The New Year

Christmas came and left as always. Now we have the new year to come!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful, New Year!!

---

Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now.

Christmas 2009

We had a lovely snowfall the week before Christmas Day. But we then had rain and tornado like winds drove all the snow away. I wonder if it will be a white Christmas this year.

Our Christmas tree, this will be the first tree that my little angel of almost three will remember!

HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ALL!!

---

Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now.

Those days are here!

So the holidays are now upon us! We received our first snowfall yesterday morning and it has continued on until today.

This Friday at the local theater, my son will have his first dance/singing show! He will not give me a sneak-peek, so I have to wait until I see him on stage. As a parent, wow, that is something so, so, exciting!

I am also running crazy with projects and making Christmas gifts, there is not enough time in the day!

I hope everyone is having wonderful holidays!

The Simple Things of Live- Mexican Food!

Continuing to get use to the absence of the simple things in life. I do miss my Mexican food!

Growing up in Texas and living in the United States my entire life gave me the freedom to have Tex-Mex or Authentic Mexican food literally at my door-step and every corner.

Now, one hour away and costing an arm and a leg, it can be found in grocery store.

Notice how it is also written in German.

So when my wonderful husband comes home with a treat, such as last week. This is the closest we can get to our Mexican night.

---

Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. Check it out

The View

For the last two days this has been the view, in the morning and afternoon, from our bedroom window.

It looks as though we have a lake out there! I think it is kind of cool, but scary!

---

Bing brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.

Altars and Churches

I continue to be fascinated by the wonderfully beautiful churches and altars I encounter everyday.

Strolling along the street no matter which direction I am walking I am sure to encounter altars placed their by individual people from the community.

Each altar and church each have their own beauty and individual detail!

---

Bing brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.

Discoveries

Since living in my new home for almost three years I have discovered so much. You would have thought that someone who was born in raised in Texas would have had some familiarity with horses or cows.

Florence was where I saw, up-close my first horse. And last week I was up-close with three cows and a calf.

Wow, I feel as though I have been making some new discoveries not only of myself but so much in general!

---

Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now.

A Surprise From My Walk

The above photo is what encountered on my way back from the store on sunday morning.

I wonder if our cat made some new friends.

I wonder where they came from.

---

Windows 7: I wanted more reliable, now it's more reliable. Wow!

Excuse me!

So sorry to my readers! The entire household has been sick. Winter is now upon us.

Our son was out of pre-school for two weeks, now that he returned, he is no longer excited about it. His first week, he was amazing, not a single tear. This week though every morning he cries. What a knot in my heart.

Well, and I have found out that I am addicted to Tumblr. So easy to use and so addictive!

So please excuse me for not updating lately.

Before Italy

Before moving to Italy you can see me here in action! My work-space and two tri-corns I was constructing for the opera 'Rosencavalier'

You can see me @ 0:02.

Oh the opera! The sell was a huge success! Happy for them!!

October

This is my most favorite part of the year!

I love the cold weather, the winter clothes and hats!

This year we purchased a stove to help keep the house warm. I just love the smell and watching the smoke coming out of the chiminey!!

---

Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. Get it now.

Hello!

I thought it would be nice to share a little bit about myself!

* I have been sewing since I can remeber! I can even partially sew with the lights off!

* I am not myself if I am not creating.

* I have a huge interest in costume history. And fashion!

* I love to read!

* Once I use to do kickboxing , not professionally!

* My husband and I met in Los Angeles.

* After graduate school I was considering moving to New York, but got an amazing job offer in Los Angeles.

* States I have worked in- Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and California.

* I hope to take up kickboxing or yoga once again.

* After living my entire life of 34 years in the United States, I now live in Italy!

* My husband is a chief. It is in his blood!

* The internet is the only connection we have to the outside world!

* The country-side is now the home of me, my husband, my two and a half year old son, and our cat CheChe.

NOW TELL ME ABOUT YOU!!

The photo above is an old wagon that can be found in the corner of the garden my son and I visit. I am not sure how old it is.

---

Bing™ brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.

Time Sure Flies!

My little angel in the world.

This morning was a trying day for me.

My son spent his first two and a half hours at school.

Wow, it sure seemed more like five hours.

Watching him play at the center of his classmates.

And this image of him, so small, standing in front of this huge door.

Time sure flies!

---

Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. Try Bing™ now

Lumaca

After our day of rain I encountered this cute lumaca or snail. I was later told that this is the type that is good to eat. I have always thought escargot to be a delicacy.

After huge rainfalls in Italy I have occasionally seen older farmers walking around with their pails collecting snails. Even though lately they have not been found in abundance as once before, many people still collect and eat them as a tradition.

One has to have vast knowledge in their preparation, some of the contents of their stomachs can be toxic to humans. Therefore it takes days to properly prepare them for a meal.

Snail shells have been found throughout archeology to have been eaten since prehistoric times. The Romans considered escargot as an elite food.

They are low in fat and high in protein. But, I think I will pass, I like my image of the cute lumaca!

---

Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. Sign up now.

This Time of Year!!

The days seem to be changing.

We had at least four days of rain, and autumn weather.

I love this time of year!

Knitting projects have just begun!!

The pumpkins in my photo are those of my father-in-law's garden!

---

Ready for Fall shows? Use Bing to find helpful ratings and reviews on digital tv's. Click here.

A Quiet Spot.

This is another one of my favorite spots. It is an amazing rock garden!

I love how the ancient walls encase it.

"A Garden of thoughts!"

---

Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. Find out more.

The Art of the Kitchen

After years of concentrating on my career- work and school, I have always been closer to my sewing machine, then the kitchen. Now with over two years of living in Italy I have learned that cooking and eating is an art in itself!

It didn't help any that my husband is a chef and creating in the kitchen is in his blood. Now that I am a stay-at-home mom it has been essential for me to start becoming friends with the kitchen.

It has certainly been an eye-opener living here, the wonderful art of eating is present in every Italian household. First the various course meals, then identifying all the American stereo-types of Italian food.

After living in America all my life I have realized what Italian pizza really is! And no one eats bread with spaghetti, and there is no such thing as spaghetti meatballs in northern Italy.

The Fig Tree

I am mostly learning from my father-in-law, and my husband. (Sometimes I am still intimidated by my husband when he is in the kitchen.) And I can understand when he gets frustrated with me. When we began dating he could always enter my apartment and make an amazing dinner with what was in my fridge!

Now I am starting to try new things! I have always been hesitate to make marmalade, and torta, and dinner in general.

Figs and tomatoes I picked from my father-in-law's garden.

With the abundance of figs and tomatoes in the house I felt it safe to attempt fig marmalade, a fig torta, sun dried tomatoes, and tomato basil soup!

Yes I am starting small, but I am slowly learning, I am on my way of becoming a friend of the kitchen and understanding how eating can be an art!

---

Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. Try it now.

Garlic Anyone!

Wow! I had no idea how many people are huge garlic users here in Italy. It is a must have in any Italian kitchen!

Several weekends ago we visited my father-in-law and helped gather the garlic he had grown. I sure felt naive. I was not aware that the head of the garlic is actually the root!

Look at that!

We gathered a whole wheel barrel of garlic! Yummy. I wonder how long our portion will last!

---

Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. Find out more.

Pubblicità

This pubblicità /spot is currently running on TV. I rather enjoy watching it! Take a look:

A Walk Through Town

Yesterday was such a beautiful day I decided to take a walk through Pennabilli, the town we live in.

I can never forget it's wonderful beauty, but sometimes historical meanings tend to be forgotten.

The door pictured, just below the arch way. (Imagine driving through here!)

This is posted next to the door pictured above, it states one of the Popes actually lived at this very home.

A visit by the Dali Lama.

Walls with many years to show.

An enclosed circular window. I wonder what that was for!

---

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

Nature and History

This past weekend we visited a beach! Coming from California, I am still confused about the whole private paying beaches opposed to the free public ones!

We were able to find a lovely spot to spend most of our day!

I was fascinated by this old abandoned building right next to the beach. Wow, I wonder what it had been? Who lived there? What stories of people and the ocean had it seen?

This brick wall lay beside it in the sand. Could it have once been the walls or gate around the building?

I found it intriguing.

---

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

Tree Creature??

Can you guess what this creature is??

I found it in a tree in our yard.

It was climbing and climbing.

It was there for awhile!

Oh!

It's just Baby (CheChe) our cat!

She was later scared to come down and my husband had to assist her!

---

Get free photo software from Windows Live Click here.

Birth

Many visits to the hospital would follow for him after his premature birth.

Her first visit to the hospital was for the birth of her son. Her mother had given birth to her in the home of the local midwife.

---

Windows Live™ SkyDrive™: Store, access, and share your photos. See how.

Supplements.

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I visited the local tabaccheria (tobacco shop). It Italy they do not only sell tabacco, they sell magazines, lottery ticket, school supplies, and many other things.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the August Flair, and Marie Claire issue already in the stand. What is so special about these issues?? Most fashion magazines sell a supplement pack which includes the august issue and another which features the new collections.

This is one of the wonderful perks of living here. In the states to purchase the Marie Claire with supplement, if it can be found would cost almost twenty dollars. Here I purchased both magazines and their supplements for only three euros each! (That's $8.60 in US dollars.)

Now I can't wait to find the time to cruise through them!!

I think Flair is an Italian publication. Their supplement features detailed photos, mostly each page has a theme.

Marie Claire's supplement is amazing! They present alphabetized designer pages with photos from the runway!

Lovely layouts!

I was so excited, I just had to share!!

---

Bing™ brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.

A Summer Day!

This past sunday we had a wonderful visit at the river!

It was an amazingly beautiful day!

We had a picnic and just enjoyed the water and the weather! We found this lovely little spot!

We encountered this tree, I wonder how old it is. I just thought it was amazing!

The beauty of nature!

---

Windows Live™ SkyDrive™: Get 25 GB of free online storage. Get it on your BlackBerry or iPhone.

The Beginning

Birth and an awaiting destiny,

A life with a determined journey.

The year 1973 brought the birth of a boy in Rimini, Italy.

He was the second male to parents who had lived an amazingly romantic life together. Over thirty years later, they divorced.

She was born in Texas, USA to an amazingly strong women who longed to live a romantic life. The child was born into a family of three males. Since her father was never present, she can not recall when her parents divorced.

---

Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.