Christmas ornaments for introverts

I know, the title sounds a bit crazy, but it reflects some of my thoughts of this period. 

In my (rare) spare time I'm dedicating myself to get my shop ready for Christmas and so I've worked on new photos of my handmade ornaments (and also prepared a coupon code to have them with a 15% discount).

My ornaments
They are little and simple ornaments. Totally my style!

Some are made of cornastarch clay (stars and snowflakes) painted by me in white. Some others are made of recycled materials. My favourite are the felt embroidered stars.

They are different but all of them are rustic, nature inspired, traditional and small.

But, the most important thing, they are not too much eye-catching.

And so I said in my mind: "Hey, they are for people like me! These ornaments are for introverts!".

What about Christmas if you are introvert?

I'm not a very "Christmas person". Oh, no, I'm not the Grinch, I'm only and introvert girl! Proud of my introversion.

You can hear introverts saying that:

• They don't like the wastefulness and the confusion of Christmas time
• They don't feel great at crowded parties (even when only close family is involved)
• They don't like to go out and spend entire afternoons looking for the right gift
• They don't like bulky home decoration which steal part of their living space

I know that, probably, introvert people during Christmas time like better to:

• spend a full afternoon at home, on the sofa, watching a good Xmas movie
• cooking alone Xmas dishes for very "private" christmas lunches / dinners
• avoid too much noisy things (like those Santa's puppets mechanically saying "OhOhOh")
• enjoy some time of rest at home, dedicating themselves to hobbies and quiet activities
• buy gifts on-line and not in real shops after hours and hours of wandering in crowded shopping centers
• decorate their nest with gentle and not too much eye-catching ornaments

And it's probably because I'm introvert that I like to make all the little and "kind" Christmas ornaments you can find in my shop.

They don't occupy too much living space. 

They don't make noise or bling-blings of any kinds. 

You can buy them on-line if you want to offer a little gift to someone special (a very selected one, I presume).

They are perfect for a quiet, resting, loner and silent Christmas time in our precious cave, ehm, nest! :)

What do you think?
Does my post sound odd, annoyng, Grinch-style? 
Is there something familiar for you in the introvert Christmas I depicted in this post?
(wait, are you introvert or extrovert? a free test for you) 

Study the topic a bit more with this posts I found recently: 

Gift guide for introverts by Untidygrace
What introverts can give during the holidays by Holley Gerth
Ideas to survive the holidays if you are introvert by IntrovertSpring

Simple happy things - July 2015

Last year I worked on a little project and documented every single day of July (I've called it "July in 31 photos").

Not the same, this year. 

July is very hot, I feel like I'm very down on batteries and I am not doing special things to capture with my camera (although I think that there's something special for us everyday and that happyness is hidden into simple things). 

But of course I took some snapshots here and there.

They make a sort of visual diary of this month. Simple things in my life.

Critters around the house...

A super secret project I can't wait to share with you...

Some hard and satisfying work at the sewing machine...

(completed this month: 5 bags + 2 wallets + 1 moleskine cover)

(bags 1 e 2 uploaded in my esty shop)

Summer yumminess...

Important birthdays and lovely birthday gifts by the kids...

Testing new tools (rivets!)...

Sicilian spring

Sicilian sunny spring is here!

Mount Etna is still covered by snow and smoking, but the sky is blue blue blue and the fields are green and yellow.

So many yellow flowers everywhere!

They are the home of tiny snails sometimes!

Animals are happy and needs some snuggles.

Others give birth to their children, because spring is the time for love and new families.

April is probably my favourite month.

I'm happy to be and april girl. I'm turning 38 the next week (on wednesdey) and I hope the day will be sunny and warm.

I work at school as a teacher everyday. I teach italian, history and geography (+ legislation of tourism some afternoons).

I'm busy and often tired, so I'm neglecting a bit this blog and my creative journey (my list of things to try is growing, waiting for some free time).

But I'm still taking pictures to document my life.

I reach my school by feet and I'm noticing here and there some wild flowers I like. They are very small but strong. Some of them look like orchids.

My life is full of beautiful things and today I can't resist in show you some of them.

Happy Sunday!!!

The privilege to live in Sicily

One of the privileges to live in Sicily is that amazing places to visit are very close to you. Like Agrigento and its "Valle dei templi" ("temples valley"), with the (oh, so beautiful!) ruins of the old greek city af Akragas.

A beautiful sight even in a dark, rainy and cold day!

(Oh, yes, this is me with my tourist guide pass)

Even the goats have something special here!

And almonds trees are blooming!

I feel so lucky to live in this beautiful region!

Amazing gifts: knitted Santa Lucia by Pam

I'm sure you know Pam.

Not only because I've mentioned her other times here on my blog as one of my best "on-line friends", but also because she writes a successfull blog (gingerbreadsnowflakes) with lot of readers.

But if you don't know Pam, well, you should! This post is for you, too.

She had very hard times this year, but she was so kind to finish a gift she promised to send me some months ago.
Look what it is:

A knitted doll with the sembiance of Saint Lucy (Santa Lucia in italian), so well made and so beautiful! 

And so precious to me, also because I know she knitted it for me during a very sad storm of her life.

The choice to make and give a Santa Lucia doll can appear a bit strange, but it isn't, because our friendship started to grow when we had the opportunity to share our thoughts about Santa Lucia day's traditions (some of you probably remember that I wrote for Pam' blog a guest article about italian traditions for Santa Lucia's day).

So this is not only a beautiful gift, but is also a symbol of the friendship between me and Pam :)

Lucia is now with Zarina, another "doll" Pam sent me some time ago (yes, I am a very lucky girl!).

I'm sure these two girls are good friend now. They probably spent the first night together chatting and chatting about almost everything, because, well, girls do it!

This doll surprised me for the care of its making and for some details like the hair and the candle crown:

And, ehm, I don't want to be insolent, but... look! Lucia wears panties, too!

:P

Love these details!

I'm very happy she is with me now!

Pam is a talented knitter and, since she is crazy for Christmas (according to her words), she also knits Christmas ornaments. 

Here you can find some of the ones Pam recently made (balls, mushroom, an elf and... oh, that polar bear!!!). 
To make them she follows Alan Dart's patterns; I think you have to take a look if you need ideas to dig into some Christmas knitting.

And also these balls are beautiful (patterns by Arne and Carlos). 

In the mail box I found also a little precious gift for mum:

Look what was inside the bubble wrap:

One of Pam's scandinavian shaved wood ornaments!!!

I can't wait to give it to my mum. For a happy coincidence I'll probably will be at mum's home with her gifts in my hands around S. Lucy's day! :)

A big THANK YOU to Pam and a suggestion for you: don't forget to visit Pam's blog if you haven't done it before. It's full of crafty and creative ideas for all seasons and I'm sure there is something that will inspire you!

Happy nostalgia

I'm looking back to my holidays today and I'm into a happy+nostalgic mood.

Yes, it's possible. 

Human feelings are so complex that happiness and nostalgia can walk together.

I'm looking to all the photos I took during our holiday at mum's home in the north and I feel so grateful for those happy days together with my friends and family! 

My batteries plenty recharged. I did all the things I love best (not only drawing and embroidery, of course!) and reconnected with the real me.

We explored the country by bycicle several times and enjoyed nature and ancient monuments.

We stayed in the garden, a lot. 

Picked up vegetables and fruit and cooked them. Discovered new (to me) species my brother is growning (did you know purple basil?). Fed the turtles everyday.

I've read a couple of novels and learned something new about nature thanks to my brother's books about trees and plants. I love to have good books near the bed!

We made some works for mum with dad's tools and found them very beautiful in the backlight.

And at the end of our days there two special ones got married :)

You can say we did nothing special this summer.

Yes, we haven't explored the world and hadn't great adventures to tell you.

But we enjoyed all that little things that speak special words to our hearts. This is important to me :)

Other photos on flickr!

July in 31 photos - days 19-31

Hello August!

I can't believe you are here! 

(already?)

The start of the new month is the perfect occasion to look all my July photos and make some considerations about my "July in 31 photos" project and the month I had.

But first of all I want to publish here all the photos I haven't shared with my readers: they are about days 19-31.

Day 19: in Licata with special friends for a feast+concert. The streets were decorated with thiese colorful umbrellas. Great idea!
I took other beautiful photos of the concert, the harbour (my favourite of this bunch) and umbrellas at night.

Day 20: Sunday. Rest day + sewing. I designed a t-shirt pattern with the help of a t-shirt I have in my closet.

Day 21: We bought some elegant clothes for S. because this summer we are invited to 3 weddings.

Day 22: a very ugly photos for probably the most exciting moment of this month: the firts time we've seen Macchia's baby out of his/her "cave".

Day 23: Today mom sent me this photo of a giant flower born from a succulent plant dad bought some weeks before his death. I decided to publish it for this day, because it's too beautiful!!!

Day 24: Today I received a sad new: a lovely friends has lost her husband after years and years of life together. I've been sad all the day and decided to take a photo of a dalia flower in my garden to dedicate to this man recently died and to my friend.

Day 25: Cutting magazines! I saved some images for future collages and some other to paste into my moleskine journal. That girl on the bike... oh, she's me (I haven't blond hair and I'm not so thin, but I feel like this image is speaking about me).

Day 26: First wedding of the season! I like my green dress, all made of lace!
And I like my man into elegant clothes.

Day 27: trying to make a mat for my sewing machine using my braid od t-shirt yarn. After a quiet start, somthing went wrong :(

Day 28: Macchia's baby started to walk in our garden. Oh, I'm in love!!!

Day 29: Beautiful colors in the veggies I cook almost everyday. Love veggies!

Day 30: Sleeping with mum (probably my favourite photo of the month)

Day 31: I made pesto with the basil we are growing in our garden. What a smell!