Success Is In Doing...

I feel success is in doing for a couple of reasons. Mr. C and I traveled to Italy a while back and had a wonderful trip. I was focused on beads and inspiration for making jewelry. I have shared a lot of this in previous posts. In one of the more upscale fashion districts in Florence I saw a necklace displayed in a shop window and I was entranced. Of course my photos wouldn't work because of the glass and the lighting. So in my mind was this necklace I just had to make as my own. Time passes...more time passes and I never make it. Well you know the story...doubt held me back! So in my 2011 frame of mind to do it NOW I went into my studio yesterday and pulled out everything I thought I might like to use. I knew it would be black and silver overall. Well...

Here is my version of the coveted Italian necklace. I used all things I already owned. A couple of vintage necklaces, some purchased chain, black suede hearts, Swarovski crystals in clear and smokey black diamond, a black tassel, some sheer polka dot ribbon and two purchased round charms. I started to assemble everything together and just let the pieces fall where they wanted to. I am so pleased with how this turned out and will be wearing it this weekend which I shall share in a future post.

My feeling of success is the best. Getting it done NOW is even better. I am feeling quite positive about this year and what I personally will be able to achieve.

Getting things done is something I can accomplish. It may be cleaning a room, it may be spending time with my family and friends or it may be creating something fun.

I hope you are feeling success with something important to you.

Happy creating...

Who Moved My Focus?

Here it is March and the sun is shining for more than a few hours, the rain has subsided for the time being, Daffodils are blooming and we have Daylight Savings Time in effect which gives us longer days by staying light later. Personally I love all of this. Unfortunately I lose my New Year resolve and my FOCUS gets distracted and I go in way too many directions and start way too many projects. I am just so excited that we will be done with dreary and cold winter (well for the most part).
So...Who Moved My Focus? Who me? Did I do that? (Can't you just hear Urkel saying that?!)
So luckily I caught myself and re-focused myself so that I can be on track to accomplish all of the wonderful things I plan on accomplishing this year.

Pictured at the top is the Tuscany countryside in Italy. I took that inspiration and made this necklace and earrings from some of the Murano glass beads I bought while visiting Italy.
Tuscany Gold Green is what I named this...Tuscan Oro Verde. I like the combination of glass beads and fabric heart yo-yos. Yes, I have listed it in my etsy shop. I feel like I am on my focus once again and it feels so excellent to accomplish something today.
I have been working on my Adorn-Me jewelry design line and I shall be able to post updates in the near future. For now I am just thrilled to be working in my studio and making what I love to do.
How are you doing on your own personal New Year "resolutions"?

Field of Miracles...

This is the famous leaning tower of Pisa. Yes in Pisa Italy. This is a very shaded photo and hard to determine the actual lean of the tower. Years of engineering and straightening the tower and it still leans...dramatically! When you are standing near the tower it is amazing. If you wanted to spend the Euros, wait in a very long line, and climb a lot of stairs you could actually climb up the tower. I did not. However I can imagine the view.

This photo shows the actual dramatic lean of the tower as it sits in the Field of Miracles. The large building just in front of the tower is a church. The building to the left was a hospital.

This is me after a very long day of walking and my little piggies were not only tired but they were almost blistered. That cool green grass felt so good.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to stand amongst so much history in this world we live in.

Italian Bead Quest...

Oh the quest for beads in Italy began far before my actual trip took place. I searched on the internet, asked friends and travelers, chatted on line with recent returning travelers and it was looking very grim for finding beads and bead stores in Italy. I finally just days before departure found one bead store in Florence which was our first stop. This is me looking very tired and wondering in hindsight why we forgot to take any photos inside while we selected and made our purchases.

These are the handmade lampwork beads the artist makes. I merely bought an assortment not knowing what I was going to do other than make jewelry pieces for my etsy shop. The shop owner and artist actually graciously fired up the torch and made me a bead on the spot. It is the black and white one in the photo at top of the group. I was trying to convince my husband to learn lampwork bead making as I am too fearful of fire and burning flesh to do it myself. I did not succeed with that request. LOL

Purchasing beads in a foreign country is a wonderful pursuit as it breaks up the constant visits to churches and museums. Also the beads are very easy to carry and don't add much weight to carry-ons. They also lighten the bank account as the prices can really soar especially with the very high Euro to US Dollar rates we experienced.

Oh I feel so proud like I have just hatched the most beautiful creation.

This necklace is the first item for "Adorn Me!" jewelry design line I am adding to etsy. Please check out http://createology.etsy.com/ for more information.

It is titled "Night Lights on the Arno" and the photo at the top is the inspiration for it.

It was a magical and wonderful trip to Italy and one I shall never forget. Oh I do wish I had purchased more beads than I did.

Buona sera.

Cinque Terra, Italy...

Welcome to Cinque Terra Italy. It is comprised of five small towns along the coast of Italy. They are perched high up on the cliffs and we arrived by train. This photo is the usual stance of me climbing stairs...lots and lots of very steep stairs. We actually had a variety of stairs, steep, long and low, spiral, concrete, brick, metal, wood and I counted 116 stairs to our room. WHEW! What an incentive to pack light and not have a ton of things to carry. There are no elevators!

How in the world these towns and buildings got built way back in centuries of yore is a daunting and back-breaking task of unimaginable size. They not only got built but are still standing and being lived in. Truly amazing.

Cinque Terra is some peoples very favorite magical place in the world. The water is clear and beautiful. The towns are quaint and charming. The food is so so. But some how when you are here you feel like you are on top of the world.

The colors are exactly what you would think and expect. Soft earthly tones.

Our hotel is near the tower you see at the very end of this cliff. We had one of the prized balconies and a view that was to die for. We could see forever. DH took this photo while on his hike from town to town. I did the short easy hike referred to as lover's hike. I am more of the strolling adventurer. Nothing too strenuous for me.

This is the largest town with 1700 population and is known as Monterosso. It is the resort town and is becoming quite the riviera of Cinque Terra. Note: The prices here reflect the status they are striving for.

This is Vernazza where we stayed for three nights. It was charming and beautiful. During the day it was overly crowded with day tourists that came in by the boat loads. However in the evenings after the day-trippers left it was quite pleasant. Watching the sunsets, sipping wine, eating pizza and gelato, watching the locals enjoying their tiny town...now that is what a vacation is.

I am thankful I have been so lucky to experience such an incredible trip on this journey of life.

Ciao.

Hungry for flavor???

While we were in Italy we tried to eat something unique each and every day. And you can be very certain that we ate very well. As you know dinner is served later than we are used to here in the USA. So after walking and exploring all day long we were always "starving" long before the 9:00 pm dinner time. We were usually the first to be seated at any restaurant and therefore early at 8:00 or 8:30 pm. In Florence I ordered Raviolini with drunk cheese and this is the picture of my dinner. What an unusual meal I had! The pecorino cheese is actually stuffed into grapes and left to ferment. The flavor is strong and quite tasty. The small dark flecks are the grape skins that actually petrify during the fermenting process. The waiter had quite a smile when he explained my meal to me in his broken english.

So for truly unique cuisine we went to a very posh restaurant in Monterosso which is one of the five towns in Cinque Terra. This photo is of the salted anchovies we ate for appetizer at lunch. Thank goodness for bread. Monterosso hosts an annual world festival dedicated to anchovies.

In Pisa we missed visiting the one restaurant we had pre-selected based on recommendations. Instead our hotel suggested Benys across the river. I must tell you that it was the best overall in our entire trip. Damiano and his wife (who does the cooking) were wonderful and ever so friendly and charming. He suggested the white wine and the red wine both of which were perfect. He had his wife make a special salad for us that was not on the menu.

This is porcini mushrooms with pecorino cheese and white truffle oil. The presentation was beautiful. The flavors were superb. Luckily for us it was mushroom season and we both enjoy mushrooms very much. This salad was original and yummy.

Then for the he-man hunger Damiano suggested the Chianna Beef stuffed with prosciutto and pecorino drizzled generously with a browned red wine sauce. My husband was in heaven. I had a bite and it literally melted in my mouth. Oh my goodness.

As I have said we ate extremely well throughout our trip. Luckily we did a lot of walking so it offset the immense food we so willingly ate.

No photos of gelatto but I did enjoy my share of this cool and creamy treat. My favorite flavor was the mascarpone e nutella I ate in Vernazza.

Okay...back to reality and regular food. At least we have our memories of such tasty treats.

Celery anyone???

Colors of Italy...

I just love the colors in this photo. They are so vibrant and alive. Our last day in Florence we went to the Mercato and spent time visiting each of the different stalls. There were amazing buckets of olives in every shape and color. Fruits and vegetables of all types...but do not touch any of them or you will get yelled at as they think they (the vendor) should select them for you.
There were cured meats of all shapes and sizes. Hams, prosciuttos, salamis, and many that I have no idea what they were. This photo just makes me think it should be our cover shot for this year's Christmas cards. LOL

And then there was Andrea...the happy, smiling and helpful deli counter Italian who spoke a tiny bit of English. We had eaten some salami at one of our dinners earlier in the week and asked if he knew what it was. Our lucky day! It was Finocchiona and made special in Florence. The salami is infused with fennel (which we both love!) so it has a slight licorice taste and is delicious. Well, Andrea honored our request for some picnic items for our train ride and packaged our items perfectly. We bought Finocchiona sliced just right, Pecorino cheese, some soft dark bread and the extra special item...pear chutney to dip our Pecorino cheese into. Very YUMMY!!!

We boarded the train in Florence and headed to Cinque Terra which was our next location. Along the way we enjoyed our little picnic and the amazing views while zipping along. We found the trains to be quite accommodating and easy to use.

To sum up our stay in Florence...thank goodness we went in the off tourist season since there were hundreds of people in their tour groups. It was quite crowded to say the least. After hours it did settle down and one could walk the streets much more easily.

Ciao Florence. Boun giorno Cinque Terra will be the next post.

Florence sights...

Welcome to Florence Italy. This is where my adventures began last month when my husband and I went on Holiday vacation. As any of you who travel know the flights are extremely long and crowded. Lots of delays and virtually no sleep so that when you arrive at your destination you are so tired you just cannot even think straight. Fortunately for me my husband is a wonderful organizer and planner and therefore he gets us where we need to be with me just blindly following along. I am usually in such a daze and all wonder-eyed at the sights and sounds that I have absolutely no clue what I am doing or where I am going. I have such a child-like wonder at seeing everything. Traveling for me is incredibly mind expanding.

The Duomo in photo at the top is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and is the centerpiece of Florence. Neptune's fountain is in the Piazza della Signoria and while we were there was being repaired from damage done by someone. Florence is easily managed on foot and we did a lot of walking. Of course we visited Michelangelo's "David" who resides in the Accademia museum. Absolutely no photos are permitted of this most amazing statue. We also enjoyed the Uffizi and the Cappelle Medicee museums.

I just love the tiny little Smart cars. Of course we now have them here in the States but in Italy they make such better sense as the cobblestoned streets and alleys are all so very narrow and crowded.

Oh the famous Ponte Vecchio which means "Old Bridge". It crosses the Arno river and is lined with jewelry shops. This view we took from inside the Uffizi so you can see some glass glare. Our weather was perfect and we had an amazing time in Florence.

I shall share some food favorites and a special spot in a future post. For now we shall say Ciao to Florence.

I would love to hear of your travels to Italy and what your favorite thing might have been.


Ciao...

It's good to be home...

Oh it is so good to be home. Dear Hubby and I are safely home after spending 20 days away. I am still recovering from exhaustion but today finally feel like I will survive. This is the only photo of me that I do not look as weary as I felt every day. This was early in the day before the grind of museums or hill towns got me drop dead worn out.
Our destination was Italy...Florence, Cinque Terra, Pisa, Tuscany, Umbria and Rome. In the next few weeks I shall tell more in detail. As for now we had beautiful weather with only one morning that rain drenched us and shortened our plans. We had excellent travel with planes, trains and automobiles. DH plans everything so well that we really were well prepared for this trip.
As you can see from this photo we ate our way through Italy. This was homemade granola (muesli is what they call it...I prefer granola as it sounds so much better to me) with some strawberry yogurt. I have lots of photos of food that we enjoyed which I shall share along the way.
My goal was to find bead shops in Italy for my new jewelry line "Adorn Me!". Well that proved to be very difficult however I did manage to find a couple and will share these adventures as well.
As for now, I am catching up on tons of laundry, reacquainting myself with our beloved aging fur-child kitty and enjoying friends who are all too willing to listen to our travel tales. This entire trip was a no techno gadget time for us so you can imagine how much I missed reading all of your blogs and now I am catching up on those too.
"There is no place like home" and it is so good to be back in my beautiful cozy familiar home. I am extremely grateful for the trip of a life time and the experiences and memories it allowed me.
Now it is time to get into the studio and get to making jewelry.