October 29th, 2014

And here is Week 37!!

Week 37 is just more of my vacation in Carloforte, Sardinia.
A great place to relax as you can probably see by the photos. 

I used the same kit as for Week 36. I am consistent like that!
Traci Reed Pocket Life August edition

Week 37 Side 1

Week 37 side 2

As you can see I have kept my layouts pretty simple.

I would like to be as creative as my friends Susan and Donna but, alas... I am not.

I will post week 38 tomorrow. 

Week 38 was a good week! ;) 

October 15th, 2014

Moving right along with Project Life. 
Fotofusion really does make it easy. Well, at least for me. 
It works with layers like Photoshop but you can just draw a frame and "plop" your image in without having to go thru the clipping part.
I hate the clipping part. Or it hates me. The point is we just don't get along.
I would love to be able to use psd templates in Fotofusion though.
The Project Life templates by Becky Higgins are pretty easy to reconstruct but there are some cute journal cards out there that I would love to be able to use!

Anyway, on to the photos.
Here is Week 35.
It is only one page as not a lot happened that week but like I said in my earlier post I am not going to stress about it!

And here is Week 36!

As you can see I have three pages for this week but am I stressed about having and uneven amount of pages?

NO, SIREE!

A bit shaky but not stressed.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

For these pages I used Traci Reed Pocket Life August Edition

Well, that's it for today!

Gotta go back to work and make more pages!

Monday, October 13th, 2014

Monday, October 13th, 2014

Well I certainly am doing good with Project Life this year!
I am almost all caught up!
It is also less stressful because if a week does not have enough photos I am not stressing about it! I just do ONE page! Now, how simple is that???
So, some weeks have two pages, some have one and some have three or more! OH MY!
But it hasn't killed me yet so I am happy.


Here is week 34 (it actually has two pages.. LOL)

May 31, 2014

Well, Vitti and I are off to Canada!

Romano drove us to the airport.

We left the house at 10 am because we had to be in Pisa by 11 am.

Our flight was at 1:15 pm.

When we checked in Vitti and I got a nifty voucher for the VIP lounge at the Pisa airport...which we
looked for but never found.

We were seated in first class even on the short flight from Pisa to London! 

Never had that happen before!

The food was great! I had a shrimp skewer and Vitti had chicken and pasta.

We got to London on time and got thru customs quickly as well.

No line ups!

Vitti even managed to find a Bubble Tea at the airport. 

On our flight to Vancouver we were seated on the upper deck of the Boeing 747! 

That too was a first!

It is much nicer up there with fewer people.

Again, the food was great! 

Vitti had a really stuffy nose though during the bight and had trouble sleeping. We don't think it was allergies, maybe just the air in the plane.

We got to Vancouver on time and passed through customs quickly.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel.

Talkative lil guy he was... He did not say one word from the airport to the hotel.

Never had that happen before. For a minute I thought he was deaf as he was not answering any of my questions about the weather.. So I yelled at him.

He then answered.. But only in monosyllables.. Oh, well. 

Our suite at the hotel is nice. Not huge but a bit more modern then the. Rosellen. 

The cool part is the view form our 16th floor apartment. It's a wonderful view of the city!

I spent the first evening just taking photos! 

Another cool point, well for Vitti, is that we are right in front of KFC!

Not that we want to eat too much of that stuff. The smell is nice though.

No, really, being on Davie is a bit different for us. The Rosellen was so quiet way down on Barclay near Stanley Park. Here, we are in the heart of Davie Village! Lots going on! Lots of shops and restaurants.

Heck, we got not one but two Starbucks near us!

April 6, 2013 - My Birthday!

This morning Elena and I went out for our usual cappuccino at Mama Cafè. Mario, the owner, surprised me with a lil flower and a candle..LOL

Breakfast was also ON THE HOUSE...

That is me with my HAPPY face!

At lunch time I was nicely surprised with three bouquets!

Roses from Romano and one bouquet each from Vittoria and Tommaso!

In the afternoon, Elena, Vitti and I went to have "merenda" at IL CASONE..Tommy joined us a little later too and that was nice!

Now, I do not really know how to translate merenda as it is more then a snack... lol

It's a small meal, I guess...

Well, anyway... here we are at merenda... 

Elena got me a very neat electric tea kettle!

I love it! 

After "merenda", which took longer then we thought due to our laughing and chatting too much, Elena dropped Vitti and myself off at home. Tommy had already left in his car earlier...

When I got home I found more presents!

I got a lovely perfume from the kids and a treadmill from Romano!

I had been complaining about the bad weather (it has been POURING here) and saying how I miss not being able to get any exercise! So, now I can exercise when it rains too! LOL My husband is a funny man!

This is the perfume and it is very nice! Not too sweet!

At 8 p.m. we headed out to dinner. Our usual place: GABBANI! 

We really love the food there as they always change the menu based on what they buy so it is never boring.

When we got there we were shown to our usual table but as I approached I noticed a cartoon drawing propped up on the bench.

It was of me... with a big cake and a LOT of candles and it said "Crap! Am I getting old now too?" I looked really sad about it too!

I knew who had done that drawing.... It was clearly our artist friend Claudio Carotenuto!

I thought to myself "How nice of him to deliver this here!"

Then, all of a sudden, Claudio, his wife Annamaria, Tommaso C. and his wife Daniela all sort of appeared out of nowhere!

It was a surprise party!

But it was a really big surprise as not even Romano knew they were coming!

This is the drawing:

They also gave me a wonderful purse!

I can use it this summer!!

While at dinner Romano also gave me another present!

Some earrings! 3 pair as I am always losing mine!

And here are some photo's of us at dinner!

My adorable kids:

My handsome husband:

Here I am with Daniela:

Here I am with Daniela and Annamaria:

Here I am with Tommaso and Claudio:

And here I am SUPER HAPPY after blowing out my candle!!

It really was a great birthday!

January 9th, 2013

January 9th, 2013

Probably the most scariest day in my life!
Woke up this morning and went grocery shopping after having coffee with Elena at Mama's Cafè.
Had lunch and then Romano and I went for a nap.
As we were getting into bed for our nap he said he might not go to Tai Chi in the evening as he was feeling a bit under the weather… That was probably the understatement of the year.
I woke up at about 4 p.m. and came downstairs. Romano was still sleeping.
I made myself a coffee and settled down to watch some news on TV and get caught up since I had been in London.
At about 5 p.m. I heard a LOUD thud from upstairs. For a minute I thought it was the cat but then realized that she could not have made such a loud sound no matter what she knocked over.
I went upstairs calling out to Romano. I went into our bedroom but it was empty. I went towards the bathroom and kept calling out but got no answer.
The bathroom door was ajar so I knocked and called out. No answer.
I opened the bathroom door and there was Romano, on the floor, unconscious, with vomit all over the place and a large pool of blood under his head. I mean a LOT of blood! 
I knelt down beside him but he was not responding so I put him in recovery position and ran to the phone to call an ambulance.
I ran back to Romano and he was sitting on the toilet but not focussing at all and just blubbering. I thought he had had a stroke or something!!
I tried to get him up and get him to lie down on the bed.
He was a mess. Blood and vomit all over him and he only had his underwear on.
I finally managed to carry/drag him onto the bed.
I managed to SOS Elena while driving like mad to the front gate to let the ambulance in.
When I got to the front gate I saw that Claudio was still in reception so I honked my horn and he came out and I told him what was happening and to accompany the ambulance up when it came.
I drove back up to the house like a mad woman and am pretty lucky that I did not hit a tree or three!
I ran back upstairs to Romano who was still on the bed and he smiled at me. I talked to him and he answered but looked like he was very confused.
Just then Elena came bursting in and right behind her were Claudio and the ambulance drivers. I say ambulance drivers because in Italy we do not have paramedics and I did ask for an ambulance with a doctor but I guess no doctors were free. The ambulance drivers are volunteers in Italy and usually have a minimum of first aid training but nothing to write home about.
These two, a man and a woman, were very nice and looked like they knew what they were doing…. They looked Romano over, asked him questions and took his blood pressure etc.
By this time Romano was his old self (almost) again and did not want to go to hospital saying that we would call our family doctor.
The ambulance drivers were not too sure about that and neither was I since he hit his head but he really did not want to go.
So, he signed some papers and they left.
I called Tommaso, our doctor and he said he would be right over.
In the meantime Elena, who has taken many first aid courses, patched him up the best she could. She even drove home to get those bandaids that act like stitches.
He was pretty badly banged up.
He also had a fever of 38.8.
Tommaso, the doc, came and looked him over and said it was OK to stay home although he could do with a few stitches.

Finally all seemed quiet…
Oh, and Vittoria.. she came home from guitar lessons to find the main gate open and an ambulance in our front yard. Thank goodness Elena stopped her at the front door and told her everything was ok. The poor thing was white as a ghost. 

At midnight Romano decided to go pee and I told him to leave the door open and to call out if he felt even a little dizzy.
Sure enough he called me and I got in the bathroom just in time to catch him.
Once more he passed out and then started vomiting .
I put him on his side and called out to Vitti while making sure he did not choke on the vomit.
Vitti ran in but but this time I had it under control and he was coming to… He looked at me, smiled and asked what I was doing in the bathroom with him… Gotta love him...
I managed to get him up and turned around to find Vitti fully dressed and she asked me "Are we going?" 
I asked here "Where?"
She said "Hospital sounds good to me!"
I told her no.. her dad was fine.. (Keep Calm and Carry On) and she just looked at me like I was nuts.
Finally got Romano cleaned up and into bed..
He was ok by then but I stayed up most of the night waking him up to see if he was ok…
I am thinking he has a bad case of the NORO virus which seems to be going around but has not hit Italy that bad yet.. I guess he got an early edition!

And that, my friends, is my WELCOME HOME story!

January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

And once again at the top of my resolutions list I have written "KEEP BLOG UPDATED!"

Wonder if this is my lucky year?

This picture was taken shortly before midnight on December 31st, 2012 so it is actually a photo from last year....

Also on my LONG (but getting shorter) list of resolutions is the following:
- Read more classics
- Do a PL album focussing on the year in progress
- Finish the numerous TRAVEL books that I promised I would do LAST year!
- Take long WALKS with hubby
- Cook a new MEAL every week
- Study GERMAN more and read more books in German
- Take a photo EVERYDAY 
- Post said photos on SHUTTERCAL

I think that is about it! It's long enough don't ya think?

Well, I will end my first post now as I am actually writing this on January 10th and cannot for the life of me remember what I did on January 1st!