A glimpse of our Christmas...

It all started with Christmas biscuits making on Christmas Eve. Ely had the idea to prepare cinnamon flavored biscuits for all the poeple (relatives and friends) we had to meet these holidays. In fact it was a good idea and it was fun. We baked loads of biscuits!!! And they turned out very good also! ;)

On Christmas Eve we also had to face a little emergency, because our cat Rufus didn't feel well. He started to have problems with breathing and so we took him to the veterinary clinic in town for a visit. And it wasn't for nothing. It happened that he had some kind of allergic reaction and that provoked the partial closure of the oesophagus...poor Rufy. Moreover they found on the X-ray that he had some kind of a swollen gland between the lungs and the heart. They made exams and it shouldn't be anything to worry about, but we are giving him medicines once a day to see if it could be a lung infection taken when it was a wild kitty and maybe had it passed from her mother. We spent a very bad moment though. It seemed it could be something worse than what it really was.

We woke up with some snow on Christmas day. But I also woke up sick! I felt really bad, probably both for the cold taken the day before and also for the stress caused by the Rufy thing. However we had a planned huge Christmas lunch at Ely's parents with all the relatives and - despite Ely would have wanted to stay at home with me - at the end we went together to the lunch. Ely was very happy to stay with her parents, the food was great and I enjoyed the company of everybody until I fell asleep on the couch because of the fever. I spent all the 26th in bed or on the couch watching movies we rented the day before. All this laziness never happens usually...so despite I was ill, it was nice to be cozy at home, doing nothing. Just resting. Great!

On the 27th I felt much better and we went to visit my grandparents and relatives in Creto. They prepared us a fantastic polenta carbonera for lunch and we spent the day all together. My grandfather wanted to show us some old photos and it was nice to see them together.

This week we were back at work, but this is a short working week because on New Year's Eve we will be closed until probably Jan,6th.

This New Year's Eve we have planned to spend the night - as tradition of these last 2 years - at my best friend Andrea and his wife Monica's place near Brescia. We will be some couples, all taking some kind of food and we will wait the coming of the new year eating, chatting, playing games and having fun together. For a perfect start of a new year full of expectations and plans for me and Ely.

Happy 2010 everybody!

And the winner is...

...Ely! With this photo:

She won 1 out of the 10 prices for the 10 best photos that now are displayed at the Pojer & Sandri winery in Faedo (near Trento) in an photographic exhibition and journey about wine, harvest and wineries. The photos in the exhibition are 62 and Ely has these other 2 displayed:

This last one is my favorite...I like the light and, just for a chance, the colors of the items are the same colors of the Italian flag.

Ely won a set of 3 bottles of wine and a fantastic selection of balsamic vinegars with different flavors (like apple, cherry, blueberry, cinnamon etc...)...that's better than money! ;) YUMMY And now we have a big print of the winner photo displayed in the house...

Now Ely blushes when I call her "photographer", but in my opinion she actually is considering her improvements and achievements in these last few months.

Belated 10 on 10 December :: Craft Fair in Milan

How could we miss the last 10 on 10 of 2009? Nooooo way! So here it is our belated installment for this month, about the craft fair we went to visit yesterday in Milan with both my family (except my brother) and Ely's family. It was fun to walk around this huge fair (they say it's the world's biggest craft fair with more than 3,500 stalls!) with crafts and food from all over the world. It was also the perfect occasion to buy some Christmas gifts for the family and friends. And, of course, something for us: fantastic olives from Puglia, lemons, mozzarella and caciotte from Naples, a little olive tree in a vase from Provance (France), soaps from Provance (France), pain briochè and madeleines from France, a tie (for me!) from Naples, earrings for Ely from Sardinia (Ely is suggesting me while writing:"very similar of those Rebekah made some time ago!") and a pair of danish slippers made of the same material as duvet, very warm and comfortable for this time of the year (Ely couldn't resist them!).

1. Upon arrival at the Milan-Rho fair

2. Entering the fair

3. All together...(except me, taking the picture!)

4. A stall selling waffles (cialde) with Nutella

5. Christmas decorations from Germany

6. A stall of sweets

7. A polish restaurant (but then we ate a french baguette!)

8. Origami at the japanese stalls area (every country was also showing and teaching their arts and crafts to visitors. Very interesting!)

9. Learning how to make an origami (here with my teacher!)

10. A jazz show. We loved it!

Merry merry Christmas everybody!!!

**::**::**::**

Buon Natale a tutti!!!

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Froehliche Weihnachten!!!

This is the time...

...to decorate the house for Christmas. This year - because of our kitty Rufy - we have decided to buy a new artificial Christmas tree and new not-breakable decorations (made of metal, wood, plastic or fabric). The result is a new romantic Christmas tree, pretty old style.

We love it.

...to eat Christmas sweets with a hot tea in the evening. This is a fantastic mandarin cake we found at the local Christmas Market. YUMMY!!!

More Christmas things to come! ;) And Rufy is just expecting something fun to play with! :)

Meeeoooowwww!

Venice

Venice :: 11.15.09

The last photo exercise excursion of Ely's photo course was planned in Venice last Sunday. So we had the excuse to go to Venice a day before on Saturday and spend a romantic weekend in the lagoon.

We have been to Venice several times, as it is very close to Trento, but every time it's a pleasure. Venice is unique and despite the classical routes through the alleys for San Marco, Rialto and La Ferrovia are always crowded and congested by tourists, there are other areas where it's less full and it's nice to get lost around.

For sure my favorite moment of the day in Venice is the late evening and the night. It's when San Marco Square is pretty empty and illuminated by the pink light of the old style lamps in the square. You can sit on a stair somewhere and listen to the music of a piano or a violin coming out of the many famous cafes. Then, before dinner it's fun to go in some "Bacari" (typical bars) where it's possible to drink "spritz" or "prosecco" (wine) eating typical appetizers or panini, usually standing around somewhere in the local (they are usually very little and crowded) or sitting on rough wooden tables with a candle in a bottle (this last is pretty close to the general stereotype of the italian "trattoria" in the foreigners imaginary...)

Ely and I couldn't stay at any friends' place this time, because we decided to stay overnight only on Friday. So we found a very nice little hotel (at a very reasonable price because last minute!) close to San Marco and Rialto. The positive surprise was that we hadn't only a room, but an entire apartment. So we went to a nice Bacaro and then we ate in the apartment (a nice pasta alla carbonara, yummy!). After all we had a romantic 2-hour walk around Venice by night. It was our favorite part of the whole weekend!

The next day we met with Ely's photography group and we spent the day together photographing around. Ely selected some of her favorite photos for this post and for the tomorrow display and commentary with the photography class. Enjoy them!

Last but absolutely not least, we want to wish our little cousin Wesley a very happy birthday. We wish we were there to celebrate, but we thought of him (and of Jenny and Jeff too!) on Sunday. We also bought a little present that it will be mailed soon...but still a surprise at the moment!!! :)) hehehe

xxxoooxxx

10 on 10 :: Castles Hunting :: Nov. '09

(Photos by Ely - Editing by Mario)

Happy November's 10 on 10!

Can't wait to see all other installments this month!

-M. & E.

Micio

Il Micio

In Italian Micio is a childish word for cat. In correct Italian cat would be translated into "gatto", but micio is much sweeter and familiar. We often call our Rufy micio...

Our micio has been in our house since June, 2nd and from that moment he has become part of our little family. He's a loving cuddlesome kitty, he is always in search of our company and spends most of his time with us. His favorite place where he hides or goes to sleep is under our bed in a basin where we put our laundry. It is probably because he can smell our scent and feel protected.

He also is quite a greedy one in terms of food. At the beginning, when he was a kitty, he always wanted to steal our food from the table, but now he is very respectful and when we eat - on the table or on the couch - he always stays close, but lets us eat without jumping up and down trying to steal food. Then, when it happens that we have a dessert and when we have finished it, he comes close very gently and sometimes we let him lick away what is left.

He likes to play with some little balls that we bought for him and unfortunately he also likes to eat our plants in the house, despite I bought and planted an entire vase of grass for cats...that he dislikes instead.

Every time I work at the computer he jumps on the desk and asks for cuddles. If ignored for some reasons, he lies down on the keyboard and doesn't let me go on working without cuddles...

We love you, micio!

Finally...

1) ...it's weekend!

2) ...Abercrombie and Fitch opened a flagship store right in Milan! (The second one in Europe after London). We are planning a day of shopping in the fashion mecca very soon, just in time for the Christmas season, which is so beautiful especially in big cities, with all those decorations and lights around streets and squares!

3) ...we are developing new ideas for the furnishing of our new office. Yesterday we bought new lamps at "La Rotaliana". I love design stuff!!!

4) ...today we took part at the inauguration of the Kartell flagship store here in Trento. Thank you to our hosts at the shop for the invitation to the party, the great food and the fantastic display of all kinds of Kartell's design forniture. We are planning some buys for the new office.

5) ...I have a Macbook Pro (and I love it!!!).

6) ...I bought a new computer bag for my new PC on Ebay...I couldn't resist!!!

7) ...tomorrow I have the time for an appointment to cut my hair!

8) ...I drove a BMW X5. So comfy! So big! So beautiful!!

9) ...it's time for mandarins and oranges! I love citrus!!

10) ...outside it's cold enough for teas or hot chocolates with marshmallows in the afternoon!

11) ...Ely has a new cookbook!

12) ...the cat is quiet and sleeping so I could write this post!

13) ...I am going to bed! Good night, folks! ;))

Catty pumpkin

After a very very full working week, we finally found the time to express our creativity and decorate the house for Halloween. It happened that we found a very nice pumpkin the other day at the grocery store, and we bought it with the idea to carve it the same evening. It didn't happen, we were so tired, and we also had an indecision about what to design on the pumpkin this year. The next day Ely grabbed some of her "Living" Magazines and started to look through in search of an idea that would have been different from the same jack-o-lantern spooky face that every year we end to carve into the pumpkin...and she proposed to carve the pumpkin like a haunted little house with windows and doors, and maybe some paper flying bats and witches attached on it. Even that evening we went to sleep without any carved pumpkins and any taken decisions for its design.

Finally today I remembered to have stored in the garage a box full of Halloween decorations and also a full kit with carving blades and patterns for halloween pumpkin design that a friend of mine sent me from the USA some years ago. Among the different patterns, we found a very nice not-so-spooky catty face and we suddenly decided how we wanted to carve the pumpkin this year. (Rufy is ruling this house and our minds, I think!)

Anyway, after a couple of full hours of work, this is what it came out...I love our Halloween pumpkin this year!!!!

How did you design your pumpkin this year?

Happy Halloween everybody!