1St STop

Water! It has been a long journey in a very hot hot day. We got our rental camper van 4 hours away from where we live, moved our stuff in and on the road again to Garda Lake. We arrived at evening time, pale blue colors everywhere, nice sound of water. Here the holiday begins.

oN THe ROad

Sorry for being away for a long long time, I missed being here. How is your summer going? We are travelling around in northern Europe, without internet connection that is. Finding a sim card for abroad was not as easy as we thought, but here am I for a while now.
Most of the time this is the view I get to see: my foot reflected on the camper van window. Beyond that, wonderful views of green fields, pine tree forests, blue skies and even lovely cool rain [sometimes you need that when you live in a country when summers are boiling hot!].
Our final destination for this vacation is Berlin, I cannot wait to get there but we'll make many stops in many lovely places before that; I will try to share as many pictures as i can. In the meantime I enjoy a coffee break. 

                                                     



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PORtfOLio

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1000 BOLle blU

The weekend started with bubbles blowing at Erik's friend birthday party. It is proceding now very quietly though, since our little one came down with flu. We had other exciting plans for the rest of the weekend like a fairy tale reading, a picnic with friends, a nice bike ride along the river but had to change plans. That is life, sometimes. 
How is your weekend going?

bLOg WORthy

Recently I find myself constantly taking pictures of things I see, or of things we do.
More and more living my normal every-day life I find asking myself it this or that thing or would be nice to share on my blog, it has become kind of natural to me. So I mentally scan all my life events asking myself "is it blog worthy?" 9 of 10 I run for the camera and take a shot, if I can.

The thing is: life is blog worthy. The big things as well as the tiny details.
So here some pictures of a set of hand embroidered sheets my mother gave me the other day. It was given to her by my grandmother, they were still in their box with a ribbon on them saying "quality hand embroidery" . After years and years in the closet, they now have a new life on my bed and look lovely! 
[Thanks you mum]
My camera is becoming my best friend.

mOVie friDAy.02 | A SinGLE mAN

A Single Man is the first film directed by American fashion designer Tom Ford and reflects his immaculate sense of style.
The film is a drama based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. Colin Firth stars as the main character George Falconer- a  Southern California university professor. For his excellent performance Firth won -after premiering at Venice- a best actor award. 
       The film takes place in a single day, in November 1962, and tells the story of a gay professor who has lost his long time partner Jim in a car accident. Having lived ever since in pain and depression, George Falconer now plans to commit suicide at day’s end, putting his personal affair in order first and focusing on the isolated beauty of single moments as he knows they'll be his last.

 Julianne Moore plays splendidedly his dearest friend Charley, whom George meets for a dinner.  They initially amuse themselves by dancing, but soon Charley’s desire for a deeper relationship with George becomes evident. Moreover her failure to understand his relationship with Jim angers George.

That same night after leaving Charley's house George discover Kenny, one of his students, has followed him. They spend the evening together, drinking, skinny dipping and finally go to George's home where Kenny discover his suicidal plans. Finally the student's effort to keep George from committing suicide make him rediscover the ability "to feel, rather than think" (as the closing voiceover explains). Nevertheless as he finally makes peace with his grief, George suffers a heart attack and dies.

I loved this film for:
+ its absolute beauty and sensitivity
+ the wonderful performances of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore
+ the perfect reproduction of 1960's style, furniture and moods
+ the powerful interior dialogue of the characters. It's a movie about the importance of living your life to the fullest and live each moment as if it were the last.
Definitely worth watching.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CREDITS:  

PHOTO 1: COLIN FIRTH from www.cineclandestino.it

PHOTO 2: COLIN FIRTH BY EDUARD GRAU  from www.filmmakermagazine.com 
 PHOTO 3: JULIANNE MOORE BY EDUARD GRAU  from www.filmmakermagazine.com 
PHOTO 4: TOM FORD BY EDUARD GRAU from www.filmmakermagazine.com
PHOTO 5: TOM FORD from www.cineclandestino.it  

wALked iNto mY ♥

I did not shop much in Holland the past week, but I bought a few lovely things and one of them did make my day. I have a passion for shoes. I could not believe my eyes when I saw this pair of Melissas in a shop I was about to skip: last pair available, bright pink, perfect fit, smelling like candy, even matching my nail polish perfectly and... on sale for a unbelievably low price!!! They were mine in less than 5 minutes from spotting them on the racks.
Sometimes shopping can be just a perfect experience!

Melissa shoes are fun, they express individuality and are extremely comfy (to my surprise actually) and quite an interesting concept of sustainable, affordable design. This brasilian company has brought about a revolution in the style and technology of plastic footwear: shoes are made by eco friendly mono materials that can be easily recicled, 100% material used in production, no waste, no dumping excess in landfills and with no animal products whatsoever. 
Their collections are often the result of interesting partnership with top designers in contemporary fashion. Would I love to have another pair? I guess the Vivian Westwood's Ultragirl Buckle or Ultragirl Stamp or... too many of them to name here.
Check out here wich one you would like for youself.

bibBIDi bOBbidi boO

... teal !

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a niCE DAy OUt

Yes we did it, and it was totally crazy! 

We went on a 30meters ferris wheel with our 3years-old. Once we were on it we realized there was NO security belt of any kind. What do you do at that point? Smile, hold your little one's hand like nothing weird is going on and hope with all your heart he will not stand suddenly up to have a better view. I can't tell you how super super scary that was.
Anyway, all went fine and other not-at-all-scary things happened in Erik's first funfair day.


+ First time on a real train!

++ Discovered candy floss for the first time

+++ Eating pancakes under orange baloons

++++ Daydreaming in the toy museum

cHEers!

To enjoy a bike run, a glass of weiss bier, a bottle of apple juice with wrapped around candy, a nice cheese platter under the blue sky on holiday has no price! We all love happy hours :-)

misSEd PArtY

Today we wish Happy Birthday to 2 dear friends whose party we could not attend yesterday | Oggi auguriamo con il cuore tanti auguri di buon compleanno a due amici speciali al cui party non siamo potuti essere causa rientro vacanza. ♥  ♥  ♥ buon compleanno Alberto ♥  ♥  ♥ buon compleanno Stefania ♥  ♥  ♥

mOVie friDAy. 01

                                            +++ +++ +++ Hi, here is my first MOvieFriday post.


    Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux prunes in the original French version) is a film based on the graphic novel by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi. It takes place in November 1958 in Iran and narrates the last eight days of the life of Nasser Ali Khan, a famous tar player- apparently Satrapi’s relative. 
Nasser Ali cannot find any joy in his life since the moment his favorite violin gets broken by his wife and therefore decides to let himself die. 

The story slowly unriddles revealing that behind his pain other bigger sorrows are hidden: the frustration for a wedding forced upon himself by his mother, an important love story that failed him and maybe a nostalgic feeling for a society which is not existing anymore. In a way the film can be seen as a metaphor of the despair of progressive Iranians in regards of the huge changes in their country.

{ Splendid Isabella Rossellini plays as Nasser Ali's mother }

{Mastroianni's daughter Chiara plays Nasser Ali's daughter as an adult woman }

I enjoyed how this colorful sad story is told: through short flashbacks, sometimes melancholic, sometimes funny, with realistic bits crossing with surreal parts, traditionally filmed parts with animated parts. It’s a fascinating tale, in which I could fully recognize Marjane Satrapi’ grace in confronting difficult subjects and her soft ironic spirit.  The picture that follows is one of her I like very much.

If you don’t know her previous work Persepolis (graphic novel first and later an animated film) I definitely recommend to read it and watch it as well.

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If you did see Chicken with Plums or will go to see it, come back and tell me about it, I'd like to hear from you.In the meantime I wish you a nice weekend and see you next friday.

viNtAgE boY

I do not have the pleasure to see my boy playing with my own toys since not much has survived my childwood, but Theo's parents still have few of his old toys which automatically passed to the next generation. On a wooden truck it's even still visible his hand-written name by ball pen. Really sweet for me to see Erik's hand playing with that one. Or looking at him mixing old wooden cubes with new ones when playing with grandad. Despite of he fact I love technology and I am using it daily, when it comesto toys I -all of the sudden- turn into a truly romantic nostalgic girl.

So you can immagine my joy when... guess what? we went to town for some shopping ad Erik asked for a tin whirligig. I could not be more proud of my little vintage boy! (being plenty of time ahead for gameboy-ish things right?)