Archive | August, 2012

bits & pieces

During a traumatic bout of diaper rash last week, Lena ran around stark naked,
sometimes in her daddy’s shoes.

I thought it might be fun to take a break from epic photo updates and just share some snippets of news instead.  Here are a few fun facts about our lives these days:

  • First of all, happy first day of 4th year at UVA and happy 21st birthday to my amazing, beautiful, and brilliant sister Emily!  If you get a chance (and you know her, I guess), tell her you love her.
  • I feel like poor Bambino #2 never gets mentioned on here, but I am still so very pregnant, folks.  Eighteen weeks tomorrow, meaning I’m well into my 2nd trimester.  “They” say that the 2nd trimester is always the best because you’re not as tired as during your 1st trimester or as enormous as in the last one.  So far I would have to say that sounds about right.  The belly doesn’t show much yet but I have some fun photos to share tomorrow (more about that later in this post) and you might see Baby a little bit in those!
    • How cute is this camera?  I saw it yesterday—but not for the first time—on Rockstar Diaries, one of my favorite blogs out there.  I have drooled over Little Sapling Toys before for Lena, and how I’d love to get some of their teethers and toys for our new baby, too!  I’m so smitten for anything wooden.  (Hey, does that rhyme?)
    • My newest blog crush is The Year of Less in which a hippie mama chronicles her daily endeavors to purge clutter from her life.  It’s kind of amazing how extreme she is (ie. dreadlocks this weekend?!).  But on the less extreme side, she’s an inspiration to me to keep going with a lot of things I’ve been trying to do already, like…
      • line drying all our clothing (our dryer sucks up so much energy which = big electricity bills in Italy)
      • canceling subscriptions to all catalogues and junk mail
      • moving all our bills and bill-paying to an online paperless system
      • keeping Lena’s toys to a minimum (ie. buying used toys or generally not buying toys at all)
      • read her blog for more great ideas, and visit her other blog (The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking) for more
    • I love this knitted toy snake pattern from Purl Soho?  Makes me hope just a little bit that we are having a boy (we find out September 7), but whether we do or don’t, I think Lena and Bambino #2 would enjoy a playful stuff snake for a pet.  My fingers are beginning to get that familiar autumnal itch back to start knitting.
    • We borrowed my friend Shannon’s ice cream maker last week and Jess and Sarah made peach and toasted pecan ice cream.  It is to die for.  Makes me want a bowl right now.
    • I got a haircut!  Lopped off about 6 inches.  I’m back to “wedding length,” or the length my hair was 2.5 years ago on my wedding day.  (Confession: I haven’t had a serious haircut since, and I only get a haircut about once every 10 months!)  I already feel so much more girly and energetic and don’t feel nearly as weighed down by my heavy, long hair.  It was really long.  Really long.
    • The haircut was perfect for our adventures last weekend because we went camping!  Oh wait, no we didn’t.  We just felt like we did because we were so hot, there were so many mosquitoes, and… well, there were so many mosquitoes.  We stayed here and doesn’t it look positively dreamy?  I thought so too!  But the photos fooled me.  More about that tomorrow.
    8 :: in Baby Numero Due, good reads, Lena, life lately, wishlist

    Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

    Jess had already been to Siracusa once on her visit to Sicily but, believe it or not, she liked it enough that she asked to go back!  Besides, Sarah hadn’t visited Siracusa yet.  As Siracusa is becoming my favorite town to visit on the eastern coast of Sicily, I was totally game.

    We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse.  Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India.  Hmmm…

    By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out.  She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

    Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.
     
     

    Siracusa has a little strip of beach and a pier.  Jess and I were so hot and sweaty on our last visit that we jumped off the pier, clothes and all!  This time we planned ahead and brought our swimsuits.  The water this time of year is like bathwater and, in this group, no one was complaining.

    We finally headed back up to the beautiful Duomo Piazza for lunch at my favorite restaurant: The Fox and the Grape.  It’s very Italian and pretty much all pizzas, but they’re trying to be modern and trendy (quite successfully), and the combination is totally charming.  Also, their four cheese pizza is to die for.


     

    “Mom, I’m so hungry!  But I guess I’ll content myself with drinking water from a wine glass until the pizza arrives…”

    Ahhh…

    And finally: “Sarah, help me do something modern on this” & “We love Italian graffiti because all it [usually] says is, ‘Love!'”

    7 :: in Sicily, travel, visitors

    Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

    Jess had already been to Siracusa once on her visit to Sicily but, believe it or not, she liked it enough that she asked to go back!  Besides, Sarah hadn’t visited Siracusa yet.  As Siracusa is becoming my favorite town to visit on the eastern coast of Sicily, I was totally game.

    We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse.  Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India.  Hmmm…

    By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out.  She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

    Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.
     
     

    Siracusa has a little strip of beach and a pier.  Jess and I were so hot and sweaty on our last visit that we jumped off the pier, clothes and all!  This time we planned ahead and brought our swimsuits.  The water this time of year is like bathwater and, in this group, no one was complaining.

    We finally headed back up to the beautiful Duomo Piazza for lunch at my favorite restaurant: The Fox and the Grape.  It’s very Italian and pretty much all pizzas, but they’re trying to be modern and trendy (quite successfully), and the combination is totally charming.  Also, their four cheese pizza is to die for.


     

    “Mom, I’m so hungry!  But I guess I’ll content myself with drinking water from a wine glass until the pizza arrives…”

    Ahhh…

    And finally: “Sarah, help me do something modern on this” & “We love Italian graffiti because all it [usually] says is, ‘Love!'”

    6 :: in Sicily, travel, visitors

    sewing a skirt for Elise

    I have a rather unfortunate relationship with my sewing machine.  I love it and respect it and am frequently inspired to use it.  But, until a couple of weeks ago, I never had sewn anything on it.  This is after my mother got me this beautiful refurbished machine as a birthday gift 5 years ago!  (Dearest mother of mine, if you didn’t know this before, I’m really sorry.) 

    Driven by desperation to make a last-minute-but-priceless birthday gift for a little friend, I got out the machine and opened up the manual.  After a little bit of coaxing and studying, the machine came to life and began to do the same things my mother’s wonderful old Bernina did for me all throughout my childhood. 

    I made Elise a skirt using this pattern, and it really was almost as easy as that blog’s crafty mama claims it will be.  Unless, of course, you have no elastic and nowhere to buy any, so at the last minute you have to convert it into a wrap skirt.  

    And the best part of all of it was that Elise loved the skirt!  She wore it that evening at her birthday party.  And then she melted my heart the next day when she walked into church wearing it too.

    Lena, what would you like your mama to sew for you?  How about some fabric beach balls?  Comin’ right up!

    9 :: in arts and crafts, friends

    sewing a skirt for Elise

    I have a rather unfortunate relationship with my sewing machine.  I love it and respect it and am frequently inspired to use it.  But, until a couple of weeks ago, I never had sewn anything on it.  This is after my mother got me this beautiful refurbished machine as a birthday gift 5 years ago!  (Dearest mother of mine, if you didn’t know this before, I’m really sorry.) 

    Driven by desperation to make a last-minute-but-priceless birthday gift for a little friend, I got out the machine and opened up the manual.  After a little bit of coaxing and studying, the machine came to life and began to do the same things my mother’s wonderful old Bernina did for me all throughout my childhood. 

    I made Elise a skirt using this pattern, and it really was almost as easy as that blog’s crafty mama claims it will be.  Unless, of course, you have no elastic and nowhere to buy any, so at the last minute you have to convert it into a wrap skirt.  

    And the best part of all of it was that Elise loved the skirt!  She wore it that evening at her birthday party.  And then she melted my heart the next day when she walked into church wearing it too.

    Lena, what would you like your mama to sew for you?  How about some fabric beach balls?  Comin’ right up!

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    8 :: in arts and crafts, friends

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