WILD [my word of the year 2017]

Hi everyone!

Yes, I'm still alive!

Very very busy at the moment, but full of strenght and ready to start the new year with good energy!

In these first days of 2017 I dedicated part of my free time to find my word of the year 2017.

A lot of people in the world are doing it and I find it very inspirational for my daily life, my job and my creative journey.

I followed the (free!) course by Susannah Conway. 

It's a 5 days path, full of ideas and good advices to find the right word.

To be honest, I was so busy (for my jobs) that I needed 10 days to complete the course. At day 3 I started to feel a bit confused, because a big amount of words was rolling here and there in my brain.

But at day 4... an epiphany! 
I was 100% sure about my word for 2017.

My word of the year 2017 is WILD!

I started to brainstorm in the last pages of my Moleskine journal the meaning of "wild" (to me, of course). 

I wrote in italian, but I'd like to translate something for you.

WILD means:

- to be close to nature, animals and plants

- to be in contact with instinct and inner energies

- to live a simple and basic life

- to live respecting nature's rules and the cicle of seasons

- courage

- defense of territory

- to explore

- to take care of the nest

- to avoid all is artefact and empty social convention

- to take care of the herd

- cold, hot, hunger, dirt

- green, brown, blue

- freedom

- to roar, to howl, to purr

- to go hunting

- to leave footprints

Oh, it's so inspiring and full of meaning to me!!!

There's in this list something in common to being a little fox, but something more, too!

And now?

How to bring the word of the year into real life?

The first thing I've done is this little painted pebble:

I've decorated it with a black marker and nail polish in different colours (+ transparent to finish the surface).

Now it's into my wallet, among coins.

I use coins everyday, expecially to buy fresh bread (you know, I'm italian).

So I'm sure to have a lot of opportunities to see this little pebble and my word! I think it's a good idea to remember it during busy day, when you start to be a bit "disconnected".

I'd like to find other creative ways to have my word with me. Are you interested? I could write a post about them (next week).

In the meantime you can look for the hashtag #woty2017 to discover something about other people' word of the year and their ways to make them live into their daily life.

I'd like to know if you have a word of the year for 2017 or not. 

Share it with me in the comments!

Any suggestions for my next post?

Amazing birthday

Hi, everyone! :)

I'm writing from my parents' home. We are having a great holiday here!

Yesterday we celebrated my 35° birthday and I smiled all day! :)

This has been probably one of the best birthdays of my life, because:

- the sun shined all day

- the day started checking my e-mails and I noticed that an australian buyer purchased one of my items. Happy me!

- Mum coocked for me a birthday lunch and we eat my favourite dish of the north: polenta!

- After lunch my aunt, my big cousins and the little dog Mila came to visit me and we eat cake together (and we had a lot of fun!). Really a yummy cake, look:

- Then S. and I visited a lovely museum in my favourite town (Lodi): the "Printing and art print making museum" (I'm going to write a blog post about it, because I have a lot of things to show you!).

- I met my lovely friends Alice, Cri and Pietro for dinner: we had pizza in Lodi. How I missed them in these 3 months in Sicily!

A lovely day, full of joy and beautiful things!

No sewing week

My "no sewing week" started last monday.

I'm spending the whole week without sewing.

No thread, no fabric, no needles... nothing sewing-related will be part of my week.

Guess why?

My head is so full of projects, ideas, experiments to try, patterns to text, etc. that my brain refuses to work. And my hand consequently, of course.

Last week I:

- broke two needles

- made a lot of mistakes in cutting the fabric for a super simple coin purse

- had a lot of trubles with thread's tension

- started a lot of projects and abandoned them because something was going wrong

- became nervous -__-

So I decided to stop and try to clean my brain.

I think this is a common problem.

An incredible amount of inspirations, suggestions and ideas bombards us in the creative/crafty world.

And we want to do a lot of things, but simply we can't (time and energy aren't enough). And all these ideas clump in our brain and confound it.

I need fresh air, so I stopped my sewing routine.

This week in my spare time I'm:

- reading a novel

- reading my favourite magazines

- cleaning the home more than usual and in a better way

- writing in my moleskine journal, almost finished

- crocheting (a project finished!)

- sorting out my craft supplies

- walking a lot

- drawing

And probably this no-sewing week will last more than a week.

S. and I will leave Sicily next friday to go to visit my parents and friends in the north. We'll stay there 10 days and I'm so excited!:)

We'll celebrate my birthday (sunday 22) and my parents' anniversary and do a lot of lovely things (already planned in my mind).

I hope to come back in sicily with a brain enough clean to sew all I want:

- two bags ordered by two lovely girls

- bike bags

- Alanis clutch

- Snappy coin purse

- new tops for me (and skirts, too)

- wallets for men

- new table runner for my kitchen (more summery than the previous one)

Books read during 2011

January is coming to the end and probably it's too late for "2011 rewiev posts". But someting stopped me at the beginning of january (probably holidays at my parents' home and my becoming a student again), so I'm starting to watch to 2011 and to plan 2012 now!

I surfed into my journal pages and I had a confirmation about something I've already noticed: in 2011 I read less than usual :(

The radical change in my daily routine, due to my move in the south and the start of a new life, has been decisive.

Animway, this is the list of the books I read in 2011...

... FICTION

- Clara and Mr. Tiffany, by Susan Vreeland

- The granny, by Brendan O'Carroll

- The great stink, by Clare Clarck

- Sense and sensibility, by Jane Austen (sooo boring!)

- A room for her own, by Virginia Woolf

- The sergent in the snow, by Mario Rigoni Stern (recommended!!!)

- Harry Potter 3

- Vaclav and Lena, by Harley Tanner
- The writing diet, by Julia Cameron

CRAFT/CREATIVITY BOOK
- The artist way, by Julia Cameron
- The complete idiot's guide to amigurumi", by June Gillbank

- Patchwork for beginners

- Design-it-yourself clothes, by Cal Patch
- The bag making bible, by Lisa Lam

- Whatcha mean, what's a zine, by Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd

- The Practical guide to patchwork By Elizabeth Hartman

I'm not totally satisfied by my 2011 readings. Less ficiont than usual and a lot of books abandoned before finishing them (not in the list).
This lists are very different from my 2010 list!

In 2012 I want to start again to read a lot (mainly good novels), as I've always done in my life.
I started with a book by Antonia S. Byatt and it's great! :)

New books in my wishlist

I love books and my wishlist is always full.

Though I have less time to read now that I live here with S. (and I have to solve this problem soon, because I really miss my reading routine), I always need to buy books. Probably I'll make myself a gift for Christmas, why not?

These are books I'm in love with now; they are books about creativity and sewing.

- The fabric selector, by Dana Willard

- Raw Art journaling, by Quinn McDonald

- Miss Scarlet's school of patternless sewing, by Cathy Cano-Murillo

- Regina's closet, by Diana Raab

- Sewing bits and pieces, by Sandi Henderson

Well, in my mind there are some good novels, too, but I'm looking for them in the library.

Have a good weekend, dear readers!

In my plans for saturday and sunday there are... a lunch with a couple of friends, an elegant birthday party, some sewing, washing and ironing some new fabrics I bought yesterday.

And you?

Any suggestions about lovely crafty books to read?

Happy things for me

- New art supplies: a set of Staedtler watercolor pencils and some brushes I've tested in my moleskine watercolor journal.

- New things to drawn and paint on: little sea stones!

- Robins and other lovely birds I see in my garden while I'm having breakfast. I usually save crumbs and, early in the morning, scatter them in the garden: they come and have breakfast with me :)

(unfortunately they don't like to be photographed closely)

- Another fabric bracelet, quickly sold (thanks, Bi!)

- Chestnuts! S. and I went on a trip on Mount Etna last sunday and picked up 11 Kg (!!!) of yummy chestnuts. Gnam!

- Our new plants, given by generous friends: aloe and a gorgeous plant with velvet leaves (can you help me? I'm looking for the name of this plant)

- Photos my parents send me, like this astonishing flower blossomed from a tiny succulent plant in their garden.

Lovely blog award! :)

La mia cara Nadeshiko mi ha dato un premio: il lovely blog award!

Grazie :)

E quindi adesso gioco (mi piacciono i giochi): devo scrivere sette cose che non sapete di me e dare il premio ad altri 10 blog che ritengo meritevoli.

Ok, cominciamo.

Sette cose di me che (forse) non sapete:

1) Faccio un sacco di sogni, la notte. Quando mi sveglio me ne ricordo sempre almeno 2 o 3, ogni notte. Alcuni sono semplici, altri complicatissimi, lunghissimi. I miei amici, quando si vogliono divertire, mi chiedono: "Hai qualche sogno da raccontarci?"

2) Ho lavorato come insegnante per qualche anno. Ecco, so che sto per tirarmi dietro critiche, ma devo essere sincera: odio quel lavoro! E, ricollegandomi al punto 1, proprio ieri ho avuto uno dei miei incubi ricorrenti in cui ero a scuola, in classe e succedeva di tutto.

3) Non ho mai visto un film horror e mi auto-proibisco di vedere film violenti. Tanto lo so che sono troppo suggestionabile. E aggiungo che non ho mai visto nemmeno una puntata dei seguenti telefilm "di culto": CSI, GraceAnatomy, Lost, ecc. sono un po' fuori dal mondo, lo so. In compenso non me ne sono persa una di "Desperate Housewives".

4) L'altitudine più alta che ho raggiunto a piedi (nelle mie camminate sulle Alpi) è 3036 m sul livello del mare, precisamente ho raggiunto il Rifugio Mezzalama. Amo la Val d'Aosta, ho dei problemi con le Dolomiti (non mi dicono granchè, lo so, vi prego, non uccidetemi).

5) Non distinguo bene la destra con la sinistra e mi oriento con difficoltà. Comunque me la cavo sempre.

6) Sono una di quelle persone che difficilmente si arrabbia o si offende. Ho molta pazienza, tollero, mi metto nei panni degli altri. Solo che se mi arrabbio davvero, lo faccio per bene e non è piacevole (state attenti).
7) Mangio più o meno tutto, senza problemi e mi danno fastidio le persone che fanno le difficili con il cibo. Però non voglio mangiare: fegato (schifo schifo schifo), ostriche (più schifo ancora), conigli e altri piccoli animali (e non escludo del tutto la possibilità di smettere di mangiare animali, ma per ora il vegetarianesimo è una scelta che stimo ma ancora non pratico).

E ora devo dare il premio a 10 blog... ehm, facciamo 5, dai!
Il premio va a:
- Vanilla
- Ethereal flowers
- Biberta
- Vera
- NaturalmenteJo

Some photos I took this week

I have so many things to blog about in these days!

School is out for summer, so I don't work and I have a lot of time for art&craft experiments, for reading, exploring the garden and take photos of .... everything.

Yaeh! :)

So many things to say that... today I decided to write a post where photos will help me to tell you about all is filling my life now.

I'm a lucky girl

I won a beautiful set of cards from PaintedFishStudio thanks to Carina's giveaway!

I know, this is the third giveaway I won this year. Lucky girl!

The cards arrived really well-packed; they looked so professional!

And Jen sent me also a cute and funny gift: a red fish able to tell something about your fortune.

When it was on my hand it said that I'm in love! :)

Thank you, Jen!

Your cards are lovely, the fish is so cute and your service is really good!

Amazing succulents

My dad grows succulents in the garden. It has a sort of collection (140 vases, I'm not joking!). In this period of the year they gave us amazing big and colorful flowers. Look at the following photos: aren't they incredible?

Hallo world, this is me

I took some photos of me. The one with mustache is for Etsy Italia Team (we have a lot of fun, great team!). The other one shows me reflected in a car's roof.

Recycling with AuntFran. Ops, we did it again :)
We made a second bag with recycled t-shirt yarn (here you can find the first bag). This is made of one dress and one big t-shirt. Knitted by my aunt. I've added a fabric lining with two pockets. Do you like it?



 I planned to write blog posts about:

- postage stamps, real and faux

- me walking toward art journaling (a sort of)

- new damask bags (and bike bags, too)

- batik

So, stay tuned!

Great projects for Easter holidays

Easter holidays are coming!

I'll have only one day of work (tuesday) and then there will be a whole week of holidays for me! :)

S. will come to stay with me for four days and next friday I'll celebrate my 34th birthday.

But before talking about my holidays project, let's say something about these flowers I picked up this morning in my parents' garden. Aren't they lovely?

Italian name of this flower is "mughetto"; I've looked for its english name in a dictionary and I found "lily of the valley". Oh, what a fabolus name!

I repet it in my name every now and then... "lily of the valley"... poetic!

My projects for these long holidays to come - a list

1) SEWING

- finish my new moleskine covers with vintage fabric

- sew a bag for Matteo's mum with the recycled leather she sent me

- sewing other softies like these (they are perfect for Easter)

2) LOVE, FAMILY, FRIENDS

- spend some days with S. in a beautiful place here in Italy (I'll wrote a blog post)

- have a funny Easter lunch with S. and all my family

- visit some special friends when S. is here

3) FOOD FOR THE SOUL

- go to the cinema and watch "La fine è il mio inizio" with S.

- finish to read "The great stink" by Clare Clark

- read my new craft books I've ordered from amazon.it (I hope they will arrive before my birthday)

4) ME

- buy a new pair of pendant earrings

- go for a bicycle race in the country

- celebrate my birthday with a romantic dinner

5) COOKING

- bake bread and homemade pizza

And you, my dear readers?
Have you great projects for Easter?

Planning my weekend

I usually work from tuesday to saturday morning, so my weekend goes from now (saturday afternoon, after a deep snap I took on the sofa, eh eh) to monday.

I always have big projects for my free days, but not always I succeed in make them active and gratifying. Probably a list will help me! :)

I'm a bit obsessed by making lists; I think that they are really useful!

I write them on my weekly planner, when they are about work, and on my moleskine notebook, if they concern all other activities of my life (craft, etsy, love and friends, projects for my new home, gardenind, cosmetics to try, book to get out of the library...).

Lists are useful not only because they help you to remember, but mainly because they "force" you to be mindful about your life.

So... let's go: THINGS I WANT TO DO THIS WEEKEND!

1. See two special guys (my friends P. and M.) for a beer.

2. Write a page or two of my new zine.

I decided to write it in italian in the first place and then traslate it in english. I've already written four pages about plants' symbolism. These are two black and white illustrations I realized for it.

3. Sewing something with the beautiful sheets of italian damask I received from a friend who works as upholsterer. They were part of an old pattern book and he was going to throw them away, but I arrived and saved them! Recycling girl stroke again!

I washed them and ironed: they revealed bright colors under the dust!
I will sew bag and pouches with theme! I love second-hand craft materials!!!

I also have some recycled brown leather to match with them.

4. Reading!

I'm finishing "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" by Susan Vreeland. Uhm, it disappointed me a bit. I don't like the carachter of Clara and the plot is boring. I like the descriptions of the creative process in glass art, instead, but this is not enough for me to appreciate this book.

5. Drawing!

And you? Have you great plans for your weekend?

Feel free to share them with me!