrote coupons for an evening of popcorn and boardgames, in some I wrote some Christmas jokes and in some I wrote bad poetry telling my girls how awesome they are.

They were very happy when they saw it this morning (yes it was a day late).  My son received a Lego Star Wars advent calendar so anyone who has a 7 year old son can understand  how happy that little guy is.  Sinterklaas is coming tonight so the excitement in our house is at an all time high.

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Therapy

1 Dec

It’s time to start thinking of some ideas for cookie decorating for the holiday season.  Once I sit down with my royal icing and blank cookies I go into some sort of trance.  A few hours will pass before I snap out of it and find a table full of cookies like the ones below.  I just find it so therapeutic.  Every year I give a little bag of these cookies to the local bakery and they always look quite dubious.  When I ask a few weeks later if they liked them they always respond with “Ma signora…sono troppe belle per mangiare!” (” Signora, they are too beautiful to actually eat!”).  I’m sure they have a dusty box full of these little sacks from years past.

I love the poppy seed eyes on the little wee chicks.  These were for my daughter’s spring birthday party…

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Bella Italia

30 Nov

Broken internet for 3 days.  Grumpy people on the phone acting like they’re doing ME a favor to fix it.  Realising that 3 days without internet is amazing for someone’s creativity and productivity. 

In other news…this is what my daughter wore to school today.  Love.

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